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The child victims of 1990

However, it seems very little consideration is given to those left behind.

Sunday Newsday recently spoke to the children of Lorraine Caballero, a clerk at the Red House, who was killed during the insurrection, and discussed how their mothers death affected their lives.

Kalamo Caballero was tenyears- old and Afeisha Caballero one year and seven months when their mother was taken from them.

Their brother, Akee, who was shot and killed by the police six years ago, was 12 at the time.

Kalamo, 35, recalled that when the coup was instigated on July 27, 1990, he was on his way to spend the weekend with his father. He was on St Paul Street in Port-of- Spain when he saw the looting.

However, it was almost a week later, after everything had calmed down, when he returned to the El Socorro home he shared with his mother, older brother and baby sister, that his grandmother, Theresa Theodora Caballero, or Titi, told him his mother had died.

When we reached home my grandmother and aunt was there to tell us the news, that mammy died. She went to work that Friday and we never got to see her again because they said her body was already decomposing. They said she got multiple gunshots, he said.

That broke me down. We were really close. I couldnt function too good. Since that day I never went back to school. That affected my whole life. He said he would cry every day for weeks, that sometimes he could not get out of bed, and that, for a while he did not care about anything.

When he eventually recovered sufficiently, he began to work in the groceries, selling flowers, and any job people would give him.

When my mother died I became a man. I had to work. It was unfair for a ten-year-old boy. She would have made sure I went to school.

I remember once I skipped school for a week and when she found out I get good licks, he laughed, I would have had a different life. He said when it happened, Akee changed. He would not smile anymore and had no close friends although he still attended school.

After that Kalamo and Akee, moved to Morvant with Titi, their mothers mother, while Afeisha, who had a different father to her brothers, was taken by her father, Daniel Mulzac, to live with him, his four brothers and his mother in Champ Fleurs.

Growing up I didnt know I had brothers. I didnt even know my mom died because I would call my grandmother mummy, she said.

One day, when she was eightyears- old, her grandmother, Mary Du Verney, sent her to a nearby shop. A neighbour asked her who had sent her and when she replied that her mother did, the neighbour told her that her mother had died at the Red House in the 1990 insurrection.

She noted that her father had always struggled with substance abuse, and so was often away from their home for extended periods of time. He was on one of his extended absences when she was told of this. She said when she confronted Du Verney, she denied it, insisting that she was Afeishas mother.

On her fathers return however, she asked him and he confirmed what the neighbour had said, even showing her a newspaper article, and letting her know she had brothers. After that everything changed. The kind of love I had for my grandmother, I didnt have it anymore, knowing that she was not my mother. That love changed.

She had lied to me. I thought they were the only family I had. She had told me my mother didnt want me, not knowing it wasnt like that, she said sadly.

She recalled that, as a child, Titi and Akee used to make brief visits to her Champ Fleurs home, but she did not know they were related to her. If my mother was alive I probably would have been better off, knowing her side of the family.

Although my father loved me he was not really there for me and could not assist me - physically, financially, emotionally. Growing up in a house with only men was no easy thing, she said.

Afeisha now has two children, ages eight and two, and they live in Du Verneys church, Mt Prizgar Spiritual Baptist Church in Mt DOr, along with her uncles.

Four years ago, Afeisha and her family were left homeless after their house was burnt down in a fire. They had nowhere to go and so moved into the church her grandmother led. However, Du Verney died in 2014 and Afeisha is concerned about her status there.

As time goes by they will want their church to continue their services because it belongs to the Spiritual Baptist Archdiocese. Also, recently I got a call saying that my grandmother had mortgage owing on the land that the church is on, so they might come to put us put soon, she said.

People might see us laughing but no one can feel the pain we are feeling on the inside. While I dont regret my children, if I had my mom, she would have taught me things I needed to know about men and children, and wouldnt have had any, she continued.

Another aftermath of their mothers death, was that Titi became an alcoholic. When mammy died it was like she couldnt take it and she felt that was the only option to ease her mind, said Kalamo.

Despite this, she took good care of her two grandsons. Although she used to drink her little rum, and would go through her problems, she treated us really good.

She managed us real good  made sure we ate, taught us manners, kept us from going astray... She do a good work, he stressed.

In the mean time, Afeisha was having a difficult time at home.

Titi had died in 2000 and she felt even more disconnected from her family. In 2004, she ran away from home and a school friend told her the location of her brothers home.

She took a taxi, went to look for them, and spent some time with them. That was the first time she had met Kalamo and, from then on, would regularly visit them on evenings after school.

Meeting them for the first time as my brothers was both happy and sad. I was happy to see them but sad knowing that we didnt get to grow up with each other.

There was also a little resentment because, at the time, not knowing that my grandmother had cut them off from me, I thought they had turned their backs on me and left me to go through all that I had gone through, she said.

Although she remained in Champ Fleurs with her fathers family, Afeisha became very close to her brothers, especially Akee.

She said Akee supported her when she became pregnant and for the first years of her sons life, so it was devastating when he was killed by the police on October 1, 2010, a few days before Kalamos birthday.

Akees death by the police dragged up unpleasant thoughts with respect to their mothers death.

Afeisha told Sunday Newsday people speculated who actually shot their mother. At TTT (Trinidad and Tobago Television) the Muslimeen released all the women.

They could have done that at the Red House too. It could have been that the army did not realise a civilian was coming out and shot her.

But then again it could have been the Muslimeen. No one even tried to find out who was responsible but I guess it wasnt important then and its too late now. Its all a lot of uncertainty and untruth so we have no closure, she said dejectedly.

On top of that nothing went on at the Red House on July 27th this year. They close down. They are not thinking about anybodys family, they care nothing about anybody.

They didnt pay their respects to anybody, Kalamo interjected.

No government official even come and at least lay a wreath, make some effort to finish the renovations on the Red House or light back the Eternal Flame. Nothing at all! That is part of Trinidads history but instead they studying September 11 and paying their respects to people in the US, added Afeisha.

She said she had attended commemorations of the anniversary of attempted coup for over 20 years, at the Trinity Cathedral, then at the Red House. She said it hurts her that every year only two or three people visit the Red House to commemorate the deaths, and that, when they go, people pass and ask what they are doing there.

Afeisha asked that Government look into the recommendations made in the report of Commission of Enquiry into the 1990 attempted coup, to assist the needy who were personally affected by the events.

Kalamo pointed out that, when their mother died, no one gave them any assistance - financially or emotionally. Now, recently unemployed with a girlfriend, a twoyear- old daughter, as well as his brothers three children to care for, he hopes someone could assist him with a job, or a place to live.

In addition, Afeisha recently lost her job at a construction site after she had to remain at home because she could not afford to pay for her children to be supervised while they are on vacation from school.

The siblings would appreciate any assistance rendered.
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"I have a theory. I'm a huge believer in, like, past lives. I feel like I've known you guys forever. So we've tried to do something in a past life, like we tried it, and tried it, and it just never worked. And in this one, we just got [it right]."

Australian superstars, 5 Seconds of Summer did some interviews promoting their new single "Girls Talk Boys". They spoke about ghosts on Capital FM...- They used to live in a haunted house (former mental asylum) in London and Calum saw a ghost- Cal woke up at 3am and saw an outline of a hood and shoulders watching him- Avril Lavigne also attended their show recently and they hung out afterwards (photo behind the cut)- Bassist Calum believes they were a band in the past life,As part of the interview they also played a Bae or Nay game, with various female celeb names.They'd bae Ariana Grande hoping she'd give them vocal lessons.Avril Lavigne and her sis are fans of the band too apparently.
Didn't one of the other members of Dis Harmony have a racism scandal or did I make that up?

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one of her bandmates got caught calling her the n-word, but i'm sure there have been other incidents

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i'm laughing way too hard at ~dis harmony...

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Lauren, has learned from her mistakes.

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There is always someone in every 5h post asking about the racist scandal. I'm starting to think people are just bringing it up in everyone of their post to just because

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lol @ dis harmony

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them? no, probably not tbh.

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Yeah but the tweets to her were very public, if the behaviour is barely even addressed by them how are their fans supposed to know what they're doing isn't ok and even their faves say so?



This also isn't just about Normani, there are tons of young black girls who follow this group. They currently have minimal reason to believe a group of girls they idolize care about the very real and specific struggle they go through.



Ia though that sometimes fans miss the mark with this and think their twitter interactions are all that exist just bc it's all the fans see.

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how are their fans supposed to know what they're doing isn't ok and even their faves say so?



Uh, I mean, if these 'fans' need a GIRL GROUP to tell them racism isn't okay... there's a serious problem. I don't think they should be held responsible for shitty parenting.

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this isn't about ppl complaining they didn't send her 'happy bday' tweets



and it's not even about supporting her emotionally imo, which they may well be doing



this is about a public matter that needs a public response, i.e. the public condemnation of their racist "fans"

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I'm sure they have but honestly, this is something that NEEDS to be addressed publicly. Much moreso than hacking or whatever other stuff they choose to address. I'm this close to being done with this group.

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Something tells me they're probably don't hang out when they're not required to for work.

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Stan Ally I guess



It's only been abt a month of me caring abt this group and I'm already p much over it lmfao, idk how their stans do it.

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God I would hate the fans sfm if I was in their band

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Ally and cam's responses are good enough

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cam's is shit.



Lauren>>>

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I don't know jackshit about 5H but fandoms on twitter are fucking psychotic. is it because they have a direct line to the person they love/hate? I don't understand

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yeah, in the past you'd have to mail a fan letter or something but now you just type and send right away

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omg yes I remember having to lookup fanmail addresses in like Teen Bop or whatever, I managed to get autographs from Christina Ricci AND Rachael Leigh Cook though!!

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People have the ability to be anonymous. So they say whatever they want and face no consequence.

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Lmao Karla es una pinche hipocrita.

She should publicly address her racist past. Normaninis too kind, if i were her, i'd publicly put her on blast. /petty

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of course legendally is the one with the most substantial show of support. shine ur light hunny on these disgusting racist shitheads!!!



i'm surprised by lauren's reaction smh even karla had more to say than her smdh.

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Lauren tweeted a real statement.

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yeah i know, i posted it on the fourth page; my comment was before that.

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Is Dinah Fijan or is that an idiom I have never heard of before?

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http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/96602782.html it has to do with this situation

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Ah. My ancestors were actually amongst those exhiled to Fiji /csb



Between her and Parris Goebel and her crew I feel like there should be a dialogue on Polynesian appropriation of black culture

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wait why did they have to write paragraphs defending their security guards? lol



damn shame how only one of them addressed the situation directly tho...normani should take note cuz that's her only real friend in the group.

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https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=yE95NTdTIOc

Watch this Watch this

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The group is TRASH ans so is their fanbase!!! And the black woman continues to be the bottom of the totem pole, fuck this messed up world!

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lol none of them should be on social media if they're all this messy all of the time. no wonder why they can't sell tickets.

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Dinah Dolezal lmao

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Lauren tweeted a longer response.

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Hope Normani is okay. I heard a few of the racist tweets from other people and that was enough :(

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Last week the New York Public Service Commission approved a Clean Energy Standard for the state. The two key components are a mandate for 50 percent renewables by 2030 and a subsidy mechanism for four, and possibly six, aging nuclear facilities upstate.

The renewables standard is not controversial. Not so the planned nuclear subsidies. The new directive will require all electricity buyers in the state to purchase power from these nuclear facilities at a relatively high price in the interest of carbon reduction. The state does not use its own money.

The need for nuclear subsidies, at least in the minds of state officials, appears to be fairly straightforward. Entergy Corp., which owns the FitzPatrick nuclear facility, has decided to shutter the unit permanently on the grounds that it is no longer economic to operate. Entergy has also arrived at a similar conclusion for its older, smaller nuclear facilities in Vermont and Massachusetts. But with the subsidy passed, Exelon, which owns two other stressed nukes upstate, may buy FitzPatrick and keep it open.

The subsidies on offer run for a period of 12 years starting April 2017, and begin at about 2 cents for every kilowatt hour of electricity produced and escalate to almost 3 cents per kwh by the end of the deal. Published reports set a $7.6 billion price tag for these subsidies, but the amount could be much higher since the agreement provides for the subsequent inclusion of the Indian Point nuclear units.

There being no apparent economic rationale for the continued operation of these units, given low natural gas prices, the state has justified its economic intervention by designating these facilities a public necessity. However, as far as we know, there is neither a looming power shortage nor a particular systems engineering requirement necessitating the ongoing operation of the units. More likely there is a political motive. Perhaps the Governor is using energy policy to shore up support with upstate constituencies where local economies have enjoyed less of the finance-fueled dynamism of downstate. Related: Oil Soars 6 % As Andy Hall Warns Of A Violent Reversal

After all, large power generating facilities provide economic benefits to communities through hundreds of well-paying jobs at the power plant and property tax payments to communities where the tax base is often limited. Plant closures would significantly hurt the local economy.

One might argue that this nuclear subsidy simply bails out no longer competitive generators who made bad business decisions. It rescues them by putting the burden of risk back on consumer and vitiates one of the chief purposes of deregulation. But leave aside the morals of the rescue and the merits of keeping aging nuclear plants operating for twelve more years. The question is whether there is a cheaper way to save these NY nukes.

We believe there is a much simpler, cheaper way to accomplish this--a state takeover. The present owners plan to close these nuclear plants. That suggests they believe these facilities no longer has any positive economic value to the corporation whatsoever. They might give the units to New York State for a token amount especially if the state assumed all liabilities with respect to fuel storage, disposal and dismantling. State electricity consumers bear responsibility for these expenses in any event. Related: Six Weeks In A Row  Rising Rig Count Pushes Oil Down

The State of New York has been involved in the electricity business since Franklin Roosevelt was governor. The New York Power Authority has both the expertise and financial wherewithal to operate these plants. The FitzPatick plant was in fact named after a former head of the Power Authority. And for a time it was owned by them as well. This is actually the second bailout of this plant for those keeping score.

The state can raise money more cheaply than the existing power plant owners and accept a far lower profit. Implementing an expensive, complicated subsidy scheme is merely testament to political weakness and the broken state of our so-called power markets. This PSC plan socializes market risk yet again. Why not just "socialize" these nukes as well?

By Leonard Hyman and William Tilles

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Mexico is about to reap at least US$3 billion this year based on its sovereign oil hedge after having received a record US$6.4 billion in 2015.

It is expected that the Mexican government will soon decide to continue hedging actions for 2017 in light of the low price of oil, and in order to maintain investor confidence. But are such actions a safe bet against potentially fluctuating oil prices, or is Mexico taking an unnecessary risk against possible gains in the future? And can Mexico learn any lessons from other states in Latin America and the Caribbean that have recently taken on a strategy of sovereign oil hedging?

For over a decade, Mexicos government has paid for a hedge every year as part of one of the worlds biggest sovereign oil derivatives trade. The states received payouts in 1991 and 2009, but never during two consecutive years, though that will likely change for this year.

The Finance Ministry last December received a record amount for their sovereign oil hedge after having put options purchased in 2014 with an average price of US$76.40 per barrel. The record hedge was a major boost for public coffers in that it helped offset a shortfall in income from oil sales. (Legislators had approved the 2015 budget with an estimated price of $79 per barrel before global oil prices sank late last year).



The hedging agreement for 2016, which runs from 1 December of last year to 30 November, 2016, cost the state US$1.09 billion and guaranteed a price of US$49 per barrel. Since the beginning of the hedge period, the Mexican oil index that includes various domestic grades of crude has averaged US$32.40 a barrel. Per Bloombergs analysis, the government would make money even if the index of crude more than doubles to US$80 per barrel. Related: Why The Bear Market Could Be Over In A Flash

Despite the possible windfall for 2016, Mexican officials have yet to announce when they will make a decision concerning a possible 2017 hedge. This came as a surprise to some traders who were expecting a set date by last April following volatility in the West Texas Intermediate contract. In addition, some analysts believed it was in Mexicos best interest to provide a date for hedging prior to market actions unfavorable for Mexico.

Along with hedging, the government under President Enrique Pena Nieto has typically enacted budget cuts in order to offset further revenue loss from the sale of oil. Last April the government announced at least US$9.3 billion in spending cuts and Finance Minister Luis Videgaray said hedging into 2017 would likely continue.

Since then, however, other factors have come into relevance aside from lower oil revenue. A further US1.6 billion will be cut in response to the impact of the Brexit, while domestic industrial production has also weakened. State-run oil giant Pemex, which finances roughly 20 percent of the federal budget, reported last month record low production and a fifteenth consecutive quarterly loss. As a result, the government may be swayed away from hedging and towards stronger budgetary restraint. Related: Six Weeks In A Row  Rising Rig Count Pushes Oil Down



The Mexican government has done a good job at buying these put options because they have helped to smooth the transition of public finances towards lower oil prices, but its just breathing room, said Carlos Capistran, chief Mexico economist at Bank of America to Bloomberg. This buys the government time to think about the best way to go about expenditure cuts.

On the other hand, Mexico could see the examples of several of its regional neighbors and decide to continue with hedging. In the case of Uruguay, for example, the country in June worked out a US$16 million deal with the World Bank to hedge oil. According to the World Bank, that decision arose in order to help shield Uruguay from the changes in the price of oil. Unlike Mexico, Uruguay is a net importer of oil, though the hedge came around from an important external factor: Venezuela halting the sale of oil to Uruguay around a year ago.

A more cautionary example of hedging occurred in Jamaica where the government hedged oil prices up to December 2016 at a price of US$66 per barrel. With the price of oil falling to less than half that rate last February, critics claimed that is has cost the state around US$20 million in earnings. Despite the opposition, Jamaican officials in June bought six hedging contracts from Citibank with the hope that oil prices could climb to as much as US$80 per barrel.



The window for oil hedging purchases by the Mexican government is usually between this month and September; thus, a decision to hedge or not for 2017 must be made very soon. Numerous factors, both domestic and international, must be considered in terms of hedging for next year. Hedging may not be the sure deal as it was for 2015, and possibly this year, but it remains to be seen which risk the Mexican government will opt for.

By Erwin Cifuentes for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
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Reprinted from Common Dreams

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has recently advanced a clean energy plan which mandates that New York transition half of its energy needs to renewables by 2030. By regressive contrast, New York's Public Service Commission (PSC) has approved enormous subsidies for three aging nuclear power plants...Ginna, Nine Mile Point and FitzPatrick...located in Upstate New York. Estimates of the costs of these subsidies range from $59 million to $658 million by 2023, with specialists such as Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group predicting that costs could grow to $8 billion. New York consumers will be covering the tab via their utility bills.

Ginna and Nine Mile Point are owned by the Exelon Corporation, and Exelon has plans to purchase the FitzPatrick plant. You can be sure that Exelon is frothing at the mouth for this huge bailout that was approved without adequate public scrutiny. Approval of this plan gives New York State the not-so-honorable distinction of being one of the first states to bail-out the aging nuclear industry in our increasingly green energy age. The long-coddled nuclear industry is hoping that other states will follow suit.

Unfortunately, subsidizing the nuclear industry in the United States is nothing new. Since the first nuclear plants opened back in the 1950's, taxpayers have assumed nearly all of the financial risk. One of the most telling warning signs about the real cost of investing in nuclear power is that fact that Wall Street will not finance the construction of a nuclear plant without a full loan guarantee from the U.S. government. The reason for such caution by financial wheelers and dealers is the long history of delays, cost over-runs and reactors that never came online. Whether the plants open or not, obeisant politicians pass many of the nuclear boondoggle costs to the taxpayers.

Atomic energy is also uninsurable in the private insurance market. Under the Price-Anderson Act of 1957, taxpayers must cover almost all of the costs if a catastrophic nuclear accident should occur. Think of the devastation caused by Chernobyl, Fukushima and Three Mile Island. Three Mile Island, which experienced only a partial meltdown in 1979, cost approximately $1 billion to clean up.

The case to preserve the New York nuclear power plants is that they are an "emissions-free power source." There are, however, much better, more affordable and safer low-carbon options that would replace the need for nuclear energy in New York. These options were not even discussed or evaluated. A more sensible approach would have been for the PSC to present some alternative scenarios, so that citizen taxpayers could compare the risk and costs of a massive nuclear bailout against significant investments in other energy-generating options like wind and solar, in addition to energy conservation measures.

Consider the absurdity of the complex and expensive nuclear fuel cycle itself. It begins with uranium mining which produces radioactive tailings and dust, followed by the fabrication and refinement of fuel rods, the risky transport of these rods to the plant where they are installed, and then firing up the reactor so it goes critical with a huge amount of radioactivity. The end goal? To boil water to generate steam to turn turbines to produce electricity!

What other method of boiling water has to have specific population evacuation plans?

There is also the significant problem of spent fuel rods which are stored in pools at nuclear plants. No permanent storage sites exist for these deadly radioactive wastes, which pose national security risks, and which must be kept for thousands of years.

It's notable to point out that the Indian Point nuclear plants in New York, which are located near an earthquake fault just 30 miles from Manhattan, were excluded from the PSC proposal. Even cautious Governor Cuomo and Hillary Clinton, when she was a Senator, have acknowledged the imminent danger that Indian Point poses to the Greater New York City area and urged its closing. The 5 PM rush hour in New York's metropolitan area is bad enough without adding the chaos of a panicked mass evacuation of millions of people.

So what about those who live within the fallout zone of these three upstate plants that will be the recipients of billions of dollars of taxpayer money? Why is Governor Cuomo trying to close Indian Point while saving these other plants? One explanation could be right out of the classic nuclear industry handbook...hold the state hostage by threatening that the lights will go out if they don't pony up.

The public was given just 14 days to comment on the bailout proposal. Despite pushback from anti-nuclear activists, the nuclear industry prevailed. Is two weeks enough time for a thorough public debate on the merits of bailing out the costly, risky, dirty nuclear power industry? Shame on the indentured PSC and Governor Cuomo!

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Chavez Cuanto te queremos!



Por culpa de Chavez



Cerveza Polar







Algun dia Colombia volvera a la ideologia de Bolivar







Translate













LOS REVOLUCIONARIOS NO TOMAN CACA-COLA No se trata solamente de un capricho, sino de una sana actitud en todos los sentidos. Desde la solidaridad con el pueblo colombiano donde la empresa Caca-Cola ha cometido los mas grandes abusos contra sus trabajadores incluyendo el presunto secuestro y asesinato de los dirigentes del sindicato, hasta la proteccion de la salud de nuestros hijos, enviciados por ese jarabe de cola y azucar, que les produce obesidad prematura. Pensemos tambien los revolucionarios, que ese dinero que gastamos en los refrescos es utilizado por esas empresas para financiar el terrorismo en nuestro pais. Es cierto, no se trata solo de la Caca-Cola, sino tambien de la cerveza, de los cigarrillos y todos esos articulos innecesarios y mas que eso, daninos para nuestra salud. Podriamos incluso pensar en un dia de parada para cada uno de ellos. Es cuestion de irnos organizando. Pero para empezar, que tal si dejamos de comprar Caca-Cola y sus similares?



























Cuando lo extraordinario se vuelve cotidiano...



Discurso del Acto de Grado en Barinas en 12 de Febrero del 2005 Queridos Graduandos:



Mas que un discurso, quiero dirigirles algunas palabras que escribi anoche, despues de visitar en las clinicas, a los estudiantes heridos, a consecuencia de los enfrentamientos con la policia de hace apenas dos dias.



Me ha tocado por razones del destino, ser la persona que les otorgue el titulo que bien merecieron con sus estudios. Y me siento sumamente orgulloso de serlo. Me consta que la Universidad de Los Llanos Occidentales Ezequiel Zamora, a pesar de lo dicho por los enemigos de esta universidad, es una universidad de primera.



No tendremos la mejor planta fisica, en los salones hace calor. En el comedor hace calor. Pero no es en lo material que las cosas deben valorarse. El mayor capital es el ser humano. Y en eso, nuestra UNELLEZ, lo digo con conocimiento de causa, esta sobrada. Los llaneros venezolanos son nobles, valientes, de coraje.



En la UNELLEZ hacen vida, en este momento, aproximadamente 67000 personas. El 97% de ellas son estudiantes. Jovenes que, como Ustedes hasta el dia de hoy, buscan ese titulo, que constata los anos de dedicacion y de estudio.



Los jovenes son el rio de la vida, ustedes graduados deben ser los capitanes de esos barcos que naveguen por el rio de la vida.



Nuestra Patria atraviesa momentos muy dificiles porque decidio dejar de ser esa matrona de edad vetusta y complaciente, para ser joven, rebelde y altanera. Nuestra imagen ya no es la de una acaudalada ricachona mayamera. En nuestro rostro brilla ahora la sonrisa del Che Guevara, con su diente delantero torcido, su pelo largo y su boina con la estrella.



Entender esto, a mi me ha tomado practicamente toda la vida. Tengo 53 anos, y ya perdi mi oportunidad de derramar sangre joven a causa de un ideal.



Ustedes son jovenes, estan en la flor de la vida. No cometan por favor el error de renunciar a su instinto de rebelion. El Che Guevara fue Ministro de a Economia en Cuba. Los billetes y las monedas se adornaban con su rostro. Nada de eso le importo. Primero fue a Angola donde paso un penoso ano de combate. Despues se fue a Bolivia, donde encontro la muerte. El Che era el ultimo que comia, el que cargaba la mochila mas pesada. Siempre se sacrificaba por los demas en un estoicismo que mas parecia fervor religioso que ideologia marxista.



Si quieren un modelo de vida. Ahi lo tienen.



Dije hace unos momentos que el 97% de la poblacion de la UNELLEZ es estudiante. Se imaginan Ustedes la Universidad que podriamos tener si todos los estudiantes tuvieran la abnegacion, la combatividad del Che?



Los momentos que se avecinan van a requerir de una gran unidad del pueblo venezolano. La alternativa de continuar siendo libres o regresar a la pobreza se nos planteara en los proximos dias de forma enmascarada, o quizas peor, desenmascarada, vestida con uniforme de soldado del Imperio.



Por nuestra parte podemos esperar lo mejor. La macroeconomia no podria ir mejor, la justicia social ha mejorado notablemente. Las misiones ocupan un papel muy importante en el pago de dicha justicia social. Aqui en Barinas ya hemos cumplido con dos de las misiones, la mision Robinson y la mision Sucre. No hay analfabetismo y no hay exclusion en la educacion superior, en estas tierras de Zamora.



Pero ay malhaya! Son precisamente estos exitos los que nos hacen mas antipaticos al Imperio. Para ellos, somos inclusive un mal ejemplo que se esta contagiando al resto del continente y cuidado sino al resto del mundo.



Nunca venceremos al Imperio. Estara siempre ahi, acechando. Por lo menos hasta que el mismo no se autodestruya. Porque, sepanlo senores, el neoliberalismo es canibal. Cuando le ataque el hambre, se devorara a si mismo.



Ustedes, queridos graduandos, a partir de hoy pasan a conformar la elite profesional que debe sostener este pais en los proximos cuarenta o cincuenta anos. Anos decisivos para el logro de nuestra libertad y del rescate de nuestra Soberania.



No se dejen comprar. No se dejen corromper. No se dejen gritar. No se dejen pisar. Que nadie les diga que comer, o que vestirse, o que leer. Sean siempre autenticos, rebeldes, contestatarios. Pero eso si, profundamente patriotas, dignos de ser hijos de Bolivar.



Muchas gracias y que Dios los bendiga.





Alguna duda?



Medio siglo de Holocausto Palestino



Oscar Zanartu Nacio en Caracas en 1960. Ha realizado exposiciones individuales en las galerias Minotauro, Clave y San Francisco, y en salas de Coro, estado Falcon, y Puerto Ordaz, estado Bolivar. En Paris su obra ha sido exhibida en el Centro Cultural Tanagra, en la Exposicion Cite Internationale des Arts, en las galerias De Mars y Arver Space, al igual que en la Galeria Municipal Levallois, en Levallois Perret (Francia). En muestras colectivas, su obra se ha expuesto en Belgica, Francia, Estados Unidos y Venezuela; en Caracas intervino en la exposicion "Del genesis a la memoria", 1995, organizada por la Fundacion La Previsora. En 1982 obtuvo el Premio Nacional Critven y en 1990 la Mencion de Honor Jose Antonio Paez, en la Embajada de Venezuela en Paris. En 1991 se le concedio el primer premio de Pintura Itinerante, en Levallois Perret, Francia.



OZ1



OZ2



OZ3



OZ4



Homenaje a Jason Galarraga



La Victoria de Samotracia



Odalisca



Mas fotos de la nevada del pasado agosto 2008



























La Sierra Nevada de Merida



Nuestro precioso Churum Meru



Homenaje a Picasso



Autoretrato



Sabes lo que bebes en una Coca-Cola?

La formula de la Pepsi tiene una diferencia basica con la de la Coca-Cola y es intencional, para evitar el proceso judicial. La diferencia es a proposito, pero suficientemente parecida como para atraer a los consumidores de Coca-Cola que prefieren un gusto diferente con menos sal y azucar.

Mi profesion?

Tuve que aprender quimica, entender todo sobre componentes de gaseosas, conservantes, sales, acidos, cafeina, enlatado, produccion, permisos, aprobaciones y muchas otras cosas. Monte mi propio mini-laboratorio de analisis de productos.

Sal en la Coca Cola?

A patadas. El Cloruro de Sodio no solo refresca sino da mas sed, como para pedir otra gaseosa. Y no resulta desagradable porque la sal mata literalmente la sensibilidad al dulce... del que por cierto tambien tiene mucho: 39 gramos de azucar.

De los 350 gramos de producto liquido, mas del 10% es azucar, o sea que en una lata de Coca-Cola mas de un centimetro y medio es puro azucar en polvo. Aproximadamente tres cucharadas soperas llenas de azucar por lata!!La formula de la Coca Cola es muy sencilla:

Concentrado de azucar quemado caramelo- para dar color oscuro y gusto

Acido fosforito (para darle el sabor acido)

azucar (HFCS-jarabe de maiz de alta fructosa)

Extracto de hojas de la planta de Coca (Africa e India) y otros pocos aromatizantes naturales de otras plantas

Mucha Cafeina

Conservante que puede ser Benzoato de Sodio o Potasio

Dioxido de Carbono en cantidad para sentir freir la lengua cuando se bebe

Sal para dar la sensacion de refrigeracion

El uso del acido fosforito y no del acido citrico como en todas las demas gaseosas, es para dar la sensacion de dientes y boca limpia al beber. El acido fosforito literalmente frie todo y dana el esmalte de los dientes, cosa que el acido citrico lo hace en menor grado.Trate de comprar acido fosforito para ver las mil recomendaciones de seguridad que te dan para su manipulacion (quema el cristalino del ojo, quema la piel, etc...). Esta prohibido usar el acido fosforito en cualquier otra gaseosa; solo la Coca Cola tiene permiso. Porque claro, sin el acido fosforico, la Coca Cola sabria a jabon.El extracto de coca y otras hojas casi no cambia en nada el sabor. Es mas bien un efecto cosmetico. El extracto forma parte de la Coca-Cola porque legalmente tiene que ser asi. Pero sin el, no se nota ninguna diferencia en el gusto, que esta dado basicamente por las cantidades diferentes de azucar, azucar quemada, sales, acidos y conservantes.Sabor a que...? ja, ja, ja.

Aqui en Bartow, sur de Orlando, hay una empresa quimica que produce aromatizantes y esencias para zumos. Envian diariamente camionadas de sales concentradas y esencias para las fabricas de helados, gaseosas, jugos, enlatados y comida colorida y aromatizada.Cuando visite por primera vez la fabrica, pedi ver el deposito de concentrados de frutas, que deberia ser inmenso, especialmente los de naranja, pina, fresa y tantos otros. El encargado me miro, se rio y me llevo a visitar los depositos inmensos... pero de colorantes y componentes quimicos.

Las gaseosa de naranja no contiene naranja.

En los zumos dizque de fresa, hasta los puntitos que quedan en suspension estan hechos de goma (una liga quimica que envuelve un semi-polimero).

Pina, es un popurri de acidos y goma.

La esencia para helado de aguacate usa peroxido de hidrogeno (agua oxigenada) para dar la sensacion espumosa tipica del aguacate.

Bebidas Light?

Quieres saber la cantidad de basura que tiene un refresco 'light'? Yo ni siquiera los uso para destapar mi lavaplatos pues temo que danen los tubos de PVC. Los productos endulzantes 'ligth' tienen una vida media muy corta. Por ejemplo el

Despues de toda mi experiencia con la produccion de bebidas embasadas, puedo afirmar sin dudar un segundo: la mejor bebida es el agua, como tambien los jugos exprimidos de naranja o limon. Nada mas, cero azucar y cero sal.



Publicado por loretahur



En realidad, la formula secreta de la Coca-Cola se puede detallar en 18 segundos en cualquier espectrometro optico, y basicamente la conocen hasta los perros. Lo que ocurre es que no se puede fabricar igual, a no ser que uno disponga de unos cuantos millones de dolares para ganarle la demanda que te metera la Coca-Cola ante la justicia (ellos no perderian).La formula de la Pepsi tiene una diferencia basica con la de la Coca-Cola y es intencional, para evitar el proceso judicial. La diferencia es a proposito, pero suficientemente parecida como para atraer a los consumidores de Coca-Cola que prefieren un gusto diferente con menos sal y azucar.Tuve que aprender quimica, entender todo sobre componentes de gaseosas, conservantes, sales, acidos, cafeina, enlatado, produccion, permisos, aprobaciones y muchas otras cosas. Monte mi propio mini-laboratorio de analisis de productos.A patadas. El Cloruro de Sodio no solo refresca sino da mas sed, como para pedir otra gaseosa. Y no resulta desagradable porque la sal mata literalmente la sensibilidad al dulce... del que por cierto tambien tiene mucho: 39 gramos de azucar.De los 350 gramos de producto liquido, mas del 10% es azucar, o sea que en una lata de Coca-Cola mas de un centimetro y medio es puro azucar en polvo. Aproximadamente tres cucharadas soperas llenas de azucar por lata!!La formula de la Coca Cola es muy sencilla:Concentrado de azucar quemado caramelo- para dar color oscuro y gustoAcido fosforito (para darle el sabor acido)azucar (HFCS-jarabe de maiz de alta fructosa)Extracto de hojas de la planta de Coca (Africa e India) y otros pocos aromatizantes naturales de otras plantasMucha CafeinaConservante que puede ser Benzoato de Sodio o PotasioDioxido de Carbono en cantidad para sentir freir la lengua cuando se bebeSal para dar la sensacion de refrigeracionEl uso del acido fosforito y no del acido citrico como en todas las demas gaseosas, es para dar la sensacion de dientes y boca limpia al beber. El acido fosforito literalmente frie todo y dana el esmalte de los dientes, cosa que el acido citrico lo hace en menor grado.Trate de comprar acido fosforito para ver las mil recomendaciones de seguridad que te dan para su manipulacion (quema el cristalino del ojo, quema la piel, etc...). Esta prohibido usar el acido fosforito en cualquier otra gaseosa; solo la Coca Cola tiene permiso. Porque claro, sin el acido fosforico, la Coca Cola sabria a jabon.El extracto de coca y otras hojas casi no cambia en nada el sabor. Es mas bien un efecto cosmetico. El extracto forma parte de la Coca-Cola porque legalmente tiene que ser asi. Pero sin el, no se nota ninguna diferencia en el gusto, que esta dado basicamente por las cantidades diferentes de azucar, azucar quemada, sales, acidos y conservantes.Sabor a que...? ja, ja, ja.Aqui en Bartow, sur de Orlando, hay una empresa quimica que produce aromatizantes y esencias para zumos. Envian diariamente camionadas de sales concentradas y esencias para las fabricas de helados, gaseosas, jugos, enlatados y comida colorida y aromatizada.Cuando visite por primera vez la fabrica, pedi ver el deposito de concentrados de frutas, que deberia ser inmenso, especialmente los de naranja, pina, fresa y tantos otros. El encargado me miro, se rio y me llevo a visitar los depositos inmensos... pero de colorantes y componentes quimicos.Las gaseosa de naranja no contiene naranja.En los zumos dizque de fresa, hasta los puntitos que quedan en suspension estan hechos de goma (una liga quimica que envuelve un semi-polimero).Pina, es un popurri de acidos y goma.La esencia para helado de aguacate usa peroxido de hidrogeno (agua oxigenada) para dar la sensacion espumosa tipica del aguacate.Quieres saber la cantidad de basura que tiene un refresco 'light'? Yo ni siquiera los uso para destapar mi lavaplatos pues temo que danen los tubos de PVC. Los productos endulzantes 'ligth' tienen una vida media muy corta. Por ejemplo el aspartamo , despues de tres semanas mojado, pasa a tener gusto de trapo viejo sucio.Para evitar eso, se agregan una infinidad de otros productos quimicos, uno para alargar la vida del aspartamo, otro para neutralizar el color, otro para mantener el tercer quimico en suspension porque sino el fondo de la gaseosa quedaria oscuro, otro para evitar la cristalizacion del aspartamo, otro para realzar el sabor, dar mas intensidad al acido citrico o fosforito que perderia su sabor por el efecto de los cuatro productos quimicos iniciales... y asi sucesivamente.Un consejo final !!Despues de toda mi experiencia con la produccion de bebidas embasadas, puedo afirmar sin dudar un segundo: la mejor bebida es el agua, como tambien los jugos exprimidos de naranja o limon. Nada mas, cero azucar y cero sal.Publicado por loretahur

MARGARINA o MANTEQUILLA La margarina fue producida originalmente para engordar a los pavos; cuandolo que hizo en realidad fue matarlos.Las personas que habian puesto el dinero para la investigacion quisieronrecobrarlo asi que empezaron a pensar en una forma de hacerlo.Tenian una sustancia blanca, que no tenia ningun atractivo como comestible,asi que le anadieron el color amarillo, para venderselo a lagente en lugar de la mantequilla.Que tal esa?... Ahora han sacado algunos nuevos sabores para vender mas alos incautos como usted y yo.CONOCE USTED la diferencia entre la margarina y la mantequilla?Siga leyendo hasta el final... porque se pone bastante interesante!Comparacion entre mantequilla y margarina:

1.- Ambas tienen la misma cantidad de calorias.

2.- La mantequilla es ligeramente mas alta en grasas saturadas: 8 gramos,comparada con los 5 gramos que tiene la margarina.

3.- Comer margarina en vez de mantequilla puede aumentar en 53% el riesgo deenfermedades coronarias en las mujeres, de acuerdo con un estudiomedico reciente de la Universidad de Harvard.

4.- Comer mantequilla aumenta la absorcion de gran cantidad de nutrientesque se encuentran en otros alimentos.

5.- La mantequilla provee beneficios nutricionales propios mientras lamargarina tiene solo los que le hayan sido anadidos al fabricarla.

6.- La mantequilla sabe mucho mejor que la margarina y mejora el sabor deotros alimentos.7.- La mantequilla ha existido durante siglos mientras que la margarinatiene menos de 100 anos.

Ahora... sobre la margarina:

1.- Es muy alta en acidos grasos trans. (Si, esos que recien ahora loscientificos descubrieron que son malisimos y los gobiernoscomenzaron a prohibirlos) .

2.- Triple riesgo de enfermedades coronarias.

3.- Aumenta el colesterol total y el LDL (el colesterol malo) y disminuye elHDL (el colesterol bueno).

4.- Aumenta en cinco veces el riesgo de cancer.

5.- Disminuye la calidad de la leche materna.

6.- Disminuye la reaccion inmunologica del organismo.

7.- Disminuye la reaccion a la insulina.

Y he aqui el factor mas inquietante (AQUI ESTA LA PARTE MAS INTERESANTE! ):A la margarina le falta UNA MOLECULA para ser PLASTICO...!!Solo este hecho es suficiente para evitar el uso de la margarina de porvida, y de cualquier otra cosa que sea hidrogenada (esto significaque se le anade hidrogeno, lo cual cambia la estructura molecular de lassubstancias).Usted puede ensayar lo siguiente:Compre un poco de margarina y dejela en el garaje o en un sitio sombreado.Dentro de unos dias notara dos cosas:

* No habra moscas; ni siquiera esos molestos bichos se le acercaran (esto yale debe decir a usted algo).

* No se pudre ni huele mal o diferente porque no tiene valor nutritivo; nadacrece en ella. Ni siquiera los diminutos microorganismos puedencrecer en ella.Por que? Porque es casi plastico!!



No a la guerra, Si a la Paz



Misterios de la ciencia...



Los costos de la guerra



medicos y capitalismo...



Capitalismo...



medicos (2)



Quien educa a nuestros hijos?



Los Medios...



Sin Palabras...



Chistes feministas

- Cual es el problema, Eva?

- Se que me has creado, que me has dado este hermoso jardin, todos estos maravillosos animales y esa serpiente con la que me muero de risa... pero no soy del todo feliz...

- Como es eso, Eva? - replico Dios desde las alturas.

- Me encuentro sola, y ademas estoy harta de comer manzanas...

- Bueno Eva, en tal caso, tengo una solucion... creare un hombre para ti.

- Que es un hombre?

- Un hombre sera una criatura imperfecta, con muchas artimanas. Mentira, hara trampas, sera engreido... vamos, que te va a dar problemas... Pero, va a ser mas fuerte y rapido que tu y le gustara cazar y matar cosas... Tendra un aspecto simple, pero como te estas quejando, le creare de tal forma que satisfaga tus... eh... necesidades fisicas... Y tampoco sera muy listo, y destacara en cosas infantiles como pegarse o dar patadas a un balon... Necesitara tu consejo siempre para actuar cuerdamente.

- Suena bien - dijo Eva, mientras levantaba la ceja ironicamente.

- Cual es el truco?.

- Pues... que lo tendras con una condicion.

- Cual?

- Como te decia, sera chulo, arrogante y muy narcisista... asi que le tendras que hacer creer que le hice a el primero... recuerda... es nuestro secreto... de mujer a mujer.





Por que a los hombres no les puede dar la enfermedad de las vacas locas?  Porque todos son unos cerdos

Un dia, en el Paraiso, Eva llamo a Dios: Tengo un problema.- Cual es el problema, Eva?- Se que me has creado, que me has dado este hermoso jardin, todos estos maravillosos animales y esa serpiente con la que me muero de risa... pero no soy del todo feliz... - Como es eso, Eva? - replico Dios desde las alturas.- Me encuentro sola, y ademas estoy harta de comer manzanas...- Bueno Eva, en tal caso, tengo una solucion... creare un hombre para ti.- Que es un hombre?- Un hombre sera una criatura imperfecta, con muchas artimanas. Mentira, hara trampas, sera engreido... vamos, que te va a dar problemas... Pero, va a ser mas fuerte y rapido que tu y le gustara cazar y matar cosas... Tendra un aspecto simple, pero como te estas quejando, le creare de tal forma que satisfaga tus... eh... necesidades fisicas... Y tampoco sera muy listo, y destacara en cosas infantiles como pegarse o dar patadas a un balon... Necesitara tu consejo siempre para actuar cuerdamente.- Suena bien - dijo Eva, mientras levantaba la ceja ironicamente.- Cual es el truco?.- Pues... que lo tendras con una condicion.- Cual?- Como te decia, sera chulo, arrogante y muy narcisista... asi que le tendras que hacer creer que le hice a el primero... recuerda... es nuestro secreto... de mujer a mujer.Por que a los hombres no les puede dar la enfermedad de las vacas locas?  Porque todos son unos cerdos

Ellas...



Ellas (2)...



Tres venganzas femeninas VENGANZA NUMERO 1

Hoy mi hija cumple 21 anos y estoy muy contento porque es el ultimo pago de pension alimenticia que le doy, asi que llame a mi hijita para que viniera a mi casa y cuando llego le dije:

-Hijita, quiero que lleves este cheque a casa de tu mama y que le digas que: Este es el ultimo maldito cheque que va recibir de mi en todo lo que le queda de su puta vida!!! Quiero que me digas la expresion que pone en su rostro.

Asi que mi hija fue a entregar el cheque. Yo estaba ansioso por saber lo que la bruja tenia que decir y que cara pondria.

Cuando mi hijita entro, le pregunte inmediatamente: -Que fue lo que te dijo tu madre?

-Me dijo que justamente estaba esperando este dia para decirte que no eres mi papa!



VENGANZA NUMERO 2

Un hombre que siempre molestaba a su mujer, paso un dia por la casa de unos amigos para que lo acompanaran al aeropuerto a dejar a su esposa que viajaba a Paris.

A la salida de inmigracion, frente a todo el mundo, el le desea buen viaje y en tono burlon le grita:

- Amor, no te olvides de traerme una hermosa francesita Ja ja ja!!

Ella bajo la cabeza y se embarco muy molesta.

La mujer paso quince dias en Francia.

El marido otra vez pidio a sus amigos que lo acompanasen al aeropuerto a recibirla.

Al verla llegar, lo primero que le grita a toda voz es:

- Y amor me trajiste mi francesita??

- Hice todo lo posible, - contesta ella - ahora solo tenemos que rezar para que nazca nina.



VENGANZA NUMERO 3

El marido, en su lecho de muerte, llama a su mujer. Con voz ronca y ya debil, le dice: - Muy bien, llego mi hora, pero antes quiero hacerte una confesion.

- No, no, tranquilo, tu no debes hacer ningun esfuerzo.

- Pero, mujer, es preciso - insiste el marido - Es preciso morir en paz.

Te quiero confesar algo.

- Esta bien, esta bien. Habla!

- He tenido relaciones con tu hermana, tu mama y tu mejor amiga.

- Lo se, lo se Por eso te envenene, hijo de puta!!!



machismo y cibernetica



Chiste machista La NASA ha enviado al espacio una mision experimental tripulada por dos monos y una mujer.Apenas abandona la atmosfera, se establece comunicacion con Houston.

-Atencion, simio 1, verifique sistemas hidraulicos, controle adecuada presion de los propulsores de arranque. A 60.000 pies disminuya un 25% la velocidad.

El simio hace la sena de OK.

-Atencion, simio 2, nivele al cruzar la estratosfera y active sistemas anticongelantes. No olvide monitorear sistemas de comunicacion e indicadores de presion. Comprendido?.

El simio hace la sena de OK.

-Atencion, Houston llamando a mujer: no se olvide.

-Mujer: Si, si, ya se! -interrumpe enojada- que no me olvide darles de comer a estos monos de mierda y que no se me vaya a ocurrir tocar nada!.



.Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti.

Un abogado mantiene un romance con su secretaria.Al poco tiempo, esta queda embarazada y el abogado, que no quiere que su esposa se entere, le da a la secretaria una buena suma de dinero y le pide que se vaya a parir a Italia.Esta pregunta: Y como voy a hacerte saber cuando nazca el bebe ? El abogado responde: Para que mi mujer no se entere, tan solo enviame una postal y escribe por detras: Spaghetti. Y no te preocupes mas, que yo me encargare de todos los gastos.

Pasan los meses y una manana la esposa del abogado lo llama al bufete, algo exaltada: Querido, acabo de recibir el correo y hay una postal muy extrana viene desde Italia. La verdad, no entiendo que significa.El abogado, tratando de ocultar sus nervios, contesta:Espera a que llegue a casa, a ver si yo entiendoCuando el hombre llega a casa y lee la postal, cae al suelo fulminado por un infarto.Llega una ambulancia y se lo lleva. Ya en el hospital, el jefe de cardiologia se queda consolando a la esposa y le pregunta cual ha sido el evento que precipito tan masivo ataque cardiaco.

Entonces la esposa saca la postal y se la muestra diciendole: No me explico, doctor; el solamente leyo esta postal. Vea usted mismo lo que trae escrito.Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti."Tres con salchicha y albondigas y dos con almejas



Gol !!!!



Chistes de Borrachos Entra un borracho a su casa todo manchado con lapiz labial por todos lados hecho un desastre, y la mujer le pregunta:-Hombre que te paso?Y el borracho le responde:-No me vas a creer, me pelee con un payaso!



Este es un borracho que entra en un bar y le dice al camarero:-Me da cinco copas de whisky?Al rato:-Me da cuatro?Al rato:-Me da tres copas?Despues:-Me da dos copas?Luego le dice:-Me da una copa?Y le dice al camarero:-Ves? Cuanto menos bebo, mas borracho estoy!


Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.
Douglas V. Gibbs is a proud member of the American Authors Association

Douglas V. Gibbs is a proud member of the Military Writers Society of America.
The family of Charlotte McCue, the California girl who was killed in the July 25 boat crash on Lake George, has started an online scholarship fund in the girl's memory.

The Charlotte M. McCue Gymnastics Scholarship Fund was established online July 31. It will create a fund to help aspiring gymnasts take part in the sport she loved even if they can't afford it.

The effort had taken in over $89,000 as of Sunday morning. Charlotte's family posted the following note on Friday:

Our hearts are bursting from the overwhelming response honoring Charlotte. We thank each and every one of you for your incredibly generous support. It has been extremely comforting to see so many people take an interest in something that was meaningful to Charlotte. We look forward to seeing how many future gymnasts will be so positively affected by your gifts and will do our best to provide updates along the way.

You have all touched our family in a way words can not begin to capture.

The fund can be found at www.youcaring.com/charlotte-m-mccue-612619.

-- Don Lehman
SALTILLO, Tenn.  Beatrice Bea L. Leonard, 84, of Saltillo, Tennessee, passed away on Friday, Aug. 5, 2016, at Glens Falls Hospital.

Memorial services will be held at 6 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 8, at the Singleton Sullivan Potter Funeral Home, 407 Bay Road, Queensbury.

Burial will take place at the convenience of the family.

Family and friends may call from 4 p.m. until the time of the services on Monday at the funeral home.

A complete obituary will appear in Mondays edition of The Post-Star.

For those who wish, online condolences may be made to the family by visiting the website: www.sbfuneralhome.com.
BALLSTON SPA -- A Moreau man who sold narcotics during a State Police investigation earlier this year has pleaded guilty to a felony charge.

Reagan R. Moon, 35, of Potter Road, pleaded guilty to attempted third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance, according to the Saratoga County District Attorney's Office.

He sold an unspecified narcotic on three occasions in January and March, authorities said.

Moon faces up to 7 years in state prison when he is sentenced Sept. 16 by Saratoga County Judge James Murphy. He has a prior 2011 felony burglary conviction in Saratoga County Court.
PRINCETOWN  A Salem woman was arrested Wednesday after she was driving over 100 mph with her child in the vehicle, according to a State Police news release.

Police said Josmery Cerda, 23, was driving at a speed of 102 mph in a 65-mph zone on Interstate 88 in Princetown, outside of Schenectady, while her 22-month-old child was in the vehicle.

Police charged her with endangering the welfare of a child and third-degree aggravated unlicensed operation, both misdemeanors.

Her driver's license was also suspended, police said.

Cerda was arraigned in the Town of Princetown Court and remanded to the Schenectady County Jail in lieu of $500 cash or $1,000 bond.
SOUTH GLENS FALLS  The South Glens Falls Fire Company is weighing whether it should become a fire district, which would give it the power to levy its own tax.

The company is supported by the village budget now, which means the Village Board decides how much money the company can spend.

If the company were to become a fire district, it would have a board of fire commissioners. They would have a wide range of powers, but the most important to the general public is that they could set a fire district tax rate. They can also borrow money, which a fire company cannot do (although the village could do it for the company).

In addition to setting a tax rate, commissioners would set policy, prepare an annual budget and make decisions about maintaining facilities, purchasing equipment, and other improvements.

The commissioners would be elected by the residents of the district. They would be accountable to the public, holding public meetings and hearings. But the public must first vote on whether to allow the fire district, since it could add another tax to the property tax bill.

In theory, the village tax rate would go down because the village budget would no longer include fire costs.

Firefighters are generally in favor of the idea, said village board and South Glens Falls Fire Company firefighter Pete Lemery.

Its a better way of doing things. You can control the money a little better, he said.

He noted that most fire departments in the area are organized as fire districts.

But its not easy to switch, he added.

Weve been talking about this for years, he said. Its a lengthy process. We are looking into it. We havent even reached the point of talking to the village.

At the village board meeting, Lemery explained the fire companys plans in response to a question from a resident.

Resident Tom Wolfe, who is also a Fort Edward Fire Department firefighter, said the company should switch to a district.

We would never consider going back, Wolfe said. But it has to be done right or it gets messy quick.

Among other issues, the district would have to hire a treasurer and a secretary, and set up an organizational system with a board of commissioners. The state has an 83-page manual detailing the financial rules that a district must follow.

Its a complex thing, said village Attorney Michael Muller. Its a good idea if its done right.

Mayor Joe Orlow said it was also the sensible choice.

They should be a self-supporting entity in their own right, he said.
Q: What do you think of the war-of-words between Donald Trump and the Khan family?

That would be my hope, that the military has the same strong support regardless of religion."

MARY ELLEN LAWLOR

Glens Falls

psychologist

Democrat

It's nothing we don't know  he says these things, and he gets a rile out of people."

JONATHAN CHIARELLA

Glens Falls

unemployed, recently returned from teaching English in South Korea

Independent

I don't really like Donald Trump that much, so I'll call it an attack."

KINDRA GIROUX

Queensbury

unemployed

Independent

He needs a bit of a filter."

TYLER KING

Fort Ann

student

Democrat

I say that (Khizr Khan's speech) was wrote for him by Hillary's campaign."

NANCY BOYCE

Glens Falls

retired

Democrat

 Compiled by Justin Trombly
GLENS FALLS  About three-quarters of the work is completed in a $12.4 million plan to reduce significantly the overflow of stormwater and sewage from Glens Waste Water Treatment plant during heavy rainstorms, said Mike White, an engineering consultant to the city.

The project is one of the reasons for steadily escalating sewer bills.

The work is on pace to be completed ahead of the five-to-eight year time frame the city agreed to in 2012 in negotiations with the state Department of Environmental Conservation and federal Environmental Protection Agency.

We have some time, but we should beat the schedule by quite a bit, White said.

Glens Falls is among hundreds of municipalities around the nation that have combined sewer overflows that result from antiquated infrastructure in which stormwater flows into the same lines as sewage.

When there is a heavy rainstorm or snow melting, the combined stormwater and sewage volume is more than a wastewater treatment plant can process, and the excess flow overflows into water bodies such as the Hudson River, in the case of Glens Falls.

The overflows occur as a structural bypass in front of the wastewater treatment plant necessary to protect the hydraulic and biological functions of the plant, White said.

On June 28, for example, the most recent overflow, about 900,000 gallons of untreated sewage and storm water overflowed legally into the Hudson River, according to the DEC.

The overflow was mostly stormwater with some sewage that was screened to remove large particles and debris, but not treated, said City Engineer Steve Gurzler.

The issue is with the citys collection system, not with the treatment plant itself, White said.

Combined sewer overflows are really old technology, and a lot of our cities are really old, said Liz Moran, water and natural resources associate for Environmental Advocates, an Albany-based lobbying organization.

Glens Falls is not an anomaly.

Washington County wastewater treatment plant in Fort Edward had combined sewer overflows on July 24, Aug. 1 and Aug. 2, and the countys Hudson Falls plant had overflows Aug. 1 and Aug. 2, all into the Hudson River, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Clinton County wastewater treatment plant had a combined sewer overflow into the Saranac River on July 28.

Combined sewer overflows are prevalent in many municipalities in the Adirondack Park and the outskirts, many of which discharge into Lake Champlain and the Hudson River, said John Sheehan, a spokesman for Adirondack Council, an environmental organization.

The EPA estimates more than 775 municipalities around the nation have combined sewer overflows, White said.

About 10 percent of those are in New York, according to the DEC.

The public began realizing the importance of having separate pipe lines for sewage and stormwater in the 1970s, and regulators began prioritizing it in the 1980s, White said.

It wasnt until populations got really big that people realized, Oh, putting all this stuff in the same place and letting it just dump into the water if its too much for it to handle is maybe not the best idea, Moran said.

Glens Falls is reducing overflows by replacing combined sewer and stormwater lines with separate lines when the city does infrastructure projects, and by developing alternative green infrastructure stormwater collection systems, Gurzler said.

For an upcoming project, the city is seeking a $167,000 state grant toward the $225,000 cost of a project to collect rainwater runoff from the roofs of buildings around the Elm Street parking lot and Exchange Street Plaza in Glens Falls, diverting that runoff from the sewer system.

The Glens Falls plan is estimated to reduce the frequency of overflows from about 30 times a year in 2012 to an average of six-to-10 times a year when fully implemented.

The plant has had six discharges, so far this year, according to DEC.

"DEC has received and approved the city's long-term control plan. We also have received their annual report." said Jomo Miller, a DEC spokesman. "The city is on track with their implementation."

Public notification when overflows occur is equally important with upgrading infrastructure, said Moran, of Environmental Advocates.

People have this basic right to know, she said. The public should the ability to know that if there has been a sewage overflow, it should be to their discretion whether or not they recreate in that water.

The DEC requires municipalities to report sewer spills, including combined sewer overflows, within four hours of discovery.

The DEC posts the reports on its web page.

Individuals can sign up to receive alerts of new reports directly to phones, email or text at nyalert.gov.

Infrastructure improvements are costly, and it is important for the state to subsidize the cost for cash-strapped municipalities, said Moran, of Environmental Advocates.

Glens Falls, so far, has financed all of its work with no-interest or low-interest loans through the state Environmental Facilities Corp., White said.

In 2012, consultants to the city estimated loan repayments would increase the typical residential sewer bill from $363 in 2011 to $854 in 2022.

The state budget in 2015 established a new water and sewer infrastructure program to provide $200 million in grants over three years, Moran said.

This years budget doubled the amount to $400 million, but more funding is needed, she said.

Moran said a report from state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli estimated municipalities face an $800 million annual shortfall in funding sewer infrastructure projects.

That is just sewage infrastructure. You add in drinking water infrastructure and that only grows, she said.
There are dark forces in our world. I now see that. They are all around us and we should take all necessary steps to secure our safety.

For years, Ive railed against the culture of fear in our society and insisted  sometimes in this very space  that local communities are some of the safest in the world.

Not only do most of us not need guns to protect ourselves, we probably dont even need to lock the door.

I argued that I feel just as safe walking in downtown Glens Falls at 4 in the morning as I do at noon.

After each terrorist incident, I proclaimed it would not deter me from seeing a Broadway show or the canals of Venice.

I said the odds were in my favor.

I defiantly said I would live my life.

But I know so many others feel differently.

I blame some of that on my friends in the television media with their litany of crime and disaster on every newscast.

Each evening news show is a Hollywood disaster flick.

Some days I wonder if there is anywhere in California that has not burned.

Perhaps my own newspaper is to blame with our long list of DWI arrests and drug crimes that we report daily.

But Im with you now.

I know now how dangerous the world can be.

It took just one incident this past week for me to realize the jeopardy that so many of us feel on a daily basis.

I know there are terrorists among us.

They are disguised as housewives, teens and busy business people hiding their identity in SUVs and small compact cars, darting down our side streets and highways, tailgating and attempting to pick us off one at a time.

They are armed with cellphones and a trigger-texting finger.

I was about 50 yards away from the newspaper parking lot when I noticed a fast-moving blue SUV coming up behind me.

I made sure my turn signal was on and tapped the brakes so the driver would further be alerted of my intent to turn.

I glanced again in the rear view mirror and the SUV was coming very fast. I stared intently as it got larger and larger. Then I noticed the terrorist driving the car was not looking forward, she was glancing down and to the right.

I stomped on the gas pedal, cranked the steering wheel hard right, going over the curb and some lawn and just missing a corner of the building next to our parking lot. The blue SUV blew by me at a high rate of speed.

My car is small.

Her car was large.

I dont know if I would have been killed, but Im pretty sure I would have been injured.

What message could be so important?

This has got to stop.

These are the terrorists I see in my community.

These are the terrorists we need to root out, report to the authorities and get them off the road.

Texting and driving tickets should start at $1,000 and double for each succeeding ticket.

We need to suspend DWI patrols and mobilize our law enforcement resources during the morning and evening commutes.

We need car companies to develop technology to block cellphone reception in a moving car.

For the first time in my life, Im afraid to leave the house.

The terrorists are everywhere.

And they are armed with cellphones.
The reduction is expected to among other things bring down the cost of an air ticket.

READ MORE: New GCAA Act entitles travellers to compensation

However, other cost elements such as the weak currency, ground handling and difficulties with the clearing of import parts is a nightmare to operators in the airline sector.

President John Mahama said recently that one of the complains he'd constantly received was the cost of aviation fuel when he commissioned the newly constructed Arrival Hall of the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) and the Ghana Civil Aviation Training Academy within the airport enclave, Accra that

As a result, we consulted the National Petroleum Authority and it has agreed to adjust the price of aviation fuel and reduce it by 20 percent," he added.

According to analysts, a 20% reduction in aviation fuel will still be higher than it is sold in the West Africa sub-region.

In a newspaper interview, the Managing Director of Gianair, Roberto Billia said it has been a "nightmare operating in Ghana"

"As an investor in Ghana, the government needs to allow me to profit from my investment. My fees for operating in the Accra airport has increased to 400 percent in two years," he told the Business and Financial Times.

The concerns of airline operators have been compounded with the decline in the number of people who use air transport as a means of travelling within Ghana.

According to the Ministry of Transport, there were 195,447 passengers between January and June 2016 compared to 288,968 in 2015.

According to the sector minister, Fiifi Kwetey, the drop can be attributed to the high cost of air tickets.

The reduction in the domestic passenger movement largely is a combination of the difficulties in the increase in aviation fuel cost last year and also the fiscal issues that brought about introduction of VAT, he said at a press conference in Accra.

Local airlines complain that value added tax (VAT) on aviation fuel and other charges, which are passed on to passengers, is the reason why tickets are dear.

The government has been trying over the years to increase domestic air travel numbers because it is a faster and safer mode of transport.
The EPA has received the approval of the executive and recently, parliament.

Prior to both approval, the Coordinator of the Third World Network, Yao Graham, warned that 40,000 nascent jobs in the industrial sector could be lost if Ghana signs the agreement.

However, a programmes officer with the Third World Network Africa, Sylvester Bagoroo said the Economic Partnership Agreement contained "dangerous clauses" which he expected parliament to debate on for months to get the best deal for Ghana.

He said: "We at Third World Network Africa we are disappointed with what parliament as an institution has done. This is an agreement that was negotiated for over a decade because there were a lot of dangerous clauses in that agreement. We were expecting parliament to debate it at committee level for months.

"We were expecting parliament to have an open debate so that all of us will understand. For instance a number of constituencies raised objections to the EPA.

READ MORE: Thousands of industrial jobs for the chop if Ghana signs EPA

So has parliament actually listened to all these people? Has parliament had consultation with them so that the accountability that exists between parliament and the public is enhanced?
The event which took place at King Solomon Roots & Soul in Dansoman, Accra, on Friday, August 5 saw industry players, the media, management members and fans turn up in their numbers.

His song Poverty which features silky vocalist Luther, who hails from the same suburb with him is already making waves in the capital.

According to WanRows management, the main album launch will take place at Korle Gonno beach on August 26. The event has been promised to be a memorable one with support from top notch Reggae/Dancehall artistes.

WanRow, who is known in real life as Edward Quaye, was born in Korle Gonno where he grew up listening to various kinds of music but chose Reggae/Dancehall as his favourite genre. He picked up the art and for the past 10 years working underground, he paid his dues playing most of the slum gigs in the capital.

His sign to Suumoni Records has given him another chance to move on to the next level as well as exploring his talent in the mainstream market.

His manager Suley Gboritey, Reggae artiste Root Eye, and radio personalities: Fiifi Selah, King Lagazee and Sammy Baah Flex were present to throw their weight behind the vocalist.
The visit is his gesture of solidarity with the contemnors. The Trade and Industry minister, Ekow Spio-Garbrah, as well as former transport Minister, Dzifa Attivor have already visited the three contemnors in prison.

READ ALSO: Montie Saga

The Montie three, Alistair Nelson, Godwin Ako Gunn and Salifu Maase alias Mugabe were sentenced to four months in prison by the Supreme Court following contempt proceedings against them.

The contempt proceedings came after the three threatened the Supreme Court judges who sat on the Abu Ramadan and Gary Nimako versus the Electoral Commission case.

A petition book subsequently opened by pro-government group Research and Advocacy Platform (RAP) gathered over 18 million signatories from government appointees including the deputy minister of Education in charge of Tertiary, Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa, the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Elizabeth Ofosu-Agyare and the Education Minister, Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang.

The group presented the petition to the Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah, Thursday.

READ ALSO: Montie Saga

Lawyers for the three contemnors had already presented theirs to the presidency.

Some members of the public including lawyers for the three, Nana Ato Dadzie and George Loh, have described the sentence as harsh, and insisted that people must not be committed to prison for infractions on free expression especially in light of the repeal of the criminal libel law.
We believe that they can ask for a pardon and when that pardon is given we will accept it. The President has that prerogative of mercy to pardon people who are put into prison. If we believe that these people have realized their faults and are pleading for mercy, we will encourage the president to look at that if it is within his power to pardon them, the country Director for Amnesty International, Lawrence Amesu told Accra-based Citi FM.

READ ALSO:

He added that Pardoning them does not mean that you are giving way for people to commit more crimes. Many people are going to take a cue from this. At Amnesty, particularly for death penalties, we do fight for their rights even if they are in prison. If people commit crimes, it does not mean that the president or any other arm of government should not pardon them.

The jailed Montie three, Alistair Nelson, Godwin Ako Gunn and Salifu Maase alias Mugabe were sentenced to four months in prison by the Supreme Court following contempt proceedings against them.

The contempt proceedings came after the three threatened the Supreme Court judges who sat on the Abu Ramadan and Gary Nimako versus the Electoral Commission case.

A petition book subsequently opened by pro-government group Research and Advocacy Platform (RAP) gathered over 18 million signatories from government appointees including the deputy minister of Education in charge of Tertiary, Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa, the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Elizabeth Ofosu-Agyare and the Education Minister, Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang.

The group presented the petition to the Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah, Thursday.

Lawyers for the three contemnors had already presented theirs to the presidency.
According to him, Oti Bless has not shown remorse for his comments in spite of an apology he rendered over the matter.

READ ALSO:

I wish to sincerely state that I am really sorry for everything that has happened. Let me use this opportunity to render an unqualified apology to the Chief Justice who is my mother and the entire Judiciary, judges, Parliament, good people of Ghana and my constituents, he told Accra-based Citi FM.

His apology came on the back of a directive by the Speaker of Parliament for deliberations over his nomination to be put on hold until he apologised for the comments he made.

But Franklin Cudjoe believes the deputy minister-designate only apologised because he was forced to.

I suspect the Chief Justice, listening to this mockery of an apology, would be wondering what exactly came over him. Hes suggesting that he was ordered to apologise, Franklin Cudjoe said on Accra-based Citi FM.

If he isnt jailed, then we should take out the Montie three. The Montie gang of bandits did the same thing on the same platform and also apologized.

I dont wish evil for anybody but we have to make examples of people who supposedly are representing us. Oti Bless must be jailed. Oti Bless has not shown any remorse as far as I am concerned. He is saying that he was directed or advised [to apologise] so he himself doesnt believe it," he said.

He must be jailed otherwise the Montie three may have to be given some pardon, the president of IMANI added.

Background

Parliament on Thursday suspended the approval of the Deputy Local Government Ministerial nominee John Oti Bless.

Oti Bless was hoping to be approved by the House to enable him to begin his role as deputy minister within five months to go into the December polls.

The Minority in Parliament had earlier initiated a process to stop the appointment of John Bless Oti as a Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development after a revelation that he was part of the Montie FM panel on the day contemptuous statements were made about the Supreme Court.

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Nkwanta North was cleared by Parliaments Appointment Committee to be approved by the house as a deputy minister.

But his approval was deferred after Joe Osei-Owusu raised the issue in the house accusing Oti Bless of being part of the panellists that made contemptuous comments against Justices of the Supreme Court on Accra-based Montie FM.

READ ALSO: Montie FM Saga

When the matter was raised on the floor of parliament on Monday, the Minority Leader Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu argued that the comments made by the MP were unfortunate.

The language was disparaging to the Justices of the highest court of this land. These words are unprintable, certainly not the best from a Member of Parliament, taking the justices of the Supreme Court to the cleaners without any iota of evidence

Oti Bless is on record questioning the actions of the Chief Justice during the 2012 election petition hearing. He accused her of doing the bidding of the New Patriotic Party.

READ ALSO: Oti Bless

Today we have a CJ who because of a Political favour done her, will do anything to help the NPP. It is an agenda. The electoral commission should stop working and give it to Georgina Woode. And we have a whole CJ, look at how old you are; you have kids and grandchildren and yet you are at the Court doing politics; you deliberately appoint NPP Judges to do politics and scheme with NPP to give biased rulings. Are you not calling for war? Are you not calling for civil war? Are you not destroying this country? he quizzed
According to Pratt, even though President John Dramani Mahama has every power within his jurisdiction to free the Montie 3, it must not be done "capriciously".

"Whichever way the President acts, there is a price to pay. In this particular case, whichever way this president acts, there is a price to pay. Every option will come with a price so he has to weigh his options very carefully. People are deliberately setting traps for the president! he said on Accra-based Radio Gold.

READ ALSO:

The Montie three, Alistair Nelson, Godwin Ako Gunn and Salifu Maase alias Mugabe were sentenced to four months in prison by the Supreme Court following contempt proceedings against them.

The contempt proceedings came after the three threatened the Supreme Court judges who sat on the Abu Ramadan and Gary Nimako versus the Electoral Commission case.

A petition book subsequently opened by pro-government group Research and Advocacy Platform (RAP) gathered over 18 million signatories from government appointees including the deputy minister of Education in charge of Tertiary, Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa, the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Elizabeth Ofosu-Agyare and the Education Minister, Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang.

The group presented the petition to the Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah, Thursday.

Lawyers for the three contemnors had already presented theirs to the presidency.

Many are of the view that the president will be violating the law and undermining the work of the judiciary if he gave in to the pressure mounting on him to grant the presidential pardon to the three Montie FM contemnors.

But Kwesi Pratt believes arguments that the president would be violating the law if he frees the Montie three are unfortunate.

How would that be a violation of the very same constitution that confers those powers on him?... I dont see that, he said.

He explained that Article 72 is not just by granting total pardon to the convicts.

Article 72 has four [4] different categories of measure open to the president. The president can forgive them for whatever crimes they have committed and they walk home free with a clean sheet, no conviction records. That is the first one.
He explained that President Mahama will win because of his sterling performance in office.

Nana Okofo Kwakora made this statement at the annual festival of the people of Ajumako.

Even though President Mahama was not present at the festival, the chief gave an assurance that he and his subjects will do all within their power to ensure he wins the 2016 elections.

READ ALSO: Mahama joins Chiefs and people of Mepe to celebrate 62nd Afenorto festival

Nana Okofo Kwakora explained President Mahama will enjoy a second term because of the several developmental projects he has brought to his community.

He further asked President Mahama to disregard his critics since he was certain he will enjoy a second term in office.

The chief said he would have been very happy if President Mahama had made it to the festival.

Meanwhile the Minister of Chieftancy and Traditional Affairs Dr. Seidu Daanaa earlier called on traditional rulers to refrain from endorsing presidential candidates of various political parties ahead of the December polls.
According to him, as matters heat up ahead of the elections, traditional rulers must endeavour to guide the electorates for to ensure a peaceful atmosphere.

Things will heat up very soon, but no matter how far it takes, lets not take it to the edge. Lets engage the politics in a very sober manner. Let us not cause undue friction to destabilise the atmosphere. Whatever it is, lets do it in a peaceful climate, Mr. Rawlings implored.

The former president was accompanied by his daughter, Dr. Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings; Dr. Kofi Djokoto, NDC Constituency Chairman for Keta and several others to the funeral ceremony.

The former president also expressed his appreciation to the late chief, Nana Otutu Kono, for the advice he offered him during his tenure in office.
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The command has revealed the arrest of four suspects in the gruesome murder of the member of the State House of Assembly on July 1, 2016.

Mr Aremu was killed in front of his home in Alakia area of the State as he disembarked from his vehicle to open his gate.

The command made the revelation via a statement released today, August 7, 2016, with the Commissioner of Police, Oyo State Command, Leye Oyebade, disclosing that the arrest was made with the help of an Intelligence Response Team set up by the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris and detectives from the state command.

He said, I wish to inform you that four suspects have been arrested in connection with the crime."

Earlier reports revealed that three gunmen had reportedly trailed Mr Aremu to his home, shooting him several times after a brief argument.
ALSO READ: Family of kidnapped monarch holds prayer session for his release

The suspects are reported to have been paraded at the State House in Ikeja, Lagos State today, July 7, 2016.

The suspects have been identified as Toba Forejo and Isaiah Ododomu, from Ondo State.

The monarch, Oba Goriola Oseni, was released after weeks in the hands of his abductors, yesterday, July 6, 2016, following the payment of the ransom fee.

PM News reports that one of the suspects had confessed the means by which they successfully kidnapped the monarch, extorting the sum of N15.1 million ransom before they released him.

Speaking with reporters, the suspect disclosed that nine people had shown up at the palace on that fateful day, to kidnap the monarch. He went on to identify some of the suspects who are yet to be apprehended as Toba, Igodo, Mighty, Folly and Sam, while their leader, Micah had not been with them at the time.

Narrating his story, Ododomu said:

I am a bunkering man, when this government stopped the bunkering business, our leaders formed another group and we started kidnapping to manage ourselves. I am a married man and I dont have any job to cater for my family. When we started the kidnapping business, whenever they collected N500,000, they will give me N20,000.

After this one, Toba, Igodo, Mighty, these eight people, went to Iba junction, they kidnapped the king, after they kidnapped him, they demand for N500 million, after that they reduced it to N40 million. They gave them N12 million at the first time. After that we gathered and shared the money.

All our senior people got the lion share of the money. They gave Toba N1 million, all those Igodo, Micah, they collected N2.5 million and so on; for me, they gave me N100, 000."

He further disclosed his role as the voice of reason among the bunch.

I told them that we should collect any amount and decamp because they can arrest us. Because of me, they agreed to collect N3, 100,000. The family of the oba the money and they dropped it for us at water side. We went there and brought the money and they gave me N100,000. Toba and the others shared the remaining money. Our base of operation is at Izegemo creek in Ikotun area."
ALSO READ: Family of kidnapped monarch holds prayer session for his release

The Abducted Lagos monarch was reportedly released on Saturday, August 6, 2016, after weeks in the hands of his captors.

One of the monarch's son, Kabiru Oseni, confirmed that the 74-year-old has been released, disclosing that he had returned via a jetty in the area.

Speaking with a correspondent of The Punch, a source reportedly disclosed that a ransom fee had been paid to secure the Monarch's safe return.

The Oba did not come in like he was rescued by the police. His coming back was without fanfare. He just walked into the community. It is in doubt that the police were involved in the rescue. The kidnappers are believed to have let go of him on their own will after the payment of a ransom. We do not yet know the amount paid.
Aregbesola made the call in Osogbo on Sunday in a statement he issued by his media aide, Semiu Okanlawon.

He also urged government to fashion out measures that would make agriculture to be attractive to a new generation of young Nigerians.

He noted that this would be viable option towards economic diversification, adding that Nigeria had yet to show serious efforts towards making farming a viable venture.

``We should stop exporting primary produce and start adding value.

``The value of a kilogramme of exported cocoa beans increases 5,000 per cent by the time it comes back as chocolate, the governor said.

Aregbesola said the nations agriculture must be directed towards producing what the country needs and not what it could only export.

``The orientation of our agriculture towards producing raw materials, especially cash crops, for the industries in Europe and the America must be reversed.

``Agriculture is needed primarily for food production; only well fed people can drive economic development.
The state commandant of the corps, Mr Ibrahim Abdullahi, gave the warning in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Maiduguri on Sunday.

Abdullahi said that the command had so far arrested six suspects for allegedly re-bagging and selling expired flour to unsuspecting consumers in Maiduguri.

He also said that about 1,100 bags of the expired flour had been recovered from the suspects.

He explained that the suspects were arrested in Makera and Babban-Layi in Maiduguri Monday Market area in the process of re-bagging the flour into sacks of prominent companies.

``One of the suspects, Bukar Muhammad, who smuggled the flour from Lagos state, told us that about 80 trucks of such foods were to be supplied to the North-East.

Abdullahi further said that the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), had on inspection of a sample of the flour, said that it was not fit for human consumption.

``NAFDAC also said that the product is unsatisfactory due to high content of E.coli, ash and low level of glutton and protein and the absence of vitamin A, he said.
This information is contained in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday by Mr Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity.

It added that the President would be accompanied on the one-day trip by Abdullahi Ganduje and Kashim Shettima, governors of Kano and Borno states respectively.

According to the statement, the President's delegation will also include Sen. Baba Kaka Garba, Hon. Tahir Monguno, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama and the National Security Adviser, Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno (rtd).

``The President will return to Abuja after the inauguration, the statement said.
This is contained in a statement issued by Col. Sani Usman, the army spokesman on Saturday and made available to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

Usman said the operation followed intelligence on the activities of some gun runners and armed bandits in three villages in the area, Kopa, Dagma and Gagaw.

The army spokesman explained that troops of 31 Artillery Brigade, 1 Division Nigerian Army, in conjunction with Nigeria Air Force detachment on Internal Security Operation MESA carried out the operation.

He said the troops recovered a large quantity of arms and ammunition during the operation.

Usman listed them as three AK-47 rifles, 10 local AK-47 Rifles, nine locally made pistols, six revolver guns, which fires 7.62mm (Special ammunition) and 45 loaded dane guns.

Others are 10 clubs and cudgels, 41 arrows, 18 bow cases, 122 cutlasses and machetes, as well as 20 daggers.

Also recovered from the bandits, according to him, are 31 axes, 63 rounds of 7.62 (special) ammunition, 10 Bajaj motorcycles, assorted charms and amulets, two vehicles, 38 mobile telephone handsets, a wristwatch and five identity cards.

The others are passport photographs, N23,870, five Japanese Yen and 35 different denominations of old Nigerian currency, 15 catapults, eight torchlights, two gun powder bottles, four empty cases of ammunition and 41 cartridges.

``The troops also seized a military waist belt and a pair of military combat boots, Usman said.

He, however, said that eight soldiers and two airmen lost their lives during the operation, while one soldier was still missing and two others seriously wounded.

``The suspected gun runners and armed bandits also burnt down four operational vehicles and vandalised two others.

``The bandits also carted away four AK-47 rifles and one Fabrique Nationale (FN) rifle belonging to the deceased soldiers, he said.

According to him, contrary to statements attributed to some questionable vested interests, the troops were on legitimate official duty aimed at safeguarding lives and property of citizen in the area.

Usman said that the nefarious activities of the gun runners and armed bandits had direct bearing with the influx of weapons and general insecurity in some parts of the FCT and North West geo-political zone.

``The same gun runners have been confirmed to be the suppliers of arms to armed robbery gangs that were involved in series of armed robbery attacks along Minna-Bida road and the general environment, he said.

Usman said that although the situation was under control, the military would not rest on its oars until all those involved were arrested and brought to justice.
Alhaji Shehu Malami, Executive Director, Operations of KRPC disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the side line of the Energy Correspondents' Workshop in Kano.

Malami said that members of various communities had in the last 10 years, illegally sourced for water for domestic use from the company`s plant.

He explained that the company had raised the issue with the former Vice President, Namadi Sambo, when he was Governor of the state, but no action was taken to address the problem.

``Management is reaching out to Kaduna State Government to address the issue appropriately and effectively.

``The only way to tackle this problem is for the state government to construct bole-holes for the communities.

``On our own, we have also provided many bore-holes to the communities but the tapping still goes on unhindered.

``We are appealing to the government to provide a lasting solution to those communities to end these illegal activities.

``It is not fair and it is affecting the company negatively; government should look into this problem because it is disturbing the company`s activities, he said.
NEMA North East Information Officer Ibrahim Abdulkadir stated this in a statement issued on Sunday in Maiduguri.

Abdulkadir said that the items were presented to the state government by NEMA Zonal Coordinator, Mallam Muhamad Kanar in Maiduguri.

``NEMA has presented additional food items to the Borno Government for the feeding of IDPs in the state.

``The food items comprising 2,000 bags of rice, 1,000 bags of millet and 1,000 bags of guinea-corn were presented in Maiduguri following a request by the state committee on the feeding of IDPs for additional supply, he said.

``The committee and the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) had jointly requested for additional food supply, saying that what we gave them had been exhausted because there were lots of changes.

``The changes arose from the influx of more IDPs to the camps, so they need more from us before the next supply, he said.

Kanar explained that the increased demand was also due to the introduction of dry ratio feeding system by the government in line with international standards.

``The committee and SEMA sent a request for more food supply partly due to influx of new IDPs and also because they had introduced the international standard of dry ratio feeding in some of IDPs camps, he said.

Kanar added that the dry ratio system allowed the IDPs to have the opportunity of cooking their meals themselves, determining what they wanted to eat at any given time.

``This system is unlike the centralised cooking system where IDPs are fed from a centralised kitchen, he said.

Receiving the food items, Malam Ahmed Satome, SEMA Executive Chairman, commended NEMA for the gesture and the quick response just as he promised judicious utilisation of the materials.

``Actually this is an effort made internally by SEMA to ensure that we take proper care of the IDPs feedings.

``We realized that we have problem with the food on ground, so we requested for additional supply from NEMA, Satome said.

Malam Mohammed Idris, the Chairman of the State Monitoring Committee on IDPs feeding, also expressed joy at the development.
Akinseye-George, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), noted that although judges were entitled to their independent opinions in delivering judgements, the Supreme Court unified the system.

According to him, the independence of opinion is the prerogative of every judge and any judge who lacks such independence is not fit for the bench.

He said a judge was independent in his judgment even when his views might not be in sequence with the views of his fellow judges.

He observed that conflicting judgments were inevitable because every judge was independent and not bound to accept the perspective of his fellow judge.

``The Court of Appeal has always faced the criticism of delivering conflicting judgments particularly in election matters and such conflicting judgments cannot but happen for so many reasons, he said.

``The Court of Appeal has about 16 divisions and each division has a minimum of three to five justices.

``We do not yet have a mechanism of simultaneous publication of judgments of one division in another division.
In my opinion, Nigerians will vote out APC in 2019 because they are complaining over the cost of living and the rate of poverty is on the increase", Yakasai said.

I dont see how APC will win if they dont manipulate the process. How much was a dollar last year, how much is it now? What about the cost of bag of rice, basket of tomatoes and others. Farmers are complaining about fertilizers but it was not like this when PDP was in power, he added

Mbaka, who claimed that Nigeria is being attacked ferociously, said Buhari should know that there is trouble in the land.
CESJET executive secretary, Comrade Ikpa Isaac, described the demand by protesters that appointment to be reversed for ethnic considerations as most irresponsible.

"It is even more depressing when the Citizens Advocacy for Equity and Educational Development further explained that the executive secretary should have come from the north because the councils headquarters is located in the north", he said.

"If the head of every government agency has to be appointed on the basis of geo-location, then the north would be left massively disadvantaged as many of the government establishments headed by northerners are not located in their geographical areas.

"The demand of the protesters is dangerous coming at a time when there is outcry in some quarters that the appointments under the current government tilted in favour of the north; acceding to the protesters demand would therefore only worsen the sense of discrimination that is already growing in some geo-political zones and cannot be in the interest of Nigeria," Isaac added.

Isaac commended the minister of education, Adamu Adamu for the appointment which he describes as well deserved.
"Through his connection with the United States, (Shahram) Amiri gave vital information about the country to the enemy," Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei told a weekly news conference, state news agency IRNA reported.

Mohseni Ejei said a court had sentenced Amiri to death and the sentence had been upheld by Iran's Supreme court, IRNA said.

Amiri, a university researcher working for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, disappeared during a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in 2009, and later surfaced in the United States. But he returned to Iran in 2010 and received a hero's welcome before being arrested.

A U.S. official said in 2010 that Washington had received "useful information" from Amiri.

Iran had accused the CIA of kidnapping Amiri. U.S. officials said Amiri had been free to come and go as he pleased, and that he may have returned because of pressures on his family in Iran.

Amiri had denied this, saying "my family had no problems". In a video aired by Iranian state TV in 2010, Amiri said he had fled from U.S. agents.
Turning the ship before it hits the iceberg
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As farmers, we work hard to protect our most valuable resources. But despite our hard work, we still expect to lose some nutrients from our fields. And once those nutrients land in the states waterways, they can affect the water quality both close to home and downstream.

To help protect water quality for our families and our neighbors families, Illinois Farm Bureau is urging farmers to take part in the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy (NLRS).

Agriculture groups and organizations, including the Illinois Farm Bureau, worked with the Illinois Department of Agriculture and Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to develop the strategy to addresses water quality here in Illinois and outside our borders.

The strategy builds on practices farmers are already using to keep nutrients on their farm fields. Further, it promotes increased partnerships, research and innovation by farm groups, conservation groups, and others.

To learn more about the newest nutrient management practices and how they can affect water quality, 20 Illinois Farm Bureau members, leaders and staff traveled to Iowa in early August to participate in a Nutrient Issues Tour.

Like Illinois, Iowa was tasked with reducing nutrient losses to Iowa waterways, and is two years ahead of Illinois in implementing their strategy. By visiting Iowa, our farmers had an opportunity to see where collaboration between agricultural and non-agricultural partners is working, like some of Iowas great watershed projects, and where its not working, in the case of lawsuits.

Participants also visited demonstration farms where traditional and non-traditional best management practices for reducing nutrient loss are being researched. They learned about unique partnerships that have pulled in additional funding for farmers.

Farmers across the state are adding their conservation stories to the Conservation Story Map, which can be seen on the Illinois Council for Best Management Practices website.

The interactive map features pictures and videos from farmers across the state, allowing the featured farmers to tell their conservation stories and helping them encourage other farmers to adopt similar practices.

The map also lets farmers know about local and regional funding programs and about agriculture groups, conservation groups and government agencies that support their sustainability efforts within their specific watershed.

Protecting water quality isnt just the responsibility of farmers, but were in an excellent position to lead the way toward improved water quality and show that voluntary changes can make all the difference.

Its time for us all to pitch in. After all, the future of our farms and our water depend on it.
Such unabashed cowardice. More is expected from the likes of Gov. Terry Branstad and U.S. Sen Joni Ernst, who continue binding themselves to Donald Trump's campaign of senseless hate and brimstone.

Republican presidential candidate Trump last week took to burning down all that remained of traditional GOP sacred cows. A Gold Star family -- the Kahns -- what have they sacrificed, Trump questioned. On Tuesday, the man even booted a crying infant from a rally.

Kissing babies might not be Trump's style. But sicking security on one would be political suicide in most election years.

Now, you might think that Iowa's Republican elite would have some real problems with Trump's most recent sojourn into political suicide. At least, you'd think so based on their past rhetoric. Some mythical lack of patriotism among Democrats Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama is the entire basis for Ernst's support for Trump.

Budgetary maneuvers and questionable calls in the Middle East: That's anti-military, says Ernst. But blasting that Muslim family whose son died in a Iraq during George W. Bush's administration: We wouldn't want to come down too hard on Trump now, would we?

Late last month, Trump's hate circus came to town. And side-show performers Branstad, Ernst and state Republican Chairman Jeff Kaufmann piled praise on the GOP's narcissistic standard bearer. He's pro-business, Branstad lauded. Everyone should be knocking on doors for him, Kaufmann screamed so loud that his voice cracked. And yes, Ernst recycled her nonsensical allegations of a troop-hating Democratic president and former secretary of State.

You'd think Obama and Clinton had spat on headstones in Arlington National Cemetery.

To be fair, Iowa's Trump triplets weren't completely silent when Trump, yet again, decided to lambaste anyone who challenged him. Attacking the Kahns was a bad political move, Branstad advised. Gold Star families should be "honored," parroted the others.

Hardly a repudiation. In some respects, it was nothing but political advice. Imagine if Clinton had done something similar. Convene the investigatory congressional committee. ASAP.

Iowa Republicans know they've tied themselves to a foundering ship that could sink careers. They took to local town halls and held ceremonies for military veterans, which, in context, ring hollow. No amount of damage control can wash off the Trump stain. Only a full-throated rebuke of Trump's entire campaign will wash it clean.

Donald Trump is a spoiled, self-absorbed bully with a serious Messiah complex. But don't count on Iowa's Republican elite to choose country over party, even if it means unyielding allegiance to a threat that makes Joe McCarthy look tame. He shamed women for their periods. Nothing. He stoked racial and religious prejudice. They sat on their hands. He tore down every basic tenet of post-Reagan Republicanism. They went on tour promoting his candidacy. And this is for a man who, last week, declined to return the favor and support the re-election bids of Speaker Paul Ryan and Sen. John McCain, a one-time prisoner of war with the courage to label Trump the demagogue he is.

Trump, in one fell swoop, has exposed the feckless pretense that's at the core of Iowa's GOP. It's a party so married with first-in-the-nation status that contradicting national GOP bosses qualifies as heresy. It's a cadre that has become disturbingly comfortable with the know-nothing wing that now runs the Party of Lincoln. It's a legion that hitched itself, for better or worse, to a man with no respect for the basic rule of law.

Trump's attack on the Kahn family was the last straw for many Republicans who've declared Trump "unfit" for the presidency. Maybe Reps. Richard Hanna, R-New York, and Adam Kinzinger, R-Illinois, recognized the danger allegiance to Trump poses to a career before denouncing him. Maybe Jeb Bush's top adviser, Sally Bradshaw, decided to jump ship before things got worse. Maybe the slew of elected Republicans in Illinois that avoided Trump since the outset tout the gift of precognition.

Or, just maybe, Iowa's top Republicans don't mean a damn word they say about God, country or patriotism.
PITTSBURGH| Encouraged by signs that regulatory hurdles in Pennsylvania could be easing, Uber announced Thursday it is expanding to the seven counties surrounding Pittsburgh and several areas throughout the state.

After the expansions, Uber said it will reach 93 percent of Pennsylvanians, up from 77 percent of residents currently able to hail a ride from their smartphone.

Though much of its new territory may seem rural, the company said it saw an opportunity in serving smaller towns, particularly those with colleges.

"Uber is making it possible to push a button and get a ride in minutes, no matter where you are. With students gearing up for the fall semester, we think Uber can also help provide a safe alternative to drunk driving," the company said in a statement. "Our mission is cover every ZIP code in the state, and this expansion takes us one big step closer to that goal."

Uber is also pressing for state legislators to give ride-hailing services permanent authority to operate statewide. When Uber, along with its ride-share rival Lyft, moved into Pittsburgh in early 2014, both were granted temporary, experimental licenses to operate. A bill that would grant such authority overwhelmingly passed the Senate last November but has stalled in the House Consumer Affairs Committee.

A key sticking point to permanent authority has been strong resistance of taxi cab companies in Philadelphia. Last month, however, the Philadelphia Parking Authority, the city regulatory agency governing cabs, reached a temporary agreement to allow Uber to operate legally in Philadelphia until Sept. 30.
Most of Rapid Citys older schools still do not have air conditioning, and there have been times when students were sent home because it was just too hot to learn.

But for the first time this year, a cool breeze will blow through dozens of classrooms in time for the first day of school. District officials are preparing to invest $50,000 to install new window air conditioning units in 50 classrooms.

Though the move is seen as a step in the right direction, the measure is viewed by officials only as a temporary solution to a problem that could ultimately cost $40 million to remedy.

That is the estimated price tag for retrofitting all of the districts facilities with central air conditioning systems, according to district spokesperson Katy Urban, who said the cost is too much to take on in any one year.

Nevertheless, Facilities Service Manager Kumar Veluswamy is determined to beat the heat and upgrade all of the districts cooling systems in the years ahead, one school at a time.

Cost estimates arent in yet, and the projects will not be complete before the first day of school on Aug. 31, but Veluswamy plans to start by installing central air systems in Rapid Valley and Black Hawk elementary schools.

Our goal is to provide safe and air conditioned spaces for the kids so they can focus on learning rather than other stuff, Veluswamy said.

Sweltering heat has proven to be a real detriment to education in Rapid City in recent years. Temperatures over 90 degrees in 2013 prompted Superintendent Tim Mitchell to dismiss students from their hot classrooms a few hours early during two days in August.

The historical average high temperature on Aug. 31, the day the fall semester begins this year, is 83 degrees, according to the website Weather Underground. But the record high for that date is 103 degrees, showing how hot it can still get after children return to school in South Dakota.

In March, consultancy group MGT of America released a study on the districts facility needs. Part of the MGT report involved compiling community feedback from more than 900 members of the public through an online survey and multiple input sessions.

Of those respondents, MGT found that more than 40 percent evaluated the learning environment in the district as fair or poor. Another 66 percent similarly rated the physical conditions of the districts buildings as fair or poor.

Lack of air conditioning, the MGT report stated, was overwhelmingly cited as the most unsatisfactory element of the physical condition of schools.

Of the districts 15 elementary schools, only two  General Beadle and Valley View  have central air conditioning systems. Only two of the five middle schoolsEast and Southwesthave central air. And Rapid City Central High is the only one of the three high schools with building-wide cooling.

Most of our buildings were built long before air conditioning was a standard thing, Urban said.

Evaporative cooling units are set up at Rapid Valley and South Park elementary schools, and there are 50 window air conditioning units deployed in classrooms district wide. The 50 units to be installed this summer will be in addition to those, Urban said.

District officials give priority to younger students when deciding where to begin installing the units, but electrical limitations exist in some of the buildings.

More demand trips breakers, Veluswamy said. Some buildings are tying our hands, and we cant add anymore units because the power isnt there.

Veluswamy knows the window units are an imperfect solution to the problem, but he has made it his mission to upgrade the districts cooling systems, one classroom at a time if need be.

We need to come up with a smart way to make these places more comfortable for kids, he said.
I never realized that Mike Pence had such a wild sense of humor. I pegged him as more the "earnest" extremist, not such a kidder. Well, the laugh's on me.

Surely Pence was joking when he complained to conservative radio interviewer Hugh Hewitt about "name-calling." The GOP vice-presidential nominee chastised President Barack Obama for using the term "homegrown demagogues" in his convention speech: "I don't think name-calling has any place in public life, and I thought that was unfortunate that the president of the United States would use a term like that."

He delivered that line with a straight face, which made it more hilarious. We all know that the leader of his band, Donald Trump, is the name-calling world champion.

We've all yukked it up with the Trumpster when he's called Ted Cruz "Lyin' Ted," or Marco Rubio "Little Marco." Michael Bloomberg is now also "Little"  apparently Trump likes to sell his adversaries short. But he'll go to any heights or depths: Elizabeth Warren is "Pocahontas." The guy is a total card, so some of us understood that his reaction to the suspicion that Russian intelligence was behind the email hack embarrassment of the Democratic National Committee must have been a comedy riff:

"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."

Certainly, Hillary Clinton has struggled mightily with the perception that she was hiding something when she deleted those 30,000-plus "personal" emails from her private server. So he was merely having fun at her expense when he continued later that "If Russia or China or any other country has those emails, I mean, to be honest with you, I'd love to see that."

Mike Pence is not just far right, he's way wrong. Name-calling and bad-taste humor do have a place in public life. I know Hillary Clinton will resist. She's all hung up on running some sort of mature campaign, based on substance and all that.

Or maybe all she'll have to do is allow Trump to be done in by his own uncontrollable belligerence. He was obviously not joking as he crassly responded to the grieving parents of a Muslim-American soldier, Humayun Khan, who was killed in Iraq by a suicide bombing in 2004. Post-mortem, his bravery was rewarded with the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. His father Khizr Kahn had shared the family's continuing agony at the Democratic National Convention. Angry at Trump's ongoing anti-Muslim rhetoric, he said of their son: "If it was up to Donald Trump, he never would have been in America." His wife, Ghazala, stood silently by his side. Trump's response in an ABC interview? "His wife, if you look at his wife, she was standing there. She probably, maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say."

The reaction ranged from outrage over this latest slur to nondescript statements lauding the dead hero but avoiding mention of Trump from some of the so-called luminaries in the Republican Party. Included among the wimpy statements was one from Mike Pence. That is a joke all right. A very sick, unfunny joke.
A Bitterroot National Forest timber thinning project thats been in the works for nearly five years has gone up in smoke as a result of the Roaring Lion fire.

The Westside Collaborative Vegetation Management Project proposed to thin about five miles of national forest lands that border private property between Lost Horse and Roaring Lion creeks near Hamilton.

When Bitterroot Forest Supervisor Julie King signed off on the fuel reduction project the first week of July, the hope was that non-commercial thinning would have started later this month. The commercial logging portion was expected to be underway by late October.

But all of that is going to have to wait now, said Eric Winthers, Darby District ranger for the Bitterroot Forest.

The fire has already burned through the upper third of the project where non-commercial thinning was planned. Some of the timber units have also been affected, Winthers said.

At this point, its all going to have to be re-evaluated. We probably are not going to be able to offer it for sale this year,'' he said. "Some of it will be a salvage sale. Well have to take another look once things calm down.

The project was one of 13 in Montana selected to receive state funding as part of a program designed to increase the pace and scale of efforts to improve the health of the forest and watershed in the state.

The 2013 Legislature set aside $5 million from the states wildfire suppression account to fund Montanas Forests in Focus Initiative. From that fund, the state provided the Bitterroot Forest with $135,990 to pay for timber sale preparation and silvicultural prescription field work.

The proposal to thin 2,327 acres of national forest lands directly uphill from private lands filled with residences wasnt without controversy.

Some homeowners were concerned about potential damage to their privately maintained road by logging trucks. Others were opposed to the decision to build a little more than three miles of road and construct a new bridge over Camas Creek.

Five days before the Roaring Lion fire started, a couple of property owners filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction to stop the project.

Fred Rohrbach and Bitterroot LLC filed the lawsuit July 27 in Missoula District Court, claiming the Forest Service violated the Healthy Forest Restoration Act by failing to properly collaborate with local residents.

Rohrbach was opposed to the proposed 3.8 miles of new road and the Camas Creek bridge. The road would have been built within yards of Rohrbachs home. The lawsuit said Rohrbachs wife has severe asthma, which would have been exacerbated by the dust created by the road.

The Rohrbachs were among the nearly 750 people forced to evacuate after the Roaring Lion fire pushed down onto private lands.

Rohrbach didnt return a message left on his home telephone Friday.

Winthers said the fire did come close to the Rohrbach home. A bulldozer fire line was constructed along the border of the familys private land and the national forest.

The judge hasnt had a chance to review the lawsuit yet, Winthers said. Were not sure about the impact the fire will have on the lawsuit at this point.
Although John Boatwrights wife passed away two years ago, he continues to provide support to other caregivers for those suffering from the effects of Alzheimers disease.

I attend Alzheimers support groups at Valley View and I send information to people all the time, he said. During my career as an electrical engineer I developed a huge interest in how the brain processes optics and acoustics, but for the last seven years my passion has been trying to understand why and how the brain degenerates.

John and Barbara were married for 58 years before her passing in 2014. They lived a charmed life raising their family in New Hampshire and contributing to the community in many ways.

John says Barbara had always been in perfect health until 2006 when an annual checkup revealed she had diabetes.

It was the first time in her life she found out she was defective, as she put it, he said. She got over it, but it was a shock.

The following year, complications in her extended family proved to affect Barbaras health and John said at her next annual checkup, the doctor confided that he had discovered clear indications of early dementia. John noticed symptoms as well and contrived his own methods of tracking her progress.

John created a spreadsheet of 19 behaviors that he would use as indicators of her memory decline and rated them at least annually or in correlation with a major event  like when they moved from New Hampshire to Montana in 2010 or after she fell and broke her hip in 2011. The list included behaviors like Retention of social security number, Recognizes composers and names of favorite works, and Ability to safely drive an automobile.

Some of these indicators fell slowly in his rating system where 4 was the ability to recover from memory without prompting, 3 was for remembering with minimal prompting down to 0 which indicated the activity was unrecoverable. While some activities fell from 4 to 0 after certain events, some took years to show decline.

For many years, even after she couldnt drive nor recognize where she was outside her home, she remembered her love of music and the composers who wrote masterpieces that she played on the piano for most of her life. She also remembered her social security number for many years, which John said he found interesting.

Rates of decline arent predictable, he said. The neuro-docs know this only too well and will not give you a straight answer  because they know that they dont know. You are the most critical judge because you are there 24/7. I dont fault the medical profession at all  they do what they do best. I do fault those, who when confronted with the suffering of their loved ones, just throw in the towel and let it be someone elses problem.

John said he made up his mind in the beginning that he would remain with Barbara until the very end. That included moving from their Hamilton home to an apartment on the second floor of the Remington condominiums thats designed for residents with memory loss.

He admits that caregiving is not easy. If you dont take care of yourself and get support, youll wear yourself out and die before they do, he said. Its critical to get the resources you and your loved one needs.

He said he made a lot of mistakes as well as learned some positive tactics for living with a spouse who is losing memories and quality of life.

In the beginning I stumbled a bit over a very specific thing, something cowboys call a boxed canyon, he said. Thats when you drive your herd into a canyon for which there isnt an exit. The (cows) have to turn around and stampede in your direction to exit. When your interchange as a caregiver puts your loved one into a boxed canyon, she has no choice but to lie or ignore you or get angry.

He said the quickest way to enter a boxed canyon is to tell your loved one, I dont know. That never satisfies them, he said.

In one instance, John experienced this boxed canyon when his wife wanted to visit her father.

My immediate response was, You cant visit your father  hes been dead for 40 years, but that didnt register and was very upsetting. She wouldnt accept that answer and was ready to walk to his house if necessary, which would have been a terrible thing.

So finally I worked through our conversation and encouraged her that it would be very considerate to call her father first to tell him she was coming, he said. She said she didnt know his number and I eventually said I had lost track of the phone number as well. For some reason, that was the trick and she wasnt fixated on that idea of seeing her father again.

John said during the last year of her life that Barbara kept asking about her friend Alice. After many I dont knows and frustrating conversations, John said he finally realized she was talking of her childhood friend. The frustrations continued when he said, I cant find Alice, I dont even know Alices last name.

She sat down, in a total funk in the boxed canyon I put her in, he said. What the hell was I doing to my beloved Barbara? I knew I had made an awful mistake and would never, ever do that again  and I did not.

John searched through old school photos, made phone calls, wrote letters and ultimately was able to get in touch with Alice who was living in Arizona. Although he was nervous to travel by plane, John and Barbara did meet with Alice and her husband.

It was a lovely experience for both of them to look at pictures and talk about old times, he said. The irony was that shortly thereafter, Alices husband started showing signs of dementia so I wrote her a letter and shared everything I had learned in my journey.

John has hope for the progress thats been made in neurological treatments that help the brain reconfigure.

It would be nice if it was like heart surgery, he said. If your heart is failing, you can get a replacement. But the brain is far too complex and so we have to reconfigure rather than replace. The sad part is when no one seeks treatment at all because there are things that can be done. We just have to be careful to follow science rather than pharmaceutical interests.  There is no magic potion. Dont wish for it because it wont happen. As caregivers, we just have to avoid total despair and find bits of hope to hang on to.

Of all the coping tools that John has gathered over the years, he recommends white lies the most. He built a house in Hamilton and told his wife they were flying from New Hampshire to visit the grandkids for awhile. She didnt see the 18-wheeler drive away with all our Earthly goods. It was the only way she was able to make the transition smoothly, he said. And it was imperative that we be near family.

I spoke with one woman who said her religion forbade her from lying, he said. And so I told her to be honest with herself and that if she kept doing what she was doing and speaking as if everything was black and white, then she would be dead first, he said. I told her you have to learn to appease and sometimes that means talking about finding a phone number for a father thats been dead for 40 years. Its merciful and it shows love  and some days, thats all youve got.

Next week, the series on caregivers for loved ones with Alzheimers disease continues.
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Aug-06-2016 18:08 TweetFollow @OregonNews Search Suspended for Hiker in Mt Jefferson Wilderness Anyone with information is encouraged to call TIP LINE: 503-584-SRCH or 503-584-7724.

Mt Jefferson - Google Earth

(DETROIT, Ore.) - After seven days of searching, the decision has been made to suspend the active search for missing hiker Riley Zickel. Mr. Zickel went missing after entering the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness area Wednesday, July 27th. Mr. Zickel departed from Breitenbush Lake Road at the Pacific Crest Trail head where he intended to hike for one day and return the following day to visit friends in Seattle. Mr. Zickel was last seen on the Pacific Crest Trail just north of Jefferson Park where he visited with another hiker along the trail. The decision to suspend the active search was made after exhausting all available leads. Mr. Zickel's family members were present at the Command Post throughout the search and have been made aware of the decision to suspend the search. Over 340 searchers dedicated approximately 5000 hours to search 350 square miles of the Willamette National Forest north and south of Mt. Jefferson. The main focus of the search was the area between Mt. Jefferson, Jefferson Park, Park Butte and the surrounding areas. The area is heavily forested and has many ridges and valleys. Areas of snow complicated the search and, in spite of the snow, daytime temperatures occasionally reached 90 degrees. The elevation of the search area varied from 5000-7500' above sea level. The Incident Commander, Sergeant Shane Burnham, directed the Marion County Search and Rescue Teams (SAR) and support personnel throughout the duration of the search. Marion County teams were backed up by SAR teams from Deschutes County Sheriff's Office, Lane County Sheriff's Office, Linn County Sheriff's Office, Polk County Sheriff's Office, Benton County Sheriff's Office, Clackamas County Sheriff's Office Pacific NW SAR, Multnomah County Sheriff's Office, Washington County Sheriff's Office, Corvallis Mountain Rescue, Mountain Wave, Warm Springs Police, Fire and Fish and Game, United States Forrest Service, the Portland Police Bureau, Detroit and Idanaha Fire District and the Oregon State Parks Department. The Sheriff's Office would like to thank the citizens and business owners in the city of Detroit for their support during this very difficult search. Salem-based helicopters from the Oregon Army National Guard and Cessna 182 aircraft from the Civil Air Patrol flew daily above the search area, but were unable to spot any sign of Mr. Zickel. Hundreds of hikers were contacted during the search and missing person flyers were posted at trail heads along the Pacific Crest Trail as far south as Big Lake Youth Camp and north to Timberline Lodge. Marion County Sheriff Jason Myers commented, "It is a very difficult decision to withdraw resources from this search. Our SAR teams and staff worked tirelessly to find Mr. Zickel. "We're very grateful for the assistance provided by our public safety partners, and our thoughts and prayers are with Mr. Zickel's family". The search for Mr. Zickel will remain open until he is found. We will respond to any new information regarding his whereabouts. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact our tip line at 503-584-SRCH or 503-584-7724. Source: Marion County Sheriff's Office _________________________________________

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This is the first in a series of stories about the H-2A program examining the challenges and

Top sending countries

Mexico has consistently accounted for 90 percent of the H-2A visas issued by a United States consular office every year since records started being kept in 1998.

Below is a snapshot of the most recent data for the top countries and the number of H-2A visas issued for fiscal year 2014, which was Oct. 1, 2013, through Sept. 30, 2014.
What's in the Darkness is a murder mystery, a coming-of-age film and a directorial debut for Wang Yichun. Unfortunately, its poor direction and muddled plot uses far too many metaphors for what is really going on.

This deeply nostalgic film is rooted in Henan China's early nineties; glory days, of sorts, depicted pleasantly and vibrantly by the rebellious and curious high-schoolers who comprise most of the main cast. Jing (Su Xiaotong) is the high-spirited teen daughter of 'Sherlock' detective Qu Zhicheng (Guo Xiao), and she is coming to terms with puberty. Jing drives much of the film, as does her desire to experience sexual awakening, which is further encouraged by her flirty friend Zhang Xue (Lu Qiwei).

Amidst all the youthful drama is a murder mystery. A body is found in a reed field, and this circumstance is clearly inspired by Bong Joon-ho's masterful Memories of Murder. The bumbling local police in this smaller provincial town are joined by Qu and set to work on finding a murderer. Their thread interrupts Jing's story until a possible link connects them.

Wang's direction and editing leave the film aimless at times, and old-school beautiful in other moments, recalling A Brighter Summer's Day in particular. Unfortunately, other elements are amateurish by comparison. There is so much going on in this restricted and dreary place; a repression symbolic of China's own identity during this phase. This deeply ideological viewpoint is only touched-upon but not portrayed well enough to make an impact.

The music and their cues are poorly executed and some of the editing feels rushed. The film does employ a soundtrack that goes against type for nostalgic comedy romances, which is a nice change of pace. The language and attitude of the cast and the way Wang directs them is also definitely a highlight; the chosen cast are convincingly nineties high-school students.

The murder mystery thread is the highlight of the film. In the scenes that are filtered through Jing's perception, there is police brutality and corruption that is well-written and portrayed on-screen. The film is mainly concerned with detailing Jing's awakening however, detracting from the serial killer plot entirely.

There is a high level of detail, from the words and terms in the screenplay, to the interior production design, to firmly place viewers in '1992', a time fuelled by nostalgia and free-spiritedness amidst the strict parenting and politics. The authenticity of Jing's life is impressive and well-acted, it is just not particularly interesting. Her plot wears thin after a while and the end-result is pining after a serial killer mystery the film only drops cookie crumbs in.

This frustrating sense of ambiguousness carries through in scenes where a culprit may very well be lurking in the background. Unfortunately, Wang takes some metaphors too far and the film feels empty as a result, merely concerned with using the murder mystery hook as background to a standard template coming-of-age story.

Although there are moments of humour and family drama, the film simply ends, leaving no resolution for any story. It can gloat that its ambiguousness is part of the whole point, and even though this is true, it is also hard to recommend as a result. The film will be remade with a bigger budget and star-power added, with Zhang Jingchu to direct.
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A man is dead, police say, following a fatal shooting at a popular San Francisco tourist attraction Saturday night.

According to the San Francisco Police Department, officers were called to the area of Van Ness Avenue and Bay Street in SF's Aquatic Park District at 9:51 Saturday evening, on reports of a shooting.

When police arrived, they discovered a man suffering from gunshot wounds to the torso. Though the responding officers attempted to render aid, the shooting victim died at the scene, according to the SFPD.

According to the Chron, the SF Medical Examiner's office has identified the victim as San Mateo resident Calvin Riley.

Citing the ongoing investigation, police said they couldn't provide details on any possible suspects or a motive for Riley's slaying, but confirmed that as of Sunday morning, no arrests had been made in the case.

As always, if you have any information on this shooting, SFPD asks that you call their anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444 or text a tip to TIP411 with SFPD at the beginning of the message.
125 YEARS AGO

COVINGTON DUO: Tom and Martin Fisher, the brothers who run a gambling operation in the rear of the White Horse saloon in Covington, got drunk, supplied themselves with a couple of revolvers and an ample supply of cartridges. They went into the street and commenced firing promiscuously in every direction. A half dozen men locked them in their rooms.

TIDBITS: Policeman Matt Franciscus has a number of cornstalks in Morning Side that are 14 feet high, bearing three ears of corn to the stalk. The K.P. Band will play at the annual reunion of the Old Settlers of Dakota County. ...The ferry boat has abandoned its trips across the river between 6 and 12 oclock at night for it proved to be unprofitable.

LEEDS ROWDIES: Residents of Leeds complain that on Saturday nights after the shops and factories pay off, there is a tough element who make it unsafe for respectable people to be on the streets. Chief Shanley says when it occurs again, he will raid the rowdies.

100 YEARS AGO

TROOPS ON BORDER: Letters to relatives and friends of the Sioux City unit of the Second Iowa regiment write they are stationed near Brownsville, Texas, near the Mexican border. They write that a semi-permanent hospital is being erected and a number of companies are drawing lumber for mens quarters. The soldiers are sleeping on the ground on their bed sacks.

BIG SIOUX CANOES: For having the best showing of decorated canoes in the evening parade on the Big Sioux, the Shore Acres Boat club was awarded the trophy offered this year for the first time by the Thorpe Jewelry company. The Riverside Boat crew won the Beck silver cup trophy in the sporting event.

AREA NEWS: SHELDON, Iowa  The Sheldon district fair will open Monday with a new floral hall and a new stock barn, which cost $1,300. FREMONT, Neb.  A crowd estimated at 20,000 visited the tractor demonstration ground Friday, in part to see Henry Ford and son and their tractors. PETERSON, Iowa  For Sale: A set of three clarinets, high and low, B flat and low pitch A. Contact C. P. Berggren.

50 YEARS AGO

SAFECRACKERS STRIKE: Some valuable papers and $30 in cash were stolen in a safecracking at Weiner and Shindler Scrap Iron Co., 2503 18th St., over the weekend. Burglars scaled an eight-foot wall to get into the yard and forced open a door.

UP IN SMOKE: The Joy home, at 833 Fifth St., which once was a symbol of elegance and gracious living, went up in flames Wednesday. William L. Joy, president of the Siouxland National Bank, started living there in 1871 and remained until 1938. The home was converted into apartments and was red-tagged earlier this year. The Sioux City Fire Department burned it down as a training exercise.

FAIR NEWS: The only woman entered in the tractor pulling contest, Mrs. George Mize of Bronson, won first place in the 15,000-pound class at the Woodbury County Fair at Moville, with a pull of 145 feet, 10 inches. Eta Gralapp, 19, of Le Mars, was crowned 1966 queen of the Plymouth County Fair.

25 YEARS AGO

WORLD TOURNEY: A fast pitch softball tournament will pump up to $6 million into the Siouxland economy, according to Dennis Gann, head of Sioux Citys tourism bureau. The International Softball Congress World Tournament begins Friday at Penn Corp Park in Sioux City with 148 teams from 19 states and Canada.

HESTON SIGNED: Academy Award-winner Charlton Heston has been signed to star in A Thousand Heroes, the television movie based on the rescue of United Airlines Flight 232. Heston will play Capt. Al Haynes, the planes pilot, who is credited with saving more than 180 people during an emergency landing at the Sioux City airport on July 19, 1989.

IN THE NEWS: Katie Kelly is the newly appointed director of Women Aware, a nonprofit organization. City Councilman Loren Callendar announced he will seek an unprecedented fifth term this fall. Dennis Hardy of Beresford, S.D., has been appointed to the United Soybean Board.

These items were published in The Journal Aug. 7-13, 1891, 1916, 1966 and 2016.
When Roger Pothus named his clothing store Renaissance in the early 1970s, he probably didnt realize how apt the name would be: he has been revamping his store at regular intervals ever since. In forty-five years, hes had five locationstwo on Maynard, then at Main and William, up to Division, and now back to Main. Each iteration has had its own personality as it adapted to its era and neighborhood.

The latest one opened in late spring in the Pratt Block, one of the crown jewels of Main St. Long ago it was Klines department store, and now that Pothus has moved in, with his store split into separate spaces for men and women, the entire building is almost like a department store again.

Independent downtown department stores these days are almost extinct, but Pothus insists this is a close substitute: Look around you. Theres the womens department [Renaissance for women] on the main floor, the mens store on the lower leveldo not call it the basement within earshot of Pothus. Lily Grace and the WSG Gallery also on the main floor, and Chris Petersens Jewelry and Lily Graces spa on the lower level.

Before Renaissance, Pothus opened a franchise of a national chain, Paraphernalia, on State St.a junior womens store selling white vinyl go-go boots, bell-bottoms, Sgt. Pepper dresses. He eventually developed a loathing for Paraphernalias main selling point: cheap trendiness. He started Renaissance as an antidote: quality, elegance, and fashion, in that order, and he stuck to it. When grunge came along, that was something we sort of skipped.

In the mens shop, he showed off how quality, elegance, and fashion currently translates in menswear: Meyer pants from Germany, kind of a cross between jeans and dress pants with some stretch, so theyre comfortable, worn with an unstructured linen jacket. People are starting to dress up again, particularly the younger generation. You can catch them lots of nights at Aventura or Savas. Theyre not so much into the super-casual anymore. In the womens store, where Busy Hands used to be, he sells comparable impeccably styled womens brands.

Pothus has mentored and provided real-world business experience to dozens of U-M Ross business school students. They learn the difference between an order, a packing list, and an invoice. Now theres something you dont learn in business school, oddly enough. (Asked how he finds his interns, he reveals his foolproof trick: Their first task is their last task: replace yourself. From the first day theyre here, theyve got to be on the lookout for the next brilliant and dependable intern.)

Though its not obvious to a casual window-shopper, Renaissance does quite a bit of its business in made-to-measure suits, sports jackets, pants, and overcoats. Depending on price point, theyre made in the U.S. or Italy. Or we can do total custom work. The custom orders are made in the U.S.A., but guy that does it is Italian.

Pothus is a passionate believer in locally owned businesses. We can do things that Nordstrom cant do. Ill come in at seven in the morning [to meet a customer]. Will Nordstrom do that for you?

Renaissance, 306 S. Main, 769-8511. Tues-Thurs. 11 a.m.-7 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Sun. noon-5 p.m. Closed Mon. renaissanceannarbor.com
Dear Readers: Need a lesson or activity to help you explain to your children about stranger danger? Teaching your children about this topic can be difficult sometimes. Help is here! There is a free website full of great material for parents, teachers and children: coloring pages that reinforce the topic, and materials and activities to teach internet safety. Parents, you can print a poster and place it in your child's bedroom or maybe the kitchen to reinforce a few simple rules about staying safe. This website has plenty to pick from.

Just visit www.free-for-kids.com. Click on the "Safety and Health" link on the left side of the home page. You may find material that your children can do during the summer. -- Heloise

Traveling reminders

Dear Readers: Just a reminder that if you're planning to take a long trip, remember to turn off or stop deliveries like the mail and newspaper.

If you have a trusted neighbor or friend, ask that person to pick them up daily. A few days of piled-up newspapers or mail in your mailbox (which you should be SURE someone retrieves daily) is a sign that says no one is home! -- Heloise

Italian baked chicken

Dear Heloise: I'm a newlywed, and cooking is not my forte! Thankfully, I married a very patient man. We enjoy chicken either barbecued, baked or fried. Do you have a recipe I can add to this list? Anything will be appreciated -- especially by my husband! -- Patricia A. in Texas

Congratulations, Patricia! How about Italian Baked Chicken? Try this:

* 1 chicken, cut into equal parts

* 1 (8 ounces) bottle nonfat (or regular) Italian salad dressing

* 1 medium onion, peeled and sliced

* 4 medium potatoes, sliced (peeled or not) into bite-size pieces

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a casserole dish with nonstick spray. Place the chicken in the casserole dish and cover with the Italian dressing. Top with the onion and potatoes. Bake for 1 hour, or until done. If you'd like other ideas, my pamphlet Heloise's All-Time Favorite Recipes is available to order. Visit my website, www.Heloise.com, or send $5 and a stamped (68 cents), self-addressed, business-size envelope to: Heloise/Recipes, P.O. Box 795001, San Antonio, TX 78279-5001. Get your husband to help you. Together you could "spice" up some of those recipes, creating your own dishes. Have fun in the kitchen! -- Heloise

Another shelf-liner solution

Dear Heloise: I read where Nancy in Nebraska has a strategy for lining shelves. I, too, like to line my shelves, but I've found that self-sticking vinyl floor tiles work for me. They're easy to measure and lightweight, and can be cut. They're also easy to wipe clean. Just another hint I thought to share. -- Patricia M., via email

They are sturdy and perfect for lower shelves, where pots and pans, cleaning supplies and the like are kept. Do keep in mind that removal might be a problem should you want to change things. -- Heloise
MERRILL, Iowa | A rooster crows, bees buzz and thousands of aronia berries ripen under the sweltering summer sun on a 5-acre farm. Inside the pole barn home, Tom Crawford lounges in a recliner under a pile of pudgy Jack Russell terriers.

Max, Junior and Jewels put the Jacks in Jumping Jacks Plantation.

While Tom and his wife, Sue, once reared litters of the spirited pups, today theyre raising organic aronia berries that get made into baked goods and artisan jam.

Sue hasnt made jam for the Sioux City Farmers Market for a few years. Instead, she focused on fruity muffins, pies, cobblers, coffee cakes and other confections, but those offerings were not using up four freezers full of fruit.

Last years abundance of berries -- over 500 pounds -- bring a new line of spiced sweet spreads featuring aronias mixed with cherries, blueberries, peaches, apples, apricots, rhubarb and raspberries for a full-bodied flavor. There are at least 15 jams in all, including a few fruitless options like savory onion, pepper and pecan pie.

Even though Sue grew up in a decent-sized farm family with four sisters, she never made jam. None of them did. She discovered the joy of jam-making later in life, looking for products that would set apart Jumping Jacks Plantation.

I didnt want to make what everybody else was making, she said. I make weird jams.

Weird jams work for her. Even without an online presence, Jumping Jacks Plantation ships jam all over the country, simply through word of mouth. Out-of-towners will come to the Sioux City Farmers Market, buy her jam and call the number on the lid to order more.

So far, shes made more than 400 jars of jam this year.

Sue credits a colony of 20,000 honeybees in a hive by the driveway for this years bountiful harvest.

At the height of raspberry season, she was picking a gallon of berries a day. The branches of the apple trees hang heavy with fruit.

Within a few weeks, theyll be picking from rows of bushes laden with aronia berries, a nutrient-rich superfood, high in antioxidants.

The deep purple aronias represent a growing industry in Iowa, particularly for acreage owners looking for alternative uses of small plots of land, according to the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach.

Before the berries, the Crawfords were growing organic fruits and vegetables in a short acre and selling good food thats good for you at the farmers market for about a decade. All the while, they kept an eye on turning pastureland into profits.

They were looking into planting hundreds of blackcurrants when they heard from Vaughn Pittz, owner of the first commercial aronia berry farm in the United States, established in 1997.

The Crawfords went to the annual North American Aronia Berry Festival at the scenic Sawmill Hollow Family Farm in Missouri Valley, Iowa, and ordered 1,500 bushes from Pittz in the fall of 2009.

Tom, 56, and Sue, 62, each bring something different to the table.

Out of high school, Tom enlisted in the Army, and he was stationed in Germany during the Gulf War. After leaving the military, he went to work in tech support at Gateway.

Sue entered the workforce as a cosmetologist and ran an in-home hair salon so she could take care of her young son. After a divorce, she went back to school at 34 and graduated from Morningside College in 1989 with a graphic design major and business minor.

She went to work in sales at Gateway, which is where she met Tom in April 1994. Five months later, she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer.

My prognosis was not good at all, she said.

Sue insisted on a double-mastectomy. Survived. And shes been married to Tom for 20 years, despite a stint where they lived in an 8 1/2-foot truck camper well into December while they built a house in rural Merrill with their own two hands.

By and large, Jumping Jacks Plantation has been a hobby farm. Tom was working for Dish Network up until last year. Then seven heart attacks in one week and later a fractured foot put him out of commission.

Were trying to make the best out of what weve been dealt, she said. And its hard. Its really, really hard.

Theyve been run through the mill. But, no matter the measure of sugar and spice, life is sweet at Jumping Jacks Plantation.
ELK POINT, S.D. | Attached to the courtroom door in the Union County Courthouse is a sign that lists capacity at 70 people.

For most cases, that's adequate. But it's nowhere near large enough to house what could be one of the biggest trials in the southeast South Dakota county's history.

With Beef Products Inc.'s $1.2 billion defamation lawsuit against ABC News set to go to trial here in less than a year, county and court officials face a decision of where to conduct it. Previous hearings have involved at least a dozen lawyers, some forced to sit in the jury box because there wasn't room to set up tables for them to sit in front of the judge.

The trial will likely involve more lawyers than that, plus numerous plaintiffs and defendants.

As court officials consider trial locations outside the courthouse, the situation has illuminated the judicial branch's longtime view that Union County needs a larger courtroom, not just for the BPI case, but for routine court proceedings. Trials on a much smaller scale have had to be moved to a community room in the courthouse basement to accommodate cases in which more than two defense attorneys and defendants were involved.

"It's a beautiful courtroom, it's just not functional," First Circuit Court Administrator Kim Allison said. "The court facilities there could definitely use some improvement."

There's not time, Allison said, to find a permanent solution before the June 5 trial, in which Dakota Dunes-based BPI will attempt to prove that ABC, in a series of stories and broadcasts that began in early March 2012, defamed the company's Lean Finely Textured Beef. BPI alleges the "prolonged disinformation campaign" caused a backlash against the product, which critics repeatedly referred to as "pink slime," led to a loss of $400 million in business, forcing the family-owned business to close all but its South Sioux City plant and lay off more than 700 workers.

Instead, officials are determining where they could set up a temporary courtroom for the trial, which is expected to last up to two months.

"Our struggle right now is to find a suitable location to set up a temporary location," Allison said.

That location could quite possibly be somewhere else in Elk Point or Union County, such as schools or community centers.

The courthouse community room holds 132 people, but county officials have been told that jurors, lawyers, court officials and others involved in the case could add up to around 120 people, leaving little room for the scores of media and other interested parties to watch the trial and making it hard for everyone to have enough time to use the courthouse restrooms during a 20-minute court recess.

Union County Commissioner Doyle Karpen, a member of a committee studying the situation, said that after a meeting Thursday night, he got the impression that the courthouse might not be big enough to host the trial.

"It's a slight chance, but it's not a big chance" that the trial will take place there, Karpen said.

He said the county was told that a location for the trial could be determined in 30-60 days. That timeline is important because the county must have its fiscal year 2017 budget approved by the end of September. County commissioners need to know by then the potential costs the county may face with relocating the trial and include them in the budget.

"Until we have those answers, it's hard to come up with a plan," Karpen said.

Karpen said that when he joined the county commission 12 years ago, there were several plans, including a building addition, to address courtroom space. At that time, some remodeling and an upgrade of furnishings was done.

Yet, the courtroom isn't always big enough to hold routine magistrate court proceedings. People waiting to see the judge sometimes have to stand in a courthouse hallway because the courtroom is too crowded.

"It's a very small room. It always has been that way, and we've worked our way around it," said Circuit Judge Steven Jensen, who sits in Union County.

With a large case like the BPI trial looming, both Jensen and Allison said they hoped it would lead county commissioners to consider permanent solutions to the need for more space.

Karpen said it's likely the issue will be studied. Commissioners are aware of the need but also must be mindful of the impact any remodeling or building addition would have on the county's budget and taxpayers. Commissioners also realize that standing pat can mean extra county expenses, too.

"Every time you move a trial, there is a cost to the county," Karpen said. "We need to review it, see what we have to do to remodel or build on for the court system."
ST. CLOUD, Minn. | A Sioux City native and former member of Tonic Sol-fa has been charged with swindling nearly $30,000 from the a capella group.

Mark Thomas McGowan faces one count of felony theft by swindle, the St. Cloud Times reports.

McGowan was the last original member of the group when he left in early 2015. According to the complaint filed in Steans County, Minnesota, a group member accused him of taking money from the group in September 2015.

The complaint said McGowan acknowledged taking most of the money in 2010 and he had agreed to pay it back. But no payments were made and an accountant discovered more money missing. The accountant told investigators McGowan had been accessing group spreadsheets and transferring money to his personal account.

McGowan's attorney, Dan Eller, told the St. Cloud Times that members of the group have been going through mediation in an effort to resolve the financial matters related to dissolving the group's business partnership.

Eller told the newspaper McGowan "has nothing to hide," and what McGowan did wasn't criminal and he'll be vindicated.

McGowan and other founding members of the group started Tonic Sol-fa at St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota. The group over the next 20 years sold millions of CDs, recorded PBS specials, won an Emmy and a number of awards for performing.

Tonic Sol-fa has repeatedly performed in Sioux City, including multiple holiday concerts at the Orpheum Theatre.

Journal staff writer Alex Boisjolie contributed to this story.
SOUTH SIOUX CITY | It was a whirlwind trip for Ryan Moore.

The South Sioux City man and his family recently traveled to Philadelphia, where he spoke at the Democratic National Convention. An estimated 24 million TV viewers watched Moore on July 26 talk about his decades-long friendship with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. His high-profile address led to an on-air interview with CNN and other media outlets.

While at the DNC, Moore also mingled with top Democratic politicians and even a celebrity. Backstage at the Wells Fargo Center, he got a chance to meet actress Meryl Streep.

"That was pretty overwhelming to be sitting in hair-and-makeup with a multi-Academy Award-winning actress!" Moore said. "We spoke briefly, and upon her saying she was the final speaker of that night, I said, "Oh, saving the best for last, then." That made her laugh, which was again surreal to me that I had made someone that famous smile!'"

Moore, 29, was born with a rare form of dwarfism. Today, he works for the South Sioux City school district as an instructional technology leader. The Journal recently asked him about his trip to Philly, the added attention he received from his nationally televised appearance and his lengthy friendship with the Clinton family.

Question: What was the experience of speaking at the DNC like?

Moore: It was a rush! When I first stepped out on the stage and saw 20,000 people, my mind just kind of shut down for a couple seconds. However, once I acknowledged the Nebraska Democratic delegation at the beginning of my speech, I felt like myself again and was able to get into the flow of my speech.

Q: How much of the convention did you have time to watch?

Moore: I really didnt get to spend much time at the convention itself except for about an hour after my speech. During that time, it was so exciting to hear the speakers, especially President Clintons speech.

Q: What was it like to hear Hillary Clinton mention you during her acceptance speech?

Moore: Hearing Hillary talk about me during her speech was such a shock. I got a little bit emotional as I was sitting at home watching her speech, just because it really hit me that she has truly never forgotten our friendship.

Q: How long have you known the Clintons?

Moore: (As a young child) I met Hillary Clinton at a health-care event back in 1994 in Washington, D.C. She picked me up at the congressional hearing on health care and held me through her 15-minute speech. After that, her staff contacted us and asked if she could write about me in her book, It Takes a Village, which came out in 1996. That same year, Hillary was coming through Sioux City on the campaign trail for President Clintons re-election bid. We were able to greet her as she visited West Middle School, and she requested a private meeting with my mom and me. At that meeting, she asked if I had met the president, to which I had not. She said, 'Well we need to change that, because he needs to meet you.' So I met President Clinton a week later at the Tom Harkin Steak Fry in Indianola, Iowa. At that event, President Clinton invited us to the White House the next time we were on the East Coast for a surgery.

The following February, I had to have a neck fusion done in Baltimore, Maryland. So, we got a hold of Hillarys staff, and they invited us to the White House the day before my surgery.

Q: What do you remember about your visit to the White House?

Moore: Hillary gave us a personal tour of the White House that lasted over an hour, and we were also able to meet with President Clinton during the tour. During our time at the White House, Hillary presented me with a poster picture of when she held me during that first speech at the congressional hearing in 1994. She informed us that picture had been hanging in her Hillaryland offices in the White House for the past three years.

Weve continued to stay in contact over the years. My mom will let her staff know if a big event in my life is coming up (high school graduation, college graduation, surgeries, etc.) and Hillary always responds with a note of encouragement and kindness.

Q: What kind of feedback have you received since the Democratic National Convention?

Moore: Ive received so many kind texts, tweets, emails, etc. It really makes me feel special knowing I have so much support from so many people. It gives me the strength to want to continue to tell my story to as many people as I can.
CUSTER STATE PARK | A leisurely two-hour trail ride turned into a tale torn straight from the pages of Western legend Friday morning when a bull buffalo charged a family of four, smacked into their mounted guide, spooked their horses, and spilled everyone into the dirt.

Shortly after the Colorado family had donned helmets, saddled up and followed their female wrangler from the Blue Bell stables in the southwest portion of the 110-square-mile park Friday morning, they encountered a large bull buffalo near the trail.

Bulls are currently in rut, the time in the mating season when the behavior of bison, already an unpredictable animal, can become even more erratic, according to Custer State Park Superintendent Matt Snyder. And, with a herd approaching 1,300 bison, human-buffalo encounters are quite common in the park, he said.

These animals are not tame, Snyder said Friday afternoon. Theyre wild and totally unpredictable. Normally, you can keep your distance from a buffalo, but in the full rut, anything can happen.

And it inevitably did.

According to Snyder, the buffalo, which can weigh as much as 2,000 pounds, out-run a horse and turn on a dime, charged the group of horse riders about 9:30 a.m. near Lame Johnny Road. The unidentified female wrangler, in her early 20s, placed her horse between the advancing bull and the mounted family, he said.

The buffalo knocked her off her horse, which caused the other four horses to spook, causing each of the four riders to fall off, Snyder said. The buffalo then went on its way.

None of the riders was seriously injured, but out of an abundance of caution, Snyder said all five were transported by private vehicle to Custer Regional Hospital for an examination.

My staff said they were in good spirits, shook up, but handling it well, the superintendent said.

Attempts to reach the wrangler Friday afternoon were unsuccessful and Snyder said he did not have an identification of the Colorado family involved in the incident.

Josh Schmaltz, vice president of Regency Hotel Management, the Sioux Falls-based company that operates Custer State Park Resort Co., said the wrangler is a college student in her first summer working in the park as a guide. She wanted to remain anonymous, he said.

She wants to move on and for tomorrow to be just another day, said Schmaltz, who also credited her actions with possibly averting serious injuries to her guests. She did what she was supposed to do, and it sounded like she averted a potentially harmful situation.

CSP Resort Co. Director of Operations Ryan Flick said park wranglers are trained to avoid encounters with buffalo, and credited his employee with taking quick action.

It happened very, very fast, and she took the brunt of the blow from the buffalo, Flick said. I would say it was definitely heroic and Im very proud of her."

He then added: This was a reminder for everybody that this is not a petting zoo.

Snyder said Fridays incident was the fifth visitor encounter with bison this year. Two resulted in serious injuries, a third occurred when a visitor got too close to one of the animals and was knocked down, and a fourth involved a park guest who ran from a buffalo, fell down and was run over by the animal, he said.

The difference with this one, compared to the previous four, was people were out of their vehicles where they should not have been in the previous incidents, Snyder explained. This was a true accident. The guide did what she needed to do to protect the rest of the group.

Although he didnt have the opportunity to meet the family involved in Fridays event, Snyder said he was fairly certain their experience would be the topic of discussion for years to come.

Theyre going to be able to say they had some excitement on their summer vacation, he said.
"Perhaps the sentiments put forth here are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor. A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason." --Thomas Paine
For the Week of August 8, 2016

In Los Angeles, the smog lifted, but across the world, Steffy's vampire energy sucked the romance out of Monte Carlo. It was the Hulk cry heard round the world when Steffy confronted Quinn about preying on Steffy's helpless, lonely grandfather. But, like Global Warming, is the threat of Quinn merely hype, or can Quinn really implode the Forrester and Spencer dynasties? Turn up your pinkies and sip the tea as we scoop on Quinn, the biggest global threat to life as Steffy knows it.

Surprise, Scoopers, I'm back to fill in for Mike this week. I'll bet you're not as surprised to hear from me again so soon as Wyatt was surprised to see Quinn creep in through his hotel balcony in Monte Carlo. Quinn can't stop the prowling, even on vacation. At least she was on vacation until Steffy hunted her down, tackled her, and rubbed her nose in the grass just inches from the end zone.

Wyatt can cross that mini-honeymoon he asked Steffy for right off the to-do list -- unless he wants to take it on Mount Doom. If Liam gets his way, "the one tattoo to rule them all" will wind up in the fiery depths of Mordor. Steffy might lose a finger like Frodo did, because I do have a feeling that Liam would gnaw her finger to the nub to remove the mark of the beast from her.

That's the thing about tattoos. They're so permanent. If only marriages would be that way, right? Married today, moved out tomorrow. That seems to be Liam's motto about it. If anyone knows how to rid themselves of a marriage, it's Liam, and he learned it from dealing with the albatross of a mountain wedding to Steffy, who takes commitment seriously.

Unless...

Well, unless they are inconvenient commitments or ones Steffy disapproves of like Ridge's commitment to Brooke, Liam's commitment to Hope, or Bill's commitment to Katie. Maybe Steffy was onto something with those commitments, and Liam is onto something with hers to Wyatt. Does she really want to spend a lifetime crying and looking for Quinn behind every rock, tree, and floppy hat for the rest of her life?

It's not like Steffy didn't have a long record of Quinn's misdeeds that stemmed back further than Liam's kidnapping and prior to the wedding. As I recall, when Steffy had returned to L.A., she'd said she'd spent time with Hope in Milan. If time and/or conversations with Hope, fresh off a miscarriage and a trip down the steps, didn't scare Steffy off Wyatt and Quinn, nothing could.

If Hope didn't tell Steffy all about it, Steffy had to have known Quinn geeked Ridge to go off half-cocked to the Middle East. Somebody between Hope, Liam, Ivy, and Wyatt had to have told Steffy about the sword incident with a hobbled Liam, the bridge in Paris, and the elevator and steam room lock-ins. Steffy cannot say that Wyatt didn't come with a mother-in-law warning label.

Warning: This marriages comes with mother-in-law side effects that could include: lies, manipulation, constant interference, stalking, miscarriages, and attempted murder. Marry at your own risk and see a psychiatrist or police officer if symptoms worsen.

Steffy married Wyatt at her own risk, and now she expects Eric and Wyatt to join her and Liam's class-action ban on Quinn. Is it fair that Steffy married Wyatt for better or worse but then says she didn't sign up for Quinn? Is there such a thing in Steffy's case as -- according to Liam -- marrying under deception? What case could one make for it if Steffy knew pre-engagement what Quinn was capable of when it came to anyone in the way of Wyatt's happiness?

A person can't pick the mother-in-law -- just ask Brooke, who had the mother of all mothers-in-law, Stephanie Douglas Forrester. Until Quinn strangles Steffy, pulls a gun on her, holds a butcher knife to her throat, tries to drown her, takes her kids, or invites her to a rape, fakes heart conditions, and falsifies letters, Steffy's not doing too bad in the mother-in-law department.

Some of the above happened when Stephanie was Brooke's ex-mother-in-law, so if Steffy and Liam think divorce papers will solve the problem, they have another thing coming -- especially if Steffy winds up missing her cycle soon -- and I don't mean motorcycle.

Moses created divorce for a reason, and California made a good thing even better by offering the no-fault divorce clause. There's still the matter of that pesky six-month waiting period though. Rick waited it out to divorce Caroline, but if Steffy chooses to leave Wyatt next week, there will probably be some convenient six-month-waiting-period loophole. It'll be one Steffy can use, but not Bill, Katie, Ridge, or Caroline. Wow. Is everyone getting divorced? What's in the water?

This weekend ended with Liam demanding that Steffy toss her ridiculous marriage aside to let him love and protect her as Wyatt wouldn't. Liam didn't say "couldn't." He said "wouldn't." It begs the questions of whether it is true that Wyatt "won't" and if anyone is able to protect anyone from Quinn.

Whether Steffy is with Liam or she isn't, it wouldn't change the situation if Eric and Quinn continue to see each other. I take that back. Quinn will go from the mother-in-law from hell to the grandmother-in-law from hell. But that's about it. What does Liam think he can do that Wyatt isn't already doing? Liam proved time and time again that when it comes to Quinn, he's impotent -- except at the cabin, but that's another matter.

After every single thing Quinn has done to Liam from the sword incident to kidnapping him, Liam has let her out of it, just like Wyatt has. Someone please tell me what separates Liam's inaction from Wyatt's. Steffy said Quinn should be in jail over the kidnapping. "Yeah," Liam responded. "Yeah" is right, and Liam had the power to press charges; however, he listened to that non-criminal attorney Justin and didn't even try a civil lawsuit for pain and suffering.

By the way Steffy ran Quinn down, shoved her to the ground, and then smacked her to the ground, I don't think Steffy needs protection from Quinn right now. Quinn might need it from Steffy because that slap apparently didn't knock the good sense the devil gave Quinn back into her to make her drag Steffy in front of a moving truck for that slap.

Quinn has indeed changed, because the old Quinn would have stayed in Monte Carlo and dealt with Steffy after that slap. "Oh, you want to smack people to the ground? Now I gotta cut ya!" as Della Reese's character from Harlem Nights might say.

It all started when Steffy was cheesing at Eric, who was outside the hotel, kissing a stranger beneath a big, black hat. Steffy had just come off a photo shoot, and Wyatt had just called all kinds of attention to her by yelling, "Is that Steffy Forrester?" He went into the hotel and was having round five thousand with Liam, this time about Quinn.

Eric's car drove off, and Steffy approached the mystery woman. The mystery woman took off running, Steffy was waylaid by fans as she chased the mystery woman in something that looked like a scene from Benny Hill . It was all fun and games until Steffy shoved the mystery woman to the ground, ripped off her hat, and Quinn stared back up at her from the grass.

What in the hell is the matter with Steffy? No, seriously. What the hell is up with the president of Forrester Creations chasing a stranger associated with her grandfather through the streets of a foreign country while hosting a conference and being the face of Spencer?

This is just the kind of thing that Liam was so upset with Steffy about before he accidentally took off for Australia. Steffy always runs on impulse over brains. Look at it from the mystery woman's view. The mystery woman could have met Eric in the hotel lobby the other night. Steffy doesn't know this woman from Eve, but she decides to chase her and shove her down just because she doesn't want to talk to Steffy?

Let's look at it from Spencer Publications' point of view. Their "it" girl, who is getting the most attention of anyone in Monte Carlo right now, is in public, chasing down people, smacking them down, and screaming at them. The question isn't how many "fans" got video of the whole thing. The question is how many memes of it were created before Steffy even got back inside the hotel?

First off, people know Steffy, not Quinn. They aren't saying, "Oh, that's just Quinn Fuller. She deserves to be chased, cornered, and smacked down in the streets." Second, people don't always "follow" you on social media because they love you. Sometimes, they are the competition, and sometimes, they do it because they are waiting for the chance to make fun of you.

Instead of sitting alone in his hotel room, Wyatt ought to be checking how many hits #HulkSteffy or #Steffyslapabitch just got. In fact, I think I'm gonna make a meme of Steffy with Hulk-green skin later on tonight.

The moment Steffy started chasing this stranger, Wyatt's phone should have blown up, and he should have checked into why Steffy had trended to the top of social media and the international terror watch list. Yes, I'm exaggerating about the terror watch, but I do it to belabor the point that Steffy was in a foreign city with a huge convention going on and mindlessly chasing down a stranger in the street. She was hosting the greatest minds in media, but no one was filming, watching, photographing, or witnessing what she did. Give me a break, B&B writers!

Steffy's clothes didn't split, but she rendered Quinn the best David Banner transformation glare I ever did see! Bill Bixby would be proud of Jacqueline MacInnes Wood. Wood brings an insane energy to Steffy's anger. I can only imagine how much vampire energy drain it had to be on the actress, but she electrified the screen with her performance. My viewing tablet was buzzing like Ivy on the circuit board.

The energy didn't stop there. Steffy carried that vampire drain straight to Eric and then to Wyatt. Wyatt's nose flared, and his eyebrows peaked almost to his hairline with frustration. Steffy had his hair standing on end and was screaming so loud that I thought he'd go deaf. I almost expected him to slap the hysteria right out of her to calm her down and shut her the hell up. And all this carrying on was after she'd already unleashed on Eric!





Steffy was itching worse than a crack addict over Quinn being in love with Steffy's poor, sweet old grandfather. In fact, somehow, everyone thinks Quinn is taking advantage of Eric. Steffy tells Eric he doesn't know what he's doing, and Quinn is dangerous unlike any woman he's ever known. Check the old family photos, honey. Quinn ain't the worst.





When did the womanizing, Sheila-marrying, Donna-loving, Lauren-Fenmore-dating philanderer become so dumb and gullible? Eric ain't stupid. They seem to forget who he is, who his brother is, and who he was married to most of his life. A man can't stay with Stephanie Forrester for decades upon decades if he's some weak, wilting flower.

Steffy barreled into Eric's room, forbidding him to see Quinn. "You don't have a choice. I won't allow it," Steffy said. I cannot imagine in my wildest nightmares what any senior member of my family would do to me if I told them that I won't allow them to do something. Oh, hell no. I don't even want to imagine it.

Whether Steffy has a valid point or not isn't even the question. Like I said before, it's the reason Liam told her that he didn't know if he could have a future with her. It's that attitude! Right or wrong, that nasty-ass, bossy attitude just blows any point Steffy tries to make. And the violence. Attacking Quinn removes any possibility of Steffy as a heroine or victim in my eyes.

I know people think Quinn deserved to be slapped and are quick to deflect to what Quinn or another character has done. We discuss those things when they happen, but this time, it's Steffy's turn. To me, resorting to hitting reduces the offender to a lower level than the person they hit. It's disgusting, and it is never okay to get so out of control except in self-defense. Thinking people deserve offensive attacks is what leads to terrorism, and it's what leads to road rage and other senseless violence.

Even Liam, who probably deserves to hit Quinn most out of anyone in the world, didn't do it. Even Deacon, who might be in competition with Liam for top slapping spot, didn't do it. No, of course Bell can't have a man hitting a woman, but same-gender violence is perfectly fine.

Don't get me wrong. I love a good fictional slap and punch, but only where it's deserved -- like when Taylor accused Brooke of seducing Thomas. Or like when Stephanie smacked the mess out of Taylor for saying Stephanie was in love with her own son -- or any other time Taylor got slapped. But slapping a person when the person isn't trying to incite you, degrade you, or hit you first, that's a no-no in my book.

Steffy knew it was a boo-boo because she didn't even tell Eric she'd done it. If I were Eric and she'd spoken to me the way she did to him, I would have said, "Lie down on the bed, little girl, so I can change your diaper!" Steffy needed a reality check about how to talk to her grandfather with respect and sense. Instead, Eric gave her what she wanted.

Eric put mama on the plane, and it was first-class all the way. She even got a window seat with no one sitting beside her. She made it to L.A. in minutes and was landing just after Eric and Wyatt concluded their conversation. What is there for Quinn not to smile about in a world like that?

Here is how other viewers felt about the confrontation from our Soap Central message boards:

 Steffy didn't know it was Quinn she was chasing. She chased after an unknown woman and pulled her to the ground. That's assault no matter who the woman turned out to be. -- Bonniejean

 Steffy is proving herself almost as bad and controlling as Quinn. So sorry that this episode wasn't caught on tape. Steffy needs to re-think HERSELF for a change. Ally died, Ivy nearly died...yeah, it "wasn't her fault" but there seems to be a pattern here...Steffy now wants to control her husband, her Grandpa, her mother in law...and everybody else who doesn't do things her way. I don't get WHY Steffy claims to be afraid of Quinn. -- PennyB

 Everyone is so quick to point out all that Quinn has done, but then, here's Steffy, chasing down a woman, knocking her to the ground, then slapping her.....how does that make Steffy any better than Quinn?...And, at that time, Quinn's only offense was being where Steffy didn't want her. Steffy doesn't own Monte Carlo. -- FriesianLvr

 Was she smiling about the slap?.. Quinn likes being manhandled... -- Ferretlove

 Steffy is responsible for being open to Wyatt's pressure and con job....he's really good at selling himself. But she can also be angry with Quinn. Quinn was the one responsible for the breakup text and phone messages "from Liam" that Steffy received. Steffy was manipulated directly, so her anger is justifiable. -- Redheadteacher

 I'm a Steffy fan, and I have no issue with her slapping Quinn...she was justified. She kidnapped Liam and kept him away from her...not to mention she tried to kill Liam and Deacon before. She probably killed Ricardo. -- canadiangirl06

Yes, Canadiangirl06, Quinn did those things, but Steffy already had her chance to slap Quinn and attack Quinn to her heart's content back in L.A., which she tried to do when Quinn came over to the beach house and police broke them up. Steffy was more justified at that time, but it's another instance of how easily she loses control and resorts to violence.

Back then Liam told Wyatt and Steffy that he didn't blame them if they forgave Quinn because Quinn was in their family, and Liam was just glad that he didn't have to forgive Quinn. First, I want to know what happened to that sentiment. Second, Steffy doesn't know that Quinn tried to kill Deacon. If she did, I doubt she'd be slapping Quinn on Deacon's behalf. Third, we don't know she killed Ricardo, and if Quinn did, again, I doubt Steffy would be slapping Quinn on Ricardo's behalf.

Steffy slapped Quinn for one thing and one thing only. Quinn said she was in love with Eric. Quinn didn't call Steffy a name, she didn't accuse Steffy of being obscene, and she didn't threaten Steffy. All Quinn did was express love. It reminds me of that scene when Quinn was a little girl, and she got slapped down verbally by her mother for no reason. People suspect that Quinn hasn't changed. Maybe people won't let Quinn change. Like Maggie would let Sheila.

Can Quinn prove she has changed, as Eric believes? Will she stay away from Eric because he, not Steffy, asked Quinn to? Or will Eric be the one to break down and go to Quinn? If Steffy returns to Liam's open arms, how is Liam going to protect Steffy from looking at Quinn during Thanksgiving dinner at the Forresters'? I wonder if Steffy will care about the old fool Eric if she's back with Liam.

Ridge certainly cares. After a return stop at Thomas' feet on his apology tour, Ridge became sorry that he hadn't paid enough attention to Eric to know that Eric was with Quinn. Ridge thinks Quinn's agenda is money and power, and Ridge is all about protecting the family nowadays. What else does he have to do now besides stare at Stephanie's portrait all day?

If you are wondering where Caroline is, check out Thursday's bonus scene called "Changes are Coming." In this scene, Thomas assumes that changes are coming, and Ridge can't keep living in the same house with Caroline. Thomas remarks that divorced parents have done it so the children wouldn't be uprooted, but "this is totally different. You're Douglas' grandfather, and that's going to be confusing for him growing up."

And having two married grandmothers isn't confusing for a child growing up? Eric not being the biological great-grandfather isn't? Zende being a black second or third cousin isn't? Maya being Douglas' transgender great-aunt isn't? Having a cousin who was a child of surrogacy isn't? Thomas, honey, it's just one more thing in Douglas' family tree. No big deal.

"Now, what are you thinking, Thomas? Whatever it is, Caroline's gonna need some time, because even if both parties agree, to end a marriage is a hard thing to do," Ridge said. I'm so glad someone told Thomas that beforehand because he obviously doesn't understand that people need time to end one relationship before hopping into drunken love beds with their exes' sons. I'm frankly surprised that Thomas hasn't already shown up in Caroline's bedroom with wine.

I'm not going into the rest of the bull that Thomas and Ridge said to each other. I'll just say it was more of the same ass-kissing the writers have put Ridge up to, and the men are ready to mend their relationship. So until Caroline moves or Ridge gives her the house, I guess he'll be looking the other way each time Thomas leaves her bedroom in a towel. As I noted last week. it made no freaking sense to give Thomas that loft if a divorce would come a week later.

Thomas also has some warped reasoning when it comes to other marriages, too -- like Steffy's. He seems to believe marriages are conditional, which has been proven by his ready acceptance of Ridge and Caroline's breakup due to what Ridge terms as best for the "children." Thomas didn't even question who the children are. Thomas knows he's one of them, and he had no problem with Ridge giving up his marriage so Thomas can have Caroline.

Thomas pointed it out to Ridge that Steffy had made the choice before Quinn stopped doing what Steffy told her to do. Thomas needs a clue. Quinn never started doing what Steffy told her to do, so there has been no change.

Quinn has showed up at Liam's, at Wyatt's, and now in Monaco, and she's been showing up wherever she pleases ever since Deacon let her out of the closet even before Steffy knew Quinn had done anything to Liam.

In Thomas' view, it was okay for Steffy to choose to be with Wyatt in a weak moment, and Steffy is right to leave her marriage because of something an outside party did. Thomas also thinks Steffy loves Liam more. You know how Thomas is about those cosmic connections, and he's deemed that Liam and Steffy have it.





Ridge believes that Steffy has made her choice and won't vacate the marriage, but isn't that what just happened in Ridge's marriage? Ridge seems to believe in Steffy and her commitments more than he believed in his own marriage and Caroline's commitment. Caroline had just told Ridge that she meant her vows when he told her that he couldn't fight her connection with Thomas, and the marriage was over. I don't get it, Ridge.





I also do not get how Ridge is moving from knowing what's best to do in one situation where he claims to not know all the facts to knowing what's best in another situation where he does not know all the facts, namely the romance between Quinn and Eric. Ridge claimed he learned so much from his "misinterpretation" of Caroline and Thomas, but then he goes berserk off third-hand information from Thomas, who doesn't know how to interpret a situation to save his life.





Thomas was wrong about Ivy. Thomas was wrong about Hope. Thomas was wrong about drunken Caroline. Miracle of miracles, Thomas just might be right about Liam and Steffy. Will Liam propose to Steffy on the beach with a handmade shell engagement ring? Or will Steffy give Wyatt one more chance to control the uncontrollable? If Steffy stays with Wyatt, will Liam finally get the damn hint, bug off, and take Eva on a date?





Can you believe Eva told that fool that she fell for unavailable men, and his response was to ask her to please say she wasn't interested in Wyatt? Oh, Liam. It made his day when she said she wasn't, but he still didn't get it. Eva even kissed his cheek. Liam later asked Steffy if she could live with being in Quinn's shadow. Liam, how do you like living to rescue women from your brother? Eva's hot. What is wrong with you, man?





Liam might be back on his rescue horse with two damsels. He'll be protecting Steffy, and Katie and Bill are gearing up for the war of the Spencers. Liam won't even have time for ice cream and sulking with Caroline about her divorce while splitting his time between Steffy, Katie, and Bill. Hopefully, Liam will at least have time get an explanation from Eric.





Tune in next week, because in the preview, Bill promises you won't be disappointed. Until we dish again, if you get kicked off your vacation, may your first-class window seat home be bold and beautiful, baby!
The gravity of the existential threat we face from Islamic Jihad is truly of epic proportions. It is essentially a battle pitting free-civilized man against a totalitarian barbarian. What is at stake is the struggle for our very soul - namely who we are and what we represent. The lives that were sacrificed for individual rights and freedoms that we've come to cherish are being chiseled away from right under our noses by the stealth jihadists. And many of us are in denial and totally clueless.



The left's appeasement and pandering to evil is nothing new. What makes their utopian delusions so infuriating and unpardonable is that it is not only they who will have to pay the consequences, and deservedly, so, they are thwarting and undermining our best efforts at resistance and are thus dragging us down in the process as well.







By Peter Lancz,, the head of the Raoul Wallenberg World Campaign Against Racism.
This information was not leaked by whistleblowers or by the latest WikiLeaks data dump nor were they a draft document that was later discarded after more reasonable minds analyzed the idea and shot it down. Instead, this call for cyberwar was instead posted brazenly in the light of day in an Atlantic Council piece titled "Arming for Deterrence: How Poland and NATO Should Counter a Resurgent Russia."

"Poland should announce that it reserves the right to deploy offensive cyber operations (and not necessarily in response just to cyberattacks). The authorities could also suggest potential targets, which could include the Moscow metro, the St. Petersburg power network, and Russian state-funded media outlets" such as RT and Sputnik.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Phillip Galea, 31, has been accused of preparing and planning a terrorist attack and collecting documents to facilitate the attack.

Australian police arrested a 31-year-old man in counter-terror raids in the southern Victoria state. https://t.co/wlBGyZAchw  Rappler (@rapplerdotcom) 6  2016 .

Galea from Melbourne's Braybrook was detained on Saturday during police raids in the state of Victoria.

During the questioning, Galea expressed intention to fight the charges.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Authorities said the building was in a dilapidated condition adding that they warned people lived in it about the threat, NDTV TV-channel reported.

A total of three families lived in the collapsed two-storey building. One person was rescued, while about eight people remain trapped. Fire department personal are trying to rescue them.

On July 31, a three-storey building collapsed in the JB Nagar neighborhood of Mumbai killing eight people.
TOKYO (Sputnik)  The radar is said to be not powerful enough to use if for military purposes, but is designed to detect ships, Kyodo News reported, citing a government source.

The found radar is said to have raised concerns that China could use its drilling platforms as military posts in the future.

On Saturday, Japan summoned Chinese diplomats to protest against some 230 Chinese ships approaching the disputed Senkaku islands in the East China Sea.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The airstrike was carried out in the Achin district, Khaama Press reported, citing the countrys Defense Ministry.

No more details of the airstrike were given including the information whether it was carried out by US or Afghan air forces.

On Saturday, the Afghan Defense Ministry said that the countrys security forces had killed at least 60 militants, including 21 Daesh terrorists, during a military operation in the Nangarhar province.
BEIJING (Sputnik)  Two ships of Chinas Coast Guard on Sunday conducted patrols near the disputed Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands in the East China Sea, controlled by Tokyo and claimed by Beijing, the Chinese State Oceanic Administration (SOA) said.

According to the SOA, the coast guard ships under the numbers 33115 and 2166 conducted patrols in the territorial waters of the Diaoyu Islands. Other details have not been disclosed.
BANGKOK (Sputnik)  As many as 95,000 of polling stations were open in the country throughout the day. According to media reports, selling alcohol, as well as playing Pokemon Go , making photos and taking "selfies" were banned in polling stations during the constitutional vote. The unofficial results of the vote are expected to be announced on Sunday night.

Over 40 million Thai nationals partook in the vote on a constitution, which is expected to hand over greater powers to the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), a military-controlled unelected government in power since the May 2014 military coup.

The draft constitution stipulates that the 250-seat upper house of the parliament would be directly appointed by the military government granting it a veto on decisions taken by the elected lower house lawmakers, among other measures.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Criticism of the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system deployment in South Korea voiced in Chinese media is 'unreasonable', South Korea's presidential office said Sunday.

In a statement, issued by the office and quoted by the Yonhap news agency, Seoul calls on Beijing to focus on the nuclear and missile threat emanating from North Korea, rather than criticize the "planned installation" of the system in the country.

In July, South Korea and the United States announced that they had agreed to deploy the system in the South Korean Seongju County amid increased tensions on the peninsula over North Korea's nuclear and missile program.
Parks senior press secretary, Kim Sung-woo, said in a statement that recent commentary carried by Chinas state media was "out of place" for blaming South Korea for tensions on the Korean peninsula. China argued that the move would only exacerbate the growing sense of desperation by the faltering regime of Kim Jong-un in North Korea, while South Korea expressed concern that recent ballistic missile tests by the increasingly unhinged leader in Pyongyang pose an imminent threat to Seouls safety.

"Rather than taking issue with our purely defensive action, China should raise issue in a strong manner with North Korea which is breaking peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and Northeast by conducting four nuclear tests and, just this year, launching more than 10 ballistic missiles," said the statement.
Local police finally raided the movie theater and found the bodies of 13 children buried in the attic of the movie theater.

When the public found out what happened, they decided to take care of the problem themselves. A large crowd of Omsk residents went to Gigant and simply burned it to the ground to make no child would be killed in the movie theater ever again.

Being atheist, the Soviet government, of course, didnt want to hear anything about the vampire and instead carried out its own criminal investigation, eventually finding out what had actually happened.

It turned out there was no Siberian Dracula, who was killing the children, but a band of murderers led by Pelageya Belyaeva and her son Anatoly Vorobyov. The mother and the son hammered together the band of ruthless murderers seeking to rob children of their clothes.

After the war, childrens clothes were in scarcity across Omsk, like in many other parts of the country. There were simply not enough factories to manufacture clothes, let alone clothes for children. That created a high deficit in childrens clothes that could only be found for a high price from street venders in the city.

The murderous gang thought they could make a living by killing children and selling their clothes. And so the killings began.

The citys biggest movie theater, Gigant, became the gangs favorite place to find victims. Gigant had regular movie sessions for children and since many of them came to watch movies by themselves they had become perfect targets for Vorobyov and his partners in crime.

Gang members lured children to the attic of the movie theater, promising to show them a free movie or offering them a chocolate bar. When the child went upstairs, he or she was never seen again.

All the gang members were eventually arrested and prosecuted. After that the killings stopped. In the end it turned out that Gigant, which was one of the best movie theaters in Siberia, was burned for no real reason.

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Sputnik.
At the beginning of 2014, Saudi Arabian oil supplies to China were around double that of Russia; since then Russia has closed the gap and now rivals the kingdom as China's top supplier.

According to data from Bloomberg, since May 2015 Russia's monthly supplies to China have exceeded those of Saudi Arabia seven times.

Saudi Arabia has traditionally limited its sales to established refiners with excellent credit ratings, able to commit to long contracts.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  A gang in Romania is selling military-grade weapons from Ukraine to Western Europe and Middle East, an investigation by British media revealed Sunday.

"We bring them from Ukraine with the ammunition, as much as you want," one of the gang members was quoted as saying by Sky News, as he displayed the range of weapons to the broadcaster's journalists.

The gang is said to be willing to sell weapons to anyone who could pay, whether it is a bank robber, a mass murderer or a terrorist.
VILNIUS (Sputnik)  On Thursday, the Russian Defense Ministry said Moscow had sent an invitation to Riga to attend defense ministerial consultations in the Russian capital in September.

"At the moment, the Ministry [of Defense] is considering the proposal but direct consultations between the countries experts have not started yet," the Latvian ministrys spokesman Kaspars Galkins said, as quoted by the LETA news agency.

The Latvian Foreign Ministry confirmed that after considering the issue Russia would receive an answer. The ministry noted that Latvia was committed to security and transparency in the Baltic region.
An armed man barricaded himself in a restaurant in the western German city of Saarbrucken on Sunday, the Bild newspaper reported.

Police have reportedly cordoned off the city center in preparation for the possible storming of the restaurant.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  A total of two people were shot dead in the Chartreux district of the French city of Marseille while allegedly settling scores, local media reported on Sunday.

The two victims were taking a ride when their car was chased down and fired on, La Province news outlet said, adding that the victims were in their twenties.

Police have also found a burnt car in the city's outskirts, however it is not clear yet whether it has any connection to the incident, the news outlet added.
At the same time, the journalist suggested that "it's important to emphasize that the Swiss model with which deputy Goncharenko is so impressed with is not even a federation, but a confederation, consisting of 20 cantons and six half-cantons. Each canton has its own constitution, and its own powers, limited by the national constitution. The national government is given jurisdiction over the issues of war and peace, foreign relations, the army, railways, communications, the emission of money, the approval of the national budget, etc. The Swiss as a nation do not have one common language. The national and official languages of the confederation include German, French, Italian and Romansh."

Asked to comment on Goncharenko's comments, and on whether Ukraine really can take a lesson from the Swiss confederacy's model of state organization, Alexander Vasilyev, a former representative on the Odessa City Council, said that unfortunately, this is highly unlikely.

"Given the realities of today's Ukraine, I think that the experience of Switzerland is less applicable to our country than that of Bosnia. The latter is a territory in which a confederation was formed following a civil war; its legitimacy and sovereignty is entirely dependent on support from the Western powers."

Furthermore, Vasilyev suggested that "the window of opportunity for Ukraine's reorganization [along federal lines] continues to shrink."

"Before the war, I was among those who actively promoted Ukraine's consideration of the experience of successful federal states like Germany, Canada, and Switzerland. Now, as I've said, Bosnia has the most relevant experience for our country. But it seems that no one is any hurry to adopt even this variant."
At the same time, Molteni noted that unfortunately, the Italian government really does not have much of a say in the US-led initiative, "its tendency to tag along with the great powers becoming a typical trend in recent decades. Even in 2011, the Berlusconi government failed to oppose the airstrikes against the Gaddafi government initiated by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Italy was made to tag along with Paris and Washington in this historical mistake which created the current instability in Libya."

As to the current thirty-day air campaign, the analyst said that he believes it to carry "more political than military" significance. In his view, the Tripoli-based government of Fayez al-Sarraj is looking to establish itself as the only legitimate representative of the Libyan state, "even though there is also General Khalifa Haftar's government in Tobruk, which is also actively fighting Daesh in the Benghazi area."

Unfortunately, the expert noted, Italy's political and military servility toward the United States is rooted in nearly 70 years of history, which followed Italy's entry into the NATO alliance.

"After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, there was no longer any danger from the east; in fact, today's Russia is our ally against terrorism. But the political class in Italy has retained its habit of delegating the defense of Italy's national interests to the United States, and it will be many years before they learn to take care of our national interests themselves," the commentator said.
ROME(Sputnik)  Italian police apprehended three French nationals armed with knifes and wooden bats on the French-Italian border near the city of Ventimiglia on Sunday, local media reported.

According to the RaiNews 24 broadcaster, the detainees allegedly planned to partake in demonstration of the international No Border group which will protest against restraints on free movement of migrants in Europe later in the day in Ventimiglia.
BRUSSELS (Sputnik)  A machete attack on two police officers in the Belgian city of Charleroi is regarded as an act of terrorism by the countrys Federal Prosecutor's Office, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said Sunday.

"The Federal Prosecutor's Office told us that an investigation into an attempted terrorist murder started taking into account the perpetrators statements at the moment of the attack," Michel told journalists.

On Saturday, a man screaming "Allahu Akbar" injured two police officers with a machete near a police station. Local media reported that one of the officers had sustained serious injuries and was hospitalized, while the other was slightly wounded. The police said there was no threat to the lives of the officers.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The Islamic State (ISIL or Daesh) jihadist group, outlawed in Russia and multiple other countries, claimed responsibility for an attack on two police officers in the southern Belgian city of Charleroi, Amaq news agency, the media arm of the group, reported on Sunday.

On Saturday, a man screaming "Allahu Akbar" injured two policewomen with a machete near a police station. Local media reported that one of the officers had sustained serious injuries and was hospitalized, while the other was slightly wounded. The police said there was no threat to the lives of the officers.

The perpetrator was shot by a third police officer and died later in hospital.
The regional government of the Upper Palatinate also claimed that the self-described refugees are beyond their jurisdiction as they arrived from shelters located in cities in other administrative districts, and not all of them are facing immediate deportation.

The situation continues to deteriorate as last week one of the squatters announced that if their demands are not met, the group would once again occupy the cathedral.

They also threatened to go on a hunger strike, and one of them even claimed that hes prepared to burn himself and his underage daughter alive if the authorities try to evict them. Other group members also warned that some of them are contemplating suicide.

Vicar-general Michael Fuchs, who coordinates church activity, said that the situation has become intolerable.

"We revoked our call to authorities to treat this groups presence with patience. We have no other way but to ask them to vacate the cathedral premises. If they dont do that, well have to resort to appeal to the police due to the violation of law and order," he said.

The police officials have confirmed that if necessary, theyre ready to "restore the Churchs right of ownership to the cathedral."

Meanwhile, several politicians have already condemned the groups actions.

"If people try to put pressure on the German rule-of-law state, they cross the line. We cannot allow that. Our state cannot be blackmailed," Astrid Freudenstein, a Christian Social Union MP, said.

At the same time Christian Paulwitz, a representative of the Alternative for Germany party, claimed that the entire crisis had in fact been staged by the leftists, who seek to use migrants to gain publicity.

It remains unclear exactly how the situation will develop, and while a police operation aimed at liberating the cathedral premises remains a distinct possibility, it may result in a severe blow to the Churchs reputation due to media coverage.
"The society needs to mobilize and try to benefit from the Olympic Games which attracted various foreign delegations and even government officials. We need to seize the moment and expose the coup that removed the lawful government from power," he said.

Many protesters also believe that the security measures implemented by the authorities allegedly to protect the Olympic Games from possible attacks may in fact be used to suppress popular movements.

"A potential terrorist threat does exist, but it is mostly a threat to Americans and Europeans, not us. But since they come here, then yes, this threat exists," a protester named Val Carvalho said.

He also pointed out that a group recently arrested by the authorities had nothing to do with terrorists, and added that the media hype regarding that event was nothing more than a show aimed at whitewashing the ongoing crackdown.

Alessandro Biazzi, a teacher at the Federal Center for Technological Education of Rio de Janeiro, said that a "coup during Olympics is consistent with an international model of major events which is neither democratic nor inclusive." He stated that both the International Olympic Committee and FIFA share responsibility for the current state of affairs.

"Those who took to the streets to protest are the ones who truly strive to preserve the Olympic spirit," the protester declared.

Jaime Muniz Martins, ex-head of the Federation of Favelas Association of Rio de Janeiro (Federacao das Associacoes de Favelas do Rio de Janeiro), blasted the media for manipulating information regarding the ongoing political turmoil, in the country and claiming that "the people, especially the poorest residents of favelas, are losing their rights." Martins added that the media lied when claiming that the coup was committed with the peoples interests in mind.

And many protesters were also eager to point out the foreign influence in the Brazilian crisis, condemning the privatization of natural resources and the alleged US involvement in the countrys affairs.

"They (the US) were unable to cope with BRICS. The coup drives Brazil into isolation regarding the strategic energy issue because pre-salt oil is now being sold to foreign transnational corporations; and the space program is once again handed over to the US," he said, referring to the Alcantara Space Center.

According to the protests organizers, about 30,000 people took part in the peaceful protest held by People Without Fear Front (Frente Povo Sem Medo), Brazilian Peoples Front (Frente Brasil Popular), Socialist Left Front (Frente de Esquerda Socialista), Trade Union and Peoples Center (CSP-Conlutas) and Plenary of Fighting Workers (Plenaria dos Trabalhadores em Luta-RJ) movements.

Equally vociferous protests were launched against suspended President Dilma Rousseff last year prior to her; opinions have been divided over her leadership and personal involvement in the Petrobras scandal. She was officially suspended from her role in May pending an impeachment trial.
While on his visit to Moscow, US Secretary of State John Kerry proposed the US share intelligence and targeting data with Russia and coordinate bombing missions.

US and Russian air forces would maintain their separate headquarters but would share a joint command center in Amman, Jordan.

Previously, the two nations coordinated air operations only to maintain the safety of each others aircraft, not in terms of targeting or intelligence on locations of rebel positions.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking in Laos last week, said he hoped to be able to announce the details of a US-Russian understanding in the first week of August.

Jeffrey White, a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer who now studies Syria at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told the New York Times that the Russians had built a capable intelligence network in Syria, giving them a better understanding of the terrain and location of rebel forces.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Turkish border guards opened fire at the Kurdish refugees trying to escape from the war in Syria, killing one of them and injuring two others, local media reported Sunday.

The incident is said to have occurred on Saturday midnight.

"The victims were trying to cross the border into Turkey after escaping the Qelika village in the Kurdish Afrin district. But the merciless Turkish forces shot them, killing a 35-year-old man and injuring at least two others Those unarmed civilians were trying to find a safe haven after fleeing Afrin where radical Islamists continue to bombard Kurdish villages and towns. However, the brutality of the Turkish forces has apparently exceeded that of terrorist groups in Syria," Walida Hassan, the head of Human Rights Commission in Cezire canton in northern Syria, was quoted as saying by the ARA News Kurdish media outlet.
MOSCOW(Sputnik)  The international coalition led by Saudi Arabia will intensify fighting against rebels in Yemen, Saudi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Ahmed Asiri said on Sunday.

The coalition will carry on military operation in Yemen to support the country's government amid resuming rebels' attacks after settlement negotiations were halted, Asiri was cited by Hadath broadcaster, as saying.

On Saturday, another round of inter-Yemeni peace talks held in Kuwait under the UN brokerage ended with the government and Houthi rebels failing to come to an agreement.
He added that Amiri was charged with espionage for "enemies" of Iran.

Amiri went missing at the beginning of 2009 in Saudi Arabia during his pilgrimage. According to Iran's authorities, the scientist was allegedly kidnapped by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). According to media, it was him who took a decision not to return to Iran and start cooperation with US intelligence agencies. In 2010, he returned to Iran.

Before his alleged kidnapping, the scientist worked for Malek Ashtar University of Technology in Tehran as an ordinary specialist. However, Tehran refutes claims that he was involved in the country's nuclear program.


ALEPPO (Sputnik)The Syrian Army has repelled several militant attacks in the southwest of Aleppo over past 10 days, killing more than 2,000 terrorists, a source in Aleppo's militia told RIA Novosti.

"During the last 10 days, terrorist have undertaken four powerful attempts to break through our troops' encirclement in the southwestern part of Aleppo. We managed to repel all attacks and to kill at least 2,000 terrorists," the source said.
ALEPPO (Sputnik)  Terrorists are still surrounded by the Syrian army in the northern city of Aleppo with the fighting continuing in the south-western part of the city, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported.

Terrorists remain surrounded in eastern and south-eastern parts of the city despite Saturday reports about alleged breaking the siege. All supply lines are also controlled by the Syrian army.
It was a rough week for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

The Manhattan real estate mogul dealt with the fallout from comments he made about the Khan family  the mother and father of a Muslim Army captain who was killed in Iraq in 2004  after their appearance at the Democratic National Convention.

And then there were the poll results. Several polls showed Trump's opponent, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, with larger leads in key battleground states, such as Michigan and Pennsylvania.

At a Cayuga County Republican Committee event Friday, state Republican Chairman Ed Cox assured the crowd in attendance that Trump will overcome what he called a "summer storm."

Cox said in an interview with The Citizen that Trump's recent issues aren't "indictable" and the problems don't have anything to do with economic policies or national security.

"Those are the big issues," he said. "It's a brief summer storm."

Cox suggested that Trump's struggles were due to his status as a first-time candidate. He hasn't run for political office before, although he certainly teased the possibility on numerous occasions, and he hasn't served in government.

"One of the issues is the way you handle certain situations rhetorically," he said. "That you can get over easily. You can't get over indictable things. You can't get over bad economic policies. You can't get over having bad national security (policies). On all those things, he's got the high ground."

Trump is better equipped to handle major issues than Clinton, Cox argued. He said the Democratic nominee and former secretary of state is wrong on the economy and foreign policy. He referred to her as a "de facto co-president" when her husband, President Bill Clinton, was in the White House. And he made sure to mention her work on "HillaryCare," a failed attempt to reform the health care system in the mid-1990s.

He then offered a critique of Clinton as a politician. He said she "doesn't have it."

"Her husband did have it," he said. "He's a good politician, gotta give him that. But you take a look at it and she doesn't have it."

Cox also questioned Clinton's decision-making ability. He pulled a small card out of his wallet that was given to him by his father-in-law, former President Richard Nixon. The card features Nixon's Ten Commandments of Statecraft.

The card contains a passage about Nixon's views of the presidency. He wrote that a president "needs a global view, sense of proportion and a keen sense of the possible. He needs to know how power operates and he must have the will to use it."

Trump, Cox said, can make the big decisions on issues a president faces daily.

"That's the most important thing about a president," he said. "That's what I saw in Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton can't make decisions."

Cox is confident Trump will begin to rebound on Monday when the GOP presidential nominee delivers a speech at the Detroit Economic Club. He views that address as an opportunity for Trump to get his campaign back on track and appeal to working class voters.

This week on Eye on NY

 We'll catch up with the candidates in the 54th Senate District to get an update on where their campaigns stand with a little more than a month to go until the Sept. 13 primary.

 Due to limited time last week, the interviews with Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro and National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Greg Walden will be published this week. Look for both interviews online at auburnpub.com/eyeonny.

 With the election approaching, the first edition of the Eye on NY podcast will be posted this week. The podcast will be recorded at least once a week leading up to Election Day in November.
TEL AVIV (Sputnik)  In July, the Israeli army said that it had tried to shoot down a drone which had flown over the Golan Heights and returned to Syria with two missiles.

Russia, not Hezbollah, sent drone into Israel  report https://t.co/ZxLckwpnq3  The Times of Israel (@TimesofIsrael) 7  2016 .

The Haaretz newspaper said, citing a high-ranking Israeli source, that in contacts with Israel Russia had admitted that the drone belonged to the Russian forces stationed in Syria. Reportedly, the Russian side said the drone had crossed into the Israeli airspace as a result of human error.

The publication said that the incident was the gravest since the deployment of Russian military in Syria in 2015 following the request from Syrian President Bashar Assad. It was the first time when Israel opened fire against a Russian aircraft operating in Syria, the newspaper added.
According to the Al Arabiya broadcaster, citing its sources, the victims, primary young men, were executed on Saturday night for encouraging residents of Hawija to escape from the city seized by militants.

Kirkuk province has been at the epicenter of fierce clashes between militants from Daesh, outlawed in Russia and various countries, and joint Iraqi forces since the jihadist group captured vast parts of Iraq in 2014.
Injured while on mission in Syria, the officer asked her command for rescue and headed to the Syrian-Turkish border, the Hurriyet newspaper said.

Reportedly, US and Turkish military launched a search and rescue operation, involving helicopters and drones, but failed to find the intelligence agent.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The US-led coalition conducted 16 airstrikes against the Islamic State (ISIL or Daesh) jihadist group in Syria and Iraq on Saturday, US Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve said in a statement.

"Bomber, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted eight strikes in Syria Attack, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft and rocket artillery conducted eight strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraqs government," the statement published on the US Defense Department website read.

In Syria coalition airstrikes destroyed one Daesh oil tanker, seven tactical units, six fighting positions and an improvised explosive device.
Unfortunately, Ali suggested that this situation is unlikely to change any time soon. "Because Russia is a competitor  the only power that's standing in the way of Western plans to destroy statehood in the Middle East."

At the same time, the political analyst emphasized that "the Islamists are the main allies of Western countries. When the Americans find it favorable, they recruit the whole world to fight against al-Qaeda. When they find it advantageous, the terrorists suddenly turn into 'moderate opposition'. All the Islamist groups in Syria who are 'moderate opposition' according to the US criteria, are really people charged with carrying out US plans."

According to Ali, when it comes to Syria's future, the situation on the battlefield will play just as much a role as the agreements which can be reached at the negotiations table. "A Syria that is united and strong will be an ally of Russia; this is unfavorable to the US. They are more interested in seeing a Syria along the lines of a Somali or Libyan scenario. Syria's future depends on the US coming to an agreement with Russia. But right now the US doesn't even want to negotiate with Russia on the question of who is a terrorist and who isn't."

Therefore, the question of which scenario emerges victorious (a Syria which is united and at peace, or a failed state) "depends on who will be successful on the battlefield," the commentator concluded.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The leader of the Turkish main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), Kemal Kilicdaroglu, urged to abstain from politicizing religion, army and law in the country.

"We must not let politics into mosque, courts and barracks," Kilicdaroglu told a meeting in support of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as quoted by the Sabah newspaper.

The opposition leader added that the mid-July failed coup opened new possibilities for cooperation between the Turkish politicians.
Everyone knows that power in this country, with no doubts, belongs to people, and they are demanding the death penalty, Erdogan said, according to Turkish news agency Anadolu. "Parliament is the authority that will decide on the death penalty. The next step will be clear after the parliament takes a decision. I will approve reinstating the death penalty if the parliament approves."

According to some estimates, over a million of people took to the streets in Istanbul. The rally was also demonstrated on huge outdoor screens set up across all the countrys 81 provinces, according to local media.

The meeting was attended by major opposition parties, an event not seen by the country for decades. Republican People's Party Chairman Kemal Kilicdaroglu said that the failed coup opened the door for reconciliation of political forces in the country and said it will lead to emergence of a new great Turkey."
BAKU (Sputnik)  Armenia has violated the ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh 24 times during last 24 hours, the Azerbaijans Defense Ministry said on Sunday in a statement.

"Despite the earlier reached agreement on the ceasefire regime on the contact line in Karabakh, the Armenian side violated the regime across the line 24 times in last 24 hours," the statement said.

Azerbaijan's Armenian-dominated breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh proclaimed its independence in 1991. After the military conflict ended in 1994, Azerbaijan lost control over the region.
The Allied Land Command, or LANDCOM, is subordinate to the NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe. There is also an important US military airport in Izmir.

Overall, it is estimated that facilities at 20 locations in Turkey are at least partly used by NATO forces.

Turkey is believed to host US tactical nuclear weapons which form an important part of NATO's nuclear deterrence capability.

It is home to an X-Band radar crucial for NATO's missile defense, and Ankara contributes to NATO's rapid reaction capabilities and joint initiatives such as Baltic Air Policing.

Incirlik Air Base

Even though Incirlik, near the town of Adana, is not a NATO facility it is nonetheless of extreme importance to the alliance and the US in particular.

It serves as a base for airstrikes on Daesh positions in Syria and Iraq. And has played an important role in the wars in the Persian Gulf and NATO's Afghanistan mission.
Last week, the local media in Ukraine's Dnepropetrovsk region launched a tirade against authorities in Kiev for the latter's supposed attempts to sabotage the creation of a new weapon, the Grom short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) system. If created, it would be a Ukrainian analog to the Russian 9K720 Iskander.

According to Dnepropetrovsk's MOST news agency, Kiev officials are 'twisting the arms' of the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau and the Pavlograd Chemical Plant, two enterprises involved in creating the weapon.

Engineers speaking to the news agency explained that the Grom is being developed using money from a mysterious foreign client. Moreover, the system, presently in its third year of active development, will be prepared for testing as soon as this fall.
"The relevant concealed agreement has been achieved, and India will receive the second three of Project 11356 frigates being built for the Russian Navy," said a source within Russias defense industry. "The Indian side has obtained 12 spare tool and accessory kits for the ships."

The development is consistent with suspicions that the Russian Navy has abandoned plans to add six to nine Admiral Grigorovich-class vessels to its fleet over the next decadeas was laid out in the initial 2030 shipbuilding programand will field only three such ships into the navy.
"We hope to conduct the drop test by 24th of this month (August)," BrahMos Aerospace CEO Dr. Sudhir Mishra said in an interview with the Indo-Asian News Service. "After the drop test, we will see if some refinement in the software and other systems is needed."

The test firing of the BrahMos cruise missile will serve to verify the accuracy and efficacy of the Su-30s missile release system. The test will be carried out at Rajashtans Pokharan firing range. An additional test is also expected to take place in the Bay of Bengal in late-November against a decommissioned naval vessel.
Washington-backed moderate rebels, including a freshly rebranded al-Nusra Front (al-Qaeda) and the violent Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham breached the Syrian government siege in the city of Aleppo on Saturday opening a corridor in the south marking a major setback for the Syrian Army supported by Russian airpower.

The United States claims that al-Nusra Front is not part of the moderate group that is being supported, but by the admission of social media posts by al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham controlled accounts in the wake of the rebel breakthrough the two groups are intertwined in their fight in opposition to the Assad regime.

Although the rebels have broken the impasse in the near-term by fracturing the siege to bring in supplies and reinforcements, the battle over the city of Aleppo continues to rage on with Russia intensifying its aerial bombardment of rebel-held neighborhoods. The battle may be the most important in the Syrian conflict as each side struggles to regain control of the countrys largest city and former commercial hub.
The source told the Anadolu news agency on condition of anonymity that the US side had initiated the discussion of the issue and sent a letter to the Turkish Justice ministry.

On July 15, the Turkish authorities said that an attempted coup was taking place in the country. Over 13,000 people have been detained in connection with the coup, while about 250 people died during the coup attempt.
While a considerable number of Western politicians and organizations decried the purge launched by Turkish President Erdogan in the wake of a failed coup attempt, Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjrn Jagland claimed that these actions were in fact necessary.

"Of course I admit that its necessary to act against those who staged this coup, and against a secret network of conspirators," Jagland said during a joint press conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Jaglands words come in stark contrast to statements issued by several EU leaders who condemned the coup attempt but expressed skepticism about the extent of Turkish governments actions in the wake of the coup, Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang points out.
Peres also believes that an opportunity exists for Moscow and Washington to bury the hatchet and work together constructively towards bringing a lasting peace to Syria citing close cooperation between the countries regarding the elimination of the Assad regimes chemical weapons stockpiles.

I think they are negotiating now how to handle the Syrian situation at large, no matter what is said or flags that everybody is carrying, said Peres. Finally, they cannot solve their own problems without coming to peace.

The Israeli politician cited the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 and the 2011 Russian reset between the Obama administration and Moscow as further evidence that the two countries do not truly wish to quarrel despite heated rhetoric at times.
In August 2015 the government announced the approval of 464 agricultural investment projects, including 166 to modernize dairy farming and processing, and 197 for the meat or poultry industries.

On Friday Tatyana Radchenko, deputy head of the Russian government's Analytical Center told RIA Novosti that during 2014 and 2015, Russia's production of meat and poultry rose by an average of ten percent, the production of cheese products rose by 10.6 percent and butter by 3.2 percent.

Radchenko said that the proportion of imported meat and poultry products on the Russian market decreased from 27 percent in 2013 to 13 percent in 2015. The proportion of imported butter decreased from 36 percent to 26 percent, and imported cheese from 48 percent to 23 percent.

The analyst sought to allay fears that such success might be undone, if the sanctions were to end.

"Firstly, Russian consumers have switched to domestic and Belorussian brands, which have strengthened their share of the food market. Secondly, retailers have agreed on contracts with new suppliers for products," Radchenko said.

"Switching back to the previous foreign suppliers will only be possible if they propose lower prices, which is hardly possible with the current exchange rate."

"It seems unlikely that there will be a crisis of overproduction in countries under the embargo, which would lead producers to significantly decrease their prices," Radchenko said.

Russia's increase in food production has not only benefited domestic consumers; according to Russia's deputy minister for economic development Aleksey Likhachev, Russia's agricultural exports in 2016 "demonstrated fantastic results."

He told the St. Petersburg economic forum in June that the volume of Russia's food exports increased by 30.5 percent in the first four months of 2016, and that agricultural industry exports increased by five percent in dollar terms.

"The main partners were machine-building companies, producers of energy and transport machinery, petrochemicals, metallurgy and I would like to particularly emphasize, agriculture," Likhachev said.
Russia seems to be breathing life into the development of weapons based on new physical principles.

The term weapons based on new physical principles was coined in the 1980s by Soviet military officials and used in reference to directed-energy weapons, geophysical weapons and wave-energy weapons, among others.

On Tuesday, the Russian Deputy Defense Minister revealed that laser weapons are no longer a novelty for the Russian armed forces however without specifying what they are potentially capable of.
At the same time, the ships' modular design allows for the construction of several different versions. "It is logical to assume designs including a 'shock unit', a patrol vessel and an anti-ship model. The order we are discussing obviously does not apply to the anti-ship modification, but is great for patrol functions, which are extremely important in the waters of the Black Sea. With a speed of 30 knots, the Karakut is a sufficiently fast ship, and will be able to cause serious problems for the enemy with the help of its P-800 Onyx medium-range anti-ship missiles."

Meanwhile, Stepnov added, "the ship's 100 mm automatic naval gun (likely to be the A-190 Burevestnik) has implications for any conflicts over water boundaries; here we can recall the feat of the Bezzavetniy and SKR-6, which successfully kicked the American cruiser USS Yorktown and the destroyer USS Caron out of Soviet waters in 1988, after these ships blatantly cruised 7 miles into our territorial waters."

The Karakut may be small, but will certainly be able to "bite" even cruiser-sized vessels, the journalist suggested.

"At the same time, small missile ships are suitable for patrolling precisely due to their small size, which provides for a low profile and high maneuverability. Therefore, the Karakut is effective both as a patrol vessel, and as a platform for the Kalibr, which does not fall under any international restrictions on the limitation of missile weaponry."

Ultimately, Stepnov noted, "Russia, as usual in recent years, is building weapons which are of very high quality from the technical standpoint, but also very practical in terms of their application."
Turkish President Recep Rayyip Erdogan said that he expects talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin this week will open "a new page" in bilateral relations between the two countries in an interview with Russian media. The openness towards restoring cooperative diplomatic relations with the Kremlin comes at a time when Ankara has repeatedly accused US military and intelligence officials of masterminding the failed coup and as the countrys relations with Brussels has hit an impasse.

The talks set to take place in the city of St. Petersburg are intended to end a period of heightened tensions between Moscow and Ankara following the fatal downing of a Russian fighter jet along the Syrian border last November.

The incident spurred a diplomatic row between the two countries as Turkey refused to apologize for the heinous incident saying that they were justified and claiming that the Russian fighter jet passed ten meters with Turkish airspace for a total time period of 16 seconds. Despite only being in Turkish airspace for 16 seconds, according to Ankaras account which Moscow fiercely denies, at the time Turkey outlandishly claimed that they warned the pilot.
BEIJING (Sputnik)  According to the Xinhua news agency, the launch of the Tiantong-01 satellite was conducted on early Saturday at Southwestern China's Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

It is noted that the satellite was launched with the Long March-3B carrier rocket and it is expected to become a key part of the Chinese space information infrastructure.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The US authorities released the renewed version of the 2013 Presidential Policy Guidance (PPG) on Saturday.

"The Obama administrations disclosures are welcome but they only tell part of the story, and obscure disturbing practices. We still know extremely little about the standards that would govern signature strikes and so-called rescuer strikes, which have involved potentially unlawful killings," Security and Human Rights Program Director for the US Amnesty International Naureen Shah said as quoted in the statement.

Shah stressed that the Obama administration had still failed to provide data required to assess the drone program, particularly information on people killed in the strikes.
The lawsuit, triggered before the notorious WikiLeaks revelations, charged the DNC then-chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz with fraud. On July 22, a batch of some 20,000 internal DNC emails was made public, confirming the allegations that the organization had been playing into the Clinton camps hands.

Lucas was confirmed dead by the company for which he had worked as a process server. In an interview with investigation outlet Snopes, the firm representative said that the young man passed away on August 2, 2016.
In his op-ed released on Friday, ex-deputy CIA chief, who was said to have voted for Republicans in the past, expressed strong support for Clinton. While trying to express his loyalty to Democrats in his statement, he called the Republican candidacy of Donald J. Trump not only unqualified for the job, but he may well pose a threat to our national security and claimed that Trump was an unwitting agent of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

However, a recent media investigation revealed that he worked with Clinton when she served at the State Department and played a critical role in the Benghazi cover-up.

Morell lied about his role in preparation of notorious CIA talking points for US Ambassador Susan Rices address to Sunday morning talk shows in the wake of the Benghazi attack that left four US citizens, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, dead while the survivors languished against a brutal band of terrorists for thirteen hours without any aide from the State Department or Pentagon.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is leading over her Republican rival Donald Trump by eight points, a new poll carried out in the wake of the two parties' national conventions, revealed on Sunday.

Clinton now has 50 percent support of the voters, while Trump is backed by only 42 percent, the poll conducted by Washington Post and ABC News on August 1-4 showed.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Poroshenko is currently visiting Indonesia. He has held a meeting with local businesspeople.

"Ukraine must become a platform for Indonesia's access to the European market. At the same time, we consider Indonesia a platform for [accessing] a large Asian market," Poroshenko was quoted as saying on his website.

According to the Ukrainian leader, providing access to the EU market for Indonesia is possible in light of the Ukraine-EU free trade agreement that has been provisionally applied since January 1.
BAKU (Sputnik)  Rouhani and Aliyev held a bilateral meeting after official welcome ceremony upon arrival of the Iranian president.

On Monday, Rouhani and Aliyev are set to hold trilateral talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Baku which are expected to focus on trade, energy, communications as well as on the situation in Syria and on the threat of the Daesh terrorist group outlawed in Russia.

The trilateral meeting is expected to result in the signing of a joint declaration.
However, there are now calls within Europe to halt the further expansion of the alliance and thereby normalize the relations with Russia.

There are strong pro-Russia and anti-NATO currents in German and European public opinion, Chairman of the Munich Security Conference Wolfgang Ischinger admitted in his article for Der Spiegel earlier in July.

When commenting on the further prospects of NATO expansion and the possible admission of Ukraine and Georgia into the alliance, the former German diplomat wondered: are we prepared and determined to assure the economic survival of both countries by offering sustained and comprehensive political and financial support?

Are we prepared to say we will do whatever it takes in order to create a greater sense of stability and confidence in Kiev and Tbilisi?

We have to confront these and other questions, even if they may require painful responses. Strategic clarity is required if we want to bring the current crisis of European security to an end, he then replied.

Whilst NATO expansion is being criticized in Germany, it is coming in for more criticism in Britain, the one Western country that has up to now been its most vocal supporter.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Earlier in the day, Aliyev held a meeting with Rouhani in Baku. The meeting took place ahead of the Russian-Iranian-Azerbaijani summit, which is expected to take place on Monday.

"I informed my Iranian counterpart of details about the latest situation around the Karabakh settlement. Nagorno-Karabakh originally is an Azerbaijani territory. Besides Karabach, seven other surrounding territories have been occupied. Mosques are destroyed, there are refugees and internally displaced people. The withdrawal of occupation troops from Azerbaijani territories is necessary to settle the conflict," Aliyev was quoted as saying by APA news agency.
SKANEATELES  It's a battle that may never be over, but it's a battle that is being won.

That's how Skaneateles Lake Association Treasurer Bob Werner  a scientist whose research focuses on Skaneateles Lake  described the lake association's milfoil control project that enters its 10th season this year.

He pointed out that it used to be called the milfoil eradication project, but the association decided to substitute control in the name because it does not foresee ever completely ridding the lake of the invasive plant species.

"Now, I think we've got it down to a level at which there's some control," Werner said. "I don't think we'll ever really eradicate it. ... It's really a challenge. I don't think we'll ever get rid of it, but we'll get it under control."

He noted the lake contains 35 miles of shoreline and about a half mile of width in which the milfoil can live  "That's going from here to 12 miles the other side of Syracuse," he said. "We trying to get all of that and find it all."

Every year, it gets harder and harder to find the invasive plant  and that's a good thing. The search began in 2001, Werner said, with some complaints and observations from people around the lake that promoted him and Rich Abbott, the manager for the Syracuse City Water Department's watershed protection program, used GPS to locate large patches of milfoil growing on the floor of the lake.

They found 39 that year, and though there was some concern, they did not do anything about it and went back five years later to check it again "because everybody was seeing it," Werner said. They came up with 111 that year, and the eradication efforts started the following year.

If not for taking action, Werner said there would be 300 or more large patches of milfoil on the floor of the lake, based upon extrapolating the data from the two GPS searches. This year, there are between 6 and 12.

Taking action, for the Skaneateles Lake Association, consists of a pontoon boat with four divers working typically from June to October  though it used to consist of about 35 divers with five boats.

Keith Marsden, who has been one of the divers since day one of the project, said the effort is a two-part process. In early June, the team rolls out mats on the lake floor and over the largest patches and then rolls them back up in August. In between, the divers perform what is called suction dredging  hand-pulling and vacuuming up the milfoil plants.

Marsden said mats can only go over areas that are relatively flat, so divers focus on picking steep dropoffs, shallow areas and the smaller patches.

"Now, we're picking spots that couldn't get matted for whatever reason, either just too small to mat or too steep to mat or we ran out of matting," he said.

The team covers the invasive plants with about 5 acres of mats every year, and John Menapace  the lake association's milfoil project advisor  said the matting is the cloth put under road beds to keep the moisture and mud from coming up through the asphalt. It comes in rolls that are 12.5 feet wide and 450 feet long but gets cut down to 50-foot sections.

Pockets are sewed into the matting every six feet, he said, and guardrail cable is inserted to weigh the mats down. Using a 14-foot 2-by-4, the mats are rolled out and placed on the bottom of the lake, where divers place them over large patches of milfoil.

"As they keep going, they overlap edges of the matting and make a great big blanket that covers the patch on the bottom," Menapace said. We leave the matting down for eight weeks. What that basically does is kill all the vegetation under the mats. ... It basically starves it from sunlight."

Though native species are killed by the mats, Menapace said they easily come back because they produce seeds. Since milfoil is never allowed to grow to a point that it produces seeds, it doesn't come back as quickly.

When it is time to pick up the mats, Menapace said it is almost the reverse process  the 2-by-4 is used to wrap the beginning of the mat, and a hydraulic reel winds it up.

"As soon as you pull the mat up, the cray fish are flying back in there and the regular fish are back over it," he said. "So, the areas come back with native species pretty quick."

For what is called the picking phase, Marsden said divers use a hose with both a buoy and an anchor attached to one end. They dig out the milfoil by its root ball and feed it into the hose.

He said the pump draws water out of the lake and shoots it at high velocity to create suction. A 40-pound onion bag is attached to the other end of the hose to collect the milfoil. And, he added, the same engine that runs the water pump also runs the air pump for the divers' breathing air.

Marsden pointed out where he works in an arc, moving back and forth to gather all of the milfoil. He said the bottoms of the patches are carpeted with the broken-off tufts with white tentacles that the plant uses to sprout.

"I'm picking the plant and literally vacuuming the bottom with the hose as I go," he said, noting that he has to beware of sticks getting into the hose.

Over the course of about an hour, Marsden said he can clear a couple hundred square feet of milfoil, and the typical dive lasts from an hour to two hours.

"The whole trick is to just dig it out by the roots, so you're not just mowing a lawn," he said. "You're eradicating it, not just cutting it off. ... We're trying to wipe it out, not just knock it back. If you'd seen patches that were in this lake 10 years ago versus what there is now, it's an amazing difference."

Taking some samples from one of the onion bags, Marsden explained that as milfoil plants mature, they grow tufts with tentacles. The tufts break off, float away and land in the bottom, and the tentacles become the root system.

"That's how it propagates itself," he said, calling it "a very distinctive looking weed" and point to a patch from the diving boat. "The milfoil is invasive. It doesn't' have any natural predators. That's why we're trying to keep it in control because if you don't, it just takes over. Nothing eats it. Nothing combats it."

One of the advantages of starting the project early instead of waiting another five years, Werner said, is that milfoil can produce seeds if it produces a flower that reaches the surface of the water and gets pollinated.

"If we can stop that, they can't produce seeds," he said.

Marsden said the divers haven't seen plants reach the surface in about six or seven years, and those plants grew about eight feet high  so tall that he could stand on the bottom of the lake, put his hands up and not reach the top of the plant.

"We just wiped out all the big beds of it," he said.

Werner said the lake association spends around $130,000 per year on the milfoil control, but that is a baseline amount  the initial project cost was about three times more.

If not for that effort  and the community support behind it  Werner said the lake would look much different than how it appears today. For one thing, out in the open it would be greener because the algae would move up.

Milfoil plants would grow up to the surface of the water, taking over any area at least 6 feet high.

"You can't swim through. You can't boat through it. It would clog a prop right up," Marsden said. "You physically cannot get through it."

The plant beds would act as a dam, Werner said, that would prevent heavy runoff from getting out into deeper water. Marsden said silt couldn't travel out to deeper water and sink and would get trapped close to shore.

The algae would start growing, Werner said, and the water would get muddy and turbid.

"It changes the whole biology of the lake and not for the better," Marsen said.

Economically, Werner said studies show a 15-percent reduction in assessed values near water that has weeds such as milfoil. That means people would get less money when they sell their homes, and the county, towns and villages around the lake would get less property tax revenue.

The north end of the lake, which Werner said is shallow for a long way and amenable to recreational activities, would not be such a destination point.

"If that were to fill up with weeds up there and there's a lot of weeds in certain areas, nobody could swim up there. It'd be hard to get a boat in there," he said. "People standing on the end of the jetty looking into a bunch of weeds all over the place would not be too happy, and the businesses would probably suffer somewhat."

With that scenario in mind, Werner said "it means a lot" to have had the milfoil control project go on for 10 years and see such success in the lake.

With the 10th year of the milfoil control project in high gear, Werner said he is already getting ready for the 11th season. Soon, he will conduct a survey by going around the shoreline at depths of between 8 and 10 feet and 12 and 14 feet and recording the locations of milfoil patches with a combination of GPS and sonar.

That information is sent to a laboratory in Minnesota that creates digital maps that enable the lake association to locate the milfoil and calculate the area and depth of large patches.

"That gives us a lot of really good information to plan for the following year," Werner said. "In terms of getting rid of milfoil, we're winning the battle. I don't think there are very many lakes in the country that can say that, though. I think we're doing a heck of a job."
BAKU (Sputnik)  Earlier in the day, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev explained Baku's position on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue to his Iranian counterpart during their bilateral meeting earlier in the day, according to reports in local media.

"We hope peace and stability will be restored in the region. Every problem must have its solution through peaceful means. Iran has always supported Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and advocated a peaceful settlement to the issue," Rouhani told press conference in Baku, as quoted by the APA new agency.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been engaged in a dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh since 1988, when the autonomous region left the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic and proclaimed independence after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. The secession triggered a war that lasted until a Russia-brokered ceasefire was signed in 1994.
Trainer John Bax and driver Steve Byron teamed up to win three of four $18,000 Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots divisions at Hanover Raceway on Saturday evening (August 6).

The pair had the winning touch right from the start, as Byron piloted Tymal Declan to a gate-to-wire victory in the first division, reaching the finish almost 10 lengths ahead of the field in 2:04.4. Hopeswishesndreams finished second and Tax Savings completed the top three.

I actually really like her, said Byron. She missed the last Grassroots from sickness, and she was really strong tonight. I actually thought that she could get better as the year went on; shes a nice big mare.

The win was Tymal Declans first. In the July 10 Grassroots event at Georgian Downs, she was fifth, and on July 21 at Mohawk Racetrack, she was fourth. Campbellville, Ont. resident Bax shares ownership of the Kadabra daughter with Anderson Family Stables of Campbellville, Happy Trails Stables of London, Ont., and Gordon Wright of Charlotte, Michigan. The group acquired the filly from the 2015 Harrisburg Yearling Sale for $52,000.

The second Grassroots event went to division point leader Inner Drive, who also led from start to finish, hitting the wire in 2:03.3. Stritch was three and one-half lengths behind the fan favourite in second, while Byron and Bax trainee Windsong Normandie claimed the third spot.

Ross Battin crafted Inner Drives third straight Grassroots victory for trainer Bob McIntosh of Windsor, Ont., Dave Boyle of Bowmanville, Ont., and C S X Stables of Liberty Center, Ohio. The homebred daughter of Kadabra and Urge To Splurge boasts a five-race record of three wins and one second for earnings of $30,500.

Byron and Bax were back in the winners circle following the third Grassroots division as Parkhill Nocredit cruised around the Hanover Raceway half-mile in 2:06. Hab Faith finished second and fan favourite Man Shes Hot settled for third.

She gets pretty fired up, but Steve said she was pretty relaxed tonight, noted Bax.

Off a :30.4 quarter, the filly laid down a 1:05.1 half and then picked up the tempo again for a 1:35.4 three-quarters.

I dont know why. She warmed up relaxed, usually she pulls a ton, but for whatever reason she was pretty calm tonight.

I love her desire, I just wish she was a hand taller, but she sure wants to be a racehorse, added the horseman, who also bred the daughter of Federal Flex and Harlequin Seelster.

In the first three Grassroots events, Parkhill Nocredit had finished fourth (July 10), third (July 21) and second (July 29), and Saturdays victory bumps her into third spot in the division standings with 95 points.

Bax shares ownership of the filly with his son Marshall Bax of Hamilton, Ont., and father and son were joined in the winners circle by Hanover Raceways victorious Be A Winner finalist Jim Spence. Spence placed his Be A Winner ballot in the box belonging to Parkhill Nocredit, and when the filly emerged victorious, he joined the Baxs in the winners circle for a photo and trophy presentation.

The final division saw Byron and Majestic Wanda edge out of the pocket in the stretch and reel in pacesetter Late Shift, getting a head in front to record the 2:03.4 victory. Late Shift settled for second and Hilarious Honey completed the top three.

I said to somebody before the race, If Steve gets around the track, Steve will be a magician, recalled Bax. She warmed up terrible. She was looking, and going sideways, and running and not paying attention.

So I wasnt very optimistic, and Im thinking, at least Ive had a real good night and you know, this one, it doesnt matter what she does, it wont dampen it, the trainer continued. And then she goes ahead and does what she does, and Im thinking, wow, I must have been a good boy this week, looking up at the stars and theyre all lined up.

Heading into Saturdays test, Majestic Wanda had made breaks in both of her previous Grassroots starts and Bax had made the rare decision to add trotting hopples to her equipment. The move, and the winning streak Byron and Bax were enjoying, convinced Hanover Raceway fans, who sent the Majestic Son daughter off as their top choice.

Bax, John Houston of Cobourg, Ont., Ken Ewen of Georgetown, Ont., and Bruce Norris of Caledon East, Ont. offered up $25,000 for Majestic Wanda at the Harrisburg Yearling Sale.

In addition to the trio of Grassroots wins, Byron also appeared in the winners circle with pacing colt Rumour Has It Eh after the fifth race, giving the Thornton, Ont. resident four wins on the program.

Its one of those nights everything went good -- you keep your fingers crossed hoping for those, said Byron. Ive been lucky enough to drive for John and some good trainers; they usually have them set up pretty good for me, Im lucky that way.

I actually like driving at this track, its one of my favourites in Ontario, added the reinsman.

Byron and Bax will have an opportunity to replicate their Hanover Raceway success when the two-year-old trotting fillies make their fifth Grassroots start on August 15 at Mohawk Racetrack.

Hanover Raceway does not race next Saturday as the track will host the 152nd annual Hanover Fair on Friday through Sunday. Live racing returns with the Balanced Image eliminations on August 20. Eleven of tonight's OSS filly trotters are eligible to compete in the Balanced Image Trot. Post time on Saturday, August 20 is 7:15 p.m.

To view Saturday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Saturday Results - Hanover Raceway.

(With files from OSS and Hanover Raceway)
Motorino, co-owned by Eric Johnston and trainer Terry Gallant, won the Sunday (August 7) top class at Red Shores Summerside.

Ken Murphy was called in to catch-drive the five-year-old black gelding and sent the pacer to the front off the rail in the $2,100 feature, cutting fractions :28.3, :58 and 1:26.4 before stopping the timer in an impressive 1:55.3. Rash B Havior was second with Sam third.

Murphy enjoyed a great afternoon at the legendary Prince County oval with four winners that also included Paphos, Red Magician and the finale aboard Coasttocoastshark.

Jason Hughes had a driving triple with American Captain, Woodmere No Fool and Keep It Country taking top honours in their respective races.

Mark Pezzarello recorded a driving double.

Summerside takes a break for Old Home Week starting Thursday, August 11 until Saturday, August 20. Racing returns to Summerside on Wednesday, August 24 with a 7 p.m. post time.

To view Sunday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Sunday Results - Summerside Raceway.

(Red Shores)
Titus Seelster utilized his tremendous early speed at the start of Saturdays (August 6) feature at Saratoga Casino Hotel and then was able to sit back and watch as his rivals duked it out.

The Jackie Rousse-trained pacer sat the pocket in Saturdays $15,000 Open Pace and waited patiently while front-running Sassy Hanover was met with several challenges. Respectable Dream (Austin Siegelman) was dismissed at 13-1 and fought gamely on the outside while wearing down the leader. All the while, the races odds-on favourite, Givenupdreaming (Stephane Bouchard), was making progress in his attempt to go last to first. Respectable Dream took the lead turning for home and while Givenupdreaming was flying on the outside, Titus Seelster snuck up the passing lane and proved fastest of all, stopping the timer in 1:52.3.

Titus Seelster returned $14.20 to win in the mild upset as he bested Respectable Dream, who was a more than respectable second in his debut in the local Open, and Givenupdreaming, who had to settle for third. The exacta and triple came back $187 and $910, respectively.

Titus Seelster was driven to his second local Open win of the year by Frank Coppola Jr. The five-year-old Artistic Fella gelding is owned by Kellogg Racing Stables Ll.

Live racing resumes on Tuesday night at Saratoga when three-yea- old colts and geldings take centre stage as part of the New York Sire Stakes. First post time is set for 7:05 p.m.

(With files from Saratoga)
About two months ago, a federal appeals court ruled that the Cayuga Indian Nation of New York's lawsuit brought against a small Cayuga County village by tribe member Clint Halftown could stand.

This reversed a lower court ruling that said Halftown lacked the authority to bring the case, which challenges Union Springs government's ability to enforce its gaming ordinance against the nation. Halftown is just one member of a governing council for the nation that, while divided, nonetheless never approved Halftown's legal move.

The appeals court, though, said that because the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs in 2015 had decided Halftown was the "federal representative" of the tribe for administering a grant from the U.S. government, he had the standing to sue in an unrelated matter on behalf of the tribe.

It's too bad the BIA was not more clear (or perhaps the appeals court just wasn't reading carefully enough) in its 2015 decision, because events last week illustrated exactly why the lower court was correct to dismiss the case in the first place.

Halftown recently began a new power play to try to regain control of the entire Cayuga Nation. A peace agreement between his and another faction announced last summer had established an arrangement which, by and large, had allowed Halftown to run the tribe's Union Springs operations and the other group to be in control of the Seneca County businesses.

Now Halftown, citing a need to move the nation forward, is trying to orchestrate an election to put a group that includes himself and his supporters in charge. The other faction is saying that's patently against tribal law.

What we found most interesting, however, was one of the most definitive statements we've seen to date by the BIA. Last week the agency said it was not picking sides, and that Halftown's limited involvement with the federal government was no longer relevant.

The BIA stated: "When there was an existing contract with the BIA and the Cayuga Nation, the BIA worked with Mr. Halftown as a point of contact for the Nation's contract matters. Now, however, the contract has expired, and the Nation has been unable to make formal leadership decisions due to an internal leadership dispute. There is no BIA contractual business for Mr. Halftown to attend to at this time."

The agency also said it "is providing technical assistance to the Cayuga Nation as they attempt to work through their internal leadership issues. The hope is that the BIA will eventually hear from the Nation as to who they consider their leaders to be."

In the meantime, it's hard to understand how the lawsuit Halftown brought against the village, one that is costing village taxpayers money to fight, can stand, but the village has expressed an interest in trying to work out a settlement with the tribe. Given the recent developments, it's not clear with whom it should be negotiating. And that may be as good of a reason as any to try to win this case on the merits that Union Springs has every right to tell a business within its borders to comply with local laws.
The citizens committee that is updating the Longview school facilities master plan has drafted a wide range of ideas to meet the districts building needs for the next 30 years.

Those ideas include some new approaches, such as breaking up elementaries into primary and intermediate schools, and other ideas that have been discussed earlier, such as merging the high schools.

Officials are aware that the process is politically sensitive and are hoping to avoid the public outcry caused by the 2011 high school merger proposal. They are emphasizing that ideas are still being formed, and that they are still months away from bringing any proposals to the public. They also are aware that whatever plan they select will have a hefty price tag, ranging from $80 million to more than $230 million.

The committee is sorting through ideas (see sidebar) and hopes to have a plan for the school board to review this fall.

These are initial ideas which are based upon input we have received to date, said Longview Superintendent Dan Zorn. These preliminary options will provide a basis for the Facilities Advisory Committee to get deeper into its continuing conversation with the board and the community.

As a result of a $29,000 facilities study completed last summer, the committee estimated in February that the district needed $213 million in building upgrades, including replacing four elementary schools, modernizing the high schools, and upgrading security features.

The citizen facilities committee has split into three groups, brainstorming and fleshing out three approaches: a conservative approach, mid-range approach, and ambitious, long-range approach have been developed as a result.

The committee plans to schedule a joint study session with the school board at its Aug. 22 meeting. The study session will occur sometime in the fall, allowing the committee to present their refined plans to the board.

This session will then allow the board to consider which plans will be presented to the community for consideration.

Board member and committee liaison Richard Lord said on Friday that he had no inclination as to how the rest of the board might lean.

Lord believes that the recent plans differ greatly from the proposals the board saw in 2011, but says memories of the controversy still linger.

I hope they can set that aside and look at the presentations for what they are today, Lord said.

The three approaches have little in common, though all of them do address some needs at the elementary school level, including replacing Mint Valley Elementary School and adding lunchrooms to all of the elementaries.

There are several ideas that do stick out from the rest as a bit more aggressive and far-reaching. The mid-range plan, for instance, considers one option of converting R.A. Long to a middle school and building one high school at the Mark Morris location, while another idea contemplates turning Mount Solo Middle School into a high school.

Another big idea to surface from the committees long-range plan would be a redistribution of existing grade bands (how grades are grouped together), while closing four to five school buildings in the process.

It is important to remember at this point, advisory committee members are still considering the range of options that it will discuss with the board of directors at a special meeting in September, wrote Sandy Catt, director of Technology and Communications for Longview Public Schools in an email.

Board president C.J. Nickerson emphasized that the slow process of developing ideas was important to get it right.

At this point it would be premature to say anything was off the table, Nickerson said. We need to go beyond the buildings and consider what it means for our kids, our employees, and our families.
Modi urges action against cow-protection attacks

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the public to take action against people who use religion as a cover for committing crime.

AFP, New Delhi :India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit out at a spate of attacks by cow-protecting vigilantes on Saturday, urging action against people who used religion as a cover for committing crime.Critics say killings in the name of protecting cows, considered sacred by India's Hindu majority, have increased since the nationalist premier won power in 2014.Hundreds of people were detained in western India last month when protests against an attack on four low-caste villagers who were taking a cow to be skinned turned violent.Modi said he would task state governments with investigating anyone linked to the attacks, and urged the public to take action against perpetrators.He predicted "70-80 percent of them will turn out to be people who are involved in anti-social activities and masquerade as cow protectors to save themselves".The speech was the first comment on the vigilante attacks from the Hindu nationalist leader, who has been accused of failing to protect religious minorities.Right-wing Hindu groups in India have long demanded a complete ban on the slaughter of all cattle, citing religious scripture.Cows are considered sacred by Hindus and killing them carries a severe punishment in most Indian states.But vigilante groups have increasingly been taking the matter into their own hands, and critics say they have been emboldened under Modi's BJP.A police officer was killed in western Gujarat state last month when a protest against an attack on low-caste villagers who were skinning a cow erupted into violent clashes.At least five Muslim men were killed last year by Hindu mobs on suspicion of eating beef or smuggling cows across the country.The family of one of them, who was lynched, have been told they could face criminal charges after being accused of slaughtering a cow.While the majority of India's 1.2 billion population is Hindu, the country is also home to sizeable Muslim, Christian and Buddhist minorities.
Thailand votes in referendum on contested constitution

Tha Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha talks to reporters after casting his vote in a referendum on a new constitution at a polling station in Bangkok on Sunday.

Agencies, Bangkok :

Polls close in vote on charter that generals claim will bring stability but critics say is meant to cement army's hold.

Polls have closed in a referendum across Thailand on a controversial new constitution that has been been drafted by the military-led government.

The military says the constitution - Thailand's 20th since absolute monarchy was abolished in the 1930s - will curb political corruption, bring stability and heal more than a decade of bitter political division.

But critics say it is intended to tighten the military's grip on democracy.

Polls opened at 8am local time (01:00 GMT) on Sunday, offering Thais the first chance to vote since powerful Thai generals toppled a democratically elected government in 2014.

If people vote to accept the military-approved constitution, opponents say, it will cement the role of the armed forces in Thailand politics for decades, and constrain the populist forces that have arisen in recent times to challenge the generals and their allies in the royalist establishment.

"There is great anticipation and excitement here in Thailand because we haven't had a say for so long," Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University, told Al Jazeera.

"This draft constitution is highly consequential about how things are going to be in Thailand in the coming months and years."

Despite the importance of the referendum, public debate has been muted.

Many have yet to see a copy of the draft constitution, while the military government has effectively banned campaigning against the document; they have arrested and detained dozens of activists and politicians in the run-up to the referendum, some of them trying to hand out leaflets urging people to vote "no".

"A public referendum is supposed to be a democratic tool, but in Thailand it has a very different look," said Al Jazeera's Wayne Hay, reporting from Bangkok.

"When opponents of the military coup tried to open centres to monitor possible cheating before the vote, they were shut down within minutes," he said.

In the run-up to the vote, the referendum law allowed for a 10-year prison sentence for those found guilty of "rude" or "false" discussion about the draft constitution.

Such restrictions did not apply to the "yes" vote, and the military government broadcast songs and television programmes to drum up support for a positive result in the referendum.
RANGPUR: Rangpur Shahittya- Sangskritik Parishad organised a discussion at its office marking the 75th death anniversary of Poet Rabindranath Tagore on Saturday.
Indonesian SMEs encouraged to tap into myriad benefits of digital technology

Xinhua, Jakarta :

With a myriad of business opportunities awaiting in an increasingly digitalized world, players in the Indonesian Small-Middle Enterprises (SMEs) sector are being encouraged to seize the opportunities from such beneficial conditions in order to further boost their businesses.

Despite its dominating portion in the structure of the nation's economy, the number of SME players in Indonesia extensively using digital instruments to expand their markets is still deemed insignificant, business observers have noted.

According to data released by Indonesia's Industry and Commerce Chamber (Kadin), only 30 percent of SME businesses in the country are already using digital instruments and tools to expand their markets.

This figure is put into perspective when compared to the fact the sector comprises more than 60 percent of the country's overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has initially set a target of 8 million SMEs business in the country "going online" by 2020.

Business consultant agency McKinsey Global Institute has said that intense involvement of digital instruments in SMEs business may boost the nation's economic growth by 2 percent each year.

The agency also said that the use of e-commerce through digital instruments would further spur SME businesses by as much as 80 percent.

As such, becoming cognizant about the huge potential from becoming proficient with and using digital instrument technology in the Indonesian SME sector, comes highly recommended to business people to expand their respective markets and sales.

"The supporting technology exists at present. The access and acquisition of this technology is also relatively affordable, especially for SMEs," Regional Head of Commercial Payments MasterCard Asia Pacific, Singapore, Philip Glickman told Xinhua.

"The key is getting the right people in the right position with the knowhow to use that specific technology," Glickman said in an exclusive interview recently, during the 12th World Islamic Economic Forum held here.


Mohiuddin Ahmed, President of Bangladesh Mobile Phone Consumers Association, addressing a press conference at the Jatiya Press Club in the city yesterday.
SCBA team meets President

Yusuf Hossain Humayun, President of Bangladesh Supreme Court Bar Association, made a courtesy call on President Abdul Hamid at Bangabhaban yesterday. BSS photo





A 12-member delegation of Bangladesh Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), led by its president Yusuf Hossain Humayun, made a courtesy call on President Abdul Hamid at Bangabhaban on Sunday.

During the meeting, the delegation apprised the President of SCBA's various activities and the problem regarding office accommodation for its 7,000 members. President's press secretary Joynal Abedin briefed reporters after the meeting. Abdul Hamid said lawyers are indispensable part of the judiciary and advised them to work with sincerity so that people can get justice.

He assured the leaders of his cooperation in solve problems facing by the association. Secretaries concerned to the President Office were present.
Averting genocide in Aleppo

Hamish de Bretton-Gordon. :

Against a back drop of four terror attacks in Germany and two in France in the last ten days, a genocide is developing in Aleppo (Syria) which, at the far end of the scale, could see up to 300,000 Syrians killed in front of our eyes.

The Assad Regime, supported by the Russians, appears completely determined to take Syria's second city, where 300,000 civilians and rebels are trapped with current hope of escape. And the rebels fighting Assad in Aleppo show no signs of surrender. UOSSM, the charity I support and advise, has, at the latest count, four hospitals/clinics in Aleppo, all of which have been directly targeted by the Assad regime and Russian jets and are now barely functioning underground. UOSSM only has a handful of doctors left in Aleppo and very few medicines.

This is the same for our partner charities SAMS and MSF. With no food, no medicines and no chance of escape, the thousands trapped and starving in Aleppo have no hope unless the West, and in particular the members of the International Syria Support Group (UNSC), act decisively and soon.

Since the last route out of Aleppo was cut off earlier this month, no food has come in and nobody has been allowed to leave. Like Halabja in the 1980s and Srebrenica in the 1990s the world seems paralysed and unable to act. There may have been some excuse for Halabja happening at a time before blanket media and social media coverage, though much less so for Srebrenica. But the catastrophe in Aleppo is taking place before the world's eyes. Multiple social media feeds show what is happen on an almost hourly basis.

How is it in the 21st Century that we can watch another genocide unfold in front of our eyes? Despite Stephen O'Brien, the UN humanitarian chief, calling for a ceasefire, member states of the UNSC are not falling over themselves to bring this to fruition. And the prospect of a US-Russia deal to end the violence lacks credibility in the eyes of Syrians, as the current US administration has continuously failed to keep Russia to any of its promises and international obligations.

The terror events in Europe are undoubtedly the focus for those countries directly affected and many of them blame the uncontrolled flow of the millions of migrants into Europe over the last four years for the heightened terror threat. Is it no surprise that there will be some Islamic State (IS) terrorists among the millions who have fled to Europe.

The last time I was in Syria, around 12 months ago, Syrians I spoke to made it clear that the driving force for them to come to Europe was the bombs of the Assad's aircraft and the terror unleashed by IS.

Some of the Syrians believed that if they made it to Germany they would be given a house, a car, a job and money. From their desperate position in Syria this must have seemed like Nirvana.

It is not just returning foreign fighters and the very few Jihadists among the refugees that are creating terror in the towns and cities of Europe, but also the lone wolves the very recently radicalised, like in Germany. Across the world, fermenting anger and hatred has turned people into 'sleepers', ready and waiting to strike.

Without wanting to insight racial hatred across communities by demonising refugees and those of a Middle Eastern origin, this group of 'sleepers' in Western communities is the most challenging to seek out. But by working with Syrian, Iraqi and other communities in these threatened countries it is possible to separate the good from the bad or the ones to be watched. In parallel, a more compassionate and comprehensive European policy on refugees and migration would remove the illegal smuggling routes, and instead allow for more effective vetting.

If the international community doesn't act to protect civilians in Aleppo and across Syria it will further fuel the IS ideal of attacking those who oppose them. The lack of political will to decisively engage in Syria for the last five years, personified by the potential Aleppo genocide, will provide all the foot soldiers IS needs in Europe and elsewhere for the foreseeable future.

The international community - with Europe at the forefront - has the opportunity to turn the tide against IS by finally making good of its promises of protecting Syrian civilians in Aleppo and across Syria. Only then can the prospect of finding a sustainable political solution become a reality.



(Hamish de Bretton-Gordon is a chemical weapons adviser to NGOs working in Syria and Iraq. He is a former commanding officer of the UK Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Regiment and NATO's Rapid Reaction CBRN Battalion).


Ferry terminals eroded

Paturia-Daulatdia service snapped

Flood-affected area of Umarpur Union under Chowhali upazila in Sirajganj district. This picture was taken on Sunday.

Staff Reporter :Road communications between Dhaka and 21 southern and south-western districts got snapped as all the landing stations at Daulatdia ferry terminal were eroded into river Padma on Sunday.The Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) suspended ferry service on the Paturia-Daulatdia route and advised all to use Bangabandhu Bridge and Lalan Shah Bridge. The ferry service on the Paturia-Daulatdia was suspended at 10:00am on Sunday to avoid any untoward incident. "We advised all to use the Bangabandhu Bridge as an alternative route," said Sheikh Mohammad Nasim, Deputy General Manager of BIWTC. He said every year they suffer such crisis in monsoon season. He hoped that they would be able to restore ferry communication by Monday.The Paturia-Doulatdia ferry route is one of the key points to connect southern Bangladesh with the rest of the country.Shafikul Islam, Manager (commerce) of BIWTC at Daulatdia office, said three out of four landing stations have been washed away while the rest one is also under threat of erosion of the Padma river. The locals said thousands of passengers from 17 southwestern districts have been suffering due to damaged landing stations, shortage of ferries and strong current on both sides of the Padma -- Paturia in Manikganj and Daulatdia in Rajbari -- for the last one-month. Around a thousand vehicles, including buses, trucks and cars, remained stranded on both ends of this important route. Passengers of about 200 buses have been facing immense sufferings including shortage of food and toilet facilities. Salimullah Khan, who was returning to Dhaka with five family members, said: "I am worried about reaching home in time." 'I have been here for long time with passing times with anxiety and frustration,' said truck driver Moktar Hossain. The landing station No. 1 was damaged on July 27 due to the strong current of the river. Maximum portion of roads of landing station No. 2 was damaged by the erosion, according to the BIWTC officials.There are eighteen ferries including nine Ro Ro, six utility and three K-type ferries in Paturia-Daulatdia ferry service. Of them, K-type ferry 'Kaberi' was anchored at floating workshop 'Madhumati' near Paturia ferry terminal with engine problems, said Mohiuddin Rasel, Manager (commerce) of BIWTC at Aricha office.
Since its inception last year, the Indigo Arts Collective and Market has raised First Friday ArtWalk awareness surrounding working local artists on both the emerging and professional levels. Now, through its first benefit event, the spotlight will turn to one of the animal kingdoms most threatened members.

The African elephant is estimated to reach extinction in the wild in less than a decade. And with World Elephant Day on August 12, these artists are using a bevy of creative skillsets, in partnership with local organizations and with all proceeds benefitting the international Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, to reverse elephants dire circumstances with Big Dreams Elephant Masquerade.

Big Dreams stomps into the Green Room Friday, August 12 beginning with a stilt parade through downtown at 6 p.m. The show  featuring art auctions, aerial artists and live music  begins at 7 p.m. There is a $5 cover at the door. Learn more on Facebook and at FlagstaffGreenRoom.com.

Safeguarding grace

African elephants are, of course, a far cry from Flagstaffs native species. But that doesnt mean a connection cant develop between humans and the worlds largest land mammal.

Indigo Art Market Founder and Big Dreams co-organizer Kayley Quick pegged these massive creatures as a childs favorite animal for their size and captivating grace. When a friend shared the facts on the state of African elephants, Quick was moved to act naturally, through art.

That broke my heart, she said, because it reminded me of all the tragedy and loss of animal life present in our modern world. The loss of such a ubiquitous creature is devastating.

Co-organizer and collective member Jill Sans noted the benefit has turned into a net positive for the collective of inspiring artists across the media spectrum and the community.

I think Flagstaff is a good venue for something like this because we are a community that generally cares. From our local community to the bigger world, we get that we all have to support each other, and that is how our little collective works too.

The efforts are especially appreciated by Big Dreams beneficiary, the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.

Melissa Sciacca, executive director of the U.S.-based charity that supports the work of the DWST in Kenya, noted benefits such as Big Dreams are invaluable tools that bring people together over the impactful issue.

Spreading the word has a tremendous effect in creating awareness about the plight of elephants, the threats they face with ivory poaching, as well as raising funds to help support the DSWTs efforts to save and safeguard Africas wildlife and habitats now and for the future, Sciacca added in a recent email.

Every penny from Big Dreams will go to the DSWT initiative with the greatest need. Sciacca said that is the Orphans Project that provides specialized care for elephant orphans and anti-poaching units efforts through Kenyas Tsavo National Park.

Artistic action

Big Dreams attendees shouldnt be surprised if a herd of elephants crosses San Francisco Street. The organizers have teamed up with Flag Aerial Arts to kick off the event with altitude  a stilt walk parade through Downtown Flagstaff.

FAA director Joanie Garcia noted there is a new coterie of stilt walkers in town, and theyll move to the beat of Kissidugu2s drumming in full costume. At the venue, aerialists will present a range of elephant-inspired dance pieces.

Artists  including Jill and Patrick Sans, Quick, Emma Gardner and Darren Babbitt  created all-original work with that focus, too.

With warm earth tones backing a side-view elephant head profile filled with traditional African tribal patterns, Babbitt brought the Kenyan savanna to Flagstaff.

These elements together are meant to evoke a strong (and somewhat obvious) sense of Africa itself, its history and the importance of elephants within that history, he said. I wanted the imagery to be simple enough that it would not be lost on the casual observer, and aesthetically pleasing.

Gardners piece adopts a more spiritual side to elephants through imagery of the Hindu deity, Ganesh. Industry has imbued humans with a power often abused by greedy poachers, Gardner said, noting her mask depicts the god of removing obstacles.

Sans, too, highlighted Ganesh at the epicenter of her mandala-style paintinga fitting tribute to the challenges the creatures he personifies face.

Like the name of our event Big Dreams, from being our first benefit undertaking to inspiring others to reach out and get involved, it all feels big, and I dont feel like this is really about us at all, Sans added. Its about the future of elephants, which is something I think everyone can have a little warmth in their heart for.
Police finds no clue

DBCCI leader's death case handed over to DB

Police have failed to find out any clue behind the mysterious disappearance and death of the Dutch-Bangla Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DBCCI) president Md Hassan Khaled, whose body was found in the Buriganga River four days after he had gone missing.

Even they have failed to identify the truth whether the business leader was murdered after he had left his Dhanmondi residence on July 23.

Quoting his family members, police said Md Hassan Khaled left home around 9:00am on July 23 (Saturday) to buy medicines from a nearby shop but did not return.

The family members could not reach him by phone, as it was found switched off. They looked for him in different areas of the capital. Failing to trace him, his brother-in-law Shariful Alam filed a general diary (GD) with Dhanmondi Police Station around 1:00am on the day.

Hassan (55) was the resident of House 45 on Road 4/A in Dhanmondi residential area.

He had been residing on the third floor of the six-storey building over the last three years with his wife and daughter.

"It's a high-profile case we are trying hard to uncover the mystery of the incident. The case has already been to Detective Branch (DB) police for investigation," Noor-a-Azam Miah, Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Dhanmondi Station told The New Nation on Sunday.

According to him, a case has been filed in this regard with the police station on August 6.

When asked, the OC said, the preliminary report of the autopsy failed to reveal the cause of death. Police are waiting for the viscera report. It can help ascertain the cause of death and new lead to the case.

"My husband remained depressed for several months as his business was not going well. He borrowed Tk50 lakh from a private bank and he was in mental pressure to pay back the loan," Dilara Khaled, wife of the businessman, told The New Nation yesterday.

He went to a psychologist for medication and the doctor advised him to take some medicines. He was taking medicines as per the advice of the doctor.

"My husband went out from our house on the fateful morning to buy medicines but since then he did not returned," she added. When asked, Dilara said that as per her knowledge Hassan did not have previous enmity with anyone or he did not borrow big amount from his friends. Even he did not receive any threat from any quarters over any issue.

"I cannot suspect anyone for his disappearance and death," she said.

Meanwhile, the leaders of DBCCI have sought proper investigation into the death of its president Md Hassan Khaled.

"We are shocked by the mysterious death of our leader. It needs proper investigation," a DBCCI leader told The New Nation on Sunday, requesting not to be named.

He said: "We feared that he may be abducted and later killed by unidentified assailants. Panic and fear have gripped business community after the incident".
Iran executes N-scientist

Reuters :

Iran has executed an Iranian nuclear scientist detained in 2010 when he returned home from the United States, after a court convicted him of spying for Washington, a spokesman for the judiciary said on Sunday.

"Through his connection with the United States, (Shahram) Amiri gave vital information about the country to the enemy," Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei told a weekly news conference, state news agency IRNA reported.

Mohseni Ejei said a court had sentenced Amiri to death and the sentence had been upheld by Iran's Supreme court, IRNA said. Amiri, a university researcher working for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, disappeared during a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in 2009, and later surfaced in the United States. But he returned to Iran in 2010 and received a hero's welcome before being arrested.

A U.S. official said in 2010 that Washington had received "useful information" from Amiri.

Iran had accused the CIA of kidnapping Amiri. U.S. officials said Amiri had been free to come and go as he pleased, and that he may have returned because of pressures on his family in Iran.

Amiri had denied this, saying "my family had no problems". In a video aired by Iranian state TV in 2010, Amiri said he had fled from U.S. agents. Iran, the United States and five other world powers reached a landmark deal last year, under which Iran agreed to limit its nuclear program in such a way as to ensure it cannot develop nuclear weapons in exchange for a lifting of economic sanctions.
Kalyanpur arrestees put on remand

Court Correspondent :

The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Court of Dhaka on Sunday placed five persons including the owner of Taj Manzil building and her son on a two-day remand in a case filed for giving shelter to militants, killed at a flat of the building in the capital's Kalyanpur area.

Concealing their information and obstructing police from doing their duties.

Magistrate M Khurshid Alam of the CMM Court passed the order rejecting bail petitions of the accused. They are owner of the building -Momtaj Parvin, 60, her son Mazharul Islam, 42, their associate Mahfujul Ansar, 27, Momin Uddin, 45 and Zakir Hossain, 40.

Nine suspected militants were killed in an hour long operation called 'Storm 26' conducted in the six-storied building, locally known as 'Jahaz Bari' on July 26.

On August 1, Sub-Inspector Bozler Rahman of Mirpur Model Police Station filed the case with the police station against the five persons. The following day, Inspector (Investigation) Sajjadur Rahman of the police station showed them arrested and sought a ten-day remand for each accused while Magistrate Mohammad Mazharul Islam fixed August 7 for hearing.

Meanwhile, the owner of the building, Atahar Uddin Ahmed lives abroad.


Problems grip new central jail

Reza Mahmud :Problems have gripped the new central jail at Keraniganj, with inmates suffering from scarcity of foods, drinking water and toilets, sources said. They said, prisoners are facing food crisis due to lack of gas connection in the kitchens. Besides, inadequate sewerage system has led to overflow waste from kitchens and toilets further intensifying the woes of the prisoners. Even the relatives are forced to give bribe to the prison officials for visiting the prisoners. "My uncle is in the prison. He and his inmates are suffering from shortages of foods and water. Visitors are being forced to pay extra money as bribe to get their needs," Anisul Alam, relative of a prisoner, told The New Nation on Sunday. Visitors also alleged that most of the prison guards involved in such unholy nexus raising questions about the honestly and integrity of the prison authorities.The prison guards are demanding Tk 1,000 to Tk 4,000 from the relatives of the prisoners for the purpose of their visit to a jail inmate.Moreover, the visitors are also suffering from insufficient space for visiting their imprisoned relatives."The visiting room is very small and only 40 persons can simultaneously meet their imprisoned relatives in the new jail. The visitors and the prisoners often found to be crying after they failed to meet each other due to lack of insufficient space at the visiting room," Monir Hossain, who visited the jail recently, told The New Nation yesterday. Many had to wait for hours get the chance to visit their relatives at the jail.IG (prison) Iftekhar Uddin on Saturday told to the journalists that every problem of the new jail will be solved soon. "We have applied for gas connection. Problems of the visitors will be resolved within three weeks," he added. All prisoners have been taken the new jail at Keranigonj from Dhaka old central jail on July 29.
Man found dead in Gazipur

UNB, Gazipur :

An unidentified young man was found dead in Chapulia area under Joydebpur thana in the city on Sunday morning.

Md Hazzaz Hossain, Sub-Inspector of Joydebpur Police Station, said locals spotted the body tied with rope with a tree in the area in the morning and informed police. Later police recovered the body and sent it to Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmad Medical College Hospital. The age of the deceased was around 25.
Alleged criminal killed in Rajshahi gunfight

UNB, Rajshahi :A suspected criminal was killed in a 'gunfight' between his gang members and police at Jowanbhag village in Bagmara upazila early Sunday. Identity of the deceased could not be known immediately.Officer-in-Charge of Bagmara police station Selim Hossain said a team of police informed of the presence of a gang of criminals conducted a drive in the area at about 3:30am.Sensing the presence of the law enforcers, the gang members opened fire on them, forcing police to fire back that triggered a gun battle.One of the gang members was caught in the line of fire and died on the spot while his associates managed to flee the scene, said the OC. Police recovered the body and sent it to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital morgue for an autopsy. The law enforcers also recovered one pistol, 20 hand bombs and some sharp weapons.
Pro-democracy rally in Turkey Erdogan and opposition unite

Al Jazeera News :

A pro-democracy rally in response to Turkey's failed coup attempt is being held in Istanbul, uniting the president, the prime minister and two opposition leaders on the same platform for the first time in years.

As part of its anti-coup campaign, Ankara has been encouraging nightly rallies throughout the country, culminating in a grand finale held in Istanbul's Yenikapi square on Sunday.

More than a million people, many waving the Turkish flag, joined President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim during the late afternoon rally. The "Democracy and Martyrs' Rally" is meant to represent the unity of the country, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urging attendees to bring only the Turkish flag, instead of party banners. "There we will stand together as a single nation, a single flag, a single motherland, a single state, a single spirit," he said before the rally. Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency estimates that millions could attend the event.

"The public gatherings are expected to attract people from all walks of life, regardless of their political preferences," the agency said. Around 13,000 people, in addition to police officers, will be on duty to run the event.

Helicopters, ambulances and over 700 medical personnel will also be on duty.

Similar rallies will also be held simultaneously across the country, according to officials from ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). The rally will be attended by high-level officials.

Erdogan, Yildirim, who is also the leader of the AKP, as well as the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli were also expected to attend the rally. Kilicdaroglu and Bahceli will address the rally before handing the stage to the prime minister and the president. However, the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party's (HDP) co-leaders, Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag are not invited.

The HDP opposed the coup, but has been excluded because it allegedly supports the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Turkey, the US and the European Union designate the PKK, an armed group that has been fighting for Kurdish autonomy since 1984, as a "terrorist organisation".

Erdogan has previously called for HDP members to be prosecuted, accusing them of being the PKK's political wing. The HDP is the third-biggest party in parliament. It denies having direct links with the PKK and promotes a negotiated end to the Kurdish conflict, which claimed hundreds of lives since a peace process, once led by Erdogan and his governing party, collapsed in 2015.

Prior to the rally, hashtags #birliktegucluyuz (Together we are strong) and #TekmilletTekyurek (One nation, one heart) were trending on Twitter, with thousands of people revelling in the solidarity between political parties.
Thai voters back military-written constitution

BBC Online :Thai referendum voters appear to have backed a draft constitution written by an army-appointed committee.Thailand's election commission says that with 91% of the votes counted, 61% have voted in favour.The military threw out the old constitution when it took power in 2014, after months of political instability and sporadic violence. Supporters of the new document say it will restore stability, but critics say it will entrench military control.Voters also appear to have supported a second measure on the ballot, which proposes that the appointed senate should be involved in selecting a prime minister. The election commission says 58% of the votes counted so far are in favour of this.The final result is expected in the next few hours. Campaigning against the draft had been banned and dozens of people have been detained. Thailand's biggest political parties rejected the constitution.After casting his ballot at a polling station in Bangkok, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said: "Come out [to vote] because today is important for the future of the country. "This is your duty and this is part of democracy, of an internationally-recognised process." About 200,000 police officers were deployed to maintain order and there were no reports of protests. The BBC's Jonathan Head in Bangkok said few people had to queue for long and voting proceeded smoothly. Independent observer groups had requested accreditation to monitor the vote, but this was not granted by the Election Commission. The way this referendum has been run by the military authorities has been widely condemned by human rights groups because of the ban on campaigning, which has seen dozens of people detained and charged. As a result, public knowledge of the draft constitution is limited; many Thais say they have little idea what is in it. If it is approved, the military government has promised that a general election could be held by late next year, restoring democratic government.But critics have argued that the draft will create a crippled democracy, with the armed forces and an appointed senate retaining decisive influence over future elected governments.Election officials warned that anyone playing the augmented reality game Pokemon Go, launched in Thailand on Saturday, near polling stations could face charges."In occasions that rare Pokemons emerge in any polling station, please stop playing it," said election commissioner Somchai Srisutthiyakorn. The 50 million eligible voters were asked to answer yes or no to the question: Do you accept the draft constitution? They were also asked a supplementary question, whether or not the appointed senate should be allowed to join the lower house in selecting a prime minister.If a majority of voters says yes, the draft becomes the constitution, enhancing the military government's legitimacy in the run-up to an election which Mr Prayuth, who led the 2014 coup, has promised will happen next year. If the constitution does not pass, what will happen is uncertain, but the military government will remain in control.The military argues that corrupt politicians are to blame for the last decade of instability and divisive politics.Made public in March, the draft proposes a voting system which would make it difficult for a single political party to win a majority of seats in the lower house.One of the most controversial clauses calls for the 250-seat senate to be fully appointed by the military government. Before the coup, just over half of the upper house seats were directly elected and the rest were appointed.The change means military-appointed lawmakers would have a decisive say in the likely event that no party holds a majority in the lower house, or National Assembly of Thailand. Thailand has had more than a decade of fractured politics and instability that has sometimes spilled over into violence.In this time, parties linked to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra have won every election, but their governments have all been ousted either by court rulings or military coups.Mr Thaksin fled into self-imposed exile in 2008 to escape a criminal charge of abusing his power, for which he was later convicted in absentia.
Ban use of adulterated fertilizers



BANGLADESH should take serious steps to stop adulteration of fertilizers as substandard agricultural input decreases yields and increases the cost of farming. The issue dominated discussion at a roundtable on balanced use of fertilizer along with organic fertilizer, held in the city on Saturday. An English daily reported that the participants at the roundtable have laid emphasis on strong monitoring to check the quality of imported potassium, potash and phosphate fertilizers at the stage of storage and distribution as they believe such adulteration is taking place inside the country in the distribution channel. It is said that there are areas in Bogra, Jessore and Jhenaidah where people carry out adulteration of fertilizer at midnight and wrap up activities before the dawn. It seems everyone knows where adulteration is happening.

Agriculture is the driving force of Bangladesh economy. It comprises 16 percent of the country's gross domestic product. Of the agricultural income, crop agriculture alone accounts for 55 percent. But the boost to farm yield would be crucial in the coming years as the country loses 0.66 percent of farmland to mainly non-farm uses. In this background proper use of farmland with pure and balanced fertilizers is a must to continue achieving healthy harvest.

We should remember that the era of single fertilizer is long gone, as new crops have arrived and that also requires combination of fertilizers. Crop plants require 16 nutrient elements for their optimum growth, development and yield. But most of the farmers are not using any micronutrient like copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, Zinc, boron; because of their high price and lack of motivation. Mixed fertilizer is very good in terms of balanced fertilization. It was widely accepted by the farmers in the early 2000s. But farmers have turned their face from it due to serious adulteration and mixed fertilizer is now almost out of market, because none is interested to try it.

So, contaminated fertilizers have been creating serious threat to our agriculture. If the process continues, fertility of the soil would be highly affected and we may proceed to a point of no return. Therefore government should strengthen its monitoring as adulteration of fertilizers must stop ultimately. To stop this menace serious efforts are needed. We must remember that agriculture is lifeline of our economy. Fertility of soil in Bangladesh is very high. So using imbalanced and adulterated fertilizers should not destroy it. Proper use of organic fertilizer is also an important factor for agriculture. Its increased use also should be encouraged.
100 YEARS AGO

Although the rail line looked smooth and level as usual, Saturday night the passenger train from the Grand Canyon to Williams derailed when it crossed a 1,400-foot under-fill washout at Miller Creek Canyon. Fireman Fred Terry was killed instantly when he was caught between the boiler and the tender. Brakeman Havens has 3 broken ribs. Rancher Harry Hibben, who lives nearby, said the afternoons deluge sent a flow about 400 yards wide and 10 feet deep tearing down the canyon.

There was also a wreck on the Santa Fe's Prescott-Phoenix run.

At 7 oclock Sunday morning #7 on the Los Angeles-Phoenix run hit a wrecked bridge near Nada 5 miles north of Phoenix. Although the whole train was demolished, through some miracle no one was killed. Fortunately the train was moving slowly, but the Pullman car was doubled up and the chair car badly damaged.

75 YEARS AGO

The entire Lake Mary water project is ready to go. The system checks began on Monday. Hays Weidner, City Water Dept. Supt., says there is already about 9  feet of water behind the dam. The American Legion is sponsoring boat races next Sunday.

The WPA has abandoned the Hot Lunch Program for Underprivileged Children under vigorous protest. The Kiwanis Club Commission, having met at the Monte Vista, is asking for local volunteers to step forward and assist.

H. 84 Wed. L. 44 Thurs. A rainy week. 0.57.

50 YEARS AGO

Two curious boys, having discovered an empty 12,000 gallon tank behind the self service gas station at Benton and Kendrick, lit a match to see what was inside. The explosion caused an egg shaped hole in the tank and headed skyward, where it severed a 220-volt power line that was wrapped around a wrecker boom. The fireworks were better than 4th of July. Manuel Mesa returned to earth and was rescued. The other boy vanished.

A rare tornado was spotted over Lake Mary sucking water to the clouds on Sunday.

H 87 Fri. L. 51 Fri. No rain.

25 YEARS AGO

Bill Menard, Flagstaff Director of Public Works, says the city will continue to oppose the use of salt on our highways, citing the damage to our cars and other vehicles and the fact the salt attracts elk with obvious results and death of roadside trees. He has consulted with County and Forest Service officials who also voice their concern about salt on northern Arizona roadways. Flagstaff legislative representative John Wettaw said, Its always those flat-landers coming up here and telling us what we should do.

Friday a fearsome lightning storm on the summit of the San Francisco Peaks killed an NAU student hiker and severely damaged a second hiker. Theres a search underway for another hiker who remains missing.

The scene was witnessed by a visitor from Ohio who had taken shelter under a large rock, who said there seemed to be an explosion. It knocked him out from under his rock and landed him face down choking and gasping for breath. He then became unconscious for a short period of time. He was able to come on down the mountain.
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The fatal shooting of an armed suicidal man by Coconino County Sheriffs Deputies in Doney Park this May started with a domestic dispute.

Mark Nelson, 31, died from multiple gunshot wounds in an apparent suicide by cop at approximately 1 a.m. May 21 outside his mothers home on Lumberjack Boulevard following a roughly two-hour standoff.

According to a report by Flagstaff Police Department, which is leading the investigation into the officer-involved shooting, Nelsons cousin said Nelson had been staying with her and his mother in Doney Park because he and his girlfriend were fighting. Nelsons mother said he had been upset and drinking the afternoon of May 20.

A separate FPD report reveals Nelson had called the police department shortly before noon May 20 claiming his girlfriend was suicidal. When an officer arrived at her residence, the girlfriend told him Nelson had placed the call maliciously. The woman said she had asked Nelson for money to purchase baby formula earlier that day. When he returned to her home, she could smell alcohol on his breath.

Nelson had already been convicted of DUI in Flagstaff Justice Court in 2007 and 2010. His ex-girlfriend told him she did not want him around her children when he was intoxicated. He accused her of being romantically involved with another man and began searching the house for evidence.

Youre lucky I dont call the cops about you driving drunk again, his ex-girlfriend told him when he left.

She said he responded by threatening to call the police and tell them she was suicidal so they would take her children away. The police officer told the woman she should consider getting an order of protection.

I was told 2 put a restraining order on u, the girlfriend told Nelson via text message at 3:35 p.m.

Nelson asked if the police were coming to serve him with a restraining order. At 3:37 p.m., he texted that he was not going to jail and told his girlfriend he was loading his rifle.

(I)f they stop by Im shooting at them than (sic) take my own life, he said.

As they fought via text message, Nelson continued to talk about killing himself and officers, even sending his girlfriend pictures of his Ruger M77 25-06 rifle. The girlfriend passed some of the text messages along to Nelsons mother.

At about 6:45 p.m., Nelsons mother found her son sitting in his truck with the rifle between his legs, pointing at the ceiling. Nelson had run a hose from the exhaust pipe into the cabin of his truck, which was running. His mother removed the hose from the exhaust pipe at about 7:30 p.m.

When she went back outside to check on him at 8:30 p.m., he had placed the hose back into the exhaust pipe. She removed it again. Nelson then moved the vehicle to another part of the property.

Nelsons mother called a suicide crisis hotline for help. She told the hotline workers she did not want law enforcement involved. She later told an FPD detective she was afraid Nelson would shoot the responding officer. But when they heard Nelson was suicidal and armed, the hotline workers contacted 911 dispatchers in Flagstaff at about 9:50 p.m.

While Nelson was outside in his pickup truck with the rifle, his cousin returned home from out of town. Witnesses in the area, including the cousin, reported hearing a gunshot that sounded like a high-caliber round between 9 and 9:30 p.m.

A second shot rang out while Nelsons mother was on the phone. Police dispatchers called to instruct her and Nelsons cousin to go to a neighbors house for safety. Nelsons girlfriend drove over and joined them there as the Sheriffs Office set up a perimeter around the area with assistance from Arizona Department of Public Safety and FPD personnel.

That was not the first time Nelson had been at odds with the Sheriffs Office. Local law enforcement had more than 80 contacts with him prior to his death. Some of those contacts were for reports of suicidal threats and behavior.

The officers arrival made Nelson more upset. He called his mother, threatening to kill the officers if they approached him. He spoke to his mother and his girlfriend via cell phone several more times during the ensuing standoff with law enforcement.

Nelsons mother told the FPD detective she heard the Sheriffs Office deputies repeatedly tell her son, we want to help you, and instruct him to put his weapon down. Nelson kept cursing at them and moving around the property, at times going into the house. His mother tried to convince him to talk to a deputy on the phone, but he refused.

At one point, witnesses saw him get in his truck and attempt to drive out of the property, but the exit was blocked by law enforcement vehicles. He started yelling as he exited his truck with the rifle.

A neighbor told the FPD detective he heard Nelson tell the deputies to shoot him. He kept shouting for his girlfriend.

By that time, the SWAT team had been asked to respond. They were too late.

According to the FPD report, the neighbor who was watching the standoff with Nelsons mother, cousin and girlfriend saw Nelson hold the barrel of the rifle to his own chin. The neighbor said Nelson then pointed the gun at the officers.

Multiple witnesses described hearing the sound of a single gunshot from a high-powered rifle just before midnight. They then heard a quick succession of shots fired by Deputies Matthew Curtis, Stephen McNerney, and Benjamin Waibel. All three were later placed on paid administrative leave.

Two of the shots struck Nelson. An ambulance that had been standing by transported him to Flagstaff Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at about 1 a.m. May 21.
PHOENIX -- A special state commission takes the first steps this week to letting Gov. Doug Ducey put two of his choices on the state's high court.

Applications are due Monday for the two new positions that the Republican-dominated legislature created in what until now has been a five-member court.

Unlike the federal process, Ducey does not get to name whoever he wants, subject only to Senate confirmation. Instead, he has to choose from a list of nominees from the Commission on Appellate Court Appointments.

But if the last vacancy is any indication, the commission is likely to send him a wide choice.

The expansion was approved over the objections of all the sitting justices.

"Additional justices are not required by the court's caseload," Chief Justice Scott Bales wrote to Ducey in May, shortly before the governor chose to sign the measure anyway. "And an expansion of the court (whatever people may otherwise think of its merits) is not warranted when other court-related needs are underfunded."

But now Bales, who chairs the commission, will preside over the process of selecting the justices he does not believe are necessary.

Only attorneys need apply. And they need to be at least 30 years old.

But the bench is out of reach of those who will be 65 by the time they take office, what with a mandatory retirement age of 70.

Other than that and a requirement to have practiced law in Arizona for at least 10 years, it appears there are no automatic disqualifiers. But one question on the 16-page application raises an interesting issue.

It specifically asks whether in the last decade the application has "unlawfully used controlled substances, narcotic drugs or dangerous drugs as defined in federal or state laws."

The application spells out, though, that does not include drugs "taken under supervisor of a licensed health care professional."

Six years ago, Arizona voters approved legislation that allows individuals with certain medical conditions and a doctor's recommendation to obtain and use marijuana. Arizona courts have repeatedly ruled that anyone who meets those criteria and has the required state-issued identification card cannot be prosecuted under state law.

"I don't think that (the fact) it might have been permitted under state law would get you off the hook of disclosing," said Bales. "It is prohibited by federal law."

So would that -- or even casual marijuana use -- knock someone out of consideration?

"It's interesting to speculate if someone said, 'Well, I'm an authorized medical marijuana user,' what the committee would do with that," Bales said.

That question of drug use isn't the only probing one on the form.

For example, applicants need to disclose if they've ever been sued for fraud related to their law practice. And there's even a question about whether someone has been suspended from school on account of plagiarism, cheating "or any other cause that might reflect in any way on your integrity."

"It would be up to the commission to weigh, depending on the answer, what weight to give it," Bales said.

In fact, if applicants answer any question in the affirmative, they are asked to provide details and explanations.

Justices will be paid $157,325 as of January 1, plus a package of fringe and retirement benefits that probably brings the cost close to $200,000. And each justice has a judicial assistant and two law clerks who also are paid.
If you are looking for the new Immoral Minority posts, you should know that they can be found here at our new home Please stop by to get caught up on politics, join the conversations, or simply check out the new digs.
Paris, TX (75460)

Today

Periods of rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. High near 55F. Winds NNE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall may reach one inch..

Tonight

Rain. Low 53F. 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.
Country Financial Representative Amanda Brayfield has been selected for the 2016 Best of Herrin Award in the Insurance Agency category by the Herrin Award Program.

The Herrin Award Program is an annual awards program which honors the achievements and accomplishments of local businesses throughout the Herrin area. According to the award program organization, "recognition is given to those companies that have shown the ability to use its best practices and implemented programs to generate competitive advantages and long-term value."

"The Herrin Award Program was established to recognize the best of local businesses in our community. Our organization works exclusively with local business owners, trade groups, professional associations and other business advertising and marketing groups. Our mission is to recognize the small business community's contributions to the U.S. economy," according to a news release from the organization.

For more information, visit www.awardconnect.org.

-- The Southern
More than 20 years after Arizona law was changed to allow capped-enrollment charter schools to open in the state, many in and around Flagstaff still struggle to be ethnically representative of the demographics of the city.

The 2010 census, after breaking out the 12,600 residents of Hispanic origin from the white only population, as was done in past censuses, shows a white population of 53 percent for the city of Flagstaff.

By contrast, according to enrollment data from the Arizona Department of Education collected in 2014, with the exception of the PEAK School, white-only students make up 70 percent or more of the enrollment at all local charter schools. (see chart)

Flagstaff Unified School District has just two schools with a white population above that mark, and nine are 50 percent or lower. Not included is Leupp Public School, which enrolls nearly 100 percent Native American students due to its location on the Navajo Nation.

Tax credit data also paints a picture of differences between FUSD and local charter schools. All local charters except two averaged more than $100 per student in tax credit expenditures by parents and donors for extracurricular activities. Out of 15 FUSD schools, only four averaged $100 or more, according to data from the Arizona Department of Revenue.

While each of the charter school leaders interviewed said their schools embrace diversity and try to create opportunities for all, many contended that the lack of bus service and free meals, plus sibling preference, make achieving that goal difficult.

Ideally, Pine Forest would be as ethnically and as culturally diverse as the city of Flagstaff is, Pine Forest Charter School Principal Michael Heffernan said.

DISTRICT REQUIREMENTS

The Flagstaff Unified School District receives about $2 million annually in desegregation funds, which is money designated to be used to help educate diverse populations.

The reason we levy for the desegregation funds is to offset additional costs that come with either district decisions or state laws, FUSD Superintendent Dave Dirksen said.

Dirksen said the state requires English language learners to participate in intensive English instruction, an unfunded state mandate that receives some of the districts desegregation money. Most of the rest of that money, Dirksen said, goes to other portions of the English language learning program, such as professional development, personnel and supplies needed.

Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Mary K. Walton said the district is also required to provide transportation to students that live outside of a one-mile radius of the school. Dirksen said the districts fleet of buses drives a total of 8,000 miles a day transporting students, including a later activity bus that services students in extracurricular activities.

We pride ourselves on our transportation department, Dirksen said.

Dirksen said about 23 percent of students in FUSD go to schools outside their neighborhood boundaries, including students who attend magnet programs or choose a different school.

We do everything in our power to provide access, he said.

Seven FUSD elementary schools qualify for Title I funds, which are given based on the percentage of students qualifying for free and reduced price meals based on low family income.

Dirksen said students and parents in FUSD expect and receive good nutritional experiences, whether they pay for meals or not, and said the options available in the district contribute to diverse school environments.

The culture of the school district is one that truly embraces the power of diversity, Dirksen said. We are so empowered in our classrooms and on our campuses by the strength diversity affords us.

CHARTER DIFFERENCES

Lack of food service and transportation can make attracting a diverse population a challenge for charter schools, school leaders said.

We have done research on the national school lunch program, but it is cost-prohibitive for a small school like ours, Heffernan said. While nutrition and health are a very large part of our curriculum, we know there are families who either left the school or never enrolled because they ask if we serve free lunch, and the answer is no.

Heffernan said the schools anticipated move to its new campus on Cedar Avenue and Fourth Street bring the possibility of serving food on campus. The site, which used to be St. Pius X Catholic Church, has an on-site kitchen, but the equipment is not up to usable standards yet.

Heffernan said the school plans to explore the option of food service when the move to the Cedar campus is complete.

Other charter school leaders said they have come up with other solutions to solve the lunch dilemma that do not require involvement in the National School Lunch program.

Northland Preparatory Academy Principal Toni Keberlein said outside vendors sell food on the NPA campus, but students who either cannot afford to buy a lunch or forgot a lunch are given food from a pantry on campus.

We know the kids who need help, Keberlein said.

NPA Superintendent Bob Lombardi said families who cannot afford to pay fees associated with coursework or school activities are not charged, and he said no financial information is taken at the time of enrollment.

Sean Clark, the principal of Basis Flagstaff, said when the school knows about a student who might not be able to afford food, there are options in place.

We cant provide lunch service like a public school, and we dont have a kitchen, Clark said. But when we know about a student who cant afford lunch, we help them out. We can give them food from the teachers lounge. We really try to keep that out of social situations; its hard enough to be a kid without that.

Clark said the school contemplates adding transportation every year, but has not been able to work out the funds needed. Last year, the Mountain Line modified its route schedule to better service some of the schools, including Basis. He said the school also wanted to look at more formal carpooling arrangements.

Keberlein and Lombardi said the public bus is also a popular mode of transportation for their school, which contains sixth grade through high school.

Most students at Pine Forest, which contains preschool through eighth grade, are too young to take public transportation alone, Heffernan said.

We rely on families being able to bring their kids to school, Heffernan said. But with the move to our new campus, which is located closer to many neighborhoods, we hope some families will be able to walk or bike to school.

SIBLING PREFERENCE

Arizona law requires charter schools to admit siblings of students who already attend the school before other students who have applied to attend. The law also gives the option to a schools individual governing board to extend that privilege to children of faculty members and of board members.

School leaders said they recognize the purpose behind the law, but also said the limited number of spaces available, combined with admitting siblings first, can greatly restrict the opportunities to increase diversity on campus.

Keberlein and Lombardi said parents of prospective students at NPA are required to attend one of three preview sessions that are hosted during the schools open enrollment period.

Keberlein said the sessions include information about what NPA does and does not offer, including not offering transportation or traditional food service. After the session, parents can turn in a completed application and are entered into a lottery.

Keberlein said the school schedules the sessions at varied hours to be mindful of working parents, including Saturday sessions and one weeknight session.

We do not pick them, they choose us, Keberlein said. As long as they get into the lottery, they are our kids.

Keberlein said the school annually admits 100 sixth-graders, with between 30 and 35 slots filled by siblings of older students before others are chosen by lottery if more students apply than can be accommodated. In all older grades, students are admitted when an opening occurs by a student leaving the school.

Clark said the school does administer a diagnostics test, which he stressed is not an admission test, to students to judge their abilities and guide their placement into the Basis system.

We want to serve every single student and every single family that wants to be here, Clark said.

SOLUTIONS

Both Clark and Heffernan said their schools are working to increase opportunities to admit more diverse populations.

Clark said it is hoped that expanding to lower grades will allow Basis to admit a diverse group of students. The school, which will begin offering third grade this school year, was approved to gradually expand to offer kindergarten through high school.

We really value diversity, Clark said. We are trying to find ways from the inside and outside to make the school more available, and expanding to the primary grades is a huge way to do that.
Visiting the Nobel Museum the same day as the ABBA museum is a split-personality venture. Yet thats what I did in Stockholm this summer during a once-in-a-Boomers-lifetime Scandinavian adventure.

I traveled with three other people, though it felt a bit like there were five of us rather than four. One of my fellow travelers used Rick Steves Scandinavia guidebook as her personal travel Bible, and soon she was channeling Rick as if he were walking beside us.

For the two-week journey, we went to Denmark, Norway and Sweden. We visited the capitals of each country, and in Norway added a few days in the countryside, where we slept in the oldest family-owned Norwegian hotel and I jumped into an ice-cold fjord (and scrambled right out).

We went in late May/early June, and an abundance of lilacs and tulips were in bloom. The people were friendly and informed, and largely seemed in better physical shape than many Americans.

We traveled by plane, train, boat, bus, tram and car. We walked and walked, and a couple of us hopped on bicycles.

For me, being around so much water was a thrill. From the Baltic Sea to the fjords of Norway, to the canals of Copenhagen, to the islands city of Stockholm, there was water nearly everywhere I looked. For a sun-parched gal of Arizona, the waterfalls and icy pools became a lovely constant.

Here are a few highlights from the Norse trip.

Copenhagen, Denmark

Traveling to Europe is a reminder of just how young the United States is. Copenhagen was originally a fishing village in the 1100s. The citys one preserved medieval building is in the Latin Quarter: the Helligandskirken, Church of the Holy Ghost, built in 1295.

The impressive National Gallery of Copenhagen includes Edvard Munchs famous The Scream, though I was particularly drawn to the dark blue rooms that include Nordic art from the 19th Century.

One of my favorite days in this Danish city was the day we were classic tourists on a hop-on-hop-off boat tour. The city of brightly colored buildings glided by, as we floated over man-made canals created in the 1600s under the rule of Christian IV.

Oslo, Norway

The capital city is easy to navigate. The highlight of Oslo for me was strolling through the Vigeland sculpture park, housing more than 200 bronze, granite and wrought iron sculptures by the artist Gustav Vigeland.

The pieces are of humans in various configurations, from babies to youngsters to families to the elderly. The park is several acres and was home and work space for the sculptor for nearly 20 years until his death in 1943. Most Scandinavian parks are free and open to all, and embrace the very heart of public art.

As in many Scandinavian cities, the City Hall was filled with paintings, tapestries, and sculptures, this one illustrating Norwegian history and traditions.

The Oslo Opera House, white granite and marble, offers a beautiful view of the city.

Norse countryside

Our stay at the Walaker Hotel was our big splurge, and it was super, as the Norwegians say. The lovely 25-room hotel has been owned by the Nitter family for nine generations, since the 17th century.

Its tucked into the small village of Solvorn in western Norway, and is adjacent to the deep blue Lustrafjord, and hiking trails abound. The complimentary breakfasts (and optional four-course dinners) are worth the trip.

If you have in mind a typical American hotel breakfast buffet, erase that! This morning spread includes herring, salmon, homemade breads and jams, local farmhouse cheeses, fish eggs, fresh fruit, muesli cereal, eggs and much more. All with cloth napkins, handsome crockery and silver utensils, of course. Local catches include langoustines (Norwegian lobsters) from the fjord, mountain venison, local berries and juices.

Sitting on the porch sipping coffee in the morning or under a lap blanket having drinks at night while gazing at the fjord is what I hope heaven will be. (Yes, Ive reserved a spot for that trip, too!)

A short ferry trip across the fjord delivered us to the Urnes Stave church, one of the oldest preserved churches, originally built in about 1130. This wooden church includes many animal carvings, and a small working cemetery for the village.

We took a drive to one of the many nearby glaciers, where I hiked up to the frozen water, at times relying on the rope railings bolted into the steeper rocks.

The famous Norwegian nutshell fjord tours include various excursions to fjords and villages in the area, but we created our own, and journeyed on the Flam railway in western Norway.

We also enjoyed the Vatnahalsen Hotel, near Myrdal, close to the Flam railway. This family-run hotel is accessible only by train or a steep hike from the train station. It includes simple sleeping rooms but huge common-space sitting rooms, views to die for, an icy swimming pool, plus a startling quiet. No roads lead here, so be sure you know when to hop off the train as it stops for just a couple of minutes, and only for the hotel.

Lonely Planet in 2014 named the 45-minute Flam Railway trip the best train journey in the world. The views over the steep 12-mile route (descending 2,838 feet) are spectacular, allowing travelers panoramic views of the Norwegian fjords, including several waterfalls and tunnels.

The Flam-Myrdal train is small, so theres a surge for seats. Online bookings are difficult, and we confirmed our reservations at the Oslo station.

Stockholm, Sweden

Our last stop was the capital of Sweden, the city of islands and the most populated city in the Nordic with approximately 200,000 foreigners, the largest groups being Finns, Iraqis and Iranians. Stockholm consists of 14 islands on the southeast coast of Sweden by the Stockholm archipelago and the Baltic Sea.

Stockholm is an international hub and felt very cosmopolitan.

Like most of Scandinavian cities, Stockholm is ever so walkable. Historical sculptures, public art and museums are seemingly on every corner. Riding the rails to Stockholm, the Sweden rushing past my window reminded me of northern Wisconsin: green landscape dotted with red farmhouses.

One tourist attraction that blows the modern mind is the Vasa museum, which houses the Vasa, a 17th-century wooden warship that sunk on its maiden voyage in 1628. The ship was found nearly intact on the sea floor, and was salvaged in 1961 after 333 years in the Stockholm harbor.

The reconstructed ship is 98 percent original, and has hundreds of carved sculptures, was well as the ships guns (whose weight may have contributed to the ships sinking). Its impossible to describe the majesty of this vessel.

The Nobel Museum inspires awe. Many exhibits of Nobel Laureates show their creative minds and work, from Marie Curie to Nelson Mandela, and 800 more. I was surprised to learn that Churchill won the 1953 Nobel Prize  for literature.

After spending time with all these inspiring people and projects, it was a whole different experience to go to the Museum ABBA. Yet here was another celebration of creativity, though so much more light-hearted. I was never a huge ABBA fan, but by the end of the day I was singing Dancing Queen and Mamma Mia nonstop.

Along with ABBA, the Swedes have a love affair with coffee, and most drop everything for fika, or afternoon coffee break. From business people to academics to stay-at-home types, their fika often includes cardamom buns, cinnamon roles or other treats. We took our fika at Fotografiska, the Swedish center of contemporary photography, after viewing several thought-provoking exhibits.

If you need a place to chill out in Stockholm, pop into the downtown Icebar, where you will be given a warm coat and gloves, and receive an ice-cold drink in a glass made of ice, at the bar made of ice. Super!
Make sure that your children are up-to-date on vaccines before sending them back to school.

School-age children, from preschoolers to college students, need vaccines. Making sure that children receive all their vaccinations on time is one of the most important things you can do as a parent to ensure your children's long-term healthas well as the health of friends, classmates, and others in your community.

Get your children to the doctor if you discover they need vaccines to protect them against serious diseases.

What all parents need to know

To keep children in schools healthy, your state may require children going to school to be vaccinated against certain diseases, such as pertussis (whooping cough). If you're unsure of your state's school requirements, now is the time to check with your child's doctor, your child's school, or your health department. That way, your child can get any needed vaccines before the back-to-school rush.

Disease outbreaks still happen

It's true that some vaccine-preventable diseases have become very rare thanks to vaccines. However, cases and outbreaks still happen. The United States experienced a record number of measles cases during 2014, with 668 cases from 27 states reported to CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD). This is the greatest number of cases since measles elimination was documented in the U.S. in 2000. Last year there were 48 cases of measles reported in the U.S and almost 6,000 cases of whooping cough, during the same time, have been reported to CDC by 50 states and Puerto Rico.

Outbreaks of whooping cough at middle and high schools can occur as protection from childhood vaccines fades. Those who are vaccinated against whooping cough but still get the disease are more likely to have a mild illness compared to those who never received the vaccine.

Making sure your children stay up to date with vaccinations is the best way to help protect your communities and schools from outbreaks that can cause unnecessary illnesses and deaths.

Getting every recommended dose of each vaccine provides children with the best protection possible.

Vaccines for Your Young Children (Newborns through 6 years old)

During the early years of life, your children need vaccines to protect them from 14 diseases that can be serious, even life-threatening. Parents who choose not to vaccinate their children increase the risk of disease not only for their own children, but also for other children and adults throughout the entire community. For example, vulnerable newborns too young to have received the maximum protection from the recommended doses of vaccines or people with weakened immune systems, such as some people with cancer and transplant recipients, are also at higher risk of disease.

Flu vaccines are recommended for kids 6 months and older. Getting your children vaccinatedas well as other family members and caregiverscan help protect infants younger than 6 months old who are too young to be vaccinated. Ask your family's doctor or nurse about getting a yearly flu vaccine to protect against flu.

Parents can find out what vaccines their children need and when the doses should be given by reviewing CDC's recommended Childhood Immunization Schedule .

Vaccines for Your Preteens and Teens (7 years old through 18 years old)

Preteens and teens need vaccines, too! As kids get older, they are still at risk for certain diseases. Before heading back to school, three vaccines are recommended for 11-12 year oldsHPV, Tdap, and meningococcal conjugate vaccinefor continued protection.

HPV vaccine is important because it can prevent HPV infections that can cause cancer later in life. For other diseases, like whooping cough, the protection from vaccine doses received in childhood fades over time. That's why 1112 year-olds are also recommended to get the booster shot called Tdap to help protect them from whooping cough, tetanus, and diphtheria. Meningococcal conjugate vaccine helps prevent two of the three most common causes of meningococcal disease, which can be very seriouseven life-threatening.

It's important to know that flu can be serious, even for healthy, young people. Preteens and teens are no exception. So older kids should get at least one flu vaccine every year.

To learn more about vaccines for your preteens and teens, talk to your child's healthcare provider or visit the preteen and teen vaccine pages. CDC provides a recommended immunization schedule for people ages 7 through 18 years for parents and doctors to follow to protect preteens and teens from vaccine-preventable diseases. If your preteens or teens haven't already gotten their vaccines, you should get them caught up as soon as possible.
Upon hearing about the opening of the Ark Encounter near the city of Williamstown, Kentucky, my wife and I decided to visit the biblical exhibition as a vacation.

Williamstown is located about 45 miles north of Lexington and has a population of 3,227. The travel distance from Orangeburg is calculated at around 511 miles and almost eight hours in drive time.

The Ark Encounter is a brainchild of Kenneth Alfred Ken Ham, who was born in Australia but lives in the United States. He is considered a Christian fundamentalist and earth creationist. Ham is the president of Answers in Genesis, which operates the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter.

On the web page, it states: The Ark Encounter opening phase one on July 7, 2016, is a one-of-a-kind, historically theme attraction. In an entertaining, educational, and immersive way, it presents a number of historical events centered on Noahs Ark as recorded in the Bible. As the largest timber-frame structure in the world, the 510-foot-long full-size Ark is designed to be family-oriented, historically authentic, and environmentally friendly. The attraction was built with a price tag of more than $100 million.

After my wife and I researched the Ark Encounter, we became curious. Simply, the words Noahs Ark brought back memories of our childhood in participating in Bible school and Sunday school. The story about Noah being commanded by God to construct the ark was so amazing to read.

We learned that God decided to destroy the world by water that would rain from the skies for 40 days and 40 nights. And that this decision was made because God was not pleased with man and his wicked and evil ways of living. It was through Adam and Eve that the people existed.

So the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them. (Genesis 6:5-7)

Therefore, God determined that only eight people and two of each kind of animal would be spared from the Great Flood. Most of the creatures of the sea would survive.

The exhibit gives an explanation on how Noah cared for the animals and his family for the 40 days and nights. He loaded enough food and water to last for 100 days. Through Gods directions, Noah constructed a plan for feeding his family and the animals.

The other important elements included cleaning, collecting and disposing of the animal waste; designing a ventilation system and a way to supply light for seeing. Only God could mastermind such a remarkable idea and plan that would start the beginning of a new world.

From the pictures that I remember of Noah, the ark and the animals, the tall giraffes and big elephants stand out in my memory. I always wondered how the ark took on these very large animals. Well, I found out. Simple, the ark did not take on such fully grown animals. Babies and young animals did not take up great space.

Then the question of where and how did Noah herd the animals to the ark? The interpretation that I got was that God triggered an event that led the animals to sense danger was coming and, through the spirit, they were guided to Noahs Ark.

I certainly did not understand the totality of this significant biblical event as a child, and now at the age of 69 years, I know and can see the true picture of life. Thinking as a child, this was a remarkable story especially after looking at the pictures that went along with the story.

As we toured, I reflected on my childhood. Is this what the ark really looked like? This exhibit of the ark is based on the dimensions described by the Bible. The interior and design were an architectural marvel to see. The view from the outside was breath-taking. And as to the tour through the three interior decks, it created a profound impact on the way I view life and the people of the world today.

If education is a key component in life, I must admit that my wife and I have been changed because of this educational experience.

We came away with a better understanding on who we are and, most importantly, where we came from and how we got here. Our lives and insight on life have dramatically changed.

I do better understand the saying that, You need to know where you came from so that you can know where you are going. Now we know. From that we learned:

 We are all descendents from Noahs sons -- Japheth, Shem and Ham -- and their wives. They along with Noah and his wife were the only people spared.

 We all are brothers and sisters who came about as a result of God telling the survivors to go forth and multiply.

 As the world was repopulated, the people lost sight of from where and whom they descended.

 If these facts hold truth, racism, hatred and dislike ought to never take place in the civilization in which we live. We all have the same grandfather -- Noah.

 Although we have believers and non-believers, we are all heading in different directions.

After returning to Orangeburg, we have daily reflected on our visit and experience and we continue to share it with our friends and those with whom we come in contact. Throughout all of the problems that exist in our world today, we all must see and have an understanding that we are a people not a race.

The bottom line for those who believe is simple. God created mankind in his image. We are all descendants of Noahs family and they were told to multiply -- not divide.

Throughout all of the conflicts between the people in the world, one thing is a sure bet and that is, no one will ever get out of this world alive.
Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School was the site for the 2016 Back to School Bash which brought out students, parents, teachers, and friends to kick off the new school year.

The bash has been an annual event and this is the fifth year it is being held.

This years celebration featured rides, free Italian ice, and even free book bags with school supplies.

For the students to get their book bags, they had to visit vendors who set up displays in the gym for the students to learn of the different businesses around the community.

Coordinator of the Back to School Bash, Beverly Stroman said, They go to their school first to get their wristband and then they go into the gym and they go to 10 vendors and get their wristbands punched and then they take the wristband into the media center and exchange it for a free book bag filled with school supplies.

Theyre working for their book bag, Stroman said.

Rep. Jerry Govan helped pass out the bags of supplies.

All of the book bags have been distributed and a lot of happy faces, he said. We mustve had about 2,000 people come through.

Govan said part of being a successful school and having a productive school year is having the right mindset.

Its a tremendous effort to get people in the mood and in the spirit of school plus providing all of these needed supplies and Im just proud to do my little part, he said.

Stroman said there were about 40 vendors from the community who came and each paid small fees to be able to display their business. The fees went towards funding the activities at the bash.

I have a small budget but the bulk comes from the communitys support because vendors pay a fee to come and so all those fees are used to provide all the free activities and food for everybody, she said. I think its really important that we support our community vendors.

Brookdale Elementary Principal Dr. Sharon Hampton said the bash was a great way for teachers to meet with their new or returning students and parents.

It allowed everyone from the community to come together for the good of the students not only just to get materials to be prepared for August 15th, but also gave them the opportunity to meet and greet administrators and faculty and staff from their schools, Hampton said.

She added saying, Being that Im the new principal of Brookdale, it allowed me to meet the students and the parents that I will be working closely with to help build our community.

Present with a display was District Fives newest school, the Orangeburg Leadership Academy.

Darien Woods, an instructor at the OLA said Its a new school started by Orangeburg 5, its going to be for all boys, third, fourth, and fifth grade.

For their pilot year, the academy will be teaching 25 young men starting out with a seven-week set of challenges.

Each week we work on a different challenge, Woods said. Character, history, communication, preparation, community, wellness, and conviction.

After they go through those seven weeks of challenges, theyll actually receive their official OLA blazertheyll be officially a part of the school, he said.

The school focuses on ensuring the students are prepared for their future endeavors and will be implementing things such as service learning projects which is where they will perform two projects a year to give back to the community.

The Orangeburg Leadership Academy aims to have their scholars fit the profile of a South Carolina graduate by the time theyre in the 10th grade.

If we havent done that, we havent done our job, Woods added.

Giving a motivational speech at the bash to the students was Chicquetta S. President.

President is the author of two books, Sincerely C.S. Presidential which is a book of poetry and Pump Power where inspirational stories of 21 women are told. Each was an inspiration to President in some way.

I started Pump Power (when) my brother was killed in a car accident and so I had an option to either break down or to break through, and I chose to break through, she said. We all have a story.

President said she travels throughout the U.S. speaking at colleges and churches.

Wherever I can go to the youth, Im willing to come, she said.

President said seeing the presence of her audience gives her energy.

Juanita Rivers was at the bash with her three kids. Her daughter will be going to the eighth grade and her two sons will be going to the fifth.

It was wonderful, we really enjoyed ourselves and I think my kids, they really enjoyed themselves, she said. The vendors, they had a lot of information so that was very important.

Rivers said their favorite part was the free Italian ice.

Ephraim Oij was enjoying the carnival with his three-year-old son, Yamir Purdie.

He said this was his first time at the bash and added, Its definitely invigorating, energizing, I think its a great way to kick off the kids going back to school. It kind of gives them a refresh and reminds them that its time to get themselves buckled down for a new school year.

Oij said his son will be starting his first year at the Orangeburg Area Development Center.

Friends Taryn Davis-Scott and Arin Ham are rising ninth graders at the High School for Health Professions.

They said they are excited for high school and ready to meet new people.

Davis-Scott said his favorite part of the bash was the free ice cream.

Its free, who doesnt like free ice cream?

Stroman said after the bash, the chairs of the committees will get together to discuss what went well this year and are looking forward to next years program.

Im just glad that it was successful and that everybody had a great time, Stroman said.
Are you interested in helping local farmers keep food in the local food system?

If so, you are invited to the Midlands Food Alliance Potluck social scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 23, at the Ferse's Specialty Store and Fresh Market.

Ferse's Specialty Store is located at 1174 Russell St.

The event will begin at 6:30 p.m.

Farmers, restaurateurs, chefs, food businesses and local food supporters are all invited.

Attendees will hear about food development efforts, food waste, South Carolina Department of Agriculture's Fresh on the Menu and the local food guide.

The event will enable those gathered to network with others in the food business.

The mission of the MFA is to advocate and educate for a sustainable and equitable, localized food system in the Midlands with the goal of creating a forum that brings people together from all sectors of the food system to generate new relationships and cross learning as well as to to promote equitable policies and programs that increase food security and social and economic opportunity for food producers, distributors and consumers in the region.

Plates, utensils and drinks will be made available. Bringing a dish is recommended but is not required.

The event is sponsored by the South Carolina Small Business Development Center in partnership with South Carolina State University and the Downtown Orangeburg Revitalization Association. Other groups involved in the MFA include Don't Waste Food SC, the Orangeburg Downtown Farmers Market and Certified SC Grown Fresh on the Menu.

For more information contact 803-533-3964 or email jjohns47@scsu.edu. Individuals may also go to scsu.eventbrite.com or facebook #orangeburgpotluck.
WEST COLUMBIA  The public will get its say on the Interstate 26 widening and repaving project near Sandy Run.

S.C. Sen. Nikki Setzler announced a meeting will be held on Monday, Aug. 22, at 7 p.m. at Beulah United Methodist Church, 1577 Old State Road, Gaston. It will be hosted by Setzler, who represents Lexington and Calhoun counties, Sen. John Matthews of Bowman and Rep. Russell Ott of Calhoun County.

The meeting will provide an opportunity for residents and motorists to hear from officials with the South Carolina Department of Transportation.

I joined with Sen. Matthews and Rep. Ott in calling this meeting because this project was supposed to be completed over a year ago. It still isn't done and the people of Lexington and Calhoun counties deserve to know why, said Setzler, who brought the issue to a head recently by saying the project poses a danger to people and their vehicles in the Sandy Run area.

"The SCDOT needs to tell to the community what happened on this project. Where are we now? Why is this taking so long? What is the plan to finish improvements to this vital stretch of roadway?

"This meeting will be a chance for SCDOT officials to directly update the public and explain the lack of progress, Setzler said. I thank the Department of Transportation and Secretary Hall for agreeing to take part.

The contractor for the widening and resurfacing has made organizational changes in the $75 million project, SCDOT announced after Setzlers initial statement.

Anderson Columbia/Boggs Paving has brought in a new paving contractor to resurface the remaining miles.

Joe Anderson, of Anderson Columbia, said the changes in the project team have put the necessary men and equipment in place to finish the work in September 2016, according to SCDOT.

The project was scheduled to be completed by Nov. 24, 2015. SCDOT has been withholding $10,000 a day from the contractor for every day past the contract completion date. To date, that total is nearly $3 million.

The contract was awarded on May 16, 2013. This project includes approximately 10 miles of widening from four lanes to six in Lexington County, from I-77 east toward Charleston. The project will continue with another 11 miles of resurfacing the existing lanes ending in Calhoun County.

All eastbound and westbound travel lanes are now open to traffic, the rest areas in Calhoun County were re-opened to the public on June 29 and 11 miles of paving have been completed, SCDOT said. As the remaining corrective work moves forward, the public should begin to see noticeable progress in the coming weeks as the six-lane portion of the project is paved with asphalt.
This is like a teacher drought, said Dr. Thelma Sojourner, superintendent of Bamberg School District Two. In the past five years, this is the worst Ive seen it.

In mid-July, Sojourner was looking for an English teacher and a math teacher for the high school and an early childhood teacher and four elementary teachers.

Shed already combined classes, hired teachers through an alternative certification process and exhausted the local supply of retired teachers willing to go back to work.

Were desperate, she said. Were praying too.

An attempt to find teachers through the Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement failed to bring in any applicants, Sojourner said.

When she contacts possible applicants, their first question is, Where are you located?

When we tell them, the next response is, Im not interested in coming that far to work, she said. They dont even follow through the process of sending in an application.

Sojourner is far from alone in the struggle to supply her students with highly qualified, certified teachers.

According to a 2015 CERRA survey, South Carolina does not produce a sufficient number of teachers each year to replace those retiring or leaving the profession, especially in the sciences, social studies, mathematics and special education.

More than 5,300 did not return to their teaching jobs in the fall of 2015, a 33 percent increase over the fall of 2014 and a 66 percent increase over the fall of 2013.

Sojourner reported this past week that shes happy all her vacant positions have been filled with international teachers. However, several other local districts still have openings.

Running out of time

With only days before students return to the classroom, Orangeburg Consolidated School District Four is still looking for six teachers.

Human Resources Director Shawn Williams said Orangeburg Consolidated School District Five lost 110 teachers at the end of 2015-16. Many of them were retirees, she said. By mid-July, the district was looking for about 25 teachers, but by the end of last week that number was down to two.

OCSD 5 sought to fill the empty slots by reaching out to retirees, Williams said. They also looked for out-of-state applicants through CERRA.

The S.C. Department of Education accepts teachers from out of state, etc., who are certified through the Program of Alternative Certification for Educators.

Orangeburg Consolidated School District Three, Bamberg District One and Calhoun County Public Schools also suffered the loss of a number of teachers at the end of last year but have been able to replace them.

JoAnn Lawton, OCSD 3s director of human resources, said the districts problems with teacher shortage has expanded over the past few years from the areas of English, science, math and social studies to elementary education and early childhood.

At the end of 2015-16, the district lost about 40 out of some 250 teachers, which is about normal, according to Superintendent Dr. Jesulon Gibbs-Brown. By mid-July, all but two teachers had been replaced, and by the end of last week, all vacancies had been filled.

This is an age-old problem that weve become accustomed to," Gibbs-Brown said. Its been a way of life for so long.

The district deals with it by beginning to recruit teachers very early, she said.

We really began right after we came back from winter break, she said. Weve been hitting this hard since January.

Superintendent Dr. Steve Wilson said the Calhoun County Public School System doesnt usually lose many teachers other than the ones who are retiring.

But I guess we lost as many this year as weve lost since Ive been here, he said. Weve just been fortunate to replace them.

He feels one reason Calhoun loses so few teachers is that its such a family-oriented district. About 50 percent of the teachers are homegrown, he said.

Another reason is that the district is academically successful and it does not take its teachers for granted, Wilson added.

We make every effort to make them know we appreciate them, he said.

Superintendent Phyllis Schwarting says Bamberg One usually has very little problem replacing teachers.

We dont have to go out and solicit teachers, she said. People are anxious to get into our system and we have them coming to us.

Its been that way for at least the 16 years shes been at Bamberg, Schwarting said.

I dont credit it to what any one person does but to the whole team of teachers and staff that makes people want to come work with us, she said.

What's behind the drought?

CERRA data shows that colleges and universities are willing and able to train more teachers, but there is a lack of student interest in entering the profession.

Local educators say theyre seeing that shortage firsthand.

We are not seeing nearly the number of people responding to vacancies we have in the past, OCSD 4 Superintendent Tim Newman said.

One major reason for that is the low pay scale for teachers, he said. The starting salary for teachers in this area is $30,000 to $32,000 a year. Thats on the low end compared to that of other professionals with a four-year degree, he said.

People will tell you a good teacher is the most important thing in a childs life, Newman said. Then we should pay our teachers more for the impact they have on children.

Newman noted that the more rural a district, the more difficult it is to find teachers.

Gibbs-Brown said she sees accountability requirements as a major factor in teacher shortage.

Theres just a lot more state and federal oversight, she said.

The evaluations, the number of observations that teachers have to make and the documentations that go with them have greatly increased, but salaries have not increased to match that level of work, Gibbs-Brown said.

Newman said that federal mandates in special education are especially stringent.

These teachers are required to deal with more legal compliance issues and complete a lot more paperwork than other teachers, but they are not given any more pay, he said.

Wilson said he sees a lack of respect for the profession as one reason people arent going into it.

Its got to be put on a par with other professions ... like engineering and architecture, he said. Theres more glitter to those professions. Where would those people be if they hadnt had a teacher?"

Teachers should be high up in the hierarchy, Wilson said.

"I just think weve got to elevate our thought processes about where teachers are (and) where they should be.

Dr. Charlie Spell, interim chair of South Carolina State Universitys Department of Education, also sees a lack of respect for the profession as one reason students arent choosing to become teachers.

At one time, everyone looked up to the teacher, he said. But today, teachers are actually looked down on by many.

Spell also cited the many state and federal mandates teachers have to deal with as a factor, especially the entrance exam students are required to take before being accepted into the program.

Many students are unable to pass the exam, even though they have no problem maintaining the required grade point average in their course work, he said.

According to Ryan Brown, director of communications at the S.C. Department of Education, prospective teachers are required to take the Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators Exam. Its a national test thats given by all education preparation programs in the state, he said. The score that's required to pass the test is set by the state.

Dr. Janice B. Owens, professor and director of teacher education at the university, says that while the department has experienced an overall decline in enrollment, this falls enrollment looks good.

According to Owens, S.C. States students tend to have problems with the math section of the entrance exam but have no major problems with the second part of the exam thats taken in the senior year.

The universitys education graduates are highly certifiable with about 98 percent of them going to work after graduation, she said.

Owens said she believes one reason so many teachers are leaving the profession is the evaluation process they have to go through.

Many times teachers are judged on very narrow standards and its a pressure cooker for them, she said.

There are so many variables in a class on any given day, she said. Teachers have to adjust their teaching according to who their students are. They cant necessarily follow specific teaching standards because of the circumstances and specific needs of their students.

Tackling the problem

The Legislature raised base student cost to $2,350, an increase of $130 over last year, Orangeburg Rep. Jerry Govan said.

It also put $8.2 million in the Rural Teacher Initiative to address recruitment and retention in the districts with a poverty index of 80 percent and higher, he said.

Through CERRA, these districts are receiving money to offer a $1,500 bonus for each science and math teacher in grades 8-12 and for all special education teachers.

In addition, $16.8 million is being put into technical upgrades for districts in the Abbeville Corridor of Shame suit and $10 million is going to fund 213 new career specialists who will help student focus and develop career choices, Govan said.

An additional $3 million will fund high speed internet for students in rural areas who dont have access to it at home and are participating in online classes.

Brown reported that state Superintendent Molly Spearman is working with CERRA to formulate plans and strategies to address retention and recruitment issues across the state.

The DOE is also conducting a teacher salary study in the hopes of initiating comprehensive legislation to increase teacher pay. In particular, the DOE wants to increase the salaries of teachers just getting into the profession.

What do educators want?

Tim Newman said he wants to have the same chance of hiring a top quality candidate as the bigger, more prosperous districts.

Were thankful for the $1,500, he said. But there are some districts that are still well above us in salary for a first year teacher even including our first year supplement, he said. We just dont have the tax base.

He said earlier that an analysis of what each district pays teachers with bachelor degrees revealed that District 4 is $1,200 below the state average.

Theres something wrong with that, Newman said.

Im upset with the state for not realizing that teachers should not have to focus on a decision of I can make more money to do the exact same job, he said.

But theres more to the story than money, Newman said.

The lack of amenities hits the rural districts hard, he said.

In Orangeburg 4, we dont have a grocery store, an apartment complex, a fast food chain, he said. So there should be some sort of financial offset to a young person who wants to give up those things and teach here.

In addition, the county doesnt have a movie theater or a Publix or a Target, etc., Newman said.

Attracting young teachers is difficult, and bringing those types of amenities in is part of the solution, he said.

Its not just the districts responsibility. Its also the responsibility of the county and the development commission and the chamber of commerce, he said.

Thats what we all need to be working on together," Newman said. Without that, nothings going to happen.

Until those amenities are in place, there needs to be a financial incentive to offset that lack, he said.

The extra funding to attract new teachers and critical needs teachers is a help, but it comes to the district on a year-to-year basis, Newman said.

We hope its going to be every year, he said. But money comes and goes. We know we we have it for this year.
The sensation continues over the Democratic convention speech of Khizr Khan, a Pakistani-born Virginia lawyer whose son Humayun was killed in action while serving as a captain in the U.S. Army in Iraq in 2004.

In seven minutes on the national stage, Khan, a naturalized U.S. citizen who came to this country in 1980, excoriated Trump for proposals to build a wall along the Mexican border and to temporarily ban the entry of foreign Muslims into the U.S.

"Let me ask you: Have you even read the United States Constitution?" Khan said to Trump. "I will gladly lend you my copy. In this document, look for the words 'liberty' and 'equal protection of law.'"

Even before Khan's speech ended, Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans began to issue rhapsodic praise on social media and elsewhere. Video of the speech went viral, along with commentary that it was the best of the convention, the most moving, the most powerful, the most devastating to Trump, and so on. Khan, who ended with an exhortation to vote for Hillary Clinton, became an instant star of the campaign.

At the same time, some Trump supporters stirred outrage with foolish attacks on Khan. Ann Coulter tweeted, "You know what this convention really needed? An angry Muslim with a thick accent like Fareed Zakaria." The American Family Association's Sandy Rios said Khan's loyalty to the U.S. is in question. Then Trump himself downplayed the Khans' sacrifice in an interview with ABC News.

With a few obvious differences, the uproar bears some resemblance to a white-hot controversy more than a decade ago involving Cindy Sheehan, a California woman whose son Casey was killed in 2004 while serving in the U.S. Army in Iraq.

Sheehan became a media sensation when she attacked President George W. Bush over the war. Opponents of the war immediately took up her cause in their protests, and Sheehan became, for a while, ubiquitous in media reports of opposition to Bush and the war.

Some Republican Bush supporters (including Coulter) stirred outrage with foolish attacks on Sheehan, although in those pre-Twitter days there were fewer opportunities for a single comment to go viral.

Now, with Khan, the parents of another son killed in Iraq are in the middle of a national storm. But this one is over immigration. Like Cindy Sheehan, as the father of an American soldier killed in action, Khizr Khan has standing to do what he is doing. Those who disagree with him should never belittle his sacrifice or impugn his motives. But they can challenge his argument.

Khan's brief speech wasn't a finely detailed case. But he suggested that Trump's Muslim ban and Mexican border wall proposals are unconstitutional. Specifically, Khan cited the words "liberty" and "equal protection of the law" in suggesting that Trump's policies violate the Constitution.

It's hard to know what Khan meant by suggesting a wall on the Mexican border would be unconstitutional. Perhaps it would be a bad idea, or it wouldn't work as Trump claims it would, but there's simply no sense in which a border wall violates the Constitution.

Khan did not mention deportations, but regardless of exactly where Trump's illegal immigrant proposal stands at the moment, there is nothing unconstitutional about deporting people who are in the United States illegally.

As far as a Muslim ban is concerned, Trump has recently amended his proposal to focus on immigration from countries "compromised by terrorism." But assume that Khan was addressing Trump's original, more extensive, proposal: a temporary ban on foreign Muslims from entering the United States. By telling Trump to "look for the words 'liberty' and 'equal protection of law'" in the Constitution, Khan was suggesting that the ban would violate the 14th Amendment. This is the relevant portion of that amendment:

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

The text makes clear that its protections apply to "all persons born or naturalized" in the U.S.; persons "subject to the jurisdiction thereof"; and persons "within its jurisdiction." None refers to foreign persons in foreign countries. Pakistanis in Pakistan, to take one example, regardless of religion, do not have U.S. constitutional rights. As far as "liberty," the other word mentioned by Khan, is concerned, the Constitution says the government may not deprive someone of liberty without due process of law, which of course means the government may deprive someone of liberty with due process of law.

It may be that building a wall, deporting illegal immigrants and temporarily banning the entry of foreign Muslims are all terrible policies. But among the Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans touting Khan's performance there appears to be a belief that if something is a terrible policy, it must also be unconstitutional. That's not necessarily so.

It should be noted, though, that Trump's proposals are not unconstitutional according to the way the Supreme Court has interpreted the law for the last 225 years. If a President Trump acted on his proposals and was challenged in court -- as he certainly would be -- there would always be the possibility that the justices might make up some new reading of the Constitution to invalidate the president's actions.

The Khans represent a small group. Humayun Khan was one of just 14 Muslim-Americans (the number was compiled by the House Homeland Security Committee) among the 6,885 U.S. troops who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. But his parents' anguish is very real and their story very powerful. And it will undoubtedly be used against Trump many times between now and November.

----

Byron York is chief political correspondent for The Washington Examiner.
DENMARK -- Joshua Russ, a Voorhees College computer science major, is completing a summer internship as a Consortium Enabling Cybersecurity Opportunities and Research scholar for Sandia National Laboratories, a company that delivers essential science and technology to resolve the nations most challenging security issues.

Sandia, a company funded by the U.S. Department of Energys National and Nuclear Security Administration, has sustained a strong science, technology and engineering foundation for more than 60 years. Through capable research staff working at the forefront of innovation, collaborative research with universities and companies and discretionary research projects with significant potential impact, Sandia is able to stand behind its mission to leverage capabilities, enabling the company to solve complex national security problems.

A 23-year-old rising sophomore, Russ is currently at Sandia in Albuquerque, New Mexico where he is assisting with the development of the sixth and seventh versions of a forensic training module called Tracer FIRE.

Tracer FIRE teaches its users configuration methods for Windows Server, Windows Exchange and VyOS in a virtual environment. The project runs on XenCenter, an open-sourced virtualization platform that acts as a hypervisor that provides services to multiple computer operating systems on the same hardware.

Russ feels the knowledge he has gained in cybersecurity and server configuration in his short time as a CECOR intern will prepare him for a position within Sandia or another cyber-related company.

Having the opportunity to work alongside other interns my age enables us to bounce ideas off of each other and allows me to network while gaining valuable technical experiences, Russ said.

Sandia recently sent Russ to the University of the Virgin Islands for a one-week cybersecurity boot camp where he was joined by fellow Voorhees computer science major JVon Jenkins. During the camp, Russ and Jenkins served as mentors to students in grades K-12, demonstrating preventative measures for internet network hacking and how to fully secure personal online profiles.

Jenkins was able to mentor the students, but also gained a lot of knowledge on cybersecurity from the instructors.

Our computer science program offers many opportunities to get hands-on experiences and learn new concepts outside of Voorhees as well that makes learning about cybersecurity that much more exciting, Jenkins said.

For more information, contact Megan Freeman, director of communications, at 803-780-1191 or at mfreeman@voorhees.edu.
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An official welcoming ceremony was held in Baku for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who is on a visit to Azerbaijan Aug. 7.

A guard of honor was lined up for the Iranian president in the square decorated with the national flags of the two countries.

The chief of the guard of honor reported to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

President Aliyev welcomed Iranian counterpart.

The chief of the guard of honor reported to President Rouhani.

Then, the national anthems of Iran and Azerbaijan were performed.

The presidents reviewed the guard of honor, and afterwards President Rouhani greeted the Azerbaijani soldiers.

State and government officials of the Republic of Azerbaijan were introduced to President Rouhani and members of the Iranian delegation were introduced to President Aliyev.

The guard of honor passed in front of the heads of states to the accompaniment of a military march.

Then, the Azerbaijani and Iranian presidents posed for photographs.

Following the official welcoming ceremony in Baku, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani held a one-on-one meeting Aug. 7.

Following the one-on-one meeting, President Ilham Aliyev and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani met in an expanded format with participation of delegations.

A ceremony of signing several documents was held after the expanded meeting with participation of Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani in Baku Aug.7.

The following documents were signed between Azerbaijan and Iran:

- A protocol of intention on cooperation in implementation of the North-South international transportation corridor project between the governments of Azerbaijan and Iran;

- A memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the sphere of e-security between Azerbaijans Ministry of Communications and High Technologies and Irans Ministry of Communications and Information Technology;

- A memorandum of understanding in the spheres of standardization, metrology, conformity assessment and accreditation between Azerbaijans State Committee for Standardization, Metrology and Patent and Irans Institute of Standards and Industrial Research;

- An implementation program in tourism cooperation for 2016-2019 between Azerbaijans Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Irans Cultural Heritage, Handcrafts and Tourism Organization;

- An agreement on cooperation in the sphere of plant protection and quarantine between the governments of Azerbaijan and Iran;

- A memorandum of understanding between the Central Bank of Azerbaijan and the Central Bank of Iran.

Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani made statements for the press following the ceremony of signing documents.

/By Trend/




Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who is on the official visit to Azerbaijan held a meeting in an expanded format, with delegations.

We attach great importance to your visit. I am confident that this visit will be very successful and will give a new impetus to the development of our relations, said President Aliyev to President Rouhani.

I am glad that we meet frequently. I paid an official visit to Iran in February 2016 and today, you are on an official visit to Azerbaijan. This itself is an indication, Azerbaijans president said.

President Aliyev further said that the relations between Azerbaijan and Iran are developing rapidly and successfully.

He pointed out that he discussed both political, economic and other issues with his Iranian counterpart during the bilateral meeting held Aug.7.

We see that we have great mutual understanding, Ilham Aliyev said. We build our relations based on mutual understanding.

He expressed satisfaction that the Iranian-Azerbaijani relations have been developing very rapidly in recent years.

Perhaps, this is the period of the most rapid development of Azerbaijani and Iranian history over the last 25 years, said the president.

He pointed out that many issues have been resolved in the spheres of economy, transportation and energy over the last several months.

I am confident that your visit will make it possible to further develop our relations, added President Aliyev.

He noted that today, Iran and Azerbaijan will sign several documents which will open up new opportunities for the future cooperation.

I am very glad that you visit Azerbaijan with a large delegation and naturally, our delegation members also establish ties with each other, said President Aliyev.

The relations will be even more intensified and the Iranian-Azerbaijani ties will further develop successfully based on brotherhood and friendship.

President Aliyev once again welcomed his Iranian counterpart Rouhani to Azerbaijan.

Irans President Hassan Rouhani has expressed confidence that the relations between Azerbaijan and Iran are moving towards sincerity.

He pointed out that as two friendly, brotherly and neighboring countries, they should bring the relations to the level acceptable for both nations. Rouhani expressed satisfaction with the meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev.

President Aliyevs visit to Tehran was very successful and significant steps have been taken after this visit for the development of relations between the two countries, he added.

Azerbaijan and Iran reached significant agreements during that visit and today, those agreements will be signed, he added.

He noted that the parties have touched upon a number of issues and detailed discussions on those issues were held today.

Our peoples want to have the best relations which would meet the interests of the two countries and would be effective in ensuring stability and peace in the region, he added.

President Rouhani expressed hope that new steps will be taken during this visit for development of the two countries relations.





/BY Trend/




Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani made statements for the press following the ceremony of signing documents in Baku Aug.7.

We attach great importance to your visit, President Aliyev said to his Iranian counterpart Rouhani.

I am glad that the visit is going on very successfully. I am confident that the talks we have held today and the signed documents will ensure the future development of Iranian-Azerbaijani relations, he added.

Our peoples have been living side by side under the conditions of friendship and good neighborhood for centuries, said President Aliyev. The history, culture and religion which have united us for centuries, are our common great wealth.

He pointed out that Iran and Azerbaijan build their bilateral relations on a solid basis.

I am glad that Iranian-Azerbaijani interstate relations have been developing successfully for around 25 years, said President Aliyev.

The latest period of development is especially important, since great progress has been achieved in the development of Iranian-Azerbaijani relations over the last several years, according to Azerbaijans president.

President Aliyev said that he has repeatedly met with his Iranian counterpart over the last several years, adding that reciprocal official visits are also very important steps taken in this sphere.

I visited Iran in February 2016 and today, you are our guest. This itself is an indication, said Azerbaijans president, adding that this shows that the relations are developing rapidly and dynamically and there are good results.

President Aliyev recalled that more than ten documents were signed during his official visit to Iran and in less than six months, the parties signed six more documents which are of great importance for the future cooperation of the two countries.

Azerbaijans president pointed out that the fulfillment of the documents and agreements signed in Iran in February is being ensured.

President Aliyev further said that Iran has always greatly respected Azerbaijans territorial integrity and it supports Azerbaijans fair position in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

This support by Iran is seen both within the UN and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Ilham Aliyev said.

He said that the declaration adopted during the OIC summit in 2016 once again demands the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict within Azerbaijans territorial integrity.

We praise Irans activities in this sphere, he added.

Today, I briefed President Rouhani about the current status of the conflicts settlement process, said President Aliyev.

As we know, Azerbaijani territories have been under occupation for many years, said the president. Nagorno-Karabakh is a historical Azerbaijani land and today, not only Nagorno-Karabakh, but also seven surrounding districts are under occupation. Azerbaijani people were forcibly expelled from those lands. Our historical monuments, as well as mosques were destroyed by Armenians.

President Aliyev pointed out that 20 percent of Azerbaijani lands are under occupation and this occupation continues.

The ways of settlement of the conflict are clear as well, he added.

Armenian armed forces violating Azerbaijans territorial integrity should be withdrawn from the occupied lands as demanded by four resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council, said President Aliyev.

Further, the president said that Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan in April was condemned during the OIC summit in 2016 and a contact group was created for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

President Aliyev recalled that Armenian armed forces staged another armed provocation against Azerbaijan in April 2016.

Our servicemen were killed as a result of this provocation, he said.

Six civilians were killed, over 20 were injured, more than 600 houses were damaged and over 100 houses were completely destroyed as a result of Armenian provocation, added the president.

Azerbaijan had to take relevant steps in order to protect its citizens and lands and those steps were very effective, according to President Aliyev.

He pointed out that the decisions and resolutions adopted by international organizations on the conflicts settlement should be fulfilled and Azerbaijans territorial integrity should be restored.

Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, in turn, said that Iran has always supported the territorial integrity of countries in the region, including Azerbaijan.

He stressed that Iran is against change of political borders in the region.

Iranian president further said that he has held talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart on the issue.

Iran believes that peace and stability should be established in the region, Rouhani said, adding all conflicts and problems between the countries should be settled through negotiations.

Iran as a neighbor of Azerbaijan and Armenia has always tried to pave ground to resolve the issues via dialogue, Rouhani said, adding that Iran will spare no effort in this regard.

Rouhani further said that the two sides have reached some agreements regarding to joint activities in Caspian Sea which can be an important step in the future of Tehran-Baku ties.

Rouhani also said that he has held talks with Ilham Aliyev regarding the legal status of the Caspian Sea.

/By Trend/




Iranian president Hassan Rouhani said that bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Iran is rapidly expanding in various fields.

The ultimate goal of Iran, Azerbaijan is to develop free trade, Rouhani said at a joint press conference with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Baku, Aug. 7, Trend's correspondent reported from the event.

During the last three years, Iran-Azerbaijan ties have been developing and good steps were taken for boosting the relations, Rouhani said.

Iran is negotiating with the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) on custom tariffs, and is interested to reach similar agreements with Azerbaijan in this regard as well, Rouhani said.

Tehran is expecting to reach a deal with the Russia-led EEU on reducing export tariffs this year.

Iranian president also underlined the importance of banking ties between the two countries, saying that developing banking relations will contribute to boosting mutual economic ties.

We try to enhance banking ties to a level which lead to the development of mutual trade and economic relations in all fields, Rouhani said referring to the banking document signed between the two countries central banks.

He further said that important steps also were taken in the fields of ties between the countries in the area of investment, industry and technology including a car-manufacturing project with annual output capacity of 10,000 cars in Azerbaijan to meet the demands of Azerbaijan and neighbouring countries.

Rouhani also said that steps will be taken for cooperation in the pharmaceutical field, which will be a beginning point as well for mutual industrial and technological relations between the two countries.

He also said that the two sides have reached general agreement to work together in the field of oil and gas in Caspian Sea.

The two countries will invest in the field of tourism and will work to increase th direct flights, Rouhani said.

The Iranian president further said that Iran and Azerbaijan discussed ways to cope with regional terrorism.

There is unanimity that extremism has surpassed the region and violence is now an issue entailing strong cooperation of the countries, especially Iran and Azerbaijan, Rouhani added.

He also called for boosting cooperation in the fields of cultural issues, universities and high-tech.

/By Trend/




Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev has expressed satisfaction with the successful development of economic relations between Iran and Azerbaijan.

During the expanded meeting between Azerbaijani and Iranian delegations with presence of both countries presidents, it was noted that the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Iran has increased by 66 percent, he said.

This is a very good indicator, said President Aliyev when making statements for the press jointly with Hassan Rouhani following the ceremony of signing documents in Baku Aug.7.

Given that economic and financial crisis still continues in the world, I believe that great efforts were needed and were made in order to get results under these conditions, said the president.

The intergovernmental joint commission is operating successfully, said President Aliyev, adding that today, the parties exchanged views on the future economic cooperation.

I am glad that yesterday, on the eve of the visit, a foundation stone was laid for the plant for cars to be manufactured by Iran Khodro company in Azerbaijans Neftchala city, he said, adding that this is a very good example of cooperation between the two countries.

The plant will produce over 10,000 cars every year, said President Aliyev, adding that this is a new form of cooperation.

The president said that the parties exchanged views today on joint activities in other spheres as well.

In particular, it is planned to construct a medicine-producing plant operating with Iranian technology in Azerbaijan in the near future, he added.

Naturally, new opportunities are opening for resolving the energy and transportation problems, said President Aliyev.

I am glad that the Imishli-Parsabad electricity line was merged. This line will positively affect the two countries relations and regional cooperation, he added.

The president pointed out that very important steps have been taken for the creation of the North-South international transportation corridor as well.

President Aliyev pointed out that after his visit to Iran in February, he gave relevant instructions and they are being fulfilled.

As I have promised, Azerbaijan will extend its railway to Iranian borders by late 2016. At the same time, the construction of the bridge across the Astara River with participation of Iranian and Azerbaijani officials has already started and the major part of the work has been completed, added the president.

A memorandum was signed today in order to speed up the implementation of the North-South corridor project and Azerbaijan intends to participate in the future financing of this project, said President Aliyev.

He pointed out that this issue, as well as the energy matters will be discussed during the first summit of Iranian, Russian and Azerbaijani presidents Aug.8.

The trilateral format is a new initiative and this is a very important step, added the president.

Naturally, the bilateral relations are the basis of this format. Azerbaijan has very good relations with Iran and Russia. I know that Russian-Iranian relations are also at a very good level, said President Aliyev.

Therefore, creation of the trilateral cooperation format is natural, he said, adding that history, geography, as well as joint projects are the basis of this initiative, according to the president.

The North-South international transportation corridor is an important project not only for our countries, but also for continents. Tomorrow, very important steps will be taken for the future implementation of this project, he added.

He noted that a wide spectrum of issues have been discussed in the bilateral format and there are very good prospects in the sphere of tourism.

Ilham Aliyev said that Iranian citizens can travel to Azerbaijan with simplified visa regime, he said, adding that the Nakhchivan-Tabriz-Mashhad railway is to be opened too.

There is a very good situation with air transport, and the number of flights is increasing, added the president.

Further, President Aliyev said that the environmental matters, as well as the Caspian Sea issues were discussed between the two parties and there are no disagreements over the discussed issues.

Our main purpose is to develop the Azerbaijani-Iranian relations, to protect and ensure our peoples interests and to strengthen our political, economic and humanitarian relations, he added.

President Rouhanis current visit to Azerbaijan is a very important step taken in this sphere, he said.

I once again express gratitude to you for visiting Azerbaijan and wish success to you and the brotherly Iranian people, said President Aliyev.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that the North-South international transport corridor is one of the main issues between Iran and Azerbaijan as well as regional countries.

Gulf and finally we will be able to connect Caucasus countries, Russia, northern and eastern Europe to the Persian Gulf, Rouhani said.

He further expressed hope that the corridor would contribute to boosting economic ties of all regional countries.

The North-South International Transport Corridor is a multipurpose route for the transit of goods between Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia, Europe, India and Central Asia via shipping lines, railroad and land routes.

The first step on establishing the corridor will be finalized this year and the Astara (Azerbaijan)-Astara (Iran) rail bridge is going to be completed through Iran-Azerbaijan cooperation, Rouhani said.

The second step is to complete the Astara-Rasht railway, which will be finalized through a 50-50 investment of Iran and Azerbaijan, Rouhani added.
Qatar National Cement Company (QNCC) has signed a $100 milllion financing deal with Saudi Arabia's Samba Financial Group, said a report.



The facility will go towards financing the construction of the companys fifth cement plant, added the Peninsula Qatar report.



In 2014, the company signed the letter of intent with Fives FCB, France, for the construction of the fifth production line with a capacity of 5,000 tonnes per day (tpd) of clinker. The estimated cost was QR950 million ($260 million).



The fifth production line is expected to become operational within the next 27 months, taking the company's total clinker production capacity to 17,000 tpd and the grinding capacity to 20,000 tpd of cement.


Several infrastructure projects being implemented by the Dubai's Road Transport Authority (RTA) as part of its 2030 Strategy won approval from His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, during his visit to RTA's head office yesterday.



Sheikh Mohammed commended the projects being implemented in line with the Dubai Strategic Comprehensive Plan 2021 to achieve sustainable development, said a Wam news agency report.



While visiting the RTA's head-office in Umm Al Ramol district, Dubai, he hailed the RTA team's efforts, including those of engineers, technicians and managers, led by Eng Mattar Mohammed Al Tayer, chairman of the board and executive director of RTA.



"Each achievement scored in Dubai is an achievement for our beloved country and its successive generations," Sheikh Mohammed said.



The RTA work team demonstrated before Sheikh Mohammed the traffic and transport plan until 2030, which included a set of projects, of which some are being implemented.



He approved the projects and urged for high quality and timely delivery, especially the projects related with Expo 2020 Dubai, in Jebel Ali.



Sheikh Mohammed was briefed on designs and components of a number of vital projects, including Shindagha Crossing, which was designed to become a special landmark in Dubai.



He was also briefed on the details of the five-year plan of the RTA for 2017-2021 to pave internal roads in 16 residential districts in Dubai city. The plan also includes planting and beautifying the roads to protect the environment in line with the strategy to achieve the green economy in the city. Trees will be planted in a number of areas, covering more than 600 hectares, in the first quarter of next year.



The work team also presented plans for entrances and exits of the Jewel Creek project, which includes the construction of a pedestrian bridge on Baniyas Road and the intersection between Jebel Ali Lehbab and Qudra streets as well as a flyover bridge for bicycles.



Sheikh Mohammed was also briefed on project designs of shipping docks on the Dubai Water Canal and Commercial Bay, inspired by local marine life. He chose one of the designs that matches local architecture.



The RTA also plans an expansion of the Burj Khalifa station of the Dubai Metro in light of huge population growth in the Burj area and increase in the number of metro users, having reached about 6,000 passengers per hour during January. The capacity of the station is expected to be enhanced to approximately 180,000 passengers daily after the expansion.



Sheikh Mohammed praised the setting up of a 120-m-long pedestrian bridge connecting Al Sufouh and Western streets in the JBR area. The project will be completed by early 2017.



He was also briefed about the traffic and transport plan until 2030. Among the schemes proposed is the traffic solution project to enhance the traffic flow in the vicinity of Expo 2020 Dubai. The project includes the implementation of 36 extra bridges. It will be completed in five stages by November 2019.



Sheikh Mohammed was also briefed on the development of the Dubai Airport Road through setting up of bridges and tunnels at the intersection of Al Rashidiya and the intersections of Airport Road and Casablanca, Marrakech and Nad Al Hamr streets, in addition to the development of surface intersections and construction of service road with a capacity of three lanes in each direction.



Al Tayer said that the project will help increase the capacity of the Airport Road with about 5,000 additional vehicles per hour, and also contribute to raising the level of traffic safety and reducing time on the street, starting from Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Road until Casablanca street, from 30 minutes to just five minutes.
Cluttons, a global real estate services company, has appointed James Gray its new managing partner.



Gray, who has been an equity partner at Cluttons for the past ten years and heads the 250-year-old companys project and building consultancy team, will step into the role of managing partner on 8 August.



After joining Cluttons in 1998 Gray then became head of project and building consultancy in 2008, a role he has held for the past eight years.



Gray will succeed the current managing partner John Wood, who will be stepping down after four years at the helm. Wood, who has led the business through a period of significant change will continue his role of head of corporate services.



It is an honour to be elected managing partner by my fellow partners. Cluttons has a proud history and to be part of helping to shape the future of this fine business is an exciting challenge, said Gray.



Cluttons has continued to grow both internationally and here in the UK over recent years. My ambition is to build on this with the partners and our excellent staff to continue to develop our business so that the service we provide our clients is second to none.



Steve Morgan, Cluttons' senior partner, said: Im delighted to welcome James to the management team of the business at this very exciting time for Cluttons. We are in a great position to build upon the business outstanding reputation, to continue to grow our successful UK business, our market leading business in the Middle East and expand into new markets.



Id also like to take the opportunity to thank John Wood for everything he has achieved during his time as managing partner. He led the business through our rebrand in 2014 and has overseen a significant improvement in our support teams and client services. He has also driven the expansion of our business within the UK and internationally with the introduction of our global facilities management (GFM) business, new service offerings and entry into new markets.



With Gray becoming managing partner, Cluttons project and building consultancy team will now be led by Paul Chilton.  TradeArabia News Service
Abu Dhabi-based Turbine Services & Solutions (TS&S), a specialised maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) provider for aircraft engines and gas turbines in the Middle East, has launched a programme that encourages students to continue vocational education through applied technical training.



The programme, named Fani wa Aftekher which means I am a proud technician, was unveiled by the companys CEO Abdul Khaliq Saeed at its headquarters in Abu Dhabi, along with a number of senior executives, said a statement from TS&S.



The induction session of the programme was attended by 20 new Emirati trainees, between the ages of 18 to 25, it said.



The programme that was piloted last year, aims to attract, motivate and inspire secondary school students to continue onto higher education by providing them with accredited vocational training in specialised institutes and on the job training at the company's workshops in Abu Dhabi, it added.



The 18-month programme consists of a variety of courses ranging from theoretical modules, including turbine fundamentals, to standard technical skills practices, said a statement.



Students will also study a variety of courses including; English studies, aerodynamics and aviation logistics, it said.



After successfully completing the training requirements, students will join the company workforce as a junior technician. Once qualified, students will be able to pursue their career path and progress to an advanced level of training and enable them to reach higher roles and positions, it added.



Additionally, following the completion of the advanced level, which lasts three years, candidates will be qualified as a senior technician and will also help train the new recruits selected in the next phase.



Saeed said: In line with the Abu Dhabi Economic vision 2030, we are committed to the development of a highly-skilled UAE workforce and seek to empower youth through this national development programme.



Our primary goal is to provide training opportunities to secondary school students who wish to gain solid engineering and technical skills outside of a traditional higher education curriculum, he said.



The aviation and oil and gas sectors play a significant role in the diversification of the economy. We are proud to offer a career path that enables the chosen UAE nationals to contribute to the economic development of Abu Dhabi, he added.



Dr Ahmad Abdul Mannan Al Awar, director of Abu Dhabi Polytechnic, part of Abu Dhabi Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (ACTVET), said: The programme is in line with the strategic vision of Abu Dhabi Polytechnic and supports our continuous efforts to encourage our students to develop essential skills that are transferable across sectors. - TradeArabia News Service
A total of five companies from the GCC and one from the Middle East have been highlighted on a list of 100 companies from emerging markets that have showcased stability, growth and development, according to a new study by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG).



The report, titled Global Leaders, Challengers, and Champions: The Engines of Emerging Market, marks the 10th anniversary of the first publication of BCG's list of global challengers.



The regional firms on the 2016 edition includes Emirates Global Aluminum, Etihad Airways, El Sewedy Electric, Etisalat, Qatar Airways, and Saudi Basic Industries Corp (Sabic), said the report.



Cristiano Rizzi, partner and managing director in BCG's Dubai office, said: The global challengers are the leading edge of a much larger group of companies from emerging markets that, despite economic uncertainty, are powering ahead with confidence and ambition.



From 2009-2014, the 2016 global challengers from the Middle East have grown about 1.5 times in revenue size  and some companies such as Emirates Global Aluminum and Qatar Airways have even dramatically doubled in size.



Overall, global challengers from the region have witnessed their revenues rise from approximately $80 billion to $133 billion  which constitutes nearly 6 per cent of the Middle Easts $2.2T gross domestic product (2014).



Moreover, they have managed to maintain higher gross margins and revenue compound annual growth rate (CAGRs) than many emerging markets such as Latin America and Africa, added the report.



Mirko Rubeis, partner and managing director in BCG's Dubai office, said: Challengers from the Middle East have been particularly successful in delivering growth and profitability  and most have also managed to create exceptional shareholder value, especially compared to their local and global peers.



In fact, in terms of profits, between 2005 and 2014, global challengers from the region achieved a growth rate approximately 1.5 times greater than S&P 500 companies and global peers, he said.



In that very time frame, Middle East challengers generated an earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) margin of 16 per cent; in parallel, S&P 500 companies and global peers, achieved a margin of 12 per cent and 11 per cent, respectively, said the report.



In addition, challengers from the region have also effectively kept pace with local stock indices, it added.  TradeArabia News Service
A machete-wielding man injured two female police officers before being fatally shot in the Belgian city of Charleroi on Saturday, in what the prime minister said appeared to be a terrorist act.



The attacker, who was shouting "Allahu Akbar!" (God is greatest), was shot by a third officer and subsequently died of his wounds, but the police officers were out of danger, police said.



"Initial indications clearly point towards terrorism," Prime Minister Charles Michel told the television channel RTL.



Public broadcaster VRT said the attacker had taken out a machete when two officers asked to search him at a checkpoint set up outside the city's police headquarters as part of security measures imposed after major Islamist attacks in the last nine months in Belgium and neighbouring France.



One young man told the television station VTM that he and his friends heard five to six shots fired in rapid succession, then, 30 seconds later, three more shots.



There was no immediate indication of the man's identity; Belgian media reported that the attacker had no papers with him.



A spokesman for the federal prosecutor said the authorities expected to be able to issue more information on Sunday morning.



Local media reported that Michel was returning from holiday and would meet with the security services on Sunday. - Reuters


Cisco has announced data center technology innovations in three key areas: networking, hyperconverged infrastructure, and hybrid cloud orchestration which will enable application-centric hybrid cloud deployments.



Cisco continues to lead data center innovation with SDN-ready Nexus switches that deliver cloud scale 10/25/40/50/100Gpbs, with up to 10 times performance improvement at industry leading price points.



The new switching platforms provide the scale, telemetry, security, and performance needed for distributed containers and microservices, as well as the lossless traffic needed for IP storage and hyperconverged infrastructure. The new switches give Cisco customers a two-year innovation advantage over competitive technology.



Cisco also unveiled Cisco HyperFlex Systems, built on Ciscos industry-leading UCS compute platform, which brings a new architectural approach to hyperconverged infrastructure. Cisco HyperFlex Systems simplify policy-based automation across network, compute and storage for the widest set of enterprise applications.



Cisco HyperFlex surpasses first generation hyperconverged solutions, which were severely limited in terms of the performance, flexibility, and operational simplicity required by todays IT environment of microservices, containers, new applications and clouds. This expands Ciscos portfolio of complete software-defined infrastructure  from compute with UCS, network with ACI and SDN solutions, to now HyperFlex for storage.



Earlier this year, Cisco announced its intent to acquire CliQr Technologies Inc. The CliQr CloudCenter platform will provide customers with comprehensive yet simplified, application-centric orchestration for private, hybrid and public clouds.



CliQr provides customers with a single, intuitive platform that helps customers manage the entire application lifecycle across hybrid IT environments, whether simple or complex. The CliQr platform ties business applications to heterogeneous data center infrastructure, running across bare-metal, containers and virtualized environments.



These announcements are the first of many hardware and software innovations Cisco plans to bring to market in 2016. The goal is to help customers achieve highly secure, simplified, scalable and cost-effective data centers that keep pace with the speed of business, and accelerate adoption of hybrid cloud environments.



Cisco HyperfFlex Systems



Based on Ciscos award winning UCS technology, Cisco HyperfFlex Systems represent the next generation in hyperconverged infrastructure with a leap in technology that delivers the industrys first complete end-to-end hyperconverged solution.



The HyperFlex portfolio extends Ciscos UCS and converged infrastructure businesses, which together have over 50,000 customers worldwide. The HyperFlex series makes an ideal platform for customers deploying enterprise applications in their data centers and for remote and branch offices where hyperconverged infrastructure is expected to become a multi-billion industry over the next three to four years.



Ciscos ASIC innovations power its next generation switches, enabling customers for the first time to transition to 25/50/100Gbps at the cost and density of todays 10/40Gbps networks, with an increase of up to 10 times the bandwidth.



Automation with Cisco Nexus Fabric Manager



The new Cisco Nexus Fabric Manager automates the complete fabric lifecycle management with a simple point-and-click web interface, and offers automated configuration snapshots and rollbacks. Nexus Fabric Manager builds and self-manages a VXLAN-based fabric, dynamically configuring switches based on simplified user-based actions.



An IT manager can fully deploy a VXLAN-based fabric in just three steps, complete with zero touch provisioning, and can upgrade all fabric switches to a new software release in only four mouse clicks.



Expanded ACI Ecosystem



Cisco is expanding its ACI ecosystem with several technology pioneers: Infoblox, which automates network configuration and change; N3N, which extends ACI visibility beyond the network to the entire data center; Tufin, which provides visibility, control and security change orchestration across heterogeneous environments; vArmour, which provides application-aware micro-segmentation with advanced security analytics; and Veritas, which collects, protects, analyzes and optimizes customers global data.



In addition, Cisco also welcomes several technology innovators to the ACI ecosystem which are taking advantage of ACI automation through its open REST APIs to deliver hyper-agile application deployment, security, governance and cloud operations.



Opportunities for channel partners



The new solutions provide Cisco channel partners with an expanded end-to-end data center portfolio to better serve their customers, Shadi Salama, channel leader  Middle East Theatre, Cisco.



Ciscos new data center and cloud solutions will enable our partners to help their customers as they evolve to application-centric data center infrastructure and also address the requirements for DevOps and application developers. We believe this will expand the opportunity for new revenue streams and professional services for Cisco partners.  TradeArabia News Service
Al Ain-based Hili Mall has signed a contract with Lulu International Group, a leading retail conglomerate, to open a new 70,000-sq-ft hypermarket in the city, in September.



Lulu Hypermarket will provide great shopping experience to the malls customers with top quality in terms of products and services, it said.

The agreement is in tune with Hili Mall's focus to attract leading global brands for meeting the daily needs of families in Al Ain, it added.



Hili Mall intends to cater for the multi-ethnic community in the region. With Lulus range of attractive products and competitive prices, the new hypermarket is expected to drive a large segment of Al Ain population to the mall, especially from the Hili district and its neighbourhood, said a statement.



The contract was signed, during a private ceremony held in Abu Dhabi, by Eng Saeed Sultan Al Dhaheri, CEO of Hili Mall, and Yusuffali M A, chairman of Lulu Group, in the presence of Hany Abd El-Hamid, deputy general manager of Hili Mall, and Shaji Jamaludheen, regional director of Lulu Group.



Al Dhaheri said: Lulu Group is a leading entity within the global retail industry and will be an important component of our mall.



We are delighted to seal this partnership; and are confident that the new hypermarket alongside internationally-acclaimed retail groups such as Al Shaya, Landmark, Kamal Osman Jamjoom, and other renowned brands will be a focal destination which will be attracting more visitors to the mall, he said.



In turn this will pave the way for more collaborations to bring-in other leading brands, with the goal of raising the footfall at Hili Mall and fulfilling its duty of providing all products under one roof, he added.



Yusuffali said: Our presence in Hili Mall demonstrates our commitment to be having a presence in all major retail landmarks across the UAE.



Due to its distinguished location within Al Ain, Hili Mall offers an additional advantage to our hypermarket. We are keen to enhance our visitors unique shopping experience, he added.  TradeArabia News Service


State-run carrier Turkish Airlines has launched direct flights to Erbil, Iraq, from/to Gaziantep Airport, said a report.



According to a report in eTurboNews, the inaugural flight took off on August 5.



The airline, which flies to 290 destinations in 116 countries, continues to expand its extensive network with roundtrip flights between Gaziantep and Erbil being operated twice a week in both directions.
Airbus virtually closed the gap with Boeing in their intense battle for airliner orders in July after booking about half of the 197 firm sales unveiled at last month's Farnborough Airshow, according to the latest data from both companies.



Amid a broad slowdown in purchases, the European planemaker said it had sold a total of 373 jets between January and July, or 323 after adjusting for cancellations.



That compares with 383 airplane sales, or 333 after cancellations, notched up by US rival Boeing.



Combined orders at the world's dominant planemakers fell 17 per cent from the same period last year, weighed by concerns over the economy and relatively low oil prices which have taken the edge off demand for new fuel-saving models.



Both planemakers are also struggling to book new sales in a market that is seen as somewhat oversupplied with jets, especially larger wide-body models, industry experts said.



The slowdown has raised some questions about whether they will maintain plans to boost output later this decade.



Both have also faced a slew of order deferrals in recent weeks, while insisting the trend of postponements is stable.



Two industry sources said Indonesia's Lion Air, one of the largest Asian jet buyers with hundreds of jets on order from Boeing and Airbus, is aiming to defer about 25 Airbus jets.



Airbus declined comment and Lion Air was not available.



The planemaker was also hammering out last details of an order for 100 more planes from Lion Air's regional rival AirAsia , announced in a shower of publicity at Farnborough.



After a slow start to the year, Airbus had looked set to end the Farnborough Airshow with 380 net orders for the year to date including the AirAsia deal, which it described as a firm order.



The deal did not make it into the new tally, however, and an Airbus spokesman said paperwork was being finalised. A person close to the talks said they only involved tying up loose ends.



Latest Airbus data also suggested that another order secured at the height of an industry boom in 2012 had been trimmed back.



Mexican low-cost carrier Interjet has cancelled five of 40 A320neo jets it has on order, according to Thursday's update.



No immediate comment was available from the airline on the disclosure, which comes as Mexican consumer confidence drops to its lowest level in two years amid a weak economy.



DELIVERY



While Boeing remains ahead by a whisker in the race for new orders, it maintains a solid lead on deliveries which drive revenues, handing over 432 jets between January and July.



Airbus delivered 339 jets between January and July, down 4 percent on the year, due in part to a shortage of Pratt & Whitney (UTX.N> engines for its latest model, the revamped A320neo.



Airbus delivered just three of the jets in July, including two powered by Pratt & Whitney and the first to be delivered with alternative engines from CFM International .



So far this year it has delivered 11 A320neos and 15 of its widebody A350s, another model suffering delays due in part to problems with suppliers. It aims to deliver 50 A350s this year.



Industry sources say that besides widely reported problems with cabin equipment such as toilets, the A350 has faced some other glitches including quality problems with wing spoilers from Austrian parts maker FACC. An Airbus spokesman said these problems had been resolved. FACC declined to comment.



New Airbus data also incorporated the cancellation by Qatar Airways of the first of 50 A320neo-family jets it has ordered.



The Gulf airline has criticised Airbus and Pratt & Whitney over A320neo delays and said in June it would exercise a clause to abandon the first jet, one of several parked in Qatar livery outside the French factory waiting for engines.



Parent Airbus Group said last week that upgraded versions of the engines were now being delivered.



Meanwhile, Qatar Airways is in talks with Boeing for rival 737 MAX jets to diversify its fast-expanding fleet. - Reuters
Millennium Airport Hotel Dubai has appointed Binu S Varghese as the new director of sales to further develop its growing portfolio of international, regional and national accounts.



He comes with a wealth of experience within the industry, having spent the last 19 years working with international hotel brands in the UAE, Africa and India.



Speaking about his new role, Varghese said: I am excited to start a new challenge within Millennium Airport Hotel Dubai and to come back to Millennium & Copthorne Hotel. I am looking forward to working with the team to develop further their already extensive product and services. I am fortunate to re-join such a respected company.



Simon Moore, the general manager of Millennium Airport Hotel Dubai, said: Binus wealth of experience and industry knowledge has already made him a key addition to the Company. We view his appointment as a sign of our commitment to be the preferred hotel company in the industry. Im confident that he will play a key role in helping us to achieve our business goals. - TradeArabia News Service


The TransGriot is available for speaking engagements, college lectures, panel discussions, media interviews, conferences or Trans 101 education efforts for your school, business or professional organizations.



For local Houston area, Texas or national events, you can e-mail me at transgriot@yahoo.com



For events outside the Houston metro area, I ask that my travel and lodging expenses be covered.



This is separate from my speaking fee.



If you are interested in having me appear as a speaker or panelist, you can e-mail me with the date and details of your proposed event.

Please book as early as possible because my speaking and event calendar slots during the year rapidly fill up.
In many ways Wyoming is enamored of its past, with cowboy culture still a defining element. But for technology entrepreneurs, this can be frustrating.

Ive always had this feeling that Wyoming has always been 10 years behind everything, said Eric Trowbridge, who spent eight years at Apple before returning to Cheyenne. Now Trowbridge is working to start Wyomings first coding and technology school, with an eye toward bringing the state up to speed.

Array School of Technology and Design in downtown Cheyenne is accepting applications for its inaugural class of 12 students. The schools first offering will be an intensive six-month course in full stack web development, intended to prepare graduates to go straight into the technology industry as software engineers.

Trowbridge said there was an urgency in developing talented tech workers in Wyoming, and Cheyenne specifically, to retain existing companies and attract new ones. In 2012, Cheyennes Sierra Trading Post, an primarily online outdoor gear retailer, opened a technology office in Fort Collins, where it hired more staff and moved some of its Wyoming workers south.

Without developing local talent, that will be an increasing trend, Trowbridge said. If we dont do this, these people will leave.

Cheyenne LEADS, a business development group, has helped connect companies with skilled workers in Laramie County. But much of the technology industry surrounding Cheyenne is made up of data centers that require workers to maintain the sophisticated HVAC systems that offer climate control for the massive servers. Laramie County Community College has tailored programs to train students to work on those systems, but for companies that need software developers, the options have been more limited.

When it came to the tech piece, there was a need in the community and there were companies that identified that, said Derrek Jarred of Cheyenne LEADS.

Some companies, including scientific safety company Underwriters Laboratories, have been drawn to Laramie, where they can rely on students from the University of Wyoming. But Ron Gullberg, with the Wyoming Business Council, said a major concern for employers remains whether Wyoming has the talent they need.

Companies like Underwriters Laboratories and Microsoft are showing that theyre willing to invest here and are finding workers, Gullberg said.  As they grow, were going to have to meet that demand with education and workforce recruitment.

Trowbridge hopes Array can help with the educational component. While the school is starting with just a dozen students, he said that if the demand was there it could grow to include classes focusing on specific skills like mobile application design and even color theory. He also hopes to offer courses on the weekends and after work to make it possible for currently employed workers to become familiar with software design.

For now, Trowbridge said the school has received a diverse crop of applicants, which is notable given that the technology industry is dominated by young men.

The first student admitted is a former energy worker who was recently laid off and is looking to pivot into a new industry, Trowbridge said. He added that building a pool of graduates for local tech companies to hire was an important step in the economic diversification of Wyoming.

Were kind of dubbing it a coal-to-code transition, Trowbridge said. Array has applied for a grant from the state in part to subsidize the costs of keeping laid-off workers in the state by retraining them.

But Trowbridge acknowledged that it is not a one-to-one switch, which is why despite not requiring any previous experience with computers the school is rigorously vetting applicants.

I dont want people coming to Array thinking, Oh, Im going to get this great job, Trowbridge said. Despite the pay for qualified graduates hovering around $75,000 per year, Trowbridge said he did not want to give prospective students the wrong idea.

If they dont genuinely love logic, math, if they dont love sitting behind a computer for eight hours a day, [pay] doesnt matter  youre going to hate your job, Trowbridge said.

Another factor is the speed at which companies in the technology sector move. The coding language you learn at Array might not be the same one a prospective employer uses.

If [a student] wants something that theyre going to learn once and never have to learn again, this not going to be a good fit, Trowbridge said.

Array is a for-profit corporation and is not accredited, which Trowbridge said is standard for a coding school. Tuition is $15,000 for the course and includes a laptop. Trowbridge said explaining the cost has been a major challenge, and he emphasizes that it is lower than at similar schools in big cities.

A similar program in Denver costs $16,000 and one in San Francisco charges about $14,000, but does not include a laptop.

Board members have invested around $35,000 in the company and expect to raise a similar amount in coming months, Trowbridge said.

Trowbridge is also adamant that as a victim of for-profit universities he is not out to make a quick buck on students by over-promising and under-delivering. He said he took on $175,000 to attend the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and Los Angeles Film School and said he knows what it feels like to be had.

I have a personal gripe toward private schools running as a private business, Trowbridge, who is still paying off student loans, said. I dont want anyone to have to experience what I went through.

With that in mind, Trowbridge worked with Cheyenne LEADS to connect with local technology companies during the planning process to confirm there would be a demand for graduates.

The response was overwhelmingly positive, he said.

It is in our best interest that our students get jobs, Trowbridge said. Over the next few years if our students dont get jobs, we arent going to be a school much longer.
DUMAS, Texas  There it is on the west side of the Moore County Courthouse in Dumas. The memorial, maybe 8 feet tall, stands in the morning shade as trucks and other vehicles crawl past along Dumas Avenue and Eighth Street.

There are 19 names inscribed. From Biles to West, they are 19 men who answered the call on a Sunday morning 60 years ago. Underneath their names is this inscription:

But Whether On The Plains So High Or In the Battle's Van, The Fittest Place Where Man Can Die Is Where He Dies For Man

Dedicated To Those Who Gave Their Lives To The Moore County Disaster, July 29, 1956

"That man right there," said George Ochs, pointing to the name of Sam Gibson, "he was my Cub Scout leader. ... I do remember seeing bodies on the floor of the hospital, dead bodies. They took all the dead who were burned beyond recognition to the armory."

Sixty years ago, on July 29, 1956, came one of the worst days in Texas Panhandle history, the worst man-made disaster in Panhandle history. Nineteen firemen were killed in an explosion that tore apart Shamrock Oil and Gas Corp.'s McKee plant between Dumas and Sunray.

The tragedy reverberated across the country. At the time, it was the fifth-deadliest firefighting disaster in U.S. history. It's still the sixth-worst.

It was the front-page banner headline in the Chicago Tribune. An extra edition that same day from the Moore County News screamed, "EXPLOSION!!"

Reporters from several states rushed to the area  19 dead, 31 injured, two communities in shock.

"I don't think a lot of people realized  I was only 13, so I didn't  of how that just overwhelmed these two towns," said Ken Floyd, who was burned in the explosion. "But the other part is how people came together to comfort each other. Everyone was touched in some way."

"Tank fire at Shamrock" was the first bulletin issued early on an otherwise-sleepy Sunday in July 60 years ago. Dumas Fire Marshal Paschel Pool issued a call to the city's volunteer firemen, as well as to those in Sunray.

The call came around 6 a.m., perhaps as many of the 19 were up and starting to get ready for church. Instead, they rushed to the McKee plant. Already, a fire had erupted in a tank from escaping vapors from a half-million gallons of pentane and hexane.

"When those firefighters cut the lock to that gate and looked at that, probably someone said or at least thought, 'We're not going to get it done just standing there and looking at it,'" Floyd said. "They had to get in there and throw water at it. That's all they knew to do. The problem had to be addressed, and there was no one else to lean on."

Floyd was there with his dad, Kenneth Floyd Sr., the manager of the Piggly Wiggly grocery store.

They had driven with their neighbors, Herman Ochs and 10-year-old son George Ochs, when they heard the early morning sirens.

Ochs worked at an SPS power plant near the McKee plant. Curious George woke up, put on some jeans and sandals. He wasn't even wearing a shirt when they all piled into the Floyds' car and took off about 15 miles away, a decision the adults would regret for the rest of their lives.

They beat the roadblocks to the plant, and joined a handful of bystanders as they watched the blaze from maybe 250 yards to the south. George and Ken were in the back seat talking when a man pulled up and advised them to get out of there  now.

A huge tank started whistling and smoke began to fly out.

The tank, Floyd said, started to peel like an onion. The four just began running.

A decision was made to decrease the liquid amount in the burning tank, but it increased the tank's volume with explosive vapors. Just before 7 a.m., the tank ruptured as the remaining fluid boiled, increasing gas pressure past the bursting point.

One witness described the moment as "the inside of hell." Another said it was like a blowtorch on your body. Floyd thought of an atomic bomb, as there was a mushroom cloud. While running, he sensed a shadow. It was the cloud of fire and smoke above them.

"It had a tremendous punch on us when it hit," he said. "It took your breath away and knocked you to the ground."

Herman Ochs, whose body was smoking, saw George and threw him on the ground and started rolling him in the dirt. It may have extinguished the fire, but also caused later infection.

"It was just a rolling ball of heat," Ochs said.

Ochs believes they all rode in a deputy's car to the Dumas hospital, which was turning into a triage. Burn victims were in hallways. Some were already dead.

"I was in a hospital bed maybe an hour, and they were running an IV on me, and my dad said, 'Son, we're going to the house. There's not enough beds and people are dying in the hall. We'll be OK,'" Floyd said. "So we went home and a doctor checked on us that night."

Floyd, with severe burns on his arms, missed about a month of school. The Ochs got it worse. Herman spent about a week in the hospital, but George figured to be another fatality. He discovered later that doctors didn't think he would survive the burns on his back since he wore no shirt.

But he did. He spent eight months in the Dumas hospital with numerous skin graft surgeries and treatments. He then spent a month at the John Sealy Burn Center in Galveston. A homebound tutor kept him going with fifth-grade schoolwork.

"I found out I was not the worst burned person in the world," Ochs said. "It was terrible down there. I can remember listening to kids screaming."

Ochs, who would retire as an elementary school principal in Hereford, survived. He has a sea of scars on his back, scars on his legs from the skin grafts, scars on his arms.

But Floyd, who lives in Arlington, discovered there were many other scars. They were the scars of widows and children, those who lost a father or husband.

Three days after the fire, there were 11 funerals in Dumas and Sunray, seven more the next day, and one more the day after that. Nine were from Sunray, which had a population of less than 1,000. All 19 men were married, and all but one was a father. They left behind 35 children, and two who never saw their fathers.

With the help of his son-in-law, film producer Gabriel Horn, Floyd sought out interviews with wives and children. Many ached to tell their stories, to talk of loved ones lost.

In those days, there were no grief counselors, and families dealt with tragedies in an unhealthy way  by bottling it up.

"We would drive and drive, and park outside, and people would meet us at the front steps and we had barely got in the house and got the cameras rolling, and they were telling us things they had never told us before," Floyd said. "It was a wonderful outpouring."

The result was the documentary "The '56 Fire," which chronicles the disaster, but more than that, tells stories of perseverance, faith and coping. Both Floyd, who lives in Arlington, and his son-in-law would be crying along with those they interviewed.

Kenny Floyd and George Ochs are among the last who were there on that awful Sunday in July 60 years ago. With every passing year, there will be fewer who recall that day.

But at the courthouse in Dumas, and at City Hall in Sunray, stand similar memorials, monuments meant to outlast memory.

"Many won't remember or won't know," Floyd said, "but we need to latch on. That memorial in Dumas  that's about those men, but also about hope, faith and love and how communities responded. That's the memory I want to have."
Financial literacy

for BGCCW members

Members from five BGCCW sites will discover budgeting and money management strategies through fun, hands-on activities Monday through Wednesday, from 9:30 to 11 a.m., and 1:30 to 3 p.m. in the Financial Literacy Center at the All American Center, 910 Barbara Street (directly south of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Wyoming Main Club)

Area banks, credit unions and investment companies will be on hand for the 2nd annual Financial Literacy Carnival. These financial organizations will each provide a fun, hands-on experience with booths and interactive games to help club youth practice their new-found knowledge. This summer, members have been learning these concepts through Junior Achievement Financial Literacy programming offered at each of the Clubs. For more information, contact Derek DeBoer, Director of Operations, BGCCW at 235-4079.

Back-to-school

immunization clinics

Casper-Natrona County Health Department, 475 South Spruce Street, is offering back-to-school immunizations on several dates before exclusion day. During the clinics, walk-ins will be taken on a first-come-first-serve basis. No appointments are necessary. We just ask that parents bring in the childs immunization record and insurance card (if applicable) to expedite the process. We encourage folks to come in early to avoid longer clinic wait times.

Friday, August 12, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Thursday, August 25, 3 to 6 p.m.; Friday, August 26, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Thursday, September 1, 3 to 6 p.m.; Tuesday, September 6, 3 to 6 p.m.; Tuesday, September 20, 3 to 6 p.m.; Friday, September 30, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Exclusion Day).

Using social media

to find work

The Natrona County Library will offer a class on how to use social media to find work on Tuesday, August 9, at 4 p.m. This class will outline common tips and tricks for using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social media tools to build your professional network, send out your resume to the right people, and find employment opportunities. Having social media accounts is helpful, but not necessary. Call 577-READ ext. 2 or email reference@natronacountylibrary.org for more information.

Top 10 running apps

The Natrona County Library will review the top 10 running apps on Tuesday, August 9, at 4 p.m. This class will cover the top ten apps for iPhone and Android devices designed to help you get the most out of running throughout the year. A smartphone is strongly recommended for this class. Call 577-READ ext. 2 or email reference@natronacountylibrary.org for more information.

Parkinsons support Aug. 9

Join us on the second Tuesday of each month at Rocky Mountain Therapy. 2546 East 2nd Street, Building 500, at 5:30 p.m. This support group is open to anyone with Parkinsons or caring for someone with Parkinsons. Our next meeting is August 9 and the guest speaker is Dr. Woolston, neuropsychologist, at Wyoming Neurological Assoc. in Casper. Different topics will be discussed each month. To RSVP, call 577-5204 and ask for Jerri or Shannon. We will be meeting the following dates: Sept. 13, Oct. 11, Nov. 8, and Dec. 13. To find out more abnout Rocky Mountain Therapy please visit our website at www.rockymountaintherapy.org.

New depression

group begins

J.R.s Hunt for Life is offering See it Clearly, a free peer support group for persons suffering from depression and other mental conditions that lead to suicidal thoughts and actions. We are not professionals but rather a group of like minded peers wishing to support each other in these struggles. We offer anonymity and confidentiality to all attending. Our meetings are at 6:45 p.m. on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month at 500 South Wolcott in the conference room on the second floor, (12-24 Club). Meetings in August are August 10 and August 24, and so on through the year. If you have ever considered or attempted taking your life or are struggling, please come. You are important to us.

Summer clearance

at thrift shop

Summer clearance at the Methodist thrift shop, 611 W. Collins, is on now.

You know the drill  prices and selection begin at regular prices, but as the sale progresses, prices are reduced and so are your options to get the good stuff.

Shop early and often for great bargains in clothing, small kitchen and household items, books  everything.

Store hours are Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Donations of clean usable items are accepted during those hours only. Items left outside are discarded.

The volunteer staff appreciates the generous support of the community which enables us to help support Interfaith and Holy Cross Brothers with their assistance programs.

We will be closed from September 1 to September 12 for cleaning and stocking of an all-new fall inventory.

For more information, call 234-6611.

Saturday morning

watercolor

The schedule for the Saturday morning watercolor sessions at ART 321 has been set for July and August. The sessions meet every Saturday morning from 10 a.m. to noon, the cost is $10 per session. All levels welcome. Havent painted before? No problem. This is the place to learn and enjoy art. For information and questions, please call Ellen Black at 265-6783.

August 13, practice session; August 20, Simplify with a Limited Palette; August 27, practice session.

Family continues

suicide support

Good Grief, Support will continue at 5:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month (August 9 and 23) at the 12-24 Club, 500 S. Wolcott, by request of attendees. The family of J.R. Hunter, who died from suicide in June 2015 began the support before the especially tough holiday season. Anyone who is grieving a suicide, death, or considering suicide is encouraged to attend. Attendance at the meeting, as well as the content, will be strictly confidential. The Fresh Start Cafe will be open, and you can eat during the meetings. This meeting place was offered by Dan Cantine of the 12-24 Club. You need not be a member to attend.

Human figure

sculpture workshop

ART321/Casper Artists Guild is excited to offer The Human Figure Sculpture Workshop with instructor Chris Navarro Aug. 10 to 12, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. Open to all levels. We will study armature construction, anatomical proportion, composition, design and gesture. Working with oil base clay and using live models we will look for that hidden spark that brings the essence of life into our work. Fee is $450 for members plus supply list/$525 for non-members plus supply list. Register at the gallery, 321 W. Midwest Ave., or by phone, 265-2655.

Needle felting workshop

ART321/Casper Artists Guild will have a one day workshop, Petroglyph Needle Felting, on Saturday, August 13, 2016, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The instructor is Nancy Jones. Fee for this workshop is $50 for members plus $10 supply fee/$80 for non members plus $10 supply fee. This workshop is open to all levels and will be great fun. Sign up today.

Womentum registration open

Women of all ages are encouraged to attend Womentum, a two-day public workshop on strategic communications, Aug. 16-17 at Casper College.

The three-hour interactive workshops will help women navigate challenging conversations and provide participants with tools to face tough moments with a plan of action.

Wyoming Council for Womens Issues (WCWI) is sponsoring the event.

The Tuesday workshop will take place from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. and will explore strategic communications for advocacy and policy change. The Wednesday workshop will run from 9 a.m.-noon and will apply the same methodology to interpersonal communications.

Both workshops will assist women in development and delivery of strategic messages. Participants will use a communications development matrix and practice delivering clear and confident messaging through interactive, role-play activities.

The workshops will be facilitated by Ingrid Daffner Krasnow, MPH. Krasnow provides strategic communication training and technical assistance to nonprofit organizations and advocacy groups around the country.

Womentum is a 501c3 nonprofit organization based in Jackson. The nonprofit is best known for its signature mentoring program,Womentoring, a community-building mentoring program to develop womens skills, confidence, and local network through integrated workshops, dinners, events, and one-on-one mentoring.

Light refreshments will be served. Cost of the workshop is $40. Space is limited. Email info@womentumwyo.org or visit www.womentumwyo.org/events to register.

Scrapbooking crop Aug. 20

Scrapbooking Crop! Gather your supplies and come scrapbook with us for the day on August 20 in Casper. Contact Julia for a registration form, 307-315-0713.

CLIMB holds CNA info session

CLIMB Wyoming will hold an information meeting for single moms on Certified Nursing Assistant free training at 5:30 p.m., on Thursday, Aug. 25, at CLIMBs Casper office, 632 S. David St. Space is limited, no children please. Those interested in the program must be available for shift work. For more information, visit climbready.org or call 237-2855.

Monday career symposiums

The Department of Workforce Services will be holding a Career Symposium for job seekers showcasing career opportunities throughout the State of Wyoming. We are hoping to assist individuals who may be struggling to determine a career pathway or are changing careers due to recent layoffs. Stop by the Casper Department of Workforce Services, 851 Werner Court, Ste. 120, on Mondays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., June 27 through August 8. Opportunities will include statewide college or training options as well as many different career pathways that may not need additional schooling.

Wyo Prepper Con

Wyo Prepper Con will be held at the Parkway Plaza Hotel in Casper on Saturday, August 27, 2016 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, August 28, 2016 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Admission is $5 for the entire weekend. Visit with exhibitors and attend speeches Saturday by experts in their prepper related fields.

Exhibit space and speaker space is still available but filling up quickly. Go to www.WyomingPrepperCon.com for more information or Find us on Facebook at Wyoming Prepper Convention

Parkinsons exercise

Rocky Mountain Therapy is offering a Parkinsons exercise program. Join us from noon to 1 p.m. Thursdays at Rocky Mountain Therapy, 2546 E. Second St., Building 500. These classes are open to anyone with Parkinsons or caring for someone with Parkinsons.

Thursdays class is tailored for the individual with more advanced Parkinsons and focuses on improving endurance, safety and managing symptoms. We are open to all ages and can tailor the class to meet varying exercise needs. The cost of the class is $5. To RSVP, call 577-5204 and ask for Jerri or Shannon.

Womens Expo booth space

The Casper Events Center, Casper Star-Tribune Communications, and Townsquare Media are pleased to present the 12th Annual Wyoming Womens Expo at the Casper Events Center on Friday, September 30 and Saturday, October 1.

The Expo Tradeshow hours are Friday, September 30, from 4 to 8:30 p.m. and Saturday, October 1, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The 2016 Tradeshow will feature over 100 displays by a variety of vendors and sponsors. Products and services will include everything from the latest in health and wellness products, beauty and skincare, personal protection, banking and investment education, hot retail items and so much more! Booths start at $205.

The Wyoming Womens Expo offers sponsorship packages with generous print, radio, online, and tradeshow advertising exposure with added perks such as discounted Professional Development Day table rates and complimentary tickets to the expo. For sponsorship information please call 235-8456 or log onto www.WyomingWomensExpo.com.

Womens Expo professional day

Our Professional Development Day gives the working woman the chance to have a conference experience right here in Casper! This is a chance for women to network, be inspired by other women and empowered by dynamic speakers. Join us on Friday, September 30, for a day of Professional Development, sponsored by the University of Wyoming at Casper.

This year, pick the option that best fits your schedule. The full day runs from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and includes continental breakfast, lunch, coffee bar, one martini, all speakers and Girls Night Out ticket for $90. The half day is from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and includes lunch, coffee bar, keynote speaker, two content speakers, one martini and Girls Night Out Ticket for $55. Tables of 8 are available for both Half Day and Full Day.

Visit the new www.WyomingWomensExpo.com for a list and bios of Professional Development Day speakers.

Summer classes at learning circle

The Bart Rea Learning Circle hosts classes every day of the week during the summer. The circle is located inside Amoco Park, 1007 W. First Street, along the Platte River Trails: just west of West First and Poplar intersection; and just east of The Tate Pump House. All classes are free with a canned food donation to Wyoming Food for Thought. No classes on holidays or during inclement weather. For more information visit The Bart Rea Learning Circle on Facebook.

Monday, 5:30 p.m.: Fail Free Drum Circle: Learn the gift of drumming. We all start out as drummers fro the moment we begin .to hear our mothers steady heartbeat. Bring a drum if possible and your mat or seat. Primary instructor: Brett Governanti.

Tuesday, 5:30 p.m.: Strength Training for Seniors: Training and mobility are the tickets to a full and active life for all over 50. Learn strength exercises to build and maintain muscle mass and quality so you can function at your highest level. Strength plus mobility equals freedom and independence. Primary instructor: Neil Short.

Wednesday, 4 p.m.: Storytelling on the Circle: Kids & Kids at heart are welcome. We will explore stories about everything from nature, to our planet, to being good neighbors. Children four and under require adult supervision. Primary instructor: Libby Tedder Hugus.

Thursday, 5:30 p.m.: Yoga on the Circle: Unwind and connect with yourself through a variety of yoga styles. Bring your mat and water. Primary instructors: Nikki Allen, Tracy Campbell, Lizz Cowley, Brittnee Greenlee Miller.

Friday, 5:30 p.m.: Exploring Nature: Learn about our river, animals, plants, trees and insects and their amazing interactions from experts. Bring your inquisitiveness about nature and comfortable walking shoes. Children are welcome and must be accompanied by an adult. Primary Instructor: Donna Hoffman, horticulturalist.

Saturday, 10:30 a.m.: Meditation & Labyrinth Walk: Learn about labyrinths before a mindfullness class. Connect with your senses in the outdoors then stroll the path in a guided labyrinth walk. Last, well sit for calming meditation session. Bring a cushion or yoga mat. Primary instructor: Elliott Ramage.

Sunday, 10 a.m.: Yoga on the Circle: Unwind and connect with yourself through a variety of yoga styles. Bring your mat and water. Sunday morning class is better for beginners. Primary instructors: Nikki Allen, Tracy Campbell, Lizz Cowley, Brittnee Greenlee Miller.

Celebrate Recovery every Friday

Looking for a nontraditional approach to recovery from your hurts, habits and hangups? Celebrate Recovery meets at 5:30 p.m. every Friday at Highland Park Community Church, just south of Elkhorn Valley Rehabilitation Hospital on East Second Street. We start with a family meal, followed by praise and worship. At 7 p.m., theres either a lesson from Celebrate Recoverys planned curriculum or a testimony by a person who has found recovery through Christ. Then, people go to gender-specific small groups until 8:30 p.m., when dessert and fellowship conclude the evening. Child care is available at no cost. For more information, contact Chris at 265-4073.

Here and Now: Dementia-focused monthly art class

Classes are every third Tuesday of the month from 1 to 3 p.m. There is no charge. Here and Now is a program made possible through a collaboration between Wyoming Dementia Care and the Nicolaysen Art Museum. It is designed to provide a supportive environment for people with dementia and Alzheimers and their loved ones.

To register, contact Dani with Wyoming Dementia Care 265-4678, ext. 106, or at wyodementia@casperseniorcenter.com or Zhanna Gallegos at 235-5247 or at zgallegos@thenic.org
Stubson has earned my vote

Editor:

Wyoming voters face several interesting choices this year. The choice of our nations commander in chief remains a difficult conversation for many. Both presidential candidates are bad choices in my opinion. But the race for the Equality States congressional seat is not a difficult choice. There have been articles and newspaper editorials describing recent transplant Liz Cheney as a leading candidate, but none have been glowing endorsements. Some would have us believe she is the inevitable candidate, and that her campaign war chest  groaning under the weight of her millions of dollars in donations from out of state  will allow her to basically buy enough ads to win in a landslide.

I know Wyoming voters are smarter than that. Wyoming voters cant be bought, and theyre not that gullible. One of the most unique aspects of living in Wyoming is the personal access we have to our legislative delegation. I love it that I got to exchange a few words with Sen. John Barrasso at Starbucks the other day, or that the late Sen. Craig Thomas worked out at the same gym as me. I dont want Wyoming to lose that sense of closeness to our congressional representation.

Tim Stubson is my choice for our congressional seat. Hes a hardworking Casper native who grew up here, worked here, went to school here, raised a family and started a business here. Unlike Cheney, who has never held an elected office before, he is an outstanding state legislator and commands respect on both sides of the aisle. Hes fiscally responsible and not afraid to make tough choices. He will fight for us in Congress, just like hes done in Cheyenne for the last eight years. Stubson has earned my vote, and I hope youll agree hes earned yours too. His win on Election Day will prove that Wyoming voters want to be represented by someone who is actually representative of Wyoming.
CHEYENNE  The Wyoming Department of Health has detected a cluster of hepatitis C infections among drug users in Converse County.

State epidemiologist Dr. Tracy Murphy says the agency has confirmed three hepatitis C cases in the county.

Murphy says most people become infected with the hepatitis C virus by sharing needles or other equipment to inject drugs.

Hepatitis C is a liver infection caused by a blood-borne virus. For some, hepatitis C is a short-term illness, but for about 80 percent of people it can become a long-term, chronic infection. Chronic hepatitis C is serious disease that can result in long-term health problems, even death.

The health department is encouraging health care providers across Wyoming to evaluate their patients' risk for hepatitis C and to conduct hepatitis C testing if needed.
Wyoming is usually at the top or the bottom in national surveys about nearly anything.

In a recently released survey, Wyoming is tied with Alaska for having more than twice as many state and local government workers per capita compared with states like Nevada or Michigan.

The new survey by the U.S. Census Bureau counts the number of governments workers as part of its annual survey of public employment and payroll. It includes the most recent data from 2014, which found similar discrepancies exist in public payroll costs.

The report, featured on Governing.com, said Wyomings state and local governments employ approximately 446 public workers, excluding education, for every 10,000 residents  the highest rate.

Wyoming is unique in that it operates an unusually high number of public hospitals, including the vast majority of acute care facilities, the report said.

The state employs the most corrections workers of any state and the second-highest number of highway workers, behind Alaska.

None of these stats is a surprise to Wenlin Liu, principal economist for the states economic analysis division.

Alaska and Wyoming have the lowest population density in the country with large geographical areas but small populations.

Thats the reason both states spend large amounts of money per capita on construction and maintenance of many miles of roads.

Although Wyoming has 99 municipalities, 56 of the cities and towns have populations of fewer than 1,000 people.

The state, Lieu said, also has many local special districts to cover the whole state such as fire districts, water districts, conservation districts and hospital districts.

I suspect that due to the rural nature of the state with sparsely distributed population, its probably not easy for private  for-profit  hospitals to operate in many of our rural counties and areas, he said.

Thats the main reason for Wyomings high figure of per capita expenditure on public hospitals.

There is an irony with this survey and report: The states with the higher number of public employees are more conservative and supposedly strongly in favor of small or limited government.

Yet eight of the top 10 states with the most public employees per capita voted Republican in the last presidential election.

Wyoming, where the GOP controls everything, is in that bunch.

These public employee stats for 2016 and later are likely to change downward for both Wyoming and Alaska, given the slump in energy prices.

Its hard to keep track, but it seems Wyomings revenue deficit is about $500 million or so for the two-year budget cycle.

Alaska has much bigger financial woes.

Gov. Bill Walker recently said the state is facing a $4 billion budget hole.

Sharp cuts includes education, road projects and the payout of the annual dividend from the $52 billion Alaska Permanent Fund.

Last year the payout was $2,072 for every child and adult in the state. This year the payout will be $1,000 each.

The Alaska Legislature has been in session off and on all year  crisis mode.

The accepted principle, Liu said, is that a government revenue structure should be like a three-legged stool  income tax, sales tax and property tax.

Wyoming has only two legs  sales and property tax but no income tax.

So the stool is wobbly enough, and also given the fact of Wyoming governments heavy dependence on mineral extraction industry in revenue, the revenue stream always fluctuates along with mineral prices, the economist said in a recent interview.

At least Wyoming energy industry is more diversified with oil, natural gas, and coal each covers about one-third, though all of them are in downturn now, he added.

But Alaska. Alas. It is the only state in the nation that has only one stool  property tax. The state mainly depends on oil revenue, based on the net value of oil and gas, which is the value at the point of production less all qualified lease expenses, including capital and operating expenses.

With depressed prices in 2016, many producers profits are negative, meaning no revenue for the state.

At least Wyomings severance is based on valuation, Liu said.
It might have tried to warn me, but with the noisily crunching brush and the shrieking wind, I didnt hear the rattle, and my right boot landed right exactly on the head of the rattlesnake.

Instantly it felt like the atmosphere was charged with high-voltage electricity, and my total attention was engaged. The snake was mad, and I instinctively jumped backward and to the left. Luckily I landed on both feet, and there was some brush between us, making it difficult for it to lunge at me.

At first I couldnt even see it, as it blended with the vegetation so well. I set down my pack and looked around for any of its poisonous buddies, but we were alone  two very dangerous animals. I moved a little closer for a better look, and the intensity of its rattling increased until it sent chills down my spine.

I backed off a bit, and the rattling cooled down. The rattler was in a tight coil and therefore very able to strike at me. Its face was a good 2.5 inches wide and its stack of rattles 4 inches tall. Its middle parts, as far as I could tell, seemed to be as thick as a strong mans arm, and Im guessing that if stretched out it would have been at least 5 feet long. By its pattern, size and triangular head, I identified it as an exceptionally large prairie rattler, pretty far west of its usual range.

I circled around to ground that was a little higher, and to where there would be a few dead sticks between it and me, to make it harder for it to bite me. From here I had a good look. The scaly geometric pattern of a rattlesnake is beautiful in a charismatic way, because it is so bold and decisive and intimidating, like war paint that means business.

At first, for an instant, it had the advantage. But my stepping on its head, a one-in-a-million stroke of luck for me, spoiled its big chance to sink its fangs into my leg, say between the top of my boot and below the knee, through the light nylon pants I was wearing. Rattlesnakes are sometimes called the gentlemen assassins, because they give you a quick warning before striking, and you had better be listening. Listening to music with headphones would definitely be a mistake, as death by cellphone and iPods are already common enough, even without rattlesnakes.

Once I realized the snake was there, of course, and because I had not been bitten, the advantage was mine. I could have filled his head with lead, but I was just a visitor in his neighborhood. So  warning to the reader  hes still out there.

Besides, some Indians believe that snakes are messengers to the underworld, and they could be correct, so it is not good to kill snakes unnecessarily. Had it actually bitten me, then yes, killing it would be a good idea, so that an exact and unquestioned identification of the species could be made, and therefore the correct antivenin could be acquired for treatment.

All the same, I advise tall leather boots and thick cotton pants that can absorb a lot of the venom as it slides down the fangs.

I was in a sagebrush-filled canyon in southwestern Wyoming looking for shed antlers. I was about a mile from Highway 430 and 3 miles from my vehicle. Would it start when I really needed it to? Could I get myself to Memorial Hospital in Rock Springs, had I been bitten? Could I have hitched a ride with one of the gas-field workers, at the rate of one truck per hour? And this is assuming that I could get to the highway at all.

Some people die or lose limbs from rattlesnake bites, and for all this I had found antlers worth about $10. Snake bite antivenin goes for $4,000 to $7,000 per vial, and sometimes a bite requires four to 20 vials. Its a good thing that Im really bad at math, or I might just stay at home, like most Americans.

This, however, would be contrary to the essence of living in Wyoming. Here we enjoy big open spaces. The weather, the landscape, and the wildlife can cash us in at any time, but I guess thats part of the attraction.
Editor:

It appears Tim Stubsons flyers are setting the U.S. House election as a choice between Stubson and Liz Cheney. Having heard Liz frequently when she was on Fox News, she is obviously a very smart lady, as she knows and understands the facts, rules and laws and certainly knows of what she speaks. It is obvious she is not only great for Wyoming but also the U.S., which is what we need for our next Wyoming congresswoman.

Stubson (an attorney) on the other hand, is so very uninformed and arrogant that he believed he was capable of illegally changing our Wyoming State Constitution without a vote from the very citizens he was elected to represent, thus wasting well over $1,000,000 of our tax dollars.

Having served on several boards, I made certain I knew and understood both the county rules and regulations and the Wyoming Constitution, as this is what keeps you on the safe track.

As soon as they started this illegal fiasco, I wrote a letter telling them why their action was illegal and would be very costly if they continued this type of behavior, and nothing could or would be accomplished until the next election. And I was right! Obviously, Stubson didnt believe this applied to him, even though he served as the chair of the Finance Committee of the Investatory Committee. Only one of the four ever held a public meeting, and that committee did not stream the meeting, which means it was not made public. Overall, this action produced a rebuke and Cindy Hill was denied due process from the committee. The legislators invaded the executive branch by taking away her powers, which is a violation of separation of power in the Constitution. This, of course, created another lawsuit.

Stubson is currently a defendant in the Capitol renovation lawsuit by Gerald Gay and Karl Allred and is also being sued for defamation. A final point of interest: Stubsons SF-104 failed constitutional amendment was mustered with strong statements from the supreme court. Is this someone you want representing you and our state of Wyoming? I sincerely hope not!
Editor:

Who would have thought that it would happen so fast?

The first legislative step in the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany was the prohibition of Jews from serving as civil servants in 1935. Just a few years later, Jews would be systematically slaughtered in what was so few years earlier a civilized society.

It would probably be an overreaction to expect that this is what Christians in the United States have coming to them; it is, however, noteworthy that the first steps of government persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany were so similar to steps now taken against Christians in Wyoming.

In mid-August Judge Ruth Neely of Pinedale will appear before the Wyoming Supreme Court for being of the Christian faith.

In late 2014, Judge Neely was asked by a reporter whether she was excited to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies. She replied that because of her religious beliefs, she would not be able to do same-sex marriages.

In March 2015 the Wyoming Commission on Judicial Conduct and Ethics filed a complaint against Judge Neely demanding her removal, not only from her part-time position as a part-time Circuit Court Magistrate, in which she has the authority to solemnize marriages, but also from her position as a municipal judge, in which she does not. The Commission is arguing that not only Judge Neely's unwillingness to perform same-sex marriages, but also her religious beliefs in themselves, make her unfit for service. The implication is clear: It cannot be tolerated that a person serving as a judge is a Christian!

This is a frightening perspective for the future, not only for Christians, but for all who enjoy the notion of a free society. And it might be worth taking a lesson from history as to how rapidly a civilized society can turn into one where intolerance and hatred against a selected segment of society is not only the cultural mainstream, but also official government policy, carried out in ways that hardly anybody could have even imagined just a few years earlier.
Editor:

Our Founding Fathers envisioned a land where all people could live out their beliefs and worship God as they wished without fear of government interference. Living ones life in a way that lines up with ones religious beliefs is a form of worship.

Our Founding Fathers enshrined religious liberty as a fundamental right for all in this country. There are many countries (Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Egypt, Burma to name just a few) where people are detained, imprisoned, abused or killed for holding beliefs that differ from those of the state. As Americans, we must strive to keep our religious liberty from being eroded by standing in support of our fellow countrymen and women when they are unjustly attacked for living their lives in accord with their religious beliefs.

I stand in support with Judge Ruth Neely, whose job is in jeopardy because she has stated publicly that she will not marry persons of the same sex, which would violate her beliefs regarding marriage. Her case will be heard before the Wyoming Supreme Court on Aug. 17.

All people of any faith should be deeply concerned about such attacks on freedom of speech and religious liberty.
PHOENIX  A special state commission takes the first steps this week toward letting Gov. Doug Ducey put two of his choices on the states high court.

Applications are due Monday, Aug. 8, for the two new positions that the Republican-dominated Legislature created in what until now has been a five-member court.

Unlike the federal process, Ducey does not get to name whoever he wants, subject only to Senate confirmation. Instead, he has to choose from a list of nominees from the Commission on Appellate Court Appointments.

But if the last vacancy is any indication, the commission is likely to send him a wide choice.

The expansion was approved over the objections of all the sitting justices.

Additional justices are not required by the courts caseload, Chief Justice Scott Bales wrote to Ducey in May, shortly before the governor chose to sign the measure anyway. And an expansion of the court (whatever people may otherwise think of its merits) is not warranted when other court-related needs are underfunded.

But now Bales, who chairs the commission, will preside over the process of selecting the justices he does not believe are necessary.

Only attorneys need apply. And they need to be at least 30 years old.

But the bench is out of reach of those who will be 65 by the time they take office, what with a mandatory retirement age of 70.

Other than that and a requirement to have practiced law in Arizona for at least 10 years, it appears there are no automatic disqualifiers. But one question on the 16-page application raises an interesting issue.

It specifically asks whether in the last decade the applicant has unlawfully used controlled substances, narcotic drugs or dangerous drugs as defined in federal or state laws.

The application spells out, though, that does not include drugs taken under supervisor of a licensed health-care professional.

Six years ago, Arizona voters approved legislation that allows individuals with certain medical conditions and a doctors recommendation to obtain and use marijuana. Arizona courts have repeatedly ruled that anyone who meets those criteria and has the required state-issued identification card cannot be prosecuted under state law.

I dont think that (the fact) it might have been permitted under state law would get you off the hook of disclosing, said Bales. It is prohibited by federal law.

So would that  or even casual marijuana use  knock someone out of consideration?

Its interesting to speculate if someone said, Well, Im an authorized medical marijuana user, what the committee would do with that, Bales said.

That question of drug use isnt the only probing one on the form.

For example, applicants need to disclose if theyve ever been sued for fraud related to their law practice.

And theres a question about whether someone has been suspended from school on account of plagiarism, cheating or any other cause that might reflect in any way on your integrity.

It would be up to the commission to weigh, depending on the answer, what weight to give it, Bales said.

In fact, if applicants answer any question in the affirmative, they are asked to provide details and explanations.

The push to give Ducey two more choices for the high court came not from Ducey but state Rep. J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler.

Im a strong believer in spreading power out, not concentrating power in the hands of a few, he said during a discussion of the legislation earlier this year. More minds is better than fewer minds.

And Mesnard the fact the legislation is coming now, with a Republican governor in power, is just a bonus.

I trust and am comfortable with who would be his choices, he said.

Ducey, who filled a vacancy on the court earlier this year, did not discourage the move to give him the opportunity to select two more justices, even if that means increasing the cost to taxpayers of running the judiciary.

Justices will be paid $157,325 as of Jan. 1, plus a package of fringe and retirement benefits that probably brings the cost close to $200,000.

The measure was approved despite Democrat opposition.

Sen. Martin Quezada, D-Phoenix, said the numbers do not justify an expansion.

He said Arizona has one justice for every 1.3 million residents. By contrast, Quezada said California, with a seven-member high court, has one justice for every 5.5 million residents.

But Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, had his own comparison. He said Vermont, with just 626,000 residents, has the same number of justices as Arizona.
At a glance

A snapshot of the states workforce, according to the National Partnership for Women and Families:

 46 percent of Arizonas workforce is made up of women.

 64 percent of Arizona children live in households where both parents work.

 45 percent of the private-sector workforce cant have a paid sick day.

 About 37.8 percent of Arizonas working adults are able to afford an unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act.
Six months after an announcement that airline service would begin between Tucson and Guaymas, Sonora, the flights have yet to materialize.

Interest has been high, with Star readers inquiring weekly as to a start date.

The delay was a conscious decision, said Frank Jackson, owner of Paradise Air, which is coordinating the air service with carrier Caljet Elite Airways, based in Carlsbad, California.

When we first started we were only going to fly Tucson-Phoenix-Guaymas, he said.

Now the airline has signed a code-sharing agreement with United and American airlines so travelers from other parts of the U.S. can book one ticket all the way through to Guaymas, by changing planes in Phoenix or Tucson.

They wont have to claim their luggage or leave security, Jackson said. Itll be a regular change of planes, inner-terminal. Thats a big deal.

Paradise Air also joined the global travel network so Guaymas will be a destination on all travel websites, such as Expedia and Travelocity.

Weve greatly expanded our market, Jackson said.

The goal is for the first flight to take off this fall. The reservation system is expected to be up and running any day now, he said.

Two websites, paradisesandsmex.com and imexicotravel.com, are being updated with the latest information on when tickets will be available to purchase. Theres also a Facebook page that can be found by searching paradise-air-mexico.

Local officials are still anticipating the flights, said David Hatfield, a spokesman for Tucson International Airport.

By all indications, they seem to be moving forward, he said. I dont think its a delay, its just getting everything together. Its a lot of work and the devils in the details.

Once the airline has route authority in the United States, permits from TIA can be pencil-whipped through in days, Hatfield said. Ive got to believe were close.

Antonio Berumen Preciado, director of tourism for the state of Sonora, said the flights will be a nice complement to the new regional flights within the state.

Last month, three regional flights were inaugurated between Puerto Penasco and the Sonoran cites of Ciudad Obregon and Hermosillo, as well as Tijuana in neighboring Baja California.

And, Mexican airline Aeromar will begin nonstop service between Tucson and Hermosillo in October.

Its a done deal, Berumen said of the flights, which will be four times a week between Tucson and Sonoras capital.

Guaymas will be the second wave, he said. And, thats the best season for visiting the beaches in Mexico.

Berumen said Sonora and Arizona are in talks about marketing the region jointly.
Miller joins local BBB as spokeswoman

Better Business Bureau serving Southern Arizona welcomes Susann Miller as communications manager.

Miller most recently was director of the Womens Business Center of Southern Arizona; under her leadership, it was nominated for the Small Business Administrations WBC Center of the Year and NAWBOs Strategic Partner of the Year.

Miller was honored as the 2014 Small Business Advocate of the Year by the Minority Small Business Alliance of Southern Arizona.

She is an ambassador for Make-A-Wish Arizona and has served on the boards of Minority Small Business Alliance of Southern Arizona and Good to Glam.

Dudas, Jaramillo, Johnson join council

The Southern Arizona Leadership Council has three new members this year: Jon Dudas, senior vice president and secretary for the University of Arizona; Lynette Jaramillo, CEO of Casa de la Luz Hospice; and Nancy Johnson, CEO of El Rio Community Health Center.

Dudas previously worked for the U.S. government, most recently as under secretary of Commerce for intellectual property and director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark office.

Jaramillo previously was Arizona area manager for a national home care provider, and was an official at a privately owned home health agency in Tucson before partnering in 1998 to start Casa de la Luz Hospice.

Johnson holds masters degrees in nursing, marketing and business. She spent 15 years at Tucson Medical Center and serves as an adjunct clinical professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. She is a recipient of the UAs Cecil B. Hart Humanitarian Award.

Perales named CEO at Changemaker High

Changemaker High School has named Luis Perales as chief executive officer, succeeding Judith Anderson.

The tuition-free public charter school in Tucson has a special emphasis on social justice and activism.

Perales, who holds a masters degree, has served as the schools chief academic officer since 2012, helping to create free Innovation Camps open to all Tucson eighth-graders, a student-run farmers market and student-driven community development projects, the school said in a news release. Changemaker is the only applicant from Arizona selected to present at the 2016 International Social Innovation Research Conference in Glasgow, Scotland in September.

HBL CPAs announces merger, shareholders

Tucson accounting firms HBL CPAs, P.C. and Braun P.C. have merged.

The combined firm remains HBL CPAs, P.C. and consists of more than 45 employees, including seven partners, at 5656 E. Grant Road.

In addition, the firm announced two new shareholders: Jacquie Ivey and Laura Randol.

Ivey, a CPA, has more than 15 years of public accounting experience focused on retail, construction, and professional services industries. She received her bachelors of science in accounting from the University of Phoenix.

Randol, also a CPA, has been promoted from audit manager and has been with HBL since 2013. She is a regular speaker at the Nonprofit Organizations Financial Administrators Network and holds a bachelors of science in accounting from Linfield College.
The decision to relocate one of its divisions to Tucson during a time of companywide contraction was a strategic one, a Caterpillar Inc. vice president said.

Its a challenge to move when the market is so down, Tom Bluth said in an exclusive interview with the Star. But now is the time because were at the lowest employment level.

The plan in Tucson, he said, is to rebuild  and grow.

Earlier this year, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announced Caterpillar would move its Surface, Mining & Technology Division to downtown Tucson along with up to 600 executive jobs over the next five years, creating an estimated economic impact of $600 million.

Officials at the state, county and city levels lobbied hard to land the deal and that impressed the company, said Bluth, who oversees that division for Caterpillar.

A big, big part of it was how willing the government was to work with us, he said. I came into it not sure what to expect. The way the state and local agencies approached us was best-in-class.

The Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facilities District voted unanimously to spend $52 million to bring Caterpillar Inc. to Tucson and to build its headquarters, west of Interstate 10 and Cushing Street.

The Arizona Commerce Authority offered an additional $4 million in moving expenses, making the combined incentives one of the largest in recent state history.

Pima County made a temporary office available and is making upgrades at 97 E. Congress St. The city of Tucson has offered building-fee exemptions through its Primary Jobs Incentive Program to bring at least 25 jobs to the market that pay at least 125 percent more than the average earnings in Tucson.

Sun Corridor Inc. created a soft landing package that made officials from schools, hospitals, real estate and even the mayor available during webinars to answer questions of employees transferring from Milwaukee and other parts of the county and globe.

We knew taking this jump to Tucson would be a challenge, Bluth said. The webinars were very significant to our employees and the questions were open and often entertaining, like About those scorpions how big are the scorpions?

Employees with small children were pleased with the options in school districts in various communities around Tucson, Bluth said, and with the diverse home styles and neighborhoods to chose from.

As for the company, it was looking to be in mining territory.

That puts you close to your customers, Bluth said. And the University of Arizonas mining and engineering department was a big plus.

Proximity to Mexico was viewed as a bonus since the company has about 7,500 employees there and two facilities dedicated to surface mining.

Caterpillars key industries are construction, mining oil and gas. Falling oil prices have reduced the amount of drilling activity and the mining industry is in a down cycle.

Last fall, Caterpillar announced a major restructuring that included cutting up to 5,000 employees by the end of 2016, facility closures and consolidations. The Tucson headquarters will be a consolidation of five or six sites around the country.

Officials said the restructuring would lower operating costs by about $1.5 billion a year when fully implemented.

Company revenues in 2015 were about $48 billion.

Humbled by welcome

About 30 employees have relocated already and others will arrive in waves, to accommodate school schedules.

During the holidays and summer breaks is when well have a larger number of employees come over the next few years, Bluth said.

Caterpillar has a proving ground near Green Valley that opened in 1990 and feedback from the employees about Tucson helped officials decide on the city.

Caterpillar employees in Tucson have become ambassadors for the city. I never really got negative feedback, Bluth said. That was really powerful and as a community you guys should feel great about that.

Arizona has been known for its attention-getting political stances, but transferring employees apparently didnt have a lot of questions about that.

It was very interesting, we didnt get a lot to questions about the political scene, Bluth said. We had more questions about snakes and scorpions.

The company is eager to get involved in community events.
Q: I have used Booking.com for several years, and I have always been very satisfied with the service Ive received. However, my recent experience was truly hurtful.

Six months ago, I made a reservation at the Ritz-Carlton, Abama, in Tenerife, Spain, for two adults, two children and an infant. Booking.com did not give any restrictions, specifically relating to having an extra crib in the room.

According to Booking.com, a crib would be supplied at no additional cost. This was confirmed several times by phone by Booking.com representatives. But I recently received an email from the Ritz-Carlton saying that it wont be able to honor this reservation on the dates I will arrive. If you incur any additional costs as a result of this situation, please send us your receipts, and we will do our best to offer adequate compensation, the hotel added.

The same day, I was offered two different options by Booking.com: Las Terrazas de Abama and Villas Fanabe & Bahia Suites. The offered properties were not even hotels, but apartments. Booking.com has tried to offer properties within my budget. However, I assume these properties were probably much cheaper six months ago than now, so this also was quite inadequate.

A few days ago, a Booking.com representative wrote to me, saying that the company was still trying to negotiate with the hotel about a possible solution. I received a phone call and an email today from Booking.com, saying that regarding the baby crib policy, please note that extra beds or baby cots are upon request, and the hotel needs to double confirm for them to be valid or to be honored. The representative also confirmed that the website does not quote any maximum room occupancy to alert guests of restrictions.

I never would have booked this vacation if Id known it would cause me so much stress and inconvenience. Can you help?  Faig Babayev, London

A: Booking.com should have informed you about the correct occupancy requirements. When I clicked on Booking.com (at the time I was researching this story), it recommended a junior suite for a party of two adults and two children, but there was no mention of an extra crib and no category for infant.

Room occupancy rules in Europe are a little different. Sometimes, hotels charge extra for more than two occupants. A check with the Ritz-Carlton site suggests that the junior is its smallest room category, which means that Booking.com is sending other guests like you to the same fate.

But what, exactly, happened? Technically, you were trying to fit three kids into a room meant for two. Had it been just two children, per the propertys room capacity guidelines, this would not have been an issue, a Booking.com spokesman told me. It appears that the reservation did include a third child, and hence the issue of room capacity, needing a crib and additional costs.

Theres also an age discrepancy. You referred to your youngest as an infant, but Booking.coms records show that the child was 2 years old. It looks as if everyone was a little confused.

Booking.com tried to fix this by offering you alternate accommodations within your budget, which you found to be inadequate.
Biologists wants to predict where rare, tropical species might survive as changes in climate make their current habitat uninhabitable.

Researchers at the University of Arizona and around the world plan to put centuries of species data together with models of predicted climate change to track movement and forecast conditions for plants, mammals and birds in the tropics of Central and South America, sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia.

The program, called Spatial Planning for Protected Areas in Response to Climate Change, or SPARC, is coordinated by Conservation International.

The basic problem is, the world is very slowly being converted from a fully natural place to a fully human place, said Lee Hannah of Conservation International.

Complicating that is climate change, said Hannah, a climate change biologist at Conservation Internationals Moore Center for Science.

Species followed climate through Ice Ages and warm epochs, he said, but as we put more fields and more cities and more humans in the way of movement, it becomes a problem.

Brian Enquist, a professor in the UAs Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, said species, whether plants or animals, have a variety of responses to degraded habitat.

They can adapt physiologically. They can become more rare, or even extinct. They can evolve. They can move.

Movement is often the most effective option. Across the globe, species are escaping the effects of a heating habitat by seeking higher ground.

As climate changes, the parks and preserves set aside as biodiversity hot spots may become the wrong spots, Enquist said.

Conservation groups and governments can assist with movement and preserve new biodiversity hot spots if scientists can forecast those new locations, he said.

Novel methods

Enquist, a plant biologist and ecologist, has been combining field observations of plants with huge amounts of data for years. He is a principal investigator of BIEN, the Botanical Information and Ecology Network, which has been working since 2008 to collect and synthesize vast sets of information about the vegetation of North and South America.

BIEN is also developing a standardized informatics infrastructure that will enable researchers to apply that knowledge.

Enquist was recently awarded a $525,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop the novel computational methods and algorithms needed to forecast the current state and future fate of the many thousands of poorly studied species ranges.

He and his students and fellow researchers have also developed tools to bring that information to researchers and the public. The whimsically titled Plant-O-Matic is a mobile app that provides a list and images of plant species within a 100-square-kilometer area surrounding the user.

Enquist said planned upgrades will make Plant-O-Matic the botanical version of Pokemon Go.

Another tool  ForestForecasts.org  lets users zoom in on a Google Earth map to any forest on the two continents and learn how it might change due to a warming climate.

Boundless records

The Conservation International initiative will span the globes tropical forests and fold in information about mammal and bird species.

Partners in the endeavor include the UA, Stony Brook University and institutions in Brazil, the United Kingdom, Chile, South Africa and China.

Enquist and the global team of researchers want to find out where species now exist, and where they might thrive in a warming world.

There are plenty of records  centuries worth of observations where biologists have gone out and collected information and specimens, he said. Over the past couple decades there has been a real effort to digitize that information.

Its a painstaking task. Imagine all those different museums, all these different biologists going back before the time of Darwin.

Ultimately, the researchers hope to compile tens of millions  if not hundreds of millions  of observations, using a portal to supercomputing called Cyverse at the University of Arizonas Bio5 Institute.

This is one of the big challenges. We had to learn how to integrate all these different data sources and data observations in all these different languages, said Enquist.

One simple example: The word Brazil is spelled differently in many different languages and can also be misspelled in many different ways, said Enquist.

At the UA Herbarium, which houses more than a hundred years of collected specimens and observations, the effort to digitize and standardize the collection has been going on since the 1990s. The herbarium has converted more than half its 600,000 specimens and citations. It continues the conversion with paid student help and is continually cleaning up its records.

Software has limitations

Advances in character-recognition software will eventually speed that process, but somebody will still need to keep watch, Director Shelley McMahon said. A lot of the information is idiosyncratic, she said.

A computer would have trouble recognizing, for instance, the pen-and-ink scrawl of naturalist Friedrich Wislizenus on a card identifying the yucca specimen he gathered during an extended stay in Chihuahua during the Mexican-American War in 1846.

The herbarium has a large collection of specimens from Wisilzenus, who was detained as a suspected spy for months, but was allowed to continue collecting specimens by his Mexican captors.

Mistakes happen, said George Ferguson, senior curatorial specialist, in both the original data and in the conversions to digital format.

A group of Mexican researchers recently corrected the misidentification of a number of orchid species in the collection, he said. Ferguson estimates that about 20,000 of the Herbariums holdings are duplicates.

Biologists are also continuously revising taxonomic information. McMahon estimates that 95 percent of mislabeling errors exist because biologists, using genomic techniques, have refined the genealogy of species  and changed their names.

A poster on her office window demonstrates how that sweet acacia (Acacia Farnesiana) in your yard is actually a Vachellia farnesiana. It drives the landscapers crazy, she said.

But the UA Herbarium, like natural history museums across the globe, corrects those taxonomic problems as it converts its records.

The biodiversity community has been focused on trying to improve the quality of biodiversity data for many years now, said Hannah, of Conservation International. Were working toward standardizing and cleaning biodiversity data. It now has a tremendous wealth of standardized data that allows projects such as this SPARC project to start.

Enquist said: Each museum does it a little differently and some are better than others. The UA Herbarium does an excellent job.

But even when the data is clean, it needs to be combined with other data that is not entirely compatible. That requires sophisticated computer algorithms and access to super-computing ability.
Hundreds of Tucson teachers have broken their contracts with little or no penalty.

While a teachers departure during the school year disrupts students learning and costs districts money, an Arizona Daily Star analysis found that less than a quarter of the nearly 600 Tucson teachers who broke their contracts between 2011 and 2015 were penalized.

Tucson-area school districts have varied approaches to ensure that teachers honor their commitments. They can levy fines or even file reports of unprofessional conduct with the state Board of Education, which could result in the loss of a teaching certificate.

In most cases, however, penalties were waived if teachers left for reasons acceptable to the districts governing boards.

Maintaining stability for students has become challenging at a time when schools across the state are struggling to recruit and retain teachers.

Low pay, lack of support and dwindling resources all have pushed teachers out of the classroom or discouraged people from entering the profession, said Joe Thomas, president of the Arizona Education Association, which advocates on behalf of teachers across the state.

Its not the fault of teachers and its not the fault of districts, Thomas said. Thats the fault of the system that does not give districts enough money to pay teachers in the first place. It causes a strain.

In the months leading up to the school year, excitement was building in Allison Pratts household.

She had heard good things about her childs teacher and was ready to kick off a new year.

But just days after the year had begun, Pratt learned the teacher had been offered a higher-paying job.

It was devastating, Pratt said. I knew that shes a great teacher so to have that taken away, its hard because you dont know what youre going to get.

Fortunately for Pratt, she didnt have to find out. An outpouring of support persuaded the teacher to stay.

Despite feeling relieved, Pratt remained conflicted.

Im a parent, Im a person, I balance my own familys budget, she said. Of course we were grateful that she was staying and that she put the needs of students above her own and her family, but I struggle with her being in that situation.

If education was funded in Arizona the way it should be, we wouldnt be having this conversation.

More departures

The Arizona Education Association expects to see more educators exiting the profession unless something is done to change the climate in the state. Even so, the association does not condone teachers breaking contracts, Thomas said.

Teachers are encouraged to fulfill their commitments, but when they seek to be released, the association advises them to have an honest conversation with their district and work to maintain the learning environment until a replacement can be found.

If a teacher is in a hostile work environment or if the district hasnt kept up its end of the bargain in terms of class size or assignment, the association would work to reach a different settlement, Thomas said.

Lets focus on the needs of the students through all of this  that should be what guides us, he said. Students need a teacher who is supported, students need a class size that is appropriate for their learning, and we want to work with districts to have that type of situation.

Egregious and abrupt departures are harder to defend. Thomas believes most teachers agree consequences are necessary, given that the impact is felt not only by students, but by a teachers colleagues as well.

Depending on the grade level, a teachers absence may be filled by colleagues who give up their planning periods to cover a class. Sometimes, students are divvied up and placed in other classrooms, making class sizes swell.

Sunnysides experience

Statewide, nearly two dozen teachers were referred to the state Board of Education for breaking contracts in 2016. Only one case involved a Tucson teacher.

Harsher penalties did not necessarily lead to fewer contract breaks, the Stars analysis found. But it did show that the Sunnyside district, which has no consequences, had the highest percentage of teachers who broke their contracts.

Laura Emslie, Sunnysides HR director, says the district has become firmer in holding employees to their contracts in recent years.

Over a five-year period, Sunnyside had 107 teachers break their contracts, while TUSD had 126. TUSD serves more than 47,000 students, Sunnyside about a third of that.

Its in the best interest of students, teachers and the district to release teachers who no longer want to be in the district, Emslie said. A classroom without a permanent teacher might have negative impacts, but so would having a teacher who doesnt really care.

We really, truly want teachers to be here because they want to be here and not because they cant afford to pay the $2,000 in liquidated damages, she said.

Five of the areas nine districts  Amphitheater, Sahuarita, Tanque Verde, Vail and TUSD  have liquidated damages in place, which are essentially fines for breaking a contract. Amphitheaters Governing Board recently adopted the practice in response to teachers breaking their contracts with little notice.

Tucsons largest school district  TUSD  has the highest penalty at $2,000, though it does not report anyone to the state for contract breaks, said human resources chief Anna Maiden.

The fine is waived for those who depart at the end of a semester, since the district then has time to find a replacement before classes resume.

When youre already assessing a penalty, thats enough, Maiden said. People leave places for certain reasons and if in time they land back here and they have the skill set we need, I dont want to hold too many things against them.

All districts have wording in their policies that says teachers who break contracts could be subject to penalty under Arizona law, but Catalina Foothills is the only one to specify that it will notify the state . Other districts considered revocation of teaching licenses to be much too harsh a penalty for a broken contract.

We think the detriment to students is pretty severe, said Foothills Assistant Superintendent Denise Bartlett. When teachers abandon their contract, its the students who lose. Its difficult to find a substitute to go into the classroom, and typically theyre not highly qualified for the position.

Less than two months ago, a Catalina Foothills teacher  the only Tucson-area teacher reported to the state this year  opted to surrender her license in lieu of having a complaint on her record.

According to the district, the teacher sent an email on a Sunday in February stating that she would not be returning to work.

For the most part, Catalina Foothills teachers who seek to be released from their contracts are willing to stay until a replacement can be hired, Bartlett said. In that case, they face no penalty. In the past five years, only five teachers  about 16 percent of those who have broken contracts  have been reported to the state board.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

The Alliance for Excellent Education estimates that the United States spends about $2.2 billion annually on teacher turnover costs, which include hiring, training and processing a teacher through a districts human resources system. The cost per teacher is about $12,500.

While liquidated damages help districts recoup some of those costs, TUSDs $2,000 penalty does not cover the time and effort it takes to recruit and hire a replacement, Maiden said.

Its difficult for individual districts to quantify the economic loss of a teacher breaking his or her contract, said John Carruth, an assistant superintendent of Vail School District, which collects $500 or $750 in liquidated damages, depending on the time of the break.

Over the past five years, 170 teachers broke their contracts with Vail, but only a quarter of those teachers had to pay the fine.

Liquidated damages arent necessarily collected to cover money lost by a teacher breaking his or her contract, Carruth said. Instead, they are used to offer incentives to referrals.

The primary motivation for having damages in place is to encourage teachers to think twice before breaking a teaching contract, he said. But it is not uncommon for the penalty to be waived in cases such as changes in the teachers family situation or health.

We understand that those things occur, he said.

Mark McCall, deputy associate superintendent of educator excellence at the Arizona Department of Education, said that in order to balance districts dire need to retain and recruit teachers and their desire to hold them to their contracts, districts should focus on creating the best-possible environment for teachers so they want to stay.

We need to have a system of best practices in how we support teachers in wanting to stay and build up for them to be successful rather than be punitive when they leave, he said.
Deep in a 700-page report, now 21 years old, city planners identified 47 projects prone to flooding after major storms.

On that list were some of the same streets that flooded during the recent July 1 downpour, which swamped more than 50 homes and businesses and caused an estimated six figures worth of damages. Theyre the same streets that flood again and again after major summer rainstorms.

It would have cost $56 million in 1995 to address the flooding problems in that report  yet only 13 projects were ever started, and only a handful were completed. Now the price tag for those same projects is closer to $100 million.

The reason the fixes were never made: Street improvements are expensive and they benefit only a small number of homeowners and businesses. Plus, flooded streets typically dry out after a few hours, so fixing them stays fairly low on the list of priorities when local governments decide how to spend their limited dollars.

Tucson City Councilman Steve Kozachik says Pima Countys flood-control district, which administers projects through the county and includes representatives from area municipalities, hasnt done enough to help the city even though city taxpayers make up 42 percent of the countys tax base.

He estimates the city has received $20 million to $25 million in county flood-control funds over the last two decades. Based on the number of residents, the flood-control district should spend $5 million to $6 million a year on projects inside city limits, he said.

Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry says Kozachik is trying to make puddles into ponds.

There is a huge difference between stormwaters and floodwaters, Huckelberry says. Most of the projects Kozachik cited in a recent newsletter to his constituents were for street drainage, Huckelberry says. Typically, the flood-control district does not make street-drainage improvements.

The Legislature required that each county create a flood-control district in 1978, after a major flood of the Salt River in Phoenix.

Secondary property taxes fund the districts, which are tasked with minimizing damage caused by major floods.

The city has a seat on Pima Countys flood-control board, and Huckelberry says city officials have always been able to suggest projects.

But he labels the 2-decades-old document Kozachik is citing as nothing more than a pipe dream.

Anybody can develop a wish list, he says.

The district already prioritizes projects that can do the most good for the least cost, Huckelberry says.

The midtown Arroyo Chico Project, he notes, has three large detention basins that help minimize stormwater runoff further downstream.

The project spans roughly six miles of the Arroyo Chico Wash, also known as Tucson Arroyo, running from Alvernon Way to the Santa Cruz River near St. Marys Road.

The project was identified as the top priority in the 1995 study.

Our emphasis is always going to be in true flood reduction and flood-hazard reduction, Huckelberry says.

But Huckelberry and Kozachik seem to have found some common ground.

Huckelberry says the flooded streets are more than just an inconvenience and agrees several projects on the list would qualify for funding from the flood district.

He notes the district has taken on a number of projects inside the city limits.

For Fiscal Year 2016/17 alone, we have the construction start of the Pantano Wash Bank Protection Project from Tanque Verde Road to Fort Lowell Park, a $9,800,000 project; Rillito River Channel Flow Conveyance improvements through sediment removal at $800,000; and the Santa Cruz River, 22nd Street to Grant Road flow conveyance improvements to remove from the floodplain critical downtown properties adjacent to the Santa Cruz River at a cost of $1,700,000, he wrote. That is a total of $12.3 million this fiscal year alone.

The county administrator has agreed to take a fresh look at the citys requests.

Kozachik, for his part, concedes the city needs to do a better job of advocating for city projects within the flood district.

Tucson City Manager Mike Ortega says he is developing a list of projects to bring to the county in the next few weeks and will ask the flood-control board to consider them.

Ortega is optimistic that a new push by the city can help to deliver measurable results over the next few years.
A retired geologist and conservationist is warning Benson city leaders that some wells proposed at the Villages at Vigneto development will likely exceed federal safety limits for arsenic.

Arsenic levels in Vignetos existing production well, which will help provide water for the 28,000-home master planned community, are safe under the Environmental Protection Agencys current threshold.

But 13 additional wells proposed further east in Vignetos well field, closer to the San Pedro River, will likely have significantly higher readings, said Norm Mick Meader. He was a staff member in the University of Arizonas Department of Geosciences for 23 years before his 2010 retirement.

Benson city data show arsenic levels are heightened at wells closer to the San Pedro, where groundwater flow picks up naturally occurring arsenic and other minerals, Meader said. In 2005, Benson had to shut down multiple city wells  which drew from the same part of the aquifer as Vignetos proposed wells  because of high arsenic concentration, he said.

The previous Benson data shows clearly this is a potential problem that needs testing, Meader said. He is also co-president of the Cascabel Conservation Association, one of six environmental groups that in May filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The suit demanded the Corps reconsider a 2006 Clean Water Act permit on which Vigneto relies.

Meader outlined his concerns in a letter sent Thursday to Benson city leaders, officials at the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and the Department of Water Resources, as well as El Dorado Holdings, Vignetos developer. Meader shared the letter with the Star on Friday.

Brad Hamilton, Benson city engineer, said all new wells are tested to ensure potability before they are connected to the water system.

This is a minor issue that will be dealt with as the development is designed and constructed, he said in an email. If arsenic does become an issue, there are many proven processes that are available to remove it from the water.

Meader emphasized the city and developer should investigate arsenic concentrations before construction starts on the project, since the plans may have to be adjusted based on the results.

El Dorado needs to drill one or two test wells before launching into full-scale development to know whether they have the usable water they need. They dont want to launch into full development and find they dont have the water they counted on, he said.

If arsenic levels are too high at those locations, developers will have a number of options, Meader said. They could import water or build a water-treatment plant focused on arsenic, which would be costly. They could also mix the water from wells that have elevated arsenic levels with other water that has lower levels, so it averages less than 10 micrograms per liter, he said.

But the developer cant move the well field further west, because the aquifer isnt sufficiently developed there, he said.

Bensons wells

More than a decade ago, Benson city leaders had to shut down four city wells with arsenic levels considered unsafe under new Environmental Protection Agency regulations. The regulations, which took effect in 2006, lowered the acceptable level of arsenic in drinking water from 50 micrograms per liter to 10 micrograms per liter.

The city spent less than $400,000 to build a new well and expand pumping from two wells farther west with safe arsenic levels, Hamilton said.

Elevated levels of arsenic are common in Southern Arizona aquifers, said Daniel Weber, a Denver-based hydrogeologist with environmental consulting firm Errol L. Montgomery & Associates.

Its naturally occurring, he said. It wouldnt surprise me that, along the axis of the San Pedro where you have lots of silts and clays, that youd have elevated levels of arsenic.

In 2005, Benson commissioned Webers firm to test quantity and quality of water from wells outside the boundaries of a proposed development called Whetstone Ranch  where Vigneto is now located  to determine if those wells could help supply EPA-compliant water to the project. The testing found those outside wells had high-quality water, he recalled.

Whetstone went under during the financial crisis a few years later. Vigneto purchased the land and inherited Whetstones Clean Water Act permit in 2014.
OPINION: "My original thought was, 'Why would anybody vote for Kari Lake, or any other candidate if they had no faith in our election system?' Now I understand. Because nobody wants to be a loser. And, with her or the others they cant lose," writes Oro Valley resident Ray Lindstrom.
Help India!

By NNN-KUNA,

Manama : Kuwait is keen on securing peace in the Middle East, a matter that could sustain cooperation among countries of the region, Head of Kuwaits delegation to the Manama Dialogue Conference Ambassador Abdulaziz Al-Sharekh said.

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Kuwait, an active member of the political agenda in the region, was always ardent to take part in such forums that contributed to supporting peace and stability in the region, Al-Sharekh, who is also the Director General of the Kuwait Diplomatic Institute, told KUNA on Friday.

The Manama conference, the fifth of its kind to take place in the Kingdom, focuses on security aspects and concepts, Al-Sharekh said, adding that the global financial crisis and its impacts on the regions security is among the issues to be discussed during the gathering, which indicated positive and swift response with the regions security affairs.

Out of its dedication to the significance of the issue, the Kuwaiti delegation would be present in all work group or discussion panel held by the conference, he noted.

Kuwaits foreign policy is based on the concept that says peace is not the absence of war, yet, it is providing a sound environment for cooperation among countries of the region to achieve inclusive international legitimacy, Ambassador Al-Sharekh pointed out.

The Kuwaiti delegation groups Head of Strategic Centers Department at the foreign ministry Sheikh Bader Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, Director of International Affairs Department Sheikha Anoud Ibrahim Al-Duaij Al-Sabah and Abdulrahman Ghazi Al-Bader.

It also groups Major General Fahad Al-Issa, Military Attache at Kuwaits embassy in Bahrain Brigadier Abdulaziz Al-Saeed, as well as Colonel Abdulrahman Al-Hadhoud and Colonel Youssef Al-Najjar.

At the delegations reception at Bahrain International Airport were Kuwaits Ambassador Sheikh Azzam Mubarak Al-Sabah, Councilor Abdulwahab Al-Saqer and members of the diplomatic mission in Manama.

The two-day conference, co-organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, would discuss Gulf economies, regional security and nuclear energy in the Middle East among other issues
Help India!

By Rehan Ansari,TwoCircles.net,

Mumbai: At the backdrop of the Lokpal Bill, Defence Minister AK Antony said, India is passing through a transparency revolution and specifically mentioned the Right To Information (RTI), which reminded me of a statement by Dr.Shakeel, Chairman of the Association for Protection Civil Rights (APCR), that revolutions in society can be brought through changes in the law.

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The Communal Violence Bill, the Waqf Amendment Bill, and the Food Security Bill are the most important bills for Muslims in India as far as their future is concerned, but their indifference and lackluster approach is really heart-breaking. Most of the Muslim leaders, NGOs and activists are not even aware of these dynamic laws and their long-lasting impact on the society, especially on the community they belong to.

Even the Urdu press that claims to be the voice of Muslims do not give due coverage or create awareness and a movement. They have in fact failed to educate its readers about these bills.

Muslims are always at the receiving end of communal violence and had lost thousands of lives and properties worth crores of rupees, yet ironically the guilty were rarely punished and mostly got scot-free due to weaker laws.

According to the NAC draft on the Communal Violence Bill, during 2005-09, 648 people were killed and 11278 injured in 4030 incidents of communal violence in India.

According to a government report titled Socio-Economic and Educational Status of Muslims in Maharashtra (2011) released in March, 2011, Maharashtra has had 1,192 communal clashes during the 11-year period from 1998 to 2008, the highest in the country.

But we are hardly aware of the Communal Violence Bill that failed to address the real issue that is justice to the victims and punishment for the guilty.

The Sachar committee calculated the Waqf properties worth Rs 1,20,000 crore as per a 2005 valuation, suggested revolutionary recommendations to improvise its conditions and further showed the way for its development. But the Waqf Amendment Bill has neglected most of the recommendations and we are caught unaware.

The socio-economic profile that the Sachar Committee estimates paint of the Muslim Indians is a depressing one. In all major socio-economic indicators, the members of Indias biggest religious minority are, on the average, worse off than members of the majority community. First, they spend less on items of daily consumption because they apparently earn less. The incidence of poverty is therefore likely to be higher among Muslims than Hindus.

The survey of the Sachar Committee discovered that a very large proportion of Muslims live in very dismal economic conditions. 30.4% reported an annual household income of less than Rs.10,000, 24.4% between Rs. 10,001-Rs.20,000, 7.5% between Rs.20,001-Rs.30,000, 3.8% between Rs.30,0001-Rs.40,000, 1% between Rs.40,001-Rs.50,000 and 5.6% above Rs.50,000.Yet we are not concerned about the Food Security Bill.

The reason is the reactive nature of Muslims in India; its rare to see any proactive approach in the near history which is the biggest weakness or one can argue that Muslims are always left to defend for themselves in one way or the other but its no excuse. Activists and organizations inclined towards the left ideology or the secular are the front-runners in these kinds of issues, which is a boon for the Muslims and minorities in India.

The Movement for Peace and Justice (MPJ) in Maharashtra needs to be appreciated for their commendable job on the Communal Violence, and the Food Security Bills. And Dr. Syed Zafar Mahmoods hard work on the Waqf Amendment Bill is undeniably the best.

What requires to be done is to create awareness, build pressure and make these bills effective at least for our children.
On July 27, Rijiju said in the Lok Sabha that the BJPs ideology on the uniform civil code should be taken as the country's ideology on the same. Basil Islam | TwoCircles.net NEW DELHI  Union Minister Kiren Rijijus recent remarks on implementing the uniform civil code have re-ignited the debate on the viability of a uniform civil code and its possible...
Help India!

By IANS,

Kolkata : Indian tea exporters are trying to increase exports to Russia as a balancing act following the countrys declining export trend mainly due to the Iran payment crisis, a top executive of the Calcutta Tea Traders Association said Wednesday.

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We are trying to push north Indian tea in the Russian markets. Increased tea exports to Russia can serve as a balancing act in Indias total export after it declined mainly due to Iran payment crisis, association chairperson Sangeeta Kichlu told reporters here.

Kichlu, who is also a vice president of Jay Shree Tea and Industries Ltd, a B.K. Birla Group company, said: We can increase exports to Russia by 10 million kg to 15 million kg and moreover Iran will continue to buy.

She said the country exported about 60 million kg to 80 million kg of tea to Russia in 2011.

Kichlu said promotional works were going on in the Russian markets.

Experts said the trigger for the decline in total tea export is the Iran payment crisis and political turmoil in Middle East and North African countries like Libya, Syria and Egypt.

Iran is a major consumer of the high quality orthodox tea from India and imports nearly 15 million kg every year.

The problem over Iran payment arose after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) December 2010 scrapped the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) currency swap system for payments to Iran following pressure from the US, which is using sanctions to force Tehran to halt its nuclear programme.

Kichlu said total tea production in India was expected to touch one billion kg in 2012.

About seven to nine percent of this will be orthodox tea, she said.

Countrys total production was about 995 million kg to 996 million kg in 2011, she added.


Congratulations to all the finalists in the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel and the Best First Novel award, which were announced last week. For the full list of finalists for both awards go,

here

. Listen to awards convenor Craig Sisterson on

Sunday Mornings on RNZ National

.



Catch some of the finalists reading from their work in the free

Murder in the Gallery

session on Saturday, 27 August, before the big announcement that night at the

Great New Zealand Crime Debate

.
News Release:

Jevon Latrell Hagins Jaylen Dontrelle Gilmore



Edward Spencer Valdez Rivera Serenus Emere Midgette



Tyrik Dashawn Thigpen Jashean Robert Smith



Capt. William H. Chrismon

Washington Police Department

Washington Police Department arrested six people in connection with several breaking and entering cases. These B and E's occurred on or around July 1, 2016. Those arrested include:Jevon Latrell Hagins, age 17 of Daniels Court Washington charged with six counts of breaking and entering, five counts of larceny, two counts larceny of firearm, safecracking, and obtaining property by false pretences. Hagins was placed in Beaufort County Detention Center with a $35,000 bond pending appearances.Jaylen Dontrelle Gilmore age 17 of West 9th street Washington was charged with six counts of breaking and entering, five counts of larceny, two counts larceny of firearm, safecracking, and obtaining property by false pretences. Gilmore was placed in Beaufort County Detention Center with a $35,000 bond pending appearances.Edward Spencer Valdez-Rivera, age 17 of Hwy 17 North Washington was charged with two counts breaking and entering, two counts larceny after breaking and entering and larceny of a firearm. Valdez-Rivera was placed in Beaufort County Detention Center with a $10,000 bond pending appearances.Serenus Emere Midgette, age 18 of East 14th Street Washington was charged with two counts breaking and entering, two counts larceny after breaking and entering and larceny of a firearm. Midgette was placed in Beaufort County Detention Center with a $25,000 bond pending appearances.Tyrik Dashawn Thigpen, age 18 of West 9th Street Washington was charged with two counts breaking and entering, two counts of larceny after breaking and entering and larceny of a firearm. Thigpen was placed in jail in Beaufort County Detention Center with a $40,000 bond pending appearances.Jashean Robert Smith, age 17 of Mebane NC was arrested in Mebane and charged with two counts breaking and entering, two counts of larceny after breaking and entering, larceny of a firearm and safecracking. Smith was placed in jail in Alamance County with a $25,000 bond pending appearances.Washington Police would like to thank Beaufort County Sheriff's Office and Mebane Police Department for all their assistance in these cases. The investigation is ongoing and more arrests are expected.Anyone with information related to these break-ins or other crimes please contact Washington Police Department 252-946-1444, Beaufort County Sheriff's Office 252-946-7111 or Beaufort County Crime Stoppers 252-974-6400.
Police have stated that they found all of these materials when they searched Micah Johnson`s home in a suburb of Dallas, Texas known as Mesquite.Five police officers were killed and seven more were wounded by a sniper during a protest in Dallas, Texas in opposition of the killing of two African-Americansby the police. Micah Johnson -- the armed person was shot dead after refusing to negotiate with the police.During the failed negotiation, the suspect stated that he was upset with Black Lives Matter and mad at white people, too, especially white police officers fo the recent killing of two black people by the police.

Black Lives Matter

The phrase has appeared as a protest movement in the form of a hashtag on the Internet, every time there is a killing of a black person by the police. the great gathering power that it invokes has been compared to the US Civil Rights Movement. This is what was occurring this Thursdaynight in Dallas; however, the peaceful protest environment made a complete turn, when the shooting started.

In a conference, Dallas Chief Police Officer said that Micah Johnson had no connections with any group and that he had acted alone in the shooting. This was later confirmed in a press conference in New York by Security Secretary Johnson when she declared that the gunman had no links to any terrorist organization.

It`s believed that the suspects involved in this armed assault in Dallas had been preparing the attack with anticipation, planning the attempt, while the protest was almost finished. Based on Chief Brown's words, the group of shooters was strategically perched at positions that allowed them to obtain a clear view of the officers and planned to injure and killed as many officers as they could.

A man was spotted near a parking space near The Centro College firing shots with a rifle. The man told officers that the end was coming and that he was going to continue killing officers, moreover, he also said that there were bombs all overthe area.Five police officers were killed during this attack and seven more were injured. Civilians were also injured. The principal culprit of this attempt failed to negotiate with the police and he was killedby a robot carrying a bomb.
Probably any pregnant woman hopes for quick, easy delivery, but few have experienced one quite like this. Jessica Stubbins of Scunthorpe had a feeling that things were happening quickly when she got her husband, Tom, to rush her to the hospital. What was amazing was that while Tom was parking the car, the pregnant woman gave birth to daughter Lucy in the hospital entrance in less than a minute.In an interview with the Daily Mirror, Jessica said she could feel her baby coming and that she literally popped out, just like a champagne cork in the hospital entrance.

Saying she was amazed, Jessica said it was just one push and gravity took over.

Woman gives birth in the hospital entrance

The couple was recently interviewed by Ben Shepherd on Good Morning Britain. Jessica said she told her husband he had better drop her off at the door while he went to park the car.On arriving at the hospital late at night, she said as she closed the cars door, Jessica already knew her baby daughter was well on the way. As she reached the entrance to the hospital, Jessica literally bent over, and out popped baby Lucy.As for husband Tom, he was as shocked and surprised as Jessica was and he said his wife felt guilty he had missed the birth. He was only about one hundred feet away from the hospital door at the time and he still missed seeing it happen.

Dad finally gets to see the birth of his daughter

What really amazed Tom was the fact that he finally did see the birth, as the CCTV footage was shown to him during the show. Jessica can be seen bending over as Lucy is born into her stretch pants. She then reaches in to pick up her baby. Readers can see that moment in the video included below.The father-of-two was amazed at seeing the footage for the first time and said that as he walked up, she said, Its a girl, and kept apologizing because he had missed the whole experience.Soon after it happened, two nurses came along.

One of the nurses, Gemma Hoeft, was on a break and was heading to her car when it happened. She wrapped the baby in her jacket, while the other ran off to get the midwife.It turns out Jessica had visited the hospital earlier in the day, convinced her baby was about to be born. However like many pregnant women, she was sent home, with hospital staff not sure she was ready to give birth. Little did the staff realize she would be back all too soon.
Medical staff at Kalafong Hospital in Pretoria confirmed that Oscar Pistorius has been receiving treatment in a security ward after an incident that occurred while he was alone in his cell on Saturday. Reports from officials at the prison stated the recently jailed former Paralympian first visited the emergency department before he was admitted to a hospital ward for injuries sustained when he allegedly fell out of his bed in his cell.

However, according to a report by News24, two security guards working at the Kalafong Hospital leaked the information that Pistorius may have attempted to commit suicide.

Reportedly razor blades were discovered in his cell and his arms were covered with bandages when he was rushed to hospital. One of the guards said he had bad cuts on his wrists and that doctors were wrapping bandages around them. He also said Pistorius was under the guard of 10 warders when in the hospital.

Oscar Pistorius denies suicide attempt after hospitalization for wrist injury https://t.co/3QKi6uLteF pic.twitter.com/veRK7I7KpY  CBS News (@CBSNews) August 7, 2016

Nurses arent talking about what happened to Oscar Pistorius

According to hospital staff, security was tight and only senior doctors and nurses were given access to the security section where Pistorius was recovering. When the South African news service IOL contacted the prison for more information, officials would only confirm that Pistorius was first attended to at the Kgosi Mampuru II Prison where he is currently serving a six-year jail term.

They said he was then sent on to the Kalafong Hospital for further medical treatment.

Reportedly later on Saturday, Pistorius was taken back to his prison cell. Officials told the media that Oscar had denied it was a suicide attempt and that they cannot discuss an inmates personal condition.

The prosecution intends to appeal Pistorius lenient sentence

The prosecution is still not happy with the lenient sentence received by Pistorius for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentines Day in 2013. The State has asked for leave to appeal, but no date has yet been set to hear the application. This is the second time the prosecution will be heading to the Supreme Court of Appeal. The first time, they won, when five judges overturned Oscars conviction of culpable homicide and changed the verdict to murder.
Behind the Scenes with European Poker Tour Floor Person Kate Badurek

August 07 2016 Frank Op de Woerd

If you read the recaps of big live poker tournaments, you'll notice it's all about the poker players. This player wins another big title, that player is in an excellent position for his next bracelet, and another player got knocked out in cruel fashion. Rightfully so, as players are front and center in live poker tournaments, but there are equally important people working hard behind the scenes.

A tournament room is crowded with people with all sorts of jobs and from all walks of life. First and foremost, you have the dealers. You also have floor staff, tournament directors, masseuses, poker reporters, technicians, camera operators, producers, people that man the information desk when you enter, and plenty more.

In PokerNews' Behind the Scenes series, we want to take a look at some of these people involved in the poker world that are, well, more "behind the scenes."

First up is Kate Badurek, a member of the floor staff on the European Poker Tour. Anyone who has played an EPT main event or high roller over the last two years will certainly recognize her. The 30-year-old from Poland has been working on the tour for eight years, but her first contact with poker came more than 11 years ago.

Hardly anyone envisioned working in poker when they were young. Badurek was no exception. An actress was what she wanted to become, and that was basically it. She had no big interests outside of acting, no big life goals. An actress is what she wanted to be.

Right after high school she handed in her application for an acting academy but was sadly turned down. Her parents insisted she would continue to study, so she had to come up with something new now that a career in acting had fallen through. With some knowledge of Russian already in hand thanks to classes in high school, she decided to go study Russian philology at the University of her hometown Olsztyn, Poland. "Mostly, to be honest, to please my parents."

With her first year of studying at her University almost behind her, Badurek visited a party with friends where the group spun ideas for the approaching summer. They all intended on going to Dublin for the summer, which was the cool thing to do for students from Poland at the time. Badurek joined them. All on impulse really; "It was so random; I had never been to Ireland, I had never really traveled a whole lot to begin with really."

This was not just a holiday, they intended on getting themselves summer jobs there as the minimum wage in Dublin was already a lot more than what they would be able to make in Poland. Though Badurek hardly knew any English, that didn't hold her back. She went to Dublin and left her resume in hotels, bars, restaurants, and by coincidence at the Merrion Casino Club, a small poker club in one of those old beautiful buildings on Merrion Square - though Badurek didn't know that at the time; "I didn't even realize it was a poker club, I thought it was like a bar or something.

She got a call back soon after, and despite barely understanding what they were saying, she was able to understand that they wanted to meet for an interview. She was hired as a waitress on the spot, something that would turn out to be a life-changing experience.

"It was obviously all very new to me. I had no idea about waiting, let alone poker, and I could hardly understand what people were trying to order. It was a mess really." But soon enough she picked up on basic English and got really interested in poker and good at being a waitress.

The EPT Talent Scouts

Minimum wage was already decent for Badurek, but it was the tips from patrons that really prompted Badurek to stay longer in Dublin. Soon she moved to the Sporting Emporium, a far larger casino in Dublin, where she was hired before the casino had even opened. It was there where Badurek applied to become a poker dealer, and she got the job.

It all may sound like a calculated move, but it really wasn't; "It was super random, like most of the things in my life. I didn't make a big plan before."

It turned out she was pretty good at dealing. In fact, it was the first time in her life someone told her she was good at something. "That felt great as a 19-year old, and I decided to take an extended break from University and I stayed in Ireland for two years as a poker dealer."

While she enjoyed her work as a dealer and loved her time in Dublin, poker wasn't her main interest. She wasn't really into poker yet, it was just a job at the time. Poker hadn't "consumed" her yet, and the poker world outside her local poker room was unknown territory. When the European Poker Tour came to Dublin in 2006, she had no idea what it was all about.

One night, as the EPT was in town, a group of players came into the Emporium and complimented Badurek on her skills as a dealer. They turned out to be members of the EPT staff and asked if she was interested in joining the circuit. Though she wasn't really sure what it was all about, and even in doubt about being a poker dealer in the first place, she went ahead and have her email address.

Shortly after meeting them, Badurek decided to leave Dublin and return to Poland to finish her degree in Russian philology. She was already back, studying when an email came that would change her life once again. Thomas Kremser, who, at the time was in charge as Tournament Director at the European Poker Tour, asked her to join his team for the Caribbean Poker Classic in St. Kitts.

"I was overwhelmed and wasn't sure what to think of it at first. On one hand, there was a job in the Caribbean that would pay well, on the other hand, I had just gotten back to studying and had left my job as a poker dealer behind me. It felt like a big gamble, but in the end, I felt it was an opportunity I couldn't pass on."

Not yet accustomed to booking flights and looking for good deals, Badurek ended up paying a lot to get to St Kitts, and on top of it, it took her 36 hours to get there. It was in the Caribbean at Thomas Kremser's event where she got into contact with a lot of key people in the industry and got her job on the European Poker Tour.

This time around she didn't quit school, though. She turned to the head master and asked for special privileges to combine studying and working as a dealer all over the world. It turned out that the headmaster was a huge fan of poker, and was quick to allow her proposed plan. If Badurek had any problem she would talk to her professors and things would be taken care of. It was the perfect combination; "So there I was, studying Russian philology and dealing in exotic places simultaneously. I was getting back with a tan in the middle of January, people must have hated me!"

From Dealer to Floor

Badurek started as a dealer on the European Poker Tour and was soon enough chosen by Thomas Kremser to deal her first EPT Main Event final table at the Prague stop in season 4, back in 2007. "It was a disaster. Even though I was an experienced dealer, I still didn't feel confident enough. I had never dealt with such big denomination chips and with such huge stacks. I don't think I had even seen a 25,000-value chip in my life before. I was getting some compliments on being fast, so I tried to do everything even faster. The cards were everywhere." Her first experience as a final table dealer wasn't a huge success, but she was a quick learner and soon enough was one of the go-to dealers for final tables.



Kate Badurek makes her first appearance as a final table dealer on the European Poker Tour,

taking over from current PokerStars Head of Live Poker Operations Neil Johnson (1:12 in).

When Thomas Kremser made his departure from the tour after Season 7, Badurek took a short break from dealing poker at the European Poker Tour as well. With her boyfriend at the time, they invested all their money in setting up a clothing shop in Poland. But, unfortunately, people weren't really coming into their store, something they hadn't even considered a possibility when they set up shop. "Looking back on it, the entire idea wasn't thought through well enough. We opened shop and waited for people to flock the store, but they never came. With no marketing or anything else to turn things around, we closed shop after just three months as rent was due and there was no cash in the register."

Toby Stone and Thomas Lamatsch took over as tournament directors for the European Poker Tour at the start of season 8 and Badurek was contacted to get back on the tour. She said yes right away.

Stone and Lamatsch created a position of senior poker dealer, to prepare dealers for the difficult tasks of being a floor person during an event. Dealers start learning how to break and balance tables amongst other things. They learned all the procedures step-by-step and shadowed a floor person to pick up as much knowledge as possible.

Badurek was a senior dealer for a little over a year when she became a floor person for the first time at the EPT London season 9. All the senior dealers were given floor shifts half of the festival, while they remained senior dealers the other half. "That was such an exciting day! I remember being quite nervous."

Getting the position of floor person didn't mean she was running main events and high roller events right away. At the EPT you start with smaller events; like late night turbos where you can learn a lot in a short amount of time as it all goes so fast. Breaking tables, but at the same time, you also need to keep seats open for late registrants. "It's hectic, but you'll learn all the situations real fast as well."

Through hard work Badurek worked from being a floor person during late night turbos that end well after midnight, to being the floor on main Events and (super) high rollers. It's been eight years now for her in the poker industry, and she feels she has built respect amongst the players. "Once you get to know the players a bit better, it gets easier. The players see your face all the time. It takes time, and its still tough sometimes. Not everyone handles getting a penalty as well as others for example."

Playing Poker

Badurek used to play poker herself occasionally when she was still working in Dublin. In fact, she used to frequent the Sporting Emporium to grind live poker as they were only allowed to play in their own casino, not anywhere else. And she did well, well enough that they had to change that rule of just being able to play in the Emporium. "I was making the final table every week basically, and players were starting to get on tilt because of it. The next day I would come back and have to deal cards to those very same guys, while sometimes they were still fuming from the hands the night before."

That's all in the past now. These days she plays $16.50 turbos on PokerStars occasionally but doesn't play too much. "I'm happy to be just part of the organization, I don't strive to be a poker pro myself."

While Badurek's constantly surrounded by the best players in the world, there's no time to learn from them all that much. "You do see the best players and you see a lot of hands with the exact amounts they're betting and such. Of course, I pay attention to the hands but I pay more attention to technical stuff. There are so many things to pay attention to; spectators getting too close, the upcoming chip race, the table I have to break as soon as one more player busts, chip counts during the break, organizing redraws, bagging, and on top of that I have to answer people asking all sorts of questions. You're at 100% focus at all times. It's not the skills of the poker players that I focus on, I just don't have time for that."

Away From Home

The European Poker Tour festivals take up almost two weeks these days and Badurek's away from home quite frequently because of it. She's used to it by now, and her friends and family know she can't stay in touch from time to time. "My family is used to seeing me online all the time on Whatsapp but ignoring them. I just don't even have a moment during the day to send them messages back."

There are no days off for a floor person during an EPT, and sometimes one won't get much sleep and waking up extremely tired in the morning is pretty standard. Luckily there's a morning routine to get the blood flowing and pump you up for a long day; "Someone plugs in their phone and puts on music while we prepare tables. That start of the day is so great! It really gets you going, it really works on your mood. We always play happy songs. We sing while we're numbering tables, and dance while we put the redraw on the screen. It's quite the sight really."

In between events, Badurek has a lot of time off. She becomes the go-to babysitter for her sister and friends, and she watches a lot of movies and reads. During the last year, Badurek has been living in Prague with her boyfriend. So on top of all the traveling, she wasn't in her home country when she wasn't working an event. "That was a bit too much, I must say. I felt a bit home sick and decided to move back to Poland with my boyfriend. I just moved to Warsaw."

Badurek sees herself as working for the EPT for the foreseeable future; "It's hard to imagine what else I would do. When I was a young dealer I was told I was good at it. Now I feel I'm good as a floor person. That's a great feeling."

While she has aspirations for even bigger roles within the organization, she also understands it takes time. "I admire and respect my colleagues a great deal and I learn a great deal from them and the rest of the EPT team. Its a real pleasure to work with such great professionals and be able to draw on their experience."

Get all the latest PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us on both Facebook and Google+!

All photos by Danny Maxwell, PokerNews.com
Dr. Richard Bruch, former head of the N.C. Medical Society, says lack of same-day surgery centers costs health plan (and taxpayers) too much

"They could be owned by hospitals, by physicians, by corporations, or by any combination."

A Durham orthopedic surgeon argues that the State Health Plan for public employees wastes a quarter-billion dollars annually because North Carolina's certificate-of-need laws force patients to use hospital-based facilities instead of physician-operated outpatient surgery clinics.Dr. Richard Bruch, who is on the North Carolina Orthopaedic Association executive committee, issued that assessment in an invited commentary titled in the current issue of the North Carolina Medical Journal Bruch, a consultant for Triangle Orthopaedic Associates who also serves as board chairman of the North Carolina Specialty Hospital, wrote that the state's CON law, which requires a state bureaucracy to approve the addition or expansion of new medical facilities, reduces the number of surgical procedures performed in outpatient clinics and shifts them to more expensive, hospital-based centers. According to the medical journal article, to reach the national average, 126,000 more patients would need to use in ambulatory surgery centers rather than hospital-based operating rooms.Since the North Carolina State Health Plan pays on average $2,000 more for each surgery performed in a hospital outpatient department than it pays for surgery in an ambulatory surgery center, Bruch wrote, "this results in more than $250 million wasted annually on ambulatory surgery in North Carolina" that the State Health Plan could save if the state was at the national average for procedures in surgery centers.state Sen. Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell, said of Bruch's $250 million savings estimate. Hise is co-chairman of the Senate Appropriations on Health and Human Services subcommittee, and co-chairman of the Senate Health Care Committee.Bruch's commentary reinforces a point he made earlier this year in an interview with Carolina Journal and at a legislative hearing, when he said most surgical procedures are done in an outpatient setting.he said at the time.Bruch said that in 2015 the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid ServicesHe said the CON law, which limits the expansion of ambulatory surgery centers, is a "restraint of trade," a complaint he repeated in his current commentary.North Carolina certificate-of-need laws have beenin higher costs.said Devon Herrick, senior fellow at the Dallas-based National Center for Policy Analysis.North Carolina orthopedists have proposed modifying CON laws without limiting ownership of new ambulatory surgery centers, Bruch told CJ in his earlier interview.Legislation authorizing that change failed to pass in this year's legislative session. But some lawmakers said they will renew the push for CON reform in 2017.said state Rep. Marilyn Avila, R-Wake, House chairwoman of the Appropriations on Health and Human Services subcommittee, and vice chairwoman of the House Health Committee.Avila was one of the primary sponsors in the last session of House Bill 200 , a measure seeking what she calledin exempting some of the 25 medical services and devices regulated by CON laws. The bill included ambulatory surgery facilities and diagnostic centers but did not pass."I'm not going to be very ambitious" in projecting major CON changes in the next session absent "a sweeping epiphany" occurring among some people, Avila said.Avila said she doesn't wantnoting that most people don't fully understand how interwoven all the CON components are, from physical structures to funding.such as those proposed in Senate Bill 702 , sponsored by Sen. Tom Apodaca, R-Henderson, Avila said. That bill called for complete repeal of the CON system.In such a wholesale approachthat can't be fixed or repaired quickly if it doesn't work out, Avila said.But Hise, who co-sponsored S.B. 702 with Apodaca, said,Hise also authored, with Apodaca's help, total CON repeal language that was inserted in a House-passed bill after the original House language naming the bobcat as the state cat was stripped out. That bill also failed to pass.Hise envisions legislation including a deadline, probably 2021, after which all CON requirements would end. That would give hospitals a few years to adjust to some parts of CON repeal while imposing immediate eradication of others.Hise said."The determination of what type of facilities you have, what type of technology and equipment you have, is not going to continue to be able to be a state-based formulated system that literally takes years to change, or [fails to] adapt to technologies, or changes in prices, and environments, or populations," Hise said.He said he isa complete CON repeal would pass in the Senate, and could pass in the House as well if committee chairmen allow it to go to the floor for a vote.
China releases weaponry research project information Updated: 2016-08-07 15:37 (Xinhua)

BEIJING -- China has published information on military equipment research projects on an official weapon procurement website for the first time, to encourage compitition in the formerly closed sector, the PLA Daily reported.

The procurement bureau of the equipment development department under the Central Military Commission (CMC) and the armament departments of the Army and Navy have released over 800 projects that will receive a funding of 3.7 billion yuan ($557.2 million).

The military will continue to update the information on weain.mil.cn, which was launched in January 2015 in an move to open China's defense sector to private enterprises and boost competition in military procurement.

According to Lyu Bin from the website, the information has already clocked-up 300,000 visitors, and over 800 enterprises have sought further information at off-line consultation points in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang, Shenzhen, Chongqing and Xi'an cities.

At present, the website has over 9,000 enterprise and institution users. It has issued over 2,000 piece of information on military procurement since last January.
Two Chinese abducted in Nigeria: police Updated: 2016-08-07 17:46 (Xinhua)

LAGOS -- Two Chinese nationals have been kidnapped in Agada village in central Nigeria's Nasarawa state, police said Sunday.

State police spokesperson Ismail Noman, who confirmed the incident to Xinhua, said the two Chinese, aged 50 and 45 respectively, were ambushed by unknown gunmen at about 2:28 pm local time on their way to the capital Abuja Saturday.

They were said to be workers from the Chinese company of West African Polaris Investment.

Noman said although the gunmen, wielding sophisticated weapons, were still at large, the police had begun investigation to track them.

He said security operatives had been deployed into the forests and bush around the area to arrest the suspects and rescue the victims.

According to him, security operatives in collaboration with vigilante groups, local hunters and community leaders have also been involved in the search.

The police had also increased stop search activities across the state borders.
Chinese abducted in Nigeria rescued: embassy Updated: 2016-08-07 21:31 (Xinhua)

ABUJA -- Two Chinese workers who were kidnapped in central Nigeria's Nasarawa state have been rescued, the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria said Sunday.

Zheng Jun, an official with the embassy, told Xinhua that the two Chinese were rescued Saturday night, and are currently in sound condition.

Local police said earlier that two Chinese workers were ambushed by unknown gunmen at about 2:28 pm local time Saturday in Nasarawa while on their way to the capital Abuja.



Related:

Two Chinese abducted in Nigeria: police
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Last year, 2,291 felony cases were filed in Yellowstone County District Court. That doesnt count misdemeanors filed in Justice Court, Billings Municipal Court or Laurel City Court.

The surge in criminal cases is driven largely by drug offenses. More than 500 people were arrested last year in Yellowstone County on methamphetamine charges.

Yellowstone County Attorney Scott Twito is working to launch a program that would give first-time, nonviolent drug offenders the opportunity to get into addiction treatment and out of the criminal justice system faster.

Typically, first-time offenders get probation, not prison. But many continue to use drugs, violating their probation conditions and all too often landing in jail on new drug charges. Twito aims to stop that downward spiral by offering drug offenders a deal where they can get into effective addiction recovery, shorten their time on probation  and avoid going to prison if they stay clean.

Twitos idea makes sense, but it will require a lot of work and strategic investment of resources. Yellowstone County started doing pretrial assessments of jail inmates last summer to give judges better information for making bond decisions. That assessment process also could help evaluate arrestees for Twitos treatment program.

Once felony defendants plead guilty, the state would pay for their drug treatment. But treatment isnt always available or accessible on a timely basis.

The county attorney will need the support of the public defenders office and District Court judges.

Three of those judges already preside in drug treatment courts where participants usually are homeless and jobless when they first begin treatment and intensive supervision. They graduate drug free with housing and employment. Not everyone succeeds, but the success stories keep the courts working.

Criminal drug cases spill over into civil child abuse and neglect. Most of the more than 500 Yellowstone County children who entered the state foster care system last year were removed because of their parents drug abuse.

At every level  from law enforcement to judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, probation, detention and parole officers  the number of cases is overwhelming the justice system.

The states prisons are full and overflowing into county jails. A plan Yellowstone County voters approved in June will improve quarters for female jail inmates, renovate three-decade-old structures and enhance safety, but wont relieve all the pressure of more demand than cells.

The 2015 Legislature recognized that change is needed, so it created the Commission on Sentencing that has been working for more than a year to craft recommendations for the 2017 session. The Billings area is well represented on the commission by District Judge Ingrid Gustafson, state Rep. Margie MacDonald, attorney Majel Russell and probation officer Jennie Hansen.

The commission has been working with the Council of State Governments Justice Center to understand whats driving up the number of people in the state corrections system. Justice Center research shows that recidivism, drug addiction and mental illnesses are major factors:

The number of arrests in Montana has been steadily increasing since the turn of the 21st century, even though crime rates are lower. In Billings, the number of arrests increased 37 percent between 2009 and 2014 while the population increased 3 percent.

Statewide, the number of arrests for probation and parole violations and failure to appear increased from 2,720 in 2009 to 4,484 in 2014.

Forty-five percent of the statewide arrest increase involved violations of probation and parole or failure to appear in court  not new crimes.

Montana Felony drug arrests doubled to 1,834 in 2014, compared with 911 in 2009.

The commission is discussing reforms to implement and standardize pretrial risk assessment and supervision. Reform will require investing more in treatment courts and assuring that addiction treatment and prerelease programs use scientifically proven effective best practices. Keeping more offenders out of prison will require hiring more probation officers and training detention officers to prepare inmates for successful re-entry into society.

Just a little money up front goes a long way because incarceration is so expensive, MacDonald said. We need to reset our system. If we dont do this, we are going to be building more prisons.

The Commission on Sentencing has learned about successful justice reform initiatives in other states, including South Dakota, Utah and Kentucky. Montana should borrow good ideas and adapt them to our needs.

The commissions work aligns well with Twitos plan for early intervention with first-time drug offenders.

Elsewhere on this page, two of President Barack Obamas advisers argue for passing federal sentencing reform legislation next month when Congress reconvenes. Sen. Steve Daines is a co-sponsor of the bipartisan Senate reform bill.

With such broad recognition that reform is needed, its time for action at local, state and federal levels. People in jail and prison arent working, taxpayers are supporting them. The system must do a much better job of treating the underlying problems that have filled our jails and prisons with drug addicts and mentally ill people  most of whom have committed no violent crimes.
HA NOI  Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong has said that Ha Noi voters want the National Assembly (NA) to push forward with reforms of its activities in the fields of lawmaking, supervision, decision-making and diplomacy.

He and other NA deputies from Ha Noi met voters in Hoan Kiem, Ba inh and Tay Ho districts yesterday to inform them about the outcomes of the 14th NAs first session and to listen to their opinions.

Lauding the success of the new parliaments first session, local constituents said they hope the newly elected State officials will fulfill the oaths they took to do their utmost to fulfill the assigned tasks.

They said the Party leader himself should take more drastic actions, especially in preventing corruption and wastefulness and creating a Government that pursues development and operates with integrity to meet peoples aspirations.

Voters also voiced their concerns about a number of problems such as the complex developments in the East Sea (South China Sea), poor economic management and environmental pollution. They said agencies and persons involved in each case must bear responsibility and punishment.

Party General Secretary Trong said he would report voters opinions to the NA and authorised agencies and enhance coordination with relevant bodies to better deal with their concerns.

He said that in spite of initial outcomes, anti-corruption efforts must be strenghened given that this is an extremely complicated, long-term and difficult fight which relates to the interests and honour of each person and organisation.

The Party and the State are resolved to prevent corruption and consider this a task to purify the Party and State apparatus, he added.

Regarding the marine pollution in Ha Tinh and other central provinces, the leader said the incidents had taught Viet Nam an expensive lesson - that it must not attract investment at any cost and must protect the environment.

In terms of sovereignty protection, particularly after The Hague tribunal ruled on a lawsuit against the unfounded territorial claims in the East Sea, he confirmed Viet Nams consistent policy of persistently and determinedly safeguarding independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and ensuring peace for national development. -VNS
HCM CITY  Just a day after the first dangerous sinkhole, big enough to swallow a bus, was found on Truong Sa Street in the citys Phu Nhuan District, another deep hole appeared 50 metres away from the original location.

So far, no injuries have been reported. But the serious land depression on the street along Nhieu Loc  Thi Nghe Canal, which also happened in 2012, sparked concern over the road construction quality from the public.

The incident, which occurred over 49 square metres on Thursday, was located in the area of the citys Environmental Sanitation Project. The holes appear to be getting bigger.

Authorities and experts have been tracing the causes of the land depressions.

An initial investigation showed that a connecting joint between 7-meter underground water drainage sewers was broken, causing water to overflow from the sewer and undermine the underground soil structure, leading to the creation of the sinkhole.

During a meeting on Friday, Le Hoang Minh, deputy director of HCM City Department of Transport, said a solution will be carried out to prevent further land depressions.

The authority closed the drainage system to prevent further depressions and determined the location for repairs.

Ha Ngoc Truong, deputy chairman of HCM City Bridge, Road and Port Association, told local press that the location of the dangerous hole is near an area of the construction project No.7A and No. 10 under the HCM City Environmental Sanitation Project, the first phase done by Chinese contractors.

Several holes appeared in the city a few years ago. Truong said the holes that appeared recently are the biggest ones ever in the city.

Concerned agencies had to use barriers to block the area from traffic for safety reasons. Fences erected around the holes caused heavy traffic congestion near the area.

The engineer warned that its possible for the holes to become much bigger, threatening houses nearby.

Answering a question about whether the incident has a connection with the Chinese contractors, Truong said that there has been no evidence for coming to that conclusion.

It is too early to say that the holes were left behind by the careless performance of Chinese contractors on the project. We need to make a geological survey to determine the broken point. If the study finds that the incident is caused by the careless performance of the contractors, I will make a condemnation and propose a penalty, Truong said.

Nguyen Vinh Ninh, an official at HCM Citys Department of Transport, confirmed that the holes were in the area of construction package No. 10.

The construction was covered by the China State Construction Engineering Corporation, which carried out the project very slowly, sparking concerns from the local government.

Dr. Pham Sanh, an expert in bridge and road construction, denied the theory that weak geological conditions caused the sinkholes. With weak soil condition, the holes would not happen partially.

So the holes were caused by a mistake in design or careless performance during construction. The site should be examined to determine the cause, Sanh said.  VNS
TIEN GIANG  Southern Tien Giang Provinces border guards have found almost 100 suspected explosive objects being carried illegally by boat in Lach Channel, Vam Lang Town .

The boat keeper said on Saturday that he received the objects from divers who collect underwater waste in southernmost Ca Mau Province. The boat owner was not there when the border guards searched the boat.

Twenty-six of the seized objects are iron cylinders, suspected to be mortar parts.  VNS
The journey of two Vietnamese-born wildlife photographers is on display in Ha Noi at an August 4-7 exhibition titled Wings of the Wild. Through the photos, they call for wildlife protection and respect.

by Ngo Minh

The wildlife photographs pulse with life. Time stands still on the outstretched wings of birds. Every image bears a message about environmental impact and nature conservation.

Vietnamese-born photographers Andy Nguyen and ang My Hanh, both based in the US now, have spent dozens of years pursuing wildlife photography. Both photographers have received many prestigious international photography awards from BBC Wildlife, PSA (Photographic Society of America), FIAP and NANPA (North American Nature Photography Association). Now they are returning to Viet Nam to share the fruits of their labours.

Their wildlife photography is on display in Ha Noi at an August 4-7 exhibition titled Wings of the Wild. They will also lead wildlife photography workshops to share their experiences with domestic photographers.

Both photographers are also using their Viet Nam journey to explore local wildlife and nature with their cameras. They dream of introducing Vietnamese wildlife in exhibitions worldwide.

You dont have to be a nature lover or even an animal lover to appreciate wildlife photos, said Andy.

Peace and freedom

Andy is proud to be the only Vietnamese photographer ever honoured as Wildlife Photographer of the Year (2009). Friends and fans call him Bird Whisperer, Raptors Shooter and Professor "Wing".

My goal is to show their life stories, beauty, grace, spirit and natural behavior - through a mixture of technical merit and artistic expression - in the hope of educating the public about nature conservation for generations to come, he said. Their power of flight and their sense of peace and freedom are qualities I believe each and every one of us can learn to appreciate.

Examining the photos in the new exhibit, audiences may wonder how Andy approaches birds so closely to photograph their curious eyes, snap a bird catching fish and capture birds feeding their hungry babies.

Andy uses modern equipment like telephoto lenses because when people approach wildlife too closely, animals get scared. But he says knowledge of ornithology and the natural world is essential to create good nature photographs.

Unpredictability in wildlife photography is one of the ingredients that makes it so challenging and so rewarding when youre able to nail the shot."

Andy takes wildlife photos but doesnt disturb the animals world. He follows animals silently to photograph their lives.

If hes photographing an osprey, for example, he follows it and is ready to shoot when the osprey launches into action.

In the wild there are many lakes and rivers - some covering huge areas - so seeing an osprey in action is always special. But seeing them work their magic within your lens focal range is just amazing.

We expect viewers to be able to distinguish between wild and semi-wild photos, so they tend to appreciate the works of art much more, said Andy.

Another time, Andy checked on a scissor-tailed flycatchers nest and found three newly hatched babies. He stayed far enough away so as not to alarm the parents, but it was very hard to find an opening in the busy network of branches and leaves. He kept changing positions, since the adult birds kept coming back from different directions and perched at different spots on the nest. Each time they left, they would be away for about 15-20 minutes looking for food.

During all that time, I had to be ready. I could not take my eyes off the nest. The first few times, either I blinked or was not paying full attention, and the parents managed to sneak in and out in a matter of seconds. I only got a glimpse of him/her flying out.

Lesson learned. So I stood still in the hot sun, with sweat running down my eyes which made it very hard to see in the viewfinder. I thought I had to nail the shot, since I might not get this chance again.

Although he has photographed scissor-tailed flycatchers flying and hunting before, this was the first time he ever saw them nesting on top of a big tree. The fruit of this experience is a photograph of the adults feeding three little screaming hungry mouths.

When not in the field among the birds and wildlife, he can usually be found at an airport realising a life-long passion: watching aircraft fly and photographing them.

A life of risk

ang My Hanh is the only female Vietnamese-born wildlife photographer in the world. She is armed with in-depth knowledge of birdlife and is a noted writer on the theme of wildlife. Hanh is noted for being razor-sharp and exquisite in the photographic and Vietnamese literary arts.

Dangers always lie in wait for a wildlife photographer, Hanh said. A photographer may risk her life to capture a beautiful moment.

I have experienced being at deaths door many times during 15 years of photographing wildlife, she said.

Hanh waits for long stretches of time to capture a photograph. Sometimes she waits a whole day. Once, she followed a couple of sandhill cranes in breeding season. Sandhill cranes often build their nests at a fluvial bog which houses many crocodiles. She spent five weeks sinking in marsh from the dawn till dusk to capture the best shots.

Once she forgot her surroundings completely while she was holding the camera and looking into the lens. Suddenly she turned her head and found a big crocodile with an open mouth nearby.

My heart seemed to stop beating. But thanks to experience and knowledge of wildlife and survival skills, I remained patient and slowly, silently moved. If I had panicked and shouted, the crocodile would have attacked me.

Andy once camped in an African forest and listened to lions tear their bait at night. He said wild animals wont attack if humans dont arouse their animal instincts.

If you come back from a trip and dont get the right photographs, you may consider it a failure, he said. For me, its not failure. Even though I didnt take any eye-catching photos, I still earned many lessons and experiences about wildlife. The animals characteristics, living environment, and habits are precious information for me to prepare for the next trip.

Hanh agreed. To be a wildlife photographer, you need more than modern and professional equipment like telephoto lenses. You also need to equip yourself with survival skills and wildlife knowledge.

Above all, you must nurture a love of nature if you want to be successful. All professional wildlife photographers I know respect animals. Through photos, these photographers call people to protect these creatures. VNS
by Thuy Hang

After an hour-long wander through a glossy shopping mall, especially when the clock was almost 1pm, the only thing I wanted was a place to rest my feet and treat my hungry tummy.

Like a fighting bull, I was magnetically drawn by the bright red-coloured door of T-Coffee, which is located right on the first floor of the mall. Stepping through the red door, my eyes recently familiar with the brightly lit shops and glitzy mannequins were rested by a relaxing atmosphere. Green potted plants on wood-slab tables under brown glass hanging lights shining a very soft glow gave respite.

Like some other newly opened cafes and bistros, T-Coffees interior reflects an Art Decor style, considered trendy nowadays in Viet Nam. A combination of modern decorative and industrial arts, T-Coffee features exposed pipes across the ceiling, black steel chairs and some vintage-style print textile sofas. One wall has been turned into a large painting depicting white flowers in full bloom. The wall seems to be a nice backdrop for selfies, because during my less-than-an-hour lunch, I saw at least five young women snapping selfies in front of the mural.

As a bistro, its menu includes the basics including soup and salad, pizza, calzone (a kind of folded Italian oven-baked pizza), steak and desserts. The number of dishes offered was not abundant.

I skimmed over the pizza section that presented nine options. The name of each pizza would evoke anyones curiosity about what it tasted like. The Tonkin includes duck meat, cucumber, celery and mozzarella; the Ha Noi features pork, papaya and carrot; the Bangkok contains lean pork and mozzarella; the Seoul portraits chicken thigh, garlic, chilli, lemongrass, and mozzarella; and the Havana has chicken thigh, bacon, avocado and mozzarella.

Despite not being mentioned in the pizza section, the menu also presents an attractive photo of the Mekong pizza with colourful fresh fruit on top of a thin crust. Under the pressure of my own curiosity, I also wanted to try this one, however, I didnt pick the Mekong. Instead, my spicy taste buds urged me to select the Bangkok, which had the sign of a red chilli next to it. I also ordered a portion of pan-seared US beef salad.

The salad was not bad. The beef was soft and pan-seared in the proper way to keep its moisture and light pink colour. The amount of balsamic vinegar was enough to connect the buttery beef with the salad and assorted vegetables on the plate.

When my main dish was placed in front of me, I was a quite disappointed by its plain simple appearance; the crust had been covered by a layer of minced pork mixed with Thai basil and mint. OK, what can I do in this situation other than deal with my own decision? I picked a piece of pizza and carefully tried the first bite.

Wow, wow, wow, it was completely opposite to my earlier "prejudice"! Its flavourful taste exploded in my mouth. It was a really nice and unexpected surprise. Spicy chilli, well-marinated lean pork, aromatic herbs, creamy mozzarella and crunchy crust -- all in harmony to offer my taste buds a nice treat.

As I didnt have any room left for the tempting Mekong pizza, a week later, together with a friend, I came back to T-Coffee to satisfy my curiosity over the taste of this fruit pizza.

Alongside our own pick -- US beef fillet mignon with Canadian scallops (VN350,000) -- with the suggestion of a friendly waiter, we also ordered a "free-style" pizza with four different tastes, including the Mekong, the Tonkin, the Florence and mushroom. You can choose any special mixed pizza available at T-Coffee.

Too eager for the Mekong fruit pizza, I took a piece and started to nibble. The beautiful pizza, which looks like a palette of red strawberry, purple grape, green kiwi and apple, dark pink dragon fruit and yellow mango, is absolutely fresh. This unique pizza has a thin layer of cream cheese instead of mozzarella. I felt delighted to enjoy this pizza, which should be referred to as a dessert.

As a mushroom-holic, I like any dish containing this fleshy fungi. Thats why I had no complaints about the aromatic pan-seared buttery button mushrooms on one fourth of the pizza.

Although the Tonkin featuring roasted duck is a best-seller at T-Coffee (according to the waiter), it failed to conquer my taste buds. I need to say that the pizza itself is quite nice, but Im not a sweet-tooth person, and even the very light sweet flavour of typical roasting meat can disturb my taste.

The last pieces we had were Florence. Basically, it is similar to the classic Pepperoni, but the pepperoni has been replaced by Parma ham. If I was not so full after everything else, I think this would be among my favourites.

We concluded our lunch with a creamy cheese cake, which was a great match with a cup of TWG tea. Or you can choose from many other mouth-watering cakes displayed in the glass counter -- lava, red velvet, tiramisu, chocolate mousse and yoghurt mousse. Match these together with one of various Vietnamese or Italian coffees, smoothies or granita -- a semi-frozen Sicilian dessert made from sugar, water and various flavourings.  VNS

T-Coffee

Add: Level 1, Vincom Center Nguyen Chi Thanh, 54 Nguyen Chi Thanh Street

Hours: All day dining and coffee shop

Price: from VN55,000 for food; from VN50,000 for dessert; from VN30,000 for drinks

Comment: Spacious venue, friendly staff, fusion pizza, good cake.
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French auto major is looking to enhance exports from India to neighbouring countries and Africa as it seeks to make the country a manufacturing hub.

"Last month we started exporting Duster and Kwid to Sri Lanka. This month we will be entering Nepal while we also prepare to enter Bhutan," Sumit Sawhney, country CEO and managing director, India Operations, told PTI.

Not only the neighbouring countries, will be looking to tap opportunities in Africa as well.

"We are working on strategy for exports to South Africa, hopefully, it will be finalised soon. Besides, we are looking at other countries in Africa," Sawhney said.

Even to Brazil, where the company's small car Kwid will be manufactured and sold, Renault will be looking to export components.

"Certain sets of components will be supplied from here in India," he said.

As per SIAM data, Renault India has exported 441 units so far in the April-June period this fiscal, as against just 56 units exported in the same period last fiscal.

Keeping in view the increased demand for Kwid in the domestic market and plans for exports, Renault India has also increased production of the small car.

"We have started the third shift at our Chennai plant. We are producing about 9,000-9,500 units of the Kwid now," Sawhney said.

In the domestic market, Renault India's cumulative sales in the January-July period stood at 73,863 units as against 25,032 in the corresponding period last year, a growth of 195 per cent.
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.
Americans make up fewer than one in 20 of the people on Earth, yet our prisons and jails hold about one in five of the world's prisoners.

That adds up to 2.2 million people behind bars in this country at any one time, costing us $80 billion every year. Meanwhile, 70 million people (about one-third of working age Americans) have some type of criminal record, a burden that prevents many from obtaining a job, a home, or an education.

This level of over-incarceration is staggering  not just because of its sheer size, but because of its sheer senselessness. Mass incarceration does not make us safer. A large number of incarcerated Americans, for instance, are serving long sentences for non-violent drug crimes. Conservatives and progressives alike have consistently pointed out that we would all be better off investing much of that money in our communities: sending young people to great schools, creating economic opportunity for families, and breaking cycles of poverty and broken homes.

Safer communities

That's why the president has continued to do what he can do to make our communities safer. The administration has invested in mentoring, job training, and new reentry programs. We have brought together leaders in the private sector and higher education, as well as in state and local government, to catalyze reforms  from lifting unfair barriers in the job market that Americans with criminal records can face, to promoting better ways to address vulnerable populations who make up a significant percentage of those in jail, to supporting more effective diversion programs.

In addition, the president has exercised his executive authority by granting clemency to incarcerated Americans whose sentences did not fit their crimes and who have earned a second chance. Last week, he announced commutations for 214 more incarcerated Americans, including two in Montana. With that announcement, the president has now commuted the sentences of 562 Americans, more than the last nine presidents combined. They're mothers and fathers who will have the opportunity to spend time with their kids. They're talented, driven Americans who have much to offer our communities and have shown a dedication to giving back if given a second chance. In most cases, these are individuals who committed nonviolent crimes and have already served a significant amount of time. Our resources are not well spent keeping these people locked up. We would all benefit by ensuring they have the opportunity to become law abiding, contributing members of society.

The administration's work has made important inroads toward making our criminal justice system fairer and smarter, but none of it is a substitute for federal criminal justice reform legislation. Right now, there is a strong, bipartisan bill in the Senate that has passed out of committee and is just waiting for a vote. We are confident the bill would pass. The bill would reduce mandatory minimums for certain nonviolent drug offenders; give judges greater discretion to make sure that the sentence fits the crime; provide prisoners with the tools and incentives to turn their lives around; give nonviolent juvenile offenders who have served their sentences the second chances they deserve; and reinvest savings from criminal justice reform into public safety programs.

Time runs short

These reforms would make our communities safer and save hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, as the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office recently reported.

In the House, Speaker Paul Ryan has voiced strong support for reform, and his members continue to work on individual bills similar to the Senate bill. But the clock is ticking. Congress will only have a short window in September to take action before the election. Ryan has committed to bringing reform bills to the floor for votes during that window in September  and it's absolutely critical that he does so.

It would be a shame to miss this opportunity. We know mass incarceration is not good for our country and does not make us safer. In a time that can make it feel as if there is little that unites Republicans, Democrats, and independents, what better way to show that Washington can work than to pass bipartisan criminal justice reform. It would make our communities safer, save money, and better align our criminal justice system with our values of justice and opportunity for all Americans. There is no excuse not to act.
CEDAR FALLS  One of the first things people worried they have Parkinsons disease learn is that theres no test to diagnose it.

There are tests aplenty  blood, imaging, neurological, physical  but rarely anything to give doctors or patients confidence in the diagnosis as they embark on treatment options. In fact, beginning to treat for the disease is one of the surer ways to diagnose Parkinsons.

But a Cedar Falls company is hoping to change that.

Were not here to solve the question of what causes Parkinsons disease, said Bill Harwood, president and chief research officer of iTR Diagnostics. Were providing a tool that we believe will help doctors and their ability to give the best care to their patients.

The companys diagnosis tool uses eye-tracking software to measure a patients motor control in his or her eyes, which is one of the functions where people with Parkinsons may first start having trouble. Its advanced technology can collect about 1,000 data points per second to measure and then analyze that data to help determine a diagnosis.

Its a frustrating, terrible disease, and yet, we can get some measurement on that and we can tell, I think, earlier and with greater confidence  because its quantitative  whats going on with this person, Harwood said.

He said its not just a tool to aid in diagnosis but also in quantitatively measuring the disease over time, and whether various treatment options are working.

The work the company, which was founded in 2013, is doing has gotten attention across the state, and may soon get a worldwide platform.

Getting noticed

As studies continue  Harwood estimates about half the participants in a validation study will come from the Cedar Valley alone  iTR Diagnostics is starting to build its profile.

Harwood, also a University of Northern Iowa professor, and vice president Mike Whitson participated in a contest hosted by Cedar Rapids NewBoCo and its Innovation Summit Series in May. And they won.

The summit where iTR Diagnostics competed was held in conjunction with the Aging 2.0 chapter in Cedar Rapids. A local chapter was launched due to Iowas aging population and the need for innovation to improve their quality of life.

The judges felt that iTRs idea filled a need in the market and that it was more than just a concept, said Jessalyn Holdcraft, of NewBoCo. The iTR team has the domain knowledge and the drive to solve this problem. The impact on the aging experience was obvious and necessary to ensure a high quality of life.

The company is now competing against other Aging 2.0 chapter winners worldwide. The contest has a voting component for each company, as well as being reviewed by a panel of experts.

People can vote to support iTR Diagnostics once every 24 hours through Aug. 18 online at bit.ly/vote4itrd.

Harwood thinks the company has a good chance of being competitive worldwide because its product can be used anywhere.

All thats needed at the moment would be  our software, our hardware and an internet connection, because well actually do the analysis on our servers here, Harwood said. We have here in Cedar Falls, as you know, the fastest Internet on the planet and some really great places that run servers.

The company also recently received a $25,000 loan through Iowa Economic Development Authoritys proof of commercial relevance program to begin to flesh out its marketing plan.

Harwood hopes to appeal to pharmaceutical companies first to improve clinical trials, while it seeks approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to get into doctors offices and elsewhere to begin early diagnosis tests.

Whats next

The company, which operates out of University of Northern Iowas business incubator, has done much work on its validation study in the Cedar Valley, but Harwood anticipates having to do work in Cedar Rapids to get enough participants  both those with the disease and without  to finalize the study.

Once that work is complete, it will seek FDA approval for the eye-tracking software. Because eye-tracking has already been proven, Harwood expects to have a quicker process to FDA approval than for some drugs.

But hes not worried, because he says hes got higher standards for himself and his work.

If Im going to sell this, any marketplace is competitive, I intend to be the best, so my standards are higher, because to be the absolute best is what you want, Harwood said.

While the company is solely focused on Parkinsons disease right now, Harwood said its work has the potential to be adapted for use in other neurological diseases, including Alzheimers and schizophrenia.
WATERLOO  Steve Dust, CEO of the Greater Cedar Valley Alliance & Chamber, has announced realignment and promotion of existing staff.

Danny Laudick is elevated to director of Talent Solutions, leading the Alliance & Chambers strategies to address the workforce needs of employers across the Cedar Valley.

Wes James has been promoted to vice president, operations for the TechWorks Campus. His responsibilities include management of the campus properties, development of the Iowa Advanced Manufacturing Network Hub, and tenant services. He will also assist in marketing available space and development sites.

With 26 years of experience, Bette Wubbena has been named director of events responsible for all Alliance & Chamber events and securing event sponsorships. She also oversees aspects of volunteer coordination.

Director of Investor Relations Sue Beach assumes responsibility for investor/member recruitment and retention. She will report to CEO Steve Dust.

The Greater Cedar Valley Alliance & Chamber is a private, not-for-profit corporation working to increase wealth and economic vitality through collaborative economic and community development throughout the Cedar Valley economic area.
WATERLOO  A new urgent care medical clinic is seeking site plan approval in the expanding San Marnan business park.

The Waterloo City Council is scheduled to hold a public hearing Monday on a site plan amendment for the proposed 6,436-square-foot Quick Care Clinic and 30-stall parking lot to be developed by Khan Medical Associates.

Members of the citys Planning, Programming and Zoning Commission voted unanimously last week to endorse the site plan for the project, which would be directly east of Kimball & Beecher Family Dentistry.

While the clinic abuts San Marnan Drive, access to the parking lot would come from Tower Park Drive to the south.

Community Planning and Development Director Noel Anderson said he was working with the developer on an agreement that would provide tax rebates on the added taxable value created by the clinic. The pact would return for council consideration at a future meeting.

Other scheduled council business includes:

A development agreement granting four years of 70 percent tax rebates and three more years of 65 percent tax rebates for M & K Quality Electrics planned 3,000-square-foot electrical business at the southeast corner of Southland Drive and U.S. Highway 63.

Awarding a pre-construction contract to Connerley Construction Inc. of Cedar Rapids to build a new home for $178,967 using federal neighborhood revitalization funds through the city Community Development Board. The home in the 1000 block of Lafayette Street would then be sold to a qualified low- to moderate-income buyer.

Authorizing installation of a 25 mph speed hump in the 300 block of West Orange Road.

The meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Monday in the council chambers on the second floor of City Hall.
My 91-year-old grandfather, Rabbi Shimon Goldman, lost his seven siblings and parents to Hitlers murder machine. His family was singled out for one reason only: being Jewish. Comparing Israelis to the Nazis desecrates the memory of the six million murdered Jews and millions of other minorities murdered seventy years ago.

Israel has never singled out anyone for annihilation or harm. They are the only country in the Middle East where Jews, Christians, Muslims, Bahais and many others live together peacefully. Its a land where over one million Arabs, including women, have equal rights, where 12 members of parliament are Arab and whose technological innovation services the entire world. Who knows? Perhaps Mr. Howard typed his letter on a computer with an Intel chip, produced in Israel.

Four-thousand years ago, God gave Israel to Abraham and his descendants. After expulsions galore, we returned home to our land. Weve survived the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Romans, the inquisition, the pogroms, the holocaust, and well continue to thrive. It wasnt Israel who started the six-day-war; Israel just won it. We took back our land from the Jordanians and theyve never asked for it to be returned.

JFKs words live on Let us make it clear that we will never turn our backs on our steadfast friends in Israel, whose adherence to the democratic way must be admired by all friends of freedom.

Rabbi Chaim Bruk

Bozeman
WATERLOO  Around the corner from the music, food and festivities, visitors to Iowa Irish Fest got a chance to learn about the struggle for Irish independence.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising, the six-day armed revolt against English rule in April 1916 that set the stage for the Irish War of Independence a few short years later.

We cant forget these men, because without them there is not a Republic of Ireland, said Meagan Visser, co-chair of the Irish Fests cultural activities. These men werent warriors. They became warriors out of necessity because they could no longer stand to see their country suffer.

Visser created displays for the event using photos and documents provided by John Gibney, a Dublin native now living in Des Moines.

Gibneys great uncle, poet Joseph Mary Plunkett, was one of the leaders of the Rising. He was executed by a firing squad after surrendering. Another great uncle, John Plunkett, and a grandfather, George Plunkett, were also sentenced to death after the Rising, but their sentences were commuted.

Among the artifacts volunteered by Gibney is a handwritten letter from February 1914 from Roger Casement to Joseph Plunkett that talks of coffins and Leprechauns, apparently code for weapons.

They were trying to be a little sneaky about what they were talking about.  A lot of time they would code out for arms when they were trying to sneak arms into the country, and I had read before where they had actually hid them in coffins, Visser said.

Casement was arrested for treason following a botched plot to seek German assistance in the revolt and hanged months after the Easter Rising.

Also on display is a mobilization order for the Irish Volunteers, Dublin Brigade, and the Poblacht na hEireann proclamation.

Its like our Declaration of Independence. Its historically important though, because its one of the first documents thats been printed that addresses both men and women equally. The Irish are very well known for doing that, Visser said.

Another display honor the Easter Rising was provided by the Irish Consulate in Chicago.

The Rising triggered a response from the British that included ground fighting and artillery bombardment. In the end, an estimated 485 people died, and about 50 percent of the dead were civilians, Visser said.

In addition to the museum-quality display on the Easter Rising in the cultural area, the 10th annual Iowa Irish Fest is replete with the Irish music, dancing, food, games and displays that have made the celebration the biggest of its kind in Iowa and growing success downtown.

Many of the perennial favorites were present Saturday, including headlining band Gaelic Storm, which performs again at 4:30 p.m. today.
WATERLOO | The Grout Museum District and the Black Hawk Astronomy Club will host Star Parties from 7 to 10 p.m. through October at Prairie Grove Park in Waterloo and at the Hoover Middle School Observatory.

The schedule features:

Prairie Grove Park: Aug. 13, Sept. 10 and Oct. 8.

Hoover Middle School Observatory: Aug. 27, Sept. 16 and Oct. 1.

Star Parties are free and open to the public. Black Hawk Astronomy Club members and Grout Museum staff will be on hand to point out current constellations. Telescopes and binoculars will be available for viewing the night sky. Activities also will be provided for children.

Feel free to bring your own telescope so you can share your astronomy knowledge with others. Star Parties will not be held if it is cloudy.

For more information, call 234-6357 or go to www.GroutMuseumDistrict.org.
FAYETTE  On Wednesday, three Union Army Civil War veterans will be honored for their service by receiving gravestones.

At 2 p.m. at Grandview Cemetery in Fayette, the gravestone of Joseph D. Nicoll, Co. F 7th Iowa Cavalry, will be replaced. It was severely damaged last year. At 38 years of age in 1863, he enlisted as a saddler. He was born in Ireland and was said to be the first person naturalized in Fayette County in 1852.

He served in the Army until 1865.

Judson Barden, Co. K 11th Maine Infantry, enrolled in 1862 and was discharged in 1866. He never had a gravestone. One will be placed for him in Grandview Cemetery in Fayette shortly after the ceremony for Nicoll.

At 3:30 p.m. in the West Union Cemetery, 2nd Lt. William McClellan Bartley, Co. E. 90th New York Infantry, will be honored for his service in the Civil War by receiving a grave headstone. He died in 1919 and his grave has never been marked.

Bartley was 21 years old when he enlisted on Oct. 15, 1861, and served well past the end of the Civil War. Discharged on Feb. 9, 1866, he came to Iowa in 1866, located in Section 10 of Bethel Township and made his living as a farmer. He held different township offices and was married to Welthy J. Niles.
The League of Women Voters of Iowa works diligently each year to register voters and provide candidate forums and VOTE411.org information to give citizens the information they need to cast an informed vote.

Even as we celebrate the rights we have as citizens of Iowa, there are 56,000 Iowa citizens who are not eligible to vote, including one in five African-Americans in Iowa. As we register voters each year, we often meet individuals who would like to register but cannot because of a felony conviction.

These citizens are permanently blocked from voting in Iowa, even if they have served their time and probation. Across the country, most states automatically restore voting rights to all citizens completing sentences for past criminal convictions. Only Florida, Kentucky and Iowa permanently deny voting rights for life for everyone with a felony in their past.

The League was disappointed by the Iowa Supreme Courts 4-3 decision in Griffin vs. Pate issued July 1. The Iowa ACLU took up the case because Kelli Jo Griffin, a Montrose mother of four who was convicted of a nonviolent offense in 2008. Griffin was told by her defense attorney at the time her voting rights would be restored after she completed probation. This was true in 2008, but Gov. Terry Branstad rescinded this rule in 2011 on his first day back in office as governor. The change made Griffin and all other Iowa citizens with a felony conviction ineligible to vote for life unless their rights are restored by the governor.

There is a way to get voting rights back in Iowa, but the process is arduous. The governor reviews applications for voting rights restoration on a case-by-case basis. Applying costs time and money in acquiring a criminal history check and other information. The state can take up to six months to review an individuals application. Between 2011 and 2014 an estimated 14,500 people completed their sentence for a felony in Iowa; of that number only 64 had their voting rights restored by Branstad.

It is important to remember the 56,000 disenfranchised individuals are raising families, working, paying taxes and trying to be reintegrated into society. We must be mindful of the consequences our law has for families and extended families. Doesnt it make sense those who have paid their debt to society should be reintegrated in the most positive way so they can participate fully in the election process and demonstrate that involvement to their children?

After all, voting is an activity we do as a family and as a community. Lifetime disenfranchisement means in Iowas African-American communities nearly a quarter of adults and many parents are deprived a say in policies affecting schools, taxes, policing and everything else affecting their family and community. It means we are creating a permanent underclass in our state our officials are free to disregard.

We would be wise to think in terms of a family-focused citizenship. Children learn citizenship not only in a school setting but by the actions and beliefs of their families. Why not have parents act as role models and demonstrate the importance of voting and citizenship to their kids? We should give them the chance to discuss political views and their part in the political process and ultimately vote. We should be encouraging maximum participation in our political process.

The League is undeterred by the Iowa Supreme Courts decision, and we are committed to finding a way to restore voting rights to everyone living and working in our communities, either through a constitutional amendment or state law change.
Around Midland and around the world, loving and leading all people to deeper life in Jesus Christ.
At My Book, The Movie

Ronlyn Domingue's "The Mapmaker's War"
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20 Sep (4) 6 Sep - 13 Sep (3) 30 Aug - 6 Sep (1) 23 Aug - 30 Aug (1) 16 Aug - 23 Aug (4) 9 Aug - 16 Aug (1) 2 Aug - 9 Aug (3) 26 Jul - 2 Aug (4) 19 Jul - 26 Jul (5) 12 Jul - 19 Jul (2) 5 Jul - 12 Jul (7) 28 Jun - 5 Jul (2) 21 Jun - 28 Jun (7) 14 Jun - 21 Jun (4) 7 Jun - 14 Jun (4) 31 May - 7 Jun (3) 24 May - 31 May (2) 17 May - 24 May (1) 10 May - 17 May (1) 19 Apr - 26 Apr (1) 12 Apr - 19 Apr (1) 15 Mar - 22 Mar (1) 8 Mar - 15 Mar (3) 1 Mar - 8 Mar (2) 23 Feb - 1 Mar (2) 9 Feb - 16 Feb (3) 26 Jan - 2 Feb (1) 19 Jan - 26 Jan (2) 12 Jan - 19 Jan (2) 5 Jan - 12 Jan (1) 29 Dec - 5 Jan (1) 8 Dec - 15 Dec (1) 24 Nov - 1 Dec (2) 17 Nov - 24 Nov (1) 27 Oct - 3 Nov (1) 6 Oct - 13 Oct (1) 1 Sep - 8 Sep (2) 25 Aug - 1 Sep (4) 18 Aug - 25 Aug (1) 11 Aug - 18 Aug (2) 4 Aug - 11 Aug (8) 28 Jul - 4 Aug (5) 14 Jul - 21 Jul (3) 7 Jul - 14 Jul (3) 30 Jun - 7 Jul (4) 23 Jun - 30 Jun (2) 16 Jun - 23 Jun (4) 9 Jun - 16 Jun (1) 2 Jun - 9 Jun (5) 26 May - 2 Jun (1) 19 May - 26 May (6) 12 May - 19 May (1) 21 Apr - 28 Apr (3) 14 Apr - 21 Apr (1) 31 Mar - 7 Apr (3) 24 Mar - 31 Mar (6) 17 Mar - 24 Mar (5) 10 Mar - 17 Mar (1) 3 Mar - 10 Mar (3) 24 Feb - 3 Mar (2) 17 Feb - 24 Feb (5) 10 Feb - 17 Feb (3) 3 Feb - 10 Feb (2) 20 Jan - 27 Jan (3) 13 Jan - 20 Jan (1) 23 Dec - 30 Dec (3) 2 Dec - 9 Dec (1) 25 Nov - 2 Dec (2) 18 Nov - 25 Nov (2) 11 Nov - 18 Nov (2) 4 Nov - 11 Nov (1) 21 Oct - 28 Oct (4) 14 Oct - 21 Oct (5) 7 Oct - 14 Oct (2) 30 Sep - 7 Oct (1) 23 Sep - 30 Sep (1) 9 Sep - 16 Sep (4) 2 Sep - 9 Sep (1) 19 Aug - 26 Aug (1) 12 Aug - 19 Aug (4) 5 Aug - 12 Aug (6) 29 Jul - 5 Aug (2) 22 Jul - 29 Jul (1) 15 Jul - 22 Jul (3) 8 Jul - 15 Jul (4) 1 Jul - 8 Jul (1) 24 Jun - 1 Jul (1) 17 Jun - 24 Jun (3) 10 Jun - 17 Jun (5) 3 Jun - 10 Jun (3) 27 May - 3 Jun (5) 20 May - 27 May (6) 13 May - 20 May (6) 6 May - 13 May (1) 29 Apr - 6 May (5) 22 Apr - 29 Apr (4) 15 Apr - 22 Apr (6) 8 Apr - 15 Apr (4) 1 Apr - 8 Apr (4) 25 Mar - 1 Apr (3) 18 Mar - 25 Mar (3) 11 Mar - 18 Mar (3) 4 Mar - 11 Mar (4) 25 Feb - 4 Mar (3) 18 Feb - 25 Feb (1) 11 Feb - 18 Feb (4) 4 Feb - 11 Feb (5) 28 Jan - 4 Feb (6) 21 Jan - 28 Jan (1) 14 Jan - 21 Jan (4) 7 Jan - 14 Jan (2) 31 Dec - 7 Jan (7) 24 Dec - 31 Dec (2) 17 Dec - 24 Dec (3) 10 Dec - 17 Dec (1) 3 Dec - 10 Dec (4) 26 Nov - 3 Dec (3) 19 Nov - 26 Nov (2) 12 Nov - 19 Nov (1) 5 Nov - 12 Nov (4) 22 Oct - 29 Oct (3) 15 Oct - 22 Oct (4) 8 Oct - 15 Oct (4) 1 Oct - 8 Oct (1) 10 Sep - 17 Sep (2) 3 Sep - 10 Sep (2) 27 Aug - 3 Sep (1) 20 Aug - 27 Aug (6) 6 Aug - 13 Aug (4) 30 Jul - 6 Aug (1) 23 Jul - 30 Jul (5) 16 Jul - 23 Jul (3) 9 Jul - 16 Jul (5) 25 Jun - 2 Jul (5) 18 Jun - 25 Jun (2) 11 Jun - 18 Jun (6) 4 Jun - 11 Jun (1) 28 May - 4 Jun (5) 21 May - 28 May (2) 14 May - 21 May (4) 7 May - 14 May (4) 30 Apr - 7 May (4) 23 Apr - 30 Apr (3) 16 Apr - 23 Apr (3) 9 Apr - 16 Apr (1) 2 Apr - 9 Apr (3) 26 Mar - 2 Apr (2) 19 Mar - 26 Mar (3) 12 Mar - 19 Mar (3) 5 Mar - 12 Mar (2) 26 Feb - 5 Mar (3) 19 Feb - 26 Feb (2) 12 Feb - 19 Feb (2) 5 Feb - 12 Feb (6) 29 Jan - 5 Feb (5) 22 Jan - 29 Jan (1) 15 Jan - 22 Jan (8) 8 Jan - 15 Jan (7) 1 Jan - 8 Jan (4) 25 Dec - 1 Jan (3) 11 Dec - 18 Dec (3) 13 Nov - 20 Nov (4) 6 Nov - 13 Nov (2) 30 Oct - 6 Nov (1) 23 Oct - 30 Oct (1) 16 Oct - 23 Oct (1) 9 Oct - 16 Oct (1) 2 Oct - 9 Oct (2) 25 Sep - 2 Oct (1) 18 Sep - 25 Sep (4) 11 Sep - 18 Sep (2) 4 Sep - 11 Sep (1) 28 Aug - 4 Sep (4) 21 Aug - 28 Aug (1) 14 Aug - 21 Aug (2) 7 Aug - 14 Aug (4) 31 Jul - 7 Aug (6) 24 Jul - 31 Jul (3) 17 Jul - 24 Jul (6) 10 Jul - 17 Jul (3) 3 Jul - 10 Jul (6) 26 Jun - 3 Jul (3) 19 Jun - 26 Jun (4) 5 Jun - 12 Jun (5) 29 May - 5 Jun (1) 22 May - 29 May (1) 15 May - 22 May (1) 8 May - 15 May (5) 1 May - 8 May (5) 24 Apr - 1 May (1) 17 Apr - 24 Apr (2) 10 Apr - 17 Apr (3) 3 Apr - 10 Apr (2) 20 Mar - 27 Mar (2) 13 Mar - 20 Mar (4) 6 Mar - 13 Mar (1) 28 Feb - 6 Mar (2) 21 Feb - 28 Feb (1) 14 Feb - 21 Feb (1) 7 Feb - 14 Feb (3) 24 Jan - 31 Jan (2) 17 Jan - 24 Jan (3) 10 Jan - 17 Jan (2) 3 Jan - 10 Jan (1) 27 Dec - 3 Jan (1) 20 Dec - 27 Dec (1) 13 Dec - 20 Dec (3) 6 Dec - 13 Dec (2) 29 Nov - 6 Dec (2) 22 Nov - 29 Nov (2) 15 Nov - 22 Nov (1) 8 Nov - 15 Nov (5) 1 Nov - 8 Nov (2) 25 Oct - 1 Nov (2) 18 Oct - 25 Oct (1) 11 Oct - 18 Oct (4) 4 Oct - 11 Oct (1) 27 Sep - 4 Oct (3) 20 Sep - 27 Sep (2) 13 Sep - 20 Sep (1) 6 Sep - 13 Sep (3) 30 Aug - 6 Sep (5) 23 Aug - 30 Aug (6) 16 Aug - 23 Aug (1) 9 Aug - 16 Aug (1) 2 Aug - 9 Aug (3) 26 Jul - 2 Aug (2) 19 Jul - 26 Jul (1) 12 Jul - 19 Jul (5) 5 Jul - 12 Jul (6) 28 Jun - 5 Jul (4) 21 Jun - 28 Jun (7) 14 Jun - 21 Jun (5) 7 Jun - 14 Jun (2) 31 May - 7 Jun (5) 24 May - 31 May (3) 17 May - 24 May (5) 10 May - 17 May (3) 3 May - 10 May (1) 26 Apr - 3 May (1) 19 Apr - 26 Apr (5) 12 Apr - 19 Apr (5) 5 Apr - 12 Apr (2) 29 Mar - 5 Apr (1) 22 Mar - 29 Mar (5) 15 Mar - 22 Mar (9) 8 Mar - 15 Mar (6) 1 Mar - 8 Mar (10) 22 Feb - 1 Mar (5) 15 Feb - 22 Feb (5) 1 Feb - 8 Feb (2) 25 Jan - 1 Feb (1) 18 Jan - 25 Jan (4) 11 Jan - 18 Jan (1) 4 Jan - 11 Jan (3) 28 Dec - 4 Jan (3) 21 Dec - 28 Dec (3) 14 Dec - 21 Dec (4) 7 Dec - 14 Dec (2) 30 Nov - 7 Dec (3) 23 Nov - 30 Nov (3) 9 Nov - 16 Nov (3) 2 Nov - 9 Nov (5) 26 Oct - 2 Nov (3) 19 Oct - 26 Oct (8) 12 Oct - 19 Oct (6) 5 Oct - 12 Oct (3) 28 Sep - 5 Oct (5) 21 Sep - 28 Sep (4) 14 Sep - 21 Sep (1) 7 Sep - 14 Sep (4) 31 Aug - 7 Sep (1) 24 Aug - 31 Aug (2) 17 Aug - 24 Aug (2) 10 Aug - 17 Aug (7) 3 Aug - 10 Aug (3) 27 Jul - 3 Aug (3) 20 Jul - 27 Jul (3) 13 Jul - 20 Jul (4) 6 Jul - 13 Jul (1) 29 Jun - 6 Jul (5) 22 Jun - 29 Jun (2) 15 Jun - 22 Jun (4) 8 Jun - 15 Jun (2) 1 Jun - 8 Jun (2) 25 May - 1 Jun (8) 18 May - 25 May (4) 11 May - 18 May (1) 4 May - 11 May (3) 27 Apr - 4 May (4) 20 Apr - 27 Apr (2) 13 Apr - 20 Apr (6) 6 Apr - 13 Apr (2) 23 Mar - 30 Mar (4) 16 Mar - 23 Mar (2) 9 Mar - 16 Mar (2) 2 Mar - 9 Mar (2) 23 Feb - 2 Mar (2) 16 Feb - 23 Feb (1) 9 Feb - 16 Feb (6) 2 Feb - 9 Feb (1) 26 Jan - 2 Feb (2) 19 Jan - 26 Jan (1) 12 Jan - 19 Jan (1) 29 Dec - 5 Jan (1) 22 Dec - 29 Dec (2) 8 Dec - 15 Dec (2) 1 Dec - 8 Dec (1) 24 Nov - 1 Dec (4) 17 Nov - 24 Nov (4) 10 Nov - 17 Nov (1) 3 Nov - 10 Nov (4) 20 Oct - 27 Oct (2) 13 Oct - 20 Oct (4) 29 Sep - 6 Oct (1) 22 Sep - 29 Sep (2) 15 Sep - 22 Sep (3) 8 Sep - 15 Sep (1) 1 Sep - 8 Sep (6) 25 Aug - 1 Sep (7) 18 Aug - 25 Aug (9) 11 Aug - 18 Aug (6) 4 Aug - 11 Aug (4) 28 Jul - 4 Aug (3) 21 Jul - 28 Jul (8) 14 Jul - 21 Jul (4) 7 Jul - 14 Jul (5) 30 Jun - 7 Jul (8) 23 Jun - 30 Jun (8) 16 Jun - 23 Jun (4) 9 Jun - 16 Jun (7) 2 Jun - 9 Jun (7) 26 May - 2 Jun (8) 19 May - 26 May (7) 12 May - 19 May (5) 5 May - 12 May (5) 28 Apr - 5 May (11) 21 Apr - 28 Apr (6) 14 Apr - 21 Apr (5) 7 Apr - 14 Apr (6) 31 Mar - 7 Apr (7) 24 Mar - 31 Mar (4) 17 Mar - 24 Mar (4) 3 Mar - 10 Mar (6) 24 Feb - 3 Mar (3) 17 Feb - 24 Feb (3) 10 Feb - 17 Feb (5) 3 Feb - 10 Feb (3) 27 Jan - 3 Feb (6) 20 Jan - 27 Jan (1) 13 Jan - 20 Jan (6) 6 Jan - 13 Jan (2) 30 Dec - 6 Jan (2) 23 Dec - 30 Dec (1) 16 Dec - 23 Dec (3) 9 Dec - 16 Dec (2) 2 Dec - 9 Dec (1) 25 Nov - 2 Dec (1) 18 Nov - 25 Nov (3) 11 Nov - 18 Nov (5) 4 Nov - 11 Nov (2) 28 Oct - 4 Nov (6) 21 Oct - 28 Oct (9) 14 Oct - 21 Oct (9) 30 Sep - 7 Oct (4) 23 Sep - 30 Sep (2) 16 Sep - 23 Sep (2) 9 Sep - 16 Sep (6) 2 Sep - 9 Sep (3) 26 Aug - 2 Sep (3) 19 Aug - 26 Aug (3) 12 Aug - 19 Aug (7) 5 Aug - 12 Aug (4) 29 Jul - 5 Aug (8) 22 Jul - 29 Jul (7) 15 Jul - 22 Jul (7) 8 Jul - 15 Jul (7) 1 Jul - 8 Jul (7) 24 Jun - 1 Jul (9) 17 Jun - 24 Jun (10) 10 Jun - 17 Jun (7) 3 Jun - 10 Jun (10) 27 May - 3 Jun (6) 20 May - 27 May (8) 13 May - 20 May (8) 6 May - 13 May (11) 29 Apr - 6 May (6) 22 Apr - 29 Apr (8) 15 Apr - 22 Apr (5) 8 Apr - 15 Apr (11) 1 Apr - 8 Apr (5) 25 Mar - 1 Apr (9) 18 Mar - 25 Mar (9) 11 Mar - 18 Mar (8) 4 Mar - 11 Mar (8) 19 Feb - 26 Feb (7) 12 Feb - 19 Feb (7) 5 Feb - 12 Feb (5) 29 Jan - 5 Feb (7) 22 Jan - 29 Jan (4) 15 Jan - 22 Jan (2) 8 Jan - 15 Jan (5) 1 Jan - 8 Jan (5) 25 Dec - 1 Jan (6) 18 Dec - 25 Dec (4) 11 Dec - 18 Dec (5) 4 Dec - 11 Dec (7) 27 Nov - 4 Dec (7) 20 Nov - 27 Nov (7) 13 Nov - 20 Nov (3) 6 Nov - 13 Nov (4) 30 Oct - 6 Nov (5) 23 Oct - 30 Oct (9) 16 Oct - 23 Oct (3) 9 Oct - 16 Oct (8) 2 Oct - 9 Oct (5) 25 Sep - 2 Oct (11) 18 Sep - 25 Sep (4) 11 Sep - 18 Sep (6) 4 Sep - 11 Sep (6) 28 Aug - 4 Sep (7) 21 Aug - 28 Aug (3) 14 Aug - 21 Aug (9) 7 Aug - 14 Aug (4) 31 Jul - 7 Aug (8) 24 Jul - 31 Jul (11) 17 Jul - 24 Jul (8) 10 Jul - 17 Jul (9) 3 Jul - 10 Jul (11) 26 Jun - 3 Jul (9) 19 Jun - 26 Jun (9) 12 Jun - 19 Jun (7) 5 Jun - 12 Jun (9) 29 May - 5 Jun (5) 22 May - 29 May (8) 15 May - 22 May (9) 8 May - 15 May (4) 1 May - 8 May (6) 24 Apr - 1 May (6) 17 Apr - 24 Apr (10) 10 Apr - 17 Apr (8) 3 Apr - 10 Apr (8) 27 Mar - 3 Apr (8) 20 Mar - 27 Mar (8) 13 Mar - 20 Mar (12) 6 Mar - 13 Mar (7) 27 Feb - 6 Mar (7) 20 Feb - 27 Feb (11) 13 Feb - 20 Feb (7) 6 Feb - 13 Feb (5) 30 Jan - 6 Feb (8) 23 Jan - 30 Jan (10) 16 Jan - 23 Jan (10) 9 Jan - 16 Jan (9) 2 Jan - 9 Jan (11) 26 Dec - 2 Jan (6) 19 Dec - 26 Dec (7) 12 Dec - 19 Dec (6) 5 Dec - 12 Dec (7) 28 Nov - 5 Dec (5) 21 Nov - 28 Nov (4) 14 Nov - 21 Nov (7) 7 Nov - 14 Nov (6) 31 Oct - 7 Nov (6) 24 Oct - 31 Oct (5) 17 Oct - 24 Oct (5) 10 Oct - 17 Oct (7) 3 Oct - 10 Oct (2) 26 Sep - 3 Oct (4) 19 Sep - 26 Sep (6) 12 Sep - 19 Sep (7) 5 Sep - 12 Sep (10) 29 Aug - 5 Sep (8) 22 Aug - 29 Aug (5) 15 Aug - 22 Aug (6) 8 Aug - 15 Aug (6) 1 Aug - 8 Aug (4) 25 Jul - 1 Aug (13) 18 Jul - 25 Jul (9) 11 Jul - 18 Jul (9) 4 Jul - 11 Jul (8) 27 Jun - 4 Jul (9) 20 Jun - 27 Jun (11) 13 Jun - 20 Jun (11) 6 Jun - 13 Jun (11) 30 May - 6 Jun (9) 23 May - 30 May (23) 16 May - 23 May (12) 9 May - 16 May (12) 2 May - 9 May (10) 25 Apr - 2 May (7) 18 Apr - 25 Apr (9) 11 Apr - 18 Apr (10) 4 Apr - 11 Apr (11) 28 Mar - 4 Apr (9) 21 Mar - 28 Mar (6) 14 Mar - 21 Mar (9) 7 Mar - 14 Mar (2) 28 Feb - 7 Mar (9) 21 Feb - 28 Feb (7) 14 Feb - 21 Feb (9) 7 Feb - 14 Feb (9) 31 Jan - 7 Feb (6) 24 Jan - 31 Jan (14) 17 Jan - 24 Jan (9) 10 Jan - 17 Jan (11) 3 Jan - 10 Jan (10) 27 Dec - 3 Jan (10) 20 Dec - 27 Dec (8) 13 Dec - 20 Dec (6) 6 Dec - 13 Dec (9) 29 Nov - 6 Dec (13) 22 Nov - 29 Nov (10) 15 Nov - 22 Nov (14) 8 Nov - 15 Nov (11) 1 Nov - 8 Nov (16) 25 Oct - 1 Nov (13) 18 Oct - 25 Oct (12) 11 Oct - 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I wrote the above link and quote yesterday!

* * * * * * * * * *

I went to bed thinking and I thought in my dreams and I woke thinking and I am still thinking; In fact.I must grab another cup of coffee and sit outside this morning and think some more.I will be back

* * * * * * * * * *

I think a bunch, but, I think on my feet 99% of the time. Once in awhile, I have to stop and contemplate things. Those are dangerous times! When I have to stop all activities and mull over what I experienced. Mulling is defined with me as, When I must deeply understand something, I mull over it! When black and white as an answer does not fit the situation

* * * * * * * * * *

Yesterday I met the ???? (I was told in English he was a Bishop!) His name was Matthew (Yes, he is a bishop.) and he allowed me to call him Matt.  (Mattathias), was probably one of the most intelligent men I have met. He had spent six years studying in the UK and was very fluent English. In fact it was to me as he said to him, to speak English and converse was a tremendous pleasure. Never much chance to use English in his line of work, is how I understood it 

Mathew was the top Orthodox? Blockquote below is directly from Orthodox Wiki

Those of the major orders are the bishops, priests, and deacons, the same offices identified in the New Testament and found in the early church. Bishops include archbishops, metropolitans, and patriarchs. Priests (also called presbyters or elders) include archpriests, protopresbyters, hieromonks (priest-monks) and archimandrites (senior hieromonks). Deacons also include hierodeacons (deacon-monks), archdeacons, and protodeacons.

Now I become lost for I can not tell you the actual title of the gentleman I met. In fact I am confused as to what status Father Pavel is in the ranks? I believe Father Pavel is a priest and he is over our monastery, but I am asked to call him Father Pavel. Just as Bishop Matthew told me to call him Matt! (Yes, Father Pavel is a priest.)

We exchanged phone numbers at his (Matt) insistence and I am glad he insisted. For I realized later how profound everything was that happened to me yesterday. Surreal is how I describe it all and definitely not in a bad sense

Maybe he will comment as to the positions within the Orthodox? He wanted the address to this site and I know he will be looking at it. Windows to Russia is a vast database of Russian knowledge. The monastery and the Tiny Russian Village is and has become an intricate part of the blog

* * * * * * * * * *

I am not going into deep discussion about what was said and what we did. But, I will say that; I experienced a Orthodox church service, I sat at the table with the Orthodox priests and Bishop, I had tea and food with them, they presented me gifts, we walked around the bell tower inside and we sat and talked for several hours about various issues and other things related with the village, monastery and the world

Oh and a tidbit of information; We do not say and or call Jesus, just Jesus: I am confused at this. For I used the term Jesus and the priests laughed, not making fun laugh, but still they were amused. They tried to explain what term to use to call him, and it was explained that they do not just use Jesus. It was not a bad thing, but it was something that I realized, different about religious upbringing

It was a moment of enlightenment for me and I truly think that Matt was sincere and very glad to meet me. He wants to get together again later in the year. He understands that I must leave Russia several times a year. This was something that I sensed he contemplated with ideas known to him only at that time. We both had underlining expressions, that were passed as markers of future endeavors and I realized that he placed my position in the Tiny Russian Village as important and my desires to learn about the monastery as a benefit to the monastery

As I have said before; I have become a Russian Villager in a very Tiny Russian Village and a very Tiny Russian Monastery

I will be talking more about this in the future, today I still have thinking to do and I still have some soul searching to do. I have talked about the Old Soul of Russia and yesterday, I met it face on as I walked and talked with the entourage of Orthodox priest surrounding their Bishop!

It was sincerely an important point in my life and as I have found out, Russia is full of these points of necessities to growth of the inner soul. This is something that has to be experienced and not something that can be given to you by only words

* * * * * * * * * *

I have also made it clear that Russia is a country of intellects; yesterday I had my thoughts confirmed about the intellectualism of Russians. Orthodox clergy and upwards are highly intelligent and very insightful. It made me feel good to be amongst them and while maybe I should have felt out of place, I felt comfortable sitting with these men from the Orthodox Church!

I saw the interesting interaction between the Orthodox Church and her people that attend the services. I call it the flock and they are strong believers in Orthodoxy. Once again, it is something to experience and words will not tell the tale of how the interaction between the two entities of groups. Absorption, listening and gathering data is the only way to assimilate such an encounter!

Have a nice day. I have more thinking to do

WtR
Business roundup: Dunn Bros. to open in November, E Glass's big pitch

In business news, an Aberdeen entrepreneur is making a nationwide pitch, car wash coverts to Tunnel of Terror, Dunn Brothers to open in November.
AT PAGE ONE: J.L. Greger will discuss the her new book, Murder A Way to Lose Weight, at 3 p.m. today.

Page One is at 5850 Eubank NE, Suite B-41, in the Mountain Run Center. Call 294-2026.

AT BOOKWORKS: Laura Davis Hays will sign Incarnation at 3 today.

Kelsey Depuis, a Santa Fe scientist, and Iriel, betrothed on Atlantis to a man she cannot love, are two young women bound by a single soul. In Kelseys everyday world, three men shape her life: Myron Crouch, the boss of BioVenture Enterprises; Harrison Stillman, a brilliant colleague of hers there; and Stan Dresser, who twists her feelings with his kisses and lies.

But Iriel is gradually shaping her life, too. Through dreams and visions, she draws Kelsey into the ancient realm where refusal to marry Gewil has driven her to daring flight with fantastic creatures across a strange and terrible land.

Gloria Casale will sign Bioterror at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 9.

Yuri Bushinikov, a renowned Russian genetics engineer, has disappeared, along with two vials from the Russian smallpox stockpile. Dr. Anne Damiano has feared this scenario for many years. Her warnings have been ignored by other, more powerful public health officials. They adamantly deny the possibility of a bioterror attack.

Bookworks is at 4022 Rio Grande NW. Call 344-8139.

AT COLLECTED WORKS : Elizabeth Barlow Rogers will sign Green Metropolis: The Extraordinary Landscapes of New York City as Nature, History, and Design at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 9.

Poet Thomas Centolella will read from his latest work, Almost Human, forthcoming from Tupelo Press at 6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 12.

Collected Works is at 202 Galisteo St., Santa Fe. Call 505-988-4226.

AT BEEHIVE KIDS BOOKS: Award-winning author and illustrator Ross Van Dusen of Albuquerque will read How Crocka Dog Came to Be at noon Saturday, Aug. 13.

Beehive Kids Books is at 328 Montezuma St., Santa Fe .Call 505-780-8051.
Internationally acclaimed conductor Leonard Slatkin is stepping out to Placitas on Aug. 14.

Slatkin is in the neighborhood, conducting Vanessa at the Santa Fe Opera. The Detroit Symphony music director will head south, joining composer Cindy McTee in a concert at Las Placitas Presbyterian Church. The performance and reception benefit the Placitas Artists Series 30th season.

Slatkin and McTee will take part in a moderated question-and-answer session after a performance of McTees short and playful Stepping Out on piano and flute.

Slatkin began performing McTees music in the 1980s.

She has a distinctive style, he said. The fast pieces are very rhythmic. The harmonic language is a little influenced by jazz. It has an originality to it which you kind of recognize when you hear it.

After the concert, fans can attend a reception in a Placitas home with a silent auction, including a Santa Fe Opera package for two, featuring tickets to Vanessa, a preview buffet and a backstage tour, as well as lodging at the Hotel St. Francis.

Slatkin has long championed the work of composer Samuel Barber, who penned Vanessa in 1957. It opened well at the Metropolitan Opera, commissioners of the piece, even winning a Pulitzer Prize. But it virtually disappeared afterward.

He was seen as too old-fashioned, Slatkin said. His music was seen as a romantic, 19th century relic.

At the time, prominent composers were writing edgier, more academic work. Leonard Bernstein was the dominant force in American music, and he rarely performed Barbers work.

I had always loved Barbers music and had championed it all my life, Slatkin said. I was happy to be part of a Barber revival. We havent had any arguments. Everybodys been able to pitch in suggestions.

Its almost forward-looking in that it doesnt sound like anything else in its time. It contains some of the most gorgeous music ever heard in an opera house. A lot of people think of it as the first American opera.

The music is difficult to play, he said.

He was a composer who wrote in this post-romantic style, Slatkin said. There are a lot of key changes.

The Santa Fe version casts Vanessa in a 1930s film noir ambiance. Think Alfred Hitchcocks Notorious.

Theres really no action per se, Slatkin said. The characters interact with each other. The main character looks a little like a blond Joan Crawford.

Slatkin last appeared in Santa Fe six years ago in the world premiere of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Life Is a Dream.

The conductor has been the music director of the New Orleans, St. Louis and National symphonies. He was chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and principal guest conductor of Londons Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Los Angles Philharmonic and the Minnesota Orchestra.

He has conducted nearly all the leading orchestras in the world. His more than 100 recordings have garnered seven Grammy Awards and 64 nominations. He is a recipient of the National Medal of Arts and the holds the rank of Chevalier in the French Legion of Honor.
High school student Ludella Awad was born in America but she straddles two worlds.

The daughter of Syrian immigrants, her familys background has given her an insight and dimension most dont typically gain until adulthood. Although her parents left the country long before civil war tore it apart, her extended family is still there and has endured the hardships of war. Her uncles home was bombed and destroyed four years ago. He has yet to receive compensation.

Before the conflict began, Awad, who speaks both English and Arabic fluently, would visit the country annually. Shes now turned the plight of her family and others in the country into a published book of poetry called Sad Piano Music in Syria.

Her former English teacher, Orlando Vigil, met Awad two years ago when she was a sophomore at Albuquerque School of Excellence. Vigil said Awad, now 16, approached him after class one day and presented him with a binder of poetry and asked him to help her get it published. Impressed by her poetry, he agreed and drew up a contract agreeing to mentor her.

Those poems became her first novel, Behind the Covers, which explores the ways in which people use masks to hide who they are. He said Awads writing advocates for social justice around the globe and hes impressed by her insight into peoples inner feelings.

Through her writing, Ludella has transformed herself in front of her peers and teachers from a shy, unassuming student to a confident, assertive young published writer, with her own distinctive voice, he said. Her accomplishments at such a young age are phenomenal.

Awads parents are from Damascus, the capital of Syria. They met after her father, Sam, who was already living in the United States, returned for a visit. Thats when he met her mom, Fairouz. The two eventually married and Fairouz returned to Albuquerque with her husband. They have two children, a son who is now 20 and Ludella.

Awad said from a young age she began writing and keeping a journal. She used it in middle school to work through her feelings of awkwardness and insecurity.

I felt like I didnt know who I was, she said. I would experience things, like bullying, and try to write about it.

Ludella said she watches both local and international news every day and tries to put herself in the place of people suffering around the world, especially those in Syria. Fairouz said the government there was always controlling but people were still able to enjoy a normal life. The war, she said, has changed that.

Fairouz visited Damascus to see her sick mother in 2012, a year after the civil war began. She said the fighting had not yet entered the city but she was afraid of what might happen to her.

You cant say anything because they (government) will go after you, she said. My brother and sister have suffered a lot. Other people have lost homes and family members. Entire towns have been destroyed.

Awads 112-page book on Syria features 45 poems and covers some dark subjects with titles such as Screams of the Children in Syria, Syrias Sadness and Syrias Bloody Nightmare. The poem Screams of the Children in Syria starts, Sad piano music playing  and describes the conditions children, many of them orphans, now live in.

Awad is now a senior and taking classes both at her charter high school and college-level courses at Central New Mexico Community College. Awad said she hopes to become a journalist someday and plans to release another book this year about bullying.

We need to have more awareness, she said. We need to feel for one another and have some humanity.
In 1879, the name of the city of Mandan was changed to Cushman to honor the man who managed President Rutherford B. Hayes farm.

However, the city of Cushman was changed back to Mandan six months later. The Hayes Farm, the official farm of the U.S. President, was not located in Hayes' home state of Ohio or near Washington, D.C., but rather, 5 miles north of Bismarck. The idea of the farm was conceived by Charles Cushman, a prominent Duluth travel agent, and William King Rogers, the private secretary for Hayes.

Charles Melville Cushman was born Dec. 1, 1829, in Philadelphia, Penn., to the Rev. Robert and Lucy (Sprague) Cushman. Robert was a Baptist preacher and an eighth lineal descendant of the Rev. Robert Cushman, who, in 1621, preached the first sermon to the Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony.

Upon graduation at the New Hampton Academy, an independent school founded by the Free Will Baptist Church in New Hampshire, Charles Cushman entered the mercantile business in Boston. His business interests took him to California, Portland, Ore., Omaha, Neb., and back to Boston. In the 1860s, he ran a store in Milwaukee and, on Feb. 22, 1865, married Emily Jane Evarts.

After the Sault Ste. Marie Canal was opened, Duluth, Minn., became the fastest growing city in the United States. Cushman relocated to Duluth and, along with Nathan K. McDole, founded the Vermont Central Line Steamer Co. The two men chartered travel on the Great Lakes, with Cushman as agent in Duluth and McDole as agent in Cleveland, Ohio. Their business did well, but in 1876, Cushman was presented with a new opportunity.

Cushman became friends with William King Rogers, a prominent attorney who founded the town of Hastings, Minn. In the 1850s, Rogers had owned a law partnership in Cincinnati, Ohio, with Rutherford B. Hayes. In 1876, Hayes was running for president and, if elected, he wanted Rogers to be his private secretary.

In the event that Hayes was elected, Cushman and Rogers conceived a plan of establishing an official presidential farm in a newly settled area in the country. Cushman took their plan to the directors of the Northern Pacific Railroad in Duluth, who agreed to sell the land to Cushman and Rogers, "as preferred stock," at a greatly reduced rate, once the site of the farm was selected.

On Nov. 7, 1876, the presidential election between Hayes and the Democratic candidate, Samuel Tilden, was held, but the results were inconclusive. When the electoral votes were counted, Tilden led 184 to 165, with 20 votes in dispute. The number of electoral votes needed to win was 185, and Hayes was declared the winner in what became known as the Compromise of 1877.

In return for allowing Hayes to be declared president, the "Republicans agreed to withdraw federal troops from the South," officially ending Reconstruction.

On March 4, 1877, Hayes was sworn into office, and Cushman was ready to put his plan of purchasing a presidential farm into action. He boarded a Northern Pacific train in Duluth and took it to the end of the line, which was Bismarck.

Cushman quickly became involved in business affairs in Bismarck. He established a mercantile store, Chas. M. Cushman & Co., directly across the road from Camp Hancock. By 1877, many people were caught up in gold rush fever in the Black Hills, and a number of prominent local businessmen believed that it would be profitable to run a 250-mile railroad from Bismarck to the Black Hills. This effort was led by James Raymond, president of the Bank of Bismarck, the first bank in what is now North Dakota. Cushman became an original stockholder in the Bismarck, Fort Lincoln and Black Hills Railroad, which was chartered in the late fall of 1877.

In October 1878, the Lincoln Townsite Co. received permission from the Morton County commissioners to create a new town named Lincoln on the west side of the Missouri River. In late November, Cushman purchased property in Lincoln and moved his family there. According to the Andreas Historical Atlas of 1884, the original owners of the town were Cushman, Alex McKenzie and Robert Macnider. On March 3, 1879, the postmaster changed the name of the town to Mandan. One week later, the postmaster renamed the town Cushman and on Sept. 26, the name Mandan was restored.

Meanwhile, Cushman became confident about the land that he wanted to purchase for the presidential farm. There was a plot of 840 acres, 5 miles north of Bismarck, which he purchased from the Northern Pacific for $3,800. During the spring of 1879, Cushman had much of the land on the farm planted with barley, flax, wheat, oats and potatoes. At harvest, he was pleased with the results. Over the next few years, newspapers published glowing reports about the Hayes farm.

On Aug. 16, 1885, Cushman sold the Hayes farm to a Columbus, Ohio, lawyer for $21,000 and returned to Duluth to sell real estate. He died on May 12, 1892.
During recent weeks, a crowd has gathered in a Bernalillo neighborhood every Sunday evening to watch a group of men and women, organized in rows called filas, rehearse a dance in the street.

The dancers are the key figures in La Danza de los Matachines, a tradition steeped in Nuevo Mexicano (Hispanic New Mexican) culture and history.

They are preparing for the Feast of San Lorenzo, set for Wednesday, Aug. 10.

This year marks the 323rd anniversary of the dance, an unbroken tradition since 1693.

Its always been important, said Gilbert Sanchez, describing the Matachines dance. Its been a staple of the community for hundreds of years.

Sanchez, a police officer, is one of two men who hold the rank of monarca (monarch), the highest position in the group. He has been dancing for more than 30 years.

According to the groups oral tradition, the early Spanish settlement in Bernalillo before 1680 had a good relationship with the people of Sandia Pueblo.

When news of the coming Pueblo Revolt reached Sandia, friendly Native Americans warned their Spanish neighbors to evacuate.

The people of Bernalillo thus escaped before the revolt struck on Aug. 10  the Feast Day of San Lorenzo.

The people of Bernalillo really had a lot to thank San Lorenzo for, said Joe Moreno, academic program manager at the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. candidate in education/language, literacy and sociocultural studies.

A lifelong resident of Bernalillo, 33-year-old Moreno has been dancing in the Matachines group for 16 years.

The groups historian, he explained that the Matachines tradition took root in Bernalillo in 1693 when Don Diego de Vargas resettled New Mexico.

De Vargas made a promise to God and to St. Lawrence that returning Spanish settlers would honor the saints feast day on Aug. 10.

Returning to their former town after being exiled with other Spanish survivors to the El Paso area, the Bernalillo refugees chose to honor their patron saint with the Matachines dance  a practice with deep historic ties to Spain and cultural assimilations from the Aztec empire.

Believing in a European, particularly Spanish, origin of the Matachines dance, Bernalillo thus reverts to its chivalrous and powerful linkage to Spain by performing this dance, Moreno wrote in a 2008 thesis.

The Matachines group performs nine intricate dances over the course of three days.

The dance in its entirety tells the story of Montezumas conversion to Christianity, using figurative characters, complex dance steps and unwritten music  all passed down through the generations via hands-on learning and sheer memorization.

The dancers, called danzantes, step and whirl to the sounds of Spanish guitar and violin. They are organized in filas.

Its all based on seniority within the group, Sanchez said.

Danzantes are adorned with headdresses called cupiles, emblazoned with the images of their unique patron saints. Their faces and eyes are completely masked with black fringe and a matching veil. The tradition was brought to Spain by Arabs in the wake of the Moorish invasion. The fringe, Moreno said, was a metaphor for rain-bringing in desert areas.

As monarcas, Sanchez and his fellow leader, Edward Torres, represent the Aztec ruler Montezuma. They are distinguished by the tall crowns of flowers they wear during the dance.

Its the leading position, said Sanchez of the monarca role. You teach the danzantes  you control the entire structure of the dance.

Another important character is the malinche  a little girl dressed in white who represents, according to Moreno, the Christian religion, purity and all that is good in humanity.

Another figure is the toro (bull), representing paganism and temptation, who wears a horned headdress and wields canes.

The abuelos (grandfathers), senior members in the group, protect the malinche and the other dancers from the bulls advances using whips.

The dance group is flanked by capitanes (captains), whose rank is signified by the position they occupy.

Together, all ranks perform the nine dances, including La Crusada (the sign of the cross), La Toreada del Toro (the fighting of the bull) and La Corrida, a triumphant procession with an image of San Lorenzo through the streets of Bernalillo.

Rules governing the Matachines were very strict in former times, Sanchez recalled. A person must be at least 13 to dance in the corrida procession. Although tradition holds that certain positions are reserved for men, women are now permitted to participate in the corrida and to dance in the fila ranks.

We want people from all communities, said Sanchez, adding that the group is not racially exclusive and is currently joined by Native Americans. Its a cultural and religious fiesta. There are no restrictions on who can or cant dance.

The Matachines also travel to different communities to raise money to repair and restore the Santuario de San Lorenzo, the old church that stands beside Our Lady of Sorrows in Bernalillo.

The main public celebration of the Fiesta of San Lorenzo will take place Aug. 10, with religious observances and smaller private celebrations occurring over a three-day period.
Once again, New Mexico is left saying Thank goodness for Louisiana.

Because only Louisiana still allowed cockfighting when New Mexico finally banned the despicable blood sport in 2007. (It banned it the next year). And only Louisiana, a state that had its school system pretty much wiped away by a hurricane in 2005, ranks lower than New Mexico in what its K-12 education delivers.

A new survey by the personal finance website WalletHub ranked the states and Washington, D.C., using 17 metrics, including dropout rate, math and reading scores, average ACT and SAT test scores, student-to-teacher ratio, number of incidents of bullying and disciplinary action, and youth incarceration rates.

And before the usual quarters renew their call to throw more taxpayer money at the problem, know that the study found that New Mexico ranks 27th in the nation for spending on its students but 50th for the quality of its school system. That compares to states like:

 Utah, 50th in spending but 18th in strength of its schools;

 Texas, 40th in spending but 21st in strength of its schools;

 Florida, 37th in spending but 14th in strength of its schools;

 Iowa, 28th in spending but 11th in strength of its schools;

 Maine, 41st in spending but eighth in strength of its school system; and

 Wisconsin, 20th in spending but fifth in strength of its schools.

New Mexico ranked 49th for students math test scores, 50th for reading test scores, 50th for its dropout rate, 41st for its average ACT scores and 49th for its high school graduation rate for low-income students. Guess whose students are not going to be competitive in the future economy?

Robert McEntyre, a spokesman for the state Public Education Department, says that, despite some important advances in education accountability, we have to reform a system that has failed our kids for decades.

When New Mexico voters go to the polls in November and check boxes in the down-ballot legislative races, they need to ask themselves if the candidate they are choosing truly has the best interests of the states students at heart  or if they are content with the status quo, care more about happy employees than student achievement, and want to spend another 10 years saying Thank goodness for Louisiana.

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.
Copyright  2016 Albuquerque Journal

Noreen Richards says she and her wife called the New Mexico Department of Taxation and Revenue after waiting more than three months for their $157 state income tax refund.

Richards says the couple was told that, if they wanted the money, they needed to prove their identities by providing the department with copies of income documents, Social Security cards and drivers licenses.

When the couple asked why the department hadnt contacted them to request their proofs of identity, they were told, Youll probably get a letter eventually, according to Richards.

The couple never received a letter, she says, but their refund arrived  without explanation  in July while they were gathering the documents. They dont know why the department changed its mind.

Its far from an isolated case.

In what has been described as an increased effort to combat tax fraud due to identity theft, Tax and Rev says it stopped  at least temporarily  nearly 74,000 personal income tax refunds this year. That amounted to more than one out of 10 claimed refunds by New Mexico tax filers.

Of the nearly 74,000, more than 22,000 received their refunds after Tax and Rev was able to determine the returns were legitimate without requesting proof of identity, according to statistics provided by the department.

Tax and Rev says it requested proof of identity from nearly 49,000 other filers and more than 36,000 of those eventually received their refunds. Its not clear how many of those who didnt respond were identity thieves or how many were legitimate taxpayers who didnt provide the requested information for other reasons.

Tax and Rev denied refunds to nearly 3,000 filers without notifying them, because of a high likelihood of fraud.

There have been plenty of complaints from tax filers like Richards and her wife, Bernadette Koh, whose identities were questioned. Among the most common complaints received by the Journal and tax professionals are:

 Not receiving notices from Tax and Rev that refunds had been denied or that proof of identity needed to be provided.

 Difficulty in reaching a person at Tax and Rev to discuss returns and what was needed to prove identity.

 Frustration in faxing identity information to Tax and Rev because the line was often busy.

One taxpayer whose identity was questioned was reportedly due a refund of $12.

Ripple effect

The fraud-prevention efforts also delayed refunds to the hundreds of thousands of other taxpayers whose identities werent questioned by Tax and Rev.

I think that we all agree that identity theft is a concern for all taxpayers. However, when (Tax and Rev) randomly targets thousands of New Mexico citizens in such an unorganized and poorly planned fashion, that is the real cause for concern, Shelley Barker, president of the New Mexico Society of Enrolled Agents, an association of tax professionals, wrote in a letter to Tax and Rev Secretary Demesia Padilla.

Padilla, an appointee of Gov. Susana Martinez, declined to be interviewed for this story.

Tax and Rev spokesman Ben Cloutier said in an email, Refund fraud and identity theft has grown exponentially in recent years, and we are constantly updating processes and improving security measures. As we continue to develop our review process, procedures will be improved or replaced in order to make the process more efficient, secure and taxpayer-friendly.

Lawmakers concerned

Rep. Debbie Armstrong, D-Albuquerque, has accused Tax and Rev of targeting the elderly and has asked the department for age statistics for tax filers who didnt get expected refunds because they failed to respond to a department request to provide proof of identity to get the money.

The number of people ages 65 or older who are victims of identity theft has skyrocketed in recent years, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

Rep. Jason Harper, chairman of the Revenue Stabilization and Tax Policy Committee, says he understands the need to combat tax fraud due to identity theft. That said, I think the way that the Tax and Rev Department rolled it out could have been done better, says Harper, R-Rio Rancho.

Whatever process the department used to identify potentially fraudulent returns was flawed, because some legitimate refunds were red-flagged, he says.

Sen. Carlos Cisneros, a Questa Democrat and vice chairman of the Revenue Stabilization and Tax Policy Committee, says Tax and Rev needs to streamline its fraud-prevention efforts and show more courtesy to taxpayers. There has to be a much easier way to prevent fraud, Cisneros says.

Tax and Rev had announced in March that income tax refunds would take six to eight weeks instead of the usual two because of the efforts to prevent tax fraud due to identity theft, but Cloutier declined to provide statistics on the average processing time for all refunds this year as compared with 2015.

The department says it permanently stopped more than 14,000 fraudulent refunds, totaling $9.5 million. Cloutier declined to explain how those numbers were calculated, but they apparently include refunds claimed by filers who were never notified they needed to provide proof of identity, and legitimate filers who couldnt provide Social Security cards or other documents requested by Tax or Rev or became frustrated in dealing with the department and gave up on their refunds.

As for Richards, she says the couple learned a valuable lesson: adjust their state income tax withholding so they wont be due a refund from Tax and Rev next year.

We will be sure to owe the state, she says.
The state of New Mexico operates three main lines of business: education, health care and public safety. They account for 80 percent of state expenditures. Spending on everything else is trivial compared with these functions.

Budget analysts have determined that worse-than-expected revenue collection, in particular collection from the states slumping oil and gas industry, could mean that the states spending in the 2016 and 2017 fiscal years could exceed revenue by $600 million. Our Constitution doesnt allow deficit spending, so lawmakers are expecting to be called into a special session to balance the budget, which usually means at least some consideration of across-the-board spending cuts.

Instead of taking a hatchet to the states Medicaid expenditure (close to $1 billion and growing fast), there could be a way to take a significant bite out of health care spending simply by getting all health care providers and payers from around the state to share information about their patients with one another, according to the New Mexico Health Information Collaborative. NMHIC estimates that health care spending in New Mexico could be cut about $35 million a year through information sharing. Because about half of all New Mexicans are Medicaid beneficiaries, one could infer that effective information use could cut Medicaid spending by $17 million or so.

But when it comes to health care, nothing is ever simple or straightforward. There are a number of barriers in the way of reaching those savings.

To get a sense of how information translates into medical cost savings, lets revisit a story I reported in 2013.

Bob White is an urgent care physician with ABQ Health Partners. One weekend, an elderly man showed up at urgent care with symptoms of a stroke or heart attack. Instead of doing an expensive and time-consuming work-up, White was able to look at the patients medical records in the NMHIC system and found that the Presbyterian Healthcare Services system had performed an extensive round of testing not long before. Several tests that White would have administered if he hadnt had access to those records were unnecessary. Before NMHIC, the best White could have done was attempt to reach the patients medical team at Presbyterian by phone.

Health systems and practices have for some time been installing information systems allowing them to store patient health records electronically. Several vendors developed electronic health records, or EHR, systems that could not communicate with one another. Major New Mexico health systems adopted different and incompatible systems. NMHIC established standards for information exchange and installed a software system that lets a record uploaded by a system using software from one vendor to be accessed by a system that uses another vendors product.

NMHIC says that 27 New Mexico hospitals with 2,426 beds upload their patients medical data to the collaboratives computers in Albuquerque. There are 2,100 medical providers sending patient information to NMHIC. Among them are Lovelace Health System, Presbyterian, the University of New Mexico, ABQ Health Partners, Holy Cross Hospital in Taos and Christus St. Vincent in Santa Fe. If every hospital and provider contributed data, NMHIC would have patient records from 47 hospitals with a total of 4,630 beds and from 4,050 providers. Among the benefits of getting every hospital and provider into the collaborative, according to NMHIC:

 Duplicated testing, imaging and consultations would be reduced, for a saving of $14.7 million.

 Improved care through information sharing would reduce readmissions to hospitals, lower the amount of time patients stay in hospitals and simplify hospital care. That could save $10.2 million.

 Medical record collection, management and distribution costs would be avoided to the tune of $7.8 million.

 Avoidable adverse drug reactions could save $2 million.

It sounds good, but to repeat, nothing is ever simple or straightforward when it comes to health care.

Equipping all of the remaining systems to work with NMHIC would require a $4 million investment. Federal money is available to pay 90 percent of that bill, but each practice and hospital has to get the money and the software.

Despite efforts to standardize information, different systems allow users to enter data that could be unrecognizable by another system. NMHIC officials joke that you could get 100 records uploaded to the collaborative, each with a different spelling of the word aspirin.

There are still some practices and hospitals that wont use NMHIC because they worry that confidential patient information would get into the wrong hands or that a competitor might be able to use patient information to gain some sort of advantage.

Some say that, after a decade of work, NMHIC got to market too late. The EHR vendors have recognized the Tower of Babel problem they created and are installing modules that allow exchange of information among systems. NMHIC argues that its approach of providing a centralized and safe archive of records available to all systems will make more information and more useful information available to anyone when and where it is needed.

UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Winthrop Quigley at 823-3896 or wquigley@abqjournal.com. Go to www.ABQjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor.
New Mexico National Guard Brig. Gen. Judy Griego said her retirement day was bittersweet, full of laughter and memories.

Griego, who is from Carnuel, was the first New Mexico woman promoted to brigadier general in the New Mexico National Guard, and hundreds gathered in a Kirtland Air Force Base hangar Saturday afternoon to celebrate her 36 years of service.

Many who spoke lauded her as a role model for women in both the Air and Army National Guard, and thanked her for carving a path for female commanders.

Serving in the Guard is the best of who we are, U.S. Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., said. And Judy Griego is the best of who we are.

She praised Griegos contributions to sexual assault prevention programs, family and employee support services, and the fight against drug trafficking.

Lujan Grisham, who played on a softball team with Griego for years, said the two bonded over a shared lack of softball skills. But she also said Griegos career as the first Hispanic woman to reach brigadier general is incredible and to be celebrated. She added that Griego is a model of the opportunity and equality that she wants to see across the country.

Griego spent 12 years in the enlisted ranks before receiving her commission in 1991 from the Academy of Military Science. She last served as the chief of the Joint Staff of the New Mexico National Guard.

Retired Maj. Gen. Annette Sobel  the only other female brigadier general  was holding that rank when she transferred into the New Mexico Air National Guard in 2003.

Perched in rows of gray folding chairs, many who attended the ceremony wore fatigues or dress uniforms. A group of Griegos family and friends sat in front rows close to the stage.

National Guard Brig. Gen. Juan Griego, who is not related to Judy, called Griego a trailblazer as he listed her many contributions to the organization.

Both on the enlisted and commissioned sides of the fence, Judy has demonstrated a work ethic second to none, he said. She understood what it takes to advance to the next level.

Griego finished out the ceremony by thanking her friends, colleagues and family for their support during her decades-long career.

Although this will be my last day in uniform, it wont be my last day in service, Griego said. I believe, as a veteran, you know, we still have that bone. We need to be serving our community, our family, our nation and our state. Service is whats in your heart and whats in your actions.
A few days ago, Dennis McQuillan, chief scientist with the New Mexico Environment Department, used his new $40,000 X-ray fluorescence spectrometer to take a reading of sediment in the Animas River near Cedar Hill, a small community on U.S. 550, just south of the Colorado border.

The results showed a lead concentration of 922 parts per million, more than twice the acceptable level (400 parts per million) as set by federal residential standards.

A year after the Aug. 5, 2015, Gold King Mine spill in Colorado, heavy metal contaminants released by the accident are embedded in the mud at the bottom of the Animas and San Juan rivers in New Mexico, a potential threat to fish, wildlife and all those who use the rivers for drinking water, irrigation and recreation.

A crew supervised by the Environmental Protection Agency inadvertently breached a containment wall at the Gold King Mine north of Silverton, Colo., releasing 3 million gallons of water laced with lead, arsenic, cadmium, aluminum, copper and calcium into Cement Creek, which flows into the Animas, which took the tainted water into New Mexicos San Juan County and into the San Juan River near Farmington.

Readings such as the one McQuillan took near Cedar Hill set off the kinds of alarms that keep state and local officials vigilant and worried and have brought many community residents together to join with those officials in tackling the consequences of the spill. Still, other residents are confident that the worst is over and life is back to normal.

Lead is the primary human health concern, head and shoulders above cadmium and arsenic, McQuillan said.

The high concentration of lead McQuillan detected last week was in the sediment, not the water, which means it is not dangerous unless spring runoffs or rainstorms, such as the ones rumbling through New Mexico this past week, get the Animas and San Juan all stirred up.

No one should be drinking untreated river water, McQuillan said. But right now, with the exception of storm events, the water should be OK for irrigation and watering livestock. Most of the sediment samples we tested the last few days were below 400 (parts per million).

McQuillan said that, so far, testing of water wells near the rivers has not detected harmful levels of contaminants. But he is concerned about a small section on the east side of the Animas from Aztec north to the Colorado line where it appears that river water is flowing into the groundwater tapped by the wells. That could lead to contamination in wells in that area.

There is a lot of concern for the people, said Butch Tongate, state Environment Department deputy secretary. They are going to have to be on guard for years. Not only for drinking water, but for crops, fish and livestock. But they are using the river as long as it is safe.

However, state Rep. Paul Bandy, R-Aztec, who ranches in Aztec, just southeast of the Animas River, is not disturbed.

The water is fine. Everything is OK, Bandy said during a phone interview on Friday. There are some heavy metals down in the sediment, but unless you drink muddy water and sleep in a hollow log, youre fine.

Bandy said that except for having to shut down his irrigation ditches for two weeks just after the mine spill a year ago, he has not been troubled by the accident.

Bob Kinslow, manager of the Diamond K Bar Ranch at Cedar Hill, feels the same way. The Diamond K Bar Ranch raises alfalfa, mostly for dairy cattle in other parts of the state.

Just after the spill last year, Kinslow lost more than two weeks of irrigating because he had to shut off his ditches.

We lost quite a bit of hay and had to do a little reseeding, he said Friday. Other than that, everything worked out good. We have had our own (water) testing done, and its all good.

Keith Lee is manager of the Lower Valley Water Users Cooperative Association, which delivers water to about 8,500 customers in the Kirtland area west of Farmington. Lee had to shut down the water system for some days following the spill but said there have been no problems since it went back on line.

Everybody has people on the system who are concerned, and they probably have a right to be, Lee said. But we have been keeping check on the EPA monitors and they seem to have it under control. The water quality is fine.

Mike Mestas, emergency manager for San Juan County, and Ed Smylie, emergency manager for the city of Farmington, said communicating with people has been the key to dealing with fears about water safety.

We are letting them know that the water we are sending them is safe, Smylie said.

The Farmington municipal water system installed sensors that will shut down its intake lines if excessive levels of contaminants are detected in river water. Smylie said that has happened more times than he can count during the last year.

Its down right now, he said during a phone interview on Friday. It could be down for a few hours up to two days, depending on whats going on upstream.

Thats no problem for Farmington because it has a large reservoir that can deliver water to the citys customers for long periods without having to draw water from the river.

Because of that, we were in a good position all along, Smylie said. We are able to cut off intakes and be able to serve customers, for months if necessary, and help our neighbors.

Ryan Flynn, state Environment Department secretary, said he is pleased with the way the San Juan County community has come together to deal with the aftermath of the spill.

I think there is a strong bond between the state, the local government and the community, he said. A Citizens Advisory Committee was formed and has been meeting monthly. The way that group has come together to work with state and local officials makes me proud. People coming together and stepping up.

During the past year, Flynn has overseen extensive water and soil monitoring efforts involving multiple state agencies and has played a key role in a suing the EPA and Colorado mine owners for $130 million in damages and in a separate lawsuit filed against the state of Colorado.

He is stepping down as environment secretary at the end of this week and handing off his responsibilities to Tongate, who will serve as acting secretary until Flynns replacement is appointed. Both believe that much is still to be done to clean up the Gold King Mine mess.

If anyone told you they knew how long this was going to take, they would be lying, Flynn said.
Copyright  2016 Albuquerque Journal

SUNLAND PARK  The U.S. Border Patrol is erecting an 18-foot-tall steel fence in the last stretch of unwalled, urban borderline in New Mexico.

The new fencing will create a more secure and imposing barrier in a location that is deeply symbolic to immigration activists and often problematic for U.S. border enforcers.

Residents on the Mexican side say the new fence will push migrants attempting to cross into the U.S. illegally into more desolate  and dangerous  desert territory. Border Patrol hopes the tougher fencing will deter illegal crossings, or at least buy agents more time to detect and pursue a migrant or smuggler crossing unlawfully.

Right now, a dilapidated chain-link fence is in place, easy to see through, about 10 feet high. It runs a mile or so from the bottom of a mesa to the base of Mount Cristo Rey, a bald mountain crowned with a white cross, that straddles the U.S.-Mexico border.

The new rust-colored steel columns  an $11 million project authorized by the Secure Fence Act of 2006  will replace the chain link and be reinforced 5 feet underground with steel panels to prevent tunneling. Construction is expected to finish early next year.

In our opinion, the fencing has not necessarily been a good deterrence for immigration, said Fernando Garcia, executive director of the nonprofit advocacy group Border Network for Human Rights. But it does represent a symbolic response, a very aggressive response, to immigrants and the border community.

Its a fence that is replacing another fence, said Border Patrol spokesman Ramiro Cordero, underscoring the damaged condition of the current fence, first erected in the 1980s. It doesnt hold anymore.

Day of the Dead Mass

This stretch of border has been the site for the past 17 years of a binational Mass celebrating Mexicos Day of the Dead, Nov. 2, to honor the thousands of migrants who have lost their lives on their journey north.

According to Border Patrol statistics, 6,571 migrants have died on the Southwest border since 1998, including 225 deaths in West Texas and New Mexico. Last week, Border Patrol agents found the body of a man, decomposed to bone, on Mount Cristo Rey; Sunland Park Police are investigating.

Activists hold rallies here and reunions where undocumented Mexicans in the U.S. can meet, however briefly, with family in Mexico. Sometimes, loved ones havent seen one another in years.

They hold hands and exchange kisses through the fence, under the watchful eye of border agents who keep their distance  unless there is a breach, as last year, when agents apprehended three people who cut across the border illegally during Communion.

It will be possible to see through the thick columns of the new fence, but not with the ease of the chain link.

I wondered when the day was going to be that they complete the fence, said Marco Raposo, director of the El Paso Diocese Peace and Justice Ministry. The day has arrived. For us, its important that we express our voice. We dont believe the fence solves anything for the reality of people migrating.

But Border Patrol says this location is a problem area for agents tasked with holding the line.

There are neighborhoods on both sides of the border divided by only the fence and elevated railroad tracks: trailer parks and modest homes in Sunland Park; homes built of reclaimed plywood, pallets, mattress springs and concrete block in Anapra on the Mexican side.

The short distance from Anapra to hiding places in the urban grid of Sunland Park makes this spot a special temptation for would-be border crossers and a special challenge for the agents who have very little time to give chase in the desert between the neighborhoods.

And the chain link is dangerously wrecked: patched and welded dozens of times, thanks to the holes cut by smugglers. Its toppling over in places, held aloft by steel cables where the ground has washed out. On the Mexican side, sand and trash have built up so high that the fence rises only to a mans midsection.

Apprehensions up

They breach it every day, Border Patrol Agent Giovanni Cisneros said.

As he gave the Journal a tour of the area, a Border Patrol helicopter whirred overhead, tracking three border crossers. Within minutes, Cisneros confirmed that agents had caught them.

Border Patrol apprehended 11,216 undocumented immigrants in New Mexico in fiscal 2015, up from 8,677 the prior year.

The agency does not break apprehensions down to the city level, but Cisneros said, Were the busiest in the sector right now with the apprehension of migrants, referring to the border from Sunland Park to Santa Teresa. Its still busy but not as busy as before.

The tougher pedestrian fence is going up at a time when Mexican illegal immigration is at its lowest level in 15 years, indicated by trends of border arrests. In fiscal 2015, Border Patrol apprehended 186,017 Mexican nationals who crossed the border unlawfully  a fraction of the 1.6 million Mexicans apprehended in fiscal 2000.

Although the flow of illegal drugs continues, this particular corridor is most often breached by economic migrants, according to Cisneros. And, increasingly, it is Central American migrants who cross the border and turn themselves in, knowing they will most likely receive a notice to appear in court and not immediately be deported, he said  one of the reasons that the backlog in U.S. immigration courts is at record highs.

The Secure Fence Act of 2006 directed the Department of Homeland Security to achieve operational control on the border, defined as the prevention of all unlawful entries into the United States. To that end, it authorized the construction of fencing and security improvements, including other barriers, cameras and sensors on the border from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.

Since then, about 72 miles of fencing and vehicle barriers have gone up in the Border Patrols El Paso sector, which includes New Mexico. That includes about six miles of 18-foot steel columns at Columbus and Palomas and nine miles of tall fencing between Santa Teresa and Sunland Park. But much of the sparsely populated New Mexico desert remains unwalled.

Beautiful feeling

Beatriz attended last years border Mass in Sunland Park. Ten years ago, she fled the drug violence in northern Mexico with her husband and three daughters and settled in West Texas.

Beatriz had not returned home, and she saw her father-in-law through the chain link at the Mass. He had recently lost a leg to diabetes. Her own parents died two years ago, she said, choking up on the phone.

It was such a beautiful feeling, she said, about seeing her family at the borderline. There was only a thin fence separating us. We thought wed never see my father-in-law again, because of his illness. I only wish it could have happened when my parents were still alive.

Residents in Anapra are watching the construction with a wary eye.

Its not humane, said Julia Hernandez as she hosed down the dirt backyard of her aunts Anapra home. Many people who try to cross are going to have to struggle more. Theyre going to have to risk their lives. The needs on one side force them to look for a living on the other side.
A New Mexico State Police officer shot and injured a suspected carjacker near San Jose southeast of Santa Fe early Sunday morning, according a department spokesman.

Sgt. Chad Pierce said the suspect, 52-year-old William Wilson, was at the San Felipe Casino in Sandoval County Saturday night and threatened a man with a bladed weapon. Wilson took the victims keys and drove off in his car.

A State Police officer found Wilson around 1 a.m. on I-25 near San Jose, which is about 40 miles southeast of Santa Fe.

As the officer attempted to stop Mr. Wilson, he fled and a pursuit ensued, Pierce said. After the pursuit ended, shots were fired by the officer. Mr. Wilson sustained a non-life threatening gunshot wound and was then taken into custody.

His passenger, 23-year-old Tyler Vargas, was not hit by the gunfire and is not facing any charges.

State Police charged Wilson with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, possession of methamphetamine, receiving or transferring a stolen vehicle, fraudulent use of a credit card and resisting, evading or obstructing an officer. Hes also facing a slew of charges from the Sandoval County Sheriffs Office for the alleged carjacking.

Pierce did not say whether Wilson was armed or what exactly preceded the shooting.

The sequence of events leading up to the officer discharging his duty weapon is currently being investigated, he said. No other information is available at this time.
The Rev. Eugene R. Bova, 84, passed away July 26, 2016, in Aurora, Colo. Mass of Christian burial will be held at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 10, at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, Bismarck, with the Rev. David D. Kagan, Bishop of Bismarck, officiating. The priests of the Diocese of Bismarck will concelebrate. Burial will follow at St. Marys Cemetery, Bismarck.

Visitation will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesday with a vigil service at 7 p.m. at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit. Visitation will also be held one hour prior to Mass.

The Rev. Eugene Bova was born March 19, 1932, in Flushing, N.Y., the son of Joseph and Irma (Craig) Bova. He attended St. Johns University in Brooklyn, N.Y. from 194951 and graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy from Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary, Winona, Minn., in 1953. He was accepted as a seminarian for the Diocese of Bismarck in 1954 and continued his studies at St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, Minn. He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Bismarck at St. James Pro-Cathedral, Brooklyn, on June 1, 1957, by the Most Rev. John Boardman.

His first assignment in the Diocese of Bismarck was assistant pastor of the Church of Saint Mary in New England until June 23, 1960. For the next year, he served as assistant pastor at the Church of Christ the King in Mandan. In June of 1961, he became a part-time assistant at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Bismarck and served there until September 1962. He also began serving as part-time chaplain at the State Training School, now known as the North Dakota Youth Correctional Center. From 1962 to 1972 he served as administrator of the Church of Saint Martin in Huff. He then became pastor of the Church of Saint Vincent in Mott, and served there until 1983. He returned to the Church of Saint Mary in New England as pastor and served there for the next four years.

His last assignment began on July 1, 1987, as pastor of the Church of Saint Agnes in Kenmare and St. Anthony in Donnybrook. On July 1, 1989, he retired and relocated to Bailey, Colo. Along with parish duties, he was also involved in various diocesan boards and councils including Personnel Board, P.M.A. Board, Priests Council, Diocesan Tribunal and Metropolitan Tribunal. He was also a member of the 4th Degree Knights of Columbus.

Outside of his service to the church, he was an avid Amateur Radio (Ham Radio) Operator. He obtained his FCC license in 1947, (original call sign W2WPD, later changed to W0WPD) and was known globally as Padre. Since that time he spent almost 70 years actively participating in the hobby. He was a member of many radio clubs and organizations such as the American Radio Relay League, the Quarter Century Wireless Association, Mountain Amateur Radio Club, and a founding member of the Park County Radio Club. He was also fascinated by weather, its changing patterns and the need for tracking and reporting it to the National Weather Service. He belonged to a group called the weather netters and would check and report daily weather conditions via Ham Radio.

Additionally, Ham Radio was a vehicle for community service for him. He was dedicated to donating his time to use Ham Radio to help those affected by natural disasters get communications out to friends and family when traditional means were unavailable. At the same time he was a civilian member of a team of Ham Radio operators who were licensed to help facilitate communications with fire and rescue teams when those teams were out in Colorados mountainous terrain and needed help.

During his career as a Ham Radio enthusiast, he gave back to the hobby to help it continue to grow. He established a Volunteer Examiner team and coordinated with the FCC to hold regular testing sessions. These sessions offered the ability for existing Ham Radio operators to upgrade their current license and earn additional operating privileges from the FCC and offered non-Hams a chance to earn a new FCC operating license.

The Rev. Eugene Bova is survived by his brother, Joseph F. Bova, Blue Bell, Pa., as well as numerous nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his father and mother, Joseph and Irma.

Memorials may be given to the Diocese of Bismarck  Priest Benefit Association.

Go to www.eastgatefuneral.com to share memories of Father Eugene Bova and sign the online guest book. (Eastgate Funeral Service, Bismarck)
My God, Afternoon Voice tabloid looks as though it is dressed to kill. Kudos to the tabloid for celebrating 7th anniversary. I would like to say AV is not just a newspaper; it is part of our family. The get-up is good, and the print more easily readable. The tabloid is more reader friendly, soothing to the eyes and interesting. The news is eye catching and user friendly, suitable for all ages and all classes of people. It gives excellent observations about the changing nature of the profession of journalism today. It also emphasizes with a lot of clarity the responsibility of the journalist to the society. Mahatma Gandhi who was also a journalist cautioned that an uncontrolled pen serves but to destroy. Jawaharlal Nehru advised: If there is no responsibility and no obligation attached to it, freedom gradually fades away. I think this is true as it applies as much to the Press as to any other group, organization or individual. Sincerity of purpose, commitment in quest for truth, concern on the predicaments of rural masses, youth, women and national interest ought to be the principal attributes of a good journalist. Today, the presentation is an important ingredient. AV is really contemporary, elegant and its stylish look is an eye-catcher. The modular layout, the soothing colours and the changes in the editorial and op-ed pages are good.

The overall get-up and the page design are indeed elegant, stylish and contemporary. It is aesthetically very appealing. The chronicle font is soothing to the eye the whole paper blends tradition with modernity. During the journey of seven years Afternoon Voice has been transformed from a Banarasi Silk sari-clad lady into a young woman wearing modern dress. The colour palette is very trendy. The use of white space and the masthead in blue is pleasing to the eye. I have specific interest in Letters and Voices, editorial page, Career and Sci-Tech pages. My morning without Afternoon Voice is unimaginable for me. Your editorial starting with a strip on front page is really eye- catchy. AV has never played to the gallery. It is really heartening to see one newspaper in the mainstream media standing tall when all others have degenerated into yellow journalism. Long live Afternoon Voice and you are really praiseworthy for upholding the journalistic independence and excellence

I hope the tabloid will continue its style of journalism, and uphold social responsibility.

Vinod C. Dixit

(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
The leader of Germanys liberal Free Democrats (FDP) likened Turkish President Tayyip Erdogans purge of state institutions to the actions of the Nazi party in the 1930s in comments published on Sunday.



FDP leader Christian Lindner said he saw parallels between Erdogans behaviour and aftermath of the Reichstag fire in 1933 portrayed by the Nazis as a Communist plot against the government and used by Adolf Hitler to justify massively curtailing civil liberties.

We are experiencing a coup detat from above like in 1933 after the Reichstag fire. He is building an authoritarian regime tailored solely to himself, Lindner told the Bild am Sonntag.

Because the rights and freedoms of the individual no longer play a role, he cannot be a partner for Europe, he added.

His comments echo those of Austrias far-right Heinz-Christian Strache who said on Saturday that Erdogans use of the failed putsch in July to crack down on his opponents was reminiscent of Hitlers use of the Reichstag blaze to amass greater power.

Erdogan has angrily rejected suggestions that he or his government might have been behind the failed coup, which he has blamed on the followers of a US-based Muslim cleric. Erdogan narrowly avoided capture and possible death on the night of the attempted coup.

The FDP are not currently represented in Germanys Bundestag but have previously governed as a junior coalition partner to Chancellor Angela Merkels conservatives (CDU) and are a potential ally for them after federal elections in autumn 2017.

However, Lindner criticised Merkels response so far to the crackdown on Erdogans opponents in the army, civil service, academia and media.

It disgusts me that the EU accession talks (for Turkey) have not been ended long ago. But Mrs Merkel is only cautiously urging proportionality, he said.

Germanys foreign minister on Friday resisted a push by Austria to halt the talks with Turkey on joining the European Union, saying the bloc needed to think more broadly about how to frame its relationship with Ankara in troubled times.
A two-storey building collapsed in the powerloom town of Bhiwandi on Sunday with rescue workers pulling out four persons from the debris while some persons are feared trapped, officials said. This is second incident of building collapse in the town in one week.



Officials said around ten people are still feared trapped in the building which was declared extremely dangerous by municipal authorities.

Rescuers pulled out eight injured people from the debris of the collapsed building. Two of the seriously injured among the tthem  the buildings owner Sajjanlal Mahadev Gupta, 60, and his wife Satyawati Sajjan Gupta, 55, died at a hospital, Deputy Collector Vandana Suryavanshi said.

The building had been declared dangerous for the occupants by the Bhiwandi-Nizampur Muncipal Corporation, which had snapped the water supply and power connections to the ill-fated building.

This is the second building crash in Bhiwandi in less than a week. Sena MLA Rupesh Mhatre said such building collapse will continue to occur in the township as most of the structures here have outlived their age.

At least four people have so far been rescued from spot of building collapse while many others are still feared to be trapped under debris.

Regional disaster management cell (RDMC) chief of the Thane Municipal Corporation, Santosh Kadam said that the building located at Hanuman Tekadi locality on the Kalyan road collapsed at around 8 AM and seven-eight persons are feared trapped.

Kadam said disaster control teams from Thane and Kalyan were rushed to the spot immediately upon receiving an alert, while local firemen were also pressed into action.

Rescue and relief operations were underway, he said, adding that details of exact number of families residing in the building are yet to be ascertained.

According to Bhiwandi tehsildar, Vaishali Lambate fire brigade personnel have rescued four persons from the debris.

Sunil Zalke, public relation officer of Bhiwandi Nizampur Municipal Corporation said the buildings occupants had been served evacuation notices, following which two families moved out.

The building was in extremely dangerous condition. We had served evacuation notice to the building and also cut off its water connection. Three families including the owner still continued to reside in the building.
Afternoon Voice completes successful 7 years





Afternoon Voice was launched with an objective to promote parallel journalism. As the saying goes a journey of thousand miles begins with a single step our tabloid has come a long way and completes seven years. Our journey was not smooth in the initial years and we had to face several challenges daily but we never lost hope and continued with the hard work to reach where we are today. Media was always been owned by rich or capitalists as pseudo journalism had flourished from early times. During the initial stages, it was becoming a huge challenge for us to survive in the market. However, every employee including the management worked hard to oversee the day to day functioning of the newspaper right from covering news, editing, designing, printing and circulation to script a new success story. We wish to keep up the good work and provide good content to our readers. On the occasion of the seventh anniversary AV spoke to readers and renowned personalities who shared their views about the tabloid.

Social media expert Zankrut Oza said, Media is considered as the fourth pillar of the constitution. This important role also comes with huge responsibility. With the current trend of creating selective opinions more than airing news and selecting geographies based on peoples meter and ratings, there is emerging a huge trust deficit among people for media. Airing a reality show and daily soaps on national news is hammering to the genuine viewers. It is expected, that media covers relevant information and reports news backed with data, facts and figures.

BJP Worker and RSS Karyakarta, Devendra Sharma said, These days we lack media personalities like Lokmanya Tilak, Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, Girilal Jain, Arun Shourie, Prabhash Joshi. Journalists should imbibe the qualities of these leaders.

Pramod Pandit, Hindu Mahasabhas national spokesperson said, Media is a weapon for the common man. But reporters are supporting political parties which is unjustified. Wholesellers hoard Tur Dal which has led to rising prices of the commodity. Media should report about facts and should not be biased.

Manoj Jain said, Media is ideally a pillar of democracy, that should be unbiased i.e. non-judgemental and should be concerned with reporting facts (while duly acknowledging the security of the Nation/world). When media sides with political groups, especially the ones in power, it only weakens democracy.

I wish to tender my congratulation to the young team of Afternoon Voice for celebrating their 7th Anniversary. Media is known as the 4th pillar of the Democracy and people rely on media reports to know the truth. However, nowadays few newspapers are operating as a mouth piece of political parties. This is a dangerous trend which compromises with the ethics of journalism. Media houses should be neutral, unbiased and apolitical. In my opinion, some media houses turn bias because of commercial reasons, says Ravi Srivastava, spokesperson, AAPs Maharashtra unit.

If media believe themselves as the fourth pillar of the Democracy then they should act in that manner. Media should not be biased; they should be as expected unprejudiced and impartial. Media should always be in search for truth and not for Mirch Masala, says Dhruv Pandit, Congress worker.

Sanjay Jain said, My name is Sanjay and I expect media to be exactly like Sanjay. Confusing ? Not so. Sanjay the commentator from Mahabharata era. As a common man I expect the media to do unbiased reporting. I just dont want some anchors or editors views being served to me as news. Why we need to create news, indulge in heated arguments just for the sake of garnering TRPs? Media doesnt cover about the issues which is affecting the common man. Waterlogging was witnessed in Delhi due to heavy rains. Media starts airing prime time shows to highlight these issues but after couple of days nobody even bothers about what action has been taken by the government and civic bodies to address the issue.

Rupal Mistry said, Media is expected to be an independent intelligent body and not puppets run by the government. Along with the primary expectation to present the truth, media also needs to play the role of a thinker by bringing varied viewpoints to initiate thought and dialogue for people on socio-political matters. Alternate thinking and opinions are fundamental to reach correct national decisions. Also, the biggest challenge for media today is to exercise independence and freedom of speech. They are the voice of the people and need to stand fearlessly against any external or government oppression. Journalism should be the essence of media.

Indur Chugani, a social activist said, Media should fearlessly expose the misdeeds of all the powerful people, especially judiciary. How many reporters can investigate about delinquent judges? If they have not been able to charge me with contempt of court, why the media persons should be afraid of? Afternoon Voice has published a report pertaining to judicial system.

Yusuf Khan said, Media in present times is not only the fourth pillar but has become the foundation and should display a strong sense of responsibility. This I presume is depicted by most of the reporters but is not printed or highlighted by the media heads as per my experience. If media stops becoming biased societys opinion about it will change. Media can play magical role in this astonishing change and behaviour.
In a letter to editors, Judy Stahl, of Valley City, urged the Legislature to reverse its call for a national constitutional convention. She worried that liberals would get control and make war on conservative policies and programs.

Within a week, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton proved Stahls point by advocating a convention to overturn the Supreme Court decision that permitted unlimited anonymous contributions to political campaigns.

The last session of the Legislature entertained half a dozen proposals to curb the national government. Among them was one calling for a constitutional convention to propose a balanced budget amendment.

Conservatives and liberals are split over calling the first constitutional convention since 1787. In fact, both groups are so fractured that they cant agree among themselves.

Too many people recollect what happened in 1787. The resolution passed by Congress called a convention to be held for the purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation.

When the delegates arrived in Philadelphia, they disregarded Congress, junked the Articles and created a three-branch government vested with the supreme law of the land. It was a runaway convention and has dampened enthusiasm for conventions ever since.

If all of the state calls for another convention were valid today, the drive for 34 states would be just two states short. But three of the 32 on record  Alabama, Florida and Louisiana  have had second thoughts and have rescinded their approval.

In any case, there is no need for alarm. Even if the balanced budget movement gets the required number of states, nothing is going to happen. Repeat: Nothing is going to happen.

While the Constitution requires a convention when called by 34 states, the movement will be bogged down in Congress. With a significant number of liberals and conservatives against a convention, the polarized Congress will not be able to answer many questions involved in calling a convention.

Here are just a few:

How many delegates would be large enough to be representative and small enough to be functional?

How would delegates be apportioned? By state? Or somehow based on one-person, one-vote?

Who would choose the delegates  legislatures or popular elections? Should Congress decide the method of selection or should that be left to each state legislature?

Should the scope of the convention be set by Congress or left to the convention? Most of the states calling for the convention think the subject could be limited to a balanced budget amendment. Thats what Congress thought when it called the last one.

If Congress tried to limit the convention, who would enforce this limitation if a convention exceeded this authority? The Congress? The Supreme Court?

How should the voting be conducted in the convention? In the original gathering, votes were cast one vote per state. Would that be palatable in todays populist environment?

What method should be prescribed for submitting the amendments to the people? Should ratification be by the state legislatures, by special conventions or by a national referendum? The present Constitution was ratified by specially elected state conventions.

Any one of these questions would end up in months of wrangling. But lets be generous and assume that a convention was held and came up with something to be ratified.

Ratification by 38 states requires a massive nationwide consensus. Conservatives, Republicans, Independents, Democrats and interest groups would all have to agree on the amendments proposed. The history of amendments adopted since 1787 proves the point.

So those who worry about a constitutional convention should worry more about the Legislature wasting its time on such fruitless ventures.
At Ancient Syria Site, IS Discovers Then Destroys Treasures

TAL AJAJA, Syria (AFP) -- When the Islamic State group captured Tal Ajaja, one of Syria's most important Assyrian-era sites, they discovered previously unknown millennia-old statues and cuneiform tablets, and then they destroyed them. The extremist group, which has ravaged archeological sites under its control in Syria and Iraq, was chased from Tal Ajaja in northeastern Hasakeh province in February by Kurdish fighters. But the destruction IS wrought there over two years remains. Perched on a large hill around 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the Iraqi border, the site is now a vision of desolation, riven with long tunnels. Fragments of broken artifacts are strewn throughout and large holes dug by looters pockmark the ground. The Assyrian empire, with its capital in Nineveh in modern-day Iraq, flourished in the first millennium BC. It produced celebrated artifacts, particularly bas-reliefs often depicting scenes of war. "Tal Ajaja, or ancient Shadikanni, was one of the main cities of Assyria," said Cheikhmous Ali of the Association for the Protection of Syrian Archeology. Most of the known treasures of Tal Ajaja, discovered in the 19th century, had long been removed and placed in museums in Syria or abroad. But the jihadists, as well as local looters, dug up artifacts that archeologists had not yet uncovered, destroying or trafficking priceless pieces. "They found items that were still buried, statues, columns. We've lost many things," lamented Maamoun Abdulkarim, head of Syria's antiquities department. 'Barbarians' "More than 40 percent of Tal Ajaja was destroyed or ravaged by IS," added Khaled Ahmo, director of the antiquities department in Hasakeh. "The tunnels that were dug destroyed invaluable archeological strata" that would have revealed the economic, social and political history of the era, he told AFP. In IS's extreme interpretation of Islam, statues, idols and shrines amount to recognising objects of worship other than God and must be destroyed. But the group is also believed to have benefited from the trafficking of antiquities seized from sites under its control. In 2014, photos emerged of sledgehammer-wielding jihadists destroying Assyrian statues from Tal Ajaja dating back to 2,000-1,000 BC. "These barbarians have burnt pages of Mesopotamia's history," said Abdulkarim. "In two or three months, they wiped out what would have required 50 years of archeological excavations," he added. In 2014, the antiquities department on its website published a series of photos of items from Tal Ajaja that had been destroyed, including cuneiform tablets and bas-relief depictions of the lamassu -- the famous winged Assyrian deity. The lamassu is a creature from Mesopotamian mythology, often depicted with a human head, the body of a lion or bull, and the wings of an eagle. Though traditionally considered protectors and placed outside temples to guard them, the lamassu of Tal Ajaja were unable to escape IS's ravages. 'Cultural cleansing' "IS turned the hilltop into a military zone," said local resident Khaled, who spoke on condition a pseudonym be used because he still fears IS might return. "No one was allowed to enter the site without authorisation," he added. "Hordes of armed men came in, along with traffickers of archeological objects," added another resident, Abu Ibrahim. Tal Ajaja was also known by the name Tal Araban in the Islamic era. But "even the upper strata dating back to that era were razed," said Ahmo. Abdulkarim said numerous artifacts from the site were smuggled to neighbouring Turkey and on to Europe, adding that he had alerted Interpol in a bid to retrieve some of the items. Since its rise in 2014, IS has ravaged numerous archaeological sites in Iraq, including the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud, provoking outrage. The UN cultural organisation has described the jihadists' actions as "cultural cleansing". In Syria, more than 900 monuments and archeological sites have been affected, damaged or destroyed by the regime, rebels or jihadists since the conflict began in March 2011, according to the Association for the Protection of Syrian Archeology. Among the worst incidents was the destruction by IS of temples in the famed ancient city of Palmyra, which provoked international outrage. Between 2014 and 2015, Syria's antiquities department moved some 300,000 objects and thousands of manuscripts from across Syria into storage in Damascus. But Abdulkarim has watched in horror as sites are laid waste by war and looters. "Our heritage is hemorrhaging."
Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat shares some security advice.

The past few weeks have shocked the global community. Millions have witnessed Europe, the U.S. and the Middle East rocked by a growing wave of extremist terror.

Unfortunately, we have seen this before and we have seen this coming. For years, Jerusalem has experienced the recent horrors unleashed on Orlando, Nice, Wuerzburg, Ansbach, Paris and Istanbul. Jerusalem has mastered strategies to deal with this threat.

Justifying one kind of terror is justifying it all.

We must condemn any and all justification for terror. Justifying one kind of terror is justifying it all. Make no mistake about itterror is terror is terror. There is no excuse for these horrendous attacks.

We must fight terror with all the tools in our arsenalrelying on professional teamsbut also on the strength, resilience and vigilance of our cities residents. Id like to share a few points of collective wisdom with you.

Don't Let Terrorism Disrupt Our Lives

In Jerusalem, we focus on being vigilant, while encouraging our residents to maintain their routine. The public can take an active part in combating terror by being alert at all times and refusing to alter their daily lives. This is a positive step, not a negative one. It creates a sense of mutual accountability, puts hundreds of thousands of eyes on the lookout, and builds confidence, which empowers our residents.

Terrorists seek to turn our cities into a battlefield. Deploying the military sends that exact message. It is a mistake to deploy soldiers and the military on our streets. In Jerusalem, Ive insisted that only police and well-trained civilian security guards protect our city. In spite of the fact that the Israeli defense force is an exceptional, strong and moral fighting force, their job is not to police our city.

In Jerusalem, we work to ensure that these decidedly civilian forces are strategically deployed. Israel has invested in the worlds best signal intelligence and human intelligence. Rather than blanketing the city with security forces, we use this intelligence to set priorities and implement a smart deployment of our units. Instead of protecting the city after an attack, we put the bad guys who wish to harm us on the defensive. When terrorists are busy trying to evade our security services, they are unable to dedicate time to planning attacks.

But victory over terror goes beyond merely stopping attacks. In order to truly defeat terrorism, we must deny perpetrators the satisfaction of having the sites of their attacks serve as shrines of loss and devastation. We do not establish makeshift memorials or allow our city to be marred by these attacks. We resume normal life.

Carrots and Sticks

We have learned that deterring terrorism is a long game. As mayor, my job is to complement the sticks of continuous security operations, with carrots that strengthen the forces of moderation. We make a clear distinction between the majority who foster coexistence between Jews and Arabs in our city, and a small minority who seek to destroy it.

There is significant Arab leadership working with us in the struggle against the hate that seeks to tear us apart. We work to empower these local leaders to take responsibility for their communities. In areas where local leadership accepts such a role, reduced police presence lowers friction and improves residents quality of life.

In 2015, after parents, educators, and religious leaders complained that social media imported hate and incitement into their communities, we launched innovative programs that reinforce parental and community authority. We extended school days and created comprehensive after-school programs, ensuring our most vulnerable communities are provided an alternative to the digital incitement of Hamas and the Islamic State militant group (ISIS).

The Israeli Advantage

Not all solutions are exportable. I encourage each country to utilize its unique advantages. For example, Israel has a rare asseta large number of veterans. Only 2 percent of Israeli civilians have gun licenses, all of whom are well-trained and experienced in combat.

By calling on these trained Israelis to carry their arms at times of crisis, weve managed to cut down response times to an ongoing attack. Jerusalemites, instead of running from an attack, run towards the scene, reducing the harm a terrorist can cause. In February 2015, my security guards and I did just that.

These strategies have helped us stop most attacks within 60 seconds.

These operational, educational, and security strategies must be complemented by a legal framework. Terrorism is not just another crime. Its ideological basis makes it fundamentally different and requires a strong legislative answer. We must teach terroristsand those who support them materially or through incitementthat they will pay a heavy price.

Terrorism is a global problem we must address together. The free world must work as one, using our best experiences and cooperation to confront this common enemy. I hope the lessons learned in Jerusalem can serve to make a better, safer, and more resilient world.

This article originally appeared on Newsweek.com
A miraculous true story demonstrates the power of prayer and reminds us never to give up hope.

The results of the CT scans and MRIs were conclusive and irrefutable: Raquel, a 31-year-old wife and mother of two lying in a coma had irreversible brain damage due to prolonged oxygen deprivation. According to scientific studies, in a case like this it would be next to impossible for a person to awake from their coma.

Weeks earlier, Raquel and her husband were vacationing in Florida when she woke up in the middle of the night saying that she didnt feel well. She collapsed and was rushed to the hospital. But it was too late; Raquels body completely shut down. Every organ in her body was failing and she was put on life support.

You need to get here as fast as possible. The situation is dire.

Raquels husband called her parents in New York, telling them to come right away. Just before takeoff the doctor called them. You need to get here as fast as possible. The situation is dire.

Hours later, the entire family and close friends came together on a conference call to recite Psalms while doctors desperately worked to save Raquels life. During the intense prayer session Raquel coded, but doctors managed to get her heartbeat back, and her situation slowly stabilized.

During the first few weeks in the hospital, her organs began to regain their function and she was able to breathe on her own, but Raquel remained in a deep coma.

During this entire time Jews around the world sprang into action, storming the Heavens with their prayers and taking on additional mitzvot and acts of kindness for the merit of Raquel, Chaya Raizel bas Dina. The family was particularly supported by the Ohel Sara Amen group, a group of women in the Five Towns who come together every day to pray and learn Torah with an emphasis on truly integrating ones belief in God in their day-to-day life.

In the end it is all good. If its not good, its not the end yet!"

Although there was much sadness and despair, Raquels mother focused on her deep faith and trust in the Almighty. She wrote to a small group of women, In the end it is all good. If its not good, its not the end yet! Please keep davening and learning for my daughter, and remember that God loves our children even more than we do. Gods mercy is even greater than ours. We dont have to understand everything. We just have to give it over to God and let Him carry us through. May we hear good news soon.

By the fourth week the family was able to transfer Raquel back to New York. The family, holding onto any threads of hope, received the results of the CT scan and MRI that was confirmed by a seasoned expert that Raquel had suffered massive, irreversible brain damage. The vibrant girl they all loved was no more.

The news plunged the family into grief. They gathered around their beloved daughter, wife and sister, and cried together. It is basically unheard of for someone in this condition to recover.

Raquels mother was steadfast in her abiding faith, grateful that her daughter was at least breathing on her own, and mindful of the incredible power of prayer to heal. Seven weeks after Raquels collapse, as she laid in a coma, the mother wrote, I have spent much time contemplating this new reality. I do not know Gods will for us at this time but I trust that whatever it is it will be for our ultimate good and that it comes from a place of pure love. No, it does not feel like love and it does not feel good, but I overcome both of these feelings knowing that I do not have to understand Gods ways to totally trust that God wants what is good for me and my family. Trust in God is also acquired by learning gratitude. Focusing on the myriad blessings in my life and seeing each blessing as a personal expression of Gods love for me has helped me to trust Him. He has shown me so much kindness in so many ways that I have to trust that this challenge will prove ultimately to be an act of great kindness for us as well.

Focusing on the myriad blessings in my life and seeing each blessing as a personal expression of Gods love for me has helped me to trust Him.

Raquels husband and mother sat at her side day in and day out. The women of the Ohel Sara Amen group arranged for Rabbi Paysach Krohn to take them to the gravesites of great rabbis who are laid to rest in the New York area, where they would pour their hearts out in prayer, beseeching God to grant Chaya Raizel bas Dina a complete healing. Raquels mother joined the group of 48 women as they went to the grave of Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky, Rabbi Avraham Pam and Rabbi Henoch Leibowitz as well as other Torah luminaries.

After finishing their prayers at one of the gravesites, Raquels mothers phone rang and she saw it was her husband calling. She quickly picked up the phone.

I want you to talk to someone," her husband said.

Hello Ma.

She froze in her tracks. Is this Raquel?

"Yes."

"Raquel, how are you!"

"Good, boruch Hashem."

Raquels mother started shrieking. "Raquel is up! Raquel is up! She is talking!!"

Her husband got back on the phone and she asked him, "Is this for real?"

"Thirty doctors and nurses are in the room right now to witness this miracle. They can't believe it. This is for real."

"Put her back on," she said as she put the phone on speaker. "Raquel say hello to all the ladies who are davening for you."

"Hi"

The women, in total astonishment, immediately recited mizmor l'todah and the Nishmas prayer thanking God for His unfathomable kindness. Everyone was stunned by the incredible display of the potency of prayer they had just witnessed.

We are on the heels of Tisha BAv, the ninth of Av that commemorates the destruction of the Temple and the horrific exile and persecutions the Jewish people have experienced throughout history. Today we are living in times of darkness and confusion, witnessing the alarming rise of anti-Semitism around the globe, the onslaught of assimilation, and brutal terrorism by enemies who want to wipe out the Jewish people. It is easy to despair.

But our Sages teach, Yeshuat Hashem kheref ayin  Gods salvation and deliverance is like a blink of an eye (Pesikta Zutreta, Esther 4:17). Despite the bleakness of the situation and the darkness that feels completely irreversible, it can all change instantly. The Almighty can do anything; it is up to us to fervently ask and to remember that He loves us.

Please continue to pray for the full recovery of Chaya Raizel bas Dina.
Rep. Mark Dosch, R-Bismarck, might be right when he argues the special legislative session didnt do enough budget cutting.

He wanted the Legislature to adopt a 5.95 percent budget cut to general fund agencies instead of the 2.5 percent budget cut approved. His proposal didnt have a chance with the Republican majority that came to the session with a plan and didnt divert from it. They stayed focused on balancing the budget until the Legislature convenes in January and didnt allow action on anything else.

Efforts to delay construction of a new governors residence were rejected. Democratic pleas to restore money to human services programs cut earlier this year were denied. Republicans did what they promised to do and nothing more.

Doschs comments, however, could come back to haunt the Republicans. Hes convinced North Dakota faces more tough economic times. "I see nothing in our current economy ... that would indicate to me this slide is over," he said. "It hasn't stopped raining yet in North Dakota." Thats why he urged legislators to make deeper cuts. He wanted the state to be in a better position to deal with any shortfall when the session begins in January. Otherwise, he said, "It's backing us, you guys, into a corner. It's backing the next governor that comes in into the corner."

Dosch isnt seeking another term, so it allows him to speak more freely than incumbents. Theres no impact on a campaign to worry about.

Admittedly, there are signs of improvement. Preliminary 2017-19 revenue figures released Thursday indicate the state's revenue decline may be bottoming out, with an increase in general fund dollars and a moderate rise in oil tax revenues.

Pam Sharp, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said state general fund revenues are projected to be at about $3.76 billion in the next biennium, a 4.9 percent increase over the $3.59 billion projected in the 2015-17 forecast released in July. Sharp did say, when questioned, that the outlook could change quickly.

There are too many global factors that North Dakota has no control over, leaving state leaders relying on best estimates. So far those estimates have been off. Some have questioned whether Moody's Analytics has been conservative enough in its estimates on oil prices. OMB uses Moodys for revenue projections and critics would like the company replaced. House Majority Leader Al Carlson, R-Fargo, suggested last week that the Legislature get more involved in revenue forecasting. He alluded to the Legislature hiring its own forecasting firm.

Whatever happens, everyone agrees legislators are facing a tough session in 2017. While Democrats were disappointed funds werent restored to human services, Carlson had a warning: "Every dollar that we pulled, or we pull or we spend now, is a dollar that's not available when we have to make the hard decisions in those 80 days for next session."

We can hope that oil prices will rebound, but that can easily become a false hope. Legislators have already dug into reserve funds and there will be pressure to take more during the 2017 session. The Republican strategy for the special session has set the stage for a contentious session in the winter.

The action taken by the Republicans last week was one of least resistance. They didnt take any chances and delayed the real work until 2017, likely putting the new governor in a pressure situation.

Wanting to hire their own consultant doesnt make sense. The consultant works year-round with the governors office and plays a key role in the development of the budget and legislators receive regular briefings from the consultant.

Theres also the question of how much the state can afford to raid from special funds. Its an easy solution to take from the funds.

The outcome of the 2017 session likely will be determined by when it quits raining in North Dakota. We can only hope it will be soon.
August 3, 2016

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recently accused the United States of obstructing and damaging Irans economic relations with other countries  in spite of the nuclear deal. This was proof, he said, of Americas lack of commitment to its promises, making further talks on regional issues a deadly poison that Iran must avoid.

Meanwhile, the Middle East is on the verge of a historically unprecedented collapse. The regional wellsprings of civilization  the Iranian plateau, the Nile River Valley and Anatolia (corresponding with the modern states of Iran, Egypt and Turkey)  are all under severe duress. Two of these three civilizational pillars are teeming with internal strife and discord. The continued stability of Iran is now all that stands between the region and all-consuming chaos.

While regional stability should be a priority for the international community, the forces seeking to undermine the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) wish nothing more than to return Iran and the United States to the path of full-scale confrontation. While they have not yet been successful in their efforts to spur Washington into violating the letter of the nuclear deal, their actions have certainly violated its spirit.

Under the JCPOA, Iran committed to verifiably limit the two theoretical pathways to a bomb: uranium enrichment and plutonium production. It also agreed to the highest international standards on nuclear inspections and transparency. Iran has fully abided by these obligations, as verified by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

In return, Iran was due relief from all nuclear-related sanctions. This was enshrined not only in the JCPOA, but also in UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2231, which voided all previous nuclear-related Security Council resolutions against Iran. As such, limitations on Iranian trade, banking and financial transactions were formally lifted and the Iranian people were set to begin benefiting from increased foreign investment and business. But all has not gone well so far.

In the six months since the implementation of the nuclear deal, Iran has accrued important benefits. These gains include the doubling of its petroleum exports, attraction of nearly $3.5 billion in foreign investment, access to as much as $30 billion of its frozen assets, reconnection to the SWIFT network and establishment of banking relations with more than 400 foreign banks. Nevertheless, Tehran has run into serious issues when it comes to getting major international banks to facilitate the numerous trade and investment agreements it has reached aimed at boosting its economic development.

The problem has been twofold. First, a US ban on dollar clearing for Iran remains in effect, preventing foreign banks wishing to deal with Iran from conducting transactions in US dollars. This has impeded banks abilities to facilitate major trade deals and repatriate frozen Iranian assets. Second, international banks and investors remain hesitant to deal with Iran due to fears that they will run afoul of remaining US sanctions or that new sanctions will be imposed down the road that may nullify their investments.

One senior Iranian official recently told me that the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which oversees the implementation of the sanctions regime, continues its business at times with even more zeal and sends unsolicited warnings to business partners. He cited an example of a recent request to a Latin American bank to transfer $25 million for Iran to buy soybeans. The bank responded, We must inform you that our bank does not enter into any deal involving Iran, since said country appears on OFAC lists.

JCPOA opponents have been instrumental in fostering this atmosphere of fear, which is preventing Iran from receiving effective sanctions relief. Working in tandem with hawks in the US Congress, groups such as the neoconservative Foundation for Defense of Democracies have lobbied relentlessly for upwards of 30 bills that would impose additional US sanctions and prevent trade deals with Iran from materializing.

These actions run counter to the nuclear deal, which requires the United States to sustain this JCPOA and to prevent interference with the realization of the full benefit by Iran of the sanctions lifting. The efforts of the lobby in Washington opposed to Iran-US engagement have spurred strong reactions in Tehran. Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani recently declared that the time has come for Iran to counteract the actions of Congress. In this vein, he called for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran to make the preparations necessary to return the countrys nuclear capabilities back to their state prior to the nuclear deal.

The reality is that the JCPOA was agreed to by six major powers and mandated by a UNSC resolution. If a bill imposing new sanctions on Iran was to be passed by Congress and approved by a future president, it would result in the United States violating the deal and thereby isolating itself. Not only would the JCPOA-mandated commission charged with overseeing disputes in the deals implementation blame the United States, but Iran would also have JCPOA-stipulated grounds to follow Larijanis suggestion and engage in nuclear snapback reconstituting its previous nuclear capabilities.

Consequently, the tactic of die-hard opponents of US-Iran engagement  to increase sanctions on Iran  is a moot effort and in fact a bluff. Their real aim is not to directly sabotage the deal, but to create an atmosphere of uncertainty predicated on threatening new non-nuclear sanctions in order to scare away international banks and companies from doing business with Iran, thereby minimizing the incentives Iran has to comply with the deal.

The solution is to not fall for this psychological ploy. International banks and companies should rest assured that nuclear-related sanctions on Iran are gone for good and that there is nothing the United States can do  neither now nor in the future  to reimpose them without destroying its credibility at the same time. Iranian officials, meanwhile, should be careful to not play into the hands of the deals American opponents and increase uncertainty about the future of the JCPOA.

Deal opponents in Washington should similarly understand that efforts to undermine the JCPOA only serve to reinforce in the minds of Iranians the notion that the United States cannot be trusted or engaged with on regional or other issues. They should also be cognizant of the fact that Iran is the last pillar in the way of regional collapse  an outcome that would have existential consequences not only for regional countries but also for the West.
August 4, 2016

While Americans and the world at large are captivated by the fierce US election campaign, many international eyes are also set on Washington for potential movement on the stalled Middle East peace process. There will be two key periods this fall: The annual gathering of the UN General Assembly will take place in September, and in November, just after the presidential elections, President Barack Obama may be more free to make a policy move on the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

The Palestinians hope Obama will not leave office without setting a US policy platform for the next president along the lines of the proposed framework by Secretary of State John Kerry in the spring of 2015. Kerry's proposal included a future border on the basis of the 1967 lines and the promotion of East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital.

According to a senior PLO official, the State Department informed Ramallah that a formal declaration on US Middle East policies and interests  possibly by Obama  is indeed being contemplated, but certainly not for November.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will be in New York in September to meet with Kerry and promote a UN Security Council resolution with the Arab League on Palestinian statehood along the 1967 lines with East Jerusalem as capital and with a binding time line of 2-3 years for implementation. The Palestinian leadership has little hope that such a proposal will be adopted, but believes that the attempt will exert pressure on Washington to issue a more balanced and less pro-Israel declaration.

A senior US diplomat in Tel Aviv told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that it is an interest of the outgoing Obama administration to set guiding principles on a two-state solution. While the president is very much involved in the presidential election campaign, it is likely that he will make a policy speech on the matter in the months to come. The United States, he noted, is not interested in a Security Council resolution and if one is raised by others, Obama is likely to veto it.

The US diplomat outlined several of the administrations considerations in making such a policy statement. He started by making it clear that in Washington's opinion, the two parties have failed to make the necessary decisions for a historic compromise. The United States objects to Israels settlement policies and the incitement of violence by officials in the Palestinian Authority.

The diplomat noted that to avoid a diplomatic vacuum, Washington is interested in publicly spelling out guidelines for a two-state solution that will reflect the positions it raised in its most recent diplomatic efforts.

According to the source, the Americans' primary interest in the region is Israels security. Therefore, Washington has decided to conclude a comprehensive security agreement on US assistance to Israel for the next 10 years. In parallel, the United States is interested in fostering the regional anti-Islamic State coalition with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and others, and it estimates that setting a policy platform on a two-state solution would be also helpful for regional security.

Washington, he said, wants to strengthen Abbas Fatah regime and hopes that guidelines on Palestinian statehood, balanced by US positions on Israels security interests, will increase public support for Abbas.

The US diplomat outlined in broad terms the content of the contemplated policy declaration. He said that it will include the necessity of a two-state solution to both parties  freedom to the Palestinians, security for Israel; a border based on the 1967 lines, with mutually agreed-upon land swaps; an indication in general terms of a Palestinian capital in the Jerusalem area; resettling West Bank settlers within a few settlement blocs; resolving the Palestinian refugee problem in a just and mutually agreed-upon manner (as indicated in the 2002 Arab peace Initiative); mutual recognition between two nation-states (meaning recognition of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people); and security arrangements along the plan proposed by Gen. John Allen in early 2015, with an Israeli military presence along the Jordan River.

The diplomat said that the policy declaration would also include essential regional elements such as anti-terror cooperation and normalization of relations between the Arab states and Israel along the lines of the Arab Peace Initiative. He said that Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia should play an active role in reaching the permanent status agreement based on common interests with the United States and Israel against Islamic fundamentalism.

An Israeli Foreign Ministry official told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that the prime ministers office is making efforts to prevent such a presidential statement and that in any case, a declaration by a lame duck president had no value.

Nevertheless, a presidential declaration of guiding principles for a two-state solution is important  not only as a future policy platform for the next administration, but for the sake of maintaining relative stability until the next president develops a Middle Eastern strategy and team.

The current Washington administration should take into consideration the absolute need to leave the two-state option alive, given Israels settlement expansion policies.
August 5, 2016

RAMALLAH, West Bank  Hanna Nasir, the chairman of the Palestinian Central Elections Commission (CEC) located in al-Bireh, said that Hamas has formally agreed to run for the municipal elections scheduled to be held on Oct. 8. The last elections were held in 2005 in all Palestinian territories (the West Bank and Gaza Strip). The upcoming elections come seven years after the four-year term of the local councils ended in 2009, a hiatus that resulted from the internal Palestinian division.

Hamas received reassurances from the CEC that the elections will be held under appropriate conditions, whereby freedoms will be preserved and the decisions of the Gaza courts vis-a-vis the elections results will be respected.

In his interview with Al-Monitor, Nasir expressed concerns about potential Israeli restrictions on the entry of electoral material, such as brochures and ballot boxes, into the Gaza Strip. He also fears that Israel might not issue permits for CEC staff to enter the Gaza Strip through the Erez border crossing, and that Israel may apprehend some candidates or ban campaigns for some electoral lists.

The text of the interview follows:

Al-Monitor: It has been 11 years since the last municipal elections were held in 2005 in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The new elections are scheduled to be held on Oct. 8. So what are Hamas rules to participate in them?

Nasir: Hamas did not set conditions, but it rather inquired about the extent of freedoms for holding the elections and about whether or not the electoral provisions and judgments by courts in Gaza would be respected. The CEC responded to the inquiries and confirmed that it will accept the courts decisions, without challenging them, away from any political connotations. Hamas then announced its approval to compete in the elections.

Al-Monitor: Why did it take 10 years to hold these elections? What has changed today? Why did you choose Oct. 8, and who set this date?

Nasir: The Palestinian Cabinet is the only authority competent to call for holding local elections and set the date to this effect. The current decision comes four years after the previous CEC call to hold local elections in 2012, in application of the law. Back then, Hamas refused to hold or participate in them in Gaza and thus they were held only in the West Bank. Perhaps today the situation has become riper for elections in both parts of the Palestinian territories.

Al-Monitor: Will Hamas participate in the municipal elections in both Gaza and the West Bank?

Nasir: This is up to Hamas, but in its media statements, it said it would and would be supportive of the elections.

Al-Monitor: Do you think that Hamas and Fatah will maintain transparency in elections in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip? What are the challenges that you might face in the elections in Gaza and the West Bank?

Nasir: The transparency and integrity of elections are at the basis of the CECs work and procedures. However, maintaining freedoms and respecting the electoral results require the efforts of everyone, including Hamas, Fatah and the rest of the Palestinian factions, as well as the government. All political parties and factions have signed a charter of honor under the CEC auspices, providing for organizing and regulating relations between candidates, respecting electoral lists, the CEC decisions and, most importantly, the election results. As for the challenges we might face, [we will have] to preserve the integrity and transparency of elections as well as the CEC impartiality, which is the commissions main goal.

There is no doubt that the presence of representatives of different factions, international and local observers, will help flag any breach that might take place. Therefore, the monitoring process would contribute greatly to preserving the smooth functioning of the electoral process. We might face other challenges as the Israeli authorities might try to impose restrictions on the entry of electoral materials to Gaza.

Therefore, the CEC does not deal directly with the Israeli authorities, but through the Ministry of Civil Affairs, which coordinates these issues with the Israeli side. In such cases, the matter is raised with the competent governmental authorities to coordinate and eliminate obstacles. Another challenge is that Israel can deny permits for the CEC staff, arrest candidates or prevent the electoral campaigning of some lists.

Al-Monitor: What is the budget for the elections in Gaza and the West Bank? Who are the authorities funding these elections?

Nasir: We need about $8 million to hold the elections in the West Bank and Gaza, and we submitted a budget [proposal] to the Palestinian government, which will provide the necessary funding. We are expecting to receive financing at any moment.

Al-Monitor: What is the total number of municipalities, including existing and newly established ones, that will participate in the elections?

Nasir: The Cabinet gave us a list of 416 local councils where elections will be held, including 25 in the Gaza Strip. Elections were held in the majority of these councils, but some of them were merged councils and have now split, especially in the West Bank.

Al-Monitor: Do you think that the elections will be held and will lead to new and powerful municipal councils?

Nasir: Yes, the elections will be held on time. There is a semi-consensus among all Palestinian factions on the need to hold elections and participate in them. Of course, the elected councils will have a democratic legitimacy, stronger powers and new blood.

Al-Monitor: Will the electoral law based on lists be changed to include an individual system? Are there proposals and calls to change the electoral law?

Nasir: The legislative authorities in the Palestinian Authority are entitled to introduce amendments to the law. The current elections will be held according to the proportional system based on the applicable law of 2005. No amendments should be made to the law when elections are around the corner or in the midst of the electoral process, even if the legislative authorities are entitled to do so.

Al-Monitor: Will presidential and legislative elections be held after the municipal elections slated for Oct. 8? If so, what is the expected date for these elections?

Nasir: We hope so. The Palestinian people are eager to hold general and periodic elections. This is at the heart of the CECs work. We hope that the success of local elections will pave the way toward general elections and reconciliation among the Palestinian people. But holding the legislative and presidential elections is not one of our prerogatives but rather a decision issued by virtue of a presidential decree.
August 7, 2016

Saudi Arabia is facing a critical decision point in its war in Yemen. The political process to resolve the crisis between Yemen's warring parties is failing. King Salman bin Adbul-Aziz Al Saud will have to decide whether to escalate the war against the rebel alliance or settle for de facto partition of the country. He may choose to dither.

The United Nations-mediated peace talks in Kuwait have been suspended for at least the next month if not longer. While the UN has been careful to leave the door open to the talks' resumption, there is little likelihood of a political breakthrough in the process given the terms of reference for the process created by UN Security Council Resolution 2216. The latter calls for a restoration of the Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi government to power in Sanaa, a demand the alliance of Zaydi Houthi Shiite rebels and the followers of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh refuse to accept.

The Houthis and Saleh formed a council last month to govern the capital and most of north Yemen. This effectively partitions the country between the Shiite-dominated north and east and the Sunni-dominated south and west. It's a messy partition with many flashpoints, such as the city of Taiz, where fighting has never halted despite the reduction in violence this spring that set up the Kuwait dialogue. The rebel alliance has asked the UN to form a transitional government to replace Hadi, but Hadi refused to step aside.

The Saudis have reluctantly backed Hadi and have been unwilling to use their leverage with his regime to move him out. They have enormous leverage, of course, since they and their coalition allies provide Hadi with the funds and arms that keeps his weak government in power in Aden. The Saudis backed Hadi to replace Saleh after the Arab Spring; he is their protege and abandoning him would be embarrassing.

The Saudi-led coalition now says it will "revive" its military operation called Restoring Hope to deal with continued violations of the weak truce that accompanied the UN talks. Saudi airstrikes against the rebels have already intensified.

But it is unclear whether Riyadh wants to try to take Sanaa and other northern cities from the rebels. One Saudi commentator recently wrote that such an offensive would turn the capital into a "cemetery" and fuel Yemeni hatred of the kingdom for generations to come. The coalition forces are close to the capital city's eastern approaches but a house-to-house battle would be bloody and expensive while still leaving the Houthis in control of their traditional stronghold in northern Yemen along the Saudi border. The Houthis continue to keep the border region under fire, causing the Saudi border towns to be at grave risk. The Houthis can escalate the conflict along the border if the Saudis and their allies step up offensives against Sanaa.

The war is expensive for the kingdom. Last year, the kingdom had the third-largest defense budget in the world. Only the United States and China spent more on their militaries. Not all of Riyadh's expenses go to the Yemen adventure, of course, but a considerable amount does. The United States and the United Kingdom have been selling Saudi Arabia huge amounts of munitions and other supplies to keep the war effort going. Saudi plans to produce half their armaments at home under the Saudi Vision 2030 master plan are hopelessly unrealistic. A country of 20 million people can not sustain defense budgets like this indefinitely, especially with oil prices falling again.

Last week, the top Wahhabi cleric in the kingdom, Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Al Sheikh, who is the grand mufti and president of the Council of Senior Scholars, called on private firms, banks and businesses to donate money to help support the families of soldiers killed in the war and called on the country's universities to give free tuition to the children of those who were killed. He also appealed for donations to help border towns under attack. This appeal underscores the expense of the war and the government's challenge in paying for what is an open-ended quagmire.

Some commentators in the kingdom are suggesting a fallback option for the war. Riyadh would accept a partition of the country, leaving the Houthis in charge of the north indefinitely while a pro-Saudi southern state gets international legitimacy. This south Yemen state would become a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Saudi Arabia would have de facto control of the crucial Bab al-Mandab Strait in such a scenario. It would be a long-term means to contain the Houthi challenge.

The king is on an extended vacation in Tangiers, Morocco. At the last minute he decided not to attend the Arab summit in Moroccan neighbor Mauritania last month, reportedly for health reasons. In Salman's absence, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef is running day-to-day affairs.

The easiest choice for the kingdom is to muddle along and make no decision. The monarchy would refuse any transitional government and emphasize that the war has prevented an Iranian takeover of Yemen. Playing the Iran card keeps up public support for the war and rallies the bulk of the Gulf Cooperation Council behind it. It greatly exaggerates the Iranians' role in Yemen, but that is not the question for the king. He can use an Iranian threat indefinitely, knowing Tehran will engage in enough mischief to justify Saudi and Gulf fears.

The architect of the Saudi war is the king's favorite son, Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman. The son has notably reduced his profile in the war effort since it bogged down a year ago. In the first months of what was then called Operation Decisive Storm, Mohammed was always in the news leading the campaign. Whether the 30-year-old deputy crown prince has second thoughts about the war or a plan to resolve it is unknown.

Washington has been mostly an observer to the Yemeni crisis and US Secretary of State John Kerry has not made it a priority for his diplomacy. Behind the scenes, American diplomats have tried to help the UN process, but with no success. Yemen is simply not a priority. Meanwhile, half the Yemeni people are undernourished. Tens of thousands of children are at risk. The richest countries in the Arab world are bombing the poorest country and the world is preoccupied with other affairs.
August 7, 2016

Obama not swayed by Jabhat al-Nusra rebranding

US President Barack Obama said that the United States will continue intense fire efforts against al-Qaeda in Syria, which, no matter what name it calls itself, cannot be allowed to maintain a safe haven to train and plot attacks against us, after meeting Aug. 4 with his national security team at the Pentagon.

Mona Alami provides background and context for Jabhat al-Nusras decision to rebrand its affiliation as distinct from al-Qaeda. Jabhat al-Nusras announcement  as this column reported last week  was a sign of its desperation following US-Russian negotiations on military and intelligence coordination against Jabhat al-Nusra and the encirclement of Aleppo by Russian- and Iranian-backed Syrian troops.

Alami explains that Jabhat al-Nusras name switch was well-vetted among al-Qaedas non-Syrian intelligentsia, including major jihadi ideologues such as Sheikh Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi and Abu Qatada  two influential Jordanian Salafist jihadi clerics with close links to al-Qaeda. The Conquest of Syria Front (Jaish Fatah al-Sham) rebranding was designed to emphasize Jabhat al-Nusras local Syrian bona fides in order to rally other armed groups to the Conquest banner. Last week, "New Jabhat al-Nusra," Ahrar al-Sham and other armed groups launched an offensive against Syrian troops in Aleppo, an alleged sign of the success of the switch, according to their spin, although this column and other institutions, including Amnesty International, have documented the alignment of Ahrar al-Sham and other jihadi groups with Jabhat al-Nusra for some time.

Mohammad al-Khatieb reports from Aleppo that the battle for the city is life or death for both the government and the armed groups there. The potential for a worsening of the already alarming humanitarian crisis is likely. Extremely difficult and inhumane conditions could be in store for the residents should the blockade continue amid the lack of fuel and the gradual depletion of food stocks, Khatieb writes.

Obama, while keeping focus on the threat from both al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, also decried Syrian military tactics as deplorable and a sign of the Assad regimes depravity. He said that Russia has so far failed to take the necessary steps that would allow Washington and Moscow to reach agreement on military coordination against terrorist groups in Syria, as Laura Rozen reports.

The Obama administration is commendably balancing the urgency of keeping up an aggressive offense against international terrorist groups in Syria, support for UN-brokered efforts to resume political talks on a transition and mitigation of the humanitarian consequences of the war. This column has consistently backed the administrations approach, which depends first on US-Russian cooperation, which does not come easy. One might imagine the high fives and prayers of gratitude among al-Qaeda and their jihadi cohorts if the United States stepped back from finding common ground with Russia and instead attacked the Syrian government, as advocated by some critics of the presidents policies, which would have the effect of giving the Conquest coalition a reprieve. It would be irresponsible, or completely screwed up, as US Secretary of State John Kerry said last month, to take the pressure off Syrias al-Qaeda affiliate (by any other name) and its jihadi allies as they reveal their desperation in advance of a perhaps defining battle.

Sadr, Maliki plot next steps in Iraq

Muqtada al-Sadr may be losing the street in his efforts to challenge Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, reports Mustafa Saadoun from Baghdad.

Sadr seemed unable to rally the numbers he has in the past for anti-government rallies in Baghdad last month, a sign that Iraqs civil society movement may be splintering and reconsidering its ties to the divisive cleric.

Sadr has the upper hand today in the protest movement in Iraq, as civilians see themselves as part of the Sadrist movement in one way or another, Saadoun writes. Ultimately, Sadr seems to dominate the upper level of popular movements and protests in Iraq, despite the softness of his speech at times. But in fact, the slogans that are being raised in Baghdads Tahrir Square emulate the ones set by his followers."

He continues, Nevertheless, some continue to bet on Madaniyoun [secular civil society group] to retake the lead in the protest movements and preserve their civil society aspect and even their civilian one, given that Sadr militia members are part of the PMU [Popular Mobilization Units] fighting the Islamic State. This will not be an easy task for the group given the Sadrist movements human and material capabilities, not to mention its legacy and name, which can be used to mobilize large numbers of followers.

Mohammad Salih reports on the machinations of former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who may be plotting a comeback. Maliki, who leads the State of Law Coalition  the largest Shiite block in Iraqs Council of Representatives (parliament)  visited Sulaimaniyah last month to meet with leaders of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Movement for Change (Gorran) parties, which formed an alliance in May. Maliki did not meet with Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, sparking questions about Malikis ultimate intentions.

Salih speculates that Malikis prospects for a return to power are unclear. He writes that the former prime minister not only has strained relations with large segments of Iraq's Kurdish and Sunni communities, but also seems to have a serious popularity deficit among Shiites as well. He has been a constant subject of popular anti-corruption protests, as his government was viewed as corrupt and incompetent by many Iraqis. It also remains to be seen whether the meetings between Maliki and PUK-Gorran leaders will lead to joint efforts in the Iraqi parliament in the coming months.
August 7, 2016

War-torn Aleppo has come into the spotlight again this week with rebels' breaking through a weekslong siege by Syrian forces in a matter of days.

The initial success of President Bashar al-Assads siege, which clearly emboldened him, could have led to the fall of the second-largest city in Syria and has become a significant victory for the pro-Damascus forces.

This would have had major repercussions not only on the ground but also would have driven the monthslong diplomatic process to a complete standstill. The retaking of Aleppo by the Syrian government would essentially mean that Assad no longer needs to sit at the negotiating table with the opposition unless the opposition acknowledges its defeat.

US Secretary of State John Kerry warned Russia that if its recent safe-passage humanitarian operation in Aleppo is a ruse and that the city is in fact going to be depopulated only to be seized, it will damage US-Russia cooperation in Syria. The opposition's High Negotiations Committee echoed Kerry's view, saying humanitarian corridors are a way to sugarcoat Moscows real intentions.

Despite the Assad government's claiming that thousands of civilians fled the eastern part of the city using the safe passage, according to other accounts, the number is barely above 100. With 250,000 civilians trapped inside the city, it is virtually impossible to accommodate all residents in government-controlled areas on such short notice. Having lived alongside the rebels for four years, locals fear being persecuted by the Syrian authorities if they flee and fear being labeled traitors by the opposition at the same time.

Moscow, however, is perfectly aware that the fall of Aleppo would bode ill for the US- and Russia-led diplomatic process and that the vast majority of civilians would not voluntarily leave the city for the unknown with no guarantees of safety. According to some sources, Russian aircraft did not participate in the siege of Aleppo, which could mean that the Kremlin has a different plan for Aleppo and that its retaking is not in the cards at the moment.

In Russias calculation, a besieged Aleppo could be far more valuable than an Assad-controlled one, both strategically and diplomatically. As long as a zero-sum fight for the city continues, Moscow plays a key role in the negotiations. All other issues, including Assad's future in Syria, are pushed to the back burner because Aleppo is perceived as a stronghold of the opposition and its fall would symbolize the victory of Damascus, or, according to some experts, the end of the opposition movement against Assad altogether.

The official rhetoric from Washington, Brussels and Moscow seems to center around the need to alleviate the hardships of civilians in Aleppo and reduce the fighting; this draws international attention away from other contentious issues. The spotlight on Aleppo and a sense of urgency in dealing with the crisis clearly work in Moscows favor because the Kremlin is again calling the shots in Syria.

Time may be running out to deal with the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Aleppo. According to the Syrian-American Medical Society, in the event of a successful siege, fuel for bakeries would run out within weeks, and energy for hospitals within three to four months. The fate of local residents, who are no less than prisoners in the besieged city, will become the strongest argument if a new round of negotiations on Aleppo is going to take place.

The situation around the city is one of the major reasons why the so-called cessation of hostilities failed in the first place. Decision-makers in Moscow understand that the Syrian forces cannot go on forever repelling rebel attempts to break the siege, which is why negotiating another cessation of hostilities in Aleppo on its own terms would be a better option for Moscow than taking control over the entire city, because the fall of Aleppo would rid Russia of the strongest lever it has had in Syria against the United States and the opposition.

Freezing the conflict in Aleppo in its current form is a tactic out of Russias traditional operational playbook. Frozen conflicts have been successfully instrumentalized by Moscow in the post-Soviet Union space and have proved their effectiveness when it comes to manipulating the political process. Long-term examples of this can be found in Moldova and the South Caucasus, and more recently in Ukraine.

The United State figures prominently in Russias Aleppo equation for two reasons. First, the Kremlin feels that it negotiates with the United States from a position of strength in Syria; senior US officials have said several times that the White House has armed Kerry with very few instruments to match Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrovs flexibility at the negotiating table. It is hugely important for Russian President Vladimir Putin to be speaking on par with the United States as well as be setting his own agenda, something that has rarely happened since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Second, the publicity advanced by the Russian media surrounding the Syria campaign makes it appear that Washingtons campaign to diplomatically isolate Moscow has failed. A meeting on Aleppo that may soon take place in Geneva, in Russias view, serves to do just that, presenting Moscow as a peacemaker helping settle another crisis.
August 5, 2016

The reviews are in, and theyre not pretty for Donald Trump and the GOP.

After a fleeting post-convention bump, the Republican nominees polling numbers have taken a nosedive in the final stretch of the presidential race. Following a week of disastrous headlines, Democrat Hillary Clinton is ahead 47.3% to 40.5% in the latest RealClearPolitics polling average.

Much of the reversal can be traced right back to Trumps self-destructive feud with the parents of a Muslim-American soldier killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq. A number of prominent Republicans have said Trump had no business diving into the fray with the Khan family, whether its challenging the fathers right to question Trumps knowledge of the Constitution at the Democratic National Convention or suggesting that the mother wasnt allowed to speak because she is Muslim.

Criticism from Trump's own party came swiftly, including in a lengthy statement from 2008 presidential candidate John McCain, whom Trump previously derided for having been taken captive in the Vietnam War. McCain and other party leaders  including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.  are seeking to distance themselves from Trump amid growing concerns that his rhetoric will cause Republicans to lose the Senate in November, but they still publicly support the nominee.

A handful of Republicans have already declared their support for Clinton, including former eBay CEO and GOP fundraiser Meg Whitman and Rep. Richard Hanna of New York. Others made it clear they will not vote for Trump, including Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., a rising GOP star and Air Force veteran who called Trumps attacks on the Khans wholly unpatriotic.

Clinton, by contrast, is sitting back and letting Trump do all the work of blowing up his candidacy.

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When the mother of one of the four Americans killed in the 2012 attack on the US Embassy in Benghazi ripped into her during the Republican convention, Clinton wisely refrained from lashing out. That all but ensured that the controversy would quickly die down, helped in no small way by Trumps decision to pre-empt coverage of the issue by calling into the Fox News network just as Benghazi survivors were taking to the convention floor.

Over the years people have talked about the temper tantrums that Trump is capable of throwing. While promising that he will single-handedly make America flow with milk and honey, the impression he has created is one of fear and anger. Where is the talk of hope and optimism? Why the attacks on people within his own party?

Compare this with Republican Ronald Reagans winning campaign against President Jimmy Carter in 1980. While Reagan criticized Carter, he exuded a sunny optimism that people loved, not unlike President Barack Obamas message of hope and change.

Several top Republican strategists were reported set to meet with Trump privately the evening of Aug. 3. No one really knows what went on in that meeting, but one can speculate.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus was described as very frustrated. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., one of Trumps most loyal defenders, warned that his friend was in danger of throwing away the election and helping to make Clinton president.

The current race is which of these two is the more unacceptable, because right now, neither of them is acceptable, Gingrich said. Trump is helping her to win by proving he is more unacceptable than she is.

Gingrich said Trump has only a matter of weeks to reverse course.

Anybody who is horrified by Hillary should hope that Trump will take a deep breath and learn some new skills, he said. He cannot win the presidency operating the way he is now. She cant be bad enough to elect him if hes determined to make this many mistakes.

Donald Trump can start by getting on the same page with the Republican Party. Winning elections is about addition and multiplication, not subtraction and division. The end goal is winning elections. How many Democrats have endorsed Donald Trump? How many Republicans have endorsed Hillary Clinton?

Obama himself stepped into the fray Aug. 2 by taking the highly unusual step of denouncing Trump as unfit for president. Trump responded in typical fashion, accusing Obama of being a total disaster who single-handedly destabilized the Middle East, handed Iraq, Libya and Syria to [the Islamic State], and allowed our personnel to be slaughtered at Benghazi."

But the presidents attack struck a nerve when he placed responsibility for Trump's statements regarding the Khans squarely on Trump's fellow Republicans, many of whom denounced his statements on the slain soldier's family but didn't withdraw their support.

"What does this say about your party that this is your standard-bearer?" Obama asked of GOP leaders. "This isn't a situation where you have an episodic gaffe. This is daily and weekly where they are distancing themselves from statements he's making. There has to be a point at which you say, 'This is not somebody I can support for president of the United States, even if he purports to be a member of my party.'"

Lets be honest: This US presidential election is a popularity contest.

According to RealClearPolitics average polling, Clintons unfavorable rating is 52.7% versus 59.3% for Trump. Unless he checks his ego at the door and stops making it about him, Trump is all but certain to lose.
house hunters @.jpg

Realtor Chris King, left, talks to newlyweds Hansen and Sara Roberts as a cameraman films them for an episode of "House Hunters" that takes place in historic midtown Mobile. (Courtesy Sara Roberts)

When HGTV's popular reality show "House Hunters" airs Monday night, Sara Roberts will have the surreal experience of watching herself on one of her favorite shows - and she admits that she's a little nervous about it.

She and her husband, Hansen - newlyweds who just married on June 11 - will appear on the show, which documents their search for a home in midtown Mobile. Sara contacted the show via its website when she saw that the producers were searching for prospective homeowners in the Gulf Coast area.

Sara happens to be the marketing director for Roberts Brothers Inc. in Mobile (but she's not related to the owners of the real estate firm) - so naturally she and Hansen chose a Roberts Brothers Realtor, Chris King.

On the 30-minute show, which was filmed in January, King shows the couple three homes in their price range in midtown Mobile, and at the end viewers learn which house they selected.

The long-running show has aired on HGTV since 1999, taking viewers along with an individual, couple or family and their real estate agent as they search for the perfect home. "House Hunters" inspired several spin-off shows, including "House Hunters International," "House Hunters Renovation" and "House Hunters on Vacation."

The Robertses' episode is entitled "Twenty-Somethings Seek Historic Home in Midtown Mobile, AL," according to the "House Hunters" website. "They have their sights set on a Craftsman-style bungalow with a front porch," reads the description of the show. "But with only a $160,000 budget, it might be a tough find."

It couldn't have been too tough an assignment for King, the top-producing sales associate at Roberts Brothers Inc., who enjoys helping first-time homebuyers find just the right house. "It's an exciting time in their lives, and Mobile is an affordable place where people are not forced to rent but are able to buy their own home," he said.

"After experiencing the home-buying process first-hand, I now understand the pressure associated with such a big decision," said Sara. "We would not have been able to do it without Chris. He knew exactly which questions to ask to help narrow our search, make the best offer and navigate the closing. We love our home."

The show airs Monday, Aug. 8, at 9 p.m. CDT, and again at midnight, then on Sunday, Sept. 4 at 6 p.m. CDT, according to the website.
It's hard to run a music festival.

It's even harder when you're banking on audiences showing up to discover new acts rather than seeing familiar favorites.

Some folks probably thought Secret Stages wouldn't last. But year after year, the festival maintains its reputation for a stellar lineup (even if you don't know hardly anyone on it) and enthusiastic crowds to support it. That was certainly the case this year.

More interestingly, though, is the fact that Secret Stages has evolved from simply a festival of "music discovery" to one that focuses almost exclusively on Southern acts.

So if you want to see and hear dozens of candidates for the next big thing out of Alabama or the South at large, Secret Stages needs to be on your Birmingham summer agenda.

Didn't make it this year? Here's my recap of everything I witnessed.

Bassh (Rogue Tavern, 7:00pm, Friday)

With Nashville listed as this trio's hometown, I was surprised to discover that they're actually from Ireland. Perhaps that's what brings to mind a U2 influence, but their sound certainly feels tailor-made for bigger venues. They may get there soon enough, but Rouge Tavern boasted a respectable crowd for their early set.

Skylar Gudasz (The Parthenon, 8:00pm, Friday)

The second secret set of the evening at the VIP Lounge was Raleigh's Skylar Gudasz, a talented songwriter with some subdued, atmospheric tunes. I felt like I was Colin Farrell sitting at the bar in "True Detective" Season 2 (in a good way).

Jay Jayle (Das Haus, 8:45pm, Friday)

Watching Louisville's Jaye Jayle felt like seeing a fantastic horror movie soundtrack performed live - the kind you might expect from a Dario Argento film. A cool wash of blue light over the stage was a nice pairing with the heavy droning. One person I spoke to said it sounded like Radiohead meets Tool, which sounds about right to me.

Sleepwalkers (Main Stage, 10:00pm, Friday)

Perhaps the best performance I caught the first night belonged to Richmond's Sleepwalkers. They were poppy, funky, and raw all at once, and they played quite well to a large Main Stage crowd that may have been the attendance peak of the evening. With a cosign from Ryan Adams and a recent tour with The Lumineers under their belts, their star is on the rise.

Motel Mirrors (Rogue Tavern, 11:00pm, Friday)

Male and female vocal harmonies have been all the rage in Americana recently (and, well, since forever, really), and John Paul Keith's chemistry with Amy LaVere deserves to be in that discussion. Keith's been around for a while, but Motel Mirrors might end up being his most successful project yet.

Nest Egg (Das Haus, 11:45pm, Friday)

Nest Egg's name is a bit of a misnomer - this Asheville band is loud, and heavy, and haunting, all in a very good way. Das Haus was a good 45 minutes behind schedule at this point, but an engrossing performance that featured a heavy dose of fog machine was a perfect way to end my night.

The Loudermilks (Main Stage, 7:00pm, Saturday)

Heard some really solid alt-country tunes from this Charlotte band. Similar to Lucero but slightly happier and with fewer tattoos. Unfortunately, some bad weather crept in and the Main Stage area had to be evacuated about halfway through their set.

Sydney Eloise & The Palms (The Parthenon, 8:00pm, Saturday)

Sydney Eloise has the kind of voice that's perfect for storytelling, not filling an opera house - in a good way. And it's a perfect fit for her band, who play like a rootsier version of Rilo Kiley. Their first performance of the night was stripped-down from their normal setup, but it was great nonetheless.

Mean Smoker (The Parthenon, 9:00pm, Saturday)

This local trio was labeled as "avant jazz," with the qualifier that they "make it up...on the spot." That sounds about right. I honestly couldn't tell whether they were sound checking or actually playing for a while, so needless to say, this wasn't my cup of tea. But my jazz palate is also not very advanced, so don't take my word for it.

Tef Poe (Main Stage, 9:30pm, Saturday)

St. Louis rapper Tef Poe wins the award for most energetic performance of the weekend, and it's not even close. He bounced around, rapped with fervor, jumped into the crowd on multiple occasions, and even pulled members of the audience onstage with him - all while displaying some serious talent.

Caddywhompus (Matthew's Bar & Grill, 10:30pm, Saturday)

They may not be the runaway favorite, but this New Orleans duo was my favorite act of the weekend. Like a more experimental yet poppy version of Japandroids, they displayed some eye-opening technical prowess in perfect synchronicity - and they looked like they were having fun doing it. This is the Secret Stages 2016 band I'm most likely to listen to in my spare time.

Grand Vapids (Pale Eddie's, 11:00pm, Saturday)

With Pale Eddie's running a bit behind, I got a chance to catch about half of this Athens quartet. A nice brand of indie rock with a bit of a spacey vibe. Plus their drummer took off his shirt, which is cool I guess.

Future Elevators (Das Haus, 12:00am, Saturday)

Future Elevators were newcomers at last year's Secret Stages, but they were one of the main local draws in their second year. It's not hard to see why once you've caught a performance from them, and their second set of the evening was the best I've heard them sound. If a few breaks go their way, Future Elevators could be the next big thing out of Birmingham's music scene.
Two dozen people were hospitalized yesterday after eating a drug-laced candy at an Ohio music festival, WOIO reported.

The 2016 EST Fest was in Butler- about an hour northeast of Columbus.

After officials responded to calls of the 24 people acting unusual, the group was taken to a local hospital and treated with Narcan, WOIO said. It was determined the group had eaten a type of candy that said "medibles" on the packaging.

Narcan is typically used to reverse the effects of opiates and drug overdoses.

All 24 were okay after being treated.

Authorities said that they searched every vehicle before it entered the festival, but the candy went undetected.

Richland County Sheriff's Office Maj. Joe Masi said to USA Today, "There were about 20 pieces in each one...Each had a very, very high dose of THC. We have not seen this stuff in our area before."

The rest of the candy was tested by police, and Masi said that the crime lab director had never seen such a high dose of THC.
WATFORD CITY  A ranch with premier views of North Dakotas Badlands and the Little Missouri Scenic River will be up for auction this fall after being in one family for generations.

The Watson family is selling the Woodie Lee Watson Family Trust Ranch south of Watford City to consolidate their ranching operation to one location.

The familys decision to sell gives potential buyers a rare opportunity to own land next to the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park where bighorn sheep and other wildlife sightings are common.

I sell property every day and this one is easy to fall in love with, said Steve Link, a Realtor with Pifers Auction & Realty.

The nearly 2,000 acres near the Long X Bridge on U.S. Highway 85 is being auctioned as seven separate parcels, ranging in size from 40 acres to more than 600 acres. Each parcel offers unique characteristics, such as river frontage, Badlands views, hay land, grassland and prime hunting opportunities.

The sellers would love to see the property sold to one buyer and keep the property in tact as one unit, Link said.

Some of this land is so rare to the market and so special, that somebody might be willing to pay a premium to get their own piece of Gods country out there, Link said.

Linda Watson, wife of Woodie Lee Watson, who died in 2013, said she hopes the new buyers take care of the land as well as her family has.

Were stewards of the land, Linda Watson said. This is pristine land.

Woodie Lee Watsons father, also named Woodie, moved to the ranch about 15 miles south of Watford City in 1931. He was recovering from stomach surgery at the time and was unable to ride a horse, so he walked and herded his livestock cross country from Montana, according to his obituary.

The ranch became well known in the area for Woodies Barn, which hosted Friday night dances and many wedding dances.

Woodies dad loved to visit with people, entertain people, Linda Watson said. It would be interesting to know how many romances were responsible for.

The barn, which has never had hay on the top floor, last held a wedding dance in 1979. It remains on the property and Linda said shes dreamed of turning it into a resort or a restaurant.

Most recently, the ranch has been managed by Linda and Woodie Lee Watsons son, Terry, and his wife, Pam, who have three children.

Terry and Pam Watson also manage a ranch about 12 miles away near Grassy Butte that was previously owned by Linda Watsons parents. With Woodie Lee no longer living and their children pursuing other careers, managing both ranches became difficult.

Thats why were moving, Terry said. Its too much.

The family says theres a lot they will miss about the ranch, including finding bighorn sheep in the backyard and climbing buttes to enjoy the view. Terry said he once found a rock with Theodore Roosevelts name carved in it.

But I dont think it was Teddy because I dont think hed misspell his name, Terry said.

The family also has hosted friends from around the state for deer hunting in the fall.

The property is in the Bakken but does not have any oil wells. Link said the family is keeping the mineral rights.

Pifers Auction & Realty will hold a live auction at 1 p.m. Sept. 28 at Outlaws Bar & Grill in Watford City. More information is available at www.pifers.com.
BFRS Lt. Andrew Johnson

More than 100 people gathered at Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service Station No. 2 on Saturday night to pray for the recovery of Lt. Andrew Johnson, who has been in the intensive care unit at UAB Hospital for a week after suffering injuries to his lungs while battling a house fire.

Johnson, a 33-year-old lieutenant with Rescue 13 and a children's minister at North Highland Baptist Church in Warrior, has been making progress in his recovery but is still under sedation, according to North Highland Baptist minister Steve Abney, who helped organize the vigil. Johnson had earlier been listed in critical but stable condition. Johnson was also given antibiotics to treat an infection.

The fire lieutenant suffered smoke inhalation after his breathing apparatus malfunctioned and got stuck on something while he was battling a blaze on the 8000 block of 6th Avenue North on July 29.

"It's been a tough seven days," Abney said, telling the crowd that doctors are trying to limit visitors to aid in Johnson's recovery. "I love Andrew."

BFRS Chief Charles Gordon said the past week has been "a trying time" since Johnson was hospitalized.

"We know with our jobs that there's a risk with all we do," he said, adding that the incident "has brought the community together."

"Andrew is always praying, always supporting others," Gordon said.

A GoFundMe page was set up to help support the firefighter's ministry and family, with more than $3,000 donated as of Saturday night toward the cause's $25,000 goal.

Family members at the vigil, who declined to be named, said they were touched by the large numbers of Johnson's church and firefighter families who showed up.

"As the family we are so appreciative of the outpouring of love and support," a female family member said. "It blew me away," another said.

Tyrone Fornest, a Birmingham Fire and Rescue chaplain and battalion chief, said Johnson's lungs are improving and the expectation is that doctors will back off on the sedation.

"He's doing well, considering what he's been through," Fornest said. "He's a fighter. He's in the best place he can be with UAB."
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Disney World is nearly finished adding a rock wall around beaches of the lagoon that borders its Magic Kingdom resorts, acting as a barrier between guests and underwater predators that include alligators blamed in the death of a Nebraska 2-year-old in June.

New signs eere added to the beaches behind Disney's Grand Floridian Resort and Spa immediately after the June 14 incident in which a boy was snatched from the beach.

New signs and a rope fence were added to the beaches behind Disney's Grand Floridian Resort and Spa immediately after the June 14 incident in which Lane Graves was snatched from the beach. The death put a spotlight on guest safety and wildlife on Disney World property.

But the project involving the creation of a large rock barrier around Seven Seas Lagoon was much more involved and is still ongoing behind the neighboring Polynesian Village Resort. Work was completed at the Grand Floridian in late July, according to WDW News Today.

Photos taken this week and

show work progressing past the main beach at the Polynesian and nearing the end of the resort at the Transportation and Ticket Center.

The fence and signs still stand in front of the rocky shoreline, creating a deterrent for anyone on the beaches. The signs read: "DANGER: Alligators and snakes in area. Stay away from the water. Do not feed the wildlife." Elsewhere on resort property, including outdoor dining areas, are signs that read: "PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE WILDLIFE: Feeding changes their natural behavior and may be harmful to their health."

Prior to the attack, signs posted near the water advised against swimming but did not warn of alligators. Issues were raised recently about the feeding of gators, with one report saying that firefighters in the area were giving them food and told to stop.

The beaches are open during the day but closed from an hour before sundown to an hour after sunup. Guests are also allowed on the beaches at both resorts during the popular nightly fireworks show at the nearby Magic Kingdom, but they're asked to leave immediately after.

The boy's father, Matt Graves, told rescue officials that two alligators were involved in the fatal attack, according to a report in early July. The man, who was on vacation with his wife and son, was bitten and suffered lacerations while trying to save the boy by prying him from the gator's jaws, rescue officials said. The 2-year-old was wading on the beach behind the Grand Floridian in just a few inches of water.

But experts say that it's not unusual for an alligator to attack in shallow water or even dry land. They routinely eat wading birds, raccoons and dogs along the shoreline, according to a story in Sarasota magazine. Experts told the magazine that the best way to encounter an alligator is at an attraction that puts a wall between you and the animal.

State wildlife officials said they're confident they caught the alligator that killed the boy. Officials said they killed five during the 16-hour search for the boy's body, which was found intact about 15 yards from shore in the lagoon. Disney World covers more than 27,000 acres in central Florida, with many areas preserved for wildlife.

In late July, the parents released a statement saying they will not sue Disney World over the incident. Matt Graves and Melissa Graves said they hope to "keep (Lane's) spirit alive" through their work with the Lane Graves Foundation, which they set up to raise donations for various charities.

The death was the first alligator attack at Disney World since an 8-year-old was injured in 1986. More than 240 alligators have been caught and killed over the past decade on Disney World property, according to a report after the boy's death.



State records kept since 1948 show 348 attacks on humans across Florida and 24 fatalities. Once endangered with a population around 300,000, Florida alligators now number around 1 million. Experts warn that any body of fresh water can be home to one or more alligators.

-- Jim Hayward, The Palm Beach Post, Fla.




Former Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard has asked for a new trial, contending, among other claims, that the state presented faulty expert testimony about the ethics law.

Baxley claims that Sumner gave the jury an overly broad definition of "principal" in the law and incorrectly defined the "friendship exception" in the law.

The jury convicted Hubbard, among other charges, of receiving a total of $600,000 in investments from four business executives defined as principals under the law. Three of those executives testified that they were Hubbard's friends.

In a 39-page motion filed in Lee County Circuit Court on Friday, Baxley also claims that the investments were legal because they were a "full value exchange," with the four executives paying the same amount for the same equity as other investors in Craftmaster Printers, a company Hubbard co-owned.

The motion seeks acquittal, dismissal of the charges or a new trial.

The state, meanwhile, asked the court to reconsider its decision denying its request to order Hubbard to pay $1.1 million in restitution.

That's the total amount of investments and contract payments Hubbard and his companies received under the charges for which he was found guilty.

Lee County Circuit Judge Jacob Walker, who presided over the trial and sentenced Hubbard, did not order him to pay restitution the state had requested.

During the sentencing hearing, Walker asked prosecutors if they could cite a similar case under which the state was awarded restitution as a crime victim.

Prosecutors did not at that time.

In a 12-page motion filed Friday, Deputy Attorney General Michael Duffy cited cases in other states and also the case of former Rep. Greg Wren of Montgomery.

Wren pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor ethics charge in 2014 and paid $24,000 in court-ordered restitution to the state under the plea deal.

Wren's case resulted from the same Lee County special grand jury investigation that led to Hubbard's conviction.

A Lee County jury convicted Hubbard of 12 felony ethics charges, removing him from office. Walker sentenced him to four years in prison, eight years on probation and fined him $210,000.

Hubbard is out on bond.

Hubbard has also asked for an investigation into an allegation of possible juror misconduct.

Prosecutors have objected to that request.
mac mccutcheon

State Rep. Mac McCutcheon, R-Monrovia, has been selected by his fellow House Republicans to be Speaker of the House. (AL.com file photo/Bob Gathany/bgathany@al.com)

Imagine seeing your local legislator around town one day and you have a suggestion or an idea you want to put in his ear.

Auburn Mayor Bill Ham.

"I don't think anybody is ever bashful to say, 'Hey, can I talk to you for just a minute?'" Auburn Mayor Bill Ham said.

Now imagine if your local legislator just happens to be Speaker of the House - one of, if not the most, powerful political positions in Alabama.

That's the luxury folks in Huntsville now enjoy with state Rep. Mac McCutcheon, R-Monrovia, expected to be formally elected as House speaker when the legislature goes into special session Aug. 15.

"Is it a benefit to have the speaker in your community?" Ham asked. "I would say without question."

And who would know better than Ham, who was mayor of former state Rep. Mike Hubbard's hometown when he served for six years as House speaker?

Hubbard, of course, was booted out of office earlier this year when a Lee County grand jury convicted him on 12 felony counts of state ethics violations.

With Hubbard's departure, state House Republicans gathered earlier this week for a caucus on who the GOP wanted to take over as speaker. McCutcheon won the balloting and - given the Republican supermajority in the House - his floor vote before the full House membership to become speaker is considered only a formality.

McCutcheon, first elected to the House in 2006, assumes the leadership role in the House after serving two legislative sessions as chair of the Rules Committee - itself a powerful position in the State House.

He's a former Huntsville police officer and investigator and also worked for the city as a probation officer and zoning coordinator. He's a member of College Park Church of God in Huntsville.

And his home community of unincorporated Monrovia in Madison County is less than 15 miles from the center of Rocket City leadership in downtown Huntsville.

Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle. (Lee Roop/lroop@al.com)

"Mac McCutcheon is a man of strong character and has been a great partner for the city of Huntsville for many years," Mayor Tommy Battle said in a statement to AL.com. "He served as a Huntsville police officer and later as magistrate before moving on to represent our area as state legislator.

"He is a fine and fair person, and we look forward to working with him in this newest leadership role."

While maybe Battle took a diplomatic approach to the question about having a hometown speaker, Tom Butler had no such reservations. Butler, who lives in Madison in McCutcheon's House district, served seven terms in legislature, including three in the House.

"It is a huge plus, not just for our county but for all of north Alabama," he said.

Madison County Commission Chair Dale Strong agreed.

"I think it will probably re-engage us at another level," he said. "It's probably the biggest thing I see."

It's a dramatic change in the dynamics of Alabama politics, which has had leadership hail primarily from central and southern parts of the state. And north Alabama and the Huntsville area sometimes fall into the out-of-sight-out-of-mind trap.

Madison County Commission Chair Dale Strong (Bob Gathany/bgathany@al.com).

"The thing with him being in the speaker's position," Strong said, "he understands how critical and what Madison County does but also he understands what's going on in other places in the state and there might be teaming - whether it's the University of Alabama System and (the University of Alabama in Huntsville) or (the University of South Alabama) or (the University of North Alabama) or whatever it is, I think that's going to be the thing."

The Huntsville area hasn't had a legislator serve as Speaker of the House since the 1800s, Butler said. The only governor from north Alabama over the last 50 years was Cullman County's Guy Hunt from 1987 to 1993 and then his successor, Jim Folsom Jr., also from Cullman County, for two years after Hunt was removed from office after an ethics conviction.

Meanwhile, the Huntsville metro area - made up of Madison and Limestone counties (which fully encompass McCutcheon's House district) - is the second-largest in the state and Huntsville is poised to become the state's largest city in about 10 years.

Athens Mayor Ronnie Marks (AL.com file photo)

"Anytime you have a North Alabama delegate serve in this capacity - especially one who is part of our Limestone County Legislative Delegation - you anticipate that issues facing one of your fastest growing areas in the state and nation will receive attention," said Ronnie Marks, mayor of Athens - Limestone's largest city.

"Rep. McCutcheon already has worked with us on many projects and issues related to jobs and infrastructure."

But could there be a tangible benefit by having perhaps the state's most powerful politician as essentially a next-door neighbor in Huntsville?

Butler, for one, said he believes there could be.

"To me, the biggest one would be roads and transportation issues," he said. "Mac has been on the ATRIP committee (which works to fund state road projects) and on the Joint Transportation committee. Being the speaker, the highway department will have to deal with Mac and the budget chairs in the House, just like the governor has to, he has to get somebody to sponsor his legislation.

"Mac will have input on any legislation he wants to have input on. He's got a good relationship with the highway department now. But him being speaker, that puts them in the position of wanting to have a good relationship with him. It's just a big plus for all of us."

Former legislator Tom Butler (AL.com file photo)

Ham said the benefits may not be as tangible as a specific project but benefits will nevertheless exist.

"I would certainly expect that anyone in that position would be working for the betterment of all Alabama," the Auburn mayor said. "Now, certainly, having the speaker in our community and involved in our community day to day - whether it be having kids in the public schools to coming to local events - I don't think there's any question that those in the community where the speaker lives have an advantage just from communications and day to day interactions."

Said Strong, "Mac has known me all my life. I went to high school with his son. The big objective there is he's setting a legislative agenda and being ready to get something accomplished for the state of Alabama will be huge and it's exciting to see leadership from north Alabama going up to the next level."

Even as McCutcheon, as speaker, must focus on Alabama as a whole, knowledge of his prospering north Alabama home will perhaps give the Huntsville area a voice in Montgomery unlike it's ever had before.

"One of the things I'm hoping to do, especially with him as speaker of the house and me as chairman, I want to do a better job of letting our representatives and senators know the impact Madison County has, understanding we've got 67 counties in the state," Strong said.

Strong pointed to the fact that the region has announced 11,000 new jobs over the past three years as well as the economic engine known as Redstone Arsenal - with its more than 40,000 jobs and, Strong said, 7 percent of the state's gross domestic product.

Ultimately, though, it comes back to communication. Strong said McCutcheon is always a phone call away whenever he needs him. And if you see your local legislator, at least when it comes to McCutcheon, it won't be a back-bencher far from making things happen in the state capital.

Instead, the other 104 members of the House of Representatives will have to take their projects, bills and issues to McCutcheon.

"I'm sure speakers past, present and future are focused on the benefit of the entire state," Ham said. "But just the simple fact of geographically having the speaker there in your community is a big deal. And we touted it as a big deal. We thought it was positive for our city, our county, Auburn University, Southern Union (Community College).

"It's a plus, no question about it."

Updated today, Aug. 7, 2016, at 11:43 a.m. with Jim Folsom Jr. also serving as governor from north Alabama for two years.
ISLAMABAD (AP) -- An American citizen who was deported from Pakistan and blacklisted years ago has been arrested upon returning to the country, officials said Saturday.



Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency officials arrested Mathew Craig Barrett from an Islamabad guest house, said Sarfaraz Hussain, a spokesman for the country's Interior Ministry.

Huntsville native Matthew Barrett is shown here in a still from a YouTube video.





He said Barrett was deported in 2011 after being found in the area of a sensitive installation. He did not elaborate but said, "If someone was blacklisted there should have been something serious."



Barrett, a 33-year old Alabama native, was previously arrested May 2011 in the Fateh Jang area near a highly secretive military research facility.



He had lived in Pakistan for four years, married a Pakistani woman and had two children. In media reports and a letter smuggled from jail in 2011 to the Guardian newspaper, Barrett strongly denied local suspicions that he was a spy and claimed he was a victim of simmering tensions at the time between the U.S. and Pakistani governments. He was eventually deported and banned from the country.



Hussain said Barrett obtained a visa from the Pakistani consulate in Houston and managed to clear the airport immigration counter. An FIA official said a court has allowed the agency to hold him for three days for investigation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media. He said Barrett mentioned a "family visit" and a one-month intended stay in Islamabad in his travel documents.



U.S. embassy spokesman Christopher Snipes said in a text message that the privacy act "prohibits us from releasing information about American citizens without their consent."



Hussain said the interior minister has ordered a thorough inquiry into how Barrett managed to enter Pakistan again and suspended the airport immigration staff.
HENSLER  Dwight Duke farms hard all day without worrying a wink about sliding commodity prices up on the board of trade.

He grows peas, beans and corn just like the big boys with the big farm toys. But his crops go from field directly to table, unlike the processing plant versions grown on mega farms. It is he, not some futures market analyst, who sets the value of what he grows.

Duke, 66, is so far from that realm of futures-trading farming its like another planet, and he is proof that a sustainable living can come from 25 acres and four greenhouses, instead of 25,000 acres and four green Deeres.

Skyline Ranch Produce is located just outside Hensler not far from the Missouri River. Duke has been raising produce there on a full-time basis since 1994, steadily diversifying and expanding the greenhouse side of the operation. Most of his produce, ranging from ferny fennel to gigantic red peppers, to Yukon gold potatoes and sweet corn, is grown in the great outdoors. He is as dependent on weather and as wary of hail as any farmer, with the exception of a drip watering system that aids, but doesnt replace, rainfall.

The Lord makes this stuff grow. All I have to do is tend to it, and Im happy to be able to get up every day and do it, he says.

Most of the labor at Skyline Ranch Produce sans machinery, including the sales from his hands to customers hands at six area farmers markets in Beulah, Hazen, Washburn and Bismarck. He also supplies produce to the new Bisman Food Cooperative. There is money in the produce business  he grosses six figures annually on food he sells by the pound  but physical labor is involved in every penny.

You have to be fast, love hard work and be able to put up with some weeds, he says.

Vegetable farming isnt for everyone, but it is for a growing number of people, says Jamie Good, local foods specialist with the State Agriculture Department.

He keeps a local foods directory of 125 to 150 participants, most of them selling raw produce, though some sell jellies, jams or flour ground from small grains at about 50 farmers markets around the state.

Good said Duke is a go-to guy for others interested in making income off the land from smaller-scale produce production rather than a full-on farm or ranch.

Dukes customers are buying quality week in and week out. His produce is just phenomenal, Good said. Hes one who others look to as someone whos doing it right.

People generally are becoming more aware of where their food is sourced and enjoy buying locally grown produce when they can, according to Good.

Duke says there is a relationship between good health and eating produce enriched with minerals from home ground and acclimated specifically to North Dakota. No chemicals of any kind are applied to his produce, including herbicides to hold down the weeds that have sprouted like, well, weeds in the recent rains.

Most of the time, its just hoe, hoe, hoe, he said.

Duke experiments every year, adding produce that catches his interest or is requested by customers.

I love this, he says, opening the door to one of the greenhouses, where the opalescent light illuminates sprawling green sweet potato vines.

Digging into the soil, he pulls up a few of the orangey tubers, still lanky, but gradually filling out as harvest comes on. Its likely hell be among the very few growers selling fresh sweet potatoes later this fall to roast for an autumn dinner.

Good said local growers are always looking for a niche and says, like any farm operation, no matter how big or small, it pays to not put all your eggs in one basket. Diversification is as important in produce as in any crop production.

There is no magic bullet, but there is value in fresh, Good said.

He urges anyone interested in growing and selling local foods to contact him at the ag department and check in with the local public health district to be in sync with any codes and other growers.
After witnessing women and children in the water screaming for help, many peoples world view changed.

Lesbos, Greece  Before sunrise, 45-year-old fisherman Kostas Pinteris launches his small boat eastwards with a plan to drop his nets near the Greece-Turkey border in the Mediterranean.

As he leaves the port, he looks right and left, worried. Just a few hours ago, the attempted coup had kicked off in Turkey. Talk on the island was that the violence could lead to a new surge in refugees embarking for Lesbos.

I remember I was a young boy, and I saw Iraqi men arriving on small rubber boats with paddles, Pinteris says while pulling his fish-laden nets out of the water. We wondered, Why are these men here?'

Like most of the people in this small and conservative village, Pinteris initially viewed the arrivals as an invasion. But now, in light of recent events, even some of the most hardened Greeks on the islands have changed their minds.

After having experienced what we have this year, with women and children in the water screaming for help, many peoples world views have changed, Pinteris says.

People traffic

The small village of Skala Sykmias, home to 60 people where Pinteris was born and grew up, became the centre of the refugee crisis last year.

There was constant people traffic, from the more than 400,000 refugees landing on beaches near the village, along with the staff and volunteers of government and nongovernmental organisations who have been staying in the village for months.

READ MORE: The refugees making Greece feel like home

In the peak of the refugee crisis, when there were so many operations taking place that the coastguard and Frontex, Europes coastguard, called Pinteris and other fishermen asking them to get out of bed and go to the sea to find a sinking refugee boat until one of coastguard boats could come to the rescue.

We suddenly became an international centre, with people arriving from all over the world, Pinteris says, leaving the little port behind.

We never know what the day will be like. Its really difficult. Theres a lot of stress. When youre the only fisherman around, and there are people in the water everywhere around you, you panic, he says.

Anti-immigrant fears

Since the Greece-Macedonia borders closed in February and the European Union and Turkey reached a deal to relocate refugees soon after, Greece, within a few weeks, went from being a transit country to a host for refugees seeking security and jobs in Europe.

Some are slated to go back to Turkey while others are living in a state of limbo. Its not clear where they will go now.

According to Ministry of Immigration press releases, more than 50,000 people who cant continue their journey to Western Europe are now stuck in camps that were hastily set up all over Greece.

Another 9,000 are stuck on the Greek islands, with almost 4,000 of them staying on Pinteris island in two camps an hour-long drive from his village.

The governments narrative quickly changed. In public statements, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his cabinet began focusing more so on illegal immigrants and less on the asylum-seekers and refugees needing international protection.

From helping the refugees, the discourse is now focused on border security and deportations.

Lesbos islanders believe the shift means their islands will be the ones taking on the burden. According to the Lesbos Hoteliers Association, tourism has gone down by 40 percent as tourists were discouraged by videos of beaches full of life vests. For months, fishermen couldnt work because they were preoccupied with rescue missions.

I didnt carry any nets on the boat during the peak time of the migration crisis, says Pinteris. I had to put people on the boat. So I just went for calamari, where I dont use any equipment. My work was down by 90 percent.

READ MORE: Life-jacket mountain a metaphor for Greeces refugees

In September last year, Greeces nationalist party, Golden Dawn, increased its votes to 7.8 percent from 4.6 percent on the Lesbos islands, which received the refugees.

The perils of the journey

Anti-immigrant sentiments have become common among the islanders.





We dont know how many will come and where theyll all fit. Otherwise, Europe will slowly turn into Asia, Pinteris says sceptically. The one million that crossed will bring another million, their siblings and other relatives.

At the same time, however, Pinteris is torn about what should happen. He cant imagine that Europe will deport people to Turkey after theyve gone through such perils in their journey to Europe.

Im not afraid because these people want to live, he says. They want to survive. If there will be peace in their countries, I believe theyll return.

Returning to the port, a dozen stray cats greet Pinteris. My most loyal clients, he says, throwing them some fish.

I cant say Im a hero because I helped save people, he reflects.

I simply extended my hand. They also have a right to live. But Im more sad for the young children. They cant understand whats going on. At least the grown-ups chose to make the crossing, but not these young children.
It is essential to invest in clearing the vestiges of ISIL and listen to what refugees want when they return.

The Iraqi women who had just fled from an area controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) were still fearful of the group.

Sheltering behind an earthen berm and a Kurdish Peshmerga-controlled checkpoint not far from where the Iraqi army is fighting ISIL in Qayyara, the women didnt want their full faces shown, lest ISIL harm their relatives.

They took my brother and sent him to Mosul because he wanted to flee, said one woman, in local Arabic. She is one of the almost 3.3 million internally displaced people and refugees who have fled ISIL and other groups to find refuge in Iraq.

As ISIL is slowly being defeated in northern Iraq, it is essential that regional powers focus on these refugees and plan now for the rebuilding of their communities that have been damaged by war or risk a repeat of the tragedies and chaos that had allowed ISIL to emerge in the first place.

Massive displacement

Among the largest refugee flows in Iraq are people fleeing into areas controlled by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

For instance, in April of 2016, the International Organization for Migration estimated that over one million people had left Nineveh province around Mosul to the KRG ( PDF ).

This represents around half the population of the province and includes many of the hundreds of thousands of Assyrian Christians, Yazidis, Shabaks and Kakei minorities that ISIL persecuted.

As the war has continued, more than a million people fled Sunni cities such as Tikrit, Fallujah and Ramadi, which have been recaptured by the Iraqi government and its Shia militia allies.

Estimates show that 80 percent of Ramadi is in ruins after its recapture in 2015 and that residents of cities such as Tikrit and Fallujah fear to return.

To ensure that the liberation of these areas doesn't become another vicious cycle and reproduce a new ISIL, refugees should be received now with increased funding and investment in their future. by

Sectarian killings have made many people deeply suspicious of the future. Sunni Arab refugees I met in Erbil claimed their relatives had been kidnapped by militias and they preferred to move to Europe rather than return.

Yazidis said they feared to go back to Sinjar without protection from ISIL. Assyrians claimed that Mosul will never be the same.

In mid-July, I went to the frontlines near Bashiqa and Makhmour, where refugees have been increasingly fleeing ISIL as pressure mounts on its last bastions in Iraq.

OPINION: Liberating Mosul will not solve Iraqs problems

The women told stories of being harassed by extremists on the streets when they went to buy tomatoes, and young men being forcibly recruited for war.

These are the dying gasps of an extremist regime, but what it leaves behind is a legacy of destruction and suspicion.

Massive effort needed

The KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said in an interview with Voice of America on July 24 that 500,000 new refugees are estimated to be fleeing the fighting. We are working with Baghdad and looking forward to assistance from the international community.

The reality on the ground is that basic services are lacking. In Bashiqa, one American medical volunteer has been accompanying Kurdish forces who take in people fleeing.

In Makhmour, there were no international NGOs near the front to meet people, and members of a Sunni anti-ISIL militia named al-Hashd al-Watani were helping the refugees get their bearings.

The US State Department hosted a pledging conference on July 20 and received pledges of over $2bn for Iraq.

This amount is not nearly enough for the kinds of programmes that need to be put in place now to secure the future of Iraqs refugees, and to make sure that the chaos that plagued Iraq after the US invasion will not return in the vacuum left by ISIL.

OPINION: ISIL may be in crisis, but so is the coalition

Regional powers, such as Turkey, the Gulf states and Saudi Arabia, in particular, have a significant interest in securing stability in Iraq, especially in the areas that are being liberated from ISIL.

In addition, they have the regional sensibilities that have been lacking in the US role in places such as Afghanistan and Iraq, where massive amounts of money spent has not translated into impact on the ground.

Plan for the future

Before the rise of ISIL, the Nineveh plains were one of the most diverse and culturally rich places in Iraq. Mosul was a crossroad of civilisations.

The rise of ISIL grew out of resentment against Baghdad and built on a decade of insurgencies by groups like al-Qaeda.

To ensure that the liberation of these areas doesnt become another vicious cycle and reproduce a new ISIL, refugees should be received now with increased funding and investment in their future. However, the KRG government and Baghdad face an economic crisis.

Reconstruction projects are yet to begin in places such as Sinjar, which was liberated last year, and in Khazir which was liberated in May.

In some cases ISIL tunnels and mines still need removal. It is essential to invest aggressively in clearing the vestiges of the extremist group, listen to what refugees want when they return and reconstruct damaged areas. Plan for the future so as not to repeat the past.

Seth J Frantzman is a Jerusalem-based commentator on Middle East politics and has lectured in American studies at Al-Quds University. He has just returned from fieldwork in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Phillip Galea, who is reportedly linked to far-right groups, says charges against him are conspiracy against patriots.

A 31-year-old man with reported links to far-rights groups has appeared in an Australian court charged with planning a terror attack.

Phillip Galea was arrested in a series of police raids in the city of Melbourne on Saturday. He was charged with acts done in preparation for a terrorist act and collecting or making documents likely to facilitate a terrorist act.

I will be fighting these charges and I believe they are a conspiracy against the patriot movement, Galea told a Melbourne magistrates court hearing on Sunday, according to the Australian Associated Press.

Australian media organisations reported that Galea had links to far-right organisations, such as Reclaim Australia and True Blue Crew. The groups, which are not political parties, have previously been involved in violent clashes with pro-immigration groups at anti-Islam rallies in Melbourne.

READ MORE: Unease with Australias Islamophobia

Reclaim Australia posted a statement on its Facebook that it had no links to the arrested man and that it always denounced violence.

We represent the middle ground of Australia, not far right, nor extremist, the group said.

Australian police said: The individual in custody has a number of affiliations to different organisations, but refused to name any of them.

Police did not give details of the target of the alleged attack, but said that it was in the southern state of Victoria.

READ MORE: Australias Pauline Hanson wins on anti-Islam ticket

Ross Guenther, the Victoria police counterterrorism command assistant commissioner, told Australian media that earlier this year authorities had received information suggesting there were people, or an individual, looking at either advocating harm or producing documents that might lead to the harm of people in the state.

Im very pleased to say I think weve interrupted something that could have been quite serious in terms of harm to our community, he said.

Far-right political parties, opposing Islam and Asian immigration, are currently on the rise in Australia.
Online petition signed by more than half a million people demands closure of theme park where the animal is on display.

Guangzhou, China  More than half a million people have signed an online petition calling for the closure of a theme park in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, where a polar bear is on show.

The Arctic animal, who goes by the name of Pizza, is the main attraction for people visiting the Grandview shopping centre.

But animal-rights groups say conditions in the theme park are incredibly poor and have called for the polar bear to be moved.

This obviously affects him psychologically and behaviourally, which then affects his level of happiness, Karina OCarroll, of Animals Asia, told Al Jazeera.

The manager of the theme park has dismissed allegations that the polar bear was being mistreated, and accused the animal-rights groups as also the international media of conducting a witch-hunt against him and his colleagues.

READ MORE: Wildlife crime  Stealing animals to sell as pets

Nevertheless, many of the spectators are also expressing their concern for the bear.

This place is very small, one woman said. The bear is playing by himself. Hes lonely, and he needs interactions.

The online campaign has so far gathered more than 530,000 signatures, but there is no law covering animal welfare in China.

When people are unaware of the actual trauma to these animals living in conditions like this, they will keep going to see them, Animals Asias OCarroll said.

So we really need to educate the public that facilities such as these cannot meet the natural needs, behaviourally and physically, of the animals.
Tens of thousands have left Cuba in the past two years, taking perilous routes to reach the US.

Cuba has blamed the United States for encouraging illegal and unsafe immigration by tens of thousands of Cubans who have left the country in the past two years.

Havana released a statement on Sunday saying Cubans leaving the country illegally were the victims of the politicisation of the migration issue by the US government which stimulates illegal and unsafe immigration, Reuters news agency reported.

The US policy of welcoming Cubans without visas contradicted normalisation efforts between Havana and Washington, the statement added.

More than 46,500 Cubans arrived and were admitted to the US without visas during the first 10 months of the US governments fiscal year 2016, according to the Pew Research Center. That figure compares with more than 43,000 Cubans in 2015 and just over 24,000 in 2014.





Special privileges

Unlike citizens of other countries, Cubans who make it to US borders have special entry privileges under the Cold War-era Cuban Adjustment Act, which gives Cuban citizens special welfare benefits and allows them to apply for permanent residency after 366 days in the country.

Under the act, Cubans who set foot on US territory are treated as legal immigrants, while people from any other country are considered illegal.

The large increase in the number of Cubans attempting to reach the US, particularly by overland routes through South and Central America, coincides with the restoration of diplomatic relations between Washington and Havana.

There are fears among ordinary Cubans that diplomatic normalisation between Havana and Washington will mean they lose their privilieged entry status to the US.

Regional governments have also responded to the increase in Cubans travelling overland to the US by closing down border routes.

Nicaragua was the first country to close its borders in November to Cubans travelling overland to Mexico and on to the US. Though initially facilitating the transit of several thousand Cubans through its territory, Costa Rica also closed its borders in April as numbers grew.

Nearly 1,300 Cubans are currently stranded in miserable conditions on the Colombia-Panama border after that route was closed.





We only know they are going to be deported, but we dont know how or in what form, William Gonzalez, a regional Colombian government ombudsman, said last week.

Of the 1,297 Cubans who arrived in the Colombian border town of Turbo three months ago, about 300 are children aged 14 or under, as well as 11 pregnant women.

What worries us most at this moment is the health and welfare situation of the 300 children, he said, explaining that the Cubans have been living amid insects and rodents in a makeshift shelter with inadequate sanitary facilities.

Without any pressure or force

Havana released its statement criticising the US on Sunday to coincide with the arrival of 14 Cubans deported by Colombia.

Colombia said last week that stranded Cubans requesting voluntary deportation would be granted safe passage to their home countries or to the last country they were in before entering Colombia.

For many of them that is Cuba or Ecuador.

We wanted to handle this, Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin said of the stranded Cubans.

The US Coast Guard on Saturday reported that since October, at least 5,786 Cubans have been intercepted at sea trying to reach the southeastern US coast.
Turkeys attempted coup saw unprecedented reconciliation between political factions, but HDP was left out in the cold.

A day after Turkeys failed coup attempt, all major political parties united against the unparalleled attack on the Turkish democracy, issuing a joint declaration to condemn it.

Faced with the threat of a Gulenist coup, everyone left aside their political differences and joined hands to make sure that never again will the people be stripped of their right to choose their leaders, a senior government official told Al Jazeera.

OPINION: In Turkey, democratic transparency defeats esoterism

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also put aside acrimony with the leaders of two opposition parties, inviting them to the presidential palace for talks in a gesture of national unity.

And a week after their historic meeting at the presidential palace on July 25, in an unprecedented move, Erdogan invited Republican Peoples Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli to join him in a major democracy rally in Istanbuls Yenikapi Square.

We do not see any indication that the HDP's political exclusion is going to end anytime soon. by Saruhan Oluc, vice president of the HDP

Let the nation be there together, Erdogan told Turkeys state-run Anadolu Agency before Sundays rally. Accelerating the process of normalisation is extremely important for our country.

But the leader of the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP), Selahattin Demirtas, was excluded from both the post-coup talks in the palace and the rally, on the grounds that his party allegedly supports the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The HDPs exclusion, however, has given rise to concerns that Turkey is denying a large section of society representation in discussions about the nations future.

We can see that he [Erdogan] is purposefully absenting himself from a meeting with Demirtas, with the HDP, said Tarik Celenk, a retired major and the founder of Ekopolitik, a conservative think-tank that aims to create dialogue between Turkish and Kurdish nationalists.

In the past, I personally observed what a considerable impact Demirtas had on the civil society, Celenk told Al Jazeera. I think it is regrettable to exclude him and his party from these talks.

WATCH: Erdogan  Will do everything for stability of Turkey

The failed coup attempt by a faction of the Turkish military on July 15 killed more than 270 people and posed the gravest threat yet to Erdogans 13 years in power.

Loyalist factions in the security forces, with the help of thousands of Turkish citizens who took to the streets after a call for help from the president, quickly put down the coup attempt, but the repercussions continue to ripple throughout Turkish society.

The Turkish government has blamed US-based cleric and businessman Fethullah Gulen, a former Erdogan ally, of masterminding the incident, and has detained or suspended more than 60,000 people in the military, judiciary, civil service and education for alleged links to his movement.

Demirtas himself has criticised Erdogans refusal to talk to the HDP after the coup attempt, claiming that what brought together the ruling AK party, the MHP and the CHP was their shared nationalism.

All three want Turkey to unite under the banner of the same sect and speak the same language. They want Turkey to become a single light bulb, Demirtas told HDP supporters at a recent rally in Van, referring to the AK partys logo, which features a brightly shining light bulb. They dont want to talk to us about anything.

Erdogan has previously called for members of the HDP to face prosecution, accusing them of being the PKKs political wing. Turkey, the United States and the European Union designate the PKK, an armed group that has been fighting for Kurdish autonomy since 1984, as a terrorist organisation.

The HDP, parliaments third-biggest party, denies direct links with the PKK and promotes a negotiated end to the Kurdish conflict, which has claimed hundreds of lives since a peace process, once led by Erdogan and the AK party, collapsed in 2015.

Nothing positive has happened since the failed coup attempt, Saruhan Oluc, vice president of the HDP, told Al Jazeera. The president is maintaining the same accusatory, exclusionist attitude towards the HDP that he had since the June 2015 general elections.

They do not want to include the HDP in these post-coup meetings, he added, because they do not want the Turkish public to change its negative perception of the HDP  a perception that was constructed [by the government]. We do not see any indication that the HDPs political exclusion is going to end anytime soon  We dont have any reason to be hopeful about a peace process.

Analysts agreed that Erdogans decision to snub Demirtas, who strongly condemned the coup attempt, at a time of perceived national solidarity shows that a renewed Kurdish peace process will not be on the cards in the near future.

After the coup attempt, Turkish peoples priority is safety, Ali Faik Demir, an expert on Turkish politics and foreign policy at Istanbuls Galatasaray University, told Al Jazeera. It wont be possible for the government to negotiate a peace deal in this environment.

OPINION: Syrian Kurds and Turkeys Kurdish question

The coups aftermath saw a short-lived cessation in violence in the mainly Kurdish southeast, but late last month, Turkish military forces announced that they had killed 35 Kurdish fighters who attempted to storm a military base in the border province of Hakkari.

At the moment, after the failed coup attempt, Turkey's threat perception is higher than ever before. by Ali Faik Demir, Galatasaray University

After the clash, which also claimed the lives of eight Turkish soldiers, the government renewed its vows to eradicate the PKK, as thousands of Turks took to social media to call for a cull of terrorist elements in the southeast.

At the moment, after the failed coup attempt, Turkeys threat perception is higher than ever before, Demir said. So it is understandable for Turkey to respond to any internal or external threat swiftly and brutally. This includes the activities of the Kurdish insurgency.

Celenk, of the Ekopolitik think-tank, however, warned that this approach may cause further problems for the Turkish government in the long term.

One of the factors that led to the failed coup attempt was the suspension of the attempts to find a political solution for the Kurdish problem, he said. The decision to suspend the peace talks restricted the influence of the political sphere and strengthened the hand of the military bureaucracy. So, to avoid a similar attack on the democracy in this new era, it is essential for the government to find a political solution to the Kurdish issue.

OPINION: Turkeys missed opportunity

The Turkish government, meanwhile, says it is not shying away from solving the problems of the Kurdish community, noting it is simply fighting against the PKK, a terrorist organisation.

Over the years, this government implemented various democratic reforms to promote and celebrate Turkeys cultural diversity, the senior government official told Al Jazeera.

Even though the PKK ended a two-year ceasefire in July 2015, we did not backtrack on any of the reforms. In this sense, we make a clear distinction between PKK, which targeted police officers trying to stop the coupists on July 15, and the Kurdish community, whose members took to the streets to defend our democracy.

Analysts agreed that Turkey must distinguish between the PKK and the broader Kurdish community, but criticised the governments reluctance to work with political representatives of the Kurdish movement, especially during a time of solidarity.

If Turkey wants to be a solid democracy, an influential actor in the Middle East and a player in the battle against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL, also known as ISIS), it must solve the Kurdish problem once and for all, Celenk said.

The government has to create a shared vision with Turkeys Kurds, he said. It is the only way Turkey can be a safe place within, and in the international arena.
We are doing fine in a lovely tent camp in Kenya with limited Internet when the generator is running. This is a land of amazing people and magnificent animals. Its been an amazing trip so far, but a bit tough. Wildebeests and zebras are common, but the Internet is a rare commodity.

According to his itinerary, most of this week they will be at the Mara Bush Camp doing game drives (aka driving to see wild animals). Sounds so exciting!

This week in the 2016 Conference Coverage section, weve posted the second half of the interview with Dr. Jeffrey Jones from EHA. We had posted the first half of the interview on the role of venetoclax in CLL in The CLL Tribune.

http://www.cllsociety.org/newsletter/quarter-2-2016-volume-2-issue-2/interview-2016-eha-dr-jeffrey-jones-role-venetoclax-cll/

This time Dr. Jones and Brian discussed the latest data in novel combination therapies in CLL  what combinations result in better outcomes, and which dont seem to. You can see it here.
Shahram Amiri executed for revealing top secrets to US after returning voluntarily to Tehran

Iran has executed a nuclear scientist convicted of handing over top secret information to the United States, a judicial spokesman has said.

Shahram Amiri was hanged for revealing the countrys top secrets to the enemy [US], the spokesman, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejeie, was quoted as saying by the Mizan Online news agency on Sunday.

A day earlier, Amiris mother told the BBC that the body had been handed over with rope marks around his neck.

Amiri disappeared in Saudi Arabia in June 2009 and resurfaced a year later in the United States. In a surprise move, Amiri then returned to Tehran in July 2010, saying he had been kidnapped at gunpoint by two Farsi-speaking CIA agents in the Saudi city of Medina.

At first he was greeted as a hero in Tehran, telling reporters as he stepped off the plane that he had resisted pressure from his US captors to pretend he was a defector. He said US officials wanted him to tell the media he had defected on his own and was carrying important documents and a laptop which contained classified secrets of Irans military nuclear programme.

But with Gods will, I resisted, Amiri said as he was welcomed home by his tearful wife and young son.

However, it was soon clear that Iranian authorities had not accepted his version of events and Amiri dropped out of public view. He was probably arrested although it was never officially reported.

Tehran outsmarted the US

Ejeie said the Iranian intelligence services had outsmarted the US.

This person, having access to confidential and highly confidential information of the regime, had established a connection to our number one enemy, America, and had provided the enemy with Irans confidential and vital information, he said.

Shahram Amiri was tried in accordance with law and in the presence of his lawyer. He appealed his death sentence based on judicial process. The Supreme Court  confirmed it after meticulous reviews, he added.

Numerous media reports in recent years have supported the idea that Amiri was a defector with highly prized information on Tehrans nuclear programme.

Shahram Amiri described to American intelligence officers details of how a university in Tehran became the covert headquarters for the countrys nuclear efforts, the New York Times reported in July 2010, citing unnamed US officials.

While still in Iran, he was also one of the sources for a much-disputed National Intelligence Estimate on Irans suspected weapons programme, published in 2007, the report said.

Between 2010 and 2012, four nuclear scientists were assassinated inside Iran and a fifth survived a bomb attack. The government blamed the attacks on US and Israeli intelligence services.

Iran finally reached a deal with world powers, who had grown increasingly concerned that Iran was pursuing a nuclear weapon, in July 2015, when Tehran promised to curb its programme in exchange for a lifting of international sanctions.

Tehran and Washington have had no diplomatic ties since 1980, when students stormed the American embassy following the 1979 Islamic revolution.
In country with shrinking and ageing population, hauling company builds exoskeleton to take strain off its workforce.

Nara, Japan  A Japanese hauling company which employs many elderly people has invested in an exoskeleton to take the strain off its staff.

Tatsumi Shokai Logistics  which employs more than 700 people in total across its sites  has been building the robot since 2014.

The exoskeleton helps employees to carry out their jobs, which include constantly loading, unloading, carrying and bending.

READ MORE: In Japan, new knees for the old

The burden on my back and legs has been lessened by half, Kenji Takemura, an employee at the company for more than 34 years, told Al Jazeera.

The 57-year-old said that he could do the same work over a long period of time, adding that he hoped to continue working for another decade.

The findings of the recent national census suggest Japans population will fall dramatically over the next few decades.

Workforce shortage

With an ageing population and fewer young people to replace them, some academics predict that finding a fit and capable workforce will be challenging.

We will have a shortage of workforce in the future and robotics could help us, Yasuhiko Saito, a Nihon University professor specialising in demography and gerontology, told Al Jazeera.

I think the migration policy wont help to replace the shortage of the labour force. So robotics may be the one way to accommodate that shortage.

Companies such as Tatsumi Shokai are spearheading research.

READ MORE: Safe surgery innovations in Uganda

Exoskeletons are not a new invention but Tatsumi Shokai may be the first company prioritising older people as principal users.

The cost of these projects is kept secret but the results are tested out publicly.

Tatsumi Shokais robot, which would allow someone to work beyond their retirement age, can lift a person of more than 89kg.

The current prototype is for those who walk long distances, such as those who work in the countryside or in hilly areas. It helps maintain stamina and strength as well as supporting the bodys joints.

More people can work with the assist suits. People can continue working longer and the devices allow people who do not have enough physical strength to work again, Keiko Fakul of Activelink said.
Women and children among the dead in attack on the hospital near the city of Idlib in the countrys northwest.

At least 10 people, including three children and four women, have been killed in air strikes on a hospital in northwestern Syrias rebel-held Idlib province.

Al Jazeeras Adham Abu Hossam, reporting from the site of the attack in Meles, a town about 15km from Idlib city, said Saturdays raids had also left many in critical condition.

Destruction is everywhere. This hospital has been targeted with four consecutive air strikes, he said, adding that rescue teams continued the search for survivors.





Humanitarian groups have repeatedly called for a halt to strikes on medical facilities.

Syrian opposition groups say Syrian and Russian forces deliberately target medical buildings.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, also reported the air strikes, saying it was not yet clear whether Russian or Syrian government jets had targeted the hospital

The hospital now is completely out of service. According to doctors working in it, the hospital used to serve 70,000 people in this area, said Al Jazeeras Hossam.

This is not the only hospital targeted by regime and Russian air strikes today.

They also targeted a hospital in Sarmin [also in Idlib province] and it is now out of service. Other hospitals have been targeted in the last few days.

Syrian American Medical Society, the medical charity, said that July was the worst month for attacks on medical centres since the beginning of Syrias five-year-old conflict.

There were 43 attacks on healthcare facilities in Syria in July  more than one attack every day, the charity said in a statement.

Aleppo siege broken

Opposition activists reported further developments in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo with the first humanitarian aid convoy containing food supplies coming in after rebels declared they had broken the government siege on Saturday.

READ MORE: Syria opposition says rebels break siege of Aleppo

Fadi Hajjar of the Aleppo Media Centre said the lorry had been sent from fellow Syrians in Idlib, which lies southwest of Aleppo, but that rebels still needed to create a passage between the liberated and previously besieged areas.

It is full of wreckage. We need to remove [the wreckage] before we can bring in more trucks and more aid, Hajjar told Al Jazeera.

Food and other vital supplies have been running low since government forces surrounded Aleppo last month.

Now, with the government siege reportedly broken, a coalition of rebel groups has announced the takeover of a strategic military base there.

The latest activist videos show people celebrating in the streets of Aleppo, but Syrian state TV says government troops repelled the rebel offensive, killing hundreds of fighters.

The Syrian conflict began as a mostly unarmed uprising against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011, but it quickly escalated into a full-blown civil war between government forces loyal to Assad and various opposition groups.

The observatory estimates that more than 280,000 Syrians have been killed throughout the five years of bloodshed.
Polls close in vote on charter that generals claim will bring stability but critics say is meant to cement armys hold.

Polls have closed in a referendum across Thailand on a controversial new constitution that has been been drafted by the military-led government.

The military says the constitution  Thailands 20th since absolute monarchy was abolished in the 1930s  will curb political corruption, bring stability and heal more than a decade of bitter political division.

But critics say it is intended to tighten the militarys grip on democracy.

Polls opened at 8am local time (01:00 GMT) on Sunday, offering Thais the first chance to vote since powerful Thai generals toppled a democratically elected government in 2014.





If people vote to accept the military-approved constitution, opponents say, it will cement the role of the armed forces in Thailand politics for decades and constrain the populist forces that have arisen in recent times to challenge the generals and their allies in the royalist establishment.

There is great anticipation and excitement here in Thailand because we havent had a say for so long, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University, told Al Jazeera.

This draft constitution is highly consequential about how things are going to be in Thailand in the coming months and years.

Despite the importance of the referendum, public debate has been muted.

Many have yet to see a copy of the draft constitution, while the military government has effectively banned campaigning against the document; they have arrested and detained dozens of activists and politicians in the run-up to the referendum, some of them trying to hand out leaflets urging people to vote no.

A public referendum is supposed to be a democratic tool, but in Thailand it has a very different look, said Al Jazeeras Wayne Hay, reporting from Bangkok.

When opponents of the military coup tried to open centres to monitor possible cheating before the vote, they were shut down within minutes, he said.

Rude discussion

In the run-up to the vote, the referendum law allowed for a 10-year prison sentence for those found guilty of rude or false discussion about the draft constitution.

Such restrictions did not apply to the yes vote, and the military government broadcast songs and television programmes to drum up support for a positive result in the referendum.

Under the Referendum Act, we cant lead the public to vote no. We have already made our position clear that we will not accept this constitution, Thida Thavornseth, of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, told Al Jazeera.









One clause in the draft constitution would allow an unelected prime minister to take power in the event of a political crisis  which is exactly what happened when Thailands army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha, now prime minister, took power in 2014.

In the draft constitution, a fully appointed senate could block the work of elected politicians.

The 250-member senate will be appointed by the military and six seats will be reserved for security forces.

Amorn Wanichwiwatana, a member of the drafting committee of the constitution, said the planned appointed senate would act like a steering committee on any future governments.

The appointed senate will guarantee that they will check and balance the power of the future government. They wont really overplay or overshadow the future government but theyre acting like a steering committee I would say, he told Al Jazeera.

Majority undecided

Polls show a large majority of Thailands 50 million voters are undecided.

Whatever the result, the draft constitution is unlikely to be Thailands last  the country has seen 19 constitutions since the 1930s. With 12 successful military coups  and more than a handful of failed coup attempts in that time  it is unlikely that Thailands generals are going to bow out of the countrys political life any time soon.

And, as Al Jazeeras Hay noted, if the constitution is not passed, the government says it will write another version and there will be no referendum.

Thailand will hold a general election in 2017 even if the draft constitution does not pass the referendum, the prime minister has said.
UN-sponsored negotiations end without an agreement after Houthi rebels and their allies announce a new governing body.

UN-sponsored talks for establishing peace in Yemen have ended without a breakthrough, as fighting continues between government forces and rebels near the capital Sanaa.

The adjourning of the talks on Saturday came after Houthi fighters and the party of Ali Abdullah Saleh, the former president, rejected a UN peace plan and announced the appointment of a 10-member governing body to run Yemen.

Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the UN envoy on Yemen, announced on Saturday a month-long suspension of the talks, held in Kuwait for more than 90 days, but denied their failure.





We will be leaving Kuwait today but the Yemeni peace talks are continuing, Ould Cheikh Ahmed said in Kuwait City.

We have guarantees and commitments from the two sides that they are ready to return to the negotiating table, he said, while criticising the creation of the council by the Houthis and their allies.

We condemn any unilateral step.

The rebels said the plan, which had been accepted by Yemens internationally recognised government, did not meet their key demand for a unity government  a condition that amounts to an explicit call for President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadis removal.

Meanwhile, forces loyal to Hadi launched a major new offensive east of Sanaa to liberate the district of Nehem, the pro-government sabanew.net news agency said on Saturday.

Important route

The area is a key route to Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, which has been under Houthi control since 2014.

The army and the resistance have managed to liberate a number of important military positions that had been controlled by the coup militias, most prominent of which is the Manara mount which overlooks the centre of Nehem district, the agency quoted a military spokesman as saying.

READ MORE: Key facts about the war in Yemen

Local sources told Al Jazeera on Sunday that intense air strikes by the Arab coalition hit Houthi gatherings and camps in Mokha, Haradh and Midi, eastern Yemen, as well as in Nehem.

Yemen descended into chaos after the 2012 removal of Saleh, whose forces are fighting alongside the Houthi fighters.

Security deteriorated further after the Houthis swept into Sanaa, and pushed south, forcing Hadis government to flee into exile in March last year.

In 2015, Saudi Arabia assembled a coalition of Arab states to defeat the Houthis in Yemen.

Border skirmishes

On Saturday fighting was reported on the Yemeni-Saudi border, where a Saudi border guard was killed by fire directed from the Yemeni side, the Saudi state news agency SPA said citing a security spokesman.

A spokesman for the Arab coalition accused the Houthi fighters of escalating attacks along the border, where the coalition had scaled back its military operations to give the Yemeni peace talks a chance to succeed.





The militias began military operations along the border after the suspension of the Yemeni consultations, General Ahmed al-Asseri, the coalition spokesman, told the Saudi-owned Al Hadath television, referring to the Houthi fighters.

The Houthi militias are trying to achieve gains on the ground to make up for political losses.

The UN refugee agency estimates that more than 2.4 million Yemenis have fled their homes to elsewhere in the country, and 120,000 have sought asylum in other countries, including Djibouti and Somalia.

As reported by Al Jazeera, internally displaced Yemenis often must cope with a lack of food and inadequate shelter.

Many Yemenis who have not fled are also suffering, especially those in need of healthcare.

As of January 2016, 2,800 civilians had been killed by the fighting in Yemen, with 8,100 casualties overall since the conflict escalated in March last year. Both sides have been accused of killing civilians.




AR's Editor Joe Shea Talks About Elections On Iranian TV Bear Stearns Saved By Fed As Lehman Bros. Falters; Major Bank

Failure Looms Over Wall Street, Sends Markets Into 200-Pt. Dive Lie Upon Lie Five Years Into the Iraq War

The Administration Still Churns Out Lies by Randolph Holhut A Small Tragedy Even at 90, As Friends Turn Cool

She Knows the Show Must Go On by Joyce Marcel I'll Take Me Imagine John Wayne or Arnold

In Heels, Silk and a Girdle by Elizabeth Andrews Sen. Nelson Calls For New Fla. Primary; Gov Crist Backs 'Do-Over' Who'll Win? Ask Spock Spock.com Engine Predicts Winners

By Site Searches; It Can be Wrong by Jay Bhatti Chatting Up The Cat God Gave Me Dominion Over Him

But I Think He's a Non-Believer by Constance Daley Death of a Thug The Life and Horrors of Suharto by Andreas Harsono ___________________________ This Just In Sierra Club: McCain Ducked All 15 Key Votes On Green Laws (AR) A Work By AR's T.S. Kerrigan Is Chosen As 'Best Poem' By Wordpress Site Murder At Mile 63

The Deadly Assault and

Bush Administration Cover-Up

by S. Eben Kirkesby

and Andreas Harsono 5427 14th St. West, Bradenton, FL 34207 $6.99 Fish Fridays! Manatee Co.'s Only 24-Hr.

FREE Wi-Fi Paid Advertisement On Native Ground

AFTER 5 YEARS, WE'RE STILL LIED TO ABOUT IRAQ by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Next week is the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. And it is likely that sometime in the next couple of weeks, the 4,000th American soldier will die in Iraq. [MORE] Momentum

OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. - It's 1931, and a 14-year-old girl is standing alone on a stage. She's small and lively with dark curly hair, widespread hazel eyes, slender wrists and an open, eager face filled with the wonder of performing. Her name is Rose, and one day she will be my mother. But now she is performing an Eugene O'Neill monologue called "Before Breakfast" for a ladies' club in a wealthy suburb of Long Island. [MORE] One Woman's World

COMFORTABLE WITH MYSELF by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- I'm not sure but I think I may be socially incorrect. [MORE] On Native Ground

ENOUGH FOR A WAR, NOT FOR A PEOPLE by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Last week, the National Governors Assn. met in Washington, D.C. One of the tasks the NGA had on its agenda was to ask President Bush to increase federal spending on roads, bridges and other public works projects as a way to stimulate the economy. He rejected their pleas out of hand, claiming that infrastructure projects wouldn't offer any short-term economic boost. [MORE] Brasch Words

BEWARE THE SELF-REVERENTIAL PRESS by Walter Brasch BLOOMSBURG, Pa. -- Shortly before the primary votes this past week, Newsweek's Jonathan Alter called Sen. Barack Obama's surge to the Democratic nomination "inevitable." It also called for Hillary Clinton to "start her campaign for Senate majority leader." [MORE] Constance

A CONVERSATION WITH MY CAT Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- Normally, when the cat starts his evening rant of meowing continuously until he makes his point, I just take it as long as I can, pick him up, and put him in the garage for the night. He doesn't want to go, but the meowing stops and I don't care if he likes it or not. [MORE] Momentum

OUT OF STRUGGLE, ART by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Here we are again at the crossroads of art and social change, having the opportunity to watch good and great films about the lives of women in support of the Women's Crisis Center. [MORE] Campaign 2008

HOW TO PREDICT SUPER TUESDAY II WINNERS? ONLINE SEARCH by Jay Bhatti NEW YORK, March 4, 2008, 7:00PM ET -- With the outcomes of the Texas, Vermont, Ohio and Rhode Island primaries to be decided tonight, how possible is it that online searching can predict who will win tonight's primaries? [MORE] One Woman's World

DON'T VOTE; IT ENCOURAGES THEM by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- Call me angry and disgusted but don't call me un-American because I won't be voting come November. [MORE] On Native Ground

BUSH AND THE KEYBOARD COMMANDOS by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- As the days tick down toward the eventual departure of President George W. Bush from the White House, it's a hopeful sign that most Americans are no longer moved by his Administration's constant exploitation of terrorism for political gain. [MORE] Momentum

WHICH AMERICA DO YOU LIVE IN? by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- It's a little confusing. [MORE] Make My Dat

THE LAWYER THAT ATE NEW YORK by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- I used to know a guy who, quite literally, didn't get hyperbole. He didn't understand exaggeration. As a result, he missed most jokes that came his way. [MORE] On Native Ground

FIDEL RETIRES: NOW THE COLD WAR IS REALLY OVER by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Maybe now, we can finally say the Cold War is over. [MORE] Make My Dat

THE LAWYER THAT ATE NEW YORK by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- I used to know a guy who, quite literally, didn't get hyperbole. He didn't understand exaggeration. As a result, he missed most jokes that came his way. [MORE] One Woman's World

POLITICS IS NO PARTY by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- Are you having a hard time focusing your eyes? Do you have faint red spots all over your body? Is there a ringing in your ears and do you see wavy lines when you look at your television set? Do your hands shake when you try to hold a cup of coffee? And have you recently been forgetting what day of the week it is - or what year? [MORE] Make My Day

FOR BETTER OR WORSE ... A LOT WORSE by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- "Marriage: It's Only Going to Get Worse." [MORE] Constance

YOU CALL THESE RIGHTS? by Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- When you express an opinion you hope to persuade others to your point of view. It doesn't always happen but still, opinion writers try. [MORE] Momentum

THE BRIDGE WOMAN by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. - Out there in America - yes, still - is a generation of women who were born in the 1940s, raised in the 1950s, and who came to radical consciousness in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I am one of them. Hillary Clinton is one of them. [MORE] On Native Ground

OBAMA AND MY GENERATION by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- I originally planned on voting for Dennis Kucinich in the Vermont Primary on March 4. [MORE] The Willies:

WARNING: THIS MEDICATION MAY MURDER YOUR FRIENDS by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla. -- You've heard the warnings, haven't you? Stop Prozac and you may take a shotgun, an Uzi or an AK-47 and mow down your family and friends, or even a whole classroom full of your fellow students. You didn't? Well, that warning is not on the bottle, but like countless mass-murder incidents before it, Friday's shootings at Northern Illinois University, as well as the Virginia Tech shootings that killed 32 last year, was probably precipitated by the effect of stopping medications that suppress anger and other powerful emotions but do not relieve the underlying cause. Isn't it time we started warning people - or stopped prescribing these medicines? [MORE] One Woman's World

DON'T KNOCK ON MY DOOR by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- I wish I could feel delight in my poet's mansion being like Grand Central Station all the time, but I can't. And I wish my place was such a place that someone would one day write: "Her door was always open and she always made you feel all fuzzy and warm in her presence. She could make a cup of coffee seem like a banquet." [MORE] Reporting: Panama

PANAMA'S VIOLENT LABOR UNREST INTENSIFIES Mark Scheinbaum PANAMA CITY, Panama, Feb, 15, 2008 -- After just one day of relative calm, wildcat construction strikes by some members of Panama's largest union flared up again Friday morning, four days after a police sniper shot one worker. More than 140 demonstrators have been injured and at least 500 arrested, authorities say. [MORE] Brasch Words

TO STIMULATE ECONOMY, BUY A CHINESE-MADE U.S. FLAG by Walter Brasch BLOOMSBURG, Pa. -- Walking down Main Street, pushing a grocery cart loaded with clothes, toys, and appliances was Marshbaum. Fastened to the right front corner of the cart was an American flag tied onto a three-foot ruler. [MORE] Make My Day

THE TOOTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TOOTH by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- To commemorate the death of noted shark exploder Roy Scheider, and the "Jaws" movies that resulted in Erik never setting foot in the ocean again, we are reprinting this column from 2003. Shark Experts 0, Sharks 1 [MORE] Momentum

THE WINTER OF MY DISCONTENT by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. - As I write this, it's raining ice. Maybe a half a foot of snow and ice has already landed up here in the woods of Dummerston. Our cars are encased in it, and the door to the house is blocked. The satellite dish that brings in our Internet service quit about 20 minutes ago - frozen solid. [MORE] The Willies

AMERICA TO HILLARY: GET OUT! by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Feb. 13, 2008 -- Sen. Hillary Clinton has adopted the Rudy Giuliani strategy, and it's working - for Sen. Barack Obama. It turns out to be the strategy all Democrats are seeking - an exit strategy. But it's not for Iraq. It's for her exit from the race for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination. [MORE] Constance

CONFESSIONS OF A DISAPPOINTED VOTER by Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- A week ago at just about this time, I completed an article and was about to submit it as scheduled to The American Reporter. I was feeling rather elated, ready to show up on Super Tuesday morning, firmly touch the X next to Rudy Giuliani's name and get on with my day. He was my choice; he would get my vote. [MORE] Reporting: Florida

SIERRA CLUB SET TO SUSPEND FLA. CHAPTER by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Feb. 10, 2008 -- The national Sierra Club is set to suspend its Florida chapter after years of divisive infighting, the president of the national club told Florida members in a letter delivered to some this weekend. It is the first time in its 116-year history that such a step has been considered by the club, according to news reports. [MORE] One Woman's World

PLANT A NEW WORLD THIS SPRING by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- For a little while, the men will just have to toss and turn in their fear-free-women beds. For a small space of time Hillary Clinton will just have to trudge on toward the White House without my faint applause in the background. [MORE] On Native Ground

VERMONT AND THE 5 STAGES OF CONSERVATIVE GRIEF by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- First, Vermont tried to convince the nation to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney. [MORE] Make My Day

REBEL WITHOUT A TONGUE by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Kids' brains work in amazing ways. At times, they can grasp complex concepts and make impressive discoveries. Other times, you have to wonder how we ever survived as a species. [MORE] The Willies

FOR DEMOCRATS, NOW IT'S ABOUT RACE, INCOME AND GENDER by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Feb. 6, 2008 -- It's not a good time to be a Democrat. As the Super Tuesday results demonstrated, the presidential race between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton has divided the partly along clear racial, income and gender lines - the very distinctions the party has sought to erase in principle but has emphasized in its pursuit of diversity. [MORE] Momentum

SUPER TUESDAY BLUES by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Super Tuesday has come and gone and I still can't get excited about the upcoming presidential elections. [MORE] The Willies

ON THE BRINK OF HISTORY, YOUR PUSH IS NEEDED by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Feb. 5. 2008 -- I'm expecting a sea change tonight. I believe that for the first time in this nation's history we will once and forever banish racism as the deciding factor in the destiny of African-Americans, and indeed adopt diversity as our path to the future. [MORE] Campaign 2008

AT 88, EVERY VOTE REALLY COUNTS by Ted Manna DENVER, Feb. 5, 2008 -- Pearl Turner will caucus for Mitt Romney tonight in Denver. [MORE] One Woman's World

STAND BY YOUR WOMAN by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- The black vote. The gay vote. The fundamentalist vote. The Hispanic vote. [MORE] An AR Special

SUSPECTS IN BENAZIR ASSASSINATION HAVE TIES TO MUSHARRAF by Ahmar Mustikhan WASHINGTON, D.C. -- When Gordon Brown this past Monday feted coup-leader-turned-President Pervez Musharraf at 10 Downing Street, Britain's new prime minister probably didn't ask the Pakistani dictator a question that is now on many minds: Did you order the murder of Benazir Bhutto? [MORE] Momentum

TO THE VERMONT DELEGATION: WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR US LATELY? by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt.  Back when President George W. Bush and Dick Vice President Dick Cheney were building up to their loathsome war in Iraq, very few people were brave enough to call the bullies' bluff. [MORE] On Native Ground

IF BUSH HAS HIS WAY, WE'LL NEVER LEAVE IRAQ by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. - In his final State of the Union address on Jan. 28, President Bush cautioned against accelerating U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq, saying that it would endanger the process that has been made over the past year. [MORE] Campaign 2008

CLASH OF COMMENTS AND PROTESTORS AT CLINTON, OBAMA RALLIES IN DENVER by Ted Manna DENVER, Feb. 1, 2008 -- At least four presidential campaigns of both partiers rolled into in Denver this week ahead of the Feb. 5 "Super Tuesday" primaries in 22 states, but it was the Democratic presidential contenders who drew the big crowds and duked it out Wednesday. If sheer numbers are any indication, Sen. Barack Obama - preceded by a buoyant and beautiful Caroline Kennedy - won the round handily. He is the overwhelming favorite to win the Colorado primary next Tuesday. [MORE] The Willies

WHY THE FLORIDA PRIMARY STINKS by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Jan. 30, 2008 -- I was with my wife and daughter driving the back way from Miami home to Bradenton when we stopped at a McDonald's in Clewiston, the only big town along the vast shore of Lake Okeechobee, the state's precious freshwater reservoir. The McDonald's had three televisions at a central seating area, each tuned to a different network, and our table was in front of CNN as the very first election results started to pour in around 7:30PM. With them, almost as counterpoint, suddenly came such an overwhelming odor of cow plop that my wife started to throw up as we all ran to the parking lot. [MORE] Passings: Suharto

DEATH OF A KEMUSU THUG by Andreas Harsono JAKARTA - A few minutes after hearing that former president Suharto had died in his hospital bed, Marco, a militia leader in downtown Jakarta, raced to Suhartos house, wearing his jungle camouflage and began guarding the Suhartos residence on Cendana Street. [MORE] Constance

I REMEMBER YOU by Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga.. -- It seems to be more often lately that the sentiment is spoken but it's always been out there: "You never get over the death of your child." This is true. But the heartfelt expressions come from some who cannot fathom the notion of losing a child; their own child is who is in their mind, not another mother's child. [MORE]
A review of: America Abroad: The United States Global Role in the 21st Century By Stephen G. Brooks and William C. Wohlforth, Oxford University Press, 2016

Two Dartmouth Professors of Government, Stephen G. Brooks and William C. Wohlforth, have written a timely book examining whether it would be wise for the United States to continue with the basic global strategy it has pursued since the end of World War 2 -- what the authors call global deep engagement. This strategy has been called into question not only by other academics, who propose an alternative strategy of American retrenchment, but also by several prominent candidates for President this year, including the Republican standard-bearer Donald Trump, the Democratic runner-up, Senator Bernie Sanders, and several of the earlier Republicans contenders. President Barack Obama has to some extent retreated from the deep engagement approach in some areas, while adhering to it in others.

To their credit, the authors make their case independent of commentary on the candidates, and stick to an argument for why the long term strategy is still a suitable one for American foreign policy practitioners.

The deep engagement strategy, according to the authors has three principal components:

Managing the external environment in key regions (Europe, Asia, the Middle East) to reduce near and long-term threats to U.S. national security, Promoting a liberal economic order to expand the global economy and maximize domestic prosperity, Creating, sustaining and revising the global institutional order to secure necessary interstate cooperation on terms favorable to U.S. interests.

The authors describe adjustments to the deep engagement approach which some confuse with the approach itself. Deep engagement plus, for instance, might involve more frequent use of American military efforts, whether for addressing perceived threats (Iraq), democratization efforts, or human rights campaigns whether undertaken (Kosovo, Libya) or not (Rwanda, Congo, Syria). Many who are critical of some of these efforts, particularly Iraq, or Afghanistan, or Libya, use this as a basis for opposing the broader deep engagement approach, even though the broader approach would not have likely argued for some of these efforts.

The authors attempt to tackle the question of whether the world order which has existed since the collapse of the Soviet Union, one with unparalleled dominance by a single state, the United States, will continue into the future. The authors argue that the U.S. military and material dominance has worked hand in hand with the deep engagement strategy to serve American interests and those of our allies in the last quarter century. The question now is whether China has emerged as a new superpower, restoring the bi-polar leadership role that existed during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. In addition, there are other emerging trends: slower American economic growth and an enormous debt load, a turning inward after 15 years of overseas missions by the U.S. military, a more aggressive posture by Russia, especially in Europe and the Middle East, and the new threats from non-state actors, which could complicate the traditional American strategy and argue for less engagement abroad, since the risk/reward equation may have changed.

The authors make an interesting case that China, despite its enormous economic growth over the past few decades, with compound economic growth rates 2 to 3 times that of the United States States or its allies, is still a long way from matching US economic, military and technologic primacy. On the other hand, China has now by some measures passed the U.S. in GDP, and while the size of the American military is shrinking- in dollars invested, ships, planes, active duty personnel, China is advancing at a rapid rate in all of these areas, with what is clearly a more determined will to achieve super power status, or at least become the dominant state in its region.

China, as the authors point out, has many problems of its own, including a slowing growth rate that could threaten the general support of government policy that has existed during a period when hundreds of million were lifted into the middle class. So, too, while the authors assert that the United States remains far superior technologically to China, including investments it has already made in military technology, one of the latest products of that superior technology, the F-35 fighter, is so heavily laden with 20 million lines of computer code, that some think it is a step back from the planes it was designed to replace .

The authors discuss bilateral and multinational trade deals, a subject that has become a key theme of the current Presidential campaign. Astonishingly, over the course of a year, a free trade policy that was supported both by Democrats and Republicans, has become so toxic politically that both major party nominees have now attacked deals already in existence and argued against future ones they once supported , or used trade deals as a barometer of how America is regularly losing in its relations and arrangements with other nations. The authors describe agreements that are hegemonic (advantageous to the United States, reflecting our strategic position), and benevolent (probably more advantageous to others), though they argue that most of the agreements in recent decades have been beneficial on balance to both sides.

One of the principal multinational agreements, which established the American deep engagement approach after World War 2 ended and the Cold war quickly followed, was the creation of NATO, which has always relied on the American commitment to protect Western Europe (and now Eastern Europe as well) with a deterrence capability tied to the commitment of American forces and weaponry. This year, even NATO commitments are under attack. The authors describe advocates of retrenchment as believing that American presence overseas is both a financial burden, and adds to the risk of war, and that we are fully capable of transport of forces if circumstances demanded. The authors believe the financial advantages of retrenchment are greatly overstated, and that the argument that our presence in Europe encourages war, rather than prevents it, is not at all supported by the history. The Middle East may be a different story, where American forces, when viewed as an occupying army, in fact encourage violence against our troops. But the authors do not believe such a presence in this region is part of the deep engagement strategy they endorse.

In any case, some of the themes of American foreign policy, which have been generally accepted and unchallenged for decades, are now clearly under the microscope, or in some cases, the megaphone. A more mercantilist approach to the world, evaluating everything in terms of dollars and cents for America, would be a dramatic break with our postwar history. Even a mercantilist approach however, designed to make the nation a financial winner, does not assure that the spoils of victory are shared among those who have not been the beneficiaries of prior policy.

America Abroad is a carefully argued tract, and worth a careful read. My criticisms are limited to these: much of the book is a section by section refutation of other scholars view of global strategy. Some of these scholars, such as the realists John Mearsheimer and Steven Walt, have so thoroughly discredited themselves in recent years with their tendentious, factually absent and non-scholarly attack on Israel and its American supporters, that it seems the authors at times respect the pedigree of degrees more than the substance or value of what some contribute. One need not be a PhD to offer thoughtful commentary on these matters, and those with the doctoral degree do not always offer anything worth a response, especially if they are clearly bigoted.

It would also have been useful to have a summary chapter where the authors take the strategic approach they prefer (and which I also support) and go region by region to summarize how that approach might work best. There is not a lot of commentary in the book on non-state actors, though the authors do argue that multilateral approaches involving the US and its allies, will be more effective in dealing with these new threats than we would be if we pursued a retrenchment strategy. 9/11 after all occurred before the US was in Iraq and Afghanistan with major troop contingents.

I doubt that either Presidential candidate will read this book before the election, but they would benefit from doing so. Global strategy is different from creating a foreign policy on a day-to-day basis. And there are clearly various ways to win, and winning over the long term is the win most necessary.
Thats the short take of my friend Thomas Lipscomb and I have to agree with him.

Contrary to most of the media-sponsored polls (The LA Times stands alone now calling the race a tie at last view), I agree with this one: Trump will draw in millions of voters who didnt show up to the polls before and he will beat Hillary Clinton.

I dont pretend to be a polling expert but note others who claim to be have said much the same thing using different statistical methodologies, including Yale Professor Ray Fair (economic models) and Emory University President Alan Abramowitz (presidential approval ratings), Politik.com predicts a landslide, noting in recent years the number of people voting for Democrats has dipped while the number of those voting for Republicans has risen.

Conservative Treehouse has argued along the same lines and notes that the NYT buried its own key finding that American voters are whiter than historic leftist presentations.

It projects that 73,272,595 Republicans will vote this fall in the general election.

That jaw-dropping number, 7.2 million more potential votes than Barack Obama carried in 2008 and almost 13 million more than Mitt Romney carried in 2012, is the least result achievable when you turn out THE MONSTER VOTE. [snip] What the New York Times is statistically beginning to quantify is the existence of The Monster Vote. If you look closely at the data behind their newly discovered 10 million potential/predictable voters, youll notice the additional votes carry to exactly what we predicted in February. Even if Republican projection turnout was off by 5 million votes, Trump still wins in a landslide. Heck, even if the projection turnout was off by a staggering 10 million votes, the republican nominee (Trump) would still get more votes than President Obama did in 2012 and it is highly doubtful Hillary could turn out that level of support.  Even the fact the NYT would write such an article tells you there are interests (financial interests, globalists) who are looking closely and trying to quantify the challenge they have in front of them.  Remember, even in honest scientific polling -- the poll methodologies are based on assumptions, or inputs into the collected poll samples in order to make them representative of the anticipated turnout.  Thanks to Donald Trump, historic turnout trends are obsolete. Additionally, historic demographics and party affiliations are also obsolete; And, more importantly, as a consequence ...any poll data that is relying on obsolete sample methodology is going to be significantly inaccurate.

I dont know about the methodologies or baselines used by nationally recognized polling companies this year, but I note that Democratic pollster Pat Caddell recently said Reuters midstream shift in its tracking polls comes as close as I have ever seen to cooking the results.

There are methods for projecting and allocating undecided voters based on complex attitude structures, based on many questions that tell the pollster that this person is in movement to support someone, he said. Sometimes, they are hiding. That happens. Particularly in the past, or in racially-sensitive cases. Caddell cited two examples to Breitbart News. On July 25, they originally reported: Trump 40.3 percent and Clinton 37.2 percent, which was a Trump margin of 2.8, he said. They have recalculated that now -- which I have never heard of -- they changed that data, to be: Clinton 40.9 and Trump 38.4, which is a 2.5 margin for Clinton. The July 25 Reuters poll now shows a result that reflects a 5.3 percentage point flip from the previously published results, he said. Now look at July 26, he said. On July 26 they had Trump at 41.5 percent and Hillary at 36.3. That was a 5.2 Trump margin. Then, in the new calculation, they claim that Clinton was 41.1 percent, Trump was 37.5, and the margin was 3.6 for Clinton. Same poll. Two different results. Recalculated, after youve announced the other results. What you get is an 8.8 percentage point margin change, almost nine points swinging from one candidate, based on some phony, some bizarre allocation theory that you claim you know where these people are or you are just leaving them out, he said. I actually believe they are allocating them because they are claiming they are really Clinton voters and they are using something to move them to Clinton.

As Mickey Kaus has long noted, many polls are hamburger helper polls, that is designed to advance a point of view of the press organs which engage the pollsters so they can promote as fact what is merely their opinion.

In any event, the recent coverage of the election by the major media suggest to me that they are panicking and throwing in as much as they can to make Hillary look as if she were a far better candidate -- or at least Trump a far weaker one -- than is the case. Obamas unpresidential and unprecedented attack on Trump, the low turnout at her rallies (and cancellation of some of her appearances), the huge turnout everywhere for Trump, the promoting of the Khan phony baloney story, the Reuters polling change, the daily press sleight of hand all suggest to me there is panic on the left.

The Khan Con

The media fairytale is that Trump dissed a Gold Star family. In fact, it was the other way around. The Democrats used the father of a military hero who died at the hands of Muslim enemies to argue that Trump was wrong in wanting us to suspend immigration from terrorist countries until we had better means to vet them.

How far overboard on this did the media go? This week a number of press and photographers just happened to show up at the same time as two families showed up to pay their respects, the Washington Post even had a shot of one wiping a dry eye. Thomas Sowell long pegged such people as the Khans as mascots of the anointed. My friend Janet Shagam has documented the coverage by press which thinks we are dumb enough not to realize this was a staged performance:

* Muslim Soldier's Grave at Arlington National Cemetery Attracts Visitors After Trump's Remarks About Parents NBC Washington 4 -- * Humayun Khans grave becomes a shrine in the wake of his fathers speech Washington Post -- * Strangers visit grave of Muslim US Army Capt. Khan at Arlington National Cemetery ABC 7 News -- from the WaPo link - "Sally Schwartz, 65, and her mother, Harriet Schwartz, 85, stood before the grave. Harriet leaned on a black cane. We thought wed pay our respects, Sally Schwartz said as the women walked away. " From the NBC link - "D.C. resident Sally Schwartz visited Khan's grave on Monday with her mother." The local ABC coverage -- The story doesn't quote Sally Schwartz but she is pictured in the video.

As for the Benghazi soldiers survivors there has been scant coverage -- even though we know our government not only left them to die but also compounded the crime by lying to them about the motivations of their killers. In the words of another online friend Iggy, they were merely unpeople from Jesusland.

The same was true of Mary Ann Mendoza, Sabine Durden, and Jamiel Shaw, whose children were killed by illegal aliens, Spanish speakers watching Univision and Telemundo heard they were anti-immigrant and gave them only 55 seconds of air time.

Covering for Congenital Liar Hillary is Getting Harder and Harder

Hillary keeps lying about Comeys report, which said clearly she lied about her private email server. While a number of papers challenged her on this the NYT steadfastly stuck by her story. It was so blatant even the Public Editor of that paper, Liz Spayd, called her newsroom out for covering up for Hillary. As Tom Maguire observes quoting the Spayd:

Waddya expect? The conventions are over and we are at the top of the backstretch, bracing to head for home. The Washington Post, NPR, USA Today and PolitiFact all challenged Clintons claims, saying they appeared to be based on a selective and misleading interpretation of Comeys remarks. The Post awarded her Four Pinocchios, the worst truth-telling rating it gives, for statements it classifies as Whoppers.  Yeah, whatever. The Times has suspended criticism of Hillary until after the election, due to the national emergency caused by Trump.

Topping off the week and indicative of the media panic is the news that the administration illegally transported $400 million in cash on pallets in an unmarked plane to Iran where it is being used to finance terrorists. The administration dissembled to Congress about the transaction.

The deal had to be kept secret because neither the voters nor the Congress would ever have approved it and it surely sent the wrong message -- taking Americans hostage is a money-making proposition,. Two more, in fact, have been taken hostage since that covert exchange took place.

Its a deal so bad that the administration lied and said Israel approved it -- prompting the foreign minister to bitterly reject that claim and respond the deal is so bad it is like Chamberlains capitulation at Munich.

Trump criticized the hush hush deal and said correctly that Iran had made a video of the pallets of cash coming off the unmarked plane to further embarrass the U.S. This sent the partisan kiddos at the Washington Post into a tizzy, denying there was any such video, when in fact it was easily available to be viewed on YouTube, the BBC, or Memri.

In the meantime -- as crowds pour into Trump rallies throughout the country, waiting in long lines for a chance to hear and cheer him, Hillary made a rare appearance before unquestioning Hispanic and Black news reporters where she looked a wreck, almost called Trump her husb-- and then said her earlier interview lies about Comeys report were the result of a short circuit. Its a long time between now and the election. Her staff cannot continue to keep her bottled up and appearing only before small, sympathetic audiences and interviewers and I expect so much short circuiting from her even the low information voters will have to take notice.
Okay, I know you're not dummies  but if a book is required to break down Microsoft Word into simpler terms, then the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) requires a library. The 2016 candidates both in local races (for example, Paul Nehlen vs. Paul Ryan in Wisconsin) and our presidential race are always talking about the horrors of TPP. But the warnings fall on deaf ears because no one knows what TPP is. Why the hysteria?

What exactly is TPP (Obamatrade)? TPP is a massive, pro-corporate trade agreement among the United States and 11 other countries. So what's wrong with that? Isn't this free trade?

Well, TPP is labeled a trade agreement, but only a fifth actually deals with trade. Of TPP's 30 chapters, six deal with traditional trade issues.

That's one red flag. Another red flag is that TPP, like Obamacare, was negotiated in secret  no peeking, no sharing, no access. This is how our government replaced the greatest health care system in the world with a shoddy third-world version that is destroying our economy: in secret, away from the American people's prying eyes.

Another reason the government was able to push through Obamacare was the sheer size of the bill: 2,700 pages. Congress didn't read it; no one did. In fact, when Obamacare made it to the Supreme Court, the government lawyer suggested that the justices go through the 2,700-page bill to decide which parts were constitutional.

The late Justice Antonin Scalia asked, "What happened to the Eighth Amendment?" (The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.) "And do you really expect the Court to do that? Or do you expect us to  to give this function to our law clerks? Is this not totally unrealistic? That we are going to go through this enormous bill item by item and decide each one?"

If our fearless leaders couldn't get through 2,700 pages, they're not going to tackle the 6,000-page TPP. So here we go again.

Or maybe we can stop it this time  block TPP. But first the people have to understand the bill, at least in part. The simplest explanation I've seen is a statement from Senator Bernie Sanders's site. He breaks out TPP as follows:

This trade deal would make it easier for corporations to shut down more factories in the U.S. and ship more jobs to Vietnam and Malaysia where workers are paid pennies an hour. The TPP is a continuation of our disastrous trade policies that have devastated manufacturing cities and towns all over this country from Newton, Iowa, to Cleveland, Ohio. We need to rebuild the disappearing middle class, not tear it down.

Donald Trump has been trying to make this point, but the details are mind-numbing, and most don't understand the potential impact. Bernie's words make it easy. Instead of paying Americans a living wage to produce a product, the manufacturer will ship those jobs to countries where labor is damn near free. Corporate profits up, Americans jobs gone, donors taken care of.

The TPP would allow foreign corporations to sue federal, state and local governments in an international tribunal for passing an increase in the minimum wage or any other law that could hurt expected future profits.

You read it right: TPP lets the world sue our government. With all the frivolous lawsuits in America, imagine extending that privilege to an "international tribunal" and foreign corporations.

At a time when prescription drug prices are skyrocketing, the TPP would make a bad situation even worse by granting new monopoly rights to big pharmaceutical companies to deny access to lower cost generic drugs to millions of people.

This means that your heart, cancer, diabetic or other necessary medication that you're now getting for a fraction of the cost will skyrocket to the full price of the name-brand drug. Most of us can't even imagine the financial hit we will take on this little gem.

Finally, Bernie mentions some of the bad players in this agreement:

Outrageously, the proposed agreement includes violators of international human rights, like Brunei, where gays and single mothers can be stoned to death and Malaysia where tens of thousands of immigrant workers in the electronics industry are working as modern day slaves.

Do Americans care about this? Well, from Hillary Clinton's campaign, where she's taken millions (maybe billions) from countries with the same horrifying human rights records, maybe not. But if we keep ignoring these countries' abuses, if we strengthen their economies and make them a power in today's world, it will eventually come to our shores. The massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando is just a preview of coming attractions.

So in summary:

1. TPP will have you compete for jobs with countries paying pennies an hour for labor TPP will allow foreign corporations to sue federal, state, and local governments in an international tribunal for passing any law that could hurt their future profits. TPP will force you to pay hundreds of dollars for a name-brand drug where you now buy generic for a fraction of the price The United States will be in business with countries who execute single women and gays and who run sweat shops on steroids.

And that's just what we know. TPP, like Obamacare, will be the gift that keeps on giving. No one really knows what's in it, but guaranteed it's another Pandora's box. As more of the law leaks out, more of our freedoms and jobs will disappear.

But the saddest part of TPP and of Obamacare is that our government is not just too lazy to read these bills. They're not misinformed. They actually conspire now against the American people. The people have taken a back seat to the oligarchs and governments who have the cash.

I'm not a Sanders supporter, but Sanders at least made a valiant effort to expose Washington's corrupt underbelly. He tried to stop TPP before it finishes off America. But Bernie was up against massive power, the ruling elite, and he lost.

Donald Trump is up against those same powerful people and organizations, against the entire world in large part, because of TPP. These are rich corporations and foreign countries funneling cash into Congress, to the president, and to the Clintons. These are countries and corporations who want complete control over America, our resources, our products, our lives. TPP is a major step in that direction.

In fact, President Obama has threatened to pass TPP in a lame duck session even if Trump wins the election. He probably has the votes to do that  our Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, our House speaker, Paul Ryan, and hundreds of others on the take will come through just as they did for the Iran deal and the Omnibus.

This election really is a binary choice: Hillary Clinton, TPP, and tyranny or Donald Trump and a stake through TPP's heart, individual trade deals, and a powerful rejection of a global Big Brother. Bernie started the fight. It's up to we the people to finish it.
This past week, President Obama provided an explanation to the country regarding two of his executive actions: pardons and fulfilling ignored obligations. The president reasoned that America is a nation of second chances and that meeting a standing obligation is not consenting to demands to avoid an unpleasant or threatening situation -- and such an action certainly should not be considered a payment of ransom.

At some point while staring out the window of his tiny Ecuadorian embassy compound transitory flat, Julian Assange came to the same conclusion. Perhaps Assange reasoned that he could get a second chance if President Obama would consider his proposal? Perhaps Assange contacted the authorities and no one took his proposition seriously? Perhaps he then decided to show just how much of a threat he could be to the president and his legacy, if his demands were ignored? The results: the DNC email scandal, the resignation of several prominent DNC executives, and the threat of posting more leaked e-mails -- many which could do damage to Hillary Clinton and her presidential campaign.

According to his attorneys, Julian Assange is an isolated, frail man on the verge of bankruptcy, living alone in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. However; that image of the man is a far cry from the one which has blanketed the internet over the past few weeks. With his partial WikiLeaks posting of embarrassing DNC email communications between the DNC and the Clinton campaign, the public perceives a man looking for a fight against the formidable committee and the powerful Clinton duet -- Bill and Hillary. In the public eye, most see Assange as the dude seated across the table from the Democrats and Clintons in a high stakes poker game. The WikiLeaks founder appears to be holding a royal flush and waiting for his opponents to fold.

But just what does Assange want from this powerful cluster of wealth and influence? What can they give him that would allow him to fold instead of showing his hand? Perhaps, it is his freedom? Or the guarantee that federal agents of the Justice Department will not file charges against him pertaining to their ongoing espionage investigation? Assange wants the cloud of prosecution which has hovered over him and his organization for the past several few years to be eradicated  both in the U.S. and Sweden. He wants to move about the streets of London, Paris, and New York City without looking over his shoulder. He wants to be able to move freely within the international community as he could before his self-imposed seclusion. Assange is a man who craves attention and yearns to have communion in a non-threatening environment with European and American intellectuals, academics, and elitists which appreciate his work and his cause.

Assanges health is failing. He went over 1000 days without natural sunlight. And the medical treatment available within the confines of the Ecuadorian embassy is limited. It will be 2020 before the statute of limitations expires on the sexual assault cloud which hangs over his head in Sweden. The man lives under the constant threat of being extradited, if he is captured outside his embassy safe haven. So it stands to reason that Assange is well beyond the point of having cabin fever and extremely desperate to gain his freedom.

But his liberty has to come from the highest level. And from a tiny 300 square foot room in London, what are your options? One extremely dangerous option is to become a threat, politically, to the most powerful people in the world!

Bad blood has existed between Assange and the Clintons for some time. Assange views Hillary as a liberal war hawk. He claims that, if elected to the presidency, she will have the world in a constant state of war. He states that the chaos in Libya is Hillarys own personal Iraq. He blames her for the State Departments criminal investigation and their effort to extradite him back to the United States to face espionage charges. Assange does not want Hillary Clinton to be the next President of the United States. But more importantly, he is well aware that there are many powerful individuals and groups both in this country and abroad which do not want to see Donald Trump become the next President of the United States  Barack Obama being the most powerful one.

Until a few weeks ago, the possibility of the Swedish government closing the sexual assault investigation against Assange was remote. And even more unlikely was the probability of the WikiLeaks founder being mentioned as a candidate for a presidential pardon from President Obama.

But Assange has shown that he is not bluffing. He has the goods! And he will throw all that he has out for the world to view. And most likely, Obama will blink! But dont be surprised if, just like the Iranians, Assange throws in an additional demand at the very last second. Assange desperately wants to repay a debt of gratitude. A verbal commitment which has hung over his head for over three years -- Bradley Mannings unconditional release and a presidential pardon for his whistle-blowing cohort in his pending espionage case. With the hand which Assange is holding, some sort of compromise which would meet Assanges demands seems likely. Neither the Democrats, the Clintons, nor the president can afford the consequences.

So early next year on a warm spring afternoon, expect to see photos of Assange and Miss Manning seated at a street side Paris cafe, conversing, laughing, and sipping on a cup of espresso.

S A Collins is an USAF retiree, author and blogger. He maintains a website at: www.popknowseverything.com
Retired Harvard professor of political theory Harvey Mansfield recently published a commentary in Wall Street Journal (July 30) characterizing Trump as no gentleman but as a demagogue who loves to be loved and as a vulgar man who shows an affinity for whatever is vulgar. Moreover, the voters behind him excuse Mr. Trump for his ungentlemanly behavior. No one whos been reading editorials in the Wall Street Journal or political statements by Mansfield would be surprised by this attack. Both have strongly identified with establishment Republicans in their opposition to the GOP presidential candidate.

But what is striking about Mansfields diatribe is his opening statement, which by far is the most interesting part: Like Machiavelli, he [Trump] makes clear that winning dishonorably is better than losing honorably. Mansfield compares the Donald to the Florentine political thinker and dramatist Nicolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), a figure to whom Mansfield devoted a torturous commentary that was lavishly praised in the Weekly Standard. Like his revered professor Leo Strauss (1899-1973), who is the subject of one of my books, Mansfield considers Machiavelli a teacher of evil. He was a misguided humanist, who placed power and expedience above the demands of traditional morality. Machiavelli began an unfortunate process whereby politics, as a theoretical discipline, became separated from the concept of justice.

Unfortunately Mansfields characterization raises more questions than it answers. What does it mean to win dishonorably or to lose honorably? Are we to assume that if faced by a choice of pulling out all stops to avert a greater evil, someone working to prevent that evil should not do what it takes to win? There is an even more obvious critical response to Mansfields assertions, which he makes as an anti-Machiavellian: He no more than I would condemn politicians who behaved dishonorably, e.g., spying on and assassinating enemies, in order to keep a Hitler and Stalin from triumphing. There are situations in which behaving dishonorably, might in fact be the moral thing to do.

It is also absurd to pretend that Trump has set the campaigning bar lower than where it had been in earlier presidential races. Just go back to the presidential race of 1800 and note the wild charges thrown at each other by Jefferson and Adams. Joanne B. Freeman, writing in History Now, has only skimmed the surface of this acrimonious election when she explains: Nasty political mud-slinging. Campaign attacks and counterattacks. Personal insults. Outrageous newspaper invective. Dire predictions of warfare and national collapse. As much as this seems to describe our present-day presidential contests, it actually describes an election more than two centuries past. One might also want to revisit the campaign speeches given in 1948 by Harry Truman against his Republican opponent, the utterly bland Thomas Dewey, to see how ungentlemanly presidential politics became long before Trump arrived on the scene. Truman managed to accuse Dewey, a very centrist, nondescript Republican, of being squishy soft on both fascism and communism.

Finally, let us note the unsubstantiated charges manufactured by the NDC and hurled against the even blander centrist GOP candidate Mitt Romney four years ago. From the oppositions largely unanswered assaults it seemed that Romney delighted in throwing impoverished, underpaid workers on to the streets, to die without food or medical insurance. The rise of the free-swinging, ungentlemanly Trump as a populist rock star has been largely a reaction to gentlemanly Republican Party presidential candidates in the past. Trump is the nemesis brought forth by what was perceived as an excessively non-confrontational party of honorable losers. Mansfield is right. Trumps followers delight in his aggressive, brash behavior toward a political establishment that, unlike Mansfield, they profoundly despise. Although I personally wish Trump would keep his mouth shut a bit more often, as a retired academic who had to listen to PC babble for decades, I too revel in his disrespect for authorized niceness with its inevitable double standard.

Since Mansfield has praised classical learning, it may be appropriate to introduce at this point Ciceros observations about honor (honestas) and explain their relevance for our presidential race. In his tract De Officiis, written about 45 B.C., originally as letters to his son Marcus then studying in Athens, the great Latin orator expounds the duties of a Roman citizen and family head. Among Ciceros enumerated duties is to act properly when charged with a collective responsibility and not to forsake those who depend on us. In Letter Nine, Cicero offers some of the causes that might lead a commander or magistrate to forsake his duty. Among the causes cited are neglect, laziness, and inertia, all of which may lead us into deserting those whom we ought to be protecting. We may however also delude ourselves into believing that we pursue justice by desisting from action. But here too we may be dishonoring ourselves by not aiding those who expect our earnest support. Not doing ones duty because of misplaced caution or timidity does not justify a lapse from honorable conduct.

By this standard, it is not Trump but his GOP predecessors in earlier presidential contests who waged war dishonorably. Their failure to go after their Democratic enemies with appropriate counter-fire was not a sign of honestas but (let me not mince words!) a flagrant breach of duty. The presidential campaign waged by Romney in 2012 illustrated such regrettable misconduct. Romneys hesitation to attack Obama, after asserting himself in their first debate, on economic questions, his attempt in their second debate to parrot everything his opponent said on womens issues, and his increasingly passive demeanor as Republican standard-bearer during the last month of the campaign were anything but honorable.

These observations are not intended as a testimony to Donald Trump or as an excuse for his faux pas and lack of prudence. Rather it is an attempt to show that Trump may be ungentlemanly but not by Ciceronian standards conspicuously dishonorable. Unlike Romney and others of his ilk, Trump stands together with his followers and happily fights their enemies, which is precisely his duty as a presidential contender with a national base. Someone who is pleased to lose honorably should not be in the presidential race; and his followers are fully justified in viewing him as a commander who abandoned them in battle. This sense of betrayal among the GOP base became apparent to me as I perceived the outcome of this years presidential primaries. There seemed to be a yawning gulf between Trump and his record-number of voters and the Republican establishment and its donor base. The voters wanted a fighter, which doesnt mean someone who would look after selected business interests or hire certain Washington old hands if he happened to win. A fighter also doesnt mean someone who would grin and bear it if the Dems slimed him on the way to holding on to the presidency.
Last Saturday, American Thinker published an article by a pseudonymous author called Mike Konrad that asked why Jews should seek to reclaim property lost during World War II in Poland. Mr. Konrad's piece never answers that question. Instead, Konrad spends his time setting up and demolishing a straw man  to wit, non-Jewish Poles suffered under the Nazis, too, more so than most other occupied nations, and actively collaborated less. From this Konrad then draws the conclusion that it was okay for non-Jewish Poles to expropriate the property of their much more comprehensibly murdered countrymen and that it is unwise for Jews to think otherwise.

Konrad's argument includes a litany of German misdeeds against non-Jewish Poles, a lame excuse for one obvious case of direct Polish violence against Jews (Kielce), omission of others for which there is no credible excuse (Jedwabne), and the use of a moral equivalency comparing the expropriation of Jewish property in Poland with that of Palestinian-Arab property in Israel.

No responsible historian questions that Poland suffered mightily in World War II, but the nature of that suffering and its relationship to the Holocaust is more complicated. Konrad wonders why the Nazis were so harsh on the Poles, when, as he puts it, "anthropologically speaking the Poles were every bit as Aryan/Nordic in phenotype as the Germans, if not more." The reason for this is that Nazi racial policies and ideas were nonsense, not based on any type of accepted science, and purely an expression of ingrained nationalistic and racial prejudices. In this, the Nazis saw non-Jewish Poles as somewhat superior to Jews but inferior to Germans and Western Europeans in general. It doesn't matter that statistically more Poles have blue eyes than Germans.

This misconception hides another more important one, which is that anti-Semitism was endemic in Poland both before and after the war into the present. It is the one thing that the Poles had completely in common with the Germans.

When Konrad wonders why his "Jewish friends" spoke of Poland as if it was allied with the Nazis, it is because of Polish anti-Semitism. Perhaps as children they heard stories, as I did, from relatives who lived there before and after the war. My grandfather told of being stoned by Polish villagers going to and from school, just for being Jewish. His sister escaped after the Nazi invasion with her husband to France. After the Nazis conquered that country, her husband was rounded up and died in a labor camp. She joined the resistance, survived the war, and afterward returned to Poland, but she was forced to move back to France in the early 1960s when another periodic wave of anti-Semitic persecution swept the country  even under Communist rule. My grandfather's cousin had similar experiences, escaped to Britain after the German invasion, became a sergeant major in the British Army, and moved to Israel.

Last year I took a student group on a tour of Eastern Europe, one that included Poland. It was my first visit to the country, and although I have spent a lot of time in Europe, including three years in Germany with the Army, I went with some degree of trepidation.

Our tour guide was a young Polish woman. She was well educated and cosmopolitan. We spoke in English and German, she learned I was Jewish, and we got along famously.

My initial impression of Poland was wonderful. Our first dinner there, chicken soup and pierogis, was so good, it could have come out of my grandmother's kitchen. I began to understand why a small number of Jews, despite everything, have returned to Poland. I even started to believe that perhaps I'd been misinformed.

The next day we went to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Auschwitz was a standard Nazi concentration camp, which is to say it was an awful place where tens of thousands of people, mostly Polish gentiles, died. Birkenau is a few kilometers away. There about one million Jews were murdered. More Jewish children alone died at Birkenau than Polish gentile adults died in Auschwitz, because Birkenau was a death camp. Death camps were only for Jews, not non-Jewish Poles.

Konrad notes that between 1.7 and 3 million non-Jewish Poles died in the war  an awful accounting no matter which figure is correct, but one that represents somewhere between 5-10% of the pre-war population. On the other hand, Polish Jews were almost completely annihilated.

Mr. Konrad also mentions the Warsaw revolt of 1944 but omits the Warsaw Ghetto uprising a year earlier, waged entirely by Jews with almost no assistance from their gentile neighbors, some of whom picnicked while the fight raged a few blocks away. The Polish resistance suffered terribly during the 1944 revolt. The ghetto was entirely wiped out.

Several hundred brave Poles helped save Jews during the war and are duly honored by Israel as "righteous gentiles." Poland's pre-war non-Jewish population was about 32 million, so that represents an infinitesimal percentage of the populace, making those people all the more courageous, but it says much less of the general population, which in retrospect has sought to claim a share of moral and physical heroics its members do not deserve. Poles never as a community raised their voices in defense of their Jewish neighbors, gave communal assistance or succor, or even expressed sympathy. Yes, non-Jewish Poles were oppressed, but in no other European nation were Jews such a vital part of the community, nor did they suffer as savagely as Polish Jews did.

After Auschwitz-Birkenau, we visited the lovely former imperial city of Krakow. There we picked up a local tour guide. She did not know I was Jewish, and as she described some buildings downtown, apropos of nothing, she mentioned that Jews were trying to reclaim one of the buildings and how this was a general problem in the country.

Why, I asked, was it a problem?

"Well, because Jews already own 90% of the country," she replied.

"Surely, that can't be true," I offered. "There are hardly any Jews in Poland anymore."

"No, no," interrupted my tour leader friend. "She's right. Why, in fact, in my own home town, the Jews are trying to reclaim a children's hospital. They say it is theirs and want to kick out the children. What can we do?" What, indeed? No wonder the Polish Supreme Court is fighting the Jews, who want their property back so that they can kick children out of hospitals  a modern version of classic anti-Semitic blood libel if ever there was.

None of this explains why Jews should not try to get their property back, sick Polish kids notwithstanding. Konrad asks, "[I]s this a wise fight?" Why wouldn't it be? The property (or its value) belongs to the heirs of Hitler's victims, not Polish squatters, however long they've taken advantage of their fellow citizens' misfortune. Nor is this akin to the Israeli-Arab fight, where Arabs lost land and property when they attacked Jews, not when some outside power murdered them and Jews moved in. Plus, Israel has paid compensation and has always been open to paying more in return for a comprehensive peace settlement. On the other hand, nearly a million Jews kicked out of Arab countries in the late 1940s and 1950s never received a penny in compensation for their lost land and property.

Finally, as a practical matter, what do the Jews need from Poland now that would compel them not to fight for their property? It's Poland that is buying Israeli weapons hand over fist in fear of Russian planes and tanks and Poland that seeks to tighten its relations with Israel.

I hope the Jews who lost property in Poland can get it back. Once they do that, they'll own the whole country, just as they did before the war, which is what most Poles believe now and believed then. That's pure anti-Semitism, and that's what Mr. Konrad didn't mention.
There is a lot of information in the cross tabs in this poll from McClatchy-Marist. The sample size is small, so the margin of error in the cross tabs is high. That said, it is still a fascinating look into voter motivations.

I was especially intrigued by the question

Did you choose Donald Trump because you are for him or because you are against Hillary Clinton?

Page 10 contains the breakdown for Trump voters. In every demographic breakdown and sometimes by a factor of two to one, those polled who said they were voting for Donald Trump also said their motivation was to vote against Hillary Clinton.

Page 9 is the same question asked of Hillary voters. In most categories, those who were polled said theirs was a positive vote for Clinton rather than a vote against Trump. The four exceptions were:

Soft Democrat affiliation 54% anti Trump Independent 61% anti Trump White- not college graduate 50% anti Trump Age 18-29 62% anti Trump

This suggests there is a huge divide within Whites who are not college graduates, as 59% of those in that class who are voting for Trump report it as a vote against Clinton. The same can be said of Independents. In that category, 68% of the vote for Trump is anti Clinton. Ditto for Soft Republican affiliation, which is 64% anti Clinton. It appears there may not have been enough respondents in the 18-29 demo-graphic who were voting for Trump for a statistically meaningful breakdown on motivation. Among those voting for Trump, MClatchy-Marist only provides two age classes- under 45 and 45 and older.

The antipathy of younger voters for Trump is confirmed on Page 11, the four candidate race broken down by demographics. Note that among voters under 30, Trump ran in dead last place, with only 9% support.

Note, too, that only 2% of Black voters in the sample supported Trump. That 2% number is consistent with other national polls. Last week Trump supporters were talking up a poll that shows Trump running strongly among Black voters in North Carolina. May I suggest that there are polls out there that are nothing more than click bait for those who sponsored it. An organization sends out a press release reporting a startling poll result. This gets picked up by the media and traffic to that organization's website goes up. Note that I am familiar with the organization that released the above poll. They have burned me twice with polls that showed the Republican challenger neck and neck with the Democrat. Then on Election Day the Republican was crushed. In each case, my money could have gone to a race where it might have made a difference had I not relied on their poll.
In a statement marking the 51st anniversary of the passage of the Voting Rights Act, Hillary Clinton said that the US was witnessing the "most systematic effort to curtail those rights since the era of Jim Crow."

The Hill:

The Democratic presidential nominee praised a court decision that struck down a voter ID law in North Carolina last week and similar efforts in Wisconsin, Texas, Michigan, North Dakota, and Kansas. This November, the notion that every American has a voice in shaping our future is at stake.Donald Trump supports discriminatory voting restrictions  and actually claims that without them in place, the results of American elections should be questioned. Its a dangerous attempt to undermine the legitimacy of our democracy," Clinton said. I have a very different view. I believe America is stronger when we expand access to the ballot box, not restrict it. That's why Ill fight to repair the Voting Rights Act, expand early voting, and introduce universal, automatic voter registration." President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law on August 6, 1965. The law was meant to prohibit state and local governments to block African Americans from voting.

This is utter nonsense and Clinton knows it. Jim Crow era voting restrictions, including literacy tests, citizenship tests, and poll taxes were all designed to keep blacks from voting. Voter ID laws are there for the purpose of making sure all votes from all citizens count equally.

But telling the truth about voter ID laws just doesn't have the same impact as trying to scare black and hispanic people into voting Democratic by suggesting evil Republicans want to take away their right to vote.

Calling voter ID laws "voter suppression" is spin, not reality. The mythical "burden" placed on minorities, the young, and seniors in acquiring ID doesn't stand up to scrutiny. The people who have trouble getting legit ID - illegal aliens for one - can't vote anyway.

What's really needed to root out voter fraud is a reform of state voter rolls. Voter registration is a mess with thousands of people in every state still being carried as registered voters even though they're dead, or moved out of state, or are ineligible in some other way. When rolls of registered voters match the voters at individual polling places, verification becomes a snap and the problem of voter fraud is virtually solved.

It's idiotic for Clinton to bring up Jim Crow "voter suppression" when the goal is voter integrity.
One of the non-classified Hillary Clinton emails released by the State Department last year may have convinced the Iranian government that a nuclear scientist who claimed he was kidnapped by the CIA was actually a defector and spy for the US.

At the time that the email was released, the press picked up on the bizarre story.

CNN:

New Hillary Clinton emails released by the State Department appear to lift the curtain on the bizarre circumstances surrounding Shahram Amiri, an Iranian nuclear scientist who claims to have been abducted by the CIA. The just-released emails, which were sent to Clinton back in 2010, seem to support what State Department sources have long maintained: that Amiri was not abducted, but a defector and paid informant who changed his mind about helping the U.S. The emails also appear to offer insight into the department's plans to get Amiri back to Iran safely. Amiri's complicated story began in 2009, when he mysteriously disappeared while on a religious pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. Almost immediately, Tehran accused the U.S. of abducting him. The U.S. denied the accusation, saying it had no knowledge of Amiri's whereabouts. Fast forward to nearly a year later, when a series of videos surfaced online of a man claiming to be Amiri. In them, he denied being a defector and claimed to have been hiding out from CIA operatives in Virginia. In a subsequent video, however, he said he was living freely in Arizona. Two weeks later, on July 14, 2010, CNN reported that Amiri had returned to Tehran after going to Iran's interest section at the embassy of Pakistan in Washington. CNN's report appears to directly correspond with an email Clinton's top foreign policy adviser Jake Sullivan sent her, now being released by the State Department. In the email -- written two days before the CNN report -- Sullivan expressed fear of the media catching wind of the story, writing: "The gentleman you have talked to Bill Burns about has apparently gone to his country's interests [sic] section because he is unhappy with how much time it has taken to facilitate his departure. This could lead to problematic news stories in the next 24 hours. Will keep you posted." An earlier email seemingly shows how the State Department worked to carefully craft Amiri's return to Iran.

Amiri was arrested upon his return and tried for treason. He was initially given a long prison sentence. But something changed recently that prodded the Iranian government to call for his execution.

While US State Department officials apparently burned Amiri by leaking his status as a defector/spy, Clinton's emails made it clear he was returning to Iran to spy for the US. Did that fact seal Amiri's fate?

That the poorly disguised identity of Amiri appeared in a supposedly unclassified email is a major breach of security - especially since the US was arranging his return to Tehran.
When Donald Trump did what he had to do and endorsed Speaker Paul Ryan for re-election, he cut the legs out from underneath conservative activists who were working to defeat him.

Heavy hitters like Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, and Rush Limbaugh had all expressed the hope that Ryan would lose to his primary opponent Paul Nehlen. But party activists working against Ryan, expressed disappointment and anger at Trump for what one referred to as a sell out.

Washington Times:

The trio of endorsements  especially the one for Mr. Ryan  shocked some of Mr. Trumps diehard supporters. He has broken our heart doing this tonight, said Trump supporter Sue Payne, a conservative activist working to defeat Mr. Ryan. We finally thought we had a voice to stand up against the RINO establishment. He sold us out, she said. What happened tonight is the establishment got their claws in him and they are pulling the strings. What do we believe now? Mr. Nehlen said he understood Mr. Trumps decision to back the party leadership. Given his stature as our partys official nominee, Mr. Trumps decision to support the Republican Speaker is appropriate and is a display of true leadership, Mr. Nehlen said in a statement. Mr. Trumps early refusal to endorse Ryan sent a clear signal to Wisconsin voters that Ryan is not his preferred candidate in this race. Speaker Ryans globalist agenda stands in clear opposition to the will of the Republican electorate, who want safe communities, immigration control, smart trade deals, and leaders who put the needs of the American people first, he said. Mr. Nehlen faced an uphill in taking on the powerful House speaker. Mr. Ryan leads Mr. Nehlen in the Janesville district 80 percent to 14 percent, according to a Remington Research Group poll released Friday.

Nehlen played the endorsement well, not alientating Trump voters while bowing to the inevitable. Trump may consider himself anti-establishment, but he needs them to win the presidency. He may also have seen that poll and realized backing a candidate that was going to lose badly wouldn't look good for his campaign.

I don't know how far Trump can go in embracing the establishment while maintaining his support with the base. But the candidate apparently recognizes that if he is elected, he needs these people to get anything done. In endorsing Ryan, Ayotte, and McCain, Trump paid a small price for a big payoff if he wins in November.
Many of you have heard the conspiracy theory that Black Lives Matter and other paid thug protest groups will cause so much chaos in the streets that Obama will use it as an excuse to cancel the presidential election and remain president. I do not think that will happen.

However, I asked my wife Mary a rhetorical question: "If Obama did cancel the election, who would stop him?" Folks, the terrifying answer which we all know is "no one." For eight years, even after we gave Republicans control of the House and Senate, the GOP has allowed Obama to break the law and ignore the Constitution at will. Congress has ignored their power of the purse and funded everything Obama has decreed. Senate majority leader Republican Mitch McConnell said that no matter what Obama does, impeachment is off the table.

In essence, McConnell gave Obama the green light to further his vowed fundamental transformation of America  to implement his socialist, progressive, and anti-American agenda without having to fear any serious push-back from Republicans. A judge deemed Obama's executive amnesty illegal and ordered him to stop it. Obama, in essence, gave the judge the finger and continues to illegally flood our country with thousands of illegals.

The latest incident of Obama being allowed to routinely function outside the law is money-laundering, illegally paying a ransom for hostages. While talking heads on TV expressed outrage over Obama's latest blatant illegal behavior, I yelled at my TV. "So what? Who is going to stop him  to hold Obama accountable?" As always over the past eight years, the answer is "no one."

This is why it is such a joke hearing clueless fellow blacks telling me that white racist Republicans have fought the first black president relentlessly at every turn. The complete opposite is true. Obama has been allowed to act like America's first king solely because he is black.

This brings me to conservatives who send me emails daily about Trump's shortcomings. Don't these people realize that Hillary's presidency will be a replay of Obama's on steroids? Even now, before Hillary is elected, the media and Democrats have attempted to brand everyone who has opposed Hillary, from Bernie Sanders to Trump and everyone in between, as sexists.

If elected, Hillary will be America's first queen. Like Obama, Hillary will have the majority of media, the Democratic Party and Hollywood covering her back. They will make life pure hell for anyone daring to oppose Hillary illegally implementing her socialist/progressive agenda, furthering Obama's fundamental transformation. Even now, the left has begun criminalizing our constitutional rights, throwing people in jail for disagreeing with government.

The punishment for opposing Hillary in any way will be a cyber-space lynching after being stripped naked and flogged within an inch of one's political life. Then the left will hang your battered carcass in the public square of social media to warn other peasants. If the left's repeal of our freedoms goes as planned, they will ultimately throw your derriere in prison for speaking against or disobeying Queen Hillary.

Americans have repeatedly been forced to view the horror movie Everyone Opposing Obama is Racist. Why would any conservative sponsor its sequel, Everyone Opposing Hillary is Sexist? The dirty little secret is, there are conservatives who, while proclaiming "Never Hillary," secretly hope she will win. Pardon my poor English, but that just ain't right. It is, dare I say, deceitful and even a betrayal.

This has me scratching my head. Some anti-Trumpers say Trump has less than conservative views on key issues. Therefore, they fear he will not defend conservatism in office. Meanwhile, these anti-Trump conservatives know that Hillary vehemently opposes conservatism. They know she will fight conservatism with ten times the intensity and with the full power of the federal government and support from the mainstream media.

And yet there are conservatives who quote scripture about how awful Trump is and secretly hope Hillary, the woman seated firmly on the side of those who seek to ban the Bible, wins. That is nuts. Somebody please explain to me what I am missing.

Folks, I am doing everything in my power, as God gives me strength, to put Trump in and keep Wicked Queen Hillary out of the White House.

Remember the exciting early days of the Tea Party movement? Well, we are getting the old band back together again. I am extremely excited and proud to be a founding member of Tea Party for Trump.

Coming soon: The official launch of Tea Party for Trump. (teapartyfortump.org)

On a date to be announced, there will be Tea Party for Trump rallies across America. The rallies are not just rah-rah sessions. Their purpose is to unify and fire up patriots to participate in our super-intense get-out-the-vote campaign.

Meanwhile, tell your family and friends that it is time to jump aboard the Trump Train.

Please enjoy my Trump Train music video.

Lloyd Marcus, The Unhyphenated American

LloydMarcus.com
The government says it has admitted 8,000 Syrian refugees so far this fiscal year, putting them on track to reach their stated goal of accepting 10,000 Syrian refugees by the end of the fiscal year in September.

But the administration says that number is a "floor, not a ceiling." If the pace of refugee resettlement continues, more than 12,000 refugees will enter the US.

Washington Times:

At todays pace, more than 12,000 refugees could be admitted by the end of September, which marks the end of the fiscal year. Those are part of the 85,000 total refugees from around the world that Mr. Obama has said he can accept. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Leon Rodriguez said hes confident his officers can screen out potential terrorists and other bad actors even without access to the tools Mr. Comey said are important. Mr. Rodriguez said they query U.S. government databases to see if theres any derogatory information about an applicant, and said his officers do review the social media presence of some Syrian applicants. Mr. Rodriguez said those checks have blocked literally hundreds of Syrians from gaining access. He said they approved 80 percent of applicants, have denied 7 percent, and have the other 13 percent on hold. Top administration security experts, including FBI Director James Comey, had previously sounded warnings about Syrian refugees, saying that while they can query U.S. databases, they dont have access to databases in Syria, nor do they have on-the-ground access needed for a more complete picture. The increase in Syrian refugees has been controversial, particularly after some refugees were implicated in terrorist attacks in Europe over the last year. In addition, one man admitted as an Iraqi refugee, but who came from Syria, was charged in the U.S. earlier this year with supporting terrorists. Rep. Vern Buchanan, Florida Republican, warned this week that as the Islamic State loses ground in the Middle East, its likely to send more operatives to conduct attacks in Europe and the U.S.  and he said that should cause the U.S. to shut down its Syrian refugee pipeline. We need to stop accepting Syrian refugees as a matter of national security, he said in a letter to Mr. Obama. The administration started off the fiscal year slowly, admitting only 187 Syrian refugees in October 2015. Facing the prospect of missing Mr. Obamas goal, the administration surged resources and in July brought in nearly 2,500.

Indeed, the only way the Obama administration was able to speed up the admitting process was to cut corners in vetting the refugees. A process that once took 18 months was reduced to 3 months. That one fact makes the rejection numbers meaningless.

It's unconscionable in this day and age to relax vetting procedures when, if anything, current events shows that we should be tightening them. I have confidence that, given time, the FBI and other agencies can sufficiently vet refugees to prevent terrorists from sneaking in. But three months doesn't cut it and the Obama administration continues to roll the dice with the safety and security of Americans.
Heres one gigantic wonder-of-the-world hotel development that I will not be checking into. It looks just like the next mega-project for the Las Vegas Strip, munis all the fun stuff. Erica Owen of Travel+Leisure explains:

Anything dubbed world's largest is sure to be over-the-top, but the $3.5 billion hotel under construction in Mecca is redefining extravagant. The Abraj Kudai, which is owned by Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Finance, will feature 12 towers, 10,000 rooms, and upwards of 70 restaurants. That's more dining options than many towns have.

I like the multiple helicopter pads for the pious and wealthy pilgrims.

Based on what can be seen from the architects drawings, I dont see a swimming pool. I suppose the idea of mixed sex bathing is out of the question (how do you swim in a burka?). And since infidels are banned from Mecca, there wont be a lot of big conventions of real estate brokers, industrial fastener manufacturers, or the like. On the other hand Muslims are required to visit Mecca if they have the means to do so.

So the Saudi government, reeling from lowered oil prices, is splurging multi-billions on a Vegas wannabe hotel that will absolutely overshadow the Kabbah, which already is framed by slightly smaller, equally garish hotels.
Ron Clark.JPG

Motivational Speaker and educator, Ron Clark visited Moss Point this week to encourage and uplift educators to think outside of the box when it comes to engaging their students.

(Myya Robinson)

MOSS POINT, Mississippi --- When Moss Point teachers and staff went back to school this week, they didn't know what to expect. Superintendent Dr. Shannon Vincent and her administrative team surprised the employees with a visit from nationally known educator, author, and motivational speaker, Ron Clark. The group was beyond excited when they saw Clark dance his way into the gymnasium at Magnolia Middle School.

"It's pretty amazing, it's inspiring, it's uplifting," said Jessica Hayes, 2nd grade teacher at Kreole Primary Elementary. "I think it's the greatest way to start off the school year."

"It was important for me to make sure that he was here to deliver the message that 'we may not be where we want to be, but we can get there if we all work together'," said Vincent.

Clark is known for his work with disadvantaged students in rural and inner city neighborhoods. He has taught in North Carolina, New York City, and Atlanta, Georgia, where he founded his own school, the Ron Clark Academy. A group of Moss Point educators visited the academy last spring to see first-hand how Clark uses nontraditional methods to help students reach their full potential.

"They came back on fire, so I thought if I can do this for thirty, I need to do it for all of our teachers and all of our staff members, because it takes all of us to make it happen."

During his presentation, Clark jumped on and off chairs, rapped about the nation's presidents, danced, and most importantly, encouraged teachers and staff to give students all they had, and to just "do something."

"You don't have to jump on top of desks, but do something," he said with sincerity. "Imagine what would happen if everyone in this building did something. It would change the schools. It would change the community."

Clark has been changing students' lives and entire communities for about 20 years. He told story after story of student success in some of the most unsuspecting places and how everyone from the school cafeteria workers, to the bus drivers, to local churches got involved to help students.

One example was about a fifth grader in North Carolina who couldn't read at the beginning of the school year, but with help became excited and eager to read aloud in class.

Another example highlighted that one of his former students currently teaches at the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta. Other examples were from his days in Harlem where the dropout rate was 60 percent and the average household income was about 38,000. His class was the lowest performing in the school, but Clark helped turn things around.

"I ate lunch with those kids every day and in a year their test scores were higher than any class in the school and they were the highest in the district. They went on to be one of the best classes in New York City. Twenty-seven out of 37 in that class have graduated from college, and all of them graduated high school," he said as the audience applauded.

Clark talked about how he went out of his way to connect with students, making home visits to meet with every parent, going to extracurricular activities to show them support, and even teaching students about their own African culture by sending off saliva samples to National Geographic, so students could learn more about their ancestors.

"The bottom line with all of this is that it's all about relationship building," said Vincent. "We have to take the time to build relationships with our children, so that they know that we care, so when we're teaching them content, they will care to give us their very best."

Teachers and other staff members heard that message loud and clear and are excited about the new school year and more committed than ever to make a difference.

"Being that I've always taught the arts, I pride myself on being creative in the classroom," said Brandon Scott, band director at Magnolia Middle School. "But at the same time, when you hear someone come in and give that extra spark or motivation, it does make you want to revamp or more importantly recommit to what we're doing and the reasoning behind it, why we're doing it, so I just feel great."

Staff members say having Clark as guest speaker this year was just what they needed. They say the teaching profession can be draining, but definitely worth the reward.

"It's the hardest thing that I will ever love to do, and I couldn't see myself doing anything else," said Hayes. "It's a new beginning here in Moss Point, but like Ron Clark says it's a revolution."

"There's a real, active movement going on in this community, and I'm just honored to be a part of it," said Scott.
Even if Anthony had a year to analyze and dissect each piece...(he couldn't tell if it would)... stand the harsh light of public exposure.

WUWT insider Willis Eschenbach tells you all you need to know about Anthony Watts and his blog, WattsUpWithThat (WUWT). As part of his scathing commentary , Wondering Willis accuses Anthony Watts of being clueless about the blog articles he posts. To paraphrase: Click here to read more.
At the Angelus, Pope Francis asked twice to pray for "the civilian victims of the war". It is unacceptable that so many defenseless persons  among them many small children  must pay the price for conflict. Sadly, so much injustice, violence and daily wickedness are born from the idea of behaving as masters of the lives of others."

Vatican City (AsiaNews)  Pope Francis has issued yet another appeal and call for prayer for Syria, especially for the people of Aleppo. Once Syrias economic heart, the city recently saw renewed fighting between rebel and government forces, as the former seek to regain control of some areas of the city recently taken by the army.

Speaking after the Angelus, mentioning "reports of civilian victims of war," the pope said, " It is unacceptable that so many defenseless persons  among them many small children  must pay the price for conflict  for the closure of the hearts and the want of a will for peace among the powerful.

Addressing the pilgrims present, he added, "Let us draw near to our Syrian brothers and sisters with prayer and solidarity. Let us entrust them to the maternal protection of the Virgin Mary. Let us pray silently and then say Hail Mary. After a few moments of silence, he recited the Marian prayer with everyone else.

Earlier, the pope had commented the Gospel reading of the day (Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, C) concerning three parables on vigilance (Lk, 12:32-48).

"The first, he explained, is the parable of the servants who wait during the night for the return of the master. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival (v. 37). It is the blessedness of waiting with faith for the Lord, of getting ready in an attitude of service. He becomes present every day, knocking on the door of our heart. And blessed will be those who open it because they will have a great reward: for the Lord himself will be the servant of his servants; in the great feast of his Kingdom, he will himself serve them.

With this parable, set at night, Jesus promises life as a vigil of diligent waiting, which is a prelude to the bright day of eternity. To access it one has to be ready, alert and committed to the service of others, in the comforting perspective that Beyond it will not be us who serve God, but he himself will welcome us to his table. Come to think of it, this happens already today every time we meet the Lord in prayer, or in serving the poor, especially in the Eucharist, where he prepares a feast to feed us with his Word and Body.

The second parable has as image that of the unexpected coming of the thief. This requires vigilance. In fact, Jesus says, You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come (v. 40). The disciple is the one who waits for the Lord and his Kingdom.

The Gospel clarifies this perspective in the third parable, about the steward of a house after the departure of the master. In the first case, the steward performs his duties faithfully and receives the reward. In the second case, the steward abuses his authority and beats the servants, so, upon the sudden return of the master, he is punished. This case describes a frequent situation even today: so much injustice, violence and daily wickedness are born from the idea of behaving as masters of the lives of others. We instead have only one master, who calls himself Father."

Jesus, the pope said, today reminds us that the expectation of eternal beatitude does not dispense us from our responsibility to work for a more just and more habitable world. Indeed, it is precisely this, our hope of possessing the Kingdom in eternity, which encourages us to work towards improving the conditions of life on earth, especially those of our weakest brothers and sisters.

May the Virgin Mary help us to be persons and communities not focused on the present, or, worse, the nostalgic about the past, but turned towards the future of God, towards the encounter with him, our life and our hope.
reddie said: How's about those universities in Australia? Like University of New South Wales. Most of Aussies Uni are in the Washington Accord however I cannot find any information regards that if you got the bachelor of engineering from UNSW, can you apply for visa 476.



It would be great if anyone can clear this up for me. Thanks. Click to expand...

In Australia our signatory to the accord is Engineers Australia and hence any programs (at professional Engineering level) accredited by them are recognised for the 476 visa. The full list of EA accredited programs (including UNSW) can be found at https://www.engineersaustralia.org....isting_-_combined_v15_updated_16_may_2016.pdf The International programs listed above are included in the Legislation as they too satisfy the requirement for the 476 visa despite the fact that the countries listed do not yet (at the time the legislation was drafted) enjoy full signatory status with the Washington Accord.
It was an era of reckless excess and flashiness, the emergence of libertine and free attitudes, as well as counterculture. Of course, many people still think of The Sixties as of an era full of debauchery and drug abuse. Proof of this are Paul Kantner's (from Jefferson Airplane) words: If you can remember anything about the sixties, you weren't really there.Well, apart from this, the sixth decade of the twentieth century also meant the rise of the Kustom Kulture and Hot Rod movement in Southern California.Among the people responsible for making what some people might actually call a form of art were Kenneth Graeme Howard (better known as Von Dutch or J.L. Bachs) and the colorful Ed Big Daddy Roth, who was a larger-than-life car cult figure. Roth was born in 1932, in Beverly Hills, but he really surfaced on the hot-rodding scene after the Second World War.He became a real celebrity, mostly known for his nonconformist goatee and his off-beat manifestations whenever he found himself in front of a camera.Roth (along with his contemporaries, Von Dutch and the Barris Bros) was especially noted for being one of the first people who understood the marketing potential of the Kustom Kulture, therefore making it available for people of all classes, but mostly teenagers.During the mid-1950s, he established his reputation as a successful pinstripe artist who had a very close connection with the hot-rodding scene, also doing flames or similar paint jobs for customized cars.After he opened a custom paint shop called the Crazy Painters together with fellow pinstriping artists Tom Kelly and Baron Crozier, he soon realized that what he shouldn't be reserved for cars only. Therefore, he also began airbrushing and selling what he called weirdo shirts. These shirts started to be advertised in magazines like Car Craft and Rod and Custom and his business really began to flourish.The unique feature about his style of drawing was the way he embedded both the cute and the grotesque in the same project. At the end of the fifties, he left the Crazy Painters and opened his own Roth Studios in Maywood, a suburb of the city of angels.With his own business on a roll, he spent the next decade transforming the way car customization happened, partly thanks to the development of fiberglass, which had the great feature of being easily molded into the most extreme shapes. So it happened that Roth, together with other talented artists like Robert Williams, Dave Mann and of course Von Dutch became the greatest promoters of Kustom Kulture in the 1960s.Ed Big Daddy Roth's grotesque caricatures were typified by the Rat Fink character, which depicted a monstrous-looking rat with bulgy bloodshot eyes and a very depraved overall look.Roth had created this character out of his hatred for Disney's Mickey Mouse and didn't realize at first that his drawing would eventually become a symbol for the entire hot-rodding movement of the 1960s. Also, many historians are crediting him for popularizing the printed T-shirt, even though after the number of silk-screened shirts today many people don't realize that there was a time before Roth when almost all t-shirts were plain.Realizing the amount of success that the Rat Fink character had gathered in a very short period, Roth asked his own studio artists to create dozens of similar creatures, which eventually became an army of gruesome monsters rendered on chopped up hot-rods and other customized cars.Of all the creations he conjured over the years, Rat Fink remained as the archetypal Roth monster, mostly because it also had a special significance for him: Whenever I looked at that drawing, I felt I was looking, for the first time, at reality - my reality. The world that my parents, teachers, and responsible type people all around me belonged to wasnt my world. Why did I have to be like them, live like them? I didnt. And Rat Fink helped me realize that.Becoming his main line of business, the t-shirt company was only used to finance his first real passion, which still consisted of his now famous weird-shaped cars. He based a lot of his skills by lying the somewhat newly discovered fiberglass over hand-carved plaster forms, thus sculpting the unique custom bodies in almost any shape possible.One of his greatest four-wheeled creations was revealed in 1959, when he created a car almost entirely from the ground up. His fame also reached big companies like Revell, who started producing miniature kit replicas of Roth custom vehicles, for which he also licensed his name. When the guys at Revell suggested that he needed a catchier name, he added the Big Daddy nickname to his moniker.When the sixties came to an end, Ed Big Daddy Roth was also touched by the decline in people's search of customized cars, which eventually led to a decrease in sales.The end of the kustom kulture golden era found him switching to more fuel-efficient cars powered by Volkswagen or Honda engines, and also a small number of custom trikes. After numerous arguments with members of the Hell's Angels motorcycle gang, Roth decided to leave the business that he had founded, selling all his assets and returning to custom painting alongside Von Dutch.This soon ended and 1974 found him trying to seek new meaning in his life, so he converted to Mormonism. He also started to regret the 1960s, when he was making money by selling Rat Fink T-shirts, endorsing illegal street racing and having confrontations with biker thugs.He never regretted the cars he had built and continued to manufacture custom hot-rods and trikes until his death, which happened in 2001. His legacy remains behind , and many of his creations can now be found in various private collections and automotive museums around the world, keeping his spirit alive.
A frequent reader question we receive is: Why does my engine seem to lack the power it once had? We cant tell you exactly whats wrong, but we can get you pointed in the right direction, and that begins with a systematic approach.

We can also tell you that one of the most common and hard to troubleshoot engine complaints is that of low power or low static rpm. Complaints on this subject were once so numerous on the Lycoming O235 series that Lycoming published an entire service instruction on the subject (S.I. 1388C).

Plane owners of all types will occasionally complain that their engine isnt making good power like it used to. In most cases, the engine runs smoothly and there is no immediately obvious cause of the power deficit.

Static rpm isnt always a good indication of power deficit, since so many factors (density altitude, outside air temp, mixture etc.) go into determining what the engines fullpower rpm is on the ground. A better way to know if youve truly got a powerpoor engine is to load the plane to gross and attempt to replicate book performance figures, especially takeoff distance with wind factored in and rate-of-climb.

(Maximum levelflight speed is not a foolproof measure, since aircraft rigging can affect it.) If your rate of climb at full gross weight is only half what the book says it should be, youve probably got a powerpoor engine.

Three things that will be helpful to the maintenance technician who tries to troubleshoot the predicament are: (1) How long the problem has existed, and (2) Is it occasional, or continuous and (3) How accurate are the power instruments? Did the power deficit come on suddenly? If so, the cause might be a mechanical failure (broken valve spring) or other sudden event, such as internal blockage of the muffler or the intake.

If the power loss has come about slowly, entirely different causes may be to blame (e.g., timing shift, cam wear).

Likewise, its important for the troubleshooter to know if the power loss comes and goes, or is permanent. If it comes and goesit could be a blocked muffler (loose flame tubes or baffles are bouncing around, covering up the exhaust outlet and then exposing it again) or a carburetor heat door that is fully shut one day and cracked open the next. A chronic, power deficit will probably be harder to troubleshoot.

In either case, if the power loss began immediately after annual inspection or other hands-on maintenance, begin checking into what was done at the maintenance check that could have caused the power deficit.

Sanity Checks

The very first thing to do when trying to check out a powerpoor engine is rule out obvious powerkillers (things that dont require engine disassembly to get at or fix). These would be such items as:

The manifold pressure gauge and tachometer: Check for substantial errors in the power poor direction. The manifold pressure gauge should indicate field barometric pressure (corrected for elevation, of course) with the engine stopped. Tachs are best checked electronically, either with a hand-held digital model available through aviation catalogs.

A hand-held unit can be used either inside or outside the plane, and no tape is required. The commonly available $40 model has alleged accuracy to a maximum of 10 rpm, but we like the two other choices much better (either the TruTach II, about $190 or the long popular Proptach-3 at $270, www.proptach.com). You will find a readout to one rpm, greater accuracy, repeatability, stability and stabilization circuitry. You get what you pay for.

Next on the list is the induction air system: Check for shop rags, clogged air filter, alternate air door not closing, collapsed scat tubing, birds nests, animal remains or animal damage.

Carburetor heat: Check for proper rigging of door (door must close fully before knob hits panel in the cockpit).

Throttle and mixture controls: Check rigging. Make sure full control travel is occurring (stops are hit) at the throttle or injector. Primer: Closed, locked, and not leaking. The O-rings can wear and leak. Repair is quite easy.

Additional Sanity Items

Once youve exhausted the truly obvious things, its time to move on to less obvious items, such as:

The exhaust system: Check visually for blowouts, cracks, leaks. Rap on the mufflers with a rubber mallet and listen for loose baffles or debris. Turbocharged engines: gain access to the compressor and check for bent or damaged blades.

If blades have been rubbing (bent over at the outer periphery), something probably went through the exhaust turbinebegin FOD (foreign object damage) inspection. You can also use soapy water and pressurize first the induction and then the exhaust systems with a shop vac (using filtered air).

Ignition system: Check mag-to-engine timing with the flower pot type setup. Its one of the most accurate methods. Check rpm drop (max 175 per mag, 50 rpm difference verify with against your specific POH).

Remove spark plugs, clean, and check under high pressure in a bombtest machine. Consult the aircraft records to determine when was the last time the magnetos were removed for anything more than cursory inspection. Weak rotors, weak magnets, faulty coils, have a way of escaping notice for hundreds of hours. Mags should be opened and inspected every 500 hours (or 400 hours for some mags per service bulletin). Weak mags are often the culprit.

Manifold pressure at idle: Check to see if MP is high (18 inches) at idle rpm. This can indicate a serious induction air leak or bad ring wear (poor compression in one or more cylinders).

Differential compression check: It generally takes compression substantially worse than 60/80 to affect horsepower. Also, if only a few cylinders are bad, the engine may shake.

With a Continental engine, much lower compression is OK as long as any leakage is not past the valves, which can be heard. Be sure to use a tester with the calibrated orifice and follow the CM bulletin exactly (CM bulletin 03-3).

Rich Man, Lean Man

An engine that is set up too rich or too lean will (if the fuel flow is off far enough in either direction) act power-poor. On an engine with constantspeed prop, a quick check can be made for EGT rise at full power. With a carbureted engine, there should be some EGT rise (the actual amount depending on many factors) when the mixture is retarded.

This applies in cruise, too, of course. If you fail to see any EGT rise when leaning the engine, it means one or more cylinders were already on the lean side of peak EGT when you started leaning. Thats too lean.

Instructions for setting up Continental fuelinjector systems (on the aircraft) can be found in Service Bulletin No. M97-3C. On Lycoming engines with Bendix or Simmonds fuel injectors, the servo bodies have to be flowchecked on a special flow bench. I.e., you have to send the injector out.

Before sending anything out, of course, youll want to clean all injector nozzles (see Lycoming S.I. 1275) and be sure the correct series of nozzle is installed (Continental only). CM nozzles come in a bewildering variety of flow ranges, and its possible your engine has the wrong ones.

Bendix latestyle nozzles have a removable restrictor orifice which, if its left out, can cause problems. Be sure nozzles are correct and functioning properly.

The Valve Train

Sad to say, if youve already checked all of the foregoing items and come up emptyhanded, about all thats left is the valve train. If you find anything wrong here, its probably going to be expensive to fix.

A check of dry tappet clearance is often worthwhile, especially if any cylinders were recently removed. (This is now a required part of Lycoming S.B. 388C, interestingly.) Power isnt affected unless something is very seriously amiss in this department. For example, you may find a mushroomed or bent pushrod, or a rotator cap (Lycoming only) may have fallen off a valve.

Springs occasionally break (especially after an engine over-speed event) and valve guides sometimes pull loose from cylinder heads. Either of these can cause power loss, although there will generally be accompanying roughness.

The most likely source of any serious power deficit in a Lycoming engine, unfortunately, is a badly worn camshaft (one or more lobes scuffed flat). This is more likely in certain models (such as O320H, O360E, and TIO-541) than in others, but it does occur, sporadically, in just about all Lycoming models. (Continentals, too, although it is definitely rarer in a Continental.)

How do you determine whether youve got a badly worn cam, without taking the engine apart? Basically, you remove all rocker covers and put a dial indicator, one by one, on each rocker, so that you can swing the prop and note the rocker or valve travel for each valve.

The total throw should be very nearly identical for each valve. A flat lobe will be immediately obvious, because youll have a rocker that barely moves.

Tip: Weve noticed that many Lycoming cams start scuffing on the intake lobes first, and generally it starts with the front of the cam. Therefore, when doing the dialindicator trick, start with cylinder No. 1 (which, on a Lycoming, will usually be the front-most cylinder on the right or starboard engine side).

If you notice a major split in travel values for the intake and exhaust lobes, you can stop right there. Otherwise, do cylinder No. 3 next; then do just the exhaust lifters on cylinders No. 2 and 4. (The same intake lobes work the intake valves for cylinders 1 and 3, and also one lobe works intake valve 2 and 4. Exhaust lobes are fully dedicated.)

You can also find a bad cam lobe, on engines that use barreltype lifters (most Continentals, Lycoming O320H, O360E, TIO541), by pulling the lifters out of their crankcase bosses. But the dialindicator trick is easier and quicker.

Another tip: If you own a hightime (1,500 hours or more) Lycoming engine that has developed a power deficit gradually, over a period of time, and you have done checks of mag timing, carb heat, and tachometer accuracy (and the engine is running smoothly at all rpms), skip straight to the dialindicator check. (Particularly if the engine is flown less than 100 hours a year.) You want to rule out a bad cam right away, rather than spend needless hours (and dollars) looking for more esoteric, unlikely causes of power loss.

Here are some additional considerations from the Lycoming troubleshooting guide for power-poor engines, and they certainly can apply to CM engines as well:

Excessively dirty air filter. Sometimes even new filters may have an excessive air drop through them. If this condition is suspected, remove filter and run engine to full throttle without filter installed to observe whether the engine performs better. (This test should be performed in a dust-free area and on a hard surface.)

Carburetor heat door not rigged properly. Even though door is going from full open to full closed position when aircraft is shut down, when aircraft engine is operating, vibrations and airflow may cause door to open slightly. If this condition is suspected, tape or wire the door shut for test purposes. If this solves the problem, adjust and replace parts as necessary.

Incorrect magneto-to-engine timing. Use the flower pot timing tool rather than the eyeballing methods mechanics use on Lycomings. And if you have to change the external timing, chances are the internal E-gap needs work as well.

Fouled spark plugs. You need clean plugs. If the fouling is constant, lean in taxi, use TCP or check for hotter authorized plugs in the latest engine maker approved spark plug service bulletin.

Leaks in induction system and exhaust system (turbocharged particularly). Be sure any pressurized air tests are kept at low pressure and filtered air is used for any test. You dont want to blow dirty air into an engine.

Improper fuel flow. Remove screens and flush out dirt. Disconnect gauge and install master checker to determine the accuracy of the aircraft instrument. Check for any restriction in the air inlet or manifold. Use of improper fuel can certainly cause both short and long-term issues. Lycoming has a service bulletin on this.

Controllers out of adjustment (turbocharged). Damaged turbocharger impeller, binding or tight turbocharger wheels (turbocharged).

Excessive dirt build-up in the compressor housing or on the compressor wheel (turbocharged). Kinked or restricted oil lines from engine to actuator, and actuator to controller.

Wastegate out of adjustment (turbocharged). Inlet orifice in actuator plugged (turbocharged). Wastegate stuck open (turbocharged). Piston seal in wastegate actuator leaking. Noted by excess oil coming out of drain (turbocharged).

Oil pressure too low to close wastegate (turbocharged). Injector and controller linkage not adjusted properly (541 series engine). Butterfly in wastegate is warped. Do we see a pattern here with turbos being potentially more troublesome? They certainly are and they need to be properly maintained. Turbos are much less forgiving of deferred maintenance.

Broken baffles in muffler (normally aspirated engines). Poor combustiontop the cylinders required if compression is low. Crankshaft to camshaft timing incorrect. This condition may be checked by first disconnecting starter, remove top spark plugs and rocker box cover on #2 cylinder.

Turn engine to T.D.C. on the compression stroke on #1 cylinder, observe that when piston in #1 cylinder goes over T.D.C. on compression the intake valve in #2 cylinder is just starting to open and the exhaust valve is just closing.

If this condition does not exist, the crankshaft-to-camshaft timing is off. NOTE: On engines with fixed-pitch propellers the engine probably will not turn static rpm. On engines with constant-speed propellers the engine will probably turn up static rpm. but manifold pressure will be a little low.

Summary

Most of the problems on a power deficient engine center around failing to do simple maintenance that allows the engine to both have proper spark intensity at the right times and for the spark plugs to be in good shape.

Make sure the engine can breathe properly and doesnt have intake leaks. All odd sounds should be traced to their origin. And its always a good idea to start with the last maintenance area that was worked on if the problem starts after maintenance. Things get left loose or improperly reinstalled.

This article originally appeared in the August 2014 issue of Light Plane Maintenance.

Read More from Light Plane Maintenance, and learn how you can receive your FREE copy of 40 Top Maintenance Tips.
7 August 2016 11:45 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Azerbaijans Taxes Ministry held a board meeting on Saturday dedicated to the challenges faced by the Ministry in connection with the execution of the assignments given at the disposal of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on August 4.



The meeting approved the "direction of reform, which will be held in the tax field in 2016" and improvement of tax administration, the information-analytical agency department told Trend.



Speaking at the meeting, the Minister of Taxes Fazil Mammadov said that under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev for the last 10 years, the tax authorities carried out a number of important measures aimed at supporting the development of business, the expansion of private sector activity, stimulation of investments, building relationships between tax authorities and taxpayers on the basis of mutual trust, the registration of business entities according to the principle of "single window", the increase in the number of e-services, the use of e-audit.



Important steps have been made to improve the tax legislation and tax administration, he said.



Referring to the order of the president on approval of "the direction of reform, which will be held in the tax field in 2016" and improvement of tax administration, tax minister said that the order provides the implementation of important measures in the field of tax administration.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
7 August 2016 17:10 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani made statements for the press following the ceremony of signing documents in Baku Aug.7.

We attach great importance to your visit, President Aliyev said to his Iranian counterpart Rouhani.

I am glad that the visit is going on very successfully. I am confident that the talks we have held today and the signed documents will ensure the future development of Iranian-Azerbaijani relations, he added.

Our peoples have been living side by side under the conditions of friendship and good neighborhood for centuries, said President Aliyev. The history, culture and religion which have united us for centuries, are our common great wealth.

He pointed out that Iran and Azerbaijan build their bilateral relations on a solid basis.

I am glad that Iranian-Azerbaijani interstate relations have been developing successfully for around 25 years, said President Aliyev.

The latest period of development is especially important, since great progress has been achieved in the development of Iranian-Azerbaijani relations over the last several years, according to Azerbaijans president.

President Aliyev said that he has repeatedly met with his Iranian counterpart over the last several years, adding that reciprocal official visits are also very important steps taken in this sphere.

I visited Iran in February 2016 and today, you are our guest. This itself is an indication, said Azerbaijans president, adding that this shows that the relations are developing rapidly and dynamically and there are good results.

President Aliyev recalled that more than ten documents were signed during his official visit to Iran and in less than six months, the parties signed six more documents which are of great importance for the future cooperation of the two countries.

Azerbaijans president pointed out that the fulfillment of the documents and agreements signed in Iran in February is being ensured.

President Aliyev further said that Iran has always greatly respected Azerbaijans territorial integrity and it supports Azerbaijans fair position in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

This support by Iran is seen both within the UN and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Ilham Aliyev said.

He said that the declaration adopted during the OIC summit in 2016 once again demands the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict within Azerbaijans territorial integrity.

We praise Irans activities in this sphere, he added.

Today, I briefed President Rouhani about the current status of the conflicts settlement process, said President Aliyev.

As we know, Azerbaijani territories have been under occupation for many years, said the president. Nagorno-Karabakh is a historical Azerbaijani land and today, not only Nagorno-Karabakh, but also seven surrounding districts are under occupation. Azerbaijani people were forcibly expelled from those lands. Our historical monuments, as well as mosques were destroyed by Armenians.

President Aliyev pointed out that 20 percent of Azerbaijani lands are under occupation and this occupation continues.

The ways of settlement of the conflict are clear as well, he added.

Armenian armed forces violating Azerbaijans territorial integrity should be withdrawn from the occupied lands as demanded by four resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council, said President Aliyev.

Further, the president said that Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan in April was condemned during the OIC summit in 2016 and a contact group was created for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

President Aliyev recalled that Armenian armed forces staged another armed provocation against Azerbaijan in April 2016.

Our servicemen were killed as a result of this provocation, he said.

Six civilians were killed, over 20 were injured, more than 600 houses were damaged and over 100 houses were completely destroyed as a result of Armenian provocation, added the president.

Azerbaijan had to take relevant steps in order to protect its citizens and lands and those steps were very effective, according to President Aliyev.

He pointed out that the decisions and resolutions adopted by international organizations on the conflicts settlement should be fulfilled and Azerbaijans territorial integrity should be restored.

Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, in turn, said that Iran has always supported the territorial integrity of countries in the region, including Azerbaijan.

He stressed that Iran is against change of political borders in the region.

Iranian president further said that he has held talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart on the issue.

Iran believes that peace and stability should be established in the region, Rouhani said, adding all conflicts and problems between the countries should be settled through negotiations.

Iran as a neighbor of Azerbaijan and Armenia has always tried to pave ground to resolve the issues via dialogue, Rouhani said, adding that Iran will spare no effort in this regard.

Rouhani further said that the two sides have reached some agreements regarding to joint activities in Caspian Sea which can be an important step in the future of Tehran-Baku ties.

Rouhani also said that he has held talks with Ilham Aliyev regarding the legal status of the Caspian Sea.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
7 August 2016 18:15 (UTC+04:00)

Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev has expressed satisfaction with the successful development of economic relations between Iran and Azerbaijan.

During the expanded meeting between Azerbaijani and Iranian delegations with presence of both countries presidents, it was noted that the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Iran has increased by 66 percent, he said.

This is a very good indicator, said President Aliyev when making statements for the press jointly with Hassan Rouhani following the ceremony of signing documents in Baku Aug.7.

Given that economic and financial crisis still continues in the world, I believe that great efforts were needed and were made in order to get results under these conditions, said the president.

The intergovernmental joint commission is operating successfully, said President Aliyev, adding that today, the parties exchanged views on the future economic cooperation.

I am glad that yesterday, on the eve of the visit, a foundation stone was laid for the plant for cars to be manufactured by Iran Khodro company in Azerbaijans Neftchala city, he said, adding that this is a very good example of cooperation between the two countries.

The plant will produce over 10,000 cars every year, said President Aliyev, adding that this is a new form of cooperation.

The president said that the parties exchanged views today on joint activities in other spheres as well.

In particular, it is planned to construct a medicine-producing plant operating with Iranian technology in Azerbaijan in the near future, he added.

Naturally, new opportunities are opening for resolving the energy and transportation problems, said President Aliyev.

I am glad that the Imishli-Parsabad electricity line was merged. This line will positively affect the two countries relations and regional cooperation, he added.

The president pointed out that very important steps have been taken for the creation of the North-South international transportation corridor as well.

President Aliyev pointed out that after his visit to Iran in February, he gave relevant instructions and they are being fulfilled.

As I have promised, Azerbaijan will extend its railway to Iranian borders by late 2016. At the same time, the construction of the bridge across the Astara River with participation of Iranian and Azerbaijani officials has already started and the major part of the work has been completed, added the president.

A memorandum was signed today in order to speed up the implementation of the North-South corridor project and Azerbaijan intends to participate in the future financing of this project, said President Aliyev.

He pointed out that this issue, as well as the energy matters will be discussed during the first summit of Iranian, Russian and Azerbaijani presidents Aug.8.

The trilateral format is a new initiative and this is a very important step, added the president.

Naturally, the bilateral relations are the basis of this format. Azerbaijan has very good relations with Iran and Russia. I know that Russian-Iranian relations are also at a very good level, said President Aliyev.

Therefore, creation of the trilateral cooperation format is natural, he said, adding that history, geography, as well as joint projects are the basis of this initiative, according to the president.

The North-South international transportation corridor is an important project not only for our countries, but also for continents. Tomorrow, very important steps will be taken for the future implementation of this project, he added.

He noted that a wide spectrum of issues have been discussed in the bilateral format and there are very good prospects in the sphere of tourism.

Ilham Aliyev said that Iranian citizens can travel to Azerbaijan with simplified visa regime, he said, adding that the Nakhchivan-Tabriz-Mashhad railway is to be opened too.

There is a very good situation with air transport, and the number of flights is increasing, added the president.

Further, President Aliyev said that the environmental matters, as well as the Caspian Sea issues were discussed between the two parties and there are no dis

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that the North-South international transport corridor is one of the main issues between Iran and Azerbaijan as well as regional countries.

The corridor will connect Azerbaijan to Persian Gulf and finally we will be able to connect Caucasus countries, Russia, northern and eastern Europe to the Persian Gulf, Rouhani said.

He further expressed hope that the corridor would contribute to boosting economic ties of all regional countries.

The North-South International Transport Corridor is a multipurpose route for the transit of goods between Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia, Europe, India and Central Asia via shipping lines, railroad and land routes.

The first step on establishing the corridor will be finalized this year and the Astara (Azerbaijan)-Astara (Iran) rail bridge is going to be completed through Iran-Azerbaijan cooperation, Rouhani said.

The second step is to complete the Astara-Rasht railway, which will be finalized through a 50-50 investment of Iran and Azerbaijan, Rouhani added.

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Mobvoi is a Chinese Automated Intelligence startup that scored what many dream of... an investment from Google. In October 2015, the first by the investor since their departure from China in 2010 boosted the way for Ticwatch. According to reports from Bloomberg News and others, Mobvoi is poised to compete in price and features with the global star Apple Watch. That should take place in September 2016 when USA sales begin.

As is often the case, former Google employees co-founded Mobvoi and are behind its Ticwatch with a focus on practical-minded and cool tech-hungry American consumers. The device has the attention of the Chinese already who appear to be impressed with the ability of its voice-activated super natural feeling text search. It empowers fans to scroll with a simple to use touch-sensitive strip. The original version responded to questions by users in Chinese. The new version responds in English also. Ask what the weather is in Mumbai, Karachi, or NYC and more; reserve a ride with Uber, and order food delivery. Keep up with real-time distance, GPS location, heart rate data, and speed, so runners, walkers, hikers, cyclists and others who need such do not have to carry their smart phone in hand nor via an uncomfortable arm-band or waist pack. The Ticwatch comfortably wraps the wrist.

At the low price of $200, it competes price-wise pretty well with the $369 Apple Watch and approximately $300 Motorola Moto 360. The Ticwatch store is actually on Ticwatch Kickstarter where the goal was $50,000 and the progress so far is over $1,000,000 in raised funds with 5,463 contributors and 17 days left in the campaign.

As noted earlier, in October 2015, Alphabet's Google boosted Mobvoi's final round of funding. The company Mobvoi is said to be worth $300 million as of August 2016. It is optimized with an English user interface and makes available features comfortable for users anywhere. Plus, the Ticwatch 2 is said to be better than Ticwatch 1 in that it supports both iOS and Android devices.

"The Google label definitely helped us in marketing, but our core advantages are AI technologies that allow machines to understand natural languages, a self-developed system and self-designed hardware," said Li, who was a Google's translation software developer before he started up Mobvoi in 2012.

There's also a Mobvoi store for apps, and the watch is designed by Miko Nenonen who is based in San Francisco. Miko Nenonen Nest, Nokia) and comes in aluminium or stainless steel bodies with an option of silicone, Italian leather or stainless steel straps and sapphire crystal on the displays of the pricier models.

DIDX wholesale marketplace and Techistan online magazine will team up to give away a Mobvoi Ticwatch 2 and custom designed Dean Winchester style Suzahdi leather jacket to be announced at Cluecon which is scheduled Aug. 8 - 11, 2016 in Chicago, Illinois. It will also give away a Mobvoi Ticwatch 2 at Illinois Institute of Technology Realtime Communications Conference scheduled October 17 - 20, 2016 and ITEXPO East Conference which is scheduled for Feb. 8 - 10, 2017 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It is an expo and conference that offers Astricon, IDEA Showcase, ChannelVision, MSP EXPO and Reseller Week where exciting exhibitors such as Xorcom, Yeastar, Voxvalley, VoIP Innovations, Vitelity, Sansay, PortaOne, Obihai, Grandstream, Flying voice, Coredial, CallCabinet, Acrobits and others will showcase products and services to partner with and purchase to see your business and life...getting better and better!

One question everyone asks, "Will Ticwatch 2 available in the USA in September 2016 have all the hardware improvements consumers expect above and beyond that of Ticwatch 1?"
7 August 2016 18:12 (UTC+04:00)

Following the signed nuclear deal between Iran and the world powers, the Islamic Republic is back in the picture and it is a good opportunity to start a new page in relationship with Azerbaijan, Nathalie Goulet, vice chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the French Senate told Trend on Aug. 7.



Goulet made the comments regarding the meeting of Azerbaijani and Iranian presidents in Baku on Aug. 7.



Goulet also said that Iran and Azerbaijan have a unique cultural proximity.



According to the latest statistics, there are some 25 million Azerbaijanis living in Iran.



Goulet believes that topics of economic nature between Azerbaijan and Iran are important part of the cooperation between the neighboring states.



Azerbaijan and Iran cooperate in a major international North-South transportation corridor project. The corridor is meant to connect Northern Europe to South-East Asia. It will serve as a link connecting the railways of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia.



Goulet also believes that Iran may play a crucial part as a go-between in the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement. At the same time, the French senator believes that Iran has to show that it doesn't have any intention to interfere in domestic policy of Azerbaijan.



The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.



The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

---

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Joshua Melton and his husband James Feltner lived in a townhome in Manchester, KY for about nine months. They say they never had a problem until mid-June when they claim their landlord told them to get out the next day.

Their landlord was Esther Thompson, who is a Manchester City Council member who repeatedly called them faggots and assaulted one of them while she was evicting them due to their sexual orientation.

In the complaint, Thompson wrote the tenants violated their lease in many ways, including having six dogs and damaging the carpet. Thompson said it was, by far one of the worst I have seen.

Yeah shes lying, Joshua Melton said. There were three dogs  chihuahuas that weve had forever and she knew that we had them. The carpet was not destroyed. She said she should have never rented to the faggots, Melton told WYMT.

WYMT could not find an eviction notice on-record with any official, but we did find a small claims complaint Thompson filed one month AFTER the incident asking for $2,500.

Melton, who went to the emergency room after Thompson allegedly struck him in the head, has filed a criminal complaint against her for assault. Thompson told the couple she owned the police, who illegally took part in the eviction, according to the Kentucky Equality Federation, which is assisting the couple.

The Equality Federation also alleges that the county attorney, who serves as Thompsons private lawyer, violated ethics rules in handling Meltons assault complaint because he has a conflict of interest. In addition, Thompson is accused of using a fictitious corporation on the couples lease and illegally mishandling their security deposit.

Court documents show Thompson is scheduled to be arraigned in Clay District Court Aug. 8 on the fourth-degree assault complaint. However, for Jordan Palmer of the Kentucky Equality Federation, that is not enough.

Discrimination, we wont tolerate it in any form in any part of the Commonwealth, Palmer said. Its just unfortunate that its happened here in Clay County  again  but, we will see the case through to the end until justice is served.

Palmer claims the issues lie within city and county government. He said Manchester Police assisted in the eviction, which the police chief says is not true.

In March of 2016 Kentuckys Republican-controlled Senate today approved a license to discriminate bill that would allow individuals and businesses to deny service to LGBT people without being penalized under local antidiscrimination ordinances.

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A PRIDE celebration which was scheduled to take place this weekend in Uganda has been cancelled after a government minister threatened to organize a mob to beat up anyone who participated in the parade.

BuzzFeed reports:

Saturdays parade was scheduled to be held in a private space in Munyonyo, outside of Kampala, the countrys capital. But police raided the Mr. and Miss Pride pageant on Thursday night at the Venom nightclub and detained several of Ugandas most visible LGBT activists for several hours. On Friday, lawyer Nick Opiyo of Chapter 4 Uganda met with Ethics Minister Simon Lokodo to discuss the raid. Following the meeting, Opiyo told BuzzFeed News that Lokodo had threatened to bring opposition to the event to the streets, so organizers decided it should be canceled.

Opiyo added,

We decided to suspend it because of the risks to personal safety. The minister threatened to mobilize a mob and a large police group to beat up anyone who shows up for pride tomorrow. We will engage the government next week with a view of holding the pride parade at another date soon.

The cancellation has come only two days after a private LGBT pride event at a nightclub in Kampala was disrupted by policemen. The police claimed the event was a breach of a law requiring organizers to obtain permission to hold public meetings (organizers say they did, in fact, get permission for the event). Activists say some of those present were arrested and detained, but later released.

In 2014, Yoweri Museveni, Ugandas president, signed a controversial anti-gay law which criminalized same-sex relationships and ordered life imprisonment for offenders. Despite being struck out by the Ugandan Supreme Court, the LGBT community has continued to face Since then discrimination and attacks against LGBT people have increased 10 fold.

Purportedly these actions of the Ugandan government are in violation of agreements made with both the US and the UK, which state that Uganda must allow pride parades to take place without government intervention.

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Genres : Crime, Thriller

Plot Synopsis

Based on the story of Franca Viola and Filippo Melodia. In Sicily, as a Mafia boss leaves for prison, he advises Vito, a young man who's his potential successor, to marry a virtuous and poor woman. Vito's eye settles on Francesca, only 15, but lovely and self-possessed. Among her virtues are high self worth and forthright speech, so although she falls in love with Vito, she won't bow down to him. Believing he's losing face, he has his boys kidnap her and he rapes her. Then, he tells her he'll still marry her. Instead, she files charges. Her parents, brother, and neighbors refuse to support her. Will she break? Will Vito continue his assaults?
Genres : Action, Crime, Drama

Starring : Hiroko Fuji, Goro Ibuki, Nobuo Kaneko

Director : Kinji Fukasaku

Plot Synopsis

The Final Episode of the Battles Without Honor and Humanity series brought a new, more contemporary mood to the film and its characters. The yakuza may be starting to resemble a legitimate business, but director Kinji Fukasaku, working with new screenwriter Koji Takada, never lets the audience forget their violent origins, and their tried-and-true methods of accomplishing their business.

1966. After a police crackdown, the gangs of Hiroshima and Kure have formed a massive, multi-family political and economic coalition called the Tensei Group, seeking a way forward into the 1970 s as part of Japan s economic bubble. Shozo Hirono (Bunta Sugawara) finds himself increasingly alienated from this semi-legitimate form of corruption, particularly as acting Tensei Group chairman Matsumura (Kinya Kitaoji) tries to put the gangs on a new, more business-like path. But old habits die hard, and when rivalries surface once again, they bring with them the promise of more bloodshed.

The long-awaited conclusion to the epic series is an elegy for the bad guy, with the harsh realization that Japan s economic growth came about only through the sacrifice of the blood of its young men, victims of twenty long years of Battles Without Honor and Humanity.
Oregon Coast Scientist: Quakes More Frequent in Pacific NW Waters

Published 08/06/2016 at 4:01 PM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff





(Newport, Oregon)  New evidence is pointing to more frequent earthquakes along the Cascadia Subduction Zone than previously thought, and an increased chance the big one expected to hit the Oregon coast will come sooner.

The new findings come from scientists working out of Camosun College in British Columbia and Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra in Spain, as well as Oregon State University and its Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport. The data was published this week in Marine Geology, showing measurements from 195 core samples that contained the leftovers from undersea landslides caused by submarine quakes. Previous research has usually only come up with around a dozen such samples.

Chris Goldfinger, a professor in the College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at OSU, was one of those who worked on the project and is considered one of the world's leaders on the subject of offshore quakes.

These new results are based on much better data than has been available before, and reinforce our confidence in findings regarding the potential for major earthquakes on the Cascadia Subduction Zone, Goldfinger said. However, with more detailed data we have also changed somewhat our projections for the average recurrence interval of earthquakes on the subduction zone, especially the northern parts. The frequency, although not the intensity, of earthquakes there appears to be somewhat higher than we previously estimated.

There are technically four different segments of the Cascadia Subduction Zone as it runs from northern California to British Columbia. The subduction zone has yielded some 43 major quakes in the past 10,000 years. If the entire faultline is involved it can create a magnitude 9.1 earthquake.

Its been known for some time, and still believed to be accurate, that the southern portions of the subduction zone south of Newport, Oregon, tend to rupture more frequently. Other segments are showing different sides now.

Most ominously for the northern half of the Oregon coast and the Washington coast, the section of faultlines closest to those areas appears to rupture more frequently than previously believed. Goldfinger and others in the past had estimated this area erupts every 400 to 500 years, but they now say the average is more like 350 years.

The last such earthquake of the zone occurred in 1700, some 316 years ago. This is the section of Cascadia Subduction Zone that is also closest to Portland and Seattle.

Goldfinger said the new data increases the chances of the big one hitting in the next 50 years. Of the part of the zone off the central and northern Oregon coast, the chance of an event during that period has been changed to 15-20 percent instead of 14-17 percent. For the northern section off Washington and British Columbia, the chance for such an event is increased from 8-14 percent to 10-17 percent. More of the Oregon coast below:























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Fans of Gigi's Cupcakes, which has a Dowlen Road location in Beaumont, now can get their sweet tooth fix in Mid-County.

Gigi's Cupcakes is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday at 3250 Central Mall Drive, according to a Gigi's Facebook post.
Genres : Horror

Starring : Giovanni Lombardo Radice, Antonio Zequila

Director : Luigi Pastore

Plot Synopsis

Rome is shattered by a series of gruesome murders that paint the Eternal City deep red. Italian Police Inspector Aristide DAmato and his German counterpart Hans Ebert initiate their criminal investigations. They stumble upon the eccentric Professor Vassago - a master of myths and mysteries - who is linked to Senator Vinci - a corrupt politician  mutually driven by power and perversions. The suspicion grows that these atrocious crimes are connected with the return of one of the most heinous serial killers of our time  Karl the Butcher!



First 3000 copies inlcude: CD - Original Soundtrack by Claudio Simonetti's Goblin, Collectible Blu-ray/DVD Splicase and Sleeve, 24 Page Booklet.



The relentless Karl the Butcher, beloved and best known to gorehounds and German Underground aficionados has been revamped and re-envisioned; his trademark brutality in the likes of the distinctly German independent VIOLENT SHIT now remade into an equally ghastly giallo featuring a Claudio Simonetti soundtrack. VIOLENT SHIT  THE MOVIE is an homage to both the originals 25th anniversary and the producers love of Italian horror and blends German gore movies with the mastery of Italian horror. The film stars Italian genre mainstay Giovanni Lombardo Radice as the devil incarnate, who masterminds Karl the Butchers evil murder spree. Italian directors Enzo G. Castellari (INGLORIOUS BASTARDS) and Luigi Cozzi (CONTAMINATION) have cameos in the movie, as well as Lucio Fulcis screenwriter Antonio Tentori and SUSPIRIAs Barbara Magnolfi. -Fangoria
After a three-month delay and negative chatter from many stakeholder groups, CMS released its Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating program in full Wednesday on its Hospital Compare website.

Here are 12 things to know about the program, its methodology, the pushback against it and how stakeholders are responding.

1. In a post on CMS' blog, Kate Goodrich, MD, director of the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality, wrote that the agency released the overall ratings "to help millions of patients and their families learn about the quality of hospitals, compare facilities in their area side-by-side, and ask important questions about care quality when visiting a hospital or other healthcare provider."

2. The Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating combines 64 measures that are already public on Hospital Compare into one star rating. The measures fall into seven groups: mortality, safety of care, readmission, patient experience, effectiveness of care, timeliness of care and efficient use of medical imaging.

3. Because the quality measures used for the overall rating reflect routine care and hospital-acquired infections, specialized care provided by certain hospitals is not reflected in the ratings.

4. A hospital's rating is only calculated using as many measures for which data is available. That means hospitals' star ratings could be based on as few as nine measures or as many as 64; the average is roughly 40.

5. CMS assigns weights to the group scores (mortality, safety, readmission and patient experience are each weighted 22 percent, and effectiveness of care, timeliness of care and efficient use of medical imaging each get 4 percent) and then assigns a summary score. If a hospital is missing data in a group, the agency redistributes the weights among the other categories. Then, CMS calculates an overall rating using the summary score.

6. If a hospital doesn't have data for three measures within at least three of the seven measure groups, including one outcome group (meaning mortality, safety or readmission), the hospital doesn't get a score. Currently, 937 hospitals do not have an overall star rating.

7. CMS developed the program's methodology with input from a technical expert panel and then refined it after public input, according to the agency, and CMS plans to "consider public feedback to make enhancements to the scoring methodology as needed."

8. Star ratings will be updated each quarter. Currently, 102 hospitals have five stars, 934 have four stars, 1,770 have three stars, 723 have two stars and 133 have one star.

9. The July 27 release date is roughly three months after the planned release date on April 21. CMS delayed launching the program because of pushback it received from stakeholders and members of Congress, who argued that because the methodology is not risk-adjusted and doesn't account for socioeconomic factors, it puts certain hospitals, like academic medical centers and safety-net hospitals, at a disadvantage.

10. Per Dr. Goodrich's blog post, CMS "paused to give hospitals additional time to better understand our methodology and data" and has "conducted significant outreach and education to hospitals to understand their concerns and directly answered their questions" in the three months between the delay and the release of the program. This included hosting two national calls with more than 4,000 hospital representatives and holding meetings with hospital associations to explain data and answer questions.

11. Even with the three-month delay and tweaks to the methodology, stakeholders are still not pleased with the program. Rick Pollack, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association, called the ratings "confusing" in a statement Wednesday and said the AHA is "especially troubled that the current ratings scheme unfairly penalizes teaching hospitals and those serving higher numbers of the poor."

Similarly, Chip Kahn, president and CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals, released a statement Wednesday saying "the new hospital star ratings fall short and are not ready for prime time," and said there were "many important defects" in the methodology because it doesn't "recognize the often significant differences between large and small hospitals, teaching and nonteaching, and those hospitals providing care in underprivileged areas."

Bruce Siegel, MD, president and CEO of America's Essential Hospitals, also said AEH is "disappointed" in CMS for releasing the ratings "when so many questions remain about the data behind the ratings and their value to consumers."

12. Despite being disappointed with CMS for releasing the overall ratings right now, most stakeholder groups still back the overall goal of the program  to be more transparent and allow stakeholders to make informed decisions.



"FAH will continue to work with policy makers and our health care partners to ensure this process is transparent and to fix the technical flaws in the star rating process so that it ultimately yields value-added information for patients as well as hospitals," Mr. Kahn said.

Mr. Pollack from AHA said, "We want to work with CMS and the Congress to fix the hospital star ratings so that it is helpful and useful to both patients and the hospitals that treat them."

And finally, Dr. Siegel from AEH said, "Consumers deserve accurate, comprehensive and relevant information to make healthcare decisions. Hospitals Deserve to be on a level playing field. The star ratings accomplish neither. We urge CMS to work with hospitals and independent experts to revise the star ratings to correct shortcomings in its methodology and to immediately share all its data, so hospitals can confirm the agency's calculations."
Hundreds of thousands of rail passengers face a week of misery after talks aimed at resolving a bitter row over the role of conductors broke down.

Southern Railway will introduce an emergency timetable for five days from Monday, running just 60% of its services across London and the South East.

Three days of talks between the company and the Rail, Maritime and Transport union at the conciliation service Acas collapsed.

The two sides blamed each other for the continued deadlock, while the union accused the Government of "sabotaging" the talks.

The company's Passenger Service Director Angie Doll said: "We have gone the extra mile with our compromise offer, but the RMT has made it clear they are not prepared to negotiate. They did not want to discuss the role of the on-board supervisor and remain rigidly opposed to evolving the role of on-board staff to focus more on customers.

"We are deeply disappointed and angry on behalf of our passengers at this stance, which will cause misery for our passengers and untold damage to the local economy in the south east.

"The RMT's strike is unnecessary, unacceptable and unjustified."

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: "It was clear right from the start of these talks that there was no serious intent from Govia Thameslink to engage in genuine negotiations and that their script was being written from behind the scenes by their Government paymasters.

"I have been involved in countless negotiations and have never witnessed a farce like this."

The union said it was told by industry sources that Transport Department official Peter Wilkinson, who told a public meeting he wanted a "punch up" with rail unions was responsible for "wrecking" the talks.

Southern, part of the huge Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) franchise, said an offer by the union to suspend industrial action if the company agreed to terms put forward by ScotRail to resolve a separate dispute, was a "complete red herring".

Ms Doll said: "This amounts to a continuation of the current operating model and delivers none of the punctuality and customer service benefits we are determined to deliver to our passengers".

Rail Minister Paul Maynard said: "This unjustified strike action from the RMT will do nothing other than cause five days of misery for passengers. It is deeply disappointing that union bosses continue to overlook the impact they are having on hardworking people who want to get on with their journeys.

"The changes GTR are proposing will modernise services and provide better journeys. Rather than working with the operator to resolve these issues, the RMT has clearly decided that it is not on the side of the passenger."

Paul Plummer, chief executive of the Rail Delivery Group, representing train operators and Network Rail, said: "This strike action will cause misery for thousands of passengers. The offer to staff set out by Southern demonstrates there are no risks to jobs or pay. We already know that drivers operating the doors on trains is a safe way of working.

"The rail industry has to modernise to deliver the better service today's customers expect and deserve. At the heart of this dispute are changes that would mean a better on board service for passengers and less disruption when problems affect the railway. In the interests of passengers, it's time to implement these changes and end this dispute."
Leonard Cohen wrote the song So Long Marianne for his then lover Marianne Ihlen

Leonard Cohen sent a touching final letter to his dying muse Marianne Ihlen, the subject of his song So Long Marianne.

Ihlen, who was also the inspiration behind Bird on the Wire, died in Norway on July 29 at the age of 81.

Cohen met Ihlen - then Jensen - in Hydra, Greece in the 1960s. They became lovers, staying together for a decade.

Her close friend Jan Christian Mollestad told Canada's CBC radio that he had contacted Cohen, 81, to tell him Ihlen was dying of leukaemia and had only a few days to live.

He recalled: "It took only two hours and in came this beautiful letter from Leonard to Marianne.

"We brought this letter in to her the next day and she was fully conscious and she was so happy that he had already written something for her."

Mollestad, a documentary filmmaker, read the letter to Ihlen before she died.

He recalled: "It said, 'Well Marianne, it's come to this time when we are really so old and our bodies are falling apart and I think I will follow you very soon. Know that I am so close behind you that if you stretch out your hand, I think you can reach mine.

"And you know that I've always loved you for your beauty and for your wisdom, but I don't need to say anything more about that because you know all about that. But now, I just want to wish you a very good journey.

"Goodbye old friend. Endless love, see you down the road.'"

Mollestad told host Rosemary Barton that when he read the line "stretch out your hand", Ihlen had stretched out her hand.

"It was a very nice gesture from both of them," he said.

"Only two days after, she lost consciousness and slipped into death. And when she died, I wrote a letter back to him saying in her final moments I hummed A Bird on the Wire because that was the song she felt closest to.

"And then I kissed her on the head and left the room, and said 'So long, Marianne.'"

Reflecting on Cohen and Ihlen's relationship over the years, Mollestad recalled: "What Marianne said, was Leonard was the one who loved her for herself, who opened her up and let her feel that she was worth loving, not only because she was beautiful outside, but he really was interested in her."
The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street in 2016. ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

Gerard Fitzpatrick at the Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

Colin Duffy at The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

Colin Duffy at the Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

Colin Duffy at The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

An anti-internment march banned from entering Belfast city centre has passed off peacefully amid a heavy police presence.

The parade was ordered to disperse at the Divis Street junction with Barrack Street.

<< watch as the parade meets police lines >>

The parade, which marks the anniversary of the introduction of detention without trial in Northern Ireland in 1971, had been planned to proceed to Belfast City Hall, from its starting point in Andersonstown.

Among those taking part is high-profile dissident republican Colin Duffy.

Organisers, the Anti-Internment League, voiced fury at the Parades Commission ruling, claiming the city centre is a shared space and that they planned their route to avoid interfaces.

A line of riot police stood in front of lines of armoured vehicles to block a main approach road.

Assistant Chief Constable Stephen Martin has said he is "pleased" the parade passed off peacefully.

The group applied for the march to include 5,000 participants and 5,000 supporters. However, the Parades Commission noted that just 800 people took part last August, and also claimed that organisers had not responded to queries about the change to the route.

The parade sparked serious rioting in 2013 which resulted in 56 police officers being injured in a night of chaos, and has since seen major security operations put in place. Last year there were clashes between the PSNI and republicans after police stopped the march from entering the city centre.

Assistant Chief Constable Stephen Martin said: "As in previous years, the foremost consideration of my officers today was to keep people safe and ensure that the parade passed off peacefully and within the law, that the rights of all those involved were protected and that the Parades Commission determination was upheld.

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Rioting breaks out on the Oldpark Road in north Belfast after police stopped a controversial anti-interment rally from proceeding to the city centre. Pic: Kevin Scott / Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye Rioting breaks out on the Oldpark Road in north Belfast after police stopped a controversial anti-interment rally from proceeding to the city centre. Pic: Kevin Scott / Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye Anti-Internment parade prevented by the PSNI from entering Belfast City Centre after they broke the parade commission's determination. Trouble takes place on Rosapenna Street off the Oldpark Road in north Belfast as nationalist attack the police. Picture by Jonathan Porter/Press Eye Anti-Internment parade prevented by the PSNI from entering Belfast City Centre after they broke the parade commission's determination. Trouble takes place on Rosapenna Street off the Oldpark Road in north Belfast as nationalist attack the police. Picture by Jonathan Porter/Press Eye Anti-Internment parade prevented by the PSNI from entering Belfast City Centre after they broke the parade commission's determination. Trouble takes place on Rosapenna Street off the Oldpark Road in north Belfast as nationalist attack the police. Picture by Jonathan Porter/Press Eye Anti-Internment parade prevented by the PSNI from entering Belfast City Centre after they broke the parade commission's determination. Trouble takes place on Rosapenna Street off the Oldpark Road in north Belfast as nationalist attack the police. Picture by Jonathan Porter/Press Eye Rioting breaks out on the Oldpark Road in north Belfast after police stopped a controversial anti-interment rally from proceeding to the city centre. Pic: Kevin Scott / Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye Rioting breaks out on the Oldpark Road in north Belfast after police stopped a controversial anti-interment rally from proceeding to the city centre. Pic: Kevin Scott / Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye Rioting breaks out on the Oldpark Road in north Belfast after police stopped a controversial anti-interment rally from proceeding to the city centre. Pic: Kevin Scott / Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye Rioting breaks out on the Oldpark Road in north Belfast after police stopped a controversial anti-interment rally from proceeding to the city centre. Pic: Kevin Scott / Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye The anti-Internment parade was prevented from entering Belfast city centre after a breach of a Parades Commission determination. Pic: by Jonathan Porter/Press Eye. Marchers take part in the anti-internment parade in Belfast. Pic: Kevin Scott / Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye Marchers take part in the anti-internment parade in Belfast. Pic: Kevin Scott / Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye A speaker addresses marchers taking part in the anti-internment rally in Belfast. Pic: Kevin Scott / Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye There was a heavy police presence in Belfast city centre ahead of the parade and loyalist protests. Pic: Jonathan Porter/Presseye. There was a heavy police presence in Belfast city centre ahead of the parade and loyalist protests. Pic: Jonathan Porter/Presseye. The anti-internment parade makes its way back after being stopped by police on the Oldpark Road in north Belfast. Pic: Jonathan Porter/Press Eye. The anti-internment parade makes its way back after being stopped by police on the Oldpark Road in north Belfast. Pic: Jonathan Porter/Press Eye. The anti-internment parade makes its way back after being stopped by police on the Oldpark Road in north Belfast. Pic: Jonathan Porter/Press Eye. The anti-internment parade makes its way back after being stopped by police on the Oldpark Road in north Belfast. Pic: Jonathan Porter/Press Eye. PSNI vehicles on Royal Avenue, Belfast, as a major security operation is under way in the city centre ahead of the contentious republican parade and related loyalist protests. David Young/PA Wire. PA A substantial police operation was mounted ahead of the anti-internment parade which was due to pass through the city centre. David Young/PA Wire PA / Facebook

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While an appropriate and proportionate policing operation was put in place for these reasons, once the parade had dispersed, the area quickly returned to normal and all roads were re-opened.

I would also like to thank Belfasts District Commander Chief Superintendent Chris Noble and all the officers and staff involved in todays policing operation. They did a professional job ensuring that the law was upheld, public safety was maintained and community disruption was kept to a minimum.

Previously in a statement the Anti Internment League (AIL) described the ruling as "unjust" and said they were consulting with legal experts about launching a challenge.

"The commission has deemed that republicans are not worthy of demonstrating at City Hall, making a mockery of claims by politicians that equality has been achieved," they said. "This is despite the AIL taking the courageous steps of changing the route and time. This year's route avoids any interfaces, any Protestant places of worship. Our departure and dispersal times meant no impact on trade."

A Parades Commission spokesperson said its decision "had not been taken lightly. The deliberate breach of the timing condition, resulting in public disorder by the parade participants and/or supporters last year, has increased significantly the risks of the proposed parade this year as has the organiser's refusal to engage with the Commission," she said.

"The Commission has not received some essential information, specifically requested, about the proposed parade, including dispersal plans at City Hall, and no assurances about any aspect of the parade. The lack of assurances raises serious concerns about the organiser's genuine intention to hold a peaceful and lawful event."
A republican anti-internment parade has dispersed without incident after a major police deployment prevented it from entering Belfast city centre.

A line of riot police stood in front of lines of armoured vehicles to seal off a main approach road and uphold an official ruling preventing the march from proceeding in from the west of the city.

While republican bands played behind them, demonstrators carrying banners, placards and Irish tricolours walked right up to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) blockade, some standing only inches away from the officers' faces.

With a line of stewards placing themselves between police and the main body of the parade, the crowds stood at the line to listen to a number of speeches denouncing the PSNI and wider state policies. They then joined a musician in singing a republican ballad before leaving the area peacefully.

Prominent republicans Colin Duffy and Dee Fennell were among the hundreds who attended.

The now annual event is organised to mark the introduction of internment without trial by the Stormont administration, with the support of the UK government, during the height of the Troubles in August 1971.

The controversial policy of detaining terror suspects without trial ended in 1975.

However, the parade organisers - the Anti-Internment League - allege it is still effectively operated by the state authorities in the present day, through the use of lengthy remand periods ahead of trials.

Gerard Fitzpatrick from the Anti-Internment League praised the conduct of those who had demonstrated.

He claimed the prohibition proved the city was not a "share spaced" for all traditions.

"Our message was clear," he said.

"We went down, we marched to as far as we could go before we were physically stopped, we made our points about internment - the speakers were fantastic - and everybody then dispersed."

In applying to hold the parade, organisers estimated around 5,000 people would take part, with the same number of supporters. In the event the actual number in attendance was significantly lower.

In previous years the parade had been granted permission to proceed into the city centre.

However, the Parades Commission - the government-appointed panel that adjudicates on contentious marches - imposed a restriction this year prohibiting the parade reaching its proposed end point at City Hall.

In making the ruling to halt it at the junction of Divis Street and Barrack Street - around half a mile from City Hall - the commission cited the organisers' failure to properly engage with it on their plans and their "deliberate breach" of a timing restriction last year.

The commission said the restriction was "fair, proportionate and necessary".

Nine police officers were injured last year when sporadic trouble flared in a nationalist area of north Belfast after the parade was halted.

The 2015 demonstration was originally granted permission to pass through the city centre, but only before 1.30pm.

When that deadline passed, the parade had not even left its designated start point in the nationalist Ardoyne area, so police commanders announced that it would be halted.

As loyalist counter protests in the city centre dispersed, police rolled out a huge security operation to stop the march on the Oldpark Road around 2.5 miles away.

The parade dispersed peacefully but an hour later trouble broke out in the area when police manning the temporary road block were attacked.

In 2014 there were minor disturbances at the controversial event but in 2013 almost 60 police officers were injured when loyalist protesters rioted.

This year's proposed parade route was significantly different from recent years, with the march starting on the Andersonstown Road in west Belfast, rather than in Ardoyne in the north of the city.

PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Stephen Martin said he was pleased the parade passed off peacefully.

"As in previous years, the foremost consideration of my officers today was to keep people safe and ensure that the parade passed off peacefully and within the law, that the rights of all those involved were protected and that the Parade's Commission determination was upheld," he said.

"While an appropriate and proportionate policing operation was put in place for these reasons, once the parade had dispersed, the area quickly returned to normal and all roads were re-opened."

Mr Martin praised all officers involved.

"They did a professional job ensuring that the law was upheld, public safety was maintained and community disruption was kept to a minimum," he said.
The second most senior IRA man in South Armagh is being 'protected' amid claims that he worked as an agent for British intelligence, according to usually reliable security sources.

The man, who has the official title of 'officer commanding' South Armagh Brigade of the Provisional IRA, is also a member of the 'Northern Command', the ruling body which effectively ran the organisation from the early 1980s. He is a close associate of the Provos' Border boss, Thomas 'Slab' Murphy, Gerry Adams and other figures in Sinn Fein.

He is said to have given the order for the brutal beating, which turned into the murder of Paul Quinn, the innocent 21-year-old who happened to have been involved in a violent row with another local Provo who had assaulted a young woman in October 2007.

The Sunday Independent has learned that the South Armagh 'OC' was outed as a 'tout' earlier this year and that shortly afterwards an IRA bodyguard team was sent from Belfast to ensure that no attack was made on the man in order to save embarrassment for the 'movement'.

It is not clear how the 'OC' came to be exposed as an agent but he is believed to have been recruited by British Intelligence in the late 1980s or early 1990s.

He had charge of the IRA's Border sniper team, which killed seven soldiers and two police officers in the 1990s.

The team was eventually rounded up and arrested in an operation by the British Army's SAS near Crossmaglen in April 1997.

Unlike other operations in which the SAS were involved, members of the sniper team were not killed.

Sources say that shortly before they were captured, the team was given orders by the 'OC' not to carry any weapons when they were directed to a farm to collect their sniper rifle for an operation.

When they arrived, they were surrounded by 16 SAS men, who ordered them to surrender. It was one of the few times the SAS didn't shoot members of an IRA 'active service unit' on armed operations.

A sniper rifle and other weapons were recovered.

The team, which included Sinn Fein TD Caoimhghin O Caolain's brother-in-law, Bernard McGinn from Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, were sentenced to lengthy jailed terms but released in 2000 as part of the prisoner amnesty.

McGinn, who laughed when he received his life sentence, died in December 2013 from a suspected heart attack in Monaghan town, aged 56.

By the time of the final IRA ceasefire in August 1997, the South Armagh IRA leadership was already heavily involved in fuel and cigarette smuggling and it is believed that the British struck a deal whereby the IRA leaders could continue to benefit from the illicit trade, so long as no further attacks on security forces or bomb attacks on commercial targets took place.

From that point onwards, the South Armagh 'OC' and his associates became millionaires while continuing to donate a reputed 25pc of their earnings to the 'movement'. The 'OC' is said to have bought another substantial portion of farmland in Armagh.

Source Irish Independent
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrives for a campaign rally in New Hampshire (AP)

Donald Trump mocked Democratic rival Hillary Clinton for saying that she had "short-circuited" when discussing her email controversy.

The Republican presidential candidate told a rally in New Hampshire that Mrs Clinton's "got problems" and Americans "don't want someone who's going to short-circuit".

Mr Trump also said that Islamic State militants are "salivating" at the prospect of Mrs Clinton's election.

The billionaire businessman was speaking in a hot gymnasium in Windham, New Hampshire, the state that gave him his first primary victory.

Mrs Clinton this week suggested that she "may have short-circuited" when she incorrectly claimed that FBI director James Comey said her answers to the bureau about her use of a private email server were "truthful".

Mr Trump tweeted earlier: "Anybody whose mind 'SHORT CIRCUITS' is not fit to be our president!"

AP
Iran has executed a nuclear scientist who gave the US intelligence about the country's contested nuclear weapons.

Shahram Amiri was convicted of spying charges as he "provided the enemy with vital information of the country," said Gholamhosein Mohseni Ejehi, a spokesman for the Iranian judiciary.

Mr Amiri had access to classified information "and he was linked to our hostile and number one enemy, or the Great Satan," said Mr Ejehi, referring to the US.

Mr Ejehi did not explain why authorities never announced Mr Amiri's conviction or his failed appeals court bid, but he said the scientist had access to lawyers.

The scientist was hanged the same week as Tehran executed a group of militants, a year after his country agreed to a landmark accord to limit uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

US officials in 2010 said they paid Mr Amiri five million dollars to offer the CIA information about Iran's nuclear program, though he left the country without the money.

He defected to the US in 2009 and returned to the Islamic Republic under mysterious circumstances a year later, said authorities who acknowledged for the first time that they secretly detained, tried and convicted a man they once heralded as a hero.

Mr Amiri vanished in 2009 while on a religious pilgrimage to Muslim holy sites in Saudi Arabia, reappearing a year later in a series of online videos filmed in the US.

He then walked into the Iranian interests section at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington and demanded to be sent home.

In interviews, Mr Amiri described being kidnapped and held against his will by Saudi and American spies.

US officials said he was to receive millions of dollars for his help in understanding Iran's contested nuclear program.

Mr Ejehi said: "He neither repented nor compensated and he was trying to leak some information from inside prison, too."

News about Mr Amiri, born in 1977, has been scant since his return to Iran.

Last year, his father Asgar Amiri told the BBC's Farsi-language service that his son had been held at a secret site since coming home.

On Tuesday, Iran announced it had executed a number of criminals, describing them mainly as militants from the country's Kurdish minority.

Then, an obituary notice circulated Mr Amiri's home town of Kermanshah, a city some 500 kilometres (310 miles) south-west of Tehran, according to the Iranian pro-reform daily newspaper Shargh.

It announced a memorial service on Thursday for Mr Amiri, calling him a "bright moon" and "invaluable gem."

Manoto, a private satellite television channel based in London believed to be run by those who back Iran's ousted shah, first reported on Saturday that Mr Amiri had been executed.

BBC Farsi also quoted Mr Amiri's mother saying her son's neck bore ligature marks suggesting he had been hanged by the state.

US officials said Mr Amiri, who ran a radiation detection program in Iran, travelled to the US and stayed there for months under his own free will.

Analysts abroad suggested Iranian authorities may have threatened Mr Amiri's family back in Iran, forcing him to return.

But when he returned to Iran and was welcomed by government officials, Mr Amiri said Saudi and American officials kidnapped him while he visited the Saudi holy city of Medina.

He also said Israeli agents were present at his interrogations and that CIA officers offered him 50 million dollars to remain in America.

"I was under the harshest mental and physical torture," he said.

Mr Amiri's case indirectly found its way back into the spotlight in the US last year with the release of emails sent by US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton while she served as secretary of state.

The release of those emails came amid criticism of Mrs Clinton's use of a private account and server that has persisted into her campaign against Republican candidate Donald Trump.

An email forwarded to her by senior adviser Jake Sullivan on July 5 2010 - just nine days before Mr Amiri returned to Tehran - appears to refer to the scientist.

"We have a diplomatic, 'psychological' issue, not a legal one. Our friend has to be given a way out," the email by Richard Morningstar, read a former State Department special envoy for Eurasian energy.

"We should recognize his concerns and frame it in terms of a misunderstanding with no malevolent intent and that we will make sure there is no recurrence.

"Our person won't be able to do anything anyway. If he has to leave so be it."

Another email, sent by Mr Sullivan on July 12 2010, appears to obliquely refer to the scientist just hours before his story became widely known.

"The gentleman ... has apparently gone to his country's interests section because he is unhappy with how much time it has taken to facilitate his departure," wrote Mr Sullivan.

"This could lead to problematic news stories in the next 24 hours."

AP
Police were foiling two out of every three IRA terror operations by the end of the Troubles, a leading academic has revealed.

The remarkable claim by an ex-RUC Special Branch officer has been published in the latest book by Professor Richard English, called Does Terrorism Work?.

The ex-Queens University academic investigated the violent campaigns of the Provisional IRA, ETA, al-Qaida and Hamas and asks whether their policy of murder and mayhem achieved their goals.

Failed

Prof English argues that while the IRA were able to bomb their way into government, their overall objective of bringing about a united Ireland through violence ultimately failed.

This was due in part to the massive state intelligence operation which ended up with the IRA becoming riddled with informers.

In an interview with the Belfast-born academic, the former RUC Special Branch officer said that by the 1990s the IRA was so heavily infiltrated the majority of attacks were being foiled.

The officer claimed that two out of every three of the IRAs planned operations were being thwarted by the state thanks to prior intelligence.

He told Prof English: They were being contained...it became a stalemate.

The academic states that the IRA campaign ended unionist domination of Northern Ireland and helped create the powerful political force that Sinn Fein is today.

But they failed to stop violence against Catholics and that their murder of Protestant civilians motivated some loyalists to kill in revenge.

Prof English cites the example of UVF and LVF killer Billy Wright who claimed the murder of 10 Protestant workmen by the IRA at Kingsmills in 1976 drove him to carry out sectarian killings.

I think its hard to find a simple answer as regards to the Provos, Prof English told Sunday Life.

Its clear that in terms of their headline objectives they didnt succeed but I think it would be to simplistic to say that because of that they achieved nothing through violence.

In terms of tactical and operational success and in terms of publicity and power within their own communities the violence achieved quite a lot for them.

Difficult

The paradox of it is that in order for the violence to stop a deal had to be done with the people that were carrying out the violence.

He continued: The title of the book involves a rather difficult question and one that many would rather not ask.

Some people feel that it [violence] works too much and others will feel that it hasnt achieved as much as they would like it to have done. What I wanted to do was ask the question calmly and systematically and try to produce an historical answer.

Does Terrorism Work? A History is published by the Oxford University Press, 25.
Looking at the world through the eyes of the Web
A 61 percent majority among 27 million Thais who turned out at nationwide polls on Sunday voted for a draft constitution that promises elections next year but allows the military-backed government to influence the process, unofficial results showed.



Among the 55 percent of Thailands 50.6 million-strong electorate who voted in Sundays national referendum, 15. 5 million voted yes for adopting the draft charter, versus 9.7 million - or 38.6 percent - who voted no, according to a nearly complete unofficial tally of ballots by Thailands Election Commission (EC).



A majority of voters also opted in favor of a controversial clause in the draft charter that would allow 250 junta-appointed senators to join 500 elected MPs in picking a new prime minister for a five-year period, according to the ECs unofficial count of 94 percent of all votes.



Fifty-eight percent voted yes on the clause but nearly 42 percent rejected it. Critics of the charter have pointed to this clause as potentially giving the junta a measure of control over parliament and watering down the power of elected lawmakers.



Sundays vote nonetheless marked the first time in more than two years that Thais went to the polls since the military seized power amid political turmoil, with observers touting the referendum as the first major measure of the juntas popularity.



The absence at the polls of an overwhelming nationwide majority backing the charter suggests that Thailand is still deeply a divided country along political lines, Chanintira Na Thalang, an assistant professor in political science at Thammasart University in Bangkok, told BenarNews.



Violence mars southern polls



In the northern provinces that are a stronghold for the opposition Pheu Thai Party  whose government fell in the May 2014 coup  a majority voted for the new constitution.



But other parts of the country rejected it. In the run-up to the vote, leaders of two of Thailands major parties, including Pheu Thai, had voiced their objections to the draft charter, saying it was not democratic enough.



In the northeast, slightly more than 50 percent of voters turned it down. In Thailands predominantly Muslim and insurgency-stricken Deep South, a large percentage of voters cast ballots against the charter.



In the Deep South provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, majorities ranging between 59 percent and 66 percent voted down the charter, respectively, with yes votes capturing only between 34 and 40 percent of ballots, according to the ECs latest figures.



The commission will announced the referendums official results on Wednesday, unless the EC receives any formal complaints about Sundays vote.



At least a half-million voters turned out at polls across the Deep South alone, even though a series of bombings by suspected separatist insurgent targeted telephone poles in Narathiwat on Saturday night, causing power outages, police said.



Early Sunday morning, before polls opened at 8 a.m., a motorcycle-bomb attack targeted a polling site in the province but no one was hurt, according to police.



But after polls closed, a civilian volunteer was killed in a roadside bomb attack on Sunday evening that targeted a truck carrying boxes of cast ballots in Sai Buri, a district of Pattani, police said.



Divided electorate



The polls were open for eight hours as millions of Thais lined up to cast their ballots at voting sites in Thailands 77 provinces.



Among those who voted in northeastern Khon Kaen province  some 450 km (280 miles) from Bangkok  was Adisak Raksaphol, an employee with a local private company.



I rejected this draft. I dont have to read the entire charter to know that the entire Senate chamber will not be democratically elected, Adisak told BenarNews.



Proponents of the new charter said a yes vote would help bring about stability and end a decade of turmoil in Thai politics.



I accepted it because it is a way of bringing the country back to the path of normalcy. I dont want to see any more battles because we are all Thais here. The country has suffered too much already, Shane Nanthawin, a voter who works as a freelance photographer in Bangkok, told BenarNews.



During the months leading up to the referendum, the junta had banned public campaigning over the draft charter, which was unveiled in March by a military-appointed Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC).



On Sunday, more than 200,000 police were deployed to polling stations to maintain order.



Apart from reports of violence in the Deep South, the day passed by relatively calmly elsewhere in the county, except for one incident on the outskirts of Bangkok.



At a polling station, a university student ripped up a ballot in front of journalists and yelled out Long live democracy!



Police officers who were standing nearby quickly moved in to haul off the young man.



He wore a black T-shirt with the words No Coup emblazoned on it in large letters.



Nontarat Phaicharoen in Khon Kaen province, Rapee Mama in Narathiwat province, Nasueroh in Pattani province and Pimuk Rakkanam in Bangkok contributed to this report.
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Opinion / Columnist

IN August 1998, the newly installed government of President Laurent Kabila in the Democratic Republic of Congo came under heavy attack from some rebels from Rwanda and Uganda.Clearly lacking experience, the new government could not stop the tide of the invading forces. It was only a matter of time before President Kabila was ousted from power. As the chairperson of the newly created Sadc Organ on Politics, Defence and Security, President Mugabe could not fold his hands while the invading forces were killing people in the DRC. Just as the invading forces were about to capture Kinshasa, commandos from the Zimbabwe National Army arrived in true-movie style to defend the capital. The Air Force of Zimbabwe later followed to neutralise the invading forces that had encircled the brave commandos.Speaking to our Deputy Editor Munyaradzi Huni early this year, one of Zambia's decorated soldiers, Retired Brigadier-General Timothy Kazembe, who has been honoured by the Zambian government with the Order of Grand Commander Distinguished Service First Division, revealed how President Mugabe, by making that timely decision to deploy troops into the DRC, stopped a war that could have plunged Southern Africa into a bloody war.He saluted the Commander of the Air Force of Zimbabwe, Air Marshal Perrance Shiri, for making one of the moves that saved President Laurent Kabila. Read on . . .MH: General, you played an important role in resolving the DRC war. Tell us briefly about your involvement in this war?Rtd Brig-Gen Kazembe: Firstly, let me make it clear that we are talking about the second DRC war after the invasion into DRC in 1998. The first one which started about 1995, 1996, 1997 was to remove Mobuto (Sese Seko). After Kabila stayed in power for about one year, there was a problem in Congo. Those who had helped Laurent Kabila to get into power, especially from Rwanda, when they returned to Kigali, in no time around August we had problems in Goma.The commander in Goma, I think Jean Pierre something, he rebelled against Laurent Kabila. The problems erupted like bushfire. The commander was commandeering aircraft from Goma to the western side of Congo. The attacks were fluid on the ground but battalions and units of Congo were assuming it was nothing big.Planes were taking off from Goma to places like Matadi and so on attacking and advancing to Kinshasa. They started other attacks from the Eastern front also advancing to Kinshasa. They even switched off electricity at Inga Dam.To some extent, no international organisation including the United Nations commented. Not even the African Union. They were looking at things going on like that. Now at that time, our President in Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe, was chairman of the Sadc Organ on Politics, I think. So he summoned a meeting in Victoria Falls to bring people together. That was about the eighth day after the breakout of the invasion.When the presidents met in Victoria Falls, they agreed that they should send a verification team to Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, eastern Congo and Kinshasa. The team was supposed to find out what exactly was happening on the ground. What kind of a war was this? That's how a plane from Zimbabwe was organised.I was phoned by my president then, (Frederick) Chiluba, to say General be ready to be on the plane that's coming from Zimbabwe. The plane is coming to pick you (up) together with your deputy army commander and the Minister of Foreign Affairs.MH: What was your rank at this time?Rtd Brig-Gen Kazembe: At that time I was the Defence Secretary at the Ministry of Defence. The president further informed me that Nambia and Zimbabwe were already on board, while Tanzania and Zambia were supposed to join this team. He said these countries have formed a verification team to go and verify the war in the DRC. This was in August, like I said eight days after the invasion had started.(image)President Mugabe, who is Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, hands over a symbolic key for the Regional Peace Training Centre to Sadc Executive Secretary Dr Stergomena Lawrence Tax in his capacity as Sadc Chair in this file pictureSo in no time I found myself at Lusaka airport. No nothing. No allowances or anything, just me. Everything else followed and found me in Uganda (laughs). We got the briefing right in the plane as we flew to DRC.We went and picked up our friends in Tanzania and flew to Kampala. President Museveni was not there. He was somewhere in the operation area and we followed him there. We interacted with him. He was deep in the bush.As we were landing in that area, we could see troops crossing into DRC and because we had seen by ourselves, when we were now interacting, we already knew what was going on. President Museveni was very frank.MH: He was right in the bush? What did he say?Rtd Brig-Gen Kazembe: He agreed that indeed there were troops from his country crossing into DRC. We then went to President (Paul) Kagame. We interacted with him, asking what was going on.MH: On this mission who were the officials from Zimbabwe?Rtd Brig-Gen Kazembe: From Zimbabwe we had Perrance Shiri, I think there was also Colonel Mutize and this man who was Minister of Foreign Affairs, uummm, what's his name? I am forgetting, it's eehh, this tall minister, eehh, Minister (Stan) Mudenge. Yeah Minister Mudenge. I remember now.So we spoke to President Kagame and then we went to Goma area. We interacted with all the rebels and we flew to Kinshasa to talk to President Kabila. As the verification team, we found out that this was an invasion and not a rebellion as many people were made to believe.MH: Who was invading DRC?Rtd Brig-Gen Kazembe: Rwanda and Uganda were invading the DRC. It was not just the Congolese who were saying we have rebelled. No. Rwanda and Uganda were heavily involved. This wasn't just a rebellion. It was an invasion.MH: After discovering this, what did you do because clearly time wasn't on your side?Rtd Brig-Gen Kazembe: We started communicating back home.MH: This verification team, was there a leader of the team or something?Rtd Brig-Gen Kazembe: Let me say the leader was Minister Mudenge because the whole initiative came from Zimbabwe in Victoria Falls and we were using an aircraft from Zimbabwe. So he was like the leader.So like I said, we started communication back home and again in Harare under the initiative of President Mugabe as chairman of that Organ which was still very fragile, things started happening. From Kinshasa we flew straight into Harare and briefed the Ministers of Defence. The ministers agreed to the formation of the Coalition of the Willing comprising Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola. These countries volunteered to go and defend the DRC.MH: Earlier on you told us of an interesting story where you said by the time you got to Harare, Zimbabwean troops were already ready for battle?Rtd Brig-Gen Kazembe: Ohh, yes. Perrance Shiri, my very good friend. He is a very good officer that one. Shiri was way ahead of us in thinking. He had already briefed President Mugabe properly about the situation. By the time we arrived for the meeting in Harare, the Zimbabwean Government had already started putting things into motion. Shiri was already mobilising forces to go and defend the DRC.He had seen what was going on and he knew there was no much time to waste (laughs). Uummm, please greet that great soldier for me. He is a great man. The way he handled that situation was clear testimony of a soldier who knows his job. The way he showed passion with his work, he is a strategist.So Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola went into DRC. I think Angola wanted to come by ship and somewhere along the coast they were obstructed by some troops and they eventually went by air. This Coalition of the Willing is the one that destabilised the invading forces that were marching towards Kinshasa and those that had captured Inga Dam. These invading forces were closing in on Kinshasa.The Zimbabwean forces flew into Kinshasa at the right time and defended Kinshasa. After this they then went to other areas and the invading forces retreated.MH: You also said the decision to send forces by President Mugabe was very timely. Can you explain what you meant?Rtd Brig-Gen Kazembe: Yes, yes, yes, that was very timely. It was not only timely but very correct because the UN was quiet and the AU was quiet. Mute. No one was doing anything about this deteriorating situation. As you know, these organisations like the UN have long procedures to determine whether to intervene in a war or not. This Sadc Organ led by President Mugabe played a big role. It played a very big and crucial role on the region, otherwise the whole of Sadc would be engulfed by war as we speak.The timing to deploy soldiers into the DRC by President Mugabe was perfect. The soldiers arrived right in time. I can tell you if they had delayed by a few more hours, if not minutes, DRC and Southern Africa would be in chaos up to this day.Remember Laurent Kabila's government was still very young and it definitely was going to fall and be taken over. Now these people who were going to take over the DRC were people who had not come together properly. These were people from all over with power-hungry commanders. There was confusion all over and that confusion was going to overspill into the whole region.Also, in Kabila's government the situation was still volatile because he was still trying to put the forces together. There were so many dynamics. Remember there were also Mobuto's forces that had been put somewhere, trying to rehabilitate them. There was going to be uncontrolled fire, but the action taken by these gallant countries was very timely.MH: But then President Mugabe is heavily criticised for making that decision?Rtd Brig-Gen Kazembe: Yes, because we are in a time like this when we can talk about it. There is peace in the region and it's very easy for some people not to appreciate what he did. At that time, some looked at him as some imperialist with interests in the Congo, to control Congo or whatever. Some people had fears but it was good work. It's easy for people to criticise now because there is no war. President Mugabe in particular and Zimbabwe in general should be thanked for saving Sadc.After deploying the soldiers and after defending the DRC, a few days later President Chiluba was chosen to spearhead the peace-making process. I was then elected in Addis Ababa by the AU as chairman of the officials responsible for drafting the ceasefire agreement in the DRC.MH: Why you?Rtd Brig-Gen Kazembe: Someone just suggested my name. I didn't even know the person. There were my seniors there but someone just suggested my name. There were people with higher ranks than me and someone just said Zambia  Kazembe. Someone seconded and that was it. I became chairman of the officials drafting the ceasefire agreement.MH: What were your roles?Rtd Brig-Gen Kazembe: My role was to receive instructions from the presidents and ministers; and to be directed how to go about it. The instructions would guide us in drafting the ceasefire agreement. So we started drafting the ceasefire agreement under my chairmanship.MH: How difficult was it?Rtd. Brig. Gen. Kazembe: It was very, very difficult because even the countries that had invaded DRC were not trusting each other. The factions in the DRC did not trust each other. There was just too much mistrust.MH: So how did you go about it?Rtd Brig-Gen Kazembe: We started with the ministers' meeting. The meeting was very acrimonious. It was bad. We spent over 36 hours or is it 40 hours with no solution. I then said as chairman, I am putting conditions. From now on, the power is in my hands. The power to chair this meeting is in my hands from now on. As we sit, when you stand up, no introduction, no preamble, no background, no what, just make your contribution and sit down. But before I did that, I allowed the acrimony to go on for about two hours.MH: What exactly were the accusations?Rtd Brig-Gen Kazembe (laughs): Eeeisshhh! By this time, there were about seven or so countries in the DRC. There was Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, to some extent Tanzania, Namibia, Angola and Zimbabwe. The accusations were flying all over the place and I was the chair. But not only that, I share the border with Congo, I share the border with Zimbabwe, and I share the border with Tan- zania.So I said let me leave these people to feel each other's weight for about two hours. After this I said, no more of those accusations. This meeting was in August 1998 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.Thank God, Zambia had gone with a draft agreement. We had drafted some document as officials from Zambia. When I produced this draft document, the current President of DRC, Joseph Kabila, at that time he was still the commander of the forces there, he looked at it and said "Ahh, this is a good paper. Mr Chair, let's use this paper to draft the ceasefire agreement." Zimbabwe, I think it was Chedondo, we started putting in the beef to this draft document and in no time we were done.MH: So after coming up with this agreement, what happened next?Rtd Brig-Gen Kazembe: The document was sent to the ministers. The ministers approved it. It was taken to the presidents and it was approved with some amendments. After this, another committee of officials responsible for implementing what was in the ceasefire agreement was formed and another committee for the security of the countries involved was formed. Again, I was made the chair of these two commit- tees.For the committee on security concerns, there were countries like Kenya, Mauritius, Zambia, Tanzania and I can't remember the others. As for the implementation, all the countries with the belligerents were involved. Through these committees, we started implementing the ceasefire agreement.The agreement was later taken to the UN and AU and it was approved. After this, the Joint Military Commission was put in place and I was made the interim chairman of the Commission. I later handed it over to some General from Algeria.After three months he left and I was made interim chairman again until I handed over to another General from Kenya. However, I remained in the JMC as Chief of Staff to assist him until 2003.MH: As one of the architects of the DRC ceasefire agreement, are you happy with the peace in the DRC?Rtd Brig-Gen Kazembe: Let's say the relative peace because peace is relative. There could be other incidences happening in the DRC but people are still enjoying some level of peace. I am happy that the DRC has not disintegrated because that war in the DRC, even the UN was trying to mishandle it.The UN Security Council could have mishandled it. Their solution was let's divide the DRC into three countries so that they become smaller countries. I totally disagreed with that. I told them their solution could not work because they didn't know even the boundaries on the ground.This was the stage when we were trying to disarm everybody there. The AU had a better model which I advised them. I said let's disarm everybody and that model worked.MH: Why do you think the UN wanted to divide the DRC into three countries?Rtd Brig-Gen Kazembe: They didn't know the area well. They didn't know the people. They knew nothing. I also know for a fact that at the UN, some solutions are made even before people sit down to discuss.That system is bad  predetermined solutions. I wasn't in agreement with that.
Real Estate News What is it like to live in Franklin? Debbie Pellegris roots run deep in this Norfolk County community of roughly 33,000. A home on Union Street in Franklin is decorated. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe staff

Debbie Pellegris roots run deep in this Norfolk County community of roughly 33,000. She was born in a hospital in Milford, and from there I came right to Franklin.

Pellegri, 68, remembers her family chopping down Christmas trees on Washington Street when she was a child, and her father was a police officer here for 30 years. Later, Pellegri and her husband, Ronald (also a Franklin native), bought their house on Pleasant Street, where they have lived for nearly 50 years and raised two children. She appreciates that her children could walk to school and that their home is close to the library and Main Street.

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Pellegri retired last year after 31 years as town clerk. Through her work, she met many young couples who were drawn to Franklin for its schools, proximity to Boston and Providence, and reasonable real estate. (The median home price as of press time was $389,700, according to Zillow.com.)

Its worth noting that Franklin is technically a city, but it refers to itself as a town. While many changes over the years have benefited the community, Pellegri does rue the loss of farmland. Its sad to think kids growing up today dont know what its like to be on a farm, she said. Her own grandmother ran a farm and flower shop on Washington Street, and her grandfather made wine with the grapes they grew.

Debbie Pellegri of Franklin

To stay connected to Franklins past, Pellegri volunteers at the historical museum. People come in and theyre amazed at whats here, she said. The collection includes Native American arrowheads, antique wedding gowns, and old photographs in which residents have recognized relatives.

When she retired as town clerk, people wanted to know if she was going to sell her house  I said: No! This is where my roots are. I love Franklin. Ive lived here for 68 years, and I have no intention of ever moving. 

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As if to prove that point, Pellegri was elected to the Town Council.

BY THE NUMBERS

116

The number of books Benjamin Franklin gave the community in 1788, after the town, once known as Exeter, renamed itself in his honor. Franklin had been asked to donate a bell for a church steeple, but preferring sense to sound, he offered books for the use of town residents instead. A controversy erupted over who got to use them, according to town accounts, but in 1790, a Town Meeting vote to lend the books to all Franklin residents free of charge established the countrys first public library.

20

The number of local vendors at this years Franklin Farmers Market, held every Friday afternoon on the Town Common until Oct. 28

1796

The year Horace Mann, considered this countrys father of public education, was born in Franklin. Mann was elected to the Massachusetts House and Senate, was appointed the states first secretary of education, and then served in Congress, all along promoting the idea that education should be free and universal.

PROS & CONS

Pro

New high school

Two years ago, the building opened on time and on budget ($103.5 million), with 20 percent more core academic space, an 830-seatauditorium, modern science labs, a gym, and an indoor walking track.

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Pro & Con

Traffic changes

Franklin is reconfiguring traffic around the downtown triangle from one-way to two-way, which will aid response times for emergency personnel and bring beautification efforts, including new paving and sidewalks. It will also result in some confusion for drivers (and pedestrians) as they adjust. Another pro: The town has also removed the parking meters.

Pro

Lively downtown

The nonprofit Franklin Downtown Partnership not only promotes economic development, but also organizes popular events, including beautification day, progressive dinners, and strawberry and holiday strolls.

Franklin Historical Museum  Jonathan Wiggs/Globe staff

Franklin Town Common  Jonathan Wiggs/Globe staff

Red Brick School  Jonathan Wiggs/Globe staff

Franklins public library, which is undergoing renovationJonathan Wiggs/Globe staff

Chilson Beach on Beaver Pond  Jonathan Wiggs/Globe staff

Franklin State Forest  Jonathan Wiggs/Globe staff

Dean College  Jonathan Wiggs/Globe staff

Franklin Historical Museum  Jonathan Wiggs/Globe staff

Rachel Lebeaux can be reached at [email protected].
Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blog spot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work.

.

..Israel Hayom..05 August '16..Even before the opening ceremony, the Rio de Janeiro Olympics left a somewhat bitter taste in the mouths of Israelis. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict managed to worm its way into the most important sporting event in the world, one that is supposed to be free from politics and certainly from terrorism. Jibril Rajoub -- former head of the Palestinian Preventive Security Force and a contender for the leadership of the Palestinian Authority after President Mahmoud Abbas' time is up, an avowed supporter of terrorism who has incited to murder even during this most recent wave of terrorist violence -- was the man chosen by the Palestinians to head their Olympic committee.Israel, the International Olympic Committee, and the Olympic Committee of Israel have refrained from taking any action against Rajoub, given the importance of the Arab vote on the IOC. But bereaved families, the terrorist victims advocacy organization Almagor, and the Palestinian Media Watch watchdog organization, which has for years documented and translated Rajoub's statements in the Palestinian press, are finding it hard to stand by quietly in the face of such absurdity: The man who openly supported terrorism and this year congratulated murderous terrorists on Palestinian television broadcasts,the man who swore only a few years ago that if the Palestinians ever had a nuclear weapon, they would use it immediately (against Israel), will be walking around in a tie in the next few days, smiling at cocktail receptions during this sporting event that symbolizes unity among nations and bridges to peace.The material on Rajoub, some of which held hope for leaders of Israel's security apparatus in the past, is hardly a state secret. The Rajoub File, which researchers from Palestinian Media Watch have spent the last few weeks compiling, was recently placed before Israeli decision-makers. The unprecedented decision by the IOC under its German head, Thomas Bach, to hold the first memorial ceremony for the 11 Israeli athletes murdered by Palestinian terrorists at the Munich Games in 1972 stands in contrast to the IOC's refusal to do a thing about Rajoub.The IOC generally does not interfere in politics, even when it uses them for its own purposes. Some well-known historical examples of that include the Berlin Olympics in 1936, which were opened by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler; and on the other end of the spectrum, during the Cold War, the decisions by the U.S. to boycott the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow and by the former USSR to boycott the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.On the other hand, according to a study prepared a week ago by Israel's Wingate Institute, despite the IOC's general disinclination for international intervention, the body has been involved more than once in decisions of a diplomatic nature, when it believes that doing so would truly contribute to Olympic values. Germany and Austria were kept out of the 1920 Olympics because of their responsibility for World War I; Germany and Japan were excluded from the London Games in 1948 because of their responsibility for World War II. The IOC excluded South Africa from the Olympic movement in 1964, an international contribution to the fight against that country's apartheid regime. However, for years, political pressure kept the IOC from recognizing East Germany or Taiwan as separate sporting entities -- and political pressure has, as we know, led it to recognize the Olympic committees of the Palestinians and Kosovo, without either of them having been recognized as a state by the U.N.The Rajoub case is a different matter. This isn't a country, but a person who represents a political-national entity, and he is a classic example of how politics can influence sports. In a sporting world free from politics, a supporter of terrorism like Rajoub would have been tossed out the door long ago. But Rajoub has backing.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 06/08/2016 (2274 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With $64,000 remaining from a federal funding program, the Brandon Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation is calling for project proposals that will reduce and prevent homelessness in the Wheat City.

Originally, the Brandon area was receiving about $400,000 per year from the Homelessness Partnering Strategy. An advisory committee, made up of BNRC and the citys other non-profit organizations, directed the funding toward initiatives that work to alleviate homelessness in the city.

However, the 2016 federal budget allocated an additional $111.8 million over two years to the program, an investment that meant an extra $220,000 for Brandon.

According to BNRC manager Carly Gasparini, most of the surplus was used on current projects, but the remaining chunk is set to be used between October 2016 and March 2017.

It could be one big project, it could be a couple smaller projects  it really depends on what comes in, Gasparini said.

In the past, the money has been used to fund Housing First projects, or most recently, the Canadian Mental Health Associations fiveplex.

Were really proud of (the Housing First project) because its a great project. Its getting people off the street and housed, and building relationships with landlords in our community, and the community response has been really incredible, Gasparini said.

As Housing First is recognized as one of the most efficient ways to reduce homelessness, Brandon guarantees 40 per cent of their funding to such initiatives.

However, any activity that provides support services and capital construction or renovation for emergency or transitional housing is eligible.

Another amount  just under $83,000  has been set aside to be used between April 2017 and March 2018.

Those interested have until Sept. 19 to submit their proposals. For more information, contact Susan Spring at 204-717-8413 or visit brandonhomelessness.ca.

 aantoneshyn@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @AAntoneshyn
The Charity Regulator is being asked to investigate Irish Autism Action over concerns about its funding.

Last week the CEO Brian Murnane revealed the group hasn't written a budget for this year.
The machete-wielding man who attacked two policewomen has been identified by Belgian prosecutors as a 33-year-old Algerian known to police for criminal offences but not for terrorist acts.

The Federal Prosecutor's Office said the man, identified only as K B, had lived in Belgium since 2012.

It also said two police searches had been carried out overnight in the Charleroi area.

The man was shot dead by police on Saturday afternoon after attacking and wounding two policewomen outside the main police station in Charleroi. One suffered deep wounds to her face.

After an emergency meeting of security chiefs, Prime Minister Charles Michel said the attacker's shouts of "Allahu Akbar!" (God is Great) as he slashed at the officers outside the Charleroi police station on Saturday were a notable factor in the authorities' decision in treat the incident as a terror act.

Mr Michel cut short his holiday in the south of France to hurry back to Brussels following the attack in the southern Belgian city.

"We must keep a cool head," Mr Michel said. "We must avoid panic, of course - not give in to terror. That's the trap that has been set for us."

Belgium has been on high alert since the March 22 suicide bombings claimed by Islamic State extremists that killed 32 people in Brussels. Many of the perpetrators of the November 13 carnage in Paris that killed 130 people were also residents of Belgium.

"We know we must be constantly, constantly vigilant," Mr Michel said.

Belgian Defence Minister Steven Vandeput said the government's Crisis Centre would meet to determine if additional measures should be taken to protect police buildings and staff.
Macedonia has declared a state of emergency in parts of the capital hit by torrential rain and floods that left at least 21 people dead.

Police and army helicopters searched for the missing and evacuated hundreds from the flood zone around Skopje.

Mayor Koce Trajanovski described the damage as "the worst Skopje has ever seen".

He said that the deadly deluge created hazardous rainfall accumulations within only 20 minutes.

Many witnesses have described that victims drowned after being trapped in their houses when torrents suddenly swept through the area.

The heavy rain, strong winds and thunderstorms struck Skopje and its northern suburbs late on Saturday.

Special police, army units and firefighters were sent to the worst-hit areas as well as the nearby villages of Stajkovci, Cento, Aracinovo and Smiljkovci.

Government spokesman Aleksandar Gjorgiev said a state of emergency had been declared for two weeks in the most affected areas.

Hundreds of homes and vehicles were destroyed by the floods, roads were impassable and several areas were without electricity. Authorities said more than 1,000 people had been evacuated so far.

Skopje's city council held an emergency session and decided to provide financial help to victims' families. Authorities said they will open shelters for people from affected areas.

After a meeting of the National Crisis Management Centre, Health Minister Nikola Todorov said many of the injured had fractures and contusions.

Meteorologists said more torrential rain and strong winds were expected later on Sunday.

Authorities said at least 5,000 people would need urgently food and water. They urged people to stay at home and to only drink bottled water.

Further north in Croatia, stormy winds have disrupted road and sea traffic at the height of the tourist season.

The state news agency HINA says parts of the main highway connecting the capital of Zagreb with the Adriatic coast remained closed on Sunday. Only cars were allowed down the sections of a highway and a regional road further north near the port of Rijeka.

Disruptions created by the bad weather have created traffic backups, with many tourists trying to reach Croatia's coastal resorts along the Adriatic Sea.

Traffic has been limited on the bridges connecting the islands of Pag and Krk with the coast, while some ferry lines have halted services with the islands of Pag and Rab.
In Syria, fierce fighting is continuing around Aleppo, where rebel groups claim to have broken the siege of the city.

It follows a counter attack which has left more than 500 fighters dead.
ISLAMABAD: The number of cellular subscribers as well as teledensity declined for the second consecutive month in...
LONDON: Rishi Sunak on Tuesday became Britains third prime minister this year and the first person of colour to...
NEW DELHI: A helicopter carrying pilgrims to Kedarnath in Indias Himalayan region crashed on Tuesday, killing all...
A Jetstar flight with 320 people on board has been forced to make an emergency landing on the Pacific island of Guam during a flight from Tokyo to the Gold Coast.

The low-cost airline said an engine on Flight JQ12 was shut down as a precaution after a warning light came on.

Hundreds of Jetstar passengers remain stuck in the US territory after being told via email and SMS that another aircraft was being sent to pick them up.

Passengers have criticised the airline for its lack of help, with many taking to social media to vent their frustrations over Jetstar's latest mid-air bungle.
One Nation Senator-elect Malcolm Roberts arrived with a bang and a puff of smoke on the political stage this week, declaring his faith in empirical evidence and his commitment to conspiracy theories about climate change, the UN, and the global banking cartel.

His evangelical zeal makes Hillsong happy clappers look like Trappist monks, and his invitation to share these views on Q&A must be on its way.

Each state has elected at least one senator from the fringe, such as Derryn Hinch in Victoria, David Leyonhjelm in NSW, Bob Day in SA, and Jacqui Lambie in Tasmania.

The re-emergence of One Nation in Queensland and the Xenophon factor in South Australia begs the question as to whether we are seeing the rise of state-based parties in the Senate and a return of the Senate to its original role as the states house, as does Jaqui Lambie's re-election in Tasmania. Lambie essentially ran on a "Put Tassie First" platform.
Things are looking much clearer at the scene of this morning's crash.

Traffic cameras show cars flowing freely along the Gateway Motorway at the Deagon Deviation, which was previously crawling after a multi-car pile-up.

But Australian Traffic Network traffic reporter warned there were still delays from Bald Hills to Boondall about 8.40am.

Thanks for following the latest updates with us today. Here's hoping you drove safe and maybe even got to work on time.
A man has been charged after a road rampage in Fortitude Valley on Saturday night, which resulted in five vehicles - including a fire truck - damaged.

About 10.20pm, a car allegedly stolen from Kippa Ring fled from vehicle inspectors near Warner Street in Fortitude Valley.

Police have arrested and charged a 26-year-old man following a chase through Fortitude Valley on Saturday night.

Police said the car then drove through a red light and nearly hit a Queensland Fire and Emergency Services vehicle travelling on Ann Street.

The allegedly stolen car came to a stop at the intersection of Brunswick and Ann streets before reportedly smashing into five vehicles that were stopped at the lights.
A "high-risk offender" who allegedly sparked a terrifying confrontation at a central Queensland McDonald's has handed himself in two days later and more than 300 kilometres away.

Police fired at the white Mitsubishi Magna Zachariah Hewitt was driving as he fled the North Mackay fast food spot's car park on Friday morning, scaring many of the 50 staff and workers inside.

The 26-year-old eluded police, who indicated a nearby car chase shortly after the incident may have been linked.

A search for the man reportedly widened across the weekend before he eventually handed himself in at Rockhampton police station, 338 kilometres south, about 6pm Sunday.
With the Queensland Government getting close to releasing its answer to the Uber question, the State's peak motoring body may have given commuters a hint.

The Palaszczuk Government received the final draft of the taxi and ride-sharing review it ordered almost a year ago late last month. It has promised a speedy turnaround, with Transport Minister Stirling Hinchliffe promising to release its response, along with the report, in the near future and hinting at a press conference, it would come by the months end.

But what shape that response will take remains the biggest issue. RACQ executive general manager for advocacy Paul Turner said the motoring body believed anything less than legalising ride-sharing across the state would be the government buying itself additional trouble.

"We would like to see a low-cost option for everyone and that means competition and that means ride sharing," he said.
With the minority Palaszczuk government approaching its halfway point, the LNP is stepping up its attacks, hoping to differentiate itself from the government with its own record on law and order.

Shadow Police Minister Tim Mander used the latest police statistics to up his attack on the government for being "soft on crime", point to the 42 per cent increase in assaults on the Gold Coast over the past year as proof "Queensland's hardworking police simply weren't getting the support they needed" from the Labor government.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Credit:Robert Shakespeare

"Labor is notoriously soft on crime and the facts speak for themselves," Mr Mander said in a statement.

"Under Annastacia Palaszczuk and Bill Byrne, Gold Coast assaults are up, while across the state, assault is up almost 10 per cent, robbery up 8 per cent, motor vehicle theft almost 6 per cent and unlawful entry almost 3 per cent."
An Abbotsford charity that feeds 5000 people a day has had its office robbed and ransacked for the second time in nine months.

FareShare staff arrived on Friday morning to find someone had thrown a bike rack through the building's security proof glass and stolen four laptops and a few hundred dollars in petty cash.

FareShare's Abbotsford office was broken into on Friday. Credit:Facebook

"It's just really disheartening when you're doing everything you can to help people who are down on their luck and then you're the target of them," chief executive Marcus Godinho said.

"But they probably didn't know we were a charity and they were probably pretty desperate."
Police are calling on women who may be missing undergarments in Melbourne's north to come forward after a man was allegedly found with an abundance of wet bras, believed to have been freshly picked from the clothesline, in the area on Monday morning.

Officers were patrolling Capp Street in Reservoir about 2.15am when they saw a 28-year-old man riding a bike.

They asked him to stop and later arrested him over a number of outstanding warrants.

Police also said they found the man to be in possession of "a plethora of women's underpants and bras - many of which were wet as though they had been hung on a line to dry".

The 28-year-old Reservoir man has been bailed to Heidelberg Magistrates' Court on November 7 in relation to the warrants.
Victoria's Joint Counter-Terrorism Team has laid charges after raids on three properties linked to a man affiliated with anti-immigration group Reclaim Australia.

Phillip Galea, 31, was arrested at a property in Ballarat Road, Braybrook, on Saturday afternoon.

He was charged with intentionally collecting and making documents connected with preparing for a terrorist act, and between September 20 and August 6, 2015, committing acts in preparation for a terrorist act.



"I will be fighting these charges and they are part of a conspiracy against the patriot movement," Mr Galea told Melbourne Magistrates Court during a brief appearance on Sunday.

Unrepresented in court, he appeared with unkempt long hair and a full beard, and was wearing a navy polo top.



He was refused bail and will next appear in court on Tuesday.
Police have offered a $500,000 reward to find a man who attacked an elderly Newport woman twice in two years in the 1980s.

Changes to DNA testing have allowed police to rule out three other suspects in the sex attacks cold case, and detectives warned on Sunday it was "only a matter of time" before the offender was caught.

Jessie Grace Lauder (right) with a relative.

Eighty-two-year-old Jessie Grace Lauder was getting ready for bed around 10pm on September 22, 1981, when she heard a loud bang from the back of her Mason Street house.

She was confronted by a knife-wielding man wearing gloves, a red and blue beanie and a mask.
Brussels: Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for a machete attack two Belgian police officers in Charleroi on Saturday.

Two police officers were severely wounded in the face and neck at a security checkpoint at the entrance of a police station by a man wielding a machete and shouting "Allahu akbar." The assailant was shot and died later in a local hospital.

In a statement issued by the Amaq News Agency on Sunday, IS called the assailant a "soldier of the Islamic State" who had carried out the attack "in response to calls to target citizens of countries belonging to the crusader coalition," a reference to nations involved in the fight against the IS in Syria and Iraq.

The language was nearly identical to other claims of responsibility issued by the IS for other attacks in recent weeks, including an axe attack by an Afghan refugee in Wuerzburg, Germany, and the killing of a priest in the Normandy region of France.
Ayham al-Ahmed rehearsing a song on a rooftop in Yarmouk refugee camp in a scene from the film Blue. He leaves the hall, as usual, in a shower of hugs and selfies. But the next day in his tiny room in Wiesbaden, he lacerates himself over the role he has honed so well: He is "the good refugee", making "good Germans" feel good about themselves. He cannot help seeing a touch of the minstrel show in his act. Ayham al-Ahmad after a concert in Marburg, Germany, in May. Credit:New York Times He imagines how he might look through German eyes: a charity case, a trained animal dancing for treats.

"He's a refugee dog," he says in a singsong voice. "They play with him, and he's playing, and he's happy." Ayham, seated at a keyboard in the background, plays at the Marburg concert. Credit:New York Times Before the Syrian catastrophe, Ahmad, a third-generation Palestinian refugee and the son of a blind violinist, was a piano teacher and music shop salesman. Now, his message of resilience, along with Germans' desire for a reassuring symbol, has made him Germany's most popular refugee. He sings, he plays and, sometimes, he smacks the piano in grief and rage. 'I feel like a frog that's being dissected': Ayham al-Ahmad rests on a train bound for Berlin. Credit:New York Times

Ahmad is booked virtually every night, criss-crossing the country from stadiums to modest provincial bars. He has appeared in dozens of uplifting German news accounts and received a prestigious prize named for one of his idols, Beethoven. "I feel like I've been taken out of reality," he says one day on a bullet train between venues. Ayham al-Ahmad rehearses a song on a rooftop in Yarmouk refugee camp. He grew up, he continues, hearing his father spin his life story into legend, "like you tell stories about Sinbad the sailor". But even the true-life tale of a self-made, blind musician who learned to play the violin pales in comparison with his own fantastical voyage, from Syrian government siege and Islamist extremist rule through shipwreck and exile to uneasy celebrity.

Residents of Yarmouk queuing for food in January 2014. Once home to 145,000 Palestinian refugees, the town has been taken over by Islamic State militants, forcing most residents and aid workers to leave and isolating those left behind. Credit:UNRWA Onstage every night, he re-enacts that journey. And on every road trip in between, he re-examines it - rather mercilessly, like the self-doubting artist he has always been. "I feel like a frog that's being dissected," he confesses, collapsing into a seat at the start of a four-train, five-hour trip to his next gig, which, as always, because of labour restrictions on refugees, he will play for free. Ayham prays at his apartment in Wiesbaden. After welcoming Syrian refugees, Germany has been shocked by attacks linked to the so-called Islamic State. Credit:New York Times "I'm selling myself," he says, "and I'm not even getting the money."

Worse, he wonders if he is making any difference: "They clap for me, but the rest" - back in Syria - "are still in prison, under siege, under bombs." Ahmad's life as the piano-playing refugee began three years ago when he parked his instrument on a street of destroyed buildings - walls collapsed, awnings askew - and began to sing. He lived in Yarmouk, a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Damascus, the capital, that started as a refugee camp for Palestinians in the 1950s. Over the years, it grew into a bustling district of a half-million Palestinians and Syrians. But it was now gutted by the Syrian civil war. Government troops kept it cordoned off, pounding it with artillery and sometimes airstrikes. Insurgent groups vied for control. Lack of regular access to food and medicine was beginning to kill; some of the most vulnerable starved to death. His only audience were his neighbours, trapped with him. And his goal was almost painfully modest: to keep everyone from losing their minds.

"I want to give them a beautiful dream," he said back then. "To change this black colour at least into grey." Ahmad played with a young men's chorus he called the Yarmouk Guys. Some of his songs were sad, yearning for those who had fled, some rollicking and funny, skewering Arab and world leaders. His toddler would sit atop the piano; girls and old women joined in; his father had cameos with his violin. Soon, videos of the performances spread online, first among Syrians, then more widely, a different kind of dispatch from a war so brutal that it had left much of the world numb. Ahmad became a symbol of hope and defiance and began to embrace a larger mission: showing that there were human beings stuck in Yarmouk. Eventually, his new fame would help him escape the siege - to join the emigrants he sang of. That helps drive his ambivalence and fuel a colossal case of survivor's guilt.

A German journalist sent enough money to get him and his family out of Yarmouk. Halfway to Turkey, security forces stopped them and threw them in jail, the children included. They got out a week later, but, shaken, they decided that his wife and their children would wait in Syria; because relatives are still in danger, we are not disclosing their names. Ahmad went on alone. For a while, he was just another refugee. He faded into the masses fleeing then, last August, as the exodus to Europe grew. Paying smugglers, he crossed mountains, dodging checkpoints and border guards. His first boat from Turkey sank, and several people drowned. Ahmad filmed his second crossing for the BBC. Safe in Europe, he started posting his progress on Facebook.

Now, he was travelling openly as the Piano Man of Yarmouk. In recent weeks, things have improved for Ahmad. He received residency status and a small apartment. He will be able to incorporate a company, hire a manager and be paid for concerts. And finally, days ago, his wife and children arrived. Still he wonders onstage: "Are they feeling the music I'm feeling? Or do they just feel pity because I'm a refugee?" Germans, he tells an audience in Wiesbaden, often ask if he has heard of Mozart. He pauses a beat, then charges into a high-speed medley: Mozart's Rondo Alla Turca intercut with Beethoven's "Fur Elise". Loading
Dubai: An Iranian scientist accused of providing information on his country's nuclear program to Tehran's 'number-one enemy' has been executed for treason.

Shahram Amiri was charged with "spying for enemies of the Islamic Republic of Iran", government spokesman Gholamhosein Mohseni-Ejei said.

"Amiri had access to confidential military secrets and was connected to our number-one enemy, the Great Satan," Mohseni-Ejei said.

"He was sentenced to death in primary court and the sentence was confirmed by Supreme Court", after Amiri appealed.
Jakarta: What could possibly go wrong?

When the beaches of Kupang, in the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara, became infested with crocodiles, the local tourism authority saw a way of turning a problem into an opportunity.

A four-metre-long crocodile sunbathing at Lasiana beach in late July 2016. Credit:Joey Christian

It's the sort of idea that would have editors at the croc-obsessed NT News salivating: a community competition to catch the giant reptiles.

The public would be invited to form teams to capture the crocs, with a five million rupiah ($500) cash prize for each one caught alive.
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Just a few weeks after the terror attacks of 9-11, Gilbert Gottfried took to the stage of the Friars Club and explained he had to leave early to catch a plane to California.

I couldnt get a direct flight, he said. We have to make a stop at the Empire State Building.

The crowd booed and someone yelled, Too soon! But in fact, Gottfrieds timing was impeccable.

He told the joke before the invention of Twitter.

Also before outrage became Americas consuming passion.

The rollicking new documentary, Can We Take a Joke? brings our lust for umbrage into sharp focus. Audiences, it points out, have become hypersensitive  especially on campus. Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld have both sworn off college gigs, because, as Rock put it, You cant even be offensive on your way to being inoffensive.

And so the film, by documentarian Ted Balaker with support from the free-speech advocacy group the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, interviews comedians both famous and up-and-coming about how theyre dealing with the onslaught of offendedness.

One interviewee, stand-up Jim Norton, has worked his frustration into his routine.

Why is comedy the only form of the arts where people think they have to agree with, or approve the content? he asks. You dont walk through a museum with a towel and throw it over paintings you dont like (saying) I dont want anybody else seeing this because I dont enjoy it. 

Comedys job is, as George Carlin once said, to find where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately. Thats been the comedians job ever since the first jester joked about the kings much younger wife.

If we steered clear of every topic that could offend someone, we couldnt open our mouths, says Lisa Lampanelli, whose entire act is making fun of absolutely everyone. That might not be your thing. But if its not, stay home.

Instead, audiences are coming in, sitting down, and demanding that comics not say anything crude or cruel. But when my idea of cruel is your idea of hilarious, my super-sensitivity automatically wins. I get to declare not just that the comic isnt funny, but that he is a bad person and needs to be punished.

Consider what happened at Washington State University, where a student named Chris Lee wrote a musical designed to offend absolutely everyone. In fact, he billed it as such. But one night, the university itself requested 40 tickets.

Those ticket holders came in and started shouting, Im offended! They stood up and shook their fists. The shouts grew into threats. And guess what?

Turns out the university had paid them to attend and disrupt the show. When Chris asked the cops for protection, they wouldnt promise it. He had become someone not worth saving, because he was politically incorrect.

Then theres Justine Sacco. The young publicist was on her way to South Africa. As she boarded the plane she tweeted, Going to Africa. Hope I dont get AIDS. Just kidding. Im white. She was making a lame joke about the way whites see Africa, the continent where her parents had worked as anti-racism activists.

But one of her handful of Twitter followers assumed this was actually a racist remark and retweeted it. It got picked up by more and more people and by the time Sacco got off her 12-hour flight, she found herself the No. 1 trending item worldwide on Twitter, with people calling for her to be raped or killed.

Because of a bad joke.

Jon Ronson wrote about her story in his book, So Youve Been Publicly Shamed. As he notes in the film: The mob that took her down wasnt actually making the world a better place. It was just getting off on outrage.

The same thing happened to Gottfried when he joked after the 2011 tsunami, I was talking to my Japanese real estate agent. I said, Is there a school in this area? She said, Not now. But just wait.  He lost his job as the Aflac duck, and became officially a terrible person  more so than after 9-11, when we were still able to be shocked but move on.

Now, maybe that wasnt a tasteful joke. But comedy does not have to be tasteful. It has to be allowed. It is free speech. It is the way a society copes with its fears and stands up to tyranny. Im guessing Vladimir Putin doesnt tolerate a lot of anti-Putin punchlines.

Do you really want to live in a world where everyone has to think twice before they tell any kind of a joke? asks Greg Lukianoff, the president of FIRE.

America, lighten up  or be prepared for dark times.

Read Lenore Skenazys column every Sunday morning on Brook lynPa per.com

Can We Take a Joke? is showing at Manhattans Cinema Village through Thurs., Aug. 4, and is available through iTunes and on demand through most cable and satellite providers.
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.
Lawsuit seeks $5M in wages for Great Adventure hourly workers

The class action lawsuit says workers should be paid for time spent walking across Great Adventure amusement park in Jackson.
Essar Oil is planning to invest an additional Rs 1200 crore in its Vadinar refinery before the stake sale by the promoters to Rosneft.
Chennai-based dairy product manufacturer Ltd has said that it is in the process of investing around Rs 450 crore in 18 months from April 2016, to build facilities for its ice cream, milk and related products business.

Of the total capex, around Rs 135 crore would be invested into capacity expansion and marketing of ice creams, which it sells under the brand, Arun Ice creams. The company is planning to expand its capacity to manufacture ice cream from the current 100,000 litres a day to 150,000 litres a day.
The has been made the nodal authority for banks to report high value frauds worth over Rs 50 crore in public sector banks.

The move comes after Reserve Bank of India (RBI) noticed that banks do not have a focal point for filing complaints with the . As a result, the investigative agency has to deal with dispersed levels of authorities in banks.

"The will act as centralised agency to receive complaints of frauds from banks," Central Vigilance Commissioner K V Chowdary told PTI.

A Joint Director level officer has now been authorised in the CBI to receive complaints of frauds of over Rs 50 crore from the banks. After receiving such reports, the officer can recommend investigation by any of the agency's wings (Anti Corruption, Economic Offences or Bank Security and Fraud Cell), official sources said today.

The officer-in-charge can then also recommend a probe by the Enforcement Directorate, they said.

The Chief Vigilance Officers, who act as distant arm of Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) to check corruption, of banks have been asked to act as nodal officers to coordinate in reporting such cases to the CBI, the sources said.

The CVC exercises superintendence over CBI for probing corruption cases.

A total of 171 bank fraud cases involving funds of over Rs 20,000 crore were probed by the CBI during 2015.

One of the high-profile bank fraud cases being probed by the CBI and ED is of liquor baron Vijay Mallya involving an amount of over Rs 9,000 crore.

As per norms, the complaints in cases of frauds in public



sector banks involving Rs three crore and upto Rs 25 crore are to be made with CBI's Anti Corruption Branch (where staff involvement is prima facie evident) or with the Economic Offences Wing of the agency in cases where staff involvement is prima facie not evident.

For amounts Rs 25 crore and less than Rs 50 crore, the complaint will be looked into by the CBI's Banking Security and Fraud Cell. The Joint Director (Policy) in the agency has now been mandated to receive complaints of frauds in the public sector banks involving over Rs 50 crore.

For private sector and foreign banks, complaints of fraud of amounts involving Rs one lakh and above need to be made to state police. If the amount is over Rs one crore, then the complaint has to be filed with Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) in addition to the state police concerned, as per the RBI guidelines.

The complaints in cases of frauds of Rs 10,000 and above, committed by staff of private and foreign banks, need to be made to state police, it said.

The officials concerned in the banks and their CVOs will have to ensure that the complaint lodged by the bank with the law enforcement agencies is drafted properly.

As per the central bank's norms, banks are required to lodge the complaint with the law enforcement agencies immediately on detection of fraud as delays may result in the loss of relevant 'relied upon' documents, non-availability of witnesses, absconding of borrowers and also the money trail getting cold in addition to asset stripping by the fraudulent borrower.
With over 3,500 students from availing scholarships worth Rs 75 crore for the academic session 2016-17, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said the scholarship scheme has been a big draw this year.

"Due to the transparency brought in by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the scheme and conduct of 10 awareness workshops, the special scholarship scheme for students has been a big draw this year...More than 5,000 students of the state had applied for this scholarship," Javadekar said.

Overall scholarships worth Rs 75 crore have been given this year under this scheme, he added.

The special scholarship scheme for students to pursue higher education outside the state has received tremendous response this year as awareness workshops had been organised in Kupwara, Anantnag, Srinagar, Pulwama, Jammu, Doda, Rajouri, Kathua, Kargil and Leh in May this year, an official statement said.

Earlier the quota for students in engineering colleges was limited to only 250, but this year 1,430 students were granted admission in several reputed engineering colleges.

This was due to the enhancement, for the first time, of the supernumerary quota in various engineering branches from 2 to 10.

This year, hotel management and nursing courses were also included under this special scholarship scheme. While 15 students were admitted to reputed hotel management institutes, 284 students secured admission in reputed nursing colleges.

Besides this 177 students of the state got admission in medical colleges on their own merit. In general stream, 1,014 students got admission.

Overall total scholarships awarded to students of Jammu and Kashmir this year is 3,584 of which 1,329 students were from Kashmir Valley, 26 from Ladakh and 2,255 from Jammu. Under this special scholarship scheme, up to Rs 1.25 lakh tuition fee is borne by the central government besides up to Rs 1 lakh is paid to students for meeting hostel and food charges.

For general courses, a tuition fee of up to Rs 30,000 is paid by the central government along with up to Rs 1 lakh towards hostel and food charges.

The tuition fee is transferred to institutes directly so that when the student approaches college for admission, the college will not insist on depositing academic fees.

The hostel and food allowance of Rs 1 lakh is transferred to the account of student in 2 installments. Through centralised counseling for allotment of supernumerary seats was conducted between July 26 and August 3 at Srinagar and Jammu simultaneously.

To avail of this scholarship scheme, student should have passed Class XII from Jammu and Kashmir and his or her family income must be less than Rs 6 lakh per annum.

In the academic year of 2014-15, the ministry introduced a transparent system to streamline the process of scholarship application and disbursement. With the use of technology, transparency and accountability of the process has been brought in, the statement added.
Prime Minister on Sunday congratulated Vijay Rupani, who was sworn-in as the new Chief Minister of Gujarat, and other members of his team, saying they would "continue the development journey" of the state.

"Congrats to @vijayrupanibjp, Nitinbhai Patel & others sworn-in as they begin their innings to continue the development journey of Gujarat," Modi said in a tweet.

Congrats to @vijayrupanibjp, Nitinbhai Patel & others sworn-in as they begin their innings to continue the development journey of Gujarat.  (@narendramodi) August 7, 2016

In a separate tweet, the Prime Minister also applauded the services of Anandiben Patel who had stepped down from the top post on Wednesday.

"I applaud the dedicated service of @anandibenpatel, who has been working tirelessly for the people of Gujarat for many years," Modi said.

Rupani was sworn-in as the new Chief Minister, while Nitin Patel took oath as the new Deputy Chief Minister of Gujarat at a ceremony in Gandhinagar. Eight Cabinet-rank ministers, including Patel, and 16 Ministers of State were also sworn-in.
External Affairs Minister on Saturday asked the Indian High Commissioner in Pakistan to seek consular access to jailed Indian citizen Hamid Nehal Ansari in Pakistan and to report back on the same.

"I have asked our High Commissioner in Pakistan to seek Consular access to Hamid Ansari in hospital/jail and report," tweeted Swaraj.

The minister swung into action after reports of Ansari being attacked by jail inmates came to light.

Earlier on Friday, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup had said in a press briefing that there is a petition in the Peshawar High Court, requesting the court to summon the superintendent of the jail, where Ansari is currently lodged.

The petition was filed after Indian High Commission in Islamabad reported that Ansari was being attacked in prison.

He said the Indian government has also reiterated its earlier stand to provide consular access to Ansari and has asked the Pakistan government to allow him to speak to his family.



I am very much disturbed to read about repeated attacks on Hamid Ansari who is detained in Peshawar jail since 2012. It is inhuman. /1  (@SushmaSwaraj) August 6, 2016

Indian Hamid Nehal Ansari (31), hailing from Mumbai, had entered Pakistan with a fake identity card reportedly to meet a girl with whom he had befriended online.

He was arrested on November 14, 2012, and later sentenced to three years' imprisonment for espionage.

According to Dawn, Ansari was attacked twice in the in the last two months.

Superintendent of the prison Masoodur Rehman also confirmed the incidents, but insisted that they were of minor nature and that such incidents did happen in prisons.

He also said Ansari had been kept in the death cell as he can't be kept in a normal barrack along with other prisoners for the sake of his security.

Qazi Mohammad Anwar, Ansari's lawyer, said his client had been kept in the death cell with a hardened criminal awaiting execution for a murder.

Anwar said the jail superintendent should give an undertaking to the court that attacks won't happen against his client in future, but the latter refused to give a written guarantee in this regard.

The superintendent complained that the jail was overcrowded as it was made for 350 people but presently had around 3,000.

The bench directed him and social activist Rukhshanda Naz, who represented Ansari's mother Fauzia Ansari, to sit together with the Indian citizen to plan his foolproof security in prison.

During the hearing into an application of Ansari on Aug 2, the bench had summoned the jail superintendent.

A petition of Ansari has also been pending with the court seeking the inclusion of his period of detention prior to his conviction by a military court in his jail term. He was held in 2012 but was convicted on Dec 17, 2015 by a military court.

He was taken into custody by intelligence agencies and local police in Kohat district in Nov 2012.

Later, on January 13 the high court was informed in reply to a habeas corpus petition filed by Fauzia Ansari that Hamid was in the custody of the Pakistani Army and was being tried by a military court.
After lending support to the Centres Bill for a national goods and services tax (GST), the West Bengal government was told by the Union finance minister in the Lok Sabha that one should only borrow in line with repayment capacity. Amit Mitra, the finance minister of West Bengal, speaks with Ishita Ayan Dutt on this. Edited excerpts:



You have said a fiscal crisis is brewing for West Bengal.



The FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) Act was introduced in 2010 and till then there was no constraint on borrowing by the (then) Left Front government. Between 2011-12 and 2015-16, market borrowings and borrowings from small savings have been maturing every year. Our government had to make repayment of past borrowings to the tune of Rs 42,312 crore. Over the next five years, that is 2016-17 to 2020-21, repayments of the principal amounts that would mature are to the staggering tune of Rs 99,524 crore. These borrowings were done during the Left Front government; our government is having to pay for the sins of the past.
The solution to all the problems lies in development, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing a public meeting here on Sunday afternoon.

The Prime Minister, who was on his maiden visit to the state after assuming office, said the Centre was working in tandem with the states to take the nation to new heights.

"The centre and the states are working shoulder to shoulder to take the nation to new heights of progress," he said.

Talking about unavailability of drinking water in the state and its conservation, Modi said: "Whenever CM KCR (Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao) has met me, he has spoke about the state's development and about water related issues. Sadly, we only realise the importance of water when there is no access to it. As citizens it is our duty to conserve water."

Stating that reforms have taken place in the power sector, he said: "You all were asking about a rail line and today the Shilanyas for that has happened.

We are linking economic development and rail connectivity."

"Besides, shilanyas (foundation stone) for the first fertiliser plant in the state happened. The state didn't have one earlier and this did not augur well for the farmer," he added.

Prime Minister Modi inaugurated the first phase of 'Mission Bhagiratha' programme, a flagship programme to supply drinking water to each household in Gajwel Assembly constituency in the state.

In Hyderabad, the prime minister unveiled the pylon that marks implementation of Mission Bhagiratha and also laid foundation stone for the 1,600 Mw thermal power station at Ramagu dam in Karimnagar from Komatibanda through remote control.

He unveiled the foundation stone for revival of Ramagundam Fertiliser Plant being set up at Ramagundam.

Earlier, the Prime Minister dedicated a 1,200 Mw power project set up by Singareni Collieries to the nation.

Union Information Broadcasting Minister Venkaiah Naidu, Power Minister Piyush Goel, Fertiliser Minister Anantha Kumar, and Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu were also present at the events.

Prime Minister Modi will take part in a BJP workers' meeting at L B Stadium here in the evening.

Earlier, Rao welcomed the Prime Minister to the programme, saying "Thank PM @narendramodi ji on behalf of Telangana people for accepting the invitation to inaugurate development projects."

Thank PM @narendramodi ji on behalf of Telangana people for accepting the invitation to inaugurate development projects: CM #PMinTelangana  Telangana CMO (@TelanganaCMO) August 7, 2016

Observing two years of governance under your leadership, I can confidently say this is a completely corruption-free rule: CM #PMinTelangana  Telangana CMO (@TelanganaCMO) August 7, 2016

"Observing two years of governance under your leadership, I can confidently say this is a completely corruption-free rule. Remember, the day I shared dias with you at Ludhiana in 2009 where you assured that Telangana movement will reach its goal," Telangana CMO tweeted Rao as saying.
Government must carry all sections of farmers together and tobacco growers should not be subjected to discrimination, industry body suggested on Sunday.

"It is encouraging that the Prime Minister has set a target for Indian farmers to double their income by 2022... However, the government must carry all farmers together and not discriminate against tobacco farmers, who have made an immense contribution to India's cash crop farm economy," Secretary General D S Rawat said in a statement.

and the Federation of All India Farmer Associations (FAIFA) made a representation to Members of Parliament at an interactive session to discuss opportunities and challenges for India to realise Prime Minister's target of doubling farmer income by 2022.

"... We appeal to the government of India that Indian farmers must be part of the official delegation of CoP7, else it would put livelihood of millions at risk without any public health benefit," FAIFA President B V Javare Gowda was quoted as saying.

"It is disheartening that the Indian tobacco farmer today is subjected to the worst-ever discrimination by way of harsh policies and attacks on their livelihoods without providing either a scientific justification or an alternative to safeguard their interest," FAIFA Vice-President Gadde Seshagiri Rao said.
Blacklisted and deported from the US in 2011 on charges of espionage, an American citizen was arrested at the Benazir Bhutto Airport hours after his arrival.

According to Dawn, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan ordered an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the grant of a Pakistani visa to Matthew Craig Barrett, the US citizen who was expelled from US.

Barrett was hauled by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), and police officials in a joint raid on a guest house in Islamabad and a case has been registered against two FIA immigration officials, Sub-Inspector Raja Asif and his son Ehteshamul Haq.

An interior ministry statement said that action would also be initiated against officials at the Pakistani consulate in Houston, who were responsible for issuing him a visa.

According to documents seen by Dawn, Barrett was issued a multiple-entry visa, stamped by Sajida Altaf Qazi, vice consul at the visa section in Pakistan's mission in Houston.

The visa was issued on June 22 and is good up to June 30, 2020, allowing Barrett to stay in the country for up to one year at a time.

Barrett's passport, which is valid for 10 years, would have expired on June 30, 2020, a week after his visa ran out.

The last time Barrett came to Pakistan, things did not go well for him. On June 10, 2011, he was arrested at a residence in Islamabad's Sector E-11 for overstaying his visa.
Expressing concern over excluding proposed jihad verses from the school curriculum, the (CII), top religious advisory body, has demanded the Pakistan Government to include the said verses.

The concerns were raised during the CII meeting chaired by Maulana Muhammad Khan Sheerani earlier on Tuesday, reports the Express Tribune.

The Federal Education and Professional Training Ministry had earlier finalised its proposed curriculum for public educational institutions in which it pitched to introduce teaching of the holy Quran as a compulsory subject from first to twelfth standard.

The recommendations' final draft was submitted to the CII for review, but when it found that the ministry did not include verses of jihad in the proposed curriculum, it irked the members who demanded the government to include the said verses in the syllabus.

"484 verses of jihad are mentioned in the Quran but they were deliberately not included in the syllabus so students could not be taught about it," said CII member Maulana Zahid Qasmi.

Later on Wednesday the CII rejected the government's proposal to include teachings of Quran in schools syllabus.

The CII members said they found too many lacunas in the books and that they could not be incorporated in the schools' syllabus.
Sporadic clashes hit the southern edges of Aleppo today morning, a monitoring group said, hours after rebels said they had broken a three-week government siege of the Syrian city.

An alliance of rebels, Islamists, and jihadists late yesterday said they had opened a new route into Aleppo's eastern neighbourhoods, home to some 250,000 people.

But the road, which passes through southern edges of the city, remains too dangerous for civilians to use, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"There are intermittent clashes and air strikes, but to a lesser degree," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

"Not a single civilian has left the eastern districts because the road is too dangerous and not secured," he told AFP.

Yesterday, anti-regime groups overran a series of buildings in a military academy on the southwestern edges of Aleppo.

They then pushed northeast into the district of Ramussa, linking up with rebel groups that had fought south from inside the city.

Rebels posted footage of their fighters embracing and celebrating the end of the government encirclement of Aleppo, in place since July 17.

An AFP journalist in the eastern districts said a single truck of vegetables entered the neighbourhoods late yesterday to be sold in the markets the following day.

Syrian state media, however, denied that the siege had been broken and said the fight was ongoing.

"The terrorist groups are suffering huge losses and were not able to break the encirclement of the eastern neighbourhoods of Aleppo," state news agency SANA said late yesterday, quoting a military source.

"The Syrian army in coordination with allied forces are continuing their fight south of Aleppo," it said.

The agency said 10 civilians were killed yesterday in rebel shelling on two government-held districts.

The Britain-based Observatory said at least 130 civilians have been killed since the opposition alliance launched its offensive on southern Aleppo on July 31.

The monitor said more than 700 fighters from both sides had been killed in the onslaught, most of them rebels because of the regime's "aerial superiority.
Nissan Motor is in talks with Panasonic and overseas companies including Chinese firms over the possible sale of its controlling stake in a car battery manufacturing venture, sources said.
Voicing support for a fallen Pakistani-origin American soldier's parents who had come under attack from Donald Trump, the family of a slain Sikh Marine has said they were "hurt" by his remarks and it amounted to playing "political games".

Five years after he was shot to death by enemy fighters in Afghanistan, Marine Cpl. Gurpreet Singh's bedroom is still decorated in red, white and blue and his dress uniform hangs in his closet with medals pinned to it.

His father, Nirmal Singh, keeps a poster on a wall in his home in Antelope, California, calling the corporal an American hero.

Singh and his family have spent much of the past week watching the immigrant parents of another fallen military service member spar with Republican presidential candidate Trump.

"It hurts. I don't know why. It's like they're playing political games with a Gold Star family," Nirmal told The Sacramento Bee.

Gold Star families are immediate relatives of US Armed Forces members who died in battle or in support of certain military activities.

Many military families around the country have been surprised by Trump's criticism of the parents of the late Army Captain Humayun Khan after they endorsed Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton and rebuked the Republican presidential candidate at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia last month.

Trump's tactics drew condemnation from leaders of the groups Veterans of Foreign Wars and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Gold Star Wives and the grief-counselling nonprofit Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) also stepped in to criticise the business tycoon.

The Singhs identify with the Khans, a Muslim family of Pakistani descent, who like them lost a proud son to their adopted nation's long wars.

Nirmal Singh noted that he has often met other immigrants when he gets in touch with Marines.

"Religion does not matter. They love their country. That's why they go and they should be respected," Nirmal said.

Unlike Trump, the Singhs did not question why Captain Khan's mother stood silent at the convention next to her husband, Khizr.

Cpl. Gurpreet Singh's mother, Satnam Kaur, likely would do the same.

"When (Trump) said something about (Capt. Khan's) mother, that insulted my mother," Cpl. Singh's 28-year-old sister, Manpreet Kaur, was quoted as saying.

However, the election has also resulted in military families turning against each other.

"It's like they're trying to divide even Gold Star families. We should be united," Manpreet said.
Thai voters approved a new junta-backed Constitution that would pave the way for an election next year and give the military, which seized power in a coup two years ago, the final say on future elected governments.

Thai voters cast ballots for the first time since the military toppled the government, choosing whether to approve or reject a junta-backed Constitution.

Thailand's Election Commission said that with 91 per cent of the votes counted, 61 per cent have voted in favour.

The draft won approval in all regions, except the Northeast, which is the stronghold of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

The new charter could pave the way for polls next year.

Photo: Wikipedia

The military has said the new Constitution would stem endemic political corruption and bring stability, but critics have said it will entrench military control.

Campaigning against the draft had been banned and dozens have been detained. Thailand's biggest political parties rejected the Constitution.

After casting his ballot at a polling station in Bangkok, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-Cha said: "Come out (to vote) because today is important for the future of the country.

"This is your duty and this is part of democracy, of an internationally-recognised process."

After the 'yes' vote, the draft will become the Constitution, enhancing the military government's legitimacy in the run-up to an election which Prime Minister Prayuth has promised will happen next year.

The military junta which took power after a coup in 2014 called for the Constitution to be rewritten to ensure "clean politics" in the country.
The Obama administration released a redacted version of its 2013 policy guidance that spells out the interagency review process for determining whether a suspected terrorist should be targeted in an overseas drone strike. The guidance described a process for directing a strike against a "high value target" only if there was "near-certainty" of the target's identity and no civilians would be killed. It said capturing the individual was the preferred policy. The document was turned over to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) after the group sued under the Freedom ...
By 2020, the digital payments industry in India will be worth $500 billion and contribute 15 per cent to the country's GDP, according to Google and Boston Consulting Group's 'Digital Payments 2020' report.
At least 40 Taliban insurgents, including their commanders, were killed in an Afghan Air Force air strike in northern Kunduz province, said the officials from the 20th Pamir Army Division on Sunday.

Ghulaam Hazrat Karimi, a spokesman for 20th Pamir Army Division, said the airstrike took place in Imam Saheb district yesterday after the Taliban insurgents attacked a police outpost.

"The clash took place for several hours, and Mustafa, the deputy shadow governor, and Asadullah Maszloomyar, district shadow governor of Taliban for Kunduz, were killed," the Tolo News quoted Karimi as saying.

Karimi added that two security force members were also killed and four others injured in the attack.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has launched a blistering attack on Hillary Clinton's character and suggested that the Democratic presidential nominee is not mentally fit to be the president.

Speaking at Windham, New Hampshire Saturday night Trump said the former secretary of state took 'short-circuit'.

"She took a short-circuit in the brain. She's got problems," CNN quoted Trump as saying.

"Honestly, I don't think she's all there," he added.

Trump seized on Clinton's explanation that she "short-circuited" a recent answer about her truthfulness in discussing her email server.

The term "short-circuited" was used as she answered a question on Friday about her recent assertion in a Fox News interview that FBI Director James Comey said she had been "truthful" in discussing her use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state.

Her claim in that interview has widely been debunked as false.

She said, "I was pointing out in both of those instances, that Director Comey had said that my answers in my FBI interview were truthful. That really is the bottom line here," she said, adding, "What I told the FBI, which he said was truthful, is consistent with what I have said publicly. I may have short-circuited, and for that, I will try to clarify."

Trump's attacks on Clinton flowed as he once again referred Clinton as unstable, unbalanced and "totally unhinged.

The act of attacking come as top Republicans have fretted about Trump's repeatedly knocking himself off message by engaging in controversies rather than focusing on Clinton.

The New York billionaire also alleged that the terrorist group ISIS is dreaming of a Clinton presidency.

"Remember, remember, remember ISIS is looking, folks. They dream of Hillary Clinton. They look at her and they say this can't be happening to us. How great is this," he added.
Expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Dayashankar Singh who was granted bail yesterday, was released from Mau district jail today.

Dayashankar was expelled for comparing BSP chief Mayawati to a prostitute and was later arrested in Buxar on July 29 by a joint team of the UP Special Task Force and the Bihar Police.

"My wife and daughter are not well, will go to Lucknow straight away, to meet my family," Dayashankar told the media after being released.

Dayashankar had been booked under IPC sections 504, 509, 153A and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act at Hazratganj police station on July 2.

But the FIR was transferred to Mau's Kotwali police station as Singh had made the remark there.

"Ek vaishya se bhi badtar charitra ki aaj Mayawatiji ho gayi hain. Isi liye Kanshi Ram ke banaye karyakarta unka saath chhod kar ja rahe hain aur BSP samapt ho rai hai. Mayawatiji kisi ko 1 crore mein ticket deti hain. Koi 2 crore dene wala milta hai toh usey ticket de deti hain, aur shaam ko koi 3 crore dene ko taiyyar hota hai toh usey de deti hain. (Mayawati's character is worse than a prostitute. That why people are leaving her side and the BSP is nearing its end. Mayawati gives a ticket for 1 crore which she changes if she is offered 2 crore. And she changes even that ticket if she is offered 3 crore by evening)," Singh has said at a meeting in Mau where he was being felicitated by BJP workers.

Commotion followed Singh's statement and he was hauled by politicos across the nation and the BJP and swift action was taken against him.

A day after Dayashankar was arrested and sent to 14-day judicial custody, the Samajwadi Party hoped that the arrest would make sure that nobody points a finger at the so-called deteriorating law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh.
The Goods and Services tax (GST) Bill, which has been passed in the Rajya Sabha with certain amendments, will be taken up by the Lok Sabha on Monday for approval.

According to reports, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to intervene in the debate over the 122nd Constitution Amendment Bill.

The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress had earlier issued a whip to all its Lok Sabha MPs asking them to be present in the house.

After its passage in the Lok Sabha, it will go to state assemblies for ratification.

After the amendments are carried out, Parliament will pass the GST and Integrated GST Bills and the assemblies will pass the state GST Bill for the roll out of the tax reform in the country.

The Chief Ministers have assured that, if required, they will call a special session for the passage of the Bill in their state assemblies. The GST Bill has to be ratified by at least 16 states in 30 days after it is passed by Parliament.

The passage of the Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill in Parliament is a major step that will lead to ease of doing business in India.

The GST Bill was approved by the Rajya Sabha with 203 votes in favour and none against, after a seven-hour debate during which a rare bonhomie was witnessed among the ruling and the opposition parties.

Six official amendments, including scrapping of one per cent additional tax, moved by the government were approved with cent per cent votes.
Tennessee American Water employee gives pointers to a young visitor on how to repair a main break on the main break simulator

Young visitors play with the Water is Fun Board, learning about the power of water.

A young visitor pours water on the Water is Fun board to see how it will flow

The first Water Fest at Tennessee American Waters Chattanooga plant drew a crowd of about 600 attendees. Participants were able to learn about the process of treatment and delivery of water from the river to the tap in a variety of fun but informative ways.

"Clean water is essential to life, our economy and public health, said Tennessee American Water President Valoria Armstrong. Through various activities, our water professionals shared with attendees what Tennessee American Water does every day to deliver drinking water to the Chattanooga community.

In addition to tours, visitors could participate in several hands-on activities like the main break simulator to repair a hole in a water pipe. Water quality specialists shared information about the process for cleaning the water to meet drinking water standards. Childrens activities included a water fun zone where visitors could cool off under the Tennessee American Water mister.

Among external partners participating was the city of Chattanooga Public Works Moccasin Bend Wastewater Treatment Department which showed how water from drains and toilets is treated. Firefighters from the Chattanooga Fire Department were on-hand to show the importance of water for fire protection.

Also participating was Stowers Machinery which showcased Caterpillar equipment and grilled hot dogs and hamburgers. Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. alumnae volunteered at the event. Creative Discovery Museum provided their mobile unit with STEM-related activities and the Tennessee Aquarium talked about natural water sources.
Indian Ambassador to Nepal, Ranjit Rae, called on Communist Party of Nepal (UML) chairman and former Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli on Sunday.

The Indian envoy went to the CPN-UML's central office in Dhumbarahi at 11 pm to meet Oli, reports The Himalayan Times.

"During the meeting, Chairman Oli made it clear that the party was for hearty and friendly relationship with neighbouring countries, and any (foreign) abnormal activities in Nepal's internal politics would be unacceptable," the CPN-UML's Publicity Department said in a statement.

Pointing out that such activities would but complicate the situation, Oli further stressed that all should act with vigilance, the statement added.
Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Aug.7 (ANI): Disappointed after not being able to qualify for the final of the 10m Air rifle women's event here at the Olympic Shooting Centre, Indian shooter Ayonika Paul on Sunday said now her next aim is 2020 Olympics.

"I was not there in the finals.I am pretty disappointed of course because I had done a lot of preparations and technical training. I was pretty prepared from all angles but it didn't turn out the way I had planned. My next aim is 2020 Olympics," Paul told ANI.

Meanwhile in the men's 10m Air Pistol category, Gurpreet Singh who failed to qualify for the final after he finished 20th expressed hope for the upcoming 25 m event.

"I did not perform well today. I was well prepared, but the score came down because of some shots. There is still an event left.25 metre rapid fire. I will hopefully perform well in that one," Singh told ANI.

Another Indian shooter Apurvi Chandra finished 34 with a total score of 411.6 while Ayonika was 47th with a score of 403 in the qualification round.

Li Du of China set an Olympic record in the competition with a score of 420.7 to finish first in the qualification round.

Germany's Barbara Engleder finished second with 420.3 ahead of Elaheh Ahmadi of Iran (417.8).

Shooting forms the country's biggest medal hope in the world's biggest sporting extravaganza.

Ace marksman Jitu Rai and Gurpreet Singh will be in action in the men's 10m air pistol event.

Indian rower Dattu Bhokanal progressed through to the quarterfinals of the men's single sculls event after finishing third in the first heat at the Rio Olympics.
The Indian women's archery team on Sunday qualified for the quarterfinals after beating Columbia 5-3 on Day Two of the Rio Olympics here.

The Indian team of Deepika Kumari, Laxmirani Majhi and Bombayla Devi Laishram will now meet the Russian team of T. Dashidorzhieva, K. Perova, and I. Stepanova in the last eight round later in the day.

The team faced tough opposition from Colombia in the 1/8 Elimination round of the women's recurve archery event but eventually came out on top to set up last eight clash with Russia.

.
The former husband, father and cousin of Bradford resident Samia Shahid, who was allegedly the victim of an "honour" killing in Pakistan, have failed to appear at a scheduled court.

Days after forensic tests by the Pakistan Police indicated that 28-year-old Samia was strangled, a lawyer for the three suspects told the court in Jhelum, Pakistan, that they were being illegally detained by the police, reports the Guardian.

The victim's family has so far denied the allegations and claimed that she died of a heart attack.

The investigation into her death began after her husband Syed Mukhtar Kazam raised an alarm.

Bradford MP Naz Shah also demanded the Pakistani authorities to exhume her body and commission an independent post-mortem.

Mian Mohammad Arif, the lawyer for the accused, has claimed they are being held in "secret detention".

"Last night we had submitted a habeas corpus application with the local court and the judge presiding over Samia's case had sent a bailiff to the police station to bring the accused to the courts this morning (Saturday), but the police did not produce them," said Arif.

He claimed that Samia's father and cousin were already in police custody and alleged the police are keeping them in secret detention to scare them into forcibly confessing the crime.

Mangla Police Station SHO Malik Ageel, however, denied any knowledge of whereabouts of the accused.

The court was due to hear arguments from both sides on Saturday and was to decide on whether to extend Shakeel's pre-arrest bail.

After the suspects failed to appear, the judge extended Shakeel's bail until August 13 and told the SHO to produce him and the rest of the accused before the court by that date.
In a shocking incident, the management authority of A M Convent School in has asked the school to ensure that the students do not sing the anthem on Independence Day.

As many as eight teachers of the school, including principal Ritu Tripathi, resigned as a sign of protest against the diktat.

"The management authority of A M Convent School raised objection to some of the paragraphs of the Anthem and said those paragraphs won't be recited in the school as maybe it is against their religious sentiments. The school is not recognised. A notice directing them to close it down was issued a week ago," Basic Shiksha Adhikari Jaikaran Yadav told ANI.

Speaking to ANI, Tripathi said she went to the school management seeking permission to organise events like singing of Anthem and Saraswati Vandana for August 15 but she was told that such events have not been organised in the school ever since it was established and so it won't be done this year too.

"On being asked the reason, he said he has an issue with one line in National Anthem- 'Bharat Bhagya Vidhaata'. He said he is of the belief that people write their own destiny and it is not the nation which determines one's fate," she added.
In an unusual expression of solidarity with the Dalit Community that faced the wrath of so-called 'cow protectors' in Gujarat recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday went hammer and thongs at them, saying if they want to shoot, they should shoot him, but not his Dalit brothers.

"People who think they control could not digest the fact that Dalit people are getting to know about BJP's good work and that is why they are in tizzy. They are indulging in raising issues using . I want to tell those people that if they have any problem, they should attack me, but stop attacking my Dalit brothers. If you want to shoot, shoot me, but don't shoot my Dalit brothers," said the Prime Minister, while addressing a Bharatiya Janata Party's 'Karyakarta Maha Sammelanam' in Hyderabad.

The Prime Minister further said, "Politics of breaking the society is not good for the country and discrimination among human beings is not acceptable to us. Shanti, Ekta, Sadbhavana are central to the progress of the nation. We have to protect the marginalised and the . It is our duty."

He called upon the nation to embark on a 'Saffron Revolution' by bringing about sweeping changes in the Energy Sector.

"When I talk about 'Saffron Revolution', it raises many eyebrows; but, I say there must be a saffron revolution in the country as saffron is colour of 'energy'. There must be an 'energy revolution'," said the Prime Minister, adding, "Second, there must be 'white revolution' in the country. Cattle are our assets, and must give impetus to dairy production."

Reminding people of the importance of August 7 in our history, Prime Minister Modi said, "Today is August 7. This day has a lot of significance in Indian history as Swadeshi Movement got different dimension on this day. When my government came to power, we decided to celebrate this day as ' Handloom Day'.

Talking about corruption-free governance, he said, "Earlier, first news on TV used to be related to corruption. It has been over two years now since there has been no such 'stain' on this government.
An American citizen, blacklisted and deported from Pakistan in 2011 for espionage, was arrested in Islamabad, the interior ministry said.

Matthew Craig Barrett was arrested on Saturday morning, hours after his arrival in Islamabad, Dawn online quoted the ministry as saying.

The ministry has ordered an investigation into the grant of a Pakistani visa to Barrett, who was expelled from the country after being caught spying on sensitive installations.

Barrett was on Saturday arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency in a raid on a guest house in Islamabad.

Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan has suspended an FIA official as well as immigration staff on duty when Barrett was cleared by authorities at the airport.

A statement by the ministry said action would be taken against the officials at the Pakistani consulate in Houston for issuing a visa to Barrett.

According to a document cited by Dawn, Barrett was issued a multiple-entry visa, stamped by an official from Pakistan's mission in Houston.

The visa was issued on June 22 and was valid up to June 30, 2020, allowing Barrett to stay in the country for up to one year at a time.

Barrett was arrested and deported from Pakistan in 2011 for overstaying his visa.

--IANS

py/vt
China's Olympic swimming team has demanded an apology from Australian gold medallist Mack Horton after his "malicious personal attack" on rival Sun Yang.

Horton described Sun as a "drug cheat" last week and refused to retract the comments after defeating his rival in the 400m freestyle final at the Rio 2016 Games on Saturday, reports Xinhua.

"We have been noticing what has been said in the past two days by Horton, who launched a malicious personal attack (on Chinese swimmers)," Chinese swim team manager Xu Qi said on Sunday.

"We think his inappropriate words greatly hurt the feelings between Chinese and Australian swimmers. It is proof of a lack of good manners and upbringing. We strongly demand an apology from this swimmer."

Sun, who won gold in the 400m freestyle and 1500m freestyle at the London 2012 Olympics, served a three-month ban in 2014 after testing positive to a banned substance.

The 24-year-old said he unwittingly took the drug as part of treatment for a chronic heart problem.

After winning the gold medal race on Saturday, Horton said: "I used the words drug cheat because he tested positive. He's one of the athletes here who has tested positive."

The Australian's comments prompted a heated response on social media, where many Chinese fans describing the remarks as unjustified.

--IANS

pur/dg
It's not just the marauding Islamic State which poses a great threat to the heritage sites like Palmyra, but climate change too can wreak havoc in cities like Venice, says Mechtild Rossler, Director of the Unesco World Heritage Centre.

Not just that, climate change can also destroy heritage sites like the Statue of Liberty and such other structures that have been part of human history, Rossler said.

"Probably in my lifetime many of the natural and cultural world heritage sites would parish or become marine sites. Florida may sink. In Venice, people might not be able to live as they used to," Rossler told IANS.

The Unesco official was in Delhi this week to award Certificates of Inscription to the Khangchendzonga National Park and the Nalanda Mahavihara, two of the three new World Heritage sites from India chosen at the 40th Unesco World Heritage Committee session in Istanbul on July 20.

The third comprises 17 sites, including the Complexe du Capitole in Chandigarh designed by Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier.

The event was held by the Wildlife Institute of India, which is a Unesco Category-2 centre on world heritage management and training.

Rossler was in Syria recently to see Palmyra, around 30 km from Islamic State territory. "The biggest threat to monuments in the 21st century is the intentional destruction by the terrorists. But globally it's the climate change which will affect our lives."

Unesco recently released the "World Heritage and Tourism report", showing how climate change is quickly becoming one of the most significant risks for natural and cultural heritage sites.

"The impact is enormous. If you think of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, we have bleaching all over. The places of indigenous people, in the Pacific or in the Andamans, must be prepared for the upcoming risks," Rossler stressed.

The list of vulnerable sites includes Statue of Liberty and several forests in Peru and Brazil. The list also includes the Yellowstone National Park in the USA.

Speaking of the reconstruction attempts in conflict zones, Rossler said: "In Syria, the city of Aleppo is totally destroyed. Last year we held a meeting on its reconstruction."

There are a total of 1,052 World Heritage sites globally. Of these, nearly 50 are listed as World Heritage Endangered Sites. Many of them are in conflict zones.

"There are six vulnerable sites in Syria alone. Others are in Iraq, Yemen, Mali and Congo. We have to restore them all. We had already restored Mali's mausoleums and recovered many manuscripts," she said.

Some sites like Sukur Cultural Heritage in Nigeria are also reeling under threat due to Boko Haram, she said.

"In Syria, both listed or tentative heritage sites are seen as sources for funding. The so-called Islamic State forces the archaeologists to dig at gunpoint so that they can sell the artefacts in the black market."

Unesco is also worried because of the military airstrikes in these areas which may destroy the heritage sites.

"To protect the sites from bombing, we work with the military. We give them the coordinates of the sites which should not be touched at all. I had spoken with the head of NATO generals. I think the military needs to be aware of the cultural heritage and how to protect it better," Rossler said.

Referring to India, she said that the country is a source of illicit trafficking of artefacts. India should enforce the provisions of Unesco's 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property.

"India requires to reinforce the national laws to stop illegal trafficking. It would require more customs officers and people to watch over the trading in the art market. But above all, it requires ethics in the art market," she said.

Rossler said Unesco is working closely with the art markets to stop illegal trading. The recovered artefacts will be returned to the countries from where they were stolen.

(Kushagra Dixit can be contacted at kushagra.d@ians.in)

--IANS

kd/bim/vm/sac
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday that cooperative federalism was the only way to take the country forward, and his government was working for this.

He said the centre and states were now working together.

"There was a time when there was always a language of tension between the centre and the states but today they are working together to take India to new heights," he said in his address at a public meeting here on Sunday after launching Telangana's drinking water project 'Mission Bhagiratha' and other projects.

The PM also hailed healthy competition among states, saying this would contribute to the country's development.

On his maiden visit to Telangana, Modi began his speech by greeting people in Telugu and speaking a few words in the local language.

He was all praise for the steps taken by the youngest state in the short span of two years to fulfill people's aspirations.

Referring to Good and Services Tax (GST) bill, he described it as the biggest economic reform after Independence and thanked Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and other parties who supported it.

Modi told the gathering that his government was trying to ensure water supply to farmers under Pradhan Mantro krishi Senchai Yojna. Stating that the government is giving priority to agriculture sector, he said if farmers get water, they have the capability to produce gold out of soil.

The PM also spoke about the achievements of his government during last two years. He said the states which were facing electricity shortage had now become electricity surplus.

Referring to fertilisers, he said the central government no longer receive requests from states for supply of fertilisers for farmers as the government overcame the problem of diversion of urea to chemical factories with neem-coated urea.

Later, at the BJP workers' meeting in Hyderabad, Modi said there was no blot on his government as it faced no allegation of corruption during last two years.

Modi said his government eliminated the role of middlemen, stopped leakage of gas subsidy and convinced 1.25 crore families to give up gas subsidy to use the money for providing connections to poor.
The Shaking Ray Levi Society and Swine will present Broken Glass and Stand-up Tragedy: Justice Yeldham (Australia) with Bryan Lewis Saunders, Aether Jag (Providence) and Tapecanvas/Baby Magic, on Sunday, Aug. 14, at 4 p.m. at Swine Gallery (at Cine-Rama), 100A W. Main St.

Admission is $7-10. The show is for mature audiences only.



Here are the reviews of the performers:

The first set will be Justice Yeldham on broken glass with Bryan Lewis Saunders (poetry), What's been described as "a trumpet player trapped in a two dimensional universe" is in fact the unique work of Australian Justice Yeldham (a.k.a. Lucas Granpa Abela), a maverick musician with an unhealthy obsession with sheets of broken glass. In his infamous show that has astonished and bemused countless people in over 45 countries, Yeldham ecstatically purses his lips against panes of amplified glass whilst deftly employing various vocal techniques ranging from throat singing to raspberries, turning discarded shards into crude musical instruments. The results are a wild array of cacophonous noise that is oddly controlled and strangely musical. The instrument's simple, original and effective premise is a welcome respite to the technically complicated musical performances of modern times. A one of a kind act re-defining the expression 'don't try this at home' this show quite simply needs to be witnessed to be fully appreciated, let alone understood.

Bryan Lewis Saunders of Johnson City is the powerful spoken-word artist who has unleashed his disturbing and unforgettable "stand-up tragedy" for audiences at art museums across Europe and punk houses in rural America. His stories, which can draw from harrowing personal experiences in prison and the assisted-living apartment building in which he currently resides, are known for being unflinching, vivid, brutally honest accounts of the often unexamined aspects of (in)humanity. Saunders has collaborated with dozens of international musicians for recordings on his Stand-Up Tragedy label and many other labels, including the acclaimed album Daku created with the legendary sound artist/percussionist ZEV.

Best known as a visual artist, Saunders has exhibited in museums including MoMA PS1 (NYC), La Maison Rouge (Paris), MIKA (Tel Aviv), MQ21 (Vienna) and Oslo 10 (Basel) and is the subject of the award-winning documentary feature film Art of Darkness directed by David Parker. Since 1995, Saunders has created at least one new, unique self-portrait every single day, and he gained attention from CNN, The Guardian, Vice and many other media outlets for a series of self-portraits, each of which was made under the influence of a different controlled substance.



Aether Jag of Providence, R.I., a.k.a. Bridget Venuti, will be the second set. She blends her musical inventions (home built sequencers, circuit-bent and rerouted riggings) with otherworldly vocals to coax compelling textural soundscapes.

Tapecanvas and Baby Magic will be the third set. Tapecanvas (Noah Dobbs) is a Chattanooga video artist and performer whose work derives from an early interest in circuit-bent electronics and uncovering a deeper feature-set within the devices used in his practice. He creates single-channel video works, experimental installations, and has performed alongside members of the regions avant-garde and beyond, creating accompanying visual material that pulls from mostly improvised soundscapes and acts as a bridge between senses.

Baby Magic is the audio-based project of Jason Reevs of Chattanooga, who makes sounds informed by his background as a visual artist and child of hillbilly folk balladeers in hope of forging a spontaneous psychic connection with the audience. This is where, with a bit of patience, entropy, and improvisation, the magic comes in.






A Delhi youth with an engineering degree is among the two persons arrested for stealing high-end luxury cars from Chandigarh and neighbouring areas, the police said on Sunday.

A team of the Chandigarh Police Crime Branch has nabbed Harpreet Singh, who holds a Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) degree, and Ramjeet Singh, who studied up to Class 12, for a series of thefts of high-end cars.

"During interrogation, one Toyota Fortuner, four Toyota Innovas, one Hyundai i20, and one Mitsubishi Pajero SUV car worth Rs 1.10 crore were recovered on their instance. With the arrest of the accused, a total of eight luxury vehicles have also been recovered and the cases have been worked out," a Chandigarh Police spokesman said here.

The police had laid a trap to nab the accused following a spurt in incidents of vehicle thefts, especially luxury vehicles in and around Chandigarh. Both accused had come to Chandigarh recently to steal another SUV.

Harpreet, 24, is a resident of Delhi's Tilak Nagar locality while Ramjeet, 22, belongs to Abchal Nagar, near Chander Vihar Nelothi Extention, New Delhi, the police said.

"Both the accused are residents of Delhi and presently unemployed. Both are hi-tech vehicle lifters and use hi-tech electronic instruments to steal luxury vehicles. They both have past criminal record and were found involved in more than two dozen cases of vehicle thefts, registered against them in the different states, i.e. Chandigarh, Haryana, Punjab and Delhi etc.," the police spokesman said.

Both accused, according to the police, would tamper with the vehicles and sell them in Delhi. "They were used to making big money and enjoying a lavish lifestyle," the police said.

--IANS

js/lok/vt
Six days after Anandiben Patel suddenly quit, a new BJP team on Sunday took charge of Gujarat with Vijay Rupani sworn in as Chief Minister and senior leader Nitin Patel as his deputy.

Governor O.P. Kohli administered the oath of office and secrecy to a 25-member ministry at the Mahatma Mandir Complex here. There are nine cabinet ministers inclusive of Rupani and Nitin Patel and 16 ministers of state.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 till he became Prime Minister in 2014, called up Rupani to congratulate him and his team.

As many as nine ministers of the previous government have been dropped by Rupani, who inducted 11 new faces representing the different regions of the state.

Sources in the Bharatiya Janata Party said the axing of the nine had the stamp of BJP President Amit Shah, who is known to have played a major role in ensuring that Rupani got the top job in the state, a party stronghold. Anandiben had clamoured for Nitin Patel.

Significant among those dropped are Finance, Energy and Industries Minister Saurabh Patel, who is the son-in-law of Ramnik Ambani, the elder brother of the late Dhirubhai Ambani.

The suave Saurabh Patel was the only English-speaking minister and also the government's industry-friendly face. He has been widely credited for the former Modi government's forays in solar energy in the state.

There was intense speculation that Saurabh Patel may get a national role to play.

Dalit face and Social Justice Minister Ramanlal Vora was also dropped, reportedly for non-performance.

Another minister who lost the job was Minister of State for Home Rajni Patel, reportedly for his inept handling of the 10-month Patel agitation. His own house and office in north Gujarat were attacked twice by Patels.

Vasumatiben Trivedi, the only woman minister in the government of Anandiben, Gujarat's first woman chief minister, was also sacked. Nirmala Wadhwani from Ahmedabad has been included in her place.

Anandiben Patel had earlier resigned as Chief Minister citing her age, two months earlier than attaining the age of 75, in line with an unwritten code for ministers in the BJP.

But BJP sources maintained she was asked to quit in the wake of the Dalit unrest and the dragging street protests by the Patels - the traditional constituency of the party - demanding job quotas.

New Chief Minister Rupani avoided all questions about the priorities of the government and how he proposed to tackle the vexed issue of Patels and Dalits, which hit the BJP hard.

"The swearing-in has just been done. The government will start work tomorrow and together decide on all matters and the new policies," Rupani told the media.

His deputy Nitin Patel, the senior most minister in the previous cabinet, said all the initiatives of the Anandiben government would continue and strategies would be made to address all the key issues facing Gujarat.

The exit of Anandiben Patel, who is known to have had strained relations with Amit Shah, and the incoming of the Rupani ministry comes ahead of assembly elections due in the state next year.

Amit Shah, veteran L.K. Advani, who represents Gandhinagar in the Lok Sabha, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Chief Ministers Manohar Lal Khattar of Haryana and Devendra Fadnavis of Maharashtra besides Anandiben Patel attended the ceremony.

--IANS

desai/mr/bns/vd
Shooter Heena Sidhu missed out of the race to the women's 10 metres Air Pistol finals event at the 31st Rio Olympic Games after finishing 14th in the qualifications at the Olympic Shooting Centre on Sunday.

Heena could only manage 380 with 13 inner 10s after the completion of the four series. A late surge by the Ludhiana shooter too was not enough as she totalled 95 cumulative points in the fourth series to move to 14th.

Heena never really looked in the hunt as she started the first series with 94 cumulative points before dropping to 29th with 95 points in the second.

The third series witnessed Heena coming back to the 20th spot with some great shots, only to lose momentum towards the end, which fetched her 96 cumulative points.

Starting the fourth series at the 25th spot, Heena failed to put up a consistent show, shooting 9 and 10 in her first two shots before failing to hit another 10.

Her last three shots fetched a 9, 10 and another 10 taking her toll to 95 cumulative points ending her hopes.

Russian Vitalina Batsarashkina, Ekaterina Korshunova secured the top two positions at the qualification stage with respective scores of 390 with 14 inner 10s and 387 with 14 inner 10s.

Greek shooter Anna Kokarakaki finished third scoring 387 with 12 inner 10s.

--IANS

tri/sam/vt
Japanese Emperor Akihito is set to deliver a televised message on Monday about his desire to abdicate, which would require significant changes to the country's constitution.

The development comes after Japanese media outlets, citing sources from the Imperial Household Agency, reported that the 82-year-old emperor plans to hand over the Chrysanthemum Throne to his eldest son Naruhito, 56, due to his old age and failing health, Efe news agency reported.

The ten-minute address, set to be aired at 3 p.m., will be a pre-recorded transmission, reported Kyodo news agency.

Since the current constitution does not include provisions for succession while the monarch is still alive, the emperor is expected to avoid any direct reference to an abdication.

Instead he will explain his intentions to the Japanese people in terms of his concerns over how he will discharge his duties in the future.

The Japanese emperor's health has deteriorated in recent years after he underwent a coronary bypass surgery in 2012.

That came after a prostate cancer diagnosis in 2003, following which he developed osteoporosis as a result of hormonal therapy.

Japan's Succession Act does not include a provision for abdication and will require an amendment to specify that the position will go to Naruhito after his father steps down.

The monarch has only appeared on television to address the nation once before on March 16, 2011, following the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the country's northeast and triggered the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.

--IANS

ksk/vt
The Karnataka government would consult legal experts and decide on August 16 whether to approach the Supreme Court on the rejection of its interim plea by a tribunal on sharing of the Mahadayi river water, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Sunday.

"We will decide on August 16 the next course of action on the Mahadayi dispute (with Goa) after consulting legal experts, including Fali Nariman," Siddaramaiah told reporters after an all-party meeting here on the decade-old vexed issue.

The Mahaydai Water Disputes Tribunal, headed by Justice J N Panchal, on July 27 rejected the state's petition for 7.6 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) of water from the river, citing various grounds, including ecological damage the project may cause.

The state government is also mulling on moving the tribunal again over the rejection of its plea for releasing the water from the Malaprabha basin in the river to the Kalsa-Bhanduri canal, being built to supply drinking water for the four drought-prone districts  Bagalkot, Belagavi, Gadag and Hubballi-Dharwad  in the state's northern region.

"We have two legal options  to seek clarification under the under the provisions of section 53 of the Inter-State Water Dispute Act of 1956 or file a special leave petition in the apex court challenging the tribunal order," Siddaramaiah said.

As the 77-km-long Mahadayi flows into Goa from Karnataka, the former has been objecting over sharing its water, as 52-km of its stretch is in its state and is a lifeline for its people.

"We have been trying to convince Goa over the years that our project does not affect the river flow into its state, as about 200 tmc feet of water is going into the Arabian Sea every year unutilised," Siddaramaiah added.

The tribunal rejection sparked off massive protests in the region by farmers associations, Kannada organisations and political parties. A state-wide shutdown was also observed on July 31.

Leaders and lawmakers of the opposition BJP, JD(S) and regional political parties participated in the two-hour long meeting at the state secretariat.

Among the leaders who attended the meeting included B S Yeddyurappa, D V Sadananda Gowda, Jagdish Shettar and K S Eshwarappa of the BJP and H D Kumaraswamy of the JD(S).

Barring Eshwarappa, all the four were also chief ministers of the state.

Ministers, lawmakers of all parties in the state legislature and Parliament also participated in the meeting along with senior officials.

Congress MP Mallikarjun Kharge and Union Minister Ananth Kumar, however, were not present at the meeting due to prior commitments.
Jailed South African Paralympian Oscar Pistorius received treatment in a hospital, for, as one report said, injuries to his wrists.

A report by daily City Press said Pistorius was taken to hospital on Saturday, BBC reported on Sunday.

It quoted a security guard at Kalafong Hospital in Pretoria as saying the athlete had wounds to his wrists that were bandaged.

The report said blades were found in a subsequent search of Pistorius's cell.

Following treatment, the athlete has returned to prison, BBC reported.

In July, prosecutors said his six-year jail sentence for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013 was too lenient and they would appeal.

The 29-year-old was initially given a five-year term for manslaughter, but was found guilty of murder on appeal last December.

He admitted killing Steenkamp but said he mistook her for an intruder at his home, BBC added.

--IANS

ksk/vt
Ace fashion designer Ritu Beri, also an advisor for Khadi promotion, unveiled on Sunday a collection using the "national fabric" here.

The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) launched the Exclusive Ritu Beri's Khadi Collection in the presence of Micro And Small Enterprise Minister Kalraj Mishra, BJP's national spokesperson Meenakashi Lekhi and Minister of State for Home Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary.

"When I started doing fashion designing 25 years ago, my first collection was in Khadi. The sales were good. I am honoured to do it again. It is for India and we need to do this for our country. Like they say, it's an air conditioner fabric and it's handspun. It gives employment to so many Indians. Khadi is a national fabric," Beri said at the launch.

Lekhi agreed with her and also emphasised on the need to "designing Khadi according to youngsters' choices. It shouldn't be just clothes for the politicians, but should be fashionable among youngsters as well".

The new collection surely has something for men and women -- young and old alike. It's a blend of ghagras, salwars, tops and jackets with kurtas in shades of pink, blue, yellow and white.

Should an ambassador be appointed to promote Khadi?

"Our PM Narendra Modi has been attached to Khadi for long. He has been popularising it across the globe. So, why do we need an ambassador?," said Mishra.

And Beri added that she would love to design something for Modi.

"It's a dream to dress up Modi. He's a real leader. To design for him, will be an honour," said the designer, whose creations have been flaunted by stars like Nicole Kidman, Katrina Kaif and Akshay Kumar.

The event was also attended by actor Anshuman Jha.

Dressed in blue denims, the "Yeh Hai Bakrapur" actor told IANS: "I love Khadi. It is a very comfortable especially when it is hot. I am not known for my fashion sense much, but I believe kurtas in Khadi would help me in some way."

--IANS

nn/vt
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and low night-time oxygen are associated with the progression of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in adults, a new study conducted by an Indian-origin researcher has suggested.

According to the study, published in the Journal of Hepatology, obstructive sleep apnea and low night-time oxygen may also be important triggers in the progression of paediatric NAFLD to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) -- a type of fatty liver disease, characterised by inflammation of the liver with concurrent fat accumulation in the liver.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the accumulation of extra fat in liver cells in people who drink little or no alcohol.

Although isolated hepatic steatosis is considered a less aggressive form of NAFLD, patients with NASH can eventually progress to severe fibrosis and cirrhosis, with development of hepatocellular carcinoma in adults.

"There is emerging evidence that obesity-related obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and intermittent nocturnal hypoxia are associated with NAFLD progression. Paediatric NAFLD patients with OSA/hypoxia have more advanced liver disease and fibrosis, supporting a role for OSA/hypoxia in the development of NASH," said Shikha Sundaram, Researcher at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, in the US, in the study.

Investigators studied 36 adolescents with NAFLD, along with 14 lean controls, to assess if oxidative stress induced by obstructive sleep apnea and low night-time oxygen promoted the progression of paediatric NAFLD.

NAFLD patients had significantly raised aminotransferases (a marker of hepatocellular injury), inflammatory markers, and evidence of metabolic syndrome, compared to lean controls. Patients underwent a standard multi-channel sleep study (polysomnogram).

Investigators found that patients with the most severe NAFLD experienced more severe sleep-disordered breathing and significantly higher apnea/hypopnea index scores compared to those with less severe NAFLD.

Patients with OSA/hypoxia also had more severe fibrosis or scar tissue in their livers than those without OSA/hypoxia. They also found a clear correlation between severity of the indexes of oxidative stress both systemically and in the liver and the severity of the indexes used to evaluate OSA.

"These data show that sleep-disordered breathing is an important trigger of oxidative stress that promotes progression of paediatric NAFLD to NASH. We showed that obese adolescents with NAFLD who have OSA and low nighttime oxygen have significant scar tissue in their livers," added Sundaram.

--IANS

som/ss/dg
Tara Reid has hit out at Jenny McCarthy, saying her idea of discussing the actress' frequently incendiary stint on "Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars" on her radio show, was to garner ratings.

Reid made waves last month when she walked out off McCarthy's radio show mid-interview when the latter asked a few questions on "Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars".

On Friday, Reid landed a dig at the former Playmate Of The Year at "Hollywood Today Live". When co-host Ross Matthews broached the topic, the 40-year-old confided her belief that McCarthy had 'purposefully' manoeuvred the interview into a quarrel "to get ratings", reports dailymail.co.uk.

Reid said: "You know, good for you, Jenny. At least now people know you have a show."

She claimed there was no other reason for McCarthy to have, in her view, started the argument.

"We never even had beef so I don't even know where that came from," she said.

While on McCarthy's show, the New Jersey native was promoting her role in "Sharknado: The 4th Awakens" and struggled to turn the conversation back to the TV movie.

When McCarthy persisted in bringing up the TV series, Reid said: '"Babe. I asked you, please let's not talk about the show. We're all here about 'Sharknado'."

--IANS

nv/
Thousands gathered in Turkish city of Istanbul to protest the July 15 failed military coup, a media report said on Sunday.

Nearly 300 died in events surrounding the July 15 coup attempt, which triggered a massive government crackdown.

Thousands of alleged supporters of a US based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who denied any role in fomenting the coup, were detained or dismissed from government jobs.

"It is the Turkish parliament that will decide the death penalty... I declare it in advance, I will approve the decision made by the parliament," Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the rally, reports BBC.

Western nations have been critical of the government's response to the coup. The European Union, which Turkey has applied to join, refuses to accept capital punishment in member states.

Speaking at the Democracy and Martyrs' Rally in Istanbul's Yenikapi district, Erdogan said: "Our presence today upsets our enemies just like it did on the morning of July 16.

"On that night there were people who risked their lives to stop the coup and they filled the streets. History will remember names of our martyrs... in golden letters," Anadolu quoted Erdogan as saying.

The "Democracy and Martyrs' Rally" is the climax of three weeks of nightly demonstrations by Erdogan's supporters around the country.

Speaking ahead of Erdogan, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told the rally that Fethullah Gulen would be brought to Turkey and made to pay the price for the coup attempt.

"Let all of you know, the leader of this terrorist group will come to Turkey and pay for what he did," Yildirim said.

Yildirim said that July 16 coup attempt was Turkey's second War of Independence, adding, "Every coup which does not kill us, makes us stronger. Just like here and now."

The leader of the main secularist opposition party, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, told the rally that the coup had opened a "new door of compromise" in the country's politics, "there is a new Turkey after July 15", the Republican People's Party leader said.

In a rare address to a public rally, the head of Turkey's armed forces, Hulusi Akar, said "traitors" behind the attempted coup would be punished in the harshest way, and thanked civilians for their role in defeating the uprising.

The crackdown in Turkey has seen tens of thousands of public sector workers suspended or dismissed, with many having their passports cancelled. There has also been a massive reshuffle of the military.

Gulen had been a close ally of Erdogan until a bitter split between his movement and the party of the President three years ago.

Turkey has listed Gulen's movement as a terrorist organisation.
Cast members (from L to R) Nana Ouyang, Jackie Chan, Erica Xia-Hou and Tess Haubrich pose for a group photo at the boot ceremony of the film "Bleeding Steel" in Sydney, Australia, July 28, 2016. The science-fiction thriller "Bleeding Steel" is Jackie Chan's first movie into the sci-fi genre and will be filmed across various locations including Beijing, Taipei and Sydney. [Photo/Xinhua]

Hollywood ace Jackie Chan wowed hundreds of people at the Sydney Opera House on Saturday night with an honest take on how he got started in show business and the ups and downs he had to endure in achieving success.

Chan who is currently in Australia filming his latest flick "Bleeding Steel" was speaking to a packed audience at his first public Sydney talk titled "Jackie Chan in Conversation."

"I came to Australia when I was 13. I think at that time there was only something like 13 million people in the whole country and this is a huge country, it's very little compared to Hong Kong, but there (in Hong Kong) everywhere you go you see people, people, people but in Canberra when I walk out the street at 5pm there is nobody," Chan said.

Chan also recalled how he had to resort to using hand gestures and facial expressions to communicate with the Australians during his early days in Canberra as he hardly spoke a word of English then.

"My father used to leave me at the shopping mall daily before heading off to work. He would also give me some money to buy food. As I couldn't speak a word of English then, I had a hard time buying food with the money my father had left me."

"When people spoke to me in English, I would just nod my head and walk away, because I didn't know how to answer them back. In the end, I would stay hungry for hours and by the time my father came (to pick me), I would be starving. That's when I decided that I could no longer go on (and that) I needed to learn English," Chan said.

Chan's father later made arrangements for him to attend a government school that was offering free English lessons. But by being the only Chinese student at the school, Chan revealed how his teacher had decided to give him an English name as his original name was hard to pronounce.

"At the school, the teacher asked me what my name was and I said Chan Kong-San, the teacher said nope your name is "Steven", I said okay," he said, sparking laughter among the audience.

But the name "Steven" did not last as Chan later took on another English name "Jack" which was first given to him by a Taiwanese man he had befriended in Canberra.

"This man had found me a job at the construction site. The owner of the firm asked him what my name was, and since his name was Jack, my name became Jack as well. This was also the first time I learned how to use the words like cement, and shovel," Chan said.

Chan later decided to adopt the name "Jack" permanently but added the "ie" at the end, after a Feng Shui expert told him that it would bring him better luck. And Chan hasn't looked back since, from a low-end stuntman, Chan soon worked his way up and became a worldwide sensation for his leading roles in Kung-Fu style movies. Today, at 62, Chan has starred in more than 250 films and invested close to 50 years of his life in the trade.

His earnings have also improved. When he first started, Chan only earned as much as 5 U.S dollars a day but today his net worth is standing close to 1.78 billion U.S. dollars. He attributes his success to his willingness to work hard and create movies that have positive messages weaved into them.

Chan is currently in Sydney to film his latest flick "Bleeding Steel", Australia's most expensive Chinese movie ever to be produced in the country. It's also Chan's first movie to be filmed within the Australian shores after a 20-year lapse. In 1996, Chan starred in "Mr. Nice Guy" which was filmed across Melbourne.

"Bleeding Steel" is Chan's first foray into the sci-fi genre. It tells a story of a hardened special force agent Lin (played by Chan) who fights to protect a young woman who is an important witness for a major case, but ends up being a victim of the case himself. Besides Sydney, other location for the film includes Beijing, China, and Taipei, Taiwan.

The flick will also star Aussie actress Tess Haubrich, China's Erica Xia-Hou and Show Luo from China and Taiwan's newcomer Nana Ouyang.
AIMIM Chief on Sunday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi must show in action what he said in words on cow vigilantism.

Questioning the prime minister over the delay in speaking out on the issue, Owaisi said mere words won't be enough and Modi will have to remove the sense of insecurity among Dalits and Muslims.

Breaking his silence on cow vigilantes, the PM said on Saturday that anti-social elements were masquerading as 'gau rakshaks' (cow protectors).

Alleging that all 'gau rakshak samitis' involved in the incidents were linked to the Sangh Parivar, the Hyderabad MP said the PM should act.

"The question is whether these will remain mere words. The PM has to rein in his own people, his party and BJP governments in states."

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief also asked Modi to revisit the speeches he made about 'pink revolution' during the election campaign in 2014.

Owaisi asked the PM why it took such a long time for him to speak on the issue.

"When Akhlaq was killed, the PM did not say anything. He was also silent when two Muslims were killed in Jharkhand. The PM did not say anything when a truck driver of Jammu was killed," said Owaisi.

The MP said as the video of the incident in Una in Gujarat reached every house in the country and Dalit society and secular-minded people started protesting, PM was forced to speak.

Owaisi said all the incidents occurred in states where the BJP is in power or is organisationally strong.

He said states like Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Haryana where the BJP was in power made stringent laws on cow slaughter.

"In these states, if somebody's mother is assaulted, the guilty will not be sentenced for seven years but if there is cow slaughter, he will be imprisoned for seven years."

Referring to the comments by the US on the incidents of cow vigilantism, he said other countries were getting an opportunity to interfere in India's internal affairs.

"There is wide reporting of incidents in the international media. India needs foreign investment and what message such incidents will give to the international investor community," he asked.
With two more deaths, the toll in the dengue outbreak in West Bengal has gone up to 13, state health department officials said on Sunday.

A total of 1,495 dengue cases have been reported since January this year.

A 10-year-old girl, a resident of the posh Salt Lake satellite township - died in the B.C. Roy Children's Hospital on Sunday morning. The victim, infected with the fengue virus, was in serious state and had been admitted to the hospital earlier this week.

A 42-year-old man, residing in the Mukundapur area on the southern outskirts of the city, died at the K.P.C. medical College and Hospital on Saturday.

"A total of 112 fresh dengue cases have been reported since Saturday. The total dengue cases this year have gone up to 1,495," an official said.

--IANS

ssp/vd
A consumer complaint was filed by the Society for Consumer & Investors Protection, a voluntary organisation, along with Sampark Securities and its director, Ankur Sachdeva. The dispute was regarding the allotment of a shop-cum-office plot for which the company had been declared the successful bidder in an auction by Haryana State Industrial & Infrastructure Development Corporation.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s 15-day campaign called '70 saal azadi - yaad karo kurbani' on Tuesday, 75th anniversary of the Quit India movement. The campaign will see the entire council of ministers travel across the country to "rekindle the spirit of patriotism". The party will also use the occasion to highlight the Modi government's schemes for at the poor and weaker sections, with senior leader M Venkaiah Naidu claiming it has been working to usher in 'suraj' (good governance) after the country received 'swaraj' (self-rule) 70 years ago.
Rarely do politicians get a stab at becoming prime minister for a second time. When Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist-Centre) espied the chance, he wasn't letting go. Even if it meant a deal with the devil.
Recent agitations by the Dalit community led to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh conducting a survey in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state. The survey reportedly found that if state elections were to be held today, the BJP would manage 60-65 of the 182 seats in the legislative assembly.
Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani with Governor O P Kohli and deputy CM Nitin Patel with the new council of ministers in Gandhinagar after being sworn in (pic: Yasin D)
Three dacoits were arrested after an encounter with police in which SHO suffered injuries in Akbelpur tri-section in Jahanaganj area here today.

"A police team surrounded some members of a gang at around 2 AM who opened fire and an encounter ensued after which we arrested three of its members," Superintendent of Police Ajay Sahani said.

"They have been identified as Shivam Singh, Wahid and Pankaj Dubey," he added.

SHO Jahanaganj Virendra Bahadur Singh and Shivam were injured in the encounter.

Police have recovered 12 kg silver, 200 gm gold, pistol and ammunition from their possession.

"The gang was involved in a number of loot incidents in the state," said Sahani.
A member of the militant



outfit All Assam Revolutionary Army was today apprehended by the police as he was about to open fire in Biswanath Chariali town in Assam's Biswanath district, a senior police official said.

The militant identified as Bipul Bora alias Tutu Baruah was nabbed when he was about to open fire from his weapon at people, according to district Superintendent of Police Ankur Jain.

Two live 7.65 mm pistol ammunition, a letter pad in the name of All Assam Revolutionary Army, one mobile phone set, a motorcycle and an important diary with several names and their telephone numbers were recovered from Bipul, the SP said.

Bipul is prime suspect in the Narayanpur blast near higher secondary school on May 5 last and was wanted by police in Lakhimpur district and also suspected to be involved in many extortion cases, Jain added.

On the basis of ground information about the presence of a 'commander' of ARA in Biswanath town area, a secret operation was launched was launched recently against the extremist outfit, he said.
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A Chinese fighter plane partols over the South China Sea. Chinese Air Force aircraft, including H-6K bombers and Su-30 fighters, have completed a patrol of airspace above the Nansha and Huangyan islands in the South China Sea, said a spokesperson Saturday. (Xinhua/Fan Yishu)

Chinese Air Force aircraft, including H-6K bombers and Su-30 fighters, have completed a patrol of airspace above the Nansha and Huangyan islands in the South China Sea, said a spokesperson Saturday.

The flight is part of actual combat training to improve the Air Force's response to security threats, said Senior Colonel Shen Jinke of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force.

Two Su-30 airplanes conducted air refueling twice above the sea, Shen said.

Several types of planes -- bombers, fighters, Airborne Early Warning Aircraft, reconnaissance and tanker airplanes -- performed the patrol, he said, adding that they took off from several airports.

The aircraf have completed a series of training missions, including air defense early warning maneuvers, air combat and island patrolling, in a complicated electromagnetic environment, he said.

The PLA Air Force, which was established 67 years ago, organizes regular South China Sea patrols to safeguard state sovereignty, security and maritime interests, Shen said.
Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Radha Mohan Singh said agricultural education plays an important role in ensuring food security and human resource development in any society.

He was speaking during the inaugural function of two major project for Nagaland at Jalukie in Peren district yesterday.

The projects are College of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry and Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK).

The Veterinary Council of India has agreed to commence the college by September 15 this academic year, Singh said adding the Central government would set up another KVK, the 11th in the state, in Kiphire district within this year.

Two books on distant education programme and on policy on pig breeding by the Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services was also released by the union Minister on the occasion.

Chief Minister T R Zeliang who was also present on the occasion, said the state government had submitted a proposal with Detail Project Report for an exotic pig breeding farm at Jalukie and a slaughter house cum meat processing unit at Khopanala in Dimapur district.

However, he regretted that though the Planning Commission had agreed in principle, the project was turned down at a later stage.

Zeliang requested the Union Minister to revive the project proposal.
Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Capt Amarinder Singh today warned Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal against alleged attempts at polarising people along the religious lines ahead of elections in the state.

Referring to yesterday's murderous attack on a RSS leader in Jalandhar, Amarinder said, it did not portend well for Punjab and was a cause of grave concern.

He said, there was a pattern in the incidents beginning from the desecration of Guru Granth Sahab Bargari to the recent attack on a RSS leader.

"This is a deliberate attempt at polarising people and Badal believes that polarisation will help him in elections, without realising how dangerous and disastrous it can turn to be", he said.

Amarinder held Badal "responsible" for the current state of affairs where people are allegedly feeling insecure.

The PCC president also questioned the silence of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over the attack on the RSS leader.

"They have not even condemned the attack and I don't know whether they are trying to please someone or are ignorant about the seriousness of the matter", he said.

About the announcement of the Chief Ministerial candidates by the Congress, Capt Amarinder clarified, that given the rise of regional parties across the country in almost every state, it was necessary for the Congress to declare CM candidates before the elections.

He said, this had become important as people want to know as, besides the party, who is the person that is going to lead them.

The PCC president reiterated that the Congress party will announce tickets well in time and the process had already started.

He said, the applications will be accepted till August 15.

He said, since it was a comprehensive process it was taking time.

He said, to rule out the non-serious candidates the party has asked the aspirants to give names of two persons from each booth.

Amarinder said the applications will be thoroughly



scrutinised and the right candidates will be nominated to contest.

About rumblings in the AAP after announcement of 19 tickets, he said, this was just the beginning.

He said, people have started realising that AAP was being run and managed by a team from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Amarinder pointed out, so much so, they did not bother to take state convener Sucha Singh Chhotepur into confidence before finalising the list.

On whether Congress will welcome Chhotepur into the party as he was feeling disillusioned there, the PCC president said, party's doors were open for everyone.

However, he added, knowing Chhotepur so well for a long time, he did not think he will leave the AAP.

On cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, Amarinder said, party's doors were open for him.

However, he added, even if he decides to join the AAP as was being rumoured, it will not make much difference.

He said, Sidhu did not have any political "existence outside Amritsar."



"People know Sidhu only for his comedy and commentary", he remarked.

The former Chief Minister reiterated that the Enforcement Directorate was going "slow" on the investigations into the revelations made by dismissed DSP Jagdish Bhola as Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley allegedly wants to "protect" someone.

He said, while the ED was showing unusual haste in issuing notices to him and his family, it was "delaying" the investigations into the multi-crore drug smuggling case.
Pilgrimage to the cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir was today suspended following heavy rain and landslide in the Jammu region.

The yatra has been suspended from the Bhagwati Nagar base camp here due to incessant rainfall and landslides at several places on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, a police officer said.

The highway was briefly closed to vehicular traffic in the morning so no fresh batch of pilgrims were allowed to proceed towards the two base camps in the Kashmir Valley.

The police and authorities of the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) are monitoring the situation and the decision to resume the pilgrimage will be taken tomorrow if the weather conditions improve, he said.
Bringing respite from heavy traffic, a flyover will soon be constructed in Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's constituency Amethi.

The fly over will be constructed with an estimated cost of Rs 25 crore over Kakwa Road railway line and its NOC (non objection certificate) has been issued, project manager JS Sayana said.

The NOC was pending since last three years due to some objections by several traders of the town, he said, all the objections have been removed and a quality flyover will be constructed.

It will be constructed by the Uttar Pradesh Bridge Corporation with assistance of railways, he added.
Mutual funds industry body Amfi has sought more time from capital markets regulator Sebi for uploading KYC documents by fund houses with the central server for all the new accounts.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had directed market intermediaries to upload KYC documents with C-KYCR for all new mutual funds accounts opened on and after August 1.

In a letter to Sebi late last month, Amfi has spelled out several challenges in implementing the C-KYC (Central Know Your Customer) from August 1, and asked the regulator to defer the time period to a later date on or after October 1, 2016 for the effective implementation of the new guidelines.

According to Amfi, mutual funds have to obtain a registration with CERSAI, that involves documentation, agreement, technology infrastructure set-up, testing and obtaining digital certificates.

CERSAI (Central Registry of Securitisation and Asset Reconstruction and Security Interest of India) has been authorised to take the task of a central KYC registry.

Additionally, Amfi said that C-KYC form and data are different from existing KYC form. Therefore, KYC form currently used in securities market needs to be revised to include additional information as required under C-KYC.

The industry body also said process of uploading data and scanned images of the supporting documents C-KYC system is also quite different as compared to the existing system.

"It will take some time for AMCs to modify the existing KYC forms, circulate the same, make the AMC employees, distributors and investors understand the nuances of the new/ additional fields and details in the form," Association of mutual funds in India (Amfi) noted.

The industry body has also asked clarification with Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) regarding existing KYC guidelines, FATCA form and In-Person Verification (IPV).

The regulator has asked for clarification regarding the process and timeliness and responsibility for porting the KYC data and documents from KRA database on to C-KYCR (Know Your Customer Registry) including guidelines on how the intermediaries should handle collecting additional KYC information required as per the C-KYC form in order to make the transition smooth.
Hollywood actress-filmmaker Angelina Jolie is set to take up a teaching position at the Georgetown University in the US.

This stint will be similar to her visiting professor role at the London School of Economics, reported Us magazine.

It was previously announced that the actress and human rights campaigner has joined the London School of Economics as a visiting professor and now it is reported that she "will do the same guest spot at LSE's sister school, Georgetown".

No details about her position at the US institution have been revealed but Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security Ambassador Melanne Verveer held talks with the 41-year-old actress in May.

"I was pleased to meet with Angelina Jolie during my recent trip to London on ways we at Georgetown University can continue the collaboration between our sister programmes on both sides of the Atlantic," Verveer said in a statement.

We look forward to welcoming Angelina and former foreign secretary Hague to Georgetown in the future."



At LSE, Jolie will give a series of lectures to students of the new one-year MSc course on women, peace and security, which will run from the beginning of the 2017 academic year.
Fierce storms packing strong winds and torrential rains killed at least 15 people overnight in Macedonia's capital of Skopje, police said today.

"As of 11.00 this morning (IST), we have discovered 15 victims (of the storms). Our teams are still searching for other possible victims," police spokeswoman Liza Bendevska told AFP.

Six people were missing, according to the police, while media reported that about one hundred others suffered injuries, most of them minor.

Among the dead was an eight-year-old girl, a hospital source told AFP.

"This is a disaster, we have never experienced such a thing," said Skopje's Mayor Koce Trajanovski.

Rain began falling at 21.00 IST yesterday and stopped only at 12.00 IST today, with the peak of the storm in the middle of the night, around 6.00 IST.

The freak weather included winds blowing at more than 70 kilometres (43 miles) an hour and resulted in flash floods and landslides, local media reported.

Cars were seen swept away by the torrents, testifying to the force of the storm.

Especially badly hit were villages on the outskirts of the capital including Smilkovci, Singelic, Stajkovci and Aracinovo.

Reports said the water level reached as high as 1.5 metres (five feet) in some of the affected areas, which were being combed by Macedonia's police and army for survivors and other victims.

Meteorologists said more than 800 lightning strikes were recorded in the first two hours of the storm, which went on for about five hours in total.

Macedonia's hydrometeorological service said 93 litres per square metre fell in two hours on Skopje- equivalent to the average for an entire month of August.

Municipal authorities urged people to avoid going out in the streets, especially driving, with several roads of the capital still flooded and traffic interrupted on the city's ring road.

Violent storms also battered the northwestern city of Tetovo causing property damage but no casualties, while severe thunderstorms also affected the holiday spot of Lake Ohrid in the southwest.

Skopje previously suffered disastrous flooding in 1962, a year before a huge earthquake that almost destroyed the city.

In the spring of 2014, the Balkans region was hit by its worst floods in more than a century, which left 47 people dead in Serbia and Bosnia.

A total of 1.6 million people were affected.

The forecast for today showed unsettled weather in landlocked Macedonia, with possible new showers and strong winds.
A bullet that penetrated the roof of the media center at the Rio Olympics equestrian venue may have been a stray fired by a gunman aiming at police aircraft, Brazil's defense minister said today.

"At that precise moment we had drones flying over the favela and we also had a balloon flying over," Defense Minister Raul Jungmann told journalists.

"A possible hypothesis is that someone felt he was being followed, filmed, observed, and it's possible -- although nothing is certain yet -- that the shot was fired from there," he said.

Police, which fall under military control in Brazil, are engaged in often brutal operations against drug traffickers who control swaths of Rio's favelas, as poor, often largely unregulated neighborhoods are called. Shootings are an everyday occurrence.

No one was hurt when the bullet hit the media tent, but the incident embarrassed Brazilian authorities who have deployed an unprecedented 85,000 soldiers and police to protect the Olympics.

A TVNZ report said the bullet narrowly missed a New Zealand team official who was badly shaken by the incident.

The Deodoro equestrian venue, where the first day of the dressage competition was being held yesterday, is on a military base.
Car rental firm Carzonrent is looking to invest up to Rs 400 crore over the next five years to beef up business verticals, including self drive car service 'Myles', besides technology upgradation as it eyes Rs 5,000-crore revenue by 2021.

The New Delhi-based company offers chauffeured vehicles on rental basis to corporates, institutions and SMEs, besides self drive vehicles.

"It seems to be quite an aggressive target but with the kind of work we have done in the past 15 years to consolidate our operations, technology and network, we are quite confident of achieving a revenue target of Rs 5,000 crore," Carzonrent MD and CEO Rajiv Vij told PTI.

The industry as a whole has reached an interesting and inflection point, ready to expand rapidly, he added.

The company's current turnover is around Rs 350 crore.

"We are adding new clients everyday. We have built a reputation over a period of time, enhanced technology, added new partners and all these things give us confidence to achieve our set targets," Vij said.

When asked about investments, he said that in order to expand fleet and enter new cities, the company will invest in the range of Rs 300-400 crore over the next five years.

"Some of it will come from internal accruals. Besides, we may also look at some stage to raise capital by either public listing or raising from the equity partners," Vij said.

Carzonrent has already invested around USD 9 million in the last two-and-a-half years.

The company offers its car rental services to various corporates, including Emirates, Accenture, Intel, TCS and Amazon, across 21 cities.

Carzonrent currently enjoys a market share of around 22 per cent in the organised car rental market and is growing at 30 per cent year-on-year, Vij said.

Its self drive service Myles, which started operations with just 14 vehicles two years back, now has a fleet of 1,200 vehicles.

"It (Myles) is going to be very huge business for us. By the end of the year, we aim to have a fleet of around 5,000 cars," the CEO said.

He added that the company has established Research and Technology Development Lab in Delhi and Bangalore, besides a National Command Centre (NCC).

The company is adding manpower in these centres in order to support future growth, he said.

"The current strength of NCC will go up from 200 to 600 while employee strength in Bangalore will go up to 200 from the current 50," he added.
China has installed a radar with potential military functions in a disputed area of the East China Sea, Japanese media said today, in the latest flare-up of tensions between the two countries.

The Japanese foreign ministry said China had placed a surface search radar and surveillance camera on one of its structures in a gasfield which is claimed by both countries, the Nikkei business daily reported.

The ministry on Friday complained to Beijing through diplomatic channels, the newspaper reported.

The paper said it was the first radar unit known to have been installed on any of the Chinese structures in the area, which is believed to be rich in oil and gas deposits.

Tokyo is analysing the radar's capability and is concerned that Beijing could be intending to strengthen its military power in the East China Sea.

The foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.

Japan and China agreed in 2008 to jointly develop the undersea reserves in the disputed area, with a ban on unilateral drilling.

But negotiations stalled and Tokyo suspects China has some drilling rigs in operation near its de facto maritime border with Japan.

Today, Tokyo separately protested to Beijing after two Chinese ships entered Japanese waters near disputed islands also in the East China Sea.

Japan's government said the two Chinese coastguard ships were sailing some 20 kilometres west of one of the Senkaku islands, known as the Diaoyus in Chinese, today morning.

"The intrusion violates our country's sovereignty and is completely unacceptable," Japanese vice foreign minister Shinsuke Sugiyama told Cheng Yonghua, Beijing's ambassador to Tokyo, by phone, according to a government statement.

The two vessels left the waters later in the day, the Japanese coastguard said.

Yesterday Japanese maritime officials reported seeing some 230 Chinese fishing vessels and seven coastguard ships, including four apparently carrying weapons, sailing into the same waters.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Former President Fidel Ramos

Editor' note:

The ruling on the South China Sea issue by the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague has stoked tensions in the relationship between China and the Philippines. In the wake of the ruling, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte decided to send former president Fidel Ramos to China, demonstrating the concerns the ruling has raised in the country. Xu Liping, an expert in Asia Pacific affairs, talked to China's Guancha.cn about his observations on the issue after his recent trip to the country. China.org.cn edited and translated part of the interview as follows.

From the Philippines side, they think that the country has had a "thorough victory," as several of their points were recognized by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, but average Philippine citizens do not know what the ruling was exactly about and what impact it will bring to their country. A rising tide of nationalism is permeating the Philippine society, which is more of an illusory sense of victory. As for Philippine scholars, they think that the country has taken advantage of the "grey area" ofthe United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to maintain their own interests. When it comes to the Philippines government, the current administration headed by Rodrigo Duterte wants peaceful talks with China.

As far as I know, Philippine scholars think that the South China Sea issue should not impact the China-Philippine relations as a whole. Some even say that the Philippines does not care much about territorial issues. For instance, Corazon Aquino, the 11th president of the Philippines and the mother of former president Benigno Aquino III, dropped the country's territorial claim to Sabah in the 1990s, which was a more important place to the country.

Some said that China and the Philippines' disputes in the South China Sea have been taken advantage of by other countries. For example, they said that some fishermen were sent to the Huangyan Island (Scarborough Shoal) to go fishing after the ruling, and there were journalists who went behind to film it. They said that those fishermen took money from U.S.-backed media outlets to do so and raised more tensions between the two countries.

Philippine scholars said that China-Philippine relations should go back to rationality and continue economic and trade cooperation. 60 percent of Philippine citizens are impoverished, and the country hopes that China will open up more employment opportunities for their workers, for example, loosening China's quota on taking in Philippines domestic workers. They argue that Philippine housekeepers, who speak English and have professional training in housekeeping, will make up for the shortcomings in China's housekeeping industry and will not impact the job opportunity of Chinese housekeepers.

The scholars are also interested in Chinese investments. Philippine President Duterte also made clear in his recent statement that nothing would halt the country's industrialization process. The country was the strongest economy in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc in the 1960s, but is now quite behind other countries due to its political instability, democratic and labor movement in the past few years. The country is eager to catch up and would want China to help it achieve this goal.

Philippine President Duterte said several days ago that he would send his predecessor, former president Fidel Ramos, to China for talks. I think the visit will help the two countries rebuild and regain their trust in each other. Ramos is Duterte's friend, and he does not only know Duterte's standing on the South China Sea issue, but also understands what's going on in China. He is, for instance, chairman of the Board of Directors of the China-based Boao Forum for Asia, and visits China every year. During his administration, the disputes in the South China Sea were under control. As a result, Ramos' upcoming visit is rather meaningful, no matter whether it could achieve any substantial results. It is a positive sign to have talks between the two countries.

Xu Liping is a researcher on Asia-Pacific affairs at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The article was translated by Zhang Lulu. Its original unabridged version was published in Chinese.

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, is leading her Republican rival Donald Trump by nine points, a latest opinion poll said today.

In a latest poll, The Washington Post/ABC said Clinton and her running mate, Tim Kaine, now lead Trump and his running mate Mike Pence by 50 to 42 per cent among registered voters.

This is double the four-digit lead Clinton had over Trump on the eve of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland last month.

The poll confirms that Clinton received a larger post- convention bounce than Trump did from his convention, said The Washington Post/ABC .

However, a close confidant of Trump and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani argued that there is every opportunity for Trump to win the November general elections in about 90 days from now.

"First of all, 8 points down at this stage, of course you'd rather be ahead, but I remember George Bush the first being 16 points down to Dukakis going into September. There's certainly every opportunity for Trump to win this election," he told ABC in an interview.

"I think Hillary's comments just don't get the same attention that Trump's do. For example, she lied to a Gold Star mother. She lied to Patricia Smith, the mother of Sean Smith, who was killed at Benghazi, because of her incompetence in failing to secure that mission," he said.

"And she lied to her on September 14th, 2012, right at the coffin. She said it was due to a video. So I think that's far more serious -- or at least it should get as much attention as was paid to, you know, the comments that were made about -about the Khan family," the former New York Mayor said.

Giuliani alleged that Trump and his campaign is not getting a fair treatment from the media and this is the reason why the Republican presidential nominee has said in the last few days that the US elections would be rigged.

"Do you believe this election could be rigged?" he was asked.

"I think what he's taking about is the very unfair media coverage that Republicans get. I know all of those of you in the media don't believe this but you really don't treat us the same way," Giuliani said.

"Hillary's situation in which the FBI found her to be extremely careless in handling top security information, my goodness, I wouldn't hire a person as an assistant US attorney if that was in their FBI background," he said.
A pro-BJP think-tank held a session on the current unrest in Kashmir and the way forward while deliberating on various issues confronting the nation.

India Foundation organised the 5th edition of Young Thinkers Meet 2016--a two-day conclave of young intellectuals--and discussed various other issues confronting the society, nation and governments, apart from Kashmir at Patnitop health resort about 120 km from here. The conclave concluded today.

The current situation in Kashmir Valley and the way forward was deliberated upon by various thinkers in the presence of some top BJP and RSS leaders at the conclave at Patnitop, sources privy to the deliberations said.

"A half-an-hour discussion on the ongoing situation in Kashmir was held in which speakers and experts put forth their point of view to the young thinkers," the sources said.

BJP general secretary Ram Madhav, who also heads the India Foundation, however, said that the conclave had nothing to do with "Kashmir issues".

"Thinkers Meet held at Patnitop is an annual event. Nothing to do with Kashmir issues except that d venue is in d state. No kite flying," he tweeted.

The sources said the role of security forces in dealing with the situation and how the ongoing unrest was being instigated and backed by Pakistan also figured during the deliberations.

Fifty-four people have died and more than 6,000 injured in clashes between protesters and security forces in Kashmir following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter on July 8. Normal life has remained parlaysed for nearly a month.

"The aim(of the conclave) is to educate young thinkers of the country which included researchers about the various issues confronting the country, government and society," the sources said.

The conference held behind closed doors amid tight security and even top police officers were not allowed to enter the hotel complex, where it was held. Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani attended the first day of the event.

Besides Ram Madhav, RSS leader Dattatreya Hosabale took part in the deliberations which was attended by around 60 thinkers, intellectuals and journalists.

The sources said that neither any resolution was passed at the conclave nor any recommendation for a dialogue with separatists was made.

Apart from Kashmir, the issues discussed included 'Impacting the National Discourse', Academic Institutions: Controversies, Challenges & The Way Forward, Mainstream Media (MSM): Issues, Articulation & Personalities vis-a-vis the Art of Narrative Building, Role of Social Media--Construction & Manipulation of Dominant Narratives, Effective Nationalistic Intervention in Literary Area (Songs, Cinema, Theatre, Books etc.), Social Integration and Dalits.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today appealed to BJP workers in Telangana to carry out "Tiranga Yatra" on bikes from August 15 to September 17 across the state.

Telangana BJP has been demanding to hold official celebration of the 'Hyderabad Liberation Day' on September 17, when the erstwhile Nizam's state was merged with Indian Union. The Hyderabad State under Nizam rule was merged with Indian Union on September 17, 1948 following a 'police action'.

"September 17 is not Modi's birthday... Sardar Patel got you freedom. Hence, carry out 'Tiranga Yatra' in all parts of the state," Modi told party workers at packed L B Stadium here this evening.

"Across the country, the 'Tiranga Yatra' will be conducted, but in Telangana you carry out the 'Tiranga Yatra' from August 15 till September 17 on bikes," Modi said.

The PM had announced to launch a mega 15-day BJP campaign '70 saal azadi-yaad karo kurbani' on August 9, the 75th year of Quit India movement, and virtually the entire Council of Ministers will travel across the country to "rekindle the spirit of patriotism".

Addressing the huge gathering, he said, "yeh sanghtan ki shakti ka nazara hai (This is a spectacle of the power of the organisation). Yeh BJP ke booth party ke karyakarta ki shakti ka nazara hai. (This is the spectacle of the power of the BJP's booth party workers). Muze dur ka dikhai de raha hai (I can see the future). Telangana ka future nazar aa raha hai (I can visualise the future of Telangana). You too start seeing Telanagana with new future.
A police constable allegedly committed suicide by firing himself from his service rifle inside a local train today, police said.

Amar Gaidwad, who was on railway patrolling duty at Mumbai Central, was travelling in a second class compartment of a Churchgate-bound train from Borivali when he allegedly shot himself from his rifle at around 5:30 AM, a Railway Protection Force (RPF) official said.

Gaidwad was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was declared brought dead by doctors, the official said, adding the exact cause behind the death was yet not known.

Further investigation into the matter is on, he added.
After walking free from jail, expelled BJP leader Dayashankar Singh today fired a fresh salvo at Mayawati claiming she "auctioned" tickets and dared her to fight against his wife on any unreserved seat in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections next year.

Singh demanded that a CBI inquiry be ordered into the allegations against Mayawati or else he would file a PIL on the issue.

The leader, who was arrested for allegedly making derogatory comments against the BSP chief last month, was today released from Mau jail, a day after a local court granted him bail.

He was nabbed by UP Special Task Force with the help of Bihar Police from Buxar on July 29 after being on the run for nine days.

After his release from the jail this morning, Dayashankar paid obeisance at a temple and soon left for Lucknow, where he addressed a press conference.

"I am firm on my statement that Mayawati sells tickets. At that time I used a word, over which I expressed regret the very same day," he said.

Singh threw a challenge at the BSP supremo to contest election against his wife from any seat.

"I challenge Mayawati to select any unreserved seat and contest elections against my wife. The BSP leader will come to know the reality when she loses," he said.

Singh also demanded a CBI probe into alleged "auctioning" of party tickets for elections.

The former BJP state vice-president said, "My party removed me from the post and expelled me, but it failed to satisfy Mayawati and an FIR was lodged against me."



He said that on July 21, BSP workers led by senior BSP leaders Naseemduddin Siddiqui and Ram Achal Rajbhar, targeted his elderly mother, minor daughter and wife and used derogatory language against them.

"While police launched a man-hunt against me as if I was Dawood, the BSP leaders, who used derogatory language are roaming freely, despite the Chief Minister's statement condemning the remarks made by them," he said.

"I will file a PIL seeking a CBI probe. Mayawati is the 'mother' of corruption," he alleged and also targeted her brother and Siddiqui.

Asked about BSP's stand that it will challenge the bail order in the High Court, Dayashankar earlier said in Mau, "I accept all the challenges of BSP. I will not talk much. I am going to Lucknow to meet my daughter, ailing mother and family members."



Ahead of his release, a number of supporters and BJP workers from Mau and neighbouring districts gathered outside the jail premises.

Singh said that BJP has expelled him, but he has not distanced himself from the party.

"I have been associated with the RSS and BJP for a very long time. It is in my veins," he said.

The FIR against Singh was registered on July 20 under the the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and other provisions.

The complaint, which was lodged by BSP national secretary Mewalal Gautam, alleged that Singh's remarks in Mau on July 20 had hurt the feelings of BSP workers and the Dalit community across the country and were aimed at provoking them.
Jawaharlal Nehru sent a baby elephant named after his daughter Indira to Japan in 1949, former President Shankar Dayal Sharma was gifted an African tusker by Zimbabwe and Prime Minister Narendra Modi a Mongolian horse during his visit to that country.

'Animal diplomacy' has been an important tool in strengthening relations between countries and the Delhi zoo, battling a spate of animal deaths in the past few months, wants it pursued with renewed zeal.

"Shankar, the African male elephant at the zoo here, is named after former President Shankar Dayal Sharma. The pachyderm was gifted to him by the Zimbabwe government. He gave the animal to us," Riyaz Khan, the zoo curator said.

The zoo, which attracts lakhs of visitors annually, is in dire need of giraffes, ostrich, zebra, kangaroo, white bucks and other exotic varieties of birds and animals.

"Though animal diplomacy is considered a potent tool in engaging different nations, it also does wonder for the wildlife of the respective countries. The leaders generally donate the animals to the zoos. But of late not many Indian leaders have taken an active interest in this practice," a zoo official said.

"A case in point is the culling of kangaroos in Australia to reduce its population. Why these can't be gifted to countries like us?" he asked.

The official said Indian ministers should revive this tradition and not refuse the animals gifted to them by the foreign governments.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was gifted a horse by his Mongolian counterpart Chimediin Saikhanbileg in 2015. The horse, however, could not be brought to the country due to different climatic conditions in the two countries.

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal was gifted goats of 'Nachi' breed by Pakistan in 2014, so was his deputy Sukhbir Singh Badal, who got six buffaloes of 'Ravi' breed from across the border.

China has long been known for its 'panda diplomacy'. Mao Zedong, the legendary Chinese Communist Party leader, used the cuddly pandas as a diplomatic initiative in the 1950s.

Mao Zedong sent pandas across the world on the "diplomatic charm offensive". The first panda he sent was a gift to Russia for recognising the People's Republic of China as a country.

The United States received its pandas in 1972 after President Nixon's historic visit to China resulted in establishment of official diplomatic relations between the two countries. From 1957 to 1982, China gave away 23 pandas to nine countries, all as signs of friendship.
A year after enclave dwellers got Indian citizenship, several of these people want to go back to Bangladesh as they are miffed over the lack of job and other opportunities in India.

Chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs Pradip Bhattacharya said several enclave dwellers, who came to Indian enclaves after August 1, 2015, have expressed their desire to go back to Bangladesh.

"I have received reports of enclave dwellers who had come from Bangladesh and had settled in Indian enclaves wanting to go back to Bangladesh due to lack of job and other basic opportunities. This is a matter of serious concern. I will inquire the matter with the union home department," Bhattacharya, who is also a senior Congress MP from Bengal, told PTI.

"Apart from lack of job opportunities, the enclave dwellers are also complaining that they are being deprived of other government schemes," he said.

Bangladesh and India exchanged 162 adversely-held enclaves on August 1, 2015, ending one of the world's most complex border disputes that had lingered since seven decades. One hundred and eleven Indian enclaves measuring 17,160 acres became Bangladesh territory and similarly, 51 Bangladesh enclaves measuring 7,110 acres became Indian territory.

All the Indian enclaves are located in West Bengal's Cooch Behar district. The 51 enclaves are spread across Dinhata, Mekliganj, Sitai, Sitalkuchi and Toofanganj assembly constituencies.

With the implementation of The Indo-Bangla Land Border Agreement last year, 14,864 residents of 51 Bangladeshi enclaves in India became Indian citizens, while 921 residents of Indian enclaves in Bangladesh migrated to Indian part of enclaves.

Chief Coordinator of Bharat Bangladesh Enclave Exchange Coordination Committee and Citizens' Rights Coordination Committee (CRCC) Diptiman Sengupta, who has been fighting hard for the cause of the people living in the enclaves, also said those who have come from Bangladesh are yet to get proper jobs and want to go back to Bangladesh.

"Those who have come from Indian enclaves which were



situated in Bangladesh are feeling alienated here. They don't have either any job opportunities or any proper source of income. How will they secure their future? So they feel that going back to Bangladesh is the best option to secure their future," Sengupta told
Keeping up his attack on cow vigilantes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today asked people to beware of "fake" cow protectors as they were trying to create tension in the society.

He also asked the state governments to take stringent action against them.

Modi, while addressing a public meeting after inaugurating a host of development projects here, accused the cow vigilantes of trying to create tension in the society and said they should be exposed and punished.

"I want to tell everybody beware of these fake cow protectors. These handful of vigilantes have nothing to do with cow protection, but want to create 'tanaav' (tension) in the society," Modi said.

"In the name of cow protection, these fake cow protectors are trying to disturb the peace and harmony of the nation. I want the real cow protectors to expose them (fake ones) and the state governments should take stringent action against them," he added.

Describing cattle as country's wealth and not burden, the Prime Minister made a mention of a Himachal Pradesh Governor's campaign of protecting abandoned cows and handing them over to farmers to use them for agricultural activity.

"Cow will never become a burden. Cow urine and dung are used in agriculture," he said, adding that cow should be linked to the country's economic development.

India is a land of diversity, he said, adding "protecting our country's unity and integrity is our primary responsibility. To fulfil it all countrymen should protect and serve cows (gau raksha and gau seva karein). Such service enhances national wealth.... It does not create problem for the nation".

"But fake (cow protectors) destroy society and country. We need to beware of these people. There is a need to punish these people. Then alone can we take the nation to great heights," the Prime Minister said after inaugurating a host of development projects.

Modi's comments come at a time when his government and BJP are facing flak over incidents of violence against Dalits and Muslims by cow vigilantes in various states including Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

Earlier, Modi launched Phase-1 of Mission Bhagiratha, a flagship project of Telangana government aimed at providing piped drinking water to every household in the state.

Modi unveiled a plaque in Medak district's Komatibanda village in Gajwel constituency, represented in the Assembly by Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, and formally turned on a water tap on the premises to mark the occasion.

This is Prime Minister's maiden visit to Telangana after formation of the state in June 2014.

Modi unveiled plaques to mark the laying of the foundation stone for the 152-km Manoharabad-Kothapalli new railway line (connecting Hyderabad and Karimnagar), NTPC's Telangana Super Thermal Power Project Stage-1 (2x800 MW), Ramagundam, Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences, Warangal and revival of Ramagundam fertiliser plant (Karimnagar district).

He also dedicated to the nation the Singareni Thermal Power Project (2X600 MW) at Jaipur in Adilabad district.

Governor of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh E S L Narasimhan, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, Union Ministers M Venkaiah Naidu, H N Ananth Kumar, Suresh Prabhu, Piyush Goyal and Bandaru Dattatreya were among those present.
More than 2,000 firefighters were battling scores of forest fires throughout northern Portugal.

One of most devastating of the 79 blazes consumed an area of forest yesterday around the town of Melres e Medas, less than 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the northern city of Porto.

Two firefighters were injured, one through inhaling fumes and the other from a fall, the Lusa agency reported.

Television images showed locals joining forces with the fire brigade to tackle the flames.

"We are trying to avoid the fire spreading. The biggest problem is the wind," said town mayor Marco Martins.

Two planes and a helicopter were brought in to help tackle the blaze, the civil protection service said.

There was no word as to what started the fire, three of which were described as "substantial", but Portugal is prone to forest fires during the hot summer months.

In 2013, more than 150,000 hectares of forest went up in smoke.
Four persons have been detained in connection with the rape of a four-year-old Dalit girl in Kheda village here even as the family of the victim alleged delayed action by the police, which rejected the charge.

Circle Officer Praveen Ranjan said that four persons had been detained in connection with the incident that occurred on Friday night and were being quizzed.

Police also rejected allegations of delayed action.

"After the girl's father made a call at 100 number, the police reached the spot within 10 minutes. The SHO was informed, and he reached there immediately," Superintendent of Police Alankrita Singh said, adding that victim got timely medical attention due to the officers.

The condition of the girl, who was admitted in a hospital in Meerut, is stated to be stable.

The girl's father, however, said that they found her at 11.45 PM and the police came several hours later. She was admitted in hospital only at 7 AM yesterday.

Recalling the horror, a relative of the girl said she and her sister were sleeping outside the house when the incident occurred. "I told my husband to bring them inside as it had started drizzling, but he said that the girl was not there. We frantically looked for her in the house and outside. Later, we found her in a field," he said.

Police said that only one accused was involved and it was not a gangrape.

Angered by the incident, villagers had blocked the NH-24 yesterday.

The incident comes even as the Uttar Pradesh Government has come under flak over a string of rape incidents, including the gangrape of a woman and her daughter who were dragged out of their car by the accused on National Highway-91 in Bulandshahr.

Hapur is around 65 km from Delhi.
 Flash

The first Chinese tour group to go on an organized trip of Kazakhstan left on Saturday for the central Asian neighbor.

The 55 tourists, organized by China National Travel Service (HK) Group, flew to Astana, capital of Kazakhstan, from the international airport in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, at 1:36 p.m. Saturday.

They are among nearly 300 tourists to visit the region, a trip organized by six travel agencies. The other groups will start their trips over the following three days.

The tour follows a memorandum on Chinese-Kazakhstan tourism cooperation, signed between the two countries in December.

"My parents studied in Almaty, so my sisters and I have always wanted to go there," said Tong Nina, 70, from Urumqi, who went on the tour with her sisters.

Shi Dagang, vice chairman of Xinjiang regional government, said the tour was an important stage in the China-Kazakhstan tourism development story and the construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt.

A senior tourism official with Kazakhstan's Ministry of Investment and Development came to Xinjiang to welcome the first tour group.
A giant flag-waving crowd, the size of which some Turkish media said had never been seen before, gathered in Istanbul today for a rally to mark the end of nightly demonstrations since Turkey's July 15 abortive coup that left more than 270 people dead.

No official estimate was provided, but Turkish media said millions were at the rally. The event was so full that many were turned away at the gates.

The Yenikapi meeting area by the Marmara Sea waterfront in Istanbul's European side was transformed into a sea of red and white, the colors of Turkey's flag.

The "Democracy and Martyrs' Rally" was billed as a cross-party event representing Turkish unity in the wake of the failed coup, in which a group of renegade military officers attempted to seize power with tanks, helicopters and fighter jets.

Religious leaders and two of Turkey's three opposition parties were attending, sitting next to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who arrived on board a helicopter with his wife Emine. The pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party, or HDP, wasn't invited.

"July 15 has opened the door for our reconciliation," said main opposition Republican People's Party Chairman Kemal Kilicdaroglu said.

"There is now a new Turkey after July 15. If we can further this power, this culture of rapprochement, we will all be able to leave our children a great Turkey."



The event kicked off with a minute of silence for those killed while opposing the coup, followed by the Turkish national anthem and a recitation of prayers ahead of speeches by the political party leaders. Erdogan was also to address the rally.

A 60-meter (200-foot) stage was set up for the event, framed by two platforms and draped with massive national flags and banners depicting Erdogan and Turkey's founding father Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

A roll call of those who died opposing the coup was read out as the crowd gathered.

"I have never been in democracy rallies but I really wanted to come this one. Because I don't want to lose my country," said Sevda Bozkurt, a 44-year-old housewife who didn't manage to get in to the rally area.

"This is one of the biggest rallies. Turkey's three political parties gathered together, they become friends, they become brothers. Maybe there is hope for Turkey.
With an aim to increase its turnover to Rs 500 crore by 2020, leading lock manufacturer Harrison Locks has forayed into new segments, including builder hardware solutions and smart security equipment.

"We have entered into new areas such as builder hardware solutions, kitchen hardware and appliances, smart security equipment and automobile security. The move would help the company in achieving our turnover target of Rs 500 by 2020," Harrison Locks Managing Director Umang Monga told PTI.

He said that the demand for these products in the domestic as well as international markets like Middle East and South East Asian countries are increasing.

"Our exports are increasing in these regions. It would also help in pushing our turnover. Under the 'Make in India' programme of the government, we are designing and innovating new products in our manufacturing units in Aligarh and Rajkot," he said.

Further, he said that with the gradual growth in the real estate sector in the country, the company is getting good orders for builder and kitchen hardware solutions.

"Currently foreign brands are holding majority share in this category but the cost is very high. But we are providing similar quality products at a reasonable rates, which is giving edge to our goods," Monga said.

He added that the company is targeting tier-II and tier- III cities and towns in the country to boost its domestic sales.

"Our young team is innovating new products, which are available at all e-commerce platforms and we are also selling through our dense dealer network across the country," he added.

The company has also opened its franchise in others parts of the globe such as Dubai in Middle East.
Indian journalists, who went to cover the Home Ministers' conference in Islamabad, had to face hostile Pakistani officials, who not only denied them access to the inaugural function but also barred them from standing at the entrance of the venue where their Interior Minister was to receive dignitaries, leading to tense moments.

The six Indian journalists, who were given visa to travel to Islamabad to cover the event, were flatly refused entry to the inaugural function, which was attended by Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

The Indian journalists then stood near the entrance of the where Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan was receiving the visiting dignitaries from countries.

As Pakistani media took position to capture the moment of Home Minister Rajnath Singh's arrival, Indian journalists too joined them. Immediately, Pakistani officials curtly told them to leave the place, saying Indian journalists were not allowed to stand even outside the gate.

When Pakistani officials asked Doordarshan cameraperson R Jayashree Puri and ANI's Ajay Kumar Sharma to remove their cameras, a senior Indian diplomat tried to intervene and protested.

The diplomat hotly argued that Indian journalists be allowed to be near the gate to capture Singh's arrival as Pakistani journalists, video and still camerapersons were present and freely taking shots.

The Pakistani officials made it clear that the Indian journalists have to leave the place immediately, leading to a verbal duel between the diplomat and a Pakistani official.

The Pakistani official even directed some of his juniors to block the view of Indian journalists and soon the reporters and camerapersons were surrounded by several persons, apparently policemen in civvies, making it impossible for them to shoot anything.

This resulted the Indian journalists failing to capture the moment when Singh touched the hands of his Pakistani counterpart, a gesture short of a formal handshake, reflecting the growing chill in the ties between the two countries.

According to protocol, the inaugural statement by the host country is open to the media while the rest of the proceedings are in camera.

The Pakistani establishment was also circulating information in the local media that Indian Home Minister had visited washroom eight times to make calls to New Delhi when the conference was going on.

The fact is that the washroom was outside the conference hall and the Home Minister used it twice, once before the formal ministers' meet started after he and his SAARC counterparts had made a courtesy call to Pakistan Prime Sharif and again when the meeting got over.

Besides, Home Minister Singh does not carry a cell phone even while he is in India and, whenever necessary, uses those of his aides.
Indian journalists, who went to cover the SAARC Home Ministers' conference in Islamabad, had to face hostile Pakistani officials, who not only denied them access to the inaugural function but also barred them from standing at the entrance of the venue where their Interior Minister was to receive dignitaries, leading to tense moments.

The six Indian journalists, who were given visa to travel to Islamabad to cover the event, were flatly refused entry to the inaugural function, which was attended by Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

The Indian journalists then stood near the entrance of the venue where Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan was receiving the visiting dignitaries from SAARC countries.

As Pakistani media took position to capture the moment of Home Minister Rajnath Singh's arrival, Indian journalists too joined them. Immediately, Pakistani officials curtly told them to leave the place, saying Indian journalists were not allowed to stand even outside the gate.

When Pakistani officials asked Doordarshan cameraperson R Jayashree Puri and ANI's Ajay Kumar Sharma to remove their cameras, a senior Indian diplomat tried to intervene and protested.

The diplomat hotly argued that Indian journalists be allowed to be near the gate to capture Singh's arrival as Pakistani journalists, video and still camerapersons were present and freely taking shots.

The Pakistani officials made it clear that the Indian journalists have to leave the place immediately, leading to a verbal duel between the diplomat and a Pakistani official.

The Pakistani official even directed some of his juniors to block the view of Indian journalists and soon the reporters and camerapersons were surrounded by several persons, apparently policemen in civvies, making it impossible for them to shoot anything.

This resulted the Indian journalists failing to capture the moment when Singh touched the hands of his Pakistani counterpart, a gesture short of a formal handshake, reflecting the growing chill in the ties between the two countries.

As per SAARC protocol, the inaugural statement by the host country is open to the media while the rest of the proceedings are in camera.

The Pakistani establishment was also circulating information in the local media that Indian Home Minister had visited washroom eight times to make calls to New Delhi when the conference was going on.

The fact is that the washroom was outside the conference hall and the Home Minister used it twice -- once before the formal ministers' meet started after he and his SAARC counterparts had made a courtesy call to Pakistan Prime Sharif and again when the meeting got over.

Besides, Home Minister Singh does not carry a cell phone even while he is in India and, whenever necessary, uses those of his aides.
Unidentified gunmen have kidnapped another Indonesian sailor in the Sulu Sea where numerous seafarers have been abducted by Islamist extremists in recent months, officials said today.

The kidnapping took place on Wednesday off the northeast of Sabah state on the Malaysian side of Borneo island, Indonesia's ambassador to Malaysia said.

"(The vessel) was intercepted by a boat carrying four armed men," ambassador Herman Prayitno told AFP.

The kidnappers took the Indonesian captain after failing to get the 10,000 ringgit (USD 2,500) they demanded, Prayitno added. They released the two other crew members, an Indonesian and a Malaysian.

Indonesia's foreign ministry said it was still trying to find out which group was responsible.

Malaysia's marine police chief Abdul Rahim Abdullah told AFP authorities were questioning the two crew members from the boat about the case.

The kidnapping is the latest in a string of incidents in the Sulu Sea, where groups of armed men have ambushed fishing vessels and seized Malaysian and Indonesian citizens for ransom.

Ten other Indonesians kidnapped in recent months by the Philippine Abu Sayyaf extremist group are still being held.

Jakarta has banned Indonesian-flagged vessels from sailing to the Philippines and pushed for joint maritime patrols in the waterway.

A handful of Malaysian sailors have also been kidnapped this year.

The Abu Sayyaf, who are based on remote and mountainous southern Philippine islands, beheaded two Canadian hostages this year after their multi-million-dollar ransom demands were not met. In 2015 they killed a Malaysian hostage.

The group is a loose network of a few hundred Islamist militants, formed in the 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.
Iran executed a nuclear scientist who defected to the US in 2009 and later returned to the Islamic Republic under mysterious circumstances a year later, authorities said today, acknowledging for the first time that they had secretly detained, tried and convicted a man authorities once heralded as a hero.

Shahram Amiri vanished in 2009 while on a religious pilgrimage to Muslim holy sites in Saudi Arabia, only to reappear a year later in a series of online videos filmed in the US. He then walked into the Iranian interests section at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington and demanded to be sent home.

In interviews, Amiri described being kidnapped and held against his will by Saudi and American spies, while US officials said he was to receive millions of dollars for his help in understanding Iran's contested nuclear programme.

He was hanged the same week as Tehran executed a group of militants, a year after his country agreed to a landmark accord to limit uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

Speaking to journalists today, Iranian judiciary spokesman Gholamhosein Mohseni Ejehi said Amiri was convicted of spying charges as he "provided the enemy with vital information of the country."



Amiri had access to classified information "and he was linked to our hostile and number one enemy, or the Great Satan," Ejehi said, referring to the US.

Ejehi did not explain why authorities never announced Amiri's conviction or his subsequent, failed appeals court bid. He said Amiri had access to lawyers.

"He neither repented nor compensated and he was trying to leak some information from inside prison, too," Ejehi said, without elaborating.

about Amiri, born in 1977, has been scant since his return to Iran. Last year, his father Asgar Amiri told the BBC's Farsi-language service that his son had been held at a secret site since coming home.

On Tuesday, Iran announced it had executed a number of criminals, describing them mainly as militants from the country's Kurdish minority. Then, an obituary notice circulated Amiri's hometown of Kermanshah, a city some 500 kilometers southwest of Tehran, according to the Iranian pro-reform daily newspaper Shargh.

It announced a memorial service on Thursday for Amiri, calling him a "bright moon" and "invaluable gem."



Manoto, a private satellite television channel based in London believed to be run by those who back Iran's ousted shah, first reported Saturday that Amiri had been executed.

BBC Farsi also quoted Amiri's mother saying her son's neck bore ligature marks suggesting he had been hanged by the state.

The Associated Press could not immediately reach Amiri's family. US officials told the AP in 2010 that Amiri was paid USD 5 million to offer the CIA information about Iran's nuclear programme, though he left the country without the money.

They said Amiri, who ran a radiation detection programme in Iran, travelled to the US and stayed there for months under his own free will.
Actor Jamie Dornan says he has to make a lot sacrifices and changes in his lifestyle to take out time for his kids.

The 34-year-old "Fifty Shades" star has a two daughters with wife Amelia Warner, reported Femalefirst.

"It's been a big adjustment and it's definitely harder and you get less time to yourself, but human beings are very good at adaptation.

"You have to just go with it and accept less sleep and accept less time in your hands and accept less reading of books and washing and all the usual things you do in a day," Dornan said.

The actor said he dreamed of having a baby boy prior to the birth of his second girl.

"I always thought I'd want the boy because... I think as a guy you just think, 'I'll have a little mini version of myself' or something in a sort of (narcissistic) way, but then once you've had girls I can't imagine having (another one).
Stressing the need for research and innovation, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar called upon students to strive for excellence and innovate while inaugurating Chhattisgarh's first campus here.

"We did not invent Google, Facebook, Twitter, Windows and WhatsApp but many Indian youths were part of the teams which created these social media applications... Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision is to promote research and innovation, therefore our Government has contemplated various programmes to give impetus to the research in various fields," Javadekar said.

The minister inaugurated the Indian Institute of Technology, Bhilai, at its temporary campus at the Government Engineering College at Sejbahar here.

students can undertake research projects right from their hostel room, he said, adding "just come up with innovative idea, the Government will promote it".

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh said the state was ready to take a giant leap in the field of higher education with the opening of .

"The state has IIM, AIIMS, IIIT, Central University in Bilaspur and now IIT. It is a giant step towards success in the field of higher education," the CM said.

The IIT Bhilai is the first IIT in Chhattisgarh and 23rd in the country. Computer Science and Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering classes will commence at the outset, Javadekar said Mine Engineering course will also be launched from 2018-2019 at IIT Bhilai.

IIT at Bhilai was planned in 2007. Steel Authority of India Limited has provided 325 acres of land from its Bhilai Steel Plant for the institute.

In the current academic year, there are 118 students (105 boys and 13 girls). IIT Bhilai is being 'mentored' by IIT Hyderabad.
Union Minister Kalraj Mishra today hit out at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, claiming that it was a "misfortune" of Delhi that it was handed over to a person who "has nothing to do with the Constitution and law".

Without naming the Aam Aadmi Party or Kejriwal, Mishra said, "It's a misfortune of Delhi, that we handed over it to a person who has nothing to do with the Constitution and law, who does not know what process should be adoped in a Union Territory."



"All the time, even in his dreams, he sees (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi and keeps on repeating his name," the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Minister told a youth convention organised by Purvanchal Morcha of Delhi BJP.

The governance system in Delhi has been "deteriorating" and what is needed is that "such a person" who is "defaming" Delhi is challenged democratically with the united strength of the youth, he said.

The Minister also highlighted various achievements of the Modi government, saying that it was taking a lot of steps for the youth through skill development and other schemes.

BJP national general secretary Arun Singh asked the youth to join BJP as it was the party where even ordinary persons can rise in ranks and reach the top positions.

North East Delhi MP Manoj Tiwari said that the Modi government was also planning a "Student City" in the national capital for providing accommodation to large a number of students.

"I met the PMO officials recently and offered 55 acre land at Gopalpur village in Timarpur for the student city for 5000 students which will come in the rule of this government," he said.
Hundreds of fishermen from this island were today forced to return without catch after Sri Lankan Naval personnel allegedly snapped the fishing nets of ten mechanised boats near Katchatheevu.

The fishermen had put out to sea in 641 mechanised boats yesterday and were fishing near Katchatheevu in the Palk Strait when Sri Lankan Naval men rounded up ten boats last night, Rameswaram Fishermen Association President P Sesuraja told reporters here.

The Lankan Naval personnel cut the fishing nets of the ten boats and asked them to go back, following which all the boats returned to the shores this morning, he said.
Six months after his services were terminated by the Arunachal Pradesh Governor, senior advocate Ranji Thomas has tendered his resignation as the Advocate General of the state, saying the sacking was invalid after the Supreme Court directed 'status quo ante' and reinstated the Congress government there.

The services of the senior lawyer as AG were terminated by Governor J P Rajkhowa on February 2, soon after imposition of President's Rule in the state on January 26.

However, Thomas, who served as the top law officer of the state during the tenure of Chief Minister Nabam Tuki, sent his resignation letter to newly-elected Chief Minister Pema Khandu on July 26.

Thomas said the landmark verdict by the Supreme Court, directing 'status quo ante' in the state and reinstating the Congress-led Nabam Tuki government, had upheld the Constitution.

"Therefore the withdrawal of pleasure by the Governor to remove the AG and appointing a person of his choice is unsustainable and invalid and against the spirit of Constitution and the judgement of the Supreme Court," he said, adding that the new Chief Minister has the right to choose the new AG of his choice.

In his letter, Thomas said "propriety and tradition demands that on your assuming the office of the Chief Minister, the Council of Ministers headed by you may decide on the appointment of the Advocate General. To facilitate the same, I hereby offer my resignation as AG of Arunachal Pradesh".

Thomas had earlier advised the Governor against advancing the assembly session last year when the state faced political crisis.

The lawyer said the historical apex court verdict, re- installing Congress government in the state, showed that the Governor can act only as per the aid and advice of the Chief Minister and his council of ministers with regard to appointment or termination of services of law officers.

The judgement has made clear that the appointment of the Advocate General and his continuance on his post "during the pleasure of the Governor does not mean his individual pleasure without or other than the advice of the council of ministers headed by the Chief Minister," Thomas said.
Malaysia has warned that an Indonesia-based militant's followers are looking to make South-East Asia the new base for Islamic State terror group, days after six Indonesian militants were arrested for plotting a missile attack at Singapore's Marina Bay. I



Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said according to intelligence reportssome of Indonesia-based Abu Bakar Bashir's 300 followers, who were in jail, have been released and they reportedly went to Batam, a small islandin Indonesia's Riau archipelago in the South China Sea.

"A short boat ride from Singapore, it's a free trade zone with multiple busy ports, known for its beaches and resorts. From there, they want to make South-East Asia the new port for IS," he told reporters yesterday.

Abu Bakar, known as the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, behind the 2002 Bali bombings, was sentenced to 15 years jail in 2011.

Ahmad Zahid said Malaysians should be mindful as extremism had reached a stage where it was no longer "what if" but "when will it happen?".

Seeking cooperation from everyone to fight the rising threat in the South-East Asian region, he said that Malaysian authorities were discussing with their counterparts on ways to enhance security in the region.

Six Indonesian militants, including an ISIS fighter, were arrested on Friday for plotting a missile attack at Singapore's Marina Bay.

Even before Friday's foiled rocket attack on Singapore's Marina Bay, Ahmad Zahid said the Defence and Home ministries had placed assets and manpower at areas dubbed "black spots" for security purposes.
A man allegedly involved in over 50 criminal cases and carrying a reward of Rs one lakh on his arrest was caught by the Delhi Police following a shootout in which two policemen had a narrow escape.

Amit Kumar alias Sonu, a member of Satya Prakash gang, landed in the police net in East Delhi's Pandav Nagar area yesterday.

In a bid to escape, he fired several rounds of bullets, hitting Sub-Inspector Rajender Kumar and Head Constable Sukhbir Singh wearing bulletproof jackets, Rishi Pal, Deputy Commissioner of Police (East), said.

A resident of North-East Delhi's Nand Nagri, Sonu was carrying a reward of Rs one lakh on his arrest and had over 50 criminal cases registered against him. He was once arrested for allegedly killing a classmate in 2005.

He was involved in snatching and armed robberies and was wanted in a murder case of Nand Nagri in which a gangster Sonu alias Chikna was killed in a gang rivalry last year.

Sonu was also wanted in many cases of attempt to murder including firing on a police party in December last year, the officer added.
Mineral veins seen on Mars were formed by the evaporation of ancient martian lakes, scientists including one of Indian origin have found, providing evidence for long and varied history of water on the red planet.

The research used NASA's Mars Curiosity rover to explore Yellowknife Bay in Gale Crater on Mars, examining the mineralogy of veins that were paths for groundwater in mudstones.

The study suggests that the veins formed as the sediments from the ancient lake were buried, heated to about 50 degrees Celsius and corroded.

"The taste of this martian groundwater would be rather unpleasant, with about 20 times the content of sulphate and sodium than bottled mineral water for instance," said Professor John Bridges from University of Leicester in the UK.

"However, some microbes on Earth do like sulphur and iron rich fluids, because they can use those two elements to gain energy. Therefore, for the question of habitability at Gale Crater the taste of the water is very exciting news," said Bridges.

The researchers, including those from The Open University in the UK, suggest that evaporation of ancient lakes in the Yellowknife Bay would have led to the formation of silica and sulphate-rich deposits.

Subsequent dissolution by groundwater of these deposits - which the team predict are present in the Gale Crater sedimentary succession - led to the formation of pure sulphate veins within the Yellowknife Bay mudstone.

The study predicts the original precipitate was likely gypsum, which dehydrated during the lake's burial.

The team compared the Gale Crater waters with fluids modelled for martian meteorites shergottites, nakhlites and the ancient meteorite ALH 84001, as well as rocks analysed by the Mars Exploration rovers and with terrestrial ground and surface waters.

The aqueous solution present during sediment alteration associated with mineral vein formation at Gale Crater was found to be high in sodium, potassium and silicon, but had low magnesium, iron and aluminium concentrations and had a near neutral to alkaline pH level.

The mudstones with sulphate veins in the Gale Crater were also found to be close in composition to rocks in Watchet Bay in North Devon in the UK, highlighting a terrestrial analogue which supports the model of dissolution of a mixed silica and sulphate-rich shallow horizon to form pure sulphate veins.

"These result provide further evidence for the long and varied history of water in Gale Crater. Multiple generations of fluids, each with a unique chemistry, must have been present to account for what we find in the rock record today," said Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity Project Scientist from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the US.
Criticising the ruling Trinamool Congress over the brief detention of Narada CEO Mathew Samuel last night, opposition parties termed it as a "desperate attempt" to hush up the Narada sting operation and save the culprits.

The Trinamool Congress, however, declined to comment on the matter.

"The police administration is so worthless that despite the court's order, they detained Mathew Samuel. They are trying to send out a message that if you try to mess with TMC and bring out their corruption then they will teach them a lesson," BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha told PTI.

"The desperate attempt to detain Mathew Samuel ... Is a manifestation to hush up the Narada graft and save the real accused," CPI(M) West Bengal unit Secretary Suryakanta Mishra said.

Echoing the same views as that of Mishra and Sinha, Leader of opposition Abdul Mannan too criticised the detention and said it only shows the "vindictive attitude" of the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal to hush up the matter at any cost.

"This shows the vindictive attitude of the state government. This only proves how this government is running," Mannan told PTI.

Samuel was released last night after being briefly detained by immigration authorities at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi on his arrival from the US following a lookout notice issued against him by the Kolkata police.

A division bench of Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice A Banerjee on Friday had ordered an interim stay into the Narada sting operation probe launched by the Kolkata Police till the next date of hearing on August 19.

The lookout notice had been issued before the HC order.

Affirming they would go by the HC directive, Kolkata Police said yesterday, "We respect the order of the hon'ble high court and will abide by the same.
Retired central government employees will now get a minimum of Rs 9,000, up 157.14% from the current Rs 3,500, following the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission's recommendations.

The Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions has notified acceptance of pay panel's recommendations for the pensioners.

The ceiling of gratuity has also been enhanced from the existing Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh. The Commission had also recommended the ceiling on gratuity to be raised by 25% whenever Dearness Allowance rises by 50%, a proposal which has been accepted by the government.

There are about 58 lakh central government pensioners.

The amount of shall be subject to a minimum of Rs 9,000 and the maximum would be Rs 1,25,000--which is 50% of the highest pay in the government, an order issued by the Ministry said.

The highest pay in the government is Rs 2,50,000 with effect from January 1, 2016.

The maximum limit of retirement gratuity and death gratuity shall be Rs 20 lakh, the order said. The ceiling on gratuity will increase by 25% whenever the dearness allowance rises by 50% of the basic pay, it said.

There has been a substantial increase in payment of ex-gratia lump sum compensation for civil and defence forces personnel, payable to the next of kin.

A payment of Rs 25 lakh, from existing Rs 10 lakh, will be given in case of death occurring due to accidents in course of performance of duties and those attributed to acts of violence by terrorists, anti social elements etc.

Deaths occurring in border skirmishes and action against



militants, terrorists, extremists, sea pirates and while on duty in the specified high altitude, unaccessible border posts, on account of natural disasters, extreme weather conditions will now entail a compensation of Rs 35 lakh instead of the earlier Rs 15 lakh.

Instead of Rs 20 lakh, an amount of Rs 45 lakh will be paid as ex-gratia to the kin in case of death of a government employee during enemy action in war or other war-like engagements, and "death occurring during evacuation of Indian nationals from a war-torn zone in foreign country", the Personnel Ministry's order said.

A Committee of Secretaries has been constituted to examine the pay panel's recommendations on fixed medical allowance and constant attendance allowance.

The Commission had not recommended enhancement of fixed medical allowance, which is Rs 500 per month, whereas on constant attendance allowance, it suggested that it may be increased by a factor of 1.5 i.E. To Rs 6,750 per month. The allowance needs further increase by 25% each time DA rises by 50%, it had said.

These recommendations are to be examined by a Committee comprising Finance Secretary and Secretary (Expenditure) as Chairman, and Secretaries of Home Affairs, Defence, Posts, Health & Family Welfare, Personnel & Training and Chairman, Railway Board as Members.

Till a final decision is taken based on the recommendations of the Committee, fixed medical and constant attendance allowances shall be paid at existing rates, the Personnel Ministry has said.

The revised provisions shall apply to government servants who retire or die in harness on or after January 1, 2016.
Ruling BJP today announced the candidature of sitting MLC Ranjit Patil and a relative of Union MoS Subhash Bhamre for the Maharashtra Legislative Council elections due in December.

Minister of state Patil currently represents Amravati Graduates constituency, whereas Prashant Patil, a close relative of Union Defence MoS Bhamre, is given the nomination from Nashik division Graduates constituency, a party statement said here today.

A total of 11 seats from Teachers, Graduates and Local Authorities constituencies are up for grabs.

Interestingly, the Election Commission is yet to announce the schedule for the election.

According to sources in the BJP, one of the reasons for declaring the candidatures so early is because of the vast nature of the constituencies that cover the entire Revenue division or the entire local authorities (civic bodies) in the constituency.

"Another reason is that Ranjit Patil is expected to face a tough task in retaining his seat and also his berth in the state cabinet," a party leader said.

Prashant Patil is the son-in-law of Bhamre's brother.

He lives in Nashik and is a business partner of Pradeep Pawar who had contested the Nashik seat in 2014 Lok Sabha polls as a Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) candidate, but lost.

According to the source, what tipped the scales in favour of Prashant was that Bhamre's another relative, a bureaucrat based in Gujarat had learned to have helped party president Amit Shah in election campaigns.

When contacted, Bhamre said the BJP gives priority to work and not relationships.

After late Daulatrao Aher who had once represented the Nashik Graduates constituency in 1995-99, BJP has struggled to find a suitable candidate to replace him.

Prashant faces an uphill task of wresting the seat from sitting Congress MLC Sudhir Tambe.

The 11 members from state legislative council who will be retiring on December 5 this year include NCP (5), Congress,BJP and Independents (2) each.

Out of the 11 constituencies six are local authorities, three teachers and two graduates division constituencies.

The party-wise breakup of numerical strength in the



Upper House as on July 9 this year is: NCP (26), Congress (19), BJP (16), Shiv Sena (8), Lokbharti (1), PWP (I) 1, PRP (1) and Independents 6.

Among those who will be retiring on December 5 are: Vikram Kale (Aurangabad Teachers constituency), Prabhakar Gharge (Sangli-Satara local authorities), Rajendra Jain (Bhandara-Gondia local authorities), Sandip Bajoria (Yavatmal local authorities), Anil Bhosale (Pune local authorities)--all NCP), Dr Sudhir Tambe (Nashik Graduates) and Amarnath Rajurkar (Nanded local authorities)--both Congress.

Gurmukh Das Jagwani (Jalgaon local authorities) and Minister of State for Home (Urban) Ranjit Patil (Amravati Graduates constituency)--both BJP, and Nago Ganar, Nagpur Teachers and Ramnath Mote, Konkan Teachers constituencies respectively.
Opposition National Conference today accused BJP of trying to divide Jammu and Kashmir regions on communal lines.

Lashing out at BJP and Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh, National Conference spokesperson Junaid Azim Mattu said the timing of IIT Jammu inauguration was "insensitive" towards the people of Kashmir.

"When you cut ribbons in Jammu at a time when Kashmir is on fire and when coffins of young boys are being lowered into graves here, it highlights your abject lack of humanity and empathy.

"How would people in Jammu have felt if an IIT was being inaugurated in Kashmir Valley at a time of similar grief and mass mourning in Jammu? This act of insensitivity and ruthlessness perfectly exemplifies BJP's politics in J&K," Mattu said in a statement.

He said the fact that BJP and the Deputy Chief Minister did not require the Chief Minister's presence for the function in Jammu speaks louder than words.

"This also raises serious questions on the writ and integrity of the Chief Minister's office. Has Mehbooba Mufti in outsourced Jammu to the BJP? It's evident that we have two factions within the Government," the spokesperson added.

Mattu alleged that BJP "was clearly invested in dividing the state on the basis of religion and while their Ministers were virtually missing from the Valley during the current unrest, they were in perfect attendance to inaugurate an IIT in Jammu" yesterday.

"We haven't seen a single BJP Minister attend to their sworn duties in the Valley in the past one month but when it comes to Jammu, their priorities are evident," he said.

"Nirmal Singh should have the courage to openly state that he is the Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu city alone and his cabinet colleagues from the BJP must follow suit," Mattu said.

Reacting to a pro-BJP think tank taking up the Kashmir issue at a conclave in Jammu, the NC termed it as a "ridiculous eye-wash".

"What could be more insulting and humiliating for Kashmiris? From dialogue offers having been extended directly from serving Prime Ministers in the past, it seems Kashmiris will now have to make do with Ram Madhav and RSS affiliates.

"Is the Prime Minister too important to consider what's happening in Kashmir worthy of a statement or an offer of dialogue?" he added.
Eleven Nigerian troops have been killed in clashes with gunrunners and bandits in the violence-wracked north central region, the army has said.

Military spokesman Colonel Sani Usman said in a statement yesterday that the troops, comprising soldiers and airmen, came under attack from gunmen during operations to confiscate illegal weapons from the villages of Kopa, Dagma and Gagaw in Niger State.

"While approaching and deploying to carry out their lawful duty, the troops came under simultaneous and sporadic shootings in all the three locations. They however responded as necessary in line with the rules of engagement," the army spokesman said.

"Sadly, an officer and eight soldiers of the Nigerian Army and two airmen of the Nigeria Air Force lost their lives in the line of national duty," he added.

Usman said another soldier remained missing while two more were wounded.

The gunrunners also torched four military vehicles and vandalised two others.

He said eight gunmen were killed and 57 others arrested during the army operation during which a cache of arms and ammunition were recovered.

The spokesman did not specify when the fatalities occurred but the army operation in question has been ongoing for a week.

The assailants were suspected of supplying weapons to thieves and other criminals in central Nigeria, including in the capital Abuja.

Central Nigeria has been wracked by clashes between ethnic Fulani herdsmen and local farmers over grazing rights, leaving hundreds dead in recent months.

The government is proposing the creation of grazing land to prevent further clashes in a country that is struggling to end a seven-year Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast.
Law and order was restored at Chapra in Bihar's Saran district and other strife-torn areas in the district today after yesterday's violence over an objectionable photo and video related to a particular religion which had gone viral, an official said.

"Life has returned to normal and the situation (law and order) is under absolute control," Saran District Magistrate Deepak Anand said in a statement.

There is no report of any untoward incident from anywhere in Saran district during the day, he said adding that the para-military forces carried out a flag march at Chapra town to keep the situation under control.

Promising strict action against the anti-social elements and those involved in large-scale violence and arson which rocked various places in the district yesterday, the district magistrate appealed to the people to ignore rumours and solicited support the district administration in maintaining law and order.

He said that the rumour-mongers were being identified for taking strict action.

He said that the police was patrolling at sensitive places with senior civil and police officials monitoring the situation in Chapra town.

Anand said that 25 persons were arrested in connection with the violence while two others had been nabbed earlier in connection with the objectionable photo and video circulation.

Altogether 18 FIRs have been registered, he says.

The DM said that two companies of State Rapid Action Force, one company of Central Rapid Action Force, two platoons of SSB, two platoons of ITBP, 500 police personnel with sticks besides personnel from the district police were deployed in the district as a precautionary measure.

The district administration had shut down internet service in the district as part of measures to restore peace.
Oil India Limited has made a payment of Rs 2.49 crore to Arunachal Pradesh against differential royalty on oil for February 2014 to March this year.

General Manager of Oil India, Duliajan (Assam), A K Acharya handed over the cheque to Chief Minister Pema Khandu in his office yesterday.

The GM briefed Khandu on the pending issues of Ningru oil field and requested him to expedite the Petroleum Mining Lease, an official release said here today.

He also apprised Khandu of the yet to be signed MoU of 10 MW gas power plant.

The Chief Minister assured him to fast-track the pending issues and asked the firm to take up more activities in the state as it has abundant mineral oil resources which need to be tapped properly, the release said.
Former Prime Minister K P Oli on Sunday cautioned India against "any unnatural" meddling in Nepal's affairs.

Oli, who is also the chairman of CPN-UML, met Indian Ambassador Ranjit Rae at his party office here and made it clear that "any unnatural meddling in Nepalese affairs would be unacceptable".

"Such activities would only complicate the situation," Oli said, adding all sides should remain vigilant towards such activities, according to a statement issued by the party.

Oli, however, said that his party was in favour of maintaining hearty and cordial relations with the neighbouring countries.

There were media reports here which blamed India for toppling Oli-led coalition government last week, which India has outrightly rejected.
The Opposition on Sunday termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement against cow vigilantes as "absolutely humbug", alleging that his ideological co-travellers were perpetrating "terror" in the name of cow protection.

Congress leader Manish Tewari questioned Modi's "silence" on the Dadri lynching incident last year and alleged that the PM was selective in his outreach.

"..Why does he not prevail upon RSS to disband the VHP, why does he not take action against the office bearers of Bajrang Dal?... Therefore it is his ideological co-travellers who have been perpetrating this spectre of uncertainty and terror in the name of cow lumpenism across the country, thereby whatever the Prime Minister says today is absolutely humbug and completely sanctimonious," Tewari said.

Echoing similar sentiments, JD(U) leader Pavan Verma said had the PM given a stern message earlier, the "menace" of gau rakshaks could have been prevented.

"If the Prime Minister had given the same message earlier, we would not have seen this menace of gau rakshaks spreading pan India. But he choose to keep silent although he tweets on any other subject under the sun. Breaking the silence is welcome, the only question is why so late," he said.

CPI leader D Raja also crticised the ruling dispensation stating there were issues on which people expect the PM to speak, including, increasing atrocities on dalits.

"Why has the PM not uttered a single word against the atrocities committed in his own state Gujarat?" he asked.

BJP, however, defended Modi's statement and said the opposition attack was a "classic book example of political bankruptcy".

"There cannot be more direct censure by the Prime Minister in expressing his displeasure to what anti-social elements are doing in the name of 'Gau Raksha'," BJP Secretary Sidharth Nath Singh said.

He said since the opposition has nothing against the Prime Minister, it wanted to hide its failures and indulged in pointing fingers at the Centre.

In his first public denouncement of cow vigilantes, some of whom flogged dalits in his home state Gujarat, Prime Minister had yesterday said he felt enraged at such "anti-social elements" who indulged in crimes by the night and masqueraded as cow protectors by the day.
A new Guinness World Record for the most robots dancing simultaneously has been set in China where 1,007 robots shimmied in unison, nearly double the previous record.

Each of the 43.8 cm tall dancing machines at the Qingdao Beer Festival were controlled using just one mobile phone and they had to dance for a full minute in order to count towards the record total, the Guinness World Records said.

A few robots were disqualified because they did not dance or fell over, but the majority of the mechanical dance troupe completed the 60 second routine in perfect unison.

The attempt was organised by Qingdao-based Ever Win Company which almost doubled the previous record of 540 dancing robots which was achieved earlier this year by Chinese company UBTECH Robotics Corp.

Official Guinness World Records adjudicator Angela Wu verified the new record on site.

Quan Jinyou, Chief Technology Officer of Ever Win Company explained that the robots were equipped with a special encryption technology to reduce radio frequency inference from nearby mobile phones and Bluetooth devices.
Convicted murderer Oscar Pistorius has returned to his prison cell in South Africa's capital after being treated at hospital for injuries sustained in a fall, prison officials said today.

"He had to be detained Saturday afternoon at the hospital after falling off his bed," prison services spokesman Singabakho Nxumalo told AFP.

"He's back in our care now," Nxumalo said.

He added that the double-amputee Paralympian was again in the medical wing of the Kgosi Mampuru II prison in Pretoria where he has been serving out his six-year sentence due to his handicap.

According to the South African weekly City Press, citing another inmate at the prison, Pistorius had to go to hospital after intentionally slitting his wrists.

When asked about the report, Nxumalo said: "We can't confirm that, it's only speculation."



Pistorius was convicted of shooting to death Reeva Steenkamp, a model and law graduate, in the early hours of Valentine's Day in 2013, saying he mistook her for a burglar when he fired four times through the door of his bedroom toilet.

Pistorius, who pleaded not guilty at his trial in 2014, has always denied killing Steenkamp in a rage, saying he was trying to protect her.

After first being found guilty of culpable homicide, an appeals court upgraded his conviction to murder in December last year.

Pistorius, 29, previously a role model for disabled people worldwide, is eligible for conditional release in 2019 after serving half his prison term.
President Pranab Mukherjee has given the go-ahead to the HRD Ministry for conducting an inquiry into allegations of irregularities against Jamia Millia Islamia University authorities.

"There have been some allegations of irregularities. The Ministry has written to the President, who is the visitor of central universities, to allow an inquiry into them. The President has given his assent to an inquiry which will be conducted by the UGC," a source said.

A former faculty member of the varsity had leveled allegations of administrative irregularities against the varsity authorities.

He had alleged that the Jamia authorities incurred wasteful expenditure during a visit by a team of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).
Suspected members of Al-Qaeda shot dead an army colonel in Yemen's southern province of Abyan today, a military official said.

The gunmen on a motorbike opened fire at Colonel Abdullah Shamba, killing him immediately before driving off, the official said.

Shamba headed a local anti-Al-Qaeda militia in Abyan, the source added.

Late yesterday, Saudi-led coalition jets attacked Al-Qaeda positions in Abyan's provincial capital of Zinjibar and in the nearby town of Jaar, military sources said.

Government forces backed by the Arab coalition began an all-out offensive in March against jihadists in south Yemen, recapturing main cities they had held.

But they later retreated from Zinjibar after Al-Qaeda militants struck back.

Jihadists have exploited the power vacuum created by the conflict between the government and Huthi rebels and their allies to expand their presence in south and southeast Yemen.

They are often accused by the authorities of carrying out deadly attacks targeting government officials.

The Arab coalition which backs the Yemeni government has also turned its sights on the jihadists, and the United States has pressed its drone war against them.

Washington considers the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, to be the extremist network's deadliest franchise.
Rajasthan government today ordered a high-level inquiry and suspended two senior officials for dereliction of duty after hundreds of cows died at a state-run shelter due to alleged negligence.

Deputy Commissioner of the centre Sher Singh Luhadia and in-charge R K Sharma were suspended after a review meeting held by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje.

Raje directed officials to improve the condition at the Hingonia Cow centre and make arrangements for its better management.

She also ordered a high-level inquiry into the matter.

UDH Minister Rajpal Singh, Animal Husbandry Minister Prabhu Lal Saini and senior officials visited the 'gaushala' and apprised the chief minister about the situation before her departure to Delhi.

The state government has been criticised by Congress, VHP, and Bajrang Dal over the death of cows.

Congress has alleged that 100 cows have died due to "mismanagement and lack of facilities" at the gaushala while VHP claimed that more than 500 cows died due to the "inhuman behaviour" of Raje government towards them.
As financial trouble disrupted the operations of two regional carriers, a top official said the airlines operating under the regional connectivity scheme will not face such difficulties unlike others in the market.

As the Civil Aviation Ministry draws up the final contours of the ambitious Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS), turbulent financial weather faced by Air Pegasus and AirCosta have sparked off concerns over the viability of such airlines.

Assuring that the government would be open to examining any request for help from airlines, Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey said RCS provides for "huge concessions and benefits" for regional carriers.

On whether the episodes of Air Pegasus and AirCosta could be a negative for RCS, Choubey said the two airlines were functioning under the template of market forces.

"RCS, it gives huge concessions by way of "fiscal concession and also by way of viability gap funding... This is something which is not available to regional airlines which are operating purely in a market dynamics.

"Therefore, difficulties which regional carriers may be facing in the market forces, those difficulties would not happen when they work in the template of RCS," he told PTI.

Embarking on ambitious plans to enhance regional air connectivity, the government has come out with RCS in the national civil aviation policy.

Under RCS, the Civil Aviation Ministry has proposed a mix of financial incentives as well as concessions along with viability gap funding.

The proposed RCS, which is expected to be operation from mid-August, would see the Centre pitching with 80 per cent share and states concerned making up the remaining 20 per cent towards viability gap funding. In case of Northeastern region, the state's share would be 10 per cent.

After suspending operations for a day on Aug 4 and then operating a curtailed scheduled on Friday, AirCosta yesterday announced resumption of full-fledged operations. The services were disrupted for two days in the wake of financal issues with its lessors over alleged non-payment of rental dues.

The development close on the heels of another regional airline Air Pegasus deciding to suspend services indefinitely following financial turmoil.

In the past, a few regional airlines have folded up on account of operational and financial troubles.

Among others, Religare group-promoted Air Mantra shut down its operations in March 2013. Back in 2009, another regional carrier MDLR Airlines had stopped services.
Indie Rockers Viola Beach have rocketed to the top of the UK album charts six months after the band members died in a car crash.

The group's self-titled debut was compiled by the bandmates' families, using live sessions and studio recordings.

The album has toppled Elo's "All Over The World, The Very Best Of", reported Guardian.

"I think they'd be absolutely thrilled," Viola Beach star River Reeves' brother Finn said.

"I can see the smiles on their faces. They made this happen. They did the hard work."



The four-piece and manager Craig Tarry died when their car plunged into a canal in Sweden in February.

The band's single Swings & Waterslides reached number 11 in the UK charts following the tragedy, and Coldplay paid tribute to the group at the Glastonbury festival in June by performing their song "Boys That Sing.
Growing up with great family physicians, Dr. Brady Didion had role models in his field long before he even realized it was where he wanted to be.

So when he finally made the jump to medical school at the University of Missouri, it was those role models he looked back on when deciding which path to take.

I was interested in a lot of the fields we were studying, and toward the end I realized I could do those things, not everything, but a lot by being a family medicine doctor, said Didion, now a family practitioner at Marshfield Clinic in Chippewa Falls. Going back to those role models, they really were exemplary people in the community who provided a wonderful service, and they worked hard.

After hearing about the National Health Service Corps at-the-time new Students to Service Program, which aims to bring more providers into areas with primary care shortages, Didions decision was solidified.

In return for up to $120,000 that medical students can use to repay their student loans, students in the program must commit to being a primary care provider in an underserved community for a minimum of three years.

A Wisconsin native who moved out east for several years, Didion planned on returning to the area when he and his wifes twin sons were born, and the program helped him pay off his loans. For him, it was a win-win situation.

Its tax dollars really well spent, he said. Theyve really demonstrated it does bring primary care doctors to areas of need. Its just a positive thing to (take) part.

Didion is one of just six Students to Service awardees in Wisconsin since the programs inception in 2012, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration.

Of all four of NHSCs programs, there are 234 NHSC clinicians providing care to underserved communities in the state.

Jeanean Willis-Marsh, director of the division of NHSC in the Bureau of Health Workforce, said the Students to Service program started because NHSCs stakeholders heard about the dire need for physicians in rural areas.

While NHSC does have a scholarship program, grant program and loan repayment program, the new program gets students from school into the medical field much faster.

It allows us to capture those students who want to practice in underserved areas but may be concerned about their ability to garner a salary that would allow them to support their families, Willis-Marsh said. Now we have that steady pipeline without gaps.

Underserved areas in the primary care field are defined by the federal government on a scale of 0-25, with 25 being an area of greatest need.

Didions Marshfield Clinic ranks at a 14, the minimum score requirement for the Students to Service program.

The goals of the program are to ensure geographic distribution of primary care providers, she said. The ultimate hope is that the provider will continue practicing in an underserved community after their requirement is done.

But for Didion, requirements have nothing to do with it.

Unlike other specialties, Didion said his role allows him to form personal connections with his patients, which is his favorite part.

He also has the opportunity to go up to Cornell once or twice a month to staff an even smaller clinic.

Thats a little bit even more of a small-town family doctor feel, so thats been kind of a perk to me, Didion said. Some of my patients have become friends. Theres just kind of a special connection you have with the community as a family practice doctor.

Almost a year in to his three year commitment, Didion doesnt plan on going anywhere.

I have all the plans in the world to stay, he said. You never know, I suppose, but right now Im really enjoying this.

The Students to Service Program is accepting applications from August through mid-October. Applications and more information can be found at www.nhsc.hrsa.gov.
RSS affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch will hit the roads on August 9 in protest against the BJP led Government's new FDI policy and to demand its immediate withdrawal.

The protest, scheduled to be held at all district headquarters of the country on the August 9 will seek the rollback of FDI in various sectors including defence, pharma and retail sectors.

"Swadeshi Jagaran Manch expresses its deep anguish and protest on recent decision of the government to relax FDI norms in various sectors of the economy including retail trade, agriculture and animal husbandry, brown field pharma, security agencies, defence and others," Ashwani Mahajan, National Co-convenor of the Manch told PTI today.

He said the Manch will on Quit India Day organise programmes in all district headquarters and send a memorandum to the Prime Minister, through district magistrates from all over the country, urging him to withdraw the new FDI policy.

The Manch added that the decision to allow foreigners to engage in food processing and marketing of agricultural produce is against the promises of the ruling party and will spell a "death knell" for the small shopkeepers, vegetable and fruit vendors and small units engaged in processing of agricultural produce.

"Opening up of FDI in security agencies is likely to endanger the security of the nation.

"It is well known that India is a key player in pharmaceutical produce globally and more than 200 countries rely on affordable medicines for their public health from India's generic drugs produce by Indian pharmaceutical companies.

"By allowing 100 per cent FDI in brown field pharma, government has opened flood gates for acquisition of Indian pharmaceutical companies by multinational giants, endangering the supply of affordable medicine to the poor masses, not only in India but world over," Mahajan said.

The RSS body also noted with concern 100 per cent FDI in defence (74 per cent under automatic route and subsequent by approval route).

"Dropping of the clause of state of the art technology is also beyond comprehension.

Though Swadeshi Jagaran Manch feels that FDI in defence may be allowed only in extreme cases of transfer of modern and state of art technology from case to case basis, limitless FDI in defence without transfer of technology cannot be legitimized in any case," the SJM national co-convenor said.

Mahajan said the Manch does not agree with the Government



that FDI is required for additional resources to finance development of the country.

"We firmly believe that FDI actually drains Indian resources rather than supplements them.

"Huge outward flow of foreign exchange by foreigners in the name of royalty, interest, dividend and salaries has already started surpassing the inflow of foreign exchange from FDI.

"In addition to this, high import intensity of the multinational corporations, also causes huge drain of foreign exchange from the country," he said justifying the protest plan.

Mahajn said by dropping the 30 per cent procurement from within the country by single brand foreign retailers, the Government has allowed free outward flow of foreign exchange by multinational corporations.

"Thousands of pending transfer pricing cases pending against multinational corporations speak volumes about the malpractices of MNCs pertaining to illegal transfer of resources of country and evasion of tax by these multinational corporations," the Manch official said urging the PM to withdraw the FDI policy.
Indian shooters Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Kynan Chenai were placed at the 17th and 19th spots after the first day of Men's Trap qualification event at Olympic Games here today.

Sandhu and Chenai could come up with scores of 68 and 67 respectively in the three rounds after a total of 33 shooters participated on day 1 with each athlete taking 75 shots each.

Sandhu scored 23, 23, 22, while Chenai posted 22, 23, 22 in the three rounds at the shotgun range in Olympic shooting centre here.

After the completion of the first round, Sandhu was placed at 14th while Chenai lied at 28th spot. The former improved a place with a score of 46 in the second round, while Chenai too rose to the 16th spot with a score of 45.

The duo will return tomorrow for the second day of qualification where there will be two more rounds of 25 targets each.

At the top, Fabbrizi Massimo of Italy was the only shooter to produce a record score of 75, while Great Britain's Ling Edward and Italian Pellielo Giovanni were placed at the second and third spot with 73 each.

Top six shooters after day 1



1. Massimo Fabbrizi - Italy (75)



2. Edward Ling - Great Britain (73)



3. Giovanni Pellielo - Italy (73)



4. Josip Glasnovic - Croatia (72)



5. David Kostelecky - Czech Republic (72) 6. Roberto Schmits - Brazil (71).
The Union Ministry of Textiles today marked the second National Handloom Day with a series of events in the Prime Minister's constituency here during which weavers were awarded and a number of MoUs were inked in the presence of Union Minister Smriti Irani.

The minister felicitated the winners of Sant Kabir National Handloom Awards (2015) and also distributed MUDRA (Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency) loans to the weavers during the event.

Irani also announced to allot new buildings for six Common Facility Centres (CFCs) in Varanasi.

The Textile ministry also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship for skills upgradation of handloom weavers through Weavers Service Centres (WSCs).

Also, it inked MoUs with National Institute of Open Schooling and Indira Gandhi National Open University to provide education facilities to weavers and designer institutes--National Institute of Fashion Technology, Fashion Design Council of India--to promote hand-woven textile.

Leading fashion designers including Anita Dongre, Samant Chauhan, Sanjay Garg, Shruti Sancheti, Rina Dhaka, Tarun Tahiliani and Rajesh Pratap Singh also joined hands to promote the handloom industry.

Minister of State (Independent charge) for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Uttar Pradesh Textile Minister Mehaboob Ali, MoS for Textiles Ajay Tamta, and Development Commissioner (Handlooms) Alok Kumar were also present at the event.
The External Affairs Ministry is taking all steps to retrieve Indian fishing boats seized by the Sri Lankan Navy, Union Minister of State for Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan said today.

"The External Affairs ministry will hold talks with the Sri Lankan government officials (on the issue)," he said.

The minister expressed confidence on getting all the boats retrieved.

On the Cauvery dispute, Radhakrishnan wanted the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu governments to hold talks and create a congenial atmosphere to enable steps on forming Cauvery River Management board.

(REOPENS MES7)



Radhakrishnan also said it was not possible for Dravidian parties to cheat and mislead present day youth on language issues as they are aware of the importance of learning languages, including Hindi and Sanskrit along with Tamil.

The youth very well know how their counterparts in neighboring states get better job prospects elsewhere due to their language skills, he said.
In the backdrop of protests over a ban on Pondicherry University students' magazine for having 'objectionable' contents against the Centre, Left parties and VCK today met Chief Minister V Narayanasamy and sought his intervention to ensure smooth functioning of the varsity.

A delegation of local leaders of the CPI, CPI(M), VCK and CPI(ML) met Narayanasamy and also sought the ban, imposed by the university authorities on the magazine, be lifted.

The leaders brought to the CM's notice "disturbances unleashed recently by the volunteers of BJP" in the university over the magazine issue, a CPI release said.

Alleging that BJP was airing "wrong and untrue propaganda that the magazine had objectionable contents" and students were attacked, the delegation said when a complaint was sought to be lodged by the students police 'only dragged their feet'.

The police acted in a partisan manner, they alleged and maintained there was no controversial content in the magazine.

Police should ensure that peace was not disturbed and take action against those who "attacked" the students, it said.

The Chief Minister assured the delegation that he would hold a meeting with the Director General of Police tomorrow on their representation, it added.

The magazine brought out by the Students Council of the Pondicherry University recently has been banned amid protests by ABVP and BJP that it was "critical" of central government.
A relative of one of the jihadist killers of journalists at French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has been arrested in Turkey on his way to Syria, a judicial source said today.

Mourad Hamyd, brother-in-law of Cherif Kouachi who was behind the January 2015 attack in Paris that killed 12, was detained in Turkey last month on suspicion of seeking to enter Syria, the source said.

Hamyd, wrongly identified on social media in the aftermath of the attack as being one of three Charlie Hebdo killers, was denied entry to Turkey and sent to a detention centre in Bulgaria on July 28, the source added in confirming a French media report.

The source said French anti-terrorist investigators are preparing a European arrest warrant for Hamyd, whose sister was Cherif Kouachi's wife.

Kouachi carried out the Charlie Hebdo killings with his brother Said.

Hamyd came under initial suspicion of acting as the brothers' getaway driver and he was briefly detained before being released without charge.

He later told AFP in an interview he was shocked by the killings, which he described as "a horrible crime" and described himself as a normal student living with his parents. He added he barely had any contact with Cherif Kouachi.

According to a July tally by French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, France is home to more than 2,100 people - French nationals or foreigners - known to have links to Syrian and Iraqi Islamist groups.

Valls added that 203 of them who have spent time in those countries have returned to France.
Swimmer Yusra Mardini, who survived a harrowing sea crossing a year ago and is now among 10 refugees competing under the Olympic flag in Rio, won her preliminary heat in the 100-meter butterfly.

But the result wasn't enough to advance her to the semifinals.

Mardini's time of 1:9.21 put her 41st overall in the preliminary round yesterday, and only the top 16 swimmers moved on to the late-night semifinals. Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden had the top qualifying time of 56.26 seconds.

Mardini will compete is a second individual event Wednesday when she swims the women's 100-meter freestyle.

Mardini was a competitive swimmer in Syria until she fled the war with her sister last August and survived a hazardous crossing on the Aegean Sea to reach Europe.

The Mardini sisters had been among Syria's brightest swimming stars and their family had been moving around to avoid the fighting so they could continue swimming. But the war intensified and eventually the decision was made to leave altogether.

The sisters joined a wave of Syrian refugees who left Damascus last summer. They made their way to Lebanon and then Turkey, where they paid smugglers to take them to Greece. Their first attempt was thwarted when Turkish coastguards drove their boat back so they tried again, boarding a small inflatable dinghy at dusk.

All but three of the 20 people crowded on the dinghy couldn't swim. Within half an hour, the boat was taking on water.

The passengers' bags were thrown overboard in an effort to stay afloat as wind churned up the Aegean Sea. But it wasn't enough. As a last resort, the Mardini sisters and another strong swimmer jumped into the water to give the boat more buoyancy.

For 3 1/2 hours they clung to the side of the small boat until it reached the Greek island of Lesbos. A weekslong overland trek followed through Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary.

They had to hide from police in cornfields to reach Hungary.

Eventually, the sisters made it to Austria and then Germany, where they have since been joined by the rest of their family in Berlin.
Thais today voted in a referendum on a new junta-backed Constitution that could pave the way for polls next year even as critics feared it would strengthen army's grip on power.

About 50 million voters will answer 'yes' or 'no' to the question -- Do you accept the draft constitution? They are also being asked a supplementary question, whether or not the appointed senate should be allowed to join the lower house in selecting a Prime Minister.

If the majority of voters say 'yes', the draft becomes the Constitution, enhancing the military government's legitimacy in the run-up to an election which Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who led the 2014 coup, has promised will happen next year.

Results of the referendum will soon be announced after voting closes.

Prime MinisterPrayutand other key government figures openly announced a couple of days back that they would vote "Yes" in today's referendum.

The military junta which took power after a coup in 2014 called for the Constitution to be rewritten to ensure "clean politics" in the country. The referendum is likely to be a judgement day in Thai politics.

Not only will the fate of the new draft Constitution will be determined, but the outcome could also be significant for entities such as the military-created National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) and politicians from different parties.

If the Constitution does not pass, what will happen is uncertain, but the military government will remain in control.

The way this referendum has been run by the military authorities has been widely condemned by human rights groups because of the ban on campaigning, which has seen dozens of people detained and charged.

As a result, public knowledge of the draft Constitution is limited.

If it is approved, the military government has promised that a general election could be held by late next year, restoring democratic government.

But critics have argued that the draft will perpetuate army control with the armed forces and an appointed senate retaining decisive influence over future elected governments.

Meanwhile, a motorcycle bomb went off in front of a shop in Yingo district in the troubled southern Thailand bordering Malaysia early this morning. There were no injuries reported.

However, the explosion caused by the 15 kg bomb shattered glass windows of some houses nearby. Whether the blast was connected to the voting in referendum was not known.

The motorcycle bomb comes after the blasts that destroyed 19 roadside power posts in nine districts of Narathiwat last night. Police were investigating the incidents.

"After the vote, we could see better stability. However, at the end of the day everything will depend largely on how the NCPO acts," Thammasat University political scientist Virot Ali said.

(Reopens FGN 4)



"The NCPO should reveal when exactly in 2017 the election will take place and make sure all of the process is transparent and inclusive. Otherwise, pressure from outside will not go away," Virot said.

Chalidaporn Songsamphan, another political scientist at Thammasat, said the NCPO's legitimacy should be boosted if the draft is voted in. However, she warned that the vote could be very confusing and each ballot could contain different meanings.

The political scientist said a majority "No" vote would hopefully be a wake-up call to the NCPO, telling it to review itself and improve.

"(But) I'm not very sure the NCPO would do that," she was quoted by the Nation as saying.

"So, conflicts are very likely to persist. That's one thing I see for sure," Chalidaporn said.

Former prime ministerYingluckShinawatra has urged voters to turn out and "choose what direction the country should take in the future".

"I want everybody to do their best so that they will not regret the result," she said.
The sister of one of Britain's six former soldiers jailed in India for carrying unlicensed arms on a ship for anti-piracy security today sought the intervention of new British Prime Minister Theresa May, saying the UK government has "abandoned and betrayed" them.

Lisa Dunn, the sister of Nick Dunn, expressed concerns that the men's mental state is beginning to deteriorate and called for action to secure their release.

"Nick's always maintained that he feels abandoned and betrayed by the government and the country that he once served," she told The Guardian.

"Now we have a new government in place I would like to personally reach out to Theresa May, Boris Johnson (foreign secretary) and Sir Alan Duncan (a Foreign Office minister) and respectfully request that they continue to keep this case at the top of their agendas as we have been assured many times previously," she said.

The men were arrested in 2013 among 35 crew members and sentenced by a Tamil Nadu court to five years in prison in January this year for carrying unlicensed firearms.

They were held while working for an anti-piracy security company protecting commercial ships off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean.

The men, who have been backed by more than 20 British MPs, including former British PM David Cameron, have consistently maintained their innocence and launched an appeal to overturn their sentences.

A petition calling for their release has garnered 375,000 signatures and was delivered by the families of the six former soldiers to Downing Street last week.

Lisa claimed the British government had issued the licenses for the weapons, including semi-automatic G3 assault rifles, which the Indian courts have said are automatic weapons and therefore prohibited.

"I appreciate and understand that the government have spoken to various Indian counterparts over the last nearly three years, but for the evidence that's there it's beyond belief that our government haven't pushed harder," Lisa said.

"They keep saying we've talked with this Indian counterpart, but it was apparent a long, long time ago that talking makes no difference to the Indian authorities. We need more robust action," she added.

She has also claimed the men were suffering in the Indian jail and have to sleep on concrete in cells infested with snakes and rats, using a hole in the ground for a toilet.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said: "Our staff in India and the UK remain in regular contact with all six men and are continuing to support them and their families, working to make sure their welfare is protected in prison.

"We recognise what a difficult time this is for those involved. We cannot interfere with India's independent legal system, just as other countries cannot interfere with ours, but we will continue efforts to make sure this case is resolved swiftly. Ministers will continue to raise this case at the highest levels.
A United Nations peacekeeper was killed and four others were injured today when their vehicle struck an explosive device in northeast Mali, the UN said.

The incident occurred 11 kilometres (six miles) south of Aguelhoc-Anefis in Kidal region, the UN force in Mali, MINUSMA, said in a statement.

The vehicle was part of a supply convoy, MINUSMA said. It did not give the nationalities of the casualties.

Less than three hours later, a MINUSMA vehicle was damaged by a roadside bomb near the town of Kidal while on patrol about two kilometres from the mission's base, but no-one was hurt, the statement said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either attack.

An Islamist takeover of northern Mali in 2012 triggered a French military intervention to pull the country back from the brink of collapse.

The UN deployed peacekeepers in July 2013, but the mission has been a relentless target for attacks.

Twenty-eight have been killed so far this year, according to a toll compiled by AFP.

On June 29, the UN Security Council decided to send an additional 2,500 personnel to bring MINUSMA up to a maximum level of 15,200 troops and police and provide for modern equipment and fast-response units.

Mali declared a state of emergency last November after jihadists stormed a hotel in the capital Bamako, killing 20 people, mostly foreigners, in an attack claimed by Al-Qaeda's regional branch.

The state of emergency has been extended several times. It will last until March 29 2017 under a legislative decision on July 31.
Banking big on the sector, which is likely to grow at 9-11 per cent every year, private equity players are keen on tapping the opportunity and expect investments up to Rs 15,000 crore per annum, say experts.

" industry has recently seen a sharp growth in demand primarily driven by new age e-commerce industry and growth in organised retail which are leveraging technology in their supply chain to optimise costs," HDFC Realty Chief Executive Vikram Goel told PTI.

According to Milestone Capital Executive Vice Chairman Rubi Arya, investors are very positive towards this sector with strong government support and reforms followed by RERA, GST, REITs, among others.

"With all this development taking place, there is lot of traction from investors, private equity fund houses, high networth individuals, NRIs, among others. We expect around Rs 12,000-15,000 crore investments every year in this sector which is itself talks about how this industry will explore in future," Arya said.

According to PropTiger, the supply of space is in the range of 900 million sqft but much of it is in unorganised sector. Demand is expected to be 1,500 million sqft by 2020 with annual requirement of 100-125 million sqft



Property consultant Jones Lang LaSalle said Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Ahmedabad had a cumulative supply of organised Grade-A and Grade-B warehousing space of around 97 million sqft in 2015 and this is expected to grow to around 116 mn sqt by the end of 2016.

PropTiger Chief Business Officer Ankur Dhawan said since the returns are more attractive in the warehousing space and investment required is lower compared to residential and commercial realty, we will see many real estate PE firms investing in this segment.

"Currently the interest is mostly from international PE players, while domestic players continue to focus on residential and commercial realty," he said.
A 76-year-old woman, who allegedly suffered harassment at the hands of her son and daughter-in- law, has got sole possession of her flat in Dombivili township after Thane Collector Mahendra Kalyankar, ruled in favour of her under Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act-2007.

The septuagenarian was working as a nurse in Kuwait and shifted to Mumbai about 8-9 years back. She later moved into a bigger flat bought by her in Dombivili along with her son and daughter-in-law in 2008.

The woman alleged that soon after, her son and his wife started harassing her and demanded that the house be transfered in her daughter-in-law's name. She was also allegedly denied food, medicines and even beaten once.

NGO Damini Eagle Brigade activist and 'Police Mitra' member Sunita Kuttan said that the old woman, hailing from Kerala, approached the Manpada police regarding her harassment.

The cops then requested the 'Police Mitra' (organisation set up by police department to assist them to solve problems of the citizens) to help her.

Kuttan then took up the matter with Thane Collector Dr Mahendra Kalyankar, who recently ruled in favour of the woman under Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act-2007.

Subsequently, her son and daughter-in-law vacated the premises on August 3, Kuttan said, adding that they were happy at having been able to get justice for the woman.
Amid fears of price rise after implementation, the Andaman and Nicobar islands administration has constituted a committee to study its impact.

Lt Governor of the Union Territory, Lt General A K Singh (retd) said the committee led by chief secretary will study implications of for the islands, keeping in mind the prevailing tax regime and subsidies.

"We have only octroi here at present. So, the committee will study how we can implement the new . Ours is a peculiar case because of subsidies to islanders. We want a smooth transition to the new GST system," Singh told PTI.



After the GST Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha a few days ago, local chambers of commerce have expressed apprehension that prices of various commodities in the islands will rise once the new tax regime is implemented.

At present, the UT imposes no sales tax, but only an octroi when any product enters the chain of islands in the Bay of Bengal.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said his government plans to develop 300 villages across the country as growth centers for the area by creating city like infrastructure, from education and healthcare to digital connectivity.

The National Rurban Mission aims to provide better quality of life and employment in villages, he said at the townhall organised to mark the second anniversary of myGov app.

There is no dearth of smart cities, but shouldn't the scenario of villages change, he asked. "Facilities available in cities must be made available to villages."

Rurban Mission is 'Smart City Plus', he said, adding 300 villages have been identified, which will be developed as growth centre for the area.

All infrastructure identical to cities like digital and physical connectivity as well as quality healthcare and education will be provided, he said. "The idea is that the soul of a village is retained while amenities of cities are provided."

These villages are the ones where rural people may visit for healthcare, education or attending to other needs like repairing or recharging mobiles.

Villages, he said, can become the growth centre of the rural economy.

On the eve of Handloom Day, Modi urged 125 crore Indians to use khadi and handloom for 5 per cent of their clothing needs.

This would boost the textile sector, which is the second biggest employment provider in the country, he said. "This will help the poor."

Rural economy will change if the sector is provided holistic support, e-platform for global marketing and facilities to weavers, he added.
Efforts are being made to attract the youth to the handloom sector and connect players with reputed designers from institutes like NIFT, the government said on Sunday.

"The government is giving a lot of importance to the handloom sector, which is India's pride and heritage. It is already providing a lot of support and schemes for the sector and will continue to do so to train and skill people, provide markets and upgrade their technologies," Textiles Additional Secretary Pushpa Subrahmanyam was quoted as saying in a statement by Ficci.

To mark the importance of handloom in social and economic sphere, Ficci on Sunday celebrated the second National Handloom Day by organising exhibition of various handloom materials from various parts of the country alongside B2B events.

The exhibition is in line with the government's directive to celebrate August 7 as the National Handloom Day every year. The first such day was celebrated on August 7, 2015.

The objective is to generate awareness about importance of the handloom industry as part of the country's rich heritage and culture, especially among the youth, promote handloom products and lead to increase in income of weavers as well as enhance their confidence and pride.

"It is very important that we understand the true potential of handlooms and handicraft and its significant role in providing employment to a vast segment of craftspersons and preserve the intangible heritage of our country," FLO President Vinita Bimbhet was quoted as saying in the statement.
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Efforts to rein in the Bronx real estate business practice of solicitation is moving forward.

After three meetings, Senator Jeff Klein is closing in on real estate solicitation in community boards 10 and 11.

At the third Cease and Desist Zone meeting held on Thursday, July 27 at Villa Barone Manor, those in attendance were again given the opportunity to submit testimony, along with other evidence, that proves that they have been subjected to excessive solicitations.

The establishment of a Cease and Desist zone would allow residents within the zone to place their addresses on a Cease and Desist list, which would prohibit real estate salespeople from contacting them.

Those that violated the list would be subject to hefty fines.

Intense real estate solicitations is not something that Bronx homeowners should be subjected to, although they have greatly increased over the past few months, said Klein.

I hope that my series of hearings helped to provide sufficient evidence to reinstate the cease and desist zone in Community Board 10 (and 11) and determine the perimeters where these unwanted realtors cannot intrude on our quality of life.

The senator added that there is a 30-day commentary period, where residents can send submissions of these repeated real estate solicitations to Kleins office, before the NYS Department of State renders their decision on the Cease and Desist zone.

The 30-day commentary period will end on Saturday, August 27.

In a separate interview with Klein, he said that a Cease and Desist Zone was in place in sections of community boards 10 and 11 before the law expired in 2014.

Klein also said he is looking to extend the boundary of the zone to neighborhoods in Community Board 9.

The Bronx real estate industry opposes the creation of Cease and Desist zoning.

Legislation to reauthorize and expand Cease and Desist zones will unfairly hurt the livelihood of real estate professionals, said Eliezer Rodriguez, executive officer of the Bronx-Manhattan North Association of Realtors. This will hurt the ability of real estate professionals to do their job and consequently have a negative impact on the state and local economy.

Rodriguez said that according to the Department of State, only nine violations were reported pertaining to the Cease and Desist law between 2009 and 2011.

This is not an appropriate solution to the problem, although we do empathize with the community. However, before a Cease and Desist is imposed, I ask that lawmakers and state regulators fairly weigh the evidence presented in determining the need for the imposition of a new Cease and Desist zone, Rodriguez added.

Homeowners and residents who have been exposed to repeat real estate solicitations can send submissions and other evidence to Senator Jeff Klein, 1250 Waters Place, Suite 1202, Bronx, NY, 10461.
home Tech Asus ZenFone 3 release date news 2016: Series ready to launch in India

Taiwanese tech company Asus is reportedly ready to launch their latest generation ZenFone 3 series. First announced during Computex 2016 in Taiwan last May, the devices are going to make its first public appearance this month.

According to reports, Asus has already distributed invites to the media for the launch event that will take place during the company's annual Z3NVOLUTION this coming Aug. 17 in New Delhi. The event is expected to be presided by CEO Jerry Shen who will most likely put the spotlight on the announced trio: the ZenFone 3, the ZenFone 3 Deluxe, and the ZenFone 3 Ultra.

The ZenFone 3 is said to be a perfect choice for those who just wish for a feature-packed smartphone that is not too harsh on the pocket. Sporting a 5.5-inc full HD IPS LCD display, the device is equipped under the hood with the octa-core Snapdragon 625 processor.

There are two variant options available for it, the 3 GB RAM with 32 GB storage and the 4 GB RAM with 64 GB. Its camera features a 16-megapixel rear camera and an eight-megapixel front camera. Giving it its power is a 3,000mAh battery.

The ZenFone 3 Deluxe is slightly bigger than the ZenFone 3 model. It comes with a 5.7-inch full HD Super AMOLED display with 1920 by 1080 pixels resolution. It's equipped with either a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset or a Snapdragon 82 chipset paired with up to 6 GB of RAM.

Its rear camera is 23 megapixels with the latest Sony IMX318 image sensor, f/2.0 aperture lens, and 4-axis optical image stabilization, while its front camera is 8 megapixels.

And last but not the least is the ZenFone 3 Ultra phablet which is said to feature a whopping 6.8-inch display and a 4,600mAh battery. Running with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 processor, the device features an ASUS-exclusive Tru2Life+ Video technology for a "high-end 4K UHD TV-grade" experience. It also has a 23-megapixel rear camera and QuickCharge 3.0 Technology.
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TUESDAY

Recruiting, hiring seminar offered

The Employment Lifecycle: Creating Fair and Legal Policies to Recruit, Hire, Develop and Terminate Employees seminar will be from 9 a.m. to noon at the Del Mar College Center for Economic Development, 3209 S. Staples St., Room 141. The free seminar will focus on current trends and requirements in recruiting, hiring, developing, disciplining and terminating employees. Registration and information: www.seminarscc.com

WEDNESDAY

Orientation for small businesses

A small business orientation is from 4-6 p.m. at the Center for Economic Development, 3209 S. Staples St., CED 146. The seminar will provide new business owners information to start a business. Topics include small business loans and financing requirements, business plan, licensing, contracting and permit information and resources. Free. Information: www.seminarscc.com

Personnel policies seminar for small business

The Employee Handbook Overview: What You Need to Know to Develop and Manage Employment Policies will be from 9 a.m. to noon at the Center for Economic Development, 3209 S. Staples St., Room 141. The free seminar will help small business owners and managers in developing and communicating effective personnel policies. Registration and information: www.seminarscc.com

THURSDAY

Business financial aid seminar offered

The SBA will offer a seminar on financial assistance to start or expand a business from 1-3:30 p.m. at the at the Coastal Bend Business Innovation Center, 10201 S. Padre Island Drive. Appointment required. Information: 879-0017, ext. 301 or elizabeth.soliz@sba.gov

FRIDAY

Business financial seminar offered

The SBA will offer a seminar on financial assistance to start or expand a business from 9-10:30 a.m. at the SBA office, 2820 S. Padre Island Drive, Suite 108. Free. Information: 361-879-0017, Ext. 301 or email elizabeth.soliz@sba.gov.

Compiled by Natalia Contreras
A lot of husbands probably can't recall, at a moment's notice, the year they got married. I can. It was the year after Hurricane Celia hit Corpus Christi.

Not that the two events are related.

Wednesday was the 46th anniversary of the day when Celia made landfall in Corpus Christi. This was the last hurricane to hit the city directly.

Some might say that city residents have been living a charmed life for 46 years. Oh sure, we've been rattled by near misses over the years. Hurricane Allen in 1980 swung ashore south of Corpus Christi, but it had already greatly weakened.

A few other tropical cyclones have wandered into the ranch country between Brownsville and Kingsville over the years. Others have hit farther up the coast.

But Corpus Christi proper has been spared since 1970. Somebody please tell this to the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association. They are the people who set most of our "hurricane insurance" rates.

Of course, any hurricane season could be the year our no hitter is over. But 46 years is a long time.

It so happens that in July 1971, almost one year after the big storm, Maria and I got married.

We had survived Hurricane Celia together at her parents' house, throwing up mattresses against a big picture window amidst the howling winds, stuffing towels under doors to keep out driving rain and waiting for who knows what else was to come. We were all driven finally in retreat to a tiny bathroom where we awaited our fate. The storm, at last, passed.

This year we celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary. No storm has hit since we got married. I'd never claim that our string of unbroken 45 years of marriage had anything to do with our city being spared of hurricanes over that same time period.

I'm just saying.

Corpus Christi has undergone dramatic change since 1970. Padre Island has exploded with development in 46 years. The island was barely beginning to show signs of the residences, condos and retail that would come later at the time the storm hit. There was no causeway to speed traffic on and off the island. Swing bridges which opened for boat traffic on the Intracoastal Canal reflected the slower lifestyle that governed the barrier island.

The city, of course, has rolled south with all the strength of a hurricane tidal surge. Once, downtown Corpus Christi was the center of the city. If there is a center of the city now, it's out somewhere between South Padre Island Drive and Saratoga, out there where Hurricane Celia is history rather than a cautionary tale.

It might be said that Corpus Christi had been lulled into a kind of complacency by the time Celia first appeared in the Gulf of Mexico as a tropical storm on Aug. 1.

In 1970 the city's most recent experience with a hurricane had been Hurricane Beulah in 1967. This was a slow-moving storm that, according to a historical summing up written by the National Weather Service on the occasion of Celia's 40th anniversary, had dumped record amounts of rainfall all over South Texas.

But Celia was tight, compact, fast moving and packed wind gusts that, at landfall, approached 180 mph.

But just before landfall, the storm's winds weakened. Would the storm lose its punch? Then the storm gathered its strength, intensified and raked the Corpus Christi area with its fierce claws.

I think that like generals fighting the last war, we should never believe that hurricanes are totally predictable. We warn about storm surges and rightly so. Historically, storm surges cause immense amount of damage and loss of life on the coast.

But Del Rio, far from the Gulf Coast, still took a million dollars (in 1970 dollars) worth of property damage from the remnants of the storm.

Somebody tell that to the Texas Legislature who still believes that somehow hurricanes disappear after they make landfall.

Across the Coastal Bend, the NWS's historical piece said, almost 9,000 residences were destroyed. Fifteen deaths were attributed to the storm.

August means we have entered the heart of the hurricane season. The next two months, history says, are the most dangerous months for the big storms in our part of the world.

That means we need to keep alert, stay at the ready and be prepared. Maria and I will do our part to keep hurricanes away.

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.
In all my years of setting a bad example to my daughter of how to drive, the one thing I got right was teaching her to be alert for license plates that started with "DV" for "disabled veteran."

Whenever we saw one, my sudden show of driver courtesy bordered on theatrical. I would instruct her that she was never, ever to ride the bumper of a vehicle with DV plates or cut it off in traffic. She was to do as I was doing then, not as I did the rest of the time. And if the driver of that vehicle wanted in her lane, she was to slow down and let it happen. If that driver cut her off, she was to take absolutely no offense.

She was to respect those who served, especially those who served and were disabled, because of the sacrifices they made for us. I didn't serve and I hope she never does. And for that, I told her, the least we can do is show respect to those who do or did, and support their government benefits without complaint.

She's 19 now, aware and grateful that her life thus far has been somewhat charmed. I have seen her tell Veterans of Foreign Wars members wearing VFW hats, and service people in uniform, "thank you for your service." I don't recall having instructed her to do that. Her mother and I can't take credit for every right thing she does.

What I find curious is that the bar for a 70-year-old presidential candidate would be so much lower than the bar my daughter clears easily and often. As of this writing, Donald Trump, basher of Gold Star parents and of a squalling baby, still is the Republican nominee for president, though there have been reports that his status could change by the time y'all see this.

So many presidential candidates have been rejected for so much less than Trump has done. What's amazing is not that his disrespect toward the Gold Star Khan family didn't instantly end his candidacy but that his disrespect of war hero John McCain, which should have ended his candidacy accompanied by a punch in the nose from the nearest war veteran, happened more than a year ago.

In 2004, the soaring presidential candidacy of Vermont's popular former governor, Howard Dean, ended because of a brief, exuberant scream. Check it out on YouTube.

Dean's moment of alleged insanity lasted a nanosecond and seems inconsequential in retrospect. The bar for presidential expectation must have been impossibly high that year  when we re-elected George W. Bush.

The bar used to be much higher for children of privilege. At least Bush, unlike Trump, served intermittently in the National Guard to avoid Vietnam.

Bush's father, a child of privilege who went to war in his teens, modeled that old Christian saying "to whom much is given, much is required." Immense wealth, privilege and gold-digging 10s have been bestowed upon Trump. Yet, apparently his followers require nothing more than that he rather than Hillary Clinton fill Supreme Court vacancies.

Trump supporters criticize me and the Caller-Times regularly because so many more of our columns and cartoons disparage Trump than Clinton. That is an imbalance of Trump's creation, not a media conspiracy. There just aren't many corresponding Clinton transgressions du jour to remark upon and to establish what Trump supporters would consider balance. It is unreasonable to expect a rehash of Whitewater or Benghazi every time Trump makes a new discriminatory, hateful, delusional, ignorant statement that is newsworthy for its failure to end his candidacy.

As would be normal for any presidential election cycle, there is plenty of pro- and anti-Clinton commentary. But there is only anti-Trump commentary  a phenomenon I've never seen before. I was too young for this line of work when segregationist George Wallace ran, so I'm not sure if the situation is unprecedented. Blame Trump, not columnists and cartoonists, for them not having anything positive to write or draw about him. Conservative George Will went anti-Trump a long time ago. Will hasn't moved to the left, nor has Trump moved farther right than Will.

Will is only showing his country the respect that my daughter shows its defenders. It's a bar they don't have to strain to clear.
Contributed Photo The groundbreaking ceremony for the new bridge will be Monday.

SHARE Caller-Times File A photo taken from the top of the Driscoll Hotel shows the Harbor Bridge and the network of roadways that would funnel traffic to the bridge under construction in 1958. The bridge was opened to traffic on Oct. 23, 1959. Caller-Times File Construction workers work on building the Harbor Bridge on July 23, 1959. The groundbreaking for the new bridge will be Monday. Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times State officials say the Napoleon hat-shaped bridge has outlived its design and needs to replaced for safety reasons.

By Chris Ramirez of the Caller-Times

Years of conference calls, sketches, PowerPoint presentations and sometimes high-volumed public hearings all come down to Monday.

And a few shovels of dirt.

Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to lead a host state and federal dignitaries that day in breaking ground on the long-awaited $898 million effort to replace the aging Harbor Bridge.

"(It's) the start of a great era in Coastal Texas and the State of Texas which signifies progress and safety," state Rep. Todd Hunter said of the project, describing it as a "monumental milestone" for the region. "It also shows how South Texas works together to accomplish goals."

The ceremony, at the Congressman Solomon P. Ortiz International Center, marks the kickoff what for what is known, on paper, as the U.S. 181 Harbor Bridge Replacement Project.

Also expected to attend are U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold and state Sen. Juan Hinojosa.

The bowstring span was constructed between 1956 and 1959 to replace an old wooden drawbridge, connecting the Northside with North Beach. Over the years, it has evolved into the very calling card of Corpus Christi.

State officials say the Napoleon hat-shaped bridge has outlived its design. It needs to be replaced for safety reasons, they say.

The design they came up with, a modern cable-stayed bridge with alternating neon lights, up to six driving lanes and observation areas with telescopes for pedestrians.

Jim Lee, the chief economist at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, said the project comes at the right time.

Construction in the area has peaked; the Texas Workforce Commission reported a 16.3 percent decrease statewide in the volume of people who work mining and logging in the last year. Such people are often linked to the energy and industrial workforce.

Many large-scale industrial plants in the Port of Corpus Christi are getting closer to completion. Among them are the TPCO America, a Chinese-run pipe-making plant, and the Voestalpine Texas iron ore plant. Located in Gregory, the plants are expected to be operational by the end of 2017 and the end of this year, respectively.

"This bridge project will pick up the current slack in the region's overall construction activity," Lee said. "And, given the declining mining sector and its impact on the machinery and marine manufacturing industries, the bridge construction now plays a key role in keeping our regional economy afloat at least in the short run."

When completed the replacement span will be the longest main span cable-stayed bridge in the U.S., measuring 1,655 feet. Only two others will be longer  the Skarnsund Bridge in Norway and the Panama Canal Crossing.

Construction is expected to continue five years, until late spring of 2020.

Challenges for those living near where much of the work will be done is far from over, however.

A lot of the earth moving and other work will skirt Hillcrest, a historically black Northside neighborhood. The port authorized up to $20 million to buy properties in the neighborhood and to relocate residents who want to move.

Many Hillcrest residents have mixed emotions about the ground breaking, said the Rev. Adam T. Carrington Sr., of the Brooks A.M.E. Worship Center. He chairs a 30-member community advisory board a community advisory board that is overseeing the transition for Hillcrest residents.

While residents conceive the benefits associated with the bridge, they're concerned about how it will get in the way, even override, their lifestyles.

A total of 544 properties in the tiny enclave are eligible for relocation. More than 130 property owners have said they're interested in selling.

Many residents became fixtures at public hearings during the last three years.

"At the end of the day, everyone understands the need for a safer bridge. We agree with that," Carrington said. "But to have to move from a place where you've lived for 30, 40, 50 years? For a lot of people, (Hillcrest) is all they know.

"It's hard to just pick up and leave it."

The Harbor Bridge will be demolished after the new span is opened.

Port officials back the plan because it calls for a minimum 205-foot vertical clearance. That would enable larger cargo vessels through the Corpus Christi Ship Channel.

The replacement project will create hundreds of jobs, while also helping businesses more efficiently transport goods throughout the region and state, Workforce Commissioner Ruth R. Hughs said. The Corpus Christi-reared lawyer was appointed last year to the three-member commission as the representative of the state's 500,000 employers.

She spoke in Corpus Christi last week during a one-day trade show hosted by Del Mar College's Small Business Development Center.

"This is a project that's going to be a big deal to this area," Hughs said. "It's going to benefit a lot of people and businesses."

Twitter: @Caller_ChrisRam

If you go

What: Harbor Bridge replacement project groundbreaking ceremony

When: 1 p.m. Monday

Where: Congressman Solomon P. Ortiz International Center parking lot, 402 Harbor Drive

HARBOR BRIDGE REPLACEMENT PROJECT TIMELINE

Monday, Aug. 8: Groundbreaking, 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
COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES Steve Bain, a Texas A&M University-Kingsville associate professor and chair of the university's educational leadership and counseling department, talks with students on May 18 at Premont Elementary School. This coming school year the district will have a full-time licensed professional counselor available for students at the elementary campus.

SHARE COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES Students at Premont Elementary School talk on May 18 with Steve Bain, a Texas A&M University-Kingsville associate professor and chair of the university's educational leadership and counseling department. COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES Steve Bain, a Texas A&M University-Kingsville associate professor and chair of the university's educational leadership and counseling department, checks in with students in a class at Premont Elementary School on May 18. COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES Steve Bain, a Texas A&M University-Kingsville associate professor and chair of the university's educational leadership and counseling department, talks with students at Premont Elementary School on May 18.

By Beatriz Alvarado of the Caller-Times

PREMONT  Steve Bain gets high-fives and hugs when he walks the halls of Premont ISD's elementary school.

The affection toward Bain, a Texas A&M University-Kingsville associate professor and chair of the university's educational leadership and counseling department, stems from his time spent listening. From deaths in a student's family to coping with testing anxiety, Bain has been the closest mental health resource for the rural school district of about 500.

He's made himself available on a weekly basis. He soon realized that while his presence was helpful it wasn't enough.

That's going to change this coming school year. The district will have a full-time licensed professional counselor available for students at the elementary campus. Bain, who will oversee counselor Bonnie Cavazos, said the district is addressing a deficiency seen throughout rural districts in Texas.

"Of 254 counties in Texas, 185 are underserved in terms of mental health," Bain said. "We are plowing new ground."

Cavazos will be paid an about $55,000 salary to work with students at the elementary campus, superintendent Eric Ramos said.

Bain has been counseling a select group of students for about two years on a contractual basis. Unlike the school's counselors who tends to students' administrative needs, Bain meets with children whose mental health is on the brink of escalating to a crisis.

"School counselors are a disservice when the majority of the work is administrative," Bain said. "Much of what we are doing right now is cutting edge."

A "high priority" list of names doubled in length within one school year, which is worrisome, he said.

Ramos said he hopes the new position will help create a more stable environment for students who lack the latter at home.

"We hope to get to a point of being more proactive than reactive (to mental health issues)," Ramos said.

The nearest outpatient facility available as a resource for mental health problems is about 10 miles from Premont in Falfurrias.

A lack of mental health resources in the state is compounded in rural areas and even more for students who attend Premont ISD, which in December weathered its second closure threat from the Texas Education Agency in the past four years.

Some needs are compounded by a steady stream of growing pressures, said the primary school's principal Anna Recio.

"Some of the problems here are deep. The kids have been through a lot," Recio said. "The kids need somebody. We (as administrators) talk to them, but the problems go beyond being solved with (in school suspension)."

The Texas Education Agency gave Premont ISD a reprieve from closure in 2013, and the district formed a partnership with A&M-Kingsville to improve academics.

The first partnership of its kind in the state provided guidance for Premont to win a nearly $2 million grant in 2014, and this year Premont won a 5-year, $5 million grant to continue initiatives the 2014 grant started. The newest state grant will fund staff for the first PreK-3 program in Premont, an after-school program and the new licensed professional counselor position.

"As an education institution we have a responsibility to this community," Bain said. "I'm excited about the future of this school and the future of these kids."

Twitter: @CallerBetty
GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Chase Sosa (from left), Yordan Journey and Jared Brown from Mansfield Explorers Post 1601 advance down a hall during the active shooter scenario as they compete in the third annual Law Enforcement Explorer Competition on Saturday, Aug. 6, 2016, at Calallen High School in Corpus Christi.

SHARE GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Jacob Mueller (right) and Yordan Journey from Mansfield Explorers Post 1601 talk to an actor portraying a hostage during an active shooter scenario as they compete in the third annual Law Enforcement Explorer Competition on Saturday, Aug. 6, 2016, at Calallen High School in Corpus Christi. GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Richard Lormand (left) and Lothario Pratt from El Campo Explorers Post 1029 take notes on an overturned vehicle during the traffic accident scenario as they compete in the third annual Law Enforcement Explorer Competition on Saturday, Aug. 6, 2016, at Calallen High School in Corpus Christi. GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Christopher Feliciano, from Kingsville Border Patrol Explorers Post 531, approaches an actor carrying a weapon during the felony traffic stop scenario as he competes in the third annual Law Enforcement Explorer Competition on Saturday, Aug. 6, 2016, at Calallen High School in Corpus Christi. GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Seth Wolf, from Trophy Club Explorers Post 953, competes in the endurance round during the third annual Law Enforcement Explorer Competition on Saturday, Aug. 6, 2016, at Calallen High School in Corpus Christi.

By Esther Hackleman, Esther.M.Hackleman@caller.com

Four cadets burst through the double doors at the top of a stairwell in Calallen High School while responding to an active shooter scenario at 11 a.m. Saturday.

The training squad from Mansfield moved quickly in a diamond formation after hearing six shots fired. They scanned the upstairs hallway littered bullet casings and pools of fake blood while panicked student actors yelled and tried to escape the gunshots.

Within five minutes, the squad located the suspect, treated the victims and cleared the scene to successfully complete a round in the third annual Law Enforcement Explorer Competition.

"In our training, we don't have actors or fake blood on the ground. This is a lot more realistic scenario than just training with a bunch of guys we know," 18-year-old Jacob Mueller said. "It got my adrenaline going a little bit more."

Nearly 140 youth from around the state gathered at the Calallen High School to participate in the law enforcement competition. The Explorers program is part of the Boy Scouts of America Learning for Life program.

The program uses live situations and drills to prepare students between 14 and 20 years old who want to become police officers and public servants.

"It helps them so if they do want to become officers or some kind of law enforcement, they gain the confidence and leadership skills that they need to do so," said Corpus Christi Police Department Lt. Emily Lopez, one of the event's organizers. "For officers, it gives us a reason to look forward to the future."

Thirty-three teams were tested for their skills, reactions and communication in different scenarios ranging from traffic accidents to crime scenes.

"I think it's great to see young minds who are already looking to be public servants," Corpus Christi Police Chief Mike Markle said after the opening ceremony. "They're learning a sense of giving and looking out for the community, which is a great segue for our youth as they transition."

The competition was hosted by the Corpus Christi-based John W. Sartain Law Enforcement Explorer Post #133. The post was formed in 1972 to honor fallen officers like Sartain, who was killed in the line of duty by a sniper Aug. 20, 1971.

This year, the competition included a training for interviews in front of a board of police for the first time and an optional physical challenge for teams who wanted to test their endurance.

Twitter:@Caller_Esther
Contributed photo The Military Order of the Purple Heart Alaniz-Valentine Chapter 598 honored wounded or fallen servicemen Saturday at Sherrill Park.

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By Esther Hackleman, Esther.M.Hackleman@caller.com

The Military Order of the Purple Heart Alaniz-Valentine Chapter 598 honored wounded or fallen servicemen Saturday at Sherrill Park.

The Purple Heart Day Ceremony, which started at 10 a.m., recognized recipients of the award who were wounded in combat or killed in action.

The guest speaker was Col. Wade Hasle, of the Naval Air Station Corpus Christi Marine Aviation Training Support Group 22.

Rev. Ernest Philips, a retired Navy captain, gave the invocation and benediction, and the Veterans Band performed.

Twitter: @Caller_Esther
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Texas leaders' latest attempt to use state government to stop abortion may be the cruelest, least defensible thus far.

Last month, Gov. Greg Abbott issued a directive to the Texas Department of State Health Services that it pursue a rule that fetal remains be buried or cremated. The gubernatorial-directive approach is surreptitious, unlike asking the Legislature to do it. The declared reasons for the proposed rule are 1) public health and 2) human dignity  both of which would be ill-served.

At a hearing Thursday, no one could offer proof that the rule would protect public health. Current disposal methods aren't a public health problem. They're much less expensive, more environmental and unlikely to inflict emotional pain on women. Those are pluses except to those bent upon blocking abortion rights.

If human dignity were a concern, Abbott never would have proposed a rule so emotionally disturbing and cruel  not only to women who choose abortion but to women whose wanted pregnancies end in miscarriage. Those women, their mates and families would be unfortunate collateral victims of what amounts to an expedient legal necessity.

Exempting miscarriages isn't a practical strategic option because it would expose further the folly of the state's already fig-leaf-thin public health and human dignity arguments. The rule's true intent  pricing women and clinics out of abortion  would be fully exposed for easy pickings by plaintiffs in the inevitable reproductive rights lawsuit. The Supreme Court's standard for abortion-related regulation is that there be some benefit to the state and that it not unduly burden access to abortion. This idea fails on both counts, but with a louder thud if the state exempted miscarriage.

Thus, to protect the state's already tenuous position, couples already grieving over a miscarriage would be forced to face the additional burden of interment decisions and expenses, which could include choice of urn or miniature casket, a burial plot, whether to give the remains a name, whether to have a funeral service, etc. Most miscarried fetuses, like most aborted ones, are the size of a pea pod. Normally, the earliness of the developmental stage can be of some solace to a grieving woman who wants a baby, but not if she's surrounded by all the trappings of a funeral.

As if that weren't enough to expose the human dignity argument as a sham, during Thursday's hearing the issue of what a woman is to do with the remains if she miscarries at home came up for discussion: Would she be required to take it to a hospital? A doctor's office? An anti-abortion advocate responded by proposing that women who miscarry at home be exempted. But as we've already established, there goes the already bogus public health argument out the window. Women miscarry wherever they happen to be. They can schedule an abortion but not a miscarriage.

The more this proposal is explored, the crueler and more gruesome it gets.

The rule doesn't specify yet who would bear the cost. But no matter who pays, there is no cheap option. The Funeral Consumers Alliance of Texas, which opposes the rule, warned the state that the rock bottom is $2,000.

Three other states have implemented fetal burial laws and Indiana is in a legal fight over its attempt to do so. Texas should abandon this idea, not only to avoid the time and expense of an unwinnable legal battle but for the sake of human decency.
home Faith Riot breaks out at Anglican synod in Nigeria, four women and one youth injured

Protesters demanding for the dismissal of an allegedly corrupt Anglican bishop have interrupted the Anglican Church from convening its synod in Nigeria. The said protesters also clashed with authorities which resulted with five people injured.

According to the Anglican's official website, protesters surrounded St. John's Anglican Church in Amukpe recently and blocked the clergy and delegates from entering the church to participate in the scheduled synod. The protesters held placards and demanded the resignation of Rt. Rev. Blessing Erifeta, the bishop of Sapele.

The vicar of St. John then reportedly called the who were soldiers positioned to protect an oil pipeline nearby and requested them to clear the church building of the demonstrators. The clergy prayed at a school nearby as the authorities and protestors clashed. The incident resulted in injuries among four women and a youth.

Members of the Youth League also blocked the clergy and congregation from holding a synod at the St. Luke's Cathedral in July last year as they accused Bishop Erifeta of "financial recklessness, mal-administration, disrespect to elders and embark[ing] on incessant trips abroad with the diocese funds" and petitioned Archbishop Nicholas Okoh to sack the bishop.

According to National Reformer News Online, the leaders of the rescue group of the Sapele Diocese Anglican Communion petitioned on Oct. 9 last year to the Inspector General of Police. The petitioners complained that Bishop Erifeta did not only mishandle the church finances but also threatened to kidnap and kill them.

The bishop appeared consequently at the zone 5 Nigeria Police in Benin City as authorities interrogated him over the accusations. He was subsequently set free by the police as investigations continued.

Diocesan secretary Churchill Akure came to the defense of the bishop.

"The cathedral has been known for so many bad reports in the past and the bishop did not give them a room to continue in such bad light through regular caution and rebuke," Akure said in a statement. "This is what they called insult. They keep resisting correction and are not ready to adjust. I pray God will open their eyes of understanding," the secretary added.
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Cambridgeshire's maverick former councillor and TV presenter Robin Page has been sacked by the Daily Telegraph .

The outspoken conservationist also fired a parting shot in his crusade for rural affairs, saying the move represented the latest blow to Britain's most endangered minority in multi-cultural Britain  traditional country people".

Mr Page was given his marching orders from his daily column by email this week, having written it for some 30 years.

But it is by no means the first time the controversial chairman of the Countryside Restoration Trust (CRT) has been dismissed from a high-profile post.

It was in fact the third time The Telegraph has given him his P45, while Mr Page was previously given the boot from BBC Television's One Man and His Dog .

I am very sad at losing my 'Country Diary' at the Telegraph , and a lot of readers seem to be very angry," said Mr Page.

I have been restructured out of the paper by corporate, urban money men. It was a good column; it showed the countryside, wildlife, farming and green living as it really is.

Most countryside imitations in the media are sanitized and soaked in saccharine and saccharine is an artificial sweetener.

I sought no favours and described things as they are, including sharp teeth and claws. I felt that I was giving a voice to Britain's most endangered minority in multi-cultural Britain  traditional country people".

The sacking marks the latest twist in another turbulent few months for Mr Page, who was born in Barton and where he continues to live as part of his work around sustainable farming with CRT.

He quit as an independent councillor on South Cambs District Council earlier this year, claiming both local and national government policies were trashing" the countryside.

Prior to this he also made the headlines by comparing the approval of an affordable housing development in Great Eversden as equivalent to that of Jihadists trashing their history in Iraq".

He found himself in hot water over a joke" about giving contraceptives to immigrants in raisins, while local Lib Dems also successfully complained to the Charities Commission about a press release put out by Mr Page through CRT.

I hope my unplanned disappearance from the Telegraph does not impact on the CRT," he said.

We wait and see. It is all part of Britain in the 21st century  the sidelining of the real countryside  those who live and work in it and the wildlife that depends on it. It is all very sad".

Mr Page added that he has now reluctantly" set up a blog and taken to social media, in the absence of his Telegraph column.

You can read his blog here and find him on Twitter at @skylarkwarrior.
"I had to get written reports about the fact we were together, and all these stat decs from family and friends  it was still traumatic to describe your relationship when you didn't have it any more."
Portrait Gallery education and access manager Krysia Kitch said the festival, now in its third year, was a good way for families to spend time together and also get chatting to strangers, with the festival creating a wonderful sense of organised chaos amongst the clean lines of the gallery.
"With Singapore Airlines, [we're] keen to grow the four flights a week to five, six and ultimately a daily flight and then we're also looking at connections through New Zealand on to North America, so a Canberra-Auckland flight that then connected into the hub that is Auckland airport and then on to north and South America is a medium-term proposition that we'd look at in five years time or so."
For the Browns, the Ronald McDonald House has proved essential. Without the facility, Mrs Brown said the family would not have had the funds to stay for six weeks while their babies were in hospital.
Gemma Sweaney, far left, hosted a welcome lunch as part of The Welcome Dinner Project which aims to join up new arrivals in Australia with residents. Pictured with Mio Itakura, Maggie Sweaney, 4, and Canberra co-ordinator of the project Sue Bromhead. Photo: Elesa Kurtz
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Our Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact.

Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here.

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At the 2016 IPCPR Trade Show, Caldwell Cigar Company unveiled two line extensions to The Last Tsar in the form of a Corona Gorda and Toro Extra. The new sizes add a third and fourth size to what has been to what is the Caldwells most premium offering in the portfolio.

The Last Tsar is a cigar that pays homage to Emperor (Tsar) Nicholas II, who was the final monarch of Russia. In 1917, he was forced to abdicate his throne during the Russian Revolution. One year later, Nicholas II and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks.

The line made its debut in 2015 as Caldwell Cigar Companys first limited offering. It was first released in May, 2015 as a 5 1/2 x 52 Belicoso. Six months later a second size, a 7 x 47 Churchill was unveiled.

The additions of the Toro and Corona Gorda bring the total number of vitolas released in The Last Tsar to four. Like the Belicoso and Churchill, the new Toro and Corona Gorda sizes will be packaged in ten count boxes. The first two releases were limited production. Given the new world order of FDA regulation, it wasnt quite clear how limited these new sizes would be.

The Last Tsar features a Araparica Connecticut Shade Hybrid Maduro. This is the same wrapper found on the Caldwell Eastern Standard, but it fermented longer and processed differently. The rest of the blend has not been disclosed other than it contains Carbonell tobacco. The line is produced at Tabacalera William Ventura in the Dominican Republic.

Photo Credits: Cigar Coop
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...
Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said second-quarter profit rose 25 percent on earnings from newly acquired manufacturing businesses and improved results at insurance operations.

Net income climbed to $5 billion from $4.01 billion a year earlier, the Omaha, Nebraska-based company said Friday in a statement. Operating earnings, which exclude some investment results, were $2,803 a share, missing the average $2,911 estimate of three analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Berkshires businesses represent a cross-section of the economy and provide Buffett, 85, with a steady stream of cash for more investments. Since the start of the year, hes added to the companys manufacturing operations, completing deals for battery-maker Duracell and Precision Castparts Corp., a global supplier to the aerospace industry. Those businesses helped bolster results, as did a rebound at auto insurer Geico, even as earnings slumped at the companys railroad and energy businesses.

Its an insurance-based conglomerate and the insurance underwriting turned around at a time when a lot of the peer group saw a deterioration, said Cathy Seifert, an equity analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Share Gain

Berkshire shares have climbed 10 percent this year to $218,010 at 4 p.m. in New York compared with the 6.8 percent gain in the S&P 500 Index. The statement was released after the close of regular trading.

Results were also helped by a $610 million gain from the redemption of an investment in Kraft Heinz Co. preferred stock. Buffett has long told shareholders that they should focus on the underlying earnings of Berkshires operating businesses, rather than gains or losses on securities that are reflected in the companys income statement.

Book value, a measure of assets minus liabilities, rose to $160,009 per share at the end of June from $157,369 three months earlier.

The insurance businesses posted an underwriting gain of $337 million, rebounding from a loss of $38 million a year earlier. Pretax underwriting profit almost tripled at the Geico unit to $150 million as the auto insurer added customers and increased rates. The namesake reinsurance operation benefited from currency fluctuations, posting a $184 million profit, compared with a loss a year earlier.

Duracell, Precision

It was a rough quarter for other large U.S. property-and-casualty insurers. Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. was hurt by an increase in claims costs for auto policies, while Travelers Cos. said that wildfires in Canada and other natural disasters crimped earnings.

Income from Berkshires manufacturing, service and retailing segment climbed 14 percent to $1.49 billion, boosted by Precision and Duracell. Other major manufacturing businesses  including chemical unit Lubrizol and toolmaker Iscar  posted a decline in profit. Industrial products subsidiaries may take additional cost containment actions in response to further slowdowns in customer demand, Berkshire said in a regulatory filing. Luxury aviation unit NetJets reported lower revenue.

One of Berkshires biggest businesses, railroad BNSF, saw profit drop 20 percent to $772 million. Results were hurt by a decline in the volume of coal and petroleum-product shipments, and a decrease in revenue from agricultural cargo.

Stocks, Cash

Profit at the utility unit, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, fell to $482 million from $502 million a year earlier. The business operates electric grids in the U.K., natural gas pipelines that stretch from the Great Lakes to Texas and power companies in states including Iowa and Nevada.

Berkshires stock portfolio was valued at $104.2 billion at the end of the second quarter, down from $106.4 billion on March 31. Some of Buffetts biggest holdings  including Wells Fargo & Co., American Express Co. and Phillips 66  declined in the quarter.

The cash pile climbed to $72.7 billion as of June 30 from $58.3 billion three months earlier, helped by Kraft Heinzs redemption of preferred shares for about $8.3 billion. The extra funds add to Buffetts resources for another major takeover.

Theyre generating a lot of cash, said Jim Shanahan, an analyst at Edward Jones. Theyre in a really good position to make another large acquisition.

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.
I was presenting at a panel at the Media and Civil Rights Symposium at the University of South Carolina. I noticed that one of my fellow panelists was from a small college in my home county. I quickly ran up to him and shared that I was from a small town near the college he taught at. At the end of our conversation about history and Central Pennsylvania, he looked at me and said, its good to see a local kid actually do something. While he certainly meant it as a compliment, my first thought was fuck you. This comment sowed the seeds of the bitter chip I was developing on my shoulder.

In college, the micro-aggressions werent so noticeable. They came out when anyone familiar with my Central Pennsylvania hometown responded with an ugh upon meeting me. When friends of mine would shame people for smoking cigarettes or drinking soda, I would internalize this disapproval. I quickly learned not to say cuss or talk about my love of NASCAR racing. I spent my time trying to find my place in Philadelphia and crush my origins under books and my love of history. My senior year of college I took a small interdisciplinary research seminar, the kind of class that sticks with you for years afterwards. I was in the midst of applying to graduate schools, when my professor tried to explain some unknowable, intangible quality of graduate students and academia that wasnt and couldnt be taught at my working-class public university. At the time, I had no idea what she was talking about.

That fall, I entered a M.A. program at an SEC school. Even at a large public university in the deep south, most of the graduate students came from high-ranking public schools and liberal arts colleges. I didnt. Most of my peers had parents who were professors or lawyers or professionals. I was raised by a medical scheduler, a mechanic, and a farrier. My grandparents lived in a house trailer in the woods of Edenton, North Carolina, for much of my childhood. There were no concrete or tangible disadvantages to having a working-class background, or for being from towns that elicited an ew from anyone in the know. But I very clearly lacked something, something that united my colleagues and resulted in a confidence of place and belonging that I would never have. My differences  in public education and cultural knowledge  couldnt be undone, but I could learn how to hide them. In my personal life, I wore them like a badge of honor  but I also wanted to get an academic job someday.

I bought The Professor Is In by Karen Kelsky, a terrifying book full of blunt (and much needed advice) about navigating the academic job market. While the author gives outspoken advice about the struggles of the job market, particularly for women, she also implicitly argues for the importance of hiding ones class. She wrote about clothing and makeup and speaking patterns in women. Around the time I read this book, I realized that I, for a lack of a better term, code white trash. I have bad teeth, frequently say yall and how come, and have a habit of running around South Philadelphia in a Dale Earnhardt Jr. t-shirt. It is one thing to have your hometown judged by your peers, but it is quite another to realize that qualities you possess, habits born of a lifetime that you dont even realize you have, make you read as unqualified or unfit for your chosen profession.

But you cant go home either, as they say. The more formal education I acquired, the larger the gap between my family and I became. My parents are incredibly proud of me and have never been anything other than supportive. But everyone from cousins to former employers have insinuated that I am arrogant because I left my small town for the city and enrolled in a Ph.D program. Why couldnt I get a real job in the Harley Factory? What could you even do with a history Ph.D anyway? And most common of all, was I ever coming home? Slowly I realized the answer to that question had to be no.

Coming home still feels like a relief, a break from a life of pretending. But very gradually, my life has become very different from that of my family and old friends. We no longer watch the same TV or drink the same beer or read the same books. It takes a good week to get acclimated to the Folgers coffee my mom still buys. And many of my friends have no frame of reference for my chosen career, having never gone to college or even finished high school themselves. And sometimes my liberal and quasi-socialist opinions run up against those of the people in my hometown. How can I contest their sometimes racist, homophobic, or anti-intellectual opinions without confirming their stereotypes about who I have become, an elitist snob from the city?

The result is an in-betweenness, a lack of belonging. I will never fully belong in the world of academia, and frankly I dont want to. But I also no longer fully belong at home. And I cant complain (nor do I want to). I am incredibly lucky. I graduated from a high school where many students never see a community college or a technical school, much less a Ph.D program in the humanities. I am the dream, the local kid who did good. But nobody tells you what its like, the incredible loneliness that accompanies that kind of class jumping that many people dream of.

So, I continue to pull out that well-worn Dale Earnhardt t-shirt. I wrote the majority of my M.A. thesis while listening to Tim McGraw, and am in fact listening to him as I write this essay. And Barnes and Noble still seems to me like an intellectual mecca, the city on the hill. After all, Flannery OConnor once wrote when in Rome, do as you done in Milledgeville.
Following improvements made to boost protection in a small overlap front crash, which applies to vehicles built after March, the 2017 Santa Fe has qualified for a Top Safety Pick+.



The Institutes engineers have noted 4 inches (10.2 cm) maximum intrusion at the lower door hinge pillar, while the safety belt and airbags worked to control the dummys movement, earning it a Good rating in the challenging small overlap test.

By comparison, the previous version, which was rated Marginal in the same test, measured as much as 10 inches (25.4 cm) of intrusion at the lower door hinge pillar, the steering column moved by 5 inches (12.7 cm) to the right and the dummys head barely contacted the frontal airbag before sliding off to the left side.

The 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe has Good ratings in the moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraint tests as well, while its optional front crash prevention system, ranked Superior, has allowed it to avoid collisions in the 12 mph (19 km/h) and 25 mph (40 km/h) track tests. The system also includes a forward collision warning, which meets the NHTSAs criteria, and its part of a technology package that includes the curve-adaptive, high-intensity discharge headlights, rated Good in the IIHS evaluations, but without the optional package, the Santa Fes halogen headlights earn a Poor rating.

PHOTO GALLERY

VIDEO
There is definitely no shortage of superminis that can put a smile on your face, but Kia feels that the next-generation Rio could tackle this segment.



Speaking on the subject with AutoExpress during a South Korean event, the brands engineering chief, Albert Biermann, has disclosed the companys plans to develop such a model, which, if green lighted, could use a 3-cylinder turbocharged engine.

We have a very good base with the Rio, and it would be interesting to have a sport small car. We have a very nice three-cylinder turbo out there. I love this engine, it feels like a six-cylinder with the sound and vibration it delivers sometimes. I would love to make a crazy car with this engine, Biermann said.

Kia has yet to pursue this idea or to make an official decision when it comes to building it, but if it will hit the market, then it will lend its powertrain to the Hyundai i20 N, as both vehicles are underpinned by the same platform. However, expect its Hyundai cousin to be more hardcore, since it will be part of the new N performance division.

The regular supermini, on the other hand, is expected to make its first appearance in 2017 and it could set the basis for a subcompact crossover to slot below the current Niro hybrid.

Note: Next-gen Kia Rio prototype pictured

PHOTO GALLERY
You could have the missing piece of the puzzle that will help the RCMP put someone behind bars. Here are some recent crimes that Central Okanagan Crime Stoppers hope you can help solve by calling our anonymous tips line at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), visit our website at www.crimestoppers.net or text to CRIMES (274637), keyword Ktown.

CRIME: THEFT OF TAILGATE

DATE: July 29, 2016

RCMP FILE: 2016-43784

A man returned from holidays to find that someone had entered his property on the 9000 block of Shanks Road in Lake Country and stolen the tailgate off his truck and a drop hitch and equalizer bars that were in the yard. The tailgate was taken from a black 2008 Ford F350 Crew cab. The theft occurred between July 9th and 14th.

Photo: Crime Stoppers

If you know anything about this crime, or any other crime, call the Central Okanagan Crime Stoppers anonymous tips line at 1-800-222-TIPS or visit our website at www.crimestoppers.net. Your information will be kept confidential and could lead to a reward of up to $2000.00.

CRIME: THEFT OF BOAT MOTOR

DATE: July 31, 2016

RCMP FILE: 2016-44224

A 10 aluminum fishing boat beached on the 15,700 block of Whiskey Cove Road in Lake Country had its motor stolen between July 30th and 31st. It is believed that the thieves arrived by boat to steal the Evinrude 9.9 outboard motor (serial number G03778405). Two life jackets were also taken.

Photo: Crime Stoppers

You can help catch these suspects and qualify for a reward by calling Crime Stoppers anonymous tips line at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), visit our website at www.crimestoppers.net or text to CRIMES (274637), keyword Ktown.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
Photo: Okanagan College. Okanagan College's Cassandra Lum of Penticton receives prestigious award.

Two Okanagan College students have received coveted awards allowing them to further their education abroad.

Madeline Kempf and Cassandra Lum of the college's School of Business are two of only six college students in the province to receive the Premiers International Scholarships this year. The awards are valued at between $6,000 and $10,000 each.

Its great to see students gaining international experience through support from the Irving K. Barber BC Scholarship Society, said Jim Hamilton, college president.

For Lum, from Penticton, receiving the scholarship was the ticket to fulfilling a long-standing dream of studying in France.

I couldnt be more excited for this opportunity, said Lum, who will graduate next June with a Bachelor of Business Administration specializing in accounting. I think its extremely beneficial to have a worldly view when it comes to business, but beyond that I firmly believe travel is just such an important part of how we learn and grow outside of the classroom.

Lum will depart for EDHEC Business School in Nice at the end of August.
'End Revolving Door Act' In Your Service - 11:00 am
Photo: Contributed

I rarely hear clients complain they have too much storage space in their house; what we all wouldn't give for a little extra in our homes.

Cue the often-forgotten space under the stairs: typically it's gyprocked and then filled with suitcases and Christmas decorations, not exactly savvy or highly functional.

No matter the size of your home, every little inch counts. Here are five of my favourite chic and clever storage solution ideas for that prime floor space beneath the stairs...

Wine and wet bar

You don't need a separate room dedicated for your wine collection (although wouldn't one be amazing), when that patch of empty space will do just fine. Granted, temperature and humidity control isn't feasible for the advanced connoisseur, a sharp looking, under-the-stairs display will wow your friends and guests all the same.

Some clients aren't fans of the sit-up wet bar, but still like to entertain and need counter space, storage, and a small wine fridge to house glassware and drinks. Run lower cabinetry along the wall and install a floating shelf above to display glasses, bowls, and other decorative items.

Powder room

Unless your staircase is right off of the kitchen or dining room, adding a small washroom down the hall or adjacent an upper landing can be perfect for larger families (no line ups), homes without a mudroom or space to wash up in, or simply for those in need of a smaller-sized water closet.

Pedestal or wall-mounted sinks are best and will keep the tiny space feeling as large as possible. Bright, but dimmable lighting is essential to also keep the space well-lit and airy.

If you have a traditional staircase with paneling or molding you can run the same trim and treatment over the door so it blends seamlessly into the mix.

Home office

It doesn't need to be flashy. A simple work surface, bank of drawers or rolling storage cubby, and a few shelves for magazine holders, baskets, bins, and some personal mementos for effect will do the trick.

Some pre-planning is required if you're in the process of or thinking of building, so that extra bracing, wires, and cables can be run and concealed in the drywall.

If your space is already finished, tuck cables and cords up along the underside of your counter and hide wires running to plug-ins with plastic u-channels painted the colour of your walls.

Library

Why not consider using this space to create your very own reading nook or library? Having a built-in bookcase installed is a clean looking and functional piece of furniture that would otherwise take up valuable floor space somewhere out in your room.

Flank it with a cozy pair of chairs (foot stools a must here for optimum lounging comfort), and a small side table for cups of coffee in the morning or that glass of Shiraz at night.

Clever Catch-All

Glide out bins or hinged doors concealing shelves, hooks, and containers make smart use of this area as well: consider carving out a small niche to house a dresser or small sideboard (to hold mail, keys, mittens, scarves, or even the dog's bowl and leash), and build-in the rest.

For a more casual look, install a few shelves and fill with woven or wire baskets, keeping the area open, yet tidy and completely organized.

Crispin Butterfield owns Urban Theory Interior Design in Kelowna, and has been designing soul-hugging residential and commercial spaces across Western Canada for the past 13 years.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
Photo: The Canadian Press Canada Post workers demonstrate in Montreal on Saturday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

Hundreds of unionized postal workers and their supporters marched to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Montreal office on Saturday hoping to push forward negotiations with Canada Post.

An official with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers said talks with the Crown corporation remain stalled on key issues such as pensions and wage parity.

"It's still in discussion, but the files aren't moving forward," Sylvain Lapointe said. "The big issues are still on the table."

The union members said the event's goal was to call on the Liberal government to pressure Canada Post to negotiate in good faith with its workers.

The union's national president said Canada's Post's positions runs counter to the values promoted by the Liberal party.

"We have a government that's advocated for better pensions for everyone and made that a major part of their mandate, but here we have a Crown corporation which is going the opposite direction, trying to take secure pensions away from future generations," Mike Palecek said.

Canada Post has said it wants to change its pension plan to bring it in line with the private sector. It wants new employees to be covered under a defined contribution plan instead of a defined benefit plan, which reduces costs for companies and shifts the risk for future payouts to employees, who are no longer guaranteed a set payment in retirement.

The union wants changes in how rural and suburban mail carriers are paid. They want to be paid by the hour, like urban letter carriers, not by how many packages they deliver.

Palecek said the suburban carriers, who are 70 per cent women, end up making 28 per cent less than their predominantly male urban counterparts.

"We have a prime minister that has been advocating for pay equity, but yet the most glaring case of pay equity left in the federal public sector -- here of the rural and suburban mail carriers of Canada Post -- remains completely unresolved," he said.

Most of the protesters were from the Montreal area but others were bussed in from Ottawa and Quebec City.

Many came dressed in Canada Post uniforms and waved signs saying "save Canada Post," and "Because it's 2016," referring to a remark Trudeau made late last year when unveiling his gender-balanced cabinet.

The two sides have been negotiating since late 2015.

Canada Post withdrew a threat to lock out its workers in early July, saying it wanted to allow both parties to focus on negotiations.

Mail carrier Alice Picard, who brought her two young daughters to the event, said she's hoping for a quick settlement.

"Threat of lockouts are hard on morale," she said. "It's worrying, it has to move forward. I need my salary to pay rent and feed my family."
Photo: David Ogilvie

A pickup truck slammed into a light post in West Kelowna Saturday night.

Police responded to the crash at about 8:15 p.m. It happened in the parking lot at Highway 97 and Westside Road.

Initial reports that gunshots may have been fired were not accurate. Instead, the sound was caused by the large lamps hitting the pavement.
Photo: Contributed

A Calgary man has died of injuries he suffered in a fall while climbing at Heart Canyon Creek near Kananaskis, Alberta.

Canmore RCMP issued a statement Saturday that says the 42-year old man suffered critical injuries when he fell approximately 22 metres Friday afternoon.

The Mounties say he was airlifted out to the trail head by helicopter, then flown by air ambulance to a Calgary medical centre where he died Friday evening.

Police say they will not be releasing the deceased man's name as they continue to investigate the accident in conjunction with the Calgary Medical Examiner's Office.
Photo: The Canadian Press

A court order forcing dozens of homeless to pack up and dismantle Victoria's tent city on Monday hasn't diminished the attention the controversial site has drawn to the growing problem of homelessness in Canada, an anti-poverty advocate says.

The hodge-podge of tents, hording and tarps on the lawn just outside the court house in British Columbia's capital drew national attention to the number of people sleeping on the streets.

"We've had people sleeping in the parks in Victoria, in doorways, for years and years, and because it was so disparate throughout the community it just wasn't noticeable and people really didn't react in the same way as they did when they saw the dire poverty and people there all together," said Kelly Newhook, executive director of Together Against Poverty Society.

"It was impossible to ignore."

The camp grew from a few tents in the spring of 2015 to dozens of makeshift shelters.

After a legal dispute between the province and anti-poverty activists, a B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled on July 5 that those living in the camp must leave by Aug. 8 due to declining safety and sanitary conditions at the site.

The B.C. government was spending $184,000 per month on upkeep for the site including the cost of collecting garbage and supplying portable toilets, said Ministry of Housing spokeswoman Lindsay Byers.

That figure also funded community workers from the Portland Hotel Society to help connect campers with housing and other social services.

With the shutdown of the site looming, many of the campers have moved into new affordable housing facilities funded by the province.

Housing activist Christine Brett, who has been working at the site a minimum of five days a week since December, said there are many success stories as people have moved from the camp to social housing.

"I've seen people that have come back super happy and really content to be in a place where they can call their own," she said.

The province said it has invested $26 million last year to create 370 new units for shelter and transitional housing.

But Brett said moving people into shelters doesn't resolve the poverty that leads people to become homeless and calls it the government's attempt to "sweep it under the rug."

The last homeless count in Victoria found over 1,300 people living on the streets or in shelters in February, Newhook said.

Nationally there are an estimated 28,500 people who are homeless on any given night and least 200,000 individuals who access emergency shelters or sleep outside in a year, according to the Canadian research group Homeless Hub.
Photo: The Canadian Press - AP, Austin American-Statesman, Deborah Cannon

In the wake of hot air balloon crash in the U.S. that killed 16 people, the federal agency that oversees transportation safety in this country says there hasn't been enough action taken over safety concerns.

"Balloon operators can operate commercially, can take fare-paying passengers up for sightseeing tours and yet they're not required to undergo the same level of regulatory oversight that airplanes or helicopters would be doing the same activity," Transportation Safety Board chair Kathy Fox told The Canadian Press.

To carry paying customers, balloon operators must obtain a Transport Canada-issued Special Flights Operations Certificate, which Fox says can be obtained by submitting only basic information. It also never expires.

Unlike other plane or helicopter companies, balloon operations are not subject to audits or inspections and are not required to maintain operations or maintenance control manuals, Fox says.

Following the deadly July 30 balloon crash in a field in central Texas, there have been calls for stricter rules in the U.S.

A member of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, Robert Sumwalt, told The Associated Press there was what he called a "disparity" in the requirements for balloon operators compared to plane or helicopter pilots  similar to concerns raised by the TSB since 2008.

But the agency says recommendations for tougher commercial ballooning rules in Canada have been brushed aside by the Federal Transportation Department.

Although individual pilots must be licensed and balloons must obtain a yearly "airworthiness certificate," Fox maintains there is not enough overall industry oversight to ensure companies are operating safely.

"It's really left up to the balloon operators now, and I'm sure they're doing their best to operate safely, but the point is it's left up to them with no regulatory oversight from Transport Canada," Fox said.

The Transportation Safety Board first recommended imposing stricter regulations following a pair of 2007 accidents.

On Aug. 11 of that year, a hot air balloon with 12 people aboard caught fire after propane fuel began leaking during a rough landing outside Winnipeg. Seven people were injured  three seriously  in the ensuing fire and explosion.

Two weeks later, two people died after an intense, propane-fuelled fire broke out in a balloon preparing for takeoff in Surrey, B.C., which broke free from its tether and later plunged to the ground.

The Transportation Safety Board's report found the balloon's burners had been modified to allow it to carry a weight exceeding the recommended maximum. That's something Fox said might have come to light with more regular inspections.

In response to the board's call for tighter regulations, Transport Canada agreed to conduct a risk assessment and formed a working group to study the issue.

The assessment was not released publicly, but the federal department stated in late 2013 that the favourable safety record of operators indicated that no further regulatory action was needed to ensure passenger safety.

A spokesperson for Transport Canada said there are no current plans to revise the rules since the level of risk for balloon passengers is low.

"Transport Canada analysis shows that hot air balloon passengers and operators enjoy a safe environment," Annie Joannette said in an email.

The federal department said that between 1977 and 2012, there were five fatalities out of an estimated 26,000 balloon passengers carried annually, or 0.54 per 100,000 passengers  a rate consistent with other air operations.

Many Canadians will take to the skies in the coming weeks with hot air balloon festivals scheduled across the country, including two of the country's biggest in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Gatineau, Que.

Long-time balloon pilot Serge Guillette says operators have rigorous safety procedures to follow.

These include complying with Transport Canada regulations on flight crew licensing and training, registration, and maintenance and operating procedures, including passenger safety briefings and visual inspections.

What happened in Texas might have people asking questions, "but they're quickly reassured when they see the team, see the structure, when they see the support team," said Guillette of Quebec-based balloon company La Magie de l'air.

He said most operations in Canada are smaller and less commercial than their U.S. counterparts, run by experienced pilots who are motivated by a love of being up in the air.

"In general, our operators are all very passionate, they're not people who are going to take risks, and when the conditions aren't optimal, we don't fly and that's it," he said.
Photo: The Canadian Press - Sean Potter, Abbey LeFrank, Christin Lane Undated photo of shark attack off Nova Scotia.

A shark estimated to be more than two metres in size has been spotted off Nova Scotia's South Shore, the latest in a series of sightings in Maritime waters.

Bill Flower, or "Cap't Bill" as he's known at Lunenburg Ocean Adventures, says he was taking a stag party on a tour near Cross Island on Saturday when the group saw either a mako or a great white shark jump straight out of the water three or four times.

Flower says he's been seeing more sharp-toothed predators on his near-daily shark charters, a slight increase he attributes to warming waters related to climate change.

"Everything is environmentally changing," Flower said Sunday. "I'm seeing more (sharks). Not a lot, but ... I've never seen a mako breach unless it's on a hook before, and I saw one yesterday on a rough day and that was very unusual."

Other sightings in Atlantic Canada this summer include a great white that was caught on camera cruising in the Bay of Fundy near St. Andrews, N.B. last week, and a shark that caused a stir in Liverpool, N.S., in July after gobbling mackerel straight off fishers' hooks.

In New Melbourne, N.L., last month, a cod fisher hooked more than what he bargained for when he found the maw of a two-metre porbeagle shark at the other end of his handline.

"We never really had time to be scared," Jim Mansfield told The Canadian Press after his encounter. "I've often wondered what it would be like to catch one, you know? I've heard tell of people often seeing them out there."

Last Sunday, a group of 22-year-olds filmed a shark hunting a pod of harbour porpoises in St. Margarets Bay near Hackett's Cove, N.S., while whale watching on a small inflatable boat.

Warren Joyce, a researcher with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Halifax, said it looks like the porpoises might have been "a little shaken" from the encounter, but he suspects they escaped unscathed.

Joyce said the DFO is notified of shark sightings approximately 12 to 20 times every summer and there has not been a significant hike this year.

The researcher reckons about half of these reports may be false alarms inspired by the cultural fascination with the dead-eyed, primeval fish.

"The water is still a fairly foreign environment to us," Joyce said in an interview this week. "It's either a big fear to encounter sharks or a big excitement for folks. People that I've talked to, they seem interested whether they're scared to death of them or they find them really interesting animals."

In the United States, shark sightings have prompted authorities to close several beaches on the East Coast, including popular destinations in New England, New York and elsewhere.
Photo: Don Watson

Residents are being advised to batten down the hatches  again.

Yet another severe thunderstorm warning has been issued by Environment Canada for the North Okanagan.

Parts of the Shuswap and North Thompson regions are also in line for some wild weather.

According to the warning, Conditions are favourable for the development of severe thunderstorms that may be capable of producing strong wind gusts, large hail and heavy rain.

Large hail can damage property and cause injury. Heavy downpours can cause flash floods and water pooling on roads.

Send your weather pictures to [email protected].
Welcome to another addition of THIS ISLAND EARTH, CKCU's weekly program (Sunday 1-4 pm) dedicated to great music from all over the globe. Thisweek we feature mainly new releases that have caught me ear and we'll start off with a great collaboration effort between Tony Allen and a group of Haitian ensemble followed by the legendary funk/free jazz outfit, The Pyramids. From there we meander off to various other reaches of the globe, including Tanzania, Italy, Pakistan, Ukraine, Hungary, Cabo Verde, Brazil, Cameroon, Portugal, Norway, Spain, Romania, Niger, Iran, and more . Please drop me a line if you have any questions or comments!

Salilento

Afro-Haitian Experimental Orchestra - Afro-Haitian Experimental Orchestra - Afro-Haitian Experimental Orchestra Epiphany

Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids - We Be All Africans - We Be All Africans We Be All Africans

Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids - We Be All Africans - We Be All Africans Ba Motoka Na Castle

Sunburst - Ave Africa: The Complete Recordings 1973-1976 - Ave Africa: The Complete Recordings 1973-1976 Ani Uni

Sunburst - Ave Africa: The Complete Recordings 1973-1976 - Ave Africa: The Complete Recordings 1973-1976 Pontin Pontin

Bana - Space Echo: The Mystery Behind the Cosmic Sound of Cabo Verde Finally Revealed - Space Echo: The Mystery Behind the Cosmic Sound of Cabo Verde Finally Revealed Odio Sem Valor

Pedrinho - Space Echo: The Mystery Behind the Cosmic Sound of Cabo Verde Finally Revealed - Space Echo: The Mystery Behind the Cosmic Sound of Cabo Verde Finally Revealed Corre Riba, Corre Baixo

Abel Lima - Space Echo: The Mystery Behind the Cosmic Sound of Cabo Verde Finally Revealed - Space Echo: The Mystery Behind the Cosmic Sound of Cabo Verde Finally Revealed O Rei de Tupanga

Iconili - Rough Guide To Brazilian Jazz - Rough Guide To Brazilian Jazz A Ultima Que Morre

Nomade Orquestra - Nomade Orquestra - Nomade Orquestra Blue Pepper (Far East of the Blues)

The Sachal Ensemble Jazz [feat. Wynton Marsalis] - Song of Lahore - Song of Lahore Shelter from the Storm

The Sachal Ensemble (feat. Susan Tedeschi & Derek Trucks) - Song of Lahore - Song of Lahore Scaccomatto

Riccardo Tesi & Banditaliana (feat. Alessandro Lanzoni) - Maggio - Maggio Fiesta de Negritos

Fanfare Ciocarlia feat Puerto Candelaria - Onwards to Mars! - Onwards to Mars! Roman

Felix Lajko - Most Jottem - Most Jottem Yazzan Dayra

Melt Yourself Down - Last Evenings on Earth - Last Evenings on Earth Muitomatki/Remembrance

Arvvas - Remembrance - Remembrance Haivka

Haivka - Yurodny - Yurodny La Lamia de Kobate

Ana Alcaide - Leyenda - Leyenda Hobusemang

Maarja Nuut - Une Meeles - Une Meeles Nos Dias de Hoje

Ricardo Ribeiro - Hoje e Assim, Amanha Nao Sei - Hoje e Assim, Amanha Nao Sei Lampedusa

Derek Gripper - Libraries on Fire - Libraries on Fire Lullaby

Mahsa Vahdat - The Sun Will Rise - The Sun Will Rise Mulher do Fim do Mundo

Elza Soares - The Woman at the End of the World - The Woman at the End of the World La Inevitable

M.A.K.U SoundSystem - Mezcla - Mezcla Bilongo

Richard Bona & Mandekan Cubano - Heritage - Heritage Tikounen

Kel Assouf - Tikounen - Tikounen Raga Jog - Jhaptal

Sangeet Trio - Inde du nord
According to state law, fines, penalties, and license money shall be appropriated exclusively to the use and support of the common schools ... . An exception is fines for overloaded vehicles. Seventy-five percent of those funds go to state highways; 25 percent go to the county general fund where the fine or penalty is paid. Fifty percent of money forfeited or seized in enforcing drug laws goes to counties for drug enforcement. Vehicles seized in drug law cases may be used by law enforcement agencies or sold with the proceeds going to schools.




1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.
Given that we're just collections of atoms, our very consciousness designed mostly for reproductive advantage, our self-generated racial divisions, religious prejudices and petty quests for superiority are as ridiculous as they are inevitable. That's pretty much the takeaway from Shakespeare's Globe's smart, wildly eclectic, internationally touring production of William Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice," a show that benefits greatly from an unsentimental but strikingly warm-centered performance from the great British actor Jonathan Pryce. He achieves something few actors in this great and fiendishly difficult role achieve, laying bare the perils of being born too soon.

Shylock, and his play, have remained enigmatic paradoxes, a raw carbuncle for centuries, widely detested but perversely popular. Take, for example, the practice of star actors touring Shakespeare, once common in Chicago but now mostly moribund. And yet here's the traveling Pryce in the role  and the show has sold out its run on Navy Pier  just as, in 2011, there was F. Murray Abraham doing Shylock in the Loop. These days, more stars tour as Shylock than Hamlet. (Maybe it's an age thing; youngsters tend to hate the dusty road.) And yet, just last week, my own newspaper published an editorial, penned by a Washington attorney, arguing, in essence, that "The Merchant of Venice" should never be performed again, on the grounds that it is incurably anti-Semitic.

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That's ridiculous, of course, not least because it is only in performance that the play proves its worth. In the hands of a competent director like Jonathan Munby, "The Merchant of Venice" can and does play as a cautionary tale of the perils of anti-Semitism. His work here in concert with the designer Mike Britton is the best I've seen from this oft-in-Chicago director. Only in performance can this be a work about how hate can poison an otherwise prosperous and privileged community, extracting a price on victims and perpetrators alike, destroying all that is good, really. This particular production, which features an especially devastating coda, is especially rich in the painting of that picture.

There's no question that Shakespeare used otherness, tinged with, by today's standards, a problematic exoticism, as a way to propel this drama, just as he used a strong woman in "The Taming of the Shrew" and a black man in "Othello." None of those plays were devoid of anti-Semitism, sexism or racism in their creation, any more than "King Lear" was devoid of ageism. But they also are the work of a great humanist and artist, a writer who created worlds of such complexity, and theatrical profundity, that they take on layers of ideological complexity that I've always thought go far beyond what their creator ever realized he was doing. A great Kate, for example, shows us both the shrew that drives the comedy, and the price of those laughs paid by a woman who could have become, say, the president of the United States in another era.

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So it is with Pryce's rich Shylock. Watching him on Navy Pier on Friday night, you did not doubt for a moment that Shylock was  is, could have been  a very kind, warm and creative man, rich with love, empathy and professional smarts. That's very much there in what Pryce is doing. But that is not the moment that Shylock finds himself experiencing, being as the time of our birth is accidental. So is the place  there are times when this show functions as a cautionary tale for modern-day anti-Semitism, especially rampant in Europe. So Shylock is consumed by bitterness. You would be yourself in such circumstances.

Pryce here is working with his real-life daughter, Phoebe Pryce, playing his stage daughter Jessica. The young Pryce's performance is as interesting as that of her father  in many productions, the rebellious Jessica is seen as another victim of her father's bitterness. Munby and Pryce combine to link her fate more explicitly with that of her father; her relationship with Andy Apollo's Lorenzo never feels true, here. Its merely another way for the Christian crowd to hit Shylock where it hurts him most.

That said, Munby avoids another trap of this play  making the non-Jewish characters into one-dimensional villains, thus killing the roughly third of the play that is not about Shylock at all, but about the travails of Portia (Rachel Pickup), the object of various suitors' enthusiasm but a woman trapped in a patriarchal game show she is dying to control. Pickup's Portia is cool and insufficiently vulnerable, which doesn't always work (this is a deceptively tough role), but her approach does emphasize the play's theme of people struggling mightily to escape the oppressive boxes built by others. Her relationship rightly is strongest with Nerissa (the terrific Dorothea Myer-Bennett) than with the various male suitors  Dan Fredenburgh's Bassanio included, which makes a useful point. Those suitors often are played for laughs, for indeed there are laughs in "The Merchant of Venice," a play that asks you to appreciate that even anti-Semites love and joke, an aspect of this script that accounts, more than anything else, for the large number of its detractors. But it's true.

Which brings me to one other notable performance  from Dominic Mafham. He plays Antonio as one complex dude, a blend of raw hate and pragmatism with shards of understanding. He had me rapt all night, since Antonio, he who must give up his pound of flesh, is the guy who sets the tone for the whole, smug Venetian lot of 'em, as they go about their business of money and exploitation of the New World. Don't even get me started on what Antonio's ships likely have been doing. People forget. Anti-Semitism is far from his only sin.

Chris Jones is a Chicago Tribune critic.

cjones5@chicagotribune.com

Twitter@ChrisJonesTrib

"The Merchant of Venice" - 4 stars

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When: Through Aug. 14

Where: Chicago Shakespeare's Courtyard Theater, Navy Pier

Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes

Tickets: Sold out; more information at chicagoshakes.com







Watch the latest movie trailers.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 122 Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, anger management student, in "Dark Phoenix." The film, the latest in the "X-Men" franchise, costars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jessica Chastain. Read the review. (Twentieth Century Fox)
GLOUCESTER CITY, N.J.  Authorities conducting a child pornography investigation say they found more than six dozen firearms while executing a search warrant at a New Jersey home.

Camden County prosecutors say 34-year-old George Walker was arrested Friday morning at his Gloucester City residence.

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Detectives say they found several hard drives and digital media devices containing numerous child porn videos. They say they also seized 81 firearms, including six military-style rifles, along with numerous containers of ammunition and about 25 high-capacity magazines.

Walker was charged with possessing and distributing child porn. Prosecutors say weapons charges are pending.

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Walker's bail was set at $50,000. A telephone number for him could not be located Sunday, and it wasn't known if he has retained an attorney.

Associated Press
Millennial Trains Project participant Jarod Yong, left, a Fulbright Scholar from Malaysia, and the project CEO and founder, Patrick Dowd, talk on a vintage dome-roof train car as part of the Millennial Trains Project at Union Station in Kansas City, Mo., on Aug. 3, 2016. The train was headed to Albuquerque, N.M., before finishing its trip in Los Angeles. (Christopher Smith / Chicago Tribune)

For millennials, everything old is new again. Vinyl records. Typewriters. Pabst Blue Ribbon. And cross-country train trips.

Tapping into a yearning among young people for better ways of learning and communicating, a former financial analyst left his Wall Street job to start the Millennial Trains Project. Now in its fourth year, the nonprofit puts dozens of young people from around the United States and the world onto vintage train cars to explore the country and talk to one another about what they've seen.

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"We're trying to give participants a real, visceral sense of the scale of our country and build a transregional perspective," said Patrick Dowd, 29, MTP's founder and CEO. "We look at this as an inner journey and an outer journey  the inner journey is about how our participants are growing at an individual level."

This year, the project doubled to two train trips, with two diverse groups of 26 travelers, including participants from Germany, Peru and Singapore. The first trip started in Pittsburgh last week and went through Chicago, Kansas City, Mo., and Albuquerque, N.M., before ending in Los Angeles on Sunday. The second starts Wednesday in LA and goes through San Francisco, Denver, Milwaukee and Detroit.

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The young people on board, who raised money mostly through crowdfunding to pay for their $5,000 tickets, include recent college graduates, grad students and those a few years into their careers. The State Department also sends a contingent of foreign Fulbright scholars. At each stop, they got to meet as a group with local leaders  including Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto and Chicago city Treasurer Kurt Summers on the most recent trip.

They then get to go off on their own to meet specialists in their fields of interest, ranging from designing playgrounds, planning museum programs, teaching financial literacy and promoting urban farming. Some have specific goals. Pittsburgh's Daniel Scullin is making a documentary about local food economies  while others are just there to learn.

After their city visits, they return to their train cars, which include a domed observation car and a Pullman sleeper, to eat regional food prepared by on-board chefs, attend seminars and lectures, and exchange ideas. It's a full day  starting at 6 a.m. and ending at 11 p.m.

Dowd said the goal of the trips is to build leaders and grow networks. A train is an ideal environment for community building because a cross-country observation car is like a "floating living room," where people can relax and talk, he said.

"Riding on an airplane or in a car is an anonymous and isolating experience," Dowd said. "Being on a plane eliminates the space to have a natural human conversation  two people having to look at each other and talk. We have an environment that's very conducive to creativity."

Riding along are MTP staff and mentors, including former participants. The cars are attached to Amtrak trains.

Dowd said he doesn't look at the trips as a business incubator  but participants do go on to start their own companies and other creative endeavors. One traveler started a business that turns misshapen fruit that gets rejected from grocery stores into juice, and others she had met on the MTP trip helped her out, Dowd said.

Another MTP traveler wrote clean energy legislation, using research from his journey.

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"There are so many examples of people making connections that were helpful for their careers," Dowd said.

The idea for MTP came to Dowd while he was training to be a financial analyst on Wall Street in 2012. The Occupy movement was going on outside his office windows, noisily questioning his work. While Dowd didn't want to be an "occupier," he knew he wanted to do something besides juggle numbers.

"I wanted to do something I thought would be helpful," Dowd said.

He decided to try a U.S. version of a train tour he learned about while on a Fulbright scholarship in India. The tour, called the Jagriti Yatra, which means "journey of awakening" in Hindi, takes young people on a loop around the subcontinent.

Dowd said his peers are besieged by advertising and constant claims on their attention, which can distract them from getting anything done. He sees a train journey as being similar to practices like yoga or writing personal letters  a way to slow down, pay attention and act with intention.

"We're not all sitting in a row with our ear plugs in, watching an on-demand movie," he said. "We're talking."

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Dowd said even the delays that come with Amtrak are educational  the fact that a train is held up by a freight carrying coal and oil tells something about the nation's history, and how things work.

One participant in this year's project is Rachel Reilly Carroll, 31, of Washington, D.C., who works for Enterprise Community Partners, a national nonprofit that finances affordable housing. Carroll wanted to look at the need to preserve and create affordable housing near transit.

On her journey last week, Carroll talked to residents in the gentrified East Liberty neighborhood in Pittsburgh, and with activists in Chicago's Wicker Park and Logan Square neighborhoods who fear being displaced by new, high-rise projects near "L" stops.

Carroll decided to take the trip because she could only learn so much "sitting at my desk behind a computer screen."

"It's a great opportunity for me to learn about different policies," Carroll told the Tribune while waiting for the next leg of her journey in Chicago's Union Station. "You really got to be on the ground and take a look for yourself."

Carroll said it's also important for people who want to understand the nation's problems to not just see the big cities  like New York and LA  or popular mid-sized spots like Austin, Texas, but also places like Kansas City and Detroit.

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She said the trip has given her a chance to unplug from the online world and engage.

"You can't help but have conversations with people," she said. "I really wanted to take this opportunity to learn."

Those interested in next year's project can check it out at www.millennialtrain.co/participate/. The application fee is $50. Some participants receive fellowships from the project's lead sponsor, Comcast NBCUniversal.

Bike riding lessons for adults

Not everyone learns how to ride a bike as a kid, and not everyone who used to ride has tried it for a while.

To remedy this problem, the Chicago Department of Transportation has teamed up with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, the sponsor of the Divvy bike share program, to offer free bike riding classes for adults.

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Classes will be held in the evenings on the South and West sides  with Divvy providing use of bikes. Participants get a free bike helmet. Classes are open to children if space is available, but children will need to bring their own bikes, since Divvy does not allow riders younger than 16.

"Free adult riding classes are a natural fit with the city's efforts to get more people on bikes," said Sean Wiedel, CDOT assistant commissioner.

Classes started the last week of July and continue this week, Aug. 8-12 in the Garfield Workforce Center, 10 S. Kedzie.

Other classes will be held at Kennedy King College, 710 W. 65th St., Aug. 15-19, Aug. 22-29 and Aug. 29 to Sept. 2. All classes are from 6 to 8 p.m.

Another car-share option

In a column last month, a representative for the car-share program Zipcar said it has started offering a pay-by-the-mile option this summer, the first in the country.

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It turns out Enterprise already had a per-mile option for its car-share program, which can be useful for short trips. It's a bit tricky to find on its website, but the option has been available in Chicago for two years, said spokeswoman Elin Nozewski.

Enterprise offers a "Keep it Local" plan that starts at $4 an hour, plus 40 cents per mile.

More Belmont/Western pain

Welcome to the hellscape also known as Phase 2 of the Western/Belmont/Clybourn project  and stay away if you can help it.

Beginning Monday through mid-November, east and westbound traffic on Belmont through that area will be restricted to a single through-lane, and left turns from Belmont onto Western will be prohibited, CDOT said.

mwisniewski@chicagotribune.com

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Friends John Domina, 65, and Kenny LaForge, 64, from left, talk about returning home after being wounded together in a 1970 rocket-propelled grenade attack in Vietnam. They joined several area Purple Heart recipients in recording memories of their military service for the Veterans History Project at the Hilton Chicago on Aug. 7, 2016. Domina is from Tinley Park and LaForge is from Antioch. (Michael Tercha/Chicago Tribune) (Chicago Tribune)

Patrick Furlong's 16th birthday wish was simple: to know how his dad lost his leg in the Vietnam War.

At 21, Jim Furlong had seen an enemy soldier toss a hand grenade. He jumped as high as he could, hand stretched out. It brushed his fingers, then dropped to his feet.

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It took 30 years before Furlong recounted those minutes out loud for the first time, and he only did it for his son.

"I kept it all bottled in for a long time," Furlong said. "I just didn't think I wanted to talk about it."

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On Sunday, National Purple Heart Day, Furlong told that story once more, as did seven other local Vietnam War veterans who have received the military award. Transcripts of their interviews are part of an ongoing Library of Congress project to document the personal accounts of veterans from World War I through the Iraq War.

Vietnam War veterans in particular said many of Sunday's participants returned home without a homecoming. Instead, they felt pressure to swallow the horrors of warfare and get on with the reality of civilian life. The Veterans History Project, they say, is now immortalizing their experiences after decades of suffocation.

"It dawned on me that veterans don't go out there and tell these stories," Furlong said. "That's a disservice to the people who didn't come back. That's a disservice to the people I'll always remember being 20 years old. I'm their voice."

Jim Furlong, 69, tears up talking about his parents' support during his recovery after losing his leg in Vietnam in 1969. Furlong stepped on a grenade to protect other troops. He joined several area Purple Heart recipients Sunday to record their military service memories for the Veterans History Project. (Michael Tercha / Chicago Tribune)

Created by George Washington in 1782, the Purple Heart  awarded to soldiers wounded or killed in combat  is the United States' oldest existing military honor and has been awarded an estimated 1.8 million times.

Military members slammed Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump last week after he said he "always wanted to get the Purple Heart," and that receiving one as a gift from a veteran was "much easier" than serving in combat. The incident occurred just days after Trump engaged in a feud with the parents of a Muslim soldier who was killed by a car bomb in Iraq and awarded the Purple Heart. Khizr Khan, the soldier's father, had criticized Trump at the Democratic National Convention.

Daniel Finn, 69, of Oak Lawn, received a Purple Heart for his service in Vietnam in 1967. He said unlike some other military decorations, the award has to be earned in combat.

"If you see a Purple Heart, they shed blood for their country," he said.

On Sunday, Finn described how eight months into his tour of duty, his unit was ambushed and he lost his left foot in an explosion. He was 19. It wasn't until his own son toured in Iraq in 2004 that he started talking about that day, even to his wife.

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"You can't explain adrenaline, you can't explain the fear and the rush and your reaction," Finn said. "It's something you really don't want anyone else to experience; there's just some things you don't share."

John Domina, 65, of Tinley Park, said warfare smelled like diesel fuel, mold and hot dirt. It tasted like C-rations marked from 1944. It isolated soldiers who didn't care to learn names they might have to soon forget.

Every morning, from the first weeks of duty to the last day, Domina said, was marked by a distinct and constant fear: Is today going to be the last?

He and Kenny LaForge, 64, of Antioch, served in the same unit in 1970 and were wounded in the same three-hour firefight. They still chat two to four times a week and go to Maggiano's every April 18, the anniversary of their injuries: a cracked skull and perforated eardrums for Domina, a traumatic brain injury for LaForge, and plenty of shrapnel for both.

In a joint interview for the Library of Congress project Sunday, they both agreed they were greeted upon return with apathy and hostility, unlike the soldiers of international wars before them who were hailed as heroes.

"There was no welcome home; it just didn't happen," Domina said. "Even your family didn't want to hear your story. Nobody cared. It was expected that you forget what you did and get a job. It's amazing that 50 years later people are interested."

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Within weeks, the National Court Reporters Foundation, which coordinated Sunday's event, will have submitted 4,000 completed transcripts for the Veterans History Project.

In an age where military life can feel abstract and faraway, it's imperative to document the personal accounts of those who served on the front lines and in commissaries, offices and the Pentagon, said B.J. Shorak, the foundation's deputy executive director.

"Put together, we have all these stories and perspectives of what it takes to run the military and conduct a wartime effort," Shorak said.

Since its 2000 launch, the Library of Congress effort has only become more salient as upward of 1,000 aging veterans die every day, said Mike Nelson, a Vietnam-era veteran and CEO and executive director of the National Court Reporters Association.

"Maybe we can learn from their experiences and recognize what a devastating situation war is," Nelson said, "and understand from their emotional perspective why there's always a need to avoid it."

Nancy Hopp, who interviewed LaForge and Domina for the project on Sunday, said she believes the value of preserving veterans' stories extends beyond contributing to future historical research. Growing up, her father, a World War II vet, told her how he had shaved his face over a steel helmet, slept on the ground during winter in rural France and listened as a priest gave Mass from the hood of a Jeep.

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But it wasn't until 50 years later and during the last days of his life that Hopp's 83-year-old father told her the circumstances around which he was shot in the back and awarded the Purple Heart.

"It was as if he felt he couldn't die until he had shared this story," Hopp said. "Throughout his life he had told us these little anecdotes about being in the war, but this was the first time he had knitted all those little pieces together."

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Hopp, a court reporter for 25 years, didn't have her machine when her father recounted his story. Now she has to rely on her memory if she wants to keep her father's memories alive.

"It makes you realize that (they have) lived through something really horrendous and done the best they can with that experience inside of them," she said. "He wanted to get it out one last time so we could understand what he had gone through."

LaForge and Domina are now both members of veterans' organizations where they try to support young returning soldiers by showing them how to fill out claims forms and get in touch with counseling services.

LaForge said he wants to give young veterans the homecoming he was never given.

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"We make sure to tell them we appreciate their service," he said. "We don't want them to be forgotten."

mrenault@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @MarionRenault
A 25-year-old man on parole for three armed robbery convictions now is charged with murder after prosecutors say he shot a Bellwood man 15 times outside an apartment complex in the West suburb Thursday morning.

Tajuan Murry, of the 3000 block of Gilead Avenue in north suburban Zion, is charged with first-degree murder for killing 29-year-old Marty Burtin. Murry also was charged with attempted murder charges for allegedly shooting another person in the same incident, prosecutors said.

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Cook County Judge Donald Panarese, Jr. ordered Murry held without bail on Sunday, in front of more than a dozen of Murry's family members and friends.

The fatal shooting occurred about 12:45 a.m. Thursday in the 3900 block of Warren Avenue in Bellwood, said Andre Harvey, a police spokesman.

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Burtin was driving a van in Bellwood with three passengers and parked near the Warren Avenue apartment complex, prosecutors said. Shortly after, both Burtin and the other shooting victim had a conversation with Murry's older brother. Video surveillance then shows Murry's older brother having a conversation with Murry, prosecutors said.

A few minutes later, Murry entered a vehicle, exited the vehicle with a firearm and proceeded to shoot Burtin about 15 times. Burtin was transported to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, where he was pronounced dead at 1:13 a.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

An autopsy on Friday determined Burtin, who lived in the same block where he was killed, died of multiple gunshot wounds and his death was ruled a homicide, according to the medical examiner's office.

Neither prosecutors nor police elaborated on a motive for the shooting.

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Murry was arrested Saturday, according to court documents. Prosecutors said he was identified on video surveillance by his brother, who had spoken with him just before the shooting.

Prosecutors filed a motion to deny bail for Murry, citing the "heinous nature" of the incident and Murry's background. Murry has three prior convictions of armed robbery for which he received eight years of concurrent sentences in prison, according to the motion.

"His release would pose a real and potential threat to the physical safety of any person," prosecutors wrote in the motion.

Murry has been employed for the past year and is a graduate of Proviso East High School in Maywood. His next court date is Aug. 9.

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Illinois Department of Corrections records show Murry was released on parole in September 2014 for the robbery convictions.

meltagouri@tribpub.com

rsobol@tribpub.com
At a gathering of the 100 Club of Chicago, a support group for families of fallen police officers and firefighters, Kelly says her husband's death is a sign of the job's danger. (John Keilman / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune)

A typical summer morning at Brookfield Zoo took on a somber note Sunday when a line of police cars and motorcycles, lights pulsing, drove a slow circle around the zoo's iconic fountain, followed by a corps of drummers and bagpipers from the Chicago Police Department.

Behind them came a procession of a few dozen family members wearing T-shirts that marked their membership in an organization founded in tragedy: The 100 Club of Chicago, dedicated to supporting the families of fallen police officers and firefighters.

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It was the club's fourth annual Zoo Day, intended to give the families a pleasant outing in the company of others who understand their struggles. At a time when law enforcement is under heavy criticism for its use of deadly force, some said police officers and their families know all too well what it's like to be on the receiving end  and what it takes to get through it.

"This shows the uniqueness of our family, the tightness of our family and it shows we're true to our word that we'll never forget," said Officer Michael Ostrowski, a Chicago patrol officer who serves on the department's honor guard. "Once a family, always a family. Through good times and bad, we're there."

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The 100 Club was established 50 years ago to provide financial and emotional support to families whose loved ones die in the line of duty. Joe Ahern, the group's CEO, said it gives $50,000 to the surviving spouse and offers scholarships to put the kids through college.

Since its founding, the club has served 260 families, he said.

"We've shared a lot of sad moments with them," he said. "To share this great day is a lot of fun."

But the turmoil engulfing police-community relations across the country was not far from minds of many despite the tranquillity of a sunny day at the zoo.

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Liz Kelly lost her husband, Illinois State Trooper James Sauter, in 2013 when a sleepy trucker slammed into Sauter's cruiser on the Tri-State Tollway. She said club representatives were at her door within 24 hours of her husband's death and have been such a help that she joined the organization's board.

Kelly said the criticism many departments face is hard to digest.

"It really just puts a pit in my stomach to know the police are under such scrutiny," she said. "Don't get me wrong, there are not 100 percent good people in every single profession . . . At the same time, police officers really do put their heart and soul into this job. First of all, they make decisions so quickly. Second of all, they really do just want to do good for the community and make it a safer place for everyone."

Ted Johnson, a Chicago firefighter whose brother Herbert died in a 2012 house fire in Gage Park, has many police officers in the family, including his wife. He said all first responders are feeling the eyes of the public upon them and that has added pressure to an already stressful life.

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"We're one big family between the police and fire," he said. "Everything with them affects us because we both have each other's backs."

jkeilman@tribpub.com

Twitter @JohnKeilman
On Aug. 1, 2016, at approximately 4:11 p.m., this suspect sat next to a victim on a CTA Green Line train, pointed a handgun at him and demanded his phone. The victim complied and the suspect fled off the train at the 63rd Street platform. ((Chicago Police Department))

Police have released surveillance photos of a man suspected of pointing a handgun at a CTA passenger and taking his phone Monday on the South Side.

The robbery happened about 4:10 p.m. as the suspect sat next to the victim on the Green Line L train, pointed a handgun at him and demanded his phone, police said.

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The victim gave the phone to him and the suspect fled the train at the 63rd Street platform, 6315 S. Ashland Ave., police said.

Police said the suspect is a man 20 to 26 years old, about 5-foot-7 and weighs about 165 pounds.

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Anyone with information should call Area Central detectives, 312-747-8384.
A single-vehicle traffic crash in Kane County west of Elburn early Saturday killed one person and left two others injured, police said.

David Drewes, 35, of St. Charles, a passenger in an SUV that rolled over near Fabris Road and Illinois Route 64, was pronounced dead on the scene a little after 2 a.m., the Kane County sheriff's office said in a news release.

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Deputies responded to a report of a traffic crash with injuries in unincorporated Virgil Township about 2:10 a.m., according to the release. They found that a 2015 Volkswagen Tiguan sport utility vehicle traveling east on Route 64 had failed to navigate a curve on Route 64 and left the highway on the south side of the road.

The SUV rolled over and it appears that the driver and Drewes, the front seat passenger, may have been ejected from the vehicle after not wearing seat belts, according to the release. The back-seat passenger was wearing a seat belt and was not ejected.

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The driver, a 39-year-old man from Maple Park, was taken to Kishwaukee Hospital but later flown to Rockford Memorial Hospital with serious injuries. A 36-year-old woman from Maple Park, who is Drewes' sister and the driver's wife, was sitting in the back seat and was taken to Kishwaukee Hospital with minor injuries.

The crash is under investigation by sheriff's deputies. No citations have been issued and deputies have not ruled out the possibility that alcohol played a role, according to the release.

Route 64 was closed between Peplow and Fabris roads for about three hours while the crash was investigated.
BANGKOK  Thai voters on Sunday overwhelmingly approved a new junta-backed constitution that lays the foundation for a civilian government influenced by the military and controlled by appointed - rather than elected - officials.

Although near-final results showed that more than 60 percent of voters in a referendum called by the military government approved of the constitution, the vote is likely to be met by some skepticism. The junta - led by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a retired army general who has severely curtailed dissent since coming to power in a 2014 coup - imposed severe restrictions on public discussion of the proposed constitution.

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Ahead of the referendum, the junta banned political rallies and open discussion about the constitution, and criticism of the draft was made punishable by 10 years in jail. Critics say the restrictions ensured that most people were unaware of the pitfalls of the charter, and were probably anxious to get the long-drawn process over with so that they could move on.

The "yes" vote "adds that touch of legitimacy to the coup makers," Pavin Chachavalpongpun, an associate professor at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies of Kyoto University in Japan, told The Associated Press.

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"It gives them the green light for the next few steps they want to take. They will say the opposition cannot say anything now," said Pavin, who is Thai and is a vocal critic of the junta.

Prayuth's office, however, said in a statement late Sunday that the referendum "was conducted with a high degree of transparency and openness on part of the government."

Despite the curbs on civil liberties, Prayuth's rule has brought a measure of stability and ended the frequent street violence and divisive politics that had frayed Thailand's social fabric for years. That veneer of stability could help explain the "yes" vote for the new constitution.

There was also the allure of new elections that Prayuth has promised to hold in 2017, after the approval of the new constitution, although he's said he would call the vote even if the referendum was defeated.

The charter "speaks to a lot of worries and concerns that a majority of Thai people have," Gothom Areeya, a professor at Thailand's Mahidol University, told the AP. "Many Thais want to see an end to corruption and the return of peace and development. Even though experts like me may criticize it a lot, our message just didn't reach a lot of the people."

With 94 percent of the ballots tallied when counting was suspended for the night, 61 percent of the voters said they approved of the constitution, while 39 percent rejected it. The official final count is expected to be issued on Wednesday.

Only about 58 percent of Thailand's roughly 50 million registered voters cast ballots in the referendum.

In addition to asking for an opinion on the constitution, the referendum also asked a supplementary question on whether voters wanted an appointed Senate to choose a prime minister. That question elicited a less enthusiastic approval - 58 percent "yes" and 42 percent "no."

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Analysts have said that a "yes" vote would be a setback for democracy in Thailand.

Pavin, the Kyoto University professor, said that even when the military is no longer in power and a civilian government is in place after the 2017 elections, the military "will have the constitution as a remote control. The constitution can be used as a device to hold onto political power."

The main criticisms of the draft constitution are:

- A transition period of at least five years to civilian rule.

- A 250-member appointed Senate that includes the commanders of the army and other security services.

- A deadlock in the 500-member elected lower house could trigger a selection of a prime minister who is not an elected member of parliament. Under the abolished 2007 constitution, half the Senate was elected, and the prime minister had to come from the lower house.

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- Emergency decrees enacted by the junta without any parliamentary consent remain valid.

Thailand has endured 13 successful military coups and 11 attempted takeovers since it replaced an absolute monarchy with a constitutional one in 1932. This would be Thailand's 20th constitution.

Leaders of the latest coup say frequent political conflicts had made the country ungovernable and that military rule was necessary for stability. The junta set up hand-picked committees to draft a charter that would enshrine its declared goal of reforming politics by eliminating corruption.

But others believe the new constitution has a different aim: to weaken allies of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the central figure in the roiling of Thai politics.

Thaksin's political machine has easily won every national election since 2001, mainly due to the support of working-class and rural voters who benefited from his populist policies. Leading the other side is Thailand's traditional ruling class and royalists - known as the "yellow shirts" - unnerved by Thaksin's support, especially as it contemplates its future. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, whose righteous rule has anchored the kingdom since 1946, is 88 and ailing.

The army ousted Thaksin in a 2006 coup, after "yellow shirt" protesters took to the streets and accused him of abuse of power, corruption and disrespecting the king. He has lived abroad since 2008 to avoid prison for a corruption conviction that he says was politically motivated. The 2014 coup ousted his sister Yingluck Shinawatra, who was elected prime minister in 2011.

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Those who brought Thaksin down now seek to weaken major political parties, which would ensure that real power stays in the hands of what is dubbed the permanent bureaucracy: the military, the courts and other unelected guardians of the conservative bloc.

Gothom, the Mahidol professor, said that Thailand may see peace now, but that it will likely be a peace enforced by military power.

"How much or how little freedom of expression will be allowed to the people, we will just have to wait and see," he said.

Associated Press
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump applauds as he arrives for his rally at Windham High School on Aug. 6, 2016 in Windham, N.H. (Scott Eisen / Getty Images)

The effort to plant the seeds of white nationalism in the political mainstream, where they might blossom into pro-white political coalitions that appeal to a broader swath of Caucasian voters, will not be easy, according to the chairman of the American Nazi Party.

But Rocky Suhayda thinks there is one political figure who presents a "real opportunity" to lessen the load.

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Who is it? Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president.

"Now, if Trump does win, OK, it's going to be a real opportunity for people like white nationalists, acting intelligently to build upon that, and to go and start - you know how you have the black political caucus and what not in Congress and everything - to start building on something like that," Suhayda declared on his radio program last month.

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"It doesn't have to be anti-, like the movement's been for decades, so much as it has to be pro-white," he added. "You know what I'm saying? It's kinda hard to go and call us bigots if we don't go around and act like a bigot. That's what the movement should contemplate. All right."

Audio from the radio program was posted Saturday by BuzzFeed's Andrew Kaczynski, who noted that Suhayda has in the past avoided making statements about Trump out of concern that he might harm the businessman's candidacy. Yet, Kaczynski reported, in an American Nazi Party report from September, the chairman argued that Trump's rhetoric revealed the secret popularity of the party's messages.

"We have a wonderful OPPORTUNITY here folks, that may never come again, at the RIGHT time," Suhayda wrote, according to BuzzFeed. "Donald Trump's campaign statements, if nothing else, have SHOWN that 'our views' are NOT so 'unpopular' as the Political Correctness crowd have told everyone they are!"

Suhayda is far from the first avowed white supremacist to publicize his support and enthusiasm for Trump.

Earlier this year, Rachel Pendergraft - the national organizer for the Knights Party, a standard-bearer for the Ku Klux Klan - told The Washington Post that the KKK had begun using Trump's candidacy as a new conversation starter to recruit followers.

She said this has been discussed on a private, members-only website and in "e-news, stuff that goes out to members."

In addition to opening "a door to conversation," she said, Trump's candidacy had electrified some members of the movement.

"They like the overall momentum of his rallies and his campaign," Pendergraft said. "They like that he's not willing to back down. He says what he believes, and he stands on that."

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On his radio show in February, David Duke - a former Ku Klux Klan leader and a current U.S. Senate candidate from Louisiana - encouraged listeners to cast their ballots for Trump, saying that "voting against Donald Trump at this point is really treason to your heritage."

Duke recently told NPR that he is "100 percent behind" Trump's political agenda.

"As a United States senator, nobody will be more supportive of his legislative agenda, his Supreme Court agenda, than I will," Duke said.

"Donald Trump is not a racist," he added. "And the truth is - in this country, if you simply defend the heritage of European American people, then you're automatically a racist."

Duke told NPR that polls among Trump supporters in Louisiana showed that "75 to 80 percent" would back his Senate run.

"You think Trump voters are your voters?" asked Steve Inskeep, the host of NPR's "Morning Edition."

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"Well, of course they are!" Duke replied. "Because I represent the ideas of preserving this country and the heritage of this country, and I think Trump represents that as well."

Jared Taylor, editor of American Renaissance, a white-nationalist magazine and website based in Northern Virginia, told the New Yorker magazine that Trump may be in denial about the makeup of his base.

"I'm sure he would repudiate any association with people like me," Taylor told the magazine, "but his support comes from people who are more like me than he might like to admit."

In January, Taylor's voice could be heard in a robo-call that encouraged Iowa voters to throw their support behind Trump.

"I urge you to vote for Donald Trump because he is the one candidate who points out that we should accept immigrants who are good for America," Taylor says on the recording, which was paid for by the American National super PAC. "We don't need Muslims. We need smart, well-educated white people who will assimilate to our culture. Vote Trump."

Taylor told The Post in February that he finds Trump's rhetoric on immigration appealing, even though he does not particularly care for the candidate's brash style.

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"I think what he's done is a very important thing," Taylor told The Post. "He's the first candidate in decades to say almost explicitly that immigration should be in the interest of Americans and not just immigrants."

He added, "He's attractive to many Americans who see their country slipping through their fingers. You don't want to end your days living in an outpost of Haiti or Guatemala, do you?"

During his radio program last month, Suhayda said he was confident that Trump would emerge victorious in November's election.

Trump, he noted, has tapped into the frustrations among a large segment of white voters who have been forgotten.

"I think it's gonna surprise the enemy, because I think that they feel that the white working class - especially the male portion of the working class and with him his female counterparts - have basically thrown in the towel," Suhayda said. "Given up hope of any politician again standing up for their interests."
When Shirley Perez's daughter Tamekia Lewis began to lose her balance at age 3, Perez knew something was wrong. The doctors disagreed: "You're just over-exaggerating. Don't worry so much."

At age 5, Tamekia suffered her first grand mal seizure. The doctors finally figured out she had been exposed to measles as a baby. The exposure caused her to regress. The seizure damaged the communicative parts of her brain. For years, even with medication, she continued to suffer from seizures.

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Today, Tamekia is a 39-year-old woman with the mental capacity of a toddler. Perez is a single mother  her husband died in 1995  whose lifeline is a state service that pays for her daughter's care at a day facility while Perez works. That lifeline is in jeopardy. Lawmakers and Gov. Bruce Rauner agreed to only a stopgap state budget. It doesn't include raises for health care workers such as those who help Tamekia five days a week. The workers, on average, earn less than $10 an hour through a formula the state could increase but has not since 2008.

Legislators passed a bill earlier this year that would raise the wages of health care workers who care for the developmentally disabled to $15 an hour. That increase, Perez says, is crucial to ensuring the disabled population  and thousands more waiting for care  get the help they deserve. The state's base wage is so low, providers are scrambling to keep employees. The staff they do have is sometimes unreliable and eager for better-paying jobs, even flipping burgers.

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Who wants to spend eight hours a day caring for needy clients such as Tamekia for less than $10 an hour? Changing adult diapers and feeding and bathing the disabled is a high-stress, low-paying job. The private care facilities the state relies on to provide these services make a strong case that they're being strangled by the state's dysfunction  perhaps more so than some other vendors reliant on Springfield. They have waited longer for raises, even as the state is under several court orders that mandate proper care for this population. "We've been putting money into facilities that are lying dormant because they can't find employees to fill the positions," says state Sen. Heather Steans, D-Chicago, who sponsored the $15-an-hour bill in her chamber. "It's not sustainable for the providers who care for these folks to maintain a proper level of care. We're at serious risk of jeopardizing that right now. And our court monitor says we're out of compliance."

On this we all probably can agree: Protecting vulnerable people is a role of government, and increasing the wages of those on the front lines  every eight years, a cynic would note  would attract more dedicated staffers to care for the developmentally disabled.

But Illinois is beyond broke. The bill sounds swell but includes no funding source. Even if Rauner signs it, the state doesn't have the roughly $300 million to pay for it (about half of that would be reimbursed by the federal government). Think check-kiting scheme.

Had legislators and Rauner hammered out a full-year budget, Perez and other parents might not be trapped in this vise.

But this is what happens when politicians care more about the November election than about helping the people they profess to help. The Democrat-led General Assembly, and eventually Rauner and many Republicans, decided this was the best they could do: Pass a half-measure and go home to campaign.

Rauner is willing to talk about raising taxes to meet the state's needs, such as this one. But he won't write the General Assembly a blank check, and thank goodness for that. Lawmakers in Springfield and several previous governors have long shown they won't prioritize needs so that spending matches revenue. No reform to the shabby ways governments do business, Rauner says, means no tax hike.

One reform would free local governments from having to pay high prevailing wages for small construction projects. Another would give local officials more control over what they can collectively bargain with public employees unions. Labor rules have become so suffocating  some even dictate what items can be sold in a building's vending machines  that it's hard for local officials to try to protect taxpayers and strike fair deals with employees. The employees always win. Rauner also wants to reform the state's workers' compensation program to make Illinois more business-friendly.

Have you noticed those ever-increasing property tax bills? If Democrats would agree to some of Rauner's reforms, perhaps local governments wouldn't continually be cranking up their property tax levies to pay for personnel and services. Democrats have run the legislature since 2003, with supermajorities since 2013.

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These aren't "union-busting" or unreasonable reforms in a state desperate for economic growth. But the Democratic leaders wouldn't budge. So, a stopgap.

And parents such as Perez are trapped. The Democrats who claim to represent the middle class, the sick and the needy have failed them  promising money that doesn't exist. Perez joined representatives from the Arc of Illinois who met with the Tribune Editorial Board to urge Rauner to sign the $15-an-hour bill.

We're not here to sort out which of the state's many, many needs should be addressed first. But Perez represents one more human cost of the standoff between Rauner and the two legislative leaders, Senate President John Cullerton and House Speaker Michael Madigan.

Perez is not the only person worried about the future of her child while the pols play games with her life. No, there's a long line of Shirley Perezes in this state. Remember them as you consider voting incumbents back into office Nov. 8.

Join the discussion on Twitter @Trib_Ed_Board and on Facebook.
Isaac Flores, 9, checks out the free books at the annual Back to School Fair in Aurora. (Linda Girardi / The Beacon-News)

Kyarie Love was all smiles knowing she would see her friends from school soon.

"I like to see my friends and learn. I want to go to school so I can become president," the 8-year-old said.

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Kyarie was among the hundreds of families, with children in tow, that attended the annual Communities In Schools and Project Unity's Back to School Fair Saturday in the John Harkness Center gymnasium on Aurora's East Side

It is a collaborative effort to help limited-income families get their children prepared for the first day of school, organizers said.

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"Financially this helps me get my children ready for school and not have to worry about having enough to buy them clothes and shoes," Kyarie's mother, Geraldine Love, said.

The line for the Back to School Fair stretched down the block and around the corner at South Fourth and East Benton streets, with people seeking backpacks for their children filled with school-related supplies and books, as well as free dental health screenings and required immunizations and a food voucher for the Aurora Area Interfaith Food Pantry.

The annual fair is now serving a second generation since its inception more than two decades ago.

Dentist Philip Nelson of Miles of Smiles does a dental screening for seven-year old Xavier Saavedra during the annual Back to School Fair in Aurora. (Linda Girardi / The Beacon-News)

Love, 28, attended the fair as a child with her mother, and now as a single working parent raising two daughters she said it helps her to avoid having to choose one necessity over another.

"If I didn't come here I would spend $300 easy for the two girls," she said. "I also can get their teeth checked and immunizations if necessary  it's a win-win."

Children could visit the Aurora Public Library book mobile, have a hot dog and potato chips courtesy of the Aurora Police Department or play a variety of games offered through the Friends of Aurora After School Program while their parents waited in line. Organizers each year rely on the generosity of volunteers and supporters willing to help with everything from the initial set-up to traffic control the day of the fair.

"I just remember it being hot and waiting in line the whole time," Love said. "I appreciate the activities for the kids. The organizers do a wonderful job pulling this together. It's very well put together."

The Back to School Fair was launched 21 years ago by a group of residents in response to violence after the murders of Aurora Central Catholic High School student Moshe Rogers in 1994 and Aurora Central graduate Armando Mendez in 1995.

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School officials from East Aurora School District 131 and West Aurora School District 129 were available to register students for school. The Northern Illinois Food Bank offered bottles of cold water to keep attendees hydrated, knowing many families arrived two and three hours before the doors opened to assure they would have a place in line.

Andy Flores, 10, and his brother, Isaac, 9, get backpacks at the annual Back to School Fair in Aurora. (Linda Girardi / The Beacon-News)

Before getting the backpacks, families were required to visit 10 of the 37 social service agencies that offered information about free of charge programs in the community.

"It is so hard for parents to afford everything they have to do for their children. Some people arrive early so they can get to work on time," said Theresa Shoemaker, director of Communities In Schools.

Shoemaker said they were prepared to distribute 3,000 backpacks. The Kiwanis Club of Aurora and Aurora Township gave away books for children.

"We want kids to be ready for the first day of school," Shoemaker said. "We don't want children to feel embarrassed because they don't have the necessary supplies and then have to go to their teachers."

Isaiah Paz, 11, watched over his younger brother, Israel, 5, while their grandmother, Blanca Martinez, stood in line.

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Isaiah said he, too, likes to go to school.

"I like math and science. I like the multiplication and research about rocks and volcanoes," he said.

Anissa Flores guided her three children, Sophia, 6, Isaac, 9, and Andy 10, through the selection of available books before getting their yellow, blue and red backpacks.

"It gives them confidence to go to school knowing they are ready," Flores said.

Linda Girardi is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
Gene Montalbano, commander of the Orland Memorial Post No. 111, holds a rifle during a presentation of colors before a concert dedicated to Vietnam War veterans Sunday at the Taste of Orland in Orland Park. (Nick Swedberg / Daily Southtown)

Some Vietnam War veterans still remember how poorly they were treated when they returned from the war.

As part of a national observation marking the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War, the Village of Orland Park partnered with the U.S. Department of Defense to invite those veterans to a special "welcome home" concert Sunday during this weekend's three-day Taste of Orland food festival.

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"We all came back. It's time to put the ghosts to rest. It's time to heal," said Tom Dubelbeis, veterans program assistant for the Village of Orland Park.

The free, two-hour concert featured Creedence Revived, a Creedence Clearwater Revival tribute band, at the event's main stage. The original band's lyrics often mentioned the Vietnam War in a politically conscious way.

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Many Vietnam War veterans returned home to a politically-charged environment, and were frequently the target of criticism.

Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday >

In 2014, the village was named a commemorative partner for the Department of Defense's Vietnam War Commemoration, which promotes efforts from 2015 to 2017 to recognize and honor veterans from that war. Similar events are being held across the country.

The Village of Orland Park held Vietnam War-related events over the past two years, including hosting the Vietnam Moving Wall in 2015.

Those served between 1959 and 1975 "sacrificed a period out of our life," said Dubelbeis, a former Orland Park trustee and Vietnam War veteran.

"All of us did what we were trained to do, and we served our country all over the world," Dubelbeis said. "Some of us had to do things and see things that no person should experience."

Orland Park Mayor Dan McLaughlin spoke about his own experience as a teenager seeing veterans return from the war.

The mayor said members of his family came back alive, but some close family friends did not. He added that he "couldn't believe" what some veterans were subjected to.

Nick Swedberg is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
The Happy Lobster Truck was one of many mobile restaurants that drew long lines stretching across Elgin's Festival Parks lawn during Eric & Kathy's Food Truck Festival Friday night. (Gloria Casas / The Courier-News)

Usheka Fields distracted her with 3-year-old daughter with YouTube videos on her cell phone Friday night while waiting an hour to reach the food window and order a lobster sandwich from the Happy Lobster Truck.

Fields said that while she's never been to food truck fest, "I like the idea" and she's seen the Happy Lobster Truck on television. That was enough for her, daughter Tori-Ann and hundreds of others to come out for the inaugural Eric and Kathy's Food Truck Festival in downtown Elgin's Festival Park to sample lobster sandwiches and more.

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"There are not a lot of the (food truck fests) around here," Fields said. "You have to go into Chicago for them."

If anyone thinks the dining from a truck trend is fading, think again.

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"The turnout is staggering," said Eric Ferguson said, who hosts the morning show with partner Kathy Hart on 101.9 The Mix.

Hart was in line at La Cocinita, when she was called to the stage. Lucky for her, a friend was able to order for her so she didn't have to forgo the Cuban braised pork favorite lechon with a jalepeno and mango salsa.

The Mix's marketing team came up with the foot truck fest idea and the radio show hosts decided it would be a good way to have a big party, Ferguson said. Grand Victoria Casino Elgin worked with them to make it happen, he said.

"We have seen how successful food truck fests are," Grand Victoria Marketing Manager Marilou Pilman said. "The turnout exceeded all our expectations," she said, and thanks to the promotion from the radio show, many in the estimated 3,000-person crowd came from outside Elgin.

Because such fests need to appeal to different palates, the radio station's marketing team hired a food truck wrangler to help attract businesses to the event, Pilman said.

There were 18 all told, offering everything from pierogi and crepes to barbecue and jerk chicken. Harold's Chicken offered classic deep-fried favorites while Paris Ouh La La offered Parisian "street food."

Julia Benning, of Gilberts, and Dana Beyer, of South Elgin, were in the middle of a long, long line surrounded by people waiting in other long, long lines. Neither girls seemed to mind as they talked, listened to live music and enjoyed a warm evening.

"It's like fast food but good quality, restaurant food," Benning said.

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Tim Podraza, of Huntley, waited in line behind the pair, passing time by drinking a beer. He was in a good mood and didn't mind the wait "as long as they don't run out of lobster," he said.

Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
A Lake County sheriff's detective was injured Thursday during the arrest of Waukegan man who police claim sold heroin to an undercover detective.

Phillip Trotter, 27, of the 2000 block of Glen Flora Avenue, was charged with two counts of possession of a controlled substance, one for heroin and one for cocaine, two counts of possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver and one count of felony resisting arrest resulting in injury, according to a news release from the Lake County Sheriff's Office.

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Trotter was arrested after he allegedly sold heroin to a member of the Lake County Sheriff's Gang Task Force, which was conducting an undercover operation, according to the release. During the arrest, a detective who attempted to apprehend Trotter suffered serious injuries to his ankle and had to undergo surgery, police said.

Cocaine packages were also discovered during a search of Trotter, according to the release.

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Trotter remained in the Lake County Jail Sunday morning in lieu of $150,000 bail. His next court date is 1:30 p.m. Aug. 9.

emcoleman@tribpub.com

Twitter @mekcoleman
Ted Rock, center, president of the of the Navy League of the United States' Lake County Council, explains how the league's cadets program works at the North Chicago Community Days event Saturday. (Yadira Sanchez Olson / Lake County News-Sun)

Ted Rock encouraged youth at North Chicago Community Days to learn more about the sea services.

Rock, chairman of the Navy League of the United States' Lake County Council, occupied a booth Saturday at the 11th annual event in Foss Park. It was the first time the league has participated in the event.

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Rock invited 11-year-old Cesar Romero to the league, and explained young members get to participate in various activities while learning about the Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine.

"I'm definitely interested in that," Cesar said.

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For the youths ages 11 to 18, the Navy League Cadets and Sea Cadets provide opportunities to learn about science, technology, engineering and math through programs such as the SeaPerch, where children can build sea vehicles from kits and operate them in the water remotely.

The goal of the program is to promote awareness of STEM education for students in local schools, Rock said.

He said members of the league also get to hear service representatives speak and meet them through social events.

North Chicago Mayor Leon Rockingham said he was pleased the Navy League participated in the event, which ran Friday through Sunday, and hoped residents who were unaware of its youth programs took the opportunity to learn.

"The Navy is part of the North Chicago community," Rockingham said. "This is event helps build those small bridges that keep the community connected."

The league meets once a month and sponsors activities such as the Navy League Outstanding Recruit Award and a dinner that honors sailors.

Yadira Sanchez Olson is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.
Juggler Mike Vondruska gets some help from audience member Elliott Tandy, 8. (Jon Langham / Pioneer Press)

More than 60 children and adults celebrated a summer of reading Friday as the Thomas Ford Memorial Library presented Mike Vonduska from the Illinois Juggling Institute.

The Western Spring library's reading program focuses on children from newborns to sixth grade, so instead of measuring the number of books read, librarians set goals based on time spent reading and activities completed, explained Uma Nori, head of youth services.

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There were 974 children signed up for the Read for the Win program, and they reached 1,039 goals, Nori said.

"Most of the days were very busy in our department with children coming to participate in the weekly contests, looking for the mystery book and making a guess toward the guessing jar," Nori said.

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The program ran eight weeks, through Aug. 5, with special programs in addition to regular storytimes. Activities included The Spoon Man comedy show, the Sensation Science Show, Tuesday Family Movies, family story time, Yoga, Zuma, Read to the Dogs and Math Science for the Win.

"We work very hard to make it interesting, engaging and entertaining for the children and parents," Nori said.

She said research shows summer reading helps students perform better in reading and math when they return to school in the fall. Friday was a celebration of the reading program held at the Grand Avenue Community Center.

Vondruska did his juggling show and then taught everyone to juggle using scarves.

"As parents were leaving they complimented us for a good show and a good summer reading program," Nori said.

The library continues with its Read to the Dogs program, with dogs and volunteers from the Hinsdale Humane Society's pet assisted learning program. Nori said children in the reading program who met bonus goals donated their prize money to the Hinsdale Humane Society.
Chile hopes China will soon become the No. 1 destination for its food exports, Chilean Agriculture Minister Carlos Furche said Friday.

"We already have a complete free trade zone and in terms of food and forest products, the FTA has had extraordinary results," said Furche two weeks ahead of a major food product promotion event in China.

When the free trade agreement (FTA) was signed in 2005, Chilean exports of forest and agricultural products to China were worth 400 million U.S. dollars and, in 2015, this figure rose to 2.4 billion dollars.

"What is going to happen is that, in the next decade, China will become the first destination for Chilean food exports, a position that the United States currently occupies," said Furche.

Cherries, grapes, pork and wine are among the main Chilean food exports to China while China exports textiles, shoes, and furniture to Chile.
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Total turnover on the National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ), the market for Chinese startups to raise funds, continued to increase in the past week.

From Aug. 1 to 5, NEEQ's trading volume climbed 7.75 percent week on week to 3.12 billion yuan (around 470 million U.S. dollars).

Four companies recorded transactions worth of more than 100 million yuan each. Donghai Securities, a small brokerage headquartered in the eastern city of Changzhou in Jiangsu Province, was the biggest winner with shares worth 800 million yuan traded.

During the week, 231 companies debuted on the market, bringing the total number of NEEQ-listed companies to 8,147.

More small firms are turning to the NEEQ for financing as the government promotes a multi-level capital market to satisfy growing financial demands from both large and small companies.

However, the benchmark NEEQ Component Index edged down 0.06 percent to 1,161.9, the lowest level year to date.

NEEQ was launched in Beijing in late 2012 and is also known as the "new third board" that supplements the main Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses.
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Chinese scientists have defined a subset of a type of virus-specific cells that play a vital role in the control of viral replication in chronic viral infection, possibly paving the way for new ways to treat chronic diseases like HIV/AIDS and cancer.

According to research published online by Nature magazine on Aug. 3, virus-specific cells, CD8 +T, appear to deplete during chronic viral infection.

However, according to the research findings, the cells are able to control viral replication in both animal models and HIV infection.

Researchers found a unique subset that offer higher anti-viral potential than previously known, thus, showing greater therapeutic potential.

The research also identified an important regulator for the generation of this subset.

The research was led by the Third Military Medical University in Chongqing Municipality, with a number of partner institutions. It began in early 2013 with government financial support.

"Through certain means, to increase and stabilize the type of cells can strengthen their virus-purging ability, thus, providing new possibilities for cures," Ye Lilin, co-author of the paper and professor at the Third Military Medical University, told Xinhua Saturday.

Current therapies can only contain the viral replication, but cannot purge them completely in chronic diseases like HIV.

Chinese researchers will now use the findings to further research into immunotherapy in cancer and HIV, Ye said.
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Police in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region have arrested 183 criminal suspects of an illegal fundraising gang.

Under the disguise of western development, the gang organized "one-day" trips to Qinzhou, Nanning, Beihai and Fangchenggang cities in Guangxi and coaxed their victims into investing, said the Public Security Bureau of Qinzhou City on Friday.

The pyramid-style scheme involved 3,000 people and 760 million yuan (114 million U.S. dollars), the bureau said.

Nearly 500 police officers raided 66 locations in the provinces of Henan and Guangdong, and Guangxi, it added. Twenty-five senior gang members were among those arrested and the group's bank accounts, which contained more than 10 million yuan, were frozen. Eight luxury cars were also seized.

The investigation continues.
She has no regrets, but for Qing Feng divorcing her husband, a gay man, and losing her son and money, was not an easy process.

Qing, from southwest China's Guizhou Province, ended her sexless, loveless marriage months ago, after an arduous negotiation with the man who had constantly belittled her throughout their 13-year relationship.

"He said I wouldn't get a penny or the custody of my son because I asked for a divorce without evidence to show he was wrong," said Qing who is in her forties.

"He was well prepared for the day of the divorce. He had transferred all our assets to his parents."

Qing is one of many unlucky women in China known as the "gay wives," or Tongqi, who unwittingly marry closeted gay men. For these women, the road to a successful divorce is often a rocky one due to obstruction from their husbands and a lack of clear legal support.

In a country where gay marriage is illegal, the majority of gay men chose to marry women and have children because of the pressure from their parents and society. Many Chinese believe continuing the family bloodline is an inescapable male duty and not having children constitutes a failure.

No easy way out

At a seminar on the protection of Tongqi, held in the central Chinese city of Changsha, Hunan Province, late July, Qing shared her story and encouraged other women in her situation to pursue their happiness with courage.

Two years ago, a TV program focusing on the tragedy of "gay-straight" marriages helped Qing overcome the doubts she had about divorcing her husband who recoiled from all physical contact from the moment their son was born and seldom showed her any care.

"He repeatedly told me 'don't laugh. You look ugly when you do that.' He liked nothing about me, so I kept trying to change myself to please him," she said.

When she finally questioned her husband about his sexual orientation, he confessed but refused to divorce as he feared it would ruin his reputation.

For attending last year's Tongqi seminar, Qing was insulted by her husband and his family. She finally had enough and made up her mind to insist on divorce, despite hesitating for the sake of her son.

A lawyer told Qing that even if she filed a divorce lawsuit it might not go in her favor.

Most Chinese gay men conceal their homosexuality, which makes it difficult for women to collect evidence of their husband's sexual habits and orientation, said Yang Shaogang, a Shanghai-based lawyer who is experienced in "gay-straight" divorce cases. As a result, judges often do not grant the divorce, and the women need to file again at a later date, Yang said.

In addition, Chinese law does not define the gay man as culpable in the marriage breakdwon, meaning no compensation is given to the women, and the law offers no privileges for these women to obtain custody of their children.

Yang has called for legal changes regarding the distribution of property and child custody in such divorce cases to encourage Tongqi to break free.

Three of the 15 Tongqi who attended the first seminar held last year are now divorced.

"It shows huge progress that these Tongqi were able to stand up to protect their rights," said renowned sexologist Zhang Beichuan.

Dr. Li Xianhong, of Central South University, Changsha, who initiated the Tongqi seminars, said a report will be formulated to help create legislation to protect Tongqi in the future.

Disease, Violence, Silence

A 2013 survey, conducted by Zhang and her team, of nearly 150 women who had either married or divorced gay or bisexual men, or who were dating such men, showed that 70 percent of the respondents suffered long-term emotional abuse from the men, often characterized by sexual apathy.

In addition, 90 percent of the women developed symptoms of depression and 20 percent of them endured repeated beatings.

Nearly 40 of those surveyed reported symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases. Among the 30 who were tested for HIV, two found themselves infected.

Su Yun, 60, who became deaf in one ear after she was beaten by her homosexual husband, recently divorced. A day after the divorce, her ex-husband and his boyfriend barged into Su's home.

"I didn't dare to call the police. I thought he might strangle me. He tried once and I almost died," said Su, in eastern China's Shandong Province.

Divorced women are often discriminated against in China, and not everyone trapped in an unhappy marriage wants to get out, said Dr. Li.

Lin Yan is in her fifties and decided to stay in her marriage, even though her husband confessed to being gay more than 10 years ago.

"We live in a very small place. People like my husband. If I say he's gay, no one would believe me. They might think I was having an affair and just wanted a divorce," Lin said. Adding that without a job she financially relies on her husband.

In general, the Tongqi are an invisible group, A large number have not even realized that their husbands are gay, due to conservative attitudes towards sex, said Dr. Li

"Many never even wonder why they have no sex life in their marriage."

So far, Qing Feng has not been able to explicitly tell her parents why she divorced.

"It was really shameful," she said.

(The names of the "gay wives" in this article have been changed to protect their privacy).
Regulations are flying out the door in in Washington, where an already hyper-aggressive Obama administration is looking at its last chance to move its agenda forward while sidestepping the Republicans in Congress.

Many of the expensive rules in areas like energy, health care, and finance have drawn widespread public and media scrutinywhich makes it all the more curious that what is likely to be the single most expensive proposed regulation of the year, a Department of Education rule that would discharge billions in student loans, has gone almost completely unnoticed.

The proposed rule, titled the Borrower Defense to Repayment Regulations, would create a stampede to file claims for loan forgiveness based on a newly broadened, vague standard requiring only that a plaintiff allege a school made a substantial misrepresentation.

For decades students have been able to apply for loan forgiveness when they were victims of intentional fraud or another violation of state law. The proposed rule ditches the requirement that there be any actual legal violation, substituting in a new standard so vague that complaints will proliferate based on innocent errors and alleged misunderstandingswith the costs shifted either onto schools or, ultimately, to federal taxpayers.

Schools will have little recourse to defend against the allegations. Determination of whether an institution has made a substantial misrepresentation to a student or group of students is made unilaterally by a hearing examiner at the Department of Education.The examiners, facing sympathetic tales of woe from people who racked up big debt totals, will likely be inclined to approve most of them.State universities and community colleges will consume taxpayer dollars defending themselves even when they prevail.Some schools, flooded with claims, will likely be put out of business, leaving taxpayers on the hook.

The departments own analysis found a net budget impact in costs over the 2017-2026 loan cohorts ranging between $1.997 billion in the lowest impact scenario to $42.698 billion in the highest impact scenario.

Let that sink in.Bureaucrats are proposing a rule that imposes coststhey thinkof at least $2 billion and quite possibly $40 billion or more on taxpayers.What kind of insane range is that?They clearly have no clue how much this will cost.And who elected the Department of Education to spend our tax dollars at all?

The United States Constitution gives the power of the purse to Congress.And if Congress cant be convinced that millions of hardworking taxpayers who never went to college should be on the hook for billions in discharged student loans?Well, maybe its not such a good idea.

Victims of fraud should have legal recourse, and the current rules do allow for loans to be discharged under those circumstances.

But creating a tidal wave of largely meritless claims under the extremely lax new proposed standard will only adversely affect legitimate claims of fraud and abuse, which would be better served by streamlining the process for complaints under the current clear legal standard requiring a breach of state law.

The bottom line is this: student debt is an explosive issue not just politically but fiscallywith taxpayers on the hook for enormous sums of money.And thats precisely why any new loan forgiveness program must be debated in Congressnot enacted via regulatory decree at the Department of Education.

Phil Kerpen, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate, is the president of American Commitment and the author of Democracy Denied. Email him at phil@americancommitment.org.
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Two policemen were wounded by machetes Saturday afternoon in the center of Charleroi by an individual shouting " Allahu Akbar ," according to media reports.

The incident occurred near the Charleroi police station. The perpetrator was shot by a third officer, according to Belgian newspaper Le Soir.

A large security perimeter was erected around the boulevard Pierre Mainz.
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The Yemeni government requested Saturday the international financial institutions to stop dealings with rebel-held central bank and to prevent accessing to the state funds in overseas banks, the government-run sabenew.net news agency reported.

"As duty of the Yemeni government to save the funds and belongings of the Yemeni people, and in order to preserve the remaining public funds, and in line of orders by President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, the Yemeni government decided to take this step, which includes stopping dealing with Central Bank Governor Mohammed Awad bin Humam," the agency quoted an official source at the prime minister office.

The capital Sanaa and the central bank have been under control of two dominant Shiite Houthi armed group and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh since they stormed Sanaa and forced Hadi with his government into exile in 2014.

Since then, the rival parties were sharing central bank under a UN-backed economic agreement.

The new move came hours after Houthi and Saleh installed a unilateral ruling governing council and appointed a president and vice-president after UN-sponsored peace talks in Kuwait collapsed.

UN envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, said Saturday that the talks would be suspended for a month before to be resumed in another country.

Talks after talks have all failed to bring peace to over 25 million Yemenis and end more than a year of devastating civil war.
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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday bared more than 150 names of judges, military, police and lawmakers who are allegedly linked to the alarming drug menace in the Philippines.

In a news conference in Davao City in the early hours on Sunday morning, Duterte said there are an estimated 600,000 Filipinos who are drug addicts, pushers and users nationwide.

"I grieve for my country," Duterte said, lamenting that the drug problem has worsened "because government personnel were into it."

Duterte read the long list of names during the news conference that lasted two hours, ordering those he named to report to their mother units within 24 hours. Some of those he named were retired police officers and former local officials from all over the country.

"You are hereby relieved of your duty and immediately report to your mother units," he said. "I'd like to give you the advice: once you hear your name mentioned here you are now relieved of your present assignments."

He also ordered the cancellation of "any and all" firearm permits and licenses issues to them cancelled immediately.

He said judges should report to the Supreme Court, the local government officials to the Department of Interior and Local Government, and the military and the police to their superiors in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP)and the Philippine National Police (PNP)within 24 hours.

"If you do not do that I will order the AFP and the entire PNP to hunt for you," Duterte said.

Duterte also ordered to remove the "operational authority" over the military and police officials assigned to mayors and other local government officials he named.

Duterte also named Iloilo, a province in the central Philippines as the most "shabulized" province in the country, referring to the magnitude and extent of methamphetamine use in the region.

He said those names that made it to the list that he read had been validated. "I am the sole person responsible," he said.

On July 5, Duterte also named at least five police generals who are allegedly "protectors of illegal drug syndicates" operating in the country. The police officers are now being investigated.

Since the names of the five generals were bared at least four local officials or former local officials have submitted themselves to the police for further verification. Some have admitted using illegal drugs but denied allegations they are protectors.

Duterte has intensified his war against criminals, especially drug lords. He has also repeatedly warned these drug lords who are preying on the youths of the land, warning that "it's going to be a dirty and bloody fight."

Since he assumed the presidency on June 30, Duterte has ordered the police to crack the whip on drug lords and their protectors that allegedly include police officers and even the so-called "narco politicians."

So far, the media has recorded at least 600 people who were killed in the campaign against illegal drugs. The death toll continues to rise, causing human rights groups to demand an investigation into the unabated extra-judicial killings.

A couple of senators said they plan to initiate an investigation into the spate of vigilante-like killings of people who were marked as pushers and addicts whose bodies are dumped in the streets.
 Flash

Up to 21 militants loyal to the Islamic State (IS) were killed in Achin district of Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province over the past 24 hours, Interior Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

According to the statement, 13 more IS fighters were wounded and several hideouts of the armed outfit destroyed during the operations.

IS outfit has yet to make comments on the report.

Achin and the neighboring Kot district have been regarded as the hotbed of IS militants in the eastern part of Afghanistan.

Operations Government forces against IS have been continuing over the past several months in the mountainous districts along the border with Pakistan's tribal areas but the ultra-extremist militant group is still active in the area.
It seems that the Satmar Rebbe is saying that the 6 Day War victory was entirely natural - no miracles and no hashgocha protis. To ascribe ...

Shemos Rabbah (52:03) The story is told of R. Simeon b. Halafta, that he once came home just before the Sabbath and found that he had no fo...

Important!! email - yadmoshe@gmail.com
         :          , CCTV  
NANNING- Police in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region have arrested 183 criminal suspects of an illegal fundraising gang.

Under the disguise of western development, the gang organized "one-day" trips to Qinzhou, Nanning, Beihai and Fangchenggang cities in Guangxi and coaxed their victims into investing, said the Public Security Bureau of Qinzhou City on Friday.

The pyramid-style scheme involved 3,000 people and 760 million yuan ($114 million), the bureau said.

Nearly 500 police officers raided 66 locations in the provinces of Henan and Guangdong, and Guangxi, it added. Twenty-five senior gang members were among those arrested and the group's bank accounts, which contained more than 10 million yuan, were frozen. Eight luxury cars were also seized.

The investigation continues.
Villagers celebrate Li Wangjun's Tsinghua University admission in 1994 in Sanxiaba, Hubei province. Li earned a high score on the national college entrance exam (gaokao), and his fellow villagers are excited about the news.

On June 23 this year, the highest scorer from Beijing, Zhou Zhanping, walks out of his school after learning about his top marks.

The country's high school graduates today have more options when it comes to the "most important exam of their life" as the gaokao is called, and overseas universities recognize the test.
Editor's note: In spite of universal basic medical insurance coverage across China, patients often have to pay a large part of healthcare costs themselves, especially those with suffering serious diseases. The often exorbitant medical costs can be enough to ruin a family. According to the State Council Information Office, over 44% of Chinese households fall into poverty because of hefty medical bills. Can China achieve the universal free healthcare? Is it a luxury or necessity? Forum readers share their opinions.

Ted180 (Canada)

In most advanced countries (except the US!) there is a consensus that basic and essential medical care is a human right regardless of ability to pay. Even in the US, once a person reaches a hospital, he will receive all the essential treatments regardless of ability to pay (this is due to a danger of law-suits). So China will surely move toward some arrangements of tax-paid partial coverage. In Canada, the "basic care" is covered by tax-paid medicare. Private insurance can be purchased to cover "extras". Warning: To go beyond "basic" healthcare is VERY EXPENSIVE. It requires a high per capita GDP.
Ma Yi weaves a rattan chair in Loushanguan village located in Zunyi city of southwest Chinas Guizhou province on August 5, 2016. [Photo/He Tong, provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

More migrant workers in southwest Chinas Guizhou province plan to return to their rural hometown to start own business as the local government issued a series of supporting policies such as tax exemption, reduction in administration fees and business loan subsidy.

Ma Yi worked as a handicraft worker in a manufactory located in Foshan of Guangdong province in 2001, and like millions of migrant workers in China, he could only come and meet his family during traditional Chinese Spring Festival.

The situation has been changed for Ma since 2009. Relying on his years of hand-woven experience, he came back and ran his own business in his hometown in Lou Shanguan town of Zun Yi city in Guizhou province. "I found the tourism industry develops rapidly, so I came up with the idea to start up my own business in my hometown," recalled Ma Yi.

After Ma brought the hand-woven rattan craftsmanship to his homeland, many villagers in Lou Shanguan have also learned from him and began to make a living by making hand-made rattan furniture. The furniture made by them has been mainly sold to several provinces outside of Guizhou.

Following with the trend of internet business, Ma Yi also opened an online store with China biggest retainer platform Taobao.com early in this year. "I'm strongly confident about the future and my career. Hopefully, I will boost the development of local tourism industry rapidly, " Ma added.
A Thai soldier casts his ballot during a constitutional referendum vote in Bangkok, Thailand August 7, 2016.[Photo/Agencies]

BANGKOK -- Updated tallying results have shown that the majority of voters across Thailand approved a new draft constitution and an additional question in the Sunday referendum, with a turnout of over 50 percent.



According to Thailand's Election Commission, about 61 percent of voters approved the draft constitution while about 38 percent voted against it.



Nearly 58 percent of Thais agreed to give 250 senators picked by the junta, or the National Council for Peace and Order, the power to elect a prime minister along with 500 elected members of the House of Representatives while 42 percent voted against it.
ABUJA -- Two Chinese workers who were kidnapped in central Nigeria's Nasarawa state have been rescued, the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria said Sunday.

Zheng Jun, an official with the embassy, told Xinhua that the two Chinese were rescued Saturday night, and are currently in sound condition.

Local police said earlier that two Chinese workers were ambushed by unknown gunmen at about 2:28 pm local time Saturday in Nasarawa while on their way to the capital Abuja.



Related:

Two Chinese abducted in Nigeria: police
(Photo : YouTube Screenshot) The Xiaomi Luo Qing umbrella costs $11.

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The new Xiaomi Luo Qing umbrella has been launched under its Mijia sub-brand with a price tag of 69 yuan ($11). It will be available via crowdfunding.



According to Gizmo China, the Luo Qing umbrella is made from a carom cloth that come from Taiwan. It feels soft, high durability, and good shade. It also has a high-strength sunscreen that does not retain water. It comes with an additional Teflon coating with superior water resistance and the ability to absorb harmful ultraviolet rays. All the water droplets on the umbrella can be easily removed when it is shaken.



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The Luo Qing umbrella only weighs 228 grams and 24 cm long. When it is opened, the umbrella has a radius of up to 47 cm. It becomes 3 cm thick when folded to fit inside a small bag. It can easily be wrapped into a handy size, making it easy to carry around. It does not feature a button design. It can be shrinked easily when closed because of the anti-resistance fringes. It also features a non-slip friction material to have a good grip on it. It is not a smart device, as BGR reported.



Meanwhile, Xiaomi launched a portable mosquito repeller called the Xiaomi Mi Pen last month. The high-quality stationery product is a regular Swiss PREMEC refillable pen with the special Japanese mikuni ink that quickly dries up but does not fade or break when not in use. It comes in two colors, namely, white and black, with a price tag of $3 (approximately Rs.200).



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TagsXiaomi, Luo Qing umbrella, Mijia, Mijia subbrand, Xiaomi Mi Pen, Mi Pen
(Photo : Getty Images) China has criticized Japans new Defense Minister Tomomi Inada for failing to provide an answer to a question about the Nanjing massacre.

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China on Friday slammed Japan's new Defense Minister Tomomi Inada for not acknowledging Tokyo's wartime aggression during World War 2, Reuters reported.



Tomomi Inada, who was appointed as Japan's new defense minister earlier this week, ducked questions about Japan's past wartime aggressions during a press conference on Thursday.



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"l'm not in a position to express my personal opinion here," Inada said when asked about war crimes allegedly committed by Japan during World War 2.



In response, China's Defense Ministry issued a statement on its officials microblog account, expressing "indignation" over Inada's comment.



"Her open denial of the...facts is simply an attempt to cover up Japan's history of aggression and challenge the international order by reviving militarism," China's defense ministry said. "We must point out that facing up to history is the basis for resolving historical problems."



The ministry added that if history is not acknowledged, China-Japan diplomatic relations have no future.



Infamous Nanjing massacre of 1937



China claims that aggression by Japanese troops in 1937 resulted in the death of three million Chinese citizens in Nanjing. However, Japan has shied away from acknowledging its alleged role in the massacre.



Some Japanese politicians and scholars openly claim that the Nanjing massacre never took place, while others claim that China is inflating the death toll to defame Japan.



The legacy of World War 2 has cast a shadow on Japan-China relationship, while maritime disputes in the East China Sea and the South China Sea have equally hampered bilateral ties between both nations.



Tomomi Inada Known as A Rightwing Nationalist



Inada is known for her staunchly conservative views on security and foreign policy issues. She is one of the close confidants of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and firmly believes in amending Japan's post-war pacifist constitution.



Inada's nationalist views of japan's wartime history have made her a highly controversial figure in China as well as in South Korea and North Korea.



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(Photo : DARPA) The team from ForAllSecure, a Pittsburgh-based company, was the first-place winner of the DARPA Cyber Grand Challenge.

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ForAllSecure, a startup in Pittsburgh founded by a team of computer security researchers from Carnegie Mellon University, won first prize and $2 million at the 2016 DARPA Cyber Grand Challenge (CGC).



The finals of CGC, an international tournament the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) called the "world's first automated network defense tournament," involved seven U.S. teams that pitted their algorithms against each other to uncover vulnerabilities that might exist in the Internet of Things (IoT).



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DARPA also billed CGC as "The World's First All-Machine Hacking Tournament" whose participants were "cyber reasoning bots."



Second place to ForAllSecure and its artificial intelligence algorithm, "Mayhem," was TECHx of Ithaca, New York, and Charlottesville, Virginia and its bot "Xandra." TechX will receive $1 million. Third place went to Shellphish of Santa Barbara, California and its bot, "Mechanical Phish." Shellphish will receive $750,000.



ForAllSecure, which was founded by David Brumley, Thanassis Avgerinos and Alex Robert, said their technology was the result of more than a decade of program analysis research at Carnegie Mellon University.



The finals played Aug. 4 in Las Vegas was a 96-round game of "Capture the Flag." In this time-limited competitive hacking game, teams were assigned servers that must perform certain tasks while constantly being fed new code packed with bugs, security flaws and inefficiencies. Teams strove to protect their own data while attempting to access the data of others.



The difference in this game is the players, in this case the cyber reasoning bots, were completely autonomous. Normally a human looked at and corrected code or chose whether and whom to attack. All these decisions were made by their bots.



The goal of CGC was to produce systems that can repair themselves and watch for intrusions with minimal human interaction, among many other goals.



In over eight hours of computation and 96 rounds of about 270 seconds each, the bots authored 421 replacement binaries (or new native code) that was more secure than the original. They also authored 650 unique proofs of vulnerability (or attempts to navigate the maze of inputs accepted by the software) and proved the software under analysis was vulnerable.



"Tonight, completely autonomous systems played in an expert contest. In 2013 no such system existed and tonight seven of them played at a very high level," said DARPA CGC Program Manager Mike Walker.



"There's a saying in the hacker community that 'zero day can happen to anybody.' What that means is that unknown flaws in software are a universal lock-pick for intruders. Tonight we showed that machines can exist that can detect those lock-picks and respond immediately."



"We have redefined what is possible and we did it in the course of hours with autonomous systems that we challenged the world to build."



CGC was co-located this year with DEF CON, the world's largest hacker convention.



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TagsForAllSecure, Carnegie Mellon University, Cyber Grand Challenge, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(Photo : Indian Army) BrahMos Block III supersonic cruise missiles of the Indian Army

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India has deployed an Indian Army BrahMos regiment operating the latest Block III version of this potent supersonic cruise missile to defend the state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims belongs to it as South Tibet.



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Indian media is reporting a huge build-up of Chinese military forces all along the 4,057 kilometer Line of Actual Control (LAC). Arunachal Pradesh is the most northerly state along the LAC and one of the most threatened by China.



To be deployed to Arunachal Pradesh will be the 864 Regiment of the Indian Army's 41st Artillery Division. The regiment will operate from four and six BrahMos batteries and three to four Mobile Autonomous Launchers (MALs). The regiment will command up to 100 BrahMos Block III cruise missiles, each armed with a 290 kg warhead. It is the fourth missile regiment to be equipped with BrahMos.



The fire-and-forget BrahMos Block III, the newest iteration of this feared weapon, possesses unique trajectory maneuver and steep-dive capabilities that allow it to hit targets hidden on the reverse slopes of mountains. It can steep dive up to 75 degrees.



It has nine times more kinetic energy than sub-sonic missiles and is the preferred precision-strike weapon of the Indian armed forces. It is extremely accurate, having a circular error probability (CEP) of only one meter, and its combined hi-lo trajectory makes it a difficult target for Chinese air defense systems.



The land-attack version of BrahMos has been operational in the Indian Army since 2007.



BrahMos can engage ground targets from as low as 10 meters with minimal collateral damage. It is capable of being launched from multiple platforms like submarines, ships, aircraft and land-based MALs.



The Block III version was successfully test-fired in December 2010 from Integrated Test Range at Chandipur off the Orissa coast. Block III had advanced guidance and upgraded software, incorporating high maneuvers at multiple points and a steep dive from high altitude.



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TagsBrahMos, supersonic cruise missile, India, china, Arunachal Pradesh, 864 Regiment, BrahMos Block III
home Faith 1,000 young Christian leaders gather for Lausanne convention in Indonesia

Approximately 1,000 young Christian leaders from more than 160 countries gathered in Jakarta, Indonesia for the Lausanne Movement event that takes place at least once in a generation.

The Lausanne Movement first took place in Singapore in 1987 and then in Malaysia in 2006. That makes the Younger Leaders Gathering 2016 (YLG2016) held Aug 3-10 as only the third of such event. The participants invited would be trained in various ways to prepare them as future leaders for a global mission. The event also serves as a "springboard" for an initiative and a ten-year commitment called the Younger Leaders Generation (YLGen).

This year's theme, "United in the Great Story," takes a look at how people from across the continent and across history could be part of God's "Great Story."

Richard Coleman, speaker care coordinator and the event's co-emcee with Sarah Breuel, another member of the YLG planning team, talked about how today's environment places millennials under constant "pressure to follow feelings and the culture at the expense of millennia-old truths."

"There is so much social pressure for inclusion into any and everything," Coleman said in an interview. "To take a stance against anything carries the risk of being labeled as 'narrow-minded' or 'judgmental.' Add to that the almost immediate persecution through social media, and it can become quite intimidating to proclaim the truths of scripture."

Yet he expressed his hope that the young Evangelicals can make "great things happen" once they become passionate on something.

Coleman also revealed that they originally intended to hold the one-time event in Kiev in the summer of 2015 until the conflict broke out in Ukraine. They eventually decided on Jakarta after an Indonesian leader made the suggestion to Michael Oh, Lausanne's chief executive officer.

Meanwhile, Pastor Kong Hee of the Harvest Church in Singapore declared Indonesia as a "big harvest field" for Christianity when he toured Southeast Asia to teach churches about Home Cell Group Leadership.

He noted that 10 percent of Indonesia's population identify as Christians making it the second-largest Christian population in Southeast Asia.

"It is so necessary for church-building work to be done in this wonderful nation, and that is why I love doing missions in Indonesia," wrote Pastor Hee on Facebook.
home US Girl dies from brain-eating amoeba in South Carolina; Mom comforted by thought of being reunited in heaven

An 11-year-old South Carolina girl has died after she became infected by a brain-eating amoeba in a river where she had gone swimming, an undertaker said on Saturday.

The girl, Hannah Collins, of Beaufort, died on Friday night at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, said Carla Smith, director-manager of the Anderson Funeral Home in Beaufort, which is handling the funeral.

Hannah is thought to have been exposed to the amoeba on July 24 in Charleston County's Edisto River, the state health department said this week.

Hannah's mother, Elizabeth Crockett, wrote on a Facebook page dedicated to her: "I will try to find comfort in the fact I will one day be united with her in her new home, Heaven."

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this week that a South Carolina resident had been exposed to the Naegleria fowleri organism, which is found in warm freshwater and triggers an infection that destroys brain tissue.

The fatality rate for an infected person is more than 97 percent, according to the CDC.

The brain-eating amoeba was blamed for the death in June of an 18-year-old Ohio woman, who became infected after rafting at the U.S. National Whitewater Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.
home World ISIS claims it has captured U.S. weapons in Afghanistan

Militants linked to Islamic State have released photos that purport to show weapons and equipment that belonged to American soldiers and were captured by the group in eastern Afghanistan.

The photos, which came to light on Saturday, show an American portable rocket launcher, radio, grenades and other gear not commonly used by Afghan troops, as well as close up views of identification cards for a U.S. Army soldier, Specialist Ryan Larson.

The U.S. military command in Kabul denied any suggestion the soldier had been captured, saying he "has been accounted for and remains in a duty status within his unit."

American special operations troops have been fighting alongside Afghan forces in a renewed offensive against militants who claim allegiance to Islamic State in Nangarhar Province, which borders Pakistan.

"SPC Larson was attached to a unit conducting a partnered (operation) with Afghan Forces," U.S. military spokesman Commander Ron Flesvig said in an emailed statement on Sunday. "The soldier's I.D. and some of the equipment were left behind after the (operation). The loss of personal identification is unfortunate."

In July, U.S. commanders said at least five special forces were injured in fighting in the province.

The website that published the photos speculated that the equipment and weapons were left behind during that engagement, but Flesvig said American officials are still trying to determine exactly when and how it was lost.

The push in Nangarhar came after President Barack Obama cleared American troops to take a more active role in fighting militants in Afghanistan.

Besides advising work and special operations missions, American aircraft deployed at least 545 weapons in the first six months of 2016.
home Sports Michael Phelps' life saved by Rick Warren's 'The Purpose Driven Life' book

Olympian swimmer Michael Phelps revealed that Pastor Rick Warren's book "The Purpose Driven Life" saved him from committing suicide two years ago.

According to ESPN, the most decorated Olympian of all time checked himself into rehab at The Meadows in October last year and became known as "Preacher Mike" because he read fellow patients at the clinic the Christian book "The Purpose Driven Life" every start of the day.

The megachurch pastor and best-selling author responded to the news by rooting for the 31-year-old swimmer, who'll be competing in Rio de Janeiro for this summer Olympics, which started Friday.

"I'm proud of @MichaelPhelps for his victories even before the Olympics begin. Excited he'll be carrying the flag for the US," wrote Pastor Warren on Facebook.

Phelps admitted that he went through a dark period in his life two years ago as he tried to figure out his worth outside the swimming pool.

"I thought the world would just be better off without me," ESPN quoted Phelps as saying. "I figured that was the best thing to do a just end my life."

So the athlete turned to alcohol and eventually got caught driving under the influence (DUI) for the second time in September 2014. This led to his suspension from the USA swimming team for six months.

"I sent myself down a downward spiral," Phelps told Today's Matt Lauer in an interview. "I think it was more of, of a sign than anything else."

"That I had to get something under control, whatever it was. I look back at that night, and everything happened for a reason," he added.

He considered his decision to check himself for treatment in a clinic at Arizona as a sign that he's finally willing to be just himself. Now, Phelps said he's ready to move on from his swimming career.

Although before that, he said he's eager to take on Rio first. He added that he wants to retire by giving his 100 percent.
On the surface, it may just look like a couple of white-haired guys singing some old country music songs with the help of a karaoke machine.

When taking a closer look, however, it becomes apparent there is much more to the performance of Donald Duck Nelson and Ted Byers, known simply as Duck and Ted, as they sing for the patrons of the Park Hills Senior Center on a Thursday morning.

Like many people from small towns, the two men can say theyve known each other their whole lives, although each went his own way to raise a family, served time in the military and worked a respectable job.

We went to school together in Elvins, said Nelson. Hes a year younger than I am but we played together all our lives.

But we never sang [together], said Byers. Duck went to Vietnam and I went to Vietnam, we got back and had families and all of that.

Nelson, wholl turn 70 in August, is retired from the Doe Run Lead Company. Byers, wholl turn 70 next March, continues to work as an insurance agent.

It was just a couple of years ago that the two men began to sing together after a chance encounter in Walmart and a conversation about what each of them were doing for fun.

I said, I always wanted to sing country music, said Byers. And I said, so I just got me some karaoke stuff and started singing. And he goes, I just did, too.

It didnt take long before the old friends began to get together to sing songs.

One of the first times we got together, Byers said, Duck had a meeting to go to that evening but he forgot all about it and we sang for six solid hours.

He came over to the house and we started to sing at noon, said Nelson. Then all of a sudden it was 6 oclock and somebody called me and wanted to know if I was going to the meeting.

We just have a good time together, said Byers. We enjoy it.

Byers and Nelson may not have realized it in the beginning, but the duo also has some natural chemistry as performers, in addition to enough talent to carry a tune.

Its just fun, said Nelson. You can tell were not professional once you hear us. But theres no professional who had more fun than we do.

We have improved though, said Byers. Weve gotten better along the way. Its like anything else, you practice and hopefully youll get better.

Singing not only rekindled the mens friendship, it has also proven to be good mental health therapy for both men.

We talk to each other almost every day, said Nelson. And we didnt see each other for over 40 years, even though he lived in Desloge and I lived in Park Hills.

Singing is something we both just wanted to do, but basically the real reason we started is for our own self-therapy, said Byers. It came to us about the same time and we started doing it not knowing that the other guy was doing it until we met up and talked.

Nelson said he first began to truly realize the therapeutic value of music after he started playing the guitar in his 40s.

I was doing that at home, he said. But when this come along, I havent picked up that guitar in I dont know how long. This here, you can play with the best. These are the best bands you could ever ask for.

Byers agreed that singing along with the pre-recorded music of the karaoke is enjoyable.

Its the best music in the world. The singing may suck a little bit but the musics always really, really good, he said laughing. And its not like were getting paid or getting rich for it.

Singing has also given Nelson a whole new appreciation for the songs he and Byers sing.

My hearing was always bad and I had trouble understanding the words, he said. I lost my hearing in Vietnam  Ive sang to myself all my life and I love music. But when I started this and you see the words there and you really get to paying attention, you see its some mighty fine poetry.

Byers agreed. As Duck said, I never really paid any attention to the words until we started singing; you really start listening to the words.

Both men commented how singing together has also led them to find a new appreciation for some old favorites because of the attention they now pay to the words and how they are combined with music.

Finding a new song, thats whats fun  well, not a new song, but one you forgot all about, said Nelson. Something you havent heard in 30 years. And you realize, oh my gosh, thats so beautiful.

Because all of their performances are gratis, the men feel free to sing wherever, whenever and for whomever they want. After growing tired of performing at area wineries, the duo have mostly been entertaining small groups of people at nursing homes and senior centers.

Theyve also performed once at the Park Hills Public Library and are scheduled for an encore on Aug. 15 at 5:30 p.m.

They appeared at a fundraiser for the Park Hills Senior Center July 23.
10 million Bibles reach China: Ministry says it's a miracle, 'Jesus Himself decided to be our fundraiser'

Imagine 10 million Bibles dropping like manna from heaven over China  one of the countries in the world where Christians are not really welcomed. In fact, Chinese authorities recently launched a crackdown on Chinese house churches. They have also been tearing down crosses on Christian facilities.

That's the reason why the printing and distribution of 10 million Bibles in China is considered a huge accomplishmentnothing short of supernatural, according to its organiser, the church-planting Asia Harvest ministry.

"This hasn't been a human accomplishment, but a miracle from the Living God," the ministry states in its online newsletter.

"From a human perspective, our ministry had no chance of producing significant numbers of Bibles....The Lord Jesus Himself decided to be our fundraiser," it says.

How did it happen?

Asia Harvest says support from around the world poured in, resulting in millions of Bibles being printed and delivered across China.

"Instead of connecting us with a few large donors, the Lord chose to link us together with hundreds of normal believer throughout the world," the ministry says.

It's an example of the amazing things that happen when God's people come together for the gospel, it adds.

China Harvest Director Gary Russell lauded Asia Harvest for reaching its goal of delivering 10 million Bibles to China.

"With great thanksgiving to God, I commend Asia Harvest and all of their supporters as they celebrate 10 million Bibles provided to the Church in China," he said in a statement.

"China is a huge nation, and while we are thankful that millions now have access to Bibles, we grieve that many millions of believers are still unable to access God's Wordnot counting the hundreds of millions of potential seekers," Russell added.

Asia Harvest is promising to continue printing and distributing Bibles until every person in China has a Bible in their hand.
Billy Graham offers tips on how to distinguish cults from real Christian groups

There are so many cults nowadays that hide underneath the guise of Christian churches, and world-renowned evangelist Billy Graham is warning Christians not to fall for their traps.

Graham says people need to be cautious; otherwise, they will become part of a group that will lead them away from what the Bible teaches.

"While some cults openly deny the Christian faith, others mimic Christian practices and actually claim to believe the Bible, although they deny some of its most important teachings," Graham warns on his Kansas City Star advice column.

In order to distinguish cults from real Christian groups, the evangelist offered three questions and guidelines in evaluation.

"First, what do they believe about the Bible? Is it alone the Word of God (as Christians affirm), or do they add to it or claim they alone have translated it correctly? Second, what do they believe about Jesus? Is he alone the divine son of God, sent from heaven to save us from our sins? Or do they deny this or claim we must work to save ourselves?" he says.

He continues: "Third, what do they believe about other Christians? Do they claim that they, and they alone, have the truth, or do they rejoice that God is also at work elsewhere?"

Graham says cult members will try to mislead people by offering friendship, but he says those who have been fooled by these cults should not feel discouraged because they can always turn back to God.

"God loves you; He loves you so much that He sent His only Son into the world to save you. May you discover this great truth  and you will, as you turn to Jesus Christ and invite Him to come into your life," he says.

After accepting Jesus, Graham says God will lead them to a church where the Bible is preached and taught, and they can grow closer to Christ.
Pastor with 'unswerving faith in Jesus' mercilessly beaten to death by Maoist rebels in India

A Christian pastor was "mercilessly" beaten to death by Maoist rebels in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, Fides News Agency reported.

In a belated report, the news agency said Pastor Yohan Maraiah was killed on July 29 by the Maoists who left a note at the murder scene accusing him of being "a police informer" and "accumulating disproportionate wealth [by] exploiting Tribals."

Sajan K. George, chairman of the Global Council of Indian Christians, said this was not the first time that Pastor Yohan had been targeted by the Maoist rebels.

"He suffered several attacks and had his church torched more than once. However, he remained strong in his unswerving faith in Jesus Christ," George said.

According to police reports, at least 100 militants affiliated with the Naxalite communist group, came to the village to take Pastor Yohan away. They dragged him to a nearby forest where they "mercilessly beat him to death, and left him on the outskirts of the village," the report said.

The killing was just the latest incident showing the dangers faced by Christians living in India. Christians in the Hindu-majority country face threats not only from Maoist rebels but also from Hindu extremists, with the central government offering little protection, according to Fides News Agency.

In June, Christians living in Hunter village in the state of Jharkhand received an order from the police banning them from worshipping, the Morning Star News reported. At the same time the Christian residents were threatened with death by Hindu radicals.

The police threatened to impose fines on Christians who defy the ban on worshipping.

However, Christian leaders in the area, including Rev. Akash Nandi, vowed that they will never deny their faith even in the face of threats to their lives and beatings.

"Do whatever you like, we are not going to leave Christ at any cost," Nandi recalled the remarks made by the Christians in the village.
Extremist ideology, not ISIS, is the problem; Christian persecution not new, says convert who witnessed prison 'miracle'

"ISIS is not the problem."

The statement comes from the Rev. Majed el-Shafie, a Christian convert who suffered horrible torture at the hands of Islamic extremists and experienced a "miracle" in prison when rabid dogs unleashed to maul him did not even touch him.

Shafie told the Daily Express in a recent interview that although many people view the Islamic State (ISIS) as the largest threat facing the world, the problem really is the unfettered growth of hard-line Islamist ideology worldwide, as magnified by the ISIS.

"ISIS is not the problem, before them it was al-Qaeda, before them it was Hezbollah and Hamas and before them there were other organisations," he explained. "The problem is the ideology of the extremists and the Muslim community has to work with us" [to change it].

The Christian convert who suffered greatly for upholding his Christian faith said the solution to the global terrorism problem has to come from Muslim nations, pointing out the need for them to change hard-line jihadi ideology with a "big focus on education."

He noted that Muslim nations like Pakistan are giving children textbooks that incite hatred towards Christians and other non-Muslim groups. He said ridding Islamic schools of radical indoctrination is an ideal place to start uprooting the problem of terrorism.

Shafie also said the global persecution of Christians is not really a new phenomenon since "this has been happening to Christians in the Middle East for hundreds of years" now.

"It might be shocking right now but it's not new," he added.

In the Express interview, Shafie also recalled how he was imprisoned, heinously tortured and sentenced to death in Egypt for converting from Islam to Christianity and helping build house churches in 1998.

"They shaved my head, they put my head in freezing cold water and then into boiling hot water," Shafie said. "They burned their cigarettes on me, they electrocuted me.

"They cut me and put salt in my wounds," he added. "I still wake with nightmares about it, even now 20 years on."

One incident he could not forget was when the guards let a pack of dogs into his cell with the intent to tear him bodily apart.

"When they released the dogs I sat in the corner and covered my face to the best of my ability," he recounted. "I tried to protect my back and chest. ... The dogs came and I prepared for pain and agony but I could not feel any."

"I moved my arms and the dogs were sitting around me. None of them moved toward me. ... The dogs just didn't move," he said. "The prison guards got another set of dogs and the same thing happened, but this time one of the dogs licked my face."

Shafie was eventually hospitalised and placed under house arrest, where, with the help of his friends, he was able to escape Alexandria, later to Israel, and then to Canada where he was granted asylum and where he later founded the international human rights group One Free World International, which focuses on the persecution of Christians in the Middle East. The group now operates in 28 countries.
Some 1,000 Christian millennials gather in Indonesia to stand up for Biblical truths

Millennials are often thought to be always concerned with the inessential: parties, gadgets and other material things. Around 1,000 millennials however recently gathered in Indonesia to prove that they can also move for the things that are spiritual and essential.

These Christian millennial leaders converged for the 2016 Lausanne Younger Leaders Gathering (YLG2016) in a quite unlikely venue, the Indonesian capital and predominantly Muslim city of Jakarta.

The youngsters who hail from as much as 160 nations around the world attended the gathering to address issues concerning today's youth, and to ultimately stand up for the biblical truth amid all the cultural challenges and pressure surrounding them.

Richard Coleman, a member of the YLG planning team, said the gathering is very timely, because the current state of society presents so much challenges for the Christian youth to stand up for their faith, especially in the face of greater acceptance for behavior that go against Christian teachings like homosexual lifestyle, premarital sex and drugs.

"A generation can repackage the truth. No problem. But that generation shouldn't be redefining the truth. With such a lack of Bible knowledge, this generation is getting tossed around a bit much. Yet, there's hope," Coleman said, as quoted by the Christian Broadcasting Network.

He added that the event is also meant to encourage Christian millennials to continue standing up for their faith despite the various challenges and temptations in today's world.

"There is so much social pressure for inclusion into any and everything. To take a stance against anything carries the risk of being labeled as 'narrow-minded' or 'judgmental.' Add to that the almost immediate persecution through social media, and it can become quite intimidating to proclaim the truths of scripture," Coleman explained.

Coleman further said that the conference will also "launch an ongoing initiative to equip, encourage, mentor, and fan into flame younger leaders."
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Houston Housing Authority chairman Lance Gilliam said he plans to resign his position at the next board meeting, just under two years before the end of his term.

Gilliam submitted his resignation letter Friday afternoon to the mayor and the authority. He also posted his intention to resign on social media. The announcement follows a flap with Mayor Sylvester Turner over an affordable housing project in an upscale neighborhood between the Galleria and Tanglewood and criticisms from the mayor about the agency's leadership.

The mayor said during a City Council meeting last week that he intends to change leadership. The mayor appoints the Houston Housing Authority board. Former Mayor Annise Parker appointed Gilliam to the board in 2010. He has served as chairman for the last four years. His term was slated to end in January 2018.

Federal and state officials have blocked all but three of the authority's eight projects proposed in the last three years, meaning it has been a decade since the agency last brought new affordable units to the city.

"I am very disappointed with the board for not having moved forward on building affordable housing in this city," Turner told City Council last week.

Gilliam pointed out in his letter, however, that 4,000 families were added to the voucher program as well as 1,100 veterans' affairs housing vouchers. The authority also added 512 new homes by acquiring mixed-income apartment communities and purchased sites for new construction in several communities, among other investments in new housing projects throughout the city, the letter said.

His comments followed an announcement that he planned to block tax credit financing for a mixed-income complex at 2640 Fountain View by declining to bring the project to a vote at City Council. He said the deal's price tag of $240,000 per unit was too expensive. The proposal inspired fierce political pushback and neighborhood opposition over the last several months.

The $56 million project would have 233 units and be the authority's first project in a so-called "high-opportunity neighborhood." The designation means that the project would give low-income families in need of public housing access to transit, amenities and highly rated schools. A U.S. Supreme Court decision last year agreed with fair housing advocates that concentrating public housing in areas with high rates of poverty could have a disparate impact and violate federal law.
Nacogdoches, TX (75965)

Today

Showers and thundershowers likely. Potential for heavy rainfall. High 63F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms this evening, then cloudy with rain likely overnight. Low 56F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%.
RIO DE JANEIRO  NBC's telecast of Brazil's scaled-back Opening Ceremony on Friday night also drew a scaled-back television audience.

Friday's telecast had an average audience of 26.5 million, down from 40.7 million for the 2012 Olympics. That total does not include 42 million minutes watched by via live streaming of the event, which was broadcast on tape delay in the U.S.

NBC expects the total to rise by about 7 percent when time-shifted viewing is included.

The audience peaked at 9 p.m., when the United States team entered, and declined through the rest of the evening. The Americans entered at 10 p.m. during the London broadcast in 2012.

The parade of nations also was 30 minutes longer than in 2012, when London offered a celebration that featured Paul McCartney in contrast to the less-costly show put on by the Brazilians.

In Houston, the program had a 14.7 Nielsen rating, meaning it was viewed by 14.7 percent of the area's 2.2 million TV households. That ranked 28th among the 56 major markets.

Austin was 13th with a 16.2 rating, San Antonio tied for 29th at 14.3 and Dallas-Fort Worth was 41st at 13.0.
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.
Borders are in the news as never before. After millions of young, Muslim, and mostly male refugees flooded into the European Union last year from the war-torn Middle East, a popular revolt arose against the so-called Schengen Area agreements, which give free rights of movement within Europe. The concurrent suspension of most E.U. external controls on immigration and asylum rendered the open-borders pact suddenly unworkable. The European masses are not racists, but they now apparently wish to accept Middle Eastern immigrants only to the degree that these newcomers arrive legally and promise to become European in values and outlookprotocols that the E.U. essentially discarded decades ago as intolerant. Europeans are relearning that the continents external borders mark off very different approaches to culture and society from what prevails in North Africa or the Middle East.

A similar crisis plays out in the United States, where President Barack Obama has renounced his former opposition to open borders and executive-order amnesties. Since 2012, the U.S. has basically ceased policing its southern border. The populist pushback against the opening of the border with Mexico gave rise to the presidential candidacy of Donald Trumppredicated on the candidates promise to build an impenetrable border wallmuch as the flood of migrants into Germany fueled opposition to Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Driving the growing populist outrage in Europe and North America is the ongoing elite push for a borderless world. Among elites, borderlessness has taken its place among the politically correct positions of our ageand, as with other such ideas, it has shaped the language we use. The descriptive term illegal alien has given way to the nebulous unlawful immigrant. This, in turn, has given way to undocumented immigrant, immigrant, or the entirely neutral migranta noun that obscures whether the individual in question is entering or leaving. Such linguistic gymnastics are unfortunately necessary. Since an enforceable southern border no longer exists, there can be no immigration law to break in the first place.

Todays open-borders agenda has its roots not only in economic factorsthe need for low-wage workers who will do the work that native-born Americans or Europeans supposedly will notbut also in several decades of intellectual ferment, in which Western academics have created a trendy field of borders discourse. What we might call post-borderism argues that boundaries even between distinct nations are mere artificial constructs, methods of marginalization designed by those in power, mostly to stigmatize and oppress the otherusually the poorer and less Westernwho arbitrarily ended up on the wrong side of the divide. Where borders are drawn, power is exercised, as one European scholar put it. This view assumes that where borders are not drawn, power is not exercisedas if a million Middle Eastern immigrants pouring into Germany do not wield considerable power by their sheer numbers and adroit manipulation of Western notions of victimization and grievance politics. Indeed, Western leftists seek political empowerment by encouraging the arrival of millions of impoverished migrants.

Dreams of a borderless world are not new, however. The biographer and moralist Plutarch claimed in his essay On Exile that Socrates had once asserted that he was not just an Athenian but instead a citizen of the cosmos. In later European thought, Communist ideas of universal labor solidarity drew heavily on the idea of a world without borders. Workers of the world, unite! exhorted Marx and Engels. Wars broke out, in this thinking, only because of needless quarreling over obsolete state boundaries. The solution to this state of endless war, some argued, was to eliminate borders in favor of transnational governance. H. G. Wellss prewar science-fiction novel The Shape of Things to Come envisioned borders eventually disappearing as elite transnational polymaths enforced enlightened world governance. Such fictions prompt fads in the contemporary real world, though attempts to render borders unimportantas, in Wellss time, the League of Nations sought to dohave always failed. Undaunted, the Left continues to cherish the vision of a borderless world as morally superior, a triumph over artificially imposed difference.

Yet the truth is that borders do not create differencethey reflect it. Elites continued attempts to erase borders are both futile and destructive.

Bordersand the fights to keep or change themare as old as agricultural civilization. In ancient Greece, most wars broke out over border scrubland. The contested upland eschatia offered little profit for farming but possessed enormous symbolic value for a city-state to define where its own culture began and ended. The self-acclaimed citizen of the cosmos Socrates nonetheless fought his greatest battle as a parochial Athenian hoplite in the ranks of the phalanx at the Battle of Deliumwaged over the contested borderlands between Athens and Thebes. Fifth-century Athenians such as Socrates envisioned Attica as a distinct cultural, political, and linguistic entity, within which its tenets of radical democracy and maritime-based imperialism could function quite differently from the neighboring oligarchical agrarianism at Thebes. Attica in the fourth century BC built a system of border forts to protect its northern boundary.

Throughout history, the trigger points of war have traditionally been such borderlandsthe methoria between Argos and Sparta, the Rhine and Danube as the frontiers of Rome, or the Alsace-Lorraine powder keg between France and Germany. These disputes did not always arise, at least at first, as efforts to invade and conquer a neighbor. They were instead mutual expressions of distinct societies that valued clear-cut bordersnot just as matters of economic necessity or military security but also as a means of ensuring that one society could go about its unique business without the interference and hectoring of its neighbors.

Advocates for open borders often question the historical legitimacy of such territorial boundaries. For instance, some say that when Alta California declared its autonomy from Mexico in 1846, the new border stranded an indigenous Latino population in what would shortly become the 31st of the United States. We didnt cross the border, these revisionists say. The border crossed us. In fact, there were probably fewer than 10,000 Spanish-speakers residing in California at the time. Thus, almost no contemporary Californians of Latino descent can trace their state residency back to the mid-nineteenth century. They were not crossed by borders. And northsouth demarcation, for good or evil, didnt arbitrarily separate people.

What we might call post-borderism argues that boundaries even between distinct nations are mere artificial constructs.

The history of borders has been one of constant recalibration, whether dividing up land or unifying it. The Versailles Treaty of 1919 was idealistic not for eliminating borders but for drawing new ones. The old borders, established by imperial powers, supposedly caused World War I; the new ones would better reflect, it was hoped, ethnic and linguistic realities, and thus bring perpetual peace. But the world created at Versailles was blown apart by the Third Reich. German chancellor Adolf Hitler didnt object to the idea of borders per se; rather, he sought to remake them to encompass all German-speakersand later so-called Aryanswithin one political entity, under his absolute control. Many nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century German intellectuals and artistsamong them the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, historian Oswald Spengler, and composer Richard Wagneragreed that the Roman Empires borders marked the boundaries of civilization. Perversely, however, they celebrated their status as the unique other that had been kept out of a multiracial Western civilization. Instead, Germany mythologized itself as racially exceptional, precisely because, unlike other Western European nations, it was definable not only by geography or language but also by its supposed racial purity. The fairy-tale origins of the German Volk were traced back before the fifth century AD and predicated on the idea that Germanic tribes for centuries were kept on the northern and eastern sides of the Danube and Rhine Rivers. Thus, in National Socialist ideology, early German, white-skinned, Aryan noble savages paradoxically avoided a mongrelizing and enervating assimilation into the civilized Roman Empirean outcome dear to the heart of Nazi crackpot racial theorist Alfred Rosenberg (The Myth of the Twentieth Century) and the autodidact Adolf Hitler. World War II was fought to restore the old Eastern European borders that Hitler and Mussolini had erasedbut it ended with the creation of entirely new ones, reflecting the power and presence of Soviet continental Communism, enforced by the huge Russian Red Army.

Few escape petty hypocrisy when preaching the universal gospel of borderlessness. Barack Obama has caricatured the building of a wall on the U.S. southern border as nonsensical, as if borders are discriminatory and walls never work. Obama, remember, declared in his 2008 speech in Berlin that he wasnt just an American but also a citizen of the world. Yet the Secret Service is currently adding five feet to the White House fencepresumably on the retrograde logic that what is inside the White House grounds is different from what is outside and that the higher the fence goes (higher and stronger, the Secret Service promises), the more of a deterrent it will be to would-be trespassers. If Obamas previous wall was six feet high, the proposed 11 feet should be even better.

In 2011, open-borders advocate Antonio Villaraigosa became the first mayor in Los Angeles history to build a wall around the official mayoral residence. His un-walled neighbors objected, first, that there was no need for such a barricade and, second, that it violated a city ordinance prohibiting residential walls higher than four feet. But Villaraigosa apparently wished to emphasize the difference between his home and others (or between his home and the street itself), or was worried about security, or saw a new wall as iconic of his exalted office.

Youre about to graduate into a complex and borderless world, Secretary of State John Kerry recently enthused to the graduating class at Northeastern University. He didnt sound envious, though, perhaps because Kerry himself doesnt live in such a world. If he did, he never would have moved his 76-foot luxury yacht from Boston Harbor across the state border to Rhode Island in order to avoid $500,000 in sales taxes and assorted state and local taxes.

While elites can build walls or switch zip codes to insulate themselves, the consequences of their policies fall heavily on the nonelites who lack the money and influence to navigate around them. The contrast between the two groupsPeggy Noonan described them as the protected and the unprotectedwas dramatized in the presidential campaign of Jeb Bush. When the former Florida governor called illegal immigration from Mexico an act of love, his candidacy was doomed. It seemed that Bush had the capital and influence to pick and choose how the consequences of his ideas fell upon himself and his familyin a way impossible for most of those living in the southwestern United States. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg offers another case study. The multibillionaire advocates for a fluid southern border and lax immigration enforcement, but he has also stealthily spent $30 million to buy up four homes surrounding his Palo Alto estate. They form a sort of no-mans-land defense outside his own Maginot Line fence, presumably designed against hoi polloi who might not share Zuckerbergs taste or sense of privacy. Zuckerbergs other estate in San Francisco is prompting neighbors complaints because his security team takes up all the best parking spaces. Walls and border security seem dear to the heart of the open-borders multibillionairewhen its his wall, his border security.

This self-serving dynamic operates beyond the individual level as well. Sanctuary cities, for instance, proclaim amnesty for illegal aliens within their municipal boundaries. But proud as they are of their cities disdain for federal immigration law, residents of these liberal jurisdictions wouldnt approve of other cities nullifying other federal laws. What would San Franciscans say if Salt Lake City declared the Endangered Species Act null and void within its city limits, or if Carson City unilaterally suspended federal background checks and waiting periods for handgun purchases? Moreover, San Francisco and Los Angeles do believe in clearly delineated borders when it comes to their right to maintain a distinct culture, with distinct rules and customs. Their self-righteousness aside, sanctuary cities neither object to the idea of borders nor to their enforcementonly to the notion that protecting the southern U.S. border is predicated on the very same principles.

More broadly, ironies and contradictions abound in the arguments and practices of open-borders advocates. In academia, even modern historians of the ancient world, sensing the mood and direction of larger elite culture, increasingly rewrite the fall of fifth-century AD Rome, not as a disaster of barbarians pouring across the traditional fortified northern borders of the Rhine and Danubethe final limites that for centuries kept out perceived barbarism from classical civilizationbut rather as late antiquity, an intriguing osmosis of melting borders and cross-fertilization, leading to a more diverse and dynamic intersection of cultures and ideas. Why, then, dont they cite Vandal treatises on medicine, Visigothic aqueducts, or Hunnish advances in dome construction that contributed to this rich new culture of the sixth or seventh century AD? Because these things never existed.

Academics may now caricature borders, but key to their posturing is either an ignorance of, or an unwillingness to address, why tens of millions of people choose to cross borders in the first place, leaving their homelands, language fluency, or capitaland at great personal risk. The answer is obvious, and it has little to do with natural resources or climate: migration, as it was in Rome during the fifth century AD, or as it was in the 1960s between mainland China and Hong Kongand is now in the case of North and South Koreahas usually been a one-way street, from the non-West to the West or its Westernized manifestations. People walk, climb, swim, and fly across borders, secure in the knowledge that boundaries mark different approaches to human experience, with one side usually perceived as more successful or inviting than the other.

Western rules that promote a greater likelihood of consensual government, personal freedom, religious tolerance, transparency, rationalism, an independent judiciary, free-market capitalism, and the protection of private property combine to offer the individual a level of prosperity, freedom, and personal security rarely enjoyed at home. As a result, most migrants make the necessary travel adjustments to go westwardespecially given that Western civilization, uniquely so, has usually defined itself by culture, not race, and thus alone is willing to accept and integrate those of different races who wish to share its protocols.

Many unassimilated Muslims in the West often are confused about borders and assume that they can ignore Western jurisprudence and yet rely on it in extremis. Todays migrant from Morocco might resent the bare arms of women in France, or the Pakistani new arrival in London might wish to follow sharia law as he knew it in Punjab. But implicit are two unmentionable constants: the migrant most certainly does not wish to return to face sharia law in Morocco or Pakistan. Second, if he had his way, institutionalizing his native culture into that of his newly adopted land, he would eventually flee the resultsand once again likely go somewhere else, for the same reasons that he left home in the first place. London Muslims may say that they demand sharia law on matters of religion and sex, but such a posture assumes the unspoken condition that the English legal system remains supreme, and thus, as Muslim minorities, they will not be thrown out of Britain as religious infidelsas Christians are now expelled from the Middle East.

Even the most adamant ethnic chauvinists who want to erase the southern border assume that some sort of border is central to their own racial essence. The National Council of La Raza (the race; Latin, radix) is the largest lobbying body for open borders with Mexico. Yet Mexico itself supports the idea of boundaries. Mexico City may harp about alleged racism in the United States directed at its immigrants, but nothing in U.S. immigration law compares with Mexicos 1974 revision of its General Law of Population and its emphasis on migrants not upsetting the racial makeup of Mexicoeuphemistically expressed as preserving the equilibrium of the national demographics. In sum, Mexican nationals implicitly argue that borders, which unfairly keep them out of the United States, are nonetheless essential to maintaining their own pure raza.

Migration has usually been a one-way street, from the non-West to the West or its Westernized manifestations.

Mexico, in general, furiously opposes enforcing the U.S.Mexican border and, in particular, the proposed Trump wall that would bar unauthorized entry into the U.S.not on any theory of borders discourse but rather because Mexico enjoys fiscal advantages in exporting its citizens northward, whether in ensuring nearly $30 billion in remittances, creating a powerful lobby of expatriates in the U.S., or finding a safety valve for internal dissent. Note that this view does not hold when it comes to accepting northward migrations of poorer Central Americans. In early 2016, Mexico ramped up its border enforcement with Guatemala, adding more security forces, and rumors even circulated of a plan to erect occasional fences to augment the natural barriers of jungle and rivers. Apparently, Mexican officials view poorer Central Americans as quite distinct from Mexicansand thus want to ensure that Mexico remains separate from a poorer Guatemala.

When I wrote an article titled Do We Want Mexifornia? for City Journal s Spring 2002 issue, I neither invented the word Mexifornia nor intended it as a pejorative. Instead, I expropriated the celebratory term from Latino activists, both in the academy and in ethnic gangs in California prisons. In Chicano studies departments, the fusion of Mexico and California was envisioned as a desirable and exciting third-way culture. Mexifornia was said to be arising within 200 to 300 miles on either side of an ossified Rio Grande border. Less clearly articulated were Mexifornias premises: millions of Latinos and mestizos would create a new ethnic zone, which, for some mysterious reason, would also enjoy universities, sophisticated medical services, nondiscrimination laws, equality between the sexes, modern housing, policing, jobs, commerce, and a judiciaryall of which would make Mexifornia strikingly different from what is currently found in Mexico and Central America.

When Latino youths disrupt a Donald Trump rally, they often wave Mexican flags or flash placards bearing slogans such as Make America Mexico Again. But note the emotional paradox: in anger at possible deportation, undocumented aliens nonsensically wave the flag of the country that they most certainly do not wish to return to, while ignoring the flag of the nation in which they adamantly wish to remain. Apparently, demonstrators wish to brand themselves with an ethnic cachet but without sacrificing the advantages that being an American resident has over being a Mexican citizen inside Mexico. If no borders existed between California and Mexico, then migrants in a few decades might head to Oregon, even as they demonstrated in Portland to Make Oregon into California.

Removing borders in theory, then, never seems to match expectations in fact, except in those rare occasions when nearly like societies exist side by side. No one objects to a generally open Canadian border because passage across it, numbers-wise, is roughly identical in either directionand Canadians and Americans share a language and similar traditions and standard of living, along with a roughly identical approach to democracy, jurisprudence, law enforcement, popular culture, and economic practice. By contrast, weakening demarcated borders between diverse peoples has never appealed to the citizens of distinct nations. Take even the most vociferous opponents of a distinguishable and enforceable border, and one will observe a disconnect between what they say and dogiven the universal human need to circumscribe, demarcate, and protect ones perceived private space.

Again, the dissipation of national borders is possible only between quite similar countries, such as Canada and the U.S. or France and Belgium, or on those few occasions when a supranational state or empire can incorporate different peoples by integrating, assimilating, and intermarrying tribes of diverse religions, languages, and ethnicities into a common cultureand then, of course, protect them with distinct and defensible external borders. But aside from Rome before the fourth century AD and America of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, few societies have been able to achieve E pluribus unum. Napoleons transnational empire didnt last 20 years. Britain never tried to create a holistic overseas body politic in the way that, after centuries of strife, it had forged the English-speaking United Kingdom. The Austro-Hungarian, German, Ottoman, and Russian Empires all fell apart after World War I, in a manner mimicked by the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia in the 1980s and 1990s. Rwanda and Iraq dont reflect the meaninglessness of borders but the desire of distinct peoples to redraw colonial lines to create more logical borders to reflect current religious, ethnic, and linguistic realities. When Ronald Reagan thundered at the Brandenburg Gate, Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! he assumed that by 1987, German-speakers on both sides of the Berlin Wall were more alike than not and in no need of a Soviet-imposed boundary inside Germany. Both sides preferred shared consensual government to Communist authoritarianism. Note that Reagan did not demand that Western nations dismantle their own borders with the Communist bloc.

Something there is that doesnt love a wall, Robert Frost famously wrote, That wants it down. True, but the poet concedes in his Mending Wall that in the end, he accepts the logic of his crustier neighbor: He says again, Good fences make good neighbors.  From my own experience in farming, two issueswater and boundariescause almost all feuds with neighbors. As I write, Im involved in a border dispute with a new neighbor. He insists that the last row of his almond orchard should be nearer to the property line than is mine. That way, he can use more of my land as common space to turn his equipment than I will use of his land. I wish that I could afford to erect a wall between us.

The end of borders, and the accompanying uncontrolled immigration, will never become a natural conditionany more than sanctuary cities, unless forced by the federal government, will voluntarily allow out-of-state agencies to enter their city limits to deport illegal aliens, or Mexico will institutionalize free entry into its country from similarly Spanish-speaking Central American countries.

Borders are to distinct countries what fences are to neighbors: means of demarcating that something on one side is different from what lies on the other side, a reflection of the singularity of one entity in comparison with another. Borders amplify the innate human desire to own and protect property and physical space, which is impossible to do unless it is seenand can be so understoodas distinct and separate. Clearly delineated borders and their enforcement, either by walls and fences or by security patrols, wont go away because they go to the heart of the human conditionwhat jurists from Rome to the Scottish Enlightenment called meum et tuum, mine and yours. Between friends, unfenced borders enhance friendship; among the unfriendly, when fortified, they help keep the peace.

Top Photo: The ruins of a boundary fortress designed to separate Athens from Thebes; in ancient Greece, most wars broke out over territorial disputes. (HERVE CHAMPOLLION/AKG-IMAGES /THE IMAGE WORKS)
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Carl Edwards is on the pole for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Cheez-it 355 at the Glen. The race is Sunday at 2:30 p.m. and will be televised by USA network. You can get live scoring all weekend at NASCAR's Race Center.

Tony Stewart, in his retirement season, qualified third on the grid, with AJ Allmindinger, the fastest during practice, starting ninth.

The biggest news for the weekend was Friday's extended press conference with Dale Earnhardt Jr., who is missing his fourth race due to concussion symptoms. He spent the entire media session saying retirement is not part of his agenda.

SPRINT CUP

CHEEZ-IT 355 AT THE GLEN

Site: Watkins Glen, New York

Schedule: Sunday, race, 2:30 p.m., USA.

Track: Watkins Glen International (road, 2.45 miles).

Race distance: (220.5 miles, 90 laps).

Last year: Joey Logano led just one lap, but that was enough to take home first over Kyle Busch.

Last week: Chris Buescher won a weather-shortened race in Pocono, his first victory in the series.

Fast facts: Jeff Gordon will drive the No. 88 car for at least two more races as Dale Earnhardt Jr. continues to battle concussion-like symptoms. ... Buescher's surprising victory put him in position to qualify for the Chase, which looked highly unlikely before Pocono. Buescher is currently in 31st place, and if he can move into the top 30 he'll earn a playoff spot. ... Eleven drivers, including Tony Stewart, are all but locked into the Chase, leaving just five spots left for the rest of the field.

Next race: Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race, Aug. 20, Bristol Motor Speedway, Bristol, Tennessee.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report)
wages.jpg

Members of Raise Up Cleveland along with the Service Employees International Union hold a rally earlier this year in front of a McDonald's fast-food restaurant on E. 30 Street and Carnegie Avenue in support of raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Guest columnist Tish O'Dell argues in favor of raising the minimum wage for workers.

(Lisa DeJong/Plain Dealer/file photo)

Tish O'Dell is coordinator for the Ohio Community Rights Network.

Guest columnist Tish O'Dell is coordinator of the Ohio Community Rights Network, and Ohio organizer for The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund

In response to all the negative comments from elected and business leaders in Cleveland about the proposed $15 minimum wage, I would like the people to consider the motives behind these comments.

Why is fear being used to convince people that raising workers' wages will bring down the city? Some of the arguments against raising the minimum wage are the same arguments that were made when talk of ending slavery surfaced back in the 1800s. It doesn't take a Ph.D. economist to know that if you have "free" labor, prices can be cheaper and profits for corporations higher.

Just as the mention of "freeing the slaves" appalled the plantation owners, it was just as appalling to the factory owners in the north. If they had to figure labor costs into the price of the cotton, that would raise the price of the textiles their factories produced, and they feared no one would buy the dresses and other clothing made from the cotton. Thank goodness for people like William Lloyd Garrison and the other abolitionists who questioned the morality of the profits gained by "free labor."

So, how is it any different today? If workers are working full-time and still cannot feed their families or provide healthcare for them and yet the rest of us benefit with greater dividends in our retirement plans or with cheaper prices, just so we can afford closets full of material possession, what is the difference?

Is it acceptable that CEOs and shareholders make big profits, while the rest of us subsidize those profits by funding social welfare programs for food stamps and Medicaid for the workers who cannot afford to pay for basic necessities just to survive?

I have read the mayor's, city council's, and chamber of commerce comments that the "sky is falling" just to mention a $15 minimum wage. Businesses will leave the city and close their doors in droves. We will become a ghost town with no future.

No one mentions that it might actually be good for Cleveland to set a higher minimum wage than what the state has set. In fact, the research shows that boosting wages stimulates the local economy, reduces employee turnover and decreases the need for public assistance. You can read for yourself on the website of the United States Department of Labor: dol.gov/featured/minimum-wage/mythbuster

If you keep workers at low wages, you keep them in poverty. Think about that: Working a full-time schedule at minimum wage, still keeps you in poverty. That is unconscionable, and it needs to end now. Let's stop with all the fear mongering and "end of the city as we know it" and let's start considering what is moral and just. And more importantly, let's let the people in the community who will be directly affected have a voice in the decision. The definition of democracy according to Merriam-Webster is "government by the people; especially, rule of the majority."

The city should put the people's initiative on the ballot and let the voters, the people, have a voice in shaping the future of Cleveland.

Readers are invited to submit Opinion page essays on topics of regional or general interest. Send your 500-word essay for consideration to Linda Kinsey at lkinsey@cleveland.com. Essays must also include a brief bio and headshot of the writer. Essays rebutting today's topics are also welcome.
Who needs stinking nuke codes? I used three electrical jumpers to bypass the interlocks on a tactical nuke (30 kiloton yield) on the sly when guarding the nuke while the sides were off for routine preventive maintenance. I knew how to do that by looking at the electrical diagrams on the sly. I pulled the jumpers off and never got caught. I just wanted to see if I could do it or not.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Lakewood man is charged in connection with an attempted stabbing of a Cuyahoga County protective services officer, who shot the man in the leg.

Louis Doss, 27, is charged with two counts of felonious assault. His bond is set at $50,000 and he's being held in the county jail until a grand jury hears his case.

Doss is accused of arguing with a 22-year-old man and 21-year-old woman, both from Richmond Heights, about 8 a.m. on Aug. 1.

Doss punched the Richmond Heights man in the jaw while holding an object, possibly a knife, according to court records. He then tried to stab the man, court records say.

Cuyahoga County Protective Services officer James Rookard, a 61-year-old veteran officer, was driving to the Cuyahoga County Justice Center and saw the group arguing in the middle of East 12th Street near the Galleria on Lakeside Avenue.

Rookard stopped and the woman told him that Doss tried to stab her. Doss then lunged at Rookard with a kitchen knife that had a 4-inch blade, according to Pinkney and police reports.

Rookard fired one shot and hit Doss in his right thigh. Doss ran through the East 12th street entrance and tried to hide in a basement bathroom, police reports say.

Sheriff's deputies followed Doss into the Galleria. Doss ran into a bathroom and tried to change his clothes. Deputies found the knife hidden behind a toilet, according to court records.

Doss was treated and released from MetroHealth Medical Center and taken to the city jail. Rookard was not injured in the incident.

Cleveland police's homicide and use of force units are investigating the case, according to police reports.

Rookard was placed on mandatory paid administrative leave following the shooting, Pinkney said. Pinkeny said Rookard has been with the sheriff's department for about 10 years.

Doss' criminal history includes a 2014 conviction for trying to stab a man with a knife at the Greyhound bus station on Chester Avenue. He pleaded guilty to attempted felonious assault and was put on the court's mental health docket.

He was sentenced to two years on probation. Doss also had three misdemeanor convictions in Lakewood Municipal Court for disorderly conduct, aggravated menacing and assault.

To comment on this post, please visit our crime and courts comments section.
Winston's Bar Shooting

A 45-year-old man shot a 60-year-old man inside Winston's Bar in Cleveland after the two got into an argument over the 2016 presidential election, police said.

(Cory Shaffer, cleveland.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A man accused of shooting a fellow bar patron because he supported Donald Trump for president turned himself in to police on Friday.

Darnell Hall, 45, is charged with felonious assault. His bond was set at $15,000 Saturday during his initial appearance in Cleveland Municipal Court.

The shooting happened about 5 p.m. July 25 at Winston's Bar on East 131st Street and Miles Avenue.

Defense attorney Harvey Bruner said during the hearing that Hall and a 60-year-old man got into an argument because the other man was saying that Donald Trump would be a good president.

Hall disagreed and a fight ensued.

Cleveland police said the men met on the bar's back patio.

The men, who are both regulars at the bar, started talking about the presidential election, with the 60-year-old man saying he preferred Donald Trump.

The bar's owner jumped in to separate them, and brought the 60 year old into the bar. Hall walked around the outside of the building and through the front door, police said.

The argument rekindled.

Hall pulled a pistol from his pants and shot the 60-year-old man in the right thigh, police said. Hall then ran out the bar's front door, jumped into a Cadillac truck and drove off, according to police.

Bruner said the police's version of the shooting was different that Hall's. He said Hall had a gun with him the entire time and pulled out his gun during the argument over Trump.

Bruner said the bar owner tried to grab Hall's gun, which caused the gun to fire one shot.

Hall was sentenced in April to 18 months of probation after he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge related to a May 7, 2015 incident at the same bar.

He and a woman got into a fight with two other women. Hall struck the women with a bottle, according to court records.

Hall ran into the Cleveland police detective assigned to his case at Winston's Bar in October after he had posted bond. The officer was off-duty, and the man confronted him.

Hall told the officer that he was out of jail, and asked the officer what he wanted to do, according to court records. The officer left the bar and told Cuyahoga County prosecutors about the encounter.

To comment on this post, please visit our crime and courts comments section.
BUTLER, Ohio -- A Michigan man was arrested Saturday in connection with two dozen people overdosing on drug-laced candy at the EST Fest Music Festival in Richland County, officials said.

Matthew Gross, 28, of Ypsilanti, was booked into the Richland County Jail. Richland County Prosecutor Bambi Couch Page said Gross will likely face felony charges of drug trafficking and possessing drug paraphernalia.

Sheriff's deputies are asking for a $50,000 bond to be set at Gross' first court appearance.

The drug-laced candy was described in police reports as a 100-milligram packets of prescribed "medibles" called Nerd Ropes that included a Michigan doctor's name on it.

Deputies launched an investigation after 24 people reported overdosing at the festival. None lost consciousness and none died. They were all treated at an area hospital.

A 28-year-old woman reported seeing the man later identified as Gross passing out the packets and tossing them into the crowd, according to police reports. She took several photos of the man, police reports say.

The woman approached the man after news of the overdoses began circulating and he walked away. A security guard alerted Richland County sheriff deputies when he saw the man in the crowd.

Deputies searched Gross' bag and found two of the same packets that were involved in the overdoses, police reports say. They also reported finding a marijuana-smoking device in the bag.

Gross initially told investigators he picked the packets up off the ground. He later said he was part of the candy's "brand" and was helping pass them out, then later said he was only giving them out because he heard the parking lot and exit were closed, according to a sheriff's deputy's affidavit.

Deputies contacted Couch Page, who authorized drug trafficking charges. Gross was taken to the Richland County Jail, where deputies found a baggie with about six grams of marijuana in his pants pocket, police reports say.

Investigators also found two Michigan identification cards that said Gross is licensed in the state to possess, grow or be prescribed marijuana.

A Walmart bag with several more packets were found near where Gross was initially approached by deputies, but investigators noted in their report too many others were in the area, so they couldn't conclusively link those packets to Gross.

The music festival was held Friday and Saturday at the Ohio Dreams Actions Sports Summer Camp. Cleveland rapper Machine Gun Kelly was the festival's headliner.

To comment on this post, please visit our crime and courts comments section.
LORAIN, Ohio -- A 23-year-old man died Saturday after an SUV crashed into his motorcycle, police said.

Anthony Davis, 28, died in the crash. He was wearing a helmet at the time of the crash, police said.

The crash happened about 2:15 p.m. at the intersection of Meister Road and Sherwood Drive.

Davis was riding his 1991 Honda motorcycle west on Meister. A 58-year-old woman was driving her 2014 Kia Soul SUV in the opposite direction on Meister.

The woman turned left off Meister onto Sherwood and failed to yield the right of way to Davis' motorcycle, police said. The vehicles collided and Davis was thrown from his motorcycle onto the road.

The motorcycle skidded off the southwest side of the road. The woman was questioned and released from the scene, police said. She was not injured and was wearing her seatbelt.

Davis was taken to Mercy Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Police said it's unknown if drugs or alcohol played a role in the crash.

The crash caused the road to be closed for about five hours while police investigated.

Lorain city prosecutors will determine if any charges are filed in the case after the police's investigation.
CIPC080616_1461.jpg

In addition to $75,000, Russian pianist Nikita Mndoyants clinched management services, a recording project, and a New York recital debut with his performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 at the 2016 Cleveland International Piano Competition.

(Roger Mastroianni)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - How difficult jury duty must have been at the 2016 Cleveland International Piano Competition. The last round, especially.

After four almost equally strong showings in the chamber music phase, the jury then encountered a concerto phase every bit as closely contested, one that only complicated the already tough process of splitting hairs.

But split hairs it did. Moments after the last performance with the Cleveland Orchestra Saturday night at Severance Hall, the body made its ruling, awarding the $75,000 first prize to Nikita Mndoyants, of Russia; the $25,000 second prize to Leonardo Colafelice, of Italy; the $15,000 third prize to Dinara Klinton, of Ukraine; and the $10,000 fourth prize to Russia's Georgy Tchaidze.

The money isn't even the best of it. In addition to cash, Mndoyants also clinched three years of management services, a recording project, and a New York recital debut. Enough, with a little more good luck, to launch a career.

The tightness of the race notwithstanding, this listener can't argue with the results. While all four artists were compelling, with attentive support from guest conductor Bramwell Tovey, Mndoyants' performance Friday of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 did indeed stand out from its peers.

Cool, technically flawless, and deeply insightful, his Beethoven offered not a only welcome detour on the otherwise exclusively Russian evenings but also a legitimately fresh and invigorating take on an under-appreciated score.

As if in response to the fiery Russian concertos, Mndoyants offered pure elegance and no small measures of personality and sparkle. Variety and freedom were the hallmarks of his Rondo, and his opening Allegro was a model of transparent refinement.

But the real poetry was in the Andante. Rarely, in a lifetime of Beethoven concerts, has the protagonist in the slow movement of the fourth sounded so lonesome, so adrift and full of yearning.

Colafelice also made an exceedingly convincing case for himself. With Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3, the Italian pianist, the only finalist with prior Cleveland Orchestra experience (he won the 2012 Cooper International Piano Competition), made clear that he is an artist of multi-dimensional talent, gifted across a broad technical spectrum.

Most of the concerto he spent in cyclone mode, tearing through the difficult score with daunting agility and ferocity, not to mention brightness and percussive strength. In music that often can sound episodic or disconnected, too, Colafelice found through-lines, generating sweep on top of raw power.

He also found room for expression. Radiant sweetness routinely peeked through his storm clouds, and in the variations movement and finale, he conjured auras ranging from tender to eerie, all the way to heart-pounding.

The tide also could have shifted easily in favor of Klinton, had the final decision rested solely on the concerto.

Her performance Saturday of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 was a truly personal interpretation, a reading seemingly guided less by tradition than by her own thinking. Where so many artists in Tchaikovsky's first concerto hammer their listeners into submission, Klinton drew hers in with subtle persuasion as well as force.

Her performance had muscle and virtuosity in all the right places, and often to spare. Her finale, up to and through the last note, was dazzling.

But Klinton also made free use of the pedal, buffing out hard edges and replacing them with mist and glisten. The result? A rendition ironclad on the outside but soft and lyrical inside.

Tchaidze, for his part, was essentially the polar opposite of Mndoyants, his counterpart Friday. For him, Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 served as a kind of pressure-release valve. Into its famous pages he seemed to pour any and all angst built up over the preceding two weeks.

It was all very exciting, of course. Between the two halves of the opening Allegro, he drew the boldest possible distinction. One was forceful and dramatic. The other, silken and spacious. His finale, likewise, was almost manic in intensity, and revealed some of the fastest fingers in the business.

But Tchaidze also suffered a few slips, notably falling out of step with Tovey and the orchestra in the third movement. Had it not been for that, in fact, he might have come out on top.

What a job deciding between such performances. Say this, though, in defense of jury duty. Competition judges, especially here at this herculean event, may be charged with some of the most formidable tasks in the field, but they also get to hear a formidable amount of great music.
Panama Canal Construction 1909

This is a partial view of floor construction of the upper Gatun Lock of the Panama Canal, showing wall form towers and sidewall culvert forms, Dec. 15, 1909.

(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Steve Traina, hosts a Saturday morning music history show

What does the Panama Canal have to teach us about fighting terrorism? A lot, it seems, especially for those who think we can kill our way to peace, and for those who have forgotten (or never knew) its history lesson for us.



While building the Panama Canal, thousands of workers died of yellow fever and malaria. How they got the disease in the first place was controversial - scientists thought that mosquitoes carried the disease, but disbelievers of that notion were many and powerful. So, many needless deaths occurred while the forces of ignorance battled the forces of knowledge. Many attempts at eradicating the mosquitoes were tried and failed.



After almost 20,000 deaths, the French government gave up on building the canal and the United States took over. Eventually, knowledge won out and the swamps and marshes and other places where mosquitoes bred and thrived were drained or otherwise controlled. Yellow fever and malaria were conquered and the canal was finished.



Today, the same forces of ignorance and knowledge do battle. However, the present disagreement is about how to eradicate terrorism. Many people think that we can kill our way to a terror-free world. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz wants to see if sand glows after an atomic attack, and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump wants to kill not only all the terrorists, but their families as well.



December: Donald Trump wants to 'take out' terrorists' families

These plans will work just as well as the ignorant attempts at eradicating the fast-multiplying mosquitoes by killing them all. And by "work just as well," of course, I mean to say they will fail miserably.



We have been fighting the "war on terror" officially since late 2001, after the 9/11 attacks. In that time, and after all the terrible expense of life and national treasure, terrorism is not on the decline. Contrariwise, it is flourishing. A wise saying comes to mind: "When you are in a hole, stop digging."



We are in a hole because we have either forgotten history, never knew it, or refuse to abide by its lessons. In this case, we have forgotten to attack the cause of the problem, not its effect.



We would be well-served to understand and apply Newton's Third Law to our situation, just as the canal builders did: "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." When we finally understood and correctly reacted to the cause of disease, we eliminated its effect.

The forces of ignorance would claim that killing every last terrorist is the answer to ending terrorism. On its face, most reasonable people can see exactly how absurd this proposition is. Would any of us meekly accept our cities' "glowing" with atomic radiation or having our families killed? Of course we wouldn't. We would react - equally.

And so do terrorists.

Instead, let us turn away from the forces of ignorance and toward the voices of enlightenment, reason and knowledge. Let us work to eliminate the root cause of terrorism, and therefore eliminate the effect of terrorism.

What is the cause of terrorism? I think that in our collective heart of hearts, we know the answer. We know how we ourselves would react to years of subjugation, exploitation, violence and desperation. And when desperation turns to hopelessness, another terrorist is created.

When you kill someone, you have made permanent enemies of his or her parents, children, relatives, friends, neighbors and coworkers. When you kill a hundred terrorists, you create a thousand more. This is not a theory. This is the national policy we are following, and it is working perfectly. For the terrorists. Not for us.



Now is the time to come together, stop the partisan name-calling, employ our collective wisdom, and stop digging the hole we are in. Only when we stop digging can we begin to climb out.

Steve Traina, a lifelong Clevelander, hosts a Saturday morning music history show on WCSB-89.3 FM.
RECOUNT

This file photo shows election workers in Miami-Dade County, Florida starting a manual recount of votes in the 2000 presidential election. Today, Case Western Reserve University Law Professor Erik Jensen writes that the electoral college is protection against "Bush-Gore on steroids."

(AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Erik M. Jensen is a Professor of Law at Case Western Reserve University.

We're regularly told -- by one candidate still standing, among others -- that American politics is "rigged" -- and the conversation hasn't even started about the Electoral College. With the conventions over, however, we'll inevitably hear that, in a democracy, the person who gets the most popular votes ought to be president, and requiring a majority of electoral votes is inconsistent with basic principles.

Yes, the Electoral College was intended to be a deliberative body, and it's not. When electors cast their ballots these days, they aren't expected to think at all.

And the college typically gives an edge to one party. Right now Democrats benefit slightly; Republicans got a boost not long ago.

But that's not rigging. Even when it operates mechanically, the college furthers important values. For one thing, it's a check on simple-minded majoritarianism (the idea that a majority should control no matter what), and the even more simple-minded idea that a candidate with a popular-vote plurality, maybe far less than a majority, is entitled to the presidency.

Consider some examples. Suppose election returns show candidate A with 45.2 percent of the popular vote and candidate B 45 percent (with the rest split among others). Should A automatically be the winner?

Many would say "Yes," I'm sure. A has a plurality, and the margin is more than 250,000 votes. That sounds like a lot, but it's a difference of, on average, fewer than two votes per precinct across the country -- a drop in the bucket.

What if the numbers are 50.1 percent for A and 49.9 percent for B? Despite A's nominal majority, that's a toss-up too. In neither case does A "deserve" to win (or lose). There's no clear winner.

If we had to rely on national popular vote to handle cliffhangers like those, we'd have to have recounts in every precinct. Think about that: it would be Bush-Gore on steroids. We'd never be sure of the outcome.

In contrast, the Electoral College usually results in one candidate's having an indisputable majority of electoral votes. Finality is good.

The college also helps winnow serious candidates (those with a chance to win) to a manageable number. If electors are chosen on a winner-take-all basis -- win the state, get the electoral votes -- rational, potential third-party candidates stay on the sidelines. Another positive.

And the college deters candidates with only sectional appeal. Those candidates might get electoral votes -- 46 for George Wallace in 1968 -- but they can't win. The college effectively, and sensibly, requires broader geographic support.

But imagine a world with several serious candidates and no Electoral College. What should happen if A receives, say, only 30 percent of the national popular vote, but more than anyone else? It would be frightening to have a system that, without checks, would crown such a distinctly minority candidate. Fortunately, that's not our system.

Detractors generally don't push for a constitutional amendment to eliminate the college. They instead try to weaken it. For example, the Constitution doesn't prescribe how electors should be allocated among candidates, and Maine and Nebraska dropped the traditional winner-take-all standard in favor of a system based partly on statewide vote and partly on vote within congressional districts.

That backdoor attack has superficial appeal. It increases the likelihood that candidates with less than a plurality will still get an electoral vote or two, boosting their self-esteem.

The college has no reason for existence, however, if it simply mirrors the popular vote. If many states follow Maine and Nebraska, the college might not determine a winner in a close election (or do anything else useful). And if there's no college majority, the House of Representatives selects the president: a horrifying thought.

The District of Columbia and ten states have agreed to something even worse, the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. The Compact will come into effect if and when jurisdictions with a college majority, 270 votes, sign on. (The total so far: 165.) Each signatory would have to appoint electors pledged to support the national popular-vote winner. That would ensure election of a candidate with a popular-vote plurality, regardless of how small and sectional it is. That's insane.

We can do -- we've already done -- better. The traditional Electoral College has flaws, of course, but it's better than these alternatives.

Erik M. Jensen is the Coleman P. Burke Emeritus Professor of Law at Case Western Reserve University.
earlyvoting.jpg

On the day early voting for the 2014 general election began, Tatianna Thompson, left, cast her ballot while son James Hill, 5, right, waited patiently inside the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections in Cleveland. Ohio GOP officials too quick to appeal every aspect of failed voting rights cases are needlessly driving up costs for taxpayers, writes the editorial board.

(Marvin Fong, The Plain Dealer, File, 2014)

When a law is clearly deficient constitutionally, it shouldn't be defended needlessly. Nor should picayune matters where there is almost zero chance of prevailing, such as the award of legal fees, be pursued to the ends of the possible legal terrain. Yet Republican officials in Ohio -- motivated apparently by ideological considerations, rather than legal or practical ones -- keep sticking taxpayers with legal fees racked up in voting-related lawsuits that the state should drop or settle.

This was underscored in a Monday ruling by the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholding a lower court's order to Ohio to pay legal fees topping $2 million. (The appellate court said the lawyers' bill should be recalculated, but it's expected to clock in at about $2.5 million, since, as long as the appeals go on, the legal fees will continue to climb.)

The case at issue involves successful legal challenges to Ohio's provisional balloting law, and is among many challenges spawned during what the court called "the turbulent saga of Ohio's provisional voting regime." It began in 2006 when the General Assembly, voting along party lines (Republicans for, Democrats against), passed an omnibus election law (Amended Substitute House Bill 3) sponsored by future Republican State Chair Kevin DeWine.

Before anyone assumes a liberal cabal orchestrated the 6th Circuit's decision, the author of Monday's three-judge appellate opinion is Judge Richard Suhrheinrich, appointed a district judge in the 1980s by President Ronald Reagan, and then promoted to the circuit bench by President George H.W. Bush.

A provisional ballot is a conditional ballot that precinct officials can require of an Ohioan whose eligibility to vote is questioned for a range of possible reasons, including registration data lost or misfiled by a Board of Elections, or because the voter was directed to the wrong polling place or, in multiprecinct polling places, to the wrong precinct's queue.

About our editorials

Editorials express the view of the

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If a voter required to cast a provisional ballot is later determined to have been eligible to vote, his or her provisional ballot is counted. But voting-rights advocates argue, and a series of court decisions has suggested, that provisional balloting is disproportionately required of nonwhite or lower-income voters. They tend to be Democrats. That is, it can be tempting for partisan Republican officials to void a provisional ballot - arguably for little more than uncrossed T's or un-dotted I's - for political advantage.

Monday's ruling upheld an order by U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley awarding legal fees to lawyers who won a challenge to Ohio's provisional balloting law. The circuit panel, while generally backing Marbley, ordered him to tweak the fee amount. But as cleveland.com's Eric Heisig reported, the pertinent lawyers are expected to ask for additional fees to cover work done after the period covered by Marbley's original order. That is, the award is only a down payment on a total yet to be determined.

The circuit court's ruling was on a state appeal of the legal fees Marbley awarded. The state appeal of the substance of Marbley's rulings - on provisional balloting itself - is a separate matter. That is, in trying and failing to hammer down the other side's fees, the state further boosted taxpayers' tab for state lawyers without anything much to show for it.

A spokesman for Attorney General Mike DeWine told cleveland.com that DeWine is obliged to defend the state when it's sued. And Dan Tierney, a spokesman for DeWine, told the editorial board that DeWine has an obligation to assure that fees sought in the case by plaintiffs' lawyers, who come from five different law firms, are reasonable.

That may be. But DeWine is not obliged to appeal endlessly and fruitlessly clearly decided law -- or to drive up overall taxpayer costs by quibbling over legal fees to which prevailing lawyers are entitled. Ohio's attorney general should also pick his or her battles -- or be prepared to bill party officials, not the taxpayers, for the costs (as a matter of right, not law).

In this dispute - a peripheral, not substantive, facet of the provisional ballot case - DeWine made the wrong call.
Steven LaTourette

In this May 22, 2009 file photo, then-U.S. Rep. Steve LaTourette, Republican of Ohio, speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. LaTourette died Wednesday after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Stephen Koff, who helped cover LaTourette in Congress for The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com, writes that more members of Congress should emulate his staff practices that encouraged open communication, leading to solutions, on pressing issues.

(Susan Walsh, Associated Press, File, 2009)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Whenever a U.S. senator or House member from Northeast Ohio hires a new communications chief, it helps for reporters to meet her or him for a get-to-know-you lunch or coffee.

This compromises neither side. The communications staffer's job is to get the lawmaker's name in the press and push back on stories seen as negative. The reporter's job is to get stories, tell readers about their elected leaders in an unvarnished fashion and show how Washington and the government really work.

Steve LaTourette, with help from a savvy communications director, understood each of these elements better than anyone in Congress from the state. And he used his prosecutor's eye for finding dysfunction and relating it to a jury of the press to both his and the media's advantage.

LaTourette, who died Wednesday at age 62, arguably got more news coverage when in Congress than any other member from Northeast Ohio since his time. It wasn't just because the stories he helped expose were like candy to a reporter's sweet tooth.

The stories were legitimate, particularly the ones about flawed methods the Pentagon used to almost decimate its Cleveland payroll-and-benefits office, and the problems in the bank bailout and auto restructuring that created winners and losers with government money.

Did the Republican congressman play to the press?

Well, it didn't hurt when he said the job of a congressman "sucks." Another time, he referred to "the tightening of sphincters on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue."

But to be effective, LaTourette borrowed a page from his friend Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat. Kucinich knew that if a local issue could be addressed at the federal level - or if a federal issue could be localized -- it would attract the press. This required recognizing a problem early, seizing on it and then riding it to the end. It helped that both Kucinich and LaTourette had effective staffs working in Ohio to help constituents with government problems.

The press attention sometimes caused jealousy among others in Congress. Yet LaTourette's media skills could serve as an example to those others, especially since few in the current crop of lawmakers employ them.

LaTourette's secret was simple. He entrusted his staff, particularly the late Deb Setliff (a former Plain Dealer columnist you might remember by her maiden name, Debbie Winston), to not only dig into tough issues but then to talk with the press about them in an ongoing dialogue. LaTourette's office would identify disputes, constituent dilemmas or government obstacles and put a face on them, such as the workers in Cleveland's Defense Finance and Accounting Service, or DFAS, office who nearly lost their jobs because of bureaucratic ineptitude.

They'd keep digging or go down a new road, and they used the press to expose what they found, advancing the story a piece or two at a time. They'd collaborate with union members to extend their reach, both in research and press coverage.

Then LaTourette would work within Congress to craft solutions or find alternatives. More press coverage would follow. LaTourette did this on stories involving men and women in the military or veterans facing obstacles. He did it with issues concerning burials at federal cemeteries. He did it with roads and Lake Erie. He did it with the bank bailouts and the auto rescue, which he criticized.

He was singularly credited with saving Cleveland's DFAS office. The Plain Dealer's archives show scores of articles linking LaTourette and DFAS' survival, a significant story that evolved a piece at a time.

This would not stand out had LaTourette's practices been emulated by others. But with one or two exceptions, nearly every congressman and woman from Ohio now runs a ship so tight-lipped or so out of the loop as to stop cold the outflow of information. Problems are assessed privately, and if congressional staffers know of newsworthy constituent issues - and they certainly should - they are not entrusted to talk unless their boss introduces a bill (which is almost sure to die) or issues a sanitized statement.

Just like democracy, issues need the oxygen of organic, continuing attention -- a LaTourette-style drip-drip-drip -- and not canned news conferences and press statements. What LaTourette might have seen as the flow of information and of using the press (a two-way street) is seen today as unauthorized loose lips.

LaTourette is gone and, too often, so are his methods. As he might say, it sucks.

Stephen Koff, cleveland.com's Washington bureau chief, helped cover Steve LaTourette's time in Congress for The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com
Molly Ann Gries.jpg

Molly Ann Gries died at 2 months from accidental suffocation. Her parents are spreading the word about safe sleep to honor her memory.

(Meagen Gries)

HUDSON, Ohio - It was her first day back at work. After 10 weeks of maternity leave, Meagen Gries left her 2-month-old daughter and her 2-year-old son with a babysitter she had trusted for years.

Hours later, baby Molly died, from "positional asphyxiation."

It's a fancy way of saying Molly suffocated, said Gries, a teacher. She was on her lunch break, pumping breast milk, when she got the call.

Her babysitter had propped Molly on her side in a Pack 'n Play and she had flopped onto her belly, facedown onto blankets. Gries didn't know that then, though.

She thought Molly was one of the 1,500 healthy babies who die inexplicably each year from Sudden Infant Death Sydrome, or SIDS.

It was only months later, after an autopsy, that she found out about the blankets.

"It was really hard," she said in a phone interview. "Losing her was hard enough. We kind of wrapped our heads around there was nothing we could have done. Hearing that there was something we could have done was almost harder than hearing the first time."

About 875 babies each year die from accidental suffocation, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

She and her husband, Jeff, have created the Molly Ann Gries Foundation to warn caregivers about the dangers of suffocation. Each month, through their web site, they give away two Snuza monitors, which clip on babies' diapers to measure their bellies extending and make sure they're still breathing. They also give away a breathable mesh crib mattress by a company called Secure Beginnings.

And they've partnered with Akron City Hospital to give out a board book about safe sleep, with information about Molly and her foundation.

The foundation is hosting its first fundraising dinner in September and hopes to hold a 5K in the spring to honor Molly.

I'm writing about Molly because I was so stirred by her story. My niece was stillborn, and I want to eliminate as many child deaths as possible.

Since 1993, the federal government and healthcare providers have counseled parents and caregivers to put babies to sleep "Alone on my Back in a Crib," in a campaign that has dropped SIDS deaths - which used to include accidental suffocation -- from 4,669 in 1993 to 1,910 in 2011.

But plenty of people still don't know the basics of safe sleep, said Gries.

People let babies sleep in plush swings. New parents register for quilts and bumpers for their lovingly designed nurseries. Grandparents who put their own babies to sleep on their bellies think they know best.

Take an episode of the latest season of "The Mindy Project," about a capable obstetrician mom, this year. In the show, a baby is wearing a hoodie under a blanket in a crib lined with soft fabric bumpers.

Gries doesn't blame her babysitter. She too used to put blankets in the bottom of her son's crib.

"You think it's this hard thin pad that can't be comfortable," Gries said. "You think you're doing something good for your kids when in fact you're creating this dangerous situation."

Since Molly's death the Grieses have welcomed a rainbow baby, Emma, born one day after the anniversary of Molly's death.

Emma reminds them of like Molly, says Gries. Big brother Owen, now 3, can't tell their photos apart. Like Molly, Emma is an easy sleeper with a big smile.

Daisies are also a reminder. Gries got a tattoo of a daisy, and the family includes fresh flowers in photos, for the song, "Bicycle Built for Two," which Gries used to sing to her daughter.

Gries will soon go back to work. And when she leaves her children at their child care center, she wants lots of reassurances that Emma is alive and healthy.

"You become aware that the unthinkable happens," Gries said. "It changes your outlook, on life in general. Something that you take for granted could just not be there."

For more mom news, follow me on Twitter @lauraejjohnston or on Facebook.
Khizr Khan Challenges Donald Trump To Take A Naturalization Test

I challenge Trump to take the naturalization test with me any day. His is demagoguery and pandering for vote. A divider like Trump can never be the steward of this country, he said.

Khizr Khan, the father of a Muslim American war hero who gave Donald Trump a lesson on citizenship at the Democratic convention last month, wants the GOP nominee to take the U.S. naturalization test.Khan, who became a United States citizen after emigrating from Pakistan in 1980, issued the challenge on Monday in reaction to a Trump foreign policy address in Youngstown, Ohio, in which the businessman proposed instituting an ideological test to visa applicants before allowing them to enter the country. Under the test, Trump said, applicants would be subjected to extreme, extreme vetting in order to screen out any who have hostile attitudes toward our country or its principles.But Khan, who lives in Virginia with his wife Ghazala, rejected such rhetoric.This is my country too, Khan told The Huffington Post in an email. We must make it safe  as Muslim Americans it is our obligation to keep our country safe. We reject all violence. We support better immigration policies. We stand as a testament to assimilation and being part of patriotic America as anyone else.He then challenged Trump to take the U.S. naturalization test along with him.
20160806_104422.jpg

Valerie Intihar, left, and Debbie Sillett are members of the Parma Historical Society board.

(Mark Holan/special to cleveland.com)

PARMA, Ohio - Despite what is considered a medium-grade drought in our region, the area farmers markets are still holding their own with locally and regionally grown fruits and produce.

The Stearns Homestead Farmers Market was one of the first in the area and has been a hit with lovers of fresh produce and homemade offerings.

Debbie Sillett, the director of the market and a Parma Historical Society board member, has been organizing the market for the six years, and she is always looking for more vendors to fill the field just south of the homestead.

"It's been slow this summer," Sillett said, "but we're still open and having a good time."

One of the vendors is Kristen Ortega, of Parma, who started her own business, Houndful Gourmet Dog Treats, in April. She said she tests her new recipes on her Boston Terrier Miles.

Dawn Minich, of Old Brookyn, started her All Jammed Up two years ago after taking the canning class that is offered at the Homestead. She sells homemade jams and breads. She also makes gift baskets made to order. Her three daughters - Heidi, Dawn and Hannah - help with the business and cooking and baking. It's all done in their kitchen.

The Stearns Homestead Farmers Market is held every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. By the way, the next pressure canning class will be at 1 p.m. Sept. 24.

Art Brunch: The Independence Art Guild Annual Membership Brunch, "Color Me Artsy," will be held from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sept. 17 at the Independence Civic Center, 6363 Selig Drive.

Attendees are encouraged to show their "Artsy" side by bringing something in a favorite color or wearing it. The brunch cost is free with a membership registration or renewal of $10 for the 2016-17 year.

Deadline to reserve your place at the brunch is Sept. 10 by contacting Janet Young at 216-328-0326 or jjy6637@yahoo.com.

Membership forms are available at the Independence Civic Center or online at Independence Art Guild website independenceartguild.org.

Women in Transition: Tri-C will launch a fall session of the "Women in Transition" program Aug. 22.

The free program used education and training to empower women who are at a crossroads in their lives. Participants build confidence and self-esteem through classes on personal development, career exploration and financial and computer literacy.

The course is designed to assist women in a career change or returning to the workforce. The eight-week, non-credit program is free and open to the public.

Classes will be at the western campus from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from Aug. 22 to Oct. 12. To learn more or to enroll, call 216-987-5091. Visit tri-c.edu/women-in-transition.

Big Musical: The Cassidy Theatre's newest presentation is "Big, The Musical," which will be staged Aug. 12-28. Shows are 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p..m. Sunday. Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for seniors and students.

Alex Hofferth, left, and Robert Kowalewski star in Cassidy Theatre's production of "Big, The Musical."

Call 440-842-4600 or visit cassidytheatre.com for more information.

Ward Yard Sale: The Ward 4 Yard Sale will be held Aug. 11-13. Ward 4 Councilwoman Kristin Saban organized the ward's first yard sale, and she hopes it will become an annual event.

Fair Time: The Parma City School District and Parma Area Family Collaborative will have a School Resource Fair from 4-7 p.m. Aug. 19 at the PCSD Hanna Building, 11212 Snow Road. The fair is open to all families in the community.

The Resource Fair is an event that will provide information on services that community organizations offer to help students and their families in the area. There will be over 20 community partners and fun activities for kids such as face painting and balloon twisters.

Call the PAFC office at 440-887-4873 for more information.

More Information: If you have news and updates on your group or club's activities, send them to me at marklholan@yahoo.com
Crude's recent brush with levels close to $40 per barrel has made a lot of energy watchers nervous, but a top market analyst believes that international events will conspire to send oil prices sharply higher over the next several months.

Helima Croft, the global head of commodities strategy at RBC Capital Markets, identified supply talk surrounding Libya and Nigeria as two "bearish red herrings" for the oil market. Instability in both countries has sharply curtailed production in both OPEC member states, with Nigerian supply cut in half as militants target the country's pipelines.

"Right now there is kind of this fear that we could get 900,000 additional barrels [per day] out of Libya, the head of the national company said that by year-end," Croft said last week on CNBC's "Futures Now."

Meanwhile, "there's this view that because Nigeria [has] resumed these amnesty payments, it's going to bounce back as well [with] 400,000, 500,000 barrels," she added, referring to funds the country is providing to militants in order to halt attacks on Nigeria's oil arteries.

Nevertheless, "we just think those producers are going to remain distressed," Croft said, meaning that global oil supplies will likely remain crimped, putting upward pressure on prices.
"Our sales representatives had been receiving requests for new product from wholesalers, retailers and consumers for a long time," said Jiro Ohkawa, senior marketing manager Sapporo USA. "So Sapporo Black is the answer to their requests."

Hoping to keep pace with a growing number of consumers looking for the next new thing, the Japanese beer maker is releasing Premium Black, its first new beer since its Premium Light was launched in 2004. Sapporo is the top imported Asian beer brand in the U.S., a perch it has held for over 30 years.

Premium Black might be the tonic to boost an ailing imported-beer market. According to Chicago-based market research firm IRI, which measure sales at multi-outlet and convenience stores, sales of Asian imports are down 9.9 percent year to date, with Sapporo Premium Draft down 2.4 percent through the period ending July 10.

Brewery officials say that while Sapporo tends to be the preference on occasions where Asian food is served, the challenge going forward is finding opportunities for the brand to branch out.

"Many consumers say, 'I enjoy drinking Sapporo when I eat sushi,'" said Ohkawa. "It's a great compliment, but we want people to enjoy Sapporo at other occasions too."

Sapporo hopes part of that answer can be found in Sapporo Premium Black, a dark lager brewed with roasted dark malts that has an alcohol-by-volume of 5 percent.

"The biggest challenge is to break through the consumer's perspective of a Japanese beer," said Ohkawa. Premium Black "diversifies our portfolio and allows us to reach a broader consumer."

Founded in the city of Sapporo in 1876, Sapporo is the oldest beer brand in Japan, as it first hit U.S. shelves in 1964. Sapporo USA was established in 1984.
People look at the Eiffel Tower in Paris illuminated in colours of the Belgian flag in tribute to the victims of terrorist attacks in Brussels on March 22, 2016. Philippe Wojazer | Reuters

Paris. Nice. Brussels. Orlando. Istanbul. Venezuela. Brazil. Baton Rouge. Dallas. The list of places around the world touched by terrorism, violence, rising crime rates and health alerts continues to grow, along with the impact on the travel and tourism industry. In 2015, the sector contributed an estimated $7.2 trillion to the world's economic output and supported more than 284 million jobs worldwide, according the World Travel & Tourism Council. The 73.4 million Americans who traveled abroad in 2015 (up almost 8 percent from the year before) helped boost those numbers. This year, however, U.S. travelers are increasingly taking terror risks into account when making vacation plans. In the last few weeks, the U.S. State Department has issued travel warnings for voyagers to Turkey and Europe. With geopolitical risks on the rise, some travel insurance companies report an uptick in calls from travelers checking on the details of already-purchased policies, and inquiring about pricing and broader options for future coverage. And whether insured or not, almost a quarter of Americans now say they will cancel, delay, relocate, change or reconsider travel plans before taking a vacation, according to the annual Vacation Confidence Index released by Allianz Global Assistance. In Europe, tourism has suffered in the wake of attacks: France's tourist sector alone has lost an estimated 270 million euros ($299 million) since late 2015, according to recent data.

'Fallen off a cliff'

"Americans are putting safety before money and may travel to more expensive destinations to insure their security," said Daniel Durazo, spokesman for Allianz Global Assistance USA.

"Our data shows that American summer travel to Brussels and Istanbul has fallen off a cliff," said Durazo, while "other locations, which Americans deem safer, like Dublin and Shannon in Ireland, have seen tremendous increases in American visitors." The flip side of all this is that some travelers may be able to cash in on the heightened travel concerns, as airlines and various sectors of the industry try and halt the dip in bookings. "We normally expect airfares from the U.S. to Europe and the U.K. to peak in late May and early June and slowly decline into fall," said Patrick Surrey, chief data scientist at Hopper. "This year, prices have dropped precipitously from May into June, and there's been significant 'flash sale' activity as airlines tried to shore up demand in the face of ongoing uncertainty and apprehension about travel to Europe," Surry added. Round-trip airfares from the U.S. to the U.K. are down about 35 percent, to $667, from their highs in May, reports Hopper, with prices to Western Europe down 36 percent, to $627. And compared to the same period last year, flight prices from the U.S. to Europe and the U.K. are down 31 percent overall.



Belgian troops control a road leading to Zaventem airport following Tuesday's airport bombings in Brussels, Belgium, March 24, 2016. Charles Platiau | Reuters
Jailed South African track star Oscar Pistorius was taken to hospital Saturday after suffering injuries in prison, authorities told NBC.

Spokesman for South Africa's Department of Correctional Services, Singabakho Nxumalo, told NBC News the parlaympic star suffered some injuries in prison on Saturday and was taken to Kalafong hospital in Pretoria.

He was returned to prison on the same day in the afternoon and remains there today.

Nxumalo told NBC News that Pistorius told prison officials he was injured after falling off his bed. Spokesman would not discuss the nature of Pistorius injuries citing privacy.

The paralympic gold medallist is serving a six-year jail term for killing his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.




"It's going to be a very substantial pro-growth message," said Larry Kudlow, a senior CNBC contributor and informal Trump economic adviser. He hinted Thursday at "significant" personal and business tax cuts and new incentives for businesses to operate in the United States.

In his speech to the Detroit Economic Club, Trump is expected to describe more details or tweaks to his proposed broad tax cuts, which some analyses have said could cause the U.S. to lose trillions of dollars over a decade even if they boost growth. He is also slated to contrast his economic vision to Clinton's, seeking to bolster his conservative economic credentials.

Respondents in recent polls have narrowly picked the Republican billionaire as better prepared to handle the U.S. economy than his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, even as Clinton expands her national lead in the presidential race. Trump has a chance to nail down his often vague policy stances after recent headlines focused more on his bluster and antics than his solutions.

After a messy week, Donald Trump will turn his focus Monday to economic policy, aiming to assure voters of his chops following months of public inconsistency.

Trump's speech comes amid mixed signals for the U.S. economy. July job creation of 255,000 positions easily beat expectations, with the unemployment rate holding steady at 4.9 percent and wages growing at an annualized pace of 2.6 percent.

That followed a disappointing second-quarter gross domestic product reading, which showed GDP grew at only a 1.2 percent annual rate. Trump has repeatedly painted a bleaker picture of the U.S. economy than even the weaker data reflect.

Trump, who unveiled an economic policy team Friday comprised of mostly investors and businessmen rather than economists, previously outlined some tax reform details. Trump has previously proved inconsistent on these proposals, like when he said his position on cutting taxes for the rich is flexible.

Here are Trump's tax proposals as they currently stand, according to his campaign's website:

Trump would set the highest income tax bracket at a rate of 25 percent, with no income taxes on single filers making less than $25,000 or families making less than $50,000. The other two brackets would be taxed at a 10 and 20 percent rate, respectively. The top income tax rate is projected at 39.6 percent for 2016, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

Businesses of all sizes would not pay more than 15 percent of their income in taxes. The Trump campaign also currently proposes a "discounted" 10 percent one-time tax repatriation of corporate money held overseas.

Trump pledges to cut deductions and loopholes for the "very rich," as well as "corporate loopholes that cater to special interests."

The campaign claims cutting those reductions or loopholes would make the plan "revenue neutral," but analyses have disputed that.

"The corporate business side of this plan is going to be so important ... this is going to create new incentives so that American companies stay home," Kudlow said, adding that he expects more foreign companies to move cash to the U.S. under Trump's plans.



Kudlow also said Trump could discuss his plans on energy and health care on Monday. Trump has previously pledged to reverse environmental restrictions on coal issued under President Barack Obama while boosting domestic natural gas production through hydraulic fracturing.

He also said he wants to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act and replace it with a new system. Trump's reforms could include allowing people to buy insurance from any state and making insurance premiums deductible.

The billionaire Trump has also previously pledged to dismantle the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reforms. He wants to put resources into a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border as well as deport many undocumented immigrants, which could cost in the tens of billions of dollars.

Many policies Trump is expected to detail clearly contrast those Clinton has supported. Clinton wants people making more than $1 million per year to pay an effective tax rate of at least 30 percent.

She has called for a 4 percent "fair share surcharge" on taxpayers making more than $5 million per year. And like Trump, Clinton wants to cut loopholes used by the rich.

Her campaign claims those measures and others would raise $400 billion to $500 billion in revenue over 10 years to invest in American businesses and infrastructure.

The Democratic Party platform also calls for a $15 minimum wage, another policy on which Trump has given conflicting statements.
All the signs are there folks if you care to look. We have watched throughout this Orange Summer as Trump has been intentionally pouring gasoline all over himself. Yesterday, in the midst of a campaign crisis, Trump decided to attack Republican leaders that have swallowed their pride and have been criticized for endorsing Trump. That was a lighting of the proverbial match folks. Now we wait to see if this American street vendor puts match to gas and self immolates.



Trump cannot accept a loss on the world's largest stage. That would be anathema to Trump's "I'm a winner" narcissistic identity. It is no coincidence that Trump is already balking at debates. He knows he can't debate policy with Hillary head to head. It's no coincidence that Trump is already calling the election "rigged" just one week after the conventions concluded. He's looking for an out to avoid an embarrassing defeat so he's constructing a "I didn't lose, they stole it" scenario. Trump loves the attention of campaigning but has no interest in the responsibilities and burdens that many former presidents have referred to as living in a prison.
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has said Zlatan Ibrahimovic will bring a winning mentality to Manchester United, but warned that his age could work against him in the Premier League.

Ibrahimovic, 34, aims to add the Premier League title to his collection of trophies from Italy, Spain and France after joining on a free transfer from Paris Saint-Germain.

But Wenger said the former Sweden captain, who will be 35 in October, was not guaranteed to be a success.

Honestly I dont know [how he will do], Wenger said at a news conference ahead of Sundays preseason game against Manchester City in southern Sweden.

Going for him is his class, his talent, his desire to do well. What goes against him is that he is not the youngest player any more, so you are questioned about that in every game.

Ibrahimovic scored a French league record 38 goals last season as PSG raced to the title, and Wenger said: From what I saw of him last year, it was his most complete season as an individual player and as a team player. He became a really great team player.

On the mental aspect, he will bring something to Man United as well. He is a winner, he has charisma and he will give them strength as well as his individual quality.

Ibrahimovics arrival in Manchester adds another element of intrigue to the already fierce rivalry between United and City  and their managers Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola.

Ibrahimovic has played under both, at Inter Milan and Barcelona respectively, and has made no secret of his admiration for Mourinho and dislike for Guardiola.

But Guardiola said he had no doubt that his former player would enjoy success in the Premier League.

He has played well in every country, and I think hes going to play well in England as well, he said.
Camelot said: Yes, let us declare war on 1.5 billion Muslims. Click to expand...

That will sure help ISIS' recruiting efforts. Click to expand...

And we can surveile mosques inside this country like Trump wants to do. That can alienate Muslims in this country like they did in France. Click to expand...

Or maybe will can place all American Muslims in internment camps like we did the Japanese Americans during WWII. (Incidentally, Germans weren't placed in camps because they were white). Click to expand...

Why do right wingers always overreact to a threat ? Click to expand...

That's the same knee jerk ******** that brought us Korea and Viet Nam. In other news, nuts with assault rifles are killing far more Americans than Muslims, but that's cool. Click to expand...

no need, islam declared war on the rest of the world 1400 years ago. islam breaks the world into 2 camps - the islamic world, where everyone is muslim and sharia law is in place, which is called the House of Islam, and the rest of the world, which is called the House of War.ISIS doesnt need help, they are doing fine. anyway, the recruiters arent reading trump speeches to get the attention of devoted muslims, they are reading the quran.thats what they do in jordan too. because jordan knows its inside mosques where fundamentalist islam thrives. because its in mosques where the quran and hadith are read.also germany didnt bomb pearl harbour. but you dont need to put them in camps, muslims tend to alienate themselves and form little muslim only enclaves all by themselves. they dont want their islamic society polluted by evil western things, like freedom and equality.did 9/11 happen?who did it?according to the actual perpetrators themselves, why did they do it?have there been any islamic terrorist events since?is there any reason to think its going to stop any time soon?why do you think this is an overreaction?nuts with assault rifles are individuals following their own individual unique drives. islamic terrorists are organised, structured, following a specific shared ideology. you cannot do anything about the individual nuts. but you can do something about the collective of islam.
MU swine center to double its space for modified pigs

An $8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health will allow the swine center to double its space for animals.
SHARE Marlon Boyd

By Kayleigh Skinner of The Commercial Appeal

A Memphis man was found guilty of murder for the second time in the shooting death of his acquaintance, according to the Shelby County District Attorney's General's Office.

Marlon Boyd, 46, was convicted of first-degree murder, aggravated assault and possession of a handgun as a convicted felon, District Attorney General Amy Weirich said in a statement Saturday. He is set for sentencing on Sept. 16 and faces life without parole.

During Boyd's trial this week, testimony stated that on May 23, 2014, Boyd was walking with 47-year-old Michael Richard before shooting him in the chest outside the victim's home in the 1700 block of Preston street, the statement said. After shooting him in the chest, he turned to a witness and threatened to kill him if he told anyone, according to the statement. There was no known motive, the statement said.

Boyd, known on Facebook as "Shotgun Marlo," was convicted on federal gun charges earlier this year. He will be sentenced for those charges in federal court next week, the statement said.

Boyd has already served nearly 20 years for a separate case in which he was found guilty in 1991 of second-degree murder and aggravated robbery charges.
SHARE

By Kayleigh Skinner of The Commercial Appeal

The Memphis Police Department is on the scene of a shooting in the Fox Meadows neighborhood.

Officers were dispatched to a shooting call at 4:45 p.m. in the 2800 block of Sonora Drive, MPD spokesman Louis Brownlee said.

The victim was taken to Regional Medical Center in critical condition, he said.
By Jody Callahan of The Commercial Appeal

Noura Jackson is a free woman.

Jackson, 29, was released from the Mark H. Luttrell Correctional Center near Shelby Farms before 10 a.m. Sunday, Tennessee Department of Corrections spokesman Neysa Taylor confirmed.

Jackson was released due to the expiration of her sentence and will not be on parole or probation, prison officials said recently.

"I am so thankful for the friends, lawyers, and family who supported me throughout the last eleven years," Jackson wrote in a statement emailed to The Commercial Appeal late Sunday. "One long, dark chapter of my life ended this morning, and today I enjoyed small pleasures you all take for granted, like a good cup of coffee, the smell of fresh flowers, painted toenails and a trip to Target."

Jackson's release comes more than 11 years after her mother was brutally stabbed to death in June 2005. Jackson was convicted of second-degree murder in the killing in 2009 and sentenced to more than 20 years in prison, but her attorneys appealed.

The Tennessee Supreme Court granted a retrial after ruling that prosecutors failed to turn over evidence that could have discredited a key witness. They also called foul on the prosecution's use of witnesses to attack Jackson's character due to her drinking, drug use and sexual promiscuity.

But before the retrial, Jackson accepted an Alford plea. Such a plea meant that she didn't have to admit guilt but accepted the 15-year sentence on a reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter. She has maintained her innocence. She was up for parole in 2015, but declined in order to allow her sentence to expire.

"In the next chapter of my life, I plan to honor my mom by forcing the State of Tennessee to identify the person whose complete DNA profile was mixed with my mother's blood in her bed.

"I have been greatly disappointed in the justice system, but I still hope for justice in the upcoming ethical misconduct trials of prosecutors Amy Weirich and Steve Jones. Despite many requests today, I will not be giving interviews until I settle into a new life. I will not grant any future interview to those who cannot respect my present desire to be alone for the first time in a very, very long time," Jackson wrote.
Beyond Bernie, What?





Since mid-April, when Hillary Clinton handily won the New York primary, variations on that question have animated discussions all over the country among activists, Sen. Sanders detractors as well as his supporters, who recognize that his runs successes present an opportunity. Attending that opportunity, however, comes a burden. The political terrain opened up by social movements over the last five years demands the formation of a politicized constituency to inhabit it, and the Sanders campaign hinted at such a projects near-term viability.





Developing a strategy for electing a socialist government is now an urgent matter.





Not that implementing that strategy should take priority. Any chance the left has of obtaining power is premised foremost on groundwork that must continue to be done outside the electoral sphere: labor and community organizing, base-building, political education, mass spectacle, direct action, grassroots leadership development, and so forth. Even if the left were to achieve electoral success, it would be fleeting and unsustainable, if wed abandoned political groundwork to attain it.





Still, the reverse is also true: we risk losing the political ground weve been gaining if we dont undertake an effort to populate it. Unfortunately, existing institutional avenues for achieving left electoral success are woefully deficient.





The Problem with Socialist Parties





In Parliamentary systems that operate on the principle of proportional representation, the leftist electoral strategy is simple: join or start a party and campaign on its line. If you only manage to get 2% of the vote, you are awarded 2% of the representation. If you get a plurality of the vote, you get to try to form a government.





A First-Past-The-Post system like ours strongly discourages this approach. Here, whoever wins an election, whether in a squeaker or a blowout, gets 100% of the representation. No representation whatsoever is awarded a loser, whether their campaign mobilized no voters or 49.9% of them.





In certain races in leftist pockets of the country, such as Socialist Alternative member Kshama Sawants Seattle City Council district, a leftist party may be able to pull a majority, and in such cases it should. Scaling up to national or even statewide races, though, it runs a risk that parties in a Parliamentary system dont have to worry about: throwing the election to the right. If Socialist Alternative were to increase its share of the vote and begin running in more ideologically diverse electorates, the likely result would be increasing right wing majorities in government. The electoral odds confronting third parties do not generally admit of present success in gubernatorial, senatorial or presidential contests.





For organizer Waleed Shahid, the impediment posed by the winner-take-all approach is counteracted by an advantage US parties have over their Parliamentary counterparts. Whereas in proportional representation systems parties develop candidate-lists up and down the ballot from school board to parliament, here candidates can theoretically gather the required number of signatures on an official party form and be placed on a ballot in a primary election. An insurgent faction of Sanders Democrats could take on the party elite, leaving the Democratic Party to serve a purely administrative function to foster electoral functions of the state, rather than a programmatic or disciplinary role.





It is tempting to consider this option in the wake of Donald Trumps populist conquest of the majority of the Republican establishment, its prominent politicians and major institutional constituents. What is a US political party anyhow, Trumps success challenges us to ask, but a group of people who can be defeated through collective action?





Shahid proposes a new party which takes the form of a faction within the Democratic Party, like a left Tea Party. Such a form might maintain its own accountability mechanisms, membership models, and decision making structures without sacrificing the existing tools of the major partys administrative machinery: primaries, ballot access, petitions, conventions, and the party line vote used by an increasing number of voters.





Not everyone is on board with this strategy.





The Problem with the Democratic Party





Shortly after the New Hampshire primary, Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, made a peculiar political endorsement. She forcefully condemned Hillary Clinton, but declined to endorse Bernie Sanders, preferring instead to endorse the idea of a political revolution. Why promote a candidates catchphrase and not the candidate himself? Because of his ballot line: it would be easier, according to Alexander, to build a new party than to save the Democratic Party from itself.





Paul Heidelman, a proponent of the strategy of splitting completely from the Democratic Party, invites us to consider the socialist effort in the 1960s-70s at party realignment. Bayard Rustin, Michael Harrington and others advanced a strategy of expelling the Dixiecrat faction of the New Deal coalition, thinking this would liberate the Democratic Party to pursue social democracy. In the end, though they managed to shed the South, the Democrats did not become more socialist.





In predicting otherwise, Heidelman argues, Rustin and Harrington ignored the essential core of the Democratic Party: its funding base. Since the Great Depression, the Democratic coalition included those segments of the capitalist class most easily able to absorb the tighter labor markets the New Deal sought: capital-intensive and multi-national firms, like oil companies and international commercial banks. These interests were only induced to go along with the program because the alternative seemed to be mass insurgency, courtesy of a militant labor movement. When, a generation later, the oil sector threatened to abandon the Democratic Party, the counter-threat of working-class insurgency had dwindled, setting the stage for the the Carter Administrations energetic pivot rightward, toward deregulation, austerity, and militarism.





Even if Sanders had been elected President, he would still be the titular head of a party whose major funding centers, and therefore whose major politicians, would be hostile to his agenda. The Sanders campaigns small-dollar fundraising success was a marvel to behold, but normal Democrats dont put up those numbers, so the party is, for the moment, still beholden to its moneyed interests. Should he become president, wrote Alexander, he would also become part of what he has otherwise derided as the establishment. Indeed, as tantalizing as Trumps example of party-conquest may be, his prospects of advancing his agenda through a ruling coalition remain dubious.





There is also a more mundane reason for the left to want distance from the Democratic Party than its unreliability as a champion of working class interests: it is bedeviled by deep unpopularity. The latest from Gallup indicates that although the Partys favorability rating has risen slightly since its historic low of 36% in November 2014, both parties remain unpopular relative to their historical performance. It is sensible to suppose that the unusually high degree to which Sanders is not a Democrat boosted his Democratic candidacy.





In the interest of its program and its political prospects, the left should seek a greater degree of independence from the Democrats than Shahids Progressive-Caucus-but-better offers.





The Problem with the Working Families Party





The Working Families Party is supposed to provide just such a vehicle. To be sure, it is the best attempt we currently have at operating within-and-without the Democratic Party. Through its shrewd use of fusion voting, WFP became a major force in New York politics and has expanded to nine states and is implementing a pipeline project to make politicians of grassroots leaders. However, as Shahid, a WFP organizer, writes, Neither the WFP nor a prior, important effort to similarly challenge the two-party system -- Rebuild the Dream-- have generated the kind of momentum and mass participation of the Tea Party.





For obvious reasons, the burden cannot fall to Shahid to give an account of why this should be.





As recently as 2013, the WFP was showing signs of powerful ascendency. A wave election swept Bill de Blasio and other WFP-nurtured politicians into office in New York City, defeating a powerful business-friendly Democrat who early on was considered the inevitable victor. The New York Times declared A New Era for Progressives. Here was a model capable of electing governments farther left than normal Democrats.





But only a year later, the model collapsed. For months leading up to its 2014 convention, the WFP searched for a viable progressive challenger to Andrew Cuomo. The Governor was a perfect WFP Primary election target, despised by liberals not only for his plutocrat-friendly policies but his tacit support for throwing the Senate to the Republicans, via the Independent Democratic Conference-- a group of four State Senators who, elected as Democrats, promptly turned coat.





At last, shortly before the convention, a solid candidate emerged in the figure of anti-monopoly law professor Zephyr Teachout, now a candidate for Congress. Despite the raucous ovations she garnered at from grassroots members at the convention, the party endorsed Cuomo, upon the prevailing of the executive leadership of the states largest union, 1199SEIU-- and Mayor de Blasio. Wisely, Cuomo did not show up in person to the convention, remotely delivering a speech that outlined his concessions, above all that he would restore to New Yorkers the Democratic majority they had elected by reigning the IDC back.

Party members who had bood through the video knew what was coming. They very next morning, Cuomo revealed his level commitment to the deal: Its very simple at these political conventions: you either win or you lose. Uh, and I won. Not only did he win, he won ugly, sinking millions of dollars into a fake Womens Equality Party designed to resemble and thus siphon votes away from WFP in the general election. Moreover, he convinced 1199SEIU and other unions that had supported him to cease paying WFP dues. As for the IDC, its leader, Bronx Sen. Jeffrey Klein wasted no words: Nothing changes. Voters justly knocked WFP down one ballot line for four years.





Ironically, Heinelmans injunction to socialists that we ought to beware of funders is apt not only when the funders are organized capital, but even when they are organized labor. Union leaders, after all, represent the interests of a specific membership, not the working class writ large. If you have to deal with the governor for the sake of your members livelihoods, you dont think he can be beaten, and you know hes a vindictive demon, you, and thus the party you anchor, are at his mercy.





So the WFP is changing models. New chapters are staring up in states like Wisconsin and Nevada. Fusion voting is not an option in those states, so the WFP exists not as a ballot line, but as something closer to what Shahid calls for, an organization within the Democratic coalition. I am not privy to the partys finances, but it appears to be in the unenviable Do More With Less mode.





If reliance on labor unions for funding is a liability, albeit a smaller one than reliance on capital, political independence will have to be driven substantially by small dollar donations. Here is where even the WFPs new model provokes doubt. The type of exuberant small-dollar fundraising Sanders has accomplished requires something WFP lacks and the Tea Party had: an emotional connection with a mass of people.





Shahid points out that the Tea Partys decentralized, open-source structure facilitated the kind of mass rallies and listening-session shout-downs that propelled 2010s far-right electoral insurgency. I share his regard for decentralization, and admire many of the strategies advocated by the Momentum model of organizing (with which Shahid is affiliated) for achieving it. The Sanders campaign shows, though, that if there is energy around a project, it decentralizes spontaneously. People who were inspired to participate in the Sanders movement moment formed their own outfits, chapters, and networks, which become a sort of Greater Campaign Area-- People For Bernie, Labor for Bernie, Bernie Sanders Dank Meme Stash, and so forth. If an open source structure provides a conduit for left political power, it is the emotional connection with a mass of people which provides the propulsion.





Resonant iconography is critical to fostering emotional connection. In a presidential campaign, the iconography inevitably revolves around a single icon: the candidate, who can symbolize many things to many people. In the absence of a candidate, though, iconography formation demands a more deliberate approach. The Tea Party claimed a historical lineage, which had a widely resonant iconography built in-- imagery, sounds, and dramatizations that inherently bespoke an appeal to insurgency, with the strong value of liberty from tyrannical government at its core.





If the Working Families Party has a symbolic logo, much less an animal to compete with a donkey and elephant, or any other type of mascot, symbol, anthem, costume, custom, ritual, ceremony, idiolect, etc.-- it is unknown to this long time WFP supporter. The name itself limits the appeal of the party: not only are there millions of people who dont identify primarily as workers, there are millions more who dont identify as families. An iconography revolving around a candidate or an historical event admits of mass, diverse emotional investment, and thus decentralized funding; it is not at all clear that an iconography-less Working Families Party does.





The Problem With The Tea Party





Though there is much to admire about the swiftness with which the Tea Party insurgency was able to advance a political program (however odious the program itself), it is easy to overstate the desirability of replicating its model.





Its chief deficiency was that it happened in a single wave. The Summer 2009 shout-downs may have propelled a crop of politicians embracing the Tea Party iconography into office in 2010 in sufficient numbers to impose a ruthless program of austerity, but by 2012, notwithstanding Ted Cruz attainment of a Senate seat, the Tea Party label all but ceased to be a force at the ballot box. If the left is going to implement a socialist program, it will need a sustained effort that builds on its own success in cycle after cycle.





To this end, the Tea Party lacked some crucial attributes: a coherent political critique, transformative vision and understandable program. Its critique took the form of a freewheeling, seething opposition to social welfare broadly and President Obama singularly. Its vision, freedom from Big Goverment, was never especially vivid, and it thus was never able to articulate a program capable of achieving it-- policies to overhaul, institutions to erect or abolish, etc. That the 2010 insurgency was able to yield severe budget cuts and the defeat of the proposed Public Option component of Obamacare was no mean feat, but these policy outcomes were also already GOP priorities. That is, Tea Partiers were, from a policy perspective, like mainstream Republicans, only more so.





A wave of sentiment provoking a political lurch rightward followed by an erosion of power is nothing like the sustained, transformative change the left seeks. The Tea Party was effectively too open source, lacking a central pillar capable of sustaining the decentralized insurgency. If the left replicated its model, we would wind up assisting the realization of the liberal agenda-- regulated access to market-based services-- rather than advancing our own program of guaranteed economic rights, directly provided by the public sector.





A Strategy for Political Independence





Id like to offer a strategy for political independence, not as a blueprint, but as a provocation for discussion. I think it may be viable in the main, and that we may have a considerable amount of the necessary infrastructure already in place.





The strategy revolves not around a party but a national inter-partisan slate (and, once elected, caucus). Candidates could run for office at any level, but to achieve the greatest national significance with the smallest voting bodies, it might be wise to focus on the US House. They would share a core message, a basic program, and an explicit affiliation with one another under a common banner, maybe even with shared campaign ads. To maximize its degree of independence from any partys funding base, the caucus should fastidiously maintain a diversity of parties-- perhaps there could be a bylaw stipulating that no more than 20% of a given slates candidates would appear on the same ballot line. A given slate might feature primarily Independents, some Greens in areas where local chapters are strong, some from socialist parties, some people running on the Working Families line, and a deliberately small number of Democrats.





For unity as its own entity, the slate/caucus would require a broad vision, a program for achieving it, a stated commitment to values/principles, and, critically, an iconography which resonates with these. Much of this may already exist in embryo.





The divest-invest framework has attracted social movements from climate justice to the Movement for Black Lives , and the Sanders campaign occasionally employed it, conceptually if not by name. It is capable of linking the diverse interests of social movements into a narratively coherent critique, vision, and program. Broadly speaking, the left wants to divest from prisons, policing, border enforcement, war, energy extraction, and the surveillance state, and invest in guaranteeing everyone the essentials for a dignified life: healthful food, comfortable housing, quality healthcare, student-centered/directed education, meaningful work, leisure time to build family, community, and culture, and the energy and communications tools required to do it.





The call to divest from the enforcement regime and invest in peoples livelihoods articulates commitments to freedom and dignity. To these, a third pillar might be added in commitment to democracy: unconditional universal enfranchisement, public election funding, a much more decisive system of participatory budgeting, federal standardization of election procedure, and so forth. Freedom, dignity, democracy. Divest-invest-enfranchise. Make love, not war, and power to the people.













In addition to this program, which is adaptable to local circumstances and priorities in every community in the country, the caucus could unite around a set of values/principles. Two closely related examples come to mind that pervade social movement spaces and the young activists propelling the Sanders campaign.





The first is targeted universalism, characterized by a devotion to the interests of the people who live farthest on the losing ends of various hierarchies, double standards, and violent relations-- the margins of the margins. Without this anchor, universalism is often carried adrift by the prevailing currents of bigotry. It tends to become abstract: All lives matter. The slate should demonstrate this commitment not just by enshrining it officially in its documents, but by realizing it in the figures it elevates to party leadership.





The second is what movements tend to call accountability and Sanders supporters tend to call integrity. His demonstrated inability to be bought by, and indeed his hostility toward, wealthy interests clearly ignited Sanders popularity and fundraising.





To bind the program and principles, a unified iconography is necessary. I am nowhere near capable of offering up a comprehensive scheme in this division, but for my own part, I am a fan of birds. A great deal of the symbology already employed by youth-led social movements and the ones from which they derive inspiration is already about freedom and dreams. What could signify those more vividly than birds? Birds mean renewal, birds mean grace. As Bernie Sanders pointed out when he summoned one to his lectern in Oregon, birds mean peace. Hope is the thing with feathers. Flocks of birds operate as a collective mass, following rotating leadership. Birds have vision wide enough to survey all the terrain visible from the sky but sharp enough to peer down at particular areas of focus. My two cents.





With these points of unity in place, a diverse slate of candidates might successfully organize as a left political faction, independent of any one party or funding center. Eventually, when powerful enough, it might become a party in its own right, seeking a ballot line and full realignment resembling what the Republicans achieved in the mid-19th Century.





Problems With The Strategy





I look forward to being alerted to many problems with my idea that I cant see. One that I can is, as always, the funding question. A pool of small-dollar donations is ideal for political independence, and I hope the form I propose would be well-suited to generating one, but even a large pool would be unlikely to be able to truly sustain a major political operation by itself. If the caucus were to grow in scale, it would likely need to think of other sources for funds. Might union reform caucuses be able to shoulder some burden? A politicized federation of co-ops, land trusts, and other new economy institutions and organizations? What could a left formation produce that people might want to buy-- music, fashion, software, or something else millennials are good at?




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By David Thomas, USA TODAY NETWORK  Tennessee BELLS CHAPEL  Its easier going green than most people might think.

Apex Clean Energy Inc., Charlottesville, Virginia, has signed over 50 leases with residents in the project area in northwest Gibson County to lease over 9,000 acres to install wind turbines for Volunteer Wind Project, which could generate some very impressive dividends for years to come.

"They (Apex) had two or three different community meetings and a field representative came around and talked to individual landowners," said Jim Turner, a landowner in the Bells Chapel community

"He seemed to know what he was talking about. I realize everything has its pros and cons, but I saw more pros than cons  and he had a contract."

Harry Snyder, a representative of Apex, said the life of the project is about 25 years.

"We've been working in the community for some time, studying the area's wind resource and getting local landowners involved with the project," Snyder said. "We're excited about the potential to generate safe, clean renewable energy in West Tennessee while directly benefiting Gibson County's rural economy and tax base."

Snyder said the county will benefit from approximately $42 million in tax revenue. On a per turbine basis, the payout for landowners could be anywhere between $10,000 and $20,000 a year per turbine estimate. So, if landowners host more than one turbine, they will be paid for each.

The $42 million reflects property taxes due to be collected by the county over the 25-year life of the project. So, in total, between the different taxing districts within Gibson County (mainly the school district and the county) Apex Clean Energy expects to pay $1.7 million in personal property tax over the 25-year life span of the project.

"Landowners who host turbines will be paid an average of $1.3 million per year in royalty payments," Snyder said. "This will be spread among people participating in the project. Landowners who host turbines on their land are paid a percentage of gross revenue produced by the turbine."

Snyder said in total, this will be around $32.5 million over the life of the project.

"That prediction is based on meteorological data we have collected, which informs predicted energy outputs. We treat the exact output as confidential, as knowledge of the wind resource in Tennessee lends a significant advantage over competing wind companies and market pricing."

Snyder said Apex put a land position together, and his company is looking to lease another 4,000 to 6,000 acres in the area.

"The land is basically viewed as a drawing board for our engineers," Snyder said. "And, we look for the most proficient way to design the placement for the turbine."

But Snyder said there can be setbacks.

"Let's say we lease 15,000 acres," Snyder said. "Not all of that land is suitable for turbine sitting. For example, we set back 1,000 feet from homes and 356 feet from property lines. We also set back from barns, roads, cell towers, et cetera. After accounting for setbacks, we are left with a 'buildable area' within our leased footprint. Our engineers design the most efficient and productive project possible within that buildable area."

Snyder said turbines are connected by an underground collector system.

The average wind turbine takes up about one-tenth of

The average wind turbine takes up about one-tenth of an acre. (Photo: Submitted)

"Each collector system circuit will be a direct buried, three-phase (one conductor per phase) circuit, fiber optic cable and ground wire," Snyder said. "The collector system connects all turbines to a centralized collector substation. At the collector substation, a transformer steps up the voltage of the electricity produced by the wind farm, to that of the utility transmission system."

In the case of Volunteer Wind Project, Snyder said the transformer at the collector substation will step up the voltage from around 34.5 kilovolts to 161 kilovolts, the same voltage as the TVA transmission lines running through the project area. The electricity is then transferred from the collector substation to a utility substation where it flows into the TVA transmission system.

Snyder said Apex Clean Energy (apexcleanenergy.com) has 1612 megawatts in nameplate capacity of projects in operation in Texas, Oklahoma and Illinois.

According to Snyder, the total expenditure to build the project in northwest Gibson County is projected to be $331 million.

The number includes everything from roads to turbines, substations and maintenance facilities," Snyder said. "Almost the entirety of that investment is considered personal property for tax purposes, and is subject to local property taxes."

Obviously, turbines are by far the most expensive item of the $331 million expenditure," Snyder said. "Because the wind is free, and wind farms enjoy low operating costs, the initial expenditure represents the majority of costs associated with the project. The major benefit that a wind farm can offer to utilities is a fixed price of power over a 25-year period. There is no fuel price fluctuation risk associated with wind energy."

Standing in his driveway at his home near Yorkville, Jim Turner points to a couple of areas where he believes Apex will install a turbine or turbines.

"I farmed about 300 to 400 acres for about 20 years," Turner said. "We used to have cattle  beans, cotton and corn  a full crop rotation. With a wind turbine, you lose some land, and some on the access road. But you figure what the wind turbine will produce will be greater than raising beans or corn, and if you can produce clean energy, that will be a plus."

Reach David Thomas at (731) 425-9637. Follow him on Twitter: @dgthomasbiz
SHARE Tennessee Sen. Steve Cohen, left, is shown with Elie Wiesel in 1995 when the author was honored at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.(Courtesy of U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen)

By Michael Collins of The Commercial Appeal

WASHINGTON  Rep. Steve Cohen considers Elie Wiesel one of the greatest people to ever walk the Earth.

The Romanian-born, Jewish-American writer survived both the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps during World War II, then made it his mission to never let the world forget the Holocaust.

To remind Americans of Wiesel's sacrifices  and his contributions to the world  Cohen is leading a campaign to place a statue of Wiesel in the U.S. Capitol.

"Elie Wiesel was one of the great moral forces in the world," said Cohen, a Memphis Democrat. "He was brilliant, pure, honest and courageous."

Wiesel died July 2 in his home in Manhattan at age 87. During his long, distinguished career, the journalist, professor, author and political activist was showered with numerous accolades, including the Congressional Gold Medal and the Nobel Peace Prize.

"He was one of my heroes," Cohen said.

Just days after Wiesel's passing, Cohen filed legislation calling for a statue to be placed in the Capitol in his honor. The bill has two dozen cosponsors and has been sent to the House Committee on House Administration, where it awaits a hearing.

If the bill is passed, the statue of Wiesel would go up in the Capitol within four years. Congress would put up some of the money  Cohen's bill does not provide an exact dollar figure  but Cohen said he expects to raise much of the funding from private sources.

A statue wouldn't just pay tribute to Wiesel, Cohen said, it would remind Americans of the need to stand up against intolerance, prejudice and discrimination.

The Capitol already is chock-full of statues recognizing the contributions of influential Americans.

The largest collection is in Statuary Hall, the marble-pillared, oval room that's a favorite stop for tourists. The collection includes 100 statues  two chosen by each state to pay tribute to native sons and daughters. Some have been moved to other parts of the Capitol over the years.

Those honored include historical figures such as George Washington, Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, modern-day presidents such as Dwight Eisenhower, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, and American icons such as Will Rogers and Helen Keller. The two Tennesseans represented are Andrew Jackson, the nation's seventh president, and John Sevier, the state's first governor.

In addition, scattered throughout the building are 11 other statues, 46 busts honoring the nation's vice presidents and five busts recognizing various historical figures.

A bronze bust of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill reflects this country's long affinity for the cigar-smoking, wartime leader. Another honors Louis Kossuth, a Hungarian freedom fighter who in 1852 became the second foreigner to address a joint meeting of Congress. (The first was the Marquis de Lafayette from France.)

Cohen thinks Wiesel merits his own place of honor in the Capitol. He already holds a place of honor in Cohen's Washington office.

Hanging in the foyer there is a snapshot of the congressman and Wiesel. The photo was taken in 1995 when the author was honored at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.

Cohen, one of 29 Jewish members of Congress, met Wiesel a number of times over the years and always found him to be "an individual of such high character and intelligence."

"He was just a great human being," Cohen said, one who "never, ever changed his position and stayed true to hope and love and peace."

Michael Collins is The Commercial Appeal's Washington correspondent. His weekly Tennessee in D.C. column highlights Volunteer State lawmakers, causes and connections. Contact him at 703-854-8927 or mcollins2@gannett.com.
April 17, 2014: Mark Cate (center) was Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslams chief of staff until July 31, 2015. He now runs a powerhouse government consulting agency, Stones River Group. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

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By Nate Rau And Dave Boucher, USA TODAY NETWORK  Tennessee

In the year since he stepped down as Gov. Bill Haslam's chief of staff, Mark Cate has created a powerhouse government consulting agency that has earned lucrative work on behalf of companies and nonprofit groups doing business with the state.

The clients Cate represents include Memphis-based Strategic Behavioral Health, which secured approval to open a new mental health facility in East Tennessee.

Cate also was hired for a $10,000-per-month job by a private foundation to oversee the construction of the new state museum, a project he helped lead as one of Haslam's top advisers.

The Tennessean newspaper of Nashville reviewed nearly two years of emails and text messages between Cate and top state officials from six departments. The hundreds of emails and texts, from late 2014 through early this year, paint a picture of Cate's broad influence on state government during his time as chief of staff and his continued clout as the principal for his new company, Stones River Group.

Strategic Behavioral Health President Jim Shaheen said Stones River Group was "very helpful" in pursuing the East Tennessee project, which was approved by the state in June after initially idling following a tie vote by the regulatory board. Cate said he didn't play a role in the approval.

"They hired us because they wanted to see if we could help them connect better with that community up in East Tennessee," Cate said. "Our only job was to help them be better positioned in that community if they were to get their certificate of need, because they didn't want a black eye coming out of this."

In addition to Strategic Behavioral Health, Stones River Group works for the National Museum of African American Music, planned to open in Nashville; the Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp.; and three nonprofit organizations created while Cate worked under Haslam to support policy initiatives favored by the Haslam administration. Cate says all of his contracts note that his company is not allowed to lobby.

State law forbids high-ranking officials from lobbying for one year after they leave office. Cate, who left the governor's office on July 31, 2015, said he played no role in landing the state funding for clients because he and his firm were only consultants.

"There's no conversations I'm having that are influencing anything that's going on. I've been involved with state museum, but that's not lobbying," Cate said, noting he's the project manager for the museum.

State law says lobbying includes communicating with any person in the legislative or executive branches "for the purpose of influencing any legislative action or administrative action."

Drew Rawlins, executive director of the Tennessee Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance, said he couldn't remember anyone ever cited for violating of the state's revolving-door policy, and there are few law violations by lobbyists in general.

"If you're having a discussion, as opposed to trying to influence that decision ... I think if it's just a discussion, a back and forth, then I don't think that's probably lobbying," Rawlins said.

The head of a state government watchdog organization said the state passed laws to make sure former officials would not leave their office and leverage their influence.

"The whole reason we have the revolving-door provisions, and the one-year prohibition, is to try to deal with the issue of potential influence," said Dick Williams, executive director for Common Cause. "What he's doing with his consulting firm is perfectly legal. The only issue is if he or his clients are getting special consideration basically."

Williams said it is crucial for there to be documentation regarding what Cate and Stones River Group discussed during meetings with state officials. Williams said there doesn't appear to be evidence that Cate broke the law, but that his list of clients that deal with the state raises fair questions for the media to ask.

"And we're getting into the whole issue of an appearance of a conflict. Whether it may or may not be an actual conflict," he said.

House Republican Caucus Chairman Glen Casada said he's only spoken with Cate twice since Cate left the governor's office, and both conversations focused on politics. He said Cate is still friends with many in the administration, and that Cate's actions since leaving Haslam's office as described to him don't "send up a red flag to me."

Still, he says the revolving-door policies are needed.

"It's human nature to want to help your friends. I don't care if it's government, business, the church. You just want to help your friends," Casada said.

Now that his anniversary of leaving the state has passed, Cate is free to lobby, though he must register. He recently registered with Metro Nashville to lobby on behalf of an engineering company called Volkert.

Cate said he has been deliberate in ensuring his firm did not lobby.

"I can tell you this: if clients want us to do anything after kind of this year of cooling off is over with, then I will make sure we have a bright line, and register for anything that might be perceived as lobbying moving forward," Cate said.

"We were really clear when I left the administration  we're going to be very clear: Number 1, I know that there's a bright line between what I can and can't do for this year."
Jim Shearin/The Commercial Appeal files August 8, 1977  Jesse Turner (center) visits with Dr. and Mrs. Benjamin Hooks before Hooks addressed the 107th meeting of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Tennessee at the Hyatt Regency Hotel Aug. 8, 1977. Hooks was recently named executive director of the NAACP. More than 600 persons attended the banquet, which was the highlight of the grand lodge's five-day convention here.

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Aug. 7

25 years ago: 1991

Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc. plans to build an $80 million Elvistown USA theme park in Tokyo, an official said Tuesday. The park in Japan is one of four major plans the company is pursuing, Jack Soden told the Memphis Rotary Club. The executive director of Graceland and chief executive officer of Elvis Presley Enterprises said the projects, including work in Memphis, are expected to be completed by 1994.

50 years ago: 1966

Washington  Luci Baines Johnson, younger daughter of the President, and Patrick John Nugent, son of a small-town businessman, were married in all the magnificence Washington could muster Saturday, then left for a secret honeymoon hideaway. Luci, 19, and Nugent, 23, became man and wife in a solemn and beautiful Catholic ceremony at the huge National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. At the end of the festivities, Luci tossed her bridal bouquet to her sister, Lynda Bird. Hollywood actor George Hamilton, who has been Lynda's regular escort through this year, was at the reception as well as the wedding.

75 years ago: 1941

A woodworking plant which will make ammunition boxes for the Government and which will have a monthly payroll of from $20,000 to $25,000 for labor alone, will be established on Mallory Avenue by the Chapman & Dewey Lumber Co. It will employ 300 men.

100 years ago: 1916

For the first time since Mud Island became visible more than two years ago, steamboats were blocked at their wharf boats yesterday, unable to creep through the shallow water to the main channel of the Mississippi River.

125 years ago: 1891

About 6 o'clock yesterday morning, at the corner of Suzette street and Charleston Avenue, Will Wade shot Coleman Bobbett. Wade is a nephew of Coleman and the difficulty between them was caused by a chew of tobacco.
5August 5, 2016 - Michael Key, 9, top left, Kanard Dotson, 6, top right, Jadarreko Austin, 7, bottom right, and Ashton Dotson, 9, bottom left, play a game of Monopoly together in the shade of a porch in Foote Homes. Residents of Foote Homes are in the process of transitioning out of their homes while parents are also enrolling their children in school. (Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal)

By Jennifer Pignolet of The Commercial Appeal

Despite the sweltering, suffocating, midday heat, Kentanya Wolfe was busy Friday assisting movers packing up her apartment in Foote Homes.

She had to get it done before the weekend  her two children start at their new school on Monday.

"They're ready to go," she said from her porch as the movers continued to work around her. "A new environment."

As Foote Homes  the city's last remaining public housing project  readies for demolition to make way for the city's new South City development, families are beginning their transitions to new homes using vouchers from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. But of the 385 families who were living in Foote Homes, only about 25 percent have made the transition, according to the Memphis Housing Authority.

With the first day of school Monday in Shelby County, many are facing a push to move now to avoid sending their children to their current school just for a few weeks and then transferring if their new home is in a different neighborhood. The school district fears a third option will seem more favorable  not sending children to any school until the family is settled in their new home.

"There's a lot of them that aren't going to put their kids in school," resident Connie Farley said of her neighbors. She was also speaking for herself  Farley has a 5-year-old child who should be starting kindergarten Monday. But adjusting to one new school is hard enough, she said, and it seemed traumatic to make him adjust twice in rapid fashion.

"If you put kids in some schools and then four weeks later you move  it's going to mess them kids up," she said.

To help families through their transition  and to encourage them to attend a school, no matter which one, on Day 1  the school district has partnered with the housing authority and each family's case worker, providing information about services like registration, transportation and mental health.

Cynthia Alexander Mitchell, the school district's director of family and community engagement, said her office has been working with families to find new schools in the neighborhoods where they end up.

"We encourage them to register at that current school and then do a transfer so that there won't be a loss of instructional time," Alexander Mitchell said.

Helping large numbers of relocating families at once is nothing new for SCS, or for that matter, any urban school district, Chief of Communications Natalia Powers said. Staffing is adjusted regularly, and principals accommodate however many children show up the first day, or at any point during the year.

"I know it seems complex, but it happens everywhere and all the time," Powers said.

This summer alone, the district has helped families moving not only from Foote Homes but also Warren and Tulane Apartment complexes in South Memphis and Whitehaven, which HUD ordered evacuated after the owners failed to provide adequate living conditions in the subsidized housing units.

Among those three areas, the district estimates 800 children already have been or will be uprooted.

Most of the Warren and Tulane families have resettled, with much of that process taking place during the last academic year, Alexander Mitchell said.

The housing authority's new executive director, Marcia Lewis, said all residents from the three properties have their vouchers, but the moving process takes time. Landlords who accept vouchers haven't been as cooperative with making needed repairs to pass HUD inspections as the housing authority had hoped, she said. The housing authority's goal was to have relocations finished by August, but now, the end of October or early November is likely.

Lewis called the partnership with the school district "critical" to the process.

"We are not the education experts," Lewis said. "And without having them as a partner at the table ... we wouldn't be able to provide the key resources for those families to make sure they are successful with their transition."

It remains to be seen how the exodus from Foote Homes will affect enrollment at schools in the area, particularly Booker T. Washington High School. A charter school operating out of a church on Danny Thomas Boulevard already announced it was closing after one year due to low enrollment, and attributed the decline to the loss of residents of Foote Homes.

The school district has offered families the chance to stay in their schools even if they move to a different zone, but they would have to provide their own transportation. For many families, Alexander Mitchell said, that may not be possible. They expect to see a migration both east to Hickory Hill and north to Frayser, although families can go anywhere within a 50-mile radius that will accept housing vouchers and passes an inspection.

"There would have to be available housing in the neighborhood that was accepted by HUD in order for them to stay in the neighborhood," she said. "Nine out of 10 chances are, they will be in a new school in a new neighborhood, in a new setting."

Resident Raquel Austin is moving her family to East Memphis, citing a chance to better all their lives, but will keep her children in school at Downtown Elementary to minimize the amount of adjustment that will be forced onto them. She's just put hundreds of dollars into her van to make sure it's ready to go when she has to drive them back downtown every day.

With its status as a Reward School, the state's list of schools in the top 5 percent for growth, Austin said other parents wish they had the opportunity to send their kids to Downtown Elementary.

"It's best to keep them in there when they're in there," she said.
Andrew Harnik/Associated Press Instead of change, Hillary Clinton is emphasizing Donald Trump's temperament, his biggest flaw in voters' eyes. Head-to-head polls at this point give "change" a slight edge over "temperament" among voters.

SHARE Joe Raedle/Getty Images A recent Pew Research Center poll found 71 percent of Americans unsatisfied with the nation's direction. That is the driver of Donald Trump's candidacy. Supporters of Donald Trump stand for the Pledge of Allegiance during a campaign town hall. Evan Vucci/ Associated Press Supporters of Hillary Clinton listen during a campaign event of vice presidential candidate Sen. Tim Kaine. Alex Wong/ Getty Images

By Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times

The first task of any political campaign is to frame the question it wants voters to answer. Donald Trump wants this election to be a referendum on change: Are you happy with the way things are going in America? Hillary Clinton wants the election to be a referendum on Trump: Are you ready to hand the nuclear codes to an authoritarian with a hair-trigger temper?

There's more to the campaign, of course: conflicting worldviews, competing policies. But the battle to frame the question was a significant part of what the conventions in Cleveland and Philadelphia were about. Trump's message was that the United States is in crisis and that he alone can change its course; Clinton's was that the country's problems are solvable, but Trump doesn't have the temperament to be commander in chief.

Both questions are potentially effective.

The desire for Big Change is broad and deep; in the most recent Pew Research Center poll, 71 percent of Americans said they are unsatisfied with the country's direction. That is what has propelled Trump's candidacy.

From the beginning, Trump has cast himself as an iconoclastic  indeed, gleefully disruptive  change-maker: a nonpolitician who denounced the establishments of both parties and promised to scrap traditional policies on everything from the federal debt to trade.

The Pew poll found that 77 percent of voters were convinced that he would bring about real change  although most of them thought the change would be for the worse.

When it comes to change, Trump can fairly claim to own the brand.

Democratic pollster Geoff Garin, who works for Clinton's SuperPAC, Priorities USA, says satisfying the thirst for change is probably his candidate's biggest challenge. He pointed to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll in which 56 percent of voters said they preferred a candidate who will "bring major changes to the way government operates," even if the changes are unpredictable; only 41 percent said they preferred "a steady approach" with fewer changes.

Clinton's task, he said, is to persuade voters "that she will make (voters') lives better as president."

That was, of course, a theme in Philadelphia  but only one of many; it's not clear that it broke through the clutter.

It's an important pitch for two kinds of voters: white working-class men and women who have felt neglected by the Obama administration, and Bernie Sanders voters, especially young people, who aren't enthusiastic about turning out for Clinton.

But some are skeptical that she can get there at all. "I don't think she can plausibly campaign as the candidate of change," David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist in 2008, said. "She has been a fixture in American politics for such a long time."

Instead of change, Clinton wants to focus on Trump's temperament, his biggest flaw in voters' eyes. In the NBC-Wall Street Journal poll, voters said that was their top concern about the Republican; 65 percent called him "too volatile," slightly ahead of the percentage who called him "offensive and intolerant." (Clinton's biggest flaw was "dishonest," at 69 percent, followed by "won't make needed changes.")

"This issue of temperament is central to the whole debate," Axelrod said.

He cited a line from Clinton's speech: "A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man you can trust with nuclear weapons."

"I really think the race comes down to this," he said. "This is the critique I think that has the power to move the most people."

Indeed, Clinton devoted more than twice as much time in her speech to lambasting Trump as to outlining her plans for the economy.

Trump doesn't seem to notice that his bull-in-a-china-shop style makes voters worry that he'd be a bad fit for the White House.

His own wife has beseeched him to be "more presidential," but he's ignored the advice. Instead, he has frequently disrupted his own campaign. So it shouldn't be hard for Clinton and her surrogates to keep the question of his temperament alive.

But that hasn't knocked him out of the race; far from it. Judging from the head-to-head polls, "change" is narrowly beating "temperament" as the top question on voters' minds. As long as that's true, Trump  for all his gargantuan flaws  has a real chance to win.

Doyle McManus is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times. Contact him at doyle.mcmanus@latimes.com.
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The Shelby County Sheriff's Office once again finds itself under criticism for its operation of the juvenile detention center in Memphis.

A June report to the U.S. Department of Justice about the center contains allegations of youths being disciplined in 23-hour, locked-room confinement with handcuffing and shackling during the single out-of-room hour. Detention Chief Kirk Fields denied the practice exists. Youths interviewed for the report by David Roush of Juvenile Justice Associates in Albion, Michigan, also said they sometimes do not get to shower daily and are confined in locked rooms 22 hours a day on weekends, which Fields also disputed.

It would be easy to look at Roush's report and discount it as just a bunch of alleged teenage criminals complaining about how tough life is in lockup. But this is at least the second critical report on inmate safety and disciplinary tactics involving force at the center since the Sheriff's Office assumed responsibility more than a year ago.

How the youths are treated while in custody is something that should concern the entire community. It is important that, no matter the crime of which they are accused, they are held in a safe environment and not subjected to discipline that involves force.

Detention safety was among the issues addressed in a blistering report by the U.S. Department of Justice, which found systemic discrimination toward African-American children in the way their cases were handled here.

Roush, who has been monitoring juvenile protection from harm following the DOJ report that resulted in a 2012 agreement between the DOJ, Juvenile Court and Shelby County, submitted his findings after a visit to the facility April 4-7. He found documentation by the Sheriff's Department of Juvenile Detention Services to be "unacceptable and unreliable."

That lack of creditable record keeping makes it difficult to really know what is happening at the detention center. Those close to the situation said the documentation that is available indicates that safety and disciplinary techniques still are a concern.

History has shown how failure to follow proper protocols at youth detention centers can lead to disastrous results. After two teens committed suicide within weeks of each other at the state's Mountain View Youth Development Center in Dandridge in 2014, an independent review found that poor record keeping and failure to follow proper procedures may have contributed to the teens' deaths.

There has never been a suicide at the local juvenile detention center, officials said, but a lax observance of protocol and record keeping could lead to all kinds of safety issues, including inmate-on-inmate assaults.

Juvenile Court Judge Dan Michael asked Sheriff Bill Oldham to take over the detention center, saying the sheriff was better suited to operate it. The County Commission approved Oldham's request for additional funding to take on the responsibility.

Roush's report noted accomplishments under the sheriff's watch, including the hiring of a full-time counselor to expand youth programs, implementation of a system that encourages positive behavior and improved food quality. He also noted expansion plans for Hope Academy, a 45-person capacity school that youths can attend inside the Juvenile Court building while detained.

Also, the Sheriff's Office is now working diligently to institute best-policy practices recommended by youth detention experts.

Judge Michael and his staff have done a good job of reducing the number of juveniles held in detention, which was among the problems cited in the DOJ report. The ones who are detained are accused of committing serious felonies, some involving violence.

Despite their crimes, these are youths, not adults, and managing them in a detention facility takes specialized training  a difference sheriff officials apparently were slow to fully grasp.

Teens told the consultant they were mistreated. Sheriff officials said it was not true but, because of lax record keeping, cannot back up their denial.

This community is working diligently to correct the disparity in how African-American youths are handled in the local juvenile justice system, including putting procedures in place to keep them out of the criminal justice pipeline.

That requires everyone involved in this effort to do their jobs properly.
SHARE Masami Kinefuchi

By Masami Kinefuchi, Special to Viewpoint

Last week, an accomplished group of recent college graduates traveled to Japan. Their journey will change their lives and make the world bright.

I serve the states of Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Kentucky and Louisiana as consul general of Japan.

That is why I am so pleased to congratulate all of the young leaders, including those from the University of Memphis, on joining the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) program.

Since JET's establishment 30 years ago, more than 62,000 people from around the world have lived and worked across Japan, teaching English and coordinating international exchange initiatives. Of these, more than half have come from the U.S.

These impressive numbers provide a strong track record. However, the real value of JET is measured among all the people this program touches and the lifetime opportunities it creates for alumni.

In today's interconnected world, universities and employers seek out graduate students, doctoral students and employees who have multilingual and cross-cultural skills.

However, it can be difficult for young people to build these assets. Only about 1 percent of undergraduate students a year are able to study abroad, according to the Association of International Educators (NAFSA).

With its competitive salary and excellent benefits, JET gives recent college graduates a significant opportunity to experience Japan and broaden their world view during a formative time of life.

What's more, since their assignments last between one and five years, JET participants have ample time to live among Japanese people and experience everyday Japanese life in a way simply unavailable to tourists.

I look forward to when these young leaders return to their home states and communities.

With enriched international experience and language skills, they can make a difference locally and in the world as future diplomats, entrepreneurs, community leaders, artists, and more.

Many American JET alumni already have gone on to shape government and politics, academia, education and private industry.

JET truly is a wonderful adventure  an opportunity to positively impact the lives of its participants as they in turn touch the lives of people in Japan and America.

And yet, here in the southeastern U.S., JET seems to be somewhat of a well-kept secret.

From my base in Nashville, I am eager to work with local leaders across my five-state jurisdiction to raise JET's profile and attract more qualified applicants.

Applicants are not required to speak Japanese or have any specialized field of study as a prerequisite. They need only possess a bright and curious mind and the urge to travel.

When JET participants from this region return home, they will strengthen the bridge between the people of Japan and this community.

Most will resettle in this five-state region, where approximately 440 Japanese-owned companies employ more than 110,000 people and 18 local cities are sister cities with Japanese municipalities.

To state it simply and without exaggeration: JET participants will become our future.

I congratulate these energetic, ambitious young people who will soon travel to Japan. I hope more young leaders will join them in years to come.

To learn more about the Japan Exchange and Teaching program, visit jetprogramusa.org.




Debbie Wasserman Schultz moves to Chapter Two of professional insiders playbook: defuse pressure for debates by accepting them in principle, while continuing to delay. Now that the July 26  August 2 distribution of mail-in ballots is safely behind her, and she has secured Joe Bidens commitment to host an August 5 fundraising event (at which questions about debates can be more-easily deflected), the local newspaper reports

Debbie Wasserman Schultz  said in a brief telephone interview. "I am going to debate my opponent." Wasserman Schultz said she didn't have a number of debates in mind. "We're going to sort those details out at a later time," she said Canova said there's plenty of time for several debates before the Aug. 30 primary He welcomed her decision but expressed some skepticism. "I will believe it when I see it. She has been dodging me for four months and dodging her own constituents for weeks," Canova said.

Will Wasserman Schultzs proposed debate time be calculated to minimize voter attention? Thats how she suppressed viewership for Presidential primary debates-- before she was removed for diverting party resources to boost Hillary and undermine Bernie, after her vehement bald-faced denials were proven to be lies.





Will #DebtTrapDebbies proposed debate venue be one of her donors yatchs? Will it be bigger or smaller than the venue for her Joe Biden fundraising event?





Bidens event (which DWS used DNC resources to secure) is the latest part of a disturbing pattern of big players continuing to treat Debbie Wasserman Schultz as part of the insiders' club, without seeing how this undermines their appeals for party Unity.





Yesterday Tim Canona was wondering if she'll actually go through with debating him. "Debbie Wasserman Schultz has never once had to account for her record in her decades long career in Washington," he told South Florida residents. "Shes never engaged in a single debate as long as shes been a member of Congress. Now shes saying-- after months of dodging our campaigns repeated requests-- that she will come back to South Florida and debate me. This after our poll shows were within striking distance of defeating her. Im going to be honest with you: Ill believe it when I see it."

The video up top in the new Blue America ad we started running in Broward and Miami-Dade counties yesterday. We'll keep it up until Wasserman Schultz actually commits to a real debate on a real day in a real place. You can contribute to Tim Canova's campaign by clicking on the thermometer below:
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Singapore GIC in talks to own at least 7 pct of Vietnam's Vietcombank: sources

Singapore's GIC Pte Ltd is in talks to own a stake of at least 7 percent in Vietcombank.

Singapore's GIC Pte Ltd is in talks to own a stake of at least 7 percent in Vietcombank, Vietnams largest listed bank by market value, sources with knowledge of the matter said, in what would be the sovereign wealth fund's second major investment in Vietnam this year.

Vietcombank will issue new shares to GIC should the deal go through, the sources said on August 5.

A successful stake sale in Vietnam's biggest lender by value would be a vote of confidence in the country's banking sector, once ridden with bad debts.

Vietcombank has been planning to issue new shares equivalent to 10 percent of existing stock to foreign investors. That would total more than $600 million based on current market value.

The stake is offered to GIC at a discount to market prices, the sources said, declining to be more specific.

The deal would need the approval of Vietnam's central bank, Vietcombank's biggest shareholder.

A GIC spokeswoman declined to comment, while Vietcombank did not reply to a request for comment.

With a 7 percent share, GIC would be the third-biggest investor after the State Bank of Vietnam, which owns a 77 percent stake, and Japan's Mizuho Bank, which holds a 15 percent share, said the sources, who declined to be identified because talks are still ongoing.

In March, GIC bought additional shares to own more than 5 percent in leading Vietnamese food producer Masan Group .

Vietcombank has said it expected a deal with a foreign investor this year.

Vietcombank's net profit in the first half of 2016 jumped an estimated 39 percent from a year earlier on strong credit growth and lower provisions for bad debts.

Moody's Investors Service said Vietcombank's retail business will grow due to a strong funding franchise and client base.

Vietnamese banks have enjoyed solid credit growth backed by a rebounding economy, while bad debts in the banking system have fallen from historic highs in 2012.

Bad debts rose to as much as 17.2 percent of total credit in 2012. The ratio has improved to 2.55 percent in 2015, central bank data shows.

But reforms in the sector have been hampered by complicated cross-holdings and a 30-percent foreign ownership cap.

Related news:

> Vietcombank shareholders approve plan to sell 10 percent stake to foreign investors
Henri Tiphagne

An appeal, floated for signature by Henri Tiphagne of Human Rights Defenders Alert (HRDA), India, has sought to ask Justice (retired) HL Dattu, chairman, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), strongly opposed the West Bengal government's violent repression of Banglar Manabadhikar Surakksha Mancha (MASUM), a well-known, non-foreign funded human rights organisation. Tiphagne says, MASUM is a platform of human rights defenders (HRDs), engaging on the issues of torture and extra-judicial killings through its district human right monitors in different districts in West Bengal, particularly in Murshidabad, North 24 Parganas, Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri districts.It is also involved in systematically documenting data and information related to torture and extra-judicial killing based on observation, questionnaires, and interviews with victim family, eyewitnesses, and relevant officials, he adds.This, says Tiphagne -- whose appeal has been put for signature to be sent to Dattu -- has led to a situation where human rights activists associated with MASUM have been facing continuous and systematic harassment, physical intimidation, illegal arrest, detention and persecution due to their human rights work.Such acts by the state police alleged to be motivated by the state administration sends strong warning messages to other human rights organisations in the country, he says, adding, this has happened because MASUM has exposed atrocities committed by the West Bengal state police and the Border Security Force (BSF) deployed along the Indo-Bangladesh border.Giving instances, Tiphagne says, Kirity Roy, present secretary of MASUM, was arrested by the Anti-Terrorist Cell of Kolkata Police on April 7, 2010 for coordinating a Peoples Tribunal on Torture on June 9-10, 2008. The police started a case against MASUM claiming the tribunal to be illegal.The case, he says, is pending in the Supreme Court of India, after the Calcutta High Court rejected to quash it. The NHRC also has let down MASUM when it approached them with a complaint in this case. The Government of India has refused to grant Foreign Contribution and Regulation Certification/ license to MASUM.Then, Tiphagne says, Ajimuddin Sarkar, District Human Rights Monitor, has been implicated in several false and concocted criminal charges by Murshidabad district police. He was behind bars for 70 days. In the month of September 2015, Sarkar was implicated in two criminal cases by Islampur Police Station.Criminal cases have also been insituted against other activists of MASUM such as Kirity Roy, Mohor Mondal, Durbadal Majumdar, Ajijul Haque, and Tilak Barman, Tiphagne says.According to him, MASUM has been actively engaged in reporting and intervening in human rights cases, particularly concerning the violence committed by the law enforcement agencies in West Bengal.He adds, MASUM so far has conducted more than 3000 fact findings, lodged 3200 complaints before the human rights institutions, government offices, and UN bodies, even as providing medical and psychological supports to 8500 victims of torture, their families.Asking the NHRC to take urgent and special notice of MASUMs series of cases and send a special high level team under Special Rapporteurs to look into all their cases of harassment, ill-treatment, intimidation, illegal detention, police accesses and torture of the HRDs associated with MASUM and present a detailed report to the NHRC, Tiphagne says, NHRC should also hold the perpetrators of the recorded violations against MASUM accountable.At the same time, Tiphagne says, the West Bengal government and the Boarder Security force (BSF) should be made to provide remedies to MASUM and its activists such as apology, re assurance of non-repetition and sufficient compensation to make up for all the loss of reputation and other loses suffered over all these past years.
What used to be ranked as the Tri-State's most popular small game season now is largely ignored. In an attempt to revive it, conservation departments have permitted hunting from August into February.

However, overall hunting enthusiasm noticeably wanes after dove and early deer seasons begin.

It isn't because the quarry has vanished. In fact, these feisty critters are probably the most numerous game animal throughout the Tri-State. What has changed hunting attitudes is most modern cooks shudder at the thought of having to prepare them for the table even if they are very tasty.

Just ask television's Bizarre Foods host, Andrew Zimmerman, who did a couple of shows where he killed and grilled a few. So what were Zimmerman's main entrees?

American Fox, and black and gray tree squirrels.

North America hosts more tree squirrel species than all of Europe.

Squirrels adapt to human habitation and people enjoy watching them. That's why in the 1700s gray squirrels were sent to a British estate.

Having no natural enemies in England allowed American squirrels to easily colonize England's forests and become pests.

Allegedly, a homesick Englishman got even when he had English sparrows and starlings sent over here because he longed to see birds William Shakespeare mentioned in some of his works.

We call these English imports "pests" and allow them to be killed in any manner, at any time and in any number. The Brits call our squirrels "tree rats" and reciprocate with the same rationale.

However, our immigrant ancestors called squirrels "delicious" and ate them without hesitation.

This gastronomical fixation lasted until the mid 1980s when squirrel hunting and squirrel eating greatly declined.

Now tastes may be reverting back because the millennial generations are currently experimenting with wild game cuisine. Thanks to television's popular "reality" shows, wild game again is being sought for dinner.

Remember, from 1695 to 1885, most meat marketed in America came from unregulated hunting. Eventually game laws, like these regulations excerpted from an actual 1906 Illinois hunting license, were enacted to protect popular wildlife species.

"You may take gray, red (fox) and black squirrels only between July 1st and December 31st each year. However, you must not kill wild geese, ducks, brant, quail, prairie chicken, grouse or squirrel for market or commercial purposes."

There were no bag limits on squirrels, but ducks, geese, brant and quail had a daily limit of 35 per species.

Rabbits could be killed in any number all year and sold on the open market.

Obviously, squirrels were highly regarded as table fare. Try some before saying, "ECCCCHH".
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Loren and Joella Moore

60th anniversary

Loren and Joella Moore of Evansville plan to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary with their family.

Moore and the former Joella Scott were married Aug. 18, 1956, at St. Paul's United Methodist Church.

They are the parents of Scott Moore of Fairfield, Ohio, Kevin and David Moore, both of Evansville, and the late Michael Moore. They have six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Loren Moore retired from General Electric Aircraft Engines.
SHARE DENNY SIMMONS / COURIER & PRESS Carl Kidwell (left) and brother Logan Kidwell both served together in the U.S. Navy on the U.S.S. Quincy during World War II. Carl was transferred off the ship before it was sunk during the Battle of Guadalcanal. Logan was killed and his body never recovered. An early photograph of (from left) Logan Kidwell, Joe Kilps, Jim Alsman (family friend), Carl Kidwell and George Strange (brother-in-law). DENNY SIMMONS / COURIER & PRESS Joe Kilps was serving in Europe with the U.S. Army in World War II when his uncle, Logan Kidwell, was killed during the Battle of Guadalcanal while serving on the U.S.S. Quincy. Logan's brother, Carl Kidwell, served on the same ship for nine months before being transfered to another ship. DENNY SIMMONS / COURIER & PRESS Logan Kidwell's Purple Heart medal was awarded posthumously. Related Photos Declassified military reports about the U.S.S. Quincy

By Jessie Higgins of the Courier and Press

The day Carl Kidwell boarded the U.S.S. Quincy was one of his happiest.

He had waited years to be on that ship with his little brother, Logan.

"The moment I came aboard, the sailor on duty at the gangway exclaimed: "Hey! Aren't you Logan Kidwell's brother?'" Carl would later write in family letters. "A few minutes later, Logan came running up on the deck. What a reunion we had!"

Together at last, the brothers from rural Washington, Indiana, were ready for adventure. They had no way of knowing just how little time they had left.

Within months of that reunion, the United States entered World War II. In a little more than year, the U.S.S. Quincy sank in a quick and fiery battle.

And when the Quincy sank, Logan died.

By then, Carl was serving on a different ship. His first word was that Logan was missing.

"At first they thought  could he be one of the ones saved," said Joe Kilps, Logan's nephew, who lived with the Kidwell brothers as a boy. "There were a lot of them saved after it sunk. But as time went by, it became clear that hadn't happened."

Logan's body was never found, and Carl was never quite the same.

Carl died in 2003, at the age of 92. Toward the end of his life, he wrote several long letters to his family about Logan. Kilps has the letters now.

"As long ago as it was, it is still so real and vivid in my mind," Carl wrote in one such letter in 1989. "Logan and I were always very close, and even after all this time, I still miss him."

Carl and Logan grew up during the Great Depression. Their father had about a dozen children from two marriages. There wasn't a lot of money in the family, but they were happy.

Kilps remembers Carl and Logan playing music together on their front porch. They would sometimes draw small crowds of friends and neighbors.

"It was such fun," Kilps said last week from his Washington, Indiana, home.

As young men in the early 1930s they took odd jobs at hotels, stores and car shops around Washington. The work was never reliable, so in 1933 Carl enlisted for a year in the Civilian Conservation Corps, a work relief program. It sent him all over the country for public projects, then returned him home, where there were still no reliable jobs.

After some long talks, Carl and Logan concocted a wild plan to earn money. They built a photo booth, bought an old car, and took off to see the country.

For several years, the pair traveled with their booth. They charged people 25 cents for three pictures, developed right there.

"They would set up at fairs or carnivals, or sometimes just in vacant lots," Kilps said. "Some people would come in and try to take crazy pictures, just like today."

The photo booth was fun, but the brothers weren't making much money. And by the late 1930s, they were looking for a more secure future. So, after a few more long talks, they decided on the Navy.

It was an adventure.

In their time together aboard the Quincy, they saw tropical islands in the Caribbean and polar icebergs in the Arctic. They explored cities in Africa and gazed in awe at the Northern Lights.

"It was a crowded and eventful year, and I've always been grateful for it," Carl wrote.

But it was also scary.

Not long after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Logan came to Carl with a disturbing feeling. He'd had a premonition of his own death in the war. It was just a feeling, but he couldn't shake it, Kilps said.

Logan and Carl served aboard the Quincy together for about a year. In the spring of 1942, the Quincy docked in New York, and Carl was sent ashore to be transferred. As a radioman, he was moved frequently. He and Logan left notes for each other at a YMCA so they could find times to meet.

Then the Quincy left.

Carl never saw his brother again.

Carl spent years trying to research the battle that killed Logan. He wanted to know what happened, how his brother had died.

It wasn't until decades later, when the military reports on the battle were declassified, that he got a true picture.

According to those reports, in the early morning of Aug. 9, 1942, the crew on Quincy's deck heard a plane buzzing overhead. The sound didn't raise any alarm until an explosion from a nearby ship lit up the sky.

"Warning  warning  strange ships entering the harbor!" came a sudden voice across the Quincy's radio at 1:47 a.m.

The warning came too late. As the crew ran for their battle stations, Japanese ships opened fire.

The Quincy made a vain attempt to maneuver, but by the time the ship had swung around most of the deck was in flames.

"The bridge had been hit, killing practically everyone in the pilot house," a declassified military report reads. "Radio I was struck and filled with shrapnel, both stacks perforated, the galley on fire, the hanger and well deck blazing inferno, the steam escaping from #1 Stack was deafening, and Battle II in flames. No water was available topside to fight the fires."

As artillery rained above deck, torpedoes struck the Quincy below, trapping men in the ship's belly by either fire or water.

It's impossible to know where Logan was during the attack. If he was on duty, he was likely near the ship's boilers. Much of that area burned before the ship sank.

"My thought was always that he drowned," Kilps said. "He was certainly below deck."

The ship lost all onboard communication. The captain, who was gravely injured, ordered the only surviving man in the pilot house  a signalman  to beach the ship. The signalman grabbed the wheel and frantically spun it toward starboard.

There was no steering control.

"Just then the captain rose up about halfway and collapsed, dead," the report reads.

By then, the ship was sinking fast. The ranking officer ordered the crew to abandon ship.

Survivors scattered, throwing life rafts, nets and anything that would float overboard.

At about 2:40 a.m., less than an hour after the attack began, the Quincy capsized.

"We were the last net away from the Quincy," Raymond Walter, one of the ship's fire controlman, told his hometown newspaper, the Green Bay Press Gazette, in October 1942.

We "had only drifted 50 or 75 feet away, when I looked back and saw the fantail sticking straight up like a sore thumb. Then she plunged head first, to the bottom."
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By Zach Evans of the Courier and Press

It might cost the average property owner about $20 a year, but it could in turn boost city revenues $500,000.

The City Council's Finance Committee Chairman, Dan McGinn, R-1st Ward, wants to undo an extension of a property tax credit passed last year to relieve some budget woes.

"I'm a realist. We cannot continue to increase services and continue to lower taxes without something happening," McGinn said.

"We either have to reduce services, we have to fire people, we have to raise taxes, or this is somewhat similar, this is use the taxes we have available and stop giving money back that we cannot afford."

Residential property owners can claim a credit for the property they live in, which gives them a certain percent off their tax bill each year. Last year, the City Council decided to push the credit to the maximum 8 percent allowed by state law.

Residential property owners received about a 6.2 percent credit on their tax bill last year. So, if a property had an assessed tax liability of $1,000, then they saved about $62 on their bill. This year, that same home would save $80 on their tax bill.

Last year's increased credit meant the city's tax revenues for 2016 lost $522,821 out of the general fund, which mostly pays for city employee salaries. It also cut about $470,000 from county government.

The credit is one most Hoosiers don't receive.

Of Indiana's 92 counties, 82 don't have the tax credit. Of those ten, Vanderburgh County is the only one giving the full 8 percent allowed by state.

Allen County, home of Fort Wayne, gives 7 percent. Neighboring Posey County gives 5.4 percent, but most others give between 2 and 3 percent.

City Councilwoman Anna Hargis, R-3rd Ward, said it's too early to say how she feels about McGinn's proposal. Hargis said she wants to know more about potential revenue, the impact to taxpayers and what Vanderburgh County's property taxes are compared to other counties in the region.

What the council decides to do with the property tax credit for next year probably won't be decided anytime soon, or at least, not while council is debating the 2017 budget this month. But McGinn plans to work on ordinance language soon.

The city has the majority control of the local tax board, so any decision it makes would affect Darmstadt and Vanderburgh County residents.

The state deadline for council to decide on the credit is in November.
Workers from the pirated disc mill in Ho Chi Minh City being interrogated by police. Photo by VnExpress/Quoc Thang

The illegal plant was producing 15,000 discs per day.

Ho Chi Minh City police raided what they called the largest illegal disc production operation early Sunday morning, seizing tens of thousands of pirated DVDs from a shop as part of a crackdown on widespread bootlegging.

The underground factory on To Ngoc Van Street in District 12, registered under the name Van Phat Thinh Limited Company, only operated at night but had a complete production line with modern machinery worth millions of U.S. dollars, the police said.

The factory was capable of pirating around 15,000 music and movie discs per day, making it the largest pirate disc manufacturing plant ever discovered in Ho Chi Minh City.

The owners used a lorry to transport the discs, a police officer said, adding that it had taken several months to investigate the case.

The owner was not at the factory at the time of the raid, but the premises have been sealed and thousands of discs have been seized.

Intellectual property violations have become common across Vietnam in recent years despite numerous efforts to crack down by authorities.

Piracy is a flourishing industry in Vietnam with bootleg discs widely available for sale. Most are smuggled in from abroad, particularly Cambodia and China.

Counterfeit CDs are widely available for about $1 each, while DVDs can be bought for about $2.
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In honor of Indiana's 200th birthday, the Oakland City Good Start Committee will host "A Taste of Indiana" featuring some of the finest wines produced in Indiana. A variety of foods will be served that compliment the various wines presented.

Bob Zasadny will present a short presentation about his sculptures and the process of their creation.

The event will take place Aug. 20 at the Community Center in Oakland City (Wirth Park) from 6-9 p.m. (must be 21 to attend).

Tickets are $12 at the door. Advanced tickets are available by contacting Marcia Buyher at 812-215-0888.
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So, art.

Tingle is infamous for writing dinosaur-on-man sex that people of all political stripes can enjoy, but here he takes a firm stance against Britain's decision to leave the European Union. In Pounded, an everyday British man named Alex is taken one month into the future of Brexit by a giant sentient coin with an "incredible set of chiseled metallic abs" and a "thick golden rod," which is British for "thick golden penis."

Britain has become a blighted hellscape, like the beginning of 28 Days Later filtered through a laudanum fever dream. The Thames is running with lava, the Queen's Guard are now flying reptiles with guns, and every human has become a giant floating coin with arms and genitals, all because the pound's value dropped so low that "we had to make up for it by becoming coins ourselves." The pound intends to send Alex back to before the vote so he can warn his fellow Brits about the horrific consequences of a pro-Brexit decision. However, as you might imagine, the only way to travel back in time is to have passionate gay sex.

amazon.com

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Not passionate enough for this guy, sadly.

This raises the question of how a society that became a Book of Revelations-style post-apocalyptic nightmare managed to develop time travel, and why they'd want to turn their backs on such remarkably rapid scientific progress. But we might be reading a bit too much into a story that contains the line "I want you to fuck me ... just like we've all fucked ourselves with this vote!"

There's a happy ending for all concerned, and then the story ends after Alex manages to convince Britain to vote to stay. Tingle got a happy ending, too, as the "success" of Pounded inspired him to write his next hit:
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After District 1, other areas have been asked to install cameras.

Ho Chi Minh City authorities plan to install more security cameras in what they call crime hotspots in a bid to beef up security, saying the current system has played a key role in reducing crime in the city of more than eight million.

Since April 2015, a 12.7 million network of surveillance cameras has been installed on streets around District 1 to crack down on robberies and tackle traffic violations. They have appeared not only on every street in downtown Ho Chi Minh City  in the words of authorities  but also in alleys with complicated security situations.

The municipal administration said in a recent directive that thanks to the network of security cameras, crime has fallen significantly in major hotspots. According to the city's police force newspaper, crime, including robberies, was down by nearly 16 percent in the first half of this year.

City hall, however, has failed to elaborate on how the security cameras have contributed to fighting crime. They also stopped short of saying how much the new network would cost the city.

Leaders have asked other districts to speed up the installation of security cameras, without spelling out which localities. District 3's administration has recently announced plans to install 600 cameras to keep an eye on any criminal activity.

The street cameras have also been employed to rein in traffic violations by detecting speeding or illegally parked vehicles. They have also also been installed on traffic police vehicles to prevent corruption.

Several popular tourism cities in Vietnam have recently installed citywide surveillance cameras in a bid to guard tourists against robberies and to crack down on traffic violations.

In July, local police in Nha Trang installed a new security camera system across the popular resort town. Since last December, the central city of Da Nang has been hooking up thousands of surveillance cameras in public places and residential areas, with locals even splitting the cost with the city.

Related news:

> Saigon calls for vigilante spirit to fight rising crime

> Iranian gang busted for alleged robbery in Vietnam
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A breakdown of the most recent crime statistics reveals the most and least dangerous places to live in Croydon.

The latest figures recorded by The London Metropolitan Police show that 3,345 crimes were reported in the borough in May this year - the most recent figures that have been published on www.police.uk

The crime with the highest number of offences recorded was violence and sexual offences with a total of 816 incidents across Croydon during that month.

Anti-social behaviour offences were reported 759 times and 54 of those were committed in the town centre, which is, perhaps unsurprisingly, given the number of shops and bars there, the most crime-ridden part of the borough.

Here is a breakdown of every ward, ranked in order of the number of crimes recorded.

1. Croydon Town Centre - 374 crimes

In one month there were 92 incidents of violence and sexual offences in the centre of town. The second most frequent crime was shoplifting with 71 cases in the area, which includes the Whitgift Centre and Centrale.

There were 23 fights and public order offences in the town centre in May. Included in these was an incident on May 30, when police were called to break up a fight between Millwall and Crystal Palace fans after someone was punched in the face.

Also you might not want to leave your bike there as seven bicycles were reported stolen, more than any other ward in the borough.

2. Broad Green - 264 crimes

The self-proclaimed "village" is dominated by takeaways and convenience stores and comes top of the neighbourhoods outside of the town centre in terms of the number of crimes recorded.

The area's shops have been targeted by the equivalent of nearly one shoplifter every day, with 27 thefts in one month.

Five years after the Croydon riots caused widespread destruction in Broad Green, there are still issues with arson and criminal damage with 12 incidents reported in May.

Broad Green is coupled with West Thornton as the place with the most burglaries in Croydon with 21 recorded incidents in each of the neighbourhoods. On May 4, a police officer who was on a routine patrol arrested a man on suspicion of burglary after he was chased out of a property by the occupants.

3. Selhurst - 247 crimes

The home of Crystal Palace is one of the most violent areas in Croydon as it ranks second for violent and sexual crimes behind the town centre, with 72 cases reported in May.

Although outside of the period we are looking at, a 46-year-old man was arrested in the neighbourhood last month, after a man in his mid-twenties was stabbed in Owen Close.

Saxon Road (pictured above) was also cordoned off in January after another stabbing.

Despite the figure for violent crimes, there was only one recorded case of someone possessing a weapon in May and only three people were either robbed or had possessions stolen directly from them.

4. West Thornton - 232 crimes

With 21 victims of burglaries in West Thornton in May, officers from the Met Police are on the case and have delivered Smart Water kits to vulnerable homes in the area. The liquid contains a unique code linking it to a certain property and residents have been instructed to mark their valuables.

Police officers have previously told the Advertiser that crimes of this nature have been reduced due to these kits.

5. Waddon - 207 crimes

Home of IKEA and a picturesque pond, Waddon placed at number five in the list for the number of crimes reported.

This ward is a hot spot for anti-social behaviour with 65 incidents reported in May.

Even though there were only three reports of thefts from a person in May, the pedestranised subway off Galvani Way, near IKEA, is one of the roads where you are most likely to get mugged in Croydon according to figures from between September and November 2015.

6. South Norwood - 173 crimes

7. Thornton Heath - 170 crimes

8. Fairfield - 165 crimes

9. Bensham Manor - 155 crimes

10. Woodside - 150 crimes

11. Norbury - 139 crimes

12. Ashburton - 106 crimes

13. Heathfield - 105 crimes

14. Fieldway - 102 crimes

15. Addiscombe - 100 crimes

16. New Addington - 97 crimes

17. Purley - 96 crimes

18. Croham - 90 crimes

19. Shirley - 78 crimes

20. Upper Norwood - 73 crimes

21. Coulsdon West - 54 crimes

22. Coulsdon East - 53 crimes

23. Sanderstead - 45 crimes

24. Kenley - 38 crimes

25. Selsdon - 32 crimes
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With the recession long over and workers feeling more secure in their positions, the labor market is as competitive as its been in years, experts say. That has more workers switching jobs, industries and even states.

This is probably the most dynamic environment Ive seen in my 30 years as an economist, Don Klepper-Smith, a New Haven-based economist said.

Though Connecticut has a reputation for hemorrhaging workers to other, more hospitable states, thats only part of the story. Though warmer climates have proven a draw for Connecticut workers, the state has fared better with neighbors like New York and New Jersey.

New data released from the U.S. Census, Bureau of Labor Statistics and other departments, published recently in the Connecticut Department of Labors monthly newsletter, shows Connecticut lost more workers to Massachusetts, Rhode Island, California, North Carolina and Florida than it gained from those states in 2014, the last year for which data was available.

On the flip side, that same year Connecticut gained ground in terms of New York and New Jersey workers. The New York-Connecticut movements were the most common, with 2,450 people per quarter on average coming to Connecticut from that state and 2,407 going in the other direction.

In terms of total numbers of movers, Massachusetts was the second-most active, with 1,552 state residents coming to Connecticut versus 1,594 leaving.

The data, referred to as job-to-job flows, tracks the number of people switching jobs in and out of the state.

I think theres a general idea that everyone is leaving the state, said Patrick Flaherty, economist with the state Department of Labor. The people who are coming in, nobody knows who they are. But the data is there and it tells us they are coming in (too).

In the past, people were more likely to stay in one job for longer, and workers were less likely than normal to switch jobs during the recession. If they had a job, they hunkered down and they held it, Flaherty said.

Moving from one state to another was also difficult for many during the recession because of the housing crisis, said Peter Gioia, economist at the Connecticut Business & Industry Association. People arent going to go from state to state when they own real estate unless they can sell it, he said.

In 2014, close to 60,000 people each quarter changed jobs. That number is up from 2010, at the start of the recovery, when less than 45,000 each quarter changed jobs.

Wealth effect

Economists said the rise in job-to-job changes, with little or no unemployment time in between, is a positive sign.

You expect peoples mobility to rise in recoveries, said Phil Lane, associate professor of economics at Fairfield University. It makes sense because people are trading up. Seeing people moving up the job ladder makes sense as the economy recovers.

Still, one population that is increasingly being lost by Connecticut is the college-age crowd. A lot of the 18- to 24-year-olds we have a problem retaining, Gioia said. He said that, in part, is due to the wealth effect.

More of our students can afford to go to school in other states, Gioia said, noting that once they leave, young adults are more likely to find jobs where they studied.

For the population ranging in age from 35 to 44, the data shows more people in that group were leaving New York jobs for Connecticut than the reverse. Lane said people living in the city often look to nearby Connecticut for settling down once they have families.

New York City can also be expensive because residents in that state pay income taxes to the city, state and federal governments. Its nice to have a New York address, but its an expensive address, Lane said.

Manufacturing shortage

The job-to-job data also showed trends among people moving from one industry to another.

For example, more people left jobs in other industries for manufacturing than the reverse.

Flaherty noted some manufacturers have raised concerns over a shortage of workers. Job-to-job flows data suggests that one part of the solution is (finding) people who are currently working, he said.

Manufacturing has the tendency to pay more, Klepper-Smith said.

Jim Connor, vice president of human resources for Bridgeport Fittings in Stratford, said his workforce has been stable for years, so he has not seen workers come in from other industries. But with half of the companys workforce in the 55-and-over age group and nearing retirement, he said Bridgeport Fittings will likely be doing some hiring in the coming years.

And he has noticed the trend in other manufacturers. In five years, Ill probably tell you Im seeing some of that (too), he said.

Another industry that has seen big changes is retail. Flaherty said there has been a perception that college graduates who continue to work in retail after graduation represent a problem. But the data shows these individuals dont stay in the industry for the long term. More people left retail for other industries than the other way around in 2014.

A retail job is not necessarily the end of the story, Flaherty said.

Taken all together, the data points show todays society is highly mobile, he added.

Its a way to advance a career, he said. If youre trying to increase your income, its often easier to find a better-paying job instead of expecting a raise in the job you have.

ktorres@hearstmediact.com; 203-330-6227
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STAMFORD -- A Bridgeport man charged in the slaying of Greenwich real estate developer Andrew Kissel pleaded guilty Friday in state Superior Court in Stamford to attempted murder, closing the final chapter in the nearly 5-year-old case.

Carlos Trujillo, 49, was immediately sentenced to 20 years in prison, suspended after six years, followed by five years of probation.

Trujillo entered his plea under the Alford Doctrine, meaning he does not admit guilt, but agrees that the state has enough evidence against him to get a conviction. He continues to maintain his innocence.

Trujillo, a Colombia native who was Kissel's driver, has been in prison since March 2008 and will receive credit for time already served.

After completing the remaining three years of his sentence, Trujillo will face deportation proceedings.

"Mr. Trujillo was employed by the victim as his driver and handyman," said Senior Assistant State's Attorney Paul Ferencek as he described the case before Judge Richard Comerford. "In the summer of 2005, Mr. Trujillo recruited his distant cousin Leonard Trujillo to murder Mr. Kissel."

Friday's plea comes several months after Trujillo stood trial for murder and attempted murder in December 2010. After two weeks of evidence and several days of deliberations, a 12-member jury acquitted Trujillo of murder, but they were split 7-5 on the attempted murder charge. A mistrial was declared on that count.

Kissel was found stabbed to death in the basement of his rented backcountry mansion on April 2, 2006, days before he was to plead guilty on federal fraud charges. He had been stabbed five times in the neck and back and was bound by his hands and feet using plastic cable ties. Carlos Trujillo was the last person to have seen him alive.

In court Friday to watch the plea was Detective Sgt. Pierangelo Corticelli and Detective Pasquale Iorfino, the two lead investigators on the homicide who spent five years working the case.

"This is a vindication of a long five years of work by Pat and I and many, many other police officers in Greenwich and throughout the United States," Corticelli said.

Iorfino agreed that the guilty plea was what police were seeking in the case.

"For me, Carlos' guilty plea is a clear indication of his involvement in the Andrew Kissel murder," said Iorfino, who wished to particularly thank the Worcester (Mass.) Police Department for its help in the case.

"It might have been a light sentence, but his privilege to stay in the United States will be revoked and he will be deported," Iorfino said.

Ferencek said the fact Trujillo will be deported was a "critical factor" in coming to the disposition.

"Obviously we were disappointed that we couldn't press the court for more jail time," Ferencek said. "Nevertheless, we take great satisfaction that Mr. Trujillo stands convicted of attempted murder and will be designated a convicted felon for the rest of his life."

Ferencek said the state was concerned that if there was another hung jury, Carlos might have been able to walk free.

Defense attorney Lindy Urso said Trujillo's plea was "solely a decision of practicality," and did not mean he had anything to do with his boss' death.

"Given the time Carlos has already served, the time it could take before a retrial happened, and the fact that he is facing deportation even if acquitted, it made little sense for him to not take this deal," Urso said in a statement. "By this Alford plea, Carlos still maintains his innocence 100 percent and, at the same time, he gets some finality. He is very much looking forward to getting home to Colombia to be reunited with his family."

Trujillo's cousin, Leonard Trujillo, 24, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and conspiracy to commit murder in 2009 on the eve of his own trial, admitting that he helped plan the murder by buying supplies and scoping out Kissel's home. Trujillo claimed after accepting $11,000 and a computer, he backed out of the deal. Leonard Trujillo, of Worcester, Mass., was initially charged with capital murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Carlos Trujillo was initially charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

Friday's plea comes the same day that Nancy Kissel, Andrew Kissel's former sister-in-law, was found guilty of killing Kissel's brother Robert by a Hong Kong jury in what became known as the "milkshake murder." The verdict came after an appeal of her initial conviction.

Andrew Kissel's murder, which has and continues to be shrouded in mystery, grabbed international headlines in the months and years following his death, which were only magnified after his brother was killed.

Kissel's murder case was based largely on circumstantial evidence, including statements made by Leonard Trujillo. Prosecutors argued Trujillo arranged to have his boss killed so he could hold onto money that Kissel laundered through him and his family members. They argued that when Leonard backed out, Carlos got someone else to kill Kissel. But Urso argued Leonard Trujillo simply concocted the story to implicate his cousin as part of a long-standing family feud.

While Ferencek acknowledged that Leonard Trujillo was a good witness for the state, he said his agreed-upon sentence of 20 years will not be changed.

Leonard Trujillo's attorney, Mark Sherman, said he may make a motion to reduce the sentence when the time is "appropriate," but his client understands the deal he made. Leonard Trujillo still has to be formally sentenced by a judge.

"Lenny has been following the case and he is relieved to finally have some closure in this part of his life," Sherman said. "As much as this case seems to be resolved, they still don't know who killed this man. And Lenny doesn't know who killed Andrew Kissel."

Staff writer Debra Friedman can be reached at debra.friedman@scni.com or 203-625-4449.
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SHELTON  Armed with a list of concerns, Greg Tetro hoped to get answers or at least some direction from the citys Board of Ethics during the scheduled July meeting.

When he attempted to go to the meeting, however, he discovered it was canceled. Digging further, the Buddington Road resident learned the ethics board hasnt met since Oct. 10, 2013.

I couldnt believe this, Tetro said.

The five-member ethics board does not have enough members for a quorum should a meeting be required.

So he informed the Board of Aldermen of the fact during its monthly meeting. After all, theyre the ones who select the ethics board members.

Many of the aldermen were unaware of the vacancies.

You would think with all the problems weve had in Bridgeport, Shelton, Waterbury and even Hartford, somebody would make sure their ethics board is full, Tetro said.

But Shelton is not alone. Ethics panels in Ansonia, Bridgeport, Derby have so many vacancies, they havent met in years. Other area municipalities have boards that meet, but rarely take action on cases.

But vacancies, inactivity and an overwhelming record number of complaints that end in dismissal rather than any sanctions may have led to public apathy.

In many cases, these ethics panel were state municipalities soup-du-jour response, aimed at quelling public outrage over the Corrupticut scandals of this millennium.

More Information Inactive ethics boards Ansonia Bridgeport Derby Milford Seymour Stratford Active ethics boards Easton Fairfield Monroe Oxford Trumbull See More Collapse

A lack of oversight

Tetro didnt give up. He contacted the state attorney generals office.

They directed me to two different people, neither of whom ever called me back, Tetro said.

He took his concerns to the State Board of Ethics.

They told me they dont police local boards, Tetro said.

Nancy Nicolescu, the state boards spokeswoman, confirmed with Hearst Connecticut Media that the state Board of Ethics doesnt oversee municipal panels.

Even the good-government group Common Cause doesnt keep a watch over the municipal level, Cheri Quickmire, the groups executive director, said.

All this is very disappointing, Quickmire said. These groups are absolutely important. Citizens need to have an opportunity to address their concerns on how public officials are acting.

Unfortunately, Quickmire said, Common Cause does not have the capacity to address municipal issues. ... We focus on state issues.

Measures introduced in the General Assembly in the past two years would have allowed the state ethics board to advise and train municipal ethics panel members, and even to investigate, rule on and enforce rulings in municipal complaints.

But their budget was cut in half, said state Sen. Michael McLachlan, R-Danbury, a ranking member of the Government Administration and Elections committee. Im reluctant to see the state get involved in local issues. These towns and their officials need to get on the ball and fill these vacancies.

Apathy and absences

Thats easier said than done, Ansonia Mayor David Cassetti said.

Im working to get it filled, Cassetti said. An active ethics board keeps people on the straight and narrow. But finding qualified people willing to devote the time is difficult.

Derby Mayor Anita Dugatto is taking a different tack.

Our Charter Revision Commission will be adding ethics to the boards and commissions that an incoming mayor must promptly fill, she said.

But vacancies arent the only problem; there are also absences to contend with.

During their seven-minute meeting on Jan. 15, 2015, the Milford Ethics Commission elected Kevin Long as its interim chairman, because only three of the five members attended. The commissions next meeting was canceled, and it appears no meetings have been held since.

The Stratford Ethics Commission noted during its June 7 meeting that the commission has been relatively inactive for the past two years and vowed to recruit members as well as inform residents of its existence through news releases.

Kudos to them, Quickmire said of Common Cause.

And in Seymour, the board was informed by George Balsamom, then its co-chairman, that it no longer had a mail slot in Town Hall and future correspondence would be mailed directly to him.

Active boards

Nevertheless, ethics panels in Fairfield, Oxford and Trumbull are active, often spending hours considering complaints. Most of these complaints, however, were dismissed following investigations or hearings, because of lack of jurisdiction or probable cause.

Complaints tend to be hyperpolitical, from what Ive seen, said McLachlan.

Most ethics complaints are filed by someone trying to further their own political agenda, added John Anglace, Sheltons longtime aldermanic president. And issues involving elections and campaign contributions are matters for the State Elections Enforcement Commission.

Still, he said, Tetro made a good point in bringing the vacancies to the boards attention.

We were deficient and were now working to fill those vacancies, Anglace said. But he also pointed out one resignation occurred in December and another in January.

The resignations are sent to the City Clerk and unfortunately, this got by us, Anglace said. But remember an ethics board only meets when they have complaints.

Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti said its hard to find people who are willing to serve.

So Tetro has stepped up. Hes placed his own name in nomination for the Shelton board.

I will sit because this is something the city needs, he said. I have no political aspirations.

mmayko@ctpost.com; 203-330-6286
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BRIDGEPORT  Its been two weeks since Jamal Moo Moo Hamilton was acquitted of charges stemming from one of the worst mass shootings in the citys history.

Its been six months since Fabian Francis and Kahlil Sloan-Diaz were acquitted in a 2014 killing.

And Police Chief Armando Perez cant get over either verdict.

Those were two strong cases, Perez said. The States Attorneys Office did an outstanding job. I think the problem is with the witnesses and the jury.

The problem, as Perez perceives it, is intimidation.

Its the climate we live in, the chief said Friday. People are afraid. They dont make the right decision. They worry about Whos going to look out for me? 

So Perez hopes the U.S. Justice Department, with all its resources, and U.S. Attorney Deirdre Daly, with her myriad investigative tools, will play a bigger role in these high-profile city murders.

If its something I deem to be gang-related, Im definitely going to push for them to get involved, Perez said. Their involvement changes the whole ballgame.

Different rules

Thats something Brian Spears and James Filan, both former federal prosecutors now in private practice, said they witnessed.

There are advantages to having the federal government involved, said Spears, whose office is in Southport.

One of their strongest tools, something the state no longer has, is using a grand jury to investigate crimes.

Federal prosecutors can subpoena witnesses to testify before the grand jury, Spears explained. That process is confidential. The only person in front of the grand jury is the witness.

That arrangement might make the witness more comfortable in testifying, Spears said.

It also creates a written record of the witnesss testimony, so they are less likely to recant in a courtroom.

Should the witness recant, Filan said, federal prosecutors are not averse to bringing perjury or obstruction of justice charges, which carry penalties ranging from five to 20 years in prison.

Federal prosecutors can also charge a person with lying to a federal agent which also carries five years, said Filan, whose practice is located in Westport.

As for juries?

Unlike state court, a federal case does not have to be tried in the district where the crime was allegedly committed. Once a federal indictment is obtained in a Connecticut, it is randomly assigned to a U.S. District judge in Bridgeport, New Haven or Hartford.

Allowing some distance

And assigning it out of town requires an effort for those intent on influencing a witness or jury to attend.

Then there are federal investigative tools like wiretaps and witness protection.

Wiretap evidence further strengthens a case, Spears said.

These recordings put spoken words into context, giving the jury more perspective.

Federal statutes like RICO, Violent Crimes in Aid of Racketeering, use of a gun in drug trafficking and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon carry severe penaltiesfinancially as well as imprisonment.

Theres a big arsenal, Spears said.

And in federal court, judges rely on prison terms recommended by the federal sentencing guidelines. The guidelines are a complex grid that consider the defendants prior record as well as his criminal actions.

Heres the critical thing, Filan explained. The judge could take into consideration any reliable information when imposing sentence.

That includes prior bad acts  even those not related to the conviction for which a sentence is being determined.

On Friday, Daly said her office has a longstanding cooperative relationship with the States Attorneys Office and the Bridgeport Police Department, and will continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners to ensure the safety of our citizens.

All this is well and good, but States Attorney John Smriga said the primary problem with prosecuting cases in an urban environment is the reluctance of witnesses to a crime to come forward.

We share the chiefs frustration about that, Smriga said. Many times we have a co-defendant or a witness with a prior record  thats looked on skeptically by jurors.

Smriga also said many federal investigations are long-term and proactive, while his office is reactive, dealing with the daily crimes brought in by police.

We work with what we have, he said.
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BRIDGEPORT  It can cost roughly $80,000 to train and equip a new police officer.

Bridgeports four deputy police chiefs earn, in total, more than $715,000  money some City Council members and at least one key mayoral adviser argue would be better spent hiring more beat cops.

When people are crying out for community policing, even though violent crime is down, you want as many people out in the street doing protection and prevention work as possible, said Wilbur Chapman, Mayor Joe Ganims public safety adviser and an ex-Bridgeport police chief. If they can convert the deputy chief salaries into police officer ranks, it would do a lot of immediate good.

The deputy chiefs work could then be divvied up among the 10 captains, Chapman said.

Eventually that could happen. The police contract allows the city to leave the unionized deputy chief positions vacant or eliminate them, but only after the current deputies  Anthony Armeno, James Baraja, James Honis and Adam Radzimirski  retire.

All are eligible as of October, according to Police Chief Armando Perez, but their intentions are unknown.

Councilwoman Eneida Martinez does not want to wait. In July, she wrote Ganim, Chapman, and Perez demanding the removal of two deputies.

High ranking individuals are (earning) six-figure dollars with nothing to show to the communities they serve, she wrote. Our chief is always the one at a homicide site, a drug raid site, motor vehicle accident, a domestic violence call. ... Why are we paying other high rankers to just sit on their (butts)?

Backed by Perez

ut according to the union, police department layoffs would have to start with the newest hires. The deputies are veterans of at least 25 years, the longest serving being Honis, with 45 years in uniform.

In the meantime, Chapman is recommending tougher shifts that guarantee one deputy chief is on duty at all times.

Perez is opposed to the change. Currently, each deputy oversees multiple offices, units and shifts within the police department, and that is how Perez wants it to stay.

These are the guys I rely on to help me run the department, Perez said. I back them 100 percent.

One deputy, for example, has been improving oversight of evidence storage, while another has been updating the riot gear equipment the department would need to respond to civil unrest, Perez said.

Union President Sgt. Chuck Paris likened eliminating the deputies to getting rid of school principals.

Even though you may not see them out and about as much as the chief ... they are vital to our success, and have a vast amount of experience, Paris said.

Schedule change reversed

Armeno is head of special services, Baraja in charge of administrative/support services, Honis is responsible for uniformed services and Radzimirski leads investigative services.

They alternate between working four-day weeks, Monday through Thursday, eight hours daily, and five day weeks, Monday through Thursday with six hours on Friday.

Basically, theyre administrators, Chapman said.

According to the city, their base salaries are $119,659. But their gross pay for 2015 totaled $715,036. Honis earned the most, taking home $223,946, followed by Armeno, $175,202; Radzimirski, $167,509; and Baraja, $148,378.

Officers can earn inside overtime for working more hours, and also outside overtime often related to roadwork that is supposed to be reimbursed to the city by private contractors.

In January, when Joseph Gaudett was still Bridgeports police chief, at the request of Ganim and Chapman he assigned the deputies to different shifts, to have one on duty at all times.

My recommendation to the mayor was to put them in a (schedule) around the clock, so there was a high-ranking person available, Chapman recalled. (That) made them responsible for whatever happened while theyre working. It gave better supervisor coverage.

Chapman said the plan also reduced the overtime the deputy chiefs were earning.

But when Ganim made Perez chief in March, Perez reversed Gaudetts order.

Calling for more cops

Councilwoman Jeanette Herron has also questioned the need for four deputy chiefs.

Theres several of us who feel the same way, Herron said. We have an extraordinary police chief. I just dont understand why we need four deputy chiefs? We need more police officers on the street.

The department has a staff of 349. Perez has said he needs 427. The first of three new classes of cadets Ganim pledged to train and hire will likely be on patrol sometime this coming winter.

Radzimirski was the only deputy chief available for comment. He referred questions to Perez.

Perez said that eventually the department might transition to shift the four deputies duties to captains after the chiefs eventually retire. For now he wants to meet with council members to explain the importance of his deputies.

People are well-intended, Perez said of the criticism.

Martinez said the department should at least get the deputies out into the neighborhoods. Chapman agreed.

(Perez) is the epitome of what leadership should be in community policing, Chapman said. Get up off their behinds, out from their desks, follow him around and follow his example.
Vietnams internet hiccup unlikely to be fixed anytime soon

An advertising billboard of a cyber security company is seen during the annual Banking Vietnam 2016 forum in Hanoi, Vietnam May 19, 2016. Photo by Reuters

Internet speed won't be back to normal until August 21.

Internet access in Vietnam will not be back to full speed until August 21, a local internet provider said on Saturday, meaning surfers should brace themselves for slow connections for another two weeks.

The Asia America Gateway (AAG), the major submarine cable that connects Vietnam with the U.S., ruptured yet again on August 2. This year, the cable system has already experienced problems in March and June, heavily affecting outbound internet traffic.

The AAG operation center said that Typhoon Nida, which swept across southern China earlier this week, had caused the damage, and bad weather has hampered maintenance work.

Vietnam has four submarine cable systems. The AAG was connected in November 2009 with a length of over 20,000 kilometers and a design capacity of 2 terabit/second, directly connecting Southeast Asia with the U.S. across the Pacific Ocean via Guam and Hawaii.

In 2015 alone, the AAG ruptured three times, while in 2014 it went down twice.

In addition to submarine cable systems, Vietnam has a land-based system with a capacity of 120 gigabit/second that goes through China, and there are plans to build another one.

But still, the AAG is the major undersea cable that provides Vietnam with a strong international internet connection.

Nearly 49 million people, more than half of Vietnam's population of 90 million, were online as of June 30, 2016, according to statistics compiled by Internet World Stats.

Related news:

> Vietnams internet cable ruptures, yet again

> Hanoi to roll out free, city-wide wi-fi

> Get connected with free Wi-Fi on Hanoi bus routes

> Saigon gets connected with free wi-fi across the city
Cuban Ambassador presents credentials in Cook Islands

Submitted by: Juana

Pacific

Politics and Government

08 / 07 / 2016



Mario Alzugaray, presented the letters accrediting him as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Cuba (non-resident from New Zealand) to the Queens Representative in Cook Islands, Hon. Tom John Marsters, in a solemn ceremony at the Government House in this capital.

During the meeting, the Cuban diplomat conveyed greetings from President Raul Castro to the island dignitary, restating the will of his government to continue promoting bilateral cooperation and exchange on issues of common concern, such as climate change, peace and disarmament. Similarly, he thanked the support of Cook Islands for Cuban access as Dialogue Partner to the Pacific Islands Forum, main regional coordination mechanism.

The island's leader, meanwhile, was full of praise for the development of Cuban medicine, highlighting the training of medical personnel of his country in the well-known Latin American School of Medicine located in Havana.

During his visit to Rarotonga, Ambassador Alzugaray also held meetings with Deputy Prime Minister, Teariki Heather and Acting Foreign Minister, Jim Armistead, in addition to participating in the official ceremony for the 51st anniversary of the Constitution of Cook Islands. It was also possible for the Cuban diplomat to exchange directly with the relatives and some of the young students that had benefited with medicine scholarships.

(note issued by Cubaminrex-Embacuba New Zealand)
Vietnam and South Korea signed a memorandum of understanding on receiving Vietnamese workers on May 17, 2016. Photo by VnExpress/Phuong Hoa

Fines are not stopping people from staying on for the extra cash after their contracts expire.

Vietnams central province of Ha Tinh currently has 976 people working illegally in South Korea, making the province the worst culprit for laborers who do not return home after their contracts expire.

Ha Tinh has stopped five districts in the province that all have more 60 citizens working illegally in S Korea from sending workers to the East Asian nation this year, according to the provincial labor department.

The move came after Vietnam's labor ministry said it would stop sending people from 44 districts in the 10 provinces that have more than 60 laborers working illegally in South Korea.

From 2013-2016, Ha Tinh has successfully brought back home 1,000 workers who overstayed their visas in South Korea. The province has deployed various measures, including threatening fines, to force the remaining illegal workers in South Korea to return home, but even the threat of a cash penalty is not proving a strong enough deterrent.

More than 75,000 Vietnamese people have left to work in South Korea since 2004.

South Korea in May agreed in principle to a memorandum of understanding to receive 3,500 workers from Vietnam this year.

Thanks to efforts from both sides, the number of illegal Vietnamese workers in South Korea fell to 15,000 in 2015 from 18,000 in 2013.

Vietnam began sending workers to South Korea in 1993, but the latter stopped receiving Vietnamese workers in August 2012 due to the high rate of laborers who overstayed their visas. The trade resumed in 2013 but is limited by agreements reached by both countries on an annual basis.

Vietnamese workers who stay in South Korea after their contracts have expired are denying around 35,000-40,000 other Vietnamese people the opportunity to travel to the country for work, Deputy Labor Minister Doan Mau Diep has said.

Related news:

> Vietnam stops 10 provinces from exporting laborers to South Korea
Section of GAP closed during bridge work

"The last time the bridges were re-decked was in 1995. They have become almost unsafe to be used," said Lindsay Baer.
Check it out: Fun things to do this weekend in Lake County

This list of weekend entertainment includes festivals, Vet Fest and the premiere of 'The Diary of Anne Frank' on a local stage.
Casey Mulligan Visits Cuba By: David Henderson

Last month, while on vacation, I missed an excellent trip report by University of Chicago economist Casey Mulligan. He reports the facts seen through the eyes of a first-rate microeconomist. He understands private property and related incentives and the damage done by restrictions on trade. Mulligan also knows how to look at data carefully.

Here are some highlights. I do highly recommend the whole thing, though.

On boats:

Government permission is needed to have a boat. The fishermens boats are smaller than a normal rowboat and therefore too small to take far from shore (e.g., to another country). Most seafood has to be imported. This is a clear case where the regime has sacrificed productivity in order to exercise control over its people.

On labor:

Cubans own their labor in the sense that they get wages for most of their work. However, their employer is typically the government and those wages are far below their productivity (which is itself low). Government employees were paid about $20 per month in 2014, whereas national income per worker was $839, which suggests that government employees keep about five percent of the value of what they produce.

On health, health care, and life expectancy:

The usual calculations of average life expectancy put Cuba next to the United States (and Puerto Rico). This is touted  by the UN, the World Bank, the Kaiser Foundation, and others  as an example of how a socialist system can even make a poor country one of the healthiest in the world. Based on what I saw, I am dubious that Cuban health is anywhere near what it is in developed countries. The people are short. I guessed that diabetes was high, and upon return home learned from the International Diabetes Federation web site that the prevalence of diabetes is high by worldwide standards. Under the theory that health is a lifelong accumulation of experiences and investment  including experiences in the mothers womb, at birth, and early childhood  the official life expectancy statistics are dubious. World Bank data, sourced from individual-country governments on the basis of age-mortality profiles at the time of reporting, show Cubas life expectancy catching up to the United States already by 1973. How could the post-Revolution Cuban system have that effect, when in 1973 the large majority of Cubans had lived the large majority of their lifetimes under pre-Revolution conditions? Why hasnt Cuban life expectancy far surpassed American, now that, in contrast to 1973, most Cubans have lived most of their lives post-Revolution? Perhaps the main effect of the Revolution was to change the way that Cuba reported life expectancy to international organizations.

On paper:

In order to make opposition more difficult, paper is scarce throughout the country. This is another clear case where the regime has sacrificed productivity in order to exercise control over its people.

The U.S. Embargo:

The U.S. embargo appears to have harmed the Cuban people. It has also allowed the Cuban government to blame the situation on something other than Communism. Perhaps it even increases the harm done by Communism, because property rights would be especially valuable for an economy that is prevented from specializing in a few tasks/products. I doubt that eliminating the embargo would be more helpful than eliminating Communism, because the later not only restricts international trade, but also intranational trade.

For my earlier writing on the Cuban embargo, see End the Cuban Embargo, Antiwar.com, February 21, 2008.

HT2 David Levey.
In 2014, two events caused joy among Pyramid Lake fishermen and the Paiute tribe members. A Pyramid Lake fisherman landed a 25-pound Lahontan cutthroat trout and cutthroat trout were found naturally spawning in the Truckee River, the first time in 76 years.

During the 1800s, Pyramid Lake cutthroat trout routinely grew to 60-pounds in size. They left Pyramid Lake to travel the length of the Truckee River and spawn in Lake Tahoe and Donner Lake. These fish were a major food source for the Paiute and Washoe Indians.

John C. Fremont named Pyramid Lake in 1844. He also named todays Truckee River as the Salmon Trout River and wrote about eating wonderfully tasty fish weighing 40-pounds.

With the arrival of Europeans in the 1880s, the fishery quickly became degraded. Tons of fish were commercially removed to feed miners and loggers. The river was polluted, especially with sawdust dumped into the river by California logging companies. Sawdust smothered spawning beds and built up along the shores. Later, non-native fish were introduced to the lakes and river.

What doomed the trout was building the Derby Dam 36-miles upriver from Pyramid Lake in 1905. The dam stopped their upstream spawning runs and reduced flows in the lower Truckee River by sending water to the Carson Valley. During some years, not enough water reached the lake to allow trout to travel upstream.

Fishing for the large cutthroats continued into the 1920s, drawing celebrities like Clark Gable. In 1925, Paiute Johnny Skimmerhorn set a world record by landing a 41-pound cutthroat. However, these large cutthroat trout were gone from Lake Tahoe by 1939 and Pyramid Lake by 1944.

Lahonton cutthroat trout were listed as endangered in 1970, but later reclassified as threatened. The Paiute tribe won a court case to get more water released downstream from Derby Dam and restarted a fishery in 1974, raising trout from Summit Lake in a hatchery located in Sutcliffe. This different strain did not grow to a large size and could not spawn naturally.

In the 1970s, a curious discovery was made by a BLM fisheries biologist. He found cutthroat in a stream located high on the side of Pilot Peak along the Utah-Nevada border. DNA tests confirmed this to be the same strain as the ancient Pyramid Lake trout. How these fish got from Pyramid Lake to Pilot Peak remains a mystery but 60-70 years ago, people moved fish around freely. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began raising the Pilot Peak strain in a hatchery and released these fish into Pyramid Lake in 2006.

These fish are growing fast and anglers are beginning to catch 20-pound fish. Travis Hawk is a fisheries biologist in the NDOW Reno office. I asked him if the two cutthroat strains in the lake could hybridize. Travis laughed and said It is complicated. Almost all fish come from hatcheries so there is no chance of hybridization there.

He explained the Pilot Peak strain is mostly the ones trying to travel upriver to spawn. Three miles upstream from the lake is a structure that requires fish to be manually placed beyond the structure. Only the Pilot Peak strain is being allowed to travel farther upstream to spawn.

With more water flow in 2016, these trout progressed a little farther upstream for spawning. In the future, river structures could be altered to allow these cutthroat to travel the length of the Truckee River. If not, hatchery-raised fish seems to be a stable lake population.

All of this has made Pyramid Lake into a world-class fishery, creating a windfall for the Paiute tribe. This unique lake has a unique type of fishing where shore anglers stand on ladders placed in the shallows. They cast sinking flies that drop deep enough to reach large cutthroat trout cruising the bottom. Perhaps future years will see anglers catching 40- or even 60-pound cutthroat trout.
Opinion Wordle

The next day I woke to find myself in a WhatsApp group titled Quordle is Awesome!! A small group of three. There was no getting out of it now.
Corbyn's crony: How Shami Chakrabarti will look when she takes her place in the Lords

I wonder how Shami Chakrabarti will feel when those ermine robes she so covets first slip around her shoulders. Im told they are a little heavy. Her first fitting will probably be in the changing rooms at Ede & Ravenscroft, on Chancery Lane.

Established in 1689, it claims to be the oldest tailor in London and boasts on its website that it provides meticulously maintained, refurbished and altered, ceremonial robes made from scarlet superfine faced cloth, a durable tightly woven wool fabric, finely trimmed with three-inch wide bars, and two-inch wide gold oak leaf lace.

If the former director of human rights group Liberty wants her own coat of arms she will need to contact the College of Arms on Queen Victoria Street. Its specialist scriveners and heraldic artists have been plying their trade since the late 1400s, though the fees can be a bit high  5,000 is the going rate, I hear.

We should have known, of course. From her bizarre performance at the release of The Shami Chakrabarti Report  note the proprietorial title  where she persistently blocked journalists questions about the inquiry set up in the wake of a string of high-profile anti-Semitic incidents in the Labour Party, and referred to Jeremy Corbyn in that deferential and slightly sinister way as The Leader. Yes, we should have detected the whiff of impropriety in the air. Actually, not the whiff, but the foul stench.

Then, of course, there was Chakrabartis surreal follow-up appearance at the Home Affairs select committee. It wasnt supposed to be her appearance, it was supposed to be The Leaders. But she made sure she got noticed, ostentatiously slipping notes to Corbyn in an attempt to massage his answers, until chairman Keith Vaz put a stop to it.

And then there was the TV interview, when she was asked if she would ever be prepared to accept a peerage. Goodness me, she said, a picture of bemused innocence. I dont know. I dont know. But she did know. Because she had already accepted one. The peerage offered to her by Jeremy Corbyn.

In the hours immediately after what was dubbed the Whitewash for Peerages scandal, the Corbynite conspiracy theorists and liberal intelligentsia began to mobilise.

It was just another attempt to smear The Leader. OK, the timing may a little bit unfortunate. But Shami Chakrabarti was a woman of unimpeachable integrity. And just look at what David Cameron and his cronies were up to.

Which is what the Corbynites and the liberal intelligentsia always do when one of their own is threatened. Demean, diminish, dissemble, deflect.

Nothing Corbyn has done since he became leader  the bullying, the hypocrisy, the incompetence, the venality  tops the Chakrabarti affair. And thats because bullying, hypocrisy, incompetence and venality go to the heart of the Chakrabarti affair.

Think of how this whole disgusting saga began. With the harassment and alienation not just of individual Labour Party members, but of an entire race of them. Corbyn, his closest supporters, his MPs, grassroots members of his party  all implicated in everything from direct anti-Semitism, through Nazi apologism to cosying up to anti-Jewish terrorists such as Hamas. Then think of this pious pledge given by Corbyn during last years leadership contest  Labour will certainly not nominate new peers for the Lords, which risks undermining its legitimacy.

Im told that well before the Chakrabarti inquiry was completed, Labour officials were being openly told that Corbyn intended to go back on his pledge not to nominate new peers

And look at where we stand today. With the author of a report that sold its soul in the space of the opening eight words  The Labour Party is not over-run by anti-Semitism  sizing up her space amidst the scarlet benches.

Having spoken to Labour MPs and insiders, it appears to be an even more sordid tale than has been reported. Im told that well before the Chakrabarti inquiry was completed, Labour officials were being openly told that Corbyn intended to go back on his pledge not to nominate new peers.

Two names were circulated  Martha Osamor, a long-standing Labour activist, and Chakrabarti. Then, when he realised Cameron would be producing a resignation honours list, he asked his staff to see how he could get Chakrabartis name added to it.

To listen to some of her defenders, you would think Chakrabarti was some innocent dupe who had just rolled into Westminster on the back of a turnip truck

When he was told it was traditionally used by the outgoing PM to reward their own advisers and supporters, he asked who he needed to lobby in Downing Street to get the chairman of his independent inquiry added to the list.

He was told to contact Camerons outgoing chief of staff Ed Llewellyn. A former Downing Street aide confirmed to me that Corbyns office then contacted No 10 to lobby actively for Chakrabartis inclusion, with Cameron finally agreeing to the request. Having secured Chakrabartis place on the list, Corbyn then took to the airwaves to attack Cameron for his cronyism.

Its worth underlining again the full extent of Corbyns duplicity. He pledged not to nominate any new peers. He did. He pledged his inquiry into anti-Semitism would be independent. It was not.

He attacked Cameron for cronyism for producing a resignation honours list. Yet he had lobbied for his own crony to appear on the list. He told journalists that Chakrabarti was fiercely independent. But she wasnt, and he knew she wasnt. Because if she had been, she would have turned down his offer of a peerage out of hand.

But Corbyn is not alone in his duplicity. To listen to some of her defenders, you would think Chakrabarti was some innocent dupe who had just rolled into Westminster on the back of a turnip truck. Instead of what she is, which is just another sanctimonious, self-righteous, Left-wing moraliser who adopts do as I say, not as I do as their rallying cry.

People in the Jewish community trusted Chakrabarti. Despite everything  the intimidation, the mockery, the shameless cover-up of a previous inquiry into anti-Semitism  they still had faith in her to bear honest witness to what it means to be a Jew in Corbyns Labour Party. And she betrayed them. And in the process, she betrayed herself.

She knew full well, as Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis (pictured) rightly said, that in accepting this peerage, the credibility of her report lies in tatters

But Chakrabarti did something much worse. On the Guardian website is an interview she gave to the paper in April. She felt she was on safe ground. So she began to showboat. Asked if, during her time lobbying against Tony Blair and Gordon Browns anti-terror legislation, they had attempted to woo her, she confirmed they had.

Its not flattering if at times theres a suggestion that you would take various honours or jobs or whatever it is in exchange for your silence over things you really care about, she declared solemnly.

And that is Chakrabartis real crime. Not that she deliberately doctored her report. Or amended it at the behest of her new ermine-touting sugar-daddy Jeremy Corbyn. Its that she didnt care.

She knew full well, as Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis rightly said, that in accepting this peerage, the credibility of her report lies in tatters. Or as Labour Friends of Israel director Jennifer Gerber observed, her nomination clearly undermines the independence of her inquiry and raises further questions about the seriousness of [Corbyns] commitment to ridding the Labour Party of the scourge of anti-Semitism.

But she didnt care. Or at least, when set next to the opportunity to wear those beautiful robes, and stand up to address that magnificent chamber, she didnt care enough.

But there is one good thing to come out of it all. Shami Chakrabarti will now be what she has always wanted to be  an icon. An icon for Corbynism. Every time she rises in the House of Lords, every time she speaks, every time her face appears nodding sagely during one of their lordships debates  people will remember. How she got there. Why she got there. Who got her there.

All the bullying, all the hypocrisy, all the incompetence, all the venality  Shami Chakrabarti is about to become the poster girl for this whole sordid, squalid period in Labours history. She deserves her place in the Lords, one of her defenders insisted last week.
As I strolled through the frozen winter streets of Moscow a few years ago, a worrying idea came to me. Were speech and thought now more free in Russia than in what we used to call the West? I rather think that they are.

Last week, Kevin Roberts resigned as executive chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi for publicly questioning ultra-feminist beliefs.

He is not the first. A similar wild frenzy of persecution burst around the head of the Nobel prize-winning scientist Sir Tim Hunt, shamefully driven from his position as an honorary professor at University College London.

Despite the smears of many, I have no illusions about Mr Putins Russia. It is a sinister tyranny where those who challenge the presidents power or expose his wrongdoing suffer very nasty fates

It doesnt matter whether you agree with these mens opinions or not. Can it be right that they have been treated in this way for expressing them?

Of course, neither of them has been marched off to a gulag for his thought-crime. But so what? Isnt loss of employment and position a very serious punishment?

Despite the smears of many, I have no illusions about Mr Putins Russia. It is a sinister tyranny where those who challenge the presidents power or expose his wrongdoing suffer very nasty fates.

But in public, in private, in offices, on public transport, you have no need to guard your tongue as you did in the communist days, when a poem could get you executed and a joke could send you to an Arctic labour camp for 20 years.

I saw all that filth end, in person, and rejoiced to see it go. And I recall the brief few years when I thought foolishly that the world had been cleansed of a great evil for ever.

And then I began to notice that the nasty totalitarian ideas that had once been trapped behind the Iron Curtain had now escaped into the once-free West. You couldnt say this and you couldnt say that. You had to be careful about writing certain things, especially if you worked in the public sector.

There was a genuine fear behind all this. It was worst of all at universities, where boot-faced commissars patrol the minds of the young, enforcing speech codes  and the wrong ideas can get you marked down in more ways than one.

This simply isnt so in Mr Putins Russia, now astonishingly the most conservative, patriotic and Christian country left in Europe.

Orthodox religious icons were found among the debris after the shooting down of a Russian helicopter in Syria, and Russian airborne forces last Tuesday celebrated the feast day of their patron, the Prophet Elijah.

People who think that Russia is still the Soviet Union, or that intolerant, militant Marxism died when the USSR fell, dont understand Russia or Marxism. And theyre not paying much attention to whats going on here, either.

Holy smoke! I've made the Church retreat

As the vast Goddard inquisition lurches off the rails, are we finally recovering our sanity about child abuse? Terrible as this crime is, it is not an excuse for losing our heads and trampling on justice.

This week I record a small victory in one such case of injustice, that of the late, saintly and much-loved Bishop George Bell. He was publicly smeared as a paedophile without a hearing by the Church of England  on the basis of a single, ancient uncorroborated accusation.

I am pleased to say that, under cover of a cloud of holy smoke, the C of E has retreated.

As the vast Goddard inquisition lurches off the rails, are we finally recovering our sanity about child abuse?

The Church doesnt understand English law (hence the kangaroo court) and has a nasty habit of using the anonymous complainant, an elderly lady known as Carol, as a human shield. Any criticism of the Churchs injustice is falsely alleged to be an attack on her.

The current Bishop of Chelmsford, The Rt Revd Stephen Cottrell, recently said in the House of Lords that defenders of George Bell had made hurtful comments about Carol. It was a nasty thing to say, and it was not true. I have been pursuing Mr Cottrell, helpfully pointing out to him what the Bible says about bearing false witness, and about owning up to wrongdoing. He is, after all, a modern sort of Bishop and cant necessarily be expected to be well-versed in such things.

And now I have wrung out of his spokesperson a pathetic, grudging so-called clarification. By this word, the C of E actually mean admission, but they obviously dont believe that confession is good for the soul.

It runs when he said in the House of Lords that some in the Bell Group had made hurtful comments about Carol, it would have been more precise to say that these were comments that she found hurtful.

More precise! They mean true. And of course the two things are totally different. When I derided this formula, they retreated a few more inches, saying: He acknowledges that what he actually said was mistaken, hence the clarification explaining what he meant to have said When the new parliamentary term begins he promises to look into how a proper clarification can be produced.

When I said I would report this as the Bishop now admits that what he said was untrue, and that he intends to correct it in the Lords at the earliest opportunity, they moaned this would be inaccurate.

You may judge for yourselves. Ive been fairer to them than they ever were to George Bell.

Paintball plod taking on the wrong enemy

I am not even slightly reassured by the weird fashion show staged by the Metropolitan Police, in which they paraded in face-masks and comic-strip tough-guy outfits, with macho motorbikes, sniper rifles and sub-machine guns. They looked, as they posed self-consciously, like Walter Mittys on a paintballing day out.

How absurd. Sometimes I think some people in our Government actively want us to be the kind of country where a big-booted, heat-packing, masked militia of this kind is needed.

I am not even slightly reassured by the weird fashion show staged by the Metropolitan Police, in which they paraded in face-masks and comic-strip tough-guy outfits

But we are not. Anxious as they are to believe our streets are perpetually threatened by an octopus of evil directed from Islamic State by a turbaned and bearded mastermind, it is not so. The danger, as I have often pointed out, has more to do with the mind-altering drugs whose use the police do nothing to stop.

For instance, the supposedly IS-inspired Muhiddin Mire, the Leytonstone attacker, was so mentally ill that he was first sectioned in 2006. And he then smoked so much cannabis that he genuinely believed (I am not making this up) that Tony Blair was his guardian angel.

I noticed also that the new militarised rapid-reaction police boasted they were on the scene of the (non-political) Russell Square killing in London within six minutes. This is nothing to boast of.

Dreadful things can happen in six minutes. When we had proper foot patrols, such a busy tourist area would have had a constant police presence.
Ex-PM David Cameron has sparked an outcry with a crony-filled resignation honours list that 'would embarrass a medieval court'

Ruritania is an imaginary and ridiculous little country which film buffs will know was once ruled by Peter Sellers, previously of The Goon Show.

He made himself popular by handing out medals, honours and membership of the aristocracy to all and sundry. Britain 2016? The parallels are uncomfortable.

And I speak as one who took a knighthood but turned down a peerage, as I will explain later.

David Cameron has set a new standard of generosity in thanking his staff and friends through the honours system. He is a very courteous man who would always say thank you.

But the crowd of aides who came to the door of No 10 to wave him goodbye were queuing up for more than a thank you. Most of them received an honour.

David Cameron isnt the first Prime Minister to have left behind a nasty smell as a result of such cronyism. The great reforming Liberal Prime Minister and war leader David Lloyd George is now remembered for selling honours to replenish party funds.

Harold Wilson, who won four elections, is now remembered for his lavender list ennobling his kitchen cabinet and various dubious businessmen. Even such austere and outstanding leaders as Clement Attlee and Margaret Thatcher felt the need to accept hereditary titles for their families.

Our current political mores have been shaped by almost two decades of Tony Blair and David Cameron. Both governed competently overall and made major, necessary reforms, but each will be remembered for one catastrophic error (Iraq, the referendum) and a departure shrouded in sleaze.

Britain is not unique in political corruption, cronyism and the buying of office. Donald Trump makes a virtue out of the fact his personal fortune has financed his rise rather than money from donors even dodgier than himself.

There are scandals aplenty in other leading democracies: Germany, France, Italy, India, Brazil. But none of them go so far as to make membership of one House of Parliament a tradable commodity, as we do.

In an extraordinary move, Mr Cameron placed head of honours committee Laura Wyld into the Lords and gave his chief spinner Craig Oliver a knighthood

Cynics would say the indignation over honours will pass. The public will complain that the system stinks but accept that it works tolerably well. And anyway, they will add, what is wrong with rewarding chums who have worked hard under pressure and shown loyalty.

Anyone who is so complacent as to excuse the Cameron list so easily is ignoring the rising tide of public disillusionment with our political institutions.

Post the expenses scandal, post the financial crisis, post referendum: many people no longer give politicians the benefit of the doubt. They simply assume that they are looking after themselves and their friends. And along comes Mr Cameron to prove them right.

There is an important distinction between gongs  CBEs and OBEs up to knights and dames  and peerages. Gongs are designed to recognise public service and the vast majority are non-political, well deserved and greatly valued.

There are many remarkable people, unsung local heroes, and, sadly, only a fraction of them are formally recognised. An OBE for the Prime Ministers wifes style guru adds insult to their injury.

Also honours were Charlotte Vere who is joined the House of Lords and Andrew Cook, a party donor who has been knighted

Honours inevitably pander to vanity, and I plead guilty.

I accepted a knighthood and thoroughly enjoyed the day at the palace with my family and the subsequent public recognition the honour brings. Sometimes I wonder if I really want to be in the same exclusive club as the likes of Sir Philip Green, but at least we no longer have Sir Robert Mugabe and Sir Jimmy Savile. And the honour is just that, no more.

Peerages are different. They confer political power, the right to pass laws and sit in Government as a Minister. David Cameron has just appointed 13 Conservatives (there were two cross-bench mandarins and Jeremy Corbyns sole nominee, Shami Chakrabarti, an admirable and impressive campaigner for civil liberties who seems to have been rewarded for a less admirable whitewash of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party).

David Camerons list includes a person who organised his visits (so he wasnt photographed under an exit sign), and various party fundraisers and political advisers. They are, apart from a Yorkshire MEP and a Scottish councillor, very much part of the Westminster bubble.

Most are obscure and have never been elected to anything. They are also mainly young and can look forward to decades sitting in Parliament, passing laws, accountable to no one, with a meal ticket for life.

I had the opportunity to go to the Lords after leaving Parliament. I asked not to be considered. That doesnt make me particularly virtuous. Several of my retiring Lib Dem colleagues did the same.

And my own motives were partly personal, including a wish to do other things after 18 years in Parliament. But I also felt strongly that, having repeatedly voted in the Commons to end patronage and heredity for peers, I couldnt accept a peerage myself.

Principle apart, the numbers are utterly ridiculous: more than 800, making the Lords the biggest second chamber in the world after the Fiji assembly of tribal chiefs.

Such indulgence is all the worse (and resented in the Commons) because the number of MPs is currently being culled under boundary revision.

More peers should follow the example of Shirley Williams who recently resigned her peerage when she felt she could no longer perform at her best.

But inevitably, in the absence of term limits, the least useful cling on like limpets.

Many peers do an excellent job improving laws. Some of the legislation from departments like the Home Office is a disgrace and the Commons is notoriously sloppy in passing bad legislation. Those peers who work hard to create better laws deserve due credit, but we need fewer than half of the current numbers to do this.

So what is to be done? Lords reform must go back on the agenda. The sabotaging of Nick Cleggs plans three years ago had the effect both of poisoning relations in the Coalition and also bringing Parliament as a whole further into disrepute.

There are genuinely tricky issues in getting a Lords which is sufficiently accountable through election without creating deadlock between two Houses (as in the US) or further undermining the Commons.

The impotence of the Commons has been brutally exposed after being bypassed through the referendum and by the non-parliamentary take-over of the Labour Party.

But almost every other democracy apart from Britain seems to have cracked this problem.

Second, our corrupt system of party funding invites abuse.

I dont criticise the party donors for spending money on democracy rather than luxury yachts. Some ennobled donors are also impressive people, who built up businesses. But it is fundamentally wrong that political office should be bought and sold.

It is time to put severe limits on what parties can spend, nationally and locally, within and between elections, as well as on individual donations.

Time will tell how damaging David Camerons cronyism will be. But I believe we are quite near to a breakdown in trust in democracy itself.

If that happens, politics will move to the streets. Or we shall find populist, anti-democratic demagogues seriously bidding for power, as they already are in the US, France, Turkey and elsewhere. A high price for a few lengths of ermine.
At last! A profession we can hate more than politicians, journalists, vivisectionists, bankers and estate agents. It was revealed yesterday that dentists are routinely ripping us off: milk toothing a system that rewards them for performing as many units of dental activity (UDAs) as they can.

I would be gnashing my teeth were I not so afraid of damaging my 10,000-worth of veneers.

What a week for those of us who look after our molars. My routine involves oil pulling, which means swishing sesame oil until it becomes thin and white; getting a spray tan so my teeth look whiter; using only UltraDex mouthwash and toothpaste (no idea why; its the most expensive), drinking no red wine or tea but as much water as I can manage to avoid bad breath; and putting my electric toothbrush head in the dishwasher once a week on Extreme.

Dentists are needlessly extracting thousands of patients' teeth because it is quicker and easier than more complex procedures such as performing a root canal (file image)

First there was Flossgate, where scientists told us the nightly ritual of winding little bits of string round our fingers and then getting said string stuck between our two front teeth, before it breaks off and leaves a little tail, is pointless, handing a get-out-of-jail card to every man in the land who fails to floss in case the time he takes to do so means weve fallen asleep and wont be available for sex.

And now an investigation has found that dentists extract teeth to avoid offering complex treatment, for which they are paid the same by the NHS, and cram in 60 patients a day in order to earn up to 500,000 a year. It all sounds as painful and crowded as my mouth, aged 11. My teeth were a disaster: overlapping, chipped (my mum used to wash my hair over the kitchen sink, as the bathroom was too cold, and the terror of this waterboarding made me scream, thus breaking a front tooth in half) and a dingy yellow, with myriad shiny black fillings: as a child, I never thought fillings werent normal, or even had a cause.

After the painful extraction of four teeth, I then had braces cemented, top and bottom; on the braces were little hooks on to which, each night, I had to attach tiny rubber bands in order to pull the teeth apart, like a mini tug of war.

This went on until my O-levels, meaning I never went through the rites of passage normal in adolescent girls: kissing boys, smiling, talking, eating  food would get stuck in the wire.

But at no point did I demur. The dentist was, in those days  the 1970s  entirely free, which meant patients were enormously grateful and therefore uncomplaining. When my mum, in her 40s, paid a rare visit for herself, the dentist extracted every single one of her teeth without even asking her permission: when she got home, our Labrador attacked her, unable to recognise her shrunken face.

I further ruined my teeth when, in my early 20s, having finally been liberated from the braces, I removed all the enamel by subsisting on Coxs Orange Pippins for the next ten years.

Now vaguely solvent, and having met Martine McCutcheon on a shoot and marvelled at her perfect smile, I duly got the number of her (private) dentist, and went to see him on Harley Street (I spotted Dame Maggie Smith in the waiting room: perfect teeth. They had to stain them for Downton Abbey). Hence the 10,000 veneers, and the eradication of the hair-washing chip.

My teeth were a disaster: overlapping, chipped and a dingy yellow, with myriad shiny black fillings: as a child, I never thought fillings werent normal, or even had a cause (file image)

I further ruined my teeth when, in my 20s, having been liberated from the braces, I removed all the enamel by subsisting on Coxs Orange Pippins for the next ten years (file image)

What no one, least of all the dentist, told me was my teeth would be drilled to tiny stumps; without the veneers, I resemble Steptoe: the father, not the son.

The veneers have to be looked after, like children, with hygiene appointments, special soft superfloss, and definitely no spinach (they stain; I couldnt resist a saag aloo one evening, and my then husband told me I looked as though Id been dug up).

They also last only ten years before having to be replaced. The other day, a veneer on an incisor fell off. I was so angry, I threw it in the fire. I booked an appointment. Did you keep it? the dentist asked from behind his yacht, um, mask. No. Oh, you should have. A new one will cost 900. Im still scrabbling in the ashes.
Theresa May is rapidly showing herself to be the ultimate pragmatist. Having inherited a shambles of an energy policy, the Prime Minister is acting practically and undogmatically to solve it.

Equally determined to make Brexit work, she is willing to use our freedom from outside regulation to benefit our newly independent economy. After her bold decision to pause the problematic Hinkley Point nuclear project, she now plans to liberate fracking  the extraction of subterranean shale gas.

By offering direct personal payments to affected residents, she plainly hopes that public pressure will push local authorities into permitting far more exploration.

Having inherited a shambles of an energy policy, the Prime Minister is acting practically and undogmatically to solve it

Critics will naturally caricature the payments as bribes. And indeed, it is true this new policy will have its difficulties. Opponents of fracking, not confined to fashionable rent-a-mobs, reasonably stress its environmental impact. But this can  and should  be greatly reduced by careful planning.

But, while recognising genuine concerns, this newspaper believes this bold idea would be good for Britain. We are far richer in shale reserves than any other European country. The US has already benefited hugely from its more relaxed fracking regulations. It has reduced dependence on imported fuel, slashed domestic and industrial energy bills  and so greatly stimulated its economy.

Britain can do the same, and overcome the difficulties caused by years of inflexible green dogma, during which we have failed to modernise nuclear power, given heavy subsidies to wind and solar power  which are of little use in winter  shut down many of our coal-burning power stations, and become sadly dependent on imported gas.

There is no necessary conflict between profit and the environment. A prosperous well-run country with a thriving economy is better able to preserve its heritage and landscape than a poor and indebted one struggling to pay its way. Mrs May understands that, much as Lady Thatcher did, and it is greatly to her credit.

End this terror threat

It is not hard to imagine another major terror attack in Britain, equal to the 7/7 atrocities in London or to those which have recently taken place in Germany, Belgium and France.

We are constantly told that our security services are working hard to prevent such a horrific event. Of course, they cannot conceivably detect every plot and plan hatched by terrorists. It would be unreasonable to expect that.

Police are parading in Robocop outfits and with the sort of equipment they might have to use after a terror outrage

But are they doing enough? An individual who appears to have visited Islamic State territory and signed up in an illegal army is at large in this country. He is known to the authorities, and the IS form with his personal details has been seen by The Mail on Sunday.

It was precisely to deal with such circumstances that the Government in 2012 introduced Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures, which allow the authorities to monitor and restrict the movements of people who have committed no crime and cannot be charged or deported, but who are reasonably suspected of terrorist affiliations. How is it that only one is in force when hundreds of British citizens are known to have travelled to IS territory?
It's the food trend that saw chefs ditch traditional methods of cooking in favour of liquid nitrogen and carbon dioxide.

Molecular gastronomy, or the idea of chefs using scientific principals to cook food, was introduced by British celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal before quickly becoming main stream.

The trend saw chefs creating dishes that looked like one thing and tasted like another, but Gourmet Traveller Australia editor Anthea Loucas told Daily Mail the fad is on the way out.

'Chefs as scientists is falling away': According to Anthea Loucas, the trend of molecular gastronomy is on its way out in restaurants and foodie culture

The master: Despite this Dinner by Heston Bluementhal (pictured) is still very popular, and has been nominated for Restaurant of the Year at Gourmet Traveller's annual awards

'Molecular gastronomy is really waning,' she explained. 'That idea of chefs as scientists is falling away.'

In its place is the idea of cooking with fire and smoking food, as many restaurants go back to a more traditional ways of preparing dishes.

Ms Loucas, who has been a food writer and critic for many years, said while there has been changes in the food scene there has never been a more exciting time to be a diner.

'The breadth of the food on offer in Australia is extraordinary,' she said.

'You cant sneeze without a new restaurant opening in Melbourne and Sydney.'

'The breadth of the food offer in Australia is extraordinary': Cooking with fire and smoking food is back in a big way

'You cant sneeze without a new restaurant opening': A trend in itself is the number of restaurants opening, creating a 'huge' amount of competition in the market

With this has come new food crazes and techniques, known as 'micro trends'.

The stuffy, formal style of dining is on the way out to make way for a more casual style of eating.

And because of this, the bar-restaurant model is becoming increasingly popular.

'In the inner city people are dining out more often,' Ms Loucas explained.

'So you dont always want the whole shebang, sometimes you just want a quick bite to eat and a drink.'

Crockery is back: Ms Loucas said the trend of serving food on boards instead of plates is, thankfully, over

Fresh thinking: Clever fusion food is also big, and Thi Le (above) from Modern Australian/Asian restaurant Anchovy has been nominated as Best New Talent in the restaurant awards

Thankfully, the casual nature of some of these restaurants has not gone as far as to replace crockery with slabs of wood.

'Were all really happy to see the end of food on boards and food in jars,' Ms Loucas laughed.

The food on offer has also changed.

On the plates is indigenous produce, such as finger limes and salt brush, and retro takes on Italian and Chinese food.

'Bar sandwiches are a big micro trend, things like beef tongue sandwiches, or a cheese toastie,' Ms Loucas said.

Snack food: Bar sandwiches, like the kind Bar Liberty (above) serves, are a big 'micro trend' at the moment

'Sometimes you just want a quick bite to eat and a drink': Casual dining is also back with the big 'shebang' of fine dining no longer popular, Ms Loucas said

This has been demonstrated in the shortlist for the Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Awards, the winners of which will be announced on August 18.

Bar Liberty, a Melbourne wine bar which is known for their sandwiches, has been nominated for two different awards: Bar of the Year and Wine List of the Year.

As well as Restaurant of the Year and Regional Restaurant of the Year, the event recognises the staff behind the food, with awards for Sommelier of the Year, Maitre D' of the Year and Best New Talent.
Snail serum has been heralded as a go-to ingredient for skincare products in recent years, with brands like Napoleon Perdis and Immunocologie adding it to their creams.

The serum is said to help plump skin and decrease wrinkles, fade dark spots and lessen the appearance of scars.

Bur rather than dish out up to $300 for a snail-slime infused product, one thrifty beauty blogger decided to do it herself by covering her face with live snails.

Scroll down for video

Commitment: A beauty blogger has given herself a DIY snail facial and put a tutorial online

Gross: Snail smile is a hot commodity in skincare, and products that contain it can cost up to $300

Arzo, who runs the Instagram and YouTube accounts OliveSkinBeauty, tried out a DIY version of a snail facial.

The blogger collected three snails and let them move over her face.

The beauty blogger said she collected the 'wild' snails from the water near her house, and photos show they were about the size of her nose.

Snail trail: Blogger Arzo, who goes by the username OliveSkinBeauty, caught some 'wild' snails for the facial

'I felt the slime on my face': Arzo said she didn't think just one treatment would have any results

The young woman, who appears to be based in the United States, filmed herself trying the facial for her social media channels.

In the seven minute clip, Arzo admits she is scared and says she's going to 'try not to scream' and scare the neighbours.

She seemed to visibly freak out when she applies the first snail, saying 'Oh my God, oh my God' as it started to suck on her skin.

'When you feel it moving, that's the worst part,' Arzo said.

'Oh my God, oh my God': She started freaking out when the snails were first on her face, but then later said it felt soothing

Social media star: The blogger posts many different beauty and skincare tutorials on her YouTube and Instagram accounts

She eventually managed to get three snails on her face and left them on for a couple of minutes.

'When I had them on my face it felt kind of nice, it was soothing,' she said. 'I felt the slime on my face.'
She is set to saunter down the runway at a fashion show as Australia's first transgender model.

And Gemma Cowling, who identifies as a female, will make her catwalk debut at the Adelaide Fashion Festival campaign launch at SAHMRI on Tuesday night.

The 19-year-old was scouted by a modelling agency just less than a year after she 'came out' to her family as transgender.

The Adelaide-born model will be joined alongside 14 other models to showcase fashion label Acler's spring-summer collection at the invite-only event.

Transgender model Gemma Cowling (pictured) will make her catwalk debut at Tuesday night's Adelaide Fashion Festival campaign launch at SAHMRI

'There's definitely some nerves, but I'm excited regardless,' she told The Advertiser.

After 'coming out' as a woman in November last year, the blonde beauty said being transgender was 'still taboo or frowned upon by a lot of people'.

She was scouted for the upcoming show by Acler designers Julia Ritorto and Kathryn Forth, stylist Vogues Phillippa Moroney and Adelaide Fashion Festival creative director Chris Kontos.

In an interview with Daily Mail Australia, the rising star said she knew she was born to be a woman despite growing up feeling out of place.

'It was abundantly clear to me that something was off but I wasn't exactly sure what that was,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'There were a lot of times where I sort of looked around and thought something wasn't right and I didn't fit together.'

She will be joined by 14 other models to showcase Acler's spring-summer collection

The teen was scouted by South Australian agency Azalea for a modelling contract in March

And just nine months ago, she decided to make the transition from male to female.

But it wasn't until famous transgender women started to emerge in the media that she was able to put her own identity into words.

'It was at a time when Laverne Cox was on the cover of Time Magazine and people like Caitlyn Jenner were starting to be an accepted in reality,' she said.

'They gave me a word, a name and an idea behind what was going on in my life.

'Before that it hadn't been something I'd heard of or interacted with in anything but a negative way.'

In December, she began taking a contraceptive pill and a 'blocker' - a tablet to stop her natural hormone progression.

Just nine months ago, the 19-year-old decided to make the transition from male to female

The teenager, who is signed with South Australian agency Azalea, said she has been lucky as her family have been supportive in her transition.

As for role models, the young woman said there was a large community of transgender models who she looked up to and one day hoped to meet.

'I don't think any [other trans-models] know who I am yet,' she said.

'I would probably have a bit of a fan-girling experience if I ever was contacted by one of them. I'm looking forward to meeting them if my career takes off in the way I hope it does.
Lung cancer patients in England and Wales are being denied a ground-breaking drug that could give them years more life  despite the fact it is available in Scotland.

Nivolumab has been shown to nearly double short-term survival rates in patients with advanced lung cancer.

Doctors hope it could help some patients with the disease  who typically survive a matter of months after diagnosis  live years longer.

Nivolumab has been shown to nearly double short-term survival rates in patients with advanced lung cancer

The drug, which makes cancer cells more visible to the immune system, has even been credited with bringing some patients back to health who were on the brink of death.

Last month the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) approved it for use in patients with a type of the disease called advanced squamous non-small cell lung cancer, which kills around 6,000 people a year in the UK.

But those south of the border will not benefit from the drug  which costs 63,200 to administer to one patient for a year  after the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) decided it was not cost effective.

Experts say nivolumab, which NICE has approved for patients with advanced skin cancer, is the biggest step forward in the fight against lung cancer for 20 years.

Professor Dean Fennell an NHS oncologist in Leicester, said: We have had patients who were on the brink, without any other treatment option, receive this drug and are now well  and I mean as close to normal life as you can imagine  a year later. This is not a rarity.

Dr Marianne Nicolson, of the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, said the SMCs decision marked a major turning point for lung cancer care in Scotland.

Nivolumab has also been approved for use in Germany, Sweden and Greece.

Lung cancer patient Fiona Fail, a mother of five, will not be getting nivolumab  because she lives in Blyth, Northumberland, just 60 miles from the Scottish border.

Mrs Fail, 59, has been told she could have as little as eight months left to live. She cannot understand why English patients were not getting access to the drug, when Scottish patients in her situation were.

It just seems so unfair, she said. Everybody in Britain who needs nivolumab should be able to get it, not just people in Scotland.

The drug called Nivolumab costs 63,200 to administer to one patient for a year

Why is it deemed cost effective there, but not here? Will somebody from Parliament come up to tell my family why my life is worth less than somebodys in Scotland?

Dr Greystoke, her consultant medical oncologist at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, said: I share Fionas frustration.

He added that new drugs such as nivolumab were more effective and associated with a better quality of life than drugs currently being used in England such as the chemotherapy drug docetaxel.

He believes that the SMC had given greater weight to trial results suggesting nivolumab could extend some patients lives by years than NICE had.
The search is on for a rising journalist from an ethnic minority to show their talents at the premier awards ceremony celebrating multi-cultural Britain.

Nominations are open for the coveted Young Journalist of the Year 2016, sponsored by the Daily Mail  one of the accolades at the GG2 Leadership Awards hosted by the Asian Media and Marketing Group.

People aged under 30 and from any ethnic minority who have done outstanding work in print, broadcast or online journalism are eligible to apply.

The winner receives a 500 bursary and a work experience opportunity at the Daily Mail.

The Young Journalist of the Year award will be presented at a dinner in central London on October 20, attended by figures from politics, business and showbusiness.

The closing date for applications is 6pm, August 26. Visit www.gg2.net/Awards/Young_Journalist.php to enter.
Q I have a bunion on my right foot. How can I stop it getting worse and is it possible to reverse the problem?

A More than 15 per cent of women in the UK suffer from bunions, due in part to our liking for pointy toes and high heels. Men may develop them, too, but far fewer do. Many sufferers have a family history of bunions.

A bunion (hallux valgus) is a deformity of the big toe joint. The main sign is the big toe pointing towards, and sometimes overlapping, the other toes on the foot. This may force the outer bone of the big toe to stick out and a bump to form. The big toe joint may be swollen and painful, especially when wearing shoes.

The extent of pain varies and may not be reflected in the foots appearance: some joints look normal but are painful and stiff, whereas more pronounced bunions can cause little pain. It is always wise to get it checked by a GP or qualified podiatrist (scpod.org/find-a-podiatrist).

There is no easy way to treat a bunion, according to podiatrist and foot expert Margaret Dabbs (margaretdabbs.co.uk), whose clinics offer a range of treatments, including laser therapy and acupuncture.

Dabbs has devised a Bunion Support (30, victoriahealth.com), a soft, reinforced splint that straps around the foot to encourage normal alignment. (It is too bulky to fit inside most shoes, so best to wear at home for short periods and build up gradually.) Like other podiatric clinics, Dabbs offers bespoke orthotic inserts for shoes.

Topical pain relief can help flare-ups. Over-the-counter analgesics include ibuprofen gel. Pharmacist Shabir Daya says natural Boswellia and Commiphora Cream (9.95, victoriahealth.com) is helpful for arthritic conditions.

In severe cases, the treatment solution is surgery. Many people are nervous about this, although it is effective for the majority of patients. However, recovery takes several weeks and a range of complications occurs in up to ten per cent of instances.

The most recent technique is minimally invasive (keyhole) surgery under local anaesthetic, but results have not yet been evaluated.

Experts agree that bunion sufferers should leave the Louboutins for parties and wear wide-toed, soft shoes with a flat or low heel. Flimsy flip-flops are not recommended, as they offer no support.

However, FitFlop sandals help general foot alignment and their thick, super-cushioned soles act as a shock absorber. A bunion-suffering colleague is devoted to her sandals (as am I  and I dont have bunions). Foot and ankle surgeon Mr Mark Davies recommends FitFlops for post-operative wear.

4 OF THE BEST EXOTIC WELLNESS TEAS

1 T2 Liquorice Legs Loose Leaf Herbal Tisane (8 for 100g, t2tea.com). Perfect for anyone who loves a proper pot of loose-leaf tea, this energising, minty-fresh brew has a sweet note from the liquorice.

2 Krocus Kozanis Herbal Tea with Honey, Orange & Saffron (3.50 for 10 sachets, greeksaffron.co.uk). Saffron has been lauded as a medicinal plant since ancient times and Greek saffron growers welcome guests with this fragrant tea. Delicious served hot or cold.

3 Voya Fennel Fusion Organic Seaweed Tea (9.40 for 20 sachets, voya.ie). A colleague loves this refreshing blend from Irelands west coast, which is designed to help detoxify your body and aid digestion.

4 Pukka Herbs Turmeric Gold Tea (2.39 for 20 sachets, pukkaherbs.com). This organic blend features the golden Indian spice turmeric, which fights inflammation of all kinds, plus green tea, cardamom and lemon.

BRUSH AWAY GUM DISEASE

A reader with gingivitis (inflammation of the gums) writes to say that Zymbion Q-10 Toothpaste (7.95), which contains coenzyme Q10 and fluoride, is amazing. I take an oral supplement, too, but since I started using the toothpaste as well Ive had absolutely no bleeding, she says.

Those who prefer fluoride-free toothpaste could try Aloe Dent Triple Action Toothpaste (4.09, both victoriahealth.com), which contains coenzyme Q10, tea tree oil, green tea and natural whitening silica, plus soothing aloe vera.

Email your questions to sarah@sarahstacey.com
Indian tigers may have bounced back from the brink of extinction with a healthy rise in population, but they are certainly not out of the woods as international poaching syndicates have moblilised their networks in the country to hunt the endangered animal.

Reports in April indicated that the big cat headcount had gone up to nearly 2,500, sparking celebrations.

However, another set of data shows that poachers are responsible for about 37 per cent of tiger deaths in the country this year, with the number of killings revealing an upswing.

Tiger skins seized by the forest officials from Haridwar and Valmiki

Poaching fueled by a thriving trade of the animal body parts as well as loss of natural habitat and traditional prey had triggered a troubling slump in the tiger population from an estimated 40,000 at the turn of the last century.

India was able to pull back the numbers with the success of a government-run conservation plan.

As per statistics provided by the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI), estimated tiger deaths from poaching and seizure of body parts, recorded from January 1 to August 3, 2016, stood at 31.

The figure for the entire year of 2015 was 26, and for 2014, it was 23.

This is purely economics of the tiger trade, a senior official of a wildlife law enforcement agency, who did not wish to be named, told Mail Today.

India is merely a source country where a large number of poor, illiterate and nomadic tribes  such as Bawaria, Behlia and Pardhi  engage in the hunting of tigers. They are exploited by educated and highly tech-savvy gangs, sitting in destination countries in South-east Asia. They minutely follow all the news here. Obviously, new orders are being placed somewhere else.

Madhya Pradesh leads the way with 20 tiger mortalities this year, of which six were poached, five were found dead and nine died of infighting.

Next comes Uttarakhand, where six tiger skins and 150 kg tiger bones were seized this year.

The third spot belongs to Karnataka where one tiger skull and bones and two claws were seized in 2016.

As per a 2014 census, India is home to 2,226 tigers, nearly 70 per cent of the global population.

Syndicates operating from China, Nepal & Myanmar are responsible for 31 big cat death in the country

They roam the countrys 48 tiger reserves, which include Ranthambore (Rajasthan), Sundarbans (West Bengal), Dudhwa (Uttar Pradesh), Kanha (MP), Tadoba Andhari (Maharashtra) and Bandipur (Karnataka).

The then Minister for Environment and Forests (MoEF), Prakash Javadekar, had announced the rise in numbers at the 3rd Asia ministerial conference on tiger conservation in April.

That is good news for India (a result) of what we are doing for the last 12 years, Javadekar had said.

We have zero tolerance towards poaching. A dead tiger is worth a fortune in countries like China, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.

Each body part  from eyes, whiskers, canines, claws, skin, bones and even penis  is used.

Their traditional use is in Chinese medicine, which claims to cure a range of diseases, from arthritis to impotency.

They are also served as a delicacy is restaurants and used for gifting and in various crafts.

Some shocking incidents have come to the fore in the recent past, said Tito Joseph, programme manager, WPSI.

In March-April this year, five tiger skins and 125 kg of bones were recovered from near Jim Corbett National Park.

Two people were arrested. When the skins were sent to Wildlife Institute of India (WII), they analysed the patterns in their database and found them to match that of at least four missing tigers in the Corbett Park.

Joseph also pointed out that two tiger skins and 35 kg of bones were seized in January from the Valmiki Tiger Reserve near the Bihar- Nepal border. Subsequent investigations brought to fore three incidents of tiger poaching, he said.

On further interrogation of the poachers, sizeable tiger meat was found buried in a pit nearby. The skin was traced to Kathmandu later.

A side effect of growing tiger numbers is the fact that they are increasingly venturing out of protected sanctuaries, said Jose Louies of the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI).

They roam around the park fringes. They go to villages, forests and corridors. They look for new habitats, mates etc. That makes it very easy for poachers to catch them unguarded, he said.

Technically, these hunters dont need news reports to tell them that numbers have gone up. They know the jungles and the animal much better than us. They get to know about changes in their density and location much before us. The outlaws are fast catching up with law enforcement.

BS Bonal, member-secretary, National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), told Mail Today: We are aware of the issues. NTCA is already coordinating with Nepal, Bangladesh and other SAARC countries (as part of the South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network or SAWEN) to protect tigers. Our state forest departments are also working round the clock on the mission.

Stop big cat breeding for commercial purposes

By Mail Today Bureau

Following the seizure of cubs and tiger skins from a Tiger Temple in Thailand, more than 40 NGOs including those from India have asked the countries to end breeding of the big cats for commercial purposes and phase out tiger farms.

The organisations noted that wild tiger population has declined by over 95 per cent in the last 100 years while this year alone, there has been an upsurge in tiger poaching in India with more tigers killed in the first five months of 2016 than that in the whole of 2015.

If wild tiger populations are to be recovered and secured, the international community must provide support to end tiger farming and other trades involving products acquired from wild and captive tigers, a WWF India statement quoting the 45 organisations said.

The main market for tiger products are consumers in China and Vietnam, followed by smaller consumer markets in Myanmar and Laos

The organisations also extended their assistance to achieve the goals of zero demand for tiger parts and products and zero poaching of tigers.

They said that the global wild tiger population is estimated to be less than 4,000 and these last remaining wild tigers are each threatened by trade for nearly all of their body parts from skins and bones to teeth and claws traded by criminals for huge profit.

The main market for tiger products are consumers in China and Vietnam, followed by smaller consumer markets in Myanmar and Laos, they said.

The organisations commended the recent bold enforcement efforts of Thailand government which in June, this year seized 137 live tigers, thousands of tiger skin amulets, 70 preserved cubs and other tiger parts from the Tiger Temple.

This represents a significant opportunity for Thailand to end all tiger farming within its borders and to play a leadership role in the phase-out of tiger farms in the region, the statement said.
'Let them save cows from eating plastic and dying,' said PM Modi at the second anniversary of MyGov.

Saturday's hour-long town hall meet conducted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Indira Gandhi stadium complex, was a first in more respects than just being his maiden Obama-style interaction with the citizens.

The meet had been organised to mark the second anniversary of MyGov initiative of the Modi dispensation aimed at bridging the gulf between the rulers and the ruled.

Modi, the head of the second right-wing government in post-globalisation India and the first one with absolute majority in the Lok Sabha, stunned most when he launched a trenchant attack on fake gau-rakshaks or cow vigilantes masquerading as such to create a smokescreen for their criminal activities.

Let them save cows from eating plastic and dying, he said.

Some elements do all sorts of crime at night and become gau-rakshaks by the day. I request state governments to make a dossier if needed, Modi said in a categorical tone.

Prime Minister stunned many when he launched a trenchant attack on fake cow vigilantes saying it was a smokescreen for their criminal activities

The country has been reeling under incidents where the cow has been at the centre of casteist and religious violence.

The latest one perpetrated by cow-protection vigilantes on Dalit men in Una in Gujarat on July 11 had yet again raised the spectre of Hindu-majoritarianism under a regime that vows by the ideology of Hindutva, a perception that was sure to hurt the Bharatiya Janata Partys prospects in the upcoming assembly elections, notably in Punjab and the crucial Uttar Pradesh that have a large Dalit population.

Stressing on the need for participative democracy, the PM launched a citizen-sourced app speaking in 10 languages, PMOapp, that has been developed by six students and through which mobile users could connect with the website of the Prime Ministers Office.

We want to develop good governance where processes are less and things get done easily for citizens, said Modi.

Government projects need to ensure last-mile delivery through good governance. Else it wont touch ordinary lives.

Modi also said his government planned to develop 300 villages across the country as growth centers by creating city-like infrastructure, from education and healthcare to digital connectivity under the National Rurban Mission.

Facilities available in cities must be made available to villages. Rurbans Mission is Smart City Plus, he said.

Modi said new technology and good governance would also benefit the farmers.

He said: Indians living abroad can do a simple thing, every year they should convince 5 non-Indian families to visit India. We have to attract tourists with our heritage and history.

Modi also said that all efforts had been on to make India an international phenomenon. Foreign policy is simply India First. Modi also took a dig at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, without naming the latter.

Blaming PM for municipal or state-level issues is fine for politics or TRP, but we need accountability at every level. Every responsible person holding a position should be questioned, he said.

On the eve of Handloom Day, Modi urged 125-crore Indians to use khadi and handloom for five per cent of their clothing needs.

Khaadi for nation, Khaadi for fashion is the slogan he put forward.

This will help the poor. Rural economy will change if the sector is provided holistic support, e-platform for global marketing and facilities to weavers, he said.

The Prime Minister also said: If we grow at eight per cent or more for the next 30 years, everything good you see in the world will be here in India.

They call themselves gau rakshaks, but critics call them goons

By Arun Singh and Amit Chaudhary

They prowl on the highways and streets for what they call is their mission to capture cow traffickers.

Armed and combative, Gau Rakshaks defend their aggression as sacred.

At its centre in Punjabs Rajpura, which is believed to be the embryo of the cow-protection vigilantism, the self-styled squad operates as a 24x7 extra-constitutional force, as India Today TV found out.

A former power-lifter, Satish Kumar, the leader of the Gau Raksha Dal, has built his own network of informers & activists.

Satish Kumar, who heads the Gau Raksha Dal Punjab, had no uneasy feeling over getting criticised for his high-handed tactics.

If someone who saves the cow is labelled a goon, Ill be proud to become the countrys biggest goon, he said.

Unabashedly, Kumar justified his unlawful methods, accusing authorities for overlooking cow smuggling.

A former power-lifter, Kumar has built his own network of informers and activists.

He alleged cow traffickers have improvised a variety of techniques to mask their trade.

He said smugglers had even pumped air into the udders of a slaughter-bound cow to disguise it as a dairy animal.

At his office one night, he received a potential tip about a sneaky transportation.

Immediately the vigilantes set out for an operation, followed by the India Today team.

Wounding through the dark streets of Rajpura, the Gau Rakshaks hit the highway.

But the vehicle they were pursuing was no offender.

Fearing highway robbery, its driver called the police, and a quick-response team arrived.

Vigilantes challenged the officer to file a case. After reprimanding the vigilantes briefly, police let them off.

Over the past 30 years, cow-police appears to have mushroomed out of Rajpura in Punjab, to various other parts of the country.
Shikha (name changed), a 17-year-old, budding actor from Ghaziabad who dreamed to make it big on the silver screen, has alleged that she was raped by her mentor for two years on the pretext of getting her a break in the film industry.

One of the suspects was arrested on July 21 and is currently in judicial custody.

The hunt for the other accused is on, said a Delhi Police officer. However, Prem Nath, DCP South, was unavailable for comment.

A 17-year-old, budding actor from Ghaziabad was sexually exploited by a man named Sunil Kulkarni, who promised to get her work in Bollywood.

Shikha told the police that she had enrolled in an acting school in Ghaziabad, in July 2014 to maximise her chance of entering the glamorous world of Bollywood.

Here, she was introduced to Sunil Kulkarni, the prime accused, through a common friend.

Kulkarni flaunted his contacts in the film industry and used the minor girls starry dreams to trap her for the next two years, during which she was allegedly subjected to repeated sexual abuse.

Shikha approached the Vasant Kunj police station on July 20 this year and an FIR was lodged under the Prevention of Child from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and rape.

In her complaint, she said that Kulkarni had offered to accompany her to Mumbai.

He met my parents and told them that he has good contacts in Mumbai and even showed them two air tickets to Mumbai. Thinking of my future and my dreams, they (the parents) agreed. He brought me to Delhi and kept me in a flat in Vasant Kunj, she told the police.

However, once he brought her to the flat, he told her that she needed to put on some weight and work on her looks.

He gave me a medicine which always made me feel sleepy, she said. This went on for three to four months.

One day, Kulkarni forced himself on me. While I was in a state of shock he even clicked some photos. He threatened me to keep my mouth shut otherwise he would send those photos to my parents, reads the complaint.

Shikha alleged that in August 2015, she was taken to Mumbai in a flight and was kept in a flat in Andheri East.

For around six months he continued to rape me. He even got me raped by another man and videographed it. In July 2016, he brought me back to Delhi and took me to my parents. He warned me that if I reveal anything, he would show the videos to my parents.
The Centres plan to build townships for Kashmiri Pandits that could facilitate the return of thousands to their homeland has hit a roadblock as the state government has made no efforts to identify land promised by Chief Minister Mehbooba Muftis father late Mufti Mohammed Sayeed in April 2015.

Despite the PDP-BJP alliance in Jammu and Kashmir, the state government has not shown any urgency to get the project rolling that has been high on BJPs agenda.

The issue of return of nearly 62,000 Kashmiri Pandits families, who fled from the Valley in the wake of militancy more than two decades back, was in the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) of the BJP-PDP alliance in the state.

The Centre clarified that these townships were not exclusively for Pandits but even Kashmiri Muslims.

The CMP stated that protecting and fostering ethnic and religious diversity by ensuring the return of Kashmiri Pandits with dignity based on their rights as state subjects and reintegrating as well as absorbing them in the Kashmiri milieu.

With the state government not identifying land for so long it is clear that they are not keen to move ahead with the project to build composite townships for Kashmiri Pandits, said a home ministry official.

Sources said the project is as good as shelved as separatists have been objecting to it there is pressure on the state government as it could trigger further confrontation.

The J&K government has not shown any urgency to get the project rolling.

Moreover, in the current scenario as Kashmir has been burning as angry mobs have clashed with security forces there is no scope it seems, the official added.

Soon after the announcement of the plan to build composite townships for displaced Kashmiri pundits, the separatists accused the Centre of creating ghettos.

The Centre clarified that these townships were not exclusively for pandits but even Kashmiri Muslims.

According to the initial proposal sent by the Jammu and Kashmir government to the Centre- the Pandits were to be Rs 20 lakh with which they could purchase a flat in the township.

The home ministrys stand was that if the Muslims want they can buy property with their own resources and live there.

"Since it was a rehabilitation scheme for the displaced Kashmiri Pandits the grant would only be given to them and at least 50 % of the houses needed be reserved for them, said a home ministry official.

The government aimed at rehabilitating nearly 10,000 displaced Kashmiri Pandit families of which 2,500 families would be given houses in each of these townships.

Srinagar and Anantnag are the two towns that were identified for these composite townships.

Sources said if land can be acquired elsewhere these townships can be built there.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh had written a letter to the previous Omar Abdullah government which was followed by another communication to the state Governor asking for identification of land for such migrants.

There were about 62,000 registered Kashmiri migrant families in the country, who have moved from the Valley to Jammu, New Delhi and other parts of the country after the state was rocked by militancy in 1989.

The Centre its recent budget for 2015-16, has earmarked Rs 580 crore for rehabilitating migrants to their home states.

'Its war against Kashmir' says Omar Abdullah

Omar Abdullah accused New Delhi of waging war against people of Kashmir

Due to the forces firing bullets and pellets on civilian protesters across Kashmir, former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah accused New Delhi of waging war against people of Kashmir.

He said every one has been appealing New Delhi to engage with Pakistan and the people of Kashmir through a sustained, comprehensive dialogue to resolve the political issue.

Has New Delhi declared a war on the people of Kashmir? Hundreds of young boys and girls have got life-changing injuries, most of them caused by pellet guns."
The liquor baron skipped appearance before a court in Mumbai last month

In more trouble for Vijay Mallya, a non-bailable warrant was issued on Saturday against the liquor baron in a 2012 cheque bounce case by a Delhi court which said that coercive steps were required to ensure his appearance.

Metropolitan Magistrate Sumeet Anand passed the order for bringing Mallya in court on November 4, with the direction that the non-bailable warrant be sent to him by Ministry of External Affairs as he is reportedly in London.

The court noted that despite repeated orders, Mallya did not appear in the court and it was inevitable for the state machinery to intervene and ensure his presence.

The trial court had summoned Mallya as accused following a complaint by DIAL, which operates the capital's IGI Airport, claiming that a cheque for Rs one crore issued by Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) on February 22, 2012 was returned to them a month later containing remarks fund insufficient.

DIAL had filed four cases in June 2012 against Mallya over KFA's cheques totalling Rs 7.5 crore not being honoured.

The grounded airline had issued the cheques towards payment for services availed by them at the IGI airport here. Mallya, chairman of the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines, is facing action after defaulting on over Rs 9,000- crore loan from 17 banks.
The Delhi government is keeping a close watch on medical stores in the city to stamp out pharmaceutical drug abuse. Chemists' shops near schools and colleges are under particular supervision.

A lot of youngsters these days are involved in drug abuse through medicines, Dr Mrinalini Darswal, commissioner, Department of Food and Drug Safety, told Mail Today.

We have tried to study the pattern in the city and are preparing a roadmap to deal with this problem. We will be closely monitoring all the shops near schools and colleges.

The state government will closely monitor chemists near schools and colleges. (Picture for representation only)

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), in its annual report for 2015, pointed out that abuse of pharmaceutical drugs in India has assumed serious proportions in recent times. The problem seems to be most serious in the Northeast and Northwest regions of the country.

Common pharmaceutical products which are being abused include buprenorphine (used to treat opiate addiction), codeine-based cough syrups, and sedatives like alprazolam and diazepam.

It is extremely important to identify the drug problem in Delhi. There are lots of drug users in the Capital and we need to get hold of the root cause of the problem, Darswal said.

As per the departments directions, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as aspirin, disprin, ibuprofen, and diclofenac cannot be sold as over-the-counter drugs by chemists.

In the last year, the department has cancelled the licences of 15 chemists for violating these rules.

Some spots have been already identified and we have stopped issuing licences in these areas. Various children have been interviewed to understand problem. Drug peddling has become a serious concern. Standard operating procedure is being followed, Darswal said.

Educationists have praised the move.

It is a great step taken by the government. It is extremely important to keep a watch on the youngsters these days, said Goldy Malhotra, director, Academic Staff College and Administration, Manav Rachna International Schools.

Many medicines do have substances which can lead to addictions. These chemists sometimes even sell the medicines without prescription. Also, this is not only about the drugs but even the basic medicines should not be sold to the kids without having any prescriptions.

A knowledge-sharing workshop was recently conducted in which various officials from the Delhi Police and CBI participated and discussed ways to tackle this growing problem.

Recently, the Delhi department of health also issued orders to various departments to ensure that no banned drugs are available in the shops.

The practice of selling drugs without a prescription is a worrying issue. Today, pharma companies are spending huge amount of money on research of molecules. There are many drugs in the market that have potential of having drug abuse. A stricter guideline is need of the hour, said Dharmil Seth, co-founder, PharmEasy, an online platform which connects offline pharmacy.

The NCB report also underlined the fact that though there was a perception that pharmaceutical drugs were less harmful than hard drugs like heroin, cocaine etc, this was a misconception, since these can be addictive and also have a debilitating effect on health.

Pharmaceutical preparations involving narcotic or psychotropic substances are under the purview of the Drugs and Cosmetic Act and the NDPS Act in India.
Indian security agencies are monitoring Pro-Pakistan hacker Afzal Faizal, who has breached the firewalls of more than a thousand Indian websites in the last two years, five days after he claimed to have accessed the e-payment system of a nationalised bank.

Intel officials said that Faizal previously restricted his hacking efforts to defacing random websites and teasing Indian techies, but has now stepped up to target websites of the Indian government and critical institutions such as banks.

Cyber security experts went into a tizzy on August 2, when Faizal claimed to have got access to the e-payment gateway of a nationalised bank. Officials claim that no financial loss or data leak took place, however.

Government websites in the north-eastern and southern states have been hacked recently. (Picture for representation only)

After the defacement, he also challenged Indian hackers to secure Indian cyberspace as he may target more critical websites in the future.

Similarly, in June this year, he had hacked the websites of the Indian embassy in up to seven countries and defaced them with pro-Pakistan messages as a "warning" to India.

The hacked websites had an image of a person in a red and black hooded jacket, with a message: Intruder Here. You got hacked.

This included websites of the Indian embassies in Dushanbe (Tajikistan), Bucharest (Romania), Athens (Greece), Ankara (Turkey), Mexico City, Sao Paolo, and Pretoria.

The hackers also left a message on the front page of the website that read: Hey Indian Government, Dont Mess with Us.

Faizal and other members of Pro-Pakistan hacking community have carried out some serious attacks recently. They have hacked several government websites in north-eastern and southern states. They have also made a breakthrough in the web security systems of banks and educational institutions.

"They are mocking Indian web security at a time when country is pushing for digital India," a senior officer from a central security agency told Mail Today.

He explained that all such attempts are being seriously monitored, and that most of these hackers are based out of India. He added that they are being tracked online.

Experts believe that Faizal was also tracked in Dubai recently and may be routing his attacks from South-Asian countries, including Indonesia.

Earlier, Pakistani hackers used to carry mass defacement - but now they are more focused on targeting government websites. Even state police websites are being defaced by Pakistani hackers, who post anti-India comments with an image of the Pakistani flag.

However, Indian hackers have taken up the mantle for retaliation and claim a similar large-scale attacked will be launched against Pakistan.

He has created nuisance in Indian cyber world and we will destroy their web space, said a hacker, requesting anonymity.

We had tracked Faizal and even got his accounts blocked in past, but now we are working on getting access to their critical establishment and will expose their security by hacking their bank accounts and websites on August 15 and celebrate our Independence Day, the hacker told Mail Today.

Cyber security experts say that attacks coming from Pakistan are alarming, but believe they are the handiwork of young techies.

These are nationalistic hacker groups and they flaunt each successful hack. But, the damage they could create should not be ignored. Each attack on government websites or banks should be treated seriously, which unfortunately is not being done at the moment. Indian hackers have informed about several vulnerabilities in Indian banks, which have not been patched yet, said Kislay Chaudhary, a cyber security analyst and CEO of Indian Cyber Army.

Another cyber crime expert, Deep Shankar, believes that recent hacking attempts are just a warm-up before Independence Day.

India and Pakistans Independence Days, which fall on August 15 and August 14 respectively, have seen mass defacement the past few years. My analysis shows that Faizal is still carrying out random attacks and they are not targeted, he said.

Waging a cyber war: Who is Faizal Afzal?

Faizal Afzal, alias @Faisal1337 is the lead hacker of the group Pakistan Cyber Attackers (PCA). There are around four to six more hackers who are members of this group.

Once an Indian hacker blocked his social media account and tracked his location to Dubai. He has led several attacks on Indian websites, with the total count believed to be over 1,000 in the last two years.

Initially content with just defacing less secure websites, he has now started targeting secure government websites.

He first came onto the intelligence radar with his attack on a nationalised bank. Recently, he had also breached the official site of the Kerala government.

Security experts believe that Afzal is a young techie who believes in flaunting his hacking skills, but has not managed to cause financial or data loss.
Holidaymakers are being ripped off in a 380million scam  by making payments in pounds rather than the local currency.

Shops, restaurants and even cash machines routinely add up to 10 per cent on bills presented to tourists using a so-called dynamic currency conversion trick.

The practice allows retailers and banks to set their own conversion rate, which is usually worse than the one applied by your credit or debit card issuer.

Trick: Always say no to a sterling bill  instead demand to pay in the local currency

Avoiding this ruse is all the more vital in the wake of the cut to the Bank of England base rate, which sent the pound plunging on money markets, pushing up the cost of buying dollars and euros.

At least one in five British tourists is duped into paying in pounds on their cards each year, with the choice being offered as a service allowing them to pay in a currency they feel comfortable with.

Worse, many hotels are presenting Britons with terminals that already have the bill calculated in sterling, despite retailers and ATM providers being obliged to tell you that you have the option not to take the sterling deal.

Always say no to a sterling bill  instead demand to pay in the local currency. The UK Cards Association says: When taking the non-sterling option you get the daily rate set by Visa or MasterCard, say, which is linked to the interbank rate  a wholesale price agreed between banks.

Caught out: Sharon Flaherty felt duped

The bank that issued your card often then takes a cut  typically adding a 2.75 to 2.99 per cent fee to the exchange rate. This is on top of other charges it might add, such as fees for using a cash machine.

Angus Duncan, 56, was duped by a cashpoint in Lisbon just a week after the Brexit vote when the pound was in turmoil against other currencies.

Angus, who works in finance and was travelling on business, says: I was taking out 100 and was presented with two options  take its deal in sterling or go with the usual euro deal. I was flummoxed and took the sterling deal.

When I checked my statement back at home in Clapham I realised I had got 1.09 to the pound when the average rate that day was 1.20, losing me a tenner. I wont be doing that again.

Research for The Mail on Sunday by currency exchange firm FairFX found paying in pounds adds an average 6 per cent to the bill  but this can be as high as 10 per cent. Britons spend 24.6billion a year on their cards abroad. The 6 per cent average for the more than one in five tourists regularly duped adds up to 380million.

Sharon Flaherty, 35, from Cardiff felt tricked after spending 35 on a fondue set at Copenhagen airport a couple of years ago. The marketing consultant says: I thought the assistant was being helpful by asking if Id like to pay in pounds rather than Danish kroner. Only later did I realise I had been duped. I worked out that if I had paid in kroner I could have saved nearly a fiver.

Had I not woken up to the practice I could have spent a small fortune over the years.

FairFX boss Ian Strafford-Taylor says: Dynamic currency conversion is nothing but a rip off  duping holidaymakers into paying unnecessary fees by offering poor rates. Consumers must be vigilant and say no if the pound option is offered.

Some tourists are billed in pounds without even being asked. They are advised to scrutinise the card reader and refuse to pay if it is not in the local currency.

Bob Atkinson at the TravelSupermarket website says: Your credit or debit card issuer may also levy overseas charges  yet another hidden fee  so use a pre-paid currency card or plastic designed for abroad. Comparison websites can reveal the best deal.

At theukcardsassociation.org.uk you can find a guide to using cards abroad. Click on the consumer tab.

Holiday money: Bureaux de change at the airport charge up to 10 per cent more than competitive providers

Five ways to stretch your travel money a little further after currency slide

1. Do not rely on your usual credit or debit card  opt for plastic designed for use abroad. Among the best is Halifaxs Clarity card. It does not levy the typical 2.75 or 2.99 per cent fee on spending, and in addition does not charge for cash withdrawals abroad (though the local cash machine may levy a separate charge).

Other credit cards that do not charge for overseas spending include Everyday from new provider Creation and MBNAs Everyday Plus American Express.

Norwich & Peterborough Building Society and Metro Bank offer debit cards that do not charge foreign currency fees, but you must be a customer and Metros deal is only valid in Europe. If you do not want a separate card, look at the SuperCard, offered by foreign exchange firm Travelex, which can be linked to an existing account.

FIND THE BEST DEAL Thinking about taking out a prepaid currency card? Check out This is Money's guide to how they work and finding the best deal. Reader offer: FairFX is offering This is Money and MailOnline readers a free MasterCard prepaid card, which usually costs 9.95.

2. Consider packing a pre-paid currency card  these offer some of the best exchange rates. They allow you to load up on foreign currency before you go  or while abroad  and can be used just like a credit or debit card for payment. You can change any unused balance back to sterling afterwards or save it for another trip.

Prepaid cards are offered by CaxtonFX and FairFX, among others. One of the best deals is WeSwaps card, which works by effectively swapping your currency with that of other travellers.

3. Do not change money at the airport, as bureaux de change there make the most of their captive audience by charging up to 10 per cent more than competitive providers. You should also be wary of cash machines at the airport that offer to pay your money in euros or other currencies, as they rarely offer good value.

The best rates are often online. Websites MyTravelMoney and TravelMoneyMax, for example, can help find top deals. Rather than visiting a bureau de change, you may pay by bank transfer and have the bank notes posted to you  often by special delivery. Among the most competitive providers are Travel FX, Best Foreign Exchange and No 1 Currency.

4. Do not fall for the no commission adverts at a bureau de change. Many make their money by offering you lousy exchange rates instead. You are likely to get a better exchange rate by booking ahead. Look at currency comparison websites before making an exchange.

5. Consider where you go on holiday to get more for your money. South America is still a good bet, with the Argentine peso weak. Russia is another destination offering great value due to the troubled rouble. The currencies of South Africa and Zambia are also attractive. Alternatively many families are opting for a staycation this summer.
'Blank cheque': Ben Butler pictured with his daughter Ellie, had a 'Rolls-Royce' team of lawyers funded by the taxpayer

The grandfather of murdered six-year-old Ellie Butler has called for a public inquiry into her killer father's 2million abuse of the legal aid system.

Neal Gray has chastised how the taxpayer had to pick up murderer Ben Butler's vast legal bills, while he spent his life savings fighting for Ellie's custody.

He called the payments 'unbelievable' as the bullying monster and mother Jennie Gray, both 36, were granted nearly 15 years of legal aid.

Ben was reportedly given a 'blank cheque' for taxpayers to fund his lawyers during the custody battle, after they had already stumped up fees for a series of his petty crimes.

Jobless Mr Butler attacked the youngster when she was left at home in Sutton, South London, to look after her and her younger sibling in October 2013.

During his three-month Old Bailey murder trial, repeatedly delayed as Butler twice sacked his legal team, the costs kept ratcheting up.

Yet to him the fees did not matter, being handed a 'blank cheque' to fund a 'Rolls-Royce' team of lawyers at the under-fire and secretive Family Court.

In contrast Ellie's loving foster parents, grandparents Neal and Linda Gray, were left penniless after being denied any assistance.

Ellie's loving foster parents, grandparents Neal (pictured) and Linda Gray, were left penniless after being denied any legal aid

Ben Butler is serving a minimum of 23 years for the murder of Ellie in south London

Before her brutal death Neal Gray, 70, and his late wife, Linda, spent 80,000 and took on cleaning jobs to cover legal fees in their desperate but failed attempt to save the youngster in the Family Courts, before they ran out of cash.

'We spent our life savings and took two extra cleaning jobs to fight for Ellie. It was incredibly hard and all we wanted to do was look after our granddaughter,' Mr Gray told the Daily Mail.

'We were willing to do anything to get her back. We fought tooth and nail. But it wasn't an even playing field, we ran out of money and ended up not being represented in the case. It makes me very angry, it's just unbelievable.

'We were turned down for legal aid but because they were on benefits they were able to get it. I'm sure the ordeal killed my wife and now I don't have her or Ellie.'

Just 11 months after Ellie was handed over in October 2013, Butler bludgeoned her to death in a fit of rage, and persuaded Gray to cover for him.

Mr Gray, 70, whose wife, 69, died of cancer on the first day of the murder trial in April, said it was 'unbelievable and shocking' how the parents were handed so much money.

Ellie's cruel mother Jennie Gray (pictured, with Ellie) received more than 1million to win custody of her daughter

Through a Freedom of Information Act request to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) the Daily Mail obtained the figures of Butler and Gray's legal aid grants that reportedly totalled 1,449,899 over 15 years.

It is said to include 1,185,285 for 'civil representation', which includes cases in the Family Court.

The payments will fuel the row over the Government's decision to water down its reform of the legal aid system, after they boasted about slashing its budget.

They are accused by critics of being cowed by a vociferous legal lobby and series of complex court challenges.

Neal and his late wife spent 80,000 and took on cleaning jobs to cover legal fees in their desperate but failed attempt to save the youngster

Butler bludgeoned Ellie to death in a fit of rage, and persuaded Gray to cover for him

Jennie Gray also received 223,266 for her legal team during the final four-month hearing that ended with Ellie being returned to her parents. Butler's bill has not been submitted.

He was jailed for a minimum of 23 years for murder following a trial at the Old Bailey, the first day of which saw Mrs Gray succumb to cancer.

He was also sentenced to five years to run concurrently for breaking Ellie's shoulder and failing to get her medical attention weeks before her death.

Gray was jailed for 42 months after being found guilty of child cruelty having admitted perverting the course of justice.

Butler has threatened to take his conviction to the Court of Appeal, claiming key evidence was never shown to the jury, which will incur further cost to taxpayers

Butler has since threatened to take his conviction to the Court of Appeal, claiming key evidence was never shown to the jury, which will incur further cost to taxpayers.

A source close to the Family Court battle said the size of the legal aid bill reflected Butler's ruthless determination to get his way.

An MoJ spokesman said: 'The Government has taken action to reduce legal aid expenditure. It has fallen by over 20% since 2010.

'Anyone facing a Crown Court trial is eligible for legal aid, subject to a strict means test, but may be required to pay significant contributions - up to the entire cost of their defence.
Australias most notorious thief has unveiled the secrets behind his infamous escape from Pentridge prisons heavily-guarded Hell Division.

Christopher Badness Binse is a hardened criminal who has spent 30 of the past 33 years behind bars for a brazen series of armed hold-ups and prison escapes.

For the first time he has revealed how he escaped Melbourne's oldest jail with the help of his dying father.

Scroll down for video

Christopher Binse (pictured) was first sent to Pentridge prison for a series of robberies in 1985. He was just 17 years old at the time

Binse spent years locked up in the maximum security 'Hell Division' of Pentridge prison (pictured)

Binse was locked up in Pentridge prisons H Division alongside infamous criminals such as Melbourne gangland enforcer Mark Chopper Read.

The heavily-guarded wing was reserved for the states most dangerous men and earned the nickname Hell Division because of its brutal and bleak conditions.

Binse revealed how he plotted his daring and now infamous 1992 escape from the wing during a series of interviews with author Matthew Thompson.

The first step in Binse's orchestrated escape from Pentridge (pictured) was getting another inmate to stab him so he could be transferred to St Vincent's prison hospital

Binse was desperate to escape prison so he could see his dying father Steve (pictured right, next to Binse's mother Annette)

Inside Pentridge prison Binse shared a wing with other infamous criminals such as Mark 'Chopper' Read. Pictured is a historical photo of a cell inside Pentridge

In 1992 Binses father Steve, a Croatian immigrant and petty thief, fell ill with a serious heart condition.

CHRISTOPHER BINSE'S 30 YEARS IN MAXIMUM SECURITY PRISONS 1985 Sent to Pentridge Prison for a series of robberies 1988 Given the nickname Badness by fellow inmate 1992 Escape Pentridge prison with smuggled gun 1992 Re-arrested after a short time on the run 1993 Caught organising mass prison break of 30 inmates at Pentridge 1996 Convicted for armed robbery of Commonwealth Bank 2001 One of the first inmates sent to NSWs new Goulburn jail 2005 Released from prison 2012 Re-arrested after shooting at police during 44-hour siege Source: AAP Advertisement

Desperate to escape and see his beloved father before he died, Binse, then 23, concocted a meticulous plan to get out of Pentridge.

Chriss fathers heart was failing and he wanted to get out and see him, Mr Thompson said.

He got another inmate to stab him so he could get transferred to the hospital at St Vincents prison.

His father was allowed to visit St Vincents and wore a large, metal belt buckle every time he came in to see his son.

Every time he came through with this rodeo-style buckle it would set off the metal detectors.

Eventually the guards got used to his father coming through and stopped checking him.

When this happened he brought a pistol in which Chris used to escape.

Binse pulled the smuggled pistol on a guard who came to check on him and fled the prison with his father in tow.

The pair stole a car and scarpered to NSW, where Binse was arrested two weeks later.

After escaping St Vincent's Hospital, Binse (pictured) fled to NSW with his father. He was later captured and sent back to Pentridge

Binse's father Steve (right) - a Croatian immigrant and petty thief - was devastated when his son was re-captured and sent back to prison

His father was proud as punch after the escape, Mr Thompson said.

But when Chris got arrested again soon after the escape, his father was utterly depressed.

He died soon after  literally of a broken heart.

Binse later escaped from NSWs maximum-security Parramatta prison and was sent to Pentridge when he was finally re-arrested in 1992.

Pentridge was closed in 1997 and Binse was transferred to Victorias Barwon prison, where he is expected to serve another 14 years in solitary confinement.
Chicago's police superintendent has suggested his officers broke the rules before they shot an unarmed black teenager dead.

Paul O'Neal , 18, was gunned down in the back on July 28 during a stolen vehicle investigation on Chicago's South Shore, as he ran away from the responding officers.

Disturbing footage of the moments leading up to the shooting were released on Friday - but the moment the gun was fired was not caught on camera.

Chicago's Police Chief Eddie Johnson has said this because the officer's body camera wasn't turned on when he shot the fatal round - as the officer had only received it about a week earlier and wasn't yet proficient in using it.

He also said that his cops should not have been firing at the moving vehicle, as it is against department policy.

Disturbing footage shows Chicago police officers firing into a stolen car being driven by 18-year-old Paul O'Neal - moments before he was shot dead . The city's top cop has revealed they may have broken department policy before the fatal round was fired

Officers handcuff O'Neal after they fired into the vehicle he was driving and then pursued him through a yard on July 28, 2016

Demonstrators who held a march protesting the killing voiced strong suspicions that the camera may have been turned off as part of a cover-up.

At a news conference on Saturday, Johnson discussed nine videos taken from dashcams in police cars and body cameras on other officers involved.

They had had those cameras maybe about a week... There's going to be a learning curve Chicago Police Chief Eddie Johnson

The videos show officers firing repeatedly at a stolen car as it careens down the street away from them.

They also show the officers handcuffing a wounded Paul O'Neal, who was driving the stolen car, after a chaotic foot chase through a residential neighborhood in the city's South Shore neighborhood.

'They had had those cameras maybe about a week... There's going to be a learning curve,' Johnson said of the body cameras.

The cameras were introduced to one police district early last year as part of a pilot project.

They have since been distributed to six other districts and the officer who shot O'Neal had been issued a camera as part of that rollout, said department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.

He did not know when officers in the rest of the city's 22 districts would be issued body cameras.

Protesters said Saturday they did not believe any official explanation for the non-working body camera.

They and the attorney representing the O'Neal family scoffed when a department spokesman said Friday that the officer's camera may have been deactivated by the force of the air bag when the stolen car crashed into a police cruiser.

The police department has also revealed that the cop who killed O'Neal didn't have his body camera on as he had only been given it a week earlier and wasn't using it proficiently. This shows the cops continuing to fire into the stolen car

'Since all the other cameras were working, I'm sure that camera was working and it (the shooting) was edited out or that officer turned it off on purpose,' said Ja'Mal Green, an activist who spoke at the rally. 'If this is brand new equipment, how come the other officers knew to turn their cameras on and the officer who shot the fatal shot failed to turn his on or it got mysteriously turned off?'

Release of the O'Neal shooting video was the first under a new policy that calls for such material to be made public within 60 days.

I was concerned by some of the things that I saw on the videos and that's why we took such a swift action... that we did last week to relieve the three officers of their police powers Chief Johnson

The policy was changed after public outrage last year following months of delay in releasing video that showed black teenager Laquan McDonald being shot 16 times by a white officer.

The McDonald shooting video prompted accusations that Mayor Rahm Emanuel had delayed its release until after his re-election and some protesters called for him to resign.

Emanuel denied he delayed the release and has refused to step down, but he fired Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and replaced him with Johnson.

Johnson said the officers had training in how to use the cameras but it is not clear how extensive that was.

'I was concerned by some of the things that I saw on the videos and that's why we took such a swift action... that we did last week to relieve the three officers of their police powers,' Johnson said, adding he could not explain what specifically concerned him.

Chicago police have not identified the officers involved.

The department's policy prohibits officers from 'firing at or into a moving vehicle when the vehicle is the only force used against the sworn member or another person.'

Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson (left) is blocked by three protestors as he tries to deliver a written statement about the deadly shooting

Johnson (pictured behind of a line of protesters) said he was concerned by what he had seen in the footage and was preparing to take action

But the policy also says that officers 'will not unreasonably endanger themselves or another person to conform to the restrictions of this directive,' meaning they have the right to defend themselves if they or someone else are in imminent danger of being struck.

The department is going to look at changing training for officers and will take into account best practices from around the country, Bureau of Professional Standards chief Anne Kirkpatrick said Saturday.

The Chicago protest Saturday coincided with the 50th anniversary of civil rights leader Martin Luther King's march in the same neighborhood to protest housing segregation during which an angry white crowd threw bottles, firecrackers and rocks, one of which struck King in the head. A memorial of the 1966 march was unveiled Friday at Marquette Park.

Bob Schwartz, a 77-year-old retired probation officer who said he marched with King in 1966, said he was discouraged about the need to march for some of the same civil rights issues that King championed.
From disrespecting a Gold Star family to kicking a crying baby out of a rally and lying about footage of cash being offloaded in Iran, it is fair to say Trump had a bad week.

But the billionaire businessman is now attempting to put all that behind him and was pictured cosying up to GOP chairman Reince Priebus on his private jet today.

The pair were pictured on their way to two private fundraisers in Nantucket, Massachusetts, where he faced down protesters lining the side of the road.

Donald Trump and Reince Preibus were pictured making friends on the billionaire's private jet on Saturday as the Republican nominee attempts to build bridges after a disastrous week

The pair were on their way to two private fundraisers in Nantucket, where they were faced with protesters lining the side of the road

Trump is trying to build bridges with so-called establishment figures after trashing them earlier in the week, refusing to endorse incumbent Republicans in elections.

He branded New Hampshire senator Kelly Ayotte 'weak', attacked Arizona senator John McCain over veterans' issues, and snubbed Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan by throwing his own words back in his face.

Trump made the remarks despite the fact that Mike Pence, his running mate, had endorsed all three - creating a rift within his own campaign team.

But yesterday he dramatically climbed down, saying he would be supporting all three in their races, while calling for a return to Reagan-era 'big tent' Republicanism.

Trump has acknowledged the need to meet party stalwarts from politically moderate parts of the U.S. in the middle, according to a campaign aide, setting aside his instinct to fight them on principle in the service of winning a longer game.

The aide added that Trump's sometimes strained relationship with the Republican National Committee threatened to hamper their joint fundraising efforts in the final 95 days of the 2016 election season.

Trump caused a rift with the GOP after refusing to endorse prominent members in upcoming elections, but climbed down yesterday calling for a return to 'big-tent' Republicanism

The Republican nominee also tried to repair the damage done after he kicked a mother with a crying child out of one of his rallies, by saying the crowd found it 'hilarious'

Within one minute of Trump's endorsements, the GOP blasted out a fundraising email to its largest list in the nominee's name.

'Its time to unite our Party and deny a third term of Obama,' Trump says in the message.

'I have officially endorsed Paul Ryan  and together, we will fight for YOU, and together we will Make America Great Again!'

Trump is also fundraising in Nantucket today, visiting the homes of Terri and Ron Weinberg at 3pm, and then traveling to Bill and Bridget Koch's property for 6pm.

Bill Koch is the brother of Charles and David Koch, noted billionaires who have refused to endorse Trump's campaign.

According to the Boston Globe, tickets to attend the Weinberg event started at $2,700, with couples having to pay or raise at least $50,000 in order to co-chair.

Earlier in the day Trump was back to his bombastic best as he attacked Hillary Clinton's claim that she 'short-circuited' while talking about her emails.

Trump also went on the attack over Clinton's bizarre claim that she 'short-circuited' while talking about her emails, saying she has been 'brainwashed'

The Republican nominee went on the offensive over his preferred medium of Twitter, suggesting that Clinton had been 'brainwashed'.

In a series of tweets starting early on Saturday, the billionaire called Clinton out for the bizarre excuse she gave after she was caught lying over her email scandal.

While discussing the issue on Fox News, Clinton said that FBI director James Comey had defended her honesty over her testimony, saying he called her 'truthful'.

In fact Comey said the precise opposite, slamming Clinton for several public statements which he said were misleading or untrue, though said her conduct fell short of being criminal.

Trump wrote: 'Hillary Clinton is being badly criticized for her poor performance in answering questions. Let us all see what happens!

'Crooked Hillary said loudly, and for the world to see, that she "short circuited" when answering a question on her e-mails. Very dangerous!
A man on a kayaking trip in northern Australia was attacked by a crocodile and survived stranded on a remote island for four days after escaping the huge reptile's clutches.

The man was on a 200-kilometre kayak trip when his vessel was savaged by a crocodile about 3km off Townshend Island, about 111km north of Rockhampton, Queensland.

He told rescuers he had never paddled so fast in his life when the beast sank its teeth into his small vessel, leaving marks in it.

A rescue crew on its way to find the stranded kayaker on Townshend Island in Queensland

The kayaker had been attacked by a crocodile which left bite marks in his vessel (stock image)

The man had been on a 200-kilometre kayak journey up the Queensland coast when the attack happened (stock image)

He'd managed to fend it off with his paddle.

The man, who is yet to be identified, was rescued on Saturday morning, four days after he had set off on his trip from Yeppoon on a journey to Stanage Bay.

After the crocodile attack, bad weather kept the kayaker stuck on the island and he activated his personal locator beacon on Saturday after not being able to leave due to low tides.

The man was well provisioned, as he was expecting his trip from Yeppoon to Stanage Bay to take several days.

The rescue helicopter which airlifted the man from Townshend Island, where he'd been trapped for four days

The helicopter transferred the man to safety. He was uninjured during the ordeal

The kayaker said he'd never paddled so fast in his life as when he tried to escape the crocodile (stock image)

An RACQ helicopter out of Rockhampton rescued the man after his beacon was detected at 7am Saturday.

An Australian Maritime Safety Association spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia the man had a 'very lucky escape' from what she described as 'pretty inhospitable crocodile country'.

'He had only just brought the beacon ahead of the trip.

'I'm pretty sure he will be thanking his lucky stars... It's obviously not somewhere you want to be stranded for too long.'

She said paramedics assessed him and he was uninjured.
A $500,000 reward is being offered for the brutal rape of a grandmother who was attacked twice in her home by a man wielding a knife more than 33 years ago.

Widow Jessie Grace Lauder, 82, was raped twice by the same man in her Mason Street home in Newport, Victoria in September 1981 and July 1983.

Detective sergeant Nigel Freebairn reopened the cold case, offering the biggest rape reward ever in Victoria. The Lauder family hope it will bring an end to the 33 year long ordeal.

'The reward, and the dedication of Nigel in reinvestigating the case, gives us renewed confidence that justice will be served even after all this time,' grandson Malcolm Lauder told the Sunday Herald Sun.

Scroll down for video

Jessie Grace Lauder (pictured), 82, was raped twice by the same man at her Mason Street home in Newport, Victoria in September 1981 and July 1983

Mrs Lauder died in 1993 at the age of 93 never knowing who attacked her.

The attacker was thought to be a local man with limited social skills, aged between 20 and 30 at the time of the assaults.

He covered his face, and wore gloves, boots and a beanie and warned the elderly woman not to go to police.

Scientists at the Victoria Police laboratory were able to get the offender's DNA, which motivated sexual crimes squad detective sergeant Nigel Freebairn to reopen the cold case

Mrs Lauder was home alone in bed when a man armed with a knife broke in through the back door and raped her in September 1981.

She pleaded with him not to hurt her, that she suffered from a bad heart.

The disguised attacker coldly told her: 'I won't hurt you if you give me what I want.'

Speaking later to authorities , Mrs Lauder said she was he warned her not to report the rape, otherwise he would come back every week.

He would return to harm the mother-of-two nearly two years later on July 6, 1983.

Det-Sgt Freebairn hopes the reward and publicity about the case will prompt people to come forwards with information of any kind.

'While it would be great if somebody actually knows who the offender is and provides us with that name, we are also keen to have the names of anybody who somebody even has the slightest suspicion about.'

Mrs Lauder was home alone in bed when a man armed with a knife broke in through the back door and raped her in September 1981
Barely a month ago, he looked gaunt and emotional as he told of his regret at a London press conference over mistakes made after his decision to invade Iraq.

But last week, Tony Blair cut a very different figure. Wearing an open-necked shirt, designer sunglasses and statement gold cross necklace, he posed for a photo in a sun-drenched corner of southern Europe, looking as though the trauma of the Chilcot Inquiry was a long way behind him.

The former Prime Minister's trip  to Albania  came to light when the country's socialist premier Edi Rama posted the picture of the pair on Facebook. They are understood to have been in Dhermi, a village in the south, where Mr Rama was on holiday.

Tony Blair (right) was photographed sat next to the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama

But Mr Blair, 63, was spotted arriving in the area earlier last week in what is understood to be a military helicopter, landing  according to local reports  in a stadium in Himare, about 130 miles south of the capital Tirana.

Mr Blair has long-standing links to the country, having been named three years ago as an adviser to Mr Rama. His wife Cherie has also acted as a lawyer for the Albanian government.

A spokeswoman for Mr Rama said Mr Blair had been making a 'short and private visit'. She added: 'Mr Blair has never been paid for anything from the Albanian government.'

Mr Blair's office said he was there for a short, private visit.
Mr Pallier is currently selling a multi-million dollar Darling Point penthouse which was three separate

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'Castles in the sky' are taking over the Sydney luxury property market, with people now reportedly buying penthouse apartments instead of investing in mansions.

Owning a penthouse is now seen as the ultimate sign of wealth, with some buyers now purchasing entire floors of one-bedroom apartments to make supersized penthouses, reported the Daily Telegraph.

Sothebys managing director Micheal Pallier said there was a trend towards mega apartments.

Scroll down for video

'Castles in the sky' are taking over the Sydney luxury property market, with people now reportedly buying penthouse apartments instead of investing in mansions. Pictured is a Darlinghurst penthouse for sale with Sotheby's International Realty

The Darlinghurst penthouse (pictured) on Forbes Street has views to the Harbour Bridge, Opera House and right across the centre of the city. It is expected to sell for more than $12 million

Mr Pallier is currently selling a Darling Point penthouse which has been created from three separate apartments.

The penthouse, which is expected to sell for between $11.5 and $12 million, has sweeping views of Sydney Harbour, with four bedrooms, including a master suite with dressing area and ensuite, a billiards room, study and three bathrooms.

Mr Pallier told the Daily Telegraph apartments with four or five bedrooms were quite rare in the market, so they always generated a lot of interest.

The 565 square metre Darlinghurst penthouse features a terraced balcony and an expansive open plan living and dining area

The apartment on Forbes Street has also a large open-plan living area, five bedrooms and four bathrooms, including a master wing with a luxury spa ensuite

'If a buyer cant find the penthouse they want, theyre buying the neighbour's apartment and creating one,' he said.

Mr Pallier is also selling a Darlinghurst penthouse with views overlooking the centre of the city, expected to be purchased for upwards of $12 million.

He said some units he sells bring in more than $55,000 per square metre.

The trend for buying apartments is catching on across the city, with agents saying many people prefer the lock and leave ease of owning an apartment, as opposed to a large property.

Michael Pallier from Sotheby's is also selling a Darling Point penthouse (pictured is the view from the apartment) which is expect to fetch between $11.5 and $12 million

The Darling Point penthouse (pictured) has sweeping views of Sydney Harbour, with four bedrooms, including a master suite with dressing area and ensuite, a billiards room, study and three bathrooms

The Darling Point penthouse apartment (pictured) was originally three separate apartments, but was combined to form one 'mega apartment'

The 495 square metre luxury residence has sweeping views of Sydney Harbour from every window (pictured)

The master suite (pictured) has a dressing area, ensuite and a balcony accessed off to one side through sliding glass doors

The kitchen (pictured) has stainless steel benchtops, wooden cupboards and plenty of storage space

As well as a built-in bar (pictured), the luxury penthouse apartment features a 700-bottle wine cellar

The luxury apartment (pictured is one of the bedrooms) also has access to on site leisure facilities including an indoor swimming pool, gymnasium and sauna

Mr Pallier said some apartments he sells bring in more than $55,000 per square metre. Pictured is a view from the Darling Point apartment for sale through Sotheby's
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Mail on Sunday cartoonist Michael Heath has been entertaining readers for over 30 years

Michael Heath is the brilliant and often merciless artist who has been dazzling readers of The Mail on Sunday for more than 30 years.

And today Britains best-loved cartoonist is honoured with a guest spot on Desert Island Discs.

Heath, who produced his first cartoons in the 1950s, is one of just a handful of illustrators to be invited onto the iconic Radio 4 programme.

In a far-reaching interview Heath, 80, talks about the pressures on cartoonists following the terrorist attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris in 2015.

He tells presenter Kirsty Young: Funny is now dangerous. You have to be careful what you do because there are groups of people who take offence all the time and look to take offence and wish to take offence and then take offence at whatever you do.

Asked if he still drew what he wanted he says: I do but they dont get it so it doesnt matter.

Heath also recalls his bleak childhood growing up in the late 1930s and 1940s. His Communist father, a childrens book illustrator, and his mother were dear people but not particularly loving.

They barely spoke to him and rarely gave him Christmas or birthday presents.

He says: I had no relationship with my parents at all and that was normal, I gather.

My father did not hug me, we did not high five

What presents I was given at the time, perhaps a teddy or an old train, they were taken away from me and given to the people next door who had been bombed out.

He adds: I didnt know my birthday or what date it was on.

At a school I told a group of kids that it was my birthday on such and such a date and they must turn up at my home with presents. They turned up and it wasnt my birthday and they were sent away.

Heath also recalls his membership of the notorious 1960s drinking crowd which included the artists Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud and the bibulous columnist Jeffrey Bernard.

Asked how he managed to combine the heavy boozing with his work, Heath says: I was doing the drawing while I was drinking. I could drink and draw You draw fearlessly when you are drunk or half drunk. It gives you a kind of whizz. For his luxury item he chose a painting kit so he could learn to paint properly.

Here, the cartoonist picks some of his favourite recent works and explains their significance to him.

Desert Island Discs, 11.15am.

1990: Heath says: There was a feeling at the time that although John Major was PM, Margaret Thatcher was the back-seat driver

2009: Heath says: The last Labour Government came in for a lot of stick when it raided our pension pots. They were accused of nicking the money and I hope this captures that idea.

2012: Heath says: Mr Cameron was always saying we were all in it together in the economic crisis. So I used it to make a point about his relationship with Rebekah Brooks in the hacking scandal.

2012: Heath says: This was when Harry went to Las Vegas and photographs of him appeared being rather naughty. It was suggested at the time that all the girls were trying to get their hands on him. She has a tattoo on her tummy which implies she has has had an encounter with him. She is by Royal appointment.

2013: Heath says: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have won the hearts of the nation in a way we havent seen since the days of Diana Princess of Wales. I wanted to celebrate the arrival of Prince George with a cartoon which was amusing but not offensive. Its witty without being banal

2014: Heath says: I was deeply moved by the poppies at the Tower and wanted to do something to celebrate that. I produced the drawing before the caption. Flower power seemed perfect as the installation resonated with everyone and captured the publics imagination

2014: Heath says: 'This is about pension reforms and a celebration of old age. The senior citizen has cashed in his annuity and blown it on a flash car. I also hope it challenges the idea of the pensioner being past his best. Too often old people are looked down on'

2016: Heath says: I wanted to convey the enormous reputational damage Tony Blair suffered as a result of the Iraq War. He is one of the casualties of that war
Britains leading rehab clinic The Priory has been branded unsafe in a devastating report by an official watchdog, following a series of suicides and self-harming incidents by patients.

In the most recent case, millionaire company chairman Stephen Bantoft, 49, is understood to have hanged himself less than three hours after checking into an acute psychiatric wing at the hospital.

The father of three had not been seen by a doctor.

His death was one of two suicides in the hospital last year, and one of ten serious incidents of self-harm involving ligatures in the three months prior to March.

Following Mr Bantofts death last December, the West Wing of the hospital in Roehampton, south-west London, was closed for two weeks for urgent modifications.

Britains leading rehab clinic The Priory (pictured) has been branded unsafe in a devastating report by an official watchdog, following a series of suicides and self-harming incidents by patients

But even after reopening, an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found that the hospital, which has treated celebrities including Kate Moss, Amy Winehouse and Robbie Williams, was littered with hazards for vulnerable patients.

A family friend told The Mail on Sunday that Mr Bantofts wife Lucinda has taken her husband to The Priory last December after he was referred by a psychiatrist.

He was admitted to a room on the West Wing, where she stayed with him for about two hours.

The friend said: Throughout that time, he was given no medication and wasnt even seen by a doctor.

'But Lucinda had to leave him to get back to her children, and made sure staff on duty knew what to look out for before she left.

'He was dead within about half an hour.

Mr Bantoft is the fourth apparent suicide in a Priory Group facility in as many years, and was the second at the Roehampton flagship hospital in 2015.

An inquest into his death is due to be held later this year.

In the most recent case, millionaire company chairman Stephen Bantoft (pictured with wife Lucinda), 49, is understood to have hanged himself less than three hours after checking into an acute psychiatric wing at the hospital

The catalogue of faults highlighted in the CQCs new 40-page report deals a blow to the group, which charges private patients 6,800 a week before treatments.

Among the problems cited were:

Reliance on temporary staff, with up to 51 per cent used in one wing at nights;

Old buildings with long corridors and blind spots, often on several levels, making supervision difficult;

Potential ligature anchors in many places, including in the dimly lit garden, to which patients had unrestricted access;

Evidence of same-sex ward rules being breached with men in rooms on female wards and vice versa.

The Priory Group boasts a 520 million turnover, 85 per cent of which comes from the NHS and local authorities, with operating profits of 74 million in 2014.

Under the safety criteria, the CQC report judges The Priorys acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care unit services inadequate  the worst possible rating.

Overall, in four out of five criteria, the hospital was found to require improvement.

The report adds: The layout of the hospital and the wards made it very hard for staff to observe patients who were at risk of self-harm.

'There were ligature risks throughout the hospital. There were a high number of incidents in the last year involving ligatures.

Mr Bantoft, from Clapham, South-West London, was chairman and founder of property development firm Cannock Group.

Paying tribute to her husband on Facebook, Mrs Bantoft wrote: We all loved you, but we couldnt save you... we will never forget your presence in our lives.

A hospital spokesman said: We take this report extremely seriously, and are already delivering a significant programme of investment to improve the physical environment, alongside a further 500,000 to address the concerns raised by the CQC.

For confidential support call the Samaritans in the UK on 116 123, visit a local Samaritans branch or click here for details.

All they wanted was my money

Comment by Gail Porter

Gail (pictured) hosts a Comedy in Reality Television workshop at the Edinburgh Fringe Funny Women Weekend on Saturday

In 2005 I was very depressed and vulnerable. One day I unwittingly overdosed on medication and was taken to an NHS hospital to get my stomach pumped.

It wasnt a suicide attempt, just a silly mistake, because I lost track of time and over-medicated. At the hospital it was recommended that I go to a facility that could deal with my kind of depression, so I was taken to The Priory.

I remember it was all very formal at the desk. I had to sign in and was taken to a tiny little room and just left there for maybe 20 minutes or so. I was a bit dazed and confused, and I remember feeling very isolated.

A lady came to see me with a clipboard in her hand; she compared me to a car running out of petrol and not functioning properly. I just thought it was such a cliched analogy.

There was a lot of paperwork and when she got to the final bit, she said: Right, well its 5,000 a week, are you going to pay by credit card? I thought I was just coming in for an assessment  I didnt really understand what was going on.

Once she realised that I didnt have that kind of money, she told me I should order a cab.

I understand its a business, but at that point on that day, it was all a bit daunting.

I remember walking down the long corridors and thinking: How on earth do I get out of here?, Wheres my taxi? and I hope its got petrol  unlike me!

So I got the cab and went home alone and slept, which was all I wanted to do. Later on I ended up at an NHS facility, which was dire, and after that another clinic called Clouds, which was amazing.

Over time, I started eating more healthily, running and exercising more, and I eventually came off the medication.

Im not recommending it for everyone, but it worked for me and Ive never felt better.

Theres not the right kind of help out there for a lot of people and unfortunately a lot of it is money-based.

If you cant afford the right kind of help, people feel that they have nowhere to go.

Ive had friends whove been to The Priory and they have found it to be really beneficial, but this was my brief experience of the place.
In 2005 I was very depressed and vulnerable. One day I unwittingly overdosed on medication and was taken to an NHS hospital to get my stomach pumped.

It wasnt a suicide attempt, just a silly mistake, because I lost track of time and over-medicated.

At the hospital it was recommended that I go to a facility that could deal with my kind of depression, so I was taken to The Priory.

I remember it was all very formal at the desk. I had to sign in and was taken to a tiny little room and just left there for maybe 20 minutes or so.

Gail, pictured, hosts a Comedy in Reality Television workshop at the Edinburgh Fringe Funny Women Weekend on Saturday

I was a bit dazed and confused, and I remember feeling very isolated.

A lady came to see me with a clipboard in her hand; she compared me to a car running out of petrol and not functioning properly.

I just thought it was such a cliched analogy.

There was a lot of paperwork and when she got to the final bit, she said: Right, well its 5,000 a week, are you going to pay by credit card?

I thought I was just coming in for an assessment  I didnt really understand what was going on.

Once she realised that I didnt have that kind of money, she told me I should order a cab.

I understand its a business, but at that point on that day, it was all a bit daunting.

I remember walking down the long corridors and thinking: How on earth do I get out of here?, Wheres my taxi? and I hope its got petrol  unlike me!

Gail Porter, pictured in 2001, said: 'It wasnt a suicide attempt, just a silly mistake, because I lost track of time and over-medicated'

So I got the cab and went home alone and slept, which was all I wanted to do.

Later on I ended up at an NHS facility, which was dire, and after that another clinic called Clouds, which was amazing.

Over time, I started eating more healthily, running and exercising more, and I eventually came off the medication.

Im not recommending it for everyone, but it worked for me and Ive never felt better.

Theres not the right kind of help out there for a lot of people and unfortunately a lot of it is money-based.

If you cant afford the right kind of help, people feel that they have nowhere to go.

Ive had friends whove been to The Priory and they have found it to be really beneficial, but this was my brief experience of the place.
Captain and first-time Olympian Chris Brooks will be leading the USA team, despite a few

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It was a spectacular show of human strength and gravity defying skill, as the US Men's Gymnastics Team flexed their carefully honed muscles on qualifying day.

The Americans showed they had the potential to go for gold and despite a few patchy performances, they made it through to the team final on Monday, with a top ranking score of 270.405.

Incredible pictures from Saturday's events show the gymnasts in full swing as they gave impressive displays on the horizontal bar, the vault, the pommel horse and rings, as well as the parallel bars and on the floor.

There were some mishaps, with captain and first-time Olympian Chris Brooks coming off the pommel horse and botching his vault.

But there were also exceptional performances from Sam Mikulak and Jake Dalton, who scored 15.800 and 15.600 on floor exercise, which were the best two scores of the day.

Despite some promising team members and a leading preliminary score, Team USA will have to streamline their performances if they are to secure any medals on Monday.

Challengers to the gold are Japan, who have dominated the sport for years and who came in second on Saturday, as well as Great Britain and host country Brazil, who sit third and fourth, respectively.

The greatest of ease: Danell Leyva performs mid air splits during his qualifying performance for the men's horizontal bar

Upside down: Christopher Brooks competes in the qualifying for the men's pommel horse (left) horizontal bar event (right)

Team USA! US Men's gymnasts, from right, Chris Brooks, Jake Dalton, Danell Leyva, Sam Mikulak and Alexander Naddour

US gymnast Jacob Dalton competes in the qualifying for the men's floor exercise and shows of his back flip skills

Seven-time NCAA champion Samuel Mikulak competes in the qualifying for the men's pommel horse event

A picture of poise and concentration, Jacob Dalton competes in the qualifying for the men's horizontal bar event

Going for gold: US gymnast Samuel Mikulak looks positive competing in the qualifying for the men's horizontal bar event

Alexander Naddour shows off his incredible arm strength during the pommel horse event (left) while a birds eye view of Danell Leyva shows the splattering of chalk left behind after his pommel horse performance (right)

Naddour makes shapes on the pommel horse and shows off a tattoo with the word London

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, center, watches gymnasts perform during the artistic gymnastics men's qualification

Success ! Mikulak (left and right) sits fourth overall in the individual all-around qualification, his 15.800 on the floor routine the best score of the day in that event

Captain and first-time Olympian Chris Brooks (pictured) botched his vault, came off the pommel horse and had a mistake on high bar

Brooks was a member of the U.S. Junior National Team 1999-2001, 2002-2005. In 2003 he was a Gold medallist at the USA National Championships

Family affair: Brooks's father, Larry, was also a gymnast which is how Chris got involved with the sport. Both Brooks's brother and sister have had involvement in gymnastics as well

Sam Mikulak (left) gave a strong overall performance and Dannell Leyva (right) scored am impressive 15.600 on parallel bars
Dame Lowell Goddard, the New Zealand judge who resigned on Thursday as chair of the 100 million Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), did not leave her post voluntarily but was effectively fired, The Mail on Sunday has learned.

Dame Lowell, appointed by then-Home Secretary Theresa May just over a year ago, had already lost the confidence of senior staff and members of the inquiry panel, according to two well-placed legal sources.

After she gave a stumbling performance at a preliminary hearing on the case of former Labour politician Greville Janner, when she appeared not to understand her own legal powers, this was picked up by Mrs Mays successor as Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, and her advisers.

Dame Lowell had already lost the confidence of senior staff and members of the inquiry panel, according to two well-placed legal sources

The final straw was the disclosure  prompted in part by questions from this newspaper  that in her first year in the job, she spent 30 days on leave and 44 days supposedly working in Australia, although in all that time she held only two meetings with members of a child abuse inquiry underway there. A Home Office spokeswoman last night insisted it was her decision to offer her resignation. But asked whether this had been suggested to Dame Lowell by officials because her position was becoming untenable, she refused to comment.

The judges departure leaves the IICSA in disarray, for she is the third chair in just two years  though the inquiry has not yet heard a single piece of evidence, and is not set to do so until next year. Dame Lowells pay and expenses package was worth more than 500,000 a year. This newspaper has learned that Ben Emmerson QC, counsel to the inquiry, who some have suggested could end up as her successor, is paid 1,700 a day, and in the past financial year earned 408,000  more than Dame Lowells 360,000 basic salary.

There was widespread disbelief at Dame Lowells resignation letter, which gave no reason for her departure

There was widespread disbelief at Dame Lowells resignation letter, which gave no reason for her departure. Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, has said he will insist on her giving evidence to explain her actions to MPs. She followed up her letter with a public statement, in which she spoke of IICSAs legacy of failure, which has been very hard to shake off  apparently a reference to the departure of the two previous chairs. The Home Office spokeswoman said the Government rejected the notion that IICSA was a failure, saying: They were her words, not ours.

This newspaper was instrumental in causing the departure of the second IICSA chair, former Lord Mayor of London Fiona Woolf, after we revealed she was socially close to the family of former Home Secretary Leon Brittan  then subject of allegations, later dismissed, of sexual abuse.

Legal sources say there was widespread dismay among IICSAs staff and advisers that Dame Lowell seemed unable to get to grips with the colossal amount of material the inquiry was generating, which left her overwhelmed and drowning, while handicapped by her blurry knowledge of English law.

At the preliminary Janner hearing, she seemed to struggle with the very law under which IICSA was established, the Inquiries Act 2005, and unsure whether she could issue orders restricting media reporting. It was also noted that she appeared unfamiliar with the role of a judge during a hearing, failing to invite opposing arguments in the normal way.

There were a lot of bewildered barristers in court that day, one source said.

She added: This has been building up for months. It wasnt what Dame Lowell wanted, but what the world saw in court has been evident behind the scenes for a long time. In the end, her resignation became inevitable.

Dame Lowell Goddard, the New Zealand judge appointed only a year ago by then-Home Secretary Theresa May

'So, how many days have you had off,' I asked... 24 hours later she was gone

Analysis by David Rose

On Wednesday last week, I put some questions to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), the ill-starred 100 million behemoth that has lost no fewer than three chairwomen in two years  without having heard a single piece of evidence.

I had been briefed by well-placed sources that Dame Lowell Goddard, the New Zealand judge appointed only a year ago by then-Home Secretary Theresa May, had been spending an awful lot of time in the Southern Hemisphere. It was also being said that she was out of her depth  overwhelmed and drowning  as one unkind soul put it: unsure of the facts of the myriad of cases she was investigating, and equipped with only a blurry understanding of her role in UK law.

So I sent her a list of questions addressing these issues, including how many days has Dame Lowell worked since she was appointed, and how many days has she taken as leave? Just 24 hours later, Dame Lowell, along with her 500,000 pay package, had gone and the first daily newspaper report appeared revealing that on top of 30 days leave, she had spent 44 days in Australasia, supposedly working  yet held only two meetings with her Antipodean counterparts, the Royal Commission looking into sexual abuse in Australia.

We can say that beyond her 360,000 salary, 110,000 rent allowance, 12,000 utilities stipend, chauffeur-driven car and business-class flights to New Zealand, she was not greedy for more. Her expenses claims, the inquiry spokeswoman told me, amounted to 120.65.

But make no mistake: Dame Lowell did not resign voluntarily, and has given no plausible reason for doing so. Fatally, she had lost the confidence of other members of her inquiry panel, and her senior staff. By the beginning of last week, this had spread to the Home Office.

Look closely at Home Secretary Amber Rudds words when she accepted the judges resignation: With regret, I agree that this is the right decision. This was not a resignation in the usual sense at all. Dame Lowell was fired.

But make no mistake: Dame Lowell did not resign voluntarily, and has given no plausible reason for doing so

However, it is impossible not to feel some sympathy for her. It is a truth that if publicity is given to allegations that a famous person once committed acts of sexual abuse, many others will pile in with similar claims. Some may be genuine, but the multi-million-pound industry run by lawyers seeking damages for abuse survivors has established a strong financial motive for those prepared to lie. And where police, politicians, and, yes, public inquiries have made clear that their bias is towards believing the victims, there is little risk of such perjury being exposed.

Mrs May announced the formation of IICSA on the day after Leon Brittan was (we now know falsely) accused of rape. The febrile claims of a VIP paedophile ring embracing not only sexual depravity but multiple child murders, peddled by the now-defunct website Exaro and, disgracefully, the BBC, followed swiftly in its wake. By the time Dame Lowell took over, the flood of publicity had given rise to an allegations tsunami. The open-ended remit Mrs May gave IICSA effectively meant nothing could be ruled off limits  while the current rate of new allegations being forwarded to the inquiry team is running at more than 100 a day.

The inquiry is tasked with investigating a bewildering range of diverse institutions from the churches to the NHS. Its scope is simply too vast and amorphous for any chair, no matter how talented, to stand a realistic chance of producing useful conclusions.

But it isnt just a tighter focus that IICSA needs. Last week this newspaper revealed that the man who, for many years, was the main and only source of claims against the late Labour politician Greville Janner, also made false allegations of sexual abuse against the woman in charge of his childrens home  claims that were dismissed.

From this, there are two lessons for IICSA: one specific, one general. As well as the large institutions the inquiry is set to investigate there has been, until now, just one individual: Janner, who is dead and cannot answer back. The inquiry has, nevertheless, insisted it will make findings of fact about him. This inquiry strand should be dropped.
Most people want to know what they're eating before they take a bite, but these Daily Mail staffers ventured into the unknown as they had a go at guessing the type of jerky they tasted.

From alligator to kangaroo, it was no wonder why these taste testers couldn't guess the mystery meats.

The jerky, which was provided by Mountain America Jerky, baffled its Daily Mail consumers as some thought that everything tasted like beef.

Daily Mail staffers ventured into the unknown as they had a go at guessing the type of jerky they tasted. The jerky, which was provided by Mountain America Jerky , baffled the taste testers as some thought that everything tasted like beef

Staffers endured five rounds of tasting a variety of jerky, which included: alligator, kangaroo, wild boar, duck and Tibetan yak. Blanca Torres said the meat was 'very peppery' and thought it was turkey

In the first round of tasting, Cheyenne MacDonald was the only person to guess that they had just eaten alligator jerky

Surprisingly, the alligator jerky was mostly mistaken for 'some type of bird' as Alyssa Hargrove

Staffers endured five rounds of tasting a variety of jerky, which included: alligator, kangaroo, wild boar, duck and Tibetan yak.

In round one, the alligator jerky was mostly mistaken for 'some type of bird' with a few tasters definitively calling it an 'ostrich'.

However, Cheyenne MacDonald was the only person to guess the mystery flavor to be alligator.

As the brave souls moved into the second round with a wild boar delicacy, Jenny Stanton said: 'I feel like I've eaten this before.'

Others 'had no clue', while some thought it was a 'snake' and 'maybe quail'.

Probably the strangest answer of them all came from Jenny when she thought she had the mysterious meat figured out.

'It tastes a little bit like Puffin, which I had in Iceland,' she said.

As the brave souls moved into the second round with a wild boar delicacy, Sarah Pusateri, thought the pork tasted a bit like snake

While Jenny Stanton just knew she had eaten something similar to the wild boar before. She gave probably the strangest answer of them all when she said: 'It tastes a little bit like Puffin, which I had in Iceland'

Round three really stumped the tasters as they snacked on Tibetan yak, which was mostly mistaken for a horse

And Cheyenne rounded out the answers by saying the Tibetan yak was actually 'tiger'

Round three really stumped the tasters as they snacked on Tibetan yak, which was mostly mistaken for a horse.

'Did I eat a horse today? Because I never really wanted to eat a horse, ever, like in my life,' Sarah Pusateri said.

'That was not a goal.'

But Sarah wasn't the only one to get this one wrong, in fact no one got it right.

'This tastes like South African biltong,' Jenny said.

And Cheyenne rounded out the answers with 'tiger'.

In round four, the mystery jerky turned out to be kangaroo, and Sarah was the only one to guess it right, believe it or not.

Others said it smelled 'fishy', could be a 'bison' or a 'horse', but better yet it's probably a 'whale'.

And last but not least the tasters took on a duck delicacy.

'Again it tastes like beef. Maybe I just think everything tastes like beef,' Jenny said.

'This definitely tastes like liver', Blanca Torres added.

Anneta Konstantinides said she had no clue what she ate at all, but on the bright side, 'it was good though'.

In the end Sarah was just relieved that she didn't eat horse but was surprised she ate kangaroo and guessed it correctly

Surprise: Anneta on the other hand, was absolutely bummed that she ate kangaroo

She even made the comparison to 'Joey'. But on the bright side, she did enjoy the duck and dubbed it her favorite even though she thought she ate turkey

When Alyssa was told that she had none other than the Tibetan yak jerky, she asked: 'What is that thing? Does it climb up mountains?'

And Alyssa Hargrove literally took a "wild" guess and called it 'elk'.

Once the five types of jerky were revealed, saying these Daily Mail staffers were surprised is an understatement, especially when they found out they ate a kangaroo.

'I can't believe I just ate a kangaroo, ahh', Sarah said.

'You did not just let me eat a kangaroo!' Anneta exclaimed in disbelief.

'No, Joey', she said glumly.

When Alyssa was told that she had none other than the Tibetan yak jerky, she asked: 'What is that thing? Does it climb up mountains?'
A leaked email by one of the Queens closest confidants last night reignited the row over claims that Buckingham Palace backed Brexit.

The memo reveals her chief spin doctors excited reaction to his new job  helping Boris Johnson make a success of taking Britain out of the EU.

Announcing his move from Communications Secretary to the Queen to become the Foreign Secretarys Brexit spin doctor, high-flying James Roscoe tossed aside the usual mandarins reserve.

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Press secretary to Queen Elizabeth II James Roscoe, who is moving to work for Boris Johnson

He could not wait to get stuck in as Johnsons Head of Post Referendum Communications Unit, he said in a breathless Palace email seen by this newspaper.

Roscoe said Britain was an extraordinary country with an incredible Sovereign and would thrive and prosper when it had broken free of Brussels.

His pro-Brexit rallying cry came four months after a storm over claims that the Queen had said she backed Brexit.

At a dinner with Coalition Ministers Michael Gove and Nick Clegg, the Queen is said to have made it clear that she believed the UK would be better off out of the EU, although she denied it.

In his email, Roscoe said: Im looking forward to the prospect of being involved in forging a new role for the UK in the world. We are an extraordinary country with an incredible Sovereign and I have every confidence that we can define a new confident Britain, thriving and prospering on the world stage.

He joked: Quick appointments seem in vogue  an apparent reference to Theresa Mays unexpectedly quick victory in the Tory leadership race.

His email was sent on the same day that Mrs May took over from David Cameron as Prime Minister.

Significantly, the email reveals his short-notice move to become Johnsons spin doctor was approved by the Queens top adviser, private secretary Sir Christopher Geidt.

And Roscoe was not picked by Johnson  his email was sent hours before the former London mayor became Foreign Secretary.

Well-placed sources say it is inconceivable the move would not have been discussed with the Queen.

Queen Elizabeth II has lost her top spin doctor to Boris Johnson's department

The July 13 leaked email sent by James Roscoe which has ignited the controversey

The 39-year-old has very close relations with Geidt. His move to the Foreign Office means the Queen can keep a close eye on Brexit developments through the Palaces personal and professional links with Roscoe.

Married to musician, actress and writer Clemency Burton-Hill, Roscoe learned about the dark arts of being a spin doctor as a press officer at No 10 for Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

His appointment is thought to have been made by the Foreign Offices chief mandarin, Sir Simon McDonald, who also worked for Brown.

Roscoes email emerged as Mr Clegg publicly named Mr Gove for the first time as the source of the Queen Backs Brexit story in The Sun.

In a BBC2 review of the referendum tomorrow, Mr Clegg says: Michael Gove leaked it to The Sun, but it didnt happen.

The idea that the Queen would bother to give me a tongue-lashing about Europe is mendacious. It was very disrespectful of Gove to have done it.
A training base built by an Islamist terrorist group behind suicide bombings and mass shootings was allegedly funded by British aid.

The compound in the north of the Gaza Strip is operated by the military wing of Hamas.

It is fitted with sophisticated communications equipment for surveillance and is an entry point to secret tunnels used to smuggle weapons and launch attacks on Israel.

There are also buildings used to train gunmen with the Qassam Brigades, which claims to have 10,000 members in Gaza and has been behind rocket attacks on Israel, the kidnap of Israeli soldiers and a series of bloody attacks.

The compound in the north of the Gaza Strip is operated by the military wing of Hamas

Israel says money from British taxpayers was funnelled to Hamas to build the base by a senior Palestinian official with World Vision, a major Christian charity that has been handed millions of pounds by the UK's Department for International Development (Dfid).

Shin Bet, Israel's intelligence agency, has arrested the official, Mohammad el Halabi, on charges of infiltrating World Vision and aiding terrorists. Israel believe he passed 33 million intended to relive poverty to Hamas to pay its salaries and train its troops.

Hamas, which seeks the elimination of Israel, is identified as a proscribed terrorist organisation by Britain, the EU and the US. It has controlled Gaza since 2007.

Halabi, World Vision's local director of operations, was arrested in June at the Erez crossing between Israel and Gaza. He was held for 50 days before being charged last week. Shin Bet claims he is a Hamas operative handpicked 11 years ago to infiltrate the global charity.

They say for the past six years Halabi has transferred more than half its annual budget for Gaza to the terror group. This included 60,000 'received from the United Kingdom' for construction of the terrorist compound, codenamed 'Palestine'. British aid money is also alleged to have paid the salaries of Hamas members building the 1,800ft-long base. Hamas operates about 70 compounds across Gaza but this is one of the biggest and most sophisticated.

This is not a typical compound. It is where they do military exercises and build up forces. A military source

It includes observation points facing north towards Israel and a training zone with buildings for close-quarters training.

Last June Israel launched air strikes to destroy the base, but they failed and it remains active.

A military source said: 'This is not a typical compound. It is where they do military exercises and build up forces.'

The allegations are embarrassing for World Vision, which has a 2.3 billion annual budget and includes Bill Clinton, Scarlett Johansson and Myleene Klass among its celebrity supporters.

The charity said in statement: 'World Vision subscribes to the humanitarian principles of impartiality and neutrality and therefore rejects any involvement in any political, military or terrorist activities. We will carefully review any evidence presented to us.' Hamas also denied what it called 'false accusations', insisting it had 'no relationship' with Halabi.

Israel says money from British taxpayers was funnelled to Hamas to build the base by a senior Palestinian official with World Vision

There have long been claims in Israel that Western aid is abused in Gaza and the West Bank.

Australia suspended funding for World Vision projects in the Palestinian territories after what it called 'deeply troubling' allegations.

Britain does not back World Vision work in Gaza, although Dfid gave the group 22,642,147 under its current round of Programme Partnership Arrangements. It also receives substantial EU monies. Ian Austin, Labour MP for Dudley North, said: 'Dfid needs to tell us whether any money given to support people in Gaza has been diverted to Hamas.'

He is one of an all-party group of MPs trying to obtain Dfid's Memorandum of Understanding over 25 million aid handed annually to the Palestinian Authority.

This follows Mail on Sunday revelations earlier this year that the Authority was sending funds to hundreds of jailed terrorists, including suicide bombers and child killers.

It was one of many aid scandals uncovered by this newspaper during our 'End The 12bn Foreign Aid Madness' campaign.
Unscrupulous car hire companies have been accused of conning holidaymakers by imposing unreasonably low mileage limits and hiding them in small print.

Some travellers have picked up a vehicle to use during their break, only to find they are restricted to driving as few as 22 miles a day and that, if they go over that limit, their bill will rocket.

Angry holidaymakers have told The Mail on Sunday that they have been hit by extra charges after hurriedly signing paperwork at busy airports.

Price comparison website TravelSupermarket said the mileage scam was widespread, with victims typically charged as much as 100 extra.

Some holidaymakers have hired a vehicle only to find they are restricted to driving 22 miles a day (stock photo)

The site's travel expert, Bob Atkinson, said: 'Being billed for going over a mileage limit is one of a number of car hire cons to watch out for.'

One visitor to Portugal was stunned to receive a 65 bill for exceeding his limit. He hadn't spotted it among a raft of terms and conditions.

Consumer organisations say the scam is one of the worst perpetrated by deceitful car hire firms, with others including charging customers for damage for which they are not responsible.

AA spokesman Ian Crowther said that, while many firms offered unlimited-mileage deals, he was aware of a number of cases where drivers were caught out because companies imposed a low limit on free miles but did not prominently advertise the fact.

He said: 'What can seem like a bargain can turn into something far from it. Our advice is buyer beware.'

Holidaymaker James Wilson only discovered he was restricted to an average daily mileage limit when he returned his hire car to Faro Airport after a two-week break in Portugal.

Holidaymaker James Wilson only discovered he was restricted to an average daily mileage limit when he returned his hire car to Faro Airport (pictured, stock photo)

The retired businessman from Canterbury in Kent said: 'I booked the car through my airline. I thought I'd got a very good deal at 125 and no one at the booking desk said anything about a limit when I collected the car.

'It was only when I returned it that I was told I was being charged more.

'When I queried the charge I was told it was in writing in the paperwork, but when you're in a rush at the airport and there are people queuing behind you, you can't be expected to read all the small print. The sales people know this and take you to the cleaners.'
Horses are being painted with foundation and dressed in wigs at competition to look 'pretty for judges,' a leading sport official has claimed.

Products including highlighter gel, foundation and false tails are all being used on show horses.

The practice is not banned but has caused controversy in the equine competition world.

Horses are being painted with foundation and dressed in wigs at competition to look 'pretty for judges,' a leading sport official has claimed (File photo)

The president of the British Show Horse Association, David Tatlow, 76, has blamed children for pressuring their parents into using the products, according to The Telegraph.

'I hate this make-up nonsense, I really do,' said Mr Tatlow.

'I find it completely abhorrent. People are trying to pull the wool over the judges' eyes.'

Online message boards are filled with tips and tricks on how best to apply horse make-up.

Products including highlighter gel, foundation and false tails are all being used on show horses (File photo)

One commenter wrote: 'Well for my horse I use black as its easier to work with. Then I put a bit of baby oil on top just to get the shine.'

Another wrote: 'I use black chalk on the eyes and muzzle, but only if they already have black there.'
Word spread quickly in Melbourne's underworld when a Louis Vuitton bag appeared on Gumtree for sale just four weeks after it was burgled from the home of well-known debt collector John Khoury.

Mr Khoury, who is the business partner of suspected gangland figure Mick Gatto, left his home just minutes before two thieves smashed down a fence and back window to get inside in early june.

Earlier reports of the incident have Mr Khoury dismissing the intruders as a 'couple of junkies' meanwhile sources have claimed that the bag was traded with the online vendor for $300 worth of the drug ice.

Thieves who stole a Louis Vuitton (stock) handbag from an alleged underworld figure's home have been caught and charged with burglary after the bag appeared on Gumtree a month after the robbery

The incident which occurred in early June was investigated by police who dusted Mr Khoury's home for fingerprints and examined some CCTV footage of the suspected thieves captured from a nearby property.

Detectives on the case allegedly decided not to show Mr Khoury the footage and also refused to divulge the names of the pair, according to The Age.

But despite their efforts Mr Khoury had already established their identities through his own contacts.

Investigators were told that the pair broke into the back of the property and stole handbags, watches and a 'quantity of cash'.

A 33-year-old man and 25-year-old woman were charged with the burglary of the $6,000 bag which was marked down to about $2,500 to $3,000 on Gumtree.

Mr Khoury, who was made aware of the advertisement, made an appointment to meet the vendor who was surprised to learn who his buyer was.

Well-known debt collector and dispute mediator, John Khoury - known for doing business with alleged gangland figure Mick Gatto (pictured) contacted the online vendor to make negotiations about the stolen bag

Accompanied by two associates Mr Khoury negotiated a deal in which he recovered the bag and received $300 for his 'expenses' for his fence.

It is believed that Mr Khoury's $12,000 Rolex watch was also found among the items stolen by the pair in a search conducted at their apartment in Richmond.

Melbourne has seen 51,000 burglary's in the last year with many stolen goods being traded for cash or drugs, reported Fairfax.

It is believed that online classifieds are becoming a popular method of trade because stolen items can be sold quickly and anonymously.
Prime Minister Theresa May is set to reintroduce grammar schools by scrapping an 18-year ban which was imposed by former Labour Party leader Tony Blair.

The new move, which will 'make sure people have the opportunity to excel', will feature as a key part of the new Tory leader's social cohesion agenda.

Mrs May, 59 - who is grammar school educated - is expected to announce the new policy at the Conservatives' party conference in October, reports the Telegraph.

The policy to bring back selective state schools is likely to satisfy Conservative MPs who have spent years campaigning for this announcement.

Mrs May, 59 - who is grammar school educated - is expected to announce the new policy at the Conservatives' party conference in October

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair, 63, banned grammar schools in 1998 - just one year after the Labour Party won the general election.

A government source told the newspaper that the reintroduction of grammar schools was about 'social mobility'.

They added: 'If you're a really bright kid you should have the opportunity to excel as far as your talents take you.'

Tory MPs also described the move as a 'victory for common sense' and added that the new policy is 'fantastic'.

There are now just 163 grammar schools left in England out of around 3,000 state secondaries and there are only 69 in Northern Ireland.

And a recent poll indicated that Brits want to see new grammar schools across the country as seven in 10 would like the ban to be lifted.

Meanwhile, eight in 10 think the schools can boost social mobility.

Graham Brady, who quit the Conservative Party's front bench in 2007 over Mr Cameron's grammar schools stance, said the new policy would help 'raise standards' in state education.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair (pictured) banned grammar schools in 1998 - just one year after the Labour Party won the general election

He said: 'Scrapping Labour's absurd ban on grammar schools would be great news and an early achievement for Theresa May's government.'

Tory MP Gareth Johnson campaigned on grammar schools and said the change 'makes absolute sense'.
Pauline Hanson has been offered choc tops, a kebab and double-pass tickets to see a black comedy about the Cronulla riots.

Director Abe Forsythe extended the invite to the One Nation leader while walking the red carpet at the premiere of his new film Down Under.

The movie is set 24 hours after the infamous violence sparked by angry Caucasian mobs in Sydney's south in 2005, and highlights what Forsythe said is the 'absurdity' of racism.

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Pauline Hanson has been offered choc tops, a kebab and double-pass tickets to see Down Under, a black comedy about the Cronulla riots in Sydney's south in 2005 (pictured)

Director Abe Forsythe (pictured) extended the invite to the One Nation leader while walking the red carpet at the premiere of his new film Down Under

Forsythe said the broadcasting of extreme views from politicians and media personalities such as Hanson (pictured) and Sonia Kruger has endorsed racist views

'I'd love her to see it, I genuinely mean that too,' Forsythe said.

'I think if she wants to see it we'll give her a double pass and choc tops and a kebab.'

The opening scenes of the film shows footage of the infamous day with angry mobs chanting 'f*** off wog' and 'f*** off Leb.'

Forsythe said that Australia is more racist now than at the time of the riots and that the broadcasting of extreme views from politicians and media personalities such as Hanson and Sonia Kruger has endorsed racist views.

A man is attacked by a crowd at Cronulla beach in Sydney on Sunday, December 11, 2005

The man is protected by a police officer while another man tries to punch him

'Pauline Hanson and everything else that has been going on here and overseas has just kind of made it frighteningly relevant in a lot of different ways,' he said.

'The anger that was coming out of people back then was over something different and it seems like that anger now is being reappropriated.'

Forsythe wanted to make a statement with the film and thought using comedy would help him reach a far bigger audience.

'If I made a drama about this it's not going to play out in the suburbs, it's not going to play to Cronulla, it's not going to play where the characters are in this movie because I kind of want these people to see this movie,' he said.

He said if one person sees the film and contemplates changing their behaviour, it will be worthwhile.

The shirt of a Party for Freedom supporter as they arrive at Cronulla for a BBQ to marked the 10 year anniversary of the Cronulla riots

Stars of Australian film and TV packed the premiere screening in Melbourne on Saturday, including Underbelly actor Gyton Grantley, Offspring's Dan Wyllie and The Dressmaker's Sarah Snook.

Rahel Romahn, who starred in SBS's acclaimed The Principal, plays the film's lead, Nick.

He feels the streets are no longer safe for non-Caucasians and leads a carload of men looking for revenge after the riots.

Romahn says his character is conflicted, and finds it hard to justify his actions.

'It doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't matter what you look like, doesn't matter what culture or religion you are, if you go about life the wrong way with anger and hostility you will only be given that in return,' he said.

Rahel Romahn (pictured), who starred in SBS's acclaimed The Principal, plays the film's lead, Nick

Forsythe, pictured, wanted to make a statement with the film and thought using comedy would help him reach a far bigger audience

A scene from the new Australian dark comedy Down Under, based on Sydney's Cronulla Riots in 2005

Releasing the movie wasn't that simple for Forsythe.

He initially wanted to release it last year to mark the 10th anniversary of the riots but felt it would be deemed disrespectful, and pushed the release to 2016.

Forsythe said he's been abused on social media by people objecting to the film, and said it's almost like characters from the film are actually talking to him.

The Cronulla riots were the result of boiling community tensions, which were ramped up when a group of surf lifesavers were attacked by a group of young Middle Eastern men.

On the morning of one of the darkest days in Australia's history on December 11, 2005, a crowd began gathering on Cronulla Beach to protest against the attacks.

By midday, the drunken crowd had reached 5000. Former Cronulla Sharks player, Glen Steele, began egging on the mob through a loudspeaker, saying 'F*** off Lebs'.

Former Cronulla Sharks player, Glen Steele, pictured, began egging on the mob through a loudspeaker, saying 'F*** off Lebs'

Forsythe initially wanted to release it last year to mark the 10th anniversary of the riots but felt it would be deemed disrespectful, and pushed the release to 2016

'Pauline Hanson and everything else that has been going on here and overseas has just kind of made it frighteningly relevant in a lot of different ways,' Forsythe said

A woman is held back by police after she tried to confront demonstrators taking part in an anti-racism protest, to mark the 10th anniversary of modern Australia's worst race riots

Steele shouted that his father had fought the Japanese and he would fight to defend Australia and his 'women'.

Violence between Anglo and Middle Eastern Australians ensued for the next three days.

The riots resulted in the arrest of 16 people and 42 charges against Australians on both sides of the conflict and led, briefly, to an overseas warning against people travelling to Australia.
maker didn't speak to him or see his daughter

Etihad Airways has defended its decision to kick a two-year-old Australian girl off a flight because she had eczema, saying her father did not produce a medical certificate at the airport.

Michael Comninos said he was told his toddler daughter, Xanthe, would not be allowed on their scheduled flight only when they tried to check in at the airport.

Mr Comninos, 36, said airline staff refused to discuss the decision with him and that a trained health professional did not see the Xanthe in person.

Two-year-old Xanthe was prevented from boarding a flight with her father Michael and her six-year-old brother Issac because of her eczema

But the airline told Daily Mail Australia that preventing two-year-old Xanthe from boarding the flight from Sydney to London on Friday night was a 'necessary medical delay'.

'This action was taken for the wellbeing of the guest, based on the recommendation of Medlink, the medical advisory service used by the airline.'

The father-of-two said he explained to staff at the check in desk that he had given his daughter an antihistamine for the skin condition, which had flared up.

I was told I needed to take my daughter to a doctor and have her checked to determine that she would be fit to fly, the father-of-two wrote on Facebook.

It just so happened as part of my flying prep I went to the family doctor this week and spoke to practitioners twice. I produced a letter from my doctor saying that my daughter was fit to fly.

My doctor also offered to speak to Etihad staff to explain my daughters condition.

Despite the letter, it was decided that the family could not travel without a doctors certificate for the little girl.

Mr Comninos said he explained to staff at the check in desk that he had given his daughter an antihistamine for his daughter's skin condition, which had flared up

Xanthe, Michael and six-year-old Issac were had to take another flight on Saturday evening after getting a certificate from a GP, but the delay meant they missed a much desired reunion with mother and wife Belinda.

The Etihad Airways spokesperson said the airline helped the family make new travel arrangements.

'The guests resumed their journey the following day once all medical clearance was given.'

'Etihad Airways takes the safety and wellbeing of its guests extremely seriously and regrets any inconvenience which may have been experienced by the guests concerned as a result of this necessary medical delay.'

Michael said that Xanthes eczema flare up had settled down by the time they returned home on Friday

Despite the original letter, it was decided that the family could not travel without a doctors certificate for the little girl

The family says their treatment and response from the airline was unacceptable.

No apology, no acknowledgement of the inconvenience caused, Michael wrote after checking in on Saturday.

Front line staff inspected my daughters face and spoke to the faceless Medlink people again. This time she was asleep and not crying from being stuffed around for 90 minutes.

Eczema is a medical condition in which patches of skin become rough and inflamed with blisters which cause itching and bleeding.
A Pennsylvania man has been arrested and charged with animal cruelty after he allegedly beat an 'overburdened' horse that collapsed and died Tuesday.

Police arrested Marvin Sensenig, 20, who faces two counts of cruelty to animals charges, the Ephrata Police Department said in a statement.

The horse had been pulling a heavy load on a rural road in Lancaster County when it became unable to pull the load and fell to the ground.

Amish man, Marvin Sensenig, 20, was arrested and charged with two counts of animal cruelty after he allegedly beat an 'overburdened' horse (pictured on the road) that collapsed and died in Pennsylvania

Police said in the statement that it's 'alleged that the defendant unreasonably struck a horse that was overburdened with a heavy load'.

Shortly after the horse collapsed, it died.

Photos of the dying horse were posted to Facebook by Tawn Crowther, who witnessed the incident unfold, and shared more than 40,000 times, according to the Washington Post.

She wrote that the 'horse was unable to pull a wagon full of watermelon and 2 grown men'.

Crowther wrote that she and a friend watched 'as an Amish criminal beat a horse to the point it collapsed'.

She said the Amish man 'continued to kick, hit and pull on the poor seemingly dying animal'.

The horse had been pulling a heavy load on a rural road in Lancaster County when it became unable to pull the load and fell to the ground. Police arrived to the scene around noon and spent three hours alongside a local fire company in an effort to save the animal (pictured)

Crowther said in the post that she pulled over and called the police, who told her that 'they are unsure of the outcome, because Amish are governed under a different law'.

Police arrived to the scene around noon and spent three hours alongside a local fire company in an effort to save the animal, according to the York Daily Record.

Ephrata Police Lt Chris McKim told reporters that the fire company used nearly 1,000 gallons of water in an attempt to cool the horse.

In response to Crowther's complaint about an officer regarding the treatment of the horse, McKim said the officer 'did not say that the Amish are not subject to the law'.

He said at the time it wasn't 'immediately clear' how the law applied to the situation.
The leader of extreme right-wing group Reclaim Australia has been charged with plotting a terrorist act.

Phillip Gallea, 31, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Sunday charged with one count of collecting or making documents likely to facilitate a terrorist act and one count of preparing for or planning a terrorist act.

He told magistrate Robert Kumar: 'I will be fighting these charges and they are part of a conspiracy against the patriot movement,' reported The Age.

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Phillip Galea, 31, (pictured) has been charged with plotting a terrorist attack. Galea is well known as a leader of the extreme right-wing group Reclaim Australia

Galea was arrested at his home on Saturday as police launched a series of anti-terrorism raids in Victoria. Galea was jailed last year just days before an anti-mosque rally (pictured)

He was refused bail and will next appear in court on August 9.

Galea was arrested in anti-terrorism raids at his home in Braybrook, in Melbourne's west, on Saturday as police launched a series of raids across Victoria, The Herald Sun reported.

Galea was jailed last year just days before an anti-mosque rally after a court decided he had weapons ready for an 'aggressive attack'.

Police carry out the anti-terrorism raid at a house on Ballarat Rd in Braybrook on Saturday

After a series of anti-terrorism raids across Melbourne on Saturday, police escorted Galea from his home in Braybrook just before 4pm, Fairfax reported.

Victorian Police Assistant Commissioner Ross Guenther told reporters that the arrested man, who he didn't name, had posed an escalating threat to the Victorian community.

'The individual in custody has a number of affiliations to different organisations,' Mr Guenther said.

The raids were carried out on four properties - two in Melbourne's north west, and two in regional areas

Police arrested Galea in a series of anti-terrorism raids across Melbourne

Following the arrest on Saturday police said: 'There is no ongoing risk that we are aware for the Victorian community'

Last year police found a small bottle of mercury at Galea's home which weighed about 360 grams and The Anarchist Cookbook, which has recipes for explosives

Following the arrest, 'there is no ongoing risk that we are aware for the Victorian community,' he said.

He is now being questioned by the Australian Federal Police.

Last year police found a small bottle of mercury at Galea's home which weighed about 360 grams and The Anarchist Cookbook, which has recipes for explosives.

Police said at the time the mercury was more than 3000 times the legal amount a person could have.

Galea's computer also revealed extreme right-wing political material.

On his Facebook page, Galea has shared various links to Reclaim Australia rallies and has uploaded a video of himself burning pro-refugee booklets in a metal bin.

Victorian Police Assistant Commissioner Ross Guenther told reporters the arrested man had posed an escalating threat to the Victorian community
A man who lost his wife and baby son in a devastating fire has found the strength to move on.

John O'Brien says his life was saved when he met police media advisor Michelle Minehan after the devastating Rozelle fire in which he lost his wife Bianka O'Brien, 31 and their 11-month-old baby Jude.

Adeel Ahmad Khan, 46, killed Ms O'Brien, Jude and their neighbour Chris Noble in the early hours of September 4, 2014, when he set fire to his ground-floor shop to claim $225,000 in insurance money.

Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald, Mr O'Brien said Ms Minehan changed his whole outlook on life after the fire.

'She made me feel like everything was going to be OK.'

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John O'Brien (left) says his life was saved when he met police media advisor Michelle Minehan (right) after the devastating Rozelle fire

Bianka O'Brien and her baby 11-month-old baby Jude (left) were killed in the explosion. Pictured with John on their wedding day (right)

Khan Adeel Ahmad Khan, 46, was sentenced to at least 30 years in jail after he set fire to his ground-floor shop to claim $225,000 in insurance money

The two have come a long way since the immediate days following the explosion, when Mr O'Brien wrote a statement for the media with assistance from Ms Minehan.

The courtship developed slowly, as Ms Minehan helped Mr O'Brien cope with his devastating loss and she soon became a shoulder of support.

They now live together and are expecting their first child in eight weeks, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

'From the very start, he has never wanted anyone to feel sorry for him,' Ms Minehan told the publication.

'At first I thought it was just a front but he's shown time and time again that's the person he is. He has the most positive attitude and he puts everyone else first.'

Mr O'Brien didn't find closure when Khan was sentenced to at least 30 years in jail, he says he's had to work to find it himself.

'You always want to see guys like that punished, you want the longest sentence possible to stop the next guy who is thinking about doing that but I don't get any personal satisfaction out of that.'

Mr O'Brien didn't find closure when Khan was sentenced to at least 30 years in jail, he says he's had to work to find it himself

The two have come a long way since the immediate days following the explosion, when Mr O'Brien wrote a statement for the media with assistance from Ms Minehan

NSW Fire and Rescue crews mopping up on Darling Street, Rozelle where a convenience store burnt down after the explosion in 2014

Khan had set the fatal blaze in an attempt to secure a $225,000 insurance payout and owed $8,800 in rent and had an outstanding electricity bill of $3,345 at the time

Khan had set the fatal blaze in an attempt to secure a $225,000 insurance payout and owed $8,800 in rent and had an outstanding electricity bill of $3,345 at the time. He was captured buying 40-litres of petrol from a petrol station three days before the explosion.

He continued to deny being responsible for the fire while being questioned during his trial.

Khan was found guilty of the murders of Ms O'Brien, Jude and Mr Noble by a Supreme Court jury in June.
His owner, Mary Buchanan, had animal control set up traps to find him

A cross-eyed feline from South Carolina has been missing for more than two weeks.

Instagram star, Spangles the Cross-Eyed Kitty, who has more than 21,000 followers on the social media site went missing two weeks ago after escaping out of a hole in his owner's dryer vent, according to FOX Carolina.

His owner, Mary Buchanan, has had animal control set traps in hopes of trying to find him.

Instagram star, Spangles the Cross-Eyed Kitty (pictured), who has more than 21,000 followers on the social media site went missing two weeks ago after escaping out of a hole in his owner's dryer vent

Spangles became an internet sensation after posing in photos wearing adorable hats

Several people on Spangles' Facebook page have sent well wishes and some even sent traps (pictured) to Buchanan to help catch her furry friend

'Spangles is just a very loving cat. He's a mama's boy and a drama king' Buchanan told FOX.

News of Spangles being missing has garnered attention from his fans who are hoping for his safe return.

His worldwide fans have sent gifts for him from as far away as Australia.

Several people on Spangles' Facebook page have sent well wishes and some even sent traps to Buchanan to help catch her furry friend.

When Spangles first went missing, Buchanan believed he was under her home because her other cats had gotten out before and they found them under the house.

Buchanan wrote on Facebook that she went to the local shelter looking for her beloved feline as well.

Buchanan named the adorable feline Spangles when he was adopted seven years ago because he was born on the Fourth of July. He turned seven years old this year

Spangles, who is cross-eyed from a birth defect, is not in any pain and can see well out of both his eyes

Spangles became an internet sensation after posing in photos wearing adorable hats.

Buchanan named the adorable feline Spangles when he was adopted seven years ago because he was born on the Fourth of July.

He turned seven years old this year.

'When he wants to pose for photos he will let me know by gently touching my face with his paw, and if he doesn't want to pose he will refuse to look at me' said Buchanan.
A New York model who stood naked in Times Square while screaming nonsense for an hour has opened up about his manic depressive episode.

In a first person piece in The New York Post, Krit McClean, 21, described the events leading up to the first manic episode of his life - which played out on one of the busiest blocks in America.

McClean explained that he had started feeling strange the week before, when he became transfixed with the color yellow and decided to channel this feeling into painting everything he owned to match - from his apartment to his clothes and shoes.

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Krit McClean (pictured) a New York model who stood naked in Times Square while screaming nonsense for an hour has opened up about his manic depressive episode.

In a first person piece in the New York Post, Krit McClean, 21, (pictured outside of court in New York on Friday) described the events leading up to the first manic episode of his life - which played out on one of the busiest streets in America

He said he became 'hyper-focused' and started associating everything with 'bad' and 'good energy', and found a new religion of 'love and artistic expression'.

The Colombia college student also quit smoking marijuana that week because of a big model campaign that was coming up.

This, he said, directly triggered what happened on the day of June 30 and meant that he had barely slept that week.

The night before, he began to think he was James Bond and that everyone was after him.

Too scared to sleep in his own apartment, he went to his parents' place but later ended up sleeping on the southern tip of Roosevelt Island to keep watch of the 'evil people'.

He then remembers stepping out into the sunshine the following day in Times Square. This is when the towering billboard adverts started sending him 'subliminal messages.'

A billboard for Express jeans told him to 'Express Yourself', which he took as a sign to strip naked.

The red glow of the TKTS stairs were another sign - beckoning him to the top.

He then started eating all the rubbish he came across on the way - old gum, cigarette butts and coins.

Negotiators tried to soothe McClean (pictured) for an hour as he shouted nonsensical sentences, including: 'Donald Trump where are you? Donald Trump where the f**k are you?'

McClean stood on the Father Duffy Square staircase for about an hour as police tried to calm him down (pictured). He eventually jumped off the platform

Despite the looming policeman, who he believed were evil, he started spewing random phrases and words - including: 'Donald Trump where are you? Donald Trump where the f**k are you?'

He then felt needles piece his body, and all fell away into darkness.

'When I woke in Bellevue Hospital, my feet were shackled and my right wrist was handcuffed to the bed.' he wrote. 'The other arm was in a cast. I had 13 stitches on my left elbow, where broken bone had pierced skin.

He was later diagnosed with bipolar - the Times Square episode being a manic episode that comes with the mental illness.

If McClean (pictured outside of court on Friday) continues to receive treatment and gives the court monthly updates, his charges will be dismissed

The Columbia University student shared this photo on Instagram Friday, saying he was 'out of court and back in the classroom'

He is now getting to grips with managing the illness; he goes to therapy sessions weekly and takes medication. But the rest of his life lies in tatters.

He wrote: 'Ford Models no longer represents me. Columbia is holding a disciplinary hearing. I faced criminal charges in court.'

McClean's decision to share his experience is an attempt to better educate people about mental illness, so others who suffer 'judgments and stigmas' may find solace.

He is now also involved with the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

McClean must comply with treatment, give authorities monthly updates and appear for at least one more court date before his charges are completely dismissed, the prosecution said on Friday.

He has a future court date on November 4 for an update on his status.

McClean (pictured in a runway show in 2014) said he had a genetic predisposition to manic episodes and had spent seven days in a state of mania when he stood naked in Times Square
Only two of the college university students who 'glorified acts of rape' in a chant during a boys' night out have been punished.

A busload of male students were in April filmed referring to women as 'holes in the road' they wanted to 'fill with [their] load', sparking outrage and a snap protest.

Months on, the University of NSW has confirmed only two students from Philip Baxter College have been disciplined, Sydney Morning Herald reported.

A spokesperson for the university said an investigation into the incident had been completed after it was unable to identify all those who participated.

The two students who came forward were temporarily suspended from the college and given formal warnings.

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A busload of male students were in April filmed referring to women as 'holes in the road' they would 'fill with [their] load, sparking outrage and a snap protest calling for respect (pictured)

Protesters formed a 'human sign' in the shape of an 'R' to call for respect after students from UNSW's Philip Baxter College referred to women as 'holes in the road' they wanted to 'fill with [their] load'

One of those who admitted to taking part in the chant was house president of the college James Dunn.

Male students on a 'Boys Night Out' chanted: I wish that all the ladies Were little red foxes And if I was a hunter I'd shoot them in their boxes I wish that all the ladies Were buns in the oven And if I were a baker I'd cream them by the dozen I wish that all the ladies Were holes in the road And if I was a dump truck I'd fill them with my load Advertisement

At the time, he told ABC's 7.30 he just accepted the behaviour as part of the college culture when he moved to Sydney to study at the university about two-years-ago.

'As a leader of this college and me being a part of the group that was likely in the video, for me it is really personal and I have no idea why I did it,' Mr Dunn said at the time.

'I'm sort of condemning my own actions at this time, and the actions of everyone in the video.

'I walked into the culture that is Baxter and was taught these chants as part of the culture that we have here and something we do as a night out, as a whole college both males and females,' he said.

It is unclear whether Mr Dunn was one of those disciplined.

House president of the college James Dunn (pictured) at the time admitted to participating in the chant. It is unclear whether Mr Dunn was one of those disciplined

Fellow students in April campaigned for respect by forming a giant R on the university lawn.

At the time, a spokesman for the UNSW Student Representative Council (SRC) told Daily Mail Australia it was working with the university and college to decide appropriate action.

'Serious and meaningful action will definitely be taken', the spokesperson said.

The spokesman said punishment would need to ensure 'this type of behaviour is known to be completely inappropriate' and 'ensure it would never occur again'.

Jocelyn Dracakis, the women's officer at the Student Representative Council at UNSW, told Daily Mail Australia in April the misogynistic chants were widespread and regularly used.

The university has confirmed its investigation has been completed after it was unable to identify any more students involved

Footage of the incident had been posted to a private Facebook group for the college students and was leaked to Junkee.

The college had apologised and denounced the behaviour as 'sexist and misogynistic'.

'As a College we acknowledge and understand the boundaries that we have crossed. As a College community we condemn the actions outlined within the chants and their misogynistic sentiments.'

The statement said the 'mere fact' they had sung the lyrics was 'enough to tarnish the integrity of every resident'.

'Bringing this issue to light has made us realise the naivety we have been clouded by for not realising the impact issues of this nature have on society.'

Student protesters had formed the 'human sign' in the shape of an R to 'make a loud statement condemning all derogatory, oppressive or misogynistic attitudes towards women'.

The protesters also listened to speakers from the Student Representative Council who condemned the 'disgusting' video.

The university said it was appalled by the 'sexist and demeaning' behaviour.

'The University has zero tolerance for offensive behaviour of this nature and is taking immediate steps to investigate,' UNSW said in a statement on Tuesday.

The UNSW Women's Collective had said the chant had 'degrading lyrics which objectify women and glorify acts of rape'.
A young mother has been arrested after her 15-month-old daughter was found dead and may have been placed in a freezer in their home.

Samia Bartee was found by police in an apartment in Mount Vernon, New York, shortly after 5:30am on Friday.

Samia's mother, De'Asia Bartee, is expected to be charged with manslaughter over the shocking death, according to PIX 11.

Samia Bartee (pictured) has been arrested after her 15-month-old daughter was found dead and may have been placed in a freezer in their home

Police say it appears the toddler died from trauma to the face, and that she did not show any signs of sickness or illness. Samia was rushed to Montefiore Mount Vernon Hospital but could not be revived

'It was a gruesome discovery that shocked even our most senior officers on the job,' Mount Vernon Police Commissioner Ronald Fatigate said.

'We're a small city but a tight one, and the news is very disturbing.

'What we know based on the information we have is that it's definitely suspicious and tragic.'

Police say it appears the toddler (pictured) died from trauma to the face, and that she did not show any signs of sickness or illness

Samia's mother, De'Asia Bartee (pictured), is expected to be charged with manslaughter over the shocking death

Police added they are investigating claims Samia may have been dead for hours, and her body had been placed in a freezer.

It comes after CBS New York reported the young girl was found in an 'extremely cold' room and first responders suspected she had been in a freezer.

Shocked neighbors said Bartee was a former childcare worker, and now had a job at a flower shop.

'Her baby seemed happy and fine to me,' Shakwita Walker told the New York Daily News.

Samia Bartee was found by police in an apartment (pictured) in Mount Vernon, New York, shortly after 5:30am on Friday

Samia was rushed to Montefiore Mount Vernon Hospital (pictured) but could not be revived

'The baby said hi to me and was happy and smiling... She would walk her kids to school in the sleet, rain or snow.

'She took her babies to the park and was always taking pictures with them.'

Two other young girls - aged nine and six - were also in the house, and have since been placed in child protective services.
Authorities are also looking into possibility that she may be behind an attempted bank robbery of a Chase bank near her home

Meighan McSherry, 46, who worked as a lawyer in the Bronx, was charged Friday for robbing a bank in Connecticut

An Upper West Side legal aid lawyer was arrested for robbing a Connecticut bank.

Meighan McSherry, 46, who worked as a lawyer in the Bronx, was charged Friday with robbing a Wells Fargo in Greenwich, Connecticut, according to the Greenwich Time.

Police are also looking into the possibility that she may have been involved with an attempted robbery at a Chase bank near her home.

Greenwich police Lt Kraig Gray told the Greenwich Time that the suspect 'provided a note to the bank teller demanding money' at the Wells Fargo bank.

McSherry also reportedly stated that she had a weapon.

She then left the scene with an undisclosed amount of stolen money.

McSherry was charged with first-degree robbery and second-degree larceny.

A lawyer for McSherry said she had spent the previous evening in Pound Ridge, NY, and had no memories and no knowledge of how she ended up in Greenwich, the newspaper reported.

Greenwich police Lt Kraig Gray said the suspect 'provided a note to the bank teller demanding money' at the Wells Fargo bank (pictured). McSherry also reportedly claimed to have a weapon

McSherry was not able to make the $250,000 bail and remained in custody.

Her neighbors in The Bancroft, a 20-story co-op, told the New York Daily News that she had fallen on hard times.

She was almost evicted twice from her residence.

Police said they are also looking into the possibility that she may be behind an attempted robbery at a Chase bank near her home, the Daily News reported.

Photos released by the New York City Police Department described the suspect as a white woman around 45 years old.

The suspect's method of operation at both banks consisted of sliding a note to a bank teller demanding money.

But the teller at the Chase bank refused the suspect's demands prompting the suspect to flee.
A murder-suicide note was found at the bloody scene where a young family of five were shot dead in Pennsylvania, police have said.

Parents Mark Short, 44, and Megan, 33, and their children Liana, eight, Mark Jr, five, Willow, two, were all discovered with fatal gunshot wounds.

Police also found a handgun near one of the parents but they refused to say which one - or who they believed was the shooter.

'This is an apparent tragic domestic incident,' District Attorney John Adams confirmed.

It has emerged that the youngest child Willow had undergone a pioneering heart transplant at one week old.

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Willow Short (pictured) had survived a heart-transplant for two years before she was killed along with her parents and two siblings in an apparent murder-suicide on Saturday

The Short family, above, (from left) Megan, husband Mark, and children Willow, Liana and Mark, were all found dead at their Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania home with gunshot wounds

She survived the transplant for two years before the family was found dead on Saturday in their Sinking Spring home.

The grisly scene was discovered in the small town in Berks County on Winding Brook Drive in the Brookfield Manor subdivision, according to ABC 6.

The killings happened sometime on Saturday afternoon and the bodies of the parents and three children were discovered around 3pm in the living room.

Police went to the home to check on the welfare of the family after receiving a call from a relative concerned that the woman had not shown up for a lunch date.

A handgun was found near one of the adults, however authorities did not say which one or who they believe was the shooter. A dog also was found dead.

The family appeared happy in Facebook photos (the father and children pictured above) and a neighbor said: 'I never would have suspected there were any issues'

A handwritten note that 'appeared to be a "murder-suicide" note' was found in the family's Sinking Spring home Saturday afternoon, District Attorney John Adams said.

The district attorney's office said the married couple had been having 'domestic issues.'

'This is an apparent tragic domestic incident,' Adams said on Sunday.

'Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families at this difficult time.'

The Berks County District Attorney's office is leading an investigation into the deaths with assistance from police from Sinking Spring and Spring Township.

The family had previously been featured in articles in The Reading Eagle and The New York Times about Willow's condition, and their difficulties obtaining anti-rejection medication for her.

The murder suicide happened in at their home (above) in the Brookfield Manor subdivision in Berks County

Megan Short often wrote about the struggles her family faced with getting the drug on a Facebook page for The Waiting List.

In a story published in October 2014 in The Reading Eagle, Willow was then five months old and had undergone the heart transplant, her condition was improving.

The story detailed her heart journey from her birth on May 6, 2014 at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

She had suffered from a variation of hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a rare congenital birth defect, according to the newspaper.

During her mother's pregnancy, her parents learned their daughter's heart was not fully formed and could not pump blood efficiently, threatening her life.

Willow had undergone a heart transplant when she was just six days old. Her family had been featured in news articles about her condition and their difficulties obtaining anti-rejection medication for her

When Willow was three days old, she underwent her first open-heart surgery as doctors worked to repair her left ventricle and redirect her circulation.

During surgery, doctors found a tunnel defect and following the procedure, she bled so much she required 16 blood transfusions.

She was placed on a heart-and-lung bypass machine and was added to the National Transplant List, with her survival depending on a donation of another baby's heart.

The parents were told there could be a three-to-six month wait and prepared for their baby girl to not survive the wait.

However, three-and-a-half days later when Willow was six days old, another heart became available and she went into surgery.

The transplant was described as a 'remarkable success' and by May 29, Willow's heart was working so well doctors removed her from oxygen.

Her mother pictured above holding her for the first time post-transplant - the mother's second time ever holding her baby girl

She was released on June 26, 2014, according to The Reading Eagle.

At the time of her transplant, Willow was one of just three infants to have a heart transplant that year at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia by July 31, 2014.

American doctors have successfully performed infant heart transplants since the mid-1980s, however the procedures are rare, the newspaper reported.

In 2014, only 64 babies under the age of one had received a heart transplant through July 31, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.

Nearly a year after Willow's transplant, Megan Short wrote a post on The Waiting List of one of her memories.

'Willow's first wail was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard, but it didn't take long before she was intubated within hours of her birth and I could no longer hear her voice,' the mother-of-three wrote.

'It was so difficult to see her upset. But not be able to hear her cry, it was heartbreaking.

The family created the Facebook page Willow's Heart Journey, where they posted frequent updates about Willow's condition following the transplant (one shown above from May)

'After her transplant, doctors were able to remove the breathing tube.

'Hearing her voice and seeing her face without all the tape is one of my favorite memories.'

The family also created a Facebook page, Willow's Heart Journey, where the mother posted frequent updates about Willow's condition following the transplant.

In the 'About' section, she wrote: 'This has been a hard road, but this little miracle has taught me more in her short time than I had learned my entire life before her.

'My faith in God is stronger, my faith in others is renewed, and my love for my family is deeper than ever.

'The strength of this small child has shown me my own.

'Be like the willow tree... able to bend without breaking under the weight of the storms that come your way.'

The last post on the Facebook page was dated May 27 and said Willow had a zero-rejection grade.

Posts just two days before that mentioned Willow was going to have her annual cath and biopsy to check her heart function and pressures, look at her coronary arteries and test for rejection.

Earlier in May, a post on the Facebook page mentioned Willow was 'doing wonderfully' and was in 'great health'

In May, the mother also wrote as they celebrated Willow's second birthday and mentioned she was in 'great health.'

'I haven't posted in quite awhile. Willow is doing wonderfully, in great health and a complete joy,' she wrote.

The day the birthday celebration, the mother shared a snap of Willow in a red and white polka dot dress who also wore Minnie Mouse ears.

She was standing behind her two-layered Minnie Mouse-themed house.

'Time flies! Miss Willow is 2,' she wrote.

'As we go into Mother's Day, my mind is on the mother who made the decision to donate her baby's organs,' she continued.

'I am so sorry that your baby is not with you now, but I hope it brings you some peace to know that we are so grateful for the time you have given us with her.

'I am sure Mother's Day is especially hard for you.

'We received the call the day after Mother's Day 2 years ago. There are no words to express how thankful we are for your decision.'

Willow pictured above celebrating her second birthday on May 6 while wearing T a red and white polka dot dress while wearing Minnie Mouse ears

The day after her birthday, Megan Short wrote about how she was thinking about the mother who made the decision to donate her baby's organs

Earlier posts on the Facebook page detail Willow's condition from some of her anti-rejection levels being too high to battling pneumonia, viruses, fevers and infections.

Other posts gave updates celebrating time would go by without Willow having any hospitalizations or cardiology visits.

In a July 2015 story published in The New York Times, it detailed the family's struggle with getting medication for Willow.

At the time of the story was published, Megan Short was 32 years old and Willow was a year old.

The article talked about how Willow could not afford to miss a single dose of a drug she took daily to prevent her body from rejecting her recently transplanted heart.

However, it noted that due to rules from the family's drug plan and the pharmacy, the mother could not order a refill until Willow's monthly supply was three-quarters gone.

FIRST INFANT-TO-INFANT HEART TRANSPLANT IN 1985 PAVED THE WAY FOR WILLOW'S LIVE-SAVING SURGERY The world's first baboon-to-infant heart transplant was attempted in 1984, days after Stephanie Fae Beauclair, known as Baby Fae, was born by Dr Leonard L Bailey. After suffering kidney failure and then heart failure, Baby Fae died 21 days later. She lived longer than any other human recipient of an animal heart. A year later, Dr Bailey performed the first infant-to-infant heart transplant on a baby named Eddie Anguiano, known as Baby Moses. Following the successful transplant, 31-year-old Anguiano, who is still living, is the oldest living infant heart transplant recipient. To date, there have been a total of 8,529 heart transplants in children under the age of 18, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. Among those on the transplant list include more than 2,000 children under the age of 18, infants and newborns with heart disorders. The children are often incredibly sick and have a small chance of surviving, and due to their small size doctors often struggle with finding suitable hearts for them. However in recent years, there have been significant advances in infant heart transplants including doctors using donor hearts once deemed incompatible and children being referred for transplant before they are dying in the intensive care unit. However, donor availability for pediatric heart transplantation remains the biggest obstacle as there is a continual shortage of organs. Last year, there was a total of 2,804 heart transplants, 126 in children under the age of one. As of June 30, there have been 62 heart transplants this year in children under the age of one. There are a total of 4,166 people currently on the U.S. waiting list for a heart, 53 of those children under the age of one. Sources: ABC News, BT Online and Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Advertisement

But to process a refill, the article said it took about seven days which was risky because it was hard to know whether a new shipment would arrive before the old one ran out.

'You just feel like every month, you're hoping that they don't mess it up,' Short told the newspaper, which went on to focus on the concept of a 'specialty pharmacy.'

The newspaper described the concept as 'a new breed of drug dispensary that has arisen to handle the exploding number of medicines that cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and are used to treat complex or rare diseases.'

The story included a photo of the family as they released balloons that May to celebrate the first anniversary of Willow's heart transplant.

Along with documenting her experience with having a child with a heart transplant, Megan Short also described her struggles with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

In one Facebook post, Mark even wrote that his wife was 'still the most beautiful girl that I've ever met'

The mother wrote in a blog post in April about how having a child born with a severe congenital heart defect was the most significant shift of her life.

She wrote: 'I was so focused on learning everything I could to keep my child alive and to minimize the impact on my other children that I didn't see the full impact that it had on me.'

She described her anxieties over being able to care for her child without doctors and nurses by her side at home and getting used to giving Willow 15 different medicines around the clock.

She also said she suffered from 'anxiety and nightmares' triggered by smells, hallways or even the beeping sound of a phone.

'I remember sitting up at night just watching her sleep because I was terrified that I placed her NG tube in her lungs and was slowly drowning her,' she wrote.

'I then isolated myself from the world worried that any little germ would kill her.'

In this September 2014, photo, Willow Short is pictured center at four months old, along with her parents Megan and Mark and sister then six-year-old sister Liana and three-year-old brother Mark

The mother noted she experienced 'survivor's guilt' when children with similar problems from other families passed away.

However, she said with time things got easier as she became more confident in the medical aspect of caring for Willow, but noted the trauma never goes away.

She described having nightmares and triggering events, noting it took her nearly two years to recognized how she was impacted by these experiences.

'I don't think PTSD ever truly goes away but, with therapy, medication, and the right support, I have begun to loosen its grip on me,' she wrote.

'As I work on my own mental healing, I wanted to share my experience so that other heart parents know they are not alone.'

According to The Reading Eagle, the couple had been advocates for organ donation since 2012.

The father, mother, and their three young children were all killed in what police said was a murder suicide. Authorities have not said who fired the fatal shots

Police and stunned neighbors were at the scene late into the night - the bodies were discovered around 3pm Saturday

Following the deaths on Saturday, a neighbor told The Reading Eagle they 'never would've suspected there were any issues.'

'She's still the most beautiful girl that I've ever met. I'm the luckiest guy in the world to have her as my wife and the mother of my three amazing children!' Mark wrote in December on Facebook about his wife.

The family lived in a four bedroom, two-and-a-half bath home worth more $400,000, according to Heavy.
The hilarious moment a cute cat tried to catch snowflakes has been caught on camera.

Hercules the cat from Mosgiel, in New Zealand's South Island, was filmed making the most of recent snowfalls.

The adorable cat is seen playing with snow on the ground like it's a toy before leaping up in the air and trying to catch the flakes.

Hercules the cat (pictured) jumped in the air to try and catch snowflakes as they fell

The cat was filmed by his owner Matt Herbet in Mosgiel, located in New Zealand's South Island

It seems he doesn't mind the snow as he races about while being recorded by his owner, Matt Herbert.

After playing in the snow he heads off to hide behind some bushes

Snow has fallen over much of New Zealand's South Island over the weekend, in some places falling almost as low as sea level.

At Mt Cook, in the Southern Alps, the temperature fell to -11 degrees early on Sunday morning.

The adorable cat is seen running around and trying to play with the foreign substance
, as the accusations 'might not be true'

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who has led a bloody war on drug suspects, has named over 150 officials he says are complicit in the trade of narcotics.

In the southern city of Davao on Sunday he implicated scores of politicians, government officials, judges and law enforcement leaders, before promptly sacking the named members of the military and police.

Duterte then called for the other officials, many still active officers, to surrender and remove their security details and hand over their gun licenses.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has listed overe 150 judges, current or former congressmen, mayors and other officials whom he alleges are involved in illegal drugs

The leader has been pursuing an anti-crime agenda since he took office, including a brutal crackdown on getting rid of illegal drugs in the country

Police and shadowy vigilantes have been blamed for killing over 800 drug suspects since Duterte's election on May 9.

'Due process has nothing to do with my mouth. There are no proceedings here, no lawyers,' Duterte said in a pre-dawn speech just before he began naming the suspects.

The leader has been pursuing an anti-crime agenda since he took office, including a brutal crackdown on getting rid of illegal drugs in the country.

His latest move further escalates the war, where more than 4,400 have been arrested in a month and nearly 600,000 have surrendered to the authorities.

He said his list of accused has been vetted by the military police who he asked to investigate the 'menace' of the drugs trade.

He also state he would take full responsibility if the named turned out to be innocent.

All active policemen named have already been suspend, and Duterte insisted they would have access to a fair trial.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte won the election by vowing to wage a war on illegal drugs and other crime that would claim tens of thousands of lives

'(The accusations) might be true, it might not be true ... They should have due process, presumption of innocence,' he said.

Such protections have not been afforded to many ordinary civilians caught up in the war on narcotics.

Calling on the accused to get rid of their security, he said: 'If you show the slightest violence in the resistance, I will tell the police, ''Shoot them'' '.

Yet astonishingly Duterte, who has gained widespread domestic popularity for his outspokenness, conceded 'I might be wrong' about the guilt of those he named, some he said were even his friends.

Police and shadowy vigilantes have been blamed for killing over 800 drug suspects since President Rodrigo Duterte election on May 9

In his speech, Duterte scoffed at human rights groups opposed to the killings, saying they were free to protest

Some of those named have since come out in radio and television and denied their guilt.

Duterte won election by vowing to wage a war on illegal drugs and other crime that would claim tens of thousands of lives.

He has ordered police not to hesitate to kill and even urged ordinary citizens and communist guerrillas to join in the bloodshed.

Human rights groups have repeatedly attacked his approach, claiming it has led to hundreds of deaths without due process.

The country's largest broadcaster ABS-CBN has listed 852 drug suspects killed since Duterte's election.

The wife of a suspected drug pusher and victim of a vigilante-style execution grieves during a burial ceremony

In his speech, Duterte scoffed at human rights groups opposed to the killings, saying they were free to protest.

'I do not care,' he said.

However the head of the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines made an emotional appeal to the public to denounce the wave of drug killings.

'I am a human being. That is all it takes for me to stand up and say 'enough',' Archbishop Socrates Villegas said in a message read at all Catholic masses in his archdiocese, located 160 kilometres (100 miles) north of Manila.

He said the largely Catholic Philippines was becoming a 'killing fields nation' for tolerating the violence.
The kidnappers of the mother-in-law of Bernie Ecclestone threatened to send back her severed head in a shopping bag, the Formula One billionaire has revealed.

Speaking after Aparecida Schunk, the 67-year-old mother of his wife Fabiana Flosi had been freed, Mr Ecclestone recalled the full horror of the nine days she was missing after being snatched from her home in San Paulo, Brazil.

The threat came in an email sent by the kidnappers a week after they had taken Ms Schunk and demanded a ransom of 28 million.

Mr Ecclestone also joked that he never intended to pay a ransom for the release.

Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone and his wife Fabiana Flosi during a women's beach volleyball match in Rio. The F1 supremo has revealed that his mother-in-law's kidnappers threatened to send her severed head in a shopping bag

Mr Ecclestone also joked that his friends knew he would never pay a ransom demand for his mother-in-law

Speaking about his wife's nine day ordeal Mr Ecclestone said he was proud of the way his wife had dealt with the ordeal

Ms Schunk (pictured left with her daughter) was released unharmed last week, with no ransom paid.

The 85-year-old spoke proudly of the involvement of his wife in the police operation in an interview with Tom Bower of the Sunday Times.

Ms Schunk was released unharmed last week, with no ransom paid.

Ecclestone said: 'I'm so proud of Fabiana. She worked with the police until 4am every night. She was terrific.'

Asked about the ransom demand by the gang, he said in the interview: 'I never intended to pay them,' and added joking: 'All my friends know that I wouldn't pay a penny for a mother-in-law.'

One of Mr Ecclestone's pilots, Mr Silva Faria, has been arrested by police on suspicion of his involvement with the kidnap.

Ms Flosi said of the pilot: 'I just can't understand it. He was always so polite and kind.'

Shortly after Ms Schunck was reunited with her relatives Mr Ecclestone said he was 'very happy' with the police operation that he described as 'unbelievable'.

The threat came in an email sent by the kidnappers a week after they had taken Ms Schunk (pictured) and demanded a ransom of 28 million

'The last few days haven't been very good. This isn't a good thing to happen to you and your family,' he told MailOnline at the time.

'The police officers we dealt with were fantastic, they did an unbelievable job, it was absolutely first class. We are very, very, very happy with them.'

It is believed investigators monitored phone calls between the family of Ms Schunck and the captors, tracing them to the location where she was being held.

She was not harmed in the operation conducted by Sao Paulo's anti-kidnapping division. Speaking after she was freed Ms Schunk said: 'I just ask that the crooks do not kidnap anyone else in Sao Paulo because they will be arrested.'

According to reports her abductors had demanded 28 million for her release, later increasing it to 40 million.

Brazilian magazine Veja had reported that the ransom for Ms Flosi's mother had been demanded in pounds sterling and divided into four bags of cash.

Elisabete Sato of Sao Paulo police told the BBC that the ransom, thought to have been the largest in Brazilian history, had not been paid.

Mr Ecclestone married Ms Flosi, 38, in 2012, three years after meeting her at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Security has emerged as the top concern at the Olympics in Brazil amid fears of violence possibly spilling over from Rio's hundreds of slums.
A priest who posted a picture of a sign at his church that read Bless the Burqa is outraged after his personal information was handed to trolls by Facebook.

Father Rod Bower posted a picture of him standing in front the sign at his Anglican Parish in Gosford, north of Sydney, in late 2014, before a far-right group got hold of the image and photoshopped it to read Im Fr Rod Bower & Ive lost my mind. No point praying.

The altered photo was allegedly uploaded to Facebook group Anglican Parish of Gosford- NOT on July 21 this year.

Scroll down for video

A priest who posted a picture of a sign at his church that read Bless the Burqa is outraged after his personal information was handed to trolls by Facebook

A far-right group got hold of the image and photoshopped it to read Im Fr Rod Bower & Ive lost my mind. No point praying

Subsequently Fr Bower complained to Facebook, asking for the post to be removed.

In a bizarre twist Facebook gave Fr Bowers personal information to the trolls, telling the two parties to sort it out between themselves.

I cant believe Facebook has handed my full name and personal email to a troll who appropriated our intellectual property, Fr Bower posted on Twitter.

We just complained about a fake sign, they took it down but sent the troll our contact details and said sort it out between yourselves, he said.

In response the troll posted Mr Bowers contact details to the Facebook page Anglican Parish of Gosford- NOT. He wrote: It seems Fr Rod is also a very vindictive soul.

In the post the troll also copied Facebooks response: Facebook is not in a position to adjudicate disputes between third parties. If you believe that this content should not have been removed from Facebook, you can contact the complaining party directly to resolve your issue.

Subsequently Fr Bower (pictured) complained to Facebook, asking for the post to be removed

In a bizarre twist Facebook gave Fr Bowers personal information to the trolls, asking the two parties to sort it out between themselves

In the post with the original picture Fr Bower wrote: I'm all for the religious (and non-religious) freedom to wear what you like in public.

If we impose a ban on the burqa (In Australia Muslim women usually wear niqab) we must be prepared to accept that by the taking away of this religious freedom, we could, equally, be forced to wear one.

Supporters of Fr Bower have taken to social media to express their anger over Facebooks handling of the complaint.

Shame on Facebook, shame against all privacy considerations they supposedly uphold, one user posted on Twitter.
Shamed Labout MP Simon Danczuk says he will seek counselling for his sex addiction after he allegedly enjoying a tryst with a woman half his age at his taxpayer-funded constituency office.

Father-of-four Mr Danczuk, 49, is said to have spanked the unnamed 22-year-old blonde woman over his desk before having unprotected sex with her just days after meeting her through Twitter.

Now, his ex-wife Karen Danczuk - who is known as 'the selfie queen' for her love of taking flattering self portraits - has been photographed frolicking on a beach in Alicante in a clear bid to show her ex what he is missing.

Father-of-four Mr Danczuk, 49, is said to have spanked the unnamed 22-year-old blonde woman (both pictured) over his desk before having unprotected sex with her

Now, his ex-wife Karen Danczuk - who is known as 'the selfie queen' for her love of taking flattering self portraits - has been photographed frolicking on a beach in Alicante

The photos appear to be a clear bid on Karen's part to show her ex what he is missing

Mrs Danczuk is said to be less than impressed with her estranged husband's recent antics

The MP's critics have said the latest in his 'catalogue of scandals' was damaging the reputation of Rochdale and that he should not be allowed to 'get away' with it.

But Mr Danczuk, who split from his second wife Karen in June last year, has now revealed that he believes he is a sex addict and he wants to see a psychologist to help him deal with his issues.

He told the Sun on Sunday: 'I've been immature, kamikaze and irresponsible when it comes to sex. I have got a problem and I admit that I need to seek help about sex addiction.

'I've been stupid and I've got a tendency to press the self-destruct button. It is damaging for my work, my family and my kids. I like sex, obviously.

'I also struggle in terms of relationships and that is something I need to speak to friends and the counsellor about.

Divorce: Claims about the relationship come eight months after a string of revelations about Mr Danczuk's personal life following his divorce from second wife Karen (pictured)

Mrs Danczuk looked serious and deep in thought even as she enjoyed the sun and sand

Claims about the relationship come eight months after a string of revelations about Mr Danczuk's personal life following his divorce from second wife Karen

The 32-year-old former Labour Councillor was spotted topping up her tan at the beach

He reportedly exchanged thousands of flirty messages with the 22-year-old, culminating in trysts at his former marital home and his office in the town  for which he has received more than 22,000 of public money in expenses this year.

It is yet another public embarrassment for the politician who has campaigned against child sex abuse.

He is still suspended from the Labour Party after he was caught sending lewd text messages to a 17-year-old in January.

Mrs Danczuk's small white bikini bottoms appeared to be giving her a spot of bother as she was seen constantly readjusting them during her day out at the beach in Alicante, Spain

Mrs Danczuk has two small children - both boys - with her shamed Labour MP ex-husband

The 32-year-old former Labour Councillor took the plunge in between sunbathing sessions

Mrs Danczuk displayed her gym honed figure as she soaked up the sunshine at the beach

Simon Danczuk's ex was making the most of her free time as she holidayed in the sunshine

She originally found fame after posting a series of photographs showing off her cleavage in revealing dresses and lingerie on social media

Following the latest claims, Andy Kelly, prospective parliamentary candidate for the Liberal Democrats in Rochdale, said the average worker would be sacked for similar behaviour.

'It's just one thing after another with Simon Danczuk and you simply don't know what's coming next in this catalogue of scandals,' he said.

'He's creating a media circus and it's bringing Rochdale into disrepute. I hope this is the straw that breaks the camel's back.'

Describing Danczuk as the 'perfect gentleman', who was 'complimentary and charming', the woman said the MP told her he wanted to marry her, and hoped for more children

Responding to the allegations of Mr Danczuk having sex in the constituency office, Mr Kelly added: 'He can't get away with doing such things in a publicly-funded office. If you or I had done something like this, we would be out of a job.'

Mr Danczuk is said to have exchanged 6,000 messages with the woman, now 23, after giving her his mobile number when they met on Twitter in June, and their conversation appears to have quickly become flirty.

Texts sent between Mr Danczuk and the woman, according to The Sun

The politician told her 'you've got my imagination running wild' after she revealed she was in her nightwear.

They also discussed fetish outfits after she confessed to having a 'big thing for latex'.

When she expressed her concern about the impact on the Eurovision Song Contest following Brexit, he suggested that if she had sex with him 'you won't even think' about it.

Four days after exchanging numbers, they are said to have had sex in Mr Danczuk's constituency office  something that could be viewed as gross misconduct by senior government officials.

The woman told The Sun: 'He had me over his desk and was spanking me. He was sex mad.

'I felt quite privileged to be in there with such a well-known MP.

'Looking back, it was so irresponsible. He shouldn't have been using his office as a sex pad.

'But I just went along with it because I fancied him.'

Mr Danczuk  who previously admitted younger women are his 'Achilles' heel'  is said to have invited her to stay at his London flat and Spanish villa before meetings at Manchester's Lowry Hotel, an Italian restaurant and a jazz club.

He also allegedly messaged the woman asking about her stockings while he was at an Armed Forces Day ceremony at Rochdale town hall.

Simon Danczuk pictured opening his Rochdale office in 2010 with Gillian Duffy (right), a pensioner from his constituency

Claims about the relationship come eight months after a string of revelations about Mr Danczuk's personal life following his divorce from second wife Karen.

He was caught sexting a teenager, accused of historical rape, and labelled an alcoholic by former girlfriends.

Two months later, the Labour MP agreed to repay more than 11,000 after he was found to have claimed extra accommodation expenses for two of his children  even though they were not living with him.

Mr Kelly said: 'What is worse is that the Labour Party has yet to properly condemn his behaviour. He's still suspended months on and nothing seems to have happened.

If he was standing today in Rochdale, he wouldn't have a hell's chance of winning, but he's protected by a cabal within the Labour Party in Rochdale.'
The military has been on high alert since two attackers tried to kidnap a serviceman at knifepoint as he jogged close to RAF Marham in Norfolk.

The men, who are both of Middle Eastern appearance, attempted to bundle an airman into a car as he jogged near an airbase two weeks ago.

Although the force has not ruled out terrorism  it said the attack could have been a case of mistaken identity over a drugs debt or a domestic dispute.

Police are continuing to hunt for two attackers who tried to drag an RAF serviceman into a car as he jogged close to RAF Marham

Police have received more than 150 calls from the public  but none have been confirmed sightings of the pair.

Officers have trawled through hours CCTV footage without finding any images of the dark-coloured people carrier used by the suspects.

The married serviceman in his late 20s was targeted on July 20 about a mile from the gates of the base, which is home to four squadrons of Tornado bombers flying missions against Islamic State.

The airman told police one of his assailants had a combat-style knife with a three-inch blade.

He had gone for a run outside the military base when the first suspect leapt out at him from a parked car.

Police have received more than 150 calls from the public  but none have been confirmed sightings of the pair. Pictured are military police outside RAF Marham after the attack

The attacker grabbed the runners shoulder and then his wrist and tried to drag him towards the dark-coloured people carrier with a degree of force, police said.

The airman fought back and knocked the man to the ground, but then saw a second man running towards him with the knife.

When the second suspect saw his accomplice on the floor he headed towards him and the airman was able to escape.

The running route is used regularly by base personnel and is only some 400m from its married quarters, meaning the two men could have been lying in wait for a lone victim they could abduct.

The airman, who was very, very shaken by his ordeal, was wearing running clothes which did not show any military insignia.

He said his first assailant shouted something, but he was listening to music through earphones and did not hear what was said.

Within hours of the attack, servicemen at RAF Marham were warned to keep a low profile and not to travel alone amid fears that the attack was a Lee Rigby-style terrorist plot.

In an MoD memo sent to military personnel, protective security chief Rich Curzon said: Following an incident at RAF Marham, it is directed that all personnel keep a low profile and not make themselves vulnerable.

Until the threat subsides, no one is to be on their own on foot, or on a bicycle, within the local area in uniform or clothing which might identify them with the military.

Both suspects are said to be of Middle Eastern origin and between 20 and 30 years old. The first is about 6ft, with dark hair and a beard. The second is younger and about 5ft 10in.

Detective Superintendent Paul Durham, who is leading the inquiry, said: Regarding the search for our suspects, we are not focusing on any specific area and Im keeping an open mind as to where they are from.

Its evident the would-be attackers have underestimated the victims ability to fight back. There is no credible evidence this is a terrorist incident, but that remains one of a number of possibilities.

Two men matching the description of the assailants were spotted outside an army base on Friday  prompting a security alert.

A report on a Facebook page used by military servicemen warned that two men resembling the e-fit images of the suspects were seen outside Colchester army barracks. A similar vehicle to the one described by the victim was also spotted.
Since then a string of cases have been linked to him

He has always denied the killings and called for Bellfield to be investigated

'Levi Bellfield did it': Hammer murderer Michael Stone wants police to investigate another man over his disputed crimes

Hammer murderer Michael Stone has asked his lawyers to investigate killer Levi Bellfield as an alternative perpetrator of a mother and daughter's slaughter.

Speaking for the first time since Bellfield finally admitted to killing 13-year-old Milly Dowler earlier this year, Stone said he wants to know 'if Levi Bellfield did it'.

Stone has twice been convicted for the murders of Lin and Megan Russell 19 years ago in Chillenden Kent, but has always maintained his innocence.

He is serving three life sentences for the attack in 1996 when Dr Lin Russell, 45 was beaten to death by a hammer with her daughter Megan, six.

The family was tied up, blindfolded and beaten after returning from a swimming competition during the summer. Their dog was also slaughtered.

Megan's sister Josie, nine, survived terrible head injuries and went on to make a miraculous recovery.

The attack bore similarities to Bellfield's assaults, including the killings of Marsha McDonnell, 19, and Amelie Delagrange, 22, with a hammer.

Stone's supporters, including his sister Barbara, claim DNA evidence could also implicate triple killer Levi Bellfield and clear her brother.

Stone, left, is currently serving life in prison for the murders of Lin Russell and her daughter Megan, right, in 1998 in the Kent countryside

The family allege that 48-year-old Bellfield matches an e-fit of the Russells' killer, and that there were reports of car similar to his being seen near the crime scene.

Stone, 56, has always denied being responsible for the appalling offence, and despite being jailed and spending the last 19 years behind bars, he still protests his innocence.

According to reports Stone is even asking to meet fellow killer Bellfield at HMP Frankland, where both are being detained, reports the Mirror.

Stone has requested the aid of two lawyers via a video link from jail, and they are now demanding new DNA testing.

Stone told lawyer Paul Bacon: 'Lots of people have been pointing fingers at Levi Bellfield and I would really like an investigation which would identify if he has, or has not, done these murders.

'Because otherwise it's not right to keep mentioning his name in connection with the case,' reports The Sunday People.

Stone supporters allege that 48-year-old Levi Bellfield may have carried out the attack

Earlier this year Bellfield admitted abducting, raping and killing Milly Dowler, right

Stone's sister, of Chatham Kent, has previously said she rarely sees her brother, but still believes he was the victim of a miscarriage of justice.

Barbara said: 'We are pinning our hopes on advances in DNA technology. I'm not saying Bellfield is the killer, but we need to test his DNA against the that found at the scene.

'Advances in technology could lead to something. There was no DNA evidence at the scene to put my brother there - and even the e-fit issued at the time looks like Bellfield.

'I think the time is right to speculate on this now. A car matching the description of one Bellfield had access to was seen in the area, so I do think the DNA from the crime scene should be tested against him and the thousands of others on the national database. This should be the least that's being done.'

Stone's lawyer, Mr Bacon, told The Sunday People that it was 'interesting' the two convicts were in the same prison, but added they had not met because Bellfield is in a protected wing.

Bellfield also admitted killing Marsha McDonnell, 19, left, and Amelie Delagrange, 22, right with a hammer

Mr Bacon said: 'We had a quite a good chat with him and he was in good spirits and we are making progress with the case for him.

'Michael was saying there has to be some kind of independent investigation to see if Levi Bellfield was involved in his case or not.'

Since Bellfield's bombshell confession to his killings as many as 25 cases have been linked to him.

The former bouncer and wheel clamper has converted to Islam and now calls himself Yusuf Rahim, and was reported to be 'singing like a canary' about unsolved murders and sexual assaults at the start of the year.

A court sketch of Bellfield when he appeared charged with the murder of Amelie Delagrange

His lawyers then denied he had confessed to killing Milly in February.

A second lawyer acting for stone, Mark McDonald, also called for Bellfield to be questioned about the Russells.

He said: 'There is a huge amount ongoing on this case at the moment. Michael remains absolutely convinced by his innocence.

'He has nearly every document connected to this case and he has spent the past 20 years reading them.

'He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of everything in this case. We are covering a number of different parts, not just alternative suspects but evidence that undermines the integrity of the sole witness, Damien Daley.'

The Russell family was tied up, blindfolded and beaten after returning from a swimming competition during the summer. Their dog was also slaughtered

Psychopath Stone, left, did not kill Josie Russell, nine, right, who survived terrible head injuries and went on to make a miraculous recovery

Stone's conviction largely relied on Daley's statements, who said former drug addict Stone confessed to him in their jail cell.

Daley was since convicted for murder and admitted in court to being an accomplished liar.

Mr McDonald stated further DNA tests should be carried out on a shoelace from the Russells' crime scene, despite the 'exhaustive' test over a decade ago.

He said: 'The most interesting thing is the shoelace. Michael Stone's view is there is a lot of evidence that points to Levi Bellfield and he wants it properly investigated so if it isn't him, he can be ruled out.

'But at the moment no one is doing anything. The police are not assisting, the prosecution is not assisting.

The Dolwer family: Gemma (front left), Sally (front right) and Bob Dowler (second row, centre), Milly's mother, sister and father

'We need to re-examine this evidence with the more sophisticated equipment which exists now.'

Mr McDonald also added that police are refusing the re-examination and 'keep putting us off.'

Survivor Josie Russell has said in the past that her attacker was 'tall like her' father. Stone is 5ft 7in while Bellfield is over 6ft.

Kent Police said that they had no plans to speak to Bellfield, according to the Mirror.

Stone's family allege that 48-year-old Bellfield matches an e-fit of the Russells' killer

A spokesman said: 'A Criminal Case Review Commission had access to all forensic evidence, documentation and exhibits from the original investigation, the review by another force, details of two crown court trials and appeals to the High Court.

'Furthermore, Michael Stone made an application to apply for a judicial review in respect of his conviction in September 2012. The Honourable Mr Justice Blake ordered that permission for the application should be refused.

'All evidence from the investigation has been recorded and disclosed.

'Kent Police are not looking for anyone else in connection with the case in which Stone was convicted.'
OSCAR Pistorius has received emergency treatment for injuries to his wrists prompting speculation that he attempted suicide in jail, it emerged today.

The Paralympian denied the injuries were a suicide attempt and claimed he had 'fallen out of his bed' in his cell at Kgosi Mampuru prison in Pretoria.

Pistorius, serving a six-year jail term for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, was taken to a private hospital and later returned to prison, prison officials have revealed.

It comes amid reports two razor blades had been found in the double amputee's cell after the incident.

Oscar Pistorius has been treated in hospital after suffering injuries at his prison in South Africa, officials have revealed

'Oscar Pistorius denied speculations of a suicide attempt. As a policy principle we cannot further discuss a particular offender's personal condition in the public domain,' said Manelisi Wolela, a spokesman at the Department of Correctional Services.

Another spokesman, Singabakho Nxumalo, had said earlier that Pistorius told officials he suffered injuries after falling out of bed.

This afternoon, Carl Pistorius, the runner's brother, said he had been to see the 29-year-old and that he was 'doing well given the circumstances. He was in good spirit.'

He dismissed as 'completely untrue and sensational' reports that he tried to injure himself.

He added: 'He slipped in his cell and injured himself, nothing serious. It was great to see him.'

South Africas City Press newspaper today reported that two razor blades had been found in the double amputee's cell during a search following the incident.

The paper quoted a guard at the prison as saying 'he had bad cuts on his wrists and the doctors kept wrapping bandages around them.'

A spokesman at the hospital confirmed 'contraband' had been found in the athletes cell.

The Paralympian (right), serving a six-year jail term for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp (left), was taken for treatment after 'falling out of his bed' at the prison

Pistorius was taken to hospital at around midday on Saturday  just as the Olympics in Rio got underway.

Supporters of the former star of the London games have speculated on social media how hard the start of this year's tournament would be on the 'Blade Runner'  who has had a spectacular fall from grace since his historic performance in London exactly four years ago.

According to a prison source, Pistorius was well enough to receive visitors as normal today - Sunday being the standard day for contact with family and friends - and spent an hour chatting with family members and showed them his injuries.

MailOnline has learned from jail contacts that the runner has told his supervisor that he lost his balance on his stumps after slipping on water from a leaking toilet in his cell.

Pistorius claims he had taken a sleeping pill and went to bed as normal, but got up in the night to use the toilet in his cell.

'He claims he slipped in some leaked water, lost his balance and fell against a drawer, cutting his lower forearm, and also hit his head.

'His injuries were inspected by a nurse on the hospital wing and it was decided that he should go to hospital and be checked out. The worry was mainly for the impact to his head, the source told MailOnline.

After his sentencing, it emerged that Pistorius had been sent back to the same single cell in the hospital section of Pretoria's Kgosi Mampuru prison (pictured)

Pistorius shot Steenkamp multiple times through a toilet cubicle door in his home in the pre-dawn hours of Valentine's Day, 2013

The prison says the former track star was taken back to his Pretoria prison cell on Saturday, and that an investigation is underway.

Pistorius' family declined to comment, referring inquiries to the correctional services department.

Last month, South African prosecutors said they would appeal Pistorius' six-year jail sentence, saying it was too lenient.

Pistorius fatally shot Steenkamp in his home on Valentine's Day 2013.

The double-amputee athlete, who was sentenced on July 6, could be released on parole after three years.

The prescribed minimum sentence for murder in South Africa is 15 years, though a judge can reduce that penalty in some circumstances.

Pistorius also previously served one year in prison for manslaughter for shooting 29-year-old Steenkamp, a model and reality TV star.

Carl Pistorius, the runner's brother, said he had been to see the 29-year-old and that he was 'doing well given the circumstances. He was in good spirit'

That manslaughter conviction was upgraded to the more serious offense of murder after an earlier prosecution appeal, leading to a new sentencing.

After his sentencing, it emerged that Pistorius had been sent back to the same single cell in the hospital section of Pretoria's Kgosi Mampuru prison.

The paralympian had already spent a year in the cell - which is regarded as being reserved for vulnerable inmates.

Manelisi Wolela, spokesman for the Department of Correctional Services, said at the time that the special accommodation was due to his disability and that the prison had never had a double amputee inmate before.

Pistorius shot Steenkamp multiple times through a toilet cubicle door in his home in the pre-dawn hours of Valentine's Day, 2013.
will be put up in hotels and flown to Australia on Monday

Hundreds of Jetstar passengers on a flight from Japan to the Gold Coast will be stranded in Guam overnight after engine problems forced an emergency landing.

Flight JQ12 from Narita, Japan, was diverted the Pacific island of Guam on Sunday after the aircraft displayed an indicator message relating to oil pressure, Jetstar said in a statement.

The pilot turned off one engine after seeing light and landed at the nearest airport where it has been inspected by engineers.

Hundreds of Jetstar passengers on a flight from Japan to the Gold Coast will be stranded in Guam overnight after engine problems forced an emergency landing

309 passengers have been and some took to social media to slam the airline for the lack of communication around what alternative travel arrangements were being made.

'Beyond ridiculous, understand safety comes first, but no one is communicating! Never experienced such poor customer service,' one woman wrote on Twitter.

Jetstar said a new aircraft was on its way to the island and passengers will arrive on the Gold Coast before 9am on Monday.

We apologise to our customers for this disruption and we've arranged an alternative aircraft for them to continue their journey to the Gold Coast, where they will arrive early tomorrow morning,'a spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.
A student who was cleared of being the third man in the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack in France has now been arrested for allegedly trying to join Islamic State.

Hamyd Mourad, 20, was originally thought to have been the getaway driver when two Al-Qaeda operatives massacred 12 people around the Paris offices of the satirical magazine in January 2015.

There was a huge campaign aimed at releasing Hamyd, who was then a teenager, with classmates eventually providing an alibi then led to him being released without charge.

Hamyd Mourad, 20, was originally thought to have been the getaway driver when two Al-Qaeda operatives massacred 12 people around the Paris offices of the satirical magazine

But now  in what appears to be another huge failure by Frances security agencies  Mourad was intercepted in Turkey on July 28th as he tried to join the Isis caliphate in Syria.

Mourad, who remained on a terrorist watch list in France, was deported to Bulgaria, where he remains in a detention centre awaiting his return to France.

Paris intelligence sources told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper that material found in Mourads backpack, including a phone and laptop computer, made him a clear 'candidate for jihad.

It added that anti-terrorism prosecutors in Paris had opened a judicial investigation in order to issue a European arrest warrant for him.

There was a huge campaign aimed at releasing Hamyd, who was then a teenager, with classmates eventually providing an alibi then led to him being released without charge

Mourad was the brother-in-law of Cherif Kouachi, who carried out the murders at Charlie Hebdo with his brother Said Kouachi.

The pair used AK47s to assassinate writers and cartoonists whom they accused of insulting the Prophet Mohammed, before they themselves were later gunned down by police commandos.

In the hours after the attack, Hamyds name was released as a prime suspect and a manhunt was launched.

Hamyd handed himself into a police station in his home town of Charleville-Mezieres, some 160 miles from Paris, and was held and interrogated for more than two days.

Mourad was the brother-in-law of Cherif Kouachi, who carried out the murders at Charlie Hebdo with his brother Said Kouachi (pictured: Mourners remember those who died)

After being released without charge, Hamyd said: I was stunned, completely overwhelmed by the events.

I'm in shock, people said horrible and false things about me on social media even though I am a normal student who lives quietly with his parents.

The Charleville-Mezieres prosecutor confirmed that Mourad had just finished the first year of a science and technology course at university, had been reported missing by his family on July 25th.

Many of the terrorists involved in lethal attacks in France and Belgium since the Charlie Hebdo atrocity were on watch lists.

The two Isis affiliated teenagers who murdered a Roman Catholic priest in Normandy last month had both tried to join the Isis caliphate via Turkey before being deported.
Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to start shake up of system

Comes a week after he called for cross-party review of party funding

Future Prime Ministers will be banned from handing out resignation honours, the chairman of an influential committee has said.

The intervention follows public outcry over David Cameron's 'golden goodbyes' for Conservative party donors and leading figures in the Remain campaign.

Lord Bew, head of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, said future premiers would avoid giving out gongs upon leaving office to prevent another 'heated row'.

Lord Bew, (pictured) head of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, said future premiers would avoid giving out gongs upon leaving office to prevent another 'heated row'

It comes less than a week after he called for a cross-party review of party funding to ensure such scandals did not happen again.

He told The Telegraph: 'There are distinguished public servants on this list, but even so I think this has to be the last one given the public outcry.

'I just think its over now. If there was another list, it would provoke another heated row.'

Lord Bew was speaking in a personal capacity, but his comments will be influential as Theresa May makes plans to shake up the way honours are handed out.

Colleagues said she was keen to avoid the mistakes of her predecessor, who had allowed the impression to be given that awards were being given to cronies.

David Cameron triggered a fierce backlash on Thursday after the official version of his resignation honours emerged including 46 gongs and 13 new Conservative peers

Mr Cameron triggered a fierce backlash on Thursday after the official version of his resignation honours emerged including 46 gongs and 13 new Conservative peers.

The 'toxic' nominations were published five days after a leak of a draft list triggered a major row over the inclusion of aides, cronies, donors and Remain campaigners.

The full details of the awards revealed former chancellor George Osborne became a Companion of Honour, one of the most prestigious and rare awards that can be given.

His former spin chief Craig Oliver was handed a knighthood, along with pro-Remain Cabinet ministers Michael Fallon and Patrick McLoughlin. Also knighted was party donor Andrew Cook.

George Osborne became a Companion of Honour, one of the most prestigious and rare awards that can be given

Samantha Cameron's 'stylist' Isabel Spearman and Mr Osborne's aide Thea Rogers  credited with his makeover  were given OBEs. Dozens of advisers and Downing Street aides were also honoured.

A total of 16 new peers will see the House of Lords exceed 800 for the first time and the number of appointed Conservative peers will leapfrog Labour  making it easier for the Tories to get legislation through Parliament.

One MP close to the Prime Minister criticised the way her predecessor had drawn up his resignation list, and pledged that Mrs May would do things differently, adding: 'You certainly won't see Theresa doing something like this.

'She certainly wouldn't be abusing the honours system in this way.'

Mrs May is expected to use her first honours list, likely to be in the New Year, to make it clear they will be introduced in a more open and transparent way.

A Government source said of Mrs May: 'Anyone who knows her attitude to these things would know this would be something she would want to look at.

'She is a woman who does things properly.'
Dean Matthew Tapper, 46, (pictured) has been jailed after having sex with a 15-year-old schoolgirl, pictured outside Western Australia District Court

A former policeman who was jailed after having sex with a school girl has lost an appeal against his two-year sentence.

Dean Matthew Tapper, who was 43 at the time, pleaded guilty last year on the first day of his trial to three counts of sexually penetrating the 15-year-old girl in 2012.

The pair met on a dating website, and Tapper initially believed the girl was 19.

Tapper was a senior constable with Western Australia Police when he sexually assaulted the girl.

He told the court last year that he picked the girl up from a public library to have sex, and repeatedly questioned her about her age when he saw she was wearing a school uniform.

The girl told Tapper, who served in the force for 17 years, that she was 19 years old but still went to school.

During sentencing, Judge Patrick O'Neal said that although Tapper asked the girl about her age, he never requested to see identification.

'I'm not satisfied that you did honestly believe that she was of legal age,' O'Neal said.

'Given your doubts, you could have abstained from having sex with her on the two occasions. You might have sought out an adult partner instead.

'Your state of mind about her age was at best, in my view, willful blindness and you took the risk that she was 16 years old. She was not.

Tapper was stood down from operational duties after he was charged and he then resigned from WA Police in April 2013.

Judge O'Neal said Tapper had not 'corrupted' the girl and said the offending was at the lower end of the spectrum.

'There is a particular need with this kind of offending to demonstrate the community's condemnation and deter others from a similar willful blindness in the face of the obvious,' he said.

'These laws are imposed to protect children, even children who don't recognise their own need for protection.'

The former cop appealed his sentence on Friday, claiming it was 'manifestly excessive', and suggested a suspended sentence instead.

However a unanimous decision in the Court of Appeal dashed Tapper's hopes of release, as the sentence was not unreasonable or unjust.
Terror suspect Tiger Hanif (pictured) is still in Britain despite a three-year bid to have him extradited to India

A terror suspect wanted over two Indian bombings which killed a schoolgirl is still in Britain - despite a three-year bid to have him extradited, it has emerged.

Officials in India are trying to extradite Tiger Hanif, who worked as a greengrocer in Bolton, Greater Manchester for 17 years.

But the 55-year-old, wanted in India for allegedly financing two bomb blasts in the north western city of Surat, has remained in the UK - despite High Court judges dismissing moves to block his departure in 2013.

The case has since been passed to new Home Secretary Amber Rudd, according to Lee Sorrell of the Daily Star Sunday.

Hanif, also know as Mohammed Patel, came to Britain in 1996, three years after a double bombing in which an eight-year-old girl was killed and 38 were injured.

He fled to Britain where despite initially being refused asylum he was later given a British passport and made a new life at family grocers in Bolton.

Police believed the bombing in the Surat region of India was to avenge the destruction of an ancient mosque, Babri Masjid, by Hindu zealots and subsequent riots.

One bomb exploded near a school at Varachha in which the girl was killed, and a grenade was lobbed at a train leaving 38 injured.

Hanif was arrested by Scotland Yard's extradition squad at his home in 2010 (file picture)

A former state minister, Mohammad Surti, was found guilty of the bombings and jailed for 20 years.

Hanif was arrested by Scotland Yard's extradition squad at his home in 2010.

He later said he faced torture in India if extradited back to the country.

But in 2013, High Court Justice Kenneth Parker said there was 'no arguable basis' for not extraditing him, the Daily Star Sunday reported.
An Iranian nuclear scientist accused of giving information to the CIA in exchange for $5million has been executed, and his hanged body returned to his family.

Shahram Amiri was killed for 'revealing secrets to the enemy', Iranian officials have said.

The researcher went missing in 2009 after leaving for a pilgrimage to Mecca, but appeared in a video - apparently recorded in the U.S. - in which he claimed to have been put under pressure to 'reveal sensitive information' to the intelligence agency.

In interviews he has claimed he was drugged, put on a plane, and then kept under 'psychological pressure' at an undisclosed location in the U.S.

There he was asked to hand over classified documents, but he claims he never did as he didn't want to betray his country.

He then walked into the Iranian interests section at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington and demanded to be sent home.

Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri, who was accused of giving information to the CIA, has been executed

He came back to a heroes welcome and insisted he was a 'simple researcher'.

Amiri worked for a university affiliated with Tehran's extensive nuclear program.

He is said to have had an in-depth knowledge of Iran's nuclear program and was kept at a secret location after returning to the country.

According to CBS, he told officials in interviews he was being held against his will by Saudi and U.S. spies.

But American officials said he was set to receive millions for informing

Amiri's mother told the BBC that his body had been sent to her with rope marks around his neck.

On Sunday, an Iranian judicial spokesman confirmed the execution had taken place.

He told the Mizan Online news site: 'Shahram Amiri was hanged for revealing the country's top secrets to the enemy (US).'

In another recording filmed when he was missing, the scientist suggested he had fled from the USA, where he had been held against his will.

But US officials said they paid Amiri some $5 million to defect and provide 'significant' information about Iran's atomic program.

Amiri later fled the U.S. without the money.

Iranian officials previously touted Amiri's claim he had been abducted by U.S. agents while on a pilgrimage to holy sites in Saudi Arabia.

They welcomed him home in 2010 as a hero.

But his family confirmed to the BBC he had been given a lengthy jail sentence after returning to the Middle East.

The State Department declined to comment on Amiri's execution.

Shakram Amiri appeared in a video in which he claimed to have been put under pressure to 'reveal sensitive information' by the CIA. Upon his return to Tehran, Iranian authorities backed up his claim to have been treated to a 'hero's welcome'

Amiri's disappearance will raise concerns about the future of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian aid worker being held by Tehran.

The 37-year-old, who was arrested as she tried to leave Iran after a visit with her two-year-old daughter, appeared in the Revolutionary Court on Monday.

'We continue to raise our strong concerns about British prisoners in Iran, including Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, at the highest levels in both London and Tehran,' a spokeswoman for Britain's Foreign Office said.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 37, works for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, a London-based charity that is independent of Thomson Reuters and operates independently of Reuters News.

The Foreign Office spokeswoman said former Prime Minister David Cameron had repeatedly raised the case with his Iranian counterpart.

'We are deeply concerned by recent reports that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been charged but has not been allowed to see a lawyer,' the spokeswoman said.

'We remain ready to facilitate Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's daughter's return to the UK if requested.'

Amiri's disappearance will raise concerns about the future of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian aid worker being held by Tehran




A naked Australian man fell to his death from the seventh floor of a Bangkok hotel less than 24 hours after checking in with a Thai woman.

A hotel maid found Joshua Edward Beath, 25, lying on his back in a pool of blood after he fell from the balcony of his room.

The woman he checked in with had left the hotel by the time police arrived, the ABC reported.

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Australian man Joshua Beath, 25, fell to his death from the seventh floor of a Bangkok hotel

Mr Beath's obituary said he had 'died tragically as the result of an accident in Thailand'

Mr Beath arrived at the four star hotel on Surawong Road around noon on Thursday, July 28

Staff said he checked in with a Thai woman, who had left by the time police received reports of Mr Beaths death on Friday morning.

A doctor told local media that Mr Beath died as a result of head wounds likely sustained in the fall.

Police found no signs of a struggle when they searched his room.

Mr Beath checked into a four star hotel on Bangkok's Surawong Road (pictured) with a Thai woman the day before he died

Police said they were hoping to speak to a Thai woman who he checked into the hotel with the day before his death. Mr Beath is pictured on holiday in Thailand

An obituary to Mr Beath published in the Herald Sun said he died tragically as the result of an accident in Thailand'.

A piece of our family puzzle has been tragically taken and cannot be replaced, it read.
Among infamous unsolved cases are 1999 murder of TV presenter Jill Dando and the

Nurse Susan Donoghue was killed by an intruder armed with a truncheon at her home in Bristol on August 5 1976 and her killer has never been found

Police forces in England and Wales have failed to solve almost a quarter of all killings and have nearly 1,600 unsolved cases on their books, an investigation has found.

An investigation by The Sunday Times found there are currently 1,583 unsolved cases - most of them 'cold cases' where no one has even been brought to justice.

While the UK population has risen, the number of homicides in England and Wales has been steadily falling since 2002.

But despite huge technological advances in forensic science the number of unsolved murder cases has risen from 13 per cent in 1995 to 1996 to 23 per cent in 2014 to 2015 - leading some to suggest that government cuts to police budgets could be to blame.

Data from the Home Office homicide index shows more than 17 per cent of killings from the past 20 years have not resulted in a conviction.

The Home Office Homicide Index also showed there were 518 homicides - consisting of murder, manslaughter and infanticide - in the year ending March 2015 in England and Wales - the lowest since 1983.

Of the 518 homicides in that year, 99 cases remain unsolved and no one has been convicted of them.

Among the most high profile homicide cases which remain unsolved in the UK today are the 1999 shooting of TV presenter Jill Dando, the 1978 disappearance of Genette Tate and the 1997 murder of Billie-Jo Jenkins.

Former detective Mark Williams-Thomas told The Sunday Times: 'No police force wants to have unsolved murders, but sadly with the ever increasing reductions to policing staff this does impact on the quality and time that can be given to some cases.'

The body of 44-year-old Ms Donoghue, who was a night sister at Brentry Hospital, was discovered in her basement flat in Sneyd Park by her partner

The figures were revealed after a possible breakthrough in a 40-year-old murder case.

Police have launched a renewed appeal to solve the murder of a 'sweet-natured' nurse 40 years ago after obtaining the killer's DNA profile.

Mother-of-one Susan Donoghue, 44, was sexually assaulted and battered to death in her basement flat in Sneyd Park, Bristol, on August 5, 1976.

She had taken the night off from work at a psychiatric hospital because of a cold and was found dead in her bed by her fiance when he returned to the flat at 7.15am.

Ms Donoghue, who was described as 'sweet and considerate', was bludgeoned with a truncheon.

The bloodied weapon was found at the scene together with a pair of gloves.

Clues: Ms Donoghue was hit seven times with a truncheon, which was left behind along with a pair of bloodstained gloves (pictured) and a tobacco tin

There was also a footprint on the inside sill of a half-opened window in the room next to her bedroom.

A major investigation was launched involving more than 80 officers and lasting over a year. Several men were arrested but eliminated.

In 1995 there was a review of the case and DNA from semen recovered at the scene was put on the National DNA Database but there was no match.

A further review in 1997/98 also drew a blank and there was a mass screening of potential suspects identified from the original investigation.

In 2005 the DNA profile was upgraded thanks to advances in technology. Familial DNA screening was carried out and again in 2009 but still without a hit.

But last week detectives announced that due to advances in DNA technology they now have a full DNA profile of the offender - and are confident of getting their man.

DCI Julie MacKay, who led the cold case team which recently cracked the 1984 murder of Melanie Road in nearby Bath, is heading up the investigation.

She said: 'As we saw with the Melanie Road case, the passage of time since a murder is no longer an obstacle in securing justice for these victims.

Abandoned: She had been unwell and had taken the night off from work when she was attacked in bed as she slept. Pictured, the truncheon left behind at the scene

'The technology used in DNA forensics has come a long way since Susan was murdered and we now have a full DNA profile of the man who sexually abused and murdered her.

'Similarly to the Melanie Road murder investigation, the key to solving this horrific crime is in the painstaking and methodical work my team is undertaking to make sure all the information we have is on the right systems.'

She added: 'I am convinced that someone out there has information on what happened that August night in 1976.

'I would appeal directly to them, or the killer himself, to come forward now and bring an end to the 40 years of heartache Susan's family and friends have had to endure.

'Susan was a well-liked and respected woman who was brutally murdered in her own home and I am determined to bring her killer to justice.'

Anyone with information is asked to call 101 now and quote Operation Radar. Alternatively, information can be left anonymously with Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
A Pirelli calendar model awarded 75million in one of the highest-stakes divorce battles of its kind may now have to 'sue her own daughter' for the cash.

Christina Estrada, 54, was last month awarded the settlement at the High Court after divorcing her ex-husband, Sheikh Walid Juffali.

However sources have now said the former supermodel may be forced to 'sue' her teenage daughter in a bid to claim her fortune.

Christina Estrada, 54, was last month awarded the settlement at the High Court after divorcing her ex-husband, Sheikh Walid Juffali

Sources said Dr Juffali's estate was in Saudi Arabia, adding he had 'sold' his assets to his three daughters under Sharia law

Dr Juffali, who had been battling terminal cancer, died at a clinic in Zurich where he was receiving palliative care - just one week before he was due to pay Ms Estrada.

High Court Family Division judge Mrs Justice Roberts had ordered the 61-year-old Saudi billionaire to pay Ms Estrada the lump sum by 4pm on Friday, July 29.

Although Ms Estrada was warned this would be subject to a delay, she has yet to receive the money, it has been reported.

Sources told The Sunday Telegraph Dr Juffali's estate was in Saudi Arabia, adding he had 'sold' his assets to his three daughters under Sharia law.

Dr Juffali (left) died just days before payment to his ex-wife (right) was due - and now sources claim she may have to 'sue her own daughter' for the money

High Court Family Division judge Mrs Justice Roberts had ordered the 61-year-old Saudi billionaire to pay Ms Estrada the sum totalling millions of pounds

The source told the paper: 'Nobody is going to get money out of Saudi Arabia.

'In all divorce cases where there are trusts, it is complicated to enforce.

'There is an application to set aside the contract that has been made.'

The source Miss Estrada would in effect have to sue her own daughter but said it was not a problem as they were 'very close'.

The American-born model fought for more than three years to win the payout which became the largest 'needs' grant - which is based on what she needs as opposed to the usual division of assets - in British legal history.

The model fought for more than three years to win the payout which became the largest 'needs' grant in British legal history

A High Court judge awarded the 54-year-old former model a 53million lump sum and allowed her to keep assets totalling about 20million at London's High Court

Among the 'reasonable needs' she said needed to be met were 1 million a year for clothes, including 40,000 for fur coats, 109,000 for haute couture dresses and 21,000 for shoes every year.

She also needed a 60million luxury home in central London, a 4.4million house in Henley-on-Thames and 495,000 for five cars including a Lamborghini.

She told family judge Mrs Justice Roberts: 'I am Christina Estrada. I was a top, international model. I have lived this life.

'This is what I am accustomed to.'

A High Court judge awarded the 54-year-old a 53million lump sum and allowed her to keep assets totalling about 20million at London's High Court.

Dr Juffali was chairman and heir of EA Juffali and Brothers, one of Saudi Arabia's most successful companies.

The couple met in 2000 and wed soon after, however the marriage ran into difficulty in 2012 when Dr Juffali married a 25-year-old Lebanese model - the mother of his two youngest children - while still married to Ms Estrada.

Muslim culture allows more than one wife.

The sheikh then divorced Ms Estrada in Saudi Arabia in 2014 under Islamic law without her knowledge.
They said the swallowed bottle could cause cuts, ulcers or even death

Staff at a Queensland zoo said the croc was clearly distressed as it choked

A 15ft crocodile called 'The Colonel' has been filmed choking on a bottle

A 15ft crocodile known as 'The Colonel' has been filmed choking on a plastic bottle thrown into his enclosure by careless visitors.

The saltwater crocodile was clearly distressed and could be heard trying to hack the bottle up, staff at Queensland's Rockhampton Zoo said.

'He was coughing and clearly trying to dislodge something from his throat,' staff said.

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The 'Colonel' was filmed choking on a plastic bottle thrown into his enclosure by a littering visitor

A post on the Rockhampton Zoo Facebook page slammed the littering visitors who threw the bottle into the enclosure.

'Yesterday our zoo staff witnessed The Colonel, our large salt water crocodile, in some distress,' it said.

'It was distressing to see the Colonel going through this as a result of a small minority who don't do the right thing.'

A zookeeper coaxed the crocodile out the water to help dislodge the bottle from its throat. He is pictured holding up the bottle

The bottle was covered in green moss when the croc finally managed to cough it up

Zoo staff warned that the bottle could have seriously injured or even killed the croc.

The post continued: 'These plastic bottles have the potential to kill a croc as they can cause internal lacerations,ulcers, infection or impaction.'

Witness Lauren Strickland told the Morning Bulleting the incident the was 'terrible'.

She said: 'I'd gone there with my son and noticed (the crocodile) had regurgitated some green muck.
One in two young Indigenous people living in remote outback communities is carrying an STI, and syphilis rates are higher than they have been in 30 years, a new study has revealed.

The study, undertaken by South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, examined 65 remote communities in Australia's north and found one in two young people had either chlamydia, gonorrhea or trichomoniasis.

It also found remote communities accounted for half of all chlamydia notifications among indigenous people, who were diagnosed at three times the rate of non-indigenous people.

A study has shown one in two young teenagers living in 65 remote Aboriginal communities around Australia have either chlamydia, gonorrhea or trichomoniasis (stock image)

Gonorrhea also showed a worrying trend skewed towards those living in outback Australia, with experts claiming the levels of gonorrhea and syphilis had reached epidemic levels.

Instances of Gonorrhea were 18 times higher in indigenous people, and most cases were diagnosed in remote communities.

South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) Aboriginal Health Infection and Immunity Theme Associate Professor James Ward, who co-wrote the report, said there were many reasons the STIs had spread so quickly.

They included a lack of conversation and education around the issue, stigmas associated with health clinics and STIs which do not display symptoms.

Professor James Ward (pictured) says because the communities are so small, the STIs are almost like the flu in their transmission, regardless of promiscuity

The study found remote communities accounted for half of all chlamydia notifications among indigenous people, who were diagnosed at three times the rate of non-indigenous people (stock image)

Professor Ward told the Adelaide Advertiser that while drugs and alcohol certainly played a part, as did lack of protection, promiscuity did not.

'A 16-year-old in Adelaide who has five partners might rarely get chlamydia, but a 16- to 19-year-old in a remote community is very likely to get one of the three even if they have only had one sexual relationship, simply because the prevalence among the community is so high,' he said.

'It's a bit like the flu  if everyone in your community has got it and you don't have protection of vaccination you are probably going to get it.'

Professor Ward is working with Aboriginal communities to encourage testing for STIs and the use of condoms.
Company spends more on snacks than on the $77,000 program, he added

CEO says main goal was quality control - and helping sales was 'secondary'

A vegan company has sent employees to buy back its own mayo from supermarkets - but its CEO insists it was just for quality control.

Hampton Creek based in San Francisco, sent workers undercover to buy hundreds of jars of its egg-free Just Mayo spread, Bloomberg reported.

They received instructions not to wear their Hampton Creek clothes while shopping for their own products across the country at venues such as Safeway, the report says.

But CEO Josh Tetrick says the operation, which started in 2013, was meant for quality control - and getting 'a little lift' in sales was only secondary.

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Hampton Creek sent workers undercover to buy jars of its Just Mayo spread, Bloomberg reported. But CEO Josh Tetrick (pictured) says the operation was meant for quality control

The program hasn't completely ended and the company still implements some of its elements today, Tetrick told CNBC.

He recounted seeing one of his own jars of mayo on the shelves in December 2013 and his disappointment when the conditioning was less than perfect.

'At the end of 2013, we didn't have an experienced operations team, we had a small internal team and a group of folks in the field who worked with us to put out fires and help with our launch,' he wrote in a post on Hampton Creek's website.

Hampton Creek, which says it has been backed by Silicon Valley billionaires, has spent $77,000 to buy back its own product.

The company told contractors to buy jars of Just Mayo at supermarkets across the United States, hoping to gain 'a little momentum out of the gate', Bloomberg reported based on interviews with former workers, receipts, emails and other documents.

Helping sales of Just Mayo (pictured) was only a 'secondary' aspect of the program, Tetrick said. Hampton Creek has spent $77,00 on the operation

'We need you in Safeway buying Just Mayo and our new flavored mayos,' an April 2014 e-mail read according to Bloomberg. 'The most important next step with Safeway is huge sales out of the gate.'

The email said the program would ensure Just Mayo would 'stay on the shelf' and 'spread the word to customers that Just Mayo is their new preferred brand', according to Bloomberg.

But Tetrick told CNBC the program was primarily meant to check the quality of the mayo.

'Listen, in the beginning, unfortunately, we had mayo breaking, we had lids coming off, we had labels that were screwed off,' he said.

'We kind of had a rag-tag team sitting around a wooden table figuring out how to do it.'

Getting a 'little lift' in sales was a 'secondary, much less important' aspect of the program, Tetrick said.

The $77,000 were insignificant and the company spends more on snacks, he added.

The bulk of the program ended in 2014 but some aspects still exist today, Tetrick said.

Companies who purchase their own products should inform their investors, Stanford professor of accounting David Larcker told Bloomberg.

Businesses do not usually control the quality of their products once they have hit the shelves, another expert added.

Instead, they run checks at the factory, consumer researcher Kurt Jetta told Bloomberg.

But Tetrick insisted on CNBC the practice was 'very typical' and that it was 'pretty silly' to think it had anything to do with fundraising given the timeline of the program.
A man was found to be carrying a plethora of wet women's underpants and bras has been arrested and released on bail.

Police stopped the man as he rode through the streets of Reservoir in Melbourne just after 2am on Sunday when they made the strange discovery of the undergarments, which appear to have been hung out to dry.

The 28-year-old was arrested on a number of outstanding warrants.

A man who was arrested on warrants in Melbourne on Sunday morning was found to be carrying a bag full of wet women's underwear (stock image)

Preston Police are looking to speak to anyone in the Reservoir area who are missing some underwear that may have been hanging out to dry.

The undie thief has been released on bail and will appear in Heidelberg Magistrate's Court on November 7 in relation to the outstanding warrants.

This comes only a week after 35-year-old construction worker Marco Raulli admitted to a court that he had been stealing underwear from Northcote, Richmond and South Yarra for four years.

He pleaded guilty to five counts of theft and three of stalking, and was sentenced to an 18-month community corrections order and ordered to pay his victims $790 on Thursday.
The teen who vanished during a volunteering trip only to be found with dyed hair and different clothes posted an Instagram beforehand saying she couldn't wait to be home.

Fauna Jackson, a 16-year-old from Cincinnati, disappeared in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park on Thursday.

She was found uninjured on Saturday after an 'extensive' search that involved 100 people. Authorities said she fled from law enforcement when they found her.

Fauna Jackson posted an Instagram saying she could't wait to be home just a day before she disappeared in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park on Thursday

Jackson, pictured here at Yellowstone Lake earlier in the week, was found two days later with newly dyed hair and different clothes

Authorities said Jackson fled from law enforcement when she was found on Saturday

Mystery continues to surround Jackson's brief disappearance, but on Wednesday her Instagram painted the portrait of a girl who was excited to return home.

'Last day in Wyoming tomorrow!' she wrote in the caption of a selfie picture with other volunteers.

'I can't wait to be home and see everyone. Today I'm going to be blazing a trail, pretty siked, I love you all a bunch and can't wait to see all of you soon!'

The straight-A student at Clark Montessori High School was last seen on Thursday at 8.30am along the side of US Highway 89 when she took a break from work, officials said.

She had been wearing a green long-sleeve shirt with 'Groundwork USA', the name of the organization she was volunteering with, emblazoned on the front.

Possible sightings were reported to the Teton Interagency Dispatch Center, and Jackson was found near the Snake River Overlook about four miles from where she disappeared, officials said.

Jackson was found near the Snake River Overlook about four miles from where she disappeared, officials said

An investigation is still ongoing.

Jackson was volunteering with Groundwork USA, helping to reroute a trail in the Triangle X Ranch area, after her 'outstanding contribution' to an eight-week project in her hometown.

The organization is 'devoted to transforming the natural and built environment of marginalized communities', according to its website.

The organization's Cincinnati chapter's executive director Robin Corathers told WCPO: 'She's a delight to be around. She got along very well with her peers. She did outstanding work for us the eight week period. And she showed a lot of leadership potential.'

Jackson was selected to participate in a nine-day trip with the environmental group Groundwork USA, helping to reroute a trail in the Triangle X Ranch area of the park (pictured)

Park officials posted this photo on Facebook, calling it a 'an all-hands-on-deck effort' including about 100 individuals, 'many of them breaking away from their normal duties to do so'

An 'all-hands-on-deck' search, which included numerous dogs, helicopters, rangers, paramedics, and the FBI, enlisted about 100 people scanning the park on Friday.

They found her boot, but park officials said they did not believe she was wearing it when she disappeared.

Thermal imaging flights were also enlisted overnight, according to Cincinnati.com, with authorities ready to expand to search outside the national park.

Jackson posted multiple pictures on both her Facebook and Instagram during the nine-day program as she updated family and friends on her activities.

In her most recent Facebook photo, Jackson is seen looking out at the water.

'Late last night we stopped in front of Yellowstone Lake, the largest alpine lake in the world,' she wrote in the caption.

A week ago the teen posted an Instagram picture and said in the caption: 'Can't wait to go to Wyoming, it's gonna be a real blast'.

Jackson was uninjured and taken to St John's Medical Center for a welfare check as an investigation continues
A toddler almost died after a bout of chickenpox turned into a horrific flesh-eating infection that left gaping wounds in his neck.

Charlie Cave, from Kempston, Bedfordshire, was just 13-months-old when he developed the early stages of necrotising fasciitis.

He had to be put into an induced coma and spent a gruelling two weeks in intensive care.

A toddler almost died after a bout of chickenpox turned into horrific flesh-eating infection that left gaping wounds in his neck

Charlie Cave was just 13-months-old when he developed the early stages of necrotising fasciitis

Necrotising fasciitis is a serious bacterial skin infection that spreads quickly and kills the body's soft tissue.

The infection took over his neck, causing it to go black, and his poorly body also had to fight off the life-threatening blood-poisoning disease sepsis.

After Charlie's heart rate reached 227 beats per minute his parents, Alan and Becky, were told to expect the worst ahead of a seven hour operation.

Alan, 31, spoke of the horrifying moment he heard his son was 'critical' at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) in London.

The estate agency manager said: 'It was an out of body experience.

'We were told quite early on Charlie had sepsis and that it would get worse before it got better, but I don't think they expected him to be quite as bad as he was.

'When we found out he was critical it was all a bit of a whirlwind.

Charlie, who is now 19-months-old, will likely need to have skin grafts on his neck and he visits hospital once every two months for scar care

Necrotising fasciitis is a serious bacterial skin infection that spreads quickly and kills the body's soft tissue

'We were taken into a room at GOSH and told he needed emergency surgery to remove the swelling and black tissue at the bottom of Charlie's chin.

'They didn't think he would survive the surgery and we pretty much had to sign his life away and then we were just in a trance.'

Surgeons cut into the black tissue and it started to bleed meaning it wasn't dead so they took swabs and sent them for testing - cutting the surgery down to an hour.

Charlie's body was then covered in ice pads for the next 48 hours while he received round the clock care to try and control his high temperature.

The test results revealed Charlie had Strep A which could be treated with antibiotics but while he was on the mend his kidneys began to fail and then his lung collapsed.

Alan added: 'It was touch and go for a number of times. It was pretty grim to see and we felt so helpless with Charlie just lying there.

'He didn't look like our little boy anymore.

After Charlie's heart rate reached 227 beats per minute his parents, Alan and Becky, were told to expect the worst ahead of a seven hour operation

'Had we have spent longer getting him to the doctors I do not think he would still be with us today.'

Charlie spent 12 days in an induced coma and Alan claims his little body doubled in size due to the fluids injected into him.

The toddler showed the signs of chickenpox on February 5 when he became feverish and by the following day a cluster of pox appeared on his neck.

Charlie got the secondary infection after scratching his itchy neck and the infection getting into his blood.

Just a few days later he took a turn for the worst and by February 10 he was rushed to the paediatric ward at Bedford Hospital but that evening was anaesthetised and taken to GOSH.

He ended up with centimetre deep wounds on his neck and has now been left scarred from the traumatic ordeal after being discharged from hospital on March 3.

Charlie spent 12 days in an induced coma and Alan claims his little body doubled in size due to the fluids injected into him

Charlie, who is now 19-months-old, will likely need to have skin grafts on his neck and he visits hospital once every two months for scar care.

He also could have possible long term hearing damage as he can't hear low noises which doctors think is down to the sepsis.

Alan wanted to issue a warning to other parents to make sure they go to hospital as soon as they think something is just the slightest bit off with their child.

He said: 'A parent knows their child and on that one morning we knew something was wrong.

'I just want to say to other parents to not take anything for granted and if you have a concern, to act on it.

'Make sure you get your child checked out immediately because it is so time sensitive.

'If we had left it any longer, I think we would be giving a different story.'
Courting customers: Aldi boss Matthew Barnes has admitted the budget supermarket lures the middle classes with cut-price wine

Cut-price bottles of wine have lured middle class shoppers through the doors and helped Aldi corner 12 per cent of the fresh food market, the boss of the budget supermarket chain has revealed.

Matthew Barnes, who started working with the German discount brand as a graduate 20 years ago, has put the success of his firm - which has seen sales double over three years - down to cheap, but good quality products, including wine, steak and lobsters.

Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph, Barnes said: 'Some people shop with us first to try the wine and then come back to do a weekly shop - so it's very important to us.'

Just last month, Aldi picked up 16 awards at the International Wine and Spirits Challenge, with judges handing a 7.99 bottle of cream liqueur a gold award.

The retailer has received more than 90 international awards for its beers, wines, spirits and liqueurs this year alone.

Other strategies which have caused a surge of popularity among middle class customers include Aldi's 'Special Buys' - items such as Dyson Vacuum cleaners and satnavs - which drive one million hits to its website every week, as well as the introduction of healthier food lines, including quinoa and bean salads.

Spiralised vegetables and cauliflower rice are also said to be on the horizon.

While wooing the middle class customers with increased product lines that will appeal to them, Aldi has also be unafraid to engage in price wars with its bigger rivals.

Barnes said: 'If there is a price war, I can guarantee one thing - we will lower our prices to whatever it takes.'

The Aldi boss also attributes some of the firm's success to the recession, which has changed people's perceptions of cheaper products.

Aldi has doubled its sales over three years and now has 12 per cent of the fresh food market

'The old phrase of 'You get what you pay for' is no longer relevant, and saving money has become something to be proud of', he explains.

Recent figures show the strategy appears to be working.

Aldi and its comparable rival, Lidl, are now taking more than 1 in every 10 spent on groceries.

The rise of the two chains is coming at the expense of the 'Big Four'  Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys and Morrisons  which continue to lose market share.

Aldi and Lidl are each opening new stores in the UK at the rate of more than one a week and have embedded themselves in British life through partnership deals with UK farmers and sponsorships.

This includes Aldi signing up as a lead sponsor for TeamGB at this year's Rio Olympics.
Marco Rubio has said he doesn't believe pregnant women infected with the Zika virus should be allowed to get an abortion.

The Florida Senator believes a ll human life is 'worthy of protection of our laws' - even if there is a risk the baby could be severely deformed.

The former presidential candidate's controversial comments come just days after his state reported their first suspected cases of the virus.

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Marco Rubio has said he doesn't believe pregnant women infected with the Zika virus should be allowed to get an abortion

At least 16 people are believe to have been infected in a trendy neighborhood in Miami - the city where avid prolife supporter Rubio was born.

On Saturday he told Politico: ' I understand a lot of people disagree with my view  but I believe that all human life is worthy of protection of our laws.

'And when you present it in the context of Zika or any prenatal condition, its a difficult question and a hard one.

'But if Im going to err, Im going to err on the side of life.'

He added: 'Obviously, microcephaly is a terrible prenatal condition that kids are born with. And when they are, its a lifetime of difficulties.

'So I get it. Im not pretending to you that thats an easy question you asked me. But Im prolife.

The Florida Senator believes a ll human life is 'worthy of protection of our laws' - even if there is a risk the baby could be severely deformed. He is pictured at a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee hearing in June

'And Im strongly prolife. I believe all human life should be protected by our law, irrespective of the circumstances or condition of that life.'

Rubio has taken a leadership role in trying to prevent the spread of Zika. He became the first Republican to co-sponsor President Obamas $1.9 billion to fight the infection.

The legislation ultimately failed.

The outbreak of Zika has sent another chill through the Sunshine State's all-important tourism industry just weeks after the Orlando nightclub massacre and the killing of a two-year-old boy by an alligator at nearby Walt Disney World.
He is the third prominent Republican to turn his back on Trump this week

Virginia Representative Scott Rigel has become the latest member of the GOP to buck against a Trump presidency as he announced he'd rather vote Libertarian.

In an interview Friday, Rigell swore he would choose third-party candidate Gary Johnson over his own party's pick for President.

'I've always said I will not vote for Donald Trump and I will not vote for Hillary Clinton,' Rigell told The New York Times. 'I'm going to vote for the Libertarian candidate.'

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Turning away: Virginia Representative Scott Rigel has become the latest major Republican figure to swear that he won't vote for Donald Trump

Third party: Rigell claims he's 'always said I won't vote for Donald Trump' (left). Instead he says he'll vote Libertarian candidate and ex-GOP New Mexico governor Gary Johnson (right)

Rigell, who is retiring at the end of his current term, is the third prominent Republican to turn his back on Trump this week.

On Tuesday Richard Hanna, a Republican Representative for New York who is also on the verge of retiring, became the first sitting lawmaker to announce that he would vote for Hillary Clinton.

Describing Trump as 'the embodiment of at least a short list of the seven deadly sins,' Hanna vowed he would cross the aisle when voting in November.

And on Thursday Adam Kinzinger, a Republican representative for Illinois, told CNN he couldn't support Trump

'Because he has crossed so many red lines that a commander in chief, or a candidate for commander in chief, should never cross,' he explained.

Kinzinger was irked by Trump's remarks that he might break an agreement to defend America's NATO allies, and his criticism of the parents of slain US soldier Humayun Khan.

Johnson, the Libertarian candidate and a former Republican governor of New Mexico, has been appealing to Republicans who are angry about Trump's rise through the party.

'Given the fact that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, I think, are two of the most polarizing figures in American politics today, where is the third choice?' the ex-car dealer asked The New York Times in April.

'I dont know how you set the dinner table any more favorably for a Libertarian candidate.'
Two months after an alligator killed a toddler at Walt Disney World's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, the company is building a stone wall to keep wildlife away.

Two-year-old Lane Graves was grabbed by an alligator while playing on the property's Seven Seas Lagoon in June. His drowned body was found 16 hours later.

For the last five weeks builders have been at work lowering boulder walls along the 'lagoon's' beach line, creating a barrier between visitors and the lake, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

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Tragic: Two-year-old Lane Graves was killed in June after an alligator grabbed him as he frolicked at the edge of a lake by Walt Disney World's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa

Criticism: The company was criticized for not putting up signs warning of alligators at its Seven Seas Lagoon area (pictured in June), but is now building stone barriers to protect guests

In the wake of the horrific attack, Disney came under fire for not putting up signs warning visitors that the lake contained alligators - unlike neighboring properties.

The company responded by putting up rope barriers and warning signs on at the Seven Seas Lagoon, and erecting 'no fishing' signs on its other lakefront properties.

Now it appears to be strengthening the barriers between the lake and its guests with the boulder wall.

A spokeswoman told the Sentinel that the wall is part of the company's original plans, developed after Graves was killed. She did not know if the wall had been completed.

The Graves family were visiting Disney World from Nebraska on June 14 when the alligator struck, dragging the boy into the water despite his father's attempt to free him.

His still-intact body was found 16 hours later. An autopsy concluded that the boy had drowned.

The family decided not to file a lawsuit against Disney.
A father-of-one is fighting for his life after he was allegedly knocked unconscious by a van driver in a 'vicious' and unprovoked road rage attack.

The 37-year-old motorist was on his way home from work when he was involved in a minor collision with a van at around 6.30pm on Friday in Kitts Green, Birmingham.

Both drivers stopped and got out of their vehicles on the busy crossroads junction when the van driver allegedly punched the other man.

The 37-year-old father-of-one was on his way home from work when he was involved in a minor collision at a busy junction with a van at around 6.30pm on Friday next to this road

The van driver then fled the scene before police arrived, leaving the father-of-one, who hasn't been named, with serious head injuries.

Local residents rushed out to give first aid to the victim, who has a four-year-old child, before paramedics arrived.

He was rushed to hospital where he remains unconscious and in a critical condition.

Today, West Midlands Police appealed for witnesses to the attack which happened at a busy junction near Birmingham International Airport.

Detective Constable Katie Lees said: 'This was a vicious attack on a family man who was on his way home to his partner and four-year-old child.

'The road is a really busy road and we are sure that there were lots of people who would have seen what happened and we are appealing for them to come forward.

'The victim phoned home as he left work - like he does every night - to say that he was on his way.

Both drivers stopped and got out of their vehicles on this busy crossroads junction (pictured) when the van driver allegedly punched the other man

'His partner became worried when he didn't arrive home and it must have been devastating for them to discover the news that he had been injured in such a random and vicious attack.

'I would also like to take the opportunity to appeal to the van driver to search his conscience and to do the right thing and to come forward.

'We have several lines of enquiry and it is only a matter of time before we come knocking at your door.'

Residents also told how people rushed outside to help the injured dad after the alleged road rage van driver sped off.

Residents from the area said the junction is well known for trouble as it is so busy

Michael Pringle, 48, who lives in a house overlooking the junction, said: 'I heard a bump and went outside. There was a man lying by the side of the road.

'A big crowd had gathered around and looked like they were trying to keep him still.

'Straight away the ambulance came with three police cars and they cordoned off the road.

'The paramedics worked on him before getting him into the ambulance. I couldn't get too close but he looked like a young white chap. The road was cordoned off for about an hour then re-opened.'

His mother Ann Pringle, 70, added: 'There is always trouble at the junction.

'It's a busy crossroads and there's always beeping because people don't want to wait to turn.

'You probably get a bump once a month and a lot more near misses than that.
John Kasich was contacted by the Trump campaign to potentially join the GOP nominee on the Republican ticket, the Ohio governor confirmed.

Kasich, sitting down with CNN's Jake Tapper for an interview that aired today on 'State of the Union,' was asked about a New York Times article that said that Donald Trump Jr. had reached out to one of Kasich's top aides to see if the ex-White House hopeful had 'any interest in being the most powerful vice president in history?'

'I never got a call,' Kasich told Tapper. 'Apparently my aides did,' he added, verifying the New York Times' reporting.

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Ohio Gov. John Kasich confirmed reporting from the New York Times that Donald Trump Jr. had reached out to a Kasich aide to offer the governor a spot on his dad's ticket

Ohio Gov. John Kasich (left) sat down with CNN's Jake Tapper (right) and answered questions about the veepstakes. Kasich said he was never interested in the job

Tapper asked Kasich to clarify.

'But Donald Trump, Jr. did call one of your aides and have that conversation with them?' the broadcaster asked.

Kasich first answered that 'that's what the reports are,' before being prodded by Tapper again.

'That's what one of them has told me, yes,' Kasich confirmed.

'Yes, But I never got a call and that's yesterday,' he said, adding that he truly never had any interest in being another candidate's vice presidential pick.

'I might have agreed to be George Washington's vice president, but I've got the second best job in the country, you know, president  governor of Ohio,' Kasich explained. 'So I was never interested in being anybody's vice president.'

The New York Times story was an eyebrow-raiser because Donald Trump Jr. reportedly offered to Kasich, according to an account his aide told the newspaper, the chance to run both domestic and foreign policy in the White House, which accounts for much of the work that the president does.

With those large areas delegated to the vice president, what would Trump's do, Kasich's aide recalled asking.

'Making America great again,' was Donald Trump Jr.'s reply.

Trump's campaign pushed back at the story with spokesman Jason Miller calling it 'completely ridiculous.'

While Kasich confirmed it, he also said multiple times that he would be a terrible vice president.

'I have too many opinions, Jake,' the Ohio governor quipped.

But Tapper pointed out that it sounded like a pretty sweet deal 'because you get to run foreign policy and domestic policy, if that was the pitch.'

'Well, I'm running foreign policy in Ohio,' Kasich pointed out.

'You've got to remember ... we've got Michigan on our border, you know,' he joked.
A 74-year-old man was brutally bashed because a Facebook post suggested without any basis that paedophiles met at the motel he owned.

Kenneth Rothe was forced out of the small coastal town of Nambucca, NSW, after the damaging allegations were posted on Facebook in 2014.

Mr Rothe received death threats after the post and was bashed so severely he spent six months in hospital, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

A Facebook post alleged without any basis that the Blue Dolphin motel was a meeting ground for paedophiles

The allegations were made by local electrician David Scott under the guise of a paedophile warning.

Scott wrote on Facebook: Nambucca has been used as a relocation for these monsters.

Blue Dolphin, Nirvana Hotel and above the Indian restaurant.

The Blue Dolphin and the Nirvana Hotel were both owned by Mr Rothe, a retired deputy principal.

Mr Rothe unequivocally denied that his motel had ever been used by sex offenders under any agreement.

Scott refused to take the post down when a devastated Mr Rothe learnt of it and approached him.

Mr Rothe was bashed soon after and he ended up so frightened to return to the town that he and his wife left.

Scott had nothing to do with the assault.

David Scott was ordered to pay motel owner Kenneth Rothe $150,000 in damages for the defamatory attack when he appeared in NSW District Court (pictured)

Scott has been ordered to pay Mr Rothe $150,000 in damages for the defamatory posts in the NSW District Court.

Judge Judith Gibson said: This Facebook attack was made on him out of the blue, with no prior inquiry of any kind by any person.
A young driver who smashed into a brick wall was forced to contend with a swarm of bees as he mourned his car.

Police were called to Tamboon Drive in St Helena, about 25 kilometres north east of Melbourne, on Friday night after residents heard a loud bang.

When they arrived, officers found a Holden Commodore had crashed into a two meter tall brick wall and disturbed a bee colony which was living within the wall.

A 18-year-old driver found himself in a sticky situation after driving into a brick wall and smashing a beehive in the process (pictured)

As the 18-year-old driver spoke to police, everyone was simultaneously avoiding the angry swarm of now-homeless bees.

Honey is reported to have spread over the wall and the car, further increasing the stickiness of the young driver's situation.

The wall was declared structurally unsound by council surveyors, however the driver, who only had his licence for two weeks, will need to attend a court summons for careless driving.

A spokesperson for Victoria Police told Daily Mail Australia nobody was stung during the incident.
Jeremy Corbyn's team has come under fire for allegedly taking thousands of pounds from a Palestinian group - whose leader has praised militant group Hamas.

Friends of Al-Aqsa are said to have given a cheque for 10,000 to Mr Corbyn when he was bidding to become Labour leader in 2015.

While a Labour spokesman said the cheque had been 'made out to the wrong person', it has not been made clear what happened to the funds.

Friends of Al-Aqsa are said to have given a cheque for 10,000 to Mr Corbyn when he was bidding to become Labour leader in 2015

The money came from the proceeds of a fundraising dinner held for Mr Corbyn's campaign.

A spokesman for the Labour leader told The Observer the amount had not been declared because the cheque was made out to the wrong person.

Any donation totalling more than 7,500 must be declared to the Electoral Commission.

While a Labour spokesman said the cheque had been 'made out to the wrong person', it has not been made clear what happened to the funds

A spokesman for Mr Corbyn told the paper Friends of Al-Aqsa's founder Ismail Patel had 'definitely donated' but that it had been declared and there was 'nothing dodgy going on'.

Mr Patel has previously praised Hamas for 'standing up to Israel' and insisted it is 'no terrorist organisation'.
A 15-year-old boy was today arrested on suspicion of murdering a teenage rapper outside a house party in south London.

The victim, named locally as musician Showkey, was fatally stabbed in the chest in Peckham on Friday night and died at the scene.

The teenager was found with wounds to his upper body and he has become the second youngster to be knifed to death on the streets of south east London in less than 48 hours.

Police said 'gentle giant' Andrew Oteng-Owusu, 19, died in hospital last Thursday morning, 12 hours after being stabbed less than 50 yards from his home in Bermondsey.

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The teenager, who has yet to be formally identified, has been named locally as the young rapper who goes by the name, 'Showkey' (pictured)

The teenager was found with a number of stab wounds to his upper body and died at the scene

The two latest London knife murders happened just one mile apart, but detectives do not believe they are linked.

Showkey, who was described as 'beautiful' and 'talented', was a close friend of 17-year-old rapper Myron Yarde who was murdered just four months ago.

His close friend Myron, who went by the name 'MDot', was found in a pool of his own blood after being stabbed in a street in nearby Lewisham.

His funeral was held just weeks ago.

A spokesman for Fortress Records, a talent agency which worked with Showkey, told MailOnline: 'Showkey was just like any other young boy, full of energy with big dreams and aspirations.

'His talent was undeniable and he would have been successful in music or any other trade or skill he put his mind too.

'It's sad he's gone as it is clear he would have gone very far.

'At this point I'd like to urge young people to focus on what is good, be positive and have a dream. Let God be with his family and friends while we work through this.'

The victim, named locally as musician Showkey, was fatally stabbed in the chest in Peckham on Friday night and died at the scene

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: 'Detectives investigating the murder of a teenager in Peckham have made an arrest.

'A 15-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of murder on Sunday and remains in custody.

'Police in Southwark were called to Colegrove Road, Peckham, at 7.19pm on Friday following reports of a disturbance.

'Officers attended and found a male youth, believed to be aged 16, suffering from stab wounds to the upper body.

'The London Ambulance Service and London Air Ambulance attended. The teenager died at the scene a short while later. Next of kin have been informed.

'A post-mortem held on Saturday at Greenwich Mortuary gave cause of death as a stab wound to chest.

'Detectives from the Homicide and Major Crime Command are investigating.

'It is understood that a large house party was taking place at the time of the incident.'

The talented young rapper penned a song after his friend was stabbed to death

Pictures of the two teenage rappers were shared on Facebook over the weekend, with tributes pouring in for Showkey.

Andrew Bogle wrote on Facebook: 'Another young person's life taken.

'This is about the fifth this week, it's really sad and I'm not sure what is being done to tackle the problem. RIP Showkey.'

Fend Dizzle wrote: 'It's a shame another young talent got wasted. R.I.P Showkey - man used to listen to this lil' don.'

Daniel Valentino wrote: 'It's mad how people chat but don't really know what's happening - another young life taken too early. RIP Showkey.'

Alpo Martinez wrote: 'You know your (sic) living in a finished generation when a young youth can get stabbed and instead of people helping him they record him dying to put the video on social media. R.I.P Showkey.'

Police were called to a disturbance in Colegrove Road, Peckham, at 7.19pm on Friday, and say a large house party was taking place in the area at the time

Tony Pounds added: 'Rip my lil' bro Showkey the good die young but at least your resting with your bro Mdot so much talent gone to waste you was next up.'

Heidi Marie Deane wrote: 'Such a waste. Beautiful talented 16-year-old baby boy. So upsetting. Another angel in heaven. RIP baby boy Showkey.'

Others have expressed mourning and frustration at young teenagers killed on London's streets.

Girvz Valentino wrote: 'Another death and when is it gonna end? I don't know. Now I'm not a boy that advocates violence and I will never be one, PERIOD.

'Honestly, today has shown a breed of hypocrites.

'I've seen people posting R.I.P Showkey but these times not only do you advocate this lifestyle but you enjoy it and take credit for it. Are you serious.'

A man living on the street, who declined to be named, said: 'There were loads of people around and lots of kids out in the street, but I didn't see anything else.
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Take a look inside the Cold War bunker where The Queen and her family would have fled had there ever been a nuclear attack on Britain.

The overgrown, graffiti-clad area gives no indication of what lies beneath, but these pictures have revealed the bunker, built in 1952, at Barnton Quarry, near the Windsor family residence of Holyroodhouse as well as the Scottish capital, Edinburgh.

Pictures give a glimpse into the run-down remains of one of the UK's Regional Seats of Government, which would have acted as a base for operations in the event of a Soviet nuclear attack.

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Take a look inside the Royal Cold War bunker where The Queen and her family would have fled had there ever been a nuclear attack on Britain

The overgrown, graffiti-clad area gives no indication of what lies beneath, but these pictures have revealed the bunker, built in 1952, at Barnton Quarry, near the Windsor family residence of Holyroodhouse as well as the Scottish capital, Edinburgh

Pictures give a glimpse into the run-down remains of one of the UK's Regional Seats of Government, which would have acted as a base for operations in the event of a Soviet nuclear attack

The structure, 100ft beneath the surface, had 10ft thick reinforced concrete walls and metal blast doors.

The shots were snapped by Manchester artist, photographer and film maker Andrew Brooks, 39, as part of his Secret Cities project.

He said: 'We got deeper into the bunker system and eventually found our way down a tunnel and the three levels to an old maintenance room.

'I found the experience of exploring the bunkers very intense. It has to be one of the creepiest places I've visited.

The structure, 100ft beneath the surface, had 10ft thick reinforced concrete walls and metal blast doors

The shots were snapped by Manchester artist, photographer and film maker Andrew Brooks, 39, as part of his Secret Cities project

He said: 'We got deeper into the bunker system and eventually found our way down a tunnel and the three levels to an old maintenance room'

He added: 'I found the experience of exploring the bunkers very intense. It has to be one of the creepiest places I've visited'

The bunker at Barnton Quarry was used as an RAF fighter command operations room during World War Two before advances in technology made radar stations redundant

'There was a real apocalyptic feel to the space which I think you can see in the pictures. The whole bunker had been set on fire a few years before our visit, so every wall was black with soot and every surface marked and damaged.'

The bunker at Barnton Quarry was used as an RAF fighter command operations room during World War Two before advances in technology made radar stations redundant.

Although it was classed as a secret government building, its existence was made public on Good Friday in 1963 when a group known as Spies for Peace revealed details of it and thirteen other regional seats of government in the UK.

Andrew said he had held back from sharing his pictures as he felt the place was unsafe and did not want to draw attention to it.

The photographer said: 'There was a real apocalyptic feel to the space which I think you can see in the pictures. The whole bunker had been set on fire a few years before our visit, so every wall was black with soot and every surface marked and damaged'

Although it was classed as a secret government building, its existence was made public on Good Friday in 1963 when a group known as Spies for Peace revealed details of it and thirteen other regional seats of government in the UK

Andrew said he had held back from sharing his pictures as he felt the place was unsafe and did not want to draw attention to it

That need for secrecy changed after he found out an organisation is working on restoring the bunker to its former glory

'They have asked me to mention the site is secure 24/7 so can't be accessed except through them,' he said

That changed after he found out an organisation is working on restoring the bunker.

'They have asked me to mention the site is secure 24/7 so can't be accessed except through them,' he said.

'But anyone over 18 can volunteer to help them with their work and they will then get a full tour of the bunker.

'Other than this there are no tours available at the moment or access for photography, but their end aim is to open the bunker to all visitors as a museum.'

'But anyone over 18 can volunteer to help them with their work and they will then get a full tour of the bunker,' the photographer added

He went on: 'Other than this there are no tours available at the moment or access for photography, but their end aim is to open the bunker to all visitors as a museum'

The Regional Seats of Government were one of the key elements of Britain's plans to survive a nuclear attack

After the atomic attack on Hiroshima it became clear that London would not survive if targeted with a nuclear weapon so plans were drawn up to spread the seats of government to the rest of the country

There were 11 central Seats including: North  Catterick Camp, Yorkshire, North East  York Castle, North Midlands  Nottingham War Room, Eastern  Cambridge War Room, London  Original War Rooms retained

Further posts included: Southern  Underground WW2 Aircraft Factory (Warren Row), South West  Bolt Head, Wales  Brecon Barracks
Environmental campaigners have accused the Prime Minister of trying to bribe the public with plans for five-figure payouts in return for allowing fracking.

The Lottery-style Frackpot windfall scheme, to be unveiled by Theresa May tomorrow, involves paying individual householders cash sums  which could be as high as 13,000  if they are living in areas where the gas can be extracted.

But green campaigners condemned the plans and said Mrs May was trying to 'sweeten the fracking pill' in light of increasing opposition.

Prime Minister Theresa May hopes her bold post-Brexit plan would allow access to Britains untapped energy reserve and give a boost to the economy

Greenpeace UK chief scientist Dr Doug Parr said: 'The government has tried to sweeten the fracking pill with cash payments before, and it didn't worked.

'Over the last two years, public opposition has soared and support for shale has tanked.

'People's concerns about climate change and their local environment cannot be silenced with a wad of cash.'

He pointed to government data showing that support for fracking has dropped since February 2014, from 27% to 21%, while opposition has risen from 21% to 31%.

Green MEP Molly Scott Cato argued that payments to some households and not others would 'exacerbate community tensions'.

'Following hard on the heels of the Hinkley fiasco, this misguided policy to encourage fracking demonstrates again that the government has no strategic energy policy.'

Will your village or town hit paydirt in the great shale bonanza?

Mrs May's plans marks a further dramatic departure by the new Prime Minister from David Camerons blueprint for Britains energy needs.

In just three weeks in Number Ten, Mrs May has scrapped the climate change department, threatened to scupper the Hinkley Point nuclear power plant deal with China and France, and now plans to transform Mr Camerons cautious fracking rewards scheme.

Mrs May hopes her bold post-Brexit plan would allow access to Britains untapped energy reserve and give a boost to the economy.

But the scheme is likely to prove controversial: environmental critics may argue it is a bribe which could undermine local democracy if councillors opposed to fracking find themselves under pressure from voters keen to get their share of the fracking lottery.

Under existing proposals, sums of up to 10million in each affected area were to be taken from business rates paid by fracking firms and given to town halls and community groups.

But the new plan would divert all or some of that money to individuals to ensure, as Mrs May will put it, that ordinary families personally benefit from economic decisions.

The proposal is the latest evidence of a new boldness by Mrs May as PM in contrast to her steady-as-she-goes tenure as Home Secretary.

Fracking plans have previously been controversial and led to protests

It could be a game-changer in the politically explosive energy sector, which could override the green lobbys fierce opposition to fracking.

Officials refuse to speculate about how much households could receive, saying details have not been worked out. However, in theory, if the entire 10million were divided between households, a town of 10,000 homes could receive 1,000 per home; in a village of 2,000 homes the sum could be as high as 5,000.

In the sleepy village of Balcombe, West Sussex  focus of huge anti-fracking protests  10million split between its 735 households would result in 13,605 per home.

And if the maximum payments applied to Kirby Misperton in Yorkshire  where the UKs first fracking in five years is set to take place  it would amount to an astonishing 64,935 per household.

Alternatively, the money could be shared between individual households and community organisations, producing smaller payouts  but still worth thousands in some cases.

In remarks released last night, Mrs May said the initiative was in line with her pledge on entering Downing Street to switch the Governments focus from the wealthy to the less well-off.

A graphic explaining the fracturing process of shale to produce gas

The PM said: As I said on my first night as Prime Minister: when we take the big calls, well think not of the powerful but of you.

This announcement is an example of putting those principles into action  making sure people personally benefit from economic decisions that are taken, not just councils  putting them back in control over their lives.

The scheme could be widened to provide similar windfalls for families from other local building projects.

Well be looking at applying this approach to other Government programmes in the future as we build a country that works for everyone, said Mrs May.

Shale oil and gas reserves have been detected under huge swathes of the North of England, the Midlands, the South East and South West, though only a small proportion is likely to be accessible to the fracking industry.

Mrs May's plans marks a further dramatic departure from David Camerons blueprint for Britains energy needs

If the Government continues to block the 18billion Hinkley Point deal, it urgently needs alternative energy supplies to stop the lights going out in the UK in the decades ahead.

The new move could spark a shale gas rush in the UK as the cash incentives neutralise opposition to fracking from local residents at a stroke.

A massive shale oil programme in the US has seen domestic fuel bills plummet and fears of environmental damage fade.

A drop in energy bills would give a boost to British industry.

Among the many unanswered questions about the plan, which is at a very early stage, are whether the payments would be tax-free, capped, and paid over time or in a one-off sum.

Sceptics will also argue that no one knows the long-term effects of the extraction method whose side-effects are fiercely contested by supporters and critics.

Critics claim ground water can become contaminated, but supporters say hydraulic fracking has never caused drinking water supplies to be affected.

In 2011 two small tremors  the biggest measuring 2.3 on the Richter scale  were felt in Blackpool during drilling by energy firm Cuadrilla.

Although activities were suspended, the company said there was no threat to people in the area.

Mrs Mays plans will be discussed as part of consultations on a Shale Wealth Fund announced by Mr Cameron last year.

A well-placed source said: The PM wants to spread the benefits of shale gas so that some of the proceeds are paid directly to local residents.

The Cameron proposals only included money for community trusts or councils.

She is changing the consultation process so that the principle of direct benefit to households can become a blueprint for other schemes to deliver an economy that works for everyone.

If the household fracking payments are a success Mrs May could extend it to the existing Community Infrastructure Levy, whereby councils get a share of the proceeds of major projects  producing more windfalls for households.

Fracking is shorthand for hydraulic fracturing, a method of extracting oil and gas from the ground.

It involves drilling a well then pumping water, sand and chemicals in at high pressure. This fractures the rock, helping to extract the oil and gas.

Q&A - ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SHALE FRACKING Protestors scale a shale gas rig at Banks, near Southport, England, in 2011 What is fracking? Fracking  shorthand for hydraulic fracturing  is a way of mining vast reserves of shale gas and oil. It involves drilling into the earth and injecting shale rock with a high-pressure mix of water, sand and chemicals to release the gas or oil. The UK is believed to be sitting on enough gas to provide energy for up to 500 years. What are the benefits? It could give us power security and is cheaper than other forms of energy. It is estimated there are only another 30 to 40 years of North Sea oil production left and there are concerns with EDFs plan to build a nuclear reactor at Hinkley Point. In order to keep the lights on, the UK will have to look at ways of expanding where it gets energy. Huge gas reserves have been identified in the UK, particularly in central and northern England. Estimates suggest there could be as much as 1,300 trillion cubic feet of shale gas under 11 counties. The industry says it could create 74,000 jobs. What are the concerns? The way in which the gas is mined has been blamed for causing earthquakes. In countries where fracking is widespread there have been several non-natural quakes and there were two small tremors near Blackpool when fracking began there in 2011. There are also concerns that living near a fracking site could affect house prices. Last year an internal government report revealed fracking was likely to wipe up to seven per cent off the price of homes in a one mile radius of a fracking site. Some are also worried about site traffic and health conditions caused by machinery noise, as well as the potential for contamination of the water table. Will National Parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty be protected? In total, the Government has granted licences to companies covering around 12,000 square miles across the UK, including around such protected areas as the Peak District, Exmoor, the South Downs and the Lake District. MPs last year gave approval for fracking under National Parks but the wells themselves must be outside  so the companies must drill sideways to get to the shale reserves. In the latest round, licences were granted for exploratory drilling at 53 sites of special scientific interest and three RSPB nature reserves. What will happen next? Britain has changed its planning rules to allow government intervention to approve or reject shale gas drilling permits and it is thought this could lead to a boom in fracking operations, with the first gas expected to come on to the market next year. Many applications have already led to protests. What does Theresa Mays plan change? In 2014 David Cameron said business rates from fracking would go to councils. Mrs Mays move would see this instead go to householders and could lead to increases in shale gas mining as homeowners support schemes in the hope of cashing in. Advertisement

USA black gold rush slashed its energy bills

By Caroline Graham, IN LOS ANGELES

Exploitation of new oil and gas reserves by fracking shale rock has transformed the US economy since it started just 11 years ago  creating at least a million jobs and slashing electricity bills and greenhouse gas emissions.

The scale of this energy revolution is almost unimaginable.

The Marcellus shale bed in Pennsylvania is thought by geologists to contain enough gas to power and heat every home in America for 50 to 100 years. Yet a few hundred feet beneath it lies another giant formation, the Utica, that contains enough gas for a further century.

A natural gas drilling rig in Fairfield Township, Pennsylvania. The area sits above the Marcellus Shale where the search for natural gas uses a controversial method known as hydrofracking

In 2013, the black gold rush caused by shale oil from states such as North Dakota meant America produced more oil than it imported for the first time since 1995. There are also huge reserves in Texas, Colorado, Louisiana and other states.

Last year a study found fracking had added 725,000 jobs to the US economy between 2005 and 2012. The US National Bureau of Economic Research calculates there are $243,000 (186,000) in wages generated for every $1million of oil and gas extracted.

In America, unlike in Britain, landowners own the rights to minerals and hydrocarbons from the surface to the centre of the Earth. This means that when firms want to drill, they have to pay large bounties and royalties, if they start to produce  thus transforming fracking areas economies.

Speaking at his home in Dimock, Pennsylvania, in the heart of the Marcellus region, former Democrat Congressman Chris Carney, a current member of Hillary Clintons presidential campaign, said fracking had brought his community immense benefits.

Democrat Congressman Chris Carney

It meant farmers who could barely scratch a living had transformed their lives, while the town had built superb new facilities such as a handsomely equipped high school.

Mr Carney added: Fracking means this country is awash with energy  which is a place weve never been before.

He said recent falls in oil and gas prices, caused by competitors flooding the energy market and declining Chinese demand, had reduced landowners royalties, which average 12.5 per cent of the proceeds from a well.

But cheap energy is also a benefit. Overall, fracking isnt a double-edged sword. Its just a good thing.

Elsewhere, fracking created overnight millionaires, and whole new towns to support the armies of oil workers who arrived to cash in.

With the fall in prices, the early boom days are over: of the 80,000 workers who went to North Dakota in 2014, most have now left.

In Williston, once dubbed the booms ground zero, oil tax revenue is down 70 per cent on last year. Blocks of flats which sprang up to accommodate the workers now sit empty.

But industry sources say the downturn will not be permanent.
Tragic death: Helen Gradwell, 39, who lay dead for four months not knowing she had a book deal offer lying on the front door mat

A reclusive author lay dead in her home for four months while a letter from book publishers accepting her first children's novel lay unread on the door mat.

Former teacher Helen Gradwell was discovered at her home near Bolton, Greater Manchester, after neighbours finally raised the alarm.

The 39-year-old suffered from intense migraines, and it is believed she may have accidentally overdosed on painkillers while she slept on the sofa.

Among items of post found piled up by the front door was a letter from a London publisher accepting her novel, 'The Nature's Spirits'.

Her family revealed they have been desperately searching for the first draft of the book to publish in her memory.

They have had no luck so far finding the secret copy among her belongings.

Gradwell was found in April in her home in Heaton, but an inquest concluded she had died months earlier.

There were still Christmas decorations strung up in the living room and her body, lying face down on the floor, was badly decomposed.

She last used her phone to send a text message to a friend cancelling a meeting on December 30 last year.

Sadly her two beloved pet dogs were also discovered dead in the same room.

The unmarried 39-year-old had a degree in psychology and sociology and had qualified as a teacher.

Yet her debilitating hemiplegic migraines, which resulted in paralysis down one side of her body, cut her career short.

It was then that unbeknownst to her family she began writing books.

Among items of post found piled up by Gradwell's front door was a letter from a London publisher accepting her novel, 'The Nature's Spirits'

Pathologist Jonathan Pearson told the inquest that toxicology tests revealed high levels of Tramadol, used to control her headaches, in her body.



Mr Pearson said: 'It is the only evidence we have of something abnormal that could explain the sudden death.

'It is not conclusive, but on the balance of probabilities it is the best evidence we have to explain the death.'

Gradwell 'absolutely adored' her pets

Coroner Timothy Brennand recorded an open verdict on the death and said there was no evidence Gradwell sought to take her own life.

There was no note at the scene, and compelling evidence she adored her animals, particularly her two-year-old German Shepherd, named Wesley, five-year-old Springer Spaniel, named Holly and her cat, called Wilfred.

Mr Brennard said: 'To my mind, she would do nothing that would put the lives of her dogs in peril.'

He added Miss Gradwell's death was tragic, particularly as her future held so much promise with her potential book deal.

Coroner Timothy Brennand said the death was tragic, particularly as her future held so much promise with her potential book deal

'After many, many months the real character of Helen is something that seemed to be reasserting itself,' he said.

Gradwell's father, Jack, 69, described his daughter as 'a bright and pretty' child who loved taking her pet spaniel for a rides in her bicycle basket.

Stepmother Bronwen, 61, agreed Gradwell 'absolutely adored' her pets.

'This is why we know she did not do this on purpose,' she added.

it 'must be out there somewhere'

The author had sent the first three chapters of the book to the publisher, but relatives believe she completed the 37,000 word novel.

They said it 'must be out there somewhere', and that if found they would donate the proceeds to animal charities.

Family friend Sarah Booth paid tribute to the animal lover, who was intellectual and had a great interest in world religions, becoming a Roman Catholic eight years ago.

'She was a very, very clever girl,' Ms Booth said. 'She was a very bright, determined young woman.'

Jack Gradwell said yesterday that his daughter had deliberately distanced herself from her family and that she was 'very difficult to approach'.

'We tried of course but it wasn't easy.'
The Chandra Levy case unraveled from a secret audio recording a House of Cards actress made of the prosecution's star witness, it has been revealed.

Ingmar Guandique was found guilty of killing the Washington DC intern in 2001 after Armando Morales, his former cellmate, claimed he confessed to the murder.

But all charges were dropped against Guandique last week after actress Babs Proller revealed Morales admitted to fabricating his entire testimony.

The bombshell has rocked one of the country's most notorious murder mysteries and has devastated Levy's parents, who question Proller's own motives.

Babs Proller, an actress who once appeared in House of Cards (pictured), provided the secret audio recording that got all charges dropped against Chandra Levy's convicted killer

Ingmar Guandique (pictured) was found guilty in 2010 of killing the 24-year-old Washington DC intern after Armando Morales, his former cellmate, claimed he confessed to the murder

Guandique spent six years behind bars for Levy's murder, which made national headlines throughout the aughts as it was revealed she had an affair with a married congressman

But Proller, 51, said it was pure coincidence that led her to meeting Morales at an Annapolis Hotel earlier in July.

The actress, who appeared briefly in the Netflix series as an uncredited 'Clerk of Courts', was in the middle of moving homes and staying at a Country Inn & Suites.

She struck up a friendship with Morales, 55, who helped her one day with her dog, and soon learned he had recently been released from prison.

But things quickly turned sour when Morales threatened to hurt her ex-husband and a man who allegedly stole jewelry from her.

Proller said she was merely trying to protect herself when she made the decision to record Morales, who she knew was the star witness in the Levy murder case.

Levy's name became headline - and tabloid - fodder for years after the 24-year-old intern disappeared while out on a jog in 2001.

It would soon be revealed she was having an affair with California Congressman Gary Condit at the time of her murder, and he quickly became a prime suspect.

It would be a year before Levy's remains were found in Rock Creek Park, and eight more before Guandique was sentenced to 60 years in prison for the murder.

Morales appeared to be a model witness when he took the stands to testify against Guandique, who he once shared a cell with at a federal Kentucky prison in 2006.

The five-time convicted felon and gang leader, who was serving a 21-year sentence for drug and weapon possession, said he was a changed man.

'I got tired of all the violence,' Morales told jurors and he described his experience in a 'life skills' mentoring program, according to the Washington Post.

But a seven-hour recording Proller made, and obtained by the paper, proves otherwise.

Morales can be heard bragging about shooting gang rivals and his ability to make prison shanks out of foam cups.

He told Proller how the shank could then be stuck into somebody's eye and 'penetrate that shell into their brain and take their life'.

In the recording provided to the Post, Proller can be heard coaxing Morales to admit that he fabricated his testimony against Guandique in 2010.

Levy, who disappeared while on a jog in 2001, was seeing Congressman Gary Condit (center)

Chandra (second right) was last heard from on May 1, 2001 when she emailed her parents Susan and Robert as she prepared to head home to California for her graduation

Her parents attempted to contact her for three days before reaching out to police on May 5 and filing a missing persons report

Morales continues to stand by his claims, saying that Guandique told him it was an accident and that he had only meant to rob Levy.

'He didn't know he killed her,' Morales tells Proller. 'He went back.'

But Proller claims there are additional recordings in which Morales finally admits to lying on the stand.

The Post said those recordings have not been provided to the US Attorney's Office.

But whether or not Morales was actually caught on tape admitting he made it all up, the prosecution believed it was enough to clear Guandique, who was set for a retrial in October.

The undocumented Guatemalan immigrant now faces deportation.

Morales' testimony was vital to the prosecution, which had no forensic evidence or weapon tying Guandique, now 60, to the crime.

Their case rested on the alleged jail cell confession, as well as the fact that Guandique had also attacked two other female joggers in the same park.

But the recording and Proller's claims have tarnished Morales' credibility and prosecutors said they could no longer prove Guandique was Levy's killer beyond a reasonable doubt.

Proller, who spoke with Levy's mother Susan before contacting the US Attorney's Office, has remained adamant that she is not working for Guandique's defense.

She was asked by prosecutors if she was working for the Public Defender Service and whether someone had paid her to record Morales.

Eugene Ohn, one of Guandique's attorneys, said he had never spoken to Proller before the prosecution notified him of her claims.

Proller has maintained she only became involved in the case through 'simple coincidence'.

'I became aware of information relevant to the case and I conveyed that information to the all of the appropriate people - the prosecutors, and defense attorneys and Ms Levy,' she wrote in a statement posted to her Facebook.

Authorities spent days searching for evidence relating to Levy's disappearance in Rock Creek Park (above)

In May 2002, a man found human bones and a skull in Washington's Rock Creek Park, where police had previously searched for Chandra's body (above)

'I did this because I believed then, and believes now, that it was the right thing to do. I have no further information to provide regarding this tragic case and will make no further statements.'

Metropolitan Assistant Chief Peter Newsham said no information has been uncovered during the investigation that would 'warrant reopening the case'.

'MPD will continue to pursue any new leads that are uncovered or brought to our attention,' he added.

Levy's devastated parents said they are shocked prosecutors closed their daughter's murder case with such speed.

'I'm shocked at how something could unravel so fast,' Susan Levy told the Post.

'I'm distraught that the prosecutors dropped this case. It's unbelievable that one person can disrupt so much.'

Susan said she was in a 'state of shock' when news that Guandique would go free was first released.

'It kind of puts you back to the level of grief that you originally had,' she told NBC Bay Area.

'I only wish that we can get the right person, whoever did what happened to my daughter.'

The defense planned to argue in Guandique's retrial that Levy's married lover was that person.

Guandique (left) was facing an October retrial for the publicized case. His lawyers planned to implicate Condit (right) and argued he had an 'obvious' motive

Just in May, the intern's mother, Susan Levy, was shocked to learn that her daughter (right) allegedly had rough bondage sex with Condit (left )

In a motion filed in May, Guandique's legal team wrote that Condit, a married father of two, had a 'powerful' and 'obvious' motivation for killing Chandra.

'Mr. Condit was fully aware of the cost he could pay if his affair with Ms Levy became public,' the defense motion states.

'He therefore had an obvious motive to kill Ms Levy in order to keep the relationship secret, and an equally powerful motive to cover-up the circumstances of her death if she died while she was with him  either through his intentional conduct or otherwise.'

The defense also attempted to convince the judge to allow depositions to be taken from three women who claim to have had affairs with Condit as well as a friend who worked as his former driver and bodyguard.

Condit knew Levy, then a Bureau of Prisons intern, but previously refused to answer questions about the nature of their relationship while under oath.

The former congressman's lawyers said last week he was 'extremely disappointed' the prosecution would not go forward with a retrial.

'The failure of authorities to bring formal closure to this tragedy after 15 years is very disappointing but in no way alters the fact that Mr Condit was long ago completely exonerated by authorities in connection with Ms Levy's death.'
Labour leadership challenger Owen Smith has called for a temporary ban on political allies receiving honours following the furore around David Camerons resignation gongs.

The former prime minister has been criticised for rewarding his cronies while other nominations including a proposed OBE for his wifes stylist have also raised eyebrows.

As previously reported, Mr Smith called for a reform of the entire honours system and now the MP for Pontypridd has laid out plans for a five-year ban on MPs, their staff and advisers and even party donors being given awards.

Labour leadership candidate Owen Smith, left, has called for a five-year ban on MPs, their advisers and staff and party donors receiving honours in the wake of David Cameron's, right, resignation honours list

Mr Smith said the system should reward selfless acts rather than political and personal patronage and urged other parties to follow his lead.

He told the Guardian: David Camerons resignation honours list has brought the system into disrepute and deepened peoples mistrust of politics. Frankly it was blatant cronyism.

He added: That is why, as Labour leader, I would introduce a five-year ban on former Labour party staffers, advisers, MPs and donors from receiving an honour or becoming a member of the House of Lords.

'I am calling on all the other political leaders to follow suit until the system can be overhauled.

Mr Smith also took aim at Prime Minister Theresa May, claiming she was turning a blind eye to the situation and that an overhaul of the system would restore peoples trust in politics.

His proposals have been criticised by SNP MP Pete Wishart who said the plans would only delay cronyism and not end it.

Mr Smith, right, is challenging Jeremy Corbyn, left, for the leadership of the Labour Party

Mrs May has faced numerous calls to block Mr Camerons list but has so far refused to do so.

On the final version, Mr Cameron awarded 46 gongs - including a knighthood for his former director of communications Craig Oliver and a CBE for Labour's Will Straw, the leader of the defeated Britain Stronger in Europe campaign.

As leaked, former Chancellor George Osborne is made a Companion of Honour, while knighthoods are also handed out to Remain backing Cabinet ministers Michael Fallon, Oliver Letwin and Patrick McLoughlin.

Mr Cameron is also recommending the creation of 13 Tory peers - while three others have also been named, including Shami Chakrabarti on the urging of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Several cabinet ministers who had been earmarked for knighthoods have been omitted or downgraded.

Prime Minister Theresa May, pictured, has been accused of 'turning a blind eye to the situation' by not blocking the list

Chancellor Philip Hammond had been named as in line for a knighthood but is missing from the list, while Commons Leader David Lidington is named CBE instead of as a Knight.

Mr Cameron has recommended a string of his senior aides - including former chief of staff Ed Llewellyn, former director of external relations Gabrielle Burton, and former head of operations Liz Sugg - all become Conservative peers.
The principal of an Islamic school in Sydney claims they have 'never' had a gay student because children are taught being homosexual is 'not recommended'.

Ghazwa Khan, headmaster of Auburn's Al-Faisal college in Sydney's west, said none of her students have spoken openly about being gay as parents taught them from a young age it is not acceptable to be same-sex attracted, the Australian reported.

'We've never had any child who says these things because they are being taught at home how to behave and know that this is not recommended,' she said.

Principal Ghazwa Khan said none of her students have spoken openly about being gay they have been taught from a young age that being homosexual is 'not recommended'

'I think the students know their limit and they are taught at home what to say and what not to say,' she added.

Al-Faisal's head of welfare, Andrew Costa, told the Australian he had not been approached by a student who claimed they were gay, but explained that if the situation were to arise both the parents and principal would be notified.

Muslim community spokesperson and president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Council Keysar Trad said Islamic schoolkids are taught that sex is an act which should only be performed between a heterosexual, married couple.

'This is something that is clearly spelt out in the Koran and the hadith, that sex is only between a husband and a wife who are of the opposite gender and we have absolutely no mandate to change the grace of God,' Keysar Trad told the Australian.

Muslim community spokesperson and president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Council Keysar Trad (pictured) said Islamic schoolkids are taught that sex is an act which should only be performed between a heterosexual, married couple

Head of welfare at Al-Faisal college (pictured) Andrew Costa said he had not been approached by a student who claimed they were gay, but explained that if the situation were to arise both the parents and principal would be notified
Wealthy pensioners should downsize or remortgage their homes to pay sky-high care bills, Theresa May's director of policy has said.

John Godfrey suggested that over the next 10 years, the solution to the social care system lies in those with valuable homes selling up or releasing some of the equity in their property.

He said there was an 'awful lot of money' trapped in the value of older people's homes, which could be 'liberated' to help people fund their care costs.

The comments, made last year, were branded a 'betrayal' by David Cameron's former pensions minister, Baroness Altmann.

John Godfrey has suggested wealthy pensioners should sell their homes in order to pay for care bills (stock photo)

At present, an elderly person's home has to be sold to pay care bills but only after their death.

The downsizing idea would see homes being sold at a much earlier stage, freeing up cash to pay the care home bills. This means an inevitable reduction in what is passed on to their children.

Lady Altmann, who left the government when Mrs May took over, said governments have been promising reform of Britain's broken care system for years  but nothing ever happened.

'This is a betrayal of the older generation and the taxpayers who will have to foot the bill,' she said.

'Governments who kick the can down the road, who keep saying they are going to do something about social care and then don't  they are betraying elderly people and their children, who won't be able to inherit their properties and could end up picking up the bill themselves.'

Around one in 10 people end up paying more than 100,000 in care costs in old age, research has shown. Up to 40,000 a year have to sell their homes to pay care bills.

Mr Godfrey is the director of policy for the new Prime Minister, Theresa May (pictured)

The Conservatives went in to last year's election pledging to introduce a cap on the amount people have to pay for care of 72,000 a year.

But just weeks after their victory, the Department of Health announced that the cap would not come into place until 2020  leaving people with sky-high bills for years to come.

Speaking to an independent commission last year, Mr Godfrey said: 'On a 10-year view, equity release is going to be hugely important, because if you look at the amount of housing equity across the UK that is owned by people of post-retirement age, that is really where an awful lot of the money sits at the moment.

'Can people either downshift or liberate some of that money through equity release to fund their living costs?'

Equity release involves borrowing against the value of a home or selling all or part of it for a lump sum or a monthly income.

Mr Godfrey, who was a special adviser to Douglas Hurd in Margaret Thatcher's administration, said he believed the government should encourage people to sell their homes to release cash through the building of suitable retirement homes.

'As far as downshifting is concerned, you move into another area of policy altogether, which is the need to build more housing to give people a choice of the right sort of home,' he said.

Research has suggested that around one in 10 people end up paying more than 100,000 in care costs in old age (stock photo)

The comments, reported in the Observer, are believed to have been made to an independent commission carried out by the King's Fund.

Mr Godfrey had been working for insurer Legal & General as corporate affairs director for eight years before his appointment in mid-July. Downing Street declined to comment last night.

Neil Duncan-Jordan, spokesman for the National Pensioners' Convention, said: 'This plan is not going to address the crisis in social care.

'Why should someone with dementia have to be means tested and sell their home to fund themselves, while cancer sufferers get their care funded by all of us? We should no longer have this artificial divide between illnesses.

'If this is seen as the answer, it shows the government has run out of ideas.'

Baroness Altmann said: 'It is unbelievable how somehow or another, successive governments have failed to get to grips with social care.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called Hillary Clinton's 'short-circuited' excuse 'genius,' but also hinted that it could be her downfall.

Gingrich, a Trump advocate, appeared alongside Clinton supporter Democratic Rep. Xavier Becerra, to debate this week's political news on 'Fox News Sunday' with Chris Wallace.

'It's one thing to lie. It's one thing to lie about lying and then Friday, she gave us the perfect explanation  Her brain apparently had short circuited while she was talking to you,' he said of Wallace, who had interviewed Clinton the week before.

'She now has a fundamental way of saying to people, "It wasn't that I lied to you, I just didn't quite remember what it was that I was going to say,' Gingrich added.

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Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich appeared on 'Fox News Sunday' and explained why Hillary Clinton's 'short-circuited' excuse was both 'genius' and could cost her in the long run

Newt Gingrich (left), a Trump advocate, appeared alongside Democratic Rep. Xavier Becerra (right), to debate the political news of the week

A week before on the show as he was speaking to Clinton, Wallace pulled up a clip of FBI Director James Comey refuting previous statements the former secretary of state had made in which she said she had never passed classified information through her private email server.

'After a long investigation, FBI Director James Comey said none of those things that you told the American public were true,' Wallace pointed out to Clinton during last Sunday's sit-down.

Clinton rebuffed the journalist's statement. 'Chris, that's not what I heard Director Comey say, and I thank you for giving me the opportunity, in my view, [to] clarify.'

'Director Comey said my answers were truthful, and what Ive said is consistent with what I have told the American people, that there were decisions discussed and made to classify retroactively certain of the emails,' she said.

'I was communicating with over 300 people in my e-mailing,' she continued.

'They certainly did not believe and had no reason to believe that what they were sending was classified,' she added.

The Fox News Sunday statements earned the Democratic hopeful four Pinocchios from the Washington Post's fact-checker.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (far left) told host Chris Wallace (right) that the worst gaffe of the week was what Hillary Clinton said last week on the Fox News host's show

Cut to Friday afternoon when Clinton stood before the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and took questions.

'I was pointing out in both of those instances that Director Comey had said that my answers in my FBI interview were truthful,' Clinton tried again. 'That's really the bottom line here.'

'What I told the FBI, which he was was truthful, is consistent with what I have said publicly,' she continued.

'So I may have short-circuited, and for that, I will try to clarify because, I think Chris Wallace and I were probably talking past each other,' she added.

Wallace, on today's show, said he didn't think that was the case.

Despite Trump having his own politically-challenging week, Gingrich told Wallace, 'Frankly, the biggest mistake last week was made on your show.'

Gingrich then gave the historical precedent for why Clinton's statement could end up being so politically troublesome for the Democratic nominee.

'Well, as George Romney can tell her, using a short circuit as an explanation for why you do something is very dangerous in a presidential campaign,' Gingrich said.

Romney, the former governor of Michigan and 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney's late father, said he had been 'brainwashed' by American generals into backing the Vietnam War, a position he reversed when he ran for president.

He had been the leading contender for the presidency in 1968 when he made the comment in September of 1967, but after uttering those words he never politically recovered.
This is the moment a 15-year-old boy is gored by a bull at a festival in Spain - just hours after a 13-year-old was hurt in another festival further up the coast.

The youngster was injured after losing his footing as the animal charged towards him during the annual event in the Costa Blanca holiday resort of Calpe.

He was taken to hospital after a doctor treated him for an injury to his left armpit at the scene.

Distressing footage showed the unnamed youngster, dressed in shorts and a vest top, trying to reach the safety of a fenced-off area as he lay helpless on the ground with the bull over him.

The dramatic incident happened in the early hours of Sunday morning, just a day after a teenage girl was gored at a festival in Museros in the east coast province of Valencia.

She suffered a 4-inch wound to her knee after managing to evade controls designed to stop under-16s from entering a fenced-off area where the animals chase down revellers.

She was rushed to hospital and operated on and is expected to remain in observation for several days.

This is the moment a 15-year-old boy is gored by a bull at a festival in Spain - just hours after a 13-year-old was hurt in another festival further up the coast

The youngster was injured after losing his footing as the animal charged towards him during the annual event in the Costa Blanca holiday resort of Calpe

The girl, from the nearby town of Meliana, is recovering in La Fe Hospital in the city of Valencia.

Museros mayoress Cristina Civera tried to distance the town hall from any blame as the regional council said it would be launching a probe into what happened.

She said the youngster 'evaded all the restrictions and police controls' and was looking at her mobile phone when she was hurt.

Insisting town hall officials had done everything they could to ensure peoples' safety, she told a local paper: 'It would make no sense if we end up being punished.

'Her parents were responsible for this girl because she is isn't even a local.

'The fault lies with the parents.'

He was taken to hospital after a doctor treated him for an injury to his left armpit at the scene

The dramatic incident happened in the early hours of Sunday morning, just a day after a teenage girl was gored at a festival in Museros in the east coast province of Valencia

An unnamed witness said she didn't see the animal come at her because she had her head down and was looking at her mobile phone when it happened.

A 59-year-old man was gored to death last Sunday during an annual celebration in the village of Valrio near Caceres in south west Spain.

He was later named as bachelor Juan Manuel Calle Sanchez.

Bullfighter Victor Barrio, 29, was killed in July in front of hundreds of spectators including his wife Raquel in a bull ring in Teruel east of Madrid.

Last year 12 people died at bull festivals across Spain.

The most famous festival involving bulls is the San Fermin festival in Pamplona which takes place every July.

Dozens of runners are injured every year as they are chased through the streets of the old town.
Hillary Clinton used her private email server to discuss details of the Iranian nuclear scientist who has executed for giving information to the CIA.

Shahram Amiri, who was hanged on Sunday for 'revealing secrets to the enemy', was in the US and allegedly informing on Tehran's extensive nuclear program during the Democrat's controversial reign as Secretary of State.

At the time she stressed researcher had been there of his 'own free will' and was described as 'our friend' in correspondences.

But he maintained he had been kidnapped by intelligence agents.

Emails sent by Clinton's advisers point to the scandal involving Amiri - suggesting it was a 'diplomatic, psychological issue', but not a 'legal one'.

One aide also warned he would lead to 'problematic news stories'.

Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri, who was accused of giving information to the CIA, has been executed

Richard Morningstar, a former State Department special envoy for Eurasian energy wrote to Clinton: 'We should recognize his concerns and frame it in terms of a misunderstanding with no malevolent intent and that we will make sure there is no recurrence.

'Our friend has to be given a way out. Our person won't be able to do anything anyway. If he has to leave so be it.'

Senior adviser Jake Sullivan sent another email about Amiri on July 12, 2010.

It appears he is referring to the scientist just hours before he showed up at the Iranian interests section of the Pakistani Embassy in Washington D.C., demanding he be sent home.

He said: 'The gentleman... has apparently gone to his country's interests section because he is unhappy with how much time it has taken to facilitate his departure.

'This could lead to problematic news stories in the next 24 hours.'

Hillary Clinton used her private email server to discuss details of the Iranian nuclear scientist while he was in the United States

Amiri went missing in 2009 after leaving for a pilgrimage to Mecca, but appeared in a video - apparently recorded in the U.S. - in which he claimed to have been put under pressure to 'reveal sensitive information' to the intelligence agency.

In interviews he has claimed he was drugged, put on a plane, and then kept under 'psychological pressure' at an undisclosed location in the U.S.

There he was asked to hand over classified documents, but he claims he never did as he didn't want to betray his country.

He then walked into the Iranian interests section at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington and demanded to be sent home.

He came back to a hero's welcome and insisted he was a 'simple researcher'.

Amiri worked for a university affiliated with Tehran's extensive nuclear program.

He is said to have had an in-depth knowledge of Iran's nuclear program and was kept at a secret location after returning to the country.

According to CBS, he told officials in interviews he was being held against his will by Saudi and U.S. spies.

But American officials said he was set to receive millions for informing.

Amiri's mother told the BBC that his body had been sent to her with rope marks around his neck.

On Sunday, an Iranian judicial spokesman confirmed the execution had taken place.

He told the Mizan Online news site: 'Shahram Amiri was hanged for revealing the country's top secrets to the enemy (US).'

In another recording filmed when he was missing, the scientist suggested he had fled from the USA, where he had been held against his will.

But US officials said they paid Amiri some $5 million to defect and provide 'significant' information about Iran's atomic program.

Amiri later fled the U.S. without the money.

Iranian officials previously touted Amiri's claim he had been abducted by U.S. agents while on a pilgrimage to holy sites in Saudi Arabia.

They welcomed him home in 2010 as a hero.

But his family confirmed to the BBC he had been given a lengthy jail sentence after returning to the Middle East.

The State Department declined to comment on Amiri's execution.

Shakram Amiri appeared in a video in which he claimed to have been put under pressure to 'reveal sensitive information' by the CIA. Upon his return to Tehran, Iranian authorities backed up his claim and he came back to a hero's welcome

Amiri's disappearance will raise concerns about the future of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian aid worker being held by Tehran.

The 37-year-old, who was arrested as she tried to leave Iran after a visit with her two-year-old daughter, appeared in the Revolutionary Court on Monday.

'We continue to raise our strong concerns about British prisoners in Iran, including Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, at the highest levels in both London and Tehran,' a spokeswoman for Britain's Foreign Office said.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 37, works for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, a London-based charity that is independent of Thomson Reuters and operates independently of Reuters News.

The Foreign Office spokeswoman said former Prime Minister David Cameron had repeatedly raised the case with his Iranian counterpart.

'We are deeply concerned by recent reports that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been charged but has not been allowed to see a lawyer,' the spokeswoman said.

'We remain ready to facilitate Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's daughter's return to the UK if requested.'
British police searching for missing Madeleine McCann who disappeared nine years ago have ended their forensic investigation.

The announcement to axe all forensic work from the inquiry comes after the final scientific tests carried out three months ago 'didn't take the police forward'.

Former Prime Minister David Cameron, 49, launched Operation Grange in May 2011 - an investigation into the disappearance who vanished aged three in Portugal.

The operation has cost the taxpayer 12 million since it was launched five years ago and it is set to be scrapped this autumn as other areas of the police budget face cut backs.

British police searching for missing Madeleine McCann (pictured) have ended their forensic investigation

Maddie was on holiday with her parents Kate and Gerry when she went missing in the resort of Pria de Luz.

A source told the Sunday Mirror: 'The final forensics were carried out about three months ago but, sadly, they didn't take us forward.

'There are no plans for any further forensic work to take place.'

It was hoped the tests could be carried out on hairs recovered from the flat that the family, from Rothley, Leicestershire, were staying in.

The announcement to end the forensic investigation is a fresh blow to Maddie's parents, Kate and Gerry (pictured)

The announcement is a new blow to Maddie's parents who lost a 395,000 libel payout in April this year from a Portuguese detective who penned a book questioning their version of events.

Mr and Mrs McCann said: 'Until we have answers, until there is news, there will always be hope and we will do everything we can to help find Madeleine.'

Operation Grange has so far taken 1,338 statements and investigated 60 'persons of interest' but police privately concede they are no closer to finding their daughter.
Chinese fans abused Horton for his frank comments after the win

Yang hit back declaring 'I am the king' and he will beat Horton in 1500m

The Australian swimmer, 20, called out Yang for being a 'drug cheat'

Mack Horton beat arch rival Sun Yang in the 400 metre final in Rio

Chinese swimmer Sun Yang has hit back at Mack Horton after the Australian gold medallist took a swipe at his competitor calling him a drug cheat.

Horton spoke frankly about his Chinese rival after beating him in the 400m freestyle on Saturday, saying: 'Sun Yang is just the drugs cheat'.

When asked on Sunday if he had anything to say to Horton, Yang denied knowing the swimmer, before declaring: 'I am the king, I am the new world'.

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'I am the king': Chinese swimmer Sun Yang has denied knowing who his rival Mack Horton is before declaring he would beat the Australian in the 1500 metre race

Horton (centre) is an Olympic champion after beating arch rival Sun Yang (right) in the 400m freestyle. Italy's Gabriele Detti (left) won bronze

Yang was asked as he left the Rio's aquatic centre what he thought about the upcoming 1500 metre race between the pair.

'Will you beat him in the 1500?' a Seven News journalist asked Yang.

'1500 metres - I am the king,' he declared.

The confrontation has set the stage for a heated clash when the pair meet in the 1500 metres this weekend.

Meantime the Australian Olympic Committee has released a statement in support of Horton, saying he is entitled to his point of view.

'Mack is entitled to express a point of view,' the statement began.

'Under the Team Values ASPIRE the E stands for express yourself, that is his right.

'He has spoken out in support of clean athletes. This is something he feels strongly about and good luck to him.'

The Chinese swim team have since demanded an apology from Horton, claiming his comments were 'a malicious attack'.

'We have been noticing what has been said in the past two days by Horton, who launched a malicious personal attack (on Chinese swimmers),' Chinese swim team manager Xu Qi said on Sunday, according to Xinhua.

'We think his inappropriate words greatly hurt the feelings between Chinese and Australian swimmers. It is proof of a lack of good manners and upbringing. We strongly demand an apology from this swimmer.'

Mack Horton shared this image of him and Grant Hackett when the swimmer was just 11

After the spat Horton's brother Chad appeared on Sunrise to speak about how his brother was absolutely petrified of swimming until at age three he put his head under the water.

'He was about three-years-old when he finally put his head under and from there on he just loved swimming,' Chad Horton told the program.

The Olympic swimmer's brother also revealed that after beginning swimming competitively at the age of ten to help him overcome his fear, he met star Grant Hackett when he was just 11.

It comes after Horton was abused online by legions of Chinese Olympic fans after his comments following the 400 metre final.

Yang served a secret three-month doping ban in 2014 and news of the suspension was announced retrospectively by Chinese officials.

Chinese fans hurled abuse at Horton online, with one going as far as to wish Horton would be 'killed by a local kangaroo'.

After the devastating loss a tearful Yang had to be consoled by his supporters

Chinese swimming fans swarmed Horton's social media accounts to post abusive messages and demand he apologise to Sun Yang

One fan demanded an apology, called Horton a loser and said he was 'complacent and will die quickly'

Horton, Australia's first gold medal winner at the Games, celebrates the win. He later told reporters he stood by his comments branding is Chinese rival a drug cheat

'You are too complacent and will die quickly,' one Chinese fan wrote on Horton's Instagram account.

Another said: 'You are a loser for a lifetime because of your disrespect and the lose [sic] of the Olympic Spirit and international reputation.

'It can be a big shame on your whole country.'

Other menacing comments levelled at Horton included 'Loser', 'Disgusting', 'B****', and 'Hate you'.

Horton refused to back down from his comments and told reporters he had no regrets about calling out Yang.

'I don't think it is a big statement because it is true, he has tested positive,' he said.

Mack Horton celebrates after winning the gold medal in the men's 400-meter freestyle

Yang, left, and Horton, right, have a well-known rivalry that came to a heard before Saturday's race

After beating the Chinese swimmer by a very narrow margin, Horton said it wasn't Yang he had an issue with, but drug cheats in general

'No athlete has really come forward and said it. It wouldn't have felt right if I raced against someone who had tested positive and didn't bring it up. Hopefully others will follow.'

Yang 'taunted' Horton in the Rio training pool by splashing water at him last week.

The 20-year-old gold medalist launched a surprise chip at the controversial world champion when asked about the training incident.

'It got played up a bit but he splashed me to say hi and I ignored him, I don't have time or respect for drug cheats,' Olympic debutant Horton said.

'He wasn't too happy about that so he kept splashing me and I just got in and did my thing.'

Horton celebrates with Australia's David Mckeon and Italy's Gabriele Detti after winning the Men's 400m Freestyle Final

Horton smiles after winning gold in the final of the men's 400-meter freestyle

Horton clocked three minutes, 41.55 seconds to claim the stirring win ahead of defending champion Yang, who swam a time of 3:41.68

After beating the Chinese swimmer by a very narrow margin, Horton said it wasn't Yang he had an issue with, but drug cheats in general.

'Definitely a win for the good guys,' he said in a post race interview.

'I don't know if it's a rivalry between me and him, just me and athletes who have tested positive.'

Horton clocked 3:41.55 seconds to claim the 400m title ahead of defending champion Yang, who swam a time of 3:41.68.
A Donald Trump fan who built a giant 'T' in his front yard in support of the Republican nominee says the people who set fire to it overnight should be charged with a hate crime.

Sam Pirozzolo, from Staten Island, New York, blamed 'pro-Hillary thugs' for torching his 12-foot high tribute to The Donald, which was painted in the colors of the American flag.

'Pro Hillary Clinton thugs use gasoline to set fire to big Trump T on my lawn,' Pirozzolo wrote on Facebook, while sharing an image of the sign on fire.

A Donald Trump supporter was furious when a giant 'T' he built in his front yard (pictured) in support of the Republican candidate was set fire overnight

Sam Pirozzolo, from Staten Island, New York, blamed 'pro-Hillary thugs' for torching his 12-foot high tribute to The Donald (pictured left and right)

'It was about 1am last night and my wife, two kids and I were sound asleep when our neighbors rang the doorbell to tell us the "T" was ablaze,' he told SILive.com.

'I hope that this incident is elevated from an arson to a hate crime, because that's how I see it since it was done on my private property.

'Thank God it didn't spread to my home, which is in close proximity to the sign.'

Firefighters were called to Pirozzolo's house in Castleton Corners shortly after 1am to put out a 'rubbish fire'.

'Pro Hillary Clinton thugs use gasoline to set fire to big Trump T on my lawn,' Pirozzolo (pictured) wrote on Facebook

Pirozzolo says he built the sign with the help of local artist Scott Lobaido as a 'subtle' show of support for Trump (pictured)

It took about 20 minutes to get the blaze under control, a NYFD spokesman told SILive.com.

Pirozzolo, who runs an eye care store in Astoria, told the New York Post he built the sign with the help of local artist Scott Lobaido as a 'subtle' show of support for Trump.

'[The artist] made it about two months ago when a lot of people showing Trump support were being booed, jeered or harassed,' he said.
Ibrahim Iqbal, pictured, 15, is feared to have become an ISIS fighter after posting an image of himself holding what appears to be an AK47 on Facebook

Posing with an AK47 and pledging his allegiance to the Islamic State, this is the schoolboy who was feared to have fled to Syria with 11 members of his family.

Ibrahim Iqbal was 14 when he disappeared from his Bradford home last year with his brothers Junaid, 15, and Ismaeel, three, and sisters Mariya, five, and Zaynab, eight.

Their mother Sugra Dawood, now 35, took her children and went  without her husband Akhtar Iqbal  to Syria, where her jihadi brother Ahmed had been for more than a year.

Sugra was joined by her sisters Zohra Dawood, now 33, and Khadija Dawood, now 31, and their four children, making them the largest British family to flee to the war-torn country.

In June last year, factory worker Mr Iqbal made an emotional appeal to his son Junaid, saying: If you watch this video, please ring me, please contact me. I love you, all of you. Please, please come back home so we can live a normal life.

But last night it appeared that his two eldest boys had become Islamic State fighters after pictures of them brandishing AK47 assault rifles while wearing ammunition belts surfaced online.

Ibrahim, now 15, posted pictures of himself and what appeared to be his brother Junaid, now 16, on the same Facebook account he used as a schoolboy in Bradford.

He also posted pictures of a gun, ammunition, grenades and other weapons.

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Ibrahim also posted pictures of weapons and ammunition and urged Muslims 'to wage jihad in the UK'

This picture appears to show some of the Dawood family at the airport leaving the UK for Saudi Arabia. Pictured are Junaid Ahmed Iqbal, Ibrahim Iqbal, Zaynab Iqbal, Ismaeel Iqbal and Mariya Iqbal

Ibrahim pledged his allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi and also urged fellow Muslims in the UK to wage jihad back home.

On Friday, he posted: First of all I say Alhamdulillah [praise be to God] Allah has brought me to the khilafah [Caliphate] and saved me from the oppression of the Kuffar [disbeliever].

Secondly, I say to all the Muslims that there is no land where you will be honoured except in the land of the khilafah and it is obligatory for every Muslim to come to the khilafah and pledge your allegiance to amir al mumineen [commander of the faithful] Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi and who ever does not the[n] he dies the death of jaahiliyah [non-Muslims].

From left, clockwise, Junaid Ahmed Iqbal, Ibrahim Iqbal, Ismaeel Iqbal and Zaynab Iqbal are believed to be in Syria

Last of all, if the government closes the door of migrating to the khilafah then you open the door of jihad in their land.

Last night, he posted: Nobody has an excuse to be not fighting in the path of Allah. Physically fighting not in your mind as some stupid people say.

The sisters are believed to have made it to Syria despite being under police surveillance following their brother Ahmeds disappearance.

They were originally thought to have gone on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, but while in Saudia Arabia they boarded flights to Istanbul in Turkey instead of returning home to Bradford.

From Istanbul it is believed they made their way across the country to the Syrian border.

Ismaeel Iqbal and Mariya Iqbal are pictured with suitcases behind them at what was believed to be an airport before they disappeared last year

Sisters Sugra Dawood 34, Zohra Dawood, 33, and Khadija Dawood, 30, travelled to Saudi Arabia for a pilgrimage with their nine children, including (from left) Zaynab Iqbal, Ismaeel Iqbal and Mariya Iqbal

It is thought that Sugra was gradually persuaded in regular Skype calls with her younger brother Ahmed  who had been inside IS for a year  that what Islamic State is standing for is right.

She in turn seems to have signed up her younger sisters Khadija and Zohra, who fled with her children Haafiyah, eight, and Nurah, five.

Last night, Mohammed Shoaib, the husband of Khadija, who fled with their two children, Muhammad Haseeb, five, and Maryam Siddiqui, seven, condemned his nephews actions.
An Australian professor and an American colleague have been kidnapped at gunpoint in Kabul, reports say.

The pair were snatched at the American University of Afghanistan by kidnappers disguised as National Security officers on Sunday night, local media reported.

Footage aired by local media shows a white four-wheel-drive with a smashed rear window.

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An Australian professor and an American colleague were kidnapped at gunpoint in Kabul. Footage aired by local media shows a four-wheel-drive with a smashed rear window (pictured)

The pair were snatched at the American University of Afghanistan (stock image) by kidnappers disguised as National Security officers on Sunday night

Local police confirmed the kidnapping to ABC America.

'The abduction was confirmed by Kabul police chief Abdel Radhman Rahimi,' the news site reported.

A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia: 'The Australian Embassy in Afghanistan has confirmed the apparent kidnapping of an Australian in Kabul, Afghanistan.

'Due to privacy and security considerations we will not be commenting further.

'We continue to advise Australians not to travel to Afghanistan because of the extremely dangerous security situation, including the serious threat of kidnapping.'

The US State Department said it was aware of the reports but 'due to privacy considerations we have no information to offer'

A DFAT spokesperson had earlier said the department was seeking to verify the reports.

The US State Department said it was aware of the reports but 'due to privacy considerations we have no information to offer'.

The university is a private, not-for-profit institution modelled on US standards.

It was founded in 2004 and has more than 1,000 students.

Over the years it has received millions from the US Agency for International Development.

Afghanistan remains locked in a violent insurgency and Western embassies typically warn their citizens against all but essential travel in the country, citing threats of attack and kidnapping.
A Virginia police officer came up with a novel way to propose to his girlfriend by doing it in the middle of a big heart of squad cars.

Chad Vosvick of the Henrico Police Department enlisted his brothers and sisters in blue to help him create the perfect proposal for his girlfriend on Saturday, Chelsea Thornton.

Vosvick brought Thornton to a room at the station, and then left her there, telling her he had to go check email, reported WSFL.

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P.O. Chad Vosvick had the impressive idea to propose in a big heart made of squad cars

At that point, Vosvick's sergeant came in and told Chelsea to join some officers outside.

As soon as she left the station and saw her soon-to-be fiance standing in the middle of a bunch of squad cars, Thornton knows what is up and her hand flies to her mouth.

Chelsea Thornton seemed to know exactly what was up when she came out and saw her boyfriend standing in the middle of a sea of cop cars

Ever the gentleman, Vosvick got down on one need and made his plea for his girlfriend to become his wife

The two hugged as Vosvick's brothers and sisters watched along the wall

'I opened the door to the parking lot and saw Chad standing in the middle of a sea of police cars, shaped like a heart,' she told the outlet. 'I remember seeing a blur of people off in the distance, but not once was I able to take my eyes off Chad.'

Vosvick and Thornton became engaged the best way they knew how, with the police force cheering them on

The courtly officer got down on one knee and presented Thornton with a ring box, and after she said yes, they hugged while the surrounding officers and family clapped.

Fellow officer Stephen Rowe climbed to the top of a nearby roof to get the perfect photos.
Vice President Joe Biden seems to be taking a swipe at Donald Trump for the candidate's recent remark that he 'always wanted to get the Purple Heart.'

On Twitter Sunday, Biden wrote: 'No one wants to earn a Purple Heart. But to those who did, you have America's unending gratitude and admiration. Thank you. #PurpleHeart Day.'

The Purple Heart acknowledges service members who have been wounded or killed.

Vice President Joe Biden took to Twitter to write that no one wants a Purple Heart medal and thanked those who served. His tweet appeared to be a jab at Donald Trump

At a voter rally in Virginia on August 2, Trump told the story of a lieutenant colonel, who presented him with his Purple Heart medal as a vote of confidence.

Trump quipped: 'I always wanted to get the purple heart. This was much easier.'

The Purple Heart is awarded to servicemen and women who are wounded in combat, and to surviving family members of those who are killed in action. Wanting one is akin to a death wish  or close to it.

Lt. Col. Louis Dorfman came on stage and posed with Trump for photos before telling him that he didn't want to speak to the crowd.

At a voter rally in Virginia on August 2, Trump told the story of a lieutenant colonel, who presented him with his Purple Heart medal as a vote of confidence, quipping: 'I always wanted to get the purple heart. This was much easier'

So I said, "Lieutenant colonel, would you like to say something?"' Trump told his audience in an Ashburn, Virginia high school auditorium.

'He goes, "No sir. I'd like you to just keep saying what you're saying." Amazing. it's amazing. what an honor.'
A pensioner who was jailed for hugging her granddaughter is risking prison again after helping her escape from a care home.

Kathleen Danby, 74, is under a court order banning contact between the pair.

In 2014 she was caught on CCTV embracing her granddaughter and sentenced to three months in prison in a draconian Court of Protection ruling.

And she could be locked up again for assisting the escape by the 20-year-old from a supervised flat in Derbyshire last week.

Kathleen Danby is pictured here with her grandchildren, whose faces are obscured for legal reasons

The younger woman said she felt like a prisoner after being forced to live hundreds of miles away from family.

She suffers from learning difficulties and has been kept in care after her 18th birthday because social workers say she is incapacitated.

She went on the run after escaping through an unlocked door and immediately telephoned her grandmother for help.

Mrs Danby put her up for a night in a hotel and has brought her to Scotland where they hope to live like a normal family.

The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is said to be happier than ever to be back with her family after ten years in social services care.

Mrs Danby faces being locked up for not returning the young woman to the flat. She said she is fed up of being pushed around by bullies in social services and hopes the Scottish legal system will be more lenient.

It was not my idea for her to run away  she has tried it more than 200 times in the past five years, she said. But this time she got farther than she had before and rang me for help. She has learning difficulties but she is capable of making her own decisions.

Shes an adult who knows her own mind. She doesnt want to be at the home and feels unsafe there. How could I turn my own flesh and blood away?

A judge quashed Mrs Danbys 2014 jail sentence but the pensioner was forced to spend two nights in prison and one in a police cell for breaking the Court of Protections diktats.

Under a judgment kept secret from the public Mrs Danby had previously been banned from making contact with the girl.

And she was told she could speak to her granddaughter on the phone only once a month and at a set time, with social workers listening in on their conversation.

Weve been put through the wringer for years over the simplest of requests, she said.

All Ive ever asked is for the authorities to listen to her but they refuse and make her out to be incapacitated. Her granddaughter last night told how she felt unsafe in the assisted living accommodation where she was placed two years ago.

She said: Ive been miserable there. No one cares about me or looks after me. All they are interested in is keeping me locked up, away from my family.

John Hemming (pictured), a former Liberal Democrat MP, said: 'There is a major injustice in this case'

When I saw my chance to run through an open door, I went for it. No one came after me.

Police have found the girl but have not removed her from her family. Experts say it may be difficult for Scottish police to enforce English court orders.

Derbyshire County Council made no comment.

John Hemming, a former MP who campaigns for open justice, said: I am aware of a number of cases where peoples liberty is restricted and there are reporting restrictions  in other words they are secret prisoners.

It is unclear what good it is doing to keep Mrs Danbys granddaughter away from her family. There is a major injustice in this case and if legal action ensues from Derbyshire County Council, I will ensure an appeal gets to the Court of Appeal to end this oppression.
The extraordinary extent to which senior police officers are abusing taxpayer-funded expenses and perks is revealed today.

Chief constables and their senior teams are claiming astonishing benefits paid for by the public  but have scandalously refused to reveal the full details.

On top of huge salaries, some are quietly claiming 'allowances' of up to 32,000 a year, including for day-to-day spending and household bills.

Others are charging the public for private medical insurance  a privilege that most frontline officers never receive.

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Phil Gormley, left, head of Police Scotland, is living rent-free in part of a castle with 90 acres of grounds, while Essex chief Stephen Kavanagh, right, takes a 17,000 allowance

And if they move jobs, highly paid chief constables routinely send removal bills to the taxpayer, including the cost of stamp duty, redecorating and new furniture.

Incredibly, some senior officers are taking up to 64 days' holiday a year  meaning they effectively work part-time  despite most earning more than the Prime Minister.

Senior officers have taken the perks even as they complain bitterly over cuts and claim resources are so stretched that police cannot fight crime effectively.

Last night Home Secretary Amber Rudd demanded that all forces publish full information about top officers' pay and allowances. Following a major investigation, the Mail can reveal:

A failing chief constable has been claiming 30,000 a year in 'allowances', including money for his food and household bills;

Another lives for free in an apartment in a castle as part of a relocation deal  on top of his 200,000-a-year salary;

Dozens of officers have charged the taxpayer for moving house  even claiming for new curtains and 'electrical re-connections'.

The scale of the benefits enjoyed by senior officers has emerged only after hundreds of Freedom of Information requests by the Mail Investigations Unit.

But many forces will not say whether or not they charge the taxpayer for their chief constables' private health insurance or relocation costs.

Mrs Rudd warned that police forces 'cannot be opaque about such important matters' and said decisions about the pay and allowances of chief officers 'should be transparent and open to scrutiny by the communities they serve'.

She added: 'I fully expect all forces to publish details of how they are spending taxpayer money.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd has demanded all police forces publish details about their officers' top pay and allowances

'Professionalism and integrity must be at the heart of all aspects of policing, and we expect the highest standards from those officers leading our forces.'

The perks, which will horrify hardworking frontline officers, have been quietly granted for years, thanks to national guidelines for senior police, not updated since 2003.

Thanks to these outdated rules, chief constables have enjoyed incredible pay and benefits  even as police budgets have been cut by a fifth and as officer numbers have plummeted to 124,000, their lowest level in more than ten years.

Humberside chief Justine Curran, pictured, charged much of her moving costs to the taxpayer

Essex chief Stephen Kavanagh claims what he calls a 'chief officer's allowance'  worth 17,000 a year  on top of his 200,000 salary.

This is to pay for his home internet, phone bills and contributions towards his lunches, coffee and snacks.

But he claims extra money for eating out, as well as a separate 'housing allowance' of nearly 7,000 a year for upkeep of his 1million mansion.

Police chiefs have also charged taxpayers to move house  putting their removal fees, curtains, furniture, TV aerials, decorating, and even stamp duty on their publicly-funded expenses.

Some have lived rent-free at exclusive properties as part of these 'relocation packages', which have cost the taxpayer more than half a million pounds.

Phil Gormley, head of Police Scotland, is living rent-free in part of a castle with 90 acres of grounds.

Senior officers are even charging the taxpayer for private medical care.

This is despite the then chancellor George Osborne promising earlier this year that bureaucrats would no longer be able to get private health packages beyond the means of most families.

As many forces face budget cuts, it emerged that some chiefs have taken so much holiday that they are working the equivalent of a four-day week.

Suzette Davenport, Gloucestershire Police chief, took 64 days' holiday in a year, posting photos of her trips on social media as frontline staff were being told job losses were on the way.

Some forces went to extraordinary lengths to block the Mail's inquiries  and many are still refusing to reveal how much public money their senior officers claim in expenses, or how much holiday they take.

Gloucestershire Police chief Suzette Davenport, left, took 64 days' holiday in a year, while National Crime Agency director Lynne Owens, right, received an undisclosed housing allowance as head of Surrey Police until last year

HOW FORCES TRIED TO HIDE THE TRUTH FROM THE PUBLIC Over the past six months, hundreds of Freedom of Information requests have been sent by the Mail's Investigations Unit to uncover the pay deals of senior police officers. But dozens of forces either ignored our requests  which they are legally obliged to answer under the FoI Act  or rejected them for seemingly improper reasons. Some responded with incorrect information, which was corrected only when Mail reporters got in touch. Others made bizarre suggestions that the Mail's FoI requests were an attempt to waste police time  branding our simple questions about how public money is spent 'vexatious', 'unreasonable' and 'obsessive'. Several forces claimed information about chief officers' pay deals could not be released due to it being 'personal'. Others insisted it would take too long to find the information. Earlier this year, ministers announced the FoI Act would be protected. It followed repeated demands from across the public sector for it to be neutered, with police and other state bodies wanting greater secrecy. Despite this, many police forces are not complying with requests. Greater Manchester Police has still not responded to repeated requests for information on holidays. Nine forces did not respond to questions on medical cover, while 11 refused to answer on relocation payments and eight on bonuses. There were 11 forces that declined to say how much holiday their chief constable had taken. Advertisement

Last night MPs and campaigners called for the rules that allow such perks to be urgently overhauled.

Tory MP Philip Hollobone said: 'Daily Mail readers will be appalled at the scale of abuse and will want to see the Government, Police and Crime Commissioners and police forces make changes  Home Office guidelines should be updated as a matter of urgency.'

Fellow Tory MP Philip Davies said: 'The fact that forces are being so secretive about their expenditure suggests it is not justified.'

Jonathan Isaby, of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'The nation still has a huge budget deficit  it seems completely absurd that taxpayers should be forking out for the enormous pay and perks  The policing budget is already stretched thinly and it really has to be asked whether this is the best use of taxpayers' money.'

However, Chair of the Chief Police Officers Staff Association, Chief Constable Mark Polin said the provisions for police pay, allowances and expenses are set by the Home Office and overseen through locally elected Police and Crime Commissioners.

He said: 'The Chief Police Officers Staff Association (CPOSA), on behalf of all chief officers, has long sought clarity on the national remuneration framework, including allowances and annual leave, and continues to do so. We favour absolute consistency and transparency on these issues, with investigations and appropriate action against any misuse.

'There is a concern - shared by CPOSA, the National Police Chiefs Council, Home Office and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary - that the number of applicants for top positions in the service is declining. Any system must strike the right balance between fair reward and value for taxpayers, allowing us to attract and retain talent across the country.'

Police chief's 64 days off a year: Top officers paid more than the PM use loophole to choose how much holiday they get... then moan about cuts to budgets!

Britain's highest paid police chiefs are taking up to 64 days' holiday a year, the Daily Mail reveals today.

The top officers  some of whom earn more than 200,000 a year  are exploiting lax rules which allow them to decide for themselves how much holiday they need.

Some are claiming up to 12 weeks off per year, meaning they appear to be effectively working less than a four-day week.

The most junior frontline officers are allowed only 21 days off per year.

Gloucestershire Police's Chief Constable Suzette Davenport, pictured, took 64 days of holiday in 2013/15 and 59 days last year

But a loophole in police regulations states all officers above the rank of chief superintendent with more than ten years' experience are entitled to 'not less than 48 days' of holiday a year  and can effectively decide how much holiday they want.

Some forces admitted to the Mail that they do not formally record how many holiday days chief constables take.

Of those that did record the number, eight said their chief constables took more than 45 days of holiday last year. At least ten took more than 42 days.

The apparent abuse of this privilege by top officers  many of whom earn more than the Prime Minister  has continued even as they complain bitterly over cuts, claiming their resources are so stretched they can no longer fight crime effectively.

It is just one of a series of perks for very senior officers exposed by the Mail this week, which have continued unabated despite the austerity programme.

NEW JOB? LET'S GO SKIING, SAID BOSS

In recent years, frontline staff at Gloucestershire Police have seen their hours and workloads soar.

But their new chief constable, Suzette Davenport, celebrated her promotion by taking 13 days of holiday in her first two months in the role, including a week's skiing in Whistler, Canada.

A tanned Chief Constable Davenport pictured on her discontinued Twitter account

The 53-year-old posted regular updates and photos on Twitter, telling her followers how 'fabulous' the weather was.

Three months later, in June, she had another holiday  and just a month after that, she went on holiday to Paris, again posting photos to social media.

The cheery messages are unlikely to have gone down well with staff on the frontline, who were being warned that more job losses were on the way as the force struggled to make 20million in cutbacks.

Miss Davenport took over in January 2013 amid huge financial pressures as the force faced a 20 per cent cut to its budget.

She took 64 days of holiday in 2013/14 and 59 last year. Her pay package for 2014/15 was 179,000.

A Gloucestershire Police spokesman initially claimed that the 64 days 'include rest days and weekend days, and were the only days of the year when the chief constable was not working'.

Scheduled rest days are the chief's two rest days per week, usually Saturday and Sunday, but sometimes mid-week instead.

But the same spokesman later clarified that in fact, she took 86 other 'rest days', most of them at weekends, in addition to the 64 holiday days.

THE 'FOUR-DAY WEEK' AT CRISIS-HIT FORCE

He is the chief constable whose force is on the front line of the escalating migrant crisis.

But Kent Police's Alan Pughsley decided to take a staggering 56 days' holiday last year.

This is the equivalent of more than a day a week  though the force insists he regularly works more than 50 hours.

The chief constable enjoyed the huge holiday allowance as he told his staff they would face swingeing austerity measures and that many would lose their jobs.

He decided to take ten days of holiday during his first three months in the role in 2014.

400 STAFF GIVEN PRIVATE HEALTH TREATMENT More than 400 police employees charged the taxpayer for private medical treatments last year. Many of those claiming for such private cover are office-based bosses, rather than those risking their lives on the frontline. In some cases senior officers are having private medical insurance written into their contracts. The practice appears contrary to government regulations which state that private medical treatments should be funded by the taxpayer only when an officer is injured in the line of duty. Hardly any forces are declaring the spending in accounts, meaning it took months of Freedom of Information requests to uncover the full picture. In 2014-15, at least 14 forces paid for private medical cover. The chief officer team of Surrey Police get a healthcare allowance paid through their salaries. A spokesman claimed this ensures 'quicker recovery from illness or injuries and therefore a faster return to work'. The chief of Essex Police, Stephen Kavanagh, and members of his chief officer team got private medical insurance written into their contracts last year. At Norfolk Police, all chief officers can claim private medical cover, but the force refused to reveal how many of them do. However, it admitted that last year it spent 27,193 on private treatments for 123 members of staff  enough to pay the salary of a frontline police officer. A review into police spending in 2011 said senior officers should not get private medical cover as it was 'unconnected to their duties'. But forces are still providing the perk to those in senior ranks  and hardly any forces are declaring it in public accounts. Advertisement

The Kent boss also took a pay rise when he became chief constable, with his salary rising from 147,750 to 194,215.

This came after the force had seen total cuts of 53million and the loss of 1,200 jobs, including 500 frontline officers.

Mr Pughsley's total pay package of 235,898 in 2014/15 is one of the highest in UK policing.

A spokesman for Kent Police said: 'Chief Constable Pughsley's salary and annual leave entitlement is in line with national guidance and independently set.'

The spokesman added that Mr Pughsley 'is contracted to work as many hours as are necessary for him to perform his role' and that he 'regularly and consistently works a minimum of a 50-hour week as well as being on-call 24/7'.

57 DAYS... BUT I DON'T GO ABROAD, SAYS CHIEF

Sir Stephen House claimed that his huge pay package  212,500 last year  was deserved because it meant 'you have 100 per cent of my time'.

But the disgraced former head of Police Scotland took a staggering 57 days of annual leave each year that he was chief constable.

Sir Stephen House, pictured, took 57 days of annual leave each year he was chief constable at Police Scotland

When the force was formed in 2013, Sir Stephen faced questions as to how his pay package  which was significantly more than the Prime Minister's  was justified.

Sir Stephen, 58, admitted it was 'a hell of a lot of money' but added: 'I never switch off from being chief.

'I never turn my phone off. Part of that 208,000 means you have 100 per cent of my time.'

He had also claimed: 'I don't go abroad on holiday.'

Sir Stephen and his senior team were granted more than half a million pounds in housing payments last year.

The chief constable  one of the highest earners in UK policing  claimed the allowance even though he has paid off the mortgage on his home.

His resignation in December followed a spate of other rows, over budget cuts, armed policing, the industrial use of stop and search and how his force had failed to rescue a man and a woman left to die after a car crash on a motorway verge for three days.

A spokesman for Police Scotland said: 'Annual leave for senior officers is negotiated, set and agreed across the UK.'

THE CRIME-FIGHTER WHO LOVES HIS HOLIDAYS

He hit the headlines when he complained police spend only one day a week fighting crime due to budget cuts.

So crime victims could be forgiven for wondering why Steve Finnigan, takes such a staggering amount of holiday.

In 2013/14, when the 166,000-a-year Lancashire chief constable complained that police no longer have enough time to fight crime, he took 50.5 days' holiday  the equivalent of nearly a day off every week. Last year, he took 48 days of holiday.

A Lancashire Constabulary spokesman said: 'The chief constable is entitled to take all his scheduled rest days and bank holidays but regularly chooses to work on some of these days for the benefit of the constabulary and the communities he serves.
Just one day after her world-wide return to the runway, she is back on the beauty campaign trail.

And as the official spokesmodel of Pantene Brazil, Gisele Bundchen made an appearance at an event for the brand in Rio on Saturday.

The 36-year-old stunner showed off her playful side as she happily twirled and posed for cameras.

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Letting loose: Gisele Bundchen, 36, showed off her playful side as she happily twirled and posed at a Pantene event in Rio on Saturday

In keeping with the colour scheme of the festivities, Gisele oozed glamour in an all-black ensemble.

The supermodel showed off her lean legs in a pair of sequin leggings.

The mother-of-two tucked in a loose-fitting blouse into her trousers before adding a pair of strappy heels.

Working girl! Just one day after her world-wide return to the runway on Friday, she is back on the beauty campaign trail

Glitzy: In keeping with the colour scheme of the festivities, Gisele oozed glamour in an all-black ensemble

Endless legs: The supermodel showed off her lean gams in a pair of sequin leggings

Completed look: The mother-of-two tucked in a loose-fitting blouse into her trousers before adding a pair of strappy heels

For make-up, Gisele stayed true to her go-to bronzed look, with pink cheeks and a soft lip colour.

The wife of Tom Brady showed off her famous, luscious locks, which were let loose and styled in soft waves.

During the event, the supermodel let loose, twirling and swirling a gold ribbon in the air.

Having fun: During the event, the supermodel let loose, twirling and swirling a gold ribbon in the air

Pure bliss: The 5ft 11in beauty flashed her big, bright smile

Glowing: For make-up, Gisele stayed true to her go-to bronzed look, with pink cheeks and a soft lip colour

A star in itself: The wife of Tom Brady showed off her famous, luscious locks, which were let loose and styled in soft waves

Her moniker: The Chanel No. 5 spokesperson, wore a sequin jacket with her name on the back

The 5ft 11in beauty appeared to be enjoying her time, as she flashed her big, bright smile.

Gisele was also joined by other models for the evening.

All the women, including the Chanel No. 5 spokesperson, wore a gold, sequin jacket with their names on the back.

Just us girls! Gisele was also joined by other models for the evening

Proud display: All the women showed off their names on their jackets

Living it up: The beauties continued to give off their best poses as they were later joined by a friendly male

Intimate chat: That same day, Gisele was interviewed by Today's Natalie Morales

Earthy beauty: The Brazilian bombshell wore a bohemian-inspired, printed dress, complete with oversize bell sleeves

That same day, Gisele was interviewed by Today's Natalie Morales.

The Brazilian bombshell wore a bohemian-inspired, printed dress, complete with oversize bell sleeves.

With a film crew around them, the women continued to chat, before Gisele stopped to acknowledge and wave at her fans.

Happy to see them: With a film crew around them, the women continued to chat, before Gisele stopped to acknowledge and wave at her fans

Capturing the moment: A cameraman caught her adoring admirers in action

Light and breezy: Gisele exuded ethereal appeal in a lightly flowing patterned dress while out in Rio

Happy to be here: The brunette beauty flashed her megawatt smile at the crowd
She is rarely seen out and about without two-year-old daughter Sophia by her side.

And Tamara Ecclestone and her little girl were the epitome of the phrase 'like mother, like daughter' in LA on Friday, as they enjoyed a girls' day out in co-ordinating outfits.

The Formula 1 heiress, 32, and her daughter headed for lunch at Mauro's Restaurant in West Hollywood with sister Petra and her family, in matching flowing skirts of alternating colours.

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Like mother like daughter: Tamara Ecclestone, 32, and her two-year-old daughter Sophia enjoyed a girls day out in LA with sister Petra and her family on Friday

The socialite looked every inch the yummy mummy in the stylish blue chiffon co-ord set.

The matching top and skirt was printed with dainty white flowers and featured a bright red trim for a pop of colour.

The mini skirt showed off her tanned legs, likely to have picked up their bronze colour from a recent family holiday to the Greek islands, which were dressed at the bottom with some black studded gladiator sandals.

The socialite adorably matched her daughter in style, dressing young Sophia in a cute white and gold dress complete with puffy tutu skirt.

Dress to impress: The Formula 1 heiress and her daughter headed for lunch at Mauro's Restaurant in West Hollywood in matching flowing tutu skirts of alternating colours

Dress to impress: The socialite looked every inch the yummy mummy in the stylish blue chiffon co-ord set, while little Sophia looked adorable in a white and gold tutu

The mother-daughter duo co-ordinated in more ways than one, with both generations sporting aviator style sunglasses - a mirrored silver set for Tamara and a funky hot pink set for Sophia.

Her sweet daughter appeared to be having the time of her life as she played with her mummy in the sunshine, laughing and smiling at Tamara as she lifted her high onto a wall on the LA streets.

With a trendy braid at her crown before her hair cascaded into waves, the British brunette encompassed natural, effortless beauty for the low-key lunch.

Accompanied by her sister Petra, 27, and her three-year-old Lavinia, the trip was undoubtedly enjoyable for Tamara too, who is separated from her LA-based sibling most of the year.

Best day ever! Sophia appeared to be having the time of her life as she played in the sunshine, laughing and smiling at Tamara as she lifted her onto a wall on the LA streets

Petra looked equally as stylish in a denim maxi pinafore dress layered over the top of a white crop t-shirt and white trainers for the girly lunch out with her close pal sister and her niece.

With their husbands also in tow, the trip marked a full family catch up for the Eccelstone family, who are heirs to the Formula 1 brand and fortune.

Tamara and her family landed in LA earlier this week to enjoy a relaxing stay with her blonde sister at her and her husband James Stunt's Californian home.

Family outing: With her husband Jay also in tow (pictured), the trip marked a full family catch up for the Eccelstone sisters, who are separated by the Atlantic ocean most of the year

Petra married businessman James in a lavish $7million (5million) ceremony at Odescalchi Castle, Rome in 2011, after four years of dating.

They have resided in California ever since while still maintaining a London home, although have been firmly based stateside recently after their UK pad was attacked by a petrol bomb.

Meanwhile Tamara and husband Jay Rutland, a trader, wed in 2013 in the South of France after a whirlwind romance resulting in a proposal in Dubai.

Trendy: With a festival-style braid at her crown before her hair cascaded into waves, the British brunette encompassed natural, effortless beauty for the low-key lunch

Stylish sisters: Petra, 27, looked equally as stylish in a denim maxi pinafore dress layered over the top of a white crop t-shirt and white trainers for the girly lunch out

Over 150 guests were invited to the lavish three-day event, with the couple famously downing shots and jumping in the sea at the Grand-Hotel du Cap-Ferrat as they laid on a free bar for their partying pals.

However, Tamara has sparked rumours of a shock split in recent months, having been spotted back in March without her wedding ring on multiple occasions.

The star then worsened the speculation by jetting off on two ski breaks, without her partner, this year alone.

Yet, the couple appear to have worked out any issues, with Tamara taking to her Instagram to post multiple snaps from their recent family holidays around Europe.
Some Hollywood stars yearn to make an impression wherever they go.

But it seems Courteney Cox isn't one of them, as the 52-year-old actress opted for an extremely low-key look for her flight back to Los Angeles on Saturday.

The former Friends star donned a slate grey, long-sleeve sweater, which she paired with some white trousers and shiny black loafers.

Jet-setter: Courteney Cox, 52, opted for an extremely low-key look for her flight back to Los Angeles on Saturday

A square silver watch, black leather shoulder bag and some black-frame glasses rounded out her accessories.

Her raven black tresses were parted in the middle and allowed to cascade down past her shoulders.

Aside from a slick of nude lip gloss, Courteney appeared to be mostly make-up free for her journey.

Earlier in the day, she left her fiance Johnny McDaid back in the UK.

Nothing fancy: The former Friends star donned a slate grey, long-sleeve sweater, which she paired with some white trousers and shiny black loafers

The details: A square silver watch, black leather shoulder bag and some black-frame glasses rounded out her accessories

They shared a passionate smooch as the talented brunette allowed herself plenty of time to make her way to the boarding gate.

The brief parting of distance isn't something the duo are dealing with for the first time, given Courteney's career in the States and Johnny's in Ireland.

Their romance began in 2013, before they became engaged in June 2014.

Youthful: Aside from a slick of nude lip gloss, Courteney appeared to be mostly make-up free for her journey

And after splitting briefly at the end of last year, they decided to give their romance another go and became engaged once again in April.

She previously separated from husband and Scream co-star David Arquette in 2010 after more than 11 years together, although the two remain close friends and business partners.

They have a 12-year-old daughter together, Coco.
She shot to fame in 2000 while playing Dani Sutherland on the long-running Aussie soap Home And Away.

And while Tammin Sursok has since gone on to take Hollywood by storm with a role on Pretty Little Liars, the actress certainly hasn't lost her Summer Bay ways.

Taking to Instagram on Saturday, the 32-year-old mother-of-one shared a bikini-clad photo of herself on the beach.

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Beach babe: Australian actress Tammin Sursok shared this bikini-clad snap of herself with Instagram followers on Saturday

The social media image showed the brunette beauty lying on the sand in a bright bikini, with her taut torso, lithe legs and slender arms on display for all to see.

The actress sported a pink and white striped bikini top on this occasion, teamed with a pair of black stringed bikini bottoms.

Her arms were stretched, extending beyond her head, while she sported a pair of dark sunglasses to complete her outdoor look.

'Kind of the best day of our lives. @officialseanmcewen1 (sic),' she captioned the image, tagging her husband Sean McEwen, and it looks like the couple's two-year-old daughter Phoenix may have been the tiny tot in the background of the snap.

Summer Bay stunner: She shot to fame after playing Dani Sutherland on Australian soap Home And Away

Tammin launched her international television career in 2010 after landing a role in popular American TV series Pretty Little Liars.

While attending a fashion event in New York City earlier this week, she revealed that she 'almost got fired' from the job in the mystery-thriller series because of her thick Australian accent.

While stunning in a little red dress, the talented star admitted to Sirius XM: 'My Australian accent kept coming up [during filming], so I decided to just speak in an American accent from then on.

Television star: The former Home And Away actress now plays Jenna Marshall on American series Pretty Little Liars

'People get really upset that I have an American accent.'

Tammin tied the knot with director beau Sean McEwen in August 2011.

The couple share one daughter Phoenix, who was born in October 2013.
She announced her engagement to fellow news reporter, Peter Stefanovic, last month.

Now, Sylvia Jeffreys has revealed she has already begun working out in the lead up to her wedding day.

Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, the 30-year-old media personality has credited the upcoming City2Surf for placing her into a routine, explaining: 'It's helping me with my wedding training.'

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Let the preparations begin! Sylvia Jeffreys has begun working out in the lead up to her wedding day

But while she begins to train for the big day, the Channel Nine news reporter explained she and Peter were yet to set a date.

'I don't even know where to start. So we're just enjoying it for the moment,' Sylvia said.

She went on to recall the moment her beau dropped to one knee in France, describing it as 'beautiful.'

Still to come: But while she begins to train for the big day, the Channel Nine news reporter explained she and Peter were yet to set a date

Loving it: She said: 'I don't even know where to start. So we're just enjoying it for the moment'

Sylvia announced her exciting engagement news via social media last month, while she holidayed across Europe with Peter.

Her now fiance and fellow Channel Nine journalist Peter proposed during their idyllic vacation at a French vineyard.

Peter, 33, was the first to take to social media to announce the happy news with a snap of the pair showing off the large diamond ring.

Asked my missus to be my wife and she said yes, he gushed in the caption.

Announcement: Peter announced their engagement on social media last month, writing: Asked my missus to be my wife and she said yes'

Happy news: Sylvia followed, posting: 'How's this for a framer?! A couple of weeks ago Pete popped the question, and I said yes, OF COURSE!!'

Meanwhile, Sylvia wrote: 'How's this for a framer?! A couple of weeks ago Pete popped the question, and I said yes, OF COURSE!!!

We've had the most wonderful time celebrating with great mates. We couldn't be happier (check the grins) and so excited to share the news with everyone.

Peter and Sylvia began dating at the end of 2013 after co-hosting the weekend edition of the Today show.
She carried the Olympic torch as it made its way to the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue just two days before.

And Adriana Lima appeared awestruck when she visited the same spot, dubbed one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday.

The 35-year-old supermodel donned an embroidered mini skirt and cropped top that flashed her sun-kissed skin.

Brazilian beauty: Adriana Lima looked stunning as she visited Rio de Janeiro's iconic Christ the Redeemer on Saturday

The Victoria's Secret Angel wore a plunging black tank which highlighted her ample bosom.

Her perfectly sculpted abs and long bronzed stems were on display in the revealing ensemble.

She slipped into an intricately patterned skirt with long flowing train created of delicate sheer fabric.

Babe in blue: The 35-year-old Brazilian beauty slipped into an embroidered mini skirt with long flowing train created of delicate sheer fabric

Adriana looked youthful with braided pigtails and added a few dainty gold necklaces and bracelets for added sparkle.

Her relaxed look was rounded out with brown leather lace-up sandals and she opted for minimal makeup, allowing her natural beauty to shine through.

On Thursday night the Brazilian beauty carried the Olympic torch before lighting a special cauldron in Praca Maua in the heart of the Olympic Boulevard.

Flawless: The Victoria's Secret Angel's perfectly sculpted abs and long bronzed stems were on display in the revealing ensemble

The Salvador-born stunner shed tears after being overpowered by the emotion of the event and by the support of the crowds as the night drew to a close.

Adriana and fellow VS Angel Alessandra Ambrosio co-hosted NBC's late-night coverage of the Olympic Games with Ryan Seacrest.

Friday night was the mother-of-two's turn to carry the torch and she brought along her excited children Anja and Noah for the historic moment.

Busty display: The supermodel wore a plunging black tank which highlighted her ample bosom

Brazil Olympian Isabel Barroso Salgado was also emotional as she stood beneath the Christ the Redeemer statue - which towers at 125-foot statue (38 meters, 30 centimeters) - holding the torch straight above her head with both arms outstretched.

The volleyball medalist from Brazil then received a blessing as cameras snapped all around. The iconic wonder is one of many stops for the flame as it travels around Rio de Janeiro at the end of a long relay that began in Greece.

Decisions, decisions: Later she helped fellow Brazilian stunner Alessandra Ambrosio serve some meat to Ryan Seacrest
She is expecting twin boys in coming months.

But Rebecca Judd showed no signs of slowing down in a series of fitness-inspired Instagram posts on Sunday.

The 33-year-old Channel Nine weather woman bared her baby bump while sporting leopard-print active wear, as she highlighted her enviably slim legs and slender frame.

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Bumping along: Rebecca Judd, 33, exposed her baby bump in leopard-print active wear, as she highlighted her enviably slim legs and slender frame in a snap shared to Instagram on Sunday

'Front view woah,' she captioned one post shared with her 513,000 followers.

The close-up shot featured the lifestyle entrepreneur, who is 26 weeks pregnant, sitting cross-legged on the floor with her left hand caressing her blossoming baby bump.

Wearing blue leopard-print leggings and a crop top from her own label Jaggad, her slender physique was on full display.

Striking a pose: An action shot saw the petite star facing her back to the camera, again highlighting her enviably trim figure

Just minutes earlier, the wife of former AFL player Chris Judd gave fans another look at the new leopard-print range.

The action shot saw the petite star striking a running pose while facing her back to the camera.

Sporting a radiant pregnancy glow, Rebecca swept her signature tousled tresses into a loose up-do.

Covering up: The popular personality subtly covered up her baby bump in a white knit jumper at a Jaguar launch in Melbourne on Thursday evening

Keeping up with her media commitments, Rebecca was seen on Thursday night attending the Jaguar launch in Melbourne.

Covering her bump, the beauty ambassador beamed in a white turtleneck jumper paired with denim trousers and a military themed blazer with gold embellishments.

'Launching the #jaguarfpaceSUV at @melbcityjaguar for @jaguaraustralia,' she captioned the picture.

Early arrival: The beauty ambassador confessed in an interview with Mamamia that she could give birth from as early as 28 weeks

The post comes days after the Channel Nine star signed off on maternity leave.

The weather presenter admitted she had been busy preparing for the possibility of a premature birth.

Speaking with Mamamia at the launch of the Skin Care Company, the Postcards star said her obstetrician had warned her to be ready for the arrival of her new babies from as early as 28 weeks.

So given it's one placenta, the placenta can say, I've had enough. I'm packing it in,' Rebecca told the online publication.

Putting her best foot forward: The brunette beauty kicked up her fancy heels for a snap shared to Instagram

Preparation: The wife of former AFL player Chris Judd looked flawless in an off-the-shoulder pastel pink frock

Despite the warnings, Rebecca said she was hoping to carry her twins to the 34th week mark.

Im going to put my feet up and stay horizontal and try and get these babies through to 34 weeks. 36 weeks would be ideal All I can do is close my legs and hope for the best, she concluded.

Rebecca is also a mother to four-year-old Oscar and two-year-old Billie.
He's been removed from the Celebrity Big Brother house for making a string of controversial statements.

And Christopher Biggins, 67, could be set to miss out altogether on his 150,000 appearance fee, according to a report by the Daily Star.

A source told the publication: 'The contract states there is no obligation to pay housemates if they are ejected for breaking rules.

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A heavy price to pay: Christopher Biggins, 67, could be set to miss out on his 150,000 Celebrity Big Brother appearance fee after being kicked off the show, according to reports

'Producers made it clear to Biggins before he went in and during his time in the house what was considered appropriate behaviour and what the rules are.'

MailOnline has contacted a representative for Big Brother and Biggins and is awaiting a reply.

While another insider told the paper: 'We really could have seen the death of a national treasure here. Biggins has always been refreshingly honest, but theres a difference between that and being offensive.'

Biggins apologised and admitted he was 'very sad' upon being kicked out of the Celebrity Big Brother house in scenes aired on Saturday night.

Evicted: Biggins apologised and admitted he was 'very sad' upon being kicked out of the Celebrity Big Brother house

The entertainer was booted out for his continuous use of offensive language, culminating in a conversation with Renee Graziano in which he blamed the spread of HIV on bisexuals.

Speaking in the bedroom on Saturday night's show, Biggins said: 'Gays had been really badly treated and suddenly there became a period where gay people were respected.

'And then a killer disease came that was attributed to homosexuals. I think it was a bisexual disease, if I'm honest.'

'What the government didn't realise is that there were bisexuals out there who were having sex with those people.

'They then brought it back to their families over here and in America. That's how it became a worldwide disease. Whoever investigated AIDS f***ked up big time.'

Meanwhile, Renee claimed HIV was a man-made disease created to control the population of third world countries.

Split opinion: Fans flocked to Twitter to comment on Biggins' shock departure

Ignorant, not nasty: One user thought Biggins didn't mean to offend with his comments

What about the others? Another user questioned why Bear and Aubrey were allowed to remain

Unhappy: Lisa Jones was offended that Biggins was removed and not Aubrey and Bear

She said: 'They gave it to kill off third world countries. It was man-made, according to this man who worked for the CIA. He used to come by our house, and he told us this story that it was to be for third world countries to make them smaller and get rid of them, and then it started coming over here.'

Big Brother summoned Biggins to the diary room and highlighted his previous disparaging comments about the bisexual community, as well as offensive remarks about the Jewish community made in front of Katie Waissel.

When asked for his thoughts, the star forlornly said: 'I'm very sorry, and I'm very sad,' before being asked to leave immediately.

He has subsequently tweeted his followers a message of thanks for their support.

On Saturday night, he wrote: 'I would like to thank all my Twitter supporters for their kindness and support, which I shall always wear. Love you all, mean it!!!!!!!'

Grateful: He has subsequently tweeted his followers a message of thanks for their support

Controversial: Biggins was booted out for his continuous use of offensive language, culminating in a conversation in which he blamed the spread of HIV on bisexuals

Housemates were gathered in the sitting area and told of his departure.

The news came as a shock, with the majority stunned and left questioning what had happened.

Distraught Sam Fox said: 'I cant believe it, Im upset.'

With Ricky adding: 'This is not right.'

Not everyone was as upset though. Stephen Bear greeted the news with a crude, 'who gives a f**k?'

Bold claims: Meanwhile, Renee claimed HIV was a man-made disease created to control the population of third world countries

Viewers flocked to Twitter to have their say on the controversy, and opinion was split on whether Biggins should have got the boot.

One user wrote: 'Biggins did all kinds of wrong there but I've seen MUCH worse from past and current housemates who didn't get evicted #cbb'

While another posted: 'It sounds more like Biggins is just SADLY uneducated about AIDS, etc. He wasn't trying to be offensive, he's just ignorant. #CBB #CBBUK'

A third said: 'Biggins comments were DISGUSTING, glad he was removed! But what Bear & Aubrey did was just as bad! Why are they still there? @bbuk #CBB x'

Shocked: Housemates were gathered in the sitting area and told of his departure

Despite being a favourite to win, a statement circulated by the Channel 5 show producers announced the TV presenter had left the house, just a few hours after the first live eviction on Friday night.

Biggins reportedly made a remark about Nazi extermination camps earlier this week, in scenes that were not aired.

The comment was reportedly made in front of Jewish housemate Katie Waissel, with the former X Factor star reportedly 'reduced to tears while other housemates looked on in shock.'

Joke: The Daily Star have reported that producers decided to remove Biggins from the house after he made a remark about Nazi extermination camps earlier this week, which was not aired

Biggins was later called to the diary room and given a formal warning  and told he could be sent home, with producers removing him from the house on Thursday.

The report states that 'the joke is too insensitive to repeat,' while Channel 5 declined to make any further comment, refusing to deny that the joke was made.

Later, transcripts on the internet appeared to repeat the words of his comments, though CBB representatives made it clear that they were 100 per cent fake.

It's over: Despite being a favourite to win, a statement circulated on Friday evening announced the 67-year-old TV presenter has left the house in disgrace

A Channel 5 spokesperson confirmed to MailOnline: 'We can confirm that a transcript claiming to relate to Christopher Biggins' removal from the CBB house is 100% fake.'

Christopher was originally reported to have been removed for making 'offensive comments.'

The statement from Channel 5 read: 'Big Brother has taken the decision to remove Christopher Biggins from the Celebrity Big Brother house.

'Since entering Big Brother, he has made a number of comments capable of causing great offence to housemates and the viewing public.

Housemate: It's claimed Biggins made the joke in front of Jewish housemate Katie Waissel

'Big Brother does not tolerate offensive language capable of causing widespread offence. Christopher Biggins has left the house.'

Later, a statement from his agent Jonathan Shalit OBE, told the MailOnline: 'I have been close friends and worked with Biggins for many years and can confirm that he would never intentionally cause offence

'If something was said in jest which caused offence then I am certain that was not his intention. Biggins is a much loved and wonderful man.'

Reports online: One tweeter wrote: 'Christopher Biggins kicked out of #CBBUK for Concentration Camp joke? Wow. ???? I did NAZI that coming! ???????????? #CBB @bbspy'

At the beginning of the week the entertainer ruffled a few feathers during a conversation about bisexuality with housemate Rene Graziano.

Biggins was seen questioning Renee about her feelings towards gay people, with the Mob Wives cast member responding: 'It's beautiful it's who you are and I think it's natural, but I think today in society, I think they kind of force things on people and confuse you.'

Biggins replied: 'I think the worst type though, I'm afraid to say, is the bisexuals.'

And as Renee went further, adding that bisexuality 'upsets' her, Biggins continued: 'What it is, is people not wanting to admit they're gay be honest, that's what you've got to be.'

Renee then responded: 'You can pick any one you want! But you have to pick a team.'

Frankie Grande, who is gay, agreed with the duo.

Tense: At the beginning of the week the entertainer ruffled a few feathers during a conversation about bisexuality with housemate Rene Graziano

Biggins' comments sparked outrage on social media at the time, with one viewer tweeting: 'Disgusted at the attitudes of Renee and Biggins towards bisexuality.'

Another added: 'Honestly big brother should pull up Biggins and renee for their biphobia, they would be pulled up if it was homophobia or racism.'

Following news of Biggins being removed from the house, Twitter reacted angrily, questioning why Biggins' housemate Stephen Bear, who smashed a mirror in the house on Thursday night's episode, was allowed to stay in.

Mixed reaction: However following news of Biggins being removed from the house, Twitter reacted angrily, questioning why Bear was allowed to stay in

'So Biggins has been removed.. Yet they decide to keep Bear when he trashed the house', one user wrote.

'If Biggins has been removed for anything then Bear the intimidating, nasty, threatening, violent bully should definitely go,' another tweeted.

'Biggins must have said something extremely offensive to have been removed from the Big Brother house after Bear was allowed to stay', another concluded.
Millie Bobby Brown, pictured, 12, is making a quite a name for herself on Netflix show Stranger Things

It has become the word-of-mouth hit of the summer. Netflixs supernatural TV drama Stranger Things is so addictive, even Hollywood giant Steven Spielberg has hailed it as the best show of the year.

Even more remarkable is the extraordinary sacrifice made by the family of the 12-year-old British newcomer who has outshone Hollywood star Winona Ryder to become the sensation of the series.

Schoolgirl Millie Bobby Brown has, according to the industry bible Variety, the kind of presence some actors take a lifetime to acquire. She is about to be cast in a lot of projects.

Some fans are so besotted with her character Eleven they are having her name tattooed on their arms.

Others are dressing as her character  an orphan with telekinetic superpowers  to watch the series at Stranger Things pyjama parties.

But, even aged just 12, hers is far from an overnight success story.

In her first ever interview, Millie reveals the remarkable faith her family have shown in her talent, which has seen them pushed to the brink of bankruptcy.

It was very hard, she says. There were lots of tears along the way.

Millies parents sold everything to move to Hollywood to help the youngster fulfil her dreams.

She quickly gained bit parts in NCIS, Modern Family and Greys Anatomy, but while she made the shortlist for huge projects including Spielbergs recent film The BFG, she kept missing out on the starring roles.

Things were so tight, Millies British-born manager Melanie Greene lent the family money to help them survive.

My older sister left. She didnt want to do it [America] any more, Millie says. It was tears, tears, tears. We went through tough times.

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Millie, second left, pictured with her family (from left brother Charley, father Robert, mother Kelly holding baby sister Ava and sister Paige) revealed her family 'went broke' supporting her acting dream

But she finally got her break as the enigmatic 'Eleven' in Stranger Things, pictured

Last summer, the family admitted defeat when their money ran out.

They moved back to the UK so broke they had to stay with an aunt. I was devastated. I wasnt getting work. I thought I was done, says Millie.

Back in England, she hit her lowest ebb after an unpleasant experience with a casting agent: She said I was too mature and grown up. She made me cry. Later that day, she auditioned for Stranger Things.

I had to cry in the audition. My emotions were so raw, I hit it out of the park.

Within weeks, the family were on a plane back to the US, where Millie filmed in Atlanta late last year. The show has transformed her life.

Its crazy, Millie says sitting in a five-star hotel in Los Angeles where she is being bombarded with film and TV offers.

I never in my wildest dreams thought this would happen.

Stranger Things is a dark story which centres on the disappearance of a small boy who vanishes into thin air.

Millie, left, said she grew close to co-star Winona Ryder, right, who was 'protective' of her

Her character in the show, right, has special abilities after being the test subject for a Government experiment

Millie, centre with some of her fellow cast members, has grown up in Spain, Bournemouth, Florida

It features secret Government experiments, mysterious forces from another dimension and a strange girl  Millies character  with telekinetic powers.

In person, Millie is funny, confident, but undoubtedly still a child. Her legs are covered with bruises from a recent trip to a water park.

She is third of four children born to Robert, an estate agent and wife Kelly.

Her older sister Paige, 23, works for the Nationwide building society and she has a brother Charlie, 18, and younger sister Ava, four.

Kelly found out she was pregnant with Millie in 2003, just before the family relocated to Spain, where Roberts parents ran a restaurant.

From the start, Millie  born in Marbella in 2004  was different.

Her father recalls: My other children would watch cartoons, but Mill watched musicals  Chicago, Moulin Rouge, Annie and Bugsy Malone. Shed belt out a tune. She was performing from day one.

When Millie was four, the family moved back to the UK. She attended Pokesdown Community Primary School in Bournemouth.

I did a lot of school plays. I was a drama queen, she says.

At eight, her family moved again, this time to Florida to launch a tooth-whitening business.

Millie says: I was annoying my father one Saturday and he said: We need to find you something fun to do.

Millie, left and right, revealed she got into acting properly in Florida when her father suggested she find 'something fun to do'

So she was enrolled in a weekend stage school: It was acting, dancing, singing four hours every Saturday. There was a showcase and an agent said she wanted to represent me.

When the agent said they needed to move to Hollywood, the family headed west in an extraordinary act of faith.

Robert had a friend who engineered an introduction to Greene who immediately spotted her talent. Shes a natural, she says.

On the set of Stranger Things, co-star Winona Ryder was a friend and mentor. Millie points to a pretty ring on her middle finger: Winona gave me this. Its an Irish wedding band for loyalty, love and friendship. She was protective.

Wed eat cheese and crackers in her trailer because shes like a mouse, shes always eating cheese. Were very close.

Millie has been inundated with offers of work and a second series of Stranger Things seems likely, but  even after all the family sacrifices  her father says hes determined to keep her feet on the ground.
Her partner Tim Robards revealed earlier this week, that he's often faced with the seemingly never-ending question, 'when are you getting engaged?'

And despite the former Bachelor star admitting to Daily Mail Australia that he's feeling the pressure to propose, his girlfriend Anna Heinrich looked happy and content in an Instagram post on Sunday.

The 29-year-old lawyer shared a snap ahead of a hen's night on Saturday, that saw her beaming for the camera while donning a chic blue ensemble.

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Picture of content: Anna Heinrich, 29, was beaming with happiness in her latest Instagram post shared on Sunday

'Weekend shenanigans,' Anna captioned the post alongside the hashtags #SaturdayHens and #weekendlove.

The snap, which was shared with her 237,000 Instagram followers, showed the petite star sporting an elegant high-neck frock in a deep blue hue from the label Keepsake.

While flashing her pearly whites and showcasing her bronzed glow for the camera, she playfully ran one hand through her signature blonde locks.

Complementing her elegant look, the former reality star opted for defined brows, a subtle smoky eye, a touch of highlighter on the apple of her cheeks and a nude lip.

Happy as they are: The post comes after her partner, former The Bachelor Tim Robards, 33, revealed to Daily Mail Australia that he feels constant pressure to propose

The post comes just days after her partner Tim Robards revealed exclusively to Daily Mail Australia at a Versace fragrance launch in Sydney on Tuesday, that he does feel constant pressure to propose.

'With Anna and I, there's lots of pressure...every photo we put up together, people are like 'when are you getting engaged?' he said.

The Sydney-based chiropractor went on to explain that while they're open to the possibility of tying the knot, it will happen on their own terms.

'If you want it to be long-lasting, don't do what everyone expects you to do and drop to one knee too fast  do what feels right for you,' he said.

A lot of pressure: 'With Anna and I, there's lots of pressure...every photo we put up together, people are like 'when are you getting engaged?' he shared with Daily Mail Australia

Candid: Tim also shared that 'if you want it to be long-lasting, don't do what everyone expects you to do and drop to one knee too fast  do what feels right for you'

'Having so many people invested in the relationship and having eyes always watching you at least makes you be the best version of yourself.

'It's nice that people care and want to see us get engaged, but whenever I see a comment like that I blank over it.'

He also offered some words of wisdom for season four Bachelor Richie Strahan, who is currently on a mission to find his own perfect match.

The Perth-based rope access technician is still working his way through the elimination process, which is a complex procedure that Tim is all too familiar with.

Perspective: The hunky star revealed that 'having so many people invested in the relationship and having eyes always watching you at least makes you be the best version of yourself'

Words of wisdom: The Sydney-based chiropractor offered advice for season four Bachelor Richie Strahan, who is currently on a mission to find his own perfect match

My grandma always told me to be true to yourself,' he said.

'I was really lucky because the chances of you finding a life partner in 20-something girls is pretty slim, so I hope there is someone in there that is one for him.

'Be really open and honest with each other, just like a normal relationship. Just keep it real.'

Tim and Anna first met on TV screens across Australia in 2013.

Their blossoming romance is often documented on social media, with images of their globe-trotting jaunts around the world and romantic dinners.
Arnold Schwarzenegger had a shopping date with his girlfriend Heather Milligan on Saturday.

Smiling broadly, the former governor of California, 69, looked relaxed and in good spirits as he and Heather, 41, took in downtown Vancouver's shopping scene.

While Heather looked stylish and chic in her camel blazer, it was certainly hard to miss Arnold's impeccably and famously buff shape.

Shop til you drop! Arnold Schwarzenegger had a shopping date with his girlfriend Heather Milligan in Vancouver on Saturday

Arnold clearly works hard to maintain his sculpted figure, and the outfit he sported highlighted all the results of his training.

The Terminator actor donned a sky blue polo top, camouflage print shorts, and leather shoes.

Hair slicked back, Arnold looked sharp as he strolled ahead in his aviator shades.

Heather, meanwhile, hit a fashion high note in her neutral yet sophisticated ensemble.

Buff: Arnold clearly works hard to maintain his sculpted figure, and the outfit he sported highlighted all the results of his training

Upbeat: Smiling, the former governor of California, 69, looked relaxed and in good spirits as he and Heather took in downtown Vancouver's shopping scene

She had her dark blonde hair slicked back into a no-fuss ponytail as she stepped out in a light violet shirt and white trousers.

Heather, a physical therapist, finished off the look with a pair of beaded taupe flats.

Arnold clearly has great taste - the former body builder was also spotted taking Prada by storm.

Simply sophisticated: Heather, meanwhile, hit a fashion high note in her neutral yet sophisticated ensemble

Stepping out: She kept it comfortable with a pair of beaded taupe flats

The actor browsed through the various designer goods at the store, checking out several shoes.

Arnold and Heather have been dating for several years now.

Arnold and Maria Shriver ended their marriage in May 2011 after it was revealed he had fathered a child, named Joseph, 19, with the couple's house keeper Mildred Baena.

Meanwhile: Arnold and Heather have been dating for several years now

The Terminator star was not aware Joseph was his son until seven or eight years after he was born.

In their 25 year marriage, Shriver and Schwarzenegger welcomed four children - Katherine, 26, Christina, 25, Patrick, 22, and Christopher, 18.

The former couple have yet to officially divorce.

Eye for luxury: Arnold clearly has great taste - the former body builder was also spotted taking Prada by storm
She was born more than three decades after the legendary Hollywood icon.

But on Friday, Courtney Stodden, who has made little secret of her admiration for Marilyn Monroe, visited the screen siren's grave on the 54-year anniversary of her death.

The 21-year-old reality star also penned a heartfelt letter to the Gentlemen Prefer Blondes star which she shared on Instagram.

Paid tribute: On Friday, Courtney Stodden visited the grave of Marilyn Monroe - which marked 54 years since her death

The Celebrity Big Brother contestant showcased her svelte figure in a plunging white mini dress while paying tribute at the grave site at Westwood Village Memorial Park.

She nearly spilled out of the skintight frock which she paired with taupe Christian Louboutin stilettos.

In one hand, the blonde bombshell carried a handful of beautiful white roses, and in the other, the handwritten note she also shared on Instagram.

Honoured: The 21-year-old reality star channeled her inner Gentlemen Prefer Blondes star as she left white roses and a handwritten note at the Hollywood legend's grave

'If I could wish you a star and make my dream come true, it would be that you and I could've met one day,' the tearjerker began.

She wrote, in part, 'If I could bring you back for just one day, I'd tell you how much you're missed.'

'You'd tell me stories of how you were married at the tender age of 16 too, made love & experienced bitter losses,' the infamous 'child bride' continued.

'I wish you and I could've met one day': Stodden penned a heartfelt letter to Marilyn Monroe on the anniversary of her death which she shared on Instagram

Stodden married Doug Hutchison in 2011 - when she was 16 and he was 50.

Monroe also married at 16 to her neighbors' son, Jim Dougherty, in a bid to avoid having to go into an orphanage when her guardians moved away.

The model added: 'This world can be cold & cruel but in my saddest moments, I think of you & suddenly I'm filled with your light - your beautiful light!

'You'd tell me stories of how you were married at the tender age of 16 too': The Celebrity Big Brother contestant married Doug Hutchison in 2011 - when she was 16 and he was 50 - the same age as when Monroe was first married

1950s sex symbol: Monroe was 36 when she passed away in 1962

'It gives me the strength and determination to carry on... no matter what. So thank you, Norma Jeane.'

She concluded the note: 'You're in my heart and my very nature. Maybe one day, my wish will come true and we'll meet, in another lifetime... in another place.'

Stodden is currently recuperating at home after suffering a tragic miscarriage last month.

It would have been her first child with Hutchison.
Proud mom Kim Kardashian couldn't resist sharing an extra precious new video of her son Saint West giggling infectiously during playtime on Friday.

The video begins with eight-month-old Saint, laying flat on his back, as his mother, 35, reached over to tap his mouth with a soft plush toy.

All it took was the sight of the toy and Kim's playful noise to make Saint instantly light up and laugh enthusiastically.

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In stitches! Proud mom Kim Kardashian continued to delight her fans Saturday by sharing an extra precious new video of her son Saint West giggling infectiously during playtime

Clad in a white onesie, the tot smiled as he rolled over on his side as his mother continued to play with him.

The reality star giggled too, as her son's laughter continued to erupt.

The video was captioned with three playful emoticons, including an angelic one.

Kim and her husband Kanye West welcomed baby Saint in December 2015.

Proud mama! Kim, pictured at the #BlogHer16 Experts Among Us conference in Los Angeles on Friday, and her husband Kanye West welcomed baby Saint in December 2015

So sweet: The precious tot couldn't contain his laughter at the sight of the toy

He is their first son, but second child - the couple are also parents to three-year-old daughter North West.

Kim recently revealed why she had chosen to shelter her children as she spoke at the BlogHer conference in Los Angeles on Friday - saying it had even led some to speculate that her baby was 'faked'.

'If you don't share something, it's like it doesn't exist,' explained the social media addict.

Just look at that smile! The eight-month-old instantly lit up at the sight of the toy

Precious: The youngster is Kim and Kanye West's first son, but their second child

'I wasn't posting about my son [born in December] because I want him to go to the park like every normal human being. But some people thought I had a full fake baby because I wasn't posting.'

And while Kim puts everything 'out there' - from naked full frontal images, to her musings on daily life - she pays close attention to what she reveals about her young children.

'I'm protective of my life with my kids,' she explained to Elisa Camahort Page during the Experts Among Us Conference.

Precious: The video begins with Saint gazing up towards the camera

Aww: Clad in a white onesie, the tot smiled as he rolled over on his side as his mother continued to play with him

'You might see them on the show a bit, but not real stories.'

Meanwhile Saint's auntie Khloe was having less fun after the air conditioner in her room broke down.

'Okay so the f*cking fan went out in my room and nobody is coming to fix it until Monday,' she complained in a Snapchat vid.

'So I had to buy a fan and I had no idea it came in 4million pieces,' she continued, panning around the contents of the flat-packed contraption.

'Like, seriously? It's too hot for this whole thing right now. Jesus!' she moaned, revealing it was 83 degrees in her room.

First world problems: Meanwhile Saint's auntie Khloe was having less fun after the air conditioner in her room broke down
She's a Victoria's Secret newcomer and crowned an Angel in 2015.

And on Saturday, Romee Strijd proved her photogenic prowess as she stepped out in New York looking effortlessly gorgeous.

The 21-year-old sizzled in a sheer off-white tank top and no bra, posing on a Manhattan sidewalk with her boyfriend and fellow Netherlander Laurens van Leeuwen.

Shining through: Romee Strijd was photographed strolling in New York on Saturday while wearing a sheer off-white crop top

Swanky couple: She was accompanied by her boyfriend, Dutch business consultant Laurens van Leeuwen

The catwalk mainstay's practically airtight Reformation crop top allowed her to flash her showstopping abs.

The Dutch Vogue cover girl let her blonde hair fall over the rumpled olive green shirt she threw over the outfit. Impossibly skinny jeans hugged her needle-like legs.

She accessorised her ensemble with a black Chanel purse, green aviator shades and a light grey Urban Outfitters bandanna tied about her neck in an ascot knot.

Bombshell: The catwalk mainstay became a Victoria's Secret Angel in 2015

The Zoetermeer native's boyfriend looked like exactly the sort of 'business consultant' a model would date, cutting a suave figure in head-to-toe black.

His hair in a perfect pompadour, he wore a collarless black shirt that hinted at the well-built torso he has a habit of showing off in shirtless Instagram photos.

Pairing the shirt with black jeans, the Amsterdammer heightened his Continental look with black loafers and no socks as he held his girlfriend's hand.

Rising star: The 21-year-old has covered Vogue in her native Netherlands
Izabel Goulart has been turning heads the moment she touched down in her native Brazil for the Rio Olympics.

The 31-year-old model stopped traffic while strolling through the city's affluent Ipanema neighbourhood with a friend on Saturday.

Izabel exuded appeal in a simple yet sexy black halter maxi-dress that showed off her smooth olive-toned complexion.

Leaving them breathless: Izabel Goulart recalled the lyrics of that famous bossa nova tune The Girl From Ipanema as she strolled through the posh Rio neighbourhood with a pal on Saturday

The dress fluttered around her ankles as she walked in a pair of white T-strap sandals.

Izabel let her waist-length brown locks flow freely down her back from which gleamed hoop earrings.

Her eyes were shaded by a pair tip-tilted sunglasses that gave her a rather feline look.

Rio beauty: The 31-year-old Brazilian beauty looked cool and hip in a black halter dress

Summery style: Izabel wore white T-strap sandals and carried a black leather tote

Traffic stopper: The brunette stunner looked lovely just waiting to cross the street

She carried a large black tote, which may have been a sign that she intended to do some shopping along the way.

On Friday, Izabel had that zeal of appeal as she passed the torch during the Olympics Opening Ceremony.

Izabel, who is representing Brazil as ambassador for this summer's Olympic games, smiled all the way while sprinting with her large flame.

Proud and fiery: Izabel was honored to pass the torch to official start the Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro on Friday

Lasting impression: The model said she is 'thrilled' to be documenting her 'Rio Olympics 2016 experience on Vogue.com.'

For that honor, she was clad in white shorts and matching short-sleeved shirt streaked with yellow.

Later in the day, Izabel stunned in an all-white pantsuit and stilettos while heading to Maracana Stadium for the Opening Ceremony.

Izabel, meanwhile, is 'thrilled' to be documenting her 'Rio Olympics 2016 experience on Vogue.com.'

The 2016 Rio Olympic Games will continue through August 21.
Since welcoming her daughter in 2013, she has wholly embraced motherhood.

And Jodi Anasta looked every inch the joyful mother as she strolled around Sydney's Bondi Beach with two-year-old Aleeia and friend Nikki Phillips on Saturday.

The 31-year old actress put on a stylish display in a trendy activewear-inspired outfit, donning skintight black leggings and a pink patterned bomber jacket.

Like mother like daughter! Jodi Anasta couldn't hide her happiness at spending the day in Bondi with her two-year-old daughter Aleeia

The brunette's toned thighs were on full display in the form-fitting exercise pants, and the brightly-coloured jacket added a fashionable touch to the ensemble.

She was sporting a simple white T-shirt underneath the jacket and it seemed as though there wasn't an inch to pinch across her taut torso.

The single mum, who shares Aleeia with estranged husband Braith Anasta, was positively beaming as she chased after her charismatic daughter and strolled through the beach side suburb.

Looking good: The 31-year-old sported a trendy activewear-inspired outfit - complete with a pretty floral patterned bomber jacket

Model pals: Jodi and Aleeia were joined by close friend Nikki Phillips, who put on an effortlessly chic display in black and white

Keeping her Saturday ensemble simple, she pulled her chocolate brown locks into a neat ponytail.

She also appeared to be wearing a touch of makeup, showing off her glowing complexion while adding a hint of glittering eye shadow.

And she added a pair of circular round shades to cover up.

Aleeia looked like a miniature version of her stunning mother, donning black pants, and a white jumper with a black jacket layered over the top.

Her locks were pulled into a bun atop her head and held in place with a pretty blush-coloured bow.

Fashion pack: The fashionable trio appeared to have coordinated their outfits, donning mostly black, white, and a touch of blush

Dressed to impress: The tiny tot looked cute as a button with a blush-coloured bow in her hair

Apple doesn't fall far from the tree: Jodi beamed at her daughter, who is clearly taking after her stunning mother

Meanwhile, Nikki looked polished to perfection in a black and white ensemble.

She showed off her endless legs in a pair of white jeans and added a luxurious-looking leather jacket for a touch of glamour.

And the model and TV star completed her winter look with a black wide-brimmed hat.

Jodi, who starred on Home And Away as Martha from 2005-2010, recently joined the cast of Australia's other favourite soap - Neighbours.

Strut: Jodi flaunted her toned pins in skin-tight leggings

Dressing up: The doting mother added a trendy pink floral bomber jacket for a fashionable touch

She is set to ruffle some feathers as high school teacher Elly Conway, and it seems as though the actress is already bonding with her Neighbours castmates.

The Queensland-native has shared several photos and videos of herself with Scott McGregor, Olympia Valance and Travis Burns.

Jodi and retired NRL star Braith split in December, after three years of marriage, with the pair announcing they had agreed to a 'temporary separation'.

Loved-up: The stunner shares Aleeia with estranged husband, retired NRL star Braith Anasta

Laid-back: The actress also sported a pair of white sneakers to complete her relaxed Saturday attire

Refined: She pulled her tresses back into a sleek ponytail

The details: And the brunette beauty appeared to be wearing a touch of makeup, highlighting her natural features and stunning complexion

The news came a week after the pair were pictured in a heated argument at a Coogee park.

Jodi and Braith said in a joint statement that they had decided to part ways after facing challenges 'like all married couples.'

'We are going to continue to support each other and remain best of friends, we only want the best for each other and more importantly our amazing daughter Aleeia,' they said.

Playing around: Jodi doted over her charismatic tot throughout their outing

Strolling: Aleeia held on tight to her mother's hand as they walked alongside each other

Busy lady: Jodi, who starred on Home And Away as Martha from 2005-2010, recently joined the cast of Australia's other favourite soap - Neighbours
It's the event where attendees got an inside look into the life of actress Susan Sarandon.

And on Sunday, Dannii Minogue took time off and enjoyed a day out at the leadership lunch alongside Susan in Melbourne.

Upon arrival at the event, the 44-year-old flashed her cleavage as she wore a plunging black jumpsuit.

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Flaunt it: Dannii Minogue flashed her cleavage in a black plunging neckline jumpsuit on Saturday as she attended the Susan Sarandon leadership lunch in Melbourne

The stylish outfit featured short sleeves, which covered her shoulders and a tight elastic belt which tied around her waistline.

Dannii allowed her light brown locks to fall over her shoulders as she wore them out and styled with a wave at the ends.

She kept her makeup simple for the occasion, opting for a plum lipstick and a brush of black mascara.

Doing her justice: The stylish garment featured short sleeves, which covered her shoulders, and a tight elastic belt which tied around her waistline

Simple: The 44-year-old looked flawless as she allowed her light brown locks to fall over her shoulders as she wore them out and styled with a wave at the ends

On trend: Real Housewives Of Melbourne's Pettifleur Berringer showed off her toned torso as she slipped into a black and white striped two-piece ensemble

Real Housewives Of Melbourne's Pettifleur Berringer showed off her toned torso as she slipped into a black and white striped two-piece ensemble.

She paired the crop-top and skirt with a simple white blazer and gold pointed high heels.

With her hair styled in a tight curl, she added a touch of colour with a bold red lipstick before highlighting her eyes with a thick eyeliner and lashes.

Matching: Burns survivor, Turia Pitt, was also in attendance and opted for a red, black and white suit

Fitted: The straight-cut trousers highlighted the author's long legs while she tied up the matching up at the front, giving a glimpse of her torso

Low-key: She wore her brunette tresses loosely and styled in romance curls

Front and centre: The woman of the hour, Susan Sarandon also attended the lunch event in a black knee-length dress

Showing off: The American actress flashed her busty cleavage as she slipped into the garment which featured a V-neckline

Burns survivor, Turia Pitt, was also in attendance and opted for a red, black and white suit.

The straight-cut trousers highlighted the author's long legs while her matching top offered a glimpse of her torso.

She paired the ensemble with black slip-on heels while wearing her brown hair out and over her left shoulder.

The woman of the hour, Susan Sarandon, also attended the luncheon.

Hiding away: Later in the day, she hid underneath a pair of dark shaded sunglasses

Elegant: Businesswoman, Janice Ellis (L) opted for an all-black look at the function, while TV presenter Jo Hall (R) stunned in a blue off-the-shoulder gown

A touch of colour: Radio host Meshel Laurie was also at the event and dressed in a black top and pants as well as a light pink sheer throw-over

Showing up: Entertainment reporter, Richard Wilkins also attended the event dressed in a black suit with a white shirt

The American actress flashed her busty cleavage as she slipped into a black knee-length dress which featured a V-neckline.

The unusual choice of attire gathered around her shoulders and upper arms before blending into her low-cut front.

The 69-year-old styled her shoulder-length locks with a tight curl and opted for a natural makeup look which was finished with a pink glossy lipstick.
Ruby Rose has hit back at critics who have doubted her health issues after she cancelled a string of upcoming shows due to tonsillitis.

Taking to Twitter on Saturday, the 30-year-old Australian actress and DJ told her followers: 'It's upsetting to see people questioning me getting tonsillitis .. And cancelling 2 of 15 shows in a month..Off the back of filming a movie.. (sic).'

The Orange Is The New Black star, who has been filming three new movies, then touched on her busy schedule.

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Speaking out: Ruby Rose has hit back at critics who have doubted her health issues after she cancelled a string of upcoming shows due to tonsillitis

'But I don't party, I've not been to one club except when playing here and I've had a 3 day vacation with childhood friends I flew out.. Where we slept, watched movies and went to the beach.

'I don't drink as everyone knows, I'm run down and got tonsillitis its that simple. x

'Lastly, I trained hard for 3 films and continue to train hard, more than ever in my life.. I'm fit ( well before I got sick ). Thats all (sic).'

Social media posts: Taking to Twitter on Saturday, the 30-year-old Australian actress and DJ told her followers it was 'upsetting to see people questioning me getting tonsillitis'

Indeed Ruby has recently filmed roles in upcoming films xXx: The Return of Xander Cage with Vin Diesel; Resident Evil: The Final Chapter with Milla Jovovich; and John Wick 2 with Keanu Reeves.

Last month, she appeared in a trailer for xXx holding a sniper gun to her face, while she stretches out her long and lean limbs into an attack-ready position.

'Are you ready for this?' the former MTV VJ says in the sneak peek clip.

Clearing it up: The Orange Is The New Black star, who has been filming three new movies, went on to enlighten fans on her busy schedule

Training hard: The Australian model and DJ has been training hard for her roles in the action packed block busters John Wick: Chapter Two and xXx: Return Of Xander Cage

The scene then flicks to the Australian native holding two handguns in either hand as she backs up against fellow actress Deepika Padukone, who is also armed with weapons.

Her other line is 'guns, girls, global domination. Xander Cage is back.'

Meanwhile, the media personality, who has been touring Europe for nearly a month, shared an Instagram snap earlier on Saturday while informing fans of the cancellation of upcoming shows.

On set: Ruby shared this back in February during her first day of filming xXx: Return of Xander Cage with co-star Vin Diesel

She posted the photo of herself standing in a high-end Vondom planter, telling her followers she had tonsillitis and apologised for having to cancel several shows.

'Tonsilitis [sic] and unable to fly because of the pain it's causing my ears,' she wrote alongside a sad face.

'Means no more shows and I have to stay put before returning home.'

Adding: 'Sorry guys. I didn't even know you could get tonsilitis [sic] after like, 16'.

Under the weather: On Saturday she shared this snap and told her followers she had tonsillitis and apologised for having to cancel several shows

Disappointed: Ruby has had to cancel some of her tour dates due to her illness, telling her followers: 'Sorry guys. I didn't even know you could get tonsillitis [sic] after like, 16'

In the photo, Ruby could be seen standing inside what appears to be a large abstract sculpture of a face.

Her toned torso was on full display as she sported only a skimpy bikini top, showing off her taut stomach and bronzed skin.

Many of her extensive collection of tattoos were also visible.

The Orange Is The New Black star has been kicking back between shows with old friends and girlfriend Harley Gusman.

Work and play: The actress and DJ has been playing tour dates throughout Europe and soaking up the Spanish sun with friends and girlfriend Harley Gusman
They're known for their roles on television and social media presence.

But on Sunday, former The Bachelor Tim Robards, 33, and The Project's Carrie Bickmore, 35, lent their name to a worthy cause as ambassadors for Run Australia.

Alongside Celebrity Apprentice star and local beauty queen Tegan Martin, 23, they ran long-distance in Newcastle, raising funds to improve young people's healthcare.

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Running for a cause: Former Celebrity Apprentice star Tegan Martin (left), The Bachelor's Tim Robards (centre) and The Project's Carrie Bickmore (right) posed with kids before the Run Australia event in Newcastle on Sunday

Ahead of the fun run, over six or 12 kilometres, the three media personalities posed for happy snaps, which were posted to social media.

Tim, who grew up in Newcastle, shared a touching message with his 132,000 Instagram followers after the event.

'Well done to my fellow Novocastrians! 2 and a half thousand people turned out this morn for #runNewcastle with 100 % of proceeds going to the John Hunter hospital adolescent ward,' he began the caption.

Proud: Tim, who grew up in Newcastle, shared a touching message of why he got involved, with his 132,000 Instagram followers following the event

'I grew up riding my bike in the bush behind this hospital, lucky to have my health and unaware to the struggles that other teenagers and their families were going through so close to home.

'So great that I can bring a little more comfort and hope to those who find themselves going thru (sic) challenging times @runaustralia,' the Sydney-based chiropractor added.

Support: Carrie took to her own social media account to share a fun snap with Tim as she joked that next time she will master the challenging 12 kilometre distance

Meanwhile, Carrie took to her own social media account to share a series of fun snaps from the morning.

'One of us did 12k one of us did 6k!,' the bubbly blonde joked alongside a photo of herself and Tim in an embrace.

She also added in the hash-tags 'run newcastle' and '12 next year!'

Sweet embrace: The stunning blonde shared another snap as she was seen hugging son Ollie

This isn't the first time that Carrie has used her high-profile to raise awareness of important issues.

The stunning blonde made headlines in May last year when she donned a beanie during her Gold Logie acceptance speech.

Carrie honoured her late husband Greg who passed away from brain cancer in 2010.

Sparking an awareness movement, she started up Carrie's Beanies for Brain Cancer, where proceeds raised from the purchase of each beanie go towards research and prevention of brain cancer.

Inspirational: Sparking an awareness movement, the household name started up Carrie's Beanies for Brain Cancer, where proceeds raised from the purchase of each beanie go towards research and prevention of brain cancer
He regularly shares snippets of family life at home to social media.

But on Sunday, Brendan Fevola decided to share a snap of his latest obsession - his new car.

The 35-year-old ex-AFL player uploaded a photo of himself posing with his thumbs up, leaning over the bonnet of his brand new black Mercedes.

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Loving it: Brendan Fevola took to Instagram on Sunday to share a snap of his brand new Mercedes

His arm, which has been in a sling for over a week now, was still supported by the aid, however he appeared to be in high spirits - no doubt thanks to the shiny car sitting in his driveway.

He captioned the snap: 'Thanks @mbbrighton and @geoff_quirk for my new wheels.'

Adding: 'It's a dream to drive.'

Back on! The 35-year-old ex-AFL star recently proposed again to his ex-wife Alex and the pair seem to be enjoying life as a loved-up couple once again

Brendan, who is now a co-host on Fox 101.9's Fifi, Dave and Fev with Fifi Box and Dave Thornton, is father to three daughters - Leni, Mia and Lulu.

And he recently rekindled his relationship with ex-wife Alex, proposing to her again earlier this year.

During his time on I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! this year, he opened up about his dark days and 'hitting rock bottom'.

Lending a helping hand: Brendan discussed his demons as he appeared on Family Feud All Stars on Monday while encouraging those battling mental illness to 'speak up' and seek help

And on Monday, the media personality continued to discuss his demons while appearing on Family Feud All Stars.

The ex-AFL star said: 'Anyone out there with any issues, make sure you speak up about it because there's a lot of people who are willing to help.'

He continued: 'To people out there that are struggling with mental health or going through some bad times, you can turn it around.

Right direction: He said: 'Anyone out there with any issues make sure you speak up about it because there's a lot of people who are willing to help'

'Sometimes when you're in that position, you don't necessarily think that much is going wrong until you seek help and the hardest thing when you're in that position is to actually speak about it, and confront someone about it.'

Brendan's comments came after he opened up to the show's host Grant Denyer about the reason he opted to go on the reality challenge show, which was filmed in South Africa.

'I've had a bit of a chequered past, so a lot of people read stuff in the paper and I thought it was a great opportunity to go on a show where you work as a team and you're all in there together, and you get to be yourself.'

Challenge: Brendan's comments came after he admitted his time on I'm A Celebrity allowed him to showcase his new self to the public and form close friendships

He recalled: 'I remember speaking to my partner, Alex, and she just said, "Just go in there and be yourself, and if you get voted off they probably still won't like you and then if you last it, you can change some opinions".

'I think that was a perfect opportunity for me to go in there and form some great friendships and just be myself... I fell to rock bottom and sort of came out the other end.'

The personal struggles greatly affected his once-thriving AFL career and led to the end of his one-year marriage to the mother of his children, Alex.

He has since proposed to Alex for the second time and they appear to be enjoying life as a couple once again.

Dark times: In 2011, the ex-AFL star was hospitalised following a string of legal woes, including a 2010 arrest for public drunkeness
Tegan Martin left very little to the imagination on Sunday when sharing a revealing snap on social media.

Taking to Instagram, the 23-year-old former Miss Universe Australia posted a photo of herself in a black swimsuit, with her ample cleavage on show for all to see.

'Nothing much to do after my run this morning but to chill around the pool on this perfect sunny day in my new @skyeandlach_australia glasses. Who is at the beach and where??? #weatherturningup #summercomeatme (sic),' the blonde beauty captioned the image.

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Busty beauty: Tegan Martin left very little to the imagination on Sunday when sharing a revealing snap on social media

It looks like the photo was captured from up above, with Tegan raising her arms to achieve the flattering angle.

She indeed sported a pair of reflective sunglasses, as well as her best accessory of all, her gorgeous smile.

No doubt Tegan had enjoyed making the most of the warm weather, having enjoyed a dip in the pool earlier on.

Beauty queen: Tegan shot to fame after being crowned Miss Universe Australia in 2014

Her golden locks appeared damp, while she exuded a sunkissed glow.

Tegan shot to fame after being crowned Miss Universe Australia in 2014.

Since then she has been a regular fixture on local red carpets, and even made a guest appearance on Channel Seven soap Home And Away.

The beauty split with her ex Angus Hood in November after almost a year of dating, and has remained rather tight-lipped on her love life ever since.
She caused reality TV mayhem earlier this year when she decided to quit Geordie Shore after a bitter fall-out with ex Gary 'Gaz' Beadle.

But Charlotte Crosby proved that her hardcore partying ways are still intact as she enjoyed a night out at the Neighbour Bar and Restaurant in Manchester on Saturday night.

The 26-year-old reality star looked slightly worse for wear as she strutted her stuff in a pair of sexy thigh high boots after partying the night away.

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Party hard! Charlotte Crosby, 26, proved that her hardcore partying ways hadn't changed as she enjoyed a night out at the Neighbour Bar and Restaurant in Manchester on Saturday night

Taking in to consideration Britain's recent warm spell, the star clad her trim figure in an off-the-shoulder beige bodysuit and tiny white shorts.

A choker added an element of edge, while she kept her matching clutch bag close.

With her long blonde locks cascading beside her, Charlotte sported a coy smile on her nude lips while she concentrated on the path ahead with her mascara laden eyes.

The beauty- who recently came under fire for her overly plumped pout on social media- looked tanned to perfection, no doubt a result of her recent Ibiza getaway.

Worse for wear: The former Geordie Shore star looked typically in high spirits as she strutted her stuff in a pair of sexy thigh high boots after partying the night away

Showing off her figure: Taking in to consideration Britain's recent warm spell, the star clad her trim figure in an off-the-shoulder beige bodysuit and tiny white shorts

Details: A choker added an element of edge, while she kept her matching clutch bag close

Mane attraction: Charlotte's long blonde locks cascaded beside her

And despite being in the party city, Charlotte was nowhere near her famous ex Gary 'Gaz' Beadle.

The pair had a famously rocky relationship both on and off the screen, but it all came to a head earlier this year when Charlotte announced she would be quitting Geordie Shore as she couldn't be around her ex anymore.

The announcement came after she revealed she had suffered an ectopic pregnancy whilst he appeared on Ex On The Beach in March and lost their unborn baby.

Gaz decided to stay and continue filming the reality series after hearing the news, but admitted he now doubts his decision.

Happy: She sported a coy smile on her nude lips while she concentrated on the path ahead with her mascara laden eyes

Dramatic change: The beauty recently came under fire for her overly plumped pout on social media

Style outweighs comfort: Her choice of footwear made it difficult for Charlotte to hop in to the taxi

Heading home: She made herself comfortable

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, he explained: 'If shed said Im in the worst pain ever, I cant move Im dying, obviously Id be on the next plane home. But she was like Im okay, dont worry Im fine.

'Maybe I should have gone back. It still hasnt kicked in. I was like s***, if it hadn't happened I would have a kid. Obviously I was devastated.'

When asked whether he would have wanted to have a child with Charlotte, he said: 'I would have loved it, I cant really say now what would have been or what would have happened.'

Despite dating on and off for years, Gaz ruled out any hopes of a reconciliation between the pair as he explained that she needed to 'move on'.

He revealed: 'She said I was worse than a murderer, that to me was the final straw, I dont want to talk to her or about her.

'Its done, Id never get back with Charlotte. It's done and dusted after five years.'

'Shes left Geordie Shore and I think shes dating other people. She needs to move on to the next chapter of her life and I want to do the same.'
She has voiced her excitement about the preparations for her upcoming wedding to her Nine journalist beau Peter Stefanovic.

And Today show newsreader Sylvia Jeffreys stepped out for a spot of shopping in Sydney on Friday - no doubt keeping an eye out for inspiration for the big day.

Sylvia even stopped to inspect a flower stall during her day out in fashionable suburb Double Bay.

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Chic: Today newsreader Sylvia Jeffreys stepped out for a spot of shopping in Sydney on Friday

Wearing a caramel wrap cardigan coat over a striped long-sleeved top, the 30-year-old presenter looked effortlessly chic.

Her diamond engagement ring was clearly visible as she strolled around the markets and shops.

She completed her laid-back look with tight, dark jeans and black loafers. Sylvia also flung a brown handbag over one shoulder.

Stylish: Wearing a caramel wrap cardigan coat over a striped long-sleeved top, the 30-year-old presenter looked effortlessly chic

Fashionable: She completed her laid-back look with tight, dark jeans and black loafers

With her blonde cropped locks styled into a sleek bob, she kept her make-up to a minimum and accessorised with some Ray-Ban sunglasses.

Sylvia was seen browsing in a number of shops and she clearly saw something she liked, as she was later pictured with two large shopping bags.

She announced the exciting news of her engagement to colleague and boyfriend Peter last month.

Sparkler: Her diamond engagement ring was clearly visible as she strolled around the markets and shops

Wedding preparations: Sylvia even stopped to inspect a flower stall during her day out in fashionable suburb Double Bay

The news presenter revealed that Peter got down on one knee in a vineyard in France during a romantic European getaway.

The pair kept the news a secret until towards the end of their trip, where they met up with friends and announced the news on social media.

Sylvia has since revealed she has been working out in the lead up to her wedding day.

Impending nuptials: The newsreader has voiced her excitement about the preparations for her upcoming wedding to her Nine journalist beau Peter Stefanovic impending nuptials

Preparations: Sylvia has since revealed she has been working out in the lead up to her wedding day

Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, the 30-year-old media personality has credited the upcoming City2Surf for placing her into a routine, explaining: 'It's helping me with my wedding training.'

But while she begins to train for the big day, the Channel Nine news reporter explained she and Peter were yet to set a date.

'I don't even know where to start. So we're just enjoying it for the moment,' Sylvia said.
She's grown up alongside one of Britain's most famed party queens.

So no doubt Lottie Moss picked up a few tips from older sister Kate as she enjoyed a night out on the town in London on Saturday.

Despite not leaving Soho's Cirque le Soir until 3am, the 18-year-old model decided to keep the party going by heading to a friend's flat, where she was seen cosying up to a male companion.

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Learned from the best: No doubt Lottie Moss picked up a few tips from party queen and older sister Kate as she enjoyed a night out on the town in London on Saturday

Clad in an off the shoulder black playsuit, the teenager seemed in good spirits as she headed out for the evening, flaunting her enviably long legs.

Nipping in at her small waist, the garment showed off her model figure whilst still remaining demure, but she injected some extra glamour with a pair of patent buckled heels and a Maison Margiela handbag.

Wearing her golden locks loose and tousled, she allowed her stunning good looks to shine through by wearing minimal make-up.

Despite a heavy night out drinking and smoking, the star still managed to look a vision of beauty as she emerged from the nightclub

Afterparty: Despite not leaving Soho's Cirque le Soir until 3am, the 18-year-old model decided to keep the party going by heading to a friend's flat

Model moment: Wearing her golden locks loose and tousled, she allowed her stunning good looks to shine through by wearing minimal make-up

She was joined by Emily Blackwell, who donned a striped sheer vest for the outing.

Opting for a monochrome theme, she slipped her slim pins into a pair of tapered white trousers whilst she added some extra height to her frame in a pair of peep toe black boots.

She finished off the look with a large red clutch bag.

Life's a drag! The pretty teenager was seen heading out for a cigarette before running back into the nightclub to continue the party into the early hours of the morning

Taking the party outside: Lottie seemed in good spirits as she chatted with friends

Leggy lady! Clad in an off the shoulder black playsuit, the teenager seemed in good spirits as she headed out for the evening, flaunting her enviably long legs

What a waist! Nipping in at her small waist, the garment showed off her model figure whilst still remaining demure

Finishing touches: She injected some extra glamour with a pair of patent buckled heels and carried a Maison Margiela handbag

The pair soaked up the party atmosphere at the swanky London club before refusing to call it a night and heading on to a friend's place.

Leaning against the roof railings, Lottie was seen enjoying some more drinks and puffing away on a cigarette before settling down in a deckchair.

Sitting alongside her was a male companion, who reached out to brush her cheek as they chatted together.

Two of a kind: Lottie was joined by Emily Blackwell, who donned a striped sheer vest

Glamorous: Opting for a monochrome theme, she slipped her slim pins into a pair of tapered white trousers whilst she added some extra height to her frame in a pair of black boots

All about the accessories: She finished off the look with a large red clutch bag

Turning heads: The pair had all eyes on them as they enjoyed a night out on the town

Whilst Lottie may be living up to her older sister's reputation in the party stakes, she explained that she feels no pressure to replicate her modelling career.

The teenager was signed to the same agency as her sibling - Storm Models - at the age of 16 but is determined to carve out her own path in life.

Gracing the cover of Vogue earlier this year, she told the prestigious style bible: 'I am who I am and I do what I want, whether that is modelling or anything else. The success of my sister does not affect me in my choices. I feel no pressure in that respect.'

Lottie described 42-year-old Kate as 'simply someone other than me' and added it's 'my turn to tell my own story'.

Still going: The pair soaked up the party atmosphere at the swanky London club before refusing to call it a night and heading on to a friend's place

Ready to party: Leaning against the roof railings, Lottie was seen enjoying some more drinks and puffing away on a cigarette before settling down in a deckchair

Helping hand: The star was escorted into a taxi by a partygoer wearing no shoes

Form a queue: The starlet was sandwiched between her two friends as she attempted to head home in a taxi after their wild night out

Heading home: The pair seemed to have a frosty goodbye as she left
They celebrated their second wedding anniversary earlier this year.

But Nikki Phillips and husband Dane Rumble appear to be loved-up as ever as they cosied up for a sweet snap together while out on Saturday night.

Taking to Instagram on Sunday the 31-year-old model posted a black and white snap of herself cuddling up to her beau captioned: 'Last night shenanigans'.

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'Last night shenanigans': Nikki Phillips and husband Dane Rumble look as loved-up as ever as they cosied up for a sweet snap together while out on Saturday night

Nikki looked elegant in a strapless black gown that featured embellished detailing across the chest.

Highlighting her naturally striking features, her make-up was kept simple with a smokey eye and her golden locks pulled back off her face.

Adding another touch of glamour to her look, the blonde beauty wore a pair of stunning drop earrings and pouted while she leaned in closer to her husband.

Meanwhile, Dane looked dapper in a black suit paired with a polka-dot tie and flashed a cheeky smile for the snap.

Trim and teriffic: Earlier this week the 31-year-old model attended the Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie Australian premiere and showed off her taut tummy in a daring ensemble

Busy lady: The blonde beauty regularly shares her workouts on social media and juggles staying on top of her fitness with her thriving career

Earlier this week Nikki attended the Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie Australian premiere and showed off her taut tummy in a daring ensemble.

She wore a black crop top layered under a chic blazer paired with matching high waisted trousers showcasing her toned figure.

The blonde beauty regularly shares her workouts on social media and juggles staying on top of her fitness with her thriving career.

Lovebirds: The Sydney-based pair announced their engagement in 2013 during a trip to Hong Kong and were married in 2014

Nikki and Dane are no strangers to posting loved up snaps on social media and the couple share two dogs that she refers to as her 'fur kids'.

The Sydney-based pair announced their engagement in 2013 during a trip to Hong Kong.

Nikki married her 32-year-old husband one year later and the pair recently travelled to Bali to celebrate their second wedding anniversary.
He's no stranger to receiving female attention from his legions of lusty fans.

And TOWIE's Pete Wicks proved why he has achieved hunk status as he took centre stage in a brooding shoot for his new calendar in Ibiza.

Working his chiselled features for the camera, the 26-year-old let his trademark chestnut tresses loose as he posed for a number of candid shots in the rugged Spanish terrain.

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Rocking it! Pete Wicks, 26, posed for a number of photos on set of his calendar shoot in Ibiza, Spain

Proving his tough guy status whilst opting to pose on a motorbike, the Essex boy flashed his heavily tattooed arms in a short sleeved black Hawaiian inspired shirt that displayed his muscular physique.

Leaving his top stylish unbuttoned, Pete teamed his shirt with a simple but fresh white T-shirt as he coyly smiled for the camera.

The troublesome star then teamed his fashionable get-up with a pair of ripped skin-tight charcoal grey jeans and a dapper black suede Chelsea boot.

Coy: The TOWIE star coyly smiled for the camera as he struck a number of looks for the shoot

Long locks: Pete left his trademark chestnut tresses loose while he was photographed for his 2017 calendar

Beaming: The 26-year-old smiled as a hairstylist looked after his trademark barnet

Thirsty work: Pete opted for an open Hawaiian inspired shirt with a fresh white tee underneath

New threads: The reality star donned a pair of skin-tight charcoal grey jeans with ripped knees on the shoot

Flaunt it: Pete's short-sleeved shirt displayed his muscular physique and heavily tattooed arms

Commanding attention on the shoot, Pete changed up his look by photographing a number of shots with his locks swept into a man pun to show off his features.

Sporting designer scruff, the reality star brooded as looked at the camera on his motorbike - channelling his inner Justin Bobby of The Hill's fame.

Appearing to have a blast on set, Pete beamed as he waited with crew inbetween shots.

Brooding: Pete tried a number of brooding looks on a motorbike for his calendar shoot

Getting seen to: Pete relaxed in the back of a black people carrier as he got camera ready

Preened: Pete was seen to by a make-up artist who powdered his face while on set

Golden touch: Pete added a gold chain to his dark ensemble

Touch up: Pete made sure he was picture perfect with the help of his make-up artist on set

Hair raising: Pete changed up his hair look during his shoot by throwing it up into a man bun

Give us a look: Pete peered at one of the crew's phones in his handsome look

Meanwhile, the behind-the-scenes photos from Pete's calendar shoot come after he was seen getting into a heated discussion with girlfriend and Ex On The Beach Star Megan McKenna.

The good-looking pair were spotted having a couple's tiff outside the Headley Spice Indian restaurant in Essex last week.

The fiery exchange saw the tattooed hunk flinging his arms around at his love as they stood in the doorway of the Brentwood restaurant.

As the spat continued, the issue between them appeared to dissolve from conflict to one of disappointment, with Pete seemingly imploring with his girlfriend as he held onto her arm more tenderly.

Motoring along: Pete posed for a number of shots on his motorbike in Ibiza

Delighted: The TOWIE bad boy looked in his element as he shot by the sea in Ibiza
He's been married to his beautiful wife Julia Carey for four years.

And James Corden proved he was completely comfortable around the mother of his two children as he cheekily readjusted himself whilst taking her out for lunch on Saturday.

Stepping out at Brentwood County on Saturday, the funnyman seemed in good spirits as he soaked up the sunshine on a stroll to the restaurant.

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Up to scratch: James Corden proved he was completely comfortable around the mother of his two children as he cheekily readjusted himself whilst taking her out for lunch on Saturday

Keeping things casual for the outing he donned a navy T-shirt that he teamed with grey polka dot shorts and white trainers.

Meanwhile, Julia looked effortlessly chic in a black midi dress that showed off her tanned and toned pins.

Sweeping her honey coloured locks back into a chignon bun, the blonde beauty kept her accessories simple with a cross body bag and wayfarer sunglasses.

Loved-up: Stepping out at Brentwood County on Saturday, the funnyman seemed in good spirits as he soaked up the sunshine on a stroll to the restaurant with wife Julia Carey

James and Julia tied the knot in 2012 with a lavish 250,000 ceremony held in Somerset.

The couple have two children - a four-year-old son Max and daughter Carey, two.

Shortly after the birth of their daughter in 2014, the family made a transatlantic move so that James could take over as host of The Late Late Show.

Leggy lady! Julia looked effortlessly chic in a black midi dress that showed off her tanned and toned pins, whilst she swept her honey coloured locks back into a chic chignon bun

The gamble paid off, and after wowing US audiences, he's tipped to have landed himself a primetime programme slot.

A source told the Mail On Sunday: 'James has become one of the most wanted men in Hollywood,' a source said. 'He has been getting all sorts of offers and CBS doesn't want to risk losing him.

'The plan is for a primetime variety show which showcases all his talents. The move will happen sooner rather than later. The talks started last week.'

CBS, which has paid 3 million to extend Corden's contract for two years, declined to comment.
It appears that there is never a dull moment in the life of Carrie Bickmore, 35.

The television personality cut a glamorous figure in a tailored jumpsuit as she host An Evening with Susan Sarandon in Melbourne on Sunday - hours after participating in a six kilometre fun run in Newcastle.

Carrie looked radiant in the stylish number and appeared in high spirits after spending her morning at the charity event as a Run Australia ambassador.

No rest for the wicked! Carrie Bickmore cut a glamorous figure as she hosted An Evening with Susan Sarandon in Melbourne on Sunday, hours after six kilometre fun run in Newcastle

The Gold Logie winning television host showcased her slim figure in the tailored jumpsuit, which featured a delicate lace bodice and a halter neckline.

Her legs were elongated by the slim pant cut of her ensemble and her height was boosted by a pair of black stiletto pumps.

Carrie wore her golden locks in voluminous curls through the lengths and styled into a side part.

Stylish: The 35-year-old Gold Logie winning television host showcased her slim figure in the tailored jumpsuit, which featured a delicate lace bodice and a halter neckline

Leggy lady: Her legs were elongated by the slim pant cut of her ensemble and her height was boosted by a pair of black stiletto pumps

For make-up the mother-of-two went with a dewy glowing base, a subtle smokey eye and a dark nude lip.

Adding a final touch of sparkle to her look, the popular personality donned drop earrings with large black stones.

Carrie was hosting the evening event with American actress Susan Sarandon who treated the crowd to anecdotes about her successful film career and political activism.

Radiant: For make-up the mother-of-two went with a dewy glowing base, a subtle smokey eye and a dark nude lip and looked in high spirits after her morning of running

Taking it in: Carrie posted a sweet snap as she cuddled up with her son Ollie while watching racers run by during the 6 and 12 kilometre fun run event

It was a busy day for the bubbly blonde who spent the morning with the original Bachelor star Tim Robards as they ran long-distance in Newcastle, raising funds to improve young people's healthcare.

Taking to social media she posted snaps from the day and as she cuddled up with the chiropractor captioned the shot: 'One of us did 12k one of us did 6k!' and added in the hash-tags 'run newcastle' and '12 next year!'

She posted another shot from the event, a much sweeter one as she cuddled up with her son Ollie while watching racers run by.
She's never been one to shy away from voicing her opinions especially when it comes to standing up for herself.

And Imogen Anthony fired back at reports 'friends' claims her relationship with shock jock Kyle Sandilands 'may have run it's course' with a cheeky social media video on Sunday.

The 25-year-old posed topless with her 45-year-old boyfriend peering out from behind her while holding on to her breasts and joking that it might not be good for his 'brand'.

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Firing back: Imogen Anthony hit back at reports a 'friend' claims her relationship with shock jock Kyle Sandilands 'may have run it's course' with a cheeky social media video on Sunday

The short video was quickly deleted by Instagram after being reported and shortly after, Imogen uploaded it for a second time but it was again removed.

In the clip she showed off her new dark locks and sported vampy dark plum lips while looking at Kyle as they chatted.

On Saturday Kyle's management denied a report claiming his five-year relationship with social media sensation, Imogen, is on the rocks.

In a statement to Daily Mail Australia, a rep for the shock jock dismissed the report as 'fabricated' and 'rubbish,' after it was claimed friends were concerned that Imogen's raunchy Instagram posts had become all too much for Kyle.

Rubbish: Kyle's management has denied a Daily Telegraph report claiming his five-year relationship with social media sensation, Imogen is on the rocks

'The article is fabricated and rubbish,' a statement read.

'Kyle supports Imogen in everything she does and always has, he loves her and adores her. No "pals and colleagues" of ours would think this, only desperate gossips that want to cause trouble.'

The response comes one day after The Daily Telegraph claimed Kyle's 'closest friends' told him the relationship 'may have run its course.'

They reportedly fear the KIIS 106.5 FM co-host's younger girlfriend 'may have gone off script and (is) no longer projecting an image that is in Sandilands best interests.'

Fabricated: In a statement to Daily Mail Australia, a rep for the shock jock dismissed the report as 'fabricated' and 'rubbish' and said that the pair are happily in love

Racy: The fashion designer recently flaunted her slim figure on social media in bondage-inspired lingerie

Self-described 'loud mouth' Imogen doesn't shy away from posting racy photos on her public Instagram and Snapchat accounts.

The fashion designer even recently flaunted her slim figure on social media in bondage-inspired lingerie.

Imogen has also appeared completely naked on several occasions, barely covering her modesty while posing for the camera.

She's not shy: Imogen has also appeared completely naked on several occasions, barely covering her modesty while posing for the camera

Candid: Meanwhile, Kyle has been quite vocal when sharing graphic details about the his sex life with Imogen on-air

Meanwhile, Kyle has been quite vocal when sharing graphic details about the couple's sex life on-air.

It appears that nothing is off limits as he has even discussed helping Imogen with her feminine hygiene products.

Earlier this year, he told co-host Jackie 'O' Henderson that he got hot and heavy with his girlfriend over the previous weekend.

Despite their 20-year age gap, Kyle and Imogen recently celebrated their five-year anniversary and things appear to be going well for the couple.
She is known for her party-loving lifestyle.

And, to prove it, Hollywood actress Margot Robbie has revealed that Cara Delevingne regularly surpasses her when it comes to earning a wild reputation.

Specifically, the 23-year-old actress - who co-stars with the beauty in Suicide Squad - revealed the catwalk star often sends drunken messages to Prince Harry.

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Naughty - but nice! Margot Robbie has revealed that Cara Delevingne (pictured) regularly surpasses her when it comes to earning a wild reputation - by drunk-texting Prince Harry

Discussing their friendship, Margot shared: 'We just talk about regular girl stuff. She is like 'I've had sex on a plane' and I'll be like 'yeah, but I've had it on a jet ski'.

'And she will then blow me out of the water and tell me she 'drunk texts' Prince Harry. So I'm just like 'okay, you win'.'

The news will come as little surprise for fans of Harry, who has long enjoyed his own wild side - which has included late-night partying in Las Vegas, no less.

He is also a regular at Kensington nightspot Bodo Schloss, while also being a seen frequenting Annabelle's and Bunga Bunga.

Recipient: The news will come as little surprise for fans of Harry, who has long enjoyed his own wild side - which has included late-night partying in Las Vegas, no less

Cheeky: Discussing their friendship, Margot shared: 'We just talk about regular girl stuff. She is like 'I've had sex on a plane' and I'll be like 'yeah, but I've had it on a jet ski'

Late last year, the two women partied with Prince Harry at a bash held by Suki Waterhouse.

The pictures showed the group cosying up in a photobooth, with Harry sporting wacky green glasses while the girls, TV presenter Poppy Jamie and the prince's cousin Princess Eugenie, pulled silly faces for the camera.

The event took place a few days before Christmas so the famous attendees were certainly in the festive spirit as they larked around in the booth.

Good times: Karen Fukuhara, Cara and Margot put the finishing touches on Graffiti artist Ryan Meades' mural ahead of the Suicide Squad film release, this month

Meanwhile, Margot also opened up about the challenge of playing crazed superhero Harley Quinn in the new comic book-based movie.

She told the Daily Star Sunday newspaper: 'Harley's outfit is sexy, but I don't think she is trying to be sexy if that makes sense. She isn't that sort of character. It kind of took me a while to get used to wearing it.

'I don't normally go out in hot-pants and fishnet stockings. We used to eat burger and fries at lunch and I used to think to myself - I am never going to get back into those hot-pants.'

Working girl: Meanwhile, Margot also opened up about the challenge of playing crazed superhero Harley Quinn in the new comic book-based movie
She's a busy movie star.

But family was as usual a number one priority for busy actress and hands-on mother Jennifer Garner on Sunday.

The 44-year-old took her children Samuel, four, Seraphina, seven, and Violet, ten, to church, presumably before heading over to the farmers' market with her son in Santa Monica.

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Quality time! Jennifer Garner headed on over to the farmers' market in Santa Monica with her son Samuel on Sunday

Sporting wet hair, Jennifer wheeled a cart full of their purchases and even had a balloon animal and bag of strawberries on her arm as her son strolled beside her.

Jennifer looked effortlessly chic in her black sweater, clingy grey skirt, and sandals.

She had a pair of sunglasses propped into her wet hair, worn down with a center part.

Little Samuel even offered a helping hand as he carried a small container.

Family first: Garner led her children Samuel and Seraphina to church in Santa Monica

Hitting her stride! Violet donned a summery skirt and light pink top for church

Jennifer was joined by her girls Seraphina and Violet for church.

Rocking a ponytail, Seraphina donned a vibrant grey sweater and a pink and grey dress.

The actress' eldest daughter Violet followed along in a light pink shirt, summery skirt, and sandals.

Jennifer carried a notebook and cell phone in hand as she led her children towards the church.

Helping out! Little Samuel even offered a helping hand as he carried a small container

Shopping haul: Garner smiled as she pulled a cart filled to the brim with items

Samuel, Seraphina, and Violet's father is Jennifer's estranged husband Ben Affleck.

In June of last year, the Miracles From Heaven star and her ex Ben, 43, announced they were divorcing, but have remained friendly, as the two share three children together.

While speaking to the Today how's Natalie Morales, Jennifer admitted that the fivesome are ' definitely a modern family.'

Effortlessly chic! Garner donned a tight grey skirt, black sweater, and sensible sandals as she made her way to church

Earlier this year, Ben was in London to shoot his superhero film, Justice League.

'You know, Ben was working in London on Justice League and I felt like, "Well the kids should have that experience,"' she began.

'And he and I are great friends and we just all went en masse.'

Natalie noted that Jennifer was 'really admirable' for the way she is handling her life putting the children first.

'It has to be. You don't have a choice,' stressed the actress.
US releases redacted drone strike 'playbook'

The US government has released a once-secret policy document dubbed "the playbook" that shows how officials select drone targets in areas outside war zones and the key role the president has in the process.

The 18-page Presidential Policy Guidance (PPG), published Saturday by the American Civil Liberties Union, provides more details than the government had previously revealed on how drone strikes are approved.

"Actions, including lethal action against designated terrorist targets, shall be as discriminating and precise as reasonably possible," the PPG states.

Pakistani residents look at vehicle hit by a drone strike in the remote town of Ahmad Wal in Balochistan, in May 2016

President Barack Obama typically must personally sign off on plans to strike terror suspects who are located outside war zones in which America is officially fighting. Such zones include Pakistan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.

Strikes in combat theaters such as Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan are controlled by the military.

Each case for action is subjected to legal review before it goes to the National Security Council and then the president.

The policy document says that "absent extraordinary circumstances," a drone strike on a high-value target will only be taken if there is "near certainty" no civilians will be killed, and says the United States should respect another nation's sovereignty in weighing drone strikes.

The partially redacted document was released as a result of a lawsuit brought by the ACLU, which has long sparred with the government over America's secretive drone program.

"The PPG provides crucial information about policies that have resulted in the deaths of thousands of people, including hundreds of non-combatants, and about the bureaucracy that the Obama administration has constructed to oversee and implement those policies," ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer said in a statement.

"The release of the PPG and related documents is also a timely reminder of the breadth of the powers that will soon be in the hands of another president," he added.

Justice Department lawyers turned the document over to the ACLU late Friday, and the rights group released it publicly on Saturday.

The Obama administration last month provided fatality estimates for 473 strikes between 2009 and 2015 that were conducted outside principal war zones.

Officials claimed anywhere from 64 to 116 civilians were killed in the strikes, and up to 2,581 combatants -- but critics have constantly said the government underestimates civilian deaths.

National Security Council spokesman Ned Price stressed that the PPG offers protections to civilians that "exceed the requirements of the law of armed conflict."

He added that "near certainty" that the target is present, and that non-combatants will not be killed, was the "highest standard we can set."

"The president has emphasized that the US government should be as transparent as possible with the American people about our counterterrorism operations, the manner in which they are conducted, and their results," Price said in a statement.

"Our counterterrorism actions are effective and legal, and their legitimacy is best demonstrated by making public more information about these actions as well as setting clear standards for other nations to follow."

The PPG also outlines what should be done in the event a suspect is captured, stressing that in "no event" will a detainee brought to Guantanamo Bay -- the US military prison Obama has so far failed to close.
Thai weightlifting champ dedicates Olympic gold to king

Thailand's Sopita Tanasan grabbed the first gold medal of the weightlifting competition at the Rio Games on Saturday and promptly dedicated it to ailing Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

The 21-year-old dominated the women's 48kg, lifting 92kg in the snatch and 108kg in the clean and jerk for a total of 200kg to finish first in weightlifting's lightest category.

"I dedicate the medal to our king. That is the Thai way," Sopita told reporters after she became the fourth women's weightlifter from Thailand to win an Olympic gold medal.

Sopita Tanasan of Thailand poses on the podium with her gold medal after winning the women's weightlifting 48kg competition during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, on August 6 Goh Chai Hin (AFP)

The 88-year-old Thai king is the world's longest-reigning monarch and is widely revered in the country where his frail health is a matter of public concern.

He is confined to a wheelchair and has not been seen or spoken in public for nearly a year. Earlier this week the palace said he was being treated for fever and water on the brain.

Sopita, a regular lifter in the 53kg class, took full advantage of the withdrawal through injury this week of hot Chinese favourite Hou Zhihui to win with ease.

The 5ft 1ins Thai hoisted 8kg more than silver medallist Sri Wahyuni Agustiani of Indonesia, while evergreen Japanese lifter Hiromi Miyake took bronze with a total of 188kg.

Sopita -- who hails from a family of boxers -- was in control throughout at the the 6,000-capacity Riocentro Pavilion 2, and went into the clean and jerk leading by seven kgs.

Her only stumble came when she failed to lift 110kg in her final attempt of the night. That left Agustiani needing to haul 115kg to take first place. The Indonesian had two opportunities but never came close.

"I was surprised that she was going for it but I was still very confident I was going to win," Sopita said afterwards.

"I believed I could do it but it just wasn't meant to be," lamented Agustiani.

Miyake's bronze came after she won silver at London four years ago to become Japan's first ever female medal winner in weightlifting.

The 30-year-old was in tears on Saturday after failing to lift her first two snatch attempts, but she was all smiles later as she squeaked onto the podium by 1kg.

- Doping cloud -

Miyake, whose father won Olympic bronze in weightlifting in 1968 Olympic is competing in her fourth Games and didn't rule out a fifth on home soil at Tokyo 2020.

"It would be a wonderful place here to wrap up my career but I need to go away and think about it very carefully," she said.

The weightlifting started under a cloud of doping after it was reported earlier in the day that Cypriot weightlifter Antonis Martasides had been sent home from the Olympic Games after failing a drugs test.

The Cyprus Mail said on its website that Martasides had tested positive for a banned substance following an out-of-competition test on July 25 in Athens.

Martasides' credential for Rio was revoked following the test.

Weightlifting has long been plagued by doping scandals.

Russia and Bulgaria, both traditional powerhouses, are banned from the weightlifting competition in Rio for repeated doping offences.

The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) also punished North Korea, Romania, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Moldova by reducing their allocation of lifters.

Sopita Tanasan of Thailand celebrates after winning the first gold medal for her country at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, in the women's weightlifting 48kg competition, on August 6 Goh Chai Hin (AFP)
Indian artist creates green version of elephant idol

When Indian artist Dattadri Kothur saw the pollution caused by an annual Hindu tradition of immersing elaborately decorated idols of the elephant-headed god Ganesha in the sea, he decided to do something about it.

The 30-year-old has come up with an environmentally friendly alternative that will make its debut during this year's festival in the western city of Mumbai -- and is already proving a huge hit.

Kothur's "Tree Ganesha" idols are made entirely out of organic materials that will disintegrate when they get wet, and are designed to be watered like a plant rather than immersed in the sea.

Indian artisan Dattadri Kothur creates an eco-friendly clay idol of elephant headed Hindu God Lord Ganesha, at the 'Tree Ganesha' workshop in Mumbai, on August 2, 2016 Indranil Mukherjee (AFP/File)

Once they are dampened, seeds hidden inside them will germinate, creating a lasting memento of the idol.

"After witnessing large-scale water pollution and broken idol parts strewn across Mumbai's Girgaum Chowpatty sea front, I decided to create an organic alternative," Kothur told AFP.

"The response to Tree Ganesha shows people are aware of environmental pollution and want (a) long-term sustainable solution."

Kothur has fulfilled nearly 500 orders and he and his team are hard at work producing another 3,000.

The 11-day celebration that honours Ganesha, the son of Lord Shiva, and goddess Parvati is celebrated with idol worship, music and dancing across India.

Mumbai, India's commercial capital, traditionally hosts some of the largest gatherings.

Millions of devotees gather every September for the ritual immersion of the statues, some 24 feet (seven metres) tall, in the Arabian Sea.

In recent years, activists have sought to raise awareness of the environmental damage that the immersion causes.

The traditional statues are made from clay or plaster and dipped in a white coating before being painted. They disintegrate very slowly, releasing harmful chemicals as they do so.

"With my idols, Ganesha lives on in the form of plants and goes back to nature," said Kothur.
Trump mocks Clinton over 'short-circuit' comment

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump slammed Hillary Clinton as mentally unstable at a Saturday campaign rally, seizing on her admission that she "short-circuited" in comments about her private email use at the State Department.

"The people of this country don't want somebody who's going to short circuit up here," Trump told supporters in New Hampshire.

"She's a dangerous liar," the real estate mogul said of the Democratic former secretary of state. "She is a totally unhinged person. She's unbalanced."

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump slams Hillary Clinton as 'mentally unstable' and a "dangerous liar" Jim Watson (AFP/File)

Trump's supporters chanted "Lock her up!" during the event in the town of Windham, which was broadcast online.

On Friday, Clinton acknowledged she "may have short-circuited" when she tried to clarify statements about her use of a private email server.

The Democrat had told Fox News Sunday that FBI director James Comey said her "answers were truthful" about whether she sent or received classified material via private email. That comment was branded false by Washington-based fact-checkers.

Trump, 70, has embraced her phrasing as a line of attack. On Saturday ahead of his rally in New Hampshire, he posted a campaign ad on his Facebook page that refers to Clinton as "Robot Hillary" -- and shows sparks flying out of her mouth.

"Is Robot Hillary melting down?" the ad asks.

Trump is trying to boost his campaign after a week of missteps that saw his poll numbers drop and the 68-year-old Clinton, a former senator and first lady, seize the momentum.

He reversed course and endorsed House Speaker Paul Ryan for re-election on Friday, pledging to work with Republican Party leaders. Trump also said he would support veteran Republican Senator John McCain, with whom he has sparred in the past.
Egypt wineries struggle to revive derided industry

Men and women harvest Merlot grapes under the scorching sun in one of Egypt's up-and-coming vineyards, as the Muslim-majority desert country strives to win over international wine connoisseurs.

"It's a great story, what we've done with Egyptian wine," said a proud Labib Kallas, as he inspected vines planted in reclaimed desert land north of Cairo on a hot day in July.

For decades a single Egyptian company produced wine that was derided by locals and expatriates alike, but today aficionados say the North African country offers a variety of good white wines.

Egyptian workers harvest grapes at the Kouroum of the Nile Company vinyards and winery in the Karm el-Nada area some 50 kilometres north of Cairo Khaled Desouki (AFP)

The vineyard that Kallas is visiting -- which spans around 170 hectares (420 acres) some 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of the capital -- is just one of several providing grapes to two companies now making wine in Egypt.

Since the early 2000s, Kouroum of the Nile -- where Kallas heads production -- and Domaine de Gianaclis have launched an ambitious quest: to revive the country's wine production by importing grape varieties from France, Italy and also Spain -- Merlot, Syrah, Viognier and Vermentino.

Cairo's upscale restaurants and bars usually stock only Egyptian wine.

In a somewhat conservative society that mostly views alcohol negatively, authorities impose a prohibitive custom tax of 3,000 percent on imported wine.

Originally practised in Egypt under the pharaohs, large-scale winemaking was resurrected under British colonialism, before the industry started declining after the army took over the country in a 1952 coup.

Today a dozen wine varieties of reds, whites and roses are available on the market.

"We've planted a lot of vines. We pay a lot of attention to quality," said Sebastien Boudry, a French winemaker at Domaine de Gianaclis, near Abu al-Matamir, a village in the Nile Delta 170 kilometres northwest of Cairo.

In 2002 the Heineken Group acquired Gianaclis, which had been nationalised in the 1960s.

The climate in Egypt is a challenge to winemakers.

They must account for scorching temperatures and compensate for the almost total absence of rain using sophisticated irrigation systems.

"When it's over 50 degrees, the vines cannot do much beyond surviving -- let alone produce sugars or aromatic substances," said Boudry, who handles 230 hectares of vineyards.

-'Fresh and fruity'-

The efforts appear to have been fruitful, with some local wines grabbing international awards.

They are "qualitatively good, nice and fresh," said Jean-Baptiste Ancelot, founder of Wine Explorers, the world's first inventory of wine-producing countries.

"Not necessarily great wines, but wines of immediate pleasure," said Ancelot, who visited Gianaclis in 2014.

"The whites are the most successful. You can find wines that are both fresh and very fruity -- of the exotic fruit type: peach, pineapple, and a little passion fruit," said the expert.

At Kouroum of the Nile -- who say their grapes and wine are organic -- the pride of the house is the white Beausoleil.

It is the only variety made 100 percent from Egyptian grapes known as Banati, which in 2016 won a silver medal at the international wine contest in Brussels.

The company produces more than two million litres annually: between 700,000 and 800,000 bottles for individuals, with the rest -- more than two thirds -- distributed in bags-in-boxes to Cairo hotels.

But with few tourists coming to Egypt over the past six years amid the bloody crackdown and jihadist attacks that followed the 2011 uprising, the wine industry is struggling to absorb these shocks.

"Tourism accounts for more than 70 percent of production. If the tourists do not return, we will have to look into exporting," said Shaker Nawal, marketing director at Kouroum of the Nile.

But it is difficult to imagine the niche industry competing with Western heavyweights -- or even those in the region such as Lebanon, which produces more than eight million bottles a year and exports a third of its production.

"This will remain a curiosity wine," said Kallas, a Lebanese living in Egypt.

"A Parisian who orders an Egyptian wine at a restaurant rather than French or Spanish wine must have a curious nature."

But he thinks the company's wine can penetrate Asian markets.

As he sat enjoying an Egyptian Omar Khayyam rose with friends by the Nile, Dutch ambassador Gerard Steeghs was optimistic.

When he first arrived in Egypt, he said he was told: "There is the 'headache wine' and there is the wine that is ok. But there is no good wine."

Today "they still have the 'headache wine', but you also have really good wine," he said.

An Egyptian man works on a wine bottling production line at the Al-Ahram brewery in Nile Delta village of Abu al-Matamir Khaled Desouki (AFP)
Traditions endure for Tibetan nomads, but urbanisation looms

Under a twinkling starlit sky, the glow of an electric light is the only sign that a Tibetan nomad's way of life has changed in hundreds of years.

Yaks are still milked using wooden buckets with rope handles, and the animal's waste is dried and burned for fuel -- a necessity at the high altitude where trees are scarce.

But the number of Tibetans maintaining the pastoral lifestyle is dwindling, with the Chinese government pushing to decrease the Tibetan nomad population and move them into resettlement villages, sometimes by force.

The number of Tibetans maintaining a pastoral lifestyle is dwindling, with the Chinese government pushing to move them into resettlement villages Nicolas Asfouri (AFP/File)

Chinese authorities say urbanisation in Tibetan areas and elsewhere will increase industrialisation and economic development, offering former nomads higher living standards and better protecting the environment.

Since 2000, government statistics show that urban residents have leaped by more than half in the Tibet region itself, where officials launched a programme five years ago to establish Communist cadre teams in every locality.

In Qinghai province, much of which is ethnically Tibetan, the urbanisation rate has increased from 40 percent to nearly 50 percent in the past decade, but one Tibetan member of a Communist party committee in the area told AFP that the process was happening "too fast".

Those sentiments highlight the drastic changes since 1951, when Chinese forces occupied Tibet.

While some pastoralists maintain their traditional way of living, the new urban settlements are increasingly taking up land once used for livestock.

"Because of the villages we can't get enough grassland for our yaks," said Jargaringqin, a 31-year-old herder who lives in the mountains of Qinghai, in northwestern China.

He spends the winter in a house while the summer is spent roaming across the grasslands in tents. Yaks give the family milk, butter and cheese and occasionally meat.

Environmental experts say grazing is essential to maintaining the ecology of the grasslands, and with fewer nomadic families more invasive plants are taking hold.

-- This story accompanies a photo essay by Nicolas Asfouri --

A Tibetan nomad herder prepares a yak to be milked in Yushu county in the mountains of Qinghai province, western China, on July 27, 2016 Nicolas Asfouri (AFP/File)

In Qinghai province, much of which is ethnically Tibetan, the urbanisation rate has increased from 40 percent to nearly 50 percent in the past decade Nicolas Asfouri (AFP/File)
Syria army redeploys as rebels battle to retake Aleppo

Syrian regime forces redeployed on Sunday to try to avoid being surrounded in neighbourhoods they control in Aleppo, as a rebel alliance said it was launching a battle to recapture the whole city after breaking a three-week government siege.

The "Army of Conquest", a coalition of rebels and jihadists, said it would "double the number of fighters for this next battle".

"We announce the start of a new phase to liberate all of Aleppo" after a week of continuous fighting, the group said in a statement.

A rebel fighter reloads the magazine of his weapon during clasahes with regime forces in Ramussa on the southwestern edges of Syria's northern city of Aleppo on August 6, 2016 Fadi al-Halabi (AFP)

"We will not rest until we raise the flag of the conquest over Aleppo's citadel," it added.

The group's fighters surged through regime territory on Saturday, breaking a government siege in a major setback for the regime and opening a new route into the northern city's besieged eastern neighbourhoods, home to an estimated 250,000 people.

The operation triggered celebrations in eastern districts and sparked fears in regime-controlled western areas of the divided city of food and fuel shortages.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the rebel action was one of the most significant setbacks for government forces since the conflict erupted in March 2011.

"Despite more than 600 Russian strikes, the regime forces were not able to hold on to their positions," he said.

Steadfast regime ally Moscow has provided air support for forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad since last September.

Official media denied the siege had been broken but implicitly admitted that regime forces were on the defensive, reporting new air raids Sunday and saying that pro-government areas were facing shortages in the country's ravaged second city.

State television said on Sunday: "Our forces have redeployed after absorbing the attack of thousands of mercenaries, and the army has found a new route to allow food and gas in."

The official SANA news agency later quoted a military source as saying that "the air force conducted 21 sorties and struck the terrorists 86 times in south and west Aleppo in the last 12 hours".

An AFP correspondent said air raids bombarded rebel-held areas of Aleppo, with the Britain-based Observatory saying the strikes were carried out by Russian and Syrian aircraft.

The Observatory also reported intermittent clashes on the city's southern edges, where rebels overran buildings in a military academy on Saturday.

- Food trucks enter Aleppo -

Rebel units on Saturday pushed northeast into the Ramussa district where they linked up with other insurgents who had fought from inside the city.

Video footage seen by AFP showed fighters on Sunday evacuating a small group of civilians, mostly women and children, from Ramussa.

Rebels also brought seven pick-up trucks full of fruit and vegetables into the eastern sector of Aleppo which had been under government siege since July 17, an opposition fighter said.

The Observatory's Abdel Rahman said the route into eastern districts was open only to fighters and was still not secure enough to evacuate civilians from the area.

The rebel advance now puts the estimated 1.2 million people in government-held districts under opposition encirclement, he added.

"The western districts of Aleppo are now besieged. There are no safe routes for civilians in government-held districts to use to get into or out of the city," he told AFP.

- Preparing for siege -

Families in western neighbourhoods meanwhile began to stock up on food and water in preparation for a siege but complained about the rising cost of basic supplies.

"Unfortunately, after the road was cut, the price of a loaf of bread immediately shot up from 200 to 800 Syrian pounds," said Walaa Hariri, a 48-year-old mother of three from the Furqan district.

"I sent my sons to school but they are all nervous, and the teachers replaced their regular lessons with courses on what to do if there is shelling," she said.

A man aged 37 who declined to be identified said he had "faith in the army, but I can't help being scared".

"Food is already getting more expensive and the coming days risk being very difficult," he added.

The battle for Aleppo has raged since mid-2012 and is among the fiercest so far in Syria's chaotic multi-front war, which has killed more than 280,000 people since it erupted five years ago.

Pope Francis on Sunday denounced the "unacceptable" number of civilian victims in Aleppo, mentioning in particular the number of children killed in the conflict.

Since the opposition alliance launched its offensive on southern Aleppo on July 31 at least 130 civilians and hundreds of fighters from both sides have been killed, said the Observatory.

On Monday, the UN Security Council is due to hold an informal meeting at 1400 GMT on the Aleppo crisis.

Aleppo: the key battleground in Syria Alain Bommenel, Gillian Handyside, Omar Kamal (AFP)

Rebel fighters fire towards regime forces in Ramussa on the southwestern edges of Syria's northern city of Aleppo, on August 6, 2016 Fadi Al-Halabi (AFP)

Syrian civil defence volunteers, known as the White Helmets, celebrate in a street in the northern city of Aleppo on August 6, 2016 Thaer Mohammed (AFP)
Australian 'patriot' charged with terror offences

An Australian man with reported links to far-right extremist groups was charged on Sunday with planning a terrorist attack after his Melbourne home was raided following police fears of a "specific threat".

The 31-year-old, named in local media as Phillip Galea, appeared in court after he was charged with planning or preparing for a terrorist act and collecting or making documents to facilitate an attack.

Galea told the Melbourne Magistrates' Court he would fight the charges, adding that they were "a conspiracy against the patriot movement".

Anti-Muslim sentiment has mounted in Australia in recent years after a series of attacks by radicalised youth William West (AFP/File)

Police would not confirm if he was a member of the anti-Islam Reclaim Australia group but said he had a "number of affiliations to different organisations".

There were violent clashes between left and right-wing groups over immigration in Australia's second-largest city in May and June, sparking a push by the Victoria state government to boost police powers.

Victoria state premier Daniel Andrews said Sunday there was "no imminent threat" after the weekend police raids but that authorities remained vigilant.

Anti-Muslim sentiment has mounted in Australia in recent years after a series of attacks by radicalised youth, including the killing of a police employee in Sydney in October.

The Joint Counter-Terrorism Team, which took part in the operation on Saturday, has been carrying out a series of raids in various cities amid increasing concern about home-grown extremism.
Aussies hot, US cool in Rio Olympic pool

Mack Horton won his grudge match against China's Sun Yang and Australia's 4x100m free relay women added another gold as records tumbled on day one at the Rio Olympics pool on Saturday.

While it was a triumphant night for Australia, the mighty US team were shut out of the gold -- coming up with three silvers from the four finals.

Horton clocked 3min 41.55sec to hold off a feverish challenge from 2012 gold medallist Sun, who briefly looked to have the Australian beaten on the last lap but had to settle for second in 3:41.68.

Australia's Mack Horton bites his gold medal on the podium after the Men's 400m Freestyle Final, during Rio 2016 Olympic Games, on August 6 Odd Andersen (AFP)

Italy's Gabriele Detti roared home in the final 50 meters to capture bronze in 3:43.49.

Sun, stung after the heats by Horton's attack on his doping record, was left weeping after the race.

Horton, whose mild manner and Harry Potter-style spectacles belie his toughness, said he knew that by calling Sun out he'd put himself on the spot.

"Well that last 50 I was kinda thinking about what I said and was like, if he gets me here it's not going to look great," Horton said.

"So (I) really didn't have a choice but to beat him."

Horton's terse comment that he couldn't respect a drug cheat reverberated at an Olympics that started under the cloud of the Russian doping crisis.

Sun, who served a three-month doping suspension in 2014 which wasn't revealed by Chinese authorities until after the fact, insisted he was being unfairly branded.

"I don't think I need to explain myself any further," he said. "I'm clean and have done what it takes to prove I'm clean... all athletes should be shown respect."

Horton's victory ensured Australia wouldn't suffer their ignominious London fate of failing to earn a single individual gold in the pool.

"Yeah, doesn't get any better really, gold medal on the first night," Horton said.

But things did get better for Australia as Emma McKeon, Brittany Elmslie, Bronte Campbell and individual world record-holder Cate Campbell won the relay in 3:30.65, lowering the world record of 3:30.98 set by an Aussie squad at the Commonwealth Games in 2014.

The US team of Simone Manuel, Abbey Weitzeil, Dana Vollmer and Katie Ledecky took silver in 3:31.89 and Canada were third in 3:32.89.

- 'Iron Lady' hot -

Hungary's "Iron Lady" Katinka Hosszu captured the Olympic gold that has long eluded her with a scintillating world record of 4:26.36 in the women's 400m individual medley.

She sliced 2.07sec off the previous record of 4:28.43 set by China's Ye Shiwen in winning gold in London.

At the 300m mark, Hosszu was move than five seconds under world-record pace.

"I've been chasing that world record for a long time," said Hosszu, who was whisker away from it in the heats. "I knew I could go faster tonight.

"It was just unbelievable I was able to break it by this much," added the 27-year-old, who is entered in four more races.

Far behind her, the battle for second unfolded with American Maya DiRado taking silver in 4:31.15 and Spain's Mireia Belmonte third in 4:32.39.

Japan's Kosuke Hagino ended the US stranglehold on the men's 400m medley gold, holding off American Chase Kalisz with a win in 4:06.05.

Hagino's time made him the third-fastest performer in history behind world record-holder Michael Phelps and 2012 Olympic champion Ryan Lochte.

Neither of those US stars were in action on Saturday, Phelps opting out of the gruelling event he dubbed "swimming's decathlon" and Lochte failing to qualify at the US trials.

Hagino seized the lead from compatriot Daiya Seto on the second, backstroke, leg and never relinquished it. Kalisz pushed past Seto on the breaststroke but didn't have quite enough to get past Hagino on the closing freestyle, taking silver in 4:07.75 to Seto's 4:09.71.

"When I touched, well, I just thought well here we are!" Hagino said. "Still not perfect but I've won the gold and that's a fantastic result."

Briton Adam Peaty couldn't start counting his gold, but made a statement in the first Olympic race of his career with a world record of 57.55 in the 100m breaststroke heats.

Among a lengthy rap sheet the controversial Sun Yang has compiled since his London breakthrough was a three-month doping ban, served in secret two years ago, for taking a banned stimulant he said was for a heart complaint Christophe Simon (AFP)

Australia's Brittany Elmslie, Bronte Campbell, Emma Mckeon and Cate Campbell celebrate after breaking the world record to win the Women's 4x100m Freestyle Relay Final at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, on August 6 Gabriel Bouys (AFP)

Hungary's Katinka Hosszu celebrates after breaking the world record to win the Women's 400m Individual Medley Final, during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, on August 6 Gabriel Bouys (AFP)
Malaysia's dying art: Traditional kite-making in peril

Shafie Jusoh loves traditional Malaysian kites so much that he can't get a good night's rest unless he's been working on them daily.

"I need to make kites everyday, if not I can't sleep," the 69-year-old said. He began making them when he was a young boy, skipping classes to entertain his flights of fancy.

"If you don't do it everyday, you will lose the technique," he added.

Kitemaker Shafie Jusoh launches a traditional 'wau bulan' kite at Pantai Geting Beach, on the outskirts of Tumpat, peninsular Malaysia's north-eastern Kelantan state Mohd Rasfan (AFP)

Shafie is among a diminishing group of Malaysian master kite-makers who have dedicated their lives to breathing life into the ancient craft.

A colourful giant two-metre kite with extended wings greets visitors at the entrance of Shafie's dark and dusty studio in a sleepy village in Kelantan state.

"I made this kite 30 years ago. You need 25 men to fly it," the self-taught kite-maker quipped proudly as he showed a faded photo of it soaring in the air.

A wooden table at his studio is lined with several awards from government agencies for his efforts promoting Malaysia's kites, a national symbol, worldwide.

He recalled one particular visit to Paris many years ago, where he had brought over 30 Malaysian kites to an exhibition and all were sold quickly.

"To the foreigners, the kites are just so unique and they love it" he said.

- Passion and patience -

The early morning rays stream through a rickety green window, dancing on the thick veins on his arm as he flips and turns his knife, cutting a spiny bamboo stick to perfection.

After thinning out several bamboo sticks, he bends and ties them with strings to form the main kite frame.

Separately, using a small knife, he cuts out intricate floral designs on an assortment of coloured paper. These are painstakingly pasted onto tracing paper which is then glued to the main bamboo frame.

The kite is then left indoors for a day to let the glue dry.

A ribbon is attached tightly to two ends of the kites and this produces a loud "swoosh" sound when the kite makes sharp turns in the sky.

The entire process can take between two weeks to three months depending on the size and the intricate nature of the kite.

"You need both the passion and the patience to make kites," Shafie explained.

There are several kinds of Malaysian kites, with various shapes based on stingrays, cats and peacocks. There is also a kite called "wau jala budi" where its curvy shape, some believe, is inspired by the outline of a woman's body.

But the "wau bulan" or moon kite with its lower tip resembling a crescent, an Islamic symbol, is the most popular in Kelantan.

It takes around a week or two to produce a small moon kite and it is sold for around 400 to 500 ringgit, said Shafie. Some moon kites though can be as high as three metres. The bigger models can cost as much as 9,000 ringgit.

The "wau bulan" is also the inspiration behind the Malaysia Airlines logo.

- Dwindling interest -

Many of Shafie's customers are keen kite flyers but some also purchase his designs as decorative pieces for their homes.

As he has built up such a reputation for his artistic pieces, his studio is also a popular pit-stop for international tour groups from Europe and North America visiting Kelantan.

He enlists his wife Wan Enbong Wan Deraman to help when there are large orders. The state's annual kite festival causes a surge in demand, with many local students buying his pieces.

"My students like these traditional kites because of the historical knowledge and art involved," one teacher told AFP.

While the people of Kelantan, known for its crafts, still love such Malaysian kites, interest is waning.

There are fears the ancient skills, passed from one generation to the next, will die out.

"It takes many, many years to master the craft and the situation in Kelantan and elsewhere in Malaysia is that there are very few craftsmen who still have the traditional knowledge," said Pauline Fan, creative director of Pusaka, an organisation that works to document and protect traditional Malay arts.

She warned: "It's intricate and hard and most young people don't have the patience to do it...once the masters and the knowledge are gone, it will be difficult to get it back."

As for Shafie, he has no plans to retire any time soon and hopes there is still time for him to pass on his knowledge and skills to others.

He said: "Some students, even a few outside of Kelantan, have come to ask me to teach them."

Kitemaker Shafie Jusoh puts the finishing touches on a traditional 'wau bulan' kite, at his studio in Pantai Cahaya Bulan on the outskirts of Kota Bharu, peninsular Malaysia's north-eastern Kelantan state Mohd Rasfan (AFP)

The 'wau bulan', or moon kite, with its lower tip resembling a crescent, an Islamic symbol, is the most popular in Kelantan Mohd Rasfan (AFP)
China 'installs radar' in disputed waters

China has installed a radar with potential military functions in a disputed area of the East China Sea, Japanese media said Sunday, in the latest flare-up of tensions between the two countries.

The Japanese foreign ministry said China had placed a surface search radar and surveillance camera on one of its structures in a gasfield which is claimed by both countries, the Nikkei business daily reported.

The ministry on Friday complained to Beijing through diplomatic channels, the newspaper reported.

A Chinese coast guard ship sails near the disputed East China Sea islands

The paper said it was the first radar unit known to have been installed on any of the Chinese structures in the area, which is believed to be rich in oil and gas deposits.

Tokyo is analysing the radar's capability and is concerned that Beijing could be intending to strengthen its military power in the East China Sea.

The foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.

Japan and China agreed in 2008 to jointly develop the undersea reserves in the disputed area, with a ban on unilateral drilling.

But negotiations stalled and Tokyo suspects China has some drilling rigs in operation near its de facto maritime border with Japan.

On Sunday, Tokyo separately protested to Beijing after two Chinese ships entered Japanese waters near disputed islands also in the East China Sea.

Japan's government said the two Chinese coastguard ships were sailing some 20 kilometres (12 miles) west of one of the Senkaku islands, known as the Diaoyus in Chinese, on Sunday morning.

"The intrusion violates our country's sovereignty and is completely unacceptable," Japanese vice foreign minister Shinsuke Sugiyama told Cheng Yonghua, Beijing's ambassador to Tokyo, by phone, according to a government statement.

The two vessels left the waters later in the day, the Japanese coastguard said.

On Saturday Japanese maritime officials reported seeing some 230 Chinese fishing vessels and seven coastguard ships, including four apparently carrying weapons, sailing into the same waters.
Israel minister admits Iran has respected nuclear deal

Israel's energy minister on Sunday criticised a landmark nuclear accord between the Jewish state's arch-foe Iran and world powers but said Tehran had so far respected the deal.

The agreement, which was signed in July 2015 and came into force in January, saw Tehran accept curbs to its nuclear programme in exchange for a lifting of economic sanctions by world powers.

"It's a bad deal but it's an accomplished fact and during the first year we spotted no significant breach from the Iranians," said Youval Steinitz, who is close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Iran's historic agreement with world powers went into force on January 16, ending a 13-year standoff over Tehran's disputed nuclear programme Majid Asgaripour (Mehr News/AFP/File)

"But it's still too early to conclude that this 12-year deal is a success," he told public radio.

Steinitz's comments came after US President Barack Obama on Thursday defended the accord.

Israel's defence ministry, led by hardliner Avigdor Lieberman, on Friday compared the deal with Iran to the 1938 Munich Agreement, which allowed Nazi Germany to annex parts of then Czechoslovakia.

Netanyahu the same day repeated his country's rejection of the Iran deal but stressed that Israel and the United States remained great allies.

For several months the US and Israeli governments have been negotiating the terms of a new 10-year defence aid pact to replace the current one, which expires in 2018 and is worth more than $3 billion (2.7 billion euros) per year.

The Netanyahu government wants the United States to increase the annual amount of military assistance it provides.




At a meeting with Ha Nams key leaders on August 6th, the Government leader commended the province for recording one of the highest growth rates among localities in the Red River Delta and for effective investment attraction.

Ha Nam should optimise its geographical location as a gateway to the capital city to spur its development, he said, asking the provincial leaders to pay more heed to local planning.

The PM reminded the province that sustainable development should be paired with environmental protection, suggesting Ha Nam increase its investments in tourism services to conserve the ecological system.

For their part, the provincial leaders proposed the Government and the PM create mechanisms to help universities and central-level hospitals in Hanoi relocate to or build branches in Ha Nam.

They asked the Government to support Ha Nam in attracting projects in processing, manufacturing and high-tech and create optimal conditions for the locality to access financial resources of the State budget, Government bonds and ODA loans.

Earlier, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc visited a 20ha farm run by An Phu Hung Company, one of the typical high-tech farming models in Ha Nam that produces organic vegetables using Japanese technologies.

He also toured construction sites of branches of the Bach Mai Hospital and the Viet Duc Friendship Hospital, which have been built to ease overloading at their existing facilities in the capital city.

The leaders suggested Ha Nam encourage private investment in the satellite hospitals and service supply to big hospitals in the province./.
Philippine leader pushes on with Marcos 'hero' burial

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday vowed to push through with the burial of deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the national "Heroes' Cemetery" despite threats of protests.

Even though the Marcos years were marked by widespread corruption and rights abuses, Duterte said that as a former president and soldier, the late dictator was qualified to be buried in the special cemetery.

"I will allow him to be buried there. He is qualified to be buried there. If other Filipinos don't like it, fine," he said in a pre-dawn speech to soldiers and reporters.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has thanked the Marcos family for their support in helping him to a landslide election victory on May 9 Ted Aljibe (AFP/File)

Marcos's family have kept his preserved body on display after he died in exile in 1989 following a popular revolt three years earlier, demanding that it be buried with full honours in the Heroes' Cemetery.

Marcos was elected president in 1965 and declared martial law in 1972, allowing him to rule as a dictator while he, his family and allies enriched themselves through massive corruption as his troops brutally stamped out dissent.

But Duterte, who has styled himself as an anti-corruption crusader, defended Marcos, noting that his father had served in the Marcos cabinet and he himself had even voted for Marcos before.

Duterte has previously said that he won the May 9 elections partly with the support of the Marcos family who remain influential in their stronghold in the northern Philippines.

The Marcos family has made a remarkable political comeback since the death of their patriarch.

The Marcos widow, Imelda, is a congresswoman representing the family's northern provincial stronghold, while Ferdinand Marcos Jnr narrowly lost election as vice-president in May.

But Rafaela David, spokeswoman of activist group Akbayan Youth, said the organisation would step up its protests against the burial.

"This is the Filipino people saying we do not recognise Marcos as a hero. We have a lot of people who have experience with martial law and are trying to get their stories across... so more people get to know the truth about the Marcos legacy," she told AFP.

Late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos was in power from 1965-1986 Romeo Gacad (AFP/File)
Philippine leader names, threatens officials over drugs

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who is waging a bloody war on drug suspects, on Sunday publicly named over 160 judges, mayors, legislators, police and military men allegedly involved in narcotics and warned them to surrender.

"Due process has nothing to do with my mouth (statements). There are no proceedings here, no lawyers," he said in a pre-dawn speech just before he began listing them.

More than 800 drug suspects have been killed by police or vigilantes since Duterte's election on May 9, in a campaign which has attracted widespread criticism from rights groups.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has listed seven judges and over 50 current or former congressmen, mayors and other local officials whom he alleges are involved in illegal drugs Ted Aljibe (AFP)

The president listed nine judges and over 50 current or former congressmen, mayors and other local officials whom he alleged were involved in illegal drugs.

Duterte ordered their security escorts withdrawn and cancelled their firearms permits, adding that they would face sanctions.

He also named about a hundred retired or active police officers and soldiers whom he said were involved, and relieved them of duty.

"If you show the slightest violence in the resistance, I will tell the police, 'Shoot them'," he told reporters and soldiers in the southern city of Davao.

He said soldiers and police should immediately surrender to their superiors while the judges should report to the Supreme Court.

Duterte, who has gained widespread domestic popularity for his outspokenness, conceded "I might be wrong" about the guilt of those he named.

He said the military and police had compiled the list which he insisted was not coloured by politics or personal links, adding that some of those named were even his friends.

Duterte's spokesman Martin Andanar later said that criminal cases would be filed against those named.

"The president is encouraging all of the persons of interest, the alleged drug lords and drug coddlers to come out in the open, to surrender themselves and submit themselves to thorough investigation," he told reporters.

Some of those named have since come out in media and denied their guilt.

Duterte won election by vowing to wage a war on illegal drugs and other crime that would claim tens of thousands of lives.

He has ordered police not to hesitate to kill and even urged ordinary citizens and communist guerrillas to join in the bloodshed.

The country's largest broadcaster ABS-CBN has listed 852 drug suspects killed since Duterte's election.

In his speech Duterte scoffed at human rights groups opposed to the killings, saying they were free to protest.

"I do not care," he said.

However the head of the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines made an emotional appeal to the public to denounce the wave of drug killings.

"I am a human being. That is all it takes for me to stand up and say 'enough'," Archbishop Socrates Villegas said in a message read at all Catholic masses in his archdiocese, located 160 kilometres (100 miles) north of Manila.

He said the largely Catholic Philippines was becoming a "killing fields nation" for tolerating the violence.

Despite criticism from foreign and local human rights organisations and even UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, surveys have shown Duterte enjoys wide public support.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte won the election by vowing to wage a war on illegal drugs and other crime that would claim tens of thousands of lives Noel Celis (AFP/File)
Iran nuclear scientist executed for spying for US

Iran has executed a nuclear scientist convicted of handing over "confidential and vital" information to the United States, a judicial spokesman said.

"Shahram Amiri was hanged for revealing the country's top secrets to the enemy," Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejeie told reporters in Tehran.

Amiri, 39, disappeared in Saudi Arabia in June 2009 and resurfaced a year later in the United States.

Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri was initially greeted as a hero when he returned to Tehran in 2010

Conflicting accounts said he had either been abducted or had defected at a time when international tensions over Iran's nuclear programme were at their peak.

In a surprise move, Amiri then returned to Tehran in July 2010, saying he had been kidnapped at gunpoint by two Farsi-speaking CIA agents in the Saudi city of Medina.

At first he was greeted as a hero, telling reporters as he stepped off the plane at Tehran airport that he had resisted pressure from his US captors to pretend he was a defector.

He denied he was a nuclear scientist and said US officials wanted him to tell the media he had "defected on his own and was carrying important documents and a laptop which contained classified secrets of Iran's military nuclear programme".

"But with God's will, I resisted," Amiri said as he was welcomed home by his tearful wife and young son.

- US 'outsmarted' -

However, it was soon clear that Iranian authorities had not accepted this version of events and Amiri dropped out of public view. His arrest was never officially reported.

Iran's judicial spokesman said Sunday that its intelligence services had "outsmarted" the US.

"American intelligence services thought Iran has no knowledge of his transfer to Saudi Arabia and what he was doing but we knew all of it and were monitoring," Ejeie told reporters.

"This person, having access to confidential and highly confidential information of the regime, had established a connection to our number one enemy, America, and had provided the enemy with Iran's confidential and vital information," he added.

The US State Department declined to comment on the case when asked on Sunday.

Tehran and Washington have had no diplomatic ties since 1980, when students stormed the US embassy following the previous year's Islamic revolution.

"Shahram Amiri was tried in accordance with law and in the presence of his lawyer. He appealed his death sentence based on judicial process. The Supreme Court... confirmed it after meticulous reviews," Ejeie said.

"We like all convicts to repent and reform. Not only did he not repent and compensate for his past, but he tried to send out false information from inside the prison, and finally he was punished," he added.

- 'Covert headquarters' -

Numerous media reports in recent years have supported the idea that Amiri was a defector with highly prized information on Iran's nuclear programme.

"Shahram Amiri described to American intelligence officers details of how a university in Tehran became the covert headquarters for the country's nuclear efforts," the New York Times reported in July 2010, citing unnamed US officials.

"While still in Iran, he was also one of the sources for a much-disputed National Intelligence Estimate on Iran's suspected weapons program, published in 2007," the report said.

In a confusing series of events shortly before his repatriation to Tehran, three separate videos emerged appearing to show Amiri claiming either that he was abducted by US agents, had come freely to study, or that his life was in danger and he wanted to return to Iran.

At the time, world powers had grown increasingly concerned that Iran was pursuing a nuclear weapon -- a charge that it has consistently denied.

Between 2010 and 2012, four nuclear scientists were assassinated inside Iran and a fifth survived a bomb attack. The government blamed the attacks on US and Israeli intelligence services.

Iran finally reached a deal with world powers in July 2015, promising to curb its nuclear programme in exchange for a lifting of international sanctions.

The deal took effect in January this year but Washington and the European Union maintain some sanctions on Iran over its human rights record and ballistic missile testing.

Tehran has complained that the remaining sanctions are locking it out of the international banking system and hampering its ability to make major purchases, such as aircraft.

Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri is welcomed by family members upon his arrival at Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran on July 15, 2010 Atta Kenare (AFP/File)
Nobel prize-winning chemist buried with military honours in Egypt

Nobel prize-winning Egyptian-American chemist Ahmed Zewail was given a state funeral with military honours on Sunday in Cairo attended by Egypt's president and top officials.

Zewail, who served as a science and technology advisor to US President Barack Obama, died on Tuesday in the United States aged 70.

A naturalised US citizen, Zewail won the Nobel prize for chemistry in 1999 for his groundbreaking work in the study of chemical reactions in extremely short timescales.

Ahmed Zewail won the Nobel prize for chemistry in 1999 Khaled Desouki (AFP/File)

Egypt organised two high-profile processions to bid Zewail farewell on Sunday before he was laid to rest.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Al-Azhar's Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb, Defence Minister Sedki Sobhi and Egyptian-British surgeon Sir Magdi Yacoub attended one procession at a military complex.

Live footage on state television showed the scientist's coffin shrouded in an Egyptian flag and drawn by horses on a carriage flanked by men in military uniform.

The mourners marched inside the military complex in eastern Cairo to funeral music from a military band.

Mourners including Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and the defence minister then presented their condolences to Zewail's family.

The coffin was then transported by ambulance to the second procession from a university he founded at the Zewail City of Science and Technology.

Zewail was later buried in a family plot inside an Islamic-style tomb which his spokesman, Sherif Fouad, said he had bought just six months ago "as if he knew his time was nearing its end".

Family members, friends, fans and journalists were present at the burial when the body wrapped in a white cloth was lowered into the tomb.

Zewail was among four Egyptians to win a Nobel prize and the country's first scientist to do so.

- 'Global citizen' -

Former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat shared the peace prize in 1978 with the late Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin for reaching a historic peace deal between their two countries.

Novelist Naguib Mahfouz won the 1988 Nobel prize for literature.

Mohamed ElBaradei, then director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, received the 2005 peace prize for his efforts to promote the safe and peaceful use of nuclear energy.

Zewail's work showed that it is possible using a laser technique to study in slow motion how atoms in a molecule move during a chemical reaction.

According to the Nobel Prize website, Zewail's work led to the birth of the research area called femtochemistry, "which enables us to understand why certain chemical reactions take place but not others".

His discoveries offered scientists greater insight into chemical and pharmacological processes with implications across a range of disciplines including human health, electronics and high precision machinery.

In 2009 Zewail was appointed to Obama's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and later that year he was named the first US science envoy to the Middle East.

Until his death Zewail -- who was married with four children -- worked at the California Institute of Technology.

Caltech president Thomas Rosenbaum described Zewail as a "quintessential scholar and global citizen".

Zewail was a member of several prestigious scientific institutions, including the National Academy of Sciences and the US American Academy of Art and Sciences.

He was also a fellow of London's Royal Society.

An ambulance transporting the body of Nobel prize-winning chemist Ahmed Zewail leaves Cairo airport on August 6, 2016 Khaled Desouki (AFP)

Relatives of Nobel prize-winning chemist Ahmed Zewail march during the second part of his funeral procession in Cairo, on August 7, 2016 Khaled Desouki (AFP)
Five killed in apparent US murder-suicide: reports

A family of five, including three children, were found shot dead on Saturday in what appears to be a murder-suicide in the US state of Pennsylvania, local media reported.

Police in the town of Sinking Spring -- some 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Philadelphia -- were searching the suburban home where the bodies were found, the local Reading Eagle newspaper said.

District Attorney John Adams identified the dead as Mark Short, his wife, Megan, and their children Liana, Mark and Willow, the Eagle reported.

Police said all the victims died of gunshot wounds Mark Makela (Getty/AFP/File)

All died of gunshot wounds, Adams told the paper.

Although the ages were not released, the youngest child was apparently under the age of three. The family was profiled in an October 2014 article in the Reading Eagle because Willow, then five months old, had undergone a heart transplant when she was just one-week-old.

The shooting apparently took place around 3:30 pm Saturday (1900 GMT), NBC 10 Philadelphia affiliate reported.

It added that distraught family members hugged each other as they had gathered outside the home waiting for news.
Syria-bound relative of Charlie Hebdo killer arrested

A relative of one of the jihadist killers of journalists at French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has been arrested in Bulgaria after trying to get to Syria, a judicial source said Sunday.

Mourad Hamyd, brother-in-law of Cherif Kouachi who was behind the January 2015 attack in Paris that killed 12, was first detained in Turkey last month on suspicion of seeking to enter Syria, the source said.

The 20-year-old student was then expelled to neighbouring Bulgaria, where he was sent to a detention centre on July 28, the source said, confirming a report in the Journal du Dimanche, a Sunday newspaper.

Combo shows shows photos released by French police on January 8, 2015 of suspects Cherif Kouachi (L), aged 32, and his brother Said Kouachi (R), aged 34, wanted in connection with the attack at French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo

The source said French anti-terrorist investigators are preparing a European arrest warrant for Hamyd, who lived with his family in the northern French town of Charleville-Mezieres.

Hamyd's sister was Cherif Kouachi's wife. In the aftermath of the attack, Hamyd was wrongly identified on social media as being one of three Charlie Hebdo killers.

He was held and questioned for 48 hours before being released without charge. Kouachi carried out the killings with his brother Said.

Hamyd later told AFP in an interview he was shocked by the killings, which he described as "a horrible crime" and described himself as a normal student living with his parents. He added he barely had any contact with Cherif Kouachi.

Bulgaria on Sunday confirmed the 20-year-old Hamyd's detention.

"We did our job," Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova told AFP.

"He was detained and identified. All the necessary measures have been taken, he is not at large and we are awaiting the outcome of the judicial procedure" for his extradition, she said.

A court could initiate extradition proceedings as early as Tuesday, Bachvarova said. She gave no details about where Hamyd was intercepted or being held.

According to a July tally by French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, France is home to more than 2,100 people -- French nationals or foreigners -- known to have links to Syrian and Iraqi Islamist groups.
Libya unity forces prepare 'decisive' assault in IS bastion

Libya pro-government forces backed by US air strikes said Sunday they would soon launch a final assault to retake the coastal city of Sirte from the Islamic State jihadist group.

"The countdown of the final stage of the military operations against Daesh has started," forces loyal to the Tripoli-based national unity government said in a statement, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

"The operation's leaders held intensive meetings to prepare for the final and decisive battles to eradicate the Daesh gang from the city of Sirte", they said in a statement.

Forces loyal to Libya's unity government launched an offensive to recapture Sirte from Islamic State jihadists in May 2016 Mahmud Turkia (AFP)

A Sunday post on the operation's Facebook page showed a photo of men in uniform examining a map of the city, which the jihadist group seized in June 2015.

Fighters allied to the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) have waged a fierce weeks-long battle to retake the city some 450 kilometres (280 miles) east of Tripoli.

Pro-GNA forces launched the campaign in May and entered the city in June, but their progress slowed down as the jihadists hit back with sniper fire, suicide attacks and car bombings.

Since Thursday pro-government forces have sought to reach IS headquarters at the Ouagadougou conference centre inside the town.

The United States have since Monday been carrying out air raids on IS positions in Sirte at the GNA's request.

Six US air strikes on Saturday targeted an IS position, killing a sniper and destroying a vehicle, pro-GNA forces said.

More than 300 people have been killed and 1,800 wounded in the operation for Sirte, according to medical sources in the city of Misrata, where the operation's command centre in based.

IS took advantage of the chaos that followed the 2011 toppling of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi to gain a foothold in the oil-rich North African country.

Fighters loyal to Libya's national unity government advance on Sirte, on August 3, 2016 Mahmud Turkia (AFP/File)
S. Africa opposition seeks partners after local election success

South Africa's main opposition Democratic Alliance said Sunday it was seeking coalition partners to run major cities including the capital and business centre Johannesburg after defeating the ruling ANC in local polls.

"Informal discussions (have) started. We are now in the process of setting up meetings," DA lawmaker James Selfe told AFP without indicating who the party was talking to.

"We have a lot of experience in coalitions and I'm confident it will work out," said Selfe.

South African main opposition party Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane salutes the crowd during the final Municipal Elections campaign rally at Dobsonville Stadium in Soweto, on July 30, 2016 Gianluigi Guercia (AFP/File)

The DA, led by Mmusi Maimane, topped the poll in municipal elections in the capital Pretoria, taking 93 seats out of 214 to 89 for the African National Congress, which suffered its worst result since the end of white-minority rule 22 years ago, falling below 60 percent of the vote for the first time.

Maimane on Saturday described the results as "a tipping point for the people of South Africa," while ANC deputy leader Cyril Ramaphosa, Zuma's vice-president, said the party would heed the electorate's message.

With no party securing an absolute majority, the two main parties are set to talk to radical leftist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

Led by populist Julius Malema, formerly of the ANC, the group says it is open to a role in a coalition -- "except with the ANC."

Despite that initial public stance, the Sunday Times newspaper reported that the ANC and the EFF were in fact in talks in Pretoria, where the EFF garnered 25 seats.

Although a link-up between the latter two parties would appear politically more logical than between the EFF and the centre right DA, it would have to rise above two years of harsh criticism by Malema of President Jacob Zuma.

Following the ANC's poor showing, Zuma's position as head of state is now in question, even though his mandate still has three years to run, the poll having been widely seen as a referendum on his scandal-ridden leadership.

Saturday, independent political analyst Daniel Silke told AFP he saw a DA tie-up with EFF as difficult.

"I don't think EFF is the best coalition partner for DA as they are diametrically opposed on every issue -- it could be unstable," Silke said.

- 'No ideological barrier' -

Selfe said, however, it was feasible.

"With EFF we are equally keen to provide good quality services for the people and particularly for the poorest of the poor. There's no ideological barrier with EFF on this," he insisted.

There is uncertainty in the business capital Johannesburg, where the ANC also lost its majority in Johannesburg, as it did in Pretoria and also, humiliatingly, in Port Elizabeth, officially known as "Nelson Mandela Bay" after the late former ANC leader and president.

The ANC did top the poll in Johannesburg but it missed a majority by 15 seats while the EFF captured 30.

In Port Elizabeth, the DA requires four seats in order to be able to govern, but should be able to receive sufficient support from several smaller parties.

Although at the national level ANC remains the nation's top party, it saw its support plunge to 59.3 percent nationwide, a drop of eight points from 2011.

The parties now have two weeks to form coalitions and elect new municipal councils.

A woman casts her ballot at a voting station for the municipal elections in Atteridgeville, west of Pretoria, on August 3, 2016 Herman Verwey (AFP/File)
10m shooter Zhang wins first gold for China, and mum

Zhang Mengxue got China off the gold medal mark and gave her mum the perfect birthday present at the Rio Games on Sunday, the Olympic debutant winning the women's 10m air pistol title.

After an assured display of precision shooting at the Deodoro range, the 25-year-old beamed: "It happened to be my mother's birthday yesterday (Saturday) so this will be the best gift for her."

The woman from Jinan produced a perfect 10.9 on her 17th shot to comfortably hold off Russian teenager Vitalina Batsarashkina.

Gold medal winner Zhang Mengxue of China celebrates on the podium during the medal ceremony for the women's 10m air pistol shooting event at the Olympic Shooting Centre in Rio de Janeiro on August 7, 2016 Philippe Lopez (AFP)

"I am so excited," said Zhang, who only made her international debut last year.

"I am still feeling the competition, I am still in that mood, and winning at the Olympic Games was my goal since I was young. Now I have the medal."

Saving her best till last after scraping into the eight-shooter final in seventh place she reported: "I was pretty calm for the final actually, because the qualification was a bit tough for me."

Batsarashkina neatly sidestepped a potential minefield when asked at the post-event press conference about her thoughts on winning a medal for Russia after all the doping scandal dogging her country's Olympic build-up.

"I don't know what to tell you, this is an issue for my country and the anti-doping body, not for athletes."

In bronze was Anna Korakaki, the first Greek woman to win a shooting medal of any hue in Olympic competition.

"It makes me really proud to win this medal after all these years," said the 20-year-old who is coached by her father.

"We have good chemistry," she said.

Zhang grabbed her chance to take the title after her compatriot Guo Wenjun, the champion in 2008 and London 2012, misfired badly in qualifying to miss out on the final.

Another big name missing was the Ukrainian world number one and Athens 2004 champion, Olena Kostevych.

One of the two Russian teens who made it to the final, Ekaterina Korshunova, was the first to fall by the wayside.

She was followed by Serbia's Bobana Velickovic and Spain's Sonia Franquet as Zhang moved menacingly into the lead.

Breathing down her neck was Batsarashkina as Egypt shooter Afaf Elhodhod departed, exit stage left.

Mexico's Alejandra Zavala Vazquez took fourth, leaving Zhang, Korakaki and Batsarashkina to fight out the medals.

With her pinpoint fourth last effort she pulled two points clear, to seal her country's first of what they will expect to be many golds in Brazil after their opening day's haul of two silvers and three bronze, not to mention making a mother back home proud.
Zika-hit Miami neighborhood safe, Florida governor says

A trendy Miami neighborhood at the epicenter of the first US outbreak of the Zika virus is safe to visit, Florida Governor Rick Scott said Sunday.

"We are doing a very good job of working to get rid of the mosquitoes," he said on NBC's Meet the Press. "We have been able to reduce the area that we had a concern about by 10 blocks on Friday."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday issued an unusual domestic travel warning for a one-mile section north of downtown Miami where mosquitoes have spread the virus to 16 people.

Florida Governor Rick Scott speaks to the media as he visits the Wynwood neighborhood where the Zika virus has broken out on August 4, 2016 in Miami, Florida Joe Raedle (Getty/AFP/File)

In particular, it advised women who are pregnant to avoid travel to the area, a popular arts and restaurant district known as Wynwood, or consult their doctor if they live there.

The virus can cause microcephaly, a severe birth defect in which babies are born with abnormally small heads and permanent brain damage.

Scott said he had visited the neighborhood on Thursday and it was "absolutely" safe.

"We're making sure everybody pregnant has the opportunity to get an assessment and test if they want it," he said. "And we're keeping everybody informed. What we're doing is working."

He said he had asked the CDC for 10,000 additional Zika prevention kits, which contain mosquito repellent, condoms and tabs to treat standing water.

"We still need the federal government to show up, the president and Congress have to work together and this is an international issue, not just a Florida issue," he said.

President Barack Obama asked Congress in February to allocate $1.9 billion for the fight against Zika, but was met with resistance by Republican lawmakers who said the funds should instead be moved from coffers previously reserved for fighting the Ebola outbreak.




Worthy of note is a USD300 million project invested by the Seoul Semiconductor group from the Republic of Korea.

Also on the occasion, the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) pledged VND20 trillion (USD900 million) in credit for developing infrastructure facility of local industrial parks (IPs) and to support investors in the IPs, particularly those from Japan, the Republic of Korea, Taiwan (China).

The local government and BIDVs branch in Ha Nam also signed four memoranda of understanding on providing credits, worth a total of nearly VND4 trillion (USD180 million).

Those were the outcomes of the August 6th conference to promote investment in the locality with the attendance of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and over 400 representatives from international and domestic businesses.

Addressing the event, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc said Ha Nams ten commitments to investors help increase the localitys attractiveness.

He urged the local authorities to promote the new way of thinking in economic and administrative management, establishing more mechanisms to enhance dialogue with businesses and increase businesses access to information.

At the same time, the PM reminded the province to pay heed to protecting the environment and promoting the development of other sectors, including tourism, services, education, training and health care.

The Prime Minister pledged the Government will continue creating a favourable business climate to make Vietnam one of the top investment destinations in the ASEAN.

Ha Nam is among 15 top destinations for investors in the country. As of June this year, the province was home to nearly 600 valid investment projects, worth over USD4.95 billion.

In 2015, the locality ranked 31st in the provincial competitiveness index (PCI), up from the 45th position in 2014./.
Suicide bomber kills 5 soldiers in south Yemen

A suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into a large group of army reinforcements in south Yemen on Sunday, killing five soldiers, military officials said.

Another seven soldiers were wounded in the attack targeting troops who had been sent from the main southern city of Aden to Lahj province to fight jihadists, the sources said.

A military official said it was unclear whether the attack had been carried out by Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State group, both of which have gained ground in the south and claimed deadly anti-government assaults in the past.

Forces loyal to the Saudi-backed Yemeni president stand guard on a road at the entrance to Abyan province as they take part in an operation to drive Al-Qaeda fighters out of the southern provincial capital, on April 23, 2016 Saleh Al-Obeidi (AFP/File)

The bombing came hours after clashes between troops and jihadists in Lahj, the military officials told AFP, adding that Saudi-led coalition jets also took part in the fighting.

Also on Sunday, suspected members of Al-Qaeda shot dead an army colonel in nearby Abyan province, a military source said.

The gunmen on a motorbike opened fire at Colonel Abdullah Shamba, killing him immediately before driving off, the official said.

Shamba headed a local anti-Al-Qaeda militia in Abyan.

Late on Saturday, coalition jets attacked Al-Qaeda positions in Abyan's provincial capital of Zinjibar and in the nearby town of Jaar, military sources said.

Government forces backed by the Arab coalition began an all-out offensive in March against jihadists in south Yemen, recapturing main cities they had held.

But they later retreated from Zinjibar after Al-Qaeda militants struck back.

Jihadists have exploited the power vacuum created by the conflict between the government and Huthi rebels and their allies to expand their presence in south and southeast Yemen.

The Arab coalition which backs the Yemeni government against pro-Iran rebels has also turned its sights on the jihadists, and the United States has pressed its drone war against them.
Islamic State attacks on Western targets

Following is a list of attacks on Western targets claimed by or blamed on the Islamic State jihadist group after Saturday's assault on two policewomen in southern Belgium:

- August 6: Machete attack in Belgium -

A machete-wielding man shouting "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest) attacks two policewomen in Charleroi, southern Belgium, badly injuring one in the face before being shot dead by a third officer.

Police stand as they secure the area around a police building in the southern Belgian city of Charleroi following a machete attack on August 6, 2016 Virginie Lefour (Belga/AFP/File)

Investigators give the initials of the assailant as K.B., describing him as a 33-year-old Algerian who had been living in Belgium since 2012.

The following day, IS says the attacker acted "in response to (its) calls to target citizens" of countries in the US-led coalition bombing IS in Syria and Iraq.

- July 26: French priest killed -

Attackers slit an elderly priest's throat in a hostage-taking at his church in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray.

Abdel Malik Petitjean and Adel Kermiche, both 19, pledged allegiance to IS in a video made before the attack.

- July 24: German suicide blast -

A failed Syrian asylum-seeker blows himself up outside a music festival in the German city of Ansbach, wounding 15 others. The Bavarian interior minister says the man "pledged allegiance" to IS, while the jihadist-linked Amaq news agency said he was a "soldier" of the group.

- July 18: German train attack -

A 17-year-old asylum-seeker, believed to have been Afghan or Pakistani, attacks passengers on a Bavarian train with an axe, injuring five people, two of them critically. He is shot dead by police.

IS releases a video the following day purportedly featuring the attacker announcing he would carry out an "operation" in Germany.

- July 14: Nice lorry attack -

Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian, rams a 19-tonne truck into people celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, killing 85 people and wounding more than 400.

IS said Bouhlel staged the attack "in response to calls to target nations of coalition states" fighting the jihadist group.

- June 28: Istanbul airport attack -

A triple suicide attack at Istanbul's Ataturk airport kills 47 people. Authorities blame IS, though there is no claim of responsibility.

- June 13: French police couple killed -

A man claiming allegiance to IS stabs a police officer to death before slitting his partner's throat in front of their young son at their home in Magnanville, west of Paris.

- June 12: Orlando gay bar shooting -

A gunman claiming allegiance to IS opens fire inside a gay bar in Orlando, Florida, killing 49 people in the deadliest mass shooting in US history.

- March 22: Brussels attacks -

Suicide attacks claimed by IS kill 32 people and wound more than 340 at Brussels airport and Maelbeek metro station, near the European Union headquarters.

The attackers have links to the cell that carried out the November 2015 jihadist attacks in Paris.

- January 12: Tourists die in Istanbul -

Twelve German tourists are killed in a suicide attack in central Istanbul. On March 19, three Israeli tourists and an Iranian are killed by a suicide bomber at an Istanbul shopping centre. Turkish authorities attribute both attacks to IS.

- December 2, 2015: San Bernardino shooting -

Syed Farook and his Pakistani wife Tashfeen Malik open fire at a Christmas party in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people. IS hails the attack, but does not claim direct responsibility.

- November 13, 2015: Paris attacks -

Coordinated suicide attacks in Paris kill 130 people and wound more than 350 at a concert hall, cafes and the national stadium. IS claims responsibility.

- October 31, 2015: Russian jet bombed -

An Airbus passenger jet owned by a Russian company crashes in the Sinai desert after a bomb rips a hole in the plane, killing all 224 people on board. IS claims responsibility.

- June 26, 2015: Tunisia beach attack -

Gunmen kill 38 people, including 30 British tourists, at a beach hotel in Sousse, a little more than three months after a similar attack at the Bardo museum in Tunis kills 22 people, including 21 foreign tourists. IS claims both attacks.

- January 7-8, 2015: Paris shootings -

Gunman Amedy Coulibaly, claiming allegiance to IS, kills a policewoman in a Paris suburb before attacking a Jewish supermarket the next day, where he kills four more people. He is killed in a police assault.

On January 7, the Al-Qaeda-linked Kouachi brothers had killed 12 people at the headquarters of the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly in Paris.

Muslims put flowers and hold a minute of silence on July 29, 2016 in front of the church if Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, western France, where French priest Jacques Hamel waskilled on July 26 in the church during a hostage-taking Charly Triballeau (AFP/File)

A picture taken on July 15, 2016 shows the truck, riddled with bullets, that was driven by a man through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day being towed away by breakdown lorry in the French Riviera city of Nice Boris Horvat (AFP/File)

Edwin Rodriguez writes the names of the victims of the Pulse Nightclub shooting at the front of the nightclub building on June 21, 2016 in Orlando, Florida Gerardo Mora (Getty/AFP/File)

Elvina Guererro holds a candle during a candlelight vigil the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors headquarters December 7, 2015 in San Bernardino, California, for those killed in the mass shooting the previous week Frederic J. Brown (AFP/File)
PM Modi urges halt to attacks on low-caste Indians

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urged a halt to attacks on low-caste Indians, seeking to defuse mounting anger among Dalits over the public flogging of four villagers by cow-protection vigilantes.

Modi described the ongoing exploitation of Dalits, who lie at the bottom of India's deeply entrenched social hierarchal system, as shameful.

"Why should we exploit our Dalit brothers? What right do we have for such behaviour?" Modi said to workers of his Hindu nationalist party in the southern city of Hyderabad.

An Indian member of the Dalit caste community holds a placard reading, "In Gujarat, Cow Slaughter is a Sin while Killing Dalits is pardonable" (L) as he participates in a protest rally against an attack on Dalit caste members on July 31, 2016 Sam Panthaky (AFP/File)

"It is our responsibility to protect and respect the persons from society's lowest rung."

Modi has faced criticism for remaining silent over the attack on the villagers last month by so-called cow-defenders in his home state of Gujarat.

Footage showed four half-naked men tied to a car as the activists took turns to thrash them with belts and batons at a crowded marketplace.

Video of the beating of the four Dalits  who were taking a dead cow to be skinned  went viral on social media. Violent protests erupted over the attack late last month, leaving one police officer dead.

Dalit activists have said the unrest reflects deep frustration after years of discrimination by those from higher castes.

Experts say their anger could harm Modi's party's chances at elections next year in three key states, where Dalits make up a sizeable chunk of voters.

"Don't attack any Dalits. Shoot me if you have to, but not the Dalits," Modi said late Sunday.

"Attack me, but not them. Don't harm them. This game must end."

The comments come the day after the premier also broke his silence on the self-styled cow defenders, saying any vigilantes should be prosecuted.

Modi repeated his comments on Sunday, telling a rally they were simply trying to divide India.

"I want to ask the state governments to identify such men and take strict action against them," he said.

Cows are considered sacred by Hindus and killing them is banned in most Indian states.

Formerly known as "untouchables," Dalits are commonly tasked with removing the corpses of dead cows from streets, where the animals often roam freely.

Attacks by vigilante groups on cow traders and smugglers have increased since Hindu nationalist Modi won power in 2014.

At least five Muslim men were killed last year by Hindu mobs on suspicion of eating beef or smuggling cows across the country.

An Indian Dalit tries to barge inside a police station to free Dalit supporters who were detained by police for damaging vehicles and disturbing peace, at Dholka town, some 40 kms from Ahmedabad on July 21, 2016 Sam Panthaky (AFP/File)
Hunger a weapon of war in Syria, Yemen, Nigeria

While grain silos in many Western countries may overflow this winter, tens of millions of people risk going without food as hunger is being used more than ever as a weapon of war.

More than 50 million people living in 17 conflict-ridden countries are in "severe food insecurity", two UN agencies warned recently.

The protracted conflicts in Yemen and Syria place those two nations at the top of the list established by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP).

This photo taken on July 26, 2016 shows Syrians unload boxes after a 48-truck convoy from the ICRC, SARC and UN entered the Syrian rebel-held town of Talbiseh, a besieged area in northern rural Homs Mahmoud Taha (AFP/File)

In Yemen, 14 million people  over half the population  are now considered to be facing a food crisis or emergency.

Meanwhile in Syria, 8.7 million people or 37 percent of the pre-conflict population, "need urgent food, nutrition and livelihoods assistance", in particular aid to farmers, said the agencies.

The same goes for parts of northeastern Nigeria, which has borne the brunt of an insurgency by Boko Haram islamists since 2009, and where the aid group Doctors Without Borders estimates half a million people face a humanitarian catastrophe.

Thousands of hungry people forced from their homes by fighting there had to wait until the end of July to receive their first food aid.

- Syria wheat harvest halved -

Meanwhile, most of the world's top wheat producers are enjoying bumper crops, pushing prices down on global commodity markets and benefiting countries like Egypt that are dependent upon imports.

But for countries gripped by conflict, importing food is logistically difficult if not impossible and at prices out of the reach of most of the population which have lost their livelihoods.

Maintaining local agricultural production, even traditional small-scale farms, thus often becomes critically important for reducing hunger while helping keep down the number of refugees, said the head of the FAO's emergency unit, Dominique Burgeon.

"It is clear that agriculture plays an important role in the resilience of populations faced with the shock of war," he told AFP in a telephone interview.

In certain parts of Syria this year people who have been displaced from other regions are helping till the fields and take in the harvest.

Even so, that hasn't saved the agricultural sector, on which four-fifths of the rural population depends, from collapse.

"In Syria, all the industrial chicken farms have been destroyed, which affects the poorest people as chicken was the most affordable source of protein," said Burgeon.

The FAO estimates that only 1.9 million tonnes of wheat will be harvested this year in Syria, less than half of the 4 million tonnes it produced before the war.

Nevertheless, it has had difficulties in persuading donor nations to reach into their pockets to fund purchases of seeds, fertilisers and tools for Syrian farmers.

- More farming = less migration -

"We want to show the impact of food security on the stabilisation of the population," said Burgeon, expressing his disappointment that the appeal for $86 million of funds has so far received only a tenth of that sum.

In June, Pope Francis condemned the fact it is often more difficult to deliver humanitarian aid than to obtain weapons.

"It makes no difference where arms come from; they circulate with brazen and virtually absolute freedom in many parts of the world," said the pontiff during a visit to the WFP's headquarters. "As a result, wars are fed, not people."

But the farm aid needs to be adapted to weather conditions in target countries.

Burgeon warned that despite the best of intentions certain non-governmental organisations risked doing harm by importing seeds not appropriate for the local climate, which would "set the country back years".

Farmers in Syria are already finding it impossible to obtain seeds developed by local agronomists due to the war, which has forced the closure of the nation's seed bank.

Syria has become the first nation to make a withdrawal at the world's seed bank buried in a mountain off the Svalbard islands in the Arctic Ocean to replace destroyed local seeds.

This photo taken on December 4, 2014 shows displaced women carrying sacks of food aid received during a distribution at the Cathedral of Yola, state capital of Adamawa Florian Plaucheur (AFP/File)

This photo taken on March 16, 2016 shows Yemeni men carrying food aid provided by the World Food Program (WFP) to help families affected by the ongoing conflict between loyalist forces and Huthi rebels, in the Yemeni capital Sanaa Mohammed Huwais (AFP/File)
UN soldier killed, four injured in mine blast in NE Mali

A United Nations peacekeeper was killed and four others were injured Sunday when their vehicle struck an explosive device in northeast Mali, the UN said.

The incident occurred 11 kilometres (six miles) south of Aguelhoc-Anefis in Kidal region, the UN force in Mali, MINUSMA, said in a statement, adding that both the dead soldier and those injured were from Chad.

The vehicle was part of a supply convoy, MINUSMA said.

A military tuck of the United Nations (UN) peacekeepers soldiers is parked in front of Chinese United Nations peacekeeping forces camp on June 1, 2016 STR (AFP/File)

Less than three hours later, a MINUSMA vehicle was damaged by a roadside bomb near the town of Kidal while on patrol about two kilometres from the mission's base, but no-one was hurt, the statement said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either attack.

An Islamist takeover of northern Mali in 2012 triggered a French military intervention to pull the country back from the brink of collapse.

The UN deployed peacekeepers in July 2013, but the mission has been a relentless target for attacks.

Twenty-eight have been killed so far this year, according to a toll compiled by AFP.

On June 29, the UN Security Council decided to send an additional 2,500 personnel to bring MINUSMA up to a maximum level of 15,200 troops and police and provide for modern equipment and fast-response units.

Mali declared a state of emergency last November after jihadists stormed a hotel in the capital Bamako, killing 20 people, mostly foreigners, in an attack claimed by Al-Qaeda's regional branch.
Rebel alliance launches battle to retake all of Aleppo

A Syrian rebel alliance on Sunday announced the start of a battle to recapture the whole of Aleppo, the day after they broke a government siege on rebel-held areas in the country's second city.

The "Army of Conquest", a coalition of rebels and jihadists including the former Al-Nusra Front, said in a statement it would "double the number of fighters for this next battle".

"We announce the start of a new phase to liberate all of Aleppo" after a week of continuous fighting, the group said.

Opposition fighters drive a tank in an eastern government sieged neighbourhood of Aleppo as jihadists and their rebel allies pressed an offensive on August 5, 2016 Omar haj kadour (AFP/File)

"We will not rest until we raise the flag of the conquest over Aleppo's citadel," it added.

The group's fighters surged through regime territory on Saturday, breaking a three-week government siege in a major setback for the regime.

The rebel coalition opened a new route into the northern city's besieged eastern neighbourhoods, home to an estimated 250,000 people.

The operation triggered celebrations in eastern districts and sparked fears in regime-controlled western areas of the divided city of food and fuel shortages.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said it was one of the most significant setbacks for government forces since the conflict erupted in March 2011.
South Korea nearly flawless in team archery, beats US

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP)  One of the South Korean archers had a perfect response for a nearly flawless show.

"We shoot always like this," Lee Seungyun said through a translator. "It's Korea."

Even for the archery powerhouse, though, this was some kind of shooting display. The South Koreans captured gold by placing 15 of its 18 arrows in the top scoring ring to knock off the Americans, 6-0, in the men's team final Saturday at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

From left South Korea's Kim Woo-jin, Lee Seung-yun, and Ku Bon-chan, celebrate after winning the men's team archery gold medal match at the Sambadrome venue during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2016. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

The U.S. took home silver for a second straight Olympics, while Australia beat China in the bronze-medal match.

Still, the buzz was all about the clinic put on by Kim Woojin, Ku Bonchan and Lee. It was so impressive that American archer Jake Kaminski went over to the South Korean squad after the match and simply bowed.

Nothing else needed to be said as South Korea earned its fifth Olympic title in the men's team event.

"We just got outclassed," said Kaminski, whose team beat Indonesia and China to reach the final. "A match like that has never been shot before. That would've been a world record if world records still existed in this format. We shot well and just got beat."

Kim picked up right where he left off a day after setting a recurve world record in qualifying. He scored a 10 on five of his six shots in the final. Ku was even more precise  6 for 6.

"I didn't know that I had a perfect score," said Ku, whose squad knocked off the Netherlands and Australia to make the final. "During the match, I only focus on each individual shot. I was very happy."

That pep talk from Kim really did the trick. Before the match  and during it, too  Kim called his team together for some simple advice: Trust, be confident and shoot straight.

It hit the mark.

"I don't know why or how they can make all these 10s," Mauro Nespoli said earlier in the day after his defending Olympic champion Italian squad was eliminated by China in the quarterfinals. "When I find the answer, maybe I'll go up to them."

In this team format, the three archers on a squad each shoot one arrow, followed by the next team. They each do that again to complete what's called a set. The winner of the set receives two points and the first one to five wins the match.

In the opening set, the South Korean contingent scored a 10 on all six of their shots. They nearly did the same in the third and closing set as well.

"They shot amazing," Ellison said. "I mean, that was once again a world-record performance they just put on. You're not going to see three-set scoring that high probably ever again."

Kaminski and Ellison were on the American squad that lost the gold to Italy four years ago in London. This time, they didn't feel like they lost it. Those two, along with Zach Garrett, scored a 10 on 10 of their 18 arrows.

"It's a little different walking off the field, knowing we just won silver compared to you just lost gold," Ellison explained. "It's not like any of them really messed up."

The Americans were hoping for a little more wind. Maybe that would've thrown off the South Koreans. But a breeze hardly even moved the wind flag at the Sambadrome as a group of robust South Korean fans rooted on their nation.

"It's hard to beat Korea on a perfectly calm day," Ellison said. "They're good, they're strong. A wind comes in it helps us out, because no matter where you go in the U.S., it's windy. That's what we're used to. We're not used to this calm stuff."

The South Koreans were the picture of serenity.

"We trusted each other, and it happened," Kim said. "This was teamwork. Everyone did good."

South Korea's Kim Woo-jin, right, celebrates winning gold medals for the men's team archery competition at the Sambadrome venue during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2016.(AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

South Korea's Kim Woo-jin releases the arrow during the men's team archery competition at the Sambadrome venue during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2016.(AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

South Korea's Kim Woo-jin holds his bow during the men's team archery competition at the Sambadrome venue during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2016. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Jake Kaminski, Zach Garrett and Brady Ellison, of the United States, from right to left, wave to the public during the men's team archery competition at the Sambadrome venue during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2016.(AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Syrian refugee swimmer wins heat, won't advance in butterfly

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP)  Swimmer Yusra Mardini, who survived a harrowing sea crossing a year ago and is now among 10 refugees competing under the Olympic flag in Rio, won her preliminary heat in the 100-meter butterfly Saturday. But the result wasn't enough to advance her to the semifinals.

Mardini's time of 1:9.21 put her 41st overall in the preliminary round, and only the top 16 swimmers moved on to the late-night semifinals. Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden had the top qualifying time of 56.26 seconds.

Mardini will compete is a second individual event Wednesday when she swims the women's 100-meter freestyle.

Yusra Mardini, swimming for the Refugee Olympic Team, competes in a women's 100m butterfly heat during the swimming competitions at the 2016 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2016, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

Mardini was a competitive swimmer in Syria until she fled the war with her sister last August and survived a hazardous crossing on the Aegean Sea to reach Europe. The Mardini sisters had been among Syria's brightest swimming stars and their family had been moving around to avoid the fighting so they could continue swimming. But the war intensified and eventually the decision was made to leave altogether.

The sisters joined a wave of Syrian refugees who left Damascus last summer. They made their way to Lebanon and then Turkey, where they paid smugglers to take them to Greece. Their first attempt was thwarted when Turkish coastguards drove their boat back so they tried again, boarding a small inflatable dinghy at dusk.

All but three of the 20 people crowded on the dinghy couldn't swim. Within half an hour, the boat was taking on water.

The passengers' bags were thrown overboard in an effort to stay afloat as wind churned up the Aegean Sea. But it wasn't enough. As a last resort, the Mardini sisters and another strong swimmer jumped into the water to give the boat more buoyancy.

For 3 1/2 hours they clung to the side of the small boat until it reached the Greek island of Lesbos. A weekslong overland trek followed through Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary. They had to hide from police in cornfields to reach Hungary.

Eventually, the sisters made it to Austria and then Germany, where they have since been joined by the rest of their family in Berlin.

___

Learn more about the refugee Olympians competing in Rio: http://interactives.ap.org/2016/refugee-olympians/#syria

Refugee Olympic Team's Yusra Mardini, center, smiles during a welcome ceremony held at the Olympic village ahead of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2016. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Thais vote on new constitution that could dilute democracy

BANGKOK (AP)  Thais voted Sunday in a referendum on a new constitution that critics say is tailor-made for the military government to stay in control for several years and entrench a new, quasi-democratic system that gives vast powers to appointed officials.

The junta, which came to power in a May 2014 coup and ordered the constitution rewritten, says the new version will usher in a new era of clean politics and stable democracy in a country chronically short of both in recent years, sometimes sliding into violent internal political conflict.

Still, the government of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a retired army general, used its sweeping powers to ban political rallies, independent campaigns against the draft constitution and virtually no debates on it. Opponents say this was done to ensure that people would have little knowledge about the constitution's provisions, even though 1 million copies are claimed to have been distributed to the public in a nation of 64 million people.

Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha leaves after casting his vote in a referendum on a new constitution at a polling station in Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. Thais voted Sunday in a referendum on a new constitution that critics say is tailor-made for the military government to stay in control for several years and entrench a new, quasi-democratic system that gives vast powers to appointed officials. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

More than 100 people who tried to campaign against the referendum on social media have been thrown in jail, and open criticism has been made punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

"If people cannot speak their minds freely or take part in political activities without fear, how can they meaningfully engage in this referendum," said Josef Benedict, Amnesty International's deputy director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

At a polling booth in Bangkok where Prayuth voted, officials displayed an empty ballot box to reporters and sealed it before letting the first voter  a young woman  enter the booth. She first registered at a desk and signed a paper before casting her ballot.

"Come out (to vote) because today is important for the future of the country. This is your duty and this is part of democracy, of an internationally-recognized process," Prayuth told reporters after voting.

People are being asked to check "yes" or "no" for the constitution and related provisions on the ballot paper. Final results are expected late Sunday.

The main criticism of the draft constitution includes at least five years of a transitional period and a 250-member appointed Senate that includes the commanders of the army and other security services. A deadlock in the 500-member elected lower house could trigger a selection of a prime minister who is not an elected member of parliament.

Also, emergency decrees enacted by the junta without any parliamentary consent remain valid. So-called independent bodies, stacked with conservative appointees, would hold "disproportionately broad and unchecked powers" over elected politicians, said the international human rights consortium FIDH and the Union for Civil Liberty in Thailand.

"If you say 'yes' to the constitution, it means you agree with the content of the constitution ... what makes matters worse is you also give legitimacy to the coup, to the coup makers," said Pavin Chachavalpongpun, an associate professor at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies of Kyoto University in Japan.

Pavin, a Thai and a vocal critic of the junta, told The Associated Press that a victory in the referendum would give the junta the reason to tell the world "don't you dare criticize us anymore because we have the legitimacy."

Even if Thais vote "no," the military will remain in control for the foreseeable future. Prayuth has promised to hold elections next year, without elaborating on how that would happen if voters reject the draft constitution.

Thailand has endured 13 successful military coups and 11 attempted takeovers since it replaced absolute with a constitutional monarchy in 1932. If passed, this would be Thailand's 20th constitution.

Leaders of the latest coup say sometimes violent political conflict made the country ungovernable and that military rule was necessary to bring stability. It set up hand-picked committees to draft a charter that would enshrine its declared goal of reforming politics by eliminating corruption.

But others believe the draft constitution has a different aim: to weaken allies of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the central figure who has roiled Thai politics since 2006.

Thaksin's political machine has easily won every national election since 2001, relying on the support of working-class and rural voters who benefited from his populist policies. Leading the other side is Thailand's traditional ruling class and royalists unnerved by Thaksin's political support, especially as it contemplates its future. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, whose righteous rule has anchored the kingdom since 1946, is 88 and ailing.

The army ousted Thaksin in a 2006 coup, after his "yellow shirt" critics took to the streets and accused him of abuse of power, corruption and disrespecting the king. He has lived abroad since 2008 to avoid prison for a corruption conviction that he says was politically motivated. The 2014 coup ousted his sister Yingluck Shinawatra, who was elected prime minister in 2011, but buffeted by protests sparked by legislation that would have pardoned Thaksin.

Those who brought Thaksin down now seek to weaken major political parties, which would ensure that real power stays in the hands of what is dubbed the permanent bureaucracy: the military, the courts and other unelected guardians of the conservative bloc.

Analysts say the new constitution would make it easy to disband parties, keep politicians in line, impeach politicians, and enforce a coalition government of weaker, smaller parties.

Chaturon Chaisang, who served in the Cabinets of both Thaksin and Yingluck, told the AP that his biggest objection is that "the draft charter will not allow Thai people to determine the future of this country."

___

Associated Press journalists Grant Peck, Jerry Harmer, Tassanee Vejpongsa and Penny Wang in Bangkok and Ken Moritsugu in Tokyo contributed to this report.

Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha poses as he casts his vote in a referendum on a new constitution at a polling station in Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. Thais voted Sunday in a referendum on a new constitution that critics say is tailor-made for the military government to stay in control for several years and entrench a new, quasi-democratic system that gives vast powers to appointed officials. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, center, talks to reporters after casting his vote in a referendum on a new constitution at a polling station in Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. Thais voted Sunday in a referendum on a new constitution that critics say is tailor-made for the military government to stay in control for several years and entrench a new, quasi-democratic system that gives vast powers to appointed officials. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha talks to reporters after casting his vote in a referendum on a new constitution at a polling station in Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. Thais voted Sunday in a referendum on a new constitution that critics say is tailor-made for the military government to stay in control for several years and entrench a new, quasi-democratic system that gives vast powers to appointed officials. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Thai officers show an empty box before the start of vote in a referendum on a new constitution at a polling station in Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. Thais voted Sunday in a referendum on a new constitution that critics say is tailor-made for the military government to stay in control for several years and entrench a new, quasi-democratic system that gives vast powers to appointed officials. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Thais cast their votes in a referendum on a new constitution at a polling station in Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. Thais voted Sunday in a referendum on a new constitution that critics say is tailor-made for the military government to stay in control for several years and entrench a new, quasi-democratic system that gives vast powers to appointed officials. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

A Thai casts his vote in a referendum on a new constitution at a polling station in Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. Thais voted Sunday in a referendum on a new constitution that critics say is tailor-made for the military government to stay in control for several years and entrench a new, quasi-democratic system that gives vast powers to appointed officials. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
Trump on Clinton: 'I don't think she's all there'

WINDHAM, N.H. (AP)  Republican Donald Trump questioned Democrat Hillary Clinton's fitness to be president Saturday night, saying "she's got problems" and that Americans "don't want someone who's going to short-circuit."

Trump told a crowd of supporters that he's not sure the former first lady and secretary of state is up to the job.

"Honestly, I don't think she's all there," Trump said at a rally in a steamy gymnasium.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Windham High School, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2016, in Windham, N.H. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Clinton this week said that she "may have short-circuited" when she claimed that FBI Director James Comey said "my answers were truthful and what I've said is consistent with what I have told the American people" about her use of a private email server during her tenure in the State Department. She had made the claim in an interview with Fox News.

Comey told Congress that investigators had "no basis to conclude she lied to the FBI." But he has also questioned the accuracy of some of the public statements she's made about the issue.

Clinton's statement drew rebuke from fact checkers as well as Trump, who earlier Saturday tweeted that, "Anybody whose mind 'SHORT CIRCUITS' is not fit to be our president! Look up the word 'BRAINWASHED.'"

Trump spoke the day after he ended a standoff with House Speaker Paul Ryan and endorsed his re-election bid. The presidential nominee's decision to withhold his support had underscored the deep divide that remains between Trump and much of the Republican Party.

On Saturday, he didn't mention Ryan or other Republicans with whom he has feuded and kept his barbs focused on Clinton and President Barack Obama, as fellow Republicans had urged him to do.

Trump claimed that Islamic State militants were watching the election closely and "salivating" at the prospect of a second Clinton White House.

"Remember, ISIS is looking, folks. They dream of Hillary Clinton," he said.

In response, the Clinton campaign issued a statement saying, "It's unfortunate that Trump's only method of dealing with his own disastrous week is to lash out with more absurd personal attacks."

Trump's mention of Clinton was met with frequent chants of "lock her up" and other insults from the crowd.

When Trump declared that Clinton was "a liar" and "a horrible, horrible human being" who wasn't fit to serve in the White House, one man in the crowd started barking like a dog.

Supporters cheer for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign rally at Windham High School, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2016, in Windham, N.H. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
In an interview granted to Vietnam News Agency reporters in Laos, the minister said the Vietnamese delegation active participated in discussions on various topics, and the countrys views received approval from other participants.

He also noted that Vietnam has implemented several major projects of the ASEAN, including the issuance of certificates on origin or the ASEAN one-door mechanism, helping the bloc achieve a breakthrough in connectivity and facilitate regional enterprises market access.

The minister added that Vietnam worked closely with other ASEAN countries in boosting ties with partners, such as in completing frameworks for cooperation with China on enhancing production capacity, and plans on development e-commerce and small- and medium-sized enterprises under the initiatives of the Republic of Korea and Japan.

The 48th ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting and related events were the first of its kind that took place after the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community in December 2015. The events focused on reviewing AEC cooperative frameworks and mechanism and adopting specific directions and policies for the AEC.

In addition, consultation meetings between ASEAN and partner countries provided an occasion for the blocs members and partners to look at how to improve institutions and frameworks for cooperation between ASEAN and partners.

A series of related meetings were held in Vientiane from August 3rd-6 in the framework of the 48th ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting and related events, including the 30th Meeting of ASEAN Free Trade Area Council (AFTA 30), the 19th ASEAN Investment Area Council Meeting (AIA 19), the 4th EAS Economic Ministers Meeting, the 8th Mekong-Japan Economic Ministers Meeting, the 8th CLMV Economic Ministers Meeting, and AEM Consultations with nine ASEAN partners: India, Canada, the Republic of Korea, the US, Russia, Japan, New Zealand, Australia and China.

The ASEAN comprises of 10 member countries: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam./.
After shock, Japan warms up to emperor's possible abdication

TOKYO (AP)  Japanese will tune in to Emperor Akihito's rare video message Monday following reports that he would abdicate in the next few years, which initially came as shock but was welcomed by many as a deserved rest for the 82-year-old beloved monarch.

In the pre-recorded message, Akihito will talk about his duties as a "symbol emperor" as stipulated by the constitution, palace officials said. He will most likely avoid the explicit expression of abdication, which would involve political and legal procedures that he is not allowed to discuss.

Akihito still works, though his aides have shifted some of his duties to Crown Prince Naruhito  the elder of his two sons and most likely successor. Yet, Akihito has referred to his old age in recent years, admitting to making small mistakes at ceremonies. During the Aug. 15, 2015, anniversary of the end of World War II, Akihito started reading a statement when he was supposed to observe a moment of silence.

In this Dec. 23, 2014 file photo, Japan's Emperor Akihito waves to well-wishers as he and family members appear on the balcony of the Imperial Palace during the emperor's 81th birthday in Tokyo. Japanese will tune in to Emperor Akihitos rare video message Monday, Aug. 8, 2016 following reports that he would abdicate in the next few years, which initially came as shock but which many people appeared to have welcomed as a deserved rest for the 82-year-old beloved monarch. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)

After the initial surprise, the public warmly welcomed the reported abdication plan, saying the hard-working emperor deserves to enjoy his long-overdue retirement. Lifting the abdication ban, a practice inherited from the prewar constitution, would also bring the imperial life closer to the public.

"Changing that will reflect the reality of Japanese society first of all, the way that almost all people here feel about working and life and career building," said Robert Campbell, a University of Tokyo professor and expert on Japanese history and culture.

According to a nationwide telephone survey by Kyodo News agency this month, nearly 90 percent of the respondents said Akihito is given too much work, while more than 85 percent said an abdication should be legalized as an option to Akihito and his successors.

Akihito has reportedly told palace officials and his families that he doesn't wish to cling to his title with drastically reduced responsibility or by arranging a substitute, and his two sons have accepted the idea. The quiet discussion reportedly started about five years ago, around the time he had health problems  he was hospitalized for bronchitis in 2011, and had heart bypass surgery in 2012.

Palace officials quickly denied the report, because the emperor is not supposed to say anything that would cause a change to the existing system, including his constitutional status.

Experts and media have speculated that Akihito will seek to abdicate while he is still in good health so he can monitor Naruhito, who is seen not quite ready for succession.

"If he does decide to abdicate, I believe that one of the reasons may be that he wants to oversee the change in reign ... in peaceful and successful way," Campbell said.

Akihito ascended to the throne in 1989 after the death of his father, Hirohito, who was considered a deity until Japan's defeat in the World War II, fought in the name of the emperor.

Akihito brought the cloistered imperial family closer to the public and broke with other traditions, including his marriage to a commoner. He has repeatedly said he respects Japan's postwar pacifist constitution and is committed to his status as the symbol and the unity of the people, not the sovereign.

Some speculate that Akihito's abdication may be an attempt to put a break on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's plan to rewrite the constitution. Abe and his ultra-conservative supporters want to scrap a part of the war-renouncing article and upgrade the emperor to the sovereign again.

__

Follow Mari Yamaguchi at https://www.twitter.com/mariyamaguchi

Find her work also at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/mari-yamaguchi

FILE - In this Aug. 15, 2015 file photo, Japan's Emperor Akihito, accompanied by Empress Michiko, leaves after delivering his remarks during a memorial service at Nippon Budokan martial arts hall in Tokyo. Akihito still works, though his aides have shifted some of his duties to Crown Prince Naruhito, the elder of his two sons and most likely successor. Yet, Akihito has referred to his old age in recent years, admitting to making small mistakes at ceremonies. During the Aug. 15, 2015, anniversary of the end of World War II, Akihito started reading a statement when he was supposed to observe a moment of silence. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi, File)

In this Nov. 6, 2011 photo, Japanese Emperor Akihito accompanied by Empress Michiko leaves the Imperial Palace to be admitted to a hospital, in Tokyo. Akihito has reportedly told palace officials and his families that he doesn't wish to cling to his title with drastically reduced responsibility or by arranging a substitute, and his two sons have accepted the idea. The quiet discussion reportedly started about five years ago, around the time he had health problems, he was hospitalized for bronchitis in 2011, and had heart bypass surgery in 2012. (Kyodo News via AP)

In this Feb. 17, 2012 photo, Japanese Emperor Akihito, center, accompanied by Empress Michiko arrives at a hospital to be admitted, in Tokyo. Akihito has reportedly told palace officials and his families that he doesn't wish to cling to his title with drastically reduced responsibility or by arranging a substitute, and his two sons have accepted the idea. The quiet discussion reportedly started about five years ago, around the time he had health problems, he was hospitalized for bronchitis in 2011, and had heart bypass surgery in 2012. (Kyodo News via AP)

In this Dec. 23, 2014 file photo, Japan's Emperor Akihito, third from left, accompanied by his wife Empress Michiko, fourth from right, and their family members, wave to well-wishers as they appear on the balcony of the Imperial Palace to mark the emperor's 81th birthday in Tokyo. From left to right are: Crown Princess Masako, Crown Prince Naruhito, Akihito, Michiko, Prince Akishino, Princess Kiko and Princess Mako. Japanese will tune in to Emperor Akihitos rare video message Monday, Aug. 8, 2016 following reports that he would abdicate in the next few years, which initially came as shock but which many people appeared to have welcomed as a deserved rest for the 82-year-old beloved monarch. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)

In this Aug. 2, 2016 photo, Professor Robert Campbell of the University of Tokyo speaks during an interview in Tokyo. Japanese will tune in to Emperor Akihitos rare video message Monday, Aug. 8, 2016 following reports that he would abdicate in the next few years, which initially came as shock but which many people appeared to have welcomed as a deserved rest for the 82-year-old beloved monarch. "Changing that will reflect the reality of Japanese society first of all, the way that almost all people here feel about working and life and career building," said Campbell. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)
Smuggling surges in Greece as migrant frustrations grow

IDOMENI, Greece (AP)  With Turkey in crisis and Europe's borders closed, smugglers in northern Greece are expecting a profitable summer.

Greek police say traffickers are using increasingly sophisticated methods  motorcycle spotters, maps of border surveillance "blind spots," and even police informants  to move out refugees who have been stuck in this Greek border town for months.

Higher smuggling fees and steadily worsening odds of success have done little to dent the determination of migrants like Sorah Rahimi.

An Afghan woman caresses her child as they sit in a park, at the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, on Saturday, July 9, 2016. With Turkey in crisis and Europes borders closed, smugglers in northern Greece are looking forward to a profitable summer. Police say traffickers are using increasingly sophisticated methods _ with motorcycle spotters, blind spot maps in border surveillance, and even police informants to move refugees stuck here for months in limbo. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

The 22-year-old psychology student traveled from Afghanistan with his mother who is in poor health  and is an ideal target for smuggling rings that are re-emerging in the region. He agreed to pay traffickers 2,500 euros ($2,750) to travel from Greece's northern border with Macedonia to Sweden, but only made it a few miles before being spotted by police and turned back.

"We need to get to Sweden. Our whole family is there. We no longer have anything in Afghanistan," Rahimi told the AP before being taken to a migrant shelter in northern Greece.

Tens of thousands of migrants have been stuck on their journey north across Europe. Governments across the continent slammed their borders shut in March to avoid a repeat of the mass migration in 2015, when more than a million refugees and migrants arrived, triggering a string of political upheavals.

The trip north has become increasingly risky and time-consuming. Rahimi spent three months at the port of Piraeus, near Athens, before traveling north by train.

Last month's attempted coup in Turkey, followed by a draconian government crackdown there on perceived government opponents , has added to the uncertainty.

Traffickers in Greece have re-appeared in greater numbers since the government cleared a massive makeshift camp at Idomeni on the Greek-Macedonian border in late May, according to officials from the country's border guard, national police and security division interviewed by the AP.

In a recent operation, police arrested 29 alleged members of two trafficking rings in northern Greece. One gang had received information from a Greek police officer on gaps in the night vision camera network on the Greek-Turkish border.

Police said the smugglers brought some 600 migrants into Greece from Turkey over several months and helped them reach other countries, using a fleet of taxis, scout vehicles, prepaid "burner" cellphones, and a system of code words that included: "dogs" for police, "garbage trucks" for police cars, and "cement blocks," ''fish," or "kebabs" when referring to the migrants themselves.

"At least six (Greek) taxi drivers were involved in the smuggling rings, charging a regular fare while knowingly participating in the illegal activity," the Greek Police's Brig. George Pantelakos said. "Every transfer assisted by scouts on motorcycle, in an effort to avoid detection."

Other suspects were from Syria, Iraq, Armenia, Albania and Kazakhstan.

Five police officers have also been arrested in Macedonia, accused of helping smugglers north of the Greek border.

In Greece alone, more than 57,000 migrants are stranded, most staying at about 60 government-run camps around the country.

The European Union's law enforcement agency Europol analyzed data from anti-smuggling operations over the first six months of 2016. It found fees charged last year by traffickers for the entire trip from Syria and other warzones to the EU are now often set as the rate for crossing a single border.

Migrants are also more likely to be held up for months and become vulnerable to exploitation.

"Last year, the trips were sometimes completed in one to two weeks; now a journey can last for months," the agency said. "While in 2015, 0.2 percent of migrants declared that they had to work to pay back smugglers, this rose to 5 percent in 2016."

When the numbers peaked in late March, 14,000 people were camped out at Idomeni. Now all that remains there are aluminum posts used for emergency lighting. Sunflowers have appeared in fields that a few weeks ago were packed with tents.

But the migration problem has not been resolved. Dozens of migrants are still hiding in cornfields, under bridges and in forests near Idomeni. Since the refugee camp was cleared, between 50 and 100 migrants a day are spotted trying to cross the border and being turned back, according to police estimates.

Some are found hidden in vans, buses, cars or trains. Others try their luck on foot, looking for gaps in the razor-wire border fence along river banks and mountain trails.

Lina Siopi, a 44-year-old from Idomeni, owns a coffee shop outside the village railway station and says migrants are routinely found hidden in freight cars and detained.

"We see it all the time. In the latest incident ... a family was hiding under a sheet of tarp (in a freight carriage). I don't know where they were from: a couple with two sons," she said.

In Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city, one hour's drive south of the Macedonian border, smugglers brazenly negotiate terms with migrants camped out at parks near the city's main train station. They have the upper hand, since most migrants have already been in the country for several months.

Afghan refugee Fatima Davoodi has agreed on a price already and is waiting for smugglers to pick up her, her husband and two sons, aged six and 10.

"I can't tell you the sum. We want to make it to Finland and will pay the (full) amount when we get there," said Davoodi, a 32-year-old from Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan.

"I'm ready to leave for the border. We know it'll be tough. But if you don't believe you'll make it, you won't," she declared.

___

AP writer Derek Gatopoulos in Athens contributed.

Follow Kantouris at http://www.twitter.com/CostasKantouris

Migrants sleep in a park, at the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, on Saturday, July 9, 2016. With Turkey in crisis and Europes borders closed, smugglers in northern Greece are looking forward to a profitable summer. Police say traffickers are using increasingly sophisticated methods _ with motorcycle spotters, blind spot maps in border surveillance, and even police informants to move refugees stuck here for months in limbo. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

An Afghan boy sleeps in a park, at the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, on Saturday, July 9, 2016. With Turkey in crisis and Europes borders closed, smugglers in northern Greece are looking forward to a profitable summer. Police say traffickers are using increasingly sophisticated methods _ with motorcycle spotters, blind spot maps in border surveillance, and even police informants to move refugees stuck here for months in limbo. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

An Afghan man charges his cellphone outside a restaurant, at the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, on Saturday, July 9, 2016. With Turkey in crisis and Europes borders closed, smugglers in northern Greece are looking forward to a profitable summer. Police say traffickers are using increasingly sophisticated methods _ with motorcycle spotters, blind spot maps in border surveillance, and even police informants to move refugees stuck here for months in limbo. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

An Afghan family eats breakfast in a park, at the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, on Saturday, July 9, 2016. With Turkey in crisis and Europes borders closed, smugglers in northern Greece are looking forward to a profitable summer. Police say traffickers are using increasingly sophisticated methods _ with motorcycle spotters, blind spot maps in border surveillance, and even police informants to move refugees stuck here for months in limbo. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

An woman carries her crying baby in a park, at the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, on Saturday, July 9, 2016. With Turkey in crisis and Europes borders closed, smugglers in northern Greece are looking forward to a profitable summer. Police say traffickers are using increasingly sophisticated methods _ with motorcycle spotters, blind spot maps in border surveillance, and even police informants to move refugees stuck here for months in limbo. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

Migrants sit in a park, at the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, on Saturday, July 9, 2016. With Turkey in crisis and Europes borders closed, smugglers in northern Greece are looking forward to a profitable summer. Police say traffickers are using increasingly sophisticated methods _ with motorcycle spotters, blind spot maps in border surveillance, and even police informants to move refugees stuck here for months in limbo. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
IS claims Belgium machete attack that wounded 2 policewomen

BRUSSELS (AP)  The Islamic State group on Sunday claimed responsibility for a weekend machete attack that wounded two policewomen in the Belgian city of Charleroi, calling it an act of reprisal carried out by one of its "soldiers."

Belgian prosecutors identified the machete-wielding assailant as a 33-year-old Algerian known to police for criminal offenses, but not for extremist acts.

Belgian media reported that he was in the country illegally, despite two separate orders being issued for him to leave. The government didn't immediately confirm the reports.

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel speaks during a media conference at the prime ministers office in Brussels on Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. A man attacked two police officers with a machete near the police headquarters in Charleroi, Belgium on Saturday, Aug. 6, 2016 before being apprehended. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

The attack on Saturday afternoon is being treated as a terrorist incident, notably because the man shouted "Allahu akbar!"  Arabic for "God is great"  as he slashed at the officers outside Charleroi's main police station, Prime Minister Charles Michel said.

The assailant, shot by a third officer, died later in a hospital. A statement by the IS-affiliated Aamaq News Agency, posted Sunday on an IS-linked Twitter account, said the attack on the policewomen was in response to the "Crusader coalition's" military campaign against IS and its self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria.

Belgium, a longtime U.S. ally, is a member of the American-led coalition combating IS, and has supplied warplanes to participate in anti-IS operations.

The Belgian Federal Prosecutor's Office said the attacker, who it identified only as K.B., had lived in Belgium since 2012.

"Since there are indications that the attack may have been inspired by a terrorist motive, the federal prosecutor's office decided to take over the investigation from the district prosecutor's office of Charleroi," the federal office said in a statement.

The office said two police searches were carried out overnight in the southern Belgian city, but that no further information about the investigation would be made public.

Broadcast media including state-owned RTBF said K.B. was in Belgium illegally despite receiving two separate orders from government authorities to leave. Michel didn't directly confirm the reports. But he told RTL television that more must be done to combat illegal immigration, saying it was difficult to persuade Algeria to accept the return of its nationals.

Both policewomen were "severely injured in the face and neck" in the attack, the federal prosecutors' statement said. RTL said both were placed in an artificial coma to allow surgeons to operate on them. Michel said the prosecutors were treating the attack on the officers as a case of "attempted terrorist murder."

Michel said the prosecutors were treating the attack on the officers as a case of "attempted terrorist murder."

The prime minister spoke to reporters following an emergency meeting with top Belgian law enforcement officials Sunday morning. Michel cut short his vacation in the south of France following the Charleroi attack, which had some police unions clamoring for greater protection for police officers and installations.

"We must keep a cool head," Michel said. "We must avoid panic, of course  not give in to terror. That's the trap that has been set for us."

Belgium has been on high alert since the March 22 suicide bombings claimed by Islamic State extremists that killed 32 people in Brussels. Many of the perpetrators of the Nov. 13 carnage in Paris that killed 130 people were also residents of Belgium. That attack was also claimed by IS.

"We know we must be constantly, constantly vigilant," Michel said.

Defense Minister Steven Vandeput said the government's Crisis Center would meet to determine if additional measures should be taken to protect police buildings and staff.

On Sunday, Charleroi police posted a request on their Twitter account asking reporters not to divulge officers' identities.

"We are targets," Charleroi police explained.

Prosecutors said K.B. was carrying a backpack at the time of the attack, but that a bomb squad search found no explosives or other weapons inside.

On June 27, Belgium deployed six F-16s to the Middle East for a year as part of the U.S.-led coalition, with orders to strike Islamic State targets while operating in Syrian and Iraqi airspace, the Belgian Defense Ministry announced at the time. Until returning home in July 2015, Belgian F-16s took part in earlier anti-IS missions over Iraq.

___

Maamoun Youssef reported from Cairo.

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel, center, speaks during a media conference at the prime ministers office in Brussels on Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. A man attacked two police officers with a machete near the police headquarters in Charleroi, Belgium on Saturday, Aug. 6, 2016 before being apprehended. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Police secure an area in front of the Belgian Prime Minister's office, prior to a media conference in Brussels on Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. A man attacked two police officers with a machete near the police headquarters in Charleroi, Belgium on Saturday, Aug. 6, 2016 before being apprehended. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Iran executes nuclear scientist who was convicted of spying

TEHRAN, Iran (AP)  Iran executed a nuclear scientist convicted of spying for the United States, an official said Sunday, acknowledging for the first time that the nation secretly detained and tried a man who was once heralded as a hero.

Shahram Amiri defected to the U.S. at the height of Western efforts to thwart Iran's nuclear program. When he returned in 2010, he was welcomed with flowers by government leaders and even went on the Iranian talk-show circuit. Then he mysteriously disappeared.

He was hanged the same week that Tehran executed a group of militants, a year after Iran agreed to a landmark accord to limit uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

FILE--In this file photo taken on Thursday, July 15, 2010, Shahram Amiri, an Iranian nuclear scientist attends a news briefing while holding his son Amir Hossein as he arrives at the Imam Khomeini airport just outside Tehran, Iran, after returning from the United States. Amiri, who was caught up in a real-life U.S. spy mystery and later returned to his homeland and disappeared, has reportedly been executed under similarly mysterious circumstances. Amiri was reportedly hanged this week and family members held a memorial service for him in the Iranian city of in Kermanshah, 500 kilometers (310 miles) southwest of Tehran. State media in Iran, which has been silent about Amiris case for years, has not reported his death. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

Amiri first vanished in 2009 while on a religious pilgrimage to Muslim holy sites in Saudi Arabia. A year later, he reappeared in a series of contradictory online videos filmed in the U.S. He then walked into the Iranian-interests section at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington and demanded to be sent home.

In interviews, he described being kidnapped and held against his will by Saudi and American spies. U.S. officials said he was to receive millions of dollars for his help in understanding Iran's nuclear program.

Iranian judiciary spokesman Gholamhosein Mohseni Ejehi said Amiri "had access to the country's secret and classified information" and "had been linked to our hostile and No. 1 enemy, America, the Great Satan."

The spokesman told journalists that Amiri had been tried in a death-penalty case that was upheld by an appeals court. He did not explain why authorities never announced the conviction, though he said Amiri had access to lawyers.

News about Amiri, born in 1977, has been scant since his return to Iran. Last year, his father told the BBC's Farsi-language service that his son had been held at a secret site. Ejehi said Amiri's family mistakenly believed he received a 10-year prison sentence.

On Tuesday, Iran announced it had executed a number of criminals, describing them mainly as militants from the country's Kurdish minority. Then an obituary notice for Amiri circulated in his hometown of Kermanshah, a city 500 kilometers (310 miles) southwest of Tehran, according to the Iranian pro-reform daily newspaper Shargh.

Manoto, a private satellite television channel based in London believed to be run by those who back Iran's ousted shah, reported Saturday that Amiri had been executed. BBC Farsi also quoted Amiri's mother saying her son's neck bore ligature marks suggesting he had been hanged by the state.

The Associated Press could not immediately reach Amiri's family.

His disappearance came as Western countries stepped up their efforts to impede Iran's nuclear program under the government of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The U.S. actively tried to recruit nuclear scientists to defect. Later, four Iranian nuclear scientists were assassinated between 2010 and 2012, and Iran blamed the slayings on Israel and the West.

The Stuxnet computer virus, widely believed to be a joint U.S.-Israeli creation, also disrupted thousands of centrifuges at a uranium enrichment facility in Iran at the same time.

In June 2010, a shaky online video emerged of Amiri saying he had been kidnapped by American and Saudi agents and was in Tucson, Arizona.

A short time later, he appeared in a professionally shot online video near a chess set, saying he wanted to earn a doctorate in America and return to Iran if an "opportunity of safe travel" presented itself. His wife and son remained behind in Iran.

"I have not done any activity against my homeland," he said. But soon, another clip contradicted that, and he appeared at the Pakistani Embassy.

Hillary Clinton, who was then the secretary of state, stressed that Amiri had been in America "of his own free will."

"He is free to go," she said.

U.S. officials at the time told the AP that Amiri was paid $5 million to offer the CIA information about Iran's nuclear program, though he left the country without the money. They said Amiri, who ran a radiation-detection program in Iran, traveled to the U.S. and stayed there for months by choice.

Analysts abroad suggested Iranian authorities may have threatened Amiri's family back in Iran, forcing him to return.

On his return from the U.S., Amiri was greeted at airport by high-ranking government officials and was invited to TV talk shows where he explained how he bypassed a U.S. trap to get home. Many newspapers published accounts of his return on their front pages and some suggested a movie be made from his story.

He said Saudi and American officials had kidnapped him while he visited the Saudi holy city of Medina. He said Israeli agents were present at his interrogations and that that CIA officers offered him $50 million to remain in America.

"I was under the harshest mental and physical torture," he said.

Amiri's case indirectly found its way back into the spotlight in the U.S. last year with the release of State Department emails sent and received by Clinton, now the Democratic presidential candidate. The release of those emails came amid criticism of Clinton's use of a private account and server that has persisted into her campaign against Republican candidate Donald Trump.

An email forwarded to Clinton by senior adviser Jake Sullivan on July 5, 2010  just 10 days before Amiri returned to Tehran  appears to reference the scientist.

"We have a diplomatic, 'psychological' issue, not a legal one. Our friend has to be given a way out," the email by Richard Morningstar, a former State Department special envoy for Eurasian energy, read. "Our person won't be able to do anything anyway. If he has to leave, so be it."

Another email, sent by Sullivan on July 12, 2010, appears to obliquely refer to the scientist just hours before his appearance at the Pakistani Embassy became widely known.

"The gentleman ... has apparently gone to his country's interests section because he is unhappy with how much time it has taken to facilitate his departure," Sullivan wrote. "This could lead to problematic news stories in the next 24 hours."

___

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

___

Associated Press Writer Amir Vahdat contributed to this report.

In this July 15, 2010 photo, Shahram Amiri, an Iranian nuclear scientist speaks with journalists at the Imam Khomeini airport, just outside Tehran, Iran, after returning to his homeland from the United States. Amiri, an Iranian nuclear scientist caught up in a real-life U.S. spy mystery who later returned to his homeland and disappeared has been reportedly executed under similarly mysterious circumstances. Foreign media reports say Shahram Amiri was hanged this week and a memorial service for him was held in Kermanshah, 500 kilometers (310 miles) southwest of Tehran. The reports cited his mother, whom The Associated Press was unable to reach. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

FILE -- In this July 15, 2010 file photo, Shahram Amiri, an Iranian nuclear scientist flashes a victory sign as he arrives to the Imam Khomeini airport just outside Tehran, Iran, from the United States. Amiri, who was caught up in a real-life U.S. spy mystery and later returned to his homeland and disappeared, has reportedly been executed under similarly mysterious circumstances. Amiri was reportedly hanged this week and family members held a memorial service for him in the Iranian city of in Kermanshah, 500 kilometers (310 miles) southwest of Tehran. Then deputy Iranian Foreign Minister Hassan Qashqavi, is at right. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)
German police: Man who barricaded himself asleep in basement

BERLIN (AP)  An injured man who barricaded himself in a restaurant in the western city of Saarbruecken on Sunday morning was later found asleep in the basement of the building and detained, police said.

Saarbruecken police also said the 43-year-old man, who was not identified, didn't have a weapon as authorities had initially reported.

Police spokesman Kurt Schwindling said the man, a relative of the restaurant owner, had initially entered the place, screamed at security staff and sent them outside. Schwindling said the man was probably suffering from psychological problems.

A policecar and an ambulance pictured in downtown Saarbruecken, Germany, Sunday Aug. 7, 2016. An injured man who barricaded himself in a restaurant in the western city of Saarbruecken on Sunday morning was later found asleep in the basement of the building and detained, police said. (Birgit Reichert/dpa via AP)

It was not clear why he was injured.
Thai voters overwhelmingly approve junta-backed co

BANGKOK (AP)  Thai voters on Sunday overwhelmingly approved a new junta-backed constitution that lays the foundation for a civilian government influenced by the military and controlled by appointed - rather than elected - officials.

Although near-final results showed that more than 60 percent of voters in a referendum called by the military government approved of the constitution, the vote is likely to be met by some skepticism. The junta - led by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a retired army general who has severely curtailed dissent since coming to power in a 2014 coup - imposed severe restrictions on public discussion of the proposed constitution.

Ahead of the referendum, the junta banned political rallies and open discussion about the constitution, and criticism of the draft was made punishable by 10 years in jail. Critics say the restrictions ensured that most people were unaware of the pitfalls of the charter, and were probably anxious to get the long-drawn process over with so that they could move on.

Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha poses as he casts his vote in a referendum on a new constitution at a polling station in Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. Thais voted Sunday in a referendum on a new constitution that critics say is tailor-made for the military government to stay in control for several years and entrench a new, quasi-democratic system that gives vast powers to appointed officials. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

The "yes" vote "adds that touch of legitimacy to the coup makers," Pavin Chachavalpongpun, an associate professor at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies of Kyoto University in Japan, told The Associated Press.

"It gives them the green light for the next few steps they want to take. They will say the opposition cannot say anything now," said Pavin, who is Thai and is a vocal critic of the junta.

Prayuth's office, however, said in a statement late Sunday that the referendum "was conducted with a high degree of transparency and openness on part of the government."

Despite the curbs on civil liberties, Prayuth's rule has brought a measure of stability and ended the frequent street violence and divisive politics that had frayed Thailand's social fabric for years. That veneer of stability could help explain the "yes" vote for the new constitution.

There was also the allure of new elections that Prayuth has promised to hold in 2017, after the approval of the new constitution, although he's said he would call the vote even if the referendum was defeated.

The charter "speaks to a lot of worries and concerns that a majority of Thai people have," Gothom Areeya, a professor at Thailand's Mahidol University, told the AP. "Many Thais want to see an end to corruption and the return of peace and development. Even though experts like me may criticize it a lot, our message just didn't reach a lot of the people."

With 94 percent of the ballots tallied when counting was suspended for the night, 61 percent of the voters said they approved of the constitution, while 39 percent rejected it. The official final count is expected to be issued on Wednesday.

Only about 58 percent of Thailand's roughly 50 million registered voters cast ballots in the referendum.

In addition to asking for an opinion on the constitution, the referendum also asked a supplementary question on whether voters wanted an appointed Senate to choose a prime minister. That question elicited a less enthusiastic approval - 58 percent "yes" and 42 percent "no."

Analysts have said that a "yes" vote would be a setback for democracy in Thailand.

Pavin, the Kyoto University professor, said that even when the military is no longer in power and a civilian government is in place after the 2017 elections, the military "will have the constitution as a remote control. The constitution can be used as a device to hold onto political power."

The main criticisms of the draft constitution are:

- A transition period of at least five years to civilian rule.

- A 250-member appointed Senate that includes the commanders of the army and other security services.

- A deadlock in the 500-member elected lower house could trigger a selection of a prime minister who is not an elected member of parliament. Under the abolished 2007 constitution, half the Senate was elected, and the prime minister had to come from the lower house.

- Emergency decrees enacted by the junta without any parliamentary consent remain valid.

Thailand has endured 13 successful military coups and 11 attempted takeovers since it replaced an absolute monarchy with a constitutional one in 1932. This would be Thailand's 20th constitution.

Leaders of the latest coup say frequent political conflicts had made the country ungovernable and that military rule was necessary for stability. The junta set up hand-picked committees to draft a charter that would enshrine its declared goal of reforming politics by eliminating corruption.

But others believe the new constitution has a different aim: to weaken allies of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the central figure in the roiling of Thai politics.

Thaksin's political machine has easily won every national election since 2001, mainly due to the support of working-class and rural voters who benefited from his populist policies. Leading the other side is Thailand's traditional ruling class and royalists - known as the "yellow shirts" - unnerved by Thaksin's support, especially as it contemplates its future. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, whose righteous rule has anchored the kingdom since 1946, is 88 and ailing.

The army ousted Thaksin in a 2006 coup, after "yellow shirt" protesters took to the streets and accused him of abuse of power, corruption and disrespecting the king. He has lived abroad since 2008 to avoid prison for a corruption conviction that he says was politically motivated. The 2014 coup ousted his sister Yingluck Shinawatra, who was elected prime minister in 2011.

Those who brought Thaksin down now seek to weaken major political parties, which would ensure that real power stays in the hands of what is dubbed the permanent bureaucracy: the military, the courts and other unelected guardians of the conservative bloc.

Gothom, the Mahidol professor, said that Thailand may see peace now, but that it will likely be a peace enforced by military power.

"How much or how little freedom of expression will be allowed to the people, we will just have to wait and see," he said.

___

Associated Press journalists Grant Peck, Jerry Harmer and Tassanee Vejpongsa in Bangkok and Ken Moritsugu in Tokyo contributed to this report.

Thai soldiers line up to check their names before voting in a referendum on a new constitution at a polling station in Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. Thais voted Sunday in a referendum on a new constitution that critics say is tailor-made for the military government to stay in control for several years and entrench a new, quasi-democratic system that gives vast powers to appointed officials. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha leaves after casting his vote in a referendum on a new constitution at a polling station in Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. Thais voted Sunday in a referendum on a new constitution that critics say is tailor-made for the military government to stay in control for several years and entrench a new, quasi-democratic system that gives vast powers to appointed officials. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Thais cast their votes in a referendum on a new constitution at a polling station in Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. Thais voted Sunday in a referendum on a new constitution that critics say is tailor-made for the military government to stay in control for several years and entrench a new, quasi-democratic system that gives vast powers to appointed officials. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha poses as he casts his vote in a referendum on a new constitution at a polling station in Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. Thais voted Sunday in a referendum on a new constitution that critics say is tailor-made for the military government to stay in control for several years and entrench a new, quasi-democratic system that gives vast powers to appointed officials. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, center, talks to reporters after casting his vote in a referendum on a new constitution at a polling station in Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. Thais voted Sunday in a referendum on a new constitution that critics say is tailor-made for the military government to stay in control for several years and entrench a new, quasi-democratic system that gives vast powers to appointed officials. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha talks to reporters after casting his vote in a referendum on a new constitution at a polling station in Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. Thais voted Sunday in a referendum on a new constitution that critics say is tailor-made for the military government to stay in control for several years and entrench a new, quasi-democratic system that gives vast powers to appointed officials. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Thai officers show an empty box before the start of vote in a referendum on a new constitution at a polling station in Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. Thais voted Sunday in a referendum on a new constitution that critics say is tailor-made for the military government to stay in control for several years and entrench a new, quasi-democratic system that gives vast powers to appointed officials. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
Clinton's 'Moscow Spring' ended as Putin returned to power

WASHINGTON (AP)  As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton basked in a diplomatic "Moscow Spring," seizing on Vladimir Putin's break from the presidency to help seal a nuclear arms-control treaty and secure Russia's acquiescence to a NATO-led military intervention in Libya. When Putin returned to the top job, things changed.

Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, has vowed to stand up to Putin if elected, drawing on her four years of ups and downs as the public face of President Barack Obama's first-term "reset" with Russia. By comparison, her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, has rung alarm bells in Washington and Europe with his overtures to the authoritarian Russian leader.

But Clinton's wrangles with Russia led to mixed results. Her fortunes dipped dramatically after Putin replaced Dmitry Medvedev as president in May 2012.

FILE - In this Sept. 8, 2012 pool-file photo, Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Vladivostok, Russia. Clinton says as president she will stand up to Putin. As secretary of state, her wrangles with Russia had mixed results. Clinton, the public face of President Barack Obama's first-term "reset" policy with Russia, scored a number of diplomatic successes _ when Dmitry Medvedev was president. When Putin reclaimed the presidency, it was a different story. (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel, Pool, File)

Just weeks later, Russia outmaneuvered her in negotiations over a complicated Syria peace plan, dealing her what was arguably her worst diplomatic defeat. While Clinton hailed it as a triumph, the war only escalated. And while her aides still insist she came out on top, the blueprint effectively gave Syria's Moscow-backed president, Bashar Assad, a veto over any transition government, hampering all mediation efforts still.

"There is no doubt that when Putin came back in and said he was going to be president, that did change the relationship," Clinton said in a Democratic debate last year. "We have to stand up to his bullying and specifically, in Syria it is important."

Clinton's history with Russia is significant given the surprising role Russia has played in the U.S. presidential campaign.

Clinton and her supporters say she would be far tougher on Moscow than Trump, whose unusual foreign policy statements include musings about NATO's relevance and suggestions that he could accept Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region. Russia's reported hacking of Democratic Party email accounts also has led to charges that Putin's intelligence services are meddling in the election, and Trump aided that perception by publicly encouraging Russia to find and release more of her emails.

Clinton's first encounters in Russian diplomacy began on much more hopeful note. Meeting Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in 2009, Clinton initiated the effort to repair years of bitter relations, punctuated by a Russian war with neighboring Georgia a year earlier. Offering a large red reset button, Clinton outlined a broad agenda of cooperation.

The new policy paid dividends.

With Putin focused on domestic matters during a four-year stint as prime minister, Medvedev opened up a new corridor for U.S. forces and materiel heading to Afghanistan as part of the U.S. surge in the war. After missile defense concessions by Obama, the two nations sealed their most ambitious arms control pact in a generation. Washington and Moscow united on new Iran sanctions. Years of trade negotiations culminated in Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization.

But it was perhaps Clinton's unlikeliest diplomatic breakthrough that began the downward spiral: Libya. Even before Putin's first two terms as president, Russia had always opposed U.N. Security Council action that might lead to a leadership change.

As America's European allies sought a military intervention against Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, Clinton played the role of skeptic, refusing to jump aboard. When she finally did, it proved critical in persuading Russia to abstain. The rebels overthrew Gadhafi five months later.

"It was the first time that Putin publicly criticized Medvedev," said Michael McFaul, Obama's main Russia adviser at the time and later U.S. ambassador in Moscow. "When things went poorly and not according to plan as we had promised, I think that was the beginning of the end for the reset."

Relations soured further by the end of the year as Putin won a new, six-year presidential term. Evidence of election fraud led to the largest protests since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Clinton issued a sharply worded statement; Putin accused Clinton of sending the "signal" to undermine his country.

If Libya destroyed trust, McFaul said the demonstrations were the reset's "body blow."

"Putin got paranoid," he said, and "believed we were behind them, really believed it. We never gained traction after that."

Returning as president in May 2012, Putin was immediately confronted with Syria's Libya-like escalation from Arab Spring protests to full-scale civil war. He played his cards differently than Medvedev, hinting to Obama that he could drop his support for the Syrian leader while shielding Assad from any U.N. pressure or foreign action that might chase him from power.

"Putin claimed that he had no particular love for Assad," Clinton wrote in her memoir "Hard Choices," recalling a meeting between the U.S. and Russian presidents in June 2012. "He also professed to have no real leverage with Damascus."

Seeking Russia's cooperation, Obama and Clinton avoided any talk that might threaten Russian equities in Syria, including a large naval base there. Their message was clear: The U.S. wouldn't try to pull a future post-Assad government out of Moscow's orbit.

It didn't matter. When the U.N. proposed a peace plan that involved ushering Assad out of power and included penalties for noncompliance, the Russians balked. Faced with stalemate, the U.S. and Russia arrived at a formula for a new government comprised of individuals chosen by the "mutual consent" of Assad and the opposition.

Although Clinton claimed credit for the June 30, 2012, compromise in Geneva, it appeared to be Russia's objective all along.

"There was no way Assad would pass such a test," Clinton said. "The opposition would never consent to him."

Russia didn't read the deal that way. Neither did Assad. And Assad is still president.

"Putin doesn't do favors," said Stephen Sestanovich, a Russia specialist at the Council on Foreign Relations and a senior diplomat under Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. "If we had had a robust policy in Syria and said, 'This is what we're going to do; what are you going to do?'  that's one thing. But we didn't. We asked for help and the chances of that working were zero."

The Geneva deal has had long-term repercussions. The U.S. and Russia both say it must be the basis of any settlement to the five-year civil war. But their interpretations still differ, contributing to a standstill that keeps Assad in power.

At the time Clinton negotiated the Geneva deal, some 8,000 people had been killed in Syria. Since then, the death toll has risen to perhaps 500,000, with millions of refugees and the Islamic State group emerging.

"I doubt they could have gotten more out of Russia," said Robert Ford, who was U.S. ambassador to Syria at the time and is now a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.

Clinton's deal could have proved viable, if backed up by American military pressure, he said. But Obama didn't see it that way. "The tactics were not in sync with the strategy," Ford said.

Frederic Hof, a senior member of Clinton's delegation to the talks, called the document a "roadmap to peaceful regime change." But others in the U.S. government were unwilling to do anything to realize the plan, he said, adding: "This is why Syria continues to hemorrhage internally and externally."

Clinton, in any case, was mistaken if she believed Obama was prepared to act militarily in Syria.

With her plan doomed to fail otherwise, she joined Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and CIA Director David Petraeus later that year in urging Obama to authorize military support for vetted, moderate rebels and U.S. enforcement of a no-fly zone over opposition-held areas of the country.

Obama refused.

Clinton has acknowledged her frustration with an increasingly hostile Russia on Syria and other matters as her time in office wound down.

In her final months, Russia ordered the end of all U.S. Agency for International Development programs in the country. It approved a new law constraining the work of Russian and foreign non-governmental organizations. It banned U.S. adoptions of Russian children.

In December 2012, Clinton accused Putin of trying to "re-Sovietize" its region. And just before leaving, she wrote a memo to Obama urging him to finally suspend a reset that ended once and for all with Russia's military incursions in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea in 2014  well after Clinton had left government.

"Strength and resolve were the only language Putin would understand," Clinton wrote in her book, published shortly afterward.

It was a lesson she could say she learned firsthand.

FILE - In this March 6, 2009, file pool photo, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hold together a device a with a red button symbolizing the intention to "reset" U.S.-Russian relations during their meeting in Geneva, Switzerland .Clinton says as president she will stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin. As secretary of state, her wrangles with Russia had mixed results. Clinton, the public face of President Barack Obama's first-term "reset" policy with Russia, scored a number of diplomatic successes _ when Dmitry Medvedev was president. When Putin reclaimed the presidency, it was a different story. (AP Photo/Fabrice Coffrini, Pool, File)
The Latest: Bill Clinton to appear before Asian-Americans

WASHINGTON (AP)  The Latest on the 2016 presidential campaign (all times EDT):

5:40 p.m.

Former President Bill Clinton, appearing on behalf of his wife and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, will address thousands of Asian-American and Pacific Islander voters at a forum in Las Vegas.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at the 2016 National Association of Black Journalists' and National Association of Hispanic Journalists' Hall of Fame Luncheon at Marriott Wardman Park in Washington, Friday, Aug. 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson will also speak at the gathering Friday at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace.

Billed as the 2016 Presidential Election Forum, the event is being put on by the Asian American Journalists Association and the Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote.

Organizers say they are in the final stages of discussions with Republican nominee Donald Trump's campaign.

The forum will mark the first time major presidential campaigns speak directly to the AAPI community at the same event.

Members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus also plan to talk about the importance of voting.

___

3:50 p.m.

Vice President Joe Biden seems to be taking a swipe at Donald Trump for the candidate's recent remark that he "always wanted to get the Purple Heart."

On Twitter Sunday, Biden wrote: "No one wants to earn a Purple Heart. But to those who did, you have America's unending gratitude and admiration. Thank you. #PurpleHeart Day."

The Purple Heart acknowledges service members who have been wounded or killed. At a voter rally in Virginia, Trump accepted a Purple Heart from an audience member by saying he always wanted one but "this was much easier."

___

10:40 a.m.

Newt Gingrich says that "of course" Donald Trump's economic plan doesn't add up and adds that historically, no candidates' numbers do.

The former House speaker and presidential candidate was responding to a question on FOX News Sunday about whether Trump's plan to slash corporate and other taxes was economically sound.

Gingrich replied, "Of course not....No candidate's numbers add up."

Gingrich quickly suggested ways how Trump's plan might offset the loss of government revenue if he cuts corporate tax from 35% to 15%, as Trump plans. Gingrich said Trump could offset tax losses by overturning Obama administration regulations and from expanded energy exploration revenues.

Trump and Clinton are expected to outline their economic plans this week in Detroit.

___

10:38 a.m.

Some Republicans are giving their presidential candidate positive reinforcement for reversing himself and endorsing House Speaker Paul Ryan, Sen. John McCain and Sen. Kelly Ayotte.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Trump "should have done that in the first place," but has "gotten the messages" from other Republicans to unify the divided GOP. He suggested that Trump is climbing a learning curve in his transition from business world titan to presidential candidate.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani says Trump's endorsements, coming after his refusal to endorse the trio, show that Trump "has the ability and the understanding to realize that there are going to be disagreements and you've got to be able to reach out to the entire party."

Gingrich spoke on "Fox News Sunday." Giuliani spoke on ABC's "This Week."

___

9:48 a.m.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich says he has no idea how he'll vote come November because he doesn't support Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. He also says he isn't sure whether Trump can win Ohio if he remains so divisive.

Kasich, who lost the GOP primary to Trump and shunned the Republican National Convention, tells CNN's "State of the Union" that four years of Hillary Clinton would mean "total gridlock."

But Kasich says he can't swing behind Trump either, and that any candidate who wants to win his support has to "operate in the light," and not on the "dark side of the street."

___

8:59 a.m.

As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton basked in a diplomatic "Moscow Spring," seizing on Vladimir Putin's break from the presidency to help seal a nuclear arms-control treaty and secure Russia's acquiescence to a NATO-led military intervention in Libya.

But when Putin returned to the top job, things changed.

Now the Democratic presidential nominee, Clinton has vowed to stand up to Putin if elected, drawing on her four years of ups and downs as the public face of President Barack Obama's first-term "reset" with Russia. By comparison, her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, has rung alarm bells in Washington and Europe with his overtures to the authoritarian Russian leader.

But Clinton's wrangles with Russia led to mixed results.

___

8:38 a.m.

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton will deliver what aides are billing as a major economic speech on Thursday in Detroit.

Clinton's appearance is set to follow a speech planned by Republican rival Donald Trump on what he would do to improve economic growth. Trump's speech is set for Monday in the same city.

The dueling Detroit addresses come as new polls show Clinton gaining ground on economic issues.

Aides say Clinton will outline her economic plans and argue that Trump is only focused on the wealthiest Americans.

At campaign events last week, Clinton questioned Trump's commitment to creating American jobs by highlighting his use of outsourcing at his companies.

Trump's populist economic message includes a vow to revive manufacturing jobs and renegotiate trade deals to benefit American workers.
Convicted of murder as a teen, man now has shot at freedom

WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP)  Johnny Small was just 15 when police came to arrest him in 1988  so young he assumed he was in trouble for a curfew violation.

Instead, police charged him with first-degree murder of a woman who owned a tropical-fish store  a place Small says he'd never even visited.

He was convicted and sentenced to life behind bars, mainly on the testimony of co-defendant  a friend who once lived with Small's family. That man, David Bollinger, has since recanted. Bollinger says he testified only because prosecutors promised his charged would be dropped in exchange, and threatened the death penalty if he didn't cooperate.

Johnny Small massages his forehead in frustration following an interview at New Hanover Correctional Center in Wilmington, N.C., on Thursday, Aug. 4, 2016. Small has been in prison since he was 16 for a murder he insists he did not commit. A hearing is scheduled to begin Monday, Aug. 8 for Small, who has always maintained his innocence. The judge could vacate the conviction, order a new trial or uphold the conviction. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)

Now, at 43, Small has a chance at freedom. A hearing is scheduled to begin Monday for Small, who has always maintained his innocence. The judge could vacate the conviction, order a new trial or uphold the conviction.

Small "has spent his entire adult life and part of his childhood in prison for a crime he did not commit," a defense motion says. Now, he's grateful his one-time friend, Bollinger, came forward, even though it took decades, he told The Associated Press in an interview at New Hanover County Correctional Center.

"He's doing what he thinks is right, what he knows is right," said Small, adding that he hasn't communicated with Bollinger since his former friend testified. "And I'm happy for that. But am I going to jump for joy? No. Because he should have."

If Small is released, he'll be in a world that he's seen only on television. Before prison, he listened to music on cassette tapes. He's never used a cellphone or Facebook. He has driven a car, but not legally, he said, breaking into one of his few smiles during the interview.

He's made no big plans if he's released other than seeking therapy, leaving Wilmington and getting a job.

Defense attorney Chris Mumma is hopeful Small will go free  no physical evidence tied him to the death of Pam Dreher at her fish shop  and she says in court filings there's "absolutely no remaining evidence of guilt in the case."

Prosecutors declined to comment, but in response to defense motions say the latest evidence "does little other than discredit or impeach witness testimony, making it insufficient to support a claim for a new trial and certainly does not support outright dismissal of the case."

A record number of people falsely convicted of crimes  149  were exonerated in 2015, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. The registry is a project of the University of Michigan Law School and has documented more than 1,850 such cases in the U.S.

Bollinger called the N.C. Center on Actual Innocence in 2012, saying his testimony was false. Small's defense motion lays out other discrepancies, including problems with the Crimestoppers call that lead police to Small and Bollinger.

At trial, Bollinger testified that he had no deal with prosecutors. After the state Court of Appeals upheld Small's conviction in 1991, the charge against Bollinger was dropped. Bollinger's attorney declined to comment to The Associated Press.

Small says he doesn't blame Bollinger anymore. "I just let it go because it was hurting me more than it was doing anything," Small said. "I was hurting myself. Carrying around all that hate, what's it going to do? It's going to destroy you."

Tropical Paradise owner Dreher was 32 when she died of a single gunshot wound to the head. The AP reached her brother, Mark Alan Smith, who declined to comment. Her husband, David Dreher, couldn't be reached.

Reports at the time of Dreher's death said police believed robbery was the motive  $173 was missing from the register  but her purse and jewelry were left behind.

Margie Hilburn, 95, who lives across the street from David Dreher, remembers Pam Dreher as "a lovely person ... and it broke David's heart when he found out that somebody killed her. "

Small has endured his own losses while imprisoned. His mother died in February, and Small attended her funeral with two correctional officers.

"It's hard enough living here day by day, knowing she's gone," he said, holding back tears. "So I can only imagine what Mrs. Dreher's family is going through."

___

AP National Writer Allen G. Breed contributed to this report.

___

Martha Waggoner can be reached at http://twitter.com/mjwaggonernc. Her work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/martha-waggoner.

A prison tattoo with the word "PRIDE" stands out from Johnny Small's forearm during an interview at New Hanover Correctional Center in Wilmington, N.C., on Thursday, Aug. 4, 2016. Small is awaiting a hearing on whether his conviction in the 1988 murder of fish store owner Pam Dreher will be overturned. A hearing is scheduled to begin Monday, Aug. 8 for Small, who has always maintained his innocence. The judge could vacate the conviction, order a new trial or uphold the conviction. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)

Cars are reflected in the door of the hair extensions store that occupies the former site of Tropical Paradise fish shop in Wilmington, N.C., on Thursday, Aug. 4, 2016. Fish store owner Pam Dreher was shot to death there in July 1988, but the man convicted of her murder is seeking to have the verdict overturned. Johnny Small has been in prison since he was 16 for the murder he insists he didn't commit. A hearing is scheduled to begin Monday, Aug. 8 for Small, who has always maintained his innocence. The judge could vacate the conviction, order a new trial or uphold the conviction. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)

Lynn Bogen talks to a visitor in her hair extensions store in Wilmington, N.C., on Thursday, Aug. 4, 2016. The shop was once occupied by Tropical Paradise, the fish store where owner Pam Dreher was shot to death in July 1988. Johnny Small has been in prison since he was 16 for the murder he insists he didn't commit. A hearing is scheduled to begin Monday, Aug. 8 for Small, who has always maintained his innocence. The judge could vacate the conviction, order a new trial or uphold the conviction. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)

A silk lily and frayed purple ribbon decorate the grave of Pam Dreher at Oleander Memorial Gardens in Wilmington, N.C., on Thursday, Aug. 4, 2016. Dreher was shot to death in her fish store, but the man who has served 28 years for her murder is seeking to get his conviction overturned. A hearing is scheduled to begin Monday, Aug. 8, for Johnny Small, who has always maintained his innocence. The judge could vacate the conviction, order a new trial or uphold the conviction. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)
Shirtless Trudeau becomes summer internet fascination

TORONTO (AP)  Sightings of a shirtless Justin Trudeau are causing something of a stir across Canada and internationally this summer.

The prime minister was most recently photographed shirtless while taking a break from surfing and simultaneously photobombing a couple getting married on a Tofino, British Columbia, beach.

A Vancouver Island wedding photographer, Marnie Recker, tweeted the photo of Trudeau on Saturday with his surf board standing several meters (feet) away from the bride, generating plenty of retweets and fanfare online.

FILE - In a Friday, July 8, 2016 file photo, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives at the NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland. Sightings of a shirtless Trudeau are causing something of a stir across Canada and internationally this summer. The prime minister was most recently photographed shirtless Saturday, Aug. 6, 2016, while taking a break from surfing and simultaneously photobombing a couple getting married on a Tofino, B.C., beach. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

It wasn't clear exactly when the photo was taken, but Trudeau has been in British Columbia for the past week.

The 44-year-old Trudeau took office in November and carries one of the most famous names in Canadian political history. His late father was prime minister for the better part of 16 years, between 1968 and 1984, and remains the rare Canadian politician who is recognized in America.

A previous sighting of Canada's shirtless prime minister gained international attention.

The BBC and Time magazine reported on a Canadian family that encountered Trudeau while hiking in Quebec's Gatineau Park last month and took a selfie with the prime minister who was not wearing a shirt.

Reporting on the same Quebec encounter, American online news provider Mic called shirtless Trudeau "one of Canada's most prized national treasures."
A plan by terrorists with alleged links to so-called Islamic State to stage a rocket strike on next months' Singapore Grand Prix has been foiled, according to media reports.

The gang were plotting to launch the attack from the Indonesian island of Batam, just 10 miles from Singapore. Rockets were to have been fired across the strait between the two islands.

This shows how our enemies are thinking of different ways of attacking us," said Singapores home affairs minister Kasi Shanmugam.

"Terrorists will seek to come in through our checkpoints. They will also try to launch attacks from just outside. And this is in addition to lone-wolf attacks."

31-year-old Gigih Rahmat Dewa and five other suspects have been arrested after their plot was detected through online social media discussions. They are believed to have links to Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian IT graduate accused of organising a massacre in Jakarta six months ago and who is now with IS in Syria.

"The men in Batam seem to have been radicalised over social media, specifically using Facebook, rather than directly," police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar told Reuters.

"They didn't announce it but they were discussing it - communicating on social media between all the members.

"They have been in communication with Bahrum Naim in Syria. It looks like he sent funds and instructions to them," he added.

Whether the group would have been capable of actually staging the attack is unclear. Police found only a rudimentary collection of bomb-making material, firearms and arrows during their search of the ringleader's home.

January's deadly attack on Jakarta consisted of a straightforward gun and bomb assault staged by four militants which was swiftly dealt with by the police. Last month another would-be terrorist attempted a suicide bombing rub on a police station in Solo using a motorcycle, but the only fatality in the incident was the attacker himself.

However experts have warned that despite the police success in stopping this particular group, there are likely to be other clusters of militants looking for targets to attack in the region.

Security is expected to be stepped up in Singapore when the city hosts the 15th race of the 2016 season on September 18 at the glittering Marina Bay waterfront street circuit.

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Olympic rowing called off because of strong wind on lagoon

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP)  Olympic rowers reluctantly got a day off Sunday when strong winds whipped up treacherous waves.

The regatta was called off after a two-hour delay at the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon, and officials said there would be no racing until Monday. Crews were getting ready for qualifying heats in women's pair, men's four and other events.

"It's an outdoor sport so you really can't get too upset about it," said Vincent Breet of South Africa's men's four. "It's the way it goes."

A swimmer makes his way to assist a training rower from Peru due to high winds after weather conditions postponed their competition for the day during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. (AP Photo/Matt York)

International rowing federation executive director Matt Smith said gusts of up to 34 mph (15 meters per second) were pushing buoys into the lanes and a couple of boats capsized during morning practice. He said races would be rescheduled for Monday and Tuesday when less wind is expected.

"We're hopeful that it will settle down," Smith said, adding it's possible to extend the race program by one day until Aug. 14 and schedule more races in the remaining days if the high winds persist.

"We are old and experienced in staging regattas. We have a lot of tricks up our sleeves," he said.

British rowing performance director David Tanner supported the decision to abandon competition Sunday even though it means a more crammed schedule in coming days.

"I will assume that over the next few days there will be enough time to slot the racing in," Tanner said.

Wind also complicated racing on the first day of rowing Saturday when Serbia's men's pair capsized and other competitors struggled to keep their boats from taking on water.

A team from Romania who were training return to shore after high winds postponed their competition for the day at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. (AP Photo/Matt York)

A swimmer assists a training rower from Peru due to high winds after weather conditions postponed their competition for the day during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. (AP Photo/Matt York)
Pro-migrant group calls off Italy rally after weapons found

MILAN (AP)  A pro-migrant activist group has called off an unauthorized protest after Italian border police detained three demonstrators trying to cross from France armed with clubs, knives, a hatchet, a wrench and hoods.

Police said one Italian and two French citizens were being held Sunday.

Tensions along the border have escalated in recent days after dozens of migrants crossed into France by plunging into the sea, evading border controls.

A No Borders group of activists shows a banner reading "The problem is the border" as they walk along the seaside during a spontaneous march in Ventimiglia, Italy, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016, after calling off an unauthorized protest as Italian border police detained three people trying to cross into Italy from France armed with clubs, knives, a hatchet, a wrench and hoods. (Fabrizio Tenerelli/ANSA via AP Photo)

The No Borders activist group said it called off the protest, aimed at pressing for open borders, to avoid provocations. Fearing clashes, authorities had prevented other demonstrators from arriving from elsewhere in Italy.

The 140 migrants who crossed into France were returned to the border town of Ventimiglia, where many arrive after being rescued at sea, hoping to reach northern Europe.
Serbia offers to help patrol Bulgaria-Turkey border

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP)  Serbia has offered to help patrol the border between Bulgaria and Turkey to curb the influx of migrants seeking to reach the European Union through the Balkans.

Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic made the offer Sunday in a meeting with Bulgarian counterpart Rumyana Bachvarova at the border between the two neighboring states.

Stefanovic says the idea is to ease the pressure on the Serbian border and to "show our neighbors that they can rely on us," according to an interior ministry statement. He says Serbian authorities have discussed the issue with EU leaders.

Serbia has recently deployed joint army and police patrol on its border with Bulgaria where migrants have been coming in through illegal routes, mostly guided by people smugglers.
Albania police arrest Italian wanted in Peru drug case

TIRANA, Albania (AP)  Albanian police say they have arrested an Italian wanted in Peru for a major drug trafficking case eight years ago.

A statement Sunday said 49-year-old Enrico Gazzo was arrested a day earlier at the Rinasi International Airport based on an international arrest warrant issued by Peru's Supreme Court for a major drug haul, not specifying whether he was entering or leaving the country.
Gas prices down 6 cents nationally to $2.16 a gallon

CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP)  The average price of gasoline in the U.S. has dropped six cents over the past two weeks to $2.16 a gallon for regular grade, industry analyst Trilby Lundberg said Sunday.

A drop in crude oil prices has driven a nine-week decline in costs at the pump, but those prices have strengthened in the past week and retail price drops are likely to be smaller or cease, Lundberg said.

The price has dropped 21 cents since a peak June 3. The average price is 55 cents lower than a year ago.

The Lundberg Survey found the average price of midgrade unleaded was $2.46 a gallon, and premium was $2.67.

The highest average price for regular gas in the contiguous U.S. was $2.70 a gallon in San Diego. The lowest was $1.81 in Jackson, Mississippi.
Soldiers from Las Vegas serve in Kuwait during heat wave

LAS VEGAS (AP)  Soldiers who call the Las Vegas desert home have endured a historic heat wave while serving in Kuwait.

The temperature reached at least 129 degrees in Mitribah, Kuwait, on July 21, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported (http://bit.ly/2b5Medf).

A review will determine if the day got as hot as 129.2 degrees, a tie for the world's third-highest recorded temperature.

Nevada's 17th Sustainment Brigade stations soldiers in Kuwait to deliver supplies to American troops in Iraq, Jordan and Qatar.

Chief Warrant Officer 2 Gregory Backus of Sparks compared the humid heat to getting slapped in the face with a steamy rag.

"Imagine the hottest day in Las Vegas out on the hot pavement . that's about our average daily high temp. Then add a bunch of random humidity," Backus said according to a news release Tuesday from the Nevada National Guard that quotes his message to the Joint Force Headquarters in Carson City.

Las Vegas residents experienced slightly cooler temperatures July 27-28 when record-setting 115-degree weather pushed the demand for electricity to its highest level ever. Nevada energy officials say the previous demand record was set July 5, 2007.

The world heat record was set at 134 degrees on July 10, 1913, about 115 miles from Las Vegas in Death Valley, California.

___
UN says attack kills 1 peacekeeper, injures 4 in north Mali

BAMAKO, Mali (AP)  The United Nations mission in Mali says at least one peacekeeper has been killed and four others wounded in an attack in the country's north.

The mission said a U.N. vehicle hit an improvised explosive device early Sunday in the Kidal region about 11 kilometers (7 miles) from Aguelhok killing the peacekeeper and injuring four others. A second attack, near the U.N. mission camp in Kidal, left no casualties but damaged equipment.

The U.N. condemned the attacks. No group has taken responsibility, but both bare the landmarks of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb. Though pushed from strongholds in 2013, the al-Qaida-linked group continues to stage attacks.
Iraqis flee Mosul campaign for packed and underequipped camp

DIBAGA CAMP, Iraq (AP)  Camps for displaced civilians in Iraq's north are overflowing as Iraqi forces push toward the Islamic State group-held city of Mosul, forcing thousands to flee.

Just southeast of Mosul, the Dibaga camp for Iraqis displaced from Nineveh province is steadily expanding. In the camp's center, crowds of angry young men swarm administrative offices demanding proper shelter or permission to leave the camp entirely. In one section separated from the rest of the camp, families call through chain link fences in search of loved ones partitioned by a lengthy interrogation process.

As many as 3,000 people have arrived here in just the last week, according to the camp's administration. The more than 28,000 people living here are sheltering in a patchwork of tents, prefab containers, makeshift shelters and municipal buildings, or just sleeping out in the open.

Men speak through a fence surrounding an area where newcomers are interrogted at Dibaga camp for internally displaced civilians in Iraq, on August 7, 2016. (AP Photo/Alice Martins)

As the first stages of the operation to retake Mosul from IS progresses, up to a million more people are expected to be forced from their homes by violence, according to the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross. But local officials and aid groups are already struggling to cope with the current, much smaller-scale influx.

Poor planning and limited resources during the operation to push IS out of Fallujah this summer left tens of thousands of civilians stuck in the Anbar Province desert with no shelter and little food and water. As Iraq's military slowly pushes up toward Mosul from the recently secured Qayyarah airbase west of the Tigris River, Iraqi commanders say they are trying to mitigate the humanitarian fallout by encouraging some families not to flee.

"The situation for the displaced inside the camps is terrible," said Iraqi army Col. Faris Bashir al-Dulaimy of the Nineveh operations command in Makhmour. "Our forces are having more people staying inside their houses as we advance," he said explaining that there isn't sufficient infrastructure to accommodate repeated large influxes of people in need of aid.

Previous operations against the Islamic State group entirely emptied cities and villages of civilians in an effort to remove them from harm's way. But encouraging people to stay could expose civilians to IS counter attacks that commonly follow the "liberation" of territory from the militant group.

Abdullah Ahmed and his young family walked through the desert for two days to reach safety after fleeing the village of Qayyarah that was previously under IS control. Their youngest son almost died during the journey. Ibrahim, seven months old, fainted from dehydration and had to be revived by an Iraqi military medic.

Once at Dibaga camp, the family was only able to find flattened cardboard boxes to sleep on in an open courtyard beside the camp's administrative offices.

"No matter the conditions we are happy to be here," Ahmed said. He described his family's last days in their hometown as terrifying. As Iraqi forces closed in on Qayyarah, he said, IS fighters began carrying out mass executions in public view.

"If you went there right now you would still see the bodies filling all the main traffic circles," Ahmed said.

But others at the camp balked at the harsh conditions and strict screening process imposed by Iraq's Kurdistan region that requires most men to be interrogated for a week or more and their identity cards to be seized in an effort to control individual movement. A group of young men yelled at armed guards and aid workers through a gate to one of the camp's administrative buildings.

"This is like a slow death!" one man yelled. Behind him the crowd kicked up clouds of fine dust into the oppressive midday heat.

"When we were liberated from Daesh we thought we would get our freedom, but now we're just in prison," said Haytham Fatwi, 20 years old, referring to IS by its Arabic acronym.

Dressed in sweat pants, plastic sandals and a neon-bright t-shirt, Fatwi, like hundreds of other men and boys, says he's been forced to sleep on the floor of a modest mosque in the center of the camp.

"If we knew it would be like this, we would have never fled," Fatwi said.

___

Associated Press writer Salar Salim contributed to this report.

Women and children eat on the floor in an overcrowded space at Dibaga camp for internally displaced civilians in Iraq, on August 7, 2016. (AP Photo/Alice Martins)

A child peeks through a fence surrounding an area where newcomers are interrogted at Dibaga camp for internally displaced civilians in Iraq, on August 7, 2016. (AP Photo/Alice Martins)

Women and children stand in line to receive a portion of food at Dibaga camp for internally displaced civilians in Iraq, on August 7, 2016. (AP Photo/Alice Martins)

A child lies on the floor at the yard of a mosque, recovering from injuries her father says she suffered when they fled fighting in their village, at Dibaga camp for internally displaced civilians in Iraq, on August 7, 2016. (AP Photo/Alice Martins)

Men stand outside the administration center of Dibaga camp for internally displaced civilians in Iraq, on August 7, 2016. (AP Photo/Alice Martins)

Men stand outside the administration center of Dibaga camp for internally displaced civilians in Iraq, on August 7, 2016. (AP Photo/Alice Martins)

Women and children eat on the floor in a yard where they have been sleeping at Dibaga camp for internally displaced civilians in Iraq, on August 7, 2016. (AP Photo/Alice Martins)

Women and children stand in line to receive a portion of food at Dibaga camp for internally displaced civilians in Iraq, on August 7, 2016. (AP Photo/Alice Martins)

Women and children rest under an improvised tent in a yard where they have been sleeping at Dibaga camp for internally displaced civilians in Iraq, on August 7, 2016. (AP Photo/Alice Martins)
Saudi government: attacker in Germany was in touch with IS

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)  The Saudi Interior Ministry says a member of the extremist Islamic State group was in contact through a social networking application with a Syrian asylum-seeker who blew himself up outside a bar in southern Germany, injuring 15 people.

The Interior Ministry told The Associated Press on Sunday that a Saudi phone line was used to communicate with the attacker in Germany, but that the number was not registered to a Saudi national. It didn't provide further details.

The attack last month in Ansbach, which killed the assailant Mohammad Daleel, was claimed by IS.

German security officials have said that until shortly before the attack Daleel was communicating with somebody in the Middle East.
69-year-old dies during swim portion of New York triathlon

SHIRLEY, N.Y. (AP)  A 69-year-old athlete competing in a New York triathlon has died.

Authorities say Vincent Fleck, of Mount Kisco, died after a lifeguard noticed him in distress during a swimming portion of the event.

Suffolk County police say a lifeguard brought him in a canoe to a rescue boat, where he received first aid. He was later pronounced dead at a hospital.

The emergency occurred during the 500-meter swim portion of the Smith Point Spring Triathlon in Narrow Bay.
WikiLeaks founder speaks to Green Party convention in Texas

HOUSTON (AP)  WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange spoke via video chat to members of the Green Party during their national convention in Houston, criticizing the federal government and corporate America.

The Houston Chronicle reports (http://bit.ly/2b3NE62 ) Assange spoke for about 20 minutes on Saturday.

In his speech, Assange accused Google of controlling communication and criticized President Barack Obama for cracking down on federal employees who leak classified information.

Assange told the crowd that Jill Stein, who was nominated on Saturday to be the Green Party's presidential nominee, could win the election this fall. National surveys have Stein polling at 3 to 6 percent.

Assange spoke from Ecuadorean embassy in London, where he has been living since 2012. He is wanted for questioning by Swedish police over rape allegations. He has denied all the accusations.

___
Skinner braves wind, technical issues to win Olympic gold

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP)  The wind blew in from the west, sending the clay targets bobbing and bouncing through the air.

In case that wasn't enough, the microphone used to pull the targets repeatedly malfunctioned, causing clays to shoot out randomly or not at all.

Catherine Skinner had just enough patience  and a bit of anger  to ride out the difficulties and earn a gold medal in her first Olympics.

Gold medal winner, Catherine Skinner of Australia, center, poses for a picture with silver medal winner, Natalie Rooney of New Zeland, left, and bronze medalist Corey Cogdell, of the United States, during the victory ceremony for the women's trap event at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

The Australian survived a shoot-off in women's trap to get into the final round and hit 12 of 15 targets in the gold medal match to beat New Zealand's Natalie Rooney on Sunday.

"It made me a bit more angry instead of being nervous and locking up," Skinner said of the difficulties. "It made me just want to see and smash."

Skinner hit 67 of 75 targets in qualifying, tying her with Canada's Cynthia Meyer. Both women hit their first shots in the shoot-off, but Skinner hit and Meyer missed, sending the Australian into the final six.

Skinner navigated the gusting wind well in the semifinals, hitting 14 of 15 targets to earn a spot in the gold-medal match. Rooney won a shoot-off with American Corey Cogdell-Unrein after tying for second to set up the finals showdown.

Skinner started slow, missing two of her first four shots in the gold medal match, but hit seven straight as Rooney twice missed consecutive shots. Skinner missed her 12th shot, but could still clinch gold by hitting her final three shots.

She did, making Rooney's final shot moot, and threw her head back after taking home gold in her first Olympics.

"I can't really say there was emotion; it was kind of like a shock," Skinner said. "Even now, I can't really believe I have this (medal) in my hand."

Cogdell-Unrein qualified fourth in her third Olympics, but opened the semifinals with a miss. She recovered by hitting her final nine shots, only to miss in the shoot-off with Rooney.

Cogdell-Urein met Spain's Fatima Galvez in the bronze medal match and again was faced with a shoot-off after both shooters hit 13 of 15 targets. Cogdell-Unrein hit her shot and Galvez missed, giving Cogdell-Unrein a bronze to match the one she earned at the 2008 Beijing Games.

"Missing my first target out was definitely not a good feeling," Cogdell-Unrein said. "But I knew if I smoothed out and do what I normally do, I could still continue to shoot a good final and that's what I did."

Defending gold medalist Jessica Rossi of Italy hit 10 targets in the semifinals and finished sixth.

Catherine Skinner of Australia celebrates winning the gold medal during the victory ceremony for the women's trap event at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Corey Cogdell of the United States celebrates her victory during the bronze medal match of the women's trap event at Olympic Shooting Center at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
Venezuela charges airline worker, 15 others with trafficking

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP)  Venezuelan officials have charged a security official for the Mexican airline Aeromexico and four members of the Venezuelan national guard with conspiring to traffic cocaine.

The public prosecutor's office says it also has filed charges against 11 other people in connection with the discovery of 600 kilograms (1,300 pounds) of cocaine at the Mexico City international airport in June. The cocaine was found distributed among eight suitcases on a plane originating in Venezuela.

The prosecutor's office said Saturday that the Aeromexico security official and the other 15 suspects are all under arrest.
Trump to try to steady campaign with economic speech

WASHINGTON (AP)  Donald Trump is trying to shift from a disastrous stretch of his presidential campaign to one focused on policy and party unity. But even as his allies speak of lessons the political newcomer has learned, two of his staunchest Republican critics warn that he could be heading for losses in a pair of battleground states.

Trump is set to deliver an economic speech on Monday to the prestigious Detroit Economic Club in his effort to step past his spats over the past 10 days with the Muslim-American parents of a slain Army captain and the leaders of a Republican Party he has promised to unite.

"Mr. Trump on Monday will lay out a vision that's a growth economic plan" that will focus on cutting taxes, cutting regulation, energy development and boosting middle-class wages, campaign chairman Paul Manafort said in remarks broadcast Sunday on Fox Business. "When we do that, we're comfortable that we can get the agenda and the narrative of the campaign back on where it belongs, which is comparing the tepid economy under Obama and Clinton, versus the kind of growth economy that Mr. Trump wants to build."

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Windham High School, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2016, in Windham, N.H. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

What came before Monday's speech, Manafort suggested, doesn't count in the race to Election Day on Nov. 8. "It's a three-month campaign," he said.

Trump may have done irreversible damage in two critical states, Arizona and Ohio, with an approach to immigration reform that some say is divisive, two fellow Republicans say. Trump wants to build a wall between the United States and Mexico and now says he wants to suspend immigration from "terror countries"  though he has yet to say what those are.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who lost the Republican nomination to Trump, has not endorsed the billionaire and skipped the party's convention in Cleveland, said Trump faces a difficult climb in a state that's a must-win for Republican presidential candidates.

"He's going to win parts of Ohio, where people are really hurting. There will be sections he will win because people are angry, frustrated and haven't heard any answers," Kasich said on CNN's "State of the Union." ''But I still think it's difficult if you are dividing, to be able to win in Ohio. I think it's really, really difficult."

In an interview on CBS's "Face the Nation," Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said, "Yes, it is possible" that Democrat Hillary Clinton could beat Trump in his state, noting that Bill Clinton won Arizona in 1996 and that Hispanics represent about a third of the Arizona population.

"You can't just throw platitudes out there about a wall or about Mexico paying for it and then be taken seriously here," Flake said.

Clinton is expected to deliver her own economic plan to the Detroit Economic Club on Thursday.

That's who Republicans want to see Trump fighting  the former senator and secretary of state, not Republicans and others. It's a message furious senior members of the party carried to Trump privately and publicly in the days after Trump last week refused in a Washington Post interview to endorse the re-election bids of House Speaker Paul Ryan, Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire. The trio had strongly disapproved of Trump's fight with Khizr and Ghazala Khan, Muslim-Americans whose son, Capt. Humayun Khan, was killed in Iraq in 2004.

On Friday at a Wisconsin rally not attended by Ryan or Gov. Scott Walker, Trump reversed course and endorsed all three lawmakers, saying, "We have to unite."

"If you look at the last few days, I think he's gotten the messages," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said on "Fox News Sunday." ''It's very tricky if you've never run for public office, to jump from being a businessman to being one of the two leaders fighting for the presidency, and he's made some mistakes."

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said on ABC's "This Week" that Trump's endorsements show he "has the ability and the understanding to realize that there are going to be disagreements and you've got to be able to reach out to the entire party."

___

Associated Press writer Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.

___

Follow Kellman and Colvin on Twitter at http://www.Twitter.com/APLaurieKellman and http://www.twitter.com/colvinj
New partners hooking up on the Brazilian beach

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP)  Think of Olympic beach volleyball like the dance floor of a Rio nightclub: When the samba stops, it's time to start looking for a new partner.

Kerri Walsh Jennings is going for a fourth straight gold medal, but it would be her first with April Ross. Fellow American Phil Dalhausser, who won gold with Todd Rogers in Beijing, is playing with Nick Lucena now (after an unsuccessful dalliance with Sean Rosenthal).

A beach volleyball partnership is often compared to a marriage, and teams all around the world use the years between Olympics to reassess their couplehood.

United States' Phil Dalhausser, left, and Nicholas Lucena hug after beating Tunisia during a men's beach volleyball match at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Some stick together  Walsh Jennings and Misty May-Treanor were the gold standard for three Olympiads  but, sometimes, their eyes can wander.

"It's like high school dating," Dalhausser said after beating Tunisia 21-7, 21-13 on Sunday. "The middle of the pack on the AVP tour, they're always trying to move up. (There are) a lot of guys finding out from other guys they got dumped."

Walsh Jennings plucked Ross off of the No. 2 U.S. women's pair right there on the sand after the gold medal match in London. (May-Treanor had said she would retire; Ross's partner, Jen Kessy, would be pushing 39 by Rio).

Rogers is now 42, and didn't feel like he had another Olympic run in him. But Dalhausser, who is 36, wanted to give it another try.

"After our last match in London, he was like, 'Well, it was nice playing with you.' And I was like, 'Yeah, we had a good run,'" Dalhausser said on Sunday. "So there were no hard feelings there."

Dalhausser formed what was expected to be a superteam with Rosenthal, himself a two-time Olympian, but it never really clicked. After being knocked out of two straight seasons with injuries, Dalhausser turned to Lucena, a longtime friend he left in 2006 to join up with Rogers.

"That was tough," Dalhausser said.

Those aren't the only partner-swappers on the Copacabana sand.

Jake Gibb was with Rosenthal in Beijing and London but is playing in Rio with Casey Patterson. All four Brazilian teams  including the men's and women's world champions, and all of them among the top seeds in Rio  have formed since 2012.

In extreme cases, teams are formed by federations or circumstances: When Viktoria Orsi Toth was bounced from the Rio Games last week after failing a drug test, Marta Menegatti needed a new partner with an Italian passport who met the qualifying requirements.

She had never played with Laura Giombini before the Olympics began.

"Some of the other countries, that have a large pool, you see them switching often," said Canadian Heather Bansley, who joined up with indoor volleyball player Sarah Pavan after they each failed to qualify for London.

"In Canada, there aren't a lot of options," she said. "But I think there's a lot of value in sticking together."

Part of that value is learning each other's tendencies on the court, and how to best communicate and do it under pressure. But the partners also spend so much time together on the world tour that they need to get along off the court, too.

True, there are tales of partners who can't stand each other but stick together for the good of the team. More often, though, the players use a sort of dating period to see how well they match up both on and off the court.

Poland's Monika Brzostek and Kinga Kolosinska have been together since 2009, one of the longest-running partnerships in the tournament.

"We do not have any serious problems. We enjoy each other's company," Brzostek said. "As far as I know, we do not want to change anything."

Then she looked over to her partner for confirmation.

They both smiled.

"Not for me, either," Kolosinska said.

___

Jimmy Golen covers Olympic beach volleyball for The Associated Press. Follow him at: http://www.twitter.com/jgolen .

Canada's Sarah Pavan, right, and Heather Bansley celebrate a win over Netherlands during a women's beach volleyball match at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Wes Morgan confident Leicester can defend their Premier League title

Leicester captain Wes Morgan believes his side can defy the odds again by defending their Premier League title.

The Foxes' 5000/1 success last year captured the nation's imagination but they once again find themselves behind the division's traditional heavyweights in the pre-season betting.

Morgan, though, insists there is no lack of belief in the dressing room.

Leicester captain Wes Morgan believes defending the Premier League title is a realistic ambition

Speaking ahead of Sunday's Community Shield against Manchester United, Morgan told BBC Radio 5 Live's Sportsweek: "Last season no-one thought it was possible and we did that, so why not? We're defending champions, we're full of confidence, we know what we're capable of.

"On our day we are capable of beating anyone so I don't see we can't go ahead and do it again.

"We're going to have to be ready for the onslaught, so to speak, but that's to be expected as defending champions. We'll be ready when the time comes."

Manager Claudio Ranieri has already scored a victory by keeping the majority of his triumphant squad together, with midfielder N'Golo Kante the only significant departure to Chelsea.

The likes of Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy have thus far resisted admiring glances and Morgan puts that down to a strong group ethic.

"Players want to stay, there's such a togetherness in the team, such a family feel," he said.

"The boys get on, we've got each other's back and want to stay together which is why the boys commit themselves to the club long term.

"We lost N'Golo but all in all the nucleus of the team is the same, it's still the same spirit."

A first foray into the Champions League is another reason to remain at the King Power, with Morgan adding: "It's unknown territory really but we've just got to relish the challenge.
Jose Mourinho: Manchester United 'the perfect club' for Paul Pogba to thrive

Jose Mourinho believes Manchester United will prove the perfect place for Paul Pogba to become the best player on the planet, with the Juventus midfielder on the verge of returning to Old Trafford for a reported world-record fee.

United confirmed on Sunday afternoon that the France international has been given the green light to undergo a medical as his proposed switch back to the Red Devils edges closer.

A ccording to reports, the deal could be worth 110 million euros (93.2million), beating the estimated 85million that Real Madrid paid Tottenham for Gareth Bale in 2013.

Paul Pogba is edging closer to making a world-record switch to Manchester United

The Premier League club released a short statement saying the 23-year-old " has been granted permission to have a medical in order to finalise his transfer from Juventus to Manchester United" - alongside the hashtag 'POGBACK'.

United added that the medical would take place at their AON training complex and, after beating Leicester 2-1 to win the Community Shield on Sunday, Mourinho said the move could propel the player to greatness.

"United is the perfect club to bring him to the level he wants to be," said Mourinho, who expects Pogba to complete the deal by Tuesday.

"The Premier League is the perfect habitat for that. If you want to be the best player in the world, if you go to Barcelona or Real Madrid you are in trouble because I don't think the other two big guys (Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo) will let you.

"Here he is in the most seen, worldwide, championship which is absolutely incredible, with a team which wants to bring Manchester United to the top again. We have everything to give him and we know the reasons why he wants to come to us.

"Money he would get at any big club. He comes because he knows the club, knows the city, many of the players and wants to be an important part of the project. Hopefully everything goes well."

Mourinho said he could not confirm the price-tag, but does not believe it is an issue.

"I don't think Real were upset when they broke the record with Gareth Bale or Cristiano. I don't think it's a reason to be sad - it's a reason to be proud," he said.

"Football is crazy and the market has become crazy. What you think this season is crazy, you realise three years later it's not crazy any more.

"There are players who cost 10millon who are super expensive because they're players (who are worth) 500,000 or 1million. What is expensive and not expensive in football? I don't know any more. I just know he is a big player."

The Italian champions played West Ham in a friendly on Sunday to mark the opening of the London Stadium.

Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri seemed resigned to losing Pogba, having previously claimed the player was due back at training on Monday.

After his side's 3-2 win over the Hammers, Allegri said: "I spoke about Pogba the day before. We have just finished a match and I don't know much more.

"We will see tomorrow (Monday) if he is a still Juventus player."

Pogba was giving little away when he wrote on Twitter: "When too many people talk nobody understands...talk very soon."

The Frenchman joined Juventus from United in 2012 for a cut-price 800,000, and in four seasons in Turin has won four league titles.

He is set to become Mourinho's fourth signing at Old Trafford following the captures of Eric Bailly, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

Former United defender Rio Ferdinand believes Pogba could prove good value for money, even if he does not have the reputation of being a prolific scorer.

Speaking on BT Sport 2 ahead of the Community Shield, he said: "First of all I thought if he's not getting 40 goals a season, like a (Luis) Suarez, Bale, (Cristiano) Ronaldo, (Lionel) Messi, etc, then he can't be worth that.

"But if he becomes as influential as a (Paul) Scholes, a (Frank) Lampard, a (Steven) Gerrard, a (Patrick) Vieira or a (Roy) Keane, then you say it's money well spent.

"You've got to speculate, sometimes.

"(If) he's the best around in terms of potential, in terms of the age, the fit for the club, the personality and the character, go for it."
Turkish minister says Austrian chancellor's comment on EU talks close to far right

ANKARA, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Turkey's EU Affairs Minister said on Thursday that comments by Austria's chancellor, suggesting talks with Turkey on joining the European Union should be ended, came disturbingly close to the rhetoric of the far right.

"It's disturbing that his statements are similar to those of the far right... Criticism is surely a democratic right but there has to be a difference between criticising Turkey and being against Turkey," Omer Celik told reporters in Ankara.

Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern said on Wednesday that he would start a discussion among European heads of government to quit talks with Turkey about joining the European Union because of the country's democratic and economic deficits.
Olympics-Judo-Menezes loss dashes Brazil hopes of early first gold

By Chris Gallagher

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Brazil got off to a rough start in Olympic judo on Saturday after local favourite Sarah Menezes suffered a shock defeat and went home without a medal, dashing hopes of an early triumph for the host country.

To make matters worse, Menezes was visibly in pain as she dislocated her elbow and spent several moments lying on the tatami after she lost to Mongolia's Urantsetseg Munkhbat in the repechage round, before slowly leaving the arena in tears.

Menezes, who won gold in London four years ago, was seen as a strong contender to win the women's -48kg category.

But the world No. 4 in her weight class struggled to gain much traction all day. She edged past Belgium's Charline van Snick in her first match, before losing to 17th-ranked Dayaris Mestre Alvarez of Cuba on a single penalty in an otherwise scoreless match in the quarter-finals.

Despite the loss, the raucous crowd at the Carioca Arena 2 was unwavering in its support as they chanted "Ole, ole, ole, Sarah, Sarah", danced in the stands and waved the Brazilian flag.

"Nowadays she's more known than in London so maybe the competitors have been studying her, so it's not surprising," said Rogerio Soares, a 49-year-old IT manager who came to watch judo for the first time.

"I'm very surprised with Argentina winning the gold medal, but for us from South America we are very proud."

ARGENTINE FIRST

Argentina's Paula Pareto won gold - the first ever in judo for her country - besting South Korea's Bokyeong Jeong with a waza-ari throw. Japan's Ami Kondo and Kazakhstan's Otgontsetseg Galbadrakh took bronze.

"For me it was really important to win here because this is our neighbouring country and many members of my family and many friends, many Argentinians, could be here to share the emotions with me," Pareto told reporters.

"To win with so much family around was much nicer."

Brazil is placing high hopes on its judo team to boost its medal haul in Rio after it took home four in the sport at the 2012 London Games.

The hosts and powerhouses France and Japan are the only countries fielding a full team of 14 judokas.
Olympics-Judo-Mudranov predicts more gold for Russia

By Chris Gallagher

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Beslan Mudranov won Russia's first gold medal at the Rio Games in judo on Saturday and fired a warning shot that his country had plenty more to prove.

Mudranov's victory comes two days after Russia's judo team was officially cleared to participate in the Olympics after his country escaped a blanket ban over its doping record.

"There has been a lot of psychological pressure that our country Russia has been subject to. Here, to win a gold medal on the very first day, of course it means a lot for my country," Mudranov told reporters through an interpreter.

"Of course, our country will prove to everyone that we can win the gold, I'm pretty confident that this is not the last gold medal we have won," he said.

Mudranov's gold in the men's -60kg follows his compatriot Arsen Galstyan's triumph in the same weight class in London four years ago.

In a tense duel with Kazahkstan's Yeldos Smetov that went into "golden score" extra time, Mudranov threw Smetov to score a match-ending waza-ari and earn his first Olympic medal. Japan's Naohisa Takato and Diyorbek Urozboev of Uzbekistan took bronze.

The World Anti-Doping Agency had called for a total ban on Russian athletes in Rio in response to the independent McLaren report that found evidence of state-sponsored doping by Russian athletes at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Mudranov said such a ban would not have been right.

"The president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), he should realise that it would be unjust for the athletes who have spent their entire life preparing for the competition - for some of them it would probably be the only Olympic Games in their life," he said.

Mudranov added that there had been some nerves amongst the judo team on the day of the IOC announcement but overall they had been confident they would be allowed to compete.
Japan protests over China's radar unit near disputed waters

TOKYO, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Japan has filed a protest to Beijing after the discovery that China installed radar equipment in a gas exploration platform close to disputed waters in the East China Sea, a Japanese foreign ministry spokesman said on Sunday.

Japan fears that the radar, a type commonly found on patrol ships and not necessary for gas field development, could be a sign that China intends to use gas exploration platforms in the disputed waters as military stations, Japanese media said.

According to the spokesman, Japan discovered the radar in late June and issued a protest on Friday through its embassy in China, urging Beijing to explain the purpose.

Japan has been calling on China to halt construction of oil-and-gas exploration platforms in the East China Sea, accusing it of unilateral development despite a 2008 agreement to maintain cooperation on resources development in the area, where no official border between them has been drawn.

On Saturday, Japan issued another protest to Beijing after Chinese coastguard ships and about 230 fishing vessels sailed close to what Tokyo considers its territorial waters around disputed islets in the East China Sea.

The latest protests adds to bilateral tensions between the two Asian neighbours over territorial claims and comes less than a month after an arbitration court in The Hague invalidated China's sweeping claims in the South China Sea.
Australian man charged with planning terror attack following raids

MELBOURNE, Aug 7 (Reuters) - A 31-year-old man appeared in an Australian court on Sunday charged with planning a terror attack, following a series of counter-terrorism police raids.

Phillip Galea was charged with acts done in preparation for a terrorist act and collecting or making documents likely to facilitate a terrorist act, after being arrested in police raids in Melbourne on Saturday. Police did not give details of the target but said it was in the southern state of Victoria.

"I will be fighting these charges and I believe they are a conspiracy against the patriot movement," Galea told a Melbourne Magistrates' Court hearing during in a brief appearance on Sunday according to the Australian Associated Press.

Australian media outlets reported Galea had links to far-right organisations Reclaim Australia and True Blue Crew. Reclaim Australia posted on Facebook that it had no links to the arrested man and that it "always denounced violence".

Far-right political parties opposed to Islam and Asian immigration are on the rise in Australia.

Reclaim Australia and True Blue Crew, which are not political parties, have previously been involved in violent clashes with pro-immigration groups at rallies in Melbourne..
Appointment of Boko Haram leader exposes divisions in Nigerian group

By Felix Onuah

ABUJA, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Boko Haram's appointment of a new leader and his apparent rejection by the group's figurehead exposes wide divisions among the Nigerian jihadists as they come under pressure from the country's military.

The promotion of Abu Musab al-Barnawi, who is thought to favour more targeted attacks than the wholesale violence of figurehead Abubakar Shekau, was announced in the weekly magazine of Islamic State. Boko Haram, which has regularly staged suicide bombings in crowded areas, pledged loyalty to IS last year.

But Shekau appears to have rejected the new role of al-Barnawi, who experts say has been the group's military commander and has also been on the radar for months as head of a faction favouring attacks on the Nigerian military.

In a 10-minute audio clip on social media, a person purporting to be Shekau laid bare internal divisions by criticising al-Barnawi's reported view that Muslims can live among non-Muslims without taking up arms.

"I am against the principle where someone will dwell in the society with the infidels without making public his opposition or anger against infidels," Shekau said in the local Hausa language.

"Anyone doing such can't be a real Muslim thick and thin."

Al-Barnawi's splinter group is based northeast of Maiduguri, the provincial capital of northeast Nigeria's Borno state and the epicentre of Boko Haram's seven-year armed attempt to create a regional Islamic caliphate, one Western security source said.

From there, it has been better-placed geographically to cultivate links across the Sahara with the Libyan arm of IS although the extent of direct practical ties between the two groups is not clear. Many experts say that the links are largely symbolic.

In the past, Shekau has appeared in propaganda videos draped in ammunition belts and brandishing automatic weapons as he spouted vitriol against Nigeria and the West.

His absence from any such videos since March has sparked speculation he has been wounded, is seriously ill or may even have died.

Limiting himself to an audio clip is likely to fuel suspicions of Shekau's reduced physical or operational capacity from the wilds of the northeast's Sambisa forest, where he has been penned in by the Nigerian army.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler, took office last year on a campaign platform to wipe out the group.

"Shekau and his clique remain in Sambisa, where they are under a lot of pressure from the Nigerian military push against Boko Haram," the security source said. "It's not existential yet but they haven't got as much freedom of movement as they did."

"FADING GROUP"

Boko Haram, whose name loosely means 'Western education is sinful' in Hausa, has suffered a dramatic decline in fortunes from 18 months ago when it controlled an area the size of Belgium and had Nigeria's military on the back foot.

Under Shekau, Boko Haram killed more than 15,000 people, displaced more than two million and attained worldwide infamy with the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok in April 2014.

However since early 2015 it has suffered numerous defeats at the hands of the Nigerian, Cameroonian, Nigerien and Chadian militaries acting either individually or as part of a coordinated regional force.

Nigerian military spokesman Rabe Abubakar said the latest Boko Haram's leadership revelations were of "no relevance".

"We are just focused on clearing the remnants of the insurgents that are scattered around," he said. The leadership struggles were "the antics of a fading group", he added.

In the interview with IS's al-Naba magazine, al-Barnawi said Boko Haram was "still a force to be reckoned with" and that it had been receiving new recruits.

The splinter group's modus operandi appears to be targeting the Nigerian military rather than civilians.

That is in contrast to the bomb attacks on busy public places such as markets, mosques and camps for internally displaced people (IDP) that have typified its approach in northeast Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon over the last year.

"Under the Shekau reasoning, it is permissible to kill IDPs in camps," said Fulan Nasrullah, a security analyst based in northern Nigeria. Such action was not sanctioned by the IS-approved faction, he added.
Macedonia declares state of emergency after 21 die in flash floods

By Kole Casule

SKOPJE, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Macedonia declared a state of emergency in its capital Skopje and neighbouring districts on Sunday, a day after at least 21 people were killed in flash floods caused by a storm.

Torrential rains flooded homes, swept away a section of the ring road around Skopje and wrecked cars late on Saturday evening. Northern suburbs of the capital were particularly hard hit, though the city centre also suffered flash floods.

Children were among those killed, a police spokesman said, adding that searches were continuing for six people who have been reported missing.

Macedonia, a small former Yugoslav republic of about two million people, has declared Monday a day of national mourning.

"This is a catastrophe of unprecedented magnitude," Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Todorov told reporters.

Special police forces and trucks loaded with drinking water were sent to the worst affected areas, where there also have been some electricity outages and where scattered debris of furniture swept away from houses could be seen on the streets, a Reuters reporter said.

The rain had stopped by Sunday morning and water levels were receding, though there was some more rain on Sunday evening in Skopje. There were no reports of further flash flooding.

European Union Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn said on Twitter that the EU stood ready to help Macedonia, which is a candidate to join the bloc.
Two die in Ethiopia's protests against detentions - resident

By Aaron Maasho

ADDIS ABABA, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Two people died in Ethiopia on Saturday during anti-government protests, according to a resident of one of several towns where demonstrations took place.

The deaths occurred in the town of Ambo in Oromiya region, where security forces clashed with protesters demanding the release of people detained during earlier demonstrations over an aborted attempt by the government to commandeer local land.

Under a 25-year development programme, the government had intended to incorporate part of Oromiya into the boundaries of the capital Addis Ababa, only scrapping the plan after months of protests.

Saturday's demonstrations, which witnesses said also took place in the capital and in the Oromiya town of Woliso, were to press for the release of people detained in those earlier protests.

"Gunshots rang out throughout the day ... at least two (people) have died," the Ambo resident, who did not wish to give his name, told Reuters.

Other residents in Ambo said police carried out door-to-door searches looking for people suspected of having participated in the demonstrations.

The government made no mention of casualties during the protests, saying in a statement it would not tolerate any threats to the country's "hard-earned peace".

Attempts by Reuters to contact the government spokesman were not successful.

The 25-year development plan, aimed at attracting investment to help industrialise Ethiopia's primarily agrarian economy, first sparked small protests in 2014.

Those demonstrations grew in scale after it emerged last November that the scheme included plans to incorporate land near Ginchi, a town in Oromiya, within the Addis Ababa area.
Armed man barricades himself in restaurant in southwest Germany

BERLIN, Aug 7 (Reuters) - An armed man streaming with blood barricaded himself into a restaurant in Saarbruecken in southwest Germany on Sunday, a police official said.

The official said the man seemed to be psychologically disturbed and there were no indications that this was a terrorist-related incident.

He also said the man was not believed to be holding anyone hostage and police were trying to negotiate with him. It remained unclear how he injured himself.
Islamic State militants claim capture of U.S. weapons in Afghanistan

By Josh Smith

KABUL, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Militants linked to Islamic State have released photos that purport to show weapons and equipment that belonged to American soldiers and were captured by the group in eastern Afghanistan.

The photos, which came to light on Saturday, show an American portable rocket launcher, radio, grenades and other gear not commonly used by Afghan troops, as well as close up views of identification cards for a U.S. Army soldier, Specialist Ryan Larson.

The U.S. military command in Kabul denied any suggestion the soldier had been captured, saying he "has been accounted for and remains in a duty status within his unit."

American special operations troops have been fighting alongside Afghan forces in a renewed offensive against militants who claim allegiance to Islamic State in Nangarhar Province, which borders Pakistan.

"SPC Larson was attached to a unit conducting a partnered (operation) with Afghan Forces," U.S. military spokesman Commander Ron Flesvig said in an emailed statement on Sunday. "The soldier's I.D. and some of the equipment were left behind after the (operation). The loss of personal identification is unfortunate."

In July, U.S. commanders said at least five special forces were injured in fighting in the province.

The website that published the photos speculated that the equipment and weapons were left behind during that engagement, but Flesvig said American officials are still trying to determine exactly when and how it was lost.

The push in Nangarhar came after President Barack Obama cleared American troops to take a more active role in fighting militants in Afghanistan.
Turkey's Erdogan stages mass rally in show of strength after coup attempt

By Nick Tattersall and Humeyra Pamuk

ISTANBUL, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of Turks are expected at a rally in Istanbul on Sunday summoned by President Tayyip Erdogan to denounce a failed coup, a show of strength staged in the face of Western criticism of widespread purges and detentions.

The "Democracy and Martyrs' Rally" at the Yenikapi parade ground, built into the sea on the southern edge of Istanbul's historic peninsula, caps three weeks of nightly demonstrations by Erdogan's supporters, many wrapped in the red Turkish flag, in squares around the country.

Erdogan has vowed to rid Turkey of the network of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whose followers in the security forces, judiciary and civil service he accuses of orchestrating the attempted power grab and of plotting to overthrow the state.

The cleric, an ally of Erdogan during the early years after his AK Party was elected to power in 2002, has denounced the coup and denied the charges.

Tens of thousands of people have been suspended, detained or placed under investigation in the wake of the plot - including soldiers, police, judges, journalists, medics and civil servants - prompting concern among Western allies that Erdogan is using the events to tighten his grip on power.

"The triumph is democracy's, the squares are the people's," said flyers put through doors overnight advertising free bus, ferry and subway transport to Sunday's rally. The slogan adorns banners hung from bridges and buildings across the country.

Erdogan has invited the heads of the secularist and nationalist opposition, who have backed the government in denouncing the putsch, to address the crowds in what he hopes will show a unified nation in defiance of Western criticism.

"The only way to eliminate coups is to revive the founding values of the Republic. These values that make our unity should be spoken out loud at Yenikapi," said Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the secularist opposition CHP, in a tweet ahead of the rally.

The brutality of July 15, in which more than 230 people were killed as rogue soldiers commandeered fighter jets, helicopters and tanks, shocked a nation that last saw a violent military power grab in 1980. Even Erdogan's opponents saw his continued leadership as preferable to a successful coup renewing the cycle of military interventions that dogged Turkey in the second half of the 20th century.

Secularists and nationalists who oppose Erdogan also loathe Gulen's Hizmet (Service) network, used by Erdogan in years past to help undermine the power of secularist generals suspicious of his ruling AK Party's Islamist ideals. They have so far been limited in their criticism of Gulenist purges, though they have raised questions about the pace and scale of the detentions.

But such solidarity may not last. There are already opposition concerns that the restructuring of the military is happening without parliamentary oversight and is going too far, with thousands of soldiers discharged including around 40 percent of its generals.

WESTERN CRITICISM

The extent of the purges in Turkey, which has NATO's second largest armed forces and aspires to membership of the European Union, have drawn criticism in the West.

In comments published on Sunday, the leader of Germany's liberal Free Democrats (FDP) said he saw parallels between Erdogan's behaviour and the aftermath of the Reichstag fire in 1933, portrayed by the Nazis as a Communist plot against the government and used by Adolf Hitler to justify massively curtailing civil liberties.

"We are experiencing a coup d'etat from above like in 1933 after the Reichstag fire. He is building an authoritarian regime tailored solely to himself," Christian Lindner told the Bild am Sonntag. "Because the rights and freedoms of the individual no longer play a role, he cannot be a partner for Europe."

His comments echo those of Austria's far-right leader Heinz-Christian Strache, who said on Saturday Erdogan's use of the putsch to crack down on opponents was reminiscent of Hitler's use of the Reichstag blaze to amass greater power.

Turkish officials have angrily rejected suggestions that the purges are out of proportion, accusing Western critics of failing to grasp the magnitude of the threat to the Turkish state and of being more concerned about the rights of coup plotters than the brutality of the events themselves.

So damaged are relations that Germany's foreign minister said this week there was no basis for discussions and that "we are talking with each other like emissaries from two different planets." Austria's chancellor suggested talks on Turkish membership of the EU should be suspended.

Erdogan travels to Russia on Tuesday to meet Vladimir Putin in a trip he may hope will give the West pause for thought. It will be only the second head of state he has met since the failed coup after the leader of Kazakhstan.

"For Erdogan, this meeting with Putin is certainly an opportunity to signal to Turkey's partners in the West that it could have other strategic options," said Sinan Ulgen, a former Turkish diplomat and analyst at the Carnegie Europe think tank.
Bangladesh issues arrest warrants over killing of Japanese citizen

DHAKA, Aug 7 (Reuters) - A court in Bangladesh issued warrants on Sunday for the arrest of four suspected members of a banned group, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), in connection with the killing of a Japanese citizen last year, a prosecutor said.

Kunio Hoshi, 65, was gunned down in October by masked men on a motorcycle while on his way to visit a grass farm project in the northern district of Rangpur, less than a week after an Italian aid worker had been killed in a similar way in Dhaka's diplomatic quarter.

The court issued the arrest warrants after deciding to press ahead with proceedings against four other suspected members of the outlawed group, public prosecutor Nayan Noor Rahman told reporters.

Police believe that the group, which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State, carried out a July 1 attack on a cafe in which 22 people were killed, mostly foreigners, before security forces ended a 12-hour siege, killing five gunmen.

Islamic State and al Qaeda have claimed a series of killings of liberals and members of religious minorities in Bangladesh in the past year.

Islamic State also claimed responsibility for the cafe attack but the government has dismissed suggestions the group has a presence in Bangladesh.

While authorities blame the violence on domestic militants, security experts say the scale and sophistication of the cafe attack suggested links to a trans-national network.
Most Germans want to end EU migrant deal with Turkey -poll

BERLIN, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Most Germans think the European Union should scrap a landmark migration deal with Turkey, also scuppering negotiations on its accession to the bloc, according to a poll published on Sunday.

The deal, agreed by Ankara in exchange for the revival of financial aid, the promise of visa-free travel to much of the EU and accelerated membership talks, has sharply cut the number of refugees entering Europe via eastern routes.

Last year Germany took in around 1.1 million people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and beyond, far more than any other EU state, creating conditions that have led to a rise in social and political tensions in Europe's powerhouse economy.

But the Emnid survey for mass-circulation Bild am Sonntag showed 52 percent were in favour of the migration deal being terminated, compared with 35 percent who wanted it to continue.

More than two thirds of the 502 people surveyed on Aug. 4 also wanted an immediate freeze of aid payments to Turkey and 66 percent wanted the EU accession talks broken off.

Under the migration pact, Ankara agreed to take back all migrants and refugees, including Syrians who cross by sea to Greece illegally.

The reciprocal visa-free access has been delayed due to a dispute over Turkish anti-terrorism legislation and concern in the West about the scale of Ankara's crackdown following a failed coup.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said last weekend Ankara would back out of the refugee agreement with the EU if the bloc did not deliver visa-free travel.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Chief of Staff, Peter Altmaier, said on Friday there was "no Plan B" for the migrant deal and told the Berliner Zeitung he was convinced it would remain in place.

On Friday, Germany's foreign minister resisted a push by Austria to halt the EU accession talks with Turkey on joining the EU, saying the bloc needed to think more broadly with how to frame its relationship with Ankara in troubled times.
France seeks relative of Charlie Hebdo killer stopped in Turkey -source

PARIS, Aug 7 (Reuters) - French prosecutors are seeking a European arrest warrant for a relative of one the islamist militants who attacked the Paris satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo last year, a judicial source said on Sunday.

Authorities suspect 20-year-old Mourad Hamyd, who is the brother-in-law of Cherif Kouachi of attempting to join the ranks of Islamic State, the source said, confirming information cited by newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.

The paper said that the young man, who was being monitored by French security services, was reported missing on July 25 by his family in eastern France. He is being detained in Bulgaria after being turned back at the Turkish border, the JDD added.

France has suffered a series of deadly attacks in the past year that have shown the difficulties faced by the authorities in tracking potential militants.

The Charlie Hebdo attack, in which 17 people were killed, was followed by a coordinated assault by gunmen in Paris in November that killed 130 people.

Last month, a man killed 85 people by ramming a truck into crowds in Riviera city Nice, and then two men killed a priest in a small town in Normandy.

Hamyd had been questioned by police following the Charlie Hebdo attacks but was cleared of any involvement.
Saudi-led coalition launches 30 air strikes in Yemen - residents

CAIRO, Aug 7 (Reuters) - A Saudi-led military coalition carried out around 30 air strikes throughout Yemen on Sunday, residents said, a day after U.N. talks to end a civil war there expired without achieving peace.

The bombings were aimed at Yemen's armed Houthi movement in Sanaa, Saada, Jawf, Hajja and Taiz provinces, stretching from the country's far north to coastal south.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in the strikes, which were carried out largely in remote war zones.

But on battlefronts in two areas northeast of the capital Sanaa and in southern Bayda province, local officials said about 40 fighters were killed from both sides in renewed clashes.

Saudi Arabia and its mostly Gulf Arab allies intervened in Yemen's civil war in March 2015 but have failed to restore the exiled government to the Houthi-run capital.

Nearly three months of fractious negotiations in Kuwait helped to reduce the level of fighting that has killed at least 6,400 people and unleashed a humanitarian crisis.

The U.N. pledged that the talks would be renewed at an unspecified venue within a month.
Palestinian denies funnelling charity money to Hamas -lawyer

GAZA, Aug 7 (Reuters) - A Palestinian representative of U.S.-based Christian charity World Vision denies Israeli allegations that he funnelled millions of dollars in aid money to the Islamist militant group Hamas, his lawyer said on Sunday.

Mohammad El Halabi, World Vision's manager of operations in the Gaza Strip, was arrested by Israel on June 15 while crossing into the enclave, which is under the de facto rule of Hamas, a group on the Israeli and U.S. terrorism blacklists.

Briefing reporters on Thursday, a senior Israeli security official said Halabi, who has run the group's Gaza operations since 2010, had been under surveillance.

The Israeli official said Halabi confessed to siphoning off some $7.2 million a year, about 60 percent of World Vision's Gaza funding, to pay Hamas fighters, buy arms, pay for other activities and build fortifications.

"Mohammad (El Halabi) denies all these accusations. He denied it all," Jerusalem-based lawyer Mohammad Mahmoud, who was assigned to represent El Halabi by the charity group, told Reuters by phone on Sunday.

Mahmoud said he met his client during a court session last week, and these were his first comments made publicly.

World Vision had already said it was "shocked" by Israel's allegations, and while it had no reason to believe them to be true, it would review the evidence.

Hamas has denied any connection to Halabi.

After the case was made public, Australia suspended aid to World Vision. The U.S. State Department, according to one official, is concerned by the allegations and following the investigation closely.
Politicians concerned over Ankara's influence on Turks in Germany

BERLIN, Aug 7 (Reuters) - German politicians voiced concern on Sunday about the growing influence of Ankara on people with Turkish roots living in Germany.

Germany has seen violence in the past between nationalist Turks and militant Kurds and officials fret that tensions in Turkish society following last month's attempted coup could spill over onto its soil.

Thousands of demonstrators from Germany's Turkish community turned out in Cologne last Sunday to show their support for Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan at a rally that ratcheted up diplomatic tensions between Ankara and Berlin.

"People of Turkish origin who live here must abide by our laws and our customs," Merkel ally Volker Kauder told the Funke Media Group in comments published on Sunday.

"I therefore view with concern attempts by the Turkish government and the ruling AKP party to influence people with Turkish roots living here in Germany," he added.

Bernd Riexinger, co-leader of the radical Left party also warned about increasing strains among the Turkish population in Germany.

"Erdogan supporters are already exerting a lot of pressure on dissidents in Germany," he said. "This must stop. There must not be threats among us."

Germany is home to around three million people of Turkish origin. In Turkey's last national elections, 60 percent of them voted for Turkey's ruling AKP Party, according to the organisation of Turkish Communities in Germany.

Gokay Sofuoglu, chairman of Turkish Communities in Germany, told Reuters last month that a hotline number was circulating on social media that supposedly called on people to notify Turkish authorities about Erdogan opponents.

Kauder appealed to Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB), which represents more than 70 percent of Muslims living in Germany, to make clear to its members that Germany's constitution and law were above religion.
Islamic State hits U.S.-backed Syrian rebel base near Iraq border

BEIRUT, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Islamic State suicide bombers on Sunday attacked a military base for U.S.-backed fighters near the Syrian-Iraqi border, leaving several dead before blowing themselves up, rebel sources and the militants said on Sunday.

They said the dawn attack on the heavily defended military camp near the Syrian al Tanf border crossing with Iraq involved at least one explosive-laden vehicle that rammed the gate of the base which was set up by the fledgling, Pentagon-trained New Syria Army.

Another rebel said the militants were not able to storm the heavily fortified camp where large sand barriers have been erected to prevent such incursions and attacks in an area where the militants operate with hit and run attacks.

"It's a well defended camp and they tried to storm it but the suicide vehicle was targeted and hit," said Said Seif al Qalamoni, a rebel familiar with operating in the same area. He added that there were at least one dead and several wounded.

Qalamoni said jets from the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State shortly after struck at several vehicles believed to be driven by the militants in the sparsely populated desert area.

Amaq, a news agency affiliated to Islamic State, said two suicide bombers had attacked the camp and detonated an explosive-laden car before storming the compound and detonating their suicide vests.

The New Syria Army was formed around 18 months ago using insurgents driven from eastern Syria at the height of Islamic State's rapid expansion in 2014.

Diplomats and rebel sources say U.S. special forces are training hundreds of fighters from the group in camps in Jordan.

The Tanf crossing, which was captured from Islamic State militants last year, is a 240 km (150 miles) drive from Syria's ancient city of Palmyra, also known as Tadmur.

Scores of Islamic State militants moved south into southern Syria and the Tanf area after they were driven out of Palmyra in central Syria this year.

The militants, who control a swathe of territory spreading from Iraq into central Syria, still control the al-Bukamal Syria-Iraq border crossing near Deir al Zour.

The New Syria Army, with the backing of Western special forces and U.S.-led air strikes, launched an attack last June from the Tanf base on al-Bukamal northeast of Tanf.

But the operation, which aimed to capture the town and cut supply lines for the group between Syria and Iraq, failed after rebels were encircled on the approaches of the town after the jihadists mounted a counter-attack.
Islamic State claims responsibility for machete attack in Belgium

By Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Islamic State claimed responsibility on Sunday for an attack by a machete-wielding man in Belgium that left two female police officers seriously injured, the group's Amaq news agency said on Twitter.

Shortly before the claim, Belgian prosecutors had identified the assailant as a 33-year-old Algerian, K.B., who had lived in Belgium since 2012, saying that he may have been inspired by terrorism.

The attacker, who shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) during the assault on Saturday, was shot by police and died of his injuries. He was carrying a rucksack but no explosives or other weapons were found.

"There are indications that the attack may have been inspired by a terrorist motive," the prosecutors said in a statement. "He is known to police for criminal acts, not for terrorism."

Prosecutors searched two houses in Charleroi after the attack but did not provide details.

Early on Sunday Belgian police arrested a man with a machete in the eastern city of Liege, broadcaster VRT reported.

It said Liege police had cordoned off an area before detaining the man. It said he was of Turkish origin, did not use the machete and was not previously known to the police.

Belgium is increasing security at police stations after Saturday's attack in Charleroi, Prime Minister Charles Michel told a press conference on Sunday.

Islamist bombers killed 32 people in suicide attacks at Brussels airport and a metro station in March. Many of those who carried out attacks in Paris in November, which killed 130 people, were based in Belgium.
Cuba blames U.S. open door for migrant surge

By Marc Frank

HAVANA, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Havana on Sunday blamed Washington for a surge of Cubans trying to reach the United States by land and sea, accusing the Obama administration of encouraging illegal and unsafe immigration.

Tens of thousands of Cubans over the last two years have flocked to the U.S.-Mexican border and taken to the sea in hopes of reaching Florida, fearing a growing detente between the Cold War foes will lead to a change in U.S. policy.

Under a 1960s law, the Cuban Adjustment Act, the Communist-run country's citizens are treated as legal immigrants if they set foot on U.S. soil, while migrants from any other land are considered illegal.

A government statement carried by local media and announcing the arrival of 14 Cubans deported by Colombia, said they were the "victims of the politicization of the migration issue by the U.S. government which stimulates illegal and unsafe immigration."

The government said its citizens "receive differential treatment ... they are immediately and automatically admitted ... including if they arrived by illegal means."

The statement said the policy contradicted normalization efforts.

Colombia last week announced that more than 1,000 Cubans stuck in the country, and who were trying to reach the United States, would be deported.

Colombia is just the latest government to crack down on Cubans who legally visit the region and then illegally, often with the help of human smugglers, pass through their territory on the way to the Mexican border.

A Pew Research Center report released on Sunday said that during the first 10 months of fiscal 2016 more than 46,500 Cubans had arrived and been admitted to the United States without visas, compared with more than 43,000 in 2015 and just over 24,000 in 2014.

As the long trek through the region becomes more difficult and costly, more Cubans may take to the sea.

"Both my children say they are going to leave by boat as soon as they can," a distraught mother in westernmost Pinar del Rio province said, requesting anonymity.

"I keep telling them it is too dangerous. But they won't listen, they are determined to go now," she said.
Taylor, Williamson centuries boost New Zealand to massive total

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Ross Taylor and Kane Williamson scored centuries as New Zealand posted a massive 582 for four declared in their first innings against Zimbabwe on the second day of the second test on Sunday.

Zimbabwe, in reply, were 55 without loss at stumps, with recalled opener Tino Mawoyo (20 not out) and Chamu Chibhabha (31 not out) having kept the tourists at bay for 30 overs after New Zealand declared their innings at tea.

However, the day belonged to Taylor (124 not out) and Williamson (113), the latter becoming the 13th and, at 26, the youngest player to score a century against all test-playing nations. He did so in 91 innings, the quickest the feat has ever been accomplished.

Taylor passed Martin Crowe in third on the list of all-time New Zealand test run-scorers as he bagged his third unbeaten test century in a row against the Zimbabweans with another high-class knock.

New Zealand resumed on 329 for two with Williamson quickly bringing up the five runs he needed for his century off 136 balls.

He eventually fell chasing a wide delivery from seamer Michael Chinouya as he picked out Craig Ervine at gully.

Henry Nicholls (15) was out leg before wicket to home skipper Graeme Cremer, before Taylor and BJ Watling (83 not out) put on an unbeaten stand of 193.
France seeking Charlie Hebdo attacker's relative held in Bulgaria

PARIS, Aug 7 (Reuters) - French prosecutors are seeking to use a European arrest warrant to gain custody of a relative of one of the Islamist militants who attacked satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo last year, a judicial source said on Sunday.

Authorities suspect 20-year-old Mourad Hamyd - the brother-in-law of assailant Cherif Kouachi - of attempting to join the ranks of Islamic State, the source said, confirming information cited by newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.

The newspaper said Hamyd, who was being monitored by French security services, was reported missing on July 25 by his family in France and was being detained in Bulgaria after being turned back at the Turkish border.

The Bulgarian interior ministry confirmed Hamyd was being held in the country and that a court would rule on Tuesday on his arrest.

"He had behaviour typical for a foreign fighter and that's how was identified," Interior Minister Rumiana Bachvarova said on BTV television.

She said a European arrest warrant had been issued, without giving further details.

France has suffered a series of deadly attacks that have highlighted difficulties faced by the authorities in tracking potential militants.

The Charlie Hebdo attack in January 2015, in which Cherif Kouachi and his brother Said shot dead 12 people before being killed by police, was followed by a coordinated assault by gunmen in Paris in November that killed 130 people.

Last month, a man killed 85 people by ramming a truck into crowds in Nice, and then two men killed a priest in a small town in Normandy.

Hamyd had been questioned by police following the Charlie Hebdo attacks but was cleared of any involvement.
Austria threatens to block acceleration of Turkish EU talks

VIENNA, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz has threatened to block the expansion of negotiations with Turkey on its accession to the European Union, which could scupper a landmark migration deal between Brussels and Ankara.

The Turkish government's crackdown on followers of a U.S.-based cleric whom it blames for last month's failed coup has strained relations with the 28-nation bloc, which depends on Ankara to restrict the westward flow of migrants.

Talks on Turkish accession to the EU began in 2005, but only one out of 35 "chapters", or policy areas where Turkey must adopt and implement EU rules, has been concluded.

"I have a seat and a vote in the (EU) foreign ministers' council. There the question is whether new negotiation chapters will be opened with Turkey, and I am against it," Kurz said in an interview with Austrian daily Kurier, threatening to block the unanimous agreement required by the council.

Turkey has so far lived up to its side of the deal with Brussels to stop illegal migration to Europe via its territory, in return for financial aid, the promise of visa-free travel to much of the bloc and accelerated talks on membership.

But visa-free access has been subject to delays due to a dispute over Turkish anti-terrorism legislation, which some in Europe see as too broad, and the post-coup crackdown. Kurz said Turkey had not met the conditions for progress to be made.

"The criteria for visa liberalisation will not be fulfilled by Turkey. And the requirements for accession talks have not been met," Kurz said.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Friday accession talks were "as good as deadlocked" but he rejected calls to halt them entirely saying the bloc needed to think more broadly about how to frame its ties with Ankara.

But on Sunday his colleague, German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, said he believed Turkey was unlikely to join the EU for decades.

"I don't believe that Turkey in the foreseeable future - and I'm talking about the next 10, 20 years - has the chance to become an EU member," Gabriel told broadcaster ARD in an interview due to be broadcast on Sunday evening.
The UN Yemen envoy officially declared on Saturday the end of the peace talks in Kuwait without making any breakthroughs to stop a 16-month civil war in Yemen.

The envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed also said during a press conference that the peace negotiations between the Saudi-backed Yemeni government and the Shiite Houthi group and their allies will resume within a month.

"We are leaving Kuwait today but the Yemeni peace consultations will continue," he said, adding that "we received guarantees from the Yemeni warring parties about their commitment to resume the talks again in a month, and the location will be decided later."

Ould Cheikh also expressed his gratitude for the Kuwaiti government and denied the reports that Kuwait will host another round of the Yemeni peace talks.

According to the UN envoy, the two Yemeni peace delegations will have another chance and more time in order to discuss their leaderships and the next steps to achieve peace during the upcoming talks.

Yemen's Foreign Minister Abdul-Malik Mekhlafi, who heads the government delegation to the Kuwait-based talks, tweeted that "consultations ended today without achieving the peace that we sought for our people and country due to the putschists' intransigence."

Yemeni political experts said that the talks of over 112 days failed because the Houthis and their allies insisted on being part of a unity government and refused to sign a UN-proposed draft introduced last week.

However, the UN envoy rejected claims that the talks in Kuwait have failed or collapsed, saying that "bringing the two sides to a negotiation table was an achievement in itself."

On Sunday, the Yemeni government announced that its peace delegation agreed to sign a UN-proposed agreement in a bid to bring security and stability to the war-torn country.

The draft agreement called on Houthi militias to withdraw from Sanaa and other Yemeni provinces, hand over heavy arms and return government facilities they occupied.

It also demanded the Shiite Houthi group to release the political detainees, lift siege imposed on Yemeni cites within 45 days and allow the entrance of humanitarian aids to hard-reaching areas.

Earlier in the day, Houthi rebels and political allies of ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh officially announced names of the power-sharing political council to govern Yemen.

The political council is made up of 10 senior officials, who dominate the decision making in the country, said a joint statement carried by Houthi-controlled Saba news agency.

The declaration was made in a ceremony in the presidential palace in the capital Sanaa.

They said the council's next missions are to jointly run the country, cooperate militarily against Yemeni government forces and form a new "national government."

Pro-government forces backed by the Saudi-led Arab coalition launched on Saturday fresh military offensives in an effort to gain more territory near Sanaa and expel the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

Yemeni military sources said that heavy shelling and intensified armed confrontations rocked the eastern part of Sanaa, particularly Nehim district.

They said that Saudi-led warplanes provided air power to help the pro-government forces make more ground advances towards Sanaa.

Over 16 Saudi-led airstrikes have targeted different positions held by pro-Houthi forces in Nehim district since Saturday morning.

More than 25 fighters and 14 government soldiers were killed during the fighting that flared up just few hours before the announcement of ending the Kuwait-based talks.

According to local media outlets, the government forces warned the residents of Sanaa not to shelter Houthis or allow them to enter their homes, and to stay away from Houthi-controlled military positions.

Houthis and Saleh's forces hold most of Yemen's northern regions while government forces backed by Saudi-led military coalition share control of the rest of the country.

The civil war with ground battles and airstrikes have already killed more than 6,400 people, half of them civilians, injured more than 35,000 others and displaced over two millions, according to humanitarian agencies.
Turkish military chief says "traitors" behind coup will be punished

ISTANBUL, Aug 7 (Reuters) - The head of Turkey's armed forces told a rally of more than a million people in Istanbul on Sunday that the "traitors" behind an attempted coup would be punished in the harshest way and thanked civilians for their role in putting down the putsch.

In a rare address to a public rally, military chief of staff Hulusi Akar also said the army was on top of its duties and was at the service of its people with all of its personnel.
Mudslides triggered by storm claim 18 lives in eastern Mexico

MEXICO CITY, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Mudslides triggered by the intense rainfall in eastern Mexico have left 18 people dead over the weekend as saturated hillsides collapsed onto homes in the wake of now-dissipated Tropical Storm Earl.

At least eight people were confirmed dead on Sunday near the town of Huauchinango, located in the rugged Sierra Norte de Puebla mountains in Puebla state, Huauchinango Mayor Gabriel Alvarado said in a statement.

The Huauchinango death toll could still increase, Alvarado said, adding that more than 200 people had been affected by damages to homes.

Another 10 people have died in neighboring Veracruz state, Governor Javier Duarte said in a post on Twitter on Sunday, buried in landslides after intense rainfall and flooding.

"We continue to monitor rivers that are above critical levels," said Duarte in another Twitter post.
One U.N. peacekeeper killed, four wounded in north Mali mine attack

BAMAKO, Aug 7 (Reuters) - A United Nations peacekeeper was killed and four others wounded on Sunday when their vehicle hit a mine in Mali's restive north, the U.N. mission (MINUSMA) said.

The attack on the vehicle, which was escorting a logistical convoy, occurred about 11 km (7 miles) south of Aguelhoc in the region of Kidal, where several Islamist militant groups groups are active, the mission said in a statement.

All five peacekeepers were from Chad, a mission spokesman said.

About two hours later, another mine exploded near a U.N. peacekeeping vehicle two km east of the mission base in Kidal but only caused material damage, the MINUSMA statement added.

Mali's government has not had a military presence in Kidal since clashes between the army and Tuareg rebels killed 50 soldiers there in 2014, leaving a heavy security burden on U.N. troops.

Mali has become the deadliest place to serve for U.N. peacekeepers. The United Nations says more than 100 peacekeepers have been killed since MINUSMA deployed in July 2013. The U.N. Security Council voted in June to increase the contingent by 2,500 troops, taking the total number of uniformed personnel to more than 15,000.

In May, five Chadian peacekeepers were killed in an ambush near Kidal. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) also claimed responsibility for an attack that month that killed a Chinese peacekeeper and three civilians.

Islamist militant groups, some with links to al Qaeda, hijacked a Tuareg uprising in 2012 and seized northern Mali until a French-led intervention drove them back a year later.
One U.N. peacekeeper killed, four wounded in north Mali mine attack

BAMAKO, Aug 7 (Reuters) - A United Nations peacekeeper was killed and four others wounded on Sunday when their vehicle hit a mine in Mali's restive north, the U.N. mission (MINUSMA) said.

The attack on the vehicle, which was escorting a logistical convoy, occurred about 11 km (7 miles) south of Aguelhoc in the region of Kidal, where several Islamist militant groups groups are active, the mission said in a statement.

All five peacekeepers were from Chad, a mission spokesman said.

About two hours later, another mine exploded near a U.N. peacekeeping vehicle two km east of the mission base in Kidal but only caused material damage, the MINUSMA statement added.

MINUSMA did not say who was responsible for the attacks.

In a statement on Sunday, Islamist militant group Ansar Dine claimed responsibility for a mine attack on Friday near Kidal targeting Chadian troops, according to SITE Intelligence Group.

That explosion injured one peacekeeper, the spokesman for U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement on Sunday.

Mali's government has not had a military presence in Kidal since clashes between the army and Tuareg rebels killed 50 soldiers there in 2014, leaving a heavy security burden on U.N. troops.

Mali has become the deadliest place to serve for U.N. peacekeepers. The United Nations says more than 100 peacekeepers have been killed since MINUSMA deployed in July 2013. The U.N. Security Council voted in June to increase the contingent by 2,500 troops, taking the total number of uniformed personnel to more than 15,000.

In May, five Chadian peacekeepers were killed in an ambush near Kidal. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) also claimed responsibility for an attack that month that killed a Chinese peacekeeper and three civilians.

Islamist militant groups, some with links to al Qaeda, hijacked a Tuareg uprising in 2012 and seized northern Mali until a French-led intervention drove them back a year later.

But the region has remained plagued by violence despite a peace accord signed last year between Tuareg fighters and the government. Two days of fighting last month between Tuareg rebels and pro-government militia killed up to 20 people.
Mudslides triggered by storm claim 40 lives in eastern Mexico

MEXICO CITY, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Mudslides triggered by intense rainfall in eastern Mexico killed 40 people at the weekend as saturated hillsides collapsed onto modest homes in the wake of now-dissipated Tropical Storm Earl.

The death toll rose late on Sunday after state governors in the two most affected states confirmed two more deaths from a series of mudslides that struck hillside communities.

The head of national emergency services previously put the death toll at 38, the vast majority of whom were found in Puebla state, while the remainder died in neighboring Veracruz.

Rafael Morena Valle, governor of Puebla state, said canine units were searching for the missing, but the number of unaccounted for residents was unclear.

Images of the damage from Earl, broadcast on Mexican television, showed massive mudslides burying entire hillsides, trees felled and buildings creaking under collapsed walls and roofs.

On the Pacific coast, Mexico's Baja California peninsula braced for another major storm to strike as early as Monday.

Tropical Storm Javier was generating maximum sustained winds of 50 miles per hour (80 kph) on Sunday night and was forecast to become a hurricane late Monday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in a statement.

The center of the storm was expected to strike the southern tip of Baja, home to the beach resort of Los Cabos, by Monday night.

At least 25 of the deaths in Puebla state were confirmed on Sunday near the town of Huauchinango in the rugged Sierra Norte de Puebla mountains, site of the worst destruction so far.

Eleven people have died in Veracruz, buried in landslides after intense rainfall and flooding struck the Gulf coast state after Earl crossed the Yucatan peninsula.

"We continue to monitor rivers that are above critical levels," Veracruz Governor Javier Duarte said in a post on Twitter on Sunday.
Florida governor criticizes Washington for lagging in Zika fight

Aug 7 (Reuters) - Florida Republican Governor Rick Scott on Sunday accused the federal government of lagging in providing assistance to combat the spread of the Zika virus in a Miami-area neighborhood, the site of the first U.S. transmission of the virus.

Scott was speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press" about the neighborhood of Wynwood, where crews began aerial spraying on Thursday to kill virus-carrying mosquitoes. Zika can cause microcephaly, a rare but devastating birth defect.

The governor said state health authorities had identified 16 cases of Zika that were spread by local mosquitoes and criticized the federal government for failing to get more involved in battling the virus.

Scott said he asked U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Thomas Frieden earlier this week for 10,000 additional Zika preparedness kits.

"We still need the federal government to show up. The President and Congress have to work together. This is a national, international issue. It's not just a Florida issue," Scott said.

A representative for the CDC could not be immediately reached on Sunday.

President Barack Obama, a Democrat, earlier this week called on Congress to approve more funds to fight Zika's spread in the United States, saying that money to fight the outbreak is rapidly running out.

Scott's comments come a day after Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida stirred controversy by telling political news outlet Politico that pregnant women infected with Zika should not be able to get an abortion, even when there was evidence the baby might be born with severe microcephaly.

"I understand a lot of people disagree with my view - but I believe that all human life is worthy of protection of our laws," Rubio, a former candidate for his party's presidential nomination, told Politico. "But if I'm going to err, I'm going to err on the side of life."

U.S. health regulators said on Friday that they had cleared the way for a trial of genetically modified mosquitoes in Florida that can reduce mosquito populations, potentially offering a new tool to fight the local spread of Zika and other viruses.

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 connection between Zika and microcephaly first came to light last fall in Brazil, which has now confirmed more than 1,600 cases of microcephaly that it considers to be related to Zika infections in the mothers.
Australia suspends World Vision aid over Hamas funding accusations

SYDNEY, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Australia said on Friday it was suspending funding for relief group World Vision's operations in the Palestinian Territories after allegations its Gaza representative funnelled millions of dollars to the Islamist militant group Hamas.

Mohammad El Halabi, World Vision's manager of operations in Gaza, was arrested by Israel on June 15 while crossing the border into the enclave, which is under the de facto rule of Hamas, a group on Israeli and U.S. terrorism blacklists.

A senior Israeli security official on Thursday said Halabi, who has run the group's Gaza operations since 2010, had been under extended surveillance and had confessed to siphoning off some $7.2 million a year to Hamas.

World Vision said it was shocked by the claims, and a Hamas spokesman said the group had no connection with Halabi.

Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) called the allegations "deeply troubling" and said in a statement that it was "urgently seeking more information from World Vision and the Israeli authorities."

"We are suspending the provision of further funding to World Vision for programs in the Palestinian Territories until the investigation is complete," it said.

Israel welcomed the decision and said it has passed on details of the case to a number of countries from where money is being sent to Gaza.

Israel's Foreign Ministry said it "calls on the organization and others dealing in aid to the Gaza Strip to examine themselves and their local partners."
The Syrian army retreated from some military positions it was controlling in the southern countryside of Aleppo province, repositioning behind new defense lines, pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV reported on Saturday evening.

The rebels, mainly Jaish al-Fateh, and the Jabhet Fateh al-Sham, previously known as al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, unleashed a sweeping offensive on Saturday evening against a number of adjacent military colleges, mainly the Artillery College base, in the southern countryside of Aleppo in northern Syria.

The evening attack is the seventh to take place in a bid by the rebels to break a three-week-old siege by the government forces on rebel-held areas in the eastern part of Aleppo city.

The military colleges are located in the southwestern countryside of Aleppo, near the town of al-Ramuseh.

Opposition activists said the rebels also captured parts of al-Ramuseh, whose control will enable them to break the government siege.

The control of that key town will turn the table against the government forces, as it will enable the rebels to reverse the siege from the eastern side on the government controlled parts in western Aleppo.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor group said Jaish al-Fateh was able to advance through al-Ramuseh and meet with the rebels inside the eastern Aleppo city.

Still, the Observatory made it clear that the rebels couldn't open a safe route into eastern Aleppo, due to the heavy airstrikes by the Russian air force, and the intense shelling by the Syrian army on their positions.

It, however, said that the route opened by the rebels was a military one, not for the civilians use.

The UK-based group added that the rebels controlled parts of al-Ramuseh, while the army is still in control of another part of the town.

It claimed that the entire Artillery College base has fallen to the rebels as well as a number of military positions in southern Aleppo.

The Syrian national TV, meanwhile, said Saturday evening that the rebels have failed to break the siege imposed on eastern Aleppo.

It added that the Syrian forces are continuing to fight intense battles in southern Aleppo and confronting the attack of the terrorist groups.

It said the army is engaged in intense battles in the positions that have been infiltrated by the rebels in the military colleges area.

Meanwhile, Jabhet Fateh al-Sham released a video clip, purporting to show a group of rebels from the countryside of Aleppo reaching their comrades inside eastern Aleppo city.

The Jaish al-Fateh rebels declared that it had broken the army siege on eastern Aleppo.

The Syrian national TV said the pro-rebel media outlets were unleashing a psychologic warfare, by disseminating tens of pictures and fake videos to mislead the public opinion and cover for the huge losses the their militants have suffered.

A military source told Xinhua that intense battles are currently raging on all fronts in southern Aleppo, adding that the army has declared the area as an open military zone.

The southern countryside of Aleppo has been the scene of tit-for-tat battles since Friday, when the rebels attacked the Artillery College, but failed several times to storm it before Saturday evening, when they have finally made into that military installation.

The rebels also showed pictures of what they said weapon cash they have captured inside the base.

The rebels have feverishly trying to break the siege from the al-Ramuseh town toward Aleppo to break the weeks-long siege.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday bared more than 150 names of judges, military, police and lawmakers who are allegedly linked to the alarming drug menace in the Philippines.

In a news conference in Davao City in the early hours on Sunday morning, Duterte said there are an estimated 600,000 Filipinos who are drug addicts, pushers and users nationwide.

"I grieve for my country," Duterte said, lamenting that the drug problem has worsened "because government personnel were into it."

Duterte read the long list of names during the news conference that lasted two hours, ordering those he named to report to their mother units within 24 hours. Some of those he named were retired police officers and former local officials from all over the country.

"You are hereby relieved of your duty and immediately report to your mother units," he said. "I'd like to give you the advice: once you hear your name mentioned here you are now relieved of your present assignments."

He also ordered the cancellation of "any and all" firearm permits and licenses issues to them cancelled immediately.

He said judges should report to the Supreme Court, the local government officials to the Department of Interior and Local Government, and the military and the police to their superiors in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP)and the Philippine National Police (PNP)within 24 hours.

"If you do not do that I will order the AFP and the entire PNP to hunt for you," Duterte said.

Duterte also ordered to remove the "operational authority" over the military and police officials assigned to mayors and other local government officials he named.

Duterte also named Iloilo, a province in the central Philippines as the most "shabulized" province in the country, referring to the magnitude and extent of methamphetamine use in the region.

He said those names that made it to the list that he read had been validated. "I am the sole person responsible," he said.

On July 5, Duterte also named at least five police generals who are allegedly "protectors of illegal drug syndicates" operating in the country. The police officers are now being investigated.

Since the names of the five generals were bared at least four local officials or former local officials have submitted themselves to the police for further verification. Some have admitted using illegal drugs but denied allegations they are protectors.

Duterte has intensified his war against criminals, especially drug lords. He has also repeatedly warned these drug lords who are preying on the youths of the land, warning that "it's going to be a dirty and bloody fight."

Since he assumed the presidency on June 30, Duterte has ordered the police to crack the whip on drug lords and their protectors that allegedly include police officers and even the so-called "narco politicians."

So far, the media has recorded at least 600 people who were killed in the campaign against illegal drugs. The death toll continues to rise, causing human rights groups to demand an investigation into the unabated extra-judicial killings.

A couple of senators said they plan to initiate an investigation into the spate of vigilante-like killings of people who were marked as pushers and addicts whose bodies are dumped in the streets.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 7

By Seymur Aliyev, Umid Niayesh  Trend:

Iranian president Hassan Rouhani said that bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Iran is rapidly expanding in various fields.

The ultimate goal of Iran, Azerbaijan is to develop free trade, Rouhani said at a joint press conference with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Baku, Aug. 7, Trend's correspondent reported from the event.

During the last three years, Iran-Azerbaijan ties have been developing and good steps were taken for boosting the relations, Rouhani said.

Iran is negotiating with the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) on custom tariffs, and is interested to reach similar agreements with Azerbaijan in this regard as well, Rouhani said.

Tehran is expecting to reach a deal with the Russia-led EEU on reducing export tariffs this year.

Iranian president also underlined the importance of banking ties between the two countries, saying that developing banking relations will contribute to boosting mutual economic ties.

We try to enhance banking ties to a level which lead to the development of mutual trade and economic relations in all fields, Rouhani said referring to the banking document signed between the two countries central banks.

He further said that important steps also were taken in the fields of ties between the countries in the area of investment, industry and technology including a car-manufacturing project with annual output capacity of 10,000 cars in Azerbaijan to meet the demands of Azerbaijan and neighbouring countries.

Rouhani also said that steps will be taken for cooperation in the pharmaceutical field, which will be a beginning point as well for mutual industrial and technological relations between the two countries.

He also said that the two sides have reached general agreement to work together in the field of oil and gas in Caspian Sea.

The two countries will invest in the field of tourism and will work to increase th direct flights, Rouhani said.

The Iranian president further said that Iran and Azerbaijan discussed ways to cope with regional terrorism.

There is unanimity that extremism has surpassed the region and violence is now an issue entailing strong cooperation of the countries, especially Iran and Azerbaijan, Rouhani added.

He also called for boosting cooperation in the fields of cultural issues, universities and high-tech.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 7

By Seymur Aliyev, Umid Niayesh  Trend:

The North-South international transport corridor is one of the main issues between Iran and Azerbaijan as well as regional countries, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said.

He made the remarks while on an official visit to Baku on Aug. 7, at a joint press conference with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Baku, Aug. 7, Trend correspondent reported from the event.

The corridor will connect Azerbaijan to Persian Gulf and finally we will be able to connect Caucasus countries, Russia, northern and eastern Europe to the Persian Gulf, Rouhani said.

He further expressed hope that the corridor would contribute to boosting economic ties of all regional countries.

The North-South International Transport Corridor is a multipurpose route for the transit of goods between Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia, Europe, India and Central Asia via shipping lines, railroad and land routes.

The first step on establishing the corridor will be finalized this year and the Astara (Azerbaijan)-Astara (Iran) rail bridge is going to be completed through Iran-Azerbaijan cooperation, Rouhani said.

The second step is to complete the Astara-Rasht railway, which will be finalized through a 50-50 investment of Iran and Azerbaijan, Rouhani added.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 7

Trend:

Armenian armed forces have 24 times violated the ceasefire on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops over the past 24 hours, said Azerbaijans Defense Ministry Aug. 7.

Armenians were using large caliber machine guns and sniper rifles while firing at Azerbaijani positions.

Armenian armed forces, stationed in the village of Barekamavan of Armenias Noyemberyan district and Paravakar of Ijevan district, opened fire at Azerbaijani positions located on the nameless heights and in the village of Gaymagli of Gazakh district.

Azerbaijani positions located on the nameless heights of Tovuz district took fire from the positions located in the village of Aygedzor of Armenias Berd district.

Azerbaijani positions also took fire from the positions located near the Chileburt village of Terter district and Gorgan village of Fizuli district.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 7

By Seymur Aliyev, Umid Niayesh  Trend:

Iran has always supported the territorial integrity of countries in the region, including Azerbaijan, Iranian president Hassan Rouhani said.

Rouhani made the remarks at a joint press conference with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Baku, Aug. 7 while commenting about the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Trend correspondent reported from the event.

He stressed that the Iran is against change of political borders in the region.

Iranian president further said that he has held talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart on the issue.

Iran believes that peace and stability should be established in the region, Rouhani said, adding all conflicts and problems between the countries should be settled through negotiations.

Iran as a neighbor of Azerbaijan and Armenia has always tried to pave ground to resolve the issues via dialogue, Rouhani said, adding that Iran will spare no effort in this regard.

Rouhani further said that the two sides have reached some agreements regarding to joint activities in Caspian Sea which can be an important step in the future of Tehran-Baku ties.

Rouhani also said that he has held talks with Ilham Aliyev regarding the legal status of the Caspian Sea.
Since he opened the Charlottesville-Albemarle Office of the Public Defender in 1998, Jim Hingeley has watched his team of attorneys provide top-notch representation to countless clients who couldnt otherwise afford it, all while working with community partners on the betterment of the criminal justice system.

After 18 years at the helm, Hingeley decided that this summer would be the time to pass the torch.

Thankfully, he wont have to pass it very far.

In a recent announcement, the Virginia Indigent Defense Commission appointed Liz Murtagh to be the next public defender of Albemarle County and Charlottesville, effective Sept. 1. A public defender in Virginia for 24 years, Murtagh has worked in Hingeleys office since it opened and is ideally positioned to take the helm, the announcement read.

Many in the local criminal justice community agree that shell have some big shoes to fill.

Hingeley has been practicing law in Virginia for decades, after receiving degrees from Harvard and the University of Virginia School of Law. Hes done a little bit of everything: hes worked for a private practice; led the public defenders office in Lynchburg; and, a year after starting Charlottesvilles office, became a clinical supervisor of the Criminal Defense Clinic at UVas law school.

In that time, theres been plenty for Hingeley to be proud of  namely, he says, the talented staff manning the Public Defender Office.

We have the people to do the job and do it right, he said. I think thats most important.

Outside of providing legal counsel for indigent clients, Hingeley said his staff has partnered with other community groups to create positive outcomes for the city and county. For instance, the creation of their own Citizens Advisory Committee led to the 2007 formation of the Crisis Intervention Team, a program aimed at training law enforcement officers and mental health workers in dealing effectively with the mentally ill.

We felt there should be some way to improve the way citizens and police encounter each other, particularly when the citizens have mental illness, Hingeley said.

Hingeleys office also joined other groups to apply for a grant from the National Institute of Corrections to explore evidence-based decision making, a process for making programmatic decisions grounded in the best available research evidence. In receiving that grant, Charlottesville became one of only seven pilot sites in the state to adopt the lauded practice.

But while there is always more work to be done, Hingeley said that, as he nears the age of 69, its time to take a step back. He and his wife are a self-described career couple, and because shes recently taken a job in Oakland, California, Hingeleys ready to spend more time on the West Coast with her.

Hell still split his time between the coasts, seeing as his children and grandchildren are still in Charlottesville. Hell continue to teach at UVa, and expects to be involved in other projects in the local criminal justice system, but for now, its time to let his chief deputy step up to the plate.

Liz is going to do a terrific job, Hingeley said. She has talents, strengths and skills in both management and zealous advocacy for indigent clients.

Others in the local community agree. Llezelle Dugger, clerk of the citys Circuit Court, said that while shes obviously sad that Hingeley is retiring, shes excited about Murtaghs appointment and the sense of continuity that it provides.

She is as passionate and knowledgeable about the system as Jim, Dugger said. Shes been with Jim for 24 years, in Lynchburg, Albemarle and Charlottesville  I think its going to be a seamless transition.

Jon Zug, clerk of Albemarles Circuit Court, agreed, calling Hingeley a fantastic steward of the office.

I suspect hes leaving [the office] in great hands, Zug said. I think were going to see the continuation of a tradition that Jim has started.

Similarly, Charlottesville Commonwealths Attorney Dave Chapman called Murtaghs appointment a no-brainer, citing the parallels between her distinguished career and Hingeleys.

She previously worked in this community in the juvenile justice system, she worked in the Lynchburg office when Jim was there, and had an opportunity to come back to Charlottesville to help build the Public Defenders Office when it was founded, Chapman said. We know Liz well and look forward to continuing to work with her in her new position. Her promotion is well-earned.

For her part, Murtagh says she is very excited to step into her new role, although Hingeleys departure is bittersweet.

Im excited for him, and his future plans and being able to retire, but its sad too  Ill miss him, Murtagh said. Hes a wonderful colleague, mentor and friend.

Murtagh added that she intends to keep the office running as it has in years past, noting that things work pretty well here and that other entities in the local criminal justice system have well-established working relationships with the office.

This community is so unique  were all able to work with one another, Murtagh said. We dont always agree, but we come together to solve problems, and some communities dont do that.

After 18 years, Hingeley says hell mostly miss the people, be they his wonderful coworkers or the clients themselves.

Its very rewarding  these are people who are in time of great stress in their lives, and they need somebody to be on their side, Hingeley said. I will miss that feeling of being able to work together with somebody whos in trouble and helping them, and the feeling that Im not just helping them, but if I can help them as individuals to get back on the right track, Im ultimately helping the community.
PALMYRA  For the last two months, Celeste Duncan has been a busy woman.

The Palmyra restaurant owner has been working around the clock to restore the former glory of Rivahsyde Restaurant, which she sold in August 2015. It was Duncan herself who handed the keys to the building over to a new proprietor, hoping to return to her family in Virginia Beach and, over the course of about a year, be paid for the sale.

In hindsight, Duncan should have asked for the cash up front.

The man who purchased her restaurant, Bryan Nageotte, was evicted from the property on May 26, after eight months of failing to make rent payments to the Market Street buildings landlord, authorities allege. According to Duncan, the landlord wasnt the only one missing out on payments.

Per their contract, Duncan was to be paid $250,000 for the business, which Nageotte renamed the Rivanna Grill after the purchase. The money was supposed to be paid in installments, Duncan said  $30,000 one month, then $10,000 the next, maintaining that 30-10 pattern until the full amount had been paid.

Duncan received the first two payments, but after that, the checks stopped coming, she said.

Nageotte, who did not respond to interview requests for this article, is now facing 11 charges in Fluvanna County Circuit Court related to the matter  10 charges of forgery and one for perjury.

A prosecutor has confirmed that those charges are related to checks written by Nageotte in his dealings with the landlord. Nageotte pleaded not guilty to the charges Friday and is scheduled for a trial in November.

Attorneys familiar with the matter said that in spite of the charges, it is unlikely that any criminal charges can be filed in relation to Nageottes contract with Duncan. Duncan is currently weighing her options in filing a civil suit, but she isnt confident shell get the money she is due.

Ive lost my money and Im not going to get it back. He has nothing, Duncan said.

In the meantime, Duncan is opting to recoup her losses the only way she knows how  by reopening the business she started seven years ago with her late husband.

Duncan and her husband, Kenny, opened Rivahsyde Restaurant in 2009. The couple had wanted to have a small hot dog place, she said, to help make ends meet after retirement, and after some maneuvering, they landed the expansive Market Street location and set up shop.

Slinging hot dogs, hamburgers, barbeque and other fast, greasy hangover food, the business did well for itself as a mom and pop-style eatery, Duncan said. She and Kenny chose the name Rivahsyde  a Southern spelling of the word  to reduce confusion with the well-known Riverside restaurants in Charlottesville.

Heartbreak struck in March 2011, when Kenny Duncan succumbed to health issues. Celeste took over, not knowing a damn thing about business, she said, but ready to take on the challenge and keep things moving.

Things did keep running smoothly, until last summer, when Duncan decided it was time to move on and return to her family in Virginia Beach. Nageotte, a friend of Duncans daughter, had been working at the restaurant and expressed interest in taking it over.

He laid it all out, showed me what he was going to do, how he was going to pay me monthly, Duncan said.

Duncan looked into Nageottes background, but found little cause for worry. As far as she could tell, he had worked in restaurants all his life and seemed to be a perfect candidate for the sale. Accordingly, she didnt call any of his former employers  an admittedly poor decision made in her haste to complete the transaction.

I think my heart overruled my head, Duncan said.

Nageotte took over as manager on Aug. 1, 2015, with the arrangement that Duncan would work sporadically in exchange for a salary of $3,300 per month, she said. Duncan had left more than $30,000 in a checking account to be used to pay off bills incurred during her ownership that had yet to come in, which she estimates to have totaled about $15,000.

Duncan received the first $30,000 payment on Aug. 7, two day after it was due. $10,000 more was due Sept. 1, but Duncan said she wasnt paid until Sept. 11 and, as she later found out, the money had been paid using the account she left for her outstanding bills, she said.

By Sept. 13, that account had been run down to less than $2,500. Duncan said she confronted Nageotte about the account, but was told every excuse in the book, and I stupidly fell for it.

It wasnt long before the money stopped flowing altogether, she said.

Eventually, bounced checks led to Nageottes eviction, authorities said, whereupon Duncan returned to the restaurant per an arrangement with the landlord.

For the last two months, Duncan has worked day in and day out to get the restaurant back up to running speed, cleaning its kitchens, hiring back old staff and replacing equipment that she said Nageotte took with him. She estimates it has cost about $10,000 for the replacement equipment  some new, some purchased tacitly from Nageotte through Craigslist postings.

Duncan said shes learned a lot in this past year, as she watched her money and her former business wither away. Shes tougher now, more vigilant about whom she trusts in her business dealings.

And more than anything, she knows that if she ever does sell the restaurant again, itll be under very different terms.

Ill want cash in hand, she said.

On Wednesday, a year and two days since she handed the restaurant over, Duncan was finally able to reopen the eatery. Everything looks just as it did before Nageotte took over, with one big exception. This time around, its been dubbed KCs Burgers  the K for Kenny, the C for Celeste.
The University of Virginias Strategic Investment Fund is anything but a so-called slush fund, as it recently has been mischaracterized. That makes for catchy headlines, but it is false and irresponsible.

Virginians deserve better than an oversimplification on issues as important as quality and affordability of higher education.

In truth, this fund is as an extraordinary opportunity to improve academic quality, help minimize tuition costs and student debt, conduct research that benefits society, and offer world-class medical care.

Those kinds of returns dont come from slush funds. They are the very outcomes that a community, a commonwealth and the world gain from a thriving research institution of public higher education. They benefit students today and, I strongly believe, for many years to come.

These returns dont happen overnight, and they dont reflect the aspirations of those with narrow and sometimes negative agendas.

In fact, making decisions in the best interests of future generations is a hallmark of how UVa has been historically managed. This is the spirit behind the Strategic Investment Fund.

So how did we get to a place where the university felt confident enough to pool resources for such a fund? I can tell you it was not through hiding balances on the books or by having administrators who operated independently of our governing board. The Board of Visitors may have authorized this fund in February, but it was possible only because of sound stewardship at UVa for more than 25 years.

For decades, UVa has had the rare fortune of generations of loyal and generous alumni and friends. It has also partnered with the state and federal governments to fund operations, research and capital projects. It has established and grown mandated reserves to ensure its AAA-bond rating and to persevere through difficult economies and fluctuating state support, and has the remarkable good fortune of earning significant returns on its investments.

Since its founding, UVa has given back, producing citizen leaders who contribute as elected representatives, scientists, doctors, engineers, educators and much more. The fruits of our research have helped us better understand the human immune system, pursue cures for debilitating conditions and improve our academic offerings, to cite only a few. Our health system experiences nearly a million patient visits a year, and our safety-net hospital serves all comers.

All of these require significant, sustained investment.

I have been fortunate to serve at a time when the Board of Visitors, President Teresa A. Sullivan, her administration and the faculty have worked closely with a particular emphasis on the financial management of the university. We have approved and are implementing a new strategic plan. We have formalized our efforts to find efficiencies and cost-savings. We constructed and put into place a multiyear financial plan that addresses the universitys priorities across years instead of starting from scratch every budget cycle.

We have approved and implemented a program, Affordable Excellence, to ensure that tuition increases, when necessary, are predictable and minimal, while dramatically reducing the amount of student debt facing Virginia families. Middle-class Virginia families directly benefit from this relief as do those with high financial need.

These efforts help Virginians; they provide more value to an education and they put our students in better positions to contribute to the commonwealth and beyond.

All of this, by the way, has occurred in the bright light of day, during meetings open to the public.

As an example of UVas substantial commitment to affordability and access, the university projects it will award approximately $60 million in tuition grants that dont need to be repaid in the coming academic year to undergraduate students, over two-thirds of whom are Virginians.

How do we compare with others? Money magazine determined that UVa has the lowest average yearly cost of attendance of any institution ranked in its Top 100. That bears repeating. Of the absolute best public and private universities in America, the most affordable is the University of Virginia.

Today, this combination of fiscal stewardship and resource management has placed the University of Virginia in a truly extraordinary position to make investments that will benefit generations of students and Virginians in the widest variety of ways and for the longest period of time.

Using a board-approved endowment payout formula, the Strategic Investment Fund could allocate as much as $100 million annually for initiatives with the highest promise to significantly improve the university and enhance quality and access for students.

The possibilities are endless. They might include specialized equipment or research labs, recruitment of the finest faculty talent, or initiatives that enhance student life. They could include seed money for endowed student scholarships; support programs to further improve access and affordability for Virginians, and more.

This is no blank check. Investments will be for limited periods. Theyll be tracked and evaluated.

And to dispel another catchy but inaccurate phrase used by a former board colleague, these investments wont be administrative or Board pet projects. Such a characterization conveniently ignores a rigorous, multi-stage process that accepts proposals from across the university community and subjects them to a faculty committee review, an assessment by a leadership committee, and final approval by the board.

Pet projects dont survive that level of scrutiny.

The investments will align with the strategic plan and will be consistent with our long-term financial plan and Affordable Excellence initiative.

I doubt many people would argue with the overall goals and potential benefits of this strategy. But there always will be healthy debate about the best use of resources  especially when there are so many worthy places in which to invest.

Virginians who are striving to put their children through college have a fair question of why these funds arent being used in the moment to provide additional tuition assistance.

Just as Virginia families know a college education is a worthy investment, we see the Strategic Investment Fund as a worthy use of resources  one that will only add value to a students decision to attend UVa and for generations who follow by giving UVa a sustainable way to invest in its quality without using tuition or tax dollars to do so.

To the extent that investments from this fund allow the university to address long-term excellence without using tuition, the net effect will be greater affordability and value  not for a year or two, but well into the future.

Dont let critics with personal agendas distract from or minimize what, at UVas foundation, is a compelling story for anyone who knows the true long-term value of healthy and thriving public universities that exist to serve our society.

William H. Goodwin Jr., of Richmond, is rector of the University of Virginia Board of Visitors.
Through a series of releases by the University of Virginia, and most recently the accompanying column by current Rector William H. Goodwin Jr., the University of Virginia has outlined its thinking behind the new Strategic Investment Fund.

I applaud Rector Goodwin, the Board of Visitors and President Teresa A. Sullivan and her team for taking this bold step to enhance the quality of the student experience at one of the nations premier universities.

Fundamentally, a world-class university committed to excellence is good for the commonwealth of Virginia and its citizens.

This recent effort furthers the work of the board in 2015 when it increased the spend rate on the endowment to devote more funds for financial aid; reduced student debt by $10,000 for low- and middle-income Virginia families (71 percent reduction for low-income families and 36 percent reduction for middle-income families); established a predictable framework for future tuition increases; made a UVa education more affordable by enhancing the universitys financial aid program; established a long-range financial plan; and adopted Organizational Excellence as a goal with projected savings of $150 million in efficiencies over seven years.

Given the transformative nature of this new strategy, a collaborative decision-making process involving the faculty, administration and the board has been proposed to determine how best to deploy the investment returns from the fund.

To be clear, no awards from the fund have been made and the process is at its beginning stage. The projects that align with the universitys strategic plan, adopted in 2013, and with the UVa Medical Center strategic plan, adopted in 2012, will receive priority.

The plan salutes the need to attract new faculty as our talented baby boomers retire. As a major research institution, it is admirable that the strategy bolsters the university in this critical area.

More than 12 years ago, UVa and several other public universities went through restructuring as a result of legislation enacted by the Virginia General Assembly. To qualify for restructuring, a school had to have a certain bond rating. UVAs bond rating was and remains the highest: AAA.

Through the years, the rating agencies have required the university to maintain a certain level of liquidity. At one point, the rating agencies wanted the university to have 300 days of liquidity. Why?

Given that a significant portion of the universitys revenue budget is derived from the endowment earnings, a healthy reserve fund was a prudent way to protect the school in the event of a downturn in the market. Indeed, at one point during the recent recession, the value of the endowment was down 30 percent.

Also, a couple of years ago, the state did not have a budget for a period of time. Even though we were collecting tuition, we could not spend it without an appropriation. Fortunately, the state adopted a budget before we had to use our reserves, but that was our strategy to continue to operate the university.

In large part, the interest on these reserves will fund the proposed strategic investments.

As a former rector, I appreciate the challenges facing higher education and the University of Virginia in particular. We cannot be satisfied with the status quo. Our goal should be to enhance, not just maintain, excellence. Indeed, the commonwealth of Virginia is known for excellence and we must uphold that tradition.

The commonwealth has been blessed through the years to have one of the countrys pre-eminent universities. As such, it has attracted talented individuals from within the state and throughout the world. The Economist has routinely identified UVa as one of the best values for a college education, and Money magazine recently ranked UVa as the most affordable university among the top 100 public and private institutions in the nation.

Also worth celebrating is the schools graduation rate for African-American students. For the 23rd consecutive year, we ranked No. 1.

And just this past week, U.S. News & World Report ranked UVas hospital as the best in the state.

These accomplishments speak to the outstanding efforts of the universitys leadership to address affordability, diversity, and excellence.

The University of Virginia is not perfect, but it is special. And one of the reasons it is special is its commitment to excellence and affordability.

I am proud to be associated with an institution that shuns mediocrity and embraces excellence. Rector Goodwin, the Board of Visitors and the administration should be commended for their efforts to advance the overall excellence of the University of Virginia while at the same time remaining committed to affordability.

George Keith Martin is rector emeritus of the UVa Board of Visitors.
Virginia should design its juvenile prisons for rehabilitating young inmates instead of simply imprisoning them, says a preliminary report from a state study group.

Yes, of course.

Virginia should build more, smaller facilities throughout the commonwealth closer to juveniles families, says the study group, instead of operating large incarceration centers at a handful of locations across the state.

Yes, of course.

The Juvenile Correctional Center Task Force has released a preliminary report preparatory to submitting its full report to the General Assembly in November, according to reporting by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Smaller facilities providing easier access for families, and facilities that emphasize rehabilitation over incarceration are two of the reports most important recommendations.

The state already is moving toward smaller facilities. By this time next year, it will have closed the massive, 282-bed Beaumont Juvenile Correctional Center in Powhatan County, according to current plans.

It should be obvious that young people will do better if they sent to facilities close to their homes so that families can visit them and support them, and that they will do better if they receive support from the state in the form of rehabilitative programs.

Virginias move toward smaller, decentralized facilities already is improving outcomes for juvenile offenders, say state officials. The Department of Juvenile Justice also is placing a greater emphasis on re-entry for these young people  in other words, helping them transition back into their families, schools and communities.

Meanwhile, the General Assembly already has issued budget language that allows the state to take savings gained from closing the big correctional centers and shift that money to smaller, community programs.

Let us reiterate that we believe smaller, locally based programs and facilities can produce better results for young people  or adults, for that matter  who need rehabilitation.

But weve seen this kind of promise before  and weve seen how the promise failed to materialize. In the 1980s, mental health treatment was shifted from large, impersonal, centralized facilities to smaller, community-based ones, and the money was supposed to follow the services.

The money proved insufficient to the need. The result: Although many aspects of mental health care have improved, it also has become clear that many people in need of mental health services are not receiving them; wait lists are long, and care may be delayed.

We fear that something similar might happen with the states shift in the way it handles juvenile offenders.

Looking at economics alone, large facilities are more efficient due to economies of scale. Small facilities produce better outcomes in the long run, but may be more expensive to build, per square foot, and to operate in the short run.

Virginias departments and divisions entrusted with juvenile detention issues, including courts, are to be commended for working together toward a new model of improved rehabilitation.

But officials must be vigilant to ensure that funding is, and remains, available so that this new model can function as it should.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug.7

Trend:

Iran has always greatly respected Azerbaijans territorial integrity and it supports Azerbaijans fair position in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev.

President Aliyev made the remarks during the joint statements for the press with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani after the ceremony of signing documents in Baku Aug.7.

This support by Iran is seen both within the UN and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Ilham Aliyev said.

He said that the declaration adopted during the OIC summit in 2016 once again demands the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict within Azerbaijans territorial integrity.

We praise Irans activities in this sphere, he added.

Today, I briefed President Rouhani about the current status of the conflicts settlement process, said President Aliyev.

As we know, Azerbaijani territories have been under occupation for many years, said the president. Nagorno-Karabakh is a historical Azerbaijani land and today, not only Nagorno-Karabakh, but also seven surrounding districts are under occupation. Azerbaijani people were forcibly expelled from those lands. Our historical monuments, as well as mosques were destroyed by Armenians.

President Aliyev pointed out that 20 percent of Azerbaijani lands are under occupation and this occupation continues.

The ways of settlement of the conflict are clear as well, he added.

Armenian armed forces violating Azerbaijans territorial integrity should be withdrawn from the occupied lands as demanded by four resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council, said President Aliyev.

Further, the president said that Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan in April was condemned during the OIC summit in 2016 and a contact group was created for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

President Aliyev recalled that Armenian armed forces staged another armed provocation against Azerbaijan in April 2016.

Our servicemen were killed as a result of this provocation, he said.

Six civilians were killed, over 20 were injured, more than 600 houses were damaged and over 100 houses were completely destroyed as a result of Armenian provocation, added the president.

Azerbaijan had to take relevant steps in order to protect its citizens and lands and those steps were very effective, according to President Aliyev.

He pointed out that the decisions and resolutions adopted by international organizations on the conflicts settlement should be fulfilled and Azerbaijans territorial integrity should be restored.
A new chapter is unfolding at PresquIsle, the 200-year-old Federal-style plantation house in Culpeper County, as two men continue an ongoing restoration of the property in anticipation of hosting weddings and other events there that feature a high level of Southern hospitality.

Aaron Mastin and Josh MillsonMartula have owned the property since May 2015. They found the house to be solid and in relatively good condition, though some interior painting, a remodeled bathroom and numerous other projects have been crossed off an ever-lengthening to-do list.

The grounds were a different storyseriously overgrown and in need of extensive work to bring them up to open-lawn status for wedding parties to enjoy. Much of that has been accomplished as well, but with 130 acres to attend to, the grounds are an ongoing process as well.

All things considered, as Mastin puts it, For each thing we cross off the list, two more things are added.

The historic property gets its name, PresquIsle, which in French means almost an island, from the fact that it is situated between the confluence of the Rappahannock and Hazel rivers. It is adjacent to Brandy Station Battlefield.

Visitors may feel as though theyre going back in time 200 years as they approach the house via a 2-mile gravel lane off Freemans Ford Road. The lane traverses a 1,500-acre parcel and crosses the Rappahannock River, which separates Culpeper and Fauquier counties. Part of that land continues to be farmed, and part south of the Hazel River is a portion of the Brandy Station Battlefield that has been preserved. The land was originally part of a 16,000-acre grant from King George III to early Virginian Robert Beverley.

The Flemish bond brick manor house was built by Daniel Grinnan, a Fredericksburg judge who was a key player in the citys early development. He is buried in the Masonic Cemetery in Fredericksburg. The house is a classic four-over-four with wide center halls on both levels, plus a full basement.

The level of hand-carved trim detail is impressive throughout, including the arch in the foyer, the crown molding and chair rail, the mantels of the eight existing fireplaces and the bulls-eye rosette corners of the door and window frames. The floors throughout are dark-stained, random-width heart pine.

The pair of ornate plaster ceiling medallions in the adjacent front and rear parlors are reminiscent of those at Kenmore, according to Mastin, who worked there for a time. The two parlors are separated with an arched opening topped with a glass transom.

The gracefully curved walnut banister is original. One of PresquIsles secrets, MillsonMartula noted, is that a few of the ballusters are actually iron to provide more support and stability than wood can provide. Theyre not noticeable unless you know to look for them.

The level of finish, for a house in the middle of nowhere, is astounding, said Mastin. Because brick houses were so rare at the time, especially such a large one with 2-foot-thick interior walls, its said that people came from far and wide after it was built just to study its construction.

The full basement is notable because it was early on fully finished with plaster walls, though much of that plaster has since fallen away, leaving the wood lathes as evidence.

The basement also reveals the houses brick foundation and hand-hewn support beams. There would be hand-hewn trusses supporting the roof as well, but a fire in the 1940s led to the original roofs destruction and replacement.

Its nearly impossible to talk about the property without alluding to its rich history. Visitors initial view of the house is actually the rear, though a porch with Ionic columns that was added later on provides a formal look. The front faces the Hazel River, and would have welcomed those who traveled to PresquIsle via the river.

Two very similar structures not far from the house served as slave quarters starting in the propertys earliest days. Their longevity is attributed to their brick construction, which makes them very rare specimens. They are simple but multi-room affairs, with basic electricity and no evidence of plumbing. According to the current owners, descendants of their slave residents lived in the buildings until as recently as the late 1980s.

Also nearby is the blacksmith shop. The stone slab building still contains the chimney portion of the original brick forge.

In continuing their adaptive reuse of the property, Mastin and MillsonMartula said architectural preservationists will be called in to help determine how best to turn the outbuildings into guest cottages for bridal parties and other events.

Weighing the historical aspect is important, said Mastin. The question is, at what point do you edit the story?

More history

First owner Daniel Grinnan apparently never lived at the property but appointed his brother-in-law to be the plantations overseer. After Grinnan died in 1830 (based on his headstone in the Masonic Cemetery), the property was acquired by the Major family, which held it through the Civil War and into the 20th century.

There was no fighting there, but the property played host to 14,000 Union troops under the command of Gen. Emory Upton during the winter of 186364, and during that time at least 2 square miles were cleared of all trees, the wood used for fuel and construction.

The Willis family bought the property in the 1920s and it is still referred to by some locals as The Willis House. None of the property owners seriously disturbed the historical integrity of the house or its outbuildings.

Controversy came to PresquIsle in the late 1980s when the entire 1,500-acre parcel was bought by California real estate developer Lee Sammis. He intended to build an office park along with a Formula 1 racetrack on the property, all the while preserving the house itself as the centerpiece of the property.

Between his own financial difficulties and pressure from preservation groups, Sammis ended up selling the property to the Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites. A subsequent owner of the 130 acres with PresquIsle sold the property to Mastin and MillsonMartula.

Some background used here on the early history of PresquIsle comes from a Works Progress Administration Historical Inventory report completed in 1937.
Disney music sounded softly on his cell phone in the background Thursday morning as Troy Olsen busily prepared his classroom for his new students.

A first-year teacher at Floyd T. Binns Middle School, Olsen will teach English to eighth graders.

This fall, Culpeper County Public Schools will welcome 86 new teachers along with 546 returning educators on Tuesday, the first day of school. According to CCPS spokeswoman Pearl Jamison, there are still four vacancies for teachers.

Last year, the school division had about 8,000 students.

Olsen, who turns 27 this month, said he started out as a music major in college.

I loved it, but it became a lot. I love music, but I want to keep it as a hobby, Olsen shared. So in high school I did really well in English so the university helped me explore some options and I went and worked with a classroom before starting the teaching program and I loved it.

Olsen said he enjoys the personal connections with students.

After applying to various schools, Olsen said Culpeper seemed like the perfect fit for him.

Olsen said hell certainly incorporate music in his classroom.

You can always use music in teaching. Understanding that there are lots of different types of learners and some children could connect to music or nature, said Olsen.

For example, during vocabulary Olsen might play a certain song and then when his students are taking a test, he may play that same tune.

It helps them with recalling the words, said Olsen, referring to a project he participated in while in college. Its a great way to connect with the words.

Asked if he was nervous about the first day of school, Olsen said hes really excited.

Theres certainly anxiety of the unknown, but Im definitely not nervous, he added. I love teaching.

Binns principal Sherri Harkness said she knew right away that Olsen was a great candidate to teach eighth-grade English.

He was so enthusiastic in his interview. He is very child-centered and wants to work hard to make a connection with his students," said Harkness. "He has a firm grip on strategies to teach skills necessary for English. He has a structured way to teach writing which is a focus area for our school. Mr. Olsen also has a unique experience of student teaching in Norway."

It is apparent when talking to Mr. Olsen that he is excited to bring his passion for English to the classroom while using his positive personality to make connections with his students, the principal added.

The Idaho native graduated from Utah State University with a bachelors degree in English and obtained his education license there as well. During his spare time, Olsen likes to run, read, listen to music and watch movies.
Noah Blaines summer vacation is almost overand the rising third grader has spent the past two months boning up on math and geography while helping children battle life-threatening illnesses.

The 8-year old is nearing the end of a summer-long effort to raise $15,001 for St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital.

My sister Ellie was treated at St. Jude and she lost her battle, Noah said. Even though we dont have anybody being treated at St. Jude anymore, I still like to raise money. I just want other kids to win their battle.

Last summer, Noah raised $5,000 for St. Jude. This year, the Orange County youngster teamed up with the founder of a local alumni chapter of the Tri Delta sorority to collect donations for the hospital where his sister received treatment for a rare, aggressive brain cancer.

Ellie died on Dec. 22, 2013a month shy of her third birthday.

Her family has remained committed to helping St. Jude, where all of their medical bills, travel costs and lodging were covered.

When you start a journey with cancer, you dont realize all the money that goes into it, you dont realize how much its going to financially impact your family, said Carly Blaine, Noahs mom. And then to be blessed with something like St. Jude, they pay for everything. Ive seen friends going through cancer, theyre struggling financially and we didnt have to do that because we were at St. Jude.

Months after Ellies death, Carly Blaine attended the annual Crop for a Cure fundraiser and spoke to the crowd.

It was nothing short of amazing, said Lisa Diskin, who spearheads the scrapbooking fundraiser.

Last year, Diskin challenged her boyfriend to shave his beard at the crop if she raised $10,000 for St. Jude. She called Blaine to see if Noah wanted to participate in a similar challenge. Diskin asked how much he planned to raise. Noah decided on $3,000.

I thought, Thats a lot of mo- ney for a little kid, Diskin said.

Noah ended up raising $5,000.

Together, the pair raised more than $15,000. So this year, Diskin asked if they wanted to raise money together, setting a goal of $15,001. If they meet that challenge, Noah and Diskin will pour a bucket of green slime on each other.

Noah has worked hard since May to raise the money. He sold his old toys and books at a yard sale, made rubber band bracelets and baked treats. He helped design a t-shirt to make money.

He also took to Facebook, posting regular videos challenging people to donate money to the cause. He wanted to get donations from all 50 states and now only needs a gift from North Dakota to meet that goal.

Noah has excitedly studied maps to see where the donations are coming from and hes been happily adding numbers to figure out how close he is to his goal, his mom said.

Im just so proud that he has become so selfless in what he wants to do, Blaine said. Without Ellie having cancer, I dont think he would have such a huge heart for helping other people. Hes showing kids that they can do simple things to help others.
Waynesboro Schools Superintendent Jeff Cassell said one of his district's goals for 2016-17 is curbing chronic absenteeism of students at the elementary, middle and high school levels.

"Student attendance is not as good as we would like, and if we can't get them to school we can't educate them,'' Cassell said.

Cassell said the missing of more than 18 school days a year is more of an issue at the district's middle and high schools, but also a problem in the elementary schools.

He said one of the strategies is to educate parents about attendance when their children are in elementary school. Cassell said missing school puts the student behind. And he said a focused effort to improve attendance at Waynesboro High School has helped raise test scores at the high school level.

The Virginia Department of Education said students who miss 18 days or 10 percent of a school year face tougher odds in succeeding. DOE Spokesman Charles Pyle said frequently absent students are "less likely to perform at grade level and are more likely to drop out."

In June, the state Board of Education approved revised regulations to establish consistent data collection to identify students at risk of academic failure because of chronic absenteeism.

Pyle said better data will help school divisions better identify "patterns of absenteeism and intervene earlier with students and parents."

New school report cards the state Board of Education is publishing online this fall will include absenteeism as a new indicator of school quality, according to Pyle.

You may contact Bob Stuart at (540) 932-3562 or bstuart@newsvirginian.com.
ANKARA - Turkey - The Turks are turning towards Russia. How does this geopolitical restructuring impact the West especially in any future global conflict?

For years the Turks have been the laughing stock of Europe with delayed impossible EU aspirations knocked at every turn. It was only a matter of time before Turkey turned away from the EU and Europe, a Christian club which views Islam as some sort of Satanic cult. The recent attacks in Germany, France and Belgium justifying the European phobia of everything Islamic.

Strategically, Turkey is a very important part of the globe, and Putin knows this very well as do NATO. Currently the US is using Incirlik military base in the East of the country, but for how long?

The recent attempted military coup has caused a further rift in the previous alliance between Turkey and the West.

Turkey currently has the second largest army in NATO, but an alliance with Russia would certainly cause a few ripples in the West if they were to lose the all important Turkish East-West bridge.

Despite Erdogan and Putin having a fierce bust up over a downed Russian jet, they seem to have patched things up. Russia, increasingly isolated by Western sanctions has found a friend in Turkey who are now negotiating bilateral trade deals to circumnavigate any EU sanctions.

In light of this new friendship where does this leave the geopolitical balance? On one side we now have Russia, China, Turkey, Iran and other former Soviet states, on the other side we have America, Canada, Australia, Britain, Israel, Japan and Europe. N. Korea is the joker in the pack and in effect could do anything it wishes if it came to the wire.

The globe is restructuring into new areas never before seen, and the balance of power is shifting daily. Of course, we must also factor in Syria, which has destabilised a vast swathe of the Middle East. For Israel, ISIS and their counterparts are not yet a risk simply because ISIS are killing other Muslims in the region. Israel naturally likes this, and is happy to watch for as long as it goes on, however if the so-called Caliphate comes closer to home, things may change. One must understand that the Levant means the territory of Israel as well.

The increasingly Islamist Turkey is now taking many steps backwards, erasing any sight of any Kemalist, secularist vision, backwards towards the Ottoman sultanate where Erdogan will rule with impunity. By siding with Russia today, just as the Turks sided with Germany in the First World War, they have played a new hand in the proceedings, and the West does not know how to handle it.

If Trump becomes president, he will soon find out that Putin is not his friend, but the Don is too stupid to realise that now. The balance of power could very well be up to Hillary Clinton to complement, and to reign in the testosterone fuelled antics. Our prediction that she will be made president was made on the 14th October 2015, and we still stand by our accurate prophesy that she will be the first female president of the United States of America.

For now, say goodbye to Turkey. The Turks have moved back East and wont come back anytime soon.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 7

Trend:

A group of 44 Azerbaijani soldiers serving within NATO's "Resolute Support" mission in Afghanistan has returned to Baku, said the message from Azerbaijans Defense Ministry.

The peacekeeping mission of Azerbaijani armed forces in Afghanistan started on Nov.20, 2002.

Currently, 90 servicemen, two army doctors and two officers of engineers corps of Azerbaijani armed forces are taking part in this mission in Afghanistan.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 7

Trend:

An official welcoming ceremony was held in Baku for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who is on a visit to Azerbaijan Aug. 7.

A guard of honor was lined up for the Iranian president in the square decorated with the national flags of the two countries.

The chief of the guard of honor reported to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

President Aliyev welcomed Iranian counterpart.

The chief of the guard of honor reported to President Rouhani.

Then, the national anthems of Iran and Azerbaijan were performed.

The presidents reviewed the guard of honor, and afterwards President Rouhani greeted the Azerbaijani soldiers.

State and government officials of the Republic of Azerbaijan were introduced to President Rouhani and members of the Iranian delegation were introduced to President Aliyev.

The guard of honor passed in front of the heads of states to the accompaniment of a military march.

Then, the Azerbaijani and Iranian presidents posed for photographs.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 7

Trend:

Following the official welcoming ceremony in Baku, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani held a one-on-one meeting Aug. 7.

President Aliyev welcomed Rouhani to Azerbaijan.

I am very glad that we meet frequently with you. I paid an official visit to Iran in February 2016 and currently, you are our guest. This itself is an indicator, said President Aliyev. This shows how rapidly our relations are developing.

Many issues will be discussed today during the visit and I am confident that the results will be good as well, added President Aliyev.

Hassan Rouhani, for his part, said he is very glad to visit beautiful Baku again.

I am especially glad to meet the Azerbaijani people, he added.

Undoubtedly, our relations are developing sincerely and successfully, he said, adding that the visit of President Aliyev to Tehran was very successful and very important steps were taken during that visit.

Hopefully, new steps will be taken during the current visit for the development of relations. Our good relations are very important and a positive factor both in bilateral and regional formats, added Rouhani.

During the talks, the parties exchanged views on the bilateral and other issues of mutual interest.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 7

Trend:

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who is on the official visit to Azerbaijan held a meeting in an expanded format, with delegations.

We attach great importance to your visit. I am confident that this visit will be very successful and will give a new impetus to the development of our relations, said President Aliyev to President Rouhani.

I am glad that we meet frequently. I paid an official visit to Iran in February 2016 and today, you are on an official visit to Azerbaijan. This itself is an indication, Azerbaijans president said.

President Aliyev further said that the relations between Azerbaijan and Iran are developing rapidly and successfully.

He pointed out that he discussed both political, economic and other issues with his Iranian counterpart during the bilateral meeting held Aug.7.

We see that we have great mutual understanding, Ilham Aliyev said. We build our relations based on mutual understanding.

He expressed satisfaction that the Iranian-Azerbaijani relations have been developing very rapidly in recent years.

Perhaps, this is the period of the most rapid development of Azerbaijani and Iranian history over the last 25 years, said the president.

He pointed out that many issues have been resolved in the spheres of economy, transportation and energy over the last several months.

I am confident that your visit will make it possible to further develop our relations, added President Aliyev.

He noted that today, Iran and Azerbaijan will sign several documents which will open up new opportunities for the future cooperation.

I am very glad that you visit Azerbaijan with a large delegation and naturally, our delegation members also establish ties with each other, said President Aliyev.

The relations will be even more intensified and the Iranian-Azerbaijani ties will further develop successfully based on brotherhood and friendship.

President Aliyev once again welcomed his Iranian counterpart Rouhani to Azerbaijan.

Irans President Hassan Rouhani has expressed confidence that the relations between Azerbaijan and Iran are moving towards sincerity.

He pointed out that as two friendly, brotherly and neighboring countries, they should bring the relations to the level acceptable for both nations. Rouhani expressed satisfaction with the meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev.

President Aliyevs visit to Tehran was very successful and significant steps have been taken after this visit for the development of relations between the two countries, he added.

Azerbaijan and Iran reached significant agreements during that visit and today, those agreements will be signed, he added.

He noted that the parties have touched upon a number of issues and detailed discussions on those issues were held today.

Our peoples want to have the best relations which would meet the interests of the two countries and would be effective in ensuring stability and peace in the region, he added.

President Rouhani expressed hope that new steps will be taken during this visit for development of the two countries relations.
Details added (first version posted on 12:20)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 7

Trend:

Following the official welcoming ceremony in Baku, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani held a one-on-one meeting Aug. 7.

President Aliyev welcomed Rouhani to Azerbaijan.

I am very glad that we meet frequently with you. I paid an official visit to Iran in February 2016 and currently, you are our guest. This itself is an indicator, said President Aliyev. This shows how rapidly our relations are developing.

Many issues will be discussed today during the visit and I am confident that the results will be good as well, added President Aliyev.

Hassan Rouhani, for his part, said he is very glad to visit beautiful Baku again.

I am especially glad to meet the Azerbaijani people, he added.

Undoubtedly, our relations are developing sincerely and successfully, he said, adding that the visit of President Aliyev to Tehran was very successful and very important steps were taken during that visit.

Hopefully, new steps will be taken during the current visit for the development of relations. Our good relations are very important and a positive factor both in bilateral and regional formats, added Rouhani.

During the talks, the parties exchanged views on the bilateral and other issues of mutual interest.
Exports from these zones logged a marginal growth of 0.77 per cent to Rs 4.67 lakh crore in 2015-16. It was Rs 4.63 lakh crore in 2014-15.

New Delhi: The government may have to amend the SEZ Act 2005 to align it with the Goods and Services Tax (GST) law so that central excise and service tax benefits can be extended to developers and entrepreneurs.

The Commerce Ministry is in the process of preparing a note on the changes required in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Act, an official said. The duty drawback norms, under which exporter is compensated for duties suffered during the course of production of goods, too would be required to be aligned with the new indirect tax regime.

Under the present norms, units in the SEZ get exemption from service tax and the developers get exemption from customs/excise duties for development of zones for authorized operations.

"Section 26 of the SEZ Act has to be amended to align it with the GST law. There is also a meeting tomorrow with the customs authorities to discuss the movement of goods to and from SEZs in the context of GST," the official added.

The section talks about exemptions, drawbacks and concessions to every developer and entrepreneur. SEZs are export hubs which contribute about 16 per cent to the country's total outbound shipments.

The Commerce Ministry is taking steps to revive investors interest in these zones. It has asked the Finance Ministry to extend sops like rollback or reduction in the minimum alternate tax.

Exports from these zones logged a marginal growth of 0.77 per cent to Rs 4.67 lakh crore in 2015-16. It was Rs 4.63 lakh crore in 2014-15.

In the biggest tax reform since Independence, the Rajya Sabha last week approved the GST Bill to replace a raft of different state and local taxes with a single unified value added tax system to turn the country into world's biggest single market.
By being competitive, the steel industry will not only do justice to its consumers, but will also be a bigger foreign exchange earner for the country by exporting more.

New Delhi: Emphasising on government's role in nurturing the industry, Union Minister Chaudhary Birendra Singh said a "roadmap" will be prepared for the steel sector facing issues on multiple fronts, including repaying bank loans.

The Steel Minister also said that over USD 100-billion domestic steel sector needs to enhance its efficiency in the long run to be globally competitive. "What I have told the industry that now we will have a roadmap where you will have your responsibility to see whether you are improving as far as efficiency is concerned, whether you are improving in giving back outstanding of bank loans, whether you are improving to make your industry competitive in the world market.

These things are also to be looked at. "So what I have told them that on one way we talk of your production, the other way we must find out (the way) that you should get out of this rut within six months," Singh told PTI.

The Minister, who did not elaborate further, said it will also include the public sector undertakings. But, when prodded further, he said: "As far as long drawn measures are concerned, I have asked industry that they should be ready to face (competition) and to perform. I understand government's responsibility to nurture the industry, but it also has to be competitive and cost effective."

India plays an important role in the global steel market, but its "importance" will be "sustainable" only if the country keeps pace with international trends, he said. "We are the world's third largest steel producer. Our role as a major producer is important and it can be sustainable only when if we keep track of the global market trends and our quality standards while ensuring consumer protection," he explained.

By being competitive, the steel industry will not only do justice to its consumers, but will also be a bigger foreign exchange earner for the country by exporting more, he added.

Singh's predecessor, Narendra Singh Tomar too, in April this year, had a similar advice for the domestic companies. Tomar, now Union Rural Development Minister, had said: "But in the long term, industry has to accept external realities and learn to compete and emerge stronger in spite of them.

Time is of essence and all plans and actions by the companies must be well-planned and executed." Singh, who took over as Steel Minister from Tomar last month, said it is the government's role to see that downtrend should be checked and explore how the sector can be made more competitive in the prevailing scenario.

He advised the firms that: "If we concentrate on R&D then some of the items which are imported, we can make in here. Also we can build on our product base and enrich it further to strengthen India's position globally."

R&D should be a vital component of business strategy for sustained cost competitiveness and there is a need to explore alternatives and replace existing steel making technologies that increase operating costs, he said.
New Delhi: Government must carry all sections of farmers together and tobacco growers should not be subjected to discrimination, industry body Assocham today suggested.

"It is encouraging that the Prime Minister has set a target for Indian farmers to double their income by 2022... However, the government must carry all farmers together and not discriminate against tobacco farmers, who have made an immense contribution to India's cash crop farm economy," Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat said in a statement.

Assocham and the Federation of All India Farmer Associations (FAIFA) today made a representation to Members of Parliament at an interactive session to discuss opportunities and challenges for India to realise Prime Minister's target of doubling farmer income by 2022.

"... We appeal to the government of India that Indian farmers must be part of the official delegation of CoP7, else it would put livelihood of millions at risk without any public health benefit," FAIFA President B V Javare Gowda was quoted as saying.

"It is disheartening that the Indian tobacco farmer today is subjected to the worst-ever discrimination by way of harsh policies and attacks on their livelihoods without providing either a scientific justification or an alternative to safeguard their interest," FAIFA Vice-President Gadde Seshagiri Rao said.
Mumbai: All of us harbour a deep-rooted desire to get back to our roots and get to know ourselves a little better. Superstar Ajay Devgn isn't any different.

The actor visited his father, yesteryear's acclaimed action choreographer Veeru Devgan's hometown, Attari.

Attari is a remote village, situated 3 kilometres off Wagah Border.

The 'Singham' actor also tweeted a picture of a signboard implying he was a mere 2 kilometres shy of the Indo-Pak border.

The actor, who'll be officially unveiling the first trailer of his eagerly awaited directorial 'Shivaay' in Indore, tweeted a picture before embarking on his flight to the city.

Embarking upon our final journey for unveiling the Shivaay Trailer. Heading to Indore. pic.twitter.com/0vXj7F5yKO  Ajay Devgn (@ajaydevgn) August 7, 2016

Meanwhile, the actor who had associated himself with KFC's 'Add HOPE' campaign, aimed at generating funds to provide meals to the under-privileged kids in the country.

With such a large population, hunger is one of the most critical issues that our country faces. I think being associated as a Hope ambassador is one of the most challenging roles I have ever taken on. We are hoping to tackle a big, complex problem head on by raising awareness about hunger, Ajay said in a statement.

The 'Son of Sardaar' actor added, The difference a meal can make to a childs development is huge. On screen, we all love to see the bad guys defeated. You too can contribute to defeating hunger and become a real life hero by adding a nominal amount of Rs 5 to the bill each time you visit a KFC store.

The actor also tweeted a video of him serving food at an event held by KFC held to generate awareness and raise funds.
Mumbai: Troubles mounted for actor Anil Kapoor and Ekta World developer, Ashok Mohanani, on Saturday with the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) deciding to file a defamation case against them after they "failed" to reply to a legal notice sent by Mhada.

Mhada had issued notice to Mr Mohanani for allegedly offering flats in Virar and Nashik at rates cheaper than those of Mhada, followed by Mr Kapoor endorsing the claims in an Ekta World advertisement in which he appeared. C.M. Wachasundar, legal advisor, Mhada, said, Legal notice was issued to both Mr Kapoor and the developer in June, however, till date we have not received any reply. Now, Mhada has decided to file a defamation suit against them both. Along with the developer, we will also make Mr Kapoor a party as he endorsed the claims.

The Ekta World advertisement featuring Anil Kapoor

This newspaper on July 3 had reported about Mhada issuing legal notice to Mr Kapoor for appearing in an advertisement for Ekta World, a construction firm that Mhada claimed had caused damage to its image and violated regulations of the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI).

Ekta Worlds website too had uploaded a comparison of rates quoted by it and that by Mhada for flats in Virar. However, speaking to The Asian Age on July 2 he had said, We are transparent and would like our customers to be aware and educated of the facts before they make a decision, he said. n Turn to Page 6

After this newspapers July 3 report, however, the developer refrained from comparing his project with MHADA in his advertisements published post July 3.

MHADA had asked the developer to stop advertisements comparing his projects with those of MHADA and had asked for the developer to tender an apology.

Bharat Bastewad, secretary, MHADA, said, The developer has not tendered any apology nor has he bothered to reply to the legal notice sent by MHADA. Thus, we have now decided to file a defamation suit against him and have also mentioned the same in the answer to a legislative assembly question raised by a legislator in the legislative council.

Professor Jogendra Kawade had raised the question in the legislative council during the monsoon session as to why MHADA had not taken any further action and merely sent legal notice.

When contacted, Mr Mohanani on Saturday said, The information received is incorrect, inappropriate and misleading. The company has responded to the notice through our solicitors Wadia Ghandy.

With regards to Mr. Kapoor, he did not answer calls made by this correspondent while a text message sent to him remained unanswered.
Mumbai: After a lot of anticipation and speculations, the makers have finally released Ajay Devgn starrer 'Shivaay' trailer. The actor unveiled it on Sunday in Indore.

Ajay Devgn has spent a year-and-a-half going unshaved and sporting a certain look for his next directorial, Shivaay. The dedicated actor went all the way to the top of Balkan mountains, shot in extreme conditions and left no stone unturned for his Diwali release.

The trailer is fast, crisp and is packed with lots of visuals from the film. Ajay Devgn makes a dramatic entry in the trailer, which doesnt really focus on his chiselled body. While Ajays physique is one of the highlights, the focus is more on narrating the journey of a man and his hurdles. Ajay looks intense in the opening shot and the trailer doesnt give away much about the story line.

Actor and director Ajay Devgn has left no stone unturned for his ambitious project. From calling in 2,000 custom made toys for the scene in the film, to hanging off cliffs on the lap of the Himalayas and scouting in exotic uncharted destinations around the world, Ajay has doing it all.

So the actor is not really worried about a little competition on the silver screen. The film, which also stars Sayesha Saigal and Erika Kaar, will hit the theatres on October 28, 2016.

Watch the trailer below:
The divorce of actor Amala Paul and Vijay has become the biggest talking point of Ktown. The couple finally appealed for divorce in Chennai family court recently.

Amala and director Vijay arrived at the venue on Saturday in separate cars. They appeared before Judge Maria Dilda and submitted their appeal for a mutual divorce.

According to the appeal, both the parties are seeking divorce by mutual consent. In an interesting turn of events, both Vijay and Amala have not sought alimony or compensation from each other. The judge has taken the case for further proceedings and has postponed the next hearing by six months.

Amala and Vijay got married on June 10, 2014  but within one year, they had differences of opinions and started living in separate houses from May 3, 2015.
Though her roots lay deep in the exuberance of the meaty Kuttanad, young actor Gauthami Nair had to wait till 2015 to witness her homelands scintillating tradition: the boat race, especially the Nehru Trophy Boat Race (NTBR). The actor who shot to fame through the Lal Jose flick Diamond Necklace regrets skipping the mindblowing moments in the Punnamada backwaters, but she has a reason: she was born and brought up in the UAE.

As Alappuzha is gearing up for the gala event to be held on August 13, Gauthami recollects her debut experience as an NTBR spectator last year. I felt nothing exciting when I was invited to watch the race and was seated in the front row at the pavilion.

I settled in my seat with a yawn amid the buzz of the huge crowd. Till the race started, I had no idea how it would begin and end. But when it began, I suddenly had goosebumps. The snake boats rushed forward like cheetahs and I jumped to my feet forgetting myself, waving hands and shouting in tune with the rhythm of paddles. It was a feeling I have never experienced in life, she recalls.

A native of Kavalam, Gauthami says the vibe created by last years Nehru Trophy Race still remains fresh in her mind. However, she is unhappy that she would give it a miss this time. Its bad luck. I could not manage to be there this year as the University examinations are due, says the post-graduate student in Psychology at the Government Womens College, Thiruvananthapuram.

Our house is located just a few kilometres away from Punnamada. Though I was brought up in the UAE, I am a Kuttanadan girl at heart, says Gauthami, who has decided to avoid the VIP chairs next time and let herself enjoy the exciting moments with the roar of Vanchipattu.

Asked about her favourite Chundan, she said none had secured a special place in her heart as the charm of all boats remains the same. Stressing that she now become an ardent fan of boat races, she finds it hard to explain why she was so impressed by the race. May be, its the popularity or the tradition, she says. Whatever it is, it was her long-cherished dream to witness a boat race and it happened last year.
Baku, Azerbaijan, August 7



By Farhad Daneshvar - Trend:



Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has praised Azerbaijan and Russia for their positive approach with relation to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).



Zarif made the remarks while in Baku, accompanying Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on a two-day official visit.



Under the sanctions, Irans relations with neighbors were affected less than with others. However, with the onset of the nuclear talks, Irans neighbors also took a more active approach to Iran, Zarif told Trend on August 7.



The JCPOA was implemented on January 16 followed by a nuclear deal last year curbing Iran's nuclear program in return for the removal of international sanctions.



Of those neighbors which expanded their relations with Iran more than any other, Azerbaijan and Russia are notable, he said.



Our relations with these two countries grew by degrees both during the nuclear talks and after the JCPOA, Zarif said.



The two countries heads have exchanged many visits in the past three years and tomorrow the three countries will hold their first [trilateral] meeting, Zarif noted.



Iran's President Rouhani, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Russia's President Vladimir Putin are to meet on Aug. 8 in Baku.



Zarif went on to say that thanks to the JCPOA, now the three counties can enjoy a great extent of cooperation, while under the sanctions there were many problems for Iran especially for cooperation in energy and transit sectors.



Azerbaijan and Iran cooperate in a major international North-South transportation corridor project. The corridor is meant to connect Northern Europe to South-East Asia. It will serve as a link connecting the railways of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia.



Ealier in the day, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev told Rouhani, We attach great importance to your visit. I am confident that this visit will be very successful and will give a new impetus to the development of our relations.



A ceremony of signing several documents was held after the expanded meeting with Aliyev and Rouhani on the same day. The MoUs specified cooperation in industry, banking, transport, science, tourism, culture, etc. Tehran and Baku signed 11 MoUs upon Aliyevs visit to Tehran February 23.
After a tiresome day, Bommala Narsimhulu and his troupe of artistes reached the house of a dora (landlord) in Jangaon Mandal, Warangal, to perform. The landlord, Satyanarayana, was impressed by their singing and asked, What more can you do? Narsimhulu then showed him their wooden puppets. The puppets werent that nice to look at and so the dora offered to get new wooden ones made. That was how the Koya bommalata (cane wooden puppetry) came into being.

Thats the padhyam (verse) that the artistes start their performance with even now, says Hyderabad-based filmmaker Ajit Nag. The dying art form with barely a handful of performers prompted Nag to shoot the documentary Bommalollu  The Puppeteers in association with the Telangana Government.

In the tiny village of Ammapuram, Jangaon, a group of artists still continue to go on trips to various villages. But most of the time they wait for a government sponsored programme to come their way.

Ajit, who first met these artistes 16 years ago, says, The first attempt to resurrect koya bommalata was made in 2001 and thats when I happened to meet the artistes. 16 years later, Ajit carried off from where he left. This time, I decided to shoot the film because I wanted to know the future of the art form after this generation. The artistes who perform now are in the age group of 50-60 years and the art form could die with them, he says.

Centuries ago what was once a thriving art form is today limited to two groups travelling in a desperate attempt to keep the art alive and to make a decent attempt at a living. When I was a child we would have a minimum of 15 performances in one month. These days, we barely have two or three, says artiste Mothe Jaganatham, who heads his troupe of 10 people.

The bommalollu (puppeteers), however less in number, hold their culture close to heart. Our puppets are over a century old. These were passed on to us from my grandfather, Narasimhulu. We have used them for more than a few hundred shows. For every show, we dress the puppets according to the roles and repaint them when they look old. We have never made new puppets, says Jaganatham, adding, A spoilt puppet means a lost one. So, our puppets will eventually die with us.

Ajits documentary aims at raising awareness on this dying art form. The youngsters in the family dont want to take it up and the future of the art form is hanging. With proper awareness, we can at least try to make it a more viable option for living, says Ajit.

In the olden days, puppeteers were part of weddings, celebrations and even deaths. We were summoned to perform after a few days after a funeral, usually when a lunch is hosted. Our tales would provide some sort of relief, says Jaganatham, who continues to perform the two epics and the stories of Prahlada and Ramadasu among others.

Things are difficult today, but the artistes who also run their own business say, There was a time when people fought to get a place for our performances, but today, we are struggling for an audience.
A suspicious death case is registered and the body was handed over to the family after postmortem. (Representational image)

Hyderabad: A 12-year-old girl committed suicide in Suraram. Police said that Riya Kumari Singh hanged herself at home. Her parents are not aware of the reason for her suicide.

Riya Kumari Singh was the only daughter of her parents, after two sons and was pampered much. Father Sanjay Singh is working as supervisor in a private company and mother is working in a nearby private firm.

Riya was addicted to TV and was stubborn. Whenever they told her to stop watching TV, she used to become angry. On Friday she and her brothers were getting ready to school.

As the school of the boys is far away they leave before her. She told her brothers that she would go to school later. In the evening, when the boys returned from school, they found the door locked from inside. With the help of neighbours they broke open the door.. She was found hanging inside the house.

Even the parents are clueless and we did not get any other clues from the spot Dundigal Inspector Mr G Venkateshwarlu said. A suspicious death case is registered and the body was handed over to the family after postmortem. Police is investigating.
Hapur: Four persons have been detained in connection with the rape of a four-year-old Dalit girl in Kheda village here even as the family of the victim alleged delayed action by the police, which rejected the charge.

Circle Officer Praveen Ranjan said that four persons had been detained in connection with the incident that occurred on Friday night and were being quizzed. Police also rejected allegations of delayed action.

"After the girl's father made a call at 100 number, the police reached the spot within 10 minutes. The SHO was informed, and he reached there immediately," Superintendent of Police Alankrita Singh said, adding that victim got timely medical attention due to the officers.

The condition of the girl, who was admitted in a hospital in Meerut, is stated to be stable.

The girl's father, however, said that they found her at 11.45 pm and the police came several hours later. She was admitted in hospital only at 7 am yesterday.

Recalling the horror, a relative of the girl said she and her sister were sleeping outside the house when the incident occurred. "I told my husband to bring them inside as it had started drizzling, but he said that the girl was not there. We frantically looked for her in the house and outside. Later, we found her in a field," he said.

Police said that only one accused was involved and it was not a gangrape.

Angered by the incident, villagers had blocked the NH-24 yesterday.

The incident comes even as the Uttar Pradesh Government has come under flak over a string of rape incidents, including the gangrape of a woman and her daughter who were dragged out of their car by the accused on National Highway-91 in Bulandshahr. Hapur is around 65 km from Delhi.
A recent search by enforcement agencies at the RGIA emigration counter revealed that synthetic drugs were concealed by an African passenger in his luggage. (Photo: Pixabay)

Hyderabad: Synthetic narcotic drugs manufactured on the citys outskirts are now finding their way to African countries through the air route.

Earlier, drugs like methamphetamine and ephedrine produced illegally in secret pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities in the city used to be smuggled to South East Asian countries via sea.

A recent search by enforcement agencies at the RGIA emigration counter revealed that synthetic drugs were concealed by an African passenger in his luggage. Police officials suspect that the 12 kg banned narcotic drug ephedrine found in the baggage of the South African national was produced on the citys outskirts.

During the last three years, the special operations team of Cyberabad police and the directorate of revenue intelligence have conducted a series of raids on illegal pharma units on the city's outskirts and have busted many gangs producing drugs like methamphetamine and ephedrine. In all the cases, the gangs were trying to smuggle the drugs in large quantities to Chennai, from where they are smuggled to places in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong and Singapore via ships.

According to officials, the synthetic drugs can be produced cheaply in Hyderabad using easily available ingredients and pharmaceutical equipment. These drugs are worth several crores in the international market. Agents from Africa and Middle East are now suspected to be buying drugs from local agents based in Hyderabad.
Kirpal Singh's was among many who died in Pakistani jails (Photo: ANI Twitter)

New Delhi: Thirteen Indians have died in Pakistans jails in the past three-and-a-half-years including Kirpal Singh, who died recently in a Lahore jail, prompting India to seek a thorough investigation into it.

Replying to a question in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh said that India has also reiterated to the Pakistan government that it is their responsibility to ensure the safety, security and well-being of all Indian prisoners in Pakistani jails.

"As per the information available in our missions/posts abroad, 49 Indians died in prisons in various countries during the last three years and the current year. This includes 13 Indians who died in Pakistani jails during this period," Singh said.

He also said the government has taken up the matter of the death of Kirpal Singh with the Pakistan Foreign Ministry, requesting that a through investigation be undertaken in order to ascertain the reasons for his death and that the probe report be shared with Indian authorities.

The Pakistan government had conveyed that Singh had died of a heart attack, Singh added.

In 1992, Kirpal Singh was nabbed by Pakistan Rangers near India-Pakistan border and was locked in the cell of Lahore jail, right next to Sarabjit Singhs cell who dies in 2013.
New Delhi: The Centre has told the Delhi High Court that it has received from the AAP government a proposal for sanction of revision of pay scales of public prosecutors of all the district courts here.

The submission was made before Justice Manmohan after the court had issued a show cause notice to the Centre asking as to why contempt proceedings be not initiated against it for filing a "false affidavit" that they did not receive any proposal for pay hike to different categories of prosecutors in Delhi.

The central government standing counsel submitted that the proposal sent to it by Delhi government has been received and the same is pending before the Ministry of Finance.

"We need a week's time to get back to the court, on what steps the ministry will be taking," the Centre's counsel said. The court has listed the matter for September 15.

Earlier, the Centre's counsel had told the court that it has not received any proposal for sanction of revision of pay scales of the public prosecutors from Delhi government.

Countering the claim, the AAP government had said last December it had sent the cabinet note to the Lieutenant Governor approving hike in the salary of public prosecutors.

The Centre's response had come in the backdrop of the court's notice issued to it on a petition seeking contempt action against the Home Secretary for not complying with its September 9, 2015, order.

The court in its September 2015 had directed Delhi government that the decision to increase the pay scales of Delhi public prosecutors be implemented without any delay.

The contempt petition filed by Delhi Prosecutors Welfare Association alleged "deliberate and willful disobedience" on the part of the Centre and city government in complying with the court order.

The association, in its petition filed through advocate Ashish Dixit, had said assurances to the court by the Delhi government to provide Internet facilities to the prosecutors have also not been done.

"It is submitted that despite there being explicit directions by this court for implementing the cabinet decision dated September 1, 2015 the respondents (Centre and Delhi government) have till date not complied with the directions.

"The respondent 1 (Centre) and respondent 2 (Delhi government) have demonstrated an attitude which violates the majesty of this court. The respondents deliberately and willfully have not complied with the directions of this court," the petition has said.
Hitting out at the school authorities for citing "religion" as the reason for not allowing recital of national anthem, BJP said the country and its Constitution come before anything. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: BJP on Sunday alleged that Samajwadi Party is pursuing vote bank politics and encouraging anti-national elements, and sought action against the management of a school in Allahabad for allegedly refusing to allow recital of the national anthem on the Independence Day.

Demanding a probe into the matter, the party alleged that the singing of the national song "Vande Mataram" and the national anthem "Jana Gana Mana" is banned in the school for the last 12 years and its management had the backing of a senior Uttar Pradesh minister.

"It is shameful that such a thing has been happening in the school for the last 12 years. A senior UP minister has ensured that no action is taken against the management. The SP government is giving protection not only to criminals and rapists but also to those who insult the nation and are anti-nationals," party's National Secretary Shrikant Sharma alleged.

Read: Banned from singing national anthem, staff resigns from UP school

"This is nothing but vote bank politics. This is part of a conspiracy as Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has failed to deliver on development and law and order front. So, there is a design to communalise the state. We demand that the government take action the school management," he said.

He also demanded action against the minister, who has allegedly supported the school's management.

Hitting out at the school authorities for citing "religion" as the reason for not allowing recital of national anthem, he said the country and its Constitution come before anything.

BSP, which led the previous government in the state, and SP "have promoted vote bank politics all these years", he alleged.
Rajasthan PCC President Sachin Pilot congratulated the party workers on the victory. (Photo: File)

Jaipur: Opposition Congress scored a majorvictory in by-polls of urban local bodies and Panchayati Raj Institutions in Rajasthan on Sunday winning 19 out of total 37 seats while the ruling BJP could manage 10 seats.

By-polls were held in six Zila Parishad, seven municipal council/municipality of six districts and 24 Panchayat Samiti of 17 districts on Friday and the results were announced after counting by the state election commission of Rajasthan on Sunday.

In the by-polls in six Zila Parishad, Congress won four seats, while BJP and BSP bagged one seat each.

In the Panchayat Samiti by-polls, 13 Congress candidates won while BJP won seven seats.

Three independent candidates and one BSP candidate also won Panchayat samiti elections.

Congress and BJP both won two seats each and three BSP candidates won in municipal council/ municipality elections.

PCC President Sachin Pilot congratulated the party workers on the victory.

"The results of by-polls in urban and rural areas have made clear that people are unhappy with the BJP rule in the state," said Pilot.

"BJP faced defeat in CM's home turf Dholpur which is a proof that people are not satisfied with the functioning of the government," he added.
Four dalits were ruthlessley beaten by alleged cow vigilante in at Gir Somnath district of Gujarat.

Lucknow: In yet another instance of growing caste tensions in Uttar Pradesh, the house of a Dalit family was set on fire by upper caste men and the women and children were mercilessly thrashed in Kasganj district on Friday.

The incident took place in Faridpur village in Kasganj where the Baghel community had a minor clash with some Dalits in the village. District magistrate Kasganj, K Vijayendra Pandian, said, The family will be given security.
Two kidneys, two eyes and one liver were retrieved and transplanted on patients under the Jeevandan scheme in the hospital on Friday. (Representational image)

Hyderabad: A pedestrian, 40-year-old S. Srinivas, was hit and killed by a bus while crossing the road near RGIA on Saturday. He was rushed to the Osmania General Hospital for treatment, but was declared brain dead.

Hailing from Peddamnadadi in Mahbubnagar district, he is survived by a son and two daughters. His wife and children were counselled by the team of Jeevandan and they agreed to donate five of his organs.

Two kidneys, two eyes and one liver were retrieved and transplanted on patients under the Jeevandan scheme in the hospital on Friday.

Dr Pandu Naik, chief anaesthesiologist at OGH said, "Both the organs were retrieved and allotted under the Jeevandan scheme to the hospital. A 21-year-old girl, Kavya from Kushiaguda, has the liver transplanted. She is recuperating in the intensive care unit. The kidney transplant was carried out on 32-year-old Ramulu from Chevella."
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 7

By Maksim Tsurkov  Trend:

Russian Railways is interested to take part in implementation of the Rasht-Astara railway project of Azerbaijan and Iran, First Vice President of Russian Railways Alexander Misharin told Trend in an interview.

Russian Railways has repeatedly expressed interest  including at my recent meeting with the Iranian Railways deputy head Ahmad Khodaei  to participate in implementation of the project both in terms of supply of materials for track structure and other possible aspects, Misharin noted.

He said different funding schemes were proposed for Rasht-Astara railways construction, including creation of a joint tripartite enterprise.

Later, the proposals had transformed into joint implementation of necessary feasibility work, financial and legal assessment of the project through signing of a contract between Russian, Azerbaijani and Iranian railway administrations and an independent engineering company, said Misharin.

He noted that Iranian and Azerbaijani sides have already agreed on construction of a railway bridge over the Astarachay River and a transshipment terminal in Irans Astara for more efficient cargo transportation across Iranian-Azerbaijani border.

Construction of the railway bridge over the Astarachay Rriver started in April 2016.

As far as we know, a possible interstate loan by the Azerbaijani side to the Islamic Republic of Iran for construction of the Iranian section of Rasht-Astara is being currently considered, Misharin said.

The construction of the Rasht-Astara railway comes as part of a larger project to create the North-South transportation corridor.

The North-South transportation corridor is meant to connect Northern Europe with Southeast Asia. It will serve as a link for connecting the railways of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia.

At the initial stage, it is planned to transport 5 million tons of cargo via the North-South corridor per year and to increase the figure to over 10 million tons in the future.

Edited by EA
The journalists could not gain access to the inaugural function, which was attended by Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Indian journalists, who went to cover the SAARC Home Ministers' conference in Islamabad, had to face hostile Pakistani officials, who not only denied them access to the inaugural function but also barred them from standing at the entrance of the venue where their Interior Minister was to receive dignitaries, leading to tense moments.

The six Indian journalists, who were given visa to travel to Islamabad to cover the event, were flatly refused entry to the inaugural function, which was attended by Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

The Indian journalists then stood near the entrance of the where Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan was receiving the visiting dignitaries from SAARC countries.

Read: Indian media not allowed to enter SAARC meet in Pak: Rajnath in RS

As Pakistani media took position to capture the moment of Home Minister Rajnath Singh's arrival, Indian journalists too joined them. Immediately, Pakistani officials curtly told them to leave the place, saying Indian journalists were not allowed to stand even outside the gate.

When Pakistani officials asked Doordarshan cameraperson R Jayashree Puri and ANI's Ajay Kumar Sharma to remove their cameras, a senior Indian diplomat tried to intervene and protested.

The diplomat hotly argued that Indian journalists be allowed to be near the gate to capture Singh's arrival as Pakistani journalists, video and still camerapersons were present and freely taking shots.

The Pakistani officials made it clear that the Indian journalists have to leave the place immediately, leading to a verbal duel between the diplomat and a Pakistani official.

The Pakistani official even directed some of his juniors to block the view of Indian journalists and soon the reporters and camerapersons were surrounded by several persons, apparently policemen in civvies, making it impossible for them to shoot anything.

This resulted the Indian journalists failing to capture the moment when Singh touched the hands of his Pakistani counterpart, a gesture short of a formal handshake, reflecting the growing chill in the ties between the two countries.

As per SAARC protocol, the inaugural statement by the host country is open to the media while the rest of the proceedings are in camera.

The Pakistani establishment was also circulating information in the local media that Indian Home Minister had visited washroom eight times to make calls to New Delhi when the conference was going on.

The fact is that the washroom was outside the conference hall and the Home Minister used it twice -- once before the formal ministers' meet started after he and his SAARC counterparts had made a courtesy call to Pakistan Prime Sharif and again when the meeting got over.

Besides, Home Minister Singh does not carry a cell phone even while he is in India and, whenever necessary, uses those of his aides.
A model of the street-straddling bus called Transit Elevated Bus after a test run in Hebei Province in China. (Photo: AP)

New Delhi: As several Indian metro cities struggle to cope with increasing traffic congestion and air pollution, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is looking at neighbouring China to help solve the countrys traffic woes.

According to a report, Modi has shown interest in adopting China's Transit Elevated Bus system that was inaugurated on August 3 in the north-eastern city of Qinhuangdao in Hebei province.

Read: Chinas elevated bus successfully completes inaugural test run

The 22-metre long Transit Elevated Bus runs on electricity and is more like a light-rail train that has the capacity to extend across two lanes. It can accommodate around 300-1200 commuters at a time.

Modi has asked road transport ministry to seek details about the new bus and explore the possibility and feasibility of having them on Indian roads.

He reportedly discussed the matter when a presentation was made on ways to improve traffic congestion in India, during a meeting with several officials from various ministries this week.

The futuristic bus can easily glide over traffic jams and pile-ups, as was seen during its demo run, which was conducted on a special test track of 300 metres. Most importantly, it has the benefit of being a pollution-free vehicle.

Capable of reaching top speeds of up to 60 km/hr, it runs on rails laid on the sides of ordinary roads. It was also reported that up to four of these buses can be linked together, which takes the total count of people it can carry to approximately 1,200.

This will come as a big boost to the country as one Transit Elevated Bus can replace a staggering 40 ordinary buses but there is no confirmation regarding the time when it will be deployed for public use.
Vijayawada: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched phase-1 of 'Mission Bhagiratha', a flagship project of Telangana government aimed at providing piped drinking water to every household in the state.

Modi unveiled a plaque in Medak district's Komatibanda village under Gajwel constituency, represented in the Assembly by Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, and formally turned on a water tap on the premises to mark the occasion.

This is the Prime Minister's maiden visit to Telangana after formation of the state in June 2014.

On the occasion, Modi also unveiled plaques to mark the laying of foundation stone for the 152-km Manoharabad-Kothapalli new railway line (connecting Hyderabad and Karimnagar), NTPC's Telangana Super Thermal Power Project Stage-1 (2x800 MW), Ramagundam, Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences, Warangal and revival of Ramagundam fertiliser plant in Karimnagar district.

He also dedicated to the nation the Singareni Thermal Power Project (2X600 MW) at Jaipur in Adilabad district.

Speaking at the event, Telangana CM K Chandrashekhar Rao said for the first time in history, there has been a corruption-free government at the Centre for the last two years.

K Chandrashekhar Rao reminded Modi of the day they shared dais at Ludhiana in 2009, where Modi assured that Telangana movement will reach its goal.

Modi hailed Telangana, saying it is just a two-year-old state yet it has been able to fulfil the expectations of the people.

"The CM has always spoken about development whenever he met me. The issue of water scarcity is very close to his heart," Modi said. He promised that the BJP government at the Centre would resolve Telangana's water problem.

"It is our duty as citizens to save water. If water is saved, it will be available for use by the people. If anyone visits Porbandar, the birth place of Mahatma Gandhi you will see the technology used by villagers to save water, 200 years ago," Modi said.

There used to be tension between Centre and states in the past. Today, Centre and states are working together shoulder-to-shoulder. We have inaugurated five new projects for Telangana today, said Modi

NTPC will establish the project in two phases, 1600 MW (2x800MW) in Phase-I and 2400 MW (3x800 MW) in Phase-II, it said in a statement.

The project is being set up in the available land in the premises of NTPC's existing Ramagundam station. An investment approval of Rs. 10598.98 crore has been accorded for the project.

The AP Reorganisation Act 2014 mandates that NTPC shall establish a 4000MW power facility for the newly carved-out state of Telangana.

Ministry of Coal last year allotted Mandakini-B coal mine in Odisha to NTPC for the 4000 MW Telangana STPP. As an interim arrangement till the development of this mine, tapering coal linkage for Telangana Phase-I (2X800 MW) shall be provided from WCL, the statement added.

Governor of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh ESL Narasimhan, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, Union Minister of State Power, Coal, New & Renewable energy and Mines, Piyush Goyal and Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Bandaru Dattatreya are among those expected to be present on the occasion.

Modi will also lay the foundation for the 150-km Rs 1,160-crore Manoh-arabad-Kothapalli railway line. It will connect Hyderabad with Karim-nagar for the first time by rail.

About 88 km of the route would be in Medak district and 59 km in Karimnagar district, and 4 km passing through Warangal district. It will have 13 stations enroute in addition to Manoharabad and Kothapalli.

The new stations are Nacharam, Iranagaram, Gajwel, Kodakandla, La-kdaram, Duddeda, Siddi-pet, Gurralagondi, Chin-na Lingapur, Sircilla, Vemulavada, Boinpally and Wedira. It will provide a viable alternative route between Secun-derabad and New Delhi .

Modi is also expected to inaugurate a few other projects and schemes before he leaves for the BJP maha sammelan at the LB stadium in Hyderabad .

He is expected to fly back to New Delhi after the Hyderabad event.

The government has made elaborate arrangements to extend a grand welcome to the PM. Over 3,500 buses have been arranged to transport 2,00,000 people for the public meeting that Modi would address in Gajwel in Medak district. There are expectations the PM would announce a Rs 20,000 crore package for the water grid project.
Hyderabad: Muslim scholars and intellectuals have been advocating incorporation of a lesson in the curriculum of madrasas across the country to create awareness among young Muslims against the anti-Islamic activities of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

A majority of the intellectuals who had gathered here in the city to discuss the activities of the ISIS in the name of Islam, especially the horrific killings of innocent Muslim and Christian civilians and people of other religions across the world, felt that there was an urgent need for Muslim institutions, intellectuals and scholars to rise to the occasion to prevent Muslim youths from falling into the trap of the ISIS.

Recalling the role of imams and scholars in Saudi Arabia a few years ago to save Arab youths from the ISIS when the ISIS launched a massive campaign to attract youths, Mufti Omer Abdeen said it is time for scholars and intellectuals here to launch similar campaigns. He said Madrasas should teach students about the anti-Islamic policies of ISIS.

Mirza Yawar Baig, a noted Islamic scholar and author who questioned Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's self proclamation as Khalifa said, The Khalifa is an imposter. ISIS is a bunch of psychopaths who dont represent Islam.

Urging Muslims to speak out against the ISIS, he said, Don't support them. Make dua (supplication) against them and ask Allah to save us from them.

Mr Abid Rasool Khan, the chairman of the Minorities Commission of AP and Telangana, said that governments should also take the initiative for introducing lessons against the ISIS in Madrasas.

He said if Madrasas play a proactive role by conducting lectures and seminars and teach the good points of other religions it would change the minds of younger Muslims and save them from radicalisation.

Mosques told to counsel youths

Muslim intellectuals want mosques to be used as a platform to spread the message about the anti-Islamic activities of the ISIS.

They made it clear that the message has to be spread among young Muslims that Muslims across the globe are the worst victims of the brutalities of ISIS.

The scholars appealed to imams from Telangana and AP who had gathered here on Friday at the Ravindra Bharathi to participate in a seminar hosted by the Minorities Commission of AP and Telangana on ISIS - Interpreting Reality to take up the issue in their sermons and to enlighten people about the anti-Islamic deeds of the ISIS.

Mufti Omer Abdeen said that mosques must be used as the main platform to spread the message against the ISIS apart from using social media.

He suggested for the constitution of counselling teams to counsel youth without involving the police and urged people to give moral support to the parents whose children are attracted towards ISIS to bring them back from its clutches.

Retired judge Ismail appealed to the imams to preach against ISIS in mosques.

Syed Omer Jaleel, IAS, said, Every Muslim must stand up and say that I am against the ISIS. We should not consider the ISIS as Islamic. There is nothing Islamic in the ISIS.

Moulana Khaled Saifullah Rahamani said that the message must go into minds of the younger generation that there is no sanction in Islam to take the law into ones own hands.

Dr Shoukath Hussain Mirza urged non-Muslims and the media not to attribute the terror acts of ISIS to Islam. Professor Avais Aslam of Kolkata said that prisons across the world are becoming ISIS recruitment centres.

Scholar Mirza Yawar Baig said, "The ISIS is a political problem and not a religious problem. This is not an issue regarding Muslims alone. It is an issue regarding entire mankind."

He said, "We cannot fight against ISIS by force alone. We can fight against it by patience and wisdom.

Mohammed Ali Rafath IAS said the ISIS is part of a global conspiracy to put Muslims on the defensive.

Shafique Mahajir said that inequalities in the justice delivery system is radicalising youth among the minorities.
The Chief Minister assured the delegation that he would hold a meeting with the Director General of Police on Monday on their representation. (Photo: File)

Puducherry: In the backdrop of protests over a ban on Pondicherry University students' magazine for having 'objectionable' contents against the Centre, Left parties and VCK on Sunday met Chief Minister V Narayanasamy and sought his intervention to ensure smooth functioning of the varsity.

A delegation of local leaders of the CPI, CPI(M), VCK and CPI(ML) met Narayanasamy and also sought the ban, imposed by the university authorities on the magazine, be lifted.

The leaders brought to the CM's notice "disturbances unleashed recently by the volunteers of BJP" in the university over the magazine issue, a CPI release said.

Alleging that BJP was airing "wrong and untrue propaganda that the magazine had objectionable contents" and students were attacked, the delegation said when a complaint was sought to be lodged by the students police 'only dragged their feet'.

The police acted in a partisan manner, they alleged and maintained there was no controversial content in the magazine.

Police should ensure that peace was not disturbed and take action against those who "attacked" the students, it said.

The Chief Minister assured the delegation that he would hold a meeting with the Director General of Police on Monday on their representation, it added.

The magazine brought out by the Students Council of the Pondicherry University recently has been banned amid protests by ABVP and BJP that it was "critical" of central government.
New Delhi: With Rahul Gandhi being summoned by an Assam Court in a defamation case, Congress on Saturday attacked the RSS alleging that it has a "PhD" in filing cases against people and its actions are a "classical fascism at work".

"This is classical fascism at work. The RSS has a PhD in filing cases against people all across the country as an act of harassment and intimidation.

"But be that as it may, let it be very clear that the Congress is not going to be intimidated by all these extremely fascist tactics and whatever may be their game plan, it will be replied to, both politically and legally," party spokesman Manish Tewari told reporters.

He was asked to comment on the Congress Vice President being summoned by Kamrup Metropolitan Court in Assam in connection with a defamation case for his remark against RSS. Mr Gandhi has been asked to appear before the court on September 29.

A criminal defamation case was slapped on Gandhi for allegedly accusing the RSS, during a speech two years ago, of killing Mahatma Gandhi.
Jhansi (UP): Putting the Samajwadi Party government on the dock over "poor" law and order in Uttar Pradesh, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday said there was "total anarchy" in the state and rape incidents have increased.

"In UP there is an atmosphere of total anarchy. Rape cases have increased by 161 per cent in the present regime. The state lagged in all the fronts and has become 'Prashn' (question) Pradesh from Uttar (answer) Pradesh," he told the concluding session of BJP state executive meet in Jhansi.

"In past 13 years, SP and BSP ruled and both of them looted the state. The burning question now is how long people of the state will be trapped between these two parties. In the coming assembly elections, BJP will form majority government," the senior BJP leader said.

Singh voiced concern over "so much anarchy" in the state, where "corruption has become institutional" and "rapes are committed on highways".

"The victims of calamities are not getting relief, youths are not getting employment. Why SP government does not fulfil its duties. People have these questions in their mind," he said.

Noting that in a federal structure Union and state governments have to work together, Singh said, "UP is creating hurdles in implementation of Centre's developmental projects."

Praising the work of Centre, he said, "It was easy to form government but difficult to run it. The work of Narendra Modi government is praised by all and in next 7-8 years India will become developed country instead of remaining developing country."

Welcoming those joining BJP, he said, "No one is untouchable for the party and those joining it are welcome."

BJP UP chief Keshav Prasad Maurya claimed his party would rid the state of both SP and BSP.

Assembly election the state are due early next year and opposition parties have made law and order a major poll issue alleging that cases of rape, loot and murder were mounting, a charge the ruling Samajwadi Party says has been blown out of proportion for gaining electoral mileage.
New Delhi: BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav has organized a special Young Thinkers Meet in Jammu's Patnitop, even as the unrest in the Kashmir Valley shows no signs of abating nearly a month after Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani was killed by Indian security forces.

According to a report in NDTV, a special conclave, led by Mr Madhav, has brought together around 80 intellectuals, members of the civil society and some senior ministers  in what is seen as an unofficial, new outreach by the government to the Kashmiri people.

The conclave -- being held under the banner of non-profit India Foundation -- is being held in presence of the members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The question of whether to engage separatists in the discussions is being examined under the watchful eyes of the RSS, says the report.

Senior BJP leader Ram Madhav, along with the late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed of the PDP, was the author of the agenda of alliance agreement between the state's ruling alliance. The agreement commits to talks with Pakistan and sustained dialogue with all stakeholders, including the Hurriyat Conference. In this connection, and given that Madhav is a senior member of BJP, the conclave assumes importance.

Curfew in many parts and separatist-sponsored strike disrupted normal life for the 30th straight day on Sunday in Kashmir Valley where violence has so far left 54 persons dead and more than 6000 others injured.
"No matter how strong the militant group is, our government will take strong action against it. All those connected with the killing will be hunted out and brought to book," Sonowal told reporters. (Photo: Sondeep Shankar/ DC)

Balajan (Assam): Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Sunday visited the Friday attack site in Balajan and said strong action would be taken against the banned NDFB(Sonbijit) outfit and "none would be spared" for the killing of 14 people.

"No matter how strong the militant group is, our government will take strong action against it. All those connected with the killing will be hunted out and brought to book," Sonowal told reporters after visiting the weekly Balajan Tiniali market where the massacre took place.

"Whatever evidence has been collected so far show that NDFB(Songbijit) is behind the killings", he said.

"All the security forces are coordinating the search operations and none will be spared," the chief minister said.

"It is the prime duty of the government to protect the people and their property. All will be given protection, I assure," Sonowal said.

After visiting Balajan, the chief minister went to Kokrajhar town and held a high level law and order review meeting of the Unified Command Structure's Strategic Group of civil officials, army, police and paramilitary forces.

Director General of Police Mukesh Sahay said the slain NDFB-S militant, whose body was recovered, would be identified by DNA test as his parents were unable to recognise his body as they had not seen him for the past 8-9 years.

Meanwhile, Kokrajhar Deputy Commissioner Madhu Prasad Sarma told PTI that the killers were believed to have come from Pakriguri on the Indian side, about 10 km from Bhutan border.
New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has directed the Indian High Commissioner in Pakistan to seek consular access to an Indian prisoner who was attacked at least thrice by inmates in a Peshawar jail.

Hamid Nehal Ansari, a Mumbai resident arrested in 2012 for illegally entering Pakistan from Afghanistan reportedly to meet a girl he had befriended online, suffered injuries after he was attacked by inmates in the Peshawar Central Prison.

"I am very much disturbed to read about repeated attacks on Hamid Ansari who is detained in Peshawar jail since 2012. It is inhuman," Ms Swaraj tweeted.

"I have asked our High Commissioner in Pakistan to seek Consular access to Hamid Ansari in hospital/Jail and report," she said in a tweet.

The 31-year-old was sentenced to three years imprisonment by a military court for possessing a fake Pakistani identity card.

Mr Ansari's lawyer lawyer Qazi Mohammad Anwar told Peshawar High Court bench on Thursday that his client was attacked at least thrice by jail inmates in recent months.

Mr Anwar also told the court that Mr Ansari had been kept in a death cell with a hardened criminal awaiting execution for a murder.

Mr Ansari was attacked and injured three times over the last couple of months and shifted to the hospital for treatment, the counsel said. He said even the head warden would subject him to brutality and slap him on a daily basis without any reason.

Mr Ansari had gone missing after he was taken into custody by intelligence agencies and local police in Kohat in 2012 and finally in reply to a habeas corpus petition filed by his mother, Fauzia Ansari, the high court was informed on January 13 that he was in custody of the Pakistan Army and was being tried by a military court.
Tehran, Iran, August 7

By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, before his departure to Azerbaijan, said that Iran in recent years has improved its relations with brotherly Azerbaijan in politics, economy, and trade.

Further speaking, Rouhani said Tehran-Moscow relations are growing more and more strategic, underlining bilateral cooperation on regional and international affairs, the presidential website reported August 7.

Rouhani further noted that the three countries are going in particular to discuss the North-South Corridor.

The North-South transportation corridor is meant to connect Northern Europe with Southeast Asia. It will serve as a link for connecting the railways of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia.

At the initial stage, it is planned to transport 5 million tons of cargo via the North-South corridor per year and to increase the figure to over 10 million tons in the future. He said the Astara-Astara rail bridge is going to be completed by the end of this year through Iran-Azerbaijan cooperation.

He added that reducing trade tariffs among the three countries, free trade with the Eurasian Economic Community, car and drug manufacturing in Azerbaijan, improvement of Iran-Azerbaijan trade ties, cooperation on terrorism, and trilateral cooperation in the Caspian Sea will be discussed during the upcoming meeting between him, Aliyev, and Vladimir Putin.

Rouhani and Aliyev will also follow up the implementation of already reached agreements in commerce, industry, energy, culture, banking, consular facilities and telecommunications, in particular, in railway transportation.

Irans President Hassan Rouhani has arrived in Azerbaijan on official visit Aug.7.

Rouhani would meet his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev and also attend a trilateral meeting of presidents between him, Ilham Aliyev and Vladimir Putin on August 8.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said all were "hurt" with the incident and no amount can compensate for the mental trauma of the survivors. (Photo: PTI)

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday announced financial assistance of Rs. 10 lakh each to the two survivors of the Bulandshahr gangrape incident.

Mr Yadav said all were "hurt" with the incident and no amount can compensate for the mental trauma of the survivors.

He said the state government will ensure that the culprits get the strictest punishment and warned police that stern action will be taken against them if such incident happen again in the state.
Ahmedabad: Vijay Rupani was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Gujarat on Sunday at the oath taking ceremony held in Gandhinagar. Nitin Patel took oath as his Deputy Chief Minister.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Rupani and other members of his team, saying they would "continue the development journey" of the state.

"Congrats to @vijayrupanibjp, Nitinbhai Patel & others sworn-in as they begin their innings to continue the development journey of Gujarat," Modi said in a tweet.

Read: Vijay Rupani: From Rangoon-born RSS boy to Gujarat Chief Minister

In a separate tweet, the Prime Minister also applauded the services of Anandiben Patel who had stepped down from the top post on Wednesday.

"I applaud the dedicated service of @anandibenpatel, who has been working tirelessly for the people of Gujarat for many years," Modi said.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley attended the oath taking ceremony.

BJP state unit chief Vijay Rupani was appointed as the new Chief Minister of Gujarat while Health Minister Nitin Patel was appointed as the Deputy Chief Minister on Friday.

Thanking Prime Minister Modi and BJP President Amit Shah for reposing faith in him, Rupani, asserted that his team is fully committed to harnessing aspirations of the poor, marginalised, farmers and youngsters.

In a crucial meeting attended by BJP Chief Amit Shah and Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari at the party headquarters in the state, the decision to make Rupani as the next Chief Minister was announced.

Earlier, the BJP central leadership made it clear that a state MLA would be assigned the job.

Anandiben Patel had tendered her resignation to the Governor earlier on Wednesday.

The Governor has asked her to continue as the care taker chief minster till the alternate arrangement.
Vijay Rupani is the new CM of Gujarat. (Photo: Facebook)

Ahmedabad: The oath taking ceremony of Vijay Rupani and Nitin Patel as the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister of Gujarat respectively will take place on Sunday at Mahatma Mandi in Ahmedabad.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will attend the oath taking ceremony.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Bharat Pandey said that the group of BJP MLAs including BJP MP in Rajya Sabha Parsottambhai Rupala and former chief minister Aandiben Patel will meet Governor O.P. Kohli today to tender a proposal containing the name of Rupani and Patel to appoint them as Chief Minister and deputy Chief Minister respectively.

"Oath taking ceremony will take place on Sunday at Mahatma Mandi at 2 pm," he said.

He expressed hope that Rupani and Nitin will carry the legacy, inherited from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to make Gujarat a 'symbol of development'.

"Vijay Rupani and Nitin Patel are one of our excellent workers, we have the required strength in the assembly and we also have the confidence our MLAs and I am confident that people of Gujarat will accept them as their leader," he said.

BJP state unit chief Vijay Rupani was appointed as the new Chief Minister of Gujarat while Health Minister Nitin Patel was appointed as the Deputy Chief Minister earlier on Friday.

Thanking Prime Minister Modi and BJP President Amit Shah for reposing faith in him, Rupani, asserted that his team is fully committed to harnessing aspirations of the poor, marginalised, farmers and youngsters.

In a crucial meeting attended by BJP Chief Amit Shah and Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari at the party headquarters in the state, the decision to make Rupani as the next Chief Minister was announced.

Earlier, the BJP central leadership made it clear that a state MLA would be assigned the job.

Anandiben Patel had tendered her resignation to the Governor earlier on Wednesday.

The Governor has asked her to continue as the care taker chief minster till the alternate arrangement.
The Army will work in close cooperation with the law-enforcing J&K police and the CRPF.

Srinagar: It has been a month of unrests in the Kashmir Valley and on Sunday, with still no signs of respite, the government is reported to have decided to assign the Army a bigger and more useful role in resolving the crisis triggered by the killing of Hizb-ul-Mujahedin commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani on July 8.

It, however, wont be any large-scale military operation as such but a firm hand within the velvet glove that the Army would be using as part of the governments carrot and stick approach as only harsh steps put in place in past one month have failed to control the situation, official sources here said.

The Army will work in close cooperation with the law-enforcing J&K police and the CRPF and will also, on its own, take various hard and soft measures depending on situation on ground to counterbalance the separatists diktats in the Valley.

The separatists  a recently formed issue-based loose alliance comprising Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik  are calling the shots to the extent that on Sunday, curfew failed to stop volunteers and local residents from launching a cleanliness drive in Srinagar areas in response to their call. The security forces did not get in their way.

On the political front, a section of the BJP is worried about a possible spillover of unrest to Chenab valley and some other Muslim-majority areas on the other side of the Pirpanjal Range which divides Kashmir Valley from the Jammu region.

The BJP members have asked for stringent measures to be put in place. Reports claimed BJPs troubleshooter on Kashmir and partys national general secretary Ram Madhav has discussed the current situation in the Valley during a meeting in Udhampur district.

He has brought together around 80 intellectuals, members of the civil society, senior ministers and a few RSS members to discuss the governments new outreach to the people in Kashmir.
BENGALURU: Sunday was another day of stress and pain for the residents of Avani Shrungerinagar and Mahadevapura, where BBMP officials came trundling in with bulldozers to continue the demolition drive to clear encroachments on storm water drains.

The BBMP warned of criminal action against encroachers and also officials, who aided them in the illegal act. The list of encroachers will be uploaded on the BBMP official website and encroachers have been given two days to clear the extent of encroachments on their own. If they dont comply, the BBMP will demolish the structures and recover the cost from the owners, Palike officials warned.

Several buildings, including five new structures, were demolished during the BBMP drive on Saturday following a high court order and directions from Chief Minster Siddaramaiah to clear encroachments on storm water drains that caused flooding of several areas in Southeast Bengaluru. The authorities are scrutinising files to identify officials who allowed unauthorised buildings to come up on storm water drains, sources said.

BBMP Chief Engineer (SWD) Siddegowda told Deccan Chronicle that buildings that were demolished partly will be bulldozed completely and earth work will be taken up to construct the drains.

He said the second list of encroachers will be prepared and the area will be marked for demolition on Monday. The demolition drive will be taken up at different zones on Tuesday.

Till Sunday, the BBMP had recovered 39 properties, including 15 buildings and 17 vacant plots. Four buildings were recovered in Mahadevapura, two vacant sites in Yelahanka and one structure in Koramangala.

Mr Prakash K., a resident of Avani Shrungerinagar and a bank employee who had invested his lifetime earnings on his house, was worried about his life after retirement. I will retire in two years and I cant imagine my life without my house, he said.

Silver lining

Poor people who have lost their homes will be considered for the single house scheme, under which beneficiaries will be given a financial assistance of `4 lakh. The area corporators are planning to discuss the issue with BBMP Commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad and Mayor B.N. Manjunath Reddy.

Confusion on width of drain

Officials had marked 4 feet of space for the construction of the drain and identified the properties. But on Sunday, the BBMP officials increased it to 8 feet and invited the wrath of residents. The drive was obstructed for a while when the residents protested. The residents alleged that they were suffering because of the political rivalry between the BJP and Congress. The constituencies represented by BJP MLAs are being targeted to tarnish their image, they said.

No power supply

Areas around Avani Shrungerinagar in Bommanahalli, and Kaigondanahalli and Kasavanahalli in Mahadevapura plunged into darkness on Saturday and Sunday evenings as electricity supply was cut to ensure the movement of earthmovers. Even the water supply was affected in some areas.

Appeal from BBMP chief

BBMP Commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad appealed to encroachers to demolish the encroached portions on their own and to cooperate with the BBMP drive. The BBMP is empowered to evict encroachments without even issuing notices. If the encroachers refuse, the BBMP will take up demolition drive and recover the cost from the encroachers, he said.
Srimathis husband Raju, a coolie, said that she has completed nine months and 15 days and doctors themselves said that the amniotic fluid has been reduced. (Representational image)

BENGALURU: It was worse than labour pain for a full term pregnant woman even before she went into the operation theatre as she was made to run from pillar to post between three different hospitals and a government hospital  Vani Vilas, still she did not get admission.

A 22-year-od Srimathi (name changed) hailing from a poor family from Ballari was admitted after the Deccan Chronicle brought the issue to the notice of medical superintendent Gangadhar B. Belawadi and health ministers secretary Rupashree.

Srimathis husband Raju, a coolie, said that she has completed nine months and 15 days and doctors themselves said that the amniotic fluid has been reduced. When such is the situation why were the doctors callous and denied her admission, he questioned.

Besides, we were made to run from pillar to post and denied admission too at the Vani Vilas hospital on Saturday and forced to go back home at Ramasandra beyond Kengeri. Ironically, the admission was denied even after getting the out patient card done and getting the scan done. he asked.

Although a gynecologist at Vani Vilas ascertained the situation through a scan that her amniotic fluid level has reduced, she was denied admission risking both her and would be born baby.

Shockingly, after analyzing the report the doctor on duty asked Srimathi to get a letter from the gynecologist whom she was consulting at Kengeri.

Srimathi had been getting her follow up checks at a government hospital at Kengeri and she was asked to approach another hospital. Later, she approached BBMP maternity hospital at the Banashankari. There too she was asked to approach either Dasappa maternity hospital or Vani Vilas where better facilities and ICU are available. On Sunday evening she was admitted at Vani Vilas hospital.

Rupashree told DC that the issue will be brought to the attention of minister and arrangements would be made to admit the patient. The medical superintendent Gangadhar B. Belawadi assured to initiate action against the erring doctor after verifying the facts.
New Delhi: In a startling revelation in the multi-crore National Rural Health Mission scam in Uttar Pradesh, the CBI has for the first time concluded that 55-year-old Mahendra Kumar Sharma, posted at a community health centre in Lakhimpuri Kheri district, was allegedly murdered in 2012 at the behest of senior district health officials. This could again heat up the politics in the poll-bound state, as the scam dates back to the regime of BSP supremo Mayawati.

The total tally of deaths in this scam was five, which included Sharma. As the news of Sharmas death spread in 2012, the Congress and the BJP had slammed the Mayawati government, accusing it of collusion. According to CBI findings, smothering has been stated as the cause of death. The CBIs final report was submitted on July 31 last month.

The multi-crore NRHM scam cases had come to light after two chief medical officers  Dr V K Arya and Dr B P Singh  were shot in Lucknow within just six months in 2011. Its claimed that top officials took away crores that were meant for the rural development fund.

The right sequence of events  as established in the CBI officials findings  says that the main scam-related activities of the accused with respect to the massive NRHM scam took place during Sharmas official absence from work in November 2011.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union minister Venkaiah Naidu wave to party activists at LB Stadium in Hyderabad on Sunday as BJP state chief K. Laxman (left), BJP Legislative Party leader G. Kishen Reddy (second from right) and BJP national general secretary Muralidhar Rao (right) look on. (Photo: S. Surender Reddy)

Hyderabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday asked all Chief Ministers to tackle the fake gau rakshaks or self-styled cow protectors with an iron hand. These fakes have become a threat to the national unity and integrity, and they should not be spared, the Prime Minister said while speaking at a public meeting in Gajwel.

The Prime Minister reiterated his view expressed a day ago in Delhi that these men were essentially anti-social elements bent upon dividing society and disturbing its peace. States have to remain vigilant against their actions, he said, adding, My appeal to everyone is beware of these handful of vigilantes who have nothing to do with cow protection. they want to create tanaav (tension) in society. I want the real cow protectors to expose them and the states should take action against them, Mr Modi said.

Cattle is national asset: Modi

He said the cattle population is a national asset. He lauded the Himachal Pradesh Governor Acharya Devvrats campaign for protecting abandoned cows and handing them over to farmers for using them in agricultural activities. Cow will never be a burden. Cows urine and dung are used extensively in agriculture. Cows importance is linked to the countrys economic development, Mr Modi said.

Stressing that India is a land of diversity, he said, Protecting our countrys unity and integrity is our primary responsibility. To fulfil it, all our countrymen should protect cows. Such service adds to national wealth and it does not create any problem for the nation. Fake gau rakshaks, on the other hand, destroy society, its peace, and the country. Beware of these people. There is a need to punish them. Then alone can we take the nation to great heights, the Prime Minister said.

Mr Modis comments assume significance in the backdrop of the incidents of violence against Dalits and Muslims by cow vigilantes in states such as Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh in recent times, leading to mass protests.
Hyderabad: Camaraderie between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao at a public meeting in Gajwel on Sunday  which happens to be the Friendship Day  has set off speculation in both the BJP and the TRS about the political realignment in the state.

While leaders showering praise on each other at a public meeting is quite common, the way both the leaders complimented and endorsed each other for providing effective and good governance raised speculations of a tie-up between both the parties in the coming days.

The strained relations between the BJP and the Telugu Desam in Andhra Pradesh over the Special Category State status issue after the recent developments in parliament are being cited as the reason for a possible friendship between the TRS and the BJP in Telangana.

Mr Raos comments in the public meeting certifying the Modi government as the first corruption-free government in the country and that Mr Modi has been extending full assistance to the Telangana government in all its programmes have surprised several TRS leaders.

This runs counter to the TRS criticism of the Modi government for ignoring Telangana in all sectors. The ruling party in Telangana has been attacking the BJP government in all the elections starting from GHMC to all the recent bypolls to Assembly and parliament.

When BJP president Amit Shah  during a recent meeting in Nalg-onda  claimed that the Centre had granted Rs 95,000 crore to Telangana, the TRS leadership had lashed out at him for making false statements.

However, in the backdrop of the Chief Minister heaping praise on Mr Modi, the TRS leaders would no longer be in a position to attack the Modi government in future for discriminating against Telangana.

Discomfiture, however, is not confined to the TRS leaders. The BJP state leadership is surprised by Mr Modi certifying the TRS government of working effectively for fulfilling the hopes and aspirations of the people.

The BJP, which hopes to grow as an alternative to the ruling TRS, has been accusing the KCR government of failing on all fronts in its two years.

While Mr Rao said he was seeing for the first time a non-corrupt government at the Centre in his 40-year political career, Mr Modi said Telangana achieved good results in these two years in fulfilling the hopes and aspirations of people.

The Chief Minister even went on to say that Mr Modi encouraged him to fight for Telangana and the new state was possible because of the cooperation of the BJP. When I met him for the first time at a public meeting in 2009 in Punjab, Narendra Modi, as the Gujarat Chief Minister, encouraged me to fight for Telangana statehood. And Telangana state was achieved with the support of the BJP, Mr Rao remarked.
New Delhi: In about eight months, a deadly combat platform-the Russian-made supersonic Sukhoi fighter (Su-MKI 30) aircraft integrated with the lethal Brahmos missile-is expected will join the join the ranks of the Indian Air Force (IAF).

There are plans to deploy fighter squadrons of the Sukhoi aircraft with the integrated heavyweight Brahmos missile within the first four months of 2017, a top defence source told this newspaper on condition of anonymity, adding that outmost priority is being accorded to move things at a much faster pace.

India plans to raise three squadrons of Sukhoi-30 fighters equipped with Brahmos missiles.

By December 2016, two key and final tests where the Brahmos air variant will be fired from the Su-MKI 30 to a sea-borne and a land-based target will be completed. These tests will be conducted jointly by India and Russia. After that we will integrate the

Brahmos-Su MKI 30 platform and make them ready for deliveries, the official said. Explaining the distinctive features of the air variant, the source elaborated: The air variant of the Brahmos is different in the sense that it is about 500 kg lighter in weight, a little shorter, it will have tail fins to aid the free-fall and then a differently-shaped nosecap so as to have as less air resistance as possible."

The missile, fitted in the Sukhoi-30 fuselage, will be released from the aircraft first. Once it drops clear of the aircraft, the missiles booster engine will ignite, propelling the weapon towards its target.

What makes the combination lethal is that the stealth-capable Sukhoi-30 which flies at a speed 2.8 times more than that of sound, will carry the Brahmos which is remarkable for the kinetic energy it generates due to its very high speed, heavy payload, low flight range with variety of flight trajectories, and a low radar signature for a stealthy approach.

On June 25, Indian scientists created history by flying the Brahmos for 58 minutes (45 minutes in-flight) with a Sukhoi 30 at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Nashik. According to sources, the jet-missile combo could also become a very lucrative export for India.
Tehran, Iran, August 7

By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:

Iran and Azerbaijan are to a great part of the same flesh and bone and their relations are of deep roots, Iranian MP Alireza Monadi said.

The two nations share the same religion and Azerbaijan shares a lot in language and ethnicity with the people of northwestern Iran, he told Trend August 7.

Noting President Hassan Rouhanis ongoing visit to Azerbaijan, the MP said that relying on their common grounds, the two countries can enjoy a lot of cooperation in various fields to contribute to their own prosperity and the well-being of the region.

Rouhani arrived in Azerbaijan on official visit Aug.7 upon invitation from his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev.

Rouhani and Aliyev will follow up the implementation of already reached agreements in commerce, industry, energy, culture, banking, consular facilities and telecommunications, in particular, in railway transportation.

Ilham Aliyev last visited Tehran on February 23, where officials of the two neighboring countries signed 11 documents on cooperation in transportation, cross-border transfers of electricity, health and medical sciences, customs regulations, and the trade of oil and natural gas.
Slain militant commander Burhan's father Muzaffar Ahmed Wani receiving people at a memorial rally held on the Rasm-e-Qul, the 4th day after his death. (Photo: H U Naqash)

Srinagar: It was a major victory for Indian security forces when Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani, best described the new age poster boy of terror, was gunned on July 8, but what followed was a renewed fervour for azaadi, as violent protests against his death broke out in the valley which continue to this day. And to compound the problems of the administration, his father Muzaffar Wani is emerging as a strong face behind whom the locals are flocking to rally their support, trumping seasoned separatist leaders like Syed Ali Shah Geelani and the Mirwaiz Omar Farooq.

Earlier, Muzaffar Wani and Hurriyat leaders had attended a protest event at Kareemabad in Pulwama where many of the slain militants are put to rest. The event saw a massive turn out of at least 50,000 people.

Read: Normal life remains paralysed in Kashmir Valley, curfew enters day 30

Addressing the gathering, Wani called for a protest march to Khrew, in Pulwama on August 6.

However, the Hurriyat leaders called for a separate protest, Dargah Chalo on the same day.

Reports revealed that while Dargah Chalo received very sparse response, the Khrew protest, called by Wani, saw a massive turn out.

Read: Kashmir unrest: 2 more dead, over 200 injured; fresh protests break out

Arriving at the protest venue in Khrew in an SUV with several armed militants guarding him, Wani, who was the star attraction of the protests, reportedly announced that after sacrificing his two sons, Burhan and his older brother, he was now ready to sacrifice his only surviving daughter to fight against Indian occupation.

Burhan Wanis older brother Khalid Wani, also associated with the Hizbul Mujahideen, was killed in an encounter between militants and security forces in 2010.

One of the militants escorting Wani also addressed that gathering, and requested them not to indulge in stone pelting against the security forces, saying it would only escalate violence, and lead to more killings.

Thought the Hurriyat was not associated with the Khrew protest, sensing the mood of the valley, it later sent out Wanis address to mobile phones.
Chennai: Expressing concern over the remand of 32 persons from Tamil Nadu allegedly due to forest related offices, and lodged at the Chittoor jail, Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa demanded the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to immediately intervene and ensure the release of the innocent men.

I request you to urgently intervene in the matter and facilitate their immediate release, Ms Jayalalithaa said in a letter addressed to her Andhra Pradesh counterpart, a copy of which was released to the media here on Saturday. She also deputed two government advocates to liaise with the AP officials in securing the immediate release of the innocent persons from Tamil Nadu.

Bringing to Mr Naidus attention a matter of deep concern regarding the arrest of 32 persons from Tiruvannamalai, Vellore and Chennai districts in Chittoor district, Ms. Jayalalithaa said that it was also learnt that these persons were remanded to custody on August 6. It is reported that these persons were traveling from Chennai to Tirupati by Garudadri Express when they were arrested by the Andhra Pradesh police at Renigunta railway station.

All those remanded and lodged at the Chittoor prison were only passengers in a train and have been arrested on suspicion of alleged forest related offences, Ms. Jayalalithaa maintained and contended that it was not clear how they have been accused of forest related offences when they were nowhere near the forest.

Meanwhile, flaying the AP government for the hasty act, Union minister of state for road transport, highways and Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan said the Andhra Pradesh government should have informed the Tamil Nadu government before taking any action. The Andhra government owes an explanation to the Tamil Nadu, he said.
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Congress (Francis George) leader Antony Raju has alleged that a bigger neta than Ramesh Chennithala was involved in the conspiracy against K.M. Mani in bar bribe case. He told a news channel that though the focus is now on Mr Chennithala, the internal report prepared on the conspiracy angle figured another top leader as the main accused.

Mr Raju, who was also one of the members of the party panel that probed the conspiracy charge, said the names of several other leaders figured in the report. He said if the original report came out, the UDF would become weak and the Kerala Congress might even a witness a vertical split.
Thrissur: The Illam Nira ceremony for prosperity in agriculture and farming was held in the main temples across the district on Sunday. The faithful thronged the temples early in the morning to receive small bundles of paddy spikes symbolising prosperity. After conducting special poojas on the bundles, the devotees took the small bunches with hay to be hanged at their home.

At Lord Sree Krishna Temple in Guruvayur, the Illam Nira started by 7.30 am. First, the bundles of paddy kept on special Mandapam near the sanctum sanctorum were carried on their head by the members of the families traditionally assigned the job to its Eastern Entrance Tower. Later, the bundles were cleansed sprinkling holy water by the assistant priests. Afterwards, they were kept on platters made of bronze and taken to the Nalambalam of the temple by nearly 50 priests from families traditionally attached to the temple accompanied by traditional percussionists playing their instruments.

The head priest then conducted Mahalakshmi pooja on the bundles kept at the Namaskara Mandapam near the sanctum sanctorum. After that, the paddy bundles were offered to the chief deity and also the sub-deity Ganapathi, Ayyappa and Bhagavathi. With the completion of Pooja, the paddy bundles were handed over to the devotees who had reached the temple from far-off places like Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The ceremony was also held in Paramekkavu and Thiruvambadi temples in the city.
IGNOU former VC V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, C.V. Aanada Bose, BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan, former Accountant General James Joseph and BJP state general secretary A.N. Radhakrishnan attend a seminar to prepare a development master plan for the state in Kochi on Sunday. (Photo: DC)

KOCHI: The second of a three part series meeting convened under the banner 'Vision Kerala' at Kochi on Sunday brainstormed the ways to take the state to a new era strengthening the vital sectors. Former bureaucrat C.V. Ananda Bose, former accountant general James Joseph, former IGNOU VC Dr V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, former Kinfra MD Dr G.C. Gopala Pillai, industrialist E.S. Jose and BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan were the key speakers at the meet.

The speakers felt that the development perspective should be people oriented and not experts oriented. They also felt that there is nothing called Kerala model of development but existed only a Kerala experience. Creating at least 25 bus bays, developing the Puthuvype LNG terminal and repositioning Brahmapuram waste treatment plant were among projects positioned for Kochi.

Skill development of youth was identified as a key area using the infrastructure of educational institutions after the regular hours. This was pointed out as an effective way to create a talent pool. Rejuvenation of schools was also identified as a priority. The speakers said that Kerala has an indigenous intellectual property which should be put to good use.

Developing a gas pipeline parallel to railways and industrial corridors too were put forth. Suggestions were also given for making the state fully organic in terms of vegetables and fruit production and developing balloon irrigation systems. The third meeting will be held at Kozhikode and the master plan comprising all suggestions will be submitted before Prime Minister and Chief Minister, said BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even official studies have confirmed that the liquor ban has decimated MICE tourism in the State. As for its impact on routine domestic tourism, the jury is still out. But one thing is clear: Kovalam has lost the trust of the countrys biggest travellers, the Gujaratis. Industry observers blame the liquor ban for the sudden fall in Gujarati travelers who come in big family groups and stay for an average of seven days in Kovalam

From my 15 years experience I have found Gujaratis to be fun-loving people. Ever since prohibition has been in force in their state, rich Gujaratis find travel to peaceful destinations like Kovalam the best way to relax with a drink, said John Xavier, a senior consultant to top tourism properties. I am sure they will not take kindly to the liquor ban, he said. Gujaratis are the countrys biggest travelers. Gujarat is the state from which Kerala gets the fifth largest chunk of domestic tourists, 1.3 lakh tourists in 2014.

It might not be as high a number as say, from Tamil Nadu or Maharashtra, but in terms of spending capacity the Gujaratis will have to be rated up high. They are huge spenders, especially because they come with family with lots of children, tourism consultant Mr Xavier said.

Though tourism statistics for 2015-16 is yet to be collected, even planners have felt the impact. This season it was unusual to see the absence of Gujarati families in our KTDC properties, a top KTDC official said. Perhaps they might have preferred other private properties but why the sudden shift in loyalty, he wonders.
Hyderabad: "If you want to shoot, shoot me," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, as he called for stopping the attacks on Dalits and the politics over it.

Making an emotional appeal, he asked people to protect and respect Dalits who have for long been neglected by the society.

"I would like to tell these people that if you have any problem, if you have attack, attack me. Stop attacking my Dalit brethren. If you have to shoot, shoot me, but not my Dalit brothers. This game should stop," he said addressing BJP workers in Hyderabad.

The Prime Minister said if the country has to progress it cannot ignore key mantras of peace, unity and harmony.

"Country's unity is the main source of country's development," he said.

His comments come at a time when the NDA government is facing flak over incidents of violence against Dalits and Muslims by cow vigilantes in various states including Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

Modi said at times some incidents come to notice which give us "unbearable pain". "It should be our responsibility to save and respect them (Dalits)," he said without referring to any particular incident.

Modi asked what right the perpetrators had to exploit Dalits and said the unity in society should be our priority.

"I know this problem is social. It is a result of sins which have crept into the society... But we need to take extra care and save society from such danger (of social strife)," he said. Modi said the society should not be allowed to be divided on the basis of caste, religion and social status.

Deprecating those who try to make political currency out of such issues, the Prime Minister said attempts to politicize those would only aggravate the problem.

"Those who want to solve this social problem, I request them to leave politics that divides the society. Divisive politics will not do any good to the country," he said.
Chennai: Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa and Opposition leader M.K. Stalin have spent Rs 24.55 lakh and Rs 11 lakh as candidate poll expenses in the recently concluded Assembly polls.

Each candidate can spend up to Rs 28 lakh. A majority of winners in greater Chennai and tier one cities have spent an average ranging from Rs 7 lakh to Rs 15 lakh.

According to the affidavit and the accounts details furnished by Chief Minister to the office of Chennai district election officer, she has spent a total of Rs 24,55,651 towards election expenses, including Rs 18 lakh from her own fund.

The AIADMK supremo spent a maximum of Rs 14.27 lakhs on addressing public meetings and election rallies in her constituency.

She also paid a rent of about Rs 32,000 for the temporary candidate office established in Washermenpet and paid electricity and generator charges up to Rs 31,550.

She also paid a rent of about Rs 32,000 for the temporary candidate office established in Washermenpet and paid electricity and generator charges up to Rs 31,550.

DMK leader M.K. Stalin spent Rs 11.02 lakh and raised funds up to Rs 25 lakh, including Rs 15 lakh given to him by his party. The Kolathur MLA spent Rs 4.59 lakh on social media campaign, advertisements in newspaper and on campaign materials. He also paid electricity charges of Rs 24,000.

Royapuram MLA and fisheries minister D. Jayakumar and Mylapore MLA R. Nataraj both spent close to Rs 7 lakh as their poll expenses. In Chennai, Jayakumar spent more than Rs 1 lakh on festoons, projectors and crackers, the maximum when compared to other candidates in city. Saidapet MLA and former Mayor M. Subramaniam spent Rs 12.54 lakh as poll expenses. Congress candidates Karate R. Thigarajan (Mylapore) spent Rs 17 lakh and Royapuram candidate R. Mano spent around Rs 8.5 lakh.

Most candidates in Tamil Nadu have submitted their expenditure accounts and notices have been sent to those who have not furnished their accounts. There is no expenditure discrepancy in Tamil Nadu as the candidates have spent within the eligible limit of Rs 28 lakhs for an Assembly constituency and the same has been informed to Election Commission, chief electoral officer Rajesh Lakhoni told DC.

There are provisions under the Representation of the People Act 1951 to bar candidates who have not furnished accounts up to three years, he said.

According to election department sources, most independents and candidates of political parties like Naam Thamizhar Katchi, Pattalai Makkal Katchi and BSP have not submitted their poll accounts.
Ever since he landed a Cabinet berth as mines and geology minister, Vinay Kulkarni has been courting one controversy after the other. The trusted lieutenant of CM Siddaramaiah, who is Dharwad in-charge minister, has a hot potato on his hands with the adverse verdict of Mahadayi tribunal throwing life out of gear in the region.

This young Panchamsali Lingayat leader, whose political acumen has ensured him victory after victory in the polls, tried hard to prove how genuine he is during an interview with DC.

Every week, I go to Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences (in Hubballi) and spend several hours. We have instituted a computerised system, streamlined the administration, claims Kulkarni. Excerpts from the interview.

To begin with, as per the amendment brought to the Mines and Minerals Act, you have to prepare and execute a Reclamation and Rehabilitation plan. For very long, nothing has moved on this front..

Our plan is ready, recently we submitted it to the Supreme Court.

But, experts say you are not serious about it.

We submitted it two months back. In a couple of weeks, the SC will hear it and then, we will implement it.

You are saying everything is going smoothly. Then, why is the C-category mine auction not happening?

The court put off the process by 20 days. In eight days, we will start the process.

Can we discuss the police excesses in Yamanur? Initially before the Karnataka bandh on July 30, you had instructed the police that they should not beat farmers. But after the Yamanur incident, you defended the police action.

I did not defend police beating up women. What happened there was different from what was told. Seven offices including a court was ransacked. The mob was so furious that when they attacked the court, the judge had to hide in the toilet. All files were burnt in seven government offices. Then miscreants tried to attack police and thats when the cops retaliated. When Karnataka bandh was observed, channels telecast what had happened two days back.

Do you mean people from Yamanur were involved in ransacking offices?

Women were not involved. A gang of youngsters from that village was involved. To trace them, police went to the village and women stopped them.

What is the next course of action?

We are not opposed to a peaceful agitation. Our only objection is they should not resort to violence.

What about dropping cases filed against them..

We have constituted a panel to look into this. Even if we decide to drop the cases, the court has to give bail.

The other issue is finding a solution to the Kalasa Banduri agitation. When PM Narendra Modi offered a solution you did not act. Why?

In the meeting, the PM told us that we had to convince opposition leaders in Maharashtra and Goa. Only after that he would convene a meet of BJP leaders. This is not appropriate. We felt PM should convene a meeting of all CMs and at that time, we would appeal to our party leaders in those states to cooperate with Karnataka.

As district in-charge minister, you have the responsibility to find a solution to this problem. You should have told the CM to undertake a mission to convince Opposition leaders in Maharashtra and Goa. You did not do it.

Who said, we have not done this? We had spoken to Congress leaders in Goa. They told us the Goa CM should talk to them, then, they would speak on this issue.

But, a month-and-a-half ago, Goa passed a resolution saying its interests would not be compromised. In other words, Goa Congress leaders either lied to you or you did not hold talks with them.

When did they pass a resolution? We cannot find a solution criticising this party or that party. It should come through Prime Minister.

You are a proactive minister. But you have failed to contain sand prices which are hovering at Rs 60,000-90,000 a truck load.

It was the previous BJP government which had handed over the administration of sand mining to PWD department. Our government withdrew it. Now, we have decided to go for open auction where we will fix a rate, then businessmen will bid. In 3-4 months, prices will come down. Karnataka has an annual demand of 23 Million Metric Tonnes sand. Already, M-Sand is produced here to the extent of 14 MMT. In another 4 months, it will reach 18-20 MMT capacity.

The issue is illegal sand mining. During BJP rule, some ministers were involved in illegal iron ore mining. Now, the kith and kin of powerful ministers indulge in this.

When we simplify the system, everyone will adhere to rules. Earlier, the PWD department had identified 864 sand blocs in the state but auctioned only 219 blocs. The officers too were scared to auction sand anticipating legal hassles. Now, we have changed the rules. We will reserve blocs for the government and have decided to identify sand blocs for Ashraya houses. Once we auction blocs, illegal sand mining will come down. We will install CCTVs everywhere. In Davangere, we have launched SMS permit system on trial basis.

Finally, you have Vinay (meaning decency or humility) as your first name. But you abused a doctor in KIMS, Hubballi and now, your name is linked to the murder of a ZP member.

The ZP members murder case was politically motivated. There were 20 cases against him. He was a rowdy sheeter. It is a habit to link politicians to such murder cases. In Hubballi doctors case, I went there to plead on behalf of a patient. Was it wrong?
In Bihar, drinking liquor is worse than terror, rape or murder. If that sounds like an outlandish statement, consider the Bihar Excise (Amendment) Act 2016 and the revised Bihar Special Courts Act through which special courts will now be appointed to deal with prohibition offences. There are no special courts for terror, rape or murder. Yes sir, Nitish Kumar, Bihar Chief Minister, Janata Dal (United) chief, sometime Prime Minister aspirant, means business. Come hell or high water, he wants to make Bihar free of the evil of drinking. He is so serious about this aim that he amended the amended law within four months of passing it. The first law, passed on April 1, provided for part prohibition and banned only country liquor. But

Mr Kumar, the messiah of the masses, saw that this partial ban was highly popular in rural areas, especially among women. If he could become so popular with just a partial ban, he reasoned, how much more popular would he be if he banned liquor altogether! (And, perhaps secretly, he reasoned, that if the chief minister of the only state in the country to have total prohibition, namely Gujarat, could go on to become the countrys Prime Minister, couldnt he too be fast-tracked to the highest post in the land?)

Shame on us to ascribe a base motive like ambition to what surely must be a moral crusade: Nitishji knows how evil booze is, how it ruins lives (not to speak of livers) and, therefore, how important it is to stamp it out. And completely, not wishy-washily like in Gujarat. So he asked his legal people to draw up stringent laws to punish offenders. His legal eagles with their hawk eyes (mixed-up birds of the same feather) came up with a law thats more stringent than stringent. Heres how some of its provisions go:

The collector, the police and the excise departments officers now have more powers, including arrest without warrant. Given the arbitrary ways of all these three law enforcers, there will now be any number of arrests to exact revenge, to settle old scores or to use these powers to extract money.

The next provision is truly breathtaking because at its foundation is a firm belief in family bonding and togetherness. The law now states that if you are caught consuming (or even storing) liquor at home, not only will you be considered an offender meriting a jail sentence, but so will your mother, father, son, daughter, grandfather, grandmot-her, etc. (This assumes that your children are adults and your parents and grandparents are alive.) In short, all adults in the household will be culpable.

And when the cops come calling, which you can safely assume they will quite often, and they step into the kitchen as you can safely assume they will every time, they better not find utensils (or a utensil) containing jaggery or sugar with a quantity of grapes lying around. Because then they can (and are enjoined to) assume that you are making liquor on the sly. In that case you, your mother, father, son, daughter, grandfather and grandmother will all be punishable for the offence of bootlegging. Not only they, but the people who helped in transporting sugar, jaggery or grapes, and the people who provided the containers for them, all will be liable for prosecution. Given our national habit of drinking tea with sugar (or jaggery) in it, I cant see these two ingredients not being kept in a household. Which leaves out grapes. There will now be none in the market.

Theres more. If you have rented a room or an apartment, its your duty, yes your duty, to inform the police if your tenant is drinking. What a convenient way to get rid of a tenant! The phrase threatens with dire consequences now takes on a diabolical meaning.

Heres a direr consequence: the police is now empowered to confiscate any premises where liquor is stored or consumed. So if you are found drinking, not only will your family be in the lockup, your home will no longer be your home.

If there is a frequent offender in a village or town, the district collector can impose a collective fine on the whole village or town! As for the habitual or frequent offender, the collector can extern him from his district for up to six months.

You probably think this column is being written when I have had one too many. Or perhaps, its not August we are in but April, and today is the first of the month. But no such luck. Nitish Kumarji is serious: the police has arrested over 10,000 people so far under the new law, and no doubt considerable property has been seized. Not content with this, the Bihar chief minister has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to follow the Bihar model all over India. Better, he says, than the Gujarat model.

The politics of prohibition is strange indeed. Tamil Nadu tried it under the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, gave it up, and now J. Jayalalithaa threatens to try it again. The Congress tried it in Kerala, and failed. The only state in India with prohibition, Gujarat, practices it in such a farcical way that the beneficiaries are bootleggers and the mafia (not to mention the politicians who protect them). Liquor is freely smuggled in from neighbouring states, and sold at three or four times the original price. The brewing of hooch, beneficial to everyone but the imbiber, is rampant. Why, then, do politicians keep trying to impose it from time to time?

Silly question. In a country where politicians shamelessly claim the high moral ground, where leaders talk of spiritual values (as long as they dont come out of a bottle), where ministers talk of clean government while leaving their desk drawers wide open, the evils of alcohol slogan is the biggest hypocrisy of all. In Bihar, for example, Lalu Prasad Yadavs Rashtriya Janata Dal, criticised the amendments, but voted for them. He also said  the ultimate irony  that he would be happy if the courts struck them down.

As for the BJP, its MLAs said they were so opposed to the amendments that they walked out of the House just before voting began, thus ensuring the bills passage. Heres a thought to end with. Mr Kumar, himself personally not known for hypocrisy, is a teetotaller. So prohibition follows. Lets hope for the sake of the average Bihari that he is not a bramhachari as well.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug.7



By Aygun Badalova - Trend:



Following the signed nuclear deal between Iran and the world powers, the Islamic Republic is back in the picture and it is a good opportunity to start a new page in relationship with Azerbaijan, Nathalie Goulet, vice chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the French Senate told Trend on Aug. 7.



Goulet made the comments regarding the meeting of Azerbaijani and Iranian presidents in Baku on Aug. 7.



Goulet also said that Iran and Azerbaijan have a unique cultural proximity.



According to unofficial statistics, there are over 25 million Azerbaijanis living in Iran.



Goulet believes that topics of economic nature between Azerbaijan and Iran are important part of the cooperation between the neighboring states.



Azerbaijan and Iran cooperate in a major international North-South transportation corridor project. The corridor is meant to connect Northern Europe to South-East Asia. It will serve as a link connecting the railways of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia.



Goulet also believes that Iran may play a crucial part as a go-between in the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement. At the same time, the French senator believes that Iran has to show that it doesn't have any intention to interfere in domestic policy of Azerbaijan.



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.
Dalit protests in Gujarat proved to be the last straw for the embattled administration of former chief minister Anandiben Patel. It was, however, not the only state to see such protests in recent months. Since the protests that followed the death of Ph.D student Rohit Vemula in Hyderabad, there have been agitations by Dalit groups for a variety of reasons in Maharashtra, Bihar, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The location of these protests stretch across the country, and span states ruled by the BJP, Congress, JD(U) and RJD, and AIADMK.

Advocate Prakash Ambedkar, grandson of dalit icon Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, has no doubt that another Dalit uprising is taking place in India. This is the fourth and fifth generation of dalits after Babasaheb gave them the self confidence. This generation is not ashamed of their history and roots. When their identity, individuality is attacked, they are not going to take it lying down. They will protest, he said.

Referring to massive protests after the suicide of research scholar of the University of Hyderabad Rohit Vemula and demolition of Ambedkar Bhavan in Mumbai, Prakash Ambedkar said, This is a warning to castiest people in Hindu community to reform themselves. They cannot force their ideas on others. And if they dont reform on their own, we will force you to reform. Dalits are expressing their anger in systematic and effective manner.

Read: Towards a dalit awakening all over India

His younger brother, Anandraj Ambedkar, who also led the rally in Mumbai last month against the demolition of Ambedkar Bhavan, claims that the cases of atrocities against dalits have increased by 50 per cent ever since the BJP came to power. This, according to him, is a direct indication that BJP coming to power has emboldened anti-dalit forces in the country. The common peoples expectation from the BJP was that they will get to see Acche Din, but they were disappointed. On the contrary, the increase in crimes against dalits proves that Manuvad is resurrecting and making the caste and religious barriers very tougher to break.

Anandraj points out that the BJP did everything to win over dalit votes, right from announcing the year round Dr Ambedkars 125th birth anniversary celebrations, buying London house of Dr Ambedkar and proposing Dr Ambedkars memorial at Indu Mill in Dadar, Mumbai. But they are not promoting or acting on the Dr Ambedkars thoughts. We believe in making the society caste-less and want the government to work in that direction. Unfortunately, nothing is happening on that front, he said.

The BJP naturally refutes these allegations. BJP legislator from Maharashtra, Bhai Girkar, who is from a Dalit community, said that the opposition parties are politicising the issue to use it against the BJP. It is wrong to blame the BJP led government at the Centre and the state for growing number of atrocities. I condemn all these acts. We need to change the attitude of the society towards Dalits. The government has initiated a few measures to curb atrocities like bringing amendment in the current atrocities act.

The Centre wants to cancel provision of bail to the accused under the act and provide help and rehabilitation to the victims. I support the government over the initiative as strict punishment can control these incidents. However, efforts are being made to spread rumours that the government wants to cancel the atrocities act. We need to understand that atrocities are happening all over the country and even at the states where BJP is not ruling. The incident like Khairlanji took place when the BJP government was not ruling. My point is that instead of blaming the BJP for atrocities we should see to it that the culprits get punished and try to bring awareness among the people against these incidents, Mr Girkar said.

BJP MP and and chairman, All India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations Udit Raj, shares this view. According to him, Politics cannot address the issue of curbing atrocities against Dalits. What is required is a social revolution and cultural changes in the society. Such incidents are not only affecting the Dalits but the entire nation. Some politicians tried to take political mileage out of the Una incident, which was as unfortunate as the incident. Ms Mayawati (BSP supremo) visited the (Una) victims, which was appreciable but what about Dalit victims of Muzaffarpur or Mainpuri where a Dalit couple was hacked to death for mere Rs 15.

Read: BJPs Gujarat show matters in Delhi too

Why has no politician visited them or their families? There is an effort by the opposition to project as if such incidents are taking place only in the BJP ruled state, he said. According to the NCRB report published in October 2015 (which is the latest), the highest number of crimes against dalits in 2014 were reported in Bihar (10,907) followed by Uttar Pradesh (9,145). Milind Kamble, President, DICCI (Dalit Chamber Of Commerce and Industries), is of the view that politics cannot remove caste barriers from society.

In my opinion, only civil society can build bridges between the Dalits and other communities. I dont think political parties will have any solution. Let them play politics, but common people should not look at it politically. The good thing about these protests happening in the country is that Dalits are not reacting violently. They are expressing their angst in systematic manner, he said. Mr Kamble further said that the Dalit uprising is not only happening socially but also in economics. He said, From the platform of DICCI, we are convincing our people to change their traditional business. I know the caste system in India is very complicated but I think change in business will help to reduce clashes between communities.

TIMELINE

January 17, 2016: Rohith Vemula, the research scholar of the University of Hyderabad, committed suicide. The incident created a nationwide uproar. Opposition parties and several Dalit and left organisations used the incident to accuse the BJP government of being anti-Dalit.

June 25, 2016: Ambedkar Bhavan, the building where Dr Ambedkar started the Buddhist Society of India and the printing press which he set up in 1947 and where several of his books were printed. Prakash Ambedkar, the grandson of Dr B.R. Ambedkar, filed an FIR against former IAS officer and State Information Commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad and Madhukar Kamble, trustee of the People's Improvement Trust, which was founded by Dr. Ambedkar and his family. Later, both the grandsons of Dr Ambedkar held a huge march in protest of the demolition. However, the trustees have got anticipatory bail and the HC has directed to maintain a status quo at the Bhavan site.

July 11, 2016: Four Dalits were thrashed by a mob of around 25 people claiming to be from a "gau rakshak mandal" (Cow Protection Group) when they were skinning a dead cow at Una in Gujarat. The video of the incident went viral on social media, leading to widespread protests by Dalits and a call for a statewide bandh. A massive Dalit rally was held in Gujarat to protest against the incident. Dalits in several parts of the country refused to skin dead animals. Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel had to finally step down and the Una incident was one of the reasons.

August 4, 2016: A Dalit couple was hacked to death with an axe by an upper-caste grocery shop owner following an altercation in a village in Uttar Pradesh over a pending payment of Rs 15 for biscuit packets that they had purchased a few days before they were killed.

With inputs from Vivek Bhavsar and Shruti Ganapatye in Mumbai and Yojna Gusai in Delhi.
Our human body is a microcosm and planet earth is the macrocosm. As we consume resources like food, we need to burn the food to ensure we are productive. As the world consumes resources, it burns it to convert it for productive use. The challenge is that the more we consume, obviously the more we burn. And the more we burn (literally), the worse it gets for the planet. It is in this context that we need to discuss the clash and contradiction between over consumption and climate change.

The world has seen lasting peace and prosperity since World War 2, relative to the decades before it. The industrial revolution accelerated like a celebration to mark the end of wars. The formation of the United Nations, resulted in the phase of peace and with it economic prosperity. Along with this, the past four decades have also been characterized by population growth. Global population doubled from from 3.7 billion people in 1970 to 6.9 billion people in 2010, an average annual growth rate of 1.6% compounding. The global economy grew much faster, increasing from US$ 15.7 trillion in 1970 to US$ 56.8 trillion (real 2005 prices) in 2013, an average annual growth rate of 3.1%.

We have all been conditioned to focus on and celebrate economic growth. GDP growth, revenue growth, profit growth is the mantra. Perform or perish! Everything is right with this, as we still need to help millions of people out of poverty from the world. The only way to do this is to accelerate growth.

Having said that, it is also resulting in over consumption. According to an assessment report for the UNEP International Resource Panel (IRP) titled Global Material Flows and Resource Productivity, the amount of the planets natural resources extracted for human use has tripled in 40 years. The report says that rising consumption driven by a growing middle class has seen resources extraction increase from 22 billion tons in 1970 to 70 billon tons in 2010. And here is the problem. The increase in their use, the report warns, will ultimately deplete the availability of natural resources-causing serious shortages of critical materials and risking conflict, and most importantly will affect climate change mainly because of the large amounts of energy involved in extraction, use, transport and disposal.

"The alarming rate at which materials are now being extracted is already having a severe impact on human health and peoples quality of life," said the IRPs co-chair, Alicia Barcena Ibarra. "We urgently need to address this problem before we have irreversibly depleted the resources that power our economies and lift people out of poverty. This deeply complex problem, one of humanitys biggest tests yet, calls for a rethink of the governance of natural resource extraction."

Europe and North America, which had annual per capita material footprints of 20 and 25 tons in 2010, are at the top of the table, Chinas footprint was 14 tons, Brazils 13 tons, for the Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean and West Asia was 9-10 tons, and Africas was below 3 tons. As emerging economies strive for progress to lift millions out of poverty, it also consumes large quantities of of iron, steel, cement, energy and building materials, and as a

result spews out greenhouse gases that result in climate change

events.

What do we do about this overconsumption?

We need to disconnect economic growth with increasing resource use, luxurious living with wasteful consumption, mindful eating with over eating. We need consume consciously and sustainably. So the next time you leave a light on wastefully, or take too much food onto your plate and waste it, or leave water running in your taps as you brush your teeth, or buy toys that your kids will throw out in a day, think again - are you over consuming?
The passage of the long-pending Goods and Services Tax Bill in the Rajya Sabha last week was a big achievement for the Narendra Modi government as it was finding it hard to negotiate with the Opposition, that had a majority in the Upper House. While the GST may help bring down the prices of some goods and services with a uniform tax across states, it is difficult to believe it would help control the prices of essential commodities like foodgrain, pulses and edible oil. Realising this, the government is planning to put a cap on maximum prices for the pulses by bringing it under the Essential Commodities Act.

Here the common man will be reminded of the BJPs promise to usher in achche din in every aspect of national life. A large majority of those who voted for the BJP in record numbers in 2014 now believe that achche din is not coming. The findings of surveys done by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in all states that have gone to the polls after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections clearly indicate that while people still rate the work done by the Modi government in little over two years positively, a large chunk of them believe Mr Modi has failed to usher in the achche din that he had himself promised. While this view was not strong in the first few months of the Modi government, public anxiety has grown over the months, and even in a state like Assam, where the BJP won an impressive victory recently, many feel that Mr Modi had failed to keep his promises.

The real test of any government is how the aam aadmi sees it, as perception plays an important role in politics; it helps political parties win and lose. There is a shared view among ordinary people that this government is more honest than its UPA predecessor, but with atrocities against dalits and Muslims erupting across regions due to the activities of the gau raksha dal, there is also the view that the NDA is far less tolerant than the previous government. The government has come out with facts and figures on its achievements in the last two years, but all this is negated as negative perceptions start to build up.

The government tried to help farmers in deep crisis in recent years by launching the Krishi Sinchayee Yojana to give universal access to irrigation, integrated 585 mandis through the National Agricultural Marketing Scheme and a common e-platform, introduced the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana to protect farmers from the vagaries of nature. But this hasnt helped make a positive difference in the lives of farmers across states. The pre-poll promise of increasing the minimum support price by 50 per cent still remains unfulfilled. The government has succeeded in passing the Aadhaar Bill in Parliament, enabling it to go in for direct cash transfers as LPG subsidy, that seems to have saved it Rs 12,700 crores annually. The Jan Dhan Aadhaar Mobile scheme is expected to plug leakages and corruption and ensure direct transfer of subsidies to the tune of thousands of crores to beneficiaries.

The Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan, one of Mr Modis pet projects, has been touted as a success with 87 lakh toilets being built, against the target of 60 lakhs in 2014-15. But evidence from the ground indicates that, far from benefiting large sections. many are unaware about several such programmes. Government data shows that road construction has risen from 8.5 km per day in 2014-2015 to 11.9 km per day to 16.5 km in 2015-16. The building of national highways went up from 3,500 km in 2013-14 to 10,000 km in 2015-16. Rural infrastructure also saw the laying of 35,000 km of rural roads in 2014-15, which is 11,000 km more than in the previous year. The average rate of expansion of railway tracks has risen to 7 km per day during 2015-16, up from 4.3 km per day in the previous six years. The government claims to have made huge strides in rural electrification, with 7,501 villages electrified, that leaves 18,452 Indian villages yet to be electrified.

But a lot remains to be done. Critics allege exports have been negative in the past two years, manufacturing growth measured by the Index of Industrial production has grown marginally by 1-2 per cent, agriculture remains in distress and services have remained stagnant. The nation has seen only a fragile recovery. Job creation has been the lowest in the past 8-9 years  a survey by the Labour Bureau says that in eight key labour-intensive industries, only 0.1 million jobs were created last year, compared to 0.4 million jobs created in 2014, even worse than the former low of 0.3 million in 2012.

And while the government has relaxed FDI norms for key sectors like defence, food production, railways, coffee, rubber and several others, we are yet to see how this will help in the revival of the economy. A judgment on the governments performance by looking at the prices of essential commodities, or to see if the life of the common man has become better, will certainly tilt in the negative direction. What has certainly disappointed the people at large is the negation of hopes by none less than BJP president Amit Shah on bringing back the black money stashed overseas. Clearly, there are more negatives than positives in the citizens evaluation of government performance.

With the NDA almost halfway through its five-year term, and with just over two years left, it will have to work really hard to complete its unfinished tasks. The fruits of some initiatives may soon be more visible, but whatever it does achieve in the time it has left, there will be a gap in the expectations the party generated among people before the 2014 elections and what it may be able to deliver. The question is: will this gap lead to dissatisfaction and frustration? We may begin to get a glimpse of that from the electoral verdict in states that go to the polls in the next two years, before the grand finale of 2019.
A cartoon doing the rounds right now is how the former Prime Ministers daughter had a birthday party, and everyone got an honour as a return gift. There has always been some scepticism in recent years about why and how honours have been politicised. Yet it has been one of the royal prerogatives a British Prime Minister has when he leaves office that he is able to request the Queen to confer honours upon whoever he recommends. The last PM to do so was John Major 19 years ago. David Camerons list includes friends, donors to the Tory Party, staff who worked for him and sidekicks. It has raised a furore about the practice of allowing retiring PMs this privilege.

But there are silver linings. Jitesh Gadhia, who is a brilliant banker and much sought after for investment advice, has been made a peer. He had helped Mr Cameron make friends with the Indian diaspora and with fund-raising. Along with him is Shami Chakrabarti, who has been a feisty human rights lawyer who headed the organisation Liberty for many years. She has many friends in the Labour Party and newspapers are already saying she may end up on Jeremy Corbyns shadow front bench. Whether that is a good idea remains to be seen.

When the newly-honoured people get to the House of Lords to take their place, there may already be moves to shift the House of Commons to another building further up Whitehall. The Palace of Westminster is already 175 years old. When Parliament buildings caught fire in the 1830s, they had to be repaired. The result was the present Palace, which opened in the 1850s, though it has parts that are much older such as Westminster Hall which is over a thousand years old. Now the building needs urgent renovation and repair as it is a chamber of horrors, as one peer has called it.

So reluctantly, the Commons will be moved to the department of health building up the Whitehall. The only snag is that the building recently commissioned was financed by issuing Sharia bonds. This means no alcohol can be consumed on the premises. It will be a hard life. London has had its own share of terrorist attacks. But now we have another rather tragic development. This is violence caused by people suffering from mental illness. Of course, it is questionable whether all those who indulge in gratuitous violence are all deranged in some way? Even modern-day terrorists, because after all  they must be susceptible to brainwashing which is carried out by jihadi leaders.

In the heart of Bloomsbury in Russell Square, an American tourist was murdered by Zakaria Bulhan, a 19-year-old boy of Somali origin from Norway, who was suffering from mental illness. Bulhan stabbed five other people, though only American professor Darlene Holton from Florida State University died. This is one more of the modern maladies we have to fight together, but it is also a problem that so many of those who are mentally disturbed do drop through the security net. We worry about mental illness in India where far too many are left undiagnosed, but the reality is that even in the UK, with the breakdown of the family unit, and familial bonds  an early realisation of mental illness is often missing.

Another modern tragedy is the continuation of child abuse, and the practice of it in all echelons of society. Even the Church has had its own skeletons in the cupboard, which have tumbled out in the last few decades. In the last 25 years, this topic previously hidden from all eyes has been publicly discussed in the UK. Many prominent figures have been implicated as the case of TV presenter Jimmy Savile showed. The government opened an inquiry but it has been dogged by trouble. The first appointed chair, Justice Butler-Sloss, resigned as one of her famous relatives was involved. Then Dame Fiona Woolf had to resign within days after being appointed as she was a friend of Lord Leon Brittan, who was (falsely) suspected of child abuse. The third chair was brought from New Zealand. Dame Lowell Goddard took on the difficult job last year. But now she has also resigned though she did set up a number of inquiries. But it is not something which can be abandoned, and one hopes there will be some justice.

But how can we complete the diary without recording the chronicles of Prince George? Once again the tabloids maintain that the rivalry between Prince Charles, Georges grandfather, and Carole Middleton, Georges maternal grandmother, continues to grow. Prince Charles, according to these gossip mills, feels he is not getting enough time with his grandchildren, both George and Charlotte. Apparently, the Middletons are no longer the insiders present at every royal function. While Carole has been in charge every time Prince William and Kate Middleton travel, and keeps an eye on the toddlers, this regime might be endangered. Could this be true? Well, even if there is no trouble in paradise, you can be certain the tabloids will think of some!
It is not yet known how the chief minister reacted to the idea  or if at all, he will.

A Samajwadi Party leader has found the root cause of problems facing the Akhilesh government. According to him, it is the letter B. The SP leader reasoned that it was the Badaun rape and murder case that first maligned the Akhilesh government and now it is the Bulandshahr highway rape case that is giving uncomfortable moments to the government, followed in quick succession by the rape of a teacher in Bareilly. Similar cases have been reported from Barabanki and Bhadohi earlier. Banda got its share of ill-fame in the previous government when a dalit girl was raped by a BSP MLA.

There has to be some connection between such incidents and the letter B. I feel that the chief minister should take some astrological advice and perform puja to stop this trend, he was overheard telling some senior ministers, who obviously laughed it off. However, a bureaucrat who was present did not lose the opportunity and rushed to convey the advice to the chief minister. It is not yet known how the chief minister reacted to the idea  or if at all, he will.

A CPI(M)-MUKT BENGAL?

That Trinamul Congress won a landslide victory in the last Assembly elections, bagging 211 seats in the 294-member House, is old news. What many people may not be aware of is that in less than three months after she stormed back to power, the number of TMC MLAs has risen to 213. The secret behind the TMCs rising numerical strength in the state Assembly is defection. Two legislators from the Opposition camp switched loyalties and climbed onto the Mamata bandwagon. The CPI(M) and Congress bosses had been extremely worried. They were alarmed further when heavyweight TMC leader Mukul Roy declared last month that 20 MLAs from the two Opposition parties had expressed a desire to quit and join the ruling party.

In recent weeks, several Left and Congress-controlled civic bodies like Jangipur, Jiaganj Azimganj and Jhalda, had been captured by the TMC through mass exodus. Didi, who was tormented both by the Opposition and a biased media, has therefore embarked on not only consolidating her party organisation, but also completely decimating the CPI(M) in Bengal. If the malady of defection becomes an epidemic, then all Opposition MLAs will one day cross over to our side, a TMC MP claimed. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly expressed his determination to make India Congress-mukt. Is Didi planning to make West Bengal CPI(M)-mukt? asked the MP jocularly.

MANNS UNENDING CONTROVERSIES

Aam Aadmi Party MP Bhagwant Mann, who was recently embroiled in a controversy over live streaming from Parliament, has often been accused of coming drunk to social gatherings in the past. Recently, he has been accused of coming drunk to Parliament. Obviously, Mr Mann has always denied these allegations. However, when he was in Chandigarh to release the first list of party candidates, the media asked

Mr Mann about the same. Mr Mann replied that these allegations were baseless and could not be proved by those who levelled it. In his trademark style, Mr Mann said: A lot of parliamentarians sleep in Parliament, if I say that they take intoxicants, will I be able to prove that? It will be a wild allegation like the allegations levelled against me. He said that people who level allegations against him should install an alcohol meter (breathalyser) outside Parliament to end the controversy for once and all.

BACKROOM POLITICS

A certain backroom boy, who was part of the strategy team of BJP general secretary and Northeast in-charge Ram Madhav during the Assam Assembly elections is apparently lobbying hard with the RSS. Now this backroom boy is said to be lobbying for the post of political adviser to the BJPs first chief minister in Assam, Sarbananda Sonowal. Rumour has it that this back room boy has been approaching RSS leaders who have been working in the Northeast region. The RSS has a major influence in the region and the BJP created history in May when it formed its first government in Assam.
Even though there are indications in our books of history, theology, archaeology, geology and folklore that our world has been visited for thousands of years by UFOs, its the modern UFO phenomenon that started in the 1940s and has continued till today that holds our attention.

UFOs are generally described by eyewitnesses as round in shape, metallic, with a flat bottom and doomed top. In some cases Cigar and Triangle shaped UFOs have also been seen. They are generally small, 10-foot to 40-foot in diameter, have no wings, tails or visible external engines. They are known to silently maneuver over an area, sometimes at a very low altitude, sometimes they stay still over an area then suddenly take off at extraordinary speed. They are very silent, leave no exhaust but often there is a glow around the object. They have the ability to appear and disappear suddenly both in the visual and electromagnetic spectrum. On some occasions huge spacecrafts have also been observed.

One of the biggest UFOs ever seen appeared over the skies of Chile in 1978. What gives credibility and authenticity to this sighting was highly trained Air Force pilots were involved in this encounter. On December 16, 1978 two Chilean Air Force Fighter jets on a training mission encountered a gigantic UFO. When the UFO appeared on the radar of one of the Chilean Air Force jet its size was estimated to be that of 10 or more Aircraft Carriers which is 3400 metres or 3.4 km. The pilot thinking it must be some radar malfunction asked the pilot of the other jet, who also concurred. When they consulted the ground radar of the nearby airport, they also confirmed the huge size. As the pilots neared the UFO it suddenly took off in great speed and vanished from their sights as well as the radar screens. The Chilean Air Force has acknowledged this UFO encounter.

How did the name flying saucer originate?

On June 24th, 1947 Kenneth Arnold a qualified pilot and deputy federal marshal was looking for a marine transport plane that had crashed somewhere in the Cascade Mountains in Washington State. Around 2pm on that fateful day Arnold saw a formation of very bright objects coming from the vicinity of Mount Baker. Arnold calculated their speed to be around 1700 miles per hour. No aircraft in that period had the capacity to reach that speed. Later when discussing the event with a reporter of an Oregon newspaper, Arnold said they didnt fly like any aircraft that he had seen before instead they flew like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water. He was only describing the flight pattern of the objects, not the objects themselves, but the press started calling them flying saucers which became famous. Later the term UFO was adopted to describe them.

According to an UN statistic since the 1940s, 150 million people in over 133 countries have reported seeing an UFO. This includes Air Force Generals, Astronauts, Prime Minister of a country (Granada), former American Presidents (Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan) Government Officials, Scientists, Military Officers, civilian and military pilots and radar operators, Police officers and Journalists.

The writer is the Director of INSETS-Indian Society for Extraterrestrial Studies and author of ACCIDENTAL APOCALYPSE. He can be contacted at insetsabir@gmail.com

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At a media event in Seattle last week, Amazon unveiled its first Prime Air branded plane. A Boeing 767 owned by Atlas Air, this plane has been converted into a freighter.

Amazon had earlier announced deals with two aircraft leasing companies  Atlas and Air Transport Services group, or ATSG, to fly as many as 40 dedicated cargo planes in the near future. While, eleven are already in operation; Prime Air will be the first one that has been painted. The purpose is to provide Amazon abundant shipping capacity for peak periods and flexibility for normal operations as its Prime business grows, said Dave Clark, Amazons senior vice president of Operations to Recode.

You can almost think about the difference between commercial flight and private flight, Clark said. We have the ability, with our own planes, to create connections between one point and another point that are exactly tailored to our needs, and exactly tailored to the timing of when we want to put packages on those routes  versus other peoples networks which are optimized to run their entire network. We add capacity, we add flexibility, and it gives us cost-control capability as well.

Apart from vertically integrating its business, it has also invested in numerous logistics technologies and is buying or leasing truck trailers and cargo ships to fulfill its local delivery services, as well. Moreover, Amazon has also built its own cloud-computing and web-hosting platform and designed its own electronic devices that hold the potential of being the future of shopping.

The aircraft is mostly painted white with Prime Air branded on both sides, a blue bottom that leads up the fuselage into a stripe and a dark gray tail with Amazons smile logo on it.

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Hyderabad: A major problem that pilgrims from India and the sub-continent face during the Haj is the lack of knowledge of the Arabic language. This creates immense communication problems at Mina, where about 1 lakh fire-proof tents exist, and at the Mount Arafat about 20 km away.

To assist these pilgrims, a Hyderabad engineer working at Mecca has developed a free mobile application, Huji app after a year-long research at Mecca, Mina and Arafat. It is available only on Android now.

Mr Sheik Abdullah from Santoshnagar in the city, a quality control engineer, said he started working on the app after watching the plight of pilgrims when a crane crashed at Mecca last year killing 110 persons, and a stampede which claimed 700 lives.People from all over the world were worried about their loved ones and began calling up. The mobile network was jammed for about 72 hours after each incident. The pilgrims without knowledge of Arabic suffered as they searched for their group in the confusion. I decided to develop the application which can assist non-Arabic pilgrims, he said.

A friend in need

The May I Help You feature can assist the user as well as Saudi Arabian government which deploys about 1 lakh police personnel, in the ratio of one to 50 pilgrims, 25,000 health care staff and 5,000 volunteers.

Mr Abdullah said most pilgrims died at Mount Arafat due to heart attack and breathing problems. Those in need of medical aid can use the Need doctors help or Emergency feature, and a message would be passed on to the department as well as doctors along with the GPS position of the pilgrim.

He said as per the statistics of the Saudi Arabian government, at least one per cent (50,000) of the total 50 lakh pilgrims would be medical staff, of which at least 25,000 pilgrims might be physiotherapists. He said the app offered a category for doctors during the registration. This would help locate doctors.

Mr Abdullah said he started the project in September last year and gathered inputs from the Saudi government and records with the Mecca authorities in three months.

Once I got all the information, I started developing the application with the help of a startup, Problems & Solutions. I spent about Rs 4 lakh for the research and development of the app, he said.

Mr Abdullah said this was the first app categorised by Google Play related to Haj assistance. It was the first independent app which topped the list 24 hours after it was submitted.

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Oscar Pistorius is led away by the police in this file photo. (Photo: AP)

Johannesburg: Oscar Pistorius was treated for injuries at a private hospital and has returned to a South African jail where the Olympian is serving a six-year sentence for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, a prison official said Sunday.

Pistorius told officials that he suffered injuries after falling out of bed, said Singabakho Nxumalo, a spokesman for the correctional services department.

Nxumalo did not provide details of the injuries, citing medical privacy concerns. The former track star was taken back to his Pretoria prison cell on Saturday, and an investigation is underway, the official said.

Last month, South African prosecutors said they would appeal Pistorius' six-year jail sentence, saying it was too lenient. The double-amputee athlete, who was sentenced on July 6, could be released on parole after three years. The prescribed minimum sentence for murder in South Africa is 15 years, though a judge can reduce that penalty in some circumstances.

Pistorius also previously served one year in prison for manslaughter for shooting 29-year-old Steenkamp, a model and reality TV star. That manslaughter conviction was upgraded to the more serious offense of murder after an earlier prosecution appeal, leading to a new sentencing.

Pistorius shot Steenkamp multiple times through a toilet cubicle door in his home in the pre-dawn hours of Valentine's Day, 2013. Pistorius testified that he killed Steenkamp by mistake, thinking there was an intruder hiding in the bathroom. Prosecutors said he shot her intentionally after an argument.
An elderly voter arrives at a polling station to cast an early vote on the eve of the country's municipal elections in Johannesburg. (Photo: AP)

Johannesburg: The African National Congress lost its grip on local government in Tshwane, home of South Africas capital Pretoria, as results on Saturday gave the opposition Democratic Alliance a second big win in the ANCs worst election since the end of apartheid.

As final votes were counted, the ANC was leading in economic powerhouse Johannesburg by a slim margin. But as well as defeat in Tshwane it lost Nelson Mandela Bay, which includes manufacturing hub Port Elizabeth, to the DA.

The results have reshaped the political landscape in South Africa where the ANC has ruled virtually unopposed since it ended white-minority rule in 1994, led by Nelson Mandela.

But unemployment, a stagnating economy and scandals around President Jacob Zuma led voters to punish the ANC, changing the outlook for national elections in 2019 and potentially emboldening Zumas rivals within the ANC to challenge him.

With 99 percent of votes counted from Wednesdays local elections, the ANC was leading with the most votes overall and said it would still try to form coalitions to govern the municipalities where it lost its majority.

The DA, which fell short of a majority in both Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay, would also need to form coalitions to take power in those areas.

But the results mark a watershed for the DA which last year elected its first black leader, Mmusi Maimane, as it tries to shake off an image as a party mainly serving white interests. The party held Cape Town which it has controlled since 2006.

It signals to everyone that the tide in our country is turning, Maimane told reporters on Saturday.

Paul Mashatile, the ANC chairman in Gauteng province, which includes Tshwane and Johannesburg, said: We can confirm that we are into (coalition) negotiations as we speak.

He blamed the poor result on low voter turnout by ANC supporters countrywide.

Its quite clear that our people, our traditional supporters, are still with us but maybe not too many people came out to vote so we need to go back and find out why.

Mismanagement

The ANC has lost support among voters who feel their lives have not improved and the opposition has accused Zuma of mismanaging the economy. Millions of urban voters are now looking beyond its liberation struggle credentials and focusing on an economy teetering on the edge of a recession.

Zuma rattled investors in December by changing finance ministers twice in a week, sending the rand plummeting. The currency has since recovered and received a boost from the lack of violence during the local elections.

The president survived an impeachment vote in April after the Constitutional Court said he breached the law by ignoring an order to repay some of $16 million in state funds spent on renovating his private home. Zuma has since said he will repay some of the money as ordered by the court.

The ANC may just become a rural party, said William Gumede, head of the Democracy Works Foundation think-tank.

The radical leftist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party led by Julius Malema, Zumas one-time protege but now arch-foe, came a distant third in the local elections, with about 10 percent of the vote.

Malema has drawn support with promises to nationalise banks and land and redistribute among poor black people wealth still mostly in white hands - policies that both the DA and the ANC have not found palatable.

With the ANC and DA both seeking to rule in Johannesburg and Tshwane, the EFF could be courted where coalitions are needed.

Malema has not said whom he would back, saying: If anyone comes to us, well talk.
Tehran, Iran, August 7

By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:

An Iranian nuclear scientist has been executed for treason, the countrys Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said.

Shahram Amiri was executed for giving vital information to the US, Ejei said, Tasnim reported August 7.

Amiri disappeared in Saudi Arabia in 2009 and resurfaced a year later in the US, where he claimed to have been abducted and interrogated by the CIA.

After reappearing in the US in 2010, he said he had been kidnapped and put under intense psychological pressure to reveal sensitive information.

However US officials at the time said Amiri had defected of his own accord and provided useful information.
Zuma ignored the protest while his security guards stood nearby, apparently surprised by the protest by four women dressed in black and holding up placards, some with the words "Remember Khwezi" and "10 years later". (Photo: AFP)

Johannesburg: Anti-rape activists protested on Saturday as South African President Jacob Zuma delivered his first remarks since local elections gave his African National Congress (ANC) its worst results since 1994.

Zuma ignored the protest while his security guards stood nearby, apparently surprised by the protest by four women dressed in black and holding up placards, some with the words "Remember Khwezi" and "10 years later".

"Khwezi" is the assumed name of an female HIV activist who, in one of the most sensational cases in South Africa, accused Zuma of rape in 2006 before he became president.

He was acquitted of the charges, keeping alive the political hopes of a man who went on to become president in 2009.

Zuma had pleaded not guilty to raping "Khwezi" at his Johannesburg home, but his lawyers said he did have consensual sex with the woman, then 31 years old.

Zuma's spokesman was unavailable to comment. There was no comment from other government officials.

Glen Mashinini, chairman of the electoral commission, apologised to Zuma, saying "this took us by surprise, and we really want to apologise to all of you" to the gathering that included cabinet ministers and political party chiefs.

x

In his speech, Zuma said the elections - which punished the ruling ANC for unemployment, a stagnating economy and Zuma's scandals - had been well run and proved that South Africa's democracy was maturing.

Zuma, 73, has survived several political and personal scandals, fending off accusations of corruption, influence peddling and rape before he took office in 2009.

The rape case has caused political damage to Zuma, particularly because he conceded that he had had unprotected sex with the woman, despite knowing that she was infected with HIV.

AIDS activists criticized Zuma - who said he took a shower afterwards to prevent possible HIV infection - for what they said was his spreading of misinformation about the disease in South Africa.
Six Indonesian militants, including an ISIS fighter, were arrested on Friday for plotting a missile attack at Singapore's Marina Bay. (Representational image)

Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia has warned that an Indonesia-based militant's followers are looking to make South-East Asia the new base for Islamic State terror group, days after six Indonesian militants were arrested for plotting a missile attack at Singapore's Marina Bay.

Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said according to intelligence reports some of Indonesia-based Abu Bakar Bashir's 300 followers, who were in jail, have been released and they reportedly went to Batam, a small island in Indonesia's Riau Archipelago in the South China Sea.

"A short boat ride from Singapore, it's a free trade zone with multiple busy ports, known for its beaches and resorts.

From there, they want to make South-East Asia the new port for IS," he told reporters yesterday.

Abu Bakar, known as the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, behind the 2002 Bali bombings, was sentenced to 15 years jail in 2011.

Ahmad Zahid said Malaysians should be mindful as extremism had reached a stage where it was no longer "what if" but "when will it happen?"

Seeking cooperation from everyone to fight the rising threat in the South-East Asian region, he said that Malaysian authorities were discussing with their counterparts on ways to enhance security in the region.

Six Indonesian militants, including an ISIS fighter, were arrested on Friday for plotting a missile attack at Singapore's Marina Bay.

Even before Friday's foiled rocket attack on Singapore's Marina Bay, Ahmad Zahid said the Defence and Home ministries had placed assets and manpower at areas dubbed "black spots" for security purposes.
Tokyo: China has installed a radar with potential military functions in a disputed area of the East China Sea, Japanese media said on Sunday, in the latest flare-up of tensions between the two countries.

The Japanese foreign ministry said China had placed a surface search radar and surveillance camera on one of its structures in a gasfield which is claimed by both countries, the Nikkei business daily reported.

The ministry on Friday complained to Beijing through diplomatic channels, the newspaper reported. The paper said it was the first radar unit known to have been installed on any of the Chinese structures in the area, believed to be rich in oil and gas deposits.

Tokyo is concerned that Beijing could be intending to strengthen its military power in the East China Sea. The foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.

On Sunday Tokyo

separately protested to Beijing after two Chinese ships entered Japanese waters near disputed islands also in the East China Sea.
She said that she would be raped twice a day, sometimes as soon as Downend returned home or sometimes in the middle of the night. (Representational Image)

London: A paedophile has been arrested on the charges of raping a 10-year-old girl for a period of six years after she left school.

According to a report, the minor victim was sexually assaulted twice a day from the age of 10 to 16.

Identified as Keith Downend, the accused, is currently serving 19 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to various counts of sexual abuse.

Recalling the years of torment, the victim said, "He robbed me of my childhood. I was raped time and time again, often twice a day."

"Now that he is in the prison, I can look to the future," she further added.

While the case was undergoing trial, the victim told the court that the abuse started when she was offered a baby sitting job at the accused's home. She was expected to look after the accused's children while his wife was at work.

While Downend's wife was busy working, he would often rape the victim at his home.

Hed put his hand over my mouth or kiss me with beer breath. It was disgusting, the victim said.

When she returned home that day, her father noticed wooden splinters on her bottom and inquired about it. However, the victim did not have an answer.

She said that she would be raped twice a day, sometimes as soon as Downend returned home or sometimes in the middle of the night.

He said I had to tell him when my periods were over. I used to lie but hed catch me out," the victim said.
The money collected by taxing halal products will be used to pay the salaries of imams and in building and maintaining mosques. (Photo: file)

Paris: In an attempt to fight radicalisation, an influential French Islamic group has suggested a tax on halal food to fund mosques in the country.

According to reports, the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) mooted the idea in an attempt to reduce the dependence on foreign funding, and has received overwhelming support from the countrys political class.

The idea comes after the French Prime Minister Manuel Valls called for a complete ban on foreign funding for mosques amidst concerns of growing radicalisation. Much of the current funds to run the mosques in France comes form Morocco, Algeria, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, as they are not eligible for state funds.

The money collected by taxing halal products will be used to pay the salaries of imams and in building and maintaining mosques.

Claiming that the idea has existed ever since the founding of the CFCM, Anouar Kbibech, the president of the organisation, said, We have reached the first step with the signing with of a religious framework in the CFCMs halal charter, which defines the criteria of halal in France. In autumn we will discuss the second part, which is the financial contribution of halal organisations to worship.

But there are many who raise questions on the feasibility of such a tax.

Pointing out that it would be legally impossible to alter the tax of any particular religious item, Nathalie Goulet, a French senator who conducted a report on the issue, said, Technically, a halal tax would be impossible to implement because there is no unity around the concept of halal.
London: The sister of one of Britain's six former soldiers jailed in India for carrying unlicensed arms on a ship for anti-piracy security today sought the intervention of new British Prime Minister Theresa May, saying the UK government has "abandoned and betrayed" them.

Lisa Dunn, the sister of Nick Dunn, expressed concerns that the men's mental state is beginning to deteriorate and called for action to secure their release.

"Nick's always maintained that he feels abandoned and betrayed by the government and the country that he once served," she told The Guardian.

"Now we have a new government in place I would like to personally reach out to Theresa May, Boris Johnson (foreign secretary) and Sir Alan Duncan (a Foreign Office minister) and respectfully request that they continue to keep this case at the top of their agendas as we have been assured many times previously," she said.

The men were arrested in 2013 among 35 crew members and sentenced by a Tamil Nadu court to five years in prison in January this year for carrying unlicensed firearms.

They were held while working for an anti-piracy security company protecting commercial ships off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean.

The men, who have been backed by more than 20 British MPs, including former British PM David Cameron, have consistently maintained their innocence and launched an appeal to overturn their sentences.

A petition calling for their release has garnered 375,000 signatures and was delivered by the families of the six former soldiers to Downing Street last week.

Lisa claimed the British government had issued the licenses for the weapons, including semi-automatic G3 assault rifles, which the Indian courts have said are automatic weapons and therefore prohibited.

"I appreciate and understand that the government have spoken to various Indian counterparts over the last nearly three years, but for the evidence that's there it's beyond belief that our government haven't pushed harder," Lisa said.

"They keep saying we've talked with this Indian counterpart, but it was apparent a long, long time ago that talking makes no difference to the Indian authorities. We need more robust action," she added.

She has also claimed the men were suffering in the Indian jail and have to sleep on concrete in cells infested with snakes and rats, using a hole in the ground for a toilet.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said: "Our staff in India and the UK remain in regular contact with all six men and are continuing to support them and their families, working to make sure their welfare is protected in prison.

"We recognise what a difficult time this is for those involved. We cannot interfere with India's independent legal system, just as other countries cannot interfere with ours, but we will continue efforts to make sure this case is resolved swiftly. Ministers will continue to raise this case at the highest levels."
Dubai: Forces loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi launched a new offensive east of the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Saturday, the military command said, after United Nations-sponsored peace talks in Kuwait ended without an agreement.

The offensive, which is backed by air strikes from a Saudi-led coalition, came as the Iran-allied Houthis and the party of ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh announced a 10-member governing council, against the wishes of the UN.

The Houthis and Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC), hold most of Yemen's northern half, while forces loyal to Hadi share control of the rest of the country with local tribes.

The fighting in which more than 6,400 people have been killed, half of them civilians, has created a humanitarian crisis in one of the poorest countries in the Middle East.

Al Qaeda and its militant rival Islamic State have exploited the war to try to recruit more followers and establish roots in the country, which controls major shipping lanes overlooking the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The pro-Hadi sabanew.net news agency said that the Yemeni army and allied local tribesmen, backed by Arab coalition air strikes, began a major operation to "liberate the district of Nehem east of Sanaa". The area is a key route to the capital, which has been under Houthi control since 2014.

"The army and the resistance have managed to liberate a number of important military positions that had been controlled by the coup militias, most prominent of which is the Manara mount which overlooks the centre of Nehem district," the agency quoted a military spokesman as saying.

Fighting was also reported on the Yemeni-Saudi border, where a Saudi border guard was killed by fire directed from the Yemeni side, the Saudi state news agency SPA said, citing a security spokesman.

A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition accused the Houthis of escalating attacks along the border, where the alliance had scaled back its military operations to give the Yemeni peace talks a chance to succeed.

"The militias began military operations along the border after the suspension of the Yemeni consultations," the spokesman, General Ahmed al-Asseri, told the Saudi-owned al-Hadath television, referring to the Houthis. "The Houthi militias are trying to achieve gains on the ground to make up for political losses," he added.

The comments came after the UN special envoy, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed announced that talks in Kuwait had been adjourned, promising they would resume at an unspecified venue within a month.

"We will leave Kuwait today, but peace consultations will continue. We will let the parties consult their leaders," he told a news conference.

Earlier in Sanaa, the Houthi-run sabanews.net news agency published the names of 10 officials it said would be on a political committee to run the country. The parties would rotate the position of president and vice president, who would be chosen from within the committee, the statement said.
Dhaka: Police in the Bangladeshi capital said on Saturday they will assign identity numbers for all Dhaka residents who live in rented houses following the deadly terror attack on a cafe here that killed 22 people.

"Every tenant will have a unique ID number, so police will be able to monitor any shift to other accommodation," said police commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia adding that they were creating a database for tenants, bdnews24.com reported.

The issue came to the fore after revelations that the cafe killers had been staying in a rented apartment before launching the July 1 attack at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan area in which 18 foreigners including a 19-year-old Indian girl were killed.

Three weeks after the terror strike, police came under attack while trying to search an apartment in the capital's Kalaynpur area.

A gun battle erupted when nine suspected militants, who had rented the apartment a few days ago, were shot dead. A North South University teacher has been arrested for not keeping tenant information of an apartment he owned which the Gulshan attackers allegedly used.

Another Dhaka landlord has also been detained for similar charges while the wife of the Kalyanpur building's owner has been also arrested. That led to landlords in the city refusing accommodation to bachelors, according to media reports. Mia said police have initiated measures to create a database of all tenants.
Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency officials arrested Mathew Craig Barrett from an Islamabad guest house, said Sarfaraz Hussain, a spokesman for the country's Interior Ministry. (Representational Image/ AP)

Islamabad: An American citizen who was deported from Pakistan and blacklisted years ago has been arrested upon returning to the country, officials said Saturday.

Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency officials arrested Mathew Craig Barrett from an Islamabad guest house, said Sarfaraz Hussain, a spokesman for the country's Interior Ministry.

He said Barrett was deported in 2011 after being found in the area of a sensitive installation. He did not elaborate but said, "If someone was blacklisted there should have been something serious."

Barrett, a 33-year old Alabama native, was previously arrested May 2011 in the Fateh Jang area near a highly secretive military research facility.

He had lived in Pakistan for four years, married a Pakistani woman and had two children. In media reports and a letter smuggled from jail in 2011 to the Guardian newspaper, Barret strongly denied local suspicions that he was a spy and claimed he was a victim of simmering tensions at the time between the US and Pakistani governments. He was eventually deported and banned from the country.

Hussain said Barrett obtained a visa from the Pakistani consulate in Houston and managed to clear the airport immigration counter. An FIA official said a court has allowed the agency to hold him for three days for investigation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media. He said Barrett mentioned a "family visit" and a one-month intended stay in Islamabad in his travel documents.

US embassy spokesman Christopher Snipes said in a text message that the privacy act "prohibits us from releasing information about American citizens without their consent."

Hussain said the interior minister has ordered a thorough inquiry into how Barrett managed to enter Pakistan again and suspended the airport immigration staff.
The condition of senior RSS leader Brig (retd) Jagdish Gagneja, who was shot at by some bike-borne assailants, was today critical with a specialist team being rushed by the Centre for his treatment.



Police, meanwhile, have found the number of the motorcycle used by the assailants from the CCTV footage of Jyoti Chowk area here where the incident took place yesterday. They are confident of nabbing the assailants soon.



Doctors at a private hospital here conducted a surgery to remove two bullets from Gagneja's stomach. However, a third bullet is still lodged in his body.



"Sah-sarsanghchalak of RSS's Punjab unit Jagdish Gagneja was operated till 2 AM in a private hospital here, after bullets hit his stomach, injuring him critically.



"While two bullets have been removed from his stomach, one is still trapped in his body around the liver," senior BJP leader and local MLA Manoranjan Kalia said.



He said a 'critical care team' is expected to reach by here today after he spoke to Health Minister JP Nadda.



"I have spoken to Union Health Minister JP Nadda and asked him to send a 'critical care team' to ensure better and proper treatment of Gagneja. Nadda has instructed Dr Yogesh Chawla, director PGI, Chandigarh and the team is expected to arrive here today," Kalia said.



He said a team under the leadership of Dr Jaspal from DMC Ludhiana, reached late last night on the orders of the Chief Minister and the operation was conducted under their guidance. His condition is stated to be critical.



Police is looking into the CCTV footage to get some leads on the perpetrators.



"We are examining the CCTV footage at the spot and have found the number of the motorcycle. Two bike-borne assailants, aged around 20, were riding the bike and had covered their faces with a handkerchief. Their heads were covered with black and yellow 'patka' (a headwrap worn traditionally by Sikh boys), Jalandhar Police Commissioner Arpit Shukla said.



Gagneja and his wife had gone shopping to the market when some bike-borne assailants opened fire at him yesterday, injuring him critically.




The death toll from flooding in Macedonia has risen to 20 as heavy rains hit the Balkan country over the past 24 hours, Anadolu reported.

Macedonias Ministry of Interior said on Sunday that 22 people had also been injured in and around the capital, Skopje. Six people remain missing.

Interior Ministry spokeswoman Nataliya Spirova Kordic told Anadolu Agency the authorities had been fearful of a possible increase in the death toll.

Kordic confirmed that the military had been called out to deal with the flooding, which has damaged homes, workplaces and buried cars.

Skopjes municipality will hold an emergency meeting on Sunday afternoon.

*Fatma Bulbul contributed to this story from Istanbul
An elderly couple was killed and six others injured when a two-storey building, which was declared as "most dangerous" by municipal authorities, collapsed in Bhiwandi here this morning, the second such mishap in the powerloom town in a week.



Around 7-8 persons were still feared trapped in the building, officials said.

Eight injured persons were pulled out from the debris of the collapsed building, located on Khadan Road in Hanuman Tekadi locality.



Out of them, the two seriously injured persons, building's owner Sajjanlal Mahadev Gupta (60) and his wife Satyawati Sajjan Gupta (55), died at a hospital, Resident Deputy Collector Vandana Suryavanshi said.



The six others injured were admitted to hospital.



The 35-year-old building, which crashed at around 8 AM, was declared as "most dangerous", according to a release of the Bhiwandi Nizampur Municipal Corporation.



The disaster control teams from Thane and Kalyan were rushed to the spot immediately upon receiving an alert, while local firemen were also pressed into action.



An NDRF team has reached the powerloom town and is carrying out rescue operations with the help of local agencies, Suryavanshi said.



On getting information about the building collapse, Municipal Commissioner E Ravinderan and local tehsildar Vaishali Lambate also rushed to the scene and supervised the rescue operations.



According to a spokesman of the Bhiwandi civic body, the building occupants were earlier served evacuation notices, following which two of the around 5-6 families residing there vacated the place while the others stayed back.



The water connection to the building was snapped when the occupants had refused to vacate and the power supply was also going to be cut soon, the spokesman said.



On July 31, a two-storey residential building had crashed amid heavy rains claiming eight lives, including that of four children and three women, while 10 others were injured.





Thane District Collector Dr Mahendra Kalyankar today ordered Bhiwandi Nizampur Municipal Corporation to immediately evacuate all residents from 'dangerous' buildings in the powerloom town.



The direction comes in the wake of the second building collapse in the town within a week.



Meanwhile, the rescue work of the 42-member NDRF team, which rushed to the town, was hampered due to rains even as search operation was on for at least six persons feared trapped in the building debris, district disaster management cell officer Asmita Nikam.



She also said that the Collector, who reviewed the situation jointly with Municipal Commissioner E Ravinderan, has directed the authorities to issue certificates to the tenants who are evacuated from the dangerous buildings.



This will enable to protect their rights in case of development of such buildings, she said.




A six-year-old girl was decapitated after being hit by a car in South West Delhis Kapashera area on Saturday morning.





The accused who works in a five-star hotel of Dwarka has been arrested.

The incident happened around 7.30 am when the deceased Beeta who lives with her parents in the jhuggis at a DDA horticulture project site was playing on one side of the Dwarka-Link road. While playing she tried to cross the road and was hit by a speeding car.



Even before the driver could apply break, bumper of the speeding car hit the girls head and took it off from her body, said police.



The girls head was severed from her body due to the impact, said a police officer.

Beetas parents who live on the side of the Dwarka-Link road came running to the spot and were shocked to see her daughters headless body lying on road.



Onlookers then called up police and the body was taken to a hospital for post-mortem.

The driver identified as Sachin, 27, was arrested from the spot and a case of rash and negligent driving causing death was registered against him.



Sachin works as a front desk executive at hotel Taj in Dwarka, and was returning from night duty. He lives in South Delhi and police have denied that he was drunk.



Beetas parents hail from Uttar Pradesh and were working at the DDAs horticulture project for the last few months.



Police have sent the body for post-mortem after which the body will be handed over to the parents for the last rites.


Indian journalists, who went to cover the SAARC Home Ministers' conference in Islamabad, had to face hostile Pakistani officials, who not only denied them access to the inaugural function but also barred them from standing at the entrance of the venue where their Interior Minister was to receive dignitaries, leading to tense moments.





The six Indian journalists, who were given visa to travel to Islamabad to cover the event, were flatly refused entry to the inaugural function, which was attended by Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.



The Indian journalists then stood near the entrance of the where Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan was receiving the visiting dignitaries from SAARC countries.



As Pakistani media took position to capture the moment of Home Minister Rajnath Singh's arrival, Indian journalists too joined them. Immediately, Pakistani officials curtly told them to leave the place, saying Indian journalists were not allowed to stand even outside the gate.



When Pakistani officials asked Doordarshan cameraperson R Jayashree Puri and ANI's Ajay Kumar Sharma to remove their cameras, a senior Indian diplomat tried to intervene and protested.



The diplomat hotly argued that Indian journalists be allowed to be near the gate to capture Singh's arrival as Pakistani journalists, video and still camerapersons were present and freely taking shots.



The Pakistani officials made it clear that the Indian journalists have to leave the place immediately, leading to a verbal duel between the diplomat and a Pakistani official.

The Pakistani official even directed some of his juniors to block the view of Indian journalists and soon the reporters and camerapersons were surrounded by several persons, apparently policemen in civvies, making it impossible for them to shoot anything.



This resulted the Indian journalists failing to capture the moment when Singh touched the hands of his Pakistani counterpart, a gesture short of a formal handshake, reflecting the growing chill in the ties between the two countries.



As per SAARC protocol, the inaugural statement by the host country is open to the media while the rest of the proceedings are in camera.



The Pakistani establishment was also circulating information in the local media that Indian Home Minister had visited washroom eight times to make calls to New Delhi when the conference was going on.



The fact is that the washroom was outside the conference hall and the Home Minister used it twice -- once before the formal ministers' meet started after he and his SAARC counterparts had made a courtesy call to Pakistan Prime Sharif and again when the meeting got over.



Besides, Home Minister Singh does not carry a cell phone even while he is in India and, whenever necessary, uses those of his aides.




An American national, who was blacklisted and deported from Pakistan in 2011 after he was allegedly caught spying on sensitive installations, has been arrested after he arrived at the airport here and got clearance from immigration officials.





Matthew Craig Barrett, who was barred from entering the country after being deported on charges of espionage, arrived at Benazir Bhutto International airport in the morning yesterday and was granted entry by the immigration officials.



When it came to the notice of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, he ordered the arrest of Barrett, and suspended immigration officials at the airport for negligence, according to a statement by the ministry.



Barrett was later picked up by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and police officials in a joint raid on a guest house in the capital and an FIR was lodged against him for violation of immigration laws, the statement said.



The Interior Minister has ordered an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the grant of a Pakistani visa to Barrett, the Dawn reported.



A case has also been registered against two FIA immigration officials, Sub-Inspector Raja Asif and his son Ehteshamul Haq. Ehtesham has been arrested, while raids were being conducted to arrest his father, police sources said.



The minister has already suspended an assistant director of the FIA as well as the immigration officials who were on duty when Barrett was cleared by authorities at the airport.



He has also issued directions for the formation of a joint investigation team for a thorough probe into the matter.



The interior ministry said that action would also be initiated against officials at the Pakistani consulate in Houston, who were responsible for issuing a visa to Barrett.



A spokesperson for the US embassy in Islamabad told the daily that the Privacy Act prohibited him from releasing any information about the American citizen without his consent.


In a case of alleged discrimination in the US, a young Muslim woman was fired from her job at a dental clinic for wearing a hijab as her employer wanted to keep a "neutral environment" in office.





Najaf Khan, who was hired as a dental assistant at Fair Oaks Dental Care in Fairfax County, Virginia, said she was fired from the new job because she wore a Muslim head scarf to work.



"I was really upset. The day that it happened, I was devastated," Najaf told NBC Washington.

She did not wear the hijab for her interview or on the first two days of employment. On the third day, she chose to wear it because Najaf felt that she would stay at the job and wearing it was part of her spiritual journey.



At work that day, she said the owner of Fair Oaks Dental Care, Dr Chuck Joo, told her to take off the hijab.



Joo told her that they wanted to keep a "neutral environment" in office. The employer asked her to remove it because the Islamic head scarf would offend patients and he wanted to keep religion out of the office.



Khan said Joo gave her an ultimatum -- she could continue wearing the scarf and be fired or work without it.



"When I said that I would not compromise my religion for that, he held the door open for me and I walked out," Khan said.



Joo was quoted as saying that open displays of religion are not allowed at his business because he wants to keep it neutral. If his employees want to wear a hat, it must be a surgical hat for sanitary reasons, Joo said.



Reacting to the case, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) said, "No employee should face termination because of his or her faith or religious practices. We call on Fair Oaks Dental Care to reinstate the Muslim employee and to offer her reasonable religious accommodation as mandated by law."



Najaf said she would likely refuse an offer to return to the dental office.

"I was astonished because he (boss) had been saying I had been doing so well. I received an email Friday morning (July 29) saying how much positive enthusiasm I was bringing into the dental office," she told Fox News.
A school here has refused to allow recital of the national anthem by students and staff members on Independence Day, claiming that its words violated the tenets of Islam, following which eight teachers, including the principal, have quit in protest against the diktat.





Authorities said that a probe has been launched against M A Convent School based in Baghara locality of the city in the matter and maintained that it was not recognised by the education department.



Zia-ul Haq, the school manager, told the teachers that singing of the national anthem could not be allowed as the phrase 'Bharat Bhagya Vidhata' in its first stanza went against the tenets of Islam, according to the teachers who resigned two days ago.



The manager said that if they were not in agreement with this "policy" of the school, they could leave.



"Most of us have been working here for not a very long time. We were shocked to learn from the management that the school has never allowed the singing of national anthem in the last 12 years.

"Since we had been asked to fall in line or leave, we chose a decision based on our conscience," Ritu Tripathi, who was the principal, said.



The school has around 300 students.

She said, "Seven of my colleagues have put in their papers in protest against this attitude of the school management".



Haq, on his part, stuck to his guns asserting "only Allah can be the Bhagya Vidhata, which means the one who decides our destiny. How can we call Bharat our Bhagya Vidhata?"



The Basic Shiksha Adhikari of Allahabad, Jaikaran Yadav, said, "We are surprised to learn that the school is still running.



"It is not duly recognized by the Basic Shiksha department and we had sent its management a notice to close the institution about a week ago."



He said a probe is on in the matter and action will be taken as per law.

"The reported refusal to allow singing of national anthem would amount to yet another offence on part of the school's management," he said.



"We have initiated a probe into the matter. If the allegations levelled against the management are found to be true, action will be taken in accordance with the law," Yadav said.


As he denounced cow vigilantism, Modi also pitched for protection of the animal, held holy by Hindus.



"Cow will never become a burden. Cow urine and dung are used in agriculture," he said, adding that cow should be linked to the country's economic development.



India is a land of diversity, he said, adding "protecting our country's unity and integrity is our primary responsibility. To fulfil it all countrymen should protect and serve cows (gau raksha and gau seva karein). Such service enhances national wealth.... it does not create problem for the nation".



"But fake (cow protectors) destroy society and country. We need to beware of these people. There is a need to punish these people. Then alone can we take the nation to great heights," the Prime Minister said.



Notwithstanding Modi's criticism of the vigilantes, the opposition termed it as "absolutely humbug", alleging that his ideological co-travellers were perpetrating "terror" in the name of cow protection.



Congress leader Manish Tewari questioned Modi's "silence" on the Dadri lynching incident last year and alleged that the PM was selective in his outreach.



"..why does he not prevail upon RSS to disband the VHP, why does he not take action against the office bearers of Bajrang Dal?



"Therefore it is his ideological co-travellers who have been perpetrating this spectre of uncertainty and terror in the name of cow lumpenism across the country, thereby whatever the Prime Minister says today is absolutely humbug and completely sanctimonious," Tewari said.



Echoing similar sentiments, JD(U) leader Pavan Verma said had the PM given a stern message earlier, the "menace" of gau rakshaks could have been prevented.



"If the Prime Minister had given the same message earlier, we would not have seen this menace of gau rakshaks spreading pan India. But he choose to keep silent although he tweets on any other subject under the sun. Breaking the silence is welcome, the only question is why so late," he said.



CPI leader D Raja also crticised the ruling dispensation stating there were issues on which people expect the PM to speak, including, increasing atrocities on dalits.



"Why has the PM not uttered a single word against the atrocities committed in his own state Gujarat?" he asked.



BJP, however, defended Modi's statement and said the opposition attack was a "classic book example of political bankruptcy".



"There cannot be more direct censure by the Prime Minister in expressing his displeasure to what anti-social elements are doing in the name of 'Gau Raksha'," BJP National Secretary Sidharth Nath Singh said.



Prime Minister Narendra Modi today came down heavily on the perpetrators of violence on dalits, telling them, "if you have to attack, attack me" but stop attacking "my Dalit bretheren".Facing increasingly bruising opposition assault on him and BJP over attacks on Dalits and on the issue of cow vigilantes, Modi also lashed out at "fake cow protectors", denouncing them for the second day running for trying to create "tension and conflict" in the society and asking the states to take stringent action against them.Making an emotional appeal at a meeting of BJP workers in Hyderabad, Modi asked people to protect and respect Dalits who have for long been neglected by the society.Questioned repeatedly over his 'silence' on the sensitive issue of attacks on Dalits by alleged Hindu right-wingers, Modi said, "I would like to tell these people that if you have any problem, if you have attack, attack me. Stop attacking my Dalit brethren. If you have to shoot, shoot me, but not my Dalit brothers. This game should stop."Modi's choice of Hyderabad to denounce the attacks on Dalits was significant as his government had come under opposition fire following the suicide by a Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula in the city which had triggered campus unrest in several parts of the country.Modi said at times some incidents come to notice which give us "unbearable pain". "It should be our responsibility to save and respect them (Dalits)," he said without referring to any particular incident.Modi asked what right the perpetrators had to exploit Dalits and said the unity in society should be our priority."I know this problem is social. It is a result of sins which have crept into the society... But we need to take extra care and save society from such danger (of social strife)," he said. Modi said the society should not be allowed to be divided on the basis of caste, religion and social status.Deprecating those who try to make political currency out of such issues, the Prime Minister said attempts to politicize those would only aggravate the problem."Those who want to solve this social problem, I request them to leave politics that divides the society. Divisive politics will not do any good to the country," he said.Earlier in the day. the prime minister took on cow vigilantes at a public meeting in Gajwel in Telangana after laying the foundation stones for a raft of development projects."I want to tell everybody beware of these fake cow protectors. These handful of vigilantes have nothing to do with cow protection, but want to create 'tanaav' (tension) and 'takrav' (conflict) in the society," Modi said."In the name of cow protection, these fake cow protectors are trying to disturb the peace and harmony of the nation. I want the real cow protectors to expose them (fake ones) and the state governments should take stringent action against them," he added.In his first public denouncement of cow vigilantes, some of whom flogged dalits in Gujarat for skinning a dead cow, Modi yesterday said in Delhi he felt enraged at such "anti-social elements" who indulged in crimes by the night and masqueraded as cow protectors by the day.
The Opposition today termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement against cow vigilantes as "absolutely humbug", alleging that his ideological co-travellers were perpetrating "terror" in the name of cow protection.





Congress leader Manish Tewari questioned Modi's "silence" on the Dadri lynching incident last year and alleged that the PM was selective in his outreach.



"..why does he not prevail upon RSS to disband the VHP, why does he not take action against the office bearers of Bajrang Dal?



"Therefore it is his ideological co-travellers who have been perpetrating this spectre of uncertainty and terror in the name of cow lumpenism across the country, thereby whatever the Prime Minister says today is absolutely humbug and completely sanctimonious," Tewari said.



Echoing similar sentiments, JD(U) leader Pavan Verma said had the PM given a stern message earlier, the "menace" of gau rakshaks could have been prevented.



"If the Prime Minister had given the same message earlier, we would not have seen this menace of gau rakshaks spreading pan India. But he choose to keep silent although he tweets on any other subject under the sun. Breaking the silence is welcome, the only question is why so late," he said.



CPI leader D Raja also crticised the ruling dispensation stating there were issues on which people expect the PM to speak, including, increasing atrocities on dalits.



"Why has the PM not uttered a single word against the atrocities committed in his own state Gujarat?" he asked.



BJP, however, defended Modi's statement and said the opposition attack was a "classic book example of political bankruptcy".



"There cannot be more direct censure by the Prime Minister in expressing his displeasure to what anti-social elements are doing in the name of 'Gau Raksha'," BJP National Secretary Sidharth Nath Singh said.



He said since the opposition has nothing against the Prime Minister, it wanted to hide its failures and indulged in pointing fingers at the Centre.



In his first public denouncement of cow vigilantes, some of whom flogged dalits in his home state Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had yesterday said he felt enraged at such "anti-social elements" who indulged in crimes by the night and masqueraded as cow protectors by the day.
Four persons have been detained in connection with the rape of a four-year-old Dalit girl in Kheda village here even as the family of the victim alleged delayed action by the police, which rejected the charge.





Circle Officer Praveen Ranjan said that four persons had been detained in connection with the incident that occurred on Friday night and were being quizzed.



Police also rejected allegations of delayed action.



"After the girl's father made a call at 100 number, the police reached the spot within 10 minutes. The SHO was informed, and he reached there immediately," Superintendent of Police Alankrita Singh said, adding that victim got timely medical attention due to the officers.



The condition of the girl, who was admitted in a hospital in Meerut, is stated to be stable.

The girl's father, however, said that they found her at 11.45 PM and the police came several hours later. She was admitted in hospital only at 7 AM yesterday.



Recalling the horror, a relative of the girl said she and her sister were sleeping outside the house when the incident occurred. "I told my husband to bring them inside as it had started drizzling, but he said that the girl was not there. We frantically looked for her in the house and outside. Later, we found her in a field," he said.



Police said that only one accused was involved and it was not a gangrape.



Angered by the incident, villagers had blocked the NH-24 yesterday.



The incident comes even as the Uttar Pradesh Government has come under flak over a string of rape incidents, including the gangrape of a woman and her daughter who were dragged out of their car by the accused on National Highway-91 in Bulandshahr.



Hapur is around 65 km from Delhi.
After walking free from jail, expelled BJP leader Dayashankar Singh today fired a fresh salvo at Mayawati claiming she "auctioned" tickets and dared her to fight against his wife on any unreserved seat in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections next year.



Singh demanded that a CBI inquiry be ordered into the allegations against Mayawati or else he would file a PIL on the issue.





The leader, who was arrested for allegedly making derogatory comments against the BSP chief last month, was today released from Mau jail, a day after a local court granted him bail.



He was nabbed by UP Special Task Force with the help of Bihar Police from Buxar on July 29 after being on the run for nine days.



After his release from the jail this morning, Dayashankar paid obeisance at a temple and soon left for Lucknow, where he addressed a press conference.



"I am firm on my statement that Mayawati sells tickets. At that time I used a word, over which I expressed regret the very same day," he said.



Singh threw a challenge at the BSP supremo to contest election against his wife from any seat.



"I challenge Mayawati to select any unreserved seat and contest elections against my wife. The BSP leader will come to know the reality when she loses," he said.



Singh also demanded a CBI probe into alleged "auctioning" of party tickets for elections.

The former BJP state vice-president said, "My party removed me from the post and expelled me, but it failed to satisfy Mayawati and an FIR was lodged against me."



He said that on July 21, BSP workers led by senior BSP leaders Naseemduddin Siddiqui and Ram Achal Rajbhar, targeted his elderly mother, minor daughter and wife and used derogatory language against them.



"While police launched a man-hunt against me as if I was Dawood, the BSP leaders, who used derogatory language are roaming freely, despite the Chief Minister's statement condemning the remarks made by them," he said.



"I will file a PIL seeking a CBI probe. Mayawati is the 'mother' of corruption," he alleged and also targeted her brother and Siddiqui.



Asked about BSP's stand that it will challenge the bail order in the High Court, Dayashankar earlier said in Mau, "I accept all the challenges of BSP. I will not talk much. I am going to Lucknow to meet my daughter, ailing mother and family members."



Ahead of his release, a number of supporters and BJP workers from Mau and neighbouring districts gathered outside the jail premises.



Singh said that BJP has expelled him, but he has not distanced himself from the party.



"I have been associated with the RSS and BJP for a very long time. It is in my veins," he said.



The FIR against Singh was registered on July 20 under the the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and other provisions.



The complaint, which was lodged by BSP national secretary Mewalal Gautam, alleged that Singh's remarks in Mau on July 20 had hurt the feelings of BSP workers and the Dalit community across the country and were aimed at provoking them.



Singh said that the CM was also in a "double mind", as he was afraid that action against Siddiqui would affect the Muslim vote bank.



He said in Mau, he was kept like any other prisoner.



Singh wife, Swati Singh said that while media supported her all through, there was no cooperation from police and administration.



"The day Siddiqui was provoking BSP workers, the DM and the SSP were present on the spot. Later when I asked them to examine the CD, I was told that there were other issues of priority," she said.
Russias Paralympic team will not be allowed to compete at the Paralympic Games in Brazils Rio de Janeiro, President of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Philip Craven told a news conference on Sunday, TASS reported.

He said the decision was taken following thorough scrutiny of the notorious McLaren report on doping abuses in Russia. The Russian side, in his words, has failed to prove its stance.

So, he said the IPC has decided to suspend the Russian Paralympic Committees (RPC) membership and hence ban the Russia team from the Paralympic Games.
It is said that food brings the world together but to have someone from another part of the world come to a place because of food might just be the first.





Bert Mueller flew from Maryland, Washington DC to India four-and-a-half years ago with two other business partners to start the fast food chain California Burrito.



He says, I like to call Bengaluru the America of India. We had to do a lot of

research before we made this decision as we wanted to understand our customers better. Obviously, Indian cooking is different from American and we had to incorporate those flavours into the food that we wanted to produce. India is a growing place and we saw a great potential for the fast food industry here.



Though hes used to the citys lifestyle now, Bengaluru wasnt his first stop in India. He studied in Jaipur a few years ago as a part of his course in college.



He says, Jaipur was my first experience with Indian culture. I had very little knowledge about the place; it was different to find so many people in one spot and yet working well. I lived with an Indian family back then and I found more people under the same roof than I have ever seen before  that was a bit of a shock for me.



But he says that if he didnt like the country, he probably wouldnt have considered coming back. I didnt find it hard to adjust to the lifestyle here. I was open to trying new things. If I did find it difficult, I would have gone back by now, he says with a laugh.



Talking about his life back home, he says that it was just like anyone elses. He explains, I lived in the suburban section of the place and everything was organised and peaceful there. Some people might actually find it dull but that was where I grew up and I have no complaints.



When his family and friends visit Bengaluru, he likes taking them on a drive around the city, visiting Lalbagh and going to Kerala or Puducherry. His work keeps him busy and he doesnt get more than a week off.



Even though Im the boss of my company, there are certain things that I need to attend to. But its great to know that I can start work whenever I want, he says with a smile.

Whenever he decides to not work, he loves going to Nandi Hills or exploring places outside the city.



Ask him why he doesnt spend time in the city and he says, Im in the city

most of the time anyway. I think I need to balance that by going out sometimes.

If theres one thing that hed like to take from Bengaluru to Maryland, he says it would be biryani. He shares, I love Hyderabadi biryani. Its spicy and amazing. I think we need to have a branch of this back home. Even though many might think that Americans cant take spice, Id like to believe at least 30 percent of us can.



One of his other favourite restaurants is Chung Wah. Bert is also trying his hand at Indian dishes like dal tadka and bread omelette.



And what about American food here? I think the demand for American food isnt all that much here so there arent a lot of great places that serve the kind of food that I want. If I am craving for it, I prefer to go for a brunch at a hotel  they serve authentic food that I like, he says.



He wishes that the potholes in the city would be fixed properly.



He says, If theres one thing that I would like to change about this place, it would be the infrastructure. The potholes would also need to be fixed properly so that we wouldnt have to struggle while travelling.



However, he is happy to call Bengaluru home now. Everytime I fly back to Bengaluru, I have a feeling that Ive reached home. The people here are very nice and welcoming. I havent faced any problems and I hope it continues that way.



With my swalpa Kannada and knowledge of body languages, I think I fit in here quite well, he says with a smile.


The Jet Airways on Sunday launched its direct flight to Sharjah from the Mangaluru International Airport (MIA).





As many as 158 passengers travelled in the flight from Mangaluru at 9.30 am. The flight will reach Sharjah at 11.45 am (local time).



It will leave Sharjah at 12.45 pm (local time) and arrive at the Mangaluru Airport at 5.55 pm.



This is the third flight of Jet Airways to the United Arab Emirates. The Jet Airways had started its direct flight to Dubai in 2013 and Abu Dhabi in 2015.



A press release said that the addition of this new service will bolster Jet Airways offering to the Gulf market, further strengthening the airlines growing network and significantly enhance connectivity for guests.



Additionally, with a large number of Indians travelling from Mangaluru to Gulf, Jet Airways has expanded the connectivity options from various cities across India to Gulf.



Jet Airways Whole-time Director Gaurang Shetty said, It is indeed a proud moment for Jet Airways to launch the flight between Mangaluru and Sharjah. We are confident that our approach to provide direct global linkages with emerging Indian metros, will be popular to those living in these cities and Indians working in the Gulf and beyond. With economic ties between the India and Gulf region flourishing, Jet Airways recognises the need to provide connectivity options to its guests.



The airline will deploy Boeing 737-800 Next Generation (NG) aircraft on this route.



The Jet Airways currently operates 11 daily direct flights from India each to Dubai

and Abu Dhabi.



District-in-Charge Minister B Ramanath Rai, Minister for Food and Civil Supplies U T Khader, MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, Mangaluru Airport Director J T Radhakrishna and others participated in the inaugural function.
The political crisis in Nepal following the Communist Party of Nepal  United Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML)-led governments loss of majority and the consequent resignation of Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli has been defused somewhat with the swearing in of a new government led by the Communist Part of Nepal-Maoist Centres (CPN-MC) Pushpa Kamal Dahal (better known as Prachanda) and supported by the Nepali Congress. Many in Nepal and outside are hoping that the new coalition will give the country the political stability it so badly needs. The Maoists and the NC have worked together before; it was their cooperation that provided the foundation for the grand alliance that ended the civil war in Nepal in 2006 and its emergence as a secular republic in 2008. However, their relationship over the past two decades has been defined more by hostility than friendship. It was an NC-led government that was the target of much of the decade-long Maoist insurgency. In May this year, when Prachanda and NC chief Sher Bahudur Deuba were working together to bring down the Oli government, Prachanda ditched Deuba at the eleventh hour, leaving the latter embarrassed. Thus, there is little love lost between the two; how long this coalition will survive the ambitions of individual leaders is open to question.



This is Prachandas second stint as prime minister. When he took over the reins in 2008, he had little experience in working within a democratic system, which contributed to his quick exit. He has acquired that experience since. Decisions based on consensus are likely to provide his government with more longevity and stability. Nepal faces several challenges which deserve his immediate attention. Post-earthquake reconstruction needs to be expedited and fulfilling the federalist aspirations of the Madhesis, Janajatis and Tharus should be a priority. Failure to do so will plunge Nepal in unrest again.



Prachandas relations with Nepals giant neighbours will be closely watched. Olis anti-India nationalism and steering of Nepal on a clearly pro-China path understandably raised concern in Delhi. His exit was, therefore, widely welcomed in India. Prachanda, who has a long history of hostility towards India, has reportedly moved closer to Delhi over the past few months and his taking over the reins in Nepal has triggered hope of better ties in India. While Nepals need to balance relations with India and China is understandable, it could be more sensitive to Indias security concerns just as Delhi should be more mindful of Nepals sovereignty. The change of guard in Kathmandu gives both sides an opportunity to improve bilateral relations. The Narendra Modi government must act swiftly and sensitively to win back Nepals friendship.




The 7,700 Indians who have been stranded without pay, benefits or food in Saudi Arabia are victims of the meltdown in the kingdom's construction industry. Thousands of Pakistanis and Filipinos have also been affected. Among the stricken firms are Arabtec Construction, Saudi Oger, Saudi Bin Ladin Group and half a dozen other major employers of Asian labour.





Saudi construction firms are plagued with cash flow problems due to a decision by Riyadh to suspend contracts on government projects during the third quarter of 2015 while preparing for a new economic plan, dubbed Vision 2030, conceived by Deputy Crown Prince Muhammad bin Sultan, the kings favourite son and presumptive heir. Companies dealing in all manner of goods and services and construction firms have downsized and laid off workers, including Saudis afflicted with high unemployment.



Some contractors have received small amounts of cash, others may be fobbed off with promissory notes. To make matters worse, Riyadh has decided that the government workers would be given priority while labourers hired by contractors would be the last to be paid.



Saudi Bin Laden has laid off 70,000 of its 2,00,000 workers while 31,000 Saudi and foreign employees out of 50,000 at Saudi Oger have lodged complaints with the labour ministry about non-payment of salaries for seven months. Four thousand of them are Indians.



The steep fall in the price of oil during the summer of 2014 has had a dramatic impact on the economy of Saudi Arabia as 90% of government revenue comes from oil exports. Economic growth slowed to 3.4% in 2015 and is expected to fall to 1.1% this year.



During 2015, the kingdoms budget deficit soared to 15% of the GDP and the International Monetary Fund estimated that the kingdom needed the price of a barrel of oil to rise to $106 to equalise expenditures with revenues. With the price hovering around $40 a barrel and falling, Riyadh may have to rely on selling foreign exchange reserves which had been reduced from $746 billion in August 2014 to $646 billion by January this year, creating concern in Riyadh that reserves could be depleted in five years.



To deal with the crisis, the kingdom has promised reforms to reduce dependency on oil and issued an austerity budget which no other country would consider to be austere. The main cuts were in construction projects, explaining the layoffs. Riyadh has made no move to increase petrol prices, impose income tax or reduce billions of dollars paid to hundreds of luxu-ry-living royals. The value added tax is to be introduced in 2018.



The kingdom has also increased its defence budget to 87.2 billion, a rise of $5.3 billion over 2015, continued its war in neighbouring Yemen at a cost of $5.2 during last year and maintained financial and arms support for jihadi insurgents in Syria. Riyadh carries on with cheque book diplomacy by pr-oviding funds of cash-strapped Arab regimes and other allies.



To raise revenue, Riyadh did not cut oil exports thereby decreasing the oil glut and increasing the price. Instead, Saudi Arabia cut the price to Asian consumers and continued to export at about 7.5 million barrels a day with the aim of maintaining its market share as political rival Iran's oil exports grew by 25% and Iraq and Russia boosted exports.



No roadmap

Prince Muhammad bin Sultan's Vision 2030 aims at reducing the government's dependence on oil exports and raise non-oil exports to 50% but the hastily drafted plan does not provide a roadmap for reaching that target. A carefully considered plan drawn up by professional planners was scrapped.



Furthermore, the country does not possess a progressive administration capable of implementing reforms or the infrastructure or legal system to support change.

The suspension of ongoing construction projects demonstrates that the prince and his father do not seem to know where they are going since cancelling construction on projects will entail waste while resuming work on others could raise costs, particularly if skilled Asian workers leave the country and are reluctant to return to the kingdom due to uncertainty.



Failing to deliver promised reforms could endanger the Saudi monarchy by raising and then dashing expectations of the 15-24 year-olds who demand secure, well-paying jobs in the public sector rather than lower salaried work in the private sector.



Visitors to Saudi Arabia have encountered Saudis working in fast food outlets but service jobs are unlikely to attract many Saudi youths. Asian construction workers do not have to worry about being supplanted by Saudis who are not prepared to work in hot, harsh desert conditions.



Experts warn "Vision 2030" must provide a costly welfare safety net for Saudis unable to find employment or unwilling to take up available jobs. If Riyadh fails to provide jobs and a safety net, there could be tribal unrest as well as recruitment of youths by Islamic State and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula which seek to overthrow the monarchy.


Sleuths of the Central Crime Branch (CCB) of Bengaluru police raided a club in Indiranagar after Saturday midnight, arrested 31 people and detained 180 others for gambling. They also seized Rs 8.45 lakh in cash and transaction tokens valued at Rs 10.55 lakh.





The CCB said the raid at Rockets club was conducted around 1 am following a tip-off. The organisers had taken money online and permitted gambling. The customers could either come to the club for gambling or participate online. The organisers would serve them liquor till early morning. Among those who took part in gambling were software engineers, students and businessmen. A case has been registered at the jurisdictional JB Nagar police station.
The crowd-puller on the second day of Bengaluru Poetry Festival was undoubtedly the session by actor, writer and composer Piyush Mishra of Gangs of Wasseypur fame.





The hall in Leela Palace was packed as Mishra recited from his latest book Kuch Ishq Kiya Kuch Kaam Kiya, poems on love, restiveness and his battle with alcoholism. The audience could not get enough of Mishra and his candid sense of humour. Everyone cheered enthusiastically as Mishra sang his most famous songs, Aarambh Hai Prachand from Gulal and Husna from Coke Studio. He advised youngsters to not fall into the trap of alcoholism as it affects the family and friends too. Mishra added, I was like an unguided missile before, without an aim. But in the past six years, peace has been my source of creativity.

In a session titled Words Without Borders, poets discussed the difficulty of translating poems from one language to another while maintaining the meter and rhythm of the work.



Rakhshanda Jalil, who writes in English, Hindi and Urdu spoke about how translating poems from Urdu to English often results in dangling sentences which sound incomplete. A Bengali translation of Lewis Carolls Jabberwocky by Satyajit Ray titled Jaborkhaaki was recited, eliciting laughs from those in the audience who understood the language.



Bengaluru-based writer Anjum Hasan read a few poems from her book Bangalore Diaries which she described as an attempt to capture the experience of living in this city in a direct, simple, yet poetic language. Her prose-poems talk about things that Bengalureans could relate to, like the rush at City Railway Station, the wedding hoardings on Palace Road with different names but the same wedding every day.



Poets seek inspiration in unexpected sources. The ideas for most of the poems in Anand Thakores upcoming book Seven Deaths and Four Scrolls, came to him from newspaper articles. Based on a report about the hanging of Ajmal Kasab, Thakore imagined the poverty Kasabs family might have lived in, in Faridkot, Pakistan, and wrote a moving poem on it.



Subodh Sankar, co-founder of Atta Galatta and organiser, said, The response we got is exhilarating. We expected about 600 people to turn up on the first day but instead we had nearly 1,500 participants and on the second day about 1,200 participants. Bengaluru is a great city for poetry and with great encouragement from all who participated, Shankar says that BPF will definitely be back, bigger and better, next year.


A 29-year-old city-based electrical engineer was killed in a landslide on the Banganga-Ardhkuwari road while returning to the base camp at Ardhkuwari after visiting Vaishno Devi shrine on August 6. His body is expected to arrive in Bengaluru on Sunday night.





Shashidhar Nagaraj, a resident of Jayanagar 9th Block, along with seven of his friends, had gone on a pilgrimage to Amarnath. But due to the curfew in Srinagar, they changed their plan to a trip to Vaishno Devi temple, Punjab and Rajasthan and other places.



Sanjay, a banker who is part of the group, reached the city on Sunday. He told Deccan Herald, Eight of us planned a 10-day trip. We initially decided to go to Amarnath and had booked our air tickets to Srinagar. On calling up airport officials in Srinagar, they informed us about the curfew. Since it was risky to travel there late in the night, we changed our plans.



Flights were again booked for Delhi, from where they proceeded to the Vaishno Devi temple by train.



On August 4, we reached Delhi and took a train to the shrine. On August 5, we visited the shrine without any hassles. As we were descending, it started raining heavily. Shashidhar and Santosh were a little behind us, while the other six of us walked ahead. The rain got heavier and we decided to go to the base camp, as it was already late night. Shashidhar and Santosh took shelter midway, as they were carrying expensive electronic gadgets, Sanjay said.



Huge boulders along with mud started sliding down and Shashidhar disappeared. Santosh escaped with minor injuries. On August 6, when Santosh came down, we got to know that Shashidhar had died in the landslide.



The message was sent to his parents and the authorities concerned in Delhi, who made arrangements for the body to be flown back on Sunday. His parents rushed to Jammu on Saturday. Officials said Shashidhar was the only earning member of the family, while his father retired from KSRTC a month ago.
Vijay Rupani, known for his exceptional organisational skills, on Sunday succeeded Anandiben Patel as the chief minister of Gujarat.



Born on August 2, 1956, in Rangoon, Burma (now Myanmar) to Ramniklal Rupani, he grew up in Rajkot where he joined RSS as a school boy. Later, he pursued BA and then LLB. Coming from the Jain Bania community, Rupani did strike a few deals as a stockbroker before moving to politics.



Rupani, known for his closeness to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah, was active in the Jan Sangh and was said to be one of the youngest leaders to be jailed during the Emergency under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA).



Active in politics since 1987, Rupani learnt his initial lessons from BJP stalwart who hailed from Saurashtra, the late Chimanbhai Shukla. The same year, Rupani was elected as a councillor in the Rajkot Municipal Corporation, and the mayor in 1996. He served as a Rajya Sabha member between 2006 and 2012.



Simultaneously, he was made BJP in charge of the Saurashtra-Kutch region. The party won 40 of the 58 seats from the region. In the 2012 Assembly elections, he consolidated his position nationally by helping Modi form the government for the third time in Gujarat.



When Vajubhai Vala, another Saurashtra strongman from Rajkot, was appointed as Karnataka governor in 2014, Rupani replaced him as legislator of Rajkot West. In November 2015, he was inducted in the Anandiben Cabinet and was handed the surface transport, water resources and labour-employment portfolios.



In February 2016, Rupani was hand-picked by Shah to take over as state party chief at a time when social unrest against the party was out in the open.



The party had also witnessed one of its worst defeats when it lost the elections to the local self-government bodies in rural Gujarat to the Congress. Despite the partys one-man, one-post norm, Rupani was party president and a minister simultaneously.



Rupani is married to Anjali and has a son and daughter. His son, Rushabh, is an engineering graduate, while his daughter, Radhika, is married and settled in London.


Turkeys post-coup attempt Democracy and Martyrs Rally will mark a fresh chapter in history, the leader of the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) said Sunday, Anadolu reported.

Devlet Bahceli praised the popular resistance to the July 15 attempted coup in his speech at Yenikapi Square in Istanbul.

I watch Turkey beaming with pride, there is faith here, will here, he said. A new voyage begins from Yenikapi.

He added: People stood tall, taught a lesson to the traitors and terrorists of the July 15 coup bid.

Bahceli, who controls the Turkish parliaments fourth party, said the attempted coup was a fresh attempt to invade, carry out a massacre and destroy Turkey.

He called the Fetullah Terrorist Organization, which is held responsible for the coup attempt, a cancer and called on Turks to unite against the coup plotters.

The leaders of two other political parties -- the Justice and Development (AK) Party and the Republican Peoples Party (CHP) -- are also due to address the crowd, as is President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The management of a private school in Uttar Pradeshs Allahabad town, about 200 km from here, has termed the National Anthem as un-Islamic and banned its playing on Independence Day.



Taking the matter seriously the administration ordered closure of the school and also lodged an FIR against the management.



According to reports, the management of the junior high school claimed that the ban was imposed after objection from Muslim parents.



The manager of M A Convent school Zia-ul-Haq said that some lines in the National Anthem are un-Islamic and therefore cannot not be sung by Muslim students.



No Anthem in past 12 yrs



The line...Bharat Bhagya Vidhata....is un-Islamic...for Muslims only the Allah (Almighty) is their Bhagya Vidhata and no one else....Bharat is our country, Haq said.



He said that the National Anthem has not been played in the school for the past 12 years. Haq also said that children are not permitted to chant Vande Mataram as it might hurt the sentiments of Muslim parents. As many as eight teachers and the principal of the school have resigned in protest against the ban.



The manager, however, claimed that the teachers, who had left, had some other issues with the management.



It is shocking...when we protested were told that we could leave, said Rachana Devi, the principal of the school. Incidentally, the school has both Hindu and Muslim students on its rolls.



District education department officials said that the school was not recognised by the government and that a notice had also been served to its management in this regard.



The Uttar Pradesh government has ordered a probe into the matter. Banning the National Anthem is a serious matter...we will probe into the matter and take action against the management, said a senior district official in Allahabad.



BJP demands probe into ban



The BJP on Sunday demanded a probe into reports about the ban on singing of the National Anthem in a private school in Uttar Pradesh, DHNS reports from New Delhi. In an effort to corner the Samajwadi Party (SP) government, the saffron party claimed no action was taken against the school management as it enjoyed the support of a senior minister of the Akhilesh Yadav government.
Almost four weeks after Union Minister of State for Communications (Independent charge) Manoj Sinha launched the distribution of Gangajal (holy Ganga water) from the GPO, Patna, there is now a dearth of holy water in the post offices of the state capital.





The scarcity of Ganga water is being attributed, ironically, to heavy rain in Uttarakhand, as it has become increasingly difficult to fill the bottles due to heavy rain/floods in the hilly state. No one in the post offices here has any idea when the supply of Gangajal will be restored.



Gangajal was being sourced at Gangotri and Rishikesh (Uttarakhand) and made available (in bottles) to anyone who wanted it for religious purposes. The decision to sell Gangajal from the GPO was earlier taken when Ravi Shankar Prasad was the communications minister.



The idea was to boost the sagging economy of post-offices. Under this plan, a separate shop named Post Shoppe was launched on the GPO campus, where anyone could buy Gangajal. Of late, due to heavy floods following torrential rain in Uttarakhand, the process to collect pristine water from the origins of Ganga has been adversely affected.


Siman Chandramani was one of the brave hearts of Malom, a lush green village with widespread paddy fields on the outskirts of Manipurs capital Imphal.





In 1988, he won the National Bravery Award for saving the life of his younger brother who was drowning in a pond. Chandramani wanted to serve the nation by joining the armed forces, but as irony had it, he was shot dead by Assam Rifles troopers along with 9 others, including his own elder brother Siman Robinson, on November 2, 2000. Chandramani was only 17 when he died.



This massacre brought nondescript Malom to the limelight and triggered a non-violent protest. This was the incident that triggered the then 28- year-old Irom Sharmila Chanu to start a hunger strike protest against AFSPA. It took 15 long years of legal battle before the Manipur High Court ruled in favour of the victims families and asked Assam Rifles to pay a compensation of 5 lakh each to the victims. But this is no justice. The latest decision of the Supreme Court asking the government to probe fake encounters in Manipur has given us hope for proper justice and perhaps withdrawal of AFSPA said T Somarendra, an intellectual, who lost his son T Shanti Kumar Singh.



It was on November 4, 2000, that Sharmila started her hunger strike against AFSPA after the Malom massacre. She was not from this village but she stood for us, for the people of Manipur and sacrificed her personal life to fight against AFSPA. For us, she is even bigger than a statesman, and far beyond the politicians. Her decision to join politics has shocked us a bit, and we do not think politics can yield her ultimate goal of repeal of AFSPA 76-year-old Somarendra added.



But the people of Malom are ready to support her. Malom particularly owes it to Sharmila. For us, she is a family member. We have always stood by her cause. We will support her decision. She has given 16- years of her prime life. We have to respect that said Sinam Kamal, a local.


Manipurs iconic anti-AFSPA crusader Irom Sharmila Chanus decision to quit the 16-year-long fast has much to do beyond the possible influence of her love interest.





Even as the state has started the countdown to August 9, the date announced by the 44-year-old to quit her fast, rumbles in Sharmilas close quarters suggest that her decision also has political imprints.



A local said, In Imphal, ask anyone on the streets, they will tell you who Desmond Coutinho is. The Goa-born British national supposedly fell in love with Sharmila after being pen pals for a while. The locals see him as the man and mind behind the decision. Some even labelled him as an agent of the intelligence agencies.



We were totally baffled when she announced that she will quit the protest and join politics. With Manipur elections around in a years time, our reading is that a political design is behind this, said a young human rights activist from Imphal on condition of anonymity. The activists, who are closely associated with her protest, said that many political parties are approaching other close aides of Sharmila to join them. It is not like political parties are making a beeline, but almost all people closely associated to her have been approached subtly. There is certainly more to what meets the eye, the activist added.



However, DH could not independently verify these claims from Sharmilas side since she is inaccessible and is under arrest, lodged in a special ward of the JNIMS where she has been force-fed by nose for 16 long years. On July 27, Sharmila, during a routine appearance at a local Imphal court, told the media that she is going to withdraw her fast on August 9 and plans to contest the 2017 Assembly polls as an independent candidate, and also wished to marry and settle down.



Sharmila had claimed that she has taken the decision to re-strategise her fight against AFSPA. I am surprised a bit with the decision. Her fight is second to none and as a family, we have always supported her fight, her brother Irom Singhajit told DH.



We are also worried about her health. For 16 years she has taken no food. I have been speaking to doctors to know how this would affect her health, Singhajit added.


The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has removed encroachments on three rajakaluves (feeder drains) in the city and reclaimed the land.



The engineering staff of the BDAs northern division identified a rajakaluve adjacent to land in survey numbers 77/1 and 77/9 of Jakkur village and removed a compound built on the drain.



The rajakaluve was opened up for 50 metres. This team was led by B K Pavithra, Engineer Officer (North).



In another operation, the engineering staff of the agencys southern division identified a rajakaluve in survey number 13 of Mallasandra village, Bengaluru North taluk, and removed the weeds and opened the drain for 200 metres.



Engineer Officer (South) Shivashankar led this operation.



In the third operation, the staff in the eastern division identified a rajakaluve in survey numbers 51 and 52 and removed the encroachments. Ramendra, Engineer Officer (East), oversaw this drive.



The encroachments were cleared after surveying the area and demarcating the boundaries.



The drive was monitored by engineers, land acquisition officers, surveyors and special task force members, along with the jurisdictional police. BDA officials said encroachments on other drains would be removed in the coming days.



Apartment repair



BDA engineers on Sunday held a meeting with flat allottees in Halagevaderahalli and directed the contractor concerned to repair the apartment block within a month.



BDA Commissioner Rajkumar Khatri had visited the complex last week and residents had complained to him about leaking roofs.



On the commissioners instruction, a team of engineers, finance members and representatives of the construction company visited the complex and inspected the building.



After meeting the allottees, the BDA team asked the contractor to take up the required repair.



It was also instructed to provide additional waterproof coating after the monsoon.


Bengalurus civic authorities on Sunday continued the demolition and eviction of 32 properties that had encroached on stormwater drains.



On Saturday, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) had begun the drive at three places  Avani Sringeri Nagar in Bommanahalli, Kasavanahalli in Mahadevapura and Shivanahalli in Yelahanka. While officials had razed three buildings to the ground in Avani Sringeri Nagar the day before, they demolished six more structures on Sunday. Out of the 32 properties, 15 were buildings comprising villas, apartment blocks and independent homes. The rest were vacant sites.



BBMP Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad, who inspected the demolition drive in Arakere, told reporters that the district administration had undertaken another survey to identify encroachments on rajakaluves (feeder drains).



The list of properties would be published on the BBMP website in two days, he said.



Though some owners presented government-approved documents to prove the legality of their properties, BBMP officials paid no heed, except for giving them additional time on written request. Some property owners have approached the court.



Property owners hired private engineers in demolishing the buildings in order to minimise damage to the structures, instead of going for earthmovers deployed by the BBMP. The civic agency also cleared eight vacant sites in Avani Sringeri Nagar. Besides, it demolished two buildings and three sites in Yelahanka.



BBMP Chief Engineer (Storm Water Drain), Siddegowda, said all properties that had encroached on the 800-metre line that connected Hulimavu and Madiwala lake through Kodichikkanahalli would be demolished in a week.



The district administration has identified more properties on the stretch and would clear them, too.



The Palike will build a four-metre-wide closed drain in 45 days, he said.


Need a hand? Write to us



Letters of grievances are pouring in and we are doing our best to accommodate as many as possible. Readers may write in to highlight civic problems affecting their locality and we will help address them in an interactive and effective manner.



Grievances and issues related to public utility agencies such as Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) and Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (Bescom) would be highlighted in the weekly column.



The writeups, which could be accompanied by photographs highlighting the problems, will be published on Mondays.



Mail your grievances to: peoplesproblems@deccanherald.co.in



Road near Agara lake in poor state



The Sir M Visvesvaraya Road, opposite Horamavu Agara lake is in a pathetic condition for the past three years. The road is getting worse with each passing monsoon. Around 500 families stay in various apartments and houses on this road. During rains, the road turns slushy and it is difficult to traverse the stretch by any vehicle. Several complaints to the BBMP and the local corporator have been of no use. The authorities are requested to repair the road the earliest.

A resident

Layout bereft of civic amenities



The residents of Patalamma Bharath Housing Cooperative Society Layout (ward 184 ) Uttarahalli, are deprived of basic amenities such as roads, drainage and sanitation, drinking water and streetlights. Women, children and senior citizens are finding it difficult to walk on uneven and dark roads during night. The manholes in the area were damaged during the construction of a tank in the layout. As a result, the whole area reeks of foul smell. The BBMP officials are requested to take immediate action.

H K N Murthy,

Turahalli, Uttarahalli





Broken sewage pipe posing health risk



Foul smell is emanating from the stormwater drain (SWD) adjacent to my house, on 10 Cross, 25 A Main, Sector 1 of HSR Layout.



This happens every six months. Each time I complain to the BWSSB office, HSR Layout, the manhole is cleared by removing blockages. But, this proves only a temporary relief. The root cause is that the sewage pipe is broken and sewage water is leaking into the SWD.



I request the BWSSB authorities to inspect the sewage pipe, locate the source of the leak and rectify the defect at the earliest. With Dengue and other viral fevers rampant all around, this problem poses a grave danger to all residents.

Sudheendra G

HSR Layout





Reintroduce BMTC service



Two BMTC buses used to ply from Gangondanahalli to Kempegowda bus stand and KR Market (route number 87B and 59D). This was convenient for commuters specially students, office-goers and senior citizens. But the buses have now been cancelled causing inconvenience to commuters. The commuters are now compelled to shell out huge money to travel by autos. The BMTC is requested to reintroduce these two routes.

Mary Priya

Gangondanahalli





Debris dumped on roads in Domlur



The road opposite the government high school in Domlur, which was very well maintained a few years ago, has now turned into a dump yard for construction debris as well as garbage. This is due to the construction of a huge government building near 13th cross. As a result of this, the adjacent roads are completely damaged and the construction debris has not been cleared for over nine months.



In addition, many private buses are parked here, making it impossible to drive or walk on this road. The road is full of potholes and is dangerous for pedestrians. Just adjacent to this road is the Domlur service road (parallel to Airport Road), which has also turned into a garbage zone. The situation is so bad that these roads cannot be used anymore.

Reena Thomas
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday a malicious campaign was being carried out against his government by those who had exploited the Dalit community as a vote bank.



If you want to attack me, do so, but not the Dalits. If you want to shoot, aim at me and shoot. Not at the Dalits, Modi said, addressing Telangana BJP workers at the L B Stadium here.



Denouncing cow vigilantism in the strongest words for the second day in a row, Modi turned his attention to the anti-Dalit violence and said the world will not forgive us if the atrocities against the community continued.



This is a social evil. On one hand, we talk about Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (the world is one family) and on the other, continue untouchability. The Dalits suffered indignities and humiliation for hundreds of years. Should they continue to suffer even 70 years after independence? he said in a voice choked with emotion.



Without naming any political outfit, he said the attempts to politicise such issues must end. Some people who, for years, thought they were the custodians of the Dalits interests and used them as vote banks are now worried. They feel threatened because my government has taken several initiatives for the uplift and empowerment of the Dalit communities.



They (Opposition) fear that if the Dalits are convinced about the NDA governments welfare measures, it will remain in power for the next 50 years and their game of divisive politics will end, Modi said.



Modi, however, did not talk about the political fallout due to the recent incidents of violence against the Dalits and Muslims in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh.



Earlier in the day, Modi launched six development projects aimed at benefitting Telangana, the countrys newest state, in Gajwel, 65 kilometres from here. He told the gathering that a handful of self-styled cow protectors were bent upon creating tension in the society and called for isolating such divisive elements.



He asked the state governments to identify cow vigilantes and take stringent action against them. The best way to show our love for the cow is to link it to agriculture. It will never become a burden when it is linked to development, he added.
The huge rally to mark the defeat of the July 15 attempted coup was another blow for Turkeys enemies, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday, Anadolu reported.

Speaking at the Democracy and Martyrs' Rally in Istanbul's Yenikapi district, he said: Our presence today upsets our enemies just like it did on the morning of July 16.

On that night there were people who risked their lives to stop the coup and they filled the streets. History will remember names of our martyrs in golden letters.

Erdogan said Turkey would now take a path in solidarity in the future.

The president was the final speaker to address a crowd that police said numbered nearly 5 million people.

It was the first time the leaders of the Justice and Development (AK) Party, the Republican Peoples Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) had shared a platform.

Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar and Turkeys top cleric Mehmet Gormez also attended.

The Yenikapi event is the highlight of weeks of democracy watch rallies held in cities across the country since the defeated coup, which led to 240 deaths.

Turkeys government has said the coup was organized by the followers of Fetullah Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the US since 1999.
A Chinese inventor presented the "straddling bus" as a solution to air pollution and traffic in urban areas in China. (Photo : Getty Images)

China's straddling bus landmark completes its first test drive this week and some are voicing their concerns about hiccups that may arise when this public transportation officially and regularly drives along Chinese city streets.



Formally known as the "Transit Elevated Bus" (TEB), the straddling bus was officially taken on a test drive on Tuesday in Qinhuangdao, Hebei province, The Guardian reported.



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Local media reports like one from Shanghaiist indicate that the test drive was deemed successful even though the vehicle only ran on track for about 300 meters.



The idea of creating the famous straddling bus was supposed to make life easier for commuters in the busy urban streets of China.



However, Wired.com pointed out a couple if things that should make the makers of the vehicle think twice about the TEB's current design.



First, there is the matter of ground clearance offered by the bus to the smaller vehicles it "passes over."



According to Wired, the public transportation which looks more like a train than a bus is almost 16 feet tall but only allows ground clearance of just around 7 feet.



This means drivers carrying large vehicles who are dumb enough to pass under the straddling bus might get stuck under it since standard clearance for U.S.-made tractor-trailers is 13.5 feet.



Even if there are no truck drivers who pass through, there is still the matter of filtering the traffic to avoid untoward accidents with tall vehicles.



Then, there is the matter of the TEB's width which covers two lanes. Wired said that while ideally, there should not be any problem, there will still be drivers who might get confused and decide to veer too close to the sides of the bus.



Also, cars under the straddling bus may fight it quite difficult to get in or out of it to change lanes or even exit the road to go to the end of their journey.



University of Tennessee civil engineer David Clarke described the experience of driving under the TEB as similar to an underpass "except it's a moving underpass."



With that said, Wired believes that engineers who plan to mass produce the Chinese straddling bus should find a nifty exit or entrance for those driving smaller vehicles.


On July 17, we commemorated World Emoji Day. In true millennial fashion, the world took to social media and celebrated the presence of emojis in our lives with well, emojis. This is not the first time that an Internet-born inanimate object has been commemorated, though. For instance, World Wi-Fi Day was celebrated on June 20 to honour the magical airwaves that connect us to the rest of the world in a matter of seconds, and World Internet Day itself is observed on October 29 in honour of, well, the Internet. Hence, it is only natural that we celebrate emojis too, the tiny, round faces in varying shades of emotion that are ever-present in our messages these days.

The Origins

As with much of technology, emojis also have their roots in Japan. Shigetaka Kurita was a part of Japanese telecom operator NTT DoCoMos i-Mode mobile Internet platform that witnessed a rising trend of using pictures in text messages to depict reactions and/or emotions. This was some time between 1998 and 1999, and the brink of the millennium was witnessing the widespread acceptance of mobile telephony, the advent of commonplace text messaging, and Japan was one step ahead already. To serve the users better, Kurita and his team came up with emoticons, a total of 172 faces depicting the various emotions and reactions that he had witnessed among the people in his city. Each emoticon had a size of 12x12 pixels, and was a part of a special package for NTT DoCoMo customers to differentiate the service provider from the rest and appeal more to users.

While Kurita and his team at i-Mode have usually been credited with the invention of the worlds first emojis, this is the time when a number of Japanese telecom providers came up with similar solutions and layouts. Vodafone Japan also happened to be one of the early adopters of emoji, and the link for emojis spreading out across the world can be drawn from here. Even prior to the presence of graphic emojis, people using text messages have resorted to ASCII symbols to emote. These were basically combinations of punctuation marks that somewhat created a barebone sketch of how you were feeling at that moment, forming a precursor to the myriad emoticons we have around us now. The very first recorded use of emoticon were the two basic smiling and sad faces, :-) and :-(, by Scott Fahlman, a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University. His email to colleagues on September 9, 1982 stated:



The first recorded presence of emoji

This is credited to be the first recorded instance of an emoticon being used in communication. The mention of the concept dates further back to Vladimir Nabokovs interview with The New York Times back in 1969, when he stated, I often think there should exist a special typographical sign for a smile  some sort of concave mark, a supine round bracket.

The Evolution

The first graphical representations of the symbol-based emoticons were brought to the fore by Nicolas Loufrani, son of The Smiley Companys President Franklin Loufrani, who decided to take up the mettle of innovating with the basic smiley, and create animated graphics to ease communications. He realised the potential of digital communication and the years to follow, and compiled an emoticon dictionary, a precursor to the extensive list of emojis we use these days. Loufranis company presently holds copyright to the smiley face and its usage across multiple nations, prior to which his online emoticon dictionary included sub-genres of emojis such as Classics, Food, Sports, Weather, Animals, Nations and many more.

The development of emoji made it easier for telecom servers to handle the ever-growing scale of text messages, and its evolution from basic characters to pictographic content. For one, each image shared over messages was much larger than emojis, which made it difficult for operators to handle the peak time traffic of messages. Emojis were also more fun and convenient, as they were no longer disjointed structures of special symbols and characters, but faces depicting regular emotions. Prior to emoji and emoticons, adding tone to a text message was difficult, which often led to conflicting interpretation of messages between the sender and receiver.

The Impact

The rise of online chat rooms and the primary forms of instant messaging saw the relevance of emojis. With casual chats, the need for easy depiction of reactions became tantamount, which led to a rising count of emojis, and their overall refinement. The rise of WhatsApp and advent of smartphones was crucial to the massive expansion of emoji use, which grew at a steady yet slow pace until then.

Better accessibility to the internet, advent of mobile internet with smartphones and the integration of third party services on devices saw a large section of users engaging with emojis, lending deeper, easier-to-understand tone to interpersonal messaging. One of the most notable impact that emojis had, before becoming pivotal to the present advertising and marketing industry, was on the iPhone, in Japan. With Jobs refusal to play along with other companies, Apple was surprised with the amount of features that were regular to the 80 million people using smartphones back in 2007, and yet, were missing from the iPhone. With most operators turning down a partnership deal with Apple owing to the lack of features, it was Vodafone Japan that picked up the contract deal, under clauses that the next update to the iPhone would include emojis for users in Japan. Since then, emojis have remained constant, and contributed to the exponential growth of emojis since then.



The iPhone was compelled to include emojis in Japan

With us moving into the second decade of this millennium, the presence of emojis in a message became even more relevant for those born around or after the year 2000. Marketeers and advertisers started capitalising on communication trends in an online-first world to present messages, ad campaigns and slogans which involved emojis. Advertising in the digital age were impacted by emoji campaigns, which were deemed not only more effective, but imparted more relatability and a deeper sense of connection for target audiences.

The Gradual Diversification

As with every element gradually diversifying after becoming popular, emojis have diversified manifold. The faces have evolved, new expressions have been added, and the world of emojis have gone way beyond mere emotions, to now include sports, flags, differences in races and even celebrities. Emojis are now a discourse that even has statistical analysts breaking down how nations generally feel, which activity is the most popular, and an overall sense of needing to be politically correct with your reactions.



We will not judge you if you use these

Notable diversification of emojis include the marginal differences in the original Emoji, the ones used by Twitter, and the likes of celebrity emojis like Kimoji (by Kim Kardashian) and Boltmoji by celebrity athlete Usain Bolt. A recent study has scaled the rise of diverse emojis, accounting for a whopping 609-percent year-on-year increase in the use of emojis in the marketing industry. As of May 2016, 800 million emoji messages were used in the field of marketing and advertisement, as opposed to only 145 million in May 2015. The effectiveness is being realised now, with millennials regarding brands that employ emojis as more relatable.

Emoting out loud

Emojis are no longer casual pictographic depictions to ease messaging tones, they are a part of everyday communication that our lives are simply used to. Statistical analysis on emojis make way for consensus on how a population is generally feeling, paving way for sociological research and data collection. This Emoji Day, for instance, while the US and Canada happens to be tired and weary, Spain reportedly feels strong, and India has her hands folded.



What India tweeted on World Emoji Day

Our generation is all about emoting out loud, of expressing loudly and clearly about who we are, what we prefer, we like, dislike and even when we are in love. What started as a crucial tool to ease communication servers and attract more users to the network is now a tool that seamlessly fits into our generally expressive social media presence. Heres raising a toast to the millions of familiar faces - the past, presence and expansive future of emojis.
Grand jury says no charges for officers in fatal St. Ann's ER shooting

The officers involved, including two Columbus police officers, will not face criminal charges in the April 12, 2021, shooting of Miles Jackson.
Chinese money keep flowing in Silicon Valley thanks to "whisperers." (Photo : Getty Images)

The relationship between companies in China and the United States dictates whether or not the world will become richer or poorer and certain 'whisperers' are in control of what happens next.



In the U.S., Silicon Valley is considered as the land of successful businesses even after China took over its place as the place with the world's most cutting edge mobile technology.



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An article published in The Washington Post took notice of the significant contributions of a couple of people in bringing together two cultures in order to make business ventures succeed and cash flow smoothly from one place to the other.



The Whisperers



The WP article specified a couple of Chinese-born people who were responsible for bringing Chinese money flowing to Silicon Valley.



One of them was Carmen Chang, a veteran lawyer and investor in Silicon Valley. According to the report, Chang was one of the people consulted first when Uber CEO Travis Kalanick expressed his wish to enter the Chinese market.



She is also one of the few trusted people that Kalanick turned to when he decided to sell Uber to its domestic competitor, Didi Chixung.



According to WP, Chang was able to help several American companies "navigate that murky territory" that is China together with others who understand the cultural differences better.



"She is the whisperer between China and Silicon Valley. There's very few that really understand both sides," web security startup Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince told WP, describing Chang who helped him close a deal with China's search giant, Baidu.



Aside from Chang, Andreessen Horowitz venture capital firm partner Connie Chan also made certain moves that allowed Chinese money to enter Silicon Valley.



As a whisperer, she served more as a cultural translator between Chinese investors and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs than investment brokers.



The Secret to Their Success



According to Chang, her success can mostly be attributed to her ability to maintain good will between people and avoid questioning others' integrity or honesty.



"I've told U.S. companies, Chinese people have long memories and are the ultimate repeat players, so don't play any games. And I've tried to tell the Chinese investors coming the Valley today that they are making their reputation as they go along, so they should be very thoughtful and careful about what they do," she told WP.



Meanwhile, Chan makes a point to clarify everything to the involved parties particularly because of the cultural difference where in the U.S. "it's harder for them to have a full perspective of the competitive landscape or a full understanding of how to vet that entrepreneur's background" while Chinese people consider business as a sort of relationship between individuals.






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China's steel industry is facing 24 legal cases of anti-dumping from various countries. (Photo : Getty Images)

The EU's newly issued rule will affect China's cold-rolled steel plates that will be imposed with duties between 19.7 and 22.1 percent.



China, as well as Russia, were accused of dumping or the practice of selling iron for far less than its cost in the EU market. At present, the EU market for steel is at $5 billion.



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The imposed rise on tariff will affect the price of manufacturing industries in automobiles, appliances, and power. Prices are seen to increase because of the new regulation.



Primary producers of this type of steel are Russia's Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works OJSC, Novolipetsk Steel PJSC and Severstal PJSC; and China's Angang Steel Co. and Shougang group.



The EU is pushing for protection of European manufacturers who are suffering because of China and Russia's dumping practices.



Erofer, a European steel industry group filed a complaint to the EU after the rise of the two countries' share in the market. China's stake rose to 20.1 percent in 12 months, while Russia jumped to 9.8 percent.



According to Xu Yongbo, a steel market analyst, China has been striving to dominate the global market since 2012.



He said, "In some cases, enterprises would lower the price of an order if it was for an overseas customer instead of a domestic client, in order to seize overseas markets."



The China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) released a statement that in the last six months of 2016, there have been 24 legal cases of anti-dumping filed against China.



Another steel analyst, Ma Zhongpu, said that countries would always want their domestic producers to dominate the market.



"The 'anti-dumping' measures of some overseas governments are nothing but protectionism," Ma commented.


China talks peace with neighboring countries. (Photo : Getty Images)

The meeting was headed by Fang Fenghui, a member of the military commission, which is the military head of China's armed forces. Representatives of the four countries convened in Urumqi, the capital of the western Xinjiang region.



According to the report of Xinhua news agency, the four countries recognized that there is a growing threat of extremism and that it is an obstacle to regional stability.



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To counteract terrorism, the four countries agreed that they will implement a "four-country mechanism" for intelligence sharing and training.



The officials who attended the meeting were Afghan army chief of general staff, General Qadam Shah Shaheem; Pakistani army chief General Raheel Sharif; and the Chief of General Staff of the Tajikistan armed forces, Major General E. A. Cobidrzoda.



Fenghui thanked Shaheem for the support that the Afghan military provided to suppress forces of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). The rebels want a separate state in Xinjiang.



The Chinese government denied that it was sparking tension in Xinjiang. Rebels blame the government for spurring tension in the area.



The EITM is a separatist organization founded by Uyghur militants in western China. They have reported having initiated 200 acts of terrorism from 1990 to 2001.



Both the U.N. and the U.S. have declared the EITM as a terrorist group.



Pakistan and China have both approached the U.S. to facilitate peace talks with the Taliban to resolve a 15-year conflict. The talks broke down when Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in May by American troops.



In July, Chinese officials expressed concern and interest in the Afghan peace talks and assistance were necessary.



"As a friendly and close neighbor of Afghanistan, China sincerely hopes that the Afghan people can live in peace, stability, and security, and benefit from the country's development," said Hua Chunying, the ministry spokesperson.


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Netizens React to Korean TV Commercial by K-Swiss; Lobbies for K-Pop Ban in China

Both U.S. and South Korea ally for the launch of the THAAD system. (Photo : Getty Images)

They commented on Sina Weibo and referred to the TV ad as disrespectful and some called for a ban of K-Pop stars in China.



The commercial began with the Korean star playing chess with a fat man wearing a black suit and a gold necklace. The opponent's name is Wanli Chengcheng, or the Great Wall of China.



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The chess match fades to a dance fight.



During the dance, a Korean woman slaps the Chinese man, and eventually, Park wins the battle and the chess match.



Many netizens on Weibo were outraged by the depiction of China as Park's opponent. The hashtag "Park Bo Gum commercial allegedly humiliates China" has been viewed 2.1 million times.



Users also said that the country should ban all South Korean artists, saying that China should put their loyalty to country first before idols.



An online poll was conducted in Sino Weibo and 86 percent of 300,000 respondents agreed to the proposed ban.



There were users who said that the K-Swiss commercial is related to South Korea's deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system.



China recently expressed anxiety over South Korea's deployment of the THAAD. Ambassador Qiu Guohong, China's ambassador to South Korea, warned the Minjoo Party of Korea that the launch of the THAAD will destroy the two country's bilateral relations.



"Much effort has been made to develop bilateral ties to today's level, but these efforts could be destroyed in an instant with a single problem," Qiu said, warning that ties "could take a long time to recover."



He also said that the use of the THAAD will "create a vicious cycle of Cold War-style confrontations and an arms race."



South Korea maintained that the THAAD system is for the country's protection against North Korea, and that the communists are developing nuclear weapons.






A LOT airliner waits for its flight at Warsaw Chopin Airport, Poland's international airport. (Photo : Getty Images)

Representatives of the Polish government are currently holding talks with Chinese investors for the possible sale of some stake in the state airline LOT, Deputy Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced on Wednesday, Aug. 3.



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Reuters reported that the since Poland's conservative government came to power last year, it has been aiming to strengthen its relations with China. In June, during President Xi Jinping's visit to Warsaw, the two countries vowed to work for deeper cooperation.



"LOT is our national carrier, which we are trying to save no matter the cost. It is deeply in debt," the state news agency PAP quoted Morawiecki as saying.



As one of the world's oldest airlines, LOT has been challenged for years by rivals such as Ryanair and other big competitors. In 2012, the government saved the state-owned airline from bankruptcy with an aid of more than 500 million zlotys ($130 million).



"The previous government has already granted public support for LOT, we cannot grant another and we are looking for an investor," Morawiecki said.



"According to EU law a carrier from outside the EU cannot take over more than 49 percent of a carrier from the EU, hence we are in talks with potential investors, among others, from China," the deputy prime minister added.



A Polish newspaper reported on Wednesday, Aug. 3, that Chinese carrier Air China is planning to buy a 49-percent stake in LOT as representatives of the Chinese firm are scheduled to arrive in Warsaw in the following days.



But a LOT spokesman denied any knowledge of the plans of a capital tie-up between Air China and LOT. Air China was also not available for comment.



"I have no knowledge regarding any planned capital co-operation between LOT and Air China," Adrian Kubicki, LOT spokesman said. "We have commercial co-operation with Air China, which we want to develop, regarding the Warsaw-Beijing route."



In April, the Supreme Audit Office in Poland said that LOT has a very small chance of surviving even with aid and improvement if would not have an outside investor to help it.



LOT is a small carrier whose fleet is made up of only eight aircraft including the two new 787 Dreamliners that will start operating next year. It makes an average of 200 flights daily and transports about 5 million passengers annually.



As part of its One Belt, One Road initiative, China has increased its investments in central and eastern Europe in an effort to strengthen the ties between Europe and China.



Last year, CEFC, a Chinese private company, bought a stake in Czech airline firm Travel Service, the second-largest shareholder in Czech Airlines.



According to Deputy economic minister Radoslaw Domagalski, Poland will now accept Chinese investment in infrastructure, energy and other sectors.


Worlds best islands bring holidaymakers and investors flocking to the Philippines

The 7,000 islands of the Philippines provide a stunning landscape of sandy beaches, lush vegetation and sparkling seas. Teeming with aquatic life, as well as reefs and shipwrecks ideal for snorkelers and divers, the islands offer a tropical paradise that is charming holidaymakers and investors alike.

JLLs newly published Global Real Estate Transparency Index 2016 shone the spotlight on the Philippines this month, when it found that the Asia Pacific region is the most improved in the world for real estate transparency. Meanwhile, Time and Leisure magazine has included three of the islands  Palawan, Boracay and Cebu  in its Worlds Best Islands list.

The delightful natural setting of the Philippines is certainly proving a winner with holidaymakers. International visitor numbers have risen to the point that spending by foreign visitors accounted for 8.2% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015 (equating to US$6.6 billion) and meaning that tourism is now officially the countrys third biggest export, according to the 2015 Philippine Tourism Satellite Accounts from the Philippine Statistics Authority. This increase in tourism has been marked in recent years: only five years ago, tourism accounted for just 4.3% of GDP.

The rise in visitor numbers has carried through into 2016. Department of Tourism data showed that international visitors increased by 8% in May 2016 compared with the previous May. In fact, the first five months of the year has seen international arrivals surpass the 2.5 million mark for the first time, representing a 13% increase over the same period in 2015.

Visitors are flocking to the Philippines from around the world. South Korea is the largest source of tourists at present, accounting for 1.3 million visitors in 2015 (25% of the total). The trend has held true so far in 2016, with South Korea accounting for 23.22% of visitors from January to April. The US comes second, accounting for 14.66% of international arrivals, with China in third place at 11.5%.

Hong Kong-based investment house CLSA has projected that the next few years may see Chinese visitors come to outnumber those from the US, following a rise in Chinese tourism to the Philippines of 62.44% in the year to April 2016. Philippine Airlines president and chief operating officer, Jaime Bautista, has echoed the sentiment, expressing confidence that the number of Chinese visitors to the Philippines could double in just three years. The airline has announced its intention to add another Chinese city to its range of destinations by the end of 2016 as a result of the rapidly increasing visitor numbers.

At the same time as international visitor numbers are rising to record levels, domestic tourism has also leapt. Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon Teo is actively encouraging domestic travelers to discover more of their significant country, not least because Department of Tourism figures have shown that they spend six times as much as international visitors. Domestic tourists spent P1.5 trillion during 2015, compared with the P227 billion spent by visitors from abroad.

The increase in both domestic and international visitor numbers has created significant opportunities for investors in Philippines real estate. Ray Withers, CEO of specialist international property investment company Property Frontiers, explains,

Demand for high end hotel accommodation in the Philippines has never been greater and the country is racing to increase supply enough to keep up with demand. With high quality new resorts required in key tourism hotspots, international investors are keen to buy into the Philippines now in order to be part of the wave of new construction that is required to service the increased level of visitors. JLLs finding that the Asia Pacific region is the most improved in the world for real estate transparency has furthered this significant trend of international demand for resort investments in the Philippines.

Portofino Oceans Edge resort is a prime example. The ultra-luxurious, 5* clifftop resort on Carabao Island, minutes by boat from top island Boracay, boasts a private jetty and helipad for stylish arrivals, an infinity pool, spa and wellness centre for perfect pampering and a restaurant, bar and cliff edge clubhouse for socializing. Theres also an idyllic private beach for making the most of the stunning scenery that the Philippines provides.

Investors can own their own piece of Portofino Oceans Edge resort for just USD 109,000, including 10% interest during construction (now underway) and expected 15% NET return (underwritten at 10% minimum). Investment in the resort also includes 14 days of personal use per year, for the ultimate lifestyle benefit.

For more information, visit propertyfrontiers.com.
Considered to be the Ten Best UFO Photos Ever Taken I am sure that we could add more pictures to this list but these are considered ten o...
Donors who are Rh-negative are heroes. (Photo : Getty Images)

Her name is Arzugul, a road maintenance worker in China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, and a generous blood donor.



The local hero has "panda blood," or a blood type as rare as pandas. There are only 3 out of 1,000 people who have this rare blood type.



She said, "Everyone lives only once. I felt very accomplished if my donation can help others. The only reason I got so much attention is because of the rareness of my blood."



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Individuals with Rh-negative blood can donate to anybody who in within the Rh system but doctors are very careful when dispensing it.



Dr. Thierry Peyrard, the current Director of the National Immunohematology Reference Laboratory in Paris, said, "It's the golden blood."



However, it was not until 2011 that Arzugul realized that she had a rare blood type. She has been donating blood since 2003.



She found out through the technician in a blood donation truck that her blood saved a man who was to have surgery.



In 2014, she took an overnight bus trip to save a woman in Urumqi who was to deliver by caesarian section.



Rh-negative blood donors are people who lack an antigen which is common in most people. If a person lacks an antigen that is present in 90 percent of donors, then the person's blood is considered rare.



It is this rarity that creates a blood shortage. However, scientists have tried to study this further.



In 2007, Professor Henrik Clausen of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark led a team of scientists that ran experiments on converting blood types.



This experiment involved infusing enzymes in the blood to eliminate antigens, and making a blood type which is Rh positive to negative.



Clausen said, "Clinical translation of this approach may allow improvement of the blood supply and enhancement of patient safety in transfusion medicine."


The British High Commission announced the Chevening Scholarship and Fellowship programmes for 2017-18. The UK government is going to accept Masters degree aspirants and working professionals in various fields to apply to the fully funded programmes from August 8, 2016 to November 8, 2016.

It is offering the Chevening Cyber Security Fellowship; Chevening Rolls-Royce Science and Innovation Leadership Fellowship ( CRISP ); Chevening South Asia Journalism Fellowship Programme and Chevening Standard Chartered Financial Services Fellowship. Applicants from India, particularly those from the field of energy security, climate change, urban development, defence, security, foreign policy, trade and investment, economic reforms as well as research and innovation, can choose any course of study.

The programmes offer a unique opportunity for future leaders, influencers, and decision-makers from all over the world to develop professionally and academically, network extensively, experience UK culture, and build lasting positive relationships with the UK, said Dominic Asquith, British High Commissioner to India.

Chevening awards are funded by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and partner organisations. Recipients are selected by British embassies and high commissions around the world.

The Chevening India programme is the largest in the world offering up to 65 fully paid scholarship and 65 fully paid fellowships every year. One-year Masters scholarships are given to outstanding Indian graduates with a minimum of two years work experience to study any subject of their choice at any recognised UK university. HSBC sponsors three scholars from India annually to study in fields related to environment and sustainability, said Andrew Soper, minister counsellor (political and press), British High Commission. There are more than 46,000 Chevening alumni in the world and over 2,300 in India, he added.
Japan intends to add more university courses taught in English, said Kenji Hiramatsu, its ambassador to India, on the sidelines of an education fair organised by the University of Tokyo , in association with countrys education ministry recently in Delhi.

This year, it is offering 35 full scholarships to Indian students who wish to enrol on undergraduate and postgraduate courses in its universities. Students can study not only engineering but also law, economics, science, environment, information, disaster prevention, and tourism. Japan has 200 courses which are in English language and we are working to add more, said Hiramatsu.

About 140,000 international students from more than 170 countries and regions are studying at higher educational institutions in Japan.
Delhi University Community Radio ( DUCR ) has started a programme in Urdu where student volunteers at the radio station interact with listeners and teach them the language.



Our main aim is to teach students about the language and create awareness among students that Urdu is not a different language. It is heritage that has developed over the years. Urdu has evolved in Indian society, said RK Singh, technical consultant at the station.



Initiated by DUCR student-volunteers Deepak I Teotya, Geetanjli Tamta and Shruti Saini, Bazm-e-Urdu was inaugurated by NN Kamal, head, department of Urdu, DU; Ali Javed and Imteyaz Ahmad, professors at the same department, in February 2016. Till now, the radio station has broadcast eight episodes.



Through this platform, amateur artists, too, take part and recite poems in the programme, said Geetanjli Tamta, a volunteer and producer of the programme. The aim is also to teach students about the languages origins, importance in medieval India and how it can be useful for future generations. The producers involve students and invite professors and research scholars, who discuss their research study in the language, interact with listeners. The volunteer also gets chance to learn scripting and writing.


To build the largest and most complete Amateur Radio community site on the Internet - a "portal" that hams think of as the first place to go for information, to exchange ideas, and be part of whats happening with ham radio on the Internet. eHam.net provides recognition and enjoyment to the people who use, contribute, and build the site. This project involves a management team of volunteers who each take a topic of interest and manage it with passion. The site will stand above all other ham radio sites by employing the latest technology and professional design/programming standards, developed by a team of community programmers who contribute their skills to the effort. The site will be something of which everyone involved can be proud to say they were a part. We welcome your comments. The eHam.net Team, Revision 07/2020.
A model of the Chang'e-3 lunar rover is on display at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre on Nov. 5, 2013, in Shanghai, China. (Photo : Getty Images)

"Hi! This could be the last greetings from me!"



The farewell message written on the Sina Weibo social media portal by user "Jade Rabbit Lunar Rover," which posts first-person accounts of Yutu, China's moon rover, quickly became viral on Chinese social media.



"The moon says it has prepared a long, long dream for me, and I'm wondering what the dream would be like-- would I be a mars explorer, or be sent back to earth?" the lunar rover continued.



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The post received an estimated 100,000 shares, likes, and comments.



"Good night bunny, Chinese astronauts will bring you home and you will never be alone," said one commenter.



"Have a sweet dream! You will get countless carrot pies in your dream," another netizen said.



Yutu, an unmanned lunar rover that formed part of China's Chang'e 3 lunar mission, will cease operation after 973 days of service on the moon, a source from the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense told the state-owned People's Daily newspaper on Tuesday.



Named after the pet rabbit of Chang'e, the moon goddess of ancient Chinese mythology, Yutu and its antics proved to be hugely popular across China. Its greeting "Hi, anybody there?" which was posted on February 13, 2014, just two hours after the rover "woke" again and narrowly survived after suffering mechanical difficulties, prompted more than 60,000 reposts and 40,000 comments.



Built to last for just three months, Yutu has been operating on the moon for over two years, surpassing the record of the Soviet Union's 1970 moon rover Lunokhod 1, which spent 11 months on the moon.



Reflecting on his own existence, the lunar adventurer mused as being the "rabbit that has seen the most stars".



It also said that there were many questions left unanswered and was looking forward to additional explorations in the future.



"If you are going to explore the deep universe, remember to take pictures and share with me," it said.



Many Chinese netizens expressed their dismay after reading Yutu's last post.



"I don't know why I am so heartbroken. It's just a machine after all," said one netizen.



Some wistful netizen also shared imaginative endings to Yutu's life.



"Years later, an astronaut, one of the many young fans of Yutu as child, finds a chip among a pile of metal objects (on the Moon). Seconds after he inserts the chip in his computer, to his great surprise, a message pops up: 'Hi, my dear, I've been waiting for you. From Yutu.'" wrote one netizen.


Buenos Aires, Aug 7 (EFE).- Argentine Miguel Angel Reigosa is trying to amass the world's largest private whisky collection and is just 483 bottles away from exceeding the collection housed at the Whisky Museum in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The time-honored alcoholic drink, the name of which means "water of life" in Gaelic, has been Reigosa's passion since he was 14 years old, after a bad experience with a mixed drink and a memorable lecture from his father, from whom he also inherited his love of collecting.

"I began at 14 and I've never lost the passion. The only drink I consume is whisky, (except for) sometimes a little beer, and in a country like ... Argentina, not to drink wine sometimes is a sin, but I really don't drink wine," he told EFE.

Starting his collecting career when just a teen, he first started buying miniature bottles, then exclusive brands and - in working to promote the beverage through the Whisky Malt Argentina association, which gathers together 4,100 whisky lovers, and the Argentine Whisky Museum - he now has 2,900 bottles.

Reigosa is not Scottish, though, and has no English blood, but he does have a "fighting" spirit inculcated in him by his family, all of whom are Spanish immigrants from Galicia, and now - after years of effort - he has attained the respect of whisky aficionados and experts and is known as the "Whisky King" of the Southern Cone.

And in a country with little feeling for whisky, he says that what he's done in building his collection is "an epic accomplishment" that has given him "much satisfaction."

Among his achievements is creating a type of water especially made for preparing whisky that is now exported to Scotland and promoting 15 national festivals featuring the alcoholic drink, which is distilled from malt fermented from various grains and then aged in wooden barrels.

As fate would have it, he fought against Britain in the 1982 Falklands Islands War but, years later, helped celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's birthday, at which he acquired a limited edition bottle of whisky.

Reigosa said that "there are very expensive bottles, such as some Bourbons from 1830," and also three remaining "from the first trans-Atlantic flight of the Concorde which today in Argentina are worth "$60,000."

Whisky is not a product produced in Argentina, except for one distillery operating in the Patagonian province of Chubut for the past four years, and so working on his collection has not been an easy task.

The collector also hosts a television program and a magazine to spread the word about whisky and raise awareness of it through promoting responsible consumption.
Barcelona, Aug 7 (EFE) .- Barcelona Belgian defender Thomas Vermaelen has traveled to Rome after acquiring a permission from his Catalan side to undergo medical checks at Serie A side Roma, in preparation for a loan move.

Vermaelen, 30, arrived in Barcelona in summer 2014, but his status as a starter did not gain continuity due to physical problems that he encountered.

The Belgian defender might join Roma for 2 million euros ($2.2 million) in a deal that can turn into a final purchase for 8 to 10 million euros ($8.8 to $11 million).
Bangkok, Aug 7 (EFE).- Thai voters on Sunday opted to support a new Constitution proposed by the country's ruling military junta.

With around 90 percent of votes counted, the new charter has so far received 61 percent support from Thai voters, compared to 38 percent who voted against it.

Voting across the country went ahead without incident, despite a campaign marked by numerous arrests of detractors as well as a ban on any debate on the subject.

The turnout for the vote was thought to be 55 percent, two percent less than the last Constitution referendum in 2007, according to officials.

Voters had to answer two questions - whether they approve the draft constitution, and if they want the Senate to take part in the election of the prime minister.

Yingluck Shinawatra, who served as prime minister between 2011 and 2014, appeared at the Klong Lam Jiak school polling center in Bangkok just before 10am and urged fellow Thais to vote, asking them to reject the proposed constitution.

The 21-member Constitution Drafting Committee, chosen by the ruling junta, has drafted a constitution that has been criticized by the main Thai political parties and several international organizations including the International Federation for Human Rights for being less progressive than those of 1997 and 2007.

One of the main points of contention is that it will allow the Senate, handpicked by the military junta, to veto constitutional reforms and control the selection of members of various key bodies, including the National Anti-Corruption Commission.

Authorities say that the country - which has been following an interim constitution since the 2014 coup- will hold general elections in 2017, whatever the outcome of Sunday's referendum.

Thailand has had 19 constitutions - almost all of them repealed following military interventions or coups - since the end of absolutist monarchy in 1932.
An airline stewardess heads toward a departure gate at Chek Lap Kok airport March 7, 2003, in Hong Kong. (Photo : Getty Images)

Hainan Airlines Co Ltd, China's largest airline and a subsidiary of conglomerate HNA Group, has completed the purchase of nearly a quarter stake in Azul SA, Brazil's third-largest airline, for $450 million, in a series of overseas acquisitions by the company.



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The deal, which was first announced to the public in November, gives Hainan Airlines a 23.7 percent stake in Azul, making the Chinese subsidiary the Brazilian firm's single largest shareholder, the China Daily newspaper reported on Monday citing a statement from the company.



Under the deal, Hainan Airlines will appoint three new members to Azul's board of directors, and both sides have agreed to launch more cooperation in code sharing, frequent flier programs, marketing programs, and cargo handling, the statement said.



"We view Azul as a strong and lasting partner for HNA to explore further expansion and capital investment in Latin America," Adam Tan, CEO of Hainan Airlines' parent HNA Group, said in the statement.



HNA said both airlines will benefit from the growing passenger between China and Brazil. Around 3,000 Chinese tourists are expected to travel to Rio de Janeiro for this year's Olympic Games, ten times the number of tourists over the same period last year.



"In addition to bringing more choice and convenience to customers of Hainan Airlinestraveling to and from Brazil, we view Azul as a strong and lasting partner for HNA to explore further expansion and capital investment in Latin America," Tan said.



"We look forward to working together to create a seamless travel experience between LatinAmerica and China and to deliver further choice, value and excellence to worldwide travelersthrough our future cooperation."



Established in 2008, Azul has been rated as one of the best low-cost airlines in Latin America with more than 800 daily flights to more than 100 destinations.



"This investment demonstrates that we have a winning business model and that Hainan Airlines, as a large investor, has absolute confidence in Azul's team," said Azul founder and CEO David Neeleman.



HNA's purchase of a stake in Azul comes after its announcement to buy a 13 percent stake in the carrier Virgin Australia in May earlier this year.



In the same month, the company said it was taking a share of TAP, Portugal's national airline.



In July, HNA said its $1.5 billion offer for Swiss airline caterer gategroup has been successful.


Ely, Cambridgeshire is best known for its majestic cathedral dubbed the 'Ship of the Fens' because it dominates the flat landscape. The city, which is the second smallest in England, is about 14 miles north-northeast of Cambridge and about 80 miles by road from London.

14:55, 28 OCT 2022
An unidentified flying object, or UFO, is any apparent anomaly in the sky. (Photo : YouTube/ Mystery Universe)

A video of a strange UFO engaging in a low-speed pursuit, in broad daylight, with a squad car on the streets of Gorey, Ireland, has emerged online and caused numerous speculations of an intergalactic invasion. However, the UFO does not seem real like the ones aliens are pictured to have.



The video in question was posted on Facebook on July 30 and featured a UFO that looked like a flying saucer. The craft proceeded down the streets, closely followed by a Garda car with flashing lights. Pictures of police pulling over and examining the strange UFO were also posted alongside the video.



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According to The Irish Times , the "UFO" in question was actually an artistic piece for a space-themed art show that was created by a local artist, Ali Kemal Ali. In an interview with the Irish Times, a Gardai spokesman said that the pursuit was a friendly escort they had given the creator of the small spacecraft to show off the piece of art to residents. He added that rumors of an alien invasion were not true.



In similar news, another UFO was captured on video over the historic Gateway Arch in St. Louis Missouri. The UFO appeared like multiple strange lights and hovered over the iconic landmark on Aug 2 at around 2:00 am. Apparently, a surveillance camera at the Malcolm W. Martin Memorial Park is also said to have captured multiple strange lights moving in the sky.



According to Mandatory , the UFO was also spotted by an employee at the Casino Queen, Chase Rhodes, who immediately took a video and posted it on YouTube. However, Joe Palermo, the chief investigator of Missouri's Mutual UFO Network, told the publication that there were two different videos of the light, and that it was an unusual occurrence considering both recordings acted as "eye witnesses."



Palermo also explained that most strange lights can be sights of a star, something man-made, or simply an aircraft. Since then, there has been no clear explanation of what the UFO could be. Palermo promised the UFO community that he was still looking into the strange occurrence and could have an idea of what the light was in a few weeks.



Here is video of another strange UFO sighting in Missouri recorded nine months ago:






The Apple logo is displayed on the back of an iPhone on August 3, 2016 in London, England. (Photo : GettyImages/Carl Court)

Apple has been eyeing for organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology for sometime. As the rumor mill is going berserk with news that Apple plans to introduce OLED on their MacBook Pro and iPhone 8 next year, there are major concerns regarding the inadequate stock of the display technology that may not be able to meet all demands.



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Other than the Cupertino firm, there are other companies lined up to tie up deals for OLED supplies. Oppo is one of the companies that had plans to supply 90 to 100 million units to China this year, but the company could not meet its target owing to inadequate supply of Samsung's AMOLED panels.



There are, however, more reports that Samsung may not be able to meet all demands, hitting only 100 million smartphones this year, DigiTimes reported. As of now, Samsung Display is facing serious issues in supplying display panels to its vendors due to its tight production capacity.



As noted by other reports, there are other vendors involved in manufacturing and supplying OLEDs in the smartphone market, but Samsung holds a special place in the market for supplying a major volume of the display screens, Apple Insider reported.



Right now, Samsung has a list of product that heavily relies on OLED technology. Therefore, it is important for the Korean company to revamp its production, otherwise there are possibilities of adequate demand-supply issues for the smartphone business next year.



So, what is organic light-emitting diode screen or OLEDs? OLED screens are designed with organic compounds that help to emit light that works in response to a current. The process eliminates any need for a backlight as opposed to LCD screen technology that uses backlight.



The technology came to prominence in 1987, but it became widely popular in the next few years that saw a major implementation of the display technology with improvements in precision engineering and manufacturing.



In contrast to LCD displays, OLEDs boast superior color display and enhanced contrast ratio. Compared to LCD screens, OLED technology has important power efficiency improvements since black pixels do not consume any power.



OLEDs appear much thinner than any other competing technologies as the display screen does not use backlight. More importantly, OLEDs have a higher response time, which is 0.01 milliseconds against 1 millisecond as in LCD screens.



A demonstration of a 5.8-inch OLED Apple iPhone pegged for 2017 release:






Evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne, who denies the existence of free will and has endorsed social control of human beings that is hardly distinguishable from animal training, insists that religion is a significant motivation for violence.

Coyne, who claims that in human affairs reason is no different from a kick, is of course right, in a sense. There is no question that religious belief can motivate and has motivated violence. We are currently experiencing violence in many parts of the world motivated by Islamic beliefs, and historically many faiths and ideologies have at times motivated wars and repression.

He writes:

[O]ver at [Why Evolution Is True] we dont find it so hard to understand that religious beliefs could motivate violence. After all, other ideologies like Communism or Nazism, are well known for promoting violence Wed that to religions claim of absolute truth and its promulgation of a moral code, and you have an automatic recipe for othering.

Yet Coyne omits candid discussion of the violence  the extraordinary violence  caused by atheist ideology during the past century. He refers to Communism, but if we are to single out religion for violence, we must compare it to irreligion, not merely to Communism. And it is precisely the metaphysical commitments Coyne has championed that have catalyzed atheist violence  the denial of an objective moral law, the denial of eternal accountability for transgressions, the reduction of human beings to animals or even to meat robots, deprived of free will or of any claim to human exceptionalism. These are all tenets of atheist belief, and Coyne himself is one of the loudest salesman for the dehumanizing ideology inherent to atheism.

Just how violent and repressive can atheism be? The most inhuman tactic of Islamic terrorists  suicide bombing  was first employed by atheist Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. John Gray in the Guardian notes:

Islamists owe as much, if not more, to the far left, and it would be more accurate to describe many of them as Islamo-Leninists. Islamist techniques of terror also have a pedigree in secular revolutionary movements. The executions of hostages in Iraq are copied in exact theatrical detail from European revolutionary tribunals in the 1970s, such as that staged by the Red Brigades when they murdered the former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro in 1978.

Many of the inhuman tactics used by Islamists today were first used systematically in modern times by the atheist Left. In the past century, a number of nations have been governed by explicitly atheist governments. Atheist governments murdered more than 100 million people during the 20th century. See here for a comparison of violence and political repression between nations with established Christian churches or cultures, Islamic nations, and nations governed by atheist ideologies during the 20th century.

Looking at modern history, we see: Christian culture creates reasonable and tolerant democracies. Islamic regimes create repressive theocracies. Atheist regimes create totalitarian hellholes.

The denial of free will and the other anti-human inferences inherent to atheism are not merely theoretical affronts to humanity.

The fact is that atheism is the most violent ideology in the 20th century, and given its short run and unprecedented rate of state-sanctioned murder, it is also the most violent and repressive ideology in human history.

Photo: Tamil Tigers, womens division, by marietta amarcord (Flickr) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.
Hi,



We are an Aussie family moving to North Dakota at the end of September.



We have just sold our property in Australia and we are researching renting vs purchasing.



Renting obviously seems the easiest to begin with until we get settled but is relatively expensive compared to mortgage repayments.



We would have enough equity to be closing to purchasing a decent property outright or to have a very minimal mortgage.



So, here's some questions.



1. Besides mortgage and property tax, what are some other monthly expenses incurred by homeowners (outside of electricity, heating utilities)?



2. If we choose to purchase and then rent it out at a later date, what do homeowners pay for? Is it the renters responsibility to pay water usage, garden maintenance, etc?



Thanks in advance.
Standard Chartered ATMs at DXB Terminal 3 airside dispense USD - there are 2 located at the junction of concourse B/C and 1 located at Concourse A. There is also one in Terminal 2 but it has never worked in my experience. Not sure about new Terminal 1 yet.



The catch is that you need to get airside to access them. In an absolute pinch, buy a refundable ticket on Emirates, go through immigration/security to access the ATMs, cancel the flight and come back outside through immigration again. You can get away with this once or twice, but make a habit of it and you will have issues.
zeeprod said: Does anyone here working in UAE make student loan payments? How does it work? What if you just wait till you're back home to carry on repayments? not too sure on this topic. Any help here is appreciated.





Thanks Click to expand...

Phone or email them and do the right thing, can generally pay by card on the phone or through an online portal now, or keep up your deferment applications if you earn under the threshold or feeling dishonest..Don't ignore it or you'll end up in arrears and defaulting, and TWG and others might not get their pension 
canonuser said: Does anyone know of a cable/satellite co which offers recording such as DVR's in U.S.? If not, what would be best device to record and watch later without commercials? Click to expand...

Some of the high end TVs have DVR's built in (small capacity) but they will write to a USB hard drive. I almost bought one that had it but ended up buying something else that did not have it. LG calls in Time Machine and I think others have it. I am not sure what the features are.I have PLDT Fibr with Cignal digital TV, and the remote has a DVR button, but it does nothing.
I'm about to renew a Section 11(6) spousal visa. I know I need to submit a police clearance certificate from SA, but do I also need to include police certificates from my home country and other countries where I've previously lived?
PLAAF Su-30MKK fighters over the South China Sea. (Photo : Xinhua)

China claims a small fleet of aircraft from the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) recently flew a combat air patrol over the Scarborough Shoal and the Spratly Islands as part of a combat training mission.



Scarborough Shoal, which China seized from the Philippines in 2012, is only 220 kilometers from Zambales, the nearest Philippine landmass. It is, however, 947 km away from Hainan, the nearest Chinese landmass.



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The patrol is a latest in a series of provocations by China attempting to scare the Philippines after the latter won a resounding victory in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague last July 12. The court declared China's "nine-dash line" illegal and with it China's claim to own the South China Sea. It also found China had infringed on Philippine sovereignty.



Already beset by international condemnation because of its refusal to abandon its claim to the South China Sea, China has embarked on a coercive diplomacy offensive that has threatened Australia with war and is provoking Japan by sending its fishing vessels escorted by coast guard ships into the East China Sea.



India has called on China to abide by the arbitration court ruling and announced it will come to the aid of any Asian nation threatened by China. A U.S. Navy fleet led by two aircraft carriers is currently patrolling the South China Sea.



This belligerence is surprising since China has no maritime ally in Asia. It can only pray that Russia's feckless support will translate into military action when push comes to shove in the disputed Asian seas.



The PLAAF aircraft included two Sukhoi Su-30MKK all-weather, long-range strike fighters; two Xian H-6 twin engine jet bombers; an Ilyushin IL-78 "Midas" aerial tanker and an AWACS (Airborne Early Warning Control System) aircraft, probably a KJ-2000, of which only five are in service with the PLAAF.



The patrol was part of actual combat training to improve the PLAAF's response to security threats, said Senior Colonel Shen Jinke of the PLAAF.



The Su-30MKK (NATO codename, Flanker-G) were refueled twice over the sea, Shen said, indicating this aircraft might not have come from Hainan, headquarters of the South Sea Fleet of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). These fighters have a round trip range of 3,000 kilometers.



The PLAAF said the patrol completed a series of training missions, including air defense early warning maneuvers, air combat and island patrolling in a complicated electromagnetic environment. It flies regular South China Sea patrols to safeguard state sovereignty, security and maritime interests.


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As summer vacation winds down, thousands of parents brought their children to the Freeman Coliseum on Saturday for the Back 2 School Expo, an annual event that offers free school supplies, immunizations and games.

The line for the school supplies  one free backpack and a bag full of pencils, crayons, notebooks, rulers and other goodies for each student  wrapped all the way around the interior of the coliseums Expo Hall. Cox Media Group, which runs seven local radio stations, has been putting on the event for about 15 years, said Jennifer Schultz, promotions manager at The Eagle 106.7 and 99.5 KISS FM.

Its for everybody, but it really focuses and fills a need in our community for underprivileged children, she said.

The event has grown over the years as more radio stations have become involved, Schultz said. Last year, more than 4,000 parents and children attended.

Several local nonprofits set up booths at the event, signing up families for medical programs and offering free services such as eye exams, head lice removal and haircuts. But many areas of the event were just for fun, including a face-painting station, a modeling runway and a booth for Elite Force, a company that sells airsoft guns.

Companies and organizations such as Academy Sports + Outdoors, CommuniCare Health Centers and the San Antonio Aquarium made donations to the event. It was also supported by Alamo Area Colleges and the Brain Balance Achievement Centers, a program devoted to helping children overcome learning problems.

Pamela Knight, of the Northwest Side, came to the expo with her grandson and granddaughter, who are entering first and fourth grade, respectively. They spent a long time waiting in line for the school supplies, but it wasnt as bad as last year when they had to wait outside, she said.

After getting their free backpacks, she and her grandchildren planned to stick around to enjoy the fun and games, she said.

Its for the kids. It helps the kids out, she said.

One of the recreational booths belonged to the San Antonio chapter of the Texas Lego User Group, an organization of about 80 local Lego aficionados. They set up a train track running along a row of Lego sets, including a haunted house, a miniature Apple store and a Ghostbusters car. And they had plenty of Lego supplies available to satisfy the imaginations of children visiting the expo.

What I like about Lego more than anything else is it creates what I call Lego moments, when children become excited about what theyve built, said Chris Macdougald, founder of the local chapter. It creates a family moment where kids and adults can play together.

rwebner@express-news.net

@rwebner
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The Aryan Brotherhood of Texas wanted a pound of Albert Parkers flesh and they took it with a blowtorch.

The blue flame melted the large, dark tattoo on his rib cage  the gangs badge of honor, a declaration that Parker was a made man in a group where membership is for life, orders must be obeyed, and respect means everything.

Everything, that is, until it came time for some to save their own skin.

God forgives. Brothers dont, is the gangs mantra, and Parker had dared to question the authority of a higher-up. In retribution, he was beaten, burned and left for dead in the North Texas countryside.

But Parker survived, and the brutal tribunal that tried to kill him got swept into a landmark criminal case now considered to be the largest federal punch ever landed against a Texas crime syndicate.

Nearly 75 of the gangs leaders and associates were charged and convicted in the wide-ranging conspiracy case. Half of those charged eventually cooperated with authorities in exchange for leniency, even if it meant being marked for death forever by their former brothers.

The turmoil it left behind has virtually stopped the Aryan Brotherhoods reign of terror in Texas, federal authorities said.

More Information Aryan Brotherhood of Texas What: Largest white supremacist prison gang in Texas and one of the largest in the country Originated: 1980s in Texas prisons Operates: Primarily in Texas but with sizeable operations in New Mexico and Oklahoma How many: 1,500-2,000 members Number of generals: 5 Gang symbols: Nazi symbols, the numbers 14 and 88 Federal takedown 6 - Number of years authorities spent investigating the gang 73 - Number of gang members indicted on federal charges 73 - Number of gang members convicted 71 - Number of gang members who pleaded guilty 38 - Minimum number of gang members who cooperated with federal authorities in exchange for leniency 900 - Total years in prison gang members received during sentencing See More Collapse

At least for now.

They are in chaos, absolute chaos, said David Karpel, the Department of Justice organized crime lawyer who spearheaded the prosecutions. It has reduced their power; they dont know who to trust.

Some of the men who cut their teeth in the Texas prison system  criminal royalty in some cell blocks - will never again step foot on a public street or into a prison in the Lone Star State.

And the very discipline wielded by the gangs leaders to keep the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas strong was used by federal investigators to dismantle it.

They are still trying to figure out who cooperated and who didnt, Karpel said.

A review of court documents, transcripts, records and interviews shines a new light on the inner workings of the notorious gang and the Houston-based investigation that sent it reeling.

It also found emerging signs that the gang is struggling to rebuild.

The Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, like any other large gang with strong street presences, is not going to go away because of a single bust, even if it is a very large one, said Mark Pitcavage, senior research fellow at the Anti-Defamation League.

An inside look

The Aryan Brotherhood of Texas wasnt the original target of the federal probe that launched in 2008  authorities were going after the Bandidos Motorcycle Club, a legendary outlaw group that started in Houston 50 years ago.

But investigators shifted their attention to the Aryan Brotherhood when an aging felon started talking.

The felon, who dabbled in tattoo artistry and firearms, was cornered. He had been caught with a gun he could not legally own and was facing about 15 years in federal prison. It would be a slam-dunk conviction.

His only shot at leniency was joining what Karpel called Team USA.

The man, whose identity remains protected, talked for hours. He knew Bandidos, he told authorities, but he also knew a general in the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas who lived in Tomball.

Armed with the new information from the man and other sources around the state, the federally backed task force launched Operation Wheel Confinement, a reference to the gangs circular internal structure.

By then, the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas had become one of the largest and most violent white supremacist gangs in the United States, with about 2,000 members.

Formed in the 1980s in the Texas prison system, its members are all white, heterosexual felons. They can never have served in law enforcement, been an informant or been convicted of child molestation.

Nicknames abound: Theres Dutch, Polar Bear, Dirty, Slick, Ruthless, Magic.

The gang operates as a paramilitary organization, with leaders holding such ranks as general, captain and major, and those in the trenches referred to as soldiers.

There are five generals, each in charge of a region of the state, who form a committee known as The Wheel. Most of the top leaders have been behind bars so long, and so often, that theyve never even met each other in person, according to insiders.

Members of The Family, as the gang is known, wear tattoos, known as patches, that signify their membership. They are worn on the rib cage and usually include a swastika and the letters A and B and Texas.

Many members have said they were drawn to the gang as a way to protect themselves in state prison against other inmates who wanted to steal from them or abuse them.

Recruits are required to learn the gangs constitution, sign blind faith commitments in which they accept that all orders must be obeyed, and provide a report on their criminal backgrounds, including where and when they have been convicted and served prison time.

Members who are no longer in prison must attend monthly meetings known as church to pay their dues and a portion of any proceeds from drug deals or other crimes. If they dont pay dues or cant recite sections of the gangs constitution, they are subjected to internal discipline, such as beatings or worse.

And while race has been a rallying cry for gang members, racism takes a back seat to business, federal authorities learned.

Ive seen (members) that will of course deal with folks of a different color, and theyll particularly do it on the outside when making money, according to testimony in a court hearing in Houston by Richard Boehning, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Boehning led the Houston-based task force that went after the gang.

Murder and mayhem

The gang has long history of crime and violence in Texas  robberies, drug deals, burglaries, kidnappings, assaults and murders.

But the brotherhood often saved the harshest violence not for minorities or other race-based gangs but against its own members and associates.

Gang member David Super Dave Mitchamore and his girlfriend, Christy Rochelle Brown, were marched into the woods near Nacogdoches and blasted in the head with a shotgun over an unpaid debt to a general.

Prospective member Mark Byrd was beaten and shot near San Antonio after stealing drugs from the gang. He was kidnapped and beaten, and his throat was slit, before he was blasted with a shotgun at close range. Gang members were ordered to take turns pulling the trigger so theyd all be equally involved.

The criminal cases were compiled and analyzed by the task force  which included the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and others  during regular meetings at the ATF Houston divisions headquarters.

They learned about the cases, saw photos of the victims and mapped out the locations. And while it became clear that Houston and Dallas were among the gangs strongholds, they realized it also operated in towns large and small across the state.

The goal was to roll a grocery list of crimes into a federal charge known as racketeering, which means that even a beating, when committed on behalf of a criminal enterprise, can bring heavy federal prison time.

Rounding them up

The sweep began before sunrise on Nov. 12, 2012, as hundreds of officers and federal agents closed in on the homes and hang-outs of the gangs members and associates.

The indictment spelled out the mayhem in graphic terms: the murders of Mitchamore and his girlfriend; the killing of Mark Byrd; the kidnapping and assault of Parker; and other attempted murders, kidnappings and beatings.

Some of the gangsters stared in silence as they were swept up. Others cursed. One tried to run and was shot in the leg. Another tried to flee on a motorcycle before being captured by Houston police in the Third Ward.

Some of those indicted were already in custody. Chad Folmsbee, known as Polar Bear for his hulking size, was behind bars after being arrested in 2011 outside a Conroe gun show where he had traded a wad of cash for four military-style rifles.

Larry Bryan, the gangs most senior general, was in state prison when the new charges emerged  and just months from his release date after serving 21 years on a heroin distribution charge.

Bryan eventually admitted leading the group from inside the prison walls, telling authorities he once used a smuggled cellphone from his high-security cell in the Coffield Unit to address a church meeting in San Antonio.

Making a snitch

The biggest success in the federal operation was perhaps convincing gang leaders to testify against their brothers, said Assistant U.S. Attorney General Leslie Caldwell, who leads the justice departments criminal division in Washington, D.C.

The same thing happened with Italian organized crime: when the first members started cooperating, it lost a lot of its luster, Caldwell said.

Threatening them with prison time is not enough to get them to talk, since most grew to prominence behind bars, said Texas Ranger Brandon Bess.

You have to understand their lifestyle, why they are a member of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, Bess said. I honestly believe that for every one of them, it brought a sense of family they might not have had. Some of those guys have good, solid families, but the majority have some type of family issue to where the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas became their family.

Perhaps the highest profile gangster to flip from brother to informant was a general named Terry Sillers.

He is tattooed from head to toe with Aryan Brotherhood of Texas pride, including an image of Texas tattooed across his throat and B-E-T-R-A-Y-E-D across his knuckles.

He spoke in court during his sentencing in 2014 that the gang betrayed him and its purpose by unleashing so many attacks on women and its own members.

A death warrant for Sillers is inked into the neck of another gangster, James Chance Burns, who sports a tattoo of Sillers wearing a hangmans noose. Burns was the gang captain from the Dallas area who ordered that Parker be burned with a blowtorch. He was later sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for the attack.

Overall, the federal case had led to convictions of the 73 gang members charged. All but two pleaded guilty; the others were convicted in federal trials.

They received a combined total of more than 900 years in federal prison without parole.

Looking ahead

Today, the gangs criminal activity appears to have dropped sharply, with fewer arrests of the gangs known members.

Authorities believe it has accepted no new members since 2009, as part of an ongoing internal effort to better control who is in its ranks.

In the wake of the federal prosecution, there has been an increasing awareness that those who step into leadership positions are not only closely watched by law enforcement but could be subject to further federal charges. During gatherings outside prisons, cellphones are often temporarily confiscated to avoid surveillance by potential informants.

Paranoia runs rampant, but with good reason. Law enforcement has concentrated on reading mail, listening to phone calls and turning members into informants, and investigators have captured material that enabled them to build a database of members, including their past and present activities.

The violence seems to have abated, however, some question the effort.

I can understand why the Department of Justice hopes and thinks they advanced mankinds goals but in reality the only thing they accomplished was transferring prisoners from state prisons to federal prisons, said Houston attorney James Stafford, who represented Bryan. They did nothing to break the back of the brotherhood organization.

Federal officials, however, say much of the top leadership has been dispersed around the country, including at least two top generals now serving out their time in special witness protection programs.

Steven Stainless Cooke, the Tomball general identified by the initial informant, never took a deal but was convicted for killing a major in a rival faction. He is serving life in a federal prison in Kentucky. His wife  who turned against him  disappeared into the federal witness protection program.

Bryan, the general who used the cellphone from prison, likewise refused to cooperate with law enforcement and is serving 25 years at a federal prison in Colorado for racketeering.

And Kenneth Hancock, who used the blowtorch on Parker, did not cooperate and was sentenced to 15 years for racketeering.

Even after the federal indictment, however, the gangs death warrant remained on Parker.

In 2014, he was lured into a field in North Texas under circumstances never fully disclosed, and stabbed to death by Dalton Clayton, who wanted to be a member of the gang and was trying to impress them with the killing.

Clayton never quite made membership in the gang, it appears, but he followed a path trod by many of the brothers. In March, he was sentenced to life in state prison for Parkers slaying.

Now behind bars, he is being treated as a full-fledged member of the brotherhood, locked away 23 hours a day in a one-man cell.
Apple's Siri Digital Assistant (Photo : Twitter)

Apple Inc. has bought artificial intelligence (AI) startup Turi for around $200 million. The tech giant's purchase of the Seattle-based company specializing in machine learning is likely to improve its AI technologies including digital assistant Siri. The Silicon Valley company has confirmed buying the company through an official statement, but has not provided new details about the acquisition.



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Apple verified buying Turi on August 5, Friday. A company spokesperson confirmed the news to several media outlets by sharing that the tech titan sometimes buys smaller tech companies but usually does not share its plans or goals, according to Engadget.



Turi was known in the past as Dato and GraphLab. In 2009 Prof. Carlos Guestrin of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg launched the GraphLab project. The high price will result in a prodigious pay-out for the company's early shareholders.



A Bloomberg source suggested that Turi's machine-learning tech could give Apple's voice assistant Siri new ways to communicate with real people.



The Cupertino, California-based company already uses AI for many functions such as word-typing prediction, song and app recommendations, and image recognition. Turi's machine-learning tech could add to Siri's functionality.



The finance giant's source also stated that the acquisition would allow Tim Cook's company to connect with AI researchers. Apple has a long history of maintaining top-secret product development. On the other hand, Turi has a better relationship with AI researchers and in July held a machine-learning conference for data scientists in San Francisco.



Apple also wants to expand its Seattle business. The Steve Jobs co-founded company has been constructing engineering buildings in the state's largest city for the past two years. It bought cloud networking startup Union Bay Networks in 2014.



In related news, Carnegie Mellon's Mayhem AI won the $2 million grand prize from the Cyber Grand Challenge (CGC) in Las Vegas, according to Tech Crunch. It was hosted by the United States government's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).



DARPA's CGC centers on autonomous technology but it is about Internet security instead of robot tech.



CGC included seven teams. They played a hacking game that required them to do certain tasks while being fed software bugs and security holes. Teams had to protect their data while trying to access other teams' digital information.



Here's a video on Siri for Apple TV:






"In China, a lot of the time, the wife controls the money of the family... a lot of the dinners are cooked by the wife and they also do the shopping for the food - so we have to pay attention to them."
Voter Guide: Everything Cumberland County voters need to know
The cast of the television show 'General Hospital' attends the 39th Annual Daytime Entertainment Emmy Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on June 23, 2012 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo : Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

"General Hospital" (GH) episode airing in the week of Aug. 8 - 12 will see some big revelations, birthday party celebration, and more drama. A big announcement will shake everyone at a party, Franco will receive a bad news and Morgan and Ava have a showdown. Here are the detailed spoilers for the next five chapters of "General Hospital" (GH) Aug. 8 - 12 spoilers. Read on to find out what happens next.



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[Spoiler alert! This article contains for "General Hospital" (GH) episode airing in the week of Aug. 8 - 12. Do not read further if you don't wish to know more about it.]



The week on "General Hospital" (GH) opens with some drama surrounding Ava and Kiki. According to We Love Soaps and Soap Central, Kiki pushes Ava away and tells her to not interfere in her business. Later, Ava has a major confrontation with Morgan. Ava's home is destroyed.



Meanwhile, Laura overhears Kevin and Lucy's conversation and learns important information. Laura and Ava find common ground to work together.



As for Franco, things don't look too good for him. He receives upsetting news. There is no information about Nina's storyline next week. However, the show is expected to see what happens next for her.



Elsewhere, Liz and Jason come face to face and Liz asks Jason to stay away. In an unexpected situation, Liz finds support from Liesl.



In the meantime, Port Charles Town residents get together to celebrate Bobbie's party. An unexpected guest arrives and stuns everyone. At the same time, a big news is revealed at the party and the guests react to the same.



In addition, Lulu informs Hayden about Nikolas' future. The information shocks Hayden. At the same time, Finn confides in Hayden. Sabrina is in a hospital where she sees someone familiar. Michael makes a plea to someone. Jordan has a proposal for Andre.



Kristina makes an apology. Later, she finds out what Alexis has done and loses out her temper.



In other news, actor Tyler Christopher, who played the role of Nikolas Cassadine, is returning to the show. According to Soap Central report, the big announcement was made during at this year's General Hospital Fan Club Weekend. He will reportedly make a comeback in September. However, an official announcement is yet to be made.



"General Hospital" (GH) airs weekdays on ABC. Stay tuned for more spoilers and updates.


Joe Jonas was left behind by his tour bus in Toronto, Canada following a drunken night out with a cheerleading squad.

DNCE / Credit: Emily Shur

Alongside his DNCE bandmate Cole Whittle, the two were left out in the cold and had to ring the bus driver to let them know they weren't on board.

Jonas explained to #legend magazine: "Me and Cole have had a pretty crazy night one or two times where we stayed up all night.

"Once we were in Toronto, partying and hanging out with a cheerleading squad, and we got left behind by our tour bus, which was pretty amazing. So, five in the morning, the tour bus just took off without us."

He added: "We were literally at the border back to the United States. We were just sitting on the street in the freezing cold in the middle of December waiting. We called the bus driver and he was like, 'What do you mean? I already left. You weren't there on time'.

"The bus eventually came back for us, but it took about an hour. We were drunk and happy enough to just hang out and Cole kept pointing at the CN Tower and calling it the space noodle."

Check out the video for DNCE's new single 'Toothbrush' below:

by Daniel Falconer for www.femalefirst.co.uk

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Moments ago at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California, former world champion Andre Ward kept his undefeated record intact, dominating and defeating Alexander Brand via unanimous decision. Ward looked sharp in his quick return to the ring, beating Brand to the punch often with his superior speed and skills. Relive all the action in FightHype's round-by-round results!



ROUND 1

Ward jabs to the body. Brand on his back foot. Brand fires a right to the body then misses wildly with a left hook. Stiff jab lands for Ward. They trade jabs. Ward backing Brand up with his jab. Ward digs two good left hooks to the body and head on the inside. Ward walking him down. Brand not really throwing much back. Another jab to the body for Ward. Brand swings and misses wildly again. Round to Ward.



Ward 10 Brand 9



ROUND 2

Ward misses with a left hook, but follows with a right to the body. They work against the ropes. Brand wings a right that's easily blocked. Brand clubs him to the back of the head with a right. Now Brand lands a low blow that gets the attention of Ward. Ward walking him down. Good left hook upstairs lands for Ward. Ward backs him up to the ropes. Jab to the body for Ward. Another. Jab upstairs lands for Ward. Round to Ward.



Ward 20 Brand 18



ROUND 3

Ward digs a 1-2 to the body. Brand gets in a right to the body. Brand touches Ward with a left upstairs. Ward fires his jab. Ward sticks another jab to the gut of Brand. Another. Brand retreats. 1-2 from Ward. They trade on the inside. Ward measures him with his jab. Hard right to the body lands for Ward followed by a left. Ward works him on the inside. Brand holds on. A couple more jabs to the body for Ward. Brand gets in a left. Round to Ward.



Ward 30 Brand 27



ROUND 4

Ward quickly backs him up to the ropes. Jab to the stomach from Ward pushes Brand back. Ward touches him with a right. Jab lands for Ward. Hard right to the body lands for Ward. Stiff jab from Ward snaps Brand's head back. Brand gets in a left upstairs and Ward shakes his head. Right to the body lands for Ward. Another. Brand didn't like it. BIG left hook upstairs lands for Ward. 1-2 lands for Ward. Ward backs him up with his jab. Round to Ward.



Ward 40 Brand 36



ROUND 5

Left hook lands for Ward to start the round. HARD right hand lands for Ward. Ward turns up the heat and works Brand on the inside. Right lands for Ward. Brand fires to the body. Another right to the body pushes Brand back. Right to the body and a BIG left hook upstairs lands for Ward. 1-2 lands for Ward. Brand gets in a good right to the body. Ward pushes him back with a jab and a right. Ward switches to southpaw. Big straight left lands for Ward. Another nice shot lands for Ward. Jab lands for Brand. Ward just grazes him with a left cross. Round to Ward.



Ward 50 Brand 45



ROUND 6

Left to the body lands for Ward. Left hook lands for Ward. Ward still in the southpaw stance. Brand fires a nice combination. Ward fires back to the body. Two straight lefts land for Ward. Hard left hook to the body lands for Ward. Brand digs to the body. Ward lands a big left hook upstairs that backs bRand up. Brand gets off a 1-2. Ward slips some punches. Another big left hook lands for Ward. Straight left lands for Ward. And another BIG left hook from Ward snaps Brand's head. Jab to the stomach for Ward. Round to Ward.



Ward 60 Brand 54



ROUND 7

HARD 1-2 from Ward to start the round. Brand fires his jab. Quick 1-2 from Ward. Ward walks him down. Right to the body lands for Ward. Ward works him on the inside. They trade jabs. Brand's eye showing some damage. Jab to the stomach for Ward. Brand gets in a nice little uppercut. Ward just shakes it off and continues to walk him down. Ward switches back to orthodox and lands a big hook. Round to Ward.



Ward 70 Brand 63



ROUND 8

Big right from Ward to start the round. Left and a right lands for Ward. Ward works him on the inside. Another right and a left lands upstairs for Ward. Brand gets in a left hook. Ward jabs to the body. Big right from Ward backs Brand up. Another right lands for Ward. 1-2 from Ward. Brand retreats. Left hook lands for Ward. Stiff jab lands for Ward. Right and a left lands for Ward and Brand holds on. Round to Ward.



Ward 80 Brand 72



ROUND 9

Right lands for Ward. Big left hook lands for Ward and Brand holds on. Ward looking to counter now. They trade jabs. Ward back to walking him down. Jab to the stomach for Ward. Brand fires back, but misses. Right hand down the middle lands for Ward. Brand gets in a left, but not much on it. Ward works the body. Nice right lands for Ward. 1-2 to the body from Ward. Brand gets in a short 1-2. Big swing and a miss from Brand, who falls to the floor. Left hook lands for Ward. Right hand lands for Ward right at the bell. Round to Ward.



Ward 90 Brand 81



ROUND 10

Ward measures with his jab. Brand retreats. They trade jabs. Overhand right lands for Ward. Ward backs him up with his jab. Ward works him on the inside. Right hand lands for Ward. Ward works the body. Ward touches him with a right and a left. Left hand down the middle lands for Ward. HARD left upstairs lands for Ward. Brand fires to the body. BIG left hook from Ward kocks Brand into the ropes. Round to Ward.



Ward 100 Brand 90



ROUND 11

Left hook lands for Ward and Brand nearly drags him to the canvas trying to hold on. Right cross lands for Ward. Ward digs to the body. Another right to the body lands for Ward. Left hook from Ward bounces off Brand's head. HARD counter right lands for Ward. Another right lands for Ward. Nice right lands for Ward again. Left hook to the body lands for Ward. Brand fires a right. Right and a left lands for Ward. Round to Ward.



Ward 110 Brand 99



ROUND 12

Ward lands a right to the body. Left hook from Ward grazes him. Left and a right lands for Ward. Brand lands a combination. Left hook from Ward lands again. Quick left hook lands for Ward. HARD right from Ward snaps Brand's head back. Another hard right lands for Ward. Brand lands a left hook upstairs. Ward walks him down and lands a right. Left hook lands for Ward. Round to Ward.



Ward 120 Brand 108



Official judges scorecards: 120-108, 120-108, 120-108



THE WINNER BY UNANIMOUS DECISION...ANDRE WARD

[ Follow Ben Thompson on Twitter @fighthype ]
NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - August 07, 2016) - With the mercurial rise of co-working companies like WeWork, and large corporations increasingly turning to freelance work, office developers are being forced to adapt in new and innovative ways. New York real estate investor Jacob Frydman recently addressed these unprecedented changes in commercial real estate, including the deviation from traditional workspaces to the development of high performance office spaces that feature flexible leases and impressive amenities.

Commercial trends of the past few years, such as businesses seeking shorter leases and turning progressively to remote workers, have culminated in a revolution that has been dubbed the "Uber Phenomenon." A traditionally slow changing industry, real estate developers are being forced to rapidly implement user-friendly tech and lease options in their buildings in order to please a younger, yet demanding workforce. Frydman emphasized that those who don't recognize the market's needs risk being overwhelmed by innovative disruptors, akin to what Uber did to a well entrenched, monopolized taxi industry.

High performance offices are designed to induce productivity, and developers are aligning with company's increasingly worker friendly objectives and work processes. Apart from amenities such as juice bars, lounge rooms and fitness centers, these workspaces often offer flexible, short-term leases and the option to sublease. Developers are embracing co-working and office sharing, industries currently undergoing exponential growth, where space is rented or sublet to freelancers or small businesses that do not want or cannot afford a large office.

Businesses' globally are shifting towards values of happiness, purpose and meaning. Frydman believes that embracing these trends will lead to workplaces that not only increase tenants' profits, but also enhance employees' daily life experiences, and ultimately to a competitive advantage in an advancing industry.

Jacob Frydman has over 30 years of experience in structuring, financing and executing highly complex real estate transactions. Notable achievements of his career include Two Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, an office condominium tower in midtown Manhattan used by foreign governments for their missions to the United Nations, and redeveloping the Aetna Building in lower Manhattan's financial district. An avid philanthropist, he has been a firm supporter of Chabad of Dutchess County, the Brem Foundation to Defeat Breast Cancer, and other organizations. He generously dedicates much of his time and capital to programs aimed at helping people in struggling communities, and is proud to have recently joined the National Committee for Furtherance of Jewish Education (NCFJE) in support of its Released Time program of Greater New York.

Jacob Frydman -- Blog - JacobFrydmanNews.com: http://JacobFrydmanNews.com

Jacob Frydman -- Discusses Current Trends in Commercial Real Estate: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/jacob-frydman-discusses-current-trends-032355134.html

Jacob Frydman -- Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/jacob-frydman

Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2016/8/7/11G109577/Images/Jacob_Frydman_-_On_the_Development_of_New_High_Per-1ff13dea68e6ba74bf93a84ae1dcc363.jpg

Embedded Video Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHS77IcaFwc

Contact Information:

JacobFrydmanNews.com

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www.JacobFrydmanNews.com
LegalVision, a Sidney, Australia-based smart law firm, secured $4.2m in Series B financing.

The round was led by Gilbert + Tobin.

The company intends to use the funds to expand its tech offering and increase its presence in underserved regional communities, as well as major international cities.

Led by Lachlan McKnight, CEO, LegalVision provides Australian businesses with legal resources, offering over 3,000 legal articles and 40 free legal documents on its website. The company, which currently has 60 employees, has served more than 15,000 Australian businesses  including startups, SMEs and large listed companies to date.

FinSMEs

07/08/2016
Kismath has a self-deprecating air of being a small film. Do not be misled by its modesty. It is large in ways that the arts are meant to be: large-hearted, open-minded, intelligent, aware and enriching, with a worldview that encompasses the nuances of Kerala society yet mirrors realities across India. This is, in fact, a very big film.

Debutant Shanavas K Bavakutty's Kismath is a remarkably understated account of a couple driven apart by social barriers. Irfan is Muslim. Anitha is Hindu. He is from a well-off family. She is financially less privileged and a Scheduled Caste. In a social milieu that deems it essential for a man to be older, wiser and wealthier than his woman partner, she is 28, he is 23. They are residents of the small town of Ponnani. They are in love. And though nobody in the entire damned vicinity of their lives seems to notice or care, they are good friends.

Anitha and Irfan are conscious of the hurdles in the path of their relationship. As an audience we too have read reports of the ugly ongoing love jihad campaign exemplified by the pressure and threats against a couple from Meerut  he a Muslim, she a Hindu  in the run-up to the Uttar Pradesh by-elections of 2014. This awareness on both sides of the screen builds up a sense of foreboding from the moment we first meet the pair at the centre of Kismath.

The youngsters have already faced some aggression from their respective families and so, to pre-empt any eventualities, they head off to a police station in Ponnani to seek protection. There they discover what they ought to have known already: that the police do not emerge from a vacuum but are drawn from the same prejudiced society they are trying to escape. What follows is their battle on multiple fronts  against his relatives, her relatives, extra-familial busybodies and the people in uniform  over perhaps 24 hours in educated, seemingly progressive Kerala.

Even before their saga unfolds, a minor episode at the police station gives us an idea of the insights and detailing to expect from Kismath. It should have given Anitha and Irfan an idea of what they were in for too. An Assamese man is accused of causing a road mishap involving two locals. The chap does not speak Malayalam, but when SI Ajay C Menon enters the picture, he communicates with him via Hindi and physical aggression, and manages to extract some of the truth of what happened. Unlike Tamil Nadu, which has vehemently resisted and prevented the effort to impose Hindi as a national language on non-Hindi-speaking India, Kerala tends to look up to Hindi bhaashis and view the ability to speak the language as something of a virtue of a superior race. Meanie Menon has a swagger, his fluency in Hindi adds to it.

This adjunct to the main plot throws up other asides: all the cops know that the guy involved in the accident is Assamese, but they casually persist with calling him a Bengali (a moment of introspection for south Indians who get irritated when north Indians club all "south ke log" together as "Madrasis"); and when Menon learns where he is from, he immediately asks if he is a terrorist. The police station, you see, is a microcosm of the world outside.

The rest of Kismath is just as acutely observed. Interestingly, Anitha and Irfan speak of living together, not marriage. Equally interesting  and disturbing  are the unsavoury insinuations made about both of them by various parties. It is fashionable to romanticise small-town and village life but the film, at one point, gently reminds us that the impersonal nature of big cities can spell freedom from some shackles for marginalised and oppressed groups.

It is a relief too that Anitha and Irfan are not presented as an immature couple who were floored by each other at first sight. In that little town that is home, past gender segregation and communal biases, they meet by sheer chance, they hang out together for believable reasons, he does not stalk her (whew!), they become friends and gradually begin to see each other as potential life companions. Miracles do happen, after all.

Writer-director Bavakutty has been quoted in The Times of India as saying Kismath is "inspired by an incident that happened in the lives of a 28-year-old scheduled caste girl and her 23-year-old boyfriend, a B Tech student, at Ponnani in 2011" when he was the Municipal Councillor of Ponnani. Some reactions to Kismath have compared it to Ennu Ninde Moideen, last years critically acclaimed hit starring Prithviraj Sukumaran and Parvathy, because it too was based on a true story of an inter-community romance in the state. With due respect to Moideen fans, I felt that film started out with immense promise but ended up being emotionally manipulative, high-pitched and exasperating. Kismath is none of the above: it is realistic, matter-of-fact and concise.

Shane Nigam and Shruthy Menon have likeable personalities, and deliver low-key, convincing performances as Irfan and Anitha. The pick of the talented cast though is Vinay Forrt as the corrupt, creepy cop who allies with their relatives.

It could have been called Love In The Time of Love Jihad, Dalit Suppression, Sexism, Casteism, Parochialism, and A Pretence of Liberalism. Frankly, the film should have been called anything but Kismath (meaning: destiny). Because it is not about what fate does to its helpless victims, it is about misery by human design and the manner in which we go about destroying lives with our ignorance and bigotry.

The misplaced title is one of my very few problems with this film. The other would be its failure to address one important aspect of Anitha and Irfans relationship. Before the couple fall in love, we learn that Irfan dropped out of an engineering course, is whiling away his time at home, is unemployed, living off his familys money and already at loggerheads with his father as a result.

Considering that he is mature beyond his years and sensible enough to know the potential dangers they both face if they persist with their relationship, considering that they both come across as having their heads on their shoulders, it seems odd that they thought they could openly continue their romance  even with police protection  while he is financially dependent on his influential father. Keep in mind that Anitha herself is a research scholar with an old mother to take care of. Irfans purposefulness towards her does not gel with his aimlessness elsewhere.

That said, Kismath is brave and well worth a visit to a theatre. It was released in Kerala on 29 July, and has travelled to Delhi a week later. I watched a subtitled version in the Capital  considering how whimsical producers, distributors and exhibitors are in this matter, do inquire about subtitles at your local hall. The subs had some spelling errors, which are annoying for an (ex-)editor, you may perhaps be more forgiving. Still, to the extent that I could judge when I occasionally glanced at the words flashing at the bottom of the screen, they conveyed the essence of what was being said. Non-Malayali film enthusiasts, do note.

It would be easy to take Kismath for granted because it does not make a song and dance about anything it says or does. Let us not do that. There are Irfans and Anithas in many corners of India and their chilling experiences need to be visited again and again until these horrible human-made societal walls are brought down. That is what Kismath does in a non-preachy, even tone. With this film, Indian cinema gets a courageous new voice. Heres looking at you, Mr Bavakutty.
Friendships and business is difficult to maintain. There are numerous examples of iconic companies that were built by friends and then had to call it quits on their friendship due to personal clashes. On Friendship day, Firspost spoke with a few co-founders of start-ups to find out how they manage to keep the personal and professional tie-ups moving seamlessly without risking one for the other.

Talking to the founders, what was clearly evident from the conversation was their easy familiarity and deep respect for each other. The other thing that stood out was the habit of each able to complete the other's sentences or thoughts. A pair of co-founders spoke to us separately and we found that both echoed each other. Perhaps, this comes from knowing each other well over a period of time or because they are aligned to their goals as a single unit.

Read on:

UrbanClap, a mobile services marketplace that connects local service providers with the community.

Founders: Varun Khaitan, Abhiraj Singh Bhal and Raghav Chandra. Khaitan and Bhal know each other for over 11 years since their IIT-Kanpur days.

How they know each other: The 28 year-olds now, met at the IIT counselling session in Chennai. Khaitan says he 'happened' to get into IIT Kanpur as his friends were preparing for IIT-JEE, while Bhal decided to apply as he got 'reasonably good grades' in school, and his father, a naval officer was an IIT-ian and an inspiration.

We met during the counselling session at Chennai and found ourselves both at IIT-Kanpur, and hit it off immediately, says Bhal.

On starting up: After graduating from IIT Kanpur in 2009, Khaitan took off to US to work at Qualcomm Inc., and later switched to The Boston Consulting Group, New York. We used to meet when I came to India, and took vacations together. At one of our vacations in 2012, I spoke to Abhiraj about coming back. I was clear about coming back. After a few months, we both had made up our minds and decided to come back. Abhiraj was working with BCG in Jakarta then, and we both moved back to Delhi to start-up.

Bhal has a slightly different take on the same story. We graduated at a pathetic time, in the middle of the recession 2008-9. However, Varun was a topper at IIT and had many offers, including top job offers and PhD scholarships. So he had many options to choose from. For lesser mortals like us, there was not much. I considered joining the Armed Forces in my father's footsteps, and applied for the Short Services Commission, which then was for five years only. The idea was to spend five good years in the army, and then do something else. But the year I applied, the Army changed the rules to a minimum of 10 years service, as they realised they were not getting returns from the short services. I got a letter mentioning this 10 year bond, which meant I would be 32 when I finished. I had been accepted to IIM Ahmedabad for my MBA, and decided to head there. I regret not being able to do a stint in the army. It is a fantastic career option that young people should consider."

On UrbanClap: It was a decision they came up with after proving the basics of the idea. It has a third co-founder, Raghav Chandra. Each of them pooled Rs 10 lakhs and launched UrbanClap in September 2014.

The size of the platform is quite small compared to our ambitions and we need to grow it to 1,000 times, which will take 5-10 years. It is not profitable right now of course. However, there is a clear path to profitability, says Khaitan.

There is no hurry to get anywhere, says Bhal. "It took over 10 years to build Amazon into a meaningful business and around eight years for Flipkart. As of now people go online to buy products. There is no Amazon for services. We are off to a good start, are the market leaders and well positioned to realize that dream," believes Bhal.

On their friendship: For Khaitan, the choice of starting a company with someone is fundamentally about trust and belief. Abilities and complementary skill sets are the next step. I have always had complete trust in Abhiraj to do the right thing when it comes to personal and business decisions. He is someone I can trust more than myself. That is the foremost decision checkbox. We are comfortable working together, have the same wavelength of thoughts. We consult each other on important things. We know what each other will do in any given situation. Around 90% of the times we have taken the right call on all decisions. There are disagreements but the way I see it, one of us is right. If we are not convinced, then we do an experiment. The strength of UrbanClap is that one of the three brains can solve the problem."

Bhal says he considers Khaitan to be among the the two or three most intelligent people he knows. Varun is very, very sorted, methodical, structured and invariably knows what is the right thing to do. I compliment him with my ability to pull the team together. In defining moments of this journey, one of us three will know what it is right thing to do. Not just Varun but also Raghav, too. Each of us has a very high level of mutual respect and blinding trust in the other. I dont second guess what Varun or Raghav say. Unlike early days, heated discussions dont happen much and if they do, then someone knows when to back off.

Lessons for entrepreneurship and friendship: A start-up, no matter how important, is a business at the end of the day, says Bhal. While one gives it everything they have got, to make life meaningful, it is important to nurture relationships and friendships. Nothing can be more important than that.

Razorpay, a payments platform for companies who want to run their business online

Founders: Harshil Mathur, Shashank Kumar

How they know each other: They met at IIT, Roorkee. Kumar was a year senior and doing computer science. He met with Mathur who was doing mechanical engineering. At IIT, first and second year students work together on projects. I was interested in computer programming. says Mathur. I always wanted to work in technical projects and wanted to work in the computers field. There was this team of code writers in college and I went up to meet them and see if I could find some projects to work together. Shashank spoke about a project that he wanted to pursue and I found it interesting. Programming was always a passion though not part of the curriculum. It is difficult to pursue it as the pressure of studies is very high at IIT. However, I was hardly interested in mechanical courses.

On starting up: Kumar says, We have been good friends since college. One of the good things about our friendship is that we are free to talk about anything that is not in our comfort zone and are very grounded individuals. That is our strength, too. One has to be practical in business. We are very open about being critical of each others ideas.

On Razorpay: It was a mutual idea that came about from the duo facing difficulties in payment. They both researched on regulations, payments and found a gap in the market. We were convinced we could fill this gap and left our jobs to focus on the idea, says Mathur.

Razorpay was launched in March, 2015. Kumar made more investments in the venture. We needed Rs 25 lakhs as bank security and he raised Rs 40 to 50 lakhs, says Mathur.

Kumar says the payment problem in the digital space is a hard one to solve. However, he claims that they have the right team to solve the issue. Our aim at Razorpay is to give customers a pleasant experience and not be afraid to go digital. We want to change the economy to digital and have built unique technologies to make it seamless. We want the customer to click pay and be done with it."

On their friendship: Mathur says what works for them is that they are non-emotional and practical. I dont have to think twice about saying anything to Shashank lest it hurts his emotions. I doubt whether Shashank has any emotions! A lot of friendships go bust as people are emotional. Our friendship grew in a working atmosphere while at IIT. We are together not to please each other. We know each others strengths. I am better at the non-tech side of things and love meeting and talking to people and conveying ideas. Shashank has sound knowledge on the tech side and thats immense. He is good at motivating teams. We dont have a Me vs You approach in anything we do.

Kumar says that their biggest strength is that they can focus without being distracted. He shares their working equation. When we want to achieve something, we work hard even it takes a year or two and dont give up ever. This has been true since our college days. Our arguments are practical and we discuss everything without getting personal. Whenever we fight, one of us compromise and then both align to the goal. We dont get carried away or do stupid things like not talking to each other. If the discussion get heated, one of us says lets leave this discussion for later. We will pick that up later and work on other things.

Lessons for entrepreneurship and friendship: Do not let ego rule a relationship. That can ruin any relationship, not just friendship. When any argument or debate gets heated, learn to freeze, back off for the time being. Discuss again when calm, suggests Kumar.

As long as one is passionate and the goal is common, then what is important is to work as a group and not as an individual endeavour. Break-ups happen when there are ego issues or the goals dont align. If you want different things in life, then coming together for a common purpose is defeated, says Mathur.

Wildcraft, a manufacturer of performance gear started in 2008

Founders: Gaurav Dublish, Siddharth Sood and Dinesh Kaigonahalli. Dublish and Sood know each other since 2000.

How they know each other: Dublish and Sood, both 40 year-olds, met at NarseeMonjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai. We lived in the hostel in Mumbai and got to know each other well in the two year period, says Dublish. The entrepreneurial spirit was there early on and both of them did projects together that were not part of the curriculum. Siddharth pursued specialization in Finance and Dublish in Marketing. We flirted with many business models and ascertained its viability, says Dublish. Sood says that though he and Dublish had cushy jobs after they graduated, they had this `rebellious streak in them that made them cast all that aside and take off on an entrepreneurial journey. While at NMIMS itself, they realized that wanted to be entrepreneurs. We had this inherent need to do something on our own and were seeking an opportunity to do that, says Dublish.

On starting up: Sood and Dublish are outdoor adventure enthusiasts. They discussed the idea while on a fishing camp near Bangalore. We were not sure of the commercial viability of our hobby and were not sure whether to get into services or products, says Sood. So they settled on services at first, but later found the commercial route for goods more viable.

On their friendship: Dublish says Sood was always a bully. I am laid back and he would pull me into his various projects. Sood interjects with,I let Gaurav say whatever he wants to!

Dublish says that he strongly suspects he was roped in as Sood wanted someone he could bully in the start-up! However, he quickly adds that what has brought them together is their common interests in books, literature, hobbies and the fact that they could start a conversation from their first meeting at NMIMS.

There is a bonhomie that is evident in their relationship. Sood says that he played `mom while Dublish had jaundice in college. He says, I peeled papayas for the first time in my life. Dublish adds, And ended up eating most of the papaya!

Both agree that the commonality that bound them was their love for literature. The other factor that binds their friendship, feels Sood, is that they dont look back on the past. We are focussed on the present and the future. We have faced a lot of difficulties, have had a lot of pressure with no money in the bank but yet every day at the workplace has been a day in spring simply because we love what we do."

When they have disagreements, the duo says they know when to step back. The challenge is not to let any disagreement descend to chaos. We trust each other completely. We have an open office and each of us is in the know of what is happening, says Dublish.

On Wildcraft: The duo with Dinesh Kaigonahalli pooled in a `few lakhs to startup Wildcraft. The company has grown over 100 time in nine years, says Dublish. We intend to make Wildcraft a global company. We have a presence in 11 countries so far. Being a product-driven company, we want to take Indian innovation international. We manufacture in India. In the next decade, we want to make Wildcraft a generic name." Sood wants the company to forge ahead beyond their shadows as co-founders.

Lessons for entrepreneurship and friendship: It is important to have complementary skill sets as co-founders. No one should suppress pr dominate the other, suggests Dublish. Sood says that luck plays its part. You can be good friends and yet not make it as co-founders of an entrepreneurial venture. There is a risk that you may spoil both. Luck does play a great part, he says.
The death of 26 black bucks due to poisoning after they grazed on maize crop that were laced with pesticides in Gummadam village in Mahbubnagar district of Telangana has focused attention on the death traps that fields in the countryside are.

The bodies were discovered on Saturday afternoon in the fields located on the backwaters of Srisailam reservoir on River Krishna. In fact, when the incident came to light, some of the animals were still alive and struggling for life. However, by the time they were rushed to the local veterinary hospital, they succumbed.

While the bodies were sent for postmortem, the crop samples have gone for forensic investigation. Officials say farmers in the area as a matter of habit, use balls of pesticide granules (called gulikalu in Telangana slang), as a way of warding off rodents, black bucks, insects and wild boars. The animals and insects do not come near the maize crop, repelled by the strong chemical smell of the pesticides.

The cultivated maize crop has been destroyed and cases have been booked under Wildlife Protection Act against those who had used the pesticide. "Forest officers have repeatedly told the farmers not to use the insecticides because there is a huge black buck population in the area. But farmers still continue to do this,'' said Rema Rajeswari, Mahbubnagar SP.

Forest officers say the farmers are in fact, prohibited from cultivating in this area for precisely this reason. They are told that if there is damage to crops by black bucks, they will be compensated by the forest department.

The incident has focused attention on the man-animal conflict. Farm experts say the farmers and government officials should ideally fence the field but farmers find putting these pesticide granules a cheaper option.

Animal rights activists are not entirely convinced. Arun G, Founder of People for Cattle in India says it is quite possible the black bucks were intentionally poisoned to ensure they do not graze on the crop. "Several wild animals are either killed by poisoning or beating up or captured. Even if the animals died due to pesticide consumption, the toxicity of the pesticide has to be analysed because it would be fatal for humans too,'' says Arun.

Indeed, the death by poisoning of such a large number of black bucks has now focused attention on how the pesticides and insecticides would find their way into the food chain by getting mixed with the backwaters. Of particular concern is whether food crop grown in these parts or any other region in Telangana, is fit for human consumption.

A report in 2012 by the Hyderabad-based National Institute of Nutrition made the shocking disclosure that every Hyderabadi consumes 18 different pesticides for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Another report by the Environmental Toxicology division of Hyderabad-based Osmania University in August last year reported extremely high levels of cadmium, nickel, lead, iron, chromium, manganese and zinc in vegetables like okra, mint, spinach, tomato and coriander grown on the city outskirts. The reason for that was said to be its source of irrigation - the polluted Musi river that flows through Hyderabad and contains industrial effluents and municipal sewage.

Agriculture scientist G Ramanajaneyulu says every food item that is sold in Hyderabad contains residues of pesticides but in the absence of any tests, it is consumed by citizens. "Some of the spices like red chillies, even in powder form, are never washed in their lifetime so the entire pesticide residue comes into the food chain,'' says Ramanajaneyulu.

With heavy metals known to accumulate in body parts, researchers said they cause cardiovascular, kidney and bone disorders. In fact, among the pesticides, Aldicarb and Chlorfenvinphos are banned while Simazine is withdrawn from commercial marketing. Two other pesticides - monochrotophos and Diazinon - are restricted from being used on vegetable crops.
Barely a day has passed since Prime Minister Narendra Modi reprimanded "self-styled" cow vigilante groups, and gau rakshaks have upped their ante. A cow vigilante group from Karnataka has written to Modi demanding stricter punishment for cow slaughter.

The group from Karnataka has demanded that a central anti-cow slaughter act be enacted nationwide which promises stringent punishment to the 'perpetrators', according to CNN-News 18.

#BREAKING Gauraksha Dal writes letter to PM demanding cow slaughter ban, says 'raise punishment for cow slaughter' pic.twitter.com/udZnpJxyNj  News18 (@CNNnews18) August 7, 2016

The demand comes on the thresholds of Modi's statement in his first townhall-styled citizen interaction in India on Saturday. Breaking his silence on the heated debate around the atrocities on Dalits in the name of 'gau raksha', Modi had said that he was outraged at such self-styled cow vigilante groups who pretended to be cow protectors in the day only to hide the anti-social activities they indulged in during the night. "Some people who have opened their shops in the name of cow protectors, I feel anguished by them. Gau sevaks and gau protectors are both very different," Modi had said.

Modi also said that any kind of activism, let alone gau raksha, cannot involve torturing human beings. In what could be seen as an attempt to purge the anti-Dalit image of the RSS, Modi said "swayamsevak" (the term commonly associated with RSS cadres) means "selfless service". A swayamsevak cannot be inducing fear in others, Modi had added.

Lashing out at the so-called vigilante groups, Modi also requested the state governments to rein in such groups by maintaining a dossier and keeping an eye on their activities. The Prime Minister claimed that more often than not, they will turn out to be anti-social elements in the garb of gau rakshaks.

The Prime Minister's comment came in the backdrop of the Una Dalit flogging incidence last month, where four Dalit youths were flogged publicly for allegedly killing a cow. The victims were in the profession of skinning dead cows. Following the incident, the ruling BJP and Modi drew flak from the opposition as the Prime Minister chose to keep mum on the incident for so long.

Congress's Manish Tewari said that such incidents are happening because the BJP has been tacitly promoting these groups. He said they are ideological followers of the BJP and termed Modi's statement a "rhetoric", as reported in CNN News18.

India is burning from KASHMIR to Kokrajhar &@narendramodi is #townhalling&balling.When will PM realise rhetoric can not substitute action...  Manish Tewari (@ManishTewari) August 6, 2016

However, Congress' Sheila Dixit was much more soft in her attack, terming gau raksha as "our prime responsibility". She, however, accused the BJP of a double stand stating that the BJP members worship cows but do not protect them, according to The Indian Express.
Islamabad: An American national, who was blacklisted and deported from Pakistan in 2011 after he was allegedly caught spying on sensitive installations, has been arrested after he arrived at the airport and got clearance from immigration officials.

Matthew Craig Barrett, who was barred from entering the country after being deported on charges of espionage, arrived at Benazir Bhutto International airport in the morning yesterday and was granted entry by the immigration officials.

When it came to the notice of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, he ordered the arrest of Barrett, and suspended immigration officials at the airport for negligence, according to a statement by the ministry.

Barrett was later picked up by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and police officials in a joint raid on a guest house in the capital and an FIR was lodged against him for violation of immigration laws, the statement said.

The Interior Minister has ordered an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the grant of a Pakistani visa to Barrett, the Dawn reported.

A case has also been registered against two FIA immigration officials, Sub-Inspector Raja Asif and his son

Ehteshamul Haq. Ehtesham has been arrested, while raids were being conducted to arrest his father, police sources said.

The minister has already suspended an assistant director of the FIA as well as the immigration officials who were on duty when Barrett was cleared by authorities at the airport.

He has also issued directions for the formation of a joint investigation team for a thorough probe into the matter.

The interior ministry said that action would also be initiated against officials at the Pakistani consulate in Houston, who were responsible for issuing a visa to Barrett.

A spokesperson for the US embassy in Islamabad told the daily that the Privacy Act prohibited him from releasing any information about the American citizen without his consent.
Dar ke aage jeet hai. That's a tagline that Mountain Dew perhaps popularised with its numerous incredulous advertisements. For some though, the line is not just a smart piece of carefully crafted words but something in which they see real meaning. And one such person is Nidhi Chaphekar.

"I am sure that rules are made to make things better. Human beings must be messiahs of kindness. I would try to change how they treat people in prison. We should try to get a smile on people's face. I can't forgive the terrorists, but help reform them. Revenge is not the answer, love must be taught," Chaphekar told CNN-News18 in an interview.

Had one not been from the list of her family and friends, very few would have known about Chaphekar, the Jet Airways flight attendant who became the face of global terror after she miraculously survived the deadly blasts at the Zaventem Airport in Brussels on 22 March this year. More so, after the picture that was shot by photojournalist Ketavan Kardava after the attack clearly showed her in a state of shock.

Emerging from a state of extreme physical and mental trauma, today Chaphekar is a better person than she was. And this is what she had to say, "I have always been a very positive person. I take things as challenges. I am a more positive person after the terror attack. I have become more easy going, life is too short."

These lines of optimism have not come easy if the clock is rewound to the fateful March day. The Jet Airways stewardess was horrified when she was shown her own picture at the Brussels hospital where she was admitted. A lurking fear soon gripped her if she would be acceptable to her near and dear ones again.

"I was afraid of being accepted after seeing my face (after the blast). It was like there was a blast on your face. How am I going to do my job? How will my kids accept me?" an emotional Chaphekar told CNN-News18 about the most challenging period of her life so far.

Like it did many others, the picture that Kardava had clicked stunned her too. But beyond the gory details that froze the moments of blood and shredded clothes together, the picture also had a hidden message to her family.

"I was stunned to look at my picture in the newspapers. My face was in agony, in pain. It was like there was no life which is being covered. All other aspects were shown but the human factor," Chaphekar told CNN-News18. "It was also a message to my family that I was alive," she said.

The bloody "boom" she heard in March will perhaps ring in her ears forever. However, beyond the deeply distressing experience she endured in the last six months, the Jet Airways staffer discovered the true meaning of life literally escaping from the jaws of death. She discovered love, affection, goodness and the power of prayer.

"We have different cultures. Gods may be different but prayers are the same," Chaphekar said.

The perfectionist she is, Chaphekar is already "missing work, (and) can't wait to get back." But she has also realised, life is not about work alone, it has to be interspersed with some mauj masti (fun).

"My kids are proud of my survival story," she said.

Until she taxis again on a new flight to another destination, life has already taken off from a different runway for the better.
Bullet-ridden bodies of unassuming individuals had again drenched the soil red in Kokrajhar. Falling to a hail of bullets sprayed from automatic weapons on Thursday at Balajan Tiniali market, the 14 deceased would be a part of the long list of casualties who were victims to similar incidents the district has previously witnessed.

Located on the north bank of the river Brahmaputra, the Kokrajhar district in Assam has a picturesque landscape and is a true embodiment of the rustic life with which the state is usually associated. Over 93 percent of Kokrajhar's population lives in rural areas. Kokrajhar is one of the westernmost districts in Assam sharing its western boundary with West Bengal and northern boundary with Bhutan. It has Chirang district to its east and Dhubri to its south. The district also serves as the gateway to North East India with all road and rail traffic entering the region through Srirampur.

Despite the idyllic setting that the district is blessed with, Kokrajhar has however been known to the world mostly for the wrong reasons. The rise of Bodo militancy in the '80s shattered the peaceful atmosphere and turned it into one of fear and bloodshed. The Bodos dominate the district demographically and there is a large section which still believes that they were purposefully marginalised by the majority Assamese in the state.

Lack of basic facilities and proper academic avenues, inadequate employment opportunities and large scale poverty all cumulatively fuelled the Bodo nationalism to such an extent that the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) straightaway demanded sovereign freedom from India. The Bodos were given the status of Scheduled Tribe (Plains) under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution in 1988 but this half-baked approach has clearly proved insufficient.

The National Democratic Front of Bodoland took off with its initial nomenclature of Bodo Security Force in 1986. It took its current name in 1994. Soon after its birth, the NDFB had only one mission  ethnic cleansing of non-Bodos from the Bodo areas. The adivasis  Santhal, Munda and Oraon  bore the brunt of the first round of violence. This finally led to the birth of the Adivasi Cobra Force in 1996 to protect the Adivasis from the marauding Bodo militants.

What made matters worse was the beginning of fratricidal killings as the NDFB often exchanged fire with another Bodo militant group called the Bodo Liberation Tigers Force (BLTF). The BLTF was born in June 1986 but it surrendered in 2003 and became the Bodo People's Progressive Front under the leadership of Hagrama Mohilary.

The NDFB signed a peace agreement with the Centre and the state in 2005 but this has not led to any solid development on the ground as the group got divided into pro- and anti-talk factions. The result is that peace has always remained fragile and innocent lives are lost as it happened on Thursday in Kokrajhar.

"I feel sad because no one ever writes about the positive things that happen in Kokrajhar. Perhaps we Bodos don't know how to highlight the good things that happen here. Our culture never gets reflected but only these killings do. Probably we are missing out because we are not forward looking as a tribe," Assam Forest Minister Pramila Rani Brahma told Firstpost. She represents Kokrajhar (East) constituency in the state Assembly.

"What happened on Thursday is really sad. I don't understand the need for such brutal killings. In the end they are killing their own people. Perhaps they wanted to show they are still around," she said.

Since the December 2014 carnage that saw the deaths of 78 innocent individuals in Kokrajhar and other areas governed by the Bodoland Territorial Area District (BTAD), the Indian Army along with paramilitary forces and Assam Police had jointly launched Operation All Out to finish off the NDFB-Songbijit faction.

"What kind of operation are they conducting? Former Assam DGP Khagen Sarma had said that there were less than 50 NDFB-S cadres who were active. But now they have gunned down 70? Don't they know what they are doing?" asked Pramod Boro, president, All Assam Bodo Students' Union (ABSU).

"State Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said police arrived within seven minutes after the incident happened. But people are saying that the security forces took at least half an hour to reach. IGP LR Bishnoi is saying that it was an unplanned attack and so the attack could not be prevented. If an unplanned attack can inflict so much damage what will a planned one do?" he questioned.

Boro blamed the government for Kokrajhar being negatively perceived as a killing field.

"Violence is associated with Kokrajhar only because of a few people. The state government, Centre, civil society and even the administration have never helped the Bodo community sincerely. Kokrajhar has seen violence for nearly 50 years be it in a small or on a large scale. What is worrisome is that terror is taking new form," the ABSU chief said. "Even after the BJP government took over, the extremist problem has not got resolved despite pressure from civil society. There has to be a policy decision, not half-hearted efforts," he said.

Hundreds of security forces, civilians and militants have died in violent attacks such as bomb blasts. This is true not only of Kokrajhar, but other districts under the Bodoland Territorial Council as well. Violende didn't spare Guwahati either where the Bodo Security Force killed 40 in 1992. Who can forget the deadly blasts that ripped apart many places in Guwahati, Barpeta Road, Bongaigaon and Kokrajhar killing nearly 100?

Bloodshed is a brutal reality that Kokrajhar can't afford either to overlook or ignore.

"We can't control the media. We neither have a strong electronic media presence nor too many media personnel from the Bodo community," said Kamala Kanta Mushahary, general secretary, Bodo Sahitya Sabha.

"We have so many good things like tie-up with universities, sensitisation programmes against the violence by the extremist groups including NDFB(S), ULFA(I) and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). We have documented everything but nothing is attractive to the media. Obviously, if a massacre of this scale takes place then media will be there to report. Kokrajhar now has a Central Institute of Technology, an university, even a medical college is coming up but these are all not featured," Mushahary said.
Even as clashes were reported between protesters and security forces in Anantnag and Shopian districts of south Kashmir on Saturday, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "silence" on the situation which he termed as "heart-breaking" and "worrying".

Heart breaking & worrying in equal measure. At what point will the Centre (read Hon PM) wake up to the crisis here? https://t.co/WdcFlceviy  Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) August 5, 2016

How I wish my Prime Minister had found a few reassuring words for my state which has seen almost 50 deaths & countless injured #MannKiBaat  Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) July 31, 2016

He was reacting to the death of three persons in security forces action after violent protests on Saturday. Curfew continued in many parts of the Valley and normal life remained paralysed for the 29 consecutive day. 21 people were injured in violence in Chee in Anantnag when protesters staged a rally, a police official said, adding the security forces used various crowd control measures to disperse the protesters.

The National Conference working president on Saturday had hit out at the Centre for claiming that the situation in the Valley was improving. Omar tweeted:

1 more unfortunate death, countless injuries today & the centre tells the Hon SC that "things are improving" Wow!!!! https://t.co/GQaBJetdEl  Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) August 5, 2016

In another tweet, Omar said it was only the ruling coalition partners -- PDP and BJP -- who agreed with this stand.

Seriously? By which stretch of imagination? I haven't met anyone in the valley except the BJPDP ostriches who agree! https://t.co/OhaXbo864G  Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) August 5, 2016

The Centre on Friday told the Supreme Court that the law and order situation in Kashmir Valley has improved considerably since the outrebrak of violence following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on 8 July. It said the violent protests having gone down from 201 on 9 July to 11 on 3 August.

With three deaths on Saturday, the toll in the violence in the Valley has now reached 54. "Curfew remains in force in six police station areas of Srinagar -- Nowhatta, Khanyar, Rainawari, Safakadal, Maharajgunj and Batamaloo -- as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order," a police official said. He said curfew was also in force in four towns of Budgam district -- Chadoora, Khansahib, Magam and Budgam , Anantnag town and Khanpora area of Baramulla district.

"Restrictions on assembly of four or more people continue to remain in effect in rest of the Valley," the official said.

Omar expressed complete "disappointment" at the lack of "political measures" taken by the Centre since Home Minister Rajnath Singh visited the Valley last month. "To blame Pakistan for the unrest or to delude ourselves into thinking this is a law and order situation is criminal. There is an extreme sense of resentment and disenchantment among the youths of the Valley and that is the basis of this unrest," Omar said in a statement here.

He said every appeal to New Delhi to engage with Pakistan and the people of Kashmir to resolve the issue has falling on deaf ears.

"There is no sense of concern and empathy from the central government," the former chief minister said.

He said the sense of "bereavement, injustice and hopelessness" in Kashmir is "widespread and deep".

"New Delhi's continued arrogance in refusing to acknowledge this to presumably save its government in the state with PDP goes against not only all tenets of justice and humanity but also against the interests of the country and its people against the very fabric of the country's constitution," he said.

"Kashmir is a political issue and nothing short of a comprehensive, sustained political dialogue with all stakeholders in the Valley as well as Pakistan can serve as an acceptable alternative on the policy level," Omar said.

Attacking Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, he said, "Mehbooba is solely and primarily interested in her ridiculous self-marketing exercises by going to the extent of playing out video footage of board meetings and administrative meetings on Doordarshan to apparently pretend she has a bone of empathy and humanity in her and that she is still around. "Nothing could be more insensitive to the suffering and bereaved families at this juncture..." he said.

"We had asked for an immediate ban on pellet guns and that security forces as well as the police should be held accountable for any excessive use of force," he said.

The recent killing of Reyaz Ahmed from Chattabal in Srinagar has demolished every possible argument that defends the use of lethal force in the Valley, he said.

"Has New Delhi declared a war on the people in Kashmir? Hundreds of young boys and girls have potentially life-changing injuries, most of them caused by pellet guns."

He said despite nearly 300 youths being shot in their eyes with pellet guns, the state and the central governments seem to be "encouraging" the use of pellet guns through their "inaction and silence" rather than banning their use.

"It is evident that their sole concern is political survival based on a quid-pro-quo arrangement where PDP has sold out to the BJP and BJP's central government in New Delhi has in turn quite apparently extended its unconditional protection and patronage to an inefficient, insensitive and inept state government in Jammu and Kashmir," he said.

Expressing disappointment at the central government's apathy towards the "grave" situation in Kashmir, Omar said the Centre had "misled the Supreme Court by saying the situation in the Valley was improving and under control".

"Just a day after the central government misinformed the Supreme Court about the situation in the Valley, three youths lost their lives and more than 400 have been injured - a lot of them having sustained life-threatening, lethal injuries," he said.

Expressing grief and anguish, Omar extended his heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families and prayed for recovery of thousands who are battling serious injuries in hospitals.

With inputs from PTI
Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad on Sunday arrested a youth from Parbhani for his alleged links to the Islamic State group.

The recent development comes after Kuwaiti authorities on Saturday arrested Islamic State recruiter Abdulla Hadi Abdul Rehman Al Enezi on a tip-off given by the National investigation Agency (NIA). According to reports, Hadi had allegedly funded the Indian Islamic State operative Areeb Majeed.

#FLASH One man, Abdulla Hadi Abdul Rehman Al Enezi, arrested in Kuwait for suspected links and for terror funding and recruitment for ISIS.  ANI (@ANI_news) August 6, 2016

Reports suggest that Hadi had paid upto $1,000 to the Indian IS recruits. He reportedly admitted his involvement in the terror organisation after his return from Pakistan in 2013.

In November 2014, Areeb Majeed was brought back to India from Iraq-Turkey where he had gone earlier that year as an IS recruit. NIA had brought him back to Mumbai through diplomatic channels after they had tracked Majeed to a city in Turkey based on a call.

Majeed, a civil engineering student from Kalyan in Mumbai, was part of a group of four who had left India on 23 May 2014 to join and fight for the IS in Iraq. While, Majeed chose to go to Mosul to fight for the IS, his other three friends Fahad Sheikh, Shaheen Tanki and Aman Tandel opted to work for the social media wing of the IS.

According to a report by The Times of India, Majeed had revealed some of the names of his associates when interrogated by NIA. The agency soon started investigating and found that Majeed had recieved money from Kuwait.

Deccan Chronicle reported that the agency had sent a Mutual Legal Assisstance Treaty (MLAT) to the country seeking information about the identity of the person who had transferred the money.

This is touted as the first international arrest made by the NIA in connection with Islamic State recruitment in India.
New Delhi: Narada News CEO Mathew Samuel was on Saturday released after being detained by Immigration authorities at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here on his arrival from the US following a lookout notice issued against him by the Kolkata police.

Joint Commissioner of Kolkata Police (Crime) Vishal Garg told PTI, "Samuel was initially detained at the Delhi airport but was later released after being asked a few questions by the Immigration personnel."

A division bench of Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice A Banerjee on Friday ordered an interim stay into the Narada sting operation probe launched by the Kolkata Police till the next date of hearing on 19 August. The lookout notice had been issued before the HC order.

Affirming they would go by the HC directive, Garg said, "We respect the order of the hon'ble high court and will abide by the same."

Meanwhile high drama marked after the news of the detention spread, as Samuel's counsel Samim Ahhamed shot off a letter to Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajiv Kumar which said, "Hon'ble High Court put a stay on parallel investigation initiated by the Kolkata Police. Inspite thereof, as per your instruction, the immigration authority at Delhi has detained my client in violation of high court order..."

In the letter the counsel also alleged the KP has already commited contempt of court and said, "You are requested to take immediate steps to release my client from police custody."

Earlier minutes after Samuel's detention, Kolkata police was asked to approach the immigration authorities in Delhi with relevant documents about the case before he could be handed over to them, official sources said.
New Delhi: The Opposition on Sunday termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement against cow vigilantes as "absolutely humbug", alleging that his ideological co-travellers were perpetrating "terror" in the name of cow protection.

Congress leader Manish Tewari questioned Modi's "silence" on the Dadri lynching incident last year and alleged that the PM was selective in his outreach. "..why does he not prevail upon RSS to disband the VHP, why does he not take action against the office bearers of Bajrang Dal?

"Therefore it is his ideological co-travellers who have been perpetrating this spectre of uncertainty and terror in the name of cow lumpenism across the country, thereby whatever the Prime Minister says today is absolutely humbug and completely sanctimonious," Tewari said.

Echoing similar sentiments, JD(U) leader Pavan Verma said had the PM given a stern message earlier, the "menace" of gau rakshaks could have been prevented.

"If the Prime Minister had given the same message earlier, we would not have seen this menace of gau rakshaks spreading pan India. But he chose to stay silent while tweeting on every other subject under the sun. Breaking silence is welcome, the only question is why so late," he said.

CPI leader D Raja also crticised the ruling dispensation stating there were issues on which people expect the PM to speak, including, increasing atrocities on dalits.

"Why has the PM not uttered a single word against the atrocities committed in his own state Gujarat?" he asked. BJP, however, defended Modi's statement and said the opposition attack was a "classic book example of political bankruptcy".

"There cannot be more direct censure by the Prime Minister in expressing his displeasure to what anti-social elements are doing in the name of 'Gau Raksha'," BJP National Secretary Sidharth Nath Singh said.

He said since the opposition has nothing against the Prime Minister, it wanted to hide its failures and indulged in pointing fingers at the Centre. In his first public denouncement of cow vigilantes, some of whom flogged dalits in his home state Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Saturday said he felt enraged at such "anti-social elements" who indulged in crimes by the night and masqueraded as cow protectors by the day.
Editor's note: As Rio De Janeiro prepares to welcome over half a million visitors for the 2016 Olympic Games, to be held during 5-21 August, Firstpost presents a series that helps readers get to know the Brazilian city a little bit better.

Home to one of the wonders of the world, Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro is the most visited city in South America. Rio attracts tourists from all over the world. The main postcard of Rio, Christ the Redeemer is one of the mandatory stops in Rio. Going up the Corcovado hill by tram, and admiring the beauty of Rio from above, is one of the unique experiences that will help you better understand Rio's natural glamour. Located 700m above sea level, this 30m statue is no doubt a world wonder.

Guide Ricardo Monteiro has worked with tourists from 62 different countries. He gives two tips that are essential to experience the best of your trip to this world wonder:The first is to try to arrive as early as possible (7.30 am) and also during weekends and holidays, one should be prepared to face long queues, since Christ is one of the most visited tourist points in Brazil. The second suggestion is to visit on a sunny day, when its panoramic view from the top will take your breath away.

Pao de acucar or the Sugar Loaf is the next most visited place in Rio. The mountain resembles a sugar loaf and is thus called so. One takes a cable car to reach the top of the Sugar Loaf Mountain. Ricardo says, "I suggest people trek up to Urca. It is about an hour and is one of the most amazing experiences anyone can experience."

Rio is not only about mountains, it is famous for its beaches as well. Copacabana and Ipanema are among the top urban beaches in the world. Steffens is a German visiting Brazil for the 2016 Rio Olympics. He explained to us how he feels about being in Rio: "Rio has very good beaches. I managed to rent a wonderful sea view apartment in Copacabana. I love to relax in the beach side kiosk listening to samba music. The Copacabana fort that separates Ipanema from Copacabana is a nice place for an evening stroll. Well, I plan to extend my stay in Rio by a couple of weeks."

Rio and Samba

Rio is also the cultural capital of Brazil. The yearly carnival sees top samba schools parade the streets of the Sambadrome competitively for only one to be judged the grand winner. Mangueira Samba School was crowned the winner of 2016 carnival. Samba is one of the typical Brazilian music styles one can hear. Its origin goes back to the colonial times when African slaves brought along their tradition to Brazil. Rio and Samba have always been hand in hand. Samba researcher Marcos Alvit says, "Today, Rio has different types of Samba music like Samba Roots, Samba Carioca, Samba Rock, etc. Samba de Rodada is when the men play the instruments and the women dance. There are versions where couples dance in ball rooms."

Rio's city center is full of culture and history dating back to the colonial times. Rio Scenarium is a cultural pavilion located in the centre of the city. This beautiful three storied colonial building attracts more than two thousand visitors during the weekend. Brazilian music like Samba, Forro, choro, MPB, etc are the only music to be played here.

Capoeira: the martial art-cum-dance

Not only is Rio's music influenced by the African slaves, but also its famous Brazilian martial art-cum-dance called capoeira. When African slaves arrived in Brazil, they realized the need to develop forms of self protection against violence and repression of Brazilian settlers. They were the constant target of violence and punishments of their masters. They were forbidden to practice or train in any kind of fights or martial arts.

Soon, slaves used the rhythm and movements of their African dances, adapting to a kind of fight. Thus came capoeira, a disguised martial art-cum-dance. Capoeira was an important instrument of cultural and physical resistance of the Brazilian slaves. It is still associated with African Brazilian descendants and is practiced in most part of the country with pride.

Rio is also the home of Brazilian cinema and most of the local films, TV soap operas and famous films like City of God, Elite Trop 1 & 2, Hulk 2, Fast & Furious 5, Dhoom 2 etc. have been shot in Rio.

Rio has given to Cariocas (its inhabitants) and the world, its natural beauty, memorable music, a strong heritage and a rich culture. With all this, and the ongoing Olympics, it can indeed be called the touristic and cultural capital of South America.

Also read, Rio 2016: Before the Summer Olympics, get to know the 'Cidade Maravilhosa' of Brazil

The writer is a business consultant and freelance journalist, who has been living in Brazil since 2008
Couple of weeks ago, something unusual happened during the Question Hour session in the Rajya Sabha. On the question posed by member of Parliament (MP) Mohammad Nadimul Haque from Bengal on what was being done to curb what another MP and senior Supreme Court advocate called The Great Indian Spit, parliamentarians rose above their regular party politics to deride the age-old habit.

Displaying unusual unity, members posed questions that ranged from whether scientific studies had been conducted to assert the harm done by spitting in public, to would the government consider banning tobacco and pan completely. But some also got their point across with a dash of humour with Nadimul Haques remark wittily summarising the habit when he said, Sir, India is a spitting country. We spit when we are bored; we spit when we are tired; we spit when we are angry or we spit just like that. We spit anywhere and everywhere and we spit at all times and at odd hours. Health Minister JP Nadda could only sheepishly remark to hold an inter-sectoral meet on the issues raised and later assured the MPs that an advisory to take cognisance of the habit will be passed to all states.

So what makes us a spitting people? A spitting nation? How widely prevalent is the habit across the country? Raja Narasimhan, who runs the Spit Free India campaign as part of his organisation Sare Jahan Se Acha, has an interesting insight. According to him, There are certain things that become peculiar habits and it gets difficult to correct them. It is infact becoming a culture with many sections of the society. People driving in Mercedes also spit and a labourer spits too. So it has become a nasty habit which we have allowed to develop over many years."

Having travelled all over the county on a recent journey from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, Narasimhan says no part of the country has been spared by the pockmarks of The Great Indian Spit. According to him, the dreaded red stains may be less visible in the Southern part of the country probably because the culture of chewing pan is more prevalent in the Northern states and the rest of the country more than makes up for it. If it is not mouth pichkari then it is a lungful blast of tobacco.

Climbing the stairs at most government buildings in Mumbai, it would be hard to miss the judiciously sprayed bloody marks in the corners. Narasimhan amusingly relates such markings to a tiger spraying it territory in a forest.

But maybe civil society should not bear the entire brunt of the blame. Lack of and disappearance of spittoons from our modernised urban sprawls may also be a factor in people spitting randomly everywhere. Till the '70s, municipal corporations would place spittoons, some filled with sand along electricity poles. But with the change of times and lack of staff to carry out such unpleasant tasks of cleaning the spittoons, authorities have been dissuaded from erecting them.

Depiction of spitting has also changed to in our popular culture. In our present day movies, spitting on the side to show disgust and power is a prerequisite to heroic machismo. Compare this to movies from the previous generation where comic scenes, for instance, were shown with pan chewing men and women who inadvertently would spit in a spittoon.

Shekar Menon of Final Mile, a behavioural architects consultancy, did some detailed research a few years ago into how to keep the area around his office spit free. He and his colleagues tried to understand the whole cycle of where people buy their spitting ammunition from, when they buy it and ultimately finding out what causes people to spit. His analysis found, There are two kinds of spitters, one is a conscious spitter like the pan chewers who even before buying knows he has to spit it out. The other are unconscious spitters. Menon thinks the conscious spitters look for anonymity and designated spots to relieve their mouth fluids. So after identifying the usual spitting spots, Menon started a campaign and got those areas painted with images of human eyes, showing as if somebody were watching the spitters taking away the feeling of anonymity from them. On the other hand Menon and his team formed an understanding with their surrounding offices to inform their employees to spit in designated spots only like a washroom sink. Such initiatives changed the conscious spitters usual habits. The unconscious spitters, he reckons just need educating and telling off as they are not as big a nuisance as the conscious spitters.

Such innovative deterrents have not always worked. Municipal corporations have had Indian deities' images painted on walls near footpath in order to keep them clean, but even these deities are not spared. One cannot always fault the common man on the streets when our politicians show scant regard for civic etiquette. The inimitable Lalu Prasad Yadav could easily carry the spitting baton among politicians and he displayed no hesitation in relieving himself in Gaya in 2007. Ironically he continues to be imitated across Indias bus stops, railway stations, roads, even hospitals and other public spaces.

Even the threat of hefty fines has been unsuccessful in breaking habits of habitual offenders. Most municipalities have well defined laws against spitting but these are rarely enforced due to lack of will and man-power. Regular anti-spitting drives are launched by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation but to little effect.

Social and health workers are banking on the fact that the spread of easily communicable diseases like TB, influenza and even swine flu can be contacted from people spitting. But Narasimhan reckons unless the problem is eradicated from its roots, we would continue to fish on the surface. So his organisation is reaching out to around 100 schools in educating primary and secondary children advising against developing habit of spitting in public and also creating awareness about it. It has been hugely successful in spreading the word as kids inturn educate the elders around them. Narasimhan says, This approach works better than publicly reprimanding an adult for the act as it hurts his ego. The programme is showing promise of expanding across the country as a volunteer in Gantok has taken up the gauntlet with the municipal corporation there.

Such programmes along with wider public awareness campaigns by governments  like the ones created by the Chinese to tackle the problem in a more cultural-evolutionary way  would go a long way in keeping our public spaces stain free. Singapore, on the other hand, implemented laws against spitting with an iron fist but in that country there anyway is a strict adherence to the law.

It is abundantly clear that there are multiple behavioural, cultural and legal approaches that can be drawn on to wipe the ugly stains from our walls. If the government is serious about building a clean, healthy society with its Swacch Bharat campaign, then it would do well to tackle spitting as much as it tackles defecation by building public toilets. At the same time, the civil society at large must hold a mirror to itself rather than spitting in its face.
Unnao: Congress chief ministerial candidate for Uttar Pradesh Assembly Polls Sheila Dikshit on Sunday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his foreign tours, saying these did not benefit the country in any way.

"Most of the time our Prime Minister lives in foreign countries and makes news. But his visits do not benefit the country in any way...He has made a lot of promises during polls but they were not fulfilled," Dikshit told Congress Seva Dal workers.

Assembly elections in the state are due early next year and Congress has projected 78-year-old Dikshit, a Brahmin, as its Chief Minister face hoping to cash in on the community votes.

The Brahmin community, a traditional vote bank of Congress, had shifted allegiance to BJP in the aftermath of the Mandir-Mandal politics and a section in the party feels it should make efforts to win back the support of the community.

A large chunk of Brahmin votes had also gone to Mayawati's BSP in the past when she gave tickets to many candidates belonging to the community. The Brahmin's support determines the poll outcome in several seats in central and eastern UP. Clarifying that she was born in Punjab but belonged to Unnao, as it was the place of her in-laws, the three-time Delhi Chief Minister said she had started her politics from Kannauj.

Highlighting her achievements as when she was the Chief Minister of Delhi, Dikshit said in her 15 years' in power she tried to solve problems of Delhi and now she has came to UP with the same vision.

"Congress will deal with backwardness of the state during the past 27 years. When Congress used to rule UP, the state used to grab first and second slot and now the situation is well known to everyone," she said. Congress has been out of power for 27 years in Uttar Pradesh and is projecting that the state has gone from bad to worse in these years through a campaign, called 27 Saal, UP Behaal.

Asked at a press conference later about the possibility of striking a pre or post-poll alliance, party leader Sanjay Singh said his party would ally only with the people and added that there were no talks on those lines.
If you have an important point to make, dont try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time  a tremendous whack.  Sir Winston Churchill

Indeed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit out at those indulging in cow vigilantism thrice: First, he made it clear to them that swayamseva wasnt about suppressing and terrifying others; it was about empathy and sacrifice. Second, he drove deeper the point by observing that cows died after consuming plastic  and not because of slaughter. And third, he requested states to prepare dossiers on such people as 80 percent of them would be found involved in activities which no society would approve of.

The Prime Ministers uncharacteristic hammering of the case against the so-called protectors of mother cow has, in turn, raised two key questions: First, is Moditva beginning to gain ascendancy over Hindutva? And second, are Narendra Modi and BJP two different entities?

Lets try to tackle the first riddle first. Those who claim to know Modi better than this scribe recall that the relationship between Narendra Modi on the one hand and different offshoots of RSS on the other had been bumpy and uncomfortable, even in Gujarat. There exist, in fact, too many instances of Modi putting the Hindutva forces in place with an iron hand.

Who doesnt know the fact that the then Gujarat Chief Minister and VHP stalwart Pravin Togadia had fallen apart long ago?

In an article published in indianraajneeti.com published on 15 January last year, Aseem Prakash writes: While it is difficult to pinpoint when the Modi versus Togadia clash began, many would agree that Modis ascendancy to the position of Gujarat Chief Minister and his desire to be his own man precipitated this clash. Modi sought to focus on governance, and not saffronisation. Importantly, he began ignoring Togadia and even sacked his crony, Gordhan Zadaphia, from the Council of Ministers.

Prakash further writes: But to focus on governance, Modi had to take on the RSS. For example, he locked horns with RSS sponsored Bharatiya Kisan Sangh when he decided not to roll back tariff on electricity supplied to the farming sector. While sensible economic policies such as these eventually led Gujarat become a power surplus state from a chronically power deficit one, it antagonised the BKS.

The article elaborates further: Modi didnt shy away from confronting the VHP on religious issues either. His government forcefully tackled an endemic Indian problem: encroachment of public space by religious structures. Consequently, the Modi government demolished nearly 200 temples in Gandhinagar which led VHPs Ashok Singhal to compare Modi with Mahmud Ghazni.

These incidents apart, there is yet another example of Modis style of governance: Yes, its the fact that VHP workers, who were protesting against Lal Krishna Advanis remarks in praise of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, were beaten up brutally by Gujarat police.

In one of his characteristic angry moods, Togadia had retorted frustratingly: The BJP, which claims to be Hindu party is moving away from its ideology.... Never in the past has even a Congress government imposed ban on carrying Trishul.....Is this what we had dreamt about a Hindu government? Certainly not.

Whats surprising in all this is that Modi went from strength to strength thereafter while Togadia and his followers, who had joined hands with Keshubhai Patels Parivartan Party, had to bite the dust.

Now that we have all got a glimpse of the other side of Modi, will it be too far-fetched to imagine that a renewed power struggle between the Prime Minister and godforsaken loudmouths owing allegiance to the RSS is on the cards? Chances are, yes.

Remember, the Prime Minister had declared on the floor of Parliament in November last year: India first is the only religion and Constitution the only Holy Book."

Now, lets try and answer the second query: Are Modi and BJP two different entities? Again, the reply is yes. And why not?

We have all been witnessing two things happening simultaneously: The stature of the Prime Minister continues to rise both within the country and abroad while the BJP certainly doesnt look like what it was in 2014 strength wise. The Bihar and Delhi assembly election results have dented its image. And reports emanating from poll bound states say that things dont augur too well for the party in Punjab, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh.

Can you imagine a BJP without Modi? Perhaps not.
Vijay Rupani was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Gujarat on Sunday after his predecessor Anandiben Patel resigned on 2 August.

However, Rupani's new designation won't come without challenges. The Amit Shah-loyalist will have to face a number of challenges with just 14 months left for the next Assembly elections in Gujarat. He has to purge the BJP to ensure victory in the next elections. He will have to also lead the party and overcome challenges like the Patel quota stir and the Una incident, where Dalits were beaten up.

Nitin Patel, who was "too optimistic" of becoming the next chief minister started his celebrations a bit too early. However, to placate him and the Patidars, BJP named him as the deputy chief minister. According to The Hindu, this was done to assuage the agitating Patel community.

It has been argued extensively that Rupani is a Jain Bania, which is considered a caste-neutral status and it suddenly became an asset for him.

As Sanjay Singh noted in this Firstpost piece, The aggressive posturing taken by the Patel community during Patidar agitation had polarised other castes, particularly the OBCs against Patels. It only made sense to annoint Rupani as the new chief minister.

It is considered that a caste-neutral person can better manage the numerous uprisings in the state.

Presently, the state is crippled by the Dalit uprising, which was stoked by the Una incident. Dalits have been protesting since seven members of a family were beaten up for skinning a dead cow in Una town of Gir Somnath district in Gujarat and four youths were dragged for allegedly possessing beef.

Thousands of Dalits pledged not to lift carcasses or clean manholes in protest and started a 10-day march on 4 August to protest against atrocities against the community in the state.

Organisers said the march called Aazadi Koon (March for Freedom) has been planned to galvanise the community and will cover a distance of around 350 km, according to The Hindustan Times. They are also demanding alternate livelihood options, reservation for dalits under the reservation act from the government.

These massive protests have threatened the ruling BJP party in Gujarat and the first 100 days won't be easy for new CM Rupani. This should be at the top of his priority list.

The Patel agitation led by Hardik Patel to demand OBC status for the Patels is another issue which is yet to be addressed. The Patel community boycotted BJPs Patel leaders soon after the agitation began. Former CM Anandiben Patel too couldnt move around without facing protests.

Gujarat is going through a very bad period. One the one hand, there is social unrest and on the other, the economy is in bad shape. Small and medium enterprises are shutting down, The Hindu quoted a senior bureaucrat as saying.

The number of sick micro, small and medium units has increased from 20,615 in 2012-13 to 49,003 in 2014-15. The average farm wage is Gujarat is Rs 169, which is lower than that in most states. The government admitted in the Assembly that on account of capital-intensive investment, industrial employment in Gujarat has gone down, The Wire reported.

A global recession in industries like diamond polishing, machine tools, casting, ceramics has also affected some major communities who control most of these industries in the state.

The BJP even lost the district and block panchayat elections. A Gujarat minister said, There was hardly any coordination between the government and the party (during Anandiben Patels tenure). Rupani will have to create synergy between the two.

According to India Today, Patels comprise about 14-15 percent of the state population and the dalits constitute about 7-8 percent.

Rupani's first few months as the Gujarat chief minister, in no way, is going to be a cakewalk. Apart from social problems which plague Gujarat, the economy is in shambles too.

Anandiben's resignation was due to "old age" or so we were told. Like Sandipan Sharma argues in this Fristpost article, her resignation was not a question of 'if' but 'when'. And the failure of BJP's Dalit outreach programme in Uttar Pradesh, underlined by the Agra disaster, hastened her exit.

The very fact that the BJP had failed to retain the support of the Patels in spite of having a politician from the community as the chief minister meant Anandiben's days were numbered.

However, her resignation in the middle of the ongoing protests has only increased the work of her successor. She left a pile of issues unresolved and Rupani will now have to deal with them.

With inputs from agencies.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a good learner.

The technology-savvy Narendra Modi's first experience of a townhall meeting with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at Menlo Park, California in September 2015 came handy for the Prime Minister on Saturday evening. He chose the second anniversary of the governments digital platform initiative to engage with the citizens MyGov  to introduce the townhall concept in politics and governance in India for the first time.

Modi, who has a strong presence on social media, has been a pioneer in mastering the art and science of communication with the help of technology. During the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he addressed his voters through virtual presence campaign using big LCD screens.

Even four years ago in November 2012, Modi, who then was the Gujarat chief minister, had delivered a public address simultaneously at 26 different locations in the state using 3D holographic volumetric projection technology. At the first ever townhall meeting on Saturday, the PM had public interaction on a wide range of issues like grievances redressal system, governance, preventative healthcare, boosting economy and agriculture sector, and promotion of Khadi and Smart cities, among others. He also eventually spoke on gau raksha (protection of cows), a topic on which he has been maintaining a stoic silence.

Many would like to know why Modi chose to address a townhall.

Townhall is an evolving concept. Its more spontaneous, less filtered and more widened. Thats why, Narendra Modi, who is looking for a change, has chosen to communicate with citizens directly by making use of this interface, which minimises the interference of media and political parties. In fact, Modi has become a pioneer by using it in India in governance, says MD Nalapat, a political analyst and professor, Geopolitics, Manipal University.

Our administrative system, which continues to function on the colonial pattern of bureaucracy, has to change. It needs to be more transparent, accountable and citizen-centric, with horizontal mobility. And here, Modi has recognized the fact that citizens are more empowered now than in the past, and politicians need to devise to cope with additional empowerment, adds Prof Nalapat.

A townhall meeting  a western concept  is an informal public meeting between citizens and public figures. It is often used by politicians during campaigns or when important issues arise. It dates back to the 17th century, when government officials held these meetings for the purpose of discussing issues related to budgets and laws related to the community. The meetings were often held in the local townhall and thus, the name.

During his townhall with Zuckerberg, the PM had acknowledged the power of social media and technology, and had said during interaction with the public, When I joined social media, I never imagined I will become Prime Minister one day. Social media brought a big change in my thought process. The power of social media today is that it can tell governments where they are going wrong...social media allows governments a chance to fix their mistakes.

A townhall meeting of his own was an obvious next step for Modi, whose penchant for technology is well-known. That is an important qualification in a country which has been clocking the highest yearly growth rate of Internet penetration.
Brussels: A machete-wielding man shouting "Allahu akbar" wounded two policewomen in southern Belgium on Saturday before being shot dead by police, with Europe on edge after a wave of jihadist attacks.

The attack outside the main police station in the city of Charleroi, around 60 kilometres south of Brussels left one of the policewomen with "deep wounds to the face" while the other was slightly injured, Belga news agency said.

Charleroi police said the attacker was shot and killed, while the two victims were out of danger.

Belgium has been on high security alert for months since suicide bombers struck Brussels airport and a subway station near the European Union's institutions on 22 March, killing 32 people.

The attacks were claimed by the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, which controls large areas of territory in Iraq and Syria and has claimed numerous terror attacks in Europe in the last year.

Belgian Interior Minister Jean Jambon condemned a "disgusting act in Charleroi" on his Twitter account and said the country's terror threat level  currently at level three on a scale of four -- would be examined.

Belgian police have carried out dozens of anti-terror raids since the November 2015 attacks in Paris, planned in Belgium and involving Belgian extremists, which left 130 people dead.

Last month they arrested and charged a 33-year-old man, identified as Nourredine H., with attempting to commit "terrorist murder" and "taking part in the activities of a terrorist organisation".

Prosecutors said there was for now no link to the Brussels suicide bombings.

Belgium is the main source per head of population of jihadist recruits going from European Union countries to fight with IS in Syria, causing deep concern that they will return home battle-hardened and even more radicalised.

The interior ministry said 457 Belgian men and women had gone or tried to join jihadists in the Middle East, including 90 who are missing or dead.

Belgium launched its first attacks against IS in Iraq in late 2014 as part of a US-led coalition. It joined a similar anti-IS operation in Syria this year.

Several of those involved in the Brussels bloodshed in March were directly linked to the November 13 bomb and gun attacks in Paris.

In June Belgian authorities charged two men with terrorist offences amid reports of a planned attack on a Euro 2016 fanzone in central Brussels.

Belgium then beefed up security for its 21 July national day celebrations after a truck attack that killed 85 people in the French city of Nice on Bastille Day, 14 July.
The current face off between Russia and US on the selection of the next UN Secretary-General is one of the more innocuous battles being fought between the world powers. There are other confrontations, cordoned-off from the public eye, that are far more treacherous. The old rivals are clashing in multiple sites: in Syria, Ukraine and over the Black Sea, apart from locking horns in multilateral forums.

For the first time since the Cuban missile crisis, the N-word is being dropped, frivolously, by the two states that own 90 percent of the worlds nuclear warheads. There is a race for expanding nuclear capabilities by both Russia and the US in the Baltic states area, which experts warn could lead to disastrous consequences.

Normalisation of deep confrontation

On 4 August, Americas National Security Administration gave the nod for what could be a $1 trillion project of modernizing Washingtons nuclear stockpile, evoking a strong reaction from Moscow. Sergey Ryabkov, the deputy head of the Russian foreign ministry said that the upgraded American warheads which would be less powerful than the existing ones in their arsenal. This would lower the threshold for using nuclear weapons, he added.

The Nato summit of Warsaw on 8 and 9 July had the dominant theme of war in its agenda, pursuant to which it was decided to strengthen Natos eastern flank that lies in an arc covering former Soviet states right up till the Black Sea. It was decided that four additional multinational battalions would be deployed, one each in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, with Sweden and Canada joining in to provide boots on the ground. The US will send 1,000 additional troops to Poland. This is in addition to the nearly 60,000 soldiers from Nato and allied countries participating in military maneuvers in the Baltic states.

Nato summit couple of days ago (8 and 9 July) fixed a new situation which is not the final one but will last for a certain time, maybe a couple of years. This is imitation of the Cold War, quasi-confrontation, the Cold War-style, Fyodor A Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of Russia in Global Affairs magazine told a group of international journalists.

And what makes me sure that we are back to the situation of more-or-less deep confrontation is that Russia-Nato are now discussing security measures  practical security measures, Lukyanov added.

The bloc engaged in massive war games  the biggest since the Cold War  in Poland in June called Anaconda-2016 (AN-16) involving 31,000 troops from 24 nations, almost half of whom were Americans. Alongside AN-16, BALTOPS-16, a naval exercise that simulated high-end maritime warfighting was held in the waters near Kaliningrad  a highly militarized Russian enclave sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania. In 2013, Russia had moved Iskander-M launchers, ballistic missile systems capable of carrying nuclear warheads, to Kaliningrad. This, it said, was done in response to US plan to move anti-missile defence systems in Europe. This provoked strong reactions from Moscow, which flew couple of its own fighter jets over the Baltic sea leading to a series of near accidents.

In May this year, the US switched on its $800 million anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system called Aegis Ashore in Romania citing threats from Iran. This has angered Kremlin considerably  it has called this action a direct threat. The US has further promised to break ground with stationing an ABM in Poland in 2018.

Russian president Vladimir Putin said that though the US missile system is referred to as anti-missile defence system, the system is just as offensive as they are defensive.

How do we know whats inside those launchers? All one needs to do is reprogram (the system), which is an absolutely inconspicuous task, Putin stated at a meeting in June.

Russia, on its part, has planned the deployment of new RS-28 hypersonic intercontinental ballistic missiles, scheduled for between 2018-20 that can carry more than 10 nuclear warheads. Also, Kremlin has flown its fighter jets within feet of the Nato US military stationed in the Baltic Sea.

We are talking feet, not yards or miles, a former US strike group commander told the CNN.

Last month, Putin said that there was a need to increase transparency and adopt confidence-building measures to decrease risk, particularly in the Baltic area. This doesnt, however, indicate any reconciliatory mood of either Russia or the Nato bloc.

Its just the opposite. It is the stabilization or the normalization of confrontation, Lukyanov said.

Expanding sphere of influence

There have been some near accidents in the Baltic Sea that could have had disastrous consequences. In January, a Russian jet fighter came within 20 feet of a US reconnaissance aircraft flying over the Black Sea. In April this year, a Russian jet came within 30 feet of a US destroyer that was engaged in military exercises over the Baltic Sea, making it one of the riskiest encounters between Russia and the US. According to the US European Command (Eucom), there were a series of such incidents when Nato was engaged in military drills near Kaliningrad. In June, a Russian Su-24 jet flew within 500 metres of a US missile destroyer sailing in the Black Sea near Crimea.

An unintentional or unprofessional action by a single pilot in this staring-down contest could significantly escalate tensions between the two nuclear-armed powers.

We dont want war, the impassioned Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.

We dont want to be involved in the militarization of the world. It is dangerous, what is going on just in front of our borders. Of course, that would bring our reactions. We will have to reflect on the steps (taken by Nato) but that is not our choice. Those who are surrounding Russia now with military bases, missile defence systems  we are doing it only to protect ourselves, she added.

This situation has been building up since the US withdrawal in 2002 from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABT)  a treaty between the US and the Soviet Union signed in 1972 on the limiting ABM systems that deliver nuclear weapons  resulting in enhanced mistrust on both sides.

Fifteen years ago we were not the ones to withdraw from ABT and we are not building military bases across the worldto be regarded as a threat for the US, Great Britain, Zakharova said.

But the situation also dramatically worsened after Russias annexation of Crimea and ensuing proxy confrontation between the parties in eastern Ukraine.

The unraveling of events over the Black Sea peninsula in the near future hinges greatly on the US election results. Donald Trump has said that he is inclined to work with Russia (whether one can take his words at face value or not is another matter altogether) whereas Hillary Clinton has toed the familiar Putin-needs-to be-put-in-place line. As in the case of Brexit, anti-Russia rhetoric has become a rallying point on which the effectiveness of the presidential candidates is being judged.

Everything happens in international forums are hostages of the American electoral campaigns, Zakharova said.

Much also depends on what happens with the EU post-Brexit  impact of relations between the various European states and Russia remains to be seen if in fact the continent does break up.

Misperceptions on both sides and tensions are very high. Each side sees the other as a threat. There is an urgent need to manage tensions, said a senior western diplomat based in Moscow on the condition of anonymity.

The US cites the insecurity of Nato allies as raison detre for bolstering military capabilities in the borders of Russia  for upholding Article 5 of the Washington Treaty which states that an attack against any Nato member state will be considered an attack against all. After the March 2014 events in Crimea, the former Soviet territories of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, fear a similar fate, state western powers.

The sites in Romania and Poland were in ideal positions to defend Nato allies against missiles coming from outside Europe. The United States and Nato were open about the systems capabilities, the US said in the final 2016 session of the UNs conference on disarmament (CD) in Geneva on 2 August.

Russia, on the other hand, has always been a security-centric state having seen three invasions over the centuries.

In the last several years, global strategic stability had faced a lack of confidence by certain states. Certain blocs were developing global anti-missile defence systems and high-precision weapons able to reach targets in any part of the world, Russia told the same CD gathering of 2 August. Kremlin is adamant to show its strength in the face of growing consolidation in military capabilities of the Nato states in the Baltic Sea area and Black Sea peninsula.

Referring to a talk by Nato secretary-general (SG) Jens Stoltenberg at a conference in Munich in 2013, Konstantin Kosachev, a top Russian senator said, (He said) Territorial defence of Nato starts beyond Natos borders. I asked the SG: Just imagine for a second that this formula was used by my country that the territorial defence of Russia starts beyond Russias borders  what will happen? It will be a scandal, Kosachev said, recalling the conversation.

De-escalation is urgently needed. The situation is not comparable to the Cold War. Cold War was cold, the western diplomat said.

The situation has worsened also by media of both countries whipping up nationalistic passions among their populations, portraying each other as the real devil.

In the event of a war, Russia would be unable to fight the US at a conventional-warfare level because both the US and Nato have far bigger defence budgets.

Russia will play at the nuclear level, the diplomat said.

The Nato-Russia Council resumed ambassador-level dialogue for the first time in April this year after the Ukrainian crisis had shut down the process, thus fueling misperceptions further.

This mechanism was established precisely to communicate with each other during crisis period. We see no sense in blocking (it) during the crisis period, Zakharova said.

The first two sessions of the council meetings were spent on haggling over the agenda and the US lecturing on Russias behavior, according to Moscow. An agenda has finally been arrived upon.

It took a couple of months to establish such an agenda. We have put our proposals on the Baltic Sea for rebuilding trust and they have to answer. We will take a look at their measures and steps forward, Zakharova said.

The most important difference between this quasi-Cold War and the real Cold War is that 30-40 years ago the Soviet- US conflict was the core of the international system, said Lukyanov. But now for a huge majority of the population in China, India, South Africa, for instance, the Ukrainian crisis is a peripheral conflict, he added.

Putin, at a meeting with the heads of international news agencies in June this year, said that the world is being pulled into a completely new dimension, while [Washington] pretends that nothings happening.

But precisely the fact that majority of the global population is unconcerned about the situation is what makes this arms race so dangerous. According to the Arms Control Association, the US and Russia each deploy more than 1,500 strategic warheads on several hundred bombers and missiles, and are modernising their nuclear delivery systems. The attempt at carving out spheres of influence in the European continent is turning out to be a risky game. A war between these two world powers would concern us all.
Kathmandu: Former Nepal Prime Minister KP Oli on Sunday cautioned India against "any unnatural" meddling in Nepal's affairs.

Oli, who is also the chairman of CPN-UML, met Indian Ambassador Ranjit Rae at his party office in Kathmandu and made it clear that "any unnatural meddling in Nepalese affairs would be unacceptable".

"Such activities would only complicate the situation," Oli said, adding all sides should remain vigilant towards such activities, according to a statement issued by the party.

Oli, however, said that his party was in favour of maintaining hearty and cordial relations with the neighbouring countries.

There were media reports in Kathmandu which blamed India for toppling Oli-led coalition government last week, which India has outrightly rejected.
BERLIN A man covered in blood who barricaded himself in a restaurant in Saarbruecken in southwest Germany has been apprehended by police in the building's cellar, a police spokesman said on Sunday.

He said the man seemed to be psychologically disturbed and contrary to earlier reports, was unarmed. He had slight, superficial injuries and is being treated in hospital where he will undergo psychological evaluation, the spokesman said.

The official said the man was an employee of the restaurant "Dubrovnik" in Saarbruecken town centre. He had made no demands and had threatened nobody, the official added.

There were no indications that this was a terrorist-related incident.

(Reporting by Christian Goetz and Caroline Copley; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Lahore: In a horrific incident, a 23-year-old pregnant woman was burnt alive by her former fiance in Lahore after she married his younger brother.

Sidra was previously engaged to Waris Ali, but when he left for Saudi Arabia last year for work her family married her off to his younger brother Waqas, police said.

"Waris worked in Saudi Arabia and learnt about the marriage only when he returned. The suspect had developed a grudge against his former fiancee for marrying his younger brother," senior police officer Muhammad Naveed said.

He said that the accused had also business dispute with his younger brother.

On Saturday, Sidra was sleeping in her room while the other family members were away. Ali came there with a container of petrol and set her on fire. He locked the room and fled.

Police said neighbours alerted firefighters who reached the spot and put off the fire and recovered her charred body.

Sidra's family told police that she was a few months old pregnant.

A murder case has been registered against Ali and his other family members on the complaint of Sidra's father. Police are conducting raids to arrest the suspect.

Some family members of Ali have also been taken into custody for interrogation.
Beirut: Sporadic clashes hit the southern edges of Aleppo on Sunday morning, a monitoring group said, hours after rebels said they had broken a three-week government siege of the Syrian city.

An alliance of rebels, Islamists, and jihadists late on Saturday said they had opened a new route into Aleppo's eastern neighbourhoods, home to some 250,000 people.

But the road, which passes through southern edges of the city, remains too dangerous for civilians to use, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"There are intermittent clashes and air strikes, but to a lesser degree," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

"Not a single civilian has left the eastern districts because the road is too dangerous and not secured," he told AFP.

Yesterday, anti-regime groups overran a series of buildings in a military academy on the southwestern edges of Aleppo.

They then pushed northeast into the district of Ramussa, linking up with rebel groups that had fought south from inside the city.

Rebels posted footage of their fighters embracing and celebrating the end of the government encirclement of Aleppo, in place since 17 July.

An AFP journalist in the eastern districts said a single truck of vegetables entered the neighbourhoods late yesterday to be sold in the markets the following day.

Syrian state media, however, denied that the siege had been broken and said the fight was ongoing.

"The terrorist groups are suffering huge losses and were not able to break the encirclement of the eastern

neighbourhoods of Aleppo," state news agency SANA said late yesterday, quoting a military source.

"The Syrian army in coordination with allied forces are continuing their fight south of Aleppo," it said.

The agency said 10 civilians were killed yesterday in rebel shelling on two government-held districts.

The Britain-based Observatory said at least 130 civilians have been killed since the opposition alliance launched its offensive on southern Aleppo on 31 July.

The monitor said more than 700 fighters from both sides had been killed in the onslaught, most of them rebels because of the regime's "aerial superiority."
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2016 could go down as the year that completely reshapes the marijuana industry.

In November, residents in at least eight states, and perhaps more, will be voting on whether or not to legalize recreational or medical marijuana. Currently, 25 states have legalized medical marijuana, while four, along with Washington, D.C., have legalized the sale of recreational-use marijuana for adults. By the time the elections are over, up to 28 states may have legalized medical marijuana, and the number of recreation-legal states could more than double to nine -- at least based on the certain-to-vote states.

It's not difficult to understand why certain states are eager to pass laws legalizing cannabis. In addition to potential medical benefits, the sale of medical and/or recreational cannabis is a new source of tax and licensing revenue for marijuana-legal states. In Colorado, for example, $135 million was raised in legal marijuana tax and licensing revenue in 2015, with sales hitting $996 million. Sales in 2016 are expected to easily top $1 billion in Colorado, probably leading to a surge in tax and licensing revenue collected by the state.

Furthermore, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is currently conducting an eight-point review of marijuana that could lead to its rescheduling. Marijuana's schedule 1 status relegates the cannabis industry to two inherent disadvantages -- the inability of legal marijuana businesses to take normal business deductions on their income taxes since they're selling an illicit substance, and minimal-to-no access to basic banking services, such as checking accounts or lines of credit. A move to schedule II could open new doors for the cannabis industry.

However, an under-the-radar game-changer for the industry could be which candidate -- Hillary Clinton from the Democratic Party, or Donald Trump from the Republican Party -- heads into the Oval Office.

Hillary Clinton on marijuana

Hillary Clinton has more or less followed the same wait-and-see approach/slow progression as current President Barack Obama when it comes to regulating marijuana. On her campaign website, she's laid out a clear three-step game plan to tackle marijuana if she makes it to the Oval Office.

First, Clinton wants to refocus the efforts of law enforcement on violent crimes. Clinton notes that far too many current arrests are because of marijuana, and she believes that changing regulations surrounding marijuana could save money and make America safer.

Secondly, Clinton advocates "allowing states that have enacted marijuana laws to act as laboratories of democracy." In other words, Clinton wants to keep the current administration's hands-off approach intact, essentially allowing states that have legalized marijuana to govern themselves. As long as states demonstrate that they can keep marijuana from winding up in the hands of minors, and they can keep crime rates under control, Clinton believes in allowing the state-level cannabis experiment to continue.

Lastly, and most important for marijuana businesses, Clinton wants to reschedule cannabis from schedule I to schedule II. Her primary reason is to ease the medical restrictions of researching cannabis.

Donald Trump on marijuana

On the other hand, Donald Trump hasn't laid out a concrete path to regulating cannabis, but he has been gung-ho on legalizing medical marijuana since the beginning of his campaign. When pressed for his opinion on medical marijuana by Fox News, Trump said he was "a hundred percent" in favor of seeing it approved.

Recreational marijuana is another story entirely. Donald Trump has wavered on his support for the drug in multiple interviews, but hasn't ruled out the idea that recreational marijuana could be legalized at the federal level at some point in the future. In his same interview with Fox News, Trump noted both positives and negatives from recreational marijuana in Colorado that would require additional research. For now it would appear the most logical assumption to make is that Trump would allow individual states to continue regulating their own recreational cannabis industries.

The surprising candidate the cannabis industry prefers

The real surprise comes when you ask cannabis business professionals which candidate they'd prefer to see in office.

Earlier this week, Marijuana Business Daily released the findings of a poll involving 724 cannabis professionals from across the country on which presidential candidate they preferred. Though Trump has seemingly been more gung-ho about legalizing medical cannabis than Hillary, and he's also been far more open to the eventual idea of recreational legalization than Clinton, it's Hillary Clinton that's the landslide top choice among cannabis professionals and executives.

According to Marijuana Business Daily, 43% of cannabis professionals favor Clinton compared to just 26% for "The Donald." Another 16% prefer Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson, while 10% remain undecided. The results were somewhat similar for cannabis industry investors, where 46% favored Clinton and 38% want to see Trump in office.

MBD suggests that the long-standing history of the Democratic Party being more progressive on marijuana legislation probably plays a part in the polling results. However, it's also possible that Clinton's well laid out plan could also be swaying cannabis professionals. Until Trump puts out a tangible marijuana plan and sticks to it, it could be difficult to gain the support of marijuana execs and professionals.

Regardless of who wins, the cannabis industry could face a major hurdle

Although the next president of the United States could be a strong influencer of marijuana policy, change won't come easy for the industry.

An under-the-radar problem for the cannabis industry is that a rescheduling of marijuana from schedule I to schedule II could open Pandora's Box. Though it would signify that marijuana has medically beneficial qualities, and it would open the door for medical research of the drug, it could also make life for marijuana businesses quite complicated.

If marijuana is rescheduled, it would allow for tight regulation from the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA would have a say on cannabis industry packaging and marketing, and it would likely regulate the manufacturing process of marijuana grow farms to ensure that THC content remains consistent. But, most damaging of all, the FDA could require that marijuana companies run clinical trials to confirm the touted medical benefits of the drug. All of these additional regulations could prove very costly to the industry, and they could put smaller cannabis shops out of business.

This cannabis conundrum makes investing in the marijuana space a risky bet. Until the outlook for the marijuana industry becomes more certain, my suggestion remains the same as it's always been: avoid putting your money into marijuana stocks, at least for now.
General Motors (GM 1.15%) said that its sales in China rose 18% in July, to a record 270,529 vehicles, powered by strong sales of high-profit luxury cars and SUVs.

GM's results: Hot-selling SUVs again set the pace

GM has a series of joint ventures with local Chinese automakers, but it reports its sales results by brand rather than at the joint-venture level. Those partners include the familiar Cadillac, Buick, and Chevrolet brands, as well as the China-only Baojun and Wuling brands.

Cadillac sold 8,757 vehicles in China in July, up 90% from a year ago. Hot sellers include a China-only extended-wheelbase version of the compact ATS sedan (called the ATS-L), the new XT5 crossover, and the big XTS luxury sedan. XTS sales were up 54% from a year ago.

Buick is GM's highest-volume passenger-vehicle brand in China. Its sales rose 30%, to 89,404 units, in July, led by the popular Excelle GT sedan (a sibling of the U.S.-market Verano) and the midsize Envision SUV. The Envision, which was recently launched in the United States, has been a big seller for GM in China since its debut early last year.

Baojun is a China-only brand of affordable passenger vehicles. Its sales jumped to 44,320 vehicles in July, up 61% from a year ago. Baojun's 730 minivan and 560 SUV have been its biggest sellers of late: Sales of the 730 were up 23% from a year ago, while sales of the 560 more than tripled, GM said.

Chevrolet sales fell 15% from a year ago, to 30,287. The success of Baojun has cut into Chevrolet's sales to some extent, but the brand is rallying with an all-new version of the Cruze compact sedan, its best-seller in China. GM said it sold more than 14,000 Cruzes in China in July.

Wuling offers a lineup of small, inexpensive vans popular with tradespeople and commercial fleets. Commercial-vehicle sales in China have lagged since the end of the country's building boom, hurting Wuling's results. But the brand's sales increased 6%, to 97,728 vehicles, in July, its second consecutive month of year-over-year growth.

Analysis: Why GM has the right products to drive continued growth and profits

Unlike rival Ford (F 1.46%), which has lost some ground over the last year to lower-cost domestic Chinese competitors, GM has managed to post steady sales gains -- in no small part because its Baojun and Wuling brands compete well with the domestic automakers.

GM's market share in China did fall somewhat, from 14.2% in the second quarter of 2015 to 13.3% last quarter. But its profits from China have remained strong. As in the U.S., a competitive lineup of profitable crossover SUVs is drawing lots of customers to GM's showrooms. "GM SUV deliveries [in China] almost doubled in the [second] quarter," CEO Mary Barra said during the company's earnings call last month, "and this continues to be led by two really strong products: the Baojun 560 and the Buick Envision."

Barra pointed out that sales of Cadillacs, which also carry high profit margins, have, too, been enjoying significant growth in China. Sales at GM's luxury brand were up 16% in China in the first half of the year, Barra said. The brand-new XT5 crossover appears to have accelerated that growth in July, and the upward trend could continue from here as supplies of the XT5 continue to increase.

The upshot: GM's good China story is still on track

For several years now, China has been a big success story for GM. Despite industrywide pricing pressure, GM's profit margin in China held strong at 9.5% in the second quarter. Those profitable SUVs (particularly the Buick Envision) and Cadillacs have helped keep margins strong as competition has intensified at the lower ends of the market -- just as Barra and her team planned.

One-third of the way into the third quarter, it looks like that good story is still on track.
Investors are all after good ideas. Good ideas are how investors earn returns in excess of their benchmark index. But investors also need to be after different ideas. That's because, in the financial industry, if investors all have the same good idea, it will by definition turn out to be an average idea.

The problem is that finding good ideas is hard. And finding different ideas is hard. Thus finding good, different ideas is really, really hard.

To do it, you need to regularly traffic outside your normal investing circles, but not so far that you compromise your commitment to simplicity and consistency. You also have to look at as many good ideas as you do different ideas in order to make sure you're benchmarking both categories fairly against one another.

Yet even then, for the results-oriented, type-A personality, the entire process is frustrating. If you're doing it right, you'll spend a lot of time not finding anything.

Places to waste time

To that end, I've attended a lot of investing conferences. These are conferences organized and paid for by big banks. They bring together bank clients who are investors and bank clients who are corporates in the hopes that the two will hit it off, and then the investor will transact in the corporate's shares, and the bank will earn money by facilitating those transactions in perpetuity.



These conferences are all pretty much the same. The bank rents out a swanky hotel in a financial center and fills two to three days with presentations by corporates. The presentations are usually 45 minutes long, followed by 10 minutes of Q&A, with five minutes of break in between in case anybody wants to change rooms. Anybody is welcome to attend any of the presentations. And from conference to conference, it's usually the same corporates giving the same presentations.

It's generally a waste of time, because in a best-case scenario, it's five days out of your life (including travel) to gain five to 10 minutes of real insight -- if you're lucky.

The politics of it all

The conference sponsor also arranges one-on-one meetings, which are time slots when an investor client can sit down with a corporate client face to face. Ahead of time, the conference logisticians generally ask the investors to rank which corporates they would like to meet one on one.



Given the limited hours in a day, these one-on-ones have limited availability. What's more, some one-on-ones are more coveted than others. The bank solves this problem by awarding the most coveted one-on-ones to its most valuable clients -- i.e., those who have historically created the most revenue for the bank.



It's not uncommon at these conferences to hear investor clients comparing their one-on-one schedules. And it's a point of pride if one of them got time with a big name when their peer did not. Yet what can be more interesting than anything discussed during a coveted one-on-one is simply observing which companies are the most coveted.

Big names bring crowds

For example, on the Asia conference circuit, Chinese internet search leader Baidu has historically been a very popular company with investors, as well as a difficult company to get time with. They do not take a lot of meetings with investors, and they do not attend many conferences. What's more, when they do attend conferences, they tend to send more junior-level executives. When Baidu finally turned up on the agenda for an Asian investment conference a few years back, demand was fierce.



Because my team of analysts were Baidu shareholders, I dutifully requested my one-on-one. I didn't get it. But I wasn't bothered, as I might have been a few years before, and I wasn't angry, as many others who were denied the meeting appeared to be.

Why? Because Baidu was not going to be a source of five to 10 minutes of insight. The remarks would be too scripted, the audience receiving them too large. The note I made -- and perhaps it's a crude one -- was that Baidu was wildly popular and steeped in bullish sentiment, so selling our shares for any kind of valuation reasons would probably be shortsighted.

But to find more good and different ideas, I began to take a different approach to one-on-ones.

One-on-ones with no one

It became a best practice on our team to stop requesting one-on-ones ahead of time. Instead, we'd get to a conference and take an open schedule to the logistics desk and ask them to fill it with the companies who had no other meetings booked. These were the least desirable names at the conference, and we wanted to meet with all of them.



We had a hypothesis that all of the millions of people working in the investment industry around the world today are roughly the same level of smart. What's more, we all generally attended the same kinds of schools, took the same kinds of courses, and learned the same types of analysis techniques. Assuming that's at least somewhat accurate, we're all going to generate approximately the same results, because we're all looking at the same companies through the same lenses -- and struggling to beat the market, as most active managers do.



One can achieve differentiation, however, by taking that aptitude and those techniques and applying them to a unique universe of names. That's why we wanted to talk to the cast-offs. They gave us a chance to be different and, therefore, potentially better.

Endurance matters

My favorite day of an investing conference is day three. That may sound like a meaningless statement if you haven't been to an investing conference, but if you have, then it sounds like heresy. See, day three is the last day. There are no parties on day three. No cocktail receptions. No relationship managers hanging around with P-Cards.

Most people -- and certainly the A-list -- have gone home, on both the corporate and investor sides. The people who remain are junior and exhausted. Nobody's heard of any of the companies on the presentation schedule. The coffee pots aren't getting refilled. Jackets are wrinkled; ties are optional. The bathroom smells terrible.

Day three is where you can find alpha.

It's tough sledding, though. In a 99% efficient market, there just aren't that many hidden gems out there. Day-three companies, for the most part, are the dregs: weak balance sheets, iffy business models, and questionable management teams. For example, I once sat through a presentation by a start-up mixed martial arts company that intended to compete with the juggernaut in the space -- the UFC, which recently sold for $4 billion -- by having a team-based league format instead of promoting individual fighters. The conclusion of the presentation was the reveal of the cities that had been selected for teams and the associated team names and logos.

What followed during the Q&A was day-three greatness.

An analyst in the sparsely populated room -- not me, though I wish it had been -- raised his hand and said: "You have no ring talent. You have no distribution. What's your business model?"

To which the CEO replied, "I have these logos. And kids love the merch."

Kids love the merch

This, of course, became our tongue-in-cheek explanation for a lot of nonsensical things you encounter in the marketplace. Build-A-Bear workshop? Kids love the merch. Delia's? Kids love the merch. Living Social? Kids. Love. The. Merch.

But day three isn't all a disaster.

One day-three one-on-one I got assigned a few years ago was with Bank of Georgia. And to be clear, this is the Georgia where the capital is Tbilisi, not Atlanta. I knew nothing about the bank before the meeting, but it was clear why most other investors were staying away. There had been turmoil in the Georgian government, the currency had been volatile, and Russia, Georgia's enormous neighbor, had not exactly been engaged in constructive relations with Georgia at the time -- or with anyone else, for that matter.

Yet what emerged in the course of talking with the management team was a bank with a promising growth opportunity, an entrepreneurial corporate culture, and an efficient cost structure. That meeting marked the beginning of a more thorough research process, and we ended up buying shares of the bank well before other professional institutions caught on to the name.

How to look through rubbish

The key to finding opportunities in the investing world's cast-offs is to look at a lot of them. For every Bank of Georgia, there are hundreds of other public companies hoping that investors believe that kids love the merch. What's more, this is hard and unrewarding work. As you begin to analyze more and more companies, you don't find more and more ideas. Rather, you reject more and more ideas, throwing out more and more of your work product. For the overachiever, this is the pinnacle of pain. No obvious value is being created despite the significant time and effort spent.

But if you're doing it correctly, then the number of ideas you look at and the number of ideas you reject should be parallel lines.

Value is being created here -- it's just more subtle. Whether you look at 10 ideas, 100 ideas, or 1,000 ideas, you're going to hit upon something you think is promising. But what's promising in the context of 10 ideas may not look as promising in the context of 100, and it will certainly not look as promising in the context of 1,000.

In the course of turning over stones and rejecting ideas, you're increasing the probability that the idea you decide upon is actually promising and will turn out to be good.

Learn to love day three

The lesson is not that you should spend all of your time looking at orphans. Rather, it's to invest the same amount of time you spend looking at the Facebooks and Amazons of the world into looking at lesser names. And no matter how many you're looking at, keep just a few.

Finally, never leave any event early. The most interesting things always happen at the end. Even if that MMA start-up doesn't pan out as an investment idea, maybe you'll be able to write about it on the internet somewhere down the line.
The marijuana industry appears to be on the precipice of its most robust expansion yet in 2016.

Beginning with the legalization of medical marijuana in California in 1996, another two dozen states have since followed suit, bringing the medical legalization total to 25. These include Ohio and Pennsylvania, the most recent two to legalize medicinal marijuana, and two states that did so entirely through the legislative process (i.e., without putting it to vote on a ballot).

Beyond medical marijuana, four states, along with Washington, D.C., have legalized recreational marijuana for adults. Colorado has been the poster child for success among recreational-legal states, with legal sales (recreational + medical) of more than $1 billion on a trailing 12-month basis, and the state generating $135 million in tax and licensing fees in 2015.

This year, residents in up to a dozen states could wind up voting on a marijuana initiative or amendment to legalize the drug in their state -- which is why it could be the biggest year ever for cannabis.

One of the few things that could sour the cannabis industry's current high is poor safety data. If you recall, long-term safety data has been one of the prime obstacles that has kept marijuana from being rescheduled at the federal level by lawmakers. Unfortunately, disappointing data is precisely what the American public received last week, courtesy of a publication in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Secondhand marijuana smoke worse than tobacco smoke?

In a new study, researchers examined the effects of secondhand marijuana smoke in relation to secondhand tobacco smoke on the arteries of rats. The arteries of rats have a response to tobacco smoke similar to that of human arteries, so they're presumably a good indicator of what might be happening to our arteries when inhaling secondhand marijuana smoke.

Based on the findings of the study, inhaled secondhand tobacco smoke impaired the blood vessels of rats for 30 minutes. Comparatively, inhaled secondhand marijuana smoke impaired the blood vessels of rats for three times longer, or 90 minutes. Researchers observed that it was not the chemicals, such as nicotine or THC, causing the blood vessel impairment, but the actual burning of the plant material leading to the adverse effect on blood vessels.

According to senior study author and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco's Division of Cardiology, Matthew Springer, Ph.D.:

"While the effect is temporary for both cigarette and marijuana smoke, these temporary problems can turn into long-term problems if exposures occur often enough and may increase the chances of developing hardened and clogged arteries."

Springer added:

"Arteries of rats and humans are similar in how they respond to secondhand tobacco smoke, so the response of rat arteries to secondhand marijuana smoke is likely to reflect how human arties might respond... There is widespread belief that, unlike tobacco smoke, marijuana smoke is benign. We in public health have been telling the public to avoid secondhand tobacco smoke for years. But we don't tell them to avoid secondhand marijuana smoke, because until now we haven't had evidence that it can be harmful."

Bad timing for disappointing data

Making matters more complicated for the cannabis industry is that this study comes at a time when the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency is conducting an eight-point review that could lead to the reclassification of marijuana away from a schedule 1 drug. The DEA has already received its recommendation from the Food and Drug Administration, but has been unsurprisingly tight-lipped as to what that recommendation happens to be.

Reclassification of marijuana to anything other than schedule 1 would admit that cannabis has medically beneficial properties, and it would allow physicians the ability to prescribe cannabis for certain medical ailments (i.e., epilepsy, glaucoma, and some forms of terminal cancer). Of course, for this to happen the DEA and FDA have to believe that the benefits of marijuana outweigh its risks. Studies, such as the one above, hurt the case for reclassification.

Mind you, the marijuana industry has the potential to continue its expansion without a rescheduling. ArcView Market Research estimates that $5.4 billion in legal cannabis sales occurred in 2015, which is a testament to this fact. However, rescheduling would more than likely remove the two biggest financial disadvantages facing the industry: namely no ability to take normal tax deductions, and minimal-to-no access to basic banking services, such as checking accounts and bank loans.

Success is not guaranteed

Regardless of the path marijuana takes following the DEA's upcoming decision and the November elections, success seems to be far from a guarantee for the industry and investors.

Although it's pretty evident that legal marijuana sales are growing, investors have yet to harness a safe avenue to take advantage of that growth. Most marijuana businesses are losing money, and far too many trade as penny stocks on the over-the-counter exchanges, where getting accurate financial statements can sometimes be a challenge.

Perhaps an even bigger worry for potential investors is what might happen if the marijuana industry "wins" and the DEA reschedules marijuana as a schedule 2 substance. Doing so would signify it has medical benefits, but also that it's highly addictive. More importantly, it would allow the FDA to get up close and personal with the medical marijuana industry. This could mean strictly overseeing the manufacturing process and ensuring THC content remains consistent. It would also likely mean regulating the packaging and labeling of marijuana-based products. But worst of all for the cannabis industry, it could require clinical studies be run to verify the medically beneficial qualities of marijuana for certain ailments. This is an expense that could put small marijuana shops out of business.

You could certainly say that marijuana is on the precipice of a transformative year. But whether that transformation is good or bad for cannabis and investors remains to be seen.
Image source: Getty Images.

In the past, banks were seen as a solid source of dividend income. Banks could pay out a small percentage of their income and retain the rest to grow their loan books, and thus their future earnings. Although a lot has changed -- big banks now need approval from the Fed to issue dividends to investors -- some banks including Bank of Hawaii (NYSE: BOH), Citigroup (NYSE: C), and PNC Financial Services Group (NYSE: PNC) could soon offer their investors bigger dividend paydays.

An island banker

Bank of Hawaii recently increased its quarterly dividend from $0.45 to $0.48 per share, but future dividend hikes could be in the cards. The company benefits from the fact that it competes in the remote islands of Hawaii, which has become a duopoly market as the bank and its closest competitor together have more than 68% of the state's deposits.

Limited competition allows Bank of Hawaii to pay less on its deposits and earn outsized returns on its equity. The company has also proven to be a capable underwriter, and conservative in its estimates for future loan losses. The company currently maintains an allowance for loan and lease losses of 1.25% of loans outstanding.Meanwhile, only 0.2% of its loans were non-performing at the end of the second quarter.

Bank of Hawaii has historically paid out a substantial portion of its earnings in the form of dividends and repurchases. In the last 12 months the bank paid out $79 million of dividends, and repurchased $66 million of stock, equating to about 84% of its net income during the period. After its first dividend increase since the financial crisis, Bank of Hawaii may be signaling that it sees the potential for increased dividends going forward.

A "Big Four" bank

After failing the Fed's stress tests twice, Citigroup passed with flying colors in 2016, getting approval to increase its quarterly dividend from $0.05 per share to $0.16 per share. Despite a tripling of the dividend, the company has plenty of capacity to increase its payouts upon approval from the Fed each year.

Consider first that the company's dividend payout ratio is relatively low. At $0.64 per share, per year, Citi's payout ratio sits at about 13% of its earnings over the last 12 months. As my colleague John Maxfield explained, the Federal Reserve indicated in 2011 that it would not approve dividends that pushed payout ratios above 30%. Recently, however, the Fed has allowed well-capitalized big banks to pay out more than that 30% limit.

If Citigroup's payout were to rise to just 30% of trailing twelve-month earnings, it could increase its quarterly dividend to as much as $0.375 per share, more than twice what it currently pays out to shareholders.

Citigroup isn't without its challenges and historical missteps, having suffered dramatic losses during the financial crisis, and poor share-price performance ever since. But the market largely reflects this reality, allowing shares to trade at about 73% of its second-quarter tangible book value, the lowest valuation of any Big Four U.S. bank.

A sturdy Super Regional bank

PNC Financial has rewarded investors with substantial dividend increases since slashing its dividend during the financial crisis, recently increasing its quarterly dividend from $0.51 per share to $0.55 per share. The increased dividend is equivalent to a 30% payout ratio on its trailing twelve-month earnings, suggesting some breathing room for dividend increases going forward.

PNC Financial has managed its balance sheet very conservatively -- perhaps too conservatively. The company holds about $26 billion of capital (more than 10% of its customer deposits) at the Federal Reserve, earning little more than 0.50% per year.The thesis goes that if this cash were redeployed into higher-yielding securities or loans, PNC Financial's net interest income would jump immediately. PNC executives, however, have indicated that they won't rush to move the capital, choosing to be prudent about when and how to put the money to work.

Credit quality at PNC has been good, and charge-offs minimal. The bank last reported its nonperforming loans stood at just 1.08% of total loans, and its net charge-offs were just 0.17% and 0.44% of commercial and consumer loans, respectively, in the most recent quarter.

Even with currently tepid loan growth, PNC Financial has capacity to increase its dividend. But its excess deposits present the opportunity for PNC Financial to increase its profitability markedly in a step function, by moving them from a low-yielding account at the Fed to higher-yielding loans to households and businesses.

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Jordan Wathen has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
When it comes to investing, few, if any, investors has more rapport and respect on Wall Street than Warren Buffett. After all, the man did figure out a way to turn less than $10,000 into more than $75 billion, as of the beginning of August, over the course of six decades.

But it's not necessarily Buffett's mammoth returns that have made him the face of Wall Street -- it's how he's done it. Buffett isn't a fancy investors by any means, nor does he care for the latest trading software or technical analysis trends. Instead, Buffett has made his living by investing in companies that he believes to be good values and hangs on to them for extended periods of time.

The types of companies Buffett purchases through his conglomerate company, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A)(NYSE: BRK-B), typically have strong competitive advantages and geographic reach. Buffett has often opined that the companies he buys should be sustainable regardless of whether a great or terrible CEO is running things, and this has been another key to his incredible returns. The result has been an outperformance in terms of book value growth for Berkshire Hathaway in roughly four out of every five years over the past five decades relative to the book value of the S&P 500. Needless to say, Berkshire Hathaway's shareholders aren't complaining.

However, investors are always looking to Buffett and his investments for inspiration. After all, following in Buffett's footsteps is exceptionally simple. It merely requires a little research, time, and patience. So, what Warren Buffett stocks should you consider buying in August? I'd suggest taking a gander at the following three.

American Express

One Buffett stock that's on the mend and still looking pretty inexpensive is credit processing facilitator and lender American Express (NYSE: AXP).

American Express ran into a brick wall when Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST) announced in 2015 that it and AmEx's 16-year exclusive partnership would be ending. Costco was responsible for about 1-in-10 AmEx cards in circulation, so this was a major hit to American Express. Further losses were seen when JetBlue also announced that it was ending its co-branded credit card deal with AmEx in early 2015. Investors knew it would take some time before the company got over these initial stings, but all cylinders appear to be firing once again.

To begin with, American Express has returned to its roots of catering to affluent clientele. Well-to-do cardholders tend to have fewer issues making their payments, and they're usually less influenced by minor fluctuations in interest rates and GDP growth. AmEx has also altered its approach by increasing the size of its merchant network, especially with small-and-medium-sized businesses, while at the same time reducing its operating expenses. AmEx wound up announcing a $1 billion cost-cutting plan in early 2016 that included layoffs, and its second-quarter results suggest these aggressive cost-cutting measures have worked.

More recently, monetary tightening from the Federal Reserve and slow but steady growth in the U.S. economy offers hope that gross purchasing from cardholders and interest rates (and thus interest income) can both head higher. AmEx is on solid footing for the first time in years, and investors should take note.

Delta Air Lines

Another Warren Buffett stock that could be worth a serious look is Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL), which is currently valued at just nine times next year's estimated earnings per share. That's well below the average forward P/E for S&P 500 companies and just the type of value that Buffett is seeking with long-term investments.

The reason Delta Air Lines' stock has been stuck in neutral since Dec. 2014 relates to the tumble in crude prices. Generally, falling crude prices would be cheered because it means lower fuel prices, including jet fuel prices for airlines. However, lower crude prices also reduced ticket-pricing power for airlines and incited a pricing war among the majors, as well as bare-bones airlines like Spirit Airlines. This has impacted Delta's ability to expand capacity and hurt key margin measures, such as passenger revenue per available seat mile (PRASM).

However, Delta began to show signs of life in its recently reported second quarter. The company wound up reporting 0.4% growth in capacity and PRASM of 2.5%. Further, it expects to report PRASM in the range of 2.5% to 4.5% moving forward. Delta's expanded network and new commercial initiatives have largely been credited with its first unit revenue growth in two and a half years. It's also seen nice revenue gains and customer retention from its SkyMiles credit card.

What's more, Delta Air Lines has placed a keen focus on boosting its shareholders yield through buybacks and dividends. In its latest quarter it wound up returning $748 million to shareholders, $600 million of which involved buying back shares of its common stock. Since implementing a quarterly dividend in 2013, Delta's payout has more than tripled to $0.2025 every quarter, which is good enough for a 1.6% yield. Buffett loves income, and you should as well with this airline juggernaut.

Sirius XM Holdings

Forget the fact that satellite-radio provider Sirius XM Holdings (NASDAQ: SIRI) recently hit its highest levels in 11 years after reporting better-than-expected second-quarter results. This is a legal monopoly that could still deliver substantial returns to patient investors over the long run.

For nearly a decade, Sirius XM's biggest issue has been its debt and its lack of recurring profits. However, those issues have mostly been placed in the rearview mirror, with nothing but a sea of clear competitive advantages lying ahead.

For starters, there are no other satellite-radio companies. The cost to launch a satellite-radio network would be immense, leaving just small-market terrestrial radio operators and select online radio companies as its competition. Few, if any, offer the diversity that Sirius XM brings to the table, meaning it's succeeded where others have struggled.

Perhaps even more important, Sirius XM's business model differs dramatically from terrestrial and online radio, which is why it can outperform in both booming and recessionary economies. Terrestrial and online radio are reliant on advertising revenue to drive growth. However, during recessions, advertising revenue can dry up. Sirius XM derived just $40.2 million of its $1.35 billion in revenue during its recently reported quarterly results from ads, with $1.11 billion coming from subscriptions. Subscriber revenue tends to be more consistent and higher margin, especially when you're the only satellite operator around. Sirius XM wound up adding 466,000 subscribers in the latest quarter, pushing its total subscribership to 32 million.

Though it still has a long way to go with paying down its debt, the company can also deliver strong cash flow growth in the years to come. It's become one of the most attractive legal monopolies worth buying.

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Image source: Getty Images.

What: Shares of Lannett Company, Inc. (NYSE: LCI), a midsized generic drugmaker, packed on 25.2% last month, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. A key approval for a popular antidepressant has investors feeling more optimistic about the company's recent acquisition.

LCI data by YCharts.

So what:The FDA approved Lannett's application for paroxetine extended-release tablets, a generic version of Paxil, an antidepressant that once contributed more than $3 billion annually to GlaxoSmithKline's revenue.Although the first generic versions of Paxil hit the market over a decade ago,Lannett claims there's only one other competitor for this drug, which will give the company more pricing power than generic drugs typically command.

Perhaps the most encouraging part of the approval, however, is its source. Lannett has been taking a lot of heat over its acquisition of Kremers, and this was the new subsidiary's first major approval since the acquisition was completed about eight months ago.

Now what:Across the board, generic drugmakers have been complaining about price erosion. The CEO ofTeva Pharmaceutical's global generics unit, Sigurdur Olafsson, sums their troubles up as a lack of new product launches,and I'm inclined to agree with Olafsson. Lannett becoming one of two companies with a generic version of a popular antidepressant could go a long way toward bringing its bottom line back into positive territory.

LCI Net Income (Quarterly) data by YCharts.

Adding Kremers' operations has increased Lannett's top line, but taking on about $1 billion in high-interest debt to finance the purchase has investors justifiably nervous. A guidance revision in March predicts interest expense for the fiscal year ended June of about $53 million.That might be small potatoes to a company as big as Teva, but in fiscal 2014 Lannett recorded net income of just $57 million.

The good news is that Lannett has been growing by leaps and bounds; in fiscal 2015 its bottom line expanded to $149 million, or $4.04 per share.At present, trailing revenue of $472.9 million is higher than ever, and the company finished March with $424.7 million in working capital. Despite the high debt level, a current ratio of about 3.4 hardly suggests a near-term liquidity crunch.

Lannet is predicting adjusted gross margin of about 61% this year, far below the 75% it enjoyed in fiscal 2015. Revenue, however, is expected to rise to at least $555 million for fiscal 2016, a 36% increase over fiscal 2015.

At recent prices Lannett stock is trading at just 7.7 times fiscal 2015 earnings. Investors will want to keep an eye on Lannett's costly debt pile, but there's a good chance the stock is still in value territory, despite the recent run-up.

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Cory Renauerhas no position in any stocks mentioned. You can follow Cory on Twitter@TMFang4applesor connect with him onLinkedInfor more healthcare industry insight.The Motley Fool recommends Teva Pharmaceutical Industries. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Image source: Getty Images.

The marijuana industry appears to be on the precipice of its most robust expansion yet in 2016.

Beginning with the legalization of medical marijuana in California in 1996, another two dozen states have since followed suit, bringing the medical legalization total to 25. These include Ohio and Pennsylvania, the most recent two to legalize medicinal marijuana, and two states that did so entirely through the legislative process (i.e., without putting it to vote on a ballot).

Beyond medical marijuana, four states, along with Washington, D.C., have legalized recreational marijuana for adults. Colorado has been the poster child for success among recreational-legal states, with legal sales (recreational + medical) of more than $1 billion on a trailing 12-month basis, and the state generating $135 million in tax and licensing fees in 2015.

This year, residents in up to a dozen states could wind up voting on a marijuana initiative or amendment to legalize the drug in their state -- which is why it could be the biggest year ever for cannabis.

One of the few things that could sour the cannabis industry's current high is poor safety data. If you recall, long-term safety data has been one of the prime obstacles that has kept marijuana from being rescheduled at the federal level by lawmakers. Unfortunately, disappointing data is precisely what the American public received last week, courtesy of a publication in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Image source: Getty Images.

Secondhand marijuana smoke worse than tobacco smoke?

In a new study, researchers examined the effects of secondhand marijuana smoke in relation to secondhand tobacco smoke on the arteries of rats. The arteries of rats have a response to tobacco smoke similar to that of human arteries, so they're presumably a good indicator of what might be happening to our arteries when inhaling secondhand marijuana smoke.

Based on the findings of the study, inhaled secondhand tobacco smoke impaired the blood vessels of rats for 30 minutes. Comparatively, inhaled secondhand marijuana smoke impaired the blood vessels of rats for three times longer, or 90 minutes. Researchers observed that it was not the chemicals, such as nicotine or THC, causing the blood vessel impairment, but the actual burning of the plant material leading to the adverse effect on blood vessels.

According to senior study author and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco's Division of Cardiology, Matthew Springer, Ph.D.:

Springer added:

Image source: Getty Images.

Bad timing for disappointing data

Making matters more complicated for the cannabis industry is that this study comes at a time when the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency is conducting an eight-point review that could lead to the reclassification of marijuana away from a schedule 1 drug. The DEA has already received its recommendation from the Food and Drug Administration, but has been unsurprisingly tight-lipped as to what that recommendation happens to be.

Reclassification of marijuana to anything other than schedule 1 would admit that cannabis has medically beneficial properties, and it would allow physicians the ability to prescribe cannabis for certain medical ailments (i.e., epilepsy, glaucoma, and some forms of terminal cancer). Of course, for this to happen the DEA and FDA have to believe that the benefits of marijuana outweigh its risks. Studies, such as the one above, hurt the case for reclassification.

Mind you, the marijuana industry has the potential to continue its expansion without a rescheduling. ArcView Market Research estimates that $5.4 billion in legal cannabis sales occurred in 2015, which is a testament to this fact. However, rescheduling would more than likely remove the two biggest financial disadvantages facing the industry: namely no ability to take normal tax deductions, and minimal-to-no access to basic banking services, such as checking accounts and bank loans.

Image source: Flickr user Cannabis Culture.

Success is not guaranteed

Regardless of the path marijuana takes following the DEA's upcoming decision and the November elections, success seems to be far from a guarantee for the industry and investors.

Although it's pretty evident that legal marijuana sales are growing, investors have yet to harness a safe avenue to take advantage of that growth. Most marijuana businesses are losing money, and far too many trade as penny stocks on the over-the-counter exchanges, where getting accurate financial statements can sometimes be a challenge.

Perhaps an even bigger worry for potential investors is what might happen if the marijuana industry "wins" and the DEA reschedules marijuana as a schedule 2 substance. Doing so would signify it has medical benefits, but also that it's highly addictive. More importantly, it would allow the FDA to get up close and personal with the medical marijuana industry. This could mean strictly overseeing the manufacturing process and ensuring THC content remains consistent. It would also likely mean regulating the packaging and labeling of marijuana-based products. But worst of all for the cannabis industry, it could require clinical studies be run to verify the medically beneficial qualities of marijuana for certain ailments. This is an expense that could put small marijuana shops out of business.

You could certainly say that marijuana is on the precipice of a transformative year. But whether that transformation is good or bad for cannabis and investors remains to be seen.

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Sean Williamshas no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen nameTMFUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle@TMFUltraLong.

The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter servicesfree for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe thatconsidering a diverse range of insightsmakes us better investors. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.
With health officials struggling to eradicate the mosquitoes spreading Zika in Miami, many are concerned that the battle against the virus may soon hit their home. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Tom Frieden said last week that mosquito-control efforts in Miamis Wynwood arts district where 15 people have been infected are not producing the results officials had hoped for, suggesting the insects may be resistant to the insecticides being used. Across the country, the California Department of Public Health reported that two babies have been born with Zika-related microcephaly to mothers who acquired the infection outside of the United States, serving as a stark reminder that the virus can do more than cause flu-like symptoms.

While the CDC recommends using an insect repellent and wearing long-sleeved clothes to prevent mosquito bites, many are searching for additional steps to help keep their family protected.

Dr. Manny Alvarez, senior managing health editor for FoxNews.com sat down with the medical director for the March of Dimes, Dr. Edward McCabe to talk about the organizations new #ZapZika campaign to help educate the public on how to protect themselves and their families.

Dr. Manny: What is the #ZapZika campaign?

McCabe: So it's a social messaging campaign, #ZapZika, and it's really to let people know some simple things you can do to protect yourself and your family from the Zika virus. One of the things is use spray to keep the mosquitoes away. Make sure the spray is Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) registered and a number of things like that, but the key thing is we want to educate the public so that they can protect themselves from the Zika virus.

Dr. Manny: What do you think is going on in our federal government in regards to funding for research and what's needed?

McCabe: Well, we were disappointed. The March of Dimes put together a coalition of over 80 organizations interested in preventing the Zika virus from harming babies, really protecting moms and families from this virus. We were disappointed that Congress went out for its summer vacation without passing any legislation to appropriate funding for this. So we worked very hard and to say disappointed is not saying enough.

Dr. Manny: What should we be telling women in general about conception, prevention and if they [are] pregnant?

McCabe: Well women should plan to get pregnant. Fifty percent of the pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned, so we really think that part of the message is plan your pregnancy. Think about whether this is the right time for you to have a family [if you live in an affected area]. If you are planning a pregnancy and you think you, the woman, has been exposed or have shown symptoms, wait at least eight weeks until the onset of the symptoms until you get pregnant. And use condoms or don't have sex during that time. If the male partner has been infected, then we're recommending wait six months, because it stays in the semen a lot longer than it stays in the blood. We know it's been documented for 93 days in one gentleman.

Dr. Manny: So we have sexual transmission through semen, we have mosquito transmission, have there been any other ways of acquiring Zika that you know of?

McCabe: Well certainly there's been one hospital worker, a lab worker who was exposed; there was this case in Utah, we don't understand it, but a close family caregiver to an elderly man who died of Zika had very high levels of the virus in his blood. We're not sure exactly how that was passed. We're concerned about blood transfusions, the blood supply in Puerto Rico is being checked to protect against getting it from a blood transfusion. [We're] concerned about solid organ tissues. like kidney transplants, liver transplants if the person has been infected. So it's basically exposure to blood or semen. And there is one case where it appears to have been transmitted from a woman to her male partner. But in general, it's more common for it to be transmitted from the male partner to a woman.

Dr. Manny: Tell me what kind of information is available through the March of Dimes when it comes to questions of Zika.

McCabe: Go to MarchofDimes.org/Zika. We've updated [the website] 30 times since January 20th when we put the first article up. So what I'm telling you is what we know today. It may be different tomorrow and if it is, we'll change it within a day. So stay on those websites. Be informed; protect yourself. Microcephaly is only the tip of the iceberg. They're seeing babies who have no signs of microcephaly, no birth defect but are then developing seizures and having problems with sucking on a bottle or the breast -- neurological problems.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
A baby born in Canada to a mother who contracted the Zika virus abroad is normal so far, CBC News reports.

The mother was infected while travelling in the first trimester of her pregnancy and the baby contracted it, Canadas chief public health official told the news outlet.

According to Dr. Gregory Taylor, who heads the Public Health Agency of Canada, a total of 187 Canadians have contracted Zika.

The baby had presence of the virus in the cerebrospinal fluid, Taylor said. Thats the fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord. But at this time the baby is normal.

The baby will be monitored closely, CBC reported.

The current Zika outbreak was first detected in Brazil last year. It has been linked to more than 1,700 cases of microcephaly, a birth defect marked by small head size.

Microcephaly can also lead to seizures, developmental delays, intellectual disability, hearing loss, vision problems, feeding issues, and affect movement and balance.

So far, evidence suggests that 1 to 13 percent of Zika pregnancies result in a baby with neurological deficits, Taylor told the CBC.
Rep. Scott Rigell, R-Va. said Saturday that he would support Libertarian Gary Johnson for president over GOP nominee Donald Trump.

"Ive always said I will not vote for Donald Trump and I will not vote for Hillary Clinton," Rigell told The New York Times.

Rigell is the third Republican House member this week to say he would not vote for the real estate mogul, who has caused an uproar on the campaign trail with a series of controversial comments.

On Tuesday, Rep. Richard Hanna, R-N.Y., wrote in an op-ed that he would vote for Clinton instead of Trump, whom Hanna called "offensive and narcissistic," as well as "a world-class panderer."

Both Hanna and Rigell are retiring from Congress following this election.

The day after Hanna's op-ed was published, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., told CNN that he would not back Trump amid an ongoing war of words between the GOP nominee and the Muslim family of a fallen American soldier.

"Donald Trump for me is beginning to cross a lot of red lines in the unforgivable on politics," said Kinzinger. "He has crossed so many red lines that a Commander-in-Chief, or a candidate for Commander-in-Chief should never cross."

Kinzinger added that he would not vote for Clinton and was uncertain about whether to write in a candidate.



Rigell told the Times that he expected more GOP members of Congress and local officials to distance themselves from Trump as Election Day nears. He claimed that many Republican candidates have asked him for advice.

"When their own conscience is seared by some statement that Trump has made," Rigell said. "I have encouraged them to be direct and also, in a timely manner, repudiate what he said."

Rigell also vowed that he would leave the party and become an independent if Trump's campaign platform took hold in the party.

Click for more from The New York Times.
Sen. Tom Cotton suggested Sunday that hell accept President Obamas explanation that the roughly $400 million in cash to Iran amid the country holding several Americans captive was part of a decades-old settlement, but said the move sends a dangerous message to terrorists and others around the world.

He said this payment was not a ransom, the Arkansas Republican and major critic of Obamas recent Iran nuclear deal, said on Fox News Sunday.

It doesn't really matter though what President Obama says. It matters what the Iranians think and it matters what dictators and terrorists and gangsters all around the world think. And they clearly think that this was a ransom payment  That's why it's so dangerous.

Cotton also accused administration officials of stonewalling Congress and the American public about the specifics of the deal and the cash delivery roughly six months ago, continuing his criticism last week of the settlement.

We didn't know the cash payment, for instance, Cotton said. We didn't know that it was paid for with bills that could be easily laundered or used for terrorism or support for Iran's allies throughout the region. And we didn't know that the Department of Justice opposed it.  There are still a lot of questions left to be answered. And the Obama administration continues to stonewall on this.

The first-term senator also used a litany of strong words to describe the money delivery, in Euro notes, and how the administration behaved, including acting like a third world gun runner and a drug cartel to the worlds most dangerous terror state.

News reports surfaces Tuesday about of the money being flown to Tehran in an unmarked aircraft -- on pallets and wrapped in cellophane. Within hours, the administration said the delivery and the release of the hostages were unrelated.

And Obama said Thursday at the Pentagon: We announced these payments  many months ago. They were not a secret. It was not a nefarious deal.  We do not pay ransom for hostages."

The administration had announced in January that the U.S. government would give roughly $1.7 billion to Iran and release frozen Iranian assets in connection with a failed, 1970s-era arms deal, instead of potentially paying more through arbitration.

On Sunday, Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Tim Kaine tried to end the controversy, arguing in part that the only new news was Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump thinking there was a video of the cash delivery.

There's just no 'there' there, Kaine, of Virginia, said on NBCs Meet the Press, also insisting that the timing of the delivery and hostage release did not look like the paying of ransom.

Nope, he said. We don't pay for hostages. We don't negotiate for hostages.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Sunday that Hillary Clintons latest attempt to explain her email scandal -- that her brain had a short circuit -- is a very dangerous excuse and a new way to lie about lying.

She now has a fundamental way of saying, I didnt quite lie to you; I just short-circuited,'  Gingrich, a Georgia Republican and top supporter of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, also told Fox News Sunday. "Its one thing to lie, its another to lie about lying."

He was joined on the show by California Democratic Rep. Xavier Becerra who, like other Clinton supporters, is trying to move past Clinton as secretary of state using a private email server and the related FBI investigation.

While we want to make more of it, like [FBI Director James] Comey said, lets move on, said Becerra, who tried to turn the debate with Gingrich to Trumps immigration policy, calling him an immigrant basher.

He just wants his immigrants to be legal, Gingrich told Becerra, who is joining others in questioning the legal status of Trumps immigrant wife, Melania.

Gingrich and Becerra also sparred over each of their candidates economic policies and plans to defeat the Islamic State terror group.

Becerra repeated the argument that Trumps plan would cost the U.S. economy a breathtaking 3.5 billion jobs. And he backed Clinton saying last week that Obama didnt have enough time to fully execute is economic recovery plan, including a nearly $1 billion stimulus plan.

He had a chance with $900 million and blew it, Gingrich said. You campaign on things being good enough. Well campaign on things should be better. And well see who wins.

Becerra criticized Trumps plan to defeat ISIS, arguing its in large part based on allowing the U.S. military to torture detainees and cozying up to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Hillary Clintons decision not to seek the endorsement of The Fraternal Order of Police is a sign that the Democrat presidential nominee leads an anti-law enforcement party, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said on Sunday.

Giuliani, who supports Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, said on Fox and Friends that he sees an anti-police atmosphere developing in America, and he blames Clinton and the Democrat Party for fomenting those feelings.

It comes right from the top, it includes Hillary, and shes made herself a part of it, Giuliani said. You dont even go talk to and seek the endorsement of one of the major police unions in the country?

During her campaign, Clinton has voiced support for the Black Lives Matter movement, which grew out of recent controversial shootings of black men by police officers. Clinton also invited mothers whose sons were killed by police officers to speak on stage at the Democratic National Convention  though the same convention also featured a speech by Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez.

Still, Clinton's decision not to seek The Fraternal Order of Polices stamp of approval makes Clinton just the second Democratic presidential candidate in at least the last 20 years not to do so. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee, also did not seek the endorsement of the union, which represents 335,000 members. The FOP endorsed Bill Clinton in 1996, but has given the nod to Republicans in 2000, 2004 and 2008. The union did not endorse any candidate in 2012.

We were talking to the highest levels of the campaign, and we had all indications that she was going to return the questionnaire, FOP President Chuck Canterbury told The Hill on Friday. And on the deadline date we were advised that they declined.

Clintons campaign, speaking to The Hill, did not directly address why the form wasnt submitted, but instead focused on how Hillary and her team had engaged law enforcement throughout the campaign.

As she said from the beginning of her campaign, across the country, police officers are out there every day inspiring trust and confidence, honorably doing their duty, putting themselves on the line to save lives, Clinton spokesman Jesse Ferguson said. She believes we must work together to build on whats working and to build the bonds of trust between police and the communities they serve  because we are stronger together.

Trump has submitted his endorsement paperwork, and Canterbury stressed Trumps long history of being friendly to law enforcement.

Giuliani said the choice not to submit the FOP questionnaire is indicative of the extreme left swing of the current Democrat Party and its presidential candidate.

I think this only makes the point that the Democratic Party has gone so far to the left now  so far to the left  that it wont even seek the endorsement of the major police organization in the country, Giuliani said.
Only one candidate can win the U.S. presidency, but Donald Trump and Hillary Clintons teams are already creating the framework for an administration prepared for the White House on Day One.

Trump and Clinton opened formal transition offices on Monday in the same Pennsylvania Avenue building close to the White House, accommodations funded by taxpayers as part of $13 million Congress appropriated for pre-election planning.

"If you aren't preparing, then the American public should be concerned about whether you're fit to lead," said Partnership for Public Service CEO Max Stier, who is helping both campaigns with transition planning through the non-profit's Center for Presidential Transition. "The point of maximum vulnerability is when there is that handoff of power."

Stier and others close to the process insist that building a transition team -- which will draft detailed policy agendas and help hire hundreds, then thousands of administration staffers -- is not merely a pro forma exercise, with matters of national and economic security at stake.

What if 9-11 happens, Clay Johnson, who led the 2002 Bush-Cheney transition team, recently told FoxNews.com. There has to be a total willingness and a desire that says, Lets do this for America. 

Johnson -- who was George W. Bushs chief of staff when Bush was governor of Texas -- acknowledged that a presidential candidate might think that assembling a transition team will jinx his or her White House bid.

Yeah, its a little like measuring the drapes, said Johnson, now a member of the centers advisory board. But you have to have presumptions because if not you could be elected president and not prepared.

The White House recently announced that Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, and Clinton, the Democratic nominee, are now eligible to receive intelligence briefings from the government.

Clinton, a former first lady and secretary of state, just announced that long-time adviser and campaign chairman John Podesta and aide Minyon Moore will lead the nonprofit Clinton-Kaine Transition Fund but has not said who will lead the effort through the center.



Trump, a first-time candidate, has picked former GOP primary rival and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to lead his team.

Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a real estate developer, is also playing an active role along with Jamie Burke, who played a senior role in Mitt Romney's transition team four years ago.

Trump's team has identified experts in major policy areas such as foreign affairs, national security and economic affairs to help build out the transition, but those familiar with preparations to date describe them as preliminary at best.

A Trump spokeswoman did not respond to repeated questions by the Associated Press about transition planning. And Christie declined an interview, through a staffer.

Third-party candidates essentially must have 15 percent of the vote in multiple polls to receive Government Services Administration support.

Romney's 2012 team, dubbed the Romney Readiness Project, had 495 people working for the transition effort before Election Day and another 165 identified to join had he won the election, according to Stier's office.

Ahead of the 2009 presidential inauguration, the Obama-Biden Transition Project had more than 600 staff dedicated to the transition.

Trump's transition has only a handful of staff so far and his entire campaign listed only about 70 people on the payroll and another few dozen consultants at the end of June, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

The goal is to create "a miniature federal government," said former Utah Gov. Michael Leavitt, who led Romney's transition team four years ago and is informally advising Trump.

There are just 73 days between the Nov. 8 election and the Jan. 20, 2017 inauguration when the new presidential takes over. Without a running start, Leavitt says that's simply not enough time to appoint roughly 4,000 personnel that occupy senior roles in government departments -- State, Defense, Homeland Security, Commerce, and Treasury among them - many requiring multiple security reviews or Senate confirmation.

Leavitt also argued that the nation is often most vulnerable during periods of transition. The 1993 siege in Waco, Texas, the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the 2008 economic meltdown all occurred within months of a new president taking over.

Stier told FoxNews.com that hiring the right talent from such diverse fields as business, academia and nonprofits is just the start of the transition process, with providing good leadership and a system in which new hires can thrive being of equal importance.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.


:    9         

         2013 .         9          .    .
An Ohio teenager located by searchers two days after she vanished in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park cut and dyed her hair, changed her clothes and fled when authorities initially approached her, officials said Saturday.

MISSING PERSON: Fauna Jackson search enters 2nd day. Call 307.739.3517 with info. Summary: https://t.co/tsSEtvrLFZ pic.twitter.com/SDIUkQV5lY  Grand Teton NP (@GrandTetonNPS) August 5, 2016

Fauna Jackson, 16, was uninjured and taken to a hospital to be checked out. The National Park Service said the incident is "under investigation."

Jackson, who is from Cincinnati, was found near the Snake River Overlook about 4 miles from where she was last seen on Thursday morning. Jackson is a member of Groundwork Cincinnati-Mill Creek, an affiliate of Groundwork USA, and was working with about 20 other people on a trail project in the national park when she took a bathroom break but didn't return.

Rangers searched the area, and when they couldn't find her, they called in search crews, a helicopter, dog search teams and other authorities. More than 100 people took part in the two-day search that resumed early Saturday. Missing person notices were posted in the area where she disappeared.

Robin Corathers, executive director of Groundwork Cincinnati, said Jackson was excited about going to Wyoming to work on the project and there were no indications of any problems.

"She did great work. She loved working outside, and demonstrated leadership potential. This was unexpected and there was no warning," she said.

Denise Germann, spokeswoman for Grand Teton National Park, said investigators are trying to determine what happened, and the Teton County Sheriff's Office is handling the case.

The girl was found in a rugged area of Grand Teton National Park, less than a mile from a highway that leads to Yellowstone National Park.

Rescuers said someone reported seeing the girl Friday evening, and they became concerned after they found one of her hiking boots.

Park law enforcement rangers and officers with Teton County Sheriff's Office said the Wyoming Civil Air Patrol helped find the girl.

Grand Teton National Park Superintendent David Vela offered no reason why the girl changed her appearance and fled, but thanked rescuers for their efforts.

"We are relieved and very grateful that Fauna has been found," Vela said in a statement.

Fox 19 in Cincinnati reported that Jackson's family expected to be reunited with her as early as Monday.

"We're just so happy to have our beloved daughter back," James Bennett, Jackson's stepfather, said in a statement. "Tears of loss and remorse last night became tears of ecstatic joy."

The Teton County Sheriff's Office, Teton County Search and Rescue, Teton County Emergency Management, Bridger-Teton National Forest, Federal Bureau of Investigation, volunteers, and park staff took part in the search.

Groundwork USA teams are formed to work on environmental issues, improve their career skills, and take part in conservation and restoration projects.



The Associated Press contributed to this report.


Police found a handwritten murder-suicide note in a Pennsylvania home where a family of five, including a toddler who underwent a heart transplant a week after birth, was found dead of gunshot wounds, prosecutors said Sunday.

Police found the bodies of Mark and Megan Short and their three children, as well as a deceased dog Saturday afternoon in the living room area of the familys home in Sinking Spring, Berks County District Attorney John Adams said.

A handwritten note was discovered in the home which appeared to be a murder-suicide note, he said on Facebook.

A handgun was discovered near the body of one of the adults, the prosecutor said.

Sinking Spring police went to the home when a relative couldnt get in touch with Megan Short to find out why she missed a pre-arranged lunch date, Fox29 Philadelphia reported Sunday.

An investigation by police before they arrived at the home revealed that there had been domestic issues between Megan and her husband, the station reported.

Mark Short was 40 and his wife was 33. Their three children were Lianna, 8, Mark Jr., 5, and Willow, 2.

Willow and Megan were featured in articles in the Reading Eagle in 2014 and The New York Times in 2015 about Willow's transplant and the familys difficulties obtaining anti-rejection medication for her.

Megan worried at the end each month that her daughters drug supply would run out before it could be refilled, The Times reported.

You just feel like every month, youre hoping that they dont mess it up, she told the paper.

Fox 29 reported that the mother had written publicly about her struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder after Willows heart transplant.

Sinking Spring is about 70 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Iran confirmed on Sunday that it has executed an Iranian nuclear scientist who gave the U.S. intelligence about the country's contested nuclear program.

The official IRNA news agency quoted a spokesman for Iran's judiciary, Gholamhosein Mohseni Ejehi, confirming the execution of Shahram Amiri, an Iranian nuclear scientist caught up in a real-life U.S. spy mystery who later returned to his home country and disappeared. He did say where or when the execution took place, but said Amiri's initial death sentence had been reviewed by an appeal court and that he had access to a lawyer.

Amiri "provided the enemy with vital information of the country," Ejehi said.

Amiri, who worked for a university affiliated to Iran's defense ministry, vanished in 2009 while on a religious pilgrimage to Muslim holy sites in Saudi Arabia, only to reappear a year later in a set of online videos filmed in the U.S. He then walked into the Iranian interests section at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington and demanded to be sent home, returning to a hero's welcome in Tehran.

In interviews, Amiri described being kidnapped and held against his will by Saudi and American spies, while U.S. officials said he was to receive millions of dollars for his help in understanding Iran's contested nuclear program. Now, a year after his country agreed to a landmark accord to limit uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions, he has reportedly been hanged without any official word on his case.

"I am a simple researcher who was working in the university," Amiri said on his return to Tehran in July 2010. "I'm not involved in any confidential jobs. I had no classified information."

News about Amiri, born in 1977, has been scant since his return to Iran. Last year, his father Asgar Amiri told the BBC's Farsi-language service that his son had been held at a secret site since coming home.

On Tuesday, Iran announced it had executed a number of criminals, describing them mainly as militants from the country's Kurdish minority. Then, according to Iranian pro-reform daily, Shargh, an obituary notice circulated Amiri's hometown of Kermanshah, a city some 500 kilometers (310 miles) southwest of Tehran, announcing a memorial service on Thursday and calling him a "bright moon" and "invaluable gem."

Manoto, a private satellite television channel based in London believed to be run by those who back Iran's ousted shah, first reported Saturday that Amiri had been executed. BBC Farsi also quoted Amiri's mother saying her son's neck bore ligature marks suggesting he had been hanged by the state.

State media in Iran, which has been silent about Amiri's case for years, did not report his death until Sunday. The Associated Press could not immediately reach his family. Iran's mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It is unclear what would have prompted Iranian authorities to execute Amiri, years after his first disappearance. However, since the nuclear deal, hard-liners within Iran's government have been increasingly targeting dual nationals for arrest in the country and cracking down on journalists, artists, human rights activists and others.

U.S. officials told the AP in 2010 that Amiri was paid $5 million to offer the CIA information about Iran's nuclear program, though he left the country without the money. They said Amiri, who ran a radiation detection program in Iran, stayed in the U.S. for months under his own free will. Analysts abroad suggested Iranian authorities may have threatened Amiri's family back in Iran, forcing him to return.

But when he returned to Iran, Amiri said Saudi and American officials had kidnapped him while he visited the Saudi holy city of Medina. He also said Israeli agents were present at his interrogations and that that CIA officers offered him $50 million to remain in America.

"I was under the harshest mental and physical torture," he said.

Amiri's case indirectly found its way back into the spotlight in the U.S. last year with the release of emails sent by U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton while she served as secretary of state. The release of those emails came amid criticism of Clinton's use of a private account and server that has persisted into her campaign against Republican candidate Donald Trump.

An email forwarded to Clinton by senior adviser Jake Sullivan on July 5, 2010, appears to reference Amiri.

"We have a diplomatic, `psychological' issue, not a legal one. Our friend has to be given a way out," the email by Richard Morningstar, a former State Department special envoy for Eurasian energy, read. "We should recognize his concerns and frame it in terms of a misunderstanding with no malevolent intent and that we will make sure there is no recurrence.

"Our person won't be able to do anything anyway. If he has to leave so be it."

Another email, sent July 12, 2010 by Sullivan, appears to obliquely refer to the scientist just before his story became widely known.

"The gentleman ... has apparently gone to his country's interests section because he is unhappy with how much time it has taken to facilitate his departure," Sullivan wrote. "This could lead to problematic news stories in the next 24 hours."
The Islamic State group on Sunday claimed responsibility for a weekend machete attack that wounded two policewomen in the Belgian city of Charleroi, calling it an act of reprisal carried out by one of its "soldiers."

Belgian prosecutors identified the machete-wielding assailant as a 33-year-old Algerian known to police for criminal offenses, but not for extremist acts.

The attack on Saturday afternoon is being treated as a terrorist incident, notably because the man shouted "Allahu akbar!" -- Arabic for "God is great" -- as he slashed at the officers outside Charleroi's main police station, Prime Minister Charles Michel said.

The assailant, shot by a third officer, died later in a hospital. A statement by the IS-affiliated Aamaq News Agency, posted Sunday on an IS-linked Twitter account, said the attack on the policewomen was in response to the "Crusader coalition's" military campaign against IS and its self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria.

Belgium, a longtime U.S. ally, is a member of the American-led coalition combating IS, and has supplied warplanes to participate in anti-IS operations.

The Belgian Federal Prosecutor's Office said the attacker, who it identified only as K.B., had lived in Belgium since 2012.

"Since there are indications that the attack may have been inspired by a terrorist motive, the federal prosecutor's office decided to take over the investigation from the district prosecutor's office of Charleroi," the federal office said in a statement.

The office said two police searches were carried out overnight in the southern Belgian city, but that no further information about the investigation would be made public.

Both policewomen were "severely injured in the face and neck" in the attack, the federal prosecutors' statement said. Michel said the prosecutors had opened an official investigation into what they deemed a case of "attempted terrorist murder."

The prime minister spoke to reporters following an emergency meeting with top Belgian law enforcement officials Sunday morning. Michel cut short his vacation in the south of France to hurry back to Brussels following the Charleroi attack, which had some police unions clamoring for greater protection for police officers and installations.

"We must keep a cool head," Michel said. "We must avoid panic, of course -- not give in to terror. That's the trap that has been set for us."

Belgium has been on high alert since the March 22 suicide bombings claimed by Islamic State extremists that killed 32 people in Brussels. Many of the perpetrators of the Nov. 13 carnage in Paris that killed 130 people were also residents of Belgium. That attack was also claimed by IS.

"We know we must be constantly, constantly vigilant," Michel said.

Defense Minister Steven Vandeput said the government's Crisis Center would meet to determine if additional measures should be taken to protect police buildings and staff.

On Sunday, Charleroi police posted a request on their Twitter account asking reporters not to divulge officers' identities.

"We are targets," Charleroi police explained.

Prosecutors said K.B. was carrying a backpack at the time of the attack, but that a bomb squad search found no explosives or other weapons inside.
ISIS fighters in Afghanistan claimed to have recently seized a trove of sensitive U.S. military equipment  including communications gear, a rocket launcher and the ID card of a U.S. soldier but it remains unclear how the items came into the terror groups possession.

There was no immediate information on when the pictures, posted to social media on Saturday, were taken, though the U.S. soldiers ID expires in 2017, a possible sign the photos are relatively fresh. There was also no information on how the extremists captured the gear.

The American soldier whose identification was pictured, U.S. Army Specialist Ryan Jay Larson, was not captured by ISIS, Brigadier General Charlie Cleveland told Fox News on Sunday.

Obviously, SPC Larson is not captured  he is accounted for and with his unit despite having lost his ID card and possibly some of his equipment during recent operations, Cleveland said in an email. Beyond that, there is a lot of equipment in those pictures.

At this point, we don't know if all of the equipment in the pictures was lost during recent operations or at some other time in the past.

#ISIS 'Amaq posted photos of documents and gear of #American soldiers allegedly taken by ISIS fighters in #Nangarhar pic.twitter.com/UDat7qOFvX  SITE Intel Group (@siteintelgroup) August 6, 2016

Its possible some of the equipment was left behind during a recent operation, but it was not lost due to any kind of hasty withdrawal, Cleveland said.

We do know that U.S. troops were not forced to retreat during any operations, he said.

SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadi web activity, published the pictures and said they originated in Afghanistans Nangarhar province.

Thats the location where a company of nearly 150 U.S. Army Rangers recently took part in a multi-day assault against up to 1,500 ISIS-affiliated fighters. Mostly composed of former Taliban members, the fighters have a heavy presence in two districts near Pakistan.

Fox News reported the Army Rangers killed hundreds" of the ISIS fighters, although at some cost  five Rangers were shot and at least two remain hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries. None of the Rangers were killed.

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter told Bret Baier on Thursday that the Army Rangers' actions in the operation were heroic and confirmed they were involved in heavy combat.
Mobile Phone Adapter Market Growth and Analysis Report By Radiant Insights, Inc

This market research report about the global market for mobile phone adapters is a comprehensive and a professional study of the current market conditions.

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This market research report about the global market for mobile phone adapters is a comprehensive and a professional study of the current market conditions. At first, the report gives a basic idea about the mobile phone adapter market including definition, applications, classifications, market chain structure etc. It also covers the market development plans & policies, cost structure, product specification, production process, etc.

The report then analyzes the major regional markets including the North America, Asia, Europe etc. and the major economies including China, Japan, the United States, and Germany etc. It provides details including the development statuses of these regions, regional market conditions, capacity, capacity utilization, profit, turnovers, production, demand & supply, market growth rate and so on.

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Then, the report thoroughly analyzes the major global companies operating in the mobile phone adapter market. It provides details such as company profiles, product specifications & pictures, prices, contact details, and so on. At the end, it provides new project SWOT (Strengths & Weaknesses and Opportunities & Threats) analysis, feasibility analysis for new investment projects, and the analysis of investment return.

The report also provides the analysis of the upstream raw materials & downstream demand and technologies used, marketing channels and so on.

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Vertical Holdings, LLC President and Chief Executive Officer, Herbert Drayton, Named to Board of Directors for Coastal Community Foundation

Vertical Holdings, LLC President and Chief Executive Officer Named to Board of Directors for Coastal Community Foundation.

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Vertical Holdings, LLC of Charleston, South Carolina announced today that it's President and Chief Executive Officer, Herbert Drayton, was named to the Board of Directors of Coastal Community Foundation, a public grantmaking foundation dedicated to serving coastal South Carolina.

Four community members have joined the Coastal Community Foundation Board of Directors for the 2016-17 year: Herbert Drayton, Shawan Gillians, Colleen Troy and Angelia Washington. Additionally, C. Michael Branham has been selected as Chair Elect, while Paul Kohlheim will begin serving as Secretary/Treasurer.

Herbert Drayton (Charleston County) is President and Chief Executive Officer of Vertical Holdings, LLC, a Charleston and Memphis-based portfolio of services and software companies. Vertical Holdings' portfolio spans business operations in medicine, software development, web design and technical training. Herbert served six years in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and four years in the U.S. Air Force, in addition to early career work at Roper St. Francis. Herbert is a member of CCF's Community Stewardship Committee and is involved in his church, St. Stephen's Episcopal.

Shawan Gillians (Berkeley County) currently serves as Associate General Counsel for Santee Cooper. Previously, she was an Associate at Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice and Buist Moore Smythe McGee, PA. Shawan received her J.D. from the Marshall Wythe Law School at The College of William and Mary and a B.A. in Economics and Religion from Wofford College. In addition to other community service roles, Shawan has volunteered on a number of Coastal Community Foundation grants committees, including Giving Back to Berkeley County, Open Grants and Lowcountry Unity Fund Mini Grants.

Colleen Troy (Charleston County) brings marketing and communications expertise to the CCF Board. She founded Touchpoint Communications, a local media agency, in 2005 and worked previously in community news and higher education public relations. Outside of Touchpoint, Colleen is a frequent adjunct professor at the College of Charleston and freelance magazine writer. Colleen has an M.A. in Media Ecology from NYU and currently serves as Chair of the Board's Marketing Advisory Group.

Angelia Washington (Charleston County) has worked with Coastal Community Foundation for more than 10 years as an Advisory Committee Member to the N.E.W. Fund, which provides grants, leadership and technical assistance to low-to-moderate income neighborhood associations. She currently works as Human Resources Manager for Solvay (formerly Rhodia) and has been with the company since 1979. Outside of her career in human resources, Angie has been involved with many community organizations, as well as her church.

The new Board Members will attend their first Foundation Board meeting in August. Each member is elected for a three-year term and may be invited to serve a second consecutive three-year term.

About Coastal Community Foundation: Coastal Community Foundation serves Beaufort, Berkeley, Charleston, Colleton, Dorchester, Georgetown, Hampton, Horry and Jasper counties. To learn more, go www.coastalcommunityfoundation.org or call (843) 723-3635.

About Vertical Holdings, LLC: Located in Charleston, SC with more than 10,000 clients in 27 states, it has core business operations in health care, software development, technical training, B2B and B2C SaaS platforms, and medical consulting.

For more information, please visit http://www.verticalholdings.net

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Orlando City Council Members Son Arrested on Gun and Drug Charges

( August 04, 2016 ) Orlando, Fl -- Regina Hill, an Orlando City Council Member's son, was arrested recently with drug and gun charges. Rakeem Hill is Ms. Hills twenty eight year old son who has recently been charged with possession of a fire arm and extra ammo. He has also been accounted with having marijuana and crack cocaine with a motive to sell. Rakeem Hill was already a convicted felon before this recent arrest.

Mr. Hill was a passenger in a car that was driving 115 miles per hour on State Road 408. A trooper tried to pull the car over but the driver increased their speed fleeing the scene until they crashed into two cars.

A representative from Drug Rehab Orlando said: " To be such a highly sought after figure in a community already has so much pressure behind it but to also have a child who is constantly figuring out ways to get in trouble with the law. At this point in his life, Mr. Hill can no longer rely on his mothers name to get him out of certain situations. The unfortunate part of this issue is that he is still her son so socially what he does makes her look bad. Hopefully he and his accomplice will learn from putting their lives and other peoples lives in danger."

About Drug Rehab Orlando 32855:

Drug Rehab Orlando is an organization offering detox and rehabilitation services to Florida residents and all other U.S. citizens. The drug rehab in Orlando proudly serves all those in need of help overcoming their substance abuse disorders. Clients are in control of their own recovery with choices in the type of program they undertake and the method of treatment: inpatient, outpatient, or partial hospitalization.With a staff dedicated to empowering each client and providing them the skills and tools necessary to end their addiction,is a rehabilitation center like no other.

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Dr. Arthur Keiser Serves as Chairman of the ADA's Step Out: Walk to Stop Diabetes in South Florida

Keiser University's Chancellor, Dr. Arthur Keiser, hosts 2016 Step Out: Walk to Stop Diabetes in order to raise awareness and speak about prevention, regarding this debilitating disease.

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Dr. Arthur Keiser, Chancellor and CEO of Keiser University, will host the American Diabetes Association's 2016 Step Out: Walk to Stop Diabetes. The South Florida walk will take place on Saturday, October 22, 2016 at Huizenga Park in downtown Fort Lauderdale.

Dr. Keiser, who has personal experience with the disease, is focused on raising awareness about prevention.

"Every minute, more than three people will be diagnosed with diabetes, a disease that has reached near epidemic proportions in the United States," Dr. Keiser said. "We need to act now to change the future of diabetes for our youth and our loved ones."

Keiser University has been a proud supporter of the mission of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) for more than a decade. In the last two years, Keiser University has raised over $70,000 for a cure. The University is honored to be a sponsor of Step Out in 2016 and pledges to continue efforts to stop diabetes.

According to the ADA, nearly 29 million Americans are living with diabetes, with Florida being part of what is known as the "Diabetes Belt." In South Florida, diabetes impacts more than 700,000 residents. Dr. Keiser and other community leaders recognize that this translates into a direct impact on families and the business community.

"The risk of not preventing diabetes is more costly than fighting it, with one of every five health care dollars being spent on care for someone diagnosed with diabetes," Dr. Keiser said at a recent community breakfast.

The South Florida Chapter of the American Diabetes Association has a goal of raising $400,000 for the 2016 walk along with recruiting 325 teams to participate.

About Keiser University:

Keiser University, co-founded by Dr. Arthur Keiser, Chancellor in 1977, is a private, not-for-profit University serving nearly 20,000 students offering 100 degrees at the doctoral through associate level on 18 Florida campuses, online and internationally, employing 3,800 staff and faculty. Keiser University and the Keiser Mills Foundation provide nearly $44 million annually in need-based and academic scholarships.

Keiser University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to award certificates and degrees at the associate, baccalaureate, masters, specialist, and doctoral levels. Contact the Commission on Colleges at 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia 30033-4097 or call 404-679-4500 for questions about the accreditation of Keiser University.

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Creatine Industry 2016: Market Research And Analysis Report By Radiant Insights, Inc

This report provides detailed analysis of worldwide markets for Creatine from 2011-2016, and provides extensive market forecasts (2016-2021) by region/country and subsectors.

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This report provides detailed analysis of worldwide markets for Creatine 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 Creatine market and further lays out an analysis of the factors influencing the supply/demand for Creatine, 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.

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Creatine is a nitrogenous organic acid that occurs naturally in vertebrates and helps to supply energy to all cells in the body, primarily muscle. This is achieved by increasing the formation of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Creatine was identified in 1832 when Michel Eugene Chevreul isolated it from the basified water-extract of skeletal muscle. He later named the crystallized precipitate after the Greek word for meat, ????? (kreas). Early analysis showed that human blood is approximately 1% creatine, and the highest concentrations are found in animal blood, brain (0.14%), muscle (0.50%), and testes (0.18%). The liver and kidney contain approximately 0.01% creatine. Today, creatine content (as a percentage of crude protein) can be used as an indicator of meat quality. In solution, creatine is in equilibrium with creatinine. Creatine is a derivative of the guanidinium cation.

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Global Creatine Industry Report 2016 report has been prepared based on the synthesis, analysis, and interpretation of information about the global Creatine 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 Creatine market areNutraBio, AlzChem AG, Jiangsu Yuanyang, Zibo Lanjian, Shanghai Baosui, Shanghai Biosundrug, N&R Industries, Tianjin Tiancheng, Taicang Xinyue, Pingluo Sunshine, Suzhou Sanjian.

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 Creatine industry has been provided.

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Polymethyl Methacrylate Market (Optical & General Purpose) to Hit 4.7% CAGR to 2021

The polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) market was USD 4.20 billion in 2015 and is projected to reach USD 5.56 billion by 2021, at a CAGR of 4.7% between 2016 and 2021 driven by increased demand from end-use industries and rising demand for high quality thermoplastics

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The rising demand for high quality plastics is driving the market for PMMA in Asia-Pacific. The market in the region is mainly driven by the increased demand from China and India, where China is the largest market. The major end-use industries, namely, automotive and electronics are gaining momentum in the region, which is increasing the demand of PMMA. Furthermore, the rising demand from the construction industry is estimated to boost the market for PMMA in the region.

Complete report on global polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) market spread across 191 pages, profiling 10 companies and supported with 69 tables and 72 figures is now available at http://www.rnrmarketresearch.com/polymethyl-methacrylate-pmma-market-by-application-grade-form-global-trends-forecasts-2012-2017-market-report.html .

PMMA-based products form a major part of the electronics industry due to its optical properties, strength, structural stability, durability, and resistance to chemical and weathering among others, making them suitable for various applications. They are widely used in LED screens, LCD screens, appliances parts & accessories, and cover panels. Rising demands for electronic devices in Asia-Pacific are expected to boost the market for PMMA in the electronics segment.

By Company Type: Tier 1 (37%), Tier 2 (50%), and Tier 3 (13%).

By Designation: C-level (50%), Director Level (31%), and Others(19%)

By Region: North America (28%), Europe (33%), Asia-Pacific (22%), Latin America (11%), and the Middle East & Africa (6%).

Various key players profiled in the report includeArkema SA (France), Evonik Industries AG (Germany), Mitsubishi Rayon Co., Ltd. (Japan), Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) (Saudi Arabia), Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd. (Japan),Asahi Kasei Corporation (Japan),Chi Mei Corporation (Taiwan), GEHR Plastics, Inc. (Germany), and Kolon Industries Inc. (South Korea). Request a discount on Polymethyl Methacrylate (PMMA) Market by Grade (Optical and General Purpose), Form (Extruded, Cast Acrylic, Pellets, and Beads), and Application (Signs & Displays, Construction, Automotive, Lighting Fixtures and Electronics) - Global Trends & Forecasts to 2021 research report at http://www.rnrmarketresearch.com/contacts/discount?rname=57617 .

In the process of determining and verifying, the global polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) market size for several segments and sub segments gathered through secondary research, extensive primary interviews were conducted with key people. In Tier 1 (37%), Tier 2 (50%) and Tier 3 (14%) companies were contacted for primary interviews. The interviews were conducted with various key people such as C-Level (50%), Directors Level (31%) and others (19%) from various key organizations operating in the global polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) market. The primary interviews were conducted worldwide covering regions such as North America (28%), Europe (33%), Asia-Pacific (22%), Latin America (11%) and the Middle East & Africa (6%).

On a related note, another research on Plastic Additives Market Global Trends & Forecasts to 2021 says, The market size of plastic additives is expected to reach USD50.86 billion by 2021, registering a CAGR of 4.9% between 2016 and 2021. Plasticizers and flame retardants expected to witness high growth during forecast period. Asia-Pacific projected to be fastest-growing market during forecast period. The growth of the plastic additives market is primarily triggered by the rising demand from the packaging sector. Companies like Songwon Industrial Co. Ltd. (South Korea), Albemarle Corporation (U.S.), Clariant AG (Switzerland), BASF SE (Germany), The Dow Chemical Company (U.S.), Bayer AG (Germany), Evonik Industries AG (Germany), Kaneka Corporation (Japan), Lanxess AG have been profiled in this 188 pages research report available at http://www.rnrmarketresearch.com/plastic-additives-market-by-type-plasticizers-stabilizers-flame-retardants-impact-modifiers-plastic-commodity-engineering-and-high-performance-plastic-and-by-application-packaging-constru-market-report.html .

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For more information, please visit http://www.rnrmarketresearch.com

Contact Info:

Name: Ritesh Tiwari

Organization: RnR Market Research

Address: UNIT no 802, Tower no. 7, SEZ Magarpatta city, Hadapsar

Phone: +1-888-391-5441

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/polymethyl-methacrylate-market-optical-general-purpose-to-hit-4-7-cagr-to-2021/126359

Release ID: 126359

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CCHR Hosts Event Commemorating Purple Heart Day

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights is hosting an event at the historic Fort Harrison in honor of Purple Heart Day with the hope of bringing more attention to the increased drugging of those in the military.

--

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a non-profit mental health watchdog organization dedicated to the eradication of abuses committed under the guise of mental health, is hosting an event at the historic Fort Harrison in honor of Purple Heart Day.

The Purple Heart is the oldest military award still presented to U.S. military members. Over 200 years ago, during the last days of the American Revolution, George Washington, having been forbidden from granting commissions and promotions in rank to recognize merit, established the Badge of Military Merit on August 7, 1782 and Purple Heart Day is observed annually on August 7th in honor of those who received the award. This year, in commemoration of Purple Heart Day, CCHR is hosting an event at the historic Fort Harrison in honor of Purple Heart Day.

"We are honored to be able to pay our respects to the recipients of the Purple Heart and we are here today to make it known that as a watchdog group we will not idly sit by while those who gave so much for this country are subjected to abuse disguised as help," said Diane Stein, President of CCHR Florida.

Since 2002, the U.S. military suicide rates have almost doubled. From 2010 to 2012, more U.S. soldiers died by suicide than from traffic accidents, heart disease, cancer and homicide. In 2012 alone, more U.S. active duty service men and women committed suicide than died in combat, and veterans are killing themselves at the rate of over 20 per day.

From 2005 to 2011, the U.S. Department of Defense increased its prescriptions of psychiatric drugs by nearly seven times which was far greater than the increase for civilians.

Officially, one in six American service members is on at least one psychiatric drug and over the last ten years, the U.S. government has spent more than $4.5 billion dollars just medicating soldiers and veterans.

"In honor of those that served, and to whom we are all indebted, a debt that can never truly be repaid, the staff, volunteers and members of CCHR make a promise that we will continue to fight for and protect those that so valiantly protected us by working to expose abuses against veterans and those in active service while supporting alternative solutions," said Diane Stein.

To learn more, please call 727-442-8820 or visit www.cchrflorida.org for more information.

Sources: https://www.cchrint.org/issues/the-hidden-enemy/

About CCHR:

Initially established by the Church of Scientology and renowned psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Szasz in 1969, CCHR's mission is to eradicate abuses committed under the guise of mental health and enact patient and consumer protections.

It was L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, who brought the terror of psychiatric imprisonment to the notice of the world. In March 1969, he said, "Thousands and thousands are seized without process of law, every week, over the 'free world' tortured, castrated, killed. All in the name of 'mental health.'"

After discovering that 55 percent of foster children in Florida had been prescribed powerful mind-altering psychotropic drugs, CCHR documented the abuse to the health department, which initiated changes that led to a 75 percent reduction in prescriptions for children under six.

Considered a potentially abusive, marketing tool for psychiatrists, CCHR Florida led the charge that got "Teen Screen", mental health screening of school children, banned from Pinellas County schools in 2005. For more information visit, www.cchrflorida.org

For more information, please visit http://www.cchrflorida.org/

Contact Info:

Name: Diane Stein

Email: publicaffairs@cchrflorida.org

Organization: Citizens Commission on Human Rights of Florida

Address: 109 N. Fort Harrison Ave

Phone: 727-442-8820

Release ID: 126451

For more information visit r



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Eleven Suspects Arrested in the "Operation Cool Breeze" Case

( August 05, 2016 ) Putnam County, Fl -- " Operation Cool Breeze" is an investigation that has been being monitored over a four month period. Finally a break in the case has caused a sign of relief in Putnam County. Eleven drug dealers were arrested in late July in conclusion of this study.

Undercover police bought cocaine, meth, morphine and hydro-morphine from drug dealers in four different cities in northern Florida. Many of the suspects are being charged with only selling the drugs but others have an extra feat facing them. Five of the offenders are being charged with selling within close quarters of public housing, public parks and churches. There are three people at large for this crime and one of them is wanted for selling cocaine near by a school.

A representative from Drug Florida Rehab said: " Getting these offenders off the street makes the Putnam County community a safer place. Many of those who were incarcerated sold drugs in areas where children would be highly susceptible to narcotics and peer pressure caused by other kids involvement with drugs. Eleven less drug dealers off the street, away from homes parks schools and churches will surely make a difference in Putnam County."

About Drug Florida Rehab 33150:

Drug Florida Rehab is an organization offering detox and rehabilitation services to Florida residents and all other U.S. citizens. The drug rehab in Florida proudly serves all those in need of help overcoming their substance abuse disorders. Clients are in control of their own recovery with choices in the type of program they undertake and the method of treatment: inpatient, outpatient, or partial hospitalization.With a staff dedicated to empowering each client and providing them the skills and tools necessary to end their addiction,is a rehabilitation center like no other.

For more information, please visit http://www.drugfloridarehab.net/ or call (786)574-3161.

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Drug Offenders Will Start Receiving Treatment Instead of Jail Time

( August 05, 2016 ) Baltimore, MD -- There is good news for nonviolent drug felons. Instead of doing time for their crime, they will get to perform treatment sessions thanks to Governor Larry Hogan. The governor's office is administering $540,000 to the Washington County Sheriff's Office to fund the state's first adult drug treatment site. Opening the treatment centre addresses the state's heroin and opiate overdose death issue. This also corresponds with the law makers desires to enforce treatment instead of severe drug sentences.

Those who are recommended by a judge will be required to attend seminars on life skills and obtaining occupations.They will also receive mediation and professional observation and direction. They will have sporadic drug tests and have a job or be looking for one to continue treatment. It is recommended that delinquents spend a little over 90 days in the therapy sessions over half of the year. If they refuse to cooperate, they face the possibility of being incarcerated. Sheriff Doug Mullendore from the Washington County Sheriff's office said: "The right path for substance addicted offenders is to treat them as individuals who have a medical condition, rather than try to solve the problem through incarceration."

A representative from Drug rehab Baltimore said: " This is a great initiative to get more addicts off the street and into treatment and lead them to be productive citizens. The treatment centre is kind of like a rehab but the addicts won't have to spend the night for an extended amount of time.The treatment centre is a great way to get people out of jails who actually do not pose a threat to anyone. Harsh sentences and extensive jail time should be moderated for offenders who are violent and uncontrollable."

About Drug Rehab Baltimore 21222:

Drug Rehab Baltimore is an organization offering detox and rehabilitation services to Maryland and DMV residents and all other U.S. citizens. The drug rehab in Baltimore proudly serves all those in need of help overcoming their substance abuse disorders. Clients are in control of their own recovery with choices in the type of program they undertake and the method of treatment: inpatient, outpatient, or partial hospitalization.With a staff dedicated to empowering each client and providing them the skills and tools necessary to end their addiction,is a rehabilitation center like no other.

For more information, please visit http://www.drugrehabbaltimore.net/ or call (410)709-3816.

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The Bay Area's Top Real Estate Investors Meet at REI Bar Camp August 13

The 2nd Annual REI Bar Camp is on August 13, 2016 and will feature keynote speaker, Matt Skinner, as well as dozens of real estate investing professionals from the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.

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Concord, CA, August 4, 2016- Beau Eckstein of the Real Estate Investing Club is excited to announce the Second Annual Bay Area REI Bar Camp on August 13, 2016 at Fuddruckers in Concord, CA from 9:30am until 3pm.

"Beau thanks for organizing this event. It was an excellent forum to networking, making new contacts and learning. Your entourage of helpers were the best. You had a great kick off for the first event looking forward to the next one!" - Dave Waite, SFR Ventures

As in last year's Bar Camp, attendees choose the topics they want to learn about and hand-picked leaders facilitate the breakout sessions. There will be two sets of two sessions before lunch, and at least one set of two sessions after lunch, time permitting.

The keynote speaker, Matt Skinner, will kick things off and give an overview of how this Bar Camp will work, along with some projects he's currently working on.

Then the Bar Camp will break out into discussion sessions, as described above.

At 3pm, the Bar Camp will conclude.

There are many real estate investors who have signed on to be leaders in our breakout sessions.

A partial list of Bar Camp leaders:

Louis Bardis

Cheri Hill

Joel Block

J Martin

Neal Bawa

Mario Mazzamuto

David Greene

Matt Skinner

Eric Lawson

Michael Morrongiello

Beau Eckstein

Bill Davis

Richard Krawczyk

Cathy Lee Cibelli

Plus many more

Platinum Sponsor, Louis Bardis, will be providing lunch.

Details of the event

REI Bar Camp

August 13, 2016

9:30am - 3pm

Fuddruckers

1975 Diamond Blvd., E-260

Concord, CA 94520

A note about REI Bar Camp:

In brief, the idea behind a bar camp is that it is an "unconference" - there are 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 questions.

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 few words about our Platinum Sponsor:

Since 2012, Louis Bardis has managed a private money origination platform that has allocated over $500,000,000 in capital to residential property investors - all in the form of short term loans.

Louis is a licensed Real Estate Broker and is considered by many to be an expert in loan origination, raising capital, and managing enterprises.

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: USA

Phone: (925) 852-8261

Email: beaueckstein@gmail.com

Website URL: http://reibarcamp.com

Source: http://authoritynewsnetwork.com/the-bay-areas-top-real-estate-investors-meet-at-rei-bar-camp-august-13/

Release ID: 126705

For more information visit r



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Successful San Diego Lawyer Robert Hamparyan Leads Major Crosswalk Accident Case

San Diego personal injury lawyer Robert Hamparyan files lawsuit on behalf of family of 7 month old girl killed after being struck by a vehicle.

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Award-winning personal injury lawyer Robert Hamparyan is representing plaintiffs in a major lawsuit involving the death of a seven-month-old girl who tragically died after being struck by a vehicle while crossing a busy street with her father and mother, as they rightfully walked thru a crosswalk in San Diego, California.

The Law Offices of Robert Hamparyan filed the lawsuit on October 8, 2015. The lawsuit (Case No. 37-2015-00034135-CU-PA-CTL) is currently pending in the San Diego County Superior Court.

The deadly accident happened on March 2, 2015 when John Aavang was pushing his daughter, Juniper, in a stroller through an intersection crosswalk near Catalina Boulevard and Cannon Street in the Point Loma neighborhood. The girl's mother, Ginevra Aavang, was walking in front of the stroller at the time of the accident. The driver of the vehicle, David Allen Hoban--who told police his view of the intersection was blocked by a roadside obstruction--is named as one of the defendants in the case, along with the City of San Diego, County of San Diego and California Department of Transportation. Other defendants included John C. Reis, Helia M. Reis and a number of unidentified individuals fictitiously named "DOES 1 through 50." Primary plaintiffs are John and Ginevra Ryman Aavang.

"This tragic accident could have been avoided, and my team and I are committed to helping the Aavang family receive the justice they deserve for the unfortunate loss of their daughter," said San Diego-based Robert Hamparyan.

The lawsuit, Ryman Aavang vs. Hoban, alleges that "defendants John C. Reis, Helia M. Reis and DOES 1-50 owned the property located at 3776 Jennings Street, San Diego CA 92106, which included property at and around the intersection and crosswalk at Catalina Boulevard and Canon Street (the subject location). As owners of said property, defendants John C. Reis, Helia M. Reis and DOES 1-50 owned a duty of care to ensure that the trees, brush, foliage, etc. at the subject location did not obstruct the view of the subject crosswalk for oncoming motorist and/or crossing pedestrians with the standard of care, applicable statutes, codes, ordinances, and/or laws."

In addition, the lawsuit alleges that "defendants John C. Reis, Helia M. Reis and DOES 1-50 breached these duties by, among other acts, and omissions, allowing the trees, brush, foliage, etc. located on their property to obstruct views to and from the subject crosswalk. Defendants John C. Reis, Helia M. Reis and DOES 1-50 knew or should have known that the breach of the herein alleged duties would result in injury and damage to persons and property, including plaintiffs. As a proximate result of defendants John C. Reis, Helia M. Reis and DOES 1-50's negligence, plaintiffs have been and continue to be, injured in their health, strength and activity, sustaining severe injuries, all of which have caused and continue to cause great physical pain and suffering, permanent disabilities, and death.

In addition to negligence, the complaint was also filed for premises liability, dangerous condition of public property and wrongful death.

On December 2, 2015, the city of San Diego filed a cross-complaint against the Point Loma Woods Home Owners Association, alleging that it failed to maintain the property adjacent to the crosswalk where the accident occurred. Specifically, the city alleges that the association failed to trim the foliage that could have obstructed the drivers' view of the father and daughter crossing the street. According to a January 21 article by the San Diego Reader, documents obtained in a public records request reveal there were previous complaints about what Point Loma residents referred to as a dangerous intersection.

"The city was on notice about the dangerous condition of this roadway and hazards created by the speeds designated for that section of the road and the obstructions' created by the foliage and the SDG&E electrical box immediately before the crosswalk," Hamparyan said. Yet, nothing was done to correct it."

The Law Offices of Robert Hamparyan is available to help others who need assistance with similar or personal injury cases. With a proven track record for obtaining results, the Law Offices of Robert Hamparyan has achieved a case success rate of more than 98 percent and recovered millions of dollars for its clients. To date, more than 40 clients of the firm have received settlements of at least $1 million.

Members of the media may request more information and schedule interviews with Hamparyan, by calling Marketing Director Dan Steiner at (619) 550-1355 or visiting www.hamparyanlawfirm.com. Individuals who need assistance with a potential claim are encouraged to contact the Law Offices of Robert Hamparyan for a free, confidential consultation.

About Robert Hamparyan

Robert Hamparyan is one of California's most successful trial lawyers and has numerous ground-breaking verdicts to his credit. His San Diego-based practice encompasses a wide variety of areas, including spinal injury, brain injury and other personal injuries; vehicle, pedestrian and construction accidents; and wrongful death. Hamparyan, who has more than 20 years of legal experience as a trial lawyer, has the expertise to represent even the most complicated personal injury cases. Hamparyan has received numerous awards for his trial work, including the coveted Trial Lawyer of the Year Award in 2008 from the Consumer Attorneys of San Diego. In addition, he is a lifetime achievement member of the prestigious America's Top 100 Attorney's, has been named a San Diego County Top Attorney by the San Diego Source every year since 2009, has made the list of Super Lawyers in 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015, and has been accepted into the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum for his work on several cases that have reached multi-million dollar verdicts.

For more information, please visit http://www.hamparyanlawfirm.com

Contact Info:

Name: Dan Steiner

Organization: The Law Offices of Robert Hamparyan

Address: 275 W Market St, San Diego, CA 92101

Phone: 619-550-1355

Release ID: 126701

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McKee Homes Certified As Great Place to Work

McKee Homes was certified as a great workplace today by the independent analysts at Great Place to Work.

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McKee Homes earned this credential based on extensive ratings provided by its employees in anonymous surveys. A summary of these ratings can be found at http://reviews.greatplacetowork.com/mckee-homes.

"McKee Homes' owners, Pat McKee and Julie Russo, have worked hard to create a culture that recognizes the individual and their family and helps to propel their employees to their fullest potential. We are proud of the culture they have fostered. We continue to work towards a rewarding and challenging environment for all of our employees. It is exciting to see it be recognized in this way!" said Ashley Tucker, Executive Assistant at McKee Homes.

"We applaud McKee Homes for seeking certification and releasing its employees' feedback," said Kim Peters, Vice President of Great Place to Work's Recognition Program. "These ratings measure its capacity to earn its own employees' trust and create a great workplace - critical metrics that anyone considering working for or doing business with McKee Homes should take into account as an indicator of high performance."

"According to our study, 84 percent of McKee Homes' employees say it is a great workplace," says Sarah Lewis-Kulin, Great Place to Work's Senior Editor.

McKee Homes employees completed 38 surveys, resulting in a 90 percent confidence level and a margin of error of  0.00.

About McKee Homes, LLC

Since its inception, McKee Homes has done more than build quality new homes at competitive prices. They give homebuyers the freedom to personalize their homes with custom options and special features to get the new home they truly desire. McKee Homes is one of the fastest growing new home builders in Eastern North Carolina with new homes located in some of the area's most desirable neighborhoods, offering comfort and convenience only a short drive from the Fort Bragg, Raleigh and Wilmington Metro Areas.

About Great Place to Work

Great Place to Work is the global authority on high-trust, high-performance workplace cultures. Through proprietary assessment tools, advisory services, and certification programs, including Best Workplaces lists and workplace reviews, Great Place to Work provides the benchmarks, framework, and expertise needed to create, sustain, and recognize outstanding workplace cultures. In the United States, Great Place to Work produces the annual Fortune "100 Best Companies to Work For" list and a series of Great Place to Work Best Workplaces lists including lists for Millennials, Women, Diversity, Small and Medium Companies and over a half dozen different industry lists.

For more information, please visit http://www.mckeehomesnc.com/

Contact Info:

Name: John Reeves

Organization: McKee Homes

Address: 101 Hay Street Fayetteville, NC 28301

Phone: 910-475-7100

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/mckee-homes-certified-as-great-place-to-work/126671

Release ID: 126671

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Portsmouth Marketing Group Unveils Free SEO Checker

Business owners can now use the freely-available tool on the company's website get an instant SEO score report, reports http://www.portsmouth-marketing.com.

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Portsmouth Marketing, a premier digital marketing agency for Hampshire small businesses, has recently announced the addition of a free SEO checker to their website. In addition to their Local SEO services, the company is now offering business owners a freely-available tool that will give them a full SEO score report for the website of their choice. The tool has the ability to produce the report in a mere 45 seconds and is easily accessible from the homepage at the Portsmouth Marketing website.

Paul Clarke, the Managing Director of Portsmouth Marketing, commented "Doing business in this digital age means that website owners hear about search engine optimization - or SEO - all the time. However, many of them have no idea how to know whether or not their website is optimized for easy indexing and high rankings in the search engines. Consequently, our team has created a Free SEO Checker in response to business owners' need for an easy way to understand how their website measures up when it comes to the important elements of SEO and what they need to do to improve their search engine rankings."

In order to use the free SEO checker at the Portsmouth Marketing website, business owners simply need to enter the URL of their website and the main keyword for which they wish to rank highly. In 45 seconds or less, the tool will return a full report that covers important SEO indicators such as landing page tags and images, keywords in the copy and code, and a full analysis of the site's backlinks and social signals. At the end of the report, business owners will get a checklist of things that they can do to improve their site's search engine optimization.

As Clarke goes on to say, "We want business owners to know that getting their website ranked highly is possible if they know what to do. While investing in the right SEO Services is important, knowing the status of their website and how optimized and search-engine friendly it really is will be the first step. We are proud to be offering business owners this free SEO checker as a way to encourage them to take that all-important first step."

About Portsmouth Marketing:

Portsmouth Marketing is a passionate digital marketing agency for Hampshire small businesses. Established in 2012, Portsmouth Marketing has grown from strength to strength and is proud to be helping scores of small businesses throughout Hampshire and beyond achieve the Google success they deserve.

For more information, please visit http://www.portsmouth-marketing.com

Contact Info:

Name: Paul Clarke

Organization: Portsmouth Marketing

Address: Innovation Space, Halpern House, 1 Hampshire Terrace, Portsmouth, Hampshire, PO1 2QF, UK

Phone: +44 (0) 2392 352 810

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/portsmouth-marketing-group-unveils-free-seo-checker/126770

Release ID: 126770

For more information visit r



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GreenLeaf Industries Celebrates Plastics Technology Feature

The plastic injection molding company was recently featured in Plastics Technology for their success with reshoring custom molded parts, reports http://greenleaf.biz/.

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GreenLeaf Industries, a plastic injection molding company in Tennessee, has recently celebrated a feature in online magazine Plastics Technology. In the featured article, the team at Greenleaf Industries was recognized for their success with reshoring custom plastic injection molded parts, specifically for Atwood Mobile Products. The article explains how GreenLeaf's commitment to excellence and innovation made it possible for Atwood to contribute to the recovery of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina while bringing production back to the U.S.

Robert Segrest, CEO of GreenLeaf Industries commented "In the past, there has been a trend in our industry to outsource plastic injection molding to offshore manufacturers because companies believed it was the key to reducing plastic injection molding costs. However, many companies are starting to realize that doing so can actually have the opposite effect. As we saw in the case of Atwood, trying to quickly get special knobs for mobile home ovens after Hurricane Katrina, it can also cause significant time delays. The silver lining was our team received a chance to show how reshoring can boost profits, streamline operations, and contribute to the growth of the local economy."

In 2005, after Hurricane Katrina devastated the New Orleans area, the Federal Emergency Management Agency temporarily housed storm survivors in mobile homes with gas stoves and ranges made by Atwood Mobile Products. In order to help residents safely ignite the gas stoves (so they could cook and provide meals for their families), Atwood needed thousands of red "spark knobs".

Their usual process of importing knobs from China presented what seemed like an insurmountable time and expense challenge, but fortunately U.S.-based GreenLeaf Industries proved themselves to be one of the country's most reliable plastic injection molding companies as they won the bid for the job and rose to the challenge of providing 50,000 red knobs each week.

As Segrest goes on to say, "Although the job was tough at the outset, we can say with confidence that we are proud to have contributed to such an important issue. It is our hope that this situation will help the manufacturing industry understand the importance of reshoring and the positive effects that it can have on business and the economy as a whole."

Read the Plastic News Article at: http://www.ptonline.com/articles/reshoring-spark-helped-feed-thousands-post-katrina

About GreenLeaf Industries:

Green Leaf Industries is an American plastic injection molding company located in Lenoir City, Tennessee. The company provides design and production services for plastic injection and is one of the only plastic injection molding companies exclusively using all-electric injection molding machines. Established in 1999, they take pride in high-quality craftsmanship and superior customer service. An ISO Certified company, GreenLeaf Industries is extremely process-oriented with a relentless pursuit of manufacturing excellence and continuous improvement. They are family-owned and operated by two generations of hard-working, hands-on, professional engineers. The entire staff at GreenLeaf Industries is obsessive about engineering quality, on-time delivery, and cost containment for every single one of their designs and projects.

For more information, please visit http://greenleaf.biz/

Contact Info:

Name: Robert Segrest

Organization: GreenLeaf Industries

Phone: (865) 988-5661

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/greenleaf-industries-celebrates-plastics-technology-feature/126790

Release ID: 126790

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Phillip James Financial Celebrates Entrepreneurial Honor

Co-founder Phillip Christenson has been named as one of the top young entrepreneurs in Minnesota this year, reports http://phillipjamesfinancial.com.

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Phillip James Financial, a premier wealth management company located in Plymouth, Minnesota, has recently celebrated a significant entrepreneurial honor. Minnesota Business Magazine named co-founder Phillip Christenson to their 2016 group of Young Entrepreneurs. Christenson has been selected to this group based on his clear-cut leadership and contribution to the arena of finance at such a young age. The full listing of 2016 honorees is available at the Minnesota Business Magazine website.

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From co-founding Philip James Financial with James Sexton, CPA to creating its sister company PJF Tax, Phillip Christenson has been a pillar in Plymouth's entrepreneurial community for years. Christenson has been quoted in many media outlets like the Star Tribune and Wall Street Journal. This year, he has made Minnesota Business Magazine's second annual list of young entrepreneurs to watch out for in 2016. Each year, the magazine selects a group of people under the age of 35 for this list and honors them for their role in building Minnesota's future economy.

As Christenson goes on to say, "We are proud to be on this year's Young Entrepreneur list with so many people who are truly committed to changing the world and investing in the future through their various enterprises. Our team at Philip James Financial is looking forward to having even more opportunities to lead those around us to place significant value in doing everything with a sense of purpose."

About Phillip James Financial:

Phillip James Financial is an independent wealth management company located in Plymouth, MN that is focused on pre-retirees as well as providing financial planning for younger generations. The company believes wholeheartedly in helping their clients invest with purpose in order to achieve their life goals.

For more information, please visit http://phillipjamesfinancial.com

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Name: Phillip Christenson, CFA

Organization: Phillip James Financial

Phone: (763) 432-0852

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/phillip-james-financial-celebrates-entrepreneurial-honor/126786

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Boostical Announce Acquisition By Los Angeles Based Private Investment Group

E-commerce agency Boostical was founded in 2008, and has just been acquired by a group of private investors based in Los Angeles, with details of the deal to be made official later this year.

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E-commerce is a thriving growth industry, and the giants like Amazon are now being challenged by the emergence of easily operated independent e-commerce stores, run by individuals selling specialist products. These stores still need help with developing their audience, boosting traffic and converting that traffic into sales. Boostical is an e-commerce agency that does exactly that on behalf of ecommerce store owners, with one-click solutions to boosting traffic. They have just announced a major investment by a group of private investors based in Los Angeles.

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A spokesperson for Boostical explained, "We grew up in New York, but we have learned to fly in Los Angeles. Our new office there was barely established when investors came knocking, but we had to be careful about teaming with the right people. We are delighted to say we have now found those people, and this means a bright future for our company and our customers. Our one-click solutions offer the most effective hands-off approach to traffic generation ever seen, and with fresh backing, we can really maximize the potential of these services for a generation of e-commerce store owners. This is an exciting time for us, and we look forward to sharing the official details soon."

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For more information, please visit http://boostical.com/

Contact Info:

Name: Henry Watts

Email: henry@boostical.com

Organization: Boostical



Source: http://marketersmedia.com/boostical-announce-acquisition-by-los-angeles-based-private-investment-group/126811

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The best-selling author, speaker and branding expert, Andrew Smith, announced the launch of a new book entitled 'The Dominant Brand' for businesses and individuals looking to differentiate their brand from their competitors and dominate their niche.

More information is available at https://www.amazon.com/Dominant-Brand-Setting-Gett...

Andrew Smith is a prominent corporate and personal branding expert, who established two unique brands in his niche with clients including royalty, celebrities or blue chip and Fortune 500 companies, now advising individuals and companies on his effective branding techniques.

The best-selling author and branding expert has announced the release of his latest book entitled 'The Dominant Brand', detailing his valuable branding blueprint and proven techniques to help businesses or individuals stand out and successfully differentiate their products or services from their competitors.

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More information on Andrew Smith and his branding success, acumen or experience along with details on his latest book, 'The Dominant Brand', and multiple testimonials or resources and advice on effective personal and corporate/business branding, can be consulted on the website link provided above.

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Email: Andy@AskAndySmith.com

Organization: Andrew Smith



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President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi led mourners including a number of Egyptian and dignitaries during the military funeral of winner Egyptian chemist and Nobel laureate Ahmed Zewail Sunday morning at the El-Mosheer Tantawy mosque in New Cairo.

Ali Gomaa, Egypt's former Grand mufti, led the funeral prayers.

Egypt's current Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, Al Azhar Grand Imam Ahmed Al Tayeb, Defence Minister Sedki Sobhy, former President Adly Mansour, former Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab and renowned heart surgeon Magdi Yaucoub were also among the mourners and all extended condolences to Zewail's family.

The Nobel Prize winner passed away on Tuesday at the age of 70 after losing a long battle to cancer .

Although military funerals are usually held for military personnel, Zewail received the Order of the Grand Collar of the Nile  the highest Egyptian state honour  making him eligible for the distinction.

A wake will be held on Monday, for both men and women, also at El-Moshir Tantawi Mosque in New Cairo.

Zewail's body arrived in Cairo on Saturday ahead of the funeral. Despite living in the US at the time of his death, Zewail had expressed his wish to be buried in Egypt.

Zewail's media representative Sherif Fouad said that Zewail City has decided to open a condolence book for Egyptians, fellow Arabs and foreign diplomatic mission starting Thursday in the Zewail City headquarters in 6 of October city.

Zewail dedicated his life to science and research and was instrumental in developing four-dimensional electron microscopy. 

In 1999, he received the Nobel Prize for his study of chemical reactions.

Zewail earned his BS and MS degrees from Alexandria University in 1967 and 1969, then received a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1974 and completed an IBM postdoctoral fellowship at UC Berkeley.

He joined the faculty at Caltech in 1976 as an assistant professor, before becoming associate professor in 1978, then professor in 1982. From 1990 to 1997, he was Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Physics, then he was named professor of physics in 1995, and then the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemistry in 1997.

Zewail was awarded the Order of Legion d'Honneur in 2012, the highest French Order, by the President of France.

He became a naturalised US citizen in 1982.

Zewail is survived by his wife, Dema Faham, and four children.

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Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner Divorce: 'Daredevil' Stars Still Great Friends? Split Might Never Happen?

Several fans have liken the Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner love story to a fairytale. However, on June 30, 2014, one day after 10th year wedding anniversary, the "Daredevil" stars have announced that they are planning to divorce. Fans were shocked with the announcement.

Going back, Ben Affleck started dating actress Jennifer Garner in mid-2004, after the two stars met on the sets of "Pearl Harbor" and "Daredevil." The pair married in 2005, in a solemn and exclusive wedding ceremony. Currently, they have three children together: daughters Violet, 10, and Seraphina, 7, and son Samuel, 4.

Even though Jennifer Garner has filed for divorce, it has not yet been finalized as of yet. E! News reports that their love suffered a marital crisis when Ben Affleck was caught cheating with the children's nanny.

However, Jennifer Garner has made it clear that the nanny had nothing to do with their choice to divorce. The "Elektra" actress even said that she and Ben Affleck had been separated for months before she ever heard about the nanny issue.

Although they are not back together like before, Jennifer Garner, 44, is still "great friends" and still co-parents with "Batman" actor, Ben Affleck, 43, as what the "Nine Lives" actress said on Today show. It looks as if they are gradually running according to fate again -- they are undeniably back on track! Some sources say they are in reconciliation for children's sake -- that way out of great necessity.

Avid followers of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner bet the love is still there. How can they resist their children's necessities?

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And if they invest quality time on and on again, one thing is for certain: this might let Ben Affeck and Jennifer Garner get back together. "They have a good system in place," the source said. "Everyone is happy right now."
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Your new go-to karaoke song.https://t.co/3R8rJ4f4AG  Stranger Things (@Stranger_Things) August 5, 2016



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Port Said Criminal Court upheld a life sentence against one defendant, and sentenced another to three years in prison, in relation to the "Ismailia clashes" case

Related Egypt court sentences Brotherhood leader Badie and others to 25 years in prison

Port Said Criminal Court ordered Sunday the release of five defendants, upheld the sentence against one defendant, and sentenced another defendant to three years in prison, issuing a verdict concerning seven defendants out of 36 in the retrial of the case known as the "Ismailia clashes."

The defendants were accused of killing three citizens in Ismailia governorate and attempting to kill 16 others, as well as attempting to occupy a governorate building in July 2013 following the ouster of Islamist former president Mohamed Morsi.

In May, the court sentenced the 36 defendants, which include Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and other top Brotherhood leaders, to life in prison.

A life sentence means 25 years in jail, according to the Egyptian penal code.

The government has banned the Muslim Brotherhood, the group Morsi hails from, designating it a terrorist organisation in December 2013.

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'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' Release Date, Spoilers, Latest News & Update: Another Prequel Character Confirmed Opposite Darth Vader?

Darth Vader isn't the only character from the prequels who will appear in "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story". It looks like another major character will be a part of the Star Wars Anthology film, but what role will Senator Bail Organa play in the film?

It's no secret that Darth Vader will appear in "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story". Fans already know that the villainous mouth-breather will be a major part of the standalone film that focuses on the Rebels who stole the Death Star plans. However, Jimmy Smits has just confirmed that Leia Organa's adoptive father will also be in the movie.

Jimmy Smits Confirms Senator Bail Organa Appearance In "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story"?

Anyone who has seen the Star Wars Celebration Reel probably noticed that Jimmy Smits was on the set of "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story". But the actor refused to confirm that Senator Bail Organa will pop up in the new film. That is, until his recent interview with The Talk.

Jimmy Smits admitted that he will be in "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" but he did not confirm whether it would be as Senator Bail Organa. "Can you say the word 'cameo'?" Smits asked during the interview. "Can you say the words 'small part'?"

It would truly be an exciting thing to see Jimmy Smits return as Senator Bail Organa in "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story". It would be interesting for fans to see what Leia's adoptive father was up to before Alderaan got blown up by the Death Star in "A New Hope".

"Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" is directed by Gareth Edwards and also stars Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Mads Mikkelsen, Forest Whitaker, Alan Tudyk and Ben Mendelsohn. The film will finally premiere on December 16.
As of last week, 219 current or former Wah Chang employees or their survivors had received more than $35 million in benefits as compensation from the federal government for cancers contracted through radiation exposure at the Millersburg metals refinery.

Most of them owe a debt of gratitude to Mark Backer, whose petition on behalf of his late father, Roy Backer, was the basis for establishing special exposure cohort status for the plant, a designation that made it much easier for claimants to qualify for benefits.

The Backer family, however, has yet to see a dime in compensation. Even though it was Mark Backers petition that created the special exposure cohort covering hundreds of Wah Chang employees, his fathers claim has never been approved by the U.S. Department of Labor.

I have fought with them since Clinton was president, Backer says today.

Im glad somebody got something out of all this hard work  but this whole thing is crazy.

Hidden hazards

The Wah Chang plant in Millersburg (now officially called ATI Specialty Alloys and Components but still widely known by its original name) began operations in 1956 to produce zirconium using a process developed by the U.S. Bureau of Mines Albany Research Center. The facility just outside Albany remains a major refiner of zirconium, used in fuel assemblies for nuclear reactors, as well as other exotic metals such as hafnium, niobium, tantalum and vanadium.

Many of the metals that come out of Wah Chang have military applications, and for a brief period  Jan. 1, 1971, to Dec. 31, 1972  the company had a contract to melt down and reprocess depleted uranium for the U.S. nuclear weapons program.

While there are multiple sources of radiation at the 110-acre plant, the uranium was potentially much more dangerous. Wah Chang officials have not disclosed how much depleted uranium went through the plant over that two-year span, but the companys state-issued radioactive materials license authorized it to have up to 50,000 pounds of the stuff on site at any one time.

According to the companys current license, roughly 5 pounds of depleted uranium remains on the site inside a mothballed electron-beam furnace.

Because the radiation hazard was connected to nuclear weapons production, Wah Chang was covered as an atomic weapons employer under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act, or EEOICPA for short. Congress passed the law in 2000 to provide cash compensation and medical benefits to workers at hundreds of privately owned factories and government laboratories involved in the nations Cold War nuclear weapons buildup, many of whom were exposed to cancer-causing radiation without their knowledge or consent.

Part B of the program provides compensation of $150,000 and covers medical expenses for qualifying atomic weapons workers who develop one of 22 types of cancer as a result of workplace radiation exposure.

Mark Backer learned about the program shortly after it went into effect, and on July 29, 2002, he filed a claim for benefits on behalf of his mother, Melva Backer. The claim sought compensation for the death of her husband, Roy, who worked at the Bureau of Mines Albany Research Center at 1450 Queen Ave. S.W. from 1951 to 1956 and at the Wah Chang plant in 1956 to 1979.

Roy Backer, a chemical engineer, was involved with the Wah Chang plant in Millersburg from the very beginning, when it first spun off from the Bureau of Mines. As his son puts it, He built that plant.

He became superintendent of the plants separations division, a job that frequently left him covered in grime. As Mark Backer recalls, he would come home so filthy that his wife wouldnt let him in the door.

My mom made him get undressed before he came into the house, he said. The next day, the bushes where he hid his clothes were dead.

Later, the family would wonder whether something Roy Backer was exposed to at work led to his own early death.

In 1974 he was diagnosed with melanoma, a type of skin cancer. Despite years of chemotherapy treatments, his illness grew progressively worse, eventually metastasizing into lung cancer. He died on Nov. 3, 1981, at the age of 59.

He never cashed a single Social Security check, Mark Backer said.

Battling bureaucracy

While Backer was convinced that his fathers death was connected to his work, proving it is another matter.

Obtaining benefits through EEOICPA hinged on a process called dose reconstruction, which attempts to document how much radiation someone was exposed to on the job and what the health effects of that exposure might have been. If the dose reconstruction team determines it is at least as likely as not that workplace radiation exposure was the cause of a covered cancer, the claim is approved. If the likelihood is less than 50 percent, the claim is denied.

Its a tricky process, especially when it needs to be done long after the fact. In Roy Backers case, more than six years elapsed from the time a claim was filed until his son was notified that sufficient information has been gathered from the available records sources to initiate reconstruction for your claim.

That was in March 2010, and Mark Backer was at his wits end.

This thing has been nothing but an exercise in frustration and anxiety, he said.

But then Backer learned about another option. Someone familiar with the EEOICPA told him about the special exposure cohorts that had been set up at certain atomic weapons employers. For job sites covered by a special exposure cohort, no dose reconstruction is required. The presumption is that anyone who was employed for a certain amount of time at an special exposure cohort site  typically 250 work days, a standard work year  and developed one of the specified illnesses is eligible for benefits.

There was no special exposure cohort for Wah Chang at the time, but Backer didnt let that stop him. He asked the government to create one.

On June 9, 2010, Backer submitted a special exposure cohort petition to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, which handles dose reconstructions for EEOICPA benefits. In the NIOSH petition, he argued that attempting to perform a dose reconstruction for his fathers radiation exposure based on workplace records was impractical because there was no monitoring for internal or external exposure and there was no protection (gear or working environment).

The petition asked that a special exposure cohort be created for all employees who worked at Wah Chang during two specific time periods: Jan. 1, 1971, through Dec. 31, 1972, when depleted uranium was being reprocessed at the plant, and Jan. 1, 1973, through Jan. 11, 1979, when Backers father left Wah Chang to go to work for another company.

A NIOSH advisory board evaluated the petition and recommended that a special exposure cohort be created for anyone who worked at Wah Chang for at least 250 days between Jan. 1, 1971, and Dec. 31, 1972, when the depleted uranium work was being done. The designation was formally approved on April 29, 2011. (A residual exposure period was also established for employees who worked at Wah Chang between Jan. 1, 1973, and March 1, 2011. Those workers could still establish a claim for benefits but would still have to go through dose reconstruction.)

Mark Backer won that battle, but he still lost the war.

Even though his father worked at Wah Chang during the special exposure cohort period and was ultimately diagnosed with a covered condition  lung cancer  shortly before his death, his claim was eventually denied on what Backer claims is a technicality.

The doctor who treated Backers father specified that he had cancer of the pleura, the membrane that wraps around the outside of the lungs. For that reason, he said, the claim was rejected.

My fathers cancer spread to his arms, then to the body cavities and finally to his lungs, Mark Backer said. But because his surgeon  said it had spread to the pleura of the lungs, they said it wasnt a covered cancer.

Beneficial effect

While it may not have helped the Backers, the creation of the special exposure cohort has been a godsend to other Wah Chang claimants.

Of the 465 Wah Chang workers who have filed claims for benefits under the EEOICPA, less than half  228  were covered by the special exposure cohort. But almost 72 percent of those claims have been approved, compared to just 24 percent of claims that required dose reconstruction.

Among the people who have received compensation is the family of Roy Backers brother Leo, who worked at Wah Chang and later contracted cancer. A number of other family members have also worked at the Millersburg plant and could ultimately benefit from the compensation program, including Marks brother Greg Backer, who worked for 10 years as an electron-beam furnace operator.

Mark Backer himself spent some time as a Wah Chang employee, working there in the summers to pay his way through college.

My job was checking scrap metal with a Geiger counter, he said.

Garry Steffy, an ex-Wah Chang employee who has led the charge to spread the word about the EEOICPA despite the companys refusal to provide contact information for former workers, said Backers special exposure cohort petition laid the groundwork for that success.

His filing was great for everybody else, Steffy said.

But while hes sympathetic to the Backer familys plight, hes also concerned with the hundreds of other former Wah Chang employees whose claims have been denied.

Im grateful they filed this claim and got the whole thing going, Steffy said. But if they werent eligible for it, there were a whole lot of other people who werent eligible either.

A grateful nation

Meanwhile, Mark Backer has continued to press his fathers claim. From his home in the San Francisco Bay area, he has fired off letters to Labor Department hearings officers, U.S. senators and anyone else he thinks may be able to help his cause. So far, nothing has worked.

He also filed a claim seeking compensation for the death of his maternal grandfather, Fearn Jordan, who worked as a janitor at the Bureau of Mines Albany Research Center and died of cancer at age 63. That claim, too, was denied, although some workers at the facility have received compensation under the EEOICPA.

At this point, Backer says, its not really about the money. If his 90-year-old mother were to receive compensation, it would go to help cover the costs of her health care, which would quickly use up all the funds.

But it would provide a kind of validation.

It would mean acknowledgment of my grandfather and my fathers contributions to our nations defense, Backer said.

Both men served in the military during wartime, and both went on to jobs with Department of Energy contractors involved in atomic weapons work that may have exposed them to hazardous radiation. And both, Backer said, made the ultimate sacrifice.

I believe consequently, as a result of that, they both died prematurely, he said. And that should be acknowledged.

The family has received one thing from a grateful nation.

In 2009, Congress designated Oct. 30 as a national day of remembrance to honor the sacrifices made by the thousands of atomic weapons workers who helped build up Americas nuclear arsenal during the Cold War. A year later, Mark and Melva Backer received a handwritten letter from Denise Brock, an ombudsman with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, thanking them for the selfless service that your loved one gave in defense of our Country.

Enclosed was a small bronze lapel pin commemorating the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic weapons dropped on Japan to end World War II.

For Mark Backer, it was a slap in the face for a woman who lost both her father and her husband.

They sent my mom an atomic bomb pin, he said. I wish I was making this up, but Im not.
UN commuters : Vienna night train doesnt stop in Bonn

Bonn Mayor of Bonn appeals to Vienna for a better solution for Bonn passengers.

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United Nations workers who travel between headquarters in Vienna and Bonn must travel on to Cologne or Koblenz when they are returning from the Austrian capital. Since a change in the timetable last December, the night train traveling from Vienna does not make a stop in Bonn anymore. Only in the opposite direction does it collect passengers in Bonn.

The glitch is not insignificant given all the UN workers in Bonn; Mayor Ashok Sridharan pressed the case with Austrian transportation authorities. Unfortunately, the response gave little reason for optimism. Austrian Rail (OBB) said there were no plans in 2017 to consider reinstating this stop in Bonn for now. Their reasoning was a combination of a narrow time slot in the morning rush hour traffic heading towards Cologne and planned construction at the Bonn central train station.

While Austrian Rail spoke of a new application to include the Bonn stop in the 2018 timetable, they were generally unable to comment on the future of the night trains. Currently, they are putting out tenders for the purchase of new trains and have to see what comes out of that. Apparently, they are interested in building up their night train network but it seems the shorter travel time to Cologne and further on to the Ruhrgebiet or Brussels and Amsterdam are a priority.

Despite the fact that Bonn doesnt have much influence on transportation plans of the Austrian Rail, Bonns Mayor Sridharan wants to appeal again to those involved for a better solution for passengers traveling to Bonn.
Home Office guidance stipulates high-profile or politically active Brotherhood members and supporters, including journalists, might be at risk of persecution and thus qualify for asylum

New guidance issued by the UKs Home Office in August states that Muslim Brotherhood members can qualify for political asylum in the United Kingdom if they are considered to be under threat of persecution in Egypt.

The 22-page document, entitled Country Information and Guidance Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood, read that asylum can be applied for over a fear of persecution or serious harm by the state because of the persons actual or perceived involvement with the Muslim Brotherhood.

The guidance states that high-profile or politically active Brotherhood members in Egypt may be able to show that they are at risk of persecution, including of being held in detention, where they may be at risk of ill-treatment, trial also without due process and disproportionate punishment.

The document added that high-profile supporters or those deemed MB supporters, including journalists, may also be similarly at risk of persecution, stating that in such cases a grant of asylum would be appropriate.

However, the Home Office said that low-key, inactive members who are not generally targeted and would be unable to show a real risk or persecution may not be granted asylum, concluding that each case will be reviewed on an individual basis.

In December 2013, Egypt's interim authorities designated the Brotherhood a terrorist organisation and froze the assets of many of its members and all affiliated NGOs.

A court in 2014 banned all activities by the group, from which ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi hails, and ordered the confiscation of the group's assets via a state committee.

Assets of hundreds of Brotherhood members have since been confiscated by the state-led committee and alleged members have been prosecuted in mass trials over violence and terrorism-related charges.

The new UK Home Office guidance comes less than one year after a British government review concluded that membership or ties to the Brotherhood should be considered a possible indicator of extremism, but that the group should not be banned on UK soil.

Britains then-Prime Minister David Cameron said at the time that Britain would continue to refuse visas to members and associates of the group who have expressed extremist views, as well as intensify scrutiny of the activities Muslim Brotherhood members, associates and affiliates.

Egypt welcomed the British 2015 report at the time, saying that it was clear that the international community should support Egypt in confronting terrorism and extremist ideology.

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kacylee at 6-08-2016 09:09 PM (6 years ago) (f)

The United States government has cautioned its citizens to avoid all travel to 20 of Nigerias 36 states due to security concerns.





The US stated that security remains fluid and unpredictable in the listed states.



The US Department of State, specifically warned Americans against travel to Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe states, noting that its ability to provide assistance to US citizens in the three states remains severely limited.



In a travel warning on its website on Wednesday, August 3, 2016, the Department of State strongly urged U.S citizens in Nigeria to consider their own personal security and to keep personal safety in the forefront of their travel planning.



The US State Department recommended against all but essential travel to 17 other states due to the risk of kidnappings, robberies, and other armed attacks.



The states are, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Niger, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, and Zamfara.



Based on safety and security risk assessments, the Embassy maintains restrictions for travel by US officials to the states listed above; officials must receive advance clearance by the US Mission for any travel to those states, it stated.



The Department further advised all U.S citizens to be particularly vigilant around government security facilities, churches, mosques, and other places of worship locations where large crowds may gather, such as hotels, clubs, bars, restaurants, markets, shopping malls, and other areas frequented by expatriates and foreign travelers.



It explained that security measures in the country is heightened due to threats posed by extremist groups, and U.S. citizens may encounter police and military checkpoints, additional security, and possible road blocks throughout the country.



The mission pointed out that the Boko Haram group, designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the Department of State, had claimed responsibility for many attacks in the country.



It also informed Americans that local government curfews are intermittently in effect in several states in the North. The US stated that security remains fluid and unpredictable in the listed states.The US Department of State, specifically warned Americans against travel to Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe states, noting that its ability to provide assistance to US citizens in the three states remains severely limited.In a travel warning on its website on Wednesday, August 3, 2016, the Department of State strongly urged U.S citizens in Nigeria to consider their own personal security and to keep personal safety in the forefront of their travel planning.The US State Department recommended against all but essential travel to 17 other states due to the risk of kidnappings, robberies, and other armed attacks.The states are, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Niger, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, and Zamfara.Based on safety and security risk assessments, the Embassy maintains restrictions for travel by US officials to the states listed above; officials must receive advance clearance by the US Mission for any travel to those states, it stated.The Department further advised all U.S citizens to be particularly vigilant around government security facilities, churches, mosques, and other places of worship locations where large crowds may gather, such as hotels, clubs, bars, restaurants, markets, shopping malls, and other areas frequented by expatriates and foreign travelers.It explained that security measures in the country is heightened due to threats posed by extremist groups, and U.S. citizens may encounter police and military checkpoints, additional security, and possible road blocks throughout the country.The mission pointed out that the Boko Haram group, designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the Department of State, had claimed responsibility for many attacks in the country.It also informed Americans that local government curfews are intermittently in effect in several states in the North.

Post Reply I have been reporting for several years now and I am very interested in visual news reportage with strong inclusion of photos and video multimedia. Posted: at 6-08-2016 09:09 PM (6 years ago) | Addicted Hero
Niger Delta Militants Threaten To Bomb Mosques & Kill Muslims If(Read Shocking Details)

bohlah at 7-08-2016 06:13 AM (6 years ago) (m)

A Niger Delta militant group known as the Niger Delta Revolutionary Crusaders, NDRC, has issued a statement threatening to kill Muslims and attack mosques in their region if the Factional leader of Boko Haram set, Abu Masab el Barnaw and his members carry out their planned attacks on Christians and Churches. Barnaw yesterday released an audio message in which he said the vision of their sect was to kill christians and attack churches. In a swift reaction, spokesperson of the militant group, W O I Izon-Ebi, warned that the Islamic leader should ot carry out his plans otherwise they will retaliate. Read Izon-Ebis statement below....

A Niger Delta militant group known as the Niger Delta Revolutionary Crusaders, NDRC, has issued a statement threatening to kill Muslims and attack mosques in their region if the Factional leader of Boko Haram set, Abu Masab el Barnaw and his members carry out their planned attacks on Christians and Churches. Barnaw yesterday released an audio message in which he said the vision of their sect was to kill christians and attack churches. In a swift reaction, spokesperson of the militant group, W O I Izon-Ebi, warned that the Islamic leader should ot carry out his plans otherwise they will retaliate. Read Izon-Ebis statement below....

Quote We want to alert Nigerians and the world that the Islamization plot has been proven by the Boko Haram new leader Abu Masab el Barnaw that their new mission is to kill all Christians and burn down all churches. But, we want to warn them that we, the Niger Delta youths, in this 21st century will not accept killing of innocent Christians or burning of churches. That if they try it in the north or any part of Nigeria, we the Niger Delta youths will not see any Muslim or mosque in the Niger Delta. We are not against President Buhari granting the Boko Haram amnesty if their sole purpose is to own an Islamic caliphate in the north, but they should mot shift it to the Niger Delta. All we know and want is resource control and true federalism, if truly they believe in one Nigeria, and are working harder to build a prosperous One Nigeria, let them shift their Operation Crocodile Tears to the Fulani herdsmen and the Boko Haram that is threatening the unity and peace of Nigeria.





For more scintillating and juicy stories, follow the official Naijapals accounts On Twitter - @Naijapals and Facebook - www.facebook.com/naijapals

Post Reply I have been reporting on latest news from Nigeria for almost 10 years now. I report on every possible news area I come across, but always ensure my reports are compiled with dignity and fact to uphold my personal values and duty as a journalist Posted: at 7-08-2016 06:13 AM (6 years ago) | Addicted Hero

Slimchery at 7-08-2016 06:26 AM (6 years ago)

(m) are you kidding me? this world has become a place were one should be scared and careful, God come to our rescue or is the end time so very near? Posted: at 7-08-2016 06:26 AM (6 years ago) | Gistmaniac are you kidding me? this world has become a place were one should be scared and careful, God come to our rescue or is the end time so very near? Reply

Slimchery at 7-08-2016 07:03 AM (6 years ago)

(m) i know waiting militant want from our leader and that i love but boko haram i don't know, all their own na to kill innocent citizens Posted: at 7-08-2016 07:03 AM (6 years ago) | Gistmaniac i know waiting militant want from our leader and that i love but boko haram i don't know, all their own na to kill innocent citizens Reply

morgan1 at 7-08-2016 07:20 AM (6 years ago)

(m) Oya, go ahead,,,, Posted: at 7-08-2016 07:20 AM (6 years ago) | Hero Oya, go ahead,,,, Reply

Slimchery at 7-08-2016 07:33 AM (6 years ago)

(m) abeg make una nor wait, if una go fit kill all the bad muslims kill dem all because dem be bad eggs wey dey smell Posted: at 7-08-2016 07:33 AM (6 years ago) | Gistmaniac abeg make una nor wait, if una go fit kill all the bad muslims kill dem all because dem be bad eggs wey dey smell Reply

schmit at 7-08-2016 07:39 AM (6 years ago)

(f) God bless una Posted: at 7-08-2016 07:39 AM (6 years ago) | Hero God bless una Reply

zeigbo at 7-08-2016 07:48 AM (6 years ago)

(m) The zoo must fall They can close the door against me but can't stop me frm coming in Posted: at 7-08-2016 07:48 AM (6 years ago) | Addicted Hero The zoo must fall Reply

UDADA1 at 7-08-2016 08:05 AM (6 years ago)

(m) That is a very nice one from Niger Delta Youth. Posted: at 7-08-2016 08:05 AM (6 years ago) | Upcoming That is a very nice one from Niger Delta Youth. Reply

Bebold at 7-08-2016 08:10 AM (6 years ago)

(m) Please wait oooo am still in Nigeria for now Posted: at 7-08-2016 08:10 AM (6 years ago) | Gistmaniac Please wait oooo am still in Nigeria for now Reply

kison at 7-08-2016 08:21 AM (6 years ago)

(m) Y'ALL SHOULD KEEP ON MASTURBATING WITH YA LIFE,,,Y'ALL BETTER BE careful, be very very careful, CAREFULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL. Posted: at 7-08-2016 08:21 AM (6 years ago) | Hero Y'ALL SHOULD KEEP ON MASTURBATING WITH YA LIFE,,,Y'ALL BETTER BE careful, be very very careful, CAREFULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL. Reply

gogoman at 7-08-2016 08:40 AM (6 years ago)

(m) as if no be you dey do am before Posted: at 7-08-2016 08:40 AM (6 years ago) | Addicted Hero as if no be you dey do am before Reply

ItzQueen at 7-08-2016 08:44 AM (6 years ago)

(f) Dis crazy muslims sef Posted: at 7-08-2016 08:44 AM (6 years ago) | Newbie Dis crazy muslims sef Reply

freethinker at 7-08-2016 09:25 AM (6 years ago)

(m) PLS IF DEM DO AGAIN,,, MAKE UNA NO WASTE TIME TO BOMB BACK Posted: at 7-08-2016 09:25 AM (6 years ago) | Gistmaniac PLS IF DEM DO AGAIN,,, MAKE UNA NO WASTE TIME TO BOMB BACK Reply

Lilycedar2 at 7-08-2016 10:12 AM (6 years ago)

(f) Niger Delta Militant carry go if they kill Christians again please you people should not waste time to bomb all their mosque because enough is enough!! They think it was those olden days when they kill anyhow and no body will retaliate "No that era is gone." GOD BLESS BIAFRA. Posted: at 7-08-2016 10:12 AM (6 years ago) | Upcoming Niger Delta Militant carry go if they kill Christians again please you people should not waste time to bomb all their mosque because enough is enough!! They think it was those olden days when they kill anyhow and no body will retaliate "No that era is gone." GOD BLESS BIAFRA. Reply

obinocarlo1 at 7-08-2016 10:17 AM (6 years ago)

(m) Best news I have heard for many months now. Carry go.

. Posted: at 7-08-2016 10:17 AM (6 years ago) | Newbie Best news I have heard for many months now. Carry go. Reply

CHRISETTE at 7-08-2016 10:40 AM (6 years ago)

(f) A beg make una send bomb go meet them for sambisa forest Posted: at 7-08-2016 10:40 AM (6 years ago) | Hero A beg make una send bomb go meet them for sambisa forest Reply

Trueyarn at 7-08-2016 10:53 AM (6 years ago)

(m) Nice one bro,who do anyhow make sure the person see anyhow. Posted: at 7-08-2016 10:53 AM (6 years ago) | Hero Nice one bro,who do anyhow make sure the person see anyhow. Reply

jamesattah at 7-08-2016 11:42 AM (6 years ago)

(m) God help us we want one Nigeria and not division. Posted: at 7-08-2016 11:42 AM (6 years ago) | Newbie God help us we want one Nigeria and not division. Reply

Tos2130 at 7-08-2016 01:56 PM (6 years ago)

(f) hummmmmmmmmm Posted: at 7-08-2016 01:56 PM (6 years ago) | Gistmaniac hummmmmmmmmm Reply
Apex body to address Indian gaming industry launched News oi -GizBot Bureau

With the gaming industry in India promising a tremendous potential, an apex body called the All India Gaming Federation (AIGF) has been launched to address the needs of the market which is poised to become one of the world's largest.

Headquartered in Mumbai, the non-profit AIGF will focus on policy advocacy, research and forum for discussion among various stakeholders associated with the gaming industry.

10 Cool Things You Can Do with Your Smartphone That'll Impress Your friends

According to Roland Landers, AIGF's CEO, the body's objectives are to find solutions for issues faced by the industry, allowance of foreigh direct investment (FDI) and technology collaboration, promoting responsible gaming and ensuring player protection.

He said the company would work towards opening up the gaming industry which will eventually contribute to the economy of the country.

"The gaming industry has tremendous potential for bringing revenues for the ex-chequer provided it is regulated fairly and taxed at a reasonable rate," Landers said in a statement.

Various stakeholders like game operators, players, technology companies, gaming designers, payment gateway vendors and gaming bloggers, etc.

7 Steps to download Microsoft Windows 10 Anniversary Update smoothly

A panel discussion was also organised during the Thursday launch which was attended by Kirti Azad, MP, and Ranjit Sinha, former CBI Director.

Rosalind Wade, Managing Director, Asia Gaming Brief, Hong Kong, participated via video conferencing.

Source IANS

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South China Sea issue not to affect China-Philippines cooperation: ministers

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 20:22, August 05, 2016

VIENTIANE, Aug. 5 -- The South China Sea issue does not determine all aspects of China-Philippines relations and will not affect bilateral cooperation in economic, trade and investment fields, ministers from the two countries agreed on Friday.

China and Philippines have the capability and wisdom to solve the issue on the existing basis through bilateral negotiation and the consultation mechanism between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), said Chinese Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng after meeting with his Philippine counterpart Ramon Lopez in the Lao capital.

The meeting has focused on measures to further recover and develop economic and trade relations between the two countries, Gao told media on the sidelines of the 48th ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting that kicked off here Wednesday.

Gao said both Lopez and he agreed that the two countries should restart the China-Philippines joint economic and trade committee, an important mechanism on bilateral trade and economic cooperation, which has been stalled for five years.

The new Philippine administration has repeatedly expressed willingness to improve relations with China through bilateral channels and direct dialogues, which created favorable condition for bilateral cooperation in a number of areas, said the Chinese minister.

The two sides also had an in-depth and extensive exchange of views on bilateral cooperation on trade, two-way investment, infrastructure construction, tourism, trade facilitation and certain industries, he said.

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A number of parliamentary committees have approved new cooperation agreements with Saudi Arabia, covering the two areas of nuclear power and naval transport

Committees within Egypts parliament discussed on Sunday new cooperation agreements signed with Saudi Arabia, at the top of which is the nuclear power agreement signed during Saudi King Salmans visit to Cairo in April.

According to a report prepared by parliament's Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee, the agreement goes in line with Egypt's laws and the constitution.

The report explains that the agreement covers important areas of cooperation between Egypt and Saudi Arabia in the field of "peaceful use of nuclear power."

"The agreement mainly aims at exchanging expertise between Egypt and Saudi Arabia in the area of nuclear power stations and creating an environment for institutional and legal cooperation between the two countries in this important field," said the report.

The report also explains that greater cooperation between Egypt and Saudi Arabia in nuclear power generation could help the two countries meet their rapidly increasing energy needs in the coming years.

"Nuclear power generation has become a major source of energy in recent years and the two countries will use this agreement to tap the potentials of this sector," said the report.

The report also indicated that the agreement will help provide training for Egyptian and Saudi personnel in the area of managing and operating nuclear power stations and plants.

The report disclosed that the cabinet of Saudi Arabia, headed by deputy Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Nayef, proposed in September 2015 that an agreement be signed with Egypt in the area of nuclear power generation due to Egypt's experience in this sector.

Egypt's Minister of Electricity Mohamed Shaker told reporters that Egypt and Russia are about to sign a final deal to build four nuclear power plants in Egypt.

Shaker said the agreement is being revised by Egypt's state council, and once complete it will be ratified by parliament and the government. The Russian company Rosatom will build the first plant in El-Dabaa, west of Alexandria.

Parliament's transport and telecommunications committee also approved another agreement between Egypt and Saudi Arabia in the area of naval transport and seaports.

In a meeting on Sunday, the committee, together with the national security and defence committee, said the agreement will help boost the volume of commercial and economic relations between the two countries.

"The agreement also aims at exchanging expertise in the area of naval transport and ports and coordinating their positions in this sector in international conventions and forums," said the committees' report.

The agreement, according to the report, will apply to vessels and ships affiliated with the governments of the two countries, although "it does not apply to warships or to fishing and shipping vessels crossing the Suez Canal."

The agreement will also include a number of concessions and privileges related to ships from the two countries passing through territorial waters. 

Egypt's parliament is expected to discuss an agreement that will redraw borders between Egypt and Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea. The agreement, which is currently being challenged by independent lawyers before Egyptian courts, places the two Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir under Saudi control.

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Coalition Strikes Target ISIL Terrorists in Iraq, Syria

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, Aug. 6, 2016  U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Iraq and Syria yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Officials reported details of the latest strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

Strikes in Syria

Attack, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted six strikes in Syria:

-- Near Raqqah, a strike destroyed an ISIL pumpjack and damaged an ISIL oil tanker.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, a strike destroyed an ISIL wellhead.

-- Near Manbij, four strikes struck four separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed two ISIL fighting positions and an ISIL supply cache.

Strikes in Iraq

Attack, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft and rocket artillery conducted 13 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq's government:

-- Near Albu Hayat, a strike destroyed an ISIL vehicle.

-- Near Haditha, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL vehicles, an ISIL fighting position and an ISIL supply cache.

-- Near Mosul, three strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit, an ISIL weapons facility and an ISIL cement plant.

-- Near Qayyarah, five strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit; destroyed 46 ISIL rockets, 40 ISIL rocket rail systems, nine ISIL boats, two ISIL mortar systems, an ISIL recruiting station, an ISIL vehicle borne improvised explosive device facility, an ISIL assembly area and an ISIL vehicle storage facility; and denied ISIL access to terrain.

-- Near Ramadi, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed four ISIL fighting positions.

-- Near Sinjar, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit; destroyed an ISIL heavy machine gun and an ISIL fighting position; and suppressed an ISIL rocket position and an ISIL mortar position.

-- Near Tal Afar, a strike suppressed an ISIL rocket-propelled grenade system and an ISIL light machine gun.

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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USS Bonhomme Richard Begins Patrol

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS160806-01

Release Date: 8/6/2016 11:01:00 AM

From USS Bonhomme Richard Public Affairs

SASEBO, Japan (NNS) -- The Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) 7 flagship, USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6), departed Commander, Fleet Activities Sasebo for a scheduled patrol, Aug. 6.

Bonhomme Richard recently competed a 4-month selective restricted availability (SRA) period, during which time the ship made renovations and repairs to combat systems, engineering systems and berthings.

The upgrades were made to better serve the Sailors and Marines as they support the mission of security and peace in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.

"We are very excited to get the ship back to sea after a successful maintenance period," said Capt. Jeffrey A. Ward, commanding officer, Bonhomme Richard. "The crew has put in a lot of hard work to make sure this ship is ready to return to sea and operate with our regional partners. I am confident in our ability to carry out any mission required of us."

Bonhomme Richard is forward deployed to Sasebo as part of the Amphibious Force 7th Fleet.

Commander, Amphibious Force U.S. 7th Fleet, is the Navy's only forward-deployed amphibious force, headquartered at White Beach Naval Facility, Okinawa in Japan.

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Declassified file reveals key role of Obama, his staff in drone hits

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 6, 2016 10:50PM

A newly declassified document reveals that the US president and his national security staff play a central role in choosing overseas targets for assassination drone strikes conducted by the CIA and the military.

The 2013 document, informally referred to as the "playbook" for Barack Obama's signature counterterrorism operations, was released on Saturday by the US justice department as the result of a legal action by the American Civil Liberties Union through the Freedom of Information Act.

The government-censored document still sheds more light into the bureaucratic machinery of global killing by the US spy agency and its military that Obama will soon pass on to the next president.

The playbook designates the National Security Council (NSC) staff as a body of review over "all operational plans" for either killing or capturing suspected "terrorist" subjects. Once representatives of various cabinet agencies and departments meet to discuss a specific assassination operation, NSC attorneys provide legal input.

It, however, offers no details of how the so-called high-value targets (HVTs) are picked or any geographic limitations, and includes several presidential waivers of its criteria in the event of "fleeting opportunity" to take action.

While the NSC staff plays a role in nominating people for inclusion on the so-called "kill list", it neither makes the nomination nor involves itself in carrying out a strike or raid, which is conceived by the CIA or the Pentagon.

This is while numerous international law experts have emphasized that the Obama administration's overall terminology and justification for the deadly drone strikes are rhetorical and without precedent.

ACLU's Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer said the document should have been released three years ago, "but its release now will inform an ongoing debate about the lawfulness and wisdom of the government's counterterrorism policies."

"The government has essentially invented its own set of standards . . . somewhere in between international law covering war zones and outside areas," he added. "This doesn't provide any more clarity about the substantive standards the government is using."

However, Obama's NSC spokesman Ned Price insisted on legitimacy and transparency of Washington's targeted killing operations saying: "Our counterterrorism actions are effective and legal, and their legitimacy is best demonstrated by making public more information about these actions, as well as setting clear standards for other nations to follow."

Despite such claims of transparency, the administration has waited until Obama's final months in office to release detailed information on drone and other deadly air strikes. Last month, it published cumulative numbers on how many civilians have been killed by CIA and military strikes in Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia and Libya.

The official figures  64 to 116 civilians and 2,372 to 2,581 "combatants" in 473 strikes taken in Muslim nations where the US is not at war  were challenged by nongovernment groups as discounting many more civilian deaths.

The numbers do not reflect US drone attacks in the war zones of Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. In case of Syria, the American military is actually backing groups of armed terrorists engaged in a 5-year campaign to oust the existing government.

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Yemen's leading parties announce coalition council members

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 6, 2016 8:14PM

Yemen's Supreme Political Council, a coalition between the Houthi Ansarullah movement and former president Ali Abdullah Saleh's General People's Congress party, has announced its members, Press TV reports.

The 10 member council is equally divided between members of Ansarullah movement and Saleh's party, according to an official list released on Saturday.

"We have chosen the members of the Supreme Political Council, hoping they help the country face the unabated Saudi aggression and to unite the Yemeni people in one front," Supreme Political Council member Hussain Hazieb told a Press TV correspondent in the Yemeni capital Sana'a.

The council, which is tasked with running the country, was initially announced in July, following which Yemeni people staged a mass rally in the capital to voice their support for the coalition.

"This is a historic day, Yemenis have become triumphant against all plots. Today is the day we began enforcing all laws and restoring order in the county," said another council member, Sadiq Abdura'as.

The announcement of the council members comes as UN-backed negotiations between Yemeni warring sides in Kuwait have failed to restore peace in the embattled country.

Yemen peace talks began on April 21 in Kuwait City. The sides had agreed on a ceasefire before the negotiations began, but Houthis say Saudi Arabia has repeatedly violated the truce agreement.

Yemen has been under military strikes by Saudi Arabia since late March 2015. The Saudi war was launched in a bid to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement and to reinstate Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who has resigned as Yemen's president but seeks to forcefully grab power.

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Afghanistan's security, Iran's core policy: Zarif

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 6, 2016 5:4PM

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says progress and security of Afghanistan are among the Islamic Republic's core policies.

In a meeting with Afghanistan's National Security Advisor Mohammad Hanif Atmar in Tehran on Saturday, Zarif added that the Iranian and Afghan people enjoy cordial relations.

"Afghanistan is a friend neighbor of the Islamic Republic of Iran and progress and security of this country are regarded as Iran's progress and security," the Iranian minister said.

He urged the two countries to further strengthen cooperation in all sectors.

Zarif pointed to an order by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei about schooling for all Afghan children in Iran and said, "This issue indicates that we believe in Afghanistan's progress and development at the highest level."

In a meeting with Chief Executive Officer of the Afghanistan's government, Abdullah Abdullah, in January, Ayatollah Khamenei ordered that all Afghan children in Iran be permitted schooling regardless of their residency status.

Chabahar project positive sign of Iran-Afghanistan cooperation

The Afghan official, for his part, said the Chabahar agreement - recently signed among Iran, Afghanistan and India - is a positive sign of the beginning of fundamental cooperation between Tehran and Kabul.

The Chabahar agreement was signed in the presence of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in Tehran on May 23 to establish a strategic transit and transport route connecting the three countries.

Chabahar is located in the Gulf of Oman on the border with Pakistan. It is Iran's closest and best access point to the Indian Ocean.

The port will be a game changer for regional connectivity, especially for Afghanistan, which can find an assured and reliable alternative access to India via sea.

Hanif Atmar also said Afghanistan attaches great importance to bolstering cooperation with Iran and called on all regional countries to improve close cooperation in the fight against terrorism and extremism.

The Afghan security official is in Tehran for a two-day official visit to meet with senior Iranian officials. He held talks with Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani earlier on Saturday.

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Houthis, Saleh's GPC appoint governing supreme council

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 6, 2016 2:59PM

Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah movement and the General People's Congress (GPC) party of the former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, jointly appointed a governing supreme council Saturday to run the country.

The two groups officially announced in a joint statement issued in the capital Sana'a and carried by the official Saba Net news agency that they both have an equal share in the 10-member council.

According to the statement, the Houthis and the GPC will rotate the position of president and vice president, who will be chosen within the supreme council.

Among the appointed members are Salah al-Sammad, the head of the political wing of Ansarullah, and the deputy head of the GPC, Sadek Abu Ras.

Ansarullah and the GPC initially announced the formation of the council on July 28, two days before the Saudi-backed delegation loyal to the resigned president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, pulled out of the UN-backed peace talks in Kuwait.

The supreme council will be tasked with managing "state affairs politically, militarily, economically, administratively, socially and in security" based on Yemen's constitution, the two groups said.

'Peace talks go into recess'

Meanwhile, UN Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed censured the move, saying it would represent a "grave breach" of the UN Security Council Resolution 2216 on how to resolve the conflict in Yemen.

The UN envoy also announced that the peace talks would go into a one-month recess.

Talks between Hadi's representatives and delegates representing Houthis and allies started in Kuwait City on April 21. The negotiations resumed on July 16, and they were suspended at the end of June.

The two sides of the talks have managed to agree on some proposals, including how to continue with the exchange of prisoners, but some stumbling blocks remain, marring efforts for a permanent solution to the conflict.

Hadi had earlier said he would not tolerate Houthis as part of any future government, reiterating that the Ansarullah fighters must withdraw from the cities they control and give up their arms.

The Houthis say they will begin to withdraw if someone other than Hadi takes on as the president to manage the transition in Yemen, a demand that was rejected by Hadi's delegation.

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Al-Shabab militants shell residential areas in Somali town

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 6, 2016 12:33PM

The African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia said the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab militants on Saturday shelled residential areas in the southern town of Baidoa.

"Al-Shabab militants fired mortar shells at densely populated civilian residential areas in Baidoa town this morning," the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) said in a message posted on Twitter.

The militants also hit a hospital in the town, AMISOM said, adding that "civilian casualties are unknown but expected."

Somalia has been the scene of fighting between al-Shabab and government forces since 2006.

In 2011, al-Shabab, striving to topple the government, was driven out of the capital Mogadishu and other major cities by government troops and AMISOM forces, which are largely made up of troops from Ethiopia, Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti and Kenya.

However, the militants still carry out sporadic attacks in the capital and elsewhere in the country.

International aid workers, journalists, civilian leaders and African Union peacekeepers have been among the victims of attacks by al-Shabab.

In late July, the militant group attacked a police station in Mogadishu with two car bomb blasts. Nine people, including four assailants, were killed.

The militants have also attacked targets in neighboring Kenya, looting government buildings there.

On July 10, more than 100 al-Shabab militants raided a police station in northeastern Kenya overnight, wounding one officer and making off with arms and ammunition.

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Explosion leaves five Afghan officers dead in Kabul Province

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 6, 2016 10:39AM

At least five Afghan police officers have been killed in an explosion that hit the Khak Jabar district in the southeastern part of Kabul Province.

Among the victims of the late Friday incident was commander of the Public Order Police Forces (POPF) General Abdul Satar Hashemi, said the provincial governor's spokesman for Logar province, Salim Saleh, on Saturday.

According to Saleh, Hashemi lost his life when his vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device (IED) as he was on his way from Logar to Kabul.

Local media further reported Saturday that at least six civilians, including a woman, had been killed in a similar attack on Azra-Khak-e-Jabar highway in the province about four days ago.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the Friday blast.

IEDs have widely been used by Taliban and other militant groups in Afghanistan for targeting the security forces, but ordinary civilians mainly fall victim to such attacks.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said in a report late last month that at least 3,726 civilians were killed or wounded between January and June of the current year.

According to the UN mission, the anti-government elements remain responsible for 60 percent of the civilian casualties.

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Japan protests Chinese boats in disputed East China Sea

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 6, 2016 7:49AM

Japan has lodged a strong protest with Beijing after some 230 Chinese fishing vessels and six coastguard ships sailed close to the disputed islands in the East China Sea.

In a statement released on Saturday, Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said its Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau had submitted the protest to the Chinese embassy in Tokyo, demanding that the ships leave the area immediately and "never enter Japan's territorial waters."

The move came one day after the Japanese coastguard spotted the Chinese vessels swarming around the contested islets known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China.

"Japan can never accept activities by (Chinese) official vessels near the Senkaku islands, because it will unilaterally escalate the situation and raise tensions in the area," the statement read, warning that "an escalation of the situation  could heighten tensions in the waters."

Additionally on Friday, Japan's Vice Foreign Minister Shinsuke Sugiyama summoned Cheng Yonghua, Beijing's ambassador to Tokyo, to complain what he called intrusions into the country's territorial waters.

Beijing is locked in a territorial row with Tokyo on an uninhabited yet strategically-important island group in the East China Sea. Ties between the two sides deteriorated after Tokyo nationalized part of the resource-rich islands in 2012.

Recently, tensions have increased in the region after a Hague-based court of arbitration ruled that China's claims to sovereignty over the disputed areas in the South China Sea or its resources "had no legal basis."

Beijing, however, has rejected the ruling in the case, which was brought by the Philippines.

Tokyo has no claims in the South China Sea, but it has urged Beijing to respect the court ruling.

In its annual defense review released last week, Japan slammed what it called China's "coercive" measures in the South China Sea, warning that Beijing's resolve to push ahead with its "unilateral demands" in the disputed waters could have "unintended consequences."

Beijing claims nearly all of the strategically vital South China Sea which is also claimed in part by Taiwan, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines.

The dispute has at times drawn in trans-regional countries, particularly the US.

China accuses the US of interfering in the regional issues and deliberately stirring up tensions in the South China Sea.

Washington, in turn, accuses Beijing of carrying out what it calls a land reclamation program in the South China Sea by building artificial islands in the disputed areas.

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Bomb explosion kills 4, injures 7 in Egypt's restive Sinai

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 6, 2016 6:19AM

An improvised explosive device (IED) has exploded in Egypt's volatile Sinai Peninsula, leaving four people dead and seven others wounded.

The incident took place on Friday night in the city of el-Arish, North Sinai's provincial capital, Egyptian media reported.

The IED was supposed to explode when security forces were passing, but it was detonated when civilians were present at the site.

No individual or militant group has yet claimed responsibility for the blast, but such incidents are often blamed on militants affiliated with the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group.

The bombing came one day after the Egyptian military said it had killed Abu Duaa al-Ansari, the leader of the Sinai branch of Daesh.

Ansari was killed in airstrikes targeting the militants' strongholds near Arish along with over 45 of his aides.

The air raids further destroyed a number of weapon and ammunition stores as well as explosives belonging to the extremists.

Egyptian Brigadier General Mohammed Samir said on his Facebook page that Ansari was killed in an operation guided by "accurate intelligence."

The government in Cairo views Sinai Peninsula as a safe haven for terrorists.

The sparsely populated desert region has been under a state of emergency since October 2014, following a deadly terrorist attack that left 33 Egyptian soldiers dead.

Over the past years, militants have been carrying out anti-government activities and fatal attacks, taking advantage of the turmoil caused in Egypt after democratically-elected president, Mohamed Morsi, was ousted by the military in July 2013.

Militants affiliated with Daesh have claimed responsibility for most of the Sinia assaults, mainly targeting the army and police.

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Related Egypt court upholds ban on tycoon Ahmed Ezz from running in parliamentary elections

Mostakbal Misr (Egypt's Future) Party said it is discussing a proposal to ask Egyptian steel tycoon and former leading NDP member Ahmed Ezz to become an "honorary president" for the party.

Amr Emara, the founder and leader of Mostakbal Misr, said in media statements that the party might solicit assistance from experienced politicians.

Emara denied allegations that Ezz is the financier of the party, explaining that his name was floated for the honorary position from among a number of prominent figures in Egypt, including the late Nobel Prize winner Ahmed Zewail.

In 2015, a court banned Ezz from running in the countrys parliamentary elections.

Ezz, who was released from prison in 2015 after a lengthy trial over corruption charges, served as the top organiser of former president Hosni Mubaraks now-dissolved National Democratic Party (NDP). He also acted as the spokesperson for the NDP in parliament between 2005 and 2010.

Ezz is widely believed to have engineered massive fraud during the 2010 parliamentary elections, securing an unprecedented majority for his party in the chamber.

Ezz is the chairman of Ezz Steel and has a 55 percent stake in EZDK, the largest steel complex in the Middle East, a one-time public sector conglomerate he acquired in a privatisation scheme in 1999.

Ezz enjoyed a close relationship with Gamal Mubarak, the former president's son who many believe was being groomed to succeed his father in the post.

Correction: An earlier version of this report stated Mostakbal Misr named Ezz honorary president.

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Moldova Condemns Russian Drills In Transdniester As 'Illegal'

August 06, 2016

Moldova's Defense Ministry has criticized recent Russian military exercises held in a separatist region, saying they were "illegal" and undermined the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Moldova.

Russian Army officers and separatist troops in the breakaway republic of Transdniester held antiterror training drills from July 27 to August 3. Separatist authorities said they wanted to learn from Russian troops.

The troops practiced several antiterrorist scenarios, including a response to a "terrorist seizure" of a peacekeepers' outpost. The live-fire drills also included landings with parachutes on the right bank of the Dniester River to "neutralize the terrorists who seized water treatment facilities in Tiraspol."

In a statement on August 5, the Moldovan ministry condemned the drills as "outside the norms of international law" and also called for fresh talks about transforming Russia's peacekeeping operation in Transdniester into a civilian mission. Some 1,000 Russian peacekeepers are stationed there.

Transdniester broke away from Moldova in 1990 over fears it would reunite with neighboring Romania. A war between Moldova and the separatists in 1992 in Transdniester left 1,500 people dead.

Based on reporting by AP and Interfax

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/moldova- condemns-russian-anti-terror-drills-in- transdniester-as-illegal/27903376.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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Talks on Yemeni Conflict Settlement to Continue in Month After Break

Sputnik News

18:42 06.08.2016

UN Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said that the United Nations had guarantees that parties to the Yemeni conflict would return to the negotiating table.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Participants of the intra-Yemeni peace talks are leaving the venue in Kuwait but the dialogue will continue, UN Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said Saturday.

The UN-mediated peace talks have been held in Kuwait since April 21.

"We are leaving Kuwait today but the talks continue," Ould Cheikh Ahmed told a press conference.

The envoy stressed that the United Nations had guarantees that parties to the conflict would return to the negotiating table. He added that the participants had achieved bigger progress at the current talks than during the previous rounds.

According to the envoy, the talks will renew in a month.

Yemen has been engulfed in a military conflict between the government headed by President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and Houthi rebels, the country's main opposition force, which have been supported by army units loyal to former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, since 2014.

 Sputnik

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US Releases 'Edited' Version of Deadly Drone Strike Policy

Sputnik News

18:42 06.08.2016(updated 18:49 06.08.2016)

The US authorities released a redacted version of the paper outlining the government's policy framework for drone strikes outside the United States and in "areas of actual hostilities," the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said Saturday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The Presidential Policy Guidance (PPG) was issued in May 2013 amid promises by the US administration of more transparency and tougher control over the drone program. However, only a short "fact sheet" on the document has been released for public.

In 2015, the ACLU filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act, demanding that the government release the PPG in full. In February 2016, a court ordered the government to submit the document for the court's review. The government said it would prepare a redacted version of the PPG for public.

"We welcome the release of these documents, and particularly the release of the Presidential Policy Guidance that has supplied the policy framework for the drone campaign since May 2013. The PPG provides crucial information about policies that have resulted in the deaths of thousands of people, including hundreds of non-combatants, and about the bureaucracy that the Obama administration has constructed to oversee and implement those policies," Jameel Jaffer, the ACLU Deputy Legal Director was quoted as saying in the union's statement.

According to the ACLU, the document provides details about policy standards governing drone strikes and an insight into the administration's "nominations" process for targeting persons with lethal force or for capture. The paper also describes governmental procedures for carrying out "after action reports" to assess the aftermath of lethal and capture operations.

The ACLU notes that it still remains unclear where the PPG applies, if the president has waived its requirements in some cases and how the standards outlined in the document can be reconciled with eye witness accounts, as well as those of journalists and human rights activists.

 Sputnik

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Over 13,000 East African Peacekeepers to Monitor Situation in South Sudan

Sputnik News

14:05 06.08.2016

The number of African forces, which will be deployed in South Sudan, will amount to 13,300 soldiers, according to a leader of the local opposition movement, Sabit Majouk.

KHARTOUM (Sputnik)  Over 13,000 peacekeepers from the eight East African states comprising the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) will be deployed in South Sudan, a leader of the local opposition movement, Sabit Majouk, told Sputnik on Saturday.

On Friday, the authorities of South Sudan, where an internal conflict escalated again last month, agreed to the deployment of the IGAD peacekeeping mission in addition to the UN peacekeepers already monitoring situation in the country.

"The number of African forces, which will be deployed in South Sudan, will amount to 13,300 soldiers," Majouk said not specifying the source of information.

The conflict in South Sudan erupted in December 2013 between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir of the Dinka tribe and Vice President Riek Machar of the rival Nuer tribe, one year and a half after the nation gained independence from Sudan.

In July, the 2015 peace agreement between the sides collapsed, with three days of renewed fighting during which more than 300 people were killed. Reports of clashes between rival ethnic-based militias continue, despite a tentative ceasefire agreement. Amid renewed violence, the UN Security Council (UNSC) extended the mandate of its peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, that has been deployed in South Sudan since 2011, until August 12. The mandate was due to expire on July 31.

 Sputnik

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US Releases More Details of Policy on Drone Attacks

by Walter Wisniewski August 06, 2016

The White House has released an edited version of President Barack Obama's once-secret policy on using drone aircraft to combat terrorists around the world, the American Civil Liberties Union said Saturday.

An 18-page document listing "presidential policy guidance" on the drones issue lays out what it says are safeguards to minimize civilian casualties caused by remotely piloted aircraft. It calls for American military forces to use such weapons only when there is "near certainty" that a terrorist target is within range, and that noncombatants will not be killed or injured.

Journalists who read the full document reported it gives the White House national security staff, which is exempt from review by Congress, a substantial role in the process of targeting specific terrorists for death.

Operational plans for killing or capturing terrorist suspects, usually conceived by the CIA or the U.S. military, are reviewed by the National Security Council. The documents released Saturday indicated that representatives of other Cabinet departments and agencies may meet to discuss a specific attack plan, but the president's NSC makes the final decision.

Court order

A federal court ordered the government six months ago to disclose the policy document, known informally among top-level U.S. officials as the "playbook" for drone use, in response to a lawsuit by the ACLU citing the Freedom of Information Act. The version released Saturday was described as "redacted," or edited to withhold specific details whose release could compromise U.S. national security.

The Obama administration issued a summary of its policy on using drones in a 2013 fact sheet, but the lengthier version released Saturday sets out the law and rules the government follows when orders are issued for targeted killings and the capture of terrorist suspects on foreign soil.

The ACLU's deputy legal director, Jameel Jaffer, welcomed release of the "presidential policy guidance." He said the documents provide new details about policy standards and insights into the process for targeting individuals with lethal force or for capture.

"Its release now will inform an ongoing debate about the lawfulness and wisdom of the government's counterterrorism policies," Jaffer said in a statement.

A spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, Ned Price, said, "The president has emphasized that the U.S. government should be as transparent as possible with the American people about our counterterrorism operations, the manner in which they are conducted and their results," according to Reuters.

"Our counterterrorism actions are effective and legal, and their legitimacy is best demonstrated by making public more information about these actions as well as setting clear standards for other nations to follow," the NSC spokesman added.

Essential tools

The administration has said in the past that unmanned aircraft are essential tools in the effort to combat extremist militant groups in countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen. Some drone strikes have killed civilians who were not targets, igniting local anger.

One month ago, the White House said that drone attacks and other airstrikes have killed between 64 and 116 civilians since Obama's administration began in January 2009.

Through the end of 2015, U.S. officials said, American forces launched 473 strikes, mostly with drones, that killed roughly 2,400 to 2,600 terrorist "combatants."

Critics said the civilian toll from U.S. airstrikes was undercounted, since the administration's report did not include drone strikes in Afghanistan, Syria or Iraq.

In 2013, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham said information he had gathered indicated U.S. drone strikes had killed 4,700 people.

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UN Suspends Yemen Peace Negotiations

by VOA News August 06, 2016

The United Nations suspended peace talks Saturday between Yemen's Sunni government and Shi'ite Houthi rebels, after rebels moved forward with a unilateral plan to appoint a governing council in areas seized since fighting erupted in 2014.

U.N. peace envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed announced the suspension in Kuwait, saying he would work separately in the coming weeks with negotiators from both sides to reach agreement on key elements in a U.N. plan to establish peace on the Arabian peninsula.

"The biggest dilemma we faced was a deficit in trust between the parties, and in this regard we focused on the necessity of offering concessions" by both sides, Ould Cheikh Ahmed said.

The envoy also urged both sides to initiate confidence building measures and to "refrain from adopting unilateral measures."

"We may not have arrived at a [peace] announcement before departing Kuwait, but I repeat that we are on the right track," Ould Cheikh Ahmed added. He refused to call the current talks a failure, though they made no tangible headway toward peace, and further said that the formation of a Houthi governing council was not in the interests of Yemen or the peace process.

No date or venue has been announced for further negotiations, but Ould Cheikh Ahmed said they could resume within a month.

The U.N. sponsored two rounds of peace talks last year, but those efforts collapsed in January under the weight of an outbreak of fierce combat that lasted for weeks. Fighting has continued, though with less intensity, since the Kuwait talks resumed in April.

The government of President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, which backed the latest U.N. proposals, has demanded that rebels withdraw from all territory gained since hostilities erupted in September 2014, when Iran-backed Houthi fighters seized the capital, Sana'a, after years of allegations about government discrimination.

Monitors say at least 6,500 people have been killed in the fighting, including more than 3,200 civilians.

Hadi continues to demand a full rebel withdrawal, while Houthis demand a share of power in any new government.

A 2015 Houthi offensive in southern Yemen allowed rebels to temporarily seize the port city of Aden, a gain that sent Hadi into months of exile in neighboring Saudi Arabia.

The Saudis responded by forming a regional coalition of Sunni governments, which later began launching airstrikes in defense of Hadi's presidency.

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S. Sudan's Machar Welcomes Regional Calls for His Reinstatement

by Peter Clottey August 06, 2016

The leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO), Riek Machar has welcomed the backing of regional leaders who support reinstating him as South Sudan's first vice president, according to his spokesman, James Gadet Dak.

In a meeting held in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa Friday, the leaders from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) recommended both that Machar be reinstated and that a regional peacekeeping force should be deployed to protect civilians as part of an effort to ensure the full implementation of last year's peace accord signed by both President Salva Kiir and Machar.

Local media quoted Sudan's Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour as saying the regional leaders are trying to secure Juba through a regional military force to be agreed upon by the chiefs of staff of the armies of the east African block.

"[We] called for a dialogue between Kiir and Machar, agreed to work for Machar's reinstatement as First Vice President, and to implement the security arrangements as provided in chapter II of the peace agreement in order to stop definitively the fighting and move forward towards the full implementation of the agreement," said Ghandour.

Some South Sudanese wonder how soon Machar would return to the capital, Juba, especially because Sudan's President Salva Kiir has recently replaced Machar with Taban Den Gai.

Supporters of Kiir say he was forced to fill the position after Machar refused to return to Juba. Machar's spokesman, Dak, says the former rebel leader would only return to Juba after the regional force is deployed to improve security. He denied Machar is to blame for refusing Kiir's requests to return.

"We welcome this resolution by IGAD. This is what we have been saying, that we need a third party force to be deployed in Juba so that it could separate the two rival forces and to protect not only Dr. Riek Machar, but also the collective leadership of South Sudan including President Salva Kiir himself," said Dak.

"There is no delay on his part, but it is the delay on the regional body the IGAD because they could not deploy the third party force. Dr. Riek Machar was waiting for the third party force to be deployed in Juba so that he could return. This is what he has been saying and he has been clear about it. So as soon as the regional body deploys the third party force, immediately Dr. Riek Machar will return to Juba."

Taban Den Gai, the newly installed first vice president to replace Machar says he is willing to step down following the decision of the regional leaders.

But, civil society organizations have expressed concern about what to do about the reshuffling President Kiir undertook. Kiir replaced Machar and made new appointments including the new petroleum minister Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, who was a former Machar ally. Dak insisted that any appointments that occurred while Machar was absent are illegal and the former ministers should be reinstated.

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Saudi jets conduct 30 strikes on Yemen in one day

Iran Press TV

Sun Aug 7, 2016 5:44PM

Saudi warplanes conducted 30 fresh air raids Sunday striking several provinces across the war-wracked Yemen.

Media reports said the Saudi jets carried out new airstrikes against remote areas in the provinces of Sa'ada, Jawf, Hajjah, Ta'izz and Sana'a.

A recent confidential report by a panel of UN experts said the Saudi regime had deliberately bombed civilian targets in Yemen, which led to the death of children in the impoverished country.

The report presented to the UN Security Council on August 4 said Saudi Arabia and its allies have failed to take precautions and thus violated international humanitarian law while conducting airstrikes on Yemen.

Responding to the report, Mansour bin Ahmed Mansour, the spokesman of a Saudi investigation task force, defended the deadly airstrikes on markets, clinics and a wedding ceremony in Yemen, citing the presence of armed forces at the sites.

Riyadh's deadly campaign began on March 26, 2015. About 10,000 people have been killed since the Saudi aggression began. Yemenis say most of the victims are civilians.

Yemen's governing council

Yemen's Supreme Political Council, which is a coalition between the Houthi Ansarullah movement and former president Ali Abdullah Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC) party, announced its members on Saturday. The 10-member council is tasked with running the country.

UN Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed censured the move, saying it would represent a "grave breach" of the UN Security Council Resolution 2216 on how to resolve the conflict in Yemen.

The UN envoy also announced that the peace talks on Yemen would go into a one-month recess.

Talks between representatives of Yemen's resigned president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who is a staunch ally of Riyadh, and delegates representing Houthis and allies started in Kuwait City on April 21. The negotiations resumed on July 16, and they were suspended at the end of June.

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Yemeni forces kill 52 Saudi mercenaries east of Sana'a

Iran Press TV

Sun Aug 7, 2016 7:28AM

Yemeni forces have reportedly clashed with Saudi-backed militants loyal to the former government in the northern province of Sana'a, killing over 50 of the mercenaries.

A military source, requesting not to be named, said the militants loyal to the former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, launched an offensive on Saturday to wrest control of Nihm district, east of the capital, Sana'a, Saba news agency reported.

However, Yemeni army forces and their allies thwarted the assault and killed 52 Saudi-backed mercenaries in the process.

The source added that the pro-Riyadh militants have left the dead bodies of 17 comrades unattended in the area and withdrawn to a nearby region.

The development came on the same day that the UN-brokered peace talks on the Yemeni conflict ended without an agreement in Kuwait. The negotiations between delegates from the Houthi Ansarullah movement and the former Yemeni government had begun on April 21.

The two sides had agreed on a ceasefire, which went into effect at midnight on April 10 in Yemen, before the peace talks started, but Houthis say the Saudi military, which is backing the pro-Hadi side in the conflict, has on numerous occasions violated the truce.

In response to the Saudi raids, Yemeni forces fired several mortar shells at al-Jalah military base in the kingdom's southern border region of Jizan on Saturday, leaving a Saudi soldier dead.

Yemeni army soldiers also struck the al-Tal'a military base in Saudi Arabia's southwestern Najran region on Saturday, sending four military vehicles up in flames.

Moreover, Yemeni forces and allied fighters from Popular Committees launched more than 50 mortar shells at al-Shorfa and al-Riqabah military camps in Najran, though there were no reports of possible casualties and the extent of damage caused.

Separately, four civilians were injured when Saudi fighter jets bombarded Shaqra town in Yemen's southern province of Abyan.

The warplanes also pounded al-Maton District in the northern Yemeni province of al-Jawf, but no casualties were reported.

Yemen has been under Saudi military strikes since late March 2015. The war was launched in a bid to undermine the Ansarullah movement and to reinstate Hadi, who has stepped down as Yemen's president but is now seeking to grab power by force.

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Japan protests China's radar installation in East China Sea

Iran Press TV

Sun Aug 7, 2016 6:42AM

China's recent move to set up a radar installation near disputed territory in the East China Sea has met with the Japanese government's protest.

Japan discovered the radar system in late June and issued a protest on Friday through its embassy in China, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.

Tokyo has asked Beijing to explain its motive behind installing the radar system at a location used for gas exploration and development.

Japanese media claim that the installation of the radar system near the disputed waters could be a sign that Beijing intends to make use of its gas exploration platforms in the disputed waters for military purposes.

Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani had earlier announced that his country's armed forces will carefully monitor Chinese activity in the East China Sea.

Tokyo has been calling on Beijing to stop the construction of oil-and-gas exploration platforms in the East China Sea, accusing it of unilateral development despite a 2008 agreement to maintain cooperation on resources exploration in the region.

On Saturday, Japan had issued another protest to Beijing after Chinese coastguard ships and about 230 fishing vessels sailed close to what Tokyo considers its territorial waters around disputed islets in the East China Sea.

Tensions have been running high between the two Asian neighbors over territorial claims in the disputed waters.

China has also been involved in similar disputes in the South China Sea with a number of other regional countries.

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The Air Algerie airline's passenger flight AH1020, presumed missing earlier on Saturday, has landed in the Algiers airport, a source in the airline told RIA Novosti.

According to the airline source, the plane turned around over the Mediterranean and flew back to Algiers because of a technical issue.

Earlier it was reported that the Air Algerie Boeing 737-600 was flying from Algiers to Marseille when it declared a mid-air emergency and then disappeared from radars.

The plane took off from Algiers in the afternoon and was en route to Marseille. Shortly after taking off, however, the passenger jet declared a mid-air emergency.

Flightradar24 website showed the tracking status of the aircraft as "unknown" as it experienced coverage issues with the plane.

According to Airlive, the aircraft had declared an emergency and turned around over one of the islands in the Mediterranean, heading back for Algeria, and then disappeared.

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Thais Approve Military-Backed Constitution

by Ron Corben August 07, 2016

Thais voted Sunday to approve a junta-backed constitution that the country's military leaders say opens the way to new elections but critics see as legitimizing the military's role in government for years to come

Many Thais living in major cities returned to provincial towns and villages to cast their vote at one of the 95,000 polling stations throughout the country, with some 50 million eligible voters on the rolls.

Voters were asked to answer two questions  with a yes or no  to support the draft charter and also allow the election of a new prime minister by a joint sitting of a 250-member appointed Senate with the 500 elected members of the House of Representatives.

Preliminary results showed 62 percent of voters approving the constitution and 38 percent rejecting it.

Critics say a joint sitting to elect a new leader opens the way for a non-elected prime minister in a future government.

At a polling station in Bangkok, Yosporn Limpaphan said he supported the charter because he wants to see the country move ahead.

"I came here today to cast my vote to accept the draft constitution so the country would not go back to the same situation like in the past. If the draft falls through, I would ask the Prime Minister [Prayut Chan-o-cha] to remain in power in order to move the country forward," he said.

Political turbulence

If passed, the constitution would be Thailand's 20th since it became a constitutional monarchy in 1932 and comes after a decade of political turbulence.

The last anti-government protests, against the elected government of then prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra in 2013, led to the military coup in May 2014 headed by the army chief and now Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, also head of the junta, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO).

Since coming to power, the NCPO has kept a tight rein over control, leading to criticisms over its human rights record and restrictions on political freedoms.

Noi, a government official who asked not to disclose her full name, said she wanted to see Prayut stay in government until the elections expected in 2017.

"I like Prayut Chan-o-cha so I agree with him. The country needs Prayut for a while. After he has done everything perfectly, we can have the election," she said.

The government tightly controlled debate ahead of the vote leading to dozens of arrests of campaigners and students, backed by tough laws and fines and jail terms of up to 10 years.

Amnesty International said the vote had taken place against a backdrop of "pervasive human rights violations," creating "a chilling climate."

Voters criticized the absence of information and discussion on the charter leading to a high percentage of 'undecided' voters in pre-referendum polls.

Targeting corruption

In the northern city of Chiang Mai, Tawan Laopeth expressed hopes the new constitution would target issues such as corruption.

"Everybody wants to see Thailand developing in every direction with the economy, socially and politically. We don't want to see the country move backward to the era of darkness with people fighting each other and corruption," Tawan said.

Other voters, such as well-known actor Willy Macintosh, said there are concerns over the political outlook.

"Nowadays we are losing our land of smiles because there's this problem of unsolvable problems of corruption and a lot of things and people are losing faith in the system," Macintosh said.

Supporters of deposed prime minister Yingluck, led by the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) - also known as the 'red shirts" - were among those campaigning for a "no" vote.

Major political parties, including Yingluck's Pheu Thai Party and the leader of the Democrat Party, Abhisit Vejjijiva, also backed a "no" vote at the polls.

Under the new charter, the major parties would have a diminished role, opening the way for smaller, weaker coalition governments.

UDD senior leader Tida Thavornseth said voter turnout appeared will below the 80 percent hoped by electoral authorities with security officials urging people to back the charter.

"In many [voting] stations just a few people came to vote, very few. But in some places a large number of soldiers came to vote. But normal people very few. So I'm afraid that the number of people that come to the vote today maybe 50 percent  I don't know  average 50 percent," Tida said.

But Titpol Phakdeewanich, a political scientist in the northwestern provincial university in Ubon Ratchathani, said some Red Shirt supporters would vote 'yes' frustrated by the NCPO remaining in power and looking to fresh elections.

"There's a strong opportunity for the referendum to pass because many of the Red Shirts I have spoken to feel - some of them will vote 'yes'," he said.

"But I wouldn't say 'yes' is a kind of endorsement of the NCPO but a 'yes' from the Red Shirts is just a desperation to go back to democracy because the government and NCPO has been trying to convince if you vote 'yes' then we're heading back to democracy," Titpol said.

The military has said if the latest charter was rejected it would move to draft a fresh charter, without debate, and press on with new elections next year.

Political scientists say the military's control over an appointed Senate and weaker governing parliament could lead to the military extending its influence for at least five years under transitional clauses.

Colin Lovett contributed from Bangkok and Steve Sandford contributed from Chiang Mai.

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S. Africa's Zuma Acknowledges Historic Election Losses

by VOA News August 05, 2016

South African President Jacob Zuma, reeling from historic losses in local elections, said Saturday that voters "are sending out messages all around" and that his ruling African National Congress was "going to listen very, very carefully."

Zuma spoke as vote tallies showed the ANC losing control of the capital, Pretoria, and its majority in the country's largest city and economic center, Johannesburg.

The party of Nelson Mandela already had conceded defeat Friday in Port Elizabeth, losing the key battleground in Wednesday's municipal elections by nearly 7 percentage points.

In the metropolitan area that includes Pretoria, the opposition Democratic Alliance Party won 43.1 percent of the vote while the ANC finished with 41.2 percent.

Surveys showed the ANC still leading nationally with 54 percent of the vote. But that was scant comfort to ANC leaders as vote tallies Saturday in Johannesburg showed the ruling party falling below an outright majority and in need of political allies to retain control of the city.

Zuma has been plagued by political scandal since taking office seven years ago. In one instance, he was found to have used $500,000 of public money to renovate his private home. The country's Constitutional Court has ordered him to repay that sum.

During his rule, unemployment has risen to 27 percent, and economic analysts are predicting zero growth in the country's gross domestic product for 2016.

As Zuma spoke Saturday on national television, four women stood in front of him, carrying signs apparently referring to his acquittal on rape charges in 2006, three years before taking office. Zuma did not appear to respond to the silent protest.

The Democratic Alliance already runs South Africa's second-largest city, Cape Town. Party leader Mmusi Maimane told reporters that the ANC "for far too long had governed South Africa with absolute impunity."

He also warned that the campaign for the presidency in 2019 "starts now."

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Duterte's War on Drugs

The United Nations Human Rights Council voted 11 July 2019 to launch an investigation into the alleged killings of tens of thousands of Filipinos during the government's war on drugs. The measure, put forward by Iceland, was approved 18-14. It cited extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and disappearances at the hands of police since President Rodrigo Duterte launched the anti-narcotics campaign in 2016. Philippines ambassador in Geneva, Evan Garcia, immediately rebuked the U.N. move saying it "does not represent a triumph of human rights, but a travesty of them".

Filipino activists have claimed that about 27,000 people have been killed as police terrorize poor communities, using cursory drug "watch lists" to identify users or dealers. The government counters that about 6,600 people have been killed by police in shootouts with drug dealers.

The government has been involved in illegal killings as part of the crackdown Duterte launched in mid-2016. Police said they have killed 5,176 users or pushers who resisted arrest, but rights groups say the actual number of dead is at least triple that number. Critics have alleged the crackdown amounts to a war on the poor that feeds an undercurrent of impunity and lawlessness in the nation of 106 million.

Rappler reported in April 2019 that the Center for International Law (CenterLaw) and the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) were investigating 20,322 killings by vigilantes and policemen across the Philippines since the so-called drug war hit a climax in police operation killings in late 2016.

The office of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was on the defensive after fresh allegations of corruption were leveled against his deadly drug war, claiming that police plant evidence at crime scenes, receive cash rewards for committing extrajudicial killings, and have largely been responsible for thousands of killings blamed on vigilantes. The new report claimed that Philippine police are behind the extrajudicial killings of 9,000 people, mostly poor drug users and small-scale dealers.

"There is no truth in the allegation that there is a coordinated effort to kill drug suspects," the president's office said Thursday, in a written reply to questions from Reuters. "The so-called officers interviewed must be living movie scenes." The report, published in April 2017 by Reuters, was based on the testimony of two anonymous Philippine National Police senior officers critical of the deadly campaign.

The report also alleged that not only drug suspects, but petty criminals and troublemakers  pickpockets, gang members, alcoholics, swindlers and rapists  were also targets, with a US$200 reward given to police who execute them.

A poll released 20 April 2017 by Social Weather Stations found that 73 percent of respondents are worried that they or someone they know could fall victim to an Extra-Judicial Killing, often referred to on the archipelago by its acronym EJK.

The Philippine police paused the controversial anti-drug operation in response to the kidnapping and brutal murder of a South Korean businessman by anti-narcotics officers. National Police Chief Roland Dela Rosa said 29 January 2017 that local anti-narcotics units would go through a period of "internal cleansing" to get rid of rogue officers, whom he described as "scalawags." Dela Rosa's announcement came after President Rodrigo Duterte openly accused as many as 40 percent of policemen of corruption, as he dealt with the fallout over the death of Jee Ick-joo in Manila in October 2016. The suspected officers were accused of kidnapping Jee for ransom. More than 7,000 people had been murdered since Duterte launched a brutal and deadly crackdown of illicit drugs shortly after taking office in June 2016. Duterte vowed to continue with his anti-drug crackdown across the archipelago until he leaves office in 2022, discarding an earlier promise to end the operations in March of this year.

Rodrigo Duterte, dubbed 'The Punisher', won a landslide victory in the May 2016 presidential election, promising to rid society of drugs and crime in six months by killing tens of thousands of criminals. y late August 2016, seven weeks into the campaign, the death toll by police killings of suspects and illegal vigilante murders had reached 1,800. Police operations alone had resulted in 718 deaths, while more than 1,080 people were killed by various syndicate groups involved with illegal drugs".

Since Duterte took office at the end of June 2016, his war against drugs left over 400 suspected drug dealers dead in the month of July. That figure did not include those slain by suspected vigilantes. The country's top broadcaster, ABS-CBN, reported in early August 2016 that 603 people had been killed since Duterte's May election, with 211 murdered by unidentified gunmen. Reuters reported 07 August 2016 that as many as 770 to 800 had been killed in police operations against illegal drugs since Duterte was sworn in as president on June 30, including more than 200 killed by vigilante groups. Bodies not confirmed killed by police have been found in the streets with their face covered with packing tape and a placard reading 'I'm a pusher'. Over 4,000 were arrested, while over half a million drug users turned themselves in to authorities.

In his inaugural speech on 30 June 2016, Duterte pledged to rout corruption and drugs. Using his characteristically sharp language, he also took on the widespread suspicion that he had deployed death squads to enforce order in Davao. I know that there are some who do not approve of my methods of fighting criminality, drugs and corruption, he said. In response, let me say that I have seen how corruption works. I have seen how illegal drugs ruin individuals and relationships I have seen how corruption bled government funds. ... As a lawyer and former prosecutor, I know the limits of the powers of the president, he added. You mind your work and I will mind mine. I know what is legal and what is not.

In his first state of the nation address to parliament, Duterte 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. '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. Mr Duterte made it clear he would pardon police if they were charged with human rights violations for carrying out his merciless orders.

Duterte won the 09 May 2016 presidential election on a promise to end crime and corruption within six months of taking office. 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. His tough talk during and immediately after the presidential election alarmed some. My payment for a drug lord, if killed, is 5 million (pesos, or $109,000). If alive, it's only 4.999 million, he told supporters during his victory party. Human rights groups said that citizens could use the presidents words to kill people they dont like by saying they were drug dealers. As the longtime mayor of Davao City, Duterte put in tough penalties for crime. But Human Rights Watch said he went too far, using death squads to kill more than 1,000 people.

The Philippine president-elect had a new program to fight crime. President-elect Duterte said 11 June 2016 people should go after drug dealers themselves. In a speech, he said people with guns should shoot and kill drug dealers who refuse to be taken to a police station. The same is true, he said, if drug dealers threaten people with a gun or a knife. "Please feel free to call us, the police, or do it yourself if you have a gun ... you have my support," Duterte said. "Shoot him, and I'll give you a medal."

Before the bodies started piling up, Manila police also launched a campaign, codenamed Oplan Rody - the incoming president's nickname - to rid the streets of drunks and shirtless men. Crime is a significant concern in urban areas of the Philippines. The crackdown is dubbed Oplan Rody an acronym for Rid the Streets of Drinkers and Youth. Rody is the nickname of Duterte. Soon after Duterte was innaugurated, police rounded up hundreds of children or their parents to enforce a night curfew for minors, and taken away drunk and shirtless men roaming metropolitan Manila's slums. The poor, who were among Rodrigo Duterte's strongest supporters, got a foretaste of the war against crime he vowed to wage.

According to the Philippine National Police Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management, theft, physical assault, and robbery were the most common crimes reported to local authorities in 2014. Robberies committed by taxi drivers and/or individuals using stolen taxi cabs were increasingly reported to local police in 2014. Although the vast majority of taxi services remain safe and reliable, robberies perpetrated by taxi drivers do occur. Other common criminal acts include: pickpocketing, confidence schemes, acquaintance scams, and credit card fraud. Carjacking, kidnappings, robberies, and violent assaults also occur sporadically.

A lawmaker on 07 August 2016 lamented that the campaign of President Rodrigo Duterte against illegal drugs had given way to a class war as poor suspected drug users were deprived of due process. Ifugao Rep. Teddy Brawner Baguilat hit the double-standard in the administrations anti-drug initiative. The rich and powerful are given deadlines to negotiate their surrender, are accommodated in the PNP White House, gets invited to coffee and are subject to an investigation.... But the poor, the lowly drug pusher or the addict simply gets the bullet. It seems like the rules are different with the rich and the poor.

The production, trafficking, and consumption of illegal drugs are issues of concern. Trafficking and abuse of methamphetamine remains the foremost drug-related problem, followed by marijuana, and, to a lesser extent, ecstasy and cocaine. Transnational organized crime groups exploit both under-staffed and under-resourced law enforcement and a weak judicial system to establish clandestine drug laboratories and import wholesale quantities of methamphetamine to supply the domestic market. Authorities have raided methamphetamine laboratories in Metro Manila and Luzon. Regionally, the Philippines is an identified source of methamphetamine for Guam and a transit point from Africa to Southeast Asia.

The Philippines remains a transshipment point and destination country for large shipments of methamphetamine. Known locally as shabu, methamphetamine continues to be the primary drug consumed and trafficked within the country. Philippine authorities also seized two new psychoactive substances (NPS) for the first time in 2014. Despite a Philippine government budget reduction for counter-drug activities, Philippine law enforcement conducted numerous successful law enforcement operations that led to large drug seizures and arrests in 2014. This success was partly due to intensified interagency cooperation and partnership with non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Increased bilateral cooperation also led to successful enforcement operations against international drug syndicates operating in the Philippines.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), the lead counternarcotic enforcement agency in the Philippines, is responsible for pursuing anti-illegal drug investigations and operations nationwide. Founded in 2002, PDEA continues to develop as an organization with an emphasis on core values and training. PDEA removed 16 agents for a variety of offenses in 2014, including corruption and grave misconduct. Due to budget decreases, no new agents were added in 2014. Four regional laboratories are in place for rapid analysis of drug evidence. PDEA acquired 15 canines to assist in the search for illegal drugs during operations in 2014, and established a canine training facility to increase its canine capacity.

Chinese drug trafficking organizations continue to dominate the methamphetamine trade in the Philippines. However, there are continued indications of the presence of Mexican drug trafficking organizations operating in the Philippines as well as other parts of East Asia. During follow-up investigations to the December 2013 seizure of 83 kg of Mexican-sourced methamphetamine, PDEA officials conducted several multi-kilogram methamphetamine seizures which chemical analysis determined to be from the same Mexican origin. African drug trafficking organizations remain primarily engaged in the use of air passengers to move illegal drugs into and through the Philippine airport system. However, authorities reported they detected a decrease in their activities. According to the Philippine Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB), methamphetamine is the most abused drug in the Philippines, followed by marijuana and the illicit use of inhalants. The DDB leads Philippine government preventive education programs aimed at promoting self-awareness and explaining the repercussions of drug dependency.

Although Philippine law mandates criminal penalties for corruption by public officials, corruption remains endemic throughout the country. Media and law enforcement officials continued to allege in 2014 that some local politicians and other government officials received support from drug traffickers, though no criminal cases were filed. As a matter of policy, the Government of the Philippines does not facilitate drug trafficking or the laundering of proceeds of drug trafficking, and no senior government official has been convicted for conducting such activities.

Nearly 3,000 drug suspects had been killed fromt he time Duterte launched his war on drugs upon taking office on 30 June 2016 up to mid-September 2016. Police took credit for 1,033 of those deaths and blamed the 1,894 others on vigilantes or hired guns. More people will be killed, plenty will be killed until the last pusher is out of the streets, Duterte said.

Duterte said on 19 September 2016 that he needs six more months for his ongoing war on drugs, saying he "cannot kill them all", adding that there are too many people involved in the narcotic trade. "We would need time to put everything in order. Give me a little extension, maybe of another six months," he said.

During a speech 30 September 2016, Duterte said Hitler massacred three million Jews. Now, there are three million drug addicts Id be happy to slaughter them." The comment received criticism from various officials and organizations around the world. Jewish groups, senior U.S. officials, the German government and U.N. representatives quickly condemned Duterte's comments, prompting the president's spokesman, Ernesto Abella, to issue a statement. "We do not wish to diminish the profound loss of six million Jews in the Holocaust ... The president's reference to the slaughter was an oblique deflection of the way he has been pictured as a mass murderer, a Hitler, a label he rejects." His spokesman confirmed that Duterte's plan is still to kill drug dealers and addicts to achieve his goal to eliminate drugs in the country. "Duterte was referencing to his 'willingness to kill' three million criminal drug dealers - to save the future of the next generation and the country."

International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said 13 October 2016 she was "deeply concerned" about the reported deaths, as well as "the fact that public statements of high officials" in the Philippines "seem to condone such killings." Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte launched a war on drugs soon after taking office at the end of June. Since then, an estimated 3,000 alleged drug users and dealers have been killed. The Philippines has been a member of the ICC since November 2011, which means the Hague-based tribunal has juridiction over crimes such as genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity that are committed there.

Bensouda said extrajudicial killings in the Asian nation could be prosecuted by the court if they are "committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population." She wrote "Let me be clear. Any person in the Philippines who incites or engages in acts of mass violence including by ordering, requesting, encouraging or contributing, in any other manner, to the commission of crimes within the jurisdiction of the ICC is potentially liable to prosecution before the Court."

The Philippines officially quit the International Criminal Court on 17 Marach 2019, though the beleaguered UN-backed tribunal has pledged to pursue its examination of alleged extrajudicial killings in the government's controversial drug war. Under court rules, Manila's withdrawal took force a year after it told the United Nations that it was quitting the world's only permanent war crimes tribunal, becoming the second nation to do so. "The Secretary-General [ ] informed all concerned states that the withdrawal will take effect for the Philippines on 17 March," UN spokesperson Eri Kaneko told AFP. The departure of the Philippines follows the court being hit in recent years by high-profile acquittals and threats by several nations to drop out.

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Obama to reinforce Pentagon's Cyber Command

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 6, 2016 12:49AM

US President Barack Obama's administration is planning to reinforce the Pentagon's Cyber Command in order to repel cyber attacks and punish intruders of American computer networks, a new report shows.

Under the new plan, the US military's Cyber Command will turn into a "unified command" which would be equal to combat branches of the military such as the Central and Pacific Commands, providing the Pentagon with more powerful cyber weapons, Reuters reported Friday, citing current and former officials.

The new plan would also see the Cyber Command separated from the National Security Agency (NSA), a spy agency notorious for eavesdropping on millions of people inside and outside the US, the officials noted.

Currently, Navy Admiral Michael S. Rogers leads both organizations, which are located at Fort Meade, Maryland, about 30 miles north of Washington.

A senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that Washington was "constantly reviewing if we have the appropriate organizational structures in place to counter evolving threats, in cyber space or elsewhere."

Over the past months, the US military's six-year-old Cyber Command has been mounting cyber attacks against the Daesh (ISIL) Takfiri group, targeting online networks that the terror group uses for recruitment and propaganda purposes.

"We are dropping cyberbombs. We have never done that before," Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work said in April.

According to a July report by the Washington Post, Cyber Command's slow-paced fight against Daesh had frustrated Pentagon officials.

US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announced in April that Washington was going to boost the fight by spending up to $35 billion over the next five years.

"Adapting to new functions will include changes in how we manage ourselves in cyberspace," Carter said at the time.

Last month, Obama warned about the "not perfect" cybersecurity in the government, saying more has to be done.

"We know that we have had hackers in the White House," the president said.

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Haunted By Its Past, Germany Scrambles To Document Migrants

August 06, 2016

by Daniella Cheslow

In Germany, a country known for its fastidious record-keeping, the fingerprints of thousands of migrants are still waiting to be scanned and entered into a national database.

The incongruity is partly due to the overwhelming number of migrants -- 1.3 million since 2015 -- who have arrived in Germany as Europe deals with a polarizing refugee crisis. But it's also the result of Germany's darker history, in which the Nazis and later communist East Germany's Stasi used intrusive data collection and government records to exert totalitarian control.

To avoid a repeat of the past, Germany instituted strict decentralization of police power and some of Europe's most stringent privacy-protection laws. But the effort to account for past wrongs, critics say, has left the country vulnerable.

"Last year, we said, 'All right, so it's our duty to help people,'" said Sascha Langenbach, a spokesman for Berlin's Senate Department of Health and Welfare, a first stop for all migrants arriving in Berlin. "We talked about humanity, humanitarian reasons. We don't talk about security reasons. Maybe that was naive."

System Overload

Langenbach said his office has struggled to provide food, housing, medical attention, and registration to nearly 100,000 people who have arrived in the capital since 2015. Sometimes, migrants have waited days or weeks to register with authorities. At first, refugees provided fingerprints via ink on paper, not digitally, Langenbach said.

The "ancient method" of data collection, he added, was made worse because each of Germany's 16 federal states has its own police and secret police, with separate and often incompatible databases. The lack of a unified approach led some migrants to register in multiple places, drawing multiple benefits, Langenbach said.

As of February, six months after Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed Syrian asylum seekers to Germany, a reported 130,000 people who had registered as refugees had essentially disappeared after failing to report to their listed residence, according to German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

Such failings were baffling for Rania, an Arabic-German translator working in the Berlin immigration offices. Last year, Rania, the daughter of Syrian parents, noticed that many Arabic-speaking migrants claimed to be Syrian but had different dialects, and some said they had no identification documents.

"Fifty-fifty, I thought, 'OK, you are lying,'" she said.

But Rania could not voice those doubts on her interview forms. Instead, she was told to pass verbatim notes of her conversations with migrants on to her superiors.

"I was surprised, but then I thought, 'OK, it's their problem,'" said Rania, who used a false name because she was not authorized to speak to the press.

Deutsche Welle quoted the head of Germany's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees as saying the authorities did not know the identities of up to 400,000 people in Germany. A spokeswoman for Germany's Interior Ministry said her office intends to sift through the backlog by the end of this year, stressing that a figure of 400,000 unclarified migrants is not accurate.

Langenbach estimates that there are about 20,000 people in Berlin who have begun their asylum process but whose cases have not been clarified -- which means authorities may determine they are from "safe countries" such as in the Balkans or North Africa and are not qualified to remain.

"It sounds so negative. You know, there are not like 20,000 terrorists from Syria in Berlin. That's simply not true," he said. "We are on the way to find out who is really a war victim."

Past Is Present

The German past is deeply embedded in the national psyche, said Felix Mueller, a guide at Berlin's Stasi Museum, which shows how East Germany's Stasi -- the Ministry for State Security -- spied on citizens to root out dissent.

"The people want security. They don't want to be afraid," Mueller said. But, he added, "We don't want the state to know everything about us."

In a telling example of this sentiment, last month a German consumer advocacy group threatened to sue the maker of the mobile game Pokemon Go for passing user data to third parties.

Mueller spoke while walking through the museum, which includes examples of wires used to listen in on private homes, cameras hidden in watering cans and on neckties, and a glass jar containing a yellow rag -- part of an archive of body scents the Stasi surreptitiously collected from citizens to use as forensic tools in crime investigations. The organization was in service for four decades beginning in 1950. By decentralizing police and other government functions, Germany hoped to avert the intrusive power of the Stasi, and of the Nazi regime before it.

Now, the realities of the refugee crisis are challenging the old structure. In February, Germany instituted a national refugee ID card, tied to a nationwide database on refugees, and then began the slow work of transferring the records of new arrivals from each of the 16 states to the central system. Kira Gehrmann, spokeswoman for the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, said that since 2015 about 900,000 people have applied for asylum and were automatically entered into a national database. But there remain tens if not hundreds of thousands of migrants who have yet to file their requests, she said.

Gehrmann said the national database should be completed by the autumn and that the government expects all migrants applying for asylum to be on record by the end of the year. She said some asylum seekers arrived in Germany before 2015, meaning it would be difficult to judge how many migrants were still waiting.

"I can tell you how many asylum applications have been processed," but not how many are still in the pipeline, she said.

The interview process has evolved, as well, Langenbach said. Officials search migrants who claim to have lost their documents and sometimes retrieve passports from their underwear. Rania, the translator, said she can note her doubts on her forms. And police working at registration centers can instantly check the records of the migrants against national and European criminal files.

After five attacks in Germany -- including three attacks committed by migrants -- that left 15 people dead in July, Merkel announced that her administration would take further steps to tighten security. She said authorities would make it easier to deport migrants who do not receive asylum and would increase detection of radicalization in mosques.

But the specter of the past remains. Merkel's chief of staff, Peter Altmeier, warned that "you can only have absolute security in an absolute surveillance state."

In the meantime, the gaps in data have become a lightning rod for Merkel's critics.

Alexander Gauland, the deputy chairman of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, said the pipeline of migrants with unclear identities is so dangerous that Germany needs to temporarily ban all Muslim immigration until the issue is resolved. He also hopes to freeze reunification for refugees who still have family abroad.

"Constitutional law has to be changed," Gauland said.

Migrants in Germany say they are grateful that in the meantime, the system is grinding on.

Ahmed Greri, who came to Germany from the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, said he had been waiting for his identity documents for 17 months while authorities puzzled over his paperwork. He received a refugee travel document in late July.

"I have this identity so my wife and son can come here," he said. "Now I have to search for work. For these two. Now I have a chance. Before, none."

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/germany- refugees-migrants-documenting- haunted-by-past/27903759.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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Stay vigilant to Japan's "China Threat"

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 10:40, August 06, 2016

BEIJING, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Once again, in its latest defense white paper, Japan has shamelessly accused China of jeopardizing regional peace and stability, playing up the "China Threat" for its own right-wing agenda.

As the Abe administration moves Japan's security policy further and further to the right, rebuilding the country as a military power, those neighboring nations who remember the past look on aghast.

The new defense paper adopts an even more confrontational tone compared to previous ones, accusing China of "changing the status quo by relying on its strength" and expressing "deep concern" over China's activities in the East and South China seas.

If history is indeed a mirror, then surely that mirror reflects Japan's recent record of stirring up regional trouble and enmity wherever and whenever it can. If there is any meddling with the status quo, it is easy to see that Japan is the meddlesome one.

In 2012, Tokyo stoked up tensions in the East China Sea through the transparent farce of "purchasing" the Diaoyu Islands. Warships and aircraft were dispatched to the islands' waters and skies, harassing Chinese vessels and aircraft going about their lawful business.

On the South China Sea, Japan -- far from an interested party -- can't seem to keep its nose out of the issue, pointing fingers at China and cheerleading for distant parties who also seek to interfere in the dispute.

And then in April, Japan sent warships to the Philippines, perhaps as a direct "thank-you" for the spurious South China Sea arbitration, laying bare its attempts to mount pressure on China.

The Abe administration has tinkered with the stability of the Asia-Pacific and conjured up security threats for no reason other than to justify a move to the right: a militarist move which includes, but is not limited to, easier arms trade, weaker civilian control over the military, and these controversial security bills.

This year's white paper makes much of the "constitutionality" of Japan's new security laws - the legal foundation for the right-wing to take control of Japan's defense.

Japan talks of "concern" and "vigilance" over China's military development, and has done so in its annual papers since 2005. After new security legislation last year, Japan has taken a more proactive approach, a more aggressive approach, directly condemning and challenging China.

Abe and his coalition partners are clearly speeding up their attempts to rewrite the constitution before his tenure ends in 2018. Laws allowing Japan to engage in armed conflict overseas, even if Japan is not attacked or threatened, came into effect in March. The Abe administration is inching closer to its dream of replacing the country's pacifist constitution with... a different kind of constitution.

The fanciful "China Threat" and tensions in the region are the best excuses for aggressive military and security polices that Tokyo can cook up.

Seven decades after World War II, Japan now stands at a critical juncture: to continue on its peaceful path or to return to militarism with all the fears and tensions that will bring to the region.

Each and every responsible member of the international community must stay vigilant. This peace and stability was hard-won. Its loss will be harder still.

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Xinjiang issues China's first local counterterrorism law

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 10:01, August 06, 2016

URUMQI, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- The regional government of Xinjiang unveiled China's first local counterterrorism law Friday.

Based on China's Counterterrorism Law, passed in December 2015, the regional law details and supplements the national law in defining terror activities and terrorists, security precautions, intelligence, investigations, countermeasures and punishment.

The local rules, which feature measures to implement the nation's Counterterrorism Law in the region and contain 61 items in 10 chapters, took effect Aug. 1.

The legislative commission of the regional people's congress said the new measures stress that religious extremism is the ideological basis of terrorism and must be prevented and punished.

Nayim Yasen, head of the standing committee of the regional legislature, said Xinjiang, as the main battlefield in China's war against terrorism, has gained experience in combating terrorism in recent years, ensuring the practicality and effectiveness of the new law.

The new rules stipulating that it is illegal to intervene in others' marriages, funerals, inheritance issues for religious reasons. The spread of distorted Islamic ideas is also prohibited. Acts such as encouraging others to resist national policies, destroying identification cards, household registration and marriage certificates are also made illegal.

The regional police said that terror attacks in Xinjiang in recent years have shown that religious extremism is an important tool for terrorists to brainwash people into engaging in crime.

Bai Li of the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences, said that extremism may not necessarily turn into terrorism, but that the two are inseparable.

"Extremism is the philosophical basis of terrorism," Bai said. "Therefore, it is important to prevent and punish extremism in Xinjiang's anti-terror campaign."

The rules emphasize the importance of a mechanism for public reporting of terrorist activity. According to the rules, public security bureaus and state security organizations should be ready to receive information from the public.

Public support has been helpful in previous action against terrorists in Xinjiang, particularly in 2014, when an attack in Shache County killed dozens of civilians. More than 70 local people provided information on the suspects.

Li Wei, an antiterror expert at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, said that terrorist activity in Xinjiang will not disappear overnight.

"For the past 100 years, domestic and international hostile forces have been making trouble in Xinjiang, so the antiterror fight will be a long one," he said.

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China dismisses US criticism on sentences given to rights activists

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 6, 2016 10:18AM

China has rejected as baseless recent US criticisms about the sentences given to rights activists in a series of subversion trials in the Asian country.

Xinhua news agency quoted Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying as saying on Saturday that the "US accusations are groundless," calling on Washington to "respect the facts."

"Chinese judicial authorities deal with related cases in accordance with law so that the legitimate rights and interests of defendants could be effectively protected," Hua added.

Earlier this week, a Chinese court sentenced three rights advocates and a lawyer to up to seven and half years jail for subversion.

They are all associated with the Fengrui law firm, which is known for taking on cases of dissident scholars, members of banned religious groups and victims of sexual abuse.

The Chinese government has accused the Beijing-based firm of politicizing ordinary legal cases, organizing demonstrations outside courts and conspiring with "foreign forces" to undermine the country's governing Communist Party.

Fengrui is at the center of the so-called "709 crackdown"  named after the day and month it began on July 9, 2015  under which more than 200 activists and lawyers involved in cases deemed sensitive are detained so far.

On Thursday, US State Department spokesman Mark toner voiced concerns over what he described as "vague and apparently politically motivated charges" brought against the Chinese activists.

It was "troubling" that the defendants had been denied access to their chosen counsel and family members, he said, urging Beijing to "release all the lawyers and activists who were detained on July 9, 2015, and remove restrictions on their freedom of movement and professional activities."

On Monday, Wang Yu, a Fengrui associate and a prominent human rights lawyer, was reportedly released on bail after she featured in a video confession.

In the footage, she said "foreign forces" were using her to "attack and smear" the Chinese government. She also renouncing her work and international awards, but rights groups said it was a coerced confession.

Wang was arrested along with scores of other lawyers and activists in July last year and accused the next month of inciting subversion and "causing a disturbance" as part of the government's so-called 709 crackdown.

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US planning preemptive nuclear attack: North Korea

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 6, 2016 10:15PM

North Korea says the US is planning a preemptive nuclear attack after Washington announces the deployment of B-1 bombers in the Pacific.

On Saturday, the North said the US is "becoming all the more pronounced in their moves to topple down the DPRK by mobilizing all nuclear war hardware."

The strategic bombers were set to be deployed in the US Island of Guam on Saturday in a move which the Pentagon calls a routine rotation with the B-52 bombers.

"The enemies are bluffing that they can mount a preemptive nuclear strike on the DPRK by letting fly B-1B over the Korean peninsula within two-three hours in contingency," said a statement released on North Korean state media.

On July 29, the US air force announced that it would be the first time that B-1s are sent to Guam since April 2006.

Designed by Rockwell International (now part of Boeing), the Rockwell B-1 Lancer is a four-engine heavy strategic bomber used by the US air force as a supersonic bomber with Mach 2 speed.

"Such moves for bolstering nuclear force exposes again that the US imperialists are making a preemptive nuclear strike on the DPRK a fait accompli," added the Pyongyang statement.

Earlier in July, the North pledged a "physical response" to US deployment of the sophisticated THAAD missile system in Korean Peninsula.

Tensions have been flaring in the region since January, when North Korea said it had successfully detonated a hydrogen bomb, its fourth nuclear test, and vowed to build up its nuclear program as deterrence against potential aggression from the US and its regional allies.

A month later, Pyongyang launched a long-range rocket which it said placed an earth observation satellite into orbit. However, Washington and Seoul denounced it as a cover for an intercontinental ballistic missile test.

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India to Test BrahMos Supersonic Nuclear-Capable Cruise Missiles from Su-30s

Sputnik News

21:51 07.08.2016(updated 22:02 07.08.2016)

The joint Indo-Russian program will provide New Delhi with a high-flying nuclear deterrent ensuring the continued safety and security of the Indian people despite increased regional tension.

The final test firing of the nuclear-capable Indo-Russian BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from a Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jet, a major force-multiplier for the Indian Air Force (IAF), is slated to take place later this month.

"We hope to conduct the drop test by 24th of this month (August)," BrahMos Aerospace CEO Dr. Sudhir Mishra said in an interview with the Indo-Asian News Service. "After the drop test, we will see if some refinement in the software and other systems is needed."

The test firing of the BrahMos cruise missile will serve to verify the accuracy and efficacy of the Su-30's missile release system. The test will be carried out at Rajashtan's Pokharan firing range. An additional test is also expected to take place in the Bay of Bengal in late-November against a decommissioned naval vessel.

The drop test will analyze not only the missile's behavior in flight, but will also study the impact of the launch on the aircraft to determine if it impacts the fighter jet's flight trajectory or if the heat release from the missile firing will necessitate any modifications to the aircraft.

An Su-30 integrated with the air-to-air variant of the missile  BrahMos-A  flew for the first time on June 25 in Nashik. The adapted aircraft has logged a total of 10 hours of flight time without incident.

The Russian designed Su-30, India's most deadly fighter jet, was selected as the delivery vehicle for the BrahMos missile due to the aircraft's titanium airframe and high-strength aluminum alloys fit for delivering a high-speed cruise or air-to-ground-missile.

The fighter jet is further modified with a hardened electronic circuity enabling the aircraft to withstand the electromagnetic pulse of a nuclear blast. The jet is known for its aerodynamic design that offers unparalleled maneuverability and its thrust vectoring that enables the aircraft to take-off and land in a variety of settings providing the warplane with multi-purpose characteristics.

The 1,317 MPH (2,120kmh) fighter jet is able to release the BrahMos cruise missile from a height of 500 meters to 14,000 meters. The missile free-falls for the first 100-150 meters before going into cruise phase until entering the terminal phase at 15 meters above ground. The missile surges at Mach 2.8 speed (2,148MPH or 3,457kmh)

The plan calls for 40 Indian jets to be equipped with the Brahmos missile as part of a joint project between India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Russia's Federal State Unitary Enterprise NP Mashinostroyenia (NPOM).

 Sputnik

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At least one person was killed and three others injured in an Iranian gas pipeline explosion early on Saturday near the town of Gonaveh in the southern province of Bushehr, a local official told state news agency IRNA.

Governor of Gonaveh Ali Paknejad told IRNA that "rescue teams have been dispatched to the area and the cause of the explosion is under investigation."

"One was killed and three others were injured," he added.

"The fire is being contained and there is no danger of another blast," IRNA quoted Paknejad as saying.

A local official told state TV that it was not an act of sabotage and "nearby villages have been evacuated as a safety measure."

A third official said a crisis management headquarter had been set up in Gonaveh.

"The pipeline has been disconnected from the system ... the fire will be fully ... under control as soon as the gas inside the pipeline is evacuated," the semi-official Fars news agency quoted the unnamed official as saying.

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Iran executes ex-nuclear whistleblower

ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency

Sun / 7 August 2016 / 15:05

TEHRAN (ISNA)- Iran said that it executed former nuclear whistleblower Shahram Amiri.

"He was sentenced to death in primary court and the sentence was confirmed by Supreme Court, "said Iranian Judiciary Spokesman Hgolam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei in his weekly press conference Sunday.

He said that Amiri was charged with espionage for enemies of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

He further continued that Amiri who had access to confidential information about the Islamic Republic of Iran was linked to the enemy and the US, and had given the confidential information to the US.

He said that the US falsely thought that Iran had not been aware of Amiri's communications.

The US thought that Iran had not been aware how they took him to Saudi Arabia and sent him abroad, Ejei said, adding they thought that Iranian intelligence does now have any information about the move, while the measures under scrutiny of Iran.

He said that Amiri's charge was investigated in several sessions and he went on trial.

The primary sentence issued for him was objected by Amiri and Supreme Court investigated his case one more time meticulously.

End Item

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Iran Confirms Execution of Nuclear Physicist For Espionage

Sputnik News

16:28 07.08.2016

Iranian Judiciary Spokesman Hgolam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei said that Iranian nuclear physicist Shahram Amiri was sentenced to death in primary court and the sentence was confirmed by Supreme Court.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The Iranian Supreme Court confirmed execution of nuclear physicist Shahram Amiri for espionage, Iranian Judiciary Spokesman Hgolam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei said on Sunday.

Earlier in the week, Amiri's mother said the relatives received his body and buried him in his hometown of Kermanshah.

"He was sentenced to death in primary court and the sentence was confirmed by Supreme Court," he said as quoted by ISNA news agency.

He added that Amiri was charged with espionage for "enemies" of Iran.

Amiri went missing at the beginning of 2009 in Saudi Arabia during his pilgrimage. According to Iran's authorities, the scientist was allegedly kidnapped by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). According to media, it was him who took a decision not to return to Iran and start cooperation with US intelligence agencies. In 2010, he returned to Iran.

Before his alleged kidnapping, the scientist worked for Malek Ashtar University of Technology in Tehran as an ordinary specialist. However, Tehran refutes claims that he was involved in the country's nuclear program.

 Sputnik

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Iran Executes Nuclear Scientist for Spying for the US

by VOA News August 07, 2016

Iran has executed a nuclear scientist who was convicted of giving top secret information about Tehran's controversial nuclear program to the United States.

The execution of Shahram Amiri was confirmed Sunday by Iran's official news agency, IRNA. "Through his connection with the United States, Amiri gave vital information about the country to the enemy," said judicial spokesman Gholamhosein Mohseni Ejehi.

Ejehi said a court had sentenced Amiri to death, a sentence that was upheld by Iran's Supreme Court.

Amiri left for Saudi Arabia in 2009 and relocated to the United States a year later. U.S. officials said they paid Amiri about $5 million to leave Iran and provide information about Iran's nuclear program.

A U.S. official said in 2010 that the U.S. received "useful information" from Amiri.

Amiri, a university researcher who worked for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, fled the United States later in 2010 without the money and was welcomed home by Iranian officials as a hero before being arrested. He told Iranian officials he was detained in the United States after being abducted in Saudi Arabia by two U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents.

Iranian officials have contended that its nuclear program was developed for nonviolent purposes. The United States says uranium particles found during an investigation last year at an Iranian military base were probably remains from Iran's secret nuclear weapons program.

Nevertheless, the United States and five other countries reached an agreement last year requiring Iran to limit its nuclear program so that nuclear weapons cannot be developed. In exchange, economic sanctions against Iran were lifted.

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Daesh terrorists kill 61 more citizens in northern Iraq

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 6, 2016 8:4AM

Takfiri Daesh terrorists have reportedly executed tens of civilians in Iraq's oil-rich northern province of Kirkuk as the victims sought to escape from the extremists.

Hassan Mahmoud al-Soufi, a commander of pro-government Popular Mobilization units, told Arabic-language al-Sumaria television network on Saturday that Daesh militants executed 61 people, among them a woman, by firing squad at a militant base on the outskirts of the militant-held town of Hawijah, located about 282 kilometers (175 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad.

Soufi noted that the deceased were among the 3,000 civilian whom Daesh Takfiris had ambushed and captured a few day ago as the former tried to flee from Hawijah. It is estimated that hundreds of women, children and elderly people are among those being held captive.

There are reports that Daesh extremists plan to use the hostages as human shields to stop the advance of government forces gearing up for the liberation of Hawijah.

On Thursday, Daesh terrorists had killed 12 Hawijah residents attempting to flee the militant-held area.

On May 14, the Takfiris executed 25 people in Mosul, located some 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of Baghdad, by putting them in a vat of nitric acid.

The men had been accused of spying on Daesh and passing information to Iraqi government forces. According to witnesses, the victims had been tied together with a rope and were submerged in a large basin containing nitric acid until their organs dissolved.

The northern and western parts of Iraq have been plagued by gruesome violence ever since Daesh terrorists mounted an offensive in June 2014. The militants have been committing vicious crimes against all ethnic and religious communities in Iraq, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds and Christians.

The Iraqi army and fighters from the Popular Mobilization units has been engaged in joint operations to retake militant-held regions.

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US Official: Annexing Crimea, Russia Broke All Rules of 'World Order'

by VOA News August 05, 2016

Russia's actions against Ukraine and the potential threat it poses to other countries in its neighborhood has become an issue in the U.S. presidential race, thanks largely to comments made by Donald Trump.

The Republican candidate told a U.S. television interviewer late last month that the people of Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, "would rather be with Russia" and that, if elected, he would "take a look at" recognizing the Black Sea peninsula as Russian territory.

The United States and European Union imposed sanctions on Russia following its annexation of Crimea, and expanded them after Moscow began providing military assistance to separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Amid the controversy sparked by his comments, Trump stood by them, saying Crimea was annexed by Moscow "during Obama's watch," and asking: "Do you want to have World War III to get it back?"

In an interview with VOA's Myroslava Gongadze, Michael Carpenter, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense with responsibility for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia, said Russia's actions in Crimea have violated a host of international norms and treaties, including the United Nations Charter.

"Russia, in its invasion and illegal attempted occupation and annexation of Crimea, broke essentially every rule in the basic fundament of the international world order, from sovereignty, territorial integrity, the inviolability of borders."

On continued conflict in Ukraine

Carpenter noted that the fighting in eastern Ukraine, which has already claimed nearly 10,000 lives, has intensified in recent days.

"Sadly, we see the violence today is at a very high level, as high as it's been since before the original Minsk agreement was signed in September a year ago. And so we continue to see this play out in front of our eyes, which is tragic."

Carpenter added that Ukraine is not the only country that has been the target of Russian military actions in recent years.

"Russia displayed similar aggressive tendencies where it also violated international law, in terms of its invasion of Georgia in 2008," Carpenter said.

On NATO

Trump was recently asked by the New York Times newspaper whether NATO member countries  including new ones like the three Baltic states  can count on the United States to come to their military aid if they were attacked by Russia. The Republican presidential candidate answered yes, if they have "fulfilled their obligations to us." In the same interview, Trump said that "we have many NATO members that aren't paying their bills."

Elsewhere, he has also called NATO "obsolete."

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Carpenter said the Baltic states  Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia  and other NATO members can rely on the United States to come to their defense.

"I think that the Baltic states and, in fact, all the other allies along the eastern flank of the alliance should feel that: a) we have got their back; b) that we are investing in the capabilities and the force posture to deter Russian aggression or, frankly, any other aggression against them."

Carpenter also noted that the United States is putting military forces into eastern Europe on a bilateral basis to help defend the NATO members there.

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Over 180,000 Russians Sign Petition Calling For Ouster Of Medvedev

August 06, 2016

by RFE/RL

More than 180,000 Russians have signed a petition calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev after his remarks about teachers' pay sparked outrage earlier this week.

The petition, posted on the website Change.org, had gathered 180,000 signatures by midday on August 5 and appeared to be accumulating supporters rapidly.

The petition came after Medvedev on August 2 advised a low-paid teacher from the impoverished Daghestan region to go into business if he wants to make money, in comments that were widely seen as out-of-touch and uncaring.

"The cabinet should be led by a person who is competent, educated, and cares about the country," wrote the petition's author, Aleksandr Li. "We are seeing the opposite right now."

The petition is addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had no comment.

Medvedev, when asked why teachers are paid half as much as police officers, retorted that "there's no need to compare. The issue is what you choose in life."

Medvedev noted that people in business make a lot more money and teaching is "a calling," not a job for those seeking to make a fortune. Moreover, he said a "young, energetic teacher" can always do odd jobs to supplement his income.

Medvedev lectured on the law faculty of St. Petersburg State University in the 1990s and cited himself as an example of a teacher who succeeded in making a living.

"I just gave a lot of lectures, held seminars," he said. "Overall, I was able to make ends meet."

Medvedev's approval ratings have been consistently lower than Putin's. Analysts say his unpopularity as the leader in charge of the economy may have deflected blame for Russia's falling living standards from Putin himself.

Official statistics show the average monthly salary in Russia is around 37,000 rubles ($566). Teachers make somewhat less than that on average, and in Daghestan, they earn about half that rate, Kommersant daily reported.

"The prime minister's impressions are completely understandable," said a sarcastic editorial in the tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets. "We all know very well of government officials who successfully manage to combine their main job with business, including big business."

Medvedev previously sparked public outrage in May when he told a group of seniors seeking bigger pensions: "There's no money, but hang in there," in a phrase that has since gone viral.

With reporting by AP and AFP

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/over- 180000-russians-sign-petition-calling-for- ouster-of-prime-minister-medvedev/27903422.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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'Hundreds' of Syrian Refugees Denied Admission to US, Officials Say

by Steve Herman August 05, 2016

Seven percent of all screened Syrian refugees seeking to resettle in the United States this year have been denied approval, and 13 percent of the cases have been put on hold, government officials said Friday.

The screening process, which has faced domestic criticism, is "rigorous and exhaustive," said Anne Richard, assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration.

Highly trained officers conduct the screening to ensure that applicants aren't terrorists, said Leon Rodriguez, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, an agency of the Department of Homeland Security.

"Hundreds [from Syria] have been denied," Rodriguez told reporters in a conference call along with Richard and Robert Carey, director of refugee resettlement for the Department of Health and Human Services.

Goal within reach

The United States is on track to meet President Barack Obama's goal of allowing in 10,000 refugees from Syria for the fiscal year ending in September, the officials said.

"We may exceed 10,000, and for next year we will continue to welcome large numbers of Syrians, but it's too soon to have a target figure established," Richard said.

Nearly 80 percent of the Syrians accepted this year by the United States are women and children, officials said.

More than 10 percent of the refugees from Syria have headed to Michigan, which has a significant Arabic-speaking population, especially in Dearborn, the state's eighth-largest city.

The U.S. Republican Party nominee for president, Donald Trump, has advocated halting immigration from Syria and has proposed a ban on Muslims entering the country. Governors of more than 30 U.S. states have tried to block such refugees from settling in their states, despite having no authority to do so, according to legal experts.

More than 99 percent of the Syrian refugees admitted to the United States this year are Muslims, according to the U.S. State Department, which in February moved to cut the processing time in Jordan to screen refugees to three months from a typical 18 to 24 months.

"What we know is that more resources have been put toward the processing of folks who have been pending," Stacie Blake, spokeswoman for the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, told VOA. "More resources obviously meant that more folks were able to move through the system."

Kerry, Lavrov confer

Syria was a topic of a telephone call Friday between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, according to officials in Moscow. The State Department confirmed the call had taken place but said it had no details on the content of the conversation.

Obama, following a visit to the Pentagon on Thursday, criticized Russia's policy in Syria, saying he doubted President Vladimir Putin could be trusted to cooperate on ending the five-year civil war.

The United States is prepared to work with the Russians to try to reduce the violence in Syria and cooperate in the battle against the Islamic State group and al-Qaida. "But Russia has failed to take the necessary steps," Obama said. "Given the deteriorating situation, it is time for Russia to show it is serious about pursuing these objectives."

The civil war in Syria has displaced 5 million people. At the start of the war, in 2011, the United States was accepting only a handful of the refugees.

The U.N. General Assembly is to hold a conference next month to address the Syrian refugee and migration crisis.

"The purpose of the summit is to recruit other countries to join with us and make a real difference in the world's contribution toward helping refugees," Richard said.

VOA's Victoria Macchi and Esha Sarai contributed to this report.

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Syrian army forces pushing terrorists back near Aleppo

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 6, 2016 1:45PM

Fierce clashes are going on near the northern Syrian city of Aleppo between government forces and terrorists trying to end a siege of militant-held areas, Press TV reports.

On Saturday, the Syrian army, backed by air and artillery cover, delivered a major blow to a coalition of terrorist groups after the latter launched repeated attacks on military academies to the south of Aleppo.

A military source said a large number of terrorists were killed and many others sustained injuries in the clashes.

A large number of vehicles as well as equipment belonging to the militants were also destroyed.

Meanwhile, other reports said the Syrian army had repelled an attack by terrorist groups on an army artillery base in Aleppo, inflicting heavy casualties on the terrorists.

The army killed hundreds of terrorists from the so-called Jaish al-Fatah (or Army of Conquest) which includes Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, the former al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, Ahrar al-Sham and other smaller groups, who claimed had taken the main fortress-like artillery academy in the Ramousah quarter in southwestern Aleppo.

The artillery base, which is almost two kilometers from the besieged opposition area, has a huge supply of ammunition.

Still, the army is tightening the noose on terrorists in the city as it has laid siege to most militant-held neighborhoods in Aleppo.

Militants have abandoned fighting in some areas to avoid further losses. They are also trying to keep civilians in the city to use them as human shields in a bid to slow the army's advance.

Aleppo has been divided between government forces in the west and militants in the east since 2012.

Some 250,000 civilians live under siege in Aleppo's militant-held areas since the army cut off the last road into militant districts in early July.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011.

The United Nations (UN)'s Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

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Arab, Kurdish forces liberate northern Syrian city of Manbij: Group

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 6, 2016 8:35AM

An alliance of Kurdish and Arab forces has reportedly managed to retake the strategic northern Syrian city of Manbij from Takfiri Daesh terrorists.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) managed to take "almost complete control" of the area, located 446 kilometers (277 miles) north of the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Saturday.

The Britain-based group said there are still pockets of Daesh militants present in the center of Manbij.

The development came a day after SDF forces made significant advances in the city.

Manbij lies along the only supply line of Daesh between the Syrian-Turkish border to the north and the group's main stronghold in Syria, Raqqah, which lies to the southeast.

Its liberation marks the biggest strategic defeat for Daesh in Syria since July 2015, when the terrorist group lost the strategically important town of Tal Abyad on Syria's border with Turkey.

The Syria Democratic Forces launched an operation to retake Manbij two months ago. The city had been under Daesh control for more than two years.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The United Nations (UN)'s Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

Back in 2014, the UN said it would no more update its death toll for Syria because it could not verify the figures that it received from various sources.

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In Syria, Rebel Victories At Ramouseh Come With A Price

August 06, 2016

by James Miller

Just one week ago, the rebels who controlled the last few neighborhoods of Aleppo that remain in opposition hands found themselves surrounded and running out of time. The Syrian government and its allies had surrounded what was once Syria's largest city and the country's financial capital. Many feared a humanitarian disaster would unfold, and the regime's recapture of Aleppo would be a devastating blow to anti-Assad forces who do not have full control of a single major city in all of Syria.

Today, the situation is very different.

On August 6, rebel forces broke through the walls of perhaps the most important military base in all of northern Syria. As I explained for The Interpreter on August 1, the Ramouseh artillery base and academy has served as the foundation of the Assad regime's control of Aleppo city -- and with it all of Aleppo Province -- since the city was first attacked by rebel groups in 2012:

The Ramouseh artillery base and academy was the key to maintaining some control in Aleppo for the Assad regime between the summer of 2012 and today. The artillery units there were crucial to [intimidating protesting students], and later in the regime's efforts to flatten the Hamadaniyah and Salah el Din districts just north of the base. The artillery turned regime strongholds into death traps, transforming the battle for Aleppo into a game of inches waged by snipers, artillery, and aircraft. Since regime forces were often outnumbered over the course of those years, this leveled the playing field.

The victory may relieve the humanitarian situation in Aleppo (though this remains to be seen). Furthermore, if the base falls and the regime does not quickly recapture it, Assad could be in danger of losing all of Aleppo. This battle is a testament to how weak the Assad military has become. Even with direct support from the Russian Air Force, tanks, and troops, as well as militants from Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran, Assad may have just snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

How, then, does he ever hope to restore order to Syria?

But this battle also comes at a price -- a key Al-Qaeda-linked group has helped spearhead the attack on the city. Operating under the umbrella organization Jaish al-Fatah, Army of Conquest, the newly rebranded Al-Nusra Front, now Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, used suicide sappers and tunnel bombs to break open the Syrian Army's battle lines and main defenses, through which various rebel groups are now streaming. As David Patrikarakos explained for RFE/RL on August 4, while many more moderate rebel groups also played very important roles, Al-Qaeda's leading role may impact the entire trajectory of the war moving forward.

As history has shown us, without a singular leader, and without unified and consistent outside support, whichever group wins battles usually becomes the banner carrier on Syria's battlefields. History shows us that victory is the key for Syrian rebel groups. To see this in action, we should look to the beginning of the crisis.

Protesters first took to the streets against Syrian President Bash al-Assad in March 2011, starting the Syrian chapter of the regionwide protest movement that had already swept through much of the Middle East. At first, the demand was not the removal of the president but instead a series of pro-democratic reforms. Those protests were met with violence. As more cities and towns took to the streets and the protests in each one of them grew larger, so, too, did the violence against the protesters grow more intense.

First, protesters were arrested and beaten, then teargassed, and then they were shot at. As members of the military and police grew disgusted by their orders to shoot unarmed civilians, those who did not follow orders were also attacked by the military. By the summer of 2011, regime defectors were hiding in the deserts and mountains, and the battle for the future of Syria began.

By February 2012, the protest movement in Syria was making its final transition into a full-blown civil war. By this time, Homs, a working-class city in the center of Syria, was in full rebellion. Assad, in direct contradiction to his agreement with the Arab League, deployed his tanks and artillery to the city. The death toll exploded, and even peaceful protesters began to realize that Assad would stop at nothing to kill all those who opposed him. For many Syrians rebels whom I've spoken with over the years, the siege of Homs was the moment they realized that there was no peaceful solution to the conflict. It was time to take up arms.

Despite what Syria has become, it might come as a surprise to many that at this time there were effectively no armed groups that had an obvious jihadist or Salafist ideology. Syria was a secular country with a secular military, most rebels were former military or police, and despite being driven to take up arms, they were not particularly interested in overthrowing their government, much less installing some sort of Islamic caliphate, the stated goal of groups like Al-Qaeda and the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS), which were relative latecomers to this crisis. What Western leaders often refer to now as the "moderate opposition" made up nearly the entirety of the opposition back in early 2012.

But already there were rumors of "bad men" among some rebel groups. Syrian activists whom I consulted at the time, both nonviolent activists and rebels, warned of a group that was increasingly popular with both rebel fighters and some citizens alike  the Al-Farouq Brigade. At a time when most of the armed opposition simply identified as the Free Syrian Army (FSA), Farouq took its own name. It operated under its own orders, often overruling other FSA fighters and commanders in the area around Homs. The rumors quickly spread, some propagated by the Assad regime and others by rival rebel groups or scared civilians, that it was ruling Homs like a mafia state, collecting taxes and intimidating the populace. More than anything, though, the Al-Farouq Brigade was more committed to doing whatever it took to defeat Assad. It was the first rebel group to focus on taking and controlling inhabited cities and towns, and it preferred to take the fight to Assad in offensive battles.

The group's reputation soon grew because it was winning, and because it was taking the initiative. Many FSA fighters saw their leaders as weak and indecisive, and so Farouq was a welcome alternative.

Success bred success. The more battles it won, the more popular the group became.

But the Al-Farouq Brigade was still part of the moderate opposition. Soon, another group was gaining prominence in northern Syria -- the Al-Nusra Front, Syria's Al-Qaeda affiliate. Al-Nusra started as little more than a YouTube video in January 2012. By taking credit for terrorist attacks, some of which it may not have even perpetrated, Al-Nusra soon proved that it, too, was capable of doing what it took to win. Its radical Islamic ideology allowed it to motivate its followers behind a religious objective  the destruction of the government of the Alawite sect and the construction of a Sunni Salafist caliphate. Its adherence to Shari'a law, not pro-democracy ideals, gave it an excuse to dictate orders from the top, rather than seek consensus, which made its leadership, its rule, appear stronger than it really was.

Soon, Al-Nusra had a new rival, Islamic State, which was even more focused, even more brutal, and even more successful on the battlefields of Syria. By early 2014, the most extreme members of the Al-Farouq Brigade, perhaps sensing their own obsolescence, had joined one of these more successful and bloodthirsty groups, while still more members of Al-Farouq joined less radical groups that still had a strong religious identity, reducing the group to one that is now of limited importance. Other Free Syrian Army units are still numerous, but their leadership is more splintered and their ideology, while relatively moderate, is less iconic, less unified, and much harder to define.

After five and a half years of war, the Assad regime, not any terrorist group, is responsible for the vast majority of the deaths in Syria, and an even larger number of the refugees who have fled the constant killing. Groups like Al-Nusra and Islamic State rely on their history of defeating the Assad regime and restoring law and order, even if it is a barbarous order, as their main tools of controlling the people and attracting new members.

When Al-Nusra's suicide bombers opened the way for the opposition to win key bases in Idlib Province, it became the dominant force in that region. When IS's path of bloodshed led to its victories in Syria's east, it was soon able to consolidate territory and declare its caliphate.

There is a real danger that, unless they score a major win soon, moderate groups in Aleppo Province could also give way to groups with more radical ideologies, such as the victorious Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, with all of the problems that such a development would entail.

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/syria-ramouseh- artillery-base-victory/27903617.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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Israel's energy minister on Sunday criticised a landmark nuclear accord between Israel's arch-foe Iran and world powers but said Tehran had so far respected the deal.

The agreement, which was signed in July 2015 and came into force in January, saw Tehran accept curbs to its nuclear programme in exchange for a lifting of economic sanctions by world powers.

"It's a bad deal but it's an accomplished fact and during the first year we spotted no significant breach from the Iranians," said Youval Steinitz, who is close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"But it's still too early to conclude that this 12-year deal is a success," he told public radio.

Steinitz's comments came after US President Barack Obama on Thursday defended the accord.

Israel's defence ministry, led by hardliner Avigdor Lieberman, on Friday compared the deal with Iran to the 1938 Munich Agreement, which allowed Nazi Germany to annex parts of then Czechoslovakia.

Netanyahu the same day repeated his country's rejection of the Iran deal but stressed that Israel and the United States remained great allies.

For several months the US and Israeli governments have been negotiating the terms of a new 10-year defence aid pact to replace the current one, which expires in 2018 and is worth more than $3 billion (2.7 billion euros) per year.

The Netanyahu government wants the United States to increase the annual amount of military assistance it provides.

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Syrian Army Repelling Insurgents' Attack on Aleppo Military School Quarter

Sputnik News

14:44 06.08.2016

Syrian army is driving insurgents away from their positions in the military school quarter in the northern city of Aleppo, according to a source.

DAMASCUS (Sputnik)  The Syrian army has been fighting back insurgents who attacked military school quarter in the northern city of Aleppo for two days, a source in the local militia told RIA Novosti on Saturday.

"This morning fierce fighting resumed on the territory of the military logistics and artillery schools. The operation is supported by air forces and artillery," the source said.

According to the city's militia, the Syrian army is driving insurgents away from their positions in the area.

Being close to the highway connecting Aleppo with other provinces, the military school quarter is strategically important for control over the city's supply routes.

 Sputnik

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Gulen movement threat to world: Erdogan

Iran Press TV

Fri Aug 5, 2016 9:49PM

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the movement affiliated to the US-based opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen not only poses "a threat" to Turkey, but also to all countries where it is present.

Erdogan made the comments in a joint press conference with his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev in the Turkish capital Ankara on Friday.

"On the night of July 15, our country was subjected to one of the most despicable, most reckless and bloodiest betrayals in our political history," Erdogan further said, adding that the botched coup revealed the Guln movement's "dark side" and "sneaky plans", state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Erdogan also vowed to "resolutely maintain" Turkey's "struggle both at home and abroad."

A coup began in Turkey late on July 15, 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. The putsch, however, was gradually suppressed and over 60,000 people in the military, judiciary, civil service and education have so far been sacked, dismissed or detained in the country over allegations of involvement in the coup attempt and their links to Gulen.

Erdogan said 237 people were killed and more than 2,100 others sustained injuries during the coup attempt.

Gulen, an outspoken opponent of Erdogan living in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, has firmly denied any role in the coup attempt, warning the Turks instead that the move could have been orchestrated by the government to purge its opponents.

Also on Friday, Gulen's lawyers said at a news conference in Washington that they feared an attack on his life, adding that they expected him to remain at his Pennsylvania compound.

On Thursday, a formal arrest warrant was issued by an Istanbul-based court, with prosecutors accusing Gulen of having orchestrated the failed coup.

Earlier on Thursday, Erdogan said the government would continue to go after businesses linked to Gulen and his Hizmat movement, which is banned in Turkey.

Ankara has already urged the US to extradite Gulen, but it has yet to make a formal extradition request to Washington.

Kerry to visit Turkey

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday that his American counterpart John Kerry would pay a visit to the Anatolian country on August 24, after Ankara said it was discontent at the lack of sufficient backing from the West following the failed putsch.

Kerry's visit will also be regarded as the first formal visit by a top Western official to the country in the wake of the 15 July attempted coup.

Turkey to reshape army

Meanwhile, Turkey's Defense Minister Fikri Isik said that Ankara's plans to restructure its military were aimed at eradicating the likelihood of another putsch attempt, and would be in line with the structure and spirit of the NATO military alliance.

"The restructuring aims to abolish the mechanism that has staged six small and large coups in the last 60 years. The steps we are carrying out... perfectly suit NATO's structure and spirit," Isik said in an interview with Reuters on Friday.

"The steps have three basic principles. The first is compliance with democracy. Second, they are the product of global experience. Lastly, the steps ensure nobody will attempt a coup in Turkey again," he further said, adding that 288 soldiers, including nine generals, were still at large after the botched coup.

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Cleric's Lawyers: Gulen 'Should Not and Will Not Be Extradited'

by VOA News August 05, 2016

Lawyers representing U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen said that Turkey has not provided evidence of his involvement in last month's failed military coup attempt, and he "should not and will not be extradited."

Speaking to reporters Friday in Washington, one of Gulen's attorneys, Reid Weingarten, said the "complexity and absurdity" of conspiracy allegations linking Gulen and the CIA to the attempted coup have intensified. This week, three Turkish ministers visited the U.S. to put pressure on the government to extradite Gulen.

"...[O]n top of the absurdity of the allegations, we see official acts by the Turkish government that cause us some concern," Weingarten said. "We see that three ministers have come over, from our perspective, to try to put the arm on the United States to comply with this extradition request."

Washington has stated that Turkey must present evidence of the cleric's involvement in order for the extradition process to begin. Turkey, however, has not provided such evidence, Weingarten said.

"Extradition is fundamentally a legal process. We are lawyers and we deal with evidence and we deal with due process and  guess what?  in extradition proceedings, evidence matters and due process matters," he said.

In light of post-coup purges in Turkey, Weingarten questioned the possibility of a fair trial for Gulen in the country.

"Is there any chance in the world that Mr. Gulen would get a fair trial in Turkey if he is extradited?" Weingarten said. "How about those 70,000 people to date who have been detained and/or fired? And due process going on over there as far as anybody is concerned? It would be unprecedented and appalling if the United States took a frail, almost octogenarian [and] plopped him on a plane to go back into that kind of setting with the hideous things that are being said about him by the entire Turkish government.

"Bottom line here is that the bluster, the conspiracy theories and the threats of [Turkish President] Mr. [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan are not strong enough to overwhelm the American legal system and, for that reason, we believe that Mr. Gulen should not and will not be extradited."

Erdogan's warning

Turkey's ruling party ordered an "urgent cleanup in the party organization," expelling those linked to the so-called Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO).

Speaking alongside his Kazakh counterpart Friday in Ankara, Erdogan warned that followers of Gulen could threaten security in other countries.

Erdogan said he did not want them to experience the same "pain, betrayal and disappointment" as Turkey.

Speaking to leaders of chambers of commerce in Ankara earlier Thursday, Erdogan had said his government was "determined to totally cut off all business links of this organization, which has blood on its hands."

He also said "every cent" that goes to FETO is "a bullet placed in the barrel to be fired against this nation."

Gulen reacts to warrant

Gulen denounced the arrest warrant issued Thursday in Turkey that accused him of masterminding the failed coup.

"It is well-documented that the Turkish court system is without judicial independence, so this warrant is yet another example of President Erdogan's drive for authoritarianism and away from democracy," Gulen said in a statement.

"The issuance of an arrest warrant from a Turkish court changes nothing about my status or my views," Gulen said.

The Turkish government has said Gulen, a former ally of Erdogan, masterminded the coup by renegade officers in the military and has called on the U.S. to extradite him to Turkey. Ankara, however, has not filed a formal extradition request.

Gulen has denied any involvement in or prior knowledge of the military coup attempt and has condemned it.

Nearly 70,000 people in the military, judiciary, civil service and education system have been detained, suspended or placed under investigation following the July 15 coup attempt, prompting fears that Erdogan is using the event to crack down on dissent.

More than 270 people, not including coup plotters, died and thousands were wounded as mutinous soldiers commandeered fighter jets, helicopters and tanks in the failed attempt to topple the government.

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Gulen movement threat to world: Erdogan

ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency

Sat / 6 August 2016 / 12:54

TEHRAN (ISNA)- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the movement affiliated to the US-based opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen not only poses "a threat" to Turkey, but also to all countries where it is present.

Erdogan made the comments in a joint press conference with his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev in the Turkish capital Ankara on Friday.

"On the night of July 15, our country was subjected to one of the most despicable, most reckless and bloodiest betrayals in our political history," Erdogan further said, adding that the botched coup revealed the Guln movement's "dark side" and "sneaky plans", state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Erdogan also vowed to "resolutely maintain" Turkey's "struggle both at home and abroad."

A coup began in Turkey late on July 15, 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. The putsch, however, was gradually suppressed and over 60,000 people in the military, judiciary, civil service and education have so far been sacked, dismissed or detained in the country over allegations of involvement in the coup attempt and their links to Gulen.

Erdogan said 237 people were killed and more than 2,100 others sustained injuries during the coup attempt.

Gulen, an outspoken opponent of Erdogan living in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, has firmly denied any role in the coup attempt, warning the Turks instead that the move could have been orchestrated by the government to purge its opponents.

Also on Friday, Gulen's lawyers said at a news conference in Washington that they feared an attack on his life, adding that they expected him to remain at his Pennsylvania compound.

On Thursday, a formal arrest warrant was issued by an Istanbul-based court, with prosecutors accusing Gulen of having orchestrated the failed coup.

Earlier on Thursday, Erdogan said the government would continue to go after businesses linked to Gulen and his Hizmat movement, which is banned in Turkey.

Ankara has already urged the US to extradite Gulen, but it has yet to make a formal extradition request to Washington.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday that his American counterpart John Kerry would pay a visit to the Anatolian country on August 24, after Ankara said it was discontent at the lack of sufficient backing from the West following the failed putsch.

Kerry's visit will also be regarded as the first formal visit by a top Western official to the country in the wake of the 15 July attempted coup.

Meanwhile, Turkey's Defense Minister Fikri Isik said that Ankara's plans to restructure its military were aimed at eradicating the likelihood of another putsch attempt, and would be in line with the structure and spirit of the NATO military alliance.

"The restructuring aims to abolish the mechanism that has staged six small and large coups in the last 60 years. The steps we are carrying out... perfectly suit NATO's structure and spirit," Isik said in an interview with Reuters on Friday.

"The steps have three basic principles. The first is compliance with democracy. Second, they are the product of global experience. Lastly, the steps ensure nobody will attempt a coup in Turkey again," he further said, adding that 288 soldiers, including nine generals, were still at large after the botched coup.

End Item

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Nazarbaev Pledges To Purge 'Terror Links' From Kazakh Schools During Turkey Visit

August 06, 2016

by RFE/RL

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev vowed to send back to Turkey anyone in Kazakh schools found to have "terror links" to an exiled cleric that Turkey blames for a failed coup.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blames the reclusive cleric Fethullah Gulen, who lives in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, for orchestrating a July 15 putsch to unseat him and has urged Astana to purge Gulen followers in 33 Gulen-run schools in Kazakhstan.

"If anyone among them is linked with terrorism...we will respond to Turkey's demands," Nazarbaev said during a joint press conference with Erdogan in Ankara at the end of a state visit on August 5.

But Nazarbaev stopped short of saying he would shut the schools down, as Erdogan wants. He said the schools in Kazakhstan are already "under state control" and 90 percent of the teachers are Kazakh, not Turkish.

"We do not support anyone working against Turkey. This is not in our interest," he said. "If there are teachers with links, we will send them back and ask the Turkish government to send other teachers."

Nazarbaev said the schools educate their pupils in four languages -- English, Turkish, Kazakh, and Russian.

Turkey is seeking the extradition of Gulen from the United States, where he is receiving medical treatment. The cleric strongly denies that he ordered a coup and says he, in fact, strongly opposed it and said so at the time.

Gulen and his followers say their movement promotes peace, education, moderate Islam, and democracy, not the violent overthrow of governments.

Erdogan has been unrelenting in his demonization of the movement, however, having already purged thousands of teachers, professors, police, and military officers with links to the movement in Turkey.

At the press conference with Nazarbaev. Erdogan said the leaders agreed their education ministries will carry out a joint review of Kazakh schools linked to Gulen, apparently with an eye toward purging Gulen-linked staff.

"The [Gulen movement] is not only a threat to Turkey, it is a threat to all countries in which it has a presence," Erdogan said.

Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are the only two countries in mostly Turkic-speaking Central Asia where Gulenist educational institutions still have a significant presence.

Less than two weeks after the coup, Turkey warned Kyrgyzstan of the risk of a coup, claiming Gulenists had infiltrated every state institution in the country.

Kyrgyzstan's Foreign Ministry responded by saying it would take note of warnings on education but reminded Ankara it was an "independent, sovereign state."

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/ nazarbaev-to-purge-terror-links-from-kazakh- schools-not-close-them/27903378.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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Erdogan Predicts a Second Attempted Coup in Turkey is Imminent

Sputnik News

01:55 07.08.2016(updated 03:54 07.08.2016)

The Turkish President may be trying to play up fears within the country in a bid to garner more support from the public in the midst of a violent purge that has seen over 15,000 arrested and the country's civil services ripped to shreds.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Hurriyet news that he did not believe that the July 15 coup attempt was the final act in the effort to overthrow his government and vowed to take further steps against the Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETO) who he blamed first and foremost for the attempted government overthrow despite saying recently that Fethullah Gulen was but a "pawn" for a superior power while his government laid blame directly at the feet of the US military and American intelligence.

"The superior mind is playing ruthlessly," said Erdogan during a press conference at the Huber Mansion in Istanbul. "I do not believe this thing [coup attempt] is over. We will not be come by languor."

The Turkish President also downplayed the notion that his life was in peril during the failed coup attempt when a fighter jet controlled by coup plotters followed over his plane within striking distance before having to be grounded for refueling. Instead, Erdogan suggests that the F-16 fighter jets did not have bombs to strike his plane.

The president credited the media and the people of Turkey in standing up against the coup plotters on the night of the failed government overthrow and said that the final straw that broke the back of the attempted coup was when the Turkish government dropped 12 bombs on the Akinci Air Base in Ankara which was used as a headquarters by the anti-government forces.

In the wake of the failed coup, the Turkish government has arrested over 15,000 individuals and has fired nearly 100,000 individuals from all sectors of government including education professionals, judges, and run-of-the-mill bureaucrats for allegedly conspiring with the Fethullahist Terror Organization. Erdogan has hinted that he would like to bring back the death penalty and impose this highest punishment on those who are currently detained saying "why should I keep them."

The Turkish government's post-coup decorum has led to a major rift between Ankara and the West with officials from the Erdogan government repeatedly accusing top US generals of participating in the coup or siding with its plotters while the country's prosecutors and media have made a public relations punching bag out of the CIA and FBI who these mediums purport trained Gulenists.

Brussells has also chilled tremendously to Ankara's demands that the Turkish people receive visa-free travel and that Turkey be fast-tracked to EU ascension based on the post-coup crackdown, but have not written off the Erdogan regime out of a realization that they need Ankara to help them resolve the growing migrant crisis within Europe.

 Sputnik

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Leader of Luhansk People's Republic injured in car bombing

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 6, 2016 2:24PM

The leader of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine was injured in a car bombing on Saturday.

Pro-Russians said the explosion took place near the car of Igor Plotnitsky during the early hours of the day.

The Luhansk Information Center said an unidentified explosive device was employed in the bombing.

There is no information whether Plotnitsky was in the car at the moment of the blast.

Sergei Kozlov, a pro-Russia official, said Plotnitsky was taken to a nearby hospital. He is in a stable condition.

Russia's state television aired footage of a black SUV damaged by a blast.

People in Ukraine's Black Sea peninsula of Crimea voted for rejoining the Russian Federation in a referendum in March 2014. The West branded the move as Moscow's annexation of the territory. The United States and its allies in Europe accuse Moscow of having a hand in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Russia, however, strongly denies the charges.

In April 2014, the government in Kiev launched the first round of its military operations in Ukraine's eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, which are populated mostly by pro-Russians, to crush anti-government protests there. The operations, however, led to deadly clashes between the two sides.

The crisis in eastern Ukraine has left nearly 9,500 people dead and over 21,000 others injured, according to the United Nations.

Despite ceasefire efforts, sporadic fighting continues to claim more lives.

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Lugansk People's Republic Head Accuses Ukraine of Assassination Attempt

Sputnik News

22:37 06.08.2016(updated 22:44 06.08.2016)

Head of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic Igor Plotnitsky accused the Ukrainian government on Saturday of the failed attack against him.

LUHANSK (Sputnik)  Earlier in the day, a bomb exploded on a road near Plotnitsky's car. He sustained non-life threatening injuries.

"I am alive and well, and any attempts to speculate on my health are intrigues by accomplices of the Ukrainian party. As you know, the war has not yet ended, and US special services and those who try to shake the situation in Ukraine and in the whole world, are of course behind the Ukrainian government," Plotnitsky said in a recorded address to the republic's residents.

 Sputnik

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Attacked Lugansk People's Republic Head Receives Non-Life Threatening Wounds

Sputnik News

13:36 06.08.2016

The condition of Igor Plotnitsky, the head of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic whose car was hit by a blast earlier in the day, is stable, there is no danger to his life, according to the chairman of the republic's Council of Ministers, Sergei Kozlov.

LUGANSK (Sputnik)  Igor Plotnitsky, the head of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic whose car was hit by a blast earlier in the day, received non-life threatening injuries, his condition is stable, the chairman of the republic's Council of Ministers, Sergei Kozlov, said Saturday.

"At the moment, the condition of Igor Venediktovich Plotnitsky is stable, there is no danger to his life," Kozlov said, as quoted by the Luhansk Information Center.

He added that according to the preliminary data gathered by the ongoing investigation, Plotnitsky's car exploded as a result of a terrorist attack.

The eastern Ukrainian region of Donbass does not acknowledge the legitimacy of a February 2014 coup in Ukraine. The new Kiev regime launched a military operation against eastern Ukraine in April 2014 but failed to regain control over the breakaway territories.

 Sputnik

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Separatist Leader in Eastern Ukraine Survives Assassination Attempt

by VOA News August 06, 2016

The Russian-backed leader of a separatist region in eastern Ukraine was seriously wounded Saturday in an apparent assassination attempt, Russian and Ukrainian media reported.

The pro-Russian separatist Luhansk Information Center said a bomb exploded early Saturday near the car of rebel leader Igor Plotnitsky in the capital of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic. By early Sunday, no one had claimed responsibility.

Russian media later showed footage of a mangled sport utility vehicle and quoted a rebel spokesman as saying Plotnitsky was hospitalized in stable condition.

Separatists quickly blamed "saboteurs" who they say were trained by Ukraine government special forces, while the Kyiv government denied any link to the attack.

Ukrainian government spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk told the news outlet Interfax-Ukraine that the attack was "most probably a result of infighting ... a power struggle" within rebel factions vying for control of key cities in eastern Ukraine.

Separatists in the Russian-speaking east launched a rebellion against Ukraine rule in April 2014 that has killed more than 9,500 people, most of them civilians. More than 1 million others have been displaced.

Luhansk and the nearby Donetsk territories were heavily shelled by government forces for months before Plotnitsky and other separatist leaders signed a peace deal with Kyiv in 2015 that reduced the frequency and intensity of fighting near the Russian border.

Unlike leaders in Donetsk, senior Luhansk rebels have been embroiled in fierce infighting for more than two years.

A Plotnitsky rival and one of Luhansk's most visible commanders, Alex Mozgovoi, was killed last year along with several colleagues when his car was bombed and strafed by gunfire near the Russian border. No one has claimed responsibility for that killing, and no arrests have been reported.

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To the northeast, a Western-backed alliance of Arab and Kurdish fighters scored a major victory against the Islamic State group in the town of Manbij after a fierce two-month battle.

The developments have rocked the key northern province of Aleppo, a microcosm of Syria's chaotic multi-front war that has killed more than 280,000 people.

Rebel and regime forces have fought to control the provincial capital since mid-2012, transforming the former economic powerhouse into a divided, bombed-out city.

Opposition fighters, Islamists and militants have waged fierce assaults since July 31 to end the siege by government forces of some 250,000 people in eastern Aleppo.

On Saturday, rebels successfully broke the siege by opening a new route into the city from the southwest, opposition officials said.

"Rebels break Aleppo's siege," tweeted the Istanbul-based opposition National Coalition.

Islamist faction Ahrar al-Sham said rebels had seized control of Ramussa on the southwestern edges of the city and "opened the route to Aleppo".

But state television said late Saturday the army had regained control of several key points in a military complex that rebels overran earlier.

"Our armed forces took control of the part of the artillery school that had been seized by terrorists... while (rebel) groups withdrew from points in the armament school," it said, citing a military source.

- 'A good omen' -

Riad Hijab, head of the broad opposition body the High Negotiations Committee, tweeted: "The liberation of Ramussa and the breaking of the siege are a good omen for Syria's revolution."

An AFP journalist in eastern Aleppo said residents were on the streets and firing celebratory shots into the air.

"Days ago, I was only thinking about how to get a bite to eat," said Ahmad Adna, a 46-year-old resident of eastern Aleppo.

An AFP photographer said the first truck of vegetables in a month entered eastern Aleppo via Ramussa on Saturday.

The tomatoes and potatoes were destined for markets in rebel-held districts, which had seen prices skyrocket since the siege began.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed that rebels in Sheikh Saeed district in the south of Aleppo had linked up with other insurgents in part of Ramussa but stressed that the rest of that area was still in regime hands.

The Britain-based monitor said rebels and militants had expanded their control late Saturday to seize the air force technical school south of Aleppo.

"The western districts of Aleppo are now besieged. There are no safe routes for civilians in government-held districts to use to get into or out of the city," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

The monitor said more than 700 rebels and government fighters had been killed since the offensive began on Sunday -- 200 on Saturday alone.

At least 130 civilians had been killed, among them seven on Saturday in rebel shelling of the regime-held neighbourhood of Hamdaniyeh, the Observatory said.

The former Al-Nusra Front -- renamed the Fateh al-Sham Front after breaking from Al-Qaeda -- said on Saturday that rebels from inside Aleppo city had linked up with others on the outskirts.

Drone footage posted by the group online showed a series of explosions on the edges of Aleppo, and columns of billowing black smoke.

- IS loses Manbij -

Fearful residents of western districts watched the news on television screens in street cafes.

"Of course I have faith in the army, but I can't help being scared. Food is already getting more expensive and the coming days risk being very difficult," said a 34-year-old resident of a government-held western quarter.

"We are thinking about how to leave," he told AFP.

Also on Saturday, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces alliance defeated IS group in Manbij.

The Observatory said the SDF "took control of Manbij... and are combing the city in search of the last remaining militants".

Manbij had been a key transit point along IS's supply route from the Turkish border to Raqa, de facto capital of its self-styled "caliphate".

Backed by the US-led air coalition, the SDF offensive began on May 31 and it entered the town less than a month later, in an assault slowed by jihadist suicide attackers and car bombs

The Manbij Military Council -- a key component of the SDF -- said fighting was continuing near the town centre, however.

"We are in control of 90 percent of Manbij," spokesman Sherfan Darwish said.

In the northwestern province of Idlib bordering Turkey, raids by either regime or Russian warplanes on Saturday near a hospital in Milis killed at least 10 civilians, the Observatory said.

Syria's conflict first erupted in March 2011 with anti-government protests but has since evolved into a fully fledged war largely dominated by militants groups.

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'Like Being A Slave': Workers On Russia's Bridge To Crimea Report Abuse, Deceit

August 07, 2016

by Aleksandr Valiyev

At the end of July, construction worker Vyacheslav Abdullin quit his job and headed home on foot  a 600-kilometer trek from the Kerch Strait to his hometown in the Ural Mountains region of Russia.

After a month laboring on a project that President Vladimir Putin has made clear is extremely important to the Kremlin -- a bridge linking Russia to the peninsula it seized from Ukraine in 2014 -- Abdullin had nothing to show for his pains except harrowing stories of deception and abuse.

Working on the Kerch Strait Bridge "is really like being a slave," Abdullin told RFE/RL.

"You can't stand, and you can't sit. Even if you have to wait half an hour for additional materials, if you are standing around, you will be fired. If you sit down, you are fired. You have to be doing something, even if you are just moving boards from one pile to another or tossing stones back and forth," he said by phone from Zlatoust, a city near Chelyabinsk in the Urals. "You have to look busy all the time. If not, you are fired."

The laborers were not allowed to take off their shirts in the hot summer sun, and sometimes they worked whole days without being given water to drink, Abdullin said.

He was not given any of the 47,000 rubles ($718) per month he was promised.

The Kerch Strait Bridge is Russia's top-priority infrastructure project. At a cost of at least $4.5 billion, the 19-kilometer car-and-rail bridge will tie Russia to Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Moscow annexed from Ukraine after sending in troops and staging a referendum dismissed as illegitimate by 100 countries in a UN vote.

Putin has claimed Crimea is "sacred" Russian land and displayed pride in taking control of the peninsula, a move that poisoned relations with Kyiv and West but which he claims righted a historical injustice. He needs the bridge to improve access to Crimea, which is linked to mainland Ukraine but not to Russia, and to show that he is making it an integral part of the country.

During a visit to the construction site in March, Putin emphasized that the span must be completed by the end of 2018 -- the year he could seek a fourth presidential term -- and threatened "to hang" any manager who "fails to do the job."

Nonetheless, Kremlin auditors estimated in June 2015 that two-thirds of the money allocated for the bridge over the preceding year was unaccounted for.

'No Work In The Cities'

Abdullin's story began last fall when his house in Zlatoust burned to the ground.

He, his wife, and their two children moved into a rented room, but were told they would have to move out by the end of August because of another renter  leaving him desperate for a way to make money to pay for a new place to live.

That's when he saw a television advertisement from a company called Liberti, in the Russian city of Izhevsk, looking for workers to go to Kerch.

"I phoned them and asked about food and lodging and all that," Abdullin said. "They told me that they pay 5,000 rubles ($77) a month for expenses, plus a cash salary of 47,000 rubles. They promised two meals a day, transportation there and back, work clothes, and a place to sleep. All of that was included."

But when he got to the construction site and spoke with other workers, he heard a different story.

"Everything was deducted [from the salary]," he said.

The stories the Kerch Bridge workers tell are reminiscent of similar accounts from the construction sites for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, another prestige project for Putin.

According to Human Rights Watch, many of the estimated 70,000 migrant workers on those sites endured long hours, unpaid wages, and overcrowded accommodation.

Russia's economy has deteriorated since then, hit by an oil-price collapse that began four months after the Sochi Games and the effects of sanctions imposed by the Western nations over its annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine, as well as the measures Moscow has taken in response.

Abdullin said there are workers from across Russia at the Kerch project, drawn there from depressed towns by promises of high wages.

"They come from far off because there is no work in the cities," he said. "There were some who came and immediately understood what was going on and then took off again the next day -- the ones who had money. But what were the guys who had no money supposed to do? Where do they go?"

'Worse Than Animals'

Abdullin returned from Kerch with another man from Zlatoust, Aleksei Loginov, who told a similar story.

"They treat people very badly there. They don't even consider them to be people. They treat them worse than animals," he said. "All day, you can't even sit down or take a smoke. There were no smoking breaks. All 11 hours, you had to work, work, work. Without a break. If you sit down, you are fired. That's how they treated people."

Loginov recalled seeing one shift supervisor fire two men on the spot for allegedly "sawing crookedly."

"They'll fire you for nothing," he said. "That's how the whole Kerch Bridge project is built. They fire people and send them away without any pay. They are actually trying to break people because they know they are far from home and they don't have the money to travel home."

When one month of work was up and no money came their way, Abdullin and Loginov had enough. They caught the ferry to the village of Taman, on the Russian side of the strait, and started walking. They hitchhiked occasionally, slept in fields, and ate whatever food they could find.

"We ate corn and whatever else we could find," Loginov said. "Cherries, apples."

When he reached the village of Millerovo in Rostov Oblast, Loginov received a wire of train fare from his wife. Abdullin walked the rest of the way alone.

Abdullin, who remains in desperate need of money, still hopes to get his wages from the people at Liberti, even though his work contract and other documents were taken from him at the Kerch site. He plans to take his case to local prosecutors.

Loginov, on the other hand, just wants to forget the whole experience.

RFE/RL was not able to reach Liberti for comment. The only telephone number listed has been disconnected.

RFE/RL correspondent Robert Coalson contributed to this report

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-crimea-kerch- bridge-workers-abuse-unpaid/27906011.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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At 14, Mae Gayle Daltons friend was sexually assaulted by an ex-boyfriend  on the grounds of a local middle school.

Her friend was punished more severely than her abuser.

Years later, when Dalton, 17, applied for the Girl Scout Gold Award last year, she remembered that incident and created an End Rape Culture and Victim Blaming campaign. (The campaigns Facebook page has Rape with spaces between the letters because rape was deemed an offensive word by Facebooks rules.)

Rape culture is defined by feminist theory as the belief that rape and sexual assault are pervasive and normalized due to societal attitudes about gender and sexuality.

Emilie Buchwald, author of Transforming a Rape Culture, believes it to be a complex set of beliefs that encourage male sexual aggression and supports violence against women.

This belief is perpetuated by those who believe that a womans clothing and behavior is intended to gain a mans attention, and that it is the victims fault for the physical attack.

Daltons campaign is about changing minds on what is and isnt appropriate behavior from men toward women, and showing them whats actually happening, Dalton said.

According to RAINN (the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), people between ages 12 to 34 are at the highest risk for sexual abuse  and 82 percent of teenage victims are girls.

Perpetrators of sexual violence are less likely to go to jail or prison than other criminals, according to RAINN.

Data gathered by RAINN shows that only 344 out of every 1,000 sexual assaults are reported to police.

Dalton, a rising senior at George Washington High School, chose combating rape culture in honor of her friend after she was approved by the Girl Scouts of Virginia Skyline Council to fulfill the Gold Award criteria.

The Gold Awards criteria asks the applicant to identify an issue, investigate it thoroughly and then create a plan to implement it.

The majority of how Im spreading my message is word of mouth, Dalton said.

She first gave speeches about it at George Washington High School while in the forensics club. Now, she gives speeches to rotary clubs and organizations in the area.

Danville Public Schools Superintendent Stanley Jones heard her speak one day and told her he was proud of her spreading this message.

I am raising awareness about something very close to my heart, Dalton says in her speech.

The speech includes an anecdote about the incident with Daltons friend.

The friend was sexually assaulted by her ex-boyfriend at the middle school they attended.

Dalton said her friend was suffering from the trauma. Dalton told a friend, who then told a teacher.

Daltons friend was suspended. Her attacker was transferred to another school.

In the fall, Dalton will put together a public service announcement about rape culture to help spread her message.

It will be a diverse video including different perspectives from all races and genders. It opens peoples mind and lets them know whats going on, Dalton said.

Dalton has met resistance.

[People] would confuse their own personal moral views with what my message was, Dalton said.

Dalton has come across people who said she shouldnt have been sexually assaulted because shes wearing short shorts, but should she really have been wearing that?

Thats a personal preference  that doesnt mean that its OK to sexually assault anyone, she said.

Everything I do, every speech Ive givenhave to be so detailed and in-depth to avoid misconceptions, Dalton said.

Daltons mother, Susan, said that she is very proud of her daughter for taking a stand against rape culture. She has always been very bold.

To get more information about the campaign, go to the Facebook page End R a p e Culture and Victim Blaming or contact Susan Dalton at (434) 857-8352.
Why are the actions of Pittsylvania Countys Agricultural Development Board on the evening of April 8, 2015, still being discussed in a court of law?

On June 23, 2015, General District Court Judge Larry J. Palmer dismissed a petition against the ag board because it had developed a corrective action planthe legal equivalent of  go, and sin no more.

Were still talking about the case, because were still learning about how the Pittsylvania County Agricultural Development Board handles state law specifically, the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.

Members of the Agricultural Development Board are appointed by the board of supervisors to advise them about issues related to Pittsylvania Countys largest industry. About 79 percent of county land is zoned for agriculture, and in recent years, ag board members have discussed changing the rules for minimum house lot sizes in agricultural districts from 0.44 acres to 2.5 acres and attracting a poultry industry to the county.

Given the importance of this group of concerned citizens, their meetings should be openfollowing both the letter and the spirit of Virginia law. Just so theres no confusion about whats happening at those meetings, someone should be taking the minutes.

Apparently they were taking meeting minutes, which is how this issue recently wound up before Circuit Court Judge James Reynolds. A county resident asked for the minutes from that April 8, 2015, meeting and was told that they didnt exist. But they did exist, because she got them as part of another FOIA request.

This issue should have been on the countys radar. The court feels hoodooed by the county. If they take minutes, they are a public record and subject to FOIA, Reynolds said.

Whatever the agenda may be, [the plaintiffs are] entitled to that information.

The two judges who have heard this case  or cases  have been patient with the Pittsylvania County Agricultural Development Board. But patience has its limits, and certainly no one wants to be hoodooed by the county government when a simple, letter-and-spirit adherence to Virginia law should be the cornerstone of any board or commission that has such an important, public job.

This case should have been over last June when Judge Palmer gave the Pittsylvania County Agricultural Development Board  and the county government  a chance to resolve this issue.Were still talking about it because that hasnt happened. Meeting minutes that never existed actually did exist  and were definitely feeling hoodooed
Numerous states, oil and gas industry fighting EPAs new methane rule

States and industry representatives continue to challenge in court the legality of the Environmental Protection Agency's methane rules aimed at the domestic oil and gas industry.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia recently challenging EPA's "federal overreach".

More than a dozen states have sued over the rule because it is unnecessary and would add additional cost to the production of domestic energy.

States, like Texas, already regulate air emissions through their own government agencies, such as the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

Other states joining the lawsuit are Alabama, Arizona, Kansas, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Kentucky and North Carolina.

The Texas Alliance of Energy Producers and the Independent Petroleum Association of America, along with 17 other state and national associations, have filed a petition for rehearing with the EPA on Aug. 2.

Subpart OOOOa, as finalized, will have a disproportionate impact on independents, and especially independents that constitute small businesses under the "Regulatory Flexibility Act", the petition stated.

The issues raised fall into two categories:

1. Issues that are entitled for reconsideration (under law) where it is impracticable to raise an objection during the period of public comment; and

2. The EPA failed to address the final rule, and it will have a devastating impact on the domestic oil and gas industry if the rule is not corrected.

Alex Mills is President of the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers. The opinions expressed are solely of the author.
Iran has executed a nuclear scientist convicted of handing over "top secret" information to the United States, a judicial spokesman said on Sunday.

"Shahram Amiri was hanged for revealing the country's top secrets to the enemy (US)," Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejeie was quoted as saying by the Mizan Online news site.

Amiri disappeared in Saudi Arabia in June 2009 and resurfaced a year later in the United States. Iranian officials welcomed him on his return to Iran but there has been little information released since.

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FILE - In this Jan. 20, 2009, file photo, Mariah Carey performs at the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball in Washington. Music is at the heart of the annual Essence Festival in New Orleans, and this year is no different. Fans will get to hear from first-timers Mariah Carey, Puff Daddy and Jeremih as well as from festival veterans Charlie Wilson, Maxwell, New Edition, Tyrese and Lalah Hathaway - all of whom are scheduled to perform inside the Superdome Friday, July 1, 2016, through Sunday. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

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Libby Hill Los Angeles Times (TNS)

By the end of the panel for Mariah Careys upcoming docuseries Mariahs World at the Television Critics Association Press Tour in Beverly Hills this week, attendees were entertained, if not informed.

From start to finish, Careys panel was a performance: from her bedazzled microphone and oversized purple chaise to her six shirtless (and oiled) male dancers. All were offered up to promote her new series that will feature behind-the-scenes footage of the making of her upcoming album, as well as her first European tour in over a decade.

So this is perfectly normal, Carey purred while perched on the back of a particularly strapping young man before relocating to the aforementioned chaise.

The exaggerated persona Carey put on throughout the panel  underlined by the jokey makeup touch-up she has mid-session and the pauses mid-sentence to pose for official photographers  served as a nod to two separate but equally important aspects of Careys life: how she is perceived in her celebrity and how her life actually is atypical.

I dont know that anybody really knows the real me, Carey said. If somebody sees me on TV, its not enough time to get to know somebody. Hopefully theyll see other sides of me.

Carey pointed out, both in word and deed, that she can be a bit of a jokestress, in addition to being a little bossy. But she stressed that, above all, shes just trying to be a nice person.

There are things that happen and you just go with it, she said.

Though that doesnt mean that shes always able to go with the flow.

I think Im already directing. I cant help it, Carey said, striking a pose on her chaise and later admitting, Im a closet editor. I kind of cant help but give notes.

She also differentiated between what most reality shows do and what she hopes will be achieved by her series.

I dont even know what reality is, literally, in the terms of real and not real, Carey joked, clarifying that she doesnt watch reality television.

Since the show doesnt air until December, final edits have yet to be made on the episodes, a fact that left the panel short on specifics. Careys ex-husband Nick Cannon may show up. Or he may not.

Cannon came around during filming, Carey explained before demurring, Well see what makes final cut.

Carey and Cannons children, 5-year-old fraternal twins Rocco and Monroe will also appear in the series, as evidenced in the teaser aired before the panel.

As far as the actual filming has gone, Carey acknowledges its been a learning process.

I think were still drawing lines, Carey said with regard to what her limits are with filming.

In the beginning, I was a little bit withholding with the amount of access I was giving (the cameras). I never know who to trust and I was a little less free with my personality, Carey said.

On Wednesday, however, Carey had no qualms about letting herself be real, at one point bemoaning a question that she had a tendency to throw shade or criticism at others, just moments before cheekily rejecting a question about up-and-coming female artists because, Its not their day!

With filming for the eight-episode series still underway, Carey is not without a concrete vision for Mariahs World.

My goal is to make it something that can be a lasting piece of work for my fans or even just great footage for my kids and for myself, Carey said.

Mariahs World premieres Sunday, Dec. 4 at 9 p.m. on E!
Neil Troppman, a manager of ATF's tracing center, stands next to boxes of firearms records that recently arrived at the agency's facility in West Virginia. Del Quentin Wilber/Los Angeles Times/TNS

SHARE Del Quentin Wilber/Los Angeles Times/TNS An analyst scans firearms records to be digitized. The ATF's national tracing center digitizes about 400,000 records a day. Del Quentin Wilber/Los Angeles Times/TNS An analyst reviews firearms records on microfilm at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' National Tracing Center.

Weapons tracking done old-school way

By Del Quentin Wilber, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

WASHINGTON  When Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife shot 14 people to death in San Bernardino, Calif., in December, law enforcement agents raced to track down one of their best leads: the guns used in the attack.

Within hours, they had identified Enrique Marquez Jr., Farook's neighbor, who provided background on the couple and was later indicted on terrorism and firearms charges.

Yet despite the urgency of the gun trace  and hundreds of similar searches conducted every day  it was a decidedly low-tech affair behind the scenes.

Rather than using supercomputers and government databases, gun traces today are still done in largely the same way they were in the 1970s, often relying on paper files, microfilm, telephone calls and shoe leather.

"This is much harder than the average person thinks it should be," said Neil Troppman, a manager at the Justice Department center that runs the traces.

At an office in Martinsburg, W.Va., the department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives combs through nearly 1,200 requests a day from law enforcement agencies nationwide seeking to trace guns to their first retail sales.

"It's important to know where the gun was first sold," Troppman said. "That is a very good clue for law enforcement."

The work would be far easier for the ATF's staff of 50 employees and 300 contractors if there were a national electronic database of gun owners and sales. But the National Rifle Association and other gun advocates have opposed that.

A trace starts with a request from a law enforcement agency. An analyst next enters the gun's serial number into a privately operated database maintained by about 40 large firearms makers or wholesalers. They voluntarily set it up after being unable individually to keep up with the flood of requests. Though companies own the database, federal officials have access to search serial numbers to learn the name of the retailer that received the weapon.

If the gunmaker is not part of the database, federal officials must call the manufacturer to learn where the gun was distributed.

The analyst next calls the wholesaler or retailer, which is obligated under a 1968 law to keep records of each weapon it receives and who bought it.

In addition to a ledger of their sales, retailers must have gun-buyers fill out a federal form, known as 4473, which includes their name, address, phone number, physical description and other personal information, including criminal record, citizenship and drug use. They must also disclose whether they are purchasing the weapon for themselves or someone else. Such information is forwarded to the investigating agency that requested it.

"We get this first purchaser and figure out where he sold it or who he gave it to," said ATF Agent Dave Scott, chief of the bureau's firearms tracing branch. "Now they have another person to talk to."

The job is more complicated when the dealer has gone out of business.

By law, defunct retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers are required to ship their records to the ATF. And truckloads arrive at the center each day  so much that the 140,000-square-foot center's floor buckled under the weight a few years ago.

Now the ATF keeps only 10,000 boxes in the center. The rest are stored outside in a row of nine rented trailers.
Associated Press file Khizr Khan, father of fallen Army Capt. Humayun S.M. Khan, speaks as his wife, Ghazala, listens during the final day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

SHARE European Pressphoto Agency Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at a rally at Briar Woods High School in Ashburn, Virginia, USA, 02 August 2016. Reports state that Trump is coming under increasing pressure from fellow Republican Party members for expressing support for Russia's annexation of Crimea, and for his ongoing feud with Gold Star parents Ghazala and Khizr Khan.

U.S. Muslims proud of stand couple took but fear reaction

By Hannah Allam, McClatchy Washington Bureau (TNS)

WASHINGTON  Shaheen Pasha was in Texas watching the Democratic National Convention on TV when Khizr and Ghazala Khan took the stage to deliver an emotional takedown of Donald Trump in what's become a defining moment of the election season.

Like millions of other Americans, Pasha listened to Khizr Khan describe the combat death of his son, Army Capt. Humayun Khan, with sympathy and admiration. But Pasha also felt something else: dread.

"I thought, 'They're in for it,'" Pasha recalled this week.

She was right. Pasha knows firsthand what it means to be an American Muslim who dares to challenge Trump in a public arena. Last December, USA Today published an opinion column by Pasha under the title, "Donald Trump is my son's boogeyman," about her 9-year-old's fears that his third-generation American family would be deported because they're Muslim.

Pasha received more than 100 emails and dozens of Facebook messages from Trump supporters calling her a liberal plant, an anchor baby and an undocumented immigrant; they called her oppressed and accused her husband of beating her. One wrote that Pasha's son was destined for the Islamic State and should be "taken care of" now. Another dug up an old photo of her son online, wrote "Islamist" across the child's face and posted it on Twitter. White supremacists sent letters from North Carolina jails, including an inmate who assured her that if felons could vote, he'd cast a ballot for Trump.

The backlash Pasha experienced is just a taste of the vitriol directed at the Khans, who took on Trump on a much bigger stage and who look and sound more stereotypically "foreign," complete with accent and headscarf.

But while Pasha was easy for Trump supporters to smear as just another suspicious Muslim, the Khans' status as a Gold Star family  parents of a U.S. soldier killed in action  struck a nerve. Pasha and others have been stunned to see an outpouring of support for the Khans, shattering perceptions about who best represents American values.

"I was born here, but they chose America and they chose to do this," Pasha said. "They are the ones who are most qualified to be speaking toward the American dream, because they've lived it."

In the week after Khizr Khan pointedly asked Trump whether he'd read the Constitution, a pocket-size version like the one Khan carried onstage climbed to second place in Amazon sales, behind the new Harry Potter book. Military families, especially fellow Gold Star parents, have come forward to denounce Trump's subsequent criticism of the Khans. Prominent Republicans, including several who at least tacitly support Trump's candidacy, have lambasted their nominee.

And Muslims across the country are expressing a newfound respect for the sacrifices of first-generation immigrants like Khizr Khan, the ones whom younger, homegrown Muslims affectionately mock as "fresh off the boat" for their thick accents and Old World customs.

"I've done multiple mea culpas since he went on the stage. I think it's really important that he's visibly foreign, visibly ethnic. That Americans are allying with someone who looks ethnic and speaks with an accent makes that support all the stronger," said Shahed Amanullah, a former Obama administration adviser who's a co-founder of a Virginia-based technology startup, Affinis Labs.

Amanullah created a meme of Khizr Khan as Uncle Sam and posted it on his Facebook page Tuesday morning. Within 24 hours, the image  emblazoned with "I want YOU to read the U.S. Constitution"  was shared and "liked" more than 1,000 times.

"If you told me even three weeks ago that an immigrant Muslim family would be the standard-bearer for constitutional rights and service to country, I wouldn't have believed you," Amanullah said.

This feel-good reaction comes with many caveats, American Muslims were quick to add. Many are uncomfortable with the sense that their fellow Americans will step up in their defense only if the Muslim in question is uniformed or demonstrably "patriotic"  as if ordinary, nonmilitary Muslims aren't worthy of support.

On the flip side, there's no shortage of Americans  and not just Trump fans  who refuse to accept Muslims as equal citizens, even when they do serve in uniform or public office.

"This family had no idea the Pandora's box they'd just opened: Everything from their loyalty, their patriotism, their back story, their history would be dragged out into the public and, frankly, it was going to be misconstrued," Pasha said, recalling her thoughts watching the Khans onstage. "My heart went out to them because I understood what was coming for them."

Indeed, the backlash was swift from Trump and his supporters. Two days after Khizr Khan brandished his Constitution and said Trump had "sacrificed nothing, and no one," the candidate was dismissive of the Khans in an interview with ABC News. He suggested that the Hillary Clinton campaign had written Khizr Khan's speech  Khan says he wrote it himself  and Trump traded on the stereotype of oppressed Muslim women by implying that Ghazala Khan was silent because she wasn't "allowed" to speak. She's since explained that she was invited to speak but was too upset to accept.

Trump's later statements called Humayun Khan a "hero" but pivoted immediately to noting that he'd died years ago  in 2004  and segueing into discussion of "radical Islamic terror." He also took issue with Khizr Khan's continued criticism of him in national interviews and continued to feud with the family despite pleas from prominent Republican and military figures to move on out of respect for Gold Star families.

Trump's response pales in comparison with that of his legions of fans, who filled Web pages with conspiracy theories attacking Khizr Khan's master's degree from Harvard Law School, his immigration law specialty, his business connections and relationship with the Clinton campaign. Despite the accounts of soldiers who'd served with Humayun Khan and who praised his leadership, many Trump supporters cast aspersions on his service and, in some cases, on Gold Star families in general.
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By Jaweed Kaleem, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

Days after the close of the national political conventions, Black Lives Matter-related groups on Monday endorsed a wide-ranging platform intended to influence political candidates before the November election.

It marks the first time that Black Lives Matter, better known for its widespread protests against police shootings of black Americans, has officially entered the national political fray in terms of policy. The group's members have been criticized for being heavy on protest and light on policy.

The platform, which calls for "black liberation," makes 40 policy recommendations. Some are mainstream, such as calling for an end to the death penalty  something the Democratic Party has also endorsed in its platform. Others are more radical, such as reparations, including free public tuition to public universities, for "past and continuing harm" against black people.

It also advocates a ban on deportations; federal and state laws that will "acknowledge the lasting impacts of slavery"; and government investment in education, mental health and job initiatives for black Americans.

"Our grievances and solutions extend beyond the police killing of our people. State violence includes failing schools that criminalize our children, dwindling earning opportunities, wars on our trans and queer family that deny them of their humanity, and so much more," said Montague Simmons, the chair of the St. Louis-based Organization for Black Struggle and one of the activists who helped write the platform.

"That's why we united, with a renewed energy and purpose, to put forth a shared vision of the world we want to live in," said Simmons, whose group took part in protests after a white officer shot 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., on Aug. 9, 2014. The death sparked days of unrest and brought national prominence to the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Movement for Black Lives, an umbrella group that includes members of Black Lives Matter, released the platform. It developed out of a Movement for Black Lives conference that more than 2,000 black activists attended at Cleveland State University a year ago.

"We recognize that not all of our collective needs and visions can be translated into policy, but we understand that policy change is one of many tactics necessary to move us towards the world we envision, a world where freedom and justice is the reality," said another platform writer, M Adams, who is co-executive director of Madison, Wis.-based Freedom, Inc. The nonprofit works with poor minorities and youth.

The platform was written or endorsed by more than 60 activist groups. One of the best known is the Black Lives Matter Network. The network, which has chapters in dozens of American cities, has largely stayed away from electoral politics and has not endorsed a presidential candidate.

Some offshoots that are unaffiliated with it but use the Black Lives Matter name have gotten more directly involved in elections. Last week, one group in Ohio called Black Lives Matter of Cuyahoga County made waves after endorsing a Republican, Sen. Rob Portman, in his re-election bid.

Other individual activists who arose out of the Black Lives Matter movement, such as onetime Baltimore mayoral candidate DeRay Mckesson, have also advised the White House on how to improve relations between black Americans and police. Last year, Mckesson was one of several activists to launch Campaign Zero, an independent website with policy proposals on how to "end police violence in America."

The Movement for Black Lives platform's backers extend beyond black organizations and ones focused squarely on race issues. They include Dream Defenders, a multiracial Miami-based group that organized against Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law after the shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, who died after being shot by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in 2012, in Sanford, Fla.

One endorsee is FIERCE, a nonprofit that works with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth of color in New York City. Showing Up for Racial Justice, a group made up of largely white allies to the Black Lives Matter movement, has also given its support to the platform.

Black Lives Matter and related racial justice movements have been strongly criticized by some politicians, as well as veterans of 1960s civil rights activism, for lacking specific policy proposals. The critics have included Clinton, who last year at a campaign event in Keene, N.H., suggested to black activists that they work on policy.

"I don't believe you change hearts. I believe you change laws," she said in a backstage meeting.

Organizers behind Monday's platform acknowledged that many parts had a slim chance of being taken on by major political parties or candidates.

"At a moment when both parties are putting forth policy proposals that either do nothing or actually do more harm to us, we are advancing a collective vision of concrete policy ideas that actually lead to safe and thriving black communities," said Karl Kumodzi, an organizer with Black Youth Project 100 in New York City.

"We will continue to demand that our elected leaders enact meaningful change, such as divesting from systems that harm us and investing in our communities' long-term safety. But regardless of what happens in November, we will continue to build independent black political power, knowing that's the only way to implement these transformative policies and hold lawmakers accountable. Our vision necessitates we look far beyond November."
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SAN ANGELO

Farm Bureau meets Tuesday

The annual Tom Green County Farm Bureau meeting will start at 6 p.m. Tuesday at St. Ambrose Parish Hall in Wall, 8602 Texas Loop 570.

The Original Havlak Polka Band will entertain during the barbecue meal prior to the meeting. The Policy Development meeting and scholarship winners will be announced.

FREDERICKSBURG

Dorper sheep show, sale Sept. 9-10

Texas' largest consignment of Dorper and White Dorper sheep will be on display at the Texas Hill Country Dorper Association's 10th annual show and sale Sept. 9-10 at the Gillespie County Fairgrounds in Fredericksburg.

The show starts at 5 p.m. Sept. 9 with judging of the unhaltered classes and pens of three. Judging of all haltered classes will continue at 8 a.m. Sept. 10, followed by the sale at 1 p.m.

Educational seminars, complimentary meals and the annual meeting will highlight the 2016 event, according to THCDA President Robert Yelverton of Harper.

Last year 121 sheep sold for a record average-sales price of $1,234 to 101 buyers.

The THCDA was formed in 2006 by a group of Texas Dorper Sheep breeders. Dorper sheep were developed during the 1930s and '40s in South Africa to produce a hair sheep capable of thriving in a variety of climates and conditions and producing high-quality, low-fat meat.

TEMPLE

New headquarters building dedicated

The Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board dedicated its new agency headquarters Aug. 4 in Temple.

The 10,200-square-foot building, at 1497 Country View Lane in Temple, includes office space for 30 employees and a hearing room for board meetings and conferences.

The TSSWC board was established in 1939 and has been headquartered in Temple for 77 years. The board administers Texas' soil and water conservation law and delivers coordinated natural resource conservation programs to agricultural producers through the State's 216 soil and water conservation districts.

Compiled by Jerry Lackey
Member asks: Will our plans come to fruition?

By Rashda Khan, rashda.khan@gosanangelo.com/ @rashda_SAST

A robust discussion took place at the Tom Green County Parks and Open Space Advisory Committee's third meeting last week, even though only eight of 12 members attended. Three county commissioners  Ralph Hoelscher of Precinct 1, Rick Bacon of Precinct 3 and Bill Ford of Precinct 4  also attended.

Several committee members were able to provide insight on various county parks from personal experience.

Dana Tipton has lived in Carlsbad for about 36 years and goes camping at Harper/Water Valley Park with his two sons, other family and friends.

"We definitely need 50-amp electrical breakers and cement pads for RVs," he said. Tipton said his sons once went camping on a Friday and it rained the next morning. "Our camper got stuck out there, and we had to wait a couple of days for it to dry out before we could pull it out," he said. "And that also tears up the ground."

Committee members also emphasized the need for restrooms, better lighting and safety, and designated parking so vehicles wouldn't drive into the park and damage the land.

Alma Camarillo, a committee member from Grape Creek, referred to some research she's done that indicates improving community parks ties into a drop in criminal activity and an increase in property values.

"I know our community parks around Tom Green County have not been maintained, and they should be," she said. "This gives us opportunity to start looking at issues. It's a positive thing for the community."

Some hard questions were asked.

Sylvia Pate, a committee member from Christoval, asked several "elephants in the room" questions. She asked how other counties justified nice parks.

Tom Brown, from Naismith Engineering Inc., the company hired by the county to develop the Parks Master Plan, answered that most counties looked at parks in three ways:

A quality-of-life issue. Parks are part of the community, and the bulk of the community uses them.

Economic development movers and shakers. Communities that have really nice parks have people that spend time and money in those parks and in the community.

Tie-in for new development. Brown shared that developers in Dallas County  much larger than Tom Green  develop trails and parks as part of the deal for new developments. "They see it as a marketing tool," he said.

Brown sees a lot of potential for economic development and private and public partnerships for at least three of the larger county parks  Foster Park around Spring Creek, Harper Park in Water Valley and Pugh Park in Christoval.

"Parks do cost money, they cost money to operate and maintain," he said. "But they also pay back."

Camarillo asked about the population in Christoval, which has Pugh Park, Mineral Wells Crossing Park and City Park. Representatives from the area estimated a population of 1,200 to 1,500.

Grape Creek has a population of about 3,000 and school enrollment of about 1,000 students, but it has no parks, Camarillo said. While there is a state park in the area, there are no parks with amenities like playgrounds. She wants the master plan to keep Grape Creek in mind as a future site for a community park.

Pate wondered if committee members were wasting their time with these meetings.

"Are we spending our time wisely trying to come up with solutions, when in fact the Commissioners Court is against the process?" she asked. "A big question among the elected officials seems to be to what degree are we in the parks business."

Commissioners Ford and Bacon assured committee members their time was not being wasted, but was much appreciated.

"This dialogue hasn't taken place in about five or six decades," said Ford, who has led the charge for parks improvements. "That's why the parks are in the condition they are in."

Bacon agreed that "it wasn't just lack of support  financial and from the Commissioners Court  but a lack of planning" that led to the parks' decline.

"If you don't have a plan you can look to and have when an opportunity comes about, that's when you fail," Bacon said, thanking committee members for their service. He said the lack of planning has in the past meant the county missed out on grant opportunities. "If you have a plan, that puts you so much higher up on the ladder when it comes to grants. Then you have something that's ready to go."

Pate had one more question, something she said the commissioners didn't have to answer right away: "What happens if the Commissioners Court decides to just continue to let the parks decline?"

County Judge Steve Floyd didn't attend the meeting, but he had provided the answer at a previous Commissioners Court session.

"Parks are somewhat like libraries. It's hard to be against them," he said. "Libraries are accessed by a fairly decent segment of the population. Our county parks are probably enjoyed by a much smaller segment of the taxpayer population, but it's a necessary thing we do."

"Where we go from here (depends)," Floyd said. "The priority of the county has changed some because of things beyond our control  criminal justice situation, guardianship issues we're having to deal with. This (master plan) will roll out in the future. The plan will be good for whenever we decide to move forward."

Floyd hopes to explore public and private partnerships that would help improve and maintain county parks.

"We're sitting in a prime example of what leveraging private dollars can do. ... That's what I'd like to explore from this master plan," he said, sitting in the Sugg Community Room on top of the Stephens Central Library. "Certain things are better served (through the development of) public/private partnership."

Brown expects to present a draft of the Parks Master Plan to the Commissioners Court by the end of August. That means the committee will be working hard and fast. The advisory committee will be voting on park priorities at its next meeting, scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday at Stephens Central Library.

IF YOU GO

What: Tom Green County Parks & Open Space Advisory Committee meeting

When: 6 p.m. Tuesday

Where: Sugg Community Room at Stephens Central Library, 33 W. Beauregard Ave.

Contact: Commissioner Rick Bacon at 325-234-4261
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By Staff Report

Texas Sen. Bob Hall will speak during a San Angelo Tea Party meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the West Texas Training Center, 3501 U.S. 67 N.

Hall represents District 2, including Canton, Greenville and Rockwall. He will discuss the electrical grid servicing Texas and its vulnerabilities.

Tea party meetings are held the second and fourth Tuesday of each month and are free and open to the public.

Call 325-650-0658 for more information.
Associated Press FILE In this Jan. 15, 2014, file photo a Los Angeles Police officer wears an on-body camera during a demonstration in Los Angeles. The critical moment when a gunman opened fire on two San Diego police officers, killing one, wasn't captured on the camera one of the officers was wearing because he didn't turn it on until after bullets flew. It's the latest example of the hole created by policies like San Diego's that allow officers to determine when to start recording. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

SHARE Associated Press FILE In this Jan. 15, 2014, file photo, a wired on-body police video camera is clipped to a Los Angeles Police officers glasses during a media demonstration in Los Angeles. The critical moment when a gunman opened fire on two San Diego police officers, killing one, wasn't captured on the camera one of the officers was wearing because he didn't turn it on until after bullets flew. It's the latest example of the hole created by policies like San Diego's that allow officers to determine when to start recording. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File) Associated Press FILE In this Thursday night, July 28, 2016, file photo, a San Diego Harbor Police officer helps to secure the scene in San Diego near where two San Diego Police officers were shot Thursday night. The critical moment when a gunman opened fire on two San Diego police officers, killing one, wasn't captured on the camera one of the officers was wearing because he didn't turn it on until after bullets flew. It's the latest example of the hole created by policies like San Diego's that allow officers to determine when to start recording. (John Gastaldo/The San Diego Union-Tribune via AP, File)

By Amanda Lee Myers, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES  The critical moment when a gunman opened fire on two San Diego police officers, killing one, may never be seen. The surviving officer only activated his camera after the wounded shooter was running away.

San Diego is among departments with policies calling for officers to turn on cameras before initiating contact with a citizen in most cases. But like other departments, compliance is less than perfect.

The result is inconsistent use of an increasingly common tool meant to give investigators and an often-skeptical public a fuller picture of police actions.

"The main motive of body cameras is to provide openness and transparency, and build trust in the police," said Samuel Walker, a retired criminal justice professor at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.

"If officers are not turning cameras on, well, you're not going to build trust," he said. "You're going to reinforce the cynicism that already exists."

He pointed to a study that showed across-the-board low compliance rates of officers in one high-crime Phoenix neighborhood between April 2013 and May 2014, the most recent information available. Officers only recorded 6.5 percent of traffic stops even though the department's policy required cameras to be activated "as soon as it is safe and practical," according to the study, conducted by Arizona State University's Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety.

The biggest part of the problem, Walker said, is a lack of discipline.

Chicago, Dallas, Denver, New Orleans, New York, Oakland and San Diego are among the cities that don't specify penalties when officers fail to record, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University's School of Law.

The American Civil Liberties Union has studied the issue and said clear policies are vital, along with punishment for failure to comply.

"Departments can't look the other way when officers fail to activate body cameras in critical incidents, or they become useless for accountability," said Peter Bibring, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California.

San Diego police have been criticized for failing to record a number of high-profile shootings. That prompted the department to revise its policy to stipulate that officers must turn on their cameras before most types of contact with citizens, but violations have continued.

Last week, the two San Diego gang unit officers on nighttime patrol pulled up next to a pedestrian on a darkened residential street, and the man almost immediately opened fire, police said. The suspect, Jesse Gomez, shot Wade Irwin as he got out of the patrol car and then fired through the open door and fatally wounded Irwin's partner, Jonathan De Guzman, according to police.

Irwin fired back and started manually recording after the shooting, but police haven't said what was captured.

The cameras are on before an officer hits record, and have a recall function to get video from shortly before an officer starts recording. That function allows 30 seconds to be retrieved, without audio.

It's unclear if Irwin activated that feature.

Both Irwin and Gomez were seriously wounded and remain hospitalized.

Victor Torres, a leading civil rights attorney in San Diego, said the department's policy makes it clear both officers should have been recording before approaching Gomez.

Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman has commended Irwin's actions, including activating his body camera when he did, as heroic.

The Alameda County Sheriff's Department changed its body-camera policy following a highly publicized incident last November where two deputies were caught on surveillance video using their batons to beat a car theft suspect in the middle of a street in San Francisco's Mission District.

Eleven officers in all responded and 10 failed to turn on their body cameras. The one who did activate his did so by accident.

Three officers were placed on leave, including two who are charged with assault under color of authority.

No one was disciplined for failing to turn on their cameras because the department's policy at the time encouraged, but did not require, their use, said Sgt. Ray Kelly, an agency spokesman. The agency now requires deputies to use the cameras in most circumstances and lays out the discipline for failure to comply.

The department hasn't had a problem with compliance since, Kelly said.

Some departments are tapping new technology to take the human factor out of body cameras. Los Angeles will be among a handful of departments nationwide to deploy cameras made by Scottsdale, Arizona-based Taser International that begin automatically recording once signaled, such as when a patrol car's siren is turned on or when a shotgun is taken out of its mount

"I believe by the end of three years these things will be built into a badge," said Steve Soboroff, vice president of the civilian oversight board of the Los Angeles Police Department. "These cameras now, they're like the old 10-pound cellphones."

Kelly said his department also is looking at the new technology.

"The body camera is really new to law enforcement," he said. "There are a lot of privacy concerns and body cameras don't always accurately depict what an officer is seeing. But they are a great tool and they are the future. And they're here to stay."
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The following editorial appeared in Wednesday's Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Sun-Sentinel:

It is appropriate and even necessary to rebuke Donald Trump for his attacks on the Gold Star father and mother whose poignant story became a centerpiece of last week's Democratic convention. Even prominent Republicans agree that Trump went too far. But it also is important for all of us to take this opportunity to reflect on the larger issue of sacrifice.

Khizr and Ghazala Khan appeared on stage to make the point that they, as Muslim Americans, had made the ultimate sacrifice that any parent can make for his or her country. Their son, a U.S. Army captain, was killed in Iraq in 2004. He ordered his troops to stand back while he approached a suspicious vehicle that exploded and killed him.

Their son's story of heroism and sacrifice simultaneously exposed and shattered Trump's hate-mongering toward Muslims, which has included the suggestion that Muslims be banned from entering the U.S. In a memorable moment, Khizr Khan asked if Trump ever had read the Constitution and offered to lend Trump his copy.

Khan also issued this rebuke: "Have you ever been to Arlington Cemetery? Go look at the graves of the brave patriots who died defending America. You will see all faiths, genders and ethnicities. You have sacrificed nothing and no one."

Trump's response has been shockingly inept. He suggested that Ghazala Khan had stood silently beside her husband because, as a Muslim woman, she was forbidden to speak. In fact, she still is so overcome by grief for her son that she was unable to speak without breaking down.

Regarding sacrifice, Trump said: "I think I've made a lot of sacrifices. I work very, very hard. I've created thousands and thousands of jobs  tens of thousands of jobs, built great structures. I've had tremendous success. I think I've done a lot."

That absurd response stirred social media to rain down scorn on Trump.

An example of the well-deserved mockery, under the hashtag #TrumpSacrifices, was: "Once survived an entire week at Mar-a-Lago with just one can of hairspray."

Trump's hard-core supporters might forgive him for showing no compassion and little understanding of the sacrifice made by the Khans, but elsewhere condemnation was swift and bipartisan. Groups representing Gold Star parents demanded an apology. Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, a Vietnam POW Trump once refused to call a hero, said Trump does not have "unfettered license to defame those who are the best among us."

While Trump deservedly twists slowly in the wind, it can be beneficial for all Americans to think about the challenge Khan issued to the Republican nominee. What have you sacrificed? Who have you lost?

Nearly 7,000 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Tens of thousands more have been wounded.

Still, for most of us, the answer will be that we have sacrificed nothing and lost no one.

As individuals, we have been extraordinarily untouched by the American military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Let that sink in.

We invaded Afghanistan in 2001  after the 9/11 attacks  and have been at war in the region ever since. Yet there has been no draft, no rationing, no special war tax.

It is crucial for those who are untouched by war to appreciate the sacrifices made by the men and women  and their families  who are directly affected by everything from long absences by a parent or spouse to the toll taken by PTSD to the combat death of a loved one.

When we ignore their sacrifices, it is too easy to shrug when the country provides inadequate veterans' services.

When we ignore the sacrifice it will entail, it is too easy to go to war in the first place.

Of all people, the commander-in-chief must understand and appreciate the sacrifices that war requires.

For evidence that Donald Trump does not, consider his decision to declare a verbal war against Gold Star parents Khizr and Ghazala Khan.
Authorities in the United Arab Emirates have warned the public that "criminal groups propagating radical ideologies" could spread violent ideas and rebellious behaviour among young people through video gaming.

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) issued the warning in a statement carried by the state news agency WAM late on Saturday. It urged parents to prevent teenagers from establishing relations with strangers through chat channels in games.

Criminal groups "are trying to recruit young people and adolescents through some electronic games", WAM quoted Mohammed al-Zarooni, the TRA's director for policy and programmes, as saying.

He said the groups identified weaknesses in their targets through conversations and then exploited them by directing them to commit crimes. In particular, some criminals used war games to encourage the use of weapons.

The TRA did not identify the criminal groups or elaborate on their intentions, and violent crime in the UAE is rare. But in 2013 the UAE jailed dozens of local citizens for plotting to overthrow the government, and it has launched a series of trials against suspected sympathisers of the Muslim Brotherhood.

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On Friday, in the evening, at Brisbane Showgrounds, Bowen Hills, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC, with Mrs Kaye de Jersey, attended and officially opened the 2016 Royal Queensland Show, The Ekka, and addressed guests.

Earlier, at the Queen Elizabeth II Courts of Law, Brisbane, the Honourable Chief Justice Catherine Holmes, Acting Governor of Queensland, received Mr Thomas Ryan, Australian Electoral Commission, for the return of the Writ following the election, held on 2 July 2016, at which 12 Senators from Queensland were elected to serve in the Senate of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia.
On Saturday, in the afternoon, at Metricon Stadium, Gold Coast, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC and Mrs Kaye de Jersey attended the 2016 Toyota AFL Premiership Season match between the Gold Coast Suns and the Greater Western Sydney Giants.
Islamic State Group (IS) suicide bombers on Sunday attacked a military base for US-backed fighters near the Syrian-Iraqi border, leaving several dead before blowing themselves up, rebel sources and the militants said on Sunday.

They said the dawn attack on the heavily defended military camp near the Syrian al Tanf border crossing with Iraq involved at least one explosive-laden vehicle that rammed the gate of the base which was set up by the fledgling, Pentagon-trained New Syria Army.

Another rebel said the militants were not able to storm the heavily fortified camp where large sand barriers have been erected to prevent such incursions and attacks in an area where the militants operate with hit and run attacks.

"It's a well defended camp and they tried to storm it but the suicide vehicle was targeted and hit," said Said Seif al Qalamoni, a rebel familiar with operating in the same area. He added that there were at least one dead and several wounded.

Qalamoni said jets from the US-led coalition against Islamic State Group shortly after struck at several vehicles believed to be driven by the militants in the sparsely populated desert area.

Amaq, a news agency affiliated to the Islamic State Group, said two suicide bombers had attacked the camp and detonated an explosive-laden car before storming the compound and detonating their suicide vests.

The New Syria Army was formed around 18 months ago using insurgents driven from eastern Syria at the height of the Islamic State Group's rapid expansion in 2014.

Diplomats and rebel sources say US Special Forces are training hundreds of fighters from the group in camps in Jordan.

The Tanf crossing, which was captured from Islamic State Group militants last year, is a 240 km (150 miles) drive from Syria's ancient city of Palmyra, also known as Tadmur.

Scores of Islamic State Group militants moved south into southern Syria and the Tanf area after they were driven out of Palmyra in central Syria this year.

The militants, who control a swathe of territory spreading from Iraq into central Syria, still control the al-Bukamal Syria-Iraq border crossing near Deir al Zour.

The New Syria Army, with the backing of Western special forces and US-led air strikes, launched an attack last June from the Tanf base on al-Bukamal northeast of Tanf.

But the operation, which aimed to capture the town and cut supply lines for the group between Syria and Iraq, failed after rebels were encircled on the approaches of the town after the militants mounted a counter-attack.

The New Syria Army's base in Tanf has been hit twice previously by Russian air strikes, even after the US military used emergency channels to ask Moscow to stop after the first strike, US officials say

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-Following is a list of attacks on Western targets claimed by or blamed on the Islamic State jihadist group after Saturday's assault on two policewomen in southern Belgium:





A machete-wielding man shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) attacks two policewomen in Charleroi, southern Belgium, badly injuring one in the face before being shot dead by a third officer.

Investigators give the initials of the assailant as K.B., describing him as a 33-year-old Algerian who had been living in Belgium since 2012.

The following day, IS says the attacker acted "in response to (its) calls to target citizens" of countries in the US-led coalition bombing IS in Syria and Iraq.



Attackers slit an elderly priest's throat in a hostage-taking at his church in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray.

French President Francois Hollande says the two attackers, killed by police, claimed to be from IS, while the group says they were its "soldiers".



A failed Syrian asylum-seeker blows himself up outside a music festival in the German city of Ansbach, wounding 15 others. The Bavarian interior minister says the man "pledged allegiance" to IS, while the jihadist-linked Amaq news agency said he was a "soldier" of the group.



A 17-year-old asylum-seeker, believed to have been Afghan or Pakistani, attacks passengers on a Bavarian train with an axe, injuring five people, two of them critically. He is shot dead by police.

IS releases a video the following day purportedly featuring the attacker announcing he would carry out an "operation" in Germany.



Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian, rams a 19-tonne truck into people celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, killing 84 people and wounding more than 300.

IS said Bouhlel staged the attack "in response to calls to target nations of coalition states" fighting the jihadist group.



A triple suicide attack at Istanbul's Ataturk airport kills 47 people. Authorities blame IS, though there is no claim of responsibility.



A man claiming allegiance to IS stabs a police officer to death before slitting his partner's throat in front of their young son at their home in Magnanville, west of Paris.



A gunman claiming allegiance to IS opens fire inside a gay bar in Orlando, Florida, killing 49 people in the deadliest mass shooting in US history.



Suicide attacks claimed by IS kill 32 people and wound more than 340 at Brussels airport and Maelbeek metro station, near the European Union headquarters.

The attackers have links to the cell that carried out the November 2015 jihadist attacks in Paris.



Twelve German tourists are killed in a suicide attack in central Istanbul. On March 19, three Israeli tourists and an Iranian are killed by a suicide bomber at an Istanbul shopping centre. Turkish authorities attribute both attacks to IS.



Syed Farook and his Pakistani wife Tashfeen Malik open fire at a Christmas party in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people. IS hails the attack, but does not claim direct responsibility.



Coordinated suicide attacks in Paris kill 130 people and wound more than 350 at a concert hall, cafes and the national stadium. IS claims responsibility.



An Airbus passenger jet owned by a Russian company crashes in the Sinai desert after a bomb rips a hole in the plane, killing all 224 people on board. IS claims responsibility.



Gunmen kill 38 people, including 30 British tourists, at a beach hotel in Sousse, a little more than three months after a similar attack at the Bardo museum in Tunis kills 22 people, including 21 foreign tourists. IS claims both attacks.



Gunman Amedy Coulibaly, claiming allegiance to IS, kills a policewoman in a Paris suburb before attacking a Jewish supermarket the next day, where he kills four more people. He is killed in a police assault.

On January 7, the Al-Qaeda-linked Kouachi brothers had killed 12 people at the headquarters of the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly in Paris.

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Afew days ago at lunch, a colleague congratulated me for the hard work I was doing in the community. I thanked him, but I had no idea what he was referring to so I asked what prompted his pat on the back.

I saw your picture on the schools webpage, loading water that was to be sent to West Virginia, he told me.

I looked at him perplexed, and after a few back-and-forth exchanges, I finally convinced him that it wasnt me in the picture. Later that night, another colleague sent the picture that prompted this confusion.

Needless to say, it wasnt me. It was just another hard-working black man who my colleague believed looked like me.

The fact that an older white colleague mistook me, a young black man, for another black man really brought to the forefront many feelings that have caused me consternation in the last few weeks concerning my presence in our society.

I grew up in small-town North Carolina, and I have a lot of white friends. Truth be told, I have more white friends than I do black friends. At one point in my life, I felt I would be able to transcend race, to be seen as an individual and not be subject to the gross misrepresentation of people who share my complexion.

I was wrong.

I nearly swallowed my tongue in high school when a close white friend told me one day after school, You know, Mike, youre not a nigger.

He said I was in essence a good black person, not like those others who he said were doing bad things. He didnt know that the people he was referring to were like my cousins, men I have known since childhood, men from my world, men who followed a different path than mine.

This friend wouldnt even think that those men and I were related. It was as if he was saying there is a good black gene and a n----- gene. But that was just the beginning of my indoctrination into the way we all see race.

At first, I justified being dumped by some of my white girlfriends as a matter of preference. I initially thought the other guys were funnier, smarter, more their type. But later, I found it to be suppressed and indirect racism and ignorance reinforced by their parents.

It wasnt stupidity. It was simply ignorance fueled by irrationality and fear.

Some of my white friends may be shocked to think that I, Michael Robinson  the kid who shrugged off being called Oreo and was described as the whitest black person theyd ever met  would feel impacted by the recent deaths of armed and unarmed black men by law enforcement or many of the other inequities young black men face on a daily basis.

I can hear some of them saying so many things:

But Mike, you listen to John Mayer.

Mike, you know when I say those things Im not referring to you, right?

Absolutely, I think.

But now I realize I am part of the problem.

Because of me, you feel as if we live in a post-racial world. I have helped you believe the narrative you tell yourselves that blacks would be better off if they just work hard and take opportunities lying right in front of them. That they would not get into all that trouble if they just listened and did what they were told.

Throughout most of my life, I have made a conscious decision to suppress my thoughts and feelings about the treatment of people who look like me by people who look and think like you because I wanted to be accepted by you. I thought I had to do that because you confirmed it for me.

To act out of line with what you imagine society should condone, how people should be  i.e., to be just like you  would, in your words, be a n-----. As a result, I denied my blackness in an attempt to be accepted.

But I too attempted to see the world through a lens devoid of race. I wanted to give people the benefit of the doubt because I refused to see the world the way my parents and grandparents were forced to see it. I too believed the way we get rid of racism was by not paying attention to it.

Then I realized how ridiculous that idea was.

Imagine if someone said to you, The way that we will end rape in America is by acting as if it never happens. I bet you would look at that person as if he had two heads.

No issue gets dealt with by ignoring it, and now in my late 20s, as an educator and college-student mentor with a masters degree, I realize it is my job to begin to confront the subtle and not-so-subtle racism I and others face on a daily basis. I finally realize that I would be no less black if I denied it  and that you acknowledging that I am anything but black, or somehow more acceptable than my brethren because they are not like me, is unacceptable. That it is no longer my job to make you feel comfortable.

I recently revisited My Dungeon Shook, one of my favorite essays by James Baldwin. It was first published in December 1962. In it, Baldwin wrote to his nephew, James, his namesake:

Dear James,

There is no reason for you to try to become like white people and there is no basis whatever for their impertinent assumption that they must accept you. The really terrible thing, old buddy, is that you must accept them. And I mean that very seriously.

You must accept them with love. For these innocent people have no other hope. They are, in effect, still trapped in a history which they do not understand; and until they understand it they cannot be released from it.

The events of the last few weeks  hell, the last few years  are helping people begin to understand what Baldwin wrote more than a half-century ago. And if they cant understand, at least its helping people begin to ask questions.

My white friends, whom I love and who I know love me for me, have gone from showing solidarity and assuring a space to realizing that we all are part of the struggle, part and parcel. People are slowly but surely waking up to become the kind of people Baldwin referred to in another essay, A Talk to Teachers, published in 1963. The kind of people society isnt too anxious to have around.

Its the people who no longer think they are immune to the backlash that comes from not stepping forward to support the cause because they have black friends.

Its the people who have to confront the world they know exists for their dark-skinned children and who are fighting for a brighter future for them and other younger ones who look just like them.

Its the people who have begun to ask others the tough questions, ditching the question they once asked themselves, Is racism really over?

As he did with his nephew, Baldwin has some advice for all of us. He wrote:

(It is) the obligation of anyone who thinks of himself as responsible to examine society and try to change it and to fight it  at no matter what risk. This is the only hope society has. This is the only way societies change.

We all have to confront our demons and face who we really are. That is how lasting change occurs.

We need to get uncomfortable. We need to speak our truths. Only then will the healing begin.
A Quaker, a Jew and a Buddhist walk into Palestine and Israel. It sounds like a joke, but for our multifaith group on a service-learning trip in July, encountering the realities of Palestine/Israel was no laughing matter.

Sponsored by Friends United Meeting, the Quaker organization operating schools in Palestine, we volunteered at the Ramallah Friends School and met with a broad spectrum of Israelis and Palestinians.

These experiences led us to question the standard message about Israel and Palestine, while empathizing with both sides caught in a cycle of violence. The facts on the ground dont support the dominant narrative of an Israel that is right and Palestinians who are wrong. Nor would the opposite be true. Its not that simple.

For Israel, the goal for final-status negotiations is security for a Jewish state. For Palestinians, its equal rights, human dignity and self-determination. What we witnessed was that too often these demands are mutually incompatible. Israels actions to provide security and insistence on maintaining a Jewish state come at a high cost to Palestinians who are now the majority in the total population west of the Jordan River and seeking their rights.

Those living in the occupied territories are subjected to various forms of violence, including ever-restrictive measures which deny them freedom of movement and human dignity. Arab citizens of Israel told us of the challenges they face as a minority. Such realities cause stresses and anger that too often bubble up into violence against Israelis. We experienced these realities as we passed through checkpoints and toured Israeli bomb shelters.

However, we met with people who gave us encouragement. Bassam and Rami, a Palestinian Muslim and an Israeli Jew, both lost young daughters in the violence but have overcome anger and hatred to form a bond in working together to prevent anyone else from having to endure the pain they did. Amin, a Palestinian Muslim (and Guilford College parent), co-founded the worlds first bilingual, bi-national school, The Hand-in-Hand School, so that his and other children could experience an education that united rather than separated. Nadav, an Israeli army veteran, took us on a tour of the segregated city of Hebron and told us of his commitment to ending the occupation so that Israel could be both secure and live up to its Jewish morals.

Hanan, a member of the executive committee of the PLO, told us of their rejection of violence, recognition of Israel and acceptance of a two-state solution. Daoud, a Palestinian farmer, shared with us the threat to his land posed by five illegal settlements on surrounding hilltops. Yet, at the entrance to his farm is a sign saying We refuse to be enemies.

Everywhere we went, we encountered generous and warm-hearted people in Palestine and Israel. The hospitality was overwhelming, But we also saw the less hospitable: grim cement walls, a militarized society, a cancerous spread of settlements, and the loss of any real chance for a two-state solution, leaving only the worst possible one-state solutions.

When we returned, we were asked two things mainly: Were you safe? Do you see any hope?

We can honestly say we never felt unsafe anywhere we went  in the crowded streets of Ramallah or the busy by-ways of Jerusalem. But the present situation bodes ill for the long-term safety of both parties. Nobody we talked to has hope for a resolution to the issues in their lifetime or even their childrens lifetime. Yet, over and over again we heard people say, But hope is our resistance. We cannot give up hope.

There is little evidence Israelis and Palestinians can work out their differences alone, and there is no evidence that any outside broker has the political will to mediate the situation fairly. We were disheartened to see that both the Republican and Democratic platforms took an alarmingly one-sided view of the conflict, even denying an occupation exists. Supporting the human rights of Palestinians is not to be against Israel. This is what needs to be understood. Neither Israelis nor Palestinians are free, as one side is being slowly strangled while another is constantly looking over its shoulder for another enemy.

It seems we are left only with hope  and the words of Abuna, a Palestinian citizen of Israel and retired Archbishop of the Galilee: Love one another. If you are pro-Israel, dont let that mean you are anti-Palestinian. If you love Muslims, dont hate Jews or Christians.

Therein lies the hope: a recognition of the humanity of all.

A Palestinian boy sits in the yard of his house, back-dropped by an Israeli housing development, Har Homa, in east Jerusalem.
Clyde Ripka peers into the silver pots that stand ready for pick- up this busy summer evening. The large mottled crustaceans move slowly over mounds of ice, making it easy to do a quick count. He has to be accurate about the lobsters; otherwise, he wi ll be cooked.

The same goes for the mussels and clams, ears of corn and trays of roasted potatoes and vegetables. These ingredients for a traditional New England clambake have a way to go before they hit the picnic tables tonight, including a 45-minute boat ride.

When you leave, you better have everything, because you are not turning back, says Ripka, as his son, Zachary, and chef Chris Turturro assess the checklist to make sure they are packed and ready to go.

This scene plays out every Thursday at Ripkas Beach Cafe, the seaside restaurant Ripka runs with his family at Norwalks Calf Pasture Beach. Through September, the restaurant and catering company will provide the fixins for the Norwalk Seaport Associations weekly clambake cruises, a longstanding tradition that brings a ferry full of hungry people to Sheffield Island, a few miles off the Norwalk shore. The eatery also does custom clambakes for pick-up or drop-off.

The chefs get out there early to fire up the grill and make sure the mussels and clams are open and ready for slurping, and the lobsters are cracked by the time the guests settle down to dinner. The secret to a good clambake is really its simplicity, Turturro says. You keep it covered, and it locks in all that heat, all that steam. And its got to be fresh.

In the annals of American cuisine, the New England clambake is an enduring tradition. It has been suggested it began with Native Americans, whose custom of roasting clams and shellfish they gathered at the shore was taken up by settlers. The origins may be difficult to pinpoint, but that hasnt stopped anyone from embracing the tradition. In the archives of the Providence, R.I.-based Culinary Arts Museum at Johnson and Wales University, memorabilia point to a clambake held at Rocky Point in Rhode Island in 1863 and another in Connecticut in 1909. Its one of the few culinary traditions to hit the Great White Way, serving as a backdrop for a crucial scene and inspiration for a song in Rodgers and Hammersteins hit musical, Carousel.

These days, it isnt as common to see a bake crafted with the age-old method of a fire pit on the beach. Stock pots, grills and burners are stand-ins for the often laborious process of creating that rock-lined roaster, which steams those layers of seaweed, lobsters, mollusks, shellfish, potatoes and corn into a salty, smoky seaside taste that signifies summer. Incorporating modern techniques with traditional methods can still score a savory meal, says Matthew West, of Norwalk, who has been employed to make just such a thing happen in a backyard near you.

Traditionally, in New England, they dig a pit on the beach and line it with rocks and build a blazing fire, says West, a personal chef. Once the hot coals are left, layers of seaweed  often collected from the beach in which the pit was dug  are placed between layers of potatoes, lobster, clams and corn. They cover it with a canvas and let it slow steam cook for three or four hours. Now, thats super, uber traditional, but no one does that anymore  unless that is all you do and your pit is always there.

West said you can simulate the whole thing at home by using a really big pot, investing in some seaweed (or, in a pinch, corn husks) and layering it as you would a pit, with just the right amount of water or by employing a steamer basket. It takes about a half-hour to 45 minutes and you are done. Its not the same as the lingering heat from the rocks and ashes, but it works.

West says the true spirit of a clambake is gathering with others, taking in the scenery and enjoying a meal. Perched at the picnic tables, in the shadow of the 150-year-old lighthouse the association maintains, the crowd epitomizes the spirit, relishing the food and the sunset.

Ripka and Jim Rose, the Sheffield Island lighthouse keeper, agree a clambake is better with treasured company and beautiful scenery. A one-man clambake is just dinner, Rose says.

chennessy@hearstmedia.com; Twitter: @xtinahennessy
Suspected members of Al-Qaeda shot dead an army colonel in Yemen's southern province of Abyan on Sunday, a military official said.

The gunmen on a motorbike opened fire at Colonel Abdullah Shamba, killing him immediately before driving off, the official said.

Shamba headed a local anti-Al-Qaeda militia in Abyan, the source added.

Late on Saturday, Saudi-led coalition jets attacked Al-Qaeda positions in Abyan's provincial capital of Zinjibar and in the nearby town of Jaar, military sources said.

Government forces backed by the Arab coalition began an all-out offensive in March against militants in south Yemen, recapturing main cities they had held.

But they later retreated from Zinjibar after Al-Qaeda militants struck back.

Militants have exploited the power vacuum created by the conflict between the government and Huthi rebels and their allies to expand their presence in south and southeast Yemen.

They are often accused by the authorities of carrying out deadly attacks targeting government officials.

The Arab coalition which backs the Yemeni government has also turned its sights on the militants, and the United States has pressed its drone war against them.

Washington considers the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, to be the extremist network's deadliest franchise.

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The state has 39 confirmed cases of the Zika virus, but none of those were contracted in Connecticut, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

All of the Connecticut cases involve patients who came down with the virus while traveling, the CDC said. As of Aug. 4, there were 1,825 confirmed cases of Zika in the U.S. and Washington D.C., and 5,548 confirmed cases in U.S. territories.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told a rally of more than a million people in Istanbul on Sunday that U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen would be brought to Turkey and pay the price for the coup attempt he is accused by the government of staging.

"Let all of you know, the leader of this terrorist group will come to Turkey and pay for what he did," Yildirim said.

But he said the authorities would not be motivated by revenge and would act within the rule of law as they track down those responsible for the July 15 attempted putsch.

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By William Schwartz | Published on 2016/08/06

Hak-soo (played by Lee Jung-jae) is a noble South Korean soldier who leads a deep spy unit into Incheon island to uncover vital intelligence regarding whatever defenses, natural or manmade, may make an amphibious attack on the island practical or impractical. Gye-jin (played by Lee Beom-soo) is the at-times comically evil North Korean commander who opposes Hak-soo's efforts. That's the basic outline for "Operation Chromite". The movie is a tale of good versus evil- no context necessary.

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My main dislike for "Operation Chromite" stems from an appreciation of history. The Korean War is among the more morally ambiguous conflicts in human history, and the simplistic portrayal of noble heroic South Koreans defending their country from the big mean bullying North Koreans is so ridiculous as to be outright propaganda. As "The Long Way Home" so effectively demonstrated last year, South and North Korea were at the time of the war such incredibly abstract concepts the typical soldier in either army would not have been able to coherently describe why exactly their side was right and the other one was wrong.

"Operation Chromite" doesn't make any real effort in this department either. The North Koreans are jerks, but it's never terribly clear how exactly they're planning to destroy Korea writ large. Hak-soo's motivation, to save his mother, makes especially little sense considering we see his mother working at a restaurant and generally looking none the worse for wear. That's not the kind of lifestyle that suffers a lot of direct interference from the ruling government.

It is the kind of lifestyle that can be easily destroyed by war, and "Operation Chromite" largely sidesteps the point of how bigger wars tend to cause bigger destruction. General MacArthur (played by Liam Neeson) is portrayed as heroic for his belief that North Korea needs to be wiped off the map. In a more self-aware movie this would be ironic, since the evil North Koreans believe the exact same thing about South Korea. But again, there's no relevant context like how all of MacArthur's post-"Operation Chromite" strategies tended to be tragic failures that resulted in disproportionate senseless loss of human life.

An even greater irony is how Hak-soo's team is consistently treated as unambiguously heroic when they're the ones who commit most of the on-screen war crimes. Impersonating another army's soldiers? Yeah, that's a war crime. It's not an obscure one either- the main bad thing North Koreans did during the Korean War was impersonate refugees to advance behind the enemy's front line.

But beyond the political issues it's a big aesthetic problem to have both the good guys and the bad guys wearing the exact same uniforms. Kind of makes it hard to tell them apart once the explosions start, especially since Hak-soo's confederates have so little individual personality as to be totally interchangeable. They're just as faceless as the poor North Korean conscripts who get mowed down by the truckload. As purely uncritical rah rah patriotism "Operation Chromite" may have some value, but by any other standard this is a fantastically useless and pointless film.

Review by William Schwartz

"Operation Chromite" is directed by John H. Lee and features Lee Jung-jae, Lee Beom-soo, Liam Neeson and Jin Se-yeon.
By William Schwartz | Published on 2016/08/06

Ah, another year at the Bucheon International Film Festival (BiFan). This festival will always have soft spot in my heart, because they were the first to recognize my press credential way back when I started writing for HanCinema full time. This was the first year I tried to use that credential to take pictures instead of just watching movies. In commemoration of that, I present the more obscure side of Bucheon red carpet. Most of the people who walk the red carpet don't show up in articles, even if they all have their own interesting story to tell.

These are various members of the Bucheon City Council. In contrast to Busan, where the relationship between BIFF and the city has grown increasingly agrimonious, BiFan enjoys an effective partnership with the city of Bucheon. It's one of the reasons why the festival is so well run. At the opening ceremony a big point was made about how the city of Bucheon readily agreed to grant BiFan more official independence, since BiFan has been a big boon to the city at large.

These are directors Kim Min-jae-II and Kim Hye-yeong. They aren't famous- but their short movies were featured in the short films sections, which are always worth watching just for the variety. Kim Min-jae-II, on the left, made Hyperbolic Time Chamber, which is mostly just an extended wind-up to an impossible to translate Dragon Ball Z pun. Kim Hye-yeong, on the right, made a similarly culture specific movie about a couple of women who "fight" each other by making videos of themselves eating a lot of food. Hey, it's a fantastic film festival. Weird is good.

The man on the right is Turkish director Can Evrenol, who made a horror movie called Baskin. Also he's holding a Yokai Watch fan, I'm guessing due to amusement over its cartoonish appearance.

Also some poor short person danced around in this Jibanyan costume for our general amusement. This was to promote the new Yokai Watch movie, which played at the festival.

This is the Bucheon Choice jury, which awarded high marks to "The Wailing". They also gave out the Jury Award to Under the Shadow, an Iranian film which I did not see, but which I have been told was quite scary indeed.

The peculiar man with the Batman cowl is Park Jae-dong, the director of the Bucheon International Comics Festival, which this year was concurrent with much of BiFan. The city of Bucheon made a point of scheduling a lot of events in tandem this year so as to maximize potential output.

This is pop artist Nancy Lang. Her chief gimmick is that she carries a stuffed cat around everywhere. I recognized her because she was in the tvN reality show The Genius for a spell. It was unclear to me why she was on the red carpet.

The man on the right is comedian Kim Dae-hee, who recently made a movie that did not appear at Bucheon nor has it been released in South Korea at large. It's some sort of Chinese co-production, and I guess that was enough to get him on the red carpet.

Beyond that it was mostly what could be expected from the opening ceremony of a major international film festival. There were big crowds.

Speeches and performances abounded, most of which amounted to how great it was that the festival was here, and won't you enjoy the show? Also it was fairly dark.

...Which is why pyrotechnics were a popular order of the day. But that's all just the flash of the opening. Next time I'll get into more of the nuances.

Article by William Schwartz

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Published on 2016/08/07 | Source

The biggest reason behind the declining birthrate in Korea is a drop in the number of women of childbearing age to the tune of 94,000 a year over the past decade.

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The decline gets worse the younger the women are as the declining birthrate bites in the age group between 25 and 34, the prime childbearing years.

That population shrank by 100,000 in 2015 and this year, because the birthrate started dropping fast in the late 1980s when the number of babies born annually dropped from around 800,000 to 600,000.

Women are also marrying later in their lives these days, which means the average age when women have their first child is now 31, the highest in the world.

Men too are postponing marriage as jobs have become scarce, while soaring home prices have made it extremely difficult for couples to set up a home.

Only 119,700 couples got married in the first five months of this year, the fewest since 1990. Demographers project that the number of childbirths could hover at around 400,000 annually over the next 10 years.

Changing attitudes and perceptions of marriage and childbirth are also reducing the birthrate.

Lee Sang-rim at the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs said, "Koreans who have now grown into the prime marrying age are those who witnessed their parents' divorce or suffer other marital problems in the 1997 Asian financial crisis. It will be difficult to turn the tide unless there is a major shift in attitudes".

Last year 60.4 percent of single women between the ages of 30 to 34 said it is OK not to marry. The proportion of single women who said it is fine not to have children stood at 30.8 percent.

The government has vowed to boost the birthrate to 1.5 by 2020, which would delay the population decline by four years from 2031 to 2035. But if the number of childbirths falls to 400,000 a year, the population could shrink much faster than projected.

Already, a shortage of new students has forced many kindergartens to close down, and now the effect is spreading to schools. Statistics Korea had forecast that childbirths would dwindle to around 430,000 a year in 2026, but this already started happening in 2013.
At least seven people were killed during fresh clashes between police and anti-government protesters in western Ethiopia on Saturday, local sources said, while the ethnic unrest also reached the capital Addis Ababa for the first time.

Saturday's rally in the capital was called by opposition groups from the Oromo, Ethiopia's main ethnic group.

Some 500 people gathered amid a heavy police presence on the capital's main Meskel Square shouting slogans such as "we want our freedom" and "free our political prisoners."

Police swiftly moved in to break up the protest.

The other main ethnic group, the Amhara, has also held rallies in recent weeks.

Both groups, which between them make up some 80 percent of the population, complain that they suffer discrimination in favour of ethnic Tigrayans, who they say occupy the key jobs in the government and security forces.

Sources in western Ethiopia said that at least seven people were killed during the clashes in Nemekte, in the Oromo region Saturday, though no details emerged.

In Addis Ababa, police made dozens of arrests during the anti-government demonstration which came less than a week after thousands of people from the Amhara group joined a demonstration in the northern city of Gondar.

"This is a mass movement of civil disobedience which is not organized by political parties," Merera Gudina, chairman of the Oromo People's Congress group told AFP.

"People are totally fed up with this regime and expressing their anger everywhere".

Although small, Saturday's Addis rally was significant in that it was the first of its kind in the capital.

Also Saturday, local people told AFP there had been further rallies and clashes with police in the Oromo city of Ambo. There was also a call for a rally on Sunday in Baher Dar in the Amhara region.

Prime Minister Haile Mariam Dessalegn had Friday announced a ban on demonstrations which "threaten national unity" and called on police to use all means at their disposal to prevent them.

Authorities have blocked access to social media, the activists' key channel for such rallying calls, since Friday.

Internet access was nearly impossible Saturday in Addis Ababa itself, an AFP journalist said.

Before news of Saturday's fatalities came in, Ethiopian authorities said at least a dozen people had been killed in clashes with police over territorial disputes in recent weeks.

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A United Nations peacekeeper was killed and four others were injured Sunday when their vehicle struck an explosive device in northeast Mali, the UN said.

The incident occurred 11 kilometres (six miles) south of Aguelhoc-Anefis in Kidal region, the UN force in Mali, MINUSMA, said in a statement. It did not give the nationalities of the casualties.

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The board of Telecom Egypt , the country's landline monopoly, gave its final approval on Sunday for plans to buy a fourth-generation mobile phone licence, a senior source at the company said.

The source told Reuters that Telecom Egypt would pay the full amount requested by the regulator for one of four 4G licences the government is selling as part of a shake-up of the sector. The source did not give the price.

The reforms will potentially allow Telecom Egypt, which owns a 45 percent stake in Vodafone Egypt , to enter the mobile phone market directly. They could also allow Egypt's three mobile operators to offer fixed-line services, ending Telecom Egypt's dominance.

Egypt's telecom regulator has directly offered 4G licences to the three companies currently offering mobile services - Orange Egypt , Vodafone Egypt, and Etisalat -- as well as to Telecom Egypt. Only Orange Egypt has disclosed the price it has been offered to obtain the licence -- about $400 million.

The operators have until the first week of August to submit responses.

The government hopes to collect a total of EGP 22.3 billion ($2.51 billion) in licence fees, Communications and Information Technology minister Yasser al-Kadi said in June.

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Badrakhan's last film El-Raghba (Desire) came out in 2002

Egyptian director Ali Badrakhan is currently working on a new film project titled Akhlaq El-Abeed (Slaves Morals), reported Al-Arabiya Arabic website.

The film is scripted by Essam El-Shamaa and Ali El-Gendy and will bring back the director to the silver screen after an almost 14-year long hiatus.

Badrakhan is tasked with the artistic supervision of the film, with Ayman Makram as its director.

The film stars Khaled El-Sawy, Yosra El-Lozy and Sara Salama.

Speaking to Al-Arabiya Arabic website, Badrakhan stated that Akhlaq El-Abeed is a social-political film, adding that the filming, which will take place in Thailand among other places, will begin mid-August after a long preparation phase.

Born 25 April, 1946, Badrakhan is one of Egypts most celebrated directors, with an important film repertoire comprising 15 productions, and including his first feature film Al-Hob Alazi Kan (The Love that used to be-1973), Al-Karnak (1975), Shafika Wa Metwaly (1978), Ahl El-Qema (People at the Top-1981), Al-Rai Wal Nisaa (The Shepherd and the Women-1991), and most recently El-Raghba (Desire) in 2002.

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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The ambulance carrying the body of the Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail arrives in 6th of October city for the public funeral on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen) The ambulance carrying the body of the Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail arrives in 6th of October city for the public funeral on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen)

People gather to mourn the Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail during his public funeral in Zewail city in 6th of October city on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen) People gather to mourn the Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail during his public funeral in Zewail city in 6th of October city on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen)

People walk during the public funeral of the Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail in Zewail city in 6th of October city on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen) People walk during the public funeral of the Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail in Zewail city in 6th of October city on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen)

Women mourn the Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail during his public funeral in Zewail city in 6th of October city on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen) Women mourn the Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail during his public funeral in Zewail city in 6th of October city on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen)

People walk during the public funeral of Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail in Zewail city in 6th of October city on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen) People walk during the public funeral of Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail in Zewail city in 6th of October city on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen)

The ambulance carrying the body of Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail arrives in Zewail city in 6th of October city during the public funeral on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen) The ambulance carrying the body of Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail arrives in Zewail city in 6th of October city during the public funeral on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen)

Security forces pave the way for the ambulance carrying the body of the Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail in 6th of October city during the public funeral on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen) Security forces pave the way for the ambulance carrying the body of the Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail in 6th of October city during the public funeral on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen)

The ambulance carrying the body of Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail arrives in 6th of October city during the public funeral on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen) The ambulance carrying the body of Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail arrives in 6th of October city during the public funeral on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen)

Security forces protect the ambulance carrying the body of Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail in 6th of October city during the public funeral on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen) Security forces protect the ambulance carrying the body of Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail in 6th of October city during the public funeral on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen)

People mourn the Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail in 6th of October city during the public funeral on Sunday afternoon, August 7, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen) People mourn the Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail in 6th of October city during the public funeral on Sunday afternoon, August 7, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen)

Zewail city students and advocates mourn Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail in 6th of October city during the public funeral on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen) Zewail city students and advocates mourn Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail in 6th of October city during the public funeral on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen)

Zewail Citys students mourn Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail in 6th of October city during his public funeral on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen) Zewail Citys students mourn Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail in 6th of October city during his public funeral on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen)

Women mourn the Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail in 6th of October city during the public funeral on Sunday afternoon, August 7, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen) Women mourn the Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail in 6th of October city during the public funeral on Sunday afternoon, August 7, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen)

Young people mourn Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail in Zewail city in 6th of October city during his public funeral on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen) Young people mourn Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail in Zewail city in 6th of October city during his public funeral on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen)

A woman cries during the public funeral of Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail in Zewail city in 6th of October city on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen) A woman cries during the public funeral of Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail in Zewail city in 6th of October city on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen)

Security forces protect the ambulance carrying the body of Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail in 6th of October city during the public funeral on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen) Security forces protect the ambulance carrying the body of Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail in 6th of October city during the public funeral on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen)

Security forces secure the ambulance carrying the body of Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail in 6th of October city during the public funeral on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen) Security forces secure the ambulance carrying the body of Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail in 6th of October city during the public funeral on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen)

Security forces secure the ambulance carrying the body of Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail in 6th of October city during the public funeral on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen) Security forces secure the ambulance carrying the body of Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail in 6th of October city during the public funeral on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen)

Students at Zewail city mourn Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail during his public funeral in 6th of October city on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen) Students at Zewail city mourn Egyptian scientist and Nobel prize winner Ahmed Zewail during his public funeral in 6th of October city on Sunday afternoon, 7 August, 2016. (Photo: Mai Shaheen)
More women, juveniles help drive need for more space at the jail
Libya pro-government forces backed by US air strikes said Sunday they would soon launch a final assault to retake the coastal city of Sirte from the Islamic State militant group.

"The countdown of the final stage of the military operations against Daesh has started," forces loyal to the Tripoli-based national unity government said in a statement, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

"The operation's leaders held intensive meetings to prepare for the final and decisive battles to eradicate the Daesh gang from the city of Sirte", they said in a statement.

A Sunday post on the operation's Facebook page showed a photo of men in uniform examining a map of the city, which the militant group seized in June 2015.

Fighters allied to the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) have waged a fierce weeks-long battle to retake the city some 450 kilometres (280 miles) east of Tripoli.

Pro-GNA forces launched the campaign in May and entered the city in June, but their progress slowed down as the militant hit back with sniper fire, suicide attacks and car bombings.

Since Thursday pro-government forces have sought to reach IS group headquarters at the Ouagadougou conference centre inside the town.

The United States have since Monday been carrying out air raids on IS group positions in Sirte at the GNA's request.

Six US air strikes on Saturday targeted an IS group position, killing a sniper and destroying a vehicle, pro-GNA forces said.

More than 300 people have been killed and 1,800 wounded in the operation for Sirte, according to medical sources in the city of Misrata, where the operation's command centre in based.

IS group took advantage of the chaos that followed the 2011 toppling of longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi to gain a foothold in the oil-rich North African country.

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Ejehi said a court had sentenced Amiri to death, a sentence that was upheld by Iran's Supreme Court.

The execution of Shahram Amiri was confirmed Sunday by Iran's official news agency, IRNA. "Through his connection with the United States, Amiri gave vital information about the country to the enemy," said judicial spokesman Gholamhosein Mohseni Ejehi.

Iran has executed a nuclear scientist who was convicted of giving top secret information about Tehran's controversial nuclear program to the United States.

Amiri left for Saudi Arabia in 2009 and relocated to the United States a year later. U.S. officials said they paid Amiri about $5 million to leave Iran and provide information about Iran's nuclear program.

A U.S. official said in 2010 that the U.S. received "useful information" from Amiri.

Amiri, a university researcher who worked for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, fled the United States later in 2010 without the money and was welcomed home by Iranian officials as a hero before being arrested. He told Iranian officials he was detained in the United States after being abducted in Saudi Arabia by two U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents.

Iranian officials have contended that its nuclear program was developed for nonviolent purposes. The United States says uranium particles found during an investigation last year at an Iranian military base were probably remains from Iran's secret nuclear weapons program.

Nevertheless, the United States and five other countries reached an agreement last year requiring Iran to limit its nuclear program so that nuclear weapons cannot be developed. In exchange, economic sanctions against Iran were lifted.
What's the secret to Small Favors' sell-out pizza?

Bottle Shop Mondays include options for wine carryout curated by owner Nick Detrich and his staff. However, the real star is the pizza pie.
Celebrating the spirit of Independence, Nehru Bal Sangh (NBS)has organised a week-long cultural programme to keep Delhiites enthralled with stories of Indias independence. The celebrations, which commenced on August 3, will conclude on August 10.

Read: Ahead of Independence Day, Gandhi gets a Broadway-style musical

Titled Jashn-e-Azadi, the fest has brought together dance performances, audio-visual elements and musical renditions, depicting the countrys history from 1857 to 1947. The event is powered by HT Media, and plans to bring together the youth and encourage them into building a better country.

There will be dance performances, musical renditions and audio-visual presentations at the fest.

Ashok Sahota, president of NBS, says, The event will culminate with a 90 minute programme showcasing the story of the Indian Independence struggle through a variety of acts. Talking about Indias long fight for struggle, and personalities who helped shaped modern India, Sahota says, We have take inspiration from people like Verghese Kurien, JRD Tata, Homi Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai; people who brought forth revolutions and helped build our nation. Prominent personalities, such as film director Ramesh Sippy, Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi and former chief minister of Delhi, Shiela Dikshit will be present at the event.

Through various acts, performers will showcase the story of Indias Independence struggle.

The 4th edition of the event will see participation from South Korea also as it celebrates its Independence Day along with India. Performers from South Korea, as well as local artists, will showcase a glimpse of Koreas culture through music, dance and martial arts, says Sahota. The group will organise two flash mobs on August 15 at malls in Vasant Kunj and Ghaziabad.

Read: AR Rahman to perform at UN on Indias 70th Independence Day

What: Jashn-e-Azadi

When: August 10

Where: Indoor Weightlifting Hall, Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium Complex

Timing: 6pm

Nearest Metro Station: Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium on Violet Line

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Some leaders are born lucky, some make their own luck, and others, like Russian President Vladimir Putin, have good luck thrust upon them. Putin may not have created this recent string of international good fortune, but hes an accomplished political opportunist who is no doubt looking for creative new ways to seize the day. Consider how many stories are breaking his way.

Some in the United States accuse State-backed Russian hackers of stealing communications from the Democratic National Committee and, perhaps, from Hillary Clintons presidential campaign. Ill leave the specialists to try to confirm or refute this charge, but fears that the Kremlin knows American secrets and can use them to manipulate a US presidential election must surely make Putin smile.

Read | Clinton says Russia behind DNC hacking, questions Trumps support of Putin

Its true that Republican nominee Donald Trump has threatened to undermine Nato from within and recognise Russias annexation of Crimea  and that Trumps campaign manager once worked for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, a man many Ukrainians considered Putins man in Kiev. Its also true that Putin blames then-secretary of state Clinton for inciting protests against him in Moscow in 2011. Whatever the truth about the hacking, Trump is extremely unlikely to become president. But years of suspicion that Americans have fomented political turmoil inside former Soviet republics, and sometimes in Moscow, give Putin ample reason to enjoy the anxiety produced by his suspected supporting role in this years US election.

Putins luck extends well beyond the US. Despite suspicions in the White House, the Russian president has won serious concessions from the Obama administration on joint efforts to end Syrias civil war. The US and Russian governments have long split over the future of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The Americans accuse him of war crimes and say he must go, but Russia continues to support him, in part because Assad is Moscows most reliable friend in the region and offers Russia its only port outside former Soviet territory.

Read | IS now trains guns on Russia, threatens Putin in video calling brothers to arms

In July, US secretary of state John Kerry announced a tentative agreement, without much detail, that would coordinate US-Russian military strikes on Al-Nusra Front, Saudi-backed fighters who target Assad. The US isnt dropping its call for Assad to go, but in exchange for help fighting Islamic State (IS) and pacifying Syria, the US will help Russia attack the greatest threat to Assads survival. As important, this change provides Western-recognised legitimacy to Russias military role in West Asia.

Further boosting Putin, this summers Brexit vote will probably help ease European sanctions on Russia and tensions over Putins manipulations in Ukraine. Britain has figured among the EUs strongest anti-Russian voices, and now Russia can much more credibly claim to offer Putins Eurasian Customs Union as an alternative to an EU at growing risk of eventual breakdown and fragmentation. It also helps Putin make the case at home that a European future is not an aspiration worth having.

Read | Vladimir Putin declares banned Russian athletes are victims of discrimination

Turkeys failed coup and President Recep Tayyip Erdogans subsequent crackdown on domestic enemies real and imagined also plays directly into Putins hands. Inside Turkey, thousands have been arrested, and more journalists have been jailed. Erdogan now says Turkey will restore its death penalty. European leaders warn that the crackdown will undermine Turkeys eternal bid to join the EU, but Erdogan is not deterred. Tired of western criticism and suspicious of western intentions toward his government, Erdogan has already turned toward Putin, who is glad to have a strategically crucial Nato member who needs his political and economic support.

China has reason to extend a hand toward Russia too. Angry over a recent ruling from a western court of arbitration that refuses to recognise Chinas extensive territorial claims in the South China Sea, Beijing has invited Moscow to join in joint naval exercises there. As with Turkey, there is a limit to cooperation between Russia and China. The two governments compete more often than they cooperate. But they can and will continue to offer one another cover when relations with the US and Europe go sour.

Read | Russian whistleblower Yulia Stepanova will not appeal over doping ban

Russia still has plenty of problems. Accusations of State-sanctioned doping have sidelined a significant number of its Olympic athletes. The oil price wont rebound anytime soon, a serious source of longer-term concern for Russia. The country is not modernising its economy, and its reliable international friends are few. But for now, things are going Putins way, and he will push his luck as far as he thinks it can go.

Ian Bremmer is president, Eurasia Group and author of Superpower: Three Choices for Americas Role in the World

The views expressed are personal

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DHOLKA (AHMEDABAD): Ram Parmar, a daily wager from the Dalit community, is listening to a speech at a marriage hall in central Gujarats Dholka village on Friday. He doesnt know the speaker  a lean man with a stubble and a raspy voice. Yet, he is spellbound, cheering and whistling each time there is criticism of the government for atrocities on Dalits.

In the past fortnight, Jignesh Mevani, a 35-year-old lawyer from a middle-class Dalit family in Ahmedabad, has earned numerous fans like Parmar. Mevani  who on Friday launched a 10-day march from Ahmedabad to Una  came into the limelight when he conducted a Dalit mahasabha in Ahmedabad on July 11. It was the biggest gathering for the cause of the community in Gujarat in recent history.

The trigger was a video that showed cow protection vigilantes flogging four Dalit men for skinning a dead cow in the Saurashtra regions Una town.

Mevani formed the Una Dalit Atyachar Ladai Samiti with four of his aides. The group has held meetings and protests across the country, the biggest of which was the Ahmedabad mahasabha.

He is now a rallying point for those who want the discourse on Dalit issues to be in sync with the communitys ground realities.

The Una episode caught the imagination of the country. I thought it was important to channelise that mood into something concrete, he says. As he hops villages on his padyatra, he avoids rhetoric and talks about definitives. He makes community members take a pledge to shun their traditional jobs of disposing of animal carcasses and manual scavenging, and to reach out to the government for alternative livelihood options. At the end of each speech, he asks them to spread the message on social media.

Slogans against upper castes and public reading of Dalit literature are important but I wonder how far we can go with that. This is why we at the Samiti are clear that we will have specific demands, says Mevani, reading the latest media updates of his campaign on his mobile phone.

At a halt in the outskirts of Ahmedabad, Mevani and his group ran into some Congress workers and an argument ensued. He asked them to join him, as individuals and not as party workers. This is apolitical. Period, he says.

Mevani honed his oratory and organisational skills during a stint with Jan Sangharsh Manch, a civil society group in Ahmadabad. He worked with victims of the 2002 Godhra riots and studied cases of extra-judicial killings in the state. He also took a keen interest in the issues of sanitation workers and trade union members. In 2011, he filed a PIL in the Gujarat high court claiming irregularities in land allotment to Dalits.

With the Una incident, Mevani says, he realised it was time to consolidate community members. The sheer barbarity of the crime punctured the myth that atrocities were a thing of the past.

He says he isnt surprised at the overwhelming response he has received. A majority of Dalit academics who set the agenda are not in touch with current issues affecting the community. Those who have a grasp on issues are not articulate. I bring a combination of an academic and an activist, he says.

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GHAZIABAD: The Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday threatened to launch a statewide strike after four party workers were arrested for staging a protest.

The arrests came following an order by district magistrate Nidhi Kesarwani. The accused  Mukesh Prajapati, Vijay Sharma, Shivdutt Singh and Shiv Kumar  had burnt an effigy of UP CM Akhilesh Yadav on August 3 to protest against the recent gang rape at Bulandshahr.

Senior AAP leaders visited the accused in jail on Sunday and threatened to launch a strike if they were not released.
NEW DELHI: A week after she was gang-raped by highway robbers  who also assaulted her mother  in UPs Bulandshahr district, the Ghaziabad teen has had little time to speak with counsellors who can help her deal with the trauma. Blame it on a constant stream of visitors, from politicians and media persons to family members.

The UP government has assigned two female counsellors from a Delhi-based NGO to the 13-year-old and her mother, 35, in accordance with rules that mandate counselling for rape victims, especially minors.

The two women have been visiting the victims home since Monday  when the family returned  but have not been able to do their job due to the rush of visitors, said a police official deputed at the house.

The family had come under attack while driving through the stretch on the Delhi-Kanpur highway at around 1.15am on July 30. Five to six armed men had held the family hostage for over two hours in nearby fields, tying up and beating three male members and an elderly woman and raping the mother and daughter before fleeing with cash and valuables.

The counsellors come at 9am every day and stay on till 9pm. But they hardly get any time with the survivors. Crucial time is being lost and the trauma will stay with the girl until she is properly counselled, the official said.

An activist with the NGO said the teen was constantly surrounded by politicians and relatives. The first thing a victim of rape needs is counselling. The counsellors barely manage to talk to her for an hour a day. They havent talked about the incident at all. They have built a friendship with the girl, though, and this is the only way to help her come out of the trauma. The police official said a social worker had barged into the girls room on Tuesday to offer her chocolates. There were at least 10 people with her. The mother was sleeping on the floor. The counsellors were in a separate room, waiting for their turn, he said.

After a complete circus on the first three days, the police have started keeping a register on visitors.

In UP, everyone is a politician. Even children of politicians are visiting and talking to her in an insensitive manner, said the NGO worker.

Advocate Shilpi Jain told HT this invasion of privacy also makes a mockery of the law protecting the identity of a rape victim. The law was made to protect the victim from mental agony and the torture of recalling the episode repeatedly. But the moment the media and politicians land up, everyone knows who has been raped and the locals start talking.

Jain said the family can seek legal help to keep visitors away but may not be aware of their rights.

Sources said the crowd has started to thin now and the media camp outside the house is also getting smaller.

The counsellors will be speaking with locals too. They need to be told there is no stigma attached to rape and taught how to treat the victims. This will help them lead a normal life, an NGO source said.

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NOIDA: Residents of Noida staged a candlelight protest on Saturday evening to protest against the Bulandshahr gang rape case and demand swift and strict punishment for the culprits.

Dozens of residents gathered near Noida stadium in Sector 22 with placards and banners to show their solidarity with the victims. The residents expressed anger over the rising number of rapes and crimes.

Criminals have got a free hand in this state. They no longer fear the police. There is utter lawlessness. We have assembled here to send a message to the government and to tell the victims that they are not alone, said Ashok Srivastava, a resident.

Army veteran Virender Nath Thapar said the rising number of rape cases depicted the rotting mentality of the society in general.

We have collectively failed to protect women in our country; teachers, parents, leaders, police everybody shares the guilt of developing and promoting a culture that promotes sexual violence against women, said Thapar.

Some women protesters expressed disbelief over the horrific details that had appeared after an initial probe of the Bulandshahr rape and demanded security.

We have stopped stepping outside our houses after 8pm. Incidents of violence against women have seen such a rise in the past few years, said Mamta Tiwary, a resident.

Its a shame that the government is unable to protect the mothers and daughters of this state. They have no right to rule over us, added Azra Sultana, a social activist.

Rs 10 LAKH EACH FOR VICTIMS

LUCKNOW: UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday announced an assistance of Rs 10 lakh each for the victims of Bulandshahr gang rape incident.

Yadav also said that the government was committed to bringing the accused to justice at the earliest.
NEW DELHI: From beautification of roads to removing illegal hoardings and reconstructing footpaths, the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) has chalked out a revamp plan for Vikas Marg, the lifeline of east Delhi.

Nearly 90,000 vehicles use the 5.8km Vikas Marg every day but the arterial road lacks basic facilities such as public toilets and garbage bins.

Of the total stretch, approximately 4km falls under the EDMCs jurisdiction. While we want to focus on developing the entire road, our priority is the stretch from Laxmi Nagar to Karkari More, which faces regular traffic snarls, said a senior official.

The official said the civic body planned to approach the Delhi government and the public works department (PWD) for suggestions and assistance in developing the road.

Sources said the corporation planned to tackle illegal parking, encroachment on roads, lack of footpaths and the disposal of garbage in the area urgently.

We will develop footpaths where ever necessary and maintain the existing ones with immediate effect. Also, we will develop the central verge along the route and carry out an extensive plantation drive in coordination with the PWD. To tackle illegal parking, we will hold drives with the help of the traffic police, said an official.

The corporation hopes that the drive against illegal parking will be major deterrent as the challans can go up to several thousand rupees. The municipal corporations use the weight of the vehicles to calculate the challans for illegal parking.

A three-tonne vehicle can draw a challan of up to R5,000, depending on from where it was towed.

Once the footpaths are completed, the corporation plans to construct public toilets through corporate social responsibility (CSR) and deploy garbage bins at regular intervals to ensure minimum littering.

Over the years, residential buildings on this stretch have been turned into shops and showrooms. This led to scores of vehicles being parked in the narrow service lanes next to the shops and the road, said an EDMC official.

He said while the parking on roads led to traffic snarls, multiple intersections and internal roads that merge with Vikas Marg create bottlenecks.

The corporation plans to carry an extensive drive against waste management and illegal advertisements along the road.

In the coming week, we will hold multiple drives against illegal hoardings and install signages highlighting the dos and donts, said an official.
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday lashed out at selfstyled cow protectors, saying people who have set up shop in the name of gau raksha make him very angry.

Modis remarks at a townhall-style event in New Delhi are his first on a raging controversy over attacks against Muslims and Dalits on suspicion of slaughtering cows or smuggling beef  banned in several Indian states. Cows are revered animals for Hindus.

People who have set up shop in the name of gauraksha (cow protection) make me angry, Modi said in his interaction with citizens to mark two years of MyGov, a major e-governance initiative by his government.

I have seen some people involved in anti-social activities at night and donning the garb of cow protectors in the morning. The states should prepare dossiers of such cow protectors...70-80% will be those who indulge in anti-social activities and try to hide their sins by pretending to be cow protectors, Modi said.

Few hours after the event, the Prime Minister tweeted on the issue: The sacred practice of cow worship & the compassion of Gau Seva cant be misused by some miscreants posing as Gau Rakshaks.

There is absolutely no need for anyone to take the law in his or her hands & disturb the spirit of harmony & togetherness.

Opposition parties had criticised Modi for not speaking out against such incidents and said his silence was encouraging fringe groups to take the law into their own hands.

In September last year, a 55-year-old Muslim man was lynched and his son seriously injured by a mob over allegations of cow slaughter at Bisada village in Uttar Pradeshs Dadri. The incident had sparked a nationwide debate on religious intolerance under the BJP regime.

The Congress said Modis comments lacked conviction.

The PM is angry but when will these shops be closed? Need action not just words, the partys chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said.

More cows die from eating waste plastic dumped in garbage than are slaughtered, the Prime Minister said.

People who want to do social service should first make cows stop eating plastics and waste, Modi added.

Modi spoke on a range of issues including good governance. He said blaming the Prime Minister for everything maybe good for politics or television ratings but was harmful for fixing accountability.

T he Prime Ministers rebuke came in the wake of four Dalit youths thrashing by cow protection vigilantes in Gujarat. A video of the incident that went viral on social media triggered widespread outrage and criticism and was even discussed in Parliament.

The incident in Una also triggered a wave of protests, cornering the ruling BJP in his home state. Muslims, who have been attacked by vigilantes in the past, joined Dalits in their protests in Gujarat.

Dalits form a sizeable chunk of the electorate in the poll-bound states of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, where the BJP finds itself on the back foot after the string of attacks by vigilante groups.

Soon after Modis comments, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan too said a few people are indulging in anti social activities under garb of Gau Rakshaks (sic).

Protection of cows is an integral part of our culture. A true gau rakshak will never resort to unlawful activities. This is the truth, the BJP-leader posted on Twitter.

Two Muslim women were thrashed by cow protectors in Madhya Pradesh recently on the suspicion of transporting beef. The meat was later found to be that of buffalo.
NEW DELHI: Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal has hit back at former Delhi chief secretary Omesh Saigal who had alleged that Maliwal misused her office while sending a show-cause notice to a private club where Saigal is a member.

Saigal on Thursday wrote to the L-G, saying, Maliwal abused her office, position and judicial power under the DCW Act. Acting contrary to law, she made out a false and frivolous case against me and the MC (management committee of the club) under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Work Place (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.

She also submitted a false report to the police for registration of FIR against me.

Maliwal tweeted on Saturday, Complainant is Ex Chief Secy of Del accused of molestation. His grievance: DCW helped woman register FIR against him.

Shocking data man accused of molestation is roaming free. Wonder why Delhi Police hasnt arrested him yet? (sic)

She also posted, DCW will continue to help women in distress. File more complaints. Why ACB. Let even CBI enquire. Not scared, will work for cause of women. (sic)

Delhi Commission for Women in July issued a notice to Panchshila Club after a woman member complained that the club had suspended her and her husbands membership after she complained against Saigal, who is the club president.

Saigals letter said from none of the complaints and representations made by her, the allegation of sexual harassment of any sort or any criminality was made out.
NEW DELHI: Delhi University colleges still have some seats left for students seeking admission to undergraduate courses. The university on Saturday released another list of vacant seats.

Students already registered on the undergraduate admission portal now need to again apply online and choose the course and college, wherever seats are available.

Students can apply on Monday and Tuesday after the colleges release their merit lists.

The colleges will prepare a merit list of all candidates who have applied in the college online with their names, online registration number and Best of Four for each course and display the complete list on its website and notice board, an official said.

The registered students can check the number of vacant seats on individual college websites or at the undergraduate admission portal after logging into their account.

The university said the students are advised to look at the vacant seat matrix provided on their dashboard (on undergraduate admission portal) and select the course and college based on their eligibility and the number of seats available in the course and category.

Students will be admitted on merit basis only against vacant seats. The admission process will continue to be only online as earlier.
MEERUT/GHAZIABAD: A five-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly raped by two men in Uttar Pradeshs Hapur district, police said on Saturday, days after a 35-year-old woman and her minor daughter were sexually assaulted by highway robbers in neighbouring Bulandshahr district.

The incident took place on Friday night in Khera village along national highway-24, which connects Delhi and Ghaziabad with Lucknow. The Bulandshahr rape happened on NH-91.

Doctors at the Meerut Medical College said the minor had to undergo surgery but her condition was stable.

The Hapur incident is the latest in a string of crimes against women in the state. National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data for 2014 shows 38,467 incidents of crime against women in UP. These include kidnapping and abduction, dowry deaths and cruelty by husband.

Police said the girl was sleeping with her 10-year-old sister outside her house when she was kidnapped and raped.

The family was sleeping on the courtyard, a common practice in rural areas of the country, to escape the humid conditions inside the house.

When it started raining around 1 am, they woke up. They found their daughter was missing and alert villagers. Just then we saw a man running into the dark and we chased him, said Jagpal Pradhan, the village head.

Pradhan said the girl, youngest of five siblings, was found in the bushes near her house in a sub-conscious state, bloodied and without clothes.

The villagers informed the police and took the girl to a nearby private hospital where they could not find a doctor.

We had to go to the Hapur city hospital as the nearest hospital did not have any doctor at night. For two hours, she did not get any treatment. She was then referred to the government hospital in Meerut, he said.

Angry villagers blocked the highway for over two hours on Saturday morning. It was only after district magistrate Anil Dhingra came and assured us of medical care and speedy justice, we unblocked the highway, said Pradhan.

Hapur superintendent of police Alankrita Singh said an FIR has been lodged against unknown persons under section 376 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) and SC/ST acts.

We suspect it was done by a local, a family member or a friend who knew the victim. One suspect has been detained and is being questioned. The girl is out of danger and we have spoken to her. She has given us some leads though we are not pushing her as she is in trauma, said Singh.

Singh said the father lodged the complaint but did not specify about the number of persons involved.

The girls condition is stable and she is out of danger, she said.
FARIDABAD: As part of its efforts to check corruption in government offices, the Haryana government will launch a mobile app to track corrupt officials.

The app is likely to be launched in a few days, said Sheel Madhur, Director General of Police (Vigilance) Gurgaon told HT. Once operational, anybody can lodge complaints against any officer demanding bribe. This will help nab the accused as soon as possible.

Earlier, Madhur while addressing a gathering requested the audience to make Haryana corruption free and to help catch corrupt officers red- handed.

The programme was organised to felicitate family members of the martyrs of defence personnel or terrorist victims from Faridabad and nearby areas, in which Anti-terrorist Front Chief MS Bitta was the chief guest. Sheel Madhur was the guest of honour.

Corruption has become a serious problem for the nation and people have to stand united and fight this menace together, Madhur said, adding, that once the app was introduced, it would become easier to trap corrupt government officers.

The Haryana State Vigilance Bureau has caught red handed, 15 officers and officials while taking bribes ranging from

1,500 to 32,000, recently. Whenever the DG Vigilance raised issues of corruption, the meeting hall reverberated with slogans like Bharat Mata ki Jai. 

The concept of a mobile app like this is great. Generally spies in the vigilance department leak information of raids and checks beforehand and so nothing gets done, said a resident.

Hopefully, the use of the mobile App will bring in efficiency in trapping the corrupt, the resident added.

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SRINAGAR: Almost a month after the killing of Hizbul-Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on July 8, 56 deaths in protest and 29 days of curfew, peace still remains elusive in the Valley.

On Saturday, fresh clashes between security forces and civilians led to three deaths. This comes a day after forces opened fire on protesters following Friday prayers, which left hundreds injured.

In Anantnag district, residents said scores of civilians, including women, were injured after forces fired tear gas shells and pellets to stop people from organising a rally. Local reports put the number of injured at 40 while health officials refused to divulge the numbers.

Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani accused police of resorting to pellet shelling without any provocation injuring some women as well who were hit in their private parts.

In the nearby Pulwama district, residents said that forces ransacked a tent meant to host a protest rally in Babgam and also allegedly beat the protesters.

Meanwhile, Shopian witnessed clashes between protesters and security forces.

Independent MLA Engineer Abdul Rasheed was detained after he took out a march to United Nations Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) office, demanding a plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir.

Meanwhile, opposition parties in the state urged the Centre to immediately start talks with separatists. While National Conference president Omar Abdullah deplored Narendra Modis silence, Congress leader Saifuddin Soz said the NDA government has already lost precious time in procrastination in recognising the reality in Kashmir.

Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad also wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister, informing him that the situation is turning too dangerous and demanded urgent steps to restore peace in the valley. Azad also reminded Modi of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayees doctrine of Insaaniyat, Jamhuriyat and Kashmiriyat to address the Kashmir problem.
NEW DELHI: Law enforcement agencies in Kuwait have arrested a person for allegedly funding terrorist groups and providing financial help to a youth from Maharashtra s Kalyan town to travel to Syria and join the Islamic State.

The National Investigation Agency had sent a mutual assistance request to authorities in the oil-rich nation over the transfer of $1,000 by a Kuwaiti national to Areeb Majeed  who is now in NIA custody  and his three friends while they were in Iraq in May 2014, a spokesperson for the federal anti-terror agency said.

The Kuwaiti authorities have now informed us that one Ab dull ah Hadi Abdul Rahman al-Enezi had sent $1,000 to Are eb Maje ed through Western Union money transfer, the spokesperson said. Al-Enezi has reportedly confessed that he started financing terrorist outfits on returning from Pakistan in 2013. Majeed, Shaheem Tanki, Fahad Sheikh and Aman Tandel  all from Kalyan in Thane district  had travelled to Iraq in May 2014 on the pretext of a pilgrimage but went off the radar and were later found to have joined the Islamic State in Syria.

After spending six months with the terror group, Majeed  who was injured in combat  returned to India via Turkey on November 28, 2014 and was arrested and charge-sheeted by the NIA. He is currently lodged in jail. It later emerged that his friend Tanki was killed in Syria.
NEW DELHI: God, luck and poverty are some of the reasons for the skewered sex ratio in Delhi. Not in that order, though.

And these odd reasons have been attributed by 89 private hospitals and maternity homes that were served show-cause notices by the Delhi government for recording sex ratios at birth lower than 800.

Delhi s sex ratio--the number of girls born for every thousand boys  is 898:1000, the same as the national average.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) considers 1020 boys against 1000 girls to be the natural ratio.

God and fate seem to be kinder to girls at top government hospitals in Delhi, shows data from May.

At the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), 108 girls and 91 boys were born in May, which put the sex ratio 1,186. At Safdarjung, the sex ratio was 987, at Lok Nayak hospital it was and 896 at Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital.

Indias Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act bans sex determination of an unborn child because it can used for selective abortions, which had led to Indias child sex ratio declining from 945 in 1981 to 927 in 2001 and 919 in 2011.

Sex determination is a reality in Delhi, which is why the city has a skewed sex ration. Since AIIMS is government-run, no such hanky-panky can happen. This is the reason we have a nearly equal numbers of girls and boys being born at the hospital, said Dr Alka Kriplani, head of the department of obstetrics and gynaecology at AIIMS.

Among the three hospitals that blamed skewed sex ratio on the almighty was Rashi Medical Centre in West Delhis Dwarka, with a sex ratio of 571. With a sex ratio of 789, Garg Medical Centre in Paschim Vihar said, We have no control over this, its Gods selection. UK Nursing Home from Vikas Puri, with a sex ratio of 714, stated, the birth of male/ female is purely an act of God and the nursing home has no role to play in it.

Usually, women go for delivery to the same hospitals or maternity homes where they get their ante-natal check-ups done, so it is important to keep an eye on clinics and hospitals with low sex ratios. It is, of course, possible that the hospitals are not doing sex-selective abortions, but the data still helps us to identify neighbourhoods where such practices are taking place, a Delhi government official said.

Five hospitals attributed their low sex ratio to natural processes. These included Shri Ram Singh Hospital in East Krishna Nagar (sex ratio of 500), Jain Child and Meternity Home in Shalimar Bagh (514), Tyagi Hospital in Azadpur area (517), Saroj Hospital at Madhuban Chowk (767) and Gupta Medical Centre in Paschim Vihar (731).

Explaining the natural phenomenon at play at Shri Ram Singh Heart Hospital, which also runs Ashok Nursing Home where the deliveries take place, proprietor Dr Ashok Singh said, If you ask for reasons, it could be anything from the weather, atmosphere or the lifestyle. The people in this area are very poor and perhaps the sex ratio is influenced by women eating less or working the whole day to earn their living.

We promptly report all our births to the MCD, so there is no scope for manipulation. The sex ratio at our hospital is naturally low, said Dr Singh.

Others blamed chance. Fourteen hospitals said that their low sex ratio was because of co incidence. Sart hak Medical Centre in Palam, which had a sex ratio of 550, said, We do not have any control over the birth, it is purely coincidental.

Delhi health secretary Dr Tarun Seem said it was very difficult to get a sex selective abortion in Delhi as the rules are followed strictly.

The situation is now getting better and Delhi has shown a healthy improvement in the sex ratio, Seem added.

From 2014 to 2015, Delhis sex ratio has increased by 2 points.

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NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Saturday issued a non-bailable warrant against liquor baron Vi jay Mallya in a 2012 cheque bounce case and said coercive steps were required to ensure his appearance.

Metropolitan magistrate Sumeet Anand ordered bringing Mallya in court on November 4, with the direction that the warrant be sent to him by the external affairs ministry as he is reportedly in London. The court noted that despite repeated orders, Mallya did not appear and it was inevitable forth estate machinery to ensure his presence.

The court had summoned Mallya following a complaint by Delhi International Airport Limited that operates the Indira Gandhi International Airport, claiming that a cheque for Rs 1 crore issued by Kingfisher Airlines in February 2012 was returned to them a month later with the remarks fund insufficient.
NEW DELHI: The in-line baggage screening system of Delhis Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) is under lens after a South African woman was held for smuggling 18 kg of a banned drug in June.

An investigation by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) revealed the woman smuggled it out of the Delhi airport.

The woman, a known international drug peddler, had travelled from the Delhi airport eight times in 10 months till June. Every time, she carried the drug in her check-in baggage which is checked by the airport staff. But due to lack of training, they are unable to identify such drugs.

The last time the woman came to India on June 18, 2016, on a business visa, valid up to July 21.

She has admitted to smuggling the drug into other countries from Delhi. Her claim has been verified by documents, said a NCB official.

She used to stay in Burari in north Delhi. We have traced the supplier. She cleared the security check by putting small packets of the drug in carbon paper that was placed in the check-in luggage.

The in-line baggage system managed by a private operator was unable to detect the drug during screening. Even this time, she was caught before she went for a security check.

The woman was travelling to Addis Ababa, when 15 packets wrapped in carbon paper weighing about 18 kg were detected in her luggage. The drug was found to be methaqualone (known as a party drug).

NCB officials said the suspect was on their wanted list.

When wrapped in carbon paper, any narcotic substance appears orange in colour. Metal is also of the same colour in the X-ray screening. The staff need to be trained to identify drugs, the official said.

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) that is responsible for security at the airport, said trained security personnel needed to be deployed there. Even some theft cases were reported when baggage went for screening.

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NEW DELHI: A 4 2 - ye a r- o l d woman and her brother-in-law were murdered at her rented home in Vikas Nagar near Ranhola in west Delhi on Saturday morning. The police said their faces were smashed with a blunt object.

The body of Sunita, a widow, was found on her bed. Rajesh Kumar was lying in a pool of blood on the terrace. Police say someone known to the victims could be behind the murders as there was no sign of forced entry into the house.

A murder case has been registered. The police team is investigating if the deceased had any dispute with someone in the family. The murders could have been committed in a fit of rage, said a senior investigating officer.

Sunitas younger daughter Jyoti had been living with her mother for a few weeks. Jyoti married a taxi driver in Haryana around one-and-a-half years ago but she returned due to a marital discord.

Investigators said Jyotis husband held Sunita responsible for his strained married life. His role in the double murder is being probed.

The police said Jyoti had left for her friends home before the murder. Police are questioning Jyoti and ascertaining the movements of her husband at the time of the crime.

Deependra Pathak, joint commissioner of police (southwestern), said that at about 7.15am, a tenant found Rajeshs body on the terrace.

The tenant, Sachdeva, informed the neighbours and called the police. By the time the police arrived, neighbours discovered Sunitas body in her room.

Sunita had introduced Rajesh to us as her brother-in-law, a Ha ryan a Police staff. But she recently told her neighbours that Rajesh worked with the Delhi Jal Board. Rajesh often visited the family, said Sachdeva.

The police found Rajeshs motorcycle outside the building. They learn the had come to meet Sunita on Friday evening.

Sunita is survived by her two daughters and a 15- year-old son, Sheru. He lives with his elder sister Sonia, who is married, in Haryana. Sunitas husband died around 10 years ago.

We are probing the murder from all angles. Our teams have got clues about the suspects, Pathak added.
The Delhi Police have launched a 24/7 public facilitation desk that will serve as a one-stop window for redressing public grievances.

To run in all 182 police stations across the city, the desk will work like a reception counter. It will provide quick, hassle-free services to people visiting police stations.

A team of five to six police officials are being formed at each police station to manage the public facilitation desk. Members of the team have been trained in soft skills and public interaction by professionals.

The brain child of SBK Singh, special commission of police (law and order, North), the soft launch of the public facilitation desk was done at 89 police stations in the eastern, central and northern ranges last month. Positive feedback from the public impressed Delhi Police chief Alok Kumar Verma so much that he directed all district DCPs to start a one-stop desk across all police stations.

Singh told HT that visitors will be greeted at the desk and served a glass of water by the desk in-charge.

The next step will be to politely ask the visitor the purpose of visiting the police station and address his/her grievances patiently and professionally. The idea is to make people feel that they are welcomed at police stations, he said.

Apart from addressing grievances of visitors, the public facilitation desk will also guide them on routes to reach their destination and also help them locate a particular spot, like a market, shop, or residential lanes and colonies, he said.

According to Madhur Verma, DCP (north), a person visits the police station mainly to file a complaint or FIR. The cop managing the public facilitation desk will direct the visitor to the SHO or the police officer concerned for registration of the complaint, Verma said.

The public facilitation desk will also have an intercom facility though which the desk in-charge can directly connect to IOs and other personnel at the police station. If the visitor comes and asks for any particular police staff, the desk in-charge will connect the visitor to the staff using the intercom, Verma said.

If the police staff concerned is not there, the help desk staff will note down the details of the visitor, along with his/her contact number and the purpose of the visit, in the public facilitation desk register. The desk in-charge will also prepare a written note on a self duplication slip, mentioning the visitors details. The slip will be handed over to the staff concerned once he/she is back at the police station.

The police staff receiving the slip is required to call the visitor, inquire into and resolve his/her issue, reducing the complainants visits to the station . The action taken by the police officer on the visitors grievance will then be updated in the register.

The register will be examined by the SHO, ACP and the district DCP concerned.

With this new step, visitors to police stations will never become unnoticed or unregistered, Singh said.
Police have so far failed to arrest any body in Friday nights rape case of a five-year-old minor Dalit girl in Khera village.

Police said that the girl was sleeping with her 10-year-old sister outside her house when she was kidnapped and raped on Friday. She was found dumped near a tube well, barely 100 metres from her house on Saturday morning.

Following information, the police later lodged an FIR against unidentified persons under section of rape and also under relevant provisions of the SC/ST and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act at Pilkhuwa police station.

A mob of angry villagers had also blocked NH-24 highway for over two hours on Saturday morning.

Her father is a daily wager and a poor man. On the night of the incident, there was no electricity and the family was sleeping outside their house. When the girl went missing, the entire village launched a search for her, but couldnt locate her. She was later found unconscious and in a pool of blood behind a tube well. We informed the police, but they arrived nearly one and hours after the call. We would have lynched the culprit if we would have nabbed him before that, said Raj Pal, a local resident.

Read more: Five-year-old girl raped in Hapur, villagers block NH24 in protest

The victims grandmother said that the rapist would have covered the girls mouth so that she couldnt shout for help. She was sleeping with her elder sister outside while the family was sleeping on another charpoy outside. She had just joined a nearby school a month ago, she said.

Victims father said that the police had so far picked up three persons all known to them on the basis of suspicion.

The three young men are known to us. The police should launch a hunt for people who have gone missing since the incident. The girl has shown signs of recovery but has not been able to tell us what happened or who was involved. She is just a child... he added.

Police officers said that they wouldnt be able to disclose any information about the suspects.

Our probe is on. We have identified one suspect, said Shailendra Singh Rathore, circle officer, Pilkhuwa.

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If the dictum you are what you eat holds true, then many Indians have a lot to worry about. So it comes as a positive step that the Supreme Court has taken the issue of milk adulteration seriously and asked the Centre to amend the Indian Penal Code and the Food Safety Standards Act to make this punishable with life imprisonment. The adulteration of milk with synthetic detergents, water, chalk and baking soda among other things poses a serious health hazard especially to children. A 2011 Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) study showed that 68% of fresh milk was adulterated as was 33% of packaged milk.

Read | Consider making milk adulteration punishable with life term: SC to Centre

We can only hope that this proposed increase in punishment for milk adulteration will be extended to other food items. Bottled water, tea, coffee and spices have been found to be adulterated in many studies in the past. Dangerous chemicals like metanil yellow are added to turmeric, a condiment of daily consumption for most Indians. Many popular food brands have been found to contain hormones, metals and toxins during checks -- these substances seem to find their way back into food once the attention is off. Last year, a study conducted before Diwali found that over 90% of the sweets sold were adulterated. These are frightening figures and leave people vulnerable to a host of ailments from skin allergies to digestive problems and neurological impairment.

Read | 2 out of 3 Indians drink milk laced with detergent, urea and paint

Despite the fact that the adulteration story is well known to the authorities, the FSSAI shut down two sub-regional offices in Lucknow and Chandigarh some time ago when more testing centres is the need of the hour. The centres which exist themselves do not have the right equipment to test for a host of adulterants and are in urgent need of upgrade. The FSSAI would also benefit from the expertise of scientists and technicians rather than the generalists that it relies on more. The effects of such adulteration not only threaten peoples health but the toxins enter the food chain and contaminate produce and groundwater for years on end. Certain adulterants stay on in the body long after the contaminated food has been consumed. The SC has acted in the interest of peoples health and well-being. It must now be ensured that the changes sought in the law are implemented stringently. Food adulteration in effect amounts to poisoning people in order to make profits. If this is lessened, food would become that much more palatable and safe.
Delhi University (DU) will be forced to scrap the popular evening classes at its law faculty and trim student intake by around 800 this year after an adverse report by the Bar Council of India (BCI) that regulates legal education.

The report  which was sent to the university on August 6  is expected to resolve a legal tangle and pave the way for admission counseling to begin at the law faculty after two postponements.

The matter has been approved in the academic council of the university and we have decided that we will follow the BCI rules and recommendations, said a senior university official.

The university law faculty runs three centres -- Law CentreI(LC-I), Campus Law Centre (CLC) and Law Centre II (LC-II)  and is considered one of Indias top destinations for legal education.

But it ran into controversy in 2014 when the BCI refused to enroll the law facultys students as advocates because DU had not applied for inspection and affiliation despite reminders.

The BCI said the law faculty ran without affiliation for three years between 2011 and 2014, when it gave provisional affiliation to the law faculty. It then conducted a survey and submitted a report that detailed instances of shoddy infrastructure and poor facilities at the faculty.

In its recent report, the BCI approved eight sections with 60 students each  a total of 1,440 students that is inclusive of the 49.5% quota for scheduled caste, tribe and other backward classes.

Till last year, nearly 2,200 students were granted admission in the faculty  without approval from the BCI, the report said.

The university misread section 5 along with section 2 (c) of the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act 2006 and it committed default in admitting excess students, read the report.

The BCI said it doesnt allow more than five sections but made an exemption for DU.

The report also said the university violated legal education rules by conducting classes after 7pm. The DU conducted classes from 5.30pm to 8.30pm at LC-II, which functioned out of the Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma Colleges campus in south Delhi.

The BCI advised that students already enrolled in these classes be provided special tutorials of 5.5 hours each.

It also said LC-I and LCII will function from a new building under construction and the CLC from the same premises in at DUs north campus. This ended confusion over the exercise after a student challenged in court the decision to move the centres.

To see that students who have already graduated from evening classes didnt have problem in enrolling as advocates, the BCI ordered DU to deposit R2 lakh each for a year per centre.

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Reshma Banoo Qureshi loves makeup. Her favourite beauty product is an eyeliner. The daughter of a taxi driver from Mumbai who lost one of her eyes in an acid attack applies it with precision on the eyelid that remains. She says she feels more beautiful than ever, for her perception of beauty has changed. Today I realise that beauty is not just about how we look in the mirror. Dil khoobsurat hona zyada zaruri hai. (Its more important to have a beautiful heart), says the girl sounding way wise beyond her 19 years.

Read: Reshma, an acid attack survivor to walk at New York Fashion Week

With just one month left for her to walk the ramp at New York Fashion Week, the chirpy young woman can barely contain her excitement as she talks to us on phone, sitting in her poky house in Mumbai. I have seen fashion shows only on TV and once in a five star hotel in Mumbai. I am so happy that I am going to be part of such a big show! I cant thank Allah enough, says Reshma who has been selected by New York based fashion production house FTL Moda to walk the ramp in September.

Reshma broke down as she got to know that she was going to New York. Her mentor Ria Sharma of the NGO Make Love Not Scars played a little game with her before breaking the big news. Ria didi showed me pictures of a beautiful city on her laptop. She asked me which place it was, and I said America. Thats when she told me that I am going there. I could not believe it. My tears just didnt stop, she says.

Reshma at a shoot in Mumbai. The young girl who was contemplating suicide two years ago now loves dressing up, putting on makeup and facing the camera.

Two years ago, Reshmas brother-in-law disfigured her face with acid , just after a few months after the teenager had given herself a beauty makeover. There was a wedding in the family. I had got my hair straightened and bought new makeup. I was looking very pretty. I was so happy, recalls Reshma who had never heard of acid attacks or seen any acid attack victim until tragedy struck.

The incident took place at the railway station in her hometown, Mau Aima, 36 km away from Allahabad. I was there to appear for my 10th standard exam. My brother-in-law came with a few friends and threw a strange liquid on my sisters hand. She screamed in pain and asked me to run. Before I could escape, two of his friends grabbed me by my hair, pushed me to the ground, tore my burqa and poured acid on my face.

Reshma before the acid attack.

Reshmas brother-in-law, who is in jail now, had been torturing her elder sister Gulshan for dowry for a long time. Fed up, she separated from him and filed for divorce. Eight months before the acid attack, Reshmas brother-in-law kidnapped his own child.

The day their child was to be brought to the court where he was to express his desire whether he wanted to live with his mother, the man decided to take revenge. He did this to hurt my sister and my family. I am the youngest among my siblings. He knew that I was pampered by everyone. He knew that hurting me would shatter the family, she says.

The family believes that the child has been hidden somewhere by the father. Two of his accomplice are also on the run.

Reshma can never forget the pain that the corrosive liquid caused as it melted her face. I didnt know what was happening to me. All I knew was unbearable pain. I thought I was going to die. My sister and I were crying loudly but no one came to help us. The station was crowded. But people just stood and watched, she recalls.

A kind stranger dropped the sisters home on his bike. I dont know who that guy was. As I held on to him tightly on the bike, he too got burnt injuries due to the acid that has been poured on me.

Reshma takes a selfie.

Reshmas mother fainted when she saw her youngest childs disfigured face. The local doctor asked the family to rush her to a big hospital. But Reshma could get medical attention only after seven hours. I was writhing in pain. I was taken to the local police post, where the cops took a long time in taking my statement. We then went to a government hospital in Allahabad. The police again wanted to record my statement there. A kind doctor asked the cops to do it later, as I was passing out. Reshmas face had badly swollen up by then, and she has lost her left eye. Those were the worst days that come back to me as nightmare. I could not sleep for several nights, as there was no way I could shut my eyes. My eyelids were tightly stretched and the pain was killing me. My condition was worsening.

Reshmas brother and father borrowed money from friends and relatives to get her shifted to a private hospital in Allahabad where she was hospitalised for two months. One of her eyelids was surgically removed in the hospital, as it had melted beyond repair. The family somehow managed to pay around 7 lacs in those two months for her treatment, even as they kept waiting for compensation from the government which they never received.

Unhappy with the treatment in Allahabad despite spending a huge sum of money, they brought Reshma to Mumbai, where she underwent treatment in a municipal hospital. She had to undergo a series of surgery and it was becoming impossible for the family to bear the medical expenditure. She had sunk into severe depression by then.

Read: Lifestyle tips and more

I was almost dead. I had become ill-tempered. I hated all human presence around me. I attempted to kill myself several times. I couldnt bear to see myself in the mirror. Aisa mere saath kyun hua Allah? (why did it happen to me God?), this questioned was tormenting me, says Reshma. Her parents would be up all night to see that she doesnt cause any harm to herself.

Thats when Reshma met Ria Sharma from the NGO Make Love Not Scars, who launched a crowd funding campaign to help Reshma meet her hospital and legal expenditure. Sharma also built up a close bond with her and helped her regain her courage. I had never heard of acid attack until it happened to me. Ria showed me pictures of other acid attack victims whose lives were in a much worse condition than mine. Thats when I decided to fight and do my bit to for them. Ria said life is too beautiful to quit, and my heart believed her.

Ria also made Reshma the face of her viral campaign #End AcidSale, which gave her a new lease of life. I used to keep my face covered all the time after the attack. Log bas ghoorte rehte they (people used to stare at me all the time). But Ria helped me realise that its the attacker who should be ashamed, not me. I have nothing to feel ashamed of, nothing to hide.

One day, Reshma wants to be like her mentor. I want to be like Ria. I want to work for acid attack survivors and tell them that they should never give up on life. Its tough but they can do it. They too can find true happiness. Doosron ke liye kuch karne se sachchi khushi milti hai (you get true happiness when you do something for others), she says.

Its her ability to put aside her own misery and think of others that keeps Reshma going, says Ria. Reshma is one of those human being who prioritise others. Their intense desire to do something for others gives them strength. It was not easy to bring her out of her shell as the trauma that she suffered at a tender age was devastating. There are phases when she is very low. Whenever she feels like she will give up, I remind her that she has to fight for so many other girls, and she springs back, says Ria who is busy arranging for Reshmas passport and other documents for her first travel outside the country.

Reshma also wants death penalty for acid attackers. They commit the most heinous crime. They cause pain which cant be described in words. The reason why they dont fear is because they are let off easily. Unki sirf ek hi saza honi chahiye  phaansi. (They deserve just one punishment  hanging), she says.

This is the end that she wants for her brother-in-law too, who has been asking for forgiveness. But the man is least repentant, she says. He had kidnapped Gulshans son and now he is blackmailing us. He says that he will return the child to her only on the condition that we withdraw the case, says Reshma who desperately wants to meet her nephew.

Reshmas sister Gulshan is determined to support her sister in her fight to seek justice. Its not easy for a mother to live without her child. Its been years since I have seen his face, but I dont want him back on the condition of forgiving that man who destroyed my kid sisters life, says Gulshan.

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Congress president Sonia Gandhi was brought to Delhi on chartered flight from Varanasi when her fever took a turn for the worse on Tuesday because she couldnt get an air ambulance on call.

Medical evacuations (med-evacs) are not just in short supply but even those that offer services cant move patients at night because most airports do not have the facilities to land at night.

Arguably Indias most advanced med-evac systems, Medantas Flying Doctors India cannot operate at night from smaller cities. Though we can fly at any time, we end up transporting patients during the day as lifting patients from smaller airports at night is not feasible, said Dr Yatin Mehta, chairman, institute of critical care & anaesthesiology, Medanta-The Medicity.

On an average, Medanta does two of Delhis three-four medical evacuations in a day, though the requirement is for at least double the number given the high number of super-speciality hospitals in and around Delhi.

Delhi has six private operators that provide chartered flights for medical emergencies, and each operator gets between 10-15 med-evac queries a day.

Not all queries get converted as there are several factors involved, such as the availability of an airstrip for landing near the place from where the call is made, availability of aircraft and cost of transport, said Dr Jagdish Kumar Gupta, operations head of the Delhi-based Aeromed International Rescue Services Pvt. Ltd.

Aeromed does 30-35 med-evacs in a month. From Delhi most commonly flown destinations are Patna in Bihar, Lucknow and Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Guwahati in Assam and Siliguri in West Bengal.

In Mumbai, air ambulance operators get at least one query a day, but less than half get converted into bookings owing to multiple factors that include shortage or unavailability of aircraft.

Among the top 10 populous cities in the world, Mumbai does not have more than three tailor-made aircraft to fly critically ill people.

Of the three aircraft available on paper, not all are available at a time. One could be grounded for maintenance while the other two could be booked, said Captain Amit Kumar, director of Innovation Aviation Pvt Ltd which operates a Beech King Air C-90A aircraft as an air ambulance.

JetSetGo, another operator said that they are unable to cater 20% of the queries owing to these factors.

We lack infrastructure to support air ambulances. That said, India is still far ahead of many others, said Kanika Tekriwal, chief executive officer and co-founder of JetSetGo.

These chartered aeroplanes are converted into air-ambulances that are fitted with portable life-support, which is not only expensive but also a waste of time.

Having a dedicated air ambulance does away with preparation time, we can get permits and take off within an hour of getting a call. However, what we do is hugely insufficient as Delhi-NCR caters to all of north India and neighbouring countries, says Medantas Dr Mehta.

Current charges are between Rs 65,000 and Rs 70,000 per hour of flying time that can come down by 20% depdnding on how busy the airport is.

Smaller airstrips such as Juhu are unfit for night operations and operation costs at bigger metro airports such as the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport are almost double. For instance, a round trip from Mumbai to Nagpur to fly a patient could cost around Rs. 3.5 lakh, says Captain Amit Kumar.

Patna does not have a base for air ambulance, med-evacs are booked through local hospitals, which arrange services usually from Delhi.

In Patna, it usually takes six hours after the call is placed for the med-evac to happen. Full payment has to be made in advance. The Delhi-Patna-Delhi charge varies between Rs 3.25 and Rs 4 lakh, depending on the category (single or twin engine) of aircraft.

About 100 medical charters were reported at Patna airport over the last one year, says Patna airport director, Rajender Singh Lahauria.

Though air ambulances frequently ferry patients in and out of Indore in Madhya Pradesh, there evacs happen at night. Indore airport director, Manoj Chansoria, says, Chartered medical flights are frequently allowed during airport operational hours but the airport is non-operational between midnight and 6 am.

(With inputs from Ruchir Kumar in Patna)
Kokrajhar

Police believe the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songbijit) militant group, reduced to 10-12 men operating from adjoining Bhutan, had sent a lone gunman to strike at soft targets for reviving its extortion industry.

The outfit, however, denied its hand in Fridays killing of 14 people at a weekly market near Kokrajhar, the headquarters of a tribal council, 236km west of Guwahati.

The gunman, identified as Mwdwn alias Manjay Islary, went on a shooting spree for more than 30 minutes. Security forces felled him after he killed 14 people of different ethnicities, including the ethnic Bodos, in the council that has had a history of communal clashes.

Read: Assam: Suspected Bodo militants fire at Kokrajhar market, 13 killed

NDFB(S)s denial is typical of extremist groups when they end up killing people of their own community, director general of police Mukesh Sahay told Hindustan Times.

The outfit, led by Ingti Kathar Songbijit  not a Bodo, but a Karbi tribal  wants to cleanse the areas inhabited by Bodos of non-Bodos. The group seeks secession of Bodo-inhabited areas, which it feels is a better deal than the autonomous Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) that its disbanded rival, Bodoland Liberation Tigers (BLT), got.

Inspector general of police LR Bishnoi said Songbijit  believed to be in Myanmar with the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang)  ceases to be in control.

The group is being commanded by G Bidai and Batha, who are operating from Bhutan and have at most 10 men.

The NDFB(S)s desperation stems from reverses it suffered since massacring 78 Adivsais in December 2014, Sahay said. Police data say 40 members of the group were killed, and more than 300 arrested till this month.

Read: The killer kept chasing and shooting us: Kokrajhar survivors recall the horror

This could be a revenge killing, possibly timed with August 15, around which extremists tend to step up their activities. But it appears they are choosing soft targets to strike fear for extortion because the rebels are running short of money, Sahay said.

The outfit, also running out of support, has been targeting impressionable minors to train for random terror strikes. Our men have so far prevented the outfits agents from smuggling 100 teenagers, many of them girls aged 16-17 years, in the past few months, Sahay said.

Four teenagers were rescued from Chirang district this month, from a spot between Fridays massacre spot and Bhutan border 45km away.
The manager of a private school in Allahabad was held late on Sunday after some teachers complained that he banned the singing of national anthem in the morning assembly, officials said.

The principal and eight teachers of the school have quit to protest against the alleged ban imposed by manager Zia-ul Haq on the singing of the national anthem. His instructions were verbal.

Authorities said a probe was launched against MA Convent School in Sadiyabad locality. The institute, which is not recognised by the education department, will be sealed on Monday, a senior official said.

NDTV quoted an education official as saying that the school was asked to stop operations a week ago. Its manager, Zia-Ul Haq, has been arrested for running the school without a proper affiliation and also charged under Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, media reports said.

Even Supreme Court has said that a person is free to not sing the national anthem if any part of the anthem is against his or her religion, NDTV quoted Haq as saying.

Additional SP (city) Rajesh Yadav said: The complainants (education department officials) had alleged that the school manager, by his refusal to allow (the) singing of the national anthem and statements issued before the media defending his action, has caused breach of peace and tension in the area.

We have taken him into custody and further action will follow.

Chief development officer and officiating district magistrate Andra Vamsi said the decision to lodge an FIR against Haq was taken on the basis of the proof collected against him.

Vamsi said after the school is sealed, its 300-odd students will be shifted to other institutes within two days.

Haq had told teachers that singing of the national anthem could not be allowed as the phrase Bharat Bhagya Vidhata went against the tenets of Islam, the teachers who resigned two days ago alleged.

Most of us have been working here for not a very long time. We were shocked to learn from the management that the school has never allowed the singing of national anthem in the last 12 years.

Since we had been asked to fall in line or leave, we chose a decision based on our conscience, Ritu Tripathi, who was the principal, said.

The right-wing Vishwa Hindu Parishad and residents staged a protest outside the school on Sunday evening.

(With agency inputs)
The principal and eight teachers of a school in Allahabad have decided not to report for duty from Saturday in protest against a ban by the school manager on singing the national anthem and national song in the morning assembly.

The manager allegedly also banned patriotic slogans like Bharat Mata Ki Jai. His instructions were verbal.

Principal Ritu Shukla told Hindustan Times over phone on Friday night that she and eight other teachers told the manager that they would not be coming to school from Saturday because of the ban.

Neither Shukla nor any of the other eight teachers put their protest in writing.

If we do not teach our children our national anthem and national song or other patriotic songs, what are we giving them? I have been serving the institution as a principal for past one year and have not been able to adjust with what the school manager has instructed. Not allowing singing of national anthem or national song is unjust,, she said.

The school, M A Convent, is a private institution with classes from nursery to eighth. The school has around 330 students.

Zia-ul-Haq, the manager of the school acknowledged that the principal and eight teachers had told him that they would not come to school from Saturday but refused to share the exact reason for their decision.

I do not want to discuss such things over phone. It is a sensitive issue and I will discuss it only face to face, he said.

District magistrate Sanjay Kumar said he would get the matter probed.

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Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal will visit Kokrajhar on Sunday to take stock of the situation arising out of Fridays terror attack which claimed 13 lives.

Sonowal on Saturday visited the Gauhati Medical College Hospital to meet the injured victims after returning from New Delhi on Friday evening.

Sonowal briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Rajnath Singh about the situation.

The CM, who was in Delhi when the attack took place, met the Prime Minister and apprised him about the incident at Balajan Tiniali market in Kokrajhar district and the steps taken to nab those involved in it.

Rajnath Singh assured full Central assistance to the state government.

Read: The killer kept chasing and shooting us: Kokrajhar survivors recall the horror

Sonowal cut short his visit to the national capital and returned to Assam on Friday evening after the terror attack and instructed state police to arrest those involved the in it.

He announced an ex-gratia amount of Rs 5 lakh to the families of the deceased, Rs 1 lakh to those seriously injured and free treatment to the other injured.

Meanwhile, the Assam police have arrested the driver of the auto used by militants to reach Balajan Tiniali market.

Additional DGP LR Bishnoi said that three to four militants carried out the Fridays attack.

He said while one militant was gunned down by security forces, efforts are on to nab the remaining attackers.

He said three additional companies of Army arrived in Kokrajhar following the incident.

Read: Kokrajhar attack: Militants signal to new Assam govt that they cant be ignored

Health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that preliminary investigations point towards the involvement of Songbijit faction of NDFB militants in the attack.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has sent a team to the site of the incident to collect evidence.

The Centre is closely monitoring the situation arising out of the Kokrajhar attack.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke out on Sunday against mounting atrocities on Dalits across India, condemning caste discrimination and lashing out at self-styled cow protectors accused of targeting Muslims and the scheduled castes.

At an event in Hyderabad, Modi described attacks on Dalits as blot on humanity but said such assaults were being exploited by some leaders for political gains.

If you want to attack Dalits, attack me first. If you want to fire at Dalits, fire the first bullet at me. But the nation will not forgive us if attacks on Dalits continue like this, Modi told a massive gathering of BJP workers.

Modis comments come roughly a month after four Dalit men skinning a dead cow were flogged by alleged cow protectors in Gujarat.

A video of the incident went viral, triggering massive protests and hurting the BJPs chances in assembly polls next year in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Gujarat  where the sizeable Dalit community may vote against the party.

Opposition parties have repeatedly alleged that Modis silence on the mushrooming cow protection vigilantes and Dalit atrocities encourage fringe groups to take the law into their own hands.

Earlier on Sunday, Modi urged people at a separate event to be alert against fake cow protection vigilantes. He said fake cow protectors should be exposed and punished, asking state governments to take action against such elements.

Read: At town hall event, PM Modi says self-styled cow protectors make him angry

These so-called gau rakshaks (cow protectors) have nothing do with cow protection. All they want is to create tension in (the) society, the Prime Minister said. This was the second time in 24 hours that had lashed out at self-styled cow protectors.

Dalits form almost a fifth of Indias population and have traditionally stayed away from the BJP, which is seen as a party of dominant castes. But in the past two years, the saffron party has repeatedly attempted to reach out to the scheduled caste community with funds, programmes and induction of Dalit ministers in the cabinet.

The outreach plan, however, hit rough weather in January when PhD student Rohith Vemula committed suicide at the University of Hyderabad after alleged caste discrimination. The death sparked nationwide protests and allegations that the BJP was anti-Dalit.

But in Hyderabad, Modi defended his governments record of Dalit empowerment, saying the issue was being politicised to malign the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) administration.

We are ensuring all central schemes reach every Dalit family. The Opposition fears that if it happens, the NDA will remain in power for another 50 years, he said.

He also regretted Indias centuries-old caste system, saying it was unfortunate that untouchability was still prevailing at a time India was advocating the concept of treating the world as one family. Dalits had been subject to discrimination for ages. This has to go and we have to protect their rights, he said.

He recalled that during his visit to the United Nations, he mentioned the services of not only Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi, but also Dalit icon BR Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian Constitution.

The NDA government, along with the Maharashtra government bought Ambedkars residence in London. We have constructed Ambedkar memorial in Mumbai. When we celebrated Ambedkar birthday as the national festival, the Opposition parties were shaken, he said.

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The curfew and separatist-called shutdown in Kashmir entered its thirtieth day on Sunday with the Valley remaining tense a day after at least 70 people were injured, one of them critically, in clashes with security forces.

More than 56 people have died and at least 5,000 injured in month-long unrest following the July 8 encounter death of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in south Kashmir.

As reports of clashes came in from several parts of the Valley, protests erupted on Saturday in Wagoora area of Sopore in Baramulla district during the funeral of Danish Rasool, who was killed in firing a day earlier.

Protesters torched an abandoned police post and threw stones at security men who fired tear gas shells, reports said.

With five civilians dead, the week has been turbulent, pushing the region back on the edge just when it was limping back to normalcy.

On Friday, three civilians were killed and more than 300 injured in clashes with security forces. Earlier last week, a 21-year-old ATM guard in Srinagar was found dead with more than 350 pellets lodged in his body. Another person was killed when the security guard of an officer opened fire on protesters in Lethpora area of Pulwama.

The separatists have intensified their protests, extending the shutdown to August 12. The strike would have to be observed sundown as well on every second day, said the separatists, who had allowed businesses to open after 6pm. The shutdown has been on since July 9.

The separatists also asked people to assemble and occupy local chowks and centres from Asar to Magrib (afternoon to evening).

They have called on the locals to lay siege to civil secretariat and other offices in Srinagar on Monday and not allow employees to get to work. The plan, said sources, could lead to a law and order situation in Srinagar.

The protest calendar also spelt out schedule for demonstrations by women and playing of Islamic and pro-independence songs in mosques.

People have been asked to carry out a cleanliness drive on Sunday.

The army on Saturday foiled an infiltration bid near the line of control in Naugam sector in north Kashmir, killing a militant.

Arms and ammunition were seized from the encounter site.

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Expelled Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Dayashankar Singh on Sunday challenged Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati to contest election against his wife Swati Singh from any general seat in the upcoming assembly polls in 2017. He said his wife was ready to contest against her as an independent candidate.

He was released from jail on Sunday, a day after a local court in Mau granted him bail.

Singh was arrested for his derogatory remarks against Mayawati comparing her with a prostitute in Mau on July 19 after his elevation as UP BJP state vice president. His remarks forced the BJP leadership to sack him from the party while the BSP registered an FIR against him.

Later, BSP leaders and supporters had allegedly raised derogatory slogans against Dayashankars wife, mother and minor daughter during a protest in Lucknow on July 21. Singhs mother Tetra Devi had lodged a complaint against Mayawati, Naseemuddin Siddiqui and other BSP leaders and supporters at the Hazratganj police station.

Taking Mayawati head on, Dayashankar, who is out on bail, also demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into allegations that the BSP chief sold party tickets. He said these allegations were not made by him alone as many rebel BSP leaders had made similar allegations. I am facing police enquiry and even went to jail but I still stand by my allegations that Mayawati was selling party tickets, he emphasised.

He also demanded a high level probe into the assets of the BSP top leaders.

Singh was speaking at a press conference here in the state capital after getting released from Mau district jail on Sunday morning. He was arrested from Buxar in Bihar on July 29 after remaining elusive for over a week and stayed in jail for nine days. His wife Swati Singh was present at the press conference.

Swati had gained support from general public, social organizations and senior leaders across the party line, so we are not talking about any particular party, he said while answering queries on Swati contesting on BJP ticket in the assembly polls. He said even though the BJP had expelled him he was still with the party.

Read more | Why BJP was quick to show the door to Dayashankar Singh
Union home minister Rajnath Singh said on Saturday that the Centre has introduced the Indian Citizenship Amendment Bill in Parliament to give citizenship to religious minorities migrating to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan due to religious persecution.

The minister was speaking at a seminar on Right to freedom of speech in Indian Constitution in context to internal security, organised in Lucknow by the Adhivakta Parishad, Uttar Pradesh.

Partition of India on the basis of religion was the most unfortunate incident in Indias history, he said.

Expressing concern at the persecution of religion minorities in the three countries, Singh said: The situation is really bad for religious minorities in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Thats why they were coming to India.

On the steps being taken by the Centre for such migrants, Singh said, I have legalised stay in India for such people even after expiry of their visas.

Singh also told the seminar about the governments plan to make available justice for poor at very low cost.

The government has decided to bring the comprehensive national litigation policy to ensure poor and needy get justice easily and that, too, at low cost, he said.

Concerned over prisoners languishing in jail countrywide for want of legal aid, Singh said: At present more than four lakh prisoners are languishing behind bars across the country. And out of this, about two-thirds of them are undertrials. I have issued directives to all state governments to release such undertrials who have completed more than half of the time of a sentence if they had been convicted.

Former justice of Supreme Court and chairman of Law Commission BS Chauhan, senior judge of Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court justice AP Shahi and patron of Adhivakta Parishad Lal Bahadur Singh also expressed their views on the occasion.
Eminent Urdu poet Munawwar Rana has said the headless minister who called Hindus hijra kaum (eunuch community) must be jailed for his derogatory remarks.

Rana, who had returned his Sahitya Akademi award with Rs 1 lakh cash prize, was talking to media after attending a poetry recital session here on Saturday evening.

Rana said the remark by one insane minister from Bihar that Hinduon jaisa koi hijra kaum dusra nahin hai is absolutely intolerable as they sowed the seed of hatred in the country.

Talking about intolerance, he said when governments start playing politics with the society, the situation gets worse.

In a video that has gone viral on social media, Union minister of state for micro, small and medium enterprises Giriraj Singh is purportedly seen making the remark while criticising raising of anti-India slogans in Kashmir.
The month-long unrest in Kashmir after the killing of a militant commander figured at the conclave of India Foundation, a pro-BJP think-tank, at Patnitop on Sunday, though the party denied having the issue on the agenda.

The BJP national general secretary, Ram Madhav, tweeted that Kashmir was not discussed during the two-day meet which concluded on Sunday.

No kite flying, posted Madhav on Twitter. Young Thinkers Meet held at Patnitop is an annual event. Nothing to do with Kashmir issue except the venue is the state.

Jammu and Kashmir BJP president Sat Sharma, although he was not at the conclave, said as much.

Its not an official BJP meeting. Its a meet for young people. Yes, some leaders are attending, but there is nothing official about it, he said.

Read: Posters warn Kashmiri Pandits to leave valley or face death

But a source claimed that delegates discussed an array of issues confronting the country, and the Kashmir situation also figured. Details, however, were not known.

Madhav apparently briefed the participants about steps being taken by the PDP-BJP government to restore peace in the Valley, which has been on the boil since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen leader Burhan Wani.

The BJP conclave at Patnitop, a tourist destination 112km from Jammu, gave wind to reports that the Narendra Modi government was exploring contours of a new Kashmir outreach programme as the unrest in the Valley showed no signs of abating.

The meeting attended by senior leaders, including Union minister MJ Akbar and members of the RSS, the BJPs ideological mentor, further fueled speculation of an unofficial Track Two initiative for Kashmir.

The Opposition and social groups had criticized the Centre and the state government for its silence on the stir in which at least 57 people have lost their lives and more than 3,000 were wounded.

Read: One month on, Kashmir remains caught between curfew and shutdown

Chief minister Mehbooba Muftis Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said it was unaware of any outreach programme that its coalition partner may have conceived. Party spokesman Nayeem Akhtar reaffirmed the stated line that a dialogue is essential.

Dialogue is sacred. PDP has been born out of the idea of dialogue. We have been saying from the beginning that a dialogue with all the stakeholders is essential, Akhtar said.

Separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, from the moderate Hurriyat faction, accused the central government of being insensitive towards Kashmir.

We are at the receiving end, the killings are happening. The government is anti-people, they are not doing anything. There have not reigned in the security forces, there is no ban on pellets, no inquiry has been initiated, he said.
Two more bodies were found in the search and rescue operations on the fourth day since the collapse of a bridge on Mumbai-Goa highway near Mahad in Raigad district, taking the death toll to 26.

During the course of rescue operatwions, officials have managed to recover two more bodies taking the death toll to 26. All the deceased have been identified, state disaster management cell director Suhas Diwase told PTI.

While initially 42 people were feared missing, the authorities have no information and clarity yet on a Honda City car reportedly carrying four persons which is suspected to have also fallen in the river.

Only once we know for sure that a Honda City car with four people went missing, we will be able to say 42 people are missing. For now, the number of missing people stands at 38, he said.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Coast Guard officials have so far been able to locate only a signboard of one of the missing state transport buses bearing the word reserved on it.

Various techniques, including electronic sensors, fish finders (sonar devices), and massive magnets are being used to trace the metal bodies in the water.

The swollen Savitri river washed away a 100-year-old bridge at Mahad, about 170 km south of Mumbai, on Tuesday night, taking with it two buses and at least one SUV.

The river, which turned into a torrent due to heavy downpour in its catchment area in Mahabaleshwar, weakened the foundations of the bridge, which ultimately gave way on Tuesday night.

Stepping up rescue efforts, divers have been deployed in areas where currents are not strong.

An NDRF commandant said his team has extended the area of search operations up to 40 km from the accident spot, with fishing nets installed across the bridges over the river.

The Raigad, Ratnagiri and state highway police too have joined the operation to find the missing people belonging to various parts of Maharashtra.

Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had earlier said the government will give Rs five lakh to the kin of the deceased. The government has already announced that the kin of the deceased staff members of the two state-run buses would either be given job or compensation of Rs 10 lakh each.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi lashed out at self-styled cow protectors for the second time in two days on Sunday, condemning fake vigilantes who he indicated wanted tension in the name of cow protection.

The Prime Minister said people should be beware of fake cow protectors and asked state governments to take action against such elements. Modi was speaking at a public meeting at Gajwel in Telanganas Medak district after inaugurating the states drinking water programme Mission Bhagiratha.

Some people want tanaav (tension) in the society in the name of cow protection, he said.

Modi said Indian is a county full of diversities, different values and traditions and protecting its unity and integrity is our prime responsibility.

The fake gau rakshakhs have nothing to do with cows. They want to create tension in society, he said.

Read: At town hall event, PM Modi says self-styled cow protectors make him angry

The PM said he salutes real gau rakshaks and gau sevaks, and appealed to them to come forward to expose fake gau rakshaks.

I appeal to you to come forward lest the good work being done by you is destroyed by a handful of people for their selfish interests.

The strong remarks came less than 24 hours after the Prime Minister broke his silence over a raging controversy over a string of attacks against Muslims and Dalits across India on the suspicion of slaughtering cows or eating beef.

People who set up shop in the name of gau raksha (cow protection) make me angry, Modi said at a Delhi event on Saturday.

Nationwide protests over the flogging of four Dalit men skinning a dead cow by alleged cow protection vigilantes in Gujarat last month sparked massive demonstrations.

Experts say the BJPs chances in poll-bound states such as Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh are likely to be adversely affected by the controversy with the sizeable Dalit population turning its back on the saffron party.
Taking a dig at the BJP for unfulfilled promises, veteran Congress leader Sheila Dikshit on Sunday said she and her party alone could ensure all-round development in Uttar Pradesh.

In Unnao to address Congress Seva Dal workers at Bal Vidyalay, Dikshit asked them to spread the message of development the party envisaged for the state and seek support from all classes as Uttar Pradesh gears up for its assembly elections early next year.

Confident of a positive outcome, Dikshit, who is also the Congress chief ministerial candidate, said she faced no challenge from any political competitor.

The state is in a pitiable condition. Law and order is bad and no development work has been carried out by the non-Congress governments in the last 27 years, she claimed, adding she would form the government when the state goes to vote in 2017.

The Prime Minister has no time to think for the country as he is busy with his foreign tours. The BJP and its leaders believe in befooling the people. They only make false promises that are never fulfilled... When I took over as the chief minister of Delhi, its condition was as vulnerable as it is in UP today. But I managed to ensure development in Delhi. The same process will be repeated in UP.

Senior Congress leader Sanjay Singh said that the appetite of the elephant was insatiable and the cycle was punctured, referring to the Bahujan Samaj Party and the ruling Samajwadi Party.

Claiming that the Congress would restore UPs past glory, Singh said the partys single-point agenda was development in every field that had been neglected due to corruption, poor law and order and lack of political and social vision.

Accompanied by party leaders Anu Tandon and RC Bajpai, Dikshit was in Unnao for two-and-a-half hours before she left for the state capital.
A group of Bajrang Dal members beat a 15-year-old Muslim boy unconscious accusing him of trying to elope with a Dalit girl in Raisens Salamatpur on Saturday, leading to communal tension in the area.

Following the assault, the police booked the boy under sections for sexual assault and Dalit atrocities before any of his assailants were booked.

The teenager denied that he was trying to elope with the girl and said that he was merely talking to her at the bus stand where he was beaten up. According to witnesses, the attack on him continued in the presence of policemen. He eventually fell unconscious and was taken to a police station by the attackers.

Weve lodged a case of assault, obscenity, criminal intimidation and crime with common intent against three Bajrang Dal activists, including Gopal Rathore, Anup Agrawal and Sanjiv Shejwar. Were making attempts to track them down, said Salamatpur police station in-charge MP Yadav.

The boy was eventually sent to a juvenile reform centre in Bhopal.

Following the teenagers detention, there was tension in Salamatpur area prompting the police to deploy in strength.
The RSS and its hardline affiliate, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Sunday concurred with Prime Minister Narendra Modis message for so-called Gau Rakshaks or cow vigilantes.

Modi on Saturday lashed out against so-called Gau Rakshaks and accused them of using cow protection to cloak their anti-social activities.

RSS general secretary Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi said Mahatma Gandhi, Vinoba Bhave and Madan Mohan Malviya are examples of Gau Sevaks in a statement. He said at a time when the world is discovering the merits of organic fertilisers, cow protection acquires more significance.

Joshi urged people to expose the anti-social elements spreading violence and trying to disturb social harmony in the name of cow-protection.

He asked people not to link such condemnable efforts of a few opportunists with those truly serving and protecting cows.

Even as it echoed the PMs views on vigilantes, the VHP said the statement is not for bonafide cow protection groups such as theirs, but for those who carry out anti-social activities in the name of the bovine.

What he (PM) has said is not for us. We have been in this (cow protection) since the time Modi was not even in the BJP. So, this vigilantism charge does not apply to us, but those unlawful organisations that have set up shop to carry out their illegal activities, Hukum Singh Savla, a VHP functionary, in charge of its Gau Raksha cell told HT.

A fringe outfit, Hindu Mahasabha, launched a vitriolic attack on the PM.

Modi has turned out to be a carbon copy of the Congress... He has gone back on everything he assured, from Ram Temple to abrogating Article 370 and is now turning his back to cows, he is misleading us, Ashok Sharma, national vice-president of the Mahasabha said. Sharma went on to declare that the outfit would conduct a yagna (special prayer) at its Meerut office to help the PM regain his senses.

The VHP has been in the forefront of cow protection movement in the country, seeking a complete ban on cow slaughter, beef consumption.

The outfit which has been accused of leading the cow vigilantism campaigns and also orchestrating Ghar wapsi (reconversion of Muslims and Christians to Hinduism) has distanced itself from the attacks on Dalits.
The National Population Register (NPR) is as good as dead, and the Rs 4,800 crore invested in the project might just go down the drain.

The Centre has made it clear that the home ministry-run population register should not expect the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to give it the biometric data of millions of people, collected for the purpose of obtaining the 12-digit Aadhaar number. Without it, the NPR database  once touted as a way to prevent Bangladeshi migrants from settling in  becomes a mere list of names with some demographic details of Indian residents thrown in.

The UIDAI  which collects photographs, iris scans and fingerprints from citizens  uses the biometric data to identify duplicates. It has generated 1.04 billion Aadhaar numbers, and plans to cover the countrys population by March 2017.

Last year, the home ministry had launched a door-to-door survey to collect Aadhaar numbers from people across the country, and pull out biometric data from the UIDAI database. However, the Aadhaar law passed last month barred the UIDAI from sharing the data  throwing a spanner in the works.

The home ministry has the biometric details of only 280 million people  those who turned up at its camps over the last few years, said a government official familiar with the project. However, this will only go waste unless you have the complete database.

Nearly Rs 4,800 crore of the Rs 6,600-crore approved project cost has already been spent.

The NPR project, inspired by a citizenship card project conceived by BJP patriarch LK Advani, was launched during former home minister P Chidambarams tenure in 2009-2010. The idea was to freeze the population register after giving people three chances to enrol. Anyone who came to get enrolled later would have to explain the delay.

Advani had hoped this would make it difficult for fresh immigrants to get into the register.

The progress of the two overlapping identity databases was stymied by a tug of war between the home ministry and the UIDAI, after both tried to independently procure biometric data. Led by founder chairman Nandan Nilekani, the UIDAI hit the ground running  leaving the bureaucracy-driven NPR far behind.

NPR was also slow because it enrolled people in accordance with households, not just individuals.

A government official said it was ironical that the primary utility of the NPR database would lie in improving that of the UIDAI  a rival entity with which it once fought many bitter battles for survival.

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The law ministry has informed the government that televangelist Zakir Abdul Karim Naiks Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) could be banned, a move seen as an attempt to corner the controversial physician-turned-preacher accused of motivating terrorists.

Also, to bolster its case, the government has compiled a list of FIRs registered against Naik  especially one filed in 2005 and another in 2012. The law ministry considered these FIRs before giving its opinion.

The home ministry has been informed that the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF), founded by the Mumbai-based Naik in 1991, could be declared unlawful under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

The law ministrys opinion makes a clear case of banning the IRF by declaring it an unlawful organisation, a senior home ministry official said.

Such a move will mean no person can be a member of the IRF  whose website says it is a registered non-profit public charitable trust  hold meetings or collect funds. A ban under UAPA is valid for five years.

Exclusive | Zakir Naiks foundation converted many to Islam: Police

Naik, who is said to be currently in west Asia, is accused of dodging police after allegations that his sermons influenced a terrorist killed in the July 1 Dhaka siege. Bangladesh has banned Naiks Peace TV, saying it incited the attack on a Dhaka cafe in which 22 people were gunned down.

His trouble compounded after suspicion that his speeches inspired 20-odd people, who disappeared from Kerala and feared to have joined the Islamic State terrorist outfit.

His media adviser Aarif Malik defended the preacher on Sunday, saying no government agency has sent any notice or summons to Naik.

Naik has no plans to return to India at least this year due to his prior engagements (abroad). But he has promised to cooperate in any probe by the government, he said.

Zakir Naiks advocate Mubin Solkar told HT it is totally unjustified to propose a ban against IRF. There is absolutely no evidence and material against Dr Naik, which can show he has ever promoted terrorism or he has been ever involved in any terrorist activity. Provisions of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) can never be applied against him because ingredients which are required for such a draconian law are never made out, Solkar said.

If the UAPA is invoked to ban the organisation, the government will have to prove its charges in a specially appointed tribunal.

The law says an outfit can be called unlawful if there are allegations that its activities are prejudicial to national integration, or promoting enmity between groups on the grounds of religion and race, and doing acts intending to or supporting secessionism.

Naiks media adviser says the preacher and his foundation has worked to promote harmony between religions. The IRF is a research body engaged in publishing research work and promoting greater awareness on and comparative religion.

Naik and IRFs activities have been questioned after the Dhaka attack, although the qualified doctor has been under surveillance since the 2003 serial blasts in Mumbai, when his name cropped up.

Read: Zakir Naiks kin defends Peace TV

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Fault lines have appeared in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) after it released a list of 19 of its candidates for the assembly elections in Punjab, earlier this week.

The partys Punjab convenor, Sucha Singh Chhotepur, has spoken against certain exclusions, saying workers have objections with some of the names, which they wanted in the list, being kept out.

Chhotepur was not present at the press conference when Punjab in-charge Sanjay Singh announced the partys first list on August 4. Though the party has declared just 19 of its 117 candidates for the Punjab polls, the list excluded some names Chhotepur was backing.

Sources said former IFS officer Hardeep Singh Kingra, a confidant of Chhotepur and chief of the partys finance committee in Punjab, resigned from the party a day before the list was released because he was denied a ticket. Immediately after quitting, Kingra levelled allegations against the partys leadership in Delhi.

A senior leader in Delhi said Kingra was told he would not be given a ticket despite Chhotepur backing him. The Punjab chief is also upset that the party did not consider his recommendations on other tickets. Like other parties, we dont have quotas in ticket distribution for senior leaders, the AAP leader said hinting at possible disciplinary action if he persisted with the demand. Last year, the party had suspended two of its four lawmakers in Lok Sabha for going against party line .

Chhotepur, however, said he was only venting the workers anger. I personally dont have any objections but the workers are objecting to certain names. Other parties have money and political power, our strength is our workers, we cannot afford to upset them, he told HT.

While the Sanjay Singh, denied any disagreement between him and Chotepur, he said the party would not make any changes to the announced names.

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Union textile minister Smriti Irani announced the launch of a national helpline for weavers, apart from a census of them, on Sunday.

The helpline, to be headquartered at the union ministry of textiles, will enable weavers to lodge complaints with the minister directly, and also give suggestions for development of the handloom sector.

Irani made the announcement at the second National Handloom Day celebrations at Swatantrata Bhavan, Banaras Hindu University. The initiatives are meant to further Prime Minister Narendra Modis general election promise to help the sector, which includes a large community of Muslim weavers. Modi is the MP from Varanasi.

It would start soon. I have asked the textile secretary to set up a helpline for weavers as soon as possible so that they can call me up directly and inform whether they (weavers) are getting the benefits of the schemes meant for them and we may know about their problem and solve them, said Irani.

As for the census, the government wants to find out the exact number of weavers across the country in order to ensure that benefits of various government schemes are being extended to each person, Irani said.

The centre has taken various steps to enhance income of the weavers.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed with the ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship for upgrading skills of handloom weavers through the Weavers Service Centres (WSCs). Another MoU was signed with the National Institute of Open Schooling and IGNOU for providing educational opportunities to handloom weavers and their children.

If the children of weavers cant come to school, schools would go to them. We have signed an MoU with NIOS to make sure that the children of weavers get education, said the minister, who gave out Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency (MUDRA) loans to handloom weavers.

The minister gave away Sant Kabir Awards 2015 to three master weavers and National Handloom Awards 2015 to 20 others. Irani also distributed prizes to the winners of the India Handloom Brand Design contest and Design Sutra competition of the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT).

Another MoU was signed with NIFT for implementing revamped curricula to incorporate handlooms and handicrafts, and also to engage leading fashion designers to work with handloom clusters. The MoUs were also signed with the Fashion Design Council of India and other designer groups so that reputed designers may mentors weavers through WSCs.

Noted designers such as Rajesh Pratap Singh, Anita Dongre, Samant Chauhan, Sanjay Garg , Shruti Sancheti, Rina Dhaka, Tarun Tahiliani have joined hands with the ministry in promoting hand-woven fabric.
Late socialist leader Charan Singh often used to tell his party workers to hold the base vote and chase the plus. Jats were his partys base and he tried hard to add Muslims and backward classes, primarily Ahirs (Yadavs), as the plus.

But the schism in the Jat-Muslim vote bank after the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots has left his son, Ajit Singh, desperate for a poll partner ahead of the 2017 state election.

That is the story of the Rashtriya Lok Dal -- a bit player in the bellwether state of Uttar Pradesh.

But, it is not just the RLD. Six months ahead of the most-watched of the state elections, all the four major political players in Uttar Pradesh are facing the same challenge -- holding on to their base vote while chasing the plus.

In 2012, polling was almost a month-long affair. Seven voting days spread over February and early March.

The die is caste

The writing is on the wall for the 2017 elections: We are about to see a mad scramble for caste groups that will eventually push aside issues such as development, corruption and law and order, which dominate the political discourse today.

The Congress has hit the campaign trail on the slogan 27 saal-UP behal (27 years and UP a mess  a reference to the non-Congress governments that have ruled the state in the period).

The BJP is leaving no stone unturned to paint four-time chief minister and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati as corrupt. It is targeting chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and his Samajwadi Party over poor law and order situation in the state.

But they all face the same problem -- their base vote is as slippery as the add-ons they are eyeing.

According to a study by Kanpur-based political scientist AK Verma, Mayawati lost in 2012 primarily because of the erosion of her Dalit base. Voters chose parties factoring in their ability to govern, says the study.

Again in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, a chunk of Mayawatis support base shifted to the BJP. While hoping to get the added Muslim and Brahmin votes to get past the half-way mark in the 403-member assembly, Mayawati is equally desperate to win back the voters who have shifted loyalties over the last few years.

Read | Assembly polls 2017: It will be a fight for every vote in battlefield UP

The Maya factor

The BJP, essentially an upper-caste party that also enjoys the support among a section of the other backward classes, is eyeing a share of the Dalit pie to cobble together a winning formula. Dalits account for 21% of the states population.

But the lower caste vs upper caste battle lines have sharpened after expelled BJP leader Dayashankar Singh used derogatory words for Mayawati.

BSP leader Naseemuddin Siddiquis remark against Singhs wife and daughter only made things worse, with both parties taking each other head-on.

BSP chief Mayawati interacts with journalists in New Delhi. (Vipin Kumar/HT PHOTO)

But Mayawati knows its not going to take her far. So, after a formal protest, she withdrew her agitation against Singh. A prolonged campaign would have cost her the upper-caste support. The damage, however, is done, as the Brahmins she was trying to woo are again sceptic about her political intent.

The biggest challenge for Mayawati is to consolidate her base vote of Dalits without losing the support of the Brahmins, who are exploring other options. With the backward classes dominating the caste matrix for decades, the Brahmins have shifted their political allegiance every election.

Political scientist Badri Narain, however, says Mayawatis Dalit supporters come together to back their leader every time her party colleagues betray her. He is talking about senior leaders Swamy Prasad Maurya and RK Choudhary walking out of the BSP recently.

She has activated most backward votes and if she wins two to three per cent Brahmin vote, she will form the government, says Narain.

Prof Rajesh Singh of Gorakhpur, however, has a different view. Mayawati, he says, has lost upper-caste support. Barely a month ago, he was talking about the BSPs return to power.

The BJP faces a similar situation. Its efforts to add Dalits to the upper caste and OBC support base have not worked to the plan.

Read | Eye on UP polls, govt plans mega culture festival in Varanasi

The M-Y equation

The ruling Samajwadi Party rode to power in 2012 on the back of several caste groups. A chunk of its base vote of Yadavs is vulnerable to the BJPs Hindutava agenda and to retain the Muslim vote, it cant afford to lose grip over its M-Y (Muslim-Yadav) combination.

Akhilesh Yadav, however, is banking heavily on the support of the youth, who he says are socialists  without caste leanings. The party is confident of young voters choosing 43-year-old Akhilesh Yadav over other chief ministerial candidates, who are much older.

Beni Prasad Verma (left) with Samajwadi party in presence of party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav (centre), party leader Azam Khan and chief minister Akhilesh Yadav (right) in Lucknow. (PTI File Photo)

Interestingly, the Congress is the only party with the base that transcends caste. But the party, too, cant escape the vicious cycle: Which group will be the first to return to the party -- the Brahmins, Dalits or the Muslims.

Since the demolition of the Babri mosque in 1992, the voting pattern among Muslims has varied from constituency to constituency. The community has voted against the BJP and favoured candidates with better chances of emerging a winner.

In a fluid scenario like this, it could be anybodys game in Uttar Pradesh.

Read | Ex-BSP leader Maurya says Sheila Dikshit discarded stuff, Cong protests
An arrested Kabul-bound womans disclosure has prompted police surveillance on some 19 people in Kerala and neighbouring Karnataka, after she alleged they attended jihadi classes by a suspected Islamic State terrorist group recruiter.

Yasmin Ahmad, a 28-year-old schoolteacher in Kerala, told investigators that Abdul Rashid, a fugitive IS recruiter from Kerala who is now operating from Afghanistan, indoctrinated about 40 people.

We have identified some of those who attended radicalization sessions conducted by Rashid in Thrikkaripur in north Keralas Kasargode. We are closely watching movements of some of them, a source in the Kerala Police special investigation team (SIT) said.

She was arrested last week at Delhi airport en route to Kabul, where she was to join Rashid, who is believed to be behind the disappearance of 21 youth from the southern state in May and June.

Police have put the remaining 19-odd suspected recruits on their watch list.

Investigators said some of the radicalized people from Rashids terror class might have backed out and decided to lie low as the disappearance of the 21 triggered a national outcry.

Read: Kerala police confirm Islamic State link in missing youth case

Yasmin too was supposed to leave the country along with the group of 21, but delayed travel documents for her four-year-old child held her back.

Born and brought up in Saudi Arabia where her parents were settled, she came to Kerala three years ago with husband Syed Ahmad after getting a job in Peace International School in Malappuram.

The woman met Rashid at the school, where he used to train teachers. Rashid soon befriended the couple, and a relationship grew between him and Yasmin after her husband fell out with her and left the country.

Yasmin is proficient in English, and has a religious bent of mind. As such she got immediately attracted towards Rashids ultra-radical teachings, investigators said.

Rashid used to conduct the sessions in the guise of Quran classes, where he briefed the recruits about the IS. He regularly read the IS magazine, Dabiq, and used material from online propaganda to radicalise youth, an SIT source said.

He went to Afghanistan later to become a lynchpin of the IS recruitment drive.

Yasmin, in the meantime, kept in touch with him through text messages. She was arrested after police intercepted her communication with Rashid.

Read: 16 Kerala Muslim youth missing, relatives fear they went to Iraq, Syria

Yasmin is not cooperating with the investigation. She often argues that she hasnt done anything wrong in the country and her aborted trip to Afghanistan was part of her religious duty, the source said.

Intelligence agencies were probing the funding network of the terror group, as Rs 2 lakh was reportedly deposited in Yasmins account two weeks before her arrest. Also, a possible link with a Kuwaiti man, who paid for the trip of several IS-bound Indians last year, has been looked into.

Arib Majeed, an IS deserter currently in a Mumbai jail, has said that Kuwaiti businessman Abdullah Hadi was his handler and he funded his teams trip to Iraq and Syria.

Kuwaiti police had arrested Hadi, and a National Investigation Agency team from India would soon leave for the west Asian country to question him.

The anti-terrorism agency, formed after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, will eventually take over from Kerala police the probe into the suspected IS activities in the southern state.

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Agra

A blind Dalit girl was allegedly raped by an army jawan who was visiting his village, Ram Ka Nagla in Mathura district, on leave. The accused jawan was arrested on Saturday night and sent to jail on Sunday after being presented in court. A case was registered at Naujheel police station of Mathura district under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the SC/ST Act.

The incident took place in village Ram Ka Nagla under Naujheel police station of Mathura district. Ajeet Singh (30) was posted as jawan with Jat Regiment in Meerut. He was in the village as he was on leave, RK Singh, superintendent of police (rural), Mathura said.

Reportedly, the army jawan went to the house of the girl (resident of the same village) and sat with her father on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday. Allegedly drunk, the accused took benefit of the father of the girl leaving on some errand. He reportedly took the girl to the roof of her house where he raped her. When the victim raised an alarm, the accused fled the place.

It was alleged that the police at Naujheel was reluctant to register a rape case and was asking the complainants to lodge a case of eve teasing instead. Later, the MLA from Mant and BSP leader, Shyam Sunder Sharma, reached the hospital and talked to the district authorities.

The police was considering it as a case of eve teasing but the victim alleged that she was raped. Thereafter, the police registered a rape case. They were also reluctant to arrest the accused initially and only arrested him on Saturday night, the leader said.

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The good spell of rainfall has nearly ended water woes across the state, but authorities in several cities are on standby, if a flood-like situation is to arise.

The state government has been monitoring Nashik, Pune and Kolhapur, where dams began overflowing and local alerts were issued. The government on Saturday said the state has received 736 mm rainfall since the monsoon began - between June 1 and August 6.

This is 107.5% more than the average rainfall during this period. Last year, the state had received just 62% of its average rainfall for the same period.

Read: Mumbai rain: Central Railway services stopped, Harbour line delayed

All five major dams in the Konkan region, 18 in Pune and 5 in Nasik are more than 85% full, while eight major dams in the state have crossed their 100% live storage capacity.

The gates of several major dams such as Radhanagri (100%), Warna (96%), Neera Devghar (93%), Bhandardara (95%) and Upper Vaitarna (92%) have been opened and their water is being discharged in the local rivers. This has lead to authorities warning people staying on the banks and next to rivers in Pune, Nashik, Kolhapur and some other areas.

We have kept three NDRF teams on standby at Pune, Nasik and Kolhapur and issued a flood alert. With rains slowing down on Saturday, however, we hope waters will recede. The situation is not alarming. In Kolhapur, the Panchaganga is overflowing; in Pune water is being discharged from Khadakwasla dam and in Nasik, Nandur Madhameshwar dam on the Godavari river is overflowing, said Suhas Diwase, director of states disaster management cell.

Nearly 72,000 cusecs of water is being released from the Nandur Madhameshwar dam, but it is still far from breaching its danger level at 1.5 lakh cusecs of water.

In Pune, too, the situation has improved. The discharge from Khadakwasla dam was brought down to 3,940 cusecs late on Saturday, from the 42,000 cusecs on Friday night. The Panchaganga river had also not crossed its danger level of 43 feet as yet.

Several tourists were disappointed as local authorities in Pune stopped them from visiting popular spots such as Bhushi dam.

Exercising caution in case of a flood or landslide, the police blocked all roads to Bhushi dam from Lonavla.

The Pune rural police put up barricades on roads to Karla, Malvali, Lohgad and Bhawa caves, tiger point and lions point. The police are also not allowing cars to be parked on old national highways. Boards have been put up everywhere to caution people about possible landslides and poor visibility. These spots will also be closed on Sunday. The Bhushi dam continues to overflow.

Across the state, there was 59% water stock in the dams, said an official release. 26 districts recorded more than 100% rainfall while six districts received 76% to 100% of the average rainfall. Two districts received 51% to 75% rainfall. Regionwise water stock in dam was Konkan (89%), Pune (68%), Amravati (67%), Nashik and Nagpur (61%) and Marathwada (24%).
Indian archer Deepika Kumari failed to deliver when it mattered the most as Russia won a closely-contested quarter-final 5-4 via shoot-off in the womens recurve archery competition of the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday.

After the two teams were tied at 4-4, having won two sets each, the Russian trio of Tuiana Dashidorzhieva, Ksenia Perova and Inna Stepanova held its nerves in the shoot-off winning it by 25-23 margin.

Deepika, whose form has been the worst of three Indian archers in the fray, needed to shoot a perfect 10 in the final shot but the highly rated Jharkhand archer could only manage an 8 under floodlights at the Sambodromo arena.

It was mainly because of Laishram Bombayla Devi and Laxmirani Majhi that India gave a stiff competition to the London Olympics semi-finalists.

For LIVE coverage of Rio 2016 Olympics: Rio 2016 Live: A decent show by Dipa Karmakar, Deepika and Co lose in archery

India lost the first set comprehensively 55-48 before Bombayla and Laxmirani hit perfect 10s in the second set to equalise the scores at 53-52.

India won the third set by 53-50 mainly due to Stepanova getting one of her shots wrong, fetching only 6 points.

Up 4-2, India could have clinched the issue in the fourth set when they needed a perfect score of 30 with their second set of arrows and equalise the Russian teams score of 55 and thereby win by a 5-3 margin having tied the score.

Bombayla and Laxmirani hit the bulls eye and Deepika needed to follow the suit. It was another moment of reckoning where she scored only 9 thereby handing over the set to Russia by a 55-54 margin which enabled them to take the match into the shoot-off round.

Earlier, India had beaten Colombia in the pre-quarterfinal 5-3 to make it to the last eight stage.

The trio of Deepika, Bombayla and Laxmirani will now be a part of the individual recurve event.
RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazils men and women beach volleyball pairs made winning starts in their hunt for gold on Saturday, drawing on the loud home support to beat their Canadian and Czech Republic opponents on Copacabanas golden sand.

Brazils women gold medal hopes Agatha Bednarczuk and Barbara Seixas recovered from one set down to win 19-21 21-17 15-11 against talented Czech pair who came close to upsetting the home script on the opening day.

Barbora Hermannova and Marketa Slukova appeared to have the momentum midway through the second set but at 10-10 the Brazilians took the lead to drag themselves back into the match.

A thrilling block from Bednarczuk at won them the second set sending the crowd into rapturous applause. In the deciding third set the Brazilians regained control.

We knew it wouldnt be easy, said Bednarczuk, explaining that the excitement of playing in front of a home crowd on Rios famous beach had maybe caused them to lose a little focus.

After the first set we were able to calm down a bit and put more tactics into play, she said.

Earlier on Saturday, Alison Cerutti and Bruno Schmidt beat Canadas Josh Binstock and Samuel Schachter 21-19 22-20 to seal their credentials as gold medal favourites in the mens tournament.

It was incredible, said Cerutti.

With beach volleyball one of Brazils favorite sports, particularly in Rio where nets dot the coastline, the local athletes were fired up by an enthusiastic crowd waving green-and-yellow flags, many wearing swimsuits.

To start an Olympics at home, to see this crowd shouting Brazil, its a dream come true, added Cerutti.

Brazils mens pair were not given an easy ride and fell behind in the second set, but scrambled back to make it 20-20.

The next point proved to be vital with the Canadians left to rue a crucial challenge that did not go their way after Binstock fouled at the net. The visiting pair said the hostile crowd, which booed at times, had made things difficult.

One point later the match was over and the crowd erupted as the Brazilian winners signed the ball and launched it into the crowd.

The Brazilian men will now prepare to play Austria while the women face Argentina on Monday.

The focus is to play and win... Gold comes as a result of that, said Cerutti.

The atmosphere was only slightly less festive.

With a DJ spinning a samba beat and thousands cheering on their hometown teams, Saturday brought out the best the beach has to offer.

Fans sang, waved their flags and cheered on their teams for the four matches on a sun-baked morning at the temporary stadium erected on this citys signature strip of sand.

Players kicked up sand as they dived for the ball, celebrated points with hugs and high-fives, and invariably saluted the crowd when walking off at after their matches.

I love South American fans, and I love how the people love sports, said Argentinas Georgiana Klug, who lost her opener with Ana Gallay, losing to Spain in straight sets. All the singing, dancing - it makes me feel like home.

Beach volleyball joined the Olympic programme at Atlanta in 1996, but for most Summer Games the venue has been built in a park (or parking lot), with thousands of tons of sand trucked in to create the playing surface. For the first time since Sydney in 2000, the sport is returning to an actual beach.

With the party ready to start both in and outside the arena, Italian Adrian Carambula got things started with his trademark Skyball, a high and spinning serve that wanders into the path of the sunshine and wind and confounds attempts at a return. Although he typically uses it sparingly, Carambula said he was egged on by his friends to start things off with a little flare.

They said they wouldnt talk to me if I didnt, he said in a post-match, mix zone interview that was twice interrupted because Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi asked him to come over and pose for a picture.

US Secretary of State John Kerry also watched Carambula and Alex Ranghieri beat Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst 21-14, 21-13.

My legs were shaking, before the first serve, said Carambula. When I walked in I actually got a little bit emotional. I wasnt expecting it, but I embraced it and I played with it. So very special.
Adam Peatys world record lit up the opening session of the Rio Olympic swimming competition on Saturday but little-known Spaniard Miguel Duran Navia tugged on Brazilian heartstrings after a false start left him in tears.

The 20-year left the blocks early in his 400 metres freestyle heat and was already sobbing uncontrollably as he climbed out of the pool and walked back to collect his things.

The Brazilian crowd gave Navia a raucous hand, recognising that four years of hard work had gone down the drain, as the young Spaniard trudged despondently from the pool deck -- only to shuffle back out moments later to another rousing reception.

Confusion reigned but Navia, still visibly upset, climbed back onto the blocks in lane seven for the restart. He finished last after running the full gamut of emotions.

Swimmings governing body FINA said that Denmarks Anton Ipsen in lane three had moved before the buzzer and consequently Navia was not to blame for his false start.

I was nervous and heard something in the stands that made me do what I did, said the swimmer. I thought I was disqualified and that affected my concentration. I lost my head and was five seconds off my time.
Tension between two communities continues to prevail in Saran district on Saturday after obscene images of gods were posted on social networking sites on Friday.

Troublemakers in Maker, Parsa and other places misused social media, including WhatsApp and Facebook to trigger tension in Saran district on Friday.

Different Hindu organisations called a day-long bandh on Saturday. All shops, school, colleges of the remained closed, with an undeclared curfew imposed on the town.

The day began with protests leading to multiple clashes. Over two dozen persons were injured as both sides, including policemen, indulged in brick-batting. According to unconfirmed reports, people also fired and hurled petrol bombs. The injured have been admitted to different hospitals.

Police said members of both communities vandalised, broke and torched vehicles, shops in the Hathua Market, Sahebgabj and Khanua areas of Town police station. Miscreants also used petrol bombs and tried to loot jewellery shops.

In protest against the incidents, people of several localities blocked NH, main roads and railway track and disrupted road traffic for more than seven hours. Rail traffic on Chhapra- Balia and Chhapra-Gorakhpur remained paralysed for several hours.

Mob also attacked on police teams at Taraiya, Amnaur and Marhaura causing injury to several policemen. Police used mild lathicharge and fired 23 rounds of tear gas shell to disperse the mob.

Heavy police forces, including companies of RAF/ITBP/ SSB and BMP battalions, were deployed in the area to avoid recurrence of violence. Prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC have been imposed.

Muzaffarpur zone IG Sunil Kumar, DIG Saran Ajit Roy, Saran DM and SP reached the incident site immediately after the incident while ADG ( law and order) Alok Raj visited there to take stock of situation.

Alok Raj told HT that IG (ops) Kundan Krishnan and IG (Muzaffarpur zone) are camping in Saran and police deployment has been strengthened in the area. Those trying to vitiate the atmosphere will not be spared, he added.

According to preliminary investigation, the clash was triggered when one community posted obscene images/ video of gods and goddesses on social media that led to an uproar on Friday and there was deep resentment among people.

Members of the other community attacked the house of the suspect who allegedly had posted the images and thrashed some of his friends. Soon the situation went out of control as people started bringing out weapons.

Saran SP Pankaj Raj said in view of the seriousness of the matter, a case under Section 67 ( A) of the Information Technology Act and Section 295 ( A) ( for hurting religious sentiments) of the IPC was registered against three named persons who posted the obscene images on social m e d i a . T wo o f them, Md Mustafa and Md Habib are in police custody. The district administration has banned internet service till August 8.

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Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) state convener Sucha Singh Chhotepur said the party dropped names from the candidates list at his insistence.

Chhotepur, who was at Kiratpur Sahib to pay obeisance at Gurdwara Baba Gurditta on Saturday, said initially the party had a plan to release a list of 26 candidates. The allotment of tickets is done by partys political affairs committee I am not its member. But being a state convener, I had suggested to drop names of seven candidates and it was accepted, he said.

Chhotepur said he felt that senior party workers should not have been ignored in ticket allotment. The AAP leader said he would meet partys national convener Arvind Kejriwal to ensure that the deserving party workers get tickets on the remaining seats. Chhotepur said that he was a loyal soldier of the party and would remain so.

Chhotepur also met Dr RS Parmar, who was denied ticket from the Rupnagar assembly constituency.
Punjab Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh dubbed the first list of 19 candidates announced by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as a flop show. At the same time, he also went ahead and welcomed those left high and dry by the party to the Congress ship.

Dont miss | 4 lawyers, three under-30, 1 woman in AAPs mixed bag of 19 nominees for Punjab

Addressing a press conference here, he said the bickering in AAP against the first list of candidates was just the beginning. They had 31 contenders in Sultanpur Lodhi. They announced the name of the one not on the list. Similarly, in Mohali, Himmat Singh Shergill was announced overlooking the claims of 19 others. We too face the rebel trouble. But the AAP will face more rebellion as it is a new party, he said.

On AAP state convener Sucha Singh Chottepur showing resentment against the list, he said people have started realising that the AAP was being run and managed by a team from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. They didnt bother to take the state convener into confidence before finalising the list. Chottepur is my old friend. But I do not want to embarrass him by inviting him to join the Congress nor will he leave the party, he said.

Also read | AAP selling tickets for Rs 1 crore, will face revolt: Sukhbir Badal

On the first list announced by AAP, Amarinder said, Its a flop list. I have asked all MLAs and leaders where AAP has announced its candidates. They all said wadiya ho gaya (it is good for them). They are overestimating themselves after forming their government in Delhi. But people there are already disillusioned with Arvind Kejriwals government in two years. He is not bothered about Punjab. Kejriwal is eyeing the 2019 parliamentary elections when he wants to challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On Congress list of candidates, he said the screening will start after applications are received from the ticket hopefuls by August 15 and the list will be out only in September. He said both the All India Congress Committee (AICC) and the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) are doing their own surveys to find the right candidates. Even candidates are getting their individual surveys done, he said, while dismissing the contention of Congress Legislature Party leader Charanjit Singh Channi that he too is getting surveys done across Punjab. He must be getting one done for his seat Chamkaur Sahib and not across the state, he said.

He said no application fee is being charged from the applicants. Earlier, the candidates for general seats paid Rs 10,000 and Rs 5,000 was taken for reserved seats, This time, we have asked them to show two voters per booth to ensure only serious contenders apply, he said.

Badal trying to polarise Punjab before polls: Capt

Accusing Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal of attempting to polarise people along religious lines ahead of elections in the state, Amarinder held him responsible for the current state of affairs. Referring to murderous attack on an RSS leader in Jalandhar, he said, There is a pattern in the incidents beginning from the desecration of the holy book in Bargadi to the recent attack on an RSS leader. This is a deliberate attempt at polarising people and Badal believes that polarisation will help him in elections without realising how dangerous and disastrous it can turn to be. He also questioned the AAPs silence over the attack on the RSS leader. They have not even condemned the attack and I dont know whether they are trying to please someone or are ignorant about the seriousness of the matter, he added.

Dope test for police recruitment a fraud

Reacting to government claims that the results of the dope tests done during police recruitment have exposed the false claims of the opposition Congress and the AAP, he said, Who is getting the dope test? Who are releasing the results and who gain from the results? It is all a fraud and drama.

Dont miss | Data grounds Udta Punjab: 1.36% found using addictive drugs at police recruitment

Helpline for ex-servicemen

Amarinder launched a helpline for ex-servicemen after addressing their convention here. Responding to their demands, he said ex-servicemen will be given due recognition and representation in his government. The Congress government will accord priority to the ex-servicemen in the allotment of tubewell connections, he added.
Even as Amritsar police have failed to arrest the suspended Youth Akali leader Navdeep Singh Goldy for alleged manhandling and pointing gun at senior deputy mayor Avtar Singh Truckanwala, the former has announced to appear before the media on Sunday.

In an invite to the media, Goldy said he will address a press conference at 5pm at MK Hotel in Ranjit Avenue in Amritsar on Sunday.

Booked by the Civil Lines police under Sections 295-A (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings), 332 (Voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 353 (assault), 34 (criminal act done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC and Sections 7, 25 and 29 of the Arms Act, Goldy has gone underground, at least for the police.

He may be arrested on Sunday if he turns up to address the media.

On August 4 when deputy commissioner Varun Roojam was holding a meeting, Goldy allegedly slapped the senior deputy mayor and also tossed his turban.

Goldy had rubbished the allegations, saying he was framed as some people in the Shiromani Akali Dal were jealous of him.

LOCAL LEADERS WANT HIS EXPULSION

The local SAD leaders, including city chief Gurpartap Singh Tikka, has demanded the expulsion of Goldy from the party.

Akali councillors and other leaders met at the Bachat Bhawan and pressed for Goldys arrest. They also passed a resolution, which, they said, will be sent to party chief and deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal.
BJP on Sunday asked the Punjab government to take stringent action against those involved in the murderous attack on RSS leader Jagdish Gagneja in Jalandhar and alleged it was an attempt to thwart nationalistic forces and vitiate the atmosphere in the state.

Dont miss: RSS leader Gagneja stable yet critical, shifted to Ludhianas DMC hospital

We have asked the state government to take this matter (attack on Gagneja) seriously and strict action should be taken against those who were behind this incident, BJP national secretary Tarun Chugh told reporters.

Gagneja, vice-president of the RSS (Punjab), was shot at on Saturday by bike-borne persons at Jyoti Chowk area in Jalandhar, leaving him seriously injured.

BJP is part of the ruling alliance led by Akali Dal in Punjab, where elections are due next year.

Asked who could be behind this incident, Chugh said it is the act of those wanted to vitiate peaceful atmosphere in Punjab.

Senior Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) leader, Brigadier Jagdish Gagneja (retd) being taken to be shifted to DMCH, Ludhiana from a private hospital in Jalandhar on Sunday. (Pardeep Pandit/HT Photo)

It is clear that those who are involved in terror activities, be it here or sitting abroad, wanted to stop nationalist forces from undertaking their activities and the RSS is leading the rashtrabhakt forces, he said.

Condemning the incident, Chugh said that the Punjab unit of BJP would discuss this matter and would review the situation in the state after the attack on Gagneja.

He, however, defended the state police, saying, We have to have trust in Punjab police and other security forces as we are safe because of them.

However, he said there is a need to ponder why such incidents were happening.

Punjab has seen attack on RSS volunteer in Ludhiana in January, murder of Chand Kaur, wife of former head of Namdhari sect, in Ludhiana in April and murderous attack on Sikh preacher Ranjit Singh Dhadrianwale in Ludhiana in May.

Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Saturday strongly condemned the attack on Gagneja.

The chief minister had directed the district civil and police authorities to maintain maximum vigil against anti social elements and ensure that the culprits are apprehended at the earliest.

Meanwhile, Punjab Police DGP Suresh Arora has formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) under the leadership of ADGP cum Director Bureau of Investigation IPS Sahota to probe the attack on the RSS leader.

Other members of the SIT are commissioner of police, Jalandhar Arpit Shukla, IG (counter intelligence) Nilabh Kishore and AIG (CI) Amarjit Singh Bajwa.
Union minister for urban development M Venkayia Naidu inaugurated the Swachh Survekshan-2017 project on Friday, in which, 500 cities of India including Batala city of Gurdaspur district have been selected. A workshop was also held on the occasion through video conference from New Delhi. The project aims at encouraging cities to improve urban sanitation.

After attending the video conference at the National Information Centre in Gurdaspur, deputy commissioner Pardeep Sabharwal said the cities having a population of over one lakh each have been included in the project.

The DC added that the project will be evaluated in January 2017 and will examine cleanliness, public toilets and other arrangement of keeping cleanliness in the city concerned.

The DC sought cooperation from the residents of Batala city of Gurdaspur district in accomplishing the mission of the project. The DC also sought cooperation from social and non-government organisations in creating awareness among the people, so that they use the toilets built at their respective houses and avoid going in the open.

The DC said the government was providing a grant of `15,000 each to the needy for building toilets in their houses.
Former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Hardip Singh Kingra, who quit the party on Monday, said Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann had asked him to resign at a meeting in Chandigarh in April.

Kingra said: At the meeting in Chandigarh, which was attended by partys Punjab affairs in-charge Sanjay Singh, Bhagwant Mann, Sukhpal Khaira and others, I questioned the credentials of the people joining the AAP.

While Sanjay Singh kept his cool, Mann said why dont you resign from the party if you have any issues? However, Sanjay Singh told me not to do so.

Kingra alleged that after the meeting, the state party leadership started ignoring him. Earlier, I used to represent the party in TV debates, but after the meeting, I was sidelined, he said.

Kingra alleged that AAP leaders from Delhi were running the show in Punjab and the grassroots-level workers in the state were being ignored.

The centralisation of power is harmful in a federal political structure, he added.

The former AAP leader said he would decide his plan of action after consulting his supporters.

Meanwhile, vice-president of the partys SC cell in Punjab Lal Singh Sulhani said he had also resigned from the party.

The AAP is having a tough time in Kotkapura too as joint secretary of the partys labour wing Surinder Kumar Dwivedi said he would not support AAP candidate Kultar Singh Sandhwa.

He claimed that six circle incharges out of eight were against Sandhwa.

However, circle in-charges BS Bara, Amarjeet Singh and Gurmeet Singh said that they will support Sandhwa and Dwivedi was creating trouble as he wanted to contest the elections.
The Punjab and Haryana high court has given more time to the special investigation team (SIT) probing the Jagdish Bhola drug racket case to submit a progress report on the role of NRIs, Satpreet Singh alias Satta and Parminder Singh alias Pindi, both perceived to have close links with a senior cabinet minister of the Punjab government.

In the case of Satta, the SIT has sought 15 days more time for a fresh report. As of Pindi, a status report in a sealed envelope was filed by the SIT, and after going through it, the high court bench of justice Surya Kant and justice Sudip Ahluwalia has asked the investigating team to submit its next report within three weeks on certain aspects of the earlier report.

The SIT, comprising three officers of the inspector general of police (IGP) rank, including Ishwar Singh, G Nageshwar Rao and V Neerja, was formed by the high court on October 10 last year to review the investigations into the entire controversy.

It was in May that while hearing a bail plea of accused Maninder Aulakh, the high court told the SIT to identify the role of Satta and Pindi and list out the efforts made to nab them. The court had observed that it appeared to be a concerted effort to protect and allow Satta to go scot-free.

On July 8, the SIT submitted its first report on these two NRIs and after its perusal, the high court had shown its dissatisfaction over the probe against Satta and pointed out some inconsistencies in the probe.

The HC had also referred to a continuous presence of a gentleman with these NRIs and others involved in the drug racket case without naming him, questioning as to what he was doing with such persons. As the SIT reports submitted in the probe are not being made public, it is not clear as to whom the court was referring to and what progress has been made by the SIT so far.

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Two Punjab and Haryana high court judges visited the Sukhna Lake to get first hand information about the depleting water level and look out for the possibilities to restore the glory of the lake.

Justice Ajay Kumar Mittal and justice Ramendra Jain visited the catchment area, sanctuary, the regulator end and took stock of ground situation for nearly two and a half hours. The high court initiated a suo motu petition in 2009, on a communication received, wherein it was alleged that waste water from Kaimbwala village was being discharged in the Sukhna Lake. Even though UT has been in denial, but it agreed to construct a sewer line. The order regarding the visit was passed on July 4 and hearing for the case is on August 9.

The judges first visited Kansal village, then to the Sukhna wildlife sanctuary. They inspected the check dams and went towards Kaimbwala side and took note of the filth coming from Saketri. The amicus curiae Tanu Bedi, senior advocate ML Sarin and counsel for Kansal residents Surya Parkash accompanied the judges, along with the counsel for Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh. The high court in 2014 directed Chandigarh administration to check drainage of sewerage from Kaimbwala village and the channel carrying rainwater from the catchment area to Sukhna Lake. The high court had in July 2013 issued directions to the administration to ensure no garbage in catchment area.

The Chandigarh administration told Punjab and Haryana high court that proposed sewer line between Kaimbwala village and sector-8 on Madhya Marg stopping the flow of waste water from village into Sukhna Lake, was coming up. In August 2015, administration sought six months time from the court for construction of sewer line stating that a proposal has been mooted in this regard.

The judges were explained about the leakages, they visited two dams, sanctuary and the regulator end, said Sarin.
Acting chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana high court, Shiavax Jal Vazifdar, was on Saturday sworn in as 33rd chief justice of the high court.

He was administered oath of office by governor Kaptan Singh Solanki at the Haryana Raj Bhavan.

Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Punjab cabinet minister Adesh Pratap Kairon and chief secretaries of both the states were among those present on the occasion, besides the judges of the high court.

Justice Vazifdar was born on May 4, 1956 and completed school education in 1972 from Rishi Valley School, Bombay, and graduated from St. Xaviers College, Bombay. He did LLB from Hinduja Law College, Bombay.

He got enrolled as an advocate on the rolls of the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa on October 17, 1980. He was sworn in as additional judge of the Bombay High Court on January 22, 2001.

He assumed charge as the acting chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on December 15, 2014 on transfer from the Bombay high court.

NO DECISION ON SEPARATE HC FOR HARYANA

Talking to the media after the swearing-in ceremony, Vazifdar said that no decision had been taken on the demand for a separate high court for Haryana.

I am not the only one who has to decide about it, he said while adding that he was yet to get the report of the committee constituted to look into the matter.

The chief justice admitted that there was shortage of judges, but said efforts were being taken to clear the backlog of cases.

In the recent past, there have been months when the disposal rate (of cases) was higher than the institution rate. We all are under tremendous pressure, but working hard. You must have seen how many cases are listed every day before the judges, he said.

He refused to take questions on the logjam between the judiciary and the central government over the appointment of high court and Supreme Court judges.

Asked about his priorities, he said that like every institution head, his priorities will be smooth functioning of the high court and focus on measures that can ensure relief to common man.
Five days after the sensational 90-second robbery of Rs 15 lakh at Punjab National Bank at Kochar Road, police arrested a man who allegedly helped the four robbers by keeping a watch outside the bank. Three accused in the case are on the run while the mastermind behind the heist, Sukhwinder Singh, was arrested on Wednesday (August 3).

So far, police thought only four men were involved in the robbery.

But sustained interrogation of Sukhwinder revealed that another man was involved. Cops arrested 25-year-old Ajay Kumar alias Babbal of Ferozepur, and recovered Rs 50,000 from his possession. Ajay is a barber by profession.

Sukhwinder told police that they did a recce of the bank three days prior to the robbery on July 28 and Ajay was involved in it. On August 1, Sukhwinder along with Amandeep alias Sonu, Rakesh Kumar and Gurjant Singh - all residents of Ferozepur, entered the bank with their faces covered, while Ajay Kumar kept watch outside. After the bank was robbed, Ajay met them and collected his share of Rs 60,000.

Inspector Beant Juneja, station house officer, at police station division number 5, said all the accused assembled at Sukhwinders huse on July 31 to go through the final plan.

On August 1, Ajay reached the bank before all four of them. After executing the robbery, four of them - including Amandeep alias Sonu, Rakesh Kumar, Ajay Kumar and Gurjant Singh fled to Ferozepur, while Sukhwinder remained in Ludhiana. They stayed at a hotel in Zeera near Ferozepur on the night of August 1- the day they committed the crime.

Inspector Juneja added that Ajay came to Ludhiana on Saturday, when the police arrested him from the bus stand. Two arrests have been made so far in the case, while three of the accused are still at large. Amandeep alias Sonu is already facing trial in several criminal cases. He was declared a proclaimed offender in at least four other cases.
Making it clear that the SAD-BJP government will not resign if Supreme Court verdict on the Satluj-YamunaLink (SYL) canal issue comes against Punjab, deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Saturday said waters of the state can only be protected while remaining in power.

We as a government can only stop anybody from entering into our territory. We dont want to finish the government and lose our control over the state. By resigning, we dont want to finish our authority at this crucial juncture, said Sukhbir, when asked over the alliances strategy over the SYL canal issue on the sidelines of a sangat darshan programme in this village of Balachaur constituency.

Taking a dig at state Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh for his statement that all Congress MLAs and MPs will resign if the SYL verdict comes against Punjab, Sukhbir said Congress would lose nothing if the partys three MPs out of the total 40 resigned. As far as we are concerned, we will fight hard and will not allow any drop of water to other states, he said. On the allegations made by suspended SAD MLA from Jalandhar Cantonment Pargat Singh against him, Sukhbir said replying to Pargats baseless charges doesnt suit his stature. I dont want to give him importance. Main te bade bade bundeyan te ghat comment kardan, Pargat te kyun bolan? (I hardly comment even on big personalities, so why should I speak on Pargat?), he quipped. On the medias repeated queries on Pargats charges, he said, Only I made him what he is in politics at present. He added, Pargat is a nice man and I have always been fond of him. I gave him everything. I made him director, sports, in the last tenure of our government. I made him MLA. I offered him the post of chief parliamentary secretary and he even agreed to it in a closed-door meeting. But later he refused. Why should I comment on a man nurtured by me only? About the MLAs charge that he was not even issued a suspension letter, the deputy CM said, Pargat can get it from the party headquarters. He claimed that Pargat is targeting him only to get into the limelight.
For more than 30 hours beginning Saturday noon to Sunday evening, the SAS Nagar police and the populace of Zirakpur and surrounding areas remained in a state of panic after reports emerged that suspicious-looking six men in army fatigues were spotted near the Chandigarh international airport on Saturday.

The men, in an army truck, were first seen in Dayalpura village near Zirakpur.

Even as the local police launched a hunt for the men by cordoning off certain areas around the airport, further credence was lent to the rumours when a staffer at a resort in Zirakpur reported that he had seen the men at around 1am on Sunday  12 hours after the men were first sighted.

The district is on high alert and special nakas have been set up. (HT Photo)

An even more cautious police then put the district on high alert and special nakas were set up. SAS Nagar SSP Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said, As soon we received information on the presence of six suspects in the area, we alerted out teams and launched search operation. Finally, by around Sunday evening, it was confirmed that the men were army officials.

He added, We also met army officials to get some clarity and finally learnt that some officials were out on a secret exercise. This was not known to the local administration.

After the Pathankot airbase attack earlier this year, we did not want to take any risk. We beefed up the security in the district and also alerted nearby police stations, said another senior official.

The SSP added that he would hold a meeting with the district administration to remove encroachment in Jagatpura village close to the airport. The search operations were carried out under the supervision of Patiala Zone IG

Paramraj Singh Umranangal with DIGs and SSPs of SAS Nagar, Patiala, Fatehgarh Sahib and Ropar.
There is some good news for the Punjabs Malwa belt as the governing body of the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) has in principle approved a satellite centre in Ferozepur.

A decision in this regard was taken at the institutes governing body meeting chaired by Union health minister Jagat Prakash Nadda in Chandigarh on Saturday.

Earlier this year, the Punjab government had approved transfer of 5.5 acres of land to the Union ministry for the purpose. The talks of setting up the satellite centre has been going on for two-and-a-half years without any progress.

Setting up of satellite centres in adjoining regions is the only way to reduce burden on the PGIMER. Also, it will lift the standard of healthcare in these regions, and people will not need to travel to Chandigarh, said a member of the governing body.

OPD LIKELY TO START AT SANGRUR CENTRE ON SEPTEMBER 15

The governing body sanctioned 140 posts to run the temporary OPD services at the Sangrur satellite centre most likely from September 15.

The posts include those of doctors, nurses, technical staff and others. Soon, the selection procedure will be started and the posts will be filled, said an official.

The foundation stone of the 500-bed satellite centre was laid in 2013 and the construction work has been going on for two years on the 25 acres earmarked for the facility.

In the first phase, the centre will have a 300-bed hospital.

AIIMS AT BATHINDA WITHIN 4 YRS: NADDA

Nadda said, Within 45 months, the proposed All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Bathinda will become operational.

The project was approved by the Union cabinet recently to provide super-specialty healthcare to the people of the region and create a large pool of doctors.

The cost of the project is around Rs 925 crore.

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Vice-president of the Punjab unit of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Brigadier Jagdish Gagneja (retd), who was shot at in Jalandhar on Saturday, was shifted to Hero DMC Heart Institute in Ludhiana on Sunday afternoon in a critical condition and was put on a ventilator.

Gagneja, who was shot thrice in the abdomen near the busy Jyoti Chowk in Jalandhar, still has one bullet in his liver while two bullets were removed by a joint team of surgeons of the DMC Heart Institute and Patel Hospital in Jalandhar on Sunday morning.

Punjab Police earlier set up a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the attack on Gagneja, a former senior army officer. (HT Photo)

Chief cardiologist of the institute Gurpreet Singh Wander said Gagneja had been put on ventilator and inotropes (medicines that change the force of hearts contractions). A team of intensivists and surgeons from the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, and DMC Heart Institute are constantly monitoring his condition, an official statement from the heart institute read.

Also read | Attack on RSS leader: BJP demands stern action against culprits

Doctors say a surgery will be performed to remove the bullet from Gagnejas liver once his condition stabilises.

Meanwhile, tight security arrangements were in place in and around the hospitals in Jalandhar and Ludhiana.

Punjab Police earlier set up a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the attack on Gagneja, a former senior army officer. The right-wing leader was shot at by two masked assailants as he got out of his car he was travelling in with his wife. The assailants fled the spot after firing. They also fired in the air to scare onlookers. Jalandhar commissioner of police Arpit Shukla said they have got vital leads in the case but no arrest had been made so far.

Deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal was in touch with the hospital authorities in Ludhaina. State police chief Suresh Arora, Ludhiana deputy commissioner Ravi Bhagat and police commissioner Jatinder Singh Aulakh, besides political leaders, including chief parliamentary secretary Navjot Kaur Sidhu, former cabinet minister Satpal Gosain and district BJP chief Ravinder Arora visited the hospital to enquire about Gagnejas health.

Condemning the attack, chief minister Parkash Singh Badal directed the police to track the attackers. He said the attack was aimed at disturbing the communal harmony in the state.

The police are strengthening security around offices of right-wing organisations in Punjab. Some leaders of the RSS and Shiv Sena have already been provided security.

Meanwhile, chief parliamentary secretary Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu alleged that the attack on Gagneja was state-sponsored and should be probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). We have lost faith in Punjab Police as they have failed in maintaining law and order, said Dr Sidhu.
Mohal Lal (43), a visually impaired man, donated one of his kidneys to his brother Surinder Kumar (41) giving him a new lease of life.

Surinder, an employee with the Central government, was suffering from chronic kidney disease that required an immediate replacement of his kidney.

A visibly emotional Surinder said, He has always been a highly motivated and active family member despite his inability to see the world. He handles cash of our family business since his sense of touch is quite precise.

Organ donation one can give new lease of life to others. I am unable to see but this came as opportunity to help save a life, said Mohan Lal. When he (Mohan Lal) approached us for donating his kidney to his younger brother, I was reluctant initially. But once I saw his determination, we went ahead, said Dr Priyadarshi Ranjan, kidney transplant surgeon and urologist, Fortis Hospital, SAS Nagar.

In India, 6000-7000 kidney transplants are done every year against the required 90,000, primarily due to non-availability of donors, he said.
The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exam witnessed a low attendance as only 33% candidates reached the centres in Ludhiana on Sunday.

At least 31 centres were setup at various schools and colleges for 11,558 candidates, but 67% candidates remained absent.

According to information, 3,818 candidates appeared in the first exam from 9:30am to 11:30am. Of these, 60 candidates did not appear for the second exam that was conducted from 2:30pm to 4:30pm. And only 3,758 candidates appeared for the second paper.

Read: 52,000 aspirants from region in UPSC prelim exam

Students from Amloh, Mukerian, Chandigarh, Moga, Dhuri, Patiala, Nakodar, Mansa and many other parts of the state came here to take the examination.

Additional deputy commissioner (development) Apneet Riyait said, The examination was conducted peacefully at all centres. Cops were deployed at the examination centres for security purposes. A separate centre was also set up for visually impaired at Punjab Agricultural University.

Sources said some students, who might not be fully prepared, missed it so that they can save another attempt.

Family members of some candidates kept waiting outside the centres all day.

LATE COMERS MISSED EXAMINATION

I missed my last chance as I reached the examination centre late, said a candidate from Chandigarh, Sudhir Saini. I took a train from Chandigarh to Ludhiana, but it reached here late. Moreover, I had no idea on how to reach my examination centre, which was at BCM School, Basant Avenue. So, I hired an auto to reach the centre and the driver charged `200 from me. But I was late, so they did not let me enter. When I had filled the application form, I wanted Chandigarh as my centre, but it was not available in the options at that time.

There are reports that some students had to return from the entrance gate as they reached late. Entry was allowed till 9:40am for morning exam and 2:40pm for second exam. Sources said four students were not allowed to enter the centre at Government College for Girls as they reached after 9:40 am.

EXAM NOT SO TOUGH

Simranjeet Kaur of Ludhiana, whose centre was at Government College for Girls, said, Mostly questions were related to current affairs and general knowledge. The level of exam was moderate. If anyone prepares in a right way, such exams can be easily cleared.

Another candidate, Sahil Sharma said, I came from Nakodar to take the exam. Objective type questions were mostly related to current affairs. Though it was my first attempt, the exam was not very tough.

Meanwhile, some candidates claimed that the second exam was lengthy.

TRAFFIC CHAOS

Traffic chaos was witnessed on College Road, Ishmeet Singh Chowk and in other areas after examination. Cops were seen clearing traffic snarls. Many vehicles parked on roadsides added to the problem in some areas.

Riyait said, As per the trend, turnout generally remained below 50% as the candidates, who may not have fully prepared, did not want to waste their attempt.
Chandragupta abdicated in 298 BC (or 303 BC according to another source) in favour of his son Bindusara who ruled till 273 BC. Bindusara had inherited an empire that was already very large from Afghanistan to Bengal. He seems to have extended the realm further south till the empire covered all but the southern tip of the peninsula. For the most part, his rule seems to have been peaceful except for a few rebellions. He also seems to have maintained diplomatic and trade links with the kingdoms carved out from Alexanders empire.

In 274 BC, Bindusara suddenly fell ill and died. The crown prince Sushima was away fending off incursions on the northwestern frontiers and rushed back to the imperial capital Pataliputra, present-day Patna. However, on arrival he found that Ashoka, one of his half-brothers, had taken control of the city with the help of Greek mercenaries. It appears that Ashoka had Sushima killed at the eastern gates. The crown prince may have been roasted alive in the moat! This was followed by four years of a bloody civil war in which Ashoka seems to have killed all male rivals in his family. Buddhist texts mention that he killed ninety-nine half-brothers and only spared his full brother Tissa. Hundreds of loyalist officials were also killed; Ashoka is said to have personally decapitated five hundred of them. Having consolidated his power, he was finally crowned emperor in 270 BC.

All accounts agree that Ashokas early rule was brutal and unpopular, and that he was known as Chandashoka or Ashoka the Cruel. According to mainstream textbook narratives, however, Ashoka would invade Kalinga a few years later and, shocked by the death and destruction, would convert to Buddhism and become a pacifist. The reader will be surprised to discover that the popular narrative about this conversion is based on little evidence. Ashoka would invade Kalinga in 262 BC whereas we know from minor rock edicts that Ashoka had converted to Buddhism more than two years earlier. No Buddhist text links his conversion to the war and even Ashokas eulogists like Charles Allen agree that his conversion predated the Kalinga war. Moreover, he seems to have had links with Buddhists for a decade before his conversion. The evidence suggests that his conversion to Buddhism was more to do with the politics of succession than with any regret he felt for sufferings of war.

The Mauryans were likely to have followed Vedic court rituals (certainly many of their top officials were Brahmins) but had eclectic religious affiliations in personal life. The founder of the line, Chandragupta, seems to have had links to the Jains in old age while his son Bindusara seems to have been partial to a heterodox sect called the Ajivikas. This is not an unusual arrangement in the Dharmic (i.e. Indic) family of religions. This eclectic approach remains alive to this day and lay followers of Dharmic religions think nothing of praying at each others shrines. You will find many Hindus at the Golden Temple in Amritsar just as the streets of Bangkok are full of shrines dedicated to the Hindu god Brahma. The coronation of the king of Thailand is still carried out by Brahmin priests.

It is likely that when Ashoka usurped the throne, he was opposed by family members who had links to the Jains and the Ajivikas. He may have responded by reaching out to their rivals, the Buddhists, for support. The power struggle may even explain his invasion of Kalinga. The mainstream view is that Kalinga was an independent kingdom that was invaded by Ashoka but there is some reason to believe that it was either a rebellious province or a vassal that was no longer trusted.

We know that the Nandas, who preceded the Mauryas, had already conquered Kalinga and, therefore, it is likely that it became part of the Mauryan empire when Chandragupta took over the Nanda kingdom. In any case, it seems odd that a large and expansionist empire like that of the Mauryas would have tolerated an independent state so close to its capital Pataliputra and its main port at Tamralipti. In other words, Kalinga would not have been an entirely independent kingdom under Bindusara  it was either a province or a close vassal. Something obviously changed during the early years of Ashokas reign and my guess is that it had either sided with Ashokas rivals during the battle for succession and/or declared itself independent in the confusion.

Whatever the real reasons for attracting Ashokas ire, a large Mauryan army marched into Kalinga around 262 BC. The traditional view is that the two armies met on the banks of the river Daya at Dhauli near modern Bhubaneswar. It is possible that Dhauli was the site of a skirmish but recent archaeological excavations point to a place called Yuddha Meruda being the site of the main battle followed by a desperate and bloody last stand at the Kalingan capital of Tosali.

The remains of Tosali were discovered only recently by a team of archaeologists led by Debraj Pradhan, a humble and affable man who has made some extraordinary discoveries about Odishas ancient past. The site is at a place called Radhanagar, a couple of hours drive from Cuttack. It is situated in a broad fertile plain watered by the Brahmani river and surrounded by low hills. Surveying the beautiful valley from one of the hills, one is overwhelmed by a feeling of eternity  rice fields, fish ponds, coconut palms, mango trees, and thin wisps of wood smoke rising from village huts. Other than a few power transmission towers, the scene is perhaps close to what it would have looked to Mauryan generals planning their final assault.

The remains of the citys earthwork defences suggest that Tosali was built in the middle of the plains; arguably a poor choice as the citys defences would have been better served if they were wedged more closely to one of the hills. Archaeologists have only excavated a small section of the walls but have found it riddled with arrowheads; a blizzard of arrows must have been unleashed by the Mauryan army. The Kalingans never stood a chance. Ashokas own inscriptions tell us that a 100,000 died in the war and an even larger number died from wounds and hunger. A further 150,000 were taken away as captives.

SRK - Shahrukh Khan In Film Ashoka (Asoka) the Great

According to the official storyline, Ashoka was horrified by his own brutality and became a Buddhist and a pacifist. But, as we have seen, he was already a practicing Buddhist by then, and from what we know of his early rule, he was hardly a man to be easily shocked by the sight of blood. The main evidence of his repentance comes from his own inscriptions. It is very curious, however, that this regret is mentioned only in locations far away from Odisha (such as in Shahbazgarhi in north-western Pakistan). None of the inscriptions in Odisha express any remorse; any hint of regret is deliberately left out.

The Ashokan inscriptions at Dhauli are engraved on a rock at the base of a hill. Almost all tourists drive right past it to the white coloured modern stupa at the top of the hill. So I found myself alone with the inscriptions and the translations put up by the Archaeological Survey of India. What will strike anyone reading them is how they specifically leave out any sign of regret. The silence is deafening.

If Ashoka was genuinely remorseful, he would have surely bothered to apologize to the people whom he had wronged. Far from it, he doesnt even offer to free the captives. Even the supposedly regretful inscriptions include a clear threat of further violence against other groups like the forest tribes who are unequivocally told of the power to punish them that Devanampriya possesses in spite of his repentance, in order that they may be ashamed of their crimes and may not be killed. This is no pacifist.

It is likely that Ashoka was using his inscriptions as a tool of political propaganda to counter his reputation for cruelty. As with the words of any politician, this does not mean he changed his behaviour. Moreover, many of the inscriptions are placed in locations where the average citizen or official of that time would not have been able to read them. Several historians including Nayanjot Lahiri have wondered about this. Is it possible that some of the inscriptions were really meant for later generations rather than his contemporaries?

The Buddhist text, Ashoka-vadana, tells us of more acts of genocide perpetrated by the emperor many years after he supposedly turned pacifist. These were directed particularly at followers of the Jain and Ajivika sects; by all accounts he avoided conflicts with mainstream Hindus and was respectful towards Brahmins. The Ashoka-vadana recounts how Ashoka once had 18,000 Ajivikas in Bengal put to death in a single episode. If true, this would be the first known instance of large-scale religious persecution in Indian history (but, sadly, would not be the last).

This is not the only incident mentioned in the text. A Jain devotee was found in Pataliputra drawing a picture showing Buddha bowing to a Jain tirthankara. Ashoka ordered him and his family to be locked inside their home and for the building to set alight. He then ordered that he would pay a gold coin in exchange for every decapitated head of a Jain. The carnage only ended when someone mistakenly killed his only surviving brother, the Buddhist monk Vitashoka (also called Tissa). The story suggests frightening parallels with modern-day fundamentalists who kill cartoonists whom they accuse of insulting their religion.

Supporters of Ashoka may claim that these incidents are untrue and were inserted into the story by fundamentalist Buddhist writers in much later times. While this is entirely possible, let me remind readers that my alternative narrative is based on exactly the same texts and inscriptions used to praise Ashoka. Perhaps the same scepticism should be evenly applied to all the evidence and not just to portions of the text that do not suit the mainstream narrative.

In addition to the references of his continued cruelty, we also have reason to believe that Ashoka was not a successful administrator. In his later years, an increasingly unwell Ashoka watched his empire disintegrate from rebellion, internal family squabbles and fiscal stress. While he was still alive, the empire had probably lost all the northwestern territories that had been acquired from Seleucus. Within a few years of Ashokas death in 232 BC, the Satvahanas had taken over most of the territories in southern India and Kalinga too had seceded.

As one can see, Ashoka does not look like such a great king on closer inspection but a cruel and unpopular usurper who presided over the disintegration of a large and well-functioning empire built by his father and grandfather. At the very least, it must be accepted that evidence of Ashokas greatness is thin and he was some shade of grey at best. Perhaps like many politicians, he made grand highminded proclamations but acted entirely differently. This fits with the fact that he is not remembered as a great monarch in the Indian tradition but in hagiographic Buddhist texts written in countries that did not experience his reign. He was rediscovered in the nineteenth century by colonial era orientalists like James Princep. His elevation to being Ashoka the Great is even more recent and is the result of political developments leading up to Indias independence.

After Independence, it appears academic historians were further encouraged to build up the legend of Ashoka the Great in order to provide a lineage to Jawaharlal Nehrus socialist project and inconvenient evidence was simply swept under the carpet. This is not so different from how the medieval Ethiopians created a Biblical lineage for the Solomonic dynasty. A few Western writers like Charles Allen have patronizingly written how ancient Indians were somehow foolish to have had little regard for a great king such as Ashoka. On a closer look, it appears that they knew what they were doing. What is more worrying is how easily modern Indians have come to accept a narrative based on s
Britains long engagement with India means many families have historical links across generations, holding memories and memorabilia about seminal events in the subcontinent  one such family will soon return an item linked with the ancient Jantar Mantar in Jaipur.

Based in Rugby, Warwickshire, the Shore family has lived across India since the mid-18th century. The foremost among them was John Shore, who was the governor-general of India from 1793 to 1797. Many were born in India and died there, including in the 1857 uprising.

India is our home, really. It is in our bones, our hearts. We always felt alien in England, says Iain Shore, former army officer, married to Gujarat-origin Kshama, who he believes is more English than I am. He prefers to describe his family as Scottish-Irish rather than British.

One of Shores ancestors, Major Arthur Garrett of the Royal Engineers, was a keen astronomer. He was appointed assistant state engineer of the erstwhile Jaipur State by architect Samuel Swinton Jacob, who was director of the Public Works Department and built the iconic Albert Hall in central Jaipur.

Garrett was given the specific task of restoring the Jantar Mantar built by Sawai Jai Singh in the early 18th century. It was in a state of damage and disrepair in the early 19th century. Garrett, who is known for his books on irrigation and dams in India, commenced the work in May 1901, completed it in February 1902 and restored the heritage site to largely what it is today.

After my maternal grandfather's death, I received various family treasures, among which were Uncle Arthur's drawing instruments. My sister and I will present these to the director of the Albert Hall Museum in Jaipur, Shore told Hindustan Times.

It seems a more fitting repository for them to be with the structures with which they are associated, than to languish in a drawer at home, he added. Shores sister, Sandra-Suzanne Filmer, was born in Coonoor, Tamil Nadu.

Instruments used by Major Arthur Garrett, who helped restore the Jaipur Jantar Mantar. (HT Photo)

Also on the agenda of Shores visit is commemorating 100 years of the death of his father, Frank Shore, also an army officer, who died in Saharanpur in 1916. He discovered his fathers grave in a neglected state during a visit in 2014 and restored it with local help.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission had tried, and failed, to locate the grave, one of two in that cemetery in which they were interested, so they will be coming to the Commemoration, and will take over maintenance of his grave thereafter. We cannot thank them enough, Shore said.

Born in Tanzania, Kshama Shore was a senior official in Britains revenue and customs department until retirement, and was honoured with an OBE in 2012 for her work in encouraging people to file tax returns. She is on the committee of Shri Krishna Mandir in Coventry.

Iain Shore and his wife Kshama Shore. Iain will visit India to present his uncle Arthur Garretts drawing instruments to the director of the Albert Hall Museum in Jaipur. (HT Photo)

Recalling his familys 250-years links with India, Shore said: Neither of my parents went back to India after 1944: they were dismayed by the terrible events of Partition, and by the descent of Pakistan into seemingly intractable pseudo-religious stupidity and disastrous corruption.

But they were later buoyed by India's climb to progress and modernity after the neo-communist dalliances of Nehru had been discredited and ditched by his successors, he added.

Shore said family and cultural interests draw them most often to India, where he says he shouts at people for dropping litter, and takes the management of tourist sites to task for service failures. He gave a speech in 2014 at Humayun's tomb in New Delhi to the site's workers and management on the importance of service delivery to national well-being.

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If the Turkish public want the death penalty following last months failed coup then political parties will follow their will, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a rally in Istanbul on Sunday.

If the nation makes such a decision (in support of death penalty), I believe political parties will abide by this decision, Erdogan said during a unity rally in Yenikapi square in the touristic Sultanahmet district.

It is the Turkish parliament that will decide on this (death penalty) given the sovereignty rests with the nation... I declare it in advance, I will approve the decision made by the parliament, Erdogan said.

He attacked critics who said there was no death penalty in the EU, of which Turkey is a candidate nation, countering that capital punishment is used in the United States, Japan and China.

Today there is the death penalty in the majority of the world, he said, adding that capital punishment had been legal in Turkey until 2004, though the last execution took place in 1984.

Speaking to crowds of hundreds of thousands of people, Erdogan insisted that the state would be cleansed of all members of the Gulen movement within law.

He added: They will pay a price for what they have done, referring to the movement run by US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen.

Gulen is accused by Ankara of leading a terrorist organisation and of ordering the July 15 coup attempt during which at least 273 people were killed including 34 coup plotters.

He denies all accusations and the movement insists it promotes moderate Islam, charity and education.
Iranian authorities on Sunday said the country had executed a nuclear scientist who defected to the US in 2009 and later returned to the Islamic Republic under mysterious circumstances a year later, acknowledging for the first time that they had secretly detained, tried and convicted a man once heralded as a hero.

Shahram Amiri vanished in 2009 while on a religious pilgrimage to Muslim holy sites in Saudi Arabia, only to reappear a year later in a series of online videos filmed in the US. He then walked into the Iranian interests section at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington and demanded to be sent home.

In interviews, Amiri described being kidnapped and held against his will by Saudi and American spies, while US officials said he was to receive millions of dollars for his help in understanding Irans contested nuclear program. He was hanged the same week as Tehran executed a group of militants, a year after his country agreed to a landmark accord to limit uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

Speaking to journalists on Sunday, Iranian judiciary spokesman Gholamhosein Mohseni Ejehi said Amiri was convicted of spying as he provided the enemy with vital information of the country.

Amiri had access to classified information and he was linked to our hostile and number one enemy, or the Great Satan, Ejehi said, referring to the US.

Ejehi did not explain why authorities never announced Amiris conviction or his subsequent failed appeals court bid. He said Amiri had access to lawyers.

He neither repented nor compensated and he was trying to leak some information from inside prison, too, Ejehi said, without elaborating.

News about Amiri, born in 1977, has been scant since his return to Iran. Last year, his father Asgar Amiri told the BBCs Farsi-language service that his son had been held at a secret site since coming home. BBC Farsi also quoted Amiris mother saying her sons neck bore ligature marks suggesting he had been hanged by the state.

The Associated Press could not immediately reach Amiris family.

Other side of the mystery

US officials told the AP in 2010 that Amiri was paid $5 million to offer the CIA information about Irans nuclear program, though he left the country without the money. They said Amiri, who ran a radiation detection program in Iran, travelled to the US and stayed there for months at his own free will. Analysts abroad suggested Iranian authorities may have threatened Amiris family back in Iran, forcing him to return.

But when he returned to Iran and was welcomed by government officials, Amiri said Saudi and American officials had kidnapped him while he visited the Saudi holy city of Medina. He also said Israeli agents were present at his interrogations and that CIA officers offered him $50 million to remain in America.

I was under the harshest mental and physical torture, he said.

Clintons mails in the mix

Amiris case indirectly found its way back into the spotlight in the US last year with the release of emails sent by US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton while she served as secretary of state. The release of those emails came amid criticism of Clintons use of a private account and server that has persisted into her campaign against Republican candidate Donald Trump.

An email forwarded to Clinton by senior adviser Jake Sullivan on July 5, 2010 -- just nine days before Amiri returned to Tehran -- appears to reference the scientist.

We have a diplomatic, psychological issue, not a legal one. Our friend has to be given a way out, the email by Richard Morningstar, a former State Department special envoy for Eurasian energy, read. We should recognize his concerns and frame it in terms of a misunderstanding with no malevolent intent and that we will make sure there is no recurrence.

Our person wont be able to do anything anyway. If he has to leave so be it.

Another email, sent by Sullivan on July 12, 2010, appears to obliquely refer to the scientist just hours before his story became widely known.

The gentleman ... has apparently gone to his countrys interests section because he is unhappy with how much time it has taken to facilitate his departure, Sullivan wrote. This could lead to problematic news stories in the next 24 hours.
The Japanese will tune in to Emperor Akihitos rare video message on Monday following reports that he would abdicate in the next few years, which initially came as shock but was welcomed by many as a deserved rest for the 82-year-old beloved monarch.

In the pre-recorded message, Akihito will talk about his duties as a symbol emperor as stipulated by the constitution, palace officials said.

He will most likely avoid the explicit expression of abdication, which would involve political and legal procedures that he is not allowed to discuss.

Akihito still works, though his aides have shifted some of his duties to crown prince Naruhito the elder of his two sons and most likely successor. Yet, Akihito has referred to his old age in recent years, admitting to making small mistakes at ceremonies.

During the August 15, 2015, anniversary of the end of World War 2, Akihito started reading a statement when he was supposed to observe a moment of silence.

After the initial surprise, the public warmly welcomed the reported abdication plan, saying the hard-working emperor deserves to enjoy his long-overdue retirement.

Lifting the abdication ban, a practice inherited from the prewar constitution, would also bring the imperial life closer to the public.

Changing that will reflect the reality of Japanese society first of all, the way that almost all people here feel about working and life and career building, said Robert Campbell, a University of Tokyo professor and expert on Japanese history and culture.

According to a nationwide telephone survey by Kyodo News agency this month, nearly 90% of the respondents said Akihito is given too much work, while more than 85% said an abdication should be legalised as an option to Akihito and his successors.

Akihito has reportedly told palace officials and his families that he doesnt wish to cling to his title with drastically reduced responsibility or by arranging a substitute, and his two sons have accepted the idea.

The quiet discussion reportedly started about five years ago, around the time he had health problems he was hospitalised for bronchitis in 2011, and had heart bypass surgery in 2012.

Palace officials quickly denied the report, because the emperor is not supposed to say anything that would cause a change to the existing system, including his constitutional status.

Experts and media have speculated that Akihito will seek to abdicate while he is still in good health so he can monitor Naruhito, who is seen not quite ready for succession.
An American citizen who was deported from Pakistan and blacklisted years ago has been arrested upon returning to the country, officials said Saturday.

Pakistans Federal Investigation Agency officials arrested Mathew Craig Barrett from an Islamabad guest house, said Sarfaraz Hussain, a spokesman for the countrys Interior Ministry.

He said Barrett was deported in 2011 after being found in the area of a sensitive installation. He did not elaborate but said, If someone was blacklisted there should have been something serious.

Barrett, a 33-year old Alabama native, was previously arrested May 2011 in the Fateh Jang area near a highly secretive military research facility.

He had lived in Pakistan for four years, married a Pakistani woman and had two children. In media reports and a letter smuggled from jail in 2011 to the Guardian newspaper, Barret strongly denied local suspicions that he was a spy and claimed he was a victim of simmering tensions at the time between the U.S. and Pakistani governments. He was eventually deported and banned from the country.

Hussain said Barrett obtained a visa from the Pakistani consulate in Houston and managed to clear the airport immigration counter. An FIA official said a court has allowed the agency to hold him for three days for investigation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media. He said Barrett mentioned a family visit and a one-month intended stay in Islamabad in his travel documents.

US embassy spokesman said in a text message that the privacy act prohibits us from releasing information about American citizens without their consent.

Hussain said the interior minister has ordered a thorough inquiry into how Barrett managed to enter Pakistan again and suspended the airport immigration staff.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump slammed Hillary Clinton as mentally unstable at a Saturday campaign rally, seizing on her admission that she short-circuited in comments about her private email use at the state department.

The people of this country dont want somebody whos going to short circuit up here, Trump told supporters in New Hampshire.

Shes a dangerous liar, the real estate mogul said of the Democratic former secretary of state. She is a totally unhinged person. Shes unbalanced.

Anybody whose mind "SHORT CIRCUITS" is not fit to be our president! Look up the word "BRAINWASHED."  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 6, 2016

Crooked Hillary said loudly, and for the world to see, that she "SHORT CIRCUITED" when answering a question on her e-mails. Very dangerous!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 6, 2016

Trumps supporters chanted Lock her up! during the event in the town of Windham, which was broadcast online.

Read: Trump makes up with party, Clinton wrestles with trust

On Friday, Clinton acknowledged she may have short-circuited when she tried to clarify statements about her use of a private email server.

The Democrat had told Fox News Sunday that FBI director James Comey said her answers were truthful about whether she sent or received classified material via private email. That comment was branded false by Washington-based fact-checkers.

Trump, 70, has embraced her phrasing as a line of attack. On Saturday ahead of his rally in New Hampshire, he posted a campaign ad on his Facebook page that refers to Clinton as Robot Hillary -- and shows sparks flying out of her mouth.

Is Robot Hillary melting down? the ad asks.

Trump is trying to boost his campaign after a week of missteps that saw his poll numbers drop and the 68-year-old Clinton, a former senator and first lady, seize the momentum.

He reversed course and endorsed House Speaker Paul Ryan for re-election on Friday, pledging to work with Republican Party leaders. Trump also said he would support veteran Republican Senator John McCain, with whom he has sparred in the past.

We need unity. We have to win this election, Trump told a rally in Ryans state of Wisconsin.

Read: Donald Trumps foot-in-mouth flotilla remains afloat
Family members of six Britons sentenced to jail in India for allegedly carrying unlicenced arms aboard a merchant vessel have urged Prime Minister Theresa May to intervene forcefully with Indian authorities to seek their freedom.

The six are among 35 members of American anti-piracy vessel MV Seaman Guard Ohio that was intercepted by the Coast Guard off Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu, on October 12, 2013. Britain has since taken up their case with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others.

Over 375,000 people have signed an online petition, seeking freedom for the six Britons, who were sentenced to five years in prison in January. The British government has been accused of not trying hard enough to secure their release.

Lisa Nunn, sister of Nick Dunn, one of the six, has urged May and foreign secretary Boris Johnson to step up efforts to secure their release, stating the mental state of the arrested had begun to deteriorate in jail.

Nicks always maintained that he feels abandoned and betrayed by the government and the country that he once servedThere is overwhelming evidence that supports the men and proves that they were not involved in any wrongdoing, Nunn told The Guardian.

Britains head of export controls has reportedly confirmed to the court in Tamil Nadu that the arms and ammunition carried by the American company owning the vessel had been given licenses in 2012 and 2013.

Dunn added: I appreciate and understand that the government have spoken to various Indian counterparts over the last nearly three years, but for the evidence thats there, its beyond belief that our government havent pushed harder.

They keep saying weve talked with this Indian counterpart, but it was apparent a long, long time ago that talking makes no difference to the Indian authorities. We need more robust action.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: Our staff in India and the UK remain in regular contact with all six men and are continuing to support them and their families, working to make sure their welfare is protected in prison.

We recognise what a difficult time this is for those involved. We cannot interfere with Indias independent legal system, just as other countries cannot interfere with ours, but we will continue efforts to make sure this case is resolved swiftly. Ministers will continue to raise this case at the highest levels.

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In a case of alleged discrimination in the US, a young Muslim woman was fired from her job at a dental clinic for wearing a hijab as her employer wanted to keep a neutral environment in office.

Najaf Khan, who was hired as a dental assistant at Fair Oaks Dental Care in Fairfax County, Virginia, said she was fired from the new job because she wore a Muslim head scarf to work.

I was really upset. The day that it happened, I was devastated, Najaf told NBC Washington.

She did not wear the hijab for her interview or on the first two days of employment. On the third day, she chose to wear it because Najaf felt that she would stay at the job and wearing it was part of her spiritual journey.

At work that day, she said the owner of Fair Oaks Dental Care, Dr Chuck Joo, told her to take off the hijab.

Joo told her that they wanted to keep a neutral environment in office. The employer asked her to remove it because the Islamic head scarf would offend patients and he wanted to keep religion out of the office.

Khan said Joo gave her an ultimatum -- she could continue wearing the scarf and be fired or work without it.

When I said that I would not compromise my religion for that, he held the door open for me and I walked out, Khan said.

Joo was quoted as saying that open displays of religion are not allowed at his business because he wants to keep it neutral. If his employees want to wear a hat, it must be a surgical hat for sanitary reasons, Joo said.

Reacting to the case, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) said, No employee should face termination because of his or her faith or religious practices. We call on Fair Oaks Dental Care to reinstate the Muslim employee and to offer her reasonable religious accommodation as mandated by law.

Najaf said she would likely refuse an offer to return to the dental office.

I was astonished because he (boss) had been saying I had been doing so well. I received an email Friday morning (July 29) saying how much positive enthusiasm I was bringing into the dental office, she told Fox News.
A family of five, including three children, were shot dead in what appears to be a murder-suicide in the US state of Pennsylvania, local media reported. Police in the town of Sinking Spring -- some 80 kilometers northwest of Philadelphia -- were searching the suburban home where the bodies were found, the local Reading Eagle newspaper said.

District attorney John Adams identified the dead as Mark Short, his wife, Megan, and their children Liana, Mark and Willow, the Eagle reported.

All died of gunshot wounds, Adams told the paper.

Although the ages were not released, the youngest child was apparently under younger than three.

The family was profiled in an October 2014 article in the Reading Eagle because Willow, then five months old, had undergone a heart transplant when she was just a week-old baby.

The shooting apparently took place around 3.30 pm local time on Saturday, NBC 10 Philadelphia affiliate reported. It added that distraught family members hugged each other as they had gathered outside the home waiting for news.

The motive for the shooting is under investigation.
BRUSSELS: A machete-wielding man yelling Allahu Akbar! injured two female police officers before being shot outside the main police station in the southern Belgian city of Charleroi on Saturday, police in the city said.

The attacker, who was shot by a third officer, subsequently died of his wounds, but the police officers were out of danger, they added.

Prime Minister Charles Michel took to Twitter to condemn the attack, while Interior Minister Jan Jambon called it cowardly.

Islamist bombers killed 32 people in suicide attacks at Brussels airport and a metro station in March, and many of the jihadists who carried out attacks on Paris last November in which 130 people died were based in Belgium.

Brussels, home to European Union institutions and the headquarters of NATO, and the rest of Belgium are currently on a security alert level of three out of a maximum of four, a serious status with a possible and probable threat.
BEIJING: Chinas Xinjiang province has unveiled a new anti-terror law that authorities say will focus on curbing and punishing religious extremism which is terrorisms ideological basis, state media reported.

The new law, implemented on August 1, is based on Chinas primary counterterrorism law passed in December 2015, state media reports said.

The regional law details and supplements the national law in defining terror activities and terrorists, security precautions, intelligence, investigations, countermeasures and punishment, official news agency Xinhua reported on Saturday.

Home to the Muslim Uyghur community, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) has experienced bursts of violence in the last few years which have left scores of civilians, government officials and police personnel dead. Beijing has blamed foreign-trained terrorists for the violence, saying that they have sneaked into the region and incited violence. Rights groups and exiled Uyghur leaders have, however, said that it is Beijings repressive anti-minority policies gradually put in place over the decades that have triggered violence in the remote region.

The legislative commission of the regional peoples congress said the new measures stress that religious extremism is the ideological basis of terrorism and must be prevented and punished, the Xinhua report said.

Nayim Yasen, head of the standing committee of the regional legislature, was quoted as saying that Xinjiang, as the main battlefield in Chinas war against terrorism, has gained experience in combating terrorism in recent years, ensuring the practicality and effectiveness of the new law.

Extremism is the philosophical basis of terrorism , Bai Li of the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences, said.

Therefore, it is important to prevent and punish extremism in Xinjiangs anti-terror campaign, Bai added.
WASHINGTON: It was another one of the string of speaking invitations Khizr and Ghazala Khan accepted since their epic seven-minute takedown of Donald Trump at the Democratic convention.

As they stepped out of their home in Virginia to get into the car waiting for them, the driver, who had no prior knowledge of his passengers, rushed out to them and hugged Khizr.

With tears running down his cheeks, the driver, a recent immigrant from an African country, said that when Khan pulled out the constitution ,We felt safe, as a family. Khan, a Pakistani-descent lawyer who studied advanced law at Harvard, had been planning his speech and his appearance with Ghazala for a while now, on the Clinton campaigns invitation.

The parents of Muslim American soldier Captain Humayun Khan, who was killed in Iraq in 2004, Khizr and Ghazala Khan have emerged as the most profound repudiation of Trumps politics.

But the constitution was not part of the plan till the last moment, not until he and Ghaz ala prepared to leave their hotel for the convention venue on the outskirts of Philadelphia on July 28.

Khan spoke on Friday to HT over phone from their home in Charlottesville, Virginia, as a German TV crew interviewed Ghazala, and Al Jazeera waited outside .I discovered the copy in my coat, Khan said, as I patted myself down to make sure I was not carrying anything that wouldnt clear security  coins and keys, metallic stuff.

Khan said he mentioned the pocket-sized copy of the constitution to his wife only when they were in the car, and on their way to the convention.

I told her I am going to be speaking about the constitution (she knew his speech, had helped him edit it down from six pages to two) and wont it be nice if I showed it  kind of raised it.

Ghazala, whose silence on the stage has made as much news as her husbands eloquent speech, agreed, but told him to make sure to pull it out right, the back is totally flat.

When he flourished it on stage, watched by Trump, the immediate target, and millions, and more in replays, the book was cover-in-front, just the way Ghazala had wanted.

Life hasnt been same for the Khans since. I cant go to get a cup of coffee anymore, I cant walk on the street any more, I can t go to do shopping anymore. I try to step out and I go three feet and someone will stop me.

They will try and grab his hand, give him a hug and try and embrace him.

And then I would walk to the corner of the street and wait for the light to change, he said, when people with children would walk up and ask if they could take a picture with me.

Khan offered these observations in response to a question about how he felt about Trump, the man, he said, he had been thinking about since last year when the billionaire started his divisive campaign.
KARACHI: A 56-year-old Hindu doctor was fatally shot outside his clinic in Pakistans port city of Karachi in a crime some say was motivated by his religion. Dr Pireetam Lakhwani was shot once in his chest on Thursday. Lakhwani was rushed to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and later shifted to Aga Khan University Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries on Friday. Lakhwanis son Rakesh Kumar said his father had no personal enmities and had received no threats. A Muttahida Qaumi Movement legislator termed Lakhwanis killing a religiously motivated murder.

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NEW DELHI: Newly declassified information from a 2002 US Congressional report on the 9/11 attacks, dubbed the 28 pages, reveals an indirect link to a Saudi royal, CNN has reported.

The alleged link between alleged al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah and a company associated with Prince Bandar bin Sultan, former Saudi ambassador to the United States and a key member of the countrys royal family, was previously hidden from the American public.

The connection to Bandar was made through the phone book of Zubaydah, allegedly a recruiter for al Qaeda and a member of Osama bin Ladens inner circle, who was captured in Pakistan in 2002. In it, the FBI found numbers linked to the US, including an unlisted number for a company that managed Bandars estate in Aspen, Colorado. An unlisted number was also found for a bodyguard who worked at the Saudi embassy in Washington.

Both of those numbers were unpublished, so they had to have gotten into Zubaydahs phone book through a personal contact who knew what those numbers were and what they represented, said former Sen. Bob Graham, co-chair of the congressional commission that compiled the 28 pages. The CIA and FBI had concluded that there was no evidence anyone from the Saudi royal family knowingly provided support for the 9/11 attacks.

But Graham said the indirect connection to the respected former Saudi ambassador was one of the most stunning parts of the investigation and worthy of pursuing further.

Bandar was the Saudi ambassador to the US from 1983 to 2005, during the Ronald Reagan, George H W Bush, Bill Clinton and George W Bush administrations. He later served as secretary general of Saudi Arabias National Security Council and head of Saudi Arabias General Intelligence Presidency, the equivalent of the CIA, until last year. He was known to have the closest relationship with George HW Bush, because of Iraq s invasion of Kuwait in the 1990 Gulf War. Saudi Arabia viewed the Iraqi aggression as a threat and supported the US military action.

The declassified information detail a web of Saudi nationals living in the US who may have aided the 9/11 hijackers.

The 28 pages also raise questions about another possible link between Band ar and the attacks: the princes relationship with a Saudi national named Osama Bassnan, who was living in the US on 9/11 and was investigated to determine if he helped two of the hijackers. The declassified pages reveal previously undisclosed amounts of money that Bandar and his wife sent to the mans family.

According to a document of the 9/11 panel, Bassnan, a former employee of the Saudi governments educational mission in Washington, lived across the street from two of the 9/11 hijackers in San Diego: Nawafal Hazmi and Khalid al Mihdhar. Hazmi and Mihdhar were on the plane that crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon.

Bassnan admitted to an FBI asset that he met Hazmi and Mihdhar while the hijackers were in San Diego, then denied this in a subsequent conversation.

Neither the FBI nor Saudi embassy commented on the CNNs story.
LONDON: Britains long engagement with India means many families have historical links across generations, holding memories and memorabilia about seminal events in the subcontinentone such family will soon return an item linked with the ancient Jantar Mantar in Jaipur.

Based in Rugby, Warwickshire, the Shore family has lived across India since the mid-18th century. The foremost among them was John Shore, who was the governor-general of India from 1793 to 1797.

Many were born in India and died there, including in the 1857 uprising.

India is our home, really. It is in our bones, our hearts. We always felt alien in England, says Iain Shore, former army officer, married to Gujarat-origin Kshama, who he believes is more English than I am. He prefers to describe his family as Scottish-Irish rather than British.

One of Shores ancestors, Major Arthur Garrett of the Royal Engineers, was a keen astronomer. He was appointed assistant state engineer of the erstwhile Jaipur State by architect Samuel Swinton Jacob, who was director of the Public Works Department and built the iconic Albert Hall in central Jaipur.

Garrett was given the specific task of restoring the Jantar Mantar built by Sawai Jai Singh in the early 18th century. It was in a state of damage and disrepair in the early 19th century. Garrett, who is known for his books on irrigation and dams in India, commenced the work in May 1901, completed it in February 1902 and restored the heritage site to largely what it is today.

After my maternal grandfathers death, I received various family treasures, among which were Uncle Arthurs drawing instruments. My sister and I will present these to the director of the Albert Hall Museum in Jaipur, Shore told Hindustan Times.

It seems a more fitting repository for them to be with the structures with which they are associated, than to languish in a drawer at home, he added. Shores sister, Sandra-Suzanne Filmer, was born in Coonoor, Tamil Nadu.

Also on the agenda of Shore s visit is commemorating 100 years of the death of his father, Frank Shore, also an army officer, who died in Saharanpur in 1916. He discovered his father s grave in a neglected state during a visit in 2014 and restored it with local help.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission had tried, and failed, to locate the grave, one of two in that cemetery in which they were interested, so they will becoming to the Commemoration, and will take over maintenance of his grave thereafter. We cannot thank them enough, Shore said.

Born in Tanzania, Kshama Shore was a senior official in Britains revenue and customs department until retirement, and was honoured with an OBE in 2012 for her work in encouraging people to file tax returns. She is on the committee of Shri Krishna Mandir in Coventry.

Recalling his familys 250 years links with India, Shore said: Neither of my parents went back to India after 1944: they were dismayed by the terrible events of Partition, and by the descent of Pakistan into seemingly intractable pseudo-religious stupidity and disastrous corruption.

But they were later buoyed by India s climb to progress and modernity after the neo-communist dalliances of Nehru had been discredited and ditched by his successors, he added.

Shore said family and cultural interests draw them most often to India, where he says he shouts at people for dropping litter, and takes the management of tourist sites to task for service failures.

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Major General George H. Thomas, 48-year-old commander of the Department of the Cumberland, and Brigadier General James H. Wilson, the 27-year-old chief of cavalry of the Military Division of the Mississippi, sat huddled over supper at Nashvilles St. Cloud Hotel on the night of December 12, 1864. Wilson, the Washington authorities treat me as if I were a boy, Thomas lamented. They seem to think me incapable  of fighting a battle.

That night, Thomas was a commander faced with too many enemies. A few miles south, Confederate General John Bell Hoods Army of Tennessee stood on the outskirts of Nashville, where a winter storm had coated the hills with a paralyzing blanket of ice and snow. Thomas, meanwhile, was also besieged by demands from Washington, and from Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grants headquarters at City Point, Va., to attack Hood or lose his command. If they just leave me alone, he told Wilson, I will show them what we can do. Thomas would be left alone just long enough to deliver on that promise, destroying Hoods Army of Tennessee in the Battle of Nashville on December 15-16, 1864.

Events foreshadowing the fight at the Tennessee state capital began as Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman set out on his March to the Sea. To protect Tennessee from a thrust by Hood, Thomas was given command of a patchwork army of 29,000 men of the IV and XXIII corps under Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield, along with 6,500 cavalry led by Wilson.

At Spring Hill on November 29, a Rebel trap nearly snapped shut on Schofield. But the next day at Franklin, 18 miles south of Nashville, Hoods 30,000-man army suffered 7,000 casualties in head-on assaults against Schofields entrenched troops. Still, Hood continued to advance his army toward the defenses of Nashville, where Thomas was concentrating his forces. In addition to Schofields and Wilsons men, plus 4,000 capital garrison soldiers, Maj. Gen. James B. Steedmans 5,200 troops were marching from Chattanooga and 9,900 Army of the Tennessee veterans, led by Maj. Gen. Andrew J. Smith, were en route from Missouri.

The feud between Thomas and his superiors had begun percolating the morning of the Franklin battle. From Nashville, Thomas wired Schofield that Smiths full force had not yet arrived, asking, Do you think you can hold Hood at Franklin for three days longer? Schofield responded before the battle: I do not believe I can. I can doubtless hold him one day, but will hazard something in doing that. Regarding Maj. Gen. Nathan B. Forrest and his 8,000 troopers, Schofield added, I have no doubt Forrest will be in my rear tomorrow  . Thomas instructed Schofield to be prepared to march to Nashville.

On December 1, Thomas telegraphed Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck, chief of staff in Washington: I determined to retire to  Nashville  .If Hood attacks me here, he will be more seriously damaged than he was yesterday  . The next morning, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton wired Grant, the Federal general-in-chief, in Virginia, The President feels solicitous about the disposition of General Thomas to lay in fortifications for an indefinite period  the President wishes you to consider the matter.

The military styles of Grant and Thomas were simply at odds. It was Thomas men who had smashed the Army of Tennessee atop Chattanoogas Missionary Ridge, but Grant fumed at the generals caution. Nor was Grant alone. At the wars beginning Sherman predicted, [Thomas] will do it well  he was never brilliant but always cool, reliable, and steady  maybe a little slow.

After Stanton penned his December 2 message, Grant prodded Thomas, If Hood is permitted to remain quietly about Nashville, you will lose all the [rail]road back to Chattanooga  . Grant soon wired Thomas again and complained, After the repulse of Hood at Franklin  we should have taken the offensive against the enemy where he was. Thomas explained that Schofield had retreated before an attack order could be delivered, and piqued Grant by explaining, It must be remembered that my command was made up of the two weakest corps of General Shermans army and [much] dismounted cavalry  in a few more days I shall be able to give him a fight.

By December 3 Thomas had positioned his infantry in entrenchments that stretched across the south of Nashville and touched the Cumberland River above and below the city. From right to left, Thomas line was occupied by General Smiths troops; Maj. Gen. Thomas J. Woods IV Corps; the XXIII Corps, led by Schofield; and Steedmans troops. Wilsons horsemen crossed north of the Cumberland to refit.

Hood, with three battered corps, could not begin to envelope Nashville, but built a line stretching from the Hillsboro Pike eastward to near the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad and Murfreesboro Pike. Hood positioned the troops of Lt. Gen. Alexander P. Stewart on his left, Lt. Gen. Stephen D. Lees corps in the center and the corps of Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Cheatham on his right.

Despite his disadvantage, the only cavalry he kept with his force was Brig. Gen. James R. Chalmers division. Forrests two other cavalry divisions and some of Cheathams infantry were sent to threaten the Union garrison at Murfreesboro, commanded by Maj. Gen. Lovell H. Rousseau. Hood wanted to force Thomas to come to Rousseaus aid and fight in the open. But Rousseau held out, and Thomas did not budge. The Union commander believed that Forrest commanded 12,000 troopers, nearly double Forrests actual numbers. Because of that, he continued to wait for Wilson to refit before moving on Hood.

Grants patience was worn out by December 6. He telegraphed Thomas: Attack Hood at once, and wait no longer for a remount of your cavalry. There is great danger of delay resulting in a campaign back to the Ohio River. Given Grants direct order, Thomas responded, I will make the necessary dispositions and attack Hood at once  though I believe it will be hazardous with [Wilsons] small force of cavalry.

The next day Grant and Stanton exchanged gloves-off telegrams. Stanton: Thomas seems unwilling to attack because it is hazardous, as if all war was anything but hazardous. If he waits for Wilson to get ready, Gabriel will be blowing his last horn. Grant: You probably saw my order to Thomas to attack. If he does not do it promptly, I would recommend superseding him by Schofield  . Thomas, meanwhile, prepared, but his definition of at once was curious. Wood recorded that Thomas intended to attack December 10.

On December 8, Union Brig. Gen. Jacob D. Cox penned in his diary, Freezing sleet and snow, covering the ground with ice and making movements impracticable. Unaware of Nashvilles weather, Grant wired Halleck, If Thomas has not struck yet, he ought to be ordered to hand over his command to Schofield. Thomas career hung by the barest thread on the 9th, a day during which 3 inches of ice-encrusted snow coated Nashville. Grant again wired Halleck, Please telegraph orders relieving [Thomas] at once and placing Schofield in command. The orders were drawn, but before transmittal, Halleck informed Grant of the storm in Tennessee. Grant recanted, I  suspend the order relieving [Thomas] until it is seen whether he will do anything.

The storm provided Thomas only a brief reprieve. On December 11, when temperatures hit 10 below zero in Nashville, Grant telegraphed Thomas, Delay no longer for weather or re-enforcements. Thomas could only reply, I will obey the order as promptly as possible, however much I may regret it, as the attack will have to be made under every disadvantage.

On December 12, aware that Grant might sack him at any moment, Thomas ordered Wilson, who had 12,500 cavalrymen, perhaps 9,000 with mounts, to return his horsemen to the south side of the Cumberland. At a council of his subordinates, he revealed Grants order to move regardless of weather, stated his determination to attack only when favorable and then asked opinions. Wilson, Wood, Smith and Steedman all agreed an attack was impossible. Most accounts leave Schofield silent, or vaguely concurring. That evening Thomas wired Halleck, It has taken the entire day to place my cavalry in position  I believe an attack at this time would only result in a useless sacrifice of life. Grant remained unsympathetic and on December 13 impulsively chose a new tact, dispatching Maj. Gen. John Logan to Nashville. If, upon Logans arrival there, Thomas had not attacked, Logan was to assume command.

At dawn on December 14, rain fell in Nashville, and fog swirled off melting snow. Thomas issued orders to his subordinates to prepare for battle the next day and penned a message to Washington, The ice having melted away to-day, the enemy will be attacked tomorrow morning  . But before Thomas message was sent, the telegraph lines fell dead, and would remain so for 24 hours.

Thomas battle plan for December 15 called for Smiths veterans to turn Hoods left flank and wheel to hit Stewarts corps along the Hillsboro Pike. Wilsons Spencer carbineequipped troopers, on the right of Smith, would be in a position to gain the rear of Hoods army if a breakthrough occurred. Woods IV Corps, to the left of Smith, would push south into the Rebel lines. Schofields corps was to remain in reserve behind Wood, and Steedmans men were to be posted defensively. Schofield, whose relations with Thomas were turbulent, thought the plan inadequate. Thomas agreed that instead of serving as a reserve to Wood, the XXIII Corps would move farther right to serve a similar role for Smith. And, rather than standing defensively, Steedman would launch a diversionary jab at Hoods right flank.

The morning of the 15th was dark and somber; a heavy fall of fog and smoke  enveloped every object in darkness, recorded Wood. Movements began at 4 a.m., but visibility was nonexistent, and Thomas chose to delay. Finally, at 8 a.m., Steedman was instructed to begin his diversion on the Union left. Colonel Thomas J. Morgans 1st Colored Brigade, with Lt. Col. Charles H. Grosvenors brigade in support, approached the Rebel flank from the northeast. Colonel Charles R. Thompsons 2nd Colored Brigade advanced from the north. By 10 a.m., Morgans force had made contact with the Rebels of Captain E.T. Broughtons brigade and Brig. Gen. Daniel C. Govans brigade. To Morgans right, canister blasts erupted from a lunette, and Govans men moved out to pour fire into the Federals other flank. Morgan ordered Grosvenors men to charge the lunette, but few reached it before falling back.

It took until 10 a.m. for Wilson and Smith to form and begin their wheel, and it was noon before the Federals approached the Hillsboro Pike and Hoods flank. On the left of Smiths infantry, closest to the pivot with Woods corps, marched the division of Brig. Gen. Kenner Garrard, and to its right swung Scottish-born Brig. Gen. John McArthurs division. Colonel Jonathan B. Moores division followed in reserve.

To the right of Smith, Wilson deployed two cavalry divisions. Brigadier General Edward Hatchs division spearheaded the troopers, while the division of Brig. Gen. Joseph Knipe followed. Most of Hatchs men advanced on foot. On the Federal far right, Brig. Gen. Richard W. Johnsons horsemen were assigned to move out the Charlotte Pike to contend with Colonel Edmund W. Ruckers brigade of Chalmers cavalry. Although the Union troopers enjoyed a 2-to-1 advantage over Chalmers, Johnson would accomplish little on December 15.

Such was not the case with Edward Hatch. In early afternoon, Thomas wheeling force finally closed on Stewarts refused flank, composed of Maj. Gen. Edward C. Walthalls division plus elements of Maj. Gen. Samuel G. Frenchs division. The Federals discovered that a series of five redoubts had been partially completed to protect Hoods left. Five hundred yards ahead was Redoubt No. 5, defended by four Napoleon cannons and 100 Rebels. Around 2:30 p.m., Hatch turned to brigade commander Colonel Datus E. Coon, calling out, Go for the fort. Colonel William L. McMillan of McArthurs division, on the left of Smiths troops, also ordered his infantry brigade forward.

The Confederates inside Redoubt No. 5 stood little chance, and Coons troopers and McMillans infantry quickly poured into the fort. The captured works became a hot place, because to the north, Redoubt No. 4 had turned its guns on the Federals. Hatchs cavalry and McMillans infantry charged northward. McArthur also unleashed the brigade of Colonel Lucius F. Hubbard toward the Rebels. The Federals made short work of Redoubt No. 4, and Hubbards infantry swept past the fort toward Walthall. Realizing he lacked support, and with Redoubt No. 3 ahead, Hubbard paused. Colonel Sylvester G. Hill, commanding McArthurs remaining brigade, however, ordered his men to charge. The brigade overran Redoubt No. 3 and went on to capture Redoubt No. 2. Moments after ordering the charge toward Redoubt No. 2, Hill was mortally wounded.

By midday, Hood had recognized the weight of Thomas lunge toward his left and ordered two brigades from Maj. Gen. Edward Johnsons division to meet the threat. But the reserves arrived only after Hatch and McArthur had attacked. Walthall, meanwhile, rushed Brig. Gen. Daniel H. Reynolds brigade from the right of his divisions line to the left in order to counter a Union advance across the Hillsboro Pike.

As Hatch and McMillan moved on the redoubts, Brig. Gen. Joseph A. Coopers XXIII Corps brigade and Knipes cavalry division advanced. Walthalls Rebels had been badly bloodied attacking the Union lines at Franklin, and little fight was left in them. The same could be said of the reinforcements from Johnsons division. The result was that the Confederate extreme left dissolved.

Maj. Gen. William W. Lorings division, at the center of Stewarts line, fared little better. After noon, when Smiths Union infantry first closed on Stewarts left, Wood pushed his IV Corps southward, and Colonel Sidney Posts brigade of Brig. Gen. Samuel Beattys division easily took Montgomery Hill, a prominence just north of Redoubt No. 1 that had been occupied only by a skirmish line.

When the Union push on the redoubts began, Wood ordered Brig. Gen. Washington L. Elliot and the adjacent division of Brig. Gen. Nathan Kimball forward. With Colonel Edward H. Wolfes brigade also approaching from the west, Redoubt No. 1 was overrun, and Lorings line soon disintegrated.

Around 3 p.m., as his left buckled, Hood called for more reinforcements, but they only served to slow the Federals. At 5 p.m., Thomas ordered Wood to push toward the Franklin Turnpike, Hoods best line of retreat. By 6 p.m., Wood had crossed the parallel Granny White Pike and closed to within three quarters of a mile of the Franklin road, but halted because of darkness.

About two miles to the south, Colonel John Mehringers brigade of the XXIII Corps tangled with Brig. Gen. Matthew D. Ectors brigade, commanded by Colonel David Coleman, which Hood had posted along a hill (soon to become known as Shys Hill) near the Granny White Pike. In the pitch-black darkness, Mehringer took the Rebels to be a sizable force and halted. The major fighting of December 15 ended with winters early nightfall temporarily saving Hoods army.

Grant, unaware of events at Nashville, had decided to go to Tennessee, first traveling to Washington, where he arrived on the evening of December 15. With the telegraph to Nashville still down, Grant met with Lincoln, Stanton and Halleck and said he wanted orders replacing Thomas with Schofield sent as soon as possible. Lincoln and Stanton were opposed, but neither overruled Grant. The orders replacing Thomas were drawn and handed to Thomas Eckert, chief of the War Departments telegraph bureau. Lincoln and Stanton frequented Eckerts office, and Eckert knew both men well. Recalling their hesitancy about Grants order, Eckert chose to wait before sending the message.

At about 11 p.m., Thomas day-old telegram came in, stating, the enemy will be attacked tomorrow. Moments later, Eckert received another wire describing asplendidly successful attack. Eckert jammed Grants order in his pocket and hurried to Stantons home. Soon, the men headed for the White House. En route to see Lincoln, Eckert revealed Grants unsent order. Might he be court-martialed, he asked Stanton? Stanton threw his arm around Eckert, The result shows you did right. Lincoln heartily agreed.

At the Willard Hotel, Grant received a telegraph message from Thomas: I attacked the enemys left this morning and drove it from the river  .I shall attack the enemy again to-morrow if [Hood] stands to fight, and, if he retreats during the night, will pursue him, throwing a heavy cavalry force in his rear. Grant responded: I was just on my way to Nashville, but  I shall go no farther. Push the enemy now, and give him no rest until he is entirely destroyed  .Much is now expected. Stanton, too, wired Thomas: I rejoice in  the brilliant achievements of this day  we shall give you a hundred guns in the morning. The Union command was placated.

But outside Nashville that night, Hoods remaining troops constructed a 2 1/2-mile-long entrenched line among the hills. Cheathams corps formed on Hoods left, anchoring itself on the hill occupied by Ectors brigade just west of the Granny White Pike. Lee formed on the right, taking a position atop Overton Hill just east of the Franklin Pike. Stewarts decimated troops occupied the center.

Hood had made little effective use of Forrest at Franklin, and with the cavalry officer still raiding near Murfreesboro, he failed to do so the first day of battle at Nashville. Nor did Hood recall Forrests main cavalry force for the next days struggle.

That day broke with a light fog and temperatures rising into the 60s. After sunrise, Union troopers clashed with Rebel pickets along the Granny White Pike, reaffirming Hoods presence. Schofield feared a Confederate attack and pleaded for more reinforcements.

During the late morning, as rain moved into the area, Thomas snapped the stalemate on his right by ordering Wilson forward. By noon, Coons brigade was tangling with Chalmers horsemen. Chalmers requested help, and Hood sent Ectors brigade from Shys Hill. A prolonged skirmish ensued until around 3 p.m., when Hatch called up artillery. After about 50 rounds from the big guns had been fired at the Rebels, the Union troopers charged and routed the cobbled-together enemy force. The door to the rear of Hoods army had at long last been opened.

Meanwhile, around 2:45 p.m., Wood attacked the entrenchments on Overton Hill that were occupied by Maj. Gen Henry D. Claytons division of Lees corps. Posts brigade hit Overton Hill east of the Franklin Pike, with support from Colonel Abel D. Streights brigade on its right. Thompsons 2nd Colored Brigade of Steedmans division assaulted Overton Hill on the left of Post, with Grosvenors brigade supporting.

A strong skirmish line from the 41st Ohio fronted Posts brigade, followed by two battle lines, but the men bumped into the Rebels abatis and Confederate musket fire decimated their ranks. Post fell, severely wounded. Streights and Steedmans forces fared no better.

Although Woods and Steedmans efforts failed, Wilsons troopers pushed eastward behind Hoods army, while McArthur was about to bore his infantry division into Hoods left flank. The Union general believed that Shys Hill was the vulnerable key to Hoods defenses. The Confederates had placed their line on the topographical, rather than the military, crest of the prominence and had difficulty firing down the slope. McArthur approached Maj. Gen. Darius N. Couch, commanding the division of Schofields corps placed nearest to McArthurs right, seeking aid in assaulting Shys Hill. Couch, however, seemed no more interested in advancing than his corps commander.

Undaunted, McArthur ordered his division to prepare to move forward, but Thomas told him to wait until Schofields forces could cooperate. McArthur, however, did not receive Thomas instructions to wait. Thus, McArthurs entire division, first McMillans brigade, then Hubbards and Colonel William R. Marshalls, would hit the Rebels at a little past 4 p.m. Hood courted disaster by sending four brigades off of Shys Hill to help beat back Wood and Steedman, and to help blunt Wilsons advance. Only 11 battered brigades from Cheathams and Stewarts corps stretched around the hill. McMillans regiments suffered some casualties on their approach, but the steep slope of the hill protected most of them, and they plunged into a maelstrom of fighting with Maj. Gen. William B. Bates thinly spread division. [McMillans] brigade, with fixed bayonets, without a cheer or firing a shot, but with firm resolve  planted their colors on the very apex of the hill, proclaimed McArthur.

During the close combat, Confederate Lt. Col. William M. Shy, commanding a group of fragmented Tennessee regiments, fought on until felled by a bullet to the head. In death, he gave his name to the hill. As Federals swarmed over Shys Hill, Wilsons troopers approached Cheathams refused left and rear, and the combined weight of the Federal forces approaching from the south, west and north unraveled the Confederate Army of Tennessee. Claimed Bate, The [Rebel] lines lifted from either side as far as I could see almost instantly and fled in confusion. Most of the butternut-clad soldiers tried to reach the Franklin Pike, where, according to Bate, the whole army seemed to be one heterogeneous mass, and moving back without organization. Wood recalled that the Union advance rushed forward like a mighty wave, driving everything before it. Everything, that is, except Lee, who had vigorously attempted to hold his corps together. His divisions of Johnson and Maj. Gen. Carter L. Stevenson broke, but Maj. Gen. Henry D. Claytons division, the last in Hoods line, retreated with enough cohesion to offer some resistance to the onrushing IV Corps.

As Claytons troops slowed the Federals on the Franklin Pike, Chalmers and his battered horsemen struggled to hold back Wilsons cavalry on the Granny White Pike. Just as on the 15th, nightfall proved to be the Rebels lone salvation, and Wilson decided not to pursue. Over on the Franklin Pike, Wood stopped a mile north of Brentwood Pass. Lees fragile Rebel rear guard paused at 10 p.m., about seven miles north of Franklin.

The Battle of Nashville was at its end. As his troopers halted for the night, Wilson heard a galloping horse approaching from the north and made out the bulky shape of his commander. Dang it to hell, Wilson, didnt I tell you we could lick em, exclaimed an unusually animated Thomas.

Over the two days of fighting, Thomas forces had suffered 3,061 casualties. In return, the Federals had captured nearly 8,000 Confederates, killed or wounded another 2,300 and claimed 53 pieces of artillery. The Army of Tennessee was virtually destroyed.

For 10 days following the Battle of Nashville, Thomas Federals chased and skirmished with Hoods remaining troops through Franklin, Columbia and Pulaski, crossing the Harpeth and Duck rivers. The return of rain and then snow, a misdirected Union pontoon train, and a rear guard of Forrests full cavalry and a force of hand-picked infantry under Walthall all conspired to foil Thomas attempts to bag Hood.

Hoods escape rekindled Grants ire. On December 29, after Hood had crossed the Tennessee River, Thomas reported to Halleck, In consequence of the terribly bad weather, almost impassable condition of the roads, and exhausted country  it becomes necessary to halt for a short time to reorganize and refit. Thomas suggested he would wait until early spring to resume. Halleck wired Grant, There is very little hope of [Thomas] doing much further injury to Hoods army  .You will perceive that he is disposed to postpone further operations  this seems to me entirely wrong. Grant shot back, I have no idea of keeping idle troops in any place.

Over the next few months, at Grants direction, Schofields XXIII Corps joined Sherman in the Carolinas, and Smiths troops were transferred to Mississippi. Wilsons powerful cavalry force would operate largely independently for the remainder of the war. The IV Corps, last vestige of Thomas Army of the Cumberland, would move to East Tennessee in March 1865 to keep Robert E. Lees Army of Northern Virginia from escaping to the west.

In spring 1865, Grant wrote his friend Sherman, Knowing Thomas to be slow beyond excuse, I depleted his army  . Thomas became little more than a departmental administrator. Despite being nicknamed the Sledge of Nashville, getting a January 1865 promotion to major general in the Regular Army and receiving the thanks of Congress for his Nashville victory, George H. Thomas fighting days in the Civil War were over.

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Did a corrupt bargain between John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay steal the presidential election and overturn the will of the people?

It was a cold and snowy morning on February 9, 1825, as New York Congressman Stephen Van Rensselaer trudged through Washington, D.C., to the Capitol building, where he was about to play a pivotal role in the fate of his nation.

A very wealthy and very pious man hailing from a regal Dutch family with extensive land holdings, Van Rensselaer, who was known as the Last Patroon, was a member of the New York Federalist elite and had served as a major general of volunteers in the War of 1812. As he entered the Capitol, the elderlyand some believed increasingly senilecongressman found himself confronted by Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, two giants of the House who believed Van Rensselaer held the outcome of the 1824 presidential election in his hands.

The bitter and divisive election, which pit four of the nations most able statesmenall members of the Democratic Republican Partyagainst one another, had failed to yield any one of them an electoral majority. Now the responsibility devolved to the House of Representatives, as mandated by the 12th Amendment, to choose one from among the top three electoral vote-getters: Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams and William Crawford. By all counts, none of the three had the requisite majority of state delegations to win.

Van Rensselaer had supported Crawford in the election and been strongly opposed to Adams, who had left the Federalist Party before the War of 1812. His New York delegation was split, just one vote short of giving Adams the majority, which would then hand him 13 out of 24 states and the presidency. Over the next few hours in the Capitol, Clay and Webster worked on the old man, arguing that Crawford could not win. It must be Adams or Jackson, and Adams was the only responsible choice. They used all the persuasion they could muster, playing on the veterans patriotism and warning against stalemate, dissolution and anarchy.

The meeting completely unnerved Van Rensselaer. As he took his seat in the House chamber, awaiting the ballot box to reach him, he felt as if the full weight of the Union rested upon his shoulders.

Monroe Leaves Office

The 1824 election signaled the end of the Era of Good Feelings, a nearly decade-long period of relative political harmony that saw the dissolution of the Federalist Party and the country firmly united behind the Democratic-Republican Party.

As the nation grew and the voting base expanded, more Americans wanted a say in how their leaders were selected. Reforms driven by war veterans, journalists, immigrants, laborers and frontier settlers cut into the influence of the old regime of well-born Eastern landowners and spelled doom for the Federalist Party, which opposed the expansion of suffrage in several states and tepidly supported Americas effort in the War of 1812. The partys end came in 1816, when its presidential nominee, New Yorker Rufus King, was decisively defeated by Virginian James Monroe of the Democratic-Republican Party.

While Federalism vanished as a political movement, its principles endured and continued to influence national policy as Republican leaders began adopting several of the Federalists basic tenets. President James Madison had committed Jeffersonian heresy by backing the Second Bank of the United States and the tariff of 1816. Monroe, much to the dismay of hardline Democratic-Republicans, shifted the party to the center by signing bills for internal improvements and higher tariffs. The Panic of 1819a financial crisis marked by bank failures, foreclosures and declines in manufacturing and agriculturealong with the controversy of Missouris 1820 admittance to the Union as a slave state, stirred national discontent. Openly hostile partisanship remained unusual, but in this atmosphere a controversial presidential election could prove to be a serious challenge to the durability of the republic.

Still, Monroe was reelected in 1820, winning every electoral vote but one. Monroes cabinet was extraordinary as the cream of Americas second generation of leaders occupied the highest positions: Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, Treasury Secretary William Crawford and Secretary of War John C. Calhoun. With different degrees of ambition, all three men had designs on the presidency.

John Quincy Adams followed his fathers lead into public life, serving as a senator from Massachusetts and then as a minister to several nations. He was on the 1814 diplomatic mission to Ghent, Belgium, to broker peace with Great Britain, and his foreign policy experience made him a logical choice as secretary of state. Adams influenced Monroe to declare opposition to further European colonization of the New World and negotiated the purchase of Florida from Spain in 1819, which helped soothe tensions over the fact that General Andrew Jackson had seized control of the peninsula the year before. Adams wished to be president. Nevertheless, he would not ask for the office or campaign for it.

John Caldwell Calhoun, born in 1782 in South Carolina, was the youngest and most handsome of the candidates in 1824. The Scots-Irish Calhoun was first elected to the state legislature in 1807, and then the House of Representatives in 1810. In the House, he was one of the most fervent supporters of the War of 1812. In 1817, at 35, he became Monroes secretary of war. Calhouns competence and charisma made him a rising star within the party, and he was almost universally admired by radicals, nationalists and even Federalists. Adams at first assumed Calhoun would support him for president, but soon politicians in South Carolina and Pennsylvania announced their support of a Calhoun candidacy.

The third candidate from within Monroes cabinet, William H. Crawford, was born in Virginia in 1772. His family moved to Georgia in 1783, where he was admitted to the bar in 1799. He served in the U.S. Senate from 1807 to 1813 and then as minister to France until 1815, when President James Madison appointed him secretary of the treasury.

Had he so chosen, Crawford might have become president in 1816 but he deferred to Monroe and retained his position as treasury secretary, probably expecting to become heir to the Virginia Dynasty at the end of Monroes presidency.

Crawford secured his support within the party by distributing patronage and coaxing Western banks with deposit money from public land sales. He soon realized Adams and Calhoun would be his presidential rivals, and fiercely opposed their policies. Adams suspected Crawford of attempting to undermine the negotiations with Spain for Florida. Also, contemplating a potential Jackson candidacy, Crawford was the most vocal member of the cabinet in favor of censuring the general after his seizure of Florida.

A formidable candidate, Crawford possessed personal magnetism that attracted some of the best people of the day. He had Thomas Jeffersons private support, and a young senator from New York, Martin Van Buren, would manage his campaign. Outside Monroes cabinet, two more contenders emerged: Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay.

Jackson participated in the Tennessee Constitutional Convention and served his adopted state as a judge and in the militia, then as a congressman and senator. In the War of 1812, he was commissioned a major general of U.S. volunteers, crushing the pro-British Creek Indians in 1814 and usurping most of their land. He became a national hero in the Battle of New Orleans and again took center stage in 1818 when, acting on open-ended directives from Monroe and Calhoun, he invaded Spanish Florida, attacking hostile Seminoles, executing a couple of British agents and capturing the towns of Pensacola and St. Marks to effectively end Spanish control of the territory.

Jackson was condemned publicly by Crawford and Clay and privately by Calhoun over his Florida invasion. In Congress in 1819, four motions were put forward to censure Jackson. Although all four were rejected, Jackson came to view both Crawford and Clay as corrupt, power-grubbing villains.

I hope the western people will appreciate his conduct accordingly, Jackson said of Clay, adding, You will see him skinned here and I hope you will roast him in the West.

The criticisms of Jacksons invasion of Florida did not diminish the gratitude and love his state and the nation felt for him. On July 20, 1822, the Tennessee legislature nominated Jackson for president and then in October 1823 it elected him to the U.S. Senate.

The final candidate in the race was the passionate and charming speaker of the House, Henry Clay, born in 1777 in Virginia. As a lad in Richmond he learned the art of declamation by watching orators such as Patrick Henry in action. At 20 he moved to Kentucky, where he quickly earned a reputation as a persuasive and highly skilled attorney. In 1811, after serving in the Kentucky legislature and then in the U.S. Senate, Clay won election to the House of Representatives and, almost immediately, was elected speaker. Clay used his position in 1812 to push the country toward war with Great Britain, and in 1814 he joined Adams on the diplomatic mission to Ghent to end the war. Clay expected a high-level appointment as his reward, but Monroe instead selected Adams to be his secretary of state. Returning to the House of Representatives, he was determined to use his power to build opposition to the administration.

Clay became The Great Pacificator in 1820, when he marshaled support for the Missouri Compromise, which brought slave state Missouri and free state Maine into the Unionand probably saved the nation from dissolution. He spent the next few years building support for his American System, a policy that was based on internal improvements, high tariffs and a national bank.

As for his 1824 presidential strategy, Clay realized he was not strong enough in the North to beat Adams or strong enough in the South to beat Crawford. But, he believed, he didnt need to beat either man, he just needed to finish third. If, as appeared possible, no candidate earned a majority of the electors, the decision would move to the House, which would choose a winner from among the top three candidatesand Clay ruled the House. If I get into the House I consider my election secure, he stated in early 1824.

A Contest for the Presidency

In the late summer of 1823, Crawford suffered a stroke which left him helpless, speechless, nearly blind, and scarcely conscious, and dramatically altered the presidential contest. Secluded to rest and recover as much as possible, his allies tried to downplay his affliction and kept the campaign alive. In February 1824, Crawfords supporters attempted to trump the other candidates by calling for a congressional Democratic-Republican Party caucus to nominate the presidential and vice-presidential candidates.

State legislatures, rival politicians and hostile newspapers criticized the scheduling of a caucus, arguing that too many people had too much at stake to permit an elite few to determine the next president. Of the 261 members of the House and Senate, only 66 attended the caucus. As expected, Crawford won the caucus presidential nomination with 64 votes. Albert Gallatin earned the vice-presidential nomination with 57 votes. Spectators in the galleries offered faint applause and a few hisses. Crawford received no boost from the nomination.

Meanwhile, Jackson was gaining support in Pennsylvania, the state Calhoun was counting on to serve as his anchor in the North. Momentum grew and the March 4 nominating convention in Harrisburg handed Jackson an overwhelming victory. At this point, Calhoun wisely bowed out of the race, allowing his name to be offered as a vice-presidential candidate.

Gallatin eventually was forced to withdraw his candidacy as a great clamor had arisen over the fact that he was Swissborn, and did not come to America until 1780.

While all of the presidential candidates were Democratic Republicans, clear policy differences existed. Crawford stood out as a small government free-trader. Jackson favored a judicious tariff, but opposed a national bank and most internal improvements. The other candidates were pro-tariff, pro-bank and pro-internal improvements. Ultimately, biography dominated the election: Adams, the dignified Northern statesman; Crawford, heir to the Virginia Dynasty; Clay, the Great Compromiser from the West; and Jackson, the war hero.

Although the nationwide electorate had expanded, its composition varied greatly by state. Still governed by its 1663 colonial charter, Rhode Island had the most restrictive voting requirementownership of land worth at least $134. Jacksons Tennessee claimed the most liberal voting requirements. There a free-holder could vote as soon as he entered the state, men without land could vote after living in the state for six months and even free blacks could vote in that slave state.

How electoral votes were distributed also varied. Of the 24 states, only 12 chose their electors through an at-large, winner-take-all popular votethe same method most frequently used today. Six states selected their electors via popular vote by district. Six states left the electoral decision solely to the discretion of the legislature, and two of those states, New York and Louisiana, proved key to the 1824 election results.

Even though Jackson was the Hero of New Orleans, Clay had strong support among Louisianas political elite. He was expected to carry the state, but when the legislature met in December, two of his supporters were absent. Then, as rumors spread that Clay had dropped out, some of his supporters cast votes for other candidates. Ultimately the state awarded three electoral votes to Jackson and two to Adams.

In New York, after much debate, compromise and bargaining, the legislature assigned 25 electors to Adams, seven to Clay and four to Crawford. But when the electors reported to cast their ballots, half of Clays were absent or had switched their vote to another candidate. The result was Adams 26, Crawford five, Clay four and Jackson one.

To win the general election, a candidate needed 131 electoral votes. The final electoral tally added up to a surprising result. Jackson not only won Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi, as expected, but also all of the electoral votes of North Carolina, South Carolina, New Jersey, Indiana and Pennsylvania. He carried the majority of electors in Maryland, Illinois and Louisiana, as well as his one vote in New York, for a total of 99 electoral votes. Adams swept New England, dominated New York and carried minorities in Illinois, Maryland and Louisiana for 84 votes. Crawford won Georgia and Virginia, with additional votes in New York and Maryland totaling 41 electors. Clay finished fourth, winning Kentucky, Ohio and Missouri, in addition to his four New York votes, for a total of 37.

Calhoun easily won the vice presidency with 182 electoral votes, winning 14 states outright and majorities in three others. The country had elected a vice president, but not a president. It was now up to the House of Representatives.

What Happened to Henry Clay?

Clay, always an optimist, soothed his distress at his failure to win the presidency with the pride of becoming a president-maker. Supporters of other candidates, seeking Clays favor, boosted him with high praise. As Crawfords illness clearly rendered him unable to serve, it came down to a choice between Jackson and Adams. Clay needed little time to decide.

Adams and Clay had had their differences, but they ultimately respected one anothers abilities. On the other hand, Clay harbored little affection for and no confidence in Jackson. He considered him a mere military chieftain whose accomplishment of killing 2,500 Englishmen at New Orleans did not qualify him for the various difficult and complicated duties of the chief magistrate. Clay saw Jackson as an American Napoleon or Caesara phony democrat who would use his military credentials to seize control and establish a tyranny.

On January 8, 1825, Clay confided to friends his decision. The next day, he met with Adams for three hours. No one knows what truly transpired, but Adams wrote it was to satisfy [Clay] with regard to some principles of great public importance, but without any personal considerations for himself.

On January 24, the Kentucky delegation announced it would support Adams, even though the state legislature had instructed its congressmen to vote for Jackson as Adams had not received a single popular vote in the state. While he had finished third behind Jackson in the popular vote in Ohio, another Clay state, its delegation also backed Adams. Sensing what was happening the Jackson forces struck back.

On January 25, a letter in Philadelphias Columbian Observer from an anonymous congressman gave a brief account of such a BARGAIN as can only be equaled by the famous Burr conspiracy of 1801. The letter writer claimed that Adams supporters had sent a message to Clay supporters offering an appointment to secretary of state in exchange for Clays support in the House vote. Allegedly, Clays friends then took this offer to Jacksons men, seeking a counteroffer. But none of the friends of Jackson would descend to such mean banter and sale.

Incensed by the charges, Clay issued a statement in the National Intelligencer on February 1: I pronounce the member, whoever he may be a base and infamous calumniator, a dastard, and liar; and if he dare unveil himself, and avow his name, I will hold him responsible, as I here admit myself to be, to all the laws which govern and regulate men of honor.

Two days later, Pennsylvania Congressman George Kremer stepped forward, stating he was ready to prove the truth of the accusation. However, when called to appear before an investigative committee, Kremer refused and the probe was dropped. Clay, considering Kremer a dupe under the influence of Jacksons men, decided not to call Kremer to the field of honor.

Meanwhile, Clay and Adams continued to garner support in the House. Congressman John Scott was the only member from Missouri, a state Clay had carried decisively. Missouri Sen. Thomas Benton was a cousin-in-law and supporter of Clay, but he preferred Jackson to Adams for president, and attempted to influence Scott to support him. Scott had apparently told Benton that he would not support Adams. However, on February 5, he wrote to Benton: Notwithstanding the conversation we had on Thursday evening and on Friday, from which you might justly conclude that I would not vote for Mr. Adams, I am now inclined to think differently, and unless some other change in my mind takes place, I shall vote for him.

Immediately, rumors spread that Scott sought patronage for his brother, a judge in Arkansas territory whose career was in jeopardy following a notorious duel. An outraged Benton answered him on February 8: The vote you intend thus to give is not your ownit belongs to the people of the State of Missouri. They are against Mr. Adams.Tomorrow is the day for your self-immolation. If you have an enemy, he may go and feed his eyes upon the scene; your former friend will share the afflicting spectacle. In spite of this stinging rebuke, Scott would still vote for Adams.

Other states fell into place for Adams. In Louisiana, Clay supporters regrouped, delivering that state to Adams. Illinois lone, lame-duck representative, Daniel Cook, gave his support to Adams in spite of heavy pressure from Jackson supporters and implied offers to become governor of Arkansas Territory. Daniel Webster helped in Maryland, assuring Federalists that Adams would not exclude them from his administration. Consequently, the delegations of three states in which Jackson had won a majority of electors would vote for Adams.

Was it a Conspiracy?

By the time the House prepared to vote on the morning of February 9, Adams could count on 12statesone shy of victory. The New York delegation was one vote short for Adams to win and the expectation was that it would remain so. Van Rensselaer, a strong Crawford supporter, had previously given his word of honor that he would not vote for Adams, but now he wasnt sure.

As Van Rensselaer sat in the chamber awaiting the vote, Van Buren, Crawfords campaign manager, hovered anxiously about his seat. Clay, striding down the aisle, paused when he reached the chair of Van Rensselaer, bent down and whispered in his ear, and then took his seat.

Van Buren would later recount in his autobiography that when the voting commenced, Van Rensselaer slumped forward and closed his eyes, praying for divine guidance. Opening his eyes, he spotted a discarded ballot laying on the floor. Taking this to be the guidance he had just prayed for, he picked up the ballot, read the name and placed it in the ballot box.

When the vote was complete, Webster and John Randolph counted the ballots. Most members and observers had expected a long and drawn out process involving several ballots, similar to the 1801 experience when it required 35 votes before Jefferson finally won. However, on the first ballot, with Van Rensselaers vote, the New York delegation went for Adams, giving him the 13 states needed. The election denouement was shocking to all. The cards were stacked, Randolph bitterly remarked.

With the announcement of Adams victory came a sudden burst of applause from the galleries, followed by some hissing. Horrified, Van Rensselaer stumbled to his feet, crying Forgive me! A young spectator replied contemptuously, Ask your own conscience, General, not me.

Adams, upon learning the news, said, May the blessing of God rest upon the event of this day. It wasnt the popular confirmation he had so desired, but he would seize the opportunity nonetheless.

The evening after the vote, the Monroes hosted their final reception at the White House. Along with such luminaries as the Marquis de Lafayette, Samuel Morse and the British Earl of Derby Edward Stanley, Adams, Calhoun, Webster and Clay, were all in attendance. All eyes were riveted on Jackson when he arrived. When he offered his hand to Adams in congratulations, there was a collective sigh of relief. The defeated candidate had accepted the verdict.

The good will did not last long, however. The next week, President-elect Adams announced he wanted Clay to be his secretary of state, a baffling move considering the intense scrutiny both men were under. Congressman Kremers accusation of a backroom deal now seemed to carry weight.

On February 14, a bitter Jackson wrote to his friend, Major William B. Lewis: So, you see, the Judas of the West has closed the contract and will receive the thirty pieces of silver. His end will be the same. Was there ever witnessed such a barefaced corruption in any country before?

Perhaps the fact that it was so barefaced suggests it actually was not a corrupt bargain. Clay was a proven statesman of the highest caliber, and he and Adams shared many political views. His selection was understandable. But the circumstances were ripe for conspiracy theories.

Jackson had won the popular and electoral vote, yet another had ascended to the presidency. Something corrupt must have occurred, insisted his supporters.

The dark clouds of conspiracy never left the administration, and the disputed election severely weakened Adams, who was derisively called the Clay President. His brave new proposals, including a national bankruptcy law, a national university and a Department of the Interior, would all be defeated. A far-sighted effort on Clays part to nominate U.S. ministers plenipotentiary to participate in the Congress of Panama was delayed and debated at length, resulting in the ministers not reaching Panama until after the convention had adjourned.

With the disputed election, a new era of partisanship was born, causing the Democratic-Republican Party to disappear, replaced by two new political parties. The supporters of Adams and Clay would become the National Republicans, and the supporters of Jackson, Crawford and Calhounwho as vice president was embarrassed to be associated with the Adams Administration would become the Democrats.

Van Rensselaer continued in the House until 1829. He founded the Rensselaer School in 1824 in Troy, N.Y., and continued to contribute to New York society until he died in 1839.

Remarkably Jackson, who was quick to anger, quick to draw conclusions and unyielding in his beliefs, accepted his defeat and was determined to correct it through the electoral process. He resigned his Senate seat in October 1825 and was almost immediately again nominated for president by the Tennessee legislature. He and his supporters knew that the next election would leave no room for corrupt bargains.

With his bitter loss in the tainted 1824 election, Jackson had become a symbol of the popular will struggling against elitist power brokers and gave rise to a new era of democratic development and growing respect for the common man that would forever bear his name. By 1828, both he and the popular will could no longer be denied. And, in the end, Clay was wrong about Jackson, who turned out to be no Caesar or Napoleon, no military chieftain, but rather a true American democrat.
The 7th U.S. Infantrys most powerful foe was John Barleycorn.

BY THOMAS P. LOWRY

In July 1861, three months after the bombardment of Fort Sumter, the 7th Infantry was in southern New Mexico Territory. Companies A, B, D, E, G, I, and K garrisoned Fort Fillmore, the regiments headquarters. Companies C, F, and H were on their way there from Fort Craig to the north and Fort Buchanan to the west (in present-day Arizona).

Meanwhile, menace was heading north from Texas in the form of Confederate Lieutenant Colonel John R. Baylor and the 350 men of the newly formed Texas Mounted Rifles. Baylor knew that the 700 Federals already at Fort Fillmore outnumbered him, but he marched up the Rio Grande Valley anyway.

He need not have worried about the U.S. Army Regulars of the 7th Infantry. Although their commander, Major Isaac Lynde, a 34-year veteran of infantry service, had been informed of the Confederate advance, he posted only the usual sentinels and no outlying pickets. Baylor was able to camp a mere 600 yards from the Union fort on the night of July 24 while he prepared for a dawn assault. During the night, a Confederate soldier who had served in the U.S. Army before the war felt a twinge of nostalgia, perhaps, and crept through the darkness to warn the Union forces.

When Baylor realized he had lost the element of surprise, he fell back to Mesilla, a village that his troops occupied, just northwest of the fort, and prepared for an attack by the 7th. Some of the villages inhabitantsmostly Confederate supporters but a few Texan-hatersgathered on a nearby hill to watch the fight they knew was coming.

Sure enough, Lynde advanced on the village that day and ordered a charge on the Confederates. But when four of his Federals were killed and seven wounded early in the fight, Lynde called off the attack and withdrew. He had the post at Fort Fillmore burned, and the next day, his seven companies of infantry and two companies of mounted rifles began a 150-mile march northeast over steep mountains and dry pinon forests toward Fort Stanton.

On July 27 Lyndes 700-odd Federals stopped to eat at San Augustin Springs in the San Andres Mountains. Displaying what a Union officer later called a sublimity of majestic indifference, Lynde failed to post pickets. An advance guard of Texans soon made him pay for that oversight. The Texans first encountered the 200 troops of Lyndes rear guard. Many of these Union soldiers had filled their canteens with whiskey before leaving Fort Fillmoreand emptied them along the march. The Texans found the Federals strung out along the trail, dehydrated, too drunk to walkmuch less fightand barely able to comprehend that they were being captured. The drunken prisoners were hauled back to Mesilla in wagons, like sacks of wheat.

Next, the Texans reached Lyndes main force and demanded surrender. The Federal officers knew their troops far outnumbered the ill-trained Texans, and they implored Lynde to let them defend their position and their honor. But Lynde chose to surrender. In an attempt to salvage, literally, some shred of honor, the Union officers saved their regimental colors from capture by tearing them up and distributing the pieces among themselves as keepsakes.

Three days later, the Union prisoners reached Las Cruces, where they were paroled and began a 300-mile march to Fort Union, the Unions key military post between Missouri and California, located in the northeast corner of New Mexico. The northward route was a formidable one through areas short on food, forage, and water. Even today, landmarks along the route are known by names like Starvation Peak. When the parolees reached the fort, they were immediately put to work, even though they had just hiked most of the length of New Mexico.

Fort Union was an attractive target to Trans-Mississippi Confederates. It was a huge supply depot with adobe warehouses full of gunpowder, rifles, artillery, uniforms, and foodand there were no fortifications to protect these valuables. So there they sat for the taking, only a two-day ride from the border of Confederate Texas. Attack could come at any time across the Oklahoma panhandle, or through the windswept grassland of western Texass Llano Estacado, or up the Rio Grande Valley. To make matters worse for the Federals, Confederate agents had enticed Cheyenne and Arapaho chiefs along the Santa Fe Trail to take the warpath for Jefferson Davis, thereby cutting off Fort Union from the eastern states.

By the summer of 1861, it began to appear that the Civil War could last a long time, and not only in Virginia. In early August, volunteer soldiers from New Mexico joined the U.S. Regulars at Fort Union to make a total force of more than 1,000 men.

The newly arrived men of the paroled 7th Infantry were not allowed to fight; parolees were sworn not to fight until an equal number of enemy prisoners were released in exchange for them. But nothing kept them from moving dirt. Just south of the old Fort Union parade ground, 200 men worked four-hour shifts plying picks and shovels, sweating in the summer sun, panting in the thin mountain air. They were turning the defenseless supply depot into a state-of-the-art four-bastioned rectangular polygon with inner redans and outer lunettes.

Not all of the 7th Infantrys time at Fort Union was spent digging; court-martial records show that. Just over the hill south of the fort, on the banks of the Mora River, was the village of Loma Parda, though the term village is an exaggeration. Loma Parda was nothing more than a dance hall, a bar, and a few small buildings that each held one bed and one prostitute.

Apparently the villages temptations were too strong for many of the 7th Infantrymen to ignore. I went to Loma Parda for my overcoat, which I had left there, wrote Michael Patton. A few of my friends asked if I would like to have something to drink. I said yes. I got into a house where I thought my overcoat was and got a drink. I didnt know anything for ten hours. When I woke up, my money was gone. Then I started home.

Patrick McKenney was convicted of being absent without leave for five days. As an excuse, he offered, I had the D.T.s. Jeremiah Nolan, Patrick OBrien, Edward OBrien, Michael Smith, and John Marks were convicted of being AWOL for two days. James Lloyd, tried for the same offense, explained, I went to Loma Parda on Sunday and intended to come right back, but met some of the boys and got drunk. When I got sober, I came back. Corporal Robert Walsh got drunk and released several men imprisoned at the fort. Each of the convicted visitors to Loma Parda were sentenced to three months of hard labor while wearing a 12-pound iron ball attached to the left ankle by a four-foot chain.

By the end of August 1861, the new Fort Union was in a condition to withstand a serious assault. Most of the 7th Regiment was ordered to proceed to Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis, Missouri, whence they would eventually continue to noncombat posts along the Great Lakes. They were to leave Fort Union on September 19 and pass Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, along the Mountain Branch of the Santa Fe Trail.

A wagon train assembled in the plains just northeast of the fort several days before the 7ths scheduled departure. Private Thomas Hamilton, assigned to guard the wagon train on the night of September 17, left his post, hiked into the fort, got drunk, and was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and leaving his post. The same night, another guard, Private Michael Runnels, was caught drunk on duty.

Two days later, the 7th Infantry headed for St. Louis, the advance guard scouting for danger and the rear guard alert for stragglers. On the night of September 23, the regiment camped near the Purgatory River in northern New Mexico, in an area probably filled with Confederates and hostile Indians. Private John Moloy, stationed as a sentry, was found sound asleep and was arrested.

Continuing its journey east, the 7th Infantry stopped at noon on October 2 for a rest along the banks of the Arkansas River in southeastern Colorado, a few miles upriver from Fort Wise. Proverbial wisdom has it that music soothes the savage breast, but this adage found no proof in Sergeant Hubert Auberly, the 7th Infantrys chief musician. Hubert had been taking an occasional nip from his whiskey bottle during the mornings plodding progress. As his peers settled along the riverbank for their repast, the sergeant lurched out of the Auberly family wagon and began to curse those about him. Private J. Isom responded in kind to the verbal barrage, apparently underestimating Auberly, who leveled him with a single blow. Mrs. Isom hauled her battered husband back into their family wagon, and he was heard from no more.

Lieutenant F.I. Crilly arrived at the scene and, noting Auberlys stare of drunken belligerence, ordered the sergeant back into his wagon. There Auberly stayed for a while, nursing his tendency to sullen outrageand his whiskey bottle. Feeling a renewed vigor, he reemerged drunker and noisier than before, apparently inflamed by the sense of having been mistreated, which seems to characterize the more obnoxious species of drunkard.

Crilly returned to the fray and had the guard arrest Auberly. The chief musician, however, broke from his captors, splashed across the river, and outran them in the thick underbrush. Many hours later, he emerged from bushes eight miles away and walked directly into his regimental commanders camp, where he was arrested a second time and put into more effective confinement.

Judging by court-martial records, peace seems to have settled over the regiment for the next two weeks. There was not another arrest until the evening of October 17. The regiment had paused for the night at Camp Number 29, apparently halfway between Fort Wise and Fort Leavenworth. As the corporal of the guard made his rounds of the camps periphery, he noticed that Private Hugh Campbell was too drunk to stand up straight, not to mention resist an approaching enemy.

After having Campbell arrested, the corporal came upon another drunk sentry, Private James Quigley. He sent Quigley to join Campbell in the guard tent. A few uneventful hours later, gunfire shattered the calm of the prairie night. Private Jeremiah Shea was firing wildly into the dark at approaching Confederate raiders, but the raiders existed only inside a brain marinated in Old Tanglefoot. Shea joined Campbell and Quigley in the guard tent.

The 7th Infantry advanced past Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and Independence, Missouri, without any further arrests, reporting in at Jefferson Barracks about November 5, 1861. The couple of quiet weeks probably owed less to a change in attitude than a dearth of whiskey along the trail.

Now that the troops were in the St. Louis area, however, there was plenty of whiskeyand trouble soon followed. In just three weeks, at least five privates were reported AWOL: Thomas Dolan on November 14, Frederick Beisner and Julius Steinmayer on the 26th, Calvin Anderson on the 27th, and Frederick Winsher the following week. Winsher, Beisner, and Steinmayer all returned on December 5. While they were away, Private James Tuomey got drunk on guard duty. The corporal of the guard found him passed out around 11:00 one night.

All the miscreants arrested during the journey from Fort Union to St. Louis were court-martialed at Jefferson Barracks in a trial presided over by Captain Alfred Gibbs of the 3d Cavalry. And finally, a little more than four months after he surrendered his command at San Augustin Springs, Major Lynde was summarily dismissed from the army by President Abraham Lincoln.

On arrival at its Great Lakes destination in January 1862, the 7th Infantry requested a set of colors to replace the one the men had destroyed to prevent capture. But the 7th, still on parole, had not fought in several months, so the army refused the request until the troops proved themselves.

It was not until September 1862 that the portion of the 7th Infantry stationed in the Great Lakes region was released from parole and sent to join Brigadier General George Sykess brigade in the Army of the Potomac. Three months later, Companies A, B, D, E, and G fought honorably at Fredericksburg, Virginia, below the area known as Maryes Heights. Within four weeks, the regiment received a new set of colors with suitable honors. For the men still with the unit, the shame of San Augustin Springs and the drunken march along the Santa Fe Trail had been redeemed.

Searching for a tidy, uplifting ending to the story of the 7th U.S. Infantry, it is natural to return optimistically to the three companiesC, F, and Hthat had remained in New Mexico, to chart their progress in virtue, too. Unfortunately, in late December 1862, nine soldiers from those companies were court-martialed at Fort Union. Sergeant Thomas Breen had been drunk while in charge of the battery guard. He was initially reduced to the ranks, but his sentence was remitted by Brigadier General James H. Carleton in consideration of his long service.

Eight privates were also tried on various charges. Robert McMenemy had been missing for two days, and Henry Ganton and Edward Scully had each disappeared twice. Martin Collins and James Kelly had vanished separately for three days, and Benjamin Barker, who had been working as a cook, for nine. While John McGuire had been posted as a guard on the night of November 12, 1862, he had got drunk and conducted himself in a riotous and disorderly manner. James Thompson became so intoxicated as to be incapable of performing his duty on the night of December 8, 1862. All eight privates were sentenced to hard labor while wearing a 16-pound ball and chain.

At a glance, the 7th U.S. Infantrys record looks less than impressive, but these troops were probably no worse behaved than most other Regulars steeped in the counterculture of the antebellum frontier army. The true test of a soldier is how he behaves in battle. And as the men of the 7th Infantry proved with a brave effort in the Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia, late in 1862, and in subsequent battles, they could and would fight as well as anyone. CWT

Thomas Lowry, author of The Story the Soldiers Wouldnt Tell: Sex in the Civil War (Stackpole, 1994), is a retired physician who writes about misbehavior in the Civil War.
Civil War Firearms: Their Historical Background, Tactical Use and Modern Collecting and Shooting, by Joseph G. Bilby, Combined Books, Inc., Conshohocken, Pa., $34.95.

This artfully crafted book was honored by the 1997 Small Press Book Awards as a runner-up in the history category. Civil War Firearms is a comprehensive and detailed study of the handguns and shoulder-fired weapons used by Union and Confederate soldiers throughout the war.

Joseph Bilby is a noted Civil War author and respected columnist for Civil War News. With precision and style, he describes the technical evolution and tactical employment of these deadly firearms, including fascinating coverage of surprising unconventional uses. Bilbys expertise, research and anecdotal narrative style shine through as he covers everything from smoothbores, rifle-muskets and sharpshooters to breechloading carbines, handguns and repeaters.

Both sides armed themselves as best they could during the war, resulting in a wide variety of firearms appearing on every battlefield. Many weapons were provided through haphazard government contracts, while many others were privately purchased by soldiers and officers. With so many different American- and European-made firearms in service, the lack of uniformity for maintenance and resupply of ammunition was a nightmare for ordnance officers.

Most soldiers and officers knew or understood little about their firearms. Loading and massed-volley firing were normally the extent of their expertise. With few exceptions, there was no required marksmanship training for either army. And while tactics might not have changed much since the Napoleonic era, firearms and their employment had.

The infantrymen found that firing buck-and-ball loads, one round ball and three buckshot, greatly increased the destructive power of each cartridge. Confederate cavalrymen favored revolvers and shotguns for the close-quarters combat they preferred. Some snipers armed with the Whitworth rifle were so troublesome with their long-range fire that whole artillery batteries often concentrated their fire on the snipers to silence them.

Bilby presents the complete spectrum of firearms, including the best of Colt, Henry, Spencer, Sharps and Springfield arms, as well as such laughable and forgettable failures as Cosmopolitan, Starr, Joslyn, Gibbs and Gallager. He also provides a guide to collecting and safely firing relics and reproductions and a list of supply and information sources for Civil War shooters. Lavishly illustrated with period and modern photographs, this is a valuable, useful and entertaining history of our firearms heritage.

William D. Bushnell
WASHINGTON - The Syrian military was foundering last year, with thousands of rebel fighters pushing into areas of the country long considered to be government strongholds. The rebel offensive was aided by powerful tank-destroying missiles supplied by the CIA and Saudi Arabia.

Intelligence assessments circulated in Washington that Syrian President Bashar Assad was losing his grip on power.

But then the Russians arrived, bludgeoning CIA-backed rebel forces with an air campaign that has sent them into retreat. And now rebel commanders, clinging to besieged neighborhoods in the divided city of Aleppo, say their shipments of CIA-provided anti-tank missiles are drying up.

For the first time since Afghanistan in the 1980s, the Russian military for the past year has been in direct combat with rebel forces trained and supplied by the CIA. The American-supplied Afghan fighters prevailed during that Cold War conflict. But this time the outcome - thus far - has been different.

"Russia has won the proxy war, at least for now," said Michael Kofman, a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.

More Information Insurgent groups target blockade Syrian insurgent groups launched a fresh offensive Saturday seeking to break a government siege on rebel-held neighborhoods in the city of Aleppo, opposition activists and state media said. The militants claimed they had achieved their goal while state media denied that the blockade has been breached. Associated Press See More Collapse

Russia's battlefield successes in Syria have given Moscow, isolated by the West after its annexation of Crimea and other incursions into Ukraine, new leverage in decisions about the future of the Middle East.

The Obama administration is now talking with President Vladimir Putin's government about a plan to share intelligence and coordinate airstrikes against the Islamic State and other militant groups in Syria, and Putin has thus far met his goals in Syria without becoming caught in a quagmire that some - including President Barack Obama - had predicted he would.

But even Obama has expressed wariness about an enduring deal with Moscow.

"I'm not confident that we can trust the Russians or Vladimir Putin," Obama said at a news conference Thursday.

At the same time, some military experts point out that Putin has saddled Russia with the burden of propping up a Syrian military that has had difficultly vanquishing the rebels on its own.

A CIA spokesman declined to comment about any U.S. assistance to Syrian rebels.
One year ago, federal agents raided a Houston tortilla factory and detained 11 workers. There were many laws being violated behind those factory doors. But the federal agents seemed concerned with only one - violations of immigration law.

Yet, day after day, workers had been working in temperatures of up to 100 degrees - and higher - with little access to water. When the poorly maintained machines caught fire, the workers discovered the emergency exits were locked.

And as a complaint to the Department of Labor outlined, one worker lost three fingers on a machine. Only a year later, another worker lost two fingers on the same machine. The factory's owners forced the double amputee out of his job, without compensation for his injuries or even an apology.

The owners, it appears, were more concerned with workers stealing tortillas than with the potential loss of their lives and limbs.

The federal agents who stormed the factory on Aug. 4, 2015 had investigated the company for years. As part of that investigation, undercover agents worked inside the factory. They knew about the amputations. They knew about the sweltering conditions, the broken-down machines and other unsafe practices.

But that is not what brought federal agents to the factory that day.

Instead, the officers - from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency - came to investigate violations of federal immigration law. They arrested and handcuffed 11 workers and asked them to testify against the owners of the factory for hiring undocumented workers.

The workers agreed.

But what about the locked exits and the sweltering heat? What about the disfigured workers? What about the unsafe work conditions?

As cooperating witnesses to their employer's immigration law violations, some of these workers received temporary protection from deportation. The federal agents wanted to make sure they were present to help them build their case.

On paper, similar protections are available to undocumented immigrant workers who report labor rights violations. This makes sense. Without such protections, employers can exploit unauthorized immigrant workers with impunity, banking on the fact that the workers will be too scared of the consequences to go public with their complaints.

In practice, however, workers don't receive such protections. And so, for the most part, they remain silent. But that's not right.

All victims of labor violations should be granted protections and treated with dignity and respect, regardless of their immigration status. When their rights are violated, they deserve to know that federal agents will have their backs.

Some of the Espiga de Oro workers who were victims of the raid told the Department of Labor about the abusive conditions at the factory. Their courageous actions benefit other workers - in that factory and elsewhere. These workers should be granted temporary protection from deportation not just because of their willingness to testify to immigration law violations, but also for providing valuable testimony about the egregious labor violations at the factory where they worked.

Last week, as a result of the complaint made by these workers, the Department of Labor publicly announced that an investigation found 21 "serious" health and safety violations at the factory. The federal citation of the factory is a recognition that going to work at Espiga de Oro every day has been an act of faith. "It's clear this company needs to take its employees' safety far more seriously," Steve DeVine, OSHA's assistant area director in the Houston North office, said in a statement.

As the immigrants detained in the raid well know, workers had been placing their lives at risk from exposed wires, blocked emergency exits and hazardous machinery, from which workers did not have protection. The actions of the workers who brought the complaint benefit scores of other workers and should raise awareness among employers about the consequences of ignoring their obligations to guarantee the most basic worker protections.

The United States currently has a love-hate relationship with immigrant workers. On the one hand, everyone knows they are making this country's food, cleaning offices, caring for children, building houses and doing other low-wage, often dangerous work that needs to get done. On the other hand, politicians like Donald Trump are stoking fear, racism and resentment by claiming they are undermining the working conditions for everyone else.

A simple solution is to let immigrants have the tools and confidence to report abusive employers by giving whistleblower protections to those who come forward.

All who put down roots in this country want to make it a better place. Previous generations fought for and won labor standards we all now take for granted. Given the opportunity, today's immigrants would do the same.

Labor rights need to exist in workplaces, not just on paper. Abuses against workers should not be an afterthought for federal agencies.

Ojeda is executive director of Fe y Justicia. Khalil is executive director of the Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation.
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Many of the best HR leaders in New Zealand were reaping the rewards of this approach at the 2016 Randstad Award this year.Attracting and retaining staff was a key part of the reasons why employers like the Department of Conservation, TVNZ and the New Zealand Customs Service were awarded the top accolades as Most Attractive Employer by Randstad New Zealand.Brien Keegan, Randstad New Zealands Country Manager, explained: Given New Zealands competitive labour market it is critical organisations look at ways in which they can attract, inspire and retain a team of talented and skilled individuals. Investing in their employer brand is essential and will certainly give them a competitive edge.

How HR leaders create attractive employer brands

Key to developing an attractive employer brand is understanding what potential recruits are looking for beyond just salary, to intangible benefits like long term career prospects and workplace flexibility. HR leadership means finding a match between an individuals need for job satisfaction and growth, and the skills that the organisation requires.Finding the tools to do that is very important, Keegan added.Randstad is dedicated to helping New Zealand businesses secure the best talent possible and our annual employer branding research is one of the many tools we provide to help organisations attract, engage and retain top talent, he said. Our mission is to shape the world of work in New Zealand, which means connecting great talent to companies, building successful careers and companies to people who will drive their future success.The top NZ employers were identified by the Randstad Award research  the largest independent employer branding research in the world. Randstad surveyed more than 200,000 potential jobseekers from around the world - including 7,017 New Zealanders  about their perceptions of different employers and their own motivations and employment needs.The results showed that in New Zealand, public sector organisations are perceived as being the most attractive employers overall. Education and training services, media and professional services are also popular, while IT and telecommunications are lower down the attractiveness list.Its really rewarding to see New Zealands public and educational institutions being perceived so positively as employers, Keegan said. New Zealands public services are amongst the best in the world, and our educational bodies help keep us at the forefront of cutting-edge research. This recognition will help these organisations attract and retain the best and brightest talent.
Gisele Bundchen's walk at the Rio Olympics opening ceremony had some viewers wondering if she should inspire a new Olympic event, and others pondering why it was necessary in the first place.

The the Brazilian supermodel came out of retirement to walk a very long catwalk to the song "The Girl from Ipanema" during Friday's opening ceremony.

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The strut definitely got people talking  and Googling.

According to Google Trends, following her uber long walk across the stage, searches for Bundchen's name topped its trending list.

But some viewers cringed at the model being featured so prominently.

Brazilian model Gisele Bundchen's walk across the stage at the Rio Olympics opening ceremony got mixed reactions from the public. (Photo: Franck Fife/Getty Images)

Feminist commentator Leticia Bahia criticized optics of the strut to New York Times article, saying the choice to have Bundchen represent Brazil fails to display the country's racial diversity.

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What does it say about a mixed-race country, boasting about its pride over miscegenation, to choose a supermodel who is white, ultraskinny, blond and blue-eyed to represent the women of Brazil? Bahia told the Times.

Other viewers were very pointed about the segment calling it flat-out "dumb."

Brazil has given so much more to global culture than "Gisele walking."  Dave Zirin (@EdgeofSports) August 6, 2016

Gisele is a stunning looking human but taking a LONG final catwalk strut b4 retiring from modelling in Rio opening ceremony was just weird  Denise Scott (@_denisescott) August 6, 2016

I promised myself I wouldn't say how much Gisele walking across a fucking stage was the dumbest thing. But I digressed. It was dumb.  SheBreathes (@SheBreathes) August 6, 2016

NBC also faced some flack over its generous camera cuts to the supermodel in the audience. That, among many other gripes Americans had with the network's broadcast. (Three cheers for Canada.)

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NBC can stop showing Gisele dancing in the crowd. We get it, she's there and she's dancing, but so is everyone else  Cami Mathews (@CamiMathews27) August 6, 2016

Of course, some people weren't super jazzed over the model's final sashay.

Gisele literally just walked across the stadium and it was an event  Richard Lawson (@rilaws) August 6, 2016

Gisele's still walking. She's out the stadium and heading into downtown Rio. She cannot be stopped. #OpeningCeremony  Dave Turner (@mrdaveturner) August 5, 2016

What do you think?

Also on HuffPost

Rio Olympics 2016 Opening Ceremony See Gallery
In honour of World Breastfeeding Week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted an intimate photo of his wife feeding their youngest son.

This World Breastfeeding Week, let's support mothers to breastfeed anytime, anywhere. - SGT #WBW2016pic.twitter.com/vgRMhzVY1Z  Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) August 6, 2016

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The Prime Minister's Office confirmed the photo shared by the prime minister's Twitter account Saturday is of Sophie Gregoire Trudeau feeding son Hadrien.

"Let's support mothers to breastfeed anytime, anywhere," read a caption attributed to Gregoire Trudeau.

Trudeau's office did not specify to The Huffington Post Canada when the photo was taken.

In an interview with Chatelaine earlier this year, Gregoire Trudeau admitted she was having a hard time giving up breastfeeding two-year-old Hadrien.

Other notable Canadian are stepping up to remove stigma associated with the multi-millennia practice.

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Calgary-Varsity MLA Stephanie McLean also shared a picture of her breastfeeding her five-month-old son in her office.

McLean caused a stir shortly after giving birth, as she was Alberta's first pregnant MLA and her maternity leave required shifting some of the legislature's rules.

World Breastfeeding Week runs from August 1 to 7. This year, advocates are focused on linking the practice to the United Nation's sustainable development goals project, which is aimed at improving worldwide poverty and quality of life by 2030.

Also on HuffPost

Portraits Of Breastfeeding Mothers See Gallery
If you have been paying attention to the reality television program that is the Donald Trump presidential campaign, the chattering class et al. have begun questioning his sanity. Even Republicans are turning on Trump.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, I suppose. But as members of the Republican Party beat back the rats in order to be first to jump off the seemingly sinking vessel, might they take one fleeting glance at the mirror? For there they will realize the genesis of Trump and the associated problems that plague their party.

The Trump phenomenon is not the manifestation of a single event or cause, but something that has been decades in the making. It takes time to go from the party of Lincoln to one that looks more like Andrew Jackson was its artisan. No single individual can pull that off in a single election cycle. There must be a foundation to build upon.

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Few bemoaned Richard Nixon's "Southern Strategy," which allowed Republican candidates to build support in the South by appealing to racism against African Americans.

Here's how the political operative, the late Lee Atwater, explained the seductive nature of the Southern Strategy:

You start out in 1954 by saying, "Nigger, nigger, nigger." By 1968, you can't say "nigger" -- that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states' rights, and all that stuff, and you're getting so abstract. Now, you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.... "We want to cut this," is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than "Nigger, nigger."

Where was the internal outcry when Ronald Reagan, after securing the GOP nomination in 1980, went to Philadelphia Miss. (believe it or not, Mississippi was a swing state back then), the place three civil rights workers were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in 1964, telling the all-white crowd, "I believe in states' rights"?

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What about the 1988 "Willie Horton" commercial or Jesse Helms' infamous "hands" commercial in 1990?

I understand the political reasons for such tactics; they were successful, especially when the demographics are in one's favor. One could conflate illegal immigration with the fears of domestic terrorism without reprisal. Or offer that marriage equality was tantamount to a constitutional version of the Chicken Little story and that would be plausible for a requisite number of voters to secure victory.

If one is not self-reflective, success can bring about hubris. And hubris can quickly transform one's strengths into their greatest weakness.

On Jan. 20, 2009, Barack Obama took the oath of office as the nation's 44th president. His victory was in large measure a rebuke of the previous eight years of Republican leadership in the White House, along with emerging demographics that began flexing its political muscle.

This was a moment for the Republican Party to recalibrate. Instead, according to author Robert Draper, on Inauguration Day, selected Republican members of the House of Representatives and Senate, along with former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, met with the specific purpose of derailing the new president's agenda.

They found iron pyrite (fool's gold) in the tea party and won two consecutive midterm elections convincingly. For nearly eight years they have found solace in being the party of "Neyt!" They welcomed the anger of the tea party when it suited them.

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But after the Republicans' 2012 defeat in the General Election, here's the assessment Republican National Committee Chair, Reince Priebus, provided the Washington Post:

"When Republicans lost in November it was a wake-up call. We know that we have problems. We've identified them and we're implementing the solutions to fix them."

Now, the chickens appear to have come home to roost.

Many Republicans find themselves dismayed at the prospects of a Trump presidency. But for decades, the Republican Party has played to the dark, divisive side of American politics. The country has changed, but the Republican Party has been marred by feet of clay.

Win or lose, the party will have to change. I know it's fashionable to blame Trump, but it's more complicated. The party of Lincoln looks more and more like the party of Millard Fillmore.
In a recent self-assessment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), President Obama made a recommendation to Congress to refrain from interfering with the rulings of the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) (Journal of the American Medical Association; published online July 11, 2016). I found this curious since the way the ACA is currently written, Congress has already severely limited its right to overrule this Board. The only explanations I could come up with to explain this contradiction were (1) the President did not know this fact of the ACA, or (2) the President, being a Constitutional scholar, knew that this section of the law would be at risk of severance; it may be unconstitutional due to the violation of the Constitutional doctrine of "Checks and Balances."

A review of the IPAB is thus, timely.

The Affordable Care Act calls for the formation of an Independent Payment Advisory Board. The idea is to have a group of experts with health care knowledge make decisions to reign in the cost of health care. The Board has not yet come into existence because the necessary triggering condition of a projected 5-year Medicare per capita growth rate that exceeds the targeted Medicare per capita growth rate has yet to occur.

Members of this Board will be appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. Surprisingly, any appointed member may be "removed by the President for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office, but for no other cause" (IPAB Membership requirements in the ACA). This is very different from other executive branch members who serve at the pleasure of the President; he can remove them at any time and for any reason. This gives the IPAB members significant power and pretty much makes them immune from second guessing. Even Secretaries of the Cabinet do not have this kind of immunity.

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The intent of the Board is to decide what and how much will be paid for various medical procedures and treatments. The IPAB is required to make specific recommendations to the President and Congress; the goal is "to slow the growth" in national health care expenditures. If Congress does not act on these recommendations or does not come up with alternative recommendations, then the Secretary of Health and Human Services must implement them. Only a supermajority of the Congress will be allowed to overrule the decisions of this Board. This is a high bar, especially with a Senate that is pretty evenly divided between the two major parties. Of note, the Secretary's actions cannot be modified by any administrative body. Under the provisions of the ACA, the President does not have veto power over the recommendations and the recommendations are not subject to judicial review.

By giving the IPAB such power, it allows the President and members of Congress to be immune from criticisms of the electorate. They can claim that the IPAB made the decision and there is nothing they can do about it; and they're right. This seems like a pretty clever way for the elected officials to get around the will of the people and then try to avoid accountability.



The Board members will be independent of the President, independent of Congress, and they will not be subject to Judicial Review. This may be a violation of the Separation of Powers and the doctrine of Checks and Balances, but I am not holding my breath on this claim. The Constitution requires Checks and Balances with each branch of government keeping an eye on the other. I suppose that the Congress being able to override the Board's decisions with a supermajority, while unusual, would allow the Congress to claim they are maintaining their oversite.



As for Judicial review, I would predict that the Supreme Court would hold that they could overrule any Board decisions and that the law's preclusion of judicial oversite was meant for the lower courts, not the Supreme Court. This would be consistent with the Marbury v. Madison decision which gave the Supreme Court the power to decide on a law's constitutionality (Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137, (1803).

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The IPAB has been directed to not ration care. In fact, rationing is explicitly forbidden. I am concerned, however, that the Independent Payment Advisory Board may decide to limit (ration?) Health care anyway.



Care may be denied based on financial as opposed to clinical reasons. It reminds me of societies that would send their elderly adrift in a canoe or be left alone in the wilderness with the intent of letting them die as opposed to being a financial burden on the remaining younger generation. I would hope that we, the people, would not tolerate this kind of behavior.

But if the law specifically forbids rationing of care, how could rationing still occur? For one thing, the law does not define the meaning of "rationing" in the context of the Affordable Care Act. If care is denied to everyone, then the definition of rationing is not met. The definition of "ration" is to distribute equitably or use sparingly (Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, eleventh edition). If the thing is not distributed at all, or not used at all, then it is not being rationed.



If the IPAB decides to cut payments to doctors and hospitals such that money would be lost for those who provide the care, then those providers may decide to stop seeing new Medicare patients. This denial of care to a specific population would amount to a de facto rationing.

I also believe that our Constitution, if we will continue to follow it, would not allow this as it would clearly violate the Due Process Clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. In fact, suits have already been initiated in about 20 States challenging the constitutionality of the IPAB. However, it would be unusual for a court to strike down an "advisory board" created by the Congress and signed off on by the President.

Am I being alarmist? I don't think so. In a Wall Street Journal Article from January 23, 2015, entitled Dr. Death Makes a Comeback , the writer discussed the distinct possibility that a "right to die" may be mistaken for a "duty to die." The fact that this issue was even being raised is very concerning. What if the IPAB decides that it would be cost effective to only offer "assisted suicide" or hospice care for those elderly or disabled who otherwise would require very expensive care; even if the care would be curative? As of this writing, Oregon, Washington, Montana, California, and Vermont do allow for assisted suicide.

It goes against the very premise of our free society when the government forces changes on life and liberty interests without recourse by the unwilling electorate. I suppose that we can vote in a whole new group of politicians, but this would take time. My faith in meaningful change is fading rapidly.

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For years, Israeli politicians exploited the phrase ein partner (there is no partner) in order to dodge substantive peace negotiations with the Palestinians. These days, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu keeps repeating that it's "a myth that Israeli construction in the West Bank is an obstacle to peace." But as we know, simply repeating something doesn't make it true; reality shows that the settlements are precisely that - a major impediment to peace.

As of 2016, there are over 600,000 Israeli settlers living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem: a number which has more than doubled since the Oslo Peace Accords in 1994. In fact, the Israeli government actively encourages people to move to settlements, providing subsidized housing, transport and water.

The construction of settlements, built on land that was, and continues to be, stolen from the Palestinians, is a breach of international law. Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits an occupying power from transferring its population into the occupied territory. In spite of this, Israel continues to do exactly this by expanding settlements on a daily basis. How is ongoing land theft and state-sponsored invasion not an obstacle to peace?

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In tandem with Israel supporting settlers building their houses on Palestinian land, it is expelling the Palestinians who have been living there for centuries. Israel also prevents Palestinians living in Area C - the 63 percent of the West Bank fully controlled by Israel - from building any houses. According to an OCHA report, Palestinians submitted 2,020 applications for building permits between 2010 and 2014. Of these, Israel approved only 33. At the same time, Israel demolishes the houses, schools and roads of Palestinian communities. This year alone, Netanyahu's government has flattened 660 houses and other structures, leaving almost a thousand people homeless, many of them children. How is this cruel destruction of property and livelihoods not an obstacle to peace?

Israel not only appropriates Palestinians' lands, but also controls their water resources. The result is that Israeli settlers use 370 liters of water daily per person, as a report by Palestinian human rights group Al Haq shows. Meanwhile, Palestinians only get 70 liters of water daily per person, if they get any water at all. This summer, one of the hottest recorded, Israel shut down the water supply of entire towns for over two weeks. As a result, people had to cut down on showers; farmers lost their crops; animals died. How is this inhumane policy not an obstacle to peace?

In addition to being illegal, the settlements also inflict great damage on the environment. Every year, settlers discharge 40 million cubic meters of wastewater into Palestinian valleys and agricultural land, and only 10 percent of this wastewater is treated, according to the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics. Making matters worse, many polluting factories have moved from Israel into the settlements' industrial zones. This is because Israeli oversight over the settlement industries is lax, and as a result, toxic waste often ends up on Palestinian land and in the rivers, contaminating and poisoning the areas for years to come.How is wanton destruction of the environment not an obstacle to peace?

Then there are the constant attacks on Palestinians by violent settlers. They assault Palestinians, burn down their homes, kill their sheep, poison their wells, and destroy their fields. Since January alone, there have been 97 settler attacks against Palestinians and 130 attacks against their property, according to OCHA. Over 11,000 olive and other trees have been uprooted and vandalized. The settlers commit these violent acts knowing they won't be brought to justice for it - less than two percent of all Palestinian complaints against settlers result in a conviction, according to the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din. How is ongoing injustice not an obstacle to peace?

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Of course, the settlers couldn't commit these assaults if they weren't protected by Israeli soldiers. Soldiers who will shoot at any Palestinian, but do nothing when adult settlers assault and harass Palestinian children. Soldiers who wave their loaded guns in the faces of 6-year-olds and search their school bags. Soldiers who kill Palestinians and then claim it was a 'mistake', as was the case with 15-year old Mahmoud Rafat Badrani. How is this daily violence not an obstacle to peace?
By Nancy and James Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World

If you have never been to South Africa you have to go.... but if you do, you MUST stay at ALL of The Red Carnation Hotels... The Twelve Apostles in Cape Town, and the famous Bushmans Kloof in Cederberg... nothing can compare. This family brand is revered throughout the world for its excellence in service and beauty. The Oyster Box Hotel was Voted #1 Top Hotel South Africa Trip Advisor Travellers' Choice Awards 2016

Our itinerary led us from Bushmans Kloof in Clanwilliam's Cederberg Mountains to the Indian Ocean where an oasis of beauty and relaxation is tantamount to all else.

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TravelSmith Presents: The Chuda's Out In Africa

Next Stop Durban

The sounds of the sea (warm and inviting) beckon throughout the night and the early morning light sheds its glow on the historic lighthouse which sits prominently in view.

Ocean Pool at the Oyster Box

We got up early just as the sun was rising and visited one of the most beautifully designed private libraries in all the world thanks to Toni Tollman.

The Rich History of Natal

The Lighthouse is a warning to ward off passing ships from the treacherous shores of the island, which has a long history of shipwrecks. Interesting to note, when we visited Robben Island, the place where Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years of imprisonment we learned that from his cell he gazed out at a lighthouse and later deemed, " that the lighthouse was a contradiction as both a beacon of hope and a beacon of oppression."

There is so much history that surrounds Durban and the fair land known as Natal; it is here in this medley of hills and valleys that the great Chief Shaka made into a kingdom for his Zulu people. One of the must see experiences while in Durban is the Mandela Capture Site in KwaZulu- Natal which is located near Howick.

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On 5 August 1962, police waved down a car on a lonely country road in KwaZulu-Natal. At the wheel was Nelson Mandela, posing as a chauffeur, and his arrest was the catalyst for a series of trials, culminating in the Rivonia Treason Trial that would ultimately see him spend 27 years in prison. Today this site is marked by an impressive sculpture in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands.



Fantastic Animal Life Awaits You On Safari

Three places you may want to visit during your stay at The Oyster Box

Natal is known for its beautiful safari game lodges. Wayne kindly suggested we take in the additional opportunities to see the Big 5 in this part of South Africa. He mentioned Amakhosi, Phinda and Thanda just 2.5 hours north which makes for a great diversion during an extended stay at The Oyster Box... that way you can leave the bulk of your belongings in the hotel safe and secure and just pack a few things for overnight stays.

Thanks to TravelSmith, our sponsors we were able to easily do that. My orange casual silk pullover was one thing I loved. Easy to pack. And with my Briggs &Riley TORQ International Carry On we both could manage easily with just one bag for several overnights in the bush. Plus the Tumi Monaco Travel Kits we sported enabled us to take all of our necessary toiletries. The Tumi Voyager Sling was perfect. I used it as a purse the entire trip. Great for nights dining out and in the daytime, a stroll on the beach.

Our visit to The Oyster Box included an opportunity to languish and dine on fresh oysters plucked from the sea thanks to Wayne Coetzer's brilliant hospitality and finesse (luckily no one was swept away)

"I Want More... I Want Many More... Keep Shucking Wayne!" I said.

Following our fresh oyster run and a dip in the ocean, at a special spot called Grannies pool which attracts guests and tourists to swim at ease without fear of Great White Shark attacks or undertows that can be deadly. So refreshing and SAFE for kids. Following our swim, Wayne Coetzer, (General Manager) welcomed us to my favorite cuisine in all the world..... Indian. Watch My Curry Fest with Executive Chef Kevin Joseph who is a culinary master equal, in my book to 3 Michelin stars! I have a Bombay Crush do you?

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Please dear Kevin... send me that recipe. In fact you can order The Oyster Box Curry Masala Powder Mix and they will send it... better yet go for the best Indian food in the world.

Executive Chef Kevin Joseph

Under the leadership of executive chef, Kevin Joseph, the menu is an inspired combination of enduringly popular dishes, created by Bea Tollman, president and founder of the Red Carnation Hotel Collection. Signature dishes and contemporary new creations garnered from around the world are a part of this culinary experience.

Based on a tradition of beautiful food served and enjoyed in a refined setting, diners are served from our authentic Gueridon and the classic 1920's Hors d' Oeuvres trolley with an extensive range of 18 appetizers. Simply divine! I could have made that experience my entire meal.

There is never enough time as a reporter to truly indulge in the luxurious hands on variety of treatments The Red Carnation Hotels offer at each of their hotel destinations. At each location we discovered the second most desirable addition travelers look forward to on vacation.... a day spent at the spa. The Oyster Box excels with their spa menu and products. Indian African ritual therapies have been used for hundreds of years, boosting health and healing. Their signature experiences incorporate age old wisdom and natural ingredients, combined with the latest technologies. We particularly enjoyed their special 7 Chakra massage with candles. The scented indigenous oils used throughout the treatment were so relaxing especially with sounds of the sea in the background. And following the treatment came a dip in one of the two beautiful swimming pools. The harder choice came later. Did we want to order room service on our terrace or indulge in a film in the 24-seater movie theater. Guess which one we picked?

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Bouchard Finlayson And if you love cats and miss yours don't worry... you have to meet And if you love cats and miss yours don't worry... you have to meet Kabenga the Red Carnation's most prized and loved resident.

Editor's Notes:

The Oyster Box Hotel Durban South Afirca

Address: 2 Lighthouse Rd, Umhlanga, 4320, South Africa

Phone: +27 31 514 5000
Iranian authorities reacted with anger towards the leaking of the secret agreement. This shows that how maintaining the secrecy of the deal was crucial for the Islamic Republic.

According to Press TV, the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Behrouz Kamalvandi pointed out "the parts [of the document] published were confidential and were supposed to remain so". The AEOI head, Ali Akbar Salehi stated "We do not intend to make this plan known to the public and (IAEA)'s action is a breach of promise,"

The nuclear agreement is partially like the Sykes-Picot agreement when it comes to secrecy, the untold truth and disingenuity.

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A secret agreement, obtained by the Associated Press, reveal that Iran's nuclear deal would not only lift constraints on Iran's nuclear program after the nuclear deal, but it will also do so before the deal expires as it makes it easier for Iran to achieve its nuclear ambitions.

According to the secret agreement, the deal would pave the way for Iranian leaders to advance their nuclear capabilities at a higher level and even be capable of reducing the break out capacity from one year to six months long before the nuclear agreement ends.

The Obama administration has not made this document public yet. A diplomat who works on Iran's nuclear program shared the secret document with The Associated Press. He asked for anonymity since he was not allowed to release the documents. "The diplomat who shared the document with the AP described it as an add-on agreement to the nuclear deal. But while formally separate from that accord, he said that it was in effect an integral part of the deal and had been approved both by Iran and the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, the six powers that negotiated the deal with Tehran."

Big Secret Pay Off

This document suggests that Iran can install thousands of centrifuges, five times more than what it posses currently, as well enrich uranium at much higher pace, long before the agreement expires.

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According to the Associated Press: "Centrifuges churn out uranium to levels that can range from use as reactor fuel and for medical and research purposes to much higher levels for the core of a nuclear warhead. From year 11 to 13, says the document, Iran can install centrifuges up to five times as efficient as the 5,060 machines it is now restricted to using."

"Those new models will number less than those being used now, ranging between 2,500 and 3,500, depending on their efficiency, according to the document. But because they are more effective, they will allow Iran to enrich at more than twice the rate it is doing now," says the report.

The Associated Press adds: "The document also allows Iran to greatly expand its work with centrifuges that are even more advanced, including large-scale testing in preparation for the deal's expiry 15 years after its implementation on Jan. 18.... The document is the only secret text linked to last year's agreement between Iran and six foreign powers. It says that after a period between 11 to 13 years, Iran can replace its 5,060 inefficient centrifuges with up to 3,500 advanced machines. Since those are five times as efficient, the time Iran would need to make a weapon would drop from a year to six months."

More importantly, this document and the rest of the nuclear agreement still do not explain what are the rules on Iran's nuclear proliferation after the 13 years are. The only interpretation would be that since there is no restriction indicated, then Iran will be free to do what it desires when it comes to its nuclear program, installing advanced centrifuges, enriching uranium, and obtaining a nuclear bomb.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., told reporters at the Republican National Convention "I can just say that it would not be surprising to me at all to see those restrictions in the nuclear deal lifted within 10 years or Iran violating them in the meantime....Remember, we did a similar deal with North Korea and they detonated a nuclear device only 12 years later."

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Sanctions and nuclear reliefs

At the anniversary of the nuclear agreement, July 14th, President Barack Obama pointed out that the nuclear deal has helped in "avoiding further conflict and making us safer."

The latest developments in the Middle East show that the nuclear agreement has created more tensions, conflicts as it has made Iran's military more interventionist, and aggressive in the region. The deal has definitely increased the number of conflicts and instabilities in the region. Iran has also become more emboldened in breaking diplomatic and international norms.

President Obama has ignored the new revelation downplaying it, or dodging any question linked to it. State Department spokesman Mark Toner pointed out in a Monday press briefing that "as to any alleged document, I just can't speak to it at this point in time."

The good news for the Iranian government is that it is becoming financially and economically more powerful in the meantime, thanks to the tens of billions of dollars released to Tehran, and thanks to the lifting of four rounds of UN Security Council's sanctions that allows the Iranian regime and Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IEGC) to sell oil and do business freely in the international market.

The secret agreement highlights the fact that significant restraints on Iran's nuclear program will be lifted before the expiration of the nuclear deal and it would shockingly allow Iran to install more advanced nuclear components than it ever possessed, which would "legally" and much more easily allow Iranian leaders to obtain nuclear weapons if they chose to do so.

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Meanwhile, the nuclear deal is helping Iran financially and economically to prepare itself. As some of the Iranian authorities have repeatedly said on the state media outlets - they have not given away anything on the nuclear program, and this appears to be accurate. These shortcomings need to be addressed adequately.

_____________________

Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is an American political scientist, business advisor, best-selling author, and the president of the International American Council on the Middle East. Harvard-educated, Rafizadeh serves on the advisory board of Harvard International Review. An American citizen, he is originally from Iran and Syria, lived most of his life in Iran and Syria till recently. He is a board member of several significant and influential international and governmental institutions, and he is native speaker of couple of languages including Arabic and Persian. He also speaks English and Dari, and can converse in French, Hebrew.

You can sign up for Dr. Rafizadeh's newsletter for the latest news and analyses on HERE. You can also order his books on HERE.

You can learn more about Dr. Rafizadeh on HERE.
A Democrat, who is an strong supporter of Hillary Rodham Clinton, writing this column may seem counter-productive but I believe in a strong two-party system. One in which both Party's discuss ideas rationally allowing voters to make decisions based on real information and facts, including scientific evidence. That kind of a race would help people decide in which direction they want the country to go.



At this time it appears reality is bearing down on Republicans who still believe in the Party of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and even Ronald Reagan. They are quickly understanding they are between a "rock and a hard place" with not much time to decide whether to save their Party, even with big losses, for another day or see it go down in flames with Donald Trump.

With each succeeding day Trump demonstrates he is not only a racist, misogynist sexist bully but rather is totally deranged. He is no longer a candidate one can call "plausibly different," but rather one who is incoherent and proving himself simply an out-of-control ego-maniac with no real interest in actually running the country or ability to be President.

Since announcing his campaign on June 16th with a tirade against Mexicans he has consistently made outrageous statements the press willingly glossed over and attributed to his being a 'new kind' of candidate. Those individuals who he insulted like John McCain appeared to accept those insults meekly, moved on, and even endorsed him for President. Light-weight candidates like Marco Rubio tried to trade insults with Trump and came off looking ridiculous. Not one of the other sixteen Republican candidates who announced for President figured out how to appeal to the Trump voters who didn't make up the majority of the Republican primary voters but with so many in the race were able to determine the winner.

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Trump did get more primary voters than any other Republican candidate in history. What people don't focus on is his top three primary opponents together got more votes than he did. Trump got 13,300,472 votes leaving him with the task of finding 47 to 49 million more voters if he is to have any chance of winning the Presidency. Barack Obama won in a low turnout election in 2012 with 62,615,406 votes.



The question for responsible Republicans is deciding even if he can get those votes whether they actually want that to happen. With his threat to weaken NATO, his close personal business relations with the Russians and praise of Putin and other dictators Republican leaders must decide if they will stick with the man who appears to be a dangerous and deranged ego-maniac or dump him in favor of the future of the country and the world. Not an easy choice for those who have dedicated their life to the Republican Party.

If they are honest with themselves they will accept this is a dilemma of their own making. What has become the Tea Party began in secret in the spring of 1993 with the entry of the Koch brothers. It sprang into the public realm in 2009 with the Tea Party movement's first major action, "a nationwide series of rallies on April 15, 2009, that drew more than 250,000 people. The movement kept gaining strength and its members came to congressional town hall meetings in every state and made their focus attacking any reforms to the our healthcare system." This group of Republicans has spawned Donald Trump who is even a leap-too-far for the Koch brothers who have said they cannot support him.

If Republicans of stature like Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and others want any credibility after this election is over they must do more than constantly apologize for and even criticize Trump. They must not only separate themselves from the constant vicious attacks he makes like the recent one against the gold star family of Army Captain Humayun Khan; or previous ones such as the attack against Indiana born federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel; rather they must actually rescind their endorsements of him. Anything less shows them as spineless hypocrites, clearly not the lasting image they want for themselves or their Party.



We have just three months until Americans elect their next President on November 8th. Current polling shows Hillary Clinton winning big. Three months for responsible Republicans to decide whether they will have a viable Party to take into the future after this election.
By Sara Rosati & Natasha R. Silva

LOCAL DIFFERENCE  The Africapitalism philosophy goes beyond the old concept of capitalism. For the Nigerian banker Tony Elumelu, the African private sector can transform the continent through long term investments, simultaneously creating economic prosperity and social wealth.

Weak governments are good for business. For years, global firms strongly believed in this concept, and were attracted to Africa because of the opportunities presented by poor regulation, cheap labour, tax evasion and abundant raw materials. Multinational corporations were able to expand across the continent.

Challenging the contemporary capitalism model is the goal of the so-called Africapitalism movement. This term, created by the multimillionaire Nigerian banker Tony Elumelu, is based on the idea that private investment can be transformed into social wealth.

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"The philosophy basically says that Africa's private sector should lead in the continent's development. Africa should not depend only on aid from outside," says Parminder Vir, the Chief Executive Officer of the Tony Elumelu Foundation. They believe that foreign aid to Africa did not help develop the continent, and that it stimulated corruption instead.

"If you look at the 100 most admired brands in Africa, 70 per cent of them are non-African," says Thebe Ikalafeng, the Founder of the African brand and reputation advisory firm, Brand Leadership. "That means the 70 per cent of the agenda is non-African." He thinks that Africans need to fund business and brands in Africa to create jobs and invest it in their agenda.

According to The Economist, one of the main goals for African governments over the next ten years is to keep improving roads, pushing out grasping officials and lowering the tariff barriers that still hobble trade between African countries. (Trade with neighbouring countries makes up only 11 per cent of total African exports and imports.) "Have you tried to travel between two African countries? It is impossible!" Vir says.

Africa's future rests on the productivity of its people. By 2050, the UN predicts that there will be 2.5 billion Africans, a quarter of the world's population. "I believe that in 50 years Africa will be the land of opportunity," Vir says. "In the next 10 years, we will see an economic revolution guided by young entrepreneurs."

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This rising generation of Africapitalists believe the private sector can solve Africa's development challenges more effectively and with greater sustainability than either the philanthropic or public sector. "Some economies across Africa, Nigeria being the classic example, became too dependent on oil," Vir says.

Nigeria actually derives more than 90 per cent of its export revenue from oil, which has recently plummeted far below the price needed to draw in new investors. "And it has become imperative to diversify those economies," Vir says. The role of governments is to build political stability and consistent policies to stimulate economic growth. "It is building institutions that can really train the next generations of leaders," she says.

A year ago, The Tony Elumelu Foundation launched a USD 100 million entrepreneurship programme with the goal of supporting the education and development of 10,000 African entrepreneurs over the next ten years. Adeloye Olanrewaju, a 24-year-old Nigerian, was a part of this programme; he is a Leader of Tomorrow at the St. Gallen Symposium. He created an app called SaferMom to monitor the health of mothers and their newborns. "I had a great experience creating my start-up. We also had the best mentors." His startup received The Queen's Young Leaders Awards, among others. "The principles on which Africapitalism is founded are ones of responding to inequality by empowering young entrepreneurs," Vir explains.

CHINESE INVASION?

Africapitalists will have to prove if it is possible to do good and make money at the same time. They are under pressure: The rise of Chinese investments in Africa has increased significantly in the recent years, to the point that some call it Chinese neocolonialism. Some argue the exchange can be mutually beneficial. Vir says Africa simply needs Chinese capital to build infrastructure and China needs African resources.

Others say Africa's prices are set too low. "The African problem is that we are too desperate and we accept that kind of support at any cost," says Ikalafeng. "We should be more aggressive, more determined, and more decisive in fighting for investment in our own terms. Those terms are what moves our agenda forwards. Our agenda is what makes Africa economically independent."
Almost three years ago, I started writing a book. It's a memoir and investigation of my father Terry Anderson's kidnapping and seven-year captivity by Shiite Muslim terrorists in Lebanon. It will be published with Dey Street, a HarperCollins imprint, on October 4 and is now available for pre-order on Amazon. I've included a summary and some of the advance praise it has received below.

In this gripping blend of reportage, memoir, and analysis, a journalist and daughter of one of the world's most famous hostages, Terry Anderson, takes an intimate look at her father's captivity during the Lebanese Hostage Crisis and the ensuing political firestorm on both her family and the United States--as well as the far-reaching implications of those events on Middle Eastern politics today.

In 1991, six-year-old Sulome Anderson met her father, Terry, for the first time. While working as the Middle East bureau chief for the Associated Press covering the long and bloody civil war in Lebanon, Terry had been kidnapped in Beirut and held for her entire life by a Shiite Muslim militia associated with the Hezbollah movement.

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As the nation celebrated, the media captured a smiling Anderson family joyously reunited. But the truth was far darker. Plagued by PTSD, Terry was a moody, aloof, and distant figure to the young daughter who had long dreamed of his return--and while she smiled for the cameras all the same, she absorbed his trauma as her own.

Years later, after long battles with drug abuse and mental illness, Sulome would travel to the Middle East as a reporter, seeking to understand her father, the men who had kidnapped him, and ultimately, herself. What she discovered was shocking--not just about Terry, but about the international political machinations that occurred during the years of his captivity.

The Hostage's Daughter is an intimate look at the effect of the Lebanese Hostage Crisis on Anderson's family, the United States, and the Middle East today. Sulome tells moving stories from her experiences as a reporter in the region and challenges our understanding of global politics, the forces that spawn terrorism and especially Lebanon, the beautiful, devastated, and vitally important country she came to love. Powerful and eye-opening The Hostage's Daughter is essential reading for anyone interested in international relations, this violent, haunted region, and America's role in its fate.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Sulome Anderson has been working as a feature writer in the Middle East since receiving a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. She's covered topics ranging from Syrian refugee suicides to the war against ISIS for publications including Foreign Policy, Vox, The Atlantic, New York Magazine, and VICE. She is based in Beirut and New York City.



Follow her on Twitter @SulomeAnderson



Praise for The Hostage's Daughter, by Sulome Anderson

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"The Hostage's Daughter is a riveting memoir written by the daughter of one of history's most famous hostages, American journalist Terry Anderson. Going beyond the headlines, this intensely personal story of his kidnapping and return tells a deeper, darker, and far more intimate account of what happens when a father-daughter relationship succumbs to political casualty. Whereas Terry Anderson came back to America plagued with PTSD from his seven years of brutal captivity and torture, his daughter Sulome found herself equally as traumatized, enduring long battles with mental illness and substance abuse. Desperate to understand her father, Sulome began traveling back to the Middle East. She tracked down his captors, only to find out that the politics behind his kidnapping extended far beyond the surface of what was reported in the news.

In trying to understand the mindset of those who took her father, Sulome draws on her experience as a Middle East analyst and reporter, injecting her story with nuanced analysis that challenges our mainstream understanding of global politics, terrorism, and her home country of Lebanon. What emerges is a haunting and eye-opening story about the implications her father's captivity had on United States foreign policy, and of America's own role in its fate within the region. By probing into the mistakes made during Terry Anderson's captivity, The Hostage's Daughter also serves as a cautionary tale of history repeating itself. Eloquently written, Sulome's debut book articulates not only the political climate at the time of her father's kidnapping, but also the reactionary impulses that still dictate American foreign policy today.



An excellent piece of reportage from someone who clearly has an intimate understanding of the Middle East in all its complexities and nuances--interwoven with an equally gripping and emotional account of one woman's quest for reason and forgiveness. This is the story that few journalists have the bravery to write about others, let alone themselves."

--Reza Aslan, author of Zealot

"There are times when you want to look away. This book is that personal. By telling the story of the author--and her famous family--it also traces the story of terrorism in the modern era, in gripping and intimate ways."

--Brian Williams, MSNBC

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"A gutsy coming-of-age memoir, beautifully written, and always provocative. From wounded adolescence to fearless investigative reporter, Sulome Anderson confronts her father's kidnappers--and along the way, she shines a harsh light on the murky world of intelligence in a distraught Middle East. A poignant and astonishing mystery story."

--Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and author of The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames

"Sulome Anderson's deeply personal and brutally frank memoir moved me to tears. This skillfully told tale of a life on the very edge and the quest for answers that brought Anderson face-to-face with her father's kidnappers in Beirut powerfully demonstrates that suffering need not destroy. Terry Anderson can truly be proud of his intelligent and spirited daughter."

--Terry Waite CBE, former hostage, President of Hostage UK and author of Taken on Trust

"Sulome Anderson wasn't even born when her father, the American journalist Terry Anderson, was taken hostage by Shiite terrorists, and she was seven years old before he was released and she first saw him. In this heart-felt, moving memoir, Sulome retraces her father's path in life, returning to Lebanon as a journalist herself and courageously confronting some of the very men involved in his kidnapping and abuse. The result is both an exploration of the sometimes difficult love between father and daughter, and also an examination of a greatly changed Middle East and the groups that benefited from their hostage taking and other terrorist activities, but are far from atoning for them. Well-worth reading for anyone who wants to understand that region, and the human impact of war and terrorism."

--Rod Nordland, international correspondent at large, The New York Times and author of The Lovers

"Violent conflicts always entangle the innocent, and the scars they leave take decades to heal. Journalist Sulome Anderson set out to find her father's kidnapper; in the process, she found herself. Her brutally candid, fiercely intelligent, and beautifully crafted memoir is both a fascinating introduction to the shadow world of Middle East intrigue and an inspiring story of resilience and recovery."

--Stephen M. Walt, coauthor of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy



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Meeting Kansans at Carolyn's Essenhaus in Arlington

Sawyer believes ethanol is a key factor of growth for farmers and the state
Eva Ungar Grudin and Eric Joseph sign copies of their debut novel, 'Save the Last Dance,' at Water Street Books in June.

Love Rekindled in Local Author's 'Save the Last Dance'



The book is available at Water Street Books and through Amazon, which has a number of good reviews posted.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  A reconnection between long-lost teen sweethearts has inspired a modern-day epistolary novel.



But rather than writing pages of snail-mail love letters, Adam Wolf and Sarah Ross in "Save the Last Dance" re-establish bonds through the swift and instantaneous communication of emails and texts.



Collaborators Eva Ungar Grudin and Eric Joseph used their own experiences as the jumping off point for this debut novel, which had a launch in June at Water Street Books.



"We went together up to 11th grade, and set a wedding date when we were 15," Grudin, a retired Williams College art history professor, recalled last week.



But life intervened and the teenagers did not set eyes on each other after they graduated from Cleveland Heights High School.



"All my life I've looked for someone who loved me as much as Eric did. But anyone who has experienced an intense first love relationship knows it never happens again," said Grudin. "There is a chamber in my heart reserved for Eric Joseph."



Ironically, it was after she declined an invitation to her 50th high school reunion three years ago, that she and Joseph reconnected.



When Joseph noticed that her name was not on the attendance roster, he asked a mutual friend for Grudin's email address.



Grudin made it clear that she was beyond OK with Joseph having her address.



"At first, Eric and I exchanged two emails a day, then three a day, then 23 a day. After two months of email, I talked to my husband (about what was happening)," Grudin said, adding that "Eric and I did not see each other until six months after we started emailing."



Grudin mentioned the exchange to a friend, and he suggested that the emails be made into a book.



"I felt writing a book with Eric would work," said Grudin. "At 15, he had written reams of short stories and a novel I read. I knew what he could do with language and he learned what I could do."



Joseph now lives in Chicago and has been published in his field of health care education and consulting. Grudin, who taught at Williams for 40 years, has written a number of books about art.



"Save the Last Dance" allows the reader eavesdrop on the main characters as they divulge their lifelong secrets, indulge in flights of fancy, and cope with the distress their reunion has caused others. Sarah and Adam also tell everything they feel and think to confidantes.



"I'm 68 years old and I'm acting like a 16-year-old. What's wrong with me?" Sarah tells her friend.
Department of Agricultural Resources Commissioner John Lebeaux poses with the youth cattle winners at the Adams Aggie Fair on Saturday. PreviousNext

MDAR Commissioner Lebeaux Visits Adams Agricultural Fair



Commissioner John Lebeaux and Sandy Ray of Brattle Farm in Pittsfield stand with Ray's award-winning sheep Monet. See more photos from the fair here.

ADAMS, Mass.  The state's agricultural commissioner is making the rounds of local agricultural fairs as a way to contact with local farmers.



Commissioner John Lebeaux visited the Adams Agricultural Fair for his first time Saturday and was not disappointed.



Lebeaux, appointed by Gov. Charlie Baker last year, made his way west Saturday just in time to see the judging of youth cattle by some young Berkshire County farmers.



"We saw some youngsters handling their cows. We like to see our future farmers at it," Lebeaux said. "It was a multigeneral farm family that I hope is going to continue."



Lebeaux is a grandson of a farmer and who was general manager for more than 20 years at Shrewsbury Nurseries, the business his father started.



He said MDAR recognizes the importance of agricultural fairs throughout the commonwealth and through October he will be traveling throughout the state in attempt to see as many as possible.



"We think it is important for the department to get out and talk to farmers," he said. "We spoke with some today and heard from some that like what we are doing in the department and some who have some suggestions or polite criticisms ... it is important to stay in touch."



As for the fair itself, Lebeaux said he heard about its reputation and is not disappointed.



Agricultural fairs serve as important reminders of our agricultural roots, especially in Massachusetts, he said.



"Not everyone remembers," Lebeaux said. "Even in a state like Massachusetts, even out here in the beautiful more rural Berkshires, there are some folks who don't really remember how their food gets to their table and where it comes from."


Imperial Valley News Center

State of Connecticut Agrees to Resolve Claims of National Voter Registration Act Violations

Washington, DC - The Justice Department announced yesterday that it has reached an agreement with Connecticut and state officials to resolve claims that the state failed to provide voter registration opportunities required by Section 5 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).

The departments investigation, conducted by the Civil Rights Divisions Voting Section, found that the state of Connecticut failed to comply with the requirements of Section 5 of the NVRA. Applications and renewals for Connecticut drivers licenses and identification cards did not serve as applications for voter registration with respect to elections for federal office, as required by the NVRA. In addition, the procedures by which citizens notify motor vehicle authorities that their address changed did not consistently serve as notification of a change of address for voter registration purposes, as the NVRA requires.

Under the terms of the settlement, Connecticut will fully integrate a voter registration opportunity into all applications for drivers licenses and other identification documents, including renewal applications. Connecticut will also ensure that change of address information submitted for drivers license purposes will be used to update voters address information unless the voter declines to update her voter registration. During the course of negotiations, Connecticut has taken significant steps to achieve this compliance by integrating a voter registration application into its electronic driver licensing system. In order to provide a voter registration opportunity for Connecticut residents who did not have one when last applying for or renewing a drivers license or other identification document, Connecticut will contact eligible voters who are not currently registered to vote at the address associated with the drivers license or other identification document.

A robust, inclusive democracy requires ensuring that eligible voters can easily and conveniently register to vote, said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division. State officials worked cooperatively with the Justice Department to quickly provide eligible Connecticut voters an integrated one-stop opportunity to register through the DMV, as the law requires.

The motor voter provision of the NVRA critically supports and enhances our citizens access to the democratic process, said U.S. Attorney Deirdre M. Daly of the District of Connecticut. Compliance with those requirements plays an important role in ensuring that all Connecticut citizens can more easily exercise their right to vote. I commend our many state officials from the Department of Motor Vehicles, the Office of the Secretary of the State and the Attorney Generals Office for their hard work in reaching this agreement and for their commitment to the expansion of voting rights in Connecticut. We also thank the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice for their partnership and invaluable assistance.

Section 5 of the NVRA, also known as the motor voter provision, requires states to provide voter registration opportunities for federal elections when people apply for or renew drivers licenses or other identification documents through state motor vehicle offices. The motor voter provision also requires that changes of address for drivers license or identification document purposes update voter registration information unless the applicant opts out of the update.
Meningococcal Disease Outbreak Continues in Southern California

Sacramento, California - Due to an ongoing outbreak of meningococcal disease in Southern California, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) is urging all gay and bisexual men and HIV-infected persons in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties be vaccinated against meningococcal disease.

Since March, 22 cases of meningococcal disease have been confirmed in an outbreak in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, including several cases in the past week. Two other cases are currently under investigation. To date, two patients have died as a result of their infections. Most of the patients have been gay or bisexual men, and while no cases have been reported in San Diego County, health officials are advising gay and bisexual men there to also be vaccinated.



Meningococcal disease is a serious bacterial infection that can cause meningitis and bloodstream infections (sepsis). Although rare, meningococcal disease is very serious and potentially fatal.



Vaccination is the best protection against meningococcal disease, said CDPH Director and State Public Health Officer Dr. Karen Smith. It is important that all gay and bisexual men and people living with HIV in the affected counties take action to protect themselves to reduce their risk.



All gay and bisexual men and HIV-infected persons in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego Counties are recommended to receive MenACWY vaccine. HIV-infected persons should receive two doses of the vaccine and uninfected men should receive one dose. Those who were vaccinated more than five years ago should be revaccinated. Vaccination clinics can be located using CDCs Adult Vaccine Finder.



Meningococcal bacteria are transmitted through close personal contact and can be spread from person to person by respiratory droplets from the nose and throat. Individuals who are in close or intimate contact with multiple people, regularly visit crowded venues such as bars and parties, or use illegal drugs, smoke cigarettes, marijuana, hookahs or spend time in smoky settings may be at increased risk of infection.



Symptoms of meningococcal disease may include fever, vomiting, severe headache, stiff neck, confusion, rash and generalized muscle pains. The time from exposure to the start of symptoms is typically just a few days. People experiencing these symptoms should seek medical care immediately.
Collaboration Leads to Arrest of Armed Man by Border Patrol

Calexico, California - El Centro Sector Border Patrol agents assigned to the Calexico Station, arrested a man who brandished a knife early this morning in downtown Calexico.

At 7:30 a.m., Border Patrol agents received a call for assistance from the Calexico Police Department regarding a man with a weapon near the Greyhound Station at First St.

Agents responded to the location and observed a man near the intersection of Second St. and Heber Ave. that matched the description provided by police.

Agents cautiously approached the man, gained compliance through verbal commands, and arrested the man without incident.

Keeping our communities safe is of paramount importance and working with the community and our law enforcement partners is a key toward achieving that goal, said Acting Chief Villareal.

The man, a 20-year-old United States citizen, is in custody of the Calexico Police Department.

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.
Alleged Associates of La Cosa Nostra Charged with Extortion and Loansharking

Washington, DC - Five alleged associates of the Genovese La Cosa Nostra (LCN) crime family were charged Thursday with extortion by threat of physical violence, making extortionate extensions of credit and collection on an extension of credit by extortionate means

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Departments Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz of the District of Massachusetts; Hampden County, Massachusetts, District Attorney Anthony Gulluni; Special Agent in Charge Harold H. Shaw of the FBIs Boston Division; and Colonel Richard D. McKeon of the Massachusetts State Police announced.

Ralph Santaniello, 49, of Longmeadow, Massachusetts; Giovanni Calabrese, aka John Calabrese, 53, of Longmeadow; Gerald Daniele, 51, of Longmeadow; Francesco Depergola, 60, of Springfield, Massachusetts; and Richard Valentini, 51, of East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, were each charged with one count of collecting on an extension of credit by extortionate means. In addition, Santaniello, Calabrese and Depergola were each charged with one count of extortion by threat of physical violence; and Daniele was charged with two counts of making extortionate extensions of credit and one count of collecting on an extension of credit by extortionate means.

According to the indictment, the defendants were associates of the Genovese LCN crime family in New York and committed various criminal activities in Springfield, including loansharking (e.g., the making of unlawful loans and extortionate extensions of credit); extortion from persons who were involved in legitimate and illegitimate businesses, including illegal gambling businesses; and the collection of unlawful debts. In conducting their illegal activities, the defendants allegedly used violence and, exploiting their relationship with the LCN, implied threats of murder and physical violence to instill fear in their victims.

The indictment alleges that in 2013, Santaniello, Calabrese, Depergola and Valentini attempted to extort money from a Springfield businessman. Santaniello allegedly assaulted the victim and threatened to cut off his head and bury his body if he did not comply. Over a period of four months, the victim paid $20,000 to Santaniello, Calabrese, Depergola and Valentini to protect himself and his business.

Additionally, according to the indictment, during a six-month period in 2015, Daniele allegedly extended two extortionate and usurious loans to an individual, and then, with the assistance of Santaniello and Calabrese, threatened the individual if he did not make payments on the loan.

The charges and allegations contained in an indictment are merely accusations. The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Individuals who believe they may have been victimized by the defendants should contact the FBI at (413) 732-0159.

The FBI Springfield Divisions Organized Crime Unit and the Massachusetts State Polices Police Detective Unit assigned to District Attorney Gullunis Office and State Police Special Services Unit investigated the case. Chief Kevin ORegan of the U.S. Attorneys Office of the District of Massachusetts Springfield Branch Office and Trial Attorney Marianne Shelvey of the Criminal Divisions Organized Crime and Gang Section are prosecuting the case.
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Strange to say, but Donald Trump might have been a filmmaker rather than real estate magnate. As he informs us in The Art of the Deal, his book of autobiographical recollection and business advice, he flirted briefly with the idea of attending film school at the University of Southern California.

Hotels, apartment blocks and casinos, rather than movie lots, ultimately became the favoured spaces for demonstration of Trumpian creativity. But he has remained a keen fan of cinema, and in 2012 identified his five favourite films for Movieline: Citizen Kane (1941), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), Gone with the Wind (1939), GoodFellas (1990) and The Godfather (1972).

What do these films tell us about the Trump worldview? Each offers a spectacle of male potency, often in peril but persisting in the face of opposition, whether this is exerted by women or by forces of law and order. These movies can be understood as offering Trump support, in celluloid form, for a philosophy Oliver Jones calls social Darwinist: He views the world as an irrational jungle where the most successful people are tough, masculine and neurotic.

But what would a canon of anti-Trump cinema look like? Where might we find films that challenge his expressed values or the policies espoused during his current presidential bid? Here, countering his Movieline choices, are five movies that Trump might learn something from.

There Will Be Blood (2007)

While Trumps campaign pitch presents the businessman in America as heroic visionary, Paul Thomas Andersons film unveils him instead as a sociopath. The pursuit of oil in California by Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) crushes bodies and destroys family bonds; at the end, guilty of murder, he hunches alone and defeated in his version of Trump Tower.

The film offers subversive insights, also, into how an entrepreneur fashions a winning persona: the ruthless Plainview addresses those whose land he would possess in folksy and god-fearing rhetoric, practising public relations techniques that will be perfected in our advanced media age. Were Trump to appreciate satire (not his favourite genre, one suspects), he might learn something here.

4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days (2007)

In this harrowing Romanian film directed by Cristian Mungiu, a student, assisted by a female friend, desperately seeks an illegal abortion. Trumps thinking on abortion has proved adjustable for different constituencies, shifting latterly from pro-choice to pro-life. But Mungiu graphically shows the effects of curtailing womens rights in the exploited bodies and damaged psychologies of his two protagonists.

Here too, in the films emphasis on social constraints, is an antidote to Trumpian optimism. The power of positive thinking, imbibed by Trump as a young New Yorker from clergyman and self-help author Norman Vincent Peale, can achieve nothing in the world of this film.

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005)

In his 2015 book Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again, Trump reiterates his sense of the nation as citadel: Nobody can build a wall like me. I will build a great wall on our southern border. Tommy Lee Joness blackly comic neo-Western finds holes and crossings in the US/Mexico frontier, rather than sealing off each nation from the other. Illegal migration here is also southward rather than exclusively northbound, as an American border guard who begins in a state of Trumpian paranoia heads into Mexico looking for redemption.

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The Age of Stupid (2009)

Included in this films montage of ecological casualties are the casinos of Las Vegas, now buried in sand. Not Trumps own Vegas skyscraper, admittedly, but still worryingly close to home. (Or perhaps, to Trump, not so worryingly, given this political campaigners scepticism towards climate change  the short chapter on the subject in Crippled America is subtitled A Lot of Hot Air.) Mixing apocalyptic sci-fi imagery with testimonies by globally dispersed witnesses, Franny Armstrongs film aims instead to produce environmentally activist viewers.

Bob Roberts (1992)

Bob Roberts is running here not for president, but for a senators seat in Pennsylvania. The similarities with Trump are nevertheless uncanny: each has been educated in military academy and business school, each is a highly successful entrepreneur, and each galvanises audiences by summoning up visions of US decline. While more scatter-gun than focused in its political satire, the films account of Robertss unlikely success displays a sense of panic familiar to American progressives in our present moment. Tellingly, its last word, after the credits, is VOTE.

There is, however, no guarantee that a Trumpian reading even of these five films would be progressive. Trump revealed a capacity for inventive movie interpretation  deflecting rather than absorbing challenges to his worldview  in remarks he made about Citizen Kane for the US film director Errol Morris in 2002. He chooses not to see the film as a disturbing portrait of the authoritarian personality or of the businessman as dangerous populist (the favoured view of critics). Instead, asked by Morris what advice he would give Charles Foster Kane, Trump dwells only on Kanes two troubled marriages and replies: Get yourself a different woman.

Once again, then, the subject of Trumps ideal cinema is revealed as the aspirational American male, ever mindful of threats to his potency.

Andrew Dix, Lecturer in American Studies, Loughborough University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
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After surprising a family of hikers by emerging topless from a cave earlier this week, Justin Trudeau has now appeared, again topless, in the background of somebody's official wedding photos.

Fresh from the sea, the popular politician photobombed a bride as she made her way down the aisle over the weekend at a beach in British Columbia.

Trudeau, who has been enjoying his summer holiday in the Vancouver district of Tofino, was snapped by professional wedding photographer Marnie Recker. The Canadian Prime Minister can be seen in the background of the photo with a beaming smile wearing a cap and pulled-down wetsuit, holding a surfboard.

Ms Recker, who has shared the photo on her social media pages wrote on Facebook: Justin was quickly leaving the beach at the same time the bride appeared and started coming down the stairs. It was her moment and he respectfully stood aside and witnessed her walk down the aisle to her husband-to-be.

Justin Trudeau Show all 8 1 /8 Justin Trudeau Justin Trudeau Day out The family get in the boat with climate change AP Justin Trudeau Keeping fit Jogging over the Alexandria bridge with the Mexican president AP Justin Trudeau Family comes first Sophie inspires me every day to be better. I wouldnt be here tonight if it werent for her leadership and her example." AP Justin Trudeau Three-way handshake Trudeau has vowed to strengthen international relations. Twitter Justin Trudeau Bromance Friendship with the White House The White House Justin Trudeau Pandas Just because. Twitter Justin Trudeau Yoga The plank became an internet sensation Twitter Justin Trudeau Making history Trudeau's gender-balanced cabinet was the first of its kind AP

The latest photo is one to add to the collection of favourable Trudeau-featured photos. Highlights and past internet-favourites include him balancing a baby on one hand, dancing at Toronto gay pride festival and practising the unusual mayurasana yoga pose.
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Oscar Pistorius has denied injuries to his wrists sustained in prison were a suicide attempt", a South African prison spokesman has said.

Pistorius claimed he fell out of bed in his cell at the prison where he is serving a six-year sentence for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

"Oscar Pistorius denied speculations of a suicide attempt. As a policy principle, we cannot further discuss a particular offender's personal condition in the public domain," Manelisi Wolela, a spokesman at the Department of Correctional Services, told Reuters.

 Oscar Pistorius removes prosthetic legs

Singabakho Nxumalo, a spokesman for the correctional services department, did not provide any detail of the injuries, but said the Olympian was treated in hospital for minor injuries to his wrists and returned to prison on Saturday.

An investigation is under way, Mr Nxumalo added.

His family spokeswoman, Anneliese Burgess, told Reuters the family would not issue a statement at this stage.

His brother posted on Twitter to say Pistorius was in good spirits and is "doing well given the circumstances".

He called reports the athlete had tried to injure himself "completely untrue and sensational".

Last month, South African prosecutors said they would appeal against Pistoriuss six-year jail sentence, saying it was too lenient.

Pistorius had his jail term for killing Reeva Steenkamp increased from five to six years in July, less than half the 15 years sought by prosecutors.

Reeva Steenkamp: Model and law graduate Show all 5 1 /5 Reeva Steenkamp: Model and law graduate Reeva Steenkamp: Model and law graduate v2pistorius1.jpg South African Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius and Reeva Steenkamp AP Reeva Steenkamp: Model and law graduate Reeva-Steenkamp-FHM-model,-.jpg Reeva Steenkamp, girlfriend of Oscar Pistorius GETTY IMAGES Reeva Steenkamp: Model and law graduate fhm.jpg Reeva Steenkamp appeared in FHM FHM Reeva Steenkamp: Model and law graduate Reeva.Steenkamp.jpg Reeva Steenkamp Getty Images Reeva Steenkamp: Model and law graduate Reeva.Steenkamp.cooking.jpg Reeva Steenkamp Getty Images

Pistorius shot Ms Steenkamp four times through a locked bathroom door in his home on Valentine's Day 2013. He has always maintained he believed she was an intruder.

Graphic crime scene photographs of Ms Steenkamp's body were made public at the request of her father.

Barry Steenkamp broke down in the witness box as he told the court how he and his wife have struggled to cope since his daughters murder.

While speaking of the emotional impact of his daughters death, he said he wanted the world to see the photos as a warning to anyone thinking of using firearms.

Following the sentencing, Judge Thokozile Masipa was branded an embarrassment to the justice system by a women's rights group for handing down a six-year sentence for murder.

Members of the Women's League of the ruling African National Congress (ANCWL) said the sentence handed down by Judge Masipa was insufficient.

Additional reporting by agencies
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The Weeknd has donated $50,000 to the University of Toronto to help jump start an Ethiopic Studies program at the college.

After the Bikila Award organization honored him with the Professional Excellence Award in 2014, the non-profit asked the Grammy Award-winning Ethiopian-Canadian artist if he would contribute to the fund. The Weeknd, whose government name is Abel Tesfaye, made his donation toward a course on the Geez, the classical language of Ethiopia.

Tesfaye said on Saturday that he was proud to support his hometown by sharing the brilliant, ancient history of Ethiopia.



Its unbelievable, Tam Gebeyehu, a Bikila Award board member, recently told the Toronto Star. He grew up in Toronto as an Ethiopian-Canadian, and now hes giving back to the community.

More than $170,000 has been raised for the Geez course and will launch this year, The Star reports.

This initiative is a rare opportunity and of historical significance in the discovery of Ethiopias ancient civilizations, for the preservation of our rich culture, history, and traditions, Tessema Mulugeta, president of the Bikila Award, told the outlet.
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Footage has emerged of Met Police officers coming under attack after stopping a car in Tower Hamlets, London.

Video uploaded to YouTube by crime and policing website Police Hour shows police arguing with a large group of men, who become increasingly aggressive towards the officers.

The men surround the officers as they try to rescue two of their friends, who were being restrained by police.

Eventually a fight breaks out and one of the officers is pulled to the ground in the scuffle.

During the fight, the police use CS spray to keep the attackers back. Police backup later arrives to break up the brawl.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 15 September 2022 Members of the public in the queue on in Potters Fields Park, central London, as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 14 September 2022 The first members of the public pay their respects as the vigil begins around the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Hall, London, where it will lie in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2022 Crowds cheer as King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort arrive for a visit to Hillsborough Castle Getty UK news in pictures 12 September 2022 Crowds line the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, as King Charles III joins a procession from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles Cathedral following the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II Katielee Arrowsmith/SWNS UK news in pictures 11 September 2022 Members of the Public pay their respects as the hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland, is driven through Ballater AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 10 September 2022 Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales, Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales, Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wave at well-wishers on the Long walk at Windsor Castle AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 9 September 2022 King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort wave after viewing floral tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace Getty UK news in pictures 8 September 2022 A screen commemorating Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in Piccadilly Circus, London Britain EPA UK news in pictures 7 September 2022 Police officers stand guard after Animal Rebellion activists threw paint on the walls and road outside the Houses of Parliament in protest, in London, Britain Reuters UK news in pictures 6 September 2022 Queen Elizabeth II welcomes Liz Truss during an audience at Balmoral, Scotland, where she invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2022 Visitors at the PoliNations garden in Victoria Square, Birmingham, which is made up of five 40ft high tree installations and over 6,000 plants. The PoliNations programme aims to explore how migration and cross-pollination have shaped the UKs gardens and culture PA

A Met Police spokesman said the fight broke out after police stopped a car in Shadwell, Tower Hamlets, around 5.30pm on Wednesday, 3 August.

The men began arguing with the officers, then "became more aggressive and subsequently assaulted" them, the spokesman said.

Four males were arrested on suspicion of various offences, including assault on police, obstruction and Public Order Act offences.

Two officers were treated for minor injuries, the spokesman added.
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A prison governor was so badly wounded in a brutal attack by an inmate that he had to undergo reconstructive surgery on his face, it has been reported.

Paul Cawkwell was reportedly violently assaulted in the canteen at Wayland prison Norfolk earlier this week. A spokesperson for the prison confirmed to local media that an incident had occurred and is currently being investigated by police, before declining to give further details.

A source reportedly told The Sunday Times the extent of his injuries was such that he had to undergo facial reconstructive surgery after suffering a collapsed eye socket, fractured cheekbone and broken nose. The source said: The extent of the damage to Pauls face is very concerning. The surgeons had to make a large incision around his temple to fit a titanium plate over his eye socket.

His nose was very badly damaged, literally bent the other way. Hes got external and internal stitches, including several inside his mouth. He cant feel a thing on the left side of his face. It could be months before he fully recovers, even with all the antibiotics and painkillers hes been given.

In April, analysis of prison data by The Independent found violence inside UK prisons has rocketed since the coalition government instigated reforms in 2010. The number of violent attacks involving knives has increased from 212 in 2010 to 491 in 2015. Sexual violence inside prisons has increased from 137 in 2010 to 300 in 2015. Campaigners and prison reform advocates have argued that staffing cuts are putting increased strain on prison environments.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 15 September 2022 Members of the public in the queue on in Potters Fields Park, central London, as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 14 September 2022 The first members of the public pay their respects as the vigil begins around the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Hall, London, where it will lie in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2022 Crowds cheer as King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort arrive for a visit to Hillsborough Castle Getty UK news in pictures 12 September 2022 Crowds line the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, as King Charles III joins a procession from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles Cathedral following the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II Katielee Arrowsmith/SWNS UK news in pictures 11 September 2022 Members of the Public pay their respects as the hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland, is driven through Ballater AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 10 September 2022 Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales, Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales, Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wave at well-wishers on the Long walk at Windsor Castle AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 9 September 2022 King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort wave after viewing floral tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace Getty UK news in pictures 8 September 2022 A screen commemorating Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in Piccadilly Circus, London Britain EPA

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice said they were aware of the incident but cannot comment while investigations are underway: This incident is now being investigated by police, therefore we cannot comment.
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An estimated 300,000 people have taken part in Brighton Pride celebrations this weekend, in a colourful display of support for LGBT communities.

Programme director Paul Kemp told crowds it was more important than ever for LGBT communities and allies to stand together against prejudice, in light of recent attacks.

He said: Despite the advances of equality and equal marriage in the UK, the recent horrific event in Orlando and continuing attacks on LGBT people and communities globally have highlighted there's still a long way to go.

Brighton Pride 2016 will be more important that ever, and I ask all allies and friends of the LGBT community to come out and stand shoulder to shoulder with friends and family, to stand up against all hate crime.

Under blazing sunshine, revellers followed a carnival parade starting at Hove Lawns.

Some lined the route, while others took to beachfront balconies for an aerial view.

Brighton's iconic beachfront pier was decorated in rainbow flags to mark the occasion (Getty)

A sequined reveller takes part in the parade at Brighton Pride (Getty)

A glamorous attendee poses by the beach at Brighton Pride (Getty)

An estimated 300,000 people attended Brighton Pride this year (Getty)

Well-wishers lined the parade route to cheer on those taking part in Brighton Pride (Getty)

Some people took to beachfront balconies to get an aerial view of Brighton Pride as it unfolded below (Getty)

A dragon float, clad in rainbow silk, spews green smoke in a colourful display at Brighton Pride (Getty)

An enormous rainbow flag is paraded through crowds at Brighton Pride (Getty)

Organisers estimate Brighton Pride brings 18m to the local economy, as people come from across the world to join the celebrations.

Community groups including local ambulance groups, fire service crew and police officers marched in uniform, decorated with colourful garlands.
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A man has been killed after leaning out of a train window and being hit by another train, according to reports.

The passenger who was travelling on a Gatwick Express train was pronounced dead at Wandsworth Common station, south west London on Sunday evening.

London Ambulance Service said they were called to the station at 5:34pm.

"We sent an ambulance crew, a single responder and a car and an incident response officer to the scene alongside an air ambulance," a spokeswoman said.

"We treated a person at the scene for a head injury but sadly they were pronounced dead by the doctor from the air ambulance."

Police have said the man was in his 20s and are still working to confirm his identity.

Initial reports suggested the man had been decapitated, however Inspector James Tyrrell, from British Transport Police, said: "This is not the case.

"We are continuing to investigate the circumstances of the incident, which has been reported to the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB), and I'd urge anyone who saw what happened to contact us."

A spokesman for Gatwick Express said it first received reports about the incident on board one of its trains which was en route to Victoria from Gatwick at 5.45pm.

He said: "The emergency services are in attendance at Wandsworth Common station. We have no further information at this stage.

A BTP spokesman said the incident was not being treated as suspicious, and a file is being prepared for the coroner.

Lucie Walker, a 21-year-old student who was at the station told the Evening Standard: "I got off the train from Victoria and at once saw the ambulance helicopter that had landed nearby.

"There were lots of police around. The mood was very sombre."

Residents said they were shocked to see the air ambulance land on the common earlier in the afternoon.

One said: I heard a man was hit by a train and heard the air ambulance land on the common. It's such a horrible thing to have happened.

A local resident said: "We were coming back across the common when we saw the helicopter land. It was at about 6pm. There were lots of police and ambulances there, it was disconcerting."

Hours after the incident a police cordon remained in place at the entrance to the station as investigators continued to work at the scene.

Additional reporting by Press Association
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Eating food from one of the best Japanese restaurants in the country for less than 4 is now a possibility thanks to a new app which is aiming to save the planet by cutting food waste.

Too Good to Go links users up with high-quality meals which would otherwise be binned  with prices ranging from 2 to 3.80.

It was founded by a group of friends in Denmark last year who brought it to the UK at the start of 2016.

The app will go live in London later this month and is already available in Brighton, Leeds, Birmingham and Manchester.

Explaining some of the challenges, one of the apps UK pioneers, Chris Wilson, told the London Evening Standard: Most of the places tend to be independent or just small chains because it is really hard to crack the big companies.

It is the bigger chains that have the large amounts of food waste but it is hard to even speak to the right people there.

Mr Wilson said they had signed up about 100 London restaurants.

The apps website states: Our mission is to save food, save money and save the planet by placing the lost value back onto food as humankinds most valuable energy resource, and not something that should just be carelessly throw in the bin.

Why? Because if food waste were a country it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, whilst recovering just half of the food that is lost or wasted could feed the world alone. Its a problem that doesnt need to exist  and were determined to help solve it."

Recommended Read more Naked restaurant to open in Paris after success in London

It is estimated that UK supermarkets waste 360million meals a year.

A Government report published in May revealed that 1.1million tonnes of food is "avoidably" thrown out annually.

Earlier this month the Italian government backed a new set of laws which aim to cut down on food waste.

Ministers estimate it costs the country's businesses and households more than 12bn (10bn) a year, or about one per cent of GDP.

For more information about the app visit the Too Good to Go website.
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Jeremy Corbyn has been accused by Tony Blairs former right-hand man of undermining and sabotaging the campaign to keep Britain in the European Union.

The accusation by Peter Mandelson will infuriate Mr Corbyns supporters, who have repeatedly pointing out that a higher number of Labour voters than Tory voters, including a majority in Mr Corbyns own Islington North constituency, backed the unsuccessful Remain campaign  evidence, they say, that Mr Corbyn delivered.

However, the Labour leader is a long-standing opponent of EU membership, who is thought to have changed his mind on the issue relatively recently, and who refused to share a platform with David Cameron or other pro-Remain Tories during the referendum.

Lord Mandelson told the BBC: It was very difficult to know what Jeremy Corbyn's motives were. Did he just sort of get out of bed the wrong side every day and not feel [in a] very sort of friendly, happy mood and want to help us?

Or was there something deeper  did he simply not want to find himself on the same side as the Prime Minister and the Government? Or perhaps he just deep down actually doesn't think we should remain in the European Union? Who knows?

He added: We were greatly damaged by Jeremy Corbyn's stance, no doubt at all about that. Not only was he most of the time absent from the battle, but he was holding back the efforts of Alan Johnson and the Labour In campaign. I mean they felt undermined, at times they felt actually their efforts were being sabotaged by Jeremy Corbyn and the people around him.

Lord Mandelson, who was one of the architects of Tony Blair's New Labour project, and is a former European Commissioner, was interviewed for the BBC2 documentary Brexit: the Battle for Britain, to be broadcast on Monday night, examining why the British public voted on 23 June to leave the EU.

Will Straw, a former Labour parliamentary candidate who headed the official Remain campaign, told the same programme that he felt let down by the lukewarm support the campaign received from the Labour leader. He said: With just a couple of weeks to go, there were far too many people who didn't know Labour's position on the referendum. And I think that was because of a lack of concerted campaigning by the leadership over many months leading up to that point... I felt let down.

After the referendum result, the presumption that Mr Corbyn had failed to give the Remain campaign adequate backing was the final trigger for the revolt by Labour MPs, during which more than 60 resigned from their frontbench positions.

But Emily Thornberry, who was promoted to the position of shadow Foreign Secretary after the mass resignations, defended Mr Corbyn. She told the same programme: I think that all leading members of the Labour Party were out actively campaigning... and Jeremy played his part in that collective effort by doing a lot of media appearances, by doing a lot of, a lot of meetings up and down the country.

He played his part and we all played our part in campaigning for that. I think that we are now going through a factious time in the Labour Party, clearly, but I don't think that it's appropriate for people to try to blame one individual.

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.

Lord Mandelson also accused David Cameron of holding back during the campaign for fear of widening the chasm within a divided Conservative Party.

The veteran Conservative and former Chancellor Kenneth Clarke had rather harsher words for the ex-Prime Minister, whom he accused of being reckless and irresponsible by calling the referendum in the first place.

One of the major setbacks for Mr Cameron was the unforeseen decision by his old rival Boris Johnson to throw in his lot with the Brexit camp. A former adviser of Mr Cameron has told the programme that the then-Prime Minister was given less than 15 minutes warning of Mr Johnsons decision.
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Blairites who blame Jeremy Corbyn for Brexit are covering up for their own failure to understand how globalisation has impoverished people at the bottom of the income scale, the Labour leader has claimed.

Mr Corbyn was hitting back at Peter Mandelson, Tony Blairs former right-hand man, who used a BBC interview to accuse him of sabotaging and undermining the campaign to keep Britain in the EU.

Mr Corbyn has been accused of failing to pull his weight, partly because of his refusal to appear on a platform with David Cameron or other Tories, which limited his access to the mass media, though he addressed a large number of meetings and rallies.

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

But Mr Corbyn has denied that this strategy was the cause of the unexpected defeated of the Remain campaign.

He believes that when Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat leaders made joint appearances during the earlier Scottish referendum, they created a backlash among Scottish voters who saw it as an establishment stitch-up.

A spokesperson for Jeremy Corbyn said: It is surprising to hear Peter Mandelson blame Jeremy Corbyn for Brexit so soon after giving a speech in Singapore where he blamed New Labour.

He said that in New Labour's enthusiasm for globalisation, they didn't understand that the benefits of economic growth would go to so few people, while so many others were left with reduced job security, stagnant pay and greater pressure on public services and housing.

These issues are the root cause of anti-immigration sentiment, which Mr Mandelson accepted responsibility for, saying centrists had failed to communicate the benefits of immigration effectively and failed to spend more on public services and redistribution.

Jeremy travelled the length and breadth of the country backing the Labour campaign, advocating investment in areas that had been left behind, action against undercutting of wages and for the reinstatement of a Migrant Impact Fund.

It was crucial that the mistakes of the Scottish Referendum were not repeated and that Jeremy made Labour's case for remain and reform. This is why Jeremy was opposed to campaigning with Tories in Stronger In.
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Jeremy Corbyn has said he will discuss proposals to reduce the working day to just six hours.

While it might sound like wishful thinking, the significantly shorter working day is championed by psychologists and academics who say it is better for workers productivity and satisfaction than a traditional 9-to-5 routine.

Some European countries have begun trialling the change and preliminary reports suggest workers say they are feeling more focused, more productive and company profits have increased.

While taking part in a Q&A with readers of the Daily Mirror, the Mr Corbyn was asked what his position is on introducing a similar policy in the UK.

He replied: I dont know if I could quite get my job done in only six hours a day but its something we will be discussing in our recently launched Workplace 2020, the biggest conversation the UK has ever had on the workplace and workers rights.

The 10 happiest countries in Europe Show all 10 1 /10 The 10 happiest countries in Europe The 10 happiest countries in Europe Denmark Coulourful houses and boats seen in the Nyhavn district in Copenhagen The 10 happiest countries in Europe Switzerland The 10 happiest countries in Europe Iceland Iceland, Northern Lights The 10 happiest countries in Europe Norway Wheel deal: cycling in Norway Visit Norway The 10 happiest countries in Europe Finland Getty The 10 happiest countries in Europe The Netherlands The 10 happiest countries in Europe Sweden AFP The 10 happiest countries in Europe Austria Sean Gallup/Getty Images The 10 happiest countries in Europe Germany Getty Images The 10 happiest countries in Europe Belgium The city hall on Brussels' Grand Place is illuminated during a light show, December 30, 2015 Reuters

Workplace 2020 is an initiative by Labour aimed at increasing workers rights and encouraging trade union membership. Mr Corbyn announced the scheme while addressing the May Day rally in London, saying it was necessary as the UK is one of the most unequal of modern economies.

 Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith clash at Labour's leadership hustings

In an experiment last year, staff at a nursing home in Gothenberg in Sweden switched to working a six-hour day, with no decrease in pay. Although some dismissed the scheme as naive, a subsequent audit analysing the impact on the company found productivity had increased, partly due to employees taking fewer sick days.

Following the news, other companies in Sweden began to follow suit in a bid to replicate the results.

In the UK, the average working week is 43.6 hours, or 8 hours and 40 minutes per day.
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Michael Gove was responsible for leaking mendacious comments supposedly reflecting the Queens private remarks on the European Union, Nick Clegg has claimed.

The Suns front-page headline, at the time, declared that the Queen backs Brexit and the newspaper quoted a senior source as saying that people who heard their conversation were left in no doubt at all about the Queen's views on European integration.

The article said two unnamed sources had claimed that the Queen made critical comments about the EU at two private functions  first with Nick Clegg at a lunch for Privy Counsellors at Windsor Castle in 2011, and at a reception for MPs at Buckingham Palace. She was said to have let rip at the then Deputy Prime Minister and informed him of her belief that the European project was heading the wrong direction.

Michael Gove obviously communicated it, Mr Clegg told a BBC documentary on Brexit. Well I know he did, he gave this to The Sun.

When asked by the presenter whether he knew Mr Gove leaked the story to the newspaper, Mr Clegg responded: Yeah he leaked that and I can see why he might think thats an interesting thing to do, to try and drag the Queen into it but it didnt happen.

I mean the idea that the Queen, of all people, would even bother to give, someone as insignificant as a here today, gone tomorrow Deputy Prime Minister, a tongue lashing about Europe, I just think is so preposterous. So it was not true, it was a very mendacious thing to say and it doesnt surprise me that the Buckingham Palace took this very unusual step of actually complaining about the decision themselves. I think it was very, very disrespectful of Michael Gove to have done that.

Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Show all 62 1 /62 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II on a walk-about in Portsmouth during her Silver Jubilee tour of Great Britain, 1977 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The future Britain's Queen Elizabeth II (R) pictured with her younger sister Princess Margaret (L) in 1933 AFP/Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The 9-year-old Elizabeth attends an aristocratic wedding with her mother and younger sister. Later in that year with the death of her Grandfather and the Abdication of her Uncle Edward VIII she became first in line to the throne, 1936 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The coronation of King George VI in 1937, Elizabeth aged 10 became the heir apparent to the throne Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth and her sister arrive at Waterloo station to say goodbye to their parents as they leave to tour Canada. Elizabeth was thought too young to escort her parents on the tour and was described as "tearful" as they departed. She and her parents made the first ever transatlantic telephone call during their time away, 1939 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The 13-year-old Elizabeth and her sister Margret address children who have been evacuated from the cities on BBC's 'The Chilrens Hour' She said "We are trying to do all we can to help our gallant sailors, soldiers and airmen, and we are trying, too, to bear our share of the danger and sadness of war. We know, every one of us, that in the end all will be well", 1940 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Just before the end of the war Elizabeth took part in training to become an ATS officer. She is pictured learning to change a tire, 1945 AFP/Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The official announcement of Princess Elizabeth and Phillip Mountbatten's engagement. The pairing was incredibly controversial as Prince Phillip had no financial standing and he was foreign born, the prince of Denmark and Greece (though he served Britain in the war and was given British Citizenship), 1947 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II (in coach) and her husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh are cheered by the crowd after their wedding ceremony, on 20 November 1947, on their road to Buckingham Palace, London Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth smiles at her first child, a month old Prince Charles. Charles was born on 14 November 1948 Corbis Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The couples second child Princess Anne was born in 1950 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Arriving back in England upon hearing the death of her father King George VI. The Kings health had been in decline for a number of years and Elizabeth had been filling in for him on an official visit to Australia by way of Kenya. As his heir Elizabeth became Queen aged 26 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth's coronation took place on 2 June 1953. It was the first ever coronation to be aired live on television, being one of the most watched events in history with millions gathering around their TV sets to see the new monarch Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II standing next to her daughter Princess Anne, 1960 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II President Eisenhower (centre) with the British Royal family (L-R) Prince Philip, Princess Anne, HM Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles and Captain John Eisenhower, at Balmoral Castle, Scotland, 1959 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II as she turns to smile and talk to an unidentified officer, during the Trooping of the Colour by the First Battalion of the Jamaica Regiment at Up-Park Camp, Kingston, Jamaica, 1966 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II walking cross country at the North of Scotland Gun Dog Association Open Stake Retreiver Trials in the grounds of Balmoral Castle in 1967 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to the Chelsea Flower Show in London, a regular fixture in the royal calendar, 1971 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh during their traditional summer break at Balmoral Castle. The highland retreat is one of the Queen's favourite places, each year, she heads off to Scotland for the summer. "It is rather nice to hibernate for a bit when one leads such a moveable life," she once said, 1976 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II during a walkabout in Muscat while visiting Oman, 1979 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II with some of her corgis walking the Cross Country course during the second day of the Windsor Horse Trials. The monarch is responsible for introducing a new breed of dog known as the "dorgi" when her corgi Tiny was mated with a dachshund "sausage dog" called Pipkin which belonged to Princess Margaret, 1980 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II (L-R) the Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince William, Prince Harry and the Prince and Princess of Wales after the christening ceremony of Prince Harry, 1984 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II taking the salute of the Household Guards regiments during the Trooping of the Colour ceremony in London, 1985 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Diana, Princess of Wales and Queen Elizabeth II as they smile to well-wishers outside Clarence House in London, 1987 AP Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II, with Chief Instructor, Small Arms Corp LT Col George Harvey, firing the last shot on a standard SA 80 rifle when she attended the centenary of the Army Rifle Association at Bisley, 1993 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II South Africa's President Nelson Mandela greets Queen Elizabeth II as she steps from the royal yacht Britannia in Cape Town at the 1995's official start of the her first visit to the country since 1947 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II smiles as she visits Bowring Park in St. John's, Newfoundland, on the third day of a 10-day official visit to Canada, 1997 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh make their way into St. George's Chapel at Windsor for the annual Garter ceremony, 1999 AFP/Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II and Pope John Paul II as they meet at the Vatican, 2000 AP Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II and the Queen Mother leaving church by horse drawn carriage on the Sandringham Estate, Norfolk, 2000 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth rides her horse in the grounds of Windsor Castle, 2002 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth arrives for the world premiere of James Bond movie "Casino Royale" at the Odeon cinema in Leicester Square in London, 2006 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth boards a scheduled train at Kings Cross station in London, 2009 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II planting a tree at Newmarket Animal Health Trust, during a royal visit which marked her 50th year as the charity's patron, 2009 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II talking with Pope Benedict XVI during an audience in the Morning Drawing Room at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh during a four day visit by the Pope to the UK, 2010 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II visiting the Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 2010 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II receives flowers from the crowd during her visit to Federation Square in downtown Melbourne, 2011 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth watches a preview of her Christmas message wearing a pair of 3D glasses, studded with Swarovski crystals in the form of a "Q", at Buckingham Palace in central London, 2012 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Members of Britain's royal family (front L to R) Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles cheer as competitors participate in a sack race at the Braemar Gathering in Braemar, Scotland, 2012 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Britain's Prince Charles kisses the hand of his mother Queen Elizabeth at the end of her Diamond Jubilee concert in front of Buckingham Palace in London, 2012 Reuters Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge laughs as Queen Elizabeth gestures during a visit to Vernon Park in Nottingham, 2012 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip attend a service for the Order of the British Empire at St Paul's Cathedral in London, 2012 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II meets young people during an official visit to The Shard building in central London, 2013 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Actress Angelina Jolie is presented with the Insignia of an Honorary Dame Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George by Queen Elizabeth II in the 1844 Room at Buckingham Palace, London, 2014 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visit the Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red evolving art installation at the Tower of London, 2014 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at the State Opening of Parliament, 2015 AFP/Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II (L-R) Britain's Princess Anne, Princess Royal, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge holding his son Prince George of Cambridge, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Harry (back), Prince Andrew, Duke of York (back), James, Viscount Severn (front), Princess Beatrice of York (back), Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Eugenie of York (back) stand on the balcony of Buckingham Palace waiting to view the fly-past during the Queen's Birthday Parade, 'Trooping the Colour,' in London, 2015 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The Trooping of the Colour is an annual celebration marking the Queen's birthday, 2015 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Britain's Queen Elizabeth II stands with Kate the Duchess of Cambridge whilst pushing Princess Charlotte in a pram as they leave after attending the Christening of Britain's Princess Charlotte at St. Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham, 2015 AP Photo/Matt Dunham, Pool Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II arrives at the Broadway Theatre in Barking, 2015 Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II greets wellwishers during a 'walkabout' on her 90th birthday in Windsor in 2016 AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Members of the Royal Family during trooping of the colour in 2017 AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The Queen waves at Prince Harry and Meghan after their wedding in 2018 POOL/AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex gesture during their visit to the Storyhouse in Chester, Cheshire in 2018 AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Prince Charles reacts as he sits with his mother Britain's Queen Elizabeth II during an event to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, in Portsmouth in 2019 AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are joined by her mother, Doria Ragland, as they show their new son, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, to the Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh at Windsor Castle Chris Allerton/Sussex Royal/PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II reacts as she visits the Haig Housing Trust in Morden in 2019 POOL/AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II takes her seat on the The Sovereign's Throne in the House of Lords next to Prince Charles, before reading the Queen's Speech during the State Opening of Parliament in 2019 POOL/AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II looks at the coffin of Britain's Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh during his funeral service at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle POOL/AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II and Britain's Prince Charles, Prince of Wales pose alongside the tree which they planted to mark the start of the official planting season for the Queen's Green Canopy (QGC) at the Balmoral Cricket Pavilion, Balmoral Estate in Scotland POOL/AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Britain's Queen Elizabeth II cuts a cake to celebrate the start of the Platinum Jubilee during a reception in the Ballroom of Sandringham House, the Queen's Norfolk residence on February 5, 2022. - Queen Elizabeth II on Sunday will became the first British monarch to reign for seven decades, in a bittersweet landmark as she also marked the 70th anniversary of her father's death AFP/Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II arrives in Westminster Abbey accompanied by Prince Andrew, Duke of York for the Service Of Thanksgiving For The Duke Of Edinburgh on March 29, 2022 in London Getty

Mr Gove and those close to him have previously denied briefing the story, which ran in March. A source close to the former Justice Secretary said today there was nothing to add to whats been said previously.

In a separate interview from the same documentary Craig Oliver  David Camerons former director of communications  was asked whether his former boss was hurt by Mr Goves decision to join the Leave campaign during the EU referendum.

He replied: I dont think hes ever been surprised that Michael Gove is a EuroscepticI think what he was surprised by was that he felt that Michael had given him the impression that he would not play a very significant role in Vote Leave and when it was announced that he was in fact the Chairman of Vote Leave, that was a moment of surprise. Mr Goves official title was co-convener of the Vote Leave campaign.

Brexit: The Battle for Britain is due to air on Monday, 9pm, BBC Two.
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Jeremy Corbyn is considering backing plans to give British citizens a universal basic income.

The Labour leader has spoken of his support for the measure, which would see every person in the UK given a minimum monthly financial sum. The sum would be designed to give everyone a basic minimum standard of living including those who are out of work, with people who are working earning their salary in addition to the sum. While once seen as a radical reform, the idea is gaining traction internationally and Norway and Ontario in Canada are to pilot schemes to test it.

Speaking in an interview with Huffington Post, Mr Corbyn said he is discussing the merits of universal basic income with shadow chancellor John McDonnell. He said: Im instinctively looking at it along with John. I am looking forward to discussing it with our colleagues from Norway because we have to think radically about how we bring about a more just and more equal society in Britain, how we develop policies that achieve that.

Because what we are doing is heading in absolutely the wrong direction with a growing wealth inequality and an opportunity inequality for communities, as well as poorer families. Its got to change and it will.

However, he added that the policy is one which he will have to carefully consider and discuss with the wider party before committing to. He explained: I can see the headline attraction to it. I dont want to commit to it until Ive had a chance to look at it very seriously and very carefully because this would be a major, major change in social policy.

Its something I would invite the whole party and the whole movement to have a serious discussion about.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 15 September 2022 Members of the public in the queue on in Potters Fields Park, central London, as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 14 September 2022 The first members of the public pay their respects as the vigil begins around the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Hall, London, where it will lie in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2022 Crowds cheer as King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort arrive for a visit to Hillsborough Castle Getty UK news in pictures 12 September 2022 Crowds line the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, as King Charles III joins a procession from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles Cathedral following the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II Katielee Arrowsmith/SWNS UK news in pictures 11 September 2022 Members of the Public pay their respects as the hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland, is driven through Ballater AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 10 September 2022 Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales, Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales, Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wave at well-wishers on the Long walk at Windsor Castle AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 9 September 2022 King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort wave after viewing floral tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace Getty UK news in pictures 8 September 2022 A screen commemorating Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in Piccadilly Circus, London Britain EPA

Proponents of universal basic income argue that it would guarantee a minimum basic standard of living for everyone in society and reduce government spend in the long term due to lack of red tape surrounding benefits and less use of public resources.

However, opponents argue it could dis-incentivise people who could otherwise find work and prove too costly for the economy.
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Marco Rubio, the Florida senator who dropped out of the Republican race for the White House in March, has said he does not believe pregnant women infected with the Zika virus should be allowed to have abortions  despite the risk of their babies being born with microcephaly.

"I understand a lot of people disagree with my view  but I believe that all human life is worthy of protection of our laws," he told Politico.

And when you present it in the context of Zika or any prenatal condition, its a difficult question and a hard one

"But if Im going to err, Im going to err on the side of life."

The virus has begun spreading via mosquitoes in the state of Florida, where 16 people are now believe to have caught the disease locally.

A square mile of Miami has been declared a no-go zone for pregnant women to protect developing fetuses.

Until now, the biggest risk to Americans has been catching the disease overseas.

The virus causes only minor symptoms in adults but has been linked to birth defects in babies, including microcephaly  abnormally small heads  which can cause seizures and developmental delays.

Mr Rubio added: "Obviously, microcephaly is a terrible prenatal condition that kids are born with. And when they are, its a lifetime of difficulties. So I get it.

Im not pretending to you that thats an easy question you asked me. But Im prolife. And Im strongly pro-life.

I believe all human life should be protected by our law, irrespective of the circumstances or condition of that life."

The Florida outbreak has sparked a huge public health response, as local workers try to eradicate the mosquito responsible.

Barack Obama asked Congress for $1.9bn of funding to help tackle the problem but it has been blocked in the Senate. House Republicans added several unrelated provisions to the bill, including a measure to defund Planned Parenthood, the women's health provider.

The Florida outbreak has sent local officials into damage control mode, as they try to protect the state's lucrative tourism industry.

Rick Scott, the governor, toured the Zika hot zone of Wynwood and insisted: "We have a safe state."
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Tens of thousands of people are calling for Donald Trump to be examined by doctors for narcissism  and a Harvard medical professor thinks they are right.

The Change.org petition was started by Democratic congresswoman Karen Bass who believes the aspiring president appears to exhibit all the symptoms of the mental disorder Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD).

She tweeted: Medical professionals must step up and demand a mental fitness test for the Republican Presidential nominee.

 10 of the scariest things Donald Trump has ever said

The petition, signed by almost 25,000 people, states: Donald Trump is dangerous for our country.

His impulsiveness and lack of control over his own emotions are of concern. It is our patriotic duty to raise the question of his mental stability to be the commander in chief and leader of the free world.

Ms Bass sent a series of picture tweets explaining her reasons for suspecting Trump suffers from narcissistic personality disorder  appearing to use his own quotes as to back up her case.

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

Harvard Medical School dean prof Flier, backed Mr Bass by tweeting: Narcissistic personality disorder. Trump doesn't just have it, he defines it.

But earlier this week, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) issued a warning reminding medical professionals of the Goldwater rule  which forbids them from commenting on individuals who they have not examined themselves.

"We live in an age where information on a given individual is easier to access and more abundant than ever before, particularly if that person happens to be a public figure," said Maria A. Oquendo, president of the APA.

"The unique atmosphere of this years election cycle may lead some to want to psychoanalyze the candidates but to do so would not only be unethical, it would be irresponsible," she added.

"Simply put, breaking the Goldwater Rule is irresponsible, potentially stigmatizing, and definitely unethical."
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Thai voters have overwhelmingly approved a new junta-backed constitution that lays the foundation for a civilian government influenced by the military and controlled by appointed  rather than elected  officials.

In a referendum called by the military government, 62 percent of the voters said they approved of the new constitution, while 38 percent rejected it, Election Commissioner Somchai Srisutthiyakorn told reporters. He said that 91 percent of the ballots had been counted, and that the result was not expected to change much after all votes are in.

The referendum was seen as a test of the popularity of the military government of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a retired army general who has severely curtailed dissent since coming to power in a 2014 coup. But his rule has also brought a measure of stability and ended the frequent street violence and divisive politics that had frayed Thailand's social fabric for years.

That veneer of stability could help explain the "yes" vote for the new constitution.

The charter "speaks to a lot of worries and concerns that a majority of Thai people have," Gothom Areeya, a professor at Thailand's Mahidol University, told The Associated Press. "Many Thais want to see an end to corruption and the return of peace and development. Even though experts like me may criticize it a lot, our message just didn't reach a lot of the people."

Following the result, the Thai Primie Minister issued a rebuke to those who had criticised the referendum.

In addition to asking for an opinion on the constitution, the referendum also asked a supplementary question on whether voters wanted an appointed Senate to choose a prime minister. That question elicited a less enthusiastic approval  58 percent "yes" and 42 percent "no," Somchai said.

Fifty-five percent of Thailand's roughly 50 million registered voters cast ballots in the referendum.

Although no irregularities were reported in the voting process, critics are likely to point out that the vote was skewed because the "no" camp was denied the opportunity to present its case.

The junta imposed severe restrictions in the run-up to the referendum, banning political rallies, independent campaigns and open discussion about the draft constitution. Criticism of the draft was made punishable by 10 years in jail. Critics say the restrictions ensured that most people were unaware of the pitfalls of the charter, and were probably anxious to get the long-drawn process over with so that they could move on.

There was also the allure of new elections that Prayuth has promised to hold in 2017, after the approval of the new constitution, although he's said he would call the vote even if the referendum was defeated.

Analysts have said that a "yes" vote would be a setback for democracy in Thailand.

"It adds that touch of legitimacy to the coup makers," Pavin Chachavalpongpun, an associate professor at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies of Kyoto University in Japan, said after the referendum results were announced. "It gives them the green light for the next few steps they want to take. They will say the opposition cannot say anything now."

Pavin, a Thai and a vocal critic of the junta, told The Associated Press that even when the military is no longer in power and a civilian government is in place after the 2017 elections, the military "will have the constitution as a remote control. The constitution can be used as a device to hold onto political power."

The main criticisms of the draft constitution are:

 A transition period of at least five years to civilian rule.

 A 250-member appointed Senate that includes the commanders of the army and other security services.

 A deadlock in the 500-member elected lower house could trigger a selection of a prime minister who is not an elected member of parliament. Under the abolished 2007 constitution, half the Senate was elected, and the prime minister had to come from the lower house.

 Emergency decrees enacted by the junta without any parliamentary consent remain valid.

Thailand has endured 13 successful military coups and 11 attempted takeovers since it replaced an absolute monarchy with a constitutional one in 1932. This would be Thailand's 20th constitution.

Leaders of the latest coup say frequent political conflicts had made the country ungovernable and that military rule was necessary for stability. The junta set up hand-picked committees to draft a charter that would enshrine its declared goal of reforming politics by eliminating corruption.

But others believe the new constitution has a different aim: to weaken allies of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the central figure in the roiling of Thai politics.

Thaksin's political machine has easily won every national election since 2001, mainly due to the support of working-class and rural voters who benefited from his populist policies. Leading the other side is Thailand's traditional ruling class and royalists  known as the "yellow shirts"  unnerved by Thaksin's support, especially as it contemplates its future. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, whose righteous rule has anchored the kingdom since 1946, is 88 and ailing.

The army ousted Thaksin in a 2006 coup, after "yellow shirt" protesters took to the streets and accused him of abuse of power, corruption and disrespecting the king. He has lived abroad since 2008 to avoid prison for a corruption conviction that he says was politically motivated. The 2014 coup ousted his sister Yingluck Shinawatra, who was elected prime minister in 2011.

Those who brought Thaksin down now seek to weaken major political parties, which would ensure that real power stays in the hands of what is dubbed the permanent bureaucracy: the military, the courts and other unelected guardians of the conservative bloc.

Gothom, the Mahidol professor, said that Thailand may see peace now, but that it will likely be a peace enforced by military power.

"How much or how little freedom of expression will be allowed to the people, we will just have to wait and see," he said.
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Isis has claimed responsiblity for a machete attack on two Belgian police officers, describing the assailant as a soldier of the caliphate in a statement issued via its Amaq news agency.

The attacker, who has not been named by the Belgian authorities, was shot dead as he attacked two policewomen outside the main police station in the southern city of Charleroi.

The Isis media arm, citing a security source, said the man acted in response to calls to carry out terror attacks in Europe. On Sunday afternoon, the Belgian prosecutor said the attacker was of Algerian origin and had a criminal record.

One officer suffered deep cuts to the face in the attack, while the other received minor injuries, though neither was described as life-threatening. The assailant was shot dead by a third officer who was stood nearby.

After a meeting of the National Security Council earlier, the Belgian prime minister Charles Michel said the attack was being investigated as a terrorist incident.

Mr Michel cut short a holiday to southern France to return to Belgium after the incident on Saturday, during which the assailant was reported to have shouted Allahu Akbar (God is Great).

In the aftermath of the attack, Mr Michel told broadcaster RTL by phone: Initial indications very clearly point towards terrorism.

Mr Michel's spokesman, Barend Leyts, said the independent OCAM agency, which assesses risks to Belgium's internal security, was consulted and decided to keep the current threat level unchanged.
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A machete attack on Belgian police which left a female officer with deep wounds to her face is being investigated as a terrorist incident, according to the Belgian prime minister.

Charles Michel cut short a holiday to southern France to return to Belgium after the incident on Saturday in Charleroi, during which the assailant was reported to have shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great).

The attacker approached two female officers outside the main police station in the city, and both suffered injuries before another officer, who was nearby, shot the assailant dead.

One policewoman received only minor injuries, while the other required hospital treatment for "serious wounds" to the face. Neither's condition was described as "life-threatening".

In the aftermath of the attack, Mr Michel told broadcaster RTL by phone: "Initial indications very clearly point towards terrorism."

On Sunday he met with federal police and intelligence services chiefs over the attack the the National Security Council.

Mr Michel's spokesman, Barend Leyts, said the independent OCAM agency that assesses risks to Belgium's internal security was consulted and decided to keep the current threat level unchanged.
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A woman dubbed the Mother of Jihad by Belgian media has been released from jail just four months into a 15-year sentence on terrorism charges, due to a simple bureaucratic error.

Fatima Aberkan, 55, was convicted of recruiting for jihadist groups after prosecutors said she had links to a network of prominent al-Qaeda terror plotters and had reportedly travelled to Syria with her two teenage daughters in 2013.

She was sentenced to 15 years in prison in April this year but, according to the Belgian newspaper La Derniere Heure, is already free from jail.

Recommended Read more Isis claims responsibility for machete attack on Belgian police

Aberkans release was granted after her lawyers submitted an application to appeal, but the Belgian Court of Cessation failed to provide a date for a hearing within the five months required.

Her freedom comes with a number of conditions, Belgian media reported, including a ban on visiting the Molenbeek suburb of Brussels, where longstanding issues with radicalisation were thrown into the international spotlight by the Paris attacks.

Aberkan has been ordered to hand in her Belgian and Moroccan passports and banned from visiting websites advocating jihad.

She will also be subject to a curfew, required to attend a police station as well as a course on deradicalisation.

The terms of release were proposed to judges by Aberkans lawyer, Cedric Moisse, according to Belgian media reports.

When she was sentenced, Aberkan was given the longest jail term ever received by a woman in Belgium for terrorism offences.

Alongside the convicted hate preacher Khalid Zerkani, she was understood to be responsible for sending dozens of young people to join terror groups in Syria.

When she was convicted in February, prosecuting lawyers told the court: "Fatima Aberkan has jihad under the skin. She has sacrificed much for the cause, including one of her sons. For many years, she's contaminated her entourage with her foul and harmful ideas."
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An injured man who barricaded himself in a restaurant in the western German city of Saarbruecken was later found asleep in the basement and detained, police said.

Saarbruecken police also said the 43-year-old man, who was not identified, didn't have a weapon as authorities had initially reported.

Police spokesman Kurt Schwindling told AP that the man, a relative of the restaurant owner, had initially entered the place, screamed at security staff and sent them outside.

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

Mr Schwindling said the man was probably suffering from psychological problems.

It was not immediately clear why the man was injured.

Germany has been on edge after several attacks in the last month.
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Hundreds of thousands of Turks have gathered in Istanbul as part of a pro-democracy rally protesting against last months failed coup.

The citys Yenikapi Square was filled with Turkish flags on Sunday afternoon as people joined the Democracy and Martyrs rally for unity, marking a climax after many weeks of demonstrations in support of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Supporters of Mr Erdogans Justice and Development Party (AKP) have taken to the streets every night since the attempted military coup on 15 July, in which more than 270 people were killed.

Demonstrators wave Turkish national flags as they stand in front of giant screens on August 7, 2016 in Istanbul during a rally against failed military coup on July 15 (AFP)

People wave Turkey's national flags during the Democracy and Martyrs Rally (Reuters)

Turkey has made wide-ranging crackdowns following the coup attempt, which have seen the arrest, removal and suspension of more than 70,000 people affecting workers in the judiciary, the education system, media, health care and other sectors.

The purges have provoked alarm in the international community, presenting a major stumbling block for Turkeys campaign to join the European Union.

Speaking to the rally Mr Erdogan said: ""As a state and as a nation we need to analyse the 15 July coup attempt very well. We need to evaluate well not just those who engaged in this treachery, but the powers behind them, the motives that made them take action.

"July 15 showed our friends that this country isn't just strong against political, economic and diplomatic attacks, but against military sabotage as well. It showed that it will not fall, it will not be derailed.

"There is now a new Turkey after July 15."

Mr Erdogan also addressed the death penalty at the rally, saying if the Turkish public want the death penalty following the failed coup then political parties will enact their will.

Demonstrators wave Turkish national flags on August 7, 2016 in Istanbul during a rally against failed military coup on July 15 (AFP)

"It is the Turkish parliament that will decide on this [death penalty] given the sovereignty rests with the nation... I declare it in advance, I will approve the decision made by the parliament," he said.

The president was joined by Prime Minister Binali Yildrim and opposition party leaders at the rally, which is being held under tight security with 15,000 police understood to be on duty as well as anti-aircraft batteries set up on the event grounds and two helicopters overhead.

An official from the prime ministers office told AFP that arrangements were made for three million people to attend the rally, with some state media predicting up 3.5 million people may attend.

Thousands of buses and more than 200 boats were brought in to ferry attendees to the area, where they passed through one of 165 metal detectors before being given hats and flags.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and his wife Emine Gulbaran attend Democracy and Martyrs Rally (AFP)

People wave Turkish flags during a rally to protest the failed coup attempt (EPA)

The event began with a minute of silence for those killed while opposing the coup, followed by the Turkish national anthem and prayers.

A 60m stage was set up for the event and draped with national flags and banners depicting Mr Erdogan and Turkey's founding father Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The names of those who died opposing the coup were read out as the event commenced.

Those wounded during the attempted coup, and the families of those who died, were given special passes for a seated area.

"Today is a special day, which is making all of the gatherings held for 15, 24 days, more precious," said Mustafa Yavuz Aycil, a 44-year-old Istanbul resident attending the rally. "I also had to be here today because as you see all of the crowd is showing its reaction to the coup."

In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Show all 17 1 /17 In pictures: Turkey coup attempt In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish President Erdogan attends the funeral service for victims of the thwarted coup in Istanbul at Fatih mosque on July 17, 2016 in Istanbul, Turkey Burak Kara/Getty Images In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Soldiers involved in the coup attempt surrender on Bosphorus bridge with their hands raised in Istanbul on 16 July, 2016 Gokhan Tan/Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt A civilian beats a soldier after troops involved in the coup surrendered on the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, 16 July, 2016 REUTERS/Murad Sezer In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Surrendered Turkish soldiers who were involved in the coup are beaten by a civilian Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Soliders involved in the coup attempt surrender on Bosphorus bridge Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wave flags as they capture a Turkish Army vehicle Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt People pose near a tank after troops involved in the coup surrendered on the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, 16 July, 2016 Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish soldiers block Istanbul's Bosphorus Brigde Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt A Turkish military stands guard near the Taksim Square in Istanbul Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Pierre Crom/Twitter In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish soldiers secure the area as supporters of Recep Tayyip Erdogan protest in Istanbul's Taksim square AP In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Murad Sezer/Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish soldiers detain police officers during a security shutdown of the Bosphorus Bridge Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish Army armoured personnel carriers in the main streets of Istanbul Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Chaos reigned in Istanbul as tanks drove through the streets EPA/TOLGA BOZOGLU In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan speaks to media in the resort town of Marmaris Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Supporters of President Erdogan celebrate in Ankara following the suppression of the attempted coup Reuters

Mr Erdogan had previously urged people to bring only the Turkish flag instead of party banners: "There we will stand together as a single nation, a single flag, a single motherland, a single state, a single spirit," he said on Saturday, Turkish media reports.

Thousands also rallied in Izmir in the west, Antalya in the south and Diyarbakir in the south-east.

Turkish media also said a giant screen displaying the event was to be set up in Pennsylvania, the US state where Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen is based. Authorities say the failed coup was staged by a military faction loyal to the Gulen or Hismet movement, but it has denied involvement.

Additional reporting by Associated Press
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An Iranian nuclear scientist who returned to Iran from the US in 2010 after claiming he had been abducted by the CIA has been executed, his family has claimed.

Shahram Amiris body was returned to his family five years after he was purportedly arrested in Iran for treason.

Mr Amiri initially went missing in 2009 while on a pilgrimage to Mecca. A year later, videos apparently made in the US surfaced, in which Mr Amiri claimed he had been kidnapped and held in a house where he was put under intense psychological pressure to reveal sensitive information.

In another video he claimed he had escaped from US custody.

He subsequently arrived at the Iranian embassy in Washington DC, and upon his return to Iran was hailed as a hero.

But at the time, US officials told the BBC that Mr Amiri, a specialist in radiation safety, had defected to America of his own free will, and had provided useful information to the US.

In May 2011, Iranian media abruptly stopped covering news about Mr Amiri and plans for a film about his alleged kidnapping were scrapped.

Recommended Read more Two men explain why they are wearing the hijab to support their wives

He was then arrested in Iran and was reportedly tried for treason.

His fate remained unknown until Saturday when his family said he had been executed and his body returned with rope marks around his neck indicating he had been hanged, the BBC reports.

Iran has repeatedly denied it is attempting to develop nuclear weapons and that all its nuclear activity is to build civilian power stations.

In January, international sanctions on Iran were lifted in exchange for confirmation, verified by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), that the country is not attempting to build nuclear weapons.

Mr Amiris execution follows the hanging of 20 people in Iran last week for alleged terrorism offences.

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. 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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. 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A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. 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The UN high commissioner for human rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein said there were serious doubts about the fairness of the trials, respect for due process and the other rights of the accused.
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Any attempt to penetrate what we will indulgently call Donald Trumps mind ranks somewhere between a fools game and a metaphorical fitting for a jacket which does up from the back. You could suffer a breakdown trying to figure out the mental processes behind the torrents of vacuous drivel and casual cruelty that flow from the tangerine hucksters mouth.

What drives a 70-year-old man to pick a fight with the parents of a Muslim-American war hero and a grouchy baby? Or to invite a hostile foreign power to hack and publish a rivals emails? Or to spew out lies of such transparent mendacity  watching footage of a US plane landing in Tehran with a $400m (305m) hostage ransom  that even in this post-objective truth age, they unravel in minutes.

Every pop psychologist has a theory. Some spray around such terms as narcissistic personality disorder and sociopathy, which we like using because they sound cool without neccessarily understanding them. Others wonder whether the intergalactic invader formally known as That Thing On His Head has damaged his cerebral vortex with some form of radiation sickness.

More technically-minded analysts posit that he is  and youll just have to forgive this lurch into baffling jargon  simply the biggest tool on the planet.

I, being kindly to a fault, eschew the sneery jibes in favour of empathy.

Not that its easy. There is, as mentioned above, the genuine threat that putting oneself in his position will provoke a breakdown. But people dont refer to column writing as the most dangerous game in the world without reason. We unsung heroes of journalism are fearless.

And so, today, in a daredevil bid to fathom the mind of Donald Trump, we take a trip down memory lane to the London Palladium of Christmas 1967.

With Christopher Biggins freshly expelled from the Big Brother house, let us recall a distant era when pantomime stardom and national controversy were more unusual bedfellows. In that matinee performance, Danny La Rue, the grandest of all panto dames, was Widow Twankee. When he invited young volunteers to join him for a rendition of Do-Ray-Me, my four-year-old self couldnt resist the chance to show off. I was propelled on to that famous stage by a bombast and bravado that survived intact until Danny shoved the microphone in my face, and trilled Tea?

It was at that point, when the correct response was a drink with jam and bread! that the bottom lip began to wobble, the voicebox was paralysed, and the eyes filled with tears.

As a nearby fairy picked me up, the audience in unison emitted an enormous, crushing ahhhhh! I was returned to my parents with nothing but a box of Lindt chocolate teddy bears for consolation.

The letters signed by Donald Trump Show all 5 1 /5 The letters signed by Donald Trump The letters signed by Donald Trump The letters signed by Donald Trump The letters signed by Donald Trump The letters signed by Donald Trump The letters signed by Donald Trump

Although the experience of running for the White House appears not to have paralysed the Trump larynx, could it be that the centre-stage spotlight which enticed him from afar is petrifying him in the same way? Is his unceasing spouting of embarrassing nonsense a symptom of distress?

Is stage fright, and its associated intimations of his massive inadequacy, leading him to sabotage his chances? Is his subconscious whispering to him that he is so staggeringly out of his depth that America would be incomparably safer, for all her faults, with Hillary Clinton? Does he yearn for the comfort of his family and a sugary treat?

What is in no doubt is that this would-be leader of the free world has a mental age, at most, of four. If there is one defining toddler trait, it is an obsession with bodily functions (the references to Megyn Kelly menstruating, and to Hillary taking a bathroom break during a debate, which he described as disgusting). You see characters like him in trolley seats hollering away in the confectionery aisle of Tesco, screechingly demanding why, given that the good people at Lindt have gone to the trouble of making them, his request for chocolate teddy bears is being denied.

Admittedly Trumps reported questioning of national security advisers as to why, what with the US possessing them, he couldnt use nuclear warheads is on a marginally different scale. Eating sweets before meals tends not to lead to an extinction level event. But, at a fundamental level, its the same thing.

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Not only does he covet the shiny toy visible in the distance. Naturally enough, he wants to play with it. If that happens to mean cauterising Equatorial Guinea from the earth for no especially clear reason, well, what mischievous four-old-year considers the consequences when he gets hold of a box of non-safety matches?

Tempting as it is to assume from the latest national and swing state polls that Trump has destroyed himself already, Hillary still has work to do to spare us the nuclear option. Treating him less as a scary bogeyman than a distressed toddler, especially in the debates which seem likely to settle this race if he has the courtesy to show up, would strike the perfectly destructive tone.

Whether about their hands, genitals, experience, intellect, temperament and, in this case, liquid wealth, the one thing naughty boys of any age who think themselves the messiah cannot handle is being humiliatingly belittled.
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As a method of buying off local opposition to fracking projects, the idea of offering substantial sums to the individual households affected is, in cynical political terms, smart and has some merit. Apparently it also has the personal support of the Prime Minister, and seems to be an early example of Theresa May putting into practice her pledge to take the side of the littler people in society. Ms May also, no doubt, wishes to stay on side with voters in marginal seats from Sussex to Lancashire.

The policy certainly moves away from the scheme favoured by the former Chancellor, George Osborne, of setting aside 10 per cent of the tax proceeds from fracking to go to local councils and community trusts. The problem with that idea was, sadly, all too obvious: there is no actual hard cash compensation available to people whose lives may be devastated by the forced industrialisation of their countryside and villages. And, whether anyone likes it or not, few have sufficient faith in the ability of local government to use the funds wisely; for voters, it was not a sufficiently attractive proposition.

Ms May has instead intervened in a controversy that threatened to cost her party valuable support in areas of the country it most needs to retain. It is almost as if she asked herself how she might feel if the lorries started thundering down the B-roads near her own home. Even the most lavishly supported community fund would not be enough to compensate for domestic trauma.

Ms May no doubt has in mind her duty to keep the nations lights on. Given her reservations about Hinkley Point, she may feel that she has little choice but to back this huge expansion in fossil fuel consumption, but with the minimal political damage. This is problematic.

If the polluter pays, then there is still the question of who receives the benefit. Tactically, offering 10,000 to households may be good party political tactics, but it does set an uncomfortable precedent for all manner of infrastructure projects from HS2 to Heathrow expansion, let alone housing, quarrying and industrial developments.

These schemes, like fracking, are designed to boost the national economy; it may not be sensible to institutionalise nimbyism by offering automatic compensation on some sliding scale. More significantly, wider community is disenfranchised when those immediately affected are, in effect, paid to shut up.

There are wider reasons why the Government's compensation approach (or, less kindly, bribery) is profoundly wrong. We are way past the era of fossil fuels, even if the gas extracted by fracking is reportedly cleaner than coal, oil and North Sea gas.

There is a better way to secure energy for the future. If the Government and the energy companies put as much thought and investment into imaginative renewable schemes, we might not have to waste so much public money trying to persuade people that fracking is the best way forward. It is not, and no level of compensation to residents will stop local environmental damage, nor the harm to the planet or the risk of accelerating climate change that fracking will cause.

Never having been filmed with a team of huskies in the Arctic Circle, Ms May has none of the green baggage David Cameron carried with him. She is taking a fresh look at many other policies, so she should look again at her Governments green credentials.

If Ms May is really on the side of the British people, she should listen to their concerns rather than buying them off, and place a moratorium on fracking, just as she did with Hinkley Point. The losers from fracking we know about; the benefits are much less clear.
The state carrier and its employees had been at loggerheads with each other over a slew of issues, including the perpetual delay in disseminating salaries.
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Surely the publication of David Camerons resignation honours list will at last bring about the reform of the House of Lords? This should not be difficult. The hereditary peers could remain as at present, while the others could vote among themselves to elect 120, divided into groups of 24, to serve in the House of Lords. After one year the first group of 24 could stand down or offer themselves for re-election. Each year the process will be repeated, until the fifth group. Thereafter each group will have served for five years when the time for an election comes round.

Peers could still be appointed, but they would not serve in the House of Lords and could not claim any fees. This arrangement would drastically cut costs but at the same time would give continuity and an opportunity to introduce new blood.

William W Scott

North Berwick

Any debate about the House of Lords must begin with an honest statement of its background and purpose. The House evolved over centuries as a forum in which the rich and influential could be consulted on laws and policies. To suggest otherwise is to allow Victorian moralising to overcome rational thought.

It follows that the need for the House of Lords must be judged on whether consulting such people is worthwhile. This is true if the alternative is that their opposition would hamper the implementation of laws and policies.

The House of Lords as it existed to 1911 offered the rich a veto on laws. Since then, they have been consulted. It has been a form of institutional corruption. The question facing the honest is therefore whether this arrangement is preferable to the likelihood of covert corruption.

Peter Holland

Address withheld

Cobweb-ridden old Labour: when in doubt, bleat on about the unrepresentative House of Lords. Thanks largely to Labours opposition to proportional representation, the real problem is the unrepresentative House of Commons. The fact that PR was voted down by one of David Camerons artfully manipulated referendums surely makes it more desirable than less.

Richard Humble

Exeter

I am astonished at the storm of bile that has erupted over the peerage awarded to Shami Chakrabarti. That such vile things should be said about such an admirable person just goes to show the state of politics at the moment. I am only sorry that she did not agree to stand for a Commons seat. She would wipe the floor with the current crop of lacklustre careerist nonentities.

Linda Ellis

Hull

Labour women are under attack

I sympathise with Beth Foster-Ogg and am not in the least bit surprised by her account of being hectored by Labour MP Caroline Flint. Her complaints echoes that of some 60 or so feminists who recently wrote into The Independent to criticise the smearing of legitimate political opposition as gender based intimidation. My feminist colleagues have a now commonly used term for female professional politicians who vote to bomb indigenous mothers, cut welfare to lone parents and education opportunities that historically also benefited marginalised young women. Rather than feminists, these women who only invoke female victimhood in support of their own personal careers while refusing to show solidarity with women of colour, working-class mothers and young female students, are apparently known pejoratively as femicrats.

Dr Gavin Lewis

Manchester

Not politics as usual

To think I used to believe politics was boring! Now so much has happened on both sides of the pond. I listened to Donald Trump's nomination acceptance speech and it reminded me of my old gran's rebuke: Empty vessels make the most noise.

Barbara MacArthur

Cardiff

Be safe, not sorry

Regarding Simon Calder's piece on aircraft safety, why not lock the lockers? Let the captain/crew have the switch and the problem is solved, isn't it?

Charles Matthews

Address withheld

Banish the Brexit blues

I am getting very tired of this paper's continual bleating about the negative effects of Brexit. It shows a complete lack of respect for the process of democracy, and the people who voted to leave. There is a supercilious attitude prevailing, which I find unacceptable.

Better, surely, to accept the decision of the majority and get on with creating a positive and forward-thinking atmosphere. Harkening back to what might have been is counterproductive and can lead to the creation of a climate of defeatism. To quote the old Broadway musical, lets accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative.

Murray Stewart

Evercreech, Somerset
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In last Novembers Spending Review, George Osborne boasted he was doubling the housing budget and spoke of the biggest house-building programme by any government since the 1970s.

What images did that summon up? Concrete being poured? Deliveries of new bricks? Trowels at the ready? Busy construction sites? Builders going to work, funded by Government cash?

If it did, Im afraid you were duped.

The British state hasnt directly built houses on any kind of scale since the late 1970s, when Margaret Thatcher shut local authority construction down. And nothing in last years major fiscal statement, despite Osbornes rhetoric, was designed to change that.

The Spending Review did not include provision for a single dwelling to be built directly at the Governments expense. It was, in fact, a series of complex subsidies to private house-building firms to create discounted starter homes, yet more financial support for first-time buyers and a smidgen of public funding to prepare land for the development of new homes.

Oh, and that doubling of the housing budget? An increase of 1bn to 2bn? Lets put that into context: 2bn is little more than one-tenth of 1 per cent of GDP. The housing benefit bill  which subsidises people who cant afford to pay their rent (a benefit for which most new claimants are in work)  is 21bn a year.

To see the true picture, you should ignore ministerial statements and look at the raw official statistics. In 1969-70, local councils built 175,550 houses; in 2015-16 they started work on just 1,480. And housing associations have not filled the gap since the Thatcher government forced local councils to vacate the field.

In the previous financial year, these trusts, charities and not-for-profit corporations, which Thatcher wanted to take over affordable housing responsibilities from councils, started just 22,610 new residences.

The result is that total new dwelling starts were a pathetic 146,400 last year, still catastrophically short of the estimated 200,000 that are needed to meet additional demand, and to keep prices and rents from rising. An average of 123,560 houses were built in each year of David Camerons premiership  the worst record of any national leader since the 1920s.

Shout

We now have a new prime minister and a new chancellor, so let them deliver what Cameron and Osborne only talked of.

Heres what they need to do. Let Theresa May and Philip Hammond lift the cap on local authorities borrowing for housing construction, enabling councils to invest far more in building directly themselves.

 'Pop-up squat' in Knightsbridge for Housing Bill

Let local authorities not only provide state-owned land for residential construction, but directly commission house builders (and preferably smaller construction firms) to put up affordable homes on that land.

Let the Treasury give big direct capital grants, once again, to housing associations, leveraging the ultra-low cost of government borrowing. The head of the Chartered Institute of Housing, Terrie Alafat, insists there are shovel-ready projects that can be activated if the money is provided.

Let May and Hammond scrap Osbornes counterproductive and ideologically driven policy of extending the right to buy to housing association tenants, which threatens to diminish the revenue base of these bodies and hinder their ability to build more homes.

Let ministers pull every lever, from funding to planning. They must not get hung up, like their predecessors, on whether new homes are for rent or homes to buy. Just focus on expanding the supply of new residences, whatever the tenure.

And let them not fall into the trap of fretting about the up-front costs. Its a bad joke that the Government spends 10 times more on subsidising the private rents of people on low incomes than on facilitating the construction of new homes that would help bring down those private rents. The housing benefit is a bill for a colossal failure, and that failure is the inability of successive governments to deliver a sufficient supply of enough new homes.

The time is ripe; the construction sector is already in recession, even before the shock to the industry of the Brexit vote, so there will be ample spare resources in the industry to deliver this stimulus.

David Cameron once said that his favourite moment from his entire premiership was pushing the button to restart the factory at the Hanson Brickworks in Accrington after it had been shut down in the last recession. But now that same plant is being mothballed again due to the current economic uncertainty. They need new orders quickly.

For we are the builders proclaimed Osborne last year. The problem was that he simply didnt mean it. He and Cameron thought some financial engineering, some subsidies for private construction firms and some semantic gymnastics were a substitute for a proper overhaul of housing policy.

Cameron and Osborne, for all their rhetoric, never broke with the ingrained Thatcherite prejudice against direct state provision.

If the new Government wants to do something to alleviate the housing crisis, rather than just talking about it and picking up an ever-spiralling bill, Philip Hammond and Theresa May know what they have to do.
Britain's vote to leave the European Union could have scuppered a company-saving debt restructure announced by Kenmare Resources just days before the referendum, according to the mineral explorer's managing director Michael Carvill.

The deal enabled the heavily indebted Kenmare - which had run into trouble with its lenders - to raise around $300m of equity capital and involved lenders taking a haircut on what they were owed.

In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Independent, Carvill admitted that there were "loads of points" where it looked "highly improbable" that the company would survive. It announced lenders had agreed to the restructure on June 20, three days before Britons voted.

"They didn't immediately leap at this, and it took a little discussion with them - but at the end of the day they did... they came through with what we think was a great deal," Michael Carvill said.

"We just did it. If we had been later, I think Brexit shut the door. If we had been later, I think it would have been very difficult," he added.

The deal gives Kenmare a platform to grow, with prices for ilmenite - a mineral the company mines in Mozambique - now improving after a long downturn. The company estimates the mine has a life of more than 100 years.

"For the next couple of years what we have to do is ratify the faith that investors have put in the company by demonstrating to them that production can grow and be smooth, and costs can be kept down and drop lower, and that we can eventually pay dividends," Carvill said.
Consumers are benefiting from massive savings as retailers take advantage of the Brexit vote by buying up huge stocks of non-perishable food, sweets and soft drinks from wholesalers in Northern Ireland. Stock Image

Consumers are benefiting from massive savings as retailers take advantage of the Brexit vote by buying up huge stocks of non-perishable food, sweets and soft drinks from wholesalers in Northern Ireland.

However, poor sterling prices will threaten jobs in the food and wholesale industry here, according to employers and industry representatives.

Shop owners in border counties and parts of Dublin have bought large quantities of food items from the North.

While making savings themselves, value is also being passed on to customers who can make significant savings when buying sweets, soft drinks and grocery items.

This is making life more difficult for businesses here, with wholesalers and food producers warning that job losses are inevitable as the fallout from Britain's exit vote continues to have worrying repercussions for Irish companies. Many exporters are already struggling to meet rising costs associated with the euro's renewed strength against the pound.

Paddy Callaghan, managing director of Nature's Best, a company producing salads for many of the UK's top supermarkets, said he is concerned about the Brexit vote.

"It makes exporting more challenging and difficult," he said. "There has been a 15pc differential in the exchange rate since Brexit happened. In our game the margins are wafer-thin, so the swing can be the difference between life and death."

Read more: Brexit backer warns of higher clothes prices at Next due to sterling slump

Read more: Bad news for Irish firms as Brexit knocks UK construction

Mr Callaghan set up the company 30 years ago, cultivating vegetables in his garage in Drogheda. It has since moved to a bigger premises and has continued to grow in recent years, so much so that he was inundated with requests for work after the Brexit vote from non-nationals working in the food industry in the UK.

"Many of them feel less comfortable over there after settling in western Europe and are looking at the possibility of living somewhere similar to the UK," said Mr Callaghan.

"We are getting a surprising amount of people looking to come and work here."

However, the reality is that job losses are more likely to result from the Brexit vote, with export costs now difficult to maintain.

"We have 290 people employed here and produce a wide range of short shelf-life convenience products for supermarkets and they look for the cheapest possible supplier," said Mr Callaghan. "Certainly, some of those jobs would be under threat."

Food and Drink Industry Ireland director Paul Kelly warned it is vital that the Government tries to protect food suppliers in the upcoming Budget.

"The last time we had a major shift in currency was in 2008," said Mr Kelly. "Then we saw two things - one was a very serious and negative impact on our exports and the second was a dramatic increase over the following years in the amount of imported food.

"The UK remains our biggest market and that will remain the case. It is the fifth-largest economy in the world and is right next door."

Ireland's trading relationship with the UK means 41pc of our food and drink exports go to the British market, generating 4.4bn each year.

This accounts for 70pc of Ireland's prepared consumer foods such as salads, 56pc of all meat exports, 60pc of cheese exports and 30pc of all dairy exports.
Developer Greg Kavanagh has moved to dismiss a claim that he has been seeking to raise funds to become involved in the oil business.

"First I've heard of it," Kavanagh said when contacted by the Sunday Independent.

Pressed on the matter, the New Generation Homes founder reiterated "it's the first I've heard of it," before adding "you're the second journalist who has asked me this."

Asked if he had been making any inquiries with anyone involved in the oil industry, Kavanagh confirmed he had been contacted by "somebody" without revealing who they were. The developer insisted this contact had come to "nothing".

He said: "There was a crowd looking to raise money [in relation to the oil industry] and they were running an investor roadshow, but I was one of many people at it and I didn't give them anything. Literally that was it."

Asked who had been behind the investor roadshow, Kavanagh didn't identify them, saying simply that the presentation had taken place "about a year and a half ago".

The developer's recollection in relation to the approximate timing of the investor roadshow almost coincides with an email he sent on January 8, 2015, to the then governor of the Central Bank, Patrick Honohan, in which he sought a meeting and voiced his concerns over distressed US bank loans to the US oil industry.

Having had his request for a meeting denied, the developer wrote once more, saying: "I promise you, if one of those loans is bought by a European bank after yesterday's date, I will spend tens of millions in advertisements across Ireland and Europe highlighting the shortcomings of the Irish Central Bank."

He added: "I will spend so much that the governor's position will become untenable. So if he does not raise the issue with the ECB I can assure you and him, I will act. Regards, Greg." The emails were released by the Central Bank in response to an FOI request.

Kavanagh is adamant any suggestions he has been looking to raise money to enter into the oil business are "factually incorrect".

He has had his name associated with the industry in the past.

In 2014, one of Kavanagh's companies, Past Plural Ltd (PPL) became the subject of a High Court action brought by two oil exploration firms in which they sought 238m for alleged misrepresentation over a drilling licence deal.

Valentia Exploration and Production Ltd, a British Virgin Islands-registered company, and Valentia Exploration North Sea Ltd, a UK-registered company sought to sue PPL, Greg Kavanagh, Paul Doody, and by order of the court, businessman Stephen Murphy, who it was reported was involved in the property sector.

The lawsuit centred on an alleged agreement to invest in an oil and mineral gas drilling licence within block 211/12B of the UK's Continental Shelf zone. Under the alleged deal, it had been proposed the Valentia companies would transfer into a drilling licence which had been granted to another company called Elixir Petroleum Europe Ltd.

It was claimed in the High Court that Kavanagh had asked Murphy to invest. It was further claimed that in September 2011, Kavanagh told Murphy that PPL had concluded investment and management agreements with Valentia with a view to undertaking an exploration project.

Asked to comment on the 2014 case which was ultimately discontinued, a spokesman for Kavanagh said: "The plaintiffs were asked to put up around 120,000 security for costs in a case in which they were seeking 238m. They did not do so. The facts speak for themselves."

Kavanagh's New Generation Homes confirmed last week that its chief operating officer, Silvia Shiliashka is leaving her position. While she had been living in London while commuting to Dublin for work, it is understood a change in her circumstances made it difficult for her to give the time to fulfil her roles in both cities.
Airsynergy says this is one of the cheapest sources of reliable, independent power on the planet, and makes wind energy economical on 80pc of the world's land mass.

Jim Smyth, founder and chief executive of Airsynergy, had one dilemma he was determined to solve: how to get more power for less. It was a conundrum prompted by his wife's idea in 2008 to buy a wind turbine for their house - and in the belief that he could indeed solve the problem he joined with his brothers Gerard, David, Peter, Andrew and solicitor Adrian Kelly to set up Airsynergy.

What started out as a family affair has grown into something of much greater significance. None of the founders took a salary for the first months of the operation, with the family still unsure that Jim's designs could produce the affordable, easy-to-install, fixed-power unit which he was working feverishly to complete.

However, Jim Smyth eventually designed the 5kw wind turbine which Airsynergy has now launched into the domestic market. The invention allows customers to fix the price point of their energy needs below 0.10 per k/w hour on a 5m/s wind site. The company says it offers twice the output of current market-leading turbines and addresses some of the main problems that have been traditionally associated with renewable energy.

Airsynergy says this is one of the cheapest sources of reliable, independent power on the planet, and makes wind energy economical on 80pc of the world's land mass. The company believe the global trend towards "distributable energy" will be key to their growth going forward.

"It is targeted right across the board at residential and commercial users alike, basically anyone that has a power need that wants to fix the price point of power," says Smyth. "The turbine is also planning-exempt for farmers and businesses customers. The products have to look well and be very quiet, effectively they have to deal with a lot of concerns that have gone in the past with different competitor products that haven't performed well or that have been a nuisance to the end user."

Eight years after their initial decision to develop the company, Airsynergy will present their technology later this year in front of the United Nations. They have already been before the European Commission and see their product as a key development in the fight against climate change.

Partnerships have been developed between the company and a number of global distributors who are getting Airsynergy products to market in diverse areas such as Indonesia, West Africa, Italy and the US.

Aris Renewable Energy has secured the distribution rights for North America and the Caribbean, and the company has been very successful in marketing another Airsynergy innovation - a renewable street lamp. Negotiations are under way regarding the possible installation of the model outside the United Nations headquarters in New York.

Airsynergy will look to directly distribute their products in the Irish and UK market and also work in association with Irish met mast installation company Obelisk. Talks are on-going with Veolia about the possibility of a distribution deal in Germany.

The company has raised over 12m in funding to date and has signed a manufacturing deal with Flextronics, the global supply giant who will deliver their products around the world in line with market demand.

A number of heavy-hitters from across the business spectrum have already signed on. Stephan Ciniselli joined the company in January as chief revenue officer having previously worked at General Electric and Korean Fortune 500 company Hanwha. Rod Baldwin, formerly of Glen Dimplex, has joined as sales director.

Former Airtricity CFO in North America and current chairman of Gaelectric, Ciaran O'Brien, has joined the board as chairman and offers extensive experience as the company develops links with new markets. Walsh Western founder Michael Enright is also a board member, giving Airsynergy an impressive-looking blend of expertise and innovation as they embark on what was initially one man's vision.

The company says the strategy from here is to create employment at home while making an impact on one of the most pressing environmental problems of our time.

"We are a world leader in this technology, and we want to try and create hundreds of jobs here in Ireland in the years ahead while we expand globally," says Jim Smyth.

The Smyth family have done an impressive job getting to where they are from the humble beginnings of their home in Granard. Where they go next may be the real story, however.
Clerys feature staircase will be restored to its original condition if planning proposals for the former store are approved by Dublin City Council

It's a staircase that should immediately be recognisable to generations of Dubliners and to anyone in Ireland who ever made the annual pilgrimage to the capital on December 8 for their Christmas shopping.

As one of Clerys' most imposing and impressive features, it's set to be restored to its original condition in proposals submitted by OCS Properties in its planning application to Dublin City Council last week.

Should that application be successful, it would also see the renovation of the famous tea rooms, frequented by customers of the former O'Connell Street department store prior to its sudden closure.

The proposed works are described by architects, Henry J Lyons, as a "key element" of plans for the iconic building, the original design of which had been based on Selfridges's flagship store on London's Oxford Street.

In a new departure for the space where shoppers once repaired for refreshments, OCS Properties, which is headed up by D2 Private's Deirdre Foley, are proposing the introduction of a new facade to include a series of 'Juliette' balconies which will sit above the street level.

The addition of a new 'rooftop destination' populated by bars, restaurants and entertaining spaces is also proposed. The developers say these spaces will be available for day and night-time use, and would offer a unique vantage point from which to enjoy views of Dublin city.

The ground, lower ground and first floors of the building are to be set aside for high quality retail while the former department store's upper office floors are to be opened up for letting to local and international companies.

Earl Place, a side street which up to now has been largely neglected, is to be rejuvenated with plans for a new boutique hotel.
Brexit has garnered many business headlines over the summer. The EU's efforts to combat climate change, by comparison, have slipped somewhat under the radar. Published in July, a new proposal will have profound implications for the Irish economy in the decades ahead.

Following an intense two-year negotiation, the European Commission proposed that Ireland reduce its emissions from buildings, transport and agriculture by 30pc by 2030. The latest EPA data suggests that emissions were only 12pc below the required level, so there is a considerable distance to travel.

Much economic activity in Ireland is tied to fossil fuels, particularly in transportation. Producing beef and dairy products is also very greenhouse gas intensive. Emissions from these sectors will grow as the economy expands unless new approaches can be found. As with all regulations, there will be winners and losers.

The Irish Government will be quietly delighted with what the European Commission has put on the table. This is, firstly, because Ireland's target is significantly lower than comparably wealthy countries such as Denmark, Sweden, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland. This is in recognition of the high cost of reducing emissions from Ireland's agriculture sector.

A second boost for Ireland is that the Commission is proposing to wipe the slate clean after 2020. Under an existing agreement, between 2012 and 2020 Ireland must achieve a lower emissions target each year. Many, therefore, expected that Ireland's target after 2020 would continue on this trajectory. But in 2021, somewhat bizarrely, Ireland's target will be easier to achieve than in 2020 - perhaps somewhere in the region of 48 million tonnes of CO2 compared to 39 million tonnes or less in 2020.

Thereafter, emissions must decline from this new starting point every year until 2030, until the 30pc reduction level is reached.

There is an explanation for this peculiar proposal.

Government successfully argued that Ireland's previous target was unrealistically demanding. There is evidence to support this perspective - in the form of research undertaken by the Environmental Research Institute of UCC, which was used in negotiations.

The new proposal can be seen as righting a previous error, and in so-doing will save Ireland billions in compliance costs.

A third favourable aspect for Ireland is that forestry can be used to offset some emissions, and some carbon credits can also be purchased from the EU instead of reducing emissions at home. Assuming these two flexibilities are used, our 'real' 2030 target is actually about the same as our 2020 target - 39 million tonnes.

These flexibilities are not free, however - they come at a cost to the taxpayer.

Government will be fighting to ensure these favourable aspects of the proposal are reflected in the final decision, anticipated in 2017. The new target would still pose considerable challenges for the way economic activity is organised in the affected sectors, particularly within the context of a rapidly growing population and economy. These factors set us apart from many of our EU partners.

There will be considerable pressure for innovation and change. What kinds of opportunities might arise as we begin to leave fossil fuels behind?

The agriculture sector is responsible for 40pc of affected emissions and will be increasingly under the spotlight. A recent Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) report identified the importance of adopting 'climate-smart' techniques and approaches that increase productive and carbon efficiency on farms.

This includes new types of fertilisers, and uptake of 'precision farming', involving the use of phone apps, GPS, micro-sensors, and satellite imaging, to record and use real time data. There will be opportunities for businesses that provide these products and services to farmers.

Farmers are also in a prime position to benefit from the deployment of distributed renewable technologies, such as wind and solar energy.

These technologies need land, much of which is in the hands of the farming community. Government must find ways to mobilise farmers as investors, and there is a need for new business models to promote partnerships between rural communities and professional project developers. These may include equity partnerships, lease and power purchase agreements, and co-operatives, all common in other countries but not yet in Ireland.

There will also be greater pressure to pursue carbon-neutral farming, particularly within the context of an expanding dairy sector. This means boosting forestry and agro-forestry on farms to suck in the emissions that livestock farming releases into the atmosphere.

Much of Ireland's beef herd - the so-called suckler herd - may come under pressure from more profitable, efficient and less polluting activities, such as dairy-beef enterprises or forestry.

Transport is an equally difficult challenge. Emissions from this sector have consistently tracked economic growth. Underinvestment in public transport as well as an unsustainable approach to spatial development has resulted in a predominance of low-density urban sprawl.

Any yet there is considerable opportunity for rapid decarbonisation. The car fleet will turnover twice in the period to 2030, offering transformative opportunities. It is highly likely that within this time frame a significant share of car fleet will be electric. A whole range of ancillary services will be required to optimise these vehicles with variable renewables on the grid, such as smart charging stations.

Digital technologies are - dramatically altering public and private mobility and transport logistic. App-driven car-sharing services like Uber are eroding the distinction between public and private transport.

Younger urban dwellers think less in terms of car ownership and more about mobility with services such as GoCar catering to this emerging market. These developments all have the potential to optimise the use of transport assets and can be leveraged to reduce emissions.

Within the building sectors, the challenge is to upgrade the existing building stock, much of which has a poor standard of energy efficiency.

Most of the progress up to this point in the residential sector has involved tinkering with low-cost measures, such as attic and cavity wall insulation or lighting. The real challenge is how to incentivise deeper retrofits - how can homeowners be encouraged to spend 20,000 instead of 3,000 on a home retrofit, comprising walls, heating system, lighting, windows and even appliances in one go?

Business models that can minimise hassle and transaction costs for consumers and address up-front investment costs (perhaps through providing State-subsidised finance) are required.

Overall, the Commission's proposal should mark a turning point in Ireland's efforts to tackle climate change. Ireland's relationship with the climate agenda to date has been informed by a somewhat defensive attitude, based around protecting the national interest, in particular agriculture. The Commission's proposal puts to bed the last excuse for inaction and puts the ball firmly in Ireland's court.

The Irish Government looks set to secure a seriously good deal in EU negotiations, now attention must turn inward. There are many opportunities to reduce emissions in a manner compatible with a vibrant economy.

Joseph Curtin is a Research Fellow at University College Cork and the Institute of International and European Affairs and a member of Ireland's Climate Change Advisory Council
When he first saw James Bond driving his famous Aston Martin in the Swiss Alps in the film Goldfinger, Dubliner Alan Dargan dreamt of a life where he had that kind of scenery on his doorstep.

Today the 63-year-old veteran of Wall Street is the co-founder of Lansdowne Capital - investment advisors to governments, sovereign wealth funds and the likes of Kingspan. Dargan is also the co-founder of investment firm Lonsdale Capital, and owns a Kildare stud farm, a home beside Lake Geneva, and another in London where his companies are based in a Mayfair office.

There is a small collection of cars in the garage - though not supercars or classics, and no Aston Martins, he laughs.

With investments in business and financial services firms, packaging, industrial, superfoods and a superyacht maintenance business, Lonsdale closed a 130m fund earlier this year.

"From that, I expect we'll make 10 to 12 investments of 12m to 14m. We might only do two or three deals a year. We look at Irish deals regularly as it's similar to the UK in terms of its dynamics and we look at investments farther afield as well."

In March, the firm backed Global Yachting Group (GYG), owned by three British former sea captains and based in Palma, Majorca, which services and maintains superyachts.

"As in that case, sometimes we'll invest by backing management buy-outs, and the deals tend to range from 25m to 60m in value. We focus on profitability, a strong, defensible market position, good growth potential and firms that aren't part of a commodity group or something, but stand out on their own, in sectors Lonsdale is familiar with. It helps if their market is growing, because a rising tide lifts all boats. We won't do deep technology, chemicals, biotech or pharma because if we don't understand it, we won't invest in it.

"If we're able to become familiar with the business, its fundamentals and that of the market after two or three months of intensive due diligence, then we're interested. We don't do turnarounds either. We look for three to five times our money over three to five years. We want the capacity to grow the businesses using only moderate leverage, and we'd try to buy at a sensible price. You won't find us paying seven to 15 times earnings. Other people understand those kind of risks better."

Its most recent Irish deal was with CJ Fallon, the educational publisher, where Dargan and his team backed founder Brian Gilsenan in 2013, cashing out two years later. "It was one of my favourite deals, and I learned a lot from Brian and enjoyed working with him. We looked ahead three or four years, spotting the trends in the US and Europe and ensuring the firm would be successful here in Ireland. We bought a schoolbook publishing company, but what we sold was a provider of learning materials in book and digital form for both pupils and teachers."

The plan for GYG, meanwhile, is to grow it perhaps through acquisitions in Europe or the US and easily double the size of the business within five years or less, increasing the sales in the tens of millions.

"It's a fascinating business because of the insight you get into the customers and some of the products the company deals with. The finish on a superyacht is probably better than a new Rolls-Royce. It'll have about 12 layers of epoxy topped up with three or four further coats of paint. Superyachts tend to be the place where their owners feel their most secure. When they're on their yacht, only those they invite are allowed on there. I've yet to be invited onto one though," he laughs.

Though circumspect about the level of his own wealth, Dargan's firms - in which he owns sizeable stakes - have been growing steadily ever since 1997 when Lansdowne made a name for itself as an advisory firm working on a $5bn paper industry merger. Business is embedded in his genes as the son of Dr Michael Dargan, a stalwart of Irish business having founded the Irish Management Institute and chaired both CRH and Aer Lingus, in a house where business matters were often discussed at the dinner table.

It stood him in good stead when he worked on deals in the 80s with the likes of Tony Ryan (who worked for his father at one stage) and more recently on another deal with Dermot Smurfit, though he declines to mention other names. To thank him for his work on a GPA refinancing deal, Ryan gave Dargan and his wife tickets to fly home to the US on Concorde, he recalls with a smile.

The conversation is peppered with the names of Wall Street legends and renowned Irish businessmen as he remembers starting out in accountancy with Stokes Kennedy Crowley (which later became KPMG) in Dublin. At Blackrock College, Bob Geldof was a contemporary, while these days, his work sees him meeting business and investment contacts throughout the US and Europe every week, scouting out deals and investment opportunities.

Another friend is Hans Hufschmid, who featured in Michael Lewis's book Liar's Poker having worked on Wall Street for Salomon Brothers and Long Term Capital Management, from which a firm called GlobeOp was spun out. Dargan invested in it personally and "did very well", he adds.

Continuing the story of his early career, after several years at SKC, in 1979 Dargan got his first job on Wall Street working on mergers and acquisitions at the investment bank SG Warburg.

After a stint in London, where clients included the government and banks and corporates here, he returned to New York, later meeting his American wife Kyle there who was working in the money markets, and with whom he has four sons.

He later took a job with First Boston, where he worked with a duo who were seen as M&A gurus at the time, Bruce Wasserstein and Joe Perella. The former is estimated to have worked on 1,000 deals in his lifetime and became a billionaire in the process, also conceiving the so-called 'Pac-man defence', where a takeover target turns the tables and attempts to buy its potential acquirer.

"The culture was so cut-throat that when you had to fly out from New York to visit the takeover target's headquarters, your competitors would often use various ruses to cancel your plane tickets or hotel rooms," he laughs.

"Everything that was happening at the time on Wall Street seemed to involve Bruce and Joe. Every time a corporate raider funded by another bank on the Street, Drexel Burnham, which became infamous for its aggressive backing of hostile takeovers, attempted one, we at First Boston would be hired to defend against it. It was an exhilarating time, sometimes you had to work through the night for a week or two, which I didn't mind at that age."

Having crossed the Atlantic every second week to market the bank in Europe, it then sent him back to London in 1987, and he arrived a few months before 'Black Monday,' when the stock market crash saw markets plummet by 30pc.

"For two years afterwards, there was no business, but I still had to visit clients. During that time, I steadily focused on building the relationships. You wined and dined clients and just listened, really. Then, when the markets picked up again, the US investment banks had taken the business from what used to be the more traditional merchant banks in Britain and Europe. That was how they took over Europe."

The US banks also operated differently by visiting their clients in their offices and factories, taking them new ideas about funding opportunities and so on. The more traditional bankers in London and elsewhere had perhaps a lunch and one other outside meeting a day, otherwise having their clients visit them in their offices, he recalls, something fairly simple that nonetheless contributed to their demise.

That US-rooted culture also saw the trading mentality portrayed in the film Wall Street emerge, which further led to the 2008 crash, he admits.

"One of the reasons I got out of banking was that I could see how in time the kinds of conflicts would arise in these huge banks. It had its roots from earlier in the 80s when big banks refused to honour anything unless it was written down, which in turn led to a culture of litigation and an attitude of 'I'll see you in court and my company is bigger so can bully you or wait it out until then', as opposed to honouring a handshake, valuing your reputation and a culture of your word is your bond. The majority of people working on Wall Street are decent and hard-working, though that's less well-reflected in films."

After becoming a managing director at First Boston in 1990, he later returned to Warburg, but was made redundant along with his team in 1997 and then started Lansdowne Capital, of which the new entity SBC Warburg became his biggest client - and thanks to which the firm made a number of millions working on the aforementioned $5bn merger of the paper divisions of an Asian and a Finnish business.

"With that, Lansdowne earned a name for being an independent and trusted advisor to CEOs and CFOs, as opposed to investment banks, who largely used their advice as a way of generating fees from other areas of their businesses. Even those that still went with them came to us for a second opinion."

A later milestone for the firm was its work with Dermot Smurfit on the acquisition of Powerflute in 2004. Dargan put the financing together, helped execute the deal and took a seat on the board. When it listed on London's AIM in 2007, some of the investors earned 27 times their money.

When not working or travelling in the pursuit of such deals, Dargan enjoys spending time with his family, rugby (he was President of Trinity Rugby Club for 2014/15), advising his alma mater Trinity College's' student-managed investment fund - "soon to amount to 100,000," and breeding and racing his horses.

He's also an avid reader and follower of current affairs. Theresa May is the right woman at the right time for Britain. Brexit will take three to seven years to resolve, but London will hold on to a lot of the rainmakers like him, many of whom won't move elsewhere, and the City will continue to prosper, he reckons. The outcome of Brexit for Ireland is still an unknown, but he's not surprised at the level of support for Trump becoming the US President, driven by anger with the elites.

He collects art too, some of it by Irish artists is on the walls of his offices in London and at home in Geneva, but more quirkily he bought some of Margaret Thatcher's personal belongings when they were auctioned off after she died. Among them are signed books, and a notebook and gold pen that she used to keep on her desk. "I was a great admirer of hers, which I appreciate is a strange thing for an Irishman. Though she put the 'Great' back into Great Britain in some ways, she of course alienated a lot of people too, including many in Ireland."

As you might expect, now and again he enjoys taking in the scenery on a drive near his home in Switzerland as well.

'I lost money early on in investing'

The books I've enjoyed reading recently are...

"The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett and The Maximalist, Matt Cooper's biography of Tony O'Reilly."

My greatest indulgences are...

"Good food, red wine, collecting paintings and a good work-life balance that allows time with my family."

The best piece of business advice I ever heard is...

"As Kingsley Aikins and Tony O'Reilly said, you don't necessarily have to originate a good idea. You can copy other people's and apply them in your own venture."

I was at my most skint when...

"After school, my parents sent me to live on a kibbutz [farm] in Israel for several months, as they thought it'd toughen me up. That was an interesting time!"

My worst moment in business was...

"I lost money early on in investing, where I had no control over what other people did with the money and some of them did very silly things."
Fears over security threats and public protests targeting the Israeli embassy in Dublin are believed to have scuppered talks to secure commercial tenants for troubled Carrisbrook House - the building leased by the IDA and Forfas that had an 85pc vacancy rate for seven years - costing taxpayers 1m a year in rent.

The Israeli embassy has leased the fifth floor of eight-storey Carrisbrook House in Pembroke Road, since 1995. But the remaining seven storeys have lain empty since 2008.

AIB Fund Managers quit the building in 2008 after it exercised a break option citing "international security concerns", according to documents seen by the Sunday Independent. This is thought to refer to increasing political tensions between Israel and Hamas in the months preceding the 2008 Gaza War.

Records show the Dublin 4 embassy has been the focus of numerous public protests over Israel's Gaza blockade since 2007. The embassy was also the victim of a bomb alert in 2009, and a bomb scare in 2012 led to the evacuation of the entire building.

The then Forfas chief and now IDA boss Martin Shanahan signalled concerns over the security situation at Carrisbrook House in correspondence to the Dail's Public Accounts Committee as far back as late 2013.

In addition to concerns over the age, condition and configuration of the building, he explained that "security issues in the area have proved a deterrent in securing some prospective tenants, and have counterbalanced the advantages of the prime location, car parking and accessibility of the site".

"Despite ongoing marketing efforts" and appeals to the likes of Enterprise Ireland, OPW, DCU, TCD, IDA client companies and start-ups, not having vacant possession of the building was "a distinct drawback in terms of securing a party interested in the leasehold interest and in marketing it over the period 2008 to 2012", documents reveal.

State agencies held discussions with the Israeli embassy about relocating, but to no avail. "In relation to achieving vacant possession, from 2005 Forfas engaged with the tenants on a number of issues, including possible relocation.

"While these initial negotiations proved unsuccessful, they were reopened at the time of the lessees' break clause in 2010/2011. This included a search for alternative locations, which again did not result in agreement for vacant possession," the papers reveal.

Describing it as "the least costly option to the State", the IDA has terminated its 65-year lease at Carrisbrook House by paying 9.4m to exit the agreement.

With taxpayers exposed to a further 22.5m in payments over the remaining 19 years of a lease on the largely vacant building, the IDA - which assumed control of the leasehold interest after it was transferred from Forfas in 2013 - decided to cuts its losses.

The Israeli embassy in Dublin, which did not avail of a second break clause in its lease in 2015, declined to comment on the nature of its negotiations with the IDA or Forfas.

"The embassy of Israel signed a lease agreement with Forfas in 1995 for a term of 30 years. However, it is the policy of the embassy not to disclose details of any commercial agreements it has with third parties," a spokesperson said.
When challenges arise for businesses, such as the current uncertainty over Ireland's future relationship with our biggest trading partner, a range of strategic responses are recommended, which generally involve driving competitiveness in your company.

Last week in these pages, Professor Richard Keegan outlined how implementing 'lean' practices to make companies more efficient can help exporters become more competitive in their chosen market.

Lean processes are one important part of Enterprise Ireland's broad innovation offer and our research consistently shows that the extensive use of innovation is a recurring feature of many of our most successful clients.

Our annual 'Business Results Survey for 2015' found that clients who availed of our innovation supports had 25pc higher employment levels and exports 30pc above average.

Even more striking is the finding that those involved in innovation collaborations had exports 10 times above the client average and exceeded the average employment level by 35pc.

Business innovation is about creating and profitably applying new ideas in a company, bringing new products, new processes and new services to customers. The spectrum of impacts can range from major product or service-line breakthroughs, through to finding more efficient ways of working, such as adopting the aforementioned lean processes.

At a recent talk for Enterprise Ireland advisors, Prof Robert C Wolcott, co-founder and executive director of the Kellogg Innovation Network based at Northwestern University in the US, identified two types of innovation.

He referred to the sort of internally focused actions involved in lean as incremental innovation whereas research and development aimed at growth, he termed radical innovation. Prof Wolcott has consulted for companies such as General Electric, Kraft Foods and Castrol.

Innovation strategy is all about identifying what he describes as "a portfolio of possibilities", which constitute the strategic parameters for an enterprise's R&D work. He emphasised the need to keep several ideas on the boil in order to react to unpredictable market conditions and to allow for failures.

This feeds into the second aspect of Wolcott's model - innovation management. This involves environmental scanning to carefully identify the projects to be pursued; developing metrics for monitoring progress; and testing the feasibility of a research project through early experimentation at the outset, which helps resolve uncertainty around areas such as resourcing, budgeting and a clearer idea of the outcome.

Professor Wolcott also made the observation that R&D planning should account for the cost rather than the rate of failure. Deciding on what projects to commit to, should be based on the expected value of the outcome. This should lead to more ambitious ideas with a lower chance of success still being pursued because if they pay off, the return is substantial.

That is why a core tenet of innovation best practice is ensuring the work is tapped into the constant pulse of customers' requirements. If possible, test your progress with them as you go through the process.

Before starting, companies should have access to the necessary facilities and equipment. A dedicated senior manager should be appointed and if the enterprise does not have appropriately skilled staff, then plug the gap through external hiring. Retaining the right consultant or advisor or collaborations are other options.

In many cases, innovation provides scaling opportunities for the future and gives businesses an edge on their competitors and therefore a better share of the market.

Product design is essential to most offerings, and with many having one-to-three-year lifespans, continual renewal is needed. Hence the advice to keep investing in Innovation in good times and bad.

This is not just theory. The hard facts from our annual analysis of our clients' financial performance go back many years and cover periods when business conditions were at their most expansive and during deepest financial crisis.

Gearoid Mooney is Enterprise Ireland divisional manager, research and innovation
A Kenmare facility in Mozambique. Ilmenite prices are starting to rise after a series of drops and difficulties with electricity supply, which had hampered production levels, have been resolved

'Did you ever read Huckleberry Finn?" Michael Carvill asks me.

I admit I haven't.

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"On the last page of it he says something along the lines of: 'Well there, now it's finished, and if I had have known how long it was going to take to write a book, I wouldn't have started.' So the naivety of youth is I think an important factor in starting. Then it's sort of like a ski-jump, you push yourself off and you're halfway down the slope - you can't then say you're not going to do it."

It's been a long old slog for the Kenmare Resources managing director. Exploration is an exciting industry with the potential for enormous reward, and enormous mishaps. And Carvill has certainly had a few colourful experiences in his time. He's been kicked out of Sudan on foot of an Islamic revolution, come up empty-handed from a gold-exploration venture in post-Marcos Philippines, and most recently he's saved his company from the brink of collapse.

The exploration industry is in Carvill's blood. His father was a founding director of Tara Exploration - which found the Tara zinc mine near Navan in Co Meath. When he was a child, Irishmen working in the industry would come to his home and tell wild tales about falling down crevasses in Canadian glaciers.

Carvill thought it sounded like an exciting life. He began working at Tara as an underground engineer, and then he went to Algeria to work as a mechanical engineer on a construction project.

Then he went to the US to do an MBA. His thesis was about starting a minerals exploration company, looking at a coal seam just off the Dublin coast.

Tara was sold to Finnish company Outokumpu in 1986. Private investors had done well out of it and wanted to plough their capital into a new project.

They bought a controlling share of a dormant oil company called Kenmare Oil Exploration and pivoted towards minerals. Carvill was one of those on board and wanted to take the coal out of the Irish Sea.

"It was discovered by an oil exploration haul. They didn't find any oil but went through big coal seams, 12 or 18 feet or something like that, when over in England they were mining three feet at that stage. And they came close to the coast.

"So I thought, put a shaft down on the coast, go out and mine this stuff, it would be great. Then it became very clear that there would be a huge environmental racket, and that it wasn't going to work," Carvill says.

That was setback number one. Then the company broadened its focus to look overseas.

"We took the view that if we just went to Australia, Canada, established mineral provinces, that all we would do is we would take half a million, a million, whatever, of Kenmare investor capital, and the best we could have hoped to get is about an equal amount of geological potential. Now you could still be lucky, but that's what you're doing, you can only just be lucky," Carvill says.

"So what we said was, if we raised money and went places where the major companies aren't playing, that there is a potential to take that $500,000 and get $40m of geological potential.

"Our view was in general, we would look to places where the political risk was improving, and perhaps where it was just very uncomfortable and difficult to work, and we would embrace that before the majors got there."

Kenmare went into a project in Philippines, and that didn't work.

"The Marcos era had just finished, Corazon Aquino had just come in. It was still extremely turbulent but we took the view that it was an improving situation. We went there for gold exploration in a joint venture with the Philippines national oil company. A great project, worked really well, and there was good cooperation between the companies, fantastic place, good opportunity for gold exploration. But we didn't find any."

There was also a project in Sudan - where the company broke its rule of thumb on political risk because of the project's potential. That one really didn't work.

"The minute I arrived in it I said: 'This is an impossible place to work.' I think Sudan was a place where, when you got out into the countryside, the ordinary people were the nicest people you had ever met. The scenery is beyond imagination, people are fantastic, and it was all administered by a bureaucracy, which had no interest whatsoever at that time in improving the welfare of its citizens. That became quickly apparent.

"The project was just incredibly rich. It was an old gold working where the tailings (the leftovers from a previous project) had already been mined and were sitting on the surface for hundreds, maybe thousands of years, and all they had to do was be reprocessed. And those tailings were creating 16 grams a tonne, when the average grade of gold mined is like 0.3 grams a tonne.

"And what happened there was that there was an Islamic revolution and we were, not very politely, asked to leave," Carvill says drily.

Things worked out better in Mozambique, where Kenmare first started in 1987. Communism had just collapsed and the country was moving to a mixed economy.

But still it took 20 years to complete the first phase of their project there - centred on the Moma Titanium Minerals mine, where Kenmare takes a mineral called ilmenite out of the ground. It sells that to companies who turn it into titanium pigment - used in making things like paper, paint, plastics, and fabrics.

After phase one was complete, Kenmare spent a couple of years trying to work out problems with plant and equipment that had been delivered to it. Then, with ilmenite prices strong, it embarked on a 50pc expansion project.

The problem was that while the expansion was ongoing, prices for ilmenite began to fall and went into a protracted downward cycle.

"There was an excess inventory that had been generated. And companies like us that had too much leverage, and there are several of them out there, were just struggling to make ends meet. "So we had to sell, we couldn't say: 'Okay, we think demand is going to come back up so we'll just hang on and store the product and sell it in six months,'" Carvill says.

Prices kept going down and the highly indebted Kenmare ran into trouble with its lenders. Then the Australian miner Iluka started sniffing around.

"They rang us. And they indicated they'd be interested in making an offer, but were not at that moment making an offer. However, they were thinking of an indicative proposal which was subject to a whole bunch of constraints and provisos and all that sort of stuff, and were we prepared to accept this.

"So we consulted with our shareholders, consulted with our advisors, and said that for a set of reasons, one of them being that the offer was all in shares and some of our institutions didn't like to hold Australian stock, that we wanted them to review their indicative proposal, and that we didn't feel it was a basis for further discussion," Carvill says.

"They then came back to us and said: 'We can't really change it because we need to know more about the project, we need you to let us in to do due diligence on it so we can feel more confident in making a more concrete proposal.' And a proposal is good for our shareholders because if they like it, they can take it and if they don't like it, they don't have to take it.

"So we said: 'Okay, absolutely.' We went through an exhaustive due diligence process with them, put a huge effort into it. They visited the site with huge teams, we brought them around we gave them 2,500 documents, we gave them 500 man days of time."

During the process the market price for Kenmare's product was continuing to drop. Iluka was talking with Kenmare's lenders and told Carvill's company that time was on Iluka's side, gradually beginning to review their proposal downwards.

"The lenders were very keen to see that proposal eventuate into an offer as well because they would end up being paid. But Iluka never actually made an offer. They withdrew from their proposal in November. So then there was a period when, at that stage the lenders had a degree of control, and they were evaluating what they wanted to do."

Now Kenmare was on seriously thin ice. Carvill admits that there were "loads of points" where it looked "highly improbable" that the company would survive.

But while the Iluka process was ongoing he had been talking to the State General Reserve Fund (SGRF) of Oman, which had indicated it was interested in making a significant investment in Kenmare, which would allow it to reduce its debt. Carvill just had to convince the lenders to get on board, and ultimately they did, agreeing to take a haircut on what they were owed.

The company raised around $300m in equity, including $100m from SGRF, and reduced its debt from $392m to $100m.

"We worked to convince the lenders that the best thing for them and all of the other stakeholders was for them to come to some sort of a deal which would allow us produce an attractive investment proposal, not simply to SGRF but to the rest of our shareholder base, and that we would raise the money from the market," Carvill says.

"They didn't immediately leap at this, it took a little discussion with them, but at the end of the day they did, and they agreed to write off $69m and equitise $23m at the same price as the investment... they came through with what we think was a great deal."

I ask about his negotiating style and whether he feels he drives a hard bargain.

"When we built the mine in the first place, we bought the plant and equipment that BHP had developed for a project in Australia. They had spend $160m or something like this on it, and we bought it for $250,000 up front, and then we had to pay more in instalments or whatever. And somebody said to me: 'That was the greatest deal, you must be the best negotiator in the world'. And the answer was no I wasn't - that's all I had. It makes a good negotiator, not having any more money. And consequently with the lenders, what we had to convince them of was that if they wanted a paydown, they had to accommodate the capital markets. And so it was a communication really of that reality, when it's sort of easier for them to say: 'Well we have a right, we can insist on 100pc paydown.' Well, yes you can but you won't get it.

"So it's trying to get everybody to work in the world of the possible, and we just did it. If we had been later, I think Brexit shut the door. If we had been later, I think it would have been very difficult."

Now ilmenite prices are starting to rise after continuing to fall until the end of March. The major capital expenditure on the Moma project is complete.

Serious problems with the Mozambique electricity transmission system, which significantly hampered Kenmare's ability to deliver the production levels it had told the market to expect, seem finally to be resolved, Carvill says.

Now he wants to prove that the company can deliver a return to shareholders.

"For the next couple of years what we have to do is ratify the faith that investors have put in the company by demonstrating to them that production can grow and be smooth, and costs can be kept down and drop lower, and that we can eventually pay dividends.

"Now we have to pay lenders as well and all that sort of stuff, pay off our lenders in a proper way and pay dividends. So that's the plan - to establish that solid profile of production, good cash offtake, and use that for firstly lenders - we don't have to pay lenders off entirely or anything like that, we can pay dividends simultaneously, and establish ourselves as that.

"And then after a while shareholders will turn around to us and say, now that's done we'd like you to go and do other things. And so we'd be happy to hear that when that eventually happens.

"I can't see Kenmare doing copper in Kazakhstan, I think that we have a capacity in industrial minerals, we understand how they're marketed, we understand particularly this market, and we've got a capacity in Mozambique, maybe you could even say Eastern Africa, so those are the two things that I could ever imagine our shareholders would like us to leverage from. If we went and bought a gold mine in Arizona, I think people would be very annoyed and rightly so.

"We want to just focus on making the thing sing, and let the people who put money into this investment feel that it was the right thing to do, that they've got a good return on it and it's working really well. And then we'll move on from there."
GIFTS: Taoiseach Enda Kenny with Britains Queen Elizabeth on her historic visit to Ireland. Photo: Tom Burke

Enda Kenny has been wooing US multinational business chiefs with an array of Irish-themed gifts, ranging from special sets of cuff links to a paperweight emblazoned with its own logo.

As the battle for transnational investment intensifies after the UK's Brexit vote, the Taoiseach has resorted to a series of imaginative gestures to win over some high fliers who are spearheading various companies that have invested in Ireland.

Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close EXQUISITE: Prince Albert of Monaco was given Waterford Crystal champagne flutes The hamper presented to US president Barack Obama for St Patricks Day last year The rare book that Mr Kenny presented to the Queen / Facebook

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Whatsapp EXQUISITE: Prince Albert of Monaco was given Waterford Crystal champagne flutes

According to documents obtained by the Sunday Independent, a senior Coca Cola executive was presented with a crystal-engraved mobile phone holder.

Over the past five years, executives in various multinational operations received a number of token gifts which were clearly intended to acknowledge their importance for job creation in Ireland.

Among the high-profile multinational companies listed are Yahoo, Amazon, Intel and Microsoft.

The gift list includes a woollen scarf from Kilkenny Design, a 12cm 'coaster' and a special photo frame, both from Dublin Crystal.

Meanwhile, on the political front, Chinese premier Li Keqiang received a book series entitled Tales of Old Ireland.

The visiting Chinese delegation - representing one of the most lucrative trading markets in the world - were also presented with a bronze Children of Lir sculpture.

Among other foreign dignitaries who visited Ireland, was the Austrian president Heinz Fischer, who was given a series of books entitled A History of Ireland in 100 Objects.

The list records that President Obama, during his May 2011 visit to Ireland, was presented with a special pair of 'History of Ireland' silver cuff links. Other gifts given to the US president included a handcrafted book of poems by WB Yeats and a Bord Bia hamper of Irish foods.

And for the annual St Patrick's Day exchange of gifts this year, Mr Obama received a set of Michael Collins replica cuff links.

Sheik Khallifa, President of the United Arab Emirates, received as a gift in December 2013 an equine-themed crystal bowl to mark the huge interest in horse racing in the UAE.

Prince Albert of Monaco, on a state visit to this country, received a special set of six Waterford Crystal champagne flutes.

One of the most imaginative presentations over the period - to Queen Elizabeth in 2011 - was a limited-edition of The Sweeney Guide to the Irish Turf (1501-2001), supplied by De Burca rare books.

Among the gifts received by the Taoiseach over the past five years is a JFK bust, worth 2,000, which was donated by the Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston.

President Obama also presented Mr Kenny with a silkscreen print from a 'limited edition' by US artist Alex Katz in May 2011.

One of the more unusual gifts to the Taoiseach was a 'Lenovo ThinkPad Helix Laptop', which he received during a visit to Japan in 2013.

Overall, documents show that the most valuable gift received between 2011 and 2016 was a piece of handmade embroidery that was presented to Mr Kenny by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in 2015. It is valued at 6,800, bringing the total value of gifts received by Mr Kenny on behalf of the State since 2011 to 12,000.

All such gifts are governed by strict ethical guidelines and, according to an official statement, are currently located in the Department of the Taoiseach.
When queried, the UK Department of Health's anti-fraud unit said it could not confirm or deny an investigation for legal reasons.

The UK Department of Health's anti-fraud unit is understood to be investigating after a staff member at a British company allegedly impersonated a NHS official, with the aim of spreading untrue information about an Irish rival.

The department is investigating allegations made about London-based Aymes International, a manufacturer of nutritional supplements, the Sunday Independent understands.

A rival Irish business, Nualtra, has claimed an Aymes employee posed as a NHS employee for the purpose of obtaining information about Nualtra, and that Aymes later spread unfounded accusations about Nualtra to potential customers within the health service via email.

Like Aymes, Nualtra similarly sells nutritional supplements, including brands such as Nutriplen and Nutricrem which are used by NHS health care professionals.

Nualtra's backers include well-known Irish businessmen Leslie Buckley and Sean Corkery.

When queried, the UK Department of Health's anti-fraud unit said it could not confirm or deny an investigation for legal reasons.

A spokesman added: "We take any allegations of misrepresentation of the NHS brand extremely seriously."

Disputes between Aymes and Nualtra have led to court cases in both England and Ireland.
The chairman of the Pensions Authority has warned that workers are paying thousands more euro for their pensions than they need to because they are members of small schemes.

David Begg's comments come after a new report revealed that Ireland has more small and single-member schemes than any other country in Europe.

There are over 160,000 occupational pension schemes and these include frozen schemes and additional voluntary contribution arrangements.

"The difficulty is that the huge number of small schemes - in which 99pc have a lot less than 50 members or are personal individual schemes - don't get economies of scale," said Mr Begg (pictured below). "People are paying more than they need to."

He said the savings that could be made might amount to tens of thousands of euro, depending on the contribution.

Read more: Anne-Marie Walsh: This timebomb threatens State and workers

In a recent report, the Pensions Authority highlighted the need to drastically cut the number of pension schemes, as it is concerned that smaller ones have less buying power. Schemes with more than 500 members have been shown to have lower annual management charges, lower policy fees, greater instances of employers meeting the costs of policy fees, and less likelihood of exit penalties.

The authority is trying to simplify the pensions landscape by cutting the number of schemes ahead of the rollout of a new universal pension scheme.

It is proposing that retirement annuity contracts (RACs) and buy-out bonds (BOBs) are dropped and personal retirement savings accounts (PRSAs) should be the single option for new contract-based arrangements. Despite the high costs and the fact that many workers got stung by huge deficits during the economic crisis, they are being urged to make contributions.

Crisis

Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar said a new universal scheme is a priority because of an impending crisis in the State pension due to a growing number of retirees as people live longer. He has suggested that workers could set aside part of their pay rises or universal social charge refunds to pay pension contributions.

The latest figures show that the portion of workers aged 20 to 69 with pensions has fallen from almost 56pc of the workforce with a pension at the end of 2005, compared with almost 47pc at the end of last year.

Unite said many workers have been put off as others were badly stung, although many are not members simply because their employers do not have a scheme.

The union's regional coordinating officer, Richie Browne, said there are workers who have been working for the last 30 years, are 55 years of age and haven't made a pension contribution.

"Effectively, it's too late for them," he said.

Read more: Automatically enrolling workers in company pensions is the smarter move
Located in the heart of Kerry, the market town of Castleisland is renowned for the width of its main street. In fact, it has the second widest main street of any town or city in Ireland - second only to Dublin's O'Connell Street.

Considered the gateway to Kerry, you pass through here on your way to places like Tralee and Killarney. And it is here, too, that the beautiful Vale of Tralee begins.

With its rolling hills and fertile green pastures, it is no wonder that local man William H O'Connor returned here in the early 1900s, having made his fortune in the diamond mines in South Africa. After his return, he set up Rhyno Mills, in 1919, in the centre of town - and today, almost 100 years later, the business continues to flourish under the careful stewardship of his grandsons, Paudie O'Connor (managing director) and his cousin, Joe O'Connor (director).

"Here at Rhyno Mills, we manufacture and distribute a range of animal-feed products for dairy, beef and sheep farmers in the Kerry, Cork and Limerick region," explains Paudie.

Where possible, the company sources their raw materials locally, such as native barley which is bought predominantly from growers in North Cork. Other ingredients (such as soya bean, soya hulls, maize, rapeseed and molasses) are sourced through respected local and international importers. Once delivered, these are blended and additional minerals added to improve their nutritional value. Given the challenges faced by farmers in terms of the price they receive for both milk or beef, it's important the company achieve the right balance between the best formulation of nutrients and affordability.

"We have our own in-house nutritionist who is responsible for achieving the least cost formulation or the best quality for the lowest price," insists Paudie.

Quality is paramount and the company's strict control procedures enable them to trace ingredients all the way back to their place of origin.

"Like the farmers we serve, we are part of the first stage of the food chain and as such, we are very cognisant of our responsibilities in ensuring quality and traceability of whatever products enter the food chain at this point," stresses Paudie.

Today, the process of milling is now largely automated. Large machines grind the meal while large rotating conditioners (called augers) mix and blend it into the various feed compounds. Molasses is added to help make it more palatable while steam is also introduced to maintain its moisture content before it is fed through circular steel dyes (called cubers), where it is compressed into nut-like shapes. These are then cooled and ready for either bulk storage or packing into traditional 25k bags.

In the yard, the company's fleet of trucks are lined up and ready for loading.

Painted in the legendary green and gold of Kerry, some are bulk trucks, which are used to transport large amounts of feed in loose format (On arrival at a farm, it is blown into large on-site feed bins.) Others trucks carry large bulk bags of a half a tonne each.

"We only focus on the quality side of the market and don't make or sell low-quality products. It's an approach that has been the cornerstone of our business since it was set up all those years ago," explains Paudie.

In 1919, Rhyno Mills was started by Paudie's grandfather, William. Originally from Scartaglin, in Kerry he had travelled to work in Cape Colony, South Africa. There, he got a job with De Beers Consolidated Mines, installing and maintaining machinery in the vast diamond mines of the surrounding townships. In his spare time, he worked with a local builder who taught him about construction.

An enterprising man by nature, he then began building houses, which he rented to workers and their families who had come from all over the world to toil in the mines. These he called Emerald Villas. It is reported that he worked 20 hours a day for many years in order to amass his wealth. In 1907, however, he made the decision to return to his native Castleisland.

"With the money he had made, he bought a bar, drapery shop, grocery store and an existing old mill which he then renamed Rhyno Mills - based on the old English translation of 'rhyno' meaning money," explains Paudie. "By the time he died in 1946, he had become a highly regarded pioneer in the field of animal-feed milling."

After his death, Paudie's father, Sean, and his brothers, Liam and Hugh, took over the running of the business. In 1974, Paudie had just completed his degree in business studies at the College of Commerce, Rathmines. While waiting for his results to come out, he decided it might be worth trying his hand at the family business.

"I joined more out of curiosity and to have a look at what was happening there. But I never left," he explains.

He quickly discovered that he had a flair for business. Starting in the drapery store, he progressed to the office and later to the mill - where he enjoyed the challenge of improving the company's margins and cash flow. He gradually took on more and more responsibility and by the mid 1980s he had effectively taken over the running of the business.

In 1988, this was formalised when, along with his brother, Willie, and his cousin, Joe, Paudie led a management buy-out of the business.

"It was tough in the beginning," admits Paudie. "There had been little or no investment in the mill over the previous 10 years, so the place had become run down. At the time we had no capital to invest in plant, machinery or technology, so we had to work incredibly hard to build up tonnage and trade our way out of the difficulties. Over time, we re-invested every penny we made in upgrading and modernising the business and began to grow from there," he adds.

A very competitive sector, Paudie reaffirmed the company's vision of focusing only on producing quality products. In 2000, the company received the international ISO Q Mark accreditation, and in 2015 were accredited under the Bord Bia Feed Quality Assurance Scheme.

"However, like many other similar businesses, we made significant investments in the facility in anticipation of the abolition of milk quotas. We all expected farmers to begin producing much more milk and that prices would hold up.

"However, that didn't happen and when milk prices fell, the amount of feed we had expected to sell didn't materialise. As a result, we were left with excess capacity which we now need to fill," explains Paudie. "Thankfully, all the indications are that milk prices will begin to rise towards the end of this year or early next year. We remain determined to continue to grow our business and to stay at the forefront of animal-feed industry.

"As long as there are animals to feed there'll always be a demand for what we do," he adds optimistically.

As Paudie, Joe and their colleagues get ready to celebrate a century of being in business, it is worth reflecting on the challenges of sustaining a business for almost 100 years.

Through recessions and world wars to shifts in market trends as well as changes in family ownership, the continued success of Rhyno Mills demonstrates just how entrepreneurial Paudie and the O'Connor family are. Their ongoing commitment to innovation, to high quality products, good customer services and plain old-fashioned hard work and perseverance suggests they might well be around in another 100 years.

For further information: www.rhyno.ie

Paudie's advice for other businesses

1 Surround yourself with positive people

"Negativity and negative people can quickly undermine the atmosphere and culture of any company. Try to surround yourself with positive people who enjoy what they do and who are always looking for solutions rather than problems."

2 Make sure you look after your staff

"To be successful in the longer term, it is essential you treat your staff well. Communicate the WHY you want things done not just the things you want done. Look after your staff - and they will in turn look after your customers."

3 Manage cash flow and profit

"Cash flow and profit are the very life blood of any business. While it takes discipline to do so, make sure you remain focused on these at all times. They must be the top priority beyond anything else. Always be thinking turnover, profit and cash flow."
Last year Alibaba (which has a rapidly growing cloud computing division called Aliyun or AliCloud and is a potential rival to Amazon's Web Services division) announced it would invest 1bn in data centres. Photo: Reuters

Chinese internet giant Alibaba has looked at the possibility of locating a data centre in Ireland, the Sunday Independent has learned, while it and other tech giants may invest up to 7bn in data centres here over the next decade, Eirgrid figures have revealed.

Industry sources said representatives of Alibaba, an e-commerce site, where consumers can purchase everything from clothing to computer software, were in Ireland last month to look at potential locations for a data centre. They were looking both at city sites for a small installation and greenfield sites for a larger one here.

Data centres are the engines of the internet, our social media and email, and are vital to virtually every aspect of modern business. Essentially they are warehouses full of banks of computer servers. Companies can save tens of millions in operating costs here because the servers, which generate vast amounts of heat, are cheaper to cool in our climate.

A spokeswoman for Eirgrid, the State-owned company that manages Ireland's power grid, said: "There is approximately 550MW of data centres with either contracted capacity for connection to the power grid or engaging with us on the connection offer process. In addition, there is approximately 1,000MW of enquiries regarding further demand connections from 2019 onwards."

Industry sources suggested that it costs about 5m per megawatt of capacity to build a data centre. Building the 550MW it refers to would require investment in planning, design, site preparation, construction and equipment, of about 2.75bn, while the further 1,000MW of enquiries Eirgrid has would require about 5bn of investment if all of it was built.

"If all of these enquiries were to connect, the data centre load could account for 20pc of the all-island electricity system peak demand.

"The focus of interest has been the greater Dublin area. Depending on the scale of the projects that materialise, new transmission solutions may be required in order to facilitate these connections, and these are being investigated.

"The scale of individual demand connection enquiries to the transmission system vary from 20MW to some extending to 250MW in the final stages of development. The connections are mainly comprised of data centres that support the critical IT infrastructure of large multinational companies," the spokeswoman added.

Google, Microsoft and Amazon have between them invested almost 2bn in building data centres in west Dublin. Apple is awaiting the outcome of a planning application to build a data centre in Athenry, Co Galway, and Facebook plans to build one in Co Meath.

Last year Alibaba (which has a rapidly growing cloud computing division called Aliyun or AliCloud and is a potential rival to Amazon's Web Services division) announced it would invest 1bn in data centres. A spokeswoman for the company declined to comment.
Tucker said technology entrepreneur Eddie Murphy - who founded web development business Labyrinth, which was acquired by BT - would have an important role in implementing the strategic review's findings.

Zamano's new chief executive "could easily be" from a company it acquires, Zamano acting chairman Colin Tucker told the Sunday Independent.

The Irish-listed mobile phone services company is seeking bolt-on additions as it seeks to reposition itself into higher value areas like digital marketing, on foot of a recently completed strategic review.

Ross Conlon left his role as Zamano chief executive in May, and has taken up the role of managing director of new business ventures at Independent News & Media - the publisher of this newspaper.

"What we've done is look at the types of individuals that we might want... we've got a CV in our minds," Tucker said.

"We now understand who it is we need to recruit, and that was the reason we didn't do an immediate recruitment after the loss of Ross," he said at the Zamano AGM on Thursday.

"We are in the process of putting together a document to define who it is we want, in line with the strategic review and the sort of businesses we might wish to acquire."

Tucker said the company would like to appoint a new boss before completing any purchases - but that the new boss could well be from a future addition.

It is already looking at a number of potential acquisition targets, and hopes to complete a deal within six months. Tucker said Zamano envisaged paying via cash and shares as of now.

Tucker said technology entrepreneur Eddie Murphy - who founded web development business Labyrinth, which was acquired by BT - would have an important role in implementing the strategic review's findings.

Murphy has just joined Zamano as a director. He is also a director of SoHalo, a US-based social media firm with which Zamano has previously considered merging.

The company is also looking for a new chairman after the departure of John Rockett.

"We have a list of potential new chairmen, we started that process before the strategic review and decided to put it on hold, so we have a number of names already considered. We haven't cut those people out, we're just waiting to see if they're going to be appropriate for the new arrangements."

Zamano was approached by an unnamed firm for a potential takeover last year, but the deal did not proceed because of a disagreement on pricing and payment structure.

Director and former chief executive Pat Landy told shareholders on Thursday that "the intention would be to reposition the business over time, and if people like what we're doing, we would expect to get further approaches."
This homage to 'inner city' Dublin in the 1980s, captures a time before it was destroyed by developers and drugs.

The term 'inner city' is so entrenched in our vocabulary you would think it was always there. Meaning well, we use it to describe the poorest, most derelict and dangerous parts of a city. That it could be a pejorative way of referring to a place, one which enhances its bad aspects and creates a distance between classes and communities, doesn't immediately figure.

In Dublin: The Heart of the City, a book of reportage and photography brought out in the 1980s and newly republished by Lilliput Press, author Ronan Sheehan describes how "inner city" emerged to label such places on the northside docks as Summerhill, Rutland Street, Sean McDermott Street, Gardiner Street, Sheriff Street.

"The phase is not of Dublin coinage," he writes. "It originated in the US among architects, sociologists, town planners - professional observers, then journalists took it up. It suggests a category rather than a place, a malaise rather than a situation. It cheats the citizen of his or her local identity."

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Relegated by language to the "inner" of the city, people came to be seen as "outside the moral paleregarded with a mixture of fear and contempt".

The book redresses this prejudice in two ways - first, startlingly, through the black-and-white photographs taken by Brendan Walsh out walking the neighbourhood. Second, through the text, a combination of observation, interviews with locals, social history, and analysis of crisis issues like crime and the prison system.

First published in 1988, the book has been out of print; for years the sort of book you might discover yellowing on a Dubliner's bookshelf and feel it was your civic duty to steal. It had a tiny cult readership. In John Carney's touching foreward to this edition, he describes his own "dusty, dog-eared" copy as providing key source material for his film Sing Street. Two rousing introductions from the playwright Peter Sheridan are also given in this revamp.

Unfortunately, the pictures have not been printed in the best quality and many of the faces are blurred. No captions have been added, the subjects have no names or backgrounds aside from the wordless story they tell.

That story, when studied, is less polemical than joyful. These warm portraits of street performers, market traders, punks, elder fashionistas in animal print, sassy schoolkids and laughing urchins light up the sad and difficult story told in the chapters. Sheehan's prose is spare and direct, measured in its criticisms of the State's abysmal failure to provide decent housing and fair urban planning for a community many of whose ancestors had been raised in disease-ridden tenements.

He roots his story in the 1930s, the first decade of the Free State, when many of the people in later chapters were born. In the 1930s, doors were left unlocked, crime was low and jobs were stable. People didn't have much materially, but enjoyed a quality of life.

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Dublin's luck seems to have hurtled into poverty in the 1970s. Among the economic disasters for the area was the arrival of shipping containers for cargoes - "containerisation" - which caused the mass redundancy of dockers by replacing the well-paid, heavy labour that had sustained families for generations.

We get to know a State which is very new, run by middle-class men who were distant from the realities of the working-class, whose priority was the economy and not the protection of its children. Tony Gregory created a breakthrough with the 'Gregory Deal' of 1982, when the independent TD negotiated a massive regeneration package with Charlie Haughey. The building of excellent Corporation houses "gave people hope", but Fianna Fail lost the next election and the deal became a "dead letter".

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The housing policy of Dublin Corporation was another grand disappointment. In the 1960s and 70s, property speculators bought up parts of the city for use as offices; a property boom encouraged the Corporation to purchase land for rehousing people outside the city, causing the destruction of communities in its heart. It is sobering to read how the Port and Docks Board debated using the land north-east of the river to create a labour intensive industry that would build employment in the area - instead, the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) was developed.

The author's observations are based not only on his community involvement on something called the North City Action Project, but on his work as a solicitor. Most gruelling is the emergence of heroin into the foreground of the city's problems. In 1982, around the time a minister for health announced there was no serious drug problem in Ireland, the author arrives at the Children's Court to appear for four teenage girls charged with shoplifting.

One is pregnant, none of their fathers are employed. Outside the courtroom they are distracted and giggling. He is shocked to realise they are "high as kites", "possessed by a strange euphoria".

Soon gardai, solicitors and prison officers are all telling their drug stories, describing the "glass-eyed, vacant, hypnotised expression, which had suddenly taken possession of a large proportion of the youth". In a pub by the quays on Halloween night in 1982, boys and girls are buying 10 heroin deals.

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"Perhaps it was a mere fad," Sheehan writes. "Then people realised it was much more than that as the clinics were swamped and the first deaths were recorded Dublin had a heroin crisis". That these words read so freshly, nearly 30 years on, is no good thing. Vulnerable young people are targeted by gangland pushers and already unstable families are fractured. One terrified mother of three addict sons has to turn away her one of them as he beats at the door in the night. We see a profile of a people who helped each other out during the worst of times but who, demoralised by drugs and crime, had to close doors on each other.

This is an unusual book, with nothing quite like it out there. Sheehan is also the author of novels including Foley's Asia, and The Irish Catullus, a translation of poetry. Meeting him here as a tall, blonde, middle-class Dublin lawyer makes for an amusing contrast with the people whose lives he sets out to record. He is called a "do-gooder" and hollered at in a pool hall as "Fritz". But the courage of this joint investigation inspires a call to arms for readers in 2016 to get up off our armchairs and get to know the hearts of our cities.

Dublin: The Heart of the City has too many riches not to recommend. Put it on your coffee table, but you might shock your guests.
Actor Tom Hiddleston and singer Taylor Swift leave restaurant 'Gemelli Italian' in Broadbeach on the Gold Coast, Queensland

Tom Hiddleston is out of the running to be the next James Bond, according to spy thriller writer Frederick Forsyth.

The Night Manager actor had at one point been bookmakers' favourite to succeed Daniel Craig as 007.

But he has dropped to fourth in the race, behind Poldark's Aidan Turner, American Hustle's Jack Huston and Granchester's James Norton.

Now 77-year-old Forsyth, author of best-selling thriller The Day Of The Jackal, claims that an anonymous source told him there was "no way" Hiddleston would ever be handed the role.

He told the Mail on Sunday: "I got a tip the other day which I'll share with you.

"I understand (Bond producer) Barbara Broccoli is absolutely no way going to pick Tom Hiddleston. No. Way."

The author added that he could never see a female in the role either.

"A Janie Bond? I don't think so. I'm going to be sexist here, I don't think it has the credibility.

"The public are die-stamped with the idea that Wexford is a fella; Morse is a fella; Lewis is a fella.

"There is Vera, but the others... Rosemary and Thyme? I just can't believe them. They simply don't convince."
RTE chat show host Miriam O'Callaghan tried to come to the rescue of one of her TV guests last night when his car broke down on his way home from RTE's Donnybrook studios.

BBC Speical Correspondent Fergal Keane appeared on Saturday Night With Miriam to talk about the last 20 years of reporting on conflicts throughout the world, in particular the terrorist attacks in Europe over the last two years.

"I've spent the best part of 20 years covering war and conflict but it's always been far away... apart from five years in Belfast, it's been in the Middle East, Africa, Asia. Now to find yourself in Paris for example, I covered the Charlie Hebdo attack, the Bataclan attack, I covered the recent attack in Nice. I covered attacks in Germany and Belfast."

"It's quite chillling," he said.

"Now it's coming to us. It's not just as a journalist you feel that, but as a father, as a citizen. This sense that our world is becoming much more predictable."

On the way home, the journalist's car broke down near Kilmacthomas in Co Waterford.

"Clutch burns out. Stranded near Kilmacthomas," he tweeted at 1.43am this morning.

"Oh no Fergal - I would rescue you if I could. Do you need a lift? Hope you are okay & get back soon," Miriam replied.

On way back from appearing with @MiriamOCal when clutch burns out.Stranded near Kilmacthomas!  Fergal Keane (@fergalkeane47) August 7, 2016

Oh no Fergal - I would rescue you if I could. Do you need a lift? Hope you are okay & get back soon. https://t.co/AikOHikmeQ  Miriam O'Callaghan (@MiriamOCal) August 7, 2016

@MiriamOCal I've been rescued by Eugene Conroy of Rapid Cabs in Waterford. A true pro. Help beyond the call of duty  Fergal Keane (@fergalkeane47) August 7, 2016

@fergalkeane47 Oh that's great - well done to the wonderful Eugene Conroy from Rapid Cabs in Waterford for rescuing you.  Miriam O'Callaghan (@MiriamOCal) August 7, 2016

Award-winning journalist Fergal Keane joins Miriam to help us make sense of the continuing unrest in Europe!#Miriam https://t.co/Hjkv4dXdRr  RTE One (@RTEOne) August 6, 2016

By 3.14am, Fergal was rescued by a taxi driver who he said was "a true pro".

Miriam responded: "Well done to the wonderful Eugene Conroy from Rapid Cabs in Waterford for rescuing you."
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Miriam OCallaghan and husband Steve Carson, who is based in Belfast. Photo: Tony Gavin

Miriam OCallaghans husband Steve Carson is tipped to take over as managing director of RTE news and current affairs following the departure of Kevin Bakhurst.

Carson, a noted TV director and producer, left RTE three years ago to take up the role of head of BBC Northern Ireland productions.

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However, now that one of the most sought-after jobs in Irish television has come up  coupled with the fact that his family live in Dublin  its likely the BBC boss will be tempted back to RTE.

The post in Belfast is more of a stepping stone and hes very ambitious and still a young man, a source told the Sunday Independent.

The only question now is, will he move to London or south to Dublin after Belfast? It would be no surprise that he will look to RTE because thats where he will be close to family.

He has gone away, earned his stripes and is well placed to take on the role now. Remember, there are two other big jobs on the table  deputy MD of RTE news and current affairs and head of RTE2.

He was acting managing director of news and current affairs for a time before they put Bakhurst in, so hes well suited.

However, a separate source in RTE said the position  which was advertised today  will be hotly contested, and it would be no surprise if Montrose bosses opted to give the job to another outsider.

People from big broadcasters such as the BBC and Sky News now see that an outsider can come in to RTE and be successful within Irelands national broadcaster, the source said.

Asked if Carson might find it difficult to take on a role as head of news and current affairs if his wife runs for the Aras, the source said: RTE will know whether Miriam will run for the Park or not in good time  there are certain time frames within which people need to make their intentions known to management.

But the general consensus is that Michael D Higgins is happy in his role and his intention is to stay another term, so I couldnt see that being a problem if Steve was to come back as MD.

In recent weeks the notion that RTE is in crisis following the departure of several senior executives has gained traction.

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Managing director Glen Killane is moving to Eir, head of RTE2 Bill Malone is joining TV3, and deputy MD of RTE news and current affairs Michael Good retired at the end of June.

A senior source told the Sunday Independent the perception is that it is a reflection of RTEs top brass being reluctant to work under an outsider as new director general.

Things are changing. Theres no such thing as different camps or picking a station

for life. That day is gone.

On Wednesday afternoon, RTEs new director general Dee Forbes stood beside Bakhurst after he spoke to his team of staff in news and current affairs.

He told us that he had been looking forward to working with Dee and then this offer came along. Dee also spoke beforehand and said she only had the pleasure of working with Kevin for a short while but that she had been massively impressed by him, said a newsroom source.

Everyone was wondering who she was and what she would be like, but the impression I got is that she is very relaxed, funny and outgoing. I thought it was great that she came down and took the time to speak to everyone.

Thats what people want  reassurance, added the senior source.
The hugely popular gay dating app Grindr is banned or blocked in countries such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia. This week the embattled Irish Catholic hierarchy would be forgiven for wishing that it was also outlawed in Maynooth, the location of Ireland's only seminary.

Grindr boasts that it is the world's largest gay social network, enabling men to see pictures of "100 guys on a location-based grid chat, make a date, and have some fun anytime, any place".

Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin this week announced that he was not sending students of the priesthood to the 200-year-old seminary at Maynooth.

Part of the reason given was that some students in the seminary were allegedly using Grindr.

The dating app has become part of normal gay culture among two million users worldwide, in the same way as Tinder is used by heterosexuals to hook up online.

But in the eyes of Archbishop Martin, the app was "inappropriate for seminarians" as it was "something which would be fostering promiscuous sexuality". Other senior bishops, however, refused to join in the Archbishop's condemnations, on the basis that all there was to go on was rumour and tittle-tattle. This embarrassing public stand-off has divided the troubled Church even more.

With Martin, the country's second-most powerful churchman, refusing to send trainee priests to the only seminary in the country, the Church has hit yet another crisis and it could not come at a worse time.

Pope Francis - through his influential Papal Nuncio, the Irish-American Charles Brown - is attempting to revive the Church by reconnecting the clergy with their flock and appointing younger Bishops.

While the sexual proclivities of trainee priests naturally attracted the most attention, one of the startling statistics to emerge was that there will only be three new student priests for the whole of Dublin who are going for training.

That in itself is a much greater crisis threatening the future of the church than any gay activity.

As Archbishop Martin indicated that these young priests would be trained in the sunnier climes of Rome instead of Maynooth, Fr Brendan Hoban of the Association of Catholic Priests accused him of "moving the deck chairs on the Titanic".

While the Church engages in an increasingly bitter struggle about how and where seminarians are trained, one of the core problems is that there are so few young priests interested in joining the Church.

As Fr Hoban points out, in Diarmuid Martin's archdiocese, there are 99 parishes, serving over a million Catholics, and only one diocesan priest under the age of 40.

Father Seamus Ahearne, the 69-year-old parish priest in the Finglas area of Dublin, says the average priest in the capital is - like himself - "touching 70".

"There are hardly any priests in their thirties, very few in their forties, quite a few in their fifties and the majority in their sixties, seventies and eighties."

The public response to the latest revelations about "strange goings-on" in Maynooth was itself revealing about the esteem in which the Church is now held.

Thirty years ago, the response might have been one of moral indignation and shocked outrage. Now it is one of mild ridicule. To many under 50, it might as well just be another episode of Father Ted for all the relevance it has to their everyday lives.

On social media, observers light-heartedly pointed out that sending seminarians to Rome to avoid a gay scene was perhaps ill-judged. One compared it to David Bowie moving to Berlin in the 1970s to give up heroin.

While the Twitter generation cracked jokes about priests on Grindr, there were more serious allegations about behaviour at the Maynooth seminary.

A former trainee priest, now happily married, went to gardai to allege that he had been sexually harassed by a member of staff in the seminary.

As well as complaints about the alleged sexual behaviour of some seminarians, there is also a debate about how priests are trained.

Traditionalists in the Church have long complained that Maynooth does not maintain sufficient Catholic orthodoxy.

There have been grumbles in the past that the seminarians were not trained to kneel, and mutterings about Conservatives trying to reintroduce a Latin Mass and old-fashioned modes of dress.

Fr Hoban believes Maynooth has been the focus of unfair and unwarranted attention.

"I suspect that the gay issue is being used to target Maynooth, because its standards are very high. It isn't accepting anybody who turns up," he tells Review.

"There is a group of people who are getting at Maynooth because its theology is fairly loyal to the theology of the Second Vatican Council [which introduced large-scale reforms in the Church].

"You have right-wing commentators who are unhappy with the reforms, and would prefer more traditional and conservative students being accepted in greater numbers."

Simmering in the background is this conflict between the more liberal priests, who want to get women more involved in running the church, and those who want to stick to traditional orthodoxies.

"It's the mad liberals versus the crazy conservatives," says Fr Ahearne.

Many of the generation of priests that came of age in the Swinging Sixties want the Church to ordain women and generally lighten up on the rules in order to connect with ordinary people.

"Many of the younger priests who are emerging are very conservative, very rigid and very caught up in the apparel of priesthood. That would be a concern of mine," says Fr Ahearne.

The latest controversy has already spurred a debate about how priests are trained.

Should they be made more street-wise by serving an apprenticeship in local communities, or cloistered away in seminaries like monks and separated from other people so that they emerge uncontaminated by secularism?

One priest recalled how trainees were told to handle women when he was at Maynooth during the seminary's heyday.

If any woman came to their house in the evening, they were to be sure to leave her standing in a draft so that she would not be inclined to stay.

Archbishop Martin painted a picture of a cosseted lifestyle in Maynooth, away from the cares of ordinary mortals.

He suggested that Maynooth was a very comfortable seminary. The pampered inmates have their breakfast, dinner and tea served up to them.

Certainly the seminarians have more spacious accommodation than their counterparts 50 years ago. In its prime, Maynooth College was the largest seminary in the world - an efficient clerical assembly line that has turned out 11,000 priests.

It was built to train 500 trainee priests at any one time but numbers have nosedived to about 60 in recent years with the dramatic fall-off in vocations.

Rooms in the seminary can now actually be rented for overnight stays and are given a four-star rating by travel website TripAdvisor.

William D, a visitor from Southampton, described his room in the seminary as "beautiful" with high ceilings, a Georgian window and a spacious bathroom.

The reviewer also approved of the breakfast in the seminary refectory. "There's plenty to eat, including lots of soda bread. It's rather cold in winter, so be sure to pack a thick woollen pullover. For an additional 2.15 you can have what they call 'superior coffee'."

Archbishop Martin now wants a more challenging environment, where the student priests have more experience of Dublin life by living in a parish.

Whether the seminarians become more worldly-wise by doing their training in Rome is certainly open to debate.

Fr Ahearne, who spent three years of his training in Rome, says it may be better for priests to train in their home country.

"Those who are training to be priests should be immersed in the culture of the country where they are going to minister.

"Sending people off to Rome is worse than being in a seminary here if they are going to lead an isolated life."

Fr Ahearne says training for the priesthood should be similar to nursing, where you are spending a lot of time doing the job as well as doing your studies.

"The student priests need to do their studies, but they also need to be out in the parishes, seeing how people live. It's wrong to lock them away in a seminary in a pressurised, sterile atmosphere."

Revelations of homosexuality in the seminaries will not come as any great surprise to those who have followed closely the history of the church.

The gay novelist Colm Toibin, who himself considered a life in the priesthood, has described becoming a priest as a "solution to homosexuality" for some.

In an article in the London Review of Books, Toibin wrote: "Becoming a priest, first of all, seemed to solve the problem of not wanting others to know that you were queer. As a priest, you could be celibate, or unmarried, and everyone would understand the reasons. It was because you had a vocation; you had been called by God."

Of course many gay priests remain celibate, and would hardly be inclined to use the Grindr app even if they knew how to turn it on.

In his book Thirty-Three Good Men: Celibacy, Obedience and Identity, seminarian Dr John Weafer looks in detail at the personal lives of priests, through personal interviews. He found that most of the priests were heterosexual and led celibate lives.

One of the parish priests interviewed confided that he was in a long-term gay relationship.

Another priest, 'Fr L', was ordained in the 1990s. It was only when he was ordained that he finally ended up 'sleeping' with another priest.

"Although we both vowed it would never happen again, it did and I was really very confused," he said.

'Fr L' then "discovered a strong clerical gay scene in Ireland", although it was not easy to access because of the clerics' need for secrecy.

He suggested that there are "quite a lot of gay guys in the priesthood" and on one occasion when he went into a gay bar in Dublin, he recognised at least nine priests in the bar. 'Fr L' later decided to leave the priesthood, as he found the double standards too difficult to cope with.

The Boston College theologian and Kildare native Professor Thomas Groome believes a whole new approach to training priests is needed.

"Taking young men and putting them in hothouses and expecting them to be in tune with contemporary society is problematic.

"The most chronic issue in the Church is the state of the priesthood. We need to scale back the inflated rhetoric around priesthood in Ireland.

"In Ireland, for historical reasons, there is a tremendous reverence for priests, but when you push them that high on a pedestal, when they fall there is an almighty crash."
Work on the new Childrens Hospital may cause chaos at St Jamess Hospital from Monday, as staff parking spaces are removed.

Members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) are objecting to the removal of the car parking facilities.

At a meeting of the organisation last Thursday over 100 members condemned the removal of the parking spaces and the actions of management at St Jamess.

St James's Hospital said tonight in a statement that additional parking for staff had been secured at the Royal Kilmainham Hospital.

"Staff parking at St. Jamess Hospital will be reduced as a result of building works relating to the new children's hospital. The hospital has been engaging with staff in respect of this matter on an ongoing basis for the past year. Additional parking for staff has been secured by the Hospital at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham."

"The Hospital continues to engage with staff directly around mobility on and off the Hospital campus. A full-time Mobility Manager has been in place for the last year to assist staff in planning their journeys to and from work," the statement added.

However, INMO Industrial Relations Officer, Clare Treacy today labelled the issue a total fiasco, and said there was "a lack of consultation with staff".

She explained: How can this decision be considered acceptable; there was a lack of consultation with staff; a total disregard for safety of a predominately female workforce; and this is further compounded by the absence of an alternative plan to minimise disruption.

Ms Treacy added: We asked management to defer the decision for a short period of time, to allow for safe alternatives to be put in place, but no response has been received.

INMO members are understandably angry and feel disrespected by their employer. Such action is likely to have serious consequences for the recruitment and retention of staff.

A key concern for group was that nurses who are working 12 hour shifts need to be assured that a safe and secure car space will be available for them.

In a statement the INMO said: The lack of adherence to the most basic good practice of consultation, is also felt by INMO members as a disregard for the public service agreement and a lack of appreciation for them as employees, considering the flexibility and productivity they have shown throughout the past number of difficult years.

The group said many nurses were writing to the Board of the hospital to express their utter dismay over the parking facilities situation.

They are also calling for the resignation of Board members.

The INMO said its members will meet again next week to further consider its response, with a ballot for industrial action also being an option.
Communications Minister Denis Naughten is on a collision course with Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald over the introduction of electronic tagging for dangerous sex offenders.

Mr Naughten recently wrote to Ms Fitzgerald demanding she fast-track legislation which will give legal backing to the use of electronic tags for rapists and child abusers after they have been released from prison.

The Independent minister is concerned that Ms Fitzgerald is dragging her heels on the issue, on which he campaigned while in opposition, and he is now insisting legislation is signed into law as a priority.

The Justice Minister is also understood to be anxious to introduce electronic tagging, and senior Fine Gael sources dismissed Mr Naughten's demands as the Roscommon minister tries to claim responsibility for the passing of the new legislation.

However, Mr Naughten told the Sunday Independent he has written to the Justice Minister "seeking assurances" that laws that will give gardai, for the first time, the power to monitor high-risk sex offenders, will be implemented within the next Dail term.

He also highlighted the need for laws to be enacted which will allow gardai alert parents to the presence of dangerous paedophiles and rapists living in their communities.

"The Prison Service currently has 10 electronic tags which are used for prisoners on temporary release," Mr Naughten said.

"It entered into a contract for a further 50 tags at a total annual cost of 102,000 and these should be put to use," he added.

The Roscommon minister said the last government accepted legislation he drafted which will "vastly improve" laws relating to the protection of children but it has yet to be enacted.

"Under such laws, the monitoring of sex offenders would be dramatically improved, and for the first time parents will have a right to access information regarding high-risk offenders who may have direct access to their son or daughter.

"I have asked the Tanaiste to outline the time frame for the enactment of the Sex Offenders (Amendment) Bill which will allow for electronic monitoring. I want to see it fast-tracked," he said.

The introduction of tagging of sex offenders has been mooted as far back as 2009 when Fianna Fail TD Dermot Ahern was the justice minister.

A study published last year by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed a shocking one in five sex offenders reoffend once they have been released from prison.

And figures given to Mr Naughten when he was in Opposition, showed half of sex offenders released from prison last year failed to undergo any form of treatment while imprisoned.

The Department of Justice said the Sex Offenders Bill is still being finalised but it is hoped the legislation will be published in the coming months.

The new laws are aimed at enhancing the management of sex offenders and reducing the risk of dangerous criminals reoffending.

The bill will include the introduction of new risk assessments of convicted criminals on the sex offenders register.

The legislation will also require gardai to alert communities to the presence of potentially dangerous sex offenders.

New strict bail laws, which are currently being drafted by the Department of Justice, will also see electronic monitoring introduced as part of bail conditions.

"The Bill will provide that electronic monitoring may be imposed as a bail condition if the prosecution applies to the court for this condition," a spokesman said.

"This will facilitate the focused use of electronic monitoring for persons on bail. The introduction of an electronic monitoring system for bail purposes will require a separate tendering process and involve the Garda Siochana," he added.

The internet, and specifically social media websites, have become breeding grounds for sex offenders targeting young victims.

During the last Dail term, the Coalition introduced new laws aimed at protecting children from grooming and online sexual predators who are using the internet to lure victims.

The legislation strengthens the laws around child pornography, and introduces tough sentences for criminals involved in procuring or creating sexually explicit material involving children.

Criminals prosecuted for child exploitation under the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2015 face prison sentences of between 10 and 14 years.
The race to succeed Enda Kenny as leader of Fine Gael is on a brief hiatus as the would-be kings and queen take a break from preparing for the Taoiseach's retirement years.

But in Mr Kenny's backyard of Castlebar, Co Mayo, the campaign to replace him as the local Fine Gael TD is in full swing.

Potential heirs to the coveted seat, which Mr Kenny has held for a record 41 years, are already positioning themselves ahead of his imminent departure.

Mr Kenny's close confidants and loyal lieutenants know there will soon be a gap in the market for one of the safest Fine Gael seats in the country.

Whoever fills the position, which comes with a 87,258 salary and 31,365 worth of unvouched expenses, will need the blessing of the Fine Gael leader to ensure the local support base weighs in behind the new Castlebar candidate.

So it is believed locally that Mr Kenny will have to anoint, or at least support, the candidacy of his successor.

However, camps are emerging in the Taoiseach's heartland in anticipation of the next era of Fine Gael politics in Mayo.

Much of the manoeuvring may be pointless if, as many suspect, the close-knit Kenny family decide the name which he carried from his father Henry should remain on the ballot sheet for another generation. The Taoiseach's daughter, Aoibhinn Kenny, is the best-placed member of the clan to carry the baton for the Islandeady family.

Aoibhinn immersed herself in student politics while studying in University College Dublin (UCD) and was selected for the prestigious Washington Ireland Programme, which prepares ambitious young people for future leadership roles.

Past pupils include none other than Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar, who also happens to be leading the race to replace Aoibhinn's father at the Fine Gael top table.

On a side note, the coronation of Mr Varadkar as the next Fine Gael leader and Taoiseach being played out in the opinion polls is not translating in the parliamentary party, where there is a slow but sure sway towards Housing Minister Simon Coveney of late.

It seems some of those previously supporting the candidacy of Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald have come to the conclusion, based on polls, that the contest will be a two-horse race. They may be wrong.

However, a Cabinet minister last week went as far as to compare the Fine Gael leadership battle to the contest to replace David Cameron as leader of the Conservative Party. In this instance Mr Varadkar's candidacy was likened to Boris Johnson, who was seen as a sure bet until he pulled out of the contest, and Mr Coveney was compared to surprise winner Theresa May, who shored up internal party support.

I'm not sure who should be more insulted there.

But back to Castlebar.

Aoibhinn is not the only member of the Kenny inner circle tipped to replace her father. There is also speculation around the Taoiseach's young confidante and recently promoted deputy Government press officer Jack O'Donnell.

Mr O'Donnell was signed up as a personal assistant to Mr Kenny last year under the pretence of building up local support for the Taoiseach ahead of the general election.

His duties far exceeded merely liaising with local media and constituents and he often accompanied Mr Kenny on State business - both at home and abroad.

"Kenny always seems more relaxed when Jack is about," a senior Fine Gael strategist said of the relationship between the Castlebar pair.

Friends of the young Fine Gael activist insist he has no ambition to become a TD.

But others point to his work as an intern for former US presidential candidate John McCain, and as an Irish representative on President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Junker's election campaign, as evidence of his credentials for a future in elected politics.

Either way, he has the ear of the Taoiseach more than most from the Castlebar cartel, and is seen as an ambitious young upstart.

Former Fine Gael councillor Ger Deere is also mentioned in dispatches due to his hard work in Mr Kenny's constituency office in recent years, but he is an outside bet at best.

Then there's the Burke family - Paddy and Cyril.

The Castlebar political heavyweights and lifelong Kenny supporters are all too aware of the looming vacancy.

Paddy was rewarded for his loyalty with the position of Cathaoirleach of the Seanad during Mr Kenny's first term as Taoiseach. During government formation talks he was sent out to gauge the opinion of Independent TDs prior to formal negotiations with Fine Gael. The six-time senator is a politician who works behind the scenes and does not crave the airwaves or pages of newspapers like some of his contemporaries. He is popular within the party and well accustomed to the chicken dinner circuit from travelling the county seeking the votes of Fine Gael councillors for Seanad elections.

It has also been noted that Mr Burke is showing up to more local events than he previously would, with some believing he is seeking to boost his profile in the constituency ahead of the next election.

Supporters note that, while he may not be a spring chicken, he is younger than Enda Kenny and Fine Gael's Westport stalwart, Junior Minister Michael 'Ringer' Ring.

It is unlikely the Burkes will publicly make a move until Mr Kenny states his intentions , but there is a strong belief the family are eager to challenge for the Castlebar seat. If the Taoiseach decides his daughter or young protege should be his successor, it could result in a stand-off with Mr Burke.

There is also the possibility, albeit slim, that Mr Kenny may be left with little option but to run again.

If the Taoiseach is forced into calling a snap election by Fianna Fail, he may have to run again as the party could not risk a safe seat by running a newcomer.

He has always said he will not run for a third term as Fine Gael leader, but has never ruled out the possibility of returning as a TD.

Outside of Castlebar, Michelle Mulherin will be anxious to return to the Dail as will popular former Mayo County manager John O'Mahony. Mr O'Mahony took one for the team and moved to the Galway West constituency ahead of the general election and in doing so handed over his electoral base to the notoriously territorial Ringer.

However, Mr O'Mahony retained most of his Mayo canvassing team for the Galway West campaign.

There will only be two seats at most in Mayo for Fine Gael at the next election - one is Ringer's and the other is likely to be one of the Castlebar candidates'. Ahead of the election, Fine Gael will have tough choices to make and the party will be eager to ensure Mr Kenny's legacy is continued into the next Dail term.
These shocking images show the aftermath of an alleged assault on a women in broad daylight.

It is believed that the woman was attacked with a claw hammer just yards away from the entrance to one of the country's biggest hospitals, St James's.

The graphic images, captured on James Street in Dublin 8, show the woman's bloodied face as she is helped by paramedics.

Blood is streaming down her face and she is surrounded by a pool of blood, the remnants of which could still be seen on the pavement last night.

A small crowd watched on as the woman was forced to lie down on the street while she was tended to by medical staff from Lifeline Ambulance Services.

WOUNDS

Her wounds were bandaged by the roadside during rush-hour traffic across from the busy hospital.

The shocking incident occurred on Friday at around 5.30pm.

Reports have emerged that the woman was attacked on the busy city centre street by a man with a hammer.

A witness said: "The woman was in the chipper. She walked out and headed in the direction of Mount Brown when a navy/grey-coloured car pulled up and a man jumped out of the passenger side.

"He ran at the woman and swung what looked like a small claw hammer two or three times until he made contact - her hands were raised.

"She then fell to the ground where the man tried to kick her but missed, so he stood on her head two times and jumped back into the car. They then drove off."

It is not clear if the woman knew her attacker, but a witness said she was "calling the name of her attacker" after the incident.

The medical staff who first attended the scene were passing by in a vehicle used to carry transplant organs when they were flagged down to help the wounded woman.

Due to the fact that the woman had suffered blows to the head it was decided not to bring her in the car to the nearby hospital, as there was no stretcher available.

Moving her may have caused further damage if the woman had received neck injuries during the assault.

An ambulance arrived on the scene after 30 minutes and the woman's care was passed over to those paramedics.

It is not known if she was hospitalised following the incident.

SHOCK

Former Lord Mayor Criona Ni Dhalaigh, who has represented the area for a number of years, expressed her shock at the incident.

"I wish the woman a speedy recovery. I'm shocked that such a horrific attack took place in broad daylight and anyone with information should contact gardai," she said.

A local worker said that the woman had been served food in a nearby chipper after the incident.

After the attack the woman was "screaming", the worker said, but it was still unclear to on people in the area what had occurred at that stage.

A source told the Herald that gardai attending another incident in the area were informed that a women had injured herself in a fall and called for an ambulance.

No formal investigation had been launched by gardai last night.

A garda spokesperson said there was no record of an assault in the area on Friday evening, but that they were aware of the incident and were making inquiries to determine if an assault took place.
As blissfully rewarding summer nights go, this was beyond exceptional, and for the lucky few fortunate enough to be invited to the Summer Soiree hosted by the Westbury Hotel and the Dublin International Piano Competition (DIPC), the musical memories will stay with us forever.

Picture the scene: three internationally acclaimed Irish pianists aged 69 down to 10 performing for us at the Westbury which sits, appropriately, on Balfe Street, named after the Irish opera composer Michael Balfe, the man who penned the iconic I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls.

Our musical evening was attended by supporters of the DIPC, like the families who open their homes to allow competitors to practise, or to drive them to events, and was kicked off by the ever smiling John O'Conor who, the Washington Post famously described as an artist who "has the kind of flawless touch that makes an audience gasp" - and he did just that.

Expand Close John O'Conor with Vincent O'Gorman, gm of the Westbury Hotel and Kevin Jansson at the Westbury's Summer Soiree. Photo: Kieran Harnett / Facebook

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Rising star, Cork Pres schoolboy, Kevin Jansson (15) pictured with John O'Conor and Vincent O'Gorman, GM of the Westbury, above, performed and told me he is off to Switzerland next month to record his first CD. Joe O'Grady (10), pictured, main photo, with his dad and mum, Brian and Rachel, gave a mesmerising performance, especially his playful rendition of Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee, and his talent stunned the audience which included the French and Chinese Ambassadors to Ireland.

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I chatted with John's wife, Mary O'Conor, pictured with Doctors David and Reita Powell, above. If the name rings a bell, you might remember her as Reita Faria who was crowned Miss World in 1966 and who moved to Dublin after meeting her Irish medic husband in London.

@bairbrepower

GRAPEVINE

Congrats to popular Galway milliner, Edel Ramberg and her husband, Philip Black, who have welcomed their first baby, Vivienne Ava into the world three weeks early. She is a darling and already has her dad wrapped around her little finger.

SPOTTED

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As if we didn't have enough great style out at Ballybrit, I headed back to the g Hotel to cheer on my fellow Galway Races judges, Melanie Morris and Louise Duffy, pictured above with Triona Barret, (centre) GM of the g Hotel. The pair were booked to judge the Best Hat after the races and with a 2k Philip Treacy chapeau up for grabs, the place was rammed. Earlier, I popped into the Meyrick Hotel on Eyre Square to say hi to their GM, Cian O'Broin and I was delighted to see Army Captain Catherine Lundon take their Best Dressed award, pictured below, wearing an Umit Kutluk pant suit she wore for her Weekend mag cover shoot in May.
It's been said that we're in the throes of a golden age of television.

There has been an impressive parade of dramas, documentaries and pin-sharp comedies; each one more astute and impressive than the last.

Yet for every Game of Thrones or House of Cards, there's a show to remind us that, at the other end of the televisual spectrum, there is an unseemly race to the bottom. And viewers can't get enough of it.

With each reality show striving to be more audacious and atrocious than the last, Channel 4 really have put their competitors behind in the race with Naked Attraction. Dubbed an on-screen meat market, or worse, 'Blind Date in a brothel', Naked Attraction featured single hopefuls stripping off entirely in a bid to find love.

Ostensibly exploring the 'raw primitive attraction' of potential daters, the show's contestants are shown composite body parts of potential matches in a 'blind viewing' and, as we've likely come to expect, no body parts are left unseen.

Viewers complained in their droves about the full-frontal nudity, describing it as a 'new low' for British TV. Yet one man's nadir is another's apex, and the show garnered 1.4 million viewers on its opening episode. Whatever about its content, Naked Attraction is offering something that viewers clearly want to watch.

Yet in the steeplechase to provide reality TV's most outlandish water cooler moment of 2016, Naked Attraction has faced stiff competition.

There is Big Brother (and latterly, Celebrity Big Brother), a bitching bonkfest featuring the most vapid and pneumatic of hopefuls. What was once an enlightening peep-hole into the minutiae of group psychology has been a parade of barefaced wannabes with an embarrassing need for attention. Brains are out, and voyeurism is in. That Big Brother contestants are keenly aware of this is at once the show's greatest strength and weakness.

Earlier in the summer, Love Island featured a number of on-air sex sessions; in one memorable moment, contestants cheered on fellow islanders Malin and Terry mid-coitus.

With one eye trained on magazine deals and a half-life of tabloid fodder, the blatant careerism of reality TV contestants now rises from them like steam. It's as blatant, on reflection, as the producer's bid for a ratings boost.

Add to this bizarre brew the likes of Gogglebox, Made in Chelsea and First Dates, and suddenly the golden age of TV is starting to look a bit burnished. And all this talk of the golden age of TV has only served to reinforce cultural snobbery and widen the chasm between 'serious' and 'trash' TV.

That reality producers have stepped up their game in a bid to win back the water-cooler moment is a given. Netflix, Amazon Prime and their ilk mean that we don't watch television when we are told to. Rather, we gulp a series down in a heady gulp, often bragging about our stealth watching on social media afterwards.

Video of the Day

This is the fuel that has given series like Making a Murderer and, more recently, Stranger Things its unique horsepower. If Big Brother was once the petri dish for the accidental 'everyman' star, now YouTube and Vine are the places where the ordinary person is likely to find overnight success.

Finding themselves on the back-foot, reality TV producers know that they've often been entrusted with a TV format that's as knackered and outmoded as a Ford Fiesta.

Heather Havrilesky, former TV critic at Salon, has noted that "self-consciousness will be the death of the genre. As more and more contestants who appear on the shows have been exposed to other reality shows, the argument goes, their actions and statements will become less and less 'real'. What's to blame here is the popular use of the word 'reality' to describe a genre that's never been overly concerned with realism or even with offering an accurate snapshot of the events featured."

And when all else fails, they have resorted to trust tactics: the guilty watch, or the shock value. And it could be argued that Naked Attraction is a sort of reaction to the likes of Versailles or Games of Thrones, where nudity - often parachuted in for the sake of prurience - becomes a real talking point. It takes plumbing to even lower depths to shock jaded TV viewers. And in the quest for ratings, salience - not to mention controversy - becomes the Holy Grail.

Certainly, reality TV's ratings have suffered of late: earlier this summer, Big Brother received the lowest viewing figures for a launch show ever, down 300,000 UK viewers from 2015, and 600,000 fewer than 2014. Yet rumours of the format's demise may well be exaggerated: much like its British counterpart, First Dates Ireland has proved to be a huge ratings pull for RTE.

There are commentators that have been quick to defend reality TV: Yet in his book Everything Bad is Good For You, the author Steven Johnson has argued that pop culture, with its increasingly complex narrative structures actually makes people smarter.

"For decades, we've worked under the assumption that mass culture follows a path declining steadily toward lowest-common-denominator standards, presumably because the 'masses' want dumb, simple pleasures and big media companies try to give the masses what they want," he wrote in the New York Times. "But (the) exact opposite is happening: the culture is getting more cognitively demanding, not less.

"If early television took its cues from the stage, today's reality programming is reliably structured like a video game: a series of competitive tests, growing more challenging over time. Many reality shows borrow a subtler device from gaming culture as well: the rules aren't fully established at the outset. You learn as you play. Reality programming borrowed another key ingredient from games: the intellectual labour of probing the system's rules for weak spots and opportunities."

With that in mind, pop culture, he argues, enhances "our cognitive faculties", and has "intellectual benefits".

Michael Hirschorn, writing in The Atlantic, also makes a case for reality TV: "Reality shows steal the story structure and pacing of scripted television, but leave behind the canned plots and characters," he observes. "They have the visceral impact of documentary reportage without the self-importance and general lugubriousness. Where documentaries must construct their narratives from found matter, reality TV can place real people in artificial surroundings designed for maximum emotional impact."

Yet even in the face of stiff competition from Netflix and other TV giants, there's another plausible reason to explain the ongoing appeal of trashy TV.

With news and current affairs shows providing a steady drip-feed of violence, upheaval, terrorism and uncertainty, reality TV becomes a sort of soother for the masses. Naked Attraction and its outlandish ilk provide a much-needed antidote and distraction to this ongoing cacophony.

What suffocating lows reality TV's producers may resort to next remains anyone's guess. But given the headlines generated by reality TV's latest offerings, it's safe to assume that things are set to become even more peculiarly offensive. In the meantime, all we can do is sit, wonder, and stare, one eye-watering body part at a time.
The Festival of Lughnasa was essentially to celebrate the ripening of the fruits of the earth

Fergus Kelly, in a seminal work, Early Irish Farming (School of Celtic Studies), says that the Festival of Lughnasa was essentially to celebrate the ripening of the fruits of the earth.

In pre-Christian Ireland, the feast, named after a Celtic deity, was signalled by the Fair of Tailten in Meath, convened by the High King to mark the beginning of harvest-time and the gathering of grains, vegetables and fruits. Plentiful days had arrived after a long period of privation. Cartloads of harvested food were delivered to chieftains, princes and the royal court. There was much feasting and merrymaking.

Over the centuries and into the Christian era new locations for gatherings sprung up with one major event called the Fair of Carmun becoming established on The Curragh, where could be found music, story-telling, livestock trading and, of course, horse racing when young men displayed their skills.

There were also food markets, and, according to one scribe, "a great market of foreigners" where gold and fine raiment could be bought.

Thousands also flocked to other sites, on hilltops, lakes and rivers where naked youths swam horses in water-racing contests. Sans the nude riders and the water, this could be reminiscent of Galway's race week, just past, rock music events attended by thousands, and the annual pilgrimage of the Reek at Croagh Patrick, in atonement for man's errant ways.

Lughnasa and the relief of the harvest was a vital time of year after regular famines and privations. In the 1820s, before the Great Famine, a Kerry-born schoolmaster in Callan, Co Kilkenny, recorded in his diary scenes of the pre-Lughnasa month of July, "Iul na Ghorta" or "cabbage time" when food was particularly scarce.

Amhlaidh O Suilleabhain wrote of poorer people having to eat a great deal of the green vegetable and "other odds and ends" because there was little else. Grain was ripening in the fields and those who had recourse to oats and barley pulled on the stalk were dubbed "yellow-mouths", as he described the faces of the poor.

But he recorded, too, examples of the extraordinary generosity of the farming community who shared their bounty with the less fortunate. In one year, the incredible sum of 1m was handed out, which a Westminster commission noted was "an astonishing sum". A Poor Law Inquiry in 1836 noted: "The quantity given (to the poor) by farmers, small occupiers and often by the labourers themselves, is incredible."

The threshold of plenty was Lughnasa, Garland or Hill Sunday, when the harvest began and land-holders were prepared to have the first crops ready. To dig potatoes or cut corn before this was frowned upon. New potatoes and oats provided the main meal dish to honour the day and the tradition was to cut a symbolic sheaf of oats in the morning, burn off the straw and chaff with the grains made into bread or porridge in the evening.

In the Irish Independent last week there was a remarkable story of care for a homeless man on a Dublin street with people going out with hot food and clothing at night - nothing less, perhaps, than an example of a 'Lughnasa-sharing' with the less fortunate, a continuing of an old Irish tradition of spontaneous kindness and generosity.
Certain fashion items have iconic status. These include the Birkin bag, the YSL smoking jacket and Diane von Furstenberg's wraparound dresses.

And arguably J Brand's Houlihan cargo pants can be ranked alongside as an early 21st-century inclusion. First launched in 2010 and beloved by celebrities like Gwen Stefani and Charlize Theron, the Houlihan has been relaunched and comes in new colours, including distressed caledon and distressed chrome. They are not the cheapest trousers, but they are certainly a cost-per-wear bargain.

BUY: Available from Brown Thomas and BT2, 290; brownthomas.com

Fair Isle

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This summer, Kildare Village has a programme called 'From the Isle', celebrating Irish creativity, design, craft, food and culture with a wide range of events taking place. These include barbecues and pop-up opera from Lismore Opera Festival. Today from 7pm-8pm, there's a 'From The Maker' lighting workshop with Irish designer Shane Holland.

DETAILS: facebook.com/kildarevillage

Sandy shores

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Some outdoor visual treats await visitors to Duncannon Beach, Wexford this weekend, where the 30th annual Sand Sculpting Festival is taking place. There are lots of free events such as fireworks, a family beach party, Ireland's biggest water fight and live music happening, as well as incredible professional sand sculptors creating architectural masterpieces on the beach.

DETAILS: visitwexford.ie

Give it some lip

You can never go wrong with a strong pop of colour on the lips to brighten any look, and there are many things to love about Flormar's new Deluxe Cashmere lipstick range, Stylo - least being its impressive price tag of 5.95. The lipstick is enriched with ingredients such as orchid complex oil and shea butter, and there are seven sultry shades from which to choose.

BUY: Available in pharmacies. See flormarireland.com for a list of stockists

No small thing

It's described as Ireland's biggest small festival - the Carrickmacross Arts Festival, Monaghan, starts this Thursday and runs until Sunday. The line-up mixes up music, literature, comedy, art, drama, and film, with musical acts including Delorentos, The Frank and Walters, Wallis Bird, Kila and Declan O'Rourke. The comedy side is just as enticing, with Barry Murphy, Colum McDonnell, Michael Downey and Niamh Marron appearing.

DETAILS: carrickmacrossartsfestival.com

Big up your style

You might find early August a little too early to start snapping up autumn/winter's new looks. But enormous earrings are one trend you can get on board with straight away. This season, bigger is better, and so big that they should practically be grazing the shoulder. Think opulence, bold jewels, structural pieces and bling. Go massive - this is no time to be shy and retiring, jewellery-wise.

BUY: Odeon chandeliers, 49; stelladot.eu

Perfect pairings

Galways's Tigh Neachtain and the award-winning Artisan restaurant have teamed up for a delicious new gastro-pub food menu available in Tigh Neachtain. Locally inspired dishes are paired with craft beers and ciders and select wines, including a sticky beef rib with celeriac puree and potato fondant paired with Cosmic Cow milk stout.

DETAILS: artisangalway.com

Next weekend...

Bite-sized fun

Now in it's sixth year, Taste of Cavan returns this weekend, promising more top chefs, more local produce and great family fun. Taking place at Cavan Equestrian Centre, chefs Neven Maguire and Richard Corrigan will be there, as well as Cavan man and Michelin-starred chef Enda McEvoy, and TV3 regular Shane Smith. This year Neven is on the hunt for Ireland's next big culinary name, as he hosts 'The Home Chef of Cavan'. There will be over 130 stands offering the very best in local and regional produce, and lots of children's events including Lego workshops and fossil hunting.

DETAILS: tasteofcavan.ie

Be quick on the draw

Get your culture fix next weekend, by visiting the Eclectic Images exhibition, which opens at the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin next Saturday. The exhibition presents highlights of prints and drawings acquired by NG over the last five years. The first part demonstrates the developments in printmaking throughout the centuries, while the second part of the exhibition includes unusual watercolours, drawings and prints, featuring drawings by Walter Osborne and Kyffin Williams, and prints by Berthe Morisot, Frank Brangwyn and Michael Farrell.

DETAILS: Free admission, nationalgallery.ie

hotlist@independent.ie

Upwards...

Vogue Williams and Laurence Fox

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Although she's said it's friendship not romance, we like the idea of the Irish model and the Lewis star.

Etsy for wedding rings

It's where Mila Kunis got hers, and the thought of something unique from an indie designer is appealing.

Lotions and potions nights

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Because sometimes you just want to retreat from the world, with a face mask.

Ballet

Now that future Lara Croft, Alicia Vikander, has revealed it's the secret of her poise, we want to sign up for classes.

Hot dogs in blaas

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As served at Adelphi bar on Dublin's Abbey Street. You're welcome.

Onwards...

Nude leggings

Not even Bella Hadid can carry this look off

Jean-Claude Van Damme's patience

The star walked out of an interview after 'being asked the same question for 25 years'.

Prosecco boredom

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And especially the cheap stuff. It's cava all the way...

Gwyneth's unconscious uncoupling from GOOP

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But where will we now look for guidance on where to find $900 dollar throws and Moon Juice?

Plan Bs

New research has revealed that having one stops you getting what you want, so you need to stick to the A-plan.
There was no time for 'one for the road'. The sudden and untimely death last weekend of Oliver Hughes, publican and co-owner of Lillie's Bordello and the Porterhouse Group, shocked the nation.

The 57-year-old Glasnevin native and father-of-two was one of the first publicans to pioneer craft beers.

"We're craft, not crafty," he once said.

For Hughes, the beauty was that craft beers are carefully made in the locality rather than mass-produced elsewhere.

Oliver recently opened the Dingle Whiskey Distillery - the first purpose-built distillery for whiskey in Ireland for over 200 years. His vision knew no bounds.

For those in the micro-brewing industry here, his passing was a blow.

"He was such an inspiration to others in the industry and always had the few words of advice and encouragement," explains Quincey Fleming, who co-founded the Wicklow Wolf Brewing Company with Simon Lynch. "Oliver saw the bigger picture and helped the rest of us to see it, too."

As with so many involved in the burgeoning Irish craft-beer industry, the roots of Wicklow Wolf can be found across the Atlantic.

"Both Simon and I spent time in San Francisco and could see how fast the craft-beer industry was growing there. We thought, 'why can't we do this in Ireland' and so we have."

They sold their first beer in 2014 and, since trading, have generated more than 1m in revenue.

So rapid has the brewery's growth been that already they're planning to move to a new larger premises in Bray.

"We're up to 15 different beer products. It's clear that beer drinkers in Ireland have become more discerning and willing to try out new options, to upscale their choice," explains Quincey.

They grow their own hops on a 10-acre piece of land owned by Simon in Roundwood, Co Wicklow.

"As Simon is a horticulturist, it's a huge advantage for us and we plan to use more land to grow more hops in the future," says Quincey.

Of course, part of the allure of craft beers in Ireland today is that they've become somewhat trendy. Beer drinkers around Bray like to be seen with a bottle of 'Locavore' in hand, in Galway the award-winning Indian Pale Ale 'Of Foam and Fury' is a common thirst-quencher and in Waterford the aptly named 'Copper Coast' Irish Red Ale sells well.

Marketing, therefore, is key, as Quincey explains.

"You're always trying to catch the consumer's eye. Earlier this year we produced a beer called 'Children of the Revolution' to mark the centenary of 1916. The name was a historical reference. We ended up on the Joe Duffy show on RTE and sold three months' worth of beer in two weeks."

But are enough Irish consumers turning to craft beers to make sure the industry's foundations here are secure?

"Undoubtedly," according to John Duffy of the Craft Beer Advocacy Group Beoir.

"The expansion of the beer scene in Ireland has been dramatic over the last three years. We're well on the way to having 100 operational breweries on the island. The diversity of beer styles has never been greater and, as well as the traditional Irish beer styles, we're now seeing Irish interpretations of classic styles from around the world. Five years ago, the release of a new Irish beer was a relatively rare occurrence. Now it seems that there's something new to the market at least every week."

And he says while craft beers can cost more, there is exceptional value for money to be found. Irish craft beer sales account for 2pc of total beer sales in Ireland today but that percentage is steadily nudging up. In the US, 12pc of all beer sales are for craft beers.

"In Portland, Oregon, 40pc of beer sold there is actually brewed there, too," explains Sligo native James Ward.

"I was first introduced to the craft beer scene about 15 years ago when I worked in the drinks industry in upstate New York. In many ways, what we have in Ireland now is a replica of the scene in the US back then."

James returned to Ireland and founded the White Hag brewery in Ballymote in 2013, which he later sold. Now he's working towards launching a new Sligo-based brewery in the coming months with a view to producing craft beer for the Irish and international market.

"I think education is key. If we can teach people about how the beer they're drinking is made, explain that it's using local ingredients, local water and is unique to their area, I think that encourages them to keep drinking it," he says.

"Not so long ago you could walk into any bar in Ireland and find the exact same taps, it was like McDonald's. But now that's changing as consumers are more adventurous. They've travelled more, have been exposed to different flavours and are not satisfied with the same product time after time," adds James.

And in Ireland's busiest regional tourist town, local craft beers are flourishing.

Barry Spellman, the general manager of the Killarney Brewing Company, explains that so much of their beer is served in draught in bars throughout the town.

"I'd say 70pc of our sales are from draught. The pubs in Killarney have embraced our products because they add to the branding of the town and the experience for visitors."

Around 1m has been spent on state-of-the-art German equipment. "Our head brewer is from Portland, our equipment is the very best and despite only opening 18 months ago, we've had over 5,000 visitors to our brewery in Killarney already."

And Barry has no qualms with drinks giants - such as Guinness, with their 'Hop House 13' double-hopped larger, and Heineken, with its 'Cute hoor' IPA - expanding their product range to include such beers.

"If it encourages people to try alternative beers, then we know that ultimately we, and other craft beer providers in Ireland, will benefit."

And if Oliver Hughes believed the Irish craft-beer sector was one that would thrive into the future chances are it probably will.
Premium

Eoghan Harris Opinion Misery media fails to give due credit to the Taoiseach

Taoiseach Micheal Martin must drive his advisers mad. Unlike Leo Varadkar or Donald Trump, he never bigs up success stories such as the effect of Level 3 Plus on Covid or his visionary Shared Island project. Last Friday, Tony Holohan and RTE cheerleaders seemed to imply Level 5 was responsible for the improved Covid situation. Not so.
South Africa's controversial president, Jacob Zuma, is well known for his antipathy towards urban black intellectuals, whom he labels "the clever blacks".

In 2014, when he was asked about public concerns that he had used state funds to build himself a e15.3m palace in his home village in rural KwaZulu Natal, he replied that only "very clever and bright people" cared about the issue. In a speech in November 2012, Zuma slammed urban blacks "who become too clever", saying: "They become the most eloquent in criticising themselves about their own traditions and everything."

Last week, the "clever blacks" had their revenge on Zuma, delivering the heaviest electoral loss to Nelson Mandela's African National Congress since democracy dawned in 1994 while setting up a mighty contest for national elections in 2019.

Although the ANC retained massive support in rural South Africa, its losses in urban areas were shocking and comprehensive. In Nelson Mandela Bay, the coastal city renamed in honour of South Africa's most famous son, voters rejected the ANC and gave their votes to the opposition Democratic Alliance. Just 10 years ago, the ANC got 66pc of the vote in the city famous for its struggle against apartheid. It polled a disappointing 40pc last week.

Yesterday, Pretoria (in the process of being renamed Tshwane), the executive capital of the country, was set to be run by an opposition coalition after the ANC came in at a paltry 41pc of the vote behind the DA.

The parliamentary capital, Cape Town, has been in opposition hands for more than a decade. The African continent's economic powerhouse, Johannesburg, saw the ANC lose its majority as opposition parties started coalition talks there too.

The national story tells a similarly depressing story for the ANC. In local elections in 2006, the party got 66.3pc votes nationwide. The DA took 14.8pc. Last week, the ANC reached just under 54pc and the main opposition DA stood at 27pc.

Last Wednesday's election was a major turning point for the ANC and for South Africa. Last October, ANC general secretary, Gwede Mantashe, warned a party policy conference that were its support to plunge below 60pc this year, it would mark a "psychological and political turning point".

That moment has now arrived as the party that led the international liberation struggle against apartheid failed to convince its core urban constituency to vote for it in significant numbers. In urban townships such as Soweto, an ANC stronghold, voter turnout was as low as 46pc, while those who did turn up increasingly voted for the opposition DA and the radical three-year-old Economic Freedom Fighters formed by expelled former ANC Youth League firebrand Julius Malema.

This is a watershed moment because it means South Africa is no longer a country dominated by one party of liberation. For long, it was slowly inching towards being a proper, lively, multi-party system that holds power to account. It is now hurtling that way.

Former ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa, a businessman and former Zuma ally, summed up the ANC's losses thus: "We need to accept the reality that there are many young people who voted for the DA. Where do these people come from? They left the ANC and why did they leave the ANC? The clever blacks have spoken The masses are punishing us with the weapon we won for them. The vote."

It's been a long time coming. Since Zuma came to power in 2007, the ANC has been racked by corruption scandals, infighting and splits. Economic mismanagement has plagued the Zuma administration, with unemployment rising from 21pc to just over 26pc since 2008. The economy has taken a beating, with projections by the Reserve Bank saying that there will be zero growth this year, while ratings agencies have threatened a credit rating downgrade.

To mask these failings, the ANC ran a negative and racist campaign that aimed to paint the opposition DA as the party of apartheid. Campaigning in Nelson Mandela Bay, Zuma called the DA "snakes, the children of the National party" and repeatedly referred to its young black leader as a puppet of whites.

Urban South Africans did not buy this scaremongering. As the memories of the Mandela years and the liberation struggle have faded, and the ANC's internal troubles have spilled out into the open, so too has unquestioning faith in the country's liberation party and its veterans such as Zuma. The legitimacy conferred upon them by the struggle is no longer a mask for their failings in a country that is now scarred by stories of rampant political corruption, crime and poverty.

The country now enters a new era of competitive politics in a terrain where once the ANC's struggle credentials ensured it unparalleled success. Malema, the energetic young founder of the EFF, has won 8pc of the national vote and is a kingmaker in Johannesburg and Tshwane. Malema says he predicts the ANC will not be governing South Africa when the country takes to the polls in the 2019 national government elections.

It is a claim that would have once been dismissed as a pipe dream. No longer. Even in its rural strongholds such as Limpopo, where Malema comes from, the ANC has slunk in way below its previous support levels. In Zuma's rural home municipality, the ANC claimed 44.25pc while the Inkatha Freedom party won with 54pc.

What does it mean? The post-colonial African story is replete with tales of liberation movements that have stayed in power with one leader and one party despite losing the support of the people. Zimbabwe, just to the north, is a painful example of such a country; Mugabe and Zanu-PF have been in power for 36 years.

South Africa has broken with that narrative. First, Zuma is the fourth president of the country since 1994.

Mandela broke with the "strong man" tradition by stepping down after one term. Now, with these results, a future where South Africa could be run by an opposition party is beginning to emerge. We could see this in the next national election in 2019 or in 2024.

It may be disconcerting for those who grew up with the ANC as the very heart of the South African political landscape, but it is not necessarily a bad thing.

It heralds the maturation of politics and the steady, welcome move towards a lively, competitive, responsive multi-party democracy. South Africans are using the ballot box to speak to their leaders and that can only be a good thing.

Justice Malala is a political commentator and author of 'We Have Now Begun Our Descent: How to Stop South Africa Losing its Way'

 Guardian
Cara pictured with her husky Leo, who was pictured in an 'anti-barking' collar this week

Animal Welfare groups have hit out at Cara Delevigne after her dog was pictured wearing an anti-barking collar as they emerged from a top London hotel.

The device sprays citronella, an oil commonly found in insect repellent and perfume, whenever a high decibel of sound is reached, discouraging dogs to bark. The scent is one that is not harmful to dogs but one that they dislike.

The model and Suicide Squad star and her husky Leo were staying in Claridges Hotel in London where she is currently promoting the film.

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Speaking to The Daily Mail a representative of Dogs Trust in the UK said the collar is not recommended as it is an adverse measure to take.

At the Dogs Trust we dont recommend the use of any adverse technique or equipment for any kind of behaviour issue.

You have to find out the cause of the dogs behaviour rather than punish it.

The model debuted the dog at the Chanel Haute Couture show in January and he has been by her side ever since. The dog also accompanied his model owner to Paris Fashion Week this year.
LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 01: (L-R) David Beckham, Romeo Beckham, Brooklyn Beckham, Cruz Beckham and Victoria Beckham attend the world premiere of "The Class of 92" at the Odeon West End on December 1, 2013 in London, England. (Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage)

Man About Town magazine of Brooklyn Beckham who appears in the spring/summer 2014 issue. Photo: Alasdair McClellan/Man About Town

The eldest son of David and Victoria Beckham is reportedly dating Hollywood starlet Chloe Moretz.

Chloe (17) is thought to be 15-year-old Brooklyns first girlfriend.

The couple met at Paris Fashion Week in February and were first spotted together in June skateboarding in Santa Monica.

They were introduced through mutual friends and have the same social circle back in Los Angeles.

They speak all the time and enjoy hanging out together just doing what teenagers do.

Both David and Victoria have given them their blessing, a source told the Daily Mirror.

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The Carrie and Kick Ass star, who is close friends with Taylor Swift, is used to boys after growing up with four older brothers.

Their romance is not thought to be serious however, as Brooklyn lives in London and Chloe lives in LA.

It also comes just days after Chloe gave an interview saying she thinks shes too young to be in a relationship.

She told the September issue of Flare magazine, Its a tough age to fall in love: people change so quickly.

Video of the Day

I dont want to have to feel like I have to watch my step, because Im 17 and I shouldnt have to.

The couple plan to spend the school holidays together in LA.
Susan pictured on her hen night in Tropical Popical

Former Love/Hate star Susan Loughnane is preparing to wave goodbye to single life ahead of her marriage to long-term boyfriend David Doyle, and the actress celebrated that fact with her closest friends at her hen party in Dublin this weekend.

The actress (29) and her 16 hens began the evening in Dublin nail salon Tropical Popical, a favourite of Oscar-nominee Saoirse Ronan, where they each had manicures and tipples before moving onto Ballsbridge to cut into a suitably hen-themed cake.

A video posted by Susan Loughnane (@bigsoozz) on Aug 6, 2016 at 5:10am PDT

Susan and her troop then hopped onto a party bus bound for Johnny Foxs pub in the Dublin Mountains.

The actress, who played prostitute Debbie in the RTE series, will marry David later this month after becoming engaged last summer.

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David works as an air traffic controller in Shannon Airport and is based in Co. Clare, which Susan says is her escape.

Being apart is obviously crap but it makes seeing each other even better.

When we see each other we are so delighted. And I suppose if we were with each other all the time, it probably wouldnt be like that after 10 years, she told The Mirror in February.

Clare is a lovely county but the real draw is my boyfriend who lives there.

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I like the idea of country life, its just so much more chilled-out.

I feel very choked up and polluted sometimes in the city.

Video of the Day

The actress recently starred in Irish film Poison Pen with her Love/Hate costar Aoibhinn McGinnity.
Police officers secure the area near to the police headquarters in Charleroi, Belgium (AP)

Belgian authorities are treating a machete attack on two police officers as an act of terror, the country's prime minister said on Sunday.

After an emergency meeting of security chiefs, Prime Minister Charles Michel said the attacker's shouts of "Allahu Akbar!" (God is Great) as he slashed at the officers outside the Charleroi police station on Saturday were a notable factor in the authorities' decision.

The Belgian Federal Prosecutor's Office has opened an official investigation into what it deems a case of "attempted terrorist murder," Mr Michel said.

The attacker, who has not yet been identified by Belgian law enforcement, was shot dead as he attacked the officers. One officer was badly wounded in the face.

Mr Michel cut short his holiday in the south of France to hurry back to Brussels following the attack in the southern Belgian city.

"We must keep a cool head," Mr Michel said. "We must avoid panic, of course - not give in to terror. That's the trap that has been set for us."

He said prosecutors are expected to release information about the Charleroi attacker later on Sunday.

Belgium has been on high alert since the March 22 suicide bombings claimed by Islamic State extremists that killed 32 people in Brussels. Many of the perpetrators of the November 13 carnage in Paris that killed 130 people were also residents of Belgium.

"We know we must be constantly, constantly vigilant," Mr Michel said.

Belgian Defence Minister Steven Vandeput said the government's Crisis Centre would meet to determine if additional measures should be taken to protect police buildings and staff.

The identities of the attacked police officers were not being released.
Japanese will tune in to Emperor Akihito's rare video message on Monday following reports that he would abdicate in the next few years.

In the pre-recorded message, the 82-year-old monarch will talk about his duties as a "symbol emperor" as stipulated by the constitution, palace officials said.

He will most likely avoid the explicit expression of abdication, which would involve political and legal procedures that he is not allowed to discuss.

The emperor still works, though his aides have shifted some of his duties to Crown Prince Naruhito - the elder of his two sons and most likely successor.

Yet he has referred to his old age in recent years, admitting to making small mistakes at ceremonies. During the August 15, 2015, anniversary of the end of the Second World War, he started reading a statement when he was supposed to observe a moment of silence.

After the initial surprise, the public warmly welcomed the reported abdication plan, saying the hardworking emperor deserves to enjoy his long-overdue retirement.

According to a nationwide telephone survey by Kyodo News agency this month, nearly 90% of the respondents said Akihito is given too much work, while more than 85% said an abdication should be legalised as an option for him and his successors.

The emperor has reportedly told palace officials and his family that he does not wish to cling to his title with drastically reduced responsibility or by arranging a substitute, and his two sons have accepted the idea.

The quiet discussion reportedly started about five years ago, around the time he had health problems - he was in hospital with bronchitis in 2011, and had heart bypass surgery in 2012.

Palace officials quickly denied the report, because the emperor is not supposed to say anything that would cause a change to the existing system, including his constitutional status.

He ascended to the throne in 1989 after the death of his father, Hirohito, who was considered a deity until Japan's defeat in the Second World War, fought in the name of the emperor.

Akihito brought the cloistered imperial family closer to the public and broke with other traditions, including his marriage to a commoner. He has repeatedly said he respects Japan's postwar pacifist constitution and is committed to his status as the symbol and the unity of the people, not the sovereign.

Some speculate that his abdication may be an attempt to put a brake on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's plan to rewrite the constitution.

Mr Abe and his ultra-conservative supporters want to scrap a part of the war-renouncing article and upgrade the emperor to the sovereign again.

AP
It's just after 9pm when the first Nigerian women start to appear on the streets of Asti, a small city near Turin in Italy. Some stand in groups of two or three, flagging down passing cars. Many are alone - solitary figures backlit by the stream of headlights moving into the city. Princess Inyang Okokon slows down her car as she spots two girls standing on a corner. Even with makeup they look no older than 15. "So many new faces," she says, as she pulls her car to the side of the road and gets out to speak to them.

Princess, a 42-year-old mother of four from Nigeria's Akwa Ibom state, has spent the last 17 years working for Progetto Integrazione Accoglienza Migranti (PIAM), an anti-trafficking group in the city. According to her, most of the Nigerian prostitutes working Asti's streets are victims of trafficking.

Princess knows first-hand about the horrors these women are living through. In 1999, she was trafficked herself from her home in Nigeria to Turin. "I know their story because it is my story, too," she says.

For three decades, a thriving sex-trafficking industry has been operating between Nigeria and Italy. The trade in women began in the 1980s when Nigerians travelling to Italy on work visas to pick tomatoes realised selling sex was more profitable than harvesting.

Since then, 30,000 Nigerian women have been trafficked into prostitution, finding themselves on street corners in Italy and other European states. In 2015, 5,633 Nigerian women arrived by sea in Italy. The UN believes 80pc of these are victims of trafficking

More than 85pc of these women have come from Nigeria's Edo state, where traffickers have exploited poverty to sell false promises of prosperity in Europe.

Princess was one of the first wave of women to come from Nigeria. Then a single mother of three children, she was approached by a woman she knew from work, who offered her a job in Italy. "In Nigeria there was nothing. I wanted more for my children. This woman said I could pay back the cost of travel when I started earning. I believed her."

She flew to London on a fake passport. When she arrived she called a number she'd been given and a man picked her up and drove her to Italy. She was taken to a house in Turin full of other Nigerian women. When she told them she was going to work in a restaurant, the women laughed. "They said, 'Here no Nigerian girl works in a restaurant. Whether you are a princess or a queen you are here in Europe and you must work as a prostitute'. I was distraught."

Princess was told she had to pay back 45,000 before she could leave. She was now under the control of a "madam", a Nigerian woman who worked for the trafficking rings, controlling the women and their debt.

She was given high heels and makeup and driven to a street corner. "I said 'I will not do this,'" she recalls. "I hid behind a big bin all night and cried." And then the beatings began. Her madam attacked her so violently with the heel of a shoe that she was hospitalised. "They said that they would kill me if I didn't work."

For months, Princess worked the streets. But her debts never got smaller. "The work was so dangerous. I was stabbed twice," she says. "The only way I kept strong was promising myself I would leave this life."

Eventually, her prayers were answered. She was walking home one day when a man called Alberto Mossino pulled over in his car and asked if he could take her to the beach. He offered to help Princess leave her madam. "At first I didn't trust him but he helped me pay off my debts. Since then he has been my partner in everything."

Princess's life has changed since those days. She and Mossino started PIAM, married and had a daughter. She pursued her madam through the courts and saw her sent to jail for four years.

Yet 17 years later, the situation for other Nigerian women has become far worse than what Princess lived through. In the past, women would have to be flown in to Europe with fake passports. Now they embark on the dangerous 2,500-mile journey overland through Africa and Libya before making an equally hazardous crossing by sea to Italy on migrant boats. In 2014, 1,500 Nigerian women arrived by sea in Italy. In 2015, this rose to 5,633.

"What we are seeing in terms of the scale of the criminal trade in Nigerian women is unprecedented," says Simona Moscarelli, an expert at the UN's International Organisation for Migration. "Before, the women were exploited but there was a small chance they could pay off their debts. Now these girls really are slaves. The age is getting younger, too."
Millions are thought to have attended the Democracy and Martyrs' Rally in Istanbul

Turkey will continue fighting whatever powers seek to undermine the government, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed on Sunday as he addressed a massive flag-waving rally in Istanbul in the wake of the country's abortive July 15 coup.

The Yenikapi meeting area by the Marmara Sea waterfront on Istanbul's European side was transformed into a sea of red and white, the colours of Turkey's flag. No official crowd figure was provided, but Turkish media said millions attended. The event was so full that large crowds were turned away at the gates, spilling into surrounding streets.

"As a state and as a nation we need to analyse the July 15 coup attempt very well. We need to evaluate well not just those who engaged in this treachery, but the powers behind them, the motives that made them take action," Mr Erdogan told the cheering crowd.

He spoke from a 60-metre (200-foot) stage framed by two platforms and draped with massive national flags and banners depicting Mr Erdogan and Turkey's founding father Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

The Democracy and Martyrs' Rally was billed as a cross-party event representing Turkish unity in the wake of the failed coup, in which a group of renegade military officers attempted to seize power with tanks, helicopters and fighter jets, leaving more than 270 people dead.

"We will continue on our road in solidarity. We will love each other not for rank or title, but for Allah," Mr Erdogan said.

Religious leaders and two of Turkey's three opposition parties attended the rally, sitting next to Mr Erdogan, who arrived on board a helicopter with his wife Emine. The pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party, or HDP, was not invited.

"July 15 has opened the door for our reconciliation," said main opposition Republican People's Party chairman Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

"There is now a new Turkey after July 15. If we can further this power, this culture of rapprochement, we will all be able to leave our children a great Turkey."

The government launched a sweeping crackdown in the coup's aftermath, targeting followers of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who it says orchestrated the putsch. Mr Gulen denies involvement.

Nearly 18,000 people have been detained or arrested, mostly from the military, and tens of thousands of people have been suspended or dismissed from jobs in the judiciary, media, education, health care, military and local government.

"July 15 showed our friends that this country isn't just strong against political, economic and diplomatic attacks, but against military sabotage as well. It showed that it will not fall, it will not be derailed," Mr Erdogan said.

"Those wringing their hands on that night hoping for Turkey to fall woke up the next day to realise their work was much harder than they thought."

The scope of the crackdown has alarmed European countries and rights groups, who have urged restraint. Mr Erdogan has lashed out at criticism, and complained of a lack of support from the West. He has also demanded Mr Gulen's extradition from the US. Washington has said it would need evidence of the cleric's involvement, and says the extradition process must be allowed to take its course.

Mr Gulen's followers "are simply the visible tools of the threat against our country. We know that this game, this scenario is far beyond their league", Mr Erdogan said.

"Of course we have to uncover all members of this organisation and eradicate them within the framework of the law, but if we content ourselves with just that, then we as a state and a nation will leave weak our defence against similar viruses."

Mr Erdogan reiterated he would approve the reintroduction of capital punishment if parliament were to pass a bill to that effect. The death penalty was abolished in Turkey in 2004, 20 years after the last execution. European Union officials have said a reintroduction of capital punishment would put an end to Turkey's prospects of joining the bloc.

The event kicked off with a minute of silence for those killed while opposing the coup, followed by the Turkish national anthem and a recitation of prayers.

"I have never been in democracy rallies but I really wanted to come this one. Because I don't want to lose my country," said Sevda Bozkurt, a 44-year-old housewife who did not manage to get in.

"This is one of the biggest rallies. Turkey's three political parties gathered together, they become friends, they become brothers. Maybe there is hope for Turkey."

Construction cranes suspended giant Turkish flags beside the meeting area, while flag-draped boats and yachts zipped back and forth along the water.

The government has been encouraging nightly anti-coup rallies in all of the country's 81 provinces since July 15. Sunday's rally was to have been the last, but Mr Erdogan said the end would be on Wednesday. He did not elaborate.

The event was broadcast live on giant screens in all of Turkey's provinces, and crowds of thousands gathered to watch in the country's major cities.

"Today is a special day, which is making all of the gatherings held for 15, 24 days, more precious," said Mustafa Yavuz Aycil, a 44-year-old Istanbul resident attending the rally.

"I also had to be here today because as you see all of the crowd is showing its reaction to the coup."

Nearly 15,000 police were providing security at the event. Anti-aircraft batteries were also set up at the event grounds, while two helicopters circled overhead.

Thousands of buses and more than 200 boats were commissioned to bring people to the area, where they passed through one of 165 metal detectors before being given hats and flags. Those wounded during the attempted coup and the families of those who died were given special passes for a seated area.

An Ottoman marching band entertained the gathering crowd, with 240 members representing the number of those authorities say gave their lives fighting off the coup.

AP
GRUESOME TRADE: Organ traffickers are using the fog of war to cover up and conceal their grim trade  which earns them hundreds of millions every year. Stock Image

Officials along the North African coast had become used to the sight of bodies appearing on the shoreline - casualties from the 1.25 million people who have fled across the Mediterranean in rubber dinghies and wooden fishing boats since last year.

Last April, however, the bodies of nine Somalis that washed up on an Egyptian beach revealed an even darker reality.

Officials reportedly found thick jagged scars along the centre of their chests and, on further inspection, learned that organs were missing. It appeared that these nine people, a mother and her two children included, had become victims of the underground organ trafficking trade, also known as the Red Market.

It has been around for decades, ever since the joy of the first successful living kidney transplant in 1954 was quickly offset by the lack of available donors to meet the rising demand.

Even in the US, where an average of 79 people will receive organ transplants each day, 22 will die waiting. Few countries can provide a self-sufficient supply, particularly in less-developed regions, so a grim illicit trade has opened up - the harvesting and sale of organs for cash.

It is now claimed that trafficking in organs for the purpose of transplantation accounts for 10pc of all transplants in the world, producing up to $1.2bn (1.1bn) in illicit revenue each year.

Wealthy recipients can source organs away from lengthy waiting lists in their home countries or even travel as "transplant tourists" to countries where the practice is common in order to buy an illegally sourced kidney, liver, corneas or more.

While the sale of organs is illegal in most countries, the underground trade tends to flourish most in areas where social and political instability, income inequality and population displacement are high.

In the aftermath of the Kosovo war, for example, EU prosecutors alleged that members of the Kosovo Liberation Army killed a small number of Serb prisoners and harvested their organs.

A 1994 Human Rights Watch Report documented China's systematic practice of harvesting the organs of executed prisoners.

Isil has authorised the harnessing of organs of "infidels", with Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, Mohamed Ali Alhakim, calling on the Security Council to investigate mass shallow graves where bodies were found with deep surgical cuts and missing organs.

The organ 'donors' are not always completely involuntary, though.

Pakistan is notorious for having one of the world's biggest "kidney bazaars", supplied by the country's impoverished citizens.

As documented by journalist Scott Carney in his book The Red Market, an Indian camp for survivors of the 2004 tsunami became known as Kidneyville because so many people sold their kidneys to organ 'brokers' for desperately needed funds.

All are fed back into the sophisticated international network that transports and trades the organs for high profits.

In the aftermath of the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, countries along the Mediterranean such as Egypt and Libya have become a haven for those willing to give life and limb to escape to Europe, as well as those willing to exploit them.

At the beginning of this summer it was reported that Hussein Nofal, the head of the department of forensic medicine at Damascus University and chief of the newly formed General Authority for Forensic Medicine, estimated that up to 18,000 Syrians have had their organs removed for sale over the past four years of war.

He claimed the trade is particularly active inside Turkey and Lebanon's camps for Syrian refugees, with the price of a kidney varying from $10,000 (9,000) in Turkey to $3,000 (2,700) in Lebanon and Syria.

His allegations were further backed up in the trial of a trafficking kingpin in Italy last month, when Nouredin Atta, an Eritrean people-smuggler who became an informant after he was arrested by Italian police in 2014, gave a disturbing testimony.

In it, he revealed the inner workings of the gruesome trade that exploits poor migrants who can't afford to be smuggled across the Mediterranean.

"I was told that the people who can't pay are given to Egyptians who kill them to take their organs and sell them in Egypt for $15,000," he said.

"The Egyptians come equipped to remove the organ and transport it in insulated bags."

While Egypt has long been suspected of being a hotbed for organ trading, with impoverished Egyptian citizens and sub-Saharan refugees the source of the exploitation, reports of killing for the purpose of harvesting organs are relatively new.

Long before the current wave of refugees, Egypt has had a complicated history of organ trade. In her book, Our bodies belong to God, scholar Sherine Hamdy explains that because of division among Muslim scholars on the morality of organ donation, legislators over the past few decades have failed to address it.

Amid the legal vacuum, a sophisticated red market developed.

Legislation outlawing commercial organ trade was finally enacted in 2010, but Hamdy argues that it merely pushes the trade underground and it would be better to keep the long-established practice out in the open.

Despite Egypt's almost accepting attitude toward commercial organ trading, what could explain the reports of increased violence and brutality toward donors such as the nine Somali refugees who were suspected of having been murdered, their organs stolen and their bodies dumped at sea?

It seems an established practice of organ harvesting, an increase in the number of increasingly desperate refugees flooding into the country and the recent outlawing of the conventional methods of organ trading giving rise to increasingly violent and ruthless underground traffick- ers could certainly have created the perfect storm for such a phenomenon to occur.

While Medecins Sans Frontieres Ireland could neither confirm nor deny reports of organ trading, spokesperson Lia Paul said that at the centre of all of this is the continued inhumane exploitation of refugees.

"Men, women and, increasingly, unaccompanied children, some as young as 10, are suffering abuse at the hands of smugglers, armed groups and private individuals who are exploiting the desperation of those fleeing conflict, persecution or poverty," she said.

"The abuses reported include being subjected to violence (including sexual violence), arbitrary detention in inhumane conditions, torture and other forms of ill-treatment, financial exploitation and forced labour."

She said that Medecins Sans Frontieres, which has teams aboard three ships in international waters north of Libya, is doing its best to provide life-saving emergency care to migrants in distress who are escaping land, and abusive gangs, by boat.

However, it is the psychological effects of their experience that may leave the longest-lasting scars.

"As well as experiencing traumatic events in their home countries, according to data collected by MSF, 82pc of the patients directly treated by MSF teams in Sicily reported experiencing traumatic events during their journeys," said Ms Paul.

"In all, 42pc of them were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder."
Oscar Pistorius has denied attempting to kill himself after being treated for minor wrist injuries at a hospital in South Africa - claiming he fell out of bed in his prison cell.

The Olympian, who is serving a six-year sentence for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, denied he had attempted suicide, prison officials said.

Pistorius told officials that he suffered the injuries after falling out of bed, said Singabakho Nxumalo, a spokesman for the South Africa's correctional services department.

The former track star was initially treated by medical staff at the Kgosi Mampuru II prison in Pretoria, and then transferred to Kalafong hospital, said Manelisi Wolela, another official at the department.

He was returned to his cell on Saturday, and an investigation is under way.

"Oscar Pistorius denied speculations of a suicide attempt," Mr Wolela said in a text message to media.

"As a policy principle, we cannot further discuss a particular offender's personal condition in the public domain," he said.

Pistorius' family declined to comment.

Last month, South African prosecutors said they would appeal Pistorius' six-year jail sentence, saying it was too lenient. The double-amputee athlete, who was sentenced on July 6, could be released on parole after three years.

The prescribed minimum sentence for murder in South Africa is 15 years, though a judge can reduce that penalty in some circumstances.

Pistorius also previously served one year in prison for manslaughter for shooting 29-year-old Steenkamp, a model and reality TV star. That manslaughter conviction was upgraded to the more serious offence of murder after an earlier prosecution appeal, leading to a new sentencing.

Pistorius shot Steenkamp multiple times through a toilet cubicle door in his home in the pre-dawn hours of Valentine's Day, 2013.

He testified that he killed Steenkamp by mistake, thinking there was an intruder hiding in the bathroom. Prosecutors said he shot her intentionally after an argument.

The report of injuries to Pistorius came as athletes compete at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Pistorius, known as "Blade Runner" for his carbon-fibre running blades, gained worldwide fame when he ran against able-bodied athletes at the 2012 London Olympics, the first amputee runner to compete at the Games.

During Pistorius' sentencing hearing in June, a psychologist testified for the defence that the athlete was a "broken" man whose mental state had deteriorated over the last two years, and that he should be detained in hospital and not jailed.

Prosecutors have challenged such assessments, saying Pistorius has an aggressive streak and may have played up vulnerabilities in an attempt to win leniency from the judge presiding over his case.

Commenting on the decision to send Pistorius to a hospital, Mr Nxumalo referred to past reports of tension between the convicted murderer and a prison nurse who testified about alleged confrontations over medication and other issues while the runner was serving an earlier manslaughter sentence.

Pistorius' defence team suggested those reports were exaggerated.

Pistorius has been held in a single cell in the hospital wing of the prison, reducing his interaction with other inmates.

AP
Oscar Pistorius has been treated for injuries at a private hospital, South African prison officials say.

Singabakho Nxumalo, a spokesman for the correctional services department, said the Olympian had told officials he suffered injuries after falling out of bed.

One local report said Pistorius had injuries to his wrists.

Mr Nxumalo did not provide any detail on the injuries, citing medical privacy concerns. He said the former track star was taken back to his Pretoria prison cell on Saturday, where he is serving a six-year sentence for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

An investigation is under way, he added.

Last month, South African prosecutors said they would appeal Pistorius' six-year jail sentence, saying it was too lenient. Pistorius shot Ms Steenkamp four times through a locked bathroom door in his home on Valentine's Day, 2013. He has always maintained he believed she was an intruder.

Graphic crime scene photographs of Ms Steenkamp's body were made public at the request of her father.

Barry Steenkamp broke down in the witness box as he told the court how he and his wife have struggled to cope since his daughters murder.

While speaking of the emotional impact of his daughters death, he said he wanted the world to see the photos as a warning to anyone thinking of using firearms.

Following the sentencing, Judge Thokozile Masipa was branded an "embarrassment to the justice system" by a women's rights group for handing down a six-year sentence for murder.

Members of the Women's League of the ruling African National Congress (ANCWL) said the sentence handed down by Judge Masipa was insufficient.
Aleppo is the scene of intense fighting between government forces and rebels

Rebels have claimed a major military breakthrough by breaching the siege imposed by the Syrian government on opposition areas in the northern city of Aleppo.

The Syrian government seized the only route into rebel-held areas in northern Aleppo last month, prompting a rebel counter offensive from the city's south.

The UN said 300,000 people were trapped, making Aleppo one of the largest besieged areas in Syria.

A broad coalition of rebel groups posted videos on Sunday of fighters roaming the Ramouseh district, where the siege was breached following overnight clashes. The district houses a number of military colleges.

The war media arm of Lebanon's Hezbollah, the group fighting alongside the Syrian government, conceded the rebels' advance, adding that airstrikes levelled one of the military colleges after forces withdrew.

AP
Two Belgian policewomen on guard outside a police station in the city of Charleroi were wounded in a machete attack yesterday by an assailant who shouted "Allahu Akbar!"

The attacker was shot in the chest and the leg by a third officer, also a woman. He was taken to hospital where he later died. His name was not immediately known.

One of the policewomen suffered severe face wounds when the assailant slashed her several times. She was being treated in hospital last night but her injuries were not life-threatening. Her colleague was less seriously injured.

The attacker arrived at a checkpoint outside the police station just before 4pm local time and immediately took a machete out of his bag before lunging at the officer, and repeatedly hacking at her head, witnesses said.

The checkpoint was designed to foil direct attacks on the police station but the assault highlighted the vulnerability of officers responsible for checking visitors before allowing them in.

As the assailant lunged at the officers, he yelled "Allahu Akbar!" ("God is great" in Arabic), police said.

Despite the outburst, the case was being handled by criminal rather than counter-terrorist prosecutors.

A police spokesman said: "The investigation will have to show why the man staged the attack, and whether he maybe had mental problems."

Police cordoned off the area around Boulevard Pierre Mainz, where the attack took place.

The attack came less than five months after coordinated bomb blasts in Brussels killed 32 people. Charleroi, 30 miles south of Brussels, was used as a base by some of the jihadists involved in the Brussels bombings and attacks in Paris last November that left 130 dead.

A spate of attacks by Islamist extremists in western Europe - including the murder of an 85-year-old French priest and the Bastille Day massacre of 85 people in Nice - has intensified public anxiety about terrorism.

French police have been allowed to take their guns home since a jihadist murdered a French couple - both police officers - at their home in June.

France expelled a Malian suspected of "belonging to a pro-jihadist Islamist movement" and believed to pose a "serious threat" to national security, the interior minister has announced.

Vincent Gilles, vice president of SLFP, the biggest police trade union in Belgium, urged the Belgian government to "re-evaluate" the current level of threat in the country.

On Saturday, he told a TV station that police had been "expecting" an attack similar to the one in Charleroi after a raid against a jihadist cell in Verviers in eastern Belgium in January 2015. The authorities disrupted what is thought to have been a terrorist plot to attack Belgian police.

The attacks come as experts fear that gains by coalition forces fighting Isil in Syria will convince the terror group to increase their focus on European attacks.

In Syria, US-backed forces trying to oust Isil from the northern city of Manbij took "almost complete control" of the city yesterday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), which includes the powerful Kurdish YPG militia and Arab fighters, launched its campaign two months ago with the backing of US special forces to drive Isil from a last stretch of the Syrian-Turkish frontier.

The official spokesman of the SDF-allied Manbij military council said that battles were continuing but that around 90pc of the city had now been cleared of the ultra hard-line Sunni militants.

A spokesman for the US coalition said there had been "continued progress" in Manbij, and the coalition would continue to support the SDF for as long as needed.

Manbij is in the northern province of Aleppo, which forms a theatre for several separate battles between multiple warring sides in Syria's five-year-old conflict.

Meanwhile in the regional capital of Aleppo - under siege from Assad's forces, backed by Russia - Syrian insurgent groups launched a fresh offensive yesterday seeking to break the siege on rebel-held neighbourhoods in the northern stronghold, triggering intense clashes and airstrikes on the southern edge of the metropolis.

Telegraph

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
SHARE Anthony Chambers performs a praise dance to the song "My Testimony" at a peace rally in front of the Anderson County Courthouse. Emmanuel Rutledge of Anderson gives a testimony and a rap performance at a peace rally in front of the Anderson County Courthouse. Related Photos Peace rally

By Mike Ellis of the Independent Mail

A tender rain fell Saturday as messages of peace and love poured out of people on the downtown Anderson stage.

The cooling, life-giving, rain didn't dampen anyone spirits and could have been a message, said Don Peppers, who emceed the Peace in the City rally Saturday outside the Anderson County Courthouse.

The weather at the rally  from scorching sun to overcast to rain to mild sun  showed diversity, he said.

Rappers, praise dancers, poets and ministers challenged the crowd of about 50 to promote their own messages of love throughout Anderson County and to focus on happiness.

David Aikens, a veteran who served in Iraq in the early 2000s, said he was dismayed to return home and see people fighting in Anderson.

"If they want to fight, sign up in the military and do some good," he said.

Aikens said he went to the rally to show support for the people who are making the right decisions and to encourage more people to do the same.

The rally was just the beginning, and there will be more events and action by community members to curb violence, said Stephanie Johnson-Rice, who read her poetry.

"This is the beginning of a movement," she said after her time on stage. "It's not just a stop the violence rally and tomorrow there's nothing more. It will take all of us doing something."

Johnson-Rice and her friend, Mary Moore, stood in front of the stage throughout the rain shower.

Almost no one left during the rain. Instead they huddled closer than they had been, an unplanned but helpful analogy, Moore said.

It was important to stay together, Moore said, because of violence like that in her neighborhood, near Friendship Court Apartments, in Anderson.

There have been several shootings recently, and people have been arrested on her front porch as they flee police, Moore said.

"We hear bullets and we do head checks on everyone in the house to make sure they're safe," she said. "We need to stop the violence; it doesn't matter what color anyone is because we all bleed the same."

Rapper Emmanuel Rutledge told the crowd he used to be an atheist.

Now he's rapping for the Lord.

Like many of the speakers, he urged prayer and faith as alternatives to drugs and violence.

Domestic violence is a particularly bad problem in the area, several of the speakers said.

Rutledge said he was raised without his parents after his father fatally shot his mother when he was young.

While violence and active opposition to it was a major theme of the day, the foundation was peace and celebrating life rather than focusing on the bad.

Williamston Police Chief Tony Taylor, one of the speakers, said faith and diversity have helped him in tough times.

As the rally came to a close, white balloons were handed out for a group release.

Annie Beeks held hers as the rain began to stop and the sun returned.

"I guess it's about unity for all of us," she said. "There should be more of us out here today and every day. We need to stop violence, but it's about loving and caring and unity. God doesn't want hatred. He wants peace and love."

Follow Mike Ellis on Twitter @MikeEllis_AIM
SHARE Isaac Cameron (left) of Anderson takes a photo of James Rhodes of Greenville, dressed in a samurai costume, at Electric City ComiCon at the Anderson County Library in downtown Anderson. Kaleigh Fouchey, dressed as Princess Leia from the "Star Wars" movie series, tries on a Darth Vader mask at a photo booth at Electric City ComiCon at the Anderson County Library in downtown Anderson. Michelle Whitt (left) of Hickory Tavern, dressed as She-Ra, and Laney Stokes (right) of Grey Court, dressed as Wonder Woman, walk upstairs at Electric City ComiCon at the Anderson County Library in downtown Anderson. Related Photos Electric City ComiCon in Anderson

By Mike Ellis of the Independent Mail

In the thrilling sequel to last year's inaugural Electric City ComiCon, a group of intrepid heroes and dastardly villains went head-to-masked head Saturday in a costume contest at the Anderson County Library on South McDuffie Street.

Alisa Petronis, 13, of Greenville couldn't return high-fives after winning the cosplay (costume plus play) category for teens.

She was dressed as the Black Knight from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," and her arms were tucked inside her knight's clothing with red strings that looked like dripping blood hanging from her shoulders.

In the movie, the knight continues undaunted in a sword fight despite the loss of all limbs.

"It's an awesome movie, and that's the best part," Alisa said.

As she bounded up to the stage to accept her award  her legs weren't quite cut off yet in her costume  a presenter noted the gory details.

One of the judges from the panel that picked Alisa's Black Knight was Sybil Todd, a professional cosplayer from Pendleton who runs White Knight Cosplay.

The Anderson show, at a library rather than a convention center or other character-less venue, keeps getting better, Todd said.

It allows authors to talk one-on-one with their readers, said panelist Alan Gratz, who lives in Western North Carolina and has written more than a dozen books.

The library's parking lot was full most of the day as people navigated their costumes through two floors of shelves brimming with fiction and nonfiction.

In its second year, the show was spread throughout the library with board games, a Pokemon league, video games and a photo booth upstairs where people could see a Jabba the Hutt or a Joker exit an elevator. Vendors, panel discussions and fan tribute artwork filled the first floor.

Plans are already being made for the 2017 show, said Sarah Holmes, an extension librarian and a member of the Electric City ComiCon organizing committee.

Organizers brought in more authors this year, there was a panel of four authors devoted just to the Victorian era Jules Verne-like genre called steampunk, Holmes said.

There were bingo cards with half of the slots including attending a ComiCon panel or voting for fan art while the other half of the slots included asking a librarian about electronic books or checking out an actual, physical book.

"We're trying to get people who are here to know about all the things we can do," Holmes said.

One of the runners-up in the teen category, 13-year-old Cerese Laliberte, dressed as a steampunk character from a book by one of the authors at the ComiCon, A.G. Howard.

Cerese, who is home-schooled, said she discovered the book at the Belton library, where Holmes put it on a shelf.

As cosplayers from four categories  children, teen, adult and group  lined up between bookshelves as they prepared to show off their costumes, Kenya Foster was just looking for a book.

She stumbled, quite unaware, into the temporary headquarters of so many characters.

Foster said she was looking for an urban fiction book and drove from her home in Greenville to Anderson, where she says there is a better selection and she goes often to get variety.

"I pulled into the parking lot and it was full, but I didn't see anyone in costume until I got inside," she said. "I was not expecting so many people. I've never been in a library with so many people so excited before."

The enthusiasm didn't scare her off.

Neither did the monsters.

Foster said if she'd known about the ComiCon, she'd have brought her teenage son.

He'd be dressed as a superhero, she guessed, someone who popped off the pages of books or comics and right into a library.

Follow Mike Ellis on Twitter @MikeEllis_AIM
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By Ron Barnett, rbarnett@greenvillenews.com

CLEMSON  When Thomas G. Clemson envisioned an agricultural college on his land in the 1880s, he probably never dreamed that scientists there would one day be developing technology for growing crops in outer space.

But astronauts may be able to enjoy fresh-picked salad on the ride to Mars in the not-so-distant future, thanks to the work of professors and students in Clemson University's mechanical engineering department.

Deep space farming isn't as far-fetched as it may sound, according to Joshua Summers, one of three professors leading the research with a grant from NASA.

"Technically, we could be there now," with manned missions to Mars, he said. It's politics, not technology, that has kept the astronaut corps confined to earth orbit, he said.

And the technology for growing vegetables in space won't have to be developed from scratch.

Clemson is working with a company in Boston called Freight Farms that has developed a hydroponic growing system that operates inside 40-foot-long refrigerated shipping containers and is now being used by about 60 restaurants to produce fresh lettuce, herbs and other leafy greens year-round.

The university will modify the design to make it more efficient and suitable for space travel.

Clemson got involved through its connection with an alumnus, John Kelly, the lead engineer for Freight Farms.

Clemson and Freight Farms received a $125,000 grant from NASA, which was among $49.7 million in awards that NASA distributed as part of an initiative aimed at enabling deep space missions while benefiting the U.S. economy.

Like many of the developments of the space industry over the years, this could have numerous spinoff applications on Earth, Summers said.

Among those are use in disaster relief, on military bases, in mining and offshore industries and for growing food in remote locations with harsh climates.

The "Leafy Green Machine" employs a vertical growing system, with nutrient-laden water dripping through tubes to a series of plants, which get their "sunlight" from LED lights.

In space, where gravity is not an issue, the orientation could be in any direction, with moisture and nutrients flowing by capillary action.

"There's a lot of geometry you get to play around with in space," Summers said.

The researchers are working with a company in China to develop the most efficient array of LED lights that give off the wavelengths best utilized by plants while wasting a minimal amount of energy as heat. They hope to find ways to capture the heat generated by the lights to help cool the inside of the farm, or generate power for the spacecraft.

Strands of red and blue LED bulbs brightly illuminate their lab on the second floor of the Fluor Daniel Engineering Innovation Building.

The first phase of the research is to develop sensors to accurately monitor temperature, humidity and other conditions inside the containers. Clemson graduate students Amaninder Gill and Malena Agyemang are doing most of the legwork in creating computer models that will be able to simulate conditions in the insulated containers.

Although the hydroponic system requires much less water than a traditional farm  about 10 gallons a day  the researchers hope to find ways to reduce the water loss, much of which occurs when the doors to the chamber are opened.

The NASA grant funding this project was one of 399 selected out of 1,278 proposals, and one of only 58 chosen under its Small Business Technology Transfer program.

This isn't Summers' first space-related research. Michelin once sponsored a $6,000 research project for Summers to explore ways of making the Tweel, an airless tire design, out of materials other than rubber and polyurethane.

The research led to an all-metal Tweel that could be used on the moon and spun off a line of other projects that account for more than $3 million in public and private funding and has involved more than 20 graduate students and five faculty members, according to Clemson.
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By Stephen Fastenau, sfastenau@beaufortgazette.com

A Beaufort girl who contracted a brain infection swimming in a Charleston County river died Friday night, her family said in a statement Saturday morning. The news was confirmed by a family member.

Hannah Collins, 11, died at 10:20 p.m., the statement said. She spent the day embraced by her mother and brother while her grandmother read her books and prayed.

"Hannah loved life, her family and friends and although this is not the outcome we wished for, our sweet girl has joined the angels, and we know she will always be close by, watching over us," the statement said.

Collins contracted the brain-eating amoeba Naegleria fowleri while swimming in the Edisto River in Charleston County in July, according to an online fundraising page set up for the family and a South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control news release, which didn't identify Collins. She had been treated at Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.

The family was told Thursday that Hannah had irreparable brain damage.

Hannah was a student at Riverview Charter School in Shell Point. She had been crowned queen of her age division at the Colleton County Rice Pageant in April.

"A precious little girl, a precious child," pageant director Ann Drawdy said Thursday. "She's a very sweet child, and humble and very appreciative."

The state health department confirmed in a news release Tuesday someone had been exposed to the organism while swimming near Martin's Landing on the Edisto River in Charleston County on July 24. The amoeba is common in warm-water lakes, rivers and streams, but infection is rare, according to the release.

To be infected, a person must jump in the water feet-first and have water enter their nose with enough force that the amoeba reaches the brain, epidemiologist Dr. Linda Bell said. The amoeba usually dies before the person is infected, Bell said.

A drug twice successful in treating the disease was rushed in from Orlando this week to treat Hannah.

In the statement, the family thanked Todd MacLaughlan, chief executive officer of the drug company Profounda. MacLaughlan had rushed the drug known generically as miltefosine to Charleston via a UPS courier service.

But by Thursday, the family said, doctors had done all they could.
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The 'lost' Saraswati river, which mythologically dried up some 4000 years ago, was brought back to life, or rather put on life support this Friday when the Haryana government pumped 100 cusecs of water (1 cusec = 28.317 litres per second) into it.

The water was pushed into a dug-up channel, from tubewells at Uncha Chandna village in Yamunanagar.

Officials expect that the water will reach Kurukshetra, 40 kilometres away

BCCL

Anil Kumar Gupta, Engineer-in-Chief, Haryana Irrigation Department, told The Indian Express: We have released water into the river at Uncha Chandna on Thursday. Initially, 100 cusecs of water has been released. It is likely to go up to Kurukshetra. It is yet to be seen how much further the water goes. Once we see that there are no obstructions in the flow of water then another 100 cusecs will be released. This could be done in another fortnight.

The government plans to build three dams on the river route to keep it flowing throughout the river, after claiming to have found the river during digging at Yamunanagar.

BCCL

The river is considered the personification of Goddess Saraswati - it is believed that it was on the banks of the Saraswati that parts of the Rig Veda were written.

Somewhere close to 4,000 years ago, Saraswati dried up and was forgotten, till earlier this year when it's route was traced and a board set up to bring it back to life. As many as 80 people who were digging the course of the Saraswati in Mugalwali village of Yamunanagar district when they noticed water coming out at a shallow depth of just eight feet.

It was for the first time since the project to trace the original route of River Saraswati was launched in April the excavation team discovered water. The Saraswati Heritage Development Board which is in charge of the operations say the monsoon will sustain the river as of now, for a later stage they are planning to build a dam at Adi Badri, considered the origin of the Vedic era river to ensure the water flow. The Manohar Lal Khattar government in Haryana had allocated Rs. 50 crores to the project aimed at discovering the river considered sacred by Hindus.

Even the central government and especially Minister for Water Resources Uma Bharati had in 2014 made "finding the missing river" a priority of the Modi government

Wikipedia

"There is enough scientific evidence on the presence of the river Saraswati in some parts of the country through which it flowed about five to six thousand years ago. Saraswati is not a myth", Bharati had said in August 2014. Extensively referred to in the Vedas and Hindu epics, mythical Saraswati river, according to the historians, had dried up 4,000 years ago. In Rig Veda, the river is mentioned as flowing between the Yamuna in the east and the Sutlej in the west. The Mahabharata, mentions that the Saraswati dried up in a desert. According to beliefs the river passed through areas of Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat and parts of Pakistan.

Even though modern science never acknowledged the existence of the river post-independence a number of efforts have been undertaken to prove its existence.
In the wake of 9/11, Pardeep Singh Kaleka, a young Sikh spent several days at his father's South Milwaukee gas station, afraid of racist attacks on his father. A decade later, his father Satwant Singh Kaleka was shot dead when a white supremacist opened fire at a Sikh temple (gurdwara) in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

Wade Michael Pages shooting rampage at the Gurdwara killed six Sikhs included one woman, Paramjit Kaur (41), and five men, Satwant Singh Kaleka (65), the founder of the gurdwara; Prakash Singh (39), a Granthi, Sita Singh (41), Ranjit Singh (49) and Suveg Singh Khattra (84).

Satwant Singh Kaleka, the president of the gurdwara in Milwaukee suburb, stood up to the rampaging white supremacist with a kirpan, fighting off till the very end, when he was taken down in gunfire.

His son Amardeep Kaleka said he was not surprised his father tried to stop the gunman

"It's an amazing act of heroism, but it's also exactly who he was," Amardeep told CNN Milwaukee affiliate WTMJ. "There was no way in God's green Earth that he would allow somebody to come in and do that without trying his best to stop it."

family photo | CNN

Amardeep Kaleka told CNN that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) told him his father attacked the shooter in the lobby. There was a "blood struggle". A kirpan close to the victim's body showed blood on it, he said. "From what we understand, he basically fought to the very end and suffered gunshot wounds while trying to take down the gunman," said Kanwardeep Singh Kaleka, Satwant's nephew.

Today we remember the victims of the attack on the Sikh Gurdwara in WI and the many people affected by this tragedy https://t.co/70MdMiv8yL  Valerie Jarrett (@vj44) August 5, 2016

While 9/11 made conservative America suspicious of Islam, it is both Sikhs and Muslims which have suffered the brunt of this hatred. Pardeep Kaleka, a former police officer and teacher is now a part of a movement which plans educational sessions and rallies, and has successfully pushed the FBI to track hate crimes against Sikhs.

There are more than 500,000 Sikhs in the US

They have reported bullying, persecution and vandalism at both gurudwaras and homes. In December 2015, a California gurdwara was vandalized, along with a truck in the parking lot by someone who misspelled the word "Islam" and made an obscene reference to ISIS.

The same month, Stanford Law School fellow Valerie Kaur revealed that airline Delta had forced her to show that her breast pump wasnt a weapon  one of the "countless subtle acts of profiling of Muslim Sikh and brown bodies in the last 14 years, she wrote on Facebook.

President Obama wrote in a post on the official White House site: [A]n attack on one faith is an attack on all our faiths. And when any religious group is targeted, we all have a responsibility to speak up. And we have to reject a politics that seeks to manipulate prejudice or bias, and targets people because of religion. Weve got to make sure that hate crimes are punished, and that the civil rights of all Americans are upheld. . . . We have to be consistent in condemning hateful rhetoric and violence against everyone.
Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, is getting ready to welcome the first ever pizza ATM in all of North America. Customers will soon be punching frantically at a vending machine that will pop out pizza boxes for $10 (Rs 668).

This prototype already looks delicious!

Twitter

Come September 8, Xavier University's collaboration with a French company will finally see the light of day - the ATM what will hold 70 lip-smacking pizzas. Customers will pick their favourite on a touch screen, have it heated for a few minutes before it comes sliding out packed in a box.

Jennifer Paiotti, Xaviers Marketing Director for Auxiliary Services, told WCPO-TV that the ATM pizza is the best one she has ever had.

Okay, so who all are salivating? *drools*
The Borno State command of the Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) says it has confiscated more than 20 tonnes of illicit drugs from 87 suspects within two years.

In an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the state Commandant of NDLEA Mr Ona Ogilegwu, made this disclosure on Sunday, stating that the agency made the seizure in Maiduguri from 2014 till date.

He said the command had also recorded 38 convictions, 40 awaiting trial accused while nine caught with minimal and negligible quantity were counseled, rehabilitated, warned and released.

It will interest you to know that the command had been recording remarkable successes in its fight against drug abuse in Borno.

The command has so far recovered a lot of psychotropic substances in different raids ranging from Indian hemp, cough syrup, diazepam and cocaine, among other drugs.

In spite of the security issues the state is experiencing, the command still boast of living up to its expectations of curbing the menace of drug abuse in the society.

However, Mr Ogilegwu added, the challenges are too enormous as our offices in Baga, Gamborun Ngala and Banki have been completely raised by the insurgents; only Biu office is functional.

Most of the people abusing drugs are youths. We, therefore, warn their parents to talk to them.

Drug offences carry life sentences and anybody found guilty would be sent to jail, the NDLEA boss warned.
Just a day after Syrian rebels announced that the city of Manbij had been retaken from IS fresh airstrikes have hiy Syria.

Several airstrikes hit a hospital in Syrias Idlib province with at least 10 people feared dead.

It is not yet clear as to which of the warring factions in Syria carried out the airstrikes. The Government and the US-backed rebel soldiers have traded blame time and time again over airstrikes.

Three women and four children are among the casualties as even more people are said to be in critical condition. Concerns over attacks on health centers have increased in Syria, with many civil rights groups calling for an end airstrikes. There have been an estimated 43 attacks on healthcare centers in Syria in July alone.
A graduate of State University (BSU), from the Computer Science department, simply identified as Kelvin Oche Ogebe, has been stoned to death by two men in Makurdi.

The deceased who passed out from the Computer Science Department of the school, was reportedly engaged in a fight with the guys who allegedly hit him with a stone and beat him to death, IDOMA VOICE reports.

Source: Idoma Voice
The Oyo State Police Command says it has arrested four suspected assassins in connection with the gruesome murder of a member of the state House of Assembly, Gideon Aremu, on July 1, 2016.

The lawmaker at the of his death was the Chairman, House Committee on Information, Public Relations and Security. He represented

Oorelope constituency and was a member of Labour Party

It would be recalled that Three gunmen on a motorcycle shot Mr. Gideon several times in front of his house in Alakia area of the state when he was about opening his gate.

Meanwhile, Governor Abiola Ajimobi had offered a N5m reward for anybody with information on that may lead to the arrest of the killers.

I wish to inform you that four suspects have been arrested in connection with the crime, the state Commissioner of Police, Leye Oyebade said in a statement on Sunday, he added that the arrest was made possible by an Intelligence Response Team set up by the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris and detectives from the state command.
The Nigerian Army has expressed optimism that the Government Secondary School (GSS), Chibok, in Borno State will re-open for academic activities in September.

The General Officer Commanding (GOC), 7 Division of the Nigerian Army, Brig.-Gen. Victor Ezugwu, who made this assumption on Saturday while briefing newsmen in Maiduguri, said this was based on progress of its reconstruction.

He said president Muhammadu Buhari has directed the Army to take over the supervision of the reconstruction.

The school has become a national monument of a sort following the April 14, 2014 abduction of about 217 girls by terrorists at the institution.

There was actually a presidential order asking army engineers to take over the reconstruction of the school, which led to the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), giving directives for us to move in, Brig.-Gen Ezugwu said.

We are trying to rebuild the entire structures by supervising contractors on site.

Our target is that we shall be able to get some buildings ready before the commencement of the next academic session so that the school will be able to pick up again because of the total destruction its suffered in the hands of terrorists, he added.

However, the Army chief expressed happiness over the progress of Command Day Secondary School, saying the school is one of the ways of thanking the Nigerian army for their outstanding activities in the fight against insurgents.

The one that gladdens my heart most is the Command Day Secondary School, Auno

The State Government is renovating the buildings of the former Government Secondary School (GSS) Auno, for the take off of the Command Day Secondary School.

It is one of the efforts to appreciate what the army has done for the state.

I was there with the Commissioner of Education to see things for myself and going by the level of work done, the school will begin operation in September, he said.

Brig.-Gen Ezugwu added that it would be a good opportunity for the Nigerian Army to have its education corps to teach the students who are the future generals, doctors and professors.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has seized four houses worth N872 million belonging to former FCT Minister, Bala Mohammed, and his son, Shamsudeen Bala, The Nation reports.

The ex-minister is being investigated for alleged fictitious contracts of about N1billion, allocation of 12 choice plots worth billions of Naira and 37 other commercial plots of land worth about N8 billion to his suspected front named Tariq Hammoud as well as the controversial N1 trillion Abuja land swap

More than 16 companies linked with fictitious contracts awarded by Bala had been under surveillance and their owners grilled by EFCC.

The anti-graft agency quizzed Shamsudeen, Hammoud and top directors of the Federal Capital Territory administration, including that of Treasury, Ibrahim Bomoi; Land, Babayo Mainasara, and Abuja Geographical Information Service (AGIS), Ms Jamila Tangaza.

Tangaza is currently in detention and battling for bail. She has been linked to N800 million questionable contracts to her personal firm apart from benefiting from plots of land from the ex-minister. According to investigations, the ongoing probe of the ex-minister followed petitions against him, including complaints pending since 2013. After doing a preliminary investigations, EFCC obtained an interim forfeiture order to confiscate a N650 million house at 1 and 3, Mariam Mukhtar Street, Asokoro. The same forfeiture order was secured to seize the ex-ministers son three duplexes costing about N222 million in the Apo Area of AAbuja.

An EFCC source who spoke on condition of anonymity saidWe are probing the immediate past Minister of FCT on many allegations against him, including award of N1 billion fictitious contracts; abuse of office by allocating 12 choice plots to his son and 37 other commercial plots worth about N8 billion to Hammoud, who is suspected to be his front; land swap, among others. Some of the petitions against Bala Mohammed had been pending since 2013. Initial findings showed that the ex-minister used fictitious companies to award contracts worth N1 billion in FCT. In one instance, a man with three companies was allowed to bid for one slot. About 16 companies used for fictitious contracts are under investigation because they did not supply items credited to them. We have also uncovered how Bala allocated plots of land to his friends, business partners. For examples, he allocated 12 plots of land to his son, Shamsudeen, and 37 commercial plots of land to his business front called Tariq Hammoud. Some of those quizzed so far confessed that Bala used unconventional methods in raking illicit funds and laundering same. Each time the ex-minister allocated a plot of land, he would find out the market value and ask you to pay half of the amount to him in cash. For instance if a plot of land was N2 billion, Bala would ask for N1 billion cash from the prospective buyer. He was smart in collecting cash. But the EFCC has traced allocation of 37 commercial plots to Hammoud and how N8billion was made from it. In fact, we saw a proposal by Tariq Hammoud to sell some of the plots. So far, our operatives have arrested, detained and quizzed Shamsudeen. He is presently on administrative bail. We have also interrogated Hammoud.

Speaking further the source said: Based on substantial findings, we approached the court to obtain an interim forfeiture order to seize a N650million from the ex-FCT Minister. What happened was that the former minister allocated some plots of land to Aso Savings and they bought the N650 million house for him at Nos. 1 and 3, Mariam Mukhtar Street, Asokoro District. The EFCC has confiscated three duplexes totalling N222million which were acquired by the ex-ministers son. We invoked sections 28 and 34 of the EFCC (Establishment Act) 2004 and Section 13(1) of the Federal High Court Act, 2004 which empower the anti-graft agency to invoke Interim Assets Forfeiture Clause. Section 28 of the EFCC Act reads: Where a person is arrested for an offence under this Act, the Commission shall immediately trace and attach all the assets and properties of the person acquired as a result of such economic or financial crime and shall thereafter cause to be obtained an interim attachment order from the Court.

On the fate of the ex-minister, the source said: We are investigating him, we are yet to invite him for questioning. Certainly, we are closing in on him.

The source added that EFCC had grilled top directors of the FCT administration. As for Ms Jamila Tangaza, we arrested and detained her because she was connected with the land scam and abuse of office. The ex-minister asked her to resign her appointment with BBC and appointed her as a Senior Special Assistant on Media and Information. But Bala allocated some plots of land to her to sell in order to acquire a mansion in Asokoro District too. Her house was allegedly worth N158million. Also, Jamila allegedly abused her office by awarding N800million contracts to her company which is called Songbird Multimedia. Her case was interesting. When she registered the company with the Corporate Affairs Commission, she used a fictitious name as the CEO of the company but she is the sole signatory to the companys account and her phone number is the point of contact with the firm. We have sent her signature on CAC document and other specimen signatures collected from her to a forensic laboratory. Following a court order, we detained her in the past few days but as at Friday , she was pleading that we should grant her bail. We are looking into her request.

The top source denied insinuations that the ex-BBC correspondent was handcuffed when she was taken to her office for a search.

You can verify from her what transpired. From custody in EFCC, we went with her to her office to recover some documents. We used the EFCC bus but along the way, she begged us to park the bus away from the vicinity of AGIS where she is a director. She did not want her staff and others to notice that she was brought to the office by EFCC team. We obliged her request by parking outside AGIS. We also didnt allow policemen in uniform to follow her to the office. We assigned plain-clothe operatives and even asked her if she wanted the only lady in our team to follow her so that Jamila can blend with the crowd in AGIS without anyone suspecting anything. She said all plain clothe operatives can follow her. We did not put her in handcuffs. This is the extent we went based on her request to protect her reputation and integrity. The story of Jamila being handcuffed was rubbish.

Source: The Nation
Well deserved is how best to describe it!

Manchester United put up a resilient performance against champions Leicester City to secure the Community Shield honor.

Goals from Jesse Lingard and Zlatan Ibrahimovic guided Jose Mourinhos side to the trophy.

Here are Five Things We Learned from a thrilling encounter at Wembley.

1) Jose Mourinho Is The Special One-

If you ever wondered why Mourinho self-proclaimed himself the Special One, its his ability to read games inside out.

A tactical master-class antics from the Portuguese, saw his team contain Leicester Citys threats to the barest minimum.

Its no wonder the Foxes only goal of the match came from a back pass error from Marouane Fellaini.

Mourinho begins his Manchester United career with a trophy in his first game.

2) Eric Bailly will flourish-

The players decision to turn down Manchester City for a chance to work with Jose Mourinho looks to be a positive decision for both player and club.

Overly rugged at times, yet immaculate in possession, the Ivory Coast international kept the likes of Jamie Vardy and Shinji Okazaki on their toes throughout the feisty contest.

3) The Champions Still The Same Team From Last Season-

The loss shouldnt have much of a psychological barrier for the Foxes as they still showed glimpses of why they are the reigning champions.

4) Ibrahimovic Is King-

The scripts are always made in favor of the 6ft5 Sweden International.

In his debut game in a competitive match for Manchester United, the giant powered in a header in the 83rd minute to send the United faithful in Wembley into raptures.

It was eventually the winning goal and a feat we have grown accustomed to from the former Paris Saint-Germain star.

5) Ahmed Musa adds Pace-

Though he spurned a big opportunity to equalize for Leicester after his effort went agonizingly over the bar, the player showed signs of why his manager Claudio Ranieri splashed the cash for his acquisition, with burgeoning runs.

For a team with a trademark of counter-attacking strength, Ahmed Musa is the icing on the cake for Leicester City.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has warned communities along the River Niger to begin evacuation immediately to safer ground over the impending floods that may occur at any moment from now.

Director General of NEMA, Muhammad Sani Sidi, said the warning is as a result of the alerts the agency received from authorities in the Republic of Niger.

He said the information they got was that the present water level in the river had reached a point that may result in flood that could be compared with the unfortunate experience of 2012.

Niger Basin Authority (NBA) notified Nigeria that the rainy season, which started in the Middle Niger (Burkina Faso and Niger Republic) in June 2016, has led to a gradual rise of the level of River Niger in Niamey, Niger Republic.

This high level of water in Niger Republic is already spreading to Benin Republic, and invariably, to Nigeria, the Customs boss said.

He further said that the level of water in all the hydrological monitoring stations across the country, as at Friday, 5th August, 2016, had already exceeded the corresponding values at that time, which was an alarming situation that required the prompt and coordinated action of all governments and stakeholders.

According to the DG; If the heavy rainfall continues in intensity and duration within these regions of the River Niger, it is imminent that flood situation similar to that of the year 2012 may occur.
The Kano State Accountant General, Danjuma Adamu, has been laid off by governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje with immediate effect for allegedly spying for ex-governor, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.

Mr. Adamu was accused of passing top secret information of all financial incomes of the State government to the former governor.

He was also accused of sabotaging all financial payments to the State government, a situation which caused the delay in salary payments to the State civil servants.

Mr. Danjuma Adamu is to hand over the position to the Director of the Treasury in the Ministry of Finance, Ibrahim A. M. Kura, the

Commissioner for Information, Mallam Muhammad Garba, said in a statement.

The governor however, thanked the outgoing Accountant General for the services he rendered to the State and wished him Gods guidance in his future endeavors.
A 35-year old man arrested by the operatives of Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of Lagos State Police Command, has revealed that his pastor pushed him into selling of a stolen vehicle.

The suspect, Olawale Olabinwonnu, working with Cherubim and Seraphim Church in Igbogbo, Ikorodu, as an administrative officer, was arrested by RRS Intelligence Team on Tuesday for trying to sell a Nissan Sentra, 2015 Model, stolen at gunpoint.

The vehicle, whose original vehicle number was changed to a fake one  APP 510 DW, in order to sell it, was recovered on Monday, August, 1 at a car park in Lekki, Lagos.

It was learnt that RRS investigators had on seeing the vehicle on a popular online shopping platform called its marketer to indicate interest in buying the car before pretending as couples interested in the car.

Enthusiastically, the man who took the custody of the stolen Nissan Sentra came forward to welcome the buyers before he was arrested.

He however assisted the police in the arrest of its marketer in Ikorodu several days later.

Mr. Olawale, apparently sensing something was wrong with the vehicle had along with his family parked out of his Ikorodu residence and office to evade arrest, but investigators were said to have tracked him to another church in Ikorodu where he was arrested last Sunday after church service.

The vehicle, which is owned by one of the first generation banks in the country, was reported stolen at gun point when robbers invaded an hotel in Iju-Ishaga area where the manager of the bank was lodging.

The robbers were reported to have demanded the car key from the banker before making away with it along with other valuables.

According to Mr. Olawale, the vehicle was given to me to sell by Ahmed Abbey. I met him at Dammy Jay Hotel, Ikorodu. I went there to drink and he came to my table, bought drinks for everybody. That was how I liked him.

When I was going home, I told him I was going home and he gave me N2, 000. Those were moments I was struggling and I had no job.

I saw Abbey later that week to explain how he could help me because I had no job. This was the time he asked me if I could help his sister travelling overseas to sell her car. And, I told him that I would try.

I consulted my pastor twice on the issue of helping him sell a car. First, the pastor told me to go ahead and collect the car from him and sell it. I took the car from Abbey and began to market it but after about three weeks, I couldnt get a buyer. He took the car from me.

Some weeks later, I stumbled on him with the car and he challenged me that I didnt want to help his sister sell her car.

After a while, we agreed that I will help him to look for buyer. I consulted my pastor again for him to pray about it.This time, the pastor introduced me to somebody in Lekki who has a car park at a very conspicuous place, where we can put the car for sale. It was here the car was until I learnt that the car was stolen at gun  point, he added.

Since I was arrested, I have been calling Abbey to come and explain to the police that he gave me the car to sell, but most of the time, he avoided my calls. At times, he switched off his phone. Presently, hes no longer picking any call on that line.

Confirming the arrest, the State Police Public Relations Officer, Dolapo Badmus, a superintendent of police, said the suspect was helping the Police with investigations, adding that efforts were ongoing to arrest the man that gave him the car to sell.

The suspect, along with the vehicle, has been transferred to Special Anti-Robbery Squad for further investigations.

Source: PremiumTimes
Isaiah Ododem, one of the suspected nine kidnappers of the rescued Oniba of Iba, Oba Goriola Oseni, on Sunday in Lagos confessed to journalists that his gang received N15.1 million ransom in two tranches.

Mr. Ododem said this when he was paraded before newsmen at a news conference addressed by Governor Akinwumi Ambode of Lagos State at Ikeja.

Mr. Ambode was represented by the state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Adeniji Kazeem.

Mr. Ododem said that they received an initial ransom of N12 million and a subsequent ransom of N3.1 million.

He, however, failed to mention who gave them the amount, where and when.

Mr. Ododem also told newsmen that he and others were into illegal bunkering before they kidnapped Oba Oseni.

We had to stop the business because of the renewed onslaught of governments security agencies against us, he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Oba Oseni was kidnapped from his palace on July 16.

The kidnappers had asked the Obas family members to pay them a N500million ransom after almost a week of their kidnapping him.

NAN also reports that in the process, two persons were shot dead by the kidnappers.

Also on Sunday, the family of the abducted monarch, admitted that an undisclosed amount was paid as ransom before his release on Saturday night.

The monarchs son, Saheed Oseni, who confirmed the release, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the first class traditional ruler returned to his palace hale and hearty.

Mr. Oseni said the family had decided not to disclose the amount paid as ransom but confirmed that the family paid to secure the release of the kidnapped royal father.

We paid an undisclosed amount for his ransom which the family sourced without the involvement of the Lagos State Government, he said.

Mr. Oseni, the Chairman, Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU), Lagos State University (LASU) Chapter, said the traditional ruler returned through the waterways around Iba expressway.

According to my father, the kidnappers had put him in a canoe and asked him to paddle it to the other side of the river, which he did.

On getting to the other side of the road and confirming the location where he was from passerby, he discovered that he is on Iba expressway and that was how he found his way home, he said.

The prince said the family was grateful to God for the release and safe return of the traditional ruler.

Mr. Oseni said the family also thanked the Police and other security agencies for their efforts which led to his release.

He added that the king was in good health condition since his return home.

The state Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, while answering questions from newsmen on whether or not ransom was paid to seek the release of the Oba, said the most important thing was that the traditional ruler was rescued alive.

It was not a matter of whether ransom was paid or not, he said.

What matters is that the Oba is back in his palace safe, hale and hearty, Mr. Owoseni said.

The police boss said the success in rescuing the Oba was made possible by the combined pressures from all security apparatus of the state on the kidnappers.

Mr. Owoseni, however, declined to comment further on the matter and the security agencys operational strategy since its investigations were still ongoing.

The74-year -old monarch, who celebrated his 40 years on the throne on Nov. 22, 2015, was abducted in his palace at Iba on July 16 at about 8 p.m.

Four days after the abduction, the kidnappers demanded N500 million, which the family said they could not raise.

Source: PremiumTimes
The Federal Government has launched a national guidelines developed to assist caregivers and service providers in mobilising resources for the protection and assistance service to victims of human trafficking in Nigeria.

The document titled: Guidelines on National Referral Mechanism for Protection and Assistance to Trafficked Persons in Nigeria (NRM) was developed by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) and was launched by the government as part of programmes marking the 2016 International Anti-Human Trafficking Day.

Speaking at the launching Acting Director-General of NAPTIP, Alhaji Abdulrazak Dangiri, said it was unfortunate that the country lacked coordination of rehabilitation procedures as a result of absence of documented guidelines.

He explained that the guidelines being launched clearly spell out the roles and responsibilities of duty bearers in the service chain.

According to the NAPTIP boss, the agency has so far rescued Over 5,000 out of about two million Nigerian young girls and boys trafficked within Nigeria and to various foreign countries for sexual exploitation and hard labour.
They all wore mournful looks in the line-up, but no one would have readily known that three of the armed robbery suspects being paraded by the police that day used to be policemen.

Emmanuel Audu, James Momoh, Sunday Onuh and two former policemen; Sgt.Ochigbo Gabriel and Sgt. Francis Onuh hung their heads, trying their best to show remorse.

The former policemen among the suspects had been dismissed from the force for different offences. They later took up the tools of armed robbery.

Audu, 33, said he joined the Nigeria Police in 2003 but was dismissed as a constable in 2009 over his involvement in some illegal activities in Warri, Delta State.

Audu told journalists that shortly after he lost his job, he relocated to Lagos and became a dispatch rider until December last year when he was looking for a job and met Peter Owocho, another member of the gang who introduced him to the gang.

He said he partook in all the operations carried out by the gang, and that he used his share of their loot to took his family and pay his childrens school fees.

I live at Ikorodu with my family. I took part in all the operations, but I was arrested on June 7, 2016 by the police, he said.

A police source told journalists that before members of the gang were arrested by operatives of the Inspector-General Police Special Intelligence Response Team, the suspects specialised in robbing Chinese nationals in different parts of Lagos State.

The source said before they met their waterloo during an operation at the homes of four Chinese nationals in Gbagada, the suspects had carried out no fewer than 10 robberies between December 2015 and June 2016.

The source said, The dismissed policemen normally gain access into the homes of the Chinese men under the pretence of conducting routine checks, or that they had information that they (the Chinese) were involved in drugs and currency counterfeiting.

When they are allowed into their homes, the dismissed policemen would ransack the apartments and cart away all valuables including cash and electronic gadgets.

As the suspects, who all hailed from Benue State reeled out their confessions, it left no doubt that they were a gang of notorious robbers.

Individually, they stated that bad association and their inability to get good jobs led them into the crime.

In his confession, Onuh, 33, said he had National Diploma in Business Administration and he used to work with a private security firm before he lost the job.

Shortly before his marriage, he said he met a member of the gang, known as Jack, who introduced him to their operations.

He said, He told me he would introduce me to a business. That was when I learnt that it involved robbing Chinese expatriates. He said we would go to the houses of some Chinese people and pretend to be engineers and that if they allowed us in, we would rob them. He said if they were not at home, we would break in.

Sunday said he went to two operations at Omole Estate and Gbagada.

He continued, Three of us went for the operation at Omole and we opened the door with a metal cutter since there was no one in the house. We stole phones, laptops and cash. I wouldnt know how much we got but I was given N500,000 cash.

At the operation in Gbagada, we wore coveralls and told the expatriates we wanted to repair electricity cables and they opened their doors for us. We went in and robbed them of their phones, laptop and money. I got N45,000 as my share after that operation.

He said the locally-made 9mm revolver pistol they used belonged to Jack, and he was able to buy a car for taxi before he was arrested, after policemen traced one of the phones they stole at Gbagada to him.

Meanwhile, Owocho, 30, narrated how he met other members of the gang, saying his first operation with them was at Olusosun in Ojota.

When we knocked, they opened the gate when they saw policemen. The (fake) policemen told them they suspected that they were involved in drugs. They allowed us into their apartment. We searched and we found three laptops, four phones and the sum of N700,000 and $770, he said.

Owocho noted that after the operation, they herded all the Chinese and their family members into a room and locked them in before leaving.

He said they shared the money equally and that he got N110,000 and $100.

During their second operation at Medina Estate, Gbagada, Owocho said they used the same operation technique and they were able to get two laptops, one iPad and each of them got N50,000.

The third operation was at Lekki and each of us got N25,000. On June 7, 2016, James Momoh and I were apprehended. My brother called me and I was arrested.

Thirty-five-year-old Francis, a father of three, was also a sergeant in the police before he lost his job. He said his late friend, Cpl. Justin Igba, introduced him to some of the gang members. He regretted that his action had brought disgrace to himself and his family.

Even though he had no gun during their first operation together, he said he made use of his plastic pistol, jack knife and tear gas and that he usually stood outside while the rest went in and searched the apartments.

Getting myself involved in crime is a disgrace to my family, he concluded.

The police have said the suspects would be soon be charged to court as soon as the investigation was complete.

Source: Punch
A man in Australia has been rescued from an island where he was stuck for three days after a crocodile attacked him and bit his kayak.

The unidentified kayaker was on Townshend Island where bad weather and a low tide left him stuck. Although the crocodiles bite didnt pierce the boat, he said that he fended off the crocodile and rowed to the island out of panic.

He was able to activate a location beacon without which he might have been stranded for an even longer period. He was very fortunate, a spokeswoman for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority told journalists when he was rescued today.
Reports in Vietnam say that on August 15, a Vietnamese boy was hospitalised with pain in the lower abdomen and blood in the urine.

Family members said the boy took a bath in a river near his house before the pain started.

Through the ultrasound and CT scans, doctors discovered a solid swelling of clotted blood within the boys bladder.

This blood clot changed size and grew gradually.

Determining that this might be a strange thing, doctors conducted surgery and picked up a 20 cm long leech living in the bladder.

Doctors said the leech entered into the bladder through the urethra when it was small but grew bigger after entering the bladder and sucking blood.

The boy has recovered and has been discharged.
National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested four Nigerians and a Malian in connection with illegal sales of 4,580 kilogrammes of psychotropic drugs in Kano State. The seized drugs comprising 2,592kgs of codeine cough syrups and 1,988kgs of tramadol were recovered from five secret warehouses by officers of the Kano State command.

The suspects Ikechukwu Ukwuoma was arrested with with 2,010kgs of codeine cough syrups; Nura Ibrahim, 30, caught with 886kgs of tramadol, and Zakari Muhammadi, a Malian, found with 850kgs of tramadol, Ernest Asogwa, 34, caught with 582kgs of codeine syrup and Ikenna Osuizugba, 34, found in possession of 252kgs of tramado.



Mr. Ukwuoma, 34, a suspected major distributor of Codeine cough syrups in Kano has told the anti-drug agency that he ventured into the business because of the high profit margin. He said Codeine business in the state sells fast and that he was only interested in the profit, the NDLEA said in a statement Friday, August 5th.



A bottle of codeine in Kano is twice the cost price in the east, said Mr. Ukwuoma, who hails from Imo State and is married with three children. I did not know how the officers discovered my warehouse where the drugs were kept. I regret my actionxxThe NDLEA said the arrests and seizures were made following intelligence report on the illicit drug activities of the suspects.



The abuse of psychotropic drugs like codeine cough syrups and tramadol is prevalent among young people and married women in the State, said Hamza Umar, NDLEA Kano State Commander. It is common to see iced bottles of codeine cough syrup instead of beverage drinks in a gathering of young people.



Ibrahim, who hails from Nasarawa Local Government Area of Kano State, Asogwa and Osuizugba all told officials that they decided to sell the drugs because of the profit involved. xxxMuhammad Abdallah, Chairman of the NDLEA, said the agency has intensified its sensitization efforts in the state with the aim of reducing the demand and supply of the drugs.



The NDLEA is working assiduously to boost the sensitization efforts of the State command, said Abdallah. We are getting more families, schools, community groups and the media involved in this enlightenment programme. This is one important way of reducing the demand and supply for both codeine cough syrup and tramadol tablet taken by youths.



Source: Time Naija
Vanguard

Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, on Saturday denied attending the Peoples Democratic Party , PDP, event at the Shehu Musa Yaradua Centre, Abuja , saying it was an attempt to drag him back to the party he had left.

Punch

There are strong indications that moves by the All Progressives Congress to resolve the crisis in the House of Representatives over budget padding have failed.

Thisday

Barring any last minute changes, former Senate President, Senator Ken Nnamani, may formally join the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) this August, THISDAY has reliably gathered.

The Sun

The Vicar and Archdeacon of Ikoyi Diocese, Venerable Julius Oyetunde, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to move fast and address the threats of hunger and suffering the ordinary people of Nigeria are contending with.

Daily Trust

Former Senator JKN Waku was a gubernatorial aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benue State during the 2015 general elections. In this interview, he speaks on problems threatening Nigerias unity and other critical issues.

Leadership

His Royal Highness, Ehizogie Eluojierior 1, the Enogie of Igueben Kingdom, has assured the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the September 10 Edo gubernatorial elections, Godwin Obaseki, that, he is the most favoured amongst the people of Esan Land.

The Nation

Controversial Enugu Catholic priest, Reverend Father Ejike Mbaka, hit out afresh yesterday at former President Goodluck Jonathan and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for running the economy aground.

New Telegraph

The Nigerian military services stepped up their onslaught against suspected militants and pipeline vandals operating in Arepo and Ibafo areas of Ogun State on Saturday, and successfully destroyed 75 camps operated by the vandals.
Mrs. Aisha Buhari, who is currently on a one-week visit to the United States of America, was hosted to a roundtable discussion by the United States Institute of Peace to explore an in-depth conversation with a group of Senior U.S policy makers and an invested group of practitioners focused on Nigeria.

During the event, Mrs. Buhari met with members of the U.S congress lead by Senator Carson and Senator Lyman. Her Excellency used the meeting to also present the 360 change book chronicling details of some of the work done in the last year.

See photos of her engagement below.
A Toyota Highlander on full speed trying to avoid a car ran into the Oando filling station on Awolowo way, Ikoyi, around 12:45am early this morning.

Fortunately, no one was injured in the accident. 112 was dialed and the Lagos state Emergency Service came and provided first aid to the driver who was not injured but insisted on being taken to a hospital.

See more photos after the cut

Source: LIB
Syrian rebels are celebrating after they announced today that the strategic town of Manbij has been retaken from the Islamic State terror group.

The Syrian rebels, backed by the US and consisting mainly of Kurdish fighters launched the campaign to retake Manbij, which has been under IS control for two years a few months ago. Despite the news, reports suggest that a number of IS fighters are still remaining in the city as the Syrian fighters attempt to totally take the city.

Manbij is a strategic because its roads lead to Raqqa, a Turkish border town.
Soldiers from the Niger Republic have withdrawn from Damasak, a boundary town in northern Borno State, after recapturing the town from the dreaded Boko Haram sect.

The town is considered one of the strongholds of the terrorist group by the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF).

Theatre Commander of the Operation Lafiya Dole, Major General Lucky Irabor, visited the recovered town en-route Mobbar to congratulate and address troops of the 145 battalion for their exploits.

Irabor said the retreating Niger Republic Troops would continue operation on their own side of the border.

Where is left is only Abadam and Malanfatori, he said.

We are going there already the troops in Kangarwa are warming up. If not for the rain they would have been in Malanfatori.

Very soon this operation would be over. All you need to do is keep the instructions we are giving to you, Major General Irabor told the troops.

Troops of Operation Lafiya Dole first captured Kareto, another stronghold and thereafter linked up with troops of the MNJTF that captured Damasak which has now been occupied by the Operation Lafiya Dole Troops.
E arrivata lufficialita, dopo una giornata di voci rincorrenti: per il triennio 2018-2021 sara lemittente Sky a godere dei diritti televisivi per trasmettere, in esclusiva assoluta, le partite non solo delle prossime edizioni dellEuropa League ma anche quelle della massima competizione continentale, la Champions. Un pacchetto da favola per il quale la tv satellitare di Rupert Murdoch avrebbe messo sul piatto unofferta giudicata piu congrua di quella presentata dalla concorrente Mediaset. A dare lannuncio dellaffare concluso e stata la stessa Sky che, in un comunicato, ha spiegato che il nuovo format sviluppato dalla UEFA ci consentira di portare ai nostri abbonati un prodotto rivoluzionario per il calcio europeo in Italia. Per la prima volta la UEFA Champions League e la UEFA Europa League saranno insieme in unesclusiva offerta integrata, che permettera agli appassionati di seguire fino a 7 squadre italiane, mai cosi tante prima dora, impegnate nelle sfide con i migliori club europei.

Sky: Rafforzata leadership

Anche il livello tecnico dellofferta sara altissimo ed e ancora lemittente a rivelare i dettagli: Continueremo a fare innovazione, trasmettendo le partite piu importanti anche in 4K HDR. Questofferta senza precedenti rafforza la posizione di Sky come leader della programmazione sportiva in Italia ed e anche un altro passo importante di sostegno al calcio italiano. Insomma, per i prossimi tre anni, sara unegemonia totale quella della satellitare sul calcio europeo, avendo mantenuto il pacchetto Europa League (gia sua esclusiva) e affiancandola a quello ancor piu appetibile della Champions League ad appannaggio Mediaset dal 2015 al 2018.

Sfida Serie A

Ora la sfida fra i due colossi delle trasmissioni sportive si spostera sui diritti televisivi della prossima Serie A, per la quale si e ancora in attesa di un nuovo bando che, come annunciato dal commissario della Lega, Carlo Tavecchio, avra le stesse caratteristiche del precedente, andato pero a vuoto: solo una delle offerte presentate per i cinque pacchetti, infatti, superava la soglia minima richiesta dalla base dasta. Niente di fatto, quindi, anche in virtu della stessa Mediaset che, in sostanza, ha disertato il bando (giudicato inaccettabile) non presentando alcuna offerta. La battaglia, anche in questo caso, sara sulle esclusive: del resto, dopo essersi vista scivolare via una componente importante come la Champions, sulla Serie A Mediaset dara sicuramente battaglia.
The staggering cost of higher education in the United States has many prospective college students wondering about countries with free college and pursuing a degree abroad. While conventional wisdom still points to the benefits of having a college degree, more students and their families are seeking alternatives to lower their college tuition bills.

More Americans are looking to Europe at what countries have free college, as these options abroad are becoming increasingly publicized as the cost of college in the U.S. grows. As this article will explore further, a handful offer free or low-cost tuition to international students and programs of study entirely in English.

Key Takeaways The high cost of a U.S. college education has many prospective students looking at other countries that offer free college or low-cost programs, including Norway, Finland, Sweden, Germany, France, and Denmark.

Reduced or free college tuition in these countries can have strings attached; for example, you may need to be a doctoral student or already have one year of college under your belt before transferring.

Although these countries offer virtually free tuition, students need to be aware that a higher cost of living in a foreign country can still put them over budget.

1. Norway

Students willing to brave exceptionally harsh winters and one of the highest costs of living in the world might consider earning their degrees in Norway. Tuition is free at public universities, giving students the opportunity to earn degrees at top-ranked institutions such as the University of Oslo, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and the University of Bergen.

To take advantage of free college tuition in Norway, aspiring undergraduate students from the U.S. must have a high school graduation diploma, and at least one year of college under their belts (or scores of at least 3 on three Advanced Placement exams).

2. Finland

College in Finland is free for students hailing from the European Union (EU), European Economic Area countries (EEA), or Switzerland. However, international undergraduate students wishing to earn degrees in English will pay a minimum of 1,500 EUR per year (approximately $1,663 per year), though many universities charge far more depending on the degree level and program of study.

However, doctoral students--no matter what country they're from--as well as those pursuing their studies in Finnish or Swedish, still pay no tuition. The government also plans to offer scholarships and financial aid to international students with exceptional academic backgrounds.

3. Sweden

Only students pursuing research-based doctoral degrees get free tuition in Sweden; some programs of study even offer stipends to international students. Nevertheless, students should be aware that Swedens high cost of living may put them over budget, even when they pay nothing to earn their degrees.

4. Germany

In 2014, Germany officially removed all tuition fees for undergraduate students at public universities. With the exception of some administrative fees, this applies to U.S. citizens, too. Germany needs skilled workers, and this reality creates a win-win situation for American students. Students enrolled in one of the countrys public universities can attend for free. What's more, German universities offer a wide range of programs entirely in English, and an American student can earn a university degree in Germany without speaking a word of German.

Top-ranked institutions, such as the University of Munich and the University of Bonn, mean that U.S. students dont have to trade prestige for cost.

5. France

In the past, students needed to speak French in order to attend university in France. This is no longer the case, however, as many programs of study at both public and private universities are offered in English. Students who attend public universities usually pay a few hundred dollars per year, depending on the degree level and program of study. Over the years, France has modified its free tuition model, and some EU students pay tuition based on family income.

Such changes may eventually impact how much international students pay to attend French universities. The French government is attempting to implement significant price hikes for students who are not from France or the EU.

In Sept. 2019, France's Constitutional Council struck down the legislation that would have hiked the annual tuition fee to 2,770 ($3,071) for a bachelor's degree and 3,770 ($4,180) for a master's degree. It's unclear whether the government will continue its battle to raise international student tuition fees, but both students and French universities have pledged to fight against such measures in the courts.

6. Denmark

Denmark is the same as its European peer countries with free college: students from anywhere in the EU/EEA and Switzerland are able to take advantage of this benefit. However, international students pay anywhere from 6,000 to 16,000 euros a year, which makes tuition a hefty price compared to other countries.

Though a smaller country, Denmark has a high standard of living and many appreciate the English options available alongside the many different kinds of subjects to study. Some of the best universities include the University of Copenhagen, Aarhus University, and the Technical University of Denmark.
Delusion is among the most damaging mental states of all, allowing individuals to enter fantasy worlds where they can pretend their delusions are reality.

We currently have an outstanding examples of delusionary behavior in the Irish Catholic Church who are pretending there is no gay crisis in their main seminary at Maynooth.

The bishops of Ireland have agreed en masse (with one exception) to deny and to protest the findings of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin that the main seminary in Maynooth has essentially become a hotspot for gay seminarians and very likely should be shut down.

There is evidence of gay dating sites being widely used, of cover ups reaching the higher echelons, of straight novices being shunned if they report any such incidents, of a heterosexual student fired when he reported two seminarians having sex in bed  the list goes on and on.

There has been a gay culture predominant in Maynooth seminary for decades according to experts who know.

Now Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has called it into the open. He stated about Maynooth seminary that there is an atmosphere of strange goings-on there.

It seems like a quarrelsome place with anonymous letters being sent around. I dont think this is a good place for students, Archbishop Martin said.

As a result Martin has pulled his Dublin archdiocese seminarians out and sent them to the Irish College in Rome to continue their clerical studies.

(That in itself is ironic as allegations of gay sexual behavior was part of an investigative report by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and other leading clerics who were asked to examine the running of the Irish college in Rome in 2012 when questions were asked about it.)

Surely if one of the leading church figures in Ireland like Martin and by far the most admired by the faithful, says in his own words that there is a crisis he would be believed?

Speaking on radio Martin also said:There are allegations on different sides. One is that there is a homosexual, a gay culture, and that students have been using an app called Grindr, Archbishop Martin told RTE Radio on August 2nd.

Three former seminarians share their experiences at St Patricks College, Maynooth over the past decade. They... https://t.co/ELbQ05EZIE  The Irish Times (@IrishTimes) August 6, 2016

This would be inappropriate for seminarians, and not just because they are training to be celibate priests, but (because) an app like that would be something that would be fostering promiscuous sexuality, which is certainly not in any way the mature vision of sexuality one would expect a priest to understand, he added.

This dose of truth telling did not do the trick with his other bishops with one exception, the Bishop of Waterford who also said he would send his seminarians to Rome. But the vast majority of his fellow bishops, fluttered their peacock finery and buried their ostrich heads in the sands. Nothing to see here, move one if you know whats best for you.

This is the delusion that despite all the sex scandals and pedophilia and promises of reform they can still keep their dark secrets. They are still unable to level with themselves that their main seminary is literally a hotbed for gay activities.

Dublin Archbishop defends decision to remove Seminarians from #Maynooth, @johncookeradio reports after 4.30pm pic.twitter.com/X8Z4R9x4Ru  Drivetime RTE (@drivetimerte) August 2, 2016

Being gay is not the problem but pretending to be a celibate priest while living and having sex as a gay man is just as hypocritical as the bishops who refuse to acknowledge it. Thats no way to run a railroad, never mind a church.

Still the delusion continues that the church can sweep it all under the carpet and continue on as normal as many benighted bishops thought about the abuse issue.

Archbishop Martin, brave man that he is, has just exploded that fallacy but nonetheless the delusion apparently continues among fellow bishops.
As the Democrats met recently in Philadelphia for their convention it was ironicto note that the building where many a Democratic hero was cheered and crowned was being converted into a dome-topped office-cum-retail building. The Tammany Hall tiger had at last been tamed.

It was from Tammany Hall for instance that Al Smith the first significant Catholic candidate for president sallied forth to do battle. It was from there that the Irish off the Famine boats gained a foothold in American politics and never let it go.

The $50-million renovation will totally remove its historic auditorium and take about two years to complete. Parts of the landmarked building will be preserved, like the medallion of Chief Tamanend, the guy the organization was named after.

The building is a true piece of Americana and it reminds us of just how far the Irish had to fight and crawl before they became a force in New York politics.

There are two landmarks in New York City that shout IRISH at youSt. Patricks Old Cathedral down on Mulberry Street and Tammany Hall, snug at the corner of East 17th Street and Park Avenue overlooking Union Square.

Old St. Patricks was dedicated in 1809 and, as the Irish flooded the city, became the headquarters for their biggest defender, Dagger John Hughes, the toupee-wearing archbishop who defended his people against the Know-Nothings and built the Catholic infrastructure of New York: its schools, hospitals and orphanages. He was also the man who started construction on the new St. Patricks Cathedral, out there in the country at 50th Street and Fifth Avenue.

If Dagger Johnso called because he wore a crucifix which looked like a daggercared about the spiritual health of his people, Tammany took care of the corporal life of the immigrants of the 19th century. Tammanys reign would run from the 18th to the mid-20th century. They would be mocked as corrupt and insidious, but they served their purposeand were supported by the immigrants of the day, not only the Irish, but others too, including the Germans and Italians.

The old Tammany Hall was on East 14th Street on the opposite side of the street from where the Con Edison Building sits today. At the height of Tammany power, on July 4, 1929, it opened its new building on Union Square and paraded out its stars of the dayGovernor Franklin Delano Roosevelt, former Governor Al Smith, and the dashing mayor of Jazz Age New York, James J. (Jimmy, Beau James) Walker, the political rogue from Greenwich Village.

Although the term Tammany today is synonymous in many peoples minds with corruption, the collection of political celebrities that day, most prominently FDR, would in four short years make their mark on the whole of the United States during the Great Depression. They would do this by transferring agencies operating in New York State and move them to Washington where they were given a new nameThe New Deal.

Theres probably no one around who knows more about the ins-and-outs of Tammany than Terry Golway, senior editor at POLITICO New York. Golway is the biographer of both the American Fenian John Devoy and the FDNYwhich his father was a proud member of. He has also written the definitive book on Tammany, appropriately named Machine Made: Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics (paperback, Liveright/Norton).

Today we tend to think of Tammany as a tightknit, corrupt, perhaps even reactionary group, yet the genesis of modern liberalism, as encompassed by the New Deal, grew out of the Tammany of Al Smith, Frances Perkins, and FDR. If they were so corrupt, how could this be so? Tammany had a world view, Golway told IrishCentral, and it was that society had an obligation to people who were left behind by capitalisms excesses. So Tammany backed things like workers compensations, laws that regulated the number of hours employees worked, the beginnings of the minimum wage, and greater regulation of the workplace. It did not see private property as above the reach of the stateand the common good.

Tammany got their juice from immigrants, most of them Irish. They didnt question their moral character, said Golway, they made no judgments about their poverty. They accepted them, and hoped that their acceptance would lead to votes. It worked! Tammany would offer help and connections and access to powerful people who could help me and my family. Theyd want to recruit me to help as an election day worker or perhaps something even grander.

The one individual that came to symbolize Tammany was, of course, Boss Tweed, one of the most corrupt politicians in the history of the United States. Tweed was caricatured by Thomas Nast and his Tweed was often surrounded by monkey-like Irishmen. Golway was asked if there is any difference in that nativism of yesteryear and the nativism of today? Its interesting to note that Nast was a German immigrant himself, said Golway, so his tirades were not so much nativist as they were anti-Irish. Thats an important distinction. What nativists said about the Irish is being said about immigrants today, as President Obama noted a few days ago.

And speaking of the nativists, Archbishop Hughes was the one who stood up to the Know-Nothings who threatened to burn down Catholic Churches in New York City. In Machine Made Golway made a great point that Tammany was influenced greatly by the political mastery of Dagger John. Hughes organized the Irish as a voting bloc, said Golway. Not Tammany. He ran his own ticket for city offices one year! Tammany saw that you could organize the Irish around cultural and economic grievances, which were justified.

Golway made it clear that there was a clear separation between Dagger John and Tammany. But did they ever work together on a common problem? Not that I could see, Golway posits, although Tammany did help fund some of the charities Hughes was buildingorphanages and the like, but not schools.

One of the more colorful moments in Tammanys history didnt happen in New York at all. It took place in Dublin in early 1922 as the Dail debate on the Treaty was going on between the forces of Michael Collins and Eamon de Valera. Collins got fed-up with all of de Valeras parliamentary tricks and exclaimed: We will have no Tammany Hall methods here. Whether you are for the Treaty or whether you are against it, fight without Tammany Hall methods. We will not have them. Golway was asked if he found it amusing that two of the most audaciousand at times underhandedpoliticians in Irish history, would clash over Tammany Hall Methods? It was amazing to see this reference in the records of the Dail, Golway admitted. It showed just how famous and powerful Tammany had become, and how much it was associated with the Irish. I would argue that Collins may have overestimated the kind of muscle Tammany was using at the time (during the treaty debates) but theres no question that Tammany in the 19th century used brute force on Election Day.

Tammany is dead, but the Tammany Hall Building, new and apparently improved, still lives. Well, conceded Golway, I still live in hope that one day teachers, historians and journalists will one day get beyond the stereotype of Tammany.

Somewhere, as construction workers hammer and pound inside the guts of Tammany Hall, you can probably hear a Democratic ghost still offering advice: Vote early. Vote often!

---

Dermot McEvoy is the author of the The 13th Apostle: A Novel of a Dublin Family, Michael Collins, and the Irish Uprising and Irish Miscellany (Skyhorse Publishing). He may be reached at dermotmcevoy50@gmail.com. Follow him at www.dermotmcevoy.com. Follow The 13th Apostle on Facebook.
Despite the uncertainty of "Girl Meets World" to get its fourth season, fans have already assumed a possible storyline for the series. Speculations are high that there will be a love triangle that will develop in the storyline, with Maya allegedly causing Riley and Lucas breaking up.

"Girl Meets World" is currently on its third season, airing on Disney Channel. In line with this, fans are already excited for its fourth season. Fans of the show are keen on witnessing a love story developing more on the series' storyline, despite the writers seemingly trying to put an end to it already.

According to Parent Herald, the fourth season of "Girl Meets World" will be filled with more adventure and fun, plus a possibility or Riley and Lucas breaking up, to be caused by the latter's best friend, Maya, causing a love triangle. There has been no confirmation to this storyline just yet, however, let alone the confirmation of the show being renewed for its fourth season.

There have been reports that if "Girl Meets World" does get renewed for a fourth season, it may possibly not air on Disney Channel anymore, but rather, on Freeform instead. Fans of the show claim that it doesn't matter where the show will be aired. As long as the storyline and the show will be given a well-deserved treatment, it doesn't matter where it will be aired, as reported by Game and Guide.

In addition to the love triangle being pushed by the fans, there have also been reports of the cast of "Boy Meets World" to appear on the show "Girl Meets World," thus, creating a crossover of the two shows.

Although there hasn't been any confirmation yet as to the premiere of the fourth season of "Girl Meets World,' fans are extremely hopeful that it will surely be renewed.
RALEIGH  The Army sought to have U.S. Sen. John McCain back away from statements about punishment for Bowe Bergdahl because of concerns about hurting the soldiers right to a fair trial, according to newly released emails.

The emails were revealed in a motion filed early last week seeking the dismissal of charges against Bergdahl, who walked off his post in Afghanistan in 2009 and wound up in enemy captivity for five years. The exchange illustrates for the first time how concerned top Army officials were that McCains statements could interfere with the case.

Defense lawyers argue Bergdahls due-process rights were violated by McCain, who leads a Senate committee that can approve or scuttle assignments for military commanders. McCain said in October that the Senate Armed Services Committee would investigate if Bergdahl werent punished.

Two days later, a colonel in the Army Office of the Chief of Legislative Liaison emailed a lawyer for the Senate committee asking for McCain to back off his comments, citing serious concerns across the Army that McCains statement could help Bergdahl show unlawful command influence.

Obviously, the Chairmans statement is out there. But if it is at all possible to have him issue a curative statement ... that could be tremendously helpful, said the colonel, whose name was redacted, suggesting McCain could say he had faith in the militarys handling of the case.

McCain never released such a statement, according to the defense motion.

Bergdahl, who is from Idaho, is charged with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, and his trial is scheduled for 2017 at Fort Bragg. The latter charge carries a sentence of up to life in prison.

Rachel VanLandingham, a legal scholar and former Air Force lawyer, said she believes McCains comments have tainted the case, but also said it will be hard to convince the judge to throw out the charges. Still, she said the new emails give the defense strong evidence.

If even the Army thinks theres an appearance of unfairness, how could there not be a due-process violation here? said VanLandingham, who teaches law at Southwestern Law School in California.

A spokesman for McCain at the Senate committee didnt return a message seeking comment.

Army spokesman Paul Boyce said the branch maintains careful respect for the military-judicial process.

A May 5, 2015, email from a lawyer for the Senate committee said McCain was interested in holding a hearing on the Bergdahl case and asked for the Armys opinion.

Two days later, an official in the Office of the Chief of Legislative Liaison wrote back that the Army strongly opposed a congressional hearing because it could give the appearance of denial of the fair administration of justice for SGT Bergdahl.

The official, whose name is redacted, writes statements by elected officials with oversight responsibilities at a hearing will have an impact and may give the appearance of pressuring court members/finders of fact ... this would equate to a denial of due process and the right to a fair trial.
COLUMBIA, S.C.  Death was just a lean away for a man who climbed the guardrail of the Parklane Road/S.C. 277 overpass, crying on the phone, ready to jump into traffic.

The mans wife had left him for another man  and she had taken his son and daughter, he told deputies.

The jumper, a sweaty, thin, 6-foot African-American man dressed in a white muscle shirt, was on the phone with his aunt. He was telling her that he was ready to die, deputies said.

It took strong arms and soft hearts of two Richland County deputies to save his life.

When I got there, he was screaming frantically, telling her that he couldnt live any more  he didnt want to live anymore, Lt. Albert McLendon said recently in retelling the encounter on July 26.

The rescue was captured on dashcam video from the deputys patrol vehicle.

McLendon said he had never met the man before. But in the harrowing two minutes it took to get him over the railing and to the safety of the overpass, the deputy forged a life-saving bond with the distraught man.

I just knew at that point this guy needed to hear that someone cared about him  and it was me, of all people, McLendon recalled. I said, Man, I love you, man. Im not going to let you do this to yourself. 

The two stayed locked like that  the man seated inches away from death as McLendon clutched the mans belt. The lieutenant managed to radio for help.

McLendon had been patrolling just a couple blocks away from the overpass when the call came in about 2:30 p.m. As he arrived at the location, McLendon jumped from the car, rushed onto the overpass and at first grabbed the mans arm.

Within sight of the tense incident, David Goff, an investigator, was at the Circle K fueling his unmarked truck when the call came in. He only caught part of it but sprang into action.

When Goff arrived, McLendon was trying to soothe the man. Goff grabbed the jumper in what the investigator described as a bear hug. The two officers lifted him back onto the overpass.

He was extremely sweaty, Goff said of the roughly 155-pound man. It was hard to hold on to him.

The State newspaper generally does not identify suicidal people.

McLendon, 55, has been with the Sheriffs Department for 19 years. Goff, 60, has been there 31 years. Both said they have been called to attempted suicides in the course of their careers. But last weeks encounter was the first time theyve ever been directly responsible for talking down a suicidal person.

After getting the man onto the overpass, they called for an ambulance. But the struggle wasnt over.

The man told them repeatedly he wasnt going to go to the hospital despite being already strapped onto a stretcher. He threatened to jump out of the ambulance.

Once again, the deputies talked him down. I said, Man up. Come on  youve got to take care of your kids, Goff said. The investigator, at the mans request, went to the hospital. Neither officer knows what became of the man.

Tensions across the nation between white officers and African-American citizens did not cross the minds of the white deputies who were called to the overpass. Somebody needed help, and thats what we did, McLendon said.
PORTLAND, Maine  Interstate regulators are tightening the restrictions on the last species of shark that can have its fins removed at sea in the U.S.

Smooth dogfish are the only sharks from which American fishermen can remove fins at sea. Many other sharks can be hunted, but fins cant be removed until processing on land.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted Tuesday to approve a new rule that allows fishermen to bring smooth dogfish to land with fins removed, as long as their total retained catch is at least 25 percent smooth dogfish. Right now, they can bring ashore as many as they choose.

The rule change would better incorporate the Shark Conservation Act of 2010 into management of the dogfish, staff with the fisheries commission said. The dogfish are harvested from Rhode Island to North Carolina, and are among the many shark species that fishermen bring to land in states from Maine to Texas.

Sharks are also hunted for their meat, but their greatest value is in their fins, which are used to make shark fin soup.

The fins are worth more than the meat, said Ashton Harp, a fishery management plan coordinator with the commission.

One of the reasons smooth dogfish can have fins removed at sea when other sharks cant is because the dogfish are prone to spoilage, Harp said.

Some environmentalist groups want to shut the U.S. shark fin market down completely. They have supported legislation pending in Congress that proposes to come close to doing that.

Conservationist group Oceana has argued that allowing legal fin removal bolsters the global shark fin trade, which leads to the practice of finning, or cutting the fin off a live shark and dumping the animal back in the water, in other countries. Finning is illegal in the U.S.

Oceana responsible fishing campaign director Lora Snyder called the new dogfish rules a step in the right direction. but she also said the changes dont go far enough.
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By Naomi Dann | Foreign Policy in Focus | (Originally published in Lobelog)

Some see Democratic VP pick Tim Kaine as a promising counterbalance to Clintons hawkishness.

Following Debbie Wasserman-Schultzs exit as chair of the Democratic Party after the release of emails revealing efforts to undermine Bernie Sanderss campaign, political analyst Donna Brazile will take the reins of the party.

Brazile will be tasked with leading the Democrats through the rest of the election cycle. On stage in Philadelphia, the message pushed by speakers was party unity. On the issue of U.S. policy towards Israel/Palestine, however, this appointment will not likely have the desired effect.

Donna Brazile has long had a close relationship with the far-right wing of the Israel lobby. A long-time friend of AIPAC, Brazile spoke at AIPACs annual policy conference several times, including in 2012, 2014, and 2015. She also traveled to Israel in 2013 with an AIPAC-affiliated group. Until 2008, she sat on the board of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

As John Judis noted in Slate in August 2015, the FDD is specifically dedicated to defending one particular democracy: Israel. A neoconservative think tank whose positions on the Israel/Palestine conflict align most with the far-right Israeli Likud party, the FDD was also one of the loudest opponents of the Iran deal. Brazile left the board of advisors, along with other Democrats in 2008, following partisan ads by its 501 (c) 4 spin-off targeting Democrats to support the Senate version of the Terror Surveillance Bill, which provided retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that had cooperated with the Bush administrations warrantless surveillance programs.

Outgoing Democratic chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is also known for being a key pillar of support for the pro-Israel lobby in Congress and in the party. Although it was Wasserman-Schultz whose leaked emails expressed concern over Sanderss effort to call out Israels occupation and settlements in the platform, the entire DNC and party leadership, including Brazile and Clinton herself, was implicated.

Wendy Sherman, a Clinton adviser and member of the platform drafting committee, told the crowd at an American Jewish Committee event recently that the presidential candidate personally instructed her to make sure the platform remained uncritically pro-Israel. The platforms final language neither references Israels occupation nor expresses opposition to continued settlement building, putting the platform to the right of decades of U.S. policy.

The Brookings Institutes Shibley Telhami released a new poll comparing perspectives on Israel/Palestine among Clinton, Sanders, and Trump supporters. He found widespread support for taking an even-handed approach on Israel/Palestine and punitive measures for continued settlement building among both Clinton and Sanders supporters. Despite the nearly negligible differences between their supporters opinions, however, Sanderss rhetoric and policies align with Democratic majorities while Clinton has been far to the right.

Clinton has gone out of her way during the campaign to say that she will make strengthening the U.S.-Israel alliance one of her top priorities. In an op-ed in the Jewish Daily Forward in November, she committed to doing everything I can to enhance our strategic partnership and strengthen Americas security commitment to Israel. (Given U.S. preparations to sign a new memorandum of understanding to provide Israel $47 billion in military aid over the next 10 years, its worth asking how much stronger it could be). When Sanders challenged Clinton during a debate in March to declare Israels use of force in Gaza in 2014 disproportionate, she refused.

During the Democratic National Convention, Hillary Clintons close relationship with Israel was highlighted several times. In his speech, Bill Clinton included a story about Hillarys early work starting a preschool in Israel. A DNC video about her time as secretary of state opened with praise for brokering a ceasefire between Israel and Hamasa cease-fire that Israel broke repeatedly under her watch before the situation devolved into a full bombardment and ground campaign just 18 months later. Hillary herself threw in a mention of supporting Israels security in her acceptance speech. The Washington Posts Dave Weigel cheekily tweeted: Pitches from 2017: A profile of DWS, who after losing her primary became President Clintons ambassador to Israel.

At the same time, Hillary Clintons new running mate may be the most likely ally for those advocating for change on U.S. policy towards Israel. Tim Kaine was one of eight senators who skipped Netanyahus speech in March 2015.

A J Street endorsee who has traveled to the West Bank, Kaine listens to Palestinian voices and seems willing to rethink U.S. policy approaches. He asked a Senate Armed Services Committee in March 2015: Given that the stated position of both the prime minister and the president of Israel at this point are contrary to what has been U.S. policy supporting two states, what if anything should the United States do now that there is that gulf in policy between our two nations. Should the U.S. change our policy or should we keep the policy we have?

Daniel Seidemann, an American-Israeli lawyer and expert on settlement expansion in Jerusalem, tweeted: Im honor-bound to say. Having met world leaders in Jslm. briefings/geo-political tours none better informed, engaged than Tim Kaine. None.

The growing split between the grassroots and the establishment leaders on Israel/Palestine was on full display on the Democratic Party convention floor. Hundreds of delegates sported buttons reading I support Palestinian human rights and Palestinians should be free, an echo of Cornel Wests speech at the platform committee meeting. During the adoption of the platform, delegates from Florida raised the Palestinian flag on the floor of the convention.

On the sidelines of the convention, conversations about new policy approaches began that took as a starting point the need for the U.S. to take some kind of action to recognize Palestinian rights. These conversations included a policy discussion on The Untenable Status Quo: U.S. Policy Options for Palestine/Israel between James Zogby of the Arab American Institute, Debra DeLee of Americans for Peace Now, columnist and author Peter Beinart, and Sam Bahour, chairman of Americans for a Vibrant Palestinian Economy.

Key constituencies of the party, including its grassroots base and those mobilized by the Sanders campaign, are ready for the U.S. to take stronger action on ending Israels impunity. Under Hillary Clintons leadership, however, it will take a lot of agitation to make the Democracy Party catch up with its progressive base.

Naomi Dann is the media coordinator at Jewish Voice for Peace, and a writer focusing on U.S.-Israel relations, the American Jewish community, and the movement for Palestinian rights. She wrote this piece in her personal capacity. Jewish Voice for Peace is a non-partisan 501 (c) 3 organization and does not support or endorse candidates or parties.

Via Foreign Policy in Focus

-

Related video added by Juan Cole:

Secular Talk: Is Hillary Clinton To The Right Of George W Bush On Israel?
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By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

The Syrian War is nowhere near over, but the Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) episode may be drawing to an end. Alarabiya reports that the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which is largely leftist Kurds of the YPG but includes a small Arab auxiliary faction, has taken almost all of the former Daesh stronghold of Manbij. The north Syrian city not so far from the Turkish border had been used by Daesh as a key logistics point in smuggling arms, men and supplies from Turkey down to its capital of al-Raqqa. Only a small number of fighters remain in the city, according to Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The fall of Manbij signals a new phase in the struggle against Daesh, as SDF positions itself to blockade al-Raqqa.

Unfortunately for regional stability, that the Kurds of Syrias northeast are extending their sway westward will make it look to Turkey as though the Syrian Kurds are consolidating a mini-state. Turkeys elites are paranoid about secessionist tendencies among Turkeys own Kurds, about 20% of its population and concentrated in the southwest near Syria.

Civilians are said to be fleeing Manbij.

The current SDF campaign to take Manbij began in late May and has benefited from air support by the US and its coalition. Nevertheless, the SDF met heavy resistance, being stuck outside the town for some time by suicide belt bombers, car bombs, and mines deployed by the Daesh defenders.

Manbij had been one of three major Daesh hubs in Aleppo Province, along with al-Bab and Jarabulus.

Irans al-Alam service reports that the SDF on Friday launched a new assault on the city from the West. The SDF had managed to encircle Manbij and cut off its avenues of resupply two weeks ago.

If the Kurds of the YPG and their Sunni Arab junior partners can consolidate their hold on the north of Syria and cut Daesh off in al-Raqqa, its capital, the way they had cut if off in Manbij, then the days of Daesh are numbered.



Related video:

Euronews: ISIL almost completely ousted from northern Syrian city of Manbij
Thailand referendum voters on Sunday supported a draft of a new Constitution submitted by a military-appointed counsel, according to unofficial numbers [BBC report]. Although the turnout was low, a clear majority has determined the document will help restore stability in the country, while those against the draft believe it will entrench the militarys control. Prior to the vote, protests and campaigns against the draft were outlawed, and many activists were detained. The voters also supported a measure that will involve a completely appointed 250-seat Senate in selecting a prime minister, whereas the previous Senate was roughly half elected officials.

Human rights groups worldwide have expressed growing concern over violations in Thailand since the military junta came to power in May 2014. Thai military officials in July charged three human rights defenders [JURIST report] with criminal defamation and violations of the Computer Crimes Act because of a report they published detailing acts of torture in Thailand. 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 the 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.




Daily at 5:30am, the three sisters, who are all single, Suong, Tuyet and Sau, get up to open their 78-year-old cafe. The three women are busy all day, until 7pm.











This is one of the oldest cafes in Saigon today. It was opened in 1938 by a man from the former royal capital of Hue  Mr. Vinh Ngo, the father of the three sisters Suong, Tuyet and Sau.













Cheo Leo cafe has a lot of loyal customers. This man  Mr. Vinh  said he has come here for dozens of years.













In the years before Saigons liberation (1975), Cheo Leo was one of the most famous cafes in Saigon. It was the destination of students of Petrus Ky and Chu Van An schools.











In the years before Saigons liberation (1975), Cheo Leo was one of the most famous cafes in Saigon. It was the destination of students of Petrus Ky and Chu Van An schools.















Ms. Sau is preparing coffee.























Cheo Leo still serves its customers with coffee that is filtered by net, not metal coffee filters.







A cup of coffee is priced VND130,000-VND15,000.











Ms. Suong









A young man who is a loyal customer of Cheo Leo





















Cheo Leo has its own music









As they have many customers, sometimes the three sisters have to write the names of customers on the wall.


















Joanne Clark the secretary/ treasurer for the Fraola Cemetery in Olalla places a fresh flower vase at a marker for an infant on Friday August, 5, 2016. The marker was found by the side of the road in Lewis County. LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN

SHARE The headstone for Martin Edwin Brooks is between those of his grandparents in the Fraola Cemetery in Olalla. (LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN) Joanne Clark closes the gate to the Fraola Cemetery in Olalla. The Fraola Cemetery, established in 1929, is still used for burials. (LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN) Joanne Clark looks over the plot where Martin Edwin Brooks' rests. Clark's own family is buried in the Fraola Cemetery. (LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN)

By Christina Henry of the Kitsap Sun

OLALLA  The infant Martin Edwin Brooks died in 1942. Since 2012, the baby's headstone sat unclaimed in the Lewis County Sheriff's Office property management department.

On July 25, Martin's short life and unexplained death were commemorated by a small crowd of people  some who'd never met before  at the Fraola Cemetery in Olalla.

The group included sheriff's office staff, a couple of crack genealogists, a former police chaplain, and a sympathetic cemetery official, all united by the thought, "What if it were my child?"

The headstone was found Feb. 22, 2012, along the west shoulder of the 400 block of Jackson Highway South in Lewis County and turned over to the sheriff's office. The child's name was professionally engraved along with the inscription "1942  1942."

It wasn't much to go on, but the sheriff's office cast a wide net, contacting mortuaries, cemeteries and monument companies from Centralia to Vancouver. The office put it out on Facebook and in the local media. No luck.

Isabelle Williams, the sheriff's office director of property management, would pass the headstone in the property room on her rounds before turning out the lights and locking the doors. The agency has an online tool for helping people reclaim lost or stolen property. Although no one stepped forward to claim the headstone, Williams never gave up.

"It is our goal to get property back to its rightful owner," Williams said on the sheriff's office website. "We get a great deal of satisfaction and sense of accomplishment returning property to its owner  especially those treasured items that are irreplaceable and that they thought were lost forever."

In June, there was a breakthrough in the case. KOMO that month ran a news release about the headstone from the Lewis County Sheriff that caught the attention of Alice Nelson of Long Beach. Nelson has been obsessed with graves and cemeteries since she was a child.

In the south, where Nelson was raised, families commonly visited cemeteries, even bringing picnics, to remember their ancestors and retell their stories. Nelson remembers walking around graveyards reading headstones with her mother. Each one had a story, even people they didn't know.

"That's kind of fallen by the way, as people kind of have more of a dread of death," Nelson said. "In fact people feel it's morbid and creepy to go to cemeteries."

Not Nelson. As an adult she undertook cataloging gravesites for the website findagrave.com. Her specialty is veterans. Her goal, as a former journalist, is to document in photos and words what's known of individuals and their resting places before time and weather erode their monuments.

Nelson teamed up online with another genealogical sleuth, Andrea Hunting of Tacoma, to untangle the history of Baby Brooks. They, like the sheriff's office, hit a number of dead ends. They were thrown off by the misspelling of his mother's maiden name in one document, a common issue with misinterpreted handwritten records.

They also were surprised to find the baby's parents, Clarence and Violet Brooks, interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Seattle, not Lewis County. The cemetery had no record of the baby's burial, although online records confirmed little Martin was their only child.

"Basically it was cross-referencing every which way and coming to a conclusion that Clarence and Violet Brooks were Martin's parents," Hunting said.

During the search, Hunting identified Violet's correct maiden name as Fagerstrom, which led through findagrave.com to the Fraola Cemetery and the final resting place of Emil and Edla Fagerstrom, Martin's maternal grandparents.

When Forest Lawn told Nelson of regulations that prohibited placing the baby's headstone in the Seattle cemetery, she approached Joanne Clark, secretary-treasurer of the all-volunteer Fraola Cemetery Association.

"We were very glad to help," Clark said.

Not only would they make room for the baby's headstone, but Clark, also a genealogist, researched the family's history and found Emil hailed from Jacobstad, Finland, not far from where Clark's own ancestors originally lived.

The Fraola Cemetery, established in 1929 and still used for burials, is run by a board and kept in shape by two work parties a year. Association fees pay for routine upkeep in between. The name is a mashup of Fragaria and Olalla, describing the geographic area served by the cemetery.

The cemetery is hallowed ground to Clark, who has many family members buried there. She had a brother who was stillborn, so Baby Brooks struck a chord in her heart, as with all involved in the quest to find a home for his headstone.

"Just because they didn't get to live a whole life doesn't mean they don't have a life," she said.

Clark praised the persistence of Williams and others in the Lewis County Sheriff's Office.

"It really meant something to them. It wasn't just part of their job," she said. "Their hearts were all there. It's nice to know that people like that are still out there."

Nelson later found that some Fagerstroms, including Martin's aunts and uncles, lived in Lewis County, with some buried in the Greenwood Memorial Cemetery in Centralia.

"My theory: Baby's stone is made but never placed, eventually ending up with Lewis County relatives who kept it for years and years," Nelson said. "Still don't know where baby's remains are located, and we probably never will."

Census records show Martin Brooks died Nov. 4, 1942, but his death certificate was unavailable, so his birth date and cause of death are unknown. Oddly, Martin's father Clarence Brooks died just a few weeks later, on Nov. 30, 1942, at age 38. Violet Brooks died two years later, on Dec. 21, 1944, at age 26.

Nelson and Hunting were happy to help solve the puzzle of Baby Brooks' life, at least enough that his headstone could be placed with family. Much of it was chance, some of that without an explanation.

"It became apparent that a force much greater than ourselves was at work, as many odd details came to light, pretty much colliding at the same time," Nelson said.

When Lewis County Chief Deputy Stacy Brown invited Nelson to the memorial, Nelson asked her brother David Anderson of Lakewood, a former police chaplain, to officiate.

Anderson's has been the knock at the door that no one ever wants to hear. He's held strangers in their deepest moments of grief and on occasion been asked to speak at the burial of their loved ones. It's never gotten easier.

"I just hate goodbyes, even if I didn't know them," he said.

Compounding his feelings was the loss in 2010 of his own twin grandchildren in a difficult pregnancy.

"I felt very ill at ease to tell the truth because of the emotion involved," he said. "But the need was part of the counterbalance. How do you lay a headstone for a baby nobody knew?"

On the day of the memorial, Williams, Brown and another sheriff's office staffer got lost. They were able to call Clark for directions, even though cell service in Olalla is spotty and none of them had any bars. Just another odd coincidence of the whole story, all say.

Brown and Anderson together laid the baby's headstone between those of his grandparents. Someone brought flowers, white and baby blue.

"It was very emotional and very satisfying," Clark said.

Anderson talked about the broken pieces of Martin's life coming together to form a beautiful kaleidoscope.

"Where will this story of Martin Edwin Brooks go? Though a cemetery in one way seems an ending, it is not" he said. "Our presence here is both a symbolic and significant continuing of what we know, a reminder that others would know what we know, and that is that every life matters."
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By CHARLEE GLOCK-JACKSONFOR GIG HARBOR LIFEWhen the Olalla Vineyard and Winery hosted its grand re-opening in June, an estimated 500 people showed up  most of them out-of-town folks who had learned about the winery on social media.About a dozen of them were our former neighbors and maybe 10-15 were from a local motorcycle club, Mary Ellen Houston said.But everyone else were folks we didnt know  people who had discovered our Facebook page.Thats just what Houston was hoping for.She and her husband, Stuart Chisholm, purchased the 6-acre vineyard and winery last December from its founders, Joe and Konnie Serka.Our goal is to let the world know that were here and that we have a beautiful place and make great wine, Houston said with a smile.Neither Houston nor Chisholm has any winemaking experience. Her background was in criminal justice; he works for Nokia.We knew we wanted to do something together, but we didnt know what it might be. Maybe a coffee shop or a wine bar or something completely different, Houston said.When they saw an ad for the Olalla winery, which includes a tasting room and small event space, we looked at each other and said Why couldnt we do this? she recalled.They contacted the Serkas  now their good friends and mentors  and when we visited the winery the first time, I felt like I was coming home.Houston and Chisholm moved onto the property Dec. 30.Joe and Konnie had put their hearts and souls and all their time and energy into making this a beautiful, peaceful place, Houston said of the winery just north of the county line. They have deep Croatian roots and a strong connection to the local Croatian community.The Croatian connection was underscored when the old wine press and other equipment used by the Serkas was donated recently to the history museum.Joe and Konnie really renewed the interest of the Croatian Community in itself with their Croatian Family brand, City Councilman Ken Malich said. I will miss the identity they gave to all the remaining descendants of our pioneer families.Although the new owners cant claim Croatian roots  Houston was born in Pittsburg; Chisholm is Scottish  they share a love of good wine and stewardship for the land, and we plan to honor Joe and Konnies legacy and keep the history of the place alive, Houston said.Joe Serka is mentoring the new owners for their first year and frequently visits the vineyard, sharing his knowledge of caring for the vines and other tasks.Houston and Chisholm have also enlisted the services of winemaker Matthew Loso who started Matthews Cellars in Woodinville and consults with winemakers across the Northwest.Were absolutely thrilled to have Matthew working with us, Houston said. Winemaking is his true passion and his goal is to bring the very best grapes from around the world to the Northwest.When he visited the site, Loso told the new owners the Olalla winery is really a special place, Houston recalled. He said the fruit is excellent and the climate is perfect  and theres the incredible view of Colvos Passage and Vashon Island.Houston and Chisholm plan keep all of the grapes the Serkas planted because they produce such beautiful fruit, Houston said. Plus were adding several new varieties, too  things we personally like.We have wines made from grapes grown right here in our vineyards and also from grapes we bring in from Eastern Washington.Olalla-grown grapes include Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Gewurtstraminer, Viognier, Syrah, Sauvignon Blanc and Golubok that Houston calls the flagship wine.Its like Cabernet Sauvignon. Its from Eastern Europe and is a longtime favorite of our Croatian neighbors. Very well-suited to this climate.In addition to bringing grapes from the dry side of the mountains to increase their production from 200 cases a year to 600, the couple also is developing their own style of winemaking.They are using clay amphorae instead of wooden barrels for the primary and secondary fermenting processes.Outside the door to the winery stands a 300-liter big, giant amphora that symbolizes the winery.Its the traditional way that the Greeks and Romans made wine. They buried the clay vessel up to the neck and let nature do the fermenting.But its also becoming very popular with present day winemakers, Houston said. The clay is so conducive to winemaking and the amphoras are so beautiful and functional.The couple also is working with Kitsap County officials to obtain a conditional use permit that will allow them to host events such as weddings, reunions and other organized activities.Wineries and vineyards are included in our Kitsap County Comprehensive Plan and also recognized in the economic aspect of the Puget Sound Regional Council, County Kitsap Commissioner Charlotte Garrido said. Theyre an important part of agricultural tourism which is definitely a growing industry.That fits in with Houston and Chisholms vision, as well. They hope the small, community-based winery will appeal to locals and visitors from across the Sound alike.Its not just about us selling wine, Houston said. Its about us meeting people and making new friends and sharing our passion and what were learning. Its a complete experience.
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Like shipwrecked mariners clinging to a floating mast, many Republicans rationalize supporting Donald Trump because of "the court." This two-word incantation means: Because we care so much for the Constitution, it is supremely important to entrust to Trump the making of Supreme Court nominations. Well.

In a Republican candidates debate, Trump complained that Ted Cruz had criticized Trump's sister, a federal judge. Trump said: "He's been criticizing my sister for signing a certain bill. You know who else signed that bill? Justice Samuel Alito, a very conservative member of the Supreme Court, with my sister, signed that bill." Trump, the supposed savior of the Supreme Court, thinks federal judges sign bills.

The mast-clingers say: Well, sure, he knows nothing about American government, including the Constitution, which he vows to defend all the way to "Article XII." He will, however, choose wise advisers and humbly defer to them.

This does not quite seem like him, but the mast-clingers say: Don't worry, he already has compiled a list of admirable potential nominees, and, stickler that he is for consistency and predictability, he will stick to this script written by strangers. This, too, does not quite seem like Trump, but the mast-clingers say: Don't worry, he has said enough to reveal what his "instincts" are. Indeed he has.

The court's two most important decisions in this century are Kelo and Citizens United. Conservatives loathe Kelo; Trump loves it. Conservatives celebrate Citizens United; Trump repeats the strident rhetoric of its liberal detractors.

Kelo did radical damage to property rights. The Constitution says private property shall not be taken "for public use" without just compensation. Until Kelo, the court had held that "for public use" meant for something used by the general public (e.g., roads, public buildings) or to remove blight. In Kelo, the court held, 5-4, that the government of New London, Connecticut, behaved constitutionally when it bulldozed a residential neighborhood for the "public use" of transferring the land to a corporation that would pay more taxes than the neighborhood's residents paid to the government. Trump's interests as a developer and a big-government authoritarian converge in his enthusiasm for Kelo.

Citizens United said that Americans do not forfeit their free speech rights when they band together in corporate form to magnify their political advocacy. The court held that the First Amendment protects from government restriction independent (not coordinated with candidates' campaigns) candidate advocacy by Americans acting collectively through corporations, especially nonprofit advocacy corporations such as the Sierra Club, the National Rifle Association, etc.

Hillary Clinton favors amending the First Amendment to empower government to regulate the quantity, content and timing of campaign speech about the government's composition and conduct. It would do this by regulating campaign spending, most of which funds the dissemination of speech. The rationale for this, and for the broader liberal objective of replacing private funding with public funding of politics, is the theory that politicians are easily bought and that private contributions breed quid pro quo corruption. Trump loudly voices this proposition.

The court has said that campaign-speech regulations can be justified to combat corruption or the appearance thereof. Trump says he has made innumerable contributions to members of both parties because, "When you give, they do whatever the hell you want them to do."

Before he decided to solicit contributors, he said his wealth made him the only candidate impervious to corruption. It is unlikely that he would nominate to the court persons who believe that the First Amendment, properly construed, requires the deregulation of political speech. The mast-clingers should remember that Trump's hostility to First Amendment values is apparent in his desire to "loosen" libel laws, thereby making it easier to sue or intimidate people who criticize people like him.

Most mast-clingers are properly dismayed by President Obama's anti-constitutional use of executive orders to implement policies Congress refuses to enact. Trump promises more executive orders: "I'm going to use them much better, and they're going to serve a much better purpose than he's done." So, mast-clingers straining to justify themselves by invoking "the court" are saying this:

Granted, Trump knows nothing about current debates concerning the court's proper role. We will, however, trust that he will suddenly become deferential to others' preferences about judges. And we will ignore his promise to continue Obama's authoritarian uses of the executive branch that will further degrade the legislative branch. We will do this because we care so very much for the Constitution.

George Will's email address is georgewill@washpost.com. He writes for The Washington Post Writers Group.
It probably wont surprise anyone that I wont be voting for Celia Wade-Brown to be re-elected Mayor. However it might not be for the reasons people assume  that she is a Green Party member. I have endorsed a number of Labour and Green party members for local government positions in the past.

I basically assess local body candidates on what I call the 3 Ps  policies, personality and political management.

Now when it comes to policies, of course there are not that many areas I agree with Wade-Brown. However the Mayor is just one vote of 15. So policies alone is not a sufficient reason to not vote for someone.

Personality isnt a problem for me with Celia. She pleasant and engaging, and generally gets on well with people. She is no Bob Parker who managed to alienate huge swathes of people.

It is the third area, political management, where the Mayor hasnt been successful. The Council under her leadership has been almost embarrassing at times as it flip-flops backwards and forwards on issues such as the Basin Reserve.

Dave Armstrong notes in the Dom Post:

Sadly, one of Ms Wade-Browns strengths  that she is largely a democratic consensus politician  is also one of her weaknesses. With an evenly divided council, there is a feeling, even amongst Wade-Browns supporters, that she hasnt rammed through much of her own policy, so not a lot has been achieved. Worse, the outsourced and CCO (Council- controlled Organisations) tail seems to be wagging the council dog, with the mayor and council being kept in the dark.

Being unaware of the costs of your own office refurbishment and the fact that the Council had outsourced most of its works operations is almost unforgivable in terms of political competence.

But also, the failure to get much done through Council. You dont achieve that by ramming things through (as you only get one vote). You achieve that by working with Councillors on win-wins. A Mayor should never turn up to a Council meeting unaware of how a vote will go. They need to be constantly talking to colleagues, building coalitions, and the like.

I dont like Len Browns policies very much (and very much like some of John Palinos ideas) but you have to credit Brown that he hasnt lost too many votes at Auckland Council. His team have run a reasonably tight operation.

So thats why I wont vote for Celia  partly policies and partly political management. If she does get re-elected, then of course her policies will not change but I do hope she improves her political management.

There are five other candidates, and the Dom Post has their views on leadership here.

Karuna Muthu and Rob Goulden both have some good policies. Theyre both fiscally conservative and pretty balanced on issues such as transport. But no-one thinks either can win. Karunas challenge is his lack of experience on Council and Robs is being able to persuade people that he has got over the battles of yesteryear from when he was last on Council.

Jack Yan has run a good campaign for the second time. Armstrong notes:

Mr Yan is a younger, impressively multilingual entrepreneur with the rare distinction of being both an ex- Alliance candidate and involved with the Miss Universe competition.

I do have a suspicion of anyone who has been an Alliance candidate. Yan does have some good ideas and has done well in business. However I have reservations about whether he would be up to the political management needed to be Mayor. They are different skills.

John Morrison is the person most likely to beat Celia. If this was an FPP election Id vote for John. Ill be happy if he becomes the Mayor. Ive been on Radio with him a few times, and hes a well grounded funny guy. He also has a very impressive record of achievement as a Councillor in bringing both sporting events and jobs to Wellington.

However his campaign hasnt been the best and stuff such as the comments about a model, and objecting to voting booths at the university have caused reluctance with some people who want a change, but are unsure if he is a change for the future.

As I said, Im hoping hell beat Celia. I think a Morrison mayoralty will stabilise the Council, and we wont end up with a Council that is flip-flopping all over the place. Ill be ranking Morrison No 2.

My No 1 vote will go to Nicola Young. I think Nicola has the policies, the personality and the political skills to be a good Mayor. Having only launched her campaign mid-year, the odds are against her. But I constantly hear feedback from people saying that they badly want change, they have hesitations about John, and like what they have seen to date of Nicola. I really admire her for staying true to her principles and not saying shell vote for a living wage, despite the baying from some on the left who see that issue as a litmus test for humanity (which says more about them). Ive also had good feedback from various groups around Wellington such as Vic students who have said Nicola has engaged with them, listened to them and even adopted some policy suggestions.

So Ill be voting Nicola Young 1, John Morrison 2. If you want change for Wellington the key thing is to make those two your top two choices. It doesnt matter so much which is 1 and which is 2  follow your own preferences. They key thing is to put the person you least want elected as No 6 or leave them unranked entirely.

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Michael Morell writes in the NYT:

During a 33-year career at the Central Intelligence Agency, I served presidents of both parties  three Republicans and three Democrats. I was at President George W. Bushs side when we were attacked on Sept. 11; as deputy director of the agency, I was with President Obama when we killed Osama bin Laden in 2011.

So why would such a long serving neutral official break his stance, and take sides.

Mr. Trump has no experience on national security. Even more important, the character traits he has exhibited during the primary season suggest he would be a poor, even dangerous, commander in chief. These traits include his obvious need for self-aggrandizement, his overreaction to perceived slights, his tendency to make decisions based on intuition, his refusal to change his views based on new information, his routine carelessness with the facts, his unwillingness to listen to others and his lack of respect for the rule of law. In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation.

Basically Putin has played Trump.

Mr. Trump has also undermined security with his call for barring Muslims from entering the country. This position, which so clearly contradicts the foundational values of our nation, plays into the hands of the jihadist narrative that our fight against terrorism is a war between religions. In fact, many Muslim Americans play critical roles in protecting our country, including the man, whom I cannot identify, who ran the C.I.A.s Counterterrorism Center for nearly a decade and who I believe is most responsible for keeping America safe since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Again this is from a 33 year veteran of the CIA.

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The ODT reports:

Dressing up in blackface or as a Nazi will not be out of bounds at next years Hyde St keg party after University of Otago students voted against costumes being regulated.

In a binding referendum, students overwhelmingly voted against the Otago University Students Association (OUSA) regulating what costumes could be worn to the party, by a majority of 61.67% versus 33.29% who voted for the regulations, after a set of guidelines introduced this year prompted a backlash.

The list of costumes to avoid released by OUSA this year included blackface darkening, racial or cultural stereotypes, mocking culturally sensitive events  such as by dressing as a Nazi  mocking disabled people, mocking LGBT people and glorifying sexual violence, for instance by dressing as Chris Brown or Bill Cosby.
#Justice Party Former Justice Party leader Lee Jeong-mi elected for 2nd term Lee Jeong-mi, a former chief of the minor progressive Justice Party (JP), was elected Friday for a second term to lead a major reform of the party reeling from recent election rout...

#KBO Heroes reach Korean Series after eliminating Twins in KBO postseason For the first time in three years, the Kiwoom Heroes will be playing in the South Korean baseball championship series. Former big leaguer Yasiel Puig homered and knocked in two ...
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The Knoxville Small Business Development Center will conduct a free start-up program Monday 9 a.m.noon at the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce in Market Square. The program will cover forms of organization, business licenses, insurance, taxes, and more. Register at www.tsbdc.org or call (865) 246-2663.

The Technical Society of Knoxville will meet at the Crowne Plaza at 11:30 a.m. on Monday. The speakers will be Barry Thacker, PE, of Schnabel Engineering and Coal Creek Watershed Foundation Inc. and Kyle Leinart of ImmersaCAD. The title of their presentation will be "Addressing economic problems in the Cumberlands  one student at a time." Visitors are welcome. For more information, go to TechnicalSociety.net.

The Knoxville Chamber of Commerce will play host to Kickoff to Endeavor, a social event at the Schulz Brau Brewing Company, on Tuesday 5:30-7:30 p.m. The cost is $10. The Endeavor Young Professionals Summit will take place 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. on Aug. 19 at The Mill & Mine in Knoxville. Jay Rogers of Local Motors and Amy Lynch of Generational Edge will be the keynote speakers. For more information, contact Kayla Witt at kwitt@knoxvillechamber.com or visit ypsummitknox.com.

The Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce will host a Tennessee Small Business Development Center workshop Tuesday 9 a.m.-noon on how to do business with the government. There is no fee, but registration is required. To sign up, call 865-483-2668 or email jbangs@tsbdc.org.
Ever the clever entrepreneur, Mark Zuckerberg recognized the potential of Periscope, the live-streaming video platform purchased by Twitter while still in beta that was named Apple's 2015 App of the Year.

Not to be outdone, Zuckerberg expanded Facebook Live to rank-and-file users in April after launching Facebook's proprietary live video service to celebrities and public figures last summer. Facebook Live has gained notoriety since a woman live streamed the aftermath of her boyfriend's fatal encounter with a Minnesota police officer.

The shooting death of Philando Castile is a graphic example of citizen journalism made possible by the real-time broadcast of the incident to Facebook's enormous audience. The 10-minute video disappeared from Facebook after receiving a million views and was later reinstated with a "Warning  Graphic Video" message. The circulation of the video and related commentary has reached epic proportions of virality across digital platforms.

On a lighter note, "Chewbacca Mom" is a selfie video of a Texas woman laughing hysterically as she tries on a Chewbacca mask in her car. Candace Payne quickly became the "Wookiee Queen of Viral Video" and a media darling in the process.

Brand adoption of Facebook Live has been much slower than with Periscope, which quickly attracted Taco Bell, Nissan and Target and achieved user penetration among top brands of an impressive 15 percent in its first nine months of existence, according to Business Insider. But Facebook Live has scale with Facebook's 1.71 billion monthly active users, which is a 15 percent increase over last year (Facebook). Twitter sees about 100 million users log in daily (DMR). Facebook is simply too big to ignore.

So how do brands capitalize on Facebook Live?

Curate content. By that I mean create context for your live-streaming video and make it part of a broader strategy to offer multimedia content your community values. The Metropolitan Museum of Art hosted a Facebook Live Q&A with Andrew Bolton, curator-in-charge of The Costume Institute, and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. Dunkin Donuts took viewers behind the scenes to tour corporate headquarters and then served up a tutorial on how to make a wedding cake out of doughnuts.

Keep it real. Don't sweat the production glitches. The beauty of live streaming is its authenticity. It's not supposed to be a slick production. Facebook Live is a chance to humanize your brand and make an intimate connection with your audience. Yoga instructors like Super Sister Fitness and YogaLive Girl are hosting free live classes via Facebook Live. It's a great way to build engagement that can translate into business.

Be an influencer. Facebook Live will join YouTube, Vine and Instagram as a power platform for influencer marketing. Digital celebrities will rise to prominence and command premiums for product placement and endorsements. Brands can ride this wave, too, by providing compelling video content that meets consumers where they already are  on Facebook.
By Susan Alexander of the Knoxville News Sentinel

Avice Evans Reid will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award and 20 other East Tennessee women will be honored as finalists when the YWCA Knoxville hosts its 32nd annual Tribute to Women awards on Sept. 15.

Reid spent the bulk of her career working in information technology for TVA, but for the past nine years has worked for the City of Knoxville. Her first role was executive director of Knoxville's Police Advisory and Review Committee, creating a bridge between the citizens of Knoxville and the police department. Now she is the city's senior community relations director, supervising community engagement efforts including the City's Save Our Sons initiative, the Police Advisory and Review Committee, and the Equal Business Opportunity Program.

A native Knoxvillian, Reid sees a link between her work in IT and her more recent efforts to build relationships in the city.

"The real joy I got out of working with computers was being able to meet with people and help them find solutions to their problems. Transitioning to what I do now was sort of a natural thing; I'm still solving problems and getting the joy of helping people," she said.

For years, Knoxville was the only Tennessee city with a civilian oversight committee working with law enforcement. It was started in 1998 by Mayor Victor Ashe following the deaths of four men  three of whom were African American  being pursued by or in custody of law enforcement, Reid said. She believes the work done by the city has lowered the level of tension between police and the public in Knoxville, especially when compared to other parts of the country.

"Overall, I think we have a pretty good relationship," she said. "One of my duties as a citizen advocate was to help citizens become comfortable with dealing with complaints directly: here are some things you need to do to end up with a calm result. By the same token, we help with the training of officers. The whole idea of treating people with mutual respect is there. We have a police chief who is serious about making sure his officers do good, effective policing and at the same time treat citizens with respect.

"The Black Lives Matter movement is important in that it brings to consciousness are we being unbiased in our policing, or do we have different approaches when we recognize people are black or of color. But you don't address that problem by bringing violence upon officers. The fact is all lives matter," she said. "Citizens need to respect the authority given to officers. A lot of times I find people want to start arguing and it escalates the situation and causes tension. Officers are equipped with cameras and audio equipment. I tell citizens to comply with the situation so you can complain later on."

She encourages white citizens to step up, too. "I think, number one, we all have to acknowledge there are issues. When we have a tendency to ignore issues, they escalate. People feeling the pressure want some acknowledgment of the pressure. Then we need to take things case by case. Respectfully call it out if officers are not being respectful of others. Don't hesitate to call in to the community affairs office or the officer's supervisor. The more we do that, the less likely people will do things they shouldn't do."

The mother of two daughters and grandmother of four often thinks of her own grandmother as she goes through her days. "She always used to say she was living to watch me graduate from high school. She didn't make it  she died when I was 16  but I think about how many more educational opportunities I've had than she expected. I think about the teachers and guidance counselors and the people who wanted me to have those opportunities. And I am driven by those things. If she were still alive I'd want her to be proud that I've achieved what she wanted and more. I do believe she watches over me, and I want to do things she would proud of."

The Tribute to Women finalists are listed above on this page. There are a total of five categories with four finalists in each category.

The Sept. 15 event includes a tented reception at the First Tennessee Plaza with live music, hors d'oeuvres and drinks from 5:30-6:30 p.m., followed by the Tribute to Women awards program at the Historic Bijou Theatre at 7 p.m. WBIR-TV Channel 10 news anchor Robin Wilhoit will serve as the mistress of ceremonies.

Tickets are $85 and are available at www.ywcaknox.com or by calling the YWCA Knoxville at 865-523-6126.
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By News Sentinel Staff

Authorities on Sunday were investigating an officer-involved shooting outside an East Tennessee Wal-Mart.

According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, officers with the Oneida Police Department at received a report of a domestic-related incident occurring between a man and a woman in the store's parking lot on Alberta Street at about 2:40 p.m..

A TBI news release states that "preliminary information indicates that an altercation occurred resulting in the subject being shot by at least one officer."

No other information was released.

The man was transported to the University of Tennessee Medical Center for treatment. His condition was not immediately known.

At the request of 8th District Attorney General Jared Effler, TBI agents are investigating the circumstances surrounding the shooting.

This marks the second shooting involving a Scott County law enforcement officer in less than a month.

On July 18, 49-year-old Arthur Earnest Letner was shot by a Scott County Sheriff's Office deputy after allegedly charging at him with a knife. The deputy was attempting to take Letner, who was hiding in a bathroom inside a Helenwood home, into custody after he allegedly beat his girlfriend.

More details as they develop online and in Monday's News Sentinel.
SHARE Steven Corum, killed Saturday, Aug. 6, while swimming in Fort Loudoun Lake when he was struck by a personal watercraft (SUBMITTED) Bishop Richard Stika, left, of the Diocese of Knoxville comforts the Corum family at a prayer gathering at Knoxville Catholic High School on Sunday. Steven Corum was killed Saturday evening on Fort Loudoun Lake when he was struck by a personal watercraft, went underwater and never resurfaced, according to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. (TRAVIS DORMAN / NEWS SENTINEL) Bishop Richard Stika of the Knoxville Diocese speaks to members of the Knoxville Catholic High School community who gathered Sunday night to pray and honor the life of Steven Corum, who was killed Saturday while swimming in Fort Loudoun Lake. (TRAVIS DORMAN / NEWS SENTINEL) Related Coverage Services set for Knox teen killed in Fort Loudoun Lake accident

Catholic High School grad struck by watercraft while swimming

By Travis Dorman of the Knoxville News Sentinel

Hundreds of recent Knoxville Catholic High School graduates gathered in the school's gymnasium Sunday night to mourn, pray and celebrate the life of Steven Corum, who was killed Saturday after being struck by a watercraft on Fort Loudoun Lake.

Student after student approached the podium and recalled their favorite stories of the 18-year-old Corum. Gradually, a picture emerged of the 2016 graduate who was shy and reserved toward strangers, but wild and hilarious to those who knew him well.

He was a skilled wrestler, he liked to joke about politics and he was not very good at golf, according to his friends Bradey Sexton and P.J. Birmingham.

Corum's classmate Patrick Kidwell described a week of revelry during which he and Corum "lived on pizza rolls and Taco Bell" with Chadwick Fedderson, Corum's friend who was operating the watercraft that struck him in the fatal collision.

"It was an accident," Bishop Richard Stika of the Diocese of Knoxville said Sunday. "It was the intersection of all kinds of different things that occurred, and sometimes the frustration comes when we try to find out answers to questions we can't answer.  We can't control what happens to us, but we can control what our response will be.

"Right now for the Catholic community and for the community that surrounds this family with a great deal of love, our response is just to show them friendship, show them love, be there for them in support (and) not try to answer the questions."

Around 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Corum was swimming near a boat at the Cove on Turkey Creek when Fedderson's watercraft struck him, according to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. The two were spending time at the lake together with some friends.

Corum disappeared under the water and never resurfaced.

Crews from Knoxville Fire and Rescue, Knox County Volunteer Rescue and Rural/Metro Ambulance worked together with TWRA on Saturday night to search for Corum until a thunderstorm forced them to delay their efforts around 10 p.m., according to a news release from TWRA.

A witness later helped TWRA officers pinpoint the spot where the accident occurred, and within 30 minutes, Corum's body was located using a remote-controlled sonar device. Divers recovered Corum's body around 1:30 a.m. Sunday.

"Steven was a loving, kind and polite young man who brought so much joy into the lives of his large family and many friends," the Corum family said in a statement released Sunday afternoon via the Diocese of Knoxville. "We will miss him tremendously and ask for your prayers and privacy during this very difficult time."

Initial reports described the accident as a hit-and-run because authorities had trouble finding Fedderson at the scene, and a young woman whose father owned the watercraft took it to a nearby lake house following the accident.

The incident, which is no longer being considered a hit-and-run, remains under investigation, according to the release.
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By Tom Humphrey of the Knoxville News Sentinel

NASHVILLE  The outcome of last week's primary elections in state legislative races were a mixed bag for groups with an education reform agenda in next year's session of the Tennessee General Assembly, the results perhaps indicating an overall negative for those advocating charter schools and vouchers.

The striking theme in legislative races was that challenged incumbents won in both Democratic and Republican primaries in 44 of 46 contests. The two notable exceptions: The defeats of Rep. Jeremey Durham, R-Franklin, who had suspended his campaign after an attorney general's report declaring he had sexually harassed 22 women, and Rep. Curry Todd, R-Collierville, who was jailed a few days before the primary for allegedly stealing opponent Mark Lovell's yard signs.

Both of the losers had been targets for six-figure independent expenditure attacks by PACs oriented to education issues. In Durham's case, the attack ads were led by Stand For Children, a group focused largely on charter schools, and most of the ads came before the public disclosure of what the attorney general called "sexual interactions" with women and Durham's campaign suspension. Thus, they may have had little to do with Durham's landslide loss to challenger Sam Whitson.

Todd, on the other hand, had been targeted with more than $100,000 in attack advertising by Tennessee Federation for Children, which focuses almost exclusively in pushing school vouchers. The returns show Lovell won in early voting, which had ended before Todd's arrest, which could indicate the early July AFC ads had an impact on the outcome.

Todd was supported by direct donations from PACs controlled by the Tennessee Education Association, which adamantly opposes vouchers, and Gov. Bill Haslam, who has striven to promote them on a limited basis. The governor's PAC supported 43 incumbent Republicans, most having no opposition, and otherwise batted 100 percent in supporting winners  including those who did.

Most incumbent legislators overwhelmed challengers by lopsided margins. The two winning incumbents with the closest races statewide were Sen. Delores Gresham, R-Somerville, and Rep. Gary Hicks, R-Rogersville. AFC supported Gresham with a modest $7,500 but opposed Hicks  who lined up against vouchers last session  with $80,000 in attack ads. Stand for Children, on the other hand, gave Hicks $1,000 in direct donations, while Haslam's PAC kicked in $5,000 and gave Gresham $2,000.

Gresham's opponent, Bob Shutt, was backed by the TEA  including indirectly funding about $50,000 in attack ads against Gresham by a locally based independent expenditure group. A Democratic political operative who was involved says that may have made the race a lot closer than it would have been otherwise.

Both voucher-focused AFC and Stand for Children, focused more on charter schools, backed some incumbents who won and opposed some who lost. But Stand for Children had a more remarkable string of losses after spending more than $700,000 in independent expenditures during the first 25 days of July. Excepting Durham, the group lost all its efforts against incumbents and invested heavily in backing open-seat legislative candidates who lost with a single West Tennessee exception. In Nashville, the group spent more than $200,000 opposing school board incumbents perceived as opposing charter schools and all nonetheless won.

Dick Williams, who as president of Common Cause in Tennessee has for years advocated state campaign finance reforms, said he is hopeful that the overall primary results indicate voters are becoming less influenced by groups that engage in state politics with money mostly coming from outside the state and with donors of that money undisclosed.

"Regardless of who wins or loses a given race, people are maybe starting to see through that  at least enough to try to understand the facts instead of accepting what an outside money ad says," he said.

House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga, told the Times-Free Press that there has been "a lot of noise being made" about voter disenchantment with incumbents.

"I think maybe we've seen that the blind, anti-incumbent fever has peaked and maybe people are actually making reasonable decisions," said McCormick, who was unopposed in his own bid for re-election.
U.S. Sen. Bob Corker

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By Tom Humphrey of the Knoxville News Sentinel

NASHVILLE  A top aide to U.S. Sen. Bob Corker has been named to Donald Trump's transition team, a move that a Washington Post blog says will enhance the Tennessee lawmaker's prospects of appointment to Trump's cabinet should the Republican nominee be elected president.

Corker approved a temporary leave of absence for John Rader, who serves as legal counsel to Corker in the senator's role as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The Post says he will work on presidential appointments for the transition team, headed by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Rader worked as an aide to Gov. Bill Haslam before being hired by Corker a year ago. He will work with Bill Hagerty, who served as the Haslam-appointed commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community Development until last year.

Hagerty, who previously served as finance chairman of 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's campaign, was appointed to Trump's transition team earlier. He held a similar role on the Romney transition team in 2012 after taking a brief leave of absence from the Haslam administration.

Under federal law, both major party presidential nominees receive federal funding to prepare for a transition into the presidency if they win the election. The Post said Hagerty asked that Rader be appointed to this year's team and Corker merely assented to the leave of absence.

Still, said Post political blogger Josh Rogin, the move indicates Corker's prospects of a Trump cabinet appointment are "vastly improving."

"The fact that two Tennessee political officials are expected to be at the top of the Trump appointment effort is good news for Corker, who has been in close contact with the Trump campaign for several months," he wrote. "Sources close to Corker told me that his first choice is to be treasury secretary and his second choice is to be secretary of state."

Corker earlier this year got some attention as a prospective vice presidential running mate for Trump, but subsequently declared disinterest in that position  though leaving open the possibility of accepting a cabinet appointment in a Trump administration.

Todd Womack, Corker's chief of staff, confirmed Rader's temporary departure for the transition team position and praised his abilities, but otherwise offered no comment.
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The Republican and Democratic Conventions are over, the delegates have headed home and the race for the presidency of the United States is heating up. It seems the campaign rhetoric becomes more disagreeable and divisive with each election cycle, giving the impression our federal government is dysfunctional. Often it appears our elected officials can't agree on anything anymore. Yet somehow, someway, much of the business of government gets done.

A shining example of the accomplishments of our federal government is the Community Health Center program. For over 50 years, through good times and bad, the Health Center program has enjoyed bipartisan support in the Congress. The Health Center program was the centerpiece of the domestic agenda of President George W. Bush and experienced dramatic growth during his years in office. The Obama administration followed suit. Over the past five decades Republicans, Democrats and Independents elected to serve in Congress have supported appropriations for community health centers. The support of east Tennessee legislators has been especially notable.

There are now 1,300 community health centers, with over 9,000 locations spread all across the United States providing health care to 25 million Americans. One out of every 14 people living in our country receives primary medical care at a health center. Ten percent of the nation's youth is served. No one is ever turned away from a health center because they cannot pay. One in seven Americans living in poverty receives primary care at a community health center.

Cherokee Health Systems operates the local community health center providing care within Knoxville, Knox County and the surrounding area. Rural Medical Services based in Newport and Dayspring Family Health Center in Jellico are other community health centers located within the east Tennessee region. Cherokee opened a clinic in Chattanooga three years ago. Last month Cherokee expanded to the Memphis market, adding three existing inner-city clinics and a family practice residency program. Last year Cherokee provided services to 65,355 individuals. That number is sure to increase this year as it has every year since the organization opened its doors over five decades ago.

Although community health centers receive an annual grant from the federal government to help pay the cost of treating patients who have no health insurance, these organizations are locally operated and governed by a local board of directors. By federal law, the majority of the board must be patients of the health center. What a novel idea! Who better to understand the needs of the community, judge the effectiveness of the services and provide guidance to management than the patients of the organization?

Community health centers generate most of their operating revenue from direct patient services by billing Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance companies. Only 11 percent of Cherokee's current budget comes from the annual Federal Health Center grant. A portion of our budget comes from both local and state governments. Knox County government contracts with Cherokee to provide primary care to some local residents who have incomes below the federal poverty guidelines. The state of Tennessee provides some funds to subsidize behavioral health services and primary care for some qualifying low-income Tennesseans. Thus community health centers are federal, state and local partnerships.

Community health centers are effective. The quality of care at health centers equals, and often surpasses, that provided by other primary care providers. All community health centers emphasize quality improvement activities and most are recognized as Patient Centered Medical Homes by the National Committee for Quality Assurance, a badge of distinction among primary care practices. Community health centers provide behavioral health services in a unique, patient-friendly way by blending behavioral health professionals into the primary care team. These innovations help health centers improve patient outcomes while lowering the overall cost of care.

National Health Center week is Aug. 7-13. The board of directors and staff of Cherokee Health Systems invite you to join us in the celebration. Community health centers  quietly, confidently and competently addressing the health care needs of the nation.

Dr. Dennis Freeman is CEO of Cherokee Health Systems.
ASSOCIATED PRESS President George W. Bush speaks about the congressional debate on Iraq war spending on April 3, 2007, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington. Years later, American politics has finally reached a rough consensus about the Iraq War: It was a mistake.

SHARE NEWS SENTINEL ARCHIVE President Jimmy Carter speaks to Tennessee Valley Authority employees on May 22, 1978, at the Civic Auditorium. Carter's term was marred by a failed mission to rescue American hostages in Iran.

To stop failing, presidents must focus on governing, not rhetoric

A distrustful, disillusioned and angry electorate has left its mark on both parties in the 2016 campaign. Millions of Americans want change.

Will they get it?

Not unless the new president changes the way past presidents, Democrats and Republicans, have done their jobs.

For most of their lives, today's adult Americans have experienced a blizzard of presidential failure. This has not always been so. The grandparents and great-grandparents of these same Americans knew presidents who rescued the country from the Great Depression, defeated Germany and Japan in World War II, and transformed the United States into an economic and military superpower.

More recently, however, Americans have experienced one humiliation after another, from Vietnam to the Great Recession to the continuing war against terror. Little wonder that millions feel the country is on an inevitable and precipitous downward slope that the government can't do anything about. Citizens have lost faith in their leaders and in the government they are supposed to run.

So why do modern presidents fail? To put it simply, they spend too much time talking about what they want to do and too little time making sure it actually gets done.

Scratch the surface of a big presidential failure and you will find a president who did not know or who ignored the government organizations that would be charged with making things happen. President Jimmy Carter tried to rescue the Iranian hostages back in 1980 with a military well known to be ill-equipped to conduct a joint exercise or special operations. President George W. Bush went to war in Iraq despite information from the State Department that correctly predicted the effort would fail. President Barack Obama turned over his most important initiative, his health care law, to an organization that had already demonstrated it was having trouble with its existing portfolio.

In each instance, the president found that his skill at "messaging," as it is known inside the White House, could not overcome obvious governmental failures that diminished his presidency.

The challenge for modern presidents is to add governing skills to their campaign skills. Like business leaders, political leaders fail when they can't execute. And effective execution of a policy requires understanding the capacity of the modern federal government, a massive operation with combined revenues larger than those of the top 25 companies in the Fortune 500 and as many employees as America's six largest companies combined.

Republicans tend to approach this monstrosity with the attitude that it's all bad; Democrats do the opposite. In fact, however, as with anything on this vast scale, something is going very right and something is going very wrong at exactly the same time.

Thus, to reduce their chances of failure, the next president has to stop talking, traveling, tweeting and Facebooking long enough to figure out what the heck is going on in the government he or she is now running. The new president should beef up the office of Cabinet Affairs so that it can conduct a performance audit of the government. The new boss and his or her team should know who's in trouble and who has answers that might come in handy. And the new president should establish an early warning system inside the White House to monitor government operations and get ahead of the kinds of organizational melt-downs that happen so often and for which the president takes the hit.

Finally, the chattering classes have a responsibility, too. In the old nomination system, presidential candidates were chosen by other party leaders and elected officials. There were problems in this system to be sure, but one advantage was that people with experience governing could judge whether or not a potential candidate could govern. Today's candidates are judged almost exclusively on what they say and how they say it. Gone is the smoke-filled room where a powerful, experienced person could look the candidate in the eye and say, "Really? How do you propose to close Guantanamo?" Or "Really? How do you think you'll get Mexico to pay for that wall?"

We have all come to value rhetoric over reality in judging presidents. No wonder we are always disappointed; the one without the other is meaningless. Would we remember the famous line from Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1933 Inaugural Address, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself," had it not been followed up by the bank holiday and other actions that halted the economic free-fall of the Great Depression? Of course not. Presidents get elected for their soaring rhetoric and lofty goals but they get rewarded for the reality they produce. This is the challenge for the next president.

Elaine C. Kamarck, a senior aide in the Bill Clinton administration and a superdelegate for Hillary Clinton at last month's Democratic National Convention, is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a lecturer at Harvard University. This column, which first appeared in USA TODAY, is adapted from her new book, "Why Presidents Fail and How they Can Succeed Again."
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The Tennessee Valley Authority made the responsible choice in opting to cap its existing ash ponds at its coal plants instead of excavating them and sending the sludge to landfills.

Several environmental groups expressed outrage, but transporting the wet ash is riskier and much more expensive than leaving it in place, dewatering and capping the sludge, and monitoring the sites around the clock.

Coal ash once was little more than an afterthought, but it flooded the nation's consciousness with the collapse of the wet ash storage pond at TVA's Kingston Fossil Plant on Dec. 22, 2008. That incident dumped 5.4 million cubic yards of toxin-laden sludge into the Emory River and the Swan Pond community of Roane County.

In response, TVA decided to switch to dry storage at six coal-fired power plants in Alabama and Tennessee that use wet storage. The Kingston and Bull Run fossil plants have already made the conversion.

TVA then had to decide what to do with the wet ash ponds. The federally owned utility considered two options for closure  capping the ash in place or shipping the ash to a lined landfill.

Closure-in-place involves dewatering the ash and installing a cap over the site to prevent rainwater from filtering into the material and increasing the risk of groundwater pollution.

Removing the ash would eliminate the environmental concerns at the site, but it also would carry greater safety concerns  trucks can crash and trains can derail  and much higher costs.

There also can be public resistance. Much of the ash from the Kingston cleanup was shipped by rail to a landfill in rural Alabama, prompting accusations that depositing the material in the poor, predominantly black community amounted to discrimination.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency agreed with TVA that closure-in-place should be the preferred alternative. TVA arrived at the decision after a year-long review of possible environmental impacts and taking public comments into account. No local, state or federal agency raised an objection.

Environmental groups criticized the decision, primarily because of worries over possible future groundwater contamination. Keith Johnston, at attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, called the decision "unfortunate" and warned that it would guarantee groundwater contamination for decades to come.

"Essentially, it's the status quo for TVA and the easiest and cheapest way out after decades of pollution," he said. "They leave the burden of their pollution on the public and our environment."

John McCormick, TVA vice president of Safety, River Management and Environment, said in a statement that TVA's actions "are not harming human health or the environment." He added that "digging up the coal ash and moving it someplace else has more potential environmental and safety impacts than closure-in-place and adds significantly more time and costs for our ratepayers,"

TVA will monitor the sites for at least 30 years. The utility built a $2 million Advanced Technology for Impoundment Monitoring center in Chattanooga to keep tabs on the sensors, weather and other factors that could affect the closed ash ponds. According to TVA, it is the only facility of its kind in the American utility industry.

Deciding to switch from wet storage to dry was obvious in light of the Kingston disaster. The cleanup of the Kingston spill took six years and cost TVA $1.134 billion, and TVA ratepayers will be paying a 59-cent surcharge on their utility bills each month until 2024.

The question of how best to close the ponds was more debatable because of groundwater contamination concerns, but when all factors  environmental, safety, cost  are considered, TVA made the right call. Opting to close and cap the ponds is a sensible solution to a problem with no guaranteed answers.
SHARE

Terry Mattingly's column about the recent murder of Father Jacques Hamel in France suggests that the killing was motivated by religion and that Hamel is a martyr.

Maybe so. But talking about martyrdom really just underscores dangerous divisions while overlooking examples of unity and peace, which is what Hamel would have wanted more than the halo of martyrdom.

I believe this because of the example of unity I witnessed at the Mass celebrated in his honor in Rouen. Hamel's parish is situated within the diocese of Rouen, where I happened to be the Sunday after his death. Seated in front of me at the Mass in the city's packed cathedral were two Muslim women who, along with dozens of others from their faith community, had been invited by the archbishop to pray for peace alongside hundreds of Christians.

Hamel's sister called him a man of mercy and love. Nobody talked about whether he was a martyr. A local high school teacher and Muslim said he came to the Mass because it was his duty to honor Hamel. During the Communion service, as the prayers were being said, those two Muslim women in front of me cupped their palms in the air in humility and solidarity with the sacredness of the moment.

I think those people of Rouen had great courage to stand together in the aftermath of such sacrilege and horror, in order to honor a man of mercy and love. This is the image of unity the world and its faithful need to envision. This is the subject we need to discuss: Do we unite as people of peace against the forces of violence and division? Or do we continue to divide ourselves according to our concepts of faith, and to what purpose?

Julie Gautreau, Knoxville
SHARE

I have followed the stories about state Rep. Jeremy Durham and his inappropriate sexual contact and/or interactions with women. I am amazed by the state's slow response. I recently retired from a 39-year career in a Fortune 500 company that has no tolerance for sexual harassment. If the Durham incident occurred in the company I worked for, human resources would have conducted a quick and thorough investigation. If the investigation validated the allegations, the offending employee would have been immediately escorted to the nearest exit. There would have been no chance for continuation of health benefits or severance pay. I know of an employee dismissed because of a brief, though inappropriate, comment to a receptionist the same day it occurred. In corporate America there is no tolerance for such behavior as exhibited by Durham. Why do legislators get such lenient treatment?

Clifton Caudill, Louisville
By Jhoo Dong-chan



Audi Volkswagen Korea is unlikely to file an administrative complaint against the government's decision banning sales and revoking the certification of 80 of the company's models over the emissions cheating scandal.



An official of the German automaker's local unit said last week the company is "considering every possible option," including legal action, to continue selling cars in Korea, but has reportedly shifted its stance.



"Audi Volkswagen said it will soon reapply for certification for those 80 models," an industry insider said. "And the government's cooperation is essential for the upcoming certification process.



"The governmental certification for auto sales generally takes about six months. And the German automaker would attempt to shorten the time required for the process as much as possible to launch sales again. But the government wouldn't go easy in the process if it steps on the toes of the government with a possible legal battle."



Due to the government's sales ban on the 80 models, dealerships have borne the burden.



Most Volkswagen showrooms in Korea are reportedly displaying only two or three types of vehicles for sale. Visitors are very few, a Volkswagen dealer said.



"We haven't really sold cars since Audi Volkswagen halted sales for those defected models," he said. "I haven't heard from Audi Volkswagen Korea over its plan to support dealerships and maintain its sales chain during the certification process. I hope the situation will be over as soon as possible."



According to the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association, Volkswagen sold only 425 cars last month, a 76.8 percent decline compared with the 1,834 cars sold in June. Sister brand Audi saw its sales nosedive to 2,638 cars, down 46.5 percent over the period.



The Ministry of Environment has decided to ban the sale of 32 types of Audi and Volkswagen vehicles  a total of 80 models. It also revoked certification for 83,000 vehicles sold here between 2009 and July 25 this year.



The ministry had already revoked the certification of 126,000 vehicles last year, bringing the total number to 209,000, or 68 percent of the 307,000 cars the carmaker has sold here since 2007.



The ministry also fined Audi Volkswagen Korea 17.8 billion won for violating related laws.




Stricter checkups required for medical workers



By Jung Min-ho



A neonatal nurse at Korea University Hospital in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, is suspected of having tuberculosis (TB), public health authorities said on Sunday.



If confirmed, this will be the third TB infection of a nurse at the nation's major hospitals in just a month, following previous cases at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital in southwestern Seoul and Samsung Medical Center in southern Seoul.



The 23-year-old female nurse, working at a neonatal intensive care unit, has been suspected of having the disease since July 28. According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), X-rays showed indications of TB, but she tested negative in a sputum smear examination and TB nucleic acid amplification test.



The KCDC said it will conclude its diagnosis soon, after additional testing.



Meanwhile, the KCDC is examining 51 babies and 57 medical workers the nurse in question contacted from June 28 to July 26. The KCDC noted no one has so far tested positive for TB or showed suspected symptoms.



Concerns are growing following a series of recent TB cases found in hospitals. Some experts say a stricter medical checkup system should be expanded to more medical workers, warning that their infection is especially risky.



"The regular checkup system should be expanded to cover all medical workers," Baik Chan-ki, a media relations official of the Korean Nurses Association, told The Korea Times. "Given that medical workers in general frequently contact people vulnerable to infectious diseases, their infection is far more dangerous than normal people's."



For now, he noted, a regular medical checkup is required only for medical workers who directly deal with infectious diseases.



Earlier this month, the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced that all workers at schools, kindergartens, daycare centers and medical institutions will be required every year to be tested for latent TB  a condition in which the TB bacteria lives in an inactive form in the body.



However, it is unclear whether the ministry will be able to implement the new rule as it still struggles with how to cover the costs. Many have criticized the ministry for showing little political will to eradicate TB.



TB is a bacterial infection that can spread through the lymph nodes and bloodstream to any organ in the body. In most cases, TB remains inactive until the immune system weakens. In their active state, the disease causes symptoms such as chronic coughing, fever, and blood in sputum.



TB is considered a disease of poverty because the risk of TB infection is directly linked to malnutrition, poor air circulation and poor sanitation  all factors associated with poverty.



Yet the disease remains pervasive in Korea. The TB prevalence and death rates of fourth largest economy are unthinkable given its economic size. According to a 2014 OECD report, Korea had 86 TB cases per 100,000 people, far ahead of other members. Portugal ranked second with 25.




Park says N. Korea, not THAAD, must be blamed first



By Yi Whan-woo



Cheong Wa Dae urged a group of lawmakers from the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK) to cancel their planned visit to China over the U.S. anti-missile system, Sunday.



Six MPK legislators who oppose the deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery in South Korea have announced a plan to visit China for three days from Monday to discuss the controversial issue.



The presidential office said that North Korea should first be held accountable for all the provocations, before taking issue with the THAAD deployment.



"We hope the political circles will support the government's plan to deploy THAAD for the sake of the security of the nation and the people," said Kim Sung-woo, the senior presidential secretary for public affairs, in a briefing on Sunday.



"We strongly urge the MPK and the six lawmakers to reconsider their plan to visit China."



The six  Reps. Kim Young-ho, Park Jeung, Shin Dong-kuen, So Byung-hoon, Kim Byung-wook and Sohn Hye-won  seek to meet Chinese officials and analysts to discuss regional security amid China's strong opposition toward THAAD.



President Park Geun-hye's call for the MPK to drop the visit to China comes as the main opposition has been internally divided over the THAAD issue.



MPK interim leader Rep. Kim Chong-in has insisted that the party has no objections to the planned THAAD deployment, although he complained that the government should have consulted the National Assembly sufficiently before making its decision.



Kim Chong-in also said he has been irked by the scheduled visit of the six, who are all serving their first parliamentary terms.



Despite their claim that their visit to China is for national interests, Kim Chong-in warned that Beijing may exploit them to promote its opposition to THAAD. He pointed out that Huanqiu Shibao, a leading Chinese newspaper, covered the planned visit, Saturday, in what is seen as an attempt to widen the political rift in South Korea over THAAD-related issues.



"We should be prudent in our diplomacy with the U.S. and China," Kim said Sunday. "One should understand that the decision concerning THAAD was made in line with an alliance between Seoul and Washington. And I hope those six lawmakers are not being swayed by China."



MPK floor leader Rep. Woo Sang-ho, who approved the trip for the six legislators, disagreed with the interim leader.



"It's not too late to raise an objection after their visit or in case China really takes advantage of their trip for its own national interests," Woo said.



Kim Young-ho echoed a similar view, saying "It's the ruling Saenuri Party that should be blamed for failing to help the government in placating China."



"The purpose of the China trip is for the MPK to serve as a bridge between South Korea and China," he said. "The Saenuri Party was incompetent in using its diplomatic channels and it should encourage us instead of making harsh criticism."



The Saenuri Party called the visit "a disgrace for South Korean politics."



"The visit will only benefit China and I highly doubt whether the six lawmakers are qualified to serve in the National Assembly," said party spokesman Rep. Ji Sang-wuk. "We encourage them to drop their plan immediately."



Rep. Min Kyung-wook, another Saenuri spokesman, said Huanqiu Shibao's report is aimed at prompting conflict within South Korean politics.



"And I find it more unfortunate that those six lawmakers do not understand that China will exploit them," he said. "I encourage them to be sensible and reconsider their visit."




By Rachel Lee



Opposition lawmakers proposed a bill Sunday to ban convicted politicians and business tycoons from presidential pardons in order to prevent the president's abuse of authority.



"The special pardon should not be used as a means to whitewash conglomerate owners and the President's aides and relatives," said Rep. Lee Chan-yeol of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK), expressing hope for the revised bill to pass soon to prevent improper use of privileged sanctuary.



The proposal came days ahead of President Park Geun-hye's plan to issue a special amnesty to mark the 71st anniversary of the Liberation Day on Aug. 15 from Japanese occupation to "unite people's strength and give opportunities to rise again."



According to the revision bill, public officials convicted of bribery and criminals sentenced for embezzlement and breach of duty are excluded from the pardon list. Those who took more than 30 million won in bribes and embezzled over 500 million won cannot be pardoned, as well.



It also bans those who violated the Public Official Election Act and the Political Fund Law.



The perpetrators of crimes against humanity  including murders of civilians and human traffickers  as well as criminals who fail to serve two-thirds of their prison terms will not be pardoned, according to the revision bill.



The opposition also seeks to forbid pardons for the president's relatives and heads of government agencies and other civil officials directly appointed by the president.



The current Ministry of Justice-affiliated amnesty screening committee will belong under the President who will name judges of the committee, if the bill passes.



It also required official records of the screening process to be disclosed right after special pardons are carried out.



In Korea, the government traditionally grants amnesty on nationally significant days.



Park's special pardon this month is the third of its kind since she took office in February 2013. The first two took place in January 2014 and August last year.



The President said the pardons will be issued to help overcome the economic crisis, indicating her plan to grant clemency to jailed tycoons.



The eyes of the business community are on who will be on the list of beneficiaries among well-known conglomerate ex-prisoners, which includes Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn. In last year's Aug. 15 pardons, one corporate leader, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, made the list.




MPK urged to drop six members' visit to Beijing



By Yi Whan-woo



China should hold North Korea accountable for threatening regional security instead of criticizing South Korea for its plan to deploy an advanced U.S. missile shield, Cheong Wa Dae said Sunday.

It also urged lawmakers from the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK) to cancel their planned visit to China to discuss controversial plans for deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery in South Korea.

"It would be in the wrong order to claim that the decision to deploy THAAD is the cause of North Korea's repeated military provocations," Kim Sung-woo, the senior presidential secretary for public affairs, said in a briefing.

His remark means that President Park Geun-hye sent a firm message to the Chinese government which has strongly opposed the Park administration's decision to counter North Korea's missile and nuclear threats with the anti-missile defense battery.

North Korea's evolving nuclear and missile threats are considered the primary reason for deploying THAAD here, Kim said.

"Before raising objections to our defensive measure, we think China should strongly address North Korea for repeatedly carrying out nuclear and missile tests and putting peace and stability in Northeast Asia at risk," he added.

Kim also said the six MPK legislators who oppose the THAAD deployment should reconsider their plan to visit China to discuss the controversial issue for three days starting Monday.

The six  Reps. Kim Young-ho, Park Jeung, Shin Dong-kuen, So Byung-hoon, Kim Byung-wook and Sohn Hye-won  seek to meet Chinese officials and analysts to discuss regional security amid China's strong opposition toward THAAD.

"We hope the political circles will support the government's plan to deploy THAAD for the security of the nation and the people," Kim said.












Moroccan Ambassador to Korea Mohammed Chraibi, right, poses with Korea's Deputy Minister for Economic Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Lee Tae-ho at a reception to mark the 17th anniversary of the coronation of King Mohammed VI at Lotte Hotel Seoul on Aug. 1. / Courtesy of the Embassy of Morocco



By Rachel Lee

Moroccan Ambassador to Korea Mohammed Chraibi hosted a reception at Lotte Hotel Seoul on Aug. 1 to mark the 17th anniversary of the coronation of King Mohammed VI.

Hundreds of local and foreign envoys  including Korea's Deputy Minister for Economic Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lee Tae-ho  attended.

"Since his enthronement, his majesty King Mohammed VI has placed the human element at the center of his policies, braving all difficulties and challenges ahead," the ambassador said.

"Every Throne Day since 2009 has been an occasion for the king to announce the launch of major upcoming restructuring projects. Indeed, as a farsighted king close to his people, he undertook the bet of insuring the well-being of all Moroccans through deep, long-term and audacious reform campaigns."

Chraibi mentioned some of the king's moves: the revision of the Family Code to improve the legal status of women; the creation of the National Initiative of Human Development to adapt humanist, social considerations, and the new constitution, adopted by referendum in 2011.

"As the ambassador of Morocco in Seoul since 2009, I have had the unique chance to experience, firsthand, the development of bilateral relations with Morocco's friend and partner: the Republic of Korea," Chraibi said.

The ambassador also highlighted the special bilateral relations with Korea since 1962.

"The fruitful Moroccan-Korean relations and cooperation are exemplary on all levels and stand on firm ground," he said. "They grew significantly throughout decades of rich interactions in various fields of common interest such as politics, diplomacy, economy and culture.

"I recall that during the past few years, many high-level visits were exchanged, a great number of agreements were signed and six joint commissions were held so far."

Two more joint commissions are scheduled for Rabat and Seoul this year.

"Today our relations are, undoubtedly, at the threshold of a genuine strategic partnership which will benefit not only Morocco and Korea, but also, in turn, other countries and regions in successful triangular cooperation," the ambassador said. "It is thus mandatory to strive to live up to the expectations of our peoples and to infuse a new breath to the already excellent bilateral relations.

"A wide range of future cooperation opportunities presents itself to Morocco and Korea thanks to their bustling economies, especially in cutting-edge and forward-looking fields such as the energy, ICT, green growth, aerospace, infrastructure and automotive industries."
By Rachel Lee



Peru is very proud of its cuisine and the South American country cooked up a storm at the launch of its fourth food festival in Korea last week.



"We mark the fourth festival of Peruvian cuisine in Korea with the presence of Peruvian chef Maria Rosa Vasquez, offering the best cuisine," Ambassador Jaime Pomareda said at a reception to celebrate his country's 195th National Day at the Grand Hyatt Seoul on July 28. Hundreds of people, including local and foreign envoys and business leaders, attended.



Peruvian food, influenced by Asia and Europe, has attracted attention around the world, winning several competitions recently.



The ambassador said Lima has three of Latin America's top-five restaurants and has one that ranks fourth in world's top 10.



Since 2012, Peru has been chosen as the world's leading culinary destination by the World Travel Awards. And restaurant Astrid & Gaston was recognized in the world's best 50 in a competition sponsored by S. Pellegrino and Acqua Panna.



At the festival's launch, Vasquez presented a wide selection of authentic dishes, including marinated raw fish ceviche, chicharron and aji de gallina.



During his speech, the ambassador highlighted another special chapter that had opened with Korea after the new government was formed under President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.



"Peru and Korea base their current relationship on two fundamental pillars: the free trade agreement, valid since 2011, and the comprehensive strategic partnership, signed in 2012," Pomareda said. "In that sense, it is certain that the incoming government, headed by Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, will increase the bilateral relations with Korea in all sectors.



"We have achieved access of Peruvian mango to the Korean market, together with grapes, organic bananas and asparagus, making up the basket of Peruvian fresh fruits and vegetables in Korea. Likewise, we highlight the growing demand for natural products like maca, sacha inchi, aguaymanto and cacao nibs."



Peru's independence was first declared in 1821 by Argentine liberator Gen. Jose de San Martin. But the country's strategic position allowed foreign Royalist forces to keep a last bastion of power in the region, which threatened the security of neighboring countries.



The situation was finally resolved in 1824 with the battle of Ayacucho that secured independence.



Peru-Korea relations were established in 1963.








Turkey's foreign minister, speaking to a German newspaper, recently floated the idea of a referendum that would ask voters if they wanted their government to reintroduce the death penalty. Not revelatory, given the prevalence of capital punishment around the world. What's unsettling, however, is that the idea has surfaced amid the detentions and firings of tens of thousands of Turks  military officers, professors, teachers, judges  following the failed coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.



Do these dots connect? Or is it just coincidence that a regime focusing on its alleged foes also is chatting up the death penalty?



Since the July 15 coup attempt by a rogue element within Turkey's military, the Erdogan government's crackdown has been startling in its scope and size. The number of people suspended from their jobs is now approaching 70,000, according to The Associated Press. More than 49,000 people have had their passports revoked after being deemed possible terror suspects and thus flight risks. At least 10,000 people have been arrested since the coup. Some of those arrested have been journalists, and dozens of media outlets have been silenced.



Erdogan believes the mastermind of the coup was his primary political rival, Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric who once was a close Erdogan ally and who now lives in Pennsylvania. The crackdown is aimed at Gulenists in the military, academia, the judiciary and the media. More than 1,000 schools run by Gulen followers have been shuttered since the coup attempt.



Erdogan has asked Washington to extradite Gulen to Turkey, but he'll first have to convince American courts that there's enough evidence against the exiled scholar to charge him with a crime.



Turkey is an important U.S. ally straddling Europe and Asia  a NATO member and a key partner in the fight against Islamic State. But that doesn't mean the U.S. should look the other way as thousands are arrested and purged from their posts. So far, the Obama administration has been measured in its reaction to the crackdown. Measured, as in milquetoast. White House spokesman Josh Earnest recently told reporters, "We certainly believe that it's important, even as the Turkish government goes to great lengths to determine what exactly happened in the context of the failed coup  and to bring some accountability to those who may have been complicit in that effort  that it's critically important that the Turkish government not also undermine the very democratic institutions that, ostensibly, they're trying to protect."



Germany's foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, was more to the point, saying the Turkish government's actions following the coup attempt "are getting far out of proportion. ... When tens of thousands of civil servants, teachers and judges are dismissed, thousands of schools and education facilities shut and dozens of journalists arrested without any direct connection with the coup being discernible, we cannot simply stay silent."



Finding and trying the people behind the coup and others associated with it is a reasonable application of justice. Treason against a democratically elected government ought to be dealt with firmly  yet fairly.



But the coup shouldn't be an excuse for indiscriminate trawling of anyone perceived to be a threat. It's unlikely that Turkey was able to make ironclad links between the coup and the thousands of people arrested. Because a journalist gets a paycheck from a Gulenist newspaper, or a teacher works at a Gulenist school, doesn't mean they're connected to the coup.



Erdogan's government has to adhere to the rule of Turkish law as it continues its post-coup investigations. The Obama administration and the West have to make that clear to Erdogan's government, and should game-plan what to do if he continues ignoring that message.



Yes, that's a delicate dance for Western governments eager to keep Turkey involved in combating Islamic State. But Washington has many ways to exert pressure  none easier or more urgent than speaking often and unhappily about the crackdown, and making this point to Erdogan:



Sticking to the rule of law will serve Turkey's interests as well as the West's  rounding up masses of people indiscriminately is only going to breed more discontent. And the last thing that Istanbul needs is another desperate, destabilizing night of fear and violence.



This editorial appeared on the Chicago Tribune and was distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.




By Minxin Pei

HONG KONG  Official Chinese media are having a field day touting the dysfunction of Western democracies. Between the British vote to "Brexit" the European Union and the nomination of Donald Trump as the Republican candidate for the US presidency, not to mention increasingly frequent terrorist attacks, they have plenty of evidence. But the truth is that the West's loss is not China's gain.

The hope, of course, is that the current travails of democracies around the world could boost the credibility of the Chinese Communist Party. And, indeed, a commentary in People's Daily, the CCP's official newspaper, portrayed the Brexit vote as a reflection of the fundamental flaws of Western democracies. The same paper used Trump's rise to show that, in the American system, political leaders are "helpless" to address "complex social conflicts" like racial tensions and other sources of popular discontent.

The Global Times, an ultra-nationalist tabloid affiliated with the People's Daily, seemed to suggest that recent terrorist attacks in the West were a harbinger of some kind of democratic apocalypse. The West may be facing some mysterious and unthinkable "change," intoned the tabloid.

Given the CCP's ideological hostility to the West, and its zero-sum geopolitical mindset, such gloating should come as no surprise. Indeed, the CCP has long used challenges that arise in democratic countries as part of its never-ending effort to enhance its own legitimacy. Claiming that democracy barely works in the West, the Party argues that it would be disastrous for China. Moreover, so long as China's government is delivering consistently rising standards of living, as it has been over the last few decades, there is no need, according to the authorities, even to consider alternative systems.

But there is little evidence that democratic tumult translates into autocratic legitimacy. On the contrary, dictatorships have historically fallen, regardless of the fortune of Western democracies.

When the so-called third wave of democratization began in the mid-1970s, Western democracies were mired in stagflation and the political trauma of the Vietnam War. The fall of communism in the former Soviet bloc coincided with the reinvigoration of Western democracies in the 1980s. When the Arab Spring erupted in 2011, Western democracies were struggling with the consequences of the global financial crisis of 2008.

All of this suggests that autocrats in China should not be holding their breath for some Brexit-induced surge in support. Though stories of democratic dysfunction can give people living under autocratic rule a negative impression of democracy, the effect is most likely short-lived. As long as dictatorships mistreat their own people and fail to improve their lives, their legitimacy will be challenged.

Of course, China is no ordinary autocracy. But what makes it unique  the link between the CCP's authority and its ability to sustain economic growth  does not make its gloating any more rational. After all, one of the keys to China's economic success is its integration into a global economy dominated by the Western democracies, which buy roughly 60% of Chinese exports.

In other words, the CCP derives more legitimacy from Western democracies' success than it would from their failure. No good businessperson would hope their best customers go bankrupt. It makes little sense that the CCP is so pleased about the struggles of China's most valuable trading partners.

The factors driving the challenges facing the Western democracies today hold even worse implications for China. Support for Brexit and Trump is rooted largely in voters' rejection of globalization. Regardless of how Brexit or the US election plays out, it is very likely that governments in Western democracies will respond to voter angst and take measures that imply a return to some degree of protectionism

As the world's largest exporter, China will not escape the damaging economic consequences of such efforts. In that context, the legitimacy of the CCP, already challenged by China's economic slowdown, could erode further. Instead of gloating, China's leaders should be watching developments in the Western democracies with concern  and start planning for their own difficult times ahead.

Minxin Pei is Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College and a non-resident senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Copyright belongs to Project Syndicate.
By Kevin Watkins

LONDON  If you ever lose faith in the power of hope, not to mention the importance of never giving up, remind yourself of the story of Mohammed Kosha. A 16-year-old Syrian refugee living in Lebanon, Mohammed has overcome obstacles that most of us cannot even imagine, in order to excel in his education. World leaders should take note.

Four years ago, Mohammed and his family fled their home in the town of Darya, a suburb of Damascus, to escape relentless bombardment by Syrian armed forces. Having already lost a year of primary education in his hometown, where it was simply too dangerous to attend school, he then spent another year out of the classroom when the family arrived in Lebanon, where they now reside.

Mohammed's life changed when Lebanon's government opened the country's public schools to refugees . Classes were not only crowded; they were also conducted in English, meaning that he would have to learn a new language. But Mohammed seized the opportunity to learn, and threw himself into his studies. Last month, against all odds, he scored the second-highest marks in Lebanon's Brevet secondary-school exam. And he is not done yet.

Mohammed knows that education is the key to building a better future. In his words, "Learning gives us hope." If only world leaders had even a fraction of his wisdom.

There have been some encouraging signals. At a meeting in London in February, international donors recognized the importance of education for refugees, promising to get all of Syria's refugee children into school by the end of 2017. They even pledged $1.4 billion to achieve that goal.

It was an ambitious promise to a group of highly vulnerable children. Today, about one million Syrian refugee children aged 5-17  roughly half the total  are out of school. And most of those who are in school will drop out before starting their secondary education. In the space of a single primary-school generation, Syria has suffered what may be the greatest education reversal in history. Enrollment rates for the country's children are now well below the regional average for sub-Saharan Africa.

But now, just six months later, the promise of education for all refugees is about to be broken, dashing the hopes of millions of Syrians. Just 39% of the $662 million in urgent education aid sought by United Nations humanitarian agencies this year has been funded. And as documented in a Theirworld report published today, only a fraction of the $1.4 billion pledged in London has been delivered.

As the international community shirks its responsibilities, Syria's neighbors have continued to make extraordinary efforts to address the crisis. Lebanon, Jordan, and (to a lesser extent) Turkey have opened up their public schools to Syrian refugees.

But these countries' education systems, which were strained even before the crisis, cannot handle the burden that they are being forced to shoulder. Syrian refugees now comprise one-third of all Lebanese public-school students. This is like the American primary-school system suddenly having to absorb all of Mexico's children. There are simply not enough teachers, classrooms, or textbooks to deliver decent educations to the refugee children.

The February conference was supposed to produce solutions that would ease the burden on Syria's neighbors. Host-country governments did their part, preparing in advance their plans for delivering universal education to refugee children. They then worked with donors to develop comprehensive strategies for reaching all out-of-school children and raising the quality of education.

Yet, with the international community having failed to hold up its end of the bargain, progress has not just stalled; it could be reversed. More than 80,000 Syrian refugees now in school in Lebanon are at risk of losing their places.

The human consequences of the education crisis among Syrian refugees are impossible to miss. They are apparent in the growing army of child laborers picking vegetables in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley or working at garment factories in Turkey, where a half-million refugees are out of school. They are also reflected in the continuing flow of refugee families making the perilous journey to Europe, driven by the hope that their children will have educational opportunities there. Yet many European governments continue to invest in razor wire and detention centers, rather than in schools and teachers.

There is an alternative  but the clock is ticking. Next month, the UN and the United States will host another round of refugee summits. This time, governments can leave their recycled promises and heady rhetoric at home; instead, they should carry with them concrete plans to deliver the $1.4 billion they have already pledged.

The international community must also rethink how aid is delivered. The Syrian crisis will not end any time soon. Instead of delivering aid through unreliable, underfunded annual humanitarian appeals, donors need to provide predictable multi-year funding, as the United Kingdom has done. More generally, the European Union and the World Bank should expand and intensify their support for education.

Of course, more donor finance for education is only part of the equation. There is more that host-country governments, however overstretched, can and should be doing. For starters, they should be working to remove the language barriers facing Syrian children. They could also address chronic teacher shortages through expedient recruitment of Syrian refugee teachers. Above all, host governments could help refugees become more secure and self-reliant, notably by upgrading their legal status and expanding the right to work.

Ultimately, though, a credible response to the refugee education crisis must involve a fairer approach to burden-sharing. Before heading for the UN summit treadmill next month, governments should review the promises they made at the London conference. And they should recall Nelson Mandela's dictum: "Promises to children should never be broken."
By Yi Whan-woo



A team of South Korean sailors will visit Japan next month as part of its annual training on marine navigation, the defense ministry said Sunday, showing the latest sign that the two sides are moving to expand bilateral military exchanges.



It said the Cruise Training Task Group, consisting of the 4,400-ton destroyer Yi Sun-shin and the 4,200-ton logistic support ship Chunji, will visit Tokyo Sept. 8 to 11 with around 600 sailors aboard in their tour of 12 countries. The group will also travel to the United States, Russia, Australia and Singapore before returning home in December.



This is the first time since 2011 that the training group will visit Japan, fueling speculation that Seoul and Tokyo are trying to bolster military ties amid Pyongyang's growing military threats.



"The annual training comes as part of efforts to bolster South Korea's alliance with friendly nations, and the visit to Tokyo will contribute to military ties between the two neighbors," said Yang Uk, a senior research fellow at the Korea Defense and Security Forum.



"The South Korean sailors will be able to share experience with the Japanese, get to know each other better, and strengthen relations in the long term."



Yang cited that the 600 sailors include cadets from the Naval Academy. The cadets will graduate the school next year and will be commissioned as officers.



Yang said building military ties with Japan will be critical to better deter North Korea's nuclear and missile threats.



"The geographical features of Japan allow the country to monitor North Korea's military activities from various angles using their intelligence assets," he said.



He also said the annual training may help resume discussion of the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) aimed at sharing classified military intelligence on North Korea between South Korea and Japan.



The two sides initially planned to sign the GSOMIA in 2012 under the government of Lee Myung-bak.



But the plan was scrapped following protests from South politicians and civic activists who have insisted on first resolving unsettled historical disputes involving the Japanese military.



The territorial disputes between the two countries over South Korea's easternmost islets Dokdo disrupted the talks.



"It would be too much to say the annual training will lead to GSOMIA. But the training may serve as a stepping stone to resume all necessary measures to begin discussion of GSOMIA."




By Chang Se-moon

Catalyst is someone who makes something happen, or something to change, usually for the better. For instance, President Park Geun-hye is a catalyst in Korea having an access to many new global markets. For another example, Samsung and Hyundai are catalysts for placing Korea among the most advanced countries in global technology.

Catalyst in North Korean issues has a special meaning as defined by Henry Song, North America director of the No Chainfor North Korea, known also as the Association of North Korean Political Victims and Their Families.

According to Song, catalysts in North Korean issues refer to activists and defectors "who send in information to the outside world"; "unknown individual North Korean citizen who passes the USB stick with outside content to his or her close friends or family members"; those in North Korea who sell and distribute outside materials at jangmadang, i.e., marketplace in North Korea; and "North Korean citizen, be it a man, woman, child, or member of the elite or a regular citizen, whose mind is opened to the reality and truth of the outside world and wanting freedom and liberty."

I want to add many more catalysts so far as North Korean issues are concerned. These include theUnited Nations Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea; Amnesty International which is a global movement of more than 7 million people in over 150 countries and territories who "campaign to end abuses of human rights"; Human Rights Watch which is a nonprofit, nongovernmental human rights organization that "investigate abuses, expose the facts widely, and pressure those with power to respect rights and secure justice," and the Peterson Institute for International Economics that continues to release latest news on North Korea through blogs prepared by Marcus Noland and Stephan Haggard.

There are more. Daily NK tries to "defend the human rights of the North Korean People" by seeing "the people of North Korea as separate from their regime."Daily NK releases a large amount of on-site information in North Korea not available through other channels. NK News is a valuable source of information about North Korea with their website containing many informative articles.

The Oslo (Norway) Freedom Forum is organized by the Human Rights Foundation, and annually brings together the world's leading human rights activists to "discuss how best to promote human rights and open societies worldwide." The theme of this year's forum, held in May, happened to be Catalysts, focusing partly on North Korea. The Human Rights Foundationis a nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies such as North Korea.

There are many more. A 2011 U.S. Congressional Research Service publication titled "Non-Governmental Organizations' Activities in North Korea" by Mi Ae Taylor and Mark E. Manyin mentions a number of NGOs that had worked in North Korea. These include: the Mennonite Central Committee (Canada), First Steps (Canada), the Eugene Bell Foundation (United States/South Korea), Christian Friends of Korea (United States), the Canadian Food Grains Bank, and the Hanns Seidel and the Friedrich Naumann Foundations (Germany).

I once made a presentation during a conference on North Korea at Seoul National University that was sponsored by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.

According to Taylor and Manyin, "in 1996, InterAction, a U.S. NGO consortium comprising more than 150 U.S. NGOs, initiated a process of facilitating and coordinating humanitarian relief with its members in North Korea." Responding to the U.N. World Food Program and the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization's call for aid to North Korea in 2008, the U.S. State Department selected World Vision, Mercy Corps, Samaritan's Purse, Global Resource Services, and Christian Friends of Korea to distribute this aid.

Dianne E. Rennack of the Congressional Research Service has also prepared several excellent reports especially on economic sanctions imposed on North Korea.

I can still think of more. Radio Free Asia broadcasts toNorth Korea. New Focus "publishes North Korea insights, reports and analyses that are editorially shaped by firsthand experiences and perspectives; and maintains access with correspondents inside North Korea." Their website, newfocusintl.com, is "produced by"those who lived and worked in North Korea. The New Korea Women's Union promotes human rights of women who live in North Korea as well as who escaped from North Korea.

What changes will these individuals and organizations bring to North Korea? Consider that their direct and indirect contacts with North Korean people, as well as tens of thousands of North Korean workers who are sent to other countries to earn precious foreign currencies for their leadership, have become an important source of information on outside world to many North Koreans. This information will reach the point that is beyond the control of North Korean leaders, and likely lead to the melt-down of North Korea. With so many North Koreans fleeing to South Korea in recent days, the melt-down may already have begun.

Chang Se-moon is the director of the Gulf Coast Center for Impact Studies. Write to him at: changsemoon@yahoo.com.
Keum Ki-chang stands next to a tomotherapy machine, which enables doctors to treat cancer patients with image-guided intensity modulated radiotherapy. Severance Hospital plans to set up the system for particle therapy using carbon ions by 2020. /Courtesy of Hong So-hyun



Patients need to be better informed about treatment options'

By Jung Min-ho, Kim Eil-chul

Six years ago, a patient with a tricky form of cancer visited Severance Hospital. A tumor was growing fast behind his eye, not far from his delicate optic nerve.

After considering the tumor's location, radiation oncologist Keum Ki-chang came to the conclusion that tomotherapy, an image-guided intensity-modulated radiation therapy, would work best for the patient, so he went for it.

After receiving tomotherapy as well as drug treatment for several months, the patient fully recovered. "He has not experienced any side effects since and now looks healthy as if he was never ill," Keum, vice director of Yonsei Cancer Center, said in an interview.

However, his fate would have been very different if he had taken the advice of some people to receive surgery instead.

"To reach the tumor, a surgeon had to cut open his cheekbone. It would have been a major operation, which could lead him to a loss of his eyesight or something else," Keum said. "His life certainly wouldn't be the same."

A few years ago, Keum also treated a flight attendant with an aggressive tongue cancer. "Surgery would have been the only, albeit ineffective, treatment option for patients like her about 10 years ago. The young woman was fortunate to tomotherapy. She is perfectly fine now," he said.

Radiotherapy, or radiation therapy, is a method of treatment using Ionizing radiation, which damages the DNA of cancerous tissue leading to cellular death. The therapy may be used in combination with surgery or chemotherapy  two other main cancer treatment methods.

The best part of radiotherapy is that most of its side effects are predictable and limited only to the body area that radiation affects, unlike those of surgery and chemotherapy. Radiotherapy is also considered less painful than the two.

"And yet radiotherapy remains underused in most Korean hospitals. Many patients receive surgery without being informed about other treatment options and possible consequences," Keum said. "This is because surgeons usually exert the biggest influence in making decisions for treatment, and they tend to follow the familiar pattern of surgery first.'"

For example, he noted, about 60 percent of prostate cancer patients in Korea receive surgery and many of them end up with side effects such as urinary incontinence and impotence. He said the surgery rate is higher than it should be, compared with those in the United States and other developed countries.

"The use of radiotherapy for more patients is not the point," he said. "The important thing is to find the best combination of weapons to fight various types of cancer. This can be achieved only if doctors with different specialties become more open-minded and better communicate with one another.

"Doctors have more weapons to fight cancer than ever before, and they are responsible for how to make the best use of what they have. When they do, they can make the difference between life and death."

Last year, Severance Hospital's radiation oncology department added robotic intensity modulated radiation therapy, which uses multiple small photon beams of radiation to irradiate tumors, to its "weapons list," becoming the first hospital in Korea to do so. It also plans to set up the system for particle therapy using carbon ions by 2020.

Keum hopes that the new therapy will enable the hospital to cure more conditions that are currently considered untreatable by any other means.

"Saving lives is one thing, but in doing so, we (doctors) should think more about how to minimize the damage patients have to live with for the rest of their lives," he said. "That, in my view, is the new standard of good medicine."





Keum, one of the most renowned radiology oncologists in Korea, speaks during an interview with The Korea Times. /Courtesy of Hong So-hyun



Reviving the spirit of Horace Newton Allen

Medicine in Korea used to be all about giving without expecting anything in return. Reviving the spirit of Horace Newton Allen, an American missionary who established Gwanghyewon, the first modern medical facility in the country and the predecessor of Severance Hospital, is one of Keum's goals as the vice director of Severance's cancer center.

"When it comes to equipment and manpower, Yonsei Cancer Center is world class. There's no doubt about it," he said. "But simply having great technologies and medical workers does not make the hospital great. We need the spirit of Allen."

At a time when money controls almost anything, including in medicine, he believes doctors should take Allen's spirit seriously in doing their work. "Not long ago, that's how Korea received medicine. We should not forget that," he said.

"When no one wanted him, Allen risked his life to come here and served people in need. His altruistic devotion touched many people's hearts."

As part of this effort, Keum and Director Noh Sung-hoon have reflected the perspectives and needs of patients in transforming Yonsei Cancer Center over the past few years.

"One of the things we focus on is to provide special pain care.' Pain is an important issue for patients but is often overlooked by doctors. Under the slogan of Painless Hospital,' we have tried hard to prevent and solve issues of pain," Keum said.

Another focus has been minimizing unnecessary medical checkups and procedures. Two years ago, patients with breast cancer had to receive radiotherapy 33 times, but the center has reduced that number to 16 times, based on the latest research results showing the same effect could be achieved with fewer treatments.

In addition, many patients often complain about a lack of explanation on the treatment they receive. To solve this problem, Keum has led the "Good Doctor Team" of 49 doctors and 17 coordinators since 2014. "Our primary mission is to provide patients with the psychological care and medical information they need," he said.

The center has also challenged one of the most disturbing hospital cultures in Korea. "We have banned collecting blood from patients and checking their blood pressure at dawn except for serious cases. We concluded that the practice has long been conducted in Korea hospitals mainly for the convenience of doctors, not patients. So we wanted to change it," he said.

"All these changes may seem trivial to some people. But what we are trying to do is changing the way we look at medicine, into the way Allen looked at it."
Assembly needs to address loopholes in current system



One of the biggest frustrations of average Korean workers is that they have been paying more taxes while incomes remain stagnant. Resistance to taxation is higher than ever among workers because they are unconvinced that the current tax system is fair. Many don't believe that their taxes are being spent wisely or that they benefit from paying such high taxes.



The average taxpayer is right to be angry, as a recent state report confirms that workers are shouldering more taxes on their incomes than before. According to the latest National Tax Service (NTS) report, tax revenues totaled 208 trillion won in 2015, the highest since the NTS was established in 1966. Income tax revenue showed an almost 50 percent increase in the last five years, while corporate and value-added tax rates saw little change. Public indignation toward taxes will only grow unless measures are taken to mend the current system, which is seen by many as benefiting only the rich.



Many workers believe the tax burden has consistently increased during the Park Geun-hye administration. President Park took office pledging "welfare without tax hikes," but that pledge has failed. Welfare spending is already approaching 10 percent of Korea's GDP and the government will find it harder to manage the costs. It is imperative for the National Assembly and the government to fix structural problems in the current system.



One of the most glaring fallacies of the current system lies in the fact that almost 50 percent of workers are not paying income taxes. A recent report found that the ratio of people exempt from paying income taxes is much higher than most advanced countries. According to statistics, 48 percent of the workers aren't paying any income taxes due to various benefits as a result of a previous tax revision. This figure is much higher than the 15.8 percent of Japanese and 22.6 percent of Canadians who are exempt from paying income taxes. The ratio, which stood at 32 percent in 2012, soared to above 48 percent following the tax revision, meaning that one out of two workers are not paying taxes. Parties should first address the excessive high ratio of income tax exemptions.



It is timely that the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK) has started a debate on tax revisions with a set of proposals last week to raise taxes on high-income earners. The main opposition's revision plan would place more tax burden on the upper brackets while providing more benefits to lower earners. The MPK's proposal to levy a 41 percent tax on those who annually earn more than 500 million won, from the current highest income tax rate of 38 percent, is sensible. The proposed figure is still lower than the OECD average of 43.3 percent.



The MPK's plan also has problems, as it lacks measures to broaden tax sources. Its proposal to impose a hike on corporate tax  to 25 percent from the current 22 percent on big companies with annual profits above 50 billion won  should also be given careful consideration. The share of Korea's corporate tax to its GDP is 3.2 percent which already exceeds the OECD average of 2.9 percent. This proposal will strain domestic manufacture.



Ahead of the regular Assembly session, parties should actively engage in productive discussions to mend the tax system with the goal of reducing the wealth gap. Many experts say that broadening tax sources should be accompanied by a tax hike on high income earners.




By Andrei Lankov

Many, if not most, Westerners with a passing interest in North Korea tend to believe that in the bygone days of the Communist bloc the Soviet Union and North Korea were close allies. This is a gross mistake.

While relations between Moscow and Pyongyang were initially quite close, from the late 1950s they deteriorated rapidly and significantly. Hence, the 1960 to 1990 period can be best described as a time of a pragmatic alliance driven not by any ideological solidarity but rather by cold, practical geopolitical concerns.

It is true that the North Korean state came into existence in the late 1940s as a result of Soviet-inspired and Soviet-controlled social engineering. It might be a bit excessive to describe North Korea in 1945-50 as a "Soviet puppet state", but the level of micromanagement of North Korean affairs by Soviet officials stationed in the country then was high.

However, it was not only the Soviets who were using Kim Il-sung, but also Kim using the Soviets, and at the end of the day, it was Kim who came out on top. In the 1950s, while still producing large quantities of pro-Soviet, politically correct rhetoric, Kim Il-sung gradually removed all officials too close to Moscow. Many of these people were former Soviet officials of Korean ethnic extraction dispatched to North Korea before the Korean War. In the late 1950s, skillfully utilizing growing hostility between the Soviet Union and China, Kim Il-sung managed nearly completely to rid his country of Soviet influence, becoming arguably the most independent of all communist rulers at the time.

Relations between Moscow and Pyongyang had turned sour, with several North Korean officials and intellectuals, including the then North Korean ambassador in Moscow, defecting and granted asylum _ much to the chagrin of Pyongyang. At the same time, purges of pro-Soviet elements continued, and the most well known were either exiled or imprisoned, but the less well known suffered much, perishing in labor camps or mining colonies. Intellectuals close to Russia were also largely purged.

In the early 1960s, the North Korean government moved to dissolve mixed marriages. Those North Koreans who had studied in the USSR and had married Soviet citizens (mainly North Korean men to Soviet women) were ordered to get divorced or be exiled. Soviet citizens were then either forcibly deported or not allowed to return when they visited relatives in the USSR.

The purge of Soviet publications also began. Most translations of Soviet fiction were suddenly found to be ideologically suspect and moved to special sections of libraries closed to the public. After 1967, it even became illegal to keep foreign (including Soviet) literature at home, though this ban ceased to be enforced in the early 1980s (maybe due to the rise of Kim Jong-il).

At the same time, academic and cultural exchanges were dramatically reduced or halted. In 1958, after the defection of some North Korean students in Moscow (all of them were granted asylum by Soviet authorities), the North Korean government decided not to allow its students to study abroad in other socialist bloc countries. In Bulgaria, then the closest Soviet ally in Europe, the group defection of North Korean students (all granted asylum by the Bulgarian government) led to a complete interruption of diplomatic relations, which remained frozen for a few years in the 1960s. Student exchanges with the Communist bloc were only resumed in the late 1970s.

In 1962-4, postal exchanges between North Korea and the Soviet Union were effectively halted, again only to resume some 15 years later in the late 1970s. North Korean letter writers sometimes got their letters back marked "addressee unknown", or just didn't get a response. Only increasingly rare visitors were able occasionally to smuggle in letters.

The Soviet Union also did not show much sympathy toward North Korea in those decades. The Soviet media remained largely silent about North Korea, while the majority of "fraternal" communist countries enjoyed extensive coverage in the Soviet newspapers of the period. In lectures for party activists and education personnel (technically off-limits to the public), selected attendees were told rather critical (if generally correct) stories about North Korea's mad personality cult and growing economic problems, as well as its rather tense relations with the Soviet Union.

Despite this, Soviet aid continued to flow into North Korea because the Soviet Union needed the country as a buffer near its eastern borders and also did not want Pyongyang to side with Beijing in the intense Sino-Soviet dispute of the period. Nonetheless, relations remained testy until the mid-1980s, when they briefly improved only to collapse again around 1990. So, it might have been an alliance, but it must have been an uneasy one.
By Kim Yoo-chul



Samsung Electronics is shifting its business focus from business growth to profits as it prepares for a transition to the post-smartphone age under the leadership of Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong.



No company is facing challenges as high as Samsung, but under the new leader it has decided to make a major change to its old sales structure.



"Samsung Electronics has been doing very well focusing on devices such as TVs and smartphones, the right items that can fit with the company's manufacturing strengths, but there is a point when returns will slow and there's no visible way to change that," a senior Samsung executive said, last week.



He said Samsung can technically afford to continue with the status quo. "But our conventional business models are increasingly being challenged. We need change."



Given this, Samsung identified car-components as its next focus and is in talks with Fiat-Chrysler to acquire the automaker's parts division  Magneti Marelli  for up to $3 billion.



A Samsung Electronics spokesman in Seoul declined to comment until an official announcement is made.



Market analysts view Samsung's newer business strategy favorably as the car-component business is another "good fit" for the firm given its advantage in chips, displays and sensors.



The group has Samsung SDI for batteries, Samsung Electro-Mechanics for camera modules and Samsung Display for displays, as its technology affiliates, as well as Samsung Electronics.



"The acquisition of Magneti Marelli will be beneficial," said Lee Seung-woo at IBK Investment, adding the purchase will help Samsung save time in expanding its presence in the car-components business in line with the ongoing moves by Apple and Google to invest more in driverless vehicle-related systems.



Samsung has so far been reluctant to strike big overseas deals as it's not that confident it can to realize the so-called "chemical combination" with an acquired company given Samsung's rigid corporate and mission-oriented culture.



Earlier, Samsung dropped its $4 billion bid to acquire U.S.-based flash memory designer SanDisk due to this.



"But this time will be different. This is a matter of survival," said another Samsung official.



As he said, Vice Chairman Lee is leading the way to drop noncore business units and invest more in businesses with growth potential. Samsung has exited the defense and chemical businesses.



Of course, Samsung should address numerous issues before being recognized as a global supplier in car components, which are required to have stricter quality standards.



Samsung Electronics has weaker reference in the car components business as an underdog. "That's why Samsung is impressed to see solid sales channels owned by Magneti Marelli in Europe," he said.



It's uncertain whether or not Samsung will close the deal as planned. However, Vice Chairman Lee has solid contacts with global carmakers.



Since 2010, the de-facto leader has been working as an external board committee member at Exor, Fiat-Chrysler's holding company. Lee regularly exchanges views with top management at BMW, Toyota and Ford.



"Vice Chairman Lee attended Exor's board meeting held in Torino, Italy, early May. He is known to have talked with top management of the Fiat group over several issues."
By Lee Min-hyung



Sony Korea is expanding its dominance in Korea's mirrorless camera market on the back of its premium branding strategy.



The local subsidiary of the Japan-based electronics giant has achieved good growth in the local mirrorless camera market since entering it in 2010. As of this April, the company posted a 62 percent share in the market here, up drastically from 37 percent in 2012.



The growth is noticeable at a time when the digital camera market is showing signs of falling on the rise of smartphones with high-quality camera lenses.



Sony Korea said it has been the market leader in the local mirrorless interchangeable lens camera industry for six consecutive years since 2010.



"A branding strategy is at the center of the growth of our mirrorless camera business here," said Bae Ji-hoon, Alpha marketing head at Sony Korea. "To build a reliable brand image, we adopted Carl Zeiss lens on our Alpha mirrorless series. We have since won an explosive response from customers, as Sony has succeeded in proving that compact mirrorless cameras can also take high-quality pictures comparable to DSLRs.



"The growth has also reshaped the traditional DSLR-based camera industry."



The company said it will continue to strengthen its foothold in the mirrorless market this year by continuing to enhance its brand identity with premium lens brand G Master.



"When we first launched the Alpha brand in 2006, we had only one entry-level product and 10 lenses," the Sony Korea Alpha marketing head said.



"But our mirrorless lineup now holds 13 cameras, with 70 kinds of lenses.



"With the G Master premium brand, we are going to differentiate ourselves from other camera manufacturers and hold a series of marketing campaigns as a leading mirrorless brand. The move reflects our core business strategy: building a strong and reliable brand image on a mid- to long-term basis."



He cited a strong bond with customers as another key reason for the company's mirrorless camera success here.



"Existing camera companies focused solely on communications with advertisers and experts," he said. "But our Alpha team has pushed for more active communication with end users, allowing us to release more customer-friendly products."




The SLFP does not condone the continuation of the Emergency Regulations (The Public Security Ordinance) more than a day necessary

Read more
QUESTION: Our new board of directors, which we worked hard to get elected, finally fired our very bad property manager. Before the manager left his position he tried to remove the newly elected board and get his old director buddies back on the board.

The former manager wrote a petition to remove the entire new board. He used our associations copy machine to make copies and faxed the petition from our associations office to select owners. To get the necessary 5% signatures to start the removal process, he used our roster of titleholder names and telephone numbers to call owners instructing them to sign the petition. He specifically targeted the off-site owners telling them what I think were lies in order to obtain signatures.

The majority of homeowners objected to his phoning them and to the petition to remove the newly elected board because it was not written and distributed by owners. Our association attorney said the petition is still valid because the corporations code does not specifically state that a manager cant initiate, write, or distribute a petition to remove the board. Is our attorney correct?

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ANSWER: Just because the corporations code does not specifically state that a manager cant initiate, write, or distribute a petition to remove the board does not mean those actions could hold up in court. The lone fact that a petition originates from a non-property owner may not by itself negate its validity, but the totality of the circumstances as described could do so.

The former managers actions included the unauthorized use of association resources and materials for campaign purposes. Even if the former manager were still employed by the association at the time of these actions, Civil Code section 5135 expressly prohibits the use of association funds for campaign purposes in connection with any association board election. That section defines campaign purposes as advocating the election or defeat of any candidate that is on the association election ballot.

Moreover, a former employee who uses his or her former employers resources without that employers consent is stealing. Because those resources belong to the association, it has a cause of action against this former manager, and anyone aiding and abetting him, for reimbursement of expenses incurred in his improper endeavor  and any resulting damages.

The allegation that the manager told lies to titleholders for the purpose of influencing votes is even more troubling. It raises the question of whether he may have interfered in prior elections.

A manager, especially a former manager, lacks the requisite vested interest in the association to be able to participate in its governance. Accordingly, a manager who takes actions beyond the scope of his or her employment, let alone for an improper purpose, may be interfering with the associations business.

The petition should be invalidated by the present board and if an election did in fact take place, owners should challenge it.

An attorney specializing in business transactions and breach by fiduciaries will be able to discuss several legal remedies the association can utilize against this former manager and any former directors who acted in concert.

Zachary Levine, a partner at Wolk & Levine, a business and intellectual property law firm, co-wrote this column. Vanitzian is an arbitrator and mediator. Send questions to Donie Vanitzian, JD, P.O. Box 10490, Marina del Rey, CA 90295 or noexit@mindspring.com

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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
Scott Folsom, a freelance Hollywood producer who never made a big splash in show business, found his true calling in another role, that of official and unofficial watchdog over the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Folsom, 69, died Thursday after a two-year battle with cancer that almost never kept him from school board meetings or disabled his mildly acerbic, perceptive and long-running blog: 4LAKids.

For many in L.A., Folsom was the face of the Parent Teacher Student Assn., better known as the PTSA or PTA. His involvement began more than two decades ago, not long after his daughter Alana enrolled in Mt. Washington Elementary. He served in just about every capacity possible in the state and local PTSA.

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As a parent representative, he also held many district positions. Starting in 2001, the Board of Education appointed him to the Bond Oversight Committee, which oversaw the nations largest school-construction program. He served on that committee longer than any other individual, asking probing questions that made projects better or more efficient.

He could be a burr in your saddle, former L.A. Unified Supt. Roy Romer said in a recent Steve Lopez column about Folsom. But generally he was there when I needed him to help get the job done.

See the most-read stories in Local News this hour >>

Added Romer: He was one of the keys...and we were on a remarkable roll. We built about $19 billion worth of schools.

L.A. schools Supt. Michelle King and school board President Steve Zimmer issued a joint statement: He was, in many ways, the conscience of this district, supporting what was best for students, including arts programs, health services and health education.

On his blog or on a committee, Folsom could be counted on to speak his mind, including when he raised early, prescient concerns about district plans to provide an iPad to every student  a costly venture that eventually collapsed under political, technical and budgeting hurdles.

In his last blog entry, on July 10, Folsom gently chided Their Excellences on the school, who preached the virtues of conciseness before reelecting Zimmer as president.

Steve is a dear friend  and brevity has never been his strongest point.In the end the meeting collapsed into a deep, robust and verbose discussion about brevity. We have met the enemy, the cartoon possum says. And he is us!

Folsom was born in San Diego on June 17, 1947, to a commercial pilot and an actress  the family moved Los Angeles in time for Folsom to receive his entire grade-school education in L.A. Unified. He graduated from Hollywood High in 1966.

He never took his own schooling past coursework at Los Angeles Community college; his family isnt sure he earned a degree.

He never felt that school was teaching him the things he needed, said his wife Linda. He felt he was smarter than the teachers and he probably was.

Later, Folsom would become a passionate defender of teachers and their work.

After a job in a construction office, Folsom pursued Hollywood production work, where he met his wife, who had a knack and drive for production that Folsom lacked. She developed a successful career at Disney, while her husband plunged into L.A. Unified and the neighborhood council.

Volunteering gave him a more grounded sense of self, said his daughter Alana.

It was the thing that kept him going, said Linda, having that purpose.

Besides his wife and daughter, Folsom is survived by step-brother Gerrit Folsom, step-sister Lindsey Folsom and his father Samuel.

howard.blume@latimes.com

Twitter: @howardblume

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It was early July and a serial killer was attacking homeless men in their sleep.

Patrick Brady walked past a surveillance photo of the suspect tacked up near the elevators in the lobby at Alpha Square, an East Village apartment complex for homeless and low-income people. When the elevator doors opened, Jon David Guerrero walked out.

The 39-year-old, who mostly went by his middle name, would later be arrested, accused of using railroad spikes and a hammer to brutally kill three homeless men and critically injure two others in the 12-day spree of attacks.

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That day in early July, Brady entered the elevator. As the doors closed, Guerrero suddenly stuck his head into the elevator and jumped back inside. He had been acting strangely over the last few weeks and was covered in sweat, Brady said.

Either he was high or he had just gotten done with one of those killings, said Brady, 55.

San Diegos Metro Arson Strike Team and SDPD homicide team gather evidence from the sidewalk and grassy area where a homeless person was attacked in downtown San Diego. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune )

Since that elevator ride, Brady hasnt shaken the feeling that Guerrero was the killer police were after.

Guerrero, who will be evaluated by a court-appointed psychiatrist to determine if he is mentally competent to stand trial, seems to have led a reclusive life, troubled by crimes and mental illness.

A Coronado native, Guerreros grubby getup in high school led to the nickname Grubbit. Former Coronado High School classmates said he was often shoeless, shirtless and dirty. He liked to surf and hung out with people who smoked pot and did other drugs, old classmates said.

After high school, Guerrero, who graduated in 1995, was in and out of Coronado until he moved away around 2000. Before he left, he had a child with a Coronado woman three years younger than him. Former classmates said hes never been a part of the childs life.

The woman did not respond to requests for an interview.

Guerreros mental illness took full hold of him when he was about 22, according to court records. It also marked the onset of his criminal history. In cases from 1999 to 2001, he was convicted of burglary, grand theft and possession of stolen items.

Then, in 2008, he pleaded guilty to charges of burglary, grand theft and possession of marijuana and narcotics paraphernalia. Kathleen Guerrero wrote several letters to the court, saying her son didnt do well on probation because he had trouble following directions and keeping track of time and appointments.

She tried to get him psychiatric treatment in jail, expressing concerns that, without it, he would revert to previous self-destructive behaviors.

Guerrero was again arrested in 2009 and pleaded guilty to robbery for knocking down a homeless woman and stealing her bicycle several times. While on probation, he violated the conditions, was found not mentally competent and sent to Patton State Hospital.

In arguing for a lesser sentence, his attorney wrote that Guerrero hears good and bad voices when his medication wears off, but that he could live a normal, productive life on appropriate medications.

Records show mental health cases filed in 2008, 2009 and 2011. Court records say Guerrero suffered from schizophrenia and was considered disabled. At one point, he was receiving monthly injections of Haldol, a type of anti-psychotic medication.

Guerrero has lived in an independent living facility and, more recently in downtown San Diego. He lived at Hotel Metro, a low-income housing project, for about two years. Residents there dubbed him Farmer John because he grew marijuana in his room. At the time he had a vehicle, provided by his sister, and seemed content.

Brady, who considered Guerrero a good friend at the time, said he started keeping to himself when residents at Hotel Metro were relocated to Alpha Square, on 14th and Market streets, upon its completion in January.

Residents there described Guerrero as a recluse who didnt make much of an impression.

Dameon Ditto met Guerrero at Hotel Metro, where the two only greeted each other in passing. It was at Alpha Square that the fifth-floor residents became relatively close, particularly after Guerrero began taking Dittos art classes, which are free to residents, in April. Ditto described Guerreros art as dark.

His artwork depicted skeletons, black mountains ... Some stuff that scared me after the fact, Ditto said. I didnt really think much of it at the time.

Guerrero showed a particular creative interest in rocks, turning beach stones and shells into Flinstones-like car figures, Ditto said.

To fashion the handmade cars, Guerrero presumably used a large hammer-like tool Ditto saw him carrying.

I figured he was using that to chip away rocks, Ditto said.

Last week, Deputy Dist. Atty. Makenzie Harvey said Guerrero is suspected of using a hammer and railroad spikes to kill or maim the five victims while they were sleeping.

On July 6, Angelo DeNardo, 53, was found dead with spikes driven into his head and chest, Harvey said. DeNardo was then torched.

The next day, Manuel Mason, 61, had a railroad spike driven into his sinus cavity in the Midway District. He survived but was rendered blind, Harvey said. Less than two hours later, Shawn Longley, 41, was slain in Ocean Beach.

On July 6, Dionicio Vahidy, 23, was attacked in downtown San Diego. Witnesses heard loud noises and saw a man set another on fire. Vahidy died three days later.

The last victim in the series was found July 15 in Golden Hill, where a 55-year-old man was critically injured. A railroad spike was found near the site of the last three crimes, Harvey said.

An hour after the last attack, officers found Guerrero and arrested him. Police found a hammer, railroad spikes and the identification of two of the victims in the backpack Guerrero was wearing.

That day, detectives spent hours combing through Guerreros studio, collecting bags of items, Alpha Square residents said. Harvey said police found a bucket that contained rocks, railroad ties and other spikes.

Bob McElroy, executive director of the Alpha Project, a homeless-services organization that runs Alpha Square, said residents were unnerved and dismayed to learn someone in their circle was arrested.

Perhaps no one was more affected than Guerreros mother, McElroy said, describing her as a homeless advocate.

She was there all the time, getting him food, giving him cards for Albertsons across the street, he said. He not only murdered three people, he killed her too. Shes devastated.

Guerreros parents did not respond to requests for an interview.

McElroy said that extra outreach teams worked with the homeless community to identify the killer, including plastering pictures inside Alpha Square, all while the suspect was right upstairs.

McElroy described Guerrero as quiet and polite and compared him to the Jeffrey Dahmers and the Ted Bundys of the world.

Unassuming, non-confrontational, he said. They are always the last ones you would think. People were totally shocked.

david.hernandez@sduniontribune.com

lyndsay.winkley@sduniontribune.com

Hernandez and Winkley write for the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The Soberanes fire in Monterey County grew to more than 57,500 acres Sunday while firefighters continued to battle several other wildfires around California.

More than 5,100 firefighters are battling the Soberanes blaze, which was 45% contained as of Sunday morning. Air tankers, helicopters, bulldozers and at least 300 fire engines have been deployed to the fire, about eight miles south of Carmel.

The fire has claimed one life, injured three others and destroyed 57 homes and 14 other structures.

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The victim, Robert Reagan III, was a bulldoze operator who suffered fatal injuries while battling the fire some time after he was called in on July 26.

At least 650 people have been evacuated from their homes along the coast, and evacuation orders for various sections of the Pacific Coast Highway near the blaze are still active.

Firefighters have also been forced to rescue people tending to illegal marijuana growing operations when the flames surrounded them.

Steep and rugged terrain have hampered firefighting efforts and smoke plumes have blocked out the sun in certain areas of the fire, preventing the use of helicopters and planes. Gusty, shifting winds grew the blazes southwestern portion overnight.

Its spreading southeast and southwest, said Rigo Herrera, Cal Fire public information officer.

The northern portion of the fire near Carmel has been burned black and is mostly inactive, Herrera said.

The second largest active fire in the state, the Cold Fire, has burned more than 5,385 acres at the southern tip of Lake Berryessa in Northern California, said Cal Fire spokeswoman Christina Barker. No structures or people have been harmed, and the blaze is 50% contained. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

The Goose Fire in Fresno County  the third largest active fire in the state  had burned 2,241 acres as of Sunday and destroyed 9 buildings. The fire was 94% contained Sunday morning, and about 225 total firefighters were extinguishing hot spots and cutting containment lines.

Meanwhile, fire crews battling the Sand fire in Santa Clarity County are in cleanup mode, stamping out hot spots, patrolling the fires perimeter and repairing roads. The Sand Fire ignited on July 22 and has since burned more than 41,000 acres and caused one death.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

frank.shyong@latimes.com

Twitter: @frankshyong

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When Oscar Leong graduated from his Los Angeles high school four years ago, he ranked second in his class, with a 4.4 GPA and a scholarship to Swarthmore College, where he planned to major in astrophysics.

But Leong, the son of Mexican immigrants, struggled his freshman year, working the hardest hed ever worked to earn just a B- in introductory physics.

His confidence shaken, Leong began to wonder if he was really cut out for Swarthmore. He considered transferring, or at least dropping his major.

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I told myself, Im not as smart as I thought I was, he said.

Leongs experience reflects a troubling reality in American higher education: Despite the strong emphasis in recent years on encouraging students to pursue science and technology fields, little progress has been made to change the makeup of those receiving college and graduate degrees in those fields.

Students from underrepresented minority groups, including blacks, Latinos and Native Americans, complete degrees in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) at lower rates than white and Asian American students, data show.

At the national level, the UCLAs Higher Education Research Institute, which surveys college freshman annually, has found that as many black and Latino students intend to pursue STEM majors as their white and Asian American peers. However, just 18% of black students and 22% of Latino students who started out with STEM majors in 2004 completed bachelors degrees in that same field within five years, compared with 33% and 42% of white and Asian American students, respectively, the Institute found.

Although blacks and Latinos make up 11% and 15% of the overall workforce, respectively, they represent only 6% and 7% of the STEM workforce, according to a 2011 Census Bureau report.

With minorities expected to become a majority of the U.S. population in the next 30 years, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasting the addition of 1 million STEM jobs by 2022, some economists say expanding diversity in the fields is a workforce necessity.

The competencies embodied in STEM majors are in high demand and highly valued throughout the economy, said Nicole Smith, an economist at Georgetown Universitys Center on Education and the Workforce, noting the comparatively high starting salaries and lifetime wage premium for STEM jobs. But theres not a commensurate rate of interest by students in completing STEM majors, Smith said.

Minority and low-income students face a number of hurdles in completing such degrees, including the quality of high school instruction, limited access to advanced science, math and technology courses, a lack of guidance on how to navigate college and social stigma, said Kevin Eagan, director of the Higher Education Research Institute.

Now, across the country, academic programs are working to expand access and improve success. The South Central Scholars Summer Academy, a college-preparation program that Leong attended in the summer of 2012, is one of a handful of programs in Southern California focused specifically on helping underrepresented minority students graduate in STEM majors.

The seven-week summer program targets promising high school seniors and college freshman with instruction in precalculus or calculus as well as English, in addition to professional development and mentoring. Freshman can also opt for chemistry, computer science and quantitative reasoning. The courses  a mix of interactive lectures and small-group workshops  are taught by USC faculty on campus and mirror the curriculum and rigor of freshmen classes, but with more support.

Were really trying to bridge this gap between underperforming high schools and elite colleges, said Joey Shanahan, executive director of South Central Scholars.

Preliminary results suggest the program is succeeding. According to the programs internal data, 72% of students who attended the Summer Academy in 2012-2015 have graduated in STEM fields or are in college and on track to do so.

On a recent afternoon, David Crombecque was giving a lecture to seniors on graphing polynomial functions  part of a math curriculum that spans algebra, trigonometry and calculus.

As the lecture hour neared its end and the material became more complicated, the room turned quiet, with fewer students answering Crombecques questions at the board. But in the small-group session that followed, the students became animated again as they helped one another and tested solutions on the board with a teaching assistant.

Crombecque, a math professor at USC, is a stickler for holding students to high standards. While the Summer Academy math courses are designed to fill knowledge gaps, its not so much about the content. Its about the rigor, said Crombecque, noting that for many students, his class may be the first time success in school doesnt come easily. Im trying to give them a hint of what its going to be like in college.

Camreon Lyons, a senior in Crombecques class who wants to be an OB/GYN nurse practitioner, said that before attending the Summer Academy she didnt study much for math. Now, if she doesnt finish a worksheet in class, shell finish at home. If you keep looking at the topic, it gets easier, Lyons said.

The skills Lyons and her fellow students are learning  such as developing a sense of resiliency  are essential for succeeding in challenging science programs in college and beyond, education researchers and economists said.

Extra time spent in a rigorous math class helps students, too. A 2016 review by the U.S. Department of Education found that the number and rigor of STEM courses taken in high school were strong predictors of STEM success in college.

Leong, for example, attended Cathedral High School, a private all-boys Catholic school near Chinatown, and took AB Calculus, the highest math course offered at the time  but not the most rigorous Advanced Placement calculus course offered by the College Board. Similarly, Leong took an AP physics course on mechanics, but his school didnt offer the subsequent course in electricity and magnetism.

At Swarthmore, Leong was surprised other students in his introductory physics classes were already familiar with the material. This was stuff I didnt think was in high school, he said. We dont know what were up against until we get to these schools.

Thats what the Summer Academy and other programs at universities such as Cal State Dominguez Hills have been aiming to change.

At the Dominguez Hills campus, where a majority of undergraduates are black or Latino, only 13% of students who entered in 2009 with a STEM major graduated in that same field within six years, according to Cal State University data.

STEM faculty across departments designed a program, FUSE (for First-Year Undergraduate Student Experience), to increase retention of STEM majors. The program includes a two-week summer boot camp to help students prepare for their first college-level STEM courses, additional support in freshman chemistry, computer science and math, and peer and faculty networking.

The program launched last fall and there is no data yet on its effectiveness. The ultimate measurement will be did the students come back for a second year, said Matthew Jones, chair of the math department.

Grades in entry-level courses often serve as a signpost to students about whether to continue in a field.

If you do poorly your first quarter  it really impacts your GPA, and its very demoralizing and you lose your self-confidence, said Tama Hasson, a UCLA professor who oversees an academic support program for science majors from underrepresented backgrounds.

Leong was consumed with self-doubt after those early physics courses at Swarthmore. But he did well in calculus. That got the attention of math professor Cheryl Grood, who encouraged him to consider a math major and to apply for research opportunities at Swarthmore, where she offered to supervise him.

Leong took Groods advice, eventually winning an award at a national research conference for Latino and Native American scientists. Standing in a room full of successful minority students was kind of eye-opening, Leong said, and introduced him to the possibility of a career in math.

Later this month, Leong will begin a Ph.D. program in applied math at Rice University. He said he expects it will be challenging but, unlike his first year at Swarthmore, he doesnt anticipate having any thoughts of dropping out.

Times staff writer Teresa Watanabe contributed to this story.

nina.agrawal@latimes.com

Twitter: @agrawalnina

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Theyre ba-ack.

A pair of bright yellow and red firefighting planes affectionately known as super scoopers landed at the Van Nuys Airport late Saturday afternoon.

The aircraft, which Los Angeles County leases from the Canadian province of Quebec, have become an important part of the countys firefighting arsenal.

They can fly up to 200 mph and scoop up 1,620 gallons of water (48 bathtubs) in just 12 seconds. After dumping their cargo on a fiery hillside, they reload their tanks by skimming over the surface of the ocean or a large lake.

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The iconic planes have been fighting fires in Southern California for more than 20 years.

The county first leased them from our neighbor to the north on an experimental basis during the 1994 fire season. They have been helping firefighters put out wildfires ever since.

The super scoopers, technically called fixed-wing Canadair Bombardier CL-415s, will officially go into service on Monday, according to the L.A. County Fire Department.

deborah.netburn@latimes.com

Twitter: @DeborahNetburn

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A plan that would designate a unique undersea area 150 miles off the New England coast as the nations first Atlantic marine national monument has been met with immediate opposition from commercial fishermen.

Connecticuts congressional delegation and environmental and educational groups want President Obama to preserve the New England Coral Canyons and Seamounts area, which lies along the continental shelf. It includes underwater canyons on the scale of the Grand Canyon, sea mounts that rise as much as 7,700 feet off the seafloor, and a stunning array of oceanic coral and marine species.

Scientists have identified at least 73 coral species in the region and nearly 1,000 marine species, including the endangered sperm whale.

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The proposal, announced Thursday, would dramatically restrict commercial fishing in that area and is drawing fierce opposition from commercial fisherman like Bobby Guzzo of Stonington, Conn., who owns and operates two boats.

Thats just the government trying to take all our water, Guzzo said Thursday from aboard his fishing vessel. Im dead set against it.

Joseph Gilberts Empire Fisheries operates four fishing boats out of Stonington, near the Rhode Island border. He also has problems with the proposed undersea sanctuary.

Fishermen are conservationists, too, Gilbert said, explaining that he believes the proposal is well-intentioned but goes too far, without considering the effect on commercial fishing operations and supplies of fish for consumers.

A lot of these areas are protected already, Gilbert said.

The Connecticut lawmakers and their allies are calling on Obama to use his executive power to declare the region a marine national monument. The coalition says the action would protect the region from commercial activities that might damage the marine ecology and the species that depend upon it.

The New England Coral Canyons and Seamounts area, a pristine hotspot of diverse and fragile wildlife and habitats, is deeply deserving of this designation, the congressional delegations letter to Obama said. This area is just as precious as any national park and its riches just as priceless.

Environmental activists and marine scientists joined Richard Blumenthal, one of Connecticuts two Democratic U.S. senators, at a Thursday news conference in New Haven to kick off the campaign to win national marine monument status for the 4,000-square-mile undersea region.

Commercial fishing groups such as the National Coalition for Fishing Communities argue that there already exist federal laws and regulatory commissions to protect valuable marine resources like those within the proposed marine sanctuary.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which is responsible for regulating fishing in the region, is also opposed to creation of a protected marine monument off New Englands continental shelf. Commercial fishing organizations warn that the plan would hamper fishing for red crab, swordfish and tuna as well as offshore lobster fisheries.

Jon Mitchell, mayor of New Bedford, Mass., New Englands most important fishing port, has also objected to the proposal, as has Republican Maine Gov. Paul LePage.

Environmental groups that include the Connecticut Fund for the Environment, the Sierra Club, and the National Resources Defense Council have been pleading for months for a presidential decision in favor of the proposed marine monument.

Peter Baker, director of the Pew Charitable Trusts U.S. Conservation-Northeast, said, Compelling science shows that these deep canyons and underwater mountains contain rare habitats sustaining an extraordinary diversity of marine life, from corals to whales to seabirds.

This is a game-changing proposal that will permanently protect the areas precious corals, marine life and vital habitats, said Brad Sewell, director of fisheries and U.S. Atlantic programs for the National Resources Defense Council.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration oversees a network of 170,000 square miles of underwater parks ranging from the Great Lakes to the Florida Keys and the Pacific Ocean. The system covers 13 national marine sanctuaries and several marine national monuments.

Controversy continues to surround one recent proposal asking Obama to dramatically expand the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument off Hawaii. The plan would increase the marine monument and fishing sanctuary from 140,000 to 583,000 square miles.

Last month, various officials in Hawaii voiced their opposition to the plan at a rally in Honolulu, warning it would significantly damage their states fishing industry.

Hladky writes for the Hartford Courant.

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President Obama engaged in a war of words with Republicans last week over allegations that he had secretly paid $400 million in ransom to Iran earlier this year to obtain the release of four Americans, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian.

Obama got the better of the argument. But the controversy was a reminder that a year after Iran entered into an agreement to dismantle much of its nuclear infrastructure  an agreement it has honored  resistance to the agreement is still strong in Washington. That is dismaying because the deal remains the best way to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons and provoking a regional nuclear arms race.

Granted, Iran has itself to blame for much of the distrust it engenders in Washington.

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The Republican cries of ransom were prompted by a belated report in the Wall Street Journal that the U.S. sent wooden pallets stacked with Euros, Swiss francs and other currencies to Iran by cargo plane in January at the same time the Americans were freed. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said the cash payment was another chapter in the ongoing saga of misleading the American people to sell this dangerous nuclear deal.

At a news conference Thursday, an exasperated Obama disputed the allegations of ransom, noting that the $400-million payment was part of the settlement of a decades-old claim by Iran growing out of a failed arms deal. The settlement  though not the dramatic form of payment  was disclosed by the White House in January. As for the timing, Obama said it wasnt surprising that various negotiations with Iran would be concluded at the same time.

Obama then suggested that the same people who were involved in what he called the manufacturing of outrage over the cash payment had earlier predicted that the nuclear agreement would fail  and that both positions were grounded in politics.

He might also have added that some opponents of the nuclear agreement  Democrats as well as Republicans  continue to push for measures that would undermine the deal. For example, amendments approved by the Republican-controlled House seek to block the sale of Boeing passenger jets to Iran, even though the nuclear agreement says explicitly that he U.S. will allow for the sale of commercial passenger aircraft and related parts and services to Iran.

Granted, Iran has itself to blame for much of the distrust it engenders in Washington. Obama has credited Iran for adhering to the nuclear agreement, but he also has criticized it for its destabilizing behavior elsewhere, including its threats against Israel and our Gulf partners, and its support for violent proxies in places like Syria and Yemen. But that record only underscores the importance of keeping Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

The agreement that just celebrated its first anniversary remains the best way to accomplish that objective.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
To the editor: Author Justin Raimondo bemoans the lack of objectivity on the part

of the American press but he himself, when commenting on Trumps invitation to Putin to turn over Clintons 30,000 emails, said, Aside from the fact that Trump was obviously joking ...

Its not obvious to me that Trump was joking.

(The end of objectivity, Opinion, Aug. 2)

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For Raimondo to assume that demonstrates a lack of objectivity on his part.

Ron Garber, Duarte

::

To the editor: Three cheers for The Times, Raimondo on its opinion page. There is hope yet.

Harold Ericsson, Harbor City

::

To the editor: Objectively Trump doesnt give journalists much to work with, as his campaign consists of little more than praising himself and denigrating everyone else.

Michael D. Mauer, Los Angeles

::

To the editor: Raimondos thoughtful piece is about eight years late, at least, in concluding that mainstream political journalism in this country occupies a state of transparent bias for the Democratic Party.

I get it  the old guard of Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, and Eric Sevareid were barely closeted liberals  but they respected the other side of the aisle and maintained a healthy skepticism about mid-20th century liberal panaceas.

Not so the present generation of journalists, with a few outstanding exceptions on both sides.

Mark D. Kemp, Cypress

::

To the editor: Your publishing of Raimondos article is commendable given The Times reputation.

That being said, this guy is really off the charts.

Let me just focus on one point, of many: that Donald Trump was obviously joking when he said the Russians should release Clintons emails.

Really?

And just how is this obvious since he subsequently doubled down on the subject, and has continued to do so.

Is the publishing of this article a straw man to lure comments such as mine?

No rational person can take Raimondos argument seriously, can he or she?

Robert Warnock, Los Angeles

::

To the editor: Trump bashing is unobjective?

Im sorry, have you read the news?

Trump is so busy burying himself in his toddler tantrums whenever anyone says anything remotely non-supportive  let alone critical of him  the press can be completely objective and let Trump bury himself. Thats objective reporting.

Katherine Reuter, Santa Monica

::

To the editor: Raimondos harangue bemoaning the lack of journalistic objectivity is laughable vis a vis the utter crudity that defines Trump.

Consider the invective emanating from his undisciplined mouth on a daily basis:

Overrated, a beggar, dumb as a rock, dishonest, a clown, boring, a fool, a total loser, dope, weak, liar, loser, incompetent, a disaster, a disgrace, stupid, a fraud.

These are just a handful of the terms the nominee of the Republican Party uses to defame anyone having the temerity to criticize him.

To deny Trumps petulant, immature temperament is to replace objectivity with a repudiation of the facts.

The mans intemperance condemns him to the margins of civilized discourse.

The transparent bias that is cited by the author Raimondo simply reflects the media preference for civility over vulgarity.

Emery J. Cummins, San Diego

::

To the editor: Raimondo wrote a wonderful and long overdue opinion piece about the transparent bias in favor of Hillary Clinton by the media and especially by The Times.

Barbara Kimelman, Tarzana

::

To the editor: So the piece by Raimondo is an early April Fools joke, right?

Im not sure where he is finding this transparent bias when there is so much data to support the fact that Clinton has received an enormous amount of negative press since this election cycle began.

Susan Molyneux, Manhattan Beach

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
Donald Trump doled out a litany of verbal assaults against Hillary Clinton on Saturday night, questioning whether the former secretary of State looks presidential and raising doubts about her ability to lead as fallout continues from her use of a personal email server while at the State Department.

Islamic State terrorists dream of Hillary Clinton, Trump said of his Democratic challenger, who is the first woman to become the presidential nominee of a major party.

You tell me: She looks presidential? I look presidential, he said to supporters at a rally in Windham, N.H.

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For Trump, his rally Saturday marked the end of a week which saw several Republicans defect from his campaign and voice support for Clinton.

This came as Trump battled publicly with the Muslim family of a fallen soldier and with prominent members of his own party, including House Speaker Paul D. Ryan and Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

Trump initially declined to endorse their bids for reelection. Only after pushback from the party did he endorse Ryan and McCain on Friday, along with GOP Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire.

At a rally in Wisconsin, Ryans home state, Trump said of the speaker, Hes a good man, and hes a good guy. And we may disagree on a couple of things, but mostly we agree.

Of McCain, he said, I hold in the highest esteem Sen. John McCain for his service to our country in uniform and in public office, and I fully support and endorse his reelection.

Last summer Trump questioned whether McCain, a former Navy pilot who was tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, was a war hero. Hes not a war hero, Trump said then. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who werent captured.

On Saturday, Trump made no mention of the endorsements and centered his attention on Clinton. A day earlier, Clinton, speaking before a convention of black and Latino journalists, said she had offered a short-circuited response in a Fox News interview last weekend.

In the interview, Clinton suggested FBI Director James B. Comey had concluded that her public statements about her use of a private email server while secretary of State were truthful. Yet Comey had only said there was no evidence that she had lied to the FBI during its investigation into the matter.

She used the term short circuited  a real short circuit to the brain, Trump said Saturday. Shes got real problems. In July, the Department of Justice decided not to file charges against Clinton in the email probe.

Trump, to chants of, Lock her up! Lock her up! from supporters, rehashed Clintons email issues.

Her greatest achievement is getting out of trouble, Trump said of the Justice Departments decision not to file charges.

Clinton did not hold any public events Saturday, but her campaign released a worst week ever list of 45 reasons that Trumps campaign is in disarray  a nod to the 45th commander in chief, which both are vying to become.

Among them, No. 2: Refused to endorse Speaker Paul Ryan, earning the wrath of the Republican establishment.

kurtis.lee@latimes.com

Twitter: @kurtisalee

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Dear Judge, I am writing to tell you my story, said a teenage girl on the witness stand in a Los Angeles courtroom in March, her soft voice barely audible as she read a letter she typed.

She described how Dora Alicia Valle smuggled her into California from El Salvador, forcing her to work in a Pacoima restaurant for meager pay. She took orders and washed dishes, she said. She cleaned vegetables and mopped floors.

On weekends, she worked morning to midnight, and hours into the night on school days.

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I still have bad dreams, and I get sad when I think too much, the teen said, according to a court transcript. I was very afraid of Alicia. When she got mad, she would hit me and make me feel bad.

As California lawmakers aim to curb the illegal trade of sex and labor before adjourning the legislative session at the end of August, at least one bill seeks to protect such young, vulnerable victims at the center of human trafficking cases in court.

The legislation by Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles) would allow minors ages 15 or younger to testify through closed-circuit televisions outside the courtroom, where they can share their painful and often traumatic experiences away from the presence of the jury and the defendant.

Of some two dozen human trafficking bills still pending at the state Capitol, Santiagos is the one that has garnered the most support from advocates and law enforcement. But it has one major opponent, the American Civil Liberties Union, which says the law would violate the constitutional right of defendants to confront their accusers.

Whether it passes or not, it is just the first chapter, said Los Angeles County Superior Court District Judge Catherine Pratt. There will be a lot of discussion of whether this passes constitutional muster.

Proponents of Assembly Bill 1276 say the cooperation of victims is often crucial to building cases against the profiteers of a human trafficking industry that generates billions of dollars and sweeps up hundreds of thousands of minors nationwide every year.

Catherine Pratt handles sex trafficking cases at Compton Court. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times )

But the experience can be excruciating for young survivors of trauma.

Prosecutors said some children ditch school or flee their foster homes to avoid facing their accusers. In courtrooms in Los and Angeles and San Diego, where gangs have dipped into the trade, members of criminal organizations have filled the benches to harass and intimidate witnesses.

Some minors living in stable conditions have fallen into depression after taking the witness stand. Others have attempted suicide.

For survivors of sexual exploitation, the cases can be more difficult. Victims tend to be children and teens, prosecutors and social workers said, many of them girls from broken homes who mistrust authority. As in cases of rape, there can be humiliation and shame to testifying, said Pratt, whose Compton court specializes in prostitution and human trafficking cases.

But on top of it, these girls dont identify themselves as victims of rape, she said. Because of the trauma theyve suffered, they think they have been doing this voluntarily. They are very defiant or angry.

California law already allows minors younger than 14 years old to testify through closed-circuit televisions in sexual assault and violent cases where certain conditions are met. The method also can be used in the civil courts for some child abuse cases.

Santiagos original version of the bill sought to apply the practice to all human trafficking cases with witnesses younger than 18. But he said he lowered the age limit after opponents raised concerns that the provisions eroded a defendants right in far too many cases. He then modified the conditions under which a judge can order the method be used, after advocates said it would not apply to enough cases.

Critics say California lawmakers competing ideas on how to stop human trafficking will prevent progress 

He said he believes his proposal is constitutional, as a judge would be able to employ the practice only in unique circumstances during a trial or in hearings beforehand.

You are talking about children who have gone through some horrific actions, and now they have to go to a room and confront their trafficker, Santiago said.

But the ACLU contends the proposal strays too far from the legal exemptions to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that holds that a defendant has a right to a physical, face-to-face confrontation with an accuser.

There have been legal findings that say allowing children to testify through a closed-circuit television works in child abuse cases. But in those instances, adults lose their parental privileges and are given the chance to go to parenting classes.

In human trafficking cases, the stakes are higher, with the defendant facing a potential punishment of years in prison.

Natasha Minsker, director of the ACLU of California Center for Advocacy and Policy, said in a statement that courts have recognized only a narrow exception to the confrontation clause in the cases of child abuse victims.

Cases upholding the use of closed-circuit television usually involve very young children, under the age of 12, she said. AB 1276 goes far beyond what courts have previously recognized as valid and raises serious constitutional concerns.

Dora Alicia Valle, 52, of Sylmar, was sentenced to five years in prison after she pleaded no contest to human trafficking and slavery last July during the jury selection of her trial. Court records say she paid coyotes to smuggle the girl from El Salvador when she was only 8. Valle forced the child to work up to 16 hours a day and garnished her wages, threatening to hit her with a belt or a pistol, according to the filings.

At her sentencing in March, Valles friends said she was only trying to provide for the young girl she took into her home. But taking the witness stand against Valle for the second time, a tough feat she almost could not bear to do, the young girl said Valle had taken her from the only loving family she knew.

After everything Valle put her through, she told a judge, she no longer played with dolls and was struggling in school. In closing, prosecutor Paul Kim said the defendant only brought the young girl here to become her slave, her peasant, her servant.

That the child was willing to speak out against Valle in court, once prior to her trial and another time during her sentencing, was significant, social workers and prosecutors said. Too often, they said, victims do not come forward at all.

jazmine.ulloa@latimes.com

@jazmineulloa

ALSO:

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Updates on California politics
Speak Up Newport attendees on Wednesday will get a look at plans for a 25-story condominium tower proposed to replace the Orange County Museum of Art.

Related California Urban Housing LLCs proposal includes demolishing the single-story museum in Newport Center to make way for Museum House, which would include 100 condos and a two-level subterranean garage.

The tower would be about 295 feet.

OCMA, which has called the 2-acre site at 850 San Clemente Drive home since 1977, plans to move to Costa Mesa. The museum has entered into an agreement to sell the Newport Center site to Related California, which officials have said would help fund the move.

Bill Witte, president of Related, and his team are expected to discuss their plans for the project designed by architect Robert A.M. Stern, and answer questions.

The draft environmental impact report is close to completion, and the plans are expected to go before the Planning Commission and City Council for approval this year.

Speak Up Newports reception begins at 5:15 p.m. The program begins at 6 p.m. in the Civic Center Community Room, 100 Civic Center Drive.

---

For the record: This article originally reported that the tower would be about 295 feet, with an additional 20 feet for equipment. However, the additional 20 feet have been removed from the plan.
Regarding Where Sorrow Meets Solace, by Thomas Curwen, July 31: Thank you for the articles on Sand Creek. I am a descendant of Ochinee (One-Eye), who was killed at the massacre, and I grew up with stories of the tribe and the massacre.

I am grateful to my grandmother for keeping the memory alive and sharing her stories of Amache (Ochinees daughter) and Amaches daughter, Mary.

Two years ago, I visited Sand Creek for the first time with my father; it is hard to explain the depth of meaning it has for both of us.

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He continues to visit the site when he can, and we plan to go back together.

Thank you for appreciating the significance of Sand Creek and helping others to understand.

Marlaigne Dumaine, Sacramento

::

Congratulations to Curwen and the Los Angeles Times on an outstanding travel article on the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site in Colorado. The article was succinct but comprehensive, heartfelt and sad.

It is an unsung story about Native Americans and what our military forces did to them at Sand Creek, an action that was approved up the chain of command, including President Lincoln.

Gilbert G. Thibault, Laguna Beach

::

This morning, I read the Sand Creek article and wept. Not only for the horrible actions that took place but also because I am 57 and this is the first time Ive heard of this tragedy. Im left wondering why my high school history classes were so whitewashed and seemed to completely ignore this stain on American history.

I remember that the first time I heard about Manzanar, the Japanese internment camp, I was a second-semester senior in high school. I felt completely betrayed by every history teacher whose class I had taken. Im feeling that way again right now.

It is necessary for American citizens to recognize all parts of our countrys history. Knowledge is power and keeps us from repeating events like this. We need to realize that what happened at Sand Creek is important and the result of dividing people into subgroups based on race and religion  something that is happening in our current political world.

Colleen Cope, Upland

Macedonia memories

I really enjoyed Margo Pfeiffs articles on Macedonia [Go Wild, Civilly, July 24]. I have very fond memories of traveling through that part of what was then Yugoslavia in 1979.

Our family was traveling from Greece in our VW camper (what else?), and after a short stop at the border to get a visa and some local currency, we motored into the beautiful countryside of Macedonia as described by Pfeiff.

Two things about this part of the country stay with me to this day. As we drove by, people would wave to us in a very welcoming way, and its the only time Ive ever gotten out of a speeding ticket.

The speed limits on curves are not suggestions like here; they are speed limits. The policeman asked for the fine to be paid on the spot. I handed him the only local currency I had, which was 50 times more than the fine.

After a few minutes, he handed the money back  he couldnt make change  and sent me on my way with a smile.

Richard Finerman, Palm Springs
Suicide attackers armed with guns and bombs hit Turkeys largest airport Tuesday night, killing at least 41 people and wounding more than 230 others in a coordinated assault that officials said bore the hallmarks of Islamic State militants.

It was the latest in a string of potent attacks in the country, which has struggled to contain the fallout from the war in neighboring Syria and is also battling an uprising by Kurdish separatists in the southeast of Turkey.

Among the victims were 10 foreign nationals and three were dual citizens, according to a statement from Istanbuls governor published online.

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Three suicide bombers carried out the assault on Istanbul Ataturk Airport, Europes third-busiest, arriving in a taxi shortly before 10 p.m., Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told reporters.

At least one of the assailants opened fire with a Kalashnikov rifle outside the international arrivals entrance, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said. Another managed to get inside the building and was shot by police in the departures area on the first floor before all three blew themselves up, according to officials and what appeared to be video images of the attack.

Witnesses described a scene of pandemonium and carnage. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Yildirim said initial findings pointed to Islamic State.

What is noteworthy is that this attack came at a time when our country is putting up a merciless fight against separatist terrorism and recording significant success, Yildirim said.

Turkey is a member of the U.S.-led coalition fighting the extremists and allows U.S. aircraft to use Incirlik Air Base to launch bombing runs over Syria.

Islamic State, which has funneled weapons and fighters in from Turkey, has responded with rocket fire on Turkish border towns. Turkish officials also blame the group for deadly suicide bombings, including two this year targeting tourist spots in Istanbul.

Kurdish militants have also claimed responsibility for attacks in major Turkish cities, including one last year on another Istanbul airport, Sabiha Gokcen.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on governments around the world to take a firm stand against terrorism.

The bombs that exploded in Istanbul today could have gone off at any airport in any city around the world, Erdogan said. Make no mistake: For terrorist organizations, there is no difference between Istanbul and London, Ankara and Berlin, Izmir and Chicago or Antalya and Rome.

The Obama administration quickly condemned the bombing, saying it would stand in solidarity with our NATO ally in combating terrorism.

Sadly, this murderous attack is only the latest in a series of attacks aimed at killing and maiming innocent civilians, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement. Such attacks will only reinforce our determination to work with the government of Turkey to counter the scourge of terrorism and support all those across the region who are working to promote peace and reconciliation.

The U.S. and Turkey have clashed at times over the definition of terrorism. Erdogans government regards some of the Kurdish forces fighting with the U.S.-led coalition in Syria as terrorists, while Washington and others consider those forces to be allies.

In the aftermath of Tuesdays bombings, hundreds of passengers flooded out of the airport, some of them in tears. Every few minutes, an ambulance pulled out, sirens blaring.

Hamidullah Azzizi, part of a group of six Afghans on a business trip, said he had just picked up his boarding pass and sat down at a restaurant in the terminal to break the Ramadan fast when the attack took place.

We heard gunfire, like bursts, Azzizi said. Then at least one explosion.

The group sheltered in the restaurant for about 10 minutes, until police arrived and escorted diners outside.

We are shocked, Azzizi said. What can you do in a moment like that? I never thought this would happen in Turkey, in Istanbul, in the airport.

Nearby, a woman from Saudi Arabia was waiting for news of three missing family members. They were separated in the chaos.

There were bodies lying everywhere, she said. She declined to give her name.

Sinan Kolcu, who had just arrived on a flight from Brazil when the attack occurred, said passengers were held at the airport for more than three hours before being permitted to leave.

During the evacuation, we saw the damage  it was terrible, he said. Pools of blood on the ground and everything.

A Turkish Twitter user posted video of what appeared to be one of the explosions, apparently launched after police felled one of the bombers, who then set off his explosives. It showed passengers milling about, then the apparent bomber running through the terminal and falling, and finally a flash of light followed by flames.

Other images shared on social media showed bloodied victims, and searchers combing through debris.

I saw parts of arms and legs, wrote a Twitter user at the airport during the attack.

All departing flights were canceled until 8 a.m.

The target and the terrorists methods were reminiscent of the deadly bombing at an airport in the Belgian capital in March.

Our thoughts are with the victims of the attacks at @istanbulairport, the Brussels airport posted on its Twitter account. We wish them, their relatives & all airport staff strength & courage.

The attack came the day after Turkey and Israel unveiled a deal to normalize diplomatic relations after a six-year rift over a deadly Israeli assault on a Turkish flotilla that was carrying aid to the Gaza Strip in defiance of an Israeli blockade.

Some analysts suggested that there might be a link, but others said an attack involving multiple bombers would probably have taken more time to prepare.

Islamic State has increasingly been targeting tourist areas in Turkey, forcing Ankara to confront the extremists, whose networks are believed to spread from Istanbul to the Syrian border.

This year, suicide bombers hit Sultanahmet Square in Istanbul, close to some of the citys main attractions, including the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia Museum, as well as Istiklal Avenue, a busy pedestrian thoroughfare.

Police have captured suspects identified as Islamic State operatives on the countrys western tourism trail and even in the Black Sea city of Trabzon, which has become a destination for travelers from the wealthy Persian Gulf states.

A home-grown Islamic State cell has also carried out suicide bombings in the southeastern city of Adiyaman over the last year.

Special correspondent Farooq reported from Istanbul and staff writers Zavis and Evans from Los Angeles. Special correspondent Glen Johnson contributed from Anamur, Turkey, and staff writer Tracy Wilkinson from Washington.

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UPDATES:

June 29, 3:37 a.m.: This article has been updated with a revised death toll.

9:22 p.m.: This article has been updated with comments from the U.S. State Department.

8:19 p.m.: This article has been updated with additional details and background.

6:56 p.m.: This article has been updated with reaction from the U.S. presidential candidates.

5:04 p.m.: This article has been updated with a statement from the White House.

4:34 p.m.: This article has been updated a statement from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

4:21 p.m.: This article has been updated with an additional witness interview.

3:30 p.m.: This article has been updated with additional witness reports.

2:47 p.m.: This article has been updated with additional information about Turkeys recent restoration of diplomatic relations with Israel.

2:20 p.m.: This article has been updated with reports of a higher toll of deaths and injuries.

1:20 p.m.: This article has been updated with additional details.

1:06 p.m.: This article has been updated with new information about the attacks.

12:58 p.m.: This article has been updated with reports that 10 people were killed.

12:41 p.m.: This article has been updated with additional details.

This article was originally published on June 28 at 12:31 p.m.
Abhay Vartak aspires to live in a divine kingdom in which everyone is truthful and virtuous, leaving no room for violence or crime. Justice would be dispensed by a benevolent king, as it was during the rule of the Hindu god Ram, according to mythological Hindu texts.

Vartak, who holds a bachelors degree in science, is the spokesman of Sanatan Sanstha, a radical Hindu organization in India that aims to establish the kingdom by 2023. According to its newsletter, Sanatan Prabhat, the intervening years will be a time of psychological and physical battles against evil forces that will prepare people for the advent of the holy kingdom.

Asked to define the evil forces, Vartak described them as people who develop increased egos and personality defects and cant lead a normal life.

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The Hindu fringe group, with its cult-like beliefs and behaviors, has a following in three states in southwestern India. It has emerged as the prime suspect behind the murders of three prominent secular thinkers in recent years.

Violence against evil is not violence.  Sanatan Sanstha official text

Indian authorities in June arrested a Sanatan member in connection with the 2013 assassination of activist Narendra Dabholkar. In September, another Sanatan member was arrested for the 2015 killing of author and politician Govind Pansare, 81.

The Central Bureau of Investigation, Indias FBI, said the weapons used in those two killings matched those used in the 2015 deadly attack against a third prominent secular figure, academic M.M. Kalburgi. In all three slayings, the killers accosted their victims on motorbikes.

All the victims had come into conflict with orthodox Hindus. Dabholkar, 68, had led a campaign in the western state of Maharashtra to pass an anti-superstition bill aimed at reducing the influence of gurus and so-called godmen.

Pansare wrote a biography of Shivaji, a beloved 17th century warrior-king, that emphasized his religious tolerance and acceptance of minority Muslims into his army.

Kalburgi spoke out against religious superstition and blind faith before being shot in September at his home in Karnataka state.

Sanatan Sanstha spokesperson Abhay Vartak and Hindu Vidhidnya Parisad secretary Sanjeev Punalekar addressing a press conference in 2013 in Mumbai, India. (Vijayaannd Gupta/Hindustan Times via Getty Images )

Sanatan denies any link to the killings, but investigators say they found incriminating emails on a laptop belonging to one of the suspects, Virendra Tawde, the alleged mastermind of the Dabholkar assassination.

CBI officials said the emails suggest that Sanatan was attempting to organize an army of 15,000 people against anti-Hindu forces. One former Sanatan member has told the CBI and investigators from Maharashtras state police that Tawde approached him asking for two revolvers and had dispatched men to track Dabholkar and Pansare.

The day after Dabholkar was shot, Sanatans newsletter ran a front-page statement saying that his death was a blessing. Pansare later received an anonymous letter that read, You will meet Dabholkars fate.

Read how secular thinkers are coming under attack in India 

Violence by Hindu groups receives less attention than other forms of extremism in India, an overwhelmingly Hindu nation of 1.25 billion people. Sanatans official text says, violence against evil is not violence.

Vartak says the group teaches self-defense, but not the use of dangerous weapons. But according to a media report, a Sanatan worker told anti-terrorism police of a 2009 meeting where an explosives demonstration was held and one member said Hindus needed to learn to shoot rifles because they were being oppressed.

Established as a charitable trust in 1990 by hypnotherapist Jayant Athavle, Sanatan is based in the coastal state of Goa and maintains strict secrecy around the ashrams it operates.

Its website claims that long hair can reduce sperm count in men. Members refer to Athavle as his holiness, and believe that a special scent emanates from one of his fingers.

According to associates, Athavle lived in London in the 1970s, where he learned to practice a form of hypnosis developed by Milton H. Erickson, an American psychiatrist.

Shyam Manav, 64, a practicing hypnotherapist and anti-superstition activist, said he referred patients to Athavle around 1990 only to have them come back upset, complaining he had advised them to cure their health problems through prayer.

Manav reduced his contact with Athavle. A few years later, he learned that Athavle had acquired vibrating alarm clocks  then a luxury item in India  from overseas and tricked unsuspecting people in rural Maharashtra into thinking he caused the devices to shake merely by staring at them.

At that point I realized Athavle had renounced honesty as well, Manav said.

See the most-read stories in World News this hour >>

In 2008 Sanatan members were arrested in connection with a bombing outside a theater screening a film about the Mughal king Akbar, where seven were injured, and another outside an auditorium showing a satire of Hindu mythology.

Two Sanatan members were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in 2011 but were released on bail two years later.

In 2009, six Sanatan devotees were arrested for a blast near a church in Goa. The explosives detonated prematurely, killing two Sanatan members who were carrying them on a motorbike. The six were acquitted on legal technicalities  but two men who allegedly masterminded the plot are wanted in connection with the recent killings.

In 2011 the Maharashtra state government submitted a lengthy dossier to New Delhi, calling for a ban on the group. The request was ignored, and the group continues to operate.

Investigative journalist Rana Ayyub, who has followed Sanatan, said that some Muslim groups accused of less serious crimes  such as the Students Islamic Movement in India  have been outlawed, suggesting a double standard when it comes to organizations with Hindu roots.

While [Hindu militancy] is as much of a danger as other forms of terrorism, it is sadly still considered an aberration and not a norm, Ayyub said.

Ayyub, who in 2009 disguised herself to gain entry into Sanatans sprawling ashram in Goa, described an atmosphere full of ritual and confusing practices. Children roamed around seemingly in a trance, wearing white stickers on their foreheads to supposedly ward off evil spirits, she said. A saffron-colored map was laid out, marking the groups purported kingdom.

They have their own world, their own pledge, their own way of life, Ayyub said. It all seemed very dangerous.

Parth M.N. is a special correspondent.

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An Iranian scientist who became the center of a real-life spy saga after he was accused of sharing information with the United States about his countrys disputed nuclear program has been executed, officials in Tehran confirmed Sunday.

Shahram Amiri, who disappeared from Iran in 2009, surfaced in the United States and then returned to Tehran to a heros welcome a year later, was hanged to death last week, the spokesman for Irans judiciary said.

Amiri was executed after a long and careful trial, and the Supreme Court reviewed and scrutinized his file, the spokesman, Gholamhosein Mohseni Ejehi, told a weekly news conference.

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A day earlier, Amiris family told the BBCs Persian news service that his body had been handed over with rope marks around his neck.

The news ended a long-running mystery over Amiris whereabouts since returning to Iran in 2010. He vanished from public view and was widely believed to have been arrested, with family members telling media that he was being held at a secret detention facility.

His apparent defection to the United States in 2009 was seen as a coup for the CIA, which had been trying to get him to spill secrets about a nuclear program that the United States said could be used to develop lethal weapons. Iran, which long maintained that its nuclear program was for peaceful purposes, has agreed to limit uranium enrichment in exchange for an easing of international economic sanctions.

Amiri was working as a researcher for a university that European Union investigators had linked to Irans defense ministry and the development of missile technology. He disappeared while on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, and U.S. intelligence officials later disclosed that he had been placed in protective custody and offered millions of dollars to tell the CIA about Irans nuclear program.

It was unclear how much information Amiri shared. Some reports have suggested he was not in a senior enough position to know sensitive details about the program.

Analysts speculate that Iran began to threaten Amiris family back home. In July 2010, 13 months after he defected, Amiri walked into the Iranian interests section of the Pakistani embassy in Washington and demanded to be repatriated.

I am a simple researcher who was working in the university. Im not involved in any confidential jobs.  Shahram Amiri, on his return to Tehran in July 2010

Among the emails that were released last year from Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clintons tenure as secretary of State was a July 12, 2010, note from senior advisor Jake Sullivan that appeared to refer to Amiri a day before his desire to return to Iran became public knowledge.

The email suggested that Amiri had asked U.S. officials to allow him to return to Iran.

The gentleman has apparently gone to his countrys interests section because he is unhappy with how much time it has taken to facilitate his departure, Sullivan wrote to Clinton. This could lead to problematic news stories in the next 24 hours.

When he returned to Iran, he claimed he had been kidnapped by U.S. and Saudi intelligence officers and tortured by the CIA. Months after being welcomed warmly by relatives and Iranian officials, Amiri went missing again, apparently arrested by Iranian authorities for treason.

Sundays disclosure was the first official confirmation of Amiris fate. Ejehi, the judiciary spokesman, said Amiri had been executed last Wednesday and said, I hope the intelligence staff will reveal the true story of this spy.

Also last Wednesday, Iran said it had put to death 20 people whom it accused of being members of a terrorist cell. Human rights groups condemned the executions of the Sunni Kurdish prisoners as politically motivated and worried they would inflame sectarian tensions.

Iran, an overwhelmingly Shiite Muslim nation, accused Western countries of a double standard on terrorism.

Ejehi said those who were executed had organized terrorist activities leading to death and injuries of scores of innocent people.

Mostaghim is a special correspondent.

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UPDATES:

2:10 p.m.: Updates throughout with staff reporting.

4:40 a.m.: Updated with background.

This article was first posted at 4:25 a.m.
With a knife raised above her head, 17-year-old Jamila Jaber froze momentarily opposite two Israeli soldiers with automatic rifles at a highway bus stop near the West Bank settlement of Ariel. As the soldiers backed away with guns drawn, the Palestinian girl took a few awkward steps in their direction before one of the soldiers shot her in the stomach and shoulder, leaving her hospitalized and under arrest by Israeli authorities.

The July 6 confrontation, captured on video, marked the continuation of a 10-month wave of knifings, shootings and car rammings in the West Bank and Israel, carried out mostly by young Palestinians acting alone. The attacks have left dozens of Israelis dead  as well as hundreds of Palestinians, many of them accused by Israel of carrying out the attacks.

An Israeli army statement described Jaber as an immediate danger to soldiers. But weeks after the incident, Jabers mother insisted that her daughters aim was not to attack the soldiers. It was to harm herself, she said.

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In the video, she didnt want to stab. She wanted [the soldier] to shoot her, said Rudainyeh Jaber.

Local politicians and experts have mentioned a mix of factors driving the recent attacks: the 49-year-old Israeli military occupation and the lack of progress toward Palestinian statehood; anti-Israeli incitement over social networks; frustration with political atrophy in the Palestinian Authority; constrained economic opportunity; and revenge for the killing of a friend or relative.

Alongside those motivations is, in some cases, a personal crisis.

Surrounded by her husband, Daoud, a carpenter, and children in a bare salon at the family home in the village of Zawiyeh, Rudainyeh Jaber said Jamila wasnt interested in politics. The girl had been distraught over the collapse of a potential arranged marriage, her mother said.

She was there because she was feeling choked, and suffering. She wanted to die, Jaber said. The girl was not interested in patriotism.

Suicide bombings against Israeli targets were a frequent occurrence during the Palestinian intifada of the previous decade. The attacks  planned by underground militant groups -- were referred to by Palestinians as operations and those who delivered the explosives were celebrated as martyrs.

In our culture, suicide for no reason isnt honorable. If they try to confront a soldier, however, its looked on with more respect.  Kadoura Fares, who heads the Palestinian Prisonersa Club

During the recent 10 months of Israeli-Palestinian violence, however, a different brand of suicide attempt has been playing out around the West Bank. Like Jaber, they are being carried out by distraught Palestinian youths who approach armed Israeli soldiers with knives. In many of the confrontations, soldiers respond with deadly fire.

They want to escape the difficult situation that they are in. Whether its depression, lack of success in school, or a fight between their parents. They are looking to escape their reality, said Kadoura Fares, who heads the Palestinian Prisoners Club, a nonprofit group devoted to providing assistance to prisoners held in Israel and their families. Fares estimated that one-fifth of the knife confrontations involve distraught Palestinian youths.

In our culture, suicide for no reason isnt honorable, he said. If they try to confront a soldier, however, its looked on with more respect.

In the United States, such confrontations are known colloquially as suicide by cop. In Israel and the West Bank, the fatality rate from attempted stabbings has spurred criticism that Israeli security forces are employing excessive force.

Avi Issacharoff, a Palestinian affairs reporter for the Israeli website Walla! News, wrote that confronting soldiers with knives represents an effort by youths to enhance their social standing.

These are youths who arent especially resilient from a psychological standpoint, they dont stand out socially, and theyve become fed up with the state of their lives, Issacharoff wrote. These attacks are a way to rise from the bottom rung of the social strata to a status of hero.

Some arrive at Israeli checkpoints with suicide notes in addition to knives. I will be a martyr with the permission of God, began the note of 17-year-old Sami Ahmed Ismail, from the West Bank village of Masha, who was shot to death at an Israeli roadblock after brandishing a knife and threatening soldiers.

Two weeks after Jamila Jabers confrontation with soldiers, her parents exhibited shock that she tried to take her life and elation that she didnt succeed. (She is still recovering from her chest and shoulder wounds.) They described Jamila as an introverted child who got below average grades. When plans for an arranged marriage to a cousin in Jordan collapsed earlier this year, the family said, the girl was insulted and became depressed.

She was feeling rejected, said her mother. She started saying, Why have they refused me?

The frustration continued over the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, until Jaber slipped away from the house while her family napped on the afternoon before the closing holiday of Eid el Fitr. Several hours later, Palestinian taxi drivers from the village informed the family that Jaber had been shot by Israeli soldiers.

Indeed, a high percentage of the knife confrontations involve young women and girls.

There is more social stress on women than men, said Jamila Abu Nimer, an East Jerusalem psychologist with the Palestinian Counseling Center who helps students and parents grapple with trauma during periods of Israeli-Palestinian violence. Women dont have control over the way they live, and what they want to do. I think theres some control when they decide to kill themselves.

Mustafa Azmuti, a Palestinian lawyer representing Jamila Jaber, said he knew of some two dozen similar cases. Jaber, who is now in Israels Sharon prison, might get released from prison if an Israeli psychologist testifies that she was suicidal, he said.

Back at the Jaber house, Jamilas parents said that while they knew their daughter was upset, they didnt imagine she would seek to take her own life.

They could have killed her, said Daoud Jaber. Why did she act in such a crazy way?

Mitnick is a special correspondent.

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Syrian rebels broke through a siege on opposition-held areas of Aleppo late Saturday night that government troops had been mounting for weeks, activists said.

Pro-government ground troops were forced to withdraw under a massive rebel onslaught from two sides. Hours later, they launched attacks on rebel positions in a bid to retake a complex of military academies south of Aleppo, according to state media.

Aleppo, Syrias one-time industrial heart, has become a city divided between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and the armed opposition rebels pitted against him.

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Syrian warplanes and artillery units continued to barrage the area heavily on Sunday, according to the combat media division of Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group that is allied with the government.

Opposition activists reported dozens of airstrikes on eastern neighborhoods of the city as well as rebel supply lines emanating from the northwestern province of Idlib.

In late July, a wide array of opposition factions, spearheaded by former Al Qaeda affiliate the Front for the Conquest of Syria and the ultraconservative Ahrar Al-Sham movement, launched a counter-offensive to lift the governments siege. The groups mobilized an estimated 6,000 militants for the task, according to activists.

The campaign culminated in a breakthrough Saturday when rebel factions launched a series of suicide attacks and punched through the Ramousseh neighborhood, linking up with other opposition militants from inside the city.

The two armies have met, the army of God from the outside and the army of God from the inside, cheered one rebel who identified himself as Major Yasser al-Ghazaal in a YouTube video uploaded Sunday.

Other activists also posted images of what was said to be the first aid delivery into opposition-controlled areas. But only small amounts could make it through, according to Usama Taljo, a member of the opposition-affiliated Local Council of Aleppo.

Its difficult to bring in large amounts of aid. There are too many airstrikes by Russian and regime warplanes, he said in a message on social media.

Dr. Dhaher Zaidan, a physician with the Doctors Union based in Aleppo, agreed.

The way into Aleppo is still a military one. Whoever wants to take the risk can leave, but the road is not for civilians, he said in a phone interview on Sunday.

Yet the opposition pressed its advantage on Sunday, pushing its forces to the southwestern entrance of Aleppo in what was seen as an attempt to widen the corridor.

If successful, it could turn the tables on the government and impose a siege on the western, government-held part of Aleppo, home to an estimated 1.2 million people.

Residents contacted inside government-held areas dismissed concerns of a siege, despite reports of some vendors withholding merchandise in stores.

See the most-read stories in World News this hour >>

People can still come in and out of Aleppo, said activist Hussein Mostapha Nashab in an interview on social media, referring to another road emanating from northern neighborhoods that remained out of rebel hands.

Another resident, who refused to be named for reasons of privacy, insisted that bus service on the government side of the city had not been disrupted.

Nevertheless, rebels fighting under the umbrella of Aleppo Conquest insisted in a statement to residents on the government side that whoever enters his home is safe, whoever enters a mosque or a church is safe, and whoever [lays] down his weapon is safe too. They added that anyone fleeing from government-held areas would be protected and secured, regardless of his or her affiliation or background.

Our heroic revolutionaries are seekers of freedom, not bloodthirsty killers. They are also advocates for mercy, not tyrants.

Yet it was residents of government-controlled areas of the city who bore the brunt of the onslaught. According to the pro-opposition monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 130 people had been killed since the start of the counter-offensive July 30, mostly from shelling on western parts of the city.

Observers also pointed out that Islamic militants, who led the push that finally broke the siege, had vowed to execute any Alawites they encountered.

Alawites are members of the heterodox mountainous sect of which Assad is a part.

Under the feet of the mujahideen we will kill the Alawites, said one fighter in a video uploaded by Jabhat Fateh al-Sham on Friday.

We will drag their bodies and mutilate them like they did to the Sunni people.

Bulos is a special correspondent.

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Richezza Williams was dead nearly two weeks when they found her.

It was Aug. 10, a Saturday, about 3:30 in the afternoon.

A tip suggested she might be near water. Was it the psychic whom investigators had consulted? Steven Parkansky doesn't remember. Twenty years is a long time.

Pennsylvania Water Rescue was searching along the Bushkill Creek in Easton, near what is now the entrance to the Karl Stirner Arts Trail.

They caught a whiff of something overwhelmingly awful and headed the short distance to a lonesome stone vault at the base of Easton Cemetery -- the one used years back as cold storage for bodies before burial.

There they found her.

Richezza was alone no more.

"It affects me to this day," Parkansky said recently in his cramped office as chief of police in Wilson Borough. In the summer of 1996, he was the lieutenant in charge of criminal investigations in Easton. "I vividly remember almost every detail in the crypt."

There were no windows in the thin, grey structure flanked by stone walls, he said. A metal door was partially open. They needed flashlights in the dark, dank space carved into the bottom of a steep, rocky hill.

"She was on the floor," Parkansky said. "Her upper body was covered in newspapers. Her pants were partially down. She was in an advanced state of decomposition. Nature took over."

It was about 76 degrees and the skies were scattered with clouds. They had an idea who they found -- Buffy Materon Smith, known on the street as Materon -- an identity Williams had created after running away from home four months earlier in Long Island. But police didn't know of the ruse, not yet. Materon's actual identity would require a bit more luck -- and dental records.

She was said to be 19, but others were certain she was much younger. If not for a second, similar assault days after the first at 719 Bushkill St. -- three doors up from where Parkansky lived -- they wouldn't have been looking for her. The case might have gone unsolved, authorities now admit.

But the second victim, the one who survived, had a story to tell -- a story about a girl tortured with a heated hangar, bleach and a corkscrew in the basement and likely killed, probably on July 28. She was carried down the alley in a cardboard box -- a box that was pushed over the guardrail on Locust Street, a witness later said in court -- down toward a gnarly creekside path that dead-ends a rugged walk away at the vault.

That's where Corey Maeweather, Kwame Henry and Stanley Obas left Richezza Williams, police say.

To rot.

"It was nasty," Parkansky said, not wanting to speak again about the maggots. "It's still one of the most horrific crimes I've been involved in. She was 13 years old. What they did to her was terrible."

Maeweather was already in custody, charged with assaulting Kathleen Sagusti, the second victim. He would soon admit to his role in Richezza's murder and implicate Henry and Obas. A piece of discarded gum -- found by a determined investigator and confirmed by a forensic dentist -- would place him in the vault. A guilty plea would follow. And life behind bars.

The cops would catch up to Henry in 1998 in Trinidad. He was said to be stunned, after two years on the lam. A jury, divided on death, sent him away forever.

Obas is still out there. Somewhere.

He was likely the recipient of street justice and as dead as Richezza, Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli said. But the investigation isn't closed. Authorities are still prepared to prosecute, if he ever turns up. Even with Sagusti long gone -- she has since died -- a tough case could still be won, Morganelli said.

A tip this year suggested Obas, nicknamed "Widman," was on the West Coast, Easton police said. Someone else linked him to Easton. New York City police hear every now and again that he's back in Brooklyn. Morganelli figures if he's alive, he's probably in his native Haiti.

Even 20 years later, Parkansky can't let it go, even if he hasn't been in charge of the investigation in years.

"There are smells that I associate" with the vault, he said. "When I smell it, it rivets me right back to that day. The visual memories and all the other senses go along with that."

Who was Richezza Williams?

Who was Richezza Williams? Since she invented her identity, it depends on who's talking.

To her mother, she was a darling daughter led astray.

"She was a bright, beautiful, giving young lady," Maria Beckwith said in 1999. "She trusted too many people, and the people that she trusted and thought were her friends killed her."

Richezza Williams (Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com)

To Andrea Edwards, who knew her through Sagusti, Materon "didn't want nobody to know nothing about her. She thought she was grown. And she liked to be the center of attention -- and she had a mouth. She liked to act like she was, like, bad, She'd be like, 'Yo, come here!' you know?"

A former barmaid at a Downtown tavern said in 1996 that she often saw Williams with Maeweather, Henry and Obas at the bar.

"I just remember a girl trying to get booze from me all the time and I threw her out constantly," she said. "Other customers told me she was 13. She was a nightmare of mine.

"But I can't even imagine these kids doing this stuff, killing someone. It makes me think of my trusting self -- I'm learning lessons now. I have goosebumps."

Despite being 13, Williams -- with the help of an ID card that said she was 19-year-old Materon Smith -- convinced landlord Anthony Anzalone that she was old enough to rent an apartment at 601 Northampton St., a building known as The Hillton at the hilltop entry to the city's West Ward.

She was an "innocent-looking girl," Anzalone said in 1996. "... I wasn't too happy with the girl at all. She and the boyfriend (Rocky, said to be 21 or 22), they had a lot of company. I think they were doing drugs or something."

When he learned Williams was likely a minor he again asked for ID. But she moved out instead, he said.

"Rocky was arrested in New York -- he's the guy who was living with her," Anzalone said back then. "When she moved out, her boyfriend" got picked up the same weekend in New York.

Richezza ran away a month after her mom moved her from Brooklyn to Baldwin on Long Island. The men who would kill her were also from the borough of 2 million people across the river from Manhattan and a bus ride away from Easton. Beckwith said she didn't know how Williams got to know Maeweather, Henry and Obas, but it did more than destroy her child's life.

"It's very rough on the family," Beckwith said in 1999. "It's very painful. We still can't believe it. We're still in amazement. Our holidays are not the same. We would have been talking about college. She had a future."

Gangs, drugs and justice



When Interstate 78 opened in the late 1980s, creating a direct route from Easton to New York City, the suburbs began to swell as people living in the city's outer boroughs suddenly could get a bigger, cheaper home in Pennsylvania with a little longer commute.

But as commuters flowed one way to work, something else made the return trip.

Corey Maeweather (Lehighvalleylive.com file photo)

The Easton area's street drug prices to this day far exceed New York and Newark. It's basic economics of supply and demand. A market was born. A market that surges into the present and in recent weeks left a neighborhood stunned when two factions shot it out in the 1100 block of Lehigh Street.

By 1996, gang members who had no idea where Easton was were suddenly blasting away at each other on the city's streets.

"In the mid-90s, we started to see a lot of influx from Brooklyn, Plainfield (N.J.) and Newark," Parkansky said.

Mary Maeweather thought her adopted son was living in the Bronx. He only told her he was living in a place called Easton, Pa., a few weeks before his arrest.

"'I can only go by what he said," she told a reporter in 1996. "I don't know how long he stayed anywhere. ... I didn't get into 'When did you go?' I just left it alone."

The three all belonged to a gang called the Cash Money Boys. But police back in those days in Brooklyn were still sorting the wannabes from the actual gang members.

"They're part of the people down here that are known to commit crimes -- they're known criminals down here," Detective Terry Lito of the 67th Precinct in Flatbush told former Express-Times reporter Josh Richman in 1996. They were part of "so-called gangs, using the term loosely."

By the middle of the decade, the business model was in place that rules the West Ward to this day. Bloods, Crips, violence and heroin addiction, but more likely crack back then.

In 1996, those forces were still fairly new. The house where Sagusti lived wasn't a drug market, Parkansky said. It was a place where people used drugs. A flop house. A crack house. Some thought Maeweather, Henry and Obas sold out of the place, but Parkansky put that to the test.

"We absolutely knew about 719 Bushklill," Parkansky said. "They were using it to use -- a lot of people would just go and use. ... Being lieutenant of (investigations) at the time, I tried to get vice guys to close it down due to it being so close to mine. I had a vested interest in that house."

Parkansky knew Sagusti, who was a prostitute and drug user.

But she would soon be something far different -- the key witness for the prosecution, the one person who tied it all together.

She wasn't that person right away, though. Williams was likely killed in late July, but Sagusti didn't surrender any information until after her Aug. 5 assault.

The newspaper story didn't appear until Aug. 14, and when it did it was under a tiny headline "Easton man charged with attack on woman." Police had not only been mum on Williams' body being found, but they didn't release details of the assault either.

When asked about the delay, then-police Chief Carl Beers said all police had to go on was an unsubstantiated report.

"There was no victim. There was no body," he said.

Now, the media -- and social media -- would be an ally in such a case and be used to get information to the public in hopes of getting information back, Parkansky said.

He said he doesn't remember why police didn't tell the public there were two alleged killers running around.

And as of Aug. 10, when the girl's body was found, and certainly by the 12th, they knew they had what Northampton County Coroner Zachary Lysek called a "suspicious, unnatural death."

But on Aug. 5, with Williams dead about a week, the case went from possibly unsolvable to one that would be quickly wrapped up.

A few weeks later, Edwards would tell of how the three men sought to torture her friend Sagusti and her that day because of stolen drugs or money -- a scenario similar to what happened to Williams.

One of the men stabbed Sagusti in the arm and jabbed Edwards in the shoulder, she said. Henry then untwisted a metal coat hanger and told Maeweather to go downstairs and get some salt, Edwards said. They heated the tip, shook salt on it and burned Sagusti, Edwards said.

Ten days after Richezza Williams' body was found in a vault at the base of Easton Cemetery, news finally breaks. (Lehighvalleylive.com file photo)

"I was supposed to be next, and I was like, 'No way,'" Edwards said. "Then Kwame told Lemon (Maeweather) to get the razors -- the razors."

Edwards said she tried to dive through a closed window, making such a racket that the men ran off.

Which was fine with her. They had scared her since one of them threw something at her and she cursed them out, she said.

"I looked at their eyes and I knew they really liked that," she said. "They don't care, they have no heart."

Sagusti reported the attack on the women. And she told police about Buffy Materon Smith -- how they punched her, dragged her from the second floor to the basement, tortured her and hauled her out in a cardboard box. No one had seen her since.

Kwame Henry (Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com)

"I think we got pretty lucky with Sagusti," Parkansky said of the troubled woman who has since died. "She was the key in the conviction of Henry and the charges resulting. It may have gone unsolved."

"There was some luck involved," Morganelli added. "Without that, this case could be unsolved."

Maeweather was sent to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $75,000 bail on the aggravated assault charge in the attack on Sagusti. Sagusti told police about Henry, only identifying him as Kwame.

If that assault hadn't happened, there's no search for a missing person. No Pennsylvania Water Rescue personnel along the creek. No body found -- at least not so soon. And even if her body was found, there would be no context. No "Materon."

Perhaps a database search would eventually kick back that Long Island police were looking for a runaway 13-year-old, but the trail back to 719 Bushkill St. would have been as overgrown as the path to that cemetery vault is today.

So Parkansky and the department's inspector, Doug Schlegel -- who is now a district judge -- got Maeweather in a conference room in the old police station on Union Street.

Parkansky did his best, but Maeweather didn't crack.

"Doug Schlegel started talking to him and he just confessed," Parkansky said, adding Schlegel had dealt with Maeweather in the past.

Parkansky was stunned. "'Oh my gosh, he just confessed to this,'" he said to himself. "After we put him away, Dougie and I high-fived a couple of times. We consulted with the DA and I said, 'Damn, Doug, you're the man.'"

Evidence was collected from 719 Bushkill St. and arrest warrants were issued for Henry and Obas, who were still on the streets.

"Why he stayed in Easton I have no idea," Parkansky said of Maeweather.

Maeweather would plead guilty to the killing and Henry would be convicted.

"The Henry case wasn't a slam dunk," Morganelli said. "He pleaded not guilty and denied involvement."

Many things went right for police in the key 10-day period between the assault on Sagusti and the release of information.

"From a police standpoint it was very quick that we identified suspects," Parkansky said. "I was pretty pleased with that. ... I'm proud of the department, proud of my guys. They truly worked hard on this."

Richezza's parents end up in court

Richezza's parents -- Beckwith, who was also known as Maria Edwards, and Colonial Williams -- lashed out at one of their daughter's killers. They were charged with disorderly conduct for "verbally and physically attacking" Maeweather in a Northampton County courtroom. As Beckwith egged him on, Colonial Williams went after Maeweather during his sentencing.

Efforts to reach Beckwith in recent weeks were unsuccessful.

"Next time you're in the courtroom, this may not occur again," the late District Judge Gay Elwell told the pair at the time. "We're the good guys. You're the good guys."

They wrote an apology to county Judge F.P. Kimberly McFadden, saying in part, "Under extreme circumstances, we could not control our emotions which resulted in a situation."

They were each fined $73 in court costs and when it came time for Henry's sentencing, no one notified Beckwith, she said.

"His mother was there," Beckwith later said of Henry. "Why couldn't somebody have informed me? You mean I have to find out from a reporter. Not even a courtesy call. Why?"

Morganelli said he hasn't spoken to Beckwith in recent years.

"It was a huge loss to her," he said of the killing. "She was a cooperative woman."

Still out there

"Wildman" would be 38 now.

Stanley Obas, still on the lam (Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com)

"Obas was the least culpable of them," Parkansky said. "Maeweather and Henry did the torture. Obas kept Kathleen Sagusti upstairs."

Morganelli agrees with that recounting.

It was said Obas had a crush on Williams. Perhaps that's why he wasn't allowed in the basement.

But he's still charged with homicide all these years later. There is no statute of limitations.

If he's ever located, mounting the case could be a challenge.

"Sagusti is dead. It would be very hard to prosecute," said Morganelli, who has been district attorney since 1992.

"If he did show up, I would prosecute. I could use testimony of Kathy Sagusti (from the court record). It was a conspiracy. On the other hand, we might be able to work a deal. They're up in their 40s now. I don't necessarily need to get a life sentence to put him away for life. If we find him -- and that's a big if."

The case at 20

The case isn't closed, but is there closure?

Richezza would be 33 today; the others, about 40.

Police continue to work with the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service, following up on leads and tracking down tips.

Parkansky was heading for vacation in late July of that year. He was loading up the car outside his home at 711 Bushkill St., about the same time Richezza's body was being carried down the back alley. What if ... .

"This case runs through my mind very frequently," he said.

Two culprits were brought to justice, sentenced to life prison terms.

"Hopefully it brought some sort of closure for Richezza's mom," Parkansky said. "How that affected her I don't know. We did everything we could do."

Richman, the reporter who covered Easton back then, went on to a long newspaper career in the Bay area of California. He followed the case into some of the best and worst neighborhoods.

"I've never managed to forget Richezza Williams' case," he said a short time ago. "Even by the standards of cases I later covered as a courts reporter in Oakland, her death was particularly cruel and sad.

"As a reporter, it was a story with a lot of moving parts: a little girl lost, the product of one of the hardest neighborhoods in one of the world's biggest cities, whose murder shocked the sensibilities of a small, quiet town.

"Going to New York City soon after her death put me face to face not only with Richezza's grieving family but also with Corey Maeweather's heartbroken mother and sister; going back later with (reporter) Dan Sheehan gave us far more insight into what had led all of them to that awful act.

"I remember knocking the door of Stanley Obas' last known address, an apartment in Bed-Stuy, wondering who would open the door and how; we interviewed his father. I think of those families often, particularly Richezza's mom -- I hope she has found some peace."

Perhaps it is left to the coroner, who often speaks for the dead, to provide perspective.

"It's a very sad case. Very unfortunate," Lysek said, then qualifying. "All of these cases are very sad. They all have families. The whole thing is unfortunate."

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
IronPigs Charities surprise two Little League teams on May 9, 2016

Part of the debt payments on Coca-Cola Park are paid from a share of the Lehigh Valley's 4 percent hotel tax.

(Sue Beyer)

State Sen. Pat Browne, R-Lehigh, has been getting an earful lately. Officials from around the Lehigh Valley say the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee carved out a source of funding for hotel development in Allentown's Neighborhood Improvement Zone -- redistributing a share of the Valley's 4 percent hotel room tax without consulting the four parties that depend on the tax.

Sneaky? Well, sure -- in the way that most of what goes into a state budget isn't known until it is voted upon, after which the details are sorted out. This year the Legislature and Gov. Tom Wolf took an extra two weeks to figure out how to raise revenues to plug a $1 billion-plus deficit.

Browne's redirection of the hotel tax has sparked criticism from the beneficiaries of the tax -- Northampton and Lehigh counties, Discover Lehigh Valley, and the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. Hotel Bethlehem managing partner Bruce Haines says he and others hoteliers were blindsided by a move that creates an unfair competitive advantage. Under the change, the portion of the hotel tax generated within Allentown's NIZ will be set aside to help rehab existing hotels in the zone or subsidize new ones.

A few government bodies, including Northampton County Council and the Bethlehem Township Commissioners, have called for repeal of the measure.

While the two counties receive small shares of the tax, the primary beneficiaries are Discover Lehigh Valley, which promotes tourism and gets most of its $2.5 million budget from the tax, and LVEDC, which seeks to recruit new employers to the Valley and retain existing jobs.

"We didn't know about it until two days after the budget was signed by the governor. It was a shock," said Michael Stershic, president of Discover Lehigh Valley, which stands to lose about $200,000 in revenue under the change.

That's a fair criticism, but anyone who sees this as a major reversal of the thinking that went into Allentown's NIZ is operating in a vacuum. The redirection of local and state taxes to subsidize redevelopment in an inner-city neighborhood established that principle on a large scale; Browne wrote the law. While some critics view it as a sell-out to developers, there's no arguing the NIZ has initiated a building boom in downtown Allentown.

Browne says the original NIZ law allowed for hotel taxes to be used for hotel projects in the zone, and his recent budget amendment just clarified that process. He says Allentown's revival depends on creating more quality hotel rooms.

There are two issues here: One is the turf wars created by shifting tax shares. Lehigh County officials, for example, say the loss of a portion of the hotel tax will eat into loan payments it makes on construction of Coca-Cola Park, home of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs.

The other issue deals with the big picture -- the need to 1) market the Lehigh Valley as a region, keeping a lid on parochial rivalries, and 2) acknowledge that the cities, having declined over a half-century of suburban flight, are keys to the Valley's economic health and need some innovative help in generating revenue.

These are not necessarily competing forces -- unless quarreling government officials choose to make them so.

Browne could have avoided this fallout by contacting the parties involved in advance of the budget passage, gotten feedback, and proceeded from there. Having failed that test, he needs to sit down with each of them -- the two counties, Discover Lehigh Valley, LVEDC and hotel industry representatives -- and map out a better plan.
Spink Comhaltas had a very busy and successful weekend at Leinster Fleadh in Kilkenny over 8/9/10 July with a total medal haul of 22 medals across music and dancing competitions, and 10 individuals and the evergreen Ballyroan Halfset qualifying for Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann in Ennis in August.

Leinster Fleadh 2016 had the largest entries from Spink to date, with 5 groups comprising 70 members competing in U12, U15 and U18 competitions, as well as solo, duet and trio competitors.

The Leinster Fleadh is the most challenging of all of the provincial fleadhs because of the number of competitors and the scale of the competitions, and all of the adjudicators noted that standards this year continued to increase from the already very high standards of previous years.

All of Spinks groups performed splendidly and were highly commended for performances. Most of the members of these groups are very young, and will definitely be back in 2017 stronger based on their experience this year.

Congratulations to Ballyroan Halfset, Emer Barrett, Lily Kettle, Naoise Kettle, Aoibhe Kettle, David Vesey, Mark Vesey, Daniel Delaney, Daniel Aylward, Lucy O Neill, and Aibhlinn Doheny.

Congratulations too to all of the other Laois competitors who continue to maintain the reputation for excellence in Comhaltas, and who in turn performed for their own branches with great distinction. It was great to see the goodwill and support that Spink competitors received from sister branches across Laois, and we wish all of the Laois competitors the very best in Ennis next month.

One of the most exciting young trad groups in Ireland, Fiuntas  who are made up of members of Spink and Camross - had 7 out of its 8 members performing in Leinster Fleadh. They all qualified for Ennis, with a medal tally of 17 for their weekend. They rounded off their own busy weekend with a stomping performance on the gig rig on Sunday evening in front of Kilkenny castle.

For those of you who did not get a chance to listen to Spink or Laois competitors in the Fleadh, remember you can also listen to them in the summer seisiuns every Wednesday in Heritage House, Abbeyleix at 8pm throughout July and August.

Spink branch of Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann provides traditional Irish music lessons to members from Laois and bordering areas in Kilkenny, Carlow and Kildare. With a comprehensive instrument bank to support members learning music in a cost effective way, Spink prepares members for Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann as well as the traditional Irish music examinations. Most importantly, the tradition of playing and enjoying Irish music is being handed on to a new generation. More information is available on Spink Comhaltas on Facebook.
The political and sporting worlds came together to celebrate the life of a uniter at the funeral of former MEP, Minister and TD, Paddy Lalor, at the Church of the Most Holy Rosary in Abbeyleix on Monday morning.

The inter county player, turned politican, passed away on Friday, July 29.

Large crowds attended the removal on Sunday evening and the Requiem Mass on Monday morning.

The attendance on Monday included former Taoiseach Brian Cowen, and a range of current and former TDs and Ministers including Sean Fleming, John Moloney, Michael Woods, Liam Hyland Martin Mansergh, Liam Aylward, and Charlie O'Connor.

The sporting world included former GAA President Liam O'Neill and former County Board Chairman, Tom Hassett.

The Requiem Mass touched on all aspects of Paddy Lalor's life, and the gifts brought to the altar at the beginning of the Mass reflected this.

His grand daughter Eimear brought an election poster, and Kevin and Pauric Lalor presented a Laois hurling jersey and a Abbeyleix hurling jersey.

A deck of cards symbolised his avid love of card playing, a pioneer pin his devoted membership of the pioneers, and a family tree his research and work on the history of the Lalor and Kelly clans.

A pot of tea was also brought to the altar, which was presented to Paddy on the day of his marriage to his deceased wife Myra.

The Chief Celebrant, Fr Eddie Lalor (a relation) remembered a great sportsman, and a man who was dedicated to his Catholic faith.

Paddy Lalor dedicated his life to his family, he said.

He was a man of integrity who, as a Minister, had been a servant of the people.

In his eulogy, Paddy Lalor's son, Joe noted that his father had been an only child and had established that special bond with his parents, particularly his mother, that an only child has.

The qualities his mother had imbued in him had endured throughout his life and these included his strong faith, his honesty and integrity, his community service and a deep love of Abbeyleix.

He had met his future wife Myra Murphy in the National Ballroom in Dublin on a sporting outing.

Joe Lalor noted that as his father's political career took off, he always fought for and got quality time with his family.

Sundays were a sacrosanct family time.

His commitment to his family always saw him finding time for them, and he never missed birthdays or other special occasions.

He was a driven, competitve man who brought this to card and board games at home.

However, he emphasised to this children that it was not always about winning, but rather how you won.

When he retired from political life, he re-invested his energy in his family.

Joe noted that his father's hurling league top 20 goal scoring record was still intact, and also his 100 points tally for a player not assigned to taking frees.

He was anxious that a new Laois team would emerge and dissipate the shadow of the 1949 team and he admired the work of Cheddar Plunkett with the current Laois team. In the past few years, he was delighted to see Abbeyleix becoming more competitive again in hurling and the Abbeyleix U/14s winning the Feile earlier this year.

Joe Lalor also thanked the the many organisations and clubs his father was involved in and who had provided Guards of Honour on the evening of the removal.

These included the Fianna Fail cumann, CYMS, the Drama Group, St. Vincent de Paul, Fr Breen Park Development committee, GAA, the Credit Union, Tidy Towns and Abbeyleix Credit Union.
One US Republican Congressional candidate boasts strong links to Co Leitrim.

Colm Willis, who won the Republican candidate nomination for Oregon in the May US Primary elections recently took a break with his family to visit his ancestral home in Knockacullion, Aghacashel.

Colm's parents Tom and Mary, along with his cousin Bridie Reynolds (nee Boyle) and her husband Dennis, own the homestead in Knockacullion and the area remains an important part of his family's heritage.

I have lived in Oregon all my life but my great-grandfather, Jimmy Skinnon, came from Leitrim. He left school at just 10 and came to work on the docks of New York, said Colm.

Jimmy's daughter was brought up in New York, married and, with her husband, started a Ford dealership following WWII. Her son, Colm's father, Tom, went to Harvard Business school and eventually worked for Intel.

So for my family it has been a story of coming to another country, coming as my great-grandfather did, with just a 5th grade education and then, through the generations, taking advantage of opportunities and seeing success. For Jimmy coming to America it was a chance to come to America and live the dream and we, his descendents, have built on that, he said.

Acknowledging that his family had no previous involvement in politics, Colm explains that his interest stemmed from his first job after college where he worked for the Joint Economic Committee in May 2008.

I got hired just as the economy crashed and I saw leaders of both parties (Republican and Democrat) giving money to big lobby groups . I became very disillusioned and I left after about a year, he explained.

However, after he married, his wife Joan and became the father of two little girls, Ainne and Roisin, Colm says that his interest in politics was rekindled.

He describes America as the most free place in the world and says that their political system reflects this freedom with anyone able to put themselves forward and very little, to Irish eyes, restrictions on what can be spent or said during election campaigns.

People say to me, why don't they (those in charge) stop people from saying and doing things in the election, that they find outrageous, but the reality is that there is no 'they' running things. People have the freedom to say and do what they want and that is something we, as Americans, believe is important, freedom.

Colm's home town in Oregon is part of a large farming district and crops such as blueberries, hazelnuts, hops and pinot noir wine grapes are all grown in this area.

Another big issue is the timer industry and, in particular, the impact of conservation on the industry and the job losses resulting from reduced harvesting.

Harvesting was a major source of funding for our police force and our education system. When harvesting declined so did our funds. The Federal Government said they would give us direct payments to make up the loss but in the last five years they are cutting payments and a lot of counties are struggling to fund their police and education systems, he said.

He acknowledges that immigration remains a key issue in America.

For our voters the question is not about the immigrants themselves, it is about our leaders in Congress and how they have failed to deal with the issues surrounding immigration, he explains.

People are very disillusioned with how immigration has been dealt with. The fact is that most Americans are descended from immigrants and when they look back at the way their families came through Ellis Island, the health checks and suitability checks they went through to come into America, and now, we have a situation where people are being let into the country without any of this checks.

People want a proper structure in place so we know who is coming into our country and why.

Colm will be seeking election to Congress in November and, if successful, will take up a two year term in Congress.

In Oregon, voters won't take to the polls like they do here in Ireland, instead, voting is done by postal vote. While voting in the US, as in Ireland, isn't compulsory, Americans typically have a much higher turnout for elections (70-80%), something Colm attributes to a tradition of much stronger involvement in the political system for the average American.

And if he is elected? My hope is to fight for the people in West Oregon. To fight for the values, for jobs and to be a true advocate for the people, he said.

However he says that Ireland, and in particular Co Leitrim, will always hold a special place for his family and himself.

I was brought up with a strong love for Ireland. I play the flute, I went to the Gaeltacht twice growing up, I learned set dancing and I have visited here often throughout my life

This is the place we can always come back to , a place to remember the love and sacrifice so many made through the generations for us. People like my great-grandfather Jimmy, who left with the hope that his children could have a better life, could be free, he said.

The people of Ireland are the guardians of that legacy, that history and love of Ireland and every time I come home I feel a part of that.
As I type, the Lib Dems are holding the Government to account on their stance on rights for Ghurka troops to settle in the UK.

But in PMQs this afternoon, Clegg launched a blistering attack on the Prime Minister on the Ghurka issue, despite following Camerons similar question.

And hes been rewarded for his efforts with a round of ace reviews from bloggers across the spectrum:

Jane Marrick: Cleggs finest hour

But it was Clegg who played the real blinder. This was the Lib Dem leaders best performance at PMQs. Clegg has struggled to find the right issue to get the PM on, but this, on the Gurkhas, is the right one.

Guido Fawkes: Clegg Hits His Mark

Iain Dale: Clegg Shines and puts Brown on the Ropes

This was Nick Cleggs strongest performance yet at PMQs in his 16 months as LibDem leader. Despite being pre-empted by Cameron, he put Brown on the back foot. Gordon Brown 5

David Cameron 6

Nick Clegg 7 UPDATE: Andrew Neil has just said that the Daily Politics has never had such an avalanche of emails after PMQs as today on the Gurkhas. Furthermore, every single one of them supported the Gurkhas. Every. Single. One.

Carons Musings: Clegg slams Brown on Ghurkas

Brown gave a bit of a lacklustre answer, which, to be honest, it was hard to imagine he actually believed himself. Nick came straight back at him saying that his answer was that of a man who knows hes doing a shameful thing but doesnt have the guts to admit it or change it. I want Clegg fighting on my side if Im ever in trouble.

Paul Waugh: Clegg wins PMQs

[] it was Nick Clegg who won the day. Many of us thought he would have to junk his Gurhka questions after Cameron majored on the subject. Yet as it happened, the Lib Dem leader was more passionate and more scathing than his Tory counterpart.

Final word to Jane Merrick:

PS I get the feeling this will be settled by the end of the week with another u-turn. At least two newspapers are running campaigns on the Gurkhas, including the Sun (which never loses campaigns). This is an issue where there is cross-party anger.

Its a crying shame that on such an issue the Government has to be forced into providing justice for brave soldiers.
On 27th August, LDV will be 10 years old. In that time, weve brought you over 24,000 posts and published over 337,000 comments. Over the Summer holidays, well take you on a nostalgic meander through a decade of Liberal Democrat history, seen through the eyes of our editors and contributors. We hope you enjoy our choices.

Remember that wonderful day in 2009 when a Liberal Democrat motion to allow Gurkhas to settle in this country was won and the Labour Government was defeated. Joanna Lumley had been at the forefront of the campaign and she and Nick Clegg and David Cameorn held a press conference after the vote.

The next week, Joanna Lunley had some robust exchanges with then Labour MP Phil Woolas ( remember him?).

Its a huge pity that David Cameron seemed to forget this when he let down the Afghan interpreters who served our country and put themselves and their families at huge risk.

Anyway, heres Alex Fosters post rounding up the commentary on that historic day before the result of the vote was known.

As I type, the Lib Dems are holding the Government to account on their stance on rights for Ghurka troops to settle in the UK. But in PMQs this afternoon, Clegg launched a blistering attack on the Prime Minister on the Ghurka issue, despite following Camerons similar question. And hes been rewarded for his efforts with a round of ace reviews from bloggers across the spectrum: Jane Marrick: Cleggs finest hour But it was Clegg who played the real blinder. This was the Lib Dem leaders best performance at PMQs. Clegg has struggled to find the right issue to get the PM on, but this, on the Gurkhas, is the right one. Guido Fawkes: Clegg Hits His Mark Iain Dale: Clegg Shines and puts Brown on the Ropes This was Nick Cleggs strongest performance yet at PMQs in his 16 months as LibDem leader. Despite being pre-empted by Cameron, he put Brown on the back foot. Gordon Brown 5

David Cameron 6

Nick Clegg 7 UPDATE: Andrew Neil has just said that the Daily Politics has never had such an avalanche of emails after PMQs as today on the Gurkhas. Furthermore, every single one of them supported the Gurkhas. Every. Single. One. Carons Musings: Clegg slams Brown on Ghurkas Brown gave a bit of a lacklustre answer, which, to be honest, it was hard to imagine he actually believed himself. Nick came straight back at him saying that his answer was that of a man who knows hes doing a shameful thing but doesnt have the guts to admit it or change it. I want Clegg fighting on my side if Im ever in trouble. Paul Waugh: Clegg wins PMQs [] it was Nick Clegg who won the day. Many of us thought he would have to junk his Gurhka questions after Cameron majored on the subject. Yet as it happened, the Lib Dem leader was more passionate and more scathing than his Tory counterpart. Final word to Jane Merrick: PS I get the feeling this will be settled by the end of the week with another u-turn. At least two newspapers are running campaigns on the Gurkhas, including the Sun (which never loses campaigns). This is an issue where there is cross-party anger. Its a crying shame that on such an issue the Government has to be forced into providing justice for brave soldiers.

We did good that day.

If you want to be part of the next decade on LDV, write for us!
Recently Jo Swinson commented on the media coverage of the Childs Review, a report which made a number of recommendations about how the diversity of Parliament could be improved. The reporting put a huge emphasis on breastfeeding in the Chamber despite this having barely been mentioned in passing.

She wrote this for the Huffington Post:

None of these 43 recommendations are about breastfeeding. The word breast is mentioned just twice in the body of the report, in a sub-section under recommendation 12 on page 21, which covers the need for a clear policy on maternity, paternity, parental, adoption and caring leave. The report makes clear that even if infants were permitted into the House of Commons chamber and committee rooms, their presence there would be unlikely to be a routine event. An important symbolic change that might even on occasion be practically helpful to new parents who are MPs, yes. A key plank of how we will create a more inclusive Parliament, certainly not.

I know the media sensationalises and twists things out of context. But I genuinely struggle to understand the thought-process that takes a tiny part of a serious report about how our democratic institutions reflect society, and not only blows it up into the headline, but in some cases makes it the only idea that they even include in the entire story. Its the journalistic equivalent of pinging a girls bra-strap and thinking its hilarious. Boobs! They mentioned boobs!. You can almost hear the puerile chuckles in the newsroom.

Perhaps the most important recommendation was number 4, which called for media passes for Westminster to be at least 40% men and at least 40% women. The media covering our politics is much more of a boys club than Parliament itself, both the group of journalists in Westminster and the people making the editorial decisions about whats news, whats the headline and whats the accompanying picture (the totty, naturally). There are a tiny number of women in the core group of journalists covering Parliament, and its not getting better over time.

Unlike politicians, who are rightly challenged on the snail-like progress towards equal representation in their parties, the media is far less accountable for its own appalling record. Television channels recognise that just having blokes reporting the news looks a bit weird in 2016, so they have a better mix  though notice how the big set-piece events are still seen as a job for the boys. And radio schedules and newspaper bylines tell their own story. Just start counting if you dont believe me.
A POLISH man who admitted growing cannabis plants, worth more than 200,000 at two houses in West Limerick, has been jailed for five years.

Grzegorz Jacniak, aged 40, who has an address at Market Court, Newcastle West pleaded guilty, earlier this year, to four charges relating to offences at houses at Coolagowan, Castletown Conners and at Arra View, Newcastle West.

During a sentencing hearing, Garda Claire Hanrahan said a number of houses were searched on February 4, 2015 after confidential information was received in relation to one of the grow-houses.

She told Michael Collins BL, instructed by State Solicitor Aidan Judge that cannabis 375 plants were seized at the house at Coolagowan which had been adapted.

She said specialised lighting, heating and ventilation had been installed in the house and that in addition to the plants, a large amount of cannabis was located in a chest freezer.

A smaller quantity of drugs was found in the defendants car.

A further 142 cannabis plants were seized during a follow-up search of a house at Arra View, Newcastle West which had been rented by Mr Jacniak a number of months earlier.

It was accepted that following his arrest, the defendant made full admissions and indicated that he would be pleading guilty to the charges.

Garda Hanrahan said during interview he described in detail his role in the operation and admitted that more than 10,000 had been spent adapting the two houses.

Judge Tom ODonnell was told the operation was a sophisticated commercial operation and that the defendant admitted he had intended selling the drugs for commercial gain.

Mark Nicholas BL, defending, said the father-of-three, who has been living in Ireland for some time, cooperated fully with gardai and immediately took responsibility for the drugs.

He said Mr Jacniaks family have returned to Poland since his arrest and that his client already has an offer of work for after his release such is the the quality of his work as a mechanic.

Imposing sentence, Judge ODonnell noted the defendant had a good work history until he was disqualified from driving in 2014 after he was convicted of drink driving.

He said the commercial nature of the operation was an aggravating factor as was the value of the drugs seized.

He imposed a seven year prison sentence, suspending the final two years for seven years.

A bench warrant was previously issued for the arrest of Mr Jacniaks co-accused - Artur Pietrziak  after the court was told he had disappeared and could not be located.
DRIVERS who pay their motor tax are not getting value for money, according to elected representatives who have condemned Limericks road conditions.

Between January and June, Limerick City and County Council collected a total of 23,663,003 in motor tax receipts, through 90,880 registered vehicles, according to figures released by the Department of Transport and the council.

The council collected the fourth highest sum of motor tax receipts in the first half of 2016, behind Kildare with 27m; Galway with 31.2m; Cork with 67.5m; and Dublin with 144.1m.

Drivers in Limerick have paid an average of 260.38 in motor tax in the first of this year.

Cllr Lisa Marie Sheehy said that cul de sacs, boreens and small local roads are last on the list for repairs and development.

When I was elected, one of the first things that I came across was that a postwoman couldnt go up the road because it was so bad," she said.

"She had to give all the letters, of the people living up the road, to one of the residents and he would call down to her to collect their mail. For me, that was an absolute disgrace, the fact that the roads were that bad of a state. I had to put a motion forward and we were able to get channels done. And a lot of the problems, especially I am from, relate to water, so the roads are being eaten away, she said.

Drivers can submit claims to the council if their vehicles are damaged by potholes, which she said is a frequent issue in the Cappamore-Kilmallock area.

But those people who live on those roads pay their motor tax. And why should other places be prioritised? There are various people getting their cars destroyed. The amount of people who have rang me about potholes that have put off axles and burst tyres in their car, she added.

Cllr Richard ODonoghue criticised the complex registration process for small commercial vehicles.

You need a tax clearance cert, a VAT return, signed by a garda. It is absolutely crazy the things you have to do to get a vehicle taxed, never mind how bad our roads are at the moment.

All the money that is being collected, they are not spending enough in the county. Our road structure in the county is very poor. The biggest rate-payers, alongside the biggest tax-payers, are in the county. They have to travel the longest distances to work, on substandard roads. My own opinion is that the drivers in the county are not getting their value for money in the county.

Independent councillor John Gilligan condemned footpaths and roads in St Marys Park, which he said requires urgent upgrading. He added that there is too much patching in the area.

The patches eventually shrink. That will lead to potholes, and once they see a pothole, they patch it up again. You cant patch a road or a footpath, where a substantial amount has been taken out. The only thing you can do is relay the entire footpath, or relay the entire road. We are paying a huge price for it. It is about time that we got something in return.

A total of 59,073 vehicles were registered online and the remaining 31,807 were registered at the motor tax office, at County Hall, Dooradoyle.
ROSE fever is on the rise throughout West Limerick and hopes are high that Limerick Rose, Marie Hennessy, from Rooskagh, Athea will take the crown this year and copperfasten Atheas claim on the Rose of Tralee title.

In 2007, when Lisa Murtagh won the coveted title for New York and for Athea, her second home, there was great cheering and celebrating in Athea as her mother Breda Geoghegan is a native of the parish.

But now, a War of the Roses could be looming in Athea as New York Rose, Kirstin Stack, who also has deep roots in Athea, will be vying for the title and going head to head with Marie Hennessy in the contest which takes place in Tralee later this month.

Kirstins dad, Mike is from Athea but emigrated to the US over 30 years ago. He and his wife Jackie, a Tralee woman, live in New Jersey but Kirstins nan, Norrie Stack and her aunt Mary Murray still live in Athea as do many other relatives.

Already dozens of Stack relatives have booked their seats in Tralee and according to Mary Ann Stack: Everyone is superexcited. Athea is getting behind her.

Kirstin, she added, is working towards a Ph D and wants to work as a researcher in the field of corporate social responsibility.

Limerick Rose Marie Hennessy however is simply soaking up the experience of representing her homeplace and her county. I am absolutely thrilled to have been selected to represent Limerick at this years Festival. I cannot express in words what this experience has been like so far and I am very much looking forward to everything that is yet to come, she said this week as she prepares for the whirlwind that is the Rose of Tralee contest and festival.

Marie and all the other Roses will go on a five-day tour of some of the countrys top tourism landmarks before arriving in Tralee in a fortnights time. And with her and Kirstin on the Rose bus will be the Western Canada Rose, Molly Fogarty, who also has family connections to Limerick.

With 65 Roses selected for this years contest, each Rose will take part in qualifying selections on August 17 and 18 which will be hosted in the Dome by Daithi O Se. Marie and Kirstin will find out on August 21 if they will be appearing on the televised selections on August 22 and 23.

Marie, 27, represented Muscular Dystrophy Ireland (MDI), in the Limerick selection and is an UL graduate in English and Irish. She teaches in the Desmond College, Newcastle West and also spends time each summer at the Irish college, Colaiste Bhreanain in Ballybunion. I was so proud to push my own boundaries and get out of my own comfort zone and to represent Rooskagh, she said after she was named Limerick Rose.

Though there was an option to do a party piece on the night, Marie chose not to do one. Instead she had to explain where exactly Rooskagh was. The starting point for me was Rooskagh and where it was, she laughed, and I talked about where I worked, and that I am very passionate about Irish language. I have spent every summer, for the past 10 years, in Colaiste Bhreanainn, in Ballybunion. That is a huge part of my life. I wouldnt know my summers without it.
Apr 29, 2021, 5 PM

Gen. Nathanael Greene of the Continental Army is shown in the portrait at right on this 1936 commemorative stamp.

By Michael Baadke

Revolutionary War hero Nathanael Greene was a trusted friend of Gen. George Washington, and his portrait appears with Washingtons on the 1 green Army commemorative issued Dec. 15, 1936 (Scott 785).

Born into a Quaker family on Aug. 7, 1742, in Potowomut, R.I., Greene joined with the patriots of the American Revolution despite his religions commitment to pacifism.

He was involved in forming a militia company for Rhode Island, and was promoted to brigadier general in the Continental Army. As commander of the Armys Southern forces, Greene was instrumental in the battles that led to the defeat and surrender of British Gen. Charles Cornwallis.

At age 43 in 1786, Greene died at his Georgia plantation following a sunstroke.
In the future you will no longer find this website at this address. Please contact the email address from which you received the email which you tried to open this link.

In Zukunft werden Sie diese Website nicht mehr unter dieser Adresse finden. Bitte wenden Sie sich an die E-Mail-Adresse, die Ihnen die E-Mail sendete, von der Sie versucht haben den Link zu offnen.
Looking to stay up to date about all of the news stories and local headlines that are important to Long Islanders? We've rounded up the top coverage for all of the important topics from multiple sources around Long Island, so you can be sure you've got the most recent update on the top stories for Long Island. Have an idea for a news story? Email us at news@longisland.com

Columnists Press Releases
Shortly after Al Nusrah Front announced on July 28 that it was relaunching its operations under the name Jabhat Fath Al Sham (Conquest of the Levant Front), jihadists, Islamists and other Sunni rebel groups began an offensive to break the siege of Aleppo.

Bashar al Assads forces and their Iranian allies, backed by Russia, had been squeezing the rebel held part of the city since earlier this year. The Syrian regime and its partners cut off a key supply road in the north during fighting in June and July, thereby encircling their opponents.

The insurgents orchestrated an offensive to break the blockade focusing on areas in the southern part of Aleppo, including the Ramousa district, which houses key military installations. The insurgents offensive is one of their largest undertakings since the beginning of the Syrian war, drawing together the resources of more than 20 factions and organizations. It obviously required extensive planning to coordinate the actions of so many groups.

On Aug. 6, just over one week after the battle began, the opposition to Assad claimed to have broken through the defensive positions manned by the Syrian regime and allied paramilitary forces. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), however, the fighting continues and Russia is bombing the area in an attempt to prevent the insurgents from consolidating their gains.

The effort to break the siege has been led by two coalitions: Jaysh al Fath (Army of Conquest) and Fatah Halab (Aleppo Conquest). Many of the constituent groups in each alliance streamed videos and released photos from the fighting on their social media pages.

Jaysh al Fath (Army of Conquest) and allied jihadist groups

Jaysh al Fath was formed by Al Nusrah, Ahrar al Sham, and other organizations in early 2015. The coalition quickly swept through the city of Idlib and the surrounding areas in a matter of weeks. Jaysh al Fath has led multiple other battles throughout Syria, with Al Nusrah (now Jabhat Fath Al Sham, or JFS) and Ahrar al Sham always leading the charge. Ahrar al Sham models itself after the Taliban and has its own links to al Qaeda.

Suicide bombers dispatched by JFS played a key role in the fight for southern Aleppo. Early on in the battle, JFS launched two martyrdom operations using vehicle borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs) at a location identified as Al Hikmah school. The official Twitter feed for JFS reported on July 31 that the VBIEDs targeted Assads loyalists. The jihadists quickly swarmed the area, claiming to have captured it.

JFS continued to launch suicide operations in the days that followed. On Aug. 5, a martyr identified as Abu al Baraa struck another location. JFS released a short of video of Abu al Baraa discussing his dedication to the cause, followed by footage of him driving his vehicle to the scene of the attack. On Aug. 6, JFS Twitter feeds advertised still another martyr, Abu Yaqub al Shami, who drove his VBIED into a Shiite-held location in Ramousa.

Jaysh al Faths member organizations, including JFS and Ahrar al Sham, celebrated their capture of a series of Syrian military colleges that were used as fortified bases in Ramousa. Jaysh al Faths battle plan was divided into several phases, with the phase focusing on the military academies known as the Battle of Ibrahim al Youssef. On June 16, 1979, Youssef massacred Alawite cadets at the artillery school in Ramousa. The slayings were blamed on the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, or an offshoot of the Islamist organization.

Other groups belonging to Jaysh al Fath include Jaysh al Sunna, Ajnad al Sham and Katibat al Tawhid wal Jihad (KTJ), all of which participated in the offensive. Jaysh al Sunna and Ajnad al Sham announced the end of the strike on Aug. 6, with Ajnad al Sham thanking Allah for freeing our brothers trapped in Aleppo. The KTJ is a predominately Uzbek group that formally pledged allegiance to Al Nusrah last September.

Jihadists closely allied with Jaysh al Fath took part in the fighting. The Syrian arm of the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP), which is comprised mainly of Uighurs and is part of al Qaedas international network, produced a video trumpeting the beginning of campaign. It is not clear if the TIP is a named member of Jaysh al Fath, but in practice it does not matter. The TIPs men have been integrated into Jaysh al Faths battle plans for more than one year.

Other jihadist organizations tied to the al Qaeda network, such as Ansar al Din and Ansar al Islam, sent fighters to the battlefields in the southern part of Aleppo city as well.

Fatah Halab (Aleppo Conquest)

The Fatah Halab coalition in Aleppo was formed in 2015. It was established by more than two dozen rebel organizations, including the Nur al-Din al-Zanki Movement, the Levant Front, other Islamist groups and Free Syrian Army (FSA) brigades. Faylaq al Sham (Sham Legion), which is an Islamist organization, fought alongside Fatah Halab, but also joined Jaysh al Faths operations in both Idlib and Aleppo.

At its founding, Fatah Halab explicitly excluded Al Nusrah. But some of Fatah Halabs constituent groups, including Nur al-Din al-Zanki Movement, have long worked with Nusrah.

Many of Fatah Halabs constituent groups have posted propaganda from the fighting in Aleppo.

The 1st Regiment, which is a FSA unit, seemingly played a important role. On Aug. 2, the groups fighters detonated a massive bomb in a tunnel underneath a facility controlled by Assads forces. The tunnel bomb paved the way for allied forces to rush into the district. Other photos show the 1st Regiment using guided missiles to destroy a vehicle belonging to Hezbollah and attack positions held by the Syrian regime.

On its official Twitter feed, the Fastaqem Union (FKO Union) describes itself as one of the most effective factions in Syria, aiming to topple Al-Assad Regime and build free and democratic state for all Syrians. A FKO Union video tweeted on Aug. 3 purportedly shows a whole group of Hezbollah members being killed in a TOW missile strike. Two days later, on Aug. 5, the FKO Union claimed to repel an attack by Iranian troops and allied militias that were trying to relieve the front lines.

The FKO Union isnt the only group to fire TOW missiles during the battle. On Aug. 2, Jaysh al Nasr (Army of Victory) released a video of one of its fighters launching a TOW at enemies perched atop a building in Aleppo.

Other units, such as the Central Division, the Authenticity and Development Front, the Northern Division, Division 13, Sokoor al Jabal Brigade and the 101st Infantry all posted images from the battle. The 101st Infantry tweeted a photo of its men manufacturing mortars and grenades to be used in the offensive.

Still another powerful rebel group, Jaysh al Islam, sent forces into the battle for Aleppo as well.

The coming days will prove whether the offensive was as successful as the parties responsible claim.

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.
Culture / Events

This autumn, we invite you to wrap yourself up warm and head to these three design events in northwestern Europe: Formland, northmodern and the NordDesign.

Aug 08, 2016 | By Staff Writer

What do CERN, chocolate and 1.618 Paris have in common this autumn? Obviously, all are involved in these three Nordic design fairs. If youre not sure what CERN and 1.618 Paris are, well read on This autumn, we invite you to forget IKEA, wrap yourself up warm and head to these three design events in northwestern Europe: Formland, Northmodern and the NordDesign conference.

northmodern, August 18-20

Denmark has a new furniture and lifestyle trade show, taking place at the same time as Formland (see bottom) in Copenhagens Bella Center. Called northmodern (literally spelled all lowercase but well abandon that odd syntax henceforth), it was launched in January 2015 and is reportedly inspired by the Danish Modern movement. The fair invites international businesses, professionals and design enthusiasts to celebrate holistic, sustainable contemporary living with a focus on Scandinavian and Nordic design.

For the fourth edition of the fair, hotly-anticipated shows include Englebrechts with their new Plateau and Petit Plateau furniture collection designed by Erik Magnusson. The Scandinavian lighting brand Pholc will exhibit for the first time, and luxury specialists 1.618 Paris (sustainable luxury is this agencys thing) will curate the 450 m Crystal Hall space, the fourth time the company has appeared at the show. For subsequent shows, northmodern will be collaborating with Dezeen, the most-visited architecture and design website in the world.

NordDesign 2016, August 10-12

This year, the biannual conference on Design and Development is being hosted by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in the city of Trondheim. The conference aims to evaluate the Nordic approach to design, as well as topical issues on design, development, and innovation that strengthens both our theoretical understanding, and the connection between theory and practice.

The opening keynote speech will be given by the appropriately-named Markus Nordberg from CERN, the European organization for nuclear research in Geneva (which you may recall being responsible for the Large Hadron Collider). Honestly, were not making either Nordbergs name or CERNs participation up. Other anticipated presentations include those from Saeema Ahmed-Kristensen (Imperial College London) on What If a Computer Could Design? and Andy Dong (University of Sydney) on Design as a Theory of the Firm and Strategy. Yes, Dong is apparently his real name and were not doing this for a laugh.

Formland, August 18  21

The biannual interior and design trade fair has grown over the past 32 years (shame on you if youre just hearing about it) to become a hub for the newest, the best, the strangest and most inspiring Scandinavian designs of the present and future. The fair, which takes place in Herning, Denmark, is divided into 11 different communities, from Light to Interior-atelier, Bloom and the Next Stage for creative entrepreneurs.

Within the fair itself, a number of different events will be taking place, such as the Food & Chocolate Festival featuring free talks and tastings (maybe edible furniture and fixtures?), and the FOCUS trend zone, where experts invite visitors to explore five different zones of colors, textures and materials.
Lifestyle / Alcohol

Aug 08, 2016 | By AFPRelaxnews

With the Cite du Vin  a cultural center for all things wine-related  now open in Bordeaux, France the upcoming Cite de la Gastronomie et du Vin opening in Dijon in 2017, and the first anniversary of the Champagne regions hillsides, houses and cellars gaining UNESCO World Heritage status, wine lovers visiting France are spoiled for choice this year. AFP Relaxnews has picked a selection of vineyards and wine estates to visit this summer (and well be compiling these for you. The last one was Bollinger). Today, were heading to Chateau de Beru in the Burgundy region.

Whats New this Summer?

Ten minutes from the famous wine town of Chablis, Chateau de Beru is opening its doors every weekend until August 31. Visitors can enjoy wine tasting at a pop-up wine bar where the estates owner, Athenais de Beru (below), will be serving up local produce and wines from the estate. Wine buffs can even try whats known as a vertical tasting, sampling different vintages of the same wine. Therell also be a selection of wines from other nearby estates.

Its the ideal opportunity to take a look inside this French chateau with its 16th-century sun-and-moon dial, as this Burgundy estate has become one of the jewels of the Chablis wine region. Chateau de Beru has 15 hectares of vineyards and practices biodynamic wine growing. This family property also enjoys a privileged location, high on a limestone hill. The estates soils are unique in the Chablis wine region, at 300 to 400 meters in altitude compared to the usual 200 to 250 meters.

The Estate

The historical Chateau de Beru estate has been owned by the same family for more than 400 years. In the early 20th century, all of its vines were torn up due to Frances phylloxera epidemic, caused by aphids that attacks vineyards and wine grapes. In 2005, with the help of her mother Laurence, Athenais de Beru took over the running of the domain  replanted in the 1980s  determined to of get the best out of the estates various plots of land. The Clos de Beru, a four hectare walled vineyard is the jewel in the familys crown. The chardonnay wines made from grapes from this particular vineyard are renowned for their quality.

When Athenais de Beru took over the estate, she was keen to give something back to nature. She therefore chose biodynamic wine growing techniques as a governing principle for production. Vines are treated to herbal infusions and essential oils while the workforce fertilize and prune the vines in accordance with moon phases. A flock of sheep is used rather than herbicides and grapes are harvested by hand.

The Wines

The various vineyards of the Chateau de Beru estate give rise to several different wines. The Terroirs de Beru is packed with all the distinct flavors of the Beru estates hillside. The Cote aux Pretres vineyard stands out for its particular location, where vines are highly exposed to the wind. Wines from this plot have characteristically mineral and saline qualities. The estates Chablis LOrangerie is made using a barrel-based vinification process and is aged for 18 months. Two of the most prestigious wines from the Beru estate are the Clos Beru Monopole and the Chablis Premier Cru Vaucoupin.

Chateau de Beru, 32 Grande Rue, 89700 Beru, France

Check out Burgundy and Chateau de Beru wines on Epicurio now. Download the app on iTunes or Google Play now
serbian rowers

Serbian rowers Milos Vasic and Nenad Benik got a taste of the Rio water on the first day of the Olympic regatta Saturday.

In an unusual moment, the duo's boat capsized, tossing them into the water. According to the Associated Press, it's the first time a boat has capsized in the Olympics since Athens in 2004.

While rowers usually have to cross the finish line to complete the race, officials gave the Serbian team an exemption, pulling them into their boat and allowing them to compete in the next round on Sunday, according to AP.

After the race, both men and women rowers blasted the racing conditions, which seem to have caused Vasic and Benik to capsize.

Kim Brennan, the women's single-scull world champion, said, "I was pretty close to sinking out there ... Normally this would have been deemed unrowable."

According to The Guardian, Irish sculler Sanita Puspure called the conditions "horrific," saying:

"It was like sailing, surfing, everything all in one and a bit of rowing in the end. I was just thrown around with the wind. I couldnt get the blades in at the same time. At one stage I was blown parallel to the racing lane so I had to tack with one arm into the lane, which is probably unseen before  a person doing one-arm rowing during a race. I was pretty helpless."

Egyptian sculler Nadia Negm told The Guardian, "Thank God I didnt go under. Its the toughest conditions I have ever rowed in. It was really intense. I wish the rest of the racers good luck  if you are rowing this week you better know how to swim."

After the race, Matt Smith, the executive director of rowing's governing body, explained that they didn't postpone the race on Saturday because conditions are supposed to get worse in the coming days. He said, if necessary, because it's a small regatta, they can make up a day of missed events. However, should they have to cancel multiple days, he warned that they may have to drop events.

Story continues

While the conditions don't look especially bad to the naked eye, the water does appear choppy, and the light boats Olympic rowers use aren't difficult to knock over:

serbian rowing team

British single sculler Alan Campbell had a simple, but funny message going forward. According to AP, Campbell pointed to the Christ the Redeemer statue and said, "He needs to spread his arms a bit more to protect us."

NOW WATCH: Here's how extreme future Olympic sports could be on the Moon





More From Business Insider


Thrissur: Issuing a strong warning to the Kerala police, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on last day said that the behaviour of the police was a bad mark for the whole police force. Pinarayi made the statements on Saturday after the Kollam police commissioner suspended the cop, who assaulted a helmet less driver during a routine check near Kollam.

'The behaviour of the policeman was immature', Pinarayi said. Santhosh, a native of Kollam was seriously injured when the cop attacked him with the wireless set. Later Santhosh was admitted to the nearby hospital.
GOTD: Cole v Southampton

Video

Goal of the Day | On this day in 2000, Andy Cole opened the scoring in our 5-0 win over Southampton at Old Trafford...
Hong Kong's Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) has cancelled the sailing of the Asia-Mediterranean Service in October in response to low demand.

Specifically, it will cut the sailing of the EUM Hyundai Tenacity (HNT) 022 W/E (ETA Busan on October 9 in Week 41 on WB and ETA Genoa on November 9 in Week 45 on EB).

OOCL also plans to withdraw the Asia-Europe route EUM sailing of the Hyundai Tenacity 022 west/east, with an estimated time of arrival in Pusan on October 9, 2016, in Week 41 on the westbound port rotation and in Genoa on November 9, 2016, in Week 45 on the eastbound port rotation.
Kongsberg Maritime has been awarded Engineering, Procurement, Construction & Installation (EPCI) contracts with the Glasgow based shipbuilder and marine fabricator, Ferguson Marine Engineering Limited (FMEL). The contracts, worth more than NOK 160 Million, cover deliveries to two 100 meter ferries for Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL).



Kongsberg Maritime, together with its wholly owned subsidiary Kongsberg Maritime Engineering (KME) will execute the project. KME will provide all engineering, procurement and project management while Kongsberg Maritime will supply a 'Full Picture' system delivery. The ferries will be 'dual-fuel' vessels so they can operate on liquefied natural gas (LNG) and marine diesel, and are designed to carry 127 cars or 16 HGVs, or a combination of both and up to 1,000 passengers.



The contracts include supply and integration of the electrical, telecom and integrated control systems, project management, interface management and engineering services at all stages. Cables, installation and installation materials for the above systems are also included. In addition, a significant technology scope of supply includes; switchboards, automation, propulsion control, navigation systems, and radio/satellite communications. The engineering and construction phase is estimated to be two years.



"We have put more focus on Electrical, Instrument and Telecom (EIT) packages for merchant vessels. Our tailor made solutions, with in-house and procured technology provide tangible efficiencies for both yards and owners, and are ideally suited to ferries and RoPax vessels," says Egil Haugsdal, President, Kongsberg Maritime.


Kongsberg Maritime has been awarded an Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Installation (EPCI) contract with Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft (FSG), a subsidiary of Siem Group. The contract, worth more than NOK 120 Million, covers engineering and maritime technology deliveries to a RoPax ferry for Irish Continental Group (ICG).



Kongsberg Maritime together with its wholly owned subsidiary Kongsberg Maritime Engineering (KME) will execute the project. KME will provide all engineering, procurement and project management while Kongsberg Maritime will supply a 'Full picture' system delivery. The RoPax ferry will have a 194.80 m length overall and 31.6 m beam with a cargo capacity of 2,800 lane meters, and an additional dedicated car deck for 300 cars. It will be equipped with 435 passenger cabins and a number of restaurants, bars and lounges on 4 decks, with a total capacity of 1900 passengers and crew. Kongsberg Maritime's project delivery and sophisticated automation and control technology will support the vessel's design to enable optimal fuel consumption, while meeting current and known future environmental regulations.



The contract includes supply and integration of the electrical, telecom and integrated control systems, project management, interface management and engineering services at all stages. Cables, installation and installation materials for the above systems are also included. In addition, a significant technology scope of supply includes; shaft generators, switchboards, automation, propulsion control, navigation systems, and radio/satellite communications. The engineering and construction phase is estimated to be two years.



"In a challenging market we are very pleased that we can supply a tailor made Electrical, Instrument and Telecom (EIT) solution for the yard and owner with a large scope of both in-house and procured technology," says Egil Haugsdal, President, Kongsberg Maritime. "This is our first contract in Germany for a full EPCI scope. As a major shipbuilding nation, Germany is seen as a strategic area for Kongsberg Maritime as we turn our focus to new markets."


trading wisdoms

Paul Tudor Jones Calls on Quants to Revamp Firm Hurt by Losses

Things have changed in the trading world with banks and hedge funds hampered by new rules and regulations. Big bank trading desks are being shut down, or cannibalized, and some of the best and the brightest cant make money. When George Soros recently said he was getting back into trading the only thing I could think was how much the trading world has changed over the last 20 years.

While my perspective may not be exact, I was there. I remember when my S&P desk started losing business to electronic trading. I remember how we stayed there and continued to lose market share and I remember when the open outcry orders I did disappeared. And I remember Paul Tudor Jones (Trader: A Paul Tudor Jones Documentary) doing business through our S&P 500 futures desk on the CME floor. He made quite a name for himself in the 1987 Crash. A lot has changed since then, and by all accounts, things are not getting any easier, they are getting harder.

Shuffle Your Feet

One of the things the Pit Bull and I talk about is how the big funds that were so famous in the late 1980s and 1990s do not make money anymore. That most of what they make are on the 2% management fee they charge. Its not hard to do the math. On a $10 billion fund they make almost $17 million a month. Many of the investors were around when the funds made big money and have been sticking around waiting for a big score that never comes.

When Tudor used to do business in the S&P 500 futures pit he was smart. He had his own desk and he had a guy in the pit watching the brokers fill his orders. The guys name was Peter Harrison. Tudor also would use other desk operations to hide his buying and selling, but most of the smarter desk guys knew who the orders were coming from. He was smart, he knew about front running and fought hard to fight execution slippage. In the months leading up to the 1987 Crash everyone in the S&P knew Tudor was calling for a crash and we watched as he sold thousands of the S&Ps in the weeks leading up to the crash.

Story continues

Jones was already known as an upstart but that was about to change. On that fatal Friday in October 1987, when the S&P started to tumble, Tudors fame increased 100 fold. Many of his peers thought his 87 crash call was a one time wonder, that he would never regain the fame he gained, but he went on to build a large fund that was more based on stock trading. He moved away from the traditional futures trading he was known for.

The Transition

Over the last 10 to 15 years many of the well known hedge fund managers that were known for their big futures trading profits started losing. Finding talented futures traders became very hard to do, and the fast money the funds were known for started to disappear. Like many well known floor traders, when the pits closed and electronic trading took over, the markets got harder to trade. There was a gigantic transition from open outcry to trading on a screen. If the investment firm or hedge fund did not transition to some form of algorithmic or HTF trading they would find themselves fighting an uphill battle.

While this story was released over 6 months ago the poor returns of 2015 are not shaping up very well in 2016. The Fortune article released in March of 2016 paints a very dim picture of the industry.

Many of the big funds like Ackerman will never get back to their high water mark. Its all become a big game of fees, and investors are pulling out in droves.

While Tudor may now be moving in the right direction, many think the day of the big hedge funds are over. Sure there are some shining stars, but like the patterns we notice in the markets, they dont last ever long. According to Bloomberg, in 2015 more hedge funds closed than opened.

The news for 2016 is not very promising either.

As we all know there is no way to stay in the trading business without updating or revamping your trading tools. As we have said many times over the years, tools that we used to use to make money dont work anymore, and the tools that do work dont last very long. We live in an ever changing world, and that is never going to change. Paul Jones is a smart guy, he knows that if he doesnt shuffle his feet, then it wont be long until his funds are out of business. Moving in the quants may work, but what happens when the quants fall out of favor? The story below is a great example of a big, well known firm shuffling its feet. The question is, is it too late?

In Asia, 11 out of 11 markets closed higher (Nikkei +1.07%), and in Europe 11 out of 12 markets are trading higher this morning (DAX +0.88%). Todays economic calendar includes the Weekly Bill Settlement, Chain Store Sales, Rob Kaplan Speaks, Challenger Job-Cut Report, Jobless Claims, Gallup Good Jobs Rate, Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, Factory Orders, EIA Natural Gas Report, a 3-Month Bill Announcement, a 6-Month Bill Announcement, Fed Balance Sheet, and Money Supply.

BOE Lowers Rates for the First Times Since 2009

Our view: Well the S&P rallied but it didnt go too far. For the most part, my call to buy weakness was right on, but the overall trade and volume was way lower. We attribute this to the upcoming jobs report on Friday. I also think that crude oil futures (CLQ16:NYM) may have put in a bottom. I still think the next $3.00 from $40.00 is up.

tech levels 08-04-2016

Late in the day the guys with the better seats showed up with $520 million to buy pushing the ES up to new daily highs at 2158.25. The volume was over 1.9 million contracts on Tuesday, and it was only 1.36 million yesterday. All the jobs & Fed talk scared traders away. Our view is to sell the early rallies and buy weaknees.

As always, please use protective buy and sell stops when trading futures and options.

EuroIMPRO

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Six people died in eastern Mexico on Saturday after they were buried in landslides caused by intense rainfall from the remnants of now-downgraded Tropical Storm Earl, an emergency services official said.



The six deaths involved two separate families in eastern Veracruz state, emergency services spokesman Manuel Escalera said.



He added that local authorities were continuing to monitor rising rivers and saturated soil that could trigger additional landslides.



Earl's maximum wind speed dropped to 30 mph (48 kmh) by Saturday afternoon, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Center.



It was located approximately 105 miles (169 km) east of Mexico City, after pounding portions of Central America and crossing Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula over the past couple days.



Forecasters were still warning that the storm could produce dangerous flash floods and mudslides with rainfall up to 18 inches (30 cm) in some areas in the Mexican states of Guerrero, Hidalgo, Oaxaca, Puebla, Tlaxcula and Veracruz.



The Mexican government discontinued the tropical storm warning and there were no coastal warnings or watches in effect.



Before crossing into Mexico, Earl battered Belize, smashing car windows and punching holes in the roofs of Belize City's wooden houses. It also downed trees and flooded parts of the coast.



(Reporting by Adriana Barrera in Mexico City, Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee and Joseph Ax in New York and; Editing by Tom Heneghan, Jane Merriman and Paul Simao)


South Korea's Kangnam Corporation will jointly build 12 mine countermeasure vessels (MCMV) in India in collaboration with India's state-owned Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL), reports Hindustan Times.

The project comes under under the Modi governments Make in India programme and is likely to cost more than Rs 32,000 crore ($4.8 billion).

We are in the final stage of concluding the contract. It should be done in three to four weeks, Hindustan Times quoted GSL chairman Rear Admiral Shekhar Mital as saying.

The navy needs to fill gaps in its mine warfare capability. Its existing mine counter-measures force consists of six vessels bought from the erstwhile Soviet Union in the late 1970s.

It requires 24 minesweepers. Mital said infrastructure was being scaled up swiftly at the shipyard to kick off the construction of the ships.

Kangnam will transfer technology and help in the production of the MCMVs. However, no details of the business arrangement between the South Korean company and GSL is known.

After absorption of technology from Kangnam, the shipyard will be able to build these MCMVs on its own at a later stage, a GSL source said.

MCMVs use specialized composite material and high grade steel and are equipped to detect all kinds of underwater mines. The Indian Navy operates around six aging Russian made MCMVs.

Indian Navy has a total requirement of 24 MCMVs and there will be an additional order of 12 MCMVs to top the current order of 12 MCMVs
POSCO Daewoo has signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) to supply shipbuilding materials worth US$150 million to Penataran Angkatan Laut (PT PAL), Indonesias largest state-run shipbuilder, according to a report in Business Korea.

Under the contract, the Korean trading company will supply engines and other parts necessary for shipbuilding, and its partner PT PAL is going to build 10 patrol boats and one combat support ship with the provided materials before delivering them to Indonesian ministries including the Indonesian Navy and the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology.

The 11 ships will be taken over by the Indonesian government once they are built.

Since 2006, the Korean company has kept close ties with PT PAL, providing technology, training and know-how to build two landing platform docks in Indonesia.

Since 2014, POSCO Daewoo has also supplied major equipment for building two landing platform docks for the Philippine Navy. They are currently under construction by PT PAL.
South Korean shipbuilder Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) is going all out to secure cash amid growing concerns over a possible liquidity crisis and a widening probe into accounting fraud, reports Korea Herald.

DSME, currently under a creditor-led corporate rehab, plans to submit later this week a detailed plan to secure funds to its creditors.

According to local reports, the plan may include an earlier than scheduled spinoff and initial public offering of its special-purpose ship business. DSME is also accelerating cost reductions, including job cuts.

The shipbuilder had initially agreed with creditors to separate the cash cow business by 2018.

DSME will now push to separate the division and make it public no later than late this year, they said. It will also plan to sell off a partial stake in the envisioned entity to raise more funds.

By 2018, the shipbuilder hopes to save 559 billion won ($502 million) of the cost by cutting jobs and outsourcing some work.
The Cochin shipyard Ltd (CSL) has plans to develop a major hub of LNG-based ship building and repair facility that would generate about 3, 000 jobs in the State of Kerala, the Hindu quotes Madhu S. Nair, Chairman and Managing Director of Cochin Shipyard Ltd, as saying.

Madhu said that the Indian maritime industry has been lagging behind the global trends due to lack of maritime engineering policies adopted by the sector.

He said the Cochin shipyard is keenly looking forward to transforming into a viable ship repair centre.

He called on the Department of Ship Technology at Cochin University of Science and Technology alumni and the future graduates of the Ship Technology Department should transform the challenges faced by the present-day crisis in the maritime industry into opportunities by coming out with innovations.

CSL has recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of India for the financial year 2016-17, which will enable it to pursue two major expansion projects involving total investment of Rs2800 crore.

CSL is proceeding with two major expansion projects, including an international ship repair facility based on a 6,000 tonne ship lift and allied transfer facilities to be set up in 42 acres of land leased from Cochin Port Trust.

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.
Dine-Out-Boston-Logo-Final.jpg

The summer edition of Dine Out Boston 2016 begins on Aug. 14.

During its 13-day run, which ends on Aug. 26, more than 150-plus Boston area eateries will be offering special dinner menus priced at $28, $33, or $38; tariffs for lunch menus being featured during the promotion will be $15, $20, or $25.

"Dine Out Boston spotlights Boston as one of America's premier culinary destinations, providing patrons from Boston and afar with a unique opportunity to enjoy exceptional value, variety and hospitality in Greater Boston restaurants," said Patrick B. Moscaritolo, President & CEO of the GBCVB. "Diners are invited to take advantage of these restaurant deals while taking in seasonal activities - a ballgame, concert, theatrical performance, or museum exhibition, coupled with a Dine Out Boston meal, makes for a classic Boston experience!"



As is customary in restaurant weeks, many eateries "black out" Saturdays during Dine Out Boston; a few offer their special deals throughout the month.



Dine Out Boston, which also has a March edition, is sponsored by the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Their website, dineoutboston.com, has more information, including a list of participating establishments, which can be searched at bostonusa.com/dine-out-boston/restaurant-search/



The Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau can also be reached at (888) SEE-BOSTON.


Ricci martin.jpg

Ricci Martin was the youngest son of Dean Martin.

Ricci Martin, youngest son of legendary entertainer Dean Martin, has died. He was 62.

Family members announced his passing on Saturday evening.

"My heart breaks to announce the untimely death of my beloved brother, Ricci Martin. RIP, Ricci. I love you!," sister Deanna Martin tweeted.

Variety reported he was found dead at his Utah home on Wednesday. The cause of death has not yet been revealed.

In recent years, Martin had been performing in a touring tribute show to his famous father.

In a 2004 interview with The Republican, Martin said he developed the tribute concert following the publication of his book "That's Amore: A Son Remembers Dean Martin.

"People had always asked me to perform dad's songs, but I stayed away from that because nobody can sound like Dean Martin for crying out loud," he said. "There was only one Dean Martin."

The show offered music and storytelling.

"It's all about dad. And the enthusiasm and love his fans have for him is great," Martin said. "I feel so fortunate being born to him and being his son."

He was the youngest son and one of one seven children fathered by the Steubenville, Ohio crooner.

Older brother Dean Paul Martin died in a California Air National Guard jet crash in 1987 at the age of 35.
Flynn Vickowski 1.JPG

Flynn Vickowski, 23, of Longmeadow practices assembling the tent in which she will sleep some nights during her nine months in Peru researching Andean bears.

(Sean Teehan)

LONGMEADOW  On a recent Wednesday afternoon, Flynn Vickowski set up a tent in the living room of her Longmeadow house.

"I should probably put the rain cover on it," she said standing over the self-assembled waist-high structure sitting on the hardwood floor in front of two plush sofas.

In less than two weeks she would be leaving for Peru, where she will use the tent to sleep during research excursions in the Andes, Vickowski said. It would be prudent to master the art of setting it up before leaving for South America.

A year after graduating from Mount Holyoke College, Vickowski received a Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant to study the population of Andean bears at different land elevations. She leaves Monday for an opportunity to spend nine months in a South American country studying bears in a combination of her passions  animals and language  which came together through a mix of hard work and serendipity.

"I have multiple interests, and I don't want to choose between them," Vickoski, 23, said with a grin. "I want to pursue all of them."

Since she was a child, animals have been a large part of Vickowski's life. It probably began sometime between her horseback riding lessons and her volunteering at the Forest Park Zoo in Springfield.

When attending Mount Holyoke, she wanted chose a double-major that would open doors to careers involving animals and the Spanish language, which she started learning as a child from a babysitter who hailed from Spain.

On its surface, Vickowski's double-major of neuroscience and Spanish seems like a leap to opportunities working with animals, but a few years into her college career, she made her first attempt in putting it all together.

At the suggestion of a professor, Vickowski applied for the Fulbright scholarship with a proposal to study humpback whales in Chile. She made it to the semifinalist round, but the grant ultimately went to another project proposal.

But after graduating from Mount Holyoke, Vickowski took a job at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, where she happened to be put on a project researching Andean bears.

"Most people have no idea that there are bears in South America," Vickowski said. "I was so excited to learn more about the species."

The project inspired her to continue learning about Andean bears independently. Bears are something of a spirit animal for her. Growing up, friends of her grandfather called him by the nickname of Old Laughing Bear. For short, Vickowski always called him Oso, the Spanish word for bear.

After dedicating hours and hours researching the animal, Vickowski began making connections with people at the San Diego Zoo, and was able to connect with people from the Queros community of the Wachiperi tribe through an event at the Smithsonian.

Connections in place, she proposed to the Fulbright program that she use camera traps and other tools to study Andean bear populations in the Queros community's conservation concession. This time, she got it.

Traveling to Peru for nine months is the latest in Vickowski's recent globe-hopping. She recently returned from a backpacking trip that took her to animal sanctuaries from Australia to Bali to Southeast Asia.

After the Fulbright program ends, Vickowski said, she may continue her studies, or she may find research work, but she certainly wants to continue living in South America.

"I would love to live in South America," Vickowski said. "There are a lot of different (career) routes I can take."
WARE - A boy who was injured in a boating accident at Beaver Lake is receiving treatment at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester.

At about 7 p.m. on Saturday, the boy's legs were severely cut by a boat propeller. He was taken to Baystate Mary Lane Hospital and then transferred to Worcester.

The boy is 5-years-old and lives in South Hadley, Environmental Police officials said.

The Ware Police Department is investigating the accident along with Massachusetts Environmental Police.

Environmental Police did not release any other details of the accident because it is under investigation.
Promoting beneficial gut bacteria through the use of prebiotics could help ease asthma caused by physical activity, shows a new study published in the British Journal of Nutrition. Share on Pinterest Researchers say prebiotics could help reduce the severity of exercise-induced asthma. Asthma is one of the most common respiratory conditions in the United States, affecting around 17.7 million adults and 6.3 million children. The condition is characterized by inflammation and narrowing of the airways, which can cause shortness of breath, chest tightness, coughing, and wheezing. There are two types of asthma: allergic and nonallergic. Allergic asthma can be triggered by allergens, such as pollen, dust and mold, while nonallergic asthma can be triggered by other factors, including stress, exercise, illnesses, and medications. However, up to 90 percent of patients with asthma  whether allergic or nonallergic  experience symptoms during or after exercise. There is no cure for asthma; healthcare professionals recommend avoiding asthma triggers in order to prevent flare-ups, and current medications  such as anti-inflammatory drugs  focus on alleviating symptoms of the condition. Now, research led by scientists from Nottingham Trent University in the United Kingdom suggests a possible new avenue of treatment for individuals with exercise-induced asthma: prebiotics.

Prebiotics and gut bacteria Prebiotics are nondigestible carbohydrates present in a number of foods, including bananas, oatmeal, and Jerusalem artichokes. They promote the growth of good gut bacteria, helping to maintain a healthy digestive system. Lead study author Dr. Neil Williams  of the Department of Sport Science and the Sport, Health and Performance Enhancement (SHAPE) Research Centre at Nottingham  and colleagues note that a number of studies have suggested a link between gut microbes, immune system activity, and allergies. We are only just starting to understand the role the gut microbiome plays in health and disease, and it is becoming increasingly recognized that microbes living in the gut can have a substantial influence on immune function and allergies which is likely to be important in airway disease, says Dr. Williams. For their double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, Dr. Williams and colleagues set out to investigate how a prebiotic supplement called Bimuno-galactooligosaccharide (B-GOS) might affect asthma severity.


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Please use the information prudently. If you are not a medical doctor please remember to consult your healthcare provider as this information is not a substitute for professional advice.
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Kraemer and his colleagues, including those from Last Mile Health, an organization focused on health in rural Liberia, set out to measure the indirect health consequences of Ebola so that a fuller understanding could inform efforts to restore health care in Ebola-impacted areas. They focused specifically on maternal health services, which are dependent on functioning health systems. Their findings are published in PLOS Medicine.The researchers compared the odds of facility-based delivery among 686 births in the period before the Ebola epidemic with the 212 births during the epidemic in a specific rural area. They found a 30 percent reduction in the odds of facility-based delivery during the Ebola outbreak."The district we surveyed had one Ebola cluster and its health facilities remained open, unlike in other parts of the country where the epidemic was more intense," Kraemer explains. "Given that, our results most likely underestimate the impact on facility births in high-burden areas where there were closures."The drop appears to be correlated with fear, Kraemer says. The odds of facility-based delivery were 41 percent lower among women who reported a belief that Ebola was or may be transmitted in health facilities, but not significantly lower among women who reported believing that Ebola was not transmitted in health facilities."Prior to the Ebola epidemic, Liberia made big gains in the rate of babies being delivered at health facilities, which translates into healthier moms and babies." Kraemer says. "Maternal health, like almost all other health services in Liberia, was badly damaged by the epidemic. It is critical that we stay focused on rebuilding Liberia's health care system, which will require long-term investment.""Building and maintaining stronger health systems will be critical to preventing future global public health emergencies," says John Ly, MD, co-lead author of the study and medical director at Last Mile Health. "Last Mile Health is supporting the Government of Liberia and the Ministry of Health to build a more robust health system, one that will ensure a well-trained and equipped health worker in even the most remote communities."Source: Newswise
Proposing your girlfriend at the airport isnt something new, but proposing her on a flight and getting married then and there after she accepts the proposal is definitely a memorable moment for this couple who exchanged their wedding vows at 35000 ft. This mid-flight surprise wedding ceremony of Jurgen Bogner, with his girlfriend Nathaly, happened in the Austrian Airlines flight from Vienna to Athens. This flight took off normally, but suddenly a choir popped up and started singing Marry You by Bruno Mars. Bogner got down on one knee and proposed Nathaly and luckily enough, she agreed.

 Pexels

If this in-flight surprise proposal wasnt enough, Bogner rushed to get the wedding dress and rings. Now either this guy was highly confident of his girlfriends response or turned out to be really lucky for carrying the wedding dress and rings on board. Had she said no, things would have turned nasty for him! Their wedding was carried out by a flight official. The bride walked down the 'aisle' accompanied by a violinist; they even had a wedding cake and all this happened inside a flight. This wedding ceremony was captured by Tatjana Catic, who was sitting next to the bride when Bogner proposed her.

So technically, their Greece vacation would now be a honeymoon for them! Woah, this man sure knows how to play his A-game! Take lessons from this man guys, he totally nailed it!



Source: Metro
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Johannesburg, Aug. 7 (CNA) Taiwanese diplomats are doing their best to negotiate with Kenya for the return of five Taiwanese citizens, instead of seeing them sent to China, after they were acquitted of fraud charges in a Kenyan court on Friday.
Robert Smigel, the writer-comedian who brings the Triumph puppet to life, worked the Republican and Democratic conventions for "Triumph's Summer Election Special 2016," debuting Aug. 11 on Hulu. He brought an Ailes impersonator to the Republican event in Cleveland.

"'I'm with Roger Ailes,'" Smigel said he told gatekeepers at the Republican convention, pointing to the impostor. "And they literally let me in. He's a gift that keeps on giving," he said of the recently ousted Fox News Channel chief.

Triumph punked convention reporters as well. Among his tricks: holding up a "no photobombs" sign behind TV journalist Jake Tapper.

Smigel, who introduced Triumph in the late 1990s on NBC's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," said the tone of this year's election made him decide the sharp-tongued dog he voices and writes should get involved. Triumph cast his eye on the primary season in a Hulu special that aired in February.

"Now that politics is taking this nasty turn, it might be interesting to see how Triumph fits in," Smigel recalled thinking.

Smigel said he didn't have any close encounters with presidential candidate Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump at the conventions, but he met Trump when the businessman took part in "Saturday Night Live." Smigel, a writer for the show, said Trump was "very gracious" in providing the voice-over for a cartoon film even though it clearly mocked his lavish lifestyle.

However, Trump wasn't having it when Smigel mentioned that his father, prominent cosmetic dentist Dr. Irwin Smigel, had treated Trump's daughter, Ivanka, some years ago.

"No, I don't think so," was Trump's reply, Smigel told a Television Critics Association meeting Friday.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP)  A Louisville judge who railed against a prosecutor in provocative, racially charged posts on Facebook will soon face a disciplinary hearing that could end his judicial career.

Judge Olu Stevens, who is black, is facing misconduct charges for suggesting that the white prosecutor was nefariously seeking to seat all-white juries.

Commonwealth's Attorney Tom Wine had asked the Supreme Court for a legal opinion on whether Stevens had the authority to dismiss a randomly selected jury panel because it lacked minorities, prompting Stevens to launch the attack.

Experts say his cause was worthy: Stevens shined a light on a racial imbalance that has dogged the criminal justice system for generations. But his personal attack on a prosecutor for requesting an appellate opinion could cross an ethical line and threaten to overshadow the issue he attempted to highlight.
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.
Qisas movement to lead to justice & accountability: Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri

Addressing the Qisas March and the sit-in telephonically on The Mall Lahore arranged by PAT, Chairman Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri has said that we have formally launched a movement today to get justice for the martyrs of Model Town and expose the corrupt elements involved in the Panama leaks. He said that the movement will lead to the Sharif familys end of the power and they would have no shelter except in India. He asked the rulers to see with their eyes the level of excitement and enthusiasm among the workers of PAT despite the fact he is not yet part of the movement. He said when he practically joins the Qisas movement, there would be arrests of the killers of Model Town tragedy and the looter of national wealth.

The PAT march and sit-in was attended by Mian Mahmood-ur-Rasheed, Shoaib Saddiqi, and Irfan Advocate of PTI, Kamil Ali Agha, Chuadhry Zaheer-ud-Din and Khadeeja Farooqi of PML-Q, Abdul Qadir and Amjad Golden of Awami Muslim League and Muhammad Umair of Jamat-e-Islami. The workers belonging to PPP, MWM and Sunni Ittehad Council attended the march and expressed their support for the Qisas and accountability movement of PAT.

Qisas Marach started off from GPO Chowk and concluded at the Chairing Cross. The thousands of PAT workers staged sit-in along with their counterparts of other opposition parties.

Dr Qadri said that the people of Pakistan would have to decide whether they want the state of Pakistan or kingdom run by the Sharif dynasty. He said that the bureaucracy has become privatized. He said that FBR, Police, NAB and other institutions have become the handmaiden of the ruling family. He said that the check and balance of the law and the constitution in the system has come to an end. There is no justice and fair play in the country. He said that the rulers come into power to expand and enlarge their business empire. They are neither loyal to the country nor are concerned about the national security. He said that the cruel manner of governance by the Sharifs has reminded people of the days of Hitler, adding that they bring in amendment in the laws to perpetuate their rule and self-interest.

The PAT Chairman said that after the announcement of the Qisas movement, the PM has opened the doors of political bribery from the exchequer on the MNAs and MPAs in the name of development funds and the low-level office holders of the PML-N are being offered rewards on putting up effective defence of the ruling family on TV channels. He however said emphatically that the members of the Sharif family should listen that there would be Qisas, accountability and justice and no power would be able to protect them anymore.

Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri said that Qisas in the Model Town is not merely the demand of the PAT. Rather it has won broad support of the opposition and the people at large. He said that the rulers should see that raging sea of people attended the march in Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Islamabad and Gujranwala on his one call, adding that they should shudder on the thought when he would lead the march himself. He said that this is the beginning of the protest which would culminate in the popular accountability, emphasizing that the caravan would stop only after reaching its destination.

Lahore

Islamabad

Faisalabad

Gujranwala

Karachi
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KENT COUNTY - Wyoming- and Kentwood-area Family Fare Supermarkets are now taking part in the Double Up Food Bucks program that doubles the amount of fruits and vegetables residents on food assistance can purchase.

Family Fare Supermarkets that have joined the program include the stores at 1148 28th St. SW and 2900 Burlingame Ave. SW in Wyoming, 6127 Kalamazoo Ave. SE in Kentwood and 4325 Breton Road in Grand Rapids. A total of 17 Family Fare Supermarkets in Grand Rapids and around West Michigan participate in the program.

With the Double Up Food Bucks program, each dollar that families using SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) spend on fresh local produce results in an additional dollar placed on their Yes Rewards Card that can be used to buy additional fruits and vegetables. Program participants can earn points, with each valued at $1, for up to $20 per day in a dollar-for-dollar match.

The program runs through Dec. 31.

"Double Up Food Bucks provides SNAP customers with easier and more affordable access to healthy produce, and it supports Michigan farmers and the local economy. Locally grown produce often has a much smaller environmental footprint, which also enforces SpartanNash's environmental sustainability efforts," said Meredith Gremel, SpartanNash's vice president of corporate affairs and communications.

The Double Up Food Bucks program is a public-private partnership, under the Fair Food Network, that is funded through private, state and federal money.

The program also is accepted at local farmers markets, including the Kentwood Farmers Market and Metro Health Farm Market.

"The program originated in farmers markets, and by offering it in our stores, it is easier and more accessible for SNAP customers to participate," said Larry Pierce, SpartanNash's executive vice president of merchandising and marketing. "We are excited to expand the program to even more communities in Michigan this year."
CHURCH.JPG

Northside Associated Ministries, a collaboration between St. Aidan's Episcopal and Northside Presbyterian churches, located at 1679 Broadway St.

Update: This has been updated with new information.

ANN ARBOR, MI - A ministry associated with two churches on Ann Arbor's north side turns 50 years old in August, and its congregation is aiming to celebrate the achievement in a big way.

St. Aidan's Episcopal Church is scheduling three days of food, fun and faith Aug. 19-21. The congregation plans to host two dinners and luncheons and two services on Saturday and Sunday.

Both services begin at 10:30 a.m. An open house is scheduled for Saturday from 2-3:30 p.m.

The ministry is based at 1679 Broadway St., and started as an experiment in interfaith collaboration, said Susan Wyman, a longtime parishioner and celebration coordinator.

"Our story is quite unique," said Wyman, 73, from Ann Arbor. "We share the building and we share the program."

Wyman said different church, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, was interested in reaching out to University of Michigan students living in northern Ann Arbor. Congregates sent a mission in 1966 to attract those students with a message of peace and justice. It was the height of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement - a time that tested many young people's faith.

"At least two of the founding ministers were leaders of the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice (ICPJ)," Wyman said. "It was a time when (Vietnam War) draft counseling was going on in the church, and both of those ministers were involved."

Wyman joined the church in 1977 when she was a young woman. She's seen that original mission succeed, and other times falter. As the years passed, its message of peace resonated less with U-M students.

The congregation is now made up of mostly older folk, many from the ministry's formative years.

"It's been a disappointment at times, and we have had some north campus students come, but they eventually move on," Wyman said. "For a while we were mostly a church with family and kids, now it's small and old. We're still thrilled when students come."

Community parishes in general are disappearing, she said, and mega churches are flourishing with a less-personal touch. Wyman hopes the Millennial generation's renewed focus on equal rights for all Americans might bring more students to the table.

For more information on events and services, visit the church online at staidan.org.
YPSILANTI TOWNSHIP, MI - Bob Hollen describes Hewens Creek Park as a quiet, natural respite where he can find wildflowers, coyotes, turkeys, pheasants and deer.

It's a peaceful spot, but, like many of the best things in life, it doesn't come for free.

Each year, Hollen and Ypsilanti Township resident John Woodcock spend over 500 hours working to maintain the park and 4.5 miles of biking and walking trails that run through Hewens.

While that's a ton of time and energy to spend volunteering on a township-owned park, Hollen said the rewards are worth it.

"It's nice for me to get away and enjoy the park, tinker around," Hollen said. "It's a natural area that's seldom used, so I can spend hours out there and I don't see any other people. It's so quiet."

At its July meeting, the Ypsilanti Township Parks Commission recognized Hollen and Woodcock for their efforts.

"They have given their time and hard work, along with their own money, to promote the usage of Hewen's Creek Park as well as the upkeep and maintenance of the park," said Ypsilanti Township Park Commissioner Lonnie Scott.

The park is located at Bemis and Hitchingham roads.

The park's trail is divided into three sections that wind around a pond and is typically about 54-inches wide. It was originally developed in 2004 by the Michigan Mountain Biking Association, of which Hollen is a member.

He and Woodcock are responsible for its maintenance, which includes mowing the grass, clearing trees that have fallen into the path and ensuring the path is easily accessible for its users.

Woodcock, who usually walks the path instead of biking, said he's also working to widen one of the trails so it's easier for people to walk side by side.

Like Hollen, he finds tranquility in Hewens and on the trail. He recalled a recent day in which his arthritis made it painful to get out of bed. But he wanted to try to go for a walk, so he headed to the park.

"I was hobbling along, but as soon as I got back on the trail, my mind clears, my mind is on other things, so from a health standpoint, it's great for me," Woodcock said. "And I think that's true of anyone who goes to the park."
DETROIT -- A woman was shot and killed in the 18600 block of Meyers, across the street from a Home Depot store on Sunday morning, police said.

A 33-year-old man was also shot during the incident and ran across the street to the Home Depot to find help, according to police.

A 24-year-old man was taken into custody shortly after the two shootings.

Police said the two men involved in the incident were brothers.

After apprehending the suspect, police returned to the home from which the men were seen leaving, and discovered the woman's body, according to police.

The incident began at the home after an altercation between the two men around 8:30 a.m., according to witnesses at the scene.

The suspect was seen chasing the male victim across the street into the Home Depot parking lot, as the victim attempted to find help, witnesses said.

The wounded man entered through the front of the Home Depot, and then exited through the back of the building, where an ambulance found him and took him to a local hospital, police said.

The male victim suffered multiple gunshot wounds, and police did not know his condition Sunday afternoon.

The suspect was apprehended in the parking lot of the Home Depot and taken into custody. The gun used in the incident was still near the entrance of the building, according to police.

Dozens of police officers and detectives investigated the scene and blocked off both Margareta Ave. and Clarita Ave., working to gather information on the circumstances that led to the double shooting.

Family members of the female victim gathered as they were notified of the tragic news.

Family members declined to comment, requested privacy as they grieved.

Several members of the family consoled each other as the mother of the victim had to be helped down the street as she walked, screaming and crying.

The mother could be heard shouting, 'Why did you take my baby? Why did you take my baby? I'll never get to see her again,' as members of the family attempted to comfort her.

More family members continued to gather throughout the morning, into the early afternoon, attempting to console each other near the corner where the incident took place.

The mother was given a chair to sit down in as dozens of others surrounded her, attempting to help ease the pain.

Home Depot was closed for the rest of the day following the incident.

Police were continuing to investigate Sunday afternoon.
DETROIT, MI - The husband of a 60-year-old woman who was found dead behind a home on Thursday has been arrested, according to CBS Detroit.

The man was taken into custody as a person of interest on Friday, a day after his wife's partially clothed body was discovered back yard of a home in 19100 block of Edgefield Street, near I-94 and Moross Road, according to CBS Detroit.

It was unknown how long the woman's body had been there, but according to the Detroit News, a spokeswoman for the Detroit Police Department told the News the body appeared to had suffered trauma.

An autopsy is being performed to determine the cause of death. An investigation is ongoing.

A message seeking further information from the Detroit Police Department was not immediately returned.
PONTIAC, MI -- Four people were shot and one of the victims was killed in a drive-by shooting Friday night in Pontiac, according to the Oakland County Sheriff's Office.

The four victims were standing outside an abandoned home about 11 p.m. in the 70 block of Thorpe Street when a dark colored vehicle pulled up and a person or people opened fire, striking the victims.

Aniya Edwards, 19, of Memphis, Tenn., who is originally from Pontiac and was visiting Michigan, suffered a gunshot wound to the abdomen. She was taken to McLaren Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, according to authorities.

Three male victims ages 18, 19 and 23 suffered gunshot wounds that were not considered life-threatening, the sheriff's office reported.

According to witnesses, the vehicle pulled up with its light turned off. Three or four people with masks were inside the vehicle at the time of the shooting, according to the sheriff's office.

Multiple shell casings from a semi-automatic weapon were recovered at the scene and were taken to the Oakland County Forensic Lab for processing.

Police are seeking the public's assistance in gathering information about the incident.

A $1,000 cash reward is being offered for information leading to the arrests of the suspects. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP.
FLINT, MI -- A new bronze statue was unveiled Saturday at the Mott Community College library honoring a Flint philanthropist.

On Saturday, Aug. 6 the bronze statue of Charles Stewart Mott was unveiled at Mott's library on its Flint campus.

Mott was a prominent businessman and philanthropist who served two terms as the mayor of Flint. He was also one of the original partners in the creation of General Motors Corp.

Mott served on the GM board of directors for 60 years until his death in 1973 at the age of 97.

Upon his death, Flint Genesee Community College was renamed Charles Stewart Mott Community College in his honor.

The statue -- which is installed at the entrance of the Mott library where C.S. Mott's old office is located -- is the eighth in a series of statues honoring automotive pioneers. The statues are a direct result of a partnership between the Auto Heritage Committee of Back to the Bricks, Inc., and the MCC Alumni Association.

All of the statues were created by Flint sculptor and engraver Joe Rundell. The other statues have been placed in downtown Flint and other areas throughout the community.

"We are extremely proud to recognize Charles Stewart Mott's significant contributions to our campus, our community and our region with this great statue, so that our current students and future students will be inspired to achieve the highest level of their potential," said Dr. Walker-Griffea in a statement.

A group of classic car enthusiasts were also on hand to mark the historic occasion by showcasing their unique vehicles. The drivers held a cruise-in at the campus that started before the unveiling.
HOLLAND, MI -- An 11-year-old boy was rescued by Ottawa County Sheriff Office Marine Division after he and his brother were pulled out by waves in Lake Michigan.

While on another call on the north pier by the Holland State Park, Marine Deputy Erik Bailey was advised of two children who are in need of help near the north pier on the lakeside.

Two brothers were swimming near the pier, but wave conditions kept them unable to swim back to shore. Bailey arrived around 5:15 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 6.

Deputy Bailey responded from inside the Holland Channel and went around the north pier out to the lake and located an 11-year-old boy who appeared to be in distress in the water. The boy's brother, also 11, was able to exit the water by the rocks next to the pier.

Deputy Bailey threw a line to the boy in the water and helped him into Bailey's Ottawa County Marine Boat. The boy was brought to waiting paramedics at the state park, treated at the scene and released to parents, according Sgt. Cal Keuning of the Ottawa County Sheriff Office.
As Donald Trump's poll numbers plummet, political observers are wondering if the Republican presidential candidate can get his campaign back on track Monday with what's billed as a major address before the Detroit Economic Club.

Trump is expected to "unveil his policy agenda for revitalizing the American economy," his campaign said in a press release.

The address comes at a critical point in the presidential campaign.

"It's a chance for him to get back on message, after a couple of weeks where it's been bad news after bad news after bad news for him," said Susan Demas, editor of the Inside Michigan Politics newsletter.

Since the Democratic and Republican conventions, Trump has created a series of controversies that have generated negative headlines -- from his battle with a Gold Star family; to his long delay in endorsing House Speaker Paul Ryan and U.S. Sens. John McCain and Kelly Ayotte in their primaries; to his comments on foreign policy that have some questioning his fitness to be president.

Meanwhile, while polls showed Trump and Hillary Clinton essentially tied after the GOP convention, Clinton has since jumped to a significant lead in a number of swing states. A Detroit News/WDIV-TV poll released Thursday had Clinton ahead by 9 points in Michigan and an EPIC-MRA poll released Friday had Clinton up by 11 points.

"Trump is cratering," Republican strategist Frank Luntz tweeted on Thursday. "He needs to overhaul his general-election strategy if he wants to have any hope of winning in 95 days."

The Fivethirtyeight.com website is now giving Clinton a 75 percent chance of winning in November, based on current polls, the economy and historical data.

"If Trump's actually going to have a chance to win," then he needs to use his Detroit speech to turn things around, said Dennis Lennox, a Detroit-area GOP strategist.

The event "presents a pivot opportunity for Trump to help him overcome two really bad weeks," Lennox said.

Lennox said there's a good chance that Trump can it pull it off, noting that Trump has done well in other circumstances he's given a formal speech, such as a March address on foreign policy before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

"Trump's biggest problem is that he has these rallies where he goes off message," Lennox said. "He's not a career politician, so message discipline for him is a little different than it is for someone like Clinton."

Monday's event also a chance for Trump to make inroads with Michigan voters, said Lennox and Demas.

"Trump has made a big deal about changing the map (of past presidential elections) and Michigan is a big deal for him," Demas said. "It's not a coincidence he's making a major address here.

"It's also a chance for him to press reset button and he could get a lot of positive press," she said.

Positive press may be the goal of the Trump campaign, but Steve Hood, a Democratic strategist who also has a radio show on AM 910 in Detroit, said Trump's speech could be upstaged by protesters.

"People are planning a serious, massive protest where they actually build a human wall and refuse to let people in," Hood said. The speech, originally planned to be at the Renaissance Center has been moved to Cobo Hall, citing security issues.

It also possible the protesters "will go too far and make Donald Trump sympathetic," Demas said.

Despite Trump's struggles in recent days, all three analysts interviewed said the presidential race remains in flux.

It's a "fluid period," Hood said. "There's still a chance Trump can win, and the Democrats are taking nothing for granted."

Demas agreed.

"Trump is trailing, but it's August," she said. "There's still time for him to make up ground."

But like Luntz, Demas said Trump needs to change his strategy.

"His not-politically-correct shtick that made him a winner in the primaries has caused him a lot of problems in the general election campaign," she said.

She said one of his biggest problems right now are questions being raised by prominent conservatives such as Charles Krauthammer and Joe Scarborough on whether Trump has the temperament to be the world's most powerful leader.

"We've been seeing a lot of prominent Republicans, prominent people from the foreign policy community, who are raising questions," she said. "People are very nervous about someone who seems so erratic."

Conservatives also have raised questions about Trump's economic stances, which have diverged from traditional Republican policies.

"The audience at the Detroit Economic Club is not likely to agree with Trump on immigration, on trade, on the fact that he's gone after the U.S. Chamber of Commerce," Demas said.

The GOP business community does like his plan to slash taxes, she said, but are much less enthusiastic about his call for massive spending on infrastructure projects.

Lennox agreed that Trump is not a traditional Republican, but said that helps explain his appeal.

Trump is moving the GOP beyond the "party of free trade and international intervention," Lennox said. "That's not your average Republican anymore."

Lennox thinks Trump has a real shot at winning in November, not just because of his populist message but also because of his opponent.

"I believe nothing brings Republicans together," he said, "than someone with the last name of Clinton."
KALAMAZOO, MI -- Police are asking for the public's help to identify the victim of a violent attack who suffered a severe head wound.

The unidentified man was wearing these distinctive Donaldo boots.

At around 7:43 a.m. on Sunday Aug. 7 Kalamazoo Public Safety Officers were dispatched to the 1200 block of E. Alcott St., regarding a man found bleeding from the head.

The unconscious victim was transported to Bronson Hospital where he is in critical condition and remains unresponsive.

The man was described by police as Hispanic or possibly Burmese. He is approximately 5-feet tall, 110 pounds and believed to be between 35 to 45 years old. He has black hair and was wearing a light tan long sleeve button shirt, along with jeans that were described as "almost white" by police.

He was also wearing a distinctive pair of Donaldo Boots.

Kalamazoo Public Safety is asking for help in identifying this man. If you have any information, call (269) 337-8994 or Silent Observer at 343-2100.
The following people were sentenced July 19, 2016, in circuit court.

14th CIRCUIT COURT

MUSKEGON COUNTY

Judge William C. Marietti

Dustin Irving Branter, 27, of Muskegon, 10 months, 93 days jail with credit for time served, 24 months probation for operating under the influence of liquor, third offense, operating with license suspended, revoked, fourth-time habitual offender, $1,148 fees/costs, 60 hours community service.

Adonis Tyree Brown, 21, of Muskegon Heights, 15 months to five years Michigan Department of Corrections for taking possession and driving away and fleeing and eluding police, $4,337.50 restitution/fees/costs.

Darrick Pollard Brown, 35, of Dalton Township, 30 days jail with credit for time served, 12 months probation for possession of marijuana second or subsequent offense, $1,098 fees/costs.

Sarah Jane Clauss, 33, of Muskegon Heights, 30 days jail with credit for time served, 18 months probation for larceny in a building, $1,189 restitution/fees/costs.

Michelle Renee Crouch, 52, of Muskegon, 20 months to 14 years MDOC for concurrent convictions of uttering and publishing false information, identity theft, using a computer to commit a felony, larceny between $1,000 and $2,000, larceny of $20,000 or more, $798 fees/costs.

Shelly Lynn Dykstra, 42, of Muskegon, 30 days jail with credit for time served, 18 months probation for larceny in a building and controlled substance obtaining by fraud, $776 fees/costs.

Sean Hunter Mattson, 20, of Muskegon, 60 days jail with credit for time served, 12 months probation for unarmed robbery, $708 fees/costs.

Trevor Alan Oleniczak, 25, of Muskegon, 60 days jail with credit for time served, 12 months probation for larceny in a building, $1,208 restitution/fees/costs.

Jamill Devon Passmore, 26, of Muskegon, 18 months to 10 years MDOC to be served consecutively current sentence for prisoner possession of a cellphone or wireless communication device, $198 fees/costs.

Kimberly Ann Shivlie, 43, of Muskegon, one day jail with credit for time served, 12 months probation for stealing, taking, or removing financial transaction device, $1,394 restitution/fees/costs.

Jeremy Daniel Smith, 38, of Muskegon, one day jail with credit for time served, 18 months probation for receiving and concealing stolen property between $200 and $1,000, $625 fees/costs, 40 hours community service.

Shannon Lynette Stephenson, 37, of Muskegon, one day jail with credit for time served, 12 months probation for receiving and concealing stolen property between $200 and $1,000, $625 fees/costs, 40 hours community service.

Cordaro Damon Waller, 22, of Muskegon Heights, 60 days jail with credit for time served, 12 months probation for controlled substance possession marijuana second or subsequent offense, $448 fees/costs.

Malachi Barrett covers community news for MLive Muskegon Chronicle. Email him at mbarret1@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter @PolarBarrett or on Facebook.
M0903BIGSHOTS2

Staff members of United Way of the Lakeshore, Mediation & Restorative Services, Disability Connection, Community Coordinating Council, True North Youth Transitions and JobCorps, are photographed with the Community artwork near the Muskegon Museum of Art.

(Lisa Tyler)

WEST MICHIGAN -- United Way of the Lakeshore is refocusing its efforts to help struggling families above the poverty level meet the basic cost of living in Muskegon, Newaygo and Oceana counties.

Non-profit programs in the three counties were awarded $1.6 million by United Way's Board of Directors. The funded programs aim to help 10,000 working families meet their basic needs by 2025.

A majority of the funds were awarded to Muskegon County -- $810,496 to 26 programs from 19 agencies. The donations were given to agencies that align with United Way's new goal to assist asset limited, income constrained and employed families.

"Since 2000, United Way has been trying to become more focused," said Christine Robere, president and CEO of United Way of the Lakeshore. "We've been through some times where funding has been reduced and cut. People need to know that the money they are investing will be focused on things that will make a change in the community's condition."

ALICE is a metric used to describe households that earn more than the U.S. poverty level but less than the basic cost of living. The official U.S. poverty rate was developed in 1965, has not been updated since 1974 and is not adjusted to reflect cost of living differences across the U.S.

Number of struggling families in Muskegon County municipalities

Combined with the number of homes in poverty, ALICE helps determine the total population of people struggling to afford basic needs in their local communities.

In 2014, United Way commissioned Rutgers University to create an ALICE report for Michigan. It found that 1.54 million families across the state are in poverty or are the working poor.

"This seemed like a good way to bring data-driven energy to the situation," Robere said. "There was a divisiveness throughout the community state and nation (over what constituted struggling), ALICE gave us a way to put a face on the people we are trying to focus on at a time when United Way needs to be focused. We're becoming more data-centric and driving results in these areas we can help. "

Based on the report, 43 percent of Muskegon County's 63,860 households were living in poverty or under the basic cost of living. Across the county, six municipalities had more than 40 percent of families struggling to meet the cost of living.

Muskegon Heights, 72 percent, the City of Muskegon, 63 percent and Muskegon Charter Township, 47 percent, had the highest number of households living in poverty or ALICE.

Michigan became the second state in the country to have its United Way organizations adopt ALICE programs. Not all counties chose to focus primarily on ALICE, Robere said, but 15 states have adopted the program.

After the results came back, conversations with families in the area were scheduled to assess their needs. Jodi Nichols, director of donor relations, marketing and events, said the talks were based on the Harwood Model -- using the community as the main reference point for United Way's choices.

In several dozen conversations and surveys, hundreds of families were asked what it would look like for family to be thriving, what barriers keep that from being the case and what kinds of help from community and united way could give erase barriers to success.

"We heard over and over that working families are having trouble with availability of transportation, child care and housing and didn't know what resources were out there," Nichols said. "They also didn't have one-time resources when an crisis such as a home repair, car repair or family illness hit. Taking that information gave us the foundation to see where the gaps are in our community."

Then, Robere said United Way looked at how their funded programs are impacting ALICE. Many of their programs are already equipped to help ALICE families, she said, but struggling families aren't eligible for some services because they aren't at the poverty level.

"Over time we will certainly be advocating for changes in how programs are designed as well as how we are funding things and directing volunteers," Robere said.

To achieve their 10-year goal of 10,000 thriving families, United Way will focus on building the community in three areas.

Programs that promote reading and math skills, on-time graduation and post high school success attempt to build an educated workforce. Helping people gain long-term sufficiency is achieved through working with employers to offer stable living wages and financial counseling, along with offering resources for loans, transportation and child care. The final area is creating healthy and safe families, promoted through education about nutrition and fitness and access to health care.

A new ALICE report will released in April 2017 based on updated statistics. Robere said their goal in next three years is to move 2,000 families out of the ALICE range.
DETROIT -- The Detroit Tigers will go for a sweep of the New York Mets on Sunday, but it's uncertain who their third baseman will be.

The Tigers beat the Mets 6-5 on Saturday night at Comerica Park, but lost third baseman Nick Castellanos, who fractured a bone in his left hand.

The victory wasn't always pretty. Tigers starter Matt Boyd labored through five innings but ultimately allowed only three runs. The Tigers committed three errors, including two in the seventh, but reliever Justin Wilson managed to escape with only two runs allowed.

Mets starter Logan Verrett was chased in the fourth inning, when the Tigers brought 10 batters to the plate and scored five runs.

It was in that inning that Castellanos was pegged in the left arm. He jumped up and down in pain, but ultimately took first base and came around to score before being replaced defensively by Mike Aviles in the next inning.

Closer Francisco Rodriguez pitched the ninth to record his third save in four days. Right fielder J.D. Martinez threw out Jay Bruce at the plate to record the final out.

The Tigers (61-49) will go for the series sweep -- the third in their last four series -- on Sunday at 1:10 p.m.

THREE STARS

Miguel Cabrera -- He doubled home a run in the first and added two more RBIs in the fourth.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia -- A two-run single with the bases loaded kept the critical fourth inning moving.

Tyler Collins -- He reached base in all four at-bats and (barely) scored all the way from first base on Cabrera's double in the first.

GAME NOTES

* Cabrera's RBI double in the first inning was the 514th of his career, tying Edgar Martinez for No. 52 all time.

* Victor Martinez hit the 380th double of his career, passing Tigers great Hank Greenberg.

* The Mets continued their struggles with runners in scoring position. Their season-long average of .203 is approaching the lowest-ever mark of .201 set by the San Diego Padres in 1969.

* The announced crowd of 41,053 Saturday night at Comerica Park was a sellout, the team's first since the home opener.

TWITTER TALK

Just throw a band aid on it you're good  Ryan Castellanos (@ryan_cast_) August 7, 2016

HIGHLIGHT REEEL
[August 06, 2016] MedExpress Announces UnitedHealth Group $500,000 Donation to Aid Rebuilding and Recovery Efforts in West Virginia Following Deadly Floods

MedExpress, part of Optum, a UnitedHealth Group company (NYSE:UNH), announced a $500,000 contribution to SBP to help launch Homes for West Virginia, a new organization dedicated to rebuilding homes and communities following the deadly flooding throughout the state that devastated communities and claimed 23 lives earlier this year. The donation from MedExpress and UnitedHealth Group will help SBP begin rebuild and recovery efforts in the West Virginia counties most in need of assistance. "MedExpress is humbled to play a part in helping West Virginians rebuild and recover," said MedExpress CEO Frank Alderman. "With the help of local volunteers and community leaders like SBP, we can all help West Virginians and their families get back on their feet and into a safe home." SBP is a leading national disaster recovery nonprofit organization. Twelve West Virginia counties were declared federal disasters following the June flooding, and nearly 8,000 people have requested assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Homes for West Virginia's first initiative will be in White Sulphur Springs, which will serve as a model for other projects throughout the state in need of recovery services. The donation was announced at a groundbreaking ceremony in White Sulphur Springs. Recently renamed "Hope Village," the Mennonite Disaster Services will aid in the building of the village, which will feature 42 homes and a community park. About UnitedHealth Group UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) is a diversified health and well-being company dedicated to helping people liv healthier lives and making health care work better. UnitedHealth Group offers a broad spectrum of products and services through two distinct platforms: UnitedHealthcare, which provides health care coverage and benefits services; and Optum, which provides information and technology-enabled health services. For more information, visit UnitedHealth Group at www.unitedhealthgroup.com or follow @UnitedHealthGrp on Twitter (News - Alert).



About MedExpress MedExpress is a national leader in delivering high-quality, convenient and affordable walk-in care. It provides a broad scope of services including urgent care, employer health services and basic wellness and prevention services. MedExpress' full-service neighborhood medical centers accept most insurance and are open 12 hours a day, seven days a week and always have a fully staffed medical team. MedExpress has administrative offices in Morgantown, W.Va., and Canonsburg, Pa. For more information, visit medexpress.com, twitter.com/medexpress, facebook.com/medexpress or linkedin.com/company/medexpress.

Click here to subscribe to Mobile Alerts for UnitedHealth Group. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160806005008/en/

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Sao Tome (AFP) - Voters in the tiny west African archipelago of Sao Tome and Principe went to the polls Sunday to elect a new president, but only one candidate is standing in a runoff the incumbent boycotted as fraudulent.

Held up as a model of democracy in the region, the country is mired in a political crisis unprecedented in its 25 years of multiparty politics following the initial July 17 vote.

Some 111,000 voters had originally been due to choose between Evaristo Carvalho, who won 49.8 percent in the first round, and President Manuel Pinto da Costa, who took 24.83 percent, according to official results published by the Constitutional Tribunal.

Former prime minister Carvalho, the ruling party candidate, initially appeared to have scraped past the required 50 percent needed for an outright win.

But Pinto Da Costa challenged the result and election officials called a second round after revising Carvalho's tally to 49.8 percent.

"To continue to participate in a fraudulent electoral process is tantamount to condoning it," outgoing president Pinto da Costa said Friday as he turned 79.

"I am not prepared to do so as a candidate, much less so as president of the republic."

- Ashamed of Sao Tome -

Pinto Da Costa had sought an annulment of the first round results in a joint appeal with third-placed candidate Maria das Neves, who took 16 percent of the vote.

But the constitutional court found against their claim of irregularities and fraud.

Carvalho called on "all residents of Sao Tome and Principe to exercise their right to vote" Sunday and confirm his first round victory.

The non-participation of the outgoing president could, however, weaken the turnout.

"I think abstention will be the big winner in these elections marked by controversy," said sociologist Olivio Diogo, who believes the political background will reduce participation.

"I am ashamed of what is happening in Sao Tome at the moment," said voter Aguinaldo Garrido.

"How will the new president be legitimised?" asked the computer engineer. "The polling stations will be composed only of Carvalho party members as the other parties have given up."

First round turnout was 64.31 percent of a total electorate of 111,222 in a country of barely 200,000 people, which depends largely on international aid.

Shortly after polls opened at 7:00 am (0700 GMT) only a trickle of voters had appeared to cast their ballots in the capital, an AFP journalist reported, with many people heading first to mass in the mainly Christian country.

"The process is going ahead calmly and without problems across the country," an electoral commission official told AFP.

Executive power in Sao Tome and Principe is shared between the president and the prime minister and has led to turf wars in the past.

The president's role is to arbitrate while real power lies with the prime minister who governs the former Portuguese colony.

Carvalho, the favourite from the start, is supported by Prime Minister Patrice Trovoada, whose party holds a majority in the assembly.

Trovoada wants Carvalho to win the presidency to end the "cohabitation" he had with Pinto da Costa, with whom he has a family rivalry that dates back to independence from Portugal.

Pinto da Costa became the first ruler of the islands on independence in 1975 and established a Marxist-Leninist state whose intolerance of opposition sent many dissidents into exile, including Trovoada's father Manuel after relations between the two men soured.

Manuel Trovoada returned after the country was transformed into a multiparty democracy in 1991 and was twice elected president.
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07.08.2016 LISTEN

Destiny Ugorji

In my first episode, I raised several questions begging for answers over the missing Abuja-based lady, Charity Aiyedogbon. Chacha, as she is fondly called, was declared missing on social media by her Facebook friends. She is said to have been missing since the 10th of May, 2016.

The contradictions have not seized. Some friends of Chacha, believed to have earlier raised the alarm appear to have recanted. They are said to be at daggers-drawn with Maryland/Lagos-based lawyer, Emeka Ugwuonye, who said he was briefed by same Chachas friends on the matter.

The conflict got to a head, when they engaged in a war of words on Facebook, even after one of them, one Pamela Nwansoh allegedly confronted Mr. Ugwuonye in a Police premises in Abuja over an obvious sense of disenchantment with his activities, alleging extortion of members of the public (in the name of looking for Chacha) using his Facebook Group, the Due Process Advocates (DPA). Ugwuonye had, via a post on the group, solicited financial contributions for his trip to Abuja to respond to Police invitation to explain himself over the case of the missing Chacha.

One of the ladies said to be involved in the search for Chacha, Viola Ifeyinwa Okolie, on the 14th of July made a worrisome post on her Facebook wall. Hear her:

I left Nigeria on Sunday the third of July and transited via Dubai where I had an almost 24 hour stopover. My lines were roaming so two calls came through. The first was from Ifedimma Onwugbufor; the second was from Ujuaku. We were meant to take the search for Charity off social media and to the police stations, etc... I explained to her how I wasn't around but she said she and Pamela Odera would take it up. I assured them I would follow through from whatever I was and hopefully, the mystery could be closed before I arrived Nigeria.

On Sunday evening as usual, an obfuscating post went up in the DPA. I was super pissed off and sent it on via inbox to a number of ladies. Pam called me and was distraught. You could hear it from her voice. She was tired of the entire charade and was going to the police station herself, what was the worst that could happen? She asked me.

When she got there, she called me on phone and was exceedingly disturbed. I will refrain from saying anything about what she discussed with me on phone, but I respected her carefully worded update later that day. God knows, if it were me that went there and with the antics some people were putting up that day, I would have torn out an angry update.

For the avoidance of doubt, the lady Emeka mentioned in this update is Pamela. His accounts of his encounter with her are half-truths and whole lies. Again, I respect the fact that Pamela is trying to hold herself back and act with a lot of restraint on this matter.

Also in a post on The Due Process Advocates on the 17th of July, 2016, Emeka Ugwuonye attacked Viola Okolie, making some spurious allegations. The post was titled: How the search for Chacha took strange turns and her friends turn out not to be friends after all. It reads in part:

When the fight for Chacha started, it appeared that Chacha had some friends who were ready to support the effort to find justice for her. One of such Chachas friends was Viola Ifeyinwa Okolie. She published extensively, apparently searching for justice for Chacha. Then she seemed to be an ally of DPA. However, as the fight got to a crucial stage, Ms. Viola Ifeyinwa Okolie took a surprising turn and accused me of being the person that killed or disappeared Chacha.

To Ms. Viola I must say: No, Ma'am, I am not a suspect. I was in America when it all happened. I hurried back to Nigeria to lead DPA in the search for justice for Chacha.

But, wait a moment: how did Emeka Ugwuonye get involved in this? Was he really in America when the incident happened, as he claimed? Available records suggest otherwise. In this day of Technology, it does not require rocket science to track peoples movement and communication.

Barrister Ugwuonye claimed to have been in the United States as at the time of Chachas disappearance and only came into Nigeria in June, 2016, after being briefed to handle the matter, but his call log betrayed him, showing that he was in Abuja on the 10th, 11th and 12th of May, 2016; same time Chacha is said to have got missing.

Information from private investigators and telecommunication service providers revealed that Barrister Ugwuonye made calls around Jabi area of Abuja, up till midnight same 10th and 11th and departed Abuja on the 12th of May, 2016. When confronted by the Police in Abuja with evidence of his movement, he owned up, thereby confirming that he has been lying all the while.

Ugwuonye had claimed in some of his posts on Facebook that the missing woman was killed on the 10th of May, and her corpse discovered on the 11th by School children around Gwarimpa area of Abuja.

Another worrisome development is that three key suspects earlier arrested by the Police in relation to Chachas disappearance were said to have been released at Emeka Ugwuonyes instance. He claimed at the FCT Police Station that they are his clients.

Following his (Emekas) claim at the Police Station that one of the suspects, Joe, whom he also identified as his client identified a corpse he earlier displayed online as that of Chacha, the Police re-invited him (Joe). At this point, they (Police) had concluded plans to exhume and conduct a DNA test on the corpse to ascertain the veracity of Ugwuonyes claims. Upon arrival at the station, Joe was brought face to face with Emeka Ugwuonye. He denied all the claims. First, he came with his lawyer, saying he neither briefed nor consulted Emeka Ugwuonye as his lawyer. Second, he denied ever seeing or identifying the corpse to anyone, including Emeka, insisting that he only saw the said corpse on Facebook, when shared by Emeka. No one accepted knowledge of the whereabouts of the corpse, not to talk of identifying it.

Recall that in previous posts on social media, Ugwuonye said:

I have evidence that the missing Charity was dead, directly accusing her erstwhile husband, David Aiyedogbon of having a hand in her disappearance.

In another post, Ugwuonye said: this is the headless and dismembered body of Charity Aiyedogbon (posting a corpse on his Facebook handle). DPA has been able to identify this as her body within the limits of resources at our disposal.

As at today, Police sources reveal that Mr. Ugwuonye has not provided any single evidence to substantiate his claims. The only person he claims showed and identified the corpse as that of missing Chacha (Joe) has denied him. As a Harvard-trained lawyer of twenty five years, he should know better than anyone else that he that asserts must prove.

Another worrisome development is that one of Chachas lawyers, Barrister Nsikak Udo has recanted. Police sources say he has admitted that Chachas signature was forged. The legal consequence of that is obvious. But, what was his intention and interest?

Recall that Barrister Nsikak Udo handling a fresh suit filed by Chacha at the Federal High Court, Lokoja on 29th April, 2016 against 29 respondents, including her biological children and her former husband claimed she (Chacha) came to his house on the 18th of May, 2016 (eight days after her purported disappearance) and one of his staff accompanied her to Federal High Court, Abuja to sign and depose to an affidavit in support of the ex-parte motion filed along with the case. We earlier asked: how did someone who was declared missing on the 10th of May re-appear on the 18th and then disappear again? Today, that puzzle is solved and the lawyer has admitted that he lied on oath. Apart from him, is the Commissioner for Oath in that very Court free?

Now, where is Chachas car? It has been recovered. Two of her handsets have also been recovered- all in Emeka Ugwuonyes home State Enugu. Is it a coincidence that he (Ugwuonye) has been questioned more than thrice by the Police in Chachas case? Is it also a coincidence that Chachas friends that are in the same business of searching for Chacha are now at war with him? What is Ugwuonyes actual relationship with one Jekwu and his brother, Iyke; Jo and Chacha? Answers to the above questions might be helpful in unravelling the mystery behind Chachas disappearance. What about Chachas parents and siblings-why are they going about their normal businesses? As events unfold, more facts emerge. While Police continues with its investigations on the mystery surrounding Chachas disappearance, people that have questions to answer must explain themselves.

In the next episode, I shall tell my readers how Chachas car and handsets were recovered, Ugwuonyes confessional statements in the office of the Inspector General of Police (Monitoring Unit), his appeals to Chachas ex-husband, David Aiyedogbon and his lawyers not to sue him for defamation of character and other interesting developments in the matter.

As per Chachas whereabouts, a clue appears to be in sight. The law enforcement agencies are equal to the task.

Only time shall tell!
07.08.2016 LISTEN

Introduction

Alternative Dispute Resolution, (ADR) has been firmly established in commercial relationships as an effective means of resolving disputes. It is also used in other areas of conflict (e.g. family and workplace disputes).[1] In certain jurisdictions, for example, Australia, Canada, China, Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States of America and others, ADR is now being used to resolve tax disputes.[2] In Ghana, ADR methods refer to: Negotiation, Mediation and Arbitration.[3] Negotiation, Mediation and Arbitration as dispute resolution mechanisms have very strong roots in traditional African dispute resolution processes.[4] Can Mediation be used in resolving tax disputes in Ghana?

There are different types of tax disputes. These include challenges to collection actions or requests for information, constitutional challenges, and miscellaneous challenges to the exercise of administrative power through judicial review. This paper focuses on: disputes from tax assessments or disputes on what is the right tax at the right time; and appeals from tax assessments, and the problems associated with such appeals.

Structure

This article is in four parts. The first part: gives a brief overview of tax administration; describes the existing procedures for resolution of tax disputes; and states some of the challenges to the existing tax disputes resolution procedures. The second part discusses Mediation as an ADR method, and the advantages and disadvantages of Mediation for the resolution of tax disputes. The third part deals with the appropriateness and applicability of Mediation to the resolution of tax disputes. The final part, which is also the thrust of this article deals with recommendations on how Mediation can be used to make the resolution of tax disputes easier for the taxpayer and the CG in Ghana.

Overview of Tax Administration in Ghana

The Ghana Revenue Authority

The Ghana Revenue Authority, Act, 2009 (Act 791), established the Ghana Revenue Authority, (the GRA) as a body corporate with capacity to sue and be sued.[5] The GRA has replaced the: Internal Revenue Service, Value Added Tax Service, and Customs, Excise and Preventive Service.[6] The GRA is now thus the state entity responsible for the administration of taxes and tax related matters,[7] and a reference to the Commissioner for Income Tax, the Commissioner of Customs, Excise and Preventive Service or the Commissioner for Value Added Tax Service must be read as a reference to the CG under the Ghana Revenue Authority Act.[8]

The CG is responsible for the day-to-day administration of the GRA,[9] as well as the administration of the Income Tax Act, 2015 (Act 896), the Value Added Tax Act, 2013 (Act 870), the Stamp Duty Act, 2005 (Act 689) and the CEPS laws.[10] The CG is answerable to the GRA Board in respect of the performance of his/her functions.

Tax Administration

Tax administration deals with assessment, collection and enforcement of taxes legally due. The key to efficient tax policy or administration, is achieving the above without undue cost to government and the taxpayer in terms of money, time or convenience.[11] A tax administrator therefore generally sets as his/her goal the efficient assessment, collection and enforcement of taxes legally due, without undue cost to the government or the taxpayer in terms of money, time or convenience. [12] To achieve this goal, a tax administrator needs to: facilitate and encourage voluntary compliance with the requirement of the tax laws; deter tax evasion and illegitimate tax avoidance; maintain public confidence in the integrity of the tax system; and administer tax legislation fairly, uniformly and impartially as well as with diligence, courtesy and efficiency.[13]

Tax Disputes

Neither the Ghana tax laws nor the GRA define a 'tax dispute'. It is however clear from the wording of paragraph 21(1) of the Seventh Schedule of the Income Tax Act, 2015 (Act 896), (a dispute resolution provision) that a dispute includes dissatisfaction with the CG's assessment of a tax. The section provides inter alia that: a person who is dissatisfied with an assessment made under this Act may lodge an objection to the assessment with the Commissioner-General. This writer therefore defines a tax dispute under Ghana law as a disagreement or dissatisfaction between the GRA and a taxpayer on tax liability with respect to a particular issue in a tax return, transaction or arrangement, where that disagreement has been raised through an enquiry from either side. Tax dispute however does not include a dissatisfaction or disagreement between the GRA and a taxpayer over issues unrelated to tax liability.

Tax Appeals

Disputes between the Ghana Revenue Authority, (the GRA) and taxpayers arise when: (i) a taxpayer disagrees with adjustments to his/her tax return proposed by the GRA; (ii) refuses to file a tax return; (iii) refuses to comply with a GRA auditor's request for information; or (iv) where a taxpayer disagrees with the GRA's assessment of his or her tax liability.

The dynamics in tax disputes are very different from other civil disputes. Fundamentally, the disagreement is between a private person and the State, rather than between commercial entities or private persons. Although the CG's actions are subject to the remedy of 'judicial review', this remedy is available only when determining whether the CG validly and lawfully exercised a power that the law has conferred on him/her, rather than a disagreement bordering on the right tax at the right time. The remedy for a taxpayer who disputes the CG's assessment of liability to tax therefore lies in 'tax appeal' in accordance with paragraph 21(1) of the Seventh Schedule of the Income Tax Act.

Under the existing tax legislation, a taxpayer cannot appeal a tax assessment until: (i) he/she has raised an objection to the assessment with the CG, and the CG has given or failed to give a decision on such objection within 90 days of its receipt, (Objection Decision).[14] This view was echoed in the case of Arghyrou v. Commissioner of Income Tax[15], where the Court held that there can be no appeal to the High Court against tax assessment in the absence of an Objection Decision, nor where the CG had not taken an unreasonable time to communicate an Objection Decision.

Where the GRA does not respond to the objection, the law deems the non-response as a disallowance of the taxpayer's objection, and thereafter instructs the dissatisfied taxpayer to notify the CG of the deemed disallowance, and to proceed to litigate in court within 30 days. Should the taxpayer fail to appeal the disallowance within the statutory 30-day period for appeal, (or such further extension of time as the court may allow on application to the Court for that purpose), the CG's decision is deemed final, and the taxpayer must pay the tax assessed at the time indicated in the notice of assessment[16], whether or not the tax assessed is correct. Tax appeals therefore involve two processes: the objection process and the litigation process.

Challenges in the Existing Dispute Resolution Procedures under Tax Legislation

Tax appeals present challenges for both the taxpayer and the CG. Although the Objection process is an opportunity for amicable resolution of the dispute between the taxpayer and the CG, it is common for both sides to take entrenched positions during this process, with neither wanting to yield ground. If a resolution of the dispute is not reached within the 90-day period, ultimately, it is the GRA that has the power to take a unilateral decision on the matter- to allow or disallow partially or wholly the taxpayer's objections. This certainly cannot be satisfactory for the taxpayer.

Another challenge to the existing tax dispute resolution procedures lies in the rigid application of the tax dispute resolution procedures stipulated in the various legislations. Failure to follow these rigid procedures systematically is fatal to a party's case. There are many instances where the Court throws out an appeal on technical grounds without any judicial discussion of the merits of the action. For example in the case of Arghyrou v CIT[17], the taxpayer among other claims appealed against the tax claims and assessments that the Commissioner levied on him. The facts were that the taxpayer had sent his written objections to the Commissioner, but the Commissioner did not respond to the objection after a period of about one month. The taxpayer therefore appealed against the assessments. The Court held, among others, that the procedure that the taxpayer adopted was wrong. The Court also noted that since the Commissioner had not taken any decision on the objections the taxpayer raised, nor had he taken an unreasonable time to respond to the objection, the taxpayer's right to appeal the assessment had not yet accrued. So the appeal was dismissed. The Court did not address the merits or otherwise of the assessment. It must also be noted that once a taxpayer loses an appeal, they must pay the amount assessed within 30 days of the Court's decision[18]. In a similar fashion, the full bench of the Court Appeal in the case of Republic v. C.I.T. Ex Parte Maatchppij De Fijn Loutlandal N.V. (Fyhnhout)[19], (the Fyhnout case) concerned themselves only with procedural and technical matters, and did not discuss the merits of the tax assessments. Furthermore, in the case of Republic v CIT, Ex Parte NEMGIA Ltd,[20] the court did not hesitate to point out that it would quash (annul) the CG's assessment where the CG makes a critical procedural or jurisdictional error. In such a situation, the court is most unlikely to go into the merits of the action.

The problem of rigidity is not limited only to the Court's adherence to the application of rigid dispute resolution legal provisions, but includes the court's rigid approach to interpretation of tax disputes. Since the 1920s, (or earlier) the Court's have adopted the strict constructionist approach to interpretation of tax legislation. The strict constructionist approach to interpretation of statutes requires a judge to give each word in the statute an ordinary meaning without applying the provision to a particular situation and without any regard to either the purpose of the statute or the consequences of such interpretation.[21]

The Court's preference of the strict constuctionist approach in interpreting tax legislation persists, even though Ghana's Interpretation Act, 2009 (Act 792) has provided expressly that the courts must adopt the modern purposive approach to interpretation.[22] The modern purposive approach to interpretation is to the effect that the object of statutory interpretation is to as far as possible, construe the text of the statute to effectuate the legislative purpose for such statute. This approach thus requires the Court to retain fidelity to the text of the statute as well as parliament's objectives for such statute.[23] To ascertain the purpose and the context of a particular statute in the course of interpretation, Act 972 permits a Court to rely on: (a) the legislative antecedents of the statutory provisions under consideration; (b) the pre-parliamentary materials relating to the provisions of the Act in which it is contained, such committee reports, recommendations and reviews by commissions on the existing law; and (c) parliamentary materials such as the text of a Bill and reports on its progress in Parliament taking note also of explanatory memoranda, proceedings in the committees and parliamentary debates.

This directive notwithstanding, the Supreme Court in the recent case of Multichoice Ghana Ltd v. The Commissioner, Internal Revenue Service[24], upheld the strict constructionist approach to the interpretation of tax legislation. Wood CJ, in delivering the unanimous decision of the Court noted that her decision

has been dictated by the strict constructionist approach to the interpretation of statutes reserved for fiscal legislation. The general principle is that tax statutes are to be construed strictly.[25]

The Ghana Supreme Court in that case upheld Rowlatt J's decision on the approach to tax interpretation in Cape Brandy Syndicate v IRC [1921 1 KB 64, 71], and quoted with approval his statement that:

in a taxing Act one has to look merely at what is clearly said. There is no room for any intendment. There is no equity about a tax. There is no presumption as to tax. Nothing is to be read in, nothing is to be implied. One can only look fairly at the language used.

It must, however, be noted, that there is a growing view among revenue authorties, (for instance the HRMC), that the courts must apply the modern purposive approach to interpretation of tax disputes, in view of the global hostility towards tax avoidance schemes, as well as considerable tax avoidance provisions in various legislation. This paper submits that given that the Supreme Court is not bound by its previous decisions, it is possible that the Court may at some point, adobt the modern purposive approach in the interpretation of tax disputes rather than the strict constructionist approach. This is more so, given that the history of tax interpretation is riddled with examples of the courts shifting more than once, their attitude towards tax avoidance schemes, and consequently, to tax interpretation, depending on the times.[26]

Furthermore, the recent elaborate anti-avoidance legislation in many jurisdictions, Ghana inclusive, may inevitable lead to a move away from the strict constructionist approach in interpretation of tax statutes. The purpose of this paper however is not to discuss whether or not the strict constructionist approach ought to be abandoned. Suffice it to state that there are uncertainties in the area of tax interpretation, in the light of the courts approach to interpretation of tax statutes, anti-avoidance schemes and anti-avoidance legislation. The effect of these uncertainties in a fact-based case, (as is common with most tax disputes) is that a decision of a court is unlikely to add much value in elucidating the law for taxpayers and revenue authorities in other tax disputes on completely different set of facts.[27] This cannot be satisfactory to either the taxpayer or the GRA. This writer therefore submits that it is in the interest and convenience of both the taxpayer and the revenue authority to have an opportunity to amicably resolve most of their disputes on the merits of each case, with the assistance of an impartial and neutral expert, (Mediator). The parties may then have recourse to litigation in specified and compelling cases, (discussed below), where an amicable settlement is improbable and where litigation is the best way to obtain clarity on legal provisions.

What is Mediation

Mediation is an ADR method. Section 135 of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Act, 2010 (Act 798), defines ADR as the collective description of methods of resolving disputes otherwise than through the normal trial process.[28] In this definition, ADR mechanisms refer to all methods used to resolve disputes other than through litigation in court. These methods or processes are Negotiation, Mediation and Arbitration.[29] This paper discusses Mediation, rather than Negotiation and Arbitration.

Section 135 of the ADR Act defines Mediation as a non-binding process in which the parties discuss their dispute with an impartial person who assists them to reach a resolution, in accordance with the relevant sections of the Act on Mediation, (i.e. Part Two of the Act). Consequent on this definition of Mediation, the ADR Act 798 in the same section defines "mediator" to include an impartial person appointed or qualified to be appointed to assist the parties to satisfactorily resolve their dispute and employees and persons hired by that person. The key elements of this definition are that Mediation is: (i) a non-binding process; (ii) a dialogue of the dispute; (iii) with an impartial person; and (iv) who assists the disputants resolve their dispute. These key elements are generally consistent with the conception of mediation in many other jurisdictions, if not globally.[30] The definition also captures the fact that the Mediators do not impose a decision on the disputants, rather, it is the disputants themselves who ought to find a solution to their dispute. The above stated definition is not without its definitional problems. However, the focus of this paper is not to critique the definition of Mediation. Rather, the paper defines Mediation in the context of the Ghana legal system, and discusses the use of Mediation for the resolution of tax disputes.

A good mediator proceeds with an interest-based rather than a position-based view of the issues in dispute. In other words, a good mediator will seek to explore the underlying incentives and financial, institutional, or personal grounds that might be the basis for reaching an agreement among the parties. Often, a solution may suggest itself that is broader or different than that identified by the parties as the immediate subject of a dispute. The mediator will explore with the parties whether the benefits of reaching an agreement exceed the costs of continuing a dispute.[31]

Advantages of Mediation

Several aspects of the mediation process make it an effective tool for dispute resolution. Mediation proceedings are confidential, and evidence of compromise proposals cannot be introduced into the record of a pending proceeding before a court or a regulatory body.[32] Mediation, then, can create space within which parties may contemplate and reconsider their interests and priorities without fear of prejudicing their positions.[33]

Another important advantage of Mediation over court litigation is the ability of the parties to select neutral and impartial ADR professionals who are qualified to deal with the issues that are specific to their dispute. The ADR professional need not be from a legal background but may be an expert in whatever area the dispute is about.

A third advantage of Mediation over litigation and arbitration is that no third party decides the terms of settlement for the disputants. In Mediation, the mediator works closely with the parties, bringing them together for at least one joint session, facilitating communication, exploring what the disputants want and the reasons why they want it, and examining settlement options. The success of Mediation rests largely on the meeting of the disputing parties and the resultant progress that such contact skillfully facilitated by the mediator can have.[34] When a settlement agreement is reached, it would be a consensual agreement by the disputants themselves - an agreement they each deem satisfactory for their purposes. This is unlike litigation where it is a judge who decides on the matter, declaring a winner and loser. It is also unlike arbitration where the arbitrator decides the dispute by declaring a winner and/or loser. In Mediation, there are no winners and losers. Rather, there is an amicable resolution of a dispute, a win-win outcome for the disputants. And, where amicable settlement eludes the disputants they may still exercise their right to litigate or arbitrate their dispute.

Furthermore, Mediation offers greater procedural flexibility than litigation. For example, the hearings conducted by a neutral person in Mediation may be held at any place and at any time, subject to the agreement of the disputants. The Mediation process also allows parties to apply their own knowledge and creativity in the process, ensuring that their needs are met more closely than the traditional litigation system is able to do. This in turn promotes party empowerment, as the parties retain control and ownership of their dispute and the process of its resolution.

All ADR practitioners agree with the proposition that it is more beneficial for parties to resolve their differences by negotiated agreement rather than through contentious proceedings[35]. This is because among other things, Mediation preserves or enhances personal and business relationships that might otherwise be damaged by an adversarial process. [36] This advantage of Mediation is especially important for the resolution of tax disputes because a good relationship between the taxpayer and the CG needs to be maintained for purposes of compliance with tax laws and regulations. Mediation is however not limited to disputes involving relationships. It is also widely used for issues where there is no relationship.

Mediation is widely encouraged because it is a forum in which parties are helped to adopt a problem solving approach in order to find a win-win outcome, with the mediator exploring the underlying issues in order to understand those that have been presented. This may go hand in hand with supporting a bargaining style of negotiation, seeking trade offs in search of a deal. Mediation therefore does not only reduce the costs and delays associated with litigation, it also helps the parties reach a mutually beneficial settlement or appreciation of their dispute. The specific advantages of Mediation for the resolution of tax disputes are discussed below.

Disadvantages of Mediation

One of the main disadvantages of Mediation is that not all types of disputes are capable of being resolved by Mediation. The ADR Act, (Act 798) for instance specifies the disputes that cannot be subject to ADR mechanisms, (i.e. mediation and arbitration). The disputes listed in section 1 of the ADR Act as not capable of resolution by mediation or arbitration are disputes bothering on: national or public interest; the environment; the enforcement and interpretation of the Constitution; and any other matter that by law cannot be settled by an alternative dispute resolution method. It is worth noting that 'Tax disputes' is not among the list. Does this therefore mean that tax disputes can be settled through ADR?

Specific Advantages of Mediation for the Resolution of Tax Disputes

There is considerable evidence that Mediation not only solves problems of revenue collection by raising revenue and reducing backlog, but that it has resulted in resolving tax disputes within a maximum of 120 days.[37] Recent statistics from the UK on Mediation to resolution of tax disputes between 1 April 2013 and 14 January 2014 show 79% of small and medium enterprise, (SME) cases were resolved within 120 days.[38] These statistics also indicate that 83% of the large and complex cases that went to Mediation were resolved.[39] The evidence further suggests that simply applying for Mediation motivated large companies and their HMRC relationship managers to sort disputes out before the need to get a mediator involved.[40] The HMRC saw the pilot as a success after a successful two-year trial of ADR.[41] Other jurisdictions where Mediation has been applied successfully to tax disputes are Australia[42], Netherlands[43], New Zealand[44] South Africa[45] and United States of America[46].

Even where tax disputes remained unresolved after Mediation, the data from pilot cases[47] indicates that Mediation of those tax disputes minimised the scope of disputed issues, improved the taxpayer's experience, helped to maintain or improve personal/business relationships, and increased voluntary compliance with taxation requirements.[48] Other identified benefits of Mediation of tax disputes include Mediation: empowered the participants to speak for themselves and determine the outcome of their own dispute; enabled the participants to reach an outcome that better meets their needs than a judicial decision would; encouraged participants to be informal and therefore more accommodating of direct participant involvement; is cheaper, less stressful and quicker; produces an agreement that is more likely to be complied with and which may be more likely to finally resolve the dispute; and confidentiality of proceedings, thereby facilitating openness; and helping to maintain or improve personal/business relationships. [49]

The pilot cases discussed above show that Mediation of tax disputes reduces time and costs in relation to the dispute resolution, taking between 30 days and 120 days to be wholly or partially resolve the dispute. In Ghana, litigation of a dispute may take several years to be finally resolved, especially where either party decides to use the appeal process from the High Court to the Supreme Court and a possible review of the Supreme Court decision. This locks up taxes for the revenue, and puts a strain on the relationship between the taxpayer and the revenue authorities. There is also the issue of rising costs in legal fees and filing fees, and the requirement that a losing taxpayer must pay the amount disputed within 30 days of the Court's decision, or risk contempt of court.[50] Litigation of a tax dispute therefore can be very expensive, both in terms of resources and agent/legal fees for both the GRA and the taxpayer. Using Mediation as an option for the resolution of tax disputes would thus benefit both the taxpayer and the revenue authorities, and would go a long way to making Ghana a better place to work and do business. Can Mediation be applied to tax disputes in Ghana?

Appropriateness of Mediation for the Resolution of Tax Disputes

Tax is a creature of statute.[51] Therefore, whether Mediation can be applied to tax disputes depends on the provisions of relevant tax legislation and the ADR Act. This writer argues that neither the ADR Act, nor the various tax legislations prohibit the use of Mediation for the resolution of tax disputes. Therefore, Mediation can be used to resolve tax disputes. This paper suggests that imbedded in the taxpayers right to object, and the CG's power to accept or reject such objection, is the opportunity for both the taxpayer and the CG to discuss their dispute in an attempt to reach an amicable settlement.

In practice, the CG and the taxpayer negotiate the dispute during the objection process. This paper submits that in the absence of regulations or guidelines for Mediation, the taxpayer and the CG may use Mediation to resolve their dispute within the 90 day period of the objection process, as Mediation is more or less 'assisted negotiation'. Should the CG and the taxpayer not reach an amicable settlement within the 90 day period, they may agree to extend the time to mediate the dispute, especially where both parties are of the view that a resolution of the dispute or some of the disputed issues is likely. Should the parties be unable to reach an amicable settlement of any of the disputed issues within this extended period, the taxpayer may then proceed to litigate. This the taxpayer can do by applying for extension of time within which to appeal, citing the attempts at Mediation as the reason for the delay in filing the tax appeal. This paper submits that attempts at Mediation will qualify as a 'reasonable cause', for which the Court ought to grant an extension. This is because the Court's Act 1993, (Act 459) enjoins the courts to promote amicable settlement of disputes, and the Commercial Court mandatorily requires parties to proceed to trial of the case only after they have first attempted amicable settlement of the dicpute, (pre-trial). A tax dispute is a commercial matter[52]. Therefore, delay to appeal as a result of engaging in Mediation with a view to resolving the dispute amicably ought to be considered a 'reasonable cause'. A reasonable commercial person would first consider an amicable settlement of a dispute before going to court.

The use of a Mediator even at the Objection stage, could be helpful in getting both sides to civilly isolate the disputed issues, and openly discuss those issues with a view to reaching a binding and satisfactory resolution of all or some of the disputed issues, without recourse to court litigation. Even where the parties are unable to amicably resolve all the disputed issues, and need to resort to court litigation, they do so with a better understanding of their dispute.

Challenges of Using Mediation to Resolve Tax Disputes

One of the main challenges to using Mediation to resolve tax disputes is the general concern relating to principles of legality and equality of taxation. Care must be taken that Mediation does not undermine the rule of law, for instance, in cases where the law is clear, neither party ought to be permitted to negotiate away the unambiguous implications of the law.[53]

Another challenge to the use of Mediation in the resolution of tax disputes is technical expertise.[54] Taxation is a specialized area, and so is Mediation. So a tax expert who is not trained in Mediation may not be competent to mediate a tax dispute.

This paper submits that the above challenges are resolvable, as discussed below.

Recommendations on how Mediation can be used to Resolve Tax Disputes

Mediation can apply to a dispute in respect of any of the range of taxes and for any taxpayer from large multinationals to small and medium sized enterprises, sole traders, partnerships and private individuals. Mediation may be particularly useful in circumstances where: the parties are unclear or unable to articulate the points in dispute; the parties have taken entrenched views or relationships have become strained; there is a dispute over facts (particularly in fact heavy cases); there is no dispute over any technical analysis but the parties need to agree the methodology to quantify liability; and there are "non-tax" issues with no precedent value or wider impact.[55]

The circumstances in which Mediation would not be suitable are where: the resolution of the disputes could only be achieved by departure from an established GRA view on a technical issue; there is doubt over the strength of evidence and GRA wants to test it by cross-examination at a tribunal; an issue needs to be clarified judicially so that the precedent gained can be applied to other cases; and also where the taxpayer does not appear to be working collaboratively with the GRA.[56]

This paper suggests that, the Minister responsible for finance and the GRA may make regulations specifying the categories of tax disputes that may be resolved by Mediation and those that ought not to be resolvable by Mediation.[57] These regulations would include guidelines on the mediation process in resolution of tax disputes, among others. The enactment of such regulations would also serve to address concerns bordering on the legality and equality of taxation.

Some tax law provisions are open to different reasonable interpretations. If a particular ambiguous provision involves numerous cases, litigation may be appropriate so as to arrive at a general resolution of the ambiguity.[58] On the other hand, isolated cases might more efficiently be dealt with through Mediation, as long as both parties are ready to find a reasonable solution. This approach ensures that constitutional and statutory basis for taxation are maintained in accordance with the relevant legislation, and taxation is not compromised.[59]

Mediation must be designed to work better and more swiftly in the public interest and not become a channel for relaxing compliance with the law, or giving unequal treatment to taxpayers. The CG's consideration of an objection is a quasi-judicial function. This means that it must be based on law, although there is an element of discretion to exercise. This paper takes the view that within the scope of legality, it is feasible for the GRA to incorporate Mediation in arriving at its Objection Decision. This effectively replaces the statutory unilateral decision with a negotiated procedure and a bilateral decision, ensuring that the dispute is resolved at the objection stage without the need for litigation.[60]

Given that the CG has to give his/her Objection Decision within 90 days of receipt of the objection, the parties can agree to: first attempt negotiation within 30 days of the filing of the objection, proceed to Mediation where the dispute is not resolved within 30 days from the date of the Objection, and extend the time for mediation where the dispute is not resolved within 60 days of Mediation, (where both parties want to continue the mediation process). Should mediation fail and the parties resort to litigation, the taxpayer may apply for an extension of time within which to file the appeal, citing efforts at mediation as the reason for the delay. As noted above, the Court ought to grant an extension of time in such a case as efforts at mediation qualify as a 'reasonable cause', or a cause that many a commercial person would reasonably consider before resorting to litigation.

To address the concern of lack of technical expertise in mediating tax disputes, the GRA, tax training institutions and mediation training bodies may collaborate to train tax experts in the skill of mediation and/or mediators in taxation. This way, the GRA and taxpayers would have a pool of qualified assistants to choose from in the event of mediation of a tax disputes.

Conclusion

Not only is Mediation widely acknowledged to reduce the costs and delays of litigation.[61] Pilot studies conducted in the United Kingdom and Australia have confirmed that Mediation can be a timely and effective means of resolving smaller, less complex indirect tax disputes.[62] In 48 pilot cases selected, 41% of the issues in dispute were fully resolved.[63] The average timeframe for resolution from first contact about the Pilot to case finalisation was 41 days. The shortest time it took to finalise a case was 30 days and the longest was 59 days. Compared to litigation in Ghana, which takes several years to complete, the pilot cases conducted demonstrate that using Mediation to resolve tax disputes will surely reduce the costs and delays of litigation.

Furthermore, feedback from the above pilot cases, indicated that even in those disputes where an agreement was not reached, not only did the parties make time and/or cost savings, but that there was also an improved relationship between the taxpayer and the Revenue Authority, with the taxpayer viewing the Revenue Authority more favourably than before participating in Mediation.[64]

In addition, the overwhelming feedback from all participants who took part in the pilot cases suggested that they believed the mediation facilitation assisted the dispute resolution process and that they would be happy to engage in the process again. [65] An improved relationship, is one of the cornerstones of efficient and effective tax administration. These pilot cases also give credence to the view that parties using Mediation tend to arrive at settlements that are more creative, satisfactory and lasting than those imposed by the courts, and that Mediation can be used to establish a deal that eludes the parties in bilateral negotiations, either personally or through their lawyers.[66]

The Pilot cases also identified internal process improvements that could be implemented by the Revenue Authority to resolve disputes earlier. This included earlier and more open communication by objection officers when an objection is lodged to facilitate the development of better relationships and earlier provision of information.[67] There is therefore empirical evidence that Mediation could result in win win outcomes for both the taxpayer and the CG, not only in time and money, but in improved relationship as well.

In conclusion, this paper submits that from a taxpayers' perspective, irrespective of the outcome, litigation is costly, time-consuming and stressful. And it is all the more unsatisfactory if you lose. From Revenue Authority'r perspective the tax appeal process is equally costly and time-consuming for an overstretched department, which is under severe external pressure to work smarter and faster. Therefore, although Mediation is not a panacea for all of the problems related with the resolution of tax disputes, it is certainly a step along the road to working together better which confers obvious advantages.[68] Mediation in tax disputes will contribute to resolving these challenges, and that litigation should be the route of last resort for both sides. It is about time the CG saw the taxpayer as a desirable customer, and Mediation may just help in forstering such a relationship.

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[1] See Nias, Peter. Tax: Alternative Dispute Resolution. (London: Sweet & Maxwell, 2013).

[2]See Jone, Melinda Elizabeth. "Refining a proposed tax mediation regime for New Zealand's Tax Disputes Resolution Procedures: A Mixed Methods Study" ( New Zealand, University of Canterbury, 2013).

[3] The Alternative Dispute Resolution Act, 2010 (Act 798), section 135.

[4] See William I. Zartman, Conclusions: Changes in the New Order and the Place for the Old, in Traditional Cures for Modern Conflicts: African Conflict Medicine 219, 220 (William I. Zartman ed., 2000); Osei-Hwedie, Kwaku, and Morena J. Rankopo. "Indigenous Conflict Resolution in Africa: The Case of Ghana and Botswana." (2012) 29 IPSHU English Research Report Series: 33-51. See also Wiredu, Kwasi. "Democracy and consensus in African Traditional Politics: A Plea for a Non-party Polity." (1995) Centennial Review: 53-64. [Online] Available from: htpp://www.them.polylog.org/. Zartman makes the point that prior to the introduction of courts and litigation, the various tribes in Ghana resolved internal disputes within the tribe by negotiation, mediation and customary arbitration. Wiredu notes that there is considerable evidence that decision by consensus was often the order of the day in African deliberations, and on principle. He cited as an example, the political process among Ashantis prior to the introduction of the courts.

[5] The Ghana Revenue Authority Act, 2013 (Act 791), section 1(2).t the CG and the T period, the Tsputes I got your number from Ricky Kasise. I hope that is okay.

t)ons the disputed issues

[6] Ibid, the Preamble and section 30.

[7]Ibid, the Preamble.

[8] Ibid, section 30(3).

[9] Ibid, section 14.

[10] The Income Tax Act, 2015, (Act 598), section 113, as repealed/amended by section 30(3)&(5) of Act 791.

[11] Benjamin Kunbour & Abdallah Ali-Nakyea, Law of Taxation in Ghana, 3rd ed (Accra, Black Mask Ltd, 2014).

[12] Ibid.

[13] Ibid.

[14] see Republic v. C.I.T. Ex Parte Maatchppij De Fijn Loutlandal N.V. (Fyhnhout) [1974] 1 GLR 283 CA. (Full bench); Arghyrou v CIT [1965] GLR 588; and See Lynne Oats & Penelope Tuck. The relationship between HM Revenue & Customs and large corporate taxpayers: The changing role of accountants (London: Centre for Business Performance, 2008).

[15] [1965] GLR 588.

[16] See Republic v. C.I.T. Ex Parte Maatchppij De Fijn Loutlandal N.V. (Fyhnhout) [1974] 1 GLR 283 CA. (Full Bench); and Arghyrou v CIT[16][1965] GLR 58.

[17][1965] GLR 588.

[18] The Income Tax Act, 2015 (Act 896), paragraph 24(3).

[19] [1974] 1 GLR 283 CA. (Full Bench).

[20] [1982-83] 1 GLR 556.

[21] Cross, Rupert, John Bell, and Sir George Engle. Statutory interpretation (London: Butterworths, 1976).

[22] The Interpretation Act, 2009, (Act 792), section 10(1)(c).

[23] Supra note 56, at page 20.

[24] [2011] 35 G.M.J, 87  102.

[25] Supra note 56, at pages 99-100.

[26] Benjamin Kunbour and Abdallah Ali-Nakyea, supra note 24.

[27]Carl Islam Barrister, "Mediation Of Tax Disputes" (London: Averose Chancery Chambers, 2014).

[28] The Alternative Dispute Resolution Act, 2010 (Act 798), section 135.

[29] See Brunet, Edward J., and Charles B. Craver. Alternative Dispute Resolution: the Advocate's Perspective. Michie, 1997.

[30] See Henry J. Brown, and Arthur L. Marriott. ADR Principles and Practice (London: Sweet & Maxwell, 2011). The definition of Mediation in this book is consistent with the Act 798 definition of Mediation.

[31] Robert R. Bruce et al, Dispute Resolution in Telecommunications Sector, Current Practices and Future Directions (Geneva: The World Bank and International Telecommunications Union, 2004). See also IBM v Cable & Wireless,[2002] All ER (D) 277.

[32] Alternative Resolution Act, 2010 (Act 9798), section 79.

[33] Supra note 17.

[34] ADR and Commercial Disputes, Ed. Russel D. Caller.

[35] Brown, Henry J., and Arthur L. Marriott. ADR principles and practice. London: Sweet & Maxwell, 1999.

[36] Brown, Henry & Arhur L. Marriot, ADR Principles and Practice

[37] Ibid. See also notea lso of Taxation May 2012. ax disputeshat Dawn Register, Director in the Tax Investigations Team at BDO LLP in London, Broken Stalemates, March 2014 STEP Journal..

[38] Ibid. See also Jone, Melinda, and Andrew J. Maples. "Mediation as an Alternative Option in Australia's Tax Disputes Resolution Procedures" (2012) 27 Australian Tax Forum at 527.

[39] Ibid.

[40] Supra note 63.

[41] Ibid.

[42] Annabel Hepworth, ATO Turns to Mediation to avoid Costly Court Battles, the Australian Business Review, ( 4 March 2014). online: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/economics/ato-turns-to-mediation-to-avoid-costly-court-battles/story-e6frg926 1226844172971?nk=acc2ae1a102d5862c335752bc053affd. See also: Review into the Australian Taxation Office's use of early and Alternative Dispute Resolution, A report to the Assistant Treasurer, Inspector-General of Taxation May 2012; and Melinda Jone and Andrew J. Maples supra note 66.

[43] See Ulrich Raensch et al, Alternative Tax Dispute Resolution Techniques, Loose Leaf (consulted on 3 November, 2014), (Milan: Baker & Mackenzie, 2014).

[44] see Jone, Melinda Elizabeth. "Refining a proposed tax mediation regime for New Zealand's Tax Disputes Resolution Procedures: A Mixed Methods Study" ( New Zealand, University of Canterbury, 2013).

[45] See Victor Thuronyi & Isabel Espejo,  How Can an Excessive Volume of Tax Disputes Be Dealt With? in IMF Tax Law Notes (Geneva: IMF, 2013). The IMF Legal Department has prepared a series of tax law notes, designed to provide information and analysis on comparative solutions to problems in tax law design which seem to be frequently on the minds of tax officials. Available on line at www.imf.org/external/np/leg/tlaw/2013/eng/tdisputes.pdf.

[46] See Jone, Melinda, and Andrew J. Maples. "Mediation as an Alternative Option in Australia's Tax Disputes Resolution Procedures" (2012) 27 Australian Tax Forum at 527.

[47] This data is discussed in Carl Islam Barrister, "Mediation Of Tax Disputes, supra note 65.

[48] National Alternative Dispute Resolution Advisory Council (NADRAC), Alternative Dispute Resolution in the Civil Justice System, Issues Paper, (Attorney General's Department, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra: NADRAC, 2009), at para 2.12.

[49] Supra note 74.

[50] The Income Tax Act, 2015 (Act 896), paragraph 24(1).

[51] The 1992 Constitution, article 174. See also Benjamin Kunbour and Abdallah Ali-Nakyea, supra note 24. at page 7.

[52] High Court (Civil Procedure), Rules, 2004 (C.I 47), Order 58 Rule 2xiii.

[53] See How Can an Excessive Volume of Tax Disputes Be Dealt With

[54] Ibid.

[55] Nias, Peter. Tax: Alternative Dispute Resolution. (London: Sweet & Maxwell, 2013).

[56] Ibid.

[57] Section 27 of Act 791 empowers the Minister responsible for finance to, on the recommendation of the GRA Board, make regulations in respect of domestic taxes, CEPS, among others.

[58] Supra note 76.

[59] Ibid.

[60] supra note 80 How Can an Excessive Volume of Tax Disputes Be Dealt With -

[61] Keane, P.A 'Judicial Support for Arbitration in Australia'. (2010) 34 Aust Bar Rev 1 (Keane) at 1).

[62] See Peter Poulos and Elizabeth Goli, Resolving Disputes, (2013 National GST Intensive, The Tax Institute). Delievered at the Langham Hotel, Melbourne, 5 September 2013. Unpublished.

[63] Peter Poulos and Elizabeth Goli, Resolving Disputes, 2013 National GST Intensive, The Tax Institute. See also http://www.ato.gov.au/About-ATO/Research-and-statistics/In-detail/General-statistics/Your-case-matters-2012/.

[64] supra note 74. See also Jone, Melinda Elizabeth. "Refining a proposed tax mediation regime for New Zealand's Tax Disputes Resolution Procedures: A Mixed Methods Study" ( New Zealand, University of Canterbury, 2013).

[65] Henry J. Brown, and Arthur L. Marriott. ADR Principles and Practice (London: Sweet & Maxwell, 2011).

[66] Supra note 86.

[67] Ibid.

[68] Andrew Gotch and Hui Ling McCarthy It's Good to Talk' (19 April 2012) Taxation Magazine.
Akua Donkor

07.08.2016 LISTEN

From an audio-visual interview she granted to Kofi Adoma Owawani of Adom TV and Adom FM radio as I have watched on Ghanaweb under the web link http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Akua-Donkor-is-a-liar-NDC-460643 , one can very well conclude that Madam Akua Donkor is a hired agent of President Mahama and the NDC. Her affiliation to them bordering on acceptance of gifts, which may well constitute bribery, is what is driving her crazy to slander Nana Akufo Addo and the NPP at any least opportunity she gets.

She does not mean good for Ghana. She keeps supporting President Mahama and the NDC despite their incompetence and corrupt nature of managing the affairs of Ghana. Her support for them is not in good faith but seemingly based on what she stands to gain from such an unholy alliance.

She has accepted two 4 x 4 Pajero country vehicles and a luxuriously furnished 3-bedroom house in a well-located place in Accra from President Mahama for reasons only best known to her and President Mahama. Does this not explain why she lambasts Nana Akufo Addo and the NPP all of the time for no apparent reason? Does such a woman who claims to be mother for all really a mother for all as she alleges?

No, she is a mother for her stomach. She is an opportunist who follows her heart but not her mind.

Ghana is sinking under the weight of the corruption, incompetence in managing the affairs of Ghana as in daily perpetuation by President Mahama and his NDC government and party yet, this shameless so-called mother for all Ghanaians is fronting for their re-election. God forbids!

Anyway, from where does President Mahama get the money to provide Madam Akua Donkor those freebies? Is it from the State funds or from his personal genuinely-acquired income? Akua Donkor has joined the brigade of the nation wreckers hence her acceptance of such gifts and repayment in kind by constantly lying about the opposition parties leaders and lambasting them as and when she could.

How many of the types of Akua Donkors has President Mahama to do his dirty biddings for him and his NDC party? Are all the seemingly insane NDC fanatics like Salifu Maase, alias Mugabe, of Montie FM, Alistair Nelson and Godwin Ako Gunn also receiving handsome freebies from President Mahama hence their preparedness to murder some Supreme Court judges in their bid to help NDC and President Mahama win the upcoming election 2016? Is Mrs Charlotte Osei, the Chair of the Electoral Commission also one of such unscrupulous individuals determined to do whatever they can to assist President Mahama and NDC get re-elected hence the implementations of her Plans A, B, C etc., that do not augur well for the Ghanaian masses but which she obstinately pursues with vigour?

Are these vehicles being distributed among these dubious persons supporting NDC for all questionable reasons not seized from the countrys harbours; the properties of genuine Ghanaian car importers but who could not afford the purposefully imposed hefty import taxes? Subsequently, the vehicles are impounded only to be given out as freebies to dubious persons having affiliation to NDC all because of what they stand to gain?

I pity all those who will listen to Akua Donkor, Salifu Maase, alias Mugabe, to be influenced to cast their vote for President Mahama. Look at how these mentioned persons, human parasites of course, are benefiting dubiously from the State by President Mahama dishing out cars and houses to them as though he was giving out Christmas crackers to children on Christmas day.

They are receiving cars and houses, and you (the poor villager) are receiving just about GHC10 OR GHC50, but are killing yourself to vote for President Mahama after all the economic hardships he has brought to bear upon you. Please, do not underestimate your intelligence to give room to NDC and people like Akua Donkor to take you for fools and then live ostentatious lives off your ignorance.

With all the video recorded evidence from the horses (Akua Donkor) own mouth, the NDC are still denying that President Mahama has given Madam Akua Donkor cars and a house hence calling her a liar.

Please go on to Ghanaweb under their General News of Friday, 5 August 2016 to read the publication titled, Akua Donkor is a liar  NDC and you will be shocked.

Fellow Ghanaians, I call on you to vote OUT President Mahama and the NDC in the upcoming December 7th general election. We can no longer sustain his unrestrained acts of corruption and abuses of power. He is sinking Ghana. It is about time we rescued Ghana before it becomes to us (you and I) the proverbial had I known which is always at last.

Dear reader, please join me to vote for Nana Akufo Addo and the NPP on December 7, 2016. Let us prove the people of Akua Donkor, Mugabe and Charlotte Osei wrong. Let us prove to them that all their schemes to retain Mahama in power will not wash because we need a change of government!

Rockson Adofo
07.08.2016 LISTEN

Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, is at it again. Last year, when he pledged to stop state sponsorship of pilgrimages, some people were skeptical about Buharis intentions. They doubted if he would, given his religious track record, make good his promise. On the other hand, many people applauded the move and thought that Buhari had truly become a converted democrat. But they were mistaken. The Nigerian president has proved the skeptics right and just as he did in the case of some election campaign promises; he has backtracked on the pledge to lead a government that does not fund religious pilgrimages.

In fact since he became the president, Buhari has consistently violated Article 10 of the Nigerian constitution by merging and meshing mosque and state. He has gone about his presidency privileging Islam in his activities at Aso Rock and officially discriminating against non-Muslims and non-believers in the country. Contrary to his statement in the inaugural address, that he belonged to everybody and he belonged to nobody, Buhari has, in the last 12 months made it clear to all Nigerians whom he belonged to  the religious body particularly the Islamic body. This is not to say that Buhari as a muslim should not practice his religion, Islam. No, not at all. There is a clear difference between the Nigerian president practicing his faith and the Nigerian president using the state mechanism to fund and further his faith. Buhari is doing the latter not the former.

I mean, how else does one explain many of Buharis unilateral decisions to use state resources to fund and subsidize religious activities particularly Islamic programs and events even when his government says the country is broke and has no money to pay salaries, execute capital projects or put in place programs that create jobs and alleviate poverty in the country. Though it has been confirmed that Nigeria is in recession and the economy may not experience any meaningful growth for some time, Buhari went about sponsoring breakfast during the Ramadan at the expense of the state. In fact he used the Ramadan period to feast his political and Islamic friends and associates while most Nigerians were languishing in hunger and reeling under the weight of Buhari inflicted recession.

In the past few months the country has witnessed the revival of activities at the Aso Rock mosque, the Islamic counterpart of the Aso Rock chapel and this religious structure is maintained at the state expense under the watch of a president who pledged to be frugal in using state resources.

But nothing is more troubling than the recent directive to CBN to subsidize the costs of Hajj. This directive is worrisome because as part of his fight against corruption, Buhari has been trying to recover funds that were stolen and used to fund OTHER political campaign activities, but he has kept mute on state monies that were apparently used to sponsor religious pilgrimages, construct mosques, pay Imams, financially reward Christians who converted to Islam, feed Muslims during the month of Ramadan etc. Why is Buhari not interested in recovering these stolen funds? Why is he not extending his fight against corruption to investigating state funds that were used to finance HIS own religious activities?

Well the reason is not far fetched. Buhari is part of the same religious business. He is an unconverted Islamic theocrat. The Nigerian president subscribes to mixing religion and politics and to using religion particularly Islam for political ends and using politics for Islamic religious ends. He is not backing down no matter what. He is not relenting in using his position to please Allah and to further the cause of Islam so that he would be reward in the hereafter.

How else does one make sense of his recent directive to the Nigerian Central Bank to sell dollars to Muslims who are going on Hajj this year at 197 for a dollar at a time Nigerians are going through serious economic and financial difficulties. Buhari has consistently blamed the government of Goodluck Jonathan for wasting state resources, yet he is giving state subsidy to Nigerians going on religious tours and literally contributing to the economy of Saudi Arabia. Is that not wasteful of the state resources? How does subsidizing 2016 add value to the countrys economy? How does it help get the country out of its current recession?

Look, based on this directive, each Muslim pilgrim gets up to a thousand dollars at this rate and banks have been told to charge no interests for this transaction. It was in June that the Nigerian Central Bank decided to unpeg the naira and the parallel market value of naira now is about 400 naira to a dollar. Going by that calculation, the Buhari government is giving a hundred percent subsidy to tens of thousands of 2016 Hajj pilgrims from Nigeria. But there is more to this subsidy.

Indirectly, Buhari is encouraging Hajj pilgrimage, undermining the separation of mosque and state by literally using the state machinery to promote Islam. Particularly Buhari is creating an avenue to fritter away state funds because in the coming days and weeks, Hajj would become another scheme for acquiring cheap dollars from banks and then selling at a hundred percent profit at the parallel market using the Muslim connections. Sai Buhari, Amir al-Mu'minin

Yes, Buhari has made going to Hajj a lucrative business. He has made being a Muslim financially rewarding. Literally, President Buhari is fiddling religiously, while the country burns. This is annoying because those who used state funds to fund their elections and party campaign activities have been deemed corrupt and are being prosecuted. And now Buhari has, while fighting a corrupt practice on one hand, aided and abetted corruption on the other. Buhari has made a corruption scheme out of 2016 Hajj. Performance of Hajj is and should the private business of muslims who can afford it without any government interference, without state subsidy

Yes, Buhari should keep mosque and state separate.
Ibadan, NigeriaThe African Cassava Agronomy Initiative (ACAI) project has stepped up efforts in cultivating and fostering the right partnerships in its cardinal aim of reducing the cassava yield gap in Africa.

The ACAI project team from inception realized the importance of partnerships, and is sparing no effort in ensuring effective collaboration among partners from the experimental phase to the development, and use of the tools that will support appropriate management of cassava to realize the crops fullest potential on farmers fields.

The project has engaged key actors in Nigeria and Tanzania ranging from farmers, researchers, extension services, development workers, processors as well as input dealers notably fertilizer manufacturing companies.

The main aim is to establish contact among relevant actors for considerations for learning and information sharing that will benefit the participating partners associated with ACAI, according to Dr Abdulai Jalloh, ACAI Project Coordinator on Friday.

The Africa Soil Health Consortium in collaboration with the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI) (partners under ACAI) is leading the engagement of key stakeholders in target countries as the project establishes cassava clusters.

Dr Jalloh noted that even though the entry point of ACAI is to address yield gap, it is imperative for strategic considerations of the cassava value chain and inclusiveness of all concerned.

According to him, ACAI is conscious of the mistakes of past interventions where bottlenecks were considered in isolation irrespective of other existing ones and even those that could occur as a result of concentrating on only one aspect.

He emphasized that ACAI would direct efforts towards reducing the yield gap, which would eventually increase cassava production while ensuring impacts along the value chain with a view to having a sustainable improvement in cassava production, processing, and utilization, and impact on overall economic development of individuals, communities, and countries.

Mr James Watiti of CABI who is leading the establishment of cassava value chain clusters emphasized that it was very crucial to bring all stakeholders together and hold a meaningful conversation in an open manner.

He stressed that as long as there is candid conversation among partners, issues and challenges can be addressed and synergies capitalized on.

The African Cassava Agronomy Initiative (ACAI) project is a five-year project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The project is led by IITA and it seeks to increase the availability of appropriate and affordable technologies to sustainably improve short- and long-term agricultural productivity of cassava.
The Brong Ahafo Regional Public Relations Officer [PRO] for Ghana Police Service, Assistant Superintendent of Police [ASP] Christopher Tawiah has called on the general public to hand over suspected criminals, thieves or robbers to the police instead of taking their lives.

ASP Christopher Tawiah speaking with Kwabena Obeng Akrofi on Ark in the morning Friday said Lynching of suspected criminals hampers the efforts of the police to stem the tide of crime in the country.

According to him, the arrest and trial of a few of them may lead to the arrest of other participants of the criminal enterprise.

He said laws of Ghana are against instant justice therefore the public must put an end to it for peace to prevail in the country and to eliminate crime.

No person shall be deprived of his life intentionally except in the exercise of the execution of a sentence of a court in respect of a criminal offence under the laws of Ghana of which he has been convicted, according to clause 1 of article 13 of the 1992 constitution.

ASP Tawiah who was commenting on the recent increase rate of mob action in the Sunyani Municipality charged residents to be careful about their movement.

He questioned why people who take the law into their own hands do not leave items believed to have been stolen by the suspected thieves on their side. Adding that, such things will help us in our investigations.

However, some listeners of Ark Fm who phoned in to the show revealed that instant justice do occur due to the inordinate delay in justice delivery in Ghana.

Source: Myarkfmonline.com/Afia Aboagyewaa & Kofi Oppong Kyekyeku
President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) says journalism practice is at the crossroads because some journalists and media houses are performing below bar.

Affail Monney says such a conduct from media practitioners and private electronic media houses is unacceptable as Ghana heads to the polls.

He has been addressing journalists at a 3-day capacity building workshop on migration for investigative journalists organized by the Panos Institute West Africa and the Africa Center for International Law and Accountability in Accra.

According to him, though the 4-month imprisonment handed each to the Montie FM trio is still fresh in the minds of journalists, the airwaves continue to be mixed with best and below bar radio programs.

Fast forwarding to 2016, today we are at the crossroads again. This time, majority of the challenges we faced are in the electronic media, particularly private radio.

The event of last week which led to the sentencing of three panelists of Montie FM to 12-months imprisonment are too fresh in our minds. Although these individuals were not mainstream journalists as those of you here are, their actions positive or negative affected mainstream media.

Before then and now, our airwaves continue to broadcast the best and regrettably, below bar program.

The Ghana Journalists Association code of ethics guarantees the general public right to true information from journalists.

According to Mr. Monney, GJA Code of Ethics when followed by journalists will ensure journalists write accurate, fair and balance report.

Failure to follow the ethics will lead to the filling of inaccurate reports, unprofessional and unethical practice will lower public confidence in our work as journalists.

Fellow journalists, we have come a long way. From 1992 to 200, we witnessed opportunities and challenges, especially the print media. At that time, the liberalization of the airwaves was not fully up to what we witness now. While there was progress in some areas of media practice, there was also retrogression in other areas.

Mr. Affail Monney is asking media owners to take steps to address falling journalism standards including banning panelists who go contrary to ethics of the journalism.

Before then and now, our airwaves continue to broadcast the best and regrettably, below bar program.

In an election year, we cannot allow below bar practices to continue. Media owners must know that, first and foremost, they have a responsibility to provide training for those they employ to come on air.

Secondly, they must also ensure those panelists are sufficiently briefed on acceptable standards of discourse. Anyone who violate these standards must either be taken off air and where warranted, be banned from participating in future discussion programs.
The economy of Ghana is losing some GHc4.6 billion (US$2.6 billion, or 6.4 percent of GDP) a year to the effects of child undernutrition, according to a new study launched today in the capital.

The Cost of Hunger in Africa: the Social and Economic Impact of Child Undernutrition on Ghana's Long-Term Development (COHA) shows vast amounts being lost through increased healthcare costs, additional burdens on the education system and lower productivity by its workforce.

The consequences of stunting (low height for age) are of particular concern. Stunting occurs when children miss out on critical nutrients  including proteins, vitamins and minerals  while in the womb and in the first two years of life. This is compounded by diseases and poor hygiene practices. People affected by stunting face lifelong consequences starting in childhood such as frequent illness, poor school performance, having to repeat classes or dropping out altogether, and low workplace productivity.

Among other findings, the COHA report reveals that:

 37 percent of the adult population in Ghana suffered from stunting as children;

 24 percent of all child mortality cases in Ghana are associated with undernutrition;

 child mortality associated with undernutrition has reduced Ghana's workforce by 7.3 percent.

Ghana has made some progress in improving child nutrition over the past two decades, reducing chronic malnutrition or stunting from 23 to 19 percent. However, this study highlights the critical need for further progress.

Dr. Margaret Agama Nyetei, the African Union Commission's Head of Health, Nutrition and Population Division, said the issue was vital to the AU's vision and action plan for the next 50 years, known as Agenda 2063. At the African Union, we believe that the realisation of Agenda 2063 and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will not be possible without fully harnessing the potential of all sectors of the population and this includes our children, she said.

The goal of eliminating stunting is key to achieving Zero Hunger, Sustainable Development Goal 2, said Thomas Yanga, Director of the World Food Programme Africa Office. The losses to the economy can be averted through strategic interventions which ensure adequate nutrition for mothers and young children.

Stunting is not just a health issue, it needs to be addressed through a multi-sectoral approach and prioritised in all development programmes from community to national level.

Ensuring a generation free from malnutrition requires significant investments in nutrition strategies and interventions. There is therefore a need for Ghana to forge strategic partnerships with key stakeholders, particularly the private sector and non-state actors, to combat undernutrition holistically, said Prof. Takyiwaa Manuh, Director of the Social Development Policy Division at the Economic Commission for Africa.

In the Northern Region of Ghana, thirty percent of children under five are stunted or chronically malnourished. This not only affects their growth but also their educational development and economic potential, and consequently the future of the country, said Margot van der Velden, WFP Deputy Regional Director for West and Central Africa.

The COHA report is led by the African Union Commission (AUC), in partnership with African governments, the New Partnership for Africa's Development Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA); the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA); and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). Studies have so far taken place in Egypt, Ethiopia, Swaziland, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Malawi and Rwanda, and are due to be carried out in Chad, Lesotho, Mozambique, Madagascar and Mauritania.

The COHA National Implementation Team which, was responsible for collecting, processing and presenting results from Ghana was composed of Ministries, Departments and Agencies, UN Agencies, Civil Society Organisations, Non-Governmental Organisations, international organisations concerned with the elimination of child stunting. The launch of the study was under the auspices of the National Development Planning Commission.

The Government of Ghana, the African Development Bank, the French Development Agency, the Office of the United Nations Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the Rockefeller Foundation, and WFP contributed financially to the realisation of this study in Ghana.



Source: COHA
The group waved Confederate flags - a historic symbol, yes, but one that is also associated with slavery and oppression Click to expand...

You do not condemn these cops; to do so, you would have to condemn the culture that produced them  the same culture that produced you. Click to expand...

What a f*cking load of bullsh*t. Just another typical White-guilt progtard cuck who ignores real history.Let's look at some facts. FACT: There were more White slaves in America than Black slaves. FACT: Africans were actually the third wave of slaves in America, after Native Americans and White people.Meanwhile, if the Confederate flag is a symbol of slavery, racism and oppression, well then why the hell hasn't the Stars and Stripes been banned? It could easily be regarded as a symbol of racism, slavery, oppression, mass murder and theft on a grand scale.Here's some more bullsh*t.The same culture that produced me. Really now? So the same culture that produces Black cops who are 3.3 times more likely to discharge their firearms at an active crime scene is the same culture that produced me? F*ck off, moron. Police acting like a$$holes isn't restricted to just White countries either, but yeah, let's blame Whitey for the police culture.Has the goof from Georgetown spent more than 3 seconds on FB? The condemnation of police violence is all over the site with plenty of White people who are outraged by the violence and openly condemn it.And therein lays the irony of it all. Muslim kills 40 something people at a nightclub. Hardly a whisper from the Muslims. Even weirder, the progtards and Democrats then went out of their way to blame everyone and everything except the individual who actually did the killing. Meanwhile, one imam gets has head blown off and suddenly every f*cking Muslim in the country starts howling with rage.Then you have idiot groups like BLM who get pissed off at Whitey when a Black cop kills a Black person. And the crap about the center pointing out the movement's leaders having condemned violence is a load of bullllllllllsh*t. The head of BLM has a cute little manifesto calling for anarchy. That is BLM's aim, full stop!And in the same way MANY White people have condemned the KKK, more and more Black people are condemning BLM because they see them for what they really are. At this point, we need another verifiable fact and here it is. In 2015, police were responsible for 4% of all the Black people who were killed. Keep in mind that at least some of those shootings were justifiable. Now, that leaves 96% who were killed by someone else. The vast bulk of that "someone else" was, drum roll please, Black people.Another fun fact; While Black people are more likely to be hassled by police, calling criminal profiling "racial" profiling is just more PC nonsense. Look, 13-14% of the population is responsible for about 50% of the violent crimes in the US. But I digress, the point is, while you're more likely to be hassled by the police simply because you're Black, there's no real difference in the rates of abuse and violence between ethnic/racial groups once you've been arrested.Are there bad cops out there who abuse their positions? You damn well bet there are. But here's a real shocker for you, they're not all White! And here's the difference. When a white cop abuses/shoots/kills someone who is not a criminal and wasn't doing anything wrong, White people do speak out regardless of the victim's race. When a Black cop shoots and kills an armed Black suspect with a stolen gun and a long rap sheet, the default mode is to blame Whitey for it.Regardless of the little cuck's assurance that BLM actually means "Black people also matter", the truth is there for all to see, BLM really means ONLY Black Lives Matter. And apparently, the White guilt cucks feel the same way. They'd rather push the bullsh*t narrative rather than admit than in any given year, cops kill about twice as many White people as Black people.
The former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana (UG), Professor Ernest Aryeetey has dismissed suggestions that he had a frosty relationship with the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government during his tenure.

In Professor Aryeetey's term as Vice Chancellor a controversial decision was taken to set up a toll booth at the Okponglo entrance of the university which raised the ire of some officials of the government after complaints from users of that road.

He has also spoken publicly against government's conversion of Polytechnics into Technical Universities and about their handling of the Research Fund .

However, speaking at a farewell forum, Professor Aryeetey thanked the Government of Ghana for the support it gave the University during his tenure.

He added that despite some opposition to some policies he implemented he had a very cordial relationship with the government while he was Vice Chancellor.

I know that the general perception out there is that was not in the good books of government. I would like to disagree with that. I was very much loved by the government and that explains why, Professor Aryeetey said.

According to him, the support hes had from government began under the administration of the late president John Evans Atta Mills and resulted in the construction of the University of Ghana Teaching hospital; the largest such hospital in the sub-region.

Today, the University of Ghana holds the largest teaching hospital in West Africa, I would like to thank the late president Professor John Evans Atta Mills for giving us that hospital simply because we asked for it, he added.

We showed him that we could put it to good use and through it make medical and health service education in Ghana the best in the region. This hospital is owned by University of Ghana and we thank the government for it.

By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana
07.08.2016 LISTEN

After investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas delivered his keynote speech at the 2016 African Youth Excellence (AYE) Awards in Worcester, Massachusetts, Lady G had an exclusive one-on-one interview with the internationally acclaimed Ghanaian investigative journalist.

Lady G, a well-known events host and radio broadcaster for Amansan FM UK, is the host of MENAM NA METETE Political Talk Show . She has held several interviews with high-profile guests such as the former first lady of Ghana Dr. Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, NPP vice presidential candidate Dr. Bawumia, and PNC presidential candidate Dr. Edward Nasigiri Mahama.

This interview with Anas is the one she considers different. Its a game changer for me she said, It was a dream come true. Sitting face to face with Anas was exciting.

The interview is appropriately titled Face-to-Face and concerned anti-corruption and human rights efforts in Ghana and across Africa.

The sit-down was a unique experience for any journalist, because of Anass private identity. I am in this field to name, shame, and jail though I know it is dangerous to life. He said I cannot lead a normal life...I am not able to go to the beach like every individual.

ZenoLive was the main interview sponsor. Amansan FM UK and New Vision Radio of Massachusetts were also co-sponsors.

Sam Powell, Business Development Executive for ZenoLive, said This interview is a testament to the global strength behind Ghanaian political discussion.

Mac Maison, ZenoLive Ghana Country Manager, adds ZenoLive is ready to support similar projects for Lady Gee and Ghanaian journalists around the world. We are thrilled to distribute the interview over our digital and telephony platforms and ensuring its archived for future consumption.

The interview can be listened to via excerpts on ZenoLive Ghanas Facebook page: Facebook.com/ZenoLiveGH. Anyone can sign up for a ZenoLive radio show at www.zenolive.com You can follow Lady Gee on Facebook: (@ladygee_amansanfm), Instagram: (@Ladygee_Amansanfm), Twitter: @Ladygee_amansanfm, and www.ladygonline.com .
Johannesburg (AFP) - South African athlete and convicted murderer Oscar Pistorius has returned to his cell after being treated in hospital for injuries from a fall, prison officials said Sunday, as his brother denied claims he had deliberately hurt himself.

Pistorius, sentenced to six years in jail for murdering his girlfriend, "had to be detained Saturday afternoon at the hospital after falling off his bed," prison services spokesman Singabakho Nxumalo said, adding: "He's back in our care now."

But a South African newspaper reported that the double-amputee sprinter, the only athlete to have competed in both Paralympic and Olympic races, was treated for cuts on his wrists.

According to City Press, citing another inmate at the prison, Pistorius had to go to hospital after deliberately harming himself.

- 'Untrue and sensational' -

"Two warders with knowledge of the hospital section said blades were subsequently found in Pistorius's cell during a search yesterday afternoon," the newspaper said.

It also said a security guard at Kalafong Hospital in Pretoria where Pistorius was taken said the 29-year-old "had bad cuts on his wrists and the doctors kept wrapping bandages around them.

Pistorius's brother Carl however rejected what he called "sensational" media reports.

"We have just seen Oscar and he is doing well," Carl Pistorius said on Twitter Sunday.

"I know that there are reports saying that he had tried to injure himself -- they are completely untrue and sensational. He slipped in his cell and injured himself, nothing serious."

When asked about the report of cut wrists, Nxumalo said he couldn't "discuss details on a particular offender's personal conditions in the public domain."

Pistorius was convicted of shooting dead his partner Reeva Steenkamp, a model and law graduate, in the early hours of Valentine's Day in 2013, saying he mistook her for a burglar when he fired four times through the door of his bedroom toilet.

Pistorius, who pleaded not guilty at his trial in 2014, has always denied killing Steenkamp in a rage, saying he was trying to protect her.

The Paralympian gold medallist known as the "Blade Runner" for the carbon fibre prosthetics he wore to compete was previously a role model for disabled people worldwide.

He is now "broke and broken" according to his lawyer, alone in a cell in the medical wing of the Kgosi Mampuru II prison in Pretoria, where he has been serving out his six-year sentence due to his handicap.

But the high-profile legal proceedings also exposed a darker side of the star athlete: offering glimpses of a dangerously volatile man with a penchant for guns, beautiful women and fast cars.

After first being found guilty of culpable homicide, equivalent to manslaughter, an appeal court upgraded his conviction to murder in December last year.

South African prosecutors have called his sentence "shockingly too lenient" and said last month they would seek to appeal against it.

At his sentencing, High Court judge Thokozile Masipa had listed mitigating factors for giving him less than half the minimum 15-year term for murder, including the athlete's claim he believed he was shooting an intruder.

"He cannot be at peace. I'm of the view that a long term of imprisonment will not serve justice," Masipa said.
Brussels (AFP) - A man who attacked and wounded two policewomen with a machete in Belgium was an Algerian national known to police for criminal offences but not terrorism, prosecutors said Sunday.

The 33-year-old attacker, identified by the initials K.B., had been living in Belgium since 2012, the federal prosecutor's office said in a statement. The two police officers survived the attack but the assailant was shot dead.
Paris (AFP) - While grain silos in many Western countries may overflow this winter, tens of millions of people risk going without food as hunger is being used more than ever as a weapon of war.

More than 50 million people living in 17 conflict-ridden countries are in "severe food insecurity", two UN agencies warned recently.

The protracted conflicts in Yemen and Syria place those two nations at the top of the list established by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP).

In Yemen, 14 million people  over half the population  are now considered to be facing a food crisis or emergency.

Meanwhile in Syria, 8.7 million people or 37 percent of the pre-conflict population, "need urgent food, nutrition and livelihoods assistance", in particular aid to farmers, said the agencies.

The same goes for parts of northeastern Nigeria, which has borne the brunt of an insurgency by Boko Haram islamists since 2009, and where the aid group Doctors Without Borders estimates half a million people face a humanitarian catastrophe.

Thousands of hungry people forced from their homes by fighting there had to wait until the end of July to receive their first food aid.

- Syria wheat harvest halved -

Meanwhile, most of the world's top wheat producers are enjoying bumper crops, pushing prices down on global commodity markets and benefiting countries like Egypt that are dependent upon imports.

But for countries gripped by conflict, importing food is logistically difficult if not impossible and at prices out of the reach of most of the population which have lost their livelihoods.

Maintaining local agricultural production, even traditional small-scale farms, thus often becomes critically important for reducing hunger while helping keep down the number of refugees, said the head of the FAO's emergency unit, Dominique Burgeon.

"It is clear that agriculture plays an important role in the resilience of populations faced with the shock of war," he told AFP in a telephone interview.

In certain parts of Syria this year people who have been displaced from other regions are helping till the fields and take in the harvest.

Even so, that hasn't saved the agricultural sector, on which four-fifths of the rural population depends, from collapse.

"In Syria, all the industrial chicken farms have been destroyed, which affects the poorest people as chicken was the most affordable source of protein," said Burgeon.

The FAO estimates that only 1.9 million tonnes of wheat will be harvested this year in Syria, less than half of the 4 million tonnes it produced before the war.

Nevertheless, it has had difficulties in persuading donor nations to reach into their pockets to fund purchases of seeds, fertilisers and tools for Syrian farmers.

- More farming = less migration -

"We want to show the impact of food security on the stabilisation of the population," said Burgeon, expressing his disappointment that the appeal for $86 million of funds has so far received only a tenth of that sum.

In June, Pope Francis condemned the fact it is often more difficult to deliver humanitarian aid than to obtain weapons.

"It makes no difference where arms come from; they circulate with brazen and virtually absolute freedom in many parts of the world," said the pontiff during a visit to the WFP's headquarters. "As a result, wars are fed, not people."

But the farm aid needs to be adapted to weather conditions in target countries.

Burgeon warned that despite the best of intentions certain non-governmental organisations risked doing harm by importing seeds not appropriate for the local climate, which would "set the country back years".

Farmers in Syria are already finding it impossible to obtain seeds developed by local agronomists due to the war, which has forced the closure of the nation's seed bank.

Syria has become the first nation to make a withdrawal at the world's seed bank buried in a mountain off the Svalbard islands in the Arctic Ocean to replace destroyed local seeds.
07.08.2016 LISTEN

Muslim leaders in the country have been urged to go beyond just messages of peace to the Muslim youth during the year of elections.

They have been asked to rather equip them with employable skills and sound education that will make them resist political violence.

There is a presumption that Muslim youth are the ones used by politicians to orchestrate violence during elections

According to the Baraka Policy Institute, an educational policy think tank, it is because the Muslim youth are not better equipped with employable skills and are not encouraged and supported to do so. That makes them vulnerable and are often exploited by politicians.

At the inauguration of the centre for Islamic youth development, an Islamic centre in Cape Coast to train Muslim youth and help them acquire skills to be self sufficient, Executive Director of the Institute urged Islamic leaders to establish such centers in order to educate more Muslim youth, Prince Kwadwo Nyarko reports.

Haruna Sagun Said said We need to give them some work to do, they need to go to school, they need to have hope and when they have hope, they will not allow themselves to be used by anybody.

So going beyond talking and advising them not to engage in violent activities, it is important to create a future for them and that will take them from the hands of politicians and people who want to use them for their own selfish interests.

The Central Regional Minister, Kweku Ricketts Hagan applauded the creation of the centre.

He pledged for and on behalf of the first lady whom he represented to, provide them with the needed support to achieve the aims and objectives of the centre.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com
Our sci-fi future just got a whole lot closer to becoming a reality, after the Food and Drug Administration gave the okay to a field trial that would release genetically modified Zika-killing mosquitoes in the Florida Keys.On Friday, the FDA released a final environmental assessment of the trial, finding that it will not have significant impacts on the environment. The project, led by Oxitec, a biotech company that focuses on insect control, calls for the release of thousands of genetically engineered male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. The lab insects are bred so that over time they could kill off much of the local mosquito population by passing on a gene fatal to any offspring they have with wild females.mo
Kansas and Oklahoma, which acknowledge that humans are causing earthquakes, have shown they can stop them.

After restricting oil and natural gas operations in certain hotspots, Oklahoma has an average of two earthquakes a day, compared with about six a say last summer. Kansas is getting about a quarter of the quakes it once did.

Using a growing body of research -- and trial and error -- scientists and state regulators are gradually getting closer to pinpointing the cause of the startling increase in earthquakes in the Central and Eastern U.S., and preventing them.

The general cause, scientists have found, is not drilling, but what happens after, when operators dispose of wastewater that comes up naturally during oil and gas extraction. The operators inject the wastewater into disposal wells that go thousands of feet underground, which can increase fluid pressures and sometimes cause faults underneath or nearby to move.

Since March 2015, Kansas and Oklahoma have limited how much wastewater each operator in certain areas can dispose of at a given time.

To gather more data, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Texas are expanding their seismic monitoring systems this year, placing permanent stations across the states and moving temporary stations to new hotspots. And Oklahoma and Texas hired more staff or are contracting with scientists to study the geology of areas where earthquakes are occurring, the details of the quakes that happen, and the oil and gas activity that may be associated with them.

About 7 million people in the Central and Eastern U.S. are at risk of man-made earthquakes powerful enough to crack walls, according to a one-year United States Geological Survey forecast released in March. The report outlined the risk from man-made earthquakes for the first time, listing the states with the highest risk in order as Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico and Arkansas.

The tension below ground brought rise to political tension, too. Many of the epicenters are in rural towns in conservative states, which generally shy away from government regulations. The oil industry regulators in Oklahoma and Texas are elected officials, with campaigns often funded in part by contributions from the industry, said Cliff Frohlich, a seismologist with the University of Texas at Austin who has studied man-made quakes in Texas.

In Oklahoma, Republican Gov. Mary Fallin was at first hesitant to connect wastewater disposal with the quakes. Now, shes taking action. In January, she allotted $1.4 million in emergency funds to the states regulators and scientists to increase monitoring and research.

Like many other Oklahoma residents, I have felt my walls shake from earthquakes that have struck our state with increasing frequency over the past few years, Fallin wrote that month. Im committed to funding seismic research, bringing on line advanced technology and more staff to fully support our regulators as they take meaningful action on earthquakes.

States in the Central U.S. really werent ready for earthquakes _ they didnt need to be. From 1973 to 2008, the region saw on average 24 earthquakes of magnitude 3 or stronger each year, according to USGS. Those are quakes that can cause minor damage or more.

The USGS tallied 1,010 earthquakes in the region last year, a number that has increased steadily from 318 in 2009. Parts of the historically aseismic region, such as northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas, are now as seismically active as California.

Every scientist working in the midcontinent of the U.S. is pretty confident that the vast majority of these earthquakes are induced, said Tandis Bidgoli, assistant scientist and geologist for the Kansas Geological Survey. Especially where you are having swarms of earthquakes.

The increased number of earthquakes corresponds with the drastic increase in oil and gas operators use of hydraulic fracturing, a technique in which water, sand and chemicals are pumped at high pressures underground, fracturing rock and freeing trapped oil and gas. Fracking has allowed operators to drill in new places and get much more oil from each site. While fracking itself is rarely the cause of quakes, it is one reason why there is so much more wastewater to dispose of, Bidgoli said.

Injection wells have been safely used for wastewater disposal for decades. With the permission of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, operators have buried the water thousands of feet below ground to avoid surface contamination. But now, the EPA is looking for other options. In Oklahoma, Fallin created a group in December to study how the wastewater could be recycled or reused.

Meanwhile, scientists are trying to pin down answers: Is the wastewater buried too deep, or is too much buried, or are large amounts buried too quickly?

The regions most likely to get earthquakes associated with wastewater disposal are areas where there is more water naturally in the ground, such as in south-central Kansas, where extracting one barrel of oil means having to dispose of at least 16 barrels of wastewater, Bidgoli said.

States responses to the quakes have varied. But scientists and regulators say thats mostly a good thing, because the geology of the areas varies.

Since 2008, Arkansas, Colorado, Ohio and Texas have put new restrictions on the disposal of wastewater in injection wells, although those havent affected operations as broadly as the new rules in Kansas and Oklahoma.

Kansas was studying the issue in 2014 when a magnitude 4.8 earthquake hit southwest of Wichita. That day, Republican Gov. Sam Brownback announced the expansion of the states seismic monitoring system. In March 2015, the Kansas Corporation Commission, which regulates the industry, began limiting wastewater disposal in five zones and two counties.

Since then, the state has had fewer earthquakes. In the last six months of 2015, there were 39 quakes of magnitude 2.8 or stronger, compared with 48 such during in last six months of 2014. In the first six months of 2016, only 11 were recorded by the USGS. This is probably a result of the new restrictions and the slowdown in oil and gas production, said Rex Buchanan, interim director of the Kansas Geological Survey. The number of oil and gas wells drilled in the state fell almost 64 percent in a year, to 2,080 in 2015.

Oklahoma was slower to make broad changes, although it began regulating the wells in 2013. In spring 2015, the state asked all operators to prove they werent drilling too deep. But when quakes continued to increase, they decided that volume cutbacks were needed. In March, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission began restricting how much wastewater operators dispose of in about 600 of its 3,800 disposal wells, in certain hotspots.

Since the regulations began, Oklahoma operators have drilled a million barrels fewer each day, a decrease driven by both the new rules and lower oil and gas prices, said Jeremy Boak, a geologist and director of the Oklahoma Geological Survey.

Oklahoma had 619 earthquakes of magnitude 2.8 or higher from January through June, compared with 701 during the comparable period last year, according to USGS data.

While regulators in Kansas and Oklahoma have acknowledged a connection between earthquakes and wastewater injection, the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the industry there, has not clearly done so.

The state takes the issue seriously, said Ramona Nye, spokeswoman for the Texas commission. It put in place rules restricting use of disposal wells in areas of seismic activity, hired a seismologist, and gave staff the authority to set volumes and pressures on wells, and to close a well if there is a correlation between it and a quake.

And Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, signed a bill last year to spend $4.5 million to study the issue. About 26 percent of the earthquakes of magnitude 3 or higher in the state since 1925 were almost certainly induced, according to a study by Frohlich at the University of Texas at Austin and others.

The funding will go toward installing 22 permanent stations and buying 36 portable seismometers to monitor seismic activity across the state. It will also pay for research run by the University of Texas at Austin.

Regulators in Kansas and Oklahoma say oil and gas companies resisted the new rules at first, but the are now cooperative, even helpful, in providing information about their land and operations.

At the end of the day, they just want the earthquakes to slow down and eventually stop, said Steve Everley, spokesman for Energy in Depth, an advocacy branch of the industry-backed Independent Petroleum Association of America. If that means do this, or do that, they are willing to do that.

---

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
13 dead, 6 injured as fire hits bar in French cityElaine Ganley, The Associated PressFirst posted: Friday, August 05, 2016 11:40 PM EDT | Updated: Saturday, August 06, 2016 12:21 PM EDTPARIS -- A fast-moving fire swept through a birthday party in the basement of a bar in the northwest French city of Rouen, killing at least 13 people and injuring six others, authorities said Saturday.The bar fire came as France is on maximum terror alert after two deadly attacks last month and was the second recent tragedy to hit Rouen, a city in Normandy. A priest was slain by two Islamic State extremists in his church outside Rouen on July 26 and his funeral was held Tuesday in Rouen Cathedral.More than 80 firefighters battled the early Saturday blaze at the downtown bar in the city in Normandy, Rouen Mayor Yvon Robert said after the blaze was extinguished.The fire was "totally accidental," Robert told Europe 1 radio, mentioning a possible gas explosion "from the heat in a basement room doubtless too small for the number of people present."It was not known how many people were partying at the Cuba Libre club. The area has been blocked off and Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said a judicial investigation has been opened to discover the cause of the blaze.He gave an initial count of 13 dead and six injured in the fire, which started after midnight Friday. The prefecture, which runs the region, said one of the six injured was in a life-threatening condition.Images from outside the bar on French television showed a large ground-floor window broken open, burned red bar chairs and a tattered awning in front.The mayor said the fire was "very brief."The birthday party was "a moment of joy for those involved that ... ended tragically," Robert said.The local Paris-Normandie newspaper said the fire ignited in the basement of the bar, which was rented for the evening for the birthday celebration. The paper, without citing sources, said the ceiling, which was covered in sound-insulating material, quickly ignited when candles were lit.The paper quoted the deputy prosecutor at the site as denying initial reports of an explosion. Laurent Labadie was quoted as saying that the noise reported by neighbours was the sound of windows exploding from the heat.In addition to the slaying of the French priest, another IS extremist launched a Bastille Day attack on the famed promenade in Nice, killing 85 holiday revelers with a truck before being shot dead by police.
We were not bribed to drop ...
I was approached by a young black male who just came up to me and said, Give me your earrings and your backpack, Muhammad told Fox 32, He took everything I had. At the time, he didnt take my cell phone, and thats what made me call 911.



Ali Muhammad, the Tampa chapter head of the New Black Panther Party, is singing a different tune from his anti-police propaganda after requesting their help during an armed robbery.A leader of the New Black Panther Party was recently robbed at gunpoint when he realized his anti-cop attitude was going to have to take a backseat. However, after calling 911 and requesting police assistance, the responding officers had a perfect response for him.Muhammad, formerly known as Clarence Jones before taking the name of the Muslim prophet and slave owner of blacks , is the leader of the Tampa chapter of the NBPP. However, that didnt stop him from being robbed by one of the black lives he says matters.As Muhammad was walking home from working as a DJ at a club in Ybor City, he was stopped by 18-year-old Antwan Robertson. Robertson demanded Muhammad and the 2 other people he was with give up their possessions, according to Fox News Forced to call for help from the one group most controversial to the black community, Muhammad waited for police to get there.Robertson was arrested and charged with armed robbery, possession of a firearm, and possession of drugs.After police arrested the robber and returned Muhammads possessions, the activist has decided to focus his efforts on denouncing black-on-black crime.mo
Covenant Health Regional President and CEO Richard Parks has announced the hiring of Robert Bob Copeland, MHA, FACHE as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Covenant Health Plainview.

Copeland assumed interim CEO duties on April 4, replacing Clay Taylor who accepted another role at Covenant Childrens in Lubbock.

Bob has done a remarkable job during his interim role with us, Parks said. I am thankful to find a person of his experience, but also a man of faith who reflects our values.

Parks said that while he and the Plainview CEO Search Committee conducted a national search for the position and interviewed several commendable candidates, Copeland was the most outstanding and equally impressed the committee, the Plainview Board, the physicians, co-workers and the community. Copeland also feels ready for the assignment.

While the challenges in healthcare today are intense, I am excited and thrilled to be a part of this outstanding community and the wonderful ministry of Covenant, Copeland said.

I am pleased to work with a great group of co-workers, physicians and volunteers who are passionate about their work and who strive on a daily basis to strengthen the healthcare services in Plainview.

Copeland also brings his wife, Becky, and their 14-year old daughter to Plainview.

I am certain they also will find the community to be the place I have come to know, Parks said.

Plainview is a caring community with solid and engaged residents in the success and support of our Plainview hospital.

Before coming to Covenant, Copeland most recently served as president/regional vice president of Mercy Hospital in Carthage, Mo.

His topmost accomplishment was his leadership in planning, constructing and moving into a new state-of- the-art replacement facility. The new facility allowed for greater access to health care services in Carthage. It was through a strong relationship Copeland built with Mercy following the devastating 2011 Joplin tornado that ultimately led Mercy to acquiring McCune Brooks Hospital.

After earning his bachelor of science in Business Administration from the University of Oklahoma, Copeland later earned his Masters of Healthcare Administration degree from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo.

He has received numerous honors and awards including: the Distinguished Service Award by ACHE and the Missouri Healthcare Executives Group; Missouri Impact Award for Excellence in Healthcare Process Improvement; Healthcare Hero Award; ACHE Senior Level Healthcare Executive Missouri Regents Award; and Presidents Achievement Award presented by the Federation of American Health Systems.

Find Covenant Health news and story ideas in the Covenant Newsroom, on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.
Cuckstruction sympathizer.No Sharia on site.Springfield construction worker accused of Chicopee home invasion held without bailCHICOPEE  A Springfield man is being held without bail after allegedly threatening his ex-girlfriend with a gun, sparking a response from the police department's emergency tactical team.wilmer omar uroza.jpgWilmer Omar Uroza, of SpringfieldJeanette DeForge | jdeforge@repub.com Wilmer Omar Uroza, 23, of 15 Clyde St., appeared inChicopee District Court Wednesday after being charged with home invasion with a handgun last week. Judge Patricia Poehler ordered him held without bail.The construction worker is accused of entering his former girlfriend's first-floor apartment at 17 Adams St. and threatening her with a gun and and hitting a male friend, who was also in the home, with the weapon, according to court records."(The victim) stated that...he then pointed the gun at her and tapped it on the side of her head several times," according to a police report written by Officer Travis Odiorne, one of the responding officers.The alleged incident happened at about 2 a.m.. The victim said she was able to flee the apartment when Uroza was throwing the man out of the home. She fled without her cell phone and hid for more than 3 hours in a nearby building before she was able to call police, court records said.At least a half-dozen officers arrived after she called at about 5:30 a.m. They talked to the victim, who said she believed Uroza was still in her apartment, and had her sit in a cruiser for her safety, court records said.Police, using a ballistic shield and other tactical gear, then entered the apartment after Uroza did not answer the door. They found Uroza and another woman in a bedroom and ordered them to put their hands up. The woman complied, court records said.Uroza, however refused to get out of the bed, but he did put his hands in the air. Police eventually were able to handcuff him and arrest him, court records said.Police searched the bedroom and found a gun hidden under a pillow, court records said.
Remember the Alamo. Remember Goliad. Remember the Texans' victory at the Battle of San Jacinto.

Remember that 175 years ago, Texas was a part of Mexico until the Texians rebelled.

Although there were still battles to fight, the adoption of the Texas Declaration of Independence severed ties with Mexico, and March 2, 1836, became known as Texas Independence Day.

When Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna's Mexican army was defeated April 21, 1836, Texas was declared a separate nation. Remember the Republic of Texas.

"We had our own army, navy, postal service, diplomatic recognition," said J.P. Bryan, who serves on the board of the Texas State Historical Association.

"We functioned as a separate nation."

Bryan is distantly related to Stephen F. Austin, a Texas pioneer tossed in jail for several months when he took Texas' grievances to Mexico City in 1834.

Here is a quick refresher of Texas events in 1836:

Feb. 23: Siege at the Alamo begins. Santa Anna's forces arrive in Bxar to enforce government policy. The Mexican general sends a courier demanding the Alamo's surrender, and William Barret Travis replies with cannon fire.

March 1: Elected delegates meet at the Convention of 1836 in Washington-on-the-Brazos, which became the birthplace of Texas Independence.

March 2: The convention adopts the Texas Declaration of Independence, which was formally signed the following day.

March 6: Alamo siege ends with a Mexican victory and the deaths of the defenders - including Travis, James Bowie and Davy Crockett.

March 27: Col. James Fannin and about 340 other Texas prisoners are executed at the Goliad massacre by Mexican soldiers carrying out Santa Anna's orders.

April 21: Gen. Sam Houston leads Texans to victory over Santa Anna's forces at San Jacinto.

May 14: Santa Anna signs two treaties in Velasco, a public one declaring that Mexican forces would withdraw to south of the Rio Grande and a secret one recognizing Texas' independence.

COMING EVENTS

How will you celebrate the terquasquicentennial of Texas independence?

Remembrances begin this weekend, according to the Texas State Historical Association's calendar at www.txindependence175 .org.

Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site: Texas Army re-enactors, craftsmen and musicians will perform Saturday and Sunday. The 59 men who signed the Declaration of Independence at Washington will be honored in Sunday's program, and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison - a descendant of signer Charles Taylor - will speak. Details: www .starmuseum.org

Alamo: Saturday's "Glory at the Alamo" depicts the arrival of Santa Anna's forces and the Alamo defenders' defiant response. "Dawn at the Alamo" on March 5, honoring the fallen on both sides of the battle, will be part of the "Remember the Alamo" weekend featuring re-enactments and other activities. Details: sanantoniolivinghistory.org

Goliad: A re-enactment of the Goliad massacre, candlelight tours and a memorial service will take place March 26-27 at Presidio La Bahia. Details: presidiolabahia.org

San Jacinto Monument: A festival and battle re-enactment of the Texans' victory that led to Santa Anna's surrender and Texas independence is set for April 16. A ceremony commemorating the anniversary of the battle will be April 21. Details: www.sanjacinto-museum.org

In addition to visiting the battle sites, you can explore state history at Texas! Making History Since 1519, which opens March 6 at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

Artifacts on display related to the Texas revolution will include the "Come and Take It" cannon, which prompted the 1835 battle, the first in the war for independence; Bowie's knife found at the Alamo; an original printed broadside of Travis' plea from the Alamo; a flag that flew over the Battle of San Jacinto; and Sam Houston's report on the battle, which includes the phrase "Remember the Alamo" dated April 25, 1836.

Bryan is curator for the Texas exhibit that follows the state's path from colonization by Spain to modern times.

"The state we live in has a fabulous history," he said.

After governing independently for almost 10 years, Texas was annexed by the United States in 1845 as the 28th state.

lana.berkowitz@chron.com
On a cold Wednesday morning 175 years ago, about 50 delegates in a simple, windowless wooden structure in East Texas declared that the people of Texas do now constitute a free, sovereign and independent republic.

To many Texans today, it was a courageous act for them to sign their names, knowing Santa Anna had marched his army north, seeking revenge.

To others, the Texas Declaration of Independence and Texian victories at Gonzales, Goliad, San Antonio and San Jacinto constituted a land grab by slave owners and traitors. They say the real story of Texas has been forgotten.

Our children are growing up ignorant of who they are. The Alamo is at the root of all of that, said Ronald Rocha, a descendant of the Yaqui tribe of northern Mexico.

To Rocha and others, March 2 has become a symbol of Anglo dominance. When an 1861 statewide convention was held just before the Civil War, delegates chose Texas Independence Day as the day Texas would secede and join the Confederacy.

While many today view the 1835-36 Texas Revolution as a good-vs.-evil struggle, Alamo historian Bruce Winders said it really was part of a long period of political turmoil centering on how Mexico was to be governed  a series of civil wars that lasted several decades.

What began as a federalist movement favoring states' rights and local control became a war for independence. Alamo commander William Barret Travis, in a letter written during the siege, encouraged delegate Jesse Grimes to let the convention go on and declare independence, rather than rallying troops, so the world will understand what we are fighting for.

More Information Celebrate Texas Texian Legacy Association Texas Tejano.com Ceremony today The Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Alamo Mission Chapter, will hold a 1 p.m. ceremony at the Alamo honoring educators and students of Texas in observance of Texas Independence Day. UTSA President Ricardo Romo is slated to give a keynote address. See More Collapse

Noah Byars, a Baptist preacher and gunsmith appointed by Gen. Sam Houston to provide arms to the Texas army, let delegates use his crude building at Washington-on-the-Brazos.

Among its grievances, the declaration cited deprivations concerning the right to trial by jury; public education; piratical attacks upon our commerce; the right of worshipping the Almighty according to the dictates of our own conscience; and the right to bear arms.

Though three of the eventual 59 delegates who signed it were of Mexican descent, the declaration said an appeal to our Mexican brethren for assistance was made in vain.

We are, therefore, forced to the melancholy conclusion that the Mexican people have acquiesced in the destruction of their liberty ... that they are unfit to be free, and incapable of self-government, stated the document, now on display through April 21 at the Lorenzo de Zavala State Archives and Library Building in Austin.

As ceremonies and re-enactments are held this weekend in Alamo Plaza to celebrate the state's independence, Rocha said he'll be part of a pro-educational rally there, talking about Native American contributions to Texas.

He argues that Santa Anna, who ordered the emancipation of slaves in Texas after the Alamo battle, was made a scapegoat by the Mexican government. He said Sam Houston used the fallen Alamo defenders as sacrificial lambs to get sympathy from the American public.

Rocha, who has argued for portrayal of people of color in history textbooks, said movies and television have given a distorted view of Texas history.

Gary Foreman, a filmmaker who long has advocated better historical interpretation of the Alamo, agrees that the media have oversimplified the state's history. But he doesn't support rewriting it with generalities and stereotypes.

People who come to see the Alamo are drawn to the common value of sacrifice that transcends any label, he said. By getting into these little battles over interpretation, we're hurting ourselves, and hurting our history.

Foreman's media company, Native Sun Productions, will offer exhibits and demonstrations Thursday through Sunday at the Menger Hotel and in Alamo Plaza, with Texian, Tejano and Mexican perspectives. He and Rocha agree that after 175 years, Texans should understand their complex history in deeper context.

Regardless of how it was done, we're a beautiful state today, Rocha said.
As a social entrepreneur, I love finding companies and products that help me give back to my community. Thats why these six apps and platforms have become part of my personal and professional toolkit. Theyre easy to use as I go about my day -- whether I'm exercising, grocery shopping or working on my site.

Related: When Should Entrepreneurs Pursue a Social Good?

And each one, in its own way, helps make the world a better place.

Charity Miles

I find its way easier to motivate myself to get going on my morning run when I know that the miles I get through are directly helping charity. Free app Charity Miles allows you to raise money and awareness for a cause just by running, biking or walking. As you exercise, Charity Miles measures your distance and donates 10 cents to your chosen charity for every mile you bike, and 25 cents for every mile you walk or run, up to the companys initial million-dollar corporate sponsorship goal.

If helping others motivates you to help yourself, Charity Miles is great for helping keep fitness goals on track -- and feeling positive about your health and social impact.

Rebel.com

If you're a social entrepreneur looking to revamp or improve your web presence, check out Rebel. It offers simple, useful tools like website builders, web hosting, custom emails and hundreds of different domain endings -- everything you need to make your mark online -- and offers discounts to charitable organizations and nonprofits. After all, Rebel's philosophy is that bravery should be high fived. Technology should excite and conversations should ignite. Authenticity should be revered. And those who contribute make us better.

One of Rebel's biggest draws is that the site's creators love to work with other makers, creatives and innovators. By choosing Rebel for your web domains, hosting and business or personal websites, you support a company that's all about inspiring contribution in the world's bravest communication space -- the internet. Its blog is a hilarious must-visit for entrepreneurs, too.

eGood

If you're looking for another reason to feel good about a shopping spree, heres one. What if every purchase you made triggered a donation to a local charity? eGood is making this possible by connecting consumers with businesses in their community that want to give back, too.

When I use eGood to check in and shop at eGood businesses in my area, the business will donate a percentage of my purchase to a charity of my choice. eGood is constantly working to add new businesses to its network by asking users to recommend their favorite shops. The best part is youre giving back at no extra cost: Its all included in what youre already spending. So, get shopping!

Related: 10 Tech Companies That Are Making the World a Better Place

Horyou

Social entrepreneurs should also look up Horyou, a social network where members and organizations can connect around the world to promote solidarity through action. Horyou provides a place for people to share valuable ideas and innovative projects with like-minded individuals.

On its own, a great idea isnt enough to change anything. But Horyou helps turn ideas into concrete actions. If you're looking for a place to talk about your company and learn how to do more good in the world, Horyous your spot.

GoodGuide

Its frustrating when I don't know if a product is safe, healthy or socially and environmentally responsible. That's why I keep the GoodGuide app handy. Its barcode-scanning software instantly tells me if a product I scan lines up with my environmental and social values.

The free app has a database of science-based health, social and environmental ratings for over 170,000 items. Its a great tool to help you make purchases that you can feel good about.

Fundly

As any entrepreneur knows, it can be tough to find the funds to get your project off the ground, no matter how good your idea is. Fundly is a fundraising platform thats helped non-profits, creative projects, campaigns and individual fundraisers raise over $300 million to date. It has no upfront costs and is trusted by millions of users. When youre looking to raise money for a project or cause, this is an invaluable tool.

Related: Prepare for Happy Tears: 5 Times Tech Improved People's Lives

Life as an entrepreneur is wonderful, but it can also be hectic and crazy, which makes it hard to find the time and resources to contribute to the causes you care about. That's why these six tools are so valuable. With a variety of creative ideas and techniques, they make it easy for you to give back, while pushing you and your business ahead.

Related:

Doing Good by Doing Well: 6 Digital Tools for Social Entrepreneurs

When Should Entrepreneurs Pursue a Social Good?

Prepare for Happy Tears: 5 Times Tech Improved People's Lives



Copyright 2016 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
San Antonio police have issued capital murder warrants for two men accused of participating in a West Side home invasion Friday that left one man dead and injured his son.

Juan Almendarez, 24, and Alejandro Almendarez-Hurtado, 19, were among four people in a silver Mazda 3 that police say stopped at a home in the 100 block of South San Eduardo just before 8 p.m. The group jumped out of the car, forced their way into the house and demanded money from Enrique Gutierrez Sr., 45, and Enrique Gutierrez Jr., 20, police said.
San Antonio Police have arrested a man who allegedly pulled over at least one person while posing as a police officer in an unmarked Ford Mustang decked out with strobe lights, according to an SAPD release.

Rudy Tapia, 19, who has been charged with impersonating a public servant, allegedly pulled over the woman in the 1500 block of Thousand Oaks Drive on Aug. 3 by flashing his lights. The woman  who wasnt harmed  was able to contact police, who found Tapias vehicle and made the arrest.
Two San Antonians have been arrested on suspicion of compelling prostitution of a minor, according to arrest warrants.

Sarah Rhodes, 19, and Robert Salazar, 18, were allegedly two members of an operation that trafficked a 16-year-old girl for sex and drugs, according to the warrants. Both Rhodes and Salazar, who were arrested Aug. 2, have been charged with first degree felony compelling prostitution, while Salazar has also been charged with possession of child pornography. There are at least two other suspects involved with the case, according to police, but their identities havent been released.
San Antonio police apprehended a suspect after responding to reports of a shooting Saturday night near Lincoln Park on the city's East Side.

A male victim was wounded in the arm while at a birthday party at about 10:30 p.m. Saturday, in the 2200 block of E Crockett Street and Rio Grande. He was transported to the San Antonio Military Medical Center.
SAN ANTONIO  Rock musician Phil Collins returned to San Antonio Tuesday with the first of two truckloads of his Alamo artifacts, including a musket ball pouch believed to have belonged to Davy Crockett.

Collins, a founder of the band Genesis, has agreed to donate his private collection of 204 items for display at the Alamo. Tuesday he brought five crates, which were unloaded from a cargo truck.
Frances Maria Jones was a believer who was known for her infectious laugh, encouraging words and a deep faith in God. When diagnosed with breast cancer at 50, she decided to treat it holistically.

We had a conversation about her choice, sister Deanna Jones said. She told me she was a woman of faith, and that is why she didn't go through conventional treatment.

Whether healed on earth or in heaven, she was healed, son Shawn Jones said.

Jones died July 29 from breast cancer complications. She was 52.

Growing up, she learned from her grandparents, Pastor Carrie Moss and Elder Joseph Thomas Moss, how to walk by faith.

When the Mosses left New York to start a church in San Antonio, Frances went with them. She strove to follow their example of loving people, visiting the sick and preaching the Gospel.

They instilled in my mother the value of hard work and a good education, her son said.

Graduating from James Madison High School in 1982, she went on to receive an associates degree in accounting technology in 1997 from San Antonio College. A whiz at math, Jones helped friends and family get through challenging math classes.

She tutored people because she cared about helping them get to where they wanted to be, nephew Daniel Jones said.

Jones helped her friend Jennifer Escochea get through college math and babysat her children when she needed to study.

More Information Frances Maria Jones Born: Oct. 10, 1963, Ithaca New York Died: July 29, 2016, San Antonio Preceded by: Grandparents Pastor Carrie Moss and Elder Joseph Thomas Moss Survived by: Mother Audrey Moss Stanley; father Rev. Magellan Jones II and stepmother Maxine; son Shawn Christopher Tracey Jones; brothers Magellan Jones III, Pastor J Gregory Jones and sister-in-law La'Kica; sisters Deanna L. Jones, Angelette Mercier and brother-in-law Herman, Sharon Bentley, Leslie Jones, Cristie Jones, Patricia McCrory and brother-in-law Timothy; and numerous friends and family. Services: Held Aug. 6 See More Collapse

My kids called her Aunt Frances; she was always there when I needed her, Escochea said. A friend like that is rare.

As a single mother, Jones sacrificed to make sure her son received the best education she could find. In eighth grade, he was awarded a full scholarship to Choate Rosemary Hall in Connecticut. The trajectory of my life changed because of my mothers mindset and investment in my education, Shawn Jones said.

To be closer to her son, Jones left San Antonio and enrolled in the University of Connecticut. She received a bachelors of general studies in society and law, which took her one step closer toward her dream of becoming a child advocacy lawyer.

Jones worked many jobs to make her familys dreams come true. She was a paralegal for San Antonio Legal Aid, an accounting clerk for Animal Control, a postal carrier for the U.S. Post Office, and in Connecticut, she worked as a customer service account coordinator for Konica Business Business Technologies.

Her patient demeanor and ready smile will not be forgotten.

Aunt Frances is still in the house; its just now she sleeps upstairs, Daniel Jones said.

iwilgen@express-news.net
1 Iran executions: Irans state TV reported Saturday that the foreign ministry reacted angrily to U.N. criticism of the countrys recent execution of 20 Kurdish militants. Irans state TV website quoted foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi as accusing the West of meddling in internal Iranian affairs. His comments follow a Friday statement from the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights criticizing Iran for the executions. Ghasemi said the judiciary had found the 20 men guilty of several charges, including making explosives and planting bombs in Iranian cities.

2 Severe storm: Six people died in landslides in the Mexican state of Veracruz after what had been Tropical Storm Earl dumped torrential rains on the region, authorities said Saturday. The victims died in the townships of Coscomatepec and Tequila, said Civil Protection Secretary Yolanda Gutierrez Carlin. Earl was downgraded to a tropical depression as it continued westward. It first struck Belize earlier last week as a Category 1 hurricane.

3 Yemen talks: The U.N. envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, announced Saturday that peace talks to end the countrys ruinous civil war will be suspended for a month. The talks, held in Kuwait, have failed to make any tangible headway. No venue was announced for the talks when they resume. The biggest obstacle we faced is the lack of trust between both parties, despite our efforts, the envoy said. President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who heads the internationally recognized government, demands implementation of a U.N. security council resolution stipulating the withdrawal from all cities of the Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, and their allies. The Houthis demand a share of power in any new government.

4 Jewel thieves: Police in Spain say they have arrested five alleged members of the notorious Pink Panther gang of jewel thieves. Police caught the thieves Friday as they tried to flee after robbing a jeweler in Barcelona. All five were of Serbian origin. It took the thieves less than a minute to rob the store of jewels worth about $440,000 before police caught them. The arrests came after German police tipped their Spanish counterparts that one of the thieves was traveling from Belgrade to Barcelona. According to Interpol, the Pink Panther gang stole $370 million in jewels in 380 armed robberies between 1999 and 2015.

5 Refugee crisis: France returned 200 migrants to Italy after they plunged into the sea to cross into France, evading border controls. They were among 300 people who had moved to the rocky shoals on the Italian side of the border in recent days, in defiance of authorities who had removed migrants from the shoreline last summer. The No Borders activist group said the action was aimed at forcing the border to re-open. They plan a protest on Sunday. The president of the Liguria region of Italy appealed to the government for help amid rising tensions.

6 Climbers die: Four mountain climbers from Russia, Estonia and Israel have been found dead in the western region of Georgia after going missing several days earlier, officials said Saturday. Kakha Zhorzholiani, head of the Mesti municipality, said rescue teams had been looking for the climbers. He said the group, who had gone to the Ushba mountain, included two Israeli citizens, one Russian and one Estonian. There were no immediate reports of the cause of deaths.

Chronicle News Services
Recently the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) issued a report that said public finances in Canada have become unsustainable due to permanent increases in federal spending and ongoing provincial shortfalls. The PBO warned that the single biggest challenge facing the Liberal government is funding health care.

Conservative Health Critic Colin Carrie recently stated, The Liberal governments reckless spending shows a complete disregard for the fact that the costs of health care keep rising. The PBOs findings confirm that the Liberals out-of-control spending is causing public debt to grow uncontrollably, and he is sounding the alarm about how governments will pay for essential health care services in the future.

The PBO report comes as the Liberal government plans to run deficits worth more than $100 billion over the next four years.

Finance Critic Lisa Raitt added, Provinces and territories will eventually need more money for health care, but at this rate the Liberal government wont have anything left to give them. That means theyll either have to raise taxes on Canadians or cut their health care services.

The PBO estimates that in order to meet health care costs and keep public debt under control, governments will need to collectively hike taxes or cut spending by $11 billion per year. One way or another, Canadians are going to foot the bill for Liberal mismanagement. In just six months, the Liberals have already raised taxes on middle-class families, students and small business owners.

The previous Conservative Government offset rising provincial debt by balancing the federal budget. At the same time, we reduced taxes to their lowest point in 50 years which saved a typical family of four almost $7000 per year.

Unfortunately, it appears that the Liberals just cannot help themselves when it comes to spending taxpayer money. Borrowed money must be paid back, and the only way the Liberals can do that is by raising taxes.

Canadian families cant afford higher taxes and certainly dont want to see a weakened health care system. Conservatives will continue to protect our health care by holding the Liberal Government accountable for its out-of-control spending.
Lambert here: I especially like one sentence toward the end. Of the immigration debate: It is astonishing in retrospect how few people argued strongly for more services rather than fewer people. True here, as well.

By Kevin ORourke, Chichele Professor of Economic History, All Souls College, University of Oxford; and Programme Director, CEPR. Originally published at VoxEU.

It has recently become commonplace to argue that globalisation can leave people behind, and that this can have severe political consequences. Since 23 June, this has even become conventional wisdom. While I welcome this belated acceptance of the blindingly obvious, I cant but help feeling a little frustrated, since this has been self-evident for many years now. What we are seeing, in part, is what happens to conventional wisdom when, all of a sudden, it finds that it can no longer dismiss as irrelevant something that had been staring it in the face for a long time.

The main point of my 1999 book with Jeff Williamson was that globalisation produces both winners and losers, and that this can lead to an anti-globalisation backlash (ORourke and Williamson 1999). We argued this based on late-19th century evidence. Then, the main losers from trade were European landowners, who found themselves competing with an elastic supply of cheap New World land. The result was that in Germany and France, Italy and Sweden, the move towards ever-freer trade that had been ongoing for several years was halted, and replaced by a shift towards protection that benefited not only agricultural interests, but industrial ones as well. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, immigration restrictions were gradually tightened, as workers found themselves competing with European migrants coming from ever-poorer source countries.

While Jeff and I were firmly focused on economic history, we were writing with an eye on the trade and wages debate that was raging during the 1990s. There was an obvious potential parallel between 19th-century European landowners, newly exposed to competition with elastic supplies of New World land, and late 20th-century OECD unskilled workers, newly exposed to competition with elastic supplies of Asian, and especially Chinese, labour.

In our concluding chapter, we noted that economists who base their views of globalisation, convergence, inequality, and policy solely on the years since 1970 are making a great mistake. The globalisation experience of the Atlantic economy prior to the Great War speaks directly and eloquently to globalisation debates today  and the political lessons from this are sobering.

Politicians, journalists, and market analysts have a tendency to extrapolate the immediate past into the indefinite future, and such thinking suggests that the world is irreversibly headed toward ever greater levels of economic integration. The historical record suggests the contrary.

Unless politicians worry about who gains and who loses,i we continued, ithey may be forced by the electorate to stop efforts to strengthen global economy links, and perhaps even to dismantle them  We hope that this book will help them to avoid that mistake  or remedy it.

This Time It Is Not Different

You may argue that the economic history of a century ago is irrelevantafter all, this time is different. But ever since the beginning of the present century, at the very latest, it has been obvious that the politics of globalisation today bears a family resemblance to that of 100 years ago.

It was as long ago as 2001 that Kenneth Scheve and Matthew Slaughter published an article finding that Heckscher-Ohlin logic did a pretty good job of explaining American attitudes towards trade  lower-skilled workers were more protectionist (Scheve and Slaughter 2001: 267).

Later work extended this finding to the rest of the world.

If the high skilled were more favourably inclined towards free trade in all countries, this would not be consistent with Heckscher-Ohlin theory, but that is not what the opinion survey evidence suggested  the Scheve-Slaughter finding held in rich countries, but not in poor ones (ORourke and Sinnott 2001: 157, Mayda and Rodrik 2005: 1393).

You may further argue that such political science evidence is irrelevant, or at least that conventional wisdom could be forgiven for ignoring it. But by the first decade of the 21st century, again at the very latest, it was clear that these forces could have tangible political effects.

In 2005, a French referendum rejected the so-called Constitutional Treaty by a convincing margin.

While the treaty itself was a technical document largely having to do with decision-making procedures inside the EU, the referendum campaign ended up becoming, to a very large extent, a debate about globalisation in its local, European manifestation.

Opponents of the treaty pointed to the outsourcing of jobs to cheap labour competitors in Eastern Europe, and to the famous Polish plumber. Predictably enough, professionals voted overwhelmingly in favour of the treaty, while blue-collar workers, clerical workers and farmers rejected it. The net result was a clear rejection of the treaty.

Lessons not Learned

Shamefully, the response was to repackage the treaty, give it a new name, and push it through regardless  a shabby manoeuver that has done much to fuel Euroscepticism in France. There was of course no referendum on the Lisbon Treaty in that country, but there was in Ireland in 2008. Once again, a clear class divide opened up, with rich areas overwhelmingly supporting Lisbon, and poor areas overwhelmingly rejecting it. Survey evidence commissioned afterwards by the Irish government suggested that what canvassers on the doorsteps had found was indeed the case  hostility towards immigration in the poorer parts of Dublin was an important factor explaining the No vote there (ORourke 2008, Sinnott et al. 2010).

For a long time, conventional wisdom ignored these rather large straws in the wind  after all, the Irish could always be asked to vote again, while the French could always be told that they couldnt vote again. And so the show could go on. But now Brexit is happening, and the obvious cannot be ignored any longer.

Recent work suggests that exposure to Chinese import competition was a common factor in many British regions that voted to leave the EU (Colantone and Stanig 2016). If this finding survives the scholarly scrutiny that it deserves, it will hardly come as a surprise. But it is nevertheless crucial, since these are precisely the kinds of regions that are voting for the National Front in France. And unlike Britain, France is absolutely central to the European project.

What Can Be Done? Great Openness Requires Greater Governments

This is where Dani Rodriks finding that more open states had bigger governments in the late 20th century comes in (Rodrik 1998). Dani  who was long ago asking whether globalisation had gone too far (Rodrik 1997)  argues that markets expose workers to risk, and that government expenditure of various sorts can help protect them from those risks.

In a series of articles (e.g. Huberman and Meissner 2009) and a book (Huberman 2012), Michael Huberman showed that this correlation between states and markets was present before 1914 as well. Countries with more liberal trade policies tended to have more advanced social protections of various sorts, and this helped maintain political support for openness.

Anti-immigration sentiment was clearly crucial in delivering an anti-EU vote in England. And if you talk to ordinary people, it seems clear that competition for scarce public housing and other public services was one important factor behind this. But if the problem was a lack of services per capita, then there were two possible solutions:

Reduce the number of capitas by restricting immigration; or

Increase the supply of services.

It is astonishing in retrospect how few people argued strongly for more services rather than fewer people.

Concluding Remarks and Possible Solutions

If the Tories had really wanted to maintain support for the EU, investment in public services and public housing would have been the way to do it. If these had been elastically supplied, that would have muted the impression that there was a zero-sum competition between natives and immigrants. It wouldnit have satisfied the xenophobes, but not all anti-immigrant voters are xenophobes. But of course the Tories were never going to do that, at least not with George Osborne at the helm.

If the English want continued Single Market access, they will have to swallow continued labour mobility. There are complementary domestic policies that could help in making that politically feasible. We will have to wait and see what the English decide. But there are also lessons for the 27 remaining EU states (28 if, as I hope, Scotland remains a member). Too much market and too little state invites a backlash. Take the politics into account, and it becomes clear (as Dani Rodrik has often argued) that markets and states are complements, not substitutes.

See original post for references
Beautiful flower or noxious weed? Queen Annes Lace exploding in Iowa Des Moines Register

By packaging the Olympics, NBC insults viewers, and the athletes themselves WaPo

We are close in distance, but far away: Rios slum-dwellers are forced to watch the glittering opening ceremony standing on the roofs of their run-down homes Daily Mail

Brazils Political Drama Grinds On During Olympics WSJ

More Than 1,000 U.S. Spies Protecting Rio Olympics CNBC (CL).

Experts Quit Panamas Transparency Committee Over Lack of Transparency ICIJ

A Surreal Life on the Precipice in Puerto Rico NYT

Opa-locka turned public utility into extortion racket Miami-Herald. The water department

Chris Christie Administration Will Cut Pension Investments In Hedge Funds After Fee Controversy David Sirota, IBT

1MDB: High flyer brought Low FT

Hacking America Pacific Standard (CL).

China?

Japan calls for end of nuclear weapons on Hiroshima anniversary Press-Herald

Syraqistan

Jeremy Corbyns media strategy is smarter than his critics realise New Statesman. Much to ponder here for the left.

The Tories intellectual decline Stumbling and Mumbling

2016

Black Injustice Tipping Point

Uncovering the Chicago Police Cover-Up Editorial Board, NYT

Imperial Collapse Watch

Class Warfare

Research Into How Children Experience Animal Abuse Shows Why Domestic Violence Shelters Should Allow Pets Pacific Standard (CL).

Self-serve kiosks, table service and unlimited french fries: Inside Missouris McDonalds of the Future and it looks a lot like Panera Daily Mail. McDonalds often serves as a social center; I wonder if this rebranding will affect that?

Globalization and its New Discontents Joseph Stiglitz, Project Syndicate

Antidote du jour (via):

See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here.
'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.
DES MOINES  The major political parties have had their moments in the sun.

The national conventions of the last two weeks of July broadcast to the nation the parties presidential candidates, Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton.

But as the parties leave behind the speeches and balloon drops of the conventions to focus on the three-month sprint to the November election, there remains a significant number of voters who are wholly unimpressed with those two candidates.

Voters view Trump and Clinton less favorably than any other major-party presidential candidates since pollsters first started asking the question in the late 1960s, and more voters are seeking other options than in any election in two decades.

Just talking to friends and family and other folks, you know, I havent met very many people who are excited or positive about the election, said Christopher Larimer, a political science professor at the University of Northern Iowa.

The people who I know are regular voters are really struggling with (the question of), Who am I going to vote for? he said.

Among those disenfranchised voters is Aaron Rochester of Sioux City, a Republican conservative who said he will vote for neither Trump nor Clinton.

You want someone who can represent you and support your ideals, Rochester said, saying neither candidate fits that bill for him.

Rochester, a former Sioux City council member, said he will vote in November, but he has not decided on an alternative candidate.

Highly unpopular

Donald Trump, the New York businessman who in many ways has turned this election on its head, has the worst favorability ratings of any major party presidential candidate on record.

The second-worst: Hillary Clinton.

Voters viewpoints of the top two presidential candidates has never been worse than this year. The data is illuminating.

In national polls conducted during and after the recent national conventions, Clinton was viewed unfavorably by 51 percent to 57 percent of voters surveyed. Trump was viewed unfavorably by almost two-thirds of voters in one recent poll.

According to an analysis of polling data by the political news website fivethirtyeight.com, the net strongly favorable ratings for Trump and Clinton shatter the previous low.

When subtracting the candidates strongly unfavorable from their strongly favorable ratings, using averages over March and April, Clinton scores negative 20 and Trump negative 40. The previous low for the same period was Mitt Romney at negative 8 in 2012.

Results from the Pew Research Center show voters are less satisfied with the top two presidential candidates than in any election since 1992, and two out of five voters say neither candidate would make a good president.

Weve never seen both candidates in negative favorability at the same time and over the course, so far, of the entire election campaign, said Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette Law School Poll in Wisconsin.

The high unfavorable ratings can be attributed in part to political polarization, experts say. But Trump and Clinton have given voters other reasons to be turned off, according to polling data.

Clinton polls poorly on questions about honesty and trustworthiness, while Trump fares poorly on questions about having the proper qualifications or experience to be president.

Third-party candidates

Those low levels of approval have led, in part, to a rise in support for third-party candidates this cycle.

The biggest beneficiaries thus far have been Libertarian Gary Johnson, the former governor of New Mexico, and Green Party candidate Jill Stein, a physician and political activist from Massachusetts.

Johnson has polled in the high single digits in recent national polls.

Franklin said voters unfavorable views of Clinton and Trump have created an opening for third-party candidates such as Johnson and Stein.

It certainly provides an opportunity, because it provides a pool of voters who are dissatisfied with their major party choices, Franklin said.

The experts interviewed for this story agreed, however, that it is unlikely any third-party candidate will shift the election results.

One reason is the defection of support does not to appear to be harming Clinton or Trump; rather, it seems both candidates are losing voter support to third-party candidates equally.

Another reason is disenfranchised voters, particularly those with a strong ideological bent, eventually may decide to vote Democrat or Republican.

As we get closer to the election, a lot of the people considering at the moment a third-party candidate as a protest vote may well come home and hold their nose for what they consider the least of two evils, said Dennis Goldford, a political science professor at Drake University.

Time to decide

Ultimately, what those disenfranchised voters will do on Election Day remains unknown, and what shows in polling now may be much different by November.

They may sit out the election and not vote. They may vote for other offices, but skip casting a vote for president. They may vote third party.

Or they may yet be persuaded to vote for Clinton or Trump.

Thats the essential question. We dont know, Goldford said.

For now, many voters remain uninspired by the major party candidates for president and are wrestling with what to do with their vote.

Larimer said those voters are going through a personal and emotional struggle.

Theyre just really having a hard time with who they want to vote for president, Larimer said. Theyre just having a really hard time getting over that hurdle, having to (vote) for someone they dont like.
DES MOINES  Consider Iowa an overachiever in the nations Electoral College.

With only six of the 538 electoral votes in the 2016 presidential election, Iowa again will play a significant role in what is expected to be a close race between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, given its place among the sub-cluster of battleground states that could swing Novembers outcome either way.

Iowa, for right now, is in play, said Dennis Goldford, a Drake University political science professor.

Normally, Iowa is the center of the political universe during caucus time and then the morning after we fall off the face of the earth. Iowas six electoral votes normally dont matter. But in a close election, a single electoral vote matters.

Were three months out, so theres a long time to go, but if it looks to be a close election even six little electoral votes could make the difference.

The U.S. Electoral College  established by the Constitutions 12th amendment  is the institution that elects the president and vice president every four years based upon state-by-state popular vote outcomes in Novembers general election.

Electors, totaling 538, are apportioned to each of the 50 states as well as to the District of Columbia in numbers equal to the members of Congress  giving Iowa six for its four representatives and two senators.

It takes at least 270 electoral votes to win the presidency, but because there are a number of states that usually go red for Republican candidates or blue for Democrats, elections often come down to about 130 or fewer electoral votes contested in up to 10 purple states where both major political parties are competitive.

Iowa is one of those purple states again this year, with its voter registration numbers carved up in proximity among Democrats, Republicans and independent Iowans who declare no party affiliation. As of Aug. 1, 664,909 Iowans were identified as independents, 649,579 as Republicans and 615,365 as Democrats among the nearly 1.94 million active voter registrants tallied by the Iowa Secretary of States office.

Iowa does not vote reliably Democratic or Republican in presidential elections  some years it swings to the Democrats and some years its Republican, and therefore its worth investing a lot of money and even a little time coming to Iowa trying to push the voters over to your side and get those six electoral votes, said Iowa State University political science professor Steffen Schmidt.

Evidence of Iowas importance was demonstrated by Trumps trio of campaign stops in Iowa ovrt nine days, including an appearance Friday with running mate Indiana Gov. Mike Pence.

That same period also saw Clinton surrogates U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and actor Sean Astin of Rudy and Lord of the Rings movie fame campaign in Iowa on her behalf.

I cant think of a state our size that is in any better position than we are right now to command the attention of the leader of free world next year, said Jeff Kaufmann, chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa.

He noted that Iowa polls have shown Trump and Clinton locked in a dead heat.

If indeed this election is close electorally, were going to be in as important of a position as weve ever been, he said.

The biggest prize among the 2016 swing states is Florida with 29 electoral votes, along with Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia, Wisconsin, Colorado, Iowa, Nevada and New Hampshire to lesser degrees.

If Trump can win Florida, Iowa becomes almost a necessity in his road map to the White House, Kaufmann said. If Clinton wins Florida, Were down to a hail-Mary pass, and absolutely he cannot win the presidency without Iowa.

There are other scenarios and theories on how the battleground states may play out, but political scientists point to the 2000 outcome in which Republican George Bush edged Democrat Al Gore in electoral votes of 271 to 266 as evidence of the importance a state with six electoral ballots can be in a tightly contested election.

What makes 2016 so hard to predict is that Trump has run an unconventional campaign that has confounded the research and traditional thinkingd. Also, this years contest features a matchup between very unpopular, untrusted candidates that makes predicting turnout and other variables difficult.

Eric Branstad, state director for Trumps Iowa campaign, said Iowa is among the battleground states that factor heavily into the Donald Trump-Mike Pence strategy.

With the time and attention that we are getting now and will be receiving here in the coming months, Branstad said, I can certainly see that  like in cycles past  we are a priority for the campaign and we will get the resources and attention that Iowa deserves.

Kaufmann said Republicans are assembling the largest ground game in Iowa history that will include a focus on absentee ballots and get-out-the-vote efforts intended to erase a traditional edge held by Iowa Democrats.

Likewise, Branstad said, the Trump campaign will be opening an Urbandale headquarters, announcing staff hires and putting the ultimate ground game together to do what it takes to win Iowa in November.

On the other side, Bailey Romans, one of Clintons regional organizing directors in Iowa, said Democrats are building on President Obamas successful campaign structure to recruit volunteers, knock on doors, make phone calls and connect with current and future Clinton supporters in Iowa.

Iowa is important. We have had people working on this campaign working here since April, and were going to continue to be here until November, Romans noted. Hillary was here a ton during the caucuses. She visited the state a lot. She was all over the place, and hopefully well be seeing her around some more.
Wikipedia

Combating this dishonest and unreliable information source

(NaturalNews) According to, Wikipedia is not a website we should be trusting when it comes to unbiased, accurate information. Wikipedia is an example of "skeptic" leadership  with the "skeptics" actually being an organized hate group that claim to be the sole protectors of intellectual truth "Skeptics" are in favor of vaccines pharmaceuticals and over-the-counter medication  and opponents of nutritional supplements, herbal medicine , massage therapy, energy medicine and homeopathy, as reported byAccording to research by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger , "skeptics" believe thatvaccines are safe and effective  even those that have never been tested  and that all people should be vaccinated  even against their will. "Skeptics" also believe that that people of all ages can be safely given an unlimited number of drugs, including antidepressants, blood pressure drugs, diabetes drugs, sleeping drugs and pretty much everything else  all at the same time, as we have previously reported.Wikipedia is available in almost every language, and is presented as a seemingly friendly and reliable source of information . However, on closer inspection, the popular information site is full of errors, biased information and omissions  particularly around the subjects of health, environmental safety and agricultural sustainability. Wikipedia is pretty much run by the "skeptics."One of the main reasons that people are fooled into believing that Wikipedia is posting the truth, is the fact that it has a very high authority level in the Google search engine. This is surprising, since Google equates its ranking system with credibility, with more credible sources ranking more highly. Should Wikipedia really be appearing high on Google searches when the site can be altered by critics, liars and computer hacks?Wikipedia claims to be run by volunteers, but it is actually edited by corporate-paid trolls  particularly on topics such as GMOs , vaccines, chemotherapy and pharmaceuticals. Many of the "volunteers" are actually paid by drug companies, food giants and the biotech industry to censor information that they would rather the public did not know, as reported byFounder and ex-porn film giant Jimmy Wales is a key operator of the "Hillary Clinton Protection Network," according to, meaning that he goes to great lengths to alter or remove any negative information posted about Hilary Clinton. It is noteworthy that, "despite the steady wave of scandals that have begun to erode even the New York Times' portrayal of Hillary Clinton, her image remains unblemished on Wikipedia. Since he first started editing her page in June 2005, Hillary's 'Wikipedia watchdog' has been guarding against slanders, accusations, unfair assumptions, and distortions on the high-traffic, heavily footnoted, highly policed Hillary Rodham Clinton Wikipedia page."Wikipedia ranks highly on Google and that is a problem  because it means that it is one of the first links people will see when they are searching for information. However,suggests that there is in fact a way to take this dishonest website down. Wales will not reveal who contributes the real money behind Wikipedia  this is "hidden behind his U.S. Non-Profit (501) tax filing (form 990) Schedule B." If a lawsuit was filed against Wikipedia that forced open that Schedule B file, it "would make it very clear that Wikipedia is NOT what it says it is," according to. By U.S. law, a non-profit organization is not supposed to benefit any one individual; it is required to be "a corporation or an association that conducts business for the benefit of the general public without shareholders and without a profit motive."As noted by, "Wikimedia argues overall, though, that it is protected from liability by the Communications Decency Act (CDA), whose section 230 protects a publisher from liability for things said by other people on its electronic services until it is made aware of the comments. At that point it must take action or risk becoming liable."plans to take action against the media giant and bring the truth out into the public eye.
True incidence is ten times higher than previously reported

BIA-ALCL often not recognized

(NaturalNews) Many women around the world have breast implants for cosmetic reasons or following breast-cancer surgery.In rare occasions, these breast implants may lead to a new emerging cancer type, called breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma, or BIA-ALCL. Although the risk is small, before making their decision patients should be advised about the possible cancer risk triggered by one of the most common implants.Speaking to the, American plastic surgeon Professor Mark Clemens said that while the disease is still very rare, the actual incidence has been hugely underestimated.BIA-ALCL is a type of cancer that develops in the lymphatic fluid and should not be confused with breast cancer. As a part of the immune system, lymphatic fluid circulates throughout the body spreading the newly formed cancer cells to other tissues where they can slowly develop into solid tumors. Detectable tumors are typically seen at least four years after the surgery.So far 173 patients worldwide have been identified with BIA-ALCL. Professor Clemens has been tracking cases since the first report of it in 2011 and has studied the disease in depth. He believes that the commonality of BIA-ALCL is ten times higher than what women are often told.He said: "A figure of one in 500,000 has been quoted, but this is a vast underestimate. It does not take into account that it takes on average ten years after an implant for symptoms to occur. Given this, the actual number is one in 50,000."As a result, many women are completely unaware of the true risk of the surgery. Some aren't being told about the disease at all  including BIA-ALCL survivor Charlotte Fouracres. She claims that the disease was never mentioned by her doctors or their staff.In 2012, the 30-year-old teacher from Colchester, Essex, underwent cosmetic surgery to take her breasts from a B to a D cup to boost her self-esteem. In July 2015 Charlotte discovered a lump in her breast which was later confirmed as anaplastic large cell lymphoma or ALCL.She was immediately put on chemotherapy , which failed to halt the tumor from spreading to her chest wall, making surgery impossible. With her health dramatically slipping through her fingers, Charlotte feared that she might not be able to see her four children grow up.Given her fast deteriorating health, she was advised to consult breast surgeon Fiona MacNeill at cancer center The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust in London.Dr. MacNeill had treated two other patients with BIA-ALCL and found that Charlotte was wrongly diagnosed for the more common ALCL. She explained that the diagnosis for BIA-ALCL is very rare and requires more specific tests.She told thethat the cancer is relatively new to the medical world. As a result, many doctors often don't recognize it when they see it. Although both are quite similar, she said that it is possible that BIA-ALCL does not respond well to the type of chemotherapy used to treat the more common form.Shortly after Charlotte received seven cycles of a 10,000 ($13,000) biological therapy drug, followed by the removal of the implants . According to her doctors, Charlotte is now completely free of cancer, but she will need monitoring for the next five years.Recently, the Agence Nationale de Securite du Medicament et des Produits de Sante (ANSM) has ordered manufacturers to prove the safety of their implants and is pushing for more research into how these silicone prostheses trigger cancer development.
Hard to locate

'A smell I've always loved'

(NaturalNews) Unbeknownst to virtually everyone, a scientist built a device around the middle of last century that could actually make it rain, and now a research internist is hard at work trying to find it.As reported by, while working at the Tacoma (Washington) Historical Society, Nichole Hine came across an old black-and-white photograph of what was described as a rainmaking machine.While checking the archives of the Tacoma Public Library, Hines, 21, discovered the photo while working on an exhibit about local inventors. The picture depicts the inventor of the device, which is about the size of a suitcase, loading it onto an airplane, but it did not contain much information about where the machine may be today.What Hine found even more surprising is that the inventor, Robert Sprenger, went to the same institute of higher learning as she, the University of Puget Sound, where she graduates in December.In the 1940s, Sprenger worked as a chemistry professor at what was then known as the College of Puget Sound. Besides instructing, he worked on inventing things."I'd never heard of any sort of invention to come out of UPS," Hine toldAfter making her discovery, Hine searched the university's online archives, where she began to discover more and more information about the mysterious machine from an article Sprenger penned for a 1948 UPS alumni publication. In the piece, Sprenger delved into the science behind his rainmaking device, and provided details of his testing of the machine in the Prosser area in 1947.Once affixed to an aircraft and aloft, the "vapor generator," as it was called, would seed "finely divided particles of silver iodide, in the form (of) an invisible vapor" into clouds. The particles would then freeze in the clouds as if they were snow, and as they fell to earth the flakes would be heated in the warmer atmosphere and turned into rain.G.A. Sampson, another alumnus of UPS and a wheat broker who wanted the machine to help in "semidry wheat-growing areas in eastern Washington," commissioned Sprenger to design and build it.In a quest to find the machine for the inventors' display she was assembling, Hine contacted UPS officials and asked if they might know where it was, because her research had failed to determine where it may have wound up."I really haven't been able to find very much ... at all," she said. "That's the problem, it's just very obscure."On June 15 the university posted the search for the machine on its Facebook page.In the past few months, Katie Henningsen, an archivist at UPS, said she has gotten at least eight phone calls regarding the machine, but has yet to turn up any information as to its whereabouts.That said, the new publicity about the machine did catch the attention of the inventor's daughter, Sally Sprenger. And though she said she couldn't say where it was either, she recalled faintly remembering when her father worked on "the machine for feeding clouds.""I always remember he had a little office, his little inventing studio," said Sprenger, 69. "That's where he worked out his projects."As unique and interesting as the rainmaking machine is, it was far from Robert Sprenger's only invention. In fact, had he not died at the young age of 53 from diabetes-related kidney failure, he might have invented many more wonderful devices.Sally Sprenger toldthat when her professor father was not teaching, he was always experimenting on new things. She said his shirts were always covered with small holes from chemical burns during experiments."He always smelled of chemicals," said his daughter, who currently lives in France after working at UPS' Study Abroad office. "It's a smell that I've always loved."
REVVING UP THE NOSTALGIA... for 1991 isn't a task that's too trying for a lot of people. We were rocking the flannel back then, and baby doll dresses, and watching "Twin Peaks" and "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" and "Designing Women" and enjoying a host of pop culture treats that went onto become classics. We also, if we were over 21 and into trying new brews, were giving New Belgium Brewing a first look. That was the year the Fort Collins brewhouse got started, and it has become a crafty force in foam-makery over the last quarter century. Indeed, 2016 is a big anniversary for the company, and its yearly summertime on-the-road event, the Clips Beer & Film Tour, will pay homage to 1991 via a series of cinematic shorts. The company called upon the 2016 filmmakers to incorporate the year of New Belgium's beginning into their films in some way, so expect to revel long-ago fashion choices, awesome music of the era, and other touchstones of the early '90s. Tempted by all of this turn-it-up '90s-tude, plus the notion of sipping some prime small-batch suds? Then look to...

SACRAMENTO AND OAKLAND, the two California cities the tour is calling upon in August 2016. Sacramento is up first, on Friday, Aug. 12, while Oakland's party happens a week later, on Friday, Aug. 19. As is tradition, the film 'n foam celebration is free to join, and it will also raise funds for local nonprofits. If you do want to try a few fresh brews, nearly 20'll be on tap, and the sizes for tasting run the gamut from 3-ouncers to cans (with 12-ounce pours in the mix, too). Noshables will also be for sale, if you need energy to bask in all of the 1991-influenced goodness you're witnessing on the screen.The Clips Beer & Film Tour is one of the cinema-iest beer fundraisers on the summer calendar, an event that's become synonymous with the Colorado brewer. Join in if film and tasting new brews is your jam, and you like helping local orgs out, too.
Biologists are nervously watching a Northern California wildfire in fear the flames may endanger dozens of endangered condors.

The Mercury News reports that none of the 82 California condors living in the Big Sur area has been killed by the two-week old Soberanes fire that's chewed through more than 84 square miles or 55,600 acres. As of Saturday, the flames were 40 percent contained, Cal Fire officials said.

But the blaze has wiped out one of six feeding stations and is about eight miles away from three nests containing young condor chicks.

Kelly Sorenson, executive director of the Ventana Wildlife Society, hopes they won't have to go in and rescue the months-old chicks still being fed by their parents.

Federal biologists started breeding California condors in the 1980s in a bid to save the majestic bird from extinction. Last year there were 435 condors in the world.

The spread of the fire has resulted in one fatality and the destruction of 57 homes, according to state fire officials. The California Department of Fire Protection has ordered the evacuation of anyone living between Cachagua and Nason Road. People who live in the White Rock area, however, were allowed to return home.
A college baseball pitcher shot to death Saturday in San Francisco while reportedly playing Pokemon Go has been identified, police said.

The victim, 20-year-old Calvin Riley, was shot in the chest just before 10 p.m. at Aquatic Park near Ghirardelli Square and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Riley graduated from San Mateo's Junipero Serra High School and was a baseball pitcher at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton.

Family friend John Kirby said they were devastated.

"Calvin got a few steps ahead of his buddy," Kirby said. "He went around the corner, and his buddy heard gunshots. It seems to be a random act of violence - for no reason."

Investigators on Sunday said the suspect is still at large and they were still trying to piece together how it happened.

"U.S. park police are on alert," said Lynn Cullivan of the National Park Service. "They will be paying close attention to this area. They do patrol it regularly. ... Like we say, this was an unusual occurrence, and we will do everything we can to make sure it doesnt happen again."

According to a Go Fund Me page set up in Riley's honor, he was playing the popular Pokemon Go game on his phone at the time of the shooting.

Kirby remembered Riley as someone who liked to build people up.

"He always had positive things to say about everyone," Kirby said. "Amazing work ethic, great baseball player and represented Serra High School very well."

The park police could not confirm that Riley was playing Pokemon Go when he was gunned down.

No arrests have been made in connection with the shooting, and police are continuing to ask the public for help in tracking down any additional information or suspects, police said.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the U.S. Park Police tip line at 415-561-5150.
Emergency responders on Saturday night rushed to the scene of a Quinceanera in San Francisco, where 19 people, including at least 10 children, were sickened after eating a candy that contained an unknown substance, according to the San Francisco Fire Department.

All 19 were hospitalized, including three children who were sent to an intensive care unit and remained there Sunday. Other victims were in "moderate condition," fire officials said.

Police ruled out a HazMat situation, and sources said that it seemed as if a " watermelon candy substance" could be to blame.

Security guard Raul Hernandez called 911 as people started to become violently ill.

"It was just one after another and another," Hernandez said. "A gentleman was holding his chest. The young lady, she couldnt talk and was gasping for air."

The birthday celebration was being held at the Women's Building on 18th Street near Valencia Street, where several community and social service events are held.

People taken to the hospital reported heart palipitations, rashes and shortness of breath, according to officials. One woman leaving the building told NBC Bay Area that those who got sick had a foamy-type substance coming from their mouth.

"Preliminarily, it appears this is a candy substance, but that has to be vetted and verified," said Jonathan Baxter of the San Francisco Fire Department.

San Francisco's Public Health Department was interviewing those who fell ill and conducting lab tests on the food and candy at the center of the investigation.

"Could this have been a willful act to harm people at this party? We dont know but were investigating that," said police Sgt. Michael Andraychak. "So far, however, weve found nothing to indicate that this was an intentional act."

Anyone who knows anything or has any symptoms is asked to call the police.
In the restaurant world, reputation is everything, especially when it comes to health inspection records.

We have peoples lives in our hands, said Alexis Solomou, the owner of Seven Hills in San Francisco. You could get people very, very sick very, very quickly.

Solomous restaurant boasts a near perfect health inspection score  98 out of a 100. He says he has worked hard for it and was upset to learn about a loophole that allows restaurant owners in San Francisco to essentially wipe away their old inspection records and health code scores from the citys website.

Theres no reason why anybody should hide their health inspection score or wipe it clean unless theres something theyre trying to hide, said Solomou.

Websites such as Yelp take restaurant inspection scores from the citys public database and post them online to give customers easy access to the information. But those scores cant get posted if the city erases the information from its online database.

In May, the Investigative Unit discovered that the San Francisco Department of Public Health deletes old health inspection records from its website if a restaurant files a change of ownership with the city. The application process costs restaurants roughly $600 in city fees but offers new owners a clean slate so they are not saddled with the old health inspection scores from the previous restaurant owner.

However, the Investigative Unit revealed that even after a restaurant files an ownership change with the city, the same people can continue to run the restaurant as long as the owners list a new corporation name as part of that application.

Even in situations when new restaurant owners are listed in the application, the Investigative Unit discovered those owners are still allowed to work for the same corporation that owned the restaurant previously. So while a restaurant may have strong ties to its previous ownership, San Francisco still agrees to delete that restaurants old inspection records from the citys online database.

Thats exactly what happened at a dim sum restaurant in the Diamond Heights neighborhood. All Season Restaurant, which is officially known as Harbor Villa on city documents, had its history of repeated high-risk violations wiped clean online, even though inspectors found dead cockroaches on utensils and plates.

[[37918831, L, 300, 225]]

Its not for me to make sense of it; it is what the law requires us to do, said Stephanie Cushing, director of San Franciscos Department of Environmental Health.

Cushing and her team of 30 inspectors are in charge of permitting the roughly 7,400 restaurants and caterers throughout San Francisco. In May, Cushing told the Investigative Unit that state and local laws require her department to remove a restaurants old inspection records from the citys website once they file a change of ownership application.

State Law on Restaurant Inspections

Thats simply not true, according to the California Department of Public Health. Nowhere in Californias retail food code does it state a local health department must delete a restaurants old health records from its website.

The law doesnt specify whether a historical record associated with a prior owner of a business goes with a new company or doesnt go with a new company, said Pat Kennelly, Californias Department of Public Health Food Safety Manager. The law is silent on the issue.

Kennelly said there is nothing to keep local health departments from shutting down a restaurant for repeated health violations.

They have the authority under existing law to be able to take action against them, to fine them, penalize them, impound their equipment, impound product, and ultimately suspend or revoke their permits if they cant comply with the rules, Kennelly said.

San Franciscos Department of Public Health stopped including a restaurants previous ownership records online about 10 years ago. A spokeswoman for the department said consumers only wanted to see the most current score. She went on to say that posting the information now would make it very difficult for people to navigate.

That response frustrates Solomou.

To say that San Francisco diners, in particular, are not savvy enough to digest that information is incorrect, Solomou said. I dont know why anyone would want the wool being pulled over their eyes.

Solomou said the issue is also one of fairness since his own restaurants inspection history is posted online, even though his violations were deemed low-risk, including a peeling wall. He wonders why restaurants with far more serious violations are allowed to wipe their records clean, regardless of how dirty those record may have been over the years.

To think that someone can come in and change their name  and get any blemishes squashed is scary, Solomou said. It really is.

Santa Clara County Restaurant Inspections

In Santa Clara County, any changes in restaurant ownership are clearly posted on the health departments website. Patrons can even check a restaurants old health records under previous owners.

The countys Dine Out website lists more than 6,500 restaurants. Over the last three years, about 1,400 restaurants have filed for a change of ownership.

Santa Clara County appears to be the exception rather than the rule. In checking other Bay Area county websites, the Investigative Unit did not find any other examples of health departments providing consumers online access to research a restaurants old inspection records under previous owners.

That is not to say, however, that counties do not have that information. In the case of San Franciscos Health Department, customers can file a public records request to get the last five years of health records for any restaurant, regardless of ownership changes.

______________________________________

Watch the entire series in this NBC Bay Area investigation:
Shifting winds in Monterrey County have put firefighters battling the Soberanes Fire on their toes Sunday.

Reports indicate that the blaze, which has been raging for more than two weeks, has picked up in the southwest portion of the fire area, creating new evacuation orders, according to Cal Fire officials.

Residents living east of Highway 1 beginning at Coast Road and ending at the intersection of Andrew Molera State Park have been asked to vacate their homes, Cal Fire said.

Those homeowners have been added to the evacuation list which also includes people living on Palo Colorado, Old Coast Road, Bixby Creek Road from Highway 1 south to Mesa and Garrapatos Road. Those residing on Cachagua Road from Nason Road to Trampa Canyon Road have also been required to evacuate.

Sunday's new list of mandatory evacuations comes just one day after some residents were allowed to return to their homes.

The blaze has scorched 57,500 acres and was 45 percent contained as of Sunday morning, according to Cal Fire.

650 structures are currently threatened by the flames and 57 homes have already been wiped away by the fire that was ignited from an illegal campfire, Cal Fire said.
Iran executed a nuclear scientist who defected to the U.S. in 2009 and later returned to the Islamic Republic under mysterious circumstances a year later, authorities said Sunday, acknowledging for the first time that they had secretly detained, tried and convicted a man authorities once heralded as a hero.

Shahram Amiri vanished in 2009 while on a religious pilgrimage to Muslim holy sites in Saudi Arabia, only to reappear a year later in a series of online videos filmed in the U.S. He then walked into the Iranian interests section at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington and demanded to be sent home.

In interviews, Amiri described being kidnapped and held against his will by Saudi and American spies, while U.S. officials said he was to receive millions of dollars for his help in understanding Iran's contested nuclear program. He was hanged the same week as Tehran executed a group of militants, a year after his country agreed to a landmark accord to limit uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

Speaking to journalists Sunday, Iranian judiciary spokesman Gholamhosein Mohseni Ejehi said Amiri was convicted of spying charges as he "provided the enemy with vital information of the country."

Amiri had access to classified information "and he was linked to our hostile and number one enemy, or the Great Satan," Ejehi said, referring to the U.S.

Ejehi did not explain why authorities never announced Amiri's conviction or his subsequent, failed appeals court bid. He said Amiri had access to lawyers.

"He neither repented nor compensated and he was trying to leak some information from inside prison, too," Ejehi said, without elaborating.

News about Amiri, born in 1977, has been scant since his return to Iran. Last year, his father Asgar Amiri told the BBC's Farsi-language service that his son had been held at a secret site since coming home.

On Tuesday, Iran announced it had executed a number of criminals, describing them mainly as militants from the country's Kurdish minority. Then, an obituary notice circulated in Amiri's hometown of Kermanshah, a city some 500 kilometers (310 miles) southwest of Tehran, according to the Iranian pro-reform daily newspaper Shargh. It announced a memorial service on Thursday for Amiri, calling him a "bright moon" and "invaluable gem."

Manoto, a private satellite television channel based in London believed to be run by those who back Iran's ousted shah, first reported Saturday that Amiri had been executed. BBC Farsi also quoted Amiri's mother saying her son's neck bore ligature marks suggesting he had been hanged by the state.

The Associated Press could not immediately reach Amiri's family.

U.S. officials told the AP in 2010 that Amiri was paid $5 million to offer the CIA information about Iran's nuclear program, though he left the country without the money. They said Amiri, who ran a radiation detection program in Iran, travelled to the U.S. and stayed there for months under his own free will. Analysts abroad suggested Iranian authorities may have threatened Amiri's family back in Iran, forcing him to return.

But when he returned to Iran and was welcomed by government officials, Amiri said Saudi and American officials had kidnapped him while he visited the Saudi holy city of Medina. He also said Israeli agents were present at his interrogations and that that CIA officers offered him $50 million to remain in America.

"I was under the harshest mental and physical torture," he said.

Amiri's case indirectly found its way back into the spotlight in the U.S. last year with the release of emails sent by U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton while she served as secretary of state. The release of those emails came amid criticism of Clinton's use of a private account and server that has persisted into her campaign against Republican candidate Donald Trump.

An email forwarded to Clinton by senior adviser Jake Sullivan on July 5, 2010  just nine days before Amiri returned to Tehran  appears to reference the scientist.

"We have a diplomatic, 'psychological' issue, not a legal one. Our friend has to be given a way out," the email by Richard Morningstar, a former State Department special envoy for Eurasian energy, read. "We should recognize his concerns and frame it in terms of a misunderstanding with no malevolent intent and that we will make sure there is no recurrence.

"Our person won't be able to do anything anyway. If he has to leave so be it."

Another email, sent by Sullivan on July 12, 2010, appears to obliquely refer to the scientist just hours before his story became widely known.

"The gentleman ... has apparently gone to his country's interests section because he is unhappy with how much time it has taken to facilitate his departure," Sullivan wrote. "This could lead to problematic news stories in the next 24 hours."
A Michigan man has been arrested and charged with felony drug trafficking after more than two dozen concertgoers became ill after ingesting THC-laced candies at a northeast Ohio rap festival.

The Richland County Sheriff's Office was holding 28-year-old Matthew Lee Gross, of Ypsilanti, in jail Sunday.

A spokeswoman for the OhioHealth hospital in Mansfield said 24 attendees of the EST 2016 festival at Ohio Dreams sports camp in Butler were treated with an overdose antidote Saturday after ingesting the candy packets. THC is the psychoactive compound found in marijuana.

Regional drug task force commander Lt. Joe Petrycki disagreed with characterizing people's reactions as overdoses. He said no one lost consciousness.

The festival was dubbed "The Last Weekend on Earth." Butler is about 60 miles northeast of Columbus.
Three men and a woman are facing charges after they were arrested during a reverse prostitution sting at a hotel in west suburban Naperville on Thursday.

The operation was conducted with the assistance of the Downers Grove Police Department, according to a release from the Naperville Police.

John Bushman, 70, of the 1400 block of Inverrary Drive in Naperville; William Fang, 64, of the 1300 block of Dunrobin Road in Naperville; and Daniel Wall, 32 of the 1800 block of Simpson Court in Montgomery were each charged with solicitation of a sexual act, authorities said.

While the operation was underway, police discovered that a woman was allegedly working out of the hotel as a prostitute. Officers arrested Jasmine Davis, 26, of the 5800 block of East Lake Drive in Lisle. Davis is charged with prostitution, according to police.
An episcopal church in Connecticut has been targeted for taking a stand against social injustice.

In 2014, Christ Church Cathedral in Hartford put up a Black Lives Matter banner on the fence of their property. The banner has been vandalized four times, most recently last Thursday.

The word black was cut off the banner leaving it to say lives matter.

The head of the church says she knew taking a stand would not be without controversy.

You expect responses. You expect reactions, said the Very Rev. Miguelina Howell, Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut. When we say 'black lives matter' we are not negating that all lives matter. God created us all equal and black lives are not treated equal in this nation.

Howell, who hails from the Dominican Republic said she is undeterred by the recent vandalism. She said the church will keep replacing the signs until the vandalism stops.

Pat Rice, an African-American member of the church, believes the Black Lives Matter movement is misunderstood by some, especially given the recent peaceful protest in Dallas that turned violent against police.

People are frightened by the sign. Its an emotionally charged sign, said Rice.

In a separate incident, the original doors of the building were slashed. Howell says it will cost a fortune to have them replaced.

Christ Church Cathedral has stood on the corner of Main and Church streets for nearly 200 years, a witness to history, good and bad. Each week, it attracts all walks of life into its pews to pray.

"When I come here I know that it's a completely diverse in every single way community, said parishioner Wendy West.

West, who is white, says she is completely comfortable with the message behind the Black Lives Matter sign, and says she believes the sign is appropriate in front of her church.

"I am imagining that that person [who vandalized the sign] maybe believes that they understand but hasnt had the benefit of the types of conversations that I've been able to have, added West.

West, who has participated in several peaceful protests for the Black Lives Matter cause, said conversations with fellow parishioners, like Rice, have opened her mind to see the inequality African-Americans face.

"I'm the mother of a grandson who's a young black male. He may be stopped and he may be looking at the end of the gun. So, we have that conversation all the time, just be careful don't make sudden moves, explained Rice.

Leaders say they hope this is the last time the sign is vandalized but wont be surprised if it happens again.

I have to admit its discouraging, said Rev. Jay Cooke. My courage comes out of the discouragement actually, to continue to witness to our faith.

Parishioners hope the message of acceptance and equality rooted in their teachings will grow outside their church's walls as well.
Hartford police are investigating the city's 11th homicide of the year after a man was found gunned down in the citys North end.

According to Hartford Deputy Chief Brian Foley, Hartford officers in the area of 1994 Main St. heard several gunshots just after 10 p.m. on Saturday night.

We had some officers in the area that heard shots fired, said Deputy Chief Foley. In fact they right across the street in that church parking lot heard some shots fired came over here and found a male victim shot multiple times.

They located Steven Keaton, 42 of New Britain, in a shared common hallway of a multi-family home, shot multiple times. The victim was transported to St. Francis Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Police say they are searching for two suspects, one wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and another wearing a red hooded sweatshirt.

The Hartford Police Major Crimes Division is on scene.
A 48-year-old North Texas man who pleaded guilty last month to sexually assaulting a 5-year-old girl has been sentenced to three life prison terms.

State District Judge Charles Barnard told Donald Ray Shivers, of Iowa Park, at his sentencing Friday in Wichita Falls that he was taking away Shivers' freedom because Shivers had taken away his victim's innocence. The sentences must be served consecutively.

Court documents reviewed by the Wichita Falls Times Record News show the girl reported the assaults to her mother years later when she was 8. Investigators said the girl provided details of abuse that only the victim would know.

Trial testimony showed the now 10-year-old suffers from depression and adjustment and post-traumatic stress disorders.

Shivers had a previous record of theft, burglary and drug use.
A bank robber in El Paso has been nabbed by police on bicycles.

Authorities say officers on bike patrol in downtown El Paso received the call about the robbery and entered the Chase Bank while the robber was still at a teller window Friday afternoon.

The El Paso Times reports the man, whose name wasn't immediately released, was arrested without incident.

Police haven't said if he had any kind of weapon.
A state board has rejected a plan to use a shuttered Texas boarding school in Corsicana as a federal immigration center for unaccompanied Central American children who entered the U.S. illegally.

The mayor of Corsicana, about 55 miles south of Dallas, was in favor of the plan, but Gov. Greg Abbott and several state lawmakers were opposed to a project that could be seen as supporting federal immigration policies.

The governing board of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department voted 8-1 Friday against the idea of housing some 800 youths at a time in the school.

Corsicana Mayor Chuck McClanahan promoted the project as a job-creator, and said the unaccompanied children need some place to stay briefly until their relatives take them. He praised the board for hearing him out, but said he's disappointed "for the residents of Navarro County and Corsicana who need better jobs with benefits," according to the Corsicana Daily Sun.

According to the Texas State Historical Association, the school was established in 1887 and opened two years later as the State Orphans' Home. The Corsicana State School closed in 2013 as the juvenile justice system downsized.

"This facility has been in Corsicana for more than 100 years ... as a place to help children," McClanahan told the Houston Chronicle last week. "The only difference is that these are foreign children."

Corsicana officials had signed a tentative deal with a New York firm, Cayuga Home for Children, to operate it as a transitional housing center. If the board had approved, the city would have received title to the center for free, then leased it for $3,000 a month.

But Sen. Brian Birdwell, a Republican from Granbury, wrote the mayor last month saying he doesn't support "a taxpayer-funded property being used as a revolving-door facility for illegal immigrants."

"Regardless of how attractive the limited, short-term benefit such use of the TJJD property the federal government alleges will be provided to the city and/or county, I will not validate the mass influx of immigrants into a county I represent," Birdwell wrote. "I will not be complicit in assisting the federal government in its willful malfeasance of the enforcement of immigration law."
UPDATE: Relatives of Mark Short spoke with NBC10, giving some insight into the couple's relationship. Read that story here.

A family of five, including three small children, was found dead in their Berks County, Pennsylvania, home on Saturday along with what authorities described as a handwritten "murder-suicide note."

Police in Sinking Spring, just outside Reading, responded to the family's home on Winding Brook Drive at about 2 p.m. Saturday after a concerned relative asked them to make a welfare check on the family, according to the Berks County District Attorney's Office.

Inside the home, police found 40-year-old Mark Jason Short Sr., his wife, Megan L. Short, 33, and the couple's three children, 8-year-old Liana, 5-year-old Mark Jr. and 2-year-old Willow, all dead of gunshot wounds. A dog was also found dead. Authorities said Megan Short was supposed to meet a relative for lunch Saturday, but never showed up and never answered her phone.

Facebook

The district attorney's office also said Sunday morning that responding officers discovered what appears to be a handwritten "murder-suicide" note in the home, as well as a handgun "near one of the deceased adults."

Authorities have not said what the note contained or who they think was the shooter, but noted that an investigation revealed the couple had been having "domestic issues." The family had also been grappling with a child's illness and post-traumatic stress.

Facebook

Articles in The Reading Eagle in 2014 and The New York Times in 2015 profiled the family after Willow, the youngest of their three children, underwent a heart transplant as an infant. The news stories detailed the family's difficulties obtaining anti-rejection medication for Willow.

A blog post Megan Short wrote in April about her family's ordeal treating Willow's heart condition sheds some light on the struggles they faced.

In a post titled "Learning to Heal: My Experience with PTSD" on the Philly at Heart blog, Megan Short wrote of watching her daughter undergo heart surgery as a baby, and of the lasting impact the traumatic experience left on her.

"There are very few moments when you can clearly see your life as separated into the before and after," Megan Short wrote. "Having a child born with a severe congenital heart defect has been the most significant shift of my life."

NBC10s Matt DeLucia is on the scene at a murder-suicide in Berks County. Five people, including three children, were killed inside their home in on Winding Brook Road in Sinking Spring.

In the post, Megan Short recounts not being able to hold Willow until three days after she was born, before sending the baby to surgery.

"I can still feel the emotions and fear as the doctors told me that she would not survive the massive bleeding she was experiencing post-surgery," the mother wrote. "I still see her tiny heart beating through the dressing used to cover her open chest and all the tubes and wires and machines as I wondered if they would be able to keep her alive until a donor heart became available."

The mother chronicled the heartbreaking struggles she and her family faced as Willow underwent treatment for her heart condition and eventually came home, and she wrote about the affect it had on her as a mother and as a person.

"I have anxiety and nightmares. Certain smells and hallways trigger memories every single time ... None of this ever got easier," she wrote, adding that she began taking medication and going to therapy for PTSD.

"As I work on my own mental healing, I wanted to share my experience so that other parents know they are not alone," Megan Short wrote. "Sometimes you will feel even worse during the process, but keep going. It is worth it."

Despite the family's struggles, Mark Short's Facebook profile shows the couple and their three blond-haired children smiling in dozens of photos.

In another picture of him with his wife that he posted in December, the two grin in black and white.

"She's still the most beautiful girl that I've ever met," Mark Short Sr. wrote in a comment on the photo. "I'm the luckiest guy in the world to have her as my life and the mother of my three amazing children."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or visit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
A rally in support of Philadelphia Police brought hundreds of people out in Northeast Philadelphia to make noise and show love for the city's men and women in blue.

The "Philly Cops Rock" event at Cottman and Frankford avenues in the city's Mayfair neighborhood kicked off around 4 p.m. Sunday with people wearing pro-police shirts and some flying the American and Thin Blue Line flags, the latter a pro-police symbol.

Ralliers cheered loudly as drivers honked their horns passing by the busy intersection. Passing police cruisers turned on their lights and sirens in thanks.

Allen Eicher, a Northeast Philly resident, told NBC10's Aundrea Cline-Thomas he wanted to show some love to police and wished that young people would show respect to officers.

"I just want these guys to know that we do love them and that we do appreciate the job they do," he said.

Several officers in the Philadelphia Police Department, including Commissioner Richard Ross, came to the rally to thank the supporters. Ross shook hands with supporters. He said police know they're appreciated, but it's good to see so many people coming out on their behalf.

The rally coincides with the Back the Blue motorcycle ride through several city neighborhoods. That ride started at Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 in the far Northeast and passed several police districts before finishing at the "Philly Cops Rock" rally.

Get a brief look at the event from Aundrea Cline-Thomas' live report on Facebook:
MASON CITY  A Mason City man faces numerous traffic-related charges after an incident early Sunday.

A news release says Mason City police attempted to stop a vehicle driving carelessly near the intersection of Fourth and South President about 5:45 a.m. Sunday. The driver, later identified as Jorge A. Sanchez Jr., Mason City, failed to stop, leading officers on a pursuit south on South Federal Avenue.

The vehicle eventually stopped in the backyard of a residence in the 00 block of 23rd Street Southwest and Sanchez attempted to flee into a house, later determined to be his residence.

He was taken into custody by the pursuing officer along with a Cerro Gordo County deputy sheriff.

Sanchez was taken to the Cerro Gordo County Jail where he was being held on $5,000 bond on charges of eluding a law enforcement vehicle, a Class D felony, along with failure to obey a trafc-control device, driving with a suspended license, operating while under the influence, violation of new title registration, improper use of registration, failure to prove security against liability and interference with official acts.

 Tom Thoma
Local

Breaking news and the stories that matter to your neighborhood.
Officers are asking for help in identifying the man and woman who stole a car from an 80-year old man in Delaware after he agreed to give them a ride to a convenience store.

The victim, from Hagerstown, Maryland, told Rehoboth Beach police a man and woman stole his vehicle after he agreed to give them a ride from a Wawa on Veterans Way to the Royal Farms on Rehoboth Avenue Saturday.

The victim told police after they arrived at the store, the man got out of the car and asked the woman if she could drive. The driver said it was at that moment he became suspicious and tried exit the car, but could not get his keys from the ignition before the woman grabbed at him and the man jumped into the drivers seat.

The duo were last seen driving east on Columbia Avenue. The stolen vehicle is described as a dark gray or charcoal 2002 Chevrolet Suburban with Maryland registration 3CK6851. The car had three fishing poles on the roof, a rear lift gate, chrome bumpers, and small dents on the rear driver side door and front bumper.

Police ask anyone seeing the vehicle to immediately call 911. Don't try to contact the occupants, police say, but call 911 to report the location.

Anyone with information on the identities of the alleged carjackers is asked to call Rehoboth Beach Police at (302) 227-2577 or message the department via their Facebook page. You can also submit information online through Delaware Crime Stoppers.
A Grant Hill man has spent his last few Saturdays cleaning up his neighborhood with the help of several thousands of dollars of his own money.

Carlos Gutierrez, a real estate agent, has battled trash near his home every weekend for more the last two months.

Gutierrez owns property one mile east of downtown and said he noticed a couple of years ago how people dumped all kinds of trash there.

A lot of people were dumping all kinds of different industrial  drywall, concrete, bags of trash, etcetera, Gutierrez told NBC 7.

With permission from the city  and $10,000 of his own money  he began to clean up the area.

"You have to be the promoter and the one to push those people with your pocketbook and get down deep and put your time and energy and effort to be able to help these neighborhoods and these people to see that, Gutierrez said.

He calls his project the Golden Hill/ Grant Hill/ Sherman Heights Community Street Beautification program.

Gutierrez has hired workers to help him each Saturday, and while he is self-funded, the city has donated dumpsters and other things to help with the cleanup.

He hopes to eventually extend his cleanup program to the other neighborhoods in Southeast San Diego.
Adriana Wright and retired police captain Paul Ybarrando met at Southwestern Community College for a handshake that was 32 years in the making.

I grew up knowing they were there to serve and protect, said Wright. In this case they did not serve and did not protect."

Wright was talking about the July 18, 1984 McDonalds Massacre in San Ysidro in which four of her family members were killed and two others injured.

The memory brought Wright to tears.

Its been 32 years. I thought I'd healed," she said.

For the first time since that dire day Wright sat down with Ybarrando then a homicide lieutenant investigating the murders.

The first officer arrived two minutes after the radio call, Ybarrando explained.

Their discussion is part of a soon to be released documentary called "77 Minutes," the often criticized time it took for SWAT to take down the shooter.

It was like two to three inches of blood, Wright told Ybarrando. A red carpet of blood."

Wright remembered how survivors including her niece, Aurora Pena described the scene, telling her gunshot victims would have survived but bled out waiting to be rescued.

The coroners office is the one who determines these things. They told us there were 13 deceased victims that would have died instantly.

21 people were killed and 19 others were injured that fateful day - a day that, for a time, was the deadliest mass shooting in the United States.

Director Charlie Minn hopes to start a movement with his documentary, saying you won't see or hear the name of the shooter who may have suffered from mental health issues.

I don't address cowards. All focus should be on victims," Minn said.

Adriana Wright was scarred by the loss of her pregnant sister Jackie and her eight-month-old nephew Carlos Reyes.

I didnt have time to feel her loss because everyone else was hurting. I had to fix everything. I had to prepare funerals," she said.

The documentary is scheduled to be released in September. The director says he plans to donate part of the proceeds to funds of murdered San Diego Police Officer Jonathan JD De Guzman and his wounded partner Wade Irwin.
Police sirens blared as youngsters got up close and personal with emergency first responders Saturday.

The La Mesa Police Department hosted its fifth annual safety fair to help bring understanding between law enforcement and the community Saturday.

Participants learned about everything from fire safety to crime prevention from those who have been on the front lines.

"We want people to learn how you can protect your car from break-ins, your home from break-ins, Lt. Chad Bell of the La Mesa Police Department told NBC 7.

But for officers and citizens overall good will towards the police department and fire department" is paramount for a city in mourning.

People lined the streets for the funeral of San Diego Police Officer Jonathan De Guzman Thursday. De Guzman was gunned down during a traffic stop in Southcrest just over a week ago. "We've had people that have brought out cards to show their appreciation and the officers absolutely love that, Bell said.

Whether it was the communitys tiniest members climbing aboard a swat vehicle or adults learning more about how officers respond to a crisis, Saturday was about appreciating law enforcement.

We'll never not go to a 911 call, but just getting the support that we're getting today is just amazing, Bell said.
Second Lieutenant David Higgins is competing for the USA in mens 50-meter prone rifle shooting. The 21-year-old from San Clemente trained for the Olympic event while stationed in San Diego at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot.

He began shooting rifle at 13 years old. After graduating from high school, Higgins was nominated to attend the Air Force Academy where he was presented the opportunity to shoot rifle competitively. Prior to graduation from the academy, Higgins made the decision to cross commission into the United States Marine Corps.

In an interview for the Marine Corps, Higgins said, My dad is a Marine, so I grew up in the Marine culture, said Higgins. Not only did I want to follow in his footsteps, but I also wanted to lead Marines and was more interested in the ground-based aspect of the Marine Corps.

And to earn the title Marine Officer, you must excel in leadership, academics and physical training. For one newly commissioned Marine Corps officer, not only did he achieve his goal of earning the title Marine, he has also qualified to compete for the United States during the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Higgins said the Marine Corps and the Olympics are both a good fit for him because he loves competing. "Going to the Olympics gives me the chance to compete at the highest level in the world, Higgins said.
In an effort to repair some of the damage he had inflicted on his presidential campaign, Donald Trump endorsed House Speaker Paul Ryan to end a four-day standoff that exposed the deeps chasms in the Republican Party over his candidacy.

Trump struck a rare conciliatory tone at a Wisconsin rally on Friday, imploring his party to unite behind him and opening a full-throttle attack on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

"Arm in arm, we will rescue the country from the Obama-Clinton disaster," Trump told supporters after formally declaring his support for Ryan in next week's congressional primary.

"We will have disagreements," Trump said just days after refusing to endorse the Wisconsin Republican. "But we will disagree as friends and never stop working together toward victory."

It was an unusual gesture for Trump, who is known for his refusal to admit mistakes and his tendency to double down when he's under attack. Trump's general election campaign has been defined by his constant attacks on fellow Republicans  a habit that has baffled party leaders, who have begged him to stay focused on his Democratic rival.

The refusal to back Ryan had been seen by many as a final straw. Trump had told The Washington Post in an interview earlier this week that he was "just not quite there yet" when it came to backing Ryan  language that echoed the words used by Ryan as he weighed whether to endorse the party's nominee.

In addition to praising Ryan, Trump also threw his support behind Arizona Sen. John McCain, saying he held the senator "in the highest esteem ... for his service to our country in uniform and in public office." In the past, Trump questioned McCain's status as a war hero, and told the Post he felt McCain "should have done a much better job for the vets."

Trump also endorsed New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, with whom he has also sparred, calling her "a rising star."

Ryan, like other top Wisconsin Republicans, did not attend Trump's evening appearance in their state. He reiterated his support for Trump hours before the endorsement, but he noted that his support wasn't a "blank check" and pledged to speak out against the businessman's divisive positions if necessary.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker also skipped the evening rally, preferring to attend an all-you-can-eat spaghetti dinner. Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos offered a blunt message ahead of the presidential nominee's arrival: "We are Ryan Republicans here in Wisconsin, not Trump Republicans."

The Midwest mayhem underscored Trump's mounting challenges during one of the most tumultuous weeks of his unorthodox campaign. He has skipped from one misstep to the next, sparking a fresh wave of Republican defections among longtime party loyalists who refuse to support their presidential nominee some even publicly support Clinton.

Eager to change their minds, Trump unleashed a torrent of insults at Clinton throughout the day.

"If Hillary Clinton becomes president," he said at a rally in Iowa, "you will have really, in my opinion, the destruction of this country from within."

Trump called his Democratic opponent "a dangerous liar," ''an unbalanced person," ''pretty close to unhinged," ''totally unfit to lead" and lacking "the judgment, temperament and moral character to lead the country."

"In one way, she's a monster," he said in Wisconsin. "In another way, she's a weak person. She's actually not strong enough to be president."

The charges came soon after Clinton addressed her own political vulnerabilities while facing a group of minority journalists in Washington. The former secretary of state sought to "clarify and explain" a recent statement on "Fox News Sunday" that FBI Director James Comey said her answers to the bureau about her use of a private email server were "truthful."

"I may have short-circuited and for that I will try to clarify," Clinton said, though still insisting she "never sent or received anything that was marked classified."

She also acknowledged that many people don't trust her.

"It doesn't make me feel good when people say those things, and I recognize that I have work to do," Clinton said. She added, "I'm going to work my heart out in this campaign and as president to produce results for people."

Peoples reported in Washington. Associated Press writers Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin; Kyle Potter in St. Paul, Minnesota; Catherine Lucey in Des Moines, Iowa; and Lisa Lerer and Erica Werner in Washington contributed to this report.
A local caterer is dead after a 19-year-old man who worked for the Fairfax County Park Authority repeatedly stabbed her at the end of a wedding reception in Chantilly, Virginia, police say.

Fairfax County police said 35-year-old Tyonne Johns was working the wedding at Ellanor C. Lawrence Park on Walney Road Saturday night.

Kempton Bonds, a seasonal employee for the park authority, was also working at the wedding and was responsible for picking up trash and foldable chairs, police said.

Johns was packing up foldable chairs from the celebration into her companys truck, authorities said. Bonds insisted that the chairs belonged to the park authority and not the company for whom Johns was working.

The two got into an altercation over the chairs, police said. Investigators believe the argument led to the stabbing.

Police said investigators found the 3-inch pocket knife they believe Bonds used in the stabbing.

Johns was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Bonds stayed at the scene and was arrested and charged with second-degree murder. He is being held in the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center without bond.

The park authority said it has fired Bonds, pending the outcome of the investigation.
Police in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, are searching for the man who allegedly asked three young girls to get inside his minivan to play the popular 'Pokemon Go' game.

Officers were called to an area of Lady Slipper Road at about 6:30 p.m. after a call that three 11-year-old girls were approached by the man.

The girls told police they were walking down the street when the driver of the black minivan asked them to get inside to play 'Pokemon Go.' After they refused, the girls ran off.

The driver is described as a well-built, dark skinned male in his 20's. Because he was not wearing a shirt at the time of the incident, the victims were able to see that he had tattoos on both of his arms and chest.

Police have been going door to door to locate additional witnesses. Anyone with additional information is urged to contact Bridgewater Police.
The New Hampshire Fire Department responded to a suspicious 3-alarm fire at 165 Spruce St., Sunday morning in Manchester.

According to Cheif Martineau of the New Hampshire Fire Department, the fire burned a large, 4 story wood frame building, and 13 people were displaced.

No injuries have been reported.

Officials believe the fire is suspicious and an investigation is ongoing.

The American Red Cross is assisting the four families who were displaced by the blaze.
FOREST CITY  The welcome signs on U.S. Highway 69 in Forest City will be replaced.

The installation will end about two years of discussion and consideration, said Norma Hertzer, the project manager for Grow Forest City.

The need for new welcome signs, at the intersections of U.S. Highway 69 and Secor Avenue and U.S. Highway 69 and Crystal Lake Road, was identified more than five years ago in a community study spearheaded by Grow Forest City.

Forest City Chamber of Commerce Director Kathy Rollefson said the current signs have been in place for more than 20 years.

Theyre made of wood and contain a welcome and logos of various Forest City organizations.

The are some structural issues that happened last year when a really high wind came through town, Rollefson said.

Hertzer said the new signs will be made of cast concrete, reading Forest City and bearing the citys logo, similar to whats found on municipal letterheads and vehicles.

The signs will not include any other information, she said.

Rollefson said welcome signs are important to the city because Forest City has many guests throughout the year.

The city is the site of the Tree Town Music Festival in May, Bash on the Farm in June, the WIT Grand National Rally in July and events at Waldorf University and Forest City Schools.

The new signs will cost about $29,000. The city will pay $10,000, RAGBRAI proceeds will cover $5,000, Grow Forest City will pay $7,000 and an Iowa Great Places grant will provide $7,000.

Linda Jordahl, who owns Jordahl Agency downtown, said she notices entrance or welcome signs.

The ones Ive seen in Mason City look very nice, Jordahl said.

Forest City Economic Development, Chamber of Commerce and the city are partners in Grow Forest City.
Police in New Hampshire say two children are safe and their biological mother is in custody after she allegedly took them on Saturday.

Brittney Adjutant, 26, of Rochester, was visiting her two children, Liam Davis, 5, and Nathan Douglas Nesbitt Jr., 2, of Rochester, when she did not return them.

Police said they safely located Adjutant and the two children on Sunday afternoon and placed Adjutant under arrest. The Middleton Police Department had an active arrest warrant out for Adjutant, charging her with two counts of custodial interference, a felony.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren is calling an email hack of the Democratic National Committee an embarrassment for the party and the country.

The Massachusetts Democrat also said during an interview on Sunday that she doesn't understand why Hillary Clinton has given former party chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz a role in her campaign.

Schultz and other top party officials resigned after emails exposed an apparent lack of neutrality in the primary race between Clinton and Bernie Sanders on the eve of the party's convention.

Clinton has said Wasserman Schultz will serve as honorary chair of her campaign's 50-state program to help elect Democrats.

Warren expressed confidence in longtime Democratic operative Donna Brazile serving as the party's interim chair.

Warren said the party needs someone "to get in there and clean house."
Most of the more than 5,000 homes and businesses that lost power in Maine are getting it back.

Thunderstorms knocked out power across Penobscot and Piscataquis counties on Saturday afternoon. By Sunday morning, fewer than 500 Emera Maine customers remained in the dark, and officials expect most of them to be back online by afternoon.

Officials urged the public to slow down or move over if possible when approaching utility crews working on roadways.
If youre experimenting with the Internet of Things, you now have a huge range of platforms to choose from. Many of these platforms are essentially bare boards and hooking up sensors often requires adding breadboards, breaking out the soldering iron, and down and dirty wiring. While theres nothing actually wrong with any of this as a way to experiment and develop ideas, its less than ideal where getting quickly from a concept to a working device is the goal. So it was that Microduinos mCookie system was designed to make IoT experimentation fast and easy as well as inexpensive.

Microduino mCookie CoreUSB module

mCookie is Microduinos second generation of Arduino-based IoT devices designed as a series of plastic modules that stack and lock together using magnets. The magnets ensure the modules align correctly so the breakout pins (which are Pogo pins; snazzy, spring-loaded devices that ensure a reliable, positive contact ) are correctly oriented. Even better, mCookie modules are also physically compatible with Lego! This allows you to use every nerds favorite toy to build physical frameworks for mobility and physically support sensors.

Microduino mCookie modules grouped by type with additional Chinese labelling

The mCookie system includes:

mCookie Core Modules , which use the ATMEGA microcontrollers and are Arduino-compatible

mCookie Function Modules , which provide functions including audio output, amplification, real time clock, SD card, PIR motion detection, GPS, and battery power support

mCookie Communication Modules , for Ethernet, RSB 485, USB host, Zigbee, Bluetooth LE, Wi-FI, GPRS, and NFC

mCookie Extension Boards , to add an OLED display, an LED matrix, DC motor control, breakout hub, lithium battery power management, double width extension board, and a LEGO NXT interface

Microduino mCookie Hub module showing pinout IDs

Using the breakout hub you can connect sensors and Microduino offers a pretty good selection:

crash

touch

Hall effect (magnetic field)

shake

joystick

temperature

moisture

light

color

air quality

dust

sound (microphone)

infrared (simple, receiver, PIR)

heatbeat

line finder

Additional output devices not in module packaging for to be connected by a hub include:

LEDs (color, single red, strip, dot matrix

buzzer

relay servo

So, for example, to build a sound sensor youd connect a hub extension module to a core module (say, the CoreUSB), connect a microphone sensor, write your Arduino sketch, and upload it to the core. Voila! Want to drive a motor when a sound level is exceeded or flash a light? Just connect the required sensors and modules and it all just works (your coding not withstanding).

Programming for the mCookie system can be done using the standard Arduino IDE (Microduino offers a download with their board support pre-installed), MITs Scratch editor, or Mixly, an Arduino visual programming editor based on Google's Blockly).

I tested the mCookie system on an iMac and had a really difficult time getting the Arduino IDE to connect to the CoreUSB module. It turned out that, for no accountable reason, the Arduino IDE didnt seem like the Satechi 7 Port USB 3.0 Premium Aluminum Hub but when connected directly to one of the iMacs USB ports it worked fine  for a while.

The Arduino IDE failing to connect to my iMac's USB port for no good reason.

I uploaded a few sketches to blink lights and measuring sound levels but when I tried to upload another sketch I got an error message saying that the USB port was no longer recognized. This may be an issue with OS X but Ive not had any other USB devices with problems so I tend to blame the Arduino IDE which is not Microduino's problem as I understand it; perhaps Windows is a better platform for the IDE.

Leaving problems with USB and hosts aside, what of the mCookie system itself? Physically, the product is beautifully and rather sexily packaged and the simplicity and ease of adding and removing modules and sensors is about as painless as it gets. On the other hand, the documentation and web site are terrible.

Microduino have built their documentation as a great big, clumsy installation of MediaWiki, the same platform used by Wikipedia. But while Wikipedia have engineered their wiki to be polished and well organized, Microduino have created a Frankenwiki. Finding anything in this wiki is way too hard and the content that is there is poorly organized and poorly translated from Chinese. Indeed, in many places there are annotations and labels that are images in Chinese so even Google cant automatically translate the content that Microduino hasnt bothered to fix.

On the web site, the getting started instructions are adequate as long as you dont run into any problems such as the USB issues I had. But once installed, theres an almost complete lack of educational and technical material that's in any kind of easily accessible form. While this wont be a problem for anyone with a reasonable amount of Arduino experience, in an educational situation this will be a problem. Sure, the information can be found in a combination of Microduino's site and other online resources but really, doesnt Microduino want to make the user experience (and their own brand image) as slick as possible? I wont belabor the rest of Microduinos web site issues other than to note that the sites Workshop section (registration required for no good reason) is remarkably awful.

On the plus side there are scores of projects for creating all sorts of devices, the majority apparently contributed by users. On the minus side, many of the projects I looked at are barely coherent and Microduino does its users a huge disservice by not polishing the contributions.

The Microduino mCookie 301 Expert Kit

Currently Microduino only sells mCookie systems as complete kits so the modules are available on their own. The 101 Basic Kit ($99) which I tested has CoreUSB, Bluetooth 4.0, Hub, and Battery Management modules with a buzzer, microphone sensor, USB cable, sensor cables, two color LEDs, a crash sensor, a battery module, and Lego connectors. The 201 Advanced Kit ($199) adds amplifier, audio, audio shield, and real time clock modules as well as a combo humidity and temperature sensor, a passive infrared sensor, an OLED module, a joystick, a light sensor, an infrared emitter, an infrared receiver, and a speaker. Finally, the 301 Expert Kit ($299) adds even more modules including a second CoreUSB, a Motor, and Wi-Fi modules along with a DC motor, a servo, and a remote control.

Bottom line: Great hardware! A terrific concept at a good price and, in theory, a great way to start experimenting with IoT devices, but the lack of documentation really lets the products down and makes it hard to be as excited as I want to be. The Microduino mCookie system scrapes at a Gearhead rating of 3 out of 5. If they fix their documentation and web site and make the product what it could be, Id happily revise their score.

Comments? Thoughts? Send me your modular thoughts or comment below then follow me on Twitter and Facebook.
70-year-old speaks of near misses on charity ride

A 70-year-old Thatcham resident has spoken of his pride at completing a 100-mile cycle race in memory of his friend.

Roger Hunt witnessed a few near misses while taking part in the Prudential RideLondon on Sunday.

One person died and others were seriously wounded while taking on the course.

Robin Chard, 48, from Bicester, suffered a cardiac arrest at the 25-mile mark. Race organisers released a statement expressing their sincere condolences to Mr Chards family and friends.

A total of 33 riders were taken to hospital and seven were kept in hospital the day after the race.

Three riders were also seriously injured.

Recounting the race, Mr Hunt set off from the Olympic Stadium with an estimated 28,000 participants.

Riding his customised racing bike, sponsored by Specialized Concept Store in Hambridge Road, Newbury, Mr Hunt was on schedule for the first 43 miles until the race was stopped because of an accident.

An air ambulance was called after a cyclist crashed into a tree, delaying riders by an hour and 45 minutes.

Mr Hunt said that he was very concerned for the cyclist involved and that social media had helped to keep riders updated to the situation.

Following the restart he made another good eight miles until the race had to be stopped again near Leith Hill. Another air ambulance had to be dispatched after two cyclists collided.

After an hour and 20 minute delay he reached Box Hill in Surrey, where a diversion was put in place because of a backlog of riders.

He finally finished at The Mall after nine hours and 54 seconds, where it was so crowded that his family couldnt see him cross the line.

Mr Hunt missed his target of completing the race in under five hours; finishing in five hours and 52 minutes once delays were factored out.

When asked about the mood of cyclists surrounding the delays, Mr Hunt said: Myself and others were a little annoyed to miss our targets on time completion, but we were also pleased to have the opportunity to help the charities.

Mr Hunt was riding in memory of his friend, Derek Jackson, who had raised money for Prostate Cancer UK but died of the disease earlier this year.

His widow and family turned out to support Mr Hunt on his charity quest.

After a grueling 16-hour day he made it home to Thatcham tired but having enjoyed a worthwhile eventful weekend.

Mr Hunt said that he felt fine and was pleased with himself for finishing the 100-mile race.

He has raised more than 1,000 and donations can be made at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ROGER-HUNT1 until August 31.
WATERLOO  In the Danish fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, the Little Mermaid wanted to be human.

In her childhood, Molly Bertch wanted to be a mermaid. Bertch didnt need to follow that tale and make a bargain with a sea witch to have her wish granted.

Bertch performs each weekend at Lost Island Waterpark as Maizie the mermaid.

An actor and strong swimmer, Bertch used to spend hours at a relatives pool in the summer pretending she was a mermaid.

Now, at Lost Island, she spends an hour each day on the weekends pretending to be a mermaid for crowds at the water park. For Bertch, a veteran on local stages, pretending is an understatement.Im in character for the whole show, she said.

Are you really a mermaid? asks Averi Lynas, 6, of Cedar Rapids.

Are you really human? Molly  as Maizie  replies.

Seeing Maizie made Averi Lynas day, her mother, Melissa Lynas said.

She loves mermaids, Lynas said, adding both girls she brought to the park saw the sign for a the mermaid show at the front of the park.

Do you spend the night? Do you sleep here? asked Wilson Hudson, 8, of Des Moines.

Without breaking character, Maizie explains she is from a river and doesnt live in salt water.

Did you know mermaids live in rivers and in oceans? she said. Thats why you have to keep the rivers and oceans clean for all the mermaids and their friends.

This year, Maizie has her own tank and staging area. The last two summers, Maizie would be carted to a pool and helped into the water.

It wasnt a very good entrance, Bertch said. This new design, I think, preserves the illusion. Its a little more magical.

It did give children a chance to have a close encounter with a mermaid.

We saw her swimming in the pool with us and we got to touch her tail, said Mya Stearns. It felt, like, bumpy and smooth, you know, like a snake.However, sometimes the crowds would get a little too suffocating when Maizie swam with the public.

I dont miss the hair pulling or the tail pulling that, by the way, mostly came from adult men, she said.

Although the new setup appears more magical, it doesnt give Bertch much room to get into costume, which she does by herself.

Theres no room for anyone else to help me, she said.

Her two half-hour appearances per day take a lot of preparation.Its a process between the makeup, the hair, the tattoos, she said. It probably takes about two hours to get ready for each appearance.

Before shimmying into her silicone tail, Bertch wraps her feet.

If you dont do that, it will just rub the skin off your feet, she said.

At the end of the day, she inspects and cleans the tail. Shell touch up any rubbed-off paint. Preserving the 30-pound tail is a big part of continuing to perform since it came with a four-figure price tag.

Although heavy, it is flexible and with the right motion can aid a strong swimmer in open water.

With that tail you can swim fast, Bertch said.

When Bertch tells some of her onlookers Maizie lives in the park in the summer and returns home to her river for the winter, she isnt exaggerating too much. On some days after hours, shell put on the costume and go for a dip.

You do need to practice, she said. But its fun when you get going in the open water. ... Its not a job you do to make money. I love it. The smiles arent fake.

As long as no sea witches or hair pullers are around.
Mans best friend. For many people, that statement is literally true. There are a lot of people who count dogs among the most important parts of their lives.

Faithful, loyal, loving, sweet, intelligent  dog lovers describe their companions in glowing terms. Unfortunately, as we all know, owning a dog is a little like owning a car. Most of the time its great. Sometimes, however, you, your family or complete strangers end up bleeding in a ditch.

The city of Britt has had for several years a vicious animal ordinance that specifically lists pit bulls as a breed of dogs banned from living within the city limits. Last month, discussions between the city police and the City Council resulted in a decision to begin enforcing that ban.

That led to an outcry from pit bull owners and some dog lovers in general, decrying a law that would prohibit an entire class of dogs. Judge the deed, not the breed, was a common sentiment on social media websites.

Last week, after a spirited discussion at the Britt City Council meeting, the council decided to delay enforcing the pit bull ban, instead forming a committee to examine the issue, look at other cities ordinances and make a recommendation. Various city officials offered to sit on the committee and the council welcomed other interested city residents to take part.

We applaud the City Councils decision to do more research on this topic, and to make a recommendation based on facts and logic rather than emotion and opinion.

One of the problems this committee will face, however, is sifting the science from the biases. A google search on are pit bulls dangerous returns 769,000 hits, on variations ranging from history to hysteria.

Its easy to see both sides of the argument. We absolutely believe those people who describe their own pit bull pets as gentle, dependable, child-friendly and non-threatening. We believe that almost all dogs, of any breed, properly trained and cared for, can be good family pets and safe companions.

The website caninejournal.com makes the interesting case that, based on statistical causes of death, you are 16 times more likely to drown in a 5-gallon bucket, 60 times more likely to be killed by a falling coconut and 200 times more likely to die of an aspirin overdose than to be killed by a pit bull.

On the other hand, we have all read or seen horrifying news accounts of children or adults mauled or killed in dog attacks, and more often than not the kind of dogs involved in those attacks are identified as pit bulls.

We recognize that much of the bad reputation pit bulls have is because of their history of use in dog fighting or because they have been purposefully trained to be aggressive toward other animals and/or people. But the fact is that some breeds, when abused, mistreated or improperly trained, have a greater potential to be dangerous than others.

The National Canine Research Council argues that breed-specific bans fail to produce the intended outcome of reducing dog bite incidents, citing studies in several countries that show banning a certain breed does not lower the number of reported dog bites or dog attacks.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) notes that media reports have played a role in the perception of greater risk from pit bulls, citing evidence that reports of dog attacks receive far greater attention when they involve pit bulls than other breeds. It also notes that often any short-haired, stocky dog is identified as a pit bull when it is involved in an attack.

Sybil Soukup, executive director of the Humane Society of North Iowa, said the Humane Society also discourages breed-specific bans, noting that the notions of the most dangerous breed has changed over time. In the 1970s it was Dobermans. The stigmatized breed in the 1980s was German shepherds. It was Rottweilers in the 1990s, she said.

Taking all of that into account, we recommend a vicious or dangerous animal ordinance based on the actual actions of individual animals, rather than breed-specific bans.

The Britt City Code already includes such language as part of its animal control ordinance.

It says it is unlawful for anyone to keep a vicious dog or cat within the city. A dog or cat is considered vicious if it is caught in the act of worrying, chasing, maiming or killing domestic animals or fowl, or when a dog or cat attacks or bites any person without provocation, or when the propensity to attack or bite persons shall exist and such propensity is known or ought reasonably to be known to the owner.

But the Britt law goes beyond that, listing pit bull breeds along with lions, tigers, wolves, bears, apes, alligators and other animals that are specifically not allowed.

Were not suggesting that tigers are appropriate household pets, but in the case of pit bulls we think the city should give them the benefit of the doubt, and require removal of those that give cause to believe they are a danger, rather than simply belonging to a stigmatized breed.

As we have written here before, it is within a communitys responsibilities to set up rules for animals including pets that have the potential to interact with other people or animals in public.

But while justified, those regulations must also be reasonable. We encourage Britt  and other communities with similar laws  to move away from breed-specific dog restrictions.
BRANDON, Fla., Aug. 07, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Florida Optometrist Brandon Eye Associates is pleased to announce the addition of a new eye doctor to their practice. Experienced ophthalmologist George Harrison Fisher, II, MD will be joining the team of professionals providing high quality eye care and vision services to the Brandon and Plant City areas.

Dr. George Harrison Fisher, II, MD is highly credentialed and looks forward to bringing his expertise to the current and future clients of Brandon Eye Associates. Dr. Fisher earned his Bachelor of Arts from Notre Dame and Doctor of Medicine degree from Loyola University, Stritch School of Medicine.

He also performed an internship with Loyola University Affiliated Hospitals and an Ophthalmology residency at USF. He is a resident of South Tampa and lives there with his wife Emily and infant son Jack.

The Brandon and Plant City optometry clinics of Brandon Eye Associates both provide full suites of high quality ophthalmology services to Florida residents. All exams and procedures are conducted with the very latest in high-tech medical techniques and equipment. The staff, facilities and technology used in the clinic all help to ensure that each client receives the very best experience and quality of care when visiting Brandon Eye Associates. In addition to comprehensive professional eye exams, Brandon Eye Associates also provides treatments for a range of serious eye conditions.

Macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, posterior capsular haze, cataracts and eyelid issues can all be addressed and treated at their Brandon and Plant City locations. The clinic has 24 exam rooms, an optical center, an on-site surgical room, and a full staff of respected and board-certified surgeons and eye doctors. Brandon Eye Associates eye doctors have a combined total of numerous decades of experience in providing outstanding eye care to the residents of Brandon, Plant City and the surrounding communities. With the addition of the experienced and highly qualified eye doctor and ophthalmologist George Harrison Fisher, II, MD to the staff, they will be even better equipped to continue this exemplary level of care.

Brandon Eye Associates founder Dr. Lawrence C. Taylor, Jr., MD says, We are extremely happy and fortunate to have ophthalmologist Dr. Fisher joining our practice. We look forward to working with him and are pleased that our current and future clients will be able to benefit from his extensive experience and expertise.

Brandon Eye Associates has Florida locations in both Brandon and Plant City. Those in the public who would like more information about their services or who wish to book an eye exam may do so by calling (813) 606-5876. Additional information about the staff and the services offered by the Brandon and Plant City locations may be accessed by visiting their website at http://brandoneyeassociates.com/.
SOLOMONS, Md., Aug. 07, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pets receiving necessary vaccinations and immunizations have extra protection against potentially deadly diseases, reports Solomons Veterinary Medical Center. Vaccinations and immunizations for cats and dogs are important in order to reduce the possibility of contracting specific animal diseases. The rabies vaccine is mandated for all dogs, cats and ferrets in Maryland. However, a number of other vaccines are recommended for pets to reduce their risk of contracting other contagious diseases. Pet owners should be aware of all mandated and suggested vaccinations and immunizations to ensure the well-being of their pets.



Maryland has a number of pet laws that owners should follow as they care for their pets. Provision 18-318 mandates owners of dogs, cats or ferrets to vaccinate their pet against rabies once they are three months or older. After the initial vaccination at three months, booster shots for rabies are administered periodically as determined by the manufacturer instructions.

A suggested vaccination for dogs is the DAP vaccination that protects against distemper, canine parvovirus and canine adenovirus, which is done every three years. Solomons Veterinary Medical Center recommends annual examinations, during which canines should receive additional vaccinations. Dogs that spend time at dog parks or at dog kennels should be given vaccinations against canine influenza, bordetella and Lyme disease. For pets of local residents, inoculation against leptospirosis can protect both owners and pets from a potentially deadly bacterial infection.

A recommended vaccination for cats is feline distemper, which is performed every three years. Cats should receive a vaccination for upper respiratory yearly. Indoor cats should receive annual vaccinations for feline herpes virus 1, feline calicivirus and bordatella. Cats spending time outdoors should also receive the FeLV vaccine, protecting against the feline leukemia virus.

It is necessary for pet owners to be aware of the mandated and recommended vaccinations for dogs, cats and ferrets depending on their activities and exposure, said Dr. Nancy E. Ball. As an experienced veterinarian, I educate owners on the vaccinations that their pet needs to stay healthy. Many animal diseases can be fatal and some bacterial infections can even transfer to humans. Vaccinations are necessary for the health of pets and their owners.

Dr. Nancy E. Ball, veterinarian and owner, serves pets and their owners in Lusby, Brooms Island, Dowell, Port Republic, Prince Frederick, St. Marys and St. Leonard, MD. Their practice is open until 7:30pm during the week and has additional hours on Saturday and Sunday to allow pet owners the option of scheduling appointments or receiving emergency treatment. Veterinarians at Solomons Veterinary Medical Center providers compassionate medical, emergency, surgical and dental veterinary care for cats, dogs, pocket pets, rabbits and some exotics.

Call (410) 326-4300 to schedule an appointment to vaccinate or immunize a pet at Solomons Veterinary Medical Center, or learn about their veterinary services at http://solomonsvet.com/.
ss20tali wrote:

Profile



Gender: Female

Age: 26 ( Will be 27 when i join B School)

Nationality: Indian

GPA: 9.78/10

Degree: Electronics and Communication Engineering. (From a decent college, but not any of the IITs or NITs)

Years of Professional Experience: a little over 4 years. Hoping to complete 5 years by the time i start my MBA.



Official Score: 700 (Q50, V34, IR3, AWA5.0)



Work Profile: Research Engineer in the R&D Division of one of the largest Consumer electronics Company in the world (One of the renowned brands in the world). 2 promotions in 4 years. Several awards and technical publications. I have mentored several interns and have couple of engineers working for me.



Extra Curricular: I am a trained musician in Indian Classical and folk music. I have been a keyboard player for a professional music group and have a certificate in Indian Music.



Goals:

Short Term: I want to work in technology commercialization, project management and project lifecycle management in the field of consumer electronics or communications technology.

Long term: PMO roles for tech projects in government organizations.



Target schools: Rice Jones, Kelley, Tepper, Nanyang, UIUC.



I am looking for schools in USA, Singapore and Canada. Could you suggest some other schools considering my profile and chance for scholarship?

I am little worried about my IR score. I am willing to retake GMAT if it is necessary.

Scholarship is one of the most important factors for me.

Namita Garg,

http://www.mbadecoder.com



Some of our most recent admits are going to: Wharton. Kellogg, NYU Stern, LBS, INSEAD, Ross, UCLA, Tepper, IESE, HEC Paris, Emory and ISB.

Among the profiles we regularly work with are: Consultants, Finance specialists, Marketeers, Lawyers, Operations Managers, Product Managers, Social Impact Fellows, Software Engineers, Marine Engineers and Doctors



Book a contact@mbadecoder.com Book a FREE profile evaluation with us OR write to us at: Signature Read More

Hi,You are competitive for the b-schools you have mentioned. Tepper will be a reach, considering your average GMAT score.You are fine with your current GMAT score, although a retake to a 720+ score will be beneficial, even for scholarships. I would not recommend taking it for IR as b-schools still don't consider that metric while evaluating your application.You can apply to Singapore Management University in Singapore. Canada has a lot of programs- Ivey, Rotman, Sauder, McGills, Queen's, Schulich - these are the ones that come top of mind- research these programs to understand what they have to offer to you._________________
What if one blood test could screen for more than 50 types of cancer?
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It's totally natural for mothers to breastfeed their babies (despite what some potential presidents might think), and in New York, it's legal to breastfeed in public and private places. Today, Brooklyn moms celebrated their right to feed, joining Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams outside Borough Hall for a public latch on.

Adams opened the 10:30 a.m. latch onpart of a larger synchronized Global Latch Onby calling the event "the birth of a new breastfeeding movement" in Brooklyn. "You are sending a clear message that a woman's natural desire to empower their baby with the nutrients he or she needs to live a productive life should not be taboo," he told the two dozen or so women in attendance. "We have to move away from this male-dominated thinking that a woman's body is something we should be ashamed of and should not appreciate."

Adams also touched on the Borough Hall lactation lounges that were installed last year, and Intro 1063a, a bill introduced in the City Council earlier this year that would require certain buildings to introduce their own lactation rooms.

Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo, who was also in attendance, noted that lactation stations "are wonderful places," though she pointed out it was still important that elected officials "demystify breastfeeding in our communities."

Crown Heights resident Rachel Rodgers-Ebert, who was at the event with her six-month old son Ellis, told us this was her first breastfeeding rally, and that she's been breastfeeding in public since he was born. "I live in Brooklyn, and I've breastfed on Eastern Parkway. As he's gotten older he pulls the cover off, but I've haven't had one bad experience breastfeeding here," she said. "But I read and see on the news that a lot of women don't share my experience,"indeed, just a few months ago, a video of a man screaming at a breastfeeding woman in a Connecticut Target went viral, and other mothers have reported being shamed for breastfeeding in public places.

Kiki Valentine, who was at the event with her son Hart, added, "It is up to us to spread the word. If you see a woman being harassed for breastfeeding in public step up and say something!"

Additional reporting by Scott Heins.
Reporter

Debra Pressey is a reporter covering health care at The News-Gazette. Her email is dpressey@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@DLPressey).
One of Editor & Publishers 10 That Do It Right 2021
I was one of the fortunate ones to breastfeed my child for over a year. I also nursed in public, sometimes worried about what others would say and at other times, completely unfazed.My confidence would have been half of what it was if not for the support system my husband provided. It may sound unusual to most but a father can play a major role in the raising of a child without being the primary caregiver.Various researches done and collated in a 2015 report titled State of the Worlds Fathers throws up evidence backing this very claim. It is the worlds first report to provide a global view of mens contributions to parenting and caregiving under the MenCare campaign.According to the report, it was seen that engaging men in child-health programs in South Asia led to increased child immunization rates and lower prevalence of stunting (low height for age).These programmatic experiences suggested that the more fathers know, the more they can care for their childrens health. In high-income countries, fathers presence was shown to be helpful in encouraging and supporting mothers to breastfeed.Researchers in a study at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston, United States, found that 74 percent of mothers whose partners attended classes about breastfeeding continued to feed their babies in this way, compared with only 41 percent of mothers whose partners attended a control class.Research in Uganda found that men influenced womens decisions about whether and for how long to breastfeed, but often lacked sufficient information on the benefits of breastfeeding.In Vietnam, an intervention to increase exclusive breastfeeding provided men with breastfeeding education materials and counselling. Researchers found that women whose partners received the materials and counselling were more likely to be exclusively breastfeeding their child at four and six months, compared to women whose partners did not.In India, as nuclear families become the norm, the responsibility of the father increases in every aspect of child rearing. He is the most constant companion around the new mother during the pre and post natal period.And among the most important initiatives during infancy is breastfeeding. "A father can help a breastfeeding mother in many ways. He can take care of the older children, manage the household and provide care for his wife. These can ease a woman's stress and help her breastfeed their child successfully. Introduction of solid food to the baby can start after 6 months and a father can further provide the complementary feeding to his baby," says Revathi, coordinator, maternity/parental protection campaign & gender, World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA)Mrinalini Banerjee, mother to a two year old, vouches for the breastfeeding support she received from her husband, especially when she joined work."I would pump milk and store it in the fridge. My husband would return from work, thaw the stored milk and feed our son. We carried this out for over six months and am glad we contributed together to reach our childs growth goals, says the IT professional.Infact, one finds several positive trends among younger men who wish to be more active in their parenting  many give up smoking and alcohol, choose vegan lifestyles and even start exercising to be fit.And research says it is only scientific that they do so. "It has been found that changes in pre-frontal cortex brain activity in new fathers are virtually identical to the brain activity found in mothers. The conclusion emerging from this research is that men and women are equally wired for care.To those who think women have an innate ability or proclivity to care for children, this research shows that men have an equivalent or, at the very least, similar proclivity to care for children, states the report.Then what makes most fathers take a backseat? Mainly, it is our perceived definitions of what each parent should do. Men choose to take a lighter role in parenting because societal norms prompt them to do so.But there have been steps in the right direction, from advertisements that show men taking on household work to fathers dedicating their time and energy to support their wives breastfeed, especially in public spaces.And the road ahead will hopefully, only get better.
This weekend, former NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly took a break from polishing his favorite nightstick, "Ol Beaty," and lodged some grade-A angry old man insults at the Black Lives Matter movement. "I think these demonstrations are counter-productive, they're silly," Kelly said.

Speaking on John Gambling's AM 970 radio show, Kelly specifically addressed last week's demonstrations outside City Hall, during which protesters organized in part by Millions March NYC called for the divestment of the NYPD, paid reparations to the families of victims of police shootings, and the resignation of Commissioner Bill Bratton (the last of which actually happened).

When asked, Kelly characterized the protests as "so ridiculous and myopic. If there's on group that's concerned about black lives more than any other group it clearly is the police department not only in New York City but really throughout America." He also complained that rallies and marches criticizing police conduct can really "depress" working cops.

"[Police] think they're doing a good job, and then you see these demonstrations," he said.

It's worth noting that that under Kelly's leadership, NYPD officers routinely violated New Yorkers' constitutional rights.

Speaking with the Daily News, Erica Garner, whose unarmed father was killed in police custody on Staten Island in 2014, said "Ray Kelly is scared, as he should be. Scared that a new day is on the horizon."

"Black Lives Matter is civilizing America. We should salute them," she told the tabloid.

Later in his interview, Kellywho now makes an undisclosed salary as an executive at K2 Intelligenceblamed some cities' rising crime rates on the so-called "Ferguson effect," in which officers frightened by investigations and national calls for justice apparently refrain from doing their pledged duty of policing neighborhoods and keeping civilians safe. Kelly also reiterated his affection for stop-and-frisk. "Stopping and questioning people who are acting suspiciously," is "perfectly reasonable and authorized in the law," he said.
Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Saturday said militant group NDFB(S) had direct involvement in Friday's attack in Kokrajhar district that claimed 14 lives.



"Direct involvement of NDFB(S) in the Kokrajhar violence has been found following unearthing of vital information," an official release quoting Sonowal said.



Sonowal, who also holds the Home portfolio, said the police have got some vital information and contact numbers from the mobile phone of a terrorist who was gunned down by the police during the attack at Balajan Tiniali market.



The slain militant was identified as Anjoy Islary alias Monjoy and he was the self-styled commanding officer of the NDFB(S), senior minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.



The insurgent was identified from his photo in police records and DNA tests would be conducted to establish his identity beyond doubt, he added.



"Ours is a zero tolerance approach towards terrorism. We are fully committed towards protecting the life and property of the people of the state and we consider it as our first and foremost duty," the Chief Minister was quoted as saying in the statement.



In view of the Kokrajhar incident and the upcoming Independence Day, Sonowal asked the civil and police administration to be on high alert and to beef up security to thwart designs of anti-national forces.



He directed the DCs and SPs to review the law and order situation on a regular basis and to take measures to prevent any untoward incident, the statement said.



Sonowal also visited Gauhati Medical College Hospital to inquire about the health of the five persons, including a 6-year-old boy, seriously injured in the attack.



He directed the doctors to provide advance healthcare to the victims.



The Chief Minister told reporters that doctors had informed him that all the injured were out of danger. Himanta Biswa Sarma said 14 of the injured were rushed to the nearby Barpeta Medical College Hospital and five of them had been sent to the GMCH.



Seven others who are in Kokrajhar Civil Hospital and those in Barpeta hospital were out of danger, he said.
Four people have been detained in the alleged rape of a five-year-old girl in Uttar Pradesh's Hapur district.



Angered by the incident, villagers, demanding the arrest of the accused, protested against the deteriorating law-and-order situation in the state and blocked the NH-24.



The villagers claimed that they tried calling the emergency number 100 but it was not reachable.



Senior police officials reached the spot and cleared the highway for traffic after assuring the villagers of action against the accused.



The family was sleeping outside their house and at around 1:30 AM they found the girl was missing as they got up to go inside after it started raining, SP Alankrita Singh said.







The family started looking for her and found her unconscious and naked near a tubewell in a forest near the house, she said.



The girl was rushed to a private hospital in Pilakhua in a serious condition from where she was referred to Meerut, Singh said.



A rape case has been registered in this connection and teams have been formed to nab the accused, the SP said.



The incident comes after the horrific gang rape of a mother and her teenage daughter on NH91 in Bulandshahr.



(With inputs from PTI)
Gandhinagar: BJP leader Vijay Rupani was on Sunday sworn in as the Chief Minister of Gujarat while Nitin Patel took over as the Deputy CM in the presence of senior BJP leaders including former CM Anandiben Patel, LK Advani and others.



Sixty-year-old Rupani met Governor OP Kohli on Saturday and staked claim to form the government, a day after he was elected by BJP legislators to succeed Anandiben Patel, with the central leadership playing a vital role in the choice.



After the meeting with the Governor, BJP state in-charge Dinesh Sharma had said Rupani will take oath on Sunday.



In a dramatic turnaround the BJP central leadership yesterday decided on Rupani, an Amit Shah loyalist and state party chief, to replace Anandiben as the chief minister, instead of Nitin Patel who was the front-runner till the last moment.



Anandiben had insisted on Nitin Patel as her successor, while Shah stood firm by Rupani.



As a compromise formula, Patel was elevated to be Deputy Chief Minister after intervention of the central leadership, including Modi.



Selection of Rupani, who belongs to Jain Baniya community, is being seen as a deft move by the party to avoid the impression of favouring any major segment of the society over others.



While the Patel community has been on a warpath with their demand for OBC quota, the state has witnessed Dalit unrest over the widely condemned Una flogging incident which seems to have dented the image of the government.



Rupani, who came up through the RSS, is being assigned the task of leading BJP in the polls at a time when BJP is struggling to retain its political base.



A devoted RSS member since his school days, Rupani, hailing from politically significant Saurashtra region, is known for hard work but keeps a low profile.



Rupani, who represents Rajkot West seat, joined Jan Sangh in 1971 and has been associated with BJP since its formation.



His elevation to the top post is also being seen as a recognition to the Jain community, which was recently accorded minority status by the state government.



Born in Rangoon (now Yangon, in Myanmar) to Ramniklal Rupani in 1956, he grew up in Rajkot where he joined RSS as a school boy. He pursued BA and then LLB.



As the chairman of the state tourism corporation, he headed 'Khushbu Gujarat Ki' campaign to popularise the state as a tourist destination.



Between 2006-12, he was a member of Rajya Sabha. During this period he was a part of various Parliamentary committees on water resources, food, public distribution and public undertaking.



In October 2014, he won the Assembly bye-election from Rajkot West after the sitting MLA Vajubhai Vala resigned upon appointment as Karnataka Governor.



On February 19, Rupani became the state BJP president, replacing R C Faldu, which was seen as a victory for the Amit Shah faction in state BJP.
New Delhi: Designer Rina Dhaka said that she will be making a special announcement to support the handloom campaign in Varanasi on National Handloom Day, which falls on Sunday, but doesn't have the full details yet.



Dhaka says apex fashion body, the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI), is supporting the campaign. She added that she is unaware about the other details related to the event.



"I am off to Varanasi tomorrow (Sunday) for some announcement. I have no clue of what the agenda is... All I know is that FDCI (Fashion Design Council of India) is supporting this initiative and they have asked me to be a part of this journey to Varanasi to make an announcement supporting this cause," Dhaka told IANS in a telephonic conversation.



Dhaka, who has styled big names like Naomi Campbell, Martha Marzotto and Uma Thurman, added that she will have a clear picture only when she will reach Varanasi.



The designer said: "I will get a clear picture tomorrow (Sunday). I don't have any information about it ... Mr. (FDCI president Sunil) Sethi had called me and asked me to be on the plane tomorrow."


Mumbai: Actor Akshay Kumar says that the subject of his upcoming film Rustom will be loved by women and also save marriages and stop divorces.



"It is a different subject, it is based on real-life stories and it is the first time somebody is playing a Parsi Navy officer, neither has anybody played a Parsi main lead or an officer's role," actor said.



When asked what one thing he would like to take back from the film, he said, "I am going to take my uniform. And I am not only going to take back, on the contrary, this film is going to give, it is going to save a lot of marriages and is going to stop people from taking divorce, you invest so much into a relationship, so this film is going to tell you what goes into it."



The film is based on the theme of infidelity and extra-marital relationships, when Akshay Kumar's character finds his wife cheating on him and then apparently kills her lover, leading to a court case, public sympathy and media trial on proving his guilt or innocence in the matter. The film is based on the 1959 case of a naval officer K. M. Nanavati and the murder of his wife's lover.



The film has received support from the industry with Salman Khan, Ranveer Singh, Sonakshi Sinha, Sonam Kapoor and Karan Johar all making special videos on social media. Akshay said, "It's great when the industry supports you and I'm very thankful to Salman for starting this and also to Ranveer, Sonakshi, Karan Johar, Sonam."



"It is nice to see the whole fraternity coming together and doing this... It helps a lot, their fans also watch that they are saying that 'you should go and watch it'," he said.



Rustom, also starring Ileana D'Cruz, Esha Gupta, Arjan Bajwa, Pavan Malhotra among others, releases on August 12.


Rio De Janeiro: A bullet that penetrated the roof of the media center at the Rio Olympics equestrian venue may have been a stray fired by a gunman aiming at police aircraft, Brazil's defense minister said on Sunday.

"At that precise moment we had drones flying over the favela and we also had a balloon flying over," Defense Minister Raul Jungmann told journalists.

"A possible hypothesis is that someone felt he was being followed, filmed, observed, and it's possible -- although nothing is certain yet -- that the shot was fired from there," he said.

Police, which fall under military control in Brazil, are engaged in often brutal operations against drug traffickers who control swaths of Rio's favelas, as poor, often largely unregulated neighborhoods are called. Shootings are an everyday occurrence.

No one was hurt when the bullet hit the media tent, but the incident embarrassed Brazilian authorities who have deployed an unprecedented 85,000 soldiers and police to protect the Olympics.

A TVNZ report said the bullet narrowly missed a New Zealand team official who was badly shaken by the incident.

The Deodoro equestrian venue, where the first day of the dressage competition was being held on Saturday, is on a military base.
Rio de Janeiro: Australia's women lowered the 4x100m freestyle world record to capture their country's second gold on the opening night of swimming competition at the Rio Olympics.

Emma McKeon, Brittany Elmslie, Bronte Campbell and individual world record-holder Cate Campbell clocked 3min 30.65sec to hold off the United States, who claimed silver in 3:31.89 with Canada third in 3:32.89.

Australia improved on the world record of 3:30.98 set by an Australian quartet at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on July 24, 2014.

"Definitely my favorite race ever, in an Olympic final with my sister and two girls I have known since I was 12, 13 years old and a gold and a world record. You can't ask for more," said Bronte Campbell. "Every kid dreams of it, it's what we always hoped for."

Elder sister Cate, who set the individual 100m free world record in July, said the Aussies' status as favorites hadn't led to over-confidence.

"There was no mention of gold medals or world records or placings in the lead-up," she said. "It was safe changeovers and swim your own race and focus on yourself more than anything else."

The US pulled out their biggest weapon in freestyle phenom Katie Ledecky. Although the 100m is not her speciality, the 19-year-old treble world record-holder is a fearsome competitor and when she swam the fastest leg in the heats she secured her spot in the final.

Ledecky, who tackles the 400m free on Sunday, was delighted to kick off her Rio campaign with the outing.

"It's much more fun to have a relay as the first event," she said. "We just wanted to give the Australians a fight."

Simone Manuel, Abbey Weitzel, Dana Vollmer and Ledecky claimed silver in 3:31.89.

Canada's Sandrine Mainville, Chantal Van Landeghem, Taylor Ruck and Penny Oleksiak were third in 3:32.89.

"We were there," Ledecky said. "Im really happy with it."
Thailand's Sopita Tanasan blew away the opposition to grab the first gold medal of the weightlifting competition at the Rio Games on Saturday.

The 21-year-old dominated the women's 48kg, lifting 92kg in the snatch and 108kg in the clean and jerk for a total of 200kg to finish first in weightlifting's lightest category.

Pint-sized Sopita, a regular lifter in the 53kg class, took full advantage of the withdrawal through injury this week of hot Chinese favourite Hou Zhihui to win with ease.

The 5 ft 1 inch Thai lifted 8kg more than silver medallist Sri Wahyuni Agustiani of Indonesia while evergreen Japanese lifter Hiromi Mayake took bronze with a total of 188kg.

Sopita is the fourth women's weightlifter from Thailand to win an Olympic gold medal.

The weightlifting got under way at the the 6,000-capacity Riocentro Pavilion 2 under a cloud of doping after it was reported earlier in the day that Cypriot weightlifter Antonis Martasides had been sent home from the Olympic Games after failing a drugs test.

The Cyprus Mail said on its website that Martasides had tested positive for a banned substance following an out-of-competition test on July 25 in Athens.

Martasides' credential for Rio was revoked following the test.

Weightlifting has long been plagued by doping scandals.

Russia and Bulgaria, both traditional powerhouses, are banned from the weightlifting competition in Rio for repeated doping offences.

The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) also punished North Korea, Romania, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Moldova by reducing their allocation of lifters.

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Kerala: The Congress led United Democratic Front(UDF) split in Kerala as the former Finance Minister and Kerala Congress Chief, KM Mani parted ways with the UDF on Sunday. Mani was upset that the Congress party didn't back him in alleged bar bribery scam. He also made clear that he will sit in the opposition and won't be joining hands with the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF).



Mani, in the past few days remained absent in the UDF meetings and differences within the alliance were brewing for some time now. Mani has been an ally of United democratic Front alliance since 1982 and finally snapped ties after being sidelined by the Congress party over allegations in bar bribery scam leveled against him.







He said his party was not aligning with the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist or the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).



"We will sit as a separate block in the Kerala assembly and in parliament where we have two members. We will extend our support based on issues," he added. Mani said his party won't create "a crisis in governance" in local bodies.



For the past two days, the leadership of the Kerala Congress (Mani) was involved in internal discussions over its future with the United Democratic Front (UDF).



Even after the Kerala Congress broke up, Mani had remained with the Congress. Mani has been a legislator since 1967 and has presented 13 state budgets. With his departure, the UDF's strength in the 140-member house will slide from 47 to 41.



Former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy described Mani's decision as "painful".



Mani and his party were disappointed especially after the way things turned out in Bar Bribery Scam and allegations were leveled against them. In a Press conference Mani had also stated that there was no political respect that one expects in an alliance and hinted that a section within the Congress party was vigorously working against him and his party.



(With Inputs From IANS)
Melbourne: Retailers offering customers an option to buy products online earn more revenue than those who only sell their goods offline, according to a new study.



The study suggests that customers spend more online because it is easier to locate items through the search function.



Junzhao Ma, a lecturer at Monash University in Australia studied how a larger selection of products available online affects consumer spending, using data from a large US retailer that specialises in apparel and offers both printed catalogue and internet shopping.



In particular, he examined the effect on the retailer's main products, offered in the catalogues and for which there was high demand, and the less-popular niche items that were available on the retailer's website but hard to find in its catalogues.



Ma found that online shoppers spent significantly more than catalogue shoppers on both popular and low-demand products - almost 11 per cent more per customer per year on the main offerings and 250 per cent more on the hard-to-find niche items.



Catalogue shoppers spent only 2.5 per cent of their total on niche items, yet the category accounted for 8.4 per cent of the total spending of online shoppers.



Ma suggests that customers spend more online because it is easier to locate items through the search function, especially the less mainstream items.



"Low-selling (niche) products are regularly pruned from the product line to reduce operational complexity and corresponding cost, but as shoppers grow more accustomed to the idea of searching for niche items online, carrying these niche products can not only yield additional revenue but also help retailers recruit and retain customers," said Ma.



The findings were published in the Journal of Retailing.
A man was shocked to death after falling off of the First Avenue L train platform and onto the electrified third rail Saturday night.

According to police, the 31-year-old Brooklyn man hit the third rail just before 10:15 p.m. last night. Emergency workers rushed the man to a nearby hospital, but later pronounced him dead on arrival. No criminality is suspected, a police spokesperson confirmed.

Hours earlier, a 52-year-old Brooklyn man was struck in the head by a train inside the 42nd Street/Bryant Park station. Just before 5 p.m. yesterday a man was observed crouching on a platform. He was struck in the head by a southbound D train, suffering lacerations and a fractured spine, police said.

Witnesses told investigators the victim was visibly intoxicated and an NYPD spokesperson confirmed that a bottle of vodka was found on his person. Emergency workers rushed him to Bellevue hospital, where he was expected to survive.
Telecom major Vodafone launched a new initiative, offering free 10-minute talk time to customers whose conversations get "interrupted" for any reason."Under Vodafone Delights bonanza - free 10-minute talk time (will be given) to all customers whose conversation gets interrupted for any reason," Vodafone India said in a statement.To avail the benefit, customers will have to SMS 'BETTER' on 199 and the 10-minute talk time will be credited, it added. Customers in the country have been facing the menace of call drops across operators. The government has held meetings with operators and issued instructions to improve the situation."Each conversation on our network is important and must carry on uninterrupted. At times, however, conversations do get interrupted. To continue such conversations, we are offering 10-minute talk time benefit, no questions asked," Vodafone India Director (Consumer) Sandeep Kataria said. However, the credit can be availed once during the month long offer period and is applicable only within the same circle on Vodafone to Vodafone calls.For prepaid customers, the free minutes will be valid till next day midnight and for postpaid customers, till the end of the billing cycle.Vodafone's rival, Airtel launched an unlimited voice-calling for postpaid users for Rs 1,199 onwards. Earlier this week, Vodafone had also come out with promotional schemes offering up to 67 per cent more data of 2G, 3G and 4G services at same price during this month.These announcement come ahead of the impending launch of Reliance Jio's 4G service. Reliance Jio launch is expected to cause a massive disruption in pricing of data and voice-calling services.
Great pizza, fine dining at KAVA

Lets Eat paid a visit to KAVA last week and chatted with manager/owner Heath Gerard Marcoviche and Kapok director Diana Cohen-Chan. The duo spoke about the history of the restaurant and how their ideas came together to implement it.

On his love of food Marcoviche recalled that growing up the family had to ration food, but every Saturday they had a treat. One Saturday his mother made hot dogs and Marcoviche, aged five, ate one hot dog but was told to leave the other for another day. His father, however, said to let him eat it because you never know what would happen tomorrow.

You have a passion for something. I like to see people eat. It is something that makes me smile, he explained.

A pizza chef, Marcoviche said that he was never formally trained as a chef nor did he go to culinary school but learned through the food places that he worked. He learned from various chefs, including in the US State of Chicago.

After working under a number of people Marcoviche decided to take the bold step and open his own restaurant.

Through a friend he was introduced to Cohen-Chan who had a similar idea to do something on the Kapok compound.

Cohen-Chan explained that she could not believe that both their ideas meshed. She recalled he told her if she was totally serious he would sign a cheque the next day.

The current restaurant spot used to house Meiling designs but when the fashion store returned to Carlos Street, Woodbrook the location was left empty. There were a number of people who expressed interest in the spot but they were not a good fit for Kapok.

Cohen-Chan said with Marcoviche she found someone with equal passion and a fresh concept they wanted to bring to fruition.

She said that the place was the same footprint of the original Kapok restaurant, which later became the Caf? Savannah, so Kava opened at the same location where it started.

Thats good energy, she added.

She said they wanted to add more energy and have a lobby space with dynamism and she believes that they have achieved that. The restaurant was opened in June 2012.

On the name of the restaurant they wanted something to capture energy and exotic. The kava plant, found in Polynesian islands, is an intoxicating plant. Cohen-Chan said they want people to be intoxicated by KAVA and want to come back. The plant also features in the restaurants logo.

Asked about the menu, Marcoviche said it was a bit of everything. The eclectic menu features artisan brick oven pizzas, gourmet burgers, pastas, salad options for the health conscious and ribs, pastas, steaks, wantons and other treats.

He explained that they try to capture everybody and at the right price point. He said that people may feel that because it is a hotel the prices would be higher, but KAVAs prices are competitive or cheaper than some other restaurants.

Marcoviche pointed out that the burgers are not frozen but made in house, and they grind their own meats and make their own patties fresh.

He said that you will taste the difference when you try it. He also said their food is not a fine dining nor is it a shop either.

We are basically excellent quality food, fine dining standard and a very good price, he explained.

The 2.5 tonne brick oven, where they make their pizzas, is showcased at the front of the restaurant and people can get one on one interaction with the pizza chef. It is especially popular among children, who enjoy seeing the process.

Among their other dishes Marcoviche said that the steaks are very popular among customers and people come to KAVA especially for it.

On the general responses to the food he said that get both positive and negative feedback, but the response from the majority so far has been excellent.

They love the food, ambiance and service, he added.

The restaurant has a 4/5 rating on website tripadvisor.

Kavas smoked salmon pizza is addictive! I just cannot get enough of it. Their other food items, for example eggplant parmesan is also delicious but the pizza is more than worth it. The oven baked pizzas are great for either lunch or dinner. The service is top class, very pleasant staff. Highly recommended, one poster wrote.

I absolutely love this place, from the really yummy pizzas, great cocktails and awesome service, I really cant complain. I hadnt been in a couple years, but when I returned it was like Id never left as the staff remembered me and greeted me like an old friend (and remembered my name too!).

Big kudos to Gerard and his team for keeping this place so awesome! Special mention to Diana and Jeremiah for your big smiles and fantastic service every time! another poster wrote.

For our meal my photographer and I had vegetarian pizza with rosemary oil and hot chilli flakes, Atlantic salmon grilled and baked in the oven with fried vermicelli, grilled vegetables with tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, green peppers and onions topped with goat cheese, balsamic and pesto, and lamb burger with mint yogurt sauce.

The pizza was tasty and flavourful, the smoky and crispy salmon was outstanding, and the burger was supremely delicious and meltin- your-mouth great.

On the vegetables, I am not generally a fan of tomato but the grilled tomato was the best I have ever eaten.

Cohen-Chan said the restaurant has both indoor and outdoor dining and is a cozy and intimate space. On the clients they have an attractive cross section, including the professional who wants to have a glass of wine or cup of coffee, or business groups coming for an hour. They have a lot of repeat customers and some they see every week together with new faces.

Cohen-Chan said anyone can drop in anytime and feel the vibe of KAVA, and while others have tried to recreate the experience it is not the same.

On the design she said they wanted something sophisticated but inviting and down to earth, and had to be cozy so people can be comfortable.

Marcoviche said that they are not trying to be the best restaurant in the country but just want people to feel at home, eat, drink and enjoy yourself and come again.

He reported that a representative from the Pegasus Hotel in Guyana was so impressed by KAVA that they introduced a similar restaurant at that establishment.

Asked about the possibilities for the next four years Marcoviche said interest has been expressed in opening up KAVA restaurants in other countries.

For more information please call 622-5282.
Unearthing artistic passion

However, the example of local painter, Anton Hadaway, who began painting professionally only four years ago at the age of 46, is an encouragement to all not to give up. It is also an encouragement that when you find that thing you love, to take the chance and make a change.

After attending secondary school, Hadaway decided he wanted to become a pastry chef and went to study Hotel, Food and Beverage Management at the Catering and Hotel Management, at Les Roches Hotel School in Switzerland. He worked at various hotels in England in a number of positions from 1987 to 1993.

But, his first experience of painting was as part of his Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC) National Diploma course in Decoration and Restoration Studies in England, which he completed it in 1993.

While working in England I did the BTEC course because, as I did not have a portfolio, it was the only way I could find as a conduit to get into the artistic realm, he said.

He learned several techniques, which he now applies in his multi-media paintings, including patterns, faux finishings such as marbling and graining, and Trompe Loeil.

By the end of his BTEC diploma, he had developed an interest in jewellery and so pursued a Bachelors of Arts in Jewellery, Silver Smithing and Allied Craft.

I always had a creative soul. It seems I had an innate ability so that most of these creative processes came easy to me and with respect to my interests, in my life, I go with my intuition, he said.

From 1993 to 1999, he moved from job to job in various industries, but returned to Trinidad and Tobago in 1999. Over the next 11 years, he worked at a popular resort in Tobago, at an accounting firm, and then started a catering business, doing what he first wanted to do as a career. He said by 2010, he started losing his zeal for catering and felt the need to make a change. Going back into the arts had been on his mind for a while, and he had mentioned it to his friend and now business partner at Sepia Studios in Woodbrook, Robert Ramkissoon, who encouraged him to do something about it and get back in touch with his creativity.

In January 2012, Hadaway discovered an oil painting course taught by local artist Marsha Bhagwansingh. The course got me back into art and gave me a level of confidence so that I felt I could go forward with this, he said.

And so, at age 46, he began painting with oil paints on canvas. Soon after the course, he contributed two pieces to the Art Societys 70th Anniversary exhibit in November 2012. Both his pieces, Dragonfly and Bird of Paradise, were sold.

Hadaway told Sunday Newsday that painting was the one because it has been the best way for him to express his emotions. Painting is there and its not going to go anywhere. I have to keep doing it even though it can sometimes be a struggle as I have struggled with depression all my life. I can go days without doing anything if Im not in the frame of mind to do it, he said.

Hadaway added that he has yet to develop a singular style as he gets bored easily. He does not like to be repetitive so he tries different things in oil and acrylic.

He enjoys creating a textural look and so sometimes use materials in his mixed media creations including fibre glass, pallet sticks, wire, wood, embroidery thread, and string - all depending on the subject.

He also does not like realism. Instead, he gets his inspiration from whatever he feels attracted to, such as the sea and thunder storms.

Therefore his painting style incorporates surrealism, expressionism, abstract art and others.

I dont do things for doing it sake. Theres something that has to attract me, some emotional reaction to an image, whether I take it myself or use someone elses, he said.

While he makes most of his income from Sepia Studios, which the co-owns with Ramkissoon, he would like to one day make a living from painting alone. I would love to leave a legacy in Trinidad and Tobago, for people to one day say, I have a Hadaway, and to get that recognition within my lifetime, he said.
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US: We See

No Signs

Putin Will

Use Dirty Bomb
(Newser)  Iran has executed a nuclear scientist who gave the US intelligence about the country's contested nuclear program, Iran's official news agency, IRNA, is confirming. The Sunday report quotes a spokesman for the Iranian judiciary, Gholamhosein Mohseni Ejehi, as confirming the execution of Shahram Amiri. He says Amiri "provided the enemy with vital information of the country." US officials in 2010 said they paid Amiri some $5 million to defect and provide "significant" information about Iran's atomic program. But Amiri later fled the US without the money, reports the AP.

Iranian officials previously touted Amiri's claim he had been abducted by US agents while on a pilgrimage to holy sites in Saudi Arabia. They welcomed him home in 2010 as a hero. Earlier foreign media reports cited Amiri's mother saying her son had been executed by Iran. More on Amiri's saga here. (Read more Iran stories.)
(Newser)  "Know that I am so close behind you that if you stretch out your hand, I think you can reach mine." Those are among the last words Leonard Cohen wrote to the woman who inspired his songs So Long, Marianne and Bird on the Wire. Marianne Ihlen, known as Cohen's muse, died in Norway on July 29 at 81 years old, the Guardian reports. It was Ihlen's friend, Jan Christian Mollestad, who informed Cohen late last month that she was dying of leukemia. Within two hours, Mollestad tells the CBC, a letter from Cohen arrived. "We brought it to her the next day and she was fully conscious," he says, "and she was so happy that he had already written something for her." Two days later, Ihlen "lost consciousness and slipped into death."

In the letter, Cohen tells Ihlen that he always loved her wisdom and beauty, "but I don't need to say anything more about that because you know all about that. But now, I just want to wish you a very good journey. Goodbye old friend. Endless love, see you down the road." The pair met on the Greek Island of Hydra in the 60s, per Rolling Stone, and ended up staying together for seven years after Cohen invited Ihlen and her young son to live with him in Montreal. A post on Cohen's Facebook page says Ihlen's death has "evoked an overwhelming response from those who knew Marianne well, those who knew her only as Leonard Cohen's muse, and even those who previously didn't know there was a real Marianne." In an accompanying post, Mollestad writes that, "In her last hour I held her hand and hummed Bird on the Wire." (Read more Leonard Cohen stories.)
Now that a federal judge has ruled that Dean and Adam Skelos can spend their appeal for bribery convictions as free men, Sheldon Silver's lawyers are asking for the same treatment.

SIlver's lawyers asked U.S. District Court Judge Valerie Caproni for "equal treatment" after the Skelos decision this week, according to the New York Post. Silver's attempt to get out on bail, and his appeal, hinge on the same argument that the Skeloses made, which was that jury instructions defining public corruption were misleading in light of McDonnell v. United States redefining the crime. In Silver's case, an appeal would hinge on convincing a judge that asking a real estate firm with business before the state to give a law firm tax work so that the law firm would then pay him money, and steering cases towards a law firm that paid him referral fees in exchange for state funding for a researcher were things that Silver would do for any constituent.

Prosecutors, unsurprisingly think Silver should still have to start his sentence at the end of August. The Daily News reports they sent Caproni a letter arguing that their jury instructions were fine even in light of the Supreme Court case and that even if they messed up a little bit with the instructions, it "was harmless in view of the overwhelming and undisputed proof" they showed of Silver's corruption.
(Newser)  Marco Rubio acknowledges that microcephaly, a birth defect associated with Zika virus, "is a terrible prenatal condition" and that children born with it face a "lifetime of difficulties." Nonetheless, the Republican senator from Florida tells Politico that he doesn't believe pregnant women infected with Zika should be able to get abortions. "When you present it in the context of Zika or any prenatal condition, its a difficult question and a hard one," Rubio says. "But if Im going to err, Im going to err on the side of life."

Per the CDC, Florida is the only state that has Zika infections that were transmitted by local mosquitoes, as opposed to being travel related. According to the Miami Herald, there were 16 such cases as of last week. In June, a bill to provide $1.1 billion to the fight against Zika derailed when Democrats balked at a provision that would have prevented Planned Parenthood from getting any of the funds, according to Quartz. Rubio tells Politico that both parties have played "political volleyball" with the issue. (Read more Zika virus stories.)
Gandhinagar:

Vijay Rupani was on Sunday sworn-in as the new Chief Minister of Gujarat while Nitin Patel took oath as Deputy Chief Minister at a grand ceremony attended by top BJP leaders.



Nine ministers from the previous Cabinet, including some considered as loyalists of outgoing Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, have been dropped.



Governor O P Kohli administered the oath of office and secrecy to 60-year-old Rupani and Patel.



Eight Cabinet-rank ministers, including Nitin Patel, and 16 Ministers of State were also sworn-in. The total size of the Council of Ministers, including the Chief Minister and Deputy CM now stands at 25.



The oath-taking ceremony was held in the presence of top BJP leaders including its president Amit Shah, party veteran L K Advani, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Union Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan.



The Chief Ministers of Maharashtra, Jharkhand and HaryanaDevendra Fadnavis, Raghubar Das and Manohar Lal Khattar respectivelywere among the other dignitaries present on the occasion.



Former Minister of State for Home Rajnibhai Patel and Women and Child Development Minister Vasuben Trivedi, considered as loyals of the outgoing Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, have been dropped from the new Cabinet.



The others who were dropped from Rupanis Cabinet include Finance Minister Saurabh Patel, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Ramanlal Vora and MoS for Science and Technology Govind Patel.



On August 3, Anandiben Patel had submitted her resignation to Governor, after the partys parliamentary board in Delhi accepted her offer to quit the post.



On Friday, the BJP central leadership chose Rupani for the post of the Chief Minister instead of Nitin Patel, who was considered a sure pick for the top job in the poll-bound state.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Mumbai:

2 people lost their lives and over 10 injured as a two storey building collapsed in the powerloom town of Bhiwandi. Rescue workers successfully pulled out four people from the debris while some others are feared trapped.



This is the second time a building has collapsed in less than a week time.



Regional disaster management cell (RDMC) chief of the Thane Municipal Corporation, Santosh Kadam told PTI that the building located at Hanuman Tekadi locality on the Kalyan road collapsed at around 8 AM and seven-eight persons are feared trapped.



Kadam said disaster control teams from Thane and Kalyan were rushed to the spot immediately upon receiving an alert, while local firemen were also pressed into action.



Rescue operation is underway while officials are also trying to figure out the actual number of families residing inside the building.



It has been learnt that occupants were served with several notices to vacate the building by the civic body.



Last week on Sunday, a two storey residential building had crashed amid heavy rains claiming nine lives, including that of four children and three women, while 10 others were injured.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Former Supreme Court Justice Markandey Katju has already prepared a first interim report on behalf of the BCCI based on the Justice Lodha panel recommendations, which is now binding after the Supreme Court verdict on July 18.



He will be handing over the said report to the BCCI president Anurag Thakur at a formal event on Sunday.



Honble Retd. Justice Markandey Katju has informed the BCCI that he will be releasing his first (interim report) to the BCCI. Accordingly, he will hand over the said report to the BCCI, it was stated in a press release.



It is expected that the interim report will be the reference point for BCCIs president Thakur and secretary Shirke as they gear up to meet the Lodha panel members on Tuesday.



Some of the concerns for BCCI are age cap of 70 years, cumulative tenure of nine years, three year cooling off period between two posts and one state-one vote policy.
New Delhi :

A new footage is out that shows one of the suspected terrorists who gunned down 13 people and injured nearly 20 at the village market in Assam's Kokrajhar on Friday. The suspected NDFB (S) terrorist was caught on camera walking causally in the market.

In the cell phone shots accessed by a news channel, the suspect can be seen wearing a blue rain coat, an automatic rifle slung across his shoulder.

The spotted gunman was killed by the security forces who rushed to the spot soon after the firing began. A second gunman escaped.

According to PTI the dead terrorist has been identified as Manjay Islari. He is a self-styled area commander of 16th battalion of NDFB(S) faction.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Saturday met the victims of Kokrajhar terror attack at the hospital where they have been admitted.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Kuala Lumpur:

Malaysia has warned that an Indonesia-based militants followers are looking to make South-East Asia the new base for Islamic State terror group, days after six Indonesian militants were arrested for plotting a missile attack at Singapores Marina Bay. I

Malaysias Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said according to intelligence reports some of Indonesia-based Abu Bakar Bashirs 300 followers, who were in jail, have been released and they reportedly went to Batam, a small island in Indonesias Riau archipelago in the South China Sea.

A short boat ride from Singapore, its a free trade zone with multiple busy ports, known for its beaches and resorts. From there, they want to make South-East Asia the new port for IS, he told reporters yesterday.

Abu Bakar, known as the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, behind the 2002 Bali bombings, was sentenced to 15 years jail in 2011.

Ahmad Zahid said Malaysians should be mindful as extremism had reached a stage where it was no longer what if but when will it happen?.

Seeking cooperation from everyone to fight the rising threat in the South-East Asian region, he said that Malaysian authorities were discussing with their counterparts on ways to enhance security in the region.

Six Indonesian militants, including an ISIS fighter, were arrested on Friday for plotting a missile attack at Singapores Marina Bay.

Even before Fridays foiled rocket attack on Singapores Marina Bay, Ahmad Zahid said the Defence and Home ministries had placed assets and manpower at areas dubbed black spots for security purposes.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Tokyo:

China has installed a radar with potential military functions in a disputed area of the East China Sea, Japanese media said today, in the latest flare-up of tensions between the two countries.

The Japanese foreign ministry said China had placed a surface search radar and surveillance camera on one of its structures in a gasfield which is claimed by both countries, the Nikkei business daily reported. The ministry on Friday complained to Beijing through diplomatic channels, the newspaper reported.

The paper said it was the first radar unit known to have been installed on any of the Chinese structures in the area, which is believed to be rich in oil and gas deposits.

Tokyo is analysing the radars capability and is concerned that Beijing could be intending to strengthen its military power in the East China Sea. The foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.

Japan and China agreed in 2008 to jointly develop the undersea reserves in the disputed area, with a ban on unilateral drilling.

But negotiations stalled and Tokyo suspects China has some drilling rigs in operation near its de facto maritime border with Japan.

Today, Tokyo separately protested to Beijing after two Chinese ships entered Japanese waters near disputed islands also in the East China Sea.

Japans government said the two Chinese coastguard ships were sailing some 20 kilometres west of one of the Senkaku islands, known as the Diaoyus in Chinese, today morning.

The intrusion violates our countrys sovereignty and is completely unacceptable, Japanese vice foreign minister Shinsuke Sugiyama told Cheng Yonghua, Beijings ambassador to Tokyo, by phone, according to a government statement.

The two vessels left the waters later in the day, the Japanese coastguard said. Yesterday Japanese maritime officials reported seeing some 230 Chinese fishing vessels and seven coastguard ships, including four apparently carrying weapons, sailing into the same waters.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Jerusalem:

Israels energy minister today criticised a landmark nuclear accord between the Jewish states arch-foe Iran and world powers but said Tehran had so far respected the deal.

The agreement, which was signed in July 2015 and came into force in January, saw Tehran accept curbs to its nuclear programme in exchange for a lifting of economic sanctions by world powers.

Its a bad deal but its an accomplished fact and during the first year we spotted no significant breach from the Iranians, said Youval Steinitz, who is close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But its still too early to conclude that this 12-year deal is a success, he told public radio. Steinitzs comments came after US President Barack Obama on Thursday defended the accord.

Israels defence ministry, led by hardliner Avigdor Lieberman, on Friday compared the deal with Iran to the 1938 Munich Agreement, which allowed Nazi Germany to annex parts of then Czechoslovakia.

Netanyahu the same day repeated his countrys rejection of the Iran deal but stressed that Israel and the United States remained great allies.

For several months the US and Israeli governments have been negotiating the terms of a new 10-year defence aid pact to replace the current one, which expires in 2018 and is worth more than USD 3 billion (2.7 billion euros) per year. The Netanyahu government wants the United States to increase the annual amount of military assistance it provides.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Sambhal (UP):

A minor dalit girl was allegedly attacked by a baba while trying to fetch water from his ashram here today, police said.

The incident took place when the 13-year-old girl, after working in her field, tried to fetch take water from the ashram of Baba Puran Singh in Gangura village in Ginnaur area who attacked her with his trident, they said.

The girl was injured in the incident. Later, her father Charan Singh Jatav lodged an FIR withthe police.

An FIR has been lodged against the accused under SC/ST atrocities prevention Act and other sections of IPC. The accused has been arrested, police said.

Further probe in the case is on, they added.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Chandigarh :

Punjab BJP today condemned the murderous attack on RSS leader Jagdish Gagneja and demanded strict action against those who were behind the incident.



All of us in the core committee have condemned this incident and demanded strict action against those who were behind this attack, Punjab BJP President Vijay Sampla today said.



A meeting of the partys core committee was held in Jalandhar in the wake of attack on Gagneja by bike-borne assailants.



Sampla, also a Union minister, said they would also meet Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and demand stringent action against those who were involved in it.



He also termed the incident as a matter of concern and asked police to remain extra vigilant to prevent such incidents in future.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Hyderabad:

If you want to shoot, shoot me, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, as he called for stopping the attacks on Dalits and the politics over it.



Making an emotional appeal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday asked people to protect and respect Dalits who have for long been neglected by the society.



I would like to tell these people that if you have any problem, if you have attack, attack me. Stop attacking my Dalit brethren. If you have to shoot, shoot me, but not my Dalit brothers. This game should stop, he said addressing BJP workers here.



The Prime Minister said if the country has to progress it cannot ignore key mantras of peace, unity and harmony.



Countrys unity is the main source of countrys development, he said.

His comments come at a time when the NDA government is facing flak over incidents of violence against Dalits and Muslims by cow vigilantes in various states including Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.



Modi said at times some incidents come to notice which give us unbearable pain. It should be our responsibility to save and respect them (Dalits), he said without referring to any particular incident.



Modi asked what right the perpetrators had to exploit Dalits and said the unity in society should be our priority.



I know this problem is social. It is a result of sins which have crept into the society... But we need to take extra care and save society from such danger (of social strife), he said. Modi said the society should not be allowed to be divided on the basis of caste, religion and social status.



Deprecating those who try to make political currency out of such issues, the Prime Minister said attempts to politicize those would only aggravate the problem.



Those who want to solve this social problem, I request them to leave politics that divides the society. Divisive politics will not do any good to the country, he said.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Rio de Janeiro:

Indian shooters Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Kynan Chenai were placed at the 17th and 19th spots after the first day of Men's Trap qualification event at Olympic Games here today.

Sandhu and Chenai could come up with scores of 68 and 67 respectively in the three rounds after a total of 33 shooters participated on day 1 with each athlete taking 75 shots each.

Sandhu scored 23, 23, 22, while Chenai posted 22, 23, 22 in the three rounds at the shotgun range in Olympic shooting centre here.

After the completion of the first round, Sandhu was placed at 14th while Chenai lied at 28th spot. The former improved a place with a score of 46 in the second round, while Chenai too rose to the 16th spot with a score of 45.

The duo will return tomorrow for the second day of qualification where there will be two more rounds of 25 targets each.

At the top, Fabbrizi Massimo of Italy was the only shooter to produce a record score of 75, while Great Britain's

Ling Edward and Italian Pellielo Giovanni were placed at the second and third spot with 73 each.

Top six shooters after day 1

1. Massimo Fabbrizi - Italy (75)

2. Edward Ling - Great Britain (73)

3. Giovanni Pellielo - Italy (73)

4. Josip Glasnovic - Croatia (72)

5. David Kostelecky - Czech Republic (72)

6. Roberto Schmits - Brazil (71).
Names and faces

Michele Fairclough has been promoted to the position of medical services director at Montana State Fund. She has worked at Montana State Fund as a claims examiner and the provider relations specialist.

Fairclough is a native of Helena, a graduate of Capital High School and Carroll College, and has more than 25 years of experience in the workers compensation industry. In her new role, Fairclough will provide leadership and visionary direction for medical services and medical cost containment programs at Montana State Fund.

***

Tara "Tea" Hite joins Information Systems of Montana as a help desk engineer and dispatch coordinator. Hite recently moved to Helena from Akron, Ohio.

Hite brings with her four years of tech experience working for companies such as Geek Squad, Geek in Pink and most recently Time Warner Cable (Charter). Her skills include troubleshooting Windows and Mac operating systems, replacing and upgrading hardware, virus and malware removal, remote support and outstanding customer service. Information Systems of Montana is a locally owned and operated IT consulting company. ISM can be found at www.infosysmt.com or 443-8386.

***

Tetra Tech has announced that Ryan Ford, P.E. has rejoined the Helena office where he previously worked from 2011 to 2015. Ford graduated from Montana State University in 2010 with a civil engineering degree and recently passed the Professional Engineering (P.E.) exam for Montana. Ford will provide technical engineering support for abandoned mine and contaminated site remediation projects, conduct soil, water, and asbestos sampling on various projects, and assist with preparing engineering designs, technical reports, and feasibility studies.

***

The United Way of the Lewis and Clark Area (UWLCA) has announced the nomination and approval of five new members of the board of directors. The board of directors is responsible for governing the long-standing locally-based nonprofit organization. The UWLCA would like to welcome Wilmot Collins, Montana Developmental Center; Suzi Stanger, Helena Motors; Nancy Granger Cormier, Morrison-Maierle; Angela Murdo, Anderson Zurmuehlen; and Tom McGree, Ascent Bancorp. The UWLCA would like to also introduce Ron Waterman as the elected 2016-2017 United Way Board President. Waterman is a longstanding UWLCA advocate and board member who will chair the 14-member Board of Directors.

***

Craig Erickson, CGW of Great West Engineering has been selected as the local government chair for the American Grant Writers Association (AGWA). The AGWA is the national association of professional grant writers, grant researchers and grant managers.

As local government chair, Erickson will share his expertise of grant writing through a series of articles and help fellow grant writers by highlighting local opportunities to secure funding for their communities. He has planned, prepared, and/or managed funding applications that have brought approximately $100 million to communities throughout Montana.

***

Cathy Burwell, president/CEO of the Helena Area Chamber of Commerce, was recently recognized by the national chamber professional organization -- the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives -- for attaining 25 years of chamber leadership. Burwell led the Beaverhead Chamber in Dillon for eight years prior to coming to Helena. She has been at the helm of the Helena Chamber for 17 years.

***

The Montana State Library announced that Tracy Cook will serve as the new director of its statewide library resources division. The statewide library resources division of the Montana State Library strives to help all Montana citizens receive the information they need in order to improve and enhance their lives by improving public library services and promoting cooperation among Montana libraries.

Cook will serve as one of the senior managers at the state library. She will provide leadership and guidance related to library programs, services and facilities to libraries throughout the state.

Cook joins the state library with 15 years of experience in library administration, consulting, technology and outreach. She received her B.S. in accounting from the University of Wyoming in Laramie and earned a masters degree in information research and library science from the University of Arizona in Tucson.

***

News and notes

18 liquor licenses available

The Montana Department of Revenue announces 18 new liquor licenses in 11 communities and is accepting lottery applications.

Every year, the departments Liquor Control Division adjusts the number of licenses available in each quota area based on census population estimates. The division then advertises for license applications.

After reviewing this years population estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau, the department is adding the following licenses:

Anaconda/Deer Lodge  1 beer license

Billings - 1 beer license; 1 restaurant beer and wine license

Bozeman/Belgrade - 2 all-beverage floater licenses; 1 beer license; 1 restaurant beer and wine license

Columbus - 2 all-beverage floater licenses; 1 beer license

Darby - 1 beer license

Dillon  1 beer license

Ekalaka  1 all-beverage floater License

Fergus County  1 all-beverage

Kalispell - 1 beer license

Liberty County - 1 all-beverage license

Missoula - 1 beer license; 1 restaurant beer and wine license

If the department receives more applications than licenses available, the department will hold a lottery in October. For an all-beverage floater license, the winning lottery candidate has the opportunity to buy a license in another quota area that is over the quota limit and float it into the advertised area.

For more information about how to get the application, apply and the various alcohol license types and requirements, visit revenue.mt.gov or call toll free at 866-859-2254, in Helena 444-6900.

Awards and honors

Helenan receives Easter Seals-Goodwill award

Easter Seals-Goodwill Northern Rocky Mountain held their 2016 Montana Annual Awards Celebration Thursday, July 21st in Great Falls.

Charlie Briggs, of Helena, was honored July 21 in Great Falls at the 2016 Montana Annual Awards Celebration for his accomplishments in furthering the mission of Easter Seals-Goodwill.

Easter Seals-Goodwills SPURS award, the most prestigious of the organizations staff awards, recognizes an employee who has consistently performed well beyond their responsibilities and directly contributes to the organizations success. Briggs, public policy and development officer, received the 2016 SPURS award. Briggs has led public policy efforts for the organization for the past nine years, in addition to serving as a key liaison to both Goodwill Industries International and Easterseals Inc. national public policy offices. He serves on a number of key committees that are vital to shaping the direction of services and funding in Montana including senior and long-term care, autism services, transition advisory group, transit services, disability rights and provider rates committee.

Briggs recently attended a national meeting in Washington, D.C., that included visits on Capitol Hill with key congressional leaders including Senators Tester and Daines.

***

Oldcastle Materials wins safety award

The National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) has announced that Oldcastle Materials  Montana Cos., of Helena, is a winner of the 2015 Asphalt Operations Safety Innovation Award. The company was recognized July 18, at a ceremony honoring the Operational Excellence Award recipients during the NAPA Midyear Meeting in Seattle.

The Asphalt Operations Safety Innovation Award recognizes the development and implementation of innovative ideas that lead to improved worker safety in a roadway work zone, plant site, or quarry environment, and companies whose safety practices go above and beyond normal safety practices.

***

Guidelines

The IR welcomes reports of hiring, promotions, awards, recognition, learning opportunities and other news from local companies and nonprofits. We accept press releases and photos (digital images at 300 dpi or more are preferred, but we can also use regular photos; we dont guarantee return of these).

There is no charge for items appearing in the Business Briefcase. Items are run on a space-available basis, and we reserve the right to edit and use information as we see fit.

The deadline is Tuesday at noon to be considered for publication the following Sunday.
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STAMFORD  Lisa McComb-Williams has no trouble dropping off her daughters, Harper and Harlow, each morning at the downtown Creative Care Child Center.

A nursery school with extended-day programming at 1231 Washington Blvd., Creative Care stands a couple of blocks from McComb-Williams office at a credit-scoring company.

But paying for the child care for her 3- and 5-year-old daughters is not nearly as easy. Even with two full-time incomes from McComb-Williams work and her husbands job in the wine industry, they still struggle to cover the costs of their daughters programming.

Parents like McComb-Williams are hoping that at a time when support of working families has become an increasingly fraught political issue, they will see more financial backing emerge. But parents and policymakers who want to expand child care support will have to grapple with an austere fiscal environment that many believe will not quickly change  even for early childhood initiatives.

Ive always been thrilled with the program; I love it, McComb-Williams said during a morning drop-off at the preschool last week. But its like a college tuition in cost.

Essential, expensive care

Most Connecticut families cannot easily afford child care, according to a report released this year by the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. Only 37 percent of families in the state met an affordability standard of care for a 4-year-old  costing an annual average of about $11,500  not consuming more than 10 percent of their income.

Even more families in the state struggle with paying for infant care: Only 28 percent could afford the average annual bill of about $13,900 without using more than 10 percent of their income.

In comparison, in-state tuition in the past year at the University of Connecticuts main campus in Storrs cost about $10,500.

Its absolutely an enormous issue, said Rachel Leventhal-Weiner, an education policy fellow with the nonprofit Connecticut Voices for Children. Its an issue for families with means and for families coming from the lower-income side. Child care is extremely unaffordable for many Connecticut families across the income spectrum.

For many working parents like McComb-Williams and her husband, paying for child care is not an option  even when its cost to them does not meet affordability standards.

McComb and her husband, who live with their daughters in the Hubbard Heights section of the city, need two full-time incomes. They cannot call on family members to help. McComb-Williams parents still live in her native New Zealand; her husbands parents are deceased.

People will often say, Where are you going on vacation, and Ill say I cant afford to go on vacation, McComb-Williams said. I think that it creates a financial pressure at home. Anytime money is involved, its tough  whether its a mortgage payment or preschool payment.

The monthly bill for two childrens full-day programming at Creative Care totals $2,160. McComb-Williams and her husband do not receive any child care subsidies from their employers, though they receive annual tax credits totaling $1,200 for the day care.

About a half-dozen other parents interviewed this week at Creative Care also said their employers did not subsidize child care. Some, like Megan Kolbrenner, who works in her familys insurance business, get other benefits such as flexibility with their days off. Still, the costs quickly mount.

Creative Care is a hidden gem, said Kolbrenner, whose 5-year-old son is in the program. Its not necessarily just this place, but child care is crazy expensive. Its like a mortgage.

Creative Care co-owners Martha Fullilove and Carolyn Toreso Mason said that they are sympathetic to the predicament of working parents. They offer a range of pricing options based on the amount of time children spend in the program, as well as discounts to parents who have more than one child enrolled.

Fullilove and Mason said that they try to rein in costs but that they can only cut so much without diminishing the quality of the programming.

We want to provide the best care we can, Fullilove said. We provide snacks. We do a lot of projects. We have to have a lot of toys that children use so they can grow. We have to provide that for them. All these things take money because you have to have the equipment.

Sharing costs

Support for working families has emerged as an increasingly prominent public policy issue. The 2016 Democratic Party Platforms calls for an increase in investments to make quality child care more affordable; the 2016 Republican Party Platform does not specifically mention child care.

But state support has faced cuts in recent years. Officials in Hartford proposed earlier this year to lower the cap on families eligibility for the Care4Kids subsidy program for low- and moderate-income families from 50 percent to 30 percent of state median income. The lower threshold was necessary to offset increasing program costs linked to federal regulatory changes, state officials said.

An outcry from parents and family advocates prompted the state to backtrack, but new applicants to the program are now likely to be placed on a waiting list.

Until about three years ago, families earning up to 75 percent of the median income were eligible to apply to Care4Kids.

Officials in the states Office of Early Childhood did not respond to a request for comment.

Connecticut Voices for Children wants the state to increase its investment in Care4Kids. But Leventhal-Weiner said she realizes the recommendation will be difficult to realize during a period of major state budget deficits.

Its going to depend on the budget discussion in the next legislative session, Leventhal-Weiner said. But the lack of affordable child care is increasingly becoming part of the conversation around barriers to work.

Working parents like McComb-Williams who make too much to qualify for Care4Kids do not hesitate to suggest remedies for alleviating their financial burden.

Ive been paying upwards of $2,000 a month (for child care) since Harper was eight weeks old, so this has been an ongoing thing for me over five years, McComb-Williams said. If my employer subsidized, it would be such an amazing thing.

pschott@scni.com; 203-964-2236; twitter: @paulschott
NEW MILFORD  Officials say that Ryan Camaioni changed his tune with police after they charged him with felony inciting an injury to people or property for posting a photo and message on Facebook about killing cops in early July.

He appeared in state Superior Court in Bantam last Monday after police say he wrote a July 8 Facebook post; an all-caps call to kill officers, police said. The post, according to police, said: SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE!!!! START KILLING THE COPS!!!!

It went on included an to urge people to form a militia to kill officers, police said, and finished with: SO ONCE AGAIN START SHOOTING COPS DEAD IN THE STREETS!!!

According to an arrest warrant, Camaioni attached a photo to the post depicting a police officer having their throat slit by a masked man. Ryan Camaioni posted a happy face emoji above the image, court documents said.

July 8 was one day after five police officers were shot dead in Dallas.

Police picked up Camaioni, 28, at a probation officers office July 22. He was on probation after a December 2014 arrest and subsequent conviction for second-degree harassment, second-degree threatening and violation of probation, documents said.

When police met with Camaioni, he admitted to posting the vitriolic message and photo on Facebook, documents said. He was cooperative with officers, and even apologetic, documents said.

On July 22, officers and Camaioni went to Camaionis New Milford apartment on Bank Street where police took all of his electronics in for evidence, documents said.

After police arrested Camaioni, police said he admitted to post, adding that he copied-and-pasted it from someone else.

The reason why I posted these was driven by emotions completely, police said Camaioni told them. This was a mistake driven by emotion ... Im not a violent person.

His case was continued last Monday. His next hearing is Aug. 31.

blytton@hearstmediact.com; 203-731-3411; @bglytton
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DANBURY - A group of about 30 adults and kids, some wearing paper conductor hats, filed onto the Railyard Local in the Danbury Railway Museum's yard. They sat in the red-and-yellow cushioned seats of a car built in 1925 and used for the Philadelphia Reading Co.s commuter service until 1983.

The car was open Saturday and Sunday as part of the museums 10th annual Danbury Railway Days, where participants could ride on historical cars, see the operating forge, tour a recently restored 1928 observation/lounge car, and more. The weekend, volunteers said, is meant to teach people about the history of the railroad. About 140 came to the event on Saturday and more than 100 showed up on Sunday, volunteers estimate.

Once all were aboard, a horn honked twice.

Our train is ready, squeaked a child seated up front.

Ah, you heard a whistle, museum volunteer John Barton said. It was two tones. Two means forward.

With that, the train moved steadily up the tracks toward the yards wooden turntable, which participants stood on as volunteers rotated it 180 degrees. They then could pass through a 1928 Tonawanda Valley, which was restored this year after about six years of work.

The Tonawanda Valley was originally part of the 20th Century Limited line and ran from Grand Central Station to Chicago. A one-way ticket cost $75, a steep price at the time, but worth it for its luxuries. The car had a kitchen, bathrooms, beds and couches, and some of the original furniture remains.

That train was considered the best train in the world, Barton said.

It was such a big deal, Barton said, that when the train arrived in Grand Central, workers rolled out a 50-yard red carpet for passengers. This, Barton said, is where the term red-carpet event comes from.

Participants could also visit the steam engine, diesel passenger engine, a 1905 New York Central Caboose that is in the process of being restored and U.S. railway postal car, where all mail was moved and sorted until 1970,

Children could hammer a spike into the tracks or participate in a visual scavenger hunt.

Kids have a ball, volunteer Tom McCullough said. We have so many things for them to go up and around in.

For the first time, the museum offered a special program for adults where, for $50, they could learn to drive the 44-tonner and caboose in the yard. Volunteer Dave Fuller said the museum is considering hosting a one-day training on how to operate the 44-tonner and offered the program this weekend as a test run. Other railroad museums in the country hold similar trainings.

During this weekends lesson, participants not only drove the train, but learned its history, how brakes work, how to couple and uncouple cars, and more, Fuller said.

Two attendees and two volunteers participated in this program on Saturday, and at least two more tried it out on Sunday.

Fuller said the volunteers asked the Saturday attendees what they thought of the training and they had only positive things to say.

They said, Oh my gosh, we dont have anything to critique. The training was excellent, Fuller said.

Mark McCrate, 33, of Norwalk, got a certificate for participating in the program. He said he loved it and would want to operate the car again. But doing so, he said, was not easy.

Its not like driving a car, he said. Everything is done with your hands and nothing is labeled.

McCrate is an engineer, and went to the event to get tips on how to build his own railroad speeder, a car that, according to American-Rails.com, allowed crews to maintained the railroad. He said he thinks it would be fun to pedal around on a speeder because it combines his interest in bikes and public transportation.

McCrate said he likes that trains are built to last, unlike todays technology, where creators expect people to buy a new device in six months.

Theres something about a train that, when you design a part for a train, its going to last a 100 years, he said.

The museum is open throughout the week and holds various special events during the year. These include rides to the museums pumpkin patch in October and rides with Santa in December. It also does school tours and hosts birthday parties.

About 100 active volunteers run the museum, and Fuller said someone from many countries, and every state, has signed the museums guest book. He said people tell him the museum is unique because of its volunteers.

Were all a little bit kooky, but a lot of people have said that one of the things they like about coming here is they leave smiling, Fuller said.
More Information

The 411 on naturopathic medicine

What are Naturopathic Doctors anyway?

Naturopathic Doctors diagnose and treat patients, with a focus on natural healing. Instead of dealing with symptoms, they work with patients to root out the cause of an illness or prevent it altogether. They like to say they treat the "whole" person. The emphasis is on wellness, diet and lifestyle.

How do you become one?

To become licensed in Connecticut, an ND must attend a four-year naturopathic medical school that is accredited through the U.S. Department of Education. The training in the basic sciences is the same as a student in medical school would receive. Upon graduation, the ND must pass a licensing exam.

Who allows them?

With the passage of a bill this year in Maryland, there are now 17 states, plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, that license NDs. The scope of practice in each state varies. In some states NDs can perform minor surgeries, but not in Connecticut. Currently, 11 that license NDs allow some form of prescriptive authority.
Tex and Yvonne Pate said farewell in late July to the Lewis and Clark County 4-H auction.

Tex, 75, handled the sale of some of the childrens livestock at the countys fairgrounds before joining Yvonne, 70, in the stands of the multi-purpose building.

Dan and Curt Pate and Doug Dandro completed the work calling for bids that will help 4-H children save for their futures and maybe college educations.

The crowd applauded the men who would handle the auctioneers duties. Yvonne was also singled out for recognition by Dandro for her contribution to the business and the sale.

When Tex and Yvonne left as the 3-hour sale neared its conclusion, applause thanked the couple for their volunteering on behalf of the 4-H sale that has been a part of Texs life for nearly 50 years.

With his Western, straw hat held high, he acknowledged their thanks and conveyed his appreciation.

I think I missed it one year, Tex said, explaining that was when one of the children went to the high school national finals rodeo.

He too went to the high school national finals. At age 15, he rode a Greyhound bus alone to Reno, Nevada, where he competed in the bareback riding and bull riding.

They bucked me off, he said.

Family business

On the Monday after the sale, he and Yvonne sat in the Pate Auction office on Billings Avenue and talked about their lives, their volunteer service.

In the 47 years theyve been married, Yvonne was in the 4-H auction ring with Tex for 20 some years where she was the clerk for the sale.

During those early years, the auction barn was much smaller and she sat at a folding card-table as 4-H members brought in their livestock and Tex began his work.

Yvonne smiled as she remembered those days. She also recalled how livestock sometimes got loose and how once a childs pig overturned her table.

Over the fence she went, Tex laughed.

Some of the kids cry when their animals go, Yvonne said.

Others are glad they dont have to devote so much time to those livestock projects, Tex said.

Theyve been in the business long enough to have seen generations participate in 4-H and bring their animals for auction.

Theyve also seen how hard it can be for people who are retiring to watch as the tools of their trade are placed for bid, an item at a time.

You cant imagine the emotions with something like that either, Yvonne said.

Or kids when youre selling grandpas John Deere tractor that they have ridden in or on since they were a year old, she said.

And yet other of what theyve seen has been fun, sales that brought communities together or the 1970 sale for J.W. Hornady, who sold the Bear Tooth Ranch to the state that became public land.

Career path

Texs family moved to Helena from Texas where he started as a 4-H member. No rain in too many years broke the ranch where the family was working. Relatives in Wolf Creek encouraged them to move to Montana.

They lived in the Birdseye area outside of Helena after their 1953 arrival in Montana.

From the time he was in seventh grade, each summer was spent breaking horses to make money.

I started breaking colts when I was age 6. My dad started me, Tex said.

He joined the 4-H here in 1954 where he raised lambs. He was good at it too. He won the fat lamb and showmanship in 1954 and 1955, he said. And then his attention turned to rodeo and other interests.

When I was in 4-H, the show and sale was in the parking lot of the Civic Center. Right up town, he said.

And the exhibits were inside, Yvonne said of the cooking, sewing and other projects that 4-H members competed in.

The Western College of Auctioneering in Billings taught Tex his trade. He and Yvonne would own a couple of businesses before auctioneering took all of their time.

I can remember the first time a steer brought a dollar a pound, Tex said.

That might have been 1976, Yvonne said. Both she and Tex remember the price well because they were the buyers.

We were the Exxon distributers also, and so we gave him away through our stations with drawings, he said.

That 1,200 pound steer cost them $1,200 they said and laughed at the cost that at that time was about half the price for a midsized car.

Lifetime of achievements

Tex has also been associated with the rodeo since 1960 and won the bull riding event in 1961.

First guy from Helena to win an event at the Helena rodeo, Tex said.

On Saturday, the rodeo acknowledged him too.

Your Montana legend for this year, Mr. Tex Pate, the announcer said to the audiences applause.

Tex received the Legacy Award for 2016, said Mike Gurnett, chairman of the Last Chance Stampede rodeo committee.

Its for people who have done a lot for kids in the community, Gurnett explained.

Tex was inducted into the Montana Auctioneers Hall of Fame in 2014.

He was the announcer for the rodeo in Townsend for 35 years.

I rodeoed, I judged and then I started announcing, Tex said.

Ive said a lot of words in the last 50 years.

And for 20 years he did the 4-H sale there too.

I worked hard for the kids, he said.

Pate Auction volunteers to help several organizations that include the Life House, ski patrol in Big Sky and St. Andrews School in Helena. Tex and Yvonne also supported a hospice program in Arizona.

Theres not many fundraisers that we have not done, their son, Dan, said.

Giving back

Dan and Doug have each been helping with the 4-H sale for better than 20 years. They will be the auctioneers for next years sale. Doug has 29 years. Dan has maybe 24 years with the sale.

Tex and Yvonne no longer have a home in Montana. They bought a place in Oregon where theyll spend the summers and winters will be in Arizona.

But Oregon isnt really home, Yvonne said, her voice becoming soft.

Montana, she explained, it still is. I guess it will always be home.

Life has taught them much. They agree on their answer to a long and happy marriage.

Pick the right one, Tex said.

I guess I would agree with that, Yvonne added and they both laughed.

We work well together because hes the promoter and the deal-maker, and I was the detail person. I always cleaned up after him and kept all the Is dotted and crossed all the Ts, she added.

They stayed with the 4-H auction for several reasons. Tradition was one. Volunteering was encouraged at the auctioneering school he attended too.

Yvonne has enjoyed watching the interaction between her husband and the children and the buyers.

Their customers at their Exxon bulk plant included those who farmed and ranched; and whenever they bought 4-H animals at the sales, they bought from their customers children, Yvonne said.

Its always good to give back to your community, she said and added the communitys given us a lot.

Youve got to give back a little, Tex said.

Weve had a fantastic run, he continued. Nobodys had a better life than I have.

Its been a good life, Yvonne said.

Tex agreed.

It dont get much better, he said.
Lagos monarch, Oniba of Iba, Oba Goriola Oseni who was recently kidnapped by unknown gunmen has regained his freedom.

Lagos monarch, Oniba of Iba, Oba Goriola Oseni who was recently kidnapped by unknown gunmen has regained his freedom.He was abducted by unknown people on Saturday, July 16, 2016 from his palace.Police Commissioner Eatai Owoseni confirmed the Obas release Saturday night.He said the leader of the gang of kidnappers had been arrested by his men.It was not immediately clear if any ransom was paid before he was freed.The kidnappers had demanded the sum of N500 million ransom which the victims family members said they could not afford.
The Chief Whip of the House of Representative, Mr. Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, has said the crisis rocking the House had gone beyond the All Pro...

The Chief Whip of the House of Representative, Mr. Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, has said the crisis rocking the House had gone beyond the All Progressives Congress.Allegations of budget padding and corruption leveled against the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, and the leadership of the House by a former Chairman of its Appropriation Committee, Abdulmumin Jibrin, has led to tension.An intervention by their party, the APC, which has seen Jibrin stop his public attacks on Dogara, is not expected to change much, especially as Jibrin had already submitted petitions against the Houses leadership to anti-graft agencies.Ado-Doguwa, who is one of the four principal officers accused by Jibrin, said while the intervention of the All Progressives Congress was appreciated, the matter was strictly not a political partys case, but about the integrity of the legislature.He said, Of course, we would have always loved to respect any intervention by our great party (APC).But, the problem we have at hand is unfortunately not a political partys case. It is not about Speaker Dogara; it is not also about Honourable Lasun or my humble self as the Chief Whip of the House, either.This matter is critically fundamental as it relates to the institutional integrity of the House of Representatives and National Assembly at large. You must therefore, understand that it is not purely an APC business.We would certainly have our hands tied in the event where the APC comes up with any so-called political solutions that may contravene our institutional legislative codes.The matter is already being investigated by the police and that both Dogara and Jibrin did not honour the invitation to appear before the police team investigating the allegations on Friday, it was gathered.A senior police officer, who is familiar with the ongoing investigation into the budget padding saga, said the police would continue with the probe regardless of the political solution being adopted by the APC.The senior officer said it would be unfortunate if Nigerians allowed the allegations against the House leadership to be swept under the carpet.It was learnt that the police will issue fresh invitations to Dogara and Jibrin this week.
The Emir of Katsina, Abdul-Mummuni Kabir, has urged Nigerians to stop castigating President Muhammad Buhari over the economic challenges ...

The Emir of Katsina, Abdul-Mummuni Kabir, has urged Nigerians to stop castigating President Muhammad Buhari over the economic challenges facing the country.Mr. Kabir made the call during the inauguration of a book on family lineage of late chief Imam of Kano residing in Katsina, Muhammad Zaharaddeen, on Saturday in Katsina.It has come to our knowledge that some disgruntled people are castigating President Buhari and blaming the economic problems of the country on him.The president cannot solve the economic blunder committed in 16 years within one year.President Buhari needs some time to marshal plans that will solve the several challenges facing the country, he saidMr. Kabir advised Nigerians to rally round and support Mr. Buhari to enable him to discharge his duties for the betterment of the people.The president needs the support and prayers of his brothers and sisters from the North to overcome the several problems facing the North and the country.The emir commended the author of the book for writing the book on his family lineage that migrated to Katsina in 1894 during Hausa/Fulani civil wars.He said the book will serve as a reference material for history students in tertiary institutions in the state.Earlier, Gov. Aminu Masari urged citizens to emulate the late chief imams family by promoting both western and Islamic education.This prominent family has produced lawyers, doctors, university professors, administrators and politicians.Mr. Masari said the family had some prominent politicians like Secretary to the Government of Katsina State, Mustapha Inuwa, and Hadi Sirike, a serving minister in Buharis Administration.NAN reports that the Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi, who was the chief launcher of the book, donated N1 million.Over N5 million was realized at the launch.The book was written by retired Aminu Abdullahi, formerly of BBC Hausa Service. (NAN)
Aisha, the wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, on Saturday said her ongoing trip to the United States was not being funded with public f...

Aisha, the wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, on Saturday said her ongoing trip to the United States was not being funded with public funds.Speaking in an interview with the Hausa service of the Voice of America, Mrs. Buhari said the trip was being funded with personal funds and sponsorship grant.We sponsored even the government officials that came with us on this trip, she said.The presidents wife explained that the Muhammadu Buharis administration was not funding her office and that her role was just a supportive one to complement her husbands services to the country.Mrs. Buhari said the office of First Lady had become a tradition in almost all nations of the world, not just Nigeria.All that we are doing is to help our husbands, she said.For instance someone can decide to give me Indomie or Maggie, which he cannot give to the president, women need these things.In any state where a governors wife is irrelevant such as Yobe, you will notice that the women are suffering.Whenever we get such gifts, we dont keep them but share to those in need.The presidents wife also explained that the Nigerian government had put in place a special programme to help women.She said she held a meeting with the Minister of Women Affairs, Aisha Alhassan, before embarking on her U.S. trip on how to sensitize women on ways of taking advantage of the new policy.Very soon our women will get help, she said.Mrs. Buhari also responded to a question on why Nigerians are suffering at this time.This may be because of the existence of the Treasury Single Account, TSA, and the activities of Boko Haram which prevented people from farming last season, she said.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has reiterated his last year exit from the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) to became an elder statesma...

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has reiterated his last year exit from the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) to became an elder statesman, saying he left the party when it was still alive.Obasanjo said having announced his exit from partisan politics publicly, it is unthinkable and preposterous for anybody to contemplate that he would reverse himself and returned to a comatose PDPThe ex  Chairman, Board of Trustee(BoT) of PDP made this known to reporters in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, on Saturday in a release, ostensibly to dismiss media report purportedly linking him with a meeting of the Convention Committee of his former party at the Shehu Musa Yar Ardua Centre, Abuja last Friday.Obasanjo said whoever believes such false media report would certainly doubt the gender of his or her mother.According to who was a two time elected President of Nigeria from 1999  2007, he attended farmers event at the Shehu Musa Yaradua Centre organused by the Commodities Association Stakeholders on Zero Hunger Nigeria and not for any PDP event.He noted that those behind the media report linking him with the PDP convention committees meeting were probably looking for ways to annoy and embarrass him, but assured that anybody hoping to drag him back to PDP for whatever reason would fail just like any man serving a dead mice to a cat.If I quit a party when it was alive and seemingly united, how could I go back to a now divided, factionalized party gasping for breath?Those who know me, know that I have publicly announced my quitting partisan politics and those who will believe the purported story will believe anybody who tells him that his or her mother is not a woman.The elder statesman explained that he had ordinarily attempted to ignore the media report, but felt compelled to clarify the situation due to plethora of phone calls he was still receiving from people who were confused about the said report.To clear the minds of doubting Thomases and those behind the orchestrated news in circulation and particularly those who had been calling to ascertain what actually happened at the Shehu Musa Yaradua centre.The meeting commenced but few minutes into the session, his attention was drawn to the presence of some people walking up to where he was seated. At closer glance, he recognized them to be politicians and they exchanged pleasantries, saying they came to greet him and they walked out again from the meeting.The release which was signed by Obasanjos media aide, Mr Kehinde Akinyemi, stated that Obasanjo cracked jokes with members of his former party on which platform he was elected as civilian president in 1999 before he later became the Chairman, Board of Trustees (BOT) of same party, calling them invaders and gate-crashers.The programme ended and immediately he and his entourage headed back to Lagos. He was barely hours in Lagos when he started receiving calls from both far and near, wanting to find out about his presence at a political party programme in Abuja.The photo as well as the media report in circulation, which claimed that he was spotted at a political party event is therefore mischievous, as a responsible journalist ought to have gone further to ascertain his actual destination in among the number of venues at the centre.They simply took the photograph of his alighting from his vehicle to read another meaning. It is shocking also to note that the picture was actually taken while on his way out of the Centre after the programme he attended had ended.This is height of irresponsible journalism, which the former President is calling for its investigation and sanction on anybody involved in order to serve as deterrent to others who may want to be used either by omission or commission to misinform the public on such sensitive issue.
A member of a robbery gang, Jimoh Wasiu, on Thursday narrated how they stole a Kia car and sold it for a meagre N10, 000. Mr. Wasiu, 37...

A member of a robbery gang, Jimoh Wasiu, on Thursday narrated how they stole a Kia car and sold it for a meagre N10, 000.Mr. Wasiu, 37, made the disclosure while being paraded before journalists at the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, headquarters in Abeokuta, Ogun State.He was paraded alongside two other members of the gang, named Damilola Daramola (38) and Tunji Makinde (38).Mr. Wasiu said the gang was formed in 2015 and had only snatched two cars. One of the stolen cars was the Kia they sold for N10, 000.He said the group specialised in snatching cars and tricycles on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.The Ogun State Police Command Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, who paraded the suspects, said the gang operates on Lagos-Ibadan Highway.Five suspected cultists were also paraded. They were accused of terrorising Ogijo and its environs before they were arrested.Mr. Oyeyemi said the cultists killed a man at a filling station.The police spokesman disclosed the identities of the suspected cultists as Oluwatosin Mosaku, Tunde Adeleye, Olajuwon Kashimawo, Sunday Ajayi and Sharafa Oladipupo.He said Mosaku, popularly known as Mega Tea, was a notorious cultist who had killed many people in Ikorodu, Lagos state, while Kashimawo was allegedly responsible for the death of a-16-year-old boy that was killed on Tuesday at MRS Petrol station in Ogijo.He said Ajayi, popularly known as Egbere, had been on police wanted list for snatching a rifle from a police corporal at Oko-Oba in Ogijo located in Sagamu local government area of Ogun State.
PHILADELPHIA -- Ten people were shot over a five-hour span in Philadelphia and no arrests have been made, according to a post by Philly.com.

Of the ten people shot late Saturday into early Sunday, two are dead, three are in critical condition and five are listed as stable, Philly.com reported.

The shooting-spree started just after 10:30 p.m. and continued until around 3:45 a.m., reports say.

Police told Philly.com that the gunman in each shooting is still on the loose.

According to Philly.com, victims of the fatal shootings included a 29-year-old man who was shot several times and pronounced dead on the scene, and a 38-year-old man who was shot several times in the head at a gas station who was also pronounced dead on the scene.

Philly.com also reported that the three people critically wounded are a 33-year-old man who was shot once in the face, a 20-year-old man who was shot in the jaw, back and buttocks who walked himself to Hahnemann University Hospital, and a 27-year-old man who was shot once in the face.

Five of the victims were listed in stable condition, Philly.com reported. Identities of the victims are all being withheld by police until families have been notified, according to Philly.com

Caitlyn Stulpin may be reached at cstulpin@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @caitstulpin. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
CAMDEN -- The deputy director of the Delaware River and Bay Authority says he complained of racial discrimination at the agency and then was retaliated against for doing so, a lawsuit claims.

DRBA Executive Director Frank Minor has filed suit against the agency. (File Photo)

The complaint was filed on behalf of Frank Minor in U.S. District Court in Camden this week.

Minor says in the lawsuit the DRBA violated the Civil Rights Act and he has "suffered severe emotional distress" because of the alleged actions of his superiors.

According to the lawsuit filed on Tuesday, the position of marketing and governance administrator at the agency -- a position under Minor's supervision -- became open in October 2014.

The complaint said that three people, including Minor, were chosen by DRBA Executive Director Scott Green to interview candidates to fill the position.

Minor claims that only one applicant, an African-American woman, was recommended for a second interview. Minor alleges that Green elected to interview the recommended candidate and the lowest scoring applicant, a white female.

According to court papers, Green directed that the white candidate be hired over the objections of Minor. Minor says he complained to then-DRBA Chairman James Hogan and asked him to begin an investigation into what Minor believed were violations of discrimination and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission laws.

Minor claims nothing ever came of his request for an investigation and that he was told that the filling of the marketing and governance position as well as another position, business development manager, which also falls under his supervision, had both been put on hold. Minor claims he was told neither position would be filled under him.

In the suit, Minor says he went to the new DRBA chairman, William Lowe, to complain that his allegations were never investigated and he felt he was being retaliated against for complaining. Minor also alleges he was told he, Minor, was told he would "not be able to attend previously scheduled public events."

Minor claims that to date, none of his complaints have been adequately investigated by the DRBA.

Minor wants a jury trial and is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, legal fees and restoration of his full supervisory duties, according to the complaint. In papers filed with the suit, it says Minor is seeking $500,000.

"As a matter of policy, the Delaware River and Bay Authority does not comment on pending litigation," said DRBA Spokesman Jim Salmon on Friday. "The authority looks forward to resolving this matter within the framework of our legal system."

Minor's attorney did not immediately return a call for comment.

The DRBA is a bi-state agency headquartered in Delaware which operates the Delaware Memorial Bridge, the Cape May-Lewes Ferry and several regional airports in New Jersey and Delaware.

The DRBA is headquartered in New Castle, Delaware.

Minor was appointed deputy executive director June 29, 2009. His current salary is $166,228, according to the DRBA. When hired, his major focus was to be economic development in the areas of South Jersey and Delaware served by the DRBA.

Minor also serves as mayor of Logan Township in Gloucester County, a part-time job in which he earns around $10,000 a year.

Last year Minor came under scrutiny for charging more than $1,000 in meal and hotel room expenses to his political campaign fund over four years -- expenses he also charged to taxpayers and DRBA, according to a review of public documents.

In addition to the reimbursed expenses, the same records also showed Minor spent more than $17,000 in campaign funds on gas from 2011 to 2014, while reimbursing himself more than $10,000 in mileage expenses during the same time.

After the reports surfaced, Minor apologized, blaming mistakes on his filing campaign finance reports on his own.

Minor also made an unsuccessful primary bid in 2014 against fellow Democrat Donald Norcoss to run for a seat in Congress representing New Jersey in the First Congressional District.

Bill Gallo Jr. may be reached at bgallo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow Bill Gallo Jr. on Twitter @bgallojr. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
COLLINGSWOOD -- It may be a dry borough, but you can buy wine and beer in Collingswood and a distillery may even be on the horizon.

Bit by bit, the sense of what it means to be a dry community is evolving in Collingswood. In 2014, New Jersey wine became available in certain restaurants. In May, the borough's first brewery opened and began selling beer by the pint or growler.

Now Collingswood commissioners are considering whether the town should allow several other establishments that are technically allowed to sell alcohol in a dry town with a certain state license.

Mayor M. James Maley Jr. said that since Devil's Creek Brewery opened on Haddon Avenue less than three months ago, he has received inquiries from several people hoping to open a brewery, a distillery and combination wine tasting room and retail store.

Still, Maley said that there is little to no chance Collingswood will want to reverse its status as a dry community.

"We've been dry for ever and ever, but there's a willingness on this limited basis to try it out," Maley said of the residents' reaction to the idea of brewery in town. "But people don't want bars. They don't want packaged goods stores."

Now, borough commissioners have enacted a kind of moratorium on new distilleries and wine retail stores so they can consider whether they should adopt special regulations about where and how they can do business.

It may even be something that a neighboring dry borough will consider in the near future.

Haddonfield has had a few inquiries about opening a brewery or wine tasting storefront, borough Clerk Deanna Bennett said Thursday. She said commissioners there will be discussing their options at their Aug. 16 meeting and she will provide information about how Collingswood has dealt with its own requests.

'Due diligence'

Microbreweries, distilleries and wine stores meeting certain requirements are allowed, even in dry communities, under a 2012 state law meant to encourage local business and agriculture. It is the same law that allows restaurants in dry communities to sell New Jersey wine.

Maley said the law allows sale of alcoholic beverages that are made on-site and also allows wine retail locations and tasting rooms to operate if the wine is made with at least 50 percent New Jersey grapes.

Commissioners this week banned new distilleries and wine stores with intentions, Maley said, of replacing it in the future with one allowing the businesses when the regulations are hammered out.

It's the same process they went through in 2015, he said, after getting three inquiries from brewers hoping to open facilities in Collingswood.

"We were doing our due diligence. We talked to other towns, visited breweries and talked to our residents," he said. "To my surprise, (their reactions) were overwhelmingly in favor."

One of those inquiries in 2015 was from Tonewood Brewery, which instead opened in Oaklyn in June. He said the other two interested brewers did not move forward after their initial inquiries.

Devil's Creek Brewery came along after the commissioners created new regulations about breweries -- which Maley said essentially mirror state regulations but also specify where they can operate. Now, microbreweries are allowed by right in the central business district.

Maley said that the consideration of distilleries and wine stores will likely be similar to that undertaken before allowing breweries.

The winery owner is seeking to open a store in the central business district, Maley said, which he said will give residents a place to grab a bottle of wine before heading out to dinner at a BYOB establishment that doesn't offer it.

"It's a complement," Maley said.

Devil's Creek Brewery is setting a great example of a positive, alcoholic beverage-centered business, he said.

"We're really happy. They've got a great ownership group at Devil's Creek. They're very understanding that they are a pioneer."

Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook.


Having written 20 books in 14 years Wendy Mass was on a well-deserved vacation. She left Sparta for the Grand Canyon and was relishing that lovely part of writing -- when all ideas are possible.

Mass' "The Candymakers and the Great Chocolate Chase" (Little Brown, $18.99), a sequel to the bestseller "The Candymakers" hit stores this week. The action resumes four months after the last ended and the four characters embark on an RV trip to solve a mystery. Mass tells the story from the perspective of each. Here's a section from Miles:

"The first thing he noticed was his name was written in Norse rune. Last time it had been in Sanskrit. The time before that it was Egyptian hieroglyphs. A chill of delight ran up his spine. He loved ancient languages almost as much as he loved candy and maps. And he loved candy and maps a lot."

She's written the "Space Taxi" series with her husband, Mike Brawer. Her solo work concentrates on reaching children in the middle grades.

Why is your focus on this age level?

I am drawn to writing for that age, where the characters are around 11 and 12 and growing into who they want to be. It's the coming of age experience; that's the thing that fascinates me.

When and how do you work?

If I am not on deadline I like to keep it to normal business hours. The kids go off to school I go to the office. Depending on what part of process I am in, I may go to the library. I am usually at my desk until school day is over. If I am right up against deadline it becomes a 24/7 extravaganza I am writing at stoplights.

The same four characters return from the first best-seller and writer Wendy Mass examines events from each character's perspective.

Where did you get your first library card?

I am madly in love with getting library cards. Everywhere I have ever moved, the first thing I have ever done is go to the pubic library and get my card. To feel at home in a new library is such a joy.

First one was when I was six or five and it was at the Livingston Public Library. My mom used to joke that by the time I was in sixth grade I had read every book in the children's library with the help of the lovely Grace Chen, who recently passed, and would save books for my sisters and me. Then we could come home and check the books out of each other's room.

I have written some books at the quiet room in the Livingston Library. The whole thing about being back at the place that first made me love books inspired me when I am writing.

What are you reading?

I love funny science fiction and am making my way through John Scalzi's books, mostly listening to them on audio, brilliantly narrated by Wil Wheaton. I'm recently obsessed with the art of performing magic, and have been reading memoirs by magicians as well as taking lessons from the great Bill Wisch up at the Sparta Avenue Stage -- every town should have its own magic theatre. I can now perform an hour of close-up magic in case this writing gig ever goes south!

What authors influenced you?

Growing up, the writers like Judy Blume and Paula Danziger who dared to really lay bare what it was like coming of age in the world. Now I get influenced less by authors themselves, and more by the young readers who gobble up stories and remind me that there are real people at the other end of this process. Writing for kids is a big responsibility, and I want to make sure I'm doing right by them by giving them something that will hopefully entertain them, but that will also open their mind in some way, or make them feel special or understood.

What books do you re-read?

I keep returning to my childhood, because those are the years where the books we read live on inside us, helping us to figure out who we want to be in the world. I used to read the Narnia books by C.S. Lewis over and over again, and just got an excuse to re-read them this year by introducing them to my kids. It was wonderful to go through that wardrobe again along with their fresh eyes. I had an old Narnia map that's now on my son's wall and that makes me very happy!
WOODBURY -- "Potentially lethal" doses of heroin have been distributed in Gloucester County since Friday, officials reported, and three users were revived with a heroin overdose antidote overnight.

Police in Gibbstown, Paulsboro and Franklin Township administered Narcan in the three incidents, according to the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office.

The packaging for the heroin the three used is stamped with the names "Red Snowman" and "Superstar."

Doses of heroin containing these stamps can be turned over to local police departments "with no repercussions," the prosecutor's office stated.

Gloucester County officials reported 49 drug overdose deaths so far this year. That compares to 60 overdose deaths in the county for all of 2015.

A candlelight vigil is planned for Aug. 31 to remember local residents lost to drug addiction.

To learn more about services available to individuals and families struggling with addiction, contact the South Jersey group Parent-to-Parent at 856-983-3328 or visit their website.

Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattGraySJT. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook.
JERSEY CITY -- A body has been found in a downtown Marina after an extensive search for a man reported missing two days ago, sources say.

Sometime Friday night, a man was reported missing from his boat in Jersey City at Liberty Harbor on Marin Blvd., a police source with knowledge of the investigation said.

Members of the Jersey City Emergency Service Unit have been conducting an "extensive search" for the missing boater throughout the weekend, the source said.

Sometime after 4 p.m. a body was found in the marina, however, it is unclear if it is that of the man who was reported missing, the source said. A photographer at the scene said the body was removed from the water at about 6:30 p.m.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Steve Strohmaier said the agency responded on Friday when the initial call for a missing man in Liberty Harbor to assist Jersey City with the investigation. The Coast Guard suspended its investigation at about 2 a.m. on Saturday when the search came up negative, he said.

The New York Police Department also aided with the initial search, according to the source.

The circumstances surrounding the man's disappearance was not immediately known.
roseavenue.jpg

A 7-year-old boy fell approximately 20 feet last night on Rose Avenue in Jersey City, according to Jersey City Medical Center-Barnabas Health spokesman Mark Rabson.

Rose Avenue in Jersey City was quiet this afternoon after a child fell from a second-floor apartment window last night.

The 7-year-old boy was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center last night, and was listed in stable condition according to a report by NBC 4 New York.

The boy's father told NBC that the boy is 7-year-old.

Last night, Jersey City police responded to 12A Rose Avenue around 7:15 p.m. on a report that a child fell out of a window.

When police arrived at the scene, they saw the mother lying on the ground holding the boy's body, according to a police report.

The victim was taken to Jersey City Medical Center, and later transported to Hackensack University Medical Center, according to published reports.

Officials from the hospital did not respond to calls earlier today seeking comment or an update on the child's condition.

The mother told police she was in the kitchen eating with her sister, while the boy and three other children were playing in another room, according to the report. The children ran into the kitchen to say the boy fell out the window, the report says.

The case will continue to be investigated.

This is the third incident a child falling out a window in Jersey City this year.

In January, a 4-year-old boy who fell out of a fifth-story window at a six-story building on Newark Avenue died after his fall.

Then in June, a child fell from of a two-story window on Fourth Street near Newport Mall.
I would like to add my voice to all of those Montanans who support Denise Juneau in her run for Montanas single seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. I have met and spoken to Denise several times during her tenure as Montanas superintendent of public instruction.

Denise Juneau is a positive force for Montana, and her unceasing support for Montanas children and the schools they attend has shown her commitment to our state. Denise is now running for U.S. House of Representatives against the incumbent, Ryan Zinke.

While Zinke spares no effort to align himself with a far right agenda that will harm Montanans, Denise Juneau has a positive vision that opens a path for Montanas people to improve their lives and protect Montanas environment and natural beauty.

Zinke has jumped directly into the center of the Trump movement and he is clearly angling for a position in Trumps administration should he win the election. While Zinke has joined the ranks of Trump tools, like Chris Christie and Mike Pence, Denise Juneau is building support within Montana for her campaign to win the election and truly represent all of us in Congress.

Denise Juneau, as Montanas superintendent of public instruction, has proved she will spare no effort to support our children and the schools that are the heart of communities all around our state. Ms. Juneau will bring that same commitment and energy to Congress where she will represent all the people of Montana; rural and urban, from all of the diverse populations and especially those who currently have no voice in Washington.

A vote for Denise Juneau is a positive vote for the future of Montana.

Dave Lyman

Heron
Editors note: Some of the comments allegedly made by Coroner M.E. Mickey Nelson to current and former staff members contain views and language that some readers may find offensive.

Several of Lewis and Clark County Coroner M.E. "Mickey" Nelson's past and current employees accused him of frequently using offensive language before his staff was removed from his office and his supervision last month, according to documents released by the county.

Documents that detail the allegations were obtained after discussion with Eric Bryson, the countys chief administrative officer, and Leo Gallagher, the county attorney.

The coroners office drew public attention in recent weeks after the state threatened to ask a district court to compel Nelson to certify the causes of death on 51 death certificates that dated from 2011 to 2015.

Controversy has also involved the coroners office current staff, who were moved to a different office after expressing their concerns with Nelsons behavior.

Among allegations contained in the documents are those by Elizabeth Parrish, a former coroners administrative assistant, who on May 15, 2015, wrote that Nelson engaged in daily tirades in his office in which he referred to President Barack Obama as a jungle bunny from Africa.

Nelson, 71, who is in his 42nd year as county coroner, said he had prepared a news release to address the allegations by current and former staff members.

I am troubled to learn that current and former staff members have made complaints to the Human Resources director of Lewis and Clark County and to other county officials attributing offensive comments to me, the news release stated.

These staff members have never complained to me directly or told me any such comments were unwelcome or offensive to them.

I acknowledge the offensive nature of some comments attributed to me. Some comments attributed to me have been taken out of context.

However, I am not racist or sexist or anti-religion. I have never engaged in discriminatory acts as county coroner against fellow staff members or while performing the duties of my office.

I bear no ill-will towards any faith, minority, ethnicity or income class. I have served them all with gratitude. My actions in serving the public honestly and fairly over the past four decades demonstrate my true character, Nelson wrote.

Nelson characterized his news release by saying, This is what I have to say about basically everything up to this point that we have, my feelings of what Ive done or what I havent done or what Im accused of doing or maybe have or have not done.

I dont want to break down every single issue, just continue this going on and on, Nelson said on Tuesday, declining to address individual allegations. Thats my official stand on the whole issue as far as whats been going on up to this point, particularly dealing with their complaint.

I didnt know I did anything wrong until after the fact. Nobody has ever said anything to me. They apparently talked to a lot of other people, but I wasnt on their agenda, like today, Nelson said, making note of a meeting on the duties of the county registrar that were removed from him by the state Department of Public Health and Human Services.

A July 26 letter from the Office of Vital Records notified Nelson he was relieved of his duties as county registrar as of Aug. 1. The letter came in response to a July 22 request from the county commission that the duties be assigned to the county Clerk and Recorders office.

Removing the registrars duties from Nelson will allow him more time to focus on the core duties of the coroners office, Bryson said.

When asked about the offensive comments, Nelson declined to answer and said, Depends on where and thats where we just continue to go and Im not going to go there.

He declined to say if the allegation regarding the comment directed toward Obama was true.

Addressing a situation

Fred Rice, the countys former human resources director, wrote Bryson on June 30, 2015, to say he was aware of reports regarding allegations of disparaging comments by Nelson toward African-Americans, Native Americans, other ethinicities, people who are poor and those who receive public assistance, among others.

The county commission has adopted a policy that commits the county to provide a work environment free of all forms of unlawful discrimination and harassment, Rice stated in his memorandum.

If the coroner made the comments attributed to him, they could be used as evidence against the county if a citizen or employee were to make (a) human rights claim against the coroner, the memo continued.

Even without a formal complaint, the county has an obligation to investigate the complaint and correct the situation, Rice wrote.

Fred Rice never spoke to me about this at all, Nelson said.

He learned of Parrishs concerns regarding his behavior, he said, only after she was removed from his office.

They or her never advised me until the day they removed her, Nelson said.

According to a July 21, 2016, memo from Bryson to the county commissioners and Gallagher, Bryson wrote that K. Paul Stahl, a civil deputy county attorney, and Commissioner Susan Good Geise met with Nelson as a result of Parrishs complaints.

The July 14, 2015, meeting with Nelson came after Parrish was removed from Nelsons office because of the concerns she raised in her May 15 and June 22, 2015, communications with county staff.

While Stahl and Geise reviewed Parrishs allegations with Nelson, they also informed him that his behavior was not acceptable and required him to seek and find a training course on sexual harassment and discrimination, Brysons memo continued.

This meeting with Nelson occurred a year before another member of the coroners office staff, whose name was not released by county officials, expressed the same concerns and asked to be removed from his office, Bryson said.

Nelson disputed some of what has been said about him.

There are clearly things that are not true. Which ones, Im not going to again get into arguing, he said.

Some of them I probably said and didnt even know I said them. And thats where I get very upset over it. If youre offended by something in a work environment, I feel that a person should at least say, I dont like what you just said. I mean, maybe thats too much expectation.

I never got informed, I never got warned, I never got called in. I never got anything, he said.

Two people have gone. Almost identical circumstances. I dont know anything. Second time I even feel worse because I think I was trying to monitor everything I said before I said it.

Just even having an accusation made is shameful to me. It bothers me a great, great deal. But again if you dont know what youre doing until after basically its over, you cant do a whole lot. Thats just the way it is, Nelson added.

Parrish, in her May 15, 2015, correspondence to county officials said, "I don't know how to confront these issues that I have with Mickey. I have had problems dealing with employment issues while working for an elected official as my direct supervisor and only co-worker. The coroner's office is very isolated and I am wary to talk to Mickey about my concerns because there are no other people around.

"I am afraid to lose my composure and be labeled as insubordinate, which has happened to me in the past and hence being wrongfully terminated," her correspondence stated.

Bryson said in an email that he had not formally spoken with Nelson regarding the accusations contained in correspondences to determine their truthfulness.

However, allegations against Nelson prompted Bryson to write him on July 22 of this year to say disciplinary action may be warranted and to request a meeting.

Last year, an employee in your office made a complaint of discrimination against you alleging you engaged in religious, political and social tirades on a daily basis. I looked into these allegations, found them to be credible and moved the employee to another office, Brysons letter to Nelson stated.

While he referenced Stahls and Geises 2015 meeting with Nelson, he then wrote, I have recently been made aware that your current employees are being subjected to the exact same treatment. You continue to create a hostile work environment by engaging in inappropriate discussions about race, sex, politics and religion in the coroners office. This is unacceptable, and I will not allow county employees to be subjected to this.

You have a right to respond regarding this matter, the letter continued before advising Nelson of a time for the meeting to respond to the allegations.

However, Nelson instead brought an attorney to the meeting, Bryson said.

Acting on allegations

A 1980 opinion by then-Attorney General Mike Greely held that county commissioners may assure that county officials fulfill their roles but may not assume control over the manner in which those duties are performed, Gallagher wrote in a June email.

He also said previously that proceeding with a charge of official misconduct against Nelson was an avenue available to the county, although at that time he concluded it was not warranted.

Earlier last week, Gallagher said he did not at this point see cause to reconsider that position.

Were still working through a process, he said.

Going to court can take years, Gallagher continued, and explained, My personal goal is to try and get the coroners office to change and to change in a way we can build a better coroners office.

Im hoping that we dont need to go to court, he added.

Bryson moved Parrish from Nelsons office shortly after her June 22, 2015, correspondence to the county's human resources department. In July of this year, he acted on a request from one of the offices two current staff members and moved both people to a location across town from Nelsons office.

The deputy coroner who was hired in June reports to Bryson.

The coroners staff members, who were moved to either a different job or a different location while remaining a part of the coroners staff, have done nothing wrong, Bryson said.

Their removal had nothing to do with their job performance.

Once those allegations came forward, I dont believe I had any choice but to get the staff out of his supervision, Bryson added.

Because the coroner is an elected official, his behavior subjects the county to significant liability. My only recourse is to remove the employees assigned to the coroners office and find an alternative location for their work to continue, Bryson wrote in his July 21, 2016, memo to the commissioners and Gallagher.

With knowledge of past similar behavior, and complaints from current staff of continuing illegal behavior, I cannot allow those employees to remain in that work environment, his memo concluded.

Nelson, however, said he needs a staff for his office and that he works 24/7, 365 days a year.

His first year in office, he handled 72 deaths, he said, and noted that he is at 358 for the year, of which 64 occurred in July.

Its almost impossible with the caseload I have to run this office that way. So Ive got to say duties are not going to go away. Until somethings done, were just going to be back in the same situation as is stressed to some degree in the letter of being behind, Nelson said.

State law requires all the coroner to approve cremation of the body.

Close to 80 percent of the deaths hes involved in are because they are true coroners cases or involve cremation, Nelson said.

His news release noted that he recently became current in the issuance of outstanding death certificates and stated, I intend to focus my daily efforts on remaining current and performing my coroner duties fairly and efficiently. I will not be distracted or deterred in this effort.

The Office of Vital Records with the state Department of Public Health and Human Services had threatened the county and Nelson with legal action if the death certificates were not finished in 45 days -- a deadline that Nelson met.

Nelson attributed the 51 pending death certificates that he recently completed to a lack of staff. He also said previously that efforts to hire a deputy coroner took time that could have been used toward completing those death certificates.

County officials have noted that state law allows physicians and advanced practice registered nurses to also complete death certificates.

Nelson disagreed that any physician or advanced practice nurse could have been brought in to complete the pending death certificates and said state law requires the physician to have had a patient relationship prior to the persons death.

Changes in Nelsons duties with the removal of those for the county registrar will allow him additional time to handle the offices workload, Bryson said.

Nelson has a deputy coroner who can do some of the field work for the office and an administrative assistant who is an evidence technician, he added.

He has less work and more staff than he has had in his 42 years of working in Lewis and Clark County.

He has the help, Bryson said. That administrative assistant position still exists. I just cant put it in an office next to him.

Detailing concerns

My work environment continues to be more hostile and unbearable, a member of the coroners office staff, who was not identified by county officials, wrote in a July 20 letter of this year to McKenzie McCarthy, the countys human resources director.

The correspondence to McCarthy said a grieving daughter came into the coroners office and Nelson went on one of his inappropriate rants, with the particularly offensive topic of abortion.

Later he ranted about the 'Bunny Ranch' in (Nevada), how prostitution is a great profession to make money by turning tricks. These topics have no reason to be brought up in our workplace, the letter to McCarthy continued.

The staff member who asked to be relocated to another office also wrote that Nelson reportedly spouted how all Indians only want to screw and get drunk."

Mickey said, Blacks just screw their sisters and have babies and none of them know who their father is. He said all black people should be given free birth control and they all have venereal diseases.

Im already certain that Im not the only complainant regarding these issues with Mickey. And Im having a difficult time understanding why his behavior has gone on for so long. I cant imagine any county employee encounters this treatment, disrespect and behavior like I do on a daily basis. Actually there is no workplace where this is appropriate, the letter stated.

The issues raised in the current staff persons letter reflect those in the two correspondences from Parrish, a previous administrative assistant to Nelson, prior to her being placed on paid administrative leave until the county was able to place her in another job.

According to the May 15, 2015, correspondence given to county officials, although the recipient is not named, Parrish detailed an array of concerns and allegations with Nelsons conduct and administration of the office.

She stated in that correspondence that she believed she had no opportunity for career advancement in the coroners office after a year and nine months despite promises from Nelson.

Parrish also alleged Nelson did not believe women should be in law enforcement or the military and make poor sheriffs, coroners and funeral directors because they are too emotional.

She wrote that she was passed over in September 2014 when a man was assigned to be the temporary, on-call deputy coroner.

Parrish wrote that Nelson said he would make her a deputy registrar, although he failed to act despite several reminders from her.

Offers of assistance to help organize the office were declined by Nelson, according Parrishs letter that also complained of loud, animated and disruptive discussions by Nelson when his friends came to visit at his office.

Perhaps her most pointed allegations address what she labeled a hostile work environment.

Mickey believes that due to his age he can say anything he wants because he is old fashioned, as he put it. He engages in religious, political and social tirades daily, she wrote.

They can last for hours at times. In these tirades he has made racist, sexist, political and anti-Islamic, welfare  low IQ statements, that have left me emotionally and mentally shaken to the point that I cannot resume my duties at times.

She accused him of accepting two $75 tickets to a charity event from a cleaning service as a thank you, which he offered to her because he was not interested in attending.

Her June 22, 2015, email to Rice complained of racist statements she attributed to Nelson and said she had interviewed for other county jobs that she hoped she would obtain.

Problems continued with the coroners office, according to a resignation letter submitted by a deputy coroner who worked four months in Nelsons office.

Nelson continued on Tuesday to decline comment on this letter but said, She has her opinions, her right to express that.

The deputys corners letter stated, While the current coroner appears to be experienced, he has been reluctant to take the time to share his expertise and, in fact, is frequently hostile, withholding, and negative in his approach. It appears to me that Coroner Nelson is invested in making sure that no one else can do his job.

The deputy coroner described the working conditions as unprofessional and chaotic and claimed, There are many other examples of the inefficiency and ineffectiveness in this office but perhaps the most troubling to me is the unprofessional and, frankly, dishonest treatment of families who are expecting a timely process.

Bryson is now tracking death certificate completions by Nelson for 2016 and said he is allowing six months for the state to provide the coroners office with toxicology or other information that may be required to finalize certificates.

Nelson said he has a few outstanding death certificates to complete among those hes processed for this year and stressed that he does the work because of his love for people.

I just dont want to hurt or offend people, that isnt there, he said of the controversy that surrounds his office.

I dont care how this turns out. I aint going anywhere. Im going to be here until I die, said Nelson, who was born and raised in Helena.

People have told him this would go away if he were to retire, he said, but he responded that he has nowhere to go.
FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP)  Survivors of Hurricane Ian face a long emotional road to recover from one of the most damaging storms to hit the U.S. mainland. For those who lost everything to disaster, the anguish can be crushing to return home to find so much gone. Grief can run the gamut from frequent tears to utter despair. The Lee County medical examiner says two men in their 70s even took their own lives a day apart after viewing their losses. Experts say suicides climb after disasters and more funding for mental health should be provided as climate change makes storms and fires more frequent and devastating.
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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Late last week the Commerce Department reported US Gross Domestic Product, the most widely used indicator of economic growth, has grown at a paltry 1.2 percent pace during the first six months of 2016.

After this data was released, the financial media widely reported that this pace of growth is the slowest in the post-World War II economic era.

During an incredibly charged political season, this type of information is bound to be distorted by both sides of the political spectrum. Back here in the real world however, the rest of us have to figure out how to pay the bills, save for retirement and try to enjoy ourselves a little along the way.

Economics is called the dismal science for a reason. The economy is perhaps the most complex system known to man, and attempting to explain economic results, especially in the short term is full of folly.

While I am not an economist, I do follow the subject closely. I believe a complicated combination of demographics, expansion of centralized government influence, heavy public debt loads and continuing technological evolution has resulted in an environment prone to slower growth.

Perhaps the strongest influence in this capacity is on the demographic front. The second largest segment of our population, the baby boomers, are moving into retirement and changing the way they earn, save and spend. This trend will create challenges in some areas and opportunities in others. It would be unreasonable not to expect some disruption as boomers adjust their lifestyles.

The boomers however, should not get all the attention. On the flip side of the demographic coin the actual largest American generation, the Millennials, came of money age during the 2008-2009 financial crisis. Anecdotally, judging by the behavior in my own Millennial as well as in the adult kids of many of my clients, this early economic trauma has resulted in some conservative saving and spending behavior patterns. The Great Depression of the 30s had a profound influence on the generation coming of age during that time period. Well have to watch and see how our Millennials adjust over time.

On the government front, whether it is regulation or debt loads, theres not a whole lot going on favoring economic growth. Being in the middle of a huge regulatory expansion in my own industry I am seeing firsthand how a government agency, in our case the Department of Labor, can put a whole industry essentially on hold. While regulation is being proposed, negotiated, analyzed and implemented affected industries tend to scale back heavily on investment and hiring. Repeat this process in healthcare, energy, banking and a host of other industries and slow growth is no surprise.

The trend that perhaps presents the most challenge to growth and the most opportunity at the same time is found in the rapid evolution of technology in just about every facet of our society. I have no doubt we are headed for a better world as technology solves many of over time. The adjustment period however is creating dislocation in ever thing from hiring to real estate. The promise inherent in the internet back to the 1990s is finally coming to fruition, but every technological leap forward creates short-term stress as the world adjusts. This time is no different.

Each political party will find a way to blame the other for these developments. While the government itself has certainly contributed to our slow growth challenges, the issues we are discussing are not based only on the government. Rather than trying to place blame, individual families are better off working to understand these trends and then figuring out how to prosper in the times we have been given.
Just a few years after the biggest investment in state history, BP is eyeing another massive project at the former Standard Oil Refinery on Lake Michigan, and also is cutting back on the flaring that at times sends towers of flames shooting above the Whiting skyline.

BP Whiting Refinery management has asked for corporate approval to build a new hydrotreater unit, which uses hydrogen to remove unwanted chemicals like sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen, and halides from gasoline. If approved, the multiyear project would create hundreds of construction jobs, refinery manager Don Porter said.

It would cost several hundred million dollars, he said. Its big. Theyre not cheap to build.

BP just installed a modern world-scale hydrotreater to scrub more sulfur and nitrogen out of the gas it refines in Whiting as part of its $4.2 billion modernization project, which was completed in late 2013. But the London-based oil giant is considering the additional investment to meet a new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency mandate to ensure that gasoline has less than 10 parts per million of sulfur.

The industry is doing this across the board, Porter said. Were hoping to get approval in the next year. Then it would take three or four years to get that built.

Other refineries have looked at similar capital projects to comply with the looming EPA requirement, which aims to reduce emissions, GasBuddy.com senior petroleum analyst Greg Laskoski said. Sulfur content in gas must be lowered from 30 parts per million to 10 parts per million when the federal regulation goes into effect next year.

Oil companies can get sulfur credits for the first few years, and the goal is to have the new hydrotreater up and running by 2020, when credits will be harder to come by, Porter said.

Water, air to get more protection

As part of a 2012 agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, BP also has installed a new Dissolved Nitrogen Flotation unit in its wastewater treatment plant to remove dissolved organics in the wastewater. An issue emerged while the refinery tried to get the new unit up and running, resulting in a discharge of five times the allowed limit of total suspended solids of industrial waste last week.

The EPA agreement mandates BP spend $400 million on state-of-the-art pollution controls, including new flare gas recovery systems that will reduce the flaring that often lights up the sky over Lake Michigan. The pilot lights at the top of flare stacks will still burn, but theyll only spit towers of fire if theres a major issue with refinery operations.

The new flare gas recovery systems will trap and recycle the gases that would otherwise be flared atop the stacks, which, as any Whiting resident knows, can look dramatic, especially at night. They should be in place by years end, Porter said.

We try not to flare. Besides the environmental impact, I tell people thats $50 a barrel crude burning in that flame, Porter said. Its pretty expensive. Its also part of being a good neighbor and a good community member.

Energy giant looks north

From 2008 to 2013, BP invested $4.2 billion  a private sector record in Indiana  to modernize the Whiting Refinery to make it more environmentally friendly and enable it to convert more heavy crude oil from the oil sands region in Canada and the Dakotas. The refinery, which gets oil by pipeline, went from being able to process about 20 percent heavy crude to about 85 percent.

It was part of BPs Northern Tier strategy to refine more crude oil from the north, where production has ballooned. BP refineries in Toledo, Ohio, and Cherry Point, Washington, underwent similar conversions.

The 430,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Whiting is BPs largest and the biggest in the Midwest, shipping gas to seven states. Pipelines still bring sweet crude oil from West Texas and the Gulf of Mexico, but most of the crude oil being refined in Whiting now comes from Canada.

Thats been an ongoing trend for the past several years, Gasbuddy.coms Laskoski said. Companies are accessing the crudes that are best to work with and most affordable.

BP energizes local economy

Investments like the multiyear modernization project demonstrate that BP considers Northwest Indiana a priority and plans to continue to be an important economic anchor in the Region, said Micah Pollak, an assistant professor of economics at Indiana University Northwest.

It can be difficult to identify the exact economic impact of one particular firm or plant; however, the BP Whiting Refinery is clearly a major positive economic force in Northwest Indiana, Pollak said.

Local union construction workers pocketed $1.7 billion in wages during the modernization project, which propped up the Northwest Indiana economy during the Great Recession. The refinery accounts for nearly 5 percent of the manufacturing jobs in Northwest Indiana and they pay extremely well, about 40 percent better than the national average, Pollak said.

The BP Whiting Refinery employs 1,850 workers who make an average of $70,000 a year, which is about 70 percent higher than the average wage of all Northwest Indiana workers. Hundreds of union trade workers also are often engaged in projects at the refinery.

Based on the industry averages, the BP Whiting Refinery contributes more than $130 million in worker earnings to the Region each year, or 1.3 percent of all earnings by all workers in Northwest Indiana, according to Pollak.

In addition to those directly employed by BP, there are a significant number of outside contractors that work in the refinery, he said. Most of these workers live and spend money in Northwest Indiana and their income translates into jobs for workers in other sectors.
When the British Broadcasting Corp. produced a three-part documentary series on American folk music, it asked Gary native and doo-wop pioneer Billy Shelton to share his story, which played a pivotal role in The Birth of a Nation.

The Spaniels only surviving member, Shelton exudes malt shops, streetlights and can take you back to a time when the Midwest ditched the blues for a brighter time: the days of doo-wop.

"The blues were very influential, but they were a bit dark and focused on losing your woman and tough times," Shelton said. "Doo-wop came along and was a bit more romantic and told a different story. It was about getting the girl and (sweeping) her off her feet."

Shelton, a three-time Hall of Famer (Smithsonian Hall, Rhythm & Blues Hall and the Youngstown Hall) stills tours at 82 years old with his group, The Spaniels Forever. The band also includes Patrick Pitre, Gene Stewart, Pernell Davis and Dan Porter. They still brings crowds to their feet with their soul, especially when they play their most noted hit, "Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight," which once stood atop the Billboard charts for 16 weeks, eventually peaking at No. 5.

Shelton, began with The Spaniels in 1948 when he and classmate James "Pookie" Hudson sang together in the corridors of The Velt (Gary Roosevelt High School) and formed the group, The Three Bs. Shelton said, it seems like yesterday.

In the past two weeks, The Spaniels Forever received standing ovations opening up for Boys II Men at Festival of the Lakes in Hammond and for the son of late Rock icon Jackie Wilson, in Baroda, Michigan.

Its just an honor to share the music," Shelton said. "I'm always humbled when musicians make the time to come speak to me and tell me how much The Spaniels influenced them."

Shelton recalls last year when Gary native and member of Billy Joel's band Crystal Taliefero, who was hailed as Rolling Stone Magazine's 100 People, Places and Things Ruling the Rock Universe, sought him out after a private performance to tell him how much her father talked about The Spaniels and recalled the group playing at her home when she was a child.

"I was smiling from ear to ear when she told me that," Shelton said. "Here's a renown musician playing sold-out shows night after night and just knowing that I may have had a small piece of influence on her career. The Oak Ridge Boys recently thanked us in the middle of their show and that's what it's all about because that's why we do this."

Shelton has met many industry A-listers, including Smokey Robinson, The Oak Ridge Boys, The Platters, the late Koko Taylor, just to name a few, and has lived a "dream life."

Shelton has story after story and remembers how the late Joe Jackson used to beg The Spaniels to be in their group. Growing up in the church, Sheltons folks wouldnt let him tour with the group so he was in charge of training the guys vocally. When the BBC came knocking at his door, all those stories in his mental briefcase came to light.

"That was truly an honor because it took me back and it shows how much they appreciate the history of music and how dedicated they are to telling the story," Shelton said.

Shelton recalled the days when The Spaniels were the first group to sign with Vee Jay records, which also signed blues god Jimmy Reed and The Four Seasons and recorded The Beatles.

"Vee Jay was later taken over and became the birth of Motown," Shelton said. "From the Motor City to the Windy City, there have been some great music that has influenced the world right here in our very own backyard."

As for Shelton, there are no talks of retirement or slowing down. He'll keep answering his flip phone and jotting down the countless engagements that keep coming in.

"It's what I do and what I love," Shelton said. "Spending time with my brothers on that stage and sharing our gift is what keeps me going."

Sheltons Spaniels Forever band mate Patrick Pitre has a high regard for the contributions hes made and the doors hes opened for other artists who have followed.

Billy Shelton is an icon, Pitre said. Its an honor to know him and call him my friend. Hes too humble to brag about what hes done in his life, but all of us are very lucky to stand next to a man that has made so many valuable contributions, not only to the music industry, but the world.
One of the best things about Decatur Celebration is the people. We met some great ones this weekend.

***

Do you want to see my picture on top of the Transfer House?  This is on Main and Main, right on this corner was a building and the photographer had a 4 by 5 speed graphic, two flash guns. He was staring, wasn't doing anything. I had an American flag that an Army guy, in khakis, gave me. I kept watching for him and he wasn't doing anything, so I put my foot up in the air  bang! There went the flash.

 Harry Edward Mundwiler

I've got an ear infection. I've just been to Danville yesterday. Got two hearing aids, but I have a blockage in there and the ear is destroyed inside. There's not much they can do.  I'm living with that. It's very humdrum. It's pulling me down. And nobody knows how it is being deaf until they are.

***

He's a certified therapy dog. I would say it's one of the most rewarding things you can do. People who are ill, whether it be physically or mentally or both, just  they love of an animal, the companionship, it just brings such smiles to their face. They love on him, he loves on them, he loves to give hugs and kisses. Just to bring them out of that sad place for even a little while is just absolutely amazing.

 Tracy Kriener and Nanuq, a 2-year-old Siberian Husky

To walk in (the hospital) and you see people that are depressed and sad because they're sick, no one's in there with them  he walks in there and their faces instantly light up. He's so good with them. He's very tame. Some of them will have him get up on the bed and lay with them, and just cuddle.

***

I actually moved away to Edwardsville for school and I came back here, because I come here every year. I've come here every year, I think since birth, actually. I come here for the food, especially the chicken on a stick. I come here for my friends, especially because everybody comes here. It's a big sense of unity. I don't want to miss this, any year until I die, really.

 Jay Johnson

***

I think people need to realize that policemen are human beings like anyone else, and they have a difficult job to do, and we don't always deal with the most pleasant of circumstances. You call a fireman, people want you there. When the cops come, they don't necessarily want you there. It's kind of a necessity. People need to realize that they're human beings; we're human beings.

 Greg Spain, retired in January 2015 after 30 years with Decatur Police Department

The thin blue line between anarchy and chaos is essentially what it means. We're like the guys that are in the middle of anarchy and chaos. I've had that on for 15 years; it's never left my wrist. My grandbaby tries to pull on it.

***

Well, I played for St. Teresa volleyball and I went up to block a ball and came back down and landed on another girl's foot, so my foot just turned. It's a torn tendon. I have to wear this for four weeks. I just got it today, actually. I didn't have anything before. They just figured out what happened.

 Jenessa Wenskunas

What's the best part about Celebration? Honestly, it's just like seeing everybody. All my friends on Facebook and Instagram followers, it sounds so cheesy but you know, you get to see them in person and chat with them. I don't have my license yet, so I can't get from place to place. It's fun just to walk around. It's a once a year thing.

***

I used to go out and have fun, Sliderz and places like that. One night I came home, I wasn't tired, I got on the internet, going through my Facebook friends  her brother, I went to high school with.  Read her profile, read all the things she's gone through, she's a strong person, obviously intelligent, she's a paralegal. I sent her a friend request.  Normally you meet someone and you meet them physically first, and then you start learning about them. We went the other way. We learned everything there was about each other, and we just met two years ago.

 Kyle Bean of Decatur and fiance Lisa Larsen of Arizona (for now)

When we broke up, not to put the bomb on her but she pretty much broke up with me. But anyway. I knew I still loved her.  I tried to date someone else. I knew I was in love with this woman, and that was it. I knew I couldn't just give up. So I sent her the teddy bear.

He's in my office and everybody loves Ted. We talk to Ted like he's real. Everybody pets him and we dust him off so he doesn't get dusty. He's huge. He's as tall as me.

***

It's like, I've always been wanting to do bellydancing since I found out that my cousin did it, and I've always wanted to dance with her.

 Ruby Hendricks, 8

***

What is it like to be pregnant at Celebration?

It sucks, because it's hot. But it's OK, because there's a lot of food, so you can just eat and be comfortable.

Anything you're craving?

Funnel cakes and pizza.

 Erica Livingston, pictured with daughter Shi'onia Livingston

***

What do you like about Celebration?

Three things: The weather, the people, and the smell of Vinnie's Barbee-Q.

What is the secret of Vinnie's Barbee-Q?

Love! Next week, we're feeding all the homeless at Water Street Mission. Aug. 14, 2 to 5. This is my fifteenth anniversary of doing that.

 Vinnie Barbee

***

She was actually born on the 7th, which was the last day of the Celebration last year, I believe. We just came out here to see what there was for maybe her to do. We walked through the kids' area, it looked interesting. Most of it's not anything she's ready for, but probably next year. 

 David Slifer and Sophia Slifer
VALPARAISO  Losing her job with the Porter County prosecutor's office may not be the only price Trista Hudson will pay for failing to reveal that one of two alleged victims made up at least part of the accusations in a child molestation case.

Porter Superior Court Judge Bill Alexa said he intends to refer the matter to the Indiana Supreme Court's Disciplinary Commission for an ethical review, which could result in a penalty as severe as disbarment.

But don't expect a quick decision by the commission or even a confirmation that a complaint is filed, according to Kathryn Dolan, chief public information officer with the Indiana Supreme Court.

Grievances, as they are initially called, can be filed by anyone, she said, but are not made public. They are reviewed and either dismissed for lack of cause or further investigated.

If it is believed there was lawyer misconduct, the case is passed on to the full commission, which decides whether to pursue it by filing a complaint with the clerk of the Supreme Court, Dolan said. The matter is only revealed to the public if a complaint is pursued, she said.

Of the 1,422 grievances received during the 2014-15 fiscal year, 32 verified complaints were filed, Dolan said. This amounts to 2.25 percent of the total.

Complaints are either resolved with the attorney or a hearing officer is appointed to listen to the evidence, according to the Disciplinary Commission. Both types of resolutions are referred to the Supreme Court for final action.

If the Supreme Court agrees a lawyer has engaged in misconduct, it orders a disciplinary sanction. Sanctions include a private or public reprimand, suspension from practice for a set amount of time or until the lawyer "proves fitness," or permanent disbarment, according to the commission.

Hudson, who serves on the Valparaiso City Council, has said "it was an inadvertent mistake" that she did not reveal that one of two alleged victims in a child molestation case recanted the more serious allegations against the accused, Eric Knowles, 39, of Portage.

Defense attorney Larry Rogers said he discovered the revelation when the 12-year-old boy did not describe the alleged sex act while testifying during the June trial.

Upon questioning, the boy testified his father told him to make the false accusation, Rogers said. The boy also said he shared that information with Hudson and Portage Detective Cpl. Janis Regnier at least a week earlier.

Alexa acquitted Knowles and ordered him immediately released from jail on his own recognizance while awaiting disposition of a final molestation count involving a third child.

Knowles had spent three years behind bars and was held without bond after he was accused of molesting four different children. A jury found him not guilty in one of the cases in August 2015 and Alexa scheduled a Nov. 28 trial, and Sept. 30 and Oct. 21 hearings in the final case.

Rogers said all the cases are related and are part of a coordinated effort to frame his client.
Crown Point residents and motorcycle enthusiasts showed their support for the military, police, firefighters and first responders at the second annual Hometown Heroes Charity Bike Run Saturday at the Crown Point Square.

Pete Dragojevic, owner of Safe House Bar & Grill on the square, hosted the event to help show support especially for law enforcement due to recent violence toward police.

In todays society with law enforcement and the unfortunate violence its important for us to show our brothers and sisters in blue that we can come together as one, Dragojevic said.

Motorcyclists registered for the event so that they could receive a police escorted motorcycle ride through Crown Point. The ticket also included food and beverage provided by Safe House Bar & Grill. There was a bounce house and a dunk tank for children.

Ticket and T-shirt sales went to several benefactors including Operation Combat Bikesaver, the Crown Point Volunteer Fire Department and the Crown Point Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #176. Operation Combat Bikesaver restores tarnished motorcycles for veterans and first responders to combat depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

By coincidence, a lot of first responders are also motorcycle riders, Dragojevic said.

The event included a singing of the national anthem by Jared Riddle, professor at Ivy Tech Community College, and a singing of Amazing Grace by Trent Joselyn. Trents father, Crown Point Police Officer Darrell Josleyn, has been battling a rare form of bone cancer.

John Buncich, Lake County sheriff, spoke at the event about the sacrifices made by first responders across the country, and the problems in society.

If we did not have our military personnel serving and protecting us all over the world, we wouldnt be standing here today, Buncich said.  We got some problems in society today, but we will work together as a society to fix that, and that is done by being both good citizens and law-abiding citizens.

The Schererville and Merrillville Fire Department Honor Guards marched to the center of the square at the beginning of the ceremony while the Lake County Sheriff Pipes and Drums played behind them.

Other special guests for the event included David Uran, Crown Point mayor, Greg DeLor, Crown Point fire chief, Pete Land, Crown Point police chief, Gerry Scheub, Lake County commissioner, David Dowling, Schererville police chief, Rob Burke, commandant of Marine Corps League Howlin Mad Detachment No. 93, and Doug Geyer, president of Crown Point Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 176.
CHESTERTON  The Duneland Chamber of Commerce along with the Hobart and Portage chambers will host Robb Zbierski, of Freedom Personal Development for an education seminar event from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 29 at Sand Creek Country Club.

In this workshop, learn to harness the incredible capacity of your mind and achieve your personal best  professionally, financially and personally.

Through that process, Zbierski will cover the ways in which your brain literally creates your experience and your results. Every day, were creating our lives with our mind and its enlightening to see your brains unhelpful default settings. We now know that all of us have brains that come pre-programmed with some really strong patterns that will actually hold you back if not understood and corrected.

He will speak on how to overcome these default settings, and put you in charge of your brain and your results.

Cost is $99 if registered before Aug. 31. The cost will be $125 after that date. Lunch and materials are included.

Contact the Duneland chamber to register or for more information at (219) 926-5513 or jennifer@dunelandchamber.org.
Indiana Conservation Police are investigating a fatal drowning of a 71-year-old fisherman that occurred early Sunday morning on Hudson Lake in northeastern LaPorte County, police said.

Police were notified at 7:02 a.m. of a person who had fallen out of a boat on Hudson Lake near the 8100 East block of Lakeshore Drive, according to a news release.

The Associated Press reported that the fisherman was identified as Howard Fetterer.

New Carlisle police Officer Josh Szuba was among the first on the scene and used a kayak to begin searching for the individual. At about 8 a.m., Szuba located the victim about 100 feet from the shore. LaPorte County sheriffs dive/rescue team members recovered the body in about 8 feet of water.

According to AP, the fishing boat had personal flotation devices though Fetterer was not wearing one. AP also reported that officials indicated Fetterer may have had a medical condition that contributed to his death.
In 10 days, another summer is officially coming to an end. Not by the regular calendar but by our social and school calendars. I still remember the days when kids didnt go back to school until after Labor Day, which was a little closer to the actual summer's end.

First day of school always comes with a sigh of relief for all parents that the kiddies are all back in school. No more, Mom, Im bored or Theres nothing to do.

Please be mindful that there are many children walking to and from school and sometimes may not be watching what theyre doing. Drive carefully in and around the school district so we can have a blissful transition back to school.

Good luck to all Portage Township students embarking on a new and fresh school year and remember, "We are Portage proud"

Speaking of our kids here in Portage, Ive always said any time you can touch a childs life in such a way that brings about positive reinforcement or a fond memory, you have made a difference in that childs life. Even the simplest things like playing a simple board game, video game or reading a book, can provide the stability that the child may need. We, as the community, should provide good role models and good activities for our children throughout the year.

A couple of churches in our Portage Township community are doing just that by having Back to School Fairs this weekend. We seem to have more of these popping up every year to help parents ease the burden of the cost for all at once at the beginning of school. Its really a blessing for many that cant afford things for the kids because of pared down budgets or emergency situations that have dried up the saved funds for school haircuts, clothes and supplies.

So, everyone with school age children in the Portage Township community can head out to the first Back to School Fair this Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. at the New Hope Church of God, 712 N. County Road 450 West, South Haven. This is a community event and features free back packs, school supplies, games, hot dogs and drinks and music. There will also be a tent with free clothing. This is a free event so everything is free while quantities last.

The second Back to School Fair is this Sunday from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Real Life Community Church, 3134 Swanson. This one also features free school supplies, popcorn, snow cones, games, music, cotton candy, hot dogs, drinks, haircuts, giveaways and inflatable rides.

Thanks goes to the sponsors of this great event including Real Life Community Church, Crossroads Family Church, Northshore Health Centers, Skyline Snowie, Portage Exchange Club, Portage Kiwanis and One Portage.

Portage Township Trustee, Brendan Clancys office also helps with school supplies to the clients that have utilized the office in the last year.

Thanks goes out to all the people that help out in any way to help our little Portage Indians start the school year on a great note!

Ten more days until Back To School Portage!
VALPARAISO  The Johnny Russler & The Beach Bum Band will headline the Good Hospitality Services annual charity event, Paradise In The Park, Friday, from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. at the William E. Urschel Pavilion and Central Park Plaza.

The event will benefit the New Creation Mens Center in Valparaiso.

"Valparaiso and Porter County have been wonderful to my family and business, and this is our way of saying thank you," said Good Hospitality Services President Jeff Good. "Paradise In The Park is going to be a fun night of great music, food and beverages, but most importantly, it will be a benefit for the New Creation Mens Center food pantry for the homeless."

Johnny Russler & The Beach Bum Band combine the tropical sounds of Caribbean rock, reggae and calypso by pouring original music along with songs by Jimmy Buffett, Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, Paul Simon, Sublime, Jerry Jeff Walker, Zac Brown Band and more.

Admission to Paradise In The Park is free with a donation of a non-perishable food item for each attendee. All donated food will go to the mens center food pantry.

New Creation Men's Center is a Christian-based daytime center open to homeless men of Porter County.

The center provides fundamental, day-to-day services. Individuals utilizing the center's services are assigned a case manager who works with him on a one-on-one basis, helping equip him with tools he needs to bring about a change in his life.

Food trucks from Valpo Velvet, Birkys, Kona Ice and King of the Road will provide a variety of food for purchase. A cash bar will also be available. No outside food or beverages are allowed.

The event is family friendly for all ages. Guests are reminded to bring their own chairs or blankets.
Editor's note: We asked some Region delegates to the Republican and Democratic national conventions to weigh in on their experiences. Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. attended the Democratic National Convention last month. This column recaps his experience there.

Each day of the DNC in Philadelphia started with mandatory breakfast briefings. These briefings started at 7:30 a.m., and attendance was mandatory. Those who missed these meetings were not able to get their credentials for that evenings festivities.

Because these credentials were highly coveted, delegates attended these meetings regardless of when they got back to the hotel the previous evening, which typically was pretty late.

Another thing we had to deal with was a massive heat wave that hit Philadelphia hard. The heat index on Monday reached 105 degrees and didnt cool down much during the remainder of the trip. This extreme heat was usually followed by soaking rains.

Considering that most of the delegates to the DNC were in suits and had to travel to and from the arena in their "Sunday finest," this made for an uncomfortable situation.

Then, on Monday, we also had to deal with the Bernie Sanders protesters. On Monday, upon walking into the arena, we had to pass thousands of Sanders supporters screaming insults and vulgarities at us Clinton supporters. We were taunted, accused of rigging the election, told we were picking the wrong candidate as our nominee and would all be collectively responsible if Donald Trump became the next president.

Upon entering the hall Monday, the protests continued.

The opening prayer session was booed by the Sanders supporters. Any mention of Hillarys name was met with a cascade of groans and insults. Angry Sanders supporters carried signs around the hall that were insulting to our Democratic nominee.

There was tension in the air. Although it didnt happen, it seemed possible a fight could break out at any moment in the hall between the rival camps.

The heat index was brutal, and many of us delegates were hot, sweaty and hungry. Once inside the arena, we had to fight massive lines for food and water. On Monday, the lines for food and water were easily over an hour long. It appeared staff at the arena was caught completely flat-footed and didnt realize the amount of staff, food and water that would be needed to host such an event.

Thankfully, as the week went on, the lines and wait times dropped dramatically.

First Lady Michelle Obama was the featured speaker on Monday night and gave an excellent speech, one of the best of the entire convention. It was powerful and made me think Mrs. Obama, one day, may be a candidate for public office herself. Her speech calmed the crowd, and for the first time on Monday, the audience wasnt disrespectful of the speaker at the podium, nor did they interrupt the first lady at all.

Michelle Obamas speech was an excellent conclusion to a rough start for the Democratic National Convention. Between the thousands of Bernie Sanders protesters, the hundreds of them who were arrested, the searing heat and the massive lines for food and water, I wanted to go home Monday night. Thankfully, I didnt give into my frustrations.

Tuesday night, we heard the roll call from all 50 of the United States. Indianas was done, to wide acclaim, by Indianapolis congressman Andre Carson. During that speech, Rep. Carson creatively fired both Donald Trump and Mike Pence and awarded Indianas delegates to Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders proportionally.

Tuesday evenings main speaker was former President Bill Clinton, who is a rock star to most people in the Democratic Party. It appeared Tuesday the Bernie Sanders supporters were starting to accept reality.

Their candidate ran an excellent campaign and came up just a bit short in his quest for the Democratic nomination. But by Tuesday, things both inside and outside the arena were starting to calm down. The temperature outside was a bit cooler, tensions inside were easing, lines were getting shorter and food and water were easier to come by.

On Wednesday, the speaker schedule was busy. It had Vice President Joe Biden, VP nominee Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and President Barack Obama. There was, obviously, massive security on this evening with the Secret Service details for all these important figures massed around the perimeter.

All three of these national figures did an excellent job of making the case for unifying our party behind Hillary Clinton. Once the president was done addressing the crowd, we all rushed toward our buses to get back to the hotel.

However, because of the massive security and number of motorcades leaving the arena with these important dignitaries, it took over an hour just to get out of the parking lot. That wait time, plus the hour drive to get to our hotel, got us back to the hotel about 2 a.m. Still, we all had to wake up bright and early Thursday for our 7:30 a.m. breakfast briefing.

Thursday was highlighted by Hillary Clintons formal acceptance of the Democratic Partys nomination for president. Her introduction was done by Chelsea Clinton, who gave a very heartfelt and emotional introduction of her mother. It was sweet and smart; it was obvious how proud Chelsea is of her mother.

When Hillary came out to accept the nomination, the emotion in the room was overwhelming. It was awesome to witness history, the first woman to accept a major partys endorsement for president of the United States.

I was fighting back tears successfully until I saw Ms. Clinton fighting to keep her tears from running down her face as well. Then I lost it.

There were thousands of people with tears streaming down their faces in the room, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton supporters alike. The protests were now done for the most part.

Everyone was now intently watching and listening as Hillary accepted the nomination with an intelligent and powerful acceptance speech. I realized on the bus ride back to the hotel that evening how lucky I was to be able to witness history.

Watching Hillary walk into the arena and accept the nomination is a moment I will never forget. It was a special day that will become one of the important evenings in our countrys proud history.

I have now been to three Democratic National Conventions: 2008, 2012 and 2016. I watched personally as the first African American accepted his partys nomination (in 08 and 12), and now I was able to witness the first woman do the same. Im a pretty lucky person to have witnessed such things at only age 47.

So, despite the massive heat, the torrential downpours, the lines for food and water, the protests and the arrests of fanatical supporters, I left Philadelphia charged up and ready to fight for Hillary Clinton. There isnt a doubt in my mind she is the best person to become Americas 45th president of the United States, and I cannot wait to do my part in making this become a reality.
Students are spending these dog days of summer sprucing up an ugly wall  that will brighten up their days when the new school year begins next month. Our Cheryl Wills has the story from Bushwick.

Students of all ages are laser focused on this 10-foot-by-100-foot wall that was an eyesore for students who attend P.S. 120 in Bushwick.

Assistant Principal Sonia Rodrigo says it took years to start over with a clean slate.

"This is their playground," Rodrigo said. "This is where they spend their free time, our children PS 120 children, this is where they come to play to exercise to release energy or just to think  and it's not pretty."

Well, it's getting pretty now, thanks to the non-profit organization CITYarts  which funds a program to transform bleak walls like this into lively murals.

When kids create, they do not destroy," said CITYarts Executive Director Tsipi Ben-Haim. "You look at this community and this wall, it was filled with graffiti."

Graffiti is easy for students to spot in this gritty neighborhood, but this work of art is created by the students for the students.

"The biggest we've had yet and we've done a few murals but this is an amazing opportunity," said art teacher Rebecca DeLaney.

Mixed Media Artist Paul Deo created the outline of the mural based on the students' ideas.

"They can envision a world that they would want to see to have them relax and open up their minds to express themselves and their imagination and that's what this is all about," Deo said.

It's also about beautifying an urban neighborhood and giving students a legacy to be enjoyed for years to come.

"I want them to feel alive where they can just have fun," the artist said.

The mural should be done by mid-September, just as the students settle in to their new classrooms.
Pete Fountain, a clarinetist who brought the traditional jazz of his native New Orleans to a national audience through frequent appearances on the Lawrence Welk and Johnny Carson television shows, died on Saturday in New Orleans. He was 86.

The cause was heart failure, said Benny Harrell, Mr. Fountains son-in-law and manager.

Mr. Fountain was a mainstay of the New Orleans music scene for more than six decades, a familiar sight at Mardi Gras and the annual Jazz and Heritage Festival. And the appeal of his high-spirited brand of Dixieland stretched far beyond New Orleans, especially after he began appearing on The Lawrence Welk Show in 1957.

His outgoing musical style made an odd fit with the sedate Champagne music of Mr. Welks orchestra  Mr. Fountain often noted that Champagne and bourbon did not mix  but the combination was a hit with viewers, and his segments became a staple of the show. In later years he was also a frequent guest on Mr. Carsons Tonight Show.

Peter Dewey Fountain Jr. was born in New Orleans on July 3, 1930, and was exposed from an early age to the lively small-group jazz that was an integral part of that citys atmosphere. Inspired by Benny Goodman and the New Orleans clarinetist Irving Fazola  and by a family doctor who recommended that he learn a wind instrument to strengthen his weak lungs  he began playing clarinet at age 12. Before he was out of his teens, he had become a familiar presence in the nightclubs on Bourbon Street.
Inspector Lewis ends its run on PBSs Masterpiece Mystery! Simone Biles leads the United States womens gymnastics team at the Rio Olympics. And a young woman turns back time in Being Erica.

Whats on TV

INSPECTOR LEWIS, THE FINAL SEASON: ONE FOR SORROW 9 p.m. on PBS. Nine seasons in (or eight on PBS, which combined some), this Inspector Morse spinoff centered on Kevin Whatelys long-suffering Oxford detective  now glowering at involuntary retirement, thanks to a cost-cutting chief superintendent (Steve Toussaint)  ends with three feature-length episodes. In the first, Lewis tries to prove his worth to his new boss by connecting a body discovered in a well to the death of a young artist. Meanwhile, his sidekick, Detective Sgt. James Hathaway (Laurence Fox), finally gets to know his estranged father. Throwing a wrench into Lewiss career plans livens up the mysteries, which are as hard to follow and as campily gothic as ever, Mike Hale wrote in The New York Times. But Morse ended with 33 episodes, and now so will Lewis  which could mean that Hathaway is next. That would wrap up around 2031, when series will be beamed directly into our brains, and shows as defiantly old-fashioned as this will have disappeared, Mr. Hale added.

RIO OLYMPICS 7 p.m. on NBC. The swimmer Katie Ledecky, holder of the world record in the 400-meter freestyle, goes for the gold, while Dana Vollmer tries for a repeat win in the womens 100-meter butterfly. And Simone Biles leads the heavily favored United States womens gymnastics team.
Alexandra Stevenson, the daughter of Monika Jensen-Stevenson of Toronto and the late William H. Stevenson, was married Aug. 2 to Enrico Kevin Mills, the son of Frances Mills and Kevin J. Mills of Palo Alto, Calif. Monica Balmer, a civil officer in Zollikon, officiated at the Civil Registry Office in Zollikon, Switzerland.

On Aug. 6, the couple took part in a marriage ceremony before family and friends at the Wasserngrat, a restaurant in Saanen, Switzerland. Christopher Banks, a friend of the couple, led the ceremony, which included an exchange of vows and rings.

The bride, 31, will continue to use her name professionally. She is a business reporter at The New York Times. She graduated with honors from McGill University.

The brides mother is the author of Spite House: The Last Secret of the War in Vietnam and a co-author of Kiss the Boys Goodbye: How the United States Betrayed Its Own P.O.W.s in Vietnam. The brides father, also a writer, was the author of A Man Called Intrepid: The Incredible WWII Narrative of the Hero Whose Spy Network and Secret Diplomacy Changed the Course of History.
They basically orchestrated a coup of the party, said Mr. Weaver, 30. And here I was thinking the Democrats were the good guys.

I loved Bernie, but after he dropped out, there was this vacuum, said Ms. Malanij, 30. Now Im trying to figure out what to do with all this energy.

But surveys suggest the vast majority of Sanders supporters, as many as nine in 10, intend to vote for Hillary Clinton. And many of those who continue to rebuff her were not truly Democrats to begin with, said Patrick Murray, director of the Polling Institute at Monmouth University. These were third-party voters who got pulled to the Democrats by Bernie, Mr. Murray said. Now theyre drifting back Green.

The Green Partys modern heyday  or low point, depending on the perspective  came in 2000, when its candidate, Ralph Nader, received 2.7 percent of the vote, the most the party has achieved in a national race. He also drew the ire of many Democrats after George W. Bush defeated Al Gore by a mere 537 votes in the decisive state of Florida. There, Mr. Nader tallied more than 97,000 votes, most of which, presumably, would have otherwise gone to Mr. Gore.

Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee, has even championed the Green Party because I figure anyone voting for Stein is going to be for Hillary, he said recently in Toledo, Ohio.

For the Greens, the spoiler concept is sensitive territory. We dont want to be a threat; we want to be a force for good, said Julie George-Carlson, 58, a longtime Green activist who is running for secretary of state of Missouri. To this day, Ms. George-Carlson said, neighbors accost her in the grocery store, blaming her for Mr. Bushs victory in 2000. Still, she has no regrets.

I vote for my favorite candidate, she said. How dare anyone tell me to do otherwise.

But the fear is there.
It is a question that has been asked before: Whatever happened to Chumleys?

You read that very same question, in those very same words, in these pages four years ago, and that was not the first time it had come up since an attached chimney gave way in April 2007, leaving a wall unstable and a little building in the West Village unsafe and unusable. No one was injured  the collapse happened in the middle of the day, long after last call. Chumleys never reopened.

It has been closed for so long now that it needs an explanation. It was a restaurant with a reputation  a former speakeasy, a literary haunt. Even after the wall collapsed, the place remained popular with tour guides. They sounded so knowledgeable, pointing it out, because Chumleys never had a sign.

Now, after not quite nine and a half years, there seems to be an answer to the will-Chumleys-reopen question. There is a date, Sept. 6, set by a new operator, Alessandro Borgognone, the owner of Sushi Nakazawa, an upscale sushi restaurant nearby with a celebrity chef (and a four-star review from The New York Times). And while Chumleys figured in many pasts, some best forgotten, it did not figure in Mr. Borgognones.

I never went to Chumleys, Mr. Borgognone said before talking about how the new version would be different. Very different, he said, but mindful of the past he never knew.
A male voice came over the police radio, speaking in standard departmental jargon as he asked to be patched through to the duty captain in the Midtown South Precinct in Manhattan on July 30. The captain responded.

South captain, remember how you put me in jail? the man on the radio asked. I am out now, and Im coming to put a bullet in your head.

The threat, so brazen across the restricted airwaves of the New York Police Department, was a shock. How had the man gained access to the radio frequencies? Had he stolen a police radio?

Another theory was widely repeated in conversations last week with experts on the radio system: The man had hacked a store-bought two-way radio and turned it into a police walkie-talkie.
In 1980, the Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart warned Gaylord Nelson, Wisconsins champion vote-getter as governor and senator, that he was going to lose.

Mr. Hart saw a Republican wave coming. Ronald Reagan would defeat President Jimmy Carter and carry other Republican candidates to victory as well.

The opposite of the wave effect in elections is the so-called Eisenhower jacket, a term coined by Democrats predicting that the immensely popular Ike wouldnt have the coattails to help other Republicans down the ballot.

With three months to go in the 2016 race, there is a presumption among most Democrats and more than a few Republicans that Hillary Clinton is headed to a decisive victory. Democrats are talking about a possible wave, while Republicans see a no-coattails election, particularly since Mrs. Clinton herself remains unpopular.
They made it clear that he was categorically opposed to syringe exchange, period, Mr. Clere said.

On March 4, county and state health officials got on a conference call with the New York State Department of Health. The agency explained how the spread of H.I.V. among drug users in New York City had been dramatically reduced years earlier.

The first thing they said? You need to have a clean needle exchange program, Ms. Combs, the county nurse, recalled.

But when the topic came up at a community meeting in Scott County the next week, Dr. Jennifer Walthall, the deputy state health commissioner, made it sound like an intervention of that kind was not possible, Ms. Combs said.

She said, Lets focus on the mountains we can climb, Ms. Combs said.

On March 23, Mr. Pence was forced to address the topic head-on at a meeting in the governors office with state health officials and doctors from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The governor looked to me and he looked to the C.D.C. and said, What do we need to do to respond to this outbreak? Dr. Adams said.

He, for one, was no longer resistant. The C.D.C. felt strongly, and I agreed, that providing syringes was the appropriate response, that this is an extraordinary situation that requires extraordinary measures.

Mr. Pence found the science convincing, Dr. Adams said. But as the meeting concluded, no one was sure what the governor was going to do.
This is about giant corporations who figured out that by spending, hey, a few tens of millions of dollars, if they can influence outcomes here in Washington, they can make billions of dollars, said Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, a frequent critic of undisclosed Wall Street donations to think tanks.

Washington has seen a proliferation of think tanks, particularly small institutions with narrow interests tied to specific industries. At the same time, the brand names of the field have experienced explosive growth. Brookingss annual budget has doubled in the last decade, to $100 million. The American Enterprise Institute is spending at least $80 million on a new headquarters in Washington, not far from where the Center for Strategic and International Studies built a $100 million office tower.

The shift has occurred as nonprofits in general have been under increasing pressure from their donors to meet specific goals. But for think tanks, that pressure can threaten their standing as independent arbiters in policy debates in Congress, the White House and the news media.

Wouldnt it be nice to go back to the greatest generation, in the post-World War II era of philanthropy, where they said, gosh, Here is $1 million; spend it how you wish, Kimberly Churches, the managing director at Brookings, said in an interview.

Think tank executives reject any suggestion that they are tools of corporate influence campaigns and say they are simply teaming up with donors that have similar goals, like helping cities with economic development.
Paul Manafort, Mr. Trumps campaign chairman, on Sunday played down the troubles that Mr. Trump has caused for himself recently with comments at his rallies and interviews, including his attacks on a Gold Star family and his surprising decision to withhold endorsements from Speaker Paul D. Ryan and Senator John McCain for several days last week.

Mr. Manafort said on Foxs Sunday Morning Futures that the general election was just starting and that Mr. Trump would focus on attacking Mrs. Clinton starting on Monday with an economic speech in Detroit.

The campaign is a three-month campaign  were at the beginning, Mr. Manafort said. Starting Monday, were going to be announcing our economic plan. When we do that, were comfortable that we can get the agenda and the narrative of the campaign back on where it belongs, which is comparing the tepid economy under Obama and Clinton versus the kind of growth economy that Mr. Trump wants to build.

Perhaps Mr. Kaines most surprising comments were about the fate of Judge Garland. He and Mrs. Clinton strongly support Judge Garlands nomination to the Supreme Court, but the judges future remains unclear in the Republican-controlled Senate. If the Senate does not act on Judge Garland, and Mrs. Clinton becomes president in January, she would have to decide whether to stick with the choice of Mr. Obama, her close ally, or to pick someone else for the vacancy.

Mr. Kaine, who represents Virginia in the Senate, said the fate of Judge Garland will be for the president and the president-elect to decide, adding that it was up to Republicans in control of the Senate to bring the nomination to a vote. Asked if it was a 100 percent certainty that Mrs. Clinton would stick with Judge Garlands nomination if she were elected, Mr. Kaine sidestepped the question and said that the onus was on Republicans to hold a vote and that he would vote in favor of the nomination.

On Syria, Mr. Kaine said he believed the Obama administration had sent a mixed message about whether President Bashar al-Assad had to be deposed after crossing Mr. Obamas so-called red line forbidding Syria to use chemical weapons. Still, Mr. Kaine said he supported the administrations decision not to focus on ousting or replacing Mr. Assad and instead to concentrate on battling the Islamic State in Syria and elsewhere.

On CNNs State of the Union, Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, who challenged Mr. Trump for the Republican nomination and has refused to endorse him, ruled out voting for Mrs. Clinton in November, as some Republicans have said they would do. But asked if he would vote for Mr. Trump, Mr. Kasich said, I wish that I could be fully enthusiastic  I cant be  so I dont know whats going to happen in the end.
SKOPJE, Macedonia  A freakishly violent rainstorm that Macedonias top weather official called a water bomb ravaged Skopje during the weekend, collapsing streets, inundating vehicles and drowning trapped motorists and homeowners, most of them caught by surprise.

At least 21 people were killed and 77 injured in what officials described on Sunday as the worst flooding disaster in a half-century to hit Skopje, the Macedonian capital and a city of more than a half-million people in the central part of the Balkan Peninsula.

Officials said the death toll could rise because many people were still missing after the storm, which hit with shocking ferocity on Saturday night.

The police, army units and firefighters rescued more than 1,000 people from the raging water that flooded streets, buildings, houses, clinics and schools. Traffic in much of the city was paralyzed.
MANILA  The Philippines new president, Rodrigo Duterte, on Sunday publicly accused scores of judges, mayors, lawmakers, military personnel and police officers of involvement with the illegal drug trade, giving them 24 hours to surrender for investigation or, he said, be hunted down.

Mr. Duterte rejected calls last week from international human rights groups to observe due process in the war he has declared on both sellers and users of illicit drugs, after a photograph of a drug user shot and killed by vigilantes made it to the front pages and became a symbol for the bloody antidrug campaign.

I ordered the listing. I ordered the validation, he said Sunday in a nationally televised speech at a naval base, referring to the roughly 150 people he mentioned by name. Im the one reading it, and I am the sole person responsible for these all.

He said the accused are hereby ordered relieved of their duties, and he indicated that he was only fulfilling a campaign promise to be harsh. Some of those on his list are local politicians whom he said he knew personally. He also said the officials and others on his list should no longer be allowed to have permits for guns and other weapons.
NEW DELHI  As his party prepares for elections in key states, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has distanced himself from right-wing cow protection groups that have proliferated since his government came to power. These vigilante groups have carried out violent attacks on Muslims and, more recently, low-caste Hindus suspected of slaughtering cows, which are considered sacred in Hinduism.

In the most extensive remarks he has made on the vigilante movement, Mr. Modi said on Saturday that the vast majority of the organizations were not legitimate gau rakshaks, or Hindu cow protection volunteers, but antisocial groups masquerading as such.

I feel so angry about them, he said during a televised public forum. I have seen some people who indulge in antisocial activities for the whole night, but wear the garb of cow protectors during the day.
New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 73F. Winds NW at 15 to 25 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies. Low 54F. Winds NNW at 15 to 25 mph.
BANGKOK  In its first test at the polls, Thailands military government won overwhelming approval Sunday of a new Constitution that aims to reduce the power of political parties and extend the influence of the military.

With 94 percent of the ballots counted, voters were approving the militarys proposed Constitution by a wide margin, according to returns issued by the election commission. A companion ballot measure that would give the military junta the authority to fill the Senate with its appointees was also easily winning approval.

The gap was wide enough that the results would not change, Somchai Srisutthiyakorn, an election official, said on television.

Meechai Ruchupan, the chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee, said his panel would begin writing laws required to put the new Constitution into effect as soon as the results were official.
The language was nearly identical to claims of responsibility issued by the Islamic State for other attacks in recent weeks, including an ax attack by an Afghan refugee in Wurzburg, Germany, and the killing of a priest in the Normandy region of France.

The Belgian federal prosecutors office said in a statement on Sunday that there were indications that the attack may have been inspired by a terrorist motive and that it had taken over the investigation from the prosecutors office in Charleroi.

The federal prosecutors office identified the attacker as a 33-year-old Algerian who had been living in Belgium since 2012. The office identified him only by the initials K. B.

He is known to police for criminal facts, not for terrorism, the statement said. It added that a bomb squad had found no weapons or explosives in a rucksack the man carried during the attack.

Jan Jambon, the Belgian interior minister, said on Twitter on Saturday that the agency that monitors intelligence on terrorism and other threats had not changed the threat level in light of the attack.
Weeks after Mr. Amiri returned to Iran, American intelligence officials described the events on conditions of anonymity to a small group of reporters. Their story was that Mr. Amiri had been a voluntary recruit, interviewed and then placed in the agencys equivalent of a witness protection program. When he first told his C.I.A. handlers that he planned to return, they warned him, according to the intelligence agencys account, that it would probably end with his head in a noose.

Mr. Amiri was 32 years old in 2009 when he left a university post to go on what he declared was a pilgrimage to Mecca. He disappeared when he got to Medina, in Saudi Arabia. He had left his shaving kit in an empty hotel room, and the Iranians guessed that he was with the Americans  and they accused the United States of kidnapping.

He was an unlikely spy, a bit bumbling and nervous. By all accounts, Mr. Amiri was not in the inner circle around Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the scientist who had run the weapons side of the Iranian nuclear program. But Mr. Amiri had seen a lot; he worked at the academic center of research for the Iranian program. It now appears he may have begun work as an American source while he was still in Iran.

As a specialist in measuring nuclear radiation, he had been to a number of sensitive Iranian sites, all of great interest to intelligence officials. According to officials familiar with his debriefing, he was among the sources who told the Americans about the internal Iranian debate over whether the country needed a nuclear weapon or just a threshold capability to build one on short notice without violating the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and inviting a military backlash.

By 2009, the C.I.A. had apparently decided that the chances he would be detected were rising, and offered to get him out of the country. The agency promised him $5 million and a new identity. Mr. Amiri believed his estranged wife would never leave Iran, and he decided to go alone, without his son.

After he was interviewed in Washington, he ended up near Tucson, under the agencys national resettlement program, which provides cover and protection for cooperative foreign spies.

But he immediately missed his young son, and began calling home. Iranian intelligence agencies pressured his family, and by one account threatened to harm his son.
BEIRUT, Lebanon  Rebel forces and their jihadist allies challenged the Syrian governments siege of opposition-held districts of Aleppo over the weekend, seizing military facilities in the citys southwest and tentatively opening a road to the besieged area.

The government, backed in the skies by Russian jets and on the ground by fighters from the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militant group, pounded the area with airstrikes and artillery fire on Sunday, seeking to reverse the rebels advances, according to monitoring groups.

The rebels progress complicated the battle for Aleppo, Syrias largest city before the war and a major prize for the combatants. The city has been divided since 2012, with government forces holding most of the western neighborhoods while the opposition holds districts in the east.

Government forces, with the aid of Russian airstrikes, encircled the rebel-held eastern districts in July, raising fears among aid groups of a prolonged siege that could affect hundreds of thousands of civilians.
By Anna Smith of Annabode + Co.

When my husband and I moved to Denver from DC, I remember eagerly looking forward to the day when we could finally have an actual dining room. The teeny tiny house we were leaving behind had what we affectionally called a dining corner opposite the kitchen, a space about four feet wide where we could just squeeze in a little table and some chairs. So when we were ready to convert the living room in our Denver fixer-upper into a separate dining space, I couldnt have been more impatient!

Today its about 90% finishedwe have yet to install a new front door and window trimbut its my favorite room in the house. When Ashley asked me to share it, I thought it would be a good excuse to chat about dining rooms in general and specific dos and donts when it comes to decorating them (most of these tips still apply whether you have a separate dining space, open floor plan, or a smaller-scale apartment). So without further ado, here are my Five Steps to Designing the Perfect Dining Room:

1. Choose items that are to scale.

This sounds like a no-brainer, but it can be hard to remember when you stumble on a piece you really love (especially if its vintage) or if youre trying to stretch the function of a smaller room. The larger the room, the longer the table you should haveand vice versa. For extra-small or corner spaces where you dont do a lot of entertaining, consider a round table which is easier to navigate around and takes up less space than one with corners. And please, no more bar height tables! Theyre simply not comfortable for you or your guestsand unless your home moonlights as a restaurant, theyll end up looking out of place.

Pay attention to scale when it comes to your chairs, too. Most table heights are about 28-30; youll want your chairs to be at least a few inches taller, with seat heights at about 18. If you chairs are shorter than or meet the table height they end up looking tiny, and if the seats are higher your legs will be uncomfortably squashed at dinner (too low and youll have your chin in your food). Mid-century furniture tends to be lower to the ground and smaller-scale, so if thats your jam then just be mindful. And if you have a larger space, high ceilings, or an open floor plan, tall-backed chairs can be great for separating the dining area but can cramp a smaller room.

Your overhead lighting should likewise be sized to the room, but more importantly to the table. What I see most often in my clients homes are large tables with tiny, single-bulb light fixtures above that are hung too high. In general, the bottom of your light fixture should be more or less about 30 from the table surface (this number can go up with higher ceilings, but I personally like to keep fixtures lower). A longer table (8+ seats) works best with a longer/wider light fixture, or even a series of pendants (try 2-3), while single-bulb fixtures that are 18 or less wide should reserved for tables that seat four.

When it comes to rugs, I recommend choosing either the largest rug for the space or for the table (including the chairs). The legs of your table and chairs should sit on the rug when pushed in, but ideally when guests push back their chairs to get up, all four legs should still be on the rug (bonusthis will protect your floors from scuffs!).

2. Create enough light.

Make sure you have enough bulbs in your pendant or chandelier to adequately light the room in the evening, and compensate if needed by adding a lamp or two on a sideboard. Lighting operates on the same principle as scaling your furniture: the larger the room, the more bulbs in your chandelier are needed. Be aware too that an opaque glass shade gives off more diffused, even light from a single bulb than a clear one (the same goes for bulb itself). For example: in our own space, we probably could have gotten away with fewer bulbs if we had opted for opaque shades.

3. Add contrast.

Visual contrast is what makes all rooms feel alive, beautiful, interesting, and unique, and the dining room is no exception.

I like to make sure there is a contrast between tables and chairs, either of material, style, or both. This can be wholly (like a rustic wooden table with linen slipcovered chairs) or partially (in our space the woods in our table and chairs are similar, but the chair seats are woven). Try mixing mid-century chairs with an industrial table, or a traditional table with more modern chairs, for example. Also, dont feel like all your chairs need to match! If your style is more eclectic, consider arranging various bentwood or Windsor chairs around a simpler table. Or opt for different chairs at the table ends, or swap out a few chairs for a bench instead.

Another excellent way of adding contrast is with a rug. I truly believe all dining spaces can benefit from onethey instantly make the room feel more comfortable and inviting! Theres something about a bunch of hard surfaces all together that makes me an uneasy, and I can never get excited about a wood floor, wood table, and wood chairs without something underneath. There are so many options for those of us with kiddos or wary of stains, too (just keep reading!).

4. Design with function in mind.

The most important consideration when designing your dining room is how exactly youll be using it. Do you eat every meal there, every dayor is it holidays-0nly? Are you hosting dinner parties every other weekend, or does the table double as a craft room for the kids? Knowing the answers to these questions is paramount when it comes to choosing materials and even which pieces of furniture are necessary for your space.

If you entertain very little and eat mostly in the kitchen, you obviously have a little more freedom when it comes to the design. Otherwise

There are tons of options for heavy-use, stain resistant rugs now. I prefer synthetic rugs for under the table; ours is polypropylene, but its so soft youd never know! Our son can also upend an entire bowl of spaghetti, and we can literally take it outside and hose it down if we want to. (Tip: look for indoor/outdoor rugs when searching online or check synthetic under materials). I also stumbled across Lorena Canals Rugs the other day, which makeswait for itmachine-washable rugs that sound perfect for smaller dining rooms. And if you want something a little more natural, sisal rugs are a long-lasting and hardwearing alternative. Darker colors and intricate patterns also go a long way when hiding stains, and for the really desperate you can always slip a plastic mat under high chairs for extra protection.

When it comes to chairs, if you have messy ones with sticky fingers then either forgo upholstery or save it for the table ends. A bench can be a practical alternative for kids as well, as they have an easier time sliding along their lengths and theyre less likely to lean back in or tip them. Benches can be quite difficult to get in and out of for us grown-ups though, so if you entertain a lot then chairs are your best bet. Make sure you give your guests enough elbow room too, and save armchairs for the ends of the table if using them at all.

If your table usually takes a beating, choose harder-wearing surfaces or more rustic/weathered woods that can hide imperfections. Note that with harder surfaces (like glass, stone, etc.), your risk of dish and glass breakage increases though. For vintage wood tables that arent too precious, try coating them in several layers of polyurethane which will prevent water rings. (Please dont do this if you have a lovely table in a precious wood!).

5. Choose storage wisely.

Basically if you have pretty items, display them if you can and save the rest for a sideboard or cabinet. Functional, attractive items like trivets, glassware, serving pieceseven salt and pepper shakers and napkinscan double as decor when styled in vignettes on shelves or other surfaces.

We personally use our sideboard to hide our sons arts and crafts supplies, car keys, mail, etc. as well as larger flat items like placemats that are hard to display. If you dont have many pieces you want the world to see, then maybe forgo bookshelves or glass-fronted cabinets in favor or those with solid doors, and your secret will be safe with me!

As always, there are no hard-and-fast rules when it comes to design, so take everything Ive just said with a grain of salt. Think of these tips as guidelines, and keep them in mind next time youre tackling a dining space!

Thank you, Anna! Your home is gorgeous!

Anna Smith wants to live in a world where good design is accessible and affordable for everyone. An interior stylist based in Denver, Colorado, she creates modern homes for clients across the country through her firm Annabode + Co. When not buried in swatches and throw pillows, you can find her elbow-deep in renovations at her own fixer-upper. Work with Anna.

P.S. Annas (jaw-dropping) kitchen makeover. And our dining room.

Related posts:
Jon Potts barbecue should taste sweet on the tip of your tongue, mildly tangy on the middle of your palate and just a little bitter at the back.

Saturday, it did.

Potts, a 58-year-old banker who lives in Long Beach and Delaware, had snatched only two 1 1/2-hour stretches of sleep overnight on a cot outdoors near the smokers, which had to be tended throughout the night.

By midmorning Saturday, he was slathering a thick layer of agave on a rack of ribs and shaking brown sugar and spices on it, before sliding it back in the smoker to braise.

The ribs were destined in a couple hours to wind up in front of judges, who would later award a $10,000 prize to one of 36 teams at the American Family Housing fundraiser at Huntington State Beach parking lot Saturday.

American Family Housing houses the homeless, the poor and veterans. Event organizers hoped to raise more than $200,000 this weekend, all of which was slated to go to veterans housing, such as the Potters Lane project in Midway City.

Last year, the organization raised just under $200,000. About 10,000 people were expected to show up this year, double last years turnout.

Every 30 minutes brought more work for Potts and his three helpers. Opening the smoker, checking meat temperature and adding more water for steam. Dropping globs of butter in a tray and nestling chicken thighs into them. Cracking open a beer.

He and his Bad Dog BBQ team compete in only a couple contests a year, Potts said. Like most teams, theirs relies on a detailed schedule printed out on a spreadsheet.

Theres an art. They can give their schedule to someone else, but theres a touch they have. Theyre like the Tiger Woods of barbecue, he said.

Some of the teams Saturday came from catering companies or even barbecue supply companies. Others, such as Mike Moran, a 51-year-old Torrance resident and director at an aerospace company, are weekend pitmasters.

Moran has competed in six contests this season  his rookie season. Many teams are serial barbecue competitors, he said. You do see the same folks at every competition, he said.

Teams usually arrive the day before and fire up their pits by 10 p.m. Morans pork shoulder goes in the smoker around midnight, followed by brisket an hour later. Chicken and ribs start in the morning.

Saturday morning, Moran opened his smoker and, one by one, dipped a row of chicken thighs in sauce, then returning them to the grill. The clock was ticking  the judges would start on the chicken in less than 30 minutes.

At the other end of the beach parking lot, past vendors hawking corn, meat and tacos, and past a band playing foot-stomping reggae music, stood a wide, white tent. Inside, groups of certified judges sat at tables with plastic forks and paper towels.

In California, barbecue is generally a little sweeter, a little fruitier, said Kelly McIntosh, the contest official. But we dont really have a style were known for. Sweet, tomato-based sauces are popular, but the rules allow for any style or flavor base  mustard, vinegar or mayonnaise.

The meat was judged for appearance, taste and tenderness, McIntosh said.

Meat should not be fall-off-the-bones tender or mushy. We want ribs that tug slightly off the bone and leave a bite mark. You can be too tender, McIntosh said. Pork should maintain its texture.

Volunteers ferried white foam takeout trays of barbecue chicken to judges and showed them each tray so they could rate its appearance. The judges then speared pieces off, six per judge.

They stoically, thoughtfully nibbled at the meat and wrote numbers on scorecards. They took only a bit or two of each piece. Napkins were soon dirtied.

The tent was very quiet.

Once youve eaten competition barbecue, McIntosh said, youre ruined.

Loot N Booty BBQ out of Scottsdale, Ariz., took home the top prize. Lady of Q of Ramona finished second, followed by Blazes BBQ of Bakersfield.

The overall event, which includes a music festival and car show, continues on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets are $10.

Contact the writer: aorlowski@ocregister.com. Twitter: @aaronorlowski
LOS ANGELES  The critical moment when a gunman opened fire on two San Diego police officers, killing one, may never be seen. The surviving officer only activated his camera after the wounded shooter was running away.

San Diego is among departments with policies calling for officers to turn on cameras before initiating contact with a citizen in most cases. But like other departments, compliance is less than perfect.

The result is inconsistent use of an increasingly common tool meant to give investigators and an often-skeptical public a fuller picture of police actions.

The main motive of body cameras is to provide openness and transparency, and build trust in the police, said Samuel Walker, a retired criminal justice professor at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.

If officers are not turning cameras on, well, youre not going to build trust, he said. Youre going to reinforce the cynicism that already exists.

He pointed to a study that showed across-the-board low compliance rates of officers in one high-crime Phoenix neighborhood between April 2013 and May 2014, the most recent information available. Officers only recorded 6.5 percent of traffic stops even though the departments policy required cameras to be activated as soon as it is safe and practical, according to the study, conducted by Arizona State Universitys Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety.

The biggest part of the problem, Walker said, is a lack of discipline.

Chicago, Dallas, Denver, New Orleans, New York, Oakland and San Diego are among the cities that dont specify penalties when officers fail to record, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York Universitys School of Law.

The American Civil Liberties Union has studied the issue and said clear policies are vital, along with punishment for failure to comply.

Departments cant look the other way when officers fail to activate body cameras in critical incidents, or they become useless for accountability, said Peter Bibring, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California.

San Diego police have been criticized for failing to record a number of high-profile shootings. That prompted the department to revise its policy to stipulate that officers must turn on their cameras before most types of contact with citizens, but violations have continued.

Last week, the two San Diego gang unit officers on nighttime patrol pulled up next to a pedestrian on a darkened residential street, and the man almost immediately opened fire, police said. The suspect, Jesse Gomez, shot Wade Irwin as he got out of the patrol car and then fired through the open door and fatally wounded Irwins partner, Jonathan De Guzman, police say.

Irwin fired back and started manually recording after the shooting, but police havent said what was captured.

The cameras are on before an officer hits record, and have a recall function to get video from shortly before an officer starts recording. That function allows 30 seconds to be retrieved, without audio.

Its unclear if Irwin activated that feature.

Both Irwin and Gomez were seriously wounded and remain hospitalized.

Victor Torres, a leading civil rights attorney in San Diego, said the departments policy makes it clear both officers should have been recording before approaching Gomez.

Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman has commended Irwins actions, including activating his body camera when he did, as heroic.

The Alameda County Sheriffs Department changed its body-camera policy following a highly publicized incident last November where two deputies were caught on surveillance video using their batons to beat a car theft suspect in the middle of a street in San Franciscos Mission District.

Eleven officers in all responded and 10 failed to turn on their body cameras. The one who did activate his did so by accident.

Three officers were placed on leave, including two who are charged with assault under color of authority.

No one was disciplined for failing to turn on their cameras because the departments policy at the time encouraged, but did not require, their use, said Sgt. Ray Kelly, an agency spokesman. The agency now requires deputies to use the cameras in most circumstances and lays out the discipline for failure to comply.

The department hasnt had a problem with compliance since, Kelly said.

Some departments are tapping new technology to take the human factor out of body cameras. Los Angeles will be among a handful of departments nationwide to deploy cameras made by Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Taser International that begin automatically recording once signaled, such as when a patrol cars siren is turned on or when a shotgun is taken out of its mount

I believe by the end of three years these things will be built into a badge, said Steve Soboroff, vice president of the civilian oversight board of the Los Angeles Police Department. These cameras now, theyre like the old 10-pound cellphones.

Kelly said his department also is looking at the new technology.

The body camera is really new to law enforcement, he said. There are a lot of privacy concerns and body cameras dont always accurately depict what an officer is seeing. But they are a great tool and they are the future. And theyre here to stay.
BEIJING (AP)  Chinas air force said Saturday that it has conducted a combat air patrol over disputed areas of the South China Sea to improve its fighting ability.

The announcement comes after Beijing said it wanted to tamp down tensions following its strong rejection of an international tribunal that ruled that its claim to virtually all of the South China Sea has no legal basis.

China refused to take part in the case taken by the Philippines to the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration and continues to assert that islands in the South China Sea are its territory.

The air force didnt say when the exercises took place. Last month, after the July 12 ruling, the air force said that it had conducted patrols over the South China Sea and would make it a regular practice.

Air force spokesman Senior Col. Shen Jinke said in an online statement that the patrol was to enhance combat capabilities to deal with various security threats and to safeguard the countrys sovereignty and maritime rights and interests.

Shen said bomber and fighter aircraft, early warning aircraft, reconnaissance planes and planes that can refuel in flight patrolled the airspace around the Spratly Islands, Scarborough Shoal and surrounding areas.

The Spratlys and Scarborough Shoal are claimed by both China and the Philippines. Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam also claim the Spratlys.

Last week, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the U.S., Japan and Australia were fanning the flames of regional tensions after they released a joint statement urging China not to construct military outposts or reclaim land in disputed waters.

On Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that China stands ready to continue its efforts to peacefully resolve relevant disputes in the South China Sea.

Meanwhile, in the Philippines on Saturday, about 300 Vietnamese and Filipino protesters called on China to comply with the decision of the arbitration tribunal in a rally in front of the Chinese Consulate in Manila.

The more it defies the ruling, the more credibility it loses, Vietnamese protester Nguyen Quoc Giang said.

Former National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said at the rally that Philippine President Rodrigo Dutertes government should show more vigor in standing up to China while maintaining trade and diplomatic ties with the Asian economic powerhouse.
SACRAMENTO  The presidential race has become an all-consuming affair on social media, as Americans debate which candidate will do less harm to the republic and our freedoms. I remain more concerned about state and municipal governments. Local regulations are far more likely to have an effect on your life than, say, an executive order from the president.

City officials are afflicted by the same regulatory disease as those at other levels of government, whose victims crave the power to tax and regulate. There are some exceptions, places inoculated from the regulatory disease. Sandy Springs, Georgia, has privatized most city services. Voters in Talkeetna, Alaska, have elected Stubbs the Cat mayor since 1997, although some say that funny story is just a fable.

A decade ago, Anaheim was gaining national headlines for its freedom-friendly approach to government. The idea  deregulating, loosening land-use restrictions and slashing fees  was championed by then-Mayor Curt Pringle. It was the idea of then-councilman and current Mayor Tom Tait. I called it an enormous success in a column in the Wall Street Journal, given how these freedom policies helped spark a renaissance.

Anaheim has done well over the years for various reasons, but its sad the city has recently followed the same command, control and subsidize approach found elsewhere. The best (or worst?) example involves Anaheims approach toward homesharing web platforms such as Airbnb and HomeAway, which match up vacationers with homeowners who rent out their homes for short periods of time.

The city had allowed a number of short-term rentals, but required property owners to receive a city permit and pay taxes. Following complaints from neighbors, the City Council in late June voted to ban new ones in residential neighborhoods and to force existing operations to close down in 18 months. The city also passed tough new rules on those that will stay in business over the next year and a half. Sadly, Mayor Tait led the charge for draconian restrictions. (The city plans to come up with rules to allow some room sharing.)

In recent weeks, Airbnb filed suit against the city, echoing many of the complaints the company made against San Franciscos new regulations. HomeAway also filed a lawsuit against Anaheim. The legal actions raise some of the freedom issues that now get short shrift from the City Council.

The main complaint centers on Anaheims requirement that these web-based companies police their own sites, which the short-term rental (STR) companies say is a violation of the federal Communications Decency Act. That 1996 law created a foundation of internet freedom because it protects internet platforms from being responsible for content submitted by users. Imagine if, say, Facebook were liable for what your friends posted on your wall!

The ordinance is invalid under the First and Fourteenth amendments because it purports to impose strict criminal and civil liability on websites for publishing speech, according to the HomeAway lawsuit. For its part, Airbnb claims the ordinance also violates Airbnbs First Amendment rights because it is a content-based restriction on speech.  To justify this content-based restriction on speech, the city bears the burden of showing that the ordinance is narrowly tailored to further a substantial government interest. The city cannot carry this burden because, instead of targeting speech, the city instead could simply enforce its short-term rental laws directly against hosts who violate them  as the city acknowledges it already does successfully.

Theres also a possible taking involved in requiring property owners to stop operating these businesses. Thats the kind of anti-property-rights action I would have expected Tait to have opposed in those freedom-friendly days. I also would have expected the city to understand how the free market is fixing a once-vexing problem. In those days, officials complained about blight in older neighborhoods. These days, STR critics complain they are driving up prices in neighborhoods.

The federal court will decide the constitutional issues, of course. But the ordinance is an assault on the concept that people should be free to live their lives and run their businesses as they choose, provided they dont harm others. Neighbors have a right to complain  and expect the city to respond  when visitors violate noise and other ordinances. But they shouldnt have a right to pre-emptively stop certain activities just because other people dont like them.

Yes, we should all be worried about what the presidential election means in terms of our freedom. But our time might be better spent focusing on the myriad ways local officials are stifling innovative new businesses and ideas.

Steven Greenhut is western region director of the R Street Institute. He was a Register editorial writer from 1998-2009. He is based in Sacramento. Write to him at sgreenhut@rstreet.org.
EL CAJON  A man authorities say may have been setting brushfires for years in San Diego County has been convicted of five arson counts.

The San Diego Union-Tribune says 45-year-old Jonathan Cohen of Poway was convicted Friday in El Cajon. Hes facing more than 11 years in prison.

Cohen was found guilty of setting fires in 2014 and 2015 in Valley Center and Lakeside. Prosecutors argued that he started fires after unsuccessful gambling trips to two casinos in those communities.

A jail informant testified that Cohen told him he hated the casinos and wanted to burn them down.

All the fires were doused without serious damage but investigators said they thought Cohen might have been responsible for more fires over the past decade.
Forget Donald Trumps impact on politics.

In a corporate sense, the Republican presidential nominee may be rewriting The Art of the Apology.

Trump has gotten plenty of grief for his unwillingness to apologize for what many observers  not all, and certainly not his loyalists  perceived as numerous political gaffes during his year-long quest for the White House. How many times have gurus speculated his campaign couldnt survive various misstatements/insults/whatever slamming numerous opponents, racial or ethnic groups, servicemen and their families or even members of his own party?

The developer/entertainer won his partys nomination. So much for punditry.

To me, Trump  who co-authored the 1987 best-seller The Art of the Deal about negotiations  is testing common beliefs in the todays corporate communications world that it is best to err on the side of apologizing, even if you believe your actions or words were defensible.

It wasnt always that way.

In my three-plus decades as a business journalist, the corporate apology has undergone one of the largest transformations in corporate philosophy. There was a time not too long ago that few companies would dare to apologize. The strategy of that era was to, at best, ignore the problem. No comment seemed to suffice.

Those tactics came from a mix of legal advice to lower liabilities and corporate reticence to have a human voice. Today, at times it seems too many companies apologize quickly  but often in bland language that lacks heartfelt remorse.

What Trump is bringing back is a little-known word: conviction, says Mike Weisman, a marketing executive from Santa Ana who runs the Values Institute, which promotes corporate responsibility in branding efforts. Humans are driven to how much conviction do you have. If you have conviction, you dont have to be apologetic.

Im not sure when the change in corporate apology standards began.

Was it shame, after a series of public relations disasters in the 1980s? Was it bottom-line pressures in a hot stock market, where share prices would plummet on bad news? Was it new securities reporting requirements? Did a movement toward more corporate transparency and responsibility help?

No matter the genesis, companies started two decades ago to become awkwardly comfortable with acknowledging error and expressing remorse. Swift, apologetic actions were occasionally employed to win back consumers after noteworthy public debacles. Johnson & Johnsons handling of the poisoned Tylenol scare comes to mind. And certain airline executives were early leaders, too, making bold public apologies after plane crashes.

Of course, as life would have it  especially corporate life  these successful apologies created an era when remorse became almost institutionalized. Numerous companies  big or small  would apologize in robotic fashion and often for the smallest transgression.

Management professor Roy Lewicki, who has studied apologies at Ohio State University, says apologies have grown in number and stature as information sources and speed have increased.

In a world flooded with information, its harder and harder to cover up something, Lewicki says.

The social media revolution exploded the number of information outlets that could discover and highlight a corporate failing. Numerous websites now publish consumer reviews of services and products  adding to increasingly critical commentary on a companys operations, whether it be a global giant or the corner cafe.

Apologies are so ubiquitous theres even the Sorrywatch.com blog, which tracks public apologies, good and bad. Well, blog co-author Susan McCarthy says more bad than good, as she thinks too many apologizers try to limit their admissions of guilt in their statements.

Sometimes, you cant tell what they are apologizing for, she says. But normal human instinct is to defend your position and make excuses to look good. Thats not the essence of an apology.

Trumps bold course in the political playing field certainly raises a question: Do we apologize too much?

Make a product that harms people? You need to apologize. Sicken your customer base? Remorse required. Minor quality issues? Tougher question. Edgy marketing upsets the public? Maybe not. Have a company founder whos political views arent mainstream? Well, we do have the First Amendment.

Trump clearly tapped into a political mindset that people are powerless in an uncaring world. The boilerplate corporate apology  where remorse is manufactured, not genuine  is just one symbol of the common persons frustration with the system.

Marketing guru Weisman says in a world where risk-reduction is paramount, Trumps brash words stand out. Agree with him or not, Weisman thinks its healthy for corporations to see the populist frustrations the candidate has unlocked.

Trump has opened a sore, scratched a scab, Weisman says. Nobody trusts anyone anymore.

Let me be kind to Trumps style of apology. Hes saying he believes what he said to be true. So, he wont back down.

Thats music to the ears of people who think the nation has gotten too politically correct where every misstep, no matter the scale, must be corrected  often with an apology. And if Trump wins in November, you can bet there will be those inside corporate walls who will suggest the routine apology be tossed.

If limited apologies worked for Trump, might it not work for companies, too?

Blogger McCarthy thinks theres a wide enough gulf between politics and consumerism that the corporate reflex to apologize  even if often its done poorly  wont change much if Trump wins.

If your customers are getting angry, it wont matter who is president, she says.

Im not so sure. I never felt most corporate executives were genuinely saying Sorry! So any excuse not to apologize will be welcome.

Contact the writer: jlansner@ocregister.com
WASHINGTON  Voter-identification laws are suddenly in peril.

In agreeing last week to relax its voter-ID requirements for the November election, Texas showed how far the legal climate has shifted with respect to the wave of state laws enacted over the last decade. The agreement came less than two weeks after a federal appeals court said Texass ID law was racially discriminatory.

Only two years ago, a divided Supreme Court let the Texas law take effect for the 2014 election. That was before Justice Antonin Scalias death left the high court without a reliable majority to uphold ID laws.

It was also before opponents in some lawsuits had a chance to marshal their evidence against the measures. With evidence in hand, courts also blocked voting restrictions of various types in North Carolina, Wisconsin, North Dakota and Ohio over the past two weeks.

The last week or so has demonstrated that the tide has turned on these cases, said Danielle Lang, a lawyer with the Campaign Legal Center in Washington and part of the legal team that fought the Texas law. Litigants and advocates have built really strong records to demonstrate the burdens of these laws.

Even with the latest rulings, 15 states will have new voting restrictions for the first time in a presidential election this year, according to New York University School of Laws Brennan Center for Justice, which opposes many of the changes. Supporters of the measures say they are valuable tools to prevent voter fraud.

Without them, we may have people vote 10 times, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump told the Washington Post this week. Its inconceivable that you dont have to show identification in order to vote or that the identification doesnt have to be somewhat foolproof.

Federal judges increasingly are disagreeing with that stance. A federal appeals court said North Carolinas requirements, which also include restrictions on early voting and same-day registration, target African Americans with almost surgical precision.

A different federal appeals court, the generally conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said Texass ID law had a disproportionate effect on racial minorities. A trial judge had found that more than 600,000 Texans, including a disproportionate number of blacks and Hispanics, lacked one of the forms of identification required under the law.

The measure lets voters use drivers licenses, military IDs and concealed-handgun permits, but not student or employee IDs.

Under the states agreement with the Obama administration and voting-rights advocates, people lacking one of the required IDs will have more options in November. They will now be able to provide voter registration cards, certified birth certificates, utility bills, government checks, pay stubs or bank statements with their names and addresses on them.

The agreement fully protects the citizens of Texas, Lang said.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the accord is an interim agreement that doesnt prevent the state from appealing to the Supreme Court or continuing to defend the law. He alluded to a 2008 Supreme Court ruling that upheld an Indiana voter-ID law.

The U.S. Supreme Court said that voter ID is a legitimate means of preventing voter fraud, and Texans widely support it to defend the integrity of our elections, Paxton said in an emailed statement. This case is not over. 

U.S. Justice Department spokesman David Jacobs said the department didnt have any comment on the accord, which still needs court approval.

Although Texas could have asked the Supreme Court to intervene, Scalias death made that a tougher task. Blocking the appeals court ruling would have required the support of at least one of the courts four Democratic appointees, all of whom have shown skepticism toward voter-ID laws.

Rick Pildes, an election-law scholar who teaches at New York University School of Law, said that while Scalias death might change the dynamics on the Supreme Court, its not the reason the laws are being struck down.

Even before the recent burst of decisions, judges had begun to strike down or soften voter-ID laws in lower-profile decisions, he said.

The cases are being much better litigated, with more extensive factual records being developed to identify the number and types of eligible voters who do not possess the required forms of photo identification, Pildes said.
LOS ANGELES  When Bud Norris was placed on the 15-day disabled list Saturday, that meant Ross Stripling would get another chance to help the Dodgers.

Stripling, up and down from the minors to the majors this season, threw five shutout innings as the Dodgers rebounded from a Friday drubbing to defeat the Boston Red Sox, 3-0, in front of 47,696 at Dodger Stadium.

Stripling (3-3), called up from Oklahoma City to make the start, gave up four hits. He walked one and struck out four to earn the victory.

Kenley Jansen pitched a perfect ninth for his 33rd save.

The Dodgers (61-49), who were trounced, 9-0, by Boston on Friday, are leading the National League wild-card race. They remain two games behind the NL West-leading Giants, who beat Washington, 7-1, Saturday.

There was much more for Dodgers fans to celebrate on this day.

Rookie southpaw Grant Dayton made his second relief appearance for the Dodgers after being recalled from OKC for the second time. He was brilliant, throwing two hitless innings while striking out four and walking one. He has now thrown four scoreless innings for the Dodgers.

Then there was rookie shortstop Corey Seager. His RBI double in the fifth inning off lefty Eduardo Rodriguez gave the Dodgers a 2-0 lead. It was Seagers 31st double of the season, setting an L.A. Dodgers record for rookies. Eric Karros had 30 in 1992.

Yeah, thats cool, the left-handed hitting Seager said. With the long history of the Dodgers, its just cool to be in the record books no matter how it is. Its exciting, for sure.

Suffice to say, Dayton was rather excited afterward. He made his major league debut for the Dodgers on July 22 at St. Louis. This was his first work at Dodger Stadium.

It was exciting, he said. I didnt know what to expect. But, you know, when it comes down to it, its still baseball. The fans are awesome, they were cheering me on. I had a good time.

With one out in the sixth, Dayton faced David Ortiz. No problem, as he struck out the Red Sox slugger.

Yeah, I was trying not to think about it, Dayton said, smiling. Obviously, hes a legend and Ive still gotta do my job, so I just wanted to execute pitches and trust (catcher) A.J. (Ellis).

Manager Dave Roberts trusted Dayton enough to let him bat for himself in the bottom of the inning so he could stay in and pitch the seventh.

Grants been great, Roberts said. And the way he carries himself on a big league mound for such little service is rare. And, obviously, the fastball plays. He threw it for strikes and he doesnt scare off. So we put him in a big spot in St. Louis, here, and hes really shown well.

Ellis got the scoring started for the Dodgers in the second inning with an RBI double. Adrian Gonzalez followed Seagers run-scoring double with an RBI single for the games final run in the fifth.

Joe Blanton pitched the eighth for the Dodgers, who out-hit the Red Sox, 11-5.

One of those Dodgers hits came from recently acquired outfielder Josh Reddick. He began the day 0-for-12 for the Dodgers. He lined out hard to center in his first at bat, struck out and then lined out to Ortiz at first. At that point, he bent over at the waist in dismay.

Undaunted, Reddick singled in the eighth, then raising his arms toward his dugout.

Yeah, I know the whole team, the dugout, was just  once I finally got it, they were going to give me some good times and give me a smile over there, he said. So to get it out of the way now is a relief, but I would have liked to have had it a little earlier.

Contact the writer: rmorales@scng.com
After three months of house hunting, auto technician Mahyar Abab and his wife, teacher Ana Abab Marques, are in escrow to buy a home in the Mission Courts condos in Rancho Santa Margarita.

But landing an Orange County home of their own for under $400,000 wasnt exactly a picnic.

As first-time homebuyers using Federal Housing Administration (FHA) financing, only about half of the condos on the market had the necessary certification that would allow them to buy, said their agent, Bob Wolff.

And without FHA, the Ababs would continue to be renters. With FHA, they only need to put about $13,000 down, or 3.5 percent of the purchase price.

Its hard to save for the down payment. Its hard to save for the closing costs, said Ana, 44. Also the price is a little high at this time. And theres a lot of competition. We made an offer on five places.

The Ababs were competing with buyers paying 10 to 20 percent down, and in some cases, paying all cash. Some sellers also believe  erroneously, Wolff says  that the FHA process is more rigorous than conventional financing.

The condos we were looking to buy sold for even more than the asking price, added Mahyar, 49. Five times, we got outbid.

Off limits to condos

For a variety of reasons, condo owners and condo shoppers have been blocked from getting FHA loans, typically one of the easiest types of mortgages to qualify for.

Insured by the federal government, these loans have low down payments and borrowers can have less-than-perfect credit and still qualify.

But the number of condo complexes certified for FHA financing plummeted in recent years after the government began requiring associations to reapply every two years.

As of last week, only 11 percent of Orange Countys estimated 3,800 condo associations were certified to get FHA financing, according to FHA Pros LLC, a Westlake Village firm that helps associations apply for such recognition.

Just 10 percent of all Southern Californias condominium projects and 6 percent of the nations 170,000 associations were certified, FHA Pros estimated.

That means the bulk of condos here and throughout the nation are off-limits for FHA mortgages, used mainly by home shoppers on tight budgets.

According to real estate data firm Black Knight, FHA and and Veterans Administration funding represented 19 percent of the 50.6 million loans outstanding in the U.S. as of June.

Until 2009, condo associations kept their FHA approval indefinitely, said Dawn Bauman, senior vice president of government affairs for Community Associations Institute, a homeowner association professional group. Also, FHA allowed spot loans for borrowers in unapproved associations.

After 2009, condo associations had to seek recertification every two years and spot loans were eliminated.

When recertification came into play, the number of condo projects certified dropped off a cliff, Bauman said.

Local Realtors also complained about another FHA requirement that half of a complexs units had to be owner-occupied.

A ban on private transfer fees also impacted condo projects in large master-planned communities  among them Talega, Ladera Ranch, Los Angeles Playa Vista project and Riverside Countys The Preserve and Harveston projects  collecting a small assessment for activity funds upon the sale of a unit.

Rules eased

On July 29, President Barack Obama signed a new bill into law that could ease FHA financing for thousands of home shoppers relying on the more affordable condo market.

Called HR3700, the measure may expand the pool of affordable condos for first-time buyers and credit-challenged home shoppers, some say.

The new law seeks to make it easier for condo associations to get FHA certification.

For example, the minimum number of owner-occupied units drops to 35 percent, and the FHA must adopt more lenient transfer fee rules.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which oversees the FHA, also must ease the recertification process to make it less burdensome and consider making certification terms longer.

Many of the provisions are subject to final rules issued by HUD by the end of October.

Local agents and business leaders hailed the measure, saying it will increase the pool of affordable condos for sale.

The Orange County Association of Realtors formed a task force in recent years to encourage more associations to seek FHA and VA loan eligibility and to advocate for lowering the minimum number of owner residents.

A lot of the condo associations out there got hit really hard during the recession and had a lot of investors come in, and the units have a lot of rentals, said task force chair Lisa Dunn.

First-time buyers cant buy with an FHA loan in a community where the owner occupancy rate is under 50 percent, Dunn said. H.R. 3700 is really going to help more neighborhoods open up to first-time FHA buyers because that was holding them back.

Some experts say H.R. 3700 will have little impact on the number of lower-cost condos that get FHA certification.

Many condo associations have other problems that prevented them from getting FHA certification, including inadequate reserves and restrictions on renting, said Natalie Stewart and Chris Gardner, who run companies that help condo boards get FHA certification.

In Orange County, I would be surprised if it had more than a 10 percent impact, said Stewart, president of FHA Review in Huntington Beach.

Increasing the buyer pool

The Mission Courts condo the Ababs are buying has two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a pool steps away from the front door. The unit was remodeled less than a year ago, with new kitchen cabinets and countertops, upgraded bathrooms and new faux-wood floors.

Sellers Lindsey and Matt Fager got five offers to buy their unit within four days. After other offers were disqualified, the Fagers reached a deal with the Ababs.

This family definitely looks like theyre meant to be here, Lindsey Fager said.

The Ababs  who have an 11-year-old son, Nickolas, and a pet fish named Simon  avoided condos without FHA certification, meaning that sellers are missing out on a significant number of buyers.

If more associations and communities were FHA approved, Wolff said,   their values would be enhanced by the greater demand.

It has big ramifications for owners, said Dave Stefanides, CEO of the Orange County Association of Realtors. The result is you put thousands of affordable housing units back on the market. And thats your affordable housing in Orange County.
Its official, Google Fiber is coming to Irvine.

Google announced Tuesday that it has teamed up with Irvine Co. to bring the gigabit network to apartment, commercial and retail properties in Irvine, the Register reported. The two companies are deciding which properties will receive the service, said Pete Albers, Google Fibers head of real estate partnerships.

According to the Register, Google intends to make use of the Irvine Co.s forward thinking. The company has been installing empty conduit between and in its properties since the mid-1980s, so the master planner could one day deliver future technology that will allow for a quicker deployment of the service, which offers broadband speeds up to 1 gigabit, or 1,000 megabits, per second. That means downloading a movie in seconds, rather than minutes (or longer), the Register wrote. It would also be about 67 times the average U.S. internet connection speed of around 15 megabits, according to Akamai Technologies.

But while the Irvine Co.s eye to the future will most directly benefit Irvine residents, residents across the county are also likely to benefit, as everywhere Google has gone, better service and competitive pricing has followed.

Existing ISPs have the capability to bring high speeds to the entire country at an affordable price, but they lack incentives for improving their existing networks, especially in cities where they face little competition, Darrell M. West, the founding director of the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institute, recently wrote.

And the competition has responded. As Roger Entner, an analyst with Recon Analytics LLC, recently told Bloomberg, Any time Google is doing three, AT&T is doing 30 cities. But, Markets that Google enters enjoy a $20-a-month drop in prices, on average, he noted.

And this may all be to plan.

Many analysts say that Google aims to invest just enough into fiber to encourage more traditional providers to build out their own networks, Brian Fung, technology reporter at the Washington Post, recently wrote. Then, when consumers subscribe to the better service and take heavier advantage of Google services, Googles core business benefits. In that respect, Google isnt so much going toe-to-toe with AT&T as nudging it to expand. Whatever Googles motivation, its position as a technological disruptor is further proof of the innovative and consumer-friendy nature of competition.
Inching toward normalization with Iran is such a fraught idea that Americans want to believe their president knows what hes doing. This is a regime that hangs teenage homosexuals, incarcerates Christian converts, flogs citizens who criticize their government and finances suicide bombers. And not just the bombers who target U.S. troops in the Middle East, but also synagogues in South America.

Irans leaders still call the U.S. the Great Satan, spew anti-Jewish hate speech and fanaticize about destroying Israel, which is why Israeli leaders view the mullahs nuclear obsession with such alarm.

So I hope and pray that President Obama is right when he says that the deal he forged with Iran has slowed that nations rush to acquire nuclear weapons. But he didnt help his own cause at Thursdays news conference.

Obama being Obama, it took 20 minutes and 30 seconds to get to the second question Thursday. It came from Mary Bruce of ABC News and was prompted by a recent Wall Street Journal story revealing that the administration organized an airlift of $400 million in cash last January as four American hostages were being released.

What is your response to critics who say the $400 million in cash that you sent to Iran was a ransom payment? Bruce asked. Was it really simply a pure coincidence that  a payment that was held up for almost four decades was suddenly sent at the exact same time that the American prisoners were released? And can you assure the American people that none of that money went to support terrorism?

Although prepared for this question, Obama greeted it with disdain. As many of you know, we announced these payments in January, many months ago, he began. It was not a secret. We announced them to all of you.

Obama expounded at some length, making four or five additional points. He noted that the $400 million was not our money  it belonged to Iran and was frozen in 1979 after the Iranian revolution. And coincidence, he added, was precisely the wrong word.

We actually had diplomatic negotiations and conversations with Iran for the first time in several decades, he said. So the issue is not so much that it was a coincidence, as it is that we were able to have a direct discussion.

Regarding the ransom angle, Obama simply re-asserted the official U.S. position that the American government does not make such payments; he chastised his critics for not acknowledging that the Iran deal is working, without amplifying on why he believes thats true; and he concluded by saying that the only new bit of information in the Journal piece was the form of payment.

It is not at all clear to me why it is that cash, as opposed to a check or a wire transfer, has made this into a new story, he said. The reason that we had to give them cash is precisely because we are so strict in maintaining sanctions, and we do not have a banking relationship with Iran, that we couldnt send them a check, and we could not wire the money.

This wasnt some nefarious deal, he added.

These answers are so thin they should undermine, rather than bolster, confidence in the Iran deal. For starters, the administration didnt announce the $400 million payment in January: White House press secretary Josh Earnest confirmed it when it was reported elsewhere.

Second, where would anyone get the idea that it was a ransom payment for hostages? How about from the Iranians themselves. Gen. Mohammad Reza Naghdi was quoted on Iranian state media as crowing, Taking this much money back was in return for the release of the American spies.

Finally, the $400 million being delivered in cash (mostly Swiss francs and Euros, apparently) is not a minor detail. Its an alarming disclosure. The presidents explanation seems absurd. How does sending a cargo plane full of cash comply with existing sanctions while bank transfers do not? As far as not having a banking relationship with Iran, what does that even mean? Is the president really claiming that no bank in the world would have facilitated a legal transfer of funds  even if Obama had asked them directly?

As for why inquiring minds would be suspicious of a huge middle-of-the-night cash transfer of untraceable currency to avoid banking scrutiny, well, the answer is that such suspicion is built into federal law. Any bank doing business in this country is required to report to the federal government cash transactions in excess of $10,000.

Passed by Congress during the cocaine cowboy days of the 1980s, these statutes assumed that anybody moving that kind of cash around was trafficking drugs, running guns, laundering money for other vices such as gambling or prostitution  or at the very least, evading taxes. As an enhanced weapon, federal, state and local governments enacted civil forfeiture laws allowing them to seize the property of suspected drug dealers without charging them with a crime.

Some of these cases would shock Kafka. Take the Burmese refugee  an American citizen for 10 years  who manages a touring Christian rock band, raising money for a Burmese orphanage. He was stopped for a taillight violation by Oklahoma sheriffs deputies, who sent him on his way after relieving him of the $53,000 hed raised for charity. Could be drug money, they said.

Yet, some Americans still stubbornly cling to their old ways of paying cash, so the laws were refined even more. Even banking transactions under $10,000  if they were done for the apparent reason of evading reporting requirements  became a felony. This crime is called structuring.

This law tripped up former Speaker of the House Denny Hastert  hed paid hush money to a man hed sexually abused many years earlier  but its an easy power to abuse.

Brothers David and Larry Vocatura learned this lesson when armed IRS agents came into their Connecticut shop demanding to know if they were dealing in drugs or prostitution. Actually, they were operating a bakery that had been in their family for nearly a century. The feds took $68,000 from their bank account anyway. When they tried to get it back, the governments first response was to threaten criminal prosecution.

Thats how the U.S. government treats Americans who dont keep perfect ledgers. When it comes to a brutal dictatorship that covets stockpiles of uranium and is infamous for funding state-sponsored terrorism, were a lot more trusting  and with vastly greater sums of money. At the risk of annoying our president, one should ask him how much of the $400 million might go to Hezbollah or the regime in Syria.

Oh, I almost forgot: Mary Bruce did ask Obama about that. It wasnt a part of her question he chose to answer.

Carl M. Cannon is executive editor of RealClearPolitics.com.
Although a very small team of special operations forces began working out of the Misurata and Benghazi areas at the end of last year  and Pentagon officials have spent months eyeing the Islamic States contingent of forces in the city of Sirte on the central coast between them  only since the first of the month has Africa Command launched airstrikes at the request of Libyas U.N.-backed government.

Sensing momentum, Italy  the NATO ally that affords our closest geographical reach to ISIS-held territory in Libya  is considering putting its bases to work in the fight, satisfied the effort will be limited in time and area of operation, doesnt foresee the use of ground forces and is limited to allowing the Libyan forces to successfully defeat the terrorist forces in the area of Sirte, as the countrys defense minister recently noted.

For the soldiers straining to dislodge ISIS, the bombing is welcome news. We hope they will intensify the air strikes in the coming days for us to make progress on the battlefield, one fighter, Mohamad al-Ahjal, told AFP. But for the American people, the return to more forceful intervention prompts a painful reminder of how Libya wound up this way in the first place  fractured into rival factions, bisected by jihadists and clinging to a fragile unity government that cant fully function as a sovereign state.

Its a difficult reckoning. The current administration cant carry all the blame for the Mideast implosion that followed the Arab Spring, but the surprise, uncertainty and slow reflexes that have characterized White House policy did lead to a string of miscalculations and effective defeats  not just in Syria and Iraq, but in Libya, where the Islamic State quickly and cleverly exploited the administrations weaknesses to set up shop amid the chaos.

Doubtless, those who argue the US should have stayed out of Libya altogether are leaning a bit too hard on their ideals and dreams. Ironically, some of these critics are among the most critical of the refugee crisis in Europe aggravated by the administrations policies. After all, the best case to intervene against the Gaddafi regime was the risk it posed, during the initial rebellion, of precipitating a massive flow of civilians (and others) fleeing free Benghazi into Southern Europe and beyond. But the US got the worst of both worlds  an intervention that left Libya in ruins, opening the door for jihadists while contributing to an even larger refugee crisis than would have occurred had the US indeed done nothing.

On the other hand, President Obama has managed to nudge Libya delicately toward order. However modest and frustrating, this policy is not failing; ISIS is being reduced, a recognized government has been formed and no great threat of further instability is looming on the horizon. Credit where credit is due.

Yet as the Islamic States international reach is reduced by President Obamas way of war, it has compensated for the loss through terror attacks  increasing its scope in a way that could soon provoke catastrophe. And as the restoration of Libya crawls along, deep questions linger as to what exactly is U.S. policy when it comes to the whys, whens and hows of intervention. Hillary Clinton could have helped answer them by now  both during her time as a candidate today and previously as the sitting presidents secretary of state. Whatever Libyas fate or Clintons, Americans need compelling answers.
LONDON  A retired San Jose firefighter who tried to grab the man who stabbed to death a retired teacher in London this week says anyone would have tried to stop the attack.

Martin Hoenisch, 59, said he was just a tourist who knew what to do in a dire situation  namely try to subdue a man wielding a knife Wednesday in Londons Russell Square, near the British Museum. The suspect appeared in court Saturday and was ordered to be held until the next hearing.

Hoenisch told The Associated Press that he and his wife had just arrived in London and were walking back from a pub at about 11:30 p.m. when he saw a woman in distress. His first reaction was to step in front of his wife. Then he then tried to stop the attacker.

Im a firefighter. Im a good guy, he said Saturday. Any guy would try to stop this.

Zakaria Bulhan, a 19-year-old Somali-Norwegian, is accused of slaying 64-year-old Darlene Horton, a retired teacher from Florida.

Bulhan also faces five counts of attempted murder in the attack that wounded two Australians, an Israeli, a British citizen and Hoenisch. The victims were named in court Saturday for the first time.

Bulhan, who moved from Norway to Britain as a child, mumbled his name, address and date of birth during the hearing Saturday at Westminster Magistrates Court. When asked if he understood the charges, he gave a thumbs up gesture. He will appear at the Central London Criminal Court on Aug. 9.

Hoenisch was resolute in suggesting that anyone would have acted as he did. He said he just tried to get the guy so that when the police get here, we got him.

The attacker stabbed him in the right arm and just kept on running.

He never broke his stride, Hoenisch said, adding that when he looked down his hand was all red.

The attacker was finally subdued when police fired a stun gun after he refused orders to stop running.

Horton had been visiting London with her husband, Florida State University psychology professor Richard Wagner, who had been teaching summer classes in the city. The couple had been due to fly home the next day.

Although London has been on edge because of deadly attacks on the European mainland claimed by Islamic State extremists, London police say theyve found no evidence of radicalization or links to terrorism in this case.

He never said a word, Hoenisch said.

Hoenisch told family and friends on Facebook that he was saddened by what happened, calling it a very unreal experience. But it wont change his opinion of the city on what was his first trip abroad. He just feels bad that he didnt get a chance to see more of the city while on his dream vacation.

I freaking love London, he told the AP.
Todays pot is typically four times stronger than the marijuana of just a couple of decades ago.

Thats timely to note in the current push to legalize the drug, because much of the research showing marijuana has only modest health effects on adults is based on weaker strains that have been largely bred out of the marketplace.

That means that, as Californians prepare to vote this November on a recreational marijuana initiative, theyll do so without conclusive answers from the medical community on how todays pot may affect mental health and the debate over the gateway drug theory.

Were all riding this green rush right now, said Staci Gruber, a psychiatry professor at Harvard Medical School who studies the effects of marijuana use on the brain. But theres still so much that we dont know.

Leading up to the fall vote, the Register is publishing an occasional series that surveys current research and interviews experts on common questions about marijuana use: the potential health risks, issues of government regulation and the experience of states where recreational use of cannabis is legal.

Q. Is marijuana riskier now than it used to be?

A. Updated research is needed, experts say, with pot potencies and products constantly evolving.

Through the 1990s, marijuana typically had about 4 percent THC, the main compound that makes consumers high, according to Madeline Meier, a psychologist at Arizona State University. Thanks to cultivators whove crossbred strains to boost potency, todays cannabis commonly has 15 percent, 20 percent, even 30 percent THC. And concentrates  such as waxes, tinctures and oils  can reach 60 percent or 80 percent.

Such potencies can lead to negative experiences for baby boomers who havent lit up in decades or for inexperienced consumers who dont know how to properly dose their intake, Gruber said. Theres also concern among experts that increasingly potent products heighten health risks.

That definitely increases the potential for addiction, said Kevin Alexander, clinical manager at Hoag Hospitals After-School Program Interventions and Resiliency Education program in Newport Beach.

Hope by the Sea treatment center in San Juan Capistrano has seen a slight uptick in patients seeking treatment for marijuana abuse, according to admissions coordinator Corey Richman. Anecdotally, he said, those patients seem to exhibit more serious symptoms of dependency, such as hoarding supplies rather than embracing the sharing, puff, puff, pass culture of marijuanas low-THC days.

Requiring products to be tested and clearly labeled for potency can help consumers make more informed decisions, Gruber said.

California is developing regulations on testing, labeling and packaging for medical marijuana that would carry forward if recreational pot were legalized.

Colorado considered an initiative for the November ballot that would have gone a step further, capping THC at 16 percent and requiring edibles to be sold in low-dose, single-serving packages. But backers recently dropped the effort amid fierce pushback from those who said such limits violated rights now incorporated in the state constitution and would have wiped out 80 percent of the legal pot market.

Q. Is pot a gateway drug?

A. The theory that cannabis use leads to harder drugs  advanced by some politicians and public-safety officials  remains divisive in the medical community, even as it has been discounted by federal medical researchers.

Its a fact that surveys show the majority of people who try substances such as cocaine or heroin say they first used pot.

The same surveys find most people who try marijuana first used cigarettes and alcohol. And national drug-use data indicate the majority of people who try marijuana never move on to other more powerful, addictive drugs.

Nearly 8.5 percent of the population said theyd used marijuana in the past month, according to the latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Just 2.5 percent said theyd used the next most common family of abused drugs: prescription medications. And fewer than 1 percent had tried drugs such as cocaine, LSD or heroin.

Marijuana use is also increasing, the national survey shows. With the exception of a surge of heroin use in recent years, consumption of other drugs is flat or declining.

Some experiments on rats have indicated that marijuana causes a change in brain circuitry that triggers the use of harder drugs. If thats true, Gruber said, researchers would expect to see a higher percentage of people making the jump to more powerful substances.

What correlations may exist appear to be tied more to social factors, such as peer pressure and family environment, than physiological ones, experts say.

People who want the mind-altering effect of harder drugs might start with pot because its easier to get, for example. Legalization advocates argue that allowing recreational marijuana use would reduce consumer migration to more dangerous narcotics by curbing interactions with street dealers, who have a financial incentive to push harder drugs.

A study from the federal Institute of Medicine sums it up this way: Because underage smoking and alcohol use typically precede marijuana use, marijuana is not the most common, and is rarely the first, gateway to illicit drug use. There is no conclusive evidence that the drug effects of marijuana are causally linked to the subsequent abuse of other illicit drugs.

Q. Can cannabis trigger mental health problems?

A. The answers not simple. Recent studies have concluded that cannabis can both intensify and relieve various mental health conditions.

For people with a predisposition, marijuana can exacerbate certain symptoms, Gruber said. But you also have the flip side: There are people with psychological disorders who find some therapeutic benefits from marijuana use.

Look, for example, at anxiety.

Anxiety is one of the most common conditions users say prompts them to turn to medical marijuana. And a study published in February in the journal JAMA Psychiatry that tracked users over time found no link between marijuana consumption and an increase in mood disorders.

But some people do experience temporary anxiety or paranoia when they use marijuana, particularly when it has a high concentration of THC. In rare cases, Hoag Hospitals Alexander said, potent pot can trigger anxiety that escalates to psychotic episodes.

For people with a family history or symptoms of conditions such as schizophrenia, a 2014 study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry suggests heavy cannabis use might trigger or worsen the illness.

At the same time, Grubers research shows promise that medical marijuana can ease symptoms of bipolar, post-traumatic stress and attention deficit disorders. Notably, she said, patients showing success are using products that are low in THC and higher in CBD, a compound believed responsible for much of marijuanas medical benefits without the mind-altering effects.

So much depends on exactly what products people are using, she said, adding that consumers respond differently to various strains, doses and methods of ingestion. It can be a very personalized experience.

Alexander recommends people seeking to treat a mental health condition with cannabis do so under the guidance of a knowledgeable doctor.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7963 or bstaggs@scng.comTwitter: @JournoBrooke
During a recorded conversation, the star witness in the Chandra Levy murder case made a series of boastful claims. Armando Morales bragged about shooting gang rivals, obtaining hand grenades and making prison shanks out of melted foam cups.

Then he made a chilling announcement. He said he was plotting to ambush a man he thought had stolen jewelry from the woman who was recording him. He said that he planned to execute his plan in a thug way, and that he had collected a black hoodie and some dark clothing so no one could see him coming.

I came ready to do battle with that  thief, Morales said on the audio recording, using a profanity, according to a copy reviewed by The Washington Post.

But the one thing Morales did not say during the seven-hour recording: that he lied on the witness stand and sent an innocent man to prison in the case of the Washington intern who disappeared in 2001 while dating a married congressman.

The claim that Morales lied came from the woman who recorded him. She identified herself as an actress named Babs Proller and said she secretly recorded Morales on July 11 after meeting him in an Annapolis hotel. She told prosecutors, defense attorneys and the news media that Morales admitted to falsely testifying that former cellmate Ingmar Guandique had confessed to attacking Levy in Rock Creek Park.

She said she had the recording to prove it. But there is no evidence that that recording exists.

The woman, whose real name is Beate Maria Brandl, provided copies of one seven-hour recording to prosecutors, defense attorneys and The Post.

It was the beginning of the end to a sensational murder case that captivated the nation with round-the-clock media coverage.

After listening to the recording, prosecutors last week took the extraordinary step of dismissing the murder charges against Guandique, 34, saying they were no longer able to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. The U.S. attorneys office declined to discuss the recording. But Moraless boastful claims and threats of violence stand in stark contrast to his testimony during the November 2010 trial that he had become a reformed man in prison.

A law enforcement source confirmed that it is Moraless voice on the recording. Moraless attorney is out of the country and could not be reached for comment.

Legal experts said Moraless statements, coupled with Brandls claims, would most likely have shattered the credibility of the prosecutions star witness, who was scheduled to testify at a retrial of Guandique this fall. An undocumented immigrant from El Salvador, Guandique now faces deportation. He has maintained his innocence in Levys death.

The guy said he was now reformed, one of Christs apostles, said Bernard S. Grimm, a Washington defense lawyer who watched Morales testify in 2010. But if you listen to him on that tape, hes still the same gang thug he was years ago. It comes down to general credibility.

The turn of events could signal the final chapter in a case that once riveted the country with speculation that a California congressman, Gary Condit, then 54, might have had something to do with the disappearance of Levy, a 24-year-old intern for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. She vanished May 1, 2001. A year later, a hiker found her skeletal remains in Rock Creek Park.

In the months after Levy disappeared, police and prosecutors focused on Condit before eventually clearing him as a suspect.

While they were investigating Condit, Guandique was attacking women in Rock Creek Park. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to assaulting two female joggers in the park; one shortly before Levy vanished, the other shortly after.

Police made numerous mistakes and missteps during their investigation. Some of the errors set the investigation back by weeks, even months, according to law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation.

The case went cold until 2009, when prosecutors charged Guandique with Levys murder. They had no forensic evidence, eyewitnesses or murder weapon. Instead, they built a circumstantial case largely on the testimony of the two female joggers, with Morales as their key witness.

Morales, a five-time convicted felon and leader of a gang called the Fresno Bulldogs, told jurors that he met Guandique in 2006 in a federal prison in Kentucky while serving a 21-year sentence for drugs and weapons convictions. He testified that Guandique confessed to attacking Levy in Rock Creek Park.

He said Guandique told him: Homeboy, I killed the 1 / 8expletive 3 / 8, but I didnt rape her.

Morales held himself out as a changed man who had turned his life around. He said he had been part of a life skills mentoring program in prison.

I got tired of all the violence, he testified.

Moraless testimony was all that directly linked Guandique to Levys death.

The jury deliberated for 3 1 / 2days before finding Guandique guilty.

One juror, Sharae Bacon, said Morales had been the key to the case.

There were no holes in his testimony, she told The Post after the verdict was delivered.

Guandique was sentenced to 60 years in prison.

The case began to unravel in late 2012, when attorneys for Guandique argued that Morales had lied when he testified that he had never previously cooperated with law enforcement authorities. That information surfaced after a prosecutor in California who had known Morales contacted prosecutors in Washington to alert them to Moraless past. The prosecutors then notified the trial judge and Guandiques attorneys.

Prosecutors last year withdrew their objections to defense motions demanding a new trial. The second trial was scheduled to start Oct. 11.

The case began to unravel again July 17, when Levys mother, Susan, said she received a Facebook message from a woman identifying herself as Babs Washington. The woman, who was really Brandl, said she had important information about the case and asked Levy to call her. Levy said she called the woman the next day. Brandl told Levy that she had secretly recorded the star witness in her daughters murder trial and that he admitted that he had concocted his trial testimony.

Levy said she told the woman to contact the U.S. attorneys office and the District of Columbia Public Defender Service, which represents Guandique.

Brandl, 51, told The Post that she met the 55-year-old Morales at the Country Inn & Suites in Annapolis on July 6 by simple coincidence. She said she is an actress who has appeared on the Netflix series House of Cards.

She said she was moving out of her Annapolis home, staying at the hotel, when a sliding glass lobby door accidently closed on her dog, Buddy. She said the golden retriever refused to go back into the hotel and that a man offered to help carry the dog into the hotel lobby.

I thought he was a dog lover, she told The Post.

Over several days, she said, the man told her he had just been released from prison and showed her his prison identification. She said that on the weekend of July 9-10, she learned that the man was Morales, the key witness in the Levy case. She also said she was afraid that Morales might make good on threats he allegedly made to hurt her ex-husband. She said she decided to record Morales to protect herself.

She said that on July 11, she recorded the conversation with Morales as they moved her belongings into a storage facility and drove around Annapolis. They engaged in meandering small talk that included Buddhism, Moraless love of the military and how he lost touch with his daughter because of his criminal life. He said his mother had given him a gun as a child for protection, telling him: I can go to you in prison, but I cant have you dead.

According to a copy of the recording Brandl provided to The Post, Morales does not say he was planning to harm Brandls ex-husband. Instead, he said he was planning to ambush a man who had supposedly stolen jewelry from Brandl. On the recording, Morales said that he was going to confront that (person). Hes not gonna get away with that, he said. I gotta good plan, man. I really do. I thought on it, you know.

Brandl told Morales she feared that he could go back to prison. Morales then walked back his plan. He assured Brandl that he was not going to break the law because he didnt want to go back to prison. I have to follow the rules, he said.

He also bragged on the recording that he could make shanks out of 10 melted foam cups, and then stick the shank into somebodys eye and penetrate that shell into their brain and take their life.

He talked about having the car windows at a dealership shot out and then warning the owner of the business to hire his brothers glass replacement company if you dont want this to happen again.

Brandl said that after recording Morales and speaking with Susan Levy, she contacted the U.S. attorneys office and the Public Defender Service.

Prosecutors and Guandiques defense counsel interviewed Brandl. On July 21, prosecutors told the judge in the case that they had new information about Morales but did not elaborate. Three days later, prosecutors confiscated Brandls digital recorder, calling it evidence in the case.

Brandl insisted that she made additional recordings and had captured Morales saying he fabricated his trial testimony. Those recordings, if they exist, have not been provided to the U.S. attorneys office.

On the recording provided to The Post and prosecutors, Brandl repeatedly prodded Morales to admit that he did not testify truthfully at the 2010 trial. At several points during the recording, Morales stood by his testimony, saying that Guandique confessed to him that he had killed Levy.

It was an accident. He didnt know he killed her, Morales told Brandl on the recording. He went back. That was his area to steal and rob and whatever he was doing. That was his location. He went back.

Officials with the Public Defender Service said they have not listened to the recording because it was illegally recorded in violation of Maryland wiretap statutes, which bar recording a second party without consent.

On July 26, prosecutors reinterviewed Brandl. She told The Post that they asked her whether she was working for the Public Defender Service, whether members of the office had directed her or whether someone was paying her to entrap Morales.

Eugene Ohm, one of Guandiques attorneys, said the defense had nothing to do with the recording. He told The Post that his office did not speak to Brandl, whom he referred to as Proller, until prosecutors told his office about her.

We were told that Ms. Proller had contacted Mrs. Levy, who then encouraged Ms. Proller to reach out to authorities and the defense, Ohm said.

Brandl insisted to The Post that she alone decided to record Morales.

After prosecutors announced July 28 that they were dropping the charges against Guandique, Brandl posted a message on her Facebook page, where she goes by the name Babs Washington.

I became aware of information relevant to the case and I conveyed that information to the all of the appropriate people  the prosecutors, and defense attorneys and Ms. Levy, the Facebook message says. I did this because I believed then, and believes now, that it was the right thing to do. I have no further information to provide regarding this tragic case and will make no further statements.

A Metropolitan Police Department official said the case remains closed for now.

We have not uncovered any information during the course of the investigation that would warrant reopening the case, Assistant Chief Peter Newsham said. MPD will continue to pursue any new leads that are uncovered or brought to our attention.

Levys parents, Susan and Bob, said they are stunned by the turn of events that led to the undoing of the entire case. They questioned Brandls motives and said they do not understand why prosecutors dropped the case so quickly.

Im shocked at how something could unravel so fast. Im distraught that the prosecutors dropped this case, Susan Levy said. Its unbelievable that one person can disrupt so much.
Regency Centers Corp., a national owner, operator, and developer of grocery-anchored shopping centers, has closed on land that will become The Village at Tustin Legacy. With estimated net development costs of nearly $40 million, the ground-up development will provide a retail anchor for Tustin Legacy, a new 1,600-acre master-planned community. The center will be neighbored by a 130,000 square-foot medical complex, 1.9 million square feet of office space, and more than 6,800 new residential homes at total build-out.

The center will be anchored by a Stater Bros. Market. The 112,000-square-foot center will be the 11th property for Regency Centers in Orange County, including the recently completed Village at La Floresta in Brea. Groundbreaking is scheduled to begin Aug. 25.

Los Angeles-based Decron Properties Corp. has acquired Adagio at South Coast, a 349-unit apartment complex in Santa Ana for $96 million. The property was sold by Prime Residential. The complex was built in 1974. Decron plans to renovate unit interiors and community common areas including the fitness center and clubhouse, fire pits, outdoor lounge areas, pool, new BBQ areas, playground furnishings, dog parks, and added parking through the use of parking lifts.

Cushman & Wakefield has closed the sale of Savi Tech Center in Yorba Linda for an undisclosed amount. The complex sold in 2013 for $54.4 million. Savi Ranch Property Holdings acquired the four-building, 376,808-square-foot office/technology campus on more than 19 acres near the intersection of state route 91 and the 241 toll road. Jeffrey Cole, Jeff Chiate, Ed Hernandez and Rick Ellison with Cushman & Wakefields office in Irvine represented the seller in the transaction. The campus was 100 percent leased to five tenants at the time of sale.

CBRE Group led the acquisition of an industrial property in Orange County for $4.1 million following the sale of another property in the same area for $3.2 million as part of a 1031-exchange. In the first transaction, Krickl Family Trust sold a 20,000 square-foot site at 325 Muller St. in Anaheim to Alpha Aluminum Products. Subsequently, Krickl Family Trust bought 515 S. Melrose St. in nearby Placentia, a 26,251-square-foot industrial project from a private family investor. The site is 100 percent leased to Vanderveer Industrial Plastics, a distributor and fabricator of high-performance thermoplastics and thermoset composites and laminates.

M&A

Irvine-based design firm Ware Malcomb has acquired Jansen Strawn Consulting Engineers, a Denver-based civil engineering firm in the commercial and residential real estate development industry. The terms of the transaction, which was finalized on July 31, 2016, were not disclosed. The 40-person firm will operate as Jansen Strawn Consulting Engineers, a Ware Malcomb Co., and will maintain its current office in Denver. Ware Malcomb also will maintain its Denver office.

PEOPLE IN REAL ESTATE

Eva Tapia, a senior vice president at Irvine-based Auction.com, has been named to HousingWire Magazines 2016 Women of Influence. Tapia is one of 43 other women within the housing economy to be named to the list, which recognizes women in housing who demonstrate leadership that inspires those in their companies, in their communities and in the industry at large.

NEW VENTURES

Orange-based Fidelity Bancorp Funding, a mortgage firm , has updated its brand, which includes a new website that provides more resources for clients. The changes come as the firm reached a milestone of providing $9 billion in financing nationwide. The new brand includes a new logo along with the website and overall updated branding. It was unveiled on July 12. The new website can be found at fidelitybancorpfunding.com.

Send real estate-related executive promotions, property transactions, good works and milestones to Business Editor Samantha Gowen at sgowen@ocregister.com. High-resolution headshots and property pictures can accompany the items.
FOUNTAIN VALLEY  Police officers saved the life of an infant Saturday afternoon, performing CPR and driving the baby to the hospital, authorities said.

At 2:30 p.m., Fountain Valley Police Department officers responded to a call of a baby not breathing. Within a minute, the first officer arrived on scene in the 11000 block of Slater Avenue, according to a police news release.

The officer found an unresponsive 4-month-old baby being held by the parents, the release said. The officer starting giving the infant CPR and made the decision to have the second officer who had arrived drive them to a nearby hospital emergency room. The officer continued CPR in the back of the patrol car.

Medical staff at the hospital were able to revive the infant.

Hospital personnel stated that the rapid response, quick decisions and life-saving actions of the police officers were contributing factors that likely saved the infants life, the police release stated.
In the summer of 2012, hundreds of demonstrators spilled onto the streets of Anaheim.

Two young Latino men had been fatally shot by police a day apart in neighborhoods police said were frequented by gang members.

Weeks of tension over allegations of police brutality followed, with some protesters hurling rocks and bottles at officers, smashing storefront windows and setting dumpsters ablaze. Police in riot gear fired rounds of bean bags to disperse crowds.

The community of Anaheim rose up, recalled Genevieve Huizar, the mother of Manuel Diaz, one of the men killed by police that summer.

Four years later, as the nation struggles through a wrenching debate over police-community relations and killings of police officers and black suspects, a push to impose added accountability on the Police Department of the countys largest city remains an uneasy work in progress.

City records indicate violent interactions with officers have been reduced, but lingering conflicts continue to undermine trust between police and citizens who want more change. Since 2012, officer-involved shootings have been cut in half, and incidents involving use of force have fallen by roughly 25 percent to slightly more than 100, according to an audit report released last month.

Much of the improvement, Anaheim officials say, can be attributed to the creation of a police review board made up of civilians from across the city, a first for Orange County. They also credit an ongoing audit by outside experts of the departments tactics and operations.

Weve made great strides since 2012, said Mayor Tom Tait, who called for more police oversight.

The added scrutiny has ranged from stepped-up internal reviews and better digital tracking of use of force by officers to stronger procedures to ensure body cameras are activated to capture more potentially violent encounters.

But mothers of the deceased and others demanding more police oversight say the city is overstating its accomplishments. Over the past four years, they contend, Anaheim has launched a patchwork of responses that have failed to improve transparency or accountability.

And key disputes remain over shooting and foot-pursuit policies, as well as how quickly officers should be interviewed by investigators after violent incidents.

Community relations have been strained anew in the aftermath of the July death of a 32-year-old homeless man, Fermin Vincent Valenzuela, against whom Anaheim police used a stun gun.

Things are not better because people are still getting killed, said Donna Acevedo-Nelson, whose son, Joel Acevedo, was the other Latino man killed in an Anaheim police-involved shooting in summer 2012.

CIVILIAN BOARD QUESTIONED

Thus far, the city has prevailed in the legal battles that followed the 2012 shootings of Diaz and Acevedo. The District Attorneys Office cleared officers of criminal wrongdoing.

Acevedo-Nelson, who sued the city over her sons death, said she countered a settlement offer from city officials with a higher amount, but the counter was denied. Huizar, mother of Diaz, lost a federal court ruling in her wrongful-death lawsuit against the city of Anaheim and is appealing the case to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court.

Still, Tait pushed for an independent review of the Police Department. I believe the Police Department wants to improve, he said.

The civilian review board examines major police issues, from officer-involved shootings to use of force. But with the pilot phase of the panels work coming up for review this fall, some question the boards effectiveness  and whether it needs more power.

Robert Nelson, the board vice chair, hopes the panel will become a formal city commission, similar to one in Riverside. Among other things, Riversides commission is authorized to review citizen-complaint investigations and subpoena witnesses.

The focus should be on identifying problem areas, said Nelson, whos running for a council seat this fall.

Forrest Turpen, the chairman of the civilian board, also supports creating a program like Riversides. Anaheims public safety board, Turpen said, has provided the community a forum to voice its concerns and has made a difference, but not as much as what we should.

Edgar Hampton, president of the Anaheim Police Association, said granting civilians more authority in reviewing police matters would be excessive.

He argues the city already has an adequate police- review system. After the 2012 protests, city officials hired Michael Gennaco, a civil-rights and policing expert. Gennacos Office of Independent Review Group, made up of attorneys, is charged with conducting an ongoing examination of the Police Department and its operations. Police officials, Hampton said, have been transparent with the auditing group, offering access to body-worn camera footage and extensive internal reviews of major incidents.

Referring to the civilian board and auditors, Hampton said hes more willing to receive criticism from fellow law enforcement officers than a bunch of civilians who have absolutely no basis of knowledge in policing.

Gennaco and his team discuss suggestions with police officials before reports are issued publicly. Often, he said, the police agency will implement changes before reports are released because its important to keep the agency moving forward. Reports are not released on a specific schedule, but the aim is at least annually.

The Police Department isnt required to adopt all of the auditors recommendations but has embraced most of the proposals, including the creation of a database that tracks use-of-force incidents.

Critics say the interactions between Gennacos group and police officials occur out of public view, which undercuts trust in the process. Further, the city manager approves anything shared with the civilian review board, including verbal briefings on critical events and body-camera footage, according to the city.

After Gennacos review team releases reports, the civilian board members can ask questions and share their thoughts but cannot demand additional review.

Nelson said the board reports directly to the city manager.

Everything we do must go through him, Nelson said. I believe that renders the board and its members authority to make independent decisions null and void.

Given the civilian boards limitations and lack of experience, it has been helpful having an experienced figure like Gennaco involved in the process, Turpen said.

Turpen also said the Police Department should be credited for trying to improve its relationship with the public. One example: creating a citizens group that meets regularly with officers to discuss community-policing issues.

Police Chief Raul Quezadas office did not respond to requests for an interview with the chief. Last month, prior to a public meeting, he said members of the civilian review board were allowed to watch police body-camera footage of the Valenzuela Taser gun encounter. But panel members were not allowed to discuss what they saw because of an ongoing district attorneys investigation. That drew criticism from some residents.

What is your purpose? asked Anaheim resident Theresa Smith, who received a $175,000 payout last summer from the city to settle a civil case over her sons police-involved shooting death.

I fought for this board, she said. I didnt just want people to say, We saw a video.

Nelson said hes found body cameras sometimes are of limited value in understanding police and citizen interactions. Footage may provide a limited field of view, and camera lenses can be unintentionally obstructed, he said. Also, as the auditors pointed out, officers can forget to activate the cameras or feel they dont have time to turn them on.

As a result of one of the recommendations from Gennacos group, Anaheim police now are being trained to to turn on their body cameras before they respond to emergency calls. But the department has not yet modified its body camera policy to reflect the practice, Gennaco said.

The Police Department has undergone a learning curve with the body cameras but overall, Hampton said, they are a good thing that may resolve a lot of (citizen) complaints.

Huizar said that if the Police Department truly embraces transparency, all recordings of police encounters with the public should be made available online.

PHILOSOPHICAL DIFFERENCES

While most of the auditors recommendations have been adopted, the auditor and the department differ on some key points.

Anaheims current shooting policy is one example. The department allows officers to continue firing until they determine a potentially deadly threat to them or others has been eliminated.

A little more than a year ago, Gennacos group urged the department to review an alternate policy that encourages controlled fire  typically two rounds  then having officers reassess the situation. It may take some time for the suspect to go down or drop a weapon after being struck with gunfire, according to an auditors report.

The department, in a written response, said it is confident in its existing approach.

One continuing point of contention is whether officers names should be attached to use-of-force cases recorded in the departments new tracking system. Hampton, of the police union, worries the information could be used against officers, particularly those assigned to higher crime parts of town  where the odds are greater of encountering a violent suspect.

Its not a fair assessment, Hampton added.

But Smith says attaching names to incidents is crucial to identifying patterns of behavior by officers.

Other unresolved issues include:

 Allowing officers involved in shootings 48 hours to provide voluntary statements to investigators. Gennacos team found that the department frequently was taking significantly longer than two days to obtain those statements. The auditors suggested interviewing officers the night of a police shooting when memories are still fresh, Gennaco said. The department and its union said the current policy is more appropriate. I dont understand the speed, Hampton said. Some of these investigations take up to two years.

 A call by Gennacos group for a more robust policy for foot pursuits. The agency disagreed, arguing a foot pursuit can change second by second and a stricter policy would hinder the ability of officers to use their best judgment.

Huizar, whose unarmed son was fatally wounded during a foot pursuit, supports a clearer policy. The cops had every opportunity to tackle or Tase her son, who by the end of the pursuit was not a threat to police, she said. Instead, he was shot in the head and buttocks as he ran from police, she said.

Tait said Anaheim police have been receptive to criticism and have forged new connections with the community through such programs as Coffee with a Cop and a Junior Cadet Academy.

But he said more can be done, specifically with the citizens board.

I think there is room for improvement, said Tait. Id like to see more dialogue with the public.

Contact the writer: lleung@ocregister.com
Whats so bad about losing a presidential election? For key Republican officeholders, the answer might be: Not as much as we feared.

Despite volatile presidential polling that shows Donald Trump once again well behind a post-convention Hillary Clinton, the chaos hasnt spread as far as Beltway bookies had begun to believe. In a remarkable turn to an already jaw-dropping race, congressional Republicans and party leaders are shaking off their dread that Trump will act like a virus of failure, infecting races from the Senate on down the ballot. If the election were held today, itd be exactly like a midterm election. Good campaigns are going to win. Theres no landslide, New Hampshire-based GOP strategist David Carney told The Hill. The bases are baked in. I dont see dramatic shifts anywhere.

Its early yet, but a new consensus is emerging that Trump is so idiosyncratic that boring Republicans enjoy a built-in buffer against the attacks he attracts. Thats a big switch from last month, when concern was rife that Senate Republicans facing re-election would be wiped out as the public mood in competitive states  exacerbated by Democrats exploiting the opportunity  would turn against them because of Trump. Among them, only Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., has expressly repudiated the polarizing nominee. The others, like Ohio Sen. Rob Portman and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, have kept their heads down, steered clear of the candidate and the convention alike, and focused on connecting with their constituents.

Its true that this crew cant unplug from the presidential campaign completely  as onetime off-color Trump joke machine Marco Rubios rather shameless endorsement of Trump has proven. The irony, as the New York Times has observed, is that most down-ballot Republicans cannot afford to completely distance themselves from Mr. Trump. They will need his supporters in the fall, while also attracting independents and Republicans who say they will abstain from voting for either major partys presidential nominee. And to be sure, if they have the misfortune of winding up in the crosshairs of Trumps truculent grassroots, they could wind up being primaried  like House Speaker Paul Ryan.

On the other hand, its likely that only the most controversial longtime members of Congress have much to worry about from Trump-inspired insurgents. Fringey, third-rate primary challengers lack the charismatic power and uniquely cross-cultural appeal among different types of white voters that Trump enjoys. Trump would have fallen flat without the ability to attract disgruntled Yankees and non-Yankees alike; any Trump-esque candidates running for statewide office will face geographic and demographic confines Trump does not, their ceiling lowering accordingly.

It turns out, then, that the political ironies of this unprecedented election cycle favor the GOP as much as they dont. If incumbents are obliged to pay some degree of lip service to Trump and his voters, despite The Donalds ever-more-gonzo approach to polarizing the electorate, nervous Republicans actually have some perverse reasons to root for Trump to push things as far beyond the pale as possible. At a certain point  perhaps we are hitting it right now  Trumps statements and insinuations will become so outlandish and outrageous that it will become impossible for Democrats to tie them to specific GOP incumbents and to the GOP brand in general.

Democrats would like to believe they can, in such a scenario, force Republicans to de-endorse or repudiate Trump, fully fracturing their party right at the finish line. But this is naive. Most Republican voters understand that politics is politics and that the crazier Trump becomes the more paradoxically irrelevant it is that he enjoys the token support of those whose party he has tried to take over. If Trump loses it so completely that its a foregone conclusion Hillary Clinton will bury him on Election Day, those phony or begrudging endorsements wont really discredit GOP candidates in the eyes of Republican voters  including those who despise Trump but wont punish good guys who felt obliged to accept him as the nominee.

Nevertheless, theres one Trump-induced malaise Republicans do have to focus on curing: the so-called enthusiasm gap. Polling has painted a worrisome picture of many voters winding up just too depressed or disaffected to bother pulling the lever at all on Election Day. Last month, for instance, a poll conducted by Marquette University Law School in Wisconsin  wherein Republican respondents were evenly split on Trumps favorability  showed only 78 percent were certain theyd turn out to vote. A poll from the same organization in March found that 87 percent of Republicans were certain they would vote in November, NBC News warned. True, some respondents may well be voicing frustrations that wont materialize when, on Halloween, they have to confront visions of a President Clinton with a governing majority. But Republicans who recognize Trump wont trash their fortunes still need to ensure that their voters remain excited enough about the partys future prospects  and elected officials  to do more than just cast a vote against Democrats.
It was a race against time  but as the sun set, the entangled humpback whale disappeared without a trace as it made its way up the coastline.

Boat captain Taylor Thorne from Newport Coastal Adventure first spotted the entangled humpback whale Saturday as it swam near the Newport Beach pier and immediately contacted the Marine Animal Entanglement Response Network.

Two boats from the charter company took shifts to track the whale for four hours as it passed through Huntington Beach and reached Long Beachs shoreline when a rescue team arrived.

Mark Girardeau, a photographer who was aboard Newport Coastal Adventure, documented the whale as it passed through Orange County.

Unfortunately this humpback was too erratic, which put rescue crews and the whale in danger, he wrote on social media.

A green fishing line went from the whales head and mouth to the base of its left flipper, along its side and over its fluke, a small orange and yellow float trailed behind it.

Mark Girardeau, a photographer who was aboard Newport Coastal Adventure, documented the whale as it passed through Orange County.

Unfortunately this humpback was too erratic, which put rescue crews and the whale in danger, he wrote on social media. Hopefully this whale will be found again as it headed up the coast.

It was last seen about 6:30 p.m. a few miles south of Pt. Fermin, said Justin Viezbicke, California Stranding Network Coordinator for NOAA Fisheries.

There was no word of the whale on Sunday morning, he said. A boater who might encounter the whale should try to stay with it and contact NOAAs rescue team  but should not try to help the distressed creature.

Report it to us and well see what we can do. Its about safety and thats why we have the teams to do this, Viezbicke said.

Lawler said the whale seemed distressed, staying under water for about 15 minutes  about double the normal breath hold.

The big thing they stress is that those whales are hard to find, they are entangled, they are usually holding their breath for a longer amount of time, said Ryan Lawler, owner of Newport Coastal Adventure and captain of the second boat that stayed with the whale.

Its not the first entangled whale encountered off of Orange County this year. A blue whale was entangled in fishing gear and traps in June off Dana Point Headlands. Efforts for rescuers to cut the line were unsuccessful before they lost track of whale.

The number of entanglements has increased in recent years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

In 2015, a total of 61 whales were reported entangled off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California  the highest number since NOAA started keeping records in 1982.

Since the first half of 2016, there have been about 40 whales reported entangled off Californias coastline alone, putting this year on track for another record-breaking year.

On average, about 10 large whales were reported entangled along the West Coast each year between 2000 and 2012.

Humpback whales are the most commonly entangled whale species on the West Coast, according to NOAA.

Fishing gear and debris can constrict and cut into a whales skin and muscle causing injury and potential infection. Gear and debris can also bind whales to fishing floats and buoys, making it harder for them to dive below the surface. If left unnoticed or unreported, the whale can suffer a long, agonizing death, the NOAA website says.

Lawler said they were able to get images close enough to get a number on the buoy, which can track which fishery the crab trap came from.

We need to do a better job of getting those traps set where whales dont swim, he said. There needs to be a study undertaken. The fishermen arent liable when a whale swims into the trap, thats OK with me as long as theres science and studies done to minimize where the traps are set.

An entanglement isnt always a death sentence. A humpback that was entangled off Orange Countys coast last October was spotted about two weeks ago and appeared to be doing well, according to Girardeau.

NOAA has recently started an outreach effort to help educate the public and let fishermen know how to report an entangled whale.

If an entangled whale is spotted, contact the NOAA entangled whale hotline at 1-877-SOS-WHALE or hail the USCG on CH 16.

Contact the writer: lconnelly@scng.com
In an extensive expose on HOAs from hell, the Kansas City Star details a number of cases of homeowners associations harassing and impoverishing residents, oftentimes over minor violations of community covenants, but there is a much greater threat facing residents, namely, government.

The Star piece offers many examples of community associations chastising residents, imposing fines and threatening lawsuits over such grand offenses as putting up a small birdhouse or not moving trash cans quickly enough or far enough out of sight after pickup. One family was harassed for taking down the blinds in their three-year-old daughters bedroom and replacing them with curtains after the girl became entangled in the cord of the blinds and nearly choked to death.

And a family in Lees Summit, Mo., near Kansas City, received threats of daily fines and even jail time over the swing set and playhouse it had erected in the backyard, which had been stained purple to make it more girly for its two young girls. They ultimately won in court, but it cost them $4,000 in legal fees.

To be sure, such examples are petty and even absurd, and the HOAs responsible for implementing and enforcing them are well-deserving of public shaming, but, fortunately, these horror stories tend to be exceptional cases. When these intolerable situations do occur, at least residents have the option of moving to more reasonable communities nearby. But what if that HOA from hell had authority over an entire city, so that you could not escape its meddlesome edicts?

Pagedale, Mo., provides a case in point. The 1.2-square-mile town of about 3,300 residents in St. Louis County has gained notoriety for assessing a multitude of fines for the most minor of transgressions. After the state of Missouri lowered the limit on the portion of municipal revenue that could come from traffic tickets, the number of non-traffic-related tickets issued in Pagedale rose nearly 500 percent. The city issued citations and fines for offenses such as sporting mismatched curtains, walking on the left-hand side of a crosswalk and having weeds in ones yard higher than seven inches.

Though perhaps not as extreme as Pagedale, most cities are similarly guilty of needless micromanagement, particularly through zoning laws. This was not always the case, but the use of zoning regulations has exploded over the past century.

In 1922, a U.S. Commerce Department advisory committee drafted model legislation for states to adopt called A Standard State Zoning Enabling Act. For the purpose of promoting health, safety, morals or the general welfare of the community, it read, the legislative body of cities and incorporated villages is hereby empowered to regulate and restrict the height, number of stories and size of buildings and other structures, the percentage of the lot that may be occupied, the size of yards, courts and other open spaces, the density of population and the location and use of buildings, structures and land for trade, industry, residence or other purposes.

It is hard to imagine much broader power, Pepperdine University economics professor Gary M. Galles observed in a recent Newsday column.

State and local governments across the country eagerly jumped at the chance to expand their power. By 1925, 19 states had passed versions of the Zoning Enabling Act, and by 1926 there were at least 425 zoned municipalities  nearly 10 times the 48 cities and towns with zoning just five years prior. Now, zoning is ubiquitous  and getting increasingly onerous. A growing number of cities are even requiring voter approval of new construction projects, effectively transferring property rights from individuals to the community.

Governments now harass those with home-based businesses, require permission (and the requisite fees to support the bureaucracy, of course) to make basic renovations and improvements to ones property, ban people from renting out their own homes through services such as Airbnb and dictate where a home or a business may be located and how much of a communitys housing must be affordable (i.e., below market rates, which they have already inflated through substantial development fees, zoning laws that restrict the supply of housing and unnecessary and burdensome environmental and building code regulations).

This erosion of property rights is alarming. There will always people like the wannabe dictator with an inflated ego and sense of importance, the nosy busybody or the know-it-all who is certain he has all the answers to how the community should look and how its residents should behave who make their way onto HOA boards, but their realms are small and their subjects know one another and have close ties, which generally makes it fairly easy to weed out the unreasonable and otherwise bad actors.

When these same people are elected to public office and oversee a large, disconnected population, the results are far more devastating. It is time to recognize that legislators and urban planners do not have the perfect knowledge or foresight to determine the best use of a given piece of land, or the right to tell someone who has acquired his property legally what he can or cannot do with it. Evict government from private property decisions.
A LATE night visit to Midoc last November was one of the luckiest moves that Mountmellick man Paul Conroy has ever made.

A LATE night visit to Midoc last November was one of the luckiest moves that Mountmellick man Paul Conroy has ever made.

A chef at OLoughlins Hotel in Portlaoise, he finished his shift and made a quick decision to call to the outside hours doctor service, after noticing that he had passed blood.

I thought I had a kidney infection. We were getting ready for the busy Christmas period and I thought I would get an antibiotic and sort it out quickly, he said.

Things didnt turn out to be that simple.

The doctor must have noticed something, because he was adamant that I go to the hospital there and then. It was midnight at that stage, said Paul.

He went straight next door to Midlands Regional Hospital Portlaoise, where they took blood samples and booked him in for a CT scan for the next morning.

They were very on the ball. I still thought it was just a standard kidney infection, he said.

The CT scan revealed that Paul actually had a tumour on his left kidney. Further blood tests confirmed that it was cancerous. Just ten days from his visit to Midoc, Paul was told by a surgeon at Tallaght hospital that it was fairly serious and his kidney had to come out.

There was never cancer in our family, but I knew I had to get over it, when I stood looking at my sons in their beds, saying goodnight to them. My own father died when I was 16, he said.

Paul is one of eight children of Kathleen and the late Tom Conroy, the close knit family are well known and loved in their native town.

Paul asked for the surgery to be delayed until surgeon after Christmas, so it would not be spoiled for his two sons, Thomas aged 16 and Jamie aged 7.

I knew they would worry, he said.

The surgeon agreed and by January 11, Paul was up in Tallaght hospital undergoing his surgery.

They thought they would have to remove half my left lung as well, they werent sure until they operated, but they discovered it hadnt spread, Paul said.

So successful was the surgery that Paul needs no further treatment, just checkups every six months for the next ten years. Always a non-drinker, he quit smoking the day after the operation, admitting he found it extremely difficult.

They say I will manage fine on one kidney. I feel extremely lucky, its hard to explain it, I look at life differently now. When I was out sick I really got to know the kids. I was nine months with them, not just dropping them to school, it was lovely having that extra time, says Paul.

He returned to work three weeks ago. A chef at OLoughlins Hotel for the past eleven years, he is following in a strong family tradition. Four of his five brothers are also chefs, as were his mothers brother and uncle. Paul achieved his BA in Culinary Arts from Athlone IT last year.

We are thrilled to have him back, said proprietor Ivor OLoughlin.

Paul says he got great support from his family, from his work colleagues and his manager JJ Eyre, but most of all from his partner Majella.

She was number one to support me, she got me through it, he said.

He urges anyone who sees blood in their urine to go to a doctor.

I had noticed blood two years before, but I ignored it. I had no other symptoms, except I always had bloodshot eyes. They said if I had gone on for another six months, there would have been no coming back, it would have spread, he said.
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Almost a decade later, Sharon Martin, 66, still remembers the call and the caller vividly: a teenage boy caught in an emotional riptide of failing grades, divorcing parents and his own recent breakup. A handful of sleeping pills  that was his plan. En route to make the purchase  but desperate for a lifeline  he dialed the Boys Town National Hotline.

Sharon, a specially-trained crisis counselor, picked up and surrounded the boy with support.

I called back later that day and talked to his mom, and she said, You saved his life ... Were going to get to family counseling. Everything is going to change from here on. It was one of the best calls I ever had.

For more than 26 years  and for thousands of people in turmoil  Sharon has been a steady, reassuring and life-saving voice on the other end of the line; a woman dedicated to others, fearless about wading into the complexities and messiness of life.

We really do listen, and we really do care, she says. Every day when I leave here, I want to feel like I made a difference in a persons life, even one person. If Ive done that, then Ive done what I needed to do.

The Boys Town National Hotline, supported, in part, by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraskas charitable giving to Boys Town, is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Callers to the hotline range from exasperated parents to teens dealing with bullying to adults wrestling with varying mental health issues. Some callers just need an ear willing to listen. Others benefit from social service referrals.

People who are in serious crisis, many times theyll call and say, Im really depressed and Im feeling suicidal. That call can last an hour-and-a-half. We may end up having to involve police, she offers.

Sharon began serving as a crisis counselor in 1990 when the Boys Town National Hotline was brand-new. It was, to her, a natural extension of the Boys Town family teaching she and her husband had done for 13 years prior.

I love helping people  and I really mean that, she says. Knowing that I am listening and caring enough to be in that conversation can make a huge difference in the life of a person who is struggling and feels like they have no one to turn to.

A lot has changed during Sharon's tenure. Counselors have computers now, and those in need of assistance can text or chat online. What hasnt changed are the skills necessary to be effective.

You have to be a caring person. You have to be a good listener, she says. You have to be patient. Patience is a huge component of working here, along with empathy.

Sharon embodies that blend, and the community has taken notice. Earlier this year, Project Harmony honored her with its Kids First Award for her commitment and distinguished service to children in the community.

Sharon has a great ability to build rapport with hotline users, leading to best case outcomes, says supervisor Diana Schmidt. Her calm demeanor is reassuring to callers; her nonjudgmental manner is refreshing.

Sharon is equally complimentary of her co-workers.

Honestly, the hotline is like no place Ive ever worked. The people here and the supervisory staff are amazing. They are the most caring group I have ever seen in one building. Thats another big reason why I stay.

Sharon forewent full retirement last year, dialing back to part time instead. She now can spend more time with her five grandchildren and pursue additional avenues of outreach. She volunteers as a mentor mom at Bethlehem House, an organization that offers a safe and nurturing home to pregnant women who are in crisis. More proof that for Sharon, not my problem is not an option.

If people would just extend themselves a little more and show how much they care about each other as we do here on an everyday basis, wed have such a better world. I just strive every day to come in here and say, This is the first day of the rest of my life and to make it count for somebody.

Faces of Fearless is a storytelling series in Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraskas Live Fearless campaign celebrating people living their very best lives and inspiring others to do the same.
An Omaha defense attorney is under fire after he hired a potential witness in a murder case to be his receptionist  and then the receptionist sent Dont snitch messages to another witness in the same murder case.

To boot, authorities allege, the receptionist sent the intimidating messages while her boss was questioning the witness in a pretrial deposition.

All of that now has defense attorney Travis Penn under scrutiny as his client, James Cotton, is set to go to trial Monday on a first-degree murder charge.

Penns receptionist, Lindsey Redinbaugh, 31, has been charged with witness tampering, a felony, on allegations that she sent messages that said: So I hear your (sic) snitching trying to get your charges reduced, fyi snitching on cotton case aint going to help u ... Kinda (expletive) up.

Reached late last week, Penn defended himself and fired back at prosecutors.

He said the Douglas County Attorneys Office has a conflict of interest in that the same prosecutor is prosecuting Cotton for murder and now Redinbaugh for witness tampering. And, he said, they had no right to seize a phone that could contain his firms work, which is confidential.

Amid the mess, prosecutors have now asked Judge Gary Randall to not allow Redinbaugh to testify in Cottons first-degree murder trial in the August 2015 shooting of Trevor Bare outside Bares apartment building at 4301 Marcy St.

The witness-hired-by-a-lawyer has produced the latest, and perhaps strangest, variation of a charge that gets filed a handful of times a year or less: felony tampering with a witness.

State bar rules  known as the Nebraska Rules of Professional Responsibility  prohibit attorneys from paying non-expert witnesses for anything other than incidental expenses incurred by their testimony. The rules also admonish attorneys to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said that in his nearly 40 years of practicing law he had never come across anything like this setup.

It was shocking, Kleine said. Never have I seen anybody hire a witness while a case is pending.

You start to wonder, Am I hearing this right? 

Penn, who graduated from Yale with a degree in computer science before attending the Creighton University School of Law, said the matter isnt outrageous at all  nowhere near the issue that prosecutors are making it out to be.

For one, Penn said, Redinbaugh worked for him for only three days. He alternately called her a receptionist, a fill-in and more like an independent contractor.

In a wide-ranging interview, Penn said he never paid Redinbaugh, although he did say he had agreed to pay her $100 a month to take some of his phone calls.

He also acknowledged that she was a subpoenaed witness but said she was an ancillary one and that there is close to a zero percent chance she will testify at Cottons trial.

And Penn rejected the idea that he couldnt pay a witness.

One state bar rule states: A lawyer shall not pay (or) offer to pay ... a witness contingent upon the content of his or her testimony or the outcome of a case.

Penn emphasized the last part of the rule.

I certainly havent paid her to be a witness in this case, he said. There wasnt even a remote thought to try to influence her testimony.

Prosecutors say the same cant be said for Redinbaughs actions.

According to court documents:

In late July, Penn and Deputy Douglas County Attorneys Chad Brown and Sean Lavery were preparing for Cottons trial.

Prosecutors allege that Cotton shot Bare, 24, after the two mens long-running dispute escalated with allegations that Bare had set neighbor Travis Labnos car on fire that day. Penn has indicated in court documents that Cotton may claim self-defense.

In the run-up to trial, Penn was questioning witness Matthew Krisel at the Douglas County Attorneys Office. The sworn deposition  which prosecutors attended, as is typical  started about 11:30 a.m. Friday, July 29.

At the end of the deposition Krisel showed Brown and Lavery his phone, which had two Facebook instant messages.

The first message, at 11:49 a.m., said: So I hear your snitching trying to get your charges reduced, fyi snitching on cotton case aint going to help u they are just fooling u if u think its gonna help yourself. Kinda (expletive) up.

The second message came a minute later: Not kinda, it is (expletive) up.

Prosecutors alerted police.

Police connected the messages to Redinbaugh, 31.

In an interview with a detective that same day, police say, Redinbaugh admitted writing the Facebook messages.

According to Omaha police: Redinbaugh said Penn had no knowledge she was going to send the messages.

She further told the detective she didnt know what Krisel claimed to know, but that he was lying.

The detective asked her how she could know that Krisel was lying if she had never talked to Krisel.

Thats when Redinbaugh explained her working relationship with Penn.

She stated that she is his receptionist, Detective Brian Hayes wrote. She stated she kind of knows what Krisel said and its a lie.

In an interview with The World-Herald, Penn said he never communicated case information with Redinbaugh.

Before hiring her, Penn had subpoenaed Redinbaugh as a possible witness in the case. Redinbaugh has a child by Labno, one of the key players in the case.

Prosecutors allege Bare, the victim, had set Labnos truck on fire  which led to the confrontation between Bare and Cotton, who was a neighbor and friend of Labnos.

Penn indicated in a motion filed Wednesday that he wanted to call Redinbaugh as a witness to testify that Labno had gone to the shooting scene that night after hearing his truck had been set on fire.

On Thursday, however, Penn said its unlikely that Redinbaugh will testify.

Penn emphasized that he never told Redinbaugh to send messages to Krisel or other witnesses.

Absolutely not, Penn said. I do not condone it. Im not trying to corrupt my case and conspire to tamper any witnesses the week before we go to trial.

At the same time, Penn said, he doesnt think prosecutors have a strong case against Redinbaugh and that her comments didnt amount to tampering.

At one point last week he had indicated to prosecutors that he wanted to represent Redinbaugh.

Such a move could put him in the cross hairs of another ethical issue. Under bar rules, attorneys typically cant represent more than one person in a case.

Reached later in the week, Penn himself questioned whether he might have a conflict of interest if he represented both Redinbaugh and Cotton.

Penn doesnt have the same reservations about his decision to hire Redinbaugh.

He also doesnt think the Douglas County Attorneys Office should have any part in Redinbaughs prosecution or in the seizing of her phone.

We think its a little inappropriate for the police to have confiscated a phone that was communicating with an attorney that could have trial strategy on it  the week before trial, he said.

Prosecutors say theres a simple reason Omaha police seized the phone: It contains evidence in the felony witness-tampering case against Redinbaugh.

As for the chance that Redinbaughs phone contains Penns legal work, Brown and fellow prosecutors said in court documents that they have not looked at the phone and will defer to Judge Randall to do so.

Kleine said he was puzzled by Penns actions.

He said its the equivalent of his office deciding to hire a witness in a murder case  a couple of weeks before trial.

Could you imagine? Kleine said.

A disciplinary inquiry is expected. For now, Randall will have to decide whether to delay the trial and what to do with Penns concerns about prosecutors and prosecutors concerns about Penn.

Penn said he researched ethics rules over the hiring of Redinbaugh. Im not seeing in the (ethical) rules that I wouldnt be able to have a separate business agreement with someone who is a witness, he said.

Contact the writer: 402-444-1275, todd.cooper@owh.com
First National Bank of Omaha announced the Nebraska Humane Society in Omaha and The Center in Yankton, South Dakota, as the winners for the 2016 Community First Award.

The 2016 Community First Award recognizes and celebrates nonprofit organizations who are contributing to the success of communities across most of the banks seven-state service area.

The Nebraska Humane Society was selected as the winner for the Nebraska/South Dakota region and will receive a $10,000 cash donation. The Nebraska Humane Society serves more than 30,000 animals annually by providing medical and shelter services to stray, lost, abandoned and abused animals, as well as training, education and advocacy to promote responsible pet ownership.

The Center in Yankton, South Dakota, was selected as the runner-up for the Nebraska/South Dakota region and will receive a $2,500 cash donation. The Center serves seniors by providing 48,000 meals annually, as well as recreation and socialization activities that enable seniors to remain independent, safe and healthy.

Nominations for the 2016 Community First Award were open to the public in June. Nominations were evaluated and scored based on their responsiveness to and impacts on community needs. The top nominations were then presented for a public vote during a two week period in July. One winner and one runner-up have been selected from each of the following areas: Nebraska/South Dakota, Kansas, Illinois, and Colorado.

The community response and participation that weve received for the 2016 Community First Award has been overwhelming, said Alec Gorynski, Senior Director, Community Development and Social Responsibility at First National Bank. Overall, 425 nonprofit organizations were nominated and more than 22,000 public votes were cast. Were pleased to recognize and celebrate the award recipients and hope the donations will be used to create even more positive impacts within our community.
LINCOLN  The conversation started innocently enough.

First the woman liked State Sen. Bill Kintners public politician Facebook page. The two began messaging  a conversation the senator from Papillion said grew from casual to more in-depth.

When the woman urged the senator to visit with her on Skype, Kintner, who was in a Boston hotel room and had never used the service for video messaging, agreed.

The discussion, which took place on Kintners state-issued laptop, turned sexually explicit.

I am not a devil, she wrote at one point, encouraging him to continue.

I know you are not the devil, he replied.

Within minutes of the two masturbating over the video messenger, the womans bait-and-switch scheme was clear.

Ok let talk now, she wrote in the early hours of July 31, 2015. You know th impact this video will have on your life.

Such scams arent uncommon.

The FBI Cyber Crime Task Force has reported an increase in romance scam crimes, while the Nebraska attorney general has seen a handful of cases in the past three years.

The scammers typically live outside the United States and create fake profiles to communicate with their victims online, said Sandy Breault, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Omaha.

Eventually all scammers will ask for help, she said. Sometimes they will ask their victims for money.

Kintner, 55, on Friday was fined a $1,000 civil penalty by the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission for misusing his state laptop. The fine was the result of a settlement between Kintner and the commission.

The Nebraska State Patrol is still investigating the Internet extortion attempt against Kintner, which the senator reported to authorities. Public officials who misuse state property can be charged with a misdemeanor, but Attorney General Doug Peterson decided not to charge Kintner. Petersons office said Nebraska courts dont have jurisdiction because the incident occurred while the senator was out of state.

Gov. Pete Ricketts has called on Kintner to resign from the Legislature. Kintner said Friday that he would not step down. Some senators have said they are exploring options for removing him.

Webcam scams can start on dating and social networking sites, according to experts. Scammers can begin by showing interest in their targets, then increase pressure for them to participate in explicit behavior.

A scammer often will pressure the target to leave a dating site and communicate through personal email or an instant messenger. The scammer can record the victim and threaten to distribute the recording online or to the victims friends and family.

Common targets are women over 40 who are divorced, widowed or disabled, though anyone is at risk, the FBI said in a warning earlier this year.

In some cases romance scammers will send gifts, such as flowers, chocolates or jewelry, to their victims, said FBI spokeswoman Breault.

In other cases they will ask their targets to receive money and transfer it to other bank accounts, she said. That money can be stolen from a company or individual, and the scammer will direct the victim to send it to someone else.

This can also be described as money laundering and is a serious crime, Breault said.

The FBI recommends never sending money to someone youve met online. People can report scams to the Internet Crime Complaint Center at IC3.gov or to the Federal Trade Commission at ftc.gov/complaint.

In Nebraska, the attorney general may try to mediate a case depending on the situation, said spokeswoman Suzanne Gage.

For example, if material is posted online, the attorney general would try to get the post taken down. The attorney general also may suggest the victim contact law enforcement, especially if the victim feels threatened.

The Attorney Generals Office reminds Internet users that once you send a message or image, you do not control how its shared.

More information about online safety is available at protectthegoodlife.nebraska.gov/online-safety.

La Vista Detective Ben Iversen, who investigates Internet crimes, said hes worked on a revenge case in which a spurned person posted nude pictures of the ex on Craigslist.

He said people who share nude pictures are starting to copyright the photos so they can civilly sue those who share them.

Other cases hes seen involve men trying to exploit girls via social media and kids trading pictures with each other, he said.

Especially with kids, we let them know as soon as they share a picture, (the receiver) has probably immediately shared it with five of his friends, whove shared it with five more people, Iversen said.

Kintners case is very similar to one reported by a BBC technology news program in 2012.

In that report, a 28-year-old man undressed during an online conversation with a woman. Afterward, the woman presented him with a copy of a video of him and demanded that money be wired to the West African nation of Ivory Coast, or else she would report him for pedophilia.

The man refused to pay the woman and eventually the scammers gave up.

In Kintners case, the woman set him up over the course of a week, he said in an interview with reporters Friday.

After the two masturbated, the woman sent him a YouTube link and asked if he wanted her to send the video to a number of his contacts, including Ricketts and former and current state senators.

In the hours that followed, the woman demanded he transfer money via Western Union to an address in the Ivory Coast. She said the money would go to deaf and dumb children somewhere in Africa.

They need help paying for medications and food, she wrote. For the video to remain between just the two of them, she wrote, (you) must give them a gift of $4,500.

Kintner said he stalled the scammers so he could get home to report the extortion attempt.

He said the scammers sent a gif, which is a short image or video, of the act to an account accessible on his state computer. He said he never downloaded the gif and immediately deleted it.

The senator acknowledged that he had succumbed to temptation to engage in cybersex and has asked God and his wife for forgiveness. Constituents who want an apology, he said, can contact him to discuss the matter.

Kintner, a Republican elected in 2012 and 2014, lives in Papillion and represents Cass County and parts of Otoe and Sarpy Counties.

Kintner said he doesnt know why the scammers came to him.

I think I thought I was so foolproof, I was so good, that I could walk up to the edge here. I could Skype with a woman and not go over the edge, and thats wrong thinking, he said.

Contact the writer: 402-473-9581, emily.nohr@owh.com
GRAND ISLAND, Neb.  VA Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System employees, their family members and veterans led an informational picket line along Capital Avenue near the United Veterans Club in Grand Island to warn against privatizing the Veterans Affairs health care system.

Those picketing held signs with slogans such as Keep the Promise to Our Vets, Veterans for a Strong VA and Staff the VA. Saturdays picket was prompted by the controversy over lengthy wait times for veterans seeking medical care.

That led to the establishment of the Choice Program, which allows veterans waiting more than 30 days for VA appointments and veterans who live far from VA medical facilities to obtain care from private health care providers outside the VA system.

The wait times also led to the creation of the Commission on Care, which was created by Congress when it passed the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act of 2014.

Gloria Kortum, president of Local 2601 for the American President of Government Employees, AFL-CIO, said the panel was created to figure out how to improve the VA health care system.

But Kortum said that there were no representatives from the VA health care system on the 15-member commission, which issued its final report on June 30.

Kortum also said that, under the Choice program, veterans still arent getting in to those (private care) appointments any sooner than they are getting in for VA appointments.

Kortum said that most people are amazed at the health services offered to veterans at the VA facility in Grand Island. She said that veterans are not like most private care patients, which is why they need a specialized health care system like the VA, which treats the whole patients needs, including medical, dental and mental health services.

She extolled the advantages of the VA health care system: We are the only health care system that can deal with the scars of war, from TBI (traumatic brain injury), to spinal cord injury to PTSD. No one in the private sector comes close to us.
LINCOLN  You might want to check your preconceptions at the door when you enter one of the states newest programs to help inmates transition from prison to society.

First, Honu Home looks like a typical home in the College View neighborhood, not like a treatment center for substance abuse and mental illness.

It is staffed not by counselors and psychiatrists but by former inmates and addicts, whose tattoos and piercings speak of lives on the streets, not in classrooms.

And theres not a long list of rules and requirements at Honu Home, as there are at a typical halfway house. No mandatory meetings, no mandatory bedtimes, no 7 a.m. wake-up calls  just a requirement that guests, with the help of peer-support specialists at the house, seek out jobs, mental stability and a place to live.

We want people to be adults and develop those adult responsibilities that theyll need when they leave here, said Destenie Commuso, the houses re-entry coordinator.

Programs like this are where the rubber meets the road in the states recent push to reduce chronic prison overcrowding and improve public safety by better preparing an inmate for life beyond his prison sentence.

By increasing job training programs and providing more help for inmates troubled by mental illnesses or drug addictions, the state is hoping that they return to society with the job and coping skills to avoid a return trip to prison.

Because about 93 percent of prison inmates eventually are released, such re-entry programs are key to keeping them from returning to prison and adding to overcrowding.

Scott Frakes, director of the State Department of Correctional Services, has set a goal of reducing the state prisons recidivism rate  the percentage of inmates who return to prison within three years  from 30.1 percent to 28 percent.

State lawmakers, after hearing complaints from inmates and advocates about a lack of job training and other prison programs, allocated an extra $10 million to beef up re-entry programs in 2015 and 2016.

The funds provided about $3 million to create a re-entry services unit within the Corrections Department. Frakes said it marked the first time the agency had been able to dedicate staff solely to preparing inmates for their release.

The rest of the money provided grants for programs across the state that train inmates in construction and academic skills, help them apply for jobs and, as at Honu Home, overcome mental disorders and chemical addictions.

The programs are offered to inmates both inside prison walls and after release on parole, probation or work release at community facilities. They are also available to inmates discharged within the past 18 months.

Because recidivism rates are based on three-year periods, the exact impact on the rates wont be known until late 2018. But officials with Corrections and the organizations that are grant recipients say theyre seeing success stories and are confident that they are moving in the right direction.

Theyre taking positive steps but theres a long way to go. And I think (Corrections) would tell you that, said Doug Koebernick, the Legislatures watchdog of state corrections programs as the inspector general for Corrections.

At Honu Home, Commuso said she can recall only two inmates washing out of the program out of 196 guests over the past year.

The reason, she said, is the houses peer-support approach: Guests live at a house run by peers who have already overcome addictions and struggles with mental illness who serve as companions on their transition to wellness.

Were able to relate, being on the same level as them, said Commuso, a former methamphetamine addict.

To be sure, the problems facing Corrections are numerous: chronically overcrowded prisons, miscalculated release dates, high turnover of officers and mental health practitioners, an increase in assaults of staff, and a deadly riot a year ago.

When it comes to prison programs, almost everyone agrees there were more opportunities in the past.

A former inmate, James Jones, who now teaches victim-impact classes for inmates, said that when he served time in the late 1980s you could earn a two-year college degree or learn a trade such as carpentry, auto-body repair, auto mechanics, welding or heating/air conditioning technician.

There was a tremendous difference, Jones said. You could actually be released from prison with skills and actually be able to take care of your family with a living wage.

But all of that went out the window years ago, he said. They said money was the issue.

When state lawmakers started digging into Corrections problems in recent years a consistent chorus was that inmates had fewer options for job training and college courses, and that rehabilitation programs had waiting lists and werent offered at every prison.

Such idleness, experts on incarceration have said, contributes to misbehavior within the prison and poor outcomes when prisoners get out.

The State Legislature in 2014 responded by passing Legislative Bill 907, a wide-ranging prison reform bill that invested an extra $14.4 million a year, mostly for increased mental health care and vocational and life skills training.

State Sen. Heath Mello of Omaha, a co-sponsor of the bill, called it the largest investment in job training and other rehab work in two decades.

Besides hiring more Corrections staff to coordinate and teach rehab programs and help inmates plan for their release, the bill has awarded $7.5 million in grants to nine community groups over the past two years.

Some of the money helped former inmates find decent places to live, which can be a bigger hurdle than finding jobs.

Kevin Hand, the states vocational and life skills coordinator, said this year, organizations are being asked to provide more training inside the prison, before an inmate is released. Not just job skills, but courses on conflict resolution and healthy relationships are taught.

We feel if they have more life and vocational skills when they reach the gate theyll be more successful and make better decisions when they are released, and not come back, said Hand, who used to work with the homeless in Omaha.

One program that received a grant but has been around for several years is Prairie Gold Homes. Based in Lincoln, the nonprofit organization trains groups of 10 inmates at a time, over 10-week intervals, in home construction, both on modular homes inside a warehouse near the State Penitentiary and also at building sites around the state  including Beatrice, where a 1,235-square-foot starter home is just about finished.

Inmates not only learn construction skills but also earn an Occupational Safety and Health Administration safety training card, required by employers, and are awarded a pre-apprentice construction certificate  a plum on a resume.

Ten weeks wont make anyone an expert, but it gives them a solid background, said Renee Bauer, executive director of Prairie Gold Homes.

A $950,000 grant won by the program in 2015 allowed it to expand to McCook, where a state prison work-ethic camp is located, and train 70 inmates  30 more than in past years. Prairie Gold will continue to train about 65 inmates a year, Bauer said.

Inmates who complete the Prairie Gold program have a 7 percent recidivism rate, according to Bauer. That is one-fourth the state average.

The programs are also viewed as cost-effective. A cost-benefit analysis released last month by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy estimated that for every dollar spent on employment and job training programs in prison, $75 in benefits were realized  benefits such as an improved economy through higher wages, reduced mental health and substance abuse problems and reduced criminal justice costs.

Honu Home is a relatively new effort operated by the Mental Health Association of Nebraska. It is patterned after a shorter-term treatment home in Lincoln called Keya House. It takes in people, referred by therapists or police, who were suffering from mental health crises.

Honu is Hawaiian for sea turtle, and turtles are everywhere in the house. Honu refers to long life, good health and a slow but steady march to recovery, according to Commuso, whose forearm tattoos read Deal Hope, Not Dope.

Recovery is not something you can just fly right through, she said. Theres no elevator in recovery. You have to take the stairs.

Five inmates at a time live at the house free of charge for up to 90 days. Specialists help them find and retain jobs, locate and rent housing, obtain drivers licenses, stay on medications and, overall, overcome their issues with addiction and mental health.

A guest must devise a wellness vision and a recovery action plan. Self-identity and personal responsibility are stressed.

Unlike at a traditional halfway house, if a guest fails to fulfill his plan he wont be kicked out and sent back to prison.

If one plan doesnt work well try something new. Well do this together, said Amie Jackson, a peer support specialist. We dont tell someone how to live. We want buy-in.

One guest, Patricia Damme, 54, said that Honu Home has given her the self-esteem and confidence to start anew with her family and life when she completes parole for stealing to feed her drug habit.

Here, you can create a whole new you, she said.

Honu Home has attracted national attention for its nontraditional approach. In June, house officials were invited to Washington, D.C., to present at a conference of the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Hand, Corrections coordinator of the new training programs, said helping someone reach mental wellness is difficult, but I feel like they understand it.

He said he is especially optimistic about a new grant recipient, Associated Builders & Contractors, that offers two years of hands-on training in things like plumbing, carpentry, painting and drywalling for 225 inmates inside seven state prisons.

About 1,000 inmates, through shorter classes, will earn OSHA cards, Hand said, which prepare them to apply to Associated Builders & Contractors more than 70 member construction companies across the state. He said that the ABC program reaches many more inmates at a lower cost than Prairie Gold, which requires transportation and supervision outside of the prison walls.

Funding for the new re-entry programs is expected to continue into the future, and the University of Nebraska at Omaha is providing evaluations about which programs are most effective.

Frakes said that although hes pleased with whats been accomplished, he realizes more needs to be done, including expansion of programs aimed at behavior modification. Additional staff to teach more programs will be trained this fall, he said.

We dont have enough yet, but were moving in the right direction, he said.

Contact the writer: 402-473-9584, paul.hammel@owh.com

******

Programs for Prisoners

Vocational and Life Skills Program grants awarded recently by the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services:

$777,808

Associated Builders & Contractors, for instruction in building trades for 224 inmates, OSHA training for 1,000

$111,185

Hope of Glory Ministries, for help with finding jobs, social skills and assistance with substance abuse for 72 inmates

$1.2 million

Mental Health Association of Nebraska (Honu Home), to help those with substance abuse and mental health issues find jobs

$1.4 million

Metropolitan Community College, for academic and welding courses for about 700 people

$377,281

ReConnect, to help 300 inmates find employment and overcome other re-entry hurdles

$429,000

ResCare Workforce Services, for workshops and one-on-one help for about 550 people in Omaha, Grand Island, Gering and Norfolk with job searches

$1.4 million

Center for People in Need, to help about 282 recently released inmates keep jobs though instruction on domestic violence prevention, communication skills, self-help and family outreach

$1.7 million

Western Alternative Corrections, to help about 168 people with skills such as basic money management, family reunification, cognitive behavior therapy and parenting

$154,000

Prairie Gold Homes, to finish a site-built home in Beatrice, providing hands-on training for inmates in construction
The political fallout from U.S. Sen. Ben Sasses decision to become a national leader of the Never Trump movement was on full display last week back home in Nebraska.

During two meetings in the Omaha metro area the freshman Republican encountered some angry and puzzled Nebraskans who were upset at Sasses refusal to back Donald Trump  the controversial Republican presidential nominee  in his campaign against Democrat Hillary Clinton.

The most heated discussions occurred outdoors because Sasse refused to talk about presidential politics during scheduled indoor meetings. He said he didnt want to inject politics into meetings intended to help people navigate federal bureaucracies.

That led to situations in the Elkhorn area and Papillion where a majority of those in attendance left the regular meeting and followed Sasse outside to hear him engage with Trump supporters.

The outdoor exchanges in Elkhorn, for example, were tense, lively and underscored the political risks associated with Sasses anti-Trump stance in Republican-rich Nebraska.

Your principles are going to get Hillary Clinton (elected), one man told Sasse.

Another man accused Sasse of hurting Trumps chances at the polls.

Sasse continued to maintain that he could not support Trump because he fears that the New York real estate developer would expand the power of the presidency outside the scope of the U.S. Constitution.

I respect your views, but by my conscience I cant support anybody who I dont trust to take the oath faithfully, Sasse told a man in Elkhorn.

It is clear that Sasse has angered some die-hard Trump supporters, but its not known exactly how many. Republicans who agree with Sasse about Trump are unlikely to show up at town hall meetings and express their support, said Kevin Smith, a political scientist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

There are plenty of Republicans out there who are a little unhappy with Trump, Smith said.

The bigger question for Sasse is whether this will hurt or help his political future, either in Nebraska or on the national front. Will Trump supporters blame Sasse and other anti-Trump Republicans if their candidate loses in November? Or will they forgive and forget, especially if Trump wins?

And if Trump loses, will Sasse be able to parlay his reputation as a leading anti-Trumpster into a national leadership role reshaping and leading the Republican Party?

People like Ben Sasse who oppose Trump have a foundation for saying Look, this is what I was saying: We need to get back to seriously thinking about who we are as Republicans and conservatives  if Trump loses, Smith said.

The potential downside is that there could be some people who say Im not listening to you. You helped put Hillary Clinton in the White House,  he said.

Nationally, Sasse has garnered tons of media attention for his opposition to Trump. He has appeared in the Washington Post and the New York Times, talking about his views on Trump. Bill Kristol, the editor of the Weekly Standard, openly courted Sasse in an unsuccessful attempt to get the Fremont, Nebraska, native to mount a third-party bid against Trump.

In Nebraska, however, Sasse prefers to focus on other issues. He angered some earlier this summer when he attended the Republican State Convention and talked only briefly about his opposition to Trump. Some questioned why Sasse couldnt at least defend his anti-Trump position with his own party members.

On Tuesday, in Elkhorn and Papillion, Sasse said he would take Trump questions, but only after he had spoken about constituent services  and only outside the meeting rooms.

Sasse argued that most of the people attending were not interested in talking about presidential or national politics but had come to talk with his staff about specific concerns involving the federal government, such as Social Security benefits.

Even though many of you are animated on all sides of the presidential election, you really arent representative of everybody, Sasse said in Elkhorn.

Were doing dozens of these, and a couple of people who are most animated  not a couple, its a healthy number  but folks who are most animated about policy fights, about legislative fights or about presidential politics, sometimes want to stand up and take over the events, Sasse said. And what we find from our surveys is that really isnt what everybody else wants.

Not everyone agreed with Sasses assessment of why people attended the meetings.

Jane Nielsen, the Sarpy County Republican Party chairwoman, said most of the people who attended in Papillion wanted to hear Sasse explain his opposition to Trump. She said that was clear after Sasse walked outside and almost everybody in the room  about 70 people  followed him.

Nielsen said she supports Sasse, but believes that he needs to be more open with Nebraskans about his Trump stance. She also said he may have gotten more of his message across to more people had he addressed questions about Trump inside the meeting room, where it was easier for people to hear his answers.

As it was, Nielsen worried that only a few people heard Sasse when he told her outside the building that he had never urged people not to vote for Trump. She said Sasse argued that his stance was personal and based upon his belief that Trump would abuse his executive power if elected president.

If youre getting faced with this opposition to a stance  and hes entitled to this  but when youre elected by the people and they look up to you, he needs to give them a good reason, Nielsen said.

Bill Moody, who attended the Elkhorn presentation, said he thought Sasse was simply trying to control the situation, by forcing people outside.

I thought it was orchestrated. It was controlled. He talked about what he wanted to talk about, said Moody, 65, of Omaha. Like several people in the audience, Moody said he had voted for Sasse in 2014. He said he couldnt vote for him again due to his anti-Trump stance.

He believes Sasses position on Trump only helps Clinton.

It is unknown exactly how Sasses opposition to Trump has played in Nebraska. There have been no polls publicly released on the topic.

Jon Tucker, chairman of the Douglas County Republican Party, believes that Republicans are split on the issue. Some oppose Trump while others are in his corner. Some also support Sasses right to oppose Trump, even though they will vote for the GOP candidate in the fall.

The key question for Sasse is whether he risks losing the support of die-hard Trump supporters forever.

Tucker doubts that, especially if Trump wins.

If Trump wins the presidency, perhaps, those people who are upset at (Sasse) now will forgive him, because they got what they wanted, Tucker said.

And if Trump loses, Tucker said, Sasse will have four years to fix the issue with angry pro-Trump Republicans.

Contact the writer: 402-444-1309, robynn.tysver@owh.com
The key ingredient for promoting innovation in modern agriculture isnt who can snag the most venture capital. Its who has the strongest vision for new ideas and making them happen.

Call it a cultivation of imagination.

Thats the observation of Tom Field, who heads the Engler Agribusiness Entrepreneurship Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The flow of venture capital into ag innovation has increased dramatically of late  some $4.6 billion during 2015, double the amount from the year before. Those funds have focused on sectors such as online food sales; irrigation and water; drones and robotics; and data-focused precision agriculture.

Field cautions, though, that venture capital is a tool, not a solution. Capital will find its way to strong ideas with a high potential for returns.

A greater need, he told The World-Herald, is to broaden Nebraskas ag focus. In addition to traditional production of crops and meat, the states ag sector needs to explore added-value opportunities for ag-related products and services.

Examples include the processing of ag products into higher-value products or services. Given growing global food demand, major opportunities also can be found in looking for ways to boost foods nutritional value, reduce food waste or increase food safety.

All of those challenges invite entrepreneurship, Field says.

Outreach is needed, he says, to educate young people about the high-tech career opportunities in modern agriculture. These include environmental and meteorological science, plant biology, data analysis and software development.

Matt Kreifels, state director of ag education with the Nebraska Department of Education, notes that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has identified on average 57,000 annual openings in the ag industry where theyre looking to hire four-year collegage graduates. Yet, he says, they can only find about 61 percent of people with degrees to fill them.

The Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce has designated agribusiness as one of several growth sectors to be nurtured.

Vishal Singh, CEO of Quantified Ag, a Lincoln- based company that has developed biometric sensing ear tags for cattle, notes that as a kid in high school, I didnt think I would work in agriculture. I was very interested in design and technology, but at that time I hadnt made the connection that I could apply those interests to agriculture.

Nebraska can benefit by strengthening the connections among the states array of producers, technologists and supporting organizations, Singh says. And even as the state works to bring businesses into Nebraska, it shouldnt forget the need to support ag-tech firms already here.

Asked about tips for ag startups, Singh says, Dont underestimate the support you can receive from your own target customer base. Many ag producers are willing to invest in products that make sense and can benefit agriculture.

Fields recommendations for startups include:

 Clearly define the value or solution you are trying to create and do customer/market discovery early rather than late.

 Ask for help  there are great resources available ranging from formal to informal.

A plus for Nebraska agriculture, he says, is that people are open to opportunities for partnerships, and the ecosystem invites collaboration.

The ag sector needs to build on that spirit, he says, by inviting more voices and perspectives into the conversation, enabling creative ferment: Diverse viewpoints and skill-sets create nearly magical results. We should be doing everything we can to encourage those interactions.

All these are sound ingredients for ag innovation in Nebraska.
The writer is an adjunct professor of psychology and sociology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She wrote this for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Taking a break between high school and university  a gap year  has been trending in recent years. Prince William famously took a gap year to travel and volunteer for worthy causes. More recently, Malia Obama decided to postpone entering university for a year.

The gap year offers an opportunity to make a transition between two stages of a young life  taking a break from formal education and substituting the informal learning from travel and work in the so-called real world.

A few decades back, when it was not quite as common as it is today, I took my gap year. Actually, I took two. An honors student, I certainly was academically prepared to go straight to college. However, I felt I needed a break. Also, unlike many teenagers, I had no work experience. I was not sure what I wanted to do with this seemingly endless road of life, and thus took time off to work in a large corporation and do a bit of travel.

In many ways, it was a rational transition from classes to this environment. This corporate world required some of the same qualities as school, including persistence, punctuality, and math, reading and social skills. I also spent most of the first half-year taking training and classes, aptitude tests, and learning from others.

As I look back now, I realize that I learned many valuable lessons from that experience.

First, I learned enough about myself to begin to sort out what I wanted to do. I realized I was not suited to a business career. I was good at the work I did, but I could not envision spending a lifetime of days in that environment. I wanted to use my mind and creativity more, and to make a difference in the world. I wanted to have control over what, where and how I did my lifes work, not be so stifled by bureaucratic rules.

Second, it was during my gap years that I began to travel. Of course, I had traveled with my family before this, but during my gap years I planned trips and traveled by myself or with a friend.

I took in the counterculture of San Francisco and the celebrity glow of L.A. This was the start of my lifelong love of the Golden State.

A trip with co-workers to Las Vegas left me with an impression of how lives can take the wrong path. Being underage (and thus barred from casinos) and totally uninterested in the main activities the city is known for, I spent much of my time there observing people as well as attending concerts and shows. I found the city to be as sad as it was glamorous  a place where people found themselves stranded due to bad choices they had made.

From these trips, I realized that I wanted to travel more throughout the world. I also learned that travel itself was not enough; that being happy with what one was doing 52 weeks a year was central to a happy life.

I learned about hierarchies and, perhaps ironically, the importance of education. The people with higher-level positions, which usually required more education, were clearly treated with more deference. It was also easy to see that college afforded better opportunities in general for more interesting and autonomous work.

It was also in my gap years that I learned the reality of womens inequality in work and society. Even as a child, I had questioned the limitations placed on women. But as a worker myself, I learned about the daily reality of being treated differently as a woman. For example, although I had scored far higher on a computer aptitude/IT training program test than the young man who sat next to me in my department, he was called into the training class well before I was. Indeed, my gap years were over and I left for college before being called up for that program.

Perhaps most importantly, I learned that human potential must not be wasted; that each of us must strive to do the most with his time and talents; that it was up to each of us to take the initiative rather than wait for someone else to recognize ones strengths and talents. I could not wait around for someone to invite me into a certain life. I had to make that life myself.

Thus, by the end of my gap years, I had an appreciation of the university experience and what a difference it could make in my life. As my second summer of work drew to a close, I gave notice and entered college, eager to embrace the experience, do my best and make up for lost time.

I pushed through my undergraduate degree in two years and nine months, my gap years behind me but informing my path ahead.
Ignore headlines and keep flossing

My staff and I were shocked to see the story about flossing (Proof of flossings benefits elusive, but dentists still push it, Aug. 3 World-Herald). The claim that evidence for the benefits of flossing were weak, very unreliable made all of our jaws drop.

Ive seen the benefits of flossing, and the damage of not flossing, every working day for more than 45 years. Its as obvious as the value of brushing. Where the brush goes, gum disease and decay are prevented. The brush does not go in between the teeth, and thats where decay and gum disease happen to non-flossers.

Its so self-evident that it hasnt seemed necessary to research. Failure to encourage flossing is a great disservice to public health.

Dr. Richard Fitzgerald, Omaha

Islam is not a threat, ignorance is!

Sadly, the negative and fearful message resonating at the national level has reached my backyard (Millard school board hopeful says textbook has terrorism ties, July 26 World-Herald).

I am a parent of a Millard Public Schools student. It is extremely disturbing to read the comment by school board candidate Amber Parker that Islam is a threat in schools.

Parents must make sure that administrators adopt textbooks that are appropriate for our children, without any outside influence. But to insinuate that the religion of 1.6 billion people is a threat to our schools based on a history textbook by a company that has a 1.3 percent share held by the Libyan Investment Authority is utter ignorance and plays into a fearful and hateful mentality.

Muslims have contributed to every aspect of our life in America, including in our beloved Nebraska. It appears that the unfortunate success that a national demagogue has had so far is encouraging demagogues at the local level.

This is certainly not America or Nebraska, which have embraced every creed, ethnic, racial and religious group.

Naser Alsharif, Omaha

Lets keep the repeal in November

This November, Nebraskans are going to be deciding whether to retain the repeal of the death penalty, which was replaced by life without parole.

While the U.S. system of justice is probably among the best in the world, we know people have been wrongfully convicted of crimes. According to Amnesty International, since 1973, 151 people have been exonerated and released from death row. We do not know how many innocent people have been executed.

It is time to put an end to this barbaric practice and to uphold the decision of our state legislators, who after careful study voted overwhelmingly and courageously to end the death penalty in Nebraska.

Anne Trimble, Omaha

Sasse should sign on or get out

It is past time for Nebraska U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse to get behind the Republican presidential nominee. If he cant, then he should change his party affiliation right now.

If Hillary Clinton wins this election, it is likely we will have three very liberal justices appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

C. Kinnison, Pierce, Neb.

Buffett holds Clinton to a low standard

So Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was in town last week and our own Warren Buffett joined her in support.

I wonder if Buffett would support a CEO of one of his business sectors who cavalierly and routinely exposed intellectual or proprietary property the way Clinton exposed national security information on her private email server while serving as secretary of state. I wonder if he would support that same CEO who then repeatedly lied about exposing the data the way Clinton lied about her emails.

Im pretty sure Mr. Buffett would not allow this kind of dishonest behavior.

Doug Mang, Omaha

Dont politicize Gold Star Families

I have spoken with several Gold Star Mothers in both Iowa and Nebraska. We are saddened and upset over the way we are being portrayed by some politicians and some in the media as angry, bitter people.

Shame on these people. We are not to be used as pawns in their political games. Our loss means nothing to any of these people. None of them could understand our grief.

I wish that everyone knew how Gold Star Mothers and Fathers donate thousands of dollars and volunteer many hours to veterans and organizations that serve veterans. We believe that we can heal and keep our lost childrens memory alive by serving others. We support VA nursing homes and hospitals, Fisher Houses and homeless shelters. The list goes on and on.

Please stop using Gold Star Families for your personal gains.

Barbara Yllescas Vorthmann, Treynor, Iowa

Gold Star Mother of Capt. Robert Yllescas

An offensive comparison

I am at a loss. Could someone please tell me how Donald Trump building a financial empire, aided by several bankruptcies, could, in any way, be a sacrifice comparable to the one suffered by the Khan family  losing a son who was fighting to protect our freedoms?

Charlotte Anne Dorwart, Sidney, Neb.

A shameful parade

What did the parade in Arcadia, Iowa  with children throwing water balloons at a representation of Hillary Clinton in a prison jumpsuit and cage  teach those children?

For years, Republicans have insisted Clinton is dishonest, despite spending millions of our taxpayer money and proving nothing. How about Donald Trump and his truthfulness?

Gene Jeter, Council Bluffs

Pot calls kettle unfit to be president

President Obama said that Donald Trump is unfit to be president (Aug. 3 World-Herald).

This comes from a person who had no business or military experience and very little foreign policy experience when he entered the White House. How has he done?

He, along with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have destabilized Libya, Egypt, Syria and Iraq and placed us in a cold war with Russia. Obamacare has devastated health care for many. The national debt has more than doubled under his administration. Our borders remain porous. The trade deficit has skyrocketed as jobs have left the country. And finally, we are all less secure, as crime, radical Islamic terrorism and racial tensions have all risen under Obama.

And this guy is ridiculing Trump?

Lou Totilas, Kimballton, Iowa

She has the resume

For more than 12 years, Hillary Clinton was been a part of Bill Clinton and Barack Obamas administrations. Both administrations were successful, and history will speak kindly of each. Her role would serve as an indication that she is qualified to be commander in chief.

On the other hand, Donald Trump doesnt seem up to the job of president. His own words and actions seem to disqualify him from the office. And he doesnt seem to want to educate himself to become a better candidate.

G.R. Muhm, Ames, Neb.

Make Social Security an issue

Social Security was enacted in 1935 and has done much to lift older people out of poverty.

However, people are living longer and drawing Social Security for longer than was expected in 1935. The Social Security trustees have calculated benefits will have to be cut by nearly 25 percent after 2034 if no action is taken.

AARP has produced a small booklet that offers 12 possible proposals that could be enacted, with pros and cons for each. I encourage everyone to become familiar with these proposals and to ask our political candidates what their plan is to keep Social Security strong for future generations.

When I was young, I thought Social Security would just be a little fun money with retirement and savings being the real support. Now, after almost two decades of retirement, some long-term care expenses and almost no interest earnings on savings for many years, I realize the true importance of Social Security.

We need to know that our candidates for national office actually have a plan for keeping Social Security strong  not just for us, but also for future generations.

Rosalee Yeaworth, Omaha

We dont know what hot is

I cant help but laugh aloud, as Im sure some of my fellow Great Depression survivors do, when watching our local TV weather reports. Over and over, the newscasters constantly gush about the heat index. It really is annoying.

I wonder if people notice the daily record high and low temperatures in The World-Herald. For instance, on July 25, 1936, Omahas highest temperature of 114 was recorded. The next day it cooled down to 109. That summer we had more than 30 consecutive days at or above 100 degrees.

I wonder how high the heat index was then and how we managed without knowing. And these were the days before air conditioners.

Fred J. Aliano Sr., Omaha
7th Pay Commission: Good news! Minimum pension of retired govt staff goes up by 157%

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Aug 7: Retired central government employees will now get a minimum pension of Rs 9,000, up 157.14 per cent from the current Rs 3,500, following the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission's recommendations.

The Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions has notified acceptance of pay panel's recommendations for the pensioners. The ceiling of gratuity has also been enhanced from the existing Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh.

The Commission had also recommended the ceiling on gratuity to be raised by 25 per cent whenever Dearness Allowance rises by 50 per cent, a proposal which has been accepted by the government.

There are about 58 lakh central government pensioners. The amount of pension shall be subject to a minimum of Rs 9,000 and the maximum pension would be Rs 1,25,000--which is 50 per cent of the highest pay in the government, an order issued by the Ministry said.

7th Pay Commission decoded: Know all about salary increment, past pay commissions

The highest pay in the government is Rs 2,50,000 with effect from January 1, 2016. The maximum limit of retirement gratuity and death gratuity shall be Rs 20 lakh, the order said.

The ceiling on gratuity will increase by 25 per cent whenever the dearness allowance rises by 50 per cent of the basic pay, it said. There has been a substantial increase in payment of ex-gratia lump sum compensation for civil and defence forces personnel, payable to the next of kin.

A payment of Rs 25 lakh, from existing Rs 10 lakh, will be given in case of death occurring due to accidents in course of performance of duties and those attributed to acts of violence by terrorists, anti social elements etc.

PTI
AAP govt wants pay hike for public prosecutors: Centre to HC

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Aug 7: The Centre has told the Delhi High Court that it has received from the AAP government a proposal for sanction of revision of pay scales of public prosecutors of all the district courts here.

The submission was made before Justice Manmohan after the court had issued a show cause notice to the Centre asking as to why contempt proceedings be not initiated against it for filing a "false affidavit" that they did not receive any proposal for pay hike to different categories of prosecutors in Delhi.

The central government standing counsel submitted that the proposal sent to it by Delhi government has been received and the same is pending before the Ministry of Finance.

"We need a week's time to get back to the court, on what steps the ministry will be taking," the Centre's counsel said. The court has listed the matter for September 15.

Earlier, the Centre's counsel had told the court that it has not received any proposal for sanction of revision of pay scales of the public prosecutors from Delhi government.

Countering the claim, the AAP government had said last December it had sent the cabinet note to the Lieutenant Governor approving hike in the salary of public prosecutors.

The Centre's response had come in the backdrop of the court's notice issued to it on a petition seeking contempt action against the Home Secretary for not complying with its September 9, 2015, order.

The court in its September 2015 had directed Delhi government that the decision to increase the pay scales of Delhi public prosecutors be implemented without any delay. The contempt petition filed by Delhi Prosecutors Welfare Association alleged "deliberate and willful disobedience" on the part of the Centre and city government in complying with the court order.

The association, in its petition filed through advocate Ashish Dixit, had said assurances to the court by the Delhi government to provide Internet facilities to the prosecutors have also not been done.

"It is submitted that despite there being explicit directions by this court for implementing the cabinet decision dated September 1, 2015 the respondents (Centre and Delhi government) have till date not complied with the directions.

"The respondent 1 (Centre) and respondent 2 (Delhi government) have demonstrated an attitude which violates the majesty of this court. The respondents deliberately and willfully have not complied with the directions of this court," the petition has said.

PTI
Attack on RSS leader:BJP demands stern action against culprits

India

oi-PTI

Chandigarh, Aug 7: BJP today asked Punjab government to take stringent action against those involved in the murderous attack on RSS leader Jagdish Gagneja in Jalandhar and alleged it was an attempt to thwart nationalistic forces and vitiate the atmosphere in the state.

"We have asked the state government to take this matter (attack on Gagneja) seriously and strict action should be taken against those who were behind this incident," BJP National Secretary Tarun Chugh told reporters here.

Gagneja, Vice President of the RSS (Punjab), was yesterday shot at by some bike-borne persons at Jyoti Chowk area in Jalandhar, leaving him seriously injured. BJP is part of the ruling alliance led by Akali Dal in Punjab, where elections are due next year.

Asked who could be behind this incident, Chugh said it is the act of those wanted to vitiate peaceful atmosphere in Punjab. "It is clear that those who are involved in terror activities, be it here or sitting abroad, wanted to stop nationalist forces from undertaking their activities and the RSS is leading the 'rashtrabhakt' forces," he said.

Condemning the incident, Chugh said that the Punjab unit of BJP would discuss this matter and would review the situation in the state after the attack on Gagneja.

He, however, defended the state police, saying, "We have to have trust in Punjab police and other security forces as we are safe because of them."

However, he said there is a need to ponder why such incidents were happening. Punjab has seen attack on RSS volunteer in Ludhiana in January, murder of Chand Kaur, wife of former head of Namdhari sect, in Ludhiana in April and murderous attack on Sikh preacher Ranjit Singh Dhadrianwale in Ludhiana in May.

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal yesterday strongly condemned the attack on Gagneja. The Chief Minister had directed the district civil and police authorities to maintain maximum vigil against anti social elements and ensure that the culprits are apprehended at the earliest.

Meanwhile, Punjab Police DGP Suresh Arora has formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) under the leadership of ADGP cum Director Bureau of Investigation IPS Sahota to probe the attack on the RSS leader.

Other members of the SIT are Commissioner of Police, Jalandhar Arpit Shukla, IG (Counter Intelligence) Nilabh Kishore and AIG (CI) Amarjit Singh Bajwa.

PTI
As per constitutional norms: Goa Speaker on merger of Cong MLAs with BJP

Beware of paid news ahead of polls, says Manohar Parrikar

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Panaji, Aug 7: With elections to the state legislative a few months away, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has advised the BJP workers to be cautious of paid news.

"I am reminding you once again, ahead of the forthcoming poll, some people are trying to rake up doubts and as elections are close several campaigns will start. Paid news will start too," Parrikar said on Saturday at the Bharatiya Janata Party Scheduled Caste morcha meeting held in Porvorim, near Panaji.

The former Goa chief minister also asked his party workers to steer clear of hoaxes floated by the opposition with elections some months away.

"Fresh issues will be raised. My only request is stay away from these hoaxes. Judge the performance of political parties using on ground performance as a parameter," Parrikar said.

Polls to the state legislative assembly in Goa are likely to be held in early 2017.

IANS


Conduct 'Tiranga Yatra' on bikes during Aug 15-Sept 17: Modi to BJP workers

India

oi-PTI

Hyderabad, Aug 7: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today appealed to BJP workers in Telangana to carry out "Tiranga Yatra" on bikes from August 15 to September 17 across the state.

Telangana BJP has been demanding to hold official celebration of the 'Hyderabad Liberation Day' on September 17, when the erstwhile Nizam's state was merged with Indian Union. The Hyderabad State under Nizam rule was merged with Indian Union on September 17, 1948 following a 'police action'.

"September 17 is not Modi's birthday... Sardar Patel got you freedom. Hence, carry out 'Tiranga Yatra' in all parts of the state," Modi told party workers at packed L B Stadium here this evening.

"Across the country, the 'Tiranga Yatra' will be conducted, but in Telangana you carry out the 'Tiranga Yatra' from August 15 till September 17 on bikes," Modi said.

The PM had announced to launch a mega 15-day BJP campaign '70 saal azadi-yaad karo kurbani' on August 9, the 75th year of Quit India movement, and virtually the entire Council of Ministers will travel across the country to "rekindle the spirit of patriotism".

Addressing the huge gathering, he said, "yeh sanghtan ki shakti ka nazara hai (This is a spectacle of the power of the organisation).

Yeh BJP ke booth party ke karyakarta ki shakti ka nazara hai. (This is the spectacle of the power of the BJP's booth party workers). Muze dur ka dikhai de raha hai (I can see the future). Telangana ka future nazar aa raha hai (I can visualise the future of Telangana). You too start seeing Telanagana with new future."

PTI
Man booked for rape of 12-year-old after video of injured girl surfaces on internet

FIR lodged against Union Minister Anupriya Patel for violating prohibitory orders

India

oi-PTI

Lucknow, Aug 7: An FIR was today registered against Union Minister Anupriya Patel under various sections of IPC for violating prohibitory orders during her visit to state capital.

The FIR was lodged against Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare and others under IPC sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 341 (wrongful restraint), 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) at Hazratganj police station, SHO Hazratganj, Vijaymal Yadav told PTI.

The Apna Dal MP from Mirzapur during her visit here yesterday was received by supporters at the airport and her cavalcade comprising scores of cars created massive traffic jam in Hazratganj -- the city's fashionable commercial hub -- and other areas.

This was her first visit to the city after being inducted in the Narendra Modi cabinet last month. Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) have been enforced in the Hazratganj area by the district administration to prohibit assembly of more than five persons, holding of demonstrations or carrying of weapons.

PTI
BJP MP scolds official for cleaning Yamuna with 'poisonous chemical' ahead of Chhath

Auto, taxi fare in Delhi hiked over rising CNG prices | Check new rates

News Flash: J&K: Vaishno devi Yatra from Katra base camp suspended till morning

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New Delhi, Aug 7: Two feared dead under debris after a two-storey building collapsed in Hanuman tekri area of Bhiwandi (Maharashtra) on Sunday.

Get all the latest national and international news updates of Sunday, Aug 7 here:

11:28 pm: J&K: Vaishnodevi Yatra from Katra base camp suspended till morning due to forecast of heavy rains.

10:57 pm: PM Modi likely to intervene during discussion on GST in Lok Sabha. Likely time - towards late afternoon.

10:11 pm: Kathua (J&K): Ujh river in spate after heavy rainfall lashes the region

9:30 pm: Bihar: Sashastra Seema Bal in jt op with police arrested 5 Naxals in Muzaffarpur distt, seized 3 detonators,14 live cartridges from them.

9:14 pm: Srinagar: Chhari Mubarak, the holy mace of Lord Shiva, to be taken to Pahalgam for special prayers on 13 August.

7:56 pm: It was brought to our notice,search ops underway-Suresh Arora,Punjab DGP on reports of suspicious ppl seen in Mohali

7:30 pm: If you want to attack, attack me and not Dalits. If you want to shoot, shoot me and not Dalits: PM Modi in Hyderabad

7:18 pm: Shanti, Ekta, Sadbhavana are central to the progress of our country: PM Modi in Hyderabad

7:09 pm: Rio Olympics In Archery women's team event, India qualifies for quarter final.

6:55 pm: Finally GST bill got passed in both the houses. Want to thank all pol parties who helped the Govt pass this bill: PM

6:30 pm: I say, there must be 'saffron revolution' in the country. Saffron is colour of 'energy'. There must be an 'energy' revolution: PM Modi

6:24 pm: RioOlympics2016: Indian shooter Heena Sidhu fails to qualify for the final of women's 10 m air pistol.

6:02 pm: Mainpuri, UP: Two labourers allegedly beaten to death by policemen at a checkpoint for refusing to give bribe.

5:40 pm: Heavy rainfall likely to occur at Uttarakhand's Almora, Champawat, Nainital, Pauri, Haridwar & Dehradun in next 48 hours: IMD.

5:16 pm: Beware of fake cow vigilantes and govt should strongly take action against them: Narendra Modi in Telangana.

5:00 pm: Himachal Pradesh: Traffic movement blocked since five hours near Khara Pathar as heavy rains continue to lash Shimla.

4:56 pm: Bus overturns in Itarsi city of Madhya Pradesh, 10 injured persons admitted to a hosptial.

4:40 pm: The solution to all the problems lies in development, says PM Narendra Modi in Telangana.

4:38 pm: We are linking economic development and rail connectivity: Modi.

4:21 pm: If anyone visits Porbandar, the birth place of Mahatma Gandhi you will see the technology used by villagers to save water, 200 years ago: PM.

4:18 pm: Co-operative federalism is the only way that can help both states and Centre to progress, says PM in Telangana.

4:13 pm: Whenever CM KCR met me, he spoke about the state's development and water related issues so emotionally: Modi in Telangana.

4:05 pm: This is my first visit to this state after assuming office: PM Narendra Modi in Telangana.

4:00 pm: Katju submits report to BCCI on Lodha Panel, asks BCCI not to interact with Lodha Committee.

3:50 pm: PM inaugurates Kaloji Narayanrao University of health and sciences.

3.37 pm: PM Modi inaugurates first phase of NTPC Super Thermal Power Project in Medak (Telangana).

3.17 pm: PM Narendra Modi launches Mission Bhagiratha in Medak (Telangana).

3.08 pm: Kerala Congress (M) has left UDF alliance. Party chairman KM Mani said Kerala Congress (M) will remain as separate block in Kerala Assembly.

3.07 pm: Home Minister Rajnath Singh speaking in Jhansi on the concluding day of BJP State executive meet.

2.59 pm: PM Modi arrives in Begumpet, will lay foundation stone of first phase of NTPC Super Thermal Power Project in Medak.

2.34 pm: Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh speaking at the inauguration ceremony of IIT Bhilai.

2.17 pm: Devotees offer milk to snakes in Moradabad on the occasion of Nag Panchami in Uttar Pradesh.

2.05 pm: 40 kgs of explosives seized by CRPF, DVF personnel during a combing operation inside Talengapada forest in Mohana, Odisha.

Karnataka: Prayers being offered in Hubli on the occasion of Nag Panchami pic.twitter.com/LwiRQAi2vS  ANI (@ANI_news) August 7, 2016

1.30 pm: Heavy rains triggered cloudbursts in Tral (Pulwama).

1.15 pm: Police detain two persons for "carrying beef" in Mysuru.

1.00 pm: Two juveniles apprehended and one man arrested on charges of molestation and rape of a 23-year-old Myanmar refugee, in Delhi's Dabri area.

12.45 pm: Nitin Patel takes oath as the Deputy Chief Minister of Gujarat.

12.38 pm: Vijay Rupani sworn in as the Chief Minister of Gujarat.

12.15 pm: Our Govt is committed to ensuring security of Assam people, whoever is involved,will not be spared, says Assam CM Sonowal.

11.45 am: As per info,evidence collected so far, it's been proved that NDFB(S) is behind this incident, but we're still conducting search operation, says Assam CM.

11.36 am: Mumbai-Goa highway bridge collapse rises to 26. 41 people still missing.

11.27 am: Senior leader LK Advani & FM Jaitley arrive in Ahmedabad, will attend Vijay Rupani's oath taking ceremony in Gandhinagar.

11.14 am: School is not recognised, a notice directing them to close it down issued a week ago, says BSA (Basic Shiksha Adhikari).

10.40 am: I went to school management seeking permission to organise events like singing of National Anthem,Saraswati Vandana from 15th August, says Principal.

10.30 am: Teachers of pvt school in Allahabad resign after being denied permission to organise an event involving singing of National Anthem from Aug 15.

10.24 am: 4 people rescued, many still feared trapped.in Bhiwandi (Maharashtra) building collaps.

9.51 am: Devotees offer prayers in a temple in Varanasi on the occasion of Nag Panchami.

9.30 am: Vijay Rupani to take oath as Gujarat CM today, preparations underway in Gandhinagar.

9.21 am: 'Gau Raksha' is one of our prime responsibilities. Cow-sheds should be put in place where cows can be kept safe: Sheila Dikshit in Lucknow.

9.12 am: Construction work of a bridge at Dhemua ghat in Gonda, also affected due to floods in UP.

9.00 am: Flood situation continues in Gonda, low lying areas affected, several houses inundated in Uttar Pradesh.

8.47 am: Leopard that had strayed into a house in Bhimtal (Uttarakhand) yesterday, rescued by Forest officials after over 10 hours.

8.21 am: My wife and daughter are not well, will go to Lucknow straight away, to meet my family, says Dayashankar after being released from Mau jail.

8.15 am: Many feared buried under debris after a two-storey building collapsed in Hanuman tekri area of Bhiwandi (Maharashtra).

8.10 am: Expelled BJP leader Dayashankar who was granted bail yesterday, released from Mau district jail.

8.00 am: Not disappointed. All shooters shot well. They are young girls, have a long future ahead, says Randhir Singh on Rio 2016.

OneIndia News
PM Modi pays tributes to JP and Nanaji Deshmukh on their birth anniversaries

Minister who called Hindus 'hijra kaum' must be jailed: Urdu poet

India

oi-PTI

Ghaziabad, Aug 7: Eminent Urdu poet Munawwar Rana has said the "headless" minister who called Hindus "hijra kaum" (eunuch community) must be jailed for his derogatory remarks.

Rana, who had returned his Sahitya Akademi award with Rs 1 lakh cash prize, was talking to media after attending a poetry recital session here yesterday evening.

Rana said the remark by one "insane" minister from Bihar that "Hinduon jaisa koi hijra kaum dusra nahin hai" is absolutely intolerable as they sowed the seed of hatred in the country.

[I would happily carry Prime Minister Modi's shoes: Munawwar Rana]

Talking about intolerance, he said when governments start playing politics with the society, the situation gets worse.

In a video that has gone viral on social media, Union Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Giriraj Singh is purportedly seen making the remark while criticising raising of anti-India slogans in Kashmir.

PTI
Fact Check: This image of a massive gathering is not from the Bharat Jodo Yatra

TRS, BJP are two sides of same coin: Rahul Gandhi in Telangana

Rahul Gandhi summoned in criminal defamation case

India

oi-PTI

Guwahati, Aug 7: A local court today summoned Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi to face trial on September 29 in connection with a criminal defamation case against him over his reported statement on RSS.

In his order, Kamrup Chief Judicial Magistrate Sanjoy Hazarika directed Gandhi to appear before the court on September 29 as his statement published in the media appeared to be defamatory.

Complainant Anjan Bora's counsel Bijon Mahajan submitted before the court that Gandhi did not come to visit 'Barpeta Satra' on December 12 last year but alleged before the media two days later in Delhi that RSS workers prevented him from entering the 16th century Vaishnavite monastery.

Describing this as "blatant lie" as, he submitted that there were no RSS people among the crowd that were waiting to greet Gandhi on that day.

The head of the monastery was also among those waiting for the Congress leader who actually took part in a rally instead of visiting the monastery, submitted Mahajan who is also BJP Assam unit spokesman.

Bora, an RSS worker, lodged his case alleging that Gandhi by making his claim in Delhi brought down the image of RSS in society.

The court has examined seven witnesses, including elected members of the Satra. On August 2, the court had deferred the date regarding issuance of summons as an accused against Gandhi in the criminal defamation case here.

PTI
Sarbananda Sonowal visits attack site, pledges action against NDFB

India

oi-PTI

Balajan (Assam), Aug 7: Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal today visited the Friday attack site here and said strong action would be taken against the banned NDFB(Sonbijit) outfit and "none would be spared" for the killing of 14 people.

"No matter how strong the militant group is, our government will take strong action against it. All those connected with the killing will be hunted out and brought to book," Sonowal told reporters after visiting the weekly Balajan Tiniali market where the massacre took place.

"Whatever evidence has been collected so far show that NDFB(Songbijit) is behind the killings", he said.

"All the security forces are coordinating the search operations and none will be spared," the chief minister said. "It is the prime duty of the government to protect the people and their property. All will be given protection, I assure," Sonowal said.

After visiting Balajan, the chief minister went to Kokrajhar town and held a high level law and order review meeting of the Unified Command Structure's Strategic Group of civil officials, army, police and paramilitary forces.

Director General of Police Mukesh Sahay said the slain NDFB-S militant, whose body was recovered, would be identified by DNA test as his parents were unable to recognise his body as they had not seen him for the past 8-9 years.

Meanwhile, Kokrajhar Deputy Commissioner Madhu Prasad Sarma told PTI that the killers were believed to have come from Pakriguri on the Indian side, about 10 km from Bhutan border.

PTI
Daulat Ram College teachers, students stage protest

New Delhi

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Aug 7: Teachers and students of Daulat Ram College of Delhi University today staged a protest against the Governing Body chairperson, alleging that she was "interfering" in routine functioning.

Suneeta Sudarshan, the chairperson of the body, has refuted the allegations and accused college principal Savita Roy of not doing any work despite the Governing Body (GB) sanctioning grants for various works.

The college staff association has alleged that Sudarshan is "interfering" in routine functioning of the college and is allegedly not allowing any work to be done despite the college building being in a very bad condition.

Roy, however, said that GB chairperson is allegedly "not cooperating" to do any work for improvement in college. She said that for instance, she wants to improve the infrastructure but some papers are not available and GB is not providing those papers.

"The chairperson is only interested in appointing her people as staff," she further said. However, Sudarshan rubbished the allegations and maintained that the Governing Body has sanctioned grants for every work. Teachers of the college said they will also continue their protest against the GB chairperson on Monday as well.

PTI
Pune slab collapse case: No pre-arrest bail for four builders

Pune

oi-PTI

Pune, Aug 7: A local court today refused pre-arrest bail to four partners of the Park Xpress housing project in Balewadi where nine labourers were killed after a slab of an allegedly unauthorised floor collapsed on July 29.

Police have registered a case of negligence against four builder-partners -- Arvind Jain, Shravan Agarwal, Kailash Wani and Shyam Shende -- apart from six others. The four partners had filed anticipatory bail applications fearing arrest, but Additional Sessions Judge P Y Ladekar rejected them today.

District government pleader Ujjwala Pawar opposed the bail plea saying that three survivors of the incident had told police that builders, contractors and those supervising the work did not pay heed to repeated warnings about insufficient safety measures, inadequate centering and shuttering support.

Pawar later said the court rejected the plea on the ground that prima facie no safety measures had been put in place at the site, and the 13th floor, where the slab crashed, was allegedly unauthorised.

The court noted that the four applicants cannot shirk their responsibilities by saying that the work was being carried out by an outsider contractor. So far, Pune police have arrested contractor Bhavin Harshad Shah, project in-charge of Park Xpress joint venture Dnyaneshwar Chavan and Santosh Chavan, and Shrikant Kisan Pawar, an employee.

PTI
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I wrote recently on 529 plans. These are tax-advantaged investment plans intended to encourage saving for post-secondary education. The column drew many questions from readers, some of which Ill address below.

Q: I live in Florida and my grandson is in California. I would like to start a 529 account for him. Should I do so in California or Florida?

A: Most people should check their own states plan first to see if it offers extra tax breaks to in-state residents. Florida doesnt have an income tax, so that does not apply. According to the website Savingforcollege.com, Californias plan is more highly rated than Floridas for performance, costs and reliability.

Two readers asked about pre-paid tuition plans.

Q: I am interested, as a proactive grandparent funding four Florida prepaid college plans, in reading up on any comparison (pros/cons) between 529 plans and prepaid plans. I recognize I am getting no tax benefit in the prepaid plan, but there is (as I understand it) certainty as to future costs of education.

Q: I have participated in the 529 program for about 12 years and have a plan for each of my three children. Many of my colleagues have opted for the Florida prepaid program. What is your opinion regarding these two options?

A: There are some drawbacks to prepaid tuition plans. The most obvious is that they can be used for tuition at a university only in a given states public system, while 529 education plans can be used for qualifying expenses at any eligible education institution. Secondly, the terms of a prepaid tuition plan are not always backed by the full faith and credit of the state. The state is betting that it can attract enough investors and earn enough money to make good in the future on tuition charges that rise year after year. In the past several years, many prepaid plans have shut down and others, such as those in Colorado, Kentucky, West Virginia, South Carolina and Wisconsin, have closed to new investors. Illinois plan is currently under pressure to shut down as well amid disappointing sales.

That said, Floridas prepaid program is one of the oldest and largest in the country and if youre sure that your children are future Seminoles or Gators, its worth looking into.

Q: I opened a 529 account in Wisconsins Edvest for my granddaughter with $1,000 16 months ago. It is now worth only $988.74. ... Plan managers get paid big bucks to take my money, but they should only make earnings when they give me growth. The plan offers hundreds of confusing options and the reports are so full of obfuscation that I am an easy target.

A: This letter writer offers a good reminder that 529 plans are investment vehicles, which carry inherent risks. These risks vary based on the investment options you choose, but if you are putting money into the stock market, you cant expect it to grow every quarter.

Management fees and total expense ratios in Wisconsins Edvest plan are actually relatively low. If you cant handle seeing your balance going down, the plan offers a principal plus interest plan with no fund fees and a guaranteed annual return of 1 percent to 3 percent. However, if your granddaughters college is more than 5 years away, I would recommend that you be a little more aggressive.

Q: While Coverdell accounts are not as widely used, nor very widely supported by the investment community these days, they are still a viable option and should be given some mention.

A: Yes, thanks for the reminder. Coverdell education savings accounts are similar in many ways to 529 plans, but they have a lot more restrictions, including age, contribution and income limits. Unlike 529 plans, though, they can be used for tuition at elementary and secondary schools.

Q: I think this would apply to both 529s and Coverdells. What exactly must one do when withdrawing money from one of those savings vehicles when it comes to tax time?

A: If you want to avoid exposure to taxation on a withdrawal, dont take out more than you need for that calendar years qualifying higher education expenses. You may not be able to include the full room and board charges, for example, and you cant include student loan repayments. Check IRS Publication 970 for more information.
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Although the nation's attention is focused on the Presidential election, there is another office that wields tremendous power -- and which voters get to choose. It is their state's Attorney General, otherwise known as the People's Lawyer.

In response to President Obama's Clean Power Plan, a contingent of twenty-seven attorneys general has been pushing back, vigorously, via a lawsuit to halt the plan. The case is currently tied up in court.

Those in opposition to the plan, which has frequently been referenced as Obama's "signature climate policy," maintain that it will be detrimental to their state's economy.

Conversely, the White House and the EPA have emphasized that the Clean Power Plan will be:

A major benefit for public health, reducing both medical costs and diseases caused by air pollution. 3600 premature deaths will be averted.

A reduction in energy bills by 2030 that will translate into $200 annually per American family.

A reduction in carbon dioxide pollution by 32 percent in 2030, down from the 2005 level.

A job creator in the "environmental technology field," while pushing investment in the clean energy sector.

Polls show that the electorate in states where Attorneys General are suing, favor America's Clean Power Plan (Tweet this) by 61 percent. (There are three states where public opinion is against the plan. They are North Dakota, where fracking has become prevalent; the coaling-producing states of West Virginia and Wyoming.) Support for environmental regulations are especially high among the African-American and Latino communities, who are disproportionately impacted by toxic sitings, air pollution, unsafe drinking water, and high rates of asthma.

Is there is a subtext to this situation?

As far back as December 2014, the New York Times reported on suspect alliances between campaign funders and Attorneys General ("Energy Firms in Secretive Alliance With Attorneys General"). This year, Americans United for Change picked up the theme with their report, "Polluter Impunity." The trajectory becomes quite clear when you "follow the money."

Individual Attorneys General have been the recipients of a combined $2.8 million. There is an evident link between their actions and campaign donations from fossil fuel entities. Once again, the fingerprints of the Koch Brothers are clearly visible, particularly via their lobbyists.

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After baseless allegations from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) that the Russian government was behind a hack of the DNC's emails, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump sarcastically quipped that he hoped Russia would find and release the deleted emails from Hillary Clinton's private server from her time as secretary of state. The New York Times failed to note the sarcasm and treated the comments as evidence of high crimes against the state. It was an example of the modern day red-baiting against Trump, who is portrayed as being in league with Russian President Vladimir Putin to conspire against the United States itself.



The Times said Trump was "essentially urging a foreign adversary to conduct cyberespionage against a former secretary of state." While Trump is such a narcissitic buffoon that it is often difficult to discern when he is being facetious, he was clearly making a joke.



But treating the comment in the spirit it was intended would mean passing up a golden opportunity to bash Trump for what has become common knowledge in mainstream political analysis: Trump is anti-American for being diplomatic instead of vilifying Russia and Putin at every opportunity. They scrutinize and make a point of every statement Trump makes that fails to antagonize Russia for actions the US government doesn't antagonize other countries for.



While they merely imply "urging" cyberespionage is treasonous rather than state it explicitly, the Times finds it so important that they place it in the lead paragraph. This is curiously prominent, much more prominent that when President Barack Obama literally joked about incinerating a family with a remotely guided missile.





"The Jonas Brothers are here. (Applause.) They're out there somewhere. Sasha and Malia are huge fans. But, boys, don't get any ideas. (Laughter.) I have two words for you - predator drones. (Laughter.) You will never see it coming. (Laughter.) You think I'm joking. (Laughter.)"

"Mr. Obama noted the presence of the Jonas Brothers, who can count Sasha and Malia Obama among their fans. But the First Father warned the band: 'Two words: predator drones.' "

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Jill Stein with supporters

(Image by Gage Skidmore) Details DMCA



Thank you so much you for being here today and for leading the charge for an America and a world that works for all of us, a world that puts people, planet and peace over profit.

I am honored beyond words to be your candidate in this election. I'm honored to be running for President of the United States with the Green Party, the one national party that stands up for the people, and that's been ahead of the curve in so many ways - on climate change and green energy, on marriage equality, free public higher education and health care as human rights, on stopping the Trans Pacific Partnership, on reparations for slavery, opposing Saudi war crimes in Yemen, and Israeli human rights abuses and occupation in Palestine, on recognizing indigenous rights. I want to recognize the heroes who have kept the party going through thick and thin. Please stand if you are a part of a Green Party organization - at the local, state or national level.

It's also so exciting to be running in alliance with the Bernie Sanders movement that lives on outside the Democratic Party. We owe you such a debt of gratitude for getting the revolution going. And then for refusing to be shut down. It's so exciting to run with you and for you. Please stand up if you're coming here from the Bernie Sanders campaign.

It's an honor to be your candidate running alongside Ajamu Baraka , a powerhouse of human rights --who brings a lifetime of dedication to racial and economic justice. And I thank Dr. Cornel West, for bringing his powerful voice into the campaign. And it's an honor to run along with so many inspirational state and local candidates running for office. If you are running for office would you please stand?

It's an honor to be your candidate in this historic moment, of unprecedented crisis and unstoppable momentum for transformational change so we can solve those crises. And we have an historic opportunity, an historic respo nsibility to be the agents of that change. As Martin Luther King said, "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." I know that arc is bending in us, and through us. And we are actors in something much bigger than us as we struggle for justice, for peace, for community, for healing.

That arc of justice is moving through us as we mobilize to make black lives matter, and to end violent policing -- as the Frisco Five and the Millions March NYC just did. The arc of justice is moving through us as we sit in and lock down to stop fracking pipelines, fossil fuel bomb trains, coal and LNG export terminals, and all manner of fossil fuel and nuclear infrastructure.

The arc of justice was moving through us in Philadelphia. The city of brotherly love was overrun by love and revolution, as the Bernie or Bust movement declared independence from the Democratic Party, and merged with our campaign in rally after rally, growing stronger by the hour. The power of this movement was clear during our Power Rally at FDR Park, where nature erupted in thunder and lightning as our rally drew to a close, and the heavens opened up as if to say, "get ready, there's a big change coming." We sought shelter in a nearby highway underpass and we kept going. This movement is unstoppable.

So here we are, a movement for justice and democracy that's sweeping the planet. From living wage campaigns, to fossil fuel blockades, to the fight to end mass incarceration, to cancel student debt, to restore the rights of immigrant rights, indigenous rights, LGBTQ and women's rights and disability rights. Across the globe people are rising up like we haven't seen for generations.

We face unprecedented crises that call for transformational solutions, a new way forward based on democracy, justice and human rights. And that won't come from corporate political parties funded by predatory banks, war profiteers and fossil fuel giants. It will come from we the people, mobilized in a broad social movement, with an independent voice of political opposition, because, as Frederick Douglass said, "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has. It never will." And we must be that demand.

They say we're in a recovery but in fact it's an emergency. We've lost good jobs - replaced by part time and temporary jobs. A generation of young people is locked in predatory student debt. Black lives are on the firing line. Immigrants face mass deportation. Wars for oil are blowing back at us with a vengeance. And the climate meltdown threatens civilization as we know it in our lifetimes.

Meanwhile, the super-rich party on, richer than ever. Twenty-two of these super-rich people have the wealth equivalent to half of the US population. And the political elite that serve the economic elite are making things worse, inflicting austerity on everyday people while they squander trillions on wars, Wall Street bail outs, and tax favors for the wealthy.

No wonder people are in revolt. And the good news is that we actually have the power to turn this around, the minute we stand up with the courage of our convictions. Because we have the vision and values of the American people. And, as a broad coalition for justice, we have the numbers to win the day.

Here's how. There are 43 million young people -- and not so young people -- who are locked in predatory student debt, with no prospects for getting out. And there is only one candidate who will cancel that debt -- and you're looking at her. And by the way, we bailed out Wall Street, the guys who crashed the economy with their waste, fraud and abuse. It's about time we bailed out the young people who are the victims of that abuse. So if young people come out on election day 2016 to vote green to cancel their debt, they can actually take over the election, not only to cancel student debt, but to advance the whole agenda for justice. And the world will be a better place for it! And millennials are the self organizing demographic that can do this.

So we do have the power to end student debt, and to make public higher education free. This is the right thing to do to provide the younger generation with economic security in the 21st century, just like free high school education provided security in the 20th century. And it pays for itself by a 7:1 margin, as the results of the GI bill demonstrated following the 2nd World War.

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Reprinted from WSWS

In an op-ed column in Friday's New York Times, former top CIA official Michael Morell publicly endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. In the article, Morell branded Clinton's Republican opponent, Donald Trump, as a pawn of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Morell retired from the CIA in 2013 after a 33-year career, having spent two decades in high-level positions in Washington. His duties included preparing the President's Daily Brief for George W. Bush. For three years he was deputy director, running the agency day-to-day, and he had two stints as acting director, for three months in 2011 and for four months in 2012-2013.

The crimes with which Morell is associated are legion. He was a top official throughout the period of CIA kidnappings (renditions) of victims who were then held in secret prisons and tortured. He helped lead the CIA when it was carrying out drone missile assassinations and other forms of covert state terrorism. Throughout his tenure in Langley, Virginia, the CIA was engaged in war crimes in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Syria and many other countries.

After Morell left the agency, Obama appointed him to the President's Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies, which prepared a whitewash of National Security Agency spying following the revelations by Edward Snowden. He then moved seamlessly to a position as a well-paid media commentator for CBS News, while joining the campaign of former CIA officials to block the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture.

That such an individual comes out publicly in support of Hillary Clinton says a great deal about the nature of the Democratic presidential campaign and the type of administration Clinton will head in the event that she wins the November election.

Morell's op-ed column appears under the headline: "I Ran the CIA. Now I'm Endorsing Hillary Clinton." As far as the New York Times is concerned, support for Clinton from an organization that is identified around the world with torture and murder should be shouted from the rooftops. It is something to be proud of, a positive credential for the Democratic presidential nominee.

The former CIA official declares Clinton "highly qualified to be commander in chief," praises "her belief that America is an exceptional nation that must lead in the world," and notes that in the internal discussions over US intervention in the Syrian civil war, "she was a strong proponent of a more aggressive approach."

Morell denounces Trump as unqualified to be president, in part because of his volatile personality and lack of national security experience, but mainly because of his supposed connection to Russia.

He writes: "President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was a career intelligence officer, trained to identify vulnerabilities in an individual and to exploit them. That is exactly what he did early in the primaries. Mr. Putin played upon Mr. Trump's vulnerabilities by complimenting him. He responded just as Mr. Putin had calculated...

"Mr. Trump has also taken policy positions consistent with Russian, not American, interests -- endorsing Russian espionage against the United States, supporting Russia's annexation of Crimea and giving a green light to a possible Russian invasion of the Baltic States. In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation."

This extraordinary allegation adds fuel to the campaign launched by pro-Clinton pundits like New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, portraying Trump as a "Siberian candidate" whose campaign represents a Russian intervention into the US elections.

The Clinton campaign has embraced and promoted these McCarthyite smears, issuing a video Friday posing the question, "What is Donald Trump's connection to Vladimir Putin?" The video, available on YouTube, consists of clips of right-wing media figures, including Joe Scarborough, Charles Krauthammer and George Will, denouncing Trump for his praise for Putin, interspersed with questions suggesting that Trump has secret business ties to Russia and is being financed by Russian oligarchs.

In style and political content, the video recalls the ravings of the John Birch Society, the anti-communist organization of the 1950s and 1960s that claimed leading US political figures, including President Eisenhower, were Soviet agents.

This underscores the drastic shift to the right in the political orientation of the Democratic Party. It does not oppose Trump on the basis of his militarism or his authoritarian contempt for democratic rights. Instead, the Clinton campaign is presenting itself as the authoritative party of the military-intelligence complex and the political establishment, appealing to billionaires, the military brass and the intelligence agencies.

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red mini cooper in head-on crash Ridgefield, Washington (1).jpg

Two occupants of a red Mini Cooper were taken to hospitals Saturday night, Aug. 6, after the car was struck head-on by a silver Mazda sedan at 4419 NE 259th St. in Ridgefield, Washington.

(Clark Co. Sheriff's Office)

Four people were taken to hospitals after the driver of a Mazda sedan unsuccessfully tried to pass the car ahead of it in a no-passing zone in Ridgefield, Washington, and struck a Mini Cooper head on around 7 p.m. Saturday, according to the Clark County Sheriff's Office.

Silver Mazda sedan

Rescue crews extricated two adults from both the silver Mazda and red Mini Cooper. All are in critical condition.

The Mazda driver was traveling eastbound when it crashed with the Mini Cooper in the westbound lane at 4419 NE 259th St.

The Clark County Sheriff's Office Traffic Unit is investigating the incident.

- Janet Eastman



jeastman@oregonian.com

503-799-8739

@janeteastman




The Oregon International Air Show turned on the turbo thrusters for its second day at the Hillsboro Airport Saturday, Aug. 6.

That was especially true when tufts of vapor flashed off the wings of an F/A-18 Super Hornet as it approached the sound barrier, making a noise like the sky was cracking open. But a whole fleet of other planes kept spectators eyes glued to the wonderfully blue sky, from the tiny, homebuilt "Wild Blue" to a part-airplane, part-helicopter U.S. Marine Corps V-22 Osprey.

This year's show honors the 75th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attacks, and a simulation of that fateful day with historic Japanese and American fighter planes made for arms full of patriotic goose bumps.

The Breitling Jet Team, the show's headliner from France, capped off four hours of neck-bending performances with crisscrossing synchronized stunts that left mere feet between planes. If you go to Sunday's show, just prepare to feel the urge to hum "Danger Zone" for most of the day.

The Oregon International Air Show continues Sunday, Aug. 7, at the Hillsboro Airport. Tickets are $25 and the show starts around noon.

-Dillon Pilorget
20100766-mmmain.jpg

Gov. Kate Brown announced Thursday that she supports a controversial plan that could raise $3 billion annually by taxing companies based on their sales in Oregon.

(Kristyna Wentz-Graf/2016)

Corporate tax measure: I am confused as to why the Oregon public unions and some state leaders want to tax low-income people for food and utilities. Ballot Measure 97 will impose taxes on large corporations that do business in this state. Guess what? Most inexpensive grocery stores are not based in Oregon.

I am a full-time student. I work hard, and I have generated a lot of debt to get a degree in accounting. My goal is to make it so my wife does not have to work overtime every week for us to make ends meet. When I go to the grocery store, I take a list and a calculator. I shop as frugally as possible. Guess where I have the best prices? Walmart. Last I checked, Walmart is not based in Oregon. My family will be forced to pay more for food and utilities so the unions can enrich themselves.

If that weren't bad enough, The Oregonian/OregonLive has uncovered emails that show the executive director of Our Oregon did not like the results of the research that suggests Ballot Measure 97 would hurt citizens.

I am asking the unions and Oregon leaders to explain to me why they are interested in adding a gross receipts tax or "sales tax on steroids" to low-income people.

Christopher Nolan

Oregon City

*

Corporate tax measure: The July 23 editorial ("As candidates weigh in, Gov. Brown stays mum on corporate tax hike") tells you all you need to know about voting for the major candidates in November's election. The Democrats are already salivating over the potential $3 billion per year in increased revenue that the measure would bring to the state. There is no doubt that this measure is a stealth consumption tax that will come back to hurt all Oregonians and slow economic growth -- just what our already business-unfriendly state does not need.

Democratic candidate for secretary of state Brad Avakian and Democratic candidate for state treasurer Tobias Read support the measure, with Read saying that he supports it if there is no legislative alternative. For Pete's sake, the Democrats hold the governorship and have solid majorities in both the House and Senate. How can there not be a legislative alternative to this massive tax increase? Oh, that's right, political cowardice reigns in the Legislature as well. Let's avoid real tax reform and just go after businesses.

Voters would do well in November to consider the candidates in both the Independent and Republican parties -- all of whom oppose this measure -- as alternatives to these Democrats. Their economic future may well depend on it.

Greg Nelson

Wilsonville
As the end of summer quickly approaches, there is still plenty of opportunity to enjoy various community events  particularly those celebrating groups of individuals that may have given up one or many summers to serve their country.

Operation Badger Base, thought up by a group of Vietnam veterans at the Madison Veterans Center two years ago, will be a free four-day celebration of all Wisconsin veterans from WWII through Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom.

It is a somber time and a time to reflect, but also a time for friendship too, said Dan Seehafer, department commander of The American Legion, Department of Wisconsin.

Events will take place from Thursday through Aug. 14 at Harley-Davidson of Madison, 6200 Millpond Road, and the nearby Ho-Chunk Gaming Madison.

The four days will be filled with musical guests like Madison County and Ricky Lee, refreshments and opportunities to reflect at a replica of the Vietnam War Memorial or a replica of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier  which was commissioned by the DeForest Veterans Memorial Foundation and built by volunteers from the Calvary Gospel Church in Madison.

Badger Base will also offer teaching opportunities to curate an understanding of the conflicts or wars and what it was like for the men who fought them.

I think theres a curiosity for the next generation, said Jim Blankenheim, state president of Wisconsin Vietnam Vets Inc. They dont know what happened beyond the one page in their history books. This gives them the opportunity to learn and see the awesomeness of the Wall.

On Aug. 10, the Vietnam War Memorial replica known as The Wall That Heals will travel through Janesville, Edgerton, Stoughton and McFarland before settling down in Madison for the four-day event.

Kelly Starr-King, an organizer of the event, said that the Wall generally travels through small towns and that there is great anticipation from the communities for the procession, which includes at least 100 local veterans on motorcycles that will lead the Wall into Madison.

But there may be many more motorcyclists than that when the day arrives.

According to Starr-King, the last time there was a motorcade for the Wall in Madison, 250 bikers showed up. If that happens again, the first 100 will lead the Wall on its journey and the rest will follow behind it.

The Wall and the Tomb replicas will be open 24 hours a day during the event, so those who wish to pay their respects in private can do so, said Starr-King.

Although the major focus of the event will be honoring veterans, there is a lot of emphasis too in thanking the military families that also sacrificed and are often overlooked, Starr-King said.

All proceeds from the event will directly support local veterans organizations such as VFW Post 1318, Wisconsin Vietnam Vets Inc., Badger Honor Flight and Camp American Legion.

Badger Honor Flight will also be at the event to recruit veterans who havent been a part of the flight program yet, specifically WWII- and Korean War-era veterans, said Tom Cantwell, vice president of logistics.

Cantwell said, we also see this as a great opportunity to recruit our Vietnam War-era veterans. We want to let them know that we are now accepting applications and want them to sign up.

While there is no way to tell how many visitors will be part of the celebration, Starr-King is hopeful that it will be at least as successful as the last time a Wall replica visited the area.

The last time it was at the VFW it drew 40,000 and that was just the Wall, she said. Now we have the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier replica, a whole festival across the street, and bands.

Seehafer said its an opportunity too for those who may not have the chance to see the memorials in Washington, D.C., to pay their respects.

While there may not be emphasis on recognizing Vietnam veterans at the event specifically, Blankenheim sees Badger Base as a chance for him and other Vietnam veterans to share their stories with their community.

One of the things I told my Vietnam vets is that this is a chance  or even our last chance  to show people some of the things we went through and give them a chance to see us, said Blankenheim.
The 1,125-acre Bybee Creek fire in Crater Lake National Park is 59 percent contained and a Level 1 evacuation notice was lifted Sunday, relieving Rim Village guests and workers at the park's headquarters who had been warned they might have to flee.

The entire length of the Pacific Crest Trail, including the alternate route along the Rim Trail, also reopened Sunday, according to an update from officials with South Central Oregon Fire Management.

The size of the fire has shrunk as crews on the ground and in the air worked to keep the blaze from spreading and damaging local tourist facilities.

Stable weather has fire managers believing there is no imminent threat to Rim Village, and firefighters assigned to protect structures there have left. Other areas of the park, such as Mazama Village, were unaffected by the evacuation notice.

West Rim Drive, from the intersection of Munson Valley Road and West Rim Drive (near Rim Village) to North Junction, however, will remain closed until 8 a.m. Monday to protect fire personnel and equipment still at work.

Fire crews will continue to patrol and strengthen existing containment lines, and park visitors may see and hear firefighters, fire equipment and aircraft.

Smoke may also be visible from the road or trails as unburned pockets of vegetation continue to smolder, officials say.

Hikers on the PCT and Rim Trail are encouraged to stay on roads and trails and use caution when re-entering any burned wildland area, warn fire officials. White ash may indicate deep pockets of heat where roots and ground vegetation continue to burn below ground level.

Fire officials have set an expected containment date of Aug. 15.

Meanwhile, crews have contained 10 percent of the state's largest wildfire, the 10,040-acre Rail fire, southwest of Unity in Baker County in eastern Oregon, officials said in an update Sunday.

The blaze ignited July 31 and almost 700 firefighters are at the scene, including 21 hand crews using nine bulldozers, 27 fire engines, 17 water tenders and six helicopters.

Fire managers said crews are prepared for increasingly unstable weather as thunderstorms with gusty winds continue to threaten the area. Lightning could spark additional fires, but plans are in place for tackling changing fire conditions, officials said.

Crews will continue extending the line south to the Amelia Creek Trailhead, as well as reinforcing existing lines and fuel breaks, and protecting private property near the fire's edge. Smoke will be visible for several days.

The blazes are among among multiple wildfires crews battled last week in the state.

So far this year, Oregon crews have battled 439 wildfires that have burned 2,675 acres from Jan. 1 through Friday, according to the state Department of Forestry. Lightning caused 47 of those fires and burned 2,126 acres.

That's compared with an average 542 fires that have burned an average of 21,156 acres during the same time period throughout the past 10 years.

The cause of the Bybee Creek fire, which began July 28 southwest of Crater Lake, remains unknown, though a campfire has been investigated as a possible ignition source.

As of Saturday, 393 personnel were dedicated to fighting the fire between engine crews, hand crews and aircraft as well as administrative support.

Firefighters cannot use water from Crater Lake to help extinguish the nearby wildfire, since non-native species could cling to equipment and invade the lake.

-- Janet Eastman

503-799-8739
Portland wrestles with its homeless problem. One of Beaverton's largest shopping centers remakes itself. And Donald Trump plans a Portland visit. These were among our top stories this week.

Mayor Charlie Hales on Tuesday reversed course on his controversial policy that allowed tent camping and sidewalk sleeping. The "safe sleep policy," enacted in February, was meant to ensure homeless people could sleep through the night without being awoken for violating the city's camping ordinance, the mayor's office said in a press release.

Meanwhile:



Portland State students hope to ship modified toy cars to Brazil to help disabled children affected by the Zika virus. Graduate students in a PSU special education class are raising money this month to build specially modified toy cars designed to help children with Microcephaly in Brazil. The birth defect is being linked to the mosquito-borne Zika virus in South America.

Oregon's bottle deposit will soon go from a nickel to a dime, an effort to raise redemption rates that have sagged in recent years.

Jeremy Lucas, the Lake Oswego reverend who made national news last week when he announced that he would destroy an AR-15 he won in a raffle, may have run afoul of the law when he gave the gun to a parishioner for safe keeping without performing a background check. Whether or not Lucas will be prosecuted remains to be seen, according to a spokesman for the Oregon State Police, who are looking into the case.

A 20-year-old man died Tuesday after falling 70 feet from a waterfall on the Eagle Creek Trail, west of Cascade Locks, the Hood River County Sheriff's Office said. Francesco Goncalves of Eastchester, N.Y., was hiking with a group of friends, several who witnessed his drop into Punchbowl Falls, said Sheriff Matt English in a news release.

One of Beaverton's largest shopping centers is about to get even bigger. On Friday, Cedar Hills Crossing developer C.E. John Co. announced plans for a five-year, five-phase $70 million redevelopment of the center. The preliminary plans call for the construction of 16 new buildings totaling roughly 300,000 square feet. The redevelopment will fill in the center's vacant lots, add at least one two-story building and potentially add rooftop parking.

Lovely historic landmarks in Oregon:



Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is scheduled to visit Portland at the end of August, says Jacob Daniels, the Trump campaign's State Director of Oregon. "Mr. Trump is taking Oregon very seriously," says Daniels. "He believes he can win here."

Gov. Kate Brown announced Thursday morning that she supports every measure on the November ballot, including a controversial plan that could raise $3 billion annually by taxing companies based on their sales in Oregon. "I support Measure 97 because there is a basic unfairness in our tax system that makes working families pay an increasing share for state and local services, including public schools, senior services, and health care," Brown said in a written statement. 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. The group behind the measure, Our Oregon, has the backing of the state's public employee unions.

The Hood to Coast relay on Thursday announced changes to its 11th leg that will bypass the Springwater Corridor's homeless camps. According to a release on the relay's official site, the route will be altered from Southeast 120th Avenue to Southeast 80th Avenue in Portland. The race includes 1,050 teams of between eight and 12 people traveling from Mt. Hood to the Pacific Ocean.

An attorney for Michael Strickland, the 36-year-old man accused of pulling a gun on protesters in downtown Portland last month, entered not guilty pleas on his client's behalf to a 21-count indictment Friday.
NEWPORT - The hard knock on the door of Room 216 jolted Emily Burke awake early Friday.

Who could possibly be here so early, she remembered thinking. It was 5:45 a.m.

She opened the door, and "smoke filled the room."

Burke had been staying at the City Center Motel with her boyfriend and 9-year-old daughter Isabella Esparza when the motel owner roused them awake. "There was no alarm," she said. By the time firefighters arrived minutes later, the two-story building at the south end of town on Highway 101 was fully engulfed. By the end of the day, four bodies would be pulled from the rubble.

"I always thought I had a good head on my shoulders" and would know what to do in a disaster, she said. "I didn't know anything. Your brain goes clear, and you grab your kids."

The first two victims, a male and female, "were found on the ground floor near room 104," Lt. Jason Malloy, a Newport police spokesman, said Saturday. About four hours later, "farther back into the motel on ground level, we found the other two. They were buried under quite a bit of rubble."

Names are being withheld pending notification of family, though Malloy said all four are believed to be tourists. The fire also reportedly sent four people to the hospital and displaced upward of 50 others.

The news on the location of the first two bodies was chilling for Burke.

"We were originally going to be in Room 105, but at the last minute (the owner) called us back and said the room was not available for two nights and sent us to 216 instead."

The cause and origin of the fire have not been determined, Malloy said. But Burke said she heard from others at the scene that it was started on the second floor by a smoldering cigarette. "The woman went to get the neighbor to help put out the fire and he couldn't. So he went and got the owner who came with a fire extinguisher and he couldn't do it. That's when he started banging on doors."

Burke said the fire was coming down the hallway when she ran out. "There were two exits. Ninety-percent of the people had to go out our exit. Only eight to 10 rooms could use the other exit because the fire was burning between the exit and the other rooms."

Outside, as the ambulances and fire trucks were pulling up, she saw a woman covered in black. "I don't know if she was burned or if it was soot. She was just covered in black. Even her eyeballs."

People were in shock, she said, and it appeared that most people ran out with only what they had on. "There were elderly people in nothing but boxer shorts."

The owner of the motel put the three of them up in another motel Friday night, Burke said, and the owner of the Porter's Shell Station gave them food and allowed them use their phone.

On Saturday, Burke waited with her daughter and boyfriend in a parking lot across from the charred ruins of the motel for someone who could help them get home. Where that help would come from, she had no idea.

The Red Cross would not assist them because they live in Eugene and have a home to go, Burke said. Monique Dugaw, a spokeswoman for the American Red Cross Cascades Region, said the group was of the understanding that Burke's immediate needs had been met.

Though it was true that she had a home, Burke said, she had no money, gas or way to get there. She'd left behind her keys and money, and her older model Dodge Neon sustained significant fire damage.

"We are trying to be humble," she said. "We don't want to be the people with their hands out. We just need enough money for gas, maybe some food. I'm upset with the owner. He doesn't want to give us insurance information. But I am also very grateful he got us out."

In the end, it was Lincoln County Commissioner and advocate for the homeless Bill Hall who came through, offering the trio cash from his own pocket.

"Thank you so much," Burke said. "The town of Newport has been great. The Newport Police Department was amazing; the firefighters were amazing."

-- Lori Tobias

Special to The Oregonian/OregonLive
Jerzy Matian is a patient man who lives with his family on 49th Street in Mauston.

That address is important, because Frontier Communications told the family last winter it would be impossible for the company to install internet service at that address.

They came out, they looked it over and said no soap.

Then, they started sending bills for not installing service and not supplying the service.

Yes, he was being charged by Frontier for not being a Frontier customer, a sure-fire money-making strategy.

Matian was dumbfounded.

First things first. Matian made two appointments for Frontier to send a technician, but both times, no one showed up. When he called to set up yet another appointment he was told a technician was around our property and decided we cannot get Frontier Service.

That was our only contact with Frontier ... weve never seen any worker, never signed any contract and never used their service, he wrote to SOS.

Not being able to get the service was a disappointment that only deepened when they started sending bills, from New York, Florida and West Virginia, for not providing it.

Somehow, they gave us an account number, he wrote.

Matian provided SOS with copies of all of his contacts with Frontier. All of Frontiers say Pay us, and all of his say We dont owe you anything. This becomes even clearer in reading Matians notes to Frontier, which are also based on dozens of telephone calls in which Frontier agrees with him, that he doesnt owe anything, disregard the bill. Then they send him a bill anyway.

March, April, May, June (when his account is seriously past due and his credit report is in jeopardy) and finally in July, when a Frontier collection agency recognizes in uncertain economic times, keeping up with ones financial obligations can sometimes be a challenge.

The best part of the July threat is the promise that Frontiers specially trained consultants will be glad to assist ... so that you may resume services with Frontier. Matian also kept track of everyone he talked with, with names and ID numbers.

SOS noted that Frontier Communications ranks near the top in complaints filed with the popular ConsumerAffairs.com website, and that Frontier is a national leader in consumer complaints, including with the Better Business Bureau.

(The BBB notes that many complaints are traced to the takeover of Verizon customers last spring, which apparently was not a smooth transition.)

But SOS made some calls and exchanged a couple of emails with Don Osika, communications manager for the Central and Mid-South Regions for Frontier. Osika promised to track it down and did so quickly. He wrote, and Matian confirmed: Credit was issued and approved ... called and spoke to Mr. Matian and apologized for the frustration and assured him it is now a Zero balance.

The patient Matians response: Once they get you into the computers, they dont want to let you out. He no longer owes $63.27.

Missing from all this is the why. Irony doesnt exist in the communications business.
The Daily News is running a weekly Political Round-up, highlighting the campaigns of candidates for different local and state races. This week features the 98th State House race and will be the final roundup until Sept. 25.

In the 98th House District, Rep. Gary Glenn, R-Midland, will be facing Democratic challenger Geoff Malicoat in the Nov. 8 general election.

GEOFF MALICOAT

Malicoat surprised many political observers around the state by racking up more votes in Tuesdays primary than his Republican general election opponent, incumbent Gary Glenn, R-Midland. It was the first time a Democrat outpaced the Republican in a primary election in the district.

I am incredibly grateful to our volunteers and supporters. We are encouraged by the primary vote count, but not surprised. Voters in this district realize that we need change and that we cannot afford to keep electing the same politicians. Politicians in Lansing have caused many of our current problems, and those problems will not be solved by sending more politicians to Lansing, Malicoat said. I am asking anyone interested in changing our state government to contact our campaign and help us keep this momentum going. Together, we can rebuild our broken state government.

For more information: malicoatforhouse.com

GARY GLENN

Glenn last week received the support of the state affiliate of the National Association of Theater Owners, whose members include the Neighborhood Cinema Group (NCG), which owns the Midland theater, and Goodrich Quality Theaters, which owns the Bay City theater.

Glenn, a cosponsor of bipartisan legislation that would extend Freedom of Information Act requirements to Michigans governor and legislature, said he believes transparency also includes keeping constituents informed about his health after being diagnosed in January with prostate cancer that had grown up his spinal column and destroyed one vertebrae, breaking his back. Glenn said he received his last chemotherapy treatment on July 27 and that his PSA count  348 when the cancer was discovered  is now less than 0.1, the lowest score the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center can measure.

Glenn has been cleared to resume normal activities.

I will always be extremely grateful for the healing power of Jesus name, for the thousands of prayers offered on my familys behalf and for the professional care of physicians, nurses and technicians at Mid-Michigan Medical Center and U-M Cancer Center, Glenn said. Its also important constituents know that throughout this challenge, I maintained a perfect attendance record as their state representative and have not missed a single committee meeting or vote since taking office in January 2015. I look forward to seeing voters again when I campaign door to door this fall.

For more information: GaryGlenn.US
Amid the sharp rhetoric that has come to dominate the race for Dane County district attorney, there is some agreement between the incumbent, Ismael Ozanne, and the man who wants his job, Assistant District Attorney Robert Jambois.

Both favor more opportunities for diversion from prosecution, especially for young people committing their first crimes or people who have overdosed on drugs.

They want programs that will offer treatment and keep the names of those people from getting into the state court systems internet database, which diminishes their chances for employment and housing.

But the fight has sometimes become personal, veering at times into race.

Im just astonished at the things he does and the things he doesnt do, Jambois said. Its as though he likes the title of district attorney but he doesnt like the job of district attorney.

Ozanne said Jambois is ignoring the programs hes helped build to prevent crime, enhance public safety and attack racial disparities in the criminal justice system, all as Jambois downplays the challenges heaped on the office by a state Legislature that wont fund pay raises for prosecutors or hire more of them.

If we cant expect this person to be truthful and honest about this public safety issue, what can we expect him to be truthful and honest about? Ozanne said.

He has also accused Jambois of engaging in dog-whistle politics by intimating that he is lazy. Ozanne is black; Jambois is white.

Im not the first person of color, the first leader of color, to have that thrown out there, Ozanne said. He said Im not coming to work. He said Im basically not doing anything at work.

Ozanne said Jambois kicked off his campaign in May by saying, without evidence, that he doesnt show up to work. Ozanne said key card records and his calendar both show, to his wifes frustration, that he rarely takes days off.

Jambois said hes never described Ozanne as lazy, and said he was offended that Ozanne would interpret his words to have racial connotations.

Its offensive that he would categorize it in this fashion, Jambois said, noting that he and his wife were foster parents for 25 children, many of them African-American, and adopted one of those children. But I think theres a history there, that he characterizes every problem thats confronting this office in those terms, and those are not the problems facing this office.

Both are Democrats, seeking the nomination in Tuesdays primary. With no Republican opponent for the Nov. 8 general election, the primary will determine the winner.

Ozanne, 45, was an assistant district attorney for about 10 years before joining the state Department of Corrections, rising to its number two job. Then-Gov. Jim Doyle appointed him to the DA job in 2010, the first African-American to hold such a post in Wisconsin.

Jambois, 64, was the district attorney in Kenosha County from 1989 to 2005, when he became chief legal counsel for the state Department of Transportation. He opened a private practice in 2010, then was hired by Ozanne last year to help an office in need of experienced prosecutors.

But after arriving, Jambois said, I could see that there were some very, very, very serious problems within this office, including how it is perceived by law enforcement, defense lawyers and judges.

Within a matter of weeks of coming into the DAs office I did tell the incumbent that his office is profoundly demoralized, profoundly dysfunctional and exceedingly disorganized, Jambois said.

Chief among Jambois complaints is that Ozanne doesnt carry a caseload like other prosecutors and should be pitching in during staffing shortages. Not trying cases also means that Ozanne isnt mentoring young lawyers, he said, vital to their development as prosecutors.

Recently, Jambois called attention to what he said was Ozannes failure to take part in crucial segments of the process to create new court policy for bail hearings. That resulted in letters from Dane County judges critical of Ozannes handling of the change in procedure.

Ismael Ozanne does not go to court, Jambois said. Ismael Ozanne does not go to the judges meetings. Ismael Ozanne does not implement new policies, doesnt have any discernible effort at planning for these changes.

What persuaded Jambois to run, he said, was a meeting in May of lawyers in the DAs office in which he said Ozanne demoralized staff by calling attention to offensive file notes, without being specific about what the notes said or who wrote them. Jambois said he tried to get Ozanne to explain, but he wouldnt.

Why are you insulting all of us because of file notes that may have come from one or two people at most? Jambois said.

Ozanne said the file notes were written in what appeared to be African-American slang or dialect, something that he said absolutely cannot happen.

I was addressing implicit bias and explicit racism, Ozanne said. I believe the community expects me to do so. If that demoralizes Mr. Jambois, so be it. At times when we are having these most difficult and uncomfortable conversations, but necessary conversations, I can make people uncomfortable. It is not my intention.

Ozanne said that before the meeting he had also been told about a comment made by another staff lawyer, who was heard asking whether implicit bias training would be required if he or she showed up in blackface. Ozanne didnt bring up that comment in the meeting, he said, but that was on his mind going in.

Im not saying I handled myself in the best manner, but those were the issues that we were dealing with in that meeting, he said.

Ozanne said both lawyers were made to go through implicit bias training. We addressed it and were moving forward, he said.

Ozanne said that, contrary to Jambois assertions, he has tried cases while DA, including homicide and child abuse, and said he fills in as the representative of the DAs office during drug court sessions. But most of his work keeps him outside the courtroom.

Theres lots of stuff I do that doesnt have me in the courtroom, he said. If the court dictated to me my calendar and I had a full caseload, I couldnt be pushing for systemic change. I couldnt have gotten done what weve accomplished with the community restorative court, with our child abuse initiative. These things were needed.

The child abuse initiative is aimed at retraining parents so they dont abuse children and can avoid future criminal charges, which helps address racial disparities in the justice system. When the initiative started, Ozanne said, 54 percent of those referred to it were people of color.

The prison population, he said, is full of people who read at a sixth grade level or below, have mental health or drug addiction issues, or came from childhoods riddled with abuse or neglect. He said he is looking for ways to change that dynamic and save money in the process.

Jambois also blames Ozanne for the turnover of 20 of the offices 28 lawyers over the past two years. He said its not just a lack of pay progression that makes lawyers leave, but Ozanne himself.

They were leaving because of a lack of leadership, Jambois said. Theyre being made to feel disrespected and unneeded, as though theyre part of the problem instead of being part of the solution.

Shelly Rusch, a former assistant district attorney now with DOJ, wrote in a statement supporting Jambois that the DAs office is in shambles. I left my position a year ago not because of a lack of pay progression, but because for the first time in my career, I worked in a DAs office that was disrespected.

In an interview last year with the State Journal for a story about departures from the DAs office, however, Rusch didnt specifically blame Ozanne, but decried the workload and pay structure as her reasons for leaving. None of the departing prosecutors interviewed for that story mentioned Ozannes leadership as the reason they left. One of them, Deputy District Attorney Matthew Moeser, has since returned to the office.

Deputy District Attorney Corey Stephan, a 21-year veteran, is leaving in August but said Ozanne had nothing to do with his departure. Hes going to work for the U.S. Attorneys Office in Madison, a good job with better pay, but he said he regrets having to leave the DAs office.

Im actually quite sad about leaving the office as well as the team that we have, Stephan said.
It is one of the best days of the year for the Arnold Center: A casual awards ceremony that recognizes the work skills and achievements of people who arent your typical employees.

Alice Stracks son, Eric, was born with Down syndrome and has benefitted from having his own source of income, and an opportunity to get out of the house, learn new skills and interact with people. Strack first got involved with the Arnold Center in order to connect with Eric, who is non-verbal, and she now serves on the board of directors.

She was present to see her son and his friends and colleagues at the annual meeting and awards ceremony at the Arnold Center, 400 Wexford Ave.

He learns a job and he sticks with it, Strack said about her son. He likes to work, hes very happy over here.

Happiness was the emotion of the day as the Arnold Center brought a crowd together to share a picnic lunch under a star-decked tent and receive awards, from Most Valuable Participant to Rookie of the Year, and All Star to awards for the staff.

Its fun to see the various people and parents here, Strack said. They truly look forward to it.

Charles Markey is president of the Arnold Center, a role he has held since 2009, and said the awards ceremony is one of his favorite events.

We want to continue to do the quality job we are accustomed to, Markey told the crowd, congratulating them on an exceptionally safe year that resulted in $620,000 in wages for 445 employees.

Those figures earned a round of applause, and the excitement only grew when T-shirts were handed out along with certificates of achievement. Friends cheered on friends, and colleagues hugged their coworkers as staff members passed out awards.

It was a great year of accomplishments, and thats why you deserve these awards, Markey said.

Midland resident Joy Drummond, 55, tried on her shirt as soon as she could, a white T-shirt emblazoned with the Arnold Center logo, and danced around as her friends received their own awards. She clapped as more names were announced.

There was a moment of silence for Ann Frimodig, 68, of Midland Township, who was riding her bicycle and was struck by a pickup truck in July. She is now recovering from serious injuries at Beaumont Hospital in the metro Detroit area.

She is in serious condition, but improving, Markey said. Good luck, Ann.

Whats next for the arnold center

There are quite a few goals for the Arnold Center as it reaches its 50th anniversary of operations, besides a big celebration, Markey said with a smile.

Strack would like to see the Arnold Center reach out even more to the community to increase awareness about what it offers for both people with disabilities and the people who love and care for them. The organization already does outreach, but would like to bring in younger families who could benefit from the Arnold Center.

We need to get more parents involved, and we need to have more meetings with parents, Strack said.

In November, Markey responded to rumors that the Arnold Center would be closing as a result of Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) legislation, which was signed into law by President Barack Obama on July 22, 2014, and affects how Medicare dollars are dispersed.

That legislation is still being implemented, but Markey said the Arnold Center will simply adjust its programming if needed.

Recently, the Arnold Center lost a contract with Michigan Works!, which Markey said was a big blow.

It cut it down to bare metal, he said about programming.

Still, the organization continues to have ties with other large employers in the areas who have jobs that are difficult to fill or keep filled.

They choose us not because they are interested in doing charity work, Markey said. We do good work.

He and the Arnold Center staff are determined to keep offering employment opportunities for people who may be looked over, and said he loves his job, but not quite as much as the people who now have something to commit to and receive a paycheck from. Some have been working through the Arnold Center for decades, and new employees often pop up throughout the year.

They look forward to every day, Markey said.
Its certainly not uncommon for a machinery technician to save the day during harvest season, but it is rare for one to literally save a farmers life.
In an era where women's breasts are over-sexualized, it is really not surprising to know that breastfeeding in public has now become an "inappropriate act" in spite of the fact that breastfeeding is the most basic nurturing act and a normal part of motherhood. But celebrity moms and models want to change that public perception by supporting the #normalizebreastfeeding campaign.

As the world celebrated the World Breastfeeding Week, the stigma experienced by mothers for breastfeeding in public have been highlighted. Fortunately, celebrity moms and models such as Gisele Bundchen, Liv Tyler, Pink, Alyssa Milano, Blake Lively, Miranda Kerr, Gwen Stefani and Mila Kunis have taken a stand and support the #normalizebreastfeeding campaign.

What would I do without this beauty squad after the 15 hours flying and only 3 hours of sleep #gettingready O que seria de mim sem esse esquadrao da beleza depois de voar 15 horas e so dormir 3 horas. #mepreparando A photo posted by Gisele Bundchen (@gisele) on Dec 10, 2013 at 8:00am PST

Moreover, fashion magazine such as Elle Australia also supported the #normalizebreastfeeding campaign when it featured 30-year-old model Nicole Trunfio while she was feeding her four-month-old son Zion as the cover of its June 2015 issue. According to Indian Express, Trunfio told her Instagram followers that breastfeeding in public should not be made controversial, stressing the fact that moms are judged for "feeding their hungry child in public."

Breastfeeding shamers, however, still exist. In fact, breastfeeding in public is still met with raising eyebrows from the public, not to mention the emergence of sarcastic hashtags on social media but should moms be terrified of breastfeeding in public?

In a Redbook article written by Charlotte Hilton Andersen, the writer outlined some things she learned that moms can expect when breastfeeding in public. As shared by Andersen, breastfeeding in public can attract staring (or be look at) from other people around while others would tell you to "cover up."

Despite the fact that breastfeeding in public may cause some controversies, many mothers are still committed to feed their children when hunger strikes, whether in public or in a private place. But why do you think breastfeeding is still the best way to feed a baby?

"Breast is best; it is safe, clean, healthy, sufficient, on time and cost effective," New Vision wrote. "It is baby's first vaccine, boosts Intelligence Quotient, and increases their chance of celebrating their fifth birthday to mention but a few benefits."

Aside from its benefits on a baby's well-being, breastfeeding is also best for mothers as it helps prevent breast and ovarian cancers. It also lowers the risk of diabetes and improves birth spacing, as well as stimulates the release of oxytocin, a hormone that helps the uterus return to its pre-pregnancy size.

What are your thoughts about breastfeeding in public? Sound off below and follow Parent Herald for more news and updates.
Apple fans and customers have been waiting for its new laptops. MacBook Pro 2016 and MacBook Air 2016 have been in talks since the first quarter of the year. Unfortunately, Apple remains mum on the details of the anticipated MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.

According to Neurogadget, the anticipated MacBook Pro 2016 will be redesigned. It will be slimmer and lighter. In addition, it will sport impressive features, including Siri and 4G LTE connectivity.

Siri is one of the features that Apple fans are yearning to see in the next flagship laptop. This AI serves as the user's personal assistant. It can navigate, search, call or send email for you. Siri is already part of Apple's IOS, watchOS and tvOS operating system and there are rumors that MacBook Pro 2016 will include this feature too.

Meanwhile, the LTE connectivity is another feature to watch out for. With this, MacBook Pro will be the first laptop to offer mobile connectivity. Hence, users need not connect to WiFi to go online.

Unfortunately, other sources claimed that the OLED bar and LTE feature for MacBook Pro are unlikely. Sources close to Apple said that OLED bar is impossible and just laugh about it. Meanwhile, the LTE might not be available at the time because it will fragment iPhone's data and tethering connectivity.

On a side note, many are concerned about MacBook Air 2016 due to the lack of updates about the upcoming notebook. Parent Herald previously debunked reports suggesting that Air will be axed. The report has learned that Air will continue but might not get an upgrade.

However, per VineReport, MacBook Air 2016 is canceled after a series of subtle tweaks. The report stressed that Apple did minimal refinement to Air by adding a Broadwell processor, which might not impress many because the Skylake chipset was released shortly, which means the notebook could have been better. There are also rumors that Apple improved MacBook Air's resolution with Intel 6000 graphics processing unit.

However, perhaps, due to lack of interest for MacBook Air or over interest to MacBook Pro the company decided to cancel MacBook Air. But, Ecumenical News denied such claims and stressed that it is impossible for MacBook Pro to be as slim as the Air as it would mean sacrificing the hardware. In this way, users will get a less powerful laptop.

Are you hopeful that Apple will not cancel MacBook Air 2016? Do you agree that it is impossible to get a MacBook Pro 2016 that is thinner and lighter than Air? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

MacBook Pro 2016 and MacBook Air 2016 are expected to arrive this November. Stay tuned for more MacBook Pro and MacBook Air updates.
"Vikings" Season 4 midseason premiere will return "Warcraft" star Travis Fimmel as Ragnar Lothbrok after his Paris raid against brother and traitor Rollo (Clive Standen). Despite the epic set up of the Paris face off, creator Michael Hirst revealed that never did History intend to kill off either Ragnar Lothbrok or Rollo in France.

Parent Herald cites reports that Ragnar Lothbrok eventually slinks back to Kattegat after having seemed to abandon his people following victory by Rollo in Paris. More importantly, even the sons of Ragnar Lothbrok thought that the Kattegat leader abandoned his post for good.

In contrast, TV Guide reports that Rollo was celebrated extensively both by the French and the "Vikings" viewers for beating Ragnar Lothbrok and his army in France. "People are rooting for Ragnar and Ragnar's a sensitive guy and a beautiful guy and Rollo's not," Michael Hirst stated. "And yet, when Rollo succeeds and second-guesses Ragnar, I think people are quite pleased for him."

The media outlet cites Michael Hirst in revealing that he never intended to see Rollo or Ragnar Lothbrok killed off before "Vikings" Season 4 took a break for midseason. The Ragnar Lothbrok and Rollo showdown was, instead, an illustration of how the Viking brothers follow different destinies.

Join @KatherynWinnick in kicking ass while supporting a great cause! Get your tee here: https://t.co/gGu1Vx3U4d pic.twitter.com/T4xA3XOpLu  Vikings on HISTORY (@HistoryVikings) August 4, 2016

Interestingly, not even Clive Standen believed that Rollo could ever amount to anything. Considering how his best attempts in the past to assert how he is equal to Ragnar Lothbrok, defeat seemed to dog Rollo.

The "Vikings" Season 4 midseason finale may have given the impression that Ragnar Lothbrok and Rollo have parted ways for good. An international battle between brothers, after all, is no laughing matter.

The "Vikings" Season 4 midseason premiere trailer released at the 2016 San Diego Comic Con, however, revealed otherwise. As Parent Herald reports, Bjorn Ironside (Alexander Ludwig) will reach out to Rollo for a mission Ragnar Lothbrok would task his firstborn and Floki (Gustaf Skarsgard).

The "Vikings" Season 4 midseason trailer also significantly show Rollo telling his wife Princess Gisla (Morgane Polanski) that he will always be a Viking. Followers of the History series will see how this translates to "Vikings" Season 4 and future participation and whether or not Ragnar Lothbrok and Rollo could truly reconcile.

"Vikings" Season 4 midseason premiere is anticipated to air on History in September. Would you say you're Team Ragnar Lothbrok or Team Rollo in the course of the "Vikings" series?
Speculations have surfaced for "Wayward Pines" Season 3. Notions of the mystery filled series being canceled by FOX have surged. Also, some have insinuated that Matt Dillon would be replaced as the main star if ever a sequel would be aired or with the spinoff.

Despite the surging rumors of cancellation for "Wayward Pines" Season 3, FOX has not rendered any affirmation that Matt Dillon would be replaced as the main man for the mystery series.

Given the fact that the series has ended last July 27 of this year, the rumors have surfaced for "Wayward Pines" Season 3. According to Game & Guide, some have already made their own presumptions for the series. For one, some notions of time jumps occurring in the next scenes should be expected.

However, since the showrunners have not relayed any pertinent details for "Wayward Pines" Season 3, everything should still be taken with a grain of salt in mind.

As noted by the same post, the viewers are hoping that more clarity on why the small town in Idaho is different should be given when "Wayward Pines" Season 3 returns on primetime.

Also, since the former seasons were able to gain steady ratings, it is possible that FOX would consider the airing for "Wayward Pines" Season 3. Also, in a separate report given by the Christian Post, the former season ended with the human race clinging for survival and since there has not been any word, the cliffhanging ending would continue to resonate until the next sequel is aired.

The same post also relayed that "Wayward Pines" Season 3 might be the last season for the series. Even the executive producer has relayed that once the third story is aired, the epic story of the "Wayward Pines" would be over.

With everything in uncertainty, the fans and followers are hoping for FOX to render positive details and finally affirm the renewal and air "Wayward Pines" Season 3.
Dont overlook the role of Tuesdays primary election en route to the decisive contest in November.

Primaries typically draw much lower turnout (16 percent is projected)  and far less interest  than general elections. But if you want to help decide what your choices will be on the Nov. 8 ballot, primaries are how that happens.

In many cases, congressional and state legislative races will be decided Tuesday because candidates from only one party are running  or because the district leans so heavily toward one party that the general election wont be competitive.

Wisconsin has whats known as an open primary, meaning voters  regardless of their political views or affiliation  may choose the party primary in which they want to vote. But you must stick to one party on your ballot; you cant vote in a Democratic primary in one race and a Republican primary in another.

Heres a look at some of the state and federal races on the ballot:

U.S. Senate

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Russ Feingold of Middleton faces a primary challenge from Scott Harbach, a private investigator from Kenosha who has run a skeletal campaign. Harbach has no experience in elected office and very little name recognition.

The winner will face Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, of Oshkosh, and Libertarian Phillip Anderson, of Fitchburg, in the fall election.

Congressional races

The national political world has watched Wisconsins 1st Congressional District in recent days, where a Donald Trump-aligned political newcomer, Delavan businessman Paul Nehlen, is mounting an energetic challenge to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, in the GOP primary. The 1st District runs along the Illinois border from Janesville to Kenosha and Racine.

Nehlens efforts notwithstanding, polls suggest he faces an exceedingly tall task to oust Ryan, who is very popular among Republicans in his district.

Democrats in the 1st District also must choose their general election contender from a pair of new faces: Ryan Solen, a Mount Pleasant U.S. Army veteran, and Tom Breu, a Janesville engineer.

In northeast Wisconsins 8th Congressional District, three Republicans  Mike Gallagher, of Green Bay, state Sen. Frank Lasee, of De Pere, and Terry McNulty, of Forestville  are battling for their partys nod to face Democrat Thomas Nelson, of Appleton, in November. The 8th District is an open seat because its current representative, Republican Reid Ribble, of Sherwood, isnt seeking re-election.

In western Wisconsins 3rd Congressional District, longtime Democratic Rep. Ron Kind, of La Crosse, faces a primary challenge from a Bernie Sanders-aligned candidate in Myron Buchholz, of Eau Claire.

Voters in the 4th, 6th and 7th congressional districts also will have primaries for their U.S. House seats.

Legislative races

Primaries in competitive legislative districts will set the stage for November.

Two Democrats, Don Vruwink and Anissa Welch, both of Milton, are running to succeed retiring Rep. Andy Jorgensen, D-Milton, in an Assembly district that includes parts of southeast Dane, Jefferson, Rock and Walworth counties. The winner faces Republican Allison Hetz, of Whitewater, in the general election.

In Dane County, the next representative for Assembly District 47 will be picked from a field of three Democrats vying to succeed Rep. Robb Kahl, D-Monona, who isnt seeking re-election. No Republican filed in the district, which covers Monona, McFarland and most of Fitchburg.

The candidates are: Jimmy Anderson, 29, a nonprofit founder; Julia Arata-Fratta, 49, a Fitchburg City Council member; and H. Tony Hartmann, 59, a Fitchburg City Council member.

In Senate District 18 in the Oshkosh-Fond du Lac area  an open seat eyed by both parties  Republicans Mark Elliott, of Oshkosh, and Dan Feyen, of Fond du Lac, are battling for their partys nod. In the Democratic primary, Mark Harris, of Oshkosh, is facing John Lemberger, also of Oshkosh.

Its a similar story in about a half-dozen Assembly districts in western and northern Wisconsin, where primaries will set the stage for general election battles in the fall.

In other districts that lean heavily toward one party, the general election winner almost certainly will be decided by who prevails in Tuesdays primary.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect a correction. There is a Democratic primary for the Senate 18th District, with Mark Harris and John Lemberger facing off.
From the panel discussion at Many Gods West, August 5, 2016

For all the advances that have been made in recent years by polytheists, Pagans, and even atheists, our mainstream society remains decidedly Christian. Christian norms and Christian assumptions carry over into non-Christian religions, including polytheism. Recognizing these norms and assumptions in our own minds is the first step in changing them.

If someone says building polytheist community most of us dont know exactly what that means, because in total we havent done much of it yet  were just getting started. And so our minds go to what we know about how other religious groups build their religious communities. We think of Christian practices, and we assume building a religious community means proselytization or other aggressive recruiting. Or we think it means building megachurches so big they need trams to bring people in from the far reaches of the parking lots.

We know we dont have the kind of money it takes to build a megachurch, and we wouldnt build one if we did. Most of us have been on the wrong end of Christian proselytization efforts and weve vowed to never ever do it ourselves. And so we think  subconsciously if not explicitly  why would I want to build a religious community?

But theres another way to build polytheist communities.

A community is a group of people with a common identity working together for a common purpose. There are four elements here: people, identity, purpose, and working together. Efforts to build community tend to focus on the people part and on the working together part. Thats why we see the Mormons and the Baptists and everyone else knocking on doors  theyre focusing on bringing people into their communities. When they get there, theyll find classes and programs and all sorts of things designed to get them to work together.

Now, theres nothing wrong with advertising. I like to say that Pagans dont proselytize, but we damn well better publicize. Youve got to let people know youre here. But were not trying to save anybodys soul. Were polytheists  we recognize that different Gods call different people to worship Them in different ways. So when we think about building our communities, we can focus on the other two elements: identity and purpose.

If were building polytheist community, what is our identity? What do we have in common? What do all of us here have in common? The name of this conference answers that question: Many Gods. If were going to build polytheist community, lets put the Gods at the center.

We dont have to agree on everything about the Gods. We shouldnt agree on everything. If we start agreeing on everything, we might start thinking we know all there is to know about the Gods, and that never ends well. One of the advantages of polytheist community is that it provides a forum for us to share our ideas about the Gods: who They are, what They are, how best to hear Them, how best to honor Them, and how best to embody Their values and virtues in our own lives. We can talk about our ideas, listen to other peoples ideas, and debate their strengths and weaknesses  in a rational, respectful manner. Kinda like what were doing here this weekend.

Sometimes we walk away from these conversations thinking I wasnt sure about this concept or that practice, but now Im convinced I really am on the right track. Other times we walk away thinking the other person made a lot of sense  I need to reconsider my ideas. And still other times we walk way with no clear conclusions but having learned something about a different point of view.

Lets put the Gods at the center of our polytheist communities.

As we move outward from our identity in the many Gods, we come to the question of purpose: what are we going to do, and how are we going to do it? Is your local polytheist community going to gather for the private worship of various Gods? Are you going to offer public worship to the wider community? Are you going to teach, and if so, what are you going to teach? History? Lore? Theology? Spiritual practice? Are you going to do this-world community service, picking up trash or donating blood or volunteering at food banks? Are you going to try to build a public temple to constantly remind everyone that the Gods are more than characters in old stories?

There are many, many purposes and goals that a polytheist community can adopt. If youre building such a community, its important to talk about these things up front. Otherwise, youll have some people thinking youre all there to do rituals, others thinking youre all there to build a temple, and others thinking youre there to bring polytheist values and virtues to mainstream politics. Thats a recipe for failure. Come to an agreement on your purposes.

Its also important to start small. Gordon White, a chaos magician who runs the Rune Soup blog and podcast, said:

start simple and let the system  complicate itself.  In natural systems (which would include the spirit world in an animist model), increasing complexity is a sign of health. Initial complexity is a collapse risk.

CUUPS is open to anyone who comes in good will, regardless of their beliefs about the Gods. Denton CUUPS is no exception. But we do have a large number of polytheists, and in 2014 our polytheist subgroup decided we wanted to work on deeper practice. So we talked about it and we made plans and we set up sub-sub-groups to study and commune with different deities. We had projects and rituals, we committed to reading books and keeping journals, we made offerings and sacrifices  all this, of course, while we were still keeping up with our primary mission of being a home for Paganism in Denton, Texas and presenting our usual public rituals and classes.

It didnt work. There were numerous reasons why it didnt work, but near the top of the list was that initial complexity Gordon White warned against.

In 2015 we decided, you know, were just going to get together once a month and do a private devotional ritual. Well keep the same basic liturgy from month to month, and whoever hosts can pick the Deity of the Occasion. Its been an amazing success. The Gods have shown up, Theyve spoken to us, and our polytheist subgroup is closer and stronger than its ever been. A year and a half later, we were given some instructions to add a thing or two to our devotions, and were in the process of doing that now. We can do that because we started simple and now were growing.

So when someone says they want to build polytheist community, remember we dont have to build our communities the way other religions build theirs. They can focus on getting people in the doors. Lets focus our work on building a strong polytheist identity with the Gods at the center, and on a purpose of doing one or two things and doing them very well, until were ready to add the next thing. If we do, our communities will grow in numbers and in depth.
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Iran Executes Nuclear Scientist For Spying For U.S.

08/07/16

Source: Radio Zamaneh

Shahram Amiri, the Iranian nuclear scientist who disappeared from Iran in 2009, later on claiming that he was kidnapped, tortured and bribed to cooperate with the CIA on revealing Iranian nuclear secrets was covertly executed in Iran.



Shahram Amiri recived a hero's welcome upon return to Iran in 2010 from the US.



Marziyeh Amiri, Shahram's mother has confirmed the execution on 6 Aug, speaking to a number Persian media. She says her son was executed on 3 Aug at an undisclosed location.

Amiri's mother confirms that she has identified her son's body with visible ligature mark around his neck indicating that he was hung.

Iranian authorities have not yet confirmed this news.





Flyer announcing Shahram Amiri's memorial being held in Tehran





In 2010 Amiri first claimed that he went to the United States to continue his education in physics. Later he claimed that in the spring of 2009, he was on a pilgrimage to Muslim holy sites in Saudi Arabia when CIA kidnapped him.

In July 2010, Shahram Amiri went to the Iran interests section of the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington DC asking for help. He wanted to return to Tehran and claimed that he was being kept against his will.

US sources have confirmed that he has cooperated with the CIA but have maintained that Amiri was never kept against his will.

According to the US officials, Amiri "wanted out of Iran" but later on changed his mind.

Upon his return to Iran Amiri received a hero's welcome. He then appeared on a number of state television programs and maintained that he was kidnapped by CIA while in Saudi soil.

Amiri's family is saying that for four month after return to Iran, Mr. Amiri was held in a safe house and his family visited him at a public venue in northern Tehran two time.

After that Amiri was transferred to solitary confinement with no news on possible charges that were brought against him.

According to Amiri's mother he was never sentenced to the death penalty but was charged with espionage related offences and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Iran, Russia map out rival to Suez Canal

08/07/16

Source: Press TV

A major project to foster trade connectivity through a less trodden path straddling a promising market is about to feature prominently in discussions when presidents of Iran, Russia and Azerbaijan meet in Baku on Monday.





The International North-South Transport Corridor (NSTC), shown in bold green dots, will significantly reduce costs and travel time.



The International North-South Transport Corridor (NSTC), a multi-model route to link India and the Middle East to the Caucasus, Central Asia and Europe, is being nurtured for significantly reducing costs and travel time and boosting trade.

Our talks will focus on a flagship project - the International North-South Transport Corridor with a total length of 7,200 kilometers, Russian President Vladimir Putin was quoted as saying on Friday.

It aims to provide the best possible opportunities for transporting transit cargo from India, Iran, and the Persian Gulf states to Azerbaijan, the Russian Federation and further to northern and western Europe, he said.

The NSTC concept was formalized by India, Iran and Russia in 2000 but it has not taken off in a big way yet. Western trade sanctions on Russia and Iran in recent years have provided a new impetus to put steam on the project.

Both Iran and Russia as well as Azerbaijan are seriously dependent on oil revenues which have sharply fallen due to the price collapse. The new transit route offers them a unique alternative to diversify their economy.

It also helps them as well as India and other regional countries reduce their dependence on traditional markets in the West where there is currently not much demand.

The corridor, instead, offers access to growing untapped markets in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The ship, road and rail route connects Indias Mumbai to the Iranian port of Bander Abbas and further to Baku in Azerbaijan as well as Astrakhan, Moscow and St Petersburg in Russia before stretching to northern Europe and Scandinavia.

Besides Iran, India and Russia, countries that are on board to integrate into the transit network include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Turkey, Tajikistan, Oman, Syria and Bulgaria.

We believe that this cooperation serves the interests of the peoples of Iran, Azerbaijan, and Russia and, of course, the interests of the entire region, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said.

According to Zarif, the countries were discussing the final details of the project.

Dry runs of the route were conducted in 2014, from Mumbai to Baku and Astrakhan via Bandar Abbas. Results showed transport costs had been reduced by $2,500 per 15 tonnes of cargo.

For trade, India currently uses maritime transport to link with Russia. From St. Petersburg, the cargo has to sail around the entire western part of Europe and the Suez Canal which takes around 40 days to reach Mumbai.

According to the Russian Railways Logistics, the new route cuts the time just to 14 days and eliminates the need to pass through the Suez Canal, which is not only overloaded, but also very expensive.

The NSTC project also opens a window for alignment with Silk Road Economic Belt, a brainchild of Chinese President Xi Jinping to establish new trade and transport links with Central Asia and Europe.





Silk Road map



China says the plan would boost growth and improve infrastructure to fulfill an Asia-Pacific dream. Observers also see it as part of Beijings ambitions to redraw the geopolitical map of Asia, which have ruffled feathers in the US.

The Silk Road Economic Belt vision also provides Beijing a counterbalance to Washingtons pivot to Asia strategy of focusing more military and other assets on the region.

For Iran, both the NSTC and Silk Road projects are a boost to the countrys "Look East" policy.

In an interview with Azerbaijans state news agency Azertac on Friday, Putin expressed hope that a free trade zone can be established soon between Iran and the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union.

Iran is Russias longtime partner. We believe that bilateral relations will benefit from the reduction of tensions around Iran following the comprehensive agreement on the Iranian nuclear program, Putin said.

The Russian leader said trade with Iran had grown by 70 percent to $855 million over the first five months of 2016. Overall trade between the two countries now stands at about $1.6 billion.

Russias government said last year it had agreed joint projects with Iran worth $40 billion.
Riverside has its iconic raincross, the stylized bell inside a trapezoid topped with the Native American symbol for the dragonfly.

Instantly recognizable, the raincross is Riversides acknowledged brand.

Likewise, San Bernardino has its arrowhead, taken from a geologic formation etched on a hillside above the town.

San Bernardino County adopted the arrowhead years ago as its brand, as widely known as Riversides raincross.

And like the dragonfly symbol atop the raincross, the arrowhead also is the stuff of Indian lore.

Cahuilla legend has it that the tribe followed a giant arrow streaking westward across the sky to its landing spot on the hillside where it pointed the travelers to a natural hot springs that would soothe their weary muscles.

In the 1880s a white man, equally fascinated with the arrowhead on the hillside, followed it to the bubbling waters and built the Arrowhead Springs Hotel below it.

Over the centuries, wildfires ravaged the landscape, causing erosion that threatened the perfect symmetry of the natural arrowhead. The west upper angle was slipping away.

That grabbed the attention of San Bernardino native Jack Brown, executive chairman of Stater Bros. Brown decided he didnt want to let the symbol of his hometown disappear.

On the 50th anniversary of the supermarket chain, Brown  with Riverside lawyer Bruce Varner  established Friends of the Arrowhead Inc., a nonprofit to fund U.S. Forest Service efforts to halt the erosion and replant the outline of the arrowhead to keep it visible from the valley floor.

Friends of the Arrowhead also built a viewing spot at the north end of San Bernardinos Wildwood Park and installed plaques detailing the Cahuilla and Guachama legends, and the history of the city that came to be in the valley below it.

The hillside last burned in 2002. And although successive wildfires and droughts have opened up similar arrowhead-shaped slumps elsewhere on the mountain, the arrowhead above San Bernardino remains an identifiable landmark.

Now, Brown wants to get the arrowhead designated as a historic monument or landmark. That might involve getting it on the California Register of Historical Resources or the National Register of Historic Places.

Brown has spoken with San Bernardino County Supervisor James Ramos, a member of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, about getting the countys help with the designation process.

Ramos said county legislative staff is exploring the options. It may need to be a national designation, since the majority of the arrowheads 7.5 acres is on National Forest land.

Were looking at all the avenues, Ramos said, adding, Its not a simple process.

In addition, Brown and Varner are renewing the Friends of the Arrowheads efforts to maintain the landmark and the viewing site in Wildwood Park, which has been vandalized in recent years.

They are working with the Native Sons of the Golden West, whose mission is preserving the regions history.

The relationship is still in the formative stage, but Brown hopes the Native Sons will take up the job of cleaning up and maintaining the viewing site and working with the Forest Service to preserve and maintain the arrowhead itself longterm.

Working on the landmark is not an easy task, former Forest Service biologist Steve Loe told me.

Its very, very steep terrain, Loe said. That makes it treacherous for work crews.

The only access across Forest Service land is from an unmarked USFS road and involves a two-mile hike downhill, carrying whatever tools are necessary.

There is easier access off the Arrowhead Springs resort property, Loe said. The arrowhead landmark overlaps the resort property on its lower end, with about 10 percent on private property.

The San Manuel tribe purchased the property last spring. I asked Ramos whether the tribe would allow access for work crews and/or support the effort to maintain the arrowhead. He said thats a question for the tribal government. I didnt hear back from the tribe by deadline Friday.

Brown and Ramos each separately hailed the purchase of the resort by the tribe as a perfect fit.

The land with its hot springs is a central part of the San Manuels cultural heritage, Ramos said, and regaining historic tribal sites honors the sacrifices the elders made over the centuries.

In the Cahuilla myth, the arrow that created the hillside feature was shot from the San Jacinto Mountains, Ramos said. In Serrano myth, a giant snake lived in the water of the hot spring, and those who bathed in it for healing were to take nothing from the spring  no stone, no rock, nothing, Ramos said.

In a July 27 letter to the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, Brown offered Stater Bros. support for maintaining the arrowhead and other county projects to preserve regional heritage.

If you want to see the arrowhead from the viewing spot built by the Friends, drive north on Waterman Avenue past 40th Street and watch for the driveway to the Little League field on the right, at the north end of Wildwood Park.

If youd like to help preserve the arrowhead or contribute to the maintenance fund, contact Bruce Varner at 951-274-7777.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9470 or cmacduff@pressenterprise.com
Donna Nickerson spent her last working years as the activity and social services director at a Turlock nursing home.

But when she developed Alzheimers disease and needed that kind of care herself, she and her husband couldnt afford it: A bed at a nearby home cost several thousand dollars a month.

Im not a wealthy man, said Nickersons husband Mel, a retired California State University-Stanislaus professor. Theres no way I could pay for that.

Experts estimate that about half of all people turning 65 today will need daily help as they age, either at home or in nursing homes. Such long-term care will cost an average of about $91,000 for men and double that for women, because they live longer.

In California and across the U.S., many residents cant afford that, so they turn to Medicaid, the nations public health insurance program for low-income people.

As a result, Medicaid has become the safety net for millions of people who find themselves unable to pay for nursing home beds or in-home caregivers.

This includes middle-class Americans, who often must spend down or transfer their assets to qualify for Medicaid coverage.

Medicaid, known as Medi-Cal in California, was never intended to cover long-term care for everyone. Now it pays for nearly 40 percent of the nations long-term care expenses, and the share is growing. As Baby Boomers age, federal Medicaid spending on long-term care is widely expected to rise significantly  by nearly 50 percent by 2026.

The pressure will only intensify as people age, so both state and federal officials are scrambling to control spending.

Medicaid bears an incredible financial challenge if substantial changes arent made, said Bruce Chernof, president and CEO of the SCAN Foundation. (Kaiser Health News coverage of aging and long-term care issues is supported in part by a grant from The SCAN Foundation.)

State Medicaid directors are closely watching as long-term care spending takes up larger shares of their budgets and squeezes out other programs, said Matt Salo, executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors.

There isnt a day that goes by they are not thinking about long-term care, Salo said. It makes up a huge portion of the entire budget and its growing  It is absolutely not sustainable.

In the meantime, people who need long-term care are depleting their savings or transferring their assets to others so they can qualify for Medicaid. Long-term care insurance rates are rising, and many seniors find they can no longer afford policies they purchased long ago.

In California, seniors typically can qualify for Medi-Cal if their yearly incomes are under $16,395. To get long-term care through Medi-Cal, they also must show a need for assistance with certain activities of daily living, such as dressing or bathing.

Incomes can be higher if seniors can demonstrate medical need and have spent much of their savings, with some exemptions for homes and other assets.

About 21 percent of the states over-65 population is enrolled in Medi-Cal, according to the state Department of Health Care Services. Medi-Cal paid for long-term care for an estimated 716,000 people who are aged, blind or disabled in 2013, the most recent data available. In 2014, nearly a quarter of Medi-Cals dollars went to pay for long-term care  about $14.7 billion, according to the California Health Care Foundation. (California Healthline is an editorially independent publication of the California Health Care Foundation.)

When Nickerson, 85, realized a nursing home bed was too expensive, he sought guidance from an attorney, who helped him take his wifes name off their home and take their assets out of her name. Then Nickerson applied for her to receive Medi-Cal, and he helped her move into a Turlock nursing home near the one where she once worked.

Now, Nickerson said he pays about $1,700 a month from her Social Security, and Medi-Cal picks up the rest of the tab, he said. Nickerson said his wife, now 84, is getting the care she needs, and he cant imagine having her anywhere else.

It is absolutely the best place for her, he said. She needs help 24 hours a day.

If more middle-class Californians like the Nickersons seek help from Medi-Cal, however, the program could be overwhelmed and unable to help the people who need it most, said Joanne Handy, CEO of LeadingAge California, an advocacy group that represents nonprofit nursing homes.

The pressure on the state Medicaid budget, not only here in California but across the country, is just going up, up, up, she said. If you put on top of that more and more what we call middle-income Californians spending down and then going onto Medi-Cal, it is just a crazy policy.

Salo, of the National Association of Medicaid Directors, said people shouldnt have to impoverish themselves to get financial help paying for long-term care, but states cannot afford to cover the care for everyone who needs it and are trying to come up with ways to control spending.

More than a dozen states, including California, are contracting with managed care companies to provide both medical care and long-term care services to their Medicaid beneficiaries. These services can range from nursing home care to at-home assistance with bathing, chores and transportation to medical appointments.

States are hoping that contracting with managed care plans will help save money, improve care and better coordinate services for seniors. But some health advocates say that managed care organizations  traditionally geared towards providing only medical care  arent necessarily prepared to offer other forms of care such as bathing or cooking and could end up restricting services or providers to save money.

California recoups some of what it spends on nursing homes and other services by collecting what it is owed from peoples estates.

We cant do both  serve as a payer of last resort and let people keep their assets, said Jennifer Kent, head of the states Department of Health Care Services.

The state has been holding informational hearings in Sacramento this year to brainstorm about other ways to grapple with long-term care costs in California. It all falls to Medicaid, and that is problematic, said state Sen. Carol Liu (D-La Canada Flintridge).

Several organizations, including the SCAN Foundation, the Urban Institute and the Bipartisan Policy Center, also have been working together to come up with possible solutions. These could include new insurance options that would take some burden off Medicaid.

About 1.4 million people are in nursing homes nationwide, and about 62 percent of those beds are paid for by Medicaid.

The percentage is even higher at the Los Angeles Jewish Home in the San Fernando Valley, where about 85 percent of the beds are paid for with Medi-Cal dollars. Some of the residents exhaust every penny they have to be able to afford the care, said CEO Molly Forrest.

Sitting in a courtyard at the nursing home, Josephine Rudolph, 99, said she gets help with dressing and bathing. Rudolph, who still loves to read, said Medi-Cal has paid for her to live at the home since 2005. Otherwise, she said, she couldnt afford it.

Herb and Judie Schwartz, both in their 80s, also rely on Medi-Cal to live at the Jewish Home. Family photographs cover their walls. An oxygen tank and a walker sits in a corner. Just above the bed is an emergency tab that notifies the nurses station if the couple needs help.

They moved to the Jewish Home about four years ago after Herb Schwartz, a former computer program analyst, had a fall and it was no longer safe for the couple to live at home.

I dont know where we would have been without Medi-Cal, said Judie Schwartz, a retired teacher. We would have probably ended up with one of our kids. I love them but I cant imagine having to live with them.

This story was produced by Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Reach the reporters at agorman@kff.org or barbarao@kff.org
The recent deaths of three people at the HARD Summer Music Festival in Fontana reignited a push by San Bernardino County Supervisor Janice Rutherford to ban raves and rave-style events at the San Manuel Amphitheater in Devore.

Officials at Auto Club Speedway, in unincorporated Fontana, and Live Nation have remained silent since the deaths of Roxanne Ngo, 22, of Chino Hills, Derek Lee, 22, of San Francisco, and Alyssa Dominguez, 21, of San Diego, following last weekends event. The cause of their deaths remains under investigation and appear unrelated, authorities said.

In light of these recent deaths, the Board of Supervisors should seriously consider banning these events from taking place at the county-owned San Manuel Amphitheater in Devore, Rutherford said in a statement released Friday. We cannot wait for more young lives to be lost before we decide enough is enough.

Rutherford plans to discuss the matter with her fellow county supervisors during Tuesdays board meeting.

YOUNG LIVES AT RISK

Despite two deaths since 2013 and hundreds of complaints from area residents about excessive noise, loitering, drug use and heavy traffic generated by the Nocturnal Wonderland electronic dance show and its sister events at the San Manuel Amphitheater, Rutherfords measure to terminate the countys contract with Live Nation was stopped in its tracks June 28 due to lack of board consensus when supervisors Josie Gonzales and board chairman James Ramos did not show for the meeting. Supervisor Curt Hagman was against terminating the contract, saying revenue generated from the raves helps fund other county parks and infrastructure.

Devore residents are subjected to window-rattling noise until 2 a.m., drugged out young people wandering through their yards, and intense traffic for entire weekends when the San Manuel Amphitheater hosts these events, Rutherford said in her statement. The short-term economic benefits of these events do not outweigh the impacts they have on Devore residents, and they certainly do not warrant putting more young lives at risk.

Another rave-style event, Insomniacs Nocturnal Wonderland, is scheduled for Labor Day weekend at San Manuel Amphitheater.

Autopsies on Lee, Dominguez and Ngo were completed Thursday and toxicology tests were taken, said Capt. Kevin Lacy, of the San Bernardino County Coroners Office on Friday. He could not say how long it would take for toxicology results or the causes of death to be determined.

HARD Summer spokeswoman Alexandra Greenberg declined to comment on what action the promoter was taking in response to the deaths.

We were deeply saddened to learn about the deaths of three people who attended the festival this weekend, Greenberg said in a statement. Our sincerest thoughts and condolences are with their family and friends.

Auto Club Speedway President Dave Allen and spokesman David Talley did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Live Nation spokesman Victor Trevino also did not respond to repeated telephone calls seeking comment.

6 DEAD SINCE 2013

The three deaths at the Fontana festival bring the total number of people who have died at the HARD Summer Music Festival to six since 2013. Jonathan Reyes, 21, of Rosemead, died after taking the drug Ecstasy at the festival in 2013 at the Los Angeles State Historical Park. Last August, Katie Dix, 19, of Camarillo, and Tracy Nguyen, 18, of West Covina, died of drug overdoses after attending the event at the Pomona Fairplex.

The deaths of Dix and Nguyen in Pomona last year prompted Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis to call for a ban on rave-type events in that county. In March, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors stopped short of imposing a ban on such events, instead adopting an ordinance calling for a case-by-case threat assessment of events expected to draw 10,000 or more people on county property or in unincorporated areas.

In April, HARD Summer promoters announced the event would be moving to Fontana this year. More than 146,000 people attended last weekends event, where police arrested 325 people, most for narcotics-related offenses, San Bernardino County sheriffs spokeswoman Cindy Bachman said.

Solis said she was deeply saddened by the news of the deaths in Fontana.

I extend my deepest condolences to the families and friends of these victims, Solis said in a statement. We hope that tragedies such as these can be prevented in the future.

TASK FORCE CREATED

Solis said the countys new threat assessment ordinance for events drawing 10,000 or more people was prompted by a recommendation from the countys Electronic Music Festival Task Force formed in September in response to the deaths of Dix and Nguyen and the hospitalization of dozens of others at the Pomona Fairplex last August.

San Bernardino County is now following Los Angeles Countys lead. At the June 28 San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors meeting, the board directed staff to draft an agenda item proposing the creation of a rave task force similar to the one in Los Angeles County.

But Los Angeles County has also modeled some of its measures after San Bernardino Countys efforts, San Bernardino County spokesman David Wert said.

When Los Angeles County decided to adopt measures to make these types of events as drug-free as possible in their county, they simply adopted the measures that have been in place at San Manuel (Amphitheater) since the first (electronic dance music) event took place there, Wert said in an e-mail. Those measures include surrender bins, which patrons actually use; mandatory ID scans so that drug offenders and anyone with arrest warrants can be denied entry; and a heavy presence of uniformed and undercover law enforcement, all in addition to the usual regimen of searches upon entry.

Since 2013, when the San Manuel Amphitheater began hosting electronic dance shows, two people have died from drug overdoses after attending the events. Arrel Cochon, 22, of Hollywood, died after attending the inaugural Nocturnal Wonderland event in 2013, and John Hoang Dinh Vo, 22, of San Diego, died after attending the Beyond Wonderland event in March last year.

Live Nations contract, which allows the entertainment company to host up to four electronic dance shows a year at San Manuel Amphitheater, expires in October.

Contact the writer: jnelson@scng.com; @SBCountyNow on Twitter
Editors note: This is one of a three-part series on the effects of Prop. 47. Also read:

 Prop. 47 giving ex-addict another shot at life

 30-plus drug citations equal zero felonies, thanks to Prop. 47

CORRECTION: $67.4 million will be available in the state budget next spring for programs to help at-risk populations. Of that, the Board of State and Community Corrections received $39.4 million to distribute. Because of a reporting error, the total amount in the budget was incorrect in a previous version of this story.

The premise behind the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act, or Prop. 47, overwhelmingly approved by California voters in November 2014, was simple:

Reduce the penalties for non-serious, non-violence offenses such as drug possession and minor theft, and pass along the savings from less-crowded prisons and jails to programs that would reduce recidivism and crime and help victims.

But nothing about Prop. 47 has been simple in the 21 months since then.

As intended, the law has prevented non-violent offenders from serving significant jail terms. But some law enforcement officials firmly believe  and there are equally strong opinions to the contrary  that these offenders are responsible for a documented uptick in crime since the laws passage.

Also as intended, the states inmate population has been reduced, but the money budgeted from the savings for services in the first year is tens of millions less than expected.

And as offenders whose crimes were reclassified as misdemeanors find new opportunities now that theyre no longer felons, other offenders in the system have less incentive to seek rehabilitation through specialty courts. Those who want to help them are left to improvise and cross their fingers that offenders will seek assistance.

So here are six things to know about the law.

WHY IS CRIME UP?

Nothing about Prop. 47 is as contested as much as its effect on crime.

Californias violent and property crime rates rose in 2015  up 8.4 percent and 6.6 percent, respectively, from 2014, a year that saw the lowest crime rates since the 1960s. However, there is disagreement about whether Prop. 47 is responsible and whether the increases were just a blip or the end of a 25-year trend of decreasing crime rates.

In Riverside and San Bernardino counties, the most common crime, larceny, increased more than 10 percent in 2015 over 2014, according to the state Attorney Generals Office. Law enforcement officers say these thefts often translate into the purchase of illegal drugs after the stolen property is sold.

Some say suspects who once would have been booked into jail on felony theft or drug charges are instead being written misdemeanor citations and released on the spot, freeing them to commit even more offenses before they show up to court in the original case. Others say theres not enough evidence to draw such a conclusion.

San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon, in his 2015 annual report, wrote: Recent legislation, such as AB 109 (Realignment to reduce the prison population) and Prop. 47 has significantly impacted public safety and crime rates throughout the state and our region.

But Riverside County Public Defender Steve Harmon isnt making that link.

I have not seen any studies that make a case for a correlation between Prop. 47 and increasing crimes anywhere, Harmon said. What youll find is crime statistics go up and down. Whether there is cause and effect, or just two things happening with the stars being aligned, nobody knows.

Brandon Martin, a research associate at the independent Public Policy Institute of California, said he has not seen any such studies either. The organization plans to begin one of its own late this year.

Its going to be difficult to figure out, Martin said, but were going to try.



http://cdn.thinglink.me/jse/embed.js

WHERES THE MONEY?

When Prop. 47 was written, the authors said more than $100 million saved through an expected reduction in the prison population would be available in the first year to distribute to crime-related programs. In the 12 months since the passage, a Stanford Justice Advocacy Project report said, the population fell by 13,000 inmates.

But, according to a state Department of Finance estimate, only $67.4 million will be available in the state budget next spring to be distributed to three categories of beneficiaries: programs designed to reduce recidivism (65 percent of the total); K-12 truancy and dropout prevention programs (25 percent); and victim services (10 percent).

In a February 2016 report, the independent Legislative Analysts Office wrote that Gov. Jerry Browns budget likely underestimates the savings and overestimates the costs resulting from the measure, and that he should have budgeted $100 million more for distribution.

The Board of State and Community Corrections received $39.4 million to distribute to programs offering assistance with mental health, substance abuse treatment, housing, job training and other areas. An agency committee next meets Wednesday and Thursday, Aug. 10-11, in Sacramento to discuss further the types of programs it would like to fund and the rules for organizations receiving the money.

CONVICTS GET RELIEF

Because Prop. 47 applied retroactively, offenders by the tens of thousands whose past crimes were reclassified to misdemeanors have applied for reduced sentences, if they were still in prison, and less-severe criminal records if they were already out.

Freed from the restrictions and rejections that come with a felony record, some offenders are getting a fresh start on life, joining the workforce and reuniting with their families.

There is story after story about people able to get their jobs back, (and) housing, said Margaret Dooley-Sammuli, director of the American Civil Liberties Union of California Criminal Justice and Drug Policy. There are very real, tangible benefits for their families and all of us.

A person with a felony on his or her record can have difficulty gaining employment, obtaining a professional license and joining the military.

Dooley-Sammuli added that organizations continue to attempt to track down offenders who are eligible for resentencing. She estimated that two-thirds of those eligible have not filed petitions. The deadline to apply is November 2017.

CRIMINALS WISE UP

Its not just the police, prosecutors and defense attorneys who know the new law. So do the criminals, some who are careful to operate within its boundaries.

McMahon, the San Bernardino County sheriff, said deputies have told him that some theft suspects are pointing out that their hauls are valued at less than $950, the threshold for the theft becoming a felony.

Harmon, the Riverside County public defender, said some defendants, once convicted, are now asking a judge to impose jail time, instead of simply probation, in misdemeanor cases.

For the defendant, that means serving a short sentence  often just days because of jail crowding  without having to be supervised later by a probation officer. For law enforcement, it eliminates an important tool: People on probation are subject to searches of themselves and or their property at any time without a warrant. Such searches can yield evidence of crimes, such as stolen property.

A frustrated Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin says there are no consequences for misdemeanor offenders.

Dooley-Sammuli, the ACLU director, rejects Hestrins contention. She noted that misdemeanors can bring jail time, fines, fees and barriers to obtaining some occupational licenses.

THE FIX ISNT IN

It wasnt a month after Prop. 47 passed before lawmakers tried to change it, citing unintended consequences of reducing some drug and theft offenses from felonies to misdemeanors. The two crimes that received the most legislative attention were possession of the so-called date rape drug and theft of a firearm.

Critics say the only reasons to possess the drug or steal the gun are to commit felonies.

But most efforts have failed.

AB 46, which would have again made possession of Rohypnol, with the intent to commit sexual assault, a felony, was introduced Dec. 1, 2014, but it died in committee. Gov. Brown later vetoed a similar Senate bill. SB 1182, introduced by state Sen. Cathleen Galgiani, D-Stockton, is the latest attempt. The Committee on Appropriations approved the bill June 15.

In June, Brown vetoed a bill introduced by Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore, that would have once again made stealing a firearm a felony punishable by 16 months in prison. The misdemeanor conviction carries up to a year in jail.

Other legislators have introduced similar bills on guns that failed to make the cut.

The drug legislation, critics say, is unnecessary because existing law already provides for felony punishment for the resulting crime. Some have argued that the gun bills were unnecessary because there are enough firearm laws that a prosecutor could find a way to charge a felony.

Legislators also failed to pass bills that would have allowed law enforcement to obtain DNA swabs from defendants convicted of misdemeanors that once were felonies. But there has been at least one success: In July 2015, Brown signed into a law a bill that allows search warrants to be issued for some misdemeanors that used to be felonies.

ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS

Since Prop. 47 took effect, fewer people have been enrolling in specialty drug and mental health courts. They require offenders to complete weeks-long, structured programs that offer counseling and life-skills classes in exchange for the charges being decreased or dismissed  an appealing option to those facing harsh felony penalties, but less appealing to those charged with misdemeanors who will be out of jail within days.

As a result, the drug and mental health courts in Riverside County were consolidated in the past year.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Becky L. Dugan, who has supervised the courts handling of the Prop. 47 cases, noted that the court can still refer defendants to outside services such as anger management, parenting, life skills and resume writing.

In San Bernardino County, participation in drug court is down 15-20 percent from pre-Prop. 47 levels, Superior Court spokesman Dennis Smith said, although mental health and veterans courts have largely been unaffected.

Officials arent giving up on helping the offenders, however.

Hestrin is forming the Repeat Offender Alternatives and Recidivism Reduction program to combat the revolving door recidivism created by the passage of Proposition 47, according to his 2015 year-end report. ROARR will partner with Pacific Educational Services, which provides anger-management, gang-intervention and life-skills programs as well as substance-abuse counseling.

Defendants who complete the voluntary program will be eligible to have their cases dismissed.

Were building this in the hope and with some optimism that we are going to fix this situation, Hestrin said in an interview. We are not always going to have a situation in Riverside County where there are no consequences for misdemeanor offenders. What were really hoping for is  there will be a percentage of offenders who want to get their lives together.

Contact the writer: brokos@pressenterprise.com or 951-368-9569

RELATED:

 Prop. 47 giving ex-addict another shot at life

 30-plus drug citations equal zero felonies, thanks to Prop. 47
Ismael Ozanne has performed well under intense pressure as Dane Countys district attorney.

The six-year incumbent has resolved controversial legal cases through consensus. Hes targeted child abuse by educating parents. As Wisconsins first black district attorney, Ozanne is a strong role model for young people.

The State Journal editorial board endorses Ozanne over challenger Bob Jambois in Tuesdays Democratic primary. Because the two men are the only candidates running for district attorney, Tuesdays primary essentially decides the race.

Ozannes finest moment as the countys top law enforcement official came last year as the nation wrestled with a string of police shootings of unarmed black men across America. In the national spotlight, Ozanne methodically and convincingly explained why a Madison police officer would not be charged in the shooting death of Tony Robinson.

Ozanne helped calm our community, and peace prevailed on the streets.

Ozanne similarly resolved two high-profile cases with racial overtones to the satisfaction of victims, community leaders and law enforcement officials. He chose not to charge a black UW-Madison student who spray-painted provocative messages on campus buildings. Instead, he referred the 21-year-old to a program requiring community service and meetings with victims. Ozanne applied the same process to a 19-year-old black woman who struggled with police during her arrest at East Towne Mall.

Ozanne made a strong case for giving the young people a second chance, provided they fulfill their restitution.

Under Ozannes leadership, Dane County has aggressively prosecuted the most violent criminals while also expanding specialty courts, including for drug offenders. Thats being tough  and smart  on crime. Many offenders break the law to feed their addictions. The drug court requires treatment and testing to stop bad behavior.

Jambois, Ozannes challenger, claims the district attorneys office is in disarray. Jambois is a former Kenosha County district attorney who joined Ozannes staff as an assistant district attorney last year.

Jambois is a talented prosecutor. But his sharp criticisms of his boss dont ring true. He accused Ozanne of never coming into the office, for example. Yet Ozannes schedule and electronic records of when he entered and left work show hes regularly on the job  as well as out in the community building support for broader changes in the legal system.

Jambois faults Ozanne for not carrying a significant caseload. But as the district attorney in the states second-largest county and the seat of state government, Ozanne has to manage a large and complicated organization. Hes not a front-line worker. And hes had to investigate and rule on many officer-involved shootings.

Ozanne spent a decade as an assistant district attorney and previously worked as a top official for the Department of Corrections. So he understands both ends of the criminal justice system.

Jambois is right that Ozannes office has suffered high turnover. But many of those people retired or left for better paying jobs.

Ozanne should always remember hes a prosecutor, not a social worker. And sometimes his zeal for labor unions seems overtly political.

Nonetheless, Ozanne is the best choice for district attorney on Tuesdays ballot.
California will receive $3.6 million over five years from the federal government to track babies born in the state with microcephaly, a birth defect caused by the Zika virus.

The money, the first installment of which comes this week, is part of $16 million awarded by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to states most at risk from the mosquito-borne virus.

A map released by the CDC this year shows that the mosquito that carries Zika is present in more than half the nation. More than 430 people have tested positive for the virus in the United States, though almost all of them tested positive after traveling in Latin American and Caribbean countries, where the virus is more active.

But local transmissions have been reported in Florida, where 15 people from a Miami neighborhood have tested positive for the virus. Travel warnings for pregnant women and couples who would like to get pregnant in the immediate future have been issued for that area.

The CDCs funding is an acknowledgment by federal health experts that Zikas spread is inevitable.

It is critical to identify infants with birth defects related to Zika virus so we can support them and their families, CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said in a statement. This CDC funding provides real-time data about the Zika epidemic as it unfolds in the United States and territories and will help those most devastated by this virus.

As of Friday, 114 travel-associated Zika virus infections have been reported in California since 2015, according to the states Department of Public Health.

No local transmissions have been reported in California.

The number of Zika cases is expected to increase among travelers this summer because of outbreaks in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Brazil and other countries.

In addition, the mosquito that can transmit the virus is present in Southern California.

The insect is related to the Asian tiger mosquito, which is also active in the region. Both thrive in the daytime.

Like West Nile virus, Zika is transmitted primarily through the bite of an infected mosquito.

The virus also can be transmitted from a mother to her baby during pregnancy or around the time of birth.

Scientists have confirmed that Zika can cause birth defects. Symptoms include acute onset of fever, a flat red rash and joint pain.

Although death is rare, 1 out of 5 people infected with the Zika virus can become very ill, according to the CDC.

Though it is a mosquito-borne virus, Zika also is found in the semen of infected men and can be transmitted to sexual partners, health officials said.

The money from the CDC was diverted from other public health resources until additional Zika funds are approved by Congress, federal health officials said.

Contact the writer: sabram@scng.com or @SAbramLA on Twitter

RELATED

First 2 babies born with Zika-related defects in California
News emerging from the quarters of the main opposition party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Kwesimintsim constituency of the Western Region indicates that supporters of Mr Joseph Mensah have joined forces with NDC to work for NPP to lose the 2016 parliamentary election.



Whiles the party fights to reclaim power from the ruling NDC government, an aggrieved disqualified parliamentary aspirant, Joseph Mensah is alleged to have vowed to ensure that the incumbent parliamentarian in the area loses the seat, therefore making moves to contest as an independent candidate.



But, the idea, some members in the constituency have disclosed that Joseph Mensah has connived with the NDC to fight the NPP candidate and incumbent MP, Hon. Joe Baidoe-Ansah and that his bid is being financed by the ruling party.



Richard Kwabena Oppong an aggrieved constituent and a member of the New Patriotic Party who spoke on behalf of some grassroot supporters said that, Joseph Mensah was disqualified by the party's vetting committee at all levels including at the National Appeals Committee.



Reason being that Joseph Mensah's membership card was forged, and it was established as not NPP card.



Again, it was established that Joseph Mensah is not known as an NPP member in the constituency and that after being disqualified he later sought to bog down the NPP campaign by going to court to secure an injunction on the constituency parliamentary primaries. And now he is making preparations to contest as an independent candidate.





But the grassroots supporters of Kwesimintsim have vowed to expose Mr Joseph Mensah and ensure that Nana Addo and Hon Joe Baidoe-Ansah become victorious in the 2016 elections.



BACKGROUND OF THE COURT CASE



The NPP's National Appeals Committee upon its investigation found out that Joseph Mensah's card was not in the party's database as such not being a true member of the party, as he bears a fake party card which was enough grounds to disqualify him.



The matter was sent to the Sekondi High Court by Mr. Joseph Mensah where he also secured an injunction on the primary in the constituency, until the final determination of the case.



But for over a year now, the finality of the case is yet to be seen.



As a result, the Kwesimintsim Constituency is yet to have a parliamentary candidate with barely four months to the elections in December.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
The President of Imani Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe has called for the incarceration of the deputy minister-designate for the Local Government Ministry, John Oti Bless, over derogatory comments he made about the Chief Justices and other justices of the Supreme Court.



According to him, Oti Bless has not shown remorse for his comments despite the Nkwanta North Member of Parliament (MP)s apology on Citi FM.



He believes that Oti Bless conduct is comparable to that of the jailed host and panelists of Accra-based radio station, Montie FM, who made their contemptuous comments on the same programme. I suspect the Chief Justice, listening to this mockery of an apology, would be wondering what exactly came over him.



Hes suggesting that he was ordered to apologise, Franklin Cudjoe said on Citi FMs news analysis programme, The Big Issue. If he isnt jailed, then we should take out the Montie three. The Montie gang of bandits, did the same thing on the same platform and also apologized. Oti Bless apology on Friday followed a directive from the Speaker for deliberations over his nomination to be put on hold until he apologised for the comments he made. I wish to sincerely state that I am really sorry for everything that has happened.



Let me use this opportunity to render an unqualified apology to the Chief Justice who is my mother and the entire Judiciary, judges, Parliament, good people of Ghana and my constituents, he said in an interview with Eyewitness News host Richard Dela Sky. Oti Bless stated that he had received advice from the Speaker of Parliament and the Majority leader, Alban Bagbin, prompting him to issue the public apology.



Franklin Cudjoe, who has been a stern critic of Oti Bless asserted that the apology had been forced from Oti Bless and that the legislator hadnt meant it. I dont wish evil for anybody but we have to make examples of people who supposedly are representing us. Oit Bless must be jailed. Oti Bless has not shown any remorse as far as I am concerned. He is saying that he was directed or advised [to apologise] so he himself doesnt believe it, he said. He must be jailed otherwise the Montie Three may have to be given some pardon .



I was misled



Oti Bless explained that he had been misled to make the comments he did adding that he was carried away by the moment. I was misled in a way as a young guy with youthful exuberance, you can understand. That is not my nature, thats not how I was brought up, Ill plead that it wont happen again.



This will be the last time. They should kindly forgive me in the name of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. he said Parliament deferred the nomination of Oti Bless on Thursday stating that consultations had not yet been completed.



The Nkwanta North MPs nomination for the position came under scrutiny following his performance at his vetting which many described as unconvincing. His nomination has been questioned further by revelations that he had made some derogatory comments about the Chief Justice, Georgina Woode on same Montie FM programme which the two jailed panelists and radio host had made death threats on Supreme Court justices.



Oti Bless is on record as having accused the Chief Justice of conniving with the opposition NPP in an attempt to reverse the election results in 2008 and in 2012 which saw the late John Evans Atta Mills and John Dramani Mahama elected into office respectively. The development drove some members of the Minority in Parliament to kick against his approval.

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.

Featured Video
31-year-old Melbourne man Philip Galea has been charged following his arrest in yesterdays counter-terrorism raids.

Facing Melbourne Magistrate Court today, Galea was charged with both preparing or planning a terrorist attack, and for obtaining documents likely to assist in that goal.

Galea, a noted campaigner for far-right organisations, told the court hed contest the charges, and that they constitute a so-called conspiracy against the patriot movement.

Why he hates our freedom? Why havent people of his religion condemned his actions? #insiders #ReclaimAustralia https://t.co/VHRlQFRwNH  Arif (@Atozai) August 6, 2016



Assistant Commissioner Ross Guenther said the threat was specific enough to cause us alarm in terms of what the risk represented to the community, and that the person in custody has a number of different affiliations to organisations.

While a member of the anti-Islam True Blue Crew confirmed to the ABC that Galea is indeed a member, a court heard last year that he also numbers among Reclaim Australias ranks.

At the time, Galea was sentenced to one month behind bars for possessing a number of tasers and mercury in the lead-up to an anti-immigration rally.

During that same court appearance, the court heard Galea was in possession of extreme material related to far-right groups.

Premier Daniel Andrews said there is no imminent threat to the Victorian public regarding yesterdays arrest, but at no point would we ever take for granted that youve got to be vigilant.

Galea was refused bail, and hell face court again on Tuesday.

Source: ABC / The Age.

Photo: The Today Show / Twitter.
Over the weekend, news broke that convicted murderer and former Paralympian Oscar Pistorius had been rushed to hospital with wrist injuries.

South Africas City Press reported that prison guards and hospital warders had given a statement saying that Pistorius had bad cuts over his wrists, and that blades had been found in his cell after the incident.

One reportedly told the paper, he had bad cuts on his wrists and the doctors kept wrapping bandages around them.

However, Manelisi Wolela, a spokesperson for the prison service, has made a statement to media saying that the incident was not a case of self-harm, and that Pistorius just had minor injuries on his wrists.

Oscar Pistorius denied speculations of a suicide attempt, Mr Wolela said.

His brother Carl Pistorius also spoke to press, saying he and his girlfriend had visited him in hospital and all reports of self-harm or a suicide attempt were untrue and sensational:

Jenna and I have just seen Oscar and he is doing well given the circumstances. He was in good spirit. He slipped in his cell and injured himself, nothing serious.

Arnold Pistorius, the ex-athletes uncle (whose home he stayed in while on parole), said his nephew simply had a couple of bruises, no plasters or bandages.

He was joking how he slipped on the wet floor, while on his stumps, grabbed the small cabinet on wheels to balance, but it also slipped away and he fell.

Another prison source has also confirmed this to the Daily Mail, saying that Pistorius lost balance on his stumps and slipped while under the influence of a sleeping pill.

He got up in the night to use the toilet in his cell. He claims he slipped in some leaked water, lost his balance and fell against a drawer, cutting his lower forearm, and also hit his head. His injuries were inspected by a nurse on the hospital wing and it was decided that he should go to hospital and be checked out. The worry was mainly for the impact to his head.

Pistorius is currently jailed in South Africa for the murder of his former girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. Hell be eligible for release on parole in 2019.

Source: The Age.

Photo: Pool / Getty.
Former Olympian and Paralympian Oscar Pistorius has received hospital treatment for injuries sustained in jail, where he is currently serving a six-year sentence for the 2013 murder of his former partner Reeva Steenkamp.

Authorities at the South African correctional facility have declined to detail the injuries Pistorius sustained due to medical privacy considerations, only saying he received minor wrist injuries after falling out of bed.

Local media sources have cited security guards at Pretorias Kalafong Hospital, who corroborated the claim he had wounds on his wrists which doctors were attending to. The same report claims warders uncovered blades in Pistorius cell during a subsequent search.

A police media contact said they couldnt confirm those reports, and they claim the suggestion the injuries were self-inflicted amounts to nothing more than speculation.

Following his treatment, the 29-year-old was returned to the correctional facility.

Last month, Pistorius was handed the sentence amid a massive public outcry. Despite South African authorities tending towards a 15-year terms for murder cases, judge Thokozile Masipa ruled Pistorius circumstances necessitated a more lenient sentence.

Pistorius may be eligible for conditional release in 2019.

Source: The Australian / BBC.

Photo: Pool / Getty.
A 16-year-old boy has died and two other men are fighting for their lives following a stabbing incident at a house party in Ryde, in the north-west of Sydney, overnight.

Police were called to the home and discovered seven males and a female suffering stab wounds. The boy was rushed to Westmead Hospital in critical condition, but died early this morning.

Two men, aged 16 and 21, remain in Westmead Hospital in serious condition, while two 16-year-old males, a 17-year-old male and an 18-year-old female are in stable condition at Royal North Shore hospital.

Reports indicate that there were close to 50 guests at the party, which was taking place at a house several doors down from Ryde Police Station.

Emergency services crews were originally called to attend to an unconscious patron, but called for police backup when they discovered multiple stabbing victims.

The riot squad was called in to deal with agitated guests, and police this morning have said that they are treating the boys death as a homicide, as they continue to speak to witnesses.

Source: News Corp / NSW Police.

Photo: Joosep Martinson / Getty.
Mike Pence,Donald Trump

Republican presidential Candidate Donald Trump, points toward Republican Vice presidential candidate Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana after Pence's acceptance speech during the third day session of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Wednesday, July 20, 2016.

(Mary Altaffer | AP)

Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence is scheduled to make two campaign stops in Pennsylvania next week.

The first stop will be 3 p.m. Tuesday during a town hall at the Lancaster Host Resort and Conference Center, 2300 Lincoln Highway.

His visit to the midstate comes a week after Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump described Harrisburg as a "war zone."

Pence is considered the more conservative member of the ticket, an Indiana governor who knows how to parse his words.

After leaving Lancaster, Pence is slated to campaign at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Heinz History Center, 1212 Smallman Street in Pittsburgh.

To get tickets for the Lancaster event, go here.

To get tickets for the Pittsburgh event, go here.
robert-rudnitsky.jpg

Robert Rudnitsky, executive director of Philadelphia NORML, a group that advocates marijuana law reform, discusses some of the hurdles that lie ahead in launching a growing facility or dispensary for medical marijuana at a daylong seminar on Sunday.

(Jan Murphy/PennLive)

Now that Pennsylvania is a state where growing, selling and possessing marijuana for medicinal purposes is legal, some people are eyeing it as a way to make money.

But whatever economic opportunity that this law creates, there are lots of red tape, strict rules and huge fees attached.

It was those ins and outs about the economic opportunities created by the

that drew nine people to a meeting room at the

Best Western Premiere Central Hotel and Conference Center in Lower Paxton Twp.

on Sunday for an all-day seminar.

Robert Rudnitsky, executive director of Philadelphia NORML, a national organization supportive of reforming marijuana laws, organized the session, one of several he has held since the law was enacted in April.

"There's opportunities for people if they are willing to get creative and they are really committed. They can get into it. So there are opportunities out there. Will it be easy? No. Do we have an answer? We're working on it," Rudnitsky said.

Until that answer - a full marijuana legalization law crafted from legislation Rep. Jordan Harris, D-Philadelphia, has sponsored - becomes a reality, Rudnitsky wanted to present a reality check to the seminar's attendees about what getting into the business right now entails.

He warned about the "paperwork extravaganza" associated with real-time tracking of every cannabis plant that is grown from the planting of the seed to the customer who ultimately buys it. He advised them that not just anyone can work in a growing facility or dispensary. If they have a criminal history, forget about it.

He spoke of the large sums of money needed upfront - some of which is non-refundable - to apply for a permit to get into the business and the additional costs associated with hiring people to help fill out the state's application and make sure it complies with all the legal requirements. There's the restrictions on advertising and difficulty in getting a bank account for a marijuana business.

On top of all that, there is the possibility that future changes in the law could change the business that undoubtedly will continue to compete with the black market, both of which potentially could devalue any investment they make by getting into the business now.

Despite all that, convenience store owner Elias Abreu of Philadelphia still wants in.

Along with his firm belief of the medicinal benefits of marijuana and how it may be more beneficial than prescription drugs, Abreu, 32, has some selfish reasons too.

"I'm not going to lie about it. My main reason is money," he said. "I'm tired of working 14 hours, seven days a week ."

He dove into research about the marijuana business three years ago and has visited Colorado five times to talk to shop owners out there to learn about running a dispensary. Not only that, he said he sees people smoking pot outside his store in Philadelphia every day and as a businessman, can see its potential as a money-maker if it were to become fully legal.

Abreu believes that day may come in a few years and that's why he wants in now.

"It's a head start," he said. "Because maybe four years from now, they say let's do recreational because that's what is happening in other states. Usually people who are [permitted to sell] medical marijuana are the first to get the license [to sell it for recreational use]. So you might have to go through the bad times at the beginning with the hope that in the future, it gets better."

Rudnitsky said his goal in offering the sessions is to get people who are interested enough to spend a day learning about the business to face the realities of what it would entail and consider ways to reduce the risks attached to the fear and greed surrounding this business.

"Today is the reality check," he said. "If you want to get into the business, there's a way to do it and you don't have to lose your shirt. You don't have to lose your bank account. So if I do anything today to make them understand the importance of networking and reducing their exposure, if I get that across by six o'clock, I'll have done my job."
A Clinton County judge's decision to vacate the death sentence for Shonda Walter reduces the number of inmates on Pennsylvania's death row to 177.

Walter, 37, saw her sentence reduced to life in prison without the possibility of parole by Senior Judge J. Michael Williamson, who wrote that she was "represented by totally incompetent counsel in the penalty phase of these proceedings."

Walter was convicted of first-degree murder in 2005 for the death of her 83-year-old neighbor, James Sementelli, a Pearl Harbor veteran.

Having her death sentence lifted now Michelle Tharp as the only woman on Pennsylvania's death row as of Aug. 1, according to the state Department of Correction.

Tharp, 47, was sentenced in 2000 in Washington County following her conviction of starving her 7-year-old daughter to death. She is being held in the State Correctional Institution Muncy in Lycoming County.

However, Gov. Tom Wolf last year imposed a moratorium on executions in Pennsylvania pending his review of the recommendations of an overdue report on capital punishment by the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Committee on Capital Punishment. The number of inmates on death row in Pennsylvania has dropped by nine since he put that hold on executions.

The last execution that took place in Pennsylvania was in 1999 when Philadelphia torture killer Gary Heidnik was put to death by lethal injection.
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By Olivia Oran and Amanda Becker

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters)  Groups of wealthy Republicans unhappy with Donald Trump have been privately courting prominent peers to join them in backing Democrat Hillary Clintons U.S. presidential bid, several people involved in the effort told Reuters.

They say they are seeking money and endorsements from other Republicans disillusioned by Trump, their partys candidate for the Nov. 8 presidential election. Some have received encouragement from Clinton and members of her campaign staff.

I made the decision that I wouldnt be able to look at my grandkids if I voted for Trump, said Dan Webb, a former federal prosecutor and a self-described Republican for decades working to win over prominent Republican business people in Chicago.

Trump, a New York developer making his first run at public office, has made traditional Republican donors uneasy with inflammatory statements about women, Mexicans, Muslims and war veterans, among others.

Big-name Wall Street donors can make a difference for Clinton. They could inject big money into a campaign. They might influence moderate Republicans to switch sides. Their support of Clinton challenges Trumps assertion that his business successes make him a better candidate for president.

With the political conventions barely over, the Republican effort to fundraise for Clinton is at an early stage. Some of the groups have yet to receive contributions because they must still file paperwork under campaign finance rules.

Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks declined to comment for this story. Clinton spokesman Jesse Ferguson said business leaders are supporting Clinton because of her economic plan and because Trump cannot be trusted to lead our economy.

WARY OF TRUMP

Groups formed to support Clinton include Republicans for Her 2016, run by Republican lobbyist Craig Snyder; a grassroots organization called R4C16, led by John Stubbs and Ricardo Reyes, officials in former President George W. Bushs administration; and the Republican Women for Hillary group co-led by Jennifer Pierotti Lim, an official at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The first two groups are acting independently of Clintons own effort. The third is acting in concert with her campaign.

We wanted to go out there and be the voice for Republicans who were feeling wary about Trump and weird about publicly endorsing Hillary, said Pierotti Lim, who spoke at the Democratic National Convention at the Clinton teams invitation.

Webb, a partner at law firm Winston & Strawn, said he began his outreach after being approached by billionaire investor J.B. Pritzker and longtime Clinton associate Lanny Davis. Pritzker and Davis could not be reached for comment.

On Wednesday, billionaire hedge fund manager Seth Klarman said he would work to get Clinton elected because of comments by Trump he found shockingly unacceptable. Although Klarman, who is the president and chief executive of The Baupost Group, is a registered independent, a review of filings shows his political giving has largely benefited Republicans over the years, including some of Trumps rivals in the state-by-state nominating contests this year.

Jim Cicconi, a former Reagan and George H.W. White House staff member and lifelong Republican, said he went public with his decision to support Clinton to encourage others in my situation to do the same thing.

I feel like I need to do something more than quietly pulling the lever, he said. Im willing to assist the campaign in any way that they want me to help.

WHITMAN, BLOOMBERG BACK CLINTON

Spearheading in part the Clinton effort to woo Republicans on Wall Street is Democratic strategist Leslie Dach, a former Walmart executive and aide to Bill Clinton, sources close to the Clinton campaign said.

People familiar with the Clinton drive say the Democratic nominee herself has spoken to Republican business leaders, including Hewlett Packard Enterprise Chief Executive Meg Whitman, who endorsed Clinton on Tuesday.

Clinton deputies courted former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg ahead of a rousing speech he gave at last months Democratic National Convention that urged Wall Street to support her.

Whether Bloomberg, a self-made billionaire media mogul and an erstwhile Republican, will play a role in courting other Republican business leaders has yet to be determined, a source close to the discussions said.

While some major donors are hesitant to back Trump, the candidate over the last month has pulled in millions of dollars in small-money donations to boost total contributions to more than $80 million for Trumps campaign and the Republican Party, nearly matching Clintons $90 million haul during the same period.

(Additional reporting by Jennifer Ablan, Lawrence Delevingne and Jessica Resnick-Ault in New York and Svea Herbst-Bayliss in Boston; Writing by Lauren Tara LaCapra; Editing by Howard Goller and Jonathan Oatis)
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The Sunday shows went Clinton email again today, as apparently there is no dead horse that wont be publicly beaten some more in an effort to prop up Donald Trump as a contender.

Hillary Clinton cant say it this way, but Im going to explain her email problem in a way that everyone can understand, since its still going on months after the FBI concluded there was no evidence of intentional wrong-doing.

Almost all politicians in executive branch positions have an email scandal in their background (the House and Senate are not subject to FOIA laws). Well, at least the Republicans who have run for President and VP in the last eight years. Those stories the press ignored, largely because the public really doesnt care.

Hillary Clinton was repeatedly the most admired woman politician in the world. She was going to run for President in 2016 and Republicans had no one to run against her except Jeb Bush (branding problem) and no dirt on her, save for their other conspiracy theories they planted in the publics mind when Bill Clinton was President.

So Republicans came up with a very effective idea to use their leadership in the House of Representatives to investigate Hillary Clintons emails for a year. They turned up nothing embarrassing save for classified versus unclassified drama and missing emails (another thing Republicans can hardly claim is a real problem). No worries, though, because the point was to investigate her again. This was concurrent with years long Republican-led Benghazi investigations into Clinton that also went nowhere. Sensing a political agenda yet?

Then the FBI delivered the fatal blow, coming from a Republican Director no less, that Hillary Clinton hadnt done anything criminal. She had been careless. But she had also not deliberately deleted emails. She also didnt know the emails were classified. There was NO THERE THERE.

Careless is nothing compared to Mitt Romneys deliberate avoidance of FOIA laws by taking the computer equipment with him and his staff, as the Romney administrations e-mails were all wiped from a server. Furthermore, The governors office has found no e-mails from 2002-2006 in our possession Before the current administration took office, the computers used during that time period were replaced and the server used during that time period was taken out of service, all files were removed from it, and it was also replaced.

Or Scott Walkers private router as county executive, that he used to mix campaign business with taxpayer funded county business for which two Walker aides were convicted of misconduct. Two Walker aides who used the private router were later convicted of misconduct in office for doing political work while they were being paid by taxpayers.

Or Jeb Bushs two private email addresses scandal.

Republicans cant even afford to have this conversation since there is evidence that several of them deliberately hid emails or had aides actually convicted (which is sort of like being investigated for years and coming up not guilty, but NOT), but that doesnt stop their complete hypocrisy in alleging that Clinton has a problem with trust or being dishonest.

To those whose last hope rests upon the idea that she was careless and cant be trusted with classified information, I give you Sarah Palins hacked Yahoo account upon which she conducted state business for Alaska, allegedly in charge of keeping Putin at bay over our airspace.

If its the designation of classified upon which some are hanging their last hopes, Former Sec. of State Colin Powell explained that the State Department retroactively classified some of his emails and refused to release them to the public in their retroactive classifying binge. Powell also admitted that he used a private email account for public business while holding the same office as Clinton. According to Sen. Chuck Schumer, Clintons private email system was even based on the system that Powell used and they couldnt find a majority of Powells emails.

I could go on and on with other politicians email scandals, and Donald Trump who hasnt even been in an office (any office) subjected to FOIA laws, stands accused of destroying email evidence in a lawsuit- so the odds that he would conduct himself on par with Clinton are low. Chances are he would be worse than careless.

But this is literally all Republicans have. So now we are chasing down how Clinton explains her situation in a Fox News interview and then a presser during which she tried to explain her Fox News explanation. She explained her mistaken conflation as a short-circuit and now Republicans are running with that.

Clinton clearly laid out that by short-circuit she meant she didnt explain the reason she conflated the FBI with the public. But Republicans are saying this makes her an unstable liar and she must explain. The unstable liar is in leading the Republican Party, actually.

The media airs this stale desperation for their own reasons.

Sure, its complicated but no doubt Hillary Clinton is trying to grasp why anyone is still talking about this. What can she say, when she most likely wants to ask, what in the Hell is wrong with you people?

The woman has answered and answered and answered and answered. If you dont get it yet, you are the problem, not Hillary Clinton. Its time to stop sniffing around for a scandal in this over-picked field.

The press and Republicans need to let this dream die, because there is no there there. The more this is pushed after its been thoroughly investigated the more questions it raises about the people pushing it.

Let it go.
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A new poll of Arizona, Virginia, and Nevada is a perfect example of how the electoral map is shifting towards Democrats and the damage that Trump is doing to the Republican Party.

The CBS News Battleground tracker poll showed that Virginia might already be out of reach for Republicans as Hillary Clinton has opened up a 49%-37% lead over Trump. Clinton gets the support of 95% of Democrats, while Trump is still struggling to unify the Republican Party as 79% of Republicans supported the partys nominee. Trump is getting crushed by the commander in chief test as 57% view Clinton as prepared to be president compared to 36% for Trump.

In Arizona, Trump leads 44%-42% in the usually reliable red state. The GOP nominee is being hurt by 54% of respondents believing that the economy is doing very or somewhat well, but where Trumps campaign is backfiring is that 80% of Hispanic voters in the state reported that this election made them more motivated to vote.

Staying in the Southwest, Hillary Clinton leads Trump 43%-41% in Nevada. The Democratic nominee is being powered by the same coalition of women, younger voters, and Hispanics that is keeping her close in Arizona. Importantly, Clinton passed the commander in chief test with voters by a large margin in the state.

Trumps demonizing of Hispanic voters has backfired and motivated this key demographic to vote in November. The Republican nominee is being destroyed on his qualifications and fitness to be president, and the worst news of all for Republicans is that voters have mostly made up their minds.

What is devastating about the CBS News poll is that it shows that the majority of voters arent being swayed by Trumps appeals to fear and anger. Donald Trump is running a campaign that is based on fear and anger, but voters are evaluating the candidates based on their qualifications to lead the country.

Trump is appealing to emotions, while voters are using their heads to decide who they will support for president. This gap highlights one of the biggest problems that the Trump campaign is struggling with. Trump hasnt changed his style to appeal to the general electorate. The 2016 Republican primary was an emotional affair. After going with their heads and losing in 2008 and 2012, GOP primary voters gave into their hearts and nominated Trump.

The more diverse general electorate is using a different standard, but Trump continues to act like he is running in the Republican primary. Trump is trailing in important areas where losing candidates usually fail.

Things arent getting better for Trump because much of the country is in the process of deciding that he is unqualified and unfit to be president.
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Viewers could see Republican US Senator Tom Cotton crumble before their eyes when he was asked if Trump is ready to be commander in chief during an interview on Fox News Sunday.

Video:

https://youtu.be/D4CWC03MjNI

Transcript via Fox News Sunday:

WALLACE: Finally, youve been pretty quiet about Donald Trump beyond the fact of saying that you support him. Given his fight with the Khan family, given his comments about Russia, given the fact that he has at least raised the possibly we wouldnt come to the aid of some of our NATO allies if they were to come under attack, how do you feel about Donald Trumps readiness to be commander in chief?

COTTON: Well, Chris, Ive had my disagreements with Donald Trump. Ive stated them clearly in the past and I will in the future. And Donald Trump ought not have said some of those things that you just recounted, but Hillary Clinton ought not to have done the things shes done. She is in no small measure responsible for the death of four Americans in Benghazi and she lied to the faces of their families. She set up an unclassified server in which she used classified information that put Americans at risk and then she lied about it for a year. And then just last week, Chris, on your show, shes lying about lying. All week long, since you interviewed her, shes been telling lie about her lies. Donald Trump ought not have said some things, but Hillary Clinton ought not have done so many things that shes done.

WALLACE: But in 30 seconds, if I may, are you confidence that Donald Trump is ready to be commander in chief?

COTTON: I am confident that if the American people elect Donald Trump as president, and a Republican Congress, that this country will be safer in the world, our streets will be safer, and we will be more prosperous.

The easiest way to make any congressional Republican fall to pieces during the 2016 election is to ask them if Donald Trump is either fit for the White House, or ready to be commander in chief. Tom Cotton was rolling along with his usual Obama and Clinton are evil talk, and then Chris Wallace had to ask him about Trumps readiness for the White House.

The verbal dancing that Sen. Cotton pulled off couldnt hide that he never answered the question. Cotton completely dodged. His message to voters was an echoing of the Mitch McConnell approved talking point that voters should elect Trump, and trust the Republicans in Congress to keep him in check.

Every elected Republican member of Congress should be asked from now until November about Trumps readiness for office. Any Republican who answers that Trump is fit for office or dodges the question will be proving to the American people that like, Donald Trump, they also arent fit for office. Tom Cotton failed the test, but demonstrating that he is unwilling to be honest with the American people.

Any elected Republican who believes that Trump is ready to be president doesnt belong in office.
In Charleroi, Belgium, a man wielding a machete and yelling Allahu Akbar attacked two policewomen, wounding both, one seriously. He was shot and killed by a third officer.

This sort of attack cant be deterred and is almost impossible to prevent. In this case, the terrorist reportedly walked up to the two policewomen, pulled his machete out of a gym bag and sliced one of the officers across the face.

The only ultimate solution to the problem of Islamic terrorism is missionaries. In the meantime, the two remedies on the table are more gun control and less immigration. In recent months, experience in Europe has shown that strict gun control laws do not prevent terrorists from obtaining guns. Experience has also shown that terrorists dont need guns to be effective; knives, bombs and trucks will do. That leaves immigration controls as the only proposal with even a slim chance of reducing Islamic terrorismwhich is what millions of Europeans have now concluded.
This morning Senator Tom Cotton was on both FOX News Sunday and Face the Nation (full interview below) this morning to discuss the payment of ransom by the Obama administration to free American hostages from Iran (video below). On Face the Nation, Senator Cotton observed regarding the Iranian scientist whose execution Iran has just announced: Im not going to comment on what he may or may not have done for the United States government, but in the emails that were on Hillary Clintons private server, there were conversations among her senior advisors about this gentleman.

The Associated Press places the email issue in this context:

Amiris case indirectly found its way back into the spotlight in the U.S. last year with the release of State Department emails sent and received by Clinton, now the Democratic presidential candidate. The release of those emails came amid criticism of Clintons use of a private account and server that has persisted into her campaign against Republican candidate Donald Trump. An email forwarded to Clinton by senior adviser Jake Sullivan on July 5, 2010  just nine days before Amiri returned to Tehran  appears to reference the scientist. We have a diplomatic, psychological issue, not a legal one. Our friend has to be given a way out, the email by Richard Morningstar, a former State Department special envoy for Eurasian energy, read. Our person wont be able to do anything anyway. If he has to leave so be it. Another email, sent by Sullivan on July 12, 2010, appears to obliquely refer to the scientist just hours before his appearance at the Pakistani Embassy became widely known. The gentleman  has apparently gone to his countrys interests section because he is unhappy with how much time it has taken to facilitate his departure, Sullivan wrote. This could lead to problematic news stories in the next 24 hours.

According to Clinton, you may recall, any exposure of classified information on her server is the fault of the fine State Department professional who made the mistake of sharing it with her (and she was too stupid to recognize it).
Minnesotas large and ever increasing Somali population is the ultimate protected minority in our left-wing utopia. The Somalis are black. The Somalis are Muslim. The Somalis vote Democratic. Enough said.

This past fall Governor Mark Dayton instructed white, B-plus, Minnesota-born citizens to suppress their qualms about immigrant resettlement in Minnesota. If they cant, they should find another state, he advised.

Good to know.

The Somalis may be retrograde in their treatment of women and their related attitudes toward them. They may not share the liberal faith in homosexuality and abortion. They may have problematic enthusiasms in other respects. But we generally agree not to look too closely, or to avert our eyes.

We dont even have a handle on how large the community is. The official estimate (there is no official number) is something like 40,000, but the United States Attorneys Office here used an estimate of 100,000 in its formal written agreement with Somali community leaders to undertake the so-called Building Community Resilience program.

Thus it was left to Kelly Riddell to provide an account of the Somali communitys high-volume consumption of Minnesota welfare services  in the Washington Times, in 2015. Riddells article remains the go-to piece on the subject. I dont believe the Star Tribune has touched it.

Riddell quoted Professor Ahmed Samatar of Macalester College in St. Paul: Minnesota is exceptional in so many ways but its the closest thing in the United States to a true social democratic state.

In Minneapolis the Somali community has become a coveted voting bloc. When I sat down with (Republican) Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek for an interview late last year, Stanek bristled when I asked him about security issues raised by the Somali community. Why was I doing that? I referred to the House report recognizing Minnesotas contribution of 26 percent of the American fighters joining ISIS. I just came from an FBI briefing this morning, Stanek said. They told me were 20 percent.

I was referring to the September 2015 report of the House Homeland Security Committee task force on combating terrorist and foreign fighter travel. According to the report, Minnesota leads the country in contributing foreign fighters to ISIS. Reviewing the public cases of 58 Americans who had joined or attempted to join ISIS, the task force found that 26 percent of them came from Minnesota. When it comes to exports to ISIS and ISIS wannabes, were number one.

This is not a recent development. The Somali community has required the intense scrutiny of law enforcement for the past 10 years. The Department of Justice acknowledges that since 2006, overseas terror organizations have targeted Somali Minnesotans to join al Shabaab (an al Qaeda-allied group in Somalia) and ISIS. Over nearly ten years ending in 2015, the FBIs Operation Rhino targeted al Shabaab recruiting in Minnesota and resulted in the indictment of some 20 individuals.

Since 2013, according to the Department of Justice, ISIS has targeted Twin Cities residents (i.e., Somalis). The Minneapolis division of the FBI and local law enforcement authorities devote substantial resources to deterring and interrupting the recruitment of Minnesota Somalis.

In a presentation to Minnesotas National Security Society that I attended in November, FBI Minneapolis chief division counsel Kyle Loven conveyed the impression that his office is devoting substantial resources to terrorism-related issues. We have four national security squads working this thing, he said.

One could see just about every element of the issue raised by the continuing Somali influx to Minnesota in the terrorism trial that concluded on June 3 with convictions against the three defendants contesting charges against them. (Six other defendants pleaded guilty before trial.) I took a look back at the trial in the Weekly Standard article Minnesota men on trial and in the Star Tribune column What I saw at the trial.

Only one of the three defendants  Guled Omar  testified at trial (I think against the advice of the capable attorney representing him). In my articles I didnt have the space available to highlight Omars testimony, but his personal background is of interest in this context.

Omar was born in a Kenyan refugee camp. He was roughly three years old when his family moved to the United States. His family emigrated to Kenya as a result of the Somali civil war. His father was shot three times in the conflict and lost his left leg as a result of the injuries. His father is disabled, but his disability gave him preferential immigration treatment by the United States.

Dont ask me; I cant explain.

Omars father has disappeared from the United States. He has left Omars mother with a rather large family. Omar has nine sisters and four brothers. They live in housing subsidized by a Section 8 voucher, although that must be the least of it. See Kelly Riddells Washington Times article.

I also tried to give a sense of other aspects of the issue here on Power Line in A tale of five Muhammads. There I took another look back at the trial from a slightly different angle.

On Friday Donald Trump took up the case of the Somali influx (to both Minnesota and Maine) on the campaign trail. The Star Tribunes Mila Koumpilova rises to the defense of the Somali community in the supposed news article Trumps comments about Minnesota Somalis met with outrage, satisfaction. She notes that Trump cited Riddells article. She doesnt provide a link or the name of the reporter who wrote it, but we cant be trusted with too much information.

Trump referred to the security threat raised by the Minnesotas Somali community. Here Koumpilova wasnt entirely sure what Trump was talking about: Trump appeared to be alluding to the recent convictions of nine young Somali-Americans in what the FBI described as a plot to leave the country and join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Syria. Could be!

A close reader may observe that Koumpilova confirms the substance of Riddells article. If you read the story like Russians used to read Pravda, looking for the nugget of truth that might be buried in an otherwise propagandistic article, you will find this:

Amid a growing number of arrivals from other states, Minnesota has seen an increase in Somali food and cash assistance participation since 2010. A recent report comparing various groups in the state paints a stark picture of the challenges Somali Minnesotans face, said Susan Brower, the states demographer. Almost 60 percent live under the poverty line, compared with 11 percent of all Minnesota. Unemployment of adults in the labor force stands at 20 percent, the highest of any group in the state. But Brower said recent years have also brought rapid gains in employment, high school graduation and college attendance for that community. While there are immediate costs to refugee resettlement now, we need to take a longer view, she said.

The longer view remains implicit. You can probably fill in the blanks all by yourself. We arent going to make a cost-benefit assessment today, 25 years into the Somali exodus to Minnesota, and were not going to look too closely at the prospect of assimilation to American principles or norms.
Worldwide Incorporation Services

PR-Inside.com: 2016-08-07 21:11:48

Press Information

Worldwide Incorporation Services

4 Profiti Ilia, Office 101B, 4046 Limassol, Cyprus



Anna Ioannou

Executive Director

+357 25 812 242

email

http://www.wis-international.com/cyprus_companies.html



Published by

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+44 203 44 05 671

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# 341 Words

4 Profiti Ilia, Office 101B, 4046 Limassol, CyprusExecutive Director+357 25 812 242Anna Ioannou+44 203 44 05 671

As shown in the recent research made by W.I.S. Cyprus Ltd was named the only country that has not made significant changes to its tax rates since 2004. This sounds very encouraging to any person considering a Cyprus company registration.As a member of the European Union a Cyprus company registration offers a particular set of advantages over company registration in other jurisdictions. Cyprus tax legislation adheres to all EU laws and directives. This, in perception and in fact, adds a sense of conformity and credibility that can be beneficial when dealing with clients or suppliers based in other EU countries. Its geographic location and EU status extend to Cyprus an air of "prestige" status over other jurisdictions and makes Cyprus company registration very attractive.On a more practical level, Cyprus has the lowest corporate tax rate of any EU country. It is 12.5% for Cyprus companies. This favorable tax regime extends further. Non-residents incur no capital gains tax for the disposal of company shares. This capital gains exemption for non-residents also extends to property held by a Cyprus based company abroad. Furthermore, Cyprus has signed double taxation agreements with more than 45 countries. More of these agreements are being negotiated. This is another benefit of Cyprus company registration. There is also no withholding tax on dividends paid to parties outside of Cyprus.Should you wish to get information about Cyprus company registration right now please click here: http://www.wis-international.com/cyprus_companies.html A Cyprus company being an EU Corporation enjoys recognition and respect globally. Furthermore, it is not yet blacklisted in any nation. Any person of age irrespective of nationality and legal entity can own a company. The law in Cyprus is flexible and allows registration of various types of Cyprus companies, including a private exempt company, a public limited company, a non-profitable organization, a club, a general/limited partnership, just to mention a few.For more information on Cyprus company in general and advantages of Cyprus company registration please visit our web-site to drop an enquiry.
The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the welfare of Burundian journalist Jean Bigirimana. The journalists news outlet says he has not been seen or heard from since July 22.

Bigirimana, a reporter with the independent weekly newspaperIwacu, formerly with the pro-government radio station Rema FM, left his home in the capital Bujumbura around lunch time on July 22, after receiving a phone call from a source in the countrys national intelligence service, Iwacu reported. He has not been seen or heard from since.

The Associated Press, citing Bigirimanas wife, reported that the journalist was arrested by the National Intelligence Service and that his family fears he is dead. Godeberthe Hakizimana told The Associated Press that her husband left home for Bugaramana in the central province of Muramvya. He did not return despite saying that he would be back for dinner, Iwacureported.

CPJ was unable to independently confirm that the journalist was arrested or that his life is in danger. However, Human Rights Watch has documented a pattern of abductions, arrests, torture, and killings of civil society activists, journalists, and others by government forces, armed opposition groups, and unknown assailants since April 2015, when protests broke out in response to President Pierre Nkurunzizas decision to seek a third term. CPJ is aware of at least 100 journalists who have fled Burundi since the mass protests of April 2015 and the ensuing violence.

Fourteen days after he went missing, Jean Bigirimanas family and colleagues are still in the dark about his whereabouts and condition, said Angela Quintal, CPJs Africa program coordinator. We call on the government of President Pierre Nkurunziza to disclose any information it has on the journalists status, and if it has none, to immediately launch a thorough and credible investigation into his disappearance.

Bigirimanas disappearance comes a few weeks after his return from Rwanda, where he had attended a journalism training course, the AP reported.

Iwacu reported on its website that it had received a call from a person claiming to be a friend of the journalist who reported that Bigirimana was detained by intelligence agents. Iwacu said that Bigirimana was accused of having shuttled between Burundi and neighboring Rwanda and of having written an article on the life of exiled Burundian journalists living in that country. Burundi and Rwanda are in the throes of a diplomatic spat.

CPJs calls and text messages to the journalists wife went unanswered. Police spokesman Pierre Nkurikiye did not return CPJs phone calls seeking comment. CPJs phone calls to Minister of Information Nestor Bankumukunzi went unanswered. The president of the National Council of Communication, Karenga Ramadhan, a former minister of information, told CPJ via WhatsApp on July 29 that his deputy would respond to an inquiry, but CPJ received no further communication or responses to further messages.

Iwacus director, Antoine Kaburahe, who lives in exile in Belgium, told CPJ yesterday that Jean-Baptiste Baribonekeza, president of Burundis National Human Rights Commission, had visited the area where Iwacus sources allege that Bigirimana was abducted and detained by intelligence agents. Baribonekeza returned to the capital on August 3 but cancelled a scheduled press conference about Bigirimana, saying he was still investigating the matter, He called me to say the commission is still verifying information, Kaburahe said.

Baribonekeza did not respond to CPJs phone calls seeking information.

Kaburahe told the CPJ he was disheartened after a series of tweets by presidential spokesman Willy Nyamitwe. Nyamitwe today tweeted that the government is investigating Bigirimanas disappearance. Yesterday, he suggested that the opposition might be behind Bigirimanas disappearance, tweeting in French, Im starting to fear the worst. When you look closely, its the same modus operandi of the #Sindumuja for the past for months in #Burundi, and then#Sindumuja tactics: Take a person, accuse police of having arrested them, kill them and then throw their body in the street. #Burundi.

Its a kind of sign and its very discouraging, Kaburahe said. CPJs attempts to reach Nyamitwe on his mobile phone were not successful.

SOURCE: Committee to Protect Journalists.
Transparency Group, a group of self-proclaimed anti-corruption lawmakers, on Saturday disparaged Speaker Yakubu Dogara for allegedly playing down the unfolding budget padding scandal in the House of Representatives.

The group also said Mr. Dogaras must urgently resign or be forced out of office.

Mr. Dogara had on Friday, after emerging from a meeting with President Buhari, rejected calls for him to resign, saying the allegations that he supervised a massive manipulation of the 2016 budget were untrue.

Mr. Dogara also described the budget padding catchphrase that had gained widespread popularity in the media as an anomaly, saying as a top lawmaker and lawyer, he knew that the word had no place in legislative lexicon.

But in its statement to PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday, the Transparency Group said Mr. Dogaras attempt to distance himself from the scandal that had engulfed the House for more than two weeks was shocking, disappointing and signified a negation of federal character principles and breach of trust.

The statement came two days after the APC weighed in on the scandal and issued a gag order to Abdulmumin Jibrin, the lawmaker at the centre of the allegations and a member of the party.

Mr. Jibrin had since July 21, a day after he was removed as Chairman of House Committee on Appropriation, levelled several allegations against Mr. Dogara and more than a dozen other lawmakers, saying they fraudulently padded the budget to the tune of N40 billion.

Mr. Dogara and the lawmakers vehemently denied the allegations.

The Transparency Group said Mr. Dogara allegedly fraudulent earmarked more than N3 billion for projects sited in his constituency, an action they said bordered on criminality.

The general public should note that Speaker Yakubu Dogara made criminal insertions (otherwise known as budget padding) to the tune of over N3billion to his constituency alone.

While the entire Zonal Intervention for the three (3) Senatorial Districts of Bauchi State and 12 Federal Constituencies in the state amounts to N1,666,666,666, the Speaker criminally inserted about 200 percent of the amount, totalling N3,079,000,000 to his constituency alone! the group said.

Other allegations the group made against Mr. Dogara included how he diverted 50 percent of the total Capital Projects allocated to Bauchi State to the tune of N4,781,003,431 out of N9,231,289,842 allocated to the state to his constituency.

An additional N950 million purportedly meant for empowerment schemes was also allegedly diverted by Mr. Dogara, the Transparency Group said.

The lawmakers, therefore, said Mr. Dogara should immediately step down to enable an investigation or new allegations would be unearthed to ultimately force his hands.

We hereby reiterate our call on Rt. Hon Yakubu Dogara to resign before we start exposing the sleaze and corruption surrounding the internal budget of the House.

The statement was signed by Bashir Baballe, member representing Ungogo/Minjibir Federal Constituency of Kano State; Agunsoye Oluwarotimi Ojo, member representing Kosofe Federal Constituency of Lagos State; and Abubakar Chika Adamu, member representing Shiroro/Munya/Rafi Federal Constituency of Niger State.

The three lawmakers said they released the statement on behalf of the 206 members of Transparency Group.

They did not provide the names of the other members of the group.

Abdulrazak Namdas, the spokesman for the House, said the lawmakers claim that they have more than 200 members can never be true.

As you people at PREMIUM TIMES reported yesterday, the Speaker had already said he will not resign, Mr. Namdas said. In any case, the House is currently in recess.
At least 11 officers and soldiers of the Nigerian Army have been confirmed dead after gunmen shot at them during a raid operation, officials said.

However, the troops also killed eight suspected bandits and arrested 57 others during a shootout in parts of Bosso local government area of Niger state, officials said.

The spokesman for the Nigerian Army, Colonel Sani Usman, said contrary to claims that soldiers extrajudicially killed civilians during the clash, the gun fight actually ensued when armed bandits who are also gunrunners, opened fire on soldiers during a raid of notorious hideouts of criminals.

Two soldiers of the Nigeria Army have not been accounted for since the clash as they remained missing, even as troops were able to recover a huge arms cache from those killed and arrested, Mr. Usman said.

Colonel Usmans statement reads:

Following covert surveillance and intelligence reports on the activities of some gun runners and armed bandits in Kopa, Dagma and Gagaw villages of Bosso Local Government Area, Niger State, troops of 31 Artillery Brigade, 1 Division Nigerian Army, in conjunction with Nigeria Air Force detachment on Internal Security Operation MESA went on quick cordon and search in the affected areas to recover suspected weapon cache and arrest the suspected persons and the armed bandits, he said.

Contrary to statements attributed to some questionable vested interests, the troops were on legitimate official duty aimed at safeguarding lives and property of citizen in the area.

While approaching and deploying to carry out their lawful duty, the troops came under simultaneous and sporadic shootings in all the three locations. They however responded as necessary in line with the rules of engagement. Sadly, an officer and 8 soldiers of the Nigerian Army and 2 Airmen of the Nigeria Air Force lost their lives in the line of national duty.

Additionally, one soldier is still missing while 2 of their colleagues were seriously wounded.

The suspected gun runners and armed bandits also burnt down 4 operational vehicles and vandalized 2 others. Bandits also carted away 4 AK-47 rifles and one Fabrique Nationale (FN) rifle belonging to the deceased soldiers.

The troops also killed 8 of the armed bandits and arrested 57 others. They also recovered large quantity of arms and ammunition.

The recovered items include; 3 AK-47 rifles,10 Local AK-47 Rifles, 9 Locally made Pistols, 6 Revolver guns, which fires 7.62mm (Special ammunition), 45 Loaded Dane guns, 10 Clubs and Cudgels, 41 Arrows, 18 Bow cases, 122 Cutlasses and Machetes as well as 20 Daggers.

Other items recovered include 31 Axes, 63 rounds of 7.62 (Special) Ammunition, 10 Bajaj Motorcycles, Assorted Charms and Amulets, 2 Vehicles, 38 mobile telephone handsets, a wristwatch, 5 Identity Cards, Passport Photographs, Cash sum of N23,870.00k, 5 Japanese Yen and 35 different denominations of old Nigerian currency, 15 Catapults, 8 Torchlights, 2 Gun Powder bottles, 4 empty cases of Ammunition and 41 Cartridges. The troops also seized a military Waist Belt and a pair of military Combat Boots.

It is important to stress that the nefarious activities of the gun runners and the armed bandits has direct bearing with the influx of weapons and general insecurity in some parts of the Federal Capital Territory and the North West geo-political zone of the country. The same gun runners have been confirmed to be the suppliers of arms to armed robbery gangs that were involved in series of armed robbery attacks along Minna-Bida road and the general environment.

Although the situation is under control, the military will not rest on its oars until all those involved are arrested and brought to justice.

The military will continue to deal with any violent threat to our national security. All law abiding citizens are enjoined to go about their lawful duties as the cordon and search operation continues in the general area and if necessary expand to other identified areas to keep our people safe
The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) on Sunday said the Federal Government has not given foreign exchange waiver to Nigerian pilgrims performing hajj this year.

The commissions Head of Media, Uba Mana, said this in a statement in Abuja on Sunday.

The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria wishes to draw the attention of the public that the Federal Government has not given foreign exchange waiver to Nigerian pilgrims performing this years hajj, Mr. Mana said.

If there is one thing that the Government did for the Nigerian pilgrims, it was to allow the exchange rate prevalent at the time of payment of Hajj fare in February when the current flexible exchange rate was not in action to subsist.

It is therefore wrong and mischievous for some persons or media organisations to peddle unfounded claims that the Federal Government gave the Nigerian pilgrims a waiver, he said in the statement.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the Presidency had earlier clarified the concessions of foreign exchange rate of N191 to one dollar for the 2016 intending pilgrims to Hajj and Jerusalem.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President, Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said the policy was non-discriminatory.

He said that it had been approved before the current foreign exchange regime came into effect.

He also said that that the Central Bank of Nigeria had confirmed the approval, wondering why the apex bank had not notified the public earlier.

President Muhammadu Buhari has been roundly condemned for approving foreign exchange concession to pilgrims at a time the economy is struggling.

On Saturday, the Afenifere Renewal Group, a Yoruba socio-political group, warned the government against its policy of subsidising pilgrimage.

In a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Kunle Famoriyo, the group said the policy sent wrong signals about the touted autonomy of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

It is tantamount to prioritizing religion over the nations economic needs, the statement said.

ARG said religion was personal and should not be given priority when there were more fundamental and higher priority issues to expend the countrys scarce foreign exchange on.

Outrage had greeted the CBNs decision that dollar be sold to intending pilgrims at N197/$1 at a time the market rate is averaging N400/$1.

Public condemnation had trailed a similar directive by the apex bank last year mandating banks to release dollar to the pilgrims at N160/$1 when the exchange rate for around N197/$1.

This religious subsidy policy is needless, leaves room for sharp practices, and it is in bad taste considering that the forex policy is deemed to have been somewhat been liberalised, the group said.

For example, importers of pharmaceutical products and textbooks do not benefit from a government special rebate, considering that these are more essential needs.

Education has also been adversely affected by the forex crisis with more Nigerians affected than those going on pilgrimages, the statement said.

Already, thousands of Nigerians studying abroad are being recalled home because their sponsors could no longer afford the fees.

Also, We know that overseas education is a private choice but so also is religious pilgrimage. If any of the two deserves government intervention, it is education, unequivocally.

The ARG maintained that the policy did not portend well for the economy at a time Nigeria was desperate about shoring up its Foreign Reserve.

This policy is more damaging to a larger Nigerian population that depends on stable forex policy and strengthening of the Naira. This is clearly a wrong priority and it must stop.
After ceasing fire for a few days in obedience of his partys directive, a former Chairman of the Appropriations Committee of the House of Representatives, Abdulmumin Jibrin resumed his onslaught against Speaker Yakubu Dogara on Sunday.

The leadership of the All Progressives Congress had ordered him and the Speaker to stop public comment on the budget padding scandal in the House.

But in a fresh attack on Sunday, Mr Jibril accused the speaker of pocketing N25million monthly, amounts he said were never accounted for.

He accused Mr. Dogara of enlisting the support of a five-man cabal consisting of two governors and three former House members to help him shield him from possible prosecution.

The said cabal, Mr. Jibrin said, had blocked him from reaching Mr. Buhari.

I am therefore left with no choice than to plead with all our former Heads of State, Gen Yakubu Gowon, Gen Olusegun Obasanjo, Alh Shehu Shagari, Gen Ibrahim Babangida, Chief Enest Shonekan, Gen Abdulsalam Abubakar and Dr Goodluck Jonathan and the diplomatic community, particularly Ambassador of the United States of America, High Commissioner of the United Kingdom, the German and French Ambassadors and all well-meaning Nigerians to join in the call on the corrupt and fraudulent Speaker Dogara and 3 others to reconvene the House immediately, step aside and allow for a thorough external investigation and also call on the anti-corruption agencies to expedite action on investigation and commencement of prosecution in line with the anti corruption stands of this government,  he said.

Read Mr. Jibrins Full Statement

YAKUBU DOGARA, YUSUF LASUN, ALHASSAN DOGUWA AND 9 OTHERS: A LITMUS TEST FOR THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION IN NIGERIA AND A DEFINING MOMENT FOR THE STRUGGLE TO CLEAN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF CORRUPTION AND WEED OUT CORRUPT ELEMENTS

It has once again become necessary for me to make some statements, clarifications and further revelations.

As you are aware, my party the APC has intervened in the current crisis, following allegations of corruption, embezzlement and gross abuse of office I leveled against Speaker Yakubu Dogara, three other principal officers and 9 other members, of which none had responded to any.

As I said earlier, it is only the 13 members of the House that are on trial not the House of Representative as an institution. Surprisingly, they have resorted to using every tactics to narrow the allegations to only issue of padding, which in itself is a grievous offense, ignoring tens of other criminal allegations contained in my petition to the anti-corruption agencies. In doing so, they mischievously expanded the scope of the culpability to give an impression that the entire House, Senate and even the Executive arm of government and some individuals outside NASS are on trial.

This is a wicked attempt to drag many institutions and individuals into the matter to neutralize the issue, spread fear and sell the dummy that the entire country will go down if this matter is dealt with decisively. This is the biggest blackmail I have ever seen. Nigerians should know that the whole agenda of this blackmail is being coordinated by a group of five people, two serving Governors and three former members of the House. I will give their names in due course. They have been running pillar to post and I keep wondering what really do they have to hide or are afraid of since they are not Members of the House.

The meeting with the party went very well and in all honesty they were very objective and showed understanding. I told the party that I will be part of any peaceful resolution EXCEPT on the criminal allegations I have raised against Speaker Dogara and 12 others. On that, I told the party there is no going back and further informed them that more revelations will be made once investigation commences. I also informed the party that I will stand as witness against them and provide every support that will help investigation and prosecution of these 13 extremely corrupt members. The party wrote and asked that Dogara and I should stop further public statements on this issue. I respected the party and stopped further statement but kept a close watch on what was going on. Of course I have my network everywhere.

After three days of careful observation and receiving information from very patriotic Nigerians, I discovered a grand plan by the group of two Governors and three former members designed to provide soft-landing for Dogara and 12 others, give them time to clean up the mess on their desk, destroy whatever evidence in their possession and reach, spread money across members to buy signature of vote of confidence, try to scare and drag as many people as they can into this matter, invade the party and top government officials and influential people that have the ears of the president and try to change the media and public narrative by embarking on very expensive media campaign to discredit and attack my person with all manner of lies they can concoct.

I have made it a duty to respond to all the allegations against me. The latest they brought up this weekend has already been taken care of in my soon-to-be-released memoir. But I have decided not to wait until my birthday in September to release it. I will start releasing the memoir in piecemeal any moment from now so that answers to their cheap blackmail, including the junk and lies they peddle in the media, will be provided. While I was determined to observe the ceasefire, Dogara and his group of few rogues didnt. I called Sen Lawali Shuaibu and complained on Thursday, Friday and Sunday. He promised to reach the Speaker. On Friday the Speaker spoke to the press after meeting the president on the matter, and they launched a massive attack on me on Saturday and today Sunday in the media, while the party is keeping a sealed lip. No body will blame me that I responded. Iam completely convinced that the two Governors and three former members were already at work. I know them like the palms of my hands, and I know how they operate. But Almighty God is more than them.

I was shocked and dumbfounded when I saw the Speaker on television saying padding is not an offense not because of the disgraceful contradiction after clearly stating that I was sacked for padding but I could not believe he could have the temerity to make such reckless, insensitive, arrogant and fraudulent statement right within the sanctity of the presidents Presidential Villa, a place that symbolizes zero tolerance for corruption. If you watched the Speaker on the screen talking, you can clearly see that from his face, cap, Agbada, down to his shoes, it was a radiation of corruption, dirty money, monumental fraud and abuse of office. It was irritating to see such character around the corridors of power.

He didnt know that by that statement he has clearly confirmed my allegation that he and 3 others connived with some committee chairmen to insert into the budget over 2,000 items worth 284billion naira. No wonder he refused to take action despite my complaint. Now that I have provided evidence that he and 3 others masterminded the insertion of 40 billion naira into the budget, another wasteful 20billion naira and attempt to force me to insert another 30billion naira into the budget, padding is no longer an offense???! So the Speaker is saying the nine roads he inserted into the budget which he fraudulently sandwiched into 4 roads and inserted billions into that without any design or costing is not an offense? Or the water project he hijacked from the budget and took to his farm is not an offense? Or moving ten solar boreholes to a place that probably requires just two is not an offense? This has really proved that Speaker Dogara is the son, father, grand father and great grand father of padding! Nigerians are watching!!!

Let me make further revelations here. In addition to the allegations I already made, the anti-corruption agencies should ask Speaker Dogara why on earth he collects 25million naira every month just to spend it the way he wants. They should also ask him to provide proof of how he is funding his farm in Nasarawa State which was just few hectares six months ago and now miraculously expands to about 100 hectares with new buildings and state-of-the-art equipment worth millions as well as the mansion he has suddenly built in Wuse II within six months.

It will be unfair to drag the Senate or senators into this matter. Everybody knows that it is the House that has commanding powers over appropriation. There is nothing in the senate appropriation committee secretariat, that is why I requested for the protection of only that of the House when I heard Dogara was planning to destroy the computers and the hardware. The Senate president was too busy then to even get involved. He was always receiving what I later realized was skeletal briefing from the Speaker. It is also a strong tradition of the National Assembly that in an event of disagreement between standing committee of the Senate and the House, that of the House supersedes. That was exactly what we did on 2016 budget except that of Health, where we adopted the report of the Senate because the chairman House Committee on Health practically converted the budget to his personal estate, moving massive amount of money that made the whole exercise looked like a big joke. I heard the chairman Hon Chike Okafor talking, trying to put defence on TV, and I simply said truly looters have no shame in Nigeria. The Minister of Health Prof Adewale is alive to testify and he knows the role I played to get the health budget, atleast to an implementable shape.

All government and security agencies and top government functionaries should be wary of the activities of these two governors and three former members going round trying to blackmail the Senate and the Executive arm of government in order to diffuse and neutralize the allegations that will change the history of Nigerian parliament for good. We may never have this kind of opportunity to deal decisively with corruption in the House. We may never! If you observe carefully, you will notice attempts last week to wickedly drag the Senate, DSS, SGF and others into this matter. This is all orchestrated by the group of 2 governors, 3 former members and Speaker Dogara and his corrupt cabal. Nobody is in a better position than me to know who the culprits are. The next time you see them in your offices trying to blackmail you that these allegations will bring down the whole country, report them to the police immediately. These allegations are on Speaker Dogara and 12 others and will not in anyway bring down the House, the Senate or the Executive arm of government as they are claiming in their widely spread propaganda.

Part of the grand plan is also to peg the blackmail on religious line. Speaker Dogara forgot that it was me, a Muslim from North West that spearheaded his election despite all the challenges I faced.

I believe Speaker Dogara, the 12 others and some vested interest within and outside the House want to kill me. I no longer feel safe. I have carefully followed their desperation to suppress what will go down in history as the biggest corruption case in Nigeria. I have prepared myself for any eventuality. I have spoken to my mum and dad extensively during the weekend. I have prepared my family. I have handed over a handwritten note and documents to a popular SAN, a man of integrity and other persons that I believe will lay it bare even if they succeed in killing me.

It is a fact that all the members that signed for Dogaras vote of confidence collected money in a shameful and disgraceful exercise, and despite that the consensus remains the Speaker must step aside and face external investigation.

Finally, this cabal of two governors and three former members have blocked every avenue that I can use to reach the President so that he can get a different perspective on this issue. Iam therefore left with no choice than to plead with all our former Heads of State, Gen Yakubu Gowon, Gen Olusegun Obasanjo, Alh Shehu Shagari, Gen Ibrahim Babangida, Chief Enest Shonekan, Gen Abdulsalam Abubakar and Dr Goodluck Jonathan and the diplomatic community, particularly Ambassador of the United States of America, High Commissioner of the United Kingdom, the German and French Ambassadors and all well-meaning Nigerians to join in the call on the corrupt and fraudulent Speaker Dogara and 3 others to reconvene the House immediately, step aside and allow for a thorough external investigation and also call on the anti-corruption agencies to expedite action on investigation and commencement of prosecution in line with the anti corruption stands of this government.

God bless Nigeria.

Hon Abdulmumin Jibrin

APC-Kano

Kiru-Bebeji Federal Constituency

Kano
Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode on Sunday said his administration has the capacity and will to fight all forms of crime and criminality, saying that it would not relent in its efforts until criminal elements have no hiding place in the State.

The governor who addressed journalists on the safe rescue of the Oniba of Iba, Oba Goriola Oseni, said in the last few weeks, there had been a coordinated onslaught by security agencies in the State against vandals and kidnappers, under the code name Operation Awatse, adding that the operation would continue until their activities were completely stamped out.

The governor, who spoke through the States Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Adeniji Kazeem, said the kidnap of an Oba in Yorubaland was a sacrilege and a complete desecration of the cultural values of the Yoruba race, which according to him, must not go unpunished.

He said, The arrest of these suspects is a clear warning to criminal elements that we value and cherish our Yoruba tradition and will leave no stone unturned to ensure that it is protected from violation by those who have desecrated our values.

The governor also commended the police and other security agencies for their all-round efforts in securing the release of the Oba and effecting the arrests of two of the suspected kidnappers, saying the Oba has since returned safely to his palace.

We are also pleased to announce that two of the kidnappers have been arrested and are here for everybody to see. The kidnappers are also prime suspects in the murder of two persons killed during the kidnap and they will face the full wrath of the law, the Governor said.

He urged the public to continue to be vigilant and take advantage of the states emergency numbers 112 and 767 to alert security agencies of any suspicious actions in their areas, assuring that the state government would continue to support security agencies to ensure Lagosians remain safe and secure.

Responding to questions from journalists, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, said the sustained pressure and hot chase given to the kidnappers led to the rescue of the Monarch.

While responding to inquiries as to whether ransom was paid, Mr. Owoseni said: We have always reiterated that it is not about whether ransom was paid or not. If it is about ransom, suspect will not be arrested and what I will say is that the pressure by the Lagos Command and the Special Response Team of the Inspector General of Police from Abuja, the combined efforts and pressure paid off and the most important thing is that Kabiyesi is in his palace.

The CP added that the monarch was hale and hearty as at the time of his rescue, saying that he met personally with the monarch and debriefed him on his state of health.

Besides, Mr. Owoseni debunked insinuation that the state government abandoned the monarch to his fate during the period of the ordeal.

He said: As to whether the State Government did something or not, if you are seeing suspects being paraded, the security agencies are apparatus of government and that is to say that the government has worked very hard in order to get Kabiyesi liberated.

What we want to do is to also thank and appreciate the calmness and the understanding of the family who in the process of getting Kabiyesi out of the hands of the kidnappers have been very cooperative with us in order for us to get Kabiyesi out hale and hearty.

No matter the amount of money that is put to fund security, the United States has all it takes, France has all it takes but till tomorrow, you are still hearing of people being killed in Malls or whatever.

In France, some people went to church to go and kill a priest, so there is no society that you can completely eradicate crime. But for you to know, the logistics and wherewithal that the government has given all the security agencies in the State also contributed to the arrest that has been made.

All I want to say is that criminals should also know that whatever has been done, they will not go unpunished. As of now, investigation is still on and you can be assured that all the people that took part in that operation will be arrested and they will face the full wrath of the law. We will not reveal much so as not to jeopardize ongoing investigation, the CP said.

While being interviewed by journalists, the two arrested suspects said nine people were involved in the operation that led to the kidnap of the monarch.

The two suspects  Isaiah Ododomu and Toba Forejo said they were involved in illegal oil bunkering but were stopped from the business due to the renewed efforts of government against them, adding that they were arrested on Saturday at Iyana School in Lagos.

Narrating how the attack was carried out, Mr. Isaiah said: I was involved in illegal bunkering. As this government stopped bunkering, our leaders arranged another group and this mission of the new group was to start kidnapping and use it to manage ourselves since we cant do oil bunkering again. I am a married man, I dont have any job to do. We used to do security for those main guys and anytime they make about N500, 000 they will give us like N20,000.
The former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio, has denied having link with the militant group, the Niger Delta Avengers.

A report published in the media (not PREMIUM TIMES) had alleged that Mr. Akpabio was among the sponsors of the group which has claimed responsibility for the spates of attacks on oil and gas installations in the restive region.

Mr. Akpabio, who is the Senate Minority Leader, described the report as a politically motivated propaganda.

It is a fabrication from the pit of hell from those who are profiteering from the crisis in the Niger Delta and would wish no end to it, Mr. Akpabio said through a statement released on Sunday by his Special Assistant on Media, Anietie Ekong.

For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state categorically that Senator Akpabio has no link with the Niger Delta Avengers or any other militant group for that matter.

Contrarily, the position of Senator Akpabio as a foremost advocate of dialogue in resolving the Niger Delta crisis is well known. He is of the strong belief that blowing up pipelines and causing further environmental pollution of the Niger Delta is not in the interest of the region as it would take over 100 years to remediate the effects of such environmental degradation.

Neither does he believe that economic sabotage at a time of economic recession that the nation is presently passing through can be an answer to the Niger Delta problem.

The former governor cautioned against politicizing the Niger Delta crisis.

What the nation needs is concerted efforts by stakeholders to holistically through dialogue address the grievances of the region which luckily President Muhammadu Buhari has already started.
President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday described late journalist Chuks Ehirim as an avowed believer in social justice, equity and by extension the best tenets of democracy.

Mr. Buhari made the comments in a speech presented at the funeral of Mr. Ehirim, who died on June 16 at the age of 50.

Mr. Ehirim, a former chairman of the Abuja chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, was buried in his home town in Orlu, Imo State, on Friday.

The president was represented at the event by the Director General of the Voice of Nigeria, Osita Okechukwu.

He was a change agent, patriot and one of the few journalists who stuck out their necks during President Buharis long struggle to reposition Nigeria, via the might of his pen, Mr. Buhari said.

Beyond his strong belief in democracy, Chuks also believed in Nigeria and eloquently canvassed this in his long career in journalism. In the last 17 years of our democratic rule, Chuks condemned the unbridled and pervasive corruption which dislocated our physical and social infrastructure.

In the speech, Mr. Buhari also noted the role played by Mr. Ehirim during his long time road to the presidency, a role he said was buoyed by the journalists believe in his character as a man capable of leading Nigeria out of its perennial challenges.

He not only supported Mr Presidents political struggle, but has an abiding faith that despite the hardship in the country that Buhari will take Nigeria out of the woods. Therefore, we are beneficiaries of Chuks uncommon patriotism and abiding faith in one Nigeria, Mr. Buhari said.

Mr. Ehirim, until his death, was a staff of TheNiche Newspapers. He was survived by his wife, four children, mother and siblings.

Read below, full speech delivered by Mr. Okechukwu, on behalf of the president.

FUNERAL ORATION (ED today at Isiekenesi, Orlu LGA

May I on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari,GCFR, commensurate with the wife, children, family, friends and colleagues of Comrade Chuks Ehirim for his untimely death and pray for the repose of his soul.

Comrade Chuks Ehirim was an avowed believer in social justice, equity and by extension the best tenets of democracy. He was a change agent, patriot and

one of the few journalists who stuck out their necks during President Buharis long struggle to reposition Nigeria, via the might of his pen.

Beyond his strong belief in democracy, Chuks also believed in Nigeria and eloquently canvassed this in his long career in journalism. In the last 17 years of our democratic rule, Chuks condemned the unbridled and pervasive corruption which dislocated our physical and social infrastructure.

He not only supported Mr Presidents political struggle, but has an abiding faith that despite the hardship in the country that Buhari will take Nigeria out of the woods. Therefore, we are beneficiaries of Chuks uncommon patriotism and abiding faith in one Nigeria.

To Chuks everlasting memorable credit is the truism that he died in action in the service of fatherland. He was a member of the Monitoring Committee of Internal Displaced Persons (IDP). Report has it that he caught cold in this mission while in Borno State and hurriedly left for Abuja to attend to his illness.

As former chairman of NUJ, Abuja Council, he started a befitting Secretariat for the council. According to the information at my disposal, the NUJ secretariat that Chuks started is a four storey building. A project which could have remained in archaic state without Chuks dexterity. This positive development and enduring legacy is vintage Chuks.

It is important to note that Chuks was a man of commendable integrity. He never used his office as NUJ chairman Abuja Chapter, to enrich himself, especially in an era where people see every opportunity for service as a means of personal enrichment, Chuks Ehirim wrote his name in gold. And with his passing, Nigerian journalism has lost one of its finest practitioners.

Mr President understands that Chuks sadly left behind, an aged mother, wife, four children, and other siblings, would want to convey to the immediate family, his kindred and the government and people of Imo State, his sincere and deep sorrow over this sad loss. We should take solace on the fact that God gives and God takes.

Mr Presidents prayer is that God will give the family the fortitude to bear the loss and ability to bring up the children in the culture of unalloyed integrity like their late father. We will lend helping hand.

Adieu Chuks!

Mr Osita Okechukwu

Director General

Voice of Nigeria (VON)
The Ondo State University of Science and Technology, Okitipupa, has suffered a range of neglect since it was inaugurated for academic activities in 2010 by the Ondo State Government.

Besides the poor attention from its owner, which resulted in substantial infrastructural deficits since its inception, the institutions fortunes dwindled with a dip in government resources occasioned by a drastic fall in federal allocations.

Workers of the one-faculty university had been on strike since May this year, following the inability of the state government to pay employees of the institution.

The last time lecturers and other staff members of the school received their salary was in December 2015, bringing the salary arrears to seven months.

Worse hit by the development are students of the university whose programmes have been delayed by the unending strike.

We have been home for over two months now, since the strike was called and it means we are going to loose a whole session if the strike is not called off soon, says Aliu Quadri Olawale, a 400 level student of microbiology of the institution.

Its been two months since students have been sent on force semester break, in which we didnt write the exams.

The reason was simply because of salary issues, the government is owing the staffs about six months salaries, these prompted the lecturers to all agree on no payment, no work.

As a 400 level student, Mr. Olawale is supposed to be on his mid-session internship since June, but having not written his first semester examination, he is not qualified to begin the exercise.

Since we cannot go on Industrial Training(IT), I am afraid this could lead to an additional year for us in 400 level and also the 500 level students may graduate next year if care is not taken, he lamented.

The institutions students union government had without success called on the government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities(ASUU) to reach a compromise so students could return to class.

Thomas Opeyemi John, the SUG General Secretary, told PREMIUM TIMES that students were helpless, and that their stay at home had become endless.

Its been well over two months and we are still at home, he said. By now we ought to be writing our second semester examination, but the management said they cant pay salary.

According to Mr. John, ASUU and other unions uncompromising stance in the face of the inability of the government to pay salaries spells doom for the students who are frustrated at the moment.

The students are appealing to the media and other well meaning organisations to help appeal to the government to do something drastic to change the situation.

Temola Dayo, Chairman of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities(SSANU), OSUSTECH, in a chat with PREMIUM TIMES , said the university workers would not return to work until salaries were paid.

Our position is, no salary, no resumption, he said. Besides unpaid salaries, the institution has no power supply, there are abandoned projects everywhere and you work when there is no money because workers would have to pay for transport to go to work.

He said the university had run only one faculty (faculty of science) for the past seven years, lowering the standard of the institution.

Mr. Dayo said a letter listing all the problems of the institution, dated July 20, was forwarded to the state governor, but nothing had been done to address the problems.

Efforts to reach the Vice Chancellor, Professor Adegbite, was unsuccessful as calls made to him received no response.

However, the state Commissioner for Information, Kayode Akinmade, said the government recognised the pains of the students and lecturers and that it was working to ensure the issues were resolved.

He admitted that the government had no money to pay the workers, owing to the current drop in revenues accruing to the state.

Mr. Akinmade said while the government was prepared to reach a compromise with the striking workers, there was need for the latter to reason with the government in the present financial reality.

When we came on board the university was on paper, he explained. It was this government that ensured that the university took off at its temporary site and them moved to its permanent site, so the government means well and is prepared to do all within its powers to ensure the students return to classes.
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.




EDINBURGH, Scotland, August 7, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

An Edinburgh dentist has expanded his central belt holdings with the purchase of a new practice in Livingston, after securing an 882k funding package from Bank of Scotland.

Dr Vineeth Balachandran has taken over the Bankton Dental Practice in Livingston after two years of successful business and growth at his Seven Hills Dental Practice in Edinburgh. The new, larger premises will increase his overall workforce across both locations from six to 16. Both practices had a combined patient list of over 11000.

A leading practitioner of implant dentistry, Dr Balachandran brings his expertise in the field to Bankton Dental in Livingston, where currently no other dentist offers the same range of complex implant procedures.

Bankton Dental is also one of the only practices in Scotland to house state of the art Biolase technology, which allows staff to carry out cutting edge laser treatments on patients, another major impetus for Dr Balachandran's purchase of the practice.

Dr Balachandran comments saying: "Expanding our business to Livingston was a natural step for us and the facilities and expert staff already in place at Bankton Dental made the decision even easier. I'm looking forward to continuing to grow the practice's reputation in the area as a provider of the highest quality dental care, as well as introducing new, innovative treatments and procedures to the community."

Both Bankton Dental and Seven Hills Dental accept NHS and private patients. Clients are given the choice between NHS and private treatments where available. Both practices are equipped for Dental Implant treatments and Dr Balachandran is available at both premises during the week. Other treatments available include Cosmetic orthodontic treatments, Dental Veneers and facial rejuvenation treatments.

http://www.sevenhillsdental.co.uk

http://www.banktondental.co.uk

SOURCE Seven Hills Dental Practice
AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 6, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Vivo Initio is pleased to announce that Navidar has selected the Vivo Initio CRM platform to manage its marketing initiatives. Vivo Initio CRM is an easy to use web-based and mobile friendly CRM system with marketing automation and customizable reporting.

Navidar, with presences in Austin, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Indianapolis, Minneapolis and San Antonio, is an investment banking firm that provides businesses and investors in dynamic industries with strategic merger and acquisition advice, capital raising solutions and corporate advisory services. The firm focuses on SaaS Software, technology, IT & business services, engineering & technical services, specialty manufacturing, and health care information technology companies. Navidar principals have completed more than 300 transactions representing transaction volume of nearly $70 billion in M&A and capital raising, for both private and public companies, over the past 20 years.

"The Vivo Initio CRM platform is a perfect fit for our needs as it is flexible, intuitive to navigate, easily configurable and ready to use on any device including mobile. In addition, the solution was designed and coded right here in Austin, TX and therefore, we are proud to support one of our local leading companies. We have been impressed by the team's ability to rapidly add new features as well and to provide excellent customer support," said Stephen Day, Co-founder and Managing Director of Navidar.

"Navidar's adoption of our CRM solution, a professional services firm, is yet another indication of how robust our solution is and its applicability to a wide range of businesses. Given Navidar's knowledge of SaaS software and of the CRM space in particular, we are delighted that they chose the Vivo Inito solution after careful consideration of other alternatives," said Hans van der Wal, founder of Vivo Initio CRM.

About Vivo Initio

Vivo Initio, located in Austin, TX, provides a web-based, mobile friendly CRM and marketing solution that allows businesses and non-profit organizations to streamline the sales and deal-closing process. The CRM system features list segmentation, sales funnels, email open and clicked-through rates, marketing automation, and centralized customer information to help businesses on all levels of the organization. Its customizable dashboard and reporting allows easy sharing of key business metrics visible within the organization. Vivo Initio primarily focuses on ease of use and configurability to deliver customer satisfaction. To learn more about Vivo Initio CRM, please visit www.vivoinitio.com, or send an email to [email protected].

SOURCE Vivo Initio CRM

Related Links

https://vivoinitio.com


If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here
Los Angeles, Aug 5 : Actor Jared Leto, who stars as Joker in the film "Suicide Squad", feels that Hollywood is not yet ready for a gay leading man.

The 44-year-old actor also argued that Hollywood is still an extremely conservative place especially when it comes to opportunities for LGBT actors, reports ew.com.

"I definitely don't think a gay leading man would have the same opportunities as a straight leading man," Leto told GQ Style magazine.

"I don't think that. Not for a single second. I don't know if that's offensive or not, but that's my thought right now. It shouldn't be that way. I don't think you'll have as many opportunities," he added.

Leto also held similar views for minorities in the industry.

"And I think you could say the same for minorities. What a word, 'minority'. Have we taken that word off the list yet? Because it should be. Anyway, no, I think that this is still a very conservative business," Leto said.
Kokrajhar, Aug 6 : Tension continues to simmer here a day after militants of the anti-talk faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) triggered grenade blasts and shot at civilians, even as the number of dead rose to 14 on Saturday.

The Army, who retaliated immediately, had killed one of the attackers on Friday, who has since been identified. Two others escaped and a hunt is on to apprehend them.

Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday said that one of the injured, who was hit by bullets, died on Saturday morning, taking the total civilian death to 14.

The Minister, who had visited Kokrajhar immediately after the incident on Friday, said that the slain militant has been identified as Manjoy Islari alias Maodang, a commander of the outfit.

Meanwhile, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Sarma on Saturday visited Guwahati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) to take stock of the injured who were shifted to Guwahati last night.

"The doctors here informed us that their condition is improving. We have instructed security forces to go all out against the militants. We are committed to providing security to the lives and property of the people," said the Chief Minister after coming out of GMCH.

The condition of five injured brought to GMCH last night is out of danger. Today five more of those injured will be shifted to GMCH said Sarma.

"Although the family members have identified the slain NDFB commander, we are going to go for DNA test to ascertain his identity scientifically," Sarma said.

"The situation is normal now. We are receiving seven companies of additional forces in Kokrajhar. While a few of them have already reached, some are being sent," said Additional DGP Bodoland Territorial Area Districts(BTAD) LR Bishnoi while talking to IANS on Saturday.

He said that the process of identifying the militants involved in the killing on Friday is on. "We have called the family members of the slain militant to formally identify him and the process is on to gather details about the other two militants involved in the killing," said Bishnoi.

Meanwhile, a senior police official based in Assam Police headquarters at Guwahati said that inter-state borders of the state as well as all the entry and exit routes of the state have been sealed following the incident and operations have been intensified along the areas adjacent to the Indo-Bhutan border in BTAD area.

"The operation against the militants is a continuous process. Police and security forces have been carrying out operations against the militants, particularly against the NDFB faction, who had killed over 70 Adivasis in December 2014. However, after the Friday's mayhem, the operations have been intensified," he said.

Three NDFB militants opened fire at the weekly Balajan market near Kokrajhar town on Friday and instantly killed 13 civilians and injured 20 others.

The Assam government has put the police and security forces on alert in most of the districts after the Friday's incident at Kokrajhar and counter insurgency operations have been intensified in many areas to flush out the anti-talk faction of NDFB militants, who had perpetrated the Friday's terror attack.

The Assam government had also sent seven companies of additional forces to Kokrajhar district to help the existing forces in carrying out the operations against the militants and also to instill a sense of security among the people of the district.
London, Aug 6 : A 19-year-old man charged with the murder of a US tourist in a mass stabbing attack in London's Russell Square was remanded in custody on Saturday.

Zakaria Bulhan, of south-west London, has been charged with the murder of Darlene Horton, 64, and the attempted murder of five other people, the BBC reported.

Bulhan - a Norwegian national of Somali origin - appeared at the Westminster Magistrates' Court earlier in the day.

A British man who suffered a stab wound in his stomach in the attack remains in hospital in a "serious but stable" condition.

An American man, an Australian, an Australian woman and an Israeli woman were all discharged from hospital on Thursday, after treatment of their injuries, the BBC said.

Police raided Bulhan's home in Tooting, south London, on Thursday after he was arrested on suspicion of murder.

The police said they received numerous calls starting at 10.30 p.m. on Wednesday describing a "man attacking people with a knife" between Russell Square, Montague Street, Bloomsbury Square and Great Russell Street.

Horton was visiting London with her husband Richard Wagner, who was teaching summer classes.

Florida State University said the couple had planned to return to their home in Tallahassee on Thursday - the day after the attack.
Los Angeles, Aug 7 : Ricci Martin, a musician and youngest son of the legendary entertainer Dean Martin, is dead. He was 62.

Ricci was found dead on Wednesday at his home in Utah, according to family members. The cause of his death has yet to be determined, reports variety.com.

Ricci is survived by three daughters, Pepper, Montana and Rio; his mother, Jeanne Martin; his elder brother, Craig; and four sisters, Gail, Deana, Gina and Sasha.

In the 1970s, Ricci collaborated with Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys to produce the album "Beached". Carl later became his brother-in-law.

In the 1990s, he joined the rock band Dino, taking the place of his late brother Dean Paul Martin. Ricci performed with the band at the MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas and other clubs with Desi Arnaz Jr and Billy Hinsche. Dean was killed in a military jet crash in 1987.

Ricci also wrote a book called "That's Amore" in 2002 about growing up in Beverly Hills, California as part of Dean's family. In the memoir, he recalled his 21st birthday party with a guest list that included John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Elizabeth Taylor, David Bowie and Elton John.

In recent years, Ricci had been performing a touring tribute show to his father.
Kuala Lumpur, Aug 7 : The first batch of 138 Myanmar nationals detained in Malaysia is set to return home on Monday, official sources said on Sunday.

The detainees, who have been issued Certificate of Identity, under the arrangement with the Kanbawza's Brighter Future Myanmar Foundation will return to Myanmar on a Myanmar International flight from Kuala Lumpur, Myanmar's Foreign Ministry was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

At present, 2,294 Myanmarese nationals are detained in 11 camps in Malayasia, the sources added.

In March 2015, a Myanmarese Navy warship carried back 102 illegal Myanmarese immigrants from Malaysia who were kept at detention camps.

More than 400,000 Myanmar immigrants are reportedly working in Malaysia, of whom about 300,000 are legal entrants, while about 40,000 are illegal. The rest are involved in various processes for refugee status.

Myanmar authorities are cooperating with Malaysian officials to protect their citizens working in the Southeast Asian country as they are often targeted victims of violence and murder there.

In September 2013, Myanmar started recalling its citizens detained in Malaysia for working illegally there.
Gandhinagar, Aug 7 : BJP leader Vijay Rupani on Sunday took oath as the 16th Chief Minister of Gujarat along with Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel and 23 other ministers.

Governor O.P. Kohli administered the oath of office and secrecy at the Mahatma Mandir at an event witnessed by BJP President Amit Shah, veteran L.K. Advani and outgoing Chief Minister Anandiben Patel.

Eight ministers, including Nitin Patel, took oath as the cabinet ministers while 16 took oath as ministers of state.

In a surprise move, nine ministers of the outgoing government, including Finance Minister Saurabh Patel and Social Justice Minister Ramanlal Vora, were dropped.

The total strength of new Council of Ministers has reached 25 while there were 24 ministers in the Ananidben government.

A total of eight ministers are from Patidar community, whose massive street protests posed the first major challenge to Anandiben who cited her age for stepping down as Chief Minister.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Rupani and Nitin Patel after they took oath, saying it marked the start of a new innings :to continue the development journey" of Gujarat.

"Congrats to Vijay Rupani, Nitinbhai Patel and others sworn in as they begin their innings to continue the development journey of Gujarat," Modi tweeted.

He applauded Anandiben: "She has been working tirelessly for the people of Gujarat for many years."

Chief Ministers Manohar Lal Khattar of Haryana and Devendra Fadnavis of Maharashtra also attended the event.
Gajwel (Telangana), Aug 7 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday asked states to probe the fake "gau rakshaks (cow protectors)" and take strong action against them, saying they were destroying the country.

Voicing concern over incidents of cow vigilantism, he again called for isolating and punishing the fake "gau rakshaks" as a handful of such people were destroying the social fabric and creating conflict in the society.

Speaking at a public meeting at Gajwel in Telangana's Medak district after inaugurating the state's drinking water programme "Mission Bhagiratha", he said Indian is a county full of diversities, different values and traditions and protecting its "unity and integrity is our prime responsibility".

"The fake gau rakshakhs have nothing to do with cows. They want to create tension in society," he said.

The PM said he salute real "gau rakshaks" and "gau sevaks" and appealed to them to come forward to expose fake "gau rakshaks". "I appeal to you to come forward lest the good work being done by you is destroyed by a handful of people for their selfish interests," he added.

He said those who believe in agau bhakti' and Aagau seva' should link cow with agriculture, saying this will give stability to the sector and contribute to economic development. "Cow is an asset and it can never become a burden," he remarked.

Modi told the public meeting that the Himachal Pradesh Governor Acharya Devvrat always experiments with new things in agriculture. The governor, he said, hands over non-milching cows abandoned by people to farmers and ask them to link cows with cultivation as the cow urine and cow dung improves the soil fertility.

Breaking his silence on cow vigilantism, Modi had on Saturday said he felt "very angry" at such incidents and has asked state governments to prepare a dossier of people who are "running shops" in the name of cow protection.

"There are some people who are running shops in the name of cow protection. They indulge in anti-social activities in the night and wear the cloak of 'gau rakshaks' (cow protectors) by the day," a visibly riled Modi said at a Town Hall-style meeting in New Delhi.

The opposition parties have been criticising the Prime Minister for his "silence" amid growing incidents of attacks on Dalits and Muslims by "gau rakshaks" in various parts of the country.

Four Dalit youths were flogged by cow vigilantes near Una town in Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Gujarat on July 11, while in the party-ruled Jharkhand, two Muslim cattle herders were hanged by a local cow protection vigilante group in March this year.

Last month two Muslim women were beaten up at Mandsaur railway station in Madhya Pradesh, also ruled by the BJP, on the suspicion of carrying beef even as policemen at the spot just looked on.

The Modi government had also come under attack last year following the lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri in Uttar Pradesh for allegedly keeping beef in his refrigerator.
London, Aug 7 : The British government has "abandoned and betrayed" six former soldiers jailed in India for carrying firearms while protecting boats from pirates, the sister of one of the incarcerated men has said.

The men -- Nick Dunn, Ray Tindall, Billy Irving, Paul Towers, John Armstrong and Nicholas Simpson -- who were arrested in 2013, were among 35 crew members sentenced in January by an Indian court to five years in prison for carrying unlicensed firearms, the Guardian reported on Sunday.

They were held while working for an anti-piracy security company protecting commercial ships off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean.

The men, who have been backed by more than 20 MPs, including former Prime Minister David Cameron, have consistently maintained their innocence and launched an appeal to overturn their sentences.

Now Nick Dunn's sister has urged Prime Minister Theresa May and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to intervene in the case amid concerns that the men's mental state was beginning to deteriorate.

"Nick's always maintained that he feels abandoned and betrayed by the government and the country that he once served," Lisa Dunn told the Guardian.

"Now that we have a new government in place, I would like to personally reach out to Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Alan Duncan (Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs) and respectfully request that they continue to keep this case at the top of their agendas as we have been assured many times previously."

Lisa said the British government had issued the licences for the weapons, including semi-automatic G3 assault rifles, which the Indian courts have claimed are automatic weapons and, therefore, prohibited, the Guardian said.

Last month, Edward Bell, the British government's head of export controls, confirmed to the Indian court that Vince Cable, the then business secretary, granted licences for the firearms in 2012 and 2013.

Cameron made a personal appeal last year to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on behalf of the Britons, who had served in Afghanistan and Iraq. Newly-appointed Minister for Asia, Alok Sharma, also raised the case with India's External Affairs Ministry in July.

"I appreciate and understand that the government have spoken to various Indian counterparts over the last nearly three years, but for the evidence that's there it's beyond belief that our government haven't pushed harder," the Guardian quoted Lisa as saying.

The men's prison conditions are said to be dire. Lisa said the men sleep on concrete in cells infested with snakes and rats, using a hole in the ground for a toilet.

Last week the men's families went to Downing Street to deliver a petition signed by 375,000 people demanding that the government secure their release.
Kolkata, Aug 7 : West Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Sunday accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of using the administration for poaching opposition leaders for her Trinamool Congress.

"District magistrates and superintendents of police are being used by the chief minister to influence Congress leaders and workers to join the Trinamool. This is being done in districts which are Congress strongholds, like Murshidabad, Malda and North Dinajpur," Chowdhury told media persons here.

"As there is no election around, the Trinamool chief has decided to go around destroying other parties," he said.

The comments come in the wake of several Congress leaders including legislator Tushar Kanti Bhattacharya of Bishnupur assembly constituency switching over to the ruling Trinamool.

Chowdhury also said the party was mulling legal actions against Bhattacharya.

Congress which emerged as the main opposition party in the Assembly elections, had made all its 44 legislators to give a "written declaration" on stamp paper that they would not leave the party.

Chowdhury also slammed the state administration over the dengue outbreak which so far has claimed at least 11 lives.

"The administration has been a complete failure in tackling dengue which has now acquired alarming proportions. The state is on the threshold of a dengue epidemic but the chief minister is unperturbed," he said.

He also took a jibe over the Banerjee government's bid to take over the Rabindranath Tagore Nobel medallion theft case from the CBI which had been entrusted with the investigation following the theft which came to light on March 25, 2004.

"We will be happy if she is successful in doing so and will demand a Nobel Prize for her if she manages to retrieve the stolen medallion," said Chowdhury.
Hyderabad, Aug 7 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday called for protecting Dalits and for isolating and punishing fake "gau rakshaks" (cow protectors), saying they were destroying the country.

On his maiden visit to Telangana, Modi sent out clear messages during his speeches at two different platforms.

Making it clear that caste discrimination will not be allowed, he asked BJP workers to protect Dalits and asked states to act tough against fake cow vigilantes.

Addressing a meeting of BJP's booth-level workers of Telangana at L.B. Stadium here, he said that if the country has to progress, peace, unity and harmony can't be neglected.

He also called for putting an end to politicising the caste issue and alleged that some parties which considered Dalits as their vote bank and afraid of the initiatives taken by his government, were trying to raise such issues by somehow influencing Dalits.

"I want to tell all such people, if you want to attack, attack me, not my Dalit brothers. If you want to shoot, shoot me, not my Dalit brothers," Modi said without naming any party.

"Sometimes some incidents come to light which make heads hang in shame," he said and described such incidents as sin against humanity.

His remarks were in an obvious reference to the flogging of four Dalits by cow vigilantes in Gujarat's Una town on July 11.

"Is there any reason that we treat our Dalit brothers this way. What right we have to make these sections suffer when they are sufferings for centuries," he asked.

Terming caste discrimination as a social problem, Modi said it was his request to all those who want a solution to give up politics of dividing the society. "This is a social problem. The more we politicize it, the more it gets complicated."

Earlier, in his speech at a public meeting at Gajwel in Medak district, Modi called for isolating and punishing fake "gau rakshaks, saying they were out to destroy the social fabric.

Addressing the meeting after inaugurating the state's drinking water programme "Mission Bhagiratha" and launching other projects, he said India is a county full of diversities, different values and traditions and protecting its "unity and integrity is our prime responsibility".

"The fake gau rakshakhs have nothing to do with cows. They want to create tension in society," he said.

The PM said he salute real "gau rakshaks" and "gau sevaks" and appealed to them to come forward to expose fake "gau rakshaks". "I appeal to you to come forward lest the good work being done by you is destroyed by a handful of people for their selfish interests," he added.

Breaking his silence on cow vigilantism, Modi had in New Delhi on Saturday said he felt "very angry" at such incidents and has asked state governments to prepare a dossier of people who are "running shops" in the name of cow protection.

On Sunday, Modi also used both the platforms to highlight the achievements of his government. He also explained how the centre and states were working together in the spirit of cooperative federalism.

At Gajwel, while he lauded the initiatives taken by Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao during last two years, at the BJP workers meeting in Hyderabad, he said the party would make the state's future bright.

Central ministers M. Venkaiah Naidu, Anant Kumar, Suresh Prabhu, Piyush Goel and Bandaru Dattatreya accompanied Modi.
Kabul, Aug 8 : Two foreign professors from the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul have been kidnapped, media reported.

ABC News reported that an American and Australian professor were kidnapped at gunpoint outside the university on Sunday.

Kabul police chief Abdel Rahman Rahimi confirmed the kidnapping.

The news comes days after the Taliban claimed responsibility for an attack on a group of foreign tourists in western Afghanistan.

In July, Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada claimed an end to foreign occupation would bring unity to Afghanistan.

An Indian aid worker kidnapped in Kabul in June was rescued in July and returned to India.
For HablaCuba.com, August is a nostalgic month, celebrating all things Cuban expats miss about their home country -- memories that make people value their families, their friends, their relationships more. HablaCuba.com offers a cure for homesickness: sending international top ups, which are more than doubled thanks to Cubacel promotion.

The promotion starts on August 8th and is valid until August 12. This month, the promotion is more attractive than ever, as it offers customers a maximum bonus of 90 CUC. Every recharge between 20 CUC and 60 CUC will be rewarded with a Super Bono, as follows:



For 20 CUC recharges, customers will send 50 CUC

For 30 CUC recharges, customers will send 60 CUC

For 40 CUC recharges, customers will send 100 CUC

For 50 CUC recharges, customers will send 110 CUC

For 60 CUC recharges, customers will send 150 CUC

Keeping the good old Super Bono tradition, a Facebook contest is taking place on http://www.facebook.com/HablaCuba. Customers are invited to share the things they miss the most about Cuba and get the chance to win a free top up of 20 CUC which they can use during Super Bono promotion. This means that the prize actually is a 50 CUC free top up.

Besides sending top ups, customers can also recharge their familys and friends Nauta accounts, thus helping them to have access to the internet. Or, if they prefer calling, they can also use HablaCuba.com services. Customers can place their calls:



From any landline, mobile or even payphone in the world, through local or toll free access numbers.

Through the app called KeepCalling, which is free to download.

From any PC with Internet connection, through the Web Call app available in customers accounts.

The rate for international calls to Cuba is 69.9 /min, both for landlines and mobiles and the cost of a text message is 7.

All services HablaCuba.com offers revolve around the websites mission, which is to bring people together, no matter the distance. HablaCuba.com offers a great solution for keeping a close relationship with everyone living back home in Cuba, due to:



Its customer-focused approach, based on safe and easy to use services

Its frequent special offers: bonuses on international top ups or discounts on international calls

Its great Customer Service available 24/7, both in English and Spanish.

Or, as customers put it: "Your consumer friendly instructions make it easy to cross borders and communicate with friends and family like it should be. (HablaCuba.com customer.)

About HablaCuba.com

HablaCuba.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.
Direct Design Floor is celebrating their website launch in August 2016, which commemorates the start of it's first exciting year in business. This is a huge milestone for the California - based Online Flooring Company business, which will be providing online flooring shoppers with an alternative to big box stores shopping for engineered hardwood, laminate and flooring accessories.

Direct Design Floor was founded when they recognized the opportunity to provide customers with high quality, eco friendly products with incredible selection and wholesale pricing.

One of the challenges in the flooring industry is there is only so much physical shelf space to showcase product which can actually limit the customer's choice and restrict it to what the store thinks they would prefer. This leaves many incredible products "unknown" to consumers - Direct Design Floor looks to lead the way in changing that.

While every industry of course faces challenges, some, like Direct Design Floor are fortunate enough to enjoy real successes, wins and victories too. Once such victory came when they partnered with companies who met the strict environmental regulations required and provided Direct Design Floor with access to products that aren't inventoried in most major flooring stores which allows for more unique selection of high quality flooring products at wholesale pricing.

Customer Experience Team Lead at Direct Design Floor, was also quoted when discussing another big win.

One of the high points of Direct Design Floor so far is streamlining the delivery process so customers don't have to pay inflated pricing at large box stores and are able to choose for convenient delivery right to their door. We're delighted to be celebrating our website launch. I believe that we are here today because of companies like Amazon & eBay paving the way, we saw an opportunity to provide our incredible customers with the ability to not only access incredible products at wholesale pricing but also to tailor the buying process to fit their needs.

Direct Design Floor has big plans for the upcoming year, continuing to grow their available product line and diligently providing an exceptional customer buying experience. One of their core objectives is growth through good old fashioned "word of mouth" and earned media while keeping the customer experience at the forefront of everything that they do.

Direct Design Floor currently serves customers in California, Nevada & Arizona and is looking to strategically expand across the U.S. as demand grows.

Direct Design Floor would like to thank friends, customers and all its partners for their well wishes on this happy occasion.

More information on the business can be found at DirectDesignFloor.com
From top left: Andrew Palomares, Christina Birdsey, Len Mazzella, Michael Collins, Brandon Severly, Kraig Jondle; Bottom left: Commissioner Arlene Fraser, Captain Gode, Kristin Decas, KJ May We are most pleased to welcome the M/V Thalatta and with the introduction of ships that improve the environment, increase efficiency and bring prosperity to the constituents we serve.

Wallenius Wilhelmsen Lines (WWL) company leaders and Port officials greeted the Ports first Post-Panamax ship, an occasion marking a paradigm shift in how the widened Panama Canal will bring a new class of vessels to the Port of Hueneme. This maiden voyage of the M/V Thalatta marks a new milestone to support the Ports and its industry partners robust environmental agenda. Thalatta is one of newest high efficiency Roll onRoll off (RoRo) HERO class vessels optimally designed to increase capacity and flexibility while reducing emissions.

Harbor Commissioner Arlene Fraser celebrated the occasion remarking, We are most pleased to welcome the M/V Thalatta and keep the course of advancing our Board adopted environmental framework with the introduction of ships that improve the environment, increase efficiency and bring prosperity to the constituents we serve.

In keeping with stated WWL corporate goals targeting innovation, responsibility and sustainability, environmental impact was of paramount interest during Thalattas design as with all HERO sister vessels. Thalatta is fitted with an Exhaust Gas Cleaning System that reduces sulphur emissions to below 0.1 per cent in compliance with ECA regulations and removes 70 percent of particulate matter, which also significantly reduces nitrogen oxide emissions. Using a new scrubber based technology, the vessel generates a steam based release at berth instead of diesel exhaust, making the vessel one of the greenest in the global Ro-Ro fleet.

Like the Thermopylae, the Thalatta measures almost 200 metres long, 36.5 metres wide and features five liftable car decks which allows for multiple configurations and a wide variety of customer cargo. The new vessel can transport up to 8,000 car equivalent units. With the increased beam (width), the Post Panamax vessels carry an additional 2,000 Ro-Ro units.

Thalatta is the second in a total of eight HERO Post-Pana Panamax vessels that commenced service for WWL in 2015 the final ship will be introduced in 2017.

Thalattas sister ship Themis is anticipated to arrive at the Port of Hueneme this September. Post-Panamax is the new standard vessel size based on the width of new locks now open at the Panama Canal.

Kristin Decas, Port CEO stated, We appreciate the business ethic of our customers as they strive to green their fleets and build market share for our Port, thereby achieving environmental benefit coupled with the creation of good jobs. We are proud that the high caliber customer of Wallenius Wilhelmsen Lines calls Port Hueneme home.

The Port of Hueneme is one of the most productive and efficient commercial trade gateways for niche cargo on the West Coast. The Port is governed by five locally elected Port Commissioners. The Port moves $9 billion in goods each year and consistently ranks among the top ten U.S. ports for automobiles and fresh produce. Port operations support the community by bringing $1.5 billion in economic activity and creating 13,633 trade-related jobs. Trade through the Port of Hueneme generates more than $93 million in direct and related state and local taxes, which fund vital community services.

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Rated 3.6 out of 5 by 43 reviewers.

Rated 2 out of 5 by med coder Very Disappointed I bought this floor cleaner to use between my regular cleaning also because it was a Shark product. I have their vacuum and I am very happy with that product. so I trusted their brand name. I have had this floor cleaner four months. I have never used it on the rugs or wood floors. Only on my tile floors about twice a week. It does leave a film on the tile but was a quick clean up. I washed the pads between every use. Yesterday I started to clean my hallway and realized no water was coming out. This is too expensive a product to only have for four months and it is now useless. Very disappointed in Shark. It is going in the garbage 08-09-16

Rated 5 out of 5 by JUNNIEBUG fantastic I love this cleaner simple to use and does a great job 08-07-16

Rated 3 out of 5 by mochadane Great machine, but there's an issue This Shark is a great cleaning machine! It does a great job on my laminate wood flooring. Easy to use and fairly quiet. The issue...unable to find the cleaning/shine products that attach to the machine. At first the local Walmart carried the cleaner/shine, as did some other stores. For months now, I have not been able to find them anywhere, including QVC. We are currently refilling the bottle with other products, but worry the plastic bottle will begin to leak leaving this great machine useless. QVC can you carry this cleaning and shine product again please?????? 08-04-16

Rated 1 out of 5 by sadunks5 Buyer Beware I purchased this unit in May 2015. I have used this carpet tile and hardwood floor cleaner once every two or three months at the most. Earlier this month the shark dou stopped working. I called customer service at shark and after troubleshooting the issue over the phone I was informed that they no longer manufacture this product and could not send me a replacement. They did however offer me a new shark vacuum that was comparable in price. That would have been a nice gesture however I just purchased a new shark vacuum three months ago. I continue to explain that A carpet and hardwood floor cleaner is not the same as a vacuum. They apologized and said that was all they are allowed to offer. Unfortunately, I now have to spend another $240 (which is what I paid for it on QVC) on another carpet cleaner. The unit was great while it worked. I'm just disappointed that they would not offer some form of a partial refund or gift card so I may purchase a replacement unit at a local retailer. 07-30-16

Rated 4 out of 5 by mk8 Very satisfied I love it because I'm an older women, this works perfect for me & helps me keep my carpet clean more often. Very light weight easy to handle. Only draw back, it's hard to find the cleanser. 07-30-16

Rated 5 out of 5 by mythreechildren2001 Solved my problem...but I remodeled my house and had laminate floors put in throughout. I was using the swiffer wet jet which was useless. I rarely turn to QVC, but fate was on my side when this product was on air! I am so happy with this product. I don't mind cleaning my floors at all, and before I dreaded it like the plague. It gets my floors CLEAN! My 14 year old daughter who is sometimes given that 'chore' doesn't even mind, because it is so quick...and believe me that is saying something! That's the good...now for the bad. I can't see how this could ever be pitched as a carpet cleaner. I've tried it on a very flat, no l pile rug and it just doesn't work. Fortunately I did not buy it as a carpet cleaner. I bought it as a solution to clean the laminate floors and it has exceeded my expectations. 07-30-16

Rated 1 out of 5 by Silverd So frustrated It's hot outside and so thought I'd stay inside, unpack my Sonic Duo and clean some floors. For the life of me I COULD NOT get the handle to click in. I called Shark to see if they could give me a hint, but they said it was easy - line it up, push it in till it clicks! I must have tried this a hundred times. Too many times definitely! It seems like a plastic type material so luckily it did not crack or break, but without a sturdy handle on it - useless! Back it goes! And the rest of the story - packing it all back up was a hotter process than it is outside! I will not request replacement of this product because I'm not convinced that it is a quality item, 07-06-16

Rated 1 out of 5 by HAPPYGRANNIE Terrible product So sorry I pitched this product. Nothing else to say. 07-05-16
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!
For the first time since Afghanistan in the 1980s, the Russian military for the past year has been in direct combat with rebel forces trained and supplied by the C.I.A. The American-supplied Afghan fighters prevailed during that Cold War conflict. But this time the outcome  thus far  has been different.
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0.58 ACRES OF VACANT LAND in POCONO SPRINGS IN WAYNE COUNTY, PA! Item ID: McGill01 Owner Name: Robert & Catherine McGill DESCRIPTION: 2 Vacant Lots 0.29 acres each in Wayne County, PA. Tax Map #26-0-0001-0375, Control #030313 & Tax Map #26-0-0001-0377, Control #051191. Legals: Lot 39 & Lot 43, on Maplewood Drive on the plot or plan of lots known as "Pocono Springs Estate, Inc." in Wayne County, PA. The site addresses for the parcels are 39 & 43 Maplewood Drive Newfoundland, PA 18445. According t...

Price: $ 103 Seller State of Residence: Canada Property Address: Maplewood Drive Type: Homesite, Lot Zoning: Residential City: Newfoundland State/Province: Pennsylvania Zip/Postal Code: 18445 Location: 184**, Newfoundland, Pennsylvania

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In honor of Read Across America Week, First Book UGA will host Read Across UGA Day on March 2 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Tate Plaza.
Athens is widely known for being a music hub  both in the past, when R.E.M. frequented the 
Our family went to Sacramento, where we visited the Capitol last week.

I hadnt toured the building since the late 1980s. My wife accompanied our two daughters when they took the trip as part of the fourth-grade curriculum.

The tour is well worth it, and our guides enthusiasm and passion for California history made it especially so. The Capitol is one of Californias state parks. A museum shares space with the Assembly and Senate chambers inside the building.

If youve been to the Capitol, you have seen the display cases for each county. The dioramas give visitors a snapshot of the particular region.

But its not a snapshot in time. The displays get updated when warranted. The dioramas for Solano and Siskiyou counties were getting a refresh when we visited. So those cases were closed, so to speak. Napa County also is getting an update.

Shasta Countys display is in bad need of an update to bring it into the 21st century.

As it is now, the case has a mining-town look to it. Shasta Dam serves as a backdrop. The areas wood products and recreational industry get a mention.

No Sundial Bridge. No pictures of Turtle Bay Exploration Park or the Sacramento River Trail. How about marketing our shovel-ready Stillwater Business Park? Or marketing an event that actually still happens in Shasta County?

The current display mentions the Dixieland Jazz Festival. That event has been silent since the turn of the century.

Help may be on the way, though.

Laurie Baker, of the Shasta Cascade Wonderland Association, agrees the case is antiquated. Baker said its the countys job to keep the case fresh and has reached out with an offer to help bring the display back from the 1980s.

They do say theyre open to letting somebody else do it. Its just a matter of time and working out the details, Baker told me.
SHARE Jacqueline Nichole Nichols Date of birth: Aug. 6, 1985 Vitals: 5 feet, 3 inches; 145 pounds; brown hair, hazel eyes Charge: Receiving stolen property Anthony Dennis Delacruz Date of birth: Oct 21, 1981 Vitals: 5 feet, 8 inches, 185 pounds; brown hair, brown eyes Charge: Felon in a possession of a firearm Mark Steven Wion Jr. Date of birth: Sept. 8, 1982 Vitals: 5 feet, 11 inches; 145 pounds; brown hair, green eyes Charge: Possession of a controlled substance for sale Jessica Dalton Green Date of birth: May 31, 1992 Vitals: 5 feet, 6 inches; 115 pounds; brown hair, brown eyes Charge: Petty theft

By Staff Reports

Shasta's Most Wanted, featured in the Record Searchlight in cooperation with local law enforcement agencies, targets people who have failed to show up in court for sentencing after being convicted.

As of Friday a total of 665 arrests had been made through the Most Wanted program since it began in September 2013. Authorities say they have seen an increase in criminals failing to appear in court since the onset of Assembly Bill 109. Also known as prison realignment, the state program shifted certain state prison inmates to county supervision.

Redding Police Chief Robert Paoletti said court appearances have been going up since the rollout.

Five new people are added each week. Those caught will be held until at least their next court appearances. Shasta County Secret Witness is offering a reward of up to $250 for information leading to an arrest. Tips can be provided anonymously at 530-243-2319 or at www.scsecretwitness.com/home/submit-a-tip.

Anyone with information also can call SHASCOM at 245-6540. The feature appears Sundays in the Record Searchlight's Northern California section and on Redding.com.
Andreas Fuhrmann/Record Searchlight Elections Specialist Charlene Osborn and extra help staffer George Rogers, both of Redding, count mail-in ballots in June at the Shasta County Clerk's Office in downtown Redding.

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By Sean Longoria of the Redding Record Searchlight

A bill working its way through the state Legislature could allow Shasta County to switch to voting exclusively by mail.

"California's statewide voter turnout in the November 2014 election was just 42 percent, a record low," State Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, said in introducing Senate Bill 450 earlier this year. "This legislation will modernize how elections are conducted, making it more convenient for voters."

The bill would allow Shasta County, among a handful of others in California, to make the change designed to boost voter turnout.

It's modeled after Colorado's system. The practice started in 2003 in a single county and spread statewide about a decade later, according to analysis from the California Assembly Committee on Appropriations.

When would this change take place?

Quite a bit has to happen at the state and local level before voters see the change.

First, the Legislature needs to approve the bill and Gov. Jerry Brown sign it. If that happens, the bill would take effect in January 2018 for Shasta County and 13 others, eventually moving statewide by 2020.

Cathy Darling Allen, Shasta County's registrar of voters, would then go to the Board of Supervisors for approval for the yet undetermined amount money to make the switch.

"Anything that has money attached requires board approval," Darling Allen said. "I would absolutely want to have board approval before going forward."

The Shasta County Elections Office would also hold public workshops to seek input about the switch, as required by the bill, Darling Allen said.

Does this make sense?

Local voter turnout in recent years has eclipsed state turnout, with more than half of Shasta County voter's casting ballots in even lower turnout years, according to the Shasta County Elections Office.

In California, 2012 was the last time more than half of registered voters cast ballots in an election. About 48 percent of registered voters cast ballots in June's primary.

Still, a majority of Shasta County voters already prefer vote-by-mail ballots. Some 72 percent of voters in the June primary chose to cast their ballots by mail.

The switch started since 2000, when state law changed to allow anyone to request a vote-by-mail ballot, Darling Allen said. Before that, only about 1,000 local voters could cast their ballots through the mail.

Could I still get help with my ballot if I need it?

Yes. The bill requires voting centers to open 10 days before an election date. The bill sets a minimum of one center for every 50,000 voters to start, increasing to one center for every 10,000 voters three days before the election.

The centers would help answer questions, function as a drop-off spot for ballots and allow those with disabilities to cast their ballots in person, according to the bill.

Currently, the Shasta County Elections Office is the go-to place for people seeking answers about ballots or the text of a ballot measure, though they might be able to get similar help at a polling site, Darling Allen said.

Can I still get an "I voted" sticker?

The short answer is yes.

"Certainly they would be available at our office and vote centers," Darling Allen said. "Some counties send stickers along with ballots in the mail, something we haven't explored doing yet, but it is a possibility."

The deadline to register to vote is Oct. 24. Go to http://registertovote.ca.gov/ to register.
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SACRAMENTO (AP)  A California gun rights group is suing after a legislative lawyer blocked a blog post listing the addresses of lawmakers who had recently supported tough gun control legislation.

The Firearms Policy Coalition filed the federal lawsuit Friday on behalf of an unnamed member who had posted the home addresses of 40 legislators, pledging to keep the information up until they voted to repeal the laws or died, The Sacramento Bee (http://bit.ly/2apZNnQ ) reported Friday.

The Office of Legislative Counsel demanded that WordPress, which hosts the blog, remove the post. The office cited a state law that restricts the publication of home addresses of elected officials if made with intent or threat of causing bodily harm. WordPress complied.

"What the government is doing here is censoring speech it doesn't like, and we'll prove that out in the case," said coalition President Brandon Combs in a statement.

He also said that the author's comment about lawmakers dying wasn't a threat because they could die of other causes unrelated to the author's blog post.

The newspaper could not reach the Legislative Counsel's office for comment.

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law last month several stringent gun-control measures, including one that requires gun owners to give up magazines holding more than 10 rounds.

The Democrat also endorsed a bill requiring ammunition sellers to be licensed, buyers to undergo background checks and transactions to be recorded. He signed a proposal to require a background check before a gun can be loaned to someone who isn't a close relative.

The unidentified blogger published the names, home addresses and phone numbers of legislators who supported the legislation, calling the list a "tyrant registry."
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California's political cognoscenti took notice this week when state Treasurer John Chiang reported raising $2.3 million in the first 45 days of his campaign for governor.

The total, when combined with the $3.3 million Chiang already had on hand from his 2014 campaign, means that he's already competitive, moneywise, with Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who's seemingly been running for governor forever.

Many of Chiang's contributors are either of Asian descent  and not merely Chinese-American  or are Asian-owned businesses, led by Sacramento fast food tycoon C.C. Yin. They are providing a solid support base that establishes him as a real contender in what could be a multi-Democrat contest.

We may have seen this scenario before, three-plus decades ago, when, then as now, the flashy lieutenant governor of California was an early candidate to step up.

Lt. Gov. Mike Curb was a songwriter/music producer (the Mike Curb Congregation) whose political career was sponsored by "the kingmakers," a Southern California-based bloc that had fostered Ronald Reagan's historic transition from show business to politics.

The GOP big-wigs had smoothed the path for Curb's 1982 governorship bid, even persuading the ambitious mayor of San Diego, Pete Wilson, to step aside and make a successful U.S. Senate run.

Thus, Curb seemed to be a shoo-in for the Republican nomination, until he and other GOP figures gathered in Sacramento in December 1980 to cast their electoral votes for Reagan in that year's presidential election.

After the pro forma presidential vote in the state Senate chambers, George Deukmejian, a mild-mannered former legislator who'd been elected attorney general just two years earlier, was chatting with a couple of Capitol journalists, including yours truly, and quietly mentioned that he was thinking about naming an "exploratory committee" for governor.

Ironically, Curb was standing just a few feet away.

It was a little disconcerting, because just a few months earlier, during a conversation at the Republican National Convention in Detroit  a show that Curb had directed from a booth overlooking the convention floor  Deukmejian had expressed a distinct lack of interest in running for governor.

Later, after Deukmejian formally announced, it became apparent that Republican figures who resented the high-handed tactics of the self-appointed "kingmakers" had waged a quiet campaign to persuade Deukmejian to run, fueled with promises of seed money from his fellow Armenian-Americans, whose support had helped him become attorney general.

It demonstrated how an ethnic group could help one of its own make an important initial step on the political ladder and, in the process, establish the group as a political player.

Deukmejian not only bested Curb in the Republican primary but defeated Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley twice in winning two gubernatorial terms.

Chiang's diffident personality contrasts with that of Newsom just as much as Deukmejian's did with Curb, and his early support by fellow Asian-Americans establishes him as a real contender in 2018.

Email Dan Walters at dwalters@sacbee.com.
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Ron Hill, Redding

California has been dominated by a Democratic Legislature and governorship for many years. We have had a Democratic president along with his appointed department heads for the last eight years. If anyone believes that the policies they have put in place are working they need to just take a look around the streets of Redding.

I have lived in Redding all my life and have never seen so many homeless and out of work. In my neighborhood there has been a rash of break-ins and burglaries, including my own home. The little park near where I live is littered with needles and other drug paraphernalia. People don't feel safe using these public facilities, including the River Trail and even the public library.

Unless we make a change in our leadership, I believe things will only get worse.
Section 45, which says no claim can be rejected after three years of a policy being in force, remains a bone of contention

Life insurance companies are in a fix over the provision of claims, being mandatorily required to be passed after three years of the policy being in force. With the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) asking insurers to keep expenses under control, companies are worried about investigation expenses going up.

Section 45, which says no claim can be rejected after three years of a policy being in force, remains a bone of contention. The claim has to be paid even if a fraud has been detected. Under the earlier provision of the Insurance Act, 1938, no life insurance policy could be called into question on grounds of mis-statement or wrong disclosure, after two years of the policy coming into force.

However, if the insurer was able to prove the claim was fraudulent, it was not required to be paid. A senior insurance official said while the sector had sought five years as the deadline, lawmakers did not agree.

Organised gangs that commit insurance fraud usually pay up to two-three years after which a claim is filed. If we had five years, such claims could be investigated and payouts avoided. If not, premiums will have to increased and underwriting tightened, the official said.

Earlier, firms had sent a representation through the Life Insurance Council to the Rajya Sabha. Industry bodies had also taken up the matter with government officials. However, the law was passed with the three-year deadline. Currently, insurers are discussing with the regulator about this. However, as a law has been passed, changes would have to be preceded by a constitutional amendment.

The aim, according to life insurers, is now to ensure that fraudulent cases are detected early. In March, credit information company Experian India launched Hunter Fraud Management Services for the sector. The offering was aimed at helping companies to be a part of the Hunter Closed User Group (CUG) for detecting fraud.

Firms that join the CUG will share with Experian any data relating to new policy proposals and claims. The credit information company is looking to offer similar services to general insurers as well. In India, Experian is the only provider of such an application.

Insurers said even doctors, police officials and former insurance agents have been found to be colluding with these cartels.

Cases have been reported where investigating officers have been threatened or physically harmed while looking into suspicious claims.

According to estimates, hundreds of thousands of claims are getting fraudulently passed by these cartels. They pose as relatives of customers and get a policy issued. Usually, they also have a doctor as part of the group to issue fake death certificates.

Insurers said there could be a rise in litigations if there was an increase in such claims. This would mean such claims would be rejected and heard before a court, which could give a decision based on their expertise. This will increase costs, both for insurers and policyholders.

Bone of contention

Due to Irdais instructions, companies are worried about expenses going up

A claim has to be paid even if a fraud has been detected

Photograph: Reuters
After walking free from jail, expelled Bharatiya Janata Party leader Dayashankar Singh on Sunday fired a fresh salvo at Mayawati claiming she "auctioned" tickets and dared her to fight against his wife on any unreserved seat in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections next year.

Singh demanded that a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry be ordered into the allegations against Mayawati or else he would file a public interest litigation on the issue.

The leader, who was arrested for allegedly making derogatory comments against the Bahujan Samaj Party chief last month, was on Sunday released from Mau jail, a day after a local court granted him bail.

He was nabbed by UP Special Task Force with the help of Bihar Police from Buxar on July 29 after being on the run for nine days.

After his release from the jail, Dayashankar paid obeisance at a temple and soon left for Lucknow, where he addressed a press conference.

"I am firm on my statement that Mayawati sells tickets. At that time I used a word, over which I expressed regret the very same day," he said.

Singh threw a challenge at the BSP supremo to contest election against his wife from any seat.

"I challenge Mayawati to select any unreserved seat and contest elections against my wife. The BSP leader will come to know the reality when she loses," he said.

Singh also demanded a CBI probe into alleged "auctioning" of party tickets for elections.

The former BJP state vice-president said, "My party removed me from the post and expelled me, but it failed to satisfy Mayawati and an FIR was lodged against me."

He said that on July 21, BSP workers led by senior BSP leaders Naseemduddin Siddiqui and Ram Achal Rajbhar, targeted his elderly mother, minor daughter and wife and used derogatory language against them.

"While the police launched a man-hunt against me as if I was Dawood, the BSP leaders, who used derogatory language are roaming freely, despite the chief minister's statement condemning the remarks made by them," he said.

"I will file a PIL seeking a CBI probe. Mayawati is the 'mother' of corruption," he alleged and also targeted her brother and Siddiqui.

Asked about BSP's stand that it will challenge the bail order in the high court, Dayashankar earlier said in Mau, "I accept all the challenges of BSP. I will not talk much. I am going to Lucknow to meet my daughter, ailing mother and family members."

Ahead of his release, a number of supporters and BJP workers from Mau and neighbouring districts gathered outside the jail premises.

Singh said that the BJP has expelled him, but he has not distanced himself from the party.

"I have been associated with the RSS and BJP for a very long time. It is in my veins," he said.

The FIR against Singh was registered on July 20 under the the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and other provisions.

The complaint, which was lodged by BSP national secretary Mewalal Gautam, alleged that Singh's remarks in Mau on July 20 had hurt the feelings of BSP workers and the Dalit community across the country and were aimed at provoking them.

Singh said that the CM was also in a "double mind", as he was afraid that action against Siddiqui would affect the Muslim vote bank.

He said in Mau, he was kept like any other prisoner.

Singh wife, Swati Singh said that while media supported her all through, there was no cooperation from police and administration.

"The day Siddiqui was provoking BSP workers, the DM and the SSP were present on the spot. Later when I asked them to examine the CD, I was told that there were other issues of priority," she said.

IMAGE: Dayashankar Singh and his wife Swati Singh address a press conference in Lucknow. Photograph: Nand Kumar/PTI
Indian journalists, who went to cover the SAARC Home Ministers' conference in Islamabad, had to face hostile Pakistani officials, who not only denied them access to the inaugural function but also barred them from standing at the entrance of the venue where their interior minister was to receive dignitaries, leading to tense moments.

The six Indian journalists, who were given visa to travel to Islamabad to cover the event, were flatly refused entry to the inaugural function, which was attended by Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

The Indian journalists then stood near the entrance of the venue where Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan was receiving the visiting dignitaries from SAARC countries.

As Pakistani media took position to capture the moment of Home Minister Rajnath Singh's arrival, Indian journalists too joined them. Immediately, Pakistani officials curtly told them to leave the place, saying Indian journalists were not allowed to stand even outside the gate.

When Pakistani officials asked Doordarshan cameraperson R Jayashree Puri and ANI's Ajay Kumar Sharma to remove their cameras, a senior Indian diplomat tried to intervene and protested.

The diplomat hotly argued that Indian journalists be allowed to be near the gate to capture Singh's arrival as Pakistani journalists, video and still camerapersons were present and freely taking shots.

The Pakistani officials made it clear that the Indian journalists have to leave the place immediately, leading to a verbal duel between the diplomat and a Pakistani official.

The Pakistani official even directed some of his juniors to block the view of Indian journalists and soon the reporters and camerapersons were surrounded by several persons, apparently policemen in civvies, making it impossible for them to shoot anything.

This resulted the Indian journalists failing to capture the moment when Singh touched the hands of his Pakistani counterpart, a gesture short of a formal handshake, reflecting the growing chill in the ties between the two countries.

As per SAARC protocol, the inaugural statement by the host country is open to the media while the rest of the proceedings are in camera.

The Pakistani establishment was also circulating information in the local media that Indian home minister had visited washroom eight times to make calls to New Delhi when the conference was going on.

The fact is that the washroom was outside the conference hall and the home minister used it twice -- once before the formal ministers' meet started after he and his SAARC counterparts had made a courtesy call to Pakistan Prime Sharif and again when the meeting got over.

Besides, Home Minister Singh does not carry a cell phone even while he is in India and, whenever necessary, uses those of his aides.
The Kerala Congress-Mani led by former Kerala finance minister K M Mani on Sunday decided to withdraw its support to the Congress-led United Democratic Front coalition of which it was a part for more than three decades.

The KC-M also announced at a two-day meeting that concluded at Charalkunnu in Pathanamthita district that the party MLAs would now sit as a separate block in the state assembly.

The party would be "equidistant" from Opposition United Democratic Front, the ruling Communist Party of India Marxist -led Left Democratic Front and the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, KC-M Supremo K M Mani told reporters after the meeting.

Hitting out at the Congress, Mani said there were attempts to tarnish KC-M's image and also weaken the party in many ways.

The party, which has one MP, said its relationship with the United Pemocratic Alliance would be issue-based.

The party has six MLAs in the present assembly.

On Saturday, while inaugurating the conclave, 82-year-old Mani had stated that his party had received only "insults and humiliations" from the Congress.

Congress leaders in the state had, however, tried to iron out the differences with statements that KC-M was an integral part of the front and any issues with the Congress would be sorted out.

Relations between the KC-M and the Congress over the bar bribery scam sharpened recently after Congress leaders Oommen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala attended the betrothal ceremony of the daughter of controversial hotelier Biju Ramesh with the son of Congress leader and former minister Adoor Prakash.

Ramesh, working president of the Kerala State Bar Hotel Owners Association, had levelled bribery charges against Mani which finally led to his resignation in November last.

KC-M has maintained that a "conspiracy" was behind the scam.

The rift in relations between the two parties came to the fore after Mani announced he would keep away from a crucial UDF leaders liaison committee meeting last month, forcing the front to postpone it. Subsequently, Congress had deputed former chief minister Oommen Chandy to hold talks with Mani to resolve the issues.

Though Chandy met Mani, he failed to get any assurance from the latter, who maintained that the party will take a final call on all matters at its Charalkunnu meeting.

The KC-M, which has a history of switching fronts and suffering many splits since its inception in 1964, has a strong base in the central Travancore belt, especially among Christians.
Two more bodies were on Sunday found in the search and rescue operations which continued for fourth day following the collapse of a bridge on Mumbai-Goa highway near Mahad in Raigad district, taking the death toll to 26.

"During the course of rescue operations, officials have managed to recover two more bodies taking the death toll to 26. All the deceased have been identified," said state disaster management cell director Suhas Diwase.

While initially 42 people were feared missing, the authorities have no information and clarity yet on a Honda City car reportedly carrying four persons which is suspected to have also fallen in the river.

"Only once we know for sure that a Honda City car with four people went missing, we will be able to say 42 people are missing. For now, the number of missing people stands at 38," he said.

The National Disaster Response Force and Coast Guard officials have so far been able to locate only a signboard of one of the missing state transport buses bearing the word 'reserved' on it.

Various techniques, including electronic sensors, fish finders (sonar devices), and massive magnets are being used to trace the metal bodies in the water.

The swollen Savitri river washed away a 100-year-old bridge at Mahad, about 170 km south of Mumbai, on Tuesday night, taking with it two buses and at least one SUV.

The river, which turned into a torrent due to heavy downpour in its catchment area in Mahabaleshwar, weakened the foundations of the bridge, which ultimately gave way on Tuesday night.

Stepping up rescue efforts, divers have been deployed in areas where currents are not strong.

An NDRF commandant said his team has extended the area of search operations up to 40 km from the accident spot, with fishing nets installed across the bridges over the river.

The Raigad, Ratnagiri and state highway police too have joined the operation to find the missing people belonging to various parts of Maharashtra.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had earlier said the government will give Rs 5 lakh to the kin of the deceased. The government has already announced that the kin of the deceased staff members of the two state-run buses would either be given job or compensation of Rs 10 lakh each.

IMAGE: The remains of Mahad-Poladpur bridge. Photograph: PTI
Keeping up his attack on cow vigilantes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday asked people to beware of "fake" cow protectors as they were trying to create tension in the society.

He also asked the state governments to take stringent action against them.

Modi, while addressing a public meeting after inaugurating a host of development projects Gajwel, Telangana, accused the cow vigilantes of trying to create tension in the society and said they should be exposed and punished.

"I want to tell everybody beware of these fake cow protectors. These handful of vigilantes have nothing to do with cow protection, but want to create 'tandav' (tension) in the society," Modi said.

"In the name of cow protection, these fake cow protectors are trying to disturb the peace and harmony of the nation. I want the real cow protectors to expose them (fake ones) and the state governments should take stringent action against them," he added.

Describing cattle as country's wealth and not burden, the prime minister made a mention of a Himachal Pradesh Governor's campaign of protecting abandoned cows and handing them over to farmers to use them for agricultural activity.

"Cow will never become a burden. Cow urine and dung are used in agriculture," he said, adding that cow should be linked to the country's economic development.

India is a land of diversity, he said, adding "protecting our country's unity and integrity is our primary responsibility. To fulfil it all countrymen should protect and serve cows (gau raksha and gau seva karein). Such service enhances national wealth.... it does not create problem for the nation".

"But fake (cow protectors) destroy society and country. We need to beware of these people. There is a need to punish these people. Then alone can we take the nation to great heights," the prime minister said after inaugurating a host of development projects.

Modi's comments come at a time when his government and the Bharatiya Janata Party are facing flak over incidents of violence against Dalits and Muslims by cow vigilantes in various states including Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

Earlier, Modi launched Phase-1 of Mission Bhagiratha, a flagship project of Telangana government aimed at providing piped drinking water to every household in the state.

Modi unveiled a plaque in Medak district's Komatibanda village in Gajwel constituency, represented in the Assembly by Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, and formally turned on a water tap on the premises to mark the occasion.

This is Modi's maiden visit to Telangana after formation of the state in June 2014.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a public meeting in Telangana. Photograph: PIB
An American national, who was blacklisted and deported from Pakistan in 2011 after he was allegedly caught spying on sensitive installations, has been arrested after he arrived at the airport in Islamabad and got clearance from immigration officials.

Matthew Craig Barrett, who was barred from entering the country after being deported on charges of espionage, arrived at Benazir Bhutto International airport on Saturday and was granted entry by the immigration officials.

When it came to the notice of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, he ordered the arrest of Barrett, and suspended immigration officials at the airport for negligence, according to a statement by the ministry.

Barrett was later picked up by Federal Investigation Agency and police officials in a joint raid on a guest house in the capital and an FIR was lodged against him for violation of immigration laws, the statement said.

The interior minister has ordered an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the grant of a Pakistani visa to Barrett, the Dawn reported.

A case has also been registered against two FIA immigration officials, Sub-Inspector Raja Asif and his son Ehteshamul Haq. Ehtesham has been arrested, while raids were being conducted to arrest his father, police sources said.

The minister has already suspended an assistant director of the FIA as well as the immigration officials who were on duty when Barrett was cleared by authorities at the airport.

He has also issued directions for the formation of a joint investigation team for a thorough probe into the matter.

The interior ministry said that action would also be initiated against officials at the Pakistani consulate in Houston, who were responsible for issuing a visa to Barrett.

A spokesperson for the United States embassy in Islamabad told the daily that the privacy act prohibited him from releasing any information about the American citizen without his consent.
Vijay Rupani was on Sunday sworn-in as the new chief minister of Gujarat while Nitin Patel took oath as deputy chief minister at a grand ceremony attended by top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders.

IMAGE: Vijay Rupani is administered oath by Governor OP Kohli at the swearing-in ceremony in Gandhinagar. Photograph: PTI

Nine ministers from the previous Cabinet, including some considered as loyalists of outgoing Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, have been dropped.

Governor O P Kohli administered the oath of office and secrecy to 60-year-old Rupani and Patel.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Rupani and other members of his team, saying they would "continue the development journey" of the state.

"Congrats to @vijayrupanibjp, Nitinbhai Patel & others sworn-in as they begin their innings to continue the development journey of Gujarat," Modi said in a tweet.

IMAGE: Nitin Patel takes oath as deputy chief minister. Photograph: PTI

In a separate tweet, the Prime Minister also applauded the services of Anandiben Patel who had stepped down from the top post on Wednesday.

"I applaud the dedicated service of @anandibenpatel, who has been working tirelessly for the people of Gujarat for many years," Modi said.

Eight Cabinet-rank ministers, including Nitin Patel, and 16 ministers of state were also sworn-in. The total size of the Council of ministers, including the chief minister and deputy CM now stands at 25.

The oath-taking ceremony was held in the presence of top BJP leaders including its president Amit Shah, party veteran L K Advani, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Union Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan.

IMAGE: Senior BJP leader LK Advani, party President Amit Shah, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and former Gujarat CM Anandiben Patel during the swearing-in ceremony. Photograph: PTI

The chief ministers of Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Haryana -- Devendra Fadnavis, Raghubar Das and Manohar Lal Khattar respectively -- were among the other dignitaries present on the occasion.

Former Minister of State for Home Rajnibhai Patel and Women and Child Development Minister Vasuben Trivedi, considered as loyals of the outgoing Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, have been dropped from the new Cabinet.

The others who were dropped from Rupani's Cabinet include Finance Minister Saurabh Patel, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Ramanlal Vora and MoS for Science and Technology Govind Patel.

On August 3, Anandiben Patel had submitted her resignation to Governor, after the party's parliamentary board in Delhi accepted her offer to quit the post.

On Friday, the BJP central leadership chose Rupani for the post of the Chief Minister instead of Nitin Patel, who was considered a sure pick for the top job in the poll-bound state.
Mayor Costin provides council district update & talks about other city projects

A town hall was held at Martinsville City Hall Thursday evening where residents were encouraged to attend and discuss their concerns or questions with Martinsville Mayor Kenny Costin.
"Oddities' at local festival preview coming event in December

The Abilene Goddess Festival celebrated the role of women and the natural world.
SUNDAY

Silence The Violence

Key City DJs will present the second annual Silence The Violence memorial cruise, car show and cookout from noon to 7 p.m. at the Taylor County Expo Center. Live music, food, activities and more will be available. Admission is free.

'The Totalitarians'

Abilene Live Theatre will present a production of the comedy 'The Totalitarians' at 2 p.m. at the Down Centre Stage Theatre at Hardin-Simmons University. Admission is free.

'The Music Man'

CLYDE  The Clyde Center for the Performing Arts will present a production of 'The Music Man' at 2 p.m. at Clyde High School. Admission is $15 for adults, $12 for students and $10 for seniors.

Other ...

Out & About Group LGBT AA Meeting, 6 p.m. Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest, Lower Level Parish Hall, 602 Meander St.

MONDAY

Scouting information

American Heritage Girls will conduct an informational meeting at 5 p.m. at Gatti's Pizza, 2665 Buffalo Gap Road. The organization plans to create a Trail Life USA Troop for boys.

Movie at the Mockingbird library

A free showing of a classic film will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Mockingbird Branch of the Abilene Public Library, 1326 N. Mockingbird Lane. The choice will be between a thriller or a romantic comedy.

Other ...

Overeaters Anonymous, noon, Hinds Square Building, 100 Chestnut St., Room 112.

Schizophrenia Support Group, 1-2 p.m., Mental Health Association of Abilene, 333 Orange St. 325-673-2300.

Blood drive, 1-6 p.m., Brookshires, Comanche.

Blood drive, 1-6 p.m., Brookshires, Eastland.

Free swim class for people with multiple sclerosis, 5:30 p.m., YMCA, 3250 State St.

Anorexics Bulimics Anonymous, 6 p.m., Shades of Hope, 402A Mulberry St., Buffalo Gap. 800-588-4673.

Hendrick Ostomy support group, 6:30 p.m., Diabetes Center, 1742 Hickory St.

Central Texas Gem & Mineral Society of Abilene, 7 p.m., 7607 Highway 277 South. 325-692-0063.

Abilene Toastmaster's Club 1071, 7 p.m., Conference Center, Texas State Technical College, 650 E. Highway 80. 325-692-7325 or abilene.toastmastersclubs.org.

Al-Anon, 7 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 1501 N. Broadway, Ballinger. 817-689-2810 or 325-977-1007.

Mid-City Al-Anon, 7 p.m., First Christian Church. 325-670-4304.

Memory Men (4-part a cappella singing), 7 p.m., Calvary Baptist Church, 1165 Minter Lane. Park on east side, enter through kitchen. 325-676-SING.

Abilene Quilters Guild, 7 p.m., Highland Church of Christ, Room No. 112. Meet-and-greet at 6:45 p.m. 325-676-1478.

Abilene Community Band rehearsal, 7:30 p.m., Bynum Band Hall, McMurry University. 325-232-7383.

South Pioneer Al-Anon Group, 8 p.m., 3157 Russell Ave.

Alcoholics Anonymous/Narcotics Anonymous, 8 p.m., Avoca United Methodist Church. 325-773-2611.

Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse Group. 325-676-1400.

TUESDAY

Business workshop

The Texas Tech Small Business Development Center Abilene will conduct a Texas Comptroller Workshop from 6-8 p.m. in the Texas Tech Training Center, 749 Gateway St., Suite 301. For reservations, call 325-670-0300.

Scouting information

American Heritage Girls will conduct an informational meeting at 7 p.m. at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 837 Jeanette St. The organization plans to create a Trail Life USA Troop for boys.

Other ...

Mission on the Move Soup Kitchen, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Southwest Drive Community United Methodist Church, 3025 Southwest Dr.

Abilene Southwest Rotary Club, noon, Beehive Restaurant, 442 Cedar St.

High Noon Al-Anon, noon, Southern Hills Church of Christ, 3666 Buffalo Gap Road (south end; follow the yellow signs).

Stroke/Aphasia Recovery Program support group, 1:30-2:30 p.m. West Texas Rehabilitation Center boardroom, 4601 Hartford St. 325-793-3535.

Dystonia Support Group, 5:15-6:15 p.m., Not Without Us, 3301 N. First St. Suite 117.

Take Off Pounds Sensibly (TOPS), 5:30 p.m., Brook Hollow Christian Church, 2310 S. Willis St. 325-232-7444.

Legacies Al-Anon Family Group, 5:30-6:30 p.m., Open Door Building, 3157 Russell Ave. 325-280-7584.

Family (of Mental Health Consumers) Support Group, 6-7 p.m., Mental Health Association in Abilene, 333 Orange St. 325-673-2300.

MHAA Bipolar/Depression Peer Support Group, 6-8 p.m., Ministry of Counseling & Enrichment, 1502 N. First St. 325-673-2300.

Free certified nurturing parent class (pregnancy to toddler), 6-8 p.m., Mission Church, North Third and Mockingbird streets. 325-672-9398.

Methodist Children's Home Foster Parent Orientation, 6-8 p.m., 500 Chestnut, Suite 1621. 325-672-9398.

Abilene Star Chorus, 6:15 p.m., Wisteria Place Chapel, 3202 S. Willis St. 325-829-1470.

Abilene Chapter of American Association of Professional Coders, 6:30 p.m., in the board room next to the Tom Roberts Conference Center, second floor, Hendrick Medical Center, 1900 N. Pine St. Free AAPC CEU offered at every meeting. 325-435-9059.

Women of Combat Veterans Group, 6:30 p.m., Anson Housing Authority building.

Overeaters Anonymous, 6:30-7:30 p.m., Exodus Metropolitan Community Church, 1933 S. 27th St.

Al-Anon Parents Group, 7 p.m., Hillcrest Church of Christ, 650 E. Ambler Ave. Use Church Street entrance.

Al-Anon, 7 p.m., Doug Meinzer Activity Center, Knox City. 940-658-3926.

Abilene Society of Model Railroaders, 7-8:30 p.m., 2043 N. Second St.

Unity Group of Alcoholics Anonymous, 8 p.m., Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest, 602 Meander St.

WEDNESDAY

Fish fry fundraiser

ASPERMONT  A fish fry fundraiser will be 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Stonewall County Senior Citizens Center, 536 S. Washington. The cost is $10. Takeout will be available.

Dog Days at the Mall

Dog Days will be open from 5-8 p.m. at the Mall of Abilene. Participants are encouraged to bring their dog for a costume contest and other activities. Dogs must be well-behaved and leashed. Dog Days will continue each Wednesday in August.

Square dance workshop

TYE  The Wagon Wheel Squares will conduct a square dancing workshop at 6:30 p.m. at the Wagon Wheel.

Other ...

Overeaters Anonymous, 8 a.m., Hinds Square Building, Room 112, 100 Chestnut St.

Abilene Cactus Lions Club, 11:45 a.m., Cotton Patch Cafe, 3302 S. Clack St.

Abilene Wednesday Rotary Club, noon, Abilene Country Club, 4039 S. Treadaway. $12 for lunch. Jo Ann Wilson, 325-677-6815.

Kiwanis Club of Abilene, noon, Abilene Country Club, 4039 S. Treadaway Blvd.

Clearly Speaking Toastmaster Club, noon, Westgate Church of Christ, 402 S. Pioneer Drive. 325-795-5570.

Blood drive, 1-6 p.m., Jones County Courthouse, Anson.

Diabetes Support Group, 2-3 p.m., Stonewall County Library.

Free swim class for people with multiple sclerosis, 5:30 p.m., YMCA, 3250 State St.

Veterans Peer Support Group, 6 p.m., 765 Orange St. 325-670-4818.

Mid-week Al-Anon Family Group, 6-7 p.m., Open Door Building, 3157 Russell Ave. 325-698-4995.

Advanced Square Dancing, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Wagon Wheel.

Al-Anon, 7 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 1501 N. Broadway, Ballinger. 817-689-2810 or 325-977-1007.

DivorceCare support group, 7 p.m., Hillcrest Church of Christ, 650 E. Ambler Ave. 325-691-4200.
NORTHPORT, Maine  We left for Maine with three bicycles on the back of the car. One for him, one for her, one for any house guest who cared to ride along. There were other modest recreational plans for our three-week vacation on the coast. Twice-weekly yoga at a local community center, a little kayaking, a little hiking maybe, and certainly walking the hilly streets of Bayside and admiring its gingerbread-house architecture.

That was all before my wife's broken ankle. On the second day of the trip.

By the end of the vacation, only one bike had been taken out. Only one of us had paddled the Penobscot. Mount Battie remained unconquered. And the yoga mat remained coiled and unused in a closet.

But as vacation disasters go, this was a relatively small one. The broken bone was Debbie's fibula, so she didn't need a cast, just a walking boot. Still, she couldn't walk much. So we had to rewrite our expectations and create a Maine vacation that was friendlier to the differently abled.

NERVOUS NELLIE'S JAMS AND JELLIES

A wise friend who has vacationed in Maine countless times mentioned that some of her best times in the state had been just driving around. Sitting in the passenger seat did turn out to be a boundless source of pleasure for the injured one: the abundant Queen Anne's lace and tiger lilies that decorate the landscape, antiques stores and lobster shacks around every bend, wonderful vistas of inlets with bobbing boats, bridges connecting islands and peninsulas. On one outing, to the 17th century French settlement at Castine, waiting for lobster rolls to arrive, a fellow diner at our picnic table recommended a stop on neighboring Deer Isle: Nervous Nellie's Jams and Jellies, which Google correctly categorizes as an art gallery. Yes, there are jams, but the big attraction is the sprawling installation by metal artist Peter Beerits, which evokes an old Western town, complete with saloon, jail and 24 slightly menacing life-size characters. No charge, although they take donations, and you do feel honor-bound to purchase a jar of something. There's a nice little cafe with coffee and tarts too.

FARNSWORTH MUSEUM AND OLSON HOUSE

The Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland is a well-polished gem, with a collection of American works, especially Maine-influenced ones. In this part of Maine, that means three generations of Wyeths: N.C., Andrew and Jamie. Equally important for our injured traveler, little walking was required. Both the main museum and an annex in a converted church have elevators? galleries easily accommodate available wheelchairs, which, thankfully, we didn't need.

The Farnsworth also runs the Olson House in Cushing, about 20 minutes' drive away. The modest clapboard farmhouse is where Andrew Wyeth painted his most famous work, 'Christina's World,' in 1948. No elevator, but there's a delightful docent-led tour of the first floor (you can sit for most of it), chock-full of details about Wyeth's relationship with Anna Christina Olson and her brother Alvaro. The high, wavy grass in the painting can be seen in a patch in the front yard, where everyone takes pictures, occasionally in the prone. We didn't. Too hard to get up.

Museum admission is $15, another $5 gets you in the Olson House.

MONHEGAN BOAT LINE

Double kayaking was out. But we wanted to be on the water, so we chose a 2 -hour lighthouse survey out of Port Clyde with Monhegan Boat Line, $30 per passenger. Easy to board, even on only one good ankle. It came with a fascinating demonstration of lobstering by a 19-year-old tour guide and third-generation lobsterman. At a lighthouse now owned by Jamie Wyeth, someone came out  we were told it was Wyeth himself  and fired off a cannon as a salute. At that distance, it could have been anyone. But he's in our story and we're sticking with it.

ANTIQUES AT 10 MECHANIC STREET

A throbbing ankle can be a good way to judge Maine's many antiques shops. After a while, you've had your share of distressed buoys and shellback lawn chairs, and clomping through another store with a clunky orthopedic boot can feel more like a chore than an adventure. Not so, however, with Antiques at 10 Mechanic in Camden, a former movie house where 'Peyton Place,' which was filmed nearby, had its world premiere. Antiques at 10 Mechanic feels like a grandfather's attic crossed with Beatrix Potter's pantry and, perhaps, an old set shop from MGM. You can't walk 2 feet without wanting something. The day we visited, Lou Bega's 'A Little Bit of Mambo' was playing on the stereo, and broken ankle girl was practically dancing through the store. Bonus: Saturday Cove, a popular spot for Flax clothing, housewares and art in Northport, which closed this spring, has an outpost in the back of the store.
Dan Carpenter/Special to the Reporter-News James Moerls, volunteer firefighter with the Clyde VFD, practices hose nozzle operations under the watchful eye of Ricky Bishop, chief of the View VFD, during the 62nd annual Fire Control Conference on Saturday at the Abilene Fire Department fire training facility.

SHARE Dan Carpenter/Special to the Reporter-News Perry Thomson, chief of the Anson Volunteer Fire Department, assists Chasity Rodriguez in getting geared up for training fires Saturday at the Abilene Fire Department fire training facility during the 62nd annual Fire Control Conference. Rodriguez has been on the Anson VFD for five months. Dan Carpenter/Special to the Reporter-News Members of the Clyde, Anson, Merkel, View and Albany volunteer departments work to extinguish a practice natural gas fire Saturday at the Abilene Fire Department's training facility during the 62nd annual Fire Control Conference. Dan Carpenter/Special to the Reporter-News Members of the Anson VFD don firefighter bunkers and self-contained breathing apparatus before going through live fire training Saturday during the 62nd annual Fire Control Conference at AFD's fire training facility. Dan Carpenter/Special to the Reporter-News Russell Pope, AFD battalion chief, gives volunteer firefighters instructions before they begin live fire training at the Abilene Fire Department's training facility during the 62nd annual Fire Control Conference on Saturday.

By Dan Carpenter, Special to the Reporter-News

James Moerls traded his Coast Guard uniform for a set of firefighter bunkers when he joined the Clyde Volunteer Fire Department earlier this year, and Saturday, Moerls got to put his new "uniform" to the test.

Moerls, and members of 11 other volunteer fire departments attended the 62nd annual Fire Control Conference hosted by the Abilene Fire Department and the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service at the Abilene Civic Center and AFD's fire training facility on East Lake Road.

Russell Pope, battalion chief with AFD, said what used to be a four-evening annual training has been condensed into a single-day event that is chock full of classroom education and hands-on training.

"For 62 years, we've been providing training and continuing education to these volunteer departments," Pope said. "Firefighters are trained in a variety of topics, including low-angle rescue, hazardous materials awareness, search and rescue, and command and control."

Moerls, who has been with the Clyde volunteer department for two months, said he really appreciated the training, especially a course titled, "The Art of Reading Smoke."

"Firefighting on a Coast Guard ship is a whole different animal than fighting fire on land," said Moerls, who was a boatswain's mate, and retired as a chief petty officer. "Today's training really helped me get more familiar with engines and equipment, pump operations, search and rescue, and fighting fires."

Perry Thomson, chief of the Anson Volunteer Fire Department, said the training his firefighters get at the Fire Control Conference is invaluable.

"There are so many things we can't do as a volunteer department that we get to practice at this conference," said Thomson, who has worked with the Anson department for more than 35 years, and attended the AFD conference each year. "Our guys have to stay current, and this conference is the only local way we have to do that. The live fire experience is very beneficial for them."

Thomson brought four of his newest firefighters to the training, along with another member of the department who assisted with training.

Pope said 12 departments participated in Saturday's training, including View, Merkel, Clyde, Anson, Potosi and one from as far away as Terrell, located east of Dallas.

"The criteria for certification and CE's is just as stringent for the volunteers as it is for the paid firefighters," he said. "There are many scenarios we are able to create and train on that these guys will only see in real fire situations. Many of them just don't have the funding or equipment to do this kind of training in their local areas."

Pope said another benefit is that when the volunteer departments are certified on things such as vehicle rescue and natural gas and propane fires, they don't tax the resources of the paid fire departments.

"When these guys take care of business in their areas, or counties, we don't have to respond as often, and that allows us to provide better coverage in Abilene," he said.

Moerls said he moved back to Clyde  from his last duty assignment in Seattle  to be close to family.

"I think I'm going to enjoy this volunteer firefighting duty," he said. "There is a camaraderie among firefighters than is very similar to what I knew in the military. The training we all got today was great."
The Abilene Chamber of Commerce is seeking nominations for Citizen of the Year.

The Citizen of the Year Award has been given annually since 1946 to a person (or people) who has made an impact on Abilene.

Individuals and organizations are invited to nominate someone they believe has contributed in an outstanding manner to the betterment of the Abilene community over the last year, several years or a lifetime in determining the award. Recognition for workforce or job-related activities is not criteria for consideration for the award. Civic involvement, volunteer efforts, selflessness and dedication to making Abilene a better place to live for all citizens are the traits exhibited by previous honorees.

To be considered for the award, the nomination must be received by Aug. 22. The recipient will be announced at the Abilene Chamber of Commerce Membership Meeting and Awards Celebration on Oct. 13.

Send nominations to Kim Bosher, Abilene Chamber of Commerce, P.O. Box 2281, Abilene TX 79604 or email kimbosher@abilenechamber.com. Call 677-7241 for more information.
WATCH D.O.G.S. (Dads Of Great Students) is an exceptional and innovative program for public schoolchildren established by the National Center for Fathering, a nonprofit educational organization with research-based training and resources (www.fathers.com).

It is a one-of-a-kind, school-embedded father participation program working to support education and safety for students. Its purpose is to equip men to positively address the needs of children and reverse the negative trend toward fatherlessness by helping men become the better father figures and the more involved role models children want and deserve.

More than 5,348 registered schools in 47 states currently participate in WATCH D.O.G.S., as well Puerto Rico and the countries of Canada, Mexico, Barbados and China. It has been recognized and featured on the 'Today' television show and other national media.

Some area independent school districts successfully have implemented this program for their elementary and intermediate public school students. Fathers (and grandfathers, uncles, stepfathers or other adult male family members) who volunteer receive a background check, orientation with specific guidance, daily schedule, WATCH D.O.G.S. T-shirt and name tag, and the unique opportunity to spend a full school day at school with their child or children.

Responsibilities for volunteer participants include: attending a briefing with school counselor or principal; welcoming students arriving for school and assisting them out of vehicles at front of school; reporting to your student's homeroom; assisting teachers and students during classes, recess, breaks and lunch; telling students leaving after school goodbye and assisting them into vehicles at front of school; and concluding visit and survey with school counselor or principal.

Other school duties may be assigned by teachers, counselor or principal.

It has been my privilege to participate in this excellent program in the past and most recently with grandchildren in local elementary and intermediate public schools. The experience was rewarding beyond expectation. It gives one a much greater appreciation for our public school teachers who do a wonderful job of educating our public school students. The challenges they face every day of educating a variety of children from diverse families, backgrounds and incomes are enormous.

Unlike private schools, public schools cannot discriminate in selection of students, must accept all eligible children and are accountable to local governments and taxpayers for the quality of education provided. The exemplary efforts expended by overworked public school teachers and staff are not always acknowledged and appreciated. They do not receive anywhere near the salary, benefits and resources they deserve for this priceless public responsibility.

American public education is one of the historic foundations upon which our great nation was built. In Texas, it is shamefully underfunded and embarrassingly inferior as compared to other states. We must do everything within our power to keep public schools strongly supported, fully funded and permanently protected. This includes opposing deceitful attempts to divert public school tax dollars to private for profit or religious schools by shortsighted and self-serving parochial politicians with their specious school 'choice' and 'voucher' schemes that clearly violate the Constitutions of both the United States (1st Amendment) and Texas (Article I).

The young students truly enjoy and freely interact with their WATCH D.O.G.S. visitors. The teachers graciously and patiently accept the amateur assistance of their students' male family members. If more father figures were able to participate, our public schools would greatly benefit with increased family support, fewer school-related problems and happier students. Public schools that have this progressive program are highly commended and those who do not are encouraged to provide it for the 2016-2017 school year.

'100 years from now, it will not matter what vehicle you drove, what house you lived in, or how much money you had in the bank. Someday, the world may be a better place because you were important in the life of a child.'  worldly wisdom

John Compere is an Abilene area rancher and proud granddad of public school students,
Democrats wrapped up their national convention by wrapping themselves in the American flag  a potent symbol of patriotism and national identity.

Conventions always feature flags, but this year's display seemed part of a broader Democratic effort to claim the mantle of patriotism from Republicans. The event featured the theme of American greatness, with speeches by military leaders, veterans and their families, and frequent 'USA!' chants from the audience.

For politicians, embracing the flag seems like a no-brainer. What better way to assure voters that you have the national interest in mind than vigorous displays of patriotism?

Does flag-waving help Democrats or Republicans?

Our research suggests that flag-waving might not benefit Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton  and may even help Donald Trump and the Republican Party instead.

Republicans have frequently emphasized patriotism in contemporary presidential campaigns. For instance, George H.W. Bush in 1988 criticized Michael Dukakis for vetoing a law that would have required teachers to lead their classes in the Pledge of Allegiance. In 2008, Republicans questioned Barack Obama's patriotism because he did not consistently wear a flag pin on his lapel. And in 2012, our analysis found that 43 percent of Mitt Romney's campaign ads featured an image of the American flag, while 34 percent of Obama's did.

This might explain why Republicans in recent decades have 'owned' patriotism as a political concept, along with policy differences on military affairs and related topics. While there's nothing inherently partisan about patriotism, voters consistently see Republican candidates as more patriotic than Democrats. And voters with traditionally patriotic attitudes tend to cast ballots for Republicans.

A highly publicized 2011 psychology study by Travis J. Carter, Melissa J. Ferguson and Ran R. Hassin found that subjects exposed to images of the American flag were more likely to express support for the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, John McCain.

In 2012 and 2013, we designed follow-ups to that study to determine whether Democratic candidates could inoculate themselves from criticisms of their patriotism by appearing with the flag.

In two 2012 studies run with convenience samples, we included images of Mitt Romney and Barack Obama in election surveys. We randomly assigned some respondents to see images of the candidates with the flag, while others saw the same pictures of the candidates but without the flag.

The flag didn't help Obama at all  in fact, it hurt him. We consistently found that any exposure to the flag slightly increased support for Romney, especially among independent-leaning Republicans, patriotic people, and those with anti-black attitudes. Other subjects were unaffected.

In other words, even when Obama appeared with the flag, it helped Romney, relative to respondents who saw Obama without the flag. In addition, support for Romney was higher in the treatments where Romney appeared with the flag than in conditions where he appeared without it.

This doesn't appear to be peculiar to 2012. When we repeated the same experiment in 2013 featuring Joe Biden and Paul Ryan as potential 2016 presidential candidates, we got the same results.

The influence of flags is small and unlikely to be decisive. Since the groups affected by flag imagery are Republican-leaning, this suggests that exposure to the flag reinforces Republican loyalty among those who might be likely to waver.

But taken together, these flag studies indicate that Republicans would do well to wave the flag, while Democrats might want to be more cautious about using it.

At the same time, not using the flag could be problematic for Democrats, spurring Republican criticism. Republicans criticized the first day of last week's Democratic convention for insufficient flags on stage. We might expect these critiques to have pro-Republican effects similar to the flag itself.

One solution might be a thread-the-needle strategy: Display the flag to avoid criticism, but do so primarily with Democratic audiences less likely to be affected by it. Waving the flag at the DNC then might have been part of that approach, though of course news coverage of the event exposed many non-Democrats to its imagery.

Given the unusual dynamics of 2016, it is difficult to say how flag use will affect the current campaign. Trump's controversial 'America First' theme seems to double-down on patriotism even as he disparages sacrifices by U.S. military veterans. And perhaps Clinton hopes to make inroads with patriotic voters by emphasizing American exceptionalism and trumpeting her support for, and from, the military.

But because party images tend to be durable, overcoming the flag effects evident in our studies may take time. Until then, the Democrats may be wise to temper use of the flag in its messages to wider audiences.

Nathan Kalmoe is assistant professor of political communication in the Manship School of Mass Communication and Political Science at Louisiana State University. Kimberly Gross is associate director and associate professor in the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University.
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By Adam Russell, Texas A&M AgriLife Communications

LUBBOCK  Alternative crops will not supplant top commodities such as corn and cotton, but producers choose them as drought-tolerant rotation options that can pay off when the price is right, said a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service agronomist in Lubbock.

Dr. Calvin Trostle said alternative crops such as sunflowers, sesame and guar also give producers, especially in the Rolling Plains and High Plains regions, viable options when it comes to replanting on a failed field. They can also be used for rotations for soil health, or enduring heat and drought conditions, as well as provide access to other markets when prices and industry demand.

In Central Texas, some sunflower fields are being harvested now, Trostle said. Good yields are being reported. One producer in Ellis County said sunflowers performed better than any other crop he planted this year, Trostle added.

Prices on sunflowers and other oilseeds have been better in the recent past, Trostle said. But sunflowers have a wide planting window, are drought tolerant and make good rotation crops for commodity crops like cotton.

"Producers seem to like them, but it comes down to how many contracts are there to be filled," he said. "The price goes up and down based on the number of acres the industry needs."

Trostle said guar, or cluster bean, a drought-tolerant legume, has become an option in West Texas cotton crop rotations. Guar is used to produce food emulsifiers and lubricants for oil and gas drilling and fracking.

Trostle said producers in West Texas and a few other areas are facing moderate drought and high temperatures, as well as a lack of precipitation that have been stressing dryland plants. Those conditions make sesame, sunflowers and other crops that can take heat and lack of moisture more appealing to producers.

The number of alternative crop acres planted goes up and down like most other crops from year to year, Trostle said. Under the right conditions it can be a good financial decision.

Dr. Clark Neely, AgriLife Extension statewide small grains and oilseed specialist in College Station, said canola performed well for producers despite heavy spring rains. Canola is a cool-season oilseed crop harvested before summer, similar to wheat.

Neely said more producers are becoming aware of the crop as an option to wheat, which has experienced dipping prices, Neely said. Canola follows the soybean market and prices were strong, around $6.50 per bushel currently, but peaked at over $8 per bushel at harvest time, compared to wheat, which stayed at or below $4 per bushel.

Canola prices generally peak at harvest time for the Southern Great Plains as the majority of North American canola is spring canola, which is harvested in late summer in North Dakota and Canada, Neely said. This gives winter canola grown in Texas a price advantage.

Neely and Trostle said interest in alternative crops fluctuates with prices on typical commodities such as cotton, corn and wheat.

"Anytime you see dips in the commodity prices, you'll typically see more alternative crop acres planted," Neely said.

AgriLife Extension district reports

WEST CENTRAL: Conditions were hot, dry and windy with temperatures remaining in the triple digits and no relief in sight. A few areas reported widely scattered showers. Wildfire dangers continued to increase as tall, dry fuel was found in all areas. Burn bans were in effect. Field activities were slow due to hot conditions. Many crops showed severe drought stress. Range and pastures were showing heat and moisture stress and were declining rapidly. Cotton crops were in fair to good condition with slow growth due to dry conditions. Corn harvest was underway. Grain sorghum headed and was maturing. Harvest was getting started with the overall crop in good to excellent condition. Some cutting and baling of hay continued. Most haygrazer planted for hay production was cut and baled. The first cutting provided a good harvest. Moisture was needed for a second cutting. Livestock remained in fair to good condition.

ROLLING PLAINS: Hot, dry and windy days zapped some crops. Most cotton tapped into good moisture. Some scattered storms brought beneficial rains to small areas. Sorghum was starting to mature with harvest right around the corner. Some pastures started to turn yellow and posed a significant fire danger. Livestock were in good condition.

SOUTH PLAINS: Weather conditions remained hot and dry, with only a few light and widely scattered rain showers received. Irrigation continued and some corn was abandoned due to lack of rainfall and irrigation. Temperatures were at or over 100 degrees for 10 days in some areas and almost the whole month of July in others. Irrigated cotton looked good, but many dryland fields were cut out prematurely. Conditions for wildfires were increasing with the amount of dry tinder left over from early season rainfall. Range conditions were getting worse.

Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service photo by Kay Ledbetter
Features

It's so much more than just a "truly f**ked up ride".
Russian President Vladimir Putin says the world faces the most dangerous decade since World War II and predicted that the historical period of the West's "undivided dominance over world affairs" is coming to an end.

Speaking on October 27 at a conference of international policy experts in Moscow, Putin said the decade ahead is "probably the most dangerous, unpredictable and, at the same time, important...since the end of World War II."

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's ongoing invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, Russian protests, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

Putin laid the blame for the situation at the feet of Western countries, which he said have cast aside the norms of international affairs in order to maintain dominance and hold down countries they see as "second-class civilizations."

The Russian leader also said he had no regrets about sending troops into Ukraine and sought to explain the conflict as part of the efforts by Western countries to secure their global domination.

Putin claimed in his speech to the Valdai Discussion Club, a think tank, that the West had helped incite the conflict and also seeks to stoke a crisis over Taiwan in an attempt to enforce global dominance.

Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, triggering the biggest military conflict in Europe since World War II and driving relations with Western countries that back Ukraine and its drive to be part of the European Union and NATO to their lowest depths since the Cold War.

Putin cast the conflict in Ukraine as a battle between the West and Russia for the fate of the second-largest Eastern Slav country. It is partly a "civil war," he said, as Russians and Ukrainians are one people. Kyiv has flatly rejected both of those ideas.

The goal of what Russia refers to as a "special military operation" is to take the eastern Donbas region, Putin said, adding that in his view the region would "not have survived" on its own had Russia not intervened militarily in Ukraine.

WATCH: A local official told Russian conscripts "You are not cannon fodder" in a video published online recently. The men responded by angrily shouting that, actually, that's exactly what they are.

But the war has gone far beyond the Donbas region, with Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure, residential buildings, and other nonmilitary structures, killing tens of thousands of Ukrainians across the country.

Putin used the speech largely to rail against the West, saying it has nothing to offer to the world "except its own domination," and the goal of globalization "is neocolonialism to dominate the world." He said Russia is only trying to defend its right to exist in the face these Western efforts.

Putin also asserted that more and more nations refuse to follow Washington's demands and Russia will never accept the West's attempts to dominate the world.

Citing gay pride parades and the acceptance of transgender people in Western countries, Putin also defended "traditional values" and said "nobody can dictate to our people how to develop and what society we should build."

He also said Russia has never considered the West an enemy and has many things in common with it but will continue to oppose the diktat of Western neoliberal elites.

U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Putin's speech presented no new ideas.

"We don't believe that Mr. Putin's strategic goals have changed here. He doesn't want Ukraine to exist as a sovereign, independent nation state," Kirby said.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Putin's speech can be described as "for Freud," referring to psychoanalysis founder Sigmund Freud.



"The person who invaded a foreign country, annexed its land, and committed genocide accuses others of violating international law and the sovereignty of other countries? One truth: The person who started a wind will get a storm. The storm is coming," he said on Twitter.

Answering questions from journalists after his speech, Putin reiterated the Kremlin's assertion that Ukraine plans to use a so-called dirty bomb on its own territory. The claim has been dismissed as false by Ukraine and its allies, who say Russia may have raised the matter because it plans to use such a bomb in Ukraine as a pretext for escalation.

"It was me who ordered [Defense Minister Sergei] Shoigu to inform by phone all his colleagues about it," Putin said, adding that Russia does not need to use dirty bombs in Ukraine.

Putin also said he supported plans by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to visit Ukraine's nuclear power plants for inspections.

"It must be done as soon and as openly as possible because we know that Kyiv authorities are now working to cover up such [dirty-bomb attack] preparations," Putin said, without giving any exact information proving the claim.

Ukraine invited IAEA inspectors to visit its nuclear facilities after the Kremlin made its unsubstantiated claim about the preparation of a dirty bomb -- which would use the explosion of a conventional warhead to spread radioactive material or chemicals over a wide area.

Ukraine said it would welcome inspections because it had "nothing to hide."

According to Putin, Russia has never talked about the use of nuclear weapons in the war with Ukraine despite his own promise to defend Russian territory with any means at our disposal" and saying his words were "not a bluff."

"We see no need for [using nuclear weapons in Ukraine]," Putin told reporters. "There is no sense for that, neither political, nor military."
Ukrainians have increasingly woken up to the sound of suicide drones as Russia turns to Iranian-made imports to destroy civilian infrastructure in Ukraine. Now they may have another deadly Iranian weapon to worry about -- ballistic missiles.

Cheap but effective, Shahed-136 and Shahed-131 "kamikaze" drones have already made a deadly impact in Ukraine.



If U.S. intelligence assessments pan out, Russia will soon be able to supplement its use of Iranian suicide drones and its own cruise and ballistic missiles with powerful short-range Iranian Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar ballistic missiles.



Coming as the Kremlin is reportedly struggling to maintain its depleted stockpile of aerial weapons as it ramps up strikes, the missiles would potentially boost Russia's ability to continue its costly air campaign.



Jeremy Binnie, a Middle East defense specialist at the global intelligence company Janes, said having more missiles gives Russia the ability to sustain the bombardment against Ukraine."



Going Ballistic



The Fateh-110, which was unveiled in 2001 and has a stated range of 300 to 500 kilometers, was developed from a heavy artillery rocket dating from the 1980s. To increase the weapon's accuracy, the Fateh-110 was given a guidance system and movable fins that allow it to be steered as it approaches its target.



The Zolfaghar, which debuted in 2016 and also has guidance capabilities, comes from the same family as the Fateh-110 but boasts a much longer range due to its use of a lighter carbon-fiber airframe and a smaller warhead.



Binnie said the Zolfaghar's use against the Islamic State (IS) extremist group in eastern Syria confirmed that the missile was capable of reaching at least 650 kilometers, which he said is "a statement of how much the Iranian tactical missile program has really advanced over the years."



Iran's claim that the Zolfaghar can travel even farther -- up to 700 kilometers -- would put the western Ukrainian city of Lviv within range of strikes launched from Russian territory, while the more powerful Fateh-110 could potentially hit the city from Belarus, which has served as a staging ground for Russian attacks.



While there has been no indication that Russia plans to purchase launching systems from Iran, Binnie suggests that the Russian military could pair the missiles with existing equipment because the Iranian launchers were adapted from a Soviet-era system.



"It might be possible for the Russians to quickly adapt some old equipment they have lying around into launch systems," Binnie said.



The Iranian military, he added, fitted the Soviet system to trucks, allowing for mobility and concealment.



"Those civilian trucks can be covered over to make it hard to spot that they're actually missile launchers," Binnie said.



'Lawnmowers' And 'Mopeds'



Iranian military drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), have been homing in on targets across Ukraine since late August, according to the United States.



The buzzing sound of the Iranian Shahed-136 and Shahed-131 drones, built with off-the-shelf components, have earned them derisive monikers such as "lawnmowers" and "mopeds." But the slow-moving, low-flying drones, which are maneuvered to crash into their target, have proven themselves capable of hitting their mark both in terms of military effectiveness and cost.

It is capable of extracting or delivering attrition and damage when launched, but it costs little compared to other UAVs that Russia has in its own arsenal," said Samuel Bendett of the Virginia-based Center for Naval Analyses (CNA).

Ukraine alleges Russia has ordered 2,400 of the Iranian suicide drones, and its military has claimed to have shot them down in great numbers, often using conventional anti-aircraft guns or even small-arms fire. But their ability to be launched in bunches of five -- often from the cover of civilian trucks -- improves their chances of reaching their target.



"The Ukrainians are stopping most of these, but the whole point of these drones is that they fly in a large mass," Bendett said. "The air defense does not always catch all of them. All it takes is for several or even one to make it through."

The estimated range of the Shahed-136 varies, but Iran says it is capable of traveling 2,500 kilometers. The slightly smaller and older Shahed-131, which has been used by Huthi rebels in Yemen to attack Saudi targets in the Arabian Peninsula, has been estimated to have a range of 900 kilometers, according to tests conducted by the Ukrainian military.



Ukraine's Defense Ministry has published multiple images of downed Shahed-136 drones in recent weeks, and the Ukrainian National Guard on October 19 claimed to have shot down a Shahed-131.



Ukraine has also claimed to have shot down a more advanced Iranian combat UAV, the Mojer-6 drone capable of carrying out both reconnaissance missions and aerial strikes within a range of 200 kilometers. There have also been reports of Russian interest in obtaining Irans Shahed-129 and Shahed-191 combat drones.



"When launched from any territory that Russia controls or is allied with -- anywhere from the south, from the Donbas, from Belarus -- they're able to strike a lot of Ukrainian targets," Bendett said.

In addition to the U.S. intelligence assessment that Russia will soon boost its arsenal with Iranian ballistic missiles, as first reported by The Washington Post on October 16, the White House on October 20 said that Iranians are now "directly engaged on the ground" in Moscows war against Ukraine after sending "a relatively small number" of personnel from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps to assist Russian forces in using the Iranian drones.

Iran has denied sending combat drones to Russia, and Moscow has rejected claims that it is using Iranian UAVs.

Images of downed Iranian drones appear to show that they have been rebranded to look Russian-made, experts say, with the markings in Cyrillic naming them as the Geran-1 (the Shahed-131) and Geran-2 (the Shahed-136).

Observers are widely skeptical of Russia's denials, noting that the drones are essentially identical right down to the font of the serial numbers. Even Russian Defense Ministry experts have unwittingly admitted that the suicide drones are Iranian.



But the rebranding of the drones to make them appear to be Russian has opened the possibility that Moscow could, if it is not already doing so, seek to manufacture or assemble the Iranian drones on its own territory.



Sustaining A Campaign



The new aerial weaponry fits well with the Russian military's renewed focus on striking military and civilian targets far from the front lines in southern and eastern Ukraine. The air assault has ratcheted up following the October 8 appointment of Colonel General Sergei Surovikin, a former Aerospace Forces commander, to lead the Russian war effort.



Just days after Surovikin's appointment, Russia launched the biggest air strikes since the beginning of its invasion of Ukraine in February. Moscow said the drone and missile strikes, which targeted civilian areas and infrastructure in cities throughout Ukraine, were in response to a bomb blast that damaged a key bridge linking Russia to the occupied Crimean Peninsula.

While the Kremlin has accused Ukraine's intelligence services of carrying out the "terrorist" attack on the Crimea Bridge, Ukraine has denied responsibility.



Since the initial air assault in response to the bridge blast, Russia has continued to pound Ukrainian infrastructure, often targeting power plants in what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said is a deliberate effort to wear down the Ukrainian people by denying them heat and electricity as winter approaches.



"Civilian infrastructure is obviously the new layer in this war. The Ukrainian economy is now the target, the Ukrainian population is now the target," Bendett said.



Hard To Stop



The hypersonic speed and high trajectory of Iran's Fateh-110s and Zolfaghars, should they arrive, would be extremely difficult for Kyiv to counter without a network of high-tech and costly antimissile batteries it currently does not possess.



Ukraine has repeatedly requested more advanced missile-defense systems from the West, and in the face of the threat of the delivery of Iranian ballistic missiles reportedly sent an official request to Israel this week for components of its "Iron Dome" system.



While the United States has said that it is seeking to expedite the process of sending two U.S. air defense systems known as NASAMS, Washington has appeared reluctant to provide more advanced Patriot missile systems.



Janes' defense expert Binnie is skeptical that the delivery of the Patriot system, which has proven to be successful in shooting down ballistic missiles, is realistic for Ukraine.

"It's eye wateringly expensive and it's probably not really practical because each [missile] battery only covers one city," he said. "You would never get enough batteries to get the coverage you would want. You just wouldn't be able to find them, produce them, and train enough Ukrainians."
Macedonia's government has declared a state of emergency in the capital after violent storms caused flash flooding that killed at least 20 and injured hundreds.

Skopje Mayor Koce Trajanovski described the damage as the worst the city has ever seen and Health Minister Nikola Todorov announced the updated death count on August 7.

Local media reported that the capital and surrounding suburbs were struck by winds of more than 70 kilometers per hour, and water reached levels of up to 1 1/2 meters in some areas.

The ring road surrounding the capital was reportedly heavily damaged.

WATCH: Clean-Up Begins After Macedonia Floods (RFE/RL's Balkan Service, natural sound)

Many witnesses described victims drowning after being trapped in their houses when torrents suddenly swept through the area.

Hundreds of homes and vehicles were destroyed by the floods, roads were impassable, and several areas were without electricity. Authorities said more than 1,000 people had been evacuated so far.

Disruptions created by the bad weather have created traffic backups, with many tourists trying to reach Croatia's coastal resorts along the Adriatic Sea.

With reporting by AFP and Reuters
At the end of July, construction worker Vyacheslav Abdullin quit his job and headed home on foot  a 600-kilometer trek from the Kerch Strait to his hometown in the Ural Mountains region of Russia.

After a month laboring on a project that President Vladimir Putin has made clear is extremely important to the Kremlin -- a bridge linking Russia to the peninsula it seized from Ukraine in 2014 -- Abdullin had nothing to show for his pains except harrowing stories of deception and abuse.

Working on the Kerch Strait Bridge "is really like being a slave," Abdullin told RFE/RL.

"You can't stand, and you can't sit. Even if you have to wait half an hour for additional materials, if you are standing around, you will be fired. If you sit down, you are fired. You have to be doing something, even if you are just moving boards from one pile to another or tossing stones back and forth," he said by phone from Zlatoust, a city near Chelyabinsk in the Urals. "You have to look busy all the time. If not, you are fired."

The laborers were not allowed to take off their shirts in the hot summer sun, and sometimes they worked whole days without being given water to drink, Abdullin said.

He was not given any of the 47,000 rubles ($718) per month he was promised.

The Kerch Strait Bridge is Russia's top-priority infrastructure project. At a cost of at least $4.5 billion, the 19-kilometer car-and-rail bridge will tie Russia to Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Moscow annexed from Ukraine after sending in troops and staging a referendum dismissed as illegitimate by 100 countries in a UN vote.

INFOGRAPHIC: The Bridge To Crimea



Putin has claimed Crimea is "sacred" Russian land and displayed pride in taking control of the peninsula, a move that poisoned relations with Kyiv and the West but which he claims righted a historical injustice. He needs the bridge to improve access to Crimea, which is linked to mainland Ukraine but not to Russia, and to show that he is making it an integral part of the country.

During a visit to the construction site in March, Putin emphasized that the span must be completed by the end of 2018 -- the year he could seek a fourth presidential term -- and threatened "to hang" any manager who "fails to do the job."

Nonetheless, Kremlin auditors estimated in June 2015 that two-thirds of the money allocated for the bridge over the preceding year was unaccounted for.

'No Work In The Cities'

Abdullin's story began last fall when his house in Zlatoust burned to the ground.

He, his wife, and their two children moved into a rented room, but were told they would have to move out by the end of August because of another renter  leaving him desperate for a way to make money to pay for a new place to live.

That's when he saw a television advertisement from a company called Liberti, in the Russian city of Izhevsk, looking for workers to go to Kerch.

"I phoned them and asked about food and lodging and all that," Abdullin said. "They told me that they pay 5,000 rubles ($77) a month for expenses, plus a cash salary of 47,000 rubles. They promised two meals a day, transportation there and back, work clothes, and a place to sleep. All of that was included."

But when he got to the construction site and spoke with other workers, he heard a different story.

"Everything was deducted [from the salary]," he said.

The stories the Kerch Bridge workers tell are reminiscent of similar accounts from the construction sites for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, another prestige project for Putin.

According to Human Rights Watch, many of the estimated 70,000 migrant workers on those sites endured long hours, unpaid wages, and overcrowded accommodation.

Russia's economy has deteriorated since then, hit by an oil-price collapse that began four months after the Sochi Games and the effects of sanctions imposed by the Western nations over its annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine, as well as the measures Moscow has taken in response.

Abdullin said there are workers from across Russia at the Kerch project, drawn there from depressed towns by promises of high wages.

"They come from far off because there is no work in the cities," he said. "There were some who came and immediately understood what was going on and then took off again the next day -- the ones who had money. But what were the guys who had no money supposed to do? Where do they go?"

'Worse Than Animals'

Abdullin returned from Kerch with another man from Zlatoust, Aleksei Loginov, who told a similar story.

"They treat people very badly there. They don't even consider them to be people. They treat them worse than animals," he said. "All day, you can't even sit down or take a smoke. There were no smoking breaks. All 11 hours, you had to work, work, work. Without a break. If you sit down, you are fired. That's how they treated people."

Loginov recalled seeing one shift supervisor fire two men on the spot for allegedly "sawing crookedly."

"They'll fire you for nothing," he said. "That's how the whole Kerch Bridge project is built. They fire people and send them away without any pay. They are actually trying to break people because they know they are far from home and they don't have the money to travel home."

When one month of work was up and no money came their way, Abdullin and Loginov had enough. They caught the ferry to the village of Taman, on the Russian side of the strait, and started walking. They hitchhiked occasionally, slept in fields, and ate whatever food they could find.

"We ate corn and whatever else we could find," Loginov said. "Cherries, apples."

When he reached the village of Millerovo in Rostov Oblast, Loginov received a wire of train fare from his wife. Abdullin walked the rest of the way alone.

Abdullin, who remains in desperate need of money, still hopes to get his wages from the people at Liberti, even though his work contract and other documents were taken from him at the Kerch site. He plans to take his case to local prosecutors.

Loginov, on the other hand, just wants to forget the whole experience.

RFE/RL was not able to reach Liberti for comment. The only telephone number listed has been disconnected.

RFE/RL correspondent Robert Coalson contributed to this report
The global governing body for Paralympians has suspended the entire Russian team from competing in the upcoming games in Brazil, due to doping concerns.

The International Paralympic Committee said in a statement on August 7 that Russia had engaged in state-sponsored doping of athletes, calling it an "unprecedented attack" on clean competitors who do not use performance-enhancing drugs.

The move affects nearly 270 Russians who were expected to compete in the Rio Paralympics, scheduled to begin next month.

The committee's president, Philip Craven, said Russian Paralympians were part of a broken system, and he voiced sympathy for those who avoided doping.

Russian sports officials reacted angrily to the announcement. Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko, who was implicated in a damning report by international investigators last month, was quoted by the state news agency TASS as saying that the decision defied common sense.

He said Russia would be appealing the ban to the international arbitration panel that adjudicates sport disputes.

The committee's blanket ban contrasts sharply with that of the International Olympic Committee which avoided such a move, instead deferring to individual sporting federations.

Nonetheless, the international agency overseeing athletics made the unprecedented decision to bar Russia's entire track-and-field team from participating in the Brazil games.

Several other sporting federations took similar measures, resulting in more than 100 other sportsmen and women being banned from Rio.

Investigators for the World Anti-Doping Agency last month issued a damning report on systematic doping in Russia that implicated the country's main security agency and its main doping laboratory.

With reporting by dpa, Reuters, and TASS
Crimean Tatar activists have reported armed checkpoints being erected at scattered sites around the Russian-occupied peninsula, and unusually large concentrations of Russian hardware in northern regions.

Ukraine's border guard service, meanwhile, reported that Russian authorities had blocked all road entry to the Black Sea peninsula for several hours on August 7.

Nariman Celal, a top official with the executive body of the peninsulas Crimean Tatar minority, reported tanks and other heavy weaponry concentrated around two key northern settlements, near the administrative border with the Ukrainian mainland.

The Crimean Human Rights Group, a local nongovernmental organization, said it had also received reports, photographs, and videos from witnesses showing Russian military trucks being transported on trains on August 6 near Kerch, an eastern port town that is opposite Russia's Stavropol territory.

Rafat Chubarov, a member of Ukraines parliament and one of the Crimean Tatar community's most prominent figures, told the news portal 112.ua that the Russian maneuvers appeared to be a training exercise.

Russia seized Crimea in the aftermath of the so-called Euromaidan protests in Kyiv that forced President Viktor Yanukovych to flee.

Moscow later declared it had annexed the peninsula, a move that has been rejected across the globe. Its naval base at Sevastopol is the home for the Russian Black Sea fleet.

With reporting by RFE/RLs Krym.Realii project, 112.ua and Interfax
Igor Plotnitsky, the leader of Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine's eastern region of Luhansk, is reportedly in stable condition following an August 6 assassination attempt.

The Interfax news agency on August 7 quoted an anonymous source at the hospital where Plotnitsky is being treated as saying that his condition is stable, and that there had been no complications overnight.

Plotnitsky, the head of a group that calls itself the Luhansk People's Republic, was wounded "as a result of a powerful explosion that occurred near his car" in Luhansk, the official separatists' news agency reported on August 6.

Separatists have blamed saboteurs from Ukraine's security service for the attack. Oleksandr Motuzyanyk, a spokesman for Ukraine's operation in the east, has said the Ukrainian side was not involved.

Several other people who suffered injuries in the blast were also reportedly being treated.

Fighting between Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed separatists in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk has killed more than 9,500 people since April 2014.

Based on reports by AFP, TASS, and Interfax
Did a Chesterfield County judge fail to properly take into account a mans Asperger syndrome when the defendant stood trial for sexual assault?

In a case that raises unusual questions stemming from an unusual disability, the Virginia Supreme Court will be asked on Aug. 31 to consider the appeal of Drew Harrison, 30, who was convicted of a 2012 assault on a woman who, by all accounts, ordered the sexual contact to stop.

While rejecting Harrisons appeal last year, the Virginia Court of Appeals noted that the victim told Harrison she was interested in bondage, domination and sadism as a submissive, or sub, partner. She posted on a website that she was attracted to dangerous situations, liked biting, and at times liked rough sex.

The appeals court also wrote, The victims actions of sending (Harrison) photographs of herself, discussing sexual matters, sharing erotic stories, and inviting him alone to her apartment when she knew he was romantically interested in her certainly proved in hindsight to have been imprudent, particularly when combined with his knowledge of her interest in being a sub.

These actions, however, hardly constituted an invitation for (Harrison) to force himself on her when she told him both by her words and physical resistance that she did not want him to do what he was doing to her, the court concluded.

But Aspergers experts say someone with the syndrome who has average or better intelligence, who knows right from wrong, and who can appear  at least at first glance  to be normal, could readily misinterpret words and actions, especially in a case where the history between the two people could create confusion.

In a friend-of-the-court brief for the Autism Society Central Virginia, Jennifer S. Nesbitt, a Richmond lawyer, wrote that although there is no doubt that Harrison willfully engaged in the sexual activity at issue in this case, the evidence tends to indicate that he did so with no knowledge that the activity was against the will of (the victim).

Nesbitt, a former prosecutor whose cases included sex crimes, argues that the trial judge repeatedly pointed out that an ordinary person in Harrisons situation should have and would have understood that (the victim) did not consent. However, the evidence shows that Harrison is not an ordinary person.

He suffers from a neurodevelopmental disorder that directly and significantly impairs his ability to communicate with others and to understand social interactions. Sexual contact is by its nature a social interaction laden with nuance and subtle nonverbal communication, Nesbitt wrote.

Nesbitt, along with Harrisons lawyers, Craig S. Cooley and Jennifer M. Newman, are hoping the Supreme Court will hear the appeal and overturn the convictions because the evidence was insufficient to prove guilt, or send the case back to circuit court so Harrison can present an insanity defense.

The Virginia Attorney Generals Office, in its brief to the Court of Appeals, opposed such a defense.

Concerning the supposed fact that the defendant had Aspergers and thus reasonably perceived (the victims) actions to manifest her consent to the sexual encounter, defense counsel expressly conceded at trial that the claimed disorder did not support an insanity defense, the Attorney Generals Office wrote.

Nesbitts brief, however, argues that, If Harrison could not properly receive expressions of refusal of consent from (the victim), he definitely lacked the capacity to understand the nature and consequences of his actions as criminal offenses. ... Justice requires remand of this matter for proceedings on an insanity defense.

Getting justices to take a case is difficult enough  only 100 to 120 are accepted annually. This one will be even tougher, Nesbitt concedes. Because the Asperger-related question was not raised earlier, the justices would have to agree to take it under a rarely granted ends of justice exception.

The larger issue raised by the case, Nesbitt said, is that Virginia laws against rape and other sex crimes do not require authorities to prove mens rea, or ones knowledge of doing wrong in addition to doing the wrong.

Asperger syndrome is a high-functioning sub-type of autism. While someone with Aspergers often can appear normal and have normal or above-average intelligence, there also can be profound social shortcomings that, according to Nesbitts brief, can include the inability or limited ability to interpret body language and other non-verbal communication and to be unaware of the distress or disinterest of others.

A person with Aspergers can appear unimpaired by copying normal behavior. But legal and medical experts warn that such deficits as an aversion to making eye contact and delays in answering questions can lead to misinterpreting people with Aspergers as being indifferent, hostile, evasive or even guilty. That especially can be a problem if someone with Aspergers is a witness or defendant.

Mary Davye Devoy, a rights advocate for sex offenders, said that during the past eight years, she has been contacted by at least a dozen parents of autistic individuals who are on Virginias sex offender registry, some with Asperger syndrome. She said she has heard accounts from some of them that the disability can lead to tragic complications in the legal system.

***

Harrison was convicted of forcible sodomy and object sexual penetration by Judge Steven C. McCallum on Jan. 22, 2014, and he was sentenced six months later to 50 years in prison with 47 years suspended.

Last October, a three-judge panel of the Virginia Court of Appeals rejected Harrisons contention that the evidence failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that his actions were against the will of the victim.

(Harrison also unsuccessfully argued that his rights were violated when a prosecutor allegedly reneged on a promise not to prosecute if he sought treatment. Harrison alleges that because he and his parents believed there would be no prosecution, they decided not to spend $4,000 to $5,000 for experts to retrieve telephone and computer data that might help his defense. When Harrison discovered he would be prosecuted, it was too late to retrieve the data.)

According to the Virginia Court of Appeals 14-page ruling, Harrison and the victim had dated previously and had attempted sexual intercourse once. They had maintained an off-and-on friendship and reconnected on Facebook.

She testified she was concerned that he talked about wanting to kill himself and wanted to end a dependency on a prescription drug he was taking for anxiety.

In late February or early March 2012, the victim said they met at a bookstore and that he did not seem happy. She said he was aware that she was romantically involved with someone else.

She invited him to her apartment, where he made a pass at her that she resisted, telling him no. He followed her into the bedroom, pushed her onto the bed, and removed her clothing. Her bra was torn. She said she pushed him but not too hard for fear of angering him.

He performed oral sex and penetrated her with his fingers. She bit his lip and said she punched him a couple of times, though not hard. She was able to scoot off the bed and stand up when he relaxed his hold on her. She said Harrison apologized and left when she told him he had to leave.

In his petition to the Virginia Supreme Court, Harrisons lawyers wrote that he described her actions as consistent with the way she acted during their (previous) sexual activity. ... He described her as saying no, no, no in a coy and playful tone and playfully lightly hitting him, with a smile on her face.

After the incident, at her boyfriends suggestion, the victim sought post-sexual assault counseling at the YWCA.

Harrison later sent her a text message that said: I honestly thought you wanted me to do that, then I wasnt sure.

She responded: What part of please stop and hitting you made you think that I wanted that?

He wrote: I guess when you told me about some of your fantasies, I wasnt sure if you fighting me was playful or not. I really didnt know so I stopped.

***

Police were not involved until a psychologist working with Harrison grew concerned that he had fantasies about harming or killing the woman.

Harrison had not been diagnosed with Aspergers at the time. Harrisons appeal says the psychologist later testified that had he known Harrison had Aspergers, he would not have been concerned and would not have notified anyone.

The psychologist testified that when he spoke to the victim about Harrison, she told him he had sexually assaulted her. When he asked why she did not go to the police, she told him, When I asked (him) to stop, he stopped.

The appeals court noted she did not initially call police and instead hoped Harrison would receive treatment and stay away from her.

The appeals court held that both Harrison and his therapist said that while Aspergers may interfere with reading subtle social clues, clear communicative signals were not a problem. The victim testified she said stop and no, the appeals court said.

Harrisons appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court contends McCallum and the appeals court mistakenly found there was sufficient evidence beyond a reasonable doubt to support the convictions.

Harrison testified that based on prior interactions and her playful demeanor throughout the encounter, he thought she was consenting until she stood up and told him to stop  and he did.

In fact, he left her apartment believing she was dissatisfied with his efforts and that he had failed to please her sexually, his lawyers argue.

Taken as a whole, the facts supported Mr. Harrisons interpretation that the sexual encounter was consensual, his lawyer told the Supreme Court.

A person with Aspergers can appear to a casual observer as unimpaired by copying, or faking, normal behavior.

According to the trial transcript, Harrisons psychologist testified that Harrison fakes well. He can present himself like a chameleon to fit in, but if you press him and ask him whats really going on here, he cant tell you.

The Attorney Generals Office, in its response to Harrisons earlier appeal, strongly supported McCallums decision. The evidence amply proved that (the victim) did not consent to any of the sexual acts committed by Harrison.

But Nesbitt argues in her brief that there is no indication the judge considered Harrisons diagnosis of Aspergers in determining the relative credibility of the accused and the victim.

Given that fact, the trial courts determination of relative credibility in this matter is fatally flawed and cannot form the basis of a finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, she contends.

A three-justice panel sitting in Charlottesville on Aug. 31 will consider whether the Virginia Supreme Court will take up the appeal and hear 10 minutes of argument from Harrisons lawyers.

His mother, Judy Harrison, said he was jailed earlier but is free for the time being. He wears an ankle monitoring device and sees his probation officer once a month and registers as a violent sex offender every 90 days, she said.

Drew is not doing well. He is losing hope. In addition to autism spectrum disorder, he now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. His therapist said this is from the jail experiences and fear of being taken back there, she said.
John Walker celebrated his one-year anniversary June 1 as president and CEO of the Greater Richmond ARC, a nonprofit that serves people with disabilities.

He and others at ARC and in the community will celebrate another one-year anniversary this month  that of the ARCpark.

Situated on 2.4 acres next to the ARC headquarters off Saunders Avenue in Richmond, the ARCpark allows people with and without disabilities to play side by side. It is the first of its kind in central Virginia  all-inclusive and entirely handicap-accessible.

The park features three playgrounds, a stage, a treehouse, a fitness course and a sensory wall. The grand opening was Aug. 29.

QUESTION: What is your background?

ANSWER: I am a businessperson with a marketing and sales management background that led to general management positions. I am a University of Virginia graduate with an undergrad degree in commerce and a masters in business administration from Darden.

Prior to joining ARC, I spent my career in the for-profit world working for companies like Honeywell, Procter & Gamble and Crestar Bank. For the previous eight years, I was the CEO of QubicaAMF, which was the worlds largest manufacturer of bowling equipment.

QUESTION: What are the differences from your perspective of running a nonprofit compared with a for-profit company?

ANSWER: There are more similarities than differences. In both situations, you need leadership, strategic planning and management skills.

In both, it is about providing high-quality products and services to your clients. One of the biggest differences is reporting to a volunteer board versus a set of owners. Their reasons for involvement and their motivations are different, as are the ways you measure the organizations success.

In the corporate world, it is all about the money. In the nonprofit world, money is important, but only because it is required to achieve our mission. Money is the means, not the end, for nonprofits.

QUESTION: How would you summarize your first year as head of the Greater Richmond ARC?

ANSWER: It has been a whirlwind. ARC is a very complex organization. We are a relatively large and a successful nonprofit.

We employ more than 400 people (more than 250 have some type of disability) and provide services to more than 1,250 individuals and their families annually. We service infants and seniors and every age in between. There has been a steep learning curve, but it has been exciting and fun.

QUESTION: What has been the biggest surprise in your new job?

ANSWER: Most of what we do consists of either health care or employment services. The complexity of the regulations and reporting requirements around health care has far surpassed my expectations  and I thought there would be a lot.

QUESTION: What are some of the biggest challenges facing ARC in the next five years?

ANSWER: Like most nonprofits, our biggest challenge is funding. The world has changed for agencies like ours over the past 10 years, and our traditional sources of revenue no longer support providing high-quality services to our clients.

Government reimbursement rates for services provided to individuals with disabilities have been essentially stagnant for more than a decade. Costs have increased during that time.

To date, we have been successful in finding additional outside sources of funds, but we have to continue to do so, or we will not be able to continue to provide the level of service these individuals need and deserve.

QUESTION: What about the ARCpark? What kind of response and/or numbers of visitors have you had to the park?

ANSWER: The response to the ARCpark has been incredible. It is so rewarding to see individuals with and without disabilities playing side by side. We get about 1,000 visitors per week.

Our guests consistently tell us that there is no other park nearly as nice as the ARCpark anywhere in central Virginia. There are people using the park almost every day from early in the morning until almost sundown.

We have added more parking spaces to our lot to keep up with demand. On July 9, we held an event that attracted about 1,800 people to the park despite the 90-plus degree heat.

QUESTION: Have there been any unexpected bonuses and/or challenges of such an undertaking?

ANSWER: On the positive side, the amount of publicity and word-of-mouth conversation about the ARCpark has exceeded our expectations and has helped build awareness of Greater Richmond ARC in our community.

The only real challenge to date has been the pressure on our available parking, and we hope we have solved that problem on all but the busiest of days.

QUESTION: What is the one word that comes to mind as you think about the Greater Richmond ARC over the past year?

ANSWER: Excitement. I have been given a wonderful opportunity to lead and contribute to an organization that does so many great things for our community. I could not be more excited to be doing anything different at this time of my career.
Five years ago, a CH-47 Chinook helicopter carrying 38 people  mostly Navy SEALs based out of Virginia Beach  was shot down by enemy combatants in Wardak province, west of Kabul, Afghanistan.

All on board were killed. It is the deadliest single loss of American lives in the ongoing conflict.

It was the early morning hours of Aug. 6, 2011, and the group had been called to aid a group of Army Rangers whose mission had gone awry, according to Jeff Guild, a retired Navy senior chief petty officer who spent the entirety of his 20-year career as a SEAL.

Guild was a member of a squadron of the elite SEAL Team 6. Every few months, his squadron relieved the one that was destroyed.

He spoke Saturday at a remembrance ceremony at the Virginia War Memorial.

These guys were my friends. Their wives were friends with my wife. My daughter knows their children, he said.

Behind him, projected on a screen were the faces of many of those who died, including a military working dog. Guild walked over to one photo and pointed at Senior Chief Petty Officer Robert Reeves, a SEAL. A young brown-haired man with a light blue shirt smiled back.

Two months after the crash, Guild found himself sleeping in Reeves bed in Afghanistan, he said.

Clay Mountcastle, director of the Virginia War Memorial, also spoke at the ceremony Saturday. He was head of the Army ROTC program at the University of Washington in 2011 when he got the news of the tragic loss that sent shock waves through the entire special operations community, not just the SEALs. The crew aboard the Chinook also included three Army Reservists, two National Guardsmen, three airmen and seven Afghans.

It is a small, closely knit group where only first names were used and the distinctions between Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines really mean very little, Mountcastle said of the special operations community.

It really is a tribe that relies on itself. Everything they do is high-risk. Every single task is danger. They do so without public notice, without fanfare, spending years of their lives in some of the nastiest places on the globe, missing births, anniversaries and many of lifes special moments that you never get back.

And when they do return home, there are no ceremonies, no parades. No redeployment celebrations in the middle of the installation. ... And they wouldnt have it any other way, Mountcastle said.

The brave men, and now women, who serve in the toughest jobs in the military dont ask for anything in return for their service, he said.

And yet we should give them something, if not our thanks and our memories, he said. We could not, would not, let today come and go without doing something that shows Virginia remembers and appreciates the ultimate sacrifice.

It was the first time the memorial held a remembrance for the Virginia-based squadron, and the event was well-attended by local veterans, including Tommy Sammons, better known as Uncle Sam.

Clad in red, white and blue from head to toe, the Korean War veteran choked up during the playing of taps.

It tears me up, said Sammons, wiping his eyes with an American flag handkerchief.
CHANTILLY, Va.  Fairfax County police say a seasonal park worker fatally stabbed a woman who was catering a wedding at a county park in Chantilly.

Police say in a statement they're holding 19-year-old Kempton Bonds of Clifton without bond on a charge of second-degree murder in the incident Saturday night at Ellanor C. Lawrence Park, about 40 miles west of Washington. It's not known if Bonds has an attorney.

Police spokeswoman Monica Meeks says Bonds and 35-year-old Tyonne Johns had argued earlier that night about something. Then, shortly before 11 p.m., Bonds confronted Johns about whether her company owned some folding chairs she was loading up.

Meeks says Bonds pulled out a 3-inch folding knife and stabbed Johns in the upper body.
By James Y. Simms Jr.

The atomic bomb is the second coming of wrath.

 Winston Churchill, July 1945

***

On Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, 1945, the atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and so began the nuclear age, an event that signaled a major turning point in the history of mankind.

The development of the atomic bomb, code-named The Manhattan Engineering District Project  at a then-enormous cost of $2 billion  played a major role in bringing about a quick end to the war against Japan and thus the Second World War.

As one commentator stated, the atomic bomb, while playing an insignificant role in the defeat of Japan, was the decisive factor in the surrender of Japan.

While estimates vary, something in the range of 70,000 to 90,000 people died in the attack on Hiroshima and another 35,000 to 40,000 in the attack on Nagasaki. To have that much death and destruction by the use of one bomb clearly demonstrated that warfare had entered an entirely new age of horror.

***

Over the years, the dropping of the atomic bomb has unleashed a cacophony of criticism from historians and other interested parties, including Albert Einstein, and Dwight Eisenhower, who considered using the weapon as morally, even politically, repulsive. To these critics, the bomb was an inhuman weapon, its use was unnecessary to end the war, and it risked causing an arms race with the Soviet Union.

At least, some argued, why not make a non-combatant  demonstration of the power of the weapon to impress the Japanese. Both Presidents Roosevelt and Truman considered providing the Japanese a demonstration of the power of the bomb at a neutral site, but decided it was impractical. In the end, the powers that be  Presidents Roosevelt and Truman, Secretary of War Henry Stimson, Gen. George Marshall, and many of the scientists heading up the nuclear project considered the bomb a legitimate weapon  and one that would be used.

Cognizant of the moral, political, and realpolitik considerations of those who criticize the use of the bomb, it is my view that the decision to drop the bomb was a sound decision, a good decision, and a necessary decision.

***

As the denouement of the war approached, the United States had decided on two options for ending the war with Japan  invasion or using the atomic device.

Our leaders decided wisely and ordered the attack on Hiroshima. Why?

There were several factors in the decision to use the weapon of mass destruction. Truman and Secretary of State James Byrnes had concluded that the use of the bomb would bring about a speedy end to the war  and public opinion demanded that the war be ended as quickly as possible.

In addition, using the bomb might impress the Russians and make them more tractable, improving the chances for world peace. There was also the revenge element  retribution for the attack on Pearl Harbor and the mistreatment of our prisoners of war.

That all notwithstanding, to this observer, the critical factor in the decision to drop the bomb was the desire to avoid an invasion of Japan that would cost thousands and thousands of American and Japanese lives.

***

It is clear from the record that President Truman was concerned about keeping U.S. casualties to a minimum. Admiral William Leahy, a close adviser to Truman, recalls that the president argued decisions should be made so as to economize to the maximum extent possible in the loss of American lives. Economy in the use of time and in money cost is comparatively unimportant.

In August 1945, Truman stated to Sen. Richard Russell: My object is to save as many American lives as possible, but I also have a humane feeling for the women and children of Japan. Truman was clearly aware that the longer the war lasted, the greater the suffering of the Japanese people.

***

In giving context to the decision to use a nuclear weapon, one must be aware of the savagery of the fighting in the Pacific  a war of no quarter, a fight to the death. In part, the nature of the war reflected the Japanese Samurai code of Bushido, which considered surrender in battle to be dishonorable and brought shame to the individual and to the family name.

As a result, the number of men killed in action per number of men engaged was extremely high on both sides, especially that of the Japanese.

Examining the casualty figures in just a few of the battles in the Pacific theater is illustrative.

In the Battle of Tarawa, Nov. 21, 1943, the Japanese had a garrison of 4,500 Imperial Marines. Of that number, we took 17 prisoners, some so badly wounded they were incapable of continuing the battle.

In the Battle for Iwo Jima, February-March, 1945, of the Japanese garrison of 21,000 only 200 were captured alive, and our Marines suffered approximately 27,000 casualties.

The Battle of Okinawa, April-June, 1945, was clearly indicative of what the casualty rates might have been in an invasion of Japan itself. Of a garrison with more than 100,000 Japanese troops, 100,000 perished in the fighting  and at least 80,000 Okinawan civilians also perished. U.S. casualties totaled 75,000.

Given the banzai charge at Saipan, and the willingness of Japanese civilians on that island to commit suicide rather than surrender  and the savage fighting in Manilla, which completely destroyed the Japanese garrison  is there little wonder that the United States was reluctant to engage in an invasion of the home islands? Truman clearly wanted to avoid having another Okinawa in an invasion of Japan.

***

According to Professor Gerhard Weinberg, U.S. intelligence reports estimated that Japan had about ten thousand planes  about half of them Kamikazes  and two million soldiers in the home islands were awaiting an invasion.

Based on this data, we estimated that American casualties would be very high. The estimates vary a great deal, but a reputable source argues that the invasion of Kyushu, the third largest island of Japan, would have doubled the total casualties incurred to that point in the war, i.e., approximately 700,000.

Given the number Japanese civilian and military casualties on Okinawa, proportionally, the number of casualties on Japan proper would have been enormous. In mid-1945, our leaders had two options in bringing an end to the war: invasion or the bomb. In retrospect, of two bad options, for both Japan and the United States, the bomb was definitely the better choice.

***

We owe a sincere thank you to President Truman and his advisers for deciding to end the war quickly and taking the opprobrium for introducing an extremely destructive new weapon of warfare. However, can one imagine the opprobrium our leaders would have engendered had we landed on Kyushu, suffered, say, 100,000 dead, and the public subsequently found out that we had a super weapon that might have ended the war with no American casualties? Can you imagine? We should all be thankful, Americans and Japanese, that Truman decided to use the nuclear option and preserve life.

The advent of atomic warfare has been considered by some to be a catastrophe for mankind and has engendered considerable negative response. There does exist, however, a positive spin to the appearance of nuclear warfare, a view put forth by the eminent military historian Michael Howard.

Howard argues that the development of the nuclear weapon may indeed be a positive for history, at least in the context of the Cold War between the USSR and the USA. The existence of nuclear weapons seems to have been a guarantor of peace, because for any rational leader, the destructive power of the atomic bomb was so great that any gain acquired in going to war would have been outweighed by the destructive costs of a nuclear war.

Consider, that since the 1400s, Europe has never had a longer period of continuous peace between the great powers than that following the advent of the atomic bomb. Ironically, in a very real sense, one might deem the atom bomb, which has made war so horrific , a preserver of peace.
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
ALTAVISTA  Avoca Museum in Altavista has garnered significant attention from Virginia organizations of late, amounting to more than $54,000 in grants, according to Director Michael Hudson.

The museum received three grants last month from various Virginia foundations that will help the museum repair old drainage issues, make the site accessible to people with disabilities and cover other expenses.

Hudson said the museum staff has been using town funds to upgrade draperies and wallpaper in the house.

We consider ourselves very fortunate. I go to professional conferences and I hear one really sad story after another, Hudson said.

He has heard of one museum closing, then another, as many cannot up not generate enough money to stay afloat.

I almost dont want to say my museum is thriving. Twenty-five percent of house museums will be closing in the next decade. Its a rough time to be in this field, Hudson said.

The town council gave $18,700 to Avoca in Fiscal Year 2016 as an annual contribution. About $72,500 worth of projects at the museum is included in the towns four-year capital improvements plan.

We consider Avoca to be one of the crown jewels of the community. Its a community meeting place, holds treasures accumulated through history; home to slavery cemetery which we think is important to show how far we have come and how far we need to go, Altavista Mayor Michael Mattox.

The museum is like a living home place for Altavista where everyone can come, feel comfortable and be part of Altavista, Mattox said.

Hudson joined the museum as director three years ago about the same time it experienced a n increase in grant funding.

Were on the upswing; I am known for my grant writing  aim high, he said.

According to Avocas 990 tax forms from 2014, it received $125,930 in grants and donations. In 2013 it received $76,172, and $74,311 in 2012. Membership revenue increased by about $6,000 from 2013 to 2014.

Avocas total revenue for 2014 was $207,978 with $161,481 in expenses.

Hudson said he sends out dozens of grant applications at a time.

This spring the Greater Lynchburg Community Trust gave Avoca $4,000 to alleviate drainage issues and the Marietta McNeil Morgan and Samuel Tate Morgan Jr. Trust Fund in Richmond gave another $10,000 to fix the drainage problem in the area between the Queen Anne-style house and kitchen facilities.

The grants were used to install French drains and underground pipes that didnt interfere with the historic structures.

The water had no place to go and [could] cause damage to the foundation of the historic building, Hudson said.

Another $30,000 came from the Timken Foundation of Canton, Ohio, the philanthropic side of the Timken Company . The money will help make Avoca more accessible to people with physical disabilities, among other improvements.

Timken, which manufactures parts for four-wheel drive vehicles, announced in March it would close its Altavista plant within a year and move up to 125 jobs to its North Carolina plant.

[This is] their way of saying thank you to the Altavista community, as a going-away present but the roles are reversed, he said.

Rose Geib, operations and grant coordinator for the Timken Foundation, said via email Avoca has received four grants since 1997 for various improvements.

The Timken Foundation of Canton has been happy and fortunate to support such a shining jewel in the Altavista area for so many years, she said.

The Richard and Caroline T. Gwathmey Memorial Trust gave Avoca $10,000 to support exhibits on the history of African American slavery at Avoca.

The trust also supported an exhibit of items belonging to Gen. James Dearing, a former Avoca owner, and a touch-screen multimedia display describing the 1864 Battle of the Crater during the Civil War in Petersburg. The battle is significant to Avoca because its builder Thomas Fauntleroy was there as a military officer.

Another exhibit funded by the grant describes the social characteristics of the Saponi Native American tribe that inhabited Altavista before the arrival of English-speaking settlers.

The museum has one of the largest collections of Native American arrowheads in Virginia.

Former Avoca resident Juliet Fauntleroy, a teacher during the Great Depression, created the trove by giving her students a nickel for every arrowhead they brought her.
We never did answer that burning question after the attack on 9-11: Why do they hate us? The hate was well known and documented as television news from the Middle East repeatedly showed jubilant crowds cheering the burning of the American flag. They still hate us, trap us and kill us. Shouldnt we know why they hate us by now? Are we overthinking the problem?

What followed the apparently unanswerable question was the twisting of the question to something even worse. The words were shifted to: Whats wrong with America? And the national bloodletting began. People of color blamed whites for systemic injustice and bias, and white people blamed people of color for riots in the streets. Occupy Wall Street blamed capitalism and rich people. There was a war on women and Christian fundamentalists were mocked and called bigots, racists and homophobes. Religion itself was called into question as to whether it caused more harm than any other factor throughout history. Political rallies became an opportunity to bloody the nose of ones candidates opponent and the war on cops has resulted in police being assaulted and assassinated. Gun rights are heatedly debated on a daily basis, because safety on both sides is non-negotiable. Americas wrongs are seen as ever growing and increasingly intractable.

Lets go back to the original question: Why do they hate us? Concentrate on that. After we answer that question definitively, we should be able to take drastic action that will diminish, rather than accelerate, the laying out of flowers, cards, teddy bears and candles, as we mourn fallen lives in weeping vigils.

After we figure out why they hate us, lets unify this bruised and traumatized nation with the concept that America is not perfect, but its the best the world has to offer. Caution: In efforts to improve our nation, first, do no harm.

GAIL LAMBERT

ROANOKE
FLORENCE, S.C.  Frequent Pee Dee public office candidate William Breazeale was arrested Friday night by Florence Police on one count each of blackmail/extortion and violating a restraining order.

Florence Police Department Maj. Carlos Raines said Saturday that the charges were connected and that the department probably would release more information later Saturday.

Breazeale, 47, of Devonshire Drive, Florence, has run unsuccessfully for public office in both Carolinas. He was booked into the Florence County Detention Center at 9:40 p.m. Friday and released on $21,000 bond on Saturday, according to the detention center's website.

Earlier Friday, Breazeale filed to run for a seat on Florence School District One board of trustees, said David Alford, director of the Florence County Election Commission.

In 2008, Breazeale ran for the North Carolina U.S. House District 7 seat that was held at the time by Mike McIntire, who won the race with 68 percent of the vote.

In 2014, Breazeale ran for South Carolina Adjutant General against incumbent Bob Livingston, who won with more than 70 percent of the vote.

in November, 2015, Breazeale announced his candidacy for South Carolina House seat for District 63, opposing incumbent Jay Jordan. His main issue was a push for the return of the Confederate battle flag to Statehouse grounds.

In March of this year, Breazeale announced he wouldn't follow through with the election and instead said hed volunteered with the U.S. Armys Resource Command to serve a fourth tour of duty in the Middle East.
FLORENCE, S.C.  This ones for the girls.

When Marguerite Willis chose a recycled poster-board sign with a simple message to display at the Democratic National Convention, she never imagined shed end up on the front page of The New York Times and the subject of thousands of photos.

The sign simply read GIRL POWER  a message that not only summed-up the spirit of the Democratic Partys historic nomination of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton but held an intrinsic belief that has driven Willis to success.

Willis, a renowned antitrust attorney and wife of former Florence Mayor Frank Willis, said her sole purpose in attending the DNC was to voice womens issues.

It was never about me. It was about the sign and the power of the message, she said. It validates how a lot of us feel, and its not making fun of us. Its celebrating the fact that weve gotten to a point where we have literally broken the glass ceiling. This is it. This is Girl Power.

During the interview for this story, Willis was joined by Barbara Sylvester, a Florence native who served on the DNC in 1968 and served as a mentor to Willis.

Sylvester said Willis sign resonates deeply within the fight for womens rights, and Clintons nomination for president is proof that girl power is more than real.

All my life I have looked for a sign like that, she said. The message on this sign and the leadership of Hillary Clinton has helped a lot of women stand up and say, Yes, I do believe in Girl Power. Yes, I believe in equal rights.

For Willis, the sign isnt something that can be forgotten  its a part of history. She plans to keep the sign in a safe place for a very particular reason.

When Hillary Clinton is elected, not if but when shes elected, there will eventually be a national library with her name on it, Willis said. This belongs in her library.

For the record, both Willis and Sylvester believe Clinton will handily beat Donald Trump in the November general election. The reason: the power of girl power.
FLORENCE, S.C.  The U.S. Army monument set to be unveiled this year at a Veterans Day event at the Florence Veterans Park, made a big step forward last week when the stone that will be the edifices centerpiece was lifted into place so the etching can start.

Brown Memorials workers lifted the stone early Thursday morning , rotated it from a vertical to horizontal position and moved it into a climate-controlled chamber, where artist Dan Garrison can etch murals that depict the history of the U.S. Army from World War I through Afghanistan.

The stone sits on a riser specifically constructed to support the stone in a room designed to keep the artist dry and cool as he works on the project.

The 9-foot-tall by four-foot-wide monolith is being built out of jet-black granite that arrived last week at Brown Memorials after it was ordered earlier in the year from an Asian quarry.

That particular type and quality of stone was not available from a domestic source, said Bran Oswalt with Brown Memorials .

The original design of the monument had to be altered to accommodate the lifting capacity of the companys crane, Oswalt said. What was originally to be one stone will now be two stones to keep the overall weight within the limits of the equipment.

The monument will be a monolith with an etched mural on each side  one side that depicts images of World War I, World War II and the Korean War, and the other side that depicts images of the Vietnam War and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

All images will be hand-etched using a tool almost identical to one used by dentists when they work on teeth, Garrison said.
Speaking at a celebration to mark the one-year anniversary of the $8bn expansion of the canal on Saturday, Suez Canal Authority (SCA) chairman Mohab Mameesh said revenue reached $3.183bn for the period between January1-August 6, up from $3.059bn.



The SCA stopped releasing data on revenues, reported in US dollars, in March, when the waterways income slowed for the third consecutive month to $396.4m from $401.4m in February and from $411.8m in January, the Egyptian daily Ahram reported.

That has made comparisons difficult although Mameesh refuted claims revenues had fallen following the devaluation of the Egyptian pound by the countrys central bank in March.



The revenue was supposed to be affected by the 14 percent drop in global trade volume from 2014 to 2016, but the new canal helps us to avoid that, Mameesh said, noting the 4% US dollar growth.



Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who attended Saturdays anniversary, inaugurated the widened Suez Canal last year, a project designed to double daily traffic and increase annual revenue to more than $13bn by 2023.

The Suez Canal is one of Egypt's main sources of foreign currency in a country struggling to resuscitate its economy since a 2011 uprising scared away other key revenue sources, tourists and foreign investors.

Seatrade Maritime News has reported two financial sweeteners issued by the SCA within the last six weeks, both designed to drum up business for VLCCs tempted to sail the long way around Cape Horn to avoid the canals tolls.



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24.6.16 New Suez Canal toll could save VLCCs $70,000 as authority looks to boost traffic

26.7.16 Suez Canal offers second toll sweetener to VLCC operators



Al-Sisi reportedly slammed "doubters" in his anniversary speech, insisting the project has been a success.

"Every achievement is met with doubt," Al-Sisi said, adding that "doubters" seek to "turn the Egyptians' will and hope into frustration and despair."



Four new logistics tunnels, each reportedly 5km long, crossing the canal are under construction as part of the mega-project which includes plans for an industrial hub and supply and logistics centre.



Annual canal revenue for 2015 showed a decline to $5.175bn in 2015 from $5.465bn in the previous year, data from the SCA revealed.
Russia has a lot of enemies. Just ask its citizens.

A recent poll by the independent Levada Center found that Russian citizens see enemies on all sides, led by their old Cold War rival -- the United States. Jules Suzdaltsev investigates the bad feelings in today's Seeker Daily dispatch.

Russia's relationship with the U.S. has long been distrustful at best, a sentiment illustrated rather hilariously in this photo of Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama. The Levada poll indicates that Ivan Lunchpail feels much the same as his government. Nearly three quarters of Russians polled listed America as an enemy of the state.

It's not entirely surprising, given the two countries' long and chaotic history, but relations had actually thawed quite a bit in the 1990s. Under pro-Western leader Boris Yeltsin, Russia incorporated a number of reforms inspired by the U.S.

RELATED: Russia's Election Mischief May Not Be Over

But since Vladimir Putin took power in 1999, Russia has grown increasingly aggressive. Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014 effectively destroyed any remaining goodwill. It also didn't help when Russia granted political asylum to whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Other enemies on Russia's list? Well, there's the Ukraine, naturally. After Russia's effective annexation of the disputed Crimean territories, Ukraine ended all military cooperation with its old Soviet-era partner. In 2015, Ukraine also banned all flights to and from Russia and closed its airspace to all Russian aircraft, military or civilian.

In the Levada poll, nearly half of all Russians polled named Ukraine as an enemy, up from 37 percent in 2015.

The biggest surprise in this year's poll is that Russian's now count Turkey -- a formerly close ally -- as Russia's third major enemy on the global stage. Last November, Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet it said had crossed into Turkish airspace. In response, the number of Russians who named Turkey as an enemy jumped to 29 percent in the latest poll, up from just 1 percent in 2015.

On the happy side, Russians named Belarus, Kazakhstan and China as the top three countries most friendly to Russia, although China's rating dropped from 43 percent in 2015 to 34 percent in the latest poll. So that's nice, anyway.

-- Glenn McDonald

Learn More:

The Moscow Times: U.S., Ukraine and Turkey Named as Russia's Main Enemies - Poll

New York Times: Promises of 'Fresh Start' for U.S.-Russia Relations

BBC: Ukraine crisis: Russia and sanctions

Wall Street Journal: Turkey Expresses Regret Over Downing of Russian Plane
The transition seemed almost instantaneous. Last week Berg Muirhead and Associates was one of Detroit's most recognizable boutique public relations agencies. This week it has a new name, Van Dyke Horn Public Relations, and new owners. But this change has been a longtime coming."It wasn't a quick turnover process," says Peter Van Dyke, CEO and co-owner of Van Dyke Horn Public Relations . "We have worked toward this slowly and carefully for the last five years."Berg Muirhead and Associates is one of the household names in Detroit public relations. The company was founded in 1998 by Bob Berg , a public affairs adviser for former Detroit Mayor Coleman A. Young, and Georgella Muirhead , a public relations administrator for the cities of Detroit, Southfield, and Ann Arbor. The company built an enviable client list that included everything from Detroit Future City to Strategic Staffing Solutions to the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island Successful businesses like this are often built on the shoulders of their founders, and too often live and die with them. But Berg Muirhead/Van Dyke Horn seems like it has a better shot than most of surviving because it's been preparing for this moment for a long time.Van Dyke started as an account executive at Berg Muirhead a decade ago, becoming an account supervisor a year after that. Five years ago Van Dyke made the move to vice president. He became a partner in the firm about two years later. Marilyn Horn , the co-owner and president of Van Dyke Horn, has been working at the company for even longer as director of administration before becoming a vice president in 2013. All four people became practically interchangeable over the last few years in preparation of this transition."Bob, Georgella, Marilyn, and I work very close together," Van Dyke says. "If we can work closely together and leave each day as good business colleagues and friends, then we have something special going on."That group of four will continue to work together. While Horn and Van Dyke are the new owners, Berg and Muirhead are staying on as "of counsel" senior staffers. The company's staff of nine will remain the same and continue to work in its offices in the Fisher Building in New Center. In fact, Van Dyke expects to hire another account executive or two before the year is over.He and Horn have set a goal of raising the firm's annual revenue to $1 million this year. Van Dyke expects to announce new clients within a few months, and hints they many will come from developers building up the greater downtown area and the rest of Detroit."There will be a lot of growth in the next six months," Van Dyke says.
Press Release

August 5, 2016 INCREASE SALARY OF ENTRY-LEVEL NURSES

TO P26,192: PANGILINAN MANILA - As a way to stop some 22,000 health professionals from leaving the country every year, Sen. Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan has refiled the Comprehensive Nursing Law, which seeks to raise the salary of entry-level nurses from P19,077 (Salary Grade 11) to P26,192 (Salary Grade 15). "Libo-libo sa ating mga health professionals ay mas pinipiling magtrabaho sa ibang bansa dahil may kakulangan sa oportunidad sa Pilipinas at hindi sapat ang kita (Thousands of our health professionals choose to work overseas because of unemployment and unjust compensation)," Pangilinan said. Senate Bill 965, or the Comprehensive Nursing Law of 2016, aims to reform and strengthen the public health sector by ensuring adequate compensation and just working conditions for the nursing profession. "Tayo ang pinakamalaking exporter ng nurses sa buong mundo, bagamat malaki rin ang pangangailangan dito sa ating bansa. Kaunting porsyento lamang ng mga taga-probinsya, lalo na ang mga mahihirap, ang nakikinabang sa serbisyo ng mga propesyonal sa larangan ng medisina (We are the biggest exporter of nurses in the world, but our need for medical professionals is dire. Only a number of citizens in the rural areas, especially the poor, have access to professional medical services)," Pangilinan said. According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 22,000 health professionals leave the Philippines annually to work abroad, or almost 85 percent of Filipino nurses citing "unemployment, low salaries, and unjust working conditions" as primary reasons for leaving. Republic Act 9173, or the Nursing Law of 2002, provides that the salary grade of nurses working in government institutions shall not be lower than 15. However, the issuance of the Salary Standardization Law 3 in 2009 pushed back the basic pay of government nurses to Salary Grade 11 (P19,077 in the first tranche). SB 965 also aims to establish a Board of Nursing that will "supervise and regulate the practice of the nursing profession," including the proper conduct of the Nursing Licensure Examination, as well as enforcing quality standards of nursing practice, among others. In the case of nurses working in non-governmental or private health institutions, the minimum salary shall also be equivalent to that of government hospitals and institutions' Salary Grade 15 (P26,192). "Sana ay mahimok nito ang ating mga nurse na manatili sa bansa, lalo na sa mga probinsya kung saan may mas malaking pangangailangan (We hope that this will encourage more of our nurses to stay in the country to work, particularly in the rural areas where they are most needed)," Pangilinan said. A version of the measure was vetoed by President Benigno Aquino III last June. Pangilinan is also pushing for the increase in the minimum salary grade level of government doctors (Senate Bill 57) from Salary Grade 16 to Salary Grade 24. SB 57 and No. 965 are part of Pangilinan's legislative bills for the 17th Congress.
Press Release

August 5, 2016 POE: GIVE EVERY CHILD A FAIR CHANCE AT LIFE

Pushes Breastfeeding, "First 1,000 Days" Senator Grace Poe today urged the government to adopt a program that will provide nourishment for poor, pregnant and lactating mothers while advocating breastfeeding and its unparalleled benefits to Filipino infants and children. "Breastfeeding gives children the best start in life," stressed Poe who earlier filed Senate Bill (SB) No. 161 or the proposed "First 1,000 Days" Act which seeks to provide children full protection and support, especially from day one in the womb until they reach the age of two. Low rate of breastfeeding Poe lamented the low rate of exclusive breastfeeding in the country, noting a report by the United Nation International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) titled State of the World's Children 2016 which showed that in the Philippines, only 34% of infants under six months are fed with just breast milk. Only 41% continue breast milk intake until two years old. The same report also found that only one in two babies born were immediately put to the breast within an hour of birth. The World Health Organization is recommending "exclusive breastfeeding up to six months, with continued breastfeeding along with appropriate complementary foods up to two years of age or beyond." Breast milk has antibodies and essential nutrients that protect babies from diseases and death. "Breastfeeding protects babies from deadly infections," Poe stressed, "But it is not just about milk; a child needs to feel the warmth of his mother and the security of her presence to grow strong and healthy. There is no substitute to it." Challenges to breastfeeding The senator also called attention to the lack of societal support to Filipino women in breastfeeding their children. Among the challenges faced by nursing mothers are lack of nutrition, community support, absence of breastfeeding stations, non-compliance to lactation breaks, and inadequate information. First 1,000 Days Act This advocacy is in support of her SB 161 that seeks to protect children from malnutrition beginning conception up to two years old by establishing the "First 1,000 Days" maternal and child health care program in every barangay, which includes nutrition and family counselling, breastfeeding of children, nutritional support for pregnant and nursing mothers, treatment of malnourished children, and other timely interventions. Citing studies by the UNICEF, Poe said chronic malnutrition in the first two years will impair a child for life and leave him with lower chances of finishing school and becoming productive. "We need a strong, whole-of-society support, and institutionalized mechanisms to ensure our children are protected," the senator said. Earlier, Poe has also filed SB No. 160 or the proposed Libreng Pananghalian sa Pampublikong Paaralan Act of 2106 which seeks to institutionalize a free nutri-meals program for children enrolled in the K-12 public schools in a bid to improve their health, attendance and academic performance.
Legarda Bats for Creation of Dep't of Culture and Arts

Senator Loren Legarda has filed a bill seeking to reorganize the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) into the Department of Culture and the Arts in order to enhance the promotion and preservation of the country's cultural heritage.

A Department of Culture and the Arts, said Legarda, would give the culture and arts sector more focus and attention and a stronger fiscal position to recommend and implement government's policies and programs for the promotion of arts and culture.

"We need an empowered agency that will adequately support the preservation, enrichment, and dynamic evolution of a Filipino national culture based on the principle of unity in diversity in a climate of free artistic and intellectual expression," the Senator said.

Legarda, said the proposed measure under Senate Bill No. 31 addresses the need for a clear policy framework and a lead agency that will preserve and sustain traditional arts, crafts and local industries deeply ingrained in the Filipino culture.

The Bill provides that the Department shall continue to exercise the powers and functions of the NCCA. It shall consist of a Secretary and five Undersecretaries--for the Arts, Cultural Heritage, Cultural Dissemination, Cultural Communities and the Traditional Arts, and International Linkages.

Among the agencies that will be under the Department are the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP); Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB); Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP); National Museum; National Library of the Philippines; National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP); National Archives of the Philippines; and the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF).
Pimentel deplores inefficient service at the SEC

Senate President Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III today expressed grave concerns and dismay over the inefficient service and a major computer systems bogged down that virtually halted the operations and services of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

"Inefficient at palpak ang serbisyo," said Pimentel after receiving reports that the agency's computer systems had bogged down, stranding many applicants securing their securities registration and other transactions with the regulation agency.

The SEC is responsible for regulating the securities industry in the country, from registration of securities, analysis of every registered security, and the evaluation of the financial condition and operations of applicants for security issue.

"This is not acceptable. Our people deserve better government service, not a government of inaction," said Pimentel, deploring incidents when the public find it frustrating to deal with government agencies because of bureaucratic red tape, corruption and slow delivery of services.

He said the appalling incident at the country's major securities industry agency is sending a wrong signal to prospective entrepreneurs and investors who are eyeing to do more business and investments in the Philippines.

Because exposure to government agencies is inevitable, Pimentel urged public officials to go out of their way to improve efficiency in the delivery of services in response to the call of President Duterte for a responsive and clean government.

He said the Anti-Red Tape Act mandates government agencies providing frontline services to regularly undertake time and motion studies, undergo evaluation and improvement of their transaction systems and re-engineer the same if deemed necessary to reduce bureaucratic red tape and processing time.
"You have fined a bank, now find the rest of the money"

Banking authorities have fined RCBC a billion pesos. But their work is not done yet. They should find the unaccounted billions and return it to Bangladesh.

A high-level delegation from that country will arrive next month to press for the return of what is theirs. They should not leave our country without it.

In fact, they should not be made to beg for their money. It would even be wise if we could return the money before they arrive here. In this case, apologies must come with cash.

To prevent a repeat of that regretful incident, our banking authorities should recommend remedial legislation, and for Congress to immediately act on it.

They should also inform Congress and the public of the administrative measures they have instituted to prevent our banks from becoming washing machines of dirty money.

I commend RCBC for not challenging the sanctions imposed, and for paying the fine, which in this litigious society it could have easily done, but in a display of good corporate citizenship it decided to comply with.

Let me also put it on record that the imposition of this unprecedented penalty would not have been possible without the relentless investigation conducted by Senators Guingona and Osmena.
Press Release

August 7, 2016 NEW LAW EXPANDS GOVT PROGRAM FOR WORKING

STUDENTS - ANGARA Senator Sonny Angara has commended the passage of a bill that strengthens the government's Special Program for the Employment of Students (SPES), which provides short-term job opportunities to help students pursue and continue their education. Republic Act 10917, which lapsed into law, aims to expand the coverage of SPES to include not only poor but deserving students, but also out-of-school youth, dependents of displaced workers, and would-be displaced workers due to business closures or work stoppages, or natural calamities, who intend to enroll in any secondary, tertiary or technical-vocational institutions. "Dapat ay mabigyan natin ng oportunidad pati ang mga out-of-school youth na makapagpatuloy ng pagaaral. Sa halip na mapilitan silang tumigil dahil gipit sa pera, pwede na silang mag-apply ng trabaho at kumita ng kaunti para sa kanilang pagaaral kahit hindi pa sila gradweyt," said Angara, former acting chairman of the Senate labor committee and the sponsor of the recently enacted law. The SPES was instituted in 1992, under Republic Act 7323, to help poor but deserving students in pursuing their education by encouraging establishments and government agencies to employ them during summer and Christmas vacations. Under the new law, out-of-school youth and those enrolled in the tertiary, vocational or technical education may be employed at any time of the year, while students enrolled in the secondary level shall be employed only during summer and/or Christmas vacations. RA 10917 also extends the SPES employment period from 52 days to 78 days or three months, and raises the age limit of the program's beneficiaries from the current 15 to 25 years old to 15 to 30 years old. Students who are employed in activities related to their course may earn equivalent academic and practicum or on-the-job training credits. In 2015, the SPES program provided jobs to 169,246 students, who were hired as food service crews, customer touch points, office clerks, gasoline attendants, cashiers, sales ladies, promodizers, as well as in clerical, encoding, messengerial, computer and programming jobs. Employers pay in cash 60 percent of the salary of student beneficiaries, while the remaining 40 percent is shouldered by the government to be paid also in cash to be used for the students' tuition fees and other education-related expenses including their daily allowance for food and transportation in going to school. "We expanded the law's coverage and lengthened its duration para mas maraming makinabang na mga estudyante at kabataan. Mabibigyan po natin sila ng mas patas na pagkakataon para mag-aaral at i-angat ang antas ng kanilang buhay at ng kanilang mahal sa buhay," said the senator who is a known advocate of educational reforms.
Press Release

August 7, 2016 Statement by Senate President Pro-Tempore Franklin M. Drilon on the proposed hero's burial for the late President Ferdinand Marcos "I urge the President to reconsider his decision. At this point in the history of our country where Filipinos are starting to hope again, what our nation need is unity in order for our country to succeed socially, economically and politically. Hence, such a sensitive issue would not help but only divide our people and reopen the wounds of the past that up to now, were not completely healed."
Press Release

August 7, 2016 Statement by Senate President Pro-Tempore Franklin M. Drilon I strongly support President Duterte's anti-drug campaign but due process and the rule of law must be dutifully upheld. As a lawyer and former justice secretary, I urged the President that If there is evidence that these officials were involved in the drug trade, he should immediately charge them administratively or in court. There should be no shortcuts. We should allow due process and the rule of law to take its course. Charges must be filed if evidence warrants it, so that the accused will be given the opportunity to defend themselves and clear their names. Let the chips fall where they may. Let me state that I am saddened and hurt that the perception that Iloilo local officials are involved in the drug trade became the basis of such a sweeping description of Iloilo. All the efforts of the Ilongos for the past five years to make Iloilo an attractive and progressive investment destination and a livable city is negated by a sweeping judgment of the city and province of Iloilo. Whatever these officials may have allegedly done are their individual acts, and cannot be the collective guilt of the Ilongos.
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Aaron Burbridge entered Michigan State as a top-100 recruit, and his promising freshman season suggested hed soon fully realize his potential: Before his sophomore campaign, he was on the watch list for the Biletnikoff Award, which is given to the nations top wide receiver.

Instead of taking the next step, however, Burbridge dropped off the radar.

What happened?

On Saturday, the 49ers rookie candidly fielded that question. He didnt work hard enough.

I was just out there running around thinking I could still do what I did in high school, Burbridge said. Not knowing the game. Not knowing coverage. Not knowing when a corner jumped outside, how to break off my route a different way. Just having one way to run a route. I had to get my football IQ up and everything.

Fortunately for Burbridge, he went from disappointment to dominant just in time. As a senior, Burbridge was named the Big 10 Receiver of the Year after he had more receptions (85), receiving yards (1,258) and touchdown catches (seven) than he had managed in his first three seasons combined.

In June, Raiders rookie quarterback Connor Cook, MSUs starter during Burbridges last three seasons, said a deadline spurred action.

I think confidence played a big part and just him knowing it was his last shot last summer, Cook said. He knew, Hey, Ive got one more year of college left and Ive got to do it big. I think those were the main two elements. It was like, Ive got to have a bang-up year. This is my last year, and Ive got to give it everything Ive got. And once he started to get a little bit of confidence, he just took off.

Despite finally soaring, Burbridge tumbled to the sixth round of this years draft, partly because of his otherwise pedestrian career. In draft circles, hes known as a one-year wonder, a prospect whose inconsistent production can raise questions about focus and commitment.

For his part, Burbridge says his humbling college experience made an indelible impression. During his career, he lost his starting spot to Tony Lippett, the Big 10 Receiver of the Year in 2014, based on a 65-catch, 1,198-yard season. Burbridge, who had 29 catches for 358 yards, saw many of Lippetts exploits from the sideline.

I saw him making plays, but there was a reason I had been starting in front of him, Burbridge said. I could do the same things he was doing, but I saw how he went about things in meetings and practice. He practiced hard. He studied. He played with confidence.

In May, Burbridges draft fall came with a silver lining: He landed in Santa Clara, where hes one of many unproven wideouts.

Of the 12 wide receivers on the 90-man roster, nine have fewer than 14 career catches. The most proven pass-catchers, Torrey Smith, 27, and Jerome Simpson, 30, are the only wideouts over 25.

Theres opportunity here, Burbridge said. Torrey and Jerome are our veteran guys, and Im just trying to pick their brains.

In addition to knowledge, Burbridge (6-foot-1, 208 pounds) hopes to gain a reputation for having reliable hands. He struggled with drops in college, which could be partly due to his 8-inch hands, which matched the smallest among wideouts at the combine.

As a sixth-round pick, hes not guaranteed a spot on the 53-man roster, but he can guarantee this: If he doesnt survive final cuts, it wont be because of lack of effort.

Sometimes I think about what I could have done (in college), but it was part of a learning experience, Burbridge said. You have to study. You have to watch film. And it has to be done every day.

Eric Branch is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ebranch@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Eric_Branch
Republican political consultant Mike Madrid isnt used to getting calls from the ACLU, and yet he has found himself working with the civil liberties group because some practices are so egregious that Republicans and Democrats should have no trouble finding common cause. The issue is civil asset forfeiture  also known as policing for profit. The federal government can seize your property, and the only way you can get it back is to prove you are not guilty of a crime. California law prohibits local authorities from permanently seizing most property without a conviction, but theres a loophole in the law  called equitable sharing. Local police can seize your property, hand jurisdiction over the feds, and get rewarded with up to 80 percent of the goodies even if prosecutors fail to convict  or even charge  an offender.

There are very few things in Sacramento that are this cut and dry, quoth Madrid. Americans fought the British in the Revolutionary War in order to guarantee due process and the presumption of innocence. If you were not convicted, Madrid noted, people shouldnt be taking your stuff.

With that reasoning in mind, Madrid began working for the passage of Senate Bill 443, introduced by state Sen. Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, to curb equitable sharing abuses. She was spurred by a Drug Policy Alliance report on the civil asset forfeiture abuses. While supporters talk about the practice as a tool to defund drug cartels, the report found that on average, the seizures were small change. San Diego attorney Loan T. Shillinger told me many of her clients are small-business owners who drive with cash in the car. Mitchell recalls a food-truck driver who had $10,000 when police asked to search his car. He had nothing to hide. Next thing people in his situation know, they have to hire a lawyer if they want their money back. And they are shocked to discover the government can treat law-abiding people under the assumption that they are guilty.

SB443 was a good cause, and so it sailed even through the dysfunctional swamp known as the Legislature. It sped through state Senate committees and passed the Senate with an overwhelming 38 (out of 40) votes last year.

Then came the badges, as Madrid put it. Mitchell put it another way, It was as if I put my hand in their entitled cookie jar. California law enforcement came down hard on lawmakers from both parties. The California District Attorneys Association opposed SB443, director of legislation Sean Hoffman told me, because it was overly broad and would have really crippled asset forfeiture in California and hampered prosecutors ability to go after large drug operations. Support melted away. By the time SB443 reached the Assembly floor, only 24 members voted aye and 44 opposed it. Like cockroaches, 12 members skittered away from voting entirely.

Law enforcement soon learned that it had won the kind of legislative victory that leaves a public-relations stain on the victors. The mere consideration of the measure aired stories of high-profile abuses  such as when prosecutors have used asset forfeiture to seize buildings from landlords of a medical marijuana dispensary.

Both sides had an incentive to work together. On Thursday, the Assembly voted to amend SB443. Absent a guilty verdict, locals can only get a cut when more than $40,000 in cash has been seized. Locals still will get no percentage of property seizures without a guilty verdict. The district attorneys now are neutral on the measure. Expect SB443 to pass in the Assembly soon.

Until then, consider the words of Daisy Vieyra of the American Civil Liberties Union: It can happen to anyone, thats the frightening part.

Mitchell told me that, as she listened to public comments about her bill, she realized it could have been me. Her late mother had a fondness for casino gambling. Every year Mitchell would drive her mother to Las Vegas for a weekend with one-armed bandits. The two would drive home with cash  two African American woman in a high-profile automobile with smiles on their faces. They didnt do anything wrong, but under the current system, their holdings would be presumed guilty.

Debra J. Saunders is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: dsaunders@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DebraJSaunders

Not guilty? Who cares?

In 2013, an Anaheim police officer used a doctors recommendation to purchase $37 worth of marijuana at a medical marijuana dispensary. As a result of that transaction, the federal government tried to seize the two-story commercial building from landlord Tony Jalali. An immigrant from Iran, Jalali didnt think the government could try to take his building because of a crime he did not commit, especially because, he told the Los Angeles Times, he thought the dispensary was legal since California voters legalized medical marijuana in 1996.

Jalalis attorney, Larry Salzman, then of the Institute for Justice, observed that thanks to an unholy alliance called equitable sharing  the feds use federal law to seize property, then pass on up to 80 percent of what they seize to local law enforcement  officials have an incentive to go after people who did not commit crimes. Eventually, prosecutors dropped the case to seize Jalalis building. Why? Salzman believes its because Jalali got lawyers who were experts on civil forfeiture who were prepared to fight back. Without high-powered representation, Jalali could have lost his property, even though he wasnt guilty of a crime.
An 18-year-old man was shot dead in a car in Hayward late Friday evening after what appears to be a vehicle chase, authorities said.

The victim, identified as Hayward resident Rogelio Torres II, was discovered inside a car on the 27000 block of Gading Road just after the 11 p.m. shooting, said Sgt. Ryan Cantrell with the Hayward Police Department.
The critical moment when a gunman opened fire on two San Diego police officers, killing one, may never be seen. The surviving officer only activated his camera after the wounded shooter was running away.

San Diego is among departments with policies calling for officers to turn on cameras before initiating contact with a civilian in most cases. But like other departments, compliance is less than perfect.

The result is inconsistent use of an increasingly common tool meant to give investigators and an often-skeptical public a fuller picture of police actions.

The main motive of body cameras is to provide openness and transparency, and build trust in the police, said Samuel Walker, a retired criminal justice professor at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.

If officers are not turning cameras on, well, youre not going to build trust, he said. Youre going to reinforce the cynicism that already exists.

He pointed to a study that showed across-the-board low compliance rates of officers in one high-crime Phoenix neighborhood between April 2013 and May 2014, the most recent information available. Officers recorded only 6.5 percent of traffic stops even though the departments policy required cameras to be activated as soon as it is safe and practical, according to the study, conducted by Arizona State Universitys Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety.

The biggest part of the problem, Walker said, is a lack of discipline.

Chicago, Dallas, Denver, New Orleans, New York, Oakland and San Diego are among the cities that dont specify penalties when officers fail to record, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York Universitys School of Law.

The American Civil Liberties Union has studied the issue and said clear policies are vital, along with punishment for failure to comply.

Departments cant look the other way when officers fail to activate body cameras in critical incidents, or they become useless for accountability, said Peter Bibring, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California.

San Diego police have been criticized for failing to record a number of high-profile shootings. That prompted the department to revise its policy to stipulate that officers must turn on their cameras before most types of contact, but violations have continued.

Last week, the two San Diego gang unit officers on nighttime patrol pulled up next to a pedestrian on a darkened residential street, and the man almost immediately opened fire, police said. The suspect, Jesse Gomez, shot Wade Irwin as he got out of the patrol car and then fired through the open door and fatally wounded Irwins partner, Jonathan De Guzman, according to police.

Irwin fired back and started manually recording after the shooting, but police havent said what was captured.

The cameras are on before an officer hits record, and have a recall function to get video from shortly before an officer starts recording. That function allows 30 seconds to be retrieved, without audio.

Its unclear whether Irwin activated that feature.

Both Irwin and Gomez were seriously wounded and remain hospitalized.

Victor Torres, a leading civil rights attorney in San Diego, said the departments policy makes it clear that both officers should have been recording before approaching Gomez.

Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman has commended Irwins actions, including activating his body camera when he did, as heroic.

The Alameda County Sheriffs Department changed its body-camera policy following a highly publicized November incident where two deputies were caught on surveillance video using their batons to beat a car theft suspect in the middle of a street in San Franciscos Mission District.

Eleven officers in all responded and 10 failed to turn on their body cameras. The one who did activate his did so by accident.

Three officers were placed on leave, including two who are charged with assault under color of authority.

No one was disciplined for failing to turn on their cameras because the departments policy at the time encouraged, but did not require, their use, said Sgt. Ray Kelly, an agency spokesman. The agency now requires deputies to use the cameras in most circumstances and lays out the discipline for failure to comply.

The department hasnt had a problem with compliance since, Kelly said.

Some departments are tapping new technology to take the human factor out of body cameras. Los Angeles will be among a handful of departments nationwide to use cameras made by Taser International that begin automatically recording once signaled, such as when a patrol cars siren is turned on or when a shotgun is taken out of its mount.

I believe by the end of three years, these things will be built into a badge, said Steve Soboroff, vice president of the civilian oversight board of the Los Angeles Police Department. These cameras now, theyre like the old 10-pound cell phones.

Kelly said his department also is looking at the new technology.

The body camera is really new to law enforcement, he said. There are a lot of privacy concerns and body cameras dont always accurately depict what an officer is seeing. But they are a great tool and they are the future. And theyre here to stay.
Not every television show has a huge marketing budget, but that doesn't mean it isn't as good as its competitors.

When it comes to what's popular on Netflix, it's not just the shows you know. Some of these programs that you've probably never heard score major points with viewers, including "The Last Kingdom." Akin to "Game of Thrones," this show follows an outcast who is out to claim the throne - and his birthright.
CHICAGO  The Chicago Police Department superintendent said Saturday that the district where last months fatal shooting of a black 18-year-old happened had received body cameras about a week earlier.

At a news conference, Superintendent Eddie Johnson addressed the nine videos that were released Friday of the July 28 shooting. The videos show officers firing repeatedly at a stolen car as it careens down the street away from them and later handcuffing a wounded Paul ONeal, who was driving the car, after a chaotic foot chase through a residential neighborhood in the citys South Shore neighborhood.

They had had those cameras maybe about a week. ... Theres going to be a learning curve, Johnson said of the body cameras.

The news conference came the same day protesters held a rally that originally was to start at the Chicago park where 50 years ago Martin Luther King Jr. called for fair housing practices. The rally was moved a few blocks away at the request of organizers of a festival related to a newly unveiled King memorial in Marquette Park.

Johnson has said the officers violated a department policy. I was concerned by some of the things that I saw on the videos and thats why we took such a swift action ... that we did last week to relieve the three officers of their police powers, Johnson said.

Authorities have neither detailed the specific policy or identified the officers.

Fridays video release was the first of a fatal police shooting under a new policy that calls for such material to be made public within 60 days. That and other policy changes represent an effort to restore public confidence in the department after video released last year showed a black teenager named Laquan McDonald getting shot 16 times by a white officer.

The moment ONeal was shot was not recorded because the officers body camera was not operating. Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the body camera started working after the shooting  an indication that the officer, believing the incident was over, thought he was turning the camera off when he was actually turning it on.

Attorney Michael Oppenheimer, who represents ONeals family, said the video showed officers taking street justice into their own hands.
TAMPA, Fla.  Thank goodness its the slow season in Florida.

At least thats what officials and representatives of the states multibillion-dollar tourism industry are thinking in the wake of the news that 16 people have been infected with Zika in a small, trendy neighborhood in Miami.

The outbreak has sent another chill through the Sunshine States all-important tourism industry just weeks after the Orlando nightclub massacre and the killing of a 2-year-old boy by an alligator at nearby Walt Disney World.

Florida officials have gone into damage-control mode, with Gov. Rick Scott insisting, We have a safe state! during a tour of the Zika hot zone in Miamis Wynwood district.

Tourism is Floridas biggest industry. Visitors spent some $89 billion here last year. And Disney is Americas No. 1 tourist attraction.

Outside of a few business owners in the affected square-mile neighborhood, however, Zika appears to have done little damage to tourism so far.

We have not had anyone cancel a trip to Florida because of Zika, said Jenny Cagle, vice president of Elm Grove Travel in Wisconsin. Its definitely a conversation. People are talking about it.

Demetra Prattas, vice president of Turon Travel, a New York-based company that books art tours and trips, including the annual Art Basel festival that includes events in Wynwood, said: I dont think its a factor in deciding where to go. Weve had no cancellations.

The governor has been on something of a statewide Zika tour, meeting with county health officials and business owners in Miami and along the Interstate 4 corridor that runs through Orlando. He said tourists should use caution and not worry about mosquitoes, adding that Florida knows how to prepare for crises because of its hurricanes.

We will make sure all the tourists feel comfortable coming to Florida, he said last week Wynwood, site of the first mosquito-transmitted cases of Zika on record in the continental U.S. Weve got to continue to support these businesses because, why? They have employees and those employees need their jobs.

He said the state is doing everything it can to test people, spray against mosquitoes, get rid of the standing water in which they breed, and encourage people to use insect repellent.

The Visit Orlando tourism board issued a statement noting that no locally acquired cases of Zika have been reported in the Orlando area, which is over 200 miles from Miami. The board gave assurances that safety is the top priority for our region.

The next few months will be crucial, said Henry Harteveldt, founder of Atmosphere Research Group in San Francisco, a travel-industry watcher.

If Florida is able to address this efficiently and quickly and be able to pronounce with confidence that theyve been able to eradicate, there wont be long-term consequences, he said. If Zika remains a long-term challenge, its possible some potential tourists might think twice.

Federal health officials have warned pregnant women to avoid Wynwood because the virus can cause severe birth defects. Englands public health agency is advising mothers-to-be to postpone non-essential trips to Florida.

In 2015, 106.3 million people visited Florida, a record number.
DALLAS  Less than two months after the death of Sandra Bland, a black woman who was jailed in Texas after a routine traffic stop, two of her jailers quietly moved to other jobs.

Rafael Zuniga and Michael Serges left the Waller County sheriffs office in September 2015 for the Waller Police Department, a smaller agency with less responsibility, according to state records obtained by the Associated Press. They started work on the same day.

They have kept those jobs even after admitting under oath their roles in falsifying a jail monitoring log that indicated guards checked on Bland an hour before she was found hanging in her cell in July 2015, according to an attorney for the Bland family, which has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the county and several employees, including the two former jailers. Local authorities ruled Blands death a suicide.

Attorney Tom Rhodes told the AP that Zuniga acknowledged in a deposition that the log was filled out in advance with times that he supposedly conducted cell checks. Serges acknowledged that he signed the bottom of the log sheet at the beginning of the shift before any actual checks, according to Rhodes, who described the depositions but did not provide transcripts to the AP.

Sidney Johnson, the first black councilman in Waller, said hes suspicious about the jailers move to the municipal payroll so soon after Blands death, but that his requests for more information have been ignored. He added that had he known about the mens involvement in the Bland case, we wouldn't have hired them.

Jail records show Bland had said at booking she previously tried to commit suicide, which means she should have been checked at least every 30 minutes by jail standards. State guidelines say all inmates are to be checked hourly.

Instead, two hours elapsed before jailers noticed Bland was unconscious, which isnt reflected in the jail log, Rhodes told the AP. The sheriffs office has acknowledged the documented 8 a.m. in-person check was done by intercom. Bland was pronounced dead at 9:06 a.m., authorities said.

Larry Simmons, an attorney for the county and the jailers, declined to answer questions.

The only person who has been indicted by a grand jury investigating Blands death is former state trooper Brian Encinia, who was charged with misdemeanor perjury after his patrol car video contradicted his claims that Bland assaulted him without provocation.
WASHINGTON  Donald Trump is trying to shift from a disastrous stretch of his presidential campaign to one focused on policy and party unity. But even as his allies speak of lessons the political newcomer has learned, two of his staunchest Republican critics warn that he could be heading for losses in a pair of battleground states.

Trump is set to deliver an economic speech Monday to the prestigious Detroit Economic Club in his effort to step past his spats over the past 10 days with the Muslim American parents of a slain Army captain and the leaders of a Republican Party he has promised to unite.

Mr. Trump on Monday will lay out a vision thats a growth economic plan that will focus on cutting taxes, cutting regulation and boosting middle-class wages, campaign chairman Paul Manafort said in remarks broadcast Sunday on Fox Business. When we do that, were comfortable that we can get the agenda and the narrative of the campaign back on where it belongs.

What came before Mondays speech, Manafort suggested, doesnt count in the race to election day on Nov. 8. Its a three-month campaign, he said.

Two of Trumps staunchest Republican critics say Trump may have done irreversible damage in two critical states, Arizona and Ohio, with an approach to immigration reform that some say is divisive. Trump wants to build a wall between the United States and Mexico and now says he wants to suspend immigration from terror countries  though he has yet to say what those are.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who lost the Republican nomination to Trump, has not endorsed the billionaire and skipped the partys convention in Cleveland, said Trump faces a difficult climb in a state thats a must-win for Republican presidential candidates.

Hes going to win parts of Ohio, where people are really hurting, Kasich said on CNNs State of the Union. But I still think its difficult if you are dividing, to be able to win in Ohio. I think its really, really difficult.

In an interview on CBS Face the Nation, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said, Yes, it is possible that Democrat Hillary Clinton could beat Trump in his state, noting that Latinos represent about a third of the Arizona population. You cant just throw platitudes out there about a wall or about Mexico paying for it and then be taken seriously here, Flake said.
WASHINGTON  The White House has released a version of President Obamas 3-year-old guidance on the use of lethal force against terrorists overseas, laying out what it says are safeguards to minimize civilian deaths and errant strikes while preserving the capability to take quick action with drone attacks and other means.

The presidential policy guidance stipulates that the U.S., when operating outside areas of active hostilities, will only take direct action when there is near certainty that the terrorist target is present and that noncombatants wont be killed or injured. Lethal force can also be undertaken only against a lawful target that poses a continuing, imminent threat to Americans.

The principles, released with redactions, provide more detail on the conditions for drone strikes and other direct action than the White House revealed earlier when it summarized the document in a fact sheet in 2013. Obama or his aides have spoken previously, though, about the near certainty standard at the heart of the guidance  a standard that hasnt silenced criticism over civilian deaths from drones.

Ned Price, spokesman for the White Houses National Security Council, said in a statement Saturday that the policy standards offer protections for civilians that exceed the requirements of the law of armed conflict.

As the president has said, near certainty is the highest standard we can set, Price said. The U.S. takes feasible precautions to minimize the risk of civilian casualties even when the U.S. is not operating in conditions covered by the guidance, he added, or when we act quickly to defend U.S. or partner forces from imminent attack.

The American Civil Liberties Union had sued for disclosure of the guidance under the Freedom of Information Act and welcomed the development. The release will inform an ongoing debate about the lawfulness and wisdom of the governments counterterrorism policies, said Jameel Jaffer, ACLU deputy legal director.

But Jaffer said questions remain about where the guidance applies, whether Obama has waived its requirements in particular instances, and how the relatively stringent standards can be reconciled with the accounts of eyewitnesses, journalists and human rights researchers who have documented large numbers of bystander casualties.

Among the conditions set out in the guidance: Approval from the president is required for a lethal strike against a U.S. citizen or when relevant officials in the administration disagree on whether a particular non-American nominated for a deadly attack should in fact be targeted.
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A San Mateo high school graduate who was set to pitch baseball in his second year in college was shot to death Saturday night near San Franciscos Ghirardelli Square while playing Pokemon Go, according to his family.

Calvin Riley, 20, was shot in the chest by an unknown assailant shortly before 10 p.m. near Aquatic Park, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene after paramedics tried to revive him with CPR.

The area where Riley was killed is a landmark destination and popular tourist attraction in the Fishermans Wharf area that draws tens of thousands of visitors a day. Killings in the neighborhood are rare.

Homicide inspectors are trying to piece together what led to the shooting. No suspect was identified or arrested. Rileys cousin, who set up a fundraising site to help pay for his funeral, said online that police told the family he was playing Pokemon Go when he was shot.

Due to this cruel world we live in, a part of my family was taken from us, Gabriel Antonio Morales wrote on GoFundMe.com. When we got a call at 4:30 a.m. saying hes gone, I thought I was having a bad dream.

Sgt. Robert Jansing, an investigator with the U.S. Park Police, said Sunday that the shooting makes no sense. Aquatic Park, which is part of the National Park Service, was bustling, even at 10 p.m., Jansing said. That, at least, could help authorities who are looking for surveillance footage and witnesses to determine what happened.

Theres a good chance someone saw something, Jansing said.

On Sunday afternoon, the area where Riley was killed was peaceful, crowded with tourists and locals swimming in the Aquatic Park cove and lounging on the grass. Pockets of people were walking around the area playing Pokemon Go on their smartphones.

Among them was Thoua Moua, 28, who was visiting the city from Fresno with friends. Hed learned of the shooting from a friend who was staying nearby and had heard gunshots the night before.

Its just bad luck, I guess, Moua said. Thats why you dont bring your new phone out places.

Since its release in early July, Pokemon Go has become a national sensation, especially in San Francisco, where people have been lured by the game that interacts with the citys many historic and unusual sites.

Law enforcement officials, though, have warned the public about the games possible dangers. Players can be sucked into the whimsical digital world and partially tune out to their surroundings.

There have been scores of snatch-and-run robberies around the Bay Area, and earlier this month a man slashed a player across the face in San Jose. The suspect apparently thought the gamer was recording him on his device, police said.

Investigators did not say whether the game may have been a factor in Saturdays killing.

News of Rileys death was being shared Sunday among his family, coaches and teammates, who said they were overwhelmed by the sad news.

Riley, the oldest of three siblings, was originally from Massachusetts and moved to San Mateo with his family and played baseball at Junipero Serra High School before graduating in 2015. In the 28 games he played his senior year, Riley had 25 hits and 17 RBIs, and scored 12 runs.

Riley was a hard worker, great teammate and unbelievable person, said Reed Peters, coach of the San Joaquin Delta College Mustangs in Stockton, where Riley played his freshman year as the baseball teams closing pitcher and was studying kinesiology.

He is someone we always strive to be like, and he was such a nice kid, said Joey Skracic, 20, a fellow member of the teams pitching staff who spent nearly every day of last season working out with Riley. Its hard for us to grasp that hes not going to be there when we all come back in two weeks.

Were just dumbfounded, Skracic added. Its just really hard right now. We really loved him.

It was Rileys attitude on the mound, though, that made him such a valuable teammate, friends said. Coaches expected him to be one of the teams top pitchers in the coming season.

He was the guy you wanted to have the ball in his hand when it meant the most, Peters said. He was a tough kid  a battler. Its shocking that something like this would happen to him. Its terrible.

Anyone with information about the incident can call the U.S. Park Police tip line at (415) 561-5150.

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky
WASHINGTON  As Lennar Corp., one of the nations largest home builders, pushed ahead with an $8 billion plan to revitalize a barren swath of San Francisco, it found a trusted voice to vouch for its work: the Brookings Institution, the most prestigious think tank in the world.

This can become a productive, mutually beneficial relationship, Bruce Katz, a Brookings vice president, wrote to Lennar in July 2010. The ultimate benefit for Brookings: $400,000 in donations from Lennars different divisions.

The think tank began to aggressively promote the project, San Franciscos biggest redevelopment effort since its recovery from the 1906 earthquake, and later offered to help Lennar engage with national media to develop stories that highlight Lennars innovative approach.

And Brookings went further. It named Kofi Bonner, the Lennar executive in charge of the San Francisco development, as a senior fellow in 2014  an enviable credential he used to advance the companys efforts.

Think tanks, which position themselves as universities without students, have power in government policy debates because they are seen as researchers independent of moneyed interests. But in the chase for funds, think tanks are pushing agendas important to corporate donors, at times blurring the line between researchers and lobbyists. And they are doing so while reaping the benefits of their tax-exempt status.

Thousands of pages of internal memos and confidential correspondence between Brookings and other donors  like JPMorgan Chase, the nations largest bank; KKR, the global investment firm; Microsoft, the software giant; and Hitachi, the Japanese conglomerate  show that financial support often came with assurances from Brookings that it would provide donation benefits, including setting up events featuring corporate executives with government officials, according to documents obtained by the New York Times and the New England Center for Investigative Reporting.

Similar arrangements exist at many think tanks. On issues as varied as military sales to foreign countries, international trade, highway management systems and real estate development, think tanks have frequently become vehicles for corporate influence and branding campaigns.

This is about giant corporations who figured out that by spending, hey, a few tens of millions of dollars, if they can influence outcomes here in Washington, they can make billions of dollars, said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a frequent critic of undisclosed Wall Street donations to think tanks.

Think tank executives reject any suggestion that they are tools of corporate influence campaigns and say they are simply teaming up with donors that have similar goals, like helping cities with economic development.

We do not compromise our integrity, said Martin Indyk, Brookingss executive vice president. We maintain our core values of quality, independence, as well as impact.

But he acknowledged that the arrangement to appoint the Lennar executive as a senior fellow had created the appearance of a conflict of interest.

Bonner declined to be interviewed, and his post at Brookings, which was unpaid, was not renewed.

At think tanks like Brookings, the majority of reports and events, with titles like Five Evils: Multidimensional Poverty and Race in America or India at the Global High Table, have no obvious link to corporate donors.

Still, the benefits afforded to corporations looking to cloak themselves with the authority of think tanks are strikingly evident, according to a review of documents from more than a dozen institutions.

The likely conclusions of some think tank reports, documents show, are discussed with donors  or even potential ones  before the research is complete. Drafts of the studies have been shared with donors whose opinions have then helped shape final reports. Donors have outlined how the resulting scholarship will be used as part of broader lobbying efforts.

The think tanks also help donors promote their corporate brands, as Brookings does with JPMorgan Chase, whose $15.5 million contribution is the largest by a private corporation in the institutions history.

Despite these benefits, corporations can write off the donations as charitable contributions. Some tax experts say these arrangements may amount to improper subsidies by taxpayers if think tanks are providing specific services.

People think of think tanks as do-gooders, uncompromised and not bought like others in the political class, said Bill Goodfellow, the executive director of the Center for International Policy, a Washington-based think tank. But its absurd to suggest that donors dont have influence. The danger is we in the think tank world are being corrupted in the same way as the political world. And all of us should be worried about it.

Executives at Brookings, the Center for Strategic and International Studies and other think tanks say they have systems in place to ensure that their reports are based on scholars independent conclusions.

Donations from the corporations to Brookings are tax exempt based on the premise that the think tanks work benefits the public good, not a companys bottom line.
By PTI: Coimbatore, Aug 7 (PTI) A 53-year-old man today died when the buckle of his parachute opened and he fell to the ground while parasailing in the city.

The deceased has been identified as Malleswara Rao, police said.

When he was at a height of 50 metres, the buckles of the parachute reportedly opened and Rao, a resident here, fell to the ground, police said. Rao, who was seriously injured, was rushed to a nearby private hospital, but died on the way, police added. The parasailing was organised as part of the Centenary celebrations of Coimbatore Medical College Hospital at Codissia Grounds, near the city airport. PTI NVM BN MNG MVV

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Security forces have arrested a terrorist affiliated to National Democratic Front of Bodoland - Songbijit in connection with the brutal attack in Kokrajhar that killed 14 persons.

By India Today Web Desk: Two days after the gruesome attack on civilians in Kokrajhar district of Assam, security forces today arrested a terrorist belonging to the insurgent outfit NDFB-S in connection with the incident.

The accused have been identified as Sri Amiraj Basumatary. Police also recovered about 36 hand grenades from the accused. After the attack speculations were rife about the involvement of several terror groups including ISIS.

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However, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal in a press release on Saturday confirmed that the attacks were carried out by NDFB-S.

"Direct involvement of NDFB-S in the Kokrajhar violence has been found following unearthing of vital information," CM Sonowal said in the official release.

National Investigation Agency (NIA) combed the site of the attack after the incident. The investigation has intensified following the attack to find out other terrorists involved.

Sonowal, who also holds the Home portfolio, said the police have got some vital information and contact numbers from the mobile phone of a terrorist who was gunned down by the police during the attack at Balajan Tiniali market.

The slain militant was identified as Anjoy Islary alias Monjoy and he was the self-styled commanding officer of the NDFB-S, senior minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

INSURGENT IDENTIFIED BY DNA

The insurgent was identified from his photo in police records and DNA tests would be conducted to establish his identity beyond doubt, he added.

"Ours is a zero tolerance approach towards terrorism. We are fully committed towards protecting the life and property of the people of the state and we consider it as our first and foremost duty," the Chief Minister was quoted as saying in the statement.

In view of the Kokrajhar incident and the upcoming Independence Day, Sonowal asked the civil and police administration to be on high alert and to beef up security to thwart designs of anti-national forces.

He directed the DCs and SPs to review the law and order situation on a regular basis and to take measures to prevent any untoward incident, the statement said.

With inputs from PTI



Also read:

Assam terror attack: Kokrajhar remains tense, toll rises to 14



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PM Modi said, "We are the people who talk about 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' and if we fail to embrace our Dalit brothers and sisters, the world will not forgive us."

By Ashish Pandey: After a recent spike in violent incidents against Dalits in the country, PM Modi issued a rallying cry asking people to protect and respect the community in the country.

The Narendra Modi-led NDA government has recently come under severe criticism from various quarters of the media for not doing enough to stop violence against Dalits. Recently, incidents in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh where members of the Dalit community were at the receiving end of brutal acts of violence had angered the community.

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ALSO READ | Cows give us milk, not votes: Lalu on PM's belated condemnation of cow vigilantes



It was also uncovered a few days ago that cow vigilantes in various parts of the country had taken law into their own hands and beaten up those daring to take part in cow slaughter. This created such a backlash that the Prime Minister had to condemn these acts unequivocally during yesterday's Townhall meeting.



MODI'S STATEMENT

While speaking today at the BJP worker's meet in Hyderabad, an animated looking Modi questioned the right of people to attack Dalits. He said, "There are few incidents that are very shameful. It is our duty to protect and respect the poor and Dalit people of our country. There are few bad elements, shortcomings in our society. What right do we have to ill treat our Dalit brothers and sisters? We are the people who talk about 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' and if we cannot embrace our Dalit brothers and sisters, world will not forgive us."

ALSO READ | Legal action must be taken against cow vigilantes: RSS General Secretary



He also reiterated his commitment towards stopping "anti-social elements" who commit such attacks. "We will have to strive hard to protect our nation from such anti-social elements. We will have to expose such people. If you want to attack, attack me and not Dalits. If you want to shoot, shoot me and not Dalits", he said.

The Dalits are an important voting bloc in the upcoming UP elections and the BJP needs a portion of Dalit vote to make a good showing.

ALSO READ:

PM Modi slams gau rakshaks, says anti-social elements hiding behind the mask

India Today Expose: Why Dalit persecution is rampant in Gandhi's Gujarat







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Thirty seven per cent of big cat deaths in 2016 are because of increased poaching and syndicates operating from China, Nepal and Myanmar are majorly responsible for the tiger deaths.

By Baishali Adak: India's tigers have bounced back from the brink of extinction with a healthy rise in population, but they are certainly not out of the woods as international poaching syndicates have moblilised their networks in the country to hunt the endangered animal.

Reports in April indicated that the big cat headcount had gone up to nearly 2,500, sparking celebrations. However, another set of data shows that poachers are responsible for about 37 per cent of tiger deaths in the country this year, with the number of killings revealing an upswing.

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Poaching fuelled by a thriving trade in body parts as well as loss of natural habitat and traditional prey had triggered a troubling slump in the tiger population from an estimated 40,000 at the turn of the last century. India was able to pull back the numbers with the success of a government-run conservation plan.

THE TIGER TRADE

As per statistics provided by the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI), estimated tiger deaths from "poaching and seizure of body parts", recorded from January 1 to August 3, 2016, stood at 31. The figure for the entire year of 2015 was 26, and for 2014, it was 23.

"This is purely economics of the tiger trade," a senior official of a wildlife law enforcement agency, who did not wish to be named, told Mail Today. "India is only a source country where a large number of poor, illiterate and nomadic tribes - such as Bawaria, Behlia and Pardhi - engage in hunting down tigers.

They are exploited by educated and highly tech-savvy gangs, sitting in destination countries in Southeast Asia. They minutely follow all the news here. Obviously, new orders are being placed somewhere."

Madhya Pradesh leads the way with 20 "tiger mortalities" this year, of which six were poached, five were "found dead" and nine died of "infighting". Next comes Uttarakhand, where six tiger skins and 150 kg tiger bones were seized this year. The third spot belongs to Karnataka where one tiger skull and bones and two claws were seized in 2016.

As per a 2014 census, India is home to 2,226 tigers, nearly 70 per cent of the global population. They roam the country's 48 tiger reserves, which include Ranthambore (Rajasthan), Sundarbans (West Bengal), Dudhwa (Uttar Pradesh), Kanha (MP), Tadoba Andhari (Maharashtra) and Bandipur (Karnataka).

The then Minister for Environment and Forests (MoEF), Prakash Javadekar, had announced the rise in numbers at the 3rd Asia ministerial conference on tiger conservation in April. "That is good news for India? (a result) of what we are doing for the last 12 years," he said. "We have zero tolerance towards poaching."

A dead tiger is worth a fortune in countries like China, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. Each body part - from eyes, whiskers, canines, claws, skin, bones and even penis - is used. Their traditional use is in Chinese medicine with claims of curing a range of diseases, from arthritis to impotency.

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VENTURING OUT OF PROTECTED SANCTUARIES

They are also served as a delicacy is restaurants and used in gifts and crafts. "Some shocking incidents have come to the fore in the recent past," said Tito Joseph, programme manager, WPSI.

"In March-April this year, five tiger skins and 125 kg of bones were recovered from near Jim Corbett National Park. Two people were arrested. When the skins were sent to Wildlife Institute of India (WII), they analysed the patterns in their database and found them to match that of at least four missing tigers in the Corbett Park."

Joseph also pointed out that two tiger skins and 35 kg of bones were seized in January from the Valmiki Tiger Reserve near the Bihar-Nepal border.

"Subsequent investigations unearthed three tiger poaching incidents," he said. "On further interrogation of the poachers, sizeable tiger meat was found buried in a pit nearby. The skin was traced to Kathmandu later." A side effect of growing tiger numbers is the fact that they are increasingly venturing out of protected sanctuaries, said Jose Louies of the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI).

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"They roam around the park fringes. They go to villages, forests and corridors. They look for new habitats, mates etc. That makes it very easy for poachers to catch them unguarded," he said. "Technically, these hunters don't need news reports to tell them that numbers have gone up. They know the jungles and the animal much better than us. They get to know about changes in their density and location much before us."

The outlaws are fast catching up with law enforcement. BS Bonal, member-secretary, National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), told Mail Today, "We are aware of the issues. NTCA is already coordinating with Nepal, Bangladesh and other SAARC countries (as part of the South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network or SAWEN) to protect tigers. Our state forest departments are also working round the clock on the mission."

ALSO READ:

International Tiger Day: Not many reasons to be happy for the big cats

Salman Khan acquitted in 1998 blackbuck, chinkara poaching cases



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Sharad Yadav's comments on Kanwariyas has kicked the hornets nest. BJP asked if Yadav had similar opinions about Hajis.

By Rohit Kumar Singh: Rajya Sabha MP and former JDU National President Sharad Yadav's controversial remarks over Kanwariyas has drawn strong criticism from the BJP which has called his comments an effort to appease a certain community. Sharad on Friday had said that lakhs of Kanwariyas who go to offers prayers in temples was a reflection of growing unemployment in the country.

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Sharad had alleged that the magnitude of unemployment has in fact increased during PM Narendra Modi's tenure and the incumbent govt has failed to deliver on its promise of providing two crore jobs per year.

"1.3 crore youths are becoming unemployed each annum and the Kanwariyas who go to offer prayers highlight the growing unemployment," Yadav have said.

ATTACK ON HINDU COMMUNITY

Reacting to Sharad's comments BJP said that the comments were an attack in the faith of the Hindu community.

Union Minister Giriraj Singh said that the former JDU President was making such comments simply to appease a certain community. Singh questioned whether Sharad could make similar comments for Hajis who are going to Mecca and Madina presently.

" JDU's politics of appeasement is at an all time high. I dare Sharad to make this kind of comments for Hajis. They are abusing one and all to appease a certain community," said Giriraj Singh.

Bihar BJP's leader Vinod Narayan Jha too said that Sharad was sharing the sentiments of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and RJD President Lalu Prasad who are going all out to woo a particular community.

"Sharad Yadav should be ashamed for making such comments and hurting sentiments of the Hindu community," said Vinod Narayan Jha.

JDU DEFENSIVE



JDU too found it hard to defend their former National President's comments.

"I think his comments have been distorted. Whatever Sharad Ji said is his personal views," said JDU spokesperson, Rajiv Ranjan Prasad in his defence.

Lok Janshakti Party MP Ram Chandra Paswan on the other hand appeared to be toeing Sharad Yadav's sentiments and said that the number of Kanwariyas from Bihar was higher because of growing unemployment. However, he did not blame his govt at the Centre for failing to generate jobs but Nitish Kumar government.

"Bihar govt has failed to generate jobs and that is why there is unemployment and therefore the number of Bihari Kanwariyas is also high," said Ram Chandra Paswan, LJP MP.

Also read:

Spat in RS between Sharad Yadav and Naresh Agrawal



--- ENDS ---
Vahid Salemi/Associated Press

TEHRAN  Iran executed a nuclear scientist who defected to the U.S. and returned to the Islamic Republic under mysterious circumstances a year later, an official said Sunday, acknowledging for the first time that the nation secretly convicted a man authorities once heralded as a hero.

Shahram Amiri vanished in 2009 while on a religious pilgrimage to Muslim holy sites in Saudi Arabia, only to reappear a year later in a series of contradictory online videos filmed in the U.S. He then walked into the Iranian interests section at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington and demanded to be sent home.
This 6-year-old kid battling leukemia was given a chance to become a highway patrol officer for a day. He lives out his dream as he drives a patrol car and flies a helicopter.

By India Today Web Desk:



Tristan, a brave 6-year-old kid, has been battling leukemia for three years now but the cancer has not stopped him from living his life or dreams. His dream was to become a highway patrol officer and he was given this chance to live out his dream.

"We saw right away that Tristan was an especially brave kid and knew immediately he would make a fine Highway Patrolman; and for one special day, a very special boy became a CHP Officer. Welcome to the family kiddo..." - CHP - Golden Gate Division wrote in their Facebook post .

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A child's dream indeed.

Talking about living his dreams, Tristan even got to ride in a patrol vehicle, he used a radar gun to monitor traffic and even got a ride in a CHP helicopter.



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The BJP-led Centre is likely to hold talks with all stakeholders including Hurriyat leaders to restore peace in the valley.However, state BJP leadership has refuted any possibility of talks with the separatists.

By India Today Web Desk: Modi government is likely to initiate talks with Kashmiri separatists in a bid to quell the ongoing unrest in the state. The government intends to hold talks with all stakeholders including political parties in the Valley.

"BJP has committed to hold talks to several leaders including that of Hurriyat", said Kashmiri pandit activist Sushil Pandit.

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Pandit added that the conclave is being hosted by Ram Madhav, director of the India Foundation. However, while the centre is mulling an inclusive talks on the seething issue, the state government seems to be in a disarray.

While the BJP has committed to talk to all stakeholders, state BJP leaders are against to any engagements with the separatists. "The government will discuss the issue with all elected representatives and other organisations. We have informed the BJP leadership at the Centre about our stand. Separatist organizations should not be included in any discussion or deliberation as they are the main culprits," said BJP leader from Jammu and Kashmir Ravindra Raina.

Raina added that the problem is not across the Valley, but in areas by the border. " North Kashmir peaceful, not entire valley affected, problem is there after the killing of Pakistan-sponsored terrorist Burhan Wani. There is a group of miscreants they plan to create unrest on Independence Day," he added.

Slamming the state BJP's stand, political analyst Sushil Pandit said that state leaders distancing themselves from the talks was meaningless. "Everyone needs to understand that there is a gradual calibrated escalation of problem in Kashmir which is leading to capitulation, it is leading to surrender. It doesn't show any determination to fight back. It only shows a tendency to compromise with it," said Pandit.

Regardless of the ongoing tussle over peace talks, sources said that back channel talks are already underway. The unrest is being calibrated from across the border. According to sources, miscreants are pushing youngsters to challenge security forces leading to causalities. While the government is aware of the fact that unrest is orchestrated, the government is making an effort to reach out to all persons and groups concerned.

Besides political leaders, the government will also talk to influential clerics, student leaders. Sources said that the core effort is to restore peace and prevent loss of life.

Watch the video here:



--- ENDS ---
nws Giuliani

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Assemblyman Ron Castorina Jr. meet at the Republican National Convention. (Photo from Castorina campaign)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, with a penchant for highly-charged remarks, is endorsing Assemblyman Ron Castorina Jr., another Republican who entered the political stage by speaking his mind without pause.

Castorina is running for re-election to a full two-year term in the Assembly after being selected in an April uncontested special election to fill the remainder of now-Councilman Joe Borelli's term.

He is facing a primary challenge from civic leader Janine Materna on Sept. 13.

The assemblyman's debut controversy came a few short weeks after taking office, by standing on the chamber floor, debating against a pro-abortion proposal, calling it "African-American genocide."

He got a lot of flak from Democrats, many of whom walked out of the Assembly chamber in protest as he was speaking.

But since then, he says, it has actually brought him closer to his colleagues, many of whom he didn't know before.

"Because I actually sat down and had conversations," he said. "Both sides gained perspective."

Having met Giuliani at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, where the former mayor gave a rousing speech, Castorina got "America's Mayor" to back him in the race.

"I have always had a special relationship with Staten Islanders," Giuliani said. "More than any other borough, they ensured my election as Mayor in 1993. I am proud to support a lifelong, conservative Republican like Assemblyman Ron Castorina for re-election. Assemblyman Castorina is a proven leader who is not afraid to challenge the Democratic majority in Albany. That's the type of leadership we need. I encourage all Republicans to join me and every Staten Island Republican elected official in supporting Ron in the Sept. 13 primary."

Giuliani has been out of office for about 15 years, but he draws a crowd of unwavering Republicans at appearances all over -- and of Staten Islanders every time he visits the borough that helped get him elected.

"I am honored to receive the endorsement of 'America's Mayor,'" Castorina said. "Rudy Giuliani is without a doubt the greatest mayor that New York has ever had. He made us the safest big city in the country and demonstrated exceptional leadership both during and after the 9/11 attacks. His support is a seal of approval that means a great deal to me."
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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- St. George resident Leonard Evans, 49, accused of fatally stabbing a 30-year-old man near the Ferry Terminal, showed no emotion as he was arraigned in Staten Island Criminal Court on second degree murder charges on Sunday.

Evans, of Slosson Terrace, was charged with second degree murder, first degree assault, and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree, according to court documents.

Evans was remanded without bail until tomorrow when he is due back in Criminal Court.

Wearing a pink shirt, Evans walked into the courtroom with his left arm in a cast. For most of the hearing, he showed no emotion and was silent throughout.

Police said the defendant allegedly stabbed German "Ricco" Pagan of Midland Beach, multiple times. Pagan was found dead on a park bench between Richmond County Bank Ballpark and the terminal for the Staten Island Ferry at around 2 a.m. on Thursday, police said.

According to court documents, Evans allegedly used a knife to "cause serious physical injury" to Pagan sometime between 10:40 p.m. and 1:45 a.m. in the rear of 75 Richmond Terr.

The victim had multiple stab wounds to the torso and was pronounced dead at the scene by EMS, according to a statement from the NYPD's deputy commissioner of public information.

PAST CONVICTIONS

Evans is well known to authorities; he's served three separate prison stints dating to 1991 for robbery, sexual abuse and drug sales on Staten Island, according to Advance reports and online records of the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

Evans was most recently released from prison in August 2014 after serving the maximum time in a seven-to-14-year sentence for third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance, records show. A jury convicted him in that case in January 2001, the Advance reported.

REMEMBERING A FATHER

Pagan recently moved to Staten Island from Texas to spend more time with his 2-year-old daughter, Jianna.

"But now he won't get the chance," said Michael Lesizza, a relative of Pagan, the grand uncle of Jianna.

"People have gone to jail for lesser crimes than this. ...It took Ricco passing away to get this guy off the street so someone else didn't get hurt," he added.

Said Anna Rosa, Jianna's grandmother: "I'm numb. I'm shaking inside."

Michael Lesizza and Anna Rose put a note and a sneaker on bench nearby where German Pagan was fatally stabbed. "I put one of Jianna's sneakers there and a note that says, 'This sneaker represents the father I would have gotten to meet for my birthday but because of a monster taking him away, I won't get that chance," he said. (Michael Lesizza)

Lesizza and Rose put up a note and a sneaker on bench where Pagan was found fatally stabbed.

"I put one of Jianna's sneakers there and a note that says, 'This sneaker represents the father I would have gotten to meet for my birthday but because of a monster taking him away, I won't get that chance," he said.

Pagan moved to Staten Island from Texas about a month ago.

Advance Reporter Jon Evans contributed to this report.

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Your history, our history, Staten Island's history: take a look back at the way The Rock once was through the eye of a camera's lens.

Our historic photos take a walk down Memory Lane -- and down Hylan Boulevard and Bay Street and Richmond Avenue.

Each week enjoy a visual exploration of a different Staten Island community.

Up this week: Eltingville.

ABOUT ELTINGVILLE

Once known as South Side (1873) and later Sea Side, Eltingville takes its name from the Elting family, which settled the area in the 19th century.
PLEASE NOTE!

Due to the March 23, 2020 NM DOH Public Health Order, These Event Listings Are Not Accurate!

All non-essential businesses are closed, public gatherings are prohibited!

(One day some of these events will be rescheduled or will resume, but they are not happening now!)
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said that the machete attack outside Charleroi police station appeared to be a terrorist attack.

By India Today Web Desk: Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel told a local broadcaster on Saturday that a machete attack in Charleroi in which two police officers were wounded before the attacker was fatally shot appeared to be was a terrorist incident.

"Initial indications very clearly point towards terrorism," Michel told the television channel by phone.

Two female police officials were attacked by a machete-wielding man who came yelling 'Allahu Akbar' outside the main police station in Southern Belgian city of Charleroi. The terrorist was shot outside the main police station



COP GRIEVOUSLY INJURED

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One of the female officers suffered grievous injuries on the face, while the other officer suffered minor injuries. The attacker succumbed to his wounds outside the police station.

Sources said that the attacker was not identified as he did not have any papers with him. According to the local media, the Prime Minister will be meeting security services.

Belgian Interior Minister Jean Jambon condemned the attack calling it "disgusting act in Charleroi" on his Twitter account. He added that the country's terror threat level - currently at level three on a scale of four - would be examined.

With inputs from Reuters

Also read:

Brussels attack: Here is how the world is showing solidarity with the victims



--- ENDS ---
Another Andrews Government minister calls time ahead of election Another Victorian minister has called time on her career in politics, as a new poll reveals support for the Andrews Government is dropping ahead of the November election.

01:10 Friend of Australia: Albanese looks to build good relationship with UK PM Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says new UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is a friend of Australia and looks forward to meeting him at the...

03:30 The budget was about implementing our plan for a better future: Albanese Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has discussed the newly announced budget at a media conference in Parramatta, NSW on Friday.

00:46 Queensland hospital left struggling to fill positions A higher number of resignations than usual has left recruiters at one of Queenslands biggest hospitals struggling to fill positions for specialist...

04:42 Energy markets are absolute havoc Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the energy markets are "absolute havoc and the government will have to do more by working with regulators...

09:46 Labor pushing out message of restraint with budget The Australians Federal Political Reporter Sarah Ison says the Albanese governments budget was a message of restraint with Labor...

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.

Dutton demands PM stand up today and explain repatriation of IS brides Peter Dutton has sent his well wishes to the families of former IS fighters who are currently being repatriated to Australia but has demanded the Prime Minister stand up today and explain the decision.

16:12 Big part of Liberal history has been to clean up Labor messes: Dutton Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says he expects he'll have to "clean up a big mess" left by the Labor party in three years' time.

Humiliated Coalition MP reveals details of call with PM over bully claims Michelle Landry has opened up about the phone call she had with Anthony Albanese who she accused of "humiliating her" during Question Time on Thursday, with the Coalition MP insisting Parliament has to change to be "kinder and family friendly".

16:12 Dutton: Coalition determined to win in 2025 Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says his team is united and determined to win the election in 2025.

Worst budget reply in my time: Albanese slams Peter Duttons speech The Prime Minister said Peter Dutton's budget reply fell flat in bringing forth any new policies and failed to outline a clear plan for Australia's future.

01:56 Show the footage: Albanese accused of bullying MP Liberal MP Michelle Landry has accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of bullying her in parliament.

03:16 Dutton gave the worst budget reply: Albanese Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has criticised Opposition leader Peter Dutton saying he gave the worst budget reply thats been given in...

00:32 Resignations lead to hospital backlog Thousands of surgery patients remain on waitlists at one of Queensland's biggest public hospitals due to "stress, burnout, and uncertainty about...

10:19 Albanese reveals details of buyback plan for NSW flood-prone homes Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has revealed the details of the governments buyback plan for homeowners in the flood-prone area of Lismore...

00:34 Victorian Labor loses popularity Voters in Victoria are beginning to remove their support for the Labor Party.

00:52 Dutton fire back with budget reply Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has warned of a dark future under Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
If the conventional restaurants are too boring for you, then here's a new dining experience. A Chinese businessman has opened a restaurant inside a Boeing because why not.

By India Today Web Desk:



Maybe you are too boring that you still go to a restaurant that looks like, well, a restaurant?

A Chinese businessman Li, is taking the restaurant business very seriously, so much so that he has opened a restaurant inside an old Boeing 737. Seems like food will never be boring inside a Boeing.



Li in 2015 bought an old Boeing 737 from the Indonesian airline, Batavia Air. It's called Lily and it's not even silly.

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Well, our joke might be bad but this restaurant airplane called Lily Airways is not bad at all.

For Li, it was hard to bring the Boeing to China because of various procedures and formalities. From shipping to trade declarations, it was a project that required a lot of legal formalities to be taken care of.

Having to dismantle and ship 70 containers, along with all the formalities, it took Li a lot of time to finally come out with his amazing restaurant.

Photo: Twitter - @ChinaDailyUSA

This airplane-themed restaurant has a children's amusement park near the jet and it's a happy place for kids as well.

Photo: Twitter - @ChinaDailyUSA

Several fancy cars are also parked under the airplane wings further defining the opulence of this unique restaurant.

Photo: Twitter - @ChinaDailyUSA

In the Optics Valley Pedestrian Street, one of the most famous areas of Wuhan, China, with 300 to 400 yuan (Rs 4,000 approximately), you can cherish your meal at Lily Airways and it is also possible to enter the cabin and enjoy a whole new dining experience.

The cost of this project is worth $5m (more 33 crores) and after all the obstacles, Li has finally opened his amazing airplane restaurant.

--- ENDS ---
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In his Facebook post, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav said Modi changed his stance on cow protection once it backfired.

By India Today Web Desk: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad took potshots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi today after the latter hit out at self-styled cow vigilantes.

Today, Modi said he felt "anguished" over incidents of vigilantism and asked state governments to take action against the cow vigilantes.

HOLY COW TROUBLED MODI GOVT



Launching a scathing attack on the PM, Lalu wrote on his Facebook wall that Narendra Modi has fully understood the statement "cows give us milk, not votes". He went to say that why shouldn't Modi understand the statement as the issue of cow protection has only shaken the functional government led by him.

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The former CM termed Modi's statement as his and truth's victory over the later's hypocrisy.

Also read - PM to cow vigilantes: Attack me if you dare, leave Dalits alone

TIME FOR PM TO EXERCISE HIS POWERS



Targeting Modi's take on pseudo-cow vigilantes, Lalu asked the prime minister to exercise his power and prepare a dossier on the fake cow-protectors.

Lalu Yadav's Facebook post for Modi.

He also wanted to know the name of the states and governments under whose patronage self-styled cow vigilantes are active.

At his satirical best, Lalu Yadav taunted Modi for changing his stance on holy cow issue once it backfired. "You had set out to fool people in the name of cow and it troubled you, you changed your language. Public knows everything," wrote Lalu.

PM'S TAKE ON COW VIGILANTES



PM Modi took on the groups who attacked Dalits in the recent past in his first Townhall meet in Indira Gandhi Stadium on Saturday. Rebuking the pseudo cow-vigilantes, he said that these fake cow vigilantes are running anti-social shop in the name of cow protection.

He also said that there is a stark difference between gau-bhakts and gau-rakshaks. "It angers me to see that people with vested interest are using 'cow vigilantism' to promote their own agenda. They do this to mask their bad deeds," he said.

--- ENDS ---
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Until this moment I have been forced to listen while media and politicians alike have told me "what Canadians think". In all that time they never once asked.

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I got links from the Weekly Standard, Hot Air and Instapundit yesterday - but SDA was running at least equal to those in visitors clicking through to my blog. Jeff Dobbs

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Just days after her baby daughter Azaria was taken by a dingo at Uluru in 1980, Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton began receiving letters.

And in the weeks, months and years after, throughout her trial for Azaria's murder, her wrongful conviction, three years in prison, the subsequent Royal Commission and several coronial inquests, the letters kept on coming, filling up boxes and chests and filing cabinets in the family home.

Alana Valentine and Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton on a panel discussing the play.

In them, the public sympathised, sent threats, told her of their own lost children and family dramas, and kept her up-to-date on life on the outside.

It was after her release from prison that Chamberlain-Creighton took up the National Library of Australia's offer to hold the letters for her, but not after she had gone through and meticulously catalogued and filed them in colour-coded folders.
The former care worker demonstrates how the intellectually disabled woman's arms were tied above her head for 30 minutes a time while she was directed to clean the house. Credit:Karleen Minney The worker said it was the client's mother who directed her to restrain the woman with her hands tied high above her head. The ropes were attached to the roof and "like something you would get in Bunnings". "I was asked to tie it particularly tightly, while she screamed and cried and exhibited signs of distress. I was then asked to leave her there for around 30 minutes while I cleaned the house. After 30 minutes, I would assist her to shower, and she would cower in the corner crying and screaming. If I assisted her to wash she would, understandably, lash out," the woman said. The worker believed the mother  "a wonderful woman pushed to the absolute edge of carer stress"  was in an untenable situation, and her agency could offer no real support. "If I didn't oblige, the client would smear faeces on me, pull my hair, scratch, pull me and knock me to the floor if I didn't tie her up. I would often sit in the car outside the client's house crying  not sure if I should just accept the bruises and faeces, or if I should partake in what felt like a truly horrific violation of this young woman's rights."

"I was asked to tie [the ropes] particularly tightly, while she screamed and cried and exhibited signs of distress. I was then asked to leave her there for around 30 minutes while I cleaned the house.'' A former disability support worker from Canberra on how she was directed to tie up a woman with intellectual disablities. The woman said she did approach her agency to ask for help on how to deal with the situation. In an email seen by Fairfax, the worker tells a supervisor she is uneasy about tying up the client and is told in response: "Under no circumstance are we at assist in the tieing [sic] up of [XXXX], if she dose [sic] smear her feacies [sic]then we as support workers clean it up." The woman said: "They agreed they were uncomfortable with it and they'd try to talk to the carer to try to stop her from encouraging support workers to do it but they were still consistently sending me to that shift with the knowledge that was going to be done. "They didn't offer me an alternative and I asked for one." The alleged abuse occurred in mid-2014 around the time the National Disability Insurance Scheme was being introduced in the ACT.

It is unknown if the abuse is still happening as the worker left the sector and the agency involved, Kincare, would not comment on the specific case due to privacy concerns. "However, as a general matter, Kincare can say that its policy is that physical restraint or confinement of a person is never an appropriate response to any client or situation. Kincare staff are instructed never to restrain a person and Kincare would not condone a staff member doing so in any circumstances," a statement read. Ms Ryan said the worker was right to come forward and confidentiality provisions should not prevent alleged abuse from being reported. She said there should always be enough support to prevent a person with disabilities from being restrained. "Unfortunately, it is still the case that the restraint of people with disabilities is still a daily practice, perhaps not to the level of violence of this case," Ms Ryan said.

"But people are still being restrained, either physically or with excessive medication or unnecessary medication, because family carers and paid support workers do not have the time and/or the skills to do something. "Despite the NDIS and despite the horrific nature of what's going on and that it wouldn't be acceptable for anyone else, these circumstances are still being viewed as unavoidable in the disability community." People with Disability Australia human rights adviser Ngila Bevan agreed. "There are many families and carers across Australia who struggle to support their children or family members with disability and their needs must be recognised. However, restrictive practices such as these are inhumane and degrading treatment and constitute violence," Ms Bevan said. "People with disability must be able to receive the supports they need in safe environments, and should not have their human rights compromised for the convenience of others whether they are family members, friends or paid staff.
One of Australia's most notorious corporate fugitives, Abraham "Abe" Goldberg, has died in Poland more than 25 years after his textile empire collapsed with debts of $1.3 billion and warrants were issued for his arrest.

Creditors and corporate regulators will be incensed to learn that Goldberg is understood to have left an inheritance of more than 500 million ($728 million) after amassing a vast property portfolio in Warsaw since fleeing Melbourne.

However, the Australian Taxation Office, disgruntled shareholders and more than 30 major lenders will not receive a cent.

To add further insult, tributes in Poland last week have hailed Goldberg as a "distinguished benefactor" for the significant financial contribution he made to several Jewish organisations based in Poland.
T'was the night before census, and in every house, each fam'ly was brawling over who'd hold the mouse.

Actually that statement contains an error. For the census, we don't say house; we say dwelling. Otherwise, it reflects reality. Let's hope in dwellings across the country, Australians manage to fill in their census form  online or on paper  without going the biff. Because in many dwellings, deciding who records the details in the census is a delicate matter.

Which householder in your dwelling gets to select 'submit" on census night?

We know this from the strong hints in the census instructions put out by the Bureau of Statistics itself. "The householder (Person 1) ideally has meaningful relationships to the majority of the people in the dwelling." (Our italics.)

From this sad little statement, we glean that the bureau knows more than it is letting on. It has had bad experiences in the past. Let's be frank, the bureau is telling us, some Persons 1 have issues. They may relate well to (say) Persons 2 and 4 in their dwelling, but can't abide Person 3. The occasional note on the fridge is as close as they get.
Pauline Hanson is a "highly intelligent" and competent person who will hold One Nation together despite its poor record of cohesion, the party's new senator Malcolm Roberts says.

Speaking on ABC's Insiders program on Sunday, Senator Roberts, the climate sceptic who secured One Nation's second Queensland Senate spot last week, also challenged anyone at the national broadcaster to provide "empirical evidence" that proves human production of carbon dioxide is affecting the climate.

One Nation has snared four senate positions in an unexpectedly strong result that gives it the balance of power, along with the three Nick Xenophon senators, if Labor and the Greens combine to block bills.

The result has raised questions over whether One Nation will go the way of the Palmer United Party, which collapsed in the last federal Parliament.
1. Syrian rebels claim breakthrough in Aleppo

Syrian opposition fighters says they have broken the weeks-long siege of Aleppo imposed by the Russia-backed Assad government.

Syria's state news agency denies the rebels have advanced, but has not addressed the breaking of the siege. [Erika Solomon/Financial Times]

In an "unprecedented alliance," 10,000 rebels, Islamists and jihadists fought Syrian regime troops in 'The Great Battle of Aleppo.' [Josie Ensor/Telegraph]
The safety of people with disability will be at risk under workplace proposals being considered as part of the roll out of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Disability advocates believe a plan to radically cut conditions for disability support workers will result in increased levels of abuse and neglect of Australia's most vulnerable people.

Advocates and unions claim workers' rights are under attack in the Fair Work Commission where employers are seeking to reduce minimum shifts, remove regular hours for part-time employees and increase hours without paying penalties.

Employers have argued award conditions need to be reformed to meet the demand for more flexible services under the NDIS which started to roll out across Australia last month.
Deepika Kumari, L. Bombayla Devi and Laxmirani Majhi kept India's medal hopes alive as India qualified for the women's team archery quarter-finals beating Colombia 205-197.

By Indo-Asian News Service: The Indian women's archery team, comprising Deepika Kumari, L. Bombayla Devi and Laxmirani Majhi, progressed to the quarter-finals beating Colombia 205-197 in the Rio Olympics at the Olympic shooting centre here on Sunday.

The Indian trio started well leading the first set 52-51 with one inner 10 while Colombia managed to hit the bull's eye twice.

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In the second set, the Colombian trio of Carolina Aguirre, Maria Ana Rendon and Natalia Sanchez bounced back well to draw level with the scoreline reading 50-49. The set witnessed both the sides scoring three 9s. (RIO 2016 FULL COVERAGE)

The third set witnessed stiff competition from both the sides and ended 52-52. Either side managed to hit the bull's eye once while India hit three 9s in reply to Colombia's four 9s.

India came hard in the final set with four 9s to total 52 before Colombia panicked under pressure to manage only 44, giving India passage to the last-16 stage.



--- ENDS ---
Before the Facebook post, former deputy principal Kenneth Rothe, 74, enjoyed his life running two small seaside motels with his wife and caring for his grandchildren.

Afterwards, Mr Rothe was the subject of a brutal bashing that left him hospitalised for six months and his family were so scared they moved interstate.

Now a NSW District Court judge has forced the man who wrote the defamatory Facebook post to pay $150,000 in damages.

In March 2014 electrician David Scott wrote the following post, asking people to spread the word.
Two hundred people from 40 communities across NSW have gathered in the heart of Sydney to establish a "New Bulga", a temporary village to symbolise the loss of the community to the impacts of coal mining.

After fighting the proposed Rio Tinto Warkworth coal mine expansion for more than six years, the residents of Bulga have exhausted all legal options to stop the project.

AnneMaree McLaughlin from Bulga Milbrodale Progress Association said life would be unbearable for whoever is left in the village and has called for Planning Minister Rob Stokes and the Baird government to "restore the rights of local communities to appeal the merits coal mines approvals in court" in a last bid to save Bulga.

"We are sick of the wilful ignorance of the government regarding the destructive impacts from the mining and coal extraction," Ms McLaughlin said. "We are heart sick and physically sick from years of trying to protect our homes, our heritage, water and the land."
A man has been charged over a stabbing in Sydney's west over the weekend.

Police say the stabbing occurred when two men living at a boarding house on Bungarribee Road, Blacktown, became involved in an altercation about 7.30pm on Saturday.

One of the men, aged 42, sustained multiple stab wounds to his neck and chest.

The alleged offender left before police arrived.

The victim was taken to Westmead Hospital where he remains in a stable condition.
Aidan Smith was celebrating his best mate's 18th birthday party when he was fatally stabbed at a party in Ryde in Sydney's north-west early on Sunday.

Half a dozen knives and weapons were used in the vicious brawl that left six males and a female - most of them teenagers - with stab wounds.

Aidan was one of those stabbed and he died at Westmead Hospital in the early hours of the morning.

"He was just at his best friend's party when some idiot started stabbing people," Aidan's sister Nova Smith said.
The Palaszczuk Government is upping its battle to pass controversial legislation that would put tighter controls on tree clearing, releasing a new report that found vegetation clearing in environmentally sensitive areas such as the Great Barrier Reef catchment was occurring at "disturbingly high levels".

Acting Premier Jackie Trad and Environment Minister Steven Miles released the 2014-15 Statewide Land Cover and Tree Study on Sunday, which found the rate of vegetation clearing within the reef catchment had "increased by 46 per cent since 2011-12".

Tree clearing in central Queensland. Credit:Angela Wylie

The SLATS report found 296,000 hectares were cleared across the state last year, with about a third of that coming from within the reef catchment area.

That's only slightly higher than the year before, but Ms Trad said it pointed to the main reason Labor wanted to reinstate tighter controls.
Casa Ciana in NSW set up for celebrations. Credit:Figtree Wedding Photography The site now has about 150 diverse listings  everything from airplane hangars, to boats, whiskey distilleries, woolsheds and a former prison. The venue owners pay an annual fee to WedShed and handle all inquiries directly. "There's a good percentage of people that are completely new to hosting weddings," says Parfett. "They've just realised they've got space on the farm or a workshop that's only used a few weeks a year. "It's as hands-on or as hands-off as they want." Kayla Atkins, 24, and her sister Melissa, 22, run one of the venues listed on WedShed, after inheriting a farm in Bathurst from their grandparents about five years ago.

The 70-hectare farm BoxGrove, about 2.5 hours west of Sydney, had already long been offering farm stay accommodation. But the entrepreneurial sisters set up a hairdressing and beauty salon on the site, and are now building a purpose-built barn to host luxurious farm weddings. "In Bathurst there's a real shortage of wedding venues," says Kayla. "We're only 10 minutes from town, but it feels like you're in the middle of nowhere." BoxGrove is still a working farm, with Angus cattle, sheep and lucerne hay. But come September, gowns will be just as much a feature at the farm as gumboots.

Melissa will be the first to tie the knot in the new barn, followed by another 26 wedding bookings. Kayla says about 75 per cent of their bookings have come through WedShed. They also plan to list on sites such as Equally Wed. Meanwhile, Parfett and McBride have also been walking the talk. Parfett arrived in a ute to her wedding in a hayshed in Mudgee last year, and McBride exchanged vows with her new husband on a Kangaroo Valley farm last New Year's Eve. Parfett says discovering new venues reminds them both of their big days. "It's torture  we just want to get married again and again." The response to their site has been huge, with traffic to the site growing about 30 per cent a month.

"We've had different farmers that have told us that weddings have now overtaken their form of farming as the main revenue," says Parfett. "It has had a flow-on effect on a lot of small businesses around them as well." About 200 vendors, including hairdressers, caterers, florists and celebrants, are also listed on the site. The average Australian wedding costs about $36,000, according to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. Parfett says the cost of their venues can range from public halls in the hundreds of dollars up to about $10,000.

"There's definitely the potential of saving money, or at least putting your money into things that are more important to you for the day." Whatever the venue, Parfett says WedShed is targeting not "bridezillas'', but "the more relaxed kind of bridechilla". Like many businesses, their own wallets have suffered in their early years, as they reinvest back into the business. Before they launched, the two "lady wives" took on the management of running weddings at a farm in Kangaroo Valley, NSW, allowing them to learn about the challenges of hosting weddings. It also enabled them to bootstrap their start-up. Parfett says the wedding industry is ripe for disruption, with many new ideas creeping in during the past five years.
A petrol station sign with prices in euros and pounds sterling near the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in Omeath. Credit:New York Times The return of a hard border could affect the fragile peace process, with Sinn Fein, the dominant party among Catholics in Northern Ireland, using the Brexit vote as reason to call for a referendum on uniting Northern Ireland and Ireland. At the same time, Irish politicians also worry about the economic stability of Northern Ireland, which depends heavily on subsidies from London and the European Union. They wonder whether British taxpayers will pick up the tab for cuts in EU funding. "I think that it's an enormous moment and potentially a catastrophic moment in terms of Ireland's narrow interests as well as those of the wider European Union," said Eunan O'Halpin, a professor of contemporary Irish history at Trinity College Dublin. "Our neighbours have burned the house down, and once the edifice collapses, we have to see how we can fix our walls." Carlingford Lough, a glacial sea inlet that forms part of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Credit:New York Times Irish Foreign Minister Charles Flanagan acknowledged the gravity of the change. Ireland, he said, has become "a totally different place" from the country that joined the forerunner of the European Union on the same day as Britain in 1973.

Yet even an economically transformed Ireland, he said, cannot escape the ramifications of a referendum by a large neighbour with whom it shares centuries of troubled history. The former Irish border post between Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in Dundalk. Credit:New York Times "There are potential negative impacts across every government department, from energy to agriculture, the environment," Flanagan said at his office in Dublin. "Our job in the negotiations will be to mitigate these losses and minimise the damage." Pat Cox, a former president of the European Parliament, said the European dimension played a crucial role in strengthening relations between Dublin and London. Membership made Ireland important in its own right and allowed it to differentiate itself from Britain, and to pick and choose policies best suiting its interests. 'You have to be nimble': Tom MacGuinness, the founder of Horseware, which sells equine equipment around the world, in Dundalk. Credit:New York Times

Like the British, the Irish stayed out of the passport-free Schengen travel zone, but unlike Britain, Ireland joined the European single currency. A shared, free-market economic perspective, however, made the two nations allies in Brussels. "We got to know each other very well over 40 years by showing up at the same tables in Brussels and elsewhere, not on the basis of equal size but on the basis of equality of status of member states, which for a small state matters," Cox said. "This radically changed the quality of dialogue between Irish and British leaders over time," he added, while fostering the "mutual respect and understanding" that made the Northern Ireland peace process possible. Yet its closeness to Britain leaves Ireland exposed to the consequences, particularly for trade, of Britain's withdrawal from the European Union. "In a worst-case scenario with the UK outside the EU, the impact could be 20 per cent or more," Ireland's Economic and Social Research Institute concluded last year. It added that a Brexit would be a huge blow since "more than 15 per cent of Irish exports are destined for the UK."

If Britain leaves the European Union's single market, as seems likely to happen, trading with the British would most likely involve new customs requirements, and possibly tariffs. Paddy Malone of Dundalk's Chamber of Commerce said he worried that customs checks would reverse the integration around the border area. "Even if it's only extra paperwork, it's still an administration burden," Malone said. "It means that people in both jurisdictions will start looking elsewhere for new suppliers and customers." The future of the border is crucial not just for trade but for the free movement of people across it. Britain and Ireland enjoyed a common travel area before joining the European Economic Community in 1973. Yet Britain's exit creates a situation with one country inside the European Union and one outside. The road from Dundalk to Newry, Northern Ireland, will therefore cross an external frontier of the bloc. While Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny and new British Prime Minister Theresa May stress that changes can be kept minimal, that was not what Mrs May said before Britain's referendum, when she warned of restrictions in the event of a Brexit.

For many in Britain, a prime motivation for the vote was to "take back control" of its borders. If Britain does leave the EU, it will be difficult to avoid immigration checks at the Irish border or between Northern Ireland and mainland Britain, though the latter would be controversial in Belfast. Flanagan described a heavily fortified border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, with immigration controls, as "unthinkable", but said he could not rule out some customs checks. "If there are to be some customs points, modern technology could be used to the full in terms of the identification and checking of goods," he added. There are, however, some opportunities for Ireland. If Britain loses access to the EU's single market, some of its banks may shift their operations to Dublin. Ireland could become more important diplomatically for the United States because of its voice inside the European Union. Tom MacGuinness, the founder of Horseware, which sells equine equipment around the world, said the referendum result had meant uncertainty for Irish businesses, but he remains upbeat. "You really can't plan these things," he said at his modern factory and warehouse in Dundalk. "You have to roll with the punches. You have to be nimble."
Johannesburg: Oscar Pistorius was treated in hospital for wrist injuries on Saturday, a prison service spokesman said, adding the jailed South African track star had denied trying to kill himself.

The multiple gold medal-winning Paralympian, serving six years for murdering his girlfriend on Valentine's Day 2013, was returned to his Pretoria cell after the incident, which coincided with the first day of competition in the Rio Olympic Games.

"Oscar Pistorius denied speculations of a suicide attempt," Department of Correctional Services spokesman Manelisi Wolela said on Sunday, describing the athlete's injuries as minor.

Pistorius reached the pinnacle of his fame in 2012 when he became the first double amputee to run in the Olympics, making the 400 metres semi-finals in London before taking two golds in the Paralympics.
Johannesburg Oscar Pistorius, the Paralympic athlete jailed for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, was rushed to hospital on Saturday after injuring his wrists in his prison cell.

The 29-year-old double-amputee summoned warders to his cell in the hospital wing of his Pretoria prison with a distress call. He told them he had fallen out of bed.

Pistorius was checked by the prison's medical staff, then taken to a nearby hospital where he was treated under heavy guard then returned to prison on Saturday evening.

Two hospital security guards told South Africa's City Press newspaper Pistorius seemed in a serious condition when he arrived.
Washington: Donald Trump has unleashed a series of nasty personal attacks against his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, mocking her appearance and questioning her mental health several times during a campaign rally and on social media.

"She is a totally unhinged person. She's unbalanced. And all you have to do is watch her, see her, read about her," Trump said during a campaign rally in Windham, New Hampshire, on Saturday evening.

"She will cause - if she wins, which hopefully she won't - the destruction of our country from within."

The Republican presidential nominee called Clinton unstable and incompetent several times throughout the rally. At one point, he also called her "Hillary Rotten Clinton", a play on her maiden name, Rodham.
By PTI: Bhubaneswar, Aug 5 (PTI) Authorities of the Hirakud Dam in Odishas Sambalpur district today released excess water for first time this year to the down stream of river Mahanadi with the water level rising 623 feet in the reservoir.

The water was released through seven sluice gates after a traditional puja by the dam authorities.

There are plans to open ten sluice gates of the dam in phases.

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Meanwhile, the water resources department has alerted the authorities of 12 down stream districts to make people aware about the flow of excess water in river Mahanadi.

The 12 districts which have been put on alert are Sambalpur, Bargarh, Sonepur, Angul, Boudh, Nayagarh, Cuttack, Kandhamal, Khurda, Jagatsinghpur, Kndrapara and Puri.

"There is no immediate threat for the people living by the river side in the 12 districts. There is also no flood threat," said Water Resources secretary P K Jena. PTI AAM DKB

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A recent letter by an MP in your Saturday publication drew our interest.

The board of the United St. Maarten Party (USP) has a simple message it would like to share with the people of St. Maarten as it pertains to leadership and the role of Members of Parliament. It is noteworthy that a political party has included MPs on their list who only underscore the partys lack of leadership by clearly demonstrating that they too do not understand the expectations of their constituents.

Every MP, we are sure, understand the importance of the so-called arms-length approach when it comes to Ministers being given the space to execute their tasks. Every citizen, however, also expects their MPs to ensure that assurances given to the public are honored. This means simply that MPs, who are elected by the people to improve their quality of life, must ensure that Ministers are fulfilling the mandate given to the MPs by the people. Its called leadership, not political intervention as the MP recently wrote.

Leadership in our system is not defined as getting elected to Parliament, appointing Ministers, and then never ensuring that the people are truly taken care of. An MP that prefers to quote regulations and uses that as an excuse as to why the peoples business isnt being taken care of, does not understand his or her role as an MP to always put people first. After a while, the only thing that comes from talking is sound. There will be the point when the people expect you and the Ministers that are appointed by you, to act.

Taking veiled political jabs is one thing, but implying that police officers are politically impressionable and corruptible is quite another. You are definitely not a leader if you casually imply that any of our civil servants, in particular, those in law enforcement, cant execute their jobs effectively and in an unbiased manner if they know a particular MP and Minister with affiliation to a particular party has made sure that a promise made to them, is a promise kept. This is an insult to the men and women in blue.

Moreover, for an MP to state that each citizen has the right to have confidence in law enforcement, knowing that it should be impartial and fair is tantamount to telling citizens that if their party affiliation is different, they cannot trust a police officer to act on their behalf if the police officer and their colleagues receive the tools they need to fight crime from a Minister associated with a particular party. This is an extremely dangerous and irresponsible statement for an MP to make.

The MP continued by stating: Once that stigma of politics is placed or the affiliation with a political party, then that confidence is broken and Lady Justice no longer wears that role of applying equal justice to all. Now we are very aware that the MP has some challenges keeping her word, which is definitely not her bond, but we are very confident that our police officers do not see political colors when they put their lives on the line every day. They deserve more respect than having an MP put to question their professionalism.

Officers were denied of their rightful positions for quite some time under the party the MP now represents. The USP assumed responsibility for the Ministry of Justice in February of this year and boldly said enough was enough. Lets take care of our people. There is more work to be done, but we have delivered. We stepped in and didnt look at anyones names or party color. We looked at the fact that they are our people who risk their lives for us every day.

Instead of congratulating the officers, the MP thought it more important to grind a political ax and decorate it in concerns for "separation of powers". The MP and the party she represents clearly prioritizes vindictive practices, politics, then people......in that order.

It is even more ironic that the MP would speak about political influence when the same MP is famous for vehemently defending the Minister she was responsible for in the not too distant past as if she was actually sitting in the Ministers chair. When you lack leadership or leadership skills and folks already know your word is meaningless, you need to be careful not to add hypocrite to the laundry list of descriptions.

The Board of the USP
PHILIPSBURG:--- The Rotary Club of St.Martin Sunrise had the privilege of hearing presentations from two prominent figures in the community, Dr. Yelen George, and Drs. Joseph Okon, during their meeting, conducted on Tuesday 2nd August 2016.

Dr. Yelen George is the leading anesthesiologist on the Dutch side of St. Maarten. Born on April 9, 1962, in Perm, Russia , she graduated with an MD in 1987, Ukraine. She defended her Ph.D. in Anesthesiology and Intensive care, from one of the leading Medical Institution in Russia: The Schenov Moscow Medical Academy in 1996. There was a packed house as she spoke about her responsibilities at the hospital and her work including Operating Room, Emergency Room, Intensive Care, and Air Transport of the critically ill patients. She also serves as the vice president of the Medical Staff Board and the chairperson of some of the committees at the hospital. During questions and answers, she shared with the club and its guests about the different types of anesthesia and when they are used and on what circumstances with certain patients. Some of the myths and misconceptions that people have about anesthesia and its effects on the body were clarified.

In addition, Dr. George is the preceptor of AUC and in her words being preceptor affords me the opportunity to keep abreast with the rapidly changing concepts in the field of Anesthesia and Intensive care.

Her aim as a preceptor is to assist the student in bridging the void that often exists between the classroom and clinical practice. It is that period in the career of a doctor that determines whether she or he will be a successful professional with the urge to improve his or her skills and knowledge or loose that enthusiasm with which they first embraced the medical field.

Drs. Joseph Okon OTR has undergraduate and graduate degrees in rehabilitation and Professional Occupational Therapy. He is an occupational Therapist registered, licensed and Board Certified since 1989 till present. Having heritage from Nigeria and the Caribbean, living most of his life in different parts of the United States, he has a broader perspective on the way he sees the world.

He is an active student athlete recruiter, recruiting exceptional student-athletes to receive a scholarship to partake in student-athlete programs including Morgan State University and other major universities in the USA. His work also includes being a special Education Occupational Therapist licensed and Registered contracting with the New York State Department of Education and the Board of Education, City of New York, director of the SMOTRCF, a nonprofit Foundation for rehabilitation and habilitation, Chief Executive Officer of the. O.T. Contract services at Hospitals, Clinics, Rehabilitation facilities and Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the School of Occupational Therapy at Oshodi, Lagos State Nigeria.

At the end of the meeting, President Okama thanked both the speakers for such inspiring presentations which was met with a loud applause from the attendees.

The Rotary Club of St. Martin Sunrise meets every Tuesday at the Ginger Bread Cafe Restaurant, Belair Beach Hotel from 7:00AM to 8:00AM. For more information on the club visit us at sxmsunrise.org or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . We are also on Facebook: Rotary Club of St. Martin Sunrise.
Rebel Republicans Will Hold an Event in late August to Endorse Johnson & Weld over Clinton & Trump

Mitt Romney, George Bush 41 and George Bush 43, as well as other mainstream Republican party figures, are set to endorse Libertarian Presidential Candidate Gary Johnson next week, say sources within the "Never Trump" movement and other disaffected Republicans.

Johnson, the former Republican governor of New Mexico, is known for having balanced the budget during his 8 year tenure. The Libertarian's Vice presidential running mate is also a former Republican governor, William Weld of Massachusetts. No one within the Republican party is especially happy having to endorse businessman Donald Trump. Even Trump supporters such as Newt Gingrich have recently called for an "intervention" or reset of the floundering Trump campaign.

Meanwhile, Trump himself repeatedly refused to endorse fellow Republicans such as House Speaker Paul Ryan, Sen. John McCain, and New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte; dismaying Trump's last major ally within the Party, Reince Priebus. Priebus finally got the Donald to endorse Ryan, McCain and Ayotte on Friday, but the damage to party unity is done. http://www.smobserved.com/story/2016/08/06/news/romney-mccain-bush-other-major-republicans-will-endorse-libertarian-gary-johnson/1713.html

So the move is neither far-fetched, nor unexpected. It is also a backdoor to having a Republican ticket consisting of major, experienced party figures, on the ballot in all 50 states. Both Weld and Johnson were Republicans when they were governors of their respective states.

Johnson has polled around 10% in recent national polls, against Clinton, Trump, and the Green Party's candidate Jill Stein. Johnson has described Trump as "crazy," "racist," and "a wimp." Weld has said that Trump should look into "another occupation--really anything other than President of the United States."

Newsweek says that the Libertarians "charm" could swing the election. http://www.newsweek.com/charm-libertarians-johnson-weld-presidential-debates-487371

Major liberty Caucus and never trump republican leaders are reportedly supporting and endorsing Johnson and Weld for president. https://alibertarianfuture.com/2016-election/endorsements/rlc-nevertrump-leaders-found-republicans-johnsonweld-superpac/

Bush 43 and Romney 2008 veteran Dan Senor said he will endorse the Libertarians "Reluctantly. He also called for Johnson to appear on the debate stage with Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Senor said Trump lacks the personal integrity to be president.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/08/05/anti-trump_gop_strategist_dan_senor_pushes_for_gary_johnson_to_appear_on_debate_stage.html

"There has been a striking consistency to Donald Trump's behavior over the last year and even before that," Senor observed Friday morning on MSNBC. "The birther attacks against Barack Obama. At any time anybody following this closely can they honestly believe that Donald Trump has the temperament or values or the character or the integrity to be president of the United States? No."

Senor said Libertarian party nominee Gary Johnson is "missing an opportunity to reach out to conservative voters." Johnson ran a pot farm ten years ago, and admits to consuming cannabis edibles recently; which fact has been a small problem for him with certain segments of the voting population. They refer to him as "Puff the Magic Dragon."

"I like Gary Johnson," Senor said. "I don't like the things he's been saying, particularly the last few days, but he and [William] Weld are missing an opportunity to reach out to conservative voters. I think if they changed their focus there is a lot of conservative voters they could pick up."

Reportedly 13% of US voters say they would rather have a large meteorite hit the earth then have either trump or Clinton as president. And former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has said that he will support the libertarian candidates over Trump or Clinton.

Face it, Dems: Bill and Hillary Clinton carry more baggage than Air Force One. Don't deny it; I'm old enough to remember the 1990's. As for Mr. Trump; various psychologists have theorized that he is either a narcissistic sociopath or a megalomaniac with sociopathic tendencies. See for example http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/06/the-mind-of-donald-trump/480771/ Take your pick.

As voters discover they have a third party choice, increasingly they are just saying "no."

Gary Earl Johnson, 63, is a businessman, politician and the Libertarian Party nominee for President of the United States in the 2016 election. He served as the 29th Governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003 as a member of the Republican Party. He was the Libertarian Party's nominee for President of the United States in the 2012 election.

Johnson announced his candidacy for president on April 21, 2011, as a Republican, on a libertarian platform emphasizing the United States public debt and a balanced budget through a 43% reduction of all federal government spending, protection of civil liberties, an immediate end to the War in Afghanistan and his advocacy of the FairTax.

On December 28, 2011, after being excluded from the majority of the Republican Party's presidential debates and failing to gain traction while campaigning for the New Hampshire primary, he withdrew his candidacy for the Republican nomination and announced that he would continue his presidential campaign as a candidate for the nomination of the Libertarian Party. He won the Libertarian Party nomination on May 5, 2012. His chosen running mate Judge James P. Gray of California won the vice-presidential nomination. The Johnson/Gray ticket received 0.99% of the popular vote, amounting to 1.27 million votes, more than all other minor candidates combined. It was the best showing in the Libertarian Party's history by vote count.

On January 6, 2016, Johnson announced his candidacy for the Libertarian nomination once again in 2016, and in May he selected former Republican Governor of Massachusetts William Weld as his running mate. On May 29, 2016, Johnson won the Libertarian nomination on the second ballot with 55.8% of the delegates.
Here are the raises coming for Mishawaka teachers and administrators

From teachers and administrators to bus drivers and substitutes, increased pay is coming to staff across the School City of Mishawaka.
By PTI: prohibitory orders

Lucknow, Aug 7 (PTI) An FIR was today registered against Union Minister Anupriya Patel under various sections of IPC for violating prohibitory orders during her visit to state capital.

The FIR was lodged against Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare and others under IPC sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 341 (wrongful restraint), 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) at Hazratganj police station, SHO Hazratganj, Vijaymal Yadav told PTI.

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The Apna Dal MP from Mirzapur during her visit here yesterday was received by supporters at the airport and her cavalcade comprising scores of cars created massive traffic jam in Hazratganj -- the citys fashionable commercial hub -- and other areas.

This was her first visit to the city after being inducted in the Narendra Modi cabinet last month. Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) have been enforced in the Hazratganj area by the district administration to prohibit assembly of more than five persons, holding of demonstrations or carrying of weapons. PTI ABN SMI RG

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Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is blasting Donald Trump for comments he made about Somalis residing in The Pine Tree State. Mr. Trump, who has called for a temporary ban on Muslims from certain countries with terrorist ties entering the country, recently stirred controversies by pointing fingers at the large Somali community living in Maine.

There are over 12,000 Somali refugees living in the state, a majority of them are American citizens and by all accounts, they are well assimilated. They have opened businesses, sent their children to college, and joined the local government. However, that is not how the Republican nominee sees it. On Thursday, the mogul was at a rally in Portland, Maine where he said:

Weve just seen many, many crimes getting worse all the time, and as Maine knows  a major destination for Somali refugees  right, am I right?

The mogul added:

Well, theyre talking about it. Maine. Somali refugees. We admit hundreds of thousands  you admit, into Maine, and to other places in the United States  hundreds of thousands of refugees.

Collins slammed the Republican presidential nominee for the recent comments about her states Somali community. Collins expressed her unease in a statement:

Mr. Trumps statements disparaging immigrants who have come to this country legally are particularly unhelpful. Maine has benefited from people from Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and, increasingly, Africa  including our friends from Somalia.

Collins, who is considered one of the most moderate Republicans in office, is thinking about voting for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. The Maine senator is not alone to lash out against Trump. On Saturday, more than 400 people, including Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling carrying copies of the Constitution, gathered at Portlands City Hall chanting more love, no hate, and holding signs that read I love my neighbors and No place for racism. Abdifatah Ahmed spoke to the crowd saying:

Coming from a troubled place does not mean that we are criminals.So we will stay here, and, you know, in November we will vote.

Acting police chief, Brian OMalley, stated:

The Somalis have not caused any increase in crime. Theyre integrated here in our city.The Somalis come here because they want somewhere safe and good schools to raise their kids, and thats what Lewiston has.

Trump has been performing poorly in polls with minorities.
Shaheed El Hafed, June 07, 2016 (SPS) - President of the Republic, Secretary General of the Polisario Front, Ibrahim Ghali, has received a congratulatory letter from the President of the People's National Assembly of Algeria, Dr. Mohamed Larbi Ould Khalifa, on his election.

The president of the Algerian parliament expressed conviction that the excellent experience of struggle that President Ghali has would enable him to continue efforts to defend the right of the self-determination of the Sahrawi people and their interests to the highest levels.

Dr. Mohamed Ould Khalifa reaffirmed the readiness of the Algerian parliament to enhance and strengthen consultations with the Sahrawi counterpart to serve the interests of the two countries. (SPS)

062/090/TRA




By PTI: Hapur (UP), Aug 7 (PTI) Four persons have been detained in connection with the rape of a four-year-old Dalit girl in Kheda village here even as the family of the victim alleged delayed action by the police, which rejected the charge.

Circle Officer Praveen Ranjan said that four persons had been detained in connection with the incident that occurred on Friday night and were being quizzed.

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Police also rejected allegations of delayed action.

"After the girls father made a call at 100 number, the police reached the spot within 10 minutes. The SHO was informed, and he reached there immediately," Superintendent of Police Alankrita Singh said, adding that victim got timely medical attention due to the officers.

The condition of the girl, who was admitted in a hospital in Meerut, is stated to be stable.

The girls father, however, said that they found her at 11.45 PM and the police came several hours later. She was admitted in hospital only at 7 AM yesterday.

Recalling the horror, a relative of the girl said she and her sister were sleeping outside the house when the incident occurred. "I told my husband to bring them inside as it had started drizzling, but he said that the girl was not there. We frantically looked for her in the house and outside. Later, we found her in a field," he said.

Police said that only one accused was involved and it was not a gangrape.

Angered by the incident, villagers had blocked the NH-24 yesterday.

The incident comes even as the Uttar Pradesh Government has come under flak over a string of rape incidents, including the gangrape of a woman and her daughter who were dragged out of their car by the accused on National Highway-91 in Bulandshahr.

Hapur is around 65 km from Delhi. PTI CORR VAG CHT RT

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Camrey DiCrosta is a typical college student off doing amazing things, according to her mother.

But only five years ago, the future didnt seem as bright.

DiCrosta struggled with anxiety until she was treated by Dr. Tarique Perera when she was 15.

Perera, 47, who has offices in Danbury and Greenwich, is one of 600 doctors in the United States licensed to treat patients with depression, anxiety and other neurological conditions with transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS.

Treatment involves shooting a noninvasive, targeted magnetic beam into a patients brain, helping to activate or suppress malfunctioning neurons. Patients undergo treatment for 30 minutes, five days a week for six weeks.

Usually by the third week, people start feeling better, said Perera, who spoke at a Rotary Club meeting in Stamford. By the sixth week, people are completely better.

Perera described TMS as the first treatment in the history of psychiatry that directly treats the circuits involved in depression and other psychiatric and certain neurological disorders.

According to Perera, TMS is safer, more effective and longer lasting than traditional antidepressants.

Almost half the patients we see regularly in our clinics have this type of depression that does not respond to antidepressants, Perera said. They may get a little better, but not completely better.

Clinical studies by the Food and Drug Administration have shown TMS treatment cures about 50 percent of patients who have been unable to find relief from antidepressants.

Pereras open label research with patients at his 10 local clinics has shown even higher success rates. Parera said patients who remain on their medication and complete TMS treatment are cured about 80 percent of the time.

Pereras practice, Contemporary Care, is participating in a study with Columbia University to research patients not cured by TMS therapy on their initial six-week regiment.

The patients enrolled in the study will be scanned with a neural navigation device, which clearly maps out the brain and helps identify improvements to allow the TMS machine to repair malfunctioning neurons.

The ultimate goal, according to Perera, is to take out the guesswork, in his treatment.

We have a treatment that works pretty quickly  pretty safely, very few side effects, he said. When (patients) do get better, they stay better.
STAMFORD  The sound of gunfire in a drive-by shooting was a sobering moment for a group of people leaving a West Side bar early Sunday morning.

Three shots were fired from a black Honda outside the Discovery Cafe on Stillwater Avenue about 2:35 a.m. Sunday, Lt. Diedrich Hohn said.

No one appeared to be injured in the shooting  the latest in a surge of gun violence on the West Side and the 20th overall shooting in the city since March.

Hohn said police did not find any victims in the area and no one sought treatment for a gunshot wound at Stamford Hospital.

In June, a couple was shot after they left another West Side nightclub  Sweet Water on Greenwich Avenue. The man was seriously wounded after being shot six times in the right leg, groin, right arm and abdomen, while the woman suffered wounds to her abdomen and right leg, police said.

Police have attributed much of the West Side gun violence to an ongoing feud between rival residents on Connecticut Avenue and Spruce Street.

City officials last week agreed to install an emergency phone and security camera at Hatch Field Park, which is located at the center of much of the neighborhoods violence.

The citys South End has also been touched by the violence.

Police responded to the corner of Woodland Place and Pacific Street about 10:20 p.m. Thursday for a report of shots fired. Officers searched the area and found five shell casings on the sidewalk at the intersection.

No one was reported injured and police said area hospitals did not treat anyone with a gunshot wound.

A witness saw a white Jeep leaving the intersection right after hearing the shots, but the woman did not see anyone in the SUV fire a weapon, police said.

In addition to Thursday nights incident, there have been at least two other shootings in the South End in recent weeks.

A 24-year-old Florida man, who also lived in Pound Ridge, N.Y., was critically injured during the early-morning hours of July 22 during a shootout with two other people near the corner of Cedar and Henry streets and the surrounding blocks. Police believe the incident is connected to a shooting that occurred earlier that night on South Pacific Street.

Anyone with information about the shootings can contact the Stamford Criminal Investigations Bureau at 203-977-4417.
This week the Stamford Professional Fire Fighters Association (SPFFA), IAFF Local 786, working in tandem with the administration of Mayor David Martin, have at long last ratified a new labor contract designed to improve public safety, increase wages, change employee health care delivery, all while adding crucial job protections and training and certification requirements for firefighters.

The labor contract was passed by professional firefighters with an overwhelming 78 percent of the vote and drew a record 95-percent turnout amongst the union members. The approval of this agreement comes after a six-year stalemate that saw firefighters in our city working without a contract. It is simply not good practice to have city workers, especially front-line emergency responders, unprotected by a labor contract for such a long period of time.

The SPFFA and the city reached an agreement that provides a reasonable 16.25-percent pay increase spread over the eight-year life of the contract retroactive to July 1, 2011.

The population of our city, now the third largest in Connecticut, has grown by 5 percent since the last contract expired in 2011. New staffing provisions provided in the agreement helps provide stability that is absolutely essential for a city that is thriving, more densely populated and with many taller and larger buildings in construction and development. It secures the safety and welfare of our citizens and first responders alike.

The safety and wage agreement increases the number of professional firefighters on duty at any given time from 52 to 54. Those two additional firefighters per shift will be deployed to protect citizens in the Turn of River area of our city. It addresses important safety issues to bring Stamford in compliance with National Fire Protection Association standards, as well as resolving several contested outstanding state labor board cases between the city and the union.

While no agreement is ever perfect, both sides worked diligently to produce an agreement that is fair and will benefit the entire city through the end of its term, in 2018. We commend the mayor and his team for their diligent efforts.

The labor agreement next goes to the Stamford Board of Representatives for its vote on Monday, Aug. 8. It is critical that the board vote to ratify this agreement, just as the professional firefighters of Stamford did overwhelmingly on Thursday.

The labor deal reached was achieved by both sides, negotiating in good faith and with the best of intentions for our city. Unfortunately, behind the scenes, there are now outside forces unrelated to the citys collective bargaining process, acting in their own personal interests to derail the finalization of the labor agreement. Disingenuous bomb throwers, petty back room dealers, poison pen letters and dishonest whisper campaigns must not destroy this public safety labor agreement.

It is essential that we move forward and not allow our citys labor unity and progress to be halted by a handful of individuals trying to derail the process for their own benefit.

The people of this great city deserve a force of professional, well-trained and certified firefighters to protect their lives and property. In turn, those firefighters need the support of the city they serve and the tools necessary to keep everyone safe. With this recently approved labor contract that is exactly what Stamford has. For the sake of every resident, business owner, visitor and worker who spends time in Stamford, I urge the Board of Representatives to expeditiously approve the contract that the professional firefighters and the Martin Administration have agreed upon.

Brendan Keatley is the president of the Stamford Professional Fire Fighters Association, IAFF Local 786.
Current education policy focuses on a failed strategy of school and district turnarounds; characterized by staff shake-ups and pedagogical practices that focus narrowly on raising test scores. This reform has been the Malloy Administrations approach to school improvement since 2012. The evidence demonstrates that turnarounds produce at best temporary small increases in test scores, but at the high cost of destabilizing schools and communities in the long run.

While policymakers stubbornly pursue this dead end, they ignore evidence from science and educational practice pointing to methods that result in long-lasting improvements in both academic and life outcomes, especially for at-risk children.

A recent article in the science magazine, Mosaic, described a longitudinal study of children in Hawaii that examined why some at-risk children develop significant problems while others do not. The researchers found that for the one-third of at-risk children who did not develop problems, positive relationships, whether in the context of a community or one adult, were key. Even those who engaged in risky behavior as teens were able to turn their lives around with the help of a personal connection.

One of the researchers observed that resilience, often described as a trait, is instead an adaptive process; one that is helped by relationships.

Education reformers misread resilience as a trait they like to call grit, and consequently develop misguided policies such as the recent announcement by the federal government that the National Assessment of Educational Progress will create a standardized test to determine whether children have grit.

Understanding resilience the way these scientists have come to understand it would lead to a focus on more successful educational policies. Consistent with what science has discovered, it turns out that school programs and policies that promote the development of relationships are the ones that provide long-term educational and life benefits, especially to disadvantaged children.

It stands to reason that school mechanisms promoting a personal connection improve learning as well as social development. Neuroscientists have found that the brain does not recognize a sharp distinction between cognitive, social and motor functions. Consequently, research has shown that feelings of social isolation impair key cognitive abilities involved in learning.

Though they require substantial initial investments, educational policies that foster relationships save money in the long run.

Developmentally-appropriate preschool, with an emphasis on play, enables children to acquire the skills necessary to form healthy relationships. There is near universal consensus that quality preschool benefits children, increasing the chance of graduation, higher earnings, and decreasing placement in special education, involvement in the criminal justice system and the need for other social services. It also can save society as much as $16 for every dollar spent on preschool, by avoiding the costs of these later interventions.

Small class size, which fosters closer relationships between children and their teachers, has been proven to provide similar benefits, increasing graduation rates and earning potential, and decreasing the likelihood and cost to society of risky behavior. Research also shows that increasing class size has detrimental and costly long-term effects on at-risk children.

Now, new evidence from the Colorado Department of Education shows that increasing guidance counselors in secondary schools saved $20 for every dollar spent. Colorado implemented a grant program enabling 255 high schools across the state to hire more counselors and reduce their student-counselor ratio to a ratio of 216:1; a level below the 250:1 ratio recommended by the American School Counselors Association. As a result, the schools drop-out rates decreased, saving the state over $319 million dollars.

The program benefited low-income students of color the most. This result is consistent with research examining why students leave high school. As detailed in an earlier column, many students at-risk of dropping out or who have already left high school are more likely to remain or return if they can develop a relationship with a caring adult. Increasing the number of counselors increases the likelihood that at-risk high school students develop a relationship with such an adult.

Preschool, small class size and counselors are among the educational resources the plaintiffs in Connecticuts pending school funding case, CCJEF v. Rell, seek for Connecticuts most disadvantaged children. Educational programs and services that foster positive relationships are proven to pay off for society, by preventing more costly social and academic interventions later on; and most importantly for our children, by increasing the chance that they develop into capable and productive adults.

Wendy Lecker is a columnist for the Hearst Connecticut Media Group and is senior attorney at the Education Law Center.
Bollywood celebs including Bipasha Basu, Karan Johar took to social media to wish their friends.

Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor are the best example for friendship in Bollywood.

By India Today Web Desk: As the cliche goes - friends are the family we choose. Even Bollywood inspite of all its cat-fights, back-biting and hypocrisy, has friendships which we can see are genuine. On friendship day, we look at how Bollywood celebs took to social media to express their emotions about friends on this special day.

Here we go:





Blessed with amazing Friends?? Happy friendship day to all?? A video posted by bipashabasusinghgrover (@bipashabasu) on Aug 6, 2016 at 9:30pm PDT

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Friendship...the phenomenon that allows you to love someone unconditionally without the pressures and drama of sexual dynamics.... Karan Johar (@karanjohar) August 7, 2016





Happy Friendship Day people!! Freinds are the family we choose in this lifetime!! pic.twitter.com/2OUySBDRh3 Rana Daggubati (@RanaDaggubati) August 7, 2016

BHIDU DAY EVERY DAY #FriendshipDay Jackie Shroff (@bindasbhidu) August 7, 2016

T 2340 -Happy friendship day .. ever pic.twitter.com/BsOZ5g0n8x

Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) August 6, 2016

It's time to friendzone all the girls who are eagerly wishing and texting #HappyFriendshipDay ?? Ayushmann Khurrana (@ayushmannk) August 7, 2016





Here is wishing everyone #HappyFriendshipDay from my side and from my school's side.:) #FriendsOfAP https://t.co/H6qNmLm1cQ Anupam Kher (@AnupamPkher) August 7, 2016





DostiDiwas ???? ???????? ! Happy friendship day!!!???????????? pic.twitter.com/IzJjPHdHyS Raveena Tandon (@TandonRaveena) August 7, 2016



Happy friendship day guys, have a blast!

--- ENDS ---
A group of five performers has recreated the everyday life of refugees at the Jungle in Calais.

Until August 7, they are presenting their work at the Festival of Love at the Southbank Centre to show audiences that the refugee crisis is still an ongoing international issue.

Pan Intercultural Arts is a theatre group which has been working with refugees for more than 15 years now.

Earlier this year, they were invited by Good Chance - a theatre company working in Calais and now presenting the Encampment project at the Southbanks Festival of Love - to spend some time at the camp, where they ran theatre workshops for refugees and volunteers.

Later on, they decided to put together a performance - Preparing for the Unpredictable: The Artists View of Working in The Jungle - to share their experience and encourage the audiences to reflect on the refugee crisis.

The performance - which takes place in a dome on the Southbank Centres terrace - includes movement, poetry, spoken word, games and theatre.

Running a workshop there was like nowhere else in the world. There were constant disturbances happening, so we invite the audience to provide those disturbances, said John Martin, artist director at Pan.

We ask someone to ride a bicycle around the space while we are performing or throw a ball while we are talking, because that was what happened there.

They also share their memories and show the audience what it was like to work as an artist in extreme humanitarian and physical conditions.

Especially after the Brexit referendum result, the artists felt the need to reach out to wider audiences with the argument that "refugees are human and not aliens".

We need to recognize that there are a huge number of people in this country that still dont really know what the situation is, who these people are and what their stories are, said Mr Martin.

The biggest message we want to pass on is that this is still going on and we cant sit back and relax about the situation said Mita Pujara, one of the artists at Pan.

She said: This is happening less than two and a half hours away from us, so its really important that everyone still remains active and communicates and we create dialogue.

Good Chances Encampment will be at the Southbank Centre July 30 - August 7.
Celebrate the spirit of Friendship Day by revisiting some of the most popular words ever said, about the relationship you share with your friends.

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara brought out different colours of the relationship we share with our friends. Picture courtesy: YouTube/Suryansh Shukla

By Hemul Goel: Love them or hate them but you just can't ignore them. They simply won't let you!

From the love-hate relationship, the late night gossip, the class-bunking, the impromptu trips, the bitching about your exes to the ramblings about the deeper mysteries of life, there's little your closest friends don't know about you. While during a fight that might work against you, when you are in trouble, you exactly know whom to fall back on.

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Celebrate the spirit of Friendship Day by revisiting the most popular words ever said, about the relationship you share with your friends.

Friends are the siblings God never gave us. - Mencius

Walking with a friend in the dark, is better than walking alone in the light. - Helen Keller

A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out. - Walter Winchell

Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity. - Khalil Gibran

My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me. - Henry Ford

True friends stab you in the front. - Oscar Wilde

A friend to all is a friend to none. - Aristotle

The only way to have a friend is to be one. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art...It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival. - C. S. Lewis

Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down. - Oprah Winfrey



While you don't need a special day to celebrate the bond you share your friends, why not use the opportunity to thank them for being around, even though you may have been sh*tty to them?



--- ENDS ---
A 16-year-old boy is fighting for life in hospital after he was shot in east London early this morning.

Police were called to Lea Bridge Road, near Bromley Road in Leyton, by paramedics.

On arrival, just after 3.10am, they found the stricken teenager suffering from a gunshot wound.

He was rushed to an east London hospital where his condition is described as critical.

Detectives from Waltham Forest and the Met's Trident unit are investigating the shooting.

No arrests have been made so far.

The latest attack on a teenager comes just one day after another 16-year-old was stabbed to death in Peckham.

He was the second London youngster to be murdered in a week.
A murder investigation has been launched after a 41-year-old man was stabbed to death in Kingsbury.

Police were called to Doreen Avenue, a quiet residential cul-de-sac in north-west London, at 2:51am on Sunday.

There had been reports of an assault and met police officers arrived to find a man suffering with stab wounds.

Paramedics battled to save his life but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

A 38-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and taken to a north London police station where he remains in custody.

The victims next of kin have been informed, but the body has not yet been formally identified.

Detectives from the Homicide and Major Crime Command are investigating and have asked anyone with information to call the incident room at Hendon on 020 8358 0300 or, to remain anonymous, 0800 555 111.
A teenager from Wembley has appeared in court after a man was stabbed in front of horrified shoppers at Westfield Shopping Centre in White City.

Javarni English, aged 18, from Perrin Road, has been charged with grievous bodily harm, affray and possession of an offensive weapon.

He appeared in custody at a London magistrates court on Saturday.

He was arrested along with a second male on the Friday, 5 August following reports that a 20-year-old man has been stabbed.

Taped off: An area of the shopping centre was cordoned off by police

Police were called to the west London shopping centre on Friday after reports of a man being stabbed at 2pm.

The Air Ambulance was seen flying above the shopping centre.

Shocking: The attack took place in front of horrified shoppers

Police confirmed they were called after reports of a man in his 20s with stab wounds.

The second man arrested has been bailed to return pending further enquiries.
A pair of waste-wary Londoners have launched an app that lets customers order food that is destined for the rubbish bin at a fraction of the menu price.

Eco-entrepreneurs Chris Wilson and Jamie Crummie created the app in a drive to slash the amount of perfectly edible food that is thrown away in the capital.

The new online service dedicated to reducing food waste, Too Good To Go, will be launched in London this month.

They operate under the mantra were all about feeling good whilst we eat" and aim to provide sustainable food packaged in environmentally-friendly boxes.

Sustainable eating: The app is designed to combat the problem of food waste. / TGTG

The pair, both 25, have already launched the app in Brighton, Leeds, Birmingham and Manchester.

Mr Wilson told the Standard they have signed up 95 London restaurants already.

He said: Most of the places tend to be independent or just small chains because it is really hard to crack the big companies.

Bargain meal: The meals start at just 2 / TGTG

It is the bigger chains that have the large amounts of food waste but it is hard to even speak to the right people there.

The premise of the service is that food, which legally has to be disposed of after a certain amount of time, is sent to Too Good To Go customers.

It costs from 2 to 3.80 per meal and a portion of that goes back to the restaurant.

Mr Wilson added: It costs restaurants on average 97p for every meal they throw away so we are saving them that expense and giving them extra.

Eco-warriors: Chris Wilson (pictured) co-founded the company with friend Jamie Crummie. / TGTG

And we provide them with all packaging so they have recyclable and eco-friendly boxes.

The company is primarily funded through university grants and Mr Wilson is keen to emphasise that they are not focussed on making a lot of money from it.

The ultimate goal is to use it for restaurants to solve their waste management problem, rather than it being about making profit," he said.

Saving costs: A percentage of the cost of the food goes back to the restaurants / TGTG

The idea is that restaurants stop producing the extra food so they dont need to throw it away in the first place, so really we want to put ourselves out of business by stopping food-waste.

Charities do really good work with restaurants but they keep it at a low level.

By creating an app and involving the customers we are hopeful that it will have a bit of a bigger impact.
C ampaigners have warned plans to build a new school in Haggerston Park could place all of London's green spaces under threat from developers.

A row has broken out between Hackney park users and the council over plans to site a temporary school at a former parks depot in Audrey Street.

Save Haggerston Park campaigners say the move could set a precedent for development on all London parks and accused lazy chiefs of not searching for a more suitable location for a school.

But the council hit back and said the depot was not designated parkland while the area comprised just 2.33 per cent of Haggerston Park.

A spokesman for Save Haggerston Park said: If Hackney Council is allowed to build this temporary school in this park every other borough in London will start putting them in our parks.

Hackney says it is short of school places - due to its own incompetence - and now has to run to catch up. In fact it is much better served than most other London boroughs.

The council says it needs to build a temporary school in a park but it would be much better to rent a building.

It has simply been too lazy to do a proper search, and just thought it could get away with it.

Hackney council announced in June it was drawing up proposals to build a school at the depot to meet the urgent need for more classroom spaces.

The move is a temporary measure while the City of London Academy submits plans to the Government to build two new secondary schools in Hackney.

Sites earmarked include the Britannia Leisure Centre in Shoreditch and Bethnal Green Primary School near Hackney Downs.

Cllr Anntoinette Bramble, cabinet member for children's services and education, said: This is the latest stage of our exciting and ambitious project to secure the school places we need to ensure we can provide local schools for local children.

Using the former parks depot means we can ensure high quality school places while we build the permanent schools.

If approved, the temporary school would open at the depot next year before pupils moved to the permanent site at the Britannia Leisure Centre in 2020.
P olice have found a body in the search for a teenage boy who was last seen running naked towards a river after taking a legal high.

Devon police retrieved a body from the River Dart at 12pm on Sunday after beginning the search for the 16-year-old on Friday evening.

Nathan Wood, from Paignton, was spotted by a canoeist on Friday at 6pm heading towards the River Dart in Devon.

The teenager was naked and appeared to be "tripping" from a strong drug as he was near the water.

The canoeist contacted police and officers began searching the area along with a team of others - including with police dogs, a police helicopter, the Coastguard, volunteers from Dartmoor Search and Rescue Group and police before discovering the body.

Nathan had been out with a group of friends beforehand and had consumed a new psychoactive substance (NPS) designed to mimic the effects of illegal drugs.

Eyewitnesses reported the boy looked distressed before he got to the river.

Inspector Tracy Sharam, based in Torquay, said: "We would like to thank the community in Totnes for their support while the search has been under way for Nathan over the last few days.

"Our thoughts remain with the family at this difficult and upsetting time."

A force spokeswoman added: "Detectives from Totnes CID will carry out a full investigation into the circumstances of the teenager's death and a file will be prepared for the coroner."

Formal identification of the body has not yet taken place but Nathan's family have been informed.


S hamed Celebrity Big Brother contestant, Christopher Biggins, broke down as he apologised for the Holocaust joke that saw him booted off the show.

In an interview with The Sun, the 67-year-old actor reportedly sobbed as he said he was mortified by what had happened and had begged fellow housemate Katie Waissel for forgiveness.

Mr Biggins made a comment to Jewish contestant Ms Waissel, referring to gas chambers, which led to disciplinary action on the show.

He said: I am mortified by whats happened, really mortified. Most of my friends, in fact, are Jewish. I apologised to Big Brother and Katie.

Booted off: Biggins was removed from the Big Brother house / Channel 5

I love Jewish people. Listen, my best friend is Lesley Joseph. You cant get much more Jewish than that.

The actor said he apologised to Ms Waisell after the incident, during which he had said: You better be careful or theyll be putting you in a shower and taking you to a room.

When asked if he had been referring to gas chambers in Nazi Germany concentration camps, he said: I suppose I was, yes. But it didnt occur to me thats what I was referring to.

At the time, she laughed and then gave a shocked reaction to me. Quite rightly.

Fellow contenstant: Biggins said he had apologised to Katie Waissel for his comments / Channel 5

She didnt say anything. I dont think she walked away immediately. We sat there for a little time and it wasnt evident she was offended.

The panto star, who was eventually removed from the house on Friday, had also made earlier controversial comments about bisexuals and referring to Aids as a "bisexual disease".

But he insisted he was not homophobic or discriminatory in any way, saying: I have a lot of bisexual friends and Im not in any way a bigoted person.

I love everybody. I live in Hackney and I have a lot of black neighbours who are fantastic."
A major search operation was underway this afternoon after two teenage boys and a man went missing in the sea off the Welsh coast.

A 14-year-old and 15-year-old were swimming at Barmouth beach when they got into difficulties at around 1.40pm.

In an unrelated incident, a man was swept off a rock and into the water at Cardigan Bay the same afternoon.

The two teenagers were part of a large group visiting the beach from Birmingham.

Three RNLI lifeboats, three coastguard teams and the rescue helicopter were immediately sent out to try and rescue them but the pair have not been found.

A rescue helicopter searches for two boys and a man who are missing in the sea / Charlotte Ball/PA Wire

Searches along the coastline are continuing but the water-based rescue operation has had to be called off for the night.

A coastguard spokeswoman said: "It was an intensive search of the area. The coastguard teams are carrying out a shoreline search along the coastline. Sadly they have not been found.

"It was reported the boys were aged 14 and 15 and part of a large group of people. It looks like there were two people in difficulty and another person in their same group went in to help.

"That person managed to get out of the water - both the other two were still in difficulty."

A separate search was launched after a man was swept off rocks into the sea at Mwnt on Sunday afternoon.

He got cut off by the tide while walking with another man and fell into the sea, the coastguard said.
A man covered in blood barricaded himself inside a restaurant in Germany this morning.

Local media reported a SWAT team had arrived on the scene in Saarbruecken.

Newspaper Bild reported he walked into the restaurant and ordered everyone to leave.

Panicked staff were seen leaving the outlet this morning.

He was later apprehended by police in the building's cellar.

A police spokesman said the man seemed to be psychologically disturbed and contrary to earlier reports, was unarmed.

He had slight, superficial injuries and is being treated in hospital where he will undergo psychological evaluation, the spokesman said.

The official said the man was an employee of the restaurant "Dubrovnik" in Saarbruecken town centre. He had made no demands and had threatened nobody, the official added.

There were no indications that this was a terrorist-related incident.
O scar Pistorius has been rushed to hospital after suffering injuries in prison.

The Paralympian, currently serving a six-year sentence for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, was taken to a private hospital at around midday yesterday, according to South African prison officials.

Local website City Press reported he had sustained injuries to his wrists in jail.

Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters

A security guard told the site: He had bad cuts on his wrists and the doctors kept wrapping bandages around them.

However, a spokesman for the countrys prisons said he had injured himself falling out of bed and told press that Pistorius denied his injuries were "a suicide attempt".

He has since been returned to jail.

The double-amputee was jailed in July for shooting his 29-year-old model girlfriend through a bathroom door.

He had already served a year in jail for manslaughter before his conviction was changed to murder.
On friendship day, it is worth reminiscing some of the Tamil numbers that has glorified 'friendship' on screen.

By India Today Web Desk: While most of the actors are professional rivals on screen, Tamil cinema never ceased to glorify friendship in films. Be it the conventional depiction of childhood bonding, college buddies and platonic intimacies or the unconventional depiction of bonding between gangsters, it is safe to say that Tamil cinema has fared this complex and yet special theme.



ALSO READ: Baahubali 2: SS Rajamouli's film beats Rajinikanth's Kabali before release



ALSO READ: Thalaivar vs Ulaganayagan- The Rajinikanth-Kamal Haasan rivalry

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On friendship day, it is worth reminiscing Kollywood friendship songs, that might create an ephemeral smile. Here are the ultimate playlist:

1. Andha Naal Nyabagam

Film: Uyarndha Manithan (1968)

Music: MS Viswanathan





2. Nanbane Enathu Uyir Nanbane

Film: Sattam (1983)

Music: Gangai Amaran





3. Kaattu Kuyilu

Film: Thalapathi (1991)

Music: Ilayaraja





4. Mustafa Mustafa

Film: Kadhal Desam (1996)

Music: AR Rahman







5. Thozha Thozha

Film: Pandavar Bhoomi (2001)

Music: Bharathwaj

6. Oh Nanbane Nanbane

Film: Dhill (2001)

Music: Vidhya Sagar







7. Devadhai Vamsam

Film: Snegithiye (2000)

Music: Vidhya Sagar





8. Manase Manase

Film: April Madhathil (2002)

Music: SS Stanley





9. Yaaro (Friendship version)

Film: Chennai 600028 (2007)

Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja





10. Dosth Bada Dosth

Film: Saroja (2008)

Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja





11. Manasellam Unnidam

Film: Kulir 100 (2009)

Music: Anita Udeep





12. En Frienda Pola Yaru Machan

Film: Nanban (2012)

Music: Harris Jayaraj





13. Yele Yele Thosthu da

Film: Endrendrum Punnagai (2015)

Music: Harris Jayaraj





--- ENDS ---
A machete attack on a Belgium police station yesterday was carried out by a "soldier of Isis", the terror group said today.

The extremist organisation released a statement through its news agency Amaq this afternoon.

It came as Prime Minister Charles Michel was meeting with the country's security services following the attack on two policewomen that left one with deep facial wounds.

Belgian authorities have not yet released any information about the assailant, who shouted "Allahu Aakbar" during the stabbing.

The man was shot and killed by police outside the main police station in Charleroi.

Officers secure the area around a police building in Charleroi / VIRGINIE LEFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

Following the attack, Prime Minister Charles Michel broke off his holiday in southern France and returned to Belgium.

He said the Belgian Federal Prosecutor's Office was now investigting an "attempted terrorist murder."

Mr Michel said: "We must keep a cool head.

"We must avoid panic of course, not give in to terror. That's the trap that has been set for us."

Belgium has been on high alert since the March 22 suicide bombings claimed by Islamic State extremists that killed 32 people in Brussels. Many of the perpetrators of the November 13 carnage in Paris that killed 130 people were also residents of Belgium.

"We know we must be constantly, constantly vigilant," Mr Michel said.

Belgian Defence Minister Steven Vandeput said the government's Crisis Centre would meet to determine if additional measures should be taken to protect police buildings and staff.

The identities of the attacked police officers were not being released.
H undreds of thousands of people gathered in Istanbul today for a rally to protest against the botched Turkey military coup.

Protesters carrying Turkeys flag came together by the Marmara Sea waterfront in the city, transforming the area into a sea of red and white.

The protest marked the end of three weeks of nightly demonstrations since the attempted coup on July 15, which left more than 270 people dead and over 1,400 wounded.

The "Democracy and Martyrs' Rally" was billed as a cross-party event representing Turkish unity in the wake of the failed coup, in which a group of military officers attempted to seize power with tanks, helicopters and fighter jets.

Local media said millions of people were expected to attend todays rally.

Turkish people wave flags of their country as they take part in a Democracy and Martyrs' Rally in Istanbul / AP Photo/Emrah Gurel

Religious leaders and two of Turkey's three opposition parties were attending, sitting next to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who arrived on board a helicopter with his wife Emine.

The event kicked off with a minute of silence for those killed while opposing the coup, followed by the Turkish national anthem and a recitation of prayers.

A huge 60-metre stage was set up for the event, framed by two platforms and draped with massive national flags and banners.

Construction cranes suspended giant Turkish flags beside the meeting area, while flag-draped boats and yachts zipped back and forth along the water.

Protesters wear masks depicting Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan / REUTERS/Umit Bektas

Todays protest marked the end of nightly anti-coup rallies held in all of the country's 81 provinces as well as in certain foreign locations such as Cologne, Germany.

Mustafa Yavuz Aycil, a 44-year-old Istanbul resident attending the rally, said: "I had to be here today because as you see all of the crowd is showing its reaction to the coup."

Nearly 15,000 police were providing security at the event. Anti-aircraft batteries were also set up at the event grounds, while two helicopters circled overhead.

Security officers monitor the demonstration / REUTERS/Osman Orsal

Erdogan urged people to bring only the Turkish flag instead of party banners.

"There we will stand together as a single nation, a single flag, a single motherland, a single state, a single spirit," he told Turkish media.

The government has launched a sweeping crackdown in the aftermath, targeting followers of US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who the government blames for the attempted coup.

Nearly 18,000 people have been detained or arrested, mostly from the military, and tens of thousands of people have been suspended or dismissed from jobs in the judiciary, media, education, health care, military and local government.
Greg Walling, the managing director of the Sullivan Group, and one of the main proponents behind the success of Kawartha Downs racetrack over the past two years, has been appointed a special advisor to Agriculture Minister Jeff Leal regarding the horse racing industry in Ontario.

The engagement is for $1 per year, said Walling who operates his company, which oversees corporate turnarounds and financings, in Lindsay, Ont.

Ive learned a lot about the industry over the past few years working with Ian Fleming, Heather MacKay and Skip Ambrose, who all have worked in the industry for many years and also participated in the turnaround and renewal of Kawartha Downs.

Given all of the tremendous change in horse racing these days, Jeff asked if I would continue on and in particular advocate for the smaller racetracks in the province and Im happy to do so.

Horse racing helps the rural economies of the communities where it occurs. Growing up and living in rural Ontario I think its important that the significant role of horse racing in Ontario is not forgotten, added Walling.

(From the Office of Jeff Leal)
By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 7 (PTI) With at least one buy-back announcement from PSUs every month, the government is expected to garner over Rs 16,000 crore in its disinvestment kitty over the next couple of months.

Besides the usual OFS (offer for sale) route for disinvestment, the newly created Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) has nudged PSUs to buy back shares if they have extra cash which are not put to use for capital expenditure.

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The boards of five PSUs -- Coal India, NMDC, Nalco, MOIL and Bharat Electronics -- have cleared buy-back proposals.

Government holdings in these PSUs are in range of 75-81 per cent and the buy back would be conducted on a proportionate basis. Together, these buy backs would fetch over Rs 13,500 crore to the exchequer.

Besides, the government has already raked in Rs 3,183 crore from stake sale in NHPC, employee subscription in IOC and NTPC disinvestment.

"Buy-back announcements have been been made. We estimate over Rs 16,000 crore coming in as and when the buy-back process is completed over the next couple of months," a top official told PTI.

This Rs 16,000 crore is more than half of the Rs 30,000 crore that the government has budgeted from minority stake sale in PSUs in the current fiscal.

In its capital restructuring guidelines, the DIPAM has mandated that every CPSE having net worth of at least Rs 2,000 crore, and cash and bank balance of over Rs 1,000 crore shall exercise the option to buy back their shares.

State-owned companies have cash and free reserves estimated at Rs 2.6 lakh crore and the newly created DIPAM has been entrusted with the task of ensuring its optimal utilisation.

"We have conducted two buy-backs last fiscal and it shows that the transaction has helped the company in improving the market capitalisation of the CPSEs," the official added.

While renaming the Department of Disinvestment as DIPAM in the Budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that the department "will adopt a comprehensive approach for efficient management of the government investment in CPSEs by addressing issues such as capital restructuring, dividend, bonus shares."

Post this, DIPAM has helped exchequer garner Rs 4,500 crore through buy back of shares by cash rich Hindustan Aeronautics and Bharat Dynamics in March. PTI JD BAL MKJ ABM

--- ENDS ---
Heena Sidhu bows out of the Rio Olympics in the 10m Air Pistol after finishing 14th in the qualifications at the Olympic Shooting Centre.

By Indo-Asian News Service: Shooter Heena Sidhu missed out of the race to the women's 10 metres Air Pistol finals event at the 31st Rio Olympic Games after finishing 14th in the qualifications at the Olympic Shooting Centre on Sunday.

Heena could only manage 380 with 13 inner 10s after the completion of the four series. A late surge by the Ludhiana shooter too was not enough as she totalled 95 cumulative points in the fourth series to move to 14th.

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Heena never really looked in the hunt as she started the first series with 94 cumulative points before dropping to 29th with 95 points in the second.

The third series witnessed Heena coming back to the 20th spot with some great shots, only to lose momentum towards the end, which fetched her 96 cumulative points. (RIO 2016 FULL COVERAGE)

Starting the fourth series at the 25th spot, Heena failed to put up a consistent show, shooting 9 and 10 in her first two shots before failing to hit another 10.

Her last three shots fetched a 9, 10 and another 10 taking her toll to 95 cumulative points ending her hopes.

Russian Vitalina Batsarashkina, Ekaterina Korshunova secured the top two positions at the qualification stage with respective scores of 390 with 14 inner 10s and 387 with 14 inner 10s.

Greek shooter Anna Kokarakaki finished third scoring 387 with 12 inner 10s.

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Bengaluru, Aug 4 (PTI) IBM today unveiled a new enterprise mobility platform IBM MobileFirst for iOS Garage in India and plans to open satellite centres in many other countries including Brazil, China and Romania.

IBM MobileFirst is a platform for building mobile apps for the enterprise.

The Garage is dedicated to enable clients to complete digital mobility projects as quickly as possible and will tap into the worlds largest concentration of Swift developers, IBM design and iOS device expertise and consulting services, Mahmoud Naghshineh, GM, Apple partnership,IBM, told reporters.

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"It will serve as a global development hub for iOS apps and work with existing design locations in Atlanta, Chicago, Cupertino and Toronto," he said.

IBM also plans to open satellite centres in Brazil, Romania and many other countries, Naghshineh said, adding the company has already started the work in this regard in China.

"We already have started in China. For sure, we want to be close to our clients in Latin America. In Europe, we already have many clients and want to build garage capability there. You definitely want to see us covering the world map," he said.

IBM also announced Mobile at Scale for iOS, a new offering specifically for clients looking to invest in digital transformation projects that include more than three iOS apps over a multi-year period.

Naghshineh said the partnership with Apple is focused on enterprises and professionals, and at the same time the company delivers solutions for its clients across the board.

"Of course our partnership here is focused on enterprises and on professionals. At the same time, we deliver solutions for our clients across the board. So, when you get into a specific industry, we have a suite of apps that serves the industry," he said.

IBM partnered with Apple in July 2014 to transform enterprise mobility through a new class of made for business apps, bringing IBMs big data and analytics capabilities to Apple devices in the enterprise, Naghshineh said.

Till date, IBM has developed over 100 apps across 15 industries and delivered nearly 2,000 client engagements, he added.

The Garage will extend the design, development and delivery skills gained from IBMs partnership with Apple to serve a broader set of global clients, Naghshineh said. PTI BDN RA ROH BN BAL ABK

--- ENDS ---
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With the worlds two biggest brewers merging, it would be nice to think the government is standing up for the little guy.

The Brewers Association, a trade group for Americas 4,600 craft brewers, says it is, but a leading industry consultant has his doubts.

Anheuser-Busch InBevs acquisition of SABMiller, now set for completion Oct. 10, is a whopper by any measure. The deal is worth more than $100 billion, and it will leave one company supplying around a quarter of the worlds beer.

Little brewers naturally are suspicious of such a giant. In a statement last month, after the U.S. Justice Department gave its blessing to the merger, Brewers Association President Bob Pease called the deal bad for both the beer industry and consumers.

The association also found plenty to like in the Justice Departments ruling. A-B InBev agreed to end a controversial incentive program, is barred from owning more than 10 percent of its distribution network, and will have to seek government approval before buying any other brewer, no matter how small.

Pease said the decision stipulates many of the safeguards the Brewers Association requested to preserve fair competition and access to market for Americas small and independent craft brewers.

Tom Pirko, managing director of California consulting firm Bevmark, isnt so sure big government can protect Big Beers tiny rivals.

Anheuser-Busch won, he says. The conditions attached are easy to erode, and I think A-B will be an even more ferocious competitor in the future.

The craft brewers consider the end of the VAIP program, which stands for Voluntary Anheuser-Busch Incentive for Participation, an important victory. Because the program rewarded distributors when A-B products made up at least 98 percent of their volume, it was seen as a roadblock that kept rival beers from reaching stores and bars.

A-B InBev, however, isnt barred from offering other incentives, from volume discounts to promotional payments. Its not hard to imagine how these could steer distributors away from its tiny competitors.

The government doesnt have the resources to stand in the middle of an industry where there are different deals every day and pronounce which ones are right and which ones are wrong, Pirko says.

The craft brewers only recourse will be to sue to enforce the antitrust agreement, and Big Beer has a lot more money for lawyers. Its going to be an absolute litigation disaster, Pirko says. If youre looking for the government to uphold restrictions on how you compete, that effectively cannot be done.

Still, the craft brewers may have gotten the best deal they could. The Justice Department had no grounds to block the merger, because SABMiller is selling its U.S. business to Molson Coors.

Dan Kopman, co-chairman of St. Louis Brewery, is on the board of the Brewers Association. He says small companies like his, which makes Schlafly beers, are going to have to remain active and vigilant forever to guard against anti-competitive behavior.

He says blocking VAIP established an important principle: You can reward distributors for selling your beers, but you cant reward them for not selling competitors beers.

The civil servants at the Justice Department are now attuned to some problematic practices, Kopman said. I would hope we are moving into an era where they will have their antennae up.

Those civil servants may slow A-B InBev at times, but its executives dont seem overly worried. For the beer industrys new behemoth, dealing with craft brewers concerns probably felt like nothing more than swatting away a few gnats.
Updated at 10:30 a.m. Monday

PARIS  Airbus Group is bracing for a lengthy period of uncertainty over its core commercial jetliner business after Britain said it would examine suspected irregularities in the use of third-party agents to win contracts.

Europes largest aerospace company said late on Sunday it had been notified that the U.K.s Serious Fraud Office, or SFO, had opened a formal criminal probe after being alerted by the countrys export credit agency to discrepancies relating to the disclosure of the work of local agents.

The probe raises a sensitive issue for the industry because the agency, U.K. Export Finance, has for years locked horns with aerospace firms about the need for more transparency, even though it does not object outright to the use of intermediaries.

Airbus Group said the SFO was looking into possible fraud, bribery and corruption and that the company continued to cooperate with the investigating agency, having itself tipped off UKEF about internal findings under a recent compliance drive.

It will take years, a person familiar with the matter said of the SFO investigation, adding it was too early to predict any outcome or consequences.

Airbus Group is already the subject of a four-year-old SFO investigation into a $3.3 billion communications deal with Saudi Arabia, while the SFO is conducting a corruption probe into engine maker Rolls-Royce which it launched in 2013.

The latest case involves discrepancies over the amount of agents fees disclosed in applications for export support, or missing names of third parties, in some cases dating back years, people familiar with the matter have said.

In April, UKEF halted export funding pending a compliance review and was swiftly followed by France and Germany.

Since 2006, companies applying for export support in Britain have had to identify any intermediaries involved in sales negotiations and list the sums paid.

The rules followed a series of policy U-turns and a fierce debate between UKEF and aerospace companies including Airbus, which had lobbied against the tougher disclosure rules on the grounds that such data was commercially sensitive and that their own codes of conduct and due diligence methods were sufficient.

Airbus Group shares fell as much as 1.8 percent on Monday, driven by concern over the investigation.

The longer-term impact may depend upon how widely the probe spreads and the level of managers who signed off on payments that can be worth millions of dollars, as well as the declarations to export agencies, analysts said.

A spokesman declined to comment on any details of the investigation beyond Sundays brief statement.

In a separate process, Airbus is meanwhile trying to restore export funding from UKEF under a revised compliance scheme.

The company said last month it had agreed a process for this and expected export credits to resume in the fourth quarter.

But several people familiar with the case say it has deeply soured relations between Airbus and export agencies, notably UKEF, and that much work remains to be done to restore trust.

Analysts say the operational impact of this funding gap is limited for now as there is little demand for export credit amid plentiful commercial liquidity. Just 5 percent of Airbus deliveries depended on such support last year.

One person familiar with the case told Reuters the onus was on Airbus to prove it had a robust system for preventing abuse.

One move being floated to win back confidence is a blanket voluntary ban within Airbus on the use of percentage commissions to third-party sales agents and more careful vetting of any other form of payment, people familiar with the matter said.

The move is designed to allay concerns that payments in countries where it is common to have local representatives, which include parts of Asia and the Middle East, could be seen as a potential vehicle for bribery.

But it could provide a headache for a company which has openly stated to UK authorities in the past that it relies on a long-established network of representatives to remain competitive, while some will argue that sales commissions are normal across many industries.

It could also test often uneasy relations between Airbus and its parent group, whose boss Tom Enders launched the vigorous  some say abrasive  compliance drive under a new legal head.

Currently, the playing field with Boeing is level as the corresponding system in the United States is also frozen due to political deadlock which has left the U.S. Export Import (EXIM) Bank without a fully functioning board.

But with some U.S. officials predicting EXIM could resume funding for Boeing around the turn of the year, Airbus risks being disadvantaged in some key markets unless it achieves its target of regaining access to European credits by year-end.

Although export credits technically only kick in when planes are delivered, aviation market sources say uncertainty over the future supply of credits can hinder efforts to win new orders.

French brokerage Kepler Cheuvreux said export credits could be useful for finalizing a key order from Iran, which has been held up for regulatory reasons and due to funding uncertainties.

But at this stage, the agents affair is likely to have an impact on Airbuss reputation rather than business, it said.

Anti-corruption group Transparency International said the probe highlighted the need for openness on the use of agents.

Additional reporting by Cyril Altmeyer and Gus Trompiz.
Dear Dr. Fox  My daughter lives on a farm and has a 12-year-old unaltered purebred Jack Russell terrier. The dog has had a third of her teeth removed because of health problems. She has never been formally trained. She is loving toward humans, but very aggressive with other dogs.

My daughter has a 1-year-old grandson, whom she cares for one day a week. She allows the child to crawl on the floor with the dog around. So far, things have been amicable between the child and the dog.

Recently, my daughter was in her yard talking with a worker. The child and dog were on the ground nearby. Unbeknownst to my daughter, the dog had found the carcass of an animal that was also close by. Out of nowhere, the dog attacked the child, biting him in the face. She backed away, and then attacked again. Luckily, the wounds were superficial since the dog does not have all her teeth.

What would cause this behavior? Is there any way to ensure that it will not happen again, or should the two be separated from now on?  P.B., Alexandria, Va.

Dear P.B.  This is a distressing incident. Of the thousands of reported dog bites each year, this is probably the most common reason why people, children in particular, are bitten: The dog feels threatened by the close proximity or sudden approach of an unsupervised infant when the dog is eating, sleeping, has a favorite toy or, as with the dog in question, some other object that the dog covets. This is essentially defensive aggression, and certainly genetics play some role; terriers tend to be hyper-alert and quick to react, rather than easygoing and less possessive.

I would not blame the dog, since it is the nature of this dog to react in this way, and it was fortunate that the facial injuries were minimal. This could have been only partially due to the lack of teeth  the dog may have given inhibited bites and warning snaps at the infant.

All dog owners should provide greater in-home vigilance and careful supervision of infants in particular, who may put themselves at risk in situations where they are unknowingly intimidating the family dog. They are also putting the dogs at risk: Reported dog bites generally require quarantine under rabies control regulations, and all too frequently lead to euthanasia. In many instances, I believe the dogs were surprised or alarmed, felt suddenly threatened and reacted instinctively  an accident of biology or nature. In other instances, the dogs may have experienced prior trauma or suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

I recall several years ago when St. Bernards (due to their popularity and unethical commercial breeders) were uncharacteristically aggressive toward family members, and one small child was seriously bitten. The dog was euthanized, and an autopsy was performed, revealing a pencil that had been stabbed deep into the poor dogs ear canal by the infant.

So it is just as important to protect the dog from impulsive toddlers in the home as it is to never leave an infant unsupervised around most animals.

Dear Dr. Fox  I gather that you do not have much faith in politics, as you have written about the politics of extinction. Where do you find hope as you write about making the world a better place for all creatures great and small?  S.C., Bar Harbor, Maine

Dear S.C.: Because of the nature of politics, can politicians ever fully be trusted? Perhaps a few are a little trustworthier than others. There really is little hope when both corporations and individual citizens choose ignorance, denial and indifference over responsibility and accountability to the ethical code of respect for the environment and all life. I embrace spiritual anarchy, not the anarchism of violence. It is a spirituality that calls on us to find the best ways to cause the least possible harm, if any, in satisfying our basic needs while embracing the golden rule of treating all living beings as we would have them treat us. For more discussion on this topic, see my book The Boundless Circle: Caring for Creatures and Creation.

Visit Dr. Foxs website at DrFoxVet.net. Send mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut Street, Kansas City, Mo. 64106.
For almost three years now, Cindy Schuenke has had a court order demanding that she be reinstated as a firefighter with the Community Fire Protection District in north St. Louis County. The order makes it clear the district is to give the Pacific woman, 52, back pay to Aug. 9, 2009, when the fire districts board illegally fired her.

For more than a year now, shes had an order from the Court of Appeals in Missouris Eastern District affirming that court order.

The court orders stem from a fire call on March 29, 2006, that changed Schuenkes life forever. On that day, Schuenke did what firefighters do. She was on her hands and knees on the floor of a home on fire in Vinita Terrace, searching for the 76-year-old inhabitant of the home, Geneva Rooks.

The floor collapsed, sending Schuenke to the basement, where she was trapped under debris. She was badly burned, and shocked by a loose electrical wire. Eventually, she broke free and escaped. Rooks died in the fire.

As St. Louis tends to do when its first responders get hurt while protecting the rest of us, the community rallied. It held fundraisers and helped support Schuenke as she began an ordeal that has led to nearly 100 surgeries.

To this day, Schuenke runs into well-wishers who recognize her and have read about her difficulties.

People come up to me and tell me theyre glad I won my case, Schuenke told me recently in an interview at her attorneys office.

Heres what those folks need to know.

Schuenke still hasnt been reinstated as a firefighter.

She hasnt been paid the more than $700,000 in back pay due her, according to her attorneys estimate.

The community backed her, but the Community Fire Protection District fought her every step of the way, and still is.

Cindy knew she would be fighting her debilitating injuries for the rest of her life, said her attorney, Lynette Petruska. She didnt know she would be fighting her department. The people who promised to take care of her are the ones who didnt.

These days, Schuenke gets by on workers compensation and Social Security disability payments while she waits for the fire district to follow through on the promises of her contract. To say shes frustrated that her former employer continues to fight paying her even after two court orders understates her harsh reality.

I struggle to pay my bills because they dont want to pay me what they owe me, Schuenke said. In the past couple of years, shes had her electricity and water turned off at various times for nonpayment. Her house needs work. My roofs leaking, she says. My siding is falling off.

How is this still happening?

The problem lies in the final step required to get Schuenke paid.

The courts ordered the fire protection district to hold a hearing to determine what she is owed. Its not a simple calculation of adding up her past salaries, because some of the money shes earned through workers compensation and disability payments has to be subtracted. But the fire district chose a hearing officer  who is supposed to sit in a quasi-judicial capacity  who has a connection to its attorney, Neil Bruntrager. The hearing officer chosen by the fire district was Howard Paperner, a lawyer who works as the prosecuting attorney and city attorney for the city of Winchester. The judge in Winchester is Dan Bruntrager, Neils brother and law partner.

Petruska says the situation raises questions of bias and prejudice against her client, and that has played out in how the hearing officer has handled basic motions. A year ago, she filed a motion seeking the documents from the fire district shell need to prove how much Schuenke is owed. The officer has yet to rule on that or several other motions from Petruska, including two of three she filed to disqualify him.

Meanwhile, hes ruled quickly on several motions filed by fire district attorneys, including one to quash depositions of Bruntrager and other district officials sought by Petruska on behalf of her client.

I need documents to prepare for hearing, and I cant get them, Petruska says. Thats what happens when your friend gets appointed as a hearing officer.

Bruntrager denies there is even an appearance of a conflict. He suggests Petruska misunderstands the role of the hearing officer and blames her for delays. Further, he disputes that the district owes Schuenke any money because of the pay shes received from other sources.

If we owe her money, we will happily pay, Bruntrager said. But I dont think we will.

After failing to respond to Petruska for more than a year, Paperner recused himself recently for health reasons. Now the attorney for Schuenke has hope the process will become more professional. Former St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Jack Garvey has been appointed as the new officer.

All Cindy wants is a fair hearing, Petruska says. Theyve spent more than $140,000 trying not to pay her.
The effort to plant the seeds of white nationalism in the political mainstream, where they might blossom into pro-white political coalitions that appeal to a broader swath of Caucasian voters, will not be easy, according to the chairman of the American Nazi Party.

But Rocky Suhayda thinks there is one political figure who presents a "real opportunity" to lessen the load.

Who is it? Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president.

"Now, if Trump does win, OK, it's going to be a real opportunity for people like white nationalists, acting intelligently to build upon that, and to go and start  you know how you have the black political caucus and what not in Congress and everything  to start building on something like that," Suhayda declared on his radio program last month.

"It doesn't have to be anti-, like the movement's been for decades, so much as it has to be pro-white," he added. "You know what I'm saying? It's kinda hard to go and call us bigots if we don't go around and act like a bigot. That's what the movement should contemplate. All right."

Audio from the radio program was posted Saturday by BuzzFeed's Andrew Kaczynski, who noted that Suhayda has in the past avoided making statements about Trump out of concern that he might harm the businessman's candidacy. Yet, Kaczynski reported, in an American Nazi Party report from September, the chairman argued that Trump's rhetoric revealed the secret popularity of the party's messages.

"We have a wonderful OPPORTUNITY here folks, that may never come again, at the RIGHT time," Suhayda wrote, according to BuzzFeed. "Donald Trump's campaign statements, if nothing else, have SHOWN that 'our views' are NOT so 'unpopular' as the Political Correctness crowd have told everyone they are!"

Suhayda is far from the first avowed white supremacist to publicize his support and enthusiasm for Trump.

Earlier this year, Rachel Pendergraft  the national organizer for the Knights Party, a standard-bearer for the Ku Klux Klan  told The Washington Post that the KKK had begun using Trump's candidacy as a new conversation starter to recruit followers.

She said this has been discussed on a private, members-only website and in "e-news, stuff that goes out to members."

In addition to opening "a door to conversation," she said, Trump's candidacy had electrified some members of the movement.

"They like the overall momentum of his rallies and his campaign," Pendergraft said. "They like that he's not willing to back down. He says what he believes, and he stands on that."

On his radio show in February, David Duke  a former Ku Klux Klan leader and a current U.S. Senate candidate from Louisiana - encouraged listeners to cast their ballots for Trump, saying that "voting against Donald Trump at this point is really treason to your heritage."

Duke recently told NPR that he is "100 percent behind" Trump's political agenda.

"As a United States senator, nobody will be more supportive of his legislative agenda, his Supreme Court agenda, than I will," Duke said.

"Donald Trump is not a racist," he added. "And the truth is  in this country, if you simply defend the heritage of European American people, then you're automatically a racist."

Duke told NPR that polls among Trump supporters in Louisiana showed that "75 to 80 percent" would back his Senate run.

"You think Trump voters are your voters?" asked Steve Inskeep, the host of NPR's "Morning Edition."

"Well, of course they are!" Duke replied. "Because I represent the ideas of preserving this country and the heritage of this country, and I think Trump represents that as well."

Jared Taylor, editor of American Renaissance, a white-nationalist magazine and website based in Northern Virginia, told the New Yorker magazine that Trump may be in denial about the makeup of his base.

"I'm sure he would repudiate any association with people like me," Taylor told the magazine, "but his support comes from people who are more like me than he might like to admit."

In January, Taylor's voice could be heard in a robo-call that encouraged Iowa voters to throw their support behind Trump.

"I urge you to vote for Donald Trump because he is the one candidate who points out that we should accept immigrants who are good for America," Taylor says on the recording, which was paid for by the American National super PAC. "We don't need Muslims. We need smart, well-educated white people who will assimilate to our culture. Vote Trump."

Taylor told The Post in February that he finds Trump's rhetoric on immigration appealing, even though he does not particularly care for the candidate's brash style.

"I think what he's done is a very important thing," Taylor told The Post. "He's the first candidate in decades to say almost explicitly that immigration should be in the interest of Americans and not just immigrants."

He added, "He's attractive to many Americans who see their country slipping through their fingers. You don't want to end your days living in an outpost of Haiti or Guatemala, do you?"

During his radio program last month, Suhayda said he was confident that Trump would emerge victorious in November's election.

Trump, he noted, has tapped into the frustrations among a large segment of white voters who have been forgotten.

"I think it's gonna surprise the enemy, because I think that they feel that the white working class  especially the male portion of the working class and with him his female counterparts - have basically thrown in the towel," Suhayda said. "Given up hope of any politician again standing up for their interests."
This year, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal angered fellow Republicans when he vetoed a bill that would have made it legal for students to carry concealed handguns on college campuses.

Although hes been endorsed by the NRA with an A rating, Deal said in his official veto statement that colleges have been treated as sanctuaries of learning where firearms have not been allowed and he saw no justification to change that.

In vetoing the legislation, Deal made Georgia the latest in a string of states  including gun-friendly ones  to reject measures allowing guns on college campuses. Last year, 15 states took up the issue, including Florida, Montana and Wyoming.

Texas was the only state to pass legislation, joining Colorado, Utah, Idaho and five other states in allowing guns on campus. The law was implemented Monday, on the 50th anniversary of Charles Whitmans rampage at the University of Texas.

While the loudest debates over firearms in recent years have been about banning semiautomatic rifles, the campus carry movement has played out in the background, at times even more contentious.

Its seen as this Ivory Tower place treated separately. To some people, thats exactly what they want, said Matt Nobles, a University of Central Florida criminal justice professor who has co-authored several papers on campus carry. A free cultural exchange to those people involves no guns.

Many gun rights supporters see those facts somewhat differently, Nobles said: To them, that means people will be vulnerable and need to defend themselves.

And to the gun industry, thats intolerable.

The common error made by anti-gun groups, according to Guns & Ammo magazine, in a list of eight reasons to support campus carry, is the failure to logically delineate the differences in the motivations of individuals who would use lethal force to be predators and those who are willing to use lethal force to stop the predation.

Here is a closer look at various elements of the debate:

The good guys with guns argument  Campus carry advocates argue that the best way to stop mass shootings at schools and elsewhere is for armed law-abiding citizens to open fire on attackers. But how often are so-called good guys with guns successful? An FBI study of active-shooter incidents from 2000 to 2013 found that in 160 incidents, just one ended with an armed citizen exchanging gunfire with an attacker. Twenty-one incidents were stopped by unarmed citizens.

Crime on campus  Pro-campus carry groups also argue that students need guns for self-defense against other crimes. Neither police (unless they happen to be within screaming range) nor cameras nor text alerts can protect you from an armed thug bent on taking your possessions or your dignity by force, Students for Campus Carry says on its website. But how much crime is there on campuses? The latest federal study of the issue, released in May, showed that overall crime at universities was down 8 percent in 2013 compared with the previous year. The majority of crimes are burglaries. But certain crimes have been increasing in recent years: forcible sex assaults and murders, which would include mass shootings. Murders totaled 23 in 2013, compared with 12 the year before. (There are more than 20 million college students in the United States.)

Student and faculty opinion  Most students and campus faculty oppose campus carry. Here are the results of a survey of students and staff at Texas Tech University, one of the schools where campus carry became legal on Monday:

The fear and the reality  Those who oppose campus carry say they fear armed students will pull their guns out during class or in meetings with professors and open fire. A group of UT professors has filed a lawsuit against the university saying they will be forced to censor themselves on controversial topics like politics and religion. Suicide is another concern. But in a report issued last year, UT officials said they had contacted universities where campus carry is already legal, finding little evidence of campus violence that can be directly linked to campus carry, and none that involves an intentional shooting. Was there a link between campus carry and increased sexual assaults? No. Was there a link to increased suicide rates? Also, no.

The issue of accidents  The UT report identified four incidents of accidental discharge: Two involved a license holder who was openly displaying a handgun to another person; the other two involved license holders who were carrying their handguns unholstered in their pants pocket. In one case, a bullet grazed another students chest. But most of the victims were the gun owners. One shot himself in the foot, the report said, and in Utah, a student at Weber State University accidentally shot himself in the leg while walking across campus with an unholstered handgun in his pocket.
Pakistani officials asked the Indian journalists to leave the place, saying they were not allowed to stand even outside the gate.

By Press Trust of India: Indian journalists, who went to cover the SAARC Home Ministers' conference in Islamabad, had to face hostile Pakistani officials, who not only denied them access to the inaugural function but also barred them from standing at the entrance of the venue where their Interior Minister was to receive dignitaries, leading to tense moments.

REFUSED ENTRY

The six Indian journalists, who were given visa to travel to Islamabad to cover the event, were flatly refused entry to the inaugural function, which was attended by Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

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The Indian journalists then stood near the entrance of the where Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan was receiving the visiting dignitaries from SAARC countries.

As Pakistani media took position to capture the moment of Home Minister Rajnath Singh's arrival, Indian journalists too joined them. Immediately,

DIPLOMAT INTERVENTION

When Pakistani officials asked Doordarshan cameraperson R Jayashree Puri and ANI's Ajay Kumar Sharma to remove their cameras, a senior Indian diplomat tried to intervene and protested.

The diplomat hotly argued that Indian journalists be allowed to be near the gate to capture Singh's arrival as Pakistani journalists, video and still camera persons were present and freely taking shots.

The Pakistani officials made it clear that the Indian journalists have to leave the place immediately, leading to a verbal duel between the diplomat and a Pakistani official.

The Pakistani official even directed some of his juniors to block the view of Indian journalists and soon the reporters and camerapersons were surrounded by several persons, apparently policemen in civvies, making it impossible for them to shoot anything.

This resulted the Indian journalists failing to capture the moment when Singh touched the hands of his Pakistani counterpart, a gesture short of a formal handshake, reflecting the growing chill in the ties between the two countries.

FALSE INFORMATION

As per SAARC protocol, the inaugural statement by the host country is open to the media while the rest of the proceedings are in camera.

The Pakistani establishment was also circulating information in the local media that Indian Home Minister had visited washroom eight times to make calls to New Delhi when the conference was going on.

The fact is that the washroom was outside the conference hall and the Home Minister used it twice -- once before the formal ministers' meet started after he and his SAARC counterparts had made a courtesy call to Pakistan Prime Sharif and again when the meeting got over.

Besides, Home Minister Singh does not carry a cell phone even while he is in India and, whenever necessary, uses those of his aides.

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ALSO READ:

Pakistan says Rajnath left SAARC Summit in a huff, but India differs





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BEIRUT (Reuters) - Islamic State suicide bombers on Sunday attacked a military base for U.S.-backed fighters near the Syrian-Iraqi border, leaving several dead before blowing themselves up, rebel sources and the militants said on Sunday.

They said the dawn attack on the heavily defended military camp near the Syrian al Tanf border crossing with Iraq involved at least one explosive-laden vehicle that rammed the gate of the base which was set up by the fledgling, Pentagon-trained New Syria Army.

Another rebel said the militants were not able to storm the heavily fortified camp where large sand barriers have been erected to prevent such incursions and attacks in an area where the militants operate with hit and run attacks.

"It's a well defended camp and they tried to storm it but the suicide vehicle was targeted and hit," said Said Seif al Qalamoni, a rebel familiar with operating in the same area. He added that there were at least one dead and several wounded.

Qalamoni said jets from the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State shortly after struck at several vehicles believed to be driven by the militants in the sparsely populated desert area.

Amaq, a news agency affiliated to Islamic State, said two suicide bombers had attacked the camp and detonated an explosive-laden car before storming the compound and detonating their suicide vests.

The New Syria Army was formed around 18 months ago using insurgents driven from eastern Syria at the height of Islamic State's rapid expansion in 2014.

Diplomats and rebel sources say U.S. special forces are training hundreds of fighters from the group in camps in Jordan.

The Tanf crossing, which was captured from Islamic State militants last year, is a 240 km (150 miles) drive from Syria's ancient city of Palmyra, also known as Tadmur.

Scores of Islamic State militants moved south into southern Syria and the Tanf area after they were driven out of Palmyra in central Syria this year.

The militants, who control a swathe of territory spreading from Iraq into central Syria, still control the al-Bukamal Syria-Iraq border crossing near Deir al Zour.

The New Syria Army, with the backing of Western special forces and U.S.-led air strikes, launched an attack last June from the Tanf base on al-Bukamal northeast of Tanf.

But the operation, which aimed to capture the town and cut supply lines for the group between Syria and Iraq, failed after rebels were encircled on the approaches of the town after the jihadists mounted a counter-attack.[L8N19L0D3]

The New Syria Army's base in Tanf has been hit twice previously by Russian air strikes, even after the U.S. military used emergency channels to ask Moscow to stop after the first strike, U.S. officials say.

(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Stephen Powell)
By PTI: From Youssra El-Sharkawy

Cairo, August 5 (PTI) With its distinctive style of dance and colorful costumes, the Kathakali dance troupe wooed the audience during its performances in different cities of Egypt.

The visit of the nine-member Kathakali dance troupe was a part the 14th Summer Festival organized by Bibliotheca Alexandrina on August 1 and also to perform in other cities including Port Said, Ismailia and Cairo.

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"Egypt has a great culture and there are many similarities between the two countries," the leader of the troupe, Rajumohan Padinharey Kizhikkilode, told PTI in an interview.

Kizhikkilode, who is recognized as one of the most successful Kathakali artists, said this is the first time for the troupe to perform in Egypt.

"Kathakali dance came from Hindu mythology and its movements are like yoga movements but it also involves musicians, instruments and makeup to create a wonderful colorful performance."

Kizhikkilode, as well as his troupe members, said there were no barriers for people to understand their show and that audience usually enjoys their colorful costumes and makeup, in which they use natural stones to make it.

The members of the troupe also expressed their happiness as they were well received by Egyptian audience.

"After we performed in Alexandria we found that the audience were awesome," said Kunhi Raman Abhishek, an actor in the troupe.

"We are all so happy that we are here and we are very exited to see the pyramids," he added. (MORE) PTI YES PSH PSH

--- ENDS ---
Kerthy Suresh, who's playing the leading lady in Ilayathalapathy Vijay's yet-untitled film, has now been roped in to star opposite actor Suriya in a Tamil film.

By India Today Web Desk: Actor Keerthy Suresh, who shot to fame after a successful outing in Sivakarthikeyan's Rajini Murugan, has been getting huge offers from across industries. With just a film old, Keerthy Suresh has almost worked with top stars in Kollywood. After playing the female lead in Dhanush's train journey film Thodari, Keerthy is presently working with Ilayathalapathy Vijay in his 60th film, which is directed by Bharathan.



ALSO READ: Vijay 60- Ilayathalapathy Vijay to croon a peppy number in the upcoming film



ALSO READ: Confirmed- Ilayathalapathy Vijay turns down India's costliest film

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While the shooting of Vijay 60 going at a rapid pace, the latest buzz is that Keerthy has been finalized as the leading lady opposite Suriya in his upcoming film with director Muthiah.

Interestingly, Keethy was the first choice for AR Murugadoss's upcoming film with Telugu superstar Mahesh Babu. However, the role was later offered to Rakul Preet Singh after Bollywood actor Parineeti Chopra turned down the film.

Meanwhile, actor Suriya, who is shooting for Singam 3, was supposed to team with Kabali director Pa Ranjith. But it seems like that the project is pushed for next year.

Suriya's film with Muttaih is said to be an action drama based on father-son relationship, set in the rural backdrop of Tamil Nadu. Actor Rajkiran, who previously featured in the director's Komban, has been approached to play Suriya's father in the film.





--- ENDS ---
Govt. to discuss EOIs for SriLankan with partners by Jan 2017 View(s):

The Government will be discussing with potential partners for SriLankan Airlines interested in its restructure by next January after sorting out the Expressions of Interest (EOI). We extended the EOIs closing date till end of this month. By about end of September to October well be collecting the EOIs. Once we go through them, we aim to have serious discussions with the potential partners by January next year, Eran Wickramaratne, Deputy Minister Public Enterprise Development told the Business Times. The ministry ran adverts in national newspapers last month calling for EOI in the national carrier. Meantime Public Enterprise Development Minister Kabir Hashim said they anticipate more offers apart from the eight they already got.

The response is encouraging. He was quoted in the media recently as saying that Japans ANA is interested in the national carrier. Sources said that a Chinese and a Middle Eastern carrier have also expressed interest, but both ministers couldnt confirm this. Mr. Wickramaratne said that on Thursday the IMF had a progress meeting on the status of the airline along with NSB, which is coordinating the financial advisory to restructure it and financial and transaction advisors  BNP Paribas and KPMG. The IMF, as is the practice, had an airline specialist for this meeting. He added that the airlines ground handling unit will be valued separately. Going forward, well be separating this unit, he added. -(DEC)
GSP+ possibly in Q1 2017 View(s):

The government is confident of regaining trade concessions from the European Union (EU) in the first quarter of next year. Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Dr. Harsha De Silva said on Tuesday at the Sri Lanka Economic Summits International Trade Development and Logistics forum that the government was given this assurance during meetings with top EU officials recently. It was stated that following a submission of the application to the EU Parliament by the end of this year the trade concessions could be revived during the first quarter of 2017. In this context, he believed that Sri Lanka had repaired its relationship with Europe adding that in connecting with global trade the country needs to be more open and create space for entrepot trade and plug into global trade.

Sri Lanka submitted its application to the EU to regain its lost trade concessions under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) + mid this year. A visiting EU delegation in January this year highlighted that it would take a period of at least 10 months to regain GSP +. These trade concessions have been linked to the countrys compliance with human rights and labour rights conventions. European Commission Deputy Head of GSP Plus Section and DG Trade Nikos Zaimis in January this year stated it could take up to a maximum of 10 months to process the entire application and get a nod of approval. -(SD)
Independent port regulator for Sri Lanka ports By Sunimalee Dias View(s): View(s):

The government is looking at the possibility of establishing an independent port regulator. Sri Lanka Ports Authority Managing Director Sarath Premachandra said on Tuesday that there were plans to create an independent regulatory body to maintain quality competitiveness at the Colombo port among the three operators. He made this announcement during the International Trade and Logistics  Leveraging on Location session of the Sri Lanka Economic Summit in Colombo. He pointed out that it was crucial to establish a port regulator to create a level playing field and eliminate cut-throat competition between the three terminal operators at the Port of Colombo namely the Jaya Container Terminal, the South Asia Gateway Terminal and the Colombo International Container Terminal.

In fact, Mr. Premachandra highlighted that a regulator was required to overcome unhealthy competition currently experienced at the CICT terminal which caters to some very small ships and even the ultra large vessels (ULVs) with 14,000 TEUs. CICT is a deep draft terminal of 18 metres that can attract some of the large and ultra large vessels. In this respect, he explained that the total capacity of the Port of Colombo could be achieved by appointing an independent regulator. Commenting on plans to develop the port, he noted that they would be improving the passenger business by refurbishing the existing facilities.

In addition a further area would be allocated for value added services under a 5-year plan to support the transshipment business. Further the port related logistics would be carried out at Ja-Ela according to future government plans, it was stated. Following the launch of the East Container Terminal which has been currently opened up for Expressions of Interest (EOI) it was noted that the government has plans to establish a West Container Terminal as well. Bids for the ECT close on August 31 and with delays is set to become operational in 2018, the MD said. Mr. Premachandra also explained that they would be looking at developing the Hambantota port as an industrial port for shipbuilding, ship repairs and bunkering facilities.
Shaping Sri Lankas future View(s):

That Sri Lanka lacks proper policies to move forward is a common grouse while the creation of too many committees working independently and in different directions has given rise to the popular saying too many cooks spoil the soup. What has panned out is that these committees are working on different areas and not converging into a common goal, strategy or objective  as far as the public is aware and is informed. There are research units and costly advisors in many ministries including that of the President, Prime Minister and Finance Minister. Whether these units are working together or at cross purposes, only God knows as public information is limited on these initiatives and released only when a minister or an official speaks at an event.

For example who has been appointed to head the Agency for Development (AFD) and Agency for International Trade (AFIT), supposedly powerful institutions, is still not clear. Regulations to set up these agencies are still on the drawing board and must be passed as a law by Parliament before they become legally valid and that seems to be taking time. However as per media reports (which are not legally valid as such pronouncements must by an official announcement via gazette notification or a Bill), the head (chairman) of the (AFD) was Dr. Indrajith Coomaraswamy (who since then has moved to the Central Bank) and Mangala Yapa as its Managing Director while the chairman of the AFID is Dr. Saman Kelegama.

The Business Times has referred to these appointments as chairman-designate or Managing Director-designate in the absence of an official announcement and the required Bill being formulated for such institutions to be made legal and their appointments, binding. The point is that though this many seem as niggling issues in the Governments book, to the society at large it is important and calls for more transparency just like those Your tax rupees at work boards on city sidewalks or roads where there is some kind of construction or repair. The role of these various committees and their decisions needs to be clearly explained and properly (through the route stated earlier) disbursed to the public, which is yet to happen.

Instead it is left to an occasional announcement like the one at this weeks Economic Summit  where it was stated that a proposal in the discussions on the Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) with India to permit independent professionals from India to work here has been abandoned -, that alerts the public. The Summit is a strictly pay-for-entry event which the public-at-large has no access. Should important announcements like this be made at virtually closed-doors meetings on issues that have larger political and social ramifications? This is not faulting the messenger (the official who made this statement); rather its an indictment on the states communication strategies where decisions seem to be confined to a few interest groups before the public is made aware.

In this context the 2015-2016 budgets have gone haywire and the public is at a loss to understand why. Dr. Razeen Sally, an international economist who chairs the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), calls them two bad budgets and referred to policies that reflect the price control formula as idiotic. Getting the act together has been one of the problems of governance in recent times. The 2016 budget is in tatters with half the approved proposals yet to be implemented as the required bills  though before Parliament  are yet to be passed with just three months before the 2017 budget is due to be presented. Last week at a meeting of coconut producers, Plantations Minister Navin Dissanayake expressed surprise by a 2016 budget proposal to import coconuts and had intervened to get it removed.

Coconut production has been at record levels  enough and more for local consumption and export. How such a proposal appeared in the budget without Dissanayakes ministry being asked for its views in advance is baffling. On the other hand it reveals a system where the basics have been either forgotten or simple ignored. Other revenue proposals ran into an unexpected problem when the Value Added Tax (VAT)s implementation sans the approval of Parliament (through the required bill) was challenged in court. The ruling thereafter  suspension of VAT until the case is over and/or approval of Parliament  put a spoke in the wheel of the states revenue targets. Thus blindly following an old practice of enforcing taxes and legalising it thereafter caught the government with its trousers down when the new culture of transparency and following the law to the very letter (absent during the former regime) is sacrosanct.

The government in the meantime is looking at different economic and business models (Singapore, Malaysia and Dubai among others) to spur growth and transform Sri Lanka as the financial and logistics hub between Singapore and Dubai. While these may be great models to look at, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Singapore did it differently, Lee Kuan Yew-style while Malaysia had its own game plan  as explained at the Economic Summit by a Malaysian official. The Malaysia model is similar to an approach suggested by the Business Times on many an (editorial) occasion. What we proposed was the creation of a 2030 or 2050 vision of development prepared by a group of experts.

How Sri Lanka reaches that vision (what kind of economy, will IT be the future, the human resource capital required, will tea be the mainstay, will Sri Lankans stop going to the Middle East as there would be more job creation here, education structure, will health services be free or charged as people become affluent, etc) would be the basis of a development path. For instance once such a vision is prepared, the steps (and policies) to reach that objective has to be clearly laid out. Thus rather than prepare separate visions for education, human capital, social welfare, etc, the need of the hour is a single goal of what Sri Lanka should be in 2030 or 2020 and then prepare the human capital or education needed to fulfil that objective.

Preparing sectoral visions without a clear development objective is akin to putting the cart before the horse. The Malaysian model was also interesting as it entailed a group of experts sitting together and coming up with a plan in eight weeks. A Sri Lankan plan was similarly suggested.

It may be a good idea for politicians and policy makers to sit down with the media (which largely reflects public opinion) and discuss a vision for the future. They would be surprised by the breadth of positive knowledge and vibes they have chosen to ignore.
Sri Lankas once-tailor shop garment sector now makes its own brands By Sunimalee Dias Emerald shirts go global View(s): View(s):

Sri Lankan brands are quietly entering the global platform to compete with internationally renowned apparel wear with the latest being plans by Emerald to enter the African continent next year. A company that has completed 60 years in specializing in mens wear, Emerald will be entering Kenya and South Africa mid next year, Group Managing Director A.F.M. Ikram told the Business Times on Thursday on the sidelines of a media briefing held to announce its promotional plans to mark its anniversary celebrations this year. Two other local brands that have already entered the international market are Hameedias Envoy and LeBond that are competing against Next and other popular European brands when it ventured into the UK in 2005 and prior to that into India.

Hameedia also markets to Australia and South Africa as well. Amante, a brand of MAS Holdings, is being marketed in India since 2007 and when it entered the market it was set against international labels like Triumph, Etam and La Senza. Emerald is entering a market where leading European brands are selling a shirt for US$100 alongside the mass Chinese products that have also ventured into this region. The company is now looking at increasing its current production of 150,000 units per month by 25 per cent from its existing three factories once it enters this new market under the Emerald label for the first time. Emerald is already stitching mens clothes for labels like Austin Reed in the UK, Louis Philippe in India and Marcs in Australia.

But today the company is venturing out to go global under its own label to capture a market based on the fact that it is a new brand with high quality products. Mr. Ikram is convinced that they could sell in the African continent since it too was a former British colony whose workforce continues to be dressed in suits as a result of which the market is easier to penetrate. Emerald would be signing up with dealers in Kenya and South African in this regard to market their product with a sufficient marketing campaign set to be launched when it ventures into this continent. During the 1990s the company ventured into the UK to market its label but failed to succeed.

However today Mr. Ikram believes they are ready to penetrate a new market after having first consolidated the Sri Lankan base. With few companies in the clothing industry in Africa it is likely to bring in more opportunities as it is an expanding economy on the lookout for formal and casual mens wear. Speaking on the formal and casual wear in itself, Mr. Ikram noted that they have observed based on todays lifestyles that the difference between these two clothing lines is thinning. The company is planning on producing denims under its own brand and improving on providing more casual wear as there is a shift in demand towards this trend as opposed to formal suits with consumers wanting a larger range in apparels, it was stated.

The company has a local dealer network of about 500 and would be looking at working in this same format in Africa since the cost of opening its own shops would be high, Mr. Ikram said. Meanwhile company CEO Hansri Bahaudeen, asked at the media briefing whether the company would list on the Colombo stock exchange (which helps firms to raise funds apart from other benefits), said that as of now Emerald believes it could manage its future expansion plans (without public funding).
Colombo Port (Financial) City; Govt. swings into action View(s):

All set to sign Tripartite Agreement on August 16 for ambitious new port city

PM explains major changes and practical economic benefits to Sri Lanka; Attorney General disputes claim for compensation

SLFP ministers who silently agreed to the project under Rajapaksa regime now voice concerns; Ranil angry but President cools situation

By Our Political Editor

Last Monday, the Cabinet of Ministers formally approved the ambitious Colombo Port City Project, perceived as Sri Lankas model of the future for business, leisure and offshore banking.

This venture with the Peoples Republic of China was initiated by the previous Mahinda Rajapaksa administration. It became the object of bitter criticism by the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP)  pro Sirisena faction  both during the presidential and parliamentary elections last year. Speakers on almost every platform charged that it raised environmental issues and compromised Sri Lankas sovereignty. Some even alleged that there was corruption over this unsolicited proposal.

Since coming to office, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera raised eye-brows in diplomatic circles by saying, in Beijing itself, that the new Government had to review this project because of unsavoury issues connected to it. However, the tide turned. One of the causes was the complaint, not without substance, that western powers which sought a regime change in Sri Lanka, did only just that. They left the new Government high and dry, financially speaking. There was no substantial help to resuscitate an economy that was battered by war, widespread corruption and mass scale mismanagement. Some western diplomats explained privately that it was not their responsibility to keep pouring dollars, sterling pounds or euros to keep the Government machinery moving and the people content. They had their own problems to deal with. It was for the new Government to make its plans and seek help where required. Manna did not fall from heaven for those who ousted the Rajapaksa regime.

Paradoxically, the United National Front (UNF) Government which sought to lean on the West, and restrict Chinas expanding role in the economy, did just the opposite. It opened the doors much wider to Beijing than former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. China was quick to respond. Its President was to tell visiting Sri Lankan leaders that China does not support individuals, but nations  a clear signal that China was ready to do business with the new Government. Many projects running into millions of dollars with China have been concluded and others are on the pipeline. From helping projects in Hambantota, China was now prepared to help in projects in Polonnaruwa too.

Yet, unlike the previous regime which won greater endorsement, China is moving more business-like in its approach with the new Government. It appears to have a two-fold objective. The first is to forge a closer commercial relationship with the UNF Government. Compared to trade relations with other countries, Sri Lanka was literally a drop in the ocean for Chinas enormous financial resources. There was also the strategic importance of Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean to Chinas fast growing blue water Navy. Not so long ago, under the previous regime, Chinese submarines docked in Colombos newly built container terminal, and this caused ripples in the neighbourhood.

The second, perhaps more importantly, is not spelt out. It is to deliver a message to Sri Lankas friends who did not help  that China was there at the hour of need. This heavy tilt towards Beijing by the UNF Government is naturally a cause for concern for India, significantly to its security interests, despite diplomatic pronouncements by both Colombo and Beijing that there was no cause for concern over relations with a third country. If Mahinda Rajapaksa was the man behind close ties earlier, this time it is Minister Malik Samarawickrema, who launched his ministerial career barely a year ago. He is now responsible for the rapprochement with the support and guidance of his classmate and friend, Premier Wickremesinghe. Arguably, this reflects a foreign policy turnaround for Sri Lanka.

On March 9 last year, three months after the presidential election, the Cabinet of Ministers had decided to resume construction of the Colombo Port City Project. They appointed a Committee of Ministry Secretaries to discuss with the Project Company  CHEC Port City Colombo (Pvt.) Ltd.  the concerns of the Government and matters of policy. This company, registered locally, is a tie-up between China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) and the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA). The latter has since been dropped on legal advice.

Nearly six months later, the landscape of the multimillion dollar venture has changed considerably. Plans are afoot to sign a Tripartite Agreement that will cover the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL)  represented by the Secretaryto the Ministry of Megapolis and Western Development, the Urban Development Authority (UDA) and the Project Company on August 16. The SLPA has been left out of the project on the advice of the Attorney General. On this day, Premier Wickremesinghe, who is due to leave for Beijing in the coming week, is most likely to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang.

Wickremesinghe submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers three different memoranda on the Colombo Port City Project. They were (1) Withdrawal of compensation claims by the Colombo Port City Project Company, (2) Commercial issues and (3) Policy, Administration and legal issues. The contents of all three memoranda were revealed exclusively in the Sunday Times (Political Commentary) last Sunday.

They were first taken up for discussion at the ministerial meeting on Tuesday (July 26). Some of the SLFP ministers wanted time to carefully study the three documents since they felt it related to an important matter of national interest. There was a moment when President Sirisena had to intervene when there was an exchange between Premier Wickremesinghe and Minister Faiszer Musthapha. The Premier was so exasperated that he warned angrily that he may be compelled to drop the Chinese funded project. Sirisena prevailed.

Wickremesinghe, who enjoys a more commanding position now with the decision to extend the joint alliances term to five years in the light of the Oppositions protest march, said the matter could be discussed at the next ministerial meeting. Since he was leaving for Indonesia, it was fixed for 8 a.m. on Monday (August 1). He was to attend the ministerial meeting and leave for the airport for his flight to Singapore and thereafter to Jakarta.

A detailed discussion ensued at this ministerial meeting. One of the issues over which concerns were raised was on Wickremesinghes memorandum titled Withdrawal of Compensation Claims by Colombo Port City Project Company.

He told his ministerial colleagues that on March 23 this year the Project Company had sought compensation for losses amounting to $ 143 million. This was said to be for staff retrenchment costs, termination costs of contractors, overhead costs, equipment idling costs, remobilisation costs, losses due to price fluctuation, financial charges by banks, losses from rupee depreciation, loss of material from the landfill and costs relating to resumption of work.

The Sunday Times learnt that President Sirisena, ahead of the ministerial discussion, raised questions over this matter with Wickremesinghe. The Premier responded with a six-page Cabinet Note dated July 26 in which he enumerated the differences between the Port City Project Agreement of September 2014 (under the previous regime) and the proposed Tripartite Agreement.

A highlight of this note is the subject of Compensation. The Premier noted that in view of the goodwill created by the visits of His Excellency the President and the Hon. Prime Minister to China, the Project Company has agreed to withdraw all compensation claims for all losses incurred due to suspension of the Project caused by the failure of the previous administration of the SLPA to obtain the required environmental permits.

In their original Master Plan there was provision for night racing. They had fully abandoned that plan at present. In view of this, a large extent of marketable land becomes available. Out of this, two hectares may be allocated to them. This will be a good gesture to reciprocate their goodwill in completely waiving off all the compensation claims.

The above proposal was acceptable to the GOSL since the Project Company has agreed in the new Master Plan approved by the UDA this year to increase public lands (parks, road, walkaways etc to be used by the general public) by 28 hectares more than originally planned to make Port City more attractive to the public. For example, when completed Port City will have 45 hectares of parks and 13 hectares of artificial beaches (compared to 5.7 hectares available to the public at Galle Face Green.)

Wickremesinghe noted; The Committee of secretaries therefore requested the Project Company to propose alternative ways in which any financial loss suffered during the suspension period could be addressed instead of pursuing claims against the GOSL. The Project Company was also informed to consider the goodwill generated following official visits to China by H.E. the President and the Prime Minister. The Project Company has responded to this request positively and has made proposals to the Secretary to the Prime Minister as an alternative to pursing compensation claims.

Some SLFP ministers were unhappy that an extent of two hectares offered to the Project Company was indeed a form of compensation in lieu of financial payment. If this is a commercial transaction what is the requirement to donate two hectares. In time to come, that extent of land will be almost equal to the value of the compensation sought, said a senior SLFP minister who did not wish to be identified. He complained that there has been no transparency over this aspect and added that there were also other issues to be addressed. The minister pointed out that the one of the official Government spokesperson Minister Gayantha Karunatilleke had told a news briefing on Tuesday that the Project Company had withdrawn compensation claims. Why then do we have to gift two hectares of land? If this is accepted as a precedent, other companies investing in similar projects will also get gifts of land, he argued. A UNP minister, who also did not wish to be identified, declared that it was a measure of goodwill. He added, this is a project in which Chinese President Xi Jinping had shown greater interest. He inaugurated it. We need their (Chinese) help for other investments that will boost our economy.

The issue is compounded by another matter. Discussions on the draft Tripartite Project Agreement were held at the Prime Ministers Office at Temple Trees on June 3 and 4. Taking part were officials of the Project Company, those representing the Urban Development Authority (UDA) and the Attorney Generals Department. The purpose of this meeting was to finalise outstanding issues. Thereafter, on June 8 the Attorney Generals Department sent a ten-page report to the Secretary to the Prime Minister giving its opinion on a variety of issues.

With regard to the subject of compensation payments to the Project Company, this is what the Attorney Generals Department had to say: The Project Company is agreeable to relinquish its right to receive 20 hectares of land on a freehold basis. In return, it is requesting that the restriction of the 35-year period to execute leases does not apply to this land. Effectively therefore the Project Company has control of the land for 99 years with an option of seeking a lease through an agent or by selling the lease to a third party for a further 99 year period. As such, we are of the view that the Project Company has been adequately compensated for it agreeing to relinquish the 20 hectares of freehold land and that in these circumstances, there is little justification for the claim for compensation in this regard.

With regard to the claim of compensation for suspension, we do not agree that an event of compensation has arisen. In the circumstances we are of the view that they have not made out a legal basis to justify compensation which in any event appear to be exaggerated.

Thus, the GOSL must take a decision with regard to the claims for compensation.

According to authoritative sources, President Sirisena has directed that the Project Company should be called upon to withdraw its claim for two hectares. These sources said yesterday that according to initial reports, the company was willing to do so heeding the Presidents request and continue with the project.

The Attorney Generals Department has recommended that a firm decision is required on the stance that the GOSL with regard to waiver of sovereign immunity. It noted: The Agreement requires the GOSL to waive its sovereign immunity. A decision needs to be taken whether the GOSL is agreeable to such a waiver. Whilst we are of the view that waiver of sovereign immunity with regard to suit is acceptable, we are firmly of the view that the assets that are liable for execution should be limited to assets of the GOSL which is used for commercial purposes. This is the practice that we adopt in foreign loan agreement and we see no justification for a deviation from this practice.

Commenting on the creation of a new Municipal Entity, the Attorney Generals Department has said: It is clear that the new land area to be created would be outside the Colombo Municipal Council. Thus, the GOSL must decide whether the said land would form part of the Colombo Municipal Council or whether it wishes to create a special Municipal Council for the new City.

At the moment, the Agreement contemplates the management of the city including the management, maintenance and repair of all Common Areas to be brought under an Estate Management Corporation, which the parties have agreed to consider being carried out as a joint venture between the GOSL and the Project Company. Therefore, a mechanism to synchronise the activities of the local authority and the EMC in a profitable manner would have to be considered.

It is therefore recommended that the Cabinet of Ministers take the following decisions: (a) Whether the formation of a special municipal council is required and if so, the tasks and functions that would be allocated to such council. (b) Whether the GOSL is agreeable to enter into a joint venture with the Project Company for the establishment of the Estate Management Corporation and if so, the level of participation that the GOSL wishes to have in the said Corporation.

In his six page note to ministers, Premier Wickremesinghe has said that it has been agreed with the Chinese Government that the land in the reclaimed Colombo Port City Project will be used to build a Financial City to fill the vacuum between Singapore and Dubai. He said; This will enable offshore operations. For this purpose, the Government will propose new laws for governing offshore activities like in Dubai. The Financial City will make a major income earner and an employment provider for Sri Lanka. The Premier has pointed out that the previous administration had this as a Land Reclamation Project to utilise this initially for real estate, sports, education and cultural development including night racing tracks etc. Therefore, the bulk of the land was not available for real estate development by the Government.

Among the other comparisons made by Premier Wickremesinghe are:

Legal status of the land to be reclaimed: Under the original Concessionary Agreement, the status of the land was unclear. It was not part of the District of Colombo. Therefore it did not come under the territory of Sri Lanka under Article 5 of the Constitution. The new land will make it part of the administrative District of Colombo and it will come under the Financial City Corporation distinct from the Colombo Municipal Council.

Fishermens income support programme: Under the original agreement, responsibility for funding the income support programme to fishermen was a responsibility of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA). Under the new agreement, the Project Company will allocate Rs. 500 million towards the fishermens income support programme to the Ministry of Megapolis to implement the programme in consultation with the Ministry of Finance.

Management and Maintenance of Reclaimed Areas: The Project Company has agreed to consider establishing and operating the Estate Management Company in partnership with the GOSL. Under the earlier arrangement, the EMC was to be a 100% GOSL owned enterprise that would manage, maintain and repair the common areas of the Port City by collecting management charges from investors.

Limits on developing GOSL Lands: Under the new agreement this has been expanded in favour of the GOSL to include healthcare and hospitals and exhibition and convention centres. It will also include the new Colombo International Financial Centre (CFIC). No restriction will be placed on developing the North and West Ports of the Colombo Harbour. In addition, the Project Company has agreed to setting up the CFIC building in the land area reclaimed first including making a new investment in the CIFC building no sooner it is technically feasible to build on reclaimable land and upon mutually acceptable terms being agreed with the GOSL after a feasibility study. The original agreement limited developments the GOSL could undertake on its land during the three years from the completion of reclamation to educational and cultural activities only.

Freehold Land: The new Agreement negotiated by the Government will not grant any freehold land and all lands will be allocated to the Project Company on a 99 year leasehold basis. The Project Company may lease out this 20 hectares of land for another 99 years if not required by the Government. The original Agreement of September 2014 granted 20 hectares of land to the CHEC Port City (Pvt.) Ltd. (the Project Company) on a freehold basis, with the balance land granted for 99 year lease.

Utilities and transport infrastructure: Under the new Agreement, the possibility of undertaking public-private partnerships through the Project Company will be evaluated as a long term solution to ease the GOSLs responsibility of undertaking provision of road infrastructure and utilities to the periphery of the site. Under the original agreement, all investments in roads and utilities within the reclaimed area was the responsibility of the Project Company while providing all utilities and road infrastructure to the periphery of the site was the responsibility of the GOSL.

Role of the Megapolis and Western Development Ministry: The Ministry of Megapolis (on behalf of the Government), the UDA together with the Project Company, will now sign a new Tripartite Agreement replacing the original one. Under the earlier agreement, the Ministry of Ports and Shipping was tasked to fulfil all obligations of the Government including amending the SLPA Act.

The Colombo Port City Project, fathered by the previous Government and now nurtured by the new regime, does seem to offer substantial economic benefits to Sri Lanka. In the next eight days, resumption of work under a new agreement will be a reality. Yet, a project of that magnitude could blend harmoniously with national development only if there is political stability. Thus, it falls on the Government to apply the same vigour and vitality to create a stable environment. More so since the Opposition parties, which favoured the project when in office are unlikely to raise issue over it now. SLFP ministers who raised little objections when they were in office under President Mahinda Rajapaksa are now questioning some of the steps taken by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in implementing this project with a nearly new look. The Attorney General has raised some legal issues and the Government must not try and bulldoze its way now and create problems for the country later. This and not the project itself would be the Governments biggest challenge.
KC(M) chairman K M Mani had earlier stated that several Congress leaders were working against his party.

By PTI: The Kerala Congress (M) today ended its 30-year-long alliance with Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF). KC(M) chairman K M Mani announced the separation after a two-day long meeting.

Mani had earlier stated that several Congress leaders were working against his party. He had also said that his party should have dissolved the longstanding association earlier.

Congress-led UDF in Kerala, already reeling under the impact of recent assembly election debacle, seems to heading for more trouble with one of its key partners KC (M) today indicating its intent to desert the opposition front.

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Former finance minister-led KC(M), at loggerheads with the Congress since the past few months over the bar bribery scam, hit out at the party saying it had received only 'insults' and 'humiliations' from it and would maintain 'equidistance' from the UDF and the ruling LDF.

"We have received only insults and humiliations from Congress. Mutual help and trust among parties in the Front has waned in the recent days," said 82-year old Mani, who was forced to resign from the ministry last year over the bar bribery scam.

A defiant Mani came out in full blast against the Congress at a two-day crucial meeting of the party at Charalkunnu in Pathanamthitta district, where the party leaders would take a final decision tomorrow on its future course of action.

KC(M), the third largest partner in the UDF, is part of the front for the last three decades and has six MLAs and one MP, Jose K Mani, son of Mani.

EYEING THE BJP CAMP?



Today's meeting assumes significance as it was held in the background of the reported decision of party leaders to 'sit as a separate block' in the state assembly.

Apparently hinting that it was eyeing the BJP camp, Mani said 'if a good path opens before us, we will tread that path'.

However, the party in a statement later refuted suggestions that it was heading towards the NDA.

BJP state President Kummanam Rajasekharan said doors of NDA were always open to those coming out of UDF or LDF.

"However, KC(M) has to clearly spell out its political stand first. Then we will discuss the political situation," he said.

KC(M), which has a history of switching fronts and suffering many splits since its inception in 1964, has a strong base in the central Travancore belt, especially among Christians.

The rift in relations between Congress and KC(M) came to fore after Mani announced he would keep away from a crucial UDF leaders liaison committee meeting last month, forcing the front to postpone it.

Subsequently, Congress had deputed former chief minister Oommen Chandy to hold talks with Mani to iron out differences.

Though Chandy met Mani he failed to get any assurance from the KC(M) leader, who maintained that the 'party will take a final call on all matters at its Charalkunnu meeting.'

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Reacting cautiously to the developments, KPCC President V M Sudheeran said "Let KC-M make its stand clear. It is not proper to make any comments at this stage."

MANI CRITICISES LDF AND UDF



Attacking both the LDF and UDF, Mani said that KC(M) was strong enough to stand alone politically.

Reacting to Congress leaders' remark that KC(M) MLAs have to resign if the party leaves the front as they fought in alliance with UDF, Mani said Congress candidates had also won the polls with the votes of KC(M).

CPI(M) State Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, said "We have not thought of taking KC(M) in the LDF now. Taking that party into LDF is presently not an agenda before the LDF".

There were many parties supporting the LDF from outside.

Taking them into the front has not been discussed so far, he said in Palakkad.

He also said it would be a 'political suicide' for KC(M) if it moves to the NDA camp.

Opposition leader and former KPCC President Ramesh Chennithala said none can think that they can 'browbeat' the Congress.

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"Congress is prepared to resolve the complaints which are justified. The party, leading the UDF, is trying to take all the front partners together," Chennithala, said in Palakkad.

The relations between the KC(M) and Congress over the bar bribery scam worsened recently after Congress leaders Oommen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala attended the betrothal ceremony of the daughter of controversial hotelier Biju Ramesh with the son of Congress leader and former minister Adoor Prakash.

Biju Ramesh, working President of Kerala State Bar Hotel Owners Association, had levelled bribery charges against Mani, which finally led to his resignation in November last year.

KC(M) has maintained that a "conspiracy" was behind the scam.

Watch the video here:



ALSO READ:

Campaigning for Kerala polls end, AK Antony confident of UDF's victory



--- ENDS ---
Correcting Lankas injustices by law View(s):

With Sri Lankas Right to Information (RTI) law finally certified this week as Act, No 12 of 2016 by Speaker Karu Jayasuriya who remained a rare voice in pursuing what the cynics felt was a fruitless demand for a statutory right to know, a contempt of court law needs to be next on the countrys law reform agenda.

The judicial quality of mercy

We have seen unwelcome developments in regard to media law in the region and elsewhere during these few months, In the Maldives, the Government has proposed a Criminal Defamation Bill that puts the media in the direct line of penal fire, metaphorically speaking.

Thankfully Sri Lanka has abolished the law relating to criminal defamation though choleric politicians aroused to anger over their misdeeds being exposed in the press, has raised the call to restore those provisions from time to time. And in Singapore, legislation has been proposed on contempt of court in regard to news reporting and public commentary which aims to put journalists in jail for criticism of the judiciary.

Almost twenty years ago, as a legal practitioner just three years into the practice of the law, I recall a casual conversation with a particularly obnoxious appellate court judge following a threatened contempt of court charge. This was for writing a column which contained the colorful but quite unexceptionable reference inter alia that a particular judgment handed down by the High Court was seasoned with salt and pepper.

Not to preserve the dignity of judges

Annoyed beyond measure perhaps by a further injunction that the judicial mind perchance may have hearkened to the Shakespearean quality of mercy which is twice blest; it blesseth him that gives and him that takes, this worthy gentleman wagged an admonishing finger, saying portentously if not quite ridiculously that, judgments of the court must be commented upon but not criticized. He was then stirred to heights of near apoplexy when reminded forthrightly in turn that the law of contempt has progressed far beyond those antiquated notions beloved of many Sri Lankans.

This was best exemplified by the caution issued by that renowned judicial maverick Lord Alfred Denning as far back as in 1968. In issue was an alleged scandalising of the Court, a charge often leveled against radical critics of the judicial establishment. Here a member of the British Parliament who later became Lord Chancellor, severely and inaccurately criticized the Court of Appeal. In an admirably temperate response, Lord Denning observed that the contempt jurisdiction of the court will not be used by judges as a means to uphold our own dignity which, as he said, must rest on surer foundations.

An equally but somewhat more laughable instance was when a lay litigant having lost her case, threw her books at the appellate judges. The books flew past the head of the presiding Judge, again Lord Denning. All he did was to issue a direction to the Court usher to lead her out of the Court whereupon she exclaimed: I am surprised that your Lordships are so calm under fire.

Our peculiar colonial hangovers

But it is one of Sri Lankas peculiar ironies that, having embraced the British colonial law as embodying all that which is right and proper at the time, there should be such strong resistance in regard to modernizing those very same laws, despite the fact that the modern United Kingdom has long discarded those archaic notions.

Certainly the gravity of the contempt process is as much the implicit threat that is held out to suppress and deter critical opinion as the actual citation for contempt itself. As Singaporean advocates protesting against the proposed contempt legislation warned, the risk of self censorship is an immediate result. That draft law goes far beyond what is acceptable even in that tightly controlled state by permitting the attorney general to level contempt allegations and by prescribing harsh penalties.

In this country, there is a well recorded history of law reform on codifying contempt laws. Regretfully, efforts by the Law Commission of Sri Lanka both in regard to Right to Information legislation and contempt of court laws have been uncommonly conservative. A more recent initiative by the Bar Association of Sri Lanka in the Presidency of the late Mr Desmond Fernando PC resulted in a draft law on contempt being finalized by a committee of lawyers (of which this columnist was one) and submitted by the Bar Council to the (then) Government. A Parliamentary Select Committee headed by the late Mr Lakshman Kadirgamar PC also examined the matter in depth. These are records that could be looked at.

Balancing the competing interests

In recent years, an overlooked consequence of Sri Lankas judicial system being engulfed in ugly political controversy under the Presidencies of Kumaratunga and Rajapaksas is that the weapon of contempt has been less in evidence. Judges appear to have been overwhelmed as it were by hostile critiques that had a core of truth about them, which many indeed had the conscience and good sense to acknowledge.

But in principle, Sri Lankas law on contempt has not been liberal in any sense whatsoever. In fact, even our most enlightened judges have been slow while sitting on the Bench to progressively advance the law of contempt. But the flip side of the coin is that unrestrained and vicious attacks on the judicial institution have also surfaced, particularly on the unregulated social media.

Where the offence of scandalizing the court is concerned, there are competing interests in issue. These are the dignity and the authority of the judiciary on the one hand and the freedom of speech and the public interest in the due administration of justice on the other. The two extremes that Sri Lanka has seen so far (namely judicial coerciveness versus judicial silence) must yield to a sober balancing of these two interests. That balance should not be left to the individual discretion of a particular judge. Instead it must be provided for by law with appropriate penalties. Protection must be specified for fair and reasonable comment on cases and the rule against commenting on pending proceedings in court must be based on the modern test of substantial prejudice.

Quite clearly, this is law reform meriting a measure of urgency.
PM arranges alternative venue for Rajapaksa rally View(s):

Though they are arch opponents in politics, there is still camaraderie between former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe when it comes to personal relations.

That is why Mr. Rajapaksa telephoned Mr. Wickremesinghe last Monday morning, just hours before the four-day long Opposition protest march from Kandy to Colombo entered the city limits.

He wanted to know why the Government was denying them a venue to hold a meeting. The one for which permission was granted and the charges were paid for was the Hyde Park in Colombo. The application for the venue was made by Vasudeva Nanayakkara, one of the Joint Opposition stalwarts. At the eleventh hour it had been cancelled.

Premier Wickremesinghe was to explain that some restoration work had to be carried out at the park and hence that venue could not be made available. The next question from Mr. Rajapaksa centred on another venue. Mr Wickremesinghe said he would look into the request. The former President, who left for South Korea on Thursday night, was to remark to a confidant that the Premier was in a jovial mood.

Premier Wickremesinghe was to later tell President Sirisena about the matter. Concern over disruption of traffic and inconvenience to the public was discussed, among other things. It was decided to ask the Opposition to hold the rally at Campbell Park in Borella. That would have confined them into one part of the City instead of converging on a busy zone. The Police were advised to allow the rally and provide the necessary security.

Lalith Pathinayake, DIG Colombo, had a problem in hand. He was unable to reach ex-President Rajapaksa to convey the decision. He found his whereabouts through Mr. Rajapaksas Police security contingent. Mr. Rajapaksa was at the Abhayarama Temple in Borella.

DIG Pathinayake, who went there, handed over a letter of approval of the venue to Mr. Rajapaksa only to be told that they were not interested in it at that late hour. Arrangements had been made to hold it elsewhere. Indeed, plans had been finalised by then to allow the protestors to converge at Lipton Circus near the Colombo Town Hall. It was felt that this venue would have a better impact.

Interestingly, it was not only the Police who were using walkie-talkies for communications. So did one of the frontliners in the protest march, former Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage. He was talking to his colleagues leading the protest march some distance away and co-ordinating arrangements. That included the positioning of a stage mounted on a van. The walkie-talkies had been hired from a private company.

If UNP ministers Kabir Hashim and Lakshman Kiriella made a strong attempt, which included action in the Magistrates Courts to stall the protest, it was a different story elsewhere.

A strongman, now from the United National Party (UNP), had planned a rally in Kelaniya, his new home ground. There were those victims of Rathupaswela where there was an Army shooting on those protesting against a factory for reportedly polluting the water bed, had also wanted to show their anger at the protest marchers. However, these did not happen.

Yesterdays tyrant: No riches, no rags also

In business, they call him a wheeler dealer. His rags are used to fight his enemies, perceived and otherwise. The less said about financial matters past, the better.

Some of his deals that came into question could soon create a sensation. The legal eagles are poring over the voluminous documents for an indictment. Little wonder those in the big city state shut their doors and told him go back, clear you name and come. He tried to do that with a senior-most politico who he had lambasted in the past but whose help he now needed. He was referred to a top cop. However, the cop declared there was nothing he could do.

Again, he went to the politico with a one-time close ministerial buddy who he also castigated in news sheets in the meanest way. Perhaps, he felt the buddy was now more important since he held a key portfolio, one where he could move and shake matters in any world capital. How the worm turns.

During the conversation with the politico, he confessed that he was no longer financially sound. His so called news empire was running at a dead loss. While sipping a tot of whisky offered to him, he asked if the politico was willing to take over his collapsing venture. With a wink, the politico in turn asked the minister to look into the matter.

While this was going on, a hireling is lobbying privately with business houses to buy over the venture. According to him, it is not only the monies owing to the bank and other assets that should be acquired. Even his services have to be retained. No way, tush, tush, said one businessman in the export trade.

Chinese firm gets Kirinda harbour contract

A Chinese firm has won a deal to carry out a feasibility study and detailed design of the Kirinda Harbour in the Hambantota District. This harbour is located close to a Naval Detachment positioned in this coastal area on the outer boundaries of the Ruhunu (Yala) National Park.

The firm Hae Chun Corp Limited has been formally commissioned by the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.

Big boss says march a success

The so-called Joint Oppositions protest march from Kandy to Colombo had ended and the big boss in Colombo was talking about it with some of his blue eyed confidants.

One of them, a hoary one, declared that the march was a flop and there was no point talking about it. Perhaps he wanted to please the boss.

The man got a shock when the boss exhorted dont talk like that. It was a success. The boss should know better.

The other confidants remained mum thereafter.

Anti-Corruption Secretariat gets extension

The Cabinet of Ministers have approved a proposal to extend the term of office of the Anti-Corruption Secretariat till December 31 this year. The move comes on a recommendation from Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. His recommendation that the Government spend two million rupees on the Secretariat every month has also been approved.

This Secretariat receives public complaints regarding bribery, corruption and other misdeeds of the previous Government. After study they are referred to the relevant state investigation agencies for follow-up action as a prelude to prosecution if there is sufficient evidence.
Shameful politics for the Brits, deja vu for us View(s):

There is an old Sinhala wise saw which, roughly translated, says the departing devil delights in breaking the pots and pans.

One is loathe to label David Cameron, who resigned recently as Prime Minister following his defeat at the recent referendum to determine whether or not Britain should remain in the European Union, Satan-lite in an expensive business suit.

But the apothegm is not entirely inapposite as some read devilish intent into his departing gesture in nominating almost 50 persons for gongs- as the British like to call them  in his resignation honours list in which the exiting premier names individuals for various titles and honours.

The leaked list published by the London Sunday Times last week includes aides, allies, donors who contributed to the losing remain campaign in the referendum and others who had served Cameron during his premiership. Hardly had the news hit the streets when accusations of cronyism, pay- back time for services rendered and less euphemistic epithets quickly followed engulfing an already fractious and, at times, confusing political debate in which the Labour Party is passing through divisive internal strife and the Conservatives are not entirely free of inner-party troubles despite quickly settling the leadership issue.

It is true that convention allows departing prime ministers the right to nominate persons for honours, be they peerages or knighthoods or lesser categories. Tony Blair did not do so before he left for very good reasons. He and the Labour Party were involved in what came to be called the cash-for-honours scandal where persons who gave funds to the party secretly before the 2005 elections were later named for honours.

So Blair already embroiled in controversy not the least of which was his dragging Britain into the disastrous invasion of Iraq as a gesture of camaraderie with his transatlantic friend George Bush jnr, did not wish to name names and add to his pitiful legacy.

Blairs successor Gordon Brown, hoping perhaps not to burn his fingers by making use of this traditional opportunity, also desisted from doling out resignation honours.

But the row that erupted last week concerned the manner in which Cameron intended to disburse honours and the individuals named in the list which has now become public. While he did the honourable thing by resigning after the referendum defeat he performed a dishonourable act as one of his last in office by naming friends and staff-several of them civil servants working in his Downing Street office  for honours.

Had they made significant and definable contributions to the country or for the public good which is what the honours system was intended for, as someone pointed out, there would hardly have been a debate. But Camerons last act seemed an obvious exploitation of a tradition that was twisted beyond belief to benefit the clique round the departing premier.

It would indeed be a brave leader who would legitimize and defend the decision to extend national honours to his chauffeur, an aide to his wife Samantha who also doubled up as a stylist and adviser on dress, and an aide next door at No 11 who, among other things, persuaded Chancellor George Osborne to change his hair style. Style might maketh a man (and woman) but should they make the honours list, is what enraged opposition parties and the public demanded to know while calling for a radical change to an archaic system.

It also seemed a defiant gesture as some named are serving in the new Theresa May government thus involving the new Prime Minister who has refused to block the names on the list or tamper with it less this creates a bad precedent though she has the right to do so before it reaches the Queen.

There are other safeguards including a Whitehall committee that vets the list of names before it is sent to the Prime Minister. It is known that at least one Conservative Party donor had been blocked by Whitehall after Cameron attempted to get him into the House of Lords.

Sri Lankans who have read about the rather farcical goings on would of course not be surprised at the idiosyncrasies of politicians and their readiness to exploit national institutions and traditions to feather their own nests or those of their cronies.

Fortunately Sri Lanka does not have a similar honours system though it does confer national honours on a wide category of persons who have performed public service be it in the security forces or in the arts and cultural fields.

Had Sri Lanka such a convention where the President or Prime Minister could dispense honours there would be tens of thousands of our countrymen and women who have done little else than pay obeisance to politicians walking around with three-letter prefixes or suffixes to their names like Britons who have become Sir Ali Thakkadiya or Pal Hora OBE.

While honours should be for those who do something exceptional and not performing tasks in their everyday jobs or donating money to political parties, however that money has been made, Cameron did not seem to mind what the Britons would think of him now that he has quit.

But in Sri Lanka it is not the departing devil that smashes the pots. Those who assume office seem to do so from the very beginning. Consider for instance the National List system which this good governance administration has brought into even greater disrepute by appointing to parliament individuals rejected by the people at elections. This is not only a slap to the face of democracy and the right of the citizens to proper representation but to corrupt the system.

The corruption starts when the honours system or the national list provision in Sri Lanka clashes with democratic principles. The most obvious way in which democratic principles are undermined is when those who have not been elected- like those elevated to the House of Lords or enter parliament through the national list as in Sri Lanka  make laws we must live under. It might be recalled that when Cameron emerged as the Conservative Party leader some 10 years or so ago he began by saying that he wanted to clean up politics.

But as Prime Minister he had surrounded himself, in cabinet and outside, with friends and contemporaries from the famous public school he attended  Eton  and from the Oxbridge universities so much so that it represented the worst of the old boys network.

Throw your mind back to more recent times in Sri Lanka, in fact to the last 19 months or so. Remember the promises made to the people by Maithripala Sirisena, the common opposition candidate who, like Cameron pledged to create a new political culture that would cleanse the country of nepotism, cronyism, and corruption. Openness, accountability and impartiality were to be the watchwords of a good governance administration. Meritocracy would replace cliquism.

These were promises made from the end of 2014 when the country headed for a presidential election and later parliamentary polls.

But those who promised to eschew nepotism broke that pledge no sooner they sat in the seats of power. A presidential sibling went from being general manager of the Timber Corporation to head the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority later claiming a huge salary and perks.

On the other side of the political coin, the UNP that was the other major partner in the national unity government reverted to what it does best  create a chumocracy under which the plum jobs were filled  and are still being filled -from the old school network irrespective of whether those selected can do the job or not.

So much so that in Colombo society a standing joke is that if you do not have an FRCS against your name you could say goodbye to a job at State expense and also say goodbye to meritocracy. As is now known in todays Sri Lanka, FRCS has nothing to do with being a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. But being from another Royal College  one could hardly call it another Eton  would indeed be helpful in clearing a career path however temporary that might be.

Given the fact that the Conservative Party that Cameron once led and the UNP belong to the same international club, it is not at all surprising that this kind of cliquism should determine their version of clean politics. It is cronyism pure and simple and proof the Tories will put self-interest before country, said the Labour Partys deputy leader Tom Watson as the news about the Cameron honours list broke.

Sri Lanka might not have such a system of paying debts of one kind or the other. But Sri Lankan ingenuity has devised other means of extending corruption and abuse. One is the tender system which despite all the verbiage about openness and accountability could still be manipulated to benefit ones friends and political donors at the expense of the country. Family and relatives of politicians open companies to which state institutions siphon funds so that they accumulate enough wealth for several samsaras.

Why should Sri Lanka have peerages and knighthoods though one knows of Sri Lankans who have made desperate attempts to earn themselves an honour or two?

We do not need knighthoods. We have tenderhoods, ethanolhoods, cocainhoods and some other hoods that better be left unsaid.

If nothing else at least one can appoint a few consultants and plant them here and there. So shines a good deed in a naughty world, as the Bard said.
Jason Bourne; Mission to find ones identity View(s):

Hollywood action-thriller Jason Bourne a story of a dangerous former operative of the CIA who is drawn out of hiding to uncover hidden truths about his past is now being screened at several theatres in and around Colombo. Hollywood action-thriller Jason Bourne a story of a dangerous former operative of the CIA who is drawn out of hiding to uncover hidden truths about his past is now being screened at several theatres in and around Colombo.

Based on characters created by Robert Ludlum, the film is the fifth installment of the Bourne film series and the direct sequel to 2007s The Bourne Ultimatum.

Paul Greengrass, the director of The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, once again joins Matt Damon who returned to his most iconic role in Jason Bourne. For the latest Bourne edition, Damon is joined by Alicia Vikander, Vincent Cassel and Tommy Lee Jones, while Julia Stiles reprises her role in the series.

Jason Bourne is again being hunted by the CIA. It begins when Nicky Parson a former CIA operative who helped Bourne who then went under and now works with a man whos a whistle blower and is out to expose the CIAs black ops. So Nicky hacks into the CIA and downloads everything on all their Black Ops including Treadstone which Bourne was a part of. And Heather Lee, a CIA agent discovers the hack and brings it to the attention of CIA Director Dewey, the man behind the Black Ops. He then orders Parsons be found and hopefully Bourne too. Parsons makes contact with Bourne who told her to remain under but she tells him, she found out his father was the one who created Treadstone and that they were interested in him long before he joined. Eventually they find them and theres a chase. Dewey sends a special operative known as The Asset who tries to get Bourne but gets Nicky instead. But before she dies she gives him something which leads him to the file she got and when he reads it, it 

Distributed by Universal Pictures, the film is now being released at Liberty Lite, Vista Lite , Sky Lite  Matara , Sky Lite Malabe, Savoy Colombo and Excel Colombo.
Uduvil Girls College exhibit their art in Colombo Text and pictures by Dilantha Dassanayake View(s): View(s):

Uduvil Girls College recently held an art exhibition at the JDA Perera Gallery. This was their first major exhibition held outside of the Jaffna peninsula. Previously they held an exhibition at the school premises to celebrate the 190th anniversary of the inception of the school.

Founded in 1824 by American missionaries they proudly boast the accolade of being the first boarding school for girls in Asia. Established in a time when education for girls was not compulsory let alone favoured. The first two students were two girls who sought refuge at a missionarys bungalow during a rainstorm. Currently the school educates approximately 1300 students.

Approximately 200 paintings by 27 students were on display while a handful of past students also contributed works of art.

The inspiration for the exhibition was to give the students exposure to an art gallery. Equally they wish to sell the paintings to raise much need funds to repair and renovate old classrooms. Students from the ages of 14 sitting their GCE exams to 17 year olds sitting the A-Level exams participated in the exhibition. Art teacher S. Arulramesh described the artwork as having  modern influences with other works having traditional landscapes influenced by the Jaffna scenery. On the first day these paintings of Jaffna city life had already been snapped up with a sold sticker. Other works were clearly influenced by Picassos cubism style while bring in elements of religious iconography prevalent to culture and life in the Jaffna peninsula There was a mixture of still life, portraiture, landscapes and animals. Depicted in watercolours, oils, and acrylic as well as graphite pencil. The girls clearly have a great passion and talent for art. Taught by an equally dedicated art teacher and principal. We have valued this exhibition very much to showcase the art of the students, they have been thrilled to come to an established gallery to have their works on display. In all it has been a success, said Mrs Shiranee Mills the principal.
Better late than never! View(s):

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya gave his assent to the Right to Information Act No. 12 of 2016 this week following his return from Singapore and a long delay in translations since Parliament unanimously passed the Bill two months ago. The delay in his signing the bill into law raised concerns. A Freedom of Information Bill was first presented to Parliament in 2004, but was never passed due to the early dissolution of that Parliament. Mr. Jayasuriya then brought that bill as a Private Members Bill under his name as an Opposition MP, but the then Government refused to discuss it. The Law provides for all Sri Lankan citizens to have access to official Government information henceforth. Sri Lanka becomes the 108th country in the world to have a national RTI Law. Pic by U.G. Nuwan Duminda
CEB can procure interim power to avert power crisis: PUCSL By Sandun Jayawardana View(s): View(s):

The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) has granted approval to the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) to procure electricity from several sources, as an interim measure to avert a power crisis predicted to affect the country in 2018-2019.

The PUCSLs decision was conveyed this week to the CEB, consequent to the submission of its Long Term Generation Plan (LTGP).

The PUCSL has, however, only approved the 2017-2020 part of the CEBs generation plan, officially known as Least Cost Long Term Generation Expansion Plan (LCLTGEP) 2017-2036.

The Commission has cited several reasons for its refusal to approve the plan in full, highlighting issues including data provided by the CEB being insufficient, as well as failure to justify the submission of a new plan (2017-2036), when the Commissions earlier directive had been to submit a plan for 2015-2034.

In making its decision to approve only the initial four-year section of the plan, the PUCSL has considered the CEBs acknowledgment that the commissioning of the Sampur coal-fired power plant- originally scheduled to be completed by 2020, will now be delayed, following the Governments decision to convert it to run on Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).

Thus, considering the gravity of the situation in the 2017-2020 period, the Commission would consider power plants identified for the period 2017-2020 in the LCLTGEP as an alternative to the delay in Sampur Coal Power Plant, as part of the LCLTGEP 2015-2034, stated a letter dated August 3 from PUCSL Chairman Saliya Mathew to CEB General Manager (GM) M.C. Wickramasekara.

The 130 MW Uma Oya and the 35 MW Broadlands Hydropower Projects fall within the 2017-2020 period of the CEB plan. Approval has also been granted to procure electricity from the proposed 170 MW Furnace Oil-Fired Power Plant in Hambantota and the 300 MW Combined Cycle Power Plant in Kerawalapitiya.

Mr. Wickramasekara said no decision had yet been made whether any of the power plants will come under Independent Power Producers (IPPs). The CEB and the Government have to decide on that after discussions, he stressed.

The PUCSLs decision, however, has come in for criticism from the CEB Engineers Union (CEBEU). Its President Athula Wanniarachchi claimed the move would create a bad precedent for future Governments, as it may encourage them to wait until a power crisis appears before moving to procure power plants as a stop-gap measure. The end result will be high cost of electricity, he stressed.
Colombo stage for 29th LAWASIA conference View(s):

Sri Lanka will facilitate the 29th Golden Jubilee conference of LAWASIA for the third time in Colombo next Friday.

LAWASIA, the law association for Asia and the Pacific which was formed in 1966 will provide a discussion forum that promotes cross-jurisdictional exchanges of legal information and education in the Asia Pacific region.

The four day event being held from August 12 to 15 will be attended by lawyers, judges, legal academics and all stakeholders in the legal sector. It will offer insights on current issues in a range of areas as diverse as banking and finance, family law, employment law, human rights, environmental law, energy law and taxation law among others.

Significantly, this is the 29th LAWASIA Conference and marks the 50th jubilee of the organisations formation in 1966. In addition to opportunities to update and refresh legal knowledge from a regional perspective, it is an occasion for celebrating the shared values of the Asia Pacific profession in supporting the rule of law and protecting human rights, as well as striving to offer a universally high standard of legal services. It will focus on current issues in a range of areas. LAWASIA comprises over forty member organizations and has individual members from more than fifty countries island wide.

Upul Jayasuriya, Chairman of Organizing committee of the conference said that the decision taken by LAWASIA to have the annual conference in Sri Lanka this year signifies the trust and expectation the international community placed in the new government since it took office.

After January 8, the democratic values in our country were re-established and the rule of law is upheld after a decade of authoritarianism. At least eight Chief Justices from the Asian region will be taking part in the conference, Mr. Jayasuriya said.
Dengue cases zoom, but officials predict decline By Joshua Surendraraj View(s): View(s):

Dengue cases which hit a six year high in July may show a decline with island -wide programmes to eradicate mosquito breeding sites, health authorities say.

Earlier, last month the number of dengue patients skyrocketed to 7,071 cases, the highest figure that was seen since 2010. Authorities said that hospitals particularly in the Western Province were flooded with patients and some hospitals did not have the capacity to ward them, while some were faced with a shortage of staff.

The Dengue ward matrons at the Base Hospital, Angoda (Infectious Disease Hospital), told the Sunday Times that during the month of July, because of the many suspected dengue patients who were admitted to the hospital, they ran out of beds. We had to keep three patients on one bed because of the lack of space, Nursing officer of Ward five of the hospital, Ravin Nilanka Perera said. He added that the hospital also faced a shortage of staff and had brought in third year student nurses, nurses from the Navy hospital and the Angoda mental hospital.

The nurses from the other dengue wards of the hospital shared the same story. According to them at times there were patients being treated along the corridors of the hospital.

Health authorities attributed this drastic increase to the floods that occurred during the last few months. Apart from this, the disruption of proper garbage collection at the time and the inability to carry out fogging to a hundred percent had been contributing factors.

National Dengue Control Unit consultant community physician Dr. Preshila Samaraweera, stated that the cases increased after the floods and once they increased they couldnt be brought down. However, now the situation is slowly being brought under control and mass fogging is being carried out in Colombo, Kandy, Kalutara and Gampaha which are high risk dengue areas. Dr. Samaraweera added that they are worried about the schools due to the high risk following the figures that the last dengue programme showed.

At present the cases are reducing but following our reports after the last programme there were plenty of places, where potential mosquito breeding places were abundant in schools. Children can get infected by this if immediate measures are not taken and the cases can go up again. So we are planning to do another programme before schools start, she said.

Dr. Samaraweera stated that the households are taking precautions in comparison to the schools and other institutions.

There should be some commitment by the community, who are responsible for these breeding grounds existing, Dr. Samaraweera said.

Another reason for the rise in the figures, might have been the fact that we couldnt do the case-based fogging to a 100 percent, because of the high case load, Dr. Samaraweera said. She added that usually if they are notified of a case, the authorities have to fog that area within three days, but when the cases were high this was a difficult task, because of the shortage of staff. They even had to bring in staff from the North and South of the country to carry out the fogging.

Following concerns, the authorities are also planning a second national mosquito eradication programme on August 11, 12 and 13, targeting the North East monsoonal rains.
Former Govt. bought hi-tech tapping devices, but engineers defied orders View(s):

By Namini Wijedasa

The previous Government imported telecommunication surveillance equipment from the Chinese firm Huawei Technologies in October 2014, just months before the presidential election. However, it was never installed because engineers at Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) had refused to follow orders. The equipment came in a box of around eight feet in length and four feet in height, authoritative sources told the Sunday Times, on condition of anonymity. Engineers had instructions to install the device but had perceived it would not be for the public good.

They had the knowledge to determine what the equipment was based on what the paperwork said, the sources said. They have professional ethics so they balked at the orders. With engineers refusing to do the job, SLT officials who issued the directions had no option but to abandon the plan.

The equipment  the specifications for which were not immediately available  was never taken out of its box. Later, it was sealed with clear plastic paper and remains in such condition inside the Number 2 storeroom at SLTs Peliyagoda warehouse. The box was recently rediscovered during an inspection tour of the warehouse.

Digital infrastructure Minister Harin Fenrnando first revealed this week that the previous regime had imported hi-tech wiretapping equipment to intercept telephone calls. He said it had been decided to return the equipment to the supplier. However, there have been no such moves so far. It is also not clear whether Huawei, from where the shipment came, would take back merchandise that had been lying unused in a warehouse since SLT took delivery of it.

Shipment documents were in SLT files; however, the money for the equipment had not been paid by SLT, which is a public listed company. The equipment is capable of intercepting high speed voice and data calls, the sources said.

It was also revealed that a former director of Mobitel (a fully owned company of Sri Lanka Telecom), had taken away two encoders from the company before the election. He had taken them away after signing the necessary documents, the sources said. The two encoders are still missing. However, after he was questioned about them after the election, the director paid Rs. 1.25 million to SLT to meet the cost of the encoders.

Encoders are defined online as a device that converts information from one format or code to another. It is not clear what the director, a staunch Sri Lanka Freedom Party supporter, took them for.
He not only denied that these vigilantes had any affiliation with the RSS but also appealed to the citizens of this country to unmask those people who engage in such activities.

By India Today Web Desk: The General Secretory of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Suresh Bhaiyaji Joshi said that some fringe anti-social elements were taking law into their hands in the name of cow protection. He appealed to people to not let these vigilantes divide the populous .

TARNISHING REPUTATIONS

He further added that these people tarnish the reputations of those who perform the noble task of protecting a cow from getting slaughter. He said, "These people's work has cast doubt and suspicion over the sacred job of cow protection and service."

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He not only denied that these vigilantes had any affiliation with the RSS but also appealed to the citizens of this country to unmask those people who engage in such activities.

"Don't link these people to people who are engaged in the sacred job of cow protection and service".



APPEAL TO TAKE ACTION

Joshi further appealed to the state government to act strictly against these vigilantes. "Only if the respective state governments act legally against such elements, can we make sure the job of cow protection is untarnished and unhindered"

He also pointed out that noble people like Mahatma Gandhi, Vinoba Bhave and Madan Mohan Malviyaji considered cow protections one of the primary tasks of their lives.

ALSO READ:



Defamation case: Rahul Gandhi summoned by Guwahati court for remark against RSS

Senior RSS leader shot at in Punjab, critical





--- ENDS ---
Huge tender for oil pipelines next week View(s):

The Government will next week award a tender valued at more than Rs. 8.7 billion for the construction of four pipelines to carry oil from the Colombo harbours Dolphin Pier to Kolonnawa. Bidders from India, Malaysia, China and the United States have been shortlisted to construct the pipelines, each six-and-a-half kilometres long, to replace the 69-year-old oil pipelines in use, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) Chairman T.C. Jayasinghe said.

The Cabinet has given approval for the project and the tender will be awarded to the lowest bidder by the tender board on Friday, he said. Two pipelines are for jet and crude oil while the others are for refined petrol and diesel. The existing pipelines are old and their capacity is less; hence, the transportation of oil takes long resulting in the CPC having to pay demurrage at times. There are also leaks in some places leading to wastage, he explained.

The pipelines would run underground so there would be no logistical issues such as having to relocate people. The project was likely to be completed in one-and-a-half years, he said. Mr. Jayasinghe said the company which won the tender would have to undertake the US$ 60 million (Rs 8.7 billion) project using its own funds which the government would pay back in 12 years after a three-year grace period.
Indians here for ETCA talks on Tuesday View(s):

Preliminary talks between India and Sri Lanka on the Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) will begin onTuesday with an visiting Indian delegation coming here for the purpose.

The delegation headed by the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of India will hold talks with their Sri Lankan counterparts to discuss the proposed draft.

Development Strategies and International Trade Ministry Secretary Chandanie Wijewardena said these talks would set the path for the finalisation of the agreement which is expected to be signed before the end of this year.

For Sri Lanka, the seven-member negotiation committee will be headed by Saman Kelegama, adviser to the government and Executive Director of the Institute of Policy Studies. It will also include Sonali Wijeratne, Director General of Commerce and representatives of professional bodies and trade chambers.

However, a source familiar with the ongoing negotiations said the talks would also look into the shortcomings of the existing India-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement.
Madushanka faces murder conspiracy charge View(s):

The 24-year-old Sri Lankan national being held in the Maldives over allegations he conspired with two others to assassinate the President of that country is to be charged in court soon, according to a document obtained from the Maldives Prosecutor Generals office.

Sri Lankan national Lahiru Madushanka and Maldivian nationals Ahmed Adeeb and Fazeel Hameed are accused of conspiring to murder Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen and will be charged under article 110, 82 and 86 of the Penal Code of the Maldives.

The charge does not carry the death penalty but if found guilty the men will face long jail terms in a remote island. The Prosecutor Generals Office in the Maldives has concluded that in October 2015, Ahmed Adeeb, Fazeel Hameed and some other people conspired to murder the President and searched for a gunman to complete the said act.

It is alleged that Lahiru Madushanka had been roped into carry out the act and had travelled to the Maldives to complete the task. He was recruited by Maldivian national Ishaq Hussain who runs a tailor shop. To get him down to the country, he was offered a job as a tailor.

Last week, Pakistans former Federal Minister for Human Rights and leading human rights and civil rights activist Ansar Burney pledged to intervene in Mr. Madushankas case after studying the legal documents related to this case.

Mr. Madushanka has been under detention since October last year in the Maldives for his alleged involvement in the assassination plot.
Re-surfacing BIA runway to impact adversely on flight schedules: Operators By Chrishanthi Christopher View(s): View(s):

Re-surfacing of the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) runway by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in January next year, resulting in its daytime closure for some time, will have a major impact on flight schedules of airlines, Airline officials said.

The closure, said to last for three months, will affect SriLankan, Emirates and Qatar Airways which have frequent flights into and out of Sri Lanka.

Airlines said that it would require rescheduling of flights after discussions with other airlines which are associated with them.

SriLankan Airlines spokesman Deepal Perera said the impact on the airlines is too early to say. We have an average of 25 aircraft landing and taking off, of which, some have to be rescheduled, he said.

Emirates, Pricing & Commercial Analyst, Dinuka Sumitharachchi said they have five flights landing and taking off per day. Our operations will be affected. Changes in the other flights have to be worked out, he said.

However, the Airport will be closed only from 8.30 am to 4.30 pm, with only flights operating during daytime needing rescheduling.

CAA Chairman, H.M. Nimalasiri said the CAA will be spending US$ 50 million of its own funds for the resurfacing. The runway is to be widened by 15 metres to 60 metres to accommodate the biggest commercial passenger jet, the Airbus A380. However, the length of the runway will remain the same, as the minimum requirement for an A380 is only 3,000 metres, while the BIA runway is 3,500 metres, he said.

The BIA has a single runway of asphalt, with takeoff and landing distances of 3,441 m and 3,350 m respectively.

He said that, as of now, the occasional A380 that comes to the BIA has difficulty, as the wings of the aircraft are getting stuck on the grass and cannot gather sufficient thrust for takeoff. This is not good, he said.

The Mattala Airport runway is 3,400 metres long and can accommodate the occasional A380 that lands there. However, Mattala can only handle five flights per hour, which works out to a maximum 45 flights, and hence, flights have to be rescheduled and cancelled, he said.

Mr Nimalasiri said the airlines have to decide according to their commercial requirement and work out their schedules. The BIA can handle around 180 flights a day. The operations in Mattala will be on a first-come-first-served basis. Most of the flights that land at BIA are SriLankan, Emirates and Qatar flights, he said.

The CAA intends to provide convenient connections to passengers from Mattala by conducting a shuttle service.

Sri Lanka Tourism Authority, Chairman, Paddy Vithana said the closure will have an adverse impact on tourism, but conceded it would be manageable as most flights come in the night.

It is important that travel agents and tour guides think innovatively and start tours from the south. Tangalle, Udawalawa and the Eastern Province have lots of tourist attractions along the coastal belt. They need to retour, he said.

We need to look at it positively as tourists do not come to stay in Katunayake, he added.

In addition, Phase II of the BIA expansion project is to have a second runway, also able to accommodate the A380, with another taxiway to the second runway.

Phase II is scheduled to begin in September/October 2017.
Salawa residents want more money due to blast vibrations By Chamal Weerakkody View(s): View(s):

Disheartened Salawa residents whose properties were damaged in the massive explosion in the army armoury in town on June 6 are questioning the valuation method used to pay compensation, claiming there is continuing cracking in walls and floors and other structural damage.

They are also displeased that the cost of the roofs renovated by the army is being deducted from the recently issued government compensation estimates for damaged properties.

L. M. Renuka Priyadharshani, owner of a small shop in Salawa, says she is frightened to live in her home, built two months ago with all her husbands earnings from working overseas, because its structure had been damaged from the explosions vibrations.

She said the valuers estimated Rs. 85,000 as compensation for the damage even though her house and shop were just 50m away from the blast. Worse, the estimate given by the army for the cost of the repaired roof took away a third of that amount.

Another resident, Walter Nagahawatta, said the government estimate of the cost of repairs to his property was Rs. 384,000 but that the contractor who built the house had said the structure had been damaged beyond repair. The contractor had recommended the house be demolished and rebuilt and estimated this could cost Rs. 7 million.

Mr. Nagahawatte, 74, had been informed that Rs. 260,000 of the Rs. 384,000 in compensation would be deducted from the army as the cost of the roof renovation.

He said his son had invested all his earnings to build the house before his marriage, six months prior to the explosion.

My son has nothing left. This house was all he had and this incident has turned his life upside down. His only hope is to get rightful compensation for the damage, Mr. Nagahawatta said.

M.A. Dhammi Bimalka was shocked when told the valuation for the damage to the walls, roof, doorframes and doors of her home was Rs. 10,000, saying the army had said she could get up to Rs. 51,000. She had spent Rs. 10,000 to repair the doors. The army had told her the cost of replacing two asbestos sheets and a beam in her roof, plus army labour charges, would be deducted from the government compensation.

Nilmini Dhanjala, Arapangama, who lives some 400m away from the army camp and is to be awarded Rs. 30,000  with the cost of roof repairs deducted  said some of the cracks on the walls were widening every day and she feared to live in such conditions.

Farmer D. Somadasa, 74, said farmers were apprehensive about being injured by any unexploded shells among small pieces of ordnance still lying scattered in paddy fields.

The regional army commander, Major-General Sudantha Ranasinghe, said the army guaranteed the safety of the area.

Farmers had been asked to inform the army if they came across shell remnants while working in their fields, he said, giving an assurance that any such fragments would be harmless.

He said the army had completed renovation of 1,032 roofs as requested by residents and that a Rs. 1 million program to provide two sets of school uniforms each to 869 students from homes damaged by the blast was in operation.

The Valuation Departments Chief Valuer, P.D.D.S. Muthukumarana, said only a fifth of Salawa residents had asked for new valuations and her department would re-estimate property damage if requested by the Divisional Secretariat.

Ms. Muthukumarana said estimates were based on the existing market value of building materials.

If blast vibrations had caused continuing damage and the Divisional Secretary believed an increased compensation payout was warranted a government structural engineer would be despatched to inspect the sites and prepare a report on the structural integrity of the buildings, she said.

In such cases, research conducted by institutions such as National Building Research Organisation (NBRO) would be taken into consideration along with appeals made by the residents.

The department had completed 1,953 reports on damaged properties since early June and officials were working on 300 more reports.

The Minister of Disaster Management, Anura Priyadharshana Yapa, said Rs. 1179.6 million had been allocated as compensation for Salawa victims.

The Minister said 1,404 victims would receive compensation up to Rs. 100,000 compensation; 390 would receive compensation of Rs. 100,000-1,000,000 and 237 others would receive amounts in excess of Rs. 1,000,000.

A rental allowance of Rs. 50,000 was being provided to 700 home-owners and 59 shop owners while a Rs. 10,000 allowance had been given to 315 three-wheeler taxi drivers and shop employees whose livelihoods had been affected by the blast.


State universities non-academic staff hopeful of resolving grievances View(s):

Non-academic staff of State universities, on strike for over a week, hope to end their trade union action today, if talks with Deputy Minister of Higher Education Mohan Lal Grero, to be held this morning, provides a satisfactory solution to their problems.

Chairman of Sri Lanka University Trade Union Joint Committee (SLUTUJC) Edward Malwattage said they held two rounds of discussions yesterday, and there was broad agreement on most issues raised by the strikers.

Mr Malwattage said that they expect a solution at their final meeting scheduled for today. Among their demands are a better Employee Trust Fund, reduction in salary anomalies and a proper pension scheme.

Meanwhile, the Federation of University Teachers Association (FUTA) said that both, Higher Education Ministry and the Non-academic staff unions must quickly resolve their issues, as students are faced with many hindrances to their studies due to the strike.

FUTA Chairman, Dr Rangika Halwatura said the whole university system collapses when the non-academic staff resorts to union action.
From darkness to little light, but for how long? View(s):

The victim of a horrible acid attack W.A. Nuwan Prasad who regained 77 per cent of his vision after many an arduous surgery in Chennai makes a plea to you the readers to help him hold on to his sight

By Kumudini Hettiarachchi

Please help me retain the little sight I have in my left eye.

This is the heartrending plea of 34-year-old W.A. Nuwan Prasad from Udupila South in Delgoda, a victim of jealous rage.

His life-story reads like a chilling novel  how the future of a bright and dashing young man could change drastically within seconds with the flinging of what he thought at that time was water by the person who was dearest to him.

His eyes were the most attractive feature when he was 22 years old. I had balal as (cats eyes), says Nuwan when we meet him in his humble, half-built home in Udupila South on Tuesday morning.

As he takes off the dark glasses, we are assailed by the tragic result of an acid attack, making us reluctant to look at his eyes.

He is blind in his right eye and is terrified that the vision he had gained in his left eye after numerous and painful surgeries at the Sankara Nethralaya in Chennai, India, would fade away shortly.

More reviews are needed urgently, for which Nuwan has to be in Chennai on August 22 and it was in desperation that he called the Sunday Times, after being told that the newspaper would be able to plead for generous donations to meet his costs.

I cannot go alone, says Nuwan, on the verge of breaking down, while his wife Chandrani and their six-year-old son, Anuhas, silently tap him on the shoulder and hand him his medical file, to pass onto us.

Out falls a small brown paper bag spilling its contents on the rough cement floor of the verandah..photographs of Nuwan in happier times sans the heavily disfigured eyes.

Tragic his life has been since the acid attack 12 years ago on August 13. Boarded at a friends home close to his workplace at the Free Trade Zone in Biyagama, Nuwan as an electrician was the breadwinner of his family  mother, two younger sisters and younger brother  then back home in Rawa Ela, a village in Kurunegala.

He arrived at his workplace early, around 5.30, that fateful morning and at the gate-house was his girlfriend who chatted with him casually. With a heavy workload during the week and undergoing a boiler-operator course during the weekend, there was not much time for romance. Lately there had been exchanges of acrimonious words, as his girlfriend was suspicious that he was involved with another woman.

That morning, however, they just exchanged pleasantries and she left. As soon as he walked into his workplace, there was a call from the gate-house that there was someone to meet him. As he approached the area he saw that it was his girlfriend again and suddenly heard a swoosh and felt some liquid like water splashing on his face.

It was still dark and I didnt realize that she had flung something at me until there was an excruciating burning pain on my face and chest, says Nuwan re-living the horror of that morning. The rest is bitter and agonizing reality, not just horrific memories. Rushed to the Eye Hospital in Colombo, he remembers having only two blobs of flesh for his eyes. His weeping mother could not recognize him.

When his condition took a turn for the worse, he was transferred to the Burns Unit of the National Hospital. The long and difficult road to recovery saw many, many procedures being carried out  all the skin peeling off, grafts being performed on his chest with skin from his thigh and no one believing him when he said that there was slight vision in his left eye, but giving him a white cane. Two months he was in hospital, with eye clinic visits every month thereafter.

Exactly a year later, in despair he went to the then Apollo Hospital at Narahenpita, where the doctors suggested that he try the new procedures available at the Nethralaya in Chennai. Selling whatever little he possessed, begging and borrowing money, that is what Nuwan did. He and his family first went to the Uda Maluwa at the Sri Maha Bodhi in Anuradhapura to hold poojas and begin their fund-collection, when police told them in no uncertain terms that they could not do that. Suddenly, the Atamasthanadipathy, Pallegama Sirinivasa Loku Hamuduruwo beckoned them and when they related their plight silently handed Nuwan Rs. 100,000.

In Chennai, assessed by the then Director of the Nethralayas C.J. Shah Cornea Services, Dr. G. Sitalakshmi, he was told that she would refer him to Prof. Giancarlo Falcinelli who would take the crucial decision whether he could undergo a relatively new procedure called the Osteo-Odonto Keratoprosthesis (OOKP) or tooth-in-eye surgery.

OOKP had been developed by Italian Surgeon Dr. Benedetto Strampelli and later modified by Prof. Falcinelli of the San Camillo Hospital in Rome, Italy, who paid regular visits to the Nethralaya to attend to patients. Nuwans case was to be reviewed by none other than Prof. Falcinelli who however did not think Nuwan was a good candidate for the procedure.This complex several-stage surgery attempts to restore vision in eyes with severe corneal and ocular surface disorders where no other surgery is possible, states a document from the Nethralaya in Nuwans file.

It involves the removal of a canine tooth from the patient, shaping and drilling it to allow implantation of a plastic optical cylinder (an artificial plastic corneal device) which is then placed into the eye a few months later to restore vision, it states.

But, Dr. Sitalakshmi was ready to undertake the arduous challenge of attempting to restore vision in both Nuwans eyes and many were the surgeries from August 2005 to August 2014.

And he did regain his vision, though only in his left eye. It is with much emotion that he recalls the day his bandages were removed and Dr. Sitalakshmi asked him gently whether he could see who was standing before him.

Amma, he said, overcome by emotion.

Life, meanwhile, had settled into a routine back home in Sri Lanka, between his numerous medical visits to Chennai when he and whoever accompanied him would take refuge at the Maha Bodhi temple there. Marrying a girl from his village, he not only started working as a Supervisor in a friends construction company for he had 77% vision in his left eye but also had a son. Later he had been able to find permanent employment at the Central Engineering Consultancy Bureau (CECB).

The danger signals started last year  Nuwan felt as if a net had been thrown over part of his left eye and once again he was compelled to undergo two more operations, Modified OOKP, in Chennai, under Dr. Geetha Krishnan Iyer as his beloved Dr. Sitalakshmi had died of a brain issue. Now he needs regular check-ups back in Sri Lanka at Lanka Hospital under Eye Surgeons Dr. Rajesh Fogla and Dr. Nanda Kumar.

Nuwan who has to go back to Chennai too for further checks is in dire financial straits. With a disability allowance of Rs. 3,000 from the Social Services Department, his wife making paper ornaments for sale, renting out a room of their home and a lot of help from family and friends they are able to eke out a hand-to-mouth existence.

Casually, when we ask what father, mother and son would be having for lunch on Tuesday, there is silence for a while and a hesitant murmur of buth saha pathola kariyak (rice and a snake-gourd curry). Of course, there will not be any type of protein  meat, fish, egg or even dried fish  on their plates as this family just cannot afford it.

What Nuwan is pleading for is not money to keep hunger from their door, but a helping hand for him to visit Chennai and get his sight cleared so that he can return home, do a job and fend for his family.
Camerons terrorists: Reaping what is sown View(s):

By Jayantha Gunasekera

Former British Prime Minister David Cameron must be mindful of the adage When you live by the sword, you die by the sword. By Cameron hobnobbing with one kind of terrorists, he has exposed his citizens to terrorist attacks by another kind of terrorists. You reap what you sow and when you sow the wind, you reap the whirlwind.

Cameron has a bloated ego. Like most politicians he thinks he is the cats whiskers. He has now had to climb down and give up No. 10, Downing Street. He foolishly had a referendum, whether to leave or not to leave the European Union. The UK voters did not take him seriously and opted to leave the EU. Now there is a chain reaction which may see the disintegration of the United Kingdom. Soon, we may see a disunited kingdom. At a stroke Britain was plunged into a political, economic and constitutional catastrophe. After six years in office, Cameron leaves a country mired in its deepest crisis since World War II.

Just as much as Blair played poodle to George Bush in the invasion of Iraq, Cameron played poodle to the United States in the resolution against Sri Lanka in Geneva.

Lord Naseby recently accused the UK and the US of double standards in asking foreign judges to investigate war crime abuses by Sri Lanka whereas Britains role in the Iraq war was investigated by British judges and Privy Councilors with no foreign involvement. (Sunday Times of July 17, 2016)

As prime minister, Cameron adopted a holier than thou attitude in the belief that the rest of the world was unaware of war crimes committed by Britain. Britain joined hands with the US to commit these crimes. Britain was unashamedly playing poodle to the US as if Britain was Washingtons satellite. This was similar to Cameron taking orders from the LTTE Diaspora.

It is reported that Cameron descended to the level of meeting members of the Global Tamil Forum, the spokespersons of the pro-LTTE Diaspora. They may be in suits and cassocks, but they gave every support for the LTTE to commit mass murder. Cameron had the temerity to meet these one time members of the LTTE in his official residence, 10, Downing Street.

These criminals are wanted in Sri Lanka for mass murders. Not only is Britain shielding these criminals who are fugitives from justice, but also shamelessly dancing to their tune.

Cameron attempted to wreck the Commonwealth by promoting his personal agenda. At a time when Britain had problems with the European Community, he should have been diplomatic with his partners in the Commonwealth without antagonising them.

It is a matter of regret that of all the heads of state who attended CHOGM it should be the Queens PM who should act in such a boorish manner, particularly when Prince Charles, the heir to the throne was present in Sri Lanka. Every discerning person knew that Cameron put on an act for securing LTTE Diaspora votes, to further his political career. How pathetic for a so called toff!

Cameron cut a sorry figure when he walked in with not a smile on his face, to impress the LTTE Diaspora, who were watching his every move on TV. At a news conference in Colombo he answered questions put to him by his own selected reporters, including Channel 4. He called them by name, which exposed his game. They were obviously all pre arranged questions.

When our own journalists fired questions, Cameron slunk away, unable of course to reply to searching questions. Our journalists would have made mince meat out of Cameron if he did not slink away. As he was running away, one Sri Lankan journalist shouted out, Cameron you hypocrite! Cameron had to face these indignities, because of his extraordinary love for the criminal outfit, the LTTE Diaspora. He brought the office of Britains Prime Minister to ridicule. This is what happens when people in high office have a secret agenda.

His obligations to the minuscule LTTE Diaspora were so intense, that he was prepared to risk the hatred of 21 million Sri Lankans. Prince Charles would have been thoroughly ashamed of the conduct of his countrys Prime Minister. Cameron would draw enough flak from his countrymen when it dawns on them that he is siding a criminal outfit, not for the benefit of Britain, but in his personal interest Cameron should consult and emulate the British Member of the European Parliament Dr Charles Tannoch, a highly intelligent and incorruptible politician. The LTTE Diaspora could not influence him. He castigated his fellow MEPs thus, Sri Lanka has finally achieved peace by defeating a ruthless terrorist organisation, the LTTE which had refused all peace bids made by the Government of Sri Lanka. The word genocide is being mentioned even without knowledge of its meaning. He asked, how can anyone accuse Sri Lanka of genocide and crimes against humanity, when the same Army rescued more than 300,000 Tamil civilians from the LTTE, by putting their own lives in harms way, and helped to resettle them?

Dr. Tannoch is one of the few politicians who could not be bribed by the pro-LTTE Diaspora.

Another honorable member of the EU Parliament Geoffrey Van Orden made insinuations that some of the members would have been influenced, and hence, their stance. He remarked, We regret that we are having this debate today. I suspect that it has been prompted by extreme elements in the Tamil Diaspora, the same people who have helped to sustain the LTTE terrorist campaign over many years through political activities and funding, often from proceeds of crime. Instead of trying to bring together the peoples of Sri Lanka, there are those that continue a campaign of hatred and division. I call on the European governments to be more active and vigilant in dealing with extremists in our midst.

As regards blatant violations of human rights by Britain, its parliament endorsed the invasion of Iraq, perhaps knowing fully well that Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction. Their crimes in Iraq were similar to the Holocaust committed by Hitler on European Jews.. What Britain committed against Iraq was genocide. These politicians took the British people for a right royal ride, spending millions of the British taxpayers money, and killing hundreds of British soldiers in an unwanted and unnecessary war. Cameron is just as culpable as Blairs Labour government, for the murders of innocent Iraqis and reducing Iraq to shambles.

Britain and the US invaded a peaceful country. Together, they also ruined Libya, Syria and a host of other Arab countries.

Every day is not Christmas, Cameron; the wheel is gradually turning.

What Sri Lanka did was to crush a set of thugs and criminals, who were up to every despicable deed, going about destroying our country and killing our people, Sinhala, Muslims and Tamils, without any compunction. Prabhakaran was an animal in human form. He killed thousands of Tamil people who disagreed with his mad policies and ideas. He had the charismatic Indian leader Rajiv Gandhi, blown to smithereens, by a female suicide LTTE cadre.

We ask Cameron whether saving the lives and property of the Sri Lankans, is a war crime? If you are such a truthful and straight fellow, you should turn your country and the US in for scrutiny, for all the war crimes and genocide you both have indulged in, in the recent past.

As for Britains human rights violations record, the UN Committee Against Torture recommends more than 40 measures, which it says will need to be adopted if Britain is to be given a clean bill of health. This Committee has focused on the failure to hold to account those responsible for human rights abuses in the so called War on Terror, and for the mistreatment of prisoners in Iraq.

An article by James Cusick under the headline Britains Dirty War in Iraq says, Britain led by Cameron has blocked the release of a Report by Sir John Chilcot, where Intelligence on Iraqs supposed weapons of mass destruction, was investigated. Even after a decade of the invasion of Iraq by the US and the UK, no weapons of mass destruction were found in that country. There was no self defence as was necessary under International Law.

You have a lot to hide, havent you, Cameron?

With so much to hide, Cameron is pressing that Sri Lankas Military Commanders be taken before a war crimes tribunal. He must also insist that his confidants V. Rudrakumaran of the US, Surendran and Fr. Emmanuel etc of your Global Tamil Forum, and a host of others who have been catalogued as those who supplied weapons and gave material support to the LTTE, to continue mass murder during the 37 years the LTTE held sway, should also be indicted before an International war crimes tribunal.

War is between two parties or more, and though Prabhakaran is dead others who supplied weapons to him are very much alive and living in your country. You know that supplying weapons to kill, is just as much a crime as killing, itself.

You are no chicken, Cameron. You know well that this story of the Sri Lankan forces killing 40,000 Tamils in the last days of the war is absolute balderdash. This is a thing your friends in the pro-LTTE Diaspora fabricated. By constant usage, you think it can gather a veneer of truth. If 300,000 Tamils were saved by these very forces from the wrath of Prabhakaran, at the risk of their own lives, are you that dense to think that these forces killed 40,000 Tamils? Why should the SL Forces risk their lives to save 300,000 Tamil civilians, when they could have watched as Prabhakaran killed the lot, thus saving the Government ammunition as well?

Cameron, to enjoy the perks of office, has befriended the pro-LTTE Diaspora to provide him the votes. They forcibly collect money from the other members of the Tamil Diaspora. They also indulge in various nefarious activities to amass millions of dollars. Part of the money is spent giving filthy lucre to corrupt people, and the rest goes into the pockets of the bigwigs of the LTTE Diaspora, with which they have a comfortable and plush lifestyle. By your espousing their cause, they will continue to extort money from the Tamils, or else the avenues of income will dry up, and they will have to come back to Sri Lanka .

By Camerons conduct, he will surely open up a can of worms, when Britain will be marched to a war crimes tribunal, sooner or later. By tendering Material Support to this terrorist organisation, he himself will be liable for prosecution.

On what evidence does Cameron want our commanders taken before a War Crimes Tribunal? There has to be a Prima Facie case, with cogent and compelling evidence.

(a) NOT what is falsely projected by the Global Tamil Forum and the LTTE Diaspora,

(b) NOT what a few Tamils have been forced to tell Cameron in Jaffna,

(c) NOT fictitious films created by Callum MacCrae, with LTTE Diaspora help, films which were non-existent when Sr Lanka was taken before Geneva in 2009 and was exonerated for absence of credible evidence..

The only crime our forces committe, was saving 300,000 Tamils from Prabhakaran, who was using them as a human shield to save himself.

If 40,000 Tamils were killed,

(a) what are their names, (b) where are the bodies, (c) where are their graves and (d) where are the incinerators?

Please ask yourself Cameron, can 40,000 bodies be made to vanish into thin air, without a trace, within a few weeks? Are you trying to appoint some corrupt hermaphrodites who will be instructed to tender a report against Sri Lanka, to suit you and the US?

By your conduct, you are attempting to rub salt on the wounds of Sri Lanka to create a separate state here, to be used as a launching pad for the creation of a separate state of Tamil Nadu.

Wheels within wheels, indeed!
About 20 other ministers are expected to swear-in at the elaborate ceremony being held at Mahatma Mandir conference hall in Gandhinagar.

Vijay Rupani seeks blessing of spiritual leader Swami Brahmvihari ji before the oath taking ceremony.

By India Today Web Desk: Gujarat chief minister-designate Vijay Rupani takes oath along with Nitin Patel who has been designated as deputy chief minister. About 20 other ministers are expected to swear-in at the elaborate ceremony being held at Mahatma Mandir conference hall in Gandhinagar.

Top leaders L K Adwani, Arun Jaitley and chief ministers of Rajasthan, Goa and Madhya Pradesh to mark their presence.

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Here are the live updates:

Vijay Rupani takes oath as Gujarat CM in Gandhi Nagar

Nitin Patel takes oath as the Deputy Chief Minister of Gujarat

Six top ministers from Anandiben Patel's cabinet have been sacked

Sacked ministers include Raman Lal Vora, Tarachand Chheda, Saurabh Patel, Rajnikant Patel and Vasuben Trivedi

25 ministers in Vijay Rupani's Cabinet

Eight Patidar ministers selected to the new Cabinet

Raman Lal Vora to be the new speaker

--- ENDS ---
Theyll point their toes, stretch their legs and pirouette across the Baycourt stage next Wednesday night, but the real spotlight will be on a very strong message of anti-bullying in schools.

Ten Otumoetai College students will perform a lyrical group dance which raises awareness about bullying  as well as a jazz group dance, hip-hop solo and jazz funk duo  as part of The Night is Young at Baycourt Theatre on August 10.
In June of this year kiwifruit exports rose $105 million (47 per cent) from June 2015 to reach $331m, according to new figures from Statistics New Zealand.

Overall, goods exports rose $109m (2.6 per cent) in June 2016 to $4.3 billion.
Tama is the name by which the baby orca who died on Saturday morning will be remembered by local iwi says Reon Tuanau of Ngai Te Rangi.

Tama, the boy who clung to a buoy in the harbour is how we will remember him, says Reon, who was one of the iwi representatives involved in the operation to rescue the young orca.
Tauranga City Mayor Stuart Crosby says the continuing the seawall strengthening along Dive Crescent is going to shut down the Cargo Shed for the entire 2016/17 cruise ship season.

The work will go out for tender shortly, with a view to work starting in October and being completed in June 2017.
A local who resides near the river bank said "There are more than 100 such huge crocodiles here, all of them measuring 10 to 14 feet in length."

By Pankaj P. Khelkar: A bridge on the Mumbai-Goa highway collapsed late last Wednesday night and the rescue team is facing major hurdles in its operations.



CROCODILES

At the time of the tragedy, locals said the banks of Savitri river are teeming with crocodiles. The river banks of the Savitri are considered a natural habitat for many crocodiles and there was a worry that this will make it dangerous for the rescue team to look for bodies of the those gone missing near the banks of the river.

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On Sunday, NDRF released a picture of a crocodile resting at a spot on the bank of the river. A local who resides not far from the river said "There are more than 100 such huge crocodiles here, all of them measuring 10 to 14 feet in length."



ANOTHER SPOTTED

The India Today team while reporting on the scene, decided to take a risk and boarded the rescue boat in order to cover the search operation in the Savitri river. While the rescue boats were anchored in a small island, the rescue team members spotted a giant crocodile but before the camera could capture the huge reptile, it had gone underwater.

The NDRF , Navy marine commandos, the coast guards and the other local rescue units comprised of social workers and rafting expert Mahesh Sanap, all reiterate the local resident's view that there are at least 100 crocodiles in the river and say they are all aware of the risk.



ALSO READ:

British-era Mumbai-Goa highway bridge collapses, 20 missing, 2 bodies recovered



--- ENDS ---
HAMILTON, N.Y. -- A 69-year-old man is facing felony and misdemeanor charges for allegedly trying to convince a 15-year-old boy to have sex with him, according to New York State Police.

Robert J. Smith, of Earlville, approached the teen along the shore of Poolville Lake in Hamilton on Friday, asking him to have sex, police said. The teen called his parents, who called State Police.

Robert J. Smith, 69

Smith is facing charges of felony attempted criminal sex act, a class "E" felony, and endangering the welfare of a child, a class "A" misdemeanor. He appeared in the Town of Hamilton Court on Friday afternoon, police said.

State Police are asking that anyone with information about this or similar incidents to call investigator Andrew Wilmot at State Polcie at (315)366-6000.
RICHLAND, N.Y. -- The search for a swimmer who went missing Saturday in Lake Ontario has been called off for the night.

Oswego County 911 said that at 7:02 p.m. it received a report of a swimmer missing from Brennan Beach in the town of Richland.

Firefighters responded and the county's dive team was called in.

Air-1, the Onondaga County Sheriff's Office helicopter, was sent to help look for the swimmer. Searchers also called for help from the Canadian Coast Guard, which has a helicopter stationed closer than the U.S. Coast Guard.

The search was suspended around 9 p.m. due to weather and is scheduled to resume in the morning.

The Oswego County Sheriff's Office is handling the case. A deputy who answered the phone Saturday night said she could not comment on the search.

Brennan Beach RV Resort, which has been in existence more than 50 years, is one of the largest private campgrounds in the Northeast. The 150-acre campground has 1,400 RV sites and boasts a half-mile of beach on Lake Ontario.

At least one person has drowned there. In 1991 a man drowned while trying to rescue a teenage swimmer in distress.

On Aug. 10, 2014, the body of Anna-Rose Shove was pulled out of the lake at Brennan Beach. The girl, from Ontario, near Rochester, was vacationing at the campground with her family. Steven Szatanek was later found guilty of murdering her.
SMithaward.jpg

Sen. John DeFrancisco awards State Trooper Shaun Smith the New York State Senate Liberty Award. Smith is credited with saving the life of a 12-year-old boy in June while he was swimming at a Baldwinsville pool.

(Provided by NYSP)

ALBANY, N.Y. -- A New York State trooper was awarded one of the state's highest honors for his efforts to save a 12-year-old boy who nearly died in early June at a Lysander swimming pool.

Trooper Shaun Smith was one of three recipients of the New York State Senate Liberty Award, which State Sen. John DeFrancisco awarded recently.

On June 2, Smith was swimming at the Northwest Family YMCA in Lysander when he noticed two young boys in the pool swimming in one of the lanes, according to state police. On his next lap, he saw that one of the boys was under water and the other one swam down after him to pull him back up. Once the victim was brought to the surface by his friend, Smith saw that the boy's face was blue.

Smith immediately helped the boy pull the victim out of the pool and yelled for help.

Smith began CPR while a lifeguard retrieved an AED, an automated external defibrillator, and contacted Onondaga County 911. Together, they continued CPR and applied the AED to the boy.

The boy was taken to Upstate University Hospital and ultimately made a full recovery.

The two other recipients were Zachary Cumm, a Baldwinsville student, and Lawrence Gabriel, a United States Army veteran and boxer. Each received a medal, a certificate and a legislative resolution.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Halfway through his set at Lakeview Amphitheater on Saturday night, Dierks Bentley accepted a note from a male audience member and started cracking up.

He held it up to the crowd and read, 'Will you kiss my GF?'" Despite the endless screech of female cheers and hollers since Dierks took the stage, the country star looked honestly baffled.

"I don't even know what to do with that," he said, grinning. "I might need to take a hall pass on that one."

But he wasn't about to pass on such a juicy offer. Between his songs "Black" and "Every Mile a Memory," the lights went out as Dierks ran up the thrust stage, flopped on his belly, returned the note to its owner and snogged his girlfriend.

It wasn't the last time Dierks shamelessly flirted with women in the audience. He also noticed one man holding up a sign reading, "My wife wants seat 7B." It's a reference to the song "Drunk on a Plane," in which Dierks is seated in seat 7A.

"Sure, she can have it," he responded. "But are you going to be in seat 7C, or is it going to be just the two of us?"

Oh Dierks, you dog.

It's a big part of his onstage persona as a charmer (though he's been married to his childhood sweetheart for more than a decade).

The biggest takeaway from his act? Dierks Bentley loves to play the party animal. He likes to drink and flirt and he hates to lose, so don't let him near your spouse and don't challenge him to a drinking contest.

Longtime fans know Dierks often brings fans up on stage to shotgun a beer. As far as I've seen, no one can do it faster.

"Oh, I'm getting challenged right now," Dierks said, before giving a beer to one fan dressed in a full pilot costume (also a "Plane" reference). Dierks distracted the fan, took a generous head start and threw his empty beer can on the ground within a few seconds.

Hahaha @DierksBentley does not lose a shotgun contest y'all pic.twitter.com/OIFgtXqfFQ  Katrina Tulloch (@katrinatulloch) August 7, 2016

He dismissed the pilot from the stage, triumphantly. "Hopefully he's better at flying than he is at drinking." Oh snap, we all knew a dude like Dierks in high school, right?

The wiry, wide-awake Dierks kept his energy explosively high all night long. He repeatedly praised Syracuse for its stunning views and ran around the stage to get the crowd cheering for his bandmates. At one point, Dierks told the crowd he and his band have only been doing "this headlining thing" for about three years. He's certainly hit his stride.

Dierks has a deep, immediately recognizable voice, one that sounds older than he is. He doesn't get to show off those pipes with his party songs, but slower hits like "Different for Girls" and "Riser" prove how much he deserves to be drawing big crowds like the one in Syracuse, which was estimated to be over 14,000.

Best of all, he's startlingly theatrical and takes every opportunity he can to play with his audience.

Another tip? Don't give Dierks your cowgirl boot. He'll stick a cup of beer in it and dance around. When you get it back, it might be soggy, but it'll have a free Dierks Bentley guitar pick inside.

The gals loved it, and swooned loudly when Dierks emerged from a literal cockpit for the "Drunk on a Plane" encore, dressed as a disheveled pilot. Everyone loves a man in uniform.

Joined by openers Cam, Tucker Beathard and Randy Houser for the final song, Dierks stumbled around the stage, grinning widely, still dancing with the wet boot. He shrugged and mouthed, "Sorry, I'm drunk," though he seemed proud and fully in control of the party he had created.

Cam and Houser also joined Dierks onstage earlier in the night to sing the Eagles cover "Take It Easy" on a mini stage set up in the middle of the audience -- a treat for people sitting in the back of the pavilion.

Cam, with her bright yellow curls lit up by the sunset, bubbled with enough talent and confidence to carry her own show. Her crystal-clear voice rang out through the pavilion and made me wonder why she's not touring as a headliner herself.

She was a sunny contrast from the sort-of gritty Beathard and the vigorous Houser, whose potent vibrato made for a soulful half hour of the night (though he called Lakeview the "Lakewood Amphitheater").

Between the openers and Dierks himself, this show certainly hit a sweet spot for Central New York country fans who believe in the power of a good party.

Dierks Bentley set list

Lakeview Amphitheater | Aug. 6, 2016

Up on the Ridge



Free and Easy (Down the Road I Go)



Tip It on Back



Am I the Only One



5-1-5-0



Say You Do



What The Hell Did I Say



Different for Girls



I Hold On



Every Mile a Memory



Black



Feel That Fire



Riser



Take It Easy (Eagles cover with Cam and Randy Houser)



Freedom



Somewhere on a Beach



What Was I Thinkin'


CAMDEN, N.J. -- A Syracuse man has been arrested after he allegedly drove to Gloucester City in New Jersey to have sex with a 14-year-old girl he met online, only to find out that the person on the other end of that online chat was actually an undercover investigator.

Stephen Epolito.

Stephen Epolito, 37, is being held on $100,000 cash bail on a charge of attempting to lure a child via electronic means to a meeting with the purpose of committing a criminal offense.

He was arrested Thursday in Gloucester City, according to a press release from Camden County Prosecutor Mary Eva Colalillo and Gloucester City Police Chief Brian Morrellon.

"Epolito engaged in a cyber chat with undercover investigators believing that he was chatting with a 14-year-old female," the release said.

He drove to Gloucester City to engage in sexual activity with the person and was arrested when he arrived, according to the release.

The sting was carried out by the Camden County Prosecutor's Office High Tech Crimes Unit working in conjunction with Homeland Security Investigations, and police departments in Gloucester Township and Gloucester City.

Anyone with information relevant to the investigation is asked to contact Lt. Thomas Di Nunzio at the Camden County Prosecutor's Office at (856) 225-8515 or Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Kimberlee Gautier at (856) 225-8682. Information can also be emailed to ccpotips@ccprosecutor.org.
A 17-yr-old girl was allegedly raped by her 'mentor' for two years on the pretext of getting her a break in Bollywood.

By Sneha Agrawal: Shikha (name changed), a 17-year-old budding actor from Ghaziabad who dreamed to make it big on the silver screen, has alleged that she was raped by her 'mentor' for two years on the pretext of getting her a break in the film industry.

One of the suspects was arrested on July 21 and is currently in judicial custody. "The hunt for the other accused is on," said a Delhi Police officer. However, Ishwar Singh, DCP South, was unavailable for comment.

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Shikha told the police that she had enrolled in an acting school in Ghaziabad in July 2014 to maximise her chance of entering the glamorous world of Bollywood. Here, she was introduced to Sunil Kulkarni, the prime accused, through a common friend.

BROKEN DREAMS

Kulkarni flaunted his contacts in the film industry and used the minor girl's starry dreams to trap her for the next two years, during which she was allegedly subjected to repeated sexual abuse.

Shikha approached the Vasant Kunj police station on July 20 this year and an FIR was lodged under Prevention of Child from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and rape. In her complaint, she said that Kulkarni had offered to accompany her to Mumbai.

"He met my parents and told them that he has good contacts in Mumbai and even showed them two air tickets to Mumbai. Thinking of my future and my dreams, they agreed. He brought me to Delhi and kept me in a flat in Vasant Kunj," she told the police. However, once he brought her to the flat, he told her that she needed to put on some weight and work on her looks. "He gave me a medicine but it always made me feel sleepy," she said.

This went on for three to four months. "One day, Kulkarni forced himself on me. While I was in a state of shock he even clicked some photos. He threatened me to keep my mouth shut otherwise he would send those photos to my parents," reads the complaint.

Shikha alleged that in August 2015, she was taken to Mumbai in a flight and was kept in a flat in Andheri East. "For around six months he continued to rape me. He even got me raped by another man and videographed it. In July 2016, he brought me back to Delhi and took me to my parents. He warned me that if I reveal anything, he would show the videos to my parents.

"I could not say anything and after meeting my parents I was brought back to Vasant Kunj. On July 21, finding an opportunity, I escaped and directly reached the police station," she said.

ALSO READ

51 squats, Rs 1,000 fine: Bihar panchayat's punishment to rape accused

Trafficked Delhi girl, tortured brutally, returns home after 10 years



--- ENDS ---
Shantaraju from the Karnataka Dalit Welfare Trust had told India today that they were fighting for their rights, their right to live, eat and live peacefully in the society.

By Rohini Swamy: The Karnataka Dalit welfare trust held a beef festival in Mysuru today to protest against the atrocities on Dalits across the country. But the Mysuru police had not given the association permission to conduct the festival. They were only allowed to protest peacefully.



DENIED PERMISSION



About 15 people belonging to the group gathered near the Town Hall area in Mysuru to participate, while two auto drivers came to the location with beef items. The police who were providing protection, immediately arrested the two before it turned violent.

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The Dalit group were expecting nearly 200 people for the beef festival but they were denied permission to hold the beef fest. They were only granted to protest in front of the Town Hall.

FIGHTING FOR THEIR RIGHTS

Shantaraju from the Karnataka Dalit Welfare Trust had told India today that they were fighting for their rights, their right to live, eat and live peacefully in the society.

In response to those who tried to disrupt peace, the Mysuru commissioner of police, B Dayananda said that the police will probe the matter and decide on further course of action accordingly.



ALSO READ:

Now a beef festival in Mysuru by Dalit organisations to condemn Una incident

Beef row: US asks India to check rising intolerance, communal violence



--- ENDS ---
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SUNDAY'S SPECIAL EVENTS

Fitness Boot Camp: 6 a.m. July 19-Aug. 11. Tues. & Thurs. Sebastian Karate a Fitness & Self Defense Center, 13248 U.S. 1, Sebastian. Ages: 17+. $100. Register: 772-538-1753.

Cat Adoption Event: July 23-Aug. 7. Humane Society of Vero Beach and Indian River County, 6230 77th St., Vero Beach. Ages: 18+. 772-388-3331.

Hair Cuttery Back-to-School Share-A-Haircut Program: HC will donate haircuts to a child in need. 9 a.m. Aug. 1-15. All Hair Cuttery locations, 12th St. Plaza, Vero Beach.

Humane Society Thrift Shops Tax-Exempt Holiday: Stores carry a wide assortment of school-related items including clothing, shoes, handbags, backpacks, classroom supplies and including the "Young and Trendy" area which has a variety of contemporary clothing and accessories. Noon-4 p.m. Aug. 7. Humane Society Thrift Shops, 4425 20th St., Vero Beach and 441 Sebastian Blvd. (County Road 512), Sebastian. 772-567-2044; www.hsvb.org.

Theatre-Go-Round Dinner Theatre: "From Sea to Shining Sea". 4:30 p.m. Aug. 7, 21, Sept. 18. Quilted Giraffe Restaurant, 500 South U.S. 1, Vero Beach. Reservation: 772-252-9341; theatregorounddinnertheatre.com.

Think Pink Art Show and Raffle Event: Benefits Treasure Coast 'Friends in Pink'. 5-8 p.m. Aug. 7. Gallery 14, 1911 14th Ave., Vero Beach. 772-562-5525; www.gallery14verobeach.com.

Video Bible Study: Do You Believe. 6 p.m. Aug. 7, 14, 21, 28. First Baptist Church of Wabasso, 4720 86th St., Wabasso. 772-589-5256; firstbaptistwabasso.org.

SUNDAY'S RECURRING EVENTS

DANCE

CardioFunk HipHop: Beginner HipHop Dance. 2 p.m. IRC Main Library, 1600 21st St., Vero Beach. Ages: 10+. Donation: 772-770-5060; irclibrary.org.

EXERCISE

Hot Yoga Class Supports Pelican Island: Yoga Room offers "donation only" class to benefit local charity. Yoga Room, 676 U.S. 1, Vero Beach. 772-713-6538; info@yogaroomvero.com.

GAMES

Bar Bingo: 1 p.m. Sebastian Eagles Aerie 4067, 9606 Trade Center Drive, Sebastian. Adult. $1 per card. 772-589-6573; empresslp234@gmail.com.

MEAL

Breakfast: Open to the public. 8 a.m.-noon. American Legion Post 39, 1535 Old Dixie Highway, Vero Beach. $6. jerip80@hotmail.com.

Sunday Breakfast: Sunday Breakfast cooked to order. 9 a.m.-noon. Vero Beach Veteran Club, 2500 15th Ave., Vero Beach. $3-$6. 772-778-1299; verobeachveteran.com.

NATURE

Adventure Kayaking: Naturalist guided kayak/ paddleboard tour on the Indian River Lagoon. 9 a.m.-Noon. Round Island Park South Highway A1A, Vero Beach. $25-$50. Reservation: 772-567-0522: paddleflorida.com.

Evenings on the Lagoon: Motorized Kayak Adventures. Every Day 1 hour before sunset. Round Island Riverside Park, 2200 South Highway A1A, South Vero Beach. One hour before sunset, every evening. $35 per seat. Reservation: 772-380-6815; motorizedkayakadventures.com.

Tours through the Mangrove Forests: Motorized Kayak Adventures. Varies based on tides, daily. Stan Blum Boat Launch, 613 North Causeway Drive, Fort Pierce. $48-60; Group discounts offered. Reservation: 772-380-6815; motorizedkayakadventures.com.

OTHER

Vero Beach Widows and Widowers: Brunch 11:30 a.m. C. J. Cannons Restaurant, 3414 Cherokee Drive, Vero Beach. RSVP: Anna Mae, 772-461-1208. Snowbirds Welcome!

MONDAY'S SPECIAL EVENTS

VNA Blood Pressure Screenings: 11 a.m.-noon Aug. 8. Harvest Food, 1360 28th, Vero Beach.

Friends After Diagnosis: Speaker: Allison Snowden  acupuncture, integrative medicine for breast cancer survivors. 2 p.m. Aug. 8. First Presbyterian Church, 520 Royal Palm Blvd., Vero Beach. 772-978-9392; www.FriendsAfterDiagnosis.com.

Canine Games-My Dog Can Do That: This fun filled board games provides fun for all dogs. 5:30 p.m. Aug. 8, 15, 22, 29. Humane Society of Vero Beach. 6230 77th St., Vero Beach. $75. Register: 772-978-7863; www.hsvb.org.

American Legion Auxiliary Quarter Auction: 6 p.m. Aug. 8. American Legion, 807 Louisiana Ave., Sebastian. Ages: 18+. 772-882-7352; avondaisy44@aol.com.

MONDAY'S RECURRING EVENTS

CHILDREN/TEENS

Baby Sign Language: 10 a.m. Sept. 12-Dec. 12. IRC Main Library, 1600 21st, Vero Beach. Infant through 2 yrs. old. 772-770-5060; www.irclibrary.org.

Capoeira for Children: Ancient Brazilian Dance Martial art form done to music. 5 p.m. The Cloudwalker Place, 703 17th St., Vero Beach. Ages: 4 +. $80. 772-217-2887; www.thecloudwalker.com.

Karate and Qigong for Children: Japanese Go-Ju Karate and Chinese Qigong and Kung fu. 6 p.m. The Cloudwalker Place, 703 17th St., Vero Beach. Ages: 5-15 years old. $80 per month, Scholarships available. 772-217-2887; www.thecloudwalker.com.

Kid-Fit: 11:15 a.m. Sept. 12-Dec. 12. North IRC Library, 1001 Sebastian Blvd., Sebastian. Ages: 3-6 year olds. 772-589-1355; www.irclibrary.org.

Pre-School Story Time: 11:15 a.m. North IRC Library, 1001 Sebastian Blvd., Sebastian. Ages: 3-5 years old. 772-589-1355; www.irclibrary.org.

Story Times Toddler Time: 10 a.m. Sept. 12-Dec. 13. North IRC Library, 1001 Sebastian Blvd., Sebastian. Ages: 18 months-3 years old. 772-589-1355; www.irclibrary.org.

CLUBS

Republican Club of Indian River, Inc.: 5 p.m. JR's American Bar & Grill, 710 S. U.S. 1, Vero Beach. Ages: 18. RSVP: 772-713-8256; RepublicanClubIRC@gmail.com.

EXERCISE/HEALTH

Capoeira Executives: Brazilian dance martial art form practice rhythmically to music. 4 p.m. The Cloudwalker Place, 703 17th St., Vero Beach. Ages: 35+. $80 per month. 772-217-2887; www.thecloudwalker.com.

The Cloudwalker Place: Breathing and Movements to stretch and massage the body. 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. The Cloudwalker Place, 703 17th St., Vero Beach. All ages. $10 per class. 772-217-2887; www.thecloudwalker.com.

Martial Arts for Executives: Japanese and Chinese internal arts training for therapeutic benefits. 7 p.m. The Cloudwalker Place, 703 17th St., Vero Beach. Ages: 15+. $90 per month. 772-217-2887; www.thecloudwalker.com.

Massage Therapy Consultation: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Advanced Motion Therapeutic, 2965 20th St., Vero Beach. Reservation: 772-567-8585; Info@amtvero.com.

Neuropathy-Anodyne Therapy Consultation: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Advanced Motion Therapeutic, 2965 20th St., Vero Beach. Reservation: 772-567-8585; Info@amtvero.com.

Pickleball 101 Free Lessons: All Ages; Equipment Provided. 9 a.m. Pocahontas Park, 14th Ave, Vero Beach. Register: 772-501-5685; vbpickle@gmail.com; Facebook Pickleball University.

Qigong Self Healing Class with Joane: Spend one hour practicing highly beneficial health enhancing techniques. 10:30 a.m. Kashi Ashram, 11155 Roseland Road, Sebastian. $8. 772-559-0866; namaste5@yahoo.com.

Senior Strength Training: Group class using basic strength building exercises. 7:30 a.m., 8:40 a.m. Leisure Square, 3705 16th St., Vero Beach. Ages: 50+. $5. Reservation: 772-321-6003; jasfitness.com.

Water Aerobics: Water workout in the pool. Aerobics, resistance and flexibility. 10 a.m. Leisure Square, 3705 16th St., Vero Beach. $5. 772-321-6003; jasfitness.com.

Yogalates: Strengthen, Stretch and Tone the entire Body. 4-5 p.m. Bethel Creek House, 4405 North A1A, Vero Beach. $6 drop in fee. 772-216-3051; exerciselady@comcast.net.

GAMES

Duplicate Bridge: ACBL stratified duplicate bridge games. 1 p.m. First Presbyterian Church of Sebastian, 1405 Louisiana Ave., Sebastian. $6. 772-581-0539; jcalley620@comcast.net.

Duplicate Bridge Games: Open and 0-299. 562-3008. 1 p.m. Vero Beach Bridge Center, 1520 14th Ave., Vero Beach. $7 for members, $9 for guests. 772-562-3008; verobridge.com.

Karaoke/Games: 7-10 p.m. Vero Beach Elks Lodge, 1350 26th St., Vero Beach. 772-562-8450; veroelks.com.

NATURE

Adventure Kayaking: Naturalist guided kayak/ paddleboard tour on the Indian River Lagoon. 9 a.m.-noon. Round Island Park South Highway A1A, Vero Beach. $25-$50. Reservation: 772-567-0522: paddleflorida.com.

Evenings on the Lagoon: Motorized Kayak Adventures. Every day one hour before sunset. Round Island Riverside Park, 2200 South Highway A1A, South Vero Beach. One hour before sunset, every evening. $35 per seat. Reservation: 772-380-6815; motorizedkayakadventures.com.

Motorized Kayak Adventures: A relaxing evening on the lagoon in a motorized kayak. 1 hour before sunset, Daily. Round Island Park, 2201 Highway A1A, Vero Beach. All ages. $35. Reservation: 772-380-6815; www.motorizedkayakadventures.com.

Tours through the Mangrove Forests: Motorized Kayak Adventures. Varies based on tides, daily. Stan Blum Boat Launch, 613 North Causeway Drive, Fort Pierce. $48-$60; Group discounts offered. Reservation: 772-380-6815; motorizedkayakadventures.com.

OTHER

Karaoke: 7-10 p.m. Vero Beach Elks Lodge, 1350 26th St., Vero Beach. 772-562-8450; veroelks.com.

Sebastian Property Owners' Association: Monthly meeting. 7 p.m. North Indian River County Library, 1001 Sebastian Blvd., Sebastian. 772-388-0414; www.sebastianpropertyowners.com.

LOOKING AHEAD

VNA Blood Pressure and Blood Sugar Screenings: 9-11 a.m. Aug. 9. VNA Hidden Treasures, 656 21st St., Vero Beach.

VNA Blood Pressure and Blood Sugar Screenings: 10-11:30 a.m. Aug. 9. Vincent de Paul Thrift Shop, 5480 85th, Wabasso.

VNA Blood Pressure and Blood Sugar Screenings: 9-10:30 a.m. Aug. 10. VNA Hidden Treasures Sebastian, 11646 U.S. 1, Sebastian.

Feisty Fido: Instructor approval required to help your socially challenged dog. 5:30 p.m. Aug. 10, 17, 24. Humane Society of Vero Beach, 6230 77th St., Vero Beach. $75. Register: 772-978-7863; www.bestbehaviordogtraining.org.

VNA Blood Pressure Screenings: 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Aug. 11. VNA Hidden Treasures Vero, 656 21st, Vero Beach.

Family Dog Manners: Teach your dog to be a great companion. 1 p.m. Aug. 11, 18, 25. Humane Society of Vero Beach, 6230 77th St., Vero Beach. $75. Register: 772-571-6409; www.hsvb.org.

Transcendental Meditation: Introductory presentation on the Transcendental Meditation technique  all questions answered. 7 p.m. Aug. 12. The Center for Spiritual Care, 1550 24th St., Vero Beach. 772-480-0047; www.tm.org.

V.B.E. PTA Indoor Sale: 8 a.m.-noon Aug. 13. Cafeteria, 1770 12th St., Vero Beach. Rent a table $15 call 564-4611. RSVP: 772-564-4611; james.batory@indianriverschools.org.

Family Dog Manners: Teach your dog to be a great companion. 1 p.m. Aug. 13, 20, 27, Sept. 10, 17. Humane Society of Vero Beach, 6230 77th St., Vero Beach. $75. Register: 772-978-7863; www.hsvb.org.

High Tea for Ladies: Chum Bucket founders speak at Christ the King Ladies Tea. 4 p.m. Aug. 14. Christ the King Lutheran, 1301 Sebastian Blvd., Sebastian. Ages: Teens+. $5. Reservation: 772-589-7117; ctklutheran3@gmail.com.

VNA Blood Pressure and Blood Sugar Screenings: 9-10 a.m. Aug. 15. River Park Place, 700 3rd Circle, Vero Beach.

VNA Blood Pressure Screenings: 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Aug. 15. VNA Hidden Treasures Vero, 656 21st, Vero Beach.

Family Dog Manners: Learn how to make your dog a great companion. 6:30 p.m. Aug. 15, 22, 29, Sept. 12, 19. Humane Society of Vero Beach, 6230 77th St., Vero Beach. $75. Register: 772-571-6409; www.hsvb.org.

VNA Blood Pressure and Blood Sugar Screenings: 8:30-9:30 a.m. Aug. 16. Christi's Family Fitness, 1250 Old Dixie Highway, Vero Beach.

Sebastian Area Widows/Widowers: Noon Aug. 16. Ruby Tuesdays, 13675 U.S. 1, Sebastian. Ages: 55+. Reservation: 772-388-5914; mollyann0128@yahoo.com.

VNA Blood Pressure and Blood Sugar Screenings: 9-10:30 a.m. Aug. 17. VNA Hidden Treasures Sebastian, 11646 U.S. 1, Sebastian.

VNA Blood Pressure Screenings: 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Aug. 17. Second Chance Thrift Store & Training Center, 490 Old Dixie Highway, Vero Beach.

VNA Blood Pressure and Blood Sugar Screenings: 8:30-10 a.m. Aug. 18. Gifford Youth Activity Center, 4875 43rd, Vero Beach.

VNA Blood Pressure and Blood Sugar Screenings: 9-11 a.m. Aug. 18. VNA Hidden Treasures, 656 21st St., Vero Beach.

VNA Blood Pressure Screenings: Noon-1 p.m. Aug. 18. South Mainland Library, 7921 Ron Beatty Blvd., Sebastian.

VNA Blood Pressure Screenings: Noon-1 p.m. Aug. 18. Our Father's Table Soup Kitchen 4221 28th, Vero Beach.

VNA Blood Pressure and Blood Sugar Screenings: 9-11 a.m. Aug. 19. VNA Hidden Treasures Sebastian, 11646 U.S. 1, Sebastian.

VNA Blood Pressure and Blood Sugar Screenings: 9-10 a.m. Aug. 20. Allen AME Church, 6425 85th St., Wabasso.

VNA Blood Pressure and Blood Sugar Screenings: 8:30-10 a.m. Aug. 20. Sebastian Gym & Fitness, 345 Sebastian Blvd., Sebastian.

VNA Blood Pressure and Blood Sugar Screenings: 9-10:30 a.m. Aug. 22. VNA Hidden Treasures, 656 21st St., Vero Beach.

Candidate Forum: August Primary election for School Board and County Commission races. 6 p.m. Aug. 22. Heritage Center, 14th Ave., Vero Beach.

American Legion Auxiliary North County Quarter Auction: 6 p.m. Aug. 22. American Legion, 807 Louisiana Ave., Sebastian. Ages: 18+. 772-882-7352; avondaisy44@aol.com.

VNA Blood Pressure and Blood Sugar Screenings: 9-11 a.m. Aug. 24. VNA Hidden Treasures, 656 21st St., Vero Beach.

VNA Blood Pressure and Blood Sugar Screenings: 9-11 a.m. VNA Hidden Treasures Sebastian, 11646 U.S. 1, Sebastian.

School Supply Drive for Feed the Lambs: Bring supplies to Vero Beach Christian Business Association luncheon. 11:30 a.m. Aug. 25. The Plaza, 884 17th St., Vero Beach. www.vbcba.org.

School Supply Drive for Feed the Lambs: Bring supplies to August Vero Beach Christian Business Association luncheon. 11:30 a.m. Aug. 25. The Plaza, 884 17th St., Vero Beach. www.vbcba.org.

VNA Blood Pressure and Blood Sugar Screenings: 8:45-9:45 a.m. Aug. 28. St. Elizabeth Episcopal Church, 901 Clearmont St., Sebastian.

SEPT.

Art in the Park: Application Deadline. Sept. 1. 3001 Riverside Park Drive, Vero Beach.

Bankruptcy and Fair Debt Collections  Know Your Rights: Clinics on Bankruptcy and Fair Debt Collections. 2:30 p.m. Sept. 6, Oct. 4, Nov. 7, Dec. 5. Indian River Courthouse, Jury Assembly Room, 2000 16th Avenue, Vero Beach. Register: 772-466-4766; www.FRLS.org.

Roseland Women's Club: Business meeting with guest speaker. New residents of community welcome. 1:30 p.m. Sept. 7. Roseland Community Building, 12973 83rd Ave. (Bay Street), Roseland. Adults. 772-913-2182.
SHARE

SUNDAY'S SPECIAL EVENTS

Barn Theatre Auditions: Barn Theatre Auditions for "The Haunting of Hill House". 7 p.m. Aug. 7, 8, 9. The Barn Theatre, 2400 S.E. Ocean Blvd., Stuart. www.barn-theatre.com.

SUNDAY'S RECURRING EVENTS

DANCE

Commodore Singles Club: Singles Dance, live music from the 60s to present. 7:30-10 p.m. American Legion Hall, 3195 Savannah Road (off Jensen Beach Blvd.), Jensen Beach. Ages: 50+. $8 nonmember/$6 members. 772-888-3131; johnstonb2222@yahoo.com.

OTHER

Sunday Jazz Jam: Hosted by the Jupiter Jazz Society. 5 p.m. Double Roads Tavern, 251 S U.S. 1, Jupiter.

MONDAY'S SPECIAL EVENTS

Biologist Beach Walk: Public insight into LMC's research department. 6:45-8:30 a.m. Aug. 8.-Sept. 30. Loggerhead Marinelife Center, 14200 U.S. 1 Juno Beach. Ages: 8+. $12. Ticket: 561-627-8280; www.marinelife.org/beachwalk.

MONDAY'S RECURRING EVENTS

ART

Alizarin Crimson Art Studio: Over 30 years of Fine Art Instruction Painting Classes-All Levels. 9:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Cedar Pointe Plaza, 2611 S.E. Ocean Blvd., Stuart. All ages. 772-287-7030; Alizarincrimsonstudio.net. Professional Teaching Staff: Georgia Abood, Kate Wood & Jennifer Pollack.

Oil Painting with Carol: 9 a.m.-noon June 6-Dec. 1. Artist Nook, 45 Kindred St., Stuart. Adults. $30 per class. Register: 772-288-6371; keppca@bellsouth.net.

DANCE

Adult Summer Dance Camp: Classes and Social Parties for Ballroom, Latin, Swing, Country Dance. 4-10 p.m. Jensen Beach Ballroom, 881 Jensen Beach Blvd., Jensen Beach. Ages: 18+. $100 to $300 per month per person. Register: 609-356-2973; gloriana@jensenbeachballroom.com.

Dance Classes: Ballroom, Latin, Swing, Country and Club group and private classes. 1-9 p.m. Jensen Beach Ballroom, 881 N.E. Jensen Beach Blvd., Jensen Beach. Discounts available. Register: 609-356-2973; www.JensenBeachBallroom.com.

Group Dance Lessons: Ballroom, Latin, Swing, Country. 6 p.m. Jensen Beach Ballroom, 881 N.E. Jensen Beach Blvd., Jensen Beach. $10 per person. 609-356-2973; jensenbeachballroom.com.

EXERCISE/health

Aerobic Sitting Exercises: 9-10 a.m. MCP& R Log Cabin Senior Center, Langford Park, 2369 N.E. Dixie Highway, Jensen Beach. Ages: 50+. $2. 772-334-2926; zcarter@martin.fl.us.

Senior Fitness: 1-2 p.m. Class using weights, balls & stretch bands. Kane Senior Center, 900 S.E. Salerno Road, Stuart. Ages: 55+. $4-$6. 772-223-7807; www.kanecenter.org.

Twilight Yoga at the Lighthouse: Experience the serenity of yoga on the Lighthouse Deck. 6 p.m. Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and Museum, 500 Captain Armour's Way, Jupiter. 561-747-8380; www.jupiterlighthouse.org.

Yogalates: Strengthen, Stretch and Tone the entire Body. 4-5 p.m. Bethel Creek House, 4405 North A1A, Vero Beach. $6 drop in fee. 772-216-3051; exerciselady@comcast.net.

Zumba Gold: 9-10 a.m. Kane Center, 900 S.E Salerno Road, Stuart. Ages: 50+. $4/$6. 772-223-7800; www.kanecenter.org.

GAMES

Social Bridge: Very friendly group for rubber bridge. 1 p.m. PSL Community Center, Airoso Blvd. & PSL Blvd., Port St. Lucie. All ages. $2. 772-332-8200; PSLSocialBridge@gmail.com.

OTHER

Open Mic Night: Get your Rock Star on every Monday night. 7-11 p.m. Terra Fermata, 26 S.E. 6th Street, Stuart. Ages: 18+. 772-286-5252; www.terrafermata.com.

MC Genealogical Society: Research assistance in Genealogy Room. Blake Library, 2351 S.E. Monterey Road, Stuart. 5:45-7:45 p.m. Ages: 12+. 772-220-1638; mcgensociety.org.

Piano Instruction: Beginners to concert level. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. Shirley Heifetz, Jensen Beach. Ages: 8+. Registration: 772-934-6812.

LOOKING AHEAD

Backpack & School Supplies Distribution: Free Backpacks and School Supplies. Noon-2 p.m. Aug. 10. The Salvation Army of Martin County, 821 S.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Stuart. Grades: K-8. 772-288-1471; Maria.McGowan@uss.salvationarmy.org.

Jazz Dance Class: 1-2 p.m. Aug. 10. Kane Center, 900 S.E. Salerno Road, Stuart. Ages: 50+. $30/$35. Register: 772-223-7800; www.kanecenter.org.

Kick off to Kindergarten: The event will give the children the chance to hop on a school bus, make healthy food choices, play with their new friends at recess and much more. 5-7 p.m. Aug. 10. The Children's Museum of the Treasure Coast, 1707 N.E. Indian River Drive, Jensen Beach. Space is limited space, please register: 772-225-7575 or visit www.ChildrensMuseumTC.org.

Coffee With A Cop: McDonald's and the Martin County Sheriff's Office are hosting. 8-10 a.m. Aug. 11. McDonald's, 3600 S.W. U.S. 1, Wedgewood Commons, Stuart.

Sailfish Splash Waterpark: Free admission day to Martin County residents. 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Aug. 11. Sailfish Splash Waterpark, 931 S.E. Ruhnke St., Stuart.

An Evening of Contemporary Dance: 7 p.m. Aug. 13. St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Cove Road, Port Salerno. $15 in advance/$20 at door. Ticket: 772-286-5455; stlukes@stlukesfl.org.

Required Minimum Distribution Workshop: What you need to know about RMD's if approaching 70. 2-3 p.m. Aug. 16, 18. Indian River State College - Wolf High Tech Center, 2400 Salerno Road, Building C, Room C102, Stuart. Adult. RSVP: 888-710-1002; www.peakcapital.fixedincomecounsel.com.

Tales from the Archives: Learn historical research & new findings from our Museum's collection. 6:30-7:30 p.m. Aug. 17. Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and Museum, 500 Captain Armour's Way, Jupiter. RSVP: 561-7478380; www.jupiterlighthouse.org.

Estate & Long-Term Care Planning: Estate & Long-Term Care Planning. 3 p.m. Aug. 18. Kane Center, 900 S.E. Salerno Road, Stuart. Ages: 60+. RSVP: 772-223-7800; www.kanecenter.org.

Furry Friends Adoption, Clinic & Ranch: Hang 20 Surf Dog Classic Pre-party and fundraiser. 5 p.m. Aug. 18. Guanabanas Waterfront Restaurant, 60 N. Highway A1A, Jupiter. Donation. RSVP: 561-737-5311; www.furryfriendsadoption.org.

Lighthouse Moonrise Tour: View the Full Moon from atop the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse. 7:15 p.m. Aug. 18. Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and Museum, 500 Captain Armour's Way, Jupiter. Children must be at least 48" to climb tower. $20 or $15 for Members. Reservation: 561-747-8380; www.jupiterlighthouse.org.

Beach 2 Beach 5k: Run/walk to benefit South Fork High's cross country team. 6:45 p.m. Aug. 19. Jensen Sea Turtle Beach, 4191 N.E. Ocean Blvd., Jensen Beach. $18-$25. Register: 772-521-3548; www.active.com/jensen-beach-fl/running/distance-running-races/beach-to-beach-5k-2016?int.

Parent University: 9 a.m.-Noon. Aug. 20. Martin County High School, 2801 Kanner Highway, Stuart. martinschools.org.

Volunteer Open House: Noon-4 p.m. Aug. 20. Maltz Jupiter Theatre, 1001 East Indiantown Road, Jupiter. 561-972-6105; brafkin@jupitertheatre.org.

Hearts at Home: Hearts at Home, Congestive Heart Failure-Focused Care. 10:30 a.m. Aug. 22. Kane Center, 900 S.E. Salerno Road, Stuart. Ages: 60+. RSVP: 772-223-7800; www.kanecenter.org.

Hearing Health Event: Get your free hearing checked out by an expert. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Aug. 23 & 25. Professional Audiology Associates, 1045 Southeast Ocean Blvd., Ste. #4, Stuart. Reservation: 772-220-8354; www.hearinghealthusa.com/event/free-hearing-health-event-stuart-fl/.

Human Trafficking Coalition of the Treasure Coast and Okeechobee: Guest Speaker: Representative Gayle Harrell. 10-11 a.m. Aug. 23. Martin County Sheriff's Office, 800 S.E. Monterey Road, Stuart.

Brain Boosting Workshop: Four Week Brain Boosting Workshop. 3-4 p.m. Aug. 24. Kane Center, 900 S.E. Salerno Road, Stuart. Ages: 60+. RSVP: 772-223-7800; www.kanecenter.org.

The Florida Chamber Foundation/Town Hall Meeting: Will roll out their 2030 plan. 8:30 a.m. Aug. 25. Indian River State College, 2400 S.E. Salerno Road, Stuart. Register: floridaflcoc.wliinc25.com/cwt/external/wcpages/wcevents/eventregistration.aspx?LK=BD8P5F7I704R1Q4L7Y4W4C2R48&EventID=674F5P.

Summer Beach Party: Social Dance Party and Dinner. 7-10 p.m. Aug. 26. Jensen Beach Ballroom, 881 N.E. Jensen Beach Blvd., Jensen Beach. Ages: 18+. $12 per person. 772-444-7003; JensenBeachBallroom.com.

Club Scrub River Paddle II & The End of Summer: Fundraiser that will benefit JDSP Camp Murphy Mountain Bike Trails. 8 a.m. Aug. 27. Jonathan Dickinson State Park, Swim Beach River Area, S.E. U.S. 1, Hobe Sound. Clubscrub.org.

Treasure Coast Yard Sale: Community yard sale & auction. 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Aug. 27. Martin County Fairgrounds, 2616 S.E. Dixie Highway, Stuart. All Ages. $0-50. Register: TreasureCoastYardSale.com.

SEPTEMBER

Bankruptcy and Fair Debt Collections  Know Your Rights: Clinics on Bankruptcy and Fair Debt Collections. 6 p.m. Sept. 6, Oct. 4, Nov. 7, Dec. 5. Port St. Lucie Civic Center, 9221 S.E. Civic Center Place, Port St. Lucie. Register: 772-466-4766; www.FRLS.org.

Crary Buchanan 9-11 Memorial Blood Drive: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sept. 10. Crary Buchanan Law, 759 S. U.S. 1, Stuart and Jetson Appliance and Electronics, 4145 S. U.S. 1, Fort Pierce.
Oct. 29 is the last day to request mail ballot to vote Nov. 8. Here's how.

2022 election: Oct. 29 is the last day you can request a mail ballot from your elections office in Martin, St. Lucie or Indian River counties.
SHARE Linda Gausten John Carvelli

RACE: Port St. Lucie City Council, District 2

TERM: Four years

CANDIDATES:

John Carvelli, Port St. Lucie

Linda Gausten, Port St. Lucie

Chauncelor Howell, Port St. Lucie

Robert Joseph, Port St. Lucie

James Pucci, Port St. Lucie

Armando Rodriguez, Port St. Lucie

WHO CAN VOTE: All Port St. Lucie voters can vote in this nonpartisan race

KEY ISSUES: Economic growth, City Center, reducing Port St. Lucie's almost $900 million debt, health of St. Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon

RECOMMENDATION: Late last year, incumbent Councilwoman Michelle Berger announced she would not be seeking re-election. Her decision drew a half-dozen candidates into the District 2 race: Carvelli, principal of Pierce Hammock Elementary School and former St. Lucie County School Board member; Gausten, a retired financial analyst/advisor and civic activist; Howell, a retired U.S. Marine; Joseph, president and chief executive officer of ReMed Pharmacy; Pucci, a firefighter/paramedic in the St. Lucie County Fire District; and Rodriguez, a former police officer in both Florida and New York.

Two candidates stood out from the field during interviews with the Editorial Board of Treasure Coast Newspapers.

Carvelli is a longtime Port St. Lucie resident who served four terms (1994-2010) on the St. Lucie County School Board. He would bring proven leadership and extensive government experience to the Port St. Lucie City Council. Carvelli also has become a student of issues confronting Port St. Lucie.

Gausten is a former Wall Street executive with a solid grasp of financial matters. Her background would be an asset to the council as it attempts to navigate numerous fiscal challenges.

Gausten also is a person of action. In 2015, she organized community efforts to oppose Compost USA, a controversial compost plant that was proposed for western St. Lucie County.

WE ENDORSE: Either John Carvelli or Linda Gausten
SHARE Jolien Caraballo

This editorial has been updated from its original version.

RACE: Port St. Lucie City Council, District 4

TERM: Four years

CANDIDATES:

Ron Bowen, Port St. Lucie (incumbent)

Jolien Caraballo, Port St. Lucie

WHO CAN VOTE: All Port St. Lucie voters can vote in this nonpartisan race

KEY ISSUES: Economic growth, City Center, reducing Port St. Lucie's almost $900 million debt, health of St. Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon

RECOMMENDATION: Three candidates' names will appear on the Aug. 30 ballot in the race for City Council, District 4. However, a vote for David Skiles will not count. He dropped out four weeks ago.

Consequently, this is a two-person race between Bowen, owner of a financial services company who is completing his fourth term on the council; and Caraballo, director of operations at Fusion Aveda Salon and Spa who served briefly on the council in 2014.

Both Bowen and Caraballo are longtime residents of Port St. Lucie.

When asked by the Editorial Board of Treasure Coast Newspapers to identify his top three successes during his most recent term, Bowen struggled to answer the question.

"The successes have been very few, to be quite honest with you," Bowen said. "I inherited a financial mess when I was elected back in 2012."

He then noted his efforts to get rid of the city's toxic debt, maintain the quality of life and support the police department.

Caraballo replaced Bowen for two months when the latter was suspended by Gov. Rick Scott for allegedly violating Florida's Sunshine Law. Bowen was reinstated after pleading no contest to one misdemeanor charge. He is suing the city for reimbursement of legal costs. The case is still pending.

Caraballo was meticulous in her preparation during her stint on the city council. Her depth of knowledge has improved since she unsuccessfully opposed Bowen four years ago. She is a fixture at city meetings and is enthusiastic about serving the residents of Port St. Lucie.

WE ENDORSE: Jolien Caraballo
SHARE Sheritta Johnson

RACE: St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections

TERM: Four years

CANDIDATES:

Sheritta Johnson, Fort Pierce

Gertrude Walker, Port St. Lucie (incumbent)

WHO CAN VOTE: All voters in St. Lucie County can vote in this universal Democratic primary

KEY ISSUES: Voting equipment problems, restoring public trust in the office, outreach to new voters

RECOMMENDATION:

By her own admission, Gertrude Walker has worked at the supervisor's office in one capacity or another "all my adult life." Her tenure as supervisor is impressive, but her longevity also may have played a role in the serious setbacks the office experienced in 2012.

While Walker's 36 years in the office have been mostly unblemished, she encountered fundamental technical problems in the 2012 general election. Several voting machines failed during the count of absentee ballots. The loss of data on six out of 100 computer memory cards caused chaos. Walker's election results were vociferously challenged by congressional candidate Allen West.

Walker's problems were caused largely by equipment so old its manufacturer would no longer support it. A year later, Walker persuaded the county commission to invest in new machines. Election nights have been much smoother ever since.

Johnson, who is risk manager for the city of Fort Pierce, agreed most of the 2012 issues were technical in nature  but she asserts the problems caused a serious loss of public trust in the supervisor's office. Johnson advocates for a more transparent operation, with more public input and more convenient polling places. She said she would reach out to a new generation of young voters using social media to improve voter registration.

Walker has served St. Lucie County admirably for decades, yet the Editorial Board believes it is time for a change at the top. Johnson offers an opportunity to modernize the supervisor's office and reach out to a new generation of voters. We thank Walker for her service, but Johnson offers the future the county deserves.

WE ENDORSE: Sheritta Johnson
SHARE Jonathan Chane

RACE: U.S. Representative, District 18, Democratic primary

TERM: 2 years

CANDIDATES:

Jonathan Chane, North Palm Beach

Randy Perkins, Palm Beach Gardens

John Xuna, Port Salerno

WHO CAN VOTE: Registered Democrats in Congressional District 18 are eligible to vote in this closed primary

KEY ISSUES: Safeguarding taxpayer money, Indian River Lagoon restoration, small business development, national security

RECOMMENDATION: The outgoing Democrat in this seat, U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, leaves a big void for his party. Before launching his campaign for Marco Rubio's spot in the U.S. Senate, Murphy had earned a reputation as a workhorse in District 18, which covers northern Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast.

The Editorial Board of Treasure Coast Newspapers had reservations about Murphy when he first ran in 2012  in part because he was from out of town. After he was elected, his frequent visits to the district and attention to local issues assuaged those concerns.

We have similar reservations about Randy Perkins, who lived in Delray Beach until late last year, when he rented a home in the district. Perkins, a self-made millionaire who founded the disaster-recovery business AshBritt Inc., is not a true local.

Nonetheless, Washington, D.C. Democrats have lined up behind Perkins, who has pumped $2 million of his own money into the race  making him a formidable opponent for the winner of the Republican primary in this seat.

But Perkins' personal wealth is not enough to sway us. On issues that are most important to the Treasure Coast, he is not the strongest candidate.

Jonathan Chane, an attorney who lives in North Palm Beach, is better-versed and more passionate about the imperiled Indian River Lagoon, the most pressing issue confronting District 18.

He understands, because he lives in the region, how the discharges from Lake Okeechobee to the St. Lucie River have disrupted our local economy.

Chane said he "100 percent supports" buying land south of Lake Okeechobee to address the problem. If elected, he pledges to use his leverage as a congressman to push for a land deal  even if the Florida Legislature continues to "abdicate its responsibility," as he put it.

The third candidate in this race, John Xuna, is transparent about his allegiances: He is a self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist who showed up to our board interview wearing a Bernie Sanders button on his tie. While we appreciate his transparency, he lacked the ability to clearly communicate a vision for the Treasure Coast's future.

WE ENDORSE: Jonathan Chane
SHARE Rick Kozell

RACE: U.S. Representative, District 18, Republican primary

TERM: 2 years

CANDIDATES:

Carl Domino, Jupiter

Mark Freeman, Boca Raton

Rick Kozell, Jupiter

Brian Mast, Fort Pierce

Rebecca Negron, Palm City

Noelle Nikpour, Jupiter

WHO CAN VOTE: Registered Republicans in Congressional District 18 are eligible to vote in this closed primary

KEY ISSUES: Safeguarding taxpayer money, Indian River Lagoon restoration, small business development, national security

RECOMMENDATION:

A diverse field of Republicans is competing to regain control of this Treasure Coast and northern Palm Beach County seat, which is being vacated by Democrat Patrick Murphy.

Some of the candidates are familiar names: Investment adviser Carl Domino is a former state representative who unsuccessfully ran in District 18 two years ago; Rebecca Negron is married to incoming Florida Senate President Joe Negron and serves on the Martin County School Board.

Brian Mast, an Army veteran who lost both legs while serving as bomb technician in Afghanistan, has a compelling personal story that has drawn well-deserved attention on the campaign trail.

However, a lesser-known candidate offers the most promise.

Jupiter resident Rick Kozell has firsthand knowledge of the challenges of job creation, having built a small marine-services business in north Palm Beach County. He sold that business to finance his law-school education at Georgetown University and, after his graduation in 2010, worked as a clerk for several U.S. senators, including former Sen. George LeMieux. Kozell's diversity of experience distinguishes him.

In this field of candidates, Kozell is the most articulate and passionate on Indian River Lagoon issues. He believes in pushing the federal government to complete the Central Everglades Restoration Plan  but he understands that CERP and other on-the-books projects won't be enough to stop the kind of toxic algae outbreaks we've seen this summer.

"Moving the water south has got to be the core of the solution. There's no other way around it," Kozell told the Editorial Board of Treasure Coast Newspapers.

Indian River Lagoon restoration is critical to the future of District 18. Negron, Mast and Domino did not match Kozell's depth of knowledge and commitment on it. The other two candidates in this race fell even further short: Dr. Mark Freeman of Boca Raton and conservative commentator Noelle Nikpour (who has been a no-show at many campaign forums, including the Editorial Board's interview).

Kozell has proved himself an aggressive campaigner, attacking Negron for donations he claims are linked to her husband's votes in the Florida Senate. We appreciate Kozell's willingness to challenge powerful players in his own party for what he believes is right.

We also encourage him to remember that building consensus on both sides of the aisle will be key to success if he's elected to represent this split district in Congress.

WE ENDORSE: Rick Kozell
By PTI: Itanagar, Aug 7 (PTI) Oil India Limited has made a payment of Rs 2.49 crore to Arunachal Pradesh against differential royalty on oil for February 2014 to March this year.

General Manager of Oil India, Duliajan (Assam), A K Acharya handed over the cheque to Chief Minister Pema Khandu in his office yesterday.

The GM briefed Khandu on the pending issues of Ningru oil field and requested him to expedite the Petroleum Mining Lease, an official release said here today.

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He also apprised Khandu of the yet to be signed MoU of 10 MW gas power plant.

The Chief Minister assured him to fast-track the pending issues and asked the firm to take up more activities in the state as it has abundant mineral oil resources which need to be tapped properly, the release said. PTI UPL NN ARD LNS

--- ENDS ---
Tesla's Autopilot feature has been the subject of intense scrutiny in recent weeks after it was revealed that the feature was enabled during a fatal accident in Florida back in May. The latest headlining story involving the autonomous driving feature, however, has a much happier ending.

Late last month, 37-year-old lawyer Joshua Neally got in his new Model X, left his law firm and hit the highway to begin his 45-minute commute to his home in Springfield, Missouri, to celebrate his daughter's fourth birthday.

As Slate notes, Neally turned on Autopilot - a decision that may have saved his life.

About five miles outside of Springfield, Neally felt something tighten in his abdomen. The pain, which he described as feeling like "a steel pole" through his chest, never subsided. Neally said he remembers calling his wife and they both agreed he should go to the emergency room ASAP.

Neally said he doesn't remember much of the remaining drive but managed to reroute the Model X to the nearest hospital more than 20 miles away. Once off the highway, he was somehow able to manually drive to the nearby hospital and check himself in.

Doctors said he suffered a pulmonary embolism, an often fatal blood clot in the body that moves to the lungs. Doctors told him he was lucky to be alive.

Whether or not the Autopilot feature actually saved his life is debatable as, in retrospect, Neally admits that pulling over and calling for an ambulance might have been the smarter move. Then again, had he been in full control of the vehicle when the first wave of pain hit, he could have easily lost control of the vehicle and crashed. What's more, waiting for an ambulance in rush hour traffic may have taken longer than him just driving straight to the hospital.
As the mosquito-borne Zika virus continues to spread and pose threats in Florida, U.S health regulators have greenlighted a plan to release millions of genetically modified mosquitoes with the aim of reducing the population of the disease-carrying insects.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday gave its approval to a proposed field trial that would release Zika-killing mutant mosquitoes in Florida.

In a statement about its final environmental assessment of the trial, the FDA said that the project led by Oxitec, a biotech company that specializes in insect control, will not have significant impacts on the environment.

The agency has been reviewing the use of Oxitec's technology, which could potentially reduce the population of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in the wild, as an investigational animal drug.

The Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are known to carry Zika as well as other human viral diseases such as yellow fever, dengue and chikungunya.

The technology involves inserting an engineered gene into male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Once these genetically engineered mosquitoes mate with females in the wild, the offspring they produce cannot survive to adulthood.

"After considering thousands of public comments, the FDA has published a final environmental assessment (EA) and finding of no significant impact (FONSI) that agrees with the EA's conclusion that the proposed field trial will not have significant impacts on the environment," the FDA said in a statement.

The assessment clears the way for Oxitec to start a clinical trial in Key Haven, Florida. The trial would evaluate if genetically modified mosquitoes can suppress the population of mosquitoes over time. It will be up to the people who live in this suburb community to vote in November whether or not the trial can proceed.

The FDA likewise said that its finalization of the EA and FONSI does mean that use of Oxitec's mutant mosquitoes are approved for commercial use. The agency said that the biotech company is in charge of ensuring all local, state and federal requirements are met before it proceeds to conducting the proposed trial. It is also up to the company and the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District to decide when to start the field trial.

Oxitec said that the trials it conducted in Brazil, Panama and the Cayman Islands resulted in the decline of mosquito populations by 90 percent. The World Health Organization (WHO), however, said that while the technology demonstrated an ability to reduce the population of mosquitoes in small-scale field trials, there's no sufficient data yet on the epidemiological impact.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius as set out in the Paris Accord could be a mirage, as nations fall short of their greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. | Read More
By PTI: From Shirish B Pradhan

Kathmandu, Aug 7 (PTI) Former Nepal Prime Minister K P Oli today cautioned India against "any unnatural" meddling in Nepals affairs.

Oli, who is also the chairman of CPN-UML, met Indian Ambassador Ranjit Rae at his party office here and made it clear that "any unnatural meddling in Nepalese affairs would be unacceptable".

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"Such activities would only complicate the situation," Oli said, adding all sides should remain vigilant towards such activities, according to a statement issued by the party.

Oli, however, said that his party was in favour of maintaining hearty and cordial relations with the neighbouring countries.

There were media reports here which blamed India for toppling Oli-led coalition government last week, which India has outrightly rejected. PTI SBP NSA

--- ENDS ---
Vietnam reacts sharply to Chinese minister's call for war in East Sea

Chang Wanquan exhorted the military, police and general population to prepare for a 'people's war at sea.'

Vietnam Internet cable ruptures, repairs delayed by typhoon The cable between Vietnam and Hong Kong snapped due to Typhoon Nida leading to slow speeds.

Labor groups, businesses agree on 7.3 percent wage rise This is unusually low considering workers have enjoyed double-digit increases in recent years.

Vietnams hotel transactions among top in Asia-Pacific Vietnam came as the fourth top market in Asia Pacific in terms of hotel investment volumes in H1.

15.8 pct of Vietnam domestic flights delayed in H1 This represented a 0.8 percentage point rise from last year.
Syrian rebels broke through to besieged opposition-held areas in eastern Aleppo on Saturday in an assault on a major government military complex meant to end a month-long siege, insurgents and a monitoring group said.

Pro-government media outlets denied the siege had been broken and a U.S. State Department official said the situation was "too fluid" to comment. The heavy fighting and air strikes reported from the area seemed to indicate any passage that may have been opened would be far from secure enough for civilians to travel through.

Rebels have been trying to break through a thin strip of government-controlled territory to reconnect insurgent areas in western Syria with their encircled sector of eastern Aleppo, in effect breaking a government siege begun last month.

The offensive against the government's Ramousah military complex, which contains a number of military colleges, began on Friday. Taking control of Ramousah and linking up with eastern Aleppo would isolate government-held western Aleppo by cutting the southern route out toward the capital Damascus.

It would also give rebels access to armaments stored in the base the Syrian army has used in the five-year conflict as a strategic platform from which to shell opposition targets.

Two rebel groups and a monitor said on Saturday they had broken the siege, but pro-government media outlets denied the claim and said the Syrian army was in fact regaining recently taken territory from rebels.

"We've seen reports but the situation is fluid and we aren't going to provide battlefield updates," the State Department official told Reuters.

Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formerly the al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, said in an online statement: "Fighters from outside the city met their brother fighters from inside the city, and work is under way to establish control over remaining positions to break the siege."

A commander from more moderate rebel group also told Reuters the siege had been broken but said it was early days and matters were "not easy".

The United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war, said intense fighting and heavy air strikes meant no secure corridor had yet been established between the two rebel-held territories.

Worst month for hospital attacks

In another report, the Observatory said an air strike near a hospital in northwestern Syria on Saturday killed 10 people including children and damaged the hospital. July was the worst month yet for attacks on medical facilities in the war-torn country, a medical charity said, with 43 recorded attacks on healthcare facilities in Syria.

The hospital is in Meles, about 15 km (9 miles) from Idlib city in rebel-held Idlib province. Syrian government and allied Russian warplanes operate in Syria but it was not known which aircraft carried out the strike.

Rebel fighters gather in an artillery academy of Aleppo, Syria, August 6, 2016.

The Observatory, in its report on the Aleppo fighting, said rebels had taken control of the Weaponry College, the main Artillery College, the Air Force Technical College and the Ramousah Garage area. Government forces still control the cement factory and some military housing.

"This is the biggest military and symbolic loss sustained by the regime, the Russians, the Iranians and Lebanon's Hezbollah since the start of 2013," the Observatory said, adding that heavy air strikes, thought to be from Russian planes, hit Aleppo on Saturday.

The Syrian military news agency said later on Saturday the Syrian army had restored control over the Artillery College and had made the rebels withdraw from the Weaponry College.

A witness said people in the streets of a part of eastern Aleppo briefly celebrated reports of the siege being broken before the sight of warplanes in the sky scattered them.

A live Syrian state TV report from the outskirts of the artillery base in Ramousah, in southwest Aleppo, broadcast the sound of gunfire, explosions and warplanes flying over.

Videos released by rebel groups claim to show gun battles as insurgents moved into buildings in the complex.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad wants to take full control of Aleppo, pre-war Syria's most populous city, which has been divided between rebel and government-held areas. Such a victory would be a crushing blow to the insurgents.

Civilian suffering

A quarter of a million civilians are thought to still live in Aleppo's opposition-controlled eastern neighborhoods, effectively under siege since the army and allied militia cut off the last road into rebel districts in early July.

Rebel fighters prepare their weapons in an artillery academy of Aleppo, Syria, August 6, 2016.

Residents on both side of the city are suffering. Government areas frequently come under attack from rebel shelling, and rebel-held areas are routinely shelled and come under air attack from Syrian and allied Russian forces.

Humanitarian groups say the situation in eastern Aleppo is very worrying. The Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) charity group said that already depleted medical facilities were targeted by strikes 15 times in July.

Only 35 doctors remain in the city and over 100 people are in need of medical evacuation, SAMS Aleppo Coordinator Dr Abo El-Ezz said in a statement.

The multi-sided civil war in Syria, which has been raging since 2011, has drawn in regional and global powers, caused the world's worst humanitarian emergency and attracted recruits to Islamist militancy from around the world.

Some rebel groups refer to the Aleppo battle as the "Ibrahim al-Youssef Offensive", a reference to a Sunni army officer said to have led a massacre of cadets at the Artillery College in the late 1970s. The cadets were predominantly from the Alawite sect of Bashar al-Assad and his late father and predecessor as president, Hafez al-Assad.
An Islamic State flag is seen in this picture illustration taken February 18, 2016.

Militants linked to Islamic State have released photos that purport to show weapons and equipment that belonged to American soldiers and were captured by the group in eastern Afghanistan.

The photos, which came to light on Saturday, show an American portable rocket launcher, radio, grenades and other gear not commonly used by Afghan troops, as well as close up views of identification cards for a U.S. Army soldier, Specialist Ryan Larson.

The U.S. military command in Kabul denied any suggestion the soldier had been captured, saying he "has been accounted for and remains in a duty status within his unit."

American special operations troops have been fighting alongside Afghan forces in a renewed offensive against militants who claim allegiance to Islamic State in Nangarhar Province, which borders Pakistan.

"SPC Larson was attached to a unit conducting a partnered (operation) with Afghan Forces," U.S. military spokesman Commander Ron Flesvig said in an emailed statement on Sunday. "The soldier's I.D. and some of the equipment were left behind after the (operation). The loss of personal identification is unfortunate."

In July, U.S. commanders said at least five special forces were injured in fighting in the province.

The website that published the photos speculated that the equipment and weapons were left behind during that engagement, but Flesvig said American officials are still trying to determine exactly when and how it was lost.

The push in Nangarhar came after President Barack Obama cleared American troops to take a more active role in fighting militants in Afghanistan.

Besides advising work and special operations missions, American aircraft deployed at least 545 weapons in the first six months of 2016.
"The UKs actions in Libya were part of an ill-conceived intervention, the results of which are still playing out today."
By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 7 (PTI) The Opposition today termed Prime Minister Narendra Modis statement against cow vigilantes as "absolutely humbug", alleging that his ideological co-travellers were perpetrating "terror" in the name of cow protection.

Congress leader Manish Tewari questioned Modis "silence" on the Dadri lynching incident last year and alleged that the PM was selective in his outreach.

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"..why does he not prevail upon RSS to disband the VHP, why does he not take action against the office bearers of Bajrang Dal?

"Therefore it is his ideological co-travellers who have been perpetrating this spectre of uncertainty and terror in the name of cow lumpenism across the country, thereby whatever the Prime Minister says today is absolutely humbug and completely sanctimonious," Tewari said.

Echoing similar sentiments, JD(U) leader Pavan Verma said had the PM given a stern message earlier, the "menace" of gau rakshaks could have been prevented.

"If the Prime Minister had given the same message earlier, we would not have seen this menace of gau rakshaks spreading pan India. But he choose to keep silent although he tweets on any other subject under the sun. Breaking the silence is welcome, the only question is why so late," he said.

CPI leader D Raja also crticised the ruling dispensation stating there were issues on which people expect the PM to speak, including, increasing atrocities on dalits.

"Why has the PM not uttered a single word against the atrocities committed in his own state Gujarat?" he asked.

BJP, however, defended Modis statement and said the opposition attack was a "classic book example of political bankruptcy".

"There cannot be more direct censure by the Prime Minister in expressing his displeasure to what anti-social elements are doing in the name of Gau Raksha," BJP National Secretary Sidharth Nath Singh said.

He said since the opposition has nothing against the Prime Minister, it wanted to hide its failures and indulged in pointing fingers at the Centre.

In his first public denouncement of cow vigilantes, some of whom flogged dalits in his home state Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had yesterday said he felt enraged at such "anti-social elements" who indulged in crimes by the night and masqueraded as cow protectors by the day. PTI JTR SRY SK SRY

--- ENDS ---
Advocate file photo by MARK BALLARD -- The Louisiana House of Representatives advances an alternative for the state to offer REAL ID-compliant driver's licenses that would that make it easier for residents to take commercial flights and enter federal facilities.
As ominous a sight as it was, Gavin Longs heavily armed walk down Airline Highway fell squarely within Louisiana law, which allows gun owners to openly carry firearms in public.

Long's handling of a military-style rifle likely would have prompted Baton Rouge police to question him, regardless of whether any 911 calls had been placed about him. But before he leveled the Israeli-made assault weapon at his first victim  or committed some other crime  authorities had no right to take him into custody.

In fact, in the moments before he gunned down three law enforcement officers and wounded three others July 17, Long had been merely a subject walking with a coat and an assault rifle," as one dispatcher described him.

Or as State Police Col. Mike Edmonson put it, quoting the initial emergency call, he was a "dude with a rifle going down Airline Highway."

Can't see video below? Click here.

We dont really have very many options in this situation because, under the (state) constitution and probable cause (rules), the only thing we really have is public concern, Baton Rouge Police Chief Carl Dabadie said in an interview last week. Should we have been able to stop him? Thats a question the legislators are going to have to work out.

The bloodshed that Long unleashed in Baton Rouge last month has exposed an ambivalence among some law enforcement leaders about the right Louisianians enjoy to carry firearms openly in public  an unease that pits them against some Second Amendment advocates. Often aligned when it comes to guns, the two camps are divided over the wisdom of "open carry" and the challenges it presents for police.

"It scares the hell out of me," Sgt. C. Bryan Taylor, the president of the Baton Rouge police union, said of open carry, adding theres an even greater risk for officers who encounter citizens sporting exposed rifles or shotguns. "There's a time and place for everything," he said, adding that he would prefer owners of long guns to avoid carrying those weapons in public.

Anyone legally permitted to own a weapon in Louisiana  generally speaking, those who are 18 and older and are not convicted felons  may carry any type of firearm in public places without any training or permit.

Open carry is legal in Louisiana because it's never been outlawed, experts say. The state constitution affirms the right of people to bear arms, and case law dating back to 1850 has held that to mean people may carry firearms openly.

+22 Loretta Lynch's visit to Baton Rouge caps off emotionally draining month After two days spent listening to a cross-section of Baton Rouge  from first responders to 

Some Second Amendment advocates say banning open carry could create a slippery slope toward infringing on gun rights, which are firmly enshrined in Louisiana.

Dan Zelenka, president of the Louisiana Shooting Association, said the right to carry a firearm openly is an essential expression of the Second Amendment, noting instances in which gun owners may be unable to afford or obtain a concealed carry permit.

"The problem isn't with open carry," Zelenka said. "The problem is the criminal's intent to commit the crime. A law-abiding citizen could open-carry anything and be of no danger to anybody."

And while several law enforcement officials expressed concerns about gun owners carrying their weapons openly, Zelenka said it would set a dangerous precedent to begin stripping gun owners of their civil rights in the wake of the Baton Rouge shooting.

"You dont throw away peoples rights because it complicates law enforcement, Zelenka said. If that were the test, then law enforcement would be able to tap your phones, pull you over and search you" without a warrant.

Open carry has unnerved the family of at least one of the slain officers. The father of Baton Rouge Cpl. Montrell Jackson said he couldn't comprehend why someone would be allowed to own an IWI Tavor, the Israeli-made assault rifle Long used to wreak havoc, let alone be allowed to carry it around in public.

"I'm against that 100 percent," the officer's father, Hosea Jackson, said last week. "They shouldn't be able to own (a military-style rifle). They shouldn't be able to put their hands on it. If you're not in the military, you shouldn't be able to get your hands on it, and if you do, you should be punished."

Long, an Iraq War veteran, said in online videos that he owed his weapons training to the Marine Corps. He was fatally shot by at least one Baton Rouge Police SWAT officer after the July 17 attack.

Not all law enforcement officials have questioned the wisdom of open carry in the wake of the shooting. East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Sid Gautreaux, speaking on national television hours after the shooting, said the shooting deaths were not so much about gun control as it is about what's in men's hearts."

By and large, however, law enforcement officials express a quiet discomfort over a constitutionally protected right that they say complicates their job.

It is legal, but Im asking you not to do it, said St. Charles Parish Sheriff Greg Champagne, who serves as president of the National Sheriffs' Association. If you do it, I promise you youre going to alarm somebody. If you really feel the need to protect yourself, get a concealed carry permit.

Dabadie, the Baton Rouge police chief, said open carry places his officers in a perilous Catch-22 situation. The police may question someone toting a rifle openly, he said, but lawmen can't compel that person to talk to them, and "there's no litmus test to put a piece of material on their forehead" to gauge that person's intentions.

"I realize that it's a right guaranteed in our constitution, and no one respects that more than I do," Dabadie said. "But it does create challenges for us because we don't know the mindset of the person. In the wake of everything that's happened, my officers tend to get nervous when they see someone with a long gun or openly carrying a gun."

Some open-carry advocates, while in favor of toting handguns in plain sight, explicitly advise against toting long guns in public.

"We don't encourage the open carry of rifles because of safety reasons," said Alfred "Speedy" Mercer, the information officer for the Louisiana Open Carry Awareness League. "If you carry a pistol in public and it's in a holster, it's safer because you're not having to move it around and hold it.  Whereas when you have a rifle, you've got to worry about the trigger being exposed, and of course you have to touch it more. And the more you handle a weapon, the more likely an accident could happen."

Still, Mercer said open carry is an important option to have during crises. After a hurricane, as his neighbors' houses on his street sat mostly abandoned, he informally policed his street with a shotgun strapped to his body to deter would-be looters, he said. He said the police, who were inundated with work, drove by and thanked him for helping out.

+3 'A delicate line': BR police chief thrust into spotlight amid shooting tragedies When Carl Dabadie Jr. got the call all police chiefs dread, he was deep in the throes of one

Mercer said the fear of rifles and other long guns is misplaced, saying that rifles account for a very small proportion of shooting deaths.

But others say it's far from clear that openly carrying a firearm deters would-be criminals, said David Klinger, a former police officer and professor of criminology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. In fact, it could actually make the bearer of that weapon the first target.

The notion of having a deterrent capability among the general population sort of goes out the window when you have weapons in an open-carry posture, Klinger said. I just dont understand it from a self-defense standpoint.

Some elected officials have called for the state's open-carry law to be re-evaluated in the wake of last month's shootings. East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor-President Kip Holden told The Advocate last week that he has "some problems" with the law. He said the mere sight of an openly carried firearm can fuel passions and cause an otherwise routine argument to become fatal.

"I think it has to be examined," Holden said of open carry. "Emotions have to be placed aside."

Yet any attempts to alter Louisiana's gun laws encounter an almost gravitational resistance. Voters passed a constitutional amendment in 2012 that gave the state the strongest gun ownership protection laws in the nation, declaring the right to bear arms to be fundamental, and requiring any limitations on that right to face a rigorous legal test known as "strict scrutiny," the highest level of judicial review.

It remains unclear whether the Baton Rouge shooting will spawn legislation of any kind. State Sen. J.P. Morrell, D-New Orleans, said gun control bills are filed every year in Louisiana but are "almost universally unsuccessful."

"The question will be whether the public finally has had enough to support such a bill," he said.

Even if open carry remains legal in Louisiana, Dabadie said law enforcement needs clearer guidelines on how officers may respond to citizens who choose to openly carry.

"My officers are kind of stuck," the police chief added. "Tell us what we can and cannot do here, because unless (someone is) threatening somebody with a weapon, there's not a whole lot of" options for law enforcement.
The AIIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi took a jibe and said it was actually the PM himself who raked up the "cow slaughtering" issue during the 2014 general election campaign.

By Ashish Pandey: The comment of Prime Minister Narendera Modi over the recent attacks by the cow vigilante groups across the country has attracted a mixed response. Reacting on PM Modi's comment the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi asked why PM took so long to react on this sensitive issue.

Speaking exclusively to India Today, The AIIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi took a jibe and said it was actually the PM himself who raked up the "cow slaughtering" issue during the 2014 general election campaign.

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Owaisi also questioned the timing of the comment made by the PM. Questioning the motive he said, since the BJP is facing a widespread criticism over the floggings of Dalit youths in Una, Gujarat, Narendera Modi was forced to react.

Questioning PM Modi's silence over the lynching of Akhlak in Dadri as well as killing of two minority youths in Jharkhand Asaduddin Owaisi asked "instead of making statement he should act on them".

Commenting on the statement of PM that "70-80 per cent will be those who indulge in anti-social activities and try to hide their sins by pretending to be Gau Rakshaks" the Hyderabad MP said that actually the it's the right wingers and persons attached or affiliated by the RSS are involved in such attacks. He said that instead of making statement PM should react on them.

Pointing out that there is no respect left for the law of the land in the country particularly by the manor the right wing organisation are operating, Owaisi said that a wide spread fear has been prevailing in the country and it's the time for the government to act and act tough on such hate mongers.

He also cited that how the International media is reporting the attacks on "Dalits" as well as on "minorities" in the country is ruining the image of India globally and this might hamper the growth as well as foreign investment in the country.



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Violent crime was soaring. Murders had reached peak levels. The city's police force, mired in corruption and lawlessness, was undermanned and 
The face of the union advertising campaign in the lead-up to the election is a long-time unionist, now with retired unionists group Vintage Reds, but says she will probably lodge a protest vote against Labor's tram.

Retired nurse Jude Dodd said she was a little averse to the limelight and at first refused the request from Unions ACT secretary Alex White to front the $60,000 union campaign, but was persuaded.

She was not, though, a rusted-on Labor voter, and said many people this year were opposed to the tram and development issues in the city. She was likely to lodge a protest vote against light rail, voting for an independent or Green.

Ms Dodd said she usually preferenced Labor. She acknowledged that meant her vote would contribute to a Green success or, when the independent was knocked out of the race, to a Labor success, either way helping Labor form government. Which in turn would result in a tram being built. "Indirectly, yes, unfortunately," she said.
As flames engulfed her family's home, Mary Kbaba was in the street pleading, "Help me! My daughter is in there!"

Her husband Justin had tried to get Miata to safety but was overcome by smoke. Mrs Kbaba, who had already helped three of their children out a window, braved the flames once more and went back to rescue their daughter.

The family of seven survived but Miata remains in a critical condition in the Children's Hospital at Westmead, suffering serious burns.

On Sunday, through tears, Mrs Kbaba spoke of her daughter's injuries and the terror of the fire that ravaged their home in Doonside the day before.
Consumer confidence is returning after a tough winter and the long federal election campaign, says the owner of department store chain David Jones and clothing label Country Road.

South African retail giant Woolworths Holdings bought David Jones and Country Road a couple of years ago for $2.4 billion.

Consumer confidence returning, says Ian Moir, the CEO of Woolworths Holdings. Credit:Maarten Holl

Woolworths Holdings chief executive Ian Moir said the $93 billion company was pleased with its Australian assets, which include brands Trenery, Witchery and Mimco.

"We're happy, I think consumer confidence is coming back a little post the election and let's see what happens with summer," Mr Moir told Fairfax Media.
"My cousin, a WO in the army, recently completed several weeks in the South Australian bush on military exercises. On her return home I rang to inquire as to her welfare. She told me she was eagerly looking forward to a visit to the hairdresser, having a massage and dropping in for a pedicure. Somehow this doesn't fit my image of brave warriors wearing camouflage and body armour protecting our nation. Things have changed since my time in the military during the 1960's." Denis Gray, of Toukley.

"At our hospital radiotherapy unit the patients, when changed into gowns, are directed by a notice to wait in the sub-wait waiting area before being called to go to a smaller waiting area where they wait to be taken to the treatment room." Joan Brown, Orange.

Qashqai? Qashqai?!? Can anyone, preferably someone from Nissan, please explain the rationale behind naming their 2WD SUV after a Turkic language spoken by about 1,500,000 nomadic people living in and around south-western Iran?" R Linkiewicz, Caringbah.

"What has happened to raincoats?" asks Ian Aldridge, of Goulburn,. "Driving to work today, I noticed several school kids waiting for their bus in the rain, without a raincoat or umbrella in sight.They have obviously gone out of fashion."

"I was reminiscing with a friend about our days in kindergarten (1950s) at a Sydney GPS school when he recalled one of our number being tied to his chair by the teacher. I couldn't remember this and asked why it was done. To stop him getting out of his chair of course and the teacher used her stockings! Tony Hunt, Gordon.
Interior Ministry spokesman Sarfaraz Hussain said Mathew Craig Barrett was deported and blacklisted in 2011 after being found in the area of a sensitive installation.

By AP: Pakistani officials say a blacklisted American citizen has been arrested in the capital Islamabad.

Interior Ministry spokesman Sarfaraz Hussain says Saturday that Federal Investigation Agency officials arrested Mathew Craig Barrett from an Islamabad guest house.

He said Barrett was deported and blacklisted in 2011 after being found in the area of a sensitive installation. He did not elaborate. Hussain said Barrett obtained a visa from the Pakistani consulate in Houston and managed to clear the airport immigration counter.

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PAKISTAN SUSPENDS AIRPORT IMMIGRATION STAFF



US embassy spokesman Christopher K Snipes said in a text message that the privacy act "prohibits us from releasing information about American citizens without their consent."

Hussain said the interior minister has ordered a thorough inquiry into how Barret managed to enter Pakistan again and suspended the airport immigration staff.

ALSO READ:

Mumbai resident attacked thrice in Pakistan jail, Sushma Swaraj asks Indian envoy to help





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If you think that with his recent attacks on a crying baby and the Muslim parents of a dead soldier or his apparent willingness to use nuclear weapons, or his use of details from a confidential security briefing, or even his outright refusal to endorse leading Republicans, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Arizona Senator John McCain, in their primary races, Donald Trump finally has gone too far and has blown his chances of becoming the next president of the US  think again.

Following what has been perhaps Trump's most controversial week yet, some commentators are writing him off. But these writers might be placing hope in front of realism in reaching this judgment.

The Donald is just doing what he does best  courting the anti-establishment vote by defying the norms of political convention.

The more prominent Republicans and donors peel away, turn up their noses at his latest antics, and promise to give money to Clinton, the more Trump's credentials are burnished with voters who feel disenfranchised by the system that all too often has rewarded these defectors.
Twenty years after a virus deadly to rabbits escaped from an island, catching scientists unprepared for its release, Michelago Landcare volunteer Tony Robinson is joining a community counter-attack.

In 1996 Mr Robinson, a CSIRO scientist, was involved in plans to release the first rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHDV1), but it escaped off Wardang island in South Australia before the CSIRO and states had time to implement a planned release.

Tony Robinson and Jenny Goldie will trial an app to monitor rabbits. Credit:Jay Cronan

"There was a lost opportunity for a better release. The CSIRO was lining up a strategic release across Australia, but of course, that was changed because of the virus getting off the island," Mr Robinson said.

Nevertheless, RHDV1 knocked over 98 per cent of the rabbit population, more than enough to re-build numbers. A formidable pest that has defied fencing, poisoning, and shooting, rabbits also develop resistance to diseases. In 2007 a benign strain of calicivirus gave the rabbit partial immunity to RHDV.
The push to encourage more students to enrol in science and technology degrees is dangerous and risks leaving many graduates unemployed, the respected Grattan Institute has warned.

A new report by the think tank, to be released on Monday, finds that science enrolments have surged over recent years yet science graduates are struggling to find jobs. They are also less likely than other graduates to put into practice what they learnt at university.

Despite this, business groups, the science lobby and politicians continue to argue Australia needs more graduates with Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) degrees.

Grattan Institute higher education program director Andrew Norton said beginning a science degrees was a "risky" decision that students should not make lightly.
It's hard to know what was more delicious: hearing Susan Sarandon repeat her oft-quoted phrase that "I don't vote with my vagina" or listening to her giving advice to a "Real Housewife" about female relationships.

The 69-year-old actress, who is in Australia as a guest of the La Dolce Italia festival, on Sunday treated about 150 lunch guests to anecdotes about her film career and political activism.

Actress Susan Sarandon arrives at Crown for the Breaking Barriers charity event for the La Dolce Italia festival on Sunday afternoon. Credit:Darrian Traynor

Sarandon, an outspoken supporter of Democrat Bernie Sanders, said she wasn't afraid to take unpopular stands on issues.

"The thing that really gets me is when I haven't said something honestly. When there is something that people who don't have a voice ... and someone tells me about it, and I have the opportunity to shine a light on it, when I don't, I feel that I have betrayed my authenticity," she told the compere, Crown's Ann Peacock.
Even babies born a second before midnight will be counted in Tuesday's census.

Some 3000 newborns will join the headcount in the 72 hours leading up to the snapshot of Australia and some will take it right down to the wire.

Even babies born a second before midnight must be included in the census.

"We know that there are babies born approximately every one minute and 45 seconds so they're certainly babies born around midnight," 2016 census program head Duncan Young said.

"If your baby is born on August 9, they should be included."
The team decided to study these "extreme responders" as they called them. To make sure they got only the truly exceptional cases  the Grout-style miracles  they set strict limits. They would look at patients with widespread cancer that couldn't be cleared by surgery but which had apparently responded to chemotherapy. "Patients who should have, in any other circumstances  relapsed early and died," deFazio says. Professor Anna deFazio is part of a team studying exceptional responses to cancer and the genomes that go with them. Credit:Wolter Peeters The ovarian cancer they were studying  high-grade serous  was so lethal that women who didn't relapse within three years were deemed extreme responders. The researchers tested genes they suspected of playing a part in exceptional response, but at that time they could only test those they already knew about. Given there are about 20,000 genes in the human genome it was something of a lucky dip. "We only got a certain way down the track," deFazio says. Professor David Bowtell, the head of Cancer Genomics and Genetics at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, lost his own mother to ovarian cancer in 1996 when far less was known about it. Credit:Justin McManus

But then Whole Genome Sequencing arrived. DeFazio and her colleagues  including experts from across the country who had joined forces to form the Australian Ovarian Cancer Study  knew it was the key to unlocking the secrets of patients like Grout. With Whole Genome Sequencing they would no longer have to guess which genetic mutations were present in the genome of a cancer tumour; they would be able to see the entire genome. If previously they had been looking for needle in a haystack, now they would see the entire stack in such detail it would be like looking through the Hubble telescope at the bruises and bends on each strand of hay. Professor Sean Grimmond, who investigates ovarian and pnacreatic cancer genomes, shows Health Minister Susan Ley, US Vice President Joe Biden and Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews around a research labs at the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre. Credit:Getty Images The new technology was particularly important when it came to exceptional responders because it would allow scientists to identify all the genetic mutations that tumours from these patients had in common. And it would let them see whether the mutations had been inherited  like the BRCA1 mutation that predisposes carriers to breast and ovarian cancer  or had been acquired as the cancer developed. Still, whole genome sequencing was slow and expensive, and the secrets of exceptional responders remained out of reach. The Human Genome Project, completed in 2003, took 13 years and $US2.7 billion ($3.5 billion). But then the cost and time involved plummeted, and over little more than a decade it became possible to sequence a genome in days and for a few thousand dollars. The secrets of the exceptional responders were within reach.

Thanks to egg donors, Bronwyn Grout has had three children since having both her ovaries removed: Emily, Daniel and Thomas. Credit:Kate Geraghty Earlier this year, the Australian Ovarian Cancer Study and its international partners got funding to map the genomes of exceptional responders to ovarian cancer therapy. The US Agency that awarded the funding after a four-year international competition has stipulated that the patients to be studied are those who have survived 10 years or more since therapy. It's a much more ambitious target than the three-years-without-relapse first nominated by deFazio and her colleagues. And it's a target they like. The devil in the detail "If you know the enemy," Sun Tzu writes in The Art of War, "you need not fear the result of a hundred battles." Professor Sean Grimmond is lead investigator for Australia's effort to map ovarian and pancreatic cancer genomes for the International Cancer Genome Consortium. Credit:Justin McManus

It's a quote the head of the Australian Ovarian Cancer Study, Professor David Bowtell, is fond of repeating. When his mother died from ovarian cancer in 1996, four and a half years after being diagnosed, he didn't know the enemy at all. Now Bowtell  also head of Cancer Genomics and Genetics at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre  is determined to know all the secret mutations and behaviours of his nemesis. Back in 1996, ovarian cancer was thought of as one disease. It is, in fact, several. Cancer is essentially damage to the genome or operating system of an organism, which causes cells to grow out of control. And whole genome sequencing has revealed just how unique each cancer is. "In each genome there is a certain constellation of mutations," Bowtell says. "It's like being dealt a hand of cards. Two people with a hand may have some cards in common  some mutations in common  but each will be a unique combination." He wonders whether exceptional responders may have an unusual combination of mutations that make their cancer particularly vulnerable to therapy, "which would go to explaining the unusual nature of exceptional responders," he says. In addition to classifying ovarian cancer into several different subtypes, Bowtell and his colleagues have already identified three different kinds of exceptional responder. There are those, like Grout, whose cancer seems to just disappear in response to chemotherapy. "These are the ones whose biomarkers just drop off a cliff to a normal number and then just flatline," Bowtell says.

Then there are patients whose cancer returns following treatment but "for some reason the cancer doesn't learn to recognise the chemotherapy", so it keeps working, once, twice, several times. In a third group, the cancer disappears for longer stretches between chemo. The first kind of responder may have a mutation or cluster of mutations that makes their cancer vulnerable to treatment and Bowtell hopes that studying them might lead to drugs targeting specific mutations, while the other responders may hold the key to finding new ways of triggering the body's own immune system to fight cancer. Bowtell and his colleagues are not the only ones racing to learn out the secrets of the exceptional responder. In 2014, the National Cancer Institute in the United States announced an Exceptional Responders Initiative, which would study responders who had defied the odds in failed clinical trials as well as those who had done particularly well on standard treatments. In Australia, there is a project to sequence the genomes of a small number of patients that responded exceptionally well to therapy for the brain cancer glioblastoma  a therapy that failed clinical trials. (Two of these patients are still alive and receiving the "failed" therapy from the drug company on compassionate grounds even though the trial was closed in 2014). Other researchers have looked at exceptional responders to pancreatic cancer therapy.

Sean Grimmond, lead investigator for Australia's effort to map ovarian and pancreatic cancer genomes for the International Cancer Genome Consortium, remembers sequencing a pancreatic tumour for the consortium as the patient was starting palliative care. Grimmond and his colleagues found a mutation common in other types of cancer  BRCA2, best known for predisposing carriers to breast, ovarian and prostate cancer  that they suspected would make the tumour vulnerable to a certain type of chemotherapy. Their research was not allowed to influence patient care, and in any case sequencing technology was still too slow, but while they were still analysing the tumour they learnt the patient had received the chemotherapy as a palliative measure. It melted the tumour away. The researchers then found another exceptional responder among the patients they had sequenced for the consortium. This second patient also had a BRCA2 mutation and had received the same chemotherapy. And when Grimmond and colleagues reviewed other consortium patients who had responded well to the same chemo, they discovered all had damage to the BRCA2 or related genes, genes that play a crucial role in repairing DNA. The BRCA2 mutation has since been the basis of clinical trials here and overseas. "It's kind of a hackneyed idea, 'the war on cancer'," Bowtell says. "But to me it really feels like that." And with whole genome sequencing, he is finally getting to know his enemy.

Finding the unicorns Miracles tend to upend our basic assumptions about how the world works. Exceptional responders too, are shifting the very foundations of how we treat cancer. Back in 1998, when the Human Genome Project was still five years off completion, US computer scientist Marty Tenenbaum discovered a lump under his arm. It was the metastasis from a primary melanoma that his doctor couldn't find. Tenenbaum went to the payphone in the doctor's lobby and called his wife. "Houston, we have a problem," he said. "I was scared." Tenenbaum consulted as many doctors as he could, including the then head of the National Cancer Institute in Washington, for whom Tenenbaum had been doing pro-bono consulting. "They all agreed on one thing, which was that the prognosis was dire," he remembers. But what Tenenbaum found "intriguing" was that they didn't agree on the "Hail Mary". "Everyone had a different thing that I should try," he says. "I made a vow that if I somehow got through this that I would use my background as a computer scientist to try to solve that problem."

Tenenbaum pinpointed the clinical trial he wanted to be on, the one he thought held the most hope of curing his incurable cancer, only to be told he had the wrong haplotype, a cluster of genes that can determine immune response. Determined not to give up, Tenenbaum enrolled in another trial that combined extensive surgery to remove metastases  an uncommon treatment at the time  with immunotherapy. The trial failed because too few patients responded to the treatment. A few however, responded exceptionally well, including Tenenbaum. What did it mean that he had survived and others hadn't? That he had gotten into the one trial that could have cured him? "If I'd gone into the other study? Died." Grimmond says the existence of exceptional responders like Tenenbaum, "the unicorns", means we have to completely rethink the way cancer is treated. As it is, trials are generally only considered successful if a statistically significant percentage of patients respond to the therapy  even if those who do respond are practically healed. Whole genome sequencing allows researchers to identify identical mutations across different types of cancers and target patients they think will respond, whether they have breast or ovarian cancer or melanoma. They could also exclude those without the susceptible mutation, ensuring a better trial result. That would both lower the cost of trials and ensure many more drugs are kept in use.

UNSW's Associate Professor Kerrie McDonald, principal investigator on the study of exceptional responders to glioblastoma treatment, says "we need to stop ignoring the minority of patients who may actually respond to the drug and study their biology so we can better stratify the trial population leading to success". For Tenenbaum, the existence of exceptional responders and poor responders means "clinical trials in cancer don't make sense anymore" because once you factor in the millions of genetic subtypes and the thousands of possible drug combinations, "there are far too many hypotheses to explore". "People at the cutting edge of oncology are continually experimenting with individual patients  doing molecular profiling, trying to come up with a theory of how to treat this patient or that patient, using a combination of drugs, [but] no one captures that learning." In 2011, Tenenbaum founded Cancer Commons, which has been called the "LinkedIn" for cancer. Patients can post their case online and get a quick expert response recommending a particular trial or treatment, and then that patient can let the Commons know how their treatment went, improving understanding. The Commons is still building its network, but Tenenbaum's dream is that one day it will catalogue millions of individual treatments and outcomes as they occur and feed the results back into the system so that the understanding of what works and what doesn't is continually improving.

"I believe that based on the variation of outcomes, we can significantly extend life," he says. Maybe even downgrade cancer to a chronic disease for "half the people who are now dying". And that's without developing any new drugs. Grout, who with the help of egg donors has had three children following her exceptional response, would like those odds. She hopes that somewhere in her genome or in her cancer's genome there's something that will help the scientists who've turned the miraculous into exceptional turn the exceptional into everyday. "I don't believe it's a miracle," she says. "Because that would mean there can't be an explanation and it can't be benefited from by others." 'Failed drug' keeping two brain cancer patients alive She doesn't even know their names, but Associate Professor Kerrie McDonald hangs out for news of her exceptional responders. "I literally do," she says. Two weeks ago, she heard that both patients were still alive, almost two years after the clinical trial they'd been in was wound up.

"It's fantastic," she says, "completely unexpected." The trial of a combination therapy for recurrent glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer, was deemed a failure because not enough of the 122 patients enrolled responded to the treatment. But about 10 per cent responded exceptionally including McDonald's two responders, who are still receiving the "failed" therapy on compassionate grounds from the drug company. Thanks to whole genome sequencing, McDonald is now comparing the genomes of the 10 patients who best responded to the treatment with the 10 patients who responded worst, "trying to find genes that are specific to each group". It's a big task  each genome takes McDonald between three and six months to sequence. Still, such explorations are only just recently possible, and McDonald says the landscapes they've opened up must change the way we treat cancer. "When you look at one tumour it's completely different to the next patient's tumour, yet we treat everyone the same." McDonald calls for a "more personalised approach", saying we need more biomarkers or "red flags" indicating the presence of a particular gene mutation or protein, for which patients can be tested before they're given a treatment to determine how they're likely to respond.
A Bedford truck that played a pivotal role in an Indigenous land rights movement during the 1960s will find its new home in Canberra.

The truck's significance developed during a seven-year strike by Indigenous station workers, said the National Museum of Australia, which is now charged with conserving and displaying the vehicle.

The Bedford truck. Credit:Brenda L Croft

The strike was first about wages, but it turned into something bigger.

In 1966, Australia's industrial tribunal had ruled that Indigenous workers should be paid equal wages  but not for another three years.
Police hold grave concerns for a man who has been missing in dense bushland in the Hawkesbury area for more than 24 hours.

A search for Tiemuzhen Chalaer was suspended on Monday night, as temperatures were expected to dip to 4 degrees, and is due to resume at 9am on Tuesday.

Tiemuzhen Chalaer went missing in bushland in the Hawkesbury area on Sunday.

The 24-year-old went missing from a campsite party at Lower Portland, near Wheelbarrow Ridge Road track and Greens Road, on Sunday morning.

He was last seen between 6.30am and 9am, when police believe he walked into bushland near the campsite.
Standing in front of the mirror and staring into her brown eyes, Tracey Bigeni tells herself that she is strong and she is beautiful. It's something she does each day at her Kellyville home, in Sydney's north west, where she's now trying to fix her hair into a victory roll while feeding rusks to her nine month-old daughter Celeste in a high chair.

Bigeni's mum Judith arrives to help so she can finish getting ready, putting on apple-red lipstick and loading the car with an evening dress encrusted with diamantes and pearls, and a battery-operated bustle on her behind that will light up with the Luna Park face each time she turns for the crowd.

This is Bigeni's second time competing for Miss Pinup Australia, a curiously non-pageant pageant that celebrates vintage fashions and the women who wear them. The event encourages women of every age, shape and size to show off their love of 1940s and 1950s glamour. Eighteen of them gathered at Paddington RSL on Saturday night for the national finals.

Bigeni, a 45-year-old mother of four, competed under the stage name Miss Tee Cee  her nickname as a child  including her tribute to the early days of Luna Park. The title of Miss Pinup Australia 2016 was won by Miss Jade Serpentine, with Bigeni finishing third.
An out-of-control ute became airborne before crashing into a carport in Holland Park during the early hours of Sunday morning.

About 12.45am, a white Mitsubishi Triton was travelling east on Oates Avenue when it went over a keep left sign at the intersection with Hector Road.

A ute has slammed into a residential carport in Holland Park on Sunday morning, landing on top of two other cars and causing the structure to collapse. Credit:7 News Sydney

The driver then lost control and the ute continued a further 80 metres before crossing over to the other side of the road.

Police said the ute then became airborne and flew into a carport on Oates Avenue, landing on top of two parked cars, before the structure collapsed on top of all three.
By PTI: Itanagar, Aug 6 (PTI): Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu today allocated portfolios to the newly inducted cabinet ministers, a government notification said.

Ten cabinet ministers were sworn in on August 3 last.

Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein has been given the charge of Finance, Planning and PWD while Tanga Byaling got Rural Development and Panchayat.

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Rajesh Tacho was allocated the departments of Animal Husbandry, Veterinary, Diary Development and Fisheries.

Former speaker Nabam Rebia has been given the charge of Urban Development, Town Planning, Housing, Urban Local Bodies and Law & Justice, while Honchun Ngandam got the departments of Education and Libraries.

While Wanki Lowang is now the minister for Department of Tirap, Changlang and Longding (DoTCL), Agriculture and Trade & Commerce, Kamlung Mosang has been allocated the departments of Water Resources Development (WRD), Geology and Mining, the notification said.

Former Education Minister Tapang Taloh has been allocated the departments of Industries, Textiles & Handicrafts and Cooperation, while Kumar Waii got the departments of Rural Works Department (RWD), Labour and Employment.

Takam Pario has been given the departments of Public Health Engineering (PHED) and Disaster Management and Jomde Kena got the departments of Transport, Supply and Transport, Legal Metrology & Consumer Affairs.

The other departments not allotted to any ministers are with the Chief Minister. PTI UPL NN

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Queensland's coroner will investigate why a Bundaberg inmate jailed for relatively minor offences was placed in the same unit as the notorious offender who would become his murderer.

Leonard Raymond Gordon was two days from being released from the Maryborough Correctional Centre, where he was serving time for wilful damage, when he was murdered with a chin-up bar by Gregory George Glebow in October 2012.

Leonard Raymond Gordon was killed at Maryborough Correctional Centre two days from being released.

Glebow was already serving a life sentence for murder and will not be eligible for parole until 2044 following the attack on Gordon.

State Coroner Terry Ryan will investigate why the two men were placed in the same unit as part of an inquest beginning in Bundaberg on Monday.
Shane Greenup knows the worth of mothers' milk better than most. It's about $US20 billion ($26 billion) a year.

That's the value of the global market for infant formula. Greenup plans to wipe it out with a new formula based on 14 proteins from human breast milk reproduced in a laboratory. HIs company Bionascent is already making one of them, alpha-lactalbumin, to sell at $US1700 a milligram for use as a biotech research tool.

That will help fund the next step towards global domination. The vision? "A world where where all babies, whether breastfed or formula-fed, are equally healthy, happy and strong."

"In the future when you go into a supermarket you won't be choosing between cow's milk and soy formulas. You will be choosing between specific formulations of human protein mixture and we will be at the centre of it all," said Greenup, a University of NSW molecular biology graduate and serial entrepreneur, pitching to venture capitalists in San Francisco last month.
The friends of a Melbourne man found dead at the bottom of a Bangkok high-rise while on holiday have set up a fundraising page to bring his body home.

The naked body of Joshua Edward Beath, 25, was found early on Friday July 29 having apparently fallen to his death.

Friends have set up a GoFundMe page to help bring Mr Beath's body home.

Thai police want to speak to the Thai woman he arrived at the hotel with the night before, who had left the hotel by the time police arrived, according to News Corp reports. There were no signs of a struggle in the hotel room and nothing to suggest Mr Beath was the victim of a crime, media reports said.

Friends of Mr Beath have set up a GoFundMe page appealing for financial assistance to help bring Mr Beath's body home.
Victoria is at the centre of a national jobs boom, with the Andrews government on the cusp of hitting a target to create 100,000 full-time positions in its first two years.

In June this year, full-time employment in Victoria hit 2,066,695, up from 1,968,022 in December 2014.

Although the Bureau of Statistics estimate of employment is notoriously volatile, the increase over the 19 months to June 2016 of 98,673 technically leaves Victoria just 1327 full-time jobs short of hitting its target, with five months left.

The 5 per cent increase since December 2014 was also the strongest rate of full-time jobs growth in the nation, with full time work up 4.2 per cent in NSW over the same period, flat in Queensland and down by 3.8 per cent in Western Australia.

Labor's promise to create 100,000 full-time position, announced in the lead up to the November 2014 state election, was underpinned by a $100 million Back To Work fund, offering generous incentives for businesses hiring disadvantaged workers.
Two men have been killed in separate overnight car crashes.

The first happened at 7.30 on Saturday night when a Toyota Landcruiser, crashed into a power pole, bringing down power lines, on Mandurah Road near Chesterfield Road in Kwinana Beach.

Seven children survived this Friday night Kwinana crash. The driver died at the scene. Credit:Nine News

Police say there were seven children, aged between 3 and 14-years-old, in the car at the time.

The driver, a 36-year-old man from Waikiki, died at the scene but the children received only minor injuries and were taken to Rockingham Hospital for treatment and follow-up care.
Bangkok: The Catholic Church has warned the Philippines is becoming a nation of murderers as President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the hunting down of 158 officials he alleges are involved in the drugs trade, including judges, police, soldiers and politicians.

"In our dream to wipe out drug addiction, are we not becoming a killing fields nation?" Archbishop Socrates Villegas said on Sunday in the church's strongest condemnation yet of Mr Duterte's anti-crime campaign.

"The humanity in me cries each time I see a parent and child grieve over loved ones killed on the sidewalk or thrown in grassy areas, hogtied or masked with tape," the archbishop said in a statement read in churches across the predominantly Catholic nation.

"The humanity in me grieves for fellow humans who do not mind killing criminals in the belief that their murders will lesson evil in the world."
Vienna: Austria's foreign minister has threatened to block the expansion of negotiations with Turkey on its accession to the European Union, which could scupper a landmark migration deal between Brussels and Ankara.

Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz's comments, published on Sunday, risk exacerbating a row between Austria and Turkey that flared last week when Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern suggested ending Turkey's EU membership talks altogether because of the country's democratic and economic deficits.

Talks on Turkish accession have made only slow progress since they began in 2005. Credit:Peter Braig

Talks on Turkish accession have made only slow progress since they began in 2005, with just one "chapter" concluded of 35 such policy areas where Turkey must adopt and implement EU rules.

"I have a seat and a vote in the (EU) foreign ministers' council. There the question is whether new negotiation chapters will be opened with Turkey, and I am against it," Kurz said in an interview with Austrian daily Kurier, threatening to block the unanimous agreement required.
London: Some tax proceeds from shale gas developments in Britain could be given directly to residents, Prime Minister Theresa May said on Sunday, in a bid to help clear the path for an industry hampered for years by local opposition to fracking.

Britain is estimated to have substantial amounts of shale gas trapped in underground rocks yet fracking applications have struggled to find approval from local communities, concerned about noise and environmental impacts.

An anti-fracking protester stands on top of a truck carrying chemicals to the Barton Moss gas fracking facility in 2014. Credit:Getty Images

Last year, then finance minister George Osborne said the government would create a shale wealth fund that would receive up to 10 per cent of tax revenue from shale gas developments for investments in communities affected by the projects.

Ms May, who took over as Prime Minister last month after Britain's June 23 vote to leave the European Union, said she wanted to look at the option of this money being paid directly to residents rather than to local authorities.
Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke says "voting against Donald Trump at this point is really treason to your heritage". Credit:AP "We have a wonderful OPPORTUNITY here folks, that may never come again, at the RIGHT time," Suhayda wrote, according to BuzzFeed. "Donald Trump's campaign statements, if nothing else, have SHOWN that 'our views' are NOT so 'unpopular' as the Political Correctness crowd have told everyone they are!" Members of the Ku Klux Klan are on the march. Credit:AP Suhayda is far from the first avowed white supremacist to publicise his support and enthusiasm for Trump.

Earlier this year, Rachel Pendergraft  the national organiser for the Knights Party, a standard-bearer for the Ku Klux Klan  told The Washington Post that the KKK had begun using Trump's candidacy as a new conversation starter to recruit followers. Donald Trump speaks to supporters in Florida last week. Credit:Evan Vucci She said this has been discussed on a private, members-only website and in "e-news, stuff that goes out to members." In addition to opening "a door to conversation," she said, Trump's candidacy had electrified some members of the movement. "They like the overall momentum of his rallies and his campaign," Pendergraft said.

"They like that he's not willing to back down. He says what he believes, and he stands on that." On his radio show in February, David Duke  a former Ku Klux Klan leader and a current US Senate candidate from Louisiana  encouraged listeners to cast their ballots for Trump, saying that "voting against Donald Trump at this point is really treason to your heritage." Duke recently told NPR that he is "100 per cent behind" Trump's political agenda. "As a United States senator, nobody will be more supportive of his legislative agenda, his Supreme Court agenda, than I will," Duke said. "Donald Trump is not a racist," he added. "And the truth is  in this country, if you simply defend the heritage of European American people, then you're automatically a racist."

Duke told NPR that polls among Trump supporters in Louisiana showed that "75 to 80 per cent" would back his Senate run. "You think Trump voters are your voters?" asked Steve Inskeep, the host of NPR's "Morning Edition." "Well, of course they are!" Duke replied. "Because I represent the ideas of preserving this country and the heritage of this country, and I think Trump represents that as well." Jared Taylor, editor of American Renaissance, a white-nationalist magazine and website based in Northern Virginia, told the New Yorker magazine that Trump may be in denial about the makeup of his base.

"I'm sure he would repudiate any association with people like me," Taylor told the magazine, "but his support comes from people who are more like me than he might like to admit." In January, Taylor's voice could be heard in a robo-call that encouraged Iowa voters to throw their support behind Trump. "I urge you to vote for Donald Trump because he is the one candidate who points out that we should accept immigrants who are good for America," Taylor says on the recording, which was paid for by the American National super PAC. "We don't need Muslims. We need smart, well-educated white people who will assimilate to our culture. Vote Trump." Taylor told The Washington Post in February that he finds Trump's rhetoric on immigration appealing, even though he does not particularly care for the candidate's brash style.

"I think what he's done is a very important thing," Taylor said. "He's the first candidate in decades to say almost explicitly that immigration should be in the interest of Americans and not just immigrants." He added, "He's attractive to many Americans who see their country slipping through their fingers. "You don't want to end your days living in an outpost of Haiti or Guatemala, do you?" During his radio program last month, Suhayda said he was confident that Trump would emerge victorious in November's election.
School administration denied permission citing that the national anthem was un-Islamic as it described nation to be above religion and God.

By India Today Web Desk: After being denied permission to sing the national anthem on Independence Day event, principal and eight teachers of a private school quit in protest. The administration did not allow the singing citing that it was against their religion.

The principal of the school has accused the school manager Zia-ul-Haq of undermining the national interest by prohibiting the students from singing the anthem.

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Ritu Shukla, the principal, reportedly said that she along with other teachers had been planning an event on Independence Day. Shukla said that the manager told them that they cannot sing Jana Gana Mana and Vande Mataram as it violated the tenets of Islam.

NATION ABOVE GOD UNACCEPTABLE



However, the manager justified his stand by saying that national anthem had never been sung in the campus. Zia-ul-Haq said that the national anthem described nation above religion and God which was unacceptable to an ardent Muslim.

He further asserted that there was nothing above God and that he never allowed the anthem to be sung in his school. Sources said that the principal was planning to take the legal route.

According to Allahabad District Officer, the school is not recognised, and action will be taken accordingly.

Also read:

Sunny was nervous to sing national anthem





--- ENDS ---
The gold miners stocks have already enjoyed a phenomenal year, blasting higher with golds new bull market. This sectors market-dominating performance has been amazing. Yet incredibly, the gold stocks are only now entering their strongest time of the year seasonally. Historically during bull-market years the gold stocks have enjoyed massive autumn rallies on average, starting right about now which is very bullish.

Gold-stock performance is highly seasonal, which certainly sounds odd. The gold miners produce and sell their metal at relatively-constant rates year-round, so the temporal journey through calendar months should be irrelevant. Based on these miners revenues, theres no reason investors should favor them more at certain times of the year than others. Yet history proves thats exactly what happens in this sector.

Seasonality is the tendency for prices to exhibit recurring patterns at certain times during the calendar year. While seasonality doesnt drive price action, it quantifies annually-repeating behavior driven by sentiment, technicals, and fundamentals. We humans are creatures of habit and herd, which naturally colors our trading decisions. The calendar years passage affects the timing and intensity of buying and selling.

Gold stocks exhibit strong seasonality because their price action mirrors that of their dominant primary driver, gold. Golds seasonality isnt driven by supply fluctuations like grown commodities experience, as its mined supply remains pretty steady all year. Instead golds major seasonality is demand-driven, with global investment demand varying dramatically depending on the time within the calendar year.

This gold seasonality is fueled by well-known income-cycle and cultural drivers of outsized gold demand from around the world. Starting now in late summer, Asian farmers begin to reap their harvests. As they figure out how much surplus income was generated from all their hard work during the growing season, they wisely plow some of their savings into gold. Asian harvest is followed by Indias famous wedding season.

Indians believe getting married during their autumn festivals is auspicious, increasing the likelihood of long, successful, happy, and even lucky marriages. And Indian parents outfit their brides with beautiful and intricate 22-karat gold jewelry, which they buy in vast quantities. Thats not only for adornment on their wedding days, but these dowries secures brides financial independence within their husbands families.

After that comes the Western holiday season, where gold-jewelry demand surges for Christmas gifts for wives, girlfriends, daughters, and mothers. Following year-end, Western investors figure out how much surplus income they earned after getting bonuses and paying taxes. Some of this is invested into gold just like the Asian farmers do. Then big Chinese New Year gold buying flares up heading into February.

So during its bull-market years, gold has always tended to enjoy massive autumn rallies driven by these sequential episodes of outsized demand. Naturally the gold stocks follow gold higher, amplifying its gains due to their profits leverage to the gold price. Today gold stocks are once again right at their most-bullish seasonal juncture, the transition between the usually-drifting summer doldrums and big autumn rallies.

Since its golds own demand-driven seasonality that fuels the gold stocks seasonality, thats the best place to start to understand whats likely coming. Price action is very different between bull years and bear years, and gold is absolutely in a new bull market. Between the 6.1-year secular low it suffered in mid-December and early July, gold powered 29.9% higher easily exceeding that +20% new-bull threshold.

Golds last mighty bull market ran from April 2001 to August 2011, where it soared 638.2% higher! And while gold consolidated high in 2012, that was technically a bull year too since gold slid 18.8% at worst from its bull-market peak. Gold didnt enter formal bear-market territory at -20% until April 2013, thanks to the near-miraculous stock-market levitation driven by extreme distortions from the Feds bond monetizations.

So the modern bull-year seasonality relevant to this new bull year in 2016 ran from 2001 to 2012, before the Fed-induced bear-market years between 2013 to 2015. This first chart distills down golds bull-year seasonal tendencies, by averaging gold prices indexed within each calendar year. This methodology is essential because it renders price percentage moves perfectly comparable despite differing prevailing gold prices.

Golds close on the final day of each preceding year is recast at a level of 100, with all the following years daily gold closes indexed off that. An indexed level of 110 simply means gold was up 10% year-to-date at that point. Each calendar years individually-indexed gold prices are then averaged together to arrive at this gold-bull seasonality. Gold has always had a strong tendency to enjoy major autumn rallies.

During its last bull-market years from 2001 to 2012, golds major autumn rally started on average in late July. While gold seasonals technically bottomed in mid-June, that was just part of gold drifting listlessly sideways in the summer doldrums between late May and late July. Golds major autumn rally averaging hefty 7.5% gains between mid-June and early October didnt actually break out to the upside until early August.

And thats exactly where we are today! Gold is on the verge of once again seeing outsized demand from those key seasonal income-cycle and cultural drivers that ignite in this late-summer period and then run well into autumn. Note above how August and September together saw golds strongest seasonal gains on average during its last secular bull. These next couple months are among golds top-performing calendar ones.

Gold averaged gains of 2.5% in Augusts and 3.3% in Septembers between 2001 to 2012, making those its 4th- and 2nd-best calendar months respectively. While Novembers take the title with 4.0% average gains, no other couple-month span outperforms August and September! Gold is just entering its strongest stretch of the year in seasonal terms, which is a very bullish near-term omen for it and gold-stock prices.

While thats definitely exciting, this year does face some unique risk factors that could dampen golds usual seasonal strength. A merely average 7.5% rally from golds $1286 levels in mid-June would take it to $1382 by early October. But obviously gold already almost got there! 2016 saw gold blast higher during the summer doldrums in a rare counter-seasonal breakout. This proved a record summer rally for this metal.

Between the end of May and early July, gold rocketed 12.3% higher! That is radically better than bull-years seasonal average summer-to-date performance of -1.1% by that point. This incredible surge was driven by a combination of massive buying by both investors and gold-futures speculators. The former is great and not a problem at all, as investors are strong hands looking to own gold outright for the longer term.

But unfortunately futures speculators frenzied buying was the dominant force fueling golds radically-unprecedented summer rally. Speculators grew exceedingly bullish, ramping their upside bets on gold to towering record levels. But these hyper-leveraged gold-futures contracts are exceedingly risky, since relatively-small adverse moves in gold prices can result in total losses of the capital speculators risked.

Golds record summer rally this year may have borrowed from its strong autumn gains, effectively pulling some of that autumn buying forward into summer. That hinges on whether investors resume buying gold aggressively or not. And the record gold-futures longs accumulated by speculators leave gold with a near-record futures selling overhang heading into autumn. This remains a serious near-term risk for gold.

If some news or market event spooks the uber-bullish speculators, they will be forced to exit their wildly-excessive long positions en masse. This heavy gold-futures selling will drive down gold fast, forcing a snowballing number of speculators to liquidate or face catastrophic losses due to futures extreme leverage. So until speculators collective gold-futures positions normalize, a cascading gold selloff is possible any time.

I suspect golds strong autumn seasonals will ultimately prevail, as Asian farmers and Indian parents are not going to postpone their usual large gold buying due to extreme gold-futures positions in American markets. Nevertheless given the wildly-anomalous summer setup leading into this years autumn gold rally, odds are it is going to prove far more volatile than normal. Caution is in order this year, not complacency.

Golds strong autumn seasonals are why gold stocks enjoy strong autumn seasonals of their own. Gold stocks amplify golds price action because gold-mining profitability leverages it. This next chart uses the same bull-market seasonal methodology applied to the flagship HUI gold-stock index. The gold stocks are now entering their best couple-month span of the year seasonally, a very bullish portent for this sector.

As of this week, the gold stocks as measured by the HUI have already skyrocketed 181.7% higher since their 13.5-year secular low in mid-January! That very week I pointed out the fundamental absurdity of those gold-stock prices given prevailing gold levels, and aggressively bought and recommended many new gold stocks in our newsletters. Once gold-stock bulls get underway, they grow to immense proportions.

Between November 2000 and September 2011, this leading HUI gold-stock index soared an astounding 1664.4% higher! That epic secular bull covered the vast majority of golds bull-market years between 2001 to 2012, so we can use those for gold-stock seasonals as well. And on average during that span of mighty bull years, the gold stocks bottomed seasonally in late July. And then massive autumn rallies erupted.

On average between late July and late September in those last modern bull years, the HUI rocketed 15.0% higher! A similar rally today from this indexs late-July low would boost the HUI to 286, and like gold we are already there in early August. Just like gold, gold stocks enjoyed a super-anomalous record summer rally this year. So they too may have seen much autumn buying pulled forward into summer.

If gold gets hit by cascading gold-futures selling as speculators are forced to rapidly unwind their still-near-record longs, gold stocks are going to fall in sympathy and amplify golds losses. Considering the HUIs staggering gains, not far from a triple in just a half-year, a healthy bull-market correction wouldnt be surprising at all. The setup leading into this years autumn rally is radically different than in normal years.

But while that portends much-greater coming volatility than usual just like in gold, it shouldnt negate gold stocks entire autumn rally. If gold climbs on balance in the coming months as it ought to with all that outsized Asian gold demand coming online again, the gold stocks will follow it higher. Gold stocks have some aces up their sleeves as well, which could lead to investment demand really accelerating.

No other sector in all the markets is even remotely close to challenging gold stocks commanding performance supremacy this year. Professional investors including hedge-fund managers are really taking notice. They are having a tough time performing this year in these frustratingly-fake central-bank-levitated markets. They need to find some winners soon to salvage their years, and the momentum is in gold stocks.

Gold and gold-stock excitement is mounting after their record summers, and golds strong autumn seasonality is well-known. So theres a good chance much more investment capital than usual will flood into both gold and its miners stocks this autumn. And these inflows will accelerate dramatically when the lofty stock markets inevitably roll over, as gold is the ultimate portfolio diversifier since it moves counter to stocks.

Thus golds near-record futures selling overhang and its downside threat to gold-stock prices may very well be mitigated or even negated by exceptional investment demand this autumn. Its been years since investors got excited about gold and gold stocks, and thats just starting to build as evidenced by all the bullish comments on the precious metals in the mainstream financial media. This autumn could prove remarkable.

Just like in their primary driver gold, gold stocks best couple-month span of the year seasonally comes in August and September. This next chart breaks down gold-stock bull-year seasonality per the HUI into more-granular monthly form. Each calendar month between 2001 to 2012 is individually indexed to 100 as of the previous months final close, and then all like calendar months indexes are averaged together.

Gold stocks enjoyed big average gains in Augusts and Septembers in the bull-market years between 2001 and 2012 of 6.7% and 4.8%. These coming couple months happen to be gold stocks 2nd- and 4th-best months of the year! Those are the same relative rankings as golds monthly bull-year seasonality, but reversed. No other time of the year has a higher probability of witnessing major gains in the gold stocks.

With such massive seasonal tailwinds starting to blow, its hard not to be heavily long gold stocks this time of the year regardless of how far and fast they got here. With gold stocks epic performances this year winning growing popularity even among mainstream investors and speculators, theres no better time for a new rush of capital to flood into them than late summer and early autumn. Thats really bullish.

But its important to remember that seasonals are mere tendencies, not sure things. Just like in weather, long-term averages can mask considerable extremes. This year has already seen gold stocks buck their seasonality in record ways. April is a relatively-weak month seasonally, with the HUI averaging modest 0.5% losses in bull years. Yet this past April the gold stocks greatly defied seasonality with a huge 31.0% rally!

Aprils weakness is followed by May, which weighs in as gold stocks strongest month of the year seasonally. Its average 6.9% HUI gain between 2001 to 2012 edged out Augusts 6.7%. This May the HUI plunged 13.8% as gold stocks mean reverted to give back some of Aprils incredible gains! So its important to realize that gold stocks certainly havent behaved in line with seasonal norms in recent months.

This July saw the HUI surge another 11.2% higher, vastly greater than the bull-year average of a 1.9% loss. While thats nothing like the extreme gold-stock rally seen in April, it still pressures this years August to diverge down from normal years average performance. Seasonality is important to consider, but it doesnt actually drive anything. It just quantifies whats caused by sentiment, technicals, and fundamentals.

While gold stocks face greater downside risk than normal in the coming weeks thanks to that extreme near-record futures selling overhang looming over gold, their sentiment, technicals, and fundamentals are still arguing for an exceptional autumn rally. Mainstream investors and speculators are getting more excited, but they arent yet euphoric and remain woefully under-deployed in this small contrarian sector.

Technically the gold stocks look super-bullish, with incredible strength even in the summer when there shouldnt be much if any. And fundamentally the gold stocks remain very low relative to gold, their primary driver. This is easiest expressed through the HUI/Gold Ratio, which I last wrote about a month ago. Between 2009 to 2012, the last normal years before the Fed-spawned gold bear, the HGR averaged 0.346x.

Even this week as the gold stocks climbed to a new bull record of 283.7 on the HUI, the HGR was still only running 0.206x. Thus merely to regain post-stock-panic normal-year average levels relative to todays prevailing gold prices in the $1350s, the HUI still has to rally another 68% higher from here! That implies a HUI trading near 470, so there are great gains still to be won in gold stocks even at these gold levels.

As always investors and speculators can play the likely coming autumn rally with the leading GDX gold-stock ETF, which closely mirrors the HUIs performance. But a carefully-handpicked portfolio of the elite gold miners with the best fundamentals will see gains trouncing those of the benchmarks. Uncovering these winners takes incredible amounts of time, work, and expertise, but the resulting gains are well worth it.

The bottom line is gold-stock seasonals argue this sector is right on the verge of a major autumn rally. August and September are the best couple-month span of the year for gold stocks seasonally in bull-market years. This is driven by a parallel autumn gold rally fueled by outsized Asian demand coming back online. Gold stocks naturally amplify golds gains since their profits leverage golds price moves.

While this years autumn-rally setup isnt as clean as usual, gold stocks still have great potential to surge in the coming months. Futures speculators drove a record summer gold rally, leaving gold with a near-record selling overhang that could cascade anytime. But mainstream excitement is growing for the red-hot gold stocks, so much bigger capital inflows are likely coming. And theres no better time of the year to buy.

>> BACK TO THE NEWSLETTER: Click here to read other articles from this weeks newsletter

 Copyright 2000-2015, Zeal Research (www.zealllc.com). Zeal Research is a US-based investment research company  you can visit their website at http://www.zealllc.com/. Zeals principals are lifelong contrarian students of the markets who live for studying and trading them. They employ innovative cutting-edge technical analysis as well as deep fundamental analysis to inform and educate people on how to grow and protect their capital through all market conditions. All views expressed in this article are those of the author, not those of TheBull.com.au. Please seek advice relating to your personal circumstances before making any investment decisions.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 07/08/2016 (2273 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Colonel Sanders fried chicken recipe may still be staying a secret but in Steinbach a new recipe for success has been cooked up at Victoria Plaza.

Exterior work on the former home of Royal Lepage Riverbend Realty is underway as it is transformed into a new home for KFC, which currently operates as one of the tenants in the main Victoria Plaza mall.

Schinkel Properties leasing agent Mike Fast said they began talks with Calgary-based KFC franchise owner Hi-Flyer Foods about relocating the restaurant months ago.

GRANT BURR | THE CARILLON Superior Projects president Evan Schinkel and Schinkel Properties leasing agent Mike Fast look over the plans for the new KFC location at the corner of Loewen Boulevard and Brandt Road.

Now that the real estate group has moved to new offices on Penfeld Street, Fast said a perfect location was available for a drive thru restaurant.

The KFC lease was coming due and it made sense to move them over to an expanded, updated store that also had the capacity to provide drive-thru service, Fast said.

Evan Schinkel of Superior Projects said construction is going smoothly thus far. His company has been contracted to complete the renovations needed on the project. Work is expected to take several weeks to convert the main floor of the building to a 1,800 sq-ft. restaurant. A drive-thru will be constructed on the south side of the building. The second floor, with a separate entrance, is expected to be made available for office rentals.

A spokesperson for Hi-Flyer said more staff will be hired for the new, larger location and added the company is delighted to be increasing its presence in Steinbach.
As German Jews spending their four-week turned four-year honeymoon in Paris, Hans and Margret Rey knew they were in trouble. It was June of 1940, and with Hitlers troops rapidly approaching and cannon fire audible from the outskirts of the city, they were amongst the millions of refugees trying to flee south. There were no more trains; they didnt own a car. Hans hurried over to a bicycle store, but the only thing left was a tandem bike. This was not going to work for Margaret, whose tolerance for impractical things was minimal, even on a normal day. It took no longer than two minutes on their test ride before she lost her patience: I am not riding this with you, Hans! Come up with some other way. That night, Hans became a magical bicycle maker as he cobbled together spare parts to make two separate bicycles. Along with a few articles of clothing, Margret packed up their lifes work  unpublished manuscripts of childrens books, including one particularly special book Fifi: The Adventures of a Monkey.

The next morning, the Reys took off just 48 hours before the Nazi troops marched into Paris, joining the five million other refugees on the streets of France. They slept in barns and on floors of restaurants, just ahead of the German bombings. Finally, they came across running trains. Thanks to the advance check they had received from a French publisher for Fifi, they could afford all the necessary travel documents to escape. When a checkpoint officer became suspicious of their thick German accents, it was the manuscripts that convinced him to let them through. Saved by their own creationa carefree, irresistibly cute monkeythe Reys passed through Lisbon and made it out of Europe to Brazil, eventually arriving in New York. One year later, in the fall of 1941, Fifi: The Adventures of a Monkey was published under a new name: Curious George.

Over the past 75 years, Curious George has become a cultural icon, deeply impacting the hearts and minds of generations of children. Many of us feel nostalgic recalling the sense of adventure we experienced through George as a child, and we yearn as adults for the patience The Man with the Yellow Hat displays to George over and over again. The book franchise has sold over 75 million copies in 19 languages, and in recent years George has leapt off the book pages to star in movies, TV-shows, and theme park rides. Yet despite our affection for George, few of us know the immense imaginations that produced the widely beloved monkey.

Hans Rey, known to many as H. A. Rey, was a dreamer and a genius who spoke seven languages. His curiosity expanded into wide areas of knowledge, including philosophy, renewable energy, and astronomy. As a soldier in World War I, he spent nights gazing at the stars, redrawing the constellations to make them easier to identify in the night sky. His book, The Stars: A New Way to See Them, remains popular today, although few make the connection that the same man created Curious George.

By sharp contrast, Margret was known to be blunt and rude, with no patience for stupidity. Ironically as a childrens book writer, she did not hide her lack of fondness for children. When asked if she talked to children for ideas, she boasted No! Why should we? We couldnt learn anything from them. Perhaps she was too much of a child herself: unstoppable and unafraid.

Together, Hans and Margret made quite a team. Hans illustrated, while Margret wrote the words and took care of the business end. While Hans might have been content spending his entire life drawing for his own pleasure and gazing at the stars, it was Margret who drove Hans to put his creative vision to use. In this household, I make all the big decisions, and Margret makes the small decisions, Hans used to say. There have not been any big decisions since weve been married.

Even before their unexpected exodus from Paris, the Reys lives were full of adventure. Originally from Hamburg, Germany, they first met when Hans was dating Margrets older sister. After returning from World War I, Hans took a job in Rio de Janeiro importing and exporting bathroom fixtures. Years later, having heard that Hans was wasting his artistic talents, Margret decided to travel to Rio, marry him, and start a partnership doing something creative. Their joint venture in advertising accidentally led them to start writing childrens books when a giraffe drawing of Hanss caught the eye of a publishing company in Paris. Needing the money and with no reason to refuse, Hans and Margret created their first childrens book, Rafi et Les 9 Singes (later published in English as Cecily G and the Nine Monkeys). For a sequel, the Reys featured the youngest of the nine monkeys, Fifi  later renamed George.

My name is Ema Ryan Yamazaki. Having a Japanese mother and English father, I grew up back and forth between my two home countries. As a child reading Curious George books in Japanese, Id naturally assumed George was a Japanese monkey, and it wasnt until later that I discovered many other countries claimed him as their own. At 19, I moved to New York City in pursuit of my dream to become a filmmaker. Coincidently, I lived near Washington Square Parkon the same block as the Reys when they settled in New York.

In the spring of 2014, I was introduced to the Reys story through meeting Ms. Lay Lee Ong, the literary executor of the Rey Estate. Listening repeatedly to a radio interview from 1966, I immediately noted their foreign accents, choice of words, and how they took cues from each other in conversation, as though they could read each others minds. I had no image of the Curious George creators, but what I heard was certainly not what I expected. Whoever could have imagined them to have such a multicultural background as migrants, let alone refugees? I started on my own adventurous journey to make a mixed-media documentary about their life.

With a deepening refugee crisis and inflamed anti-immigrant rhetoric across the globe, the Reys story has become unexpectedly more relevant in the two years I have been making the documentary. The Reys saw the United States as a land of freedom and opportunity, and proudly became American citizens in 1945. Like many others in their generation, they left behind wartime experiences, and not only survived but thrived here. The Reys refugee story has a happy ending, and represents the American dream at its best.

Perhaps because I juggled different cultural worlds as a child, what has remained with me as an adult is a sense of duty as a global citizen. Both as a person and as a storyteller, I want to be like the Reys, who were always curious and courageous, and whose legacy continues to make a global impact.

Margret described Curious George as a monkey who, through his curiosity, gets himself into trouble, and through his own ingenuity gets himself out of trouble. She could have been describing the Reys' themselves. Time and time again they encountered difficult situations, only to turn moments of despair into hope. The Reys outlook on life allowed them to embody the best of humanity, and also see the best in humanity. Even when confronted by some of the darkest forces in modern history, they found a way to call life an adventure. Through their own ingenuity and resilient spirit, they gave the world the gift of a cute little monkey with the same character traits. Who the Reys were is why we have George. And now I'm on a mission to share their story.

Ema Ryan Yamazaki is in the final stages of completing her mixed-media Curious George Documentary, MONKEY BUSINESS. To get a sneak peek of Emas MONKEY BUSINESS and how you can help her team raise $175K to complete the film, visit the film's Kickstarter page.
In retrospect the choice of Thomas Hart Benton to paint a mural for the Truman library seems a natural fit. Both Benton and Truman were natives of the State of Missouri. Benton, like Harry Truman, had politics in his blood, since he was the son of a U. S. congressman and was named for his great-uncle, the first U.S. senator from west of the Missouri River. They were both ardent Democrats. They both knew the history of their state inside out. They were both great readers of history.

But for monthsfor months that stretched into more than a yearHarry Truman resisted the notion of having Benton make a painting for the Truman Library. He had some old grudges to work through.

At stake were some matters of artistic taste, but more than that, there was the issue of Trumans personal loyalty to the notorious political boss of Kansas City, Boss Tom Pendergast, who had been responsible for Trumans entry into politics.

After the failure of Trumans haberdashery store in the old Muehlbach Hotel, it was genial and corrupt Boss Tom Pendergast who engineered Trumans election as county judge for Jackson County in 1922. Despite the title Judge, this was an administrative rather than judicial position, and it set the stage for Truman to lead a successful, widely acclaimed campaign to transform and improve Jackson County with new roads and public buildings. Truman never relinquished his loyalty to Pendergast even after he was publicly disgraced. When Pendergast died, Truman, then president of the United States, was the only politician to attend his funeral. He was my friend, Truman replied, when asked to explain his decision.

With regard to Benton, Trumans key stumbling block was Bentons mural of 1936 for the state capitol. Truman felt that Benton had libeled his native stateand had deliberately ridiculed his old political mentor.

The idea for the Missouri Capitol mural had been cooked up late one night at a hotel party in Jefferson City, when after plentiful drinks Benton persuaded two state legislators that the building needed a Benton mural. Shortly afterwards an appropriation was passed in the state legislature to pay for the painting. Remarkably, no limits were set on Bentons choice of subject matter. Consequently, Benton was able to focus not on heroes and heroic events, but to produce a social history of the State of Missouri.

In Bentons hands, a social history opened with a scene of a fur trader selling whiskey to an Indian, and went on to show Mormons being tarred and feathered, slaves being whipped, Jesse James robbing a bank, and Frankie shooting Johnny in a St. Louis saloon. It closed, perhaps most shockingly off all, with a scene of Boss Tom Pendergast, sitting in a nightclub with two of the trustees of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. This was not just providing a critique of the pastit was hitting close to home. For years Truman believed that Benton had put the figure there without Pendergasts knowledge. In fact, he had made it with Pendergasts approval and had sketched Pendergast from life.

In the opening week, the mural drew 50,000 spectators, but Missouri boosters were horrified and a bill was introduced in the state legislature to have it whitewashed. The intensity of the controversy about what Benton had painted is suggested by an editorial in the Tula Tribune on January 27, 1937, which focused particularly on the likeness of Pendergast:

Conspicuous in the picture is the acknowledged portrait of T. J. Pendergast, the Democratic boss of Kansas City whose organization votes dead men, who manipulates to steal government itself. In the picture Pendergast is seated at a table with representative citizens who are taking their orders from this hijacker of government  Shame on you, Thomas Hart Benton, shame on you, and shame on whomever, representing Missouris government, paid $16,000 to buy this picture of infamy.

As it happened, the bill to have the painting whitewashed was sidelined, and thus the mural was still intact in 1939, when Pendergast was sentenced to 15 months in Leavenworth Penitentiary. To celebrate this event, some wag sneaked in and painted jail stripes and a jail number on the likeness in Bentons mural. Harry Truman is said to have supposederroneouslythat Benton himself added this embellishment as a publicity stunt.

For years Truman felt resentful towards Benton. He specifically denounced the statehouse mural as a horror, and in 1941, when a film agent showed him a Benton painting of Burt Lancaster in the title role of The Kentuckian, Truman reacted with distaste. Both of my grandfathers were from Kentucky as were both of my grandmothers, Truman wrote. All of the four had brothers and sisters most of whom I saw when was a child. They did not look like that long-necked monstrosity of Mr. Thomas Hart Bentons.

In the early 50s, the television newscaster Randall Jessee, who was a friend of them both, asked Truman if hed like to meet Benton and his wife, Rita, at a dinner party at Jessees home. Well, hes the fellow who made a mistake in painting those murals about Mr. Pendergast down at Jefferson City, Truman replied. Ive got a long memory, you know, and I dont know whether well get along or not.

Fortunately, both Benton and Truman had mellowed quite a bit by 1957, when Benton was approached by two representatives of the Truman LibraryDavid Lloyd, a rising young lawyer, and Wayne Grover, archivist of the United Statesabout the possibility of Benton taking on a major mural project for the building, which had been completed a few years before. At the time Benton was still at work on another large mural for Robert Moses, for a power dam in Massena, New York, but he readily assented.

They all celebrated with a couple of highballs. But the highballs were premature.

Not long afterward, Truman visited Bentons Kansas City studio and listened carefully while Benton explained his plan. Truman made no firm commitment, however, either then or at later meetings at the Truman Library, when they discussed what might be the possible subject matter for such a painting.

In fact, this proved a second stumbling block. Truman was an avid reader of history, and an admirer of Thomas Jefferson, who had engineered the Louisiana Purchase. He sketched out a sequence of events from Jeffersons administration to his own, which while reasonable in verbal terms was an unmanageable mass of subject matter for a painting. When Benton protested that the subject was too large, the president said laughing, Well, what the hell is it you can paint?

Rising to the bait, Benton proposed portraying Trumans hometown, Independence, which was also the site of the Truman Library, as it looked in 1821 when it served as the starting point for wagon trains on the Oregon Trail. He also agreed to write out a program for his mural, and even went to the trouble of creating a clay model of a preliminary design, which Truman studied carefully. Fortunately, Truman had made it clear that he himself didnt want to be included in the mural, which made it possible to create a scene set in the past.

Its said that Benton realized that he would probably get his way and be permitted to carry out the project when Harry Truman opened a desk drawer and pulled out a bottle of bourbon. I hear you like this, Truman said. The ice, as it were, had broken.

They had good times together, Bentons sister Mildred recalled. They both liked the same kind of whisky, and I expect Tom was pretty moderate when he drank with Mr. Truman.

The contract for the mural was signed in June 1958, but Benton didnt begin painting until a year and a half later, which he devoted to careful research, including tracking down Pawnee and Cheyenne models to the parts of Oklahoma where they lived, so that he would represent historically accurate physical types. The broadcaster Randall Jessee and his wife served as models for the pioneer couple in the center of the design.

No small task for a man then in his seventies, the final mural takes up 495 square feet and contains more than 40 figures, as well as assorted animals, wagons, steamboats, teepees, houses, costumes, and toolsall rendered with careful historical accuracy. One of the major artistic problems was to find a mode of perspective rendering which would not look distorted when the mural is seen from the side or an odd angle. Bentons solution was to use a dramatically forced birds eye perspective, which does not neatly align with the architecture, and which consequently does not look noticeably skewed when you change your viewpoint. Both technically, and with regard to historical research, the painting was a tour de force.

With exquisite tact, Benton invited Truman himself to apply the first brushstrokes to the murala patch of blue skyand by the time the project was complete, Truman had done a complete turn-around. The artist who had formerly been the creator of monstrosities had become, in Trumans words, The best damned painter in America.
Twin brothers Matt and Ross Duffer had only a few scattered credits to their names when they unloaded the sleeper TV hit of the summer, the addictively thrilling supernatural horror Stranger Things. The nostalgia-heavy tale of small-town terror, friendship, and wonder is a warmly familiar tapestry of influences: Stephen King, John Carpenter, and Steven Spielberg weigh as heavily as Alien, Japanese anime, and video games.

At the heart of the show, and pulling each influence together into a gripping, original piece of storytelling, is the Duffers infectious enthusiasm for the source material. The 32-year-old North Carolina natives (born a year after their 80s story is set) talk up a storm on topics like The Thing or Poltergeist with the same sincere, reverential glee reflected in the show. Theyre nerds, basically, in every endearingly cliche sense of the word.

High school was terrible for us, laughs Ross, drawing parallels between himself, his brother, and the shows breakout character: no-nonsense normcore queen Barb. We both hated it and just felt very much outside the whole time, looking in. Lets just put it this way: It was not difficult to write the Barb character.

Although, we werent even friends with people who were in the cool club, he muses, nose seemingly pressed up on the glass again. So Barb had us beat on that. (Same.)

M. Night Shyamalan played mentor to the Duffers on the FOX series Wayward Pines, for which they wrote a few episodes before setting out to make Stranger Things. The show got rejected by 15 to 20 networks, who didnt think an adult story starring four children would work. Then came Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen, co-executive producers who helped shepherd the project to Netflix.

Levy says he understood Stranger Things potential three pages into the script. You knew you were in for an experience, he says.

A lot has been said about our show's style, genre elements, and cinematic references, but what makes the Duffers special is that they service all these things while keeping the show consistently rooted in character. They're also just very sweet, smart guys and they're somehow confident and humble in equal measure, which is rare.

The Daily Beast talked to the Duffers about how they made the hit of the summer, what to expect in (the yet-to-be-announced) Season 2, video games, the 80s, and the shows terrible, secret alternate titles.

Stranger Things is pretty much the word-of-mouth hit of the summer. What has it been like watching the buzz slowly unfold?

Ross Duffer: Its surreal. I mean, its super fun and just really gratifying. When youre making the show youre in a bit of a small bubble. Even with Netflix, youre only talking to two people over there and we have two other producers, so you have no idea how its gonna resonate with the wider world, especially with something like this.

I saw Stephen King tweet about liking the show.

Ross: That fucked us up a little bit.

Matt: In a good way!

Ross: When he first tweeted about it we were about to go to the premiere and I was trying not to cry and just barely functional for the entire duration. Like, it really warped my brain. I think Im now at the point where its sensory overload. (Laughs.) But its been absolutely overwhelming, and we absolutely werent expecting it.

The Spot the Reference game is part of what makes watching the show with friends so much fun. I know you didn't go into the writers room like, OK, here were gonna reference E.T., and here Close Encounters, but how clearly did you want to telegraph each of those influences?

Matt: When we billed the project to Netflix, we had this big two-and-a-half-minute trailer that had about 20 or 30 of these movies kind of woven together to try and tell the story of Stranger Things, but obviously all these images or ideas were in our heads. Those are the movies that we grew up on and theyre so much a part of our DNA. But then when you get into the writers room and youre working on individual episodes, actually very little time is spent referencing other movies. Mostly youre just trying to tell the story, letting the characters guide where everythings going. Otherwise it would just be a jumble and a mess. Someone sent me that Vimeo video that had our images side-by-side with [70s and 80s movies] and some of it was purposeful and some of it was not, which was really cool. And some of it I havent even seen.

Ross: The bigger discussions, especially early on, were about how do we capture the feel of these movies? Discussions like, with Poltergeist and Carol Anne with her hand on the static-y TV, talking about why that was so iconic and memorable and why that cuts through and stands out the most in a movie full of great imagery. Its taking a very ordinary object that people deal with every day, their television set, and imbuing it with something otherworldly. Discussions like that led to, for instance, the Christmas lights. Like, lets take something very ordinary and then make it really come alive in a very different way.

Matt: Sometimes I see people write about it and they say they like that the show is self-aware. And I guess I really didnt want it to be self-aware. We never wanted to be ironic; we didnt want to wink at the audience. We wanted it to play like one of those movies wouldve back then, that was sort of the goal. So the hope with the references or whatever is that they dont pull people out of it. The way we tried to get away with that was being truthful to what the characters would do in their situations and make sure it all makes sense.

You guys play video games too, right?

Matt: Howd you guess? Yes, we do play quite a few video gameshave all our lives.

Ross: And obviously there are references in there. Thats the thing: its not just 80s films that inspired us. Theres a lot of Silent Hill in the Upside Down, which people have noticed.

Have you played The Last of Us? The atmosphere around the entrance to the Upside Down reminded me a lot of some parts in that game.

Ross: Yes! Yes, we have, thats another one. And The Last of Us is probably, in terms of storytelling, the best story-driven game Ive ever played. It took a giant leap in terms of character development and how the story was unfolding. But also with the divide and all that, Last of Us Im sure influenced us.

Matt: Yeah, it was cool, I saw that Neil Druckmann [creative director of Naughty Dog, the developer behind Last of Us] tweeted that he loved the show, which was awesome. Its great. Im actually in the middle of playing Uncharted 4 right now.

Nice. Are there images or movies that helped shape Stranger Things that you havent seen a lot of people catch onto yet? One I was happy to see somebody point out yesterday was the anime movie Akira.

Ross: Yes, I saw that. Akira was obviously a big one.

Matt: But then weirdly its like, I haven't seen it for a long time. More recently I had seen an anime called Elfen Lied that is clearly inspired by Akira. And that was really influential. When I watched it I thought it felt like an ultraviolent E.T. There were a lot of things in there that I really liked and that made their way into the show, particularly related to the character of Eleven.

Tell me about the design of the monster and the Upside Down. Some elements obviously evoked H.R. Gigers designs for Alien or that creepiness of some Guillermo del Toro designs.

Ross: Were big fans of Guillermo. In the company Special Motion that built our monster, the dudes who designed it were the ones who do a lot of Guillermos stuff. What we were trying to do with our monster is, first of all, we wanted it to be a dude in a suit, which limits you but in a good way. We wanted it to have a simplicity to it, so that if youre a 12-year-old and youre watching the show and you get inspired, you could easily sketch this thing out with your markers or crayons or whatever, then youd show your friends and theyd instantly go, Oh yeah, thats the Demogorgon, thats the monster from Stranger Things. We wanted it to have a defined silhouette so that it could be recognizable anywhere. Now were seeing all this fan art out there on Twitter and its fantastic because Im seeing all these drawings of the monster. Thats really gratifying.

Matt: That may be my favorite thing, the fan art. It is so inspiring. Some of the imagery, Im like oh wow, thats really cool. Its putting stuff in our heads, in a good way. But yeah, were kind of still children at heart and so to be able to delve into our own monster was a lot of fun. It was fully animatronic, so all of thosewe call them petals, the parts that open upSpecial Motion designed them in such a way that when the petals move, they never repeat themselves, so it was really creepy that way. It seemed very real. And I should say that the monster was designed by this artist Aaron Sims who is really great, and he and his team actually did all of the effects for the monster. It was sort of his baby and he protected the monster from beginning to end.

Theres this one moment in the show where the science teacher is watching The Thing and explains that the gooey flesh from a head thats falling off is actually melted bubble gumdid you guys ever consider going full-80s and using some of those old, ingenious practical effects instead of sometimes resorting to visual effects?

Ross: The funny thing is that the original goal was to do entirely practical effects. But what we realizedand it really made us admire those guys who did The Thing and Alien and whateveris that doing practical is really hard. It takes a lot of time and preparation. We were turning out scripts as quickly as we could but they don't have six months to prep this stuff. You show up on set and stuff that seemed like it would be a great idea to do in that old school way, we didn't have time to do. It takes a lot of trial and error, so that was a lesson learned. At one point we tried to have the monster break through a wall practically and it just

Oh, that must have looked

Ross: It looked ridiculous.

Matt: It looked terrible.

Ross: (Laughs.) If anyone saw the test footage, they would be rolling on the floor laughing. So it was just us going, OK. Some of this were gonna have to just do with visual effects. But I think its something that, for example, J.J. Abrams does a pretty brilliant job of. Like in the new Star Wars, he used a mix of both practical and visual effects and its as seamless as possible. So for something like the lab, most of the vines and all that stuff throbbing and coming out of the hole, thats all production design. We built all that. But then where we needed to do stuff that we didn't have the time to figure out how to do practically, that becomes visual effects. It was a bit of 50-50 in the end. But I mean, those guys in The Thing, not only does that stuff hold up, it looks real. Theres something tangible about it and its not an easy thing to do, so those guys are our heroes.

How much more about the extra-mysterious elements of the show, like the Upside Down or the government lab, do you want to reveal over the course of a potential second or third season? It must be a hard line to toe because the less you know, the scarier it is.

Matt: Yeah, and were figuring it out now. We have a 30-page document that answers all the questions we have about the Upside Down. I think it was important to us and important going forward that were experiencing all this through the point of view of our characters. Theres a lot that they dont understand and for us, this stuff its scarier when you dont fully understand it. The more that you reveal and the more you comprehend, the less scary it gets. Thats sort of the H.P. Lovecraft, Clive Barker approach. Or like Stephen King: It is so weird, and the weirdness actually makes it scarier, because if you were to encounter some inter-dimensional being, it would be beyond comprehension. So we want to explain, we want to reveal more of it, we want characters and the audience to understand more about it, but youll never understand everything.

Ross: Therell always be something a little otherworldly about it, but the plan in that second season is to get into more of those questions, like why there was only one monster and what the Upside Down is exactly. We have all those answers and didnt feel like they were necessary to answer this season. But the hope is that by the end, people will still have some questions, but that it will also feel satisfying as a whole. We have all this mythology and were just gonna dole it out a little bit at a time. We could have a scientist sit down and explain it all, but thats not very much fun.

I liked that the movies you reference set up certain expectations that mess with you while watching the show. I kept waiting to hate Steve, who looks and sounds like every douchebag 80s boyfriend everand then he turns out OK at the end.

Matt: Yeah! And this is whats so fun about television, even though we think of this as a big movie: movies arent eight hours long. Youre able to change things up a little bit. Steve initially was a stereotypical douchebag. He was a trope. And then a couple things happened and we found Joe Keery, this actor who didnt really fit our vision for Steve. But we just fell in love with this guy and wanted him in the show and kind of tailored the show for him. He was so charming and likable even when he was being a douchebag, we decided we would give him an arc. And its also very boring if you have a character who is a douchebag for seven hours. As youre writing it, you want things to evolve. You want characters like that to grow.

Ross: If this were a two-hour movie, hed have stayed a douchebag at the end. So I think part of it is, by the nature of television, we end up upending these references. And sometimes you play into it. Like, Why is Nancy going into the hall? You want the audience screaming at her like, Are you crazy?! I love playing into those horror tropes of dont go into the basement, you idiot. I love that, so its fun to sometimes play into it and sometimes against type and the tropes.

Matt: Im still a movie lover at heart, but after youve seen so many movies they become very predictable in a way, where you know exactly where theyre going. And in television now, and Im talking specifically about the great shows, they can really surprise you. Like George R.R. Martin colors way outside the lines and so youre always a little bit on edge and you dont know what to expect. Theres a complexity to it and its surprising, so we wanted the show to have some of that in it.

And then theres Barb. So many people see themselves in her, I think especially the nerdy people who werent the ones everyone wanted to date in high school. Did all the outpouring of love for her from fans surprise you? Do you guys see yourselves in her, too?

Ross: We absolutely do. I mean, high school was terrible for us. (Laughs.) We hated it and we just felt very much outside the whole time, looking in. Lets just put it this way: It was not difficult to write the Barb character. Although, we werent even friends with people who were in the cool club. So Barb had us beat on that.

Matt: Yeah, like I never even got invited to that party. That didnt even happen.

Ross: We were, like, less cool than Barb. I think a lot of people do feel like that and in terms of the response, we were both surprised and not surprised. Everyone on both the production and Netflix side have long been obsessed with Barb, particularly once we cast Shannon [Purser] who just crushed it. We were always talking about Barb and what about Barb and poor Barbwe talked about it in the writers room almost every day. So its great to see that people responded in that way. Its so weird that people are using the phrases that we used in the room like a year ago. I think part of it is that usually in these horror movies, its these very popular girls who take their tops off who get taken. And so theres something particularly tragic about the loner character getting snatched and not making it out of the Upside Down.

Matt: In the original pilot script, Barb got taken at the end of the episode, so it was both Benny and Barb that were killed. And I think what we were trying to do was set up a world where no one was safe and its not just the assholes and the people who are behaving poorly that get taken. Like in Stand By Me, I always feel like theyre in danger; I never feel like theyre safe, even when I rewatch it for the sixth time. It was important for us to keep that danger alive: even though these kids are cute and lovable, it did not mean that the show will keep them safe. Thats why we immediately wanted to knock off some characters that hopefully people would fall in love with.

One criticism of the show Ive seen is that it has a limited view on women, in that with the exception of Eleven and sometimes Nancy, female characters dont get a lot of personal depth outside of their connection to the boys. Is that something you guys are hoping to expand on in a potential second season?

Matt: Yeah, I mean, sure absolutely. My thing is that I would say what we were trying to do with this season is give all of our female characters both a strong drive and give them badass moments. To me, we have Eleven and Joyce who are taking action on their own and being very strong. So that was something that was very important to us and we would do well to keep doing moving forward.

The show has also earned pretty much universal praise for its casting. Youve got Winona Ryder, a face familiar from the 80s, David Harbour, and these incredible, instantly lovable kids. How hard was it finding them?

Matt: Everyone recognized really early on that if we had even one kid who wasnt good, it would take the whole ship down. So we just started looking really, really early on. At that point, we just had the pilot script and we had so little material that we were actually having them audition with scenes from Stand By Me. And then we found four kids that we just fell in love with. Some of them matched the characters in the script and some of them didnt, really. Like Dustin, I dont think we really understood who that character was. He started out more like a stereotypical nerd and then we met Gaten and we basically tailored the show to him.

Ben is another example of someone who wasnt exactly like Mike in the original script. Originally Mike was a sigher, he was a dreamer, he was much more like Mikey in The Goonies in a lot of ways. But Ben had this really anxious, twitchy energy about him and we thought that that was really great and we just kind of wrote the character to match him and his personality.

The same thing with Joe Keery, who plays Steve. A lot of these actors that we cast made us write more interesting, more three-dimensional characters for them. The show is so much better because of these actors. Thats one of the cool things I love about television, is its able to evolve and able to adapt and the actors and the performers are actually a more integral part of the process. So theyre informing not just the characters, but the story. I dont think the story would have gone in the same direction that it did were it not for these characters that we had.

And then David is just someone who I think has been waiting too long for this opportunity. He is such an amazing actor and he just hasnt been given the platform, thats all. So it was exciting for us to go, OK well lets give it to this guy. We knew he was gonna knock it out of the park. I love him so much. Hes such a badass.

Im not sure if you guys have ever talked about this before, but how did you settle on the title Stranger Things? I know originally it was Montauk.

Matt: Yeah, that was like a whooole set ofI mean that was a very painful (Laughs.) Its very hard when your brain is latched onto a title, its really, really hard to get people to agree and accept another title. Initially when we came up with this title Stranger Things it was hard for people to embrace. Its actually taken like a full year for people to get used to it. But now, no one can think of it being called Montauk.

Ross: We kept wanting to kick that can down the road and we didnt wanna settle on a title and at some point [Netflix head] Ted Sarandos was like, You gotta just do something and were all gonna end up loving it and get used to it. And we were like, Nooo! We dont want to! But he was absolutely right. Another big thing for us and, I know people love the font and have been talking about the title design, but we were testing these titles in the font and seeing what felt right in a weird way. It was really design-oriented.

Matt: When we were selling it, we made a fake Stephen King paperback cover for the show. We actually used the Firestarter paperback and put our title and an image of a fallen bike on top of it, so when we were trying to come up with titles, we would type them out onto this paperback cover and it would help us. And Stranger Things sort of sounds like Needful Thingsit sounded like it could have been a Stephen King book from the 80s. But there were a lot of heated arguments about it. (Laughs.) Actually, someone sent me the listI hope this never, ever comes out on the internetthe list of alternate titles for the show. I was like: if you leak this, I will kill you. It is so embarrassing.

Well now I know what my next question is. Pony up.

Matt: Yeah, I cantI just dont Im not gonna do it. Theyre not good, just rest assured theyre not good. People would be making fun of them endlessly. And thats the thing! When youre working on a show like this, there are a lot of really bad ideas. Everyone has bad ideas, I have bad ideas, everyone has terrible ideas. Im sure people would love to see that list, but Im gonna make sure that never gets out.
When Rhode Island State Police arrived to arrest 46-year-old Alan Gordon for growing pot, he was on the toilet. The armed officers, startled, subbed out the typical put your hands above your head for a more relevant directive: wash them.

According to Anne Armstrong, the 56-year-old co-founder of their marijuana Healing Church, Gordon asked if he could finish.

Armstrong herself would be arrested soon after, pulled over on the way to watch her 12-year-old son play the violin. Not far from the toilet, police uncovered 12 pounds of cannabis, 10 pounds of hash oil, and 57 marijuana plants, a large marijuana cultivation operation for which Armstrong and Gordon were charged with possession and intent to manufacture/deliver.

The two were shuffled off to prison where they were held for two weeks.

Now back at home, theyre prepping to represent themselves on a potentially historic case, one in which theyll argue that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act protects their freedom to grow and use cannabis. Doing so will require convincing a judge that the Controlled Substances Act places an undue burden on their religious freedom.

It will be a tough battlemost likely, a losing one. But Armstrong, a hippie with a cause, is determined to win. My religion is cannabis, she tells me on a phone interview one day after shes been released. Theyre not carding people coming to get wine if they're not 21. Why would they interfere with our adult communion of God, when its been proven to be safer?

Her statement makes up the central argument of their case, and the main belief of The Healing Churchthat cannabis is the giver of life. Formed just over a year ago, Armstrong and Gordons congregation is essentially a small collection of followers who believe, like they do, that marijuana is holy (or, some may argue, want to smoke it for free).

In a video of the group holding a public ceremony last year, a young guy wearing a flat-brimmed hat that reads high on life lights up a joint while others look on. "We're supposed to have religious freedom," he tells the local news anchor. "We believe that this was in the Bible and that we need to do this as a sacrifice."

The scene doesnt exactly appear religious in nature, but The Healing Church insists it is.

Armstrongwho refers to herself as the deaconessand Gordon her canonhave outlined what they consider the evidence of their beliefs in a 37-page document titled A Bible Full of Cannabis. Peppered with pictures of stained glass windows that they argue depict the cannabis leaf, it invokes specific passages from the Bible and ties them to cannabis.

Among its most salient claims is the recipe outlined in Exodus 30:23 for the oft-cited holy anointing oil which they say contains cannabis. This means, in their eyes, that everyone from Jesus to Pope John XXI used marijuana-infused oil to heal the sick, and that they should do the same. Another bold claim, that the Tree of Lifea theme in many religious textsis the cannabis plant itself.

As St. John prophesied, the Tree of Life would one day grow in cities with glass streets and glowing multicolored gems, the two write. This sounds startlingly like an ancient mystics frantic attempt to describe his vision of a future greenhouse supplemented by LED grow lights, in the era before glass windows or electricity by which he could have understood what he saw.

Together with their followers they worship cannabis as a plant capable of the healing of nations, according the sites mission statement. Her flowering tops are sacred to the LORD and must never be an item for trade, it continues. They are to be shared the way a mother shares food among her children.

The outdoor ceremonies like the one depicted by local news mostly involve smoking joints and talking about love. To some, a Friday nightto them, a burnt offering. In May last year, the group was interrupted by cops while trying to host such a ceremony on a fountain dedicated to Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island and an advocate for religious tolerance.

Afterwards, the two filed a lawsuit claiming that the charges ($100 fine for each) represented religious discrimination. The case was dismissed in December. Their most recent run-in with the law began late June, when police appeared with a search warrant to raid their cannabis grows. The two responded by filing another suit, this time asking the court to define indoor plants.

The lockable dog pen they were growing in, apparently, doesnt qualify. A spokesperson for Rhode Island State Police confirmed this to The Daily Beast, as well as the arrest of both Gordon and Armstrong (when asked about the toilet, the spokesperson let out a laugh saying the reports dont get that specific).

The Healing Church, while more serious than the others, is not the first of its kind. Indianas First Church of Cannabis made waves last year when its founder Bill Levin released a humorous mission statement called the Deity Dozen, the first provision of which reads Dont be an asshole. Treat everyone with Love as an equal.

Levin too has decided to challenge the legality of his cannabis use based on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which there is a version of in 21 states. The law itself dates back to 1993 and aims to prevent existing laws from infringing on the rights to exercise religious freedom. The first federal RFRA case revolved around drugsNative Americans and peyote.

But proving that peyote, used by hundreds of thousands of Native Americans for centuries, is central to their religion is one thing; proving that 20 people in Rhode Island should be allowed to smoke pot on public property is entirely another. As David Orentlicher, a law professor at Indiana University, told the Huffington Post during Levins suit, winning such a case is unlikely.

First, the church has to show that its a genuine church, Orentlichter said. While courts are reluctant to question the sincerity of religious beliefs, religious claimants must get past the threshold question of whether there really is a religion involved rather than religion being used as pretext for other purposes, in this case, the use of marijuana.

Scheduled to appear in court this fall, Armstrong and Gordon are both representing themselves, banking on the idea that the good people of Rhode Island will come to their defense. In the meantime, the two are still committed to spreading the word about marijuanas healing powers, launching a campaign asking to be infected with Zika so they can prove the drug can cure it. For non-pregnant women, Zika more or less cures itself, disappearing in about a week.

But their main focus has and will be the lawwhich Armstrong predicted theyd be fighting in an interview with local news a year ago. This [marijuana] is a very important constitutional issue, she said. If cant be decided here, I dont think there is any hope for America.
On Thursday, Lindsay Lohan made an appeal for a little privacy, saying, through a socialite friend, that she needed some quiet time to sort out her troubled relationship with fiance Egor Tarabasov.

Backing up for those of you not up to speed: Lohan had recently accused Tarabasov of trying to strangle and kill her.

The accusation was made on a London balcony, and video of the incident was passed to the Sun.

Today, however, she has decided to forego privacy and chosen to give an eye-opening interview to the Mail on Sundays Katie Nicholl, in which she accuses Tarabasov of assaulting her and hitting her on multiple occasions, and draws comparisons between his abusive behaviour and that of her appalling father, Michael.

A fresh video is also circulating online of Tarabasov apparently violently fighting with her on the Greek island of Mykonos (a few weeks before the dystopian balcony scene).

The video appears to be shot by a person in the vehicle behind Tarabasovs.

I realize now you cant stay in a relationship just for love, Lindsay tells Nicholl, No woman can be hit and stay with that person if that person isnt prepared to say sorry.

The pictures from Mykonos show a tussle occurring after Lohan and Tarabasov argue in a black Jeep and she chucks his mobile phone out of the open roof. He is then pictured apparently twisting her arm behind her back as he tries to get it back.

The pictures follow the broadcast on social media of a shaky video of Lohan making a plea for help during a 2 a.m. screaming fit on her London balcony claiming that he was tryingnot for the first timeto strangle her.

Lohan, 30, started dating Tarabasov, 22, last summer. The son of a Russian industrialist, Tarabasov is part of Londons eurotrash millionaire milieu. The expat rich kids hang out in the citys five-star hotel bars, like Claridges and the Connaught, drinking $30 cocktails, but spend their summers yachting the Greek islands or Instagramming their hotel rooms in St. Tropez. Last year he moved into her apartment (she posted pics of him unpacking boxes) and then the two got engaged earlier this year.

Aspirations Lohan might be lining up for a quiet life were dashed when she was caught on video screaming from her balcony in the middle of the night: Please, please. He just strangled me. He almost killed me. Police battered down her door, but she had already bailed to a nearby Mayfair hotel. She tells Nichol the inside story of the night, saying: Egor and I had been out for dinner. We danced, it was fun. When we got home I went to bed and Egor went out. A few hours later he came back and when I woke up he was standing over me. He wasnt himself, he was being very aggressive and he attacked me Im scared of what Egor might do to me and to himself Its not the first time. Thats the problem. But this time, someone saw.

The pictures and the interview are a dramatic reversal from the stated position on Thursday, when friends and relatives of Lohan were busily briefing the press that the engagement was very much on, and that Lindsay and Tarabasov only needed privacy, and that she had simply relocated her engagement ring from her ring finger to another finger for aesthetic reasons.

Indeed, Nicholl notes that Lohan is still wearing her engagement ring during the tearful interview in which she denounces Tarabasov as a repeated violent abuser.

I havent taken it off, even after all this, she says, The truth is, I wanted to make things work, but now Im not sure that I can.
By India Today Web Desk: Rohit Shetty is a guy with few, but solid friends. As the Golmaal director puts it into words very clearly, he says, "I think the basic formula for friendship to last for years is that you don't change. When they come and talk to me, we have the same equation that we had years ago. The only thing that's changed now is the fact that they ask for a time now to meet up (laughs)."



ALSO SEE: Bipasha Basu to Karan Johar, B-Town celebrates friendship day



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Ask about his friends from the industry, the Chennai Express director says, " I know Ajay (Devgn) is one guy who will stand by me whenever I need him. Sanju (Sanjay Dutt) is another. I love them. I know Ajay (Devgn) since the last 26 years."

Rohit Shetty and Ajay Devgn started out together in Phool Aur Kaante in 1991, which was Ajay's first debut as an actor, while Rohit Shetty was the first Asst. Director on the movie. He says, he's still friends with his childhood buddies and he's even doing business with them - that's the level of trust they have between them.

He says, "They take care of everything and I have full faith in them. When we do business together, there is no agreement between us as there's complete trust between us. We just talk on the phone if we need to discuss anything and that's it."



--- ENDS ---
Shes a legendary political organizer; Bill Clinton says her political savvy helped make him president. Shes a leading feminist; as the National Womens Education Funds founder, she transformed amateur activists into winning female candidates.

She befriended Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham before they married, and 44 years ago decided Hillary would become Americas first woman president. Yet Betsey Wright is most famous for injecting the sexist phrase bimbo eruptions into American discourse. In Wrights mixed legacy lies the deeper, darker tale of the Clintons toxic mix of golden idealism, tarnished psyches, and brass-knuckled ruthlessness.

This colorful American character was born on July 4, 1943, in Alpine, Texas, population 3,866. Inspired by feminism, fascinated by politics, Betsey Ross Wright met Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham in 1972, still thrilled by what Wright called the heady experience of Sissy Farentholds quixotic campaign for the Texas governorship.

Farenthold lost. The George McGovern campaign, which brought Bill and Hillary to Texas, was doomed. But these three new friends relished the possibilities they were starting to envision, a more open, liberal, egalitarian, and female-friendly world.

It was a nascent feminist movement then, Wright would tell Bill Clintons biographer David Maraniss. Wright believed that women were the ethical and pure force that American politics needed. And Wright, a big, bold, bawdy powerhouse, recalled being less interested in Bills political future than Hillarys. I was obsessed with how far Hillary might go, with her mixture of brilliance, ambition, and self-assuredness. As a result, she begged her friend not to move to Arkansas and marry Bill Clinton. Wright also lobbied Bill, telling him, he could find anybody he wanted to be a political wife, but wed  never find anyone like her to run for office. When Hillary married Bill in 1975, Wright would recall, I abandoned the dream.

A mission-driven force of nature, Wright was already busy teaching her feminist friends about the nitty gritty of electoral politics. At the National Womens Education Fund of the National Womens Political Caucus, Wright helped feminists transition from protest to power, from crusading outsiders to elected insiders. Do not overdo make up but be sure to add more for TV, one of her manuals advised. Still, when Hillary Clinton called in 1981 seeking help after Bill Clinton lost the governorship, Wright moved to Arkansas, as Hillary had done.

The thirty-two-year-old Clinton had won election in 1978, only to lose two years later, becoming Americas youngest ex-governor. The loss devastated both Clintons. After engineering Bill Clintons comeback victory two years later, Wright became his chief of staff.

This title couldnt capture this loving but explosive relationships intensity, its intimacy. In his memoirs Bill Clinton describes Wright as brilliant, intense, loyal, and conscientious almost to a fault. the only person I had ever met who was more fascinated by and consumed with politics than I was. Now, Hillary and Betsey reunited in their mutual devotion to Bill. The brainy, stiff, cautious Arkansas First Lady relished policy debates, especially concerning education and children. The tough, chain-smoking, garbage-mouthed chief of staff micromanaged the politics. And both tried limiting Bills philandering  then controlling the damage.

As keeper of the Clintons institutional and political memory, Betsey Wright listed all of Bill Clintons potential personal vulnerabilities in 1987  then advised him not to run for president in 1988. Hillary Clinton disagreed, although Wright had a better sense of how many women there were. What stopped Bill Clinton, just hours before he launched a campaign, was Wrights warning that Hillary and their daughter Chelsea risked humiliation.

That misfire set the stage for 1992, with Hillary Clinton and Betsey Wright determined not to let Bill Clintons promiscuity harm his White House bid. Wright, who monitored each piece of gossip  and frequently bullied Bills exes  coined the crude phrase bimbo eruptions. The term mocked the accusers and the reporters who believed them. Just a few years ago, Americans were more censorious about affairs but more forgiving about such sexist dismissals of victimized women.

The word bimbo originally meant stupid men not idiotic women. Taken from the Italian word bambino, baby, only in the 1920s did the word start applying to women  as with the song My Little Bimbo Down on the Bamboo Isle. In the 1930s, the word blonde increasingly preceded the word. Half a century later, in 1987, the year Bill Clinton shrewdly bailed, the woman caught in the Evangelist Jim Bakkers scandal, Jessica Hahn, told Playboy I am not a bimbo. Her denial and the way another blonde, Donna Rice, ruined Gary Harts presidential chances, had the Wall Street Journal declaring 1987 the year of the Bimbo. Wrights take-no-prisoners approach to protecting Bill Clinton and trashing his accusers became iconic in 1998, with Kathy Batess flamboyant, Academy Award-nominated portrayal of a Wright-like character in the movie based on the 92 campaign, Primary Colors.

By the time Clinton became president, Wright was too burned out  and her scorched earth tactics had burned too many women -- to serve in the White House. When the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke, Wright wrote in the Arkansas Times: It hurts. I'm so angry. I cry. I wonder why, why, why? It's sad, infuriating, tragic, puzzling. if Bill Clinton were in my reach I would be mightily tempted to bash him on his head and kick him in the shins. Clearly, Clinton, like many other politicians, was a serial seducer, craving the adulation of women and crowds. Just as clearly, the Clintons had obsessive enemies, who treated false steps as premeditated felonies. And, confusingly, many of these enemies were pro-life opponents of the pro-choice Clinton, leading many feminists to excuse Clintons infidelities to protect cherished policies.

The ironies abound. Betsey Wright the feminist boosting a sexist slander. Hillary Clinton, the betrayed wife, not just standing by her man but trashing his accusers  no matter how true their story. Wrights odd contribution to history, then, is sharpening the Clinton conundrum: how can a couple so committed to doing good behave so badly so often? Wrights tale highlights the moral blind spot of the Clintons and their enablers. Their idealism, their liberalism, their faith in the good they hope to do, makes them excuse all kinds of lapses, from libeling innocent women to following their own rules regarding emails and government secrecy. The Clintons are not criminals; but they can be self-righteous slobs, imperious, indulgent, and inconsistent  and often bailed out by loyalists like Betsey Wright.

Gil Troy is Professor of History at McGill University. His latest book, The Age of Clinton: America in the 1990s is his eleventh.
In the 16th century, the Spanish conquistadors reached the town in the majestic Andes mountains that served as the political seat of the sprawling Incan Empire. For over three centuries, the Incas had developed a complex and thriving civilization. They built stunning strongholds in the mountains (if you need convincing, just take one look at Machu Picchu); they carved out a mind-boggling series of trails that extended over 14,000 mountainous miles and across what are now six different countries; and they collected gold, silver, and other opulent symbols of wealthand lots of it.

It was stories of these riches that captured the explorer Francisco Pizarros attention. So, in 1524, he set sail from Spain, leading a crew of conquistadors headed for the New World with the gleam of gold in their eyes.

Nearly a decade and three expeditions laterafter the soldiers had battled, pillaged, and proselytized their way down the South American coastPizarros army finally conquered the main Incan city of Cusco in Peru.
Theres something terribly wrong with kids these days: a series of major surveys, conducted by the government every two years, suggest that they might just be the most well-behaved generation in recent memory.

Teens are increasingly swearing off alcohol, cigarettes, drugs like synthetic marijuana, and prescription painkillers, according to the latest survey of of more than 50,000 8th, 10th, and 12th graders from the National Institute on Drug Abuses Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey. For some illicit substances, such as cocaine and heroin, consumption has dropped to its lowest point since the MTFs inception in 1975 (fading stigmas around marijuana consumption may be responsible for its relatively consistent popularity amid this decline). The most recent Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) shows that cigarette smoking is at its lowest level in 24 years11 percent in 2015, down from 28 percent in 1991. Rates of underage sex, teen pregnancy, HIV, and other sexually transmitted diseases have also declined according to a survey of 16,000 students by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The kids, apparently, are all right.

But why? Conventional wisdom suggests this shouldnt be the case. This is a generation thats taking its cues from their Baby Boomer parents, those 76 million Americans born roughly between 1946 and 1964 who are veterans of the sexual and psychedelic revolutions of the 1960s and 70s and launched the modern trends in risky behaviors measured by surveys like the MTF and YRBS. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Baby Boomers have maintained their hard-partying ways more than any other generation.

Parental attitudes towards addiction matter. Research suggests that children of addicted parents are more likely to develop substance abuse problems themselvesdue to both modeling and lax oversight. A recent longitudinal study of adolescents between 1994 and 2008 confirms that parents with permissive attitudes tend to breed self-destructive behaviors in their children; by contrast, the children of authoritative parents (or were even connected to authoritative adults through friends) were 40 percent less likely to drink to the point of drunkenness, 38 percent less likely to binge drink, 39 percent less likely to smoke cigarettes, and 43 percent less likely to use marijuana.

So why are todays young people resisting the allure of binge-drinking and illicit drugs that ensnared their Boomer parents? Perhaps it is precisely due to Baby Boomers libertine drug experiences that their children are inclined to avoid substance abuse. This may not just be out of disgust with their parental cautionary tales. Thanks to their enthusiastic embrace of coddling- and self-esteem-focused helicopter parentingBoomer parents may actually be better equipped to preemptively (and subsequently) engage their children in the type of interventions that help inoculate their kids against the risks of substance abuse.

Part of that progress is due to our increased knowledge about just what kind of interventions are effective in deterring drug use. Nancy Reagans famous Just Say No campaign in the 1980s catalyzed concern around adolescent drug use, but interventions that focused purely on abstinence or punishment (like, say, the armed police officer at the front of a D.A.R.E. session) tended to be ineffective. Programs centered on the threat of discipline  youre going to get arrested, suspended or labeled a criminal in some other way  tend to alienate young people from seeking help from authority figures by perpetuating the stigma surrounding drug addiction, creating a gulf between young people and their parents. A 2014 examination of just say no programs by Scientific American found that the most effective substance abuse regimes focused on positive interactions between instructors and students that worked on developing social skills and behavioral norms. Skill development, including communication, goal setting, and negotiation, are the most important tools young people can learn regarding substance abuse, says Dr. Stephanie Zaza, the director of the CDCs Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH) which oversees the YRBS. When students are confronted with an environment that has a lot of temptations, they need to be able to ask questions, talk things through, and stand up for themselves, she says.

In other words, the same impulse that inspired Baby Boomers enthusiastic rebellionthe desire to push back against the strict traditions and institutions of their parentsled to a shift in parenting styles that incorporated their relatively lax views of alcohol and drug consumption with a less authoritative mode of parenting than they experienced as children themselves. More productive interventions (think talk to your kids about drugs) emerged as parenting methods of choice. These were widely embraced among open-minded Boomer parents with first-hand experience in the risky behavior they want to prevent. After all, the Boomers have always been less moralistic about drug use and more likely to blame society for their ills than their parents, as sociologist Robert Putnam observed in 2001; drugs are a problem to be addressed, not a behavior to be punished. Hell, Boomer parents are more likely to worry about bullying and depression than drug abuse, according to 2015 data from the Pew Research Center.

This change in approach seems to be paying off: A 2010 longitudinal examination of parenting practices across three generations (Gen X and older Millennial children, their Boomer parents and their Greatest Generation grandparents) published in Developmental Psychology found that the harsh discipline and overbearing monitoring Boomers experienced tended to catalyze externalized behavior problems like poor impulse control and oppositional, aggressive, or delinquent behavior. When harsh discipline was in turn handed down by Boomers, it also spurred bad behavior among their children. But Boomers, by contrast, also engaged in other forms parental monitoring (observing behavior, frank conversations and the like) that lacked harsh behavioral consequences. These more gentle interventions tended to have a mediating effect between Baby Boomers and their children, a unique relationship absent from Boomers and their own discipline-happy parents.

For Boomers, parental monitoring takes the form of openness and trust, a propensity to engage with their children rather than merely discipline or alienate them with the likes of D.A.R.E. or Scared Straight. According UC Berkeley psychologist Diana Baumrinds landmark 1991 research published in The Journal of Early Adolescence, its this balance between being demanding (focused on discipline and control) and being responsive (focused on fostering individuality and self-regulation) that both deters children from substance abuse and engenders them with the important social skills that help them avoid risky behaviors without constant parental supervision. Though we often write off this type of engagement as intrusive helicopter parenting and debilitating condescension, this style also comes with a level of empathy, openness, and engagement that helps children fully absorb and comprehend the consequences of substance abuse.

What [the CDC] knows about parental and school engagement is simple: the more you talk with children about these issues, the less likely they are to do things, says Dr. Zaza.

It takes more than a bad trip (or a really, really good one) at college to induce parents to change how they communicate to their kids about youth attitudes about illicit substances. The high expectations of overachieving established by Boomer parents certainly help ward kids away from addiction. According to SAMHSA, fear of disappointing ones parents is an increasingly common disincentive to experiment with illicit substances. But those parents who were either less demanding (i.e. permissive parents) or less responsive (authoritarian parents) were less likely to keep their children drug-free. By ensuring interventions are staged by emotional peers and not merely authority figures, parents are more likely to impart the social skills designed to help their children avoid developing a drug problem.

Of course, not every Boomer parent is immediately equipped to stage an in-home intervention just because they smoked a few joints at Woodstock. While a 2001 study found that some 94 percent of parents claimed to have discussed the consequences of substance abuse with their kids, 39 percent of their teenagers said the conversations never actually took place. And too much leniency can be a serious problem: a lack of boundaries and rules in an overly-permissive parent can increase the risk of drug or alcohol abuse, a reminder that letting kids drink in a safe space like your home probably isnt the best idea.

But as far as todays kids are concerned, actually talking with their once-wild and crazy parents may be the best cure for the scourge of drug addiction. Growing up, I knew that no matter what I did in the way of drugs and alcohol, I could always turn to my own Boomer parents for help and support if I was in trouble, an unspoken agreement that was, in some ways, the foundation of our relationship during my turbulent teen yearsall because I knew they would actually understand what I was talking about. While the Boomers have their own issues with illicit substances, they have the experience and compassion to help future generations prepare for the dangerous world of drugs and alcohol better than any previous one. It may have been a long strange trip for the Boomers, but it neednt go on forever.
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Think you know the pin to the ATM? Have a crack to win your share of $100k
The Angriest is a blog by award-winning Australian playwright and science fiction critic Grant Watson. Current regular features on this blog include episode-by-episode rewatches of Star Trek, a weekly comic book review column called The Pull List, and occassional reviews of Akira Kurosawa's films in chronological order.





In 2016 Grant was awarded Best Fan Writer at the Australian Science Fiction Achievement "Ditmar" Awards.

You might also like to check out FictionMachine , which is where Grant puts all of his full-length film criticism.
Rustom is a smaller film compared to Mohenjo Daro, with the Hrithik-starrer having a reported budget of almost double of that of the Akshay Kumar film.

By India Today Web Desk: Akshay Kumar's period drama Rustom will be releasing in fewer screens compared to Ashutosh Gowariker's Mohenjo Daro starring Hrithik Roshan. Directed by debutante, Tinu Suresh Desai, Rustom will be releasing in 2000 screens as against Mohenjo Daro's 2500 screens. However, the shortfall is not very significant when you compare the budgets of the two films.

ALSO READ: Rustom will save marriages, stop divorces, says Akshay Kumar

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Rustom, set in the 1960s, has reportedly been made on a budget of approximately Rs 50 crore, while UTV's Mohenjo Daro is reported to have spent almost double the amount at Rs 100 crore on the making of the film. It might actually work in Rustom's favour that it will be under less pressure to break-even.

With industry heavy-weights like Salman Khan, Karan Johar, Sonam Kapoor putting out videos on Twitter, Bollywood seems to be showering all its love on Rustom. As against Hrithik Roshan and Pooja Hegde, who are doing everything within their ability to promote their film without any help from industry folk.

Also, there's not a very positive vibe surrounding Mohenjo Daro's release with Historians questioning the authenticity of the portrayal of the Indus Valley Civilisation. And surprisingly, none of these questions are being asked about Rustom, which is also set in the 1960s, but is probably getting away with it because of its leading man Akshay Kumar. Ranveer Singh's viral Chhupa Rustom stunt has put Rustom ahead in public consciousness.

It will be interesting to see which film comes out trumps on August 12.

--- ENDS ---
SHARE Eric Shappell Dr. Rubin Bahuva Taylor Edge Dr. Angela Martin

Events

Senior Connection will hold a Welcome to Medicare seminar at 4 p.m. Wednesday at 951 S. Hebron Ave., Suite C (between Bellemeade and Washington Ave.) in Evansville, adjacent to the Senior Connection Office.

When individuals and their families are new to the federal Medicare program, it can be confusing and frustrating at first glance. This program will help you better understand the many different parts of Medicare and what your options are when you enroll.

This is an informational program only. No specific plans or companies will be discussed. The seminar will be presented by Gina Downs, Vice President of Senior Connection. It is free but registration is required. Call Senior Connection at 812-473-7271 or toll-free at 800-258-7610 for reservations and directions.

CNN-Chamber Networking and News

Joint Networking Event with Southwest Indiana Chamber

Friday, August 5

7:30 a.m.

Ramada Hotel and Event Center

RSVP to info@kyndle.us

Ribbon Cutting/Grand Opening  Qadco-Napa Auto Parts

August 8

400 N. Green Street, Henderson, KY

Grand Opening: 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m.

Ribbon Cutting: 11:30 a.m.

Noon: Lunch ($5.00 donation goes to Make A Wish Foundation)

Night at the Otters

August 12

Bosse Field

Evansville Otters vs. Miners

Game Time: 6:35 p.m.

Brown Bag  Preventive Medicine

August 22

Noon

Kyndle Training Room

Speakers: Dr. John Lee and Dr. Brian Maddox

Free to Kyndle Stakeholders

4th Friday Networking Luncheon

August 26

Noon

Location: North Tower 6th Floor  Methodist Hospital

Lunch sponsor: Cancun Mexican Restaurant

Tech Tuesday

September 6

Noon

Kyndle Training Room

Free Giveaway: 1 year of Microsoft Office 365 Home. Must be present to win door prize

Kyndle on the Rocks

September 8

5 p.m.-7 p.m.

Rookies

Brown Bag Series  Planning for the Future Senior Living in Henderson

September 12

Noon

Speaker: Jessica Pritchett Beaven, Director of Marketing for Colonial Assisted Living & Colonial Court Independent Living

Kyndle Training Room

Golfapalooza

September 19

Henderson Country Club

10 a.m. Shotgun Start

Personnel

Taylor L. Edge, CPA, has been promoted to senior accountant in the Audit and Assurance Services division of Riney Hancock CPAs PSC. She provides auditing and assurance services for community banks, utilities, HUD-assisted entities, governmental entities, and nonprofit organizations.

Taylor is a Certified Public Accountant and is a member of the Kentucky Society of Certified Public Accountants and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. She is the treasurer for the Salvation Army and she serves as the Philanthropy Chair for the Chamber of Young Professionals.

Taylor is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Kentucky Wesleyan College with a bachelor's degree in accounting and a minor in economics. Before graduation, Taylor was an accounting intern in the Tax Services division of Riney Hancock CPAs during the 2013 and 2014 tax seasons. She is a member of Alpha Chi National Honor Society, and is a Sigma Beta Delta Inductee. She also received the 2013 Jerry Trinkle Accounting Award from Kentucky Wesleyan College.

Sara H. Fleischmann has been promoted to staff accountant II in the Tax Services division of Riney Hancock CPAs PSC. Before graduation, Sara was a tax intern with Riney Hancock CPAs. Sara has experience providing tax services to clients in a variety of industries including, but not limited to, small businesses, corporations, individuals, and not-for-profit organizations.

She has passed two sections of the CPA exam and is currently studying to take the remaining sections of the exam.

She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Kentucky Wesleyan College with a bachelor's degree in accounting and a minor in mathematics and was inducted into the Sigma Beta Delta International Honors Society. She also received the 2015 Institute of Management Accountants Award, was named to Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities, and received the Oak and Ivy Award from Kentucky Wesleyan College. Sara also served as President of both Phi Beta Lambda and Kappa Delta.

Sara is a member of the Chamber Young Professionals.

Methodist Physician Group is pleased to announce the addition of John Lee, D.O., to Methodist Family Medicine  Atkinson, which is located at 1413 North Elm Street in Henderson, Kentucky.

A native of Paris, Tennessee, Dr. Lee attended Union University in Jackson, Tennessee where he completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology. He earned his medical degree from the University of Pikeville  Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine and recently completed his residency at Methodist Hospital.

Dr. Lee is a member of several organizations including the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians, Kentucky Osteopathic Medical Association, Kentucky Medical Association and American Osteopathic Association.

Eric A. Shappell has been named as a partner at the law offices of King, Deep & Branaman in Henderson.

He has been with the firm since 2008

Shappell is graduate of Henderson County Senior High School. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Southern Indiana, and his Juris Doctorate from Southern Illinois University (2006).

Evansville Surgical Associates is pleased to announce that Andrea Jester, MD and Angela Martin, MD have joined their growing surgical practice as a General/Trauma Surgeon.

Dr. Jester is a graduate of the Indiana University School of Medicine, and she did her residency and fellowship training at Indiana University School of Medicine. Dr. Jester has a special interest pancreatic surgery, liver surgery, and breast surgery.

Dr. Martin is a graduate of the Indiana University School of Medicine, and she did her residency at the Indiana University School of Medicine and her vascular fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Martin has a special interest in vascular surgery but specifically aortic surgery, carotid surgery, varicose veins, peripheral circulation and trauma.

Rubin Bahuva, MD has joined Deaconess Clinic as a gastroenterologist.

Dr. Bahuva earned his medical degree from Seth G.S. Medical College, Mumbai University, India. He completed his residency at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County, Chicago, Illinois. He completed his fellowship at University of Buffalo School of Medicine, Buffalo, New York.

Awards

Bauer Financial, an independent bank rating and research firm, has rated Old National Bank a 5-Star ("superior") institution on a scale of 0 to 5. The 5-star rating places Old National on Bauer's prestigious list of "Recommended Banks, Savings Banks & Thrifts."

This marks the first time Old National has earned Bauer's highest rating since 1997. For 107 consecutive quarters, the company has earned either a 4-Star ("excellent") or 5-Star rating.

Bauer Financial's star ratings are based on a formula that considers current and historical data. The first level of evaluation is an institution's capital level, followed by other relevant data that includes profitability, historical trends, loan delinquencies, repossessed assets, reserves, regulatory compliance, proposed regulations and asset quality.
DENNY SIMMONS / THE GLEANER School buses line the parking lot of the Henderson County Schools Transportation Department as the new school year approaches.

SHARE DENNY SIMMONS / THE GLEANER Brian Vandiver checks the fluid levels of a Bluebird school bus in preparation for the new Henderson County school year Friday afternoon. DENNY SIMMONS / THE GLEANER A steady stream of school buses enter and exit the Henderson County Schools Transportation Department garage for maintenance before the new school year. DENNY SIMMONS / THE GLEANER Sammy Vinroe (left) and Aaron Walker discuss the placement of an onboard camera on one of the Henderson County Schools Transportation Department buses Friday morning. Each bus has four cameras keeping an eye on the young passengers. DENNY SIMMONS / THE GLEANER School buses line the parking lot of the Henderson County Schools Transportation Department as the new school year approaches.

By Erin Schmitt of The Gleaner

Mark Carter, or "Mr. Mark" as his students call him, wanted to be a bus driver since the moment he stepped foot on a bus as a first-grader.

He achieved his childhood dream a decade ago after becoming a bus driver for Henderson County Schools.

"I think God just put it in me," he said. "It's what I always wanted to do, and I still like doing it after 10 years."

Carter drives bus 128 on a route from Spottsville Elementary to North Middle to Henderson County High. He still nods and waves as he passes by his old school bus driver, Anne Woosley, as she drives a GRITS bus.

"It's more than a job," Carter said. "If it was just the job, I'm not sure it would be as great as a I thought it would be."

The best part of being a bus driver is building relationships with kids and, by extension, their families. For many kids on his bus, he's the only bus driver they have ever had, and he's seen them grow from elementary age to high school.

Looking students in the eyes as they board the bus, greeting them hello and saying goodbye as he drops them off are all part of building good relationships.

"After a while they learn you're not just the guy who sits up front and takes me to school and takes me home," he said. "They will do what you expect of them when they know you care about them."

Over the summer, a student greeted "Mr. Mark" at a restaurant and told him she would miss having him as her bus driver. She was a "good girl, but kind of rowdy" so Carter had to move her to the front often. He wasn't sure she even liked him until she told him he was her favorite bus driver.

Carter is one of 77 bus drivers working for the Henderson County Schools transportation department. There are also 30 bus monitors, four mechanics and five in the office helping make sure the buses transport a little more than 4,000 students each day.

All are working in tandem to make everything as smooth as possible when school begins Wednesday.

Transportation Department Director Jeff Coursey asked people to be patient on the first few days of school as the transportation department gets kinks worked out.

"The first few days the bus might not be there right on time, but we're striving to get there," said Coursey. "'Safety before schedule' is our motto."

Coursey and Steve Steiner, assistant superintendent of district relations and operations, communicate throughout the day and monitors the weather. When the heat index reaches a certain level, students are given water bottles, which are usually prohibited.

All Kentucky school bus tops are painted white to reflect the sun and keep it cooler. Drivers also keep the windows down in high heat to let air circulate inside. None of the Henderson school buses have air conditioners, which comes as a shock to many people.

"You'd be surprised by the number of people who think there are," said Carter.

Air conditioners have their pros, keeping the buses cooler obviously, but also have cons. Aside from being much more expensive to purchase and maintain, there are potential hazards, particularly if the bus catches fire and the flames get into the air ducts and ignite.

There are 93 buses in the district fleet. Nine are being declared surplus and seven new ones were recently purchased at a cost of a little under $600,000.

"We appreciate the (school) board doing that because a school bus is expensive," said Coursey. "That's why you see several older buses that are still running and still going strong. We've been fortunate enough that we haven't had any major breakdowns with several buses."

The state gives the school system's transportation department money toward a school bus for 14 years, but it depreciates over time. Buses are declared surplus depending on years, mileage and maintenance costs.

One school bus is beginning its 20th year in the fleet. Even though it has about 250,000 miles on it, there's hardly any maintenance issues with it, he said.

Buses with banners have been parked in front of locations around town such as the new high school. This was a way to draw attention to the need for substitute drivers.

It's been successful  there are five people about to undergo commercial driver's license training, which takes five months. Another four people are on the waiting list to train, Coursey said.

The bus route book is available online via the school system's website at henderson.kyschools.us.

Coursey offered the following back to school bus safety tips:

Parents/guardians of kindergartners should note that they have to be with the student at the bus stop in the morning. Bus drivers also cannot drop off a kindergartner unless a parent or guardian is there to receive the child.

Parents/guardians of elementary-aged students should be mindful of when their child is getting home. If a bus driver sees that no one is home, the child will be taken back to their school where they can call their parents to pick them up.

Children being dropped off at an alternate location such as a babysitter's home must have a signed note from the school principal.

Adults are encouraged to talk to their children about proper conduct on a bus. Children need to remain seated, no screaming or yelling, keep their hands to themselves and listen to the driver and monitor.

Children should stay back at the bus stop until the driver waves the student on board.

Motorists should heed bus stop signs and crossing arms when extended. Failing to do so is against the law and motorists can be cited or even arrested.
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By Laura Acchiardo, laura.acchiardo@thegleaner.com

It's in Henderson's nature to continue striving toward improvement.

Steve Chandler, owner and brand strategist of ChandlerThinks, introduced the new community branding initiative in a series of presentations on Wednesday and Thursday.

Discover your nature is the tagline of Henderson's new brand identity, which can be used in a variety of ways, such as business is my nature or kayaking is my nature. The intention is the branding identity will be used in the advertising and marketing of different community organizations including nonprofits, educational groups, businesses and government entities.

"When you understand your community's personality, it helps guide your direction," said Chandler. "Nature is more than the outdoors. It's about what inspires you."

Chandler and his company were enlisted by a committee led by members of the board of directors of the Henderson County Tourism Commission. They had tasked him with leading a local rebranding initiative, identified in the Henderson Vision Plan as a community need.

ChandlerThinks conducted a variety of research using focus groups, community surveys and community segment profiling from Henderson, Evansville and Owensboro to identify the branding tagline. Through this research the company found some resounding truths about the Henderson community regarding the importance of the river, Henderson's connection with John James Audubon and its natural outdoor resources.

In one sentence the result of the research states, "Henderson is a classic river town where the nature that once inspired John James Audubon still inspires life today."

With the tagline and branding results, there is still more work to be done. Chandler and his team suggested Henderson create an organization to manage the community's image and promote the brand within the community using unique materials like a brand story.

"We're going to facilitate the branding process and guide you through some principles, but this is your community. This is your story," said Chandler. "We are just the out-of-towners, so we want you to take ownership of your brand. We're not saying you need to do more marketing, we're saying you can weave it into your existing marketing."

The branding also aims to market downtown as a destination. Pulling the focus away from "the north strip along U.S. 41, the branding initiative hopes to make Downtown the focus of the Henderson community and make it the welcome center.

"This idea of discovering fits our community pretty solidly," said Judge-executive Brad Schneider. "If you've lived here for any amount of time, it's something you feel. I'm glad it's not some irrelevant tagline we can't sustain here. The key is we agree on how we carry this true story forward."
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Ken Reynolds, Sebree

I read Mr. Herb Pritchett's letter to you and thought possibly I could help with his confusion over our judge-executive, Brad Schneider.

First, I was in attendance for both the neighborhood forum that the Judge hosted and the second meeting of the Webster County Republican Party. I do not remember seeing Mr. Pritchett at either one of these meetings.

Second, Judge-executive Brad Schneider was certainly at the neighborhood forum that he hosted. Those folks in attendance appreciated him taking the time to be available, and he was, as Mr. Pritchett referred, apolitical.

Third, Judge-executive Brad Schneider did not attend the Webster County Republican Party meeting, which followed the neighborhood forum.

Hopefully these facts will help clear up some of Mr. Pritchett's confusion.
Hundreds come out for very first "Haunted Halls" trick-or-treat event

Hundreds packed the halls of Edward Stone Middle School Thursday night for the school's very first "Haunted Halls" safe trick-or-treat event.
Newly-weds Sambhavna Seth and Avinash Dwivedi are currently having a blast in Goa.

By India Today Web Desk: Former Bigg Boss contestant and television star Sambhavna Seth has been killing it on social media with her pictures from Goa. Accompanied by her beau Avinash Dwivedi, the two have been enjoying a well-deserved break from their busy work schedules, by letting their hair down in the beautiful locales of Goa.

The lovely couple enjoys the awesome weather of Goa. Picture courtesy: Instagram/sambhavnasethofficial

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Also read: Exclusive: Bride-to-be Sambhavna Seth opens up on her low-key wedding and honeymoon plans

The actress also bumped into her friend Meghna Naidu, while chilling in Goa. Picture courtesy: Instagram/sambhavnasethofficial

The lovely couple tied the knot in an intimate ceremony in Delhi on July 14, much to the delight of their well-wishers. We wonder if this is a mini honeymoon trip for the two, as in the past, the actress had told India Today Online that she would probably celebrate her honeymoon in Bali. Looks like the pre-honeymoon celebrations have already begun for the couple!



Sambhavna enjoys an ice-cream. Picture courtesy: Instagram/sambhavnasethofficial

Sambhavna even posted a lovely little video of their trip together on Instagram. She wrote, "Goa diaries with @iamavinashdwivedi #traveldiaries #traveller#fun #goa#video #drive#life #happy#love #laughter#micro#mini#trip#awesome#weather."

The actress even got a new tattoo. Picture courtesy: Instagram/sambhavnasethofficial

She seemed to be having lot of fun in Goa. Picture courtesy: Instagram/sambhavnasethofficial

For the uninitiated, Sambhavna and Avinash had met on the sets of a regional reality show, and had started dating after some time. The two had been going steady for the past five years before they finally decided to tie the knot.



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NORWALK  Civil War veteran Edwin Lorenzo Tuttle of the Union Army was honored Sunday as Veteran of the Month by the American Legion Post 12.

Tuttles nomination was completed thanks to the work of his great-grandson, Ed Isaacs, who began the process to honor his great-grandfather about three years ago when he was honored as the first Civil War veteran on City Halls Veterans Wall of Honor.

Today was a dream come true, it all started three years ago with the plaque and it will finish with my grandfather being honored in November, said Isaacs.

The ceremony was held outside of the American Legion with almost 30 people present, including family members Gayle DeMichelis and Ann Marie Breisler, both great-grandchildren like Isaacs. Also in attendance were other veterans, Mayor Harry Rilling and Town Clerk Richard McQuaid.

It was a great honor, said Breisler, before stopping to shed a tear. To be recognized, for him to be recognized, it is so great for the family and well deserved for all the men and women who serve, it was a great honor.

Chairman of the House Commitee of the Amerian Legion, Leo Motyka, conducted the ceremony.

After the National Anthem was sung and the Pledge of Allegiance recited followed by a prayer, there was a performance by bagpiper Edward Prescott and three shots fired by Civil War reenactor Tom Bierly.

Rilling mentioned that Tuttles honoring coincided with National Purple Heart Day, which honors the men and women who during their service in any of the Armed Forces were wounded or killed.

Thank you to all of our veterans, God bless America and God bless you all, said Rilling.

Born in Darien, Tuttle enlisted with the G Company 5th Connecticut Infantry, mustering in on Sept. 12, 1861 at the age of 25. He fought in the unit of the Army of Potomac for two years, mustering out of the 5th Connecticut Regiment on March 23, 1863.

Tuttle mustered in again on Sept. 3, 1864 when he was offered money to fill in for a draftee from Durham in central Connecticut. He served in the B Company 17th Connecticut Infantry with mostly Fairfield County soldiers, before mustering out on July 19, 1865 in Hilton Head, South Carolina.

Tuttle spent the rest of his life in Rowayton where he worked as a shoemaker, stone mason and general laborer while raising a family with wife Emma Louise de Lombrado.

Today was just an honor, a big honor, said DeMichelis.
NORWALK  An assault suspect led officers on a lengthy foot pursuit along railroad tracks and across Interstate 95 in South Norwalk Saturday afternoon, police said.

According to Sgt. David Orr, the incident began shortly before 5 p.m., when officers were called to a location on Ely Avenue where a man who was beaten was lying on the sidewalk bleeding profusely from cuts on his head and face.

Witnesses provided a description of his assailant and said he fled carrying a black bag.

Officers were informed the man dropped his bag before climbing up a hill on Madison Street to the mainline tracks of Metro-North Railroad's New Haven Line.

K-9 Officer Richard Montanez and his partner, Kia, were called to the scene and began tracking the suspect east on the tracks.

Metro-North was called and rail traffic was stopped.

Kia led Montanez north onto the Danbury Branch tracks.

Montanez encountered the suspect on Crescent Street and chased him into Matthews Park.

Other officers sped to the location and joined the foot pursuit, which proceeded past the Stepping Stones Museum for Children and the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion.

The suspect ran up the Exit 15 off ramp for I-95 south at West Avenue and across the six-lane highway.

He was stopped by officers and brought to the ground adjacent to an abandoned portion of Crescent Street where the SoNo Collection Mall is to be built.

Orr said the suspect, Jose Luis Gonzalez, waived his right to remain silent and said he assaulted the man on Ely Avenue because he had been disrespectful to a woman.

Gonzalez, 28, of Fairfield Avenue, Bridgeport, was charged with second-degree assault, second-degree reckless endangerment, interfering with an officer, and trespassing on railroad property.

He was held on $25,000 bond and given a court date of Aug. 12.

Orr said Gonzalez's bag contained clothing and a New York City Police desk appearance summons for a larceny charge.
One of the most important political events of the summer took place in a federal courtroom in Virginia last week. There, a three-judge panel unanimously rejected several North Carolina laws that were deliberately designed, they found, to reduce the strength of African-American voters.

North Carolina has emerged as a critical swing state with a voting population thats more than 20 percent black. Hillary Clintons chances depend heavily on maximizing the turnout in minority communities.

The court concluded that the North Carolina measures targeted blacks with almost surgical precision by ending election day registration, cutting back early voting and imposing a strict voter ID requirement. Its order reverses those actions, making Clintons organizing efforts in the state easier.

But there is a much larger point at stake here. Republican leaders in many states have decided that since they cannot win a significant share of the minority vote, they would simply pass laws to suppress that vote. Thats well beyond politics as usual. Thats insidious, immoral and downright un-American.

The ability of Americans to have a voice in the direction of their country  to have a fair and free opportunity to help write the story of this nation  is fundamental to who we are and who we aspire to be, said Attorney General Loretta Lynch after the North Carolina ruling.

North Carolina is one of 17 states to enact statutes that make voting more difficult, and until recently, the federal courts have been reluctant to get involved and overturn those legislative actions.

That is now changing for two reasons, and the first is race. Its one thing to use political power to enhance partisan advantage. Its quite another to penalize minorities as part of your strategy. Thats when a line is crossed from unsettling to unconstitutional.

As the three-judge panel wrote: We cannot ignore the record evidence that because of race, the legislature enacted one of the largest restrictions of the franchise in modern North Carolina history.

The panel is not alone. Federal judges in Texas, Wisconsin and North Dakota have also ruled recently against laws aimed at reducing minority power. The Supreme Court has yet to take up the issue, and probably wont before the election, so the lower court rulings will stand for now and the trend line is clear.

These judicial decisions all come to the same basic conclusion: Election victories do not convey unlimited power. The winners cannot use their position to deprive losers of their basic rights.

There is a second reason for the courts new aggressiveness: the blatant distortion of the truth by the laws authors. They claim the measures are designed to combat voter fraud, but thats simply a lie.

There is no evidence  none  that voter fraud is a serious problem, and the judges forcefully made that point. The North Carolina laws impose cures for problems that did not exist, the panel wrote.

The judge in the Wisconsin case was even more critical.

The evidence in this case, wrote District Judge James D. Peterson, casts doubt on the notion that voter ID laws foster integrity and confidence. The Wisconsin experience demonstrates that a preoccupation with mostly phantom election fraud leads to real incidents of disenfranchisement, which undermine rather than enhance confidence in elections, particularly in minority communities. To put it bluntly, Wisconsins strict version of voter ID laws is a cure worse than the disease.

And yet the leaders of the North Carolina legislature continued to insist on their false version of reality. They denounced the judges as three partisan Democrats and said, we can only wonder if the intent is to reopen the door for voter fraud and help politicians like Hillary Clinton steal the election.

That statement is a triumph of Trumpism. It asserts something to be true with absolutely no supporting evidence. And it shows contempt for the rule of law and the role of independent judges. After all, it was Trump who insisted that a federal judge hearing a fraud case against him could not be fair because he was a Mexican (the judges parents were from Mexico, but he was born in Indiana).

American history reflects a long, painful and at times bloody struggle to expand voting rights  for blacks, for women, for young people. The devious machinations of Republican legislatures to roll back that progress for crass partisan advantage are a moral stain on our legal and political process. Fortunately, a few brave federal judges are determined to eradicate that stain.
Saran District Magistrate Deepak Anand informed that Bihar Police was trying to identify the troublemakers involved in Saturday clashes.

A police team, that was sent to control the situation, was also attacked on Saturday.

By Rohit Kumar Singh: As the situation in Saran district remains tense after violent clashes between two communities over a video showing deities of a particular community being desecrated on Friday, the local administration has decided to take precautionary measures to keep a check on rumour mongers.

The district administration has appealed to the people of the district to give no heed to the rumors mongers. District Magistrate Deepak Anand has said that the administration was cracking down on anti-social elements who triggered clashes between the two communities following which widespread violence was reported across Saran.

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SECTION 144 IMPOSED



Foreseeing trouble ahead, security forces were dispatched to the troubled district to control the situation. The local administration also issued prohibitory orders and imposed Section 144 of CrPC in the district on Saturday morning but due to lack of adequate security personnel the situation got out of control. Protesters from the two communities clashed and pelted stones on each other. A police team, that was sent to control the situation, was also attacked. The police had to fire several rounds in the air to disperse the protesters.

On Sunday, the police carried flag marches in sensitive areas and conducted patrolling at regular intervals. The Saran DM informed that the police was trying to identify trouble makers involved in Saturday clashes.

POLICE SCANNING VIDEO FOOTAGE, CCTVS



"We are conducting regular patrolling in sensitive areas. Top cops of the police are scanning video footage and CCTVs to identify trouble makers. Steps are being initiated to arrest them", said Saran DM.

Till now, 25 persons have been arrested. Two persons responsible for making the objectionable video viral have also been arrested. 15 FIRs have been registered in the case till now.

To bring the situation under control, top cops including ADG (Law and Order) Alok Raj, IG (Ops) Kundan Krishan, IG Saran Sunil Kumar, DIG Ajit Rai are camping in the district. At present, 3 companies of Bihar Military Police, two companies of ITBP, one company of Indian Reserve Battalion, one company of Rapid Action Force and two company of STF are in Saran to keep the situation under control.

ALSO READ:



Bihar: Clashes between two communities in Saran district after idol desecration video goes viral



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Linkedin Asmara Wreksono (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, August 7, 2016

Indonesia's Olympic team had the world do a double take as it proudly strutted its sort-of batik costumes at the opening ceremony on Friday.

The parade leaders included some wearing Balinese kebaya, traditional gold-emblazoned Lampung costumes and similarly traditional Papuan costumes. The rest of the Indonesian team donned white blazers adorned with a large Garuda batik in the front, with additional accessories of udeng (headpiece) for the men and scarves for the women.

While the traditional Balinese, Papuan and Lampung costumes looked regal and garnered somewhat expected praise from the global audience, the white blazer with its enormous batik motif was not popular in Indonesia, especially in social media.

Raja Sapta Oktohari, Chief de Mission of the Indonesian Olympics team dan Prima Suci Ariani, the team's uniform designer, showcased the Indonesian team's uniform (15/7). The uniform was worn by Indonesian athletes at the Opening Ceremony of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.(Tribunnews.com/Oro)

Designed by Prima Suci Ariani, who prefers to be called a culture and batik enthusiast due to her lack of design background, the Indonesian team's uniform has been under fire since it was unveiled in July. Many have questioned why the Indonesian Olympic committee did not opt for a professional designer and instead appointed a non-designer figure to create the nations team uniform for the opening ceremony.

When Indonesia has Tex Saverio, Biyan, Lenny Agustin, Sebastian Gunawan and many other senior fashion designers, why Prima Suci Ariani???  alpian (@alvianoszta) August 5, 2016

Who is Prima Suci Ariani and why some pecinta batik with no fashion design background is designing a very important uniform?  Lily M. S. (@lilymarp) August 5, 2016

Social media users also compared the US-appointed well-known designer Ralph Lauren, Britains Stella McCartney and Cubas Christian Louboutin to Indonesias unknown name in design.

Seragam Olympiade 2016 tim Cuba paling keren, desainernya Loubotin. Canada juga. Indonesia? Nggak bagus. https://t.co/p1Q0Qfk04f  Paramita Mohamad (@sillysampi) August 4, 2016

Some others compared the design to candy wrappers and uniforms worn by probiotic drink saleswomen.

Seragam tim olimpiade Indonesia. Desainer kita bukannya banyak yg bagus-bagus ya? Ini bungkus permen atau apa sik? pic.twitter.com/7f1IxqoJYS  Joko Anwar (@jokoanwar) August 5, 2016

Amid harsh criticism over the past few weeks, Youth and Sports Minister Imam Nachrawi tried to stay positive. We are proud to showcase the rich Indonesian heritage at the opening ceremony of the 2016 Olympics, where the world watches, he said at the Maracana Stadium, Brazil, Friday.

(Read also: Weightlifter Sri Wahyuni wins Indonesia first medal at Olympics)

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Olympic teams costume garnered praise from media around the world. USA Today ranked Indonesia eighth in a total of 17 best costumes worn by country delegates at the opening ceremony. The Wall Street Journals Ahmed Al Omran tweeted how impressive he found the Indonesian teams costume.

Indonesia wins the most impressive outfit so far #OpeningCeremony #Rio2016 pic.twitter.com/G92ckOakND  Ahmed Al Omran (@ahmed) August 6, 2016

The Boston Globes sports editor, Matt Pepin, also voiced his appreciation via Twitter.

Indonesia No. 2 on my favorite outfit list  Matt Pepin (@mattpep15) August 6, 2016

Indonesias Olympic team is not the only one sparking controversy over its costume design. Ralph Lauren's design for the US Olympic team was criticized for its 'slight resemblance of the Russian flag'. Meanwhile the Chinese Olympic team's vibrant red and yellow colors were said to 'bear too much resemblance with a tomato-filled omelette'.
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Linkedin Hans Nicholas Jong (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, August 6 2016

The National Police have declared a war against hate speech on social media by arresting two people in Jakarta and Banten for posting racist messages on the web related to the recent anti-Chinese riot in Tanjung Balai, North Sumatra.

But questions have arisen whether the police are capable of carrying out a zero-tolerance approach to combat hate speech, with some minority groups still being left defenseless in the face of verbal attacks.

A 30-year-old English teacher in Banten, identified only by her initials FAB, was arrested for posting a racist comment relating to the Tanjung Balai riot. The police nabbed FAB at her office in Rangkas Bitung on Wednesday after she posted a racially charged comment on her Facebook account.

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Linkedin Ganug Nugroho Adi (The Jakarta Post) Boyolali, Central Java  Sat, August 6 2016

A group of construction workers had to pause their work recently when they discovered a stone structure while excavating a site in Ringin Larik village, Boyolali, Central Java.

The stone structure, believed to be part of an ancient temple, was discovered by workers excavating for a tap water project, and resembles a group of yoni stones.

When the soil was excavated with heavy machinery, the rectangular stone boulders were discovered. They look like temple rocks, local resident Sumarwan, 42, revealed on Tuesday.

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Linkedin Lynda Ibrahim (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, August 6 2016

The colorful state of Indonesia turns 71 this month. Yet thanks to the tragically poor teaching of history, the earlier decades are starting to fade. Many Indonesians dont quite know their history and dont even realize they dont know.

Art is one of the tools to tell history and preserve memory. Another problem for Indonesia, as art also hasnt been taught adequately beyond simple drawing or watercolor painting. Our art museums are mostly uninspiring. Childrens artistic talents are often squashed early by parents who prefer professions with a clear career path in this country with high unemployment. Our failure to appreciate art has led many Indonesian masterpieces to find secure home overseas.

Grim? Yes. Is all lost? Perhaps not. There are still places in Indonesia, beyond the vault of private collectors, though far from the public eye, where masterpieces have been stored; state palaces, scattered around Java and Bali.

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Linkedin Primastuti Handayani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, August 6 2016

Check your calendar and see what date it is today. This has become a new habit for some Jakartans since the kick-off of the new odd-even license plate traffic policy on July 27.

Those who are rich enough can just switch between cars.

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Linkedin Indra Budiari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, August 6 2016

A report revealing that Jakarta has the highest number of cases of violence against women has been highlighted by the recent murder of a teenage girl who was found dead in a hotel room after meeting a man she had connected with online.

As a fresh graduate without a job, the 19-year-old victim found herself in financial trouble and turned to her friends for help.

Fajar Firdaus Persada, a Facebook friend, offered to help solve her problem if she agreed to meet in a hotel room in Cipulir, South Jakarta. Despite never having met before, the victim agreed to meet as they had been chatting on social media for a year.

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, August 7, 2016

Academics from Indonesian universities have voiced their support for Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) coordinator Haris Azhar in a case of alleged defamation.

Three state institutions, namely the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police, have filed police reports over remarks by Haris that they say amount to defamation.

Tri Agus Susanto from the Yogyakarta Institute for Village Community Development (STPMD) said the three state institutions were arrogantly displaying their power by reporting Haris.

The National Police, BNN and TNI should instead follow up on the information Haris discovered, Tri said at a discussion in Menteng, Central Jakarta, on Saturday.

He was referring to testimony conveyed by death row convict Freddy Budiman to Haris in 2014, in which the drug lord alleged that officials from the police, BNN and TNI were involved in his international drug network. The testimony went viral in social media one day before Freddy was executed on the Nusakambangan prison island in Cilacap, Central Java, on July 29.

Freddy claimed in his testimony that he had managed to operate his drug network thanks to support from top officials of the three institutions. He did not reveal any names, however.

The three institutions filed reports against Haris with the polices Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) on Aug. 2.

Haris was entitled to state protection under freedom of speech, Tri said.

An academic from the University of Indonesia, Panata Harianja, urged President Joko Jokowi Widodo to stop the death penalty against drug convicts. The government should solve the root problem of the widespread distribution of narcotics in the country without imposing the death penalty, he said.

Death penalty ends chances for drug convicts to become justice collaborators, Panata said at the discussion. (rez/ebf)
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Linkedin Suherdjoko (The Jakarta Post) Semarang, Central Java  Sun, August 7, 2016

National Police chief Tito Karnavian has formed a team to investigate information conveyed by Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) coordinator Haris Azhar on the alleged involvement of police officials the network of executed drug lord Freddy Budiman.

I do not want to comment on [Haris Azhar]. The most important thing is that we are going to investigate the information. The polices Internal Affairs Division [Propam] and General Supervision Inspectorate [Irwasum] will conduct the investigation [], Tito said on the sidelines of a charity event in a fishing village in Tambaklorok, Semarang, Central Java, on Friday.

In his testimony to Haris in 2014, Freddy claimed that officials from the National Police, the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) and the Indonesian Military (TNI) were involved in his international drug network. Haris release the testimony via social media one day before the drug lord was executed on the Nusakambangan prison island in Cilacap, Central Java, on July 29. Freddy claimed in his testimony that he had managed to operate his drug network thanks to support from top officials of the three institutions. He did not reveal any names, however.

Tito said the police would examine the information. This information cannot be used as evidence. Besides, it does not provide names. According to Article 184 of the Criminal Code, evidence comprises transactions, information from witnesses and letters containing information from defendants, said the police chief.

The testimony also cannot be categorized as guidance, because guidance must have conformity between one piece of evidence and another. So what weve seen now is just information, and information can be used only as a source for an investigation, he added.

Tito said he expected the Indonesian public to understand that information could be either true or false. Therefore, he said, the police would carry out internal supervision and investigation measures in response to information from the Kontras leader.

The Irwasum will involve external figures, so the investigation will be credible. This is because the National Polices commitment not to tolerate drug perpetrators is firm and clear, said Tito, adding that throughout 2016, more than 300 police personnel had been legally processed for being involved in drug crime. (ebf)
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Linkedin Erika Anindita Dewi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, August 7, 2016

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodos Cabinet shake-up on July 27 was better than the previous one, a political analyst has said.

Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) senior political analyst Syamsuddin Haris said Jokowi had thoroughly considered the performances of his Cabinet members before replacing some, making high-quality work a factor in the selection process.

"This isn't an easy task for the President, because his Cabinet is not only [about political representation] but also based on regional and mass organizations. Thus, it is impossible to have a Cabinet shake-up that can satisfy everyone," Syamsuddin said during a discussion in Jakarta on Friday.

Whether the latest Cabinet could handle the challenges the government was facing would depend on its consistency in implementing the governments development agenda, including economic stimulus packages aimed at accelerating economic growth and raising state income, he went on.

Syamsuddin said the recent Cabinet shake-up was not fully Jokowi's initiative, and this reflected in the composition of the new Cabinet.

Jokowis new Cabinet, he said, could be seen as a political measure to accommodate new ministers from two political parties. These are the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the Golkar Party, which were previously members of the opposition camp, the so-called Red and White Coalition.

Representing PAN was new Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Minister Asman Abnur, who replaced Yuddy Chrisnandi, while Golkars representative, Industry Minister Airlangga Hartarto, replaced Hanura Party politician Saleh Husin, Syamsuddin elaborated.

He added that the new Cabinet also involved professionals, as seen in the appointment of Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, a former World Bank managing director who had served as finance minister in the previous administration.

The analyst said that composing the new Cabinet also could not be separated from the oligarchic power of Megawati Soekarnoputri, the chairman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). Vice President Jusuf Kalla also played a role in the Cabinet shake-up, although his influence was not too big.

Although Jokowis leadership was getting stronger, Syamsuddin said, there was no guarantee the new Cabinet could support his presidency until 2019.

It is all about trust. Jokowi's coalition is based on trust among leaders of government-supporting political parties and the political compensation," Syamsuddin said. (ebf)
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Linkedin Cara Anna (Associated Press) Johannesburg  Sun, August 7, 2016

South Africa's ruling party suffered its worst election setback since taking power at the end of apartheid a generation ago, with the African National Congress losing the capital, Pretoria, and its surrounding Tshwane metropolitan area. But it won a tight race for the country's biggest city, Johannesburg, election authorities reported Saturday night.

The opposition Democratic Alliance, which named its first black party leader last year, made a strong move out of its stronghold in the city of Cape Town, winning in three of the country's six largest municipalities. With no party reaching a majority in Johannesburg or Tshwane, the possible formation of coalition governments is the next challenge.

Scandals around President Jacob Zuma came back to haunt him even as he praised a peaceful vote. As he spoke on national television, four women stood up in front of him, silently facing the crowd and holding signs that appeared to refer to his acquittal for rape in 2006. Zuma didn't appear to respond.

The election losses have threatened two decades of dominance by the ANC, the former anti-apartheid movement.

Since South Africa's first all-race election in 1994, the ANC has had widespread support on the strength of its successful fight against white-minority rule, while bringing basic amenities to many people. But its hold has been weakened by corruption scandals and a stagnant economy that has frustrated the urban middle class, while poor communities demand better services in a country with one of the highest inequality rates in the world.

"Election after election, the ANC has hung on to its past glory and kept its place in the hearts of most South Africans. ... This time round, though, it's not enough," the Mail & Guardian newspaper said in an editorial. On social media, South Africans mocked Zuma's recent claim that the ANC would rule "until Jesus comes back."

In a brief address shortly before final results were announced, the 74-year-old Zuma thanked South Africans for a vote he called largely peaceful, free and fair.

"Our democracy is maturing," he said. "Let us get back to work and build our country together."

The election was notable for its peaceful power shift away from an entrenched government in Africa, where some leaders have been in office for decades. In neighboring Zimbabwe, 92-year-old President Robert Mugabe has kept control since independence in 1980 with disputed elections and crackdowns on dissent.

Before this election, the ANC had never lost a major black-majority municipality. Now it has lost two, including Nelson Mandela Bay, named for the ANC's star and the country's first black president.

The Democratic Alliance already runs the country's second largest city, Cape Town, the only major municipality where blacks are in the minority among white and mixed-race residents. The party, which has roots in the anti-apartheid movement, has declared that its brand is good governance.

"For far too long, the ANC has governed South Africa with absolute impunity," the party's leader, 36-year-old Mmusi Maimane, told reporters earlier Saturday. He said the idea that his party was a white one has been "completely shattered."

The Democratic Alliance angered the ANC last month by declaring that it was the only party that could realize Mandela's dream of a "prosperous, united and non-racial South Africa."

Maimane immediately looked ahead to presidential elections. "The 2019 campaign starts now," he said.

The ANC received 53 percent of votes across the country, its lowest percentage ever, with the Democratic Alliance getting 26 percent. A more radical opposition party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, contested the local elections for the first time and received 8 percent of the vote nationwide after promising measures it says will help the poor.

The results for the ANC could put pressure on Zuma to leave office before his mandate ends in 2019, political analysts said.

The ANC has said "we will reflect and introspect where our support has dropped." It retained support in many rural areas in a country where blacks make up 80 percent of the population.

Scandals swirling around Zuma have hurt the ANC. Opposition groups have seized on the revelation that the state paid more than $20 million for upgrades to Zuma's private home. The Constitutional Court recently said Zuma violated the constitution and instructed him to reimburse the state $507,000.

___

Associated Press writer Christopher Torchia in Johannesburg contributed. (**)
Local BJP MLA Manoranjan Kalia said that three bullets hit Gagneja.

Jagdish Gagneja is the Sah-sarsanghchalak of RSS. Photo credit: Manoranjan Kalia

By Press Trust of India: Senior RSS leader Brigadier (retd) Jagdish Gagneja was shot at by some bike-borne persons at Jyoti Chowk area on Saturday, police said.

Jalandhar Commissioner of Police Arpit Shukla said Gagneja, Sah-sarsanghchalak of RSS' Punjab unit, was shot at around 9 PM near Makhdumpura colony.

3 BULLET INJURIES

He was rushed to a private hospital where his condition is stated to be critical.

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Local BJP MLA Manoranjan Kalia said that three bullets hit Gagneja.

Police have started probe in the matter.

UNACCEPTABLE ACTION

Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee President Amarinder Singh condemned the attack on the RSS leader.

"Such nefarious designs deserve to be nipped in the bud lest these push Punjab into anarchy," he said in a statement. People may not agree or approve of RSS ideology, but in a democracy everyone has a right to pursue his political and ideological beliefs, Amarinder said.

"Such intimidation is unacceptable," he said.



--- ENDS ---
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, August 8, 2016

President Joko Jokowi Widodo is due to meet with entrepreneurs and taxpayers in Bandung, West Java, on Monday, to discuss the governments tax amnesty programs.

The President will also visit the Institute of Public Administration (IPDN) for the same reason, a media official with the State Palace said.

The visit to Bandung is a part of the Presidents talks and meetings with prominent businesspersons across the country to persuade them to take part in the program, the official said.

The President has also visited Singapore to talk with tax evaders in the neighboring country.

A number of ministers and top level government officials are accompanying the President to convince businesspersons to repatriate their assets as early as possible in order to make the most of the benefits available to them.

(Read also: Tax amnesty provides good momentum for economy)

Repatriated assets will enjoy a redemption rate ranging from 2 to 5 percent of the assets, while declared assets will have a 4 to 10 percent rate.

The government hopes to see Rp 4 quadrillion (US$303 billion) in declared assets and Rp 1 quadrillion in repatriated assets from overseas, and to pocket Rp 165 trillion in tax revenues from the penalties. (dan)
By PTI: London, Aug 7 (PTI) Scientists have developed a new shape-changing metamaterial using Kirigami - the ancient Japanese art of cutting and folding paper to obtain 3D shapes.

Metamaterials are a class of material engineered to produce properties that do not occur naturally. Currently metamaterials are used to make artificial electromagnetic and vibration absorbers and high-performance sensors.

Kirigami can be applied to transform two-dimensional sheet materials into complex three-dimensional shapes with a broader choice of geometries than classical origami.

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The type of mechanical metamaterials using the Kirigami technique, developed by Robin Neville, PhD student at University of Bristol in the UK, changes shape seamlessly, exhibits large variations in mechanical performance with small geometry changes, and can be adapted to modify its configuration by using mainstream actuation mechanisms.

The Kirigami metamaterial can also be produced using off-the-shelf thermoplastic or thermoset composite materials, and different sensing and electronics systems can be embedded to obtain a fully integrated smart shape-changing structure.

"Mechanical metamaterials exhibit unusual properties through the shape and deformation of their engineered subunits," said Fabrizio Scarpa, Professor at Bristols Department of Aerospace Engineering.

"Our research presents a new investigation of the kinematics of a family of cellular metamaterials based on Kirigami design principles.

"This technique allows us to create cellular structures with engineered cuts and folds that produce large shape and volume changes, and with extremely directional, tuneable mechanical properties," said Scarpa.

"By combining analytical models and numerical simulations we have demonstrated how these Kirigami cellular metamaterials can change their deformation characteristics," Neville added.

"We have also shown the potential of using these classes of mechanical metamaterials for shape change applications like morphing structures," he said.

In the future, this Kirigami metamaterial could be used in robotics, morphing structures for airframe and space applications, microwave and smart antennas.

The research was published in the journal Scientific Reports. PTI SAR SAR

--- ENDS ---
The brains of obese people age more rapidly than those of thinner people in middle age, research by the University of Cambridge has found.

Academics observed that the brains of obese people display differences in white matter similar to those in leaner individuals 10 years older.

White matter is the tissue that connects areas of the brain and allows information to be communicated between regions.

Human brains naturally shrink with age, but scientists are increasingly recognising that obesity  already linked to conditions such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease  may also affect the onset and progression of brain ageing.

Human brains naturally shrink with age (Johannes Gerhardus Swanepoel/Thinkstock)

In a study of 473 people aged between 20 and 87, researchers looked at the impact of obesity on brain structure across the adult lifespan.

Candidates were recruited by the Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience and the results are published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging.

The researchers divided the data into two categories: lean and overweight, and

found significant differences in the volume of white matter - overweight individuals had a widespread reduction in white matter compared with lean people.

Scientists fear obesity could affect brain ageing (Lauren Hurley/PA)

The team then calculated how white matter volume differed across the two groups depending on age. They discovered that an overweight person at 50 had a comparable white matter volume to a lean person aged 60.

Researchers only observed these differences from middle-age onwards, suggesting that brains may be particularly vulnerable during this period of ageing.

As our brains age, they naturally shrink in size, but it isnt clear why people who are overweight have a greater reduction in the amount of white matter, said Dr Lisa Ronan from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge.

We can only speculate on whether obesity might in some way cause these changes or whether obesity is a consequence of brain changes.

Scientists found striking differences in the volume of white matter between overweight and lean people (PA)

Professor Paul Fletcher, from the Department of Psychiatry, said: Were living in an ageing population with increasing levels of obesity, so its essential that we establish how these two factors might interact, since the consequences for health are potentially serious.

The fact that we only saw these differences from middle-age onwards raises the possibility that we may be particularly vulnerable at this age. It will also be important to find out whether these changes could be reversible with weight loss, which may well be the case.

The researchers found no connection between being overweight or obese and an individuals cognitive abilities, as measured using a standard test similar to an IQ test.

The research was supported by the Bernard Wolfe Health Neuroscience Fund, the Wellcome Trust and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.
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Lurking in an old war bunker

In high-rise, high-priced Hong Kong, even millionaires dont always have room to store their fine wine collection at home, but a converted British war bunker offers space-crunched oenophiles the perfect solution.



By AFP

Saturday 6 August 2016, 03:10PM

A security guard walks near one of the entrances to the Crown Wine Cellars. Photo: Dale De La Rey/AFP

Built by Her Majestys government in the 1930s to hold munitions, the Little Hong Kong bunker complex was the last Allied position to fall to the invading Japanese on December 27, 1941  two days after the surrender of the British governor.

Collectors may rest assured that this spirit endures, says Gregory De Eb company principal of Crown Wine Cellars.

We have great feng shui here. Nobody died, last place to surrender  it was all good! he explains.

The firm has converted the sprawling complex into state of the art wine storage. Six of the Central Ordnance Munitions Depot bunkers  each spanning some 1,000 square feet  have been painstakingly transformed into what he describes as the Rolls-Royce of wine cellars.

Carved out of Hong Kongs hills, protected by reinforced concrete and soil, the complex  whose sensitive restoration even received a nod from Unesco  offers one of the most secure environments possible for wine.

If you give us one bottle of 1982 [brand removed] that your grandfather gave to you (with) his signature on the top left hand corner, we make absolutely sure that your bottle will never be interchanged with any other, said De Eb, a former diplomat.

In 50 years time we will give that bottle back to you. Its so important, he added.

De Eb says the wine vaults were built in accordance to the US standard for gold bullion, while overall security at the bunkers drew inspiration from methods employed by the diamond industry in his native South Africa.

Staff must wear wetsuits when entering the cellars  an anti-theft measure to ensure nothing can be smuggled out in clothing, and some vaults require three people to simultaneously input codes in order to access them.

Clients are not allowed to enter the main storage warehouses, but can request to view their collection in small rooms, where they will be closely monitored by security cameras.

Such measures are not just for show: the cellar holds two of the worlds most expensive bottles ever sold at auction  a bottle that went under the hammer in 2010 at Sothebys Hong Kong, fetching US$232,692 (B1,071,517) apiece.

Thanks to Hong Kongs incredible concentrations of wealth, the city has become a world capital for fine wine.

The city hosts Vinexpo, Asias largest wine and spirits fair, and has become a major hub for fine wine sales across Asia, thanks in part to a government decision in 2008 to drop import duties on wine.

Imports have grown exponentially  to $1.5 billion in 2015, up from $206 million in 2007 according to Hong Kong Trade Development Council figures.

The city is a key gateway to the vast, lucrative Chinese market, but of the 63.3 million litres of wine that was imported into Hong Kong in 2015, just 27.2 million was re-exported  highlighting the citys own love affair with grapes.

Astronomical real estate prices coupled with Hong Kongs hot and humid environment, mean that wine storage really is a growing business, said Korean wine expert Jeannie Cho Lee.

Its not like in France where everyone has a basement under their house, said wine importer Alex Yim.

In Hong Kong, you even need to find a place to store your clothes, he added, referring to the citys notoriously small but expensive apartments, which often lack basic storage space.

The government has sought to encourage the nascent local wine storage industry, creating the worlds first Wine Storage Management Systems Certification Scheme in 2009.

By the end of 2015, 37 Hong Kong companies had been certified, giving wine-lovers many options.

They could trust their entire collection to Crown, which has 2,000 customers including major auction houses like Sothebys, and manages more than three billion Hong Kong dollars, worth of wine, De Eb said.

The company is an arm of Crown Worldwide, which also has relocation, record management and fine art divisions.

Or they could turn to companies like Wine Vault, which started in 2008 and has converted disused industrial space into individual climate-controlled wine storage rooms.

The firms cellars are between 40 and 80 square feet in size, and users can access their wine collection whenever they want, thanks to facial recognition software.

The rooms off the long corridor in the bland industrial complex are now packed with cases and bottles of the worlds best vintages.

In order to mimic the environment of underground cellars in Bordeaux or other wine regions we keep the temperature around 13-14 degrees [Celsius], said Hubert Li, a partner at the Wine Vault.

All of our 550 clients are private collectors, he said, adding that sometimes clients send their drivers to collect a few more bottles to top up their smaller wine stores at home.
Man wrecks pickup at slippery 'deadly curve', left foot severed from ankle

PHUKET: Doctors have yet to confirm whether or not they will be able to salvage a man's left foot, which was severed from his ankle in a freak accident this morning along Thepkrasatri Rd north of Phuket Town.



By Eakkapop Thongtub

Sunday 7 August 2016, 05:35PM

Police and rescue workers were notified of the accident at about 9 a.m. this morning and reported to the scene, at a roadside ditch along the infamous Kuan Din Daeng curve, a few kilometers north of Super Cheap.

There, rolled over on its side in the ditch off the southbound lane was a totaled bronze-colored pickup truck with Bangkok license plates. Inside the cab of the truck there was a man screaming frantically that his foot had been cut off. Rescue workers quickly assessed the situation, noting that a steel guardrail from the road had penetrated the inside of vehicle causing the man's left foot to be severed from his ankle.

Rescue workers quickly collected the man's severed foot, which was caught in the seat, and had it rushed to the hospital morgue freezer in hopes of preventing any further cell decay. They then proceeded to free the man from the truck, who was said to be conscious and alert, though rapidly turning green in the face from loss of blood.

The man was named as 41-year-old Kayan Lahab of Nakhon Si Thammarat. Witnesses told investigators that at the time the man lost control of his vehicle at the curve, it was raining hard, with lots of runoff coming from off the adjacent Hill onto the road.

The particular curve is the site of many accidents, prompting locals to nickname the site "Kuan Din Daeng - 100 corpses curve".
"I dedicate the medal to our king. That is the Thai way," Sopita told reporters after she became the fourth women's weightlifter from Thailand to win an Olympic gold medal.

The 88-year-old Thai king is the world's longest-reigning monarch and is widely revered in the country where his frail health is a matter of public concern.

He is confined to a wheelchair and has not been seen or spoken in public for nearly a year. Earlier this week the palace said he was being treated for fever and water on the brain.

Sopita, a regular lifter in the 53kg class, took full advantage of the withdrawal through injury this week of hot Chinese favourite Hou Zhihui to win with ease.

The 5ft 1ins Thai hoisted 8kg more than silver medallist Sri Wahyuni Agustiani of Indonesia, while evergreen Japanese lifter Hiromi Miyake took bronze with a total of 188kg.

Sopita -- who hails from a family of boxers -- was in control throughout at the the 6,000-capacity Riocentro Pavilion 2, and went into the clean and jerk leading by seven kgs.

Her only stumble came when she failed to lift 110kg in her final attempt of the night. That left Agustiani needing to haul 115kg to take first place. The Indonesian had two opportunities but never came close.

"I was surprised that she was going for it but I was still very confident I was going to win," Sopita said afterwards.

"I believed I could do it but it just wasn't meant to be," lamented Agustiani.

Miyake's bronze came after she won silver at London four years ago to become Japan's first ever female medal winner in weightlifting.

The 30-year-old was in tears on Saturday after failing to lift her first two snatch attempts, but she was all smiles later as she squeaked onto the podium by 1kg.

- Doping cloud -

Miyake, whose father won Olympic bronze in weightlifting in 1968 Olympic is competing in her fourth Games and didn't rule out a fifth on home soil at Tokyo 2020.

"It would be a wonderful place here to wrap up my career but I need to go away and think about it very carefully," she said.

The weightlifting started under a cloud of doping after it was reported earlier in the day that Cypriot weightlifter Antonis Martasides had been sent home from the Olympic Games after failing a drugs test.

The Cyprus Mail said on its website that Martasides had tested positive for a banned substance following an out-of-competition test on July 25 in Athens.

Martasides' credential for Rio was revoked following the test.

Weightlifting has long been plagued by doping scandals.

Russia and Bulgaria, both traditional powerhouses, are banned from the weightlifting competition in Rio for repeated doping offences.

The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) also punished North Korea, Romania, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Moldova by reducing their allocation of lifters.
Phuket Opinion: A Constitution for you

PHUKET: For many expats living in Phuket, the referendum today (Aug 7) is likely seen as having little direct relevance to their daily lives  other than how the political landscape for the coming years will affect the nations economy, and ones bank balance.

opinionpoliticsmarine

By The Phuket News

Sunday 7 August 2016, 09:00AM

More of a concern will be how to avoid the splotches of traffic massed around the 370 polling stations across the island as Thais cast their votes to decide whether or not to approve the draft Constitution proposed, and whether to allow the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) to appoint all the members of the Senate to be.

Its hard to blame them, given the two coups, the Thaksin and Yingluck administrations, a short-lived Democrat government and the past two years under military governance. If anything, political upheaval has become the norm.

While it may be difficult to perceive how a Constitution works on the street, we do urge foreigners to at least read the document, an unofficial translation of which can be found at un.or.th (click here).

Much of the Thai constitution will be an eye-opener for expats who have never gleaned the nations charter, though many of the provisions are exactly the same if not incredibly similar to the provisions in force before the events of May 22, 2014.

More importantly, few foreigners appreciate how many rights are enshrined in the Thai Constitution, notably in the sections Duties of the State and Duties of the Thai people. If you aim to take anything away from this weekend, while the bars are closed, at least remember this:

Section 41: A person and a community shall enjoy the right;

(1) to be informed of and have access to public information or news in possession of State agencies as provided by law,

(2) to submit a petition to a State agency and be informed of the result of its consideration without delay,

(3) to bring an action against a State agency holding it liable for an act or omission of an act as committed by its government official, official and employee.

Section 59: The State shall disclose public information or news in possession of State agencies which are not in respect of security of the State or official secrets as specified by law, and shall facilitate public access to such information or news.

Those are your Constitutional rights, and have been for a long time. Dont think they do not apply to you.
Seeds from the shoes

The tree that changed Phukets landscape



By Anton Makhrov

Sunday 7 August 2016, 12:00PM

When exploring Phuket, one cannot help noticing numerous plantations with perfectly aligned trees, giving a stroboscopic effect as you drive past. These are rubber trees or Hevea brasiliensis, a species that was introduced to Phuket in the early years of the 20th century and since then has consistently been either the islands largest or second-largest export-earner after tin or tourism.

Rubber trees are not native to Phuket. They originated in the Amazon rainforest and for years Brazil was the only supplier of natural rubber, jealously safekeeping this unique natural resource. It was not until 1875 when English explorer Henry Wickham succeeded in breaking Brazils monopoly by smuggling out several dozens of hevea seeds.

The romantic story goes that he hid them in the heels of his shoes. No-one can tell for sure whether this story is true, but one thing is for sure  by the time Wickhams seeds arrived in Great Britain the demand for rubber was incredibly high. And if such names as Charles Goodyear, John Boyd Dunlop and Claude Michelin ring a bell, you will easily figure out why. By the beginning of the 20th century rubber was used for many applications.

However, the seeds kidnapped by Wickham gave rich fruit, but not on the English soil. Local climate was too cold for hevea, thus Great Britain had to try the overseas colonies, namely Ceylon and Singapore, as their climates more closely matched that of the Amazon. Of the 22 saplings that reached Singapore only nine survived, but these nine saplings have now propagated most of the millions of rubber trees that cover large swathes of tropical Southeast Asia today, including much of Phuket.

The first rubber trees to arrive in Siam were brought by the ever-enterprising Khaw Sim Bee when he was the governor of Trang. With his usual astuteness, he went to Sumatra in 1901 and purchased a few dozen seeds and then forced people in Trang to cultivate. He then persuaded the government to change the law to allow farmers to cut back the jungle, plant rubber on the cleared land and then own it.

As the rubber price relentlessly rose in the early 20th century, the Chinese in Phuket started burning and cutting back the jungle and stately trees that had shrouded the islands interior. All over the island, forested land began to be claimed to plant rubber trees or to be sold off as the next prospective tin mine.

Rubber prices grew continuously in the first half of the 20th century, as it was used in almost everything mechanical, electrical or automotive, and, after oil and steel it had probably become the third most important commodity required to run an economy, or an army. For example, each US Sherman tank in World War II required half a ton of rubber.

The production cycle generally follows a regular pattern. A rubber tree takes about six years to reach maturity, when tapping can begin; in the meantime, pineapples are usually planted between the rows of trees to bring a temporary income. A rubber tree has a productive life of around 30 years, after which it is cut, the wood sold and new trees and new pineapples are planted.

In the years of post-war rubber boom, more and more of Phukets jungle was frantically cut away and replanted with rubber trees, three metres by five metres apart, giving a stroboscopic effect as one drives by. Rubber planters huts and villages cropped up all over the island, new roads were created to previously inaccessible places and new houses build where no-one ever lived before.

In 1960, for the first time, rubber became Thailands largest export earner, overtaking even rice. The scant few seeds from Mr Wickhams shoes have utterly transformed the appearance and the ancient ecosystem of Phuket, an island on almost exactly the opposite side of the world from their original Amazonian home. No longer is Phuket island hidden by a spectral blanket of impregnable jungle full of tigers wild elephants and rhinoceros as earlier visitors described the place. No longer is the region a thinly peopled and jungled wilderness as King Mongkut described it in 1855.

Thai government figures today claim that natural forest now covers only 26 per cent of Phuket Island and rubber covers almost 60%. But these official figures seem incorrect.

Today the hiker or rambler in Phukets hills and national parks sees that much of this so-called natural and protected forest is also illegally interplanted with these ubiquitous and lucrative rubber trees.

This on-going process of reforestation with rubber is still continuing deeper into the national parks and higher up in Phukets mountain forests today.

Adapted with permission from A History of Phuket and the Surrounding Region by Colin Mackay. Available from bookshops or from amazon.com. See also historyofphuket.com.
Smartphone, handbag returned after police nab Phuket brother thieves who robbed foreigners

PHUKET: City Municipality Police last night (August 6) arrested two suspects who on Friday robbed two foreigners making away with a handbag containing cash, identity documents and a smartphone.

crime

By Darawan Naknakhon

Sunday 7 August 2016, 09:35AM

According to the initial report, an Australian man and a Slovakian woman*, both 28, were robbed by two Thai men on a motorbike in front of Phukets Downtown fresh market.

At 10pm last night, police apprehended the first suspect after tracing him using CCTV footage to a house on Soi 3 of Surin Rd in Phuket Towns Talad Yai subdistrict.

The suspect, named as 29-year-old Somchai Buraphut of Phuket, fit the description of the driver, and his green Kawasaki KSR motorbike also fit the description of the vehicle used in the robbery, police said.

After confronting the suspect and showing him their CCTV evidence, police said the suspect confessed to committing the robbery with his younger brother, named as 20-year-old Mr Sompong.

Somchai led police to his younger brother at a house on Soi Saen Suk 2, also in Talad Yai, where he was arrested and also confessed to the crime.

Police recovered the handbag, identity documents and a black Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini, which were returned to the victims, although the money had allegedly already been spent after being split between the two suspects.

Apologetically, Somchai told police that he and his brother only robbed the tourists to get money to party and cover their daily expenses.

Police seized as evidence two T-shirts said to have been worn by the suspects during the crime  a red-and-gray one worn by Mr Somchai, and a yellow-and-black one worn by Mr Sompong  as well as the motorbike.

The suspects were charged with joining together to use a vehicle at night for the convenience of committing robbery.

* Names of the victims removed at the request of both of the victims.


City prepares budget for the next four years of capital improvements
In a veiled attack, RSS ideologue Rakesh Sinha on Saturday termed AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi more dangerous than IS.

Owaisi is more dangerous than IS. Media have been shying away from asking who Owaisi is or why he observed 'black day' on September 17 (the day Hyderabad was integrated with India), he said.

He said IS was exploiting internal problems like caste-divide and indigenous discourses by people like Owaisi to radicalise educated youth in south India.

"Owaisi belongs to a party of the Razakars, who fought the Indian Army opposing the merger of Hyderabad with India. Qasim Razvi, who headed Razakars, had been released on the condition that he would return to Pakistan. But he continued to have his link with Hyderabad, which explains the rapid radicalisation in the city," Sinha said.

Sinha was in Bengaluru on Saturday to address a gathering organised by the think-tank organisation Manthan, which debated about emerging challenges in terrorism and extremism.

In his speech, he highlighted the security measures adopted by a few countries to deal with radicalisation.

In Turkey, Caliphate was abolished, but in India, Khilafat movement existed till 1964. Australia proclaimed multiculturalism is a failed ideology, Belgium senate passed resolution against wearing burqa, he said.

But, India does not feel threatened by a beard or burqa as we have a long history of cultural assimilation. This is the reason why the proportion of cooperation of Indian Muslims to terrorism is very low. So, India has to tackle terrorism without Islamophobia, he added.

Sinha, however, suggested that India requires a 'hybrid model' of "Turkeys hard model and the Indonesias soft model of cultural integration.

Turkey with its 99 per cent Muslim population controls what is taught in schools or preached by Ulema in their mosques, Sinha said.

If any BJP member were to propose such scrutiny or censorship, he would be shouted down by the so-called intellectuals. Dargahs in Kashmir send out messages on pagers. We are clueless about the content, he added.

Sinha said fear of persecution in the Muslim community was baseless and it was a ploy to push the country towards anarchy.

He also said that he was opposed to the idea of appeasement to woo a particular religious community.

The Hunter commission report (by the British) in the wake of the dreaded Wahabi movement became the basis for the Sachar Committee report. Both smack of appeasement. Prime Minister Narendra Modi boycotting iftar parties were a gesture to tell people that appeasement is not a good thing, he added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched Mission Bhagiratha, a project aimed at supplying piped drinking water to every household in Telangana. This is one of the pet projects of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and has already got a pat from the prime minister.

The flagship project was launched at Komatibanda village in Gajwel constituency of Medak district. Gajwel is also the chief minister's home constituency. Modi officially turned a tap to launch the project for supply of drinking water to 243 villages in Gajwel.

In his first trip to Telangana as PM, Modi also remotely inaugurated or laid the foundation stone for various projects in different parts of the state.

He remotely inaugurated Manoharabad-Kothapally (Hyderabad-Karimnagar) railway line, reopened Rashtriya Fertilizer Corporation Limited (RFCL) which was closed in 1999, laid foundation stone for 16000MW NTPC thermal power plant at Ramagundam and Kaloji Health University at Warangal.

Earlier, after landing at Begumpet Airport in Hyderabad, Modi left for Komatibanda in a helicopter.

In his speech, the chief minister was lavish in his praise for Modi. He said that the Modi government was the most progressive and states-friendly and appealed to the prime minister to sanction a national level irrigation project, an all India medical institute and an IT investment region for the state. KCR also said that the state needed only the Centre's blessings and nothing else.

Modi in his usual non-committal style assured all help and support for the state, but gave no categorical assurance on the requests made by KCR.

The visit took more significance because both the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are vying for getting the PM's attention.

If Telangana is doing it for extra favours from the Centre, Andhra Pradesh has been pushed to the wall to seek a special category status, which, if announced, will give the cash strapped state some relief.

The special status issue is creating a few misunderstandings between the BJP and the TDP, who had made a political tie up during the 2014 elections.

Rumour has it that the BJP might look for a new electoral partner in Telangana in 2019 forcing the TDP to face the elections on its own. It is also said that the BJP might be looking at TRS, though that would be very surprising, for the state BJP does not get along with the ruling party.

While Andhra CM Chandrababu Naidu might have been a worried man wondering what his bette noire was planning in the four hours Modi spent with KCR, he can now relax. Naidu had also met Modi two days prior to the PM's Telangana visit, and maybe KCR should wonder what had happened in Delhi.

'Beware of fake cow worshipers'

Narendra Modi once again used a public forum to denounce cow vigilantism saying that a handful of self-styled cow protectors were bent upon creating tension in the society and called for isolating such divisive elements.

Speaking in Telangana, the prime minister asked the state governments to identify cow vigilantes and take stringent action against them. "Beware of these fake cow worshipers, he said.
Vijay Rupani, the newly-elected leader of the Gujarat BJP legislature party, on Saturday called on Governor O.P. Kohli and staked his claim to form the government.

He was accompanied by new deputy leader Nitin Patel, BJP's Gujarat affairs in-charge Dinesh Sharma and Union Minister of State for Agriculture Parsottam Rupala.

Rupani and Patel were decided as the new incumbents on Friday.

Earlier, Rupala submitted his resignation as the state BJP president to national party president Amit Shah following his election as the leader of the party's legislative wing.

Sharma told reporters that Rupani and Nitin Patel would be sworn in as the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister respectively at 12.45 p.m. at the Mahatma Mandir in state capital Gandhinagar.

Sharma said the party was yet to finalize the names of other ministers to be sworn-in. Senior BJP leaders were holding discussions to decide the composition of the new government.

The first woman Chief Minister of Gujarat Anandiben Patel had on Monday announced her resignation through a Facebook post, necessitating the change of guard in the state.
National referendum on Thailand's 2016 draft constitution and its additional question begins at 8 am on Sunday, while a general election in 2017 is promised by the present government irrespective of the outcome.

Major figures such as Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, former prime ministers Yingluck Shinawatra and Abhisit Vejjajiva have already cast their votes, Xinhua news agency reported.

The voting will close at all 94,000 polling stations at 4 pm, and the unofficial results will be known before 9 pm, according to the Election Commission.

This is the second referendum after 2007. Around 50.5 million Thais of the total population of 65 million are eligible to vote this time, compared to the 45 million eligible in the last referendum.

The Election Commission has set a goal of 80 per cent turnout, against the 57.61 per cent turnout in 2007.

Once passed, the draft constitution will become the 20th constitution since the country became a constitutional monarchy in 1932 and there will be a general election in 2017, according to the roadmap of the Junta's leader.

On the ballot there are two questions: "Do you accept the 2016 draft of the constitution?" and "In order to reform the country continuously according to the strategy, should the Senate be allowed to join the House of Representatives in the voting process to select a prime minister for the first five-year period after the first National Assembly is formed under this constitution?"

The result of the second question, if passed, will be added to the Transitory Provisions of the constitution and thus give 250 senators picked by the current junta, or the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), power to elect a Prime Minister along with 500 elected members of House of Representatives.

If the draft is voted down along with the additional questions, there has to be a new draft constitution before a general election, said the prime minister. He has already said the general election would be held next year regardless of the referendum outcome.

Suthep Thaugsuban, who led the protest against Yingluck Shinawatra's Pheu Thai Party government from 2013 to 2014 that paved the way for the 2014 coup, expressed his strong support to the draft constitution and called it an anti-corruption one and said it will help to reform the country.

Abhisit Vejjajiva, former prime minister and current leader of Democrat Party, said the draft constitution has big defects in combating corruption.

Pheu Thai Party said the draft exempts the NCPO from any punishments, which is not fair.

On the other hand, Abhisit also said the draft cannot help to ease political and social conflict but trigger even more serious conflict, primarily due to the reduced roles of the elected politicians.

According to reports, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra on Thursday commented on the draft, saying "The drafters ... created a constitution for the 'continuity' of the absolute power of the present coup makers to continue even after the new constitution is proclaimed."

Thailand held a referendum on a draft constitution in 2007 after the 2006 military coup that toppled Thaksin's government.

The draft then passed by 57 per cent approval and later became the 2007 constitution, under which Thaksin's sister Yingluck Shinawatra and her Pheu Thai party won the general election in 2011.

But her government was again toppled by a military coup in 2014 and the 2007 constitution was repealed and replaced by the 2014 interim constitution.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomos signature economic development program may have created fewer jobs than the state says.

The Democratic governors administration released a report on Start-UP NY that says the program has generated 408 jobs since its 2013 launch.

But a close look at the database accompanying the report puts the number at 395, and a lawmaker says other discrepancies in the state statistics suggest dozens of jobs may have been double-counted.

It indicates that there is an attempt at the agency level to pad the numbers, said Assemblyman Robin Schimminger, a Buffalo Democrat and chairman of a committee that recently reviewed the numbers. I recognize that its the early stage of the program and that things are moving slowly, but good grief, at least lets be accurate.

Howard Zemsky, Cuomos top economic development official, stands by the report but has so far not explained why the numbers appear to be inflated.

Questions surrounding Start-Ups performance come as lawmakers from both parties and fiscal experts call for the beleaguered program to be overhauled or scrapped. Its the third time in recent weeks the Cuomo administration has been accused of manipulating data when it comes to performance measures for economic development programs.

A state audit Aug. 1 concluded that an incentive program that provides low-cost power to certain companies overstated the number of jobs created or retained by almost 30,000. An audit released last month found that officials adjusted initial targets for companies receiving a job-creation tax credit after fewer jobs materialized.

Start-Up seeks to attract new businesses by creating tax-free zones around colleges and universities. Cuomos administration called it a game-changing initiative and the most ambitious economic development program in New York states recent history. The state spent $53 million promoting it on radio and television.

Cuomo said Start-Up is just one of several economic development efforts, and he continues to support it. He also notes that the states economy is up overall.

The program has been in operation a couple of years, he said last month. It takes time.

The report on its progress  released three months late on a Friday before the July 4 weekend  lists companies participating in Start-Up and the number of jobs created through the program. While the text of the report puts the total at 408, a tally by individual companies listed in the report database adds up to 395.

The database lists the number of jobs at each company in two different ways, and discrepancies in several instances indicate the totals were inflated. Schimminger said he believes at least 80 jobs were double-counted.

Theyre counting last years jobs and carrying them forward and counting them again in 2015, he said.

Schimminger detailed the discrepancies during Wednesdays committee review; a subsequent analysis by The Associated Press also found the discrepancies.

But in standing by the report and its numbers, Zemsky said, I am not aware of them being inaccurate.

Zemsky is president of the Empire State Development Corp., the states main economic development agency, and he also disputes the recent audit by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

The audit found that Zemskys agency lowered job-creation goals after companies receiving job-creation tax credits failed to meet expectations and that it failed to verify if companies followed through on their commitment to create jobs.

ESD needs to stop lowering the bar and giving companies a pass when they fall short of promises, DiNapoli said.

Zemsky said the audit was unfortunate and misleading and unfair. He said it found no instances in which incentives were improperly provided.

State officials have also dismissed questions raised in another audit by DiNapoli that said the New York Power Authority overstated the number of jobs it supported through its low-cost power program.

The Authority awards the more affordable energy rates to companies and nonprofits in exchange for commitments to create or retain jobs. Auditors found the Authority includes jobs at companies that havent yet accepted the deal  a practice that boosted the number by nearly 30,000.

The Power Authority said the program has supported 370,000 jobs, and an Authority spokesman said the audit findings come down to an accounting disagreement.

Meanwhile, the states largest economic development program, the Buffalo Billion, remains under federal investigation, as does Nano, a bid to attract high-tech investment. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is examining whether two former Cuomo aides had possible conflicts of interest when they worked for companies involved in the project.

Ron Deutsch, director of the liberal-leaning Fiscal Policy Institute, said New York government agencies spend $8 billion on economic development each year. He said the problems facing so many programs show the need for a new approach.

Economic development is under attack in New York  between federal investigations that are going on, scathing audits that have been released, he said.

E.J. McMahon, president of the conservative Empire Center for Public Policy, said hes not surprised to learn the Start-Up numbers are inflated, but hes far more concerned about larger programs like the Buffalo Billion and Nano.

These numbers reflect on their credibility, but thats not the problem with a capital P, McMahon said. These other programs are costing billions and billions of dollars. Its very risky and there is inadequate oversight.

(AP)
At a time when the New York Police Department is encouraging beat cops to be more approachable to law-abiding citizens, its also equipping them to do combat with rampaging shooters.

The mass shootings in Orlando, Dallas and elsewhere have prompted the nations largest police department to accelerate a $7.5 million program to distribute heavy-duty body armor to uniformed patrol officers who might have to respond.

Some 20,000 helmets are set to be distributed by the end of the year. And the departments 3,000 patrol cars will begin carrying pairs of heavy-duty vests that officers will put on if dispatched to a report of an active shooter.

Simultaneously, the citys new police commissioner is championing a neighborhood policing program aimed at bridging the divide between police and minorities.

Heres a closer look at the arming of NYPD officers and some of its implications:



THE HARDWARE

Currently, NYPD patrol officers wear bulletproof vests thin enough to fit under their dark blue uniforms. The vests are capable of stopping a handgun round but not automatic rifle fire. The new vests provide that extra protection, with ballistic panels on the front and back that fit over the uniform.

The tougher helmets are comparable to one depicted in a photo distributed by Orlando police following the massacre at a gay nightclub in June. There was a large pockmark on it caused by the killers gunfire  evidence, the department said, that the helmet probably saved a SWAT officers life.

NYPD patrol officers are armed with 9 mm semi-automatic handguns with 15-round clips. Some have Tasers stored in their cars, but there are no long guns in the mix.

By comparison, the NYPDs counterterrorism officers and others with the Emergency Service Unit  the NYPDs equivalent of SWAT officers  have semi-automatic assault weapons, typically M4 rifles, to go along with their sidearms.



THE EXPECTATIONS

The new gear reinforces an approach adopted by the NYPD and some other departments around the country that calls on first-responding officers to confront shooters immediately, rather than establish a perimeter and wait for specially trained tactical units to arrive. In addition, the NYPD is giving officers special training on how to deal with multiple shooters.

The response comes amid concerns from civil libertarians and others that ordinary beat cops are becoming too militarized. But police officials see the measures as necessary to protect their officers and save civilian lives in deadly encounters that unfold quickly and demand a swift response.

Career NYPD commander James ONeill, who next month will replace outgoing Police Commissioner William Bratton, was blunt about the expectations.

Thats just the reality of it, he said. If something happens in Brooklyn, midtown, up in the Bronx, its going to be the sector cops who roll up first. And we have an expectation that theyre going to go to the danger. Theyre going to go to the fight.



WILL IT MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

Police union officials in New York, Los Angeles and elsewhere have been complaining for months that they need more training and equipment for their redefined role. Even with the NYPD announcement about the new helmets and vests, Patrick Lynch, president of the powerful Patrolmens Benevolent Association, is still complaining.

The helmets and vests are fine, Lynch said, but without long guns at the ready the officers and the public they are sworn to protect will remain in great danger.

That position is open to debate. In a letter to the Daily News, a retired coordinator of the departments Tactical Training Unit, Daniel Modell, wrote that long guns would make sense in departments where officers patrol alone in cars in areas where the response time of SWAT units can be lengthy. But officers in New York, he said, usually work in pairs and can get armored support promptly.

Besides, NYPD patrol officers have what these killers invariably lack: heart, Modell wrote. That and a 9 mm more than suffices.

(AP)
The critical moment when a gunman opened fire on two San Diego police officers, killing one, may never be seen. The surviving officer only activated his camera after the wounded shooter was running away.

San Diego is among departments with policies calling for officers to turn on cameras before initiating contact with a citizen in most cases. But like other departments, compliance is less than perfect.

The result is inconsistent use of an increasingly common tool meant to give investigators and an often-skeptical public a fuller picture of police actions.

The main motive of body cameras is to provide openness and transparency, and build trust in the police, said Samuel Walker, a retired criminal justice professor at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.

If officers are not turning cameras on, well, youre not going to build trust, he said. Youre going to reinforce the cynicism that already exists.

He pointed to a study that showed across-the-board low compliance rates of officers in one high-crime Phoenix neighborhood between April 2013 and May 2014, the most recent information available. Officers only recorded 6.5 percent of traffic stops even though the departments policy required cameras to be activated as soon as it is safe and practical, according to the study, conducted by Arizona State Universitys Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety.

The biggest part of the problem, Walker said, is a lack of discipline.

Chicago, Dallas, Denver, New Orleans, New York, Oakland and San Diego are among the cities that dont specify penalties when officers fail to record, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York Universitys School of Law.

The American Civil Liberties Union has studied the issue and said clear policies are vital, along with punishment for failure to comply.

Departments cant look the other way when officers fail to activate body cameras in critical incidents, or they become useless for accountability, said Peter Bibring, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California.

San Diego police have been criticized for failing to record a number of high-profile shootings. That prompted the department to revise its policy to stipulate that officers must turn on their cameras before most types of contact with citizens, but violations have continued.

Last week, the two San Diego gang unit officers on nighttime patrol pulled up next to a pedestrian on a darkened residential street, and the man almost immediately opened fire, police said. The suspect, Jesse Gomez, shot Wade Irwin as he got out of the patrol car and then fired through the open door and fatally wounded Irwins partner, Jonathan De Guzman, according to police.

Irwin fired back and started manually recording after the shooting, but police havent said what was captured.

The cameras are on before an officer hits record, and have a recall function to get video from shortly before an officer starts recording. That function allows 30 seconds to be retrieved, without audio.

Its unclear if Irwin activated that feature.

Both Irwin and Gomez were seriously wounded and remain hospitalized.

Victor Torres, a leading civil rights attorney in San Diego, said the departments policy makes it clear both officers should have been recording before approaching Gomez.

Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman has commended Irwins actions, including activating his body camera when he did, as heroic.

The Alameda County Sheriffs Department changed its body-camera policy following a highly publicized incident last November where two deputies were caught on surveillance video using their batons to beat a car theft suspect in the middle of a street in San Franciscos Mission District.

Eleven officers in all responded and 10 failed to turn on their body cameras. The one who did activate his did so by accident.

Three officers were placed on leave, including two who are charged with assault under color of authority.

No one was disciplined for failing to turn on their cameras because the departments policy at the time encouraged, but did not require, their use, said Sgt. Ray Kelly, an agency spokesman. The agency now requires deputies to use the cameras in most circumstances and lays out the discipline for failure to comply.

The department hasnt had a problem with compliance since, Kelly said.

Some departments are tapping new technology to take the human factor out of body cameras. Los Angeles will be among a handful of departments nationwide to deploy cameras made by Scottsdale, Arizona-based Taser International that begin automatically recording once signaled, such as when a patrol cars siren is turned on or when a shotgun is taken out of its mount

I believe by the end of three years these things will be built into a badge, said Steve Soboroff, vice president of the civilian oversight board of the Los Angeles Police Department. These cameras now, theyre like the old 10-pound cellphones.

Kelly said his department also is looking at the new technology.

The body camera is really new to law enforcement, he said. There are a lot of privacy concerns and body cameras dont always accurately depict what an officer is seeing. But they are a great tool and they are the future. And theyre here to stay.

(AP)
Police in northern Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan are involved in a search for a suspected terrorist. As a result, area railway service has been interrupted. At some point, the search focused on the Hadar Yosef neighborhood as well as the Ayalon Shopping Center.

Intelligence reports signal a PA (Palestinian Authority) resident is planning a terror attack in the area.

Unofficial reports indicate the search is focusing on a 42-year-old Jenin resident, Mustafa Salah, ID number 93996175, a PA resident affiliated with the Islamic Jihad.

Additional information to follow in this developing story.

3:20PM IL: Police have given the all-clear, permitting the resumption of train service between Bnei Brak and Tel Aviv University.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Residents of the controversial Kiryat Yovel neighborhood of the capital have announced they are opening a private school for the coming school year as they are tired of their children having to travel to a different neighborhood to attend a chareidi school.

The problem stems from the reality that over the past decade, the community is becoming increasingly chareidi and the veteran secular residents are fighting to prevent the continuing trend. Jerusalem Councilman (Shas) Tzvika Cohen explained to Kol Chai Radio on Sunday morning 3 Menachem Av one must understand. Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat was backed and elected with certain understandings, one being a commitment not to open a chareidi school in Kiryat Yovel. Cohen explains for as long as a chareidi mayor was not elected, the chareidi tzibur must understand certain realities exist and this is included in that group. Cohen holds the citys chareidi education portfolio.

At present, the climate in the community among the significant chareidi tzibur is that the school is going to be opened at all costs and they are willing to go to war over the matter  simply fed up with having to bus their children.

Cohen explains that while he personally backs the initiative, the fact remains that as a councilman, there is little he can do for as long as Barkat remains opposed to a chareidi school in Kiryat Yovel and he does not believe chareidi pressure is going to change this any time soon. Cohen added that work is taking place at this time to open another school in Bayit Vegan which is close to Kiryat Yovel and it will be a proper school with regulation classrooms.

Cohen explains the building is intended to serve first to fourth graders from Kiryat Yovel as well as relieving the overcrowding in the current school in Bayit Vegan. Cohen remains confident the new Bayit Vegan venue will be ready in time for the opening of the school year.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Telma, which is owned by Unilever, has issued an apology to consumers in the form of ads in Sunday morning newspapers. The company is now feeling the impact of its mishandling of contaminated breakfast cereals. Telma was quick to downplay the reports, insisting its line of breakfast cereals is safe as the company places the consumer above all else. l

Following mounting pressure, Telma finally admitted to salmonella infection http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/447706/telma-reveals-contamination-was-more-serious-than-just-cornflakes.html in some of its products, which led to the Ministry of Health becoming involved. The ministry is now probing if the chain of events is the result of negligence or intentional foul play.

A few hundred boxes of contaminated cereal have already been found on store shelves, 240 to be exact, in the Petach Tikvah area, as company officials insist they are probing just how this occurred. A total of 154,320 boxes were infected with salmonella. Telma insists the contaminated runs were eliminated. However, it has now been learned an employee placed barcoding from good boxes over the contaminated boxes. It has yet to be determined if the worker acted on his own or if this was an intentional company effort to dupe the consumer.

In the interim, Telma brand sales continue to drop as stores are thinking about totally removing Telma cereals from their shelves for the time being. Shufersal reports that 3,000 boxes of Telma cereals were returned last week and that number is likely to grow this week. Health Minister Yaakov Litzman has ordered an in-depth probe, telling Israel Radio if necessary, a closure ordered will be issued to shut the production down entirely.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Minister of Tourism (Likud) Yair Levin is warning chareidi parties to back down from a campaign to compel the closure of supermarkets on Shabbos. According to Levin, such action would elicit the ire of the nations secular community and the likely result would be placing Yair Lapid in the Prime Ministers seat in the next Knesset elections.

According to the NRG report, the matter is part of the battle to have Shabbos enforcement authority transferred to the Interior Ministry headed by Shas leader Aryeh Deri. Levin warned the chareidi parties on Sunday, 3 Menachem Av that making radical changes in the religious quo might backfire and compel the secular majority to vote for Lapid in the next election. Actually, Levin predicts the closure of supermarkets would result in Lapid earning 30 seats in the next election.

The heads of chareidi factions in Knesset reportedly responded that the closure of supermarkets on Shabbos would also bring them 30 seats.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Belgian prosecutors have identified the machete-wielding man who attacked two policewomen as a 33-year-old Algerian known to police for criminal offenses but not for terrorist acts.

The Federal Prosecutors Office said Sunday that the man, who it identified only as K.B., had lived in Belgium since 2012. It also said two police searches had been carried out overnight in the Charleroi area.

The man was fatally shot by police Saturday afternoon after attacking and wounding two policewomen outside the main police station in Charleroi, a city in French-speaking southern Belgium.

(AP)
The Midwest Agudas Yisroel Council of Synagogue Rabbonim held its 7th Annual Conference July 26-27 in Schaumberg, Illinois. Close to 50 Rabbanim and 15 Rebbetzins were in attendance from 20 major cities and from as far away as, Scottsdale, AZ; Denver, CO; Miami, FL; Houston, TX; Dallas, TX;. The conference was a tremendous success, enabling the organization to stay at the forefront of Torah development in the Midwest.

A decade ago, HaRav Avraham Chaim Levin, Rosh HaYeshiva, Telshe Chicago and member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah, recognized that the unique character of communities outside of the East Coast needed their own Rabbinic body. This vision was the genesis of the Midwest Council. Since then the Midwest Council has become one of the primary forces of the oilam haTorah in the Midwest.

The goal of the Conference is to strengthen shuls and communities. This is accomplished by providing the Rabbanim with a forum to share ideas and to have opportunities for continuing education in specific areas of halacha as well as a host of other issues  including social, emotional, medical, technological, and interpersonal  upon which Rabbonim are called upon to guide their congregants. The conference also provides projects and initiatives to directly serve their kehillos.

The annual conference is always a highlight for the Rabbanim. This years gathering did not disappoint. With a comprehensive approach to the topics discussed at the sessions, the Rabbanim are now even better equipped to serve their mispallelim.

The theme of the conference was, Proactive Rabbanus: Staying Ahead of the Challenges of Our Times. The Rabbanim had the unique zechus to hear presentations and have discussions with two of the Gedolei Roshei Hayeshiva in America, Rav Aharon Feldman, Rosh HaYeshiva, Ner Yisroel, Baltimore, and Member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah; and Rav Elya Brudny, Rosh Yeshiva, Mirrer Yeshiva, Brooklyn.

Rav Feldman discussed the various movements and trends that are attempting to challenge our mesorah. He has lectured and written extensively about this topic and he shared from his experience and expertise a clear and lucid definition of what stands at the core of these movements and what the Rabbanim and their kehillos need to do to combat them.

Rav Brudny led several hours of highly animated discussion. The Rabbanim greatly appreciated the opportunity to draw from his wealth of knowledge and extensive experience. The wisdom and clear daas torah that was shared will greatly enhance the Rabbanims skills in addressing similar matters in their own kehillos and communities.

The movement to redefine marriage and other related issues has saturated the media, caused a significant shift in the attitude of the general public, led to many new laws on a Federal and State level, and has brought a new wave of halachic shailos to Gedolim and shul Rabbanim alike. The conference invited experts to present on this topic from every angle. Rav Feldman discussed the Torah hashkafah pertaining to these changes and how the Rabbanim should educate their kehillos and children about this topic. As he emphasized, either we will teach them about it ourselves or they will learn it from the street.

Rav Dovid Cohen, Morah dAsra, Congregation Gvul Yaavetz, delivered a shiur via livestream outlining the halachic challenges that this movement has presented.

Rabbi Abba Cohen, Agudath Israel of Americas Vice President for Federal Affairs and Washington Director and Counsel, presented an update on the legal hurdles that have been put in place by this movement and he projected some potential newer challenges that may come up (rl) in the future. Rabbi Cohen discussed the issue on the federal, state and local levels as well as its legal and legislative ramifications.

Rabbi Shmuel Fuerst, Dayan Agudas Yisroel of Illinois, spoke on the topic Behind the Psak: Dealing with Difficult Rabbanus Sheilos. He discussed a number of practical halachic dilemmas that rabbonim might face and gave a definitive Halachic psak addressing each one.

Rabbi Dr. Yitzchok Lob, noted lecturer and therapist presented on, How to Teach Our Kehillos and Children to Cope with Terror. In addition to bringing sources from his clinical knowledge to help avoid a general sense of fear in our community, he also shared many stories and mashalim to support his points. He encouraged the Rabbanim to spread stories of faith and commitment to help create the level of emunah and bitachon needed to maintain equilibrium during scary times.

In addition to the formal presentations, there were several moderated discussion sessions where the Rabbanim shared programming ideas and discussed strategies to enhance the shul experience.

The Rebbetzins enjoyed a full day of sessions as well. Their program began with a lecture by Rabbi Labish Becker, Agudath Israels executive director, on the importance of creating a sense of community that encompasses ALL the congregants and the impact that the Rebbetzins can have on their kehillos; Rav Brudny addressed dealing with congregants crises; and Rabbi Dr. Lob presented strategies for taking care of ones self before taking care of others.

They also discussed Non-Time Consuming Ways to Connect to the Women of the Kehillah, moderated by Rebbetzin Michal Cohen, Congregation Adas Yeshurun, Chicago, IL; and Great Nshei Ideas with Rebbetzin Tova Greenblatt, Agudas Yisroel of St. Louis.

There was a consensus that it had been an extraordinarily valuable two days of learning and interaction. Rabbi Yaakov Robinson, Executive Director of the Midwest Agudah Rabbonim, said, There were 50 Rabbonim and 15 Rebbetzins in attendance, but the real beneficiaries are the thousands of members of their kehillos.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)
Shares at fast-growing online fashion retailer Boohoo have rocketed close to record highs in recent days on rumours of storming sales in America and hopes that the weak pound will help boost exports even further.

The stock has risen 19 per cent in the past two weeks, driving the value of ten-year-old firm to 820million.

George Mensah, an analyst at stockbroker Shore Capital, said: The market was already expecting Boohoos US sales growth to be quite strong. But the feeling is that they will surpass those expectations.

Well heeled: The rising price of the stock means the clothes retailer is now worth 820million

Boohoo and other leading UK online retailers have benefited as investors have switched to firms with overseas growth potential in the wake of Brexit, as sterlings slide has made their products cheaper to overseas buyers.

The company, run by joint chief executives Mahmud Kamani and Carol Kane, is expected to unveil its first-half results at the end of next month, while many high street clothing retailers are expected to confirm a washout summer.

Online clothing retailers have sustained their growth this year, but the high street has been stagnant, said Mensah.
The company behind Holiday Inn is being sized up by a Chinese conglomerate in a swoop that could be worth 7billion.

Insurance giant Anbang has reportedly held discussions over a potential takeover of Intercontinental Hotels Group.

The FTSE 100 firm was formed in 1998 from long-standing British firm Bass brewers and owns the Crowne Plaza, Candlewood Suites and boutique Indigo chains as well as Holiday Inn.

Hotel bid: Anbang has reportedly held discussions over a potential takeover of IHG

Talks are said to be in the early stages, according to the Sunday Times, after bankers were sent to China to discuss the deal with Anbang. But the insurance firm has not yet made any formal approach to Intercontinental.

The news comes days after IHG chief executive Richard Solomons, 54, pictured, and his wife Karin sold stock worth more than 2.5million following a spike in the Intercontinental share price, which had soared 19 per cent in a month.

Last week, Buckinghamshire-based Intercontinental shrugged off the turmoil in the travel industry caused by terrorist attacks overseas and posted strong interim figures, sending the shares up.

Its operating profit rose 2 per cent to 258million for the six months to June 30, while sales fell 8 per cent to 629million. It reported a 2 per cent rise in the key industry metric of revenue available per room in the first half of the year.

Intercontinental performed less well in the US and Middle East, however, after the falling oil price caused bookings to dip when oil executives cut back on travel and the need for rooms for workers plummeted.

IHG saw revenue per room fall 6.3 per cent in the oil producing markets of Texas, Oklahoma and North Dakota. In the Middle East, revenue was down 8pc.

Based on last weeks closing price, Intercontinental has a market capitalisation of 6.3billion and it is thought any potential deal would value the business at 7billion.

Intercontinental is familiar with takeover interest. Two years ago, it is thought to have rejected an offer from Wyndham Worldwide, owner of Ramada, and later survived pressure from investor Marcato, which was pushing for a sale.

Anbang has shown an appetite for major acquisitions after buying the Waldorf Astoria New York from US private equity group Blackstone in 2014 for nearly 1.5billion. At the end of March, it walked away from a 10.7billion takeover of Starwood Hotels & Resorts, citing market considerations.
Chinas nuclear bomb-maker is to take a stake in Hinkley Point if the 18billion power station gets the go-ahead from the Government.

The China National Nuclear Corporation, supplier of nuclear missiles to the Peoples Liberation Army, will buy half of China General Nuclears 33.5 per cent share in the project, which is majority owned by EDF.

It comes after Prime Minister Theresa May shocked the industry by saying the Government needed more time to review the project, reportedly over fears regarding investment from CGN.

Hinkley Point stake: The China National Nuclear Corporation operates under the control of the Beijing government

Its announcement that it would delay the decision until September angered China.

CNNC operates under the control of the Beijing government, and states on its website that it is the core of the national strategic nuclear deterrence, developing its atomic and hydrogen bombs and nuclear submarines.

In October, Britains surveillance agency GCHQ reportedly sought special access to the Chinese firms involved to allay security fears.
More than half of leasehold owners have admitted they regret buying their property, in the first ever independent national survey of leaseholders.

The National Leasehold Survey, organised by lease and property law firm Brady Solicitors, found that more than two-thirds of leaseholders have little or no confidence in the ability of their managing agent to deal with a problem.

Experts say it should send a clear message to the Government that changes to the rapidly growing leasehold sector are necessary.

Regrets: Extra costs are leaseholders biggest bugbear

According to the Land Registry, leasehold properties made up 43 per cent of all new-build registrations last year, compared with just 22 per cent in 1996.

Both first-time buyers seeking a cheaper property and retirees looking to downsize are big purchasers of leasehold property. But many buy without realising that leasehold tenure is heavily weighted in favour of the freeholder who owns the building.

Extra costs are leaseholders biggest bugbear. Flat owners pay an annual ground rent to the freeholder; monthly or annual service charges for the upkeep of the building; and additional bills for major works.

With freeholders having little interest in keeping costs down, bills can be both high and unexpected. Four in ten leaseholders who responded to the survey strongly disagreed with the statement that service charges represent value for money.

Flat owners fed up with large bills and poor service have two possible routes of escape. They can either choose to go down the right to manage route or buy the freehold, also known as collective enfranchisement.

1. RIGHT TO MANAGE

You get more rights with your own company AND more responsibilities

The Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 gives leaseholders the statutory right to take over the management of their property from the freeholder or landlord by setting up a right to manage company.

At least half the flats need to join the right to manage company.

Marcelle Turner, of law firm Thomas Eggar, says: The building can be run by the flat owners themselves, or they can appoint their own managing agent.

No compensation is payable to the freeholder although they will be entitled to be a member of the right to manage company and vote in line with the number of flats they retain, if any.

With increased rights comes more responsibility. Even when a right to manage is granted, all the terms in the lease concerning maintenance and repairs still need to be adhered to.

But the company can make decisions about which contractors to use  and so save leaseholders money.

Ian Mitchell, partner at Anthony Gold Solicitors, says his firm normally charges about 500 per flat to complete the right to manage process, which takes on average about five months.

He adds: The process can be simple until a nightmare freeholder  without any legitimate grounds  takes issue with a defect in the paperwork.

A right to manage company is also liable for reasonable costs incurred by the landlord in engaging in the procedures under the 2002 Act. Landlords typically engage solicitors on these matters.

Collective action: Leaseholders can club together and buy the freehold of their building

2. BUYING THE FREEHOLD

A great chance to extend your lease, control costs and reduce ground rent

Leaseholders can club together and buy the freehold of their building through a process called collective enfranchisement.

Collectively owning the freehold not only gives leaseholders more control but also adds value to each property. At least half the buildings flats need to agree to buy the freehold.

Rupert Collingwood, of The London Management Company, explains: A company is set up. Shares are then distributed to the leaseholders in the building, hence the term share of freehold. At the same time, leases are often extended and ground rents reduced to a peppercorn level.

Buying the freehold enables leaseholders to extend their leases  thereby countering the problems of loss in value over time and the difficulties in selling that stem from short-term leases.

Marcelle Turner says: Flat owners can also vary the terms or change them once the freehold has been transferred. Acquiring the freehold is subject to payment of a premium to the landlord. This may involve an application to court or a tribunal.

The cost of buying the freehold will depend on a number of factors, including the value of the property, length of the lease and ground rent. A surveyor will be able to give an estimate following an official valuation.

As with right to manage, buying the freehold gives flat owners the opportunity to control costs by shopping around for contractors and not paying massive commissions on insurance policies.
Britain's business rates system is heading for meltdown this autumn after it emerged that the Government agency responsible has failed to deal with 300,000 appeals.

The Valuation Office Agency, an executive agency of Revenue & Customs, is understood to deal with around 10,000 appeals a month but figures suggest the size of the backlog has barely changed since the beginning of the year.

With new bills set to arrive next month, experts fear the system will be pushed close to breaking point. The appeals date back as far as 2010 and the backlog has been worsened by the two-year delay to the publication of new business rates due in 2015.

To let: Soaring rates may trigger empty shops

But leading commercial estate agent Colliers International said the system will come under more pressure next month when understaffed and demoralised Valuation Office Agency (VOA) workers are due to issue millions of new business rates valuations for April 2017.

John Webber, head of ratings at Colliers, said: The VOA is under-resourced, undermined at every turn and demoralised. It must be a very difficult place to work.

He also said firms awaiting new business rates lists will be braced for huge hikes because the last revaluation was linked to 2008 property prices.

Since then, property values  the yardstick for business rates calculations  have soared in some areas including London and the South East.

Webber said the Government needs to take action to prevent a tidal wave of appeals, in particular specious claims, swamping the Agency and to ease the pain of significant business rate increases.

He added: The Governments decision to delay the last revaluation will come home to roost in a matter of weeks when we predict massive business rates hikes across London and the South East.

This leaves the Treasury with no alternative except to introduce significant relief to ease the pain.
The number of foreigners forming companies in Britain has soared by 160 per cent since 2010, according to a study of Companies House data.

Of the 664,000 firms set up last year, 170,000 were established by non-UK nationals  14,000 by Poles, 12,500 by Irish, 11,500 by Chinese.

The analysis by start-up specialist Made Simple found many chose to set up here as they were hindered by red tape in their own countries.

Prestige: Last year, the UK was ranked the sixth-easiest country in which to do business

Last year, the UK was ranked the sixth-easiest country in which to do business by the World Bank Group, while Ireland came it at 16th, Poland 25th and China 84th.

Howard Graham, chief executive of Made Simple, said: International entrepreneurs are choosing to set up in the UK not just because of the prestige of registering here, but because the process is very straightforward and affordable compared with other countries.

Meanwhile, 4,100 of the 10,000 firms set up last year with the help of the Start Up Loans Company were established by women.

Half were set up by women aged 31 to 49, a quarter by those aged 25 to 30, 14 per cent by 18 to 24-year-olds and 10 per cent by those aged 50 or over.

The highest number of female-led start-ups was in London, then the South-West and West Midlands.
Seraphine, the maternity-wear brand popular with the Duchess of Cambridge and celebrities including Jessica Alba and Kate Hudson, has seen turnover soar by 3.5million to 14million for the year ending March 2016.

Cecile Reinaud, founder and designer of the maternity line, said: Our expansion into the American market over the past three years has been really successful. Our two New York stores opened a year ago and have helped cement Seraphines brand presence in North America. With our web platform we ship parcels from the UK all over the US.

The business has a target of 30 per cent growth for the year to next March. It also expects to benefit from the weak pound as exports continue to soar.

Bump: Sales have been soaring for Cecile Reinaud, founder and designer of Seraphine

It has seen a boom in sales in Nordic markets thanks to dressing the Swedish royal family  princesses Victoria and Sophia both wore Seraphine dresses during their pregnancies this year.

Reinaud said: In addition to our main lines we offer bespoke services for royals and VIPs, giving us a fantastic ability to work in person with celebrity clientele. I recently completed a bespoke gown for the Russian billionaire Anna Klyukin to wear at the annual Monte Carlo Ball hosted by Leonardo DiCaprio.

She added that despite the appeal to celebrities, the brand remains affordable.

Seraphine, which has a team of about 40, was awarded the Queens Award for International Sales in 2015.

Reinaud, a Parisian, opened her flagship boutique in Kensington in 2002. Providing stylish, high-quality clothing, the brand became popular with trendy mothers-to-be.

Today, the website serves more than 30 countries, and Seraphine maternity clothes are distributed in stockists all over the world, including John Lewis in the UK, Galeries Lafayette in France and A Pea in the Pod in the US.
Call: Minister Margot James is being urged to bring back local business support

Small business owners are working 13 hours a week more than the UK average, and 28 per cent believe their health is negatively affected by running their firm, according to new research.

A study by market researcher Opinium for Bizdaq  a marketplace for businesses for sale  found company owners work on average 50 hours a week against the national average of 37.

It said 1.3million small business owners were suffering health issues due to the pressures of running a small business, with 660,000 of those feeling that the business has a very negative effect on their health.

According to the research, 370,000 small business owners are working more than 60 hours per week and as many as 94,000 are putting in more than 80 hours.

Business ownership was more likely to be a burden in the North, with twice as many small business owners (22 per cent) responding that their health was negatively affected than those in the South (11 per cent).

The negative effects of running a business were most marked in the East Midlands, with 34 per cent of owners saying their health was being damaged, while the South East was the least affected at 8 per cent.

Sean Mallon, chief executive of Bizdaq, said: The fact that so many small business owners are struggling is astonishing and really shows the need for the Government to do more to support the backbone of the British economy. Now more than ever, the UK needs strong small businesses.

The abolishment of Business Link and the regional adviser programme by the Coalition Government in 2010 left a vacuum in small enterprise in the UK.

Where small business owners previously felt the benefits of having a local support network, there are currently no services owners can turn to when looking for support. I would call upon the new small business Minister, Margot James, to prioritise the re-establishment of business support on a local level.

Families are also feeling the effects of small business ownership, with 87 per cent of owners with children under the age of 18 not planning to take a family holiday this year.

The effects are not just felt in the summer break, as 18 per cent of small business owners felt their enterprise negatively affected their families.

The study found younger business owners were more confident about a post-Brexit future than any other generation.
Passion: The chairwoman of the Institute of Directors, Barbara Judge

The chairwoman of the Institute of Directors, Barbara Judge, has joined human resources start-up Hibob, which raised a staggering 5.2million from angel investors and venture capitalists in a seed round in June, one of the largest the country has seen.

Hibob founder Andy Bellas, a serial entrepreneur from Tel Aviv who sold his last company for $300million (229million), wants to help firms move away from spreadsheets by using simple cloud-based tools for managing HR tasks, including benefits and pensions auto-enrolment.

Lady Judge, who recently stepped down as chairman of the Pension Protection Fund, has called for the removal of the choice for employees to opt out of pensions auto-enrolment.

She said of her appointment: I was delighted to meet the founders of Hibob as my tenure at the PPF was coming to a close.
Vijay Rupani sworn in as Gujarat's new chief minister today. Nitin Patel appointed as the deputy chief minister.

By Press Trust of India: Vijay Rupani was sworn in as the 16th Chief Minister of Gujarat today, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where BJP is grappling with unrest due to the Patel quota stir and attacks on Dalits ahead of the high-stake Assembly elections scheduled next year.

60-year-old Rupani met Governor O P Kohli and staked claim to form the government, a day after he was elected by BJP legislators to succeed Anandiben Patel, with the central leadership playing a vital role in the choice.

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Final list of ministers in Rupani's Cabinet:

Cabinet ministers

1) Vijay Rupani

2) Nitin Patel

3) Bhupendra Sinh Chudasma

4) Ganpat Vasava

5) Chiman Sapariya

6) Babu Bokariya

7) Atmaram Parmar

8) Dilip Thakor

9) Jayesh Radadiya



MOS

1) Shankar Chaudhary

2) Pradipsinh Jadeja

3) Jenti Kavadiya

4) Nanu Vanani

5) Purshotam Solanki

6) Jasa Barad

7) Bachu Khabad

8) Jaidratsinh Parmar

9) Ishwar Patel

10) Vallabh Kakdiya

11) Rajendra Trivedi

12) Keshaji Chauhan

13) Rohit Patel

14) Vallabh Vaghasiya



SELECTION OF RUPANI SEEN AS A DEFT MOVE

Selection of Rupani, who belongs to Jain Baniya community, is being seen as a deft move by the party to avoid the impression of favouring any major segment of the society over others.

While the Patel community has been on a warpath with their demand for OBC quota, the state has witnessed Dalit unrest over the widely condemned Una flogging incident which seems to have dented the image of the government.

Rupani, who came up through the RSS, is being assigned the task of leading BJP in the polls at a time when BJP is struggling to retain its political base. The party has also been affected by the absence of leaders of Modi's calibre in the state.

Watch the video here:



Also read:

The inside story behind choosing new Gujarat CM: Modi had to intervene as meet got messy





--- ENDS ---
By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 4 (PTI) As Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chndrababu Naidu arrived in Delhi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today expressed hope that a satisfactory solution would be found to the states demand for special status as several decisions have been taken and some are in the pipeline. "I said (few days back) that we are fully conscious of the fact that justice has to be done to Andhra Pradesh because Andhra Pradesh has lost out as far as division is concerned and there are several set of decisions which we have already taken," Jaitley said in the Lok Sabha. "Some are in the pipeline which we are taking, some matters we are in active discussion to find out a solution to the problem. I myself spoke to the Chief Minister day before yesterday and he is also going to be in town to discuss this and I am quite hopeful of finding a solution to the satisfaction of people of Andhra Pradesh," he added. TDP, a partner in the ruling NDA, has been demanding special category status for Andhra Pradesh and Chandrababu Naidu will be meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi here tomorrow in this regard. On MPLAD issue, Jaitley assured the Lok Sabha that government will consider raising the MPLAD allocations. "I will certainly convey to my colleagues in the government, so that this subject is also taken into consideration," he said while responding to suggestion by Deputy Speaker Thambi Durai and other members to increase MPLAD allocations. During a discussion on first batch of supplementary demands for grants in the Lower House, several members including Rajiv Satav (Congress) wanted increase in the Member of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) fund to Rs 25 crore from Rs 5 crore per annum. Supporting the members, Thambi Durai said: "You (Jaitley) are the deciding factor...the members are hearing that something has to be done. Today you consider that....the hall will be happy". PTI DP RR CS AKK

--- ENDS ---

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About Me

Name: Carl in Jerusalem Location: Jerusalem, Israel

I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com

View my complete profile
These real PA creatures could become cryptids if we don't save them
<p>Torin Halsey/Times Record News</p><p>United Regional Health Care System has been named one of the top-100 hospitals in the country by an independent research group for the last two years.</p>

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By John Ingle of the Times Record News

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently updated its hospital quality ratings, but some believe it's not an accurate or apples-to-apples comparison of hospitals.

The Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating on Hospital Compare at cms.gov assessed more than 60 measures in seven categories to come up with a facility's star rating, a "one" being the lowest and "five" the highest. In the Wichita Falls area, Kell West Regional Hospital, Seymour Hospital and Graham Regional Medical Center each received four stars. United Regional Health Care System and Nocona General Hospital were graded at three stars, which is where most hospitals in the United States ranked. Bowie Memorial Hospital earned two stars.

Hospitals in the region not receiving a rating because of insufficient data include: Clay County Memorial Hospital; Electra Memorial Hospital; Hamilton Hospital in Olney; Faith Community Hospital in Jacksboro; Wilbarger General Hospital; and Chillicothe Hospital District.

Here's how CMS graded the 3,662 hospitals that received star ratings: 102 were five stars; 934 were four stars; 1,770 were three stars; 723 were two stars; and 133 received one star. More than 930 were not rated.

"The Hospital Compare overall rating summarizes up to 64 quality measures across seven areas of quality into a single star rating for each hospital," information on the CMS website explained. "A hospital's overall rating is calculated using only those measures for which data are available. This may include as few as nine or as many as 64 measures. The average is about 40 measures."

CMS only looked at Medicare patients in the categories of deaths, readmissions and use of medical imaging. All other adult patients were included for patient experience, safety and timely and effective care.

Phyllis Cowling, president and CEO of URHCS, said CMS doesn't break hospitals into classifications based on the number of Medicare or total number of patients cared for.

"The star rating doesn't recognize what can be significant differences between large and small hospitals; teaching and nonteaching hospitals ... and those hospitals that provide care to a larger number of the underprivileged," she said. "I think it can be enhanced by some sort of classification system. That being said, the intent is good. It's a first step toward trying to make data or information more publicly available, which, again, we support."

According to hospital data, 51 percent of United Regional's annual patient load of more than 100,000 are Medicare recipients.

Cowling said the way CMS has presented the information can be confusing for patients. She advised that people seeking care at a hospital should speak to their physician or another trusted clinician to better understand the data and make an informed decision.

The Leapfrog Group, Cowling said, is considered by many in the health care industry to provide the most accurate measure of patient safety because it looks at a variety of data sources to include: the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; CMS; and the American Hospital Association's Annual Survey and Health Information Technology Supplement. While all scoring systems have their individual flaw, Leapfrog's assessments is accepted as more accurate.

"For five of the last seven semiannual rating cycles, United Regional received an 'A,' the highest safety score possible," she said. "An 'A' score, received by only 30 percent of hospitals across the country, is reflective of United Regional's commitment to providing excellence in health care for the communities we serve."

Visit medicare.gov/hospitalcompare/ to see more information regarding area hospitals and their scores.
DUNDEE  It wasn't the mail Billy Butler expected to open on Friday for his birthday, even if he had a suspicion after seeing a notice on the Cara Blanca Park community board.

The letter, mailed from a law office he couldn't remember, put the nail in the coffin:

'W.T. Waggoner Estate, Inc., ... has decided to change the use of the land in Cara Blanca Park on February 1, 2017 and return the lake shoreline to its natural, uninhabited landscape to support and improve the microecosystem in and around Lake Diversion.'

'I heard about it the night before, so I kind of knew it was coming,' said the 17-year resident of the lake. 'People keep asking me where I'm going to go and I haven't had a chance to think about it. I just don't know.'

He'd watched his daughter, now 20, grow up on this lake and couldn't wait to raise his son, who was born a year-and-a-half ago.

Now, in a one-page letter, those dreams and the life he planned for his family were gone in an instant.

'We do have pictures  thank God for that,' Butler said. ' ... I'm so devastated and still in shock. It'll probably set in next week. Right now, I just don't know. I mean, I'm losing my home.'

He and a couple hundred other residents are left to sort through what to do next  residents like Paul Appel, a Vietnam War veteran with several medical issues and a fixed income.

'I'm in poor health and will be 73 in three months,' said Appel, who retired to the lake 16 years ago. 'I can't do very much and will have to get some help somewhere to move everything.'

While he has two adult children who live in Dallas, Appel is struggling to figure out what to do with a 'lifetime worth of stuff' packed inside three storage sheds and a sun room.

His home  two mobile homes in an L-shape  could be relocated to new land, but he doesn't have the money for the transportation or the new property.

'I have no idea where I'm going to go,' Appel said. 'I have no money and I'm on Social Security and disability. I live month-to-month and can't afford rent anywhere.'

A GoFundMe account has been set up to raise money to be split by the families that live out at Lake Diversion.
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Bob Hance, Wichita Falls

As corrupt government officials have eased the pain of Hillary Clinton's criminal illegal actions while serving as Secretary of State, she is now under pressure to conduct a press conference for the first time in seven months. When you are surrounded by hordes of lawyers being retained to keep you out of jail, you are going to get the same advice they give clients in trials whom they know are guilty: "Under no circumstances are you to take the stand and testify." Admittedly, the liberal press would feed her honey coated questions. However, there are still a couple of patriotic media that would demand some answers to some extremely difficult situations. Not going to happen! As fouled up as are her current probable voters, even some of them might back away from having a president of such embarrassing past deeds. Even an incredibly non-politically correct opponent without criminal activities in his background might send her home to live in the luxury that millions of corrupt dollars have brought her. She is not about to take that chance. It makes one wonder just how bad she herself recognizes her past to be, if not willing to be publicly questioned about it.
The multivendor Good Market, featuring individual stalls of local businesses selling fresh meat, produce, baked goods, cheese, prepared foods, alcohol and more, is being developed to open late next spring in the Nipper building, at 991 Broadway in Albany's warehouse district.

Owner Ross Goodman, a Niskayuna attorney and food aficionado, tells me he has signed a letter of intent for a lease with developer Bill Barber, who is acquiring the Nipper building from Arnoff Moving & Storage. The full Nipper project is slated to be a four-phase, up to $70 million development that would include more than 200 apartments in 991 Broadway and newly constructed buildings, plus retail space and at least two levels of indoor parking. Barber is also converting the nearby former Rodgers Liquor Co. warehouse at 960 Broadway into a restaurant and apartments.
New Orleans

Clarinetist Pete Fountain, whose Dixieland jazz virtuosity and irrepressible wit endeared him to his native New Orleans and earned him decades of national television fame, died Saturday of heart failure. He was 86.

Benny Harrell, Fountain's son-in-law and manager, said Fountain was in hospice care in New Orleans when he died early Saturday.

With his ready wit and infectious laugh, Fountain was the epitome of the New Orleanian who knew how to "let the good times roll." He was well known to television fans through his appearances on the Lawrence Welk and Johnny Carson shows. Even his blues had a happy note.

In New Orleans, he opened his first Bourbon Street club in 1960, later moving to a larger location on the bawdy thoroughfare before settling in for a long run at the nearby Hilton on Canal Street in the 1970s.

In a tradition-drenched city, his annual trek through the French Quarter with his "Half-Fast Walking Club" was a raucous New Orleans ritual  one he rarely missed even when he was in failing health.

Fountain, who often split time between the New Orleans area and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, suffered devastation when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, destroying his Bay St. Louis, Miss., home. But he stayed upbeat. Late in 2005, after several temporary homes, he settled in Hammond, La., telling The Daily Star newspaper, "We went from 10,000 square feet to 1,500. That's really what you would call downsizing."

Fountain started playing professionally on Bourbon Street in his teens. He once called the street of strip clubs, music joints and bars his "conservatory."

In his early years he toured nationally with the Dukes of Dixieland and the late trumpeter Al Hirt. Real fame came in 1957 when he joined "The Lawrence Welk Show" as a headliner.

He expressed deep appreciation for the exposure Welk gave him and his music. Still, Fountain also joked that his Bourbon didn't mix with Welk's champagne. There was, for example, the night Fountain overfilled the bubble machine, stranding Welk on live television in a virtual storm of blowing bubbles.

Fountain's freewheeling personality and swinging performances contrasted sharply with Welk's rigidly orchestrated polkas and pop hits. The breakup came in 1959 after Welk chastised him for jazzing up an arrangement of "Silver Bells" in a Christmas performance.

His recording of "Just a Closer Walk With Thee" sold more than a half million copies in 1959. It stuck as an unofficial theme song, and he even called his autobiography "A Closer Walk." His version was so popular that he half-complained audiences wouldn't let him off the stage without his playing it again.

He made 58 appearances with Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show."
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Kandahar, Afghanistan

An elite new Taliban force is proving its strength in the strategic southern province of Helmand, pointing to the insurgents' ability to refine their battlefield techniques to match Afghanistan's increasingly professional national army.

The Taliban regard Helmand as their heartland. They share Pashtun ethnicity with its residents and the province's vast opium output has helped fund the war against the government in Kabul, now in its 15th year.

In recent weeks, the Taliban have taken huge swaths of the province and now they appear to be closing in on the capital, Lashkar Gah.

Afghan officials in Helmand say the army is facing an insurgent fighting force that is better-organized and more skilled than ever. They say the Taliban have been sending men into the fight who appear to be members of a commando-like unit, believed to consist of several hundred elite fighters.

A senior Taliban commander confirmed the existence of the new, highly-trained force.

Speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media, the commander said the force numbered "around 300 fighters now, after starting out with 200." The new commando unit is called Sara Khitta, which means Red Group or Danger Group in Pashto.

"This kind of force is giving us very good results, and we have been discussing whether or not we should deploy this sort of unit more widely," he said.

By contrast, Afghan forces are suffering rising casualty numbers, according to U.S. military commanders. Afghan authorities do not release the figures to the public.

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Nicholson, said last month that the Afghans had suffered about 20,000 casualties last year  and this year, the casualty rate is about 20 percent higher.

The Taliban have been on the offensive since the international coalition withdrew most of its combat troops in 2014.
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Albany

At the moment, Richard Hanna stands alone.

While many elected officials in his party have made half-hearted endorsements of Donald Trump or have tried to evade the subject altogether, Hanna is the first and only Republican congressman to cross that big line in the sand.

He's with her. Hillary Clinton.

More Information Contact Chris Churchill at 518-454-5442 or email cchurchill@timesunion.com See More Collapse

Hanna, whose district lies due west of the Capital Region, made his intention clear on Tuesday in an op-ed published by a Syracuse newspaper. The decision, not surprisingly, brought national attention and divided opinion.

I talked to Hanna on Friday afternoon, when he was upbeat and cheerful despite being a target for the ugly venom for which Trump diehards are known. He sounded like a man who wasn't having trouble sleeping at night. His conscience was clear.

"I won't pretend it was an agonizing decision," Hanna said. "It was not."

Hanna, 65, has always been a moderate Republican willing to buck party orthodoxy. He's pro-choice, for example, and a strong gay-marriage advocate. But Hanna, fiscally conservative and a member of the NRA, is hardly the Nancy Pelosi of central New York.

The Utica native made his objections to Trump known long ago, declaring he could not vote for a man he calls narcissistic and a "world-class panderer."

He could have stopped there. But after Trump's indecent criticism of the Muslim parents of an Army captain killed in Iraq, Hanna felt compelled to act.

"I literally thought to myself, 'This man has no shame,'" he said.

Hanna is right about Trump's shamelessness. We're talking about a man-child who made reference to his member during a presidential debate, who mocked a disabled reporter, who has said a wide array of bigoted things, who casts blame and aspersion in every direction but his own.

Every time you think he can't sink lower, he does just that.

At a rally Thursday in Maine, for example, Trump stunned many in the state by suggesting its Somali refugee population had caused more crime, an ugly assertion that was rooted in bigotry, likely to breed hate  and entirely baseless.

"We have not seen any increase in crime due to the Somali immigrants," the police chief in Lewiston, Maine, told the Portland Press-Herald.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins called Trump's anti-Somali comments "disparaging" and "unhelpful." And yes, she's also a Republican.

But let's get back to Hanna, who says Trump is the embodiment of nearly all the seven deadly sins  pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony and envy.

OK, we can probably give Trump a break on sloth.

Clear-thinking Republicans see Trump's flaws. They know he's far from presidential. Many don't want to vote for him. They feel sick about it.

But...

Hillary! We can't vote for Hillary!! He's got to be better than Hillary!!

I hear ya, folks. I really do. This presidential election makes it feel as though we've walked into a Ben & Jerry's that offers two flavors: Liver Chunks Galore or Roach Swirl. Yuck and yuck.

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Hanna understands the anti-Hillary sentiment, but believes her flaws are being exaggerated. She has, at least, stood for causes bigger than herself, he said.

"I know that she has a lot of issues," Hanna said. "But we have to make a choice, and for me choosing her instead of Trump was easy."

I asked Hanna about the stability question  the fear that Trump has "a screw loose," as former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld said, or that "he's psychologically off the chain," as columnist David Brooks wrote.

Hanna didn't want to go there.

"He's so incompetent and so inept," Hanna said, "that you don't have to prove he's crazy to say he shouldn't be elected."

I also asked Hanna if he had thought about endorsing the Libertarian Party ticket of Gary Johnson, the former Republican governor of New Mexico, and Weld, also elected as a Republican. They seem like an easy fit for moderates like Hanna who can't stomach Trump.

But Hanna said voting for a third party wasn't an option he seriously considered. He wasn't willing to duck the hard Clinton-or-Trump decision or risk a wasted vote.

Hanna is retiring from Congress, so he doesn't have to worry about an electoral backlash for his decision. Still, you wonder if Trump's continuing erratic behavior and lack of basic decency will lead more elected Republicans to speak honestly with voters about Trump.

Hanna said his decision was ultimately about his children. He didn't want Trump to have influence over the world they'll inhabit, and he couldn't stay silent if doing so meant enabling a man he considers dangerous and divisive.

"There are times in a person's life when they have an obligation to speak out," Hanna said. "For me, to not speak out would have been immoral."

Are other Republicans listening? Will they have the courage to do the same?
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Albany

New York's release of standardized test scores in English and math this year came with more caveats than ever before.

Students in third through eighth grade seemed to improve in both subjects. Statewide, the number of students who scored high enough to be considered proficient in a subject was up 6.6 percent in English and 1 percent in math. New York City's scores were even higher, and New York City's charter school scores were higher yet.

The usual players were quick to declare victory. But just as swift were the litany of "not so fasts" from anti-testing groups and even the education commissioner herself, who warned that changes to this year's tests (they had fewer questions and were not timed) don't allow for an "apples-to-apples" comparison to last year's results.

More Information New York began administering Common Core-aligned English language arts and math tests in 2013 to students in grades 3-8. The Times Union analyzed Capital Region school proficiency levels starting in 2013. The charts below highlight the percentage of students tested who earned passing proficiency scores for districts with the highest and lowest performance in 2016, the highest and lowest year-over-year improvements, and the least improvement over four years. ELA HIGHEST PROFICIENCY 2016 (% of students tested deemed proficient) 1.*Voorheesville - 65 2.Bethlehem - 61.7 3.East Greenbush - 59.1 4.Menands - 58.7 5.Shenendehowa - 56.7 6.Niskayuna - 56.6 7.Saratoga Springs - 55.9 8.North Colonie - 53.3 9.Guilderland - 51.2 10.Averill Park - 48.7 LOWEST PROFICIENCY 2016 (% of students tested deemed proficient) 1.Green Island - 9.4 2.*Edinburg - 12.9 3.Albany - 17.5 4.Schenectady - 17.7 5.Watervliet - 19.4 6.Rensselaer - 21 7.Troy - 22.1 8.Lansingburgh - 25.8 9.Corinth - 28.6 10.Cohoes - 29.6 MOST IMPROVED OVER LAST YEAR (% points) 1.*Brunswick (Brittonkill) - up 15.8 2.Mechanicville - up 15.2 3.Schodack - up 13.2 4.Galway - up 11.4 5.East Greenbush - up 10.8 6.Cohoes - up 10.3 7.*Scotia-Glenville - up 9.3 8.*Berlin - up 9.1 9.Lansingburgh - up 9 10.Averill Park - up 8.4 LEAST IMPROVED OVER LAST YEAR (% points) 1.*Edinburg - down 12.9 2.Duanesburg - down 3.72 3.*Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk - down 3.65 4.Green Island - down 3.48 5.*Schalmont - down 3.46 6.*Rotterdam-Mohonasen - down 1.4 7.Watervliet - down 1.1 8.Berne-Knox-Westerlo - down 0.4 9.Niskayuna - up 2.4 10.Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake - up 2.6 MOST IMPROVED SINCE 2013 (% points) 1.East Greenbush - up 15.5 2.*Scotia-Glenville - up 14.8 3.Cohoes - up 13.8 4.Mechanicville - up 12.4 5.*Waterford-Halfmoon - up 11.9 6.*Brunswick (Brittonkill) - up 11.6 7.Ballston Spa - up 11.3 8.Stillwater - up 10.9 9.Troy - up 10.8 10.Wynantskill - up 10.7 LEAST IMPROVED SINCE 2013 (% points) 1.*Edinburg - down 7.6 2.Green Island - down 7.2 3.*Schalmont - down 2.6 4.Albany - down 0.6 5.Watervliet - down 0.1 6.Niskayuna - down 0.1 7.Duanesburg - up 0.4 8.*Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk - up 1.2 9.Rensselaer - up 2.2 10.Guilderland - up 2.6 MATH HIGHEST PROFICIENCY 2016 (% of students tested deemed proficient) 1.*Voorheesville - 70.8 2.Niskayuna - 66.2 3.Bethlehem - 64.8 4.North Colonie - 64.7 5.Shenendehowa - 64.2 6.Saratoga Springs - 63.6 7.East Greenbush - 63.4 8.Guilderland - 58.9 9.Menands - 57.5 10.Schodack - 56.9 LOWEST PROFICIENCY 2016 (% of students tested deemed proficient) 1.Green Island - 10.4 2.Albany - 13.6 3.Schenectady - 14 4.Troy - 19.5 5.*Edinburg - 20 6.Rensselaer - 20.4 7.Watervliet - 26.6 8.Corinth - 27 9.Lansingburgh - 28.8 10.Duanesburg - 29.3 MOST IMPROVED OVER LAST YEAR (% points) 1.Schuylerville - up 8.5 2.*Scotia-Glenville - up 7.2 3.Schodack - up 7.1 4.Averill Park - up 6.7 5.Menands - up 6.6 6.Bethlehem - up 3.8 7.Ballston Spa - up 3.7 8.*Brunswick (Brittonkill) - up 3.6 9.*Voorheesville - up 3.4 10.East Greenbush - up 3.4 LEAST IMPROVED OVER LAST YEAR (% points) 1.Duanesburg - down 7.3 2.Rensselaer - down 6.2 3.Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake - down 6.2 4.*Rotterdam-Mohonasen - down 3 5.Wynantskill - down 1.7 6.Guilderland - down 1 7.Berne-Knox-Westerlo - down 0.9 8.*Waterford-Halfmoon - down 0.9 9.Saratoga Springs - down 0.9 10.*Edinburg - down 0.8 MOST IMPROVED SINCE 2013 (% points) 1.*Scotia-Glenville - up 26.4 2.Schuylerville - up 25.6 3.Galway - up 22.7 4.Berne-Knox-Westerlo - up 22 5.Ballston Spa - up 21.3 6.Schodack - up 21 7.Menands - up 20.9 8.*Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk - up 20.6 9.Stillwater - up 20 10.Shenendehowa - up 20 LEAST IMPROVED SINCE 2013 (% points) 1.Green Island - down 6 2.Albany - down 0.1 3.Duanesburg - up 0.1 4.Wynantskill - up 1.2 5.Schenectady - up 3.9 6.*Edinburg - up 4.6 7.Watervliet - up 5.4 8.Rensselaer - up 6.1 9.*Schalmont - up 6.7 10.Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake - up 7.2 *At least 30 percent of students in these districts boycotted the tests in 2016, rendering any sort of analysis unreliable See More Collapse

And then there's the giant opt-out elephant in the classroom: 22 percent of New York students refused to take the tests this year in a continuation of a nationwide movement against high-stakes Common Core testing. How can any analysis of the data be accurate when the dataset is incomplete?

That's a fair question, but one that hasn't stopped educators from trying to glean some useful trends from the data. State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia suggested in a radio interview Monday that while the improvement in this year's math scores was too small to be fairly classified as improvement, the spike in English scores was too big to simply chalk up to the shorter, untimed tests. An intensified focus on literacy in schools likely drove the change, she said.

If some gains are truly too big to write off, then perhaps there's something to be learned from the places that saw the biggest gains over the longest period. In a quest to find out,the Times Union analyzed Capital Region test scores beginning in 2013, when New York students were first tested on Common Core standards, and interviewed those districts with the biggest improvement. Here's what we learned about those districts:

They embraced Common Core.

Like them or not, the Common Core standards are the current benchmark for what states across the nation think schoolchildren should know. And they're the standards kids are being tested on.

Local districts that have seen the most improvement in scores  like Scotia-Glenville, Schuylerville and East Greenbush  all cited "top-down" positivity around the standards as one likely contributor to student improvement.

"We embraced it," said Greg Barthelmas, elementary school principal in the Schuylerville school district, where math proficiency jumped from 27 percent to 53 percent in the last four years. "We knew Common Core was coming, so we attacked it early on, and made sure we had what we needed to roll it out. Were there concerns? Of course. But we tried not to be negative about it, and I think that can be attributed to the success we've seen."

New York State Council of School Superintendents Executive Director Charles Dedrick said the many variables associated with the state tests so far under Common Core make gleaning any trends from them difficult. But, he said, anecdotal conversations with superintendents from both struggling and high-performing districts seem "absolutely" to support this idea.

"They provided professional development to their teachers and principals, because they knew their kids would be tested on it," he said. "So whether they liked it or didn't like it, the folks who were all on the same page about Common Core do seem to be moving forward, as opposed to languishing."

They implemented a "common academic vocabulary."

Common academic vocabulary is just a fancy way of saying that teachers, across grade levels and across subjects, began using the same terms to refer to the same things. There should be only one way to say "find the main idea" or "cite text-based evidence," they say.

Once everyone started using the same terminology and phrasing, teachers began noticing an uptick in student's comfort with testing  from sample tests to the real thing, administrators said.

"For a while, 'text-based evidence' was a pretty new term for our kids," said Karen Swain, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction at the Scotia-Glenville school district. "So when a fourth-grade, fifth-grade and sixth-grade teacher all start to use the same term for these things, it makes it easier on that student as they move from grade level to grade level."

They focused on the end goal.

By clearly identifying goals and setting hard deadlines, local school officials say students were much more motivated to hit a learning target.

In Scotia-Glenville, for example, teachers began distributing focused, age-friendly "I Can" statements at the beginning of every new unit: "I can print all uppercase letters and lowercase letters" or "I can determine the theme of a text."

"We really became intentional and focused in our lessons," Swain said, "and we found a lot of power in that."

The Schenectady County district saw the most gains in math over the last four years out of any other Capital Region district, with proficiency rising from just 21 percent in 2013 to 48 percent in 2016. English proficiency also increased, from 27 percent to 42 percent. District officials are rightfully wary of the gains, though, since 39 percent of students refused to take the exams this year.

They course-corrected along the way.

In East Greenbush, where ELA proficiency increased from 44 to 59 percent in the last four years, teachers began administering short "benchmark" assessments throughout the year.

The tests were designed to be quick and informative, and allowed teachers to see mid-unit whether students were on track, said Lynne Pampel, the district's assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.

"The grade-level teachers would come together, talk about the results, and identify strengths and gaps in learning," she said. "Teachers were able to make immediate changes to instruction delivery as a result."

They weren't the poorest or the wealthiest.

For the most part, the Capital Region school districts that saw the most improvement over four years of testing were those right in the middle in wealth rankings.

Eight out of the 10 most improved districts in English and 10 out of 10 most improved in math are identified as "average needs" by the State Education Department. This designation involves calculating the poverty of a district using both Census designations and the percentage of students eligible for reduced-price lunch, as well as calculating the district's wealth-per-pupil and comparing it to the state's.

That means the district is mostly able to meet the needs of its students with local tax dollars.

Of the 10 local districts that were least improved over the four years, wealth status was mostly split among average and high-need (high-poverty) districts.

Also notable, if not predictable, was the wealth split among the highest and lowest performing districts in 2016. Among the 10 highest-performing districts in the region, there was an even split between low-need (wealthy) and average-need districts.

The lowest performers were much more likely to be high-need districts: In English, eight of the 10 were high-need and two were average-need; in math, seven were high-need and three were average-need.

bbump@timesunion.com  518-454-5387 
JD England reflects on time as Mayor of Mitchell before stepping down

JD England reflects on his time on the Mitchell police force, his first term election by just four votes and his accomplishments in office.
His father was a preacher, the former Kansas City Mayor and current Congressman and nowis calling for "revolution" in his latest creative effort.is well known in Kansas City for his varied interests including moviemaking, media consulting, radio hosting and even serving as Director of Operations at The Black Archives of Mid-America. This accomplished local resume has little in common with most hip-hop artists and neither does his graying hair but that's probably the point of the track.While the Congressman's son is his own man it is relevant to note that this is the latest hip-hop venture from the son of a powerful Kansas City politico after Mayor Sly's son continues to pursue his hip-hop dreams on the left coast.While a comparison would be somewhat unfair and we don't want to take sides . . . The music industry is a young person's game anddespite the fact that his lyrics are more personal than the politically charged verses of Emiel Cleaver.And speaking of politics . . . Forgive us for another criticism . . . Compared to so many other hip-hop artists who have had genuinely hard times growing up . . . Lyrics of socio-economic upheaval and a cry for "revolution" seems just a bit out of place for a member of one of the ruling families of Kansas City and one of the local elite. Compare the media mogul status of Emiel Cleaver towho spent a bit of his childhood in Kansas City living with hisfor an accurate hip-hop juxtaposition of two guys around the same age . . .But I digress . . .The point here is that the track deserves to be judged on its own merits as a different kind of Sunday preaching than that of Kansas City's Congressman and we hope any ensuing criticism won't just spam hate but seek to address the track as social commentary from the kin of one of the most powerful politicos currently ruling this cowtown.You decide . . .
Kansas City made a conscious decision to make as much data as possible public. However, that doesn't mean everything has to be stored in one location in cyberspace, says Tom Gerend, executive director at Kansas City Streetcar Authority and chairman of the Smart City Advisory Board.





"The cloud is used to store data from the Smart City installation [camera data, streetlights, and so on] but not for streetcar vehicle specific systems. Generally, we have separate services for the individual sub-systems and then aggregate and pool data that we want to make publicly accessible."





But Von Welch, director of Indiana University's Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research, says there will be a bumpy road ahead as transportation hardware manufacturers start incorporating security measures into their products, often for the first time.

This weekend Kansas City institutions have found themselves at the mercy of hackers who are demonstrating some exceptional skill in taking down high value targets.The latest big company takedown in Kansas City . . .But not even the small fries are safe . . .And now the so-called "Smart City" is touting connectivity but as new threats emerge:Money line . . .The reality is that Internets security along the stoy train streetcar line has already been significantly challenged. Checkit:And so, while the rise in Kansas City crime is probably a more pressing threat to public transit ryders, let's not forget that Kansas City is now confronting hackers as well and more danger looms for the toy train line.Developing . . .
Fun-loving Sarah, Duchess of York, has opted for a summer jaunt in Greece with sybaritic supermodel Kate Moss

Fun-loving Sarah, Duchess of York, has opted for a summer jaunt in Greece with sybaritic supermodel Kate Moss, dailymail.co.uk reports.

The pair are holidaying in Greece along with the models 29-year-old toyboy boyfriend Count Nikolai von Bismarck and Hong Kong tycoon Sir David Tang and his family.

Both women, of course, share a scandalous past, a penchant for inappropriate suitors and a fondness for the high life.

In 2010, the Duchess was filmed by the News of the World in a cash for access controversy after attempting to sell an introduction to her former husband, Prince Andrew, for 500,000.

Newspaper sting

She later told Oprah Winfrey that she was in the gutter and had been drinking before the newspaper sting.

Moss, 42, was branded Cocaine Kate in 2005 after pictures surfaced which a newspaper claimed showed her snorting drugs at a music studio.

She lost her 1 million contract with H&M and booked herself into a rehab clinic.

Moss, who has a 13-year-old daughter, Lila Grace, with Dazed & Confused co-founder Jefferson Hack, was dating junkie rocker Pete Doherty at the time.

She is still legally married to estranged husband Jamie Hince, the Kills guitarist, but has since taken up with Nikolai.

Moss and Fergies friendship has been largely facilitated by Tang, who has hosted both women at his many lavish parties over the years.

Eyebrows were raised in 2006 when  shortly after photos were published in which Kate appeared to be taking cocaine  Fergie took Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, then just 18 and 16, to see in the New Year alongside Moss at a Thai resort where Tang was holding a bash.

Moss is reportedly launching a new talent agency. So maybe she should sign up Fergie as a client.

WHO'S WHO IN THE MOTLEY CREW

From left to right, meet Kate and Fergies shipmates...

Count Nikolai von Bismarck, 29: The great-great-grandson of German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck who is said to drink goats blood for fun. Previously linked with Cara Delevingne, Pixie Geldof and Princess Beatrice. A photographer by profession, he met Kate through the fashion industry.

Nikolai, who is called Nick Nock by his brothers, has been living at Kates house since her split from musician Jamie Hince.

Kate was sporting a large sapphire and diamond ring on her left hand last week as she enjoyed a meal out in North London with Nikolai, prompting rumours that she might be engaged. Moss has long been close friends with Nikolais mother Debonnaire, and is believed to have a portrait of the countess in her home.

Kate Moss, 42.

Ed Tang: Sir David Tangs son is a former pupil of 34,000-a-year Stowe School who works at Sothebys.

John Auerbach: Founder and chairman of Eloquii, the online retailer offering womens plus-size clothing.

Chris Owen: Lawyer husband of Victoria, Sir David Tangs daughter.

Victoria Tang: daughter of Sir David, married Owen in Beijing in 2014 with the Duchess of York among the congregation.

Sir David Tang, 62: Hong Kong entrepreneur founded Dorchester restaurant China Tang, fashion brand Shanghai Tang and China Exchange, a debating salon. The philanthropist and bon viveur is one of Londons best connected men, with homes in London, Essex and China. He came here aged 13, not speaking a word of English, and became a multi-millionaire. Not bad for a schoolboy who failed his English O-level six times. He says: Im everyones token Chinese friend.

Lila Grace, 13 (face not shown): Kate Mosss daughter by Jefferson Hack.

Lilas friend (face not shown)

LUCY TANG: Sir Davids second wife.

Man with his arm around Fergie: Unidentified.

Duchess of York, 56.

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
Greek Energy Minister Panos Skourletis stated clearly that he is against the selling of 17 pct of DEI (Public Power Corporation) adding that this is also the government's position

Greek Energy Minister Panos Skourletis stated clearly that he is against the selling of 17 pct of DEI (Public Power Corporation) adding that this is also the government's position, in an interview with Real News Sunday newspaper.

Referring to the amendment that reduced the transit fee of the natural gas and speculations on the withdrawal of Socar, Skourletis clarified that "the TAP pipeline is constructed rapidly and everything indicates that the Greek part will be the first that will be ready."

He also noted that regarding Hellenic Gas Transmission Operator (DESFA) privatisation it is up to the Azeris to decide what they want and can do. With this amendment, explains Skourletis we avoided the increase of the user charges by 68 percent and we protected the domestic production and the households.

"If the tender fails then all scenarios are open. Every cloud has a silver lining" he said.

At a question if the apparent rapprochement between Russia and Turkey will bring the South Stream pipeline on stage again, Skourletis noted that "its construction is not against the European strategies. We are positive on the prospect of its construction".

He called a political success for the government the implementation of the plan for the new Independent Power Transmission Operator (ADMIE) because as he said "guarantees the power network's public character. It is a model that we must also implement in other sectors".

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 new SEAT Ateca will be the highlight this summer at Barcelonas El Prat airport. Artist Sergi Ramirez, who specialises in sand sculptures, has created a replica using 26 tonnes of sand. The first SUV in the history of the brand, and one of the most innovative in its segment, is being widely accepted by customers and can be admired in the airports Terminal 1 by around 100,000 passengers daily.

A real-life Ateca is on display next to its sand replica at a stand called Created in Barcelona, as well as the making-of video and an audiovisual presentation. The installation will be in place until late October.

SEAT global Marketing director Susanne Franz explained that the aim of this installation is to showcase Barcelona-based art and design with an ephemeral sculpture. She added that Barcelona has one of Europes 10 busiest airports and is the ideal location to display the SEAT Ateca and, at the same time, highlight the brands link with the city of Barcelona.

Sergi Ramirez has been creating sand sculptures for 30 years. His artistic creations have earned him several distinctions, including first prize at the 3rd and 4th editions of Certamen in Gran Canaria, second place at the Zhoushan International Sand Sculpture Festival in China and third place at the Tranum Strand festival in Denmark.

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
Oman's economy is showing signs of slowing with consumer confidence weakening, government projects being cut, and market conditions staying bearish, said a report.



The persistence of low oil prices will see Oman register substantial deficits in 2016 and 2017, increasing the urgency for fiscal consolidation, said the National Bank of Kuwait outlook for Oman.



Following reforms that had little impact on public finances in 2015, the government has come back with a slew of measures targeting excessive spending and better revenue collection. On the downside, these measures are expected to erode future income expectations for both consumers and investors. Credit growth is expected to slow as a result, it said.



Tightening liquidity in the banking sector, due to domestic government borrowing and declining deposits, further add to these concerns.



On the upside, recent government efforts show its resolve in divesting away from the public sector. Reforms supporting small and medium-sized enterprises and foreign investors hope to spark growth in the non-oil sector. Deepening ties with Iran may also be a boon for both the non-oil and financial sectors, the NBK report said.



Oil prices continue to impact



While growth was healthy in 2015, at an estimated 3.5 per cent, it is expected to slow in 2016 and 2017 to an average of 2 per cent. Weakening consumer and investor confidence will be the primary drag. A survey by the National Center for Statistics and Information (NCSI) showed a sharp decrease in consumer confidence in 1Q16, stemming mainly from uncertainty over future income. These worries follow cost-cutting measures implemented by the Ministry of Finance in H1 2016.



As a result, the mood in the non-oil sector has been bearish. As of March, growth in real estate sales slowed to 6 per cent year-on-year from an average of 32 per cent in 2015; the number of newly registered vehicles retreated by 25 per cent during the month, down for the 13th consecutive month; hotel revenue growth dropped to 4 per cent, from a 2015 average of 15 per cent, the NBK report said.



Irans resurgence on the global economic stage may help offset the slowdown, with Oman set to benefit from Irans potential growth, while Iran will look to Oman as a conduit for trade. Omans neutral stance towards neighbouring Iran has allowed it to deepen its relationship following the nuclear deal. Bilateral investments are expected to increase. Several deals have been lined up since. An Iranian car manufacturer will be setting up shop in Oman, while talks of building a $1.5 billion hospital complex, financed by Iran, are underway. Irans close proximity will also help prop up Omans tourism sector, it said.



Domestically, Oman is looking to jump start its economy by pursuing its development plan, which will emphasise the role of the private sector in funding more than half of the OR41 billion to be spent on the plan. To that aim, Oman has passed legislation allowing for 100 per cent foreign ownership and has abolished minimum capital requirements for firms. The small and medium-sized enterprise sector, a pillar in Omans diversification strategy, is set to benefit greatly from these developments.



Government project spending will remain instrumental to Omans non-oil sector, but spending will be reserved to necessary projects, dampening its lift on growth. As of H1 2016, the value of awarded projects has decreased by 12 per cent compared to the same period in 2015. Focus will be given to infrastructure and power projects.



Oman is faced with an electricity supply gap, threatening its future growth prospects. Energy consumption has also grown rapidly, rising by 14 per cent y/y in March.



Fiscal pressures to persist

Fiscal pressures are expected to persist in 2016, but may soften in 2017. Low oil prices are expected to offset gains from the gradual implementation of reforms during 2016. A recovery in oil prices, coupled with increased compliance with reforms, may see greater fiscal consolidation in 2017, the NBK report said.



Official data shows the deficit at 17.1 per cent of GDP (OR4.7 billion) in 2015, surpassing official expectations. A similar deficit is expected in 2016, though oil prices are seen to be weaker, spending restraint will start to be felt on the gradual implementation of fiscal reforms.



In 2017, the deficit is expected to narrow, dropping to 8.4 per cent of GDP, as additional spending cuts and revenue measures are realised and oil prices begin to recover; a potential increase in gas production will also help.



The government has enacted a number of spending and revenue reforms in a bid to reign in on a widening deficit. Benefits, bonuses, and scholarships have been halted at all ministries and quasi-sovereign institutions. Spending restrictions have been implemented as well.



Ministries are also encouraged to look for new sources of non-oil revenue and improving revenue collection. So far, the Sultanate has seen an increase in the cost of vehicle license plates, air traffic fees, and its airport departure tax. Oman may also consider implementing a VAT in 2017, one year ahead of other GCC countries, given the difficult condition of its finances. These measures follow some less impactful reforms, such as the liberalisation of petrol prices and a subsidy adjustment for industrial power usage that have done little to reign in the deficit, it said. - TradeArabia News Service


Dubai-based Turn8 has launched a $60 million venture capital fund for technology innovation. Turn8 Innovation Fund I L.P. makes Turn8 one of the largest providers of seed capital in the region catering to the global start-up eco system.



Kamal Hassan, general partner, Turn8 said: This strategic move comes from witnessing a major gap in the market for start-ups to grow from the accelerator stage into full-fledged businesses that attract venture capital. We are very excited to see more start-ups with different innovative technology rising from the Mena region and this fund will provide a further push to their business.



The fund will continue to support the start-up ecosystem and look for opportunities in technology innovation that match our portfolio requirements and are in line with our strategic objectives, added Hassan.



Turn8 accelerator has successfully launched and invested in over 60 companies till date, a statement said.



DP World and Innovation360 setup the Turn8 accelerator in 2013. Since then it has successfully provided pre-seed funding to start-ups ranging from sectors such as digital healthcare, crowdsourcing, EduTech, FinTech and Enterprise Cloud Solutions and raised over $6million in co-investment for its portfolio companies from various worldwide investors. DP world is the first anchor investor, with over 20 per cent ownership of the fund.



The new fund will follow a dual investment strategy of seed funding to accelerator stage start-ups and follow-on funding for growth stage start-ups graduates of the Turn8 accelerator. - TradeArabia News Service
Saudia Dairy and Foodstuff Company (Sadafco), a leader in production, sales and distribution of high quality food products in the region, has further strengthened its beverage portfolio by recently introducing two new products in Saudi Arabia.



Sadafco has launched the new Saudia Date Milk drink and the Saudia Soy beverage in the kingdom, said a Saudi Gazette report.



The new Saudia Date Milk is the kingdoms only ready-to-drink milk blended with real dates. The new beverage, prepared using a traditional recipe, comes in 1-litre and 200 ml, it said.



Moreover, the new Saudia Soy, currently the only soy beverage in kingdom, is specifically manufactured for health conscious consumers who want a dairy alternative that is of vegetal origin and lower in saturated fats.



Both the products are currently available at leading supermarkets and grocery chains across Saudia Arabia, added the report.


Firefighters fought for hours to control a blaze at a multi-storey building under construction in Dubai's Jumeirah Village Circle on Saturday, the latest in a series of fires in the business and tourism hub of the United Arab Emirates.



Gulf News said there were no injuries in the fire, which broke out at mid-day. The newspaper published pictures and a video of the building showing flames and clouds of black smoke.



A spokesman said the fire was brought under control some five hours after it started, Gulf News reported. It was not immediately clear if the building was being developed for residential or commercial purposes.



Last month a fire broke out at the residential 75-storey Sulafa Tower in the upscale Marina District, on New Year's Eve a blaze hit a downtown hotel and in February last year there was a fire at a 79-storey residential tower.



In November 2012, a 34-storey Dubai residential building was badly damaged by fire.



In some of those cases, experts said the flames may have been encouraged to spread by exterior cladding, used for decoration or insulation.



The UAE revised its building safety code in 2013 to require that cladding on all new buildings over 15 metres (50 feet) tall be fire-resistant, but older buildings are exempt.  Reuters
A fire broke out on Saturday in a storage area of the Bandar Imam Khomeini Petrochemical Complex in southern Iran, the state news agency Irna reported on Saturday, the latest in a string of blazes in the region.



A local official told the semi-official Mehr news agency that the fire would soon be under control and that there was a large plume of smoke from plastics caught in the blaze.



Reza Amiri, the chief executive of the complex, was quoted by the Tasnim news agency as saying the fire had not disrupted operations at the plant.



The plant is located in Mahshahr city in Khuzestan province, Irna said.



The local official said there were no casualties.



Last month another section of Bandar Imam Khomeini Petrochemical Complex caught fire due to a leak in a valve.  Reuters
As Oman Air continues its ambitious fleet and network expansion plan, the airline has signed a letter of intent (LOI) with Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) for the sale and leaseback of two new B737-800 aircraft.



The first of the two aircraft was delivered on July 25 and the second is expected to arrive at Muscat this month.



Under Oman Airs expansion programme, launched late 2014, the national carrier of Oman is in the process of increasing its fleet size to 70 aircraft by 2020. At that point, Oman Airs fleet will comprise 45 narrow-body aircraft and 25 wide-body aircraft, which will fly to an anticipated 75 global destinations. Since October 2014, Oman Air has received 12 new B737s, of which seven are the -800 variant and five are -900 variant. Each is currently deployed on routes from Muscat to destinations in the GCC region, in the wider Middle East and on the South Asian sub-continent.



Abdulrahman Al-Busaidy, deputy CEO and chief commercial officer of Oman Air, said: By expanding the size of our fleet, Oman Air is able to offer many more people the opportunity of experiencing our award-winning inflight products and services, as well as our exemplary on-time performance. Our B737 aircraft serve as the backbone of our fleet and we are extremely pleased to have agreed the sale and leaseback arrangement with Dubai Aerospace Enterprise.



On behalf of Oman Air, I would like to thank DAEs highly professional team of experts. We now look forward to welcoming our customers aboard these brand-new B737-800 airliners.



Dubai Aerospace Enterprise is a globally recognised aerospace company headquartered in Dubai, UAE. Formed in 2006, DAE has grown rapidly since its inception and the company now holds an aircraft leasing portfolio of 76 aircraft worth approximately $4 billion.



Firoz Tarapore, chief executive officer of Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, said: As a world leader in aircraft leasing, Dubai Aerospace Enterprise is delighted to have agreed this sale and leaseback agreement with Oman Air. The airline is expanding at an impressive rate and we look forward to working with Oman Air again, should future opportunities arise. - TradeArabia News Service
CHARLESTON -- A man who didn't show up for court when he was convicted of selling cocaine was also absent when he received a prison sentence for the offense.

Julian C. Portis was sentenced in absentia to 12 years in prison for his conviction for delivery of a controlled substance.

Portis, 40, whose current address on record is in Park Forest but with a former address in Mattoon, was accused of selling cocaine in Charleston on July 2, 2012.

He was arrested during an undercover police operation during which he sold about three-tenths of an ounce of crack cocaine, according to Assistant State's Attorney Bryant Hitchings, who prosecuted.

Portis first failed to appear in court on March 2, when a bench trial on the charge was scheduled. The trial went ahead in his absence and Coles County Circuit Judge Teresa Righter found him guilty of the charge.

The offense of which Portis was convicted can normally result in a prison sentence of three to seven years with a possibility of probation with a conviction.

However, a prison sentence of six to 30 years was required for Portis because of his criminal record.

At sentencing, Hitchings asked Righter to sentence Portis to 25 years in prison, while defense attorney Nathan Diamond-Fulk of Chicago recommended the minimum, six-year prison term.

Hitchings said he asked Righter to proceed with the trial and sentencing though Portis was absent because there had been several delays in resolving the case.

The judge agreed, noting that Portis changed attorneys and asked for delays for other reasons during the case's pretrial stages.

Portis still faces other felony charges in two pending cases from 2014. Hitchings said those cases will proceed once Portis is located and arrested.

In one of the pending cases, Portis is charged with mob action and aggravated battery. He's accused of taking part in an attack of a man who was reportedly hit with an ax handle on April 18, 2014.

Portis is also charged with possession of a weapon by a felon for allegedly having a gun on May, 20, 2014, though his criminal record makes that illegal.

Case records indicated that police found a gun in his possession while investigating a fight that took place at Laker Apartments in Mattoon.
The number of nights spent in French hotels by foreign tourists fell 10 per cent in July compared to last year as visitors from outside Europe were deterred by recent Islamist militant attacks, the tourism minister was cited as saying on Sunday.



France's tourism industry, an important driver of its economy, has suffered since Islamic State gunmen killed 130 people in an attack in Paris last year. It was dealt further blows in July when a militant killed 85 people by ramming a truck into crowds in the Riviera city Nice. Two weeks later, two men killed a priest in a small town in Normandy.



High-spending visitors from the US, Asia and the Gulf in particular had been discouraged by the attacks, Matthias Fekl said in an interview with Sunday newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.



Tourists from other European countries, who make up about 80 per cent of visitors, were still coming to France, he said.



The first six months of the year had also seen a 10 per cent decline in the number of stays compared to a year ago, Fekl told the newspaper.



The impact was most felt in Paris and the region around the capital, with tourist stays in other regions showing a 2 per cent increase in the January-June period, he said.



Weak activity in France contributed to a fall in first-half operating profit for French group AccorHotels, and Air France-KLM has said it expects its unit revenues to decline in July and August, partly due to the situation in France.



Tourism professionals also say negative perceptions about France have been fuelled by violent street protests this year as well as robberies targeting Asian visitors.



Economic uncertainty and weakness in sterling following Britain's vote to leave the European Union have also raised concerns about British tourist spending, and Fekl said the initial impact would be measured at the end of the summer. - Reuters


Backpackers have been flocking to Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos for years thanks to the incredible scenery and fascinating local culture.

Many of the major attractions of the region fall fairly conveniently on a well-trodden circuit, which allows you to see the highlights without wasting time on long journeys. This sample loop runs from Bangkok to Hanoi.

From the Thai capital, head to the famous party island of Ko Pha Ngan for the iconic Full Moon Party celebrations. For more beach time, carry on south to Krabi and loop back up to Bangkok via Phuket.

From here, its time to head down to Cambodia to visit the amazing temples of Angkor Wat near the city of Siem Reap. Take a couple of days to enjoy the nearby sights, including silk farms and a landmine museum.

Next head to Krong Battambang, a charming city with a great culinary scene. Visit the nearby bamboo railway and soak up the friendly atmosphere before moving on to Phnom Penh.

The Cambodian capital is a bustling city crammed with restaurants, bars and some interesting French colonial architecture. Be sure to take a trip out to the Killing Fields to remember the murderous regime of Pol Pot and get a sense of the history of the country.

From here, cross into Vietnam to visit the old Vietcong fighting tunnels near Ho Chi Minh City, before heading north on the Reunification Railway to Hanoi, stopping off at Hoi An and Hue on the way.

After a couple of days in the city, head to the spectacular Halong Bay for a few days of beach relaxation before making your trip home.
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 6

Guru Nanak Dev Hospital (GNDH) associated with Government Medical College is facing difficulty in dealing with unattended and homeless patients.

Accused of being insensitive towards patients who do not have any accompanying attendant, the hospital authorities have now urged the district administration to convene a meeting of local NGOs to seek assistance.

Just two days ago, one of such patient was allegedly thrown out of the hospital as he had worms in his wounds and no one from his family was there to take care of his needs. After pressure from a few local social activists, the hospital took him in but as the smell from his body was disturbing other patients, he had to be shifted to an unused washroom near the ward. The patient died today.

The hospital authorities stated that instead of accusing the staff of being insensitive towards such patients, the social organisations should come forward to find a practical solution.

Usually, each patient is accompanied by one or two attendants. For patients who do not have any attendant, it becomes difficult for the staff as they have to attend to such patients. The hospital employees cannot take care of basic needs like washroom and toilet of the patient as it is usually done by family members, said a hospital official.

Even as any special and separate facility for abandoned patients with unsound mental conditions is not available, the hospital authorities have to deal with such situations frequently.

Medical Superintendent Dr Ram Sarup Sharma said, We have requested the Deputy Commissioner to call a meeting of the NGOs. We seek help from such organisations to depute volunteers who can sit by the bed side of such patients. We would take care of everything else but in absence of an attendant and any special facility, it becomes difficult for the regular staff.
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 7

With the arrest of two more persons, the crime branch of the Chandigarh Police claims to have worked out three cases of snatching that took place in July, besides a case of vehicle theft.

Following the spurt in snatching incidents, a team of the crime branch, headed by Inspector Ranjit Singh, was constituted to catch the snatchers. Sukhchain Singh Gill, SSP, UT, said on a tip-off, the crime branch team laid a naka near the Kali Mata temple in Dhanas and arrested Sanjeev Kumar, alias Deepu (31), a resident of Dadu Majra Colony, along with a gold chain, which was snatched in Sector 15.

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During interrogation, the accused confessed that he, along with his accomplice Shish Pal, alias Kalu (21), a resident of Zirakpur, had snatched gold chains from different parts of the city.

The accused used to steal a motorcycle and then snatch gold chains using it. The police have also arrested Shish Pal.

Used to sell gold chains to jewellers Both accused belong to slum areas and are unemployed. The gold chains were sold to local jewellers and the money was used for gambling and buying liquor.

History sheeter Shish Pal has a criminal past and was involved in nearly 15 cases of vehicle and house theft.

Efforts on to bust another gang

The police say they suspect that another gang of snatchers is also active in Chandigarh and efforts are being made to bust it soon in coiming few days.
Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 6

The Punjab and Haryana High Court Judges today did what they have never done before  visit Sukhna Lake for first-hand information. The site for the Tata Camelot project too was shown to the Judges during their visit. Haryana was told to prevent filth from finding its way into the lake from the Saketri side.

The purpose behind the visit was to inspect the area, among other things, for dipping water levels, sanitation concerns and de-weeding of the lake.

For nearly three hours, Justice Ajay Kumar Mittal and Justice Ramendra Jain visited the lakes catchment area. They started the visit from the road in front of the Secretariat, proceeded towards Kansal village side, the Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary, inspected the check dams and went to Kaimbwala side before eventually reaching the regulatory end. The Judges also discussed the issue of filth flowing in from the Saketri side before issuing necessary directions. On the way, the Judges also interacted with residents. They were asked to approach the High Court on the next date of hearing in case of any difficulty.

For inspection by the court and for further proceedings, officials of the UT Administration, Haryana and Punjab governments assembled at the Punjab and Haryana High Court at 11am. Amicus curiae or the friend of the court Tanu Bedi, senior counsel ML Sarin and counsel for Kansal residents Surya Parkash were also present at the spot, along with the counsel for Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh.

The UT Administration, on a previous date of hearing, had claimed that sewage from Kaimbwala village was not flowing or being discharged into the Sukhna choe or lake; and the village had a proper sewerage system connected to the municipal sewerage system. But the waste water of courtyards was being discharged into the lake by the villagers.

The High Court has already asked the Chandigarh Administration to setup an independent authority for the preservation of Sukhna Lake. The High Court, in its order dated March 14, 2011, had also issued directions for restoring the lake and its former glory.

Taking up the Save Sukhna case, a Division Bench of the High Court in May, 2012, had directed the states of Punjab and Haryana, along with the Chandigarh Administration, to not just stop construction activity in the lakes catchment area, but also to demolish without notice any construction being carried out against the High Court mandate.

We direct the states of Punjab and Haryana, as well as the Chandigarh Administration to put their enforcement agencies in action and construction activities going on in the catchment area as per the map of the Survey of India should be immediately stopped; and any construction raised in violation of

the directions issued by the court be demolished without issuing any notice, the Bench of the then Acting Chief Justice, MM Kumar, and Justice Alok Singh had ruled.
Satinder Pal Singh

Zirakpur, August 7

The Mohali police were on their toes the entire day today after some local residents claimed they sighted the suspicious movement of six persons in Army uniform in the vicinity of the Mohali airport here.

Combing operations in the area around the airport continued till late in the evening. Later, Mohali Senior Superintendent of Police Gurpreet Singh Bhullar claimed that the persons in question were Army personnel and were moving in the area as part of a military exercise.

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It has been confirmed that the persons were Army officials, not anti-social elements. A military exercise was going on in the area and they were here for the purpose, said the SSP.

Earlier, high drama was witnessed in the area as a large number of policemen were deputed in villages located near the airport. Special nakas were laid and certain areas were cordoned off for the combing operations.

The SSP said some workers of a banquet hall and residents of villages saw the movement of Army personnel past midnight and reported the matter to the police.

Some workers of a banquet hall were on their way back home around 1.30 am when their car got stuck in slush on an internal road, connecting several villages in the airport area. They saw Army men coming in a military truck from the Dayalpura village side and also took their help in pulling out their car, said the SSP, adding that later the workers informed the police about the suspected movement of the Army personnel.

During investigation, the police found that the Army men also went to Dayalpura village around 12.30 pm yesterday and remained there for several hours. A child of the village had a chat with them.

As they were coming back at an odd hour, villagers became suspicious and informed the police, said the SSP. In the wake of the terror attack at the Pathankot airbase and the coming Independence Day function, the police took no chance and sounded a high alert in the district immediately.

The Mohali police have beefed up security at all public places.
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 6

The UT police has arrested four persons, including a juvenile, in the Rs 21-lakh burglary reported from a house in Sector 19 on July 23.

One of the accused is a former driver who worked in the house. The police have recovered Rs 10.50 lakh cash, a Kinetic scooter, a mobile phone, god idols and other items from them.

Addressing a press conference today, Satish Kumar, DSP (East), said the accused had been taken on a two-day police remand to be questioned and to recover remaining cash and stolen articles. Kumar further said they had bought a scooter, a cooler and other things besides paying off their debt with the stolen money.

The accused have been identified as former house driver Heera Lal (35), a resident of Indira Colony, Raj Kumar (32), a resident of Peer Mazar, Kishan, alias Patra (21), a resident of Mauli Complex, all areas in Mani Majra, and a 15-year-old boy.

The crime was committed at the house of DN Bhasin when he and his wife had gone to Chandigarh Club in the afternoon. When they came back at 7 pm, the couple found that someone had burgled the house after breaking the locks. Cash and other articles were missing.

Scrutiny of 18 CCTV cameras installed under the Nigehbaan scheme aided us to crack the case. During the course of investigation, suspected person, servant, former drivers were interrogated. The CCTV cameras of the locality and the market area were thoroughly checked. Four suspects were found to be roaming near the said house at the time of theft and were also seen coming back towards Sector 19/27 light point in the footage. Heera Lal was identified from there, narrated the DSP.

The police yesterday conducted a raid at his jhuggi in Indira Colony. He confessed to the crime that he along with his three accomplices committed the crime. On his identification, other accused were also arrested by the police.

During the interrogation, Lal told us he knew that place where cash and other costly items were kept by the owner. He also knew the fact that the couple was to go to the club between 4.30 pm and 7 pm and that is when he struck along with others. Before this, they also conducted recee two to three times of the area, said Maninder Singh, station house officer (SHO) of the Sector 19 police station.

The accused later divided the cash and other stolen articles in the jungle area near the IT Park.
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 7

Two vehicle thieves, who used to steal luxury cars, have been arrested by the crime branch of the UT police. Eight cars, including Pajero, Fortuner and Cruze, have been recovered from them.

Sukhchain Singh Gill, SSP, UT, said the police had secret information that two vehicle thieves, Ramjeet Singh, alias Ram (22), and Harpreet Singh, alias Smaty (24), both residents of New Delhi, were involved in vehicle thefts and would be coming to Chandigarh.

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The SSP said a team of the crime branch laid a trap near the Hallo Majra light point on July 27 and arrested them while they were travelling in an i20 car. They were produced in the court on July 28 and remanded in six-day police custody.

The police said during interrogation, they confessed that they had stolen luxury cars from Chandigarh.

They disclosed that they had stolen a Chevrolet Cruze from Sector 44 in July.

Following the disclosure, the police managed to recover a Cruze, a Fortuner, a Pajero and four Innova vehicles.

The SSP said the Cruze, Pajero and two Innova vehicles were stolen from Chandigarh while the remaining vehicles were stolen from other cities.

Vehicles sold to UP person

The chassis number and the engine number of the vehicles were changed and these were then sold to a person in Uttar Pradesh.
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 7

Ahead of the crucial Assembly elections in the state, Mid-day Meal Office Employees and Cook Workers Union today protested against the government by distributing pamphlets against its policies.

After their numerous protests fell on deaf ears, these associations have kicked off a campaign to publicly disparage the SAD-BJP coalition government. Mid-day meal cooks flayed the government for paying them a monthly salary of Rs 1,200 whereas their counterparts in Haryana were getting Rs 2,500. Besides, they were employed for 10 months in a year only.

They alleged that the administration at many schools asked them to carry out the work of safai sewaks. They added that it amounted to violation of labour laws. They recalled that the Union government had announced a salary hike of Rs 1,000 for mid-day-meal workers. However, the BJP-led government did not allow it to be introduced.

They demanded that cooks must be given a minimum wage of Rs 7,715 and they must be employed for 12 months, instead of 10 months. Similarly, Assistant Block Managers (ABM), employed with the mid-day meal cell of the Education Department in schools, are irked with the government for giving them a raw deal by paying low salaries and ignoring their social security concerns. For as many as 17 blocks in Amritsar, there are only five ABMs. These ABMs are forced to travel to distant areas of the city to ensure that the rules of the mid-day meal scheme are adhered to. Similarly, 137 ABMs are working across the state for 216 education blocks.

Each ABM is supposed to visit three schools daily and submit a weekly report of 15 schools every Monday. It is mandatory for them to visit at least 60 schools in a month. The nature of their job demands them to distribute funds for mid-day meal to schools in their blocks, compile data of mid-day meals, check the food being served and whether the given menu was being adhered to or not.

They were hired on a monthly salary of Rs 9,000 besides Rs 1,500 travelling allowance, while there is no other provision for social security benefits like provident fund or pension.

The ABM Union said ABMs were now being burdened with more work as more educational blocks were being given to them. It would mean spending more on travelling, stationery and working for more time to discharge their duties.
Maj-Gen Ashok K Mehta (retd)

A REGIME change earlier this week led to the return of Maoist Pushpakamal Dahal, aka Prachanda, as the eighth prime minister of Nepal in nine years, following two elections for a constituent assembly (CA) since 2008. The first CA threw up governments led either by the Maoists or their ally-cum-adversary, the Unified Marxist Leninist  a Left alliance  to the near exclusion of the GOP, Nepali Congress (NC).

The second CA pushed the fractured Maoists from the first to the third position, with the NC emerging as the single-largest party, followed closely by the UML. By withdrawing support to Prime Minister KP Oli-led Left alliance government, Prachanda has finally  he attempted to dislodge Mr Oli three months earlier, but the Chinese intervened to save the Left compact  fulfilled his unrequited ambition of becoming a first-ever second-time Communist PM after his first term was prematurely terminated due to the constitutional row over dismissing Army Chief Gen Ruk Mangad Katwal.

Prachanda sought the help of Nepali Congresss Sher Bahadur Deupa, a three-time PM who had put a price on Prachandas head during the civil war, to form a Left (Maoist)-Right government. Not only is the new government a first time for a Maoist-NC coalition, but it also marks the political rehabilitation of Prachanda and Deupa, as well as the revival of Indias geopolitical fortunes, undermined by the Left alliance government and a bold new China in Nepal.

Beijings interests in Nepal go beyond its stated concern for the 30,000 Tibetans in Nepal who could create problems for China. During the civil war, Chinas support for the monarchy led to its criticism of Maoists, calling them miscreants, anti-state rebels and hijackers of Chairman Maos fair name. Once Prachanda came to power, the volte face was uncanny: We have rediscovered the ideological similarities with our Maoist comrades, Beijing observed. China has enlarged its political space in Nepal, abandoning the taboo of interfering in Nepals internal affairs. It has used its commercial wealth and economic aid to secure political influence and control over levers of power. The 10-point agreement between China and Nepal under the Oli government, which Prachanda has assured Chinese ambassador Wu Chintai he will implement, has path-breaking features, including trade and transit via the north and construction of infrastructure as part of its belt and road connectivity plan. President Xi Jinpings maiden visit to Nepal in October, armed with a generous package, is under a cloud after Mr Olis exit. But Prachanda, a bird of the same flock, might still pull it off.

Prachanda, who faced many problems of ideology and sovereign autonomy with India in his first term as PM, has admitted that he was inexperienced as a politician. His bottom line in the India-Nepal ties is equal sovereignty  I want to assure India we will keep its interest in mind. I have told the Chinese our relations with India are ancient and historic. How the transformed Maoist leader is going to balance the interests of China with those of India will be challenging. King Prithvinarayan Shah, founder of modern Nepal, would say Nepal is a yam between two boulders. Today, Nepals leaders wish to transform the yam into a bridge between India and China.

The Seven Point Agreement between Prachanda and Deupa focuses on the implementation of the constitution, speeding up post-earthquake reconstruction and fast tracking the economy. Due to protracted political instability, the remittance-dependent economy is stagnating. A separate three-point agreement between the CPN Maoist Centre, the NC and the Madhesi Morcha to address the residual constitutional issues of Madhesis, Jan Jatis and Adivasis, like citizenship, demarcation of state boundaries and representation in the upper house, has been signed. Once the grievances are suitably incorporated in the constitutional amendment, the Madhesi Morcha will join the new government.

There is also the elusive gentlemans agreement (GA) about power-sharing, which in the past has caused much heartburn and fall of a government. The latest GA is between Prachanda and Deupa, stating that the two parties will form a government for nine months each, leading up to the first parliamentary election after January 21, 2018, which marks the end of the life of the House. Prachanda will hold the local body, municipal and district committee elections and Deupa, the parliamentary elections. These elections will be under the new electoral system, a combination of first past the post, proportional representation and nomination. Unfortunately, these may lead to a hung Parliament, perpetuating political instability.

The question is, given the deep mistrust between Maoists and the NC and Prachanda and Deupa, can the agreement be made to work. For starters, Deupa has taken the precaution of obtaining the GA in writing, for whatever that is worth legally. There is an Indian investment to keep this coalition intact. New Delhi and Prachanda have been through a bad phase, but most of that is over. India knows Maoists cannot be ignored or taken for granted; Maoists know Indias strategic interests need to be factored in Nepals strategic autonomy and equal sovereignty. Thats a concern most governments had kept in mind. Prachanda will not deviate from the GA as Maoists stock is low, the mother party fractured and in need of steroids to rejuvenate. It can prove to be a useful ally of both the NC and India, and in turn, seek their help to reconstruct the party. It could also act as a foil for the UML and China. It is in Nepals interest to take advantage of the two fastest growing economies, but that wont be easy. Although the new Left-Right coalition will be unstable, it will not be anti-India.

The five-month economic blockade imposed by Madhesis and supported by India has revealed malpractices by some Madhesi leaders. This, along with perceptions of Indian involvement in regime change, has raised the anti-India sentiment among ordinary Nepalis. Repairing ties cannot be outsourced to Eminent Persons Groups, which can only make recommendations. Comparing Nepal with Bhutan and Sikkim is a no-no; or even saying that Nepalese should be as happy as Bhutanese, as the head of Indias EPG, Mr BS Koshiyari, observed in Kathmandu recently.

For India, Nepal is geostrategically the most important country in the region. It opens up from the north, avenues to Indias heartland the the Indo-Gangetic Plains. The Prachanda-Deupa coalition is a good opportunity to restore ties to the high point PM Modi had taken during his 2014 visit. This 18-month window of opportunity New Delhi cannot afford to ignore.

 The writer is from Gorkha Regiment and was recently in Nepal
Somesh Goyal

SUSPECTED insurgents belonging to the National Democratic Front of Bodoland, Songbijit faction NDFB(S) killed 14 innocent civilians and injured another 20, some critically, in a broad daylight dastardly attack in the busy Balajan Tinali (trijuction). It is next to Kokrajhar, the headquarters of Bodoland Territorial Council(BTC) governing the Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD). As per eyewitness accounts, three militants donning army fatigues and wielding AK series rifles and grenades arrived in the market in an autorickshaw around noon and opened indiscriminate fire on unsuspecting civilians, inflicting huge casualty unknown in the last two years in the area. It is also believed that a grenade was also lobbed to cause large-scale damage to life and property.

The security forces and the state police patrolling the area were quick to respond and engage the militants, neutralising one and injuring the other while the other(s) managed to escape. They left behind AK series rifles, grenades and some documents. It is early for the police to establish the identity of the slain militant.

BTAD comprises of four districts of Assam, namely Kokrajhar, Chirang, Udalguri and Baksa. Kokrajhar and Chirang are the worst affected by NDFB(S) violence. NDFB(S) is the anti-talk group that refuses to engage with the state government and is the sole armed violent group in these districts. It broke away from the parent NDFB (R), led by Ranjan Daimary, in 2012. The Ranjan Daimary faction has been in negotiations with the central and state governments. Most of Ranjan cadres are in designated camps and are not involved in any violent incidents. The avowed goal of NDFB(S) is the creation of Bodoland and most of its ire is targeted at the Bengali Muslim immigrants. This faction is known for brutality and is very severe on suspected police informers and those showing any resistance to the faction's demands of ransom or protection money, rations and harbour.

It is not yet clear whether the August 5 assault was a reaction to the July 17 encounter, in which three of its cadres were neutralised by the security forces. It could also be to re-establish its dominance by terrorising shopkeepers and civilians to ensure steady supply of rations and cash to sustain its armed struggle. The faction's leader Songbijit is hiding in Myanmar, while the de facto leader Bedei and the platoon commander of Kokrajhar Mwdan are alleged to be in a safe camp somewhere in Bhutan. The three militants killed on July 17 were also trying to cross over to Bhutan with rations and supplies.

The year 2014 was a watershed year in the NDFB(S)-related violence. The year was marked by large-scale violence at the hands of NDFB(S) and communal violence in the BTAD area that resulted in the death of 125 civilians and 16 NDFB(S) cadres. A major offensive was successfully launched in the four districts to cripple the capability and terror of the group. The state police did an excellent job by providing specific technical intelligence and carrying out numerous operations with the security forces to create disarray among the rank and file of this group. The year 2015 witnessed minimal violence. No casualty in the area, except of NDFB(S) cadres, was reported as the security forces gained upper hand. Efforts to regroup and equip itself had been going on and the cross-border movement of NDFB(S) cadres to Bhutan has been reported.

India shares a 699-km border with Bhutan. Out of this, Assam has a 267-km border with Bhutan which is guarded by the youngest border guarding force, SSB. The terrain between the two countries abutting Assam is difficult and tough during the monsoon when innocuous streams, both seasonal and perennial, become ferocious and are rendered impossible to negotiate. Bhutan has also borne the brunt of NDFB violence in the past and has been pointing to frequent movement of terrorists from India to Bhutan, despite the presence of SSB camps every two to three kilometres along the border.

In almost all cases of violent attacks on the civilians and security forces, NDFB(S) cadres are believed to take refuge in the Bhutanese territory which does not have any significant deployment of the Royal Bhutan Army. However, in 2003-2004, the Royal Bhutan Army had launched a campaign codenamed "Operation All Clear" to destroy all the NDFB camps, but the porous border has remained the security force's achilles' heel.

It is customary for the insurgent groups in the north-eastern states to perpetrate violence on the civil population and security forces before national festivals. But the scale and fury of the attack does not seem to be a tokenism and the group seems to have reinvented itself. The state police, the Army and other security forces deployed in the area have been successful in bringing peace to the area due to excellent synergy and intelligence sharing. Some of the assets that moved away from Kokrajhar may have to be brought back to provide proper leadership and teeth to day-to-day operations.

In the wake of this attack, the security apparatus in Kokrajhar will have to move with utmost alacrity by once again recalibrating its strategy by assessing the efficacy and efficiency of the state police, security forces and the border-guarding force to deliver maximum damage to the brutal anti-talk NDFB(S) faction.

The writer, a serving IPS officer, has worked in Assam as Inspector General of SSB. The views expressed are personal.
There are some insurgencies that have a reason. And there are some like the insurgency by a faction of the Bodos that defy all logic. The killing of 14 civilians in a tiny bazaar in Assam is of one such piece. The Bodos comprise one-third of the population of Assam and their leaders have always enjoyed the fruits of power. They were in Tarun Gogois Cabinet for 15 years and, on sensing the political wind, crossed over to the BJP camp just before the Assembly elections. Successive governments have also accommodated their political desire for reservation in government jobs and an autonomous council comprising four districts where they are in majority. The Bodos now rule the roost in these districts, although there is a substantial Muslim and Adivasi population as well.

Successive governments have also been open to talking to insurgent groups and have succeeding in persuading many of them to give up arms. But like an amoeba, one group splits and refuses to lay down arms. In order to mark its presence, it usually hacks to death dirt poor and defenceless Adivasis and Muslims. They were responsible for the biggest massacre in recent times with the slaughter of almost 100 Adivasis in late 2014. For diversion, they vent their blood lust on Hindi-speaking people transiting through their territory to other parts of the North-East.

The gun-wielding faction of the Bodos is now demanding a state. This is a wish no government can afford to fulfil as it will set off competing demands from other ethnicities not just in Assam but other north eastern states as well. The security forces did well to reach the massacre site and gun down one of the assailants. The Centre now needs to converse with Bhutan and Myanmar because most of the top leaders of the Songbijit faction shelter in these two countries. In fact the militant training camp in Bhutan has acquired an assembly line type of consistency in churning out trained hit-men. It is time for a repeat of Operation All Clear that uprooted ULFA camps and netted several of its senior ideologues in 2003.
Our Correspondent

Jind, August 7

Union Steel Minister Birender Singh said today that the BJP-led Centre was going to start Tiranga Yatra across the country and all the MPs, BJP ministers and senior BJP leaders would take part in it.

He was here to attend an interactive session with the BJP cadre ahead of partys mega rally to be held on September 11 here.

He said, A programme related to the yatra has been drafted by the party high command. The party will organise the yatra in the Kashmir region also and senior BJP leaders will take part in it. The main objective of the programme is to promote patriotism among citizens. I will become part of the yatra in Jind and Kaithal district, he said.

The BJP government will also start a patriotic programme ahead of Independence Day. It has identified 150 places where all Union ministers will mark their presence. I will go to Udaipur in Rajasthan and Partapgarh in Uttar Pradesh, said Birender.

About the BJP rally in Jind, he said, BJP president Amit Shah will attend the rally and elaborate on the 70 major achievements of the government in its two-year tenure, he added.
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 7

The crop insurance scheme continues to draw flak. The INLD today announced to hold demonstrations across the state from Monday, while former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda termed it as a ploy to rob farmers.

Ashok Arora, state INLD president, announced that the party would hold protests against the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna at all district headquarters from August 8 to 11.

He said demonstrations would held at Yamunanagar, Hisar, Jhajjar, Gurgaon and Mahendragarh on August 8, Ambala, Sirsa, Panipat, Mewat and Kaithal on August 9, Kurukshetra, Sonepat, Jind, Rewari and Bhiwani on August 10 and Karnal, Fatehabad, Faridabad, Panchkula, Rohtak and Palwal on August 11.

The state government was forcibly debiting money from the accounts of farmers in the name of crop insurance to benefit some big industrial houses. The INLD will not allow the farmers to be robbed like this, said Arora.

Meanwhile, Hooda asked the state government whether the Fasal Bima Yojna was an insurance scheme or a ploy to loot farmers.

Hooda alleged that the terms and conditions of the insurance scheme make it clear that farmers were not going to benefit from it under any circumstances.

On the contrary, farmers were being made to pay premium without their consent as the state government was drawing money from the bank accounts of farmers.

Hooda alleged that since 40 per cent of the crops had already been brought under crop insurance, hundreds of crores had been drawn from the accounts of poor farmers against their will.

Hooda said that the Congress would not allow the farmers to be robbed like this and would support farmers in their struggle for justice.
Vishal Joshi

Tribune News Service

Kurukshetra, August 7

A meeting of khap leaders called here today to determine future course of action in support of the Jat reservation remained focused on criticising their counterpart from Uttar Pradesh, Yashpal Malik. Malik is the founder-president of the All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti.

Khap leaders admitted that the community was not united on the reservation and release of Jat youths arrested during widespread violent agitation.

A majority of the khaps leaders sounded unanimous on fighting a political battle than a legal one to get reservation benefits for the Jats. Sube Singh Samain, spokesperson for the Sarv Khap Panchayats, said the reservation movement was severely affected by self-centred persons within the community.

We suffered due to lack of unity as community members with their personal political interests backstabbed us. Even todays meeting remained deviated from the core agenda to find methodology to fight for release of the jailed youths. The entire community needs to come together to show our political strength, he said.

Samain called to unite and pressurise the state government for withdrawal of criminal cases registered against the Jat youths. Practically, it is tough to gain momentum in support of the reservation, but the Jats need to be united, he said.

It is most important to consolidate community members for the cause of reservation. We need to understand that those languishing in jails are on the orders of various courts and their release could be possible only with the tactic pressure on the state government, he said.

Sadhu Ram of Saharan khap called for launching jail bharo agitation. Steps of blocking roads and trains should be completely avoided as we have already faced consequences. There is no point in making youths die in violent protests and arrested by the police. The community should work for the release of the youths from jails, he said.

Another khap leader Mitthan Lal blamed a section of speakers at the meeting for targeting Malik, a prominent Jat leader from Uttar Pradesh. He said as Malik had also been fighting for the Jat reservation at the national level, he should not be ignored for the same cause in Haryana.
Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, August 7

The Supreme Court has sought the Haryana governments response to a plea for a higher compensation for the land acquired in Maheshpur village abutting the Shimla-Kalka-Ambala Highway (NH 22) in June 1983.

A bench comprising justice Kurian Joseph and justice AK Sikri issued notice on a review petition by a landowner, Virinder Singh, despite the fact that he had approached the apex court eight years after it had delivered the judgment. Review petitions are supposed to be filed within a month.

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The bench accepted the plea of the petitioners advocate Rishi Malhotra that the judiciary was responsible for ensuring just and fair compensation taking into consideration the true market value and other relevant factors.

Malhotra pleaded that his client got a compensation of only Rs 51.65 per square yard, though others in the adjacent area got as much as Rs 250 per square yard for the acquisition in the same year (1983) and Rs 394 in 1990.

The land had been acquired in the villages of Judian, Fatehpur, Kharak Mangoli, Devinagar, Nadda and Fatehpur Kundi, the petitioner pleaded.
Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, August 7

The race for the post of Vice-Chancellor of Chaudhary Sarwan Kumar Agriculture University (CSKAU), Palampur, has hot up.

Sources said a committee comprising the Director General of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), chairman of the UGC and Principal Secretary to the Governor has submitted its report to the Governor and he will take the final call after consulting Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.

The government had earlier recommended to the Governor to extend the term of the outgoing VC, KK Katoch, by three years. But the latter had turned down the request and issued an advertisement for the post.

A similar request was made for the VC of Horticulture University, Solan, which too was rejected.

It is learnt that a number of complaints had been received against Katoch, whose term finished on July 31. The faculty and student leaders had lobbied for his removal.

The sources said many people, including those from the senior faculty of the CSKAU, had applied. Hectic lobbying has also been going on with the MPs and ministers. It is being expected that a person with the BJP leaning is likely to get the post.

The authorities are in favour of bringing some outsider as the VC to avoid internal politics in the institute, it is learnt.

In case, the Governor does not heed the advice of the government, it may create problems for the university authorities.

It is a state university and is dependent on the government for funding. With the increase in salaries of staff, the state universities are already facing financial constraints.

Pensions were not being paid. It was after the High Courts intervention that the pensioners got their dues.

The university had demanded Rs 100 crore from the government for giving pensions and other dues to its retired employees.

The cost per student in the agriculture university runs into lakhs. There are 2,400 employees in the university and only 800 students.

The university has been trying to generate resources to tide over the financial crises, but to no avail.

In such a scenario if there is a standoff between the Governor (who is also the Chancellor of the university) and the state government over the appointment of the VC, the university will be in trouble.
Tribune News Service

Mandi, August 7

Incessant rain crippled normal life and triggered landslides in various parts of the district causing considerable damage to road and bridges connecting villages.

A footbridge connecting Garh village in the Chohar valley was washed away due to the rising water level of a rivulet and a landslide also occurred in the area injuring two persons who has been admitted to a nearby health centre.

As many as 25 families of Garh village are disconnected from the nearby villages following washing away of the bridge.

The district administration has warned people to abstain from venturing on the river bank because the Beas and its tributaries were on spate these days.

Deputy Commissioner, Mandi, Sandeep Kadam said, no further major loss had been reported and people were advised not to venture along the river banks.
Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 6

Almost a month has passed but Kashmir is where it was on July 9. There has been no let-up in the unrest since the killing of 22-year-old Hizbul Mujahideen militant commander Burhan Wani. A lot of blood has been splattered and much water has flown down the Jhelum since.

The situation has worsened as there is not a single political intervention and it has been left to the security forces to handle the anger on the streets of Kashmir. The unrest is happening at a time when the number of militants has been reduced to less than 200.

The present turmoil is unlike that of 2008 and 2010 when Kashmir erupted over the Amarnath land transfer and civilian killings, respectively. This time the protesters, mostly youngsters and children, are associating themselves with militants - a new phenomenon.

The widespread protests following Burhans killing and the state power to squash them have left over 50 civilians and two policemen dead with more than 6,000 persons, including 3,300 protesters, injured. More than 200 people received pellet injuries in eyes and stare at a bleak future ahead.

The Mehbooba Mufti government is accused of mishandling the situation since the killing of Burhan. Her government and intelligence agencies had not anticipated such a public reaction to the killing of militant, whose funeral attracted tens of thousands of people. A media gag was also imposed for a few days which lead to news blackout.

The present protests are a watershed in the history of the state in many respects. People are coming out in support of rebels and are associating with them. They dont have any immediate demand. It is a complete rebellion, said Srinagar-based political analyst Khursheed Ahmed.

Protests have spread even to the remotest corners of the region, which have never witnessed such clashes since the eruption of militancy in 1989. Armed militants too have appeared in many protest rallies and delivered speeches, drawing admiration from the restive crowds. The protests have continued despite most parts of Kashmir being placed under curfew since July 9.

However, a Senior Superintendent of Police argues that protests following the killing of Burhan have been mostly militant-driven. The protests have been mostly militant-driven protests and are supported by Pakistan, he said.

Political analysts say the present unrest may prove to be the death knell for the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as its bastion south Kashmir has been the epicentre of the unrest. People in south Kashmir had largely supported the PDP since its inception in 1999, but now there is anger against the party. The people in south Kashmir feel ditched by the PDP for siding with the BJP, said Tanweer Ahmed, a social scientist.

The recent developments like the proposed Sainik colonies and separate Pandit townships also added to the pent-up anger which burst like a volcano on Burhans death.

Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh said if there was anger against this coalition then Mehbooba Mufti would have not won the Anantnag bypoll by over 14,000 votes. Noted political scientist Prof NA Baba is of the view that the present unexpected and prolonged unrest speaks about the deep-rooted resentment towards the authorities concerned.

There is no serious effort to come out of the present impasse by the powers that matter. The state government cannot do much beyond a point and there has to be an initiative from the Government of India, Baba said.

A former security official who has served in the state said that all lessons that were learned from 2008 and 2010 have been squandered. Because of the 2008 and 2010 experience, we were able to handle the situation after the killing of Afzal Guru. But this time everything has been messed up, the former officer said.
Gurvinder Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, August 7

The turnout for the UPSC Civil Services (Preliminary) exam conducted today at 31 centres in 21 colleges and schools of the district was 33 per cent.

Of 11,558 candidates, 3,818 turned up for the first paper of General Studies in the morning. The number of candidates taking the exam dropped further to 3,758 for the evening examination of CSAT. Some candidates had come from other states, including Haryana, to take the test.

Confusion prevailed

Due to similarity in the names of schools in the city, some candidates had to face difficulty. Ritu from Jalalabad said the auto-rickshaw took her to BCM School, Sector 32, Chandigarh Road, (which was also a centre for the exam), while her centre was at BCM School, Basant Avenue.

I wasted half-an-hour, but thankfully, I just made it in time for the test! she exclaimed. Father of another candidate from Chandigarh said because of similarity of schools names, someone suggested them the route to DCM Presidency School, instead of BCM School, where they were supposed to take the test.

As Chandigarh has traditionally been the centre, many candidates from the City Beautiful were not expecting that they would have to come to Ludhiana to take the test. It was a hassle reaching here, because Chandigarh is supposed to be the centre in general. So, coming to Ludhiana for taking the test was something new and inconvenient for us, said one of the candidates from Chandigarh.

Security tight

The exam centres were turned into citadels as police personnel were deployed across different centres. No one else except supervisers, invigilators and candidates were being allowed to enter the examination centres. While students were not allowed to take mobile phones and communication devices inside the centres, those wearing hybrid watches were asked to leave those out.

Turned back for being late

The first paper started at 9.30 am, but candidates reaching the exam centres after 9.40 am were not allowed to take the exam. Some candidates coming from Chandigarh via train could not take the exam because the train got late. One of the candidates, was not allowed to enter the centre at BCM School, Basant Avenue, after he got late because of the delay of the train in reaching the city. Boarding the train from Chandigarh turned out to be a big mistake. Though I started for Ludhiana from home at 5 am, the train got late in starting from Chandigarh. Not only this, it stopped several times on its way. It was supposed to reach by 9 am, but it stopped again at the outskirts at 9.30 am. I got down and hired an auto-rickshaw to reach my centre, but it was already late. I got deprived of taking my exam for one last time, as it was my last chance, Sudhir Saini from MP, who had left his IT job for the preparation of Civil Services exam, said.

More current affairs

The first paper of General Studies comprising 100 objective questions was to be completed in two hours and had a number of questions on current affairs. So students, who had kept a tab on current affairs, were beaming with confidence after the exam, while others were a bit sullen.

The first paper had more questions on current affairs and what had happened recently, instead of questions of general knowledge and those from geography and history. Thats why my exam was so-so, said Prathma, a candidate from Chandigarh.

Amita from the city said she was not expecting that the first paper would comprise so many questions on current affairs, so her exam did not go as well as she had wanted to. One of the students said the exam went well as current affairs was her forte during the exam preparation.

Meanwhile, Paper-II, Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) started at 2.30 pm. It was a qualifying exam requiring 66 per cent marks. It comprised 80 questions on maths, comprehension and reasoning. While some students said the CSAT this time was tougher than it was last year, others said they did the paper well enough to attain qualifying marks.

No cheating case

ADC (D) Apneet Riyait, the coordinator for the examination, said there was no instance of use of unfair means by candidates at any of the centres. No candidates, except those coming late, were turned back. Even those coming without an admit card were allowed to take the test, after taking an undertaking from them, she said.

Candidates calm and composed

Unlike other exams, where students are generally seen mugging up lessons just before taking the exam, a majority of students were seen chatting. Let alone mugging up and fretting, some of the candidates were walking casually with just three minutes left for the evening exam.

Enrolment up, attendance down

Ironically, the number of candidates turning up to take the exam was in fact even lower than it was last year despite much higher enrolment. As many as 3,825 candidates appeared for the exam last year in the district, while the number of candidates enrolling for the exam was around 7,800. But this year, despite 11,550 candidates enrolling for the exam, only 3,818 candidates turned up to take the test.

Over 11 lakh candidates registered to take the exam in the country this time, which is higher than last year. The number of candidates actually turning up to take the test shows that the serious candidates remain almost the same. Its just the enrolment that has gone up, an official said.

The large gap between enrolment and taking the exam is also because of the limited number of attempts for taking the exam, another official said. If the candidates are not fully prepared for the exam, they do not like to waste attempts unnecessarily, he said.

Notably, Ludhiana was the only district from the state where the examination was conducted. It was the first time in three decades when the exam was conducted in the state last year. Earlier, the nearest centres for candidates from the state were Chandigarh and Delhi.

Attendance dismally low at some centres

Some centres had very low attendance. It is learnt that the centre at Sarabha Nagar had just one or two candidate in the entire classroom. Only nine of 19 candidates came to take the test at the College of Agriculture, PAU, which was the centre especially for the physically challenged and visually impaired candidates. According to norms, those candidates were given 40 minutes extra for completing the exam and a couple of them were also given scribes.

Officialspeak

There was no instance of use of unfair means by candidates at any of the centres. No candidates, except those coming late, were turned back. Even those coming without an admit card were allowed to take the test, after taking an undertaking from them. Apneet Riyait, adc (d) and exam coordinator

Over 11 lakh candidates registered to take the exam in the country this time, which is higher than last year. The number of candidates actually turning up to take the test shows that the serious candidates remain almost the same. It's just the enrolment that has gone up.  An official

Sidelights

Best time for promotion!

People from institutes preparing students for the Civil Services were busy handing out promotional leaflets to students coming out after taking the exams outside SCD Government College and Government College for Girls. There were promotional banners on College Road from such institutes wishing candidates good luck for the exam

'Waiting areas'

While candidates and their relatives had to sit and cool their heels in the open plot area among the weeds outside centres including BCM School, Basant Avenue, those having centre at Government College for Girls had a good time walking around and enjoying snacks at Rakh Bagh
Hyderabad, August 7

If you want to shoot, shoot me, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said, as he called for stopping the attacks on Dalits and the politics over it.

Making an emotional appeal, he asked people to protect and respect Dalits who have for long been neglected by society.

I would like to tell these people that if you have any problem, if you have attack, attack me. Stop attacking my Dalit brethren. If you have to shoot, shoot me, but not my Dalit brothers. This game should stop," he said addressing BJP workers here.

The Prime Minister said if the country has to progress it cannot ignore key mantras of peace, unity and harmony.

"Country's unity is the main source of country's development," he said.

His comments come at a time when the NDA government is facing flak over incidents of violence against Dalits and Muslims by cow vigilantes in various states including Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

Modi said at times some incidents come to notice which give us "unbearable pain". "It should be our responsibility to save and respect them (Dalits)," he said without referring to any particular incident.

Modi asked what right the perpetrators had to exploit Dalits and said the unity in society should be our priority.

"I know this problem is social. It is a result of sins which have crept into the society... But we need to take extra care and save society from such danger (of social strife)," he said. Modi said the society should not be allowed to be divided on the basis of caste, religion and social status.

Deprecating those who try to make political currency out of such issues, the Prime Minister said attempts to politicize those would only aggravate the problem.

"Those who want to solve this social problem, I request them to leave politics that divides the society. Divisive politics will not do any good to the country," he said.

Punish fake cow protectors

Earlier, speaking at a public meeting at Gajwel in Telanganas Medak district, the Prime Minister asked states to probe fake gau rakshaks (cow protectors) and take strong action against them, saying they were destroying the country.

Voicing concern over incidents of cow vigilantism, he again called for isolating and punishing the fake gau rakshaks as a handful of such people were destroying the social fabric and creating conflict in the society.

India is a county full of diversities, different values and traditions and protecting its unity and integrity is our prime responsibility, Modi said after inaugurating the states drinking water programme Mission Bhagiratha.

The fake gau rakshakhs have nothing to do with cows. They want to create tension in society, he said.

The PM said he saluted real gau rakshaks and gau sevaks and appealed to them to come forward to expose fake gau rakshaks. I appeal to you to come forward lest the good work being done by you is destroyed by a handful of people for their selfish interests, he added.

Breaking his silence on cow vigilantism, Modi had on Saturday said he felt very angry at such incidents and had asked state governments to prepare a dossier of people who were running shops in the name of cow protection.

There are some people who are running shops in the name of cow protection. They indulge in anti-social activities in the night and wear the cloak of gau rakshaks (cow protectors) by the day, a visibly riled Modi said at a Town Hall-style meeting in New Delhi.  Agencies
Sanjiv Kumar Bakshi

Hoshiarpur, August 7

The driver of a private bus lost control during descent on the Chintpurni-Chohal road and the vehicle ran over people sitting along a culvert, killing seven of them. Among the dead were four of a family, all women. Twenty persons were injured. Two of the grievously injured were referred to a hospital in Ludhiana and one was taken to the PGIMR, Chandigarh.

The people were on their way to religious fair at Chohal, 15 km from Hoshiarpur. Local MLA Sunder Sham Arora, who was passing by, helped remove victims stuck under the bus and shifted them to hospital. He asked the nearby JCT Mills and Reliance Factory to send their ambulances.

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It took us more than two hours to reach the hospital barely 15 km away. Despite the rush of pilgrims, there were no traffic arrangements or emergency services.

Even as vehicles of various social service organisations ferried the injured to hospital, Health Department ambulances reportedly remained parked at the Civil Hospital. Adviser to CM Tikshan Sud, CPS Mohinder Kaur Josh, PPCC member Dr Rajkumar, Hoshiarpur Mayor Shiv Sud, AAP leader Navin Jairath and DC Aninidita Mitra later visited the injured at the hospital.

Five of the deceased were identified as Jitesh Kumar from Bihar, who was working with the JCT, Samitri Devi of Purheeran, her daughter Maneesha, niece Sonia and relative Jagtar Kaur Babbu.

Expressing grief, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said the state government would bear the medical expenses of the injured and asked the Hoshiarpur DC and SSP to lend all possible help to the bereaved families.
Balajan (Assam), August 7

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Sunday visited the Friday attack site here and said strong action would be taken against the banned NDFB(Sonbijit) outfit and none would be spared for the killing of 14 persons.

No matter how strong the militant group is, our government will take strong action against it. All those connected with the killing will be hunted out and brought to book, Sonowal told reporters after visiting the weekly Balajan Tiniali market where the massacre took place.

Whatever evidence has been collected so far show that NDFB(Songbijit) is behind the killings, he said.

All the security forces are coordinating search operations and none will be spared, the Chief Minister said.

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It is the prime duty of the government to protect the people and their property. All will be given protection, I assure, Sonowal said.

After visiting Balajan, the Chief Minister went to Kokrajhar town and held a high level law and order review meeting of the Unified Command Structures Strategic Group of civil officials, Army, police and paramilitary forces.

Director-General of Police Mukesh Sahay said the slain NDFB-S militant, whose body was recovered, would be identified by a DNA test as his parents were unable to recognise his body as they had not seen him for the past 8-9 years.

Meanwhile, Kokrajhar Deputy Commissioner Madhu Prasad Sarma said the killers were believed to have come from Pakriguri on the Indian side, about 10 km from Bhutan border.  PTI
New Delhi, August 7

Indian journalists, who went to cover the SAARC Home Ministers conference in Islamabad, had to face hostile Pakistani officials, who not only denied them access to the inaugural function but also barred them from standing at the entrance of the venue where their Interior Minister was to receive dignitaries, leading to tense moments.

The six Indian journalists, who were given visa to travel to Islamabad to cover the event, were flatly refused entry to the inaugural function, which was attended by Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

The Indian journalists then stood near the entrance of the venue where Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan was receiving the visiting dignitaries from SAARC countries.

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As Pakistani media took position to capture the moment of Home Minister Rajnath Singhs arrival, Indian journalists too joined them. Immediately, Pakistani officials curtly told them to leave the place, saying Indian journalists were not allowed to stand even outside the gate.

When Pakistani officials asked Doordarshan cameraperson R. Jayashree Puri and ANIs Ajay Kumar Sharma to remove their cameras, a senior Indian diplomat tried to intervene and protested.

The diplomat hotly argued that Indian journalists be allowed to be near the gate to capture Singhs arrival as Pakistani journalists, video and still camerapersons were present and freely taking shots.

The Pakistani officials made it clear that the Indian journalists have to leave the place immediately, leading to a verbal duel between the diplomat and a Pakistani official.

The Pakistani official even directed some of his juniors to block the view of Indian journalists and soon the reporters and camerapersons were surrounded by several persons, apparently policemen in civvies, making it impossible for them to shoot anything.

As a result, the Indian journalists failed to capture the moment when Singh touched the hands of his Pakistani counterpart, a gesture short of a formal handshake, reflecting the growing chill in the ties between the two countries.

As per SAARC protocol, the inaugural statement by the host country is open to the media while the rest of the proceedings are in camera.

The Pakistani establishment was also circulating information in the local media that the Indian Home Minister had visited washroom eight times to make calls to New Delhi when the conference was going on.

The fact is that the washroom was outside the conference hall and the Home Minister used it twiceonce before the formal ministers meet started after he and his SAARC counterparts had made a courtesy call to Pakistan Prime Sharif and again when the meeting got over.

Besides, Home Minister Singh does not carry a cell phone even while he is in India and, whenever necessary, uses those of his aides.  PTI
For about 16 years since November 3, 2000, Irom Sanu Sharmila, the Iron Lady of Manipur, has been exhibiting tremendous grit for a young woman who has sacrificed her youth for a cause.

She remained on fast-unto-death demanding withdrawal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, that empowers security forces engaged in counter-insurgency operations to shoot at people on mere suspicion of being a threat to law and order.

It has been a saga of protest that has been registered in solitary confinement in a fortified hospital ward in Imphal as she has been booked for attempt to suicide. All along, she has been nose-fed by the authorities under tight security.

An epitome of protest, the Iron Lady has finally accepted that she, too, has limit to endurance. She is now set to end her fast on August 9. But she will continue her protest against AFSPA in a different way  probably by joining politics.

It is difficult to say where Sharmila has triumphed and lost in her endeavour to end sufferings of her fellows. There has been mixed reaction to her decision. As things stand today, it can be said that Manipurs protest against AFSPA is set to acquire a new dimension manifestation.

SC keeps tabs on NRC

The Supreme Court is constantly monitoring the process of updating the National Register of Citizens, 1951, in Assam that is required to find a permanent solution to the detection and deportation of illegal Bangladeshi migrants who came to the state after March 24, 1971.

The State Coordinator of the NRC updating process, Proteek Hajela, said the SC was being periodically apprised of the status of the NRC updating process that is an enormous exercise involving three-phase verification  field verification, office verification and family tree construction  of about 6.6 crore documents attached to total 68.23 lakh applications submitted by the residents of the state.

The official said: The citizenship of a person has to be ascertained first for inclusion of his/her and descendants names in the updated NRC.

ISI hand in terror attack

On Friday, Assam witnessed another episode of dastardly killing of 14 innocent persons who gathered at a market near Kokrajhar, by a small group of gunmen belonging to proscribed terror group called National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songbijit faction). While NDFB(S) is notorious for training guns on innocent and vulnerable civilians as they had exhibited in December 2014 by killing over 70 Adivasi villagers in the state, the latest attack exposed the desperation on part of the outfit to assert its presence given that it has been on the run since December 2014.

Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma claims the NDFB(S) is left with less than 200 cadres. However, former DG of police in Tripura and Assam, GM Srivastava, credited to tame tribal militants in Tripura, claims the design of the massacre was hatched at Chittagong in Bangladesh at the behest of Pakistani ISI.

Bollywood break for singer

Teen-age singing sensation from Assam Naheed Afreen has got the opportunity to sing for Bollywood star Sonakshi Sinha in her latest film Akira. Hailing from a small town called Bishwanath Chariali in North Assam, Nahid shot to fame after her performance on TV reality show Indian Idol Junior last year where she was a runner up.
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, August 7

Brigadier (retd) JC Gagneja, vice-president of the Punjab Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), who was shot at in Jalandhar last night, was shifted to Hero DMC Heart Institute here this afternoon amid tight security even as intelligence sources said they suspected the hand of a Khalistani group in the attack.

One of the doctors said Gagneja's condition was critical. We have stitched the stomach at three places and the intestines at five.There is fluid in the chest," he said.

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There was a huge rush of VVIPs outside the Emergency Ward. One of Gagneja's daughters, her hands folded, requested that they be given way. Even before Gagneja was brought to the hospital, RSS district chief Phul Chand Jain, senior BJP leader Renu Thapar, Satpal Gossain, Ravinder Arora, Anil Sarin, Arunesh Mishra and KD Bhandari (CPS) had already arrived there.They were later joined by Dr Navjot Sidhu and Jagdish Sahni (former minister).

Observing that the law and order situation had worsened, Dr Sidhu said she was certain that "the people of Punjab will bring about a change." Anil Sareen, BJP vice-president, Punjab, said the people must remain calm and not allow peace to be sabotaged.

Meanwhile, Punjab DGP Suresh Arora, DGP (Law and Order) Hardeep Dhillon and Additional DGP IPS Sahota, SIT head, inspected the crime site. Commissioner Police Arpit Shukla said, We have formed 10 police teams. CCTV footages along various city routes have been obtained and eyewitness accounts are being collated."

Intelligence sources said the questioning of terrorists arrested in the past one year, including Jagtar Singh Tara and Ramandeep Goldy, suggested that aided by Pakistan's ISI, some separatist groups were trying to regroup.

We strongly suspect the involvement of separatists behind the attack on Gagneja. We have busted more than five modules of these Khalistani groups in the past two years. All of them said the ISI was trying to foment trouble in Punjab by targeting RSS leaders. We had prevented many such attacks," claimed a senior officer.

The police believes the assailants were not sharp shooters and were recent 'recruits'.
Gandhinagar, August 7

Vijay Rupani, the newly elected leader of the Gujarat BJP legislature party, on Sunday took oath as the 16th Chief Minister of Gujarat.

Governor O.P. Kohli administered him the oath of office and secrecy at the Mahatma Mandir. Nitin Patel was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister.

BJP President Amit Shah, veteran L.K. Advani, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and outgoing Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel attended the ceremony.

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Anandiben Patel had earlier resigned as Chief Minister citing her age.

Compared to other contenders for the post, what apparently weighed in favour of the 60-year-old first time MLA Rupani, among other things, is his closeness to BJP chief Amit Shah.

His elevation to the top post is also seen as a recognition of his Jain community, which was recently accorded minority status by the state government.

Rupani, who wields considerable influence in Saurashtra, a politically significant part of Gujarat, celebrated his birthday on August 2 with his wife and son at their house in Rajkot, his native town.

Born in Rangoon (now Yangon, in Myanmar) to Ramniklal Rupani in 1956, he grew up in Rajkot, where he joined the RSS as a school boy. He pursued BA and then LLB.

As the chairman of the state tourism corporation, he headed Khushbu Gujarat Ki campaign to popularise the state as a tourist destination.

As a Rajya Sabha member from 2006-12, he was part of various parliamentary committees on water resources, food, public distribution, public undertaking, among others.

He was appointed as the chairman of the Gujarat Municipal Finance Board in 2013. In October 2014, he won the Assembly bypolls from Rajkot West with a good margin after sitting MLA Vajubhai Vala resigned following his appointment as the Governor of Karnataka.

On February 19, Rupani became the state BJP chief, replacing R C Faldu. It was seen as a victory for the Amit Shah faction in the partys state unit.

Rupani, who served as the Transport Minister in Anandiben Patels Cabinet cut his teeth into politics in his college days when he joined ABVP, and got involved in the students struggle committee during the Navnirman Andolan of the 1970s.

He was among the first to join the students agitation on the call given by Jayprakash Narayan and also spent nearly one year in Bhuj and Bhavnagar jails during the Emergency.

Rupani was elected as Rajkot civic body corporator for the first time in 1987, and was later appointed as the president of the citys BJP unit.

Between 1988 and 1996, he served as the chairman of the Standing Committee of Rajkot Corporation and in 1996-97, he became the Mayor.

His is also recognised for his efforts to develop Rajkot as an industry center in Saurashtra region.

Rupani has the distinction of serving as the state BJPs general secretary four times on the trot. He was also the party spokesperson at the state level. Agencies
Allahabad: A school in Allahabad has refused to allow recital of the national anthem by students and staff members on Independence Day, claiming that its words violated the tenets of Islam. Eight teachers, including the principal, have quit in protest against the diktat. The authorities said a probe had been ordered against MA Convent School and maintained it was not recognised by the Education Department. Zia-ul Haq, the school manager, told the teachers that singing of the national anthem could not be allowed as the phrase Bharat bhagya vidhata went against the tenets of Islam. PTI
Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 7



In a stern message to the Akali Dal, its senior partner in the coalition government in Punjab, the BJP on Sunday asked Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to take very seriously the attack on senior RSS leader Brigadier Jagdish Gagneja.



Talking to The Tribune, senior Punjab leader and Rajya Sabha member Shwait Malik warned that the attack on the leader of a social organisation like the RSS could be an attempt by anti-social elements to destablise the social harmony in the border state of Punjab ahead of the coming Assembly elections.



Malik said the attack on the RSS leader is not a one-off incident. A shooting incident had also taken place outside a RSS shakha in Ludhiana about a month back.



Also, as per Malik, similar incidents were reported before militancy started in Punjab during the 1980s.



Terrorism in the 1980s started with such incidents, which is why the Chief Minister should take the attack very seriously.



He should be extra careful and take stringent action those who are behind this incident. This could be an attempt by anti-social elements to destabilise Punjab ahead of the Assembly polls.



This is an election year and there are many anti-social elements who are aiming to disturb communal harmony in the state, Malik said. Notably, BJP president Amit Shah has left the responsibility of the planning of election strategy to the elder brother Alkali Dal.



But the attack on the senior RSS leader is being taken very seriously by the Central leadership. Brigadier Gagnejas condition remains critical after being shot at in Jalandhar by two bike-borne assailants last evening.
Vishav Bharti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 7

How far is Chandigarh from Mohali? While the maximum distance is 18 km, its 175 km if you go by the official car logbook of Forest Minister Chunni Lal Bhagat.

However, his is not a solitary case. Information obtained recently from the Transport Department by the RTI cell of the Aam Aadmi Party has revealed that it is a common practice among Punjab Cabinet ministers to make unrealistic entries in their logbooks.

As per the information procured under the RTI Act, Bhagat travelled from Chandigarh to Mohali and back on April 5, 2015. As per the logbook, the distance covered was 350 km. For his trip from Jalandhar to Kapurthala and back on April 7, 2015, the distance was shown as 330 km (actually, its 42 km).

The Tribune had earlier reported that Rs 34 lakh was spent in just 18 months (April 2014 to October 2015) on the fuel of Bhagats two official cars, with each car travelling almost 24,000 km in a month.

Irrigation Minister Sharanjit Singh Dhillon travelled on May 5, 2015, from Chandigarh to Mohali and back and his cars logbook showed that the distance covered was 210 km. Two days later, he travelled from Ludhiana to Sahnewal and back. The logbook again recorded 210 km. The Tribune had reported that Rs 29.48 lakh was spent in 18 months on the fuel of Dhillons cars.

On June 28, 2015, Finance Minister PS Dhindsa travelled from Chandigarh to Panchkula, then to Zirakpur and back to Chandigarh and the distance covered was 150 km. For a Chandigarh-Mohali return trip, his logbook recorded 140 km.

On April 1, 2015, Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia travelled from Mohali to Zirakpur and then to Chandigarh and his car covered a distance of 160 km, as per the logbook.

During the one-and-a-half-year period, the Transport Department spent around Rs 16 crore on the fuel bill of the CM, the Deputy CM, other ministers and the 21 CPSes.

AAPs RTI cell co-convener Dinesh Chadha said the distance mismatch pointed towards a scam. He demanded a probe by an independent agency into the plunder of public money.
Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar/Ludhiana, August 7

The condition of Punjabs Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) vice-president Brig Jagdish Gagneja (retd), who was shot at by two bike-borne assailants near Jyoti Chowk here on Saturday evening, is still critical even as he was shifted to DMC Hospital, Ludhiana, on Sunday.

A surgery was conducted on him at Patel Hospital here last night that went on till 3:30 am today. Doctors removed two bullets from his abdomen, while the third one lodged near the liver is yet to be removed. Dr Jaspal Singh, a surgeon from DMC Hospital (DMCH), Ludhiana, had been called in here for expert help on the instruction of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

Gagneja was accompanied by his wife and two daughters as they reached DMC Hospital. They were received by Phul Chand Jain, district RSS chief.

BJP leaders Satpal Gosain, Kamal Chaitley and Renu Thapar arrived at DMC even as the hospital authorities shut door for mediapersons.

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Gagneja (65), who resides at Deep Nagar here, accompanied by his wife Sudesh Rani to the market in his Maruti Swift car, had stopped along a lane when he was shot at thrice by two masked youths on a motorcycle from close range.

The victims daughter, Ruchi, who resides at Udham Singh Nagar, said, My mother was in the car when the incident took place. She could not spot the assailants and just heard the sound of bullets.

Brig Gagneja had served in Ferozepur as Commander of 7 Artillery Brigade before joining the RSS. He is one of the senior RSS leaders and has served as Prabudh (top ideologue). He has two daughters and a son, Rahul Gagneja, who is presently serving as Major in the Army. He is taken in high esteem by the BJP rank and file.

DGP, SIT team begin investigation

Meanwhile, Hardeep Dhillon, DGP (law and order), and ADGP IPS Sahota, SIT head, on Sunday visited the crime spot at Jyoti Chowk. DGP Dhillon said he would divulge details later.

Arpit Shukla, Commissioner of Police, said, We have formed 10 teams to probe the incident. CCTV footages along the various routes of the city are being scrutinised. All eyewitness accounts are also being collated.

Shukla had told media last night that he had given two security men to Gagneja about two weeks back but he refused.

BJP leaders to meet CM tomorrow

The BJP core committee that met in Jalandhar in the wake of attack on Gagneja has decided to take up the matter with Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in Chandigarh on Monday.

BJP leaders, including Vijay Sampla, Prabhat Jha, Kamal Sharma and all four ministers in the state government, expressed their concern and demanded arrest of those behind attack on Gagneja at the earliest.

All top Punjab BJP leaders, including partys national vice-president Avinash Rai Khanna, state president Vijay Sampla, Minister Anil Joshi, former BJP Punjab chief Kamal Sharma, CPS KD Bhandari and Jalandhar Central MLA Manoranjan Kalia, had arrived at the Jalandhar hospital last night.
Shivani Bhakoo

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, August 7

Brig Jagdish Gagneja (retd), vice-president of Punjab unit of Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, who was shot at in Jalandhar on Saturday, was brought to Hero DMC Heart Institute, Ludhiana, under tight security on Sunday afternoon.

The RSS leader was brought in a well-equipped ambulance. He was accompanied by wife Suresh Gagneja and two daughters in a separate vehicle.

He is being taken care of by a panel of specialists of Hero DMC Heart Institute.

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One of the doctors, tending to the RSS leader, said his condition was critical. We have stitched the stomach at three different places, while small and large intestine have been sewn at five places. There is fluid accumulation in the chest, said the doctor.

Asked if the third bullet was removed from the body (liver), the doctor said it had already done the damage. Whether the bullet was lodged inside the liver or not is not important now, he said. Our main focus is to stabilise the patient as the next 72 hours are very critical, said the doctor. Gagneja is being treated in ICU 2 of the institute.

As soon as the ambulance carrying the RSS leader arrived a huge rush of VVIPs was witnessed outside the main entrance at emergency. One of the daughters of the leader with her eyes moist and hands folded requested those present there to give way so that her father can be taken to doctors at the earliest.

DGP Suresh Arora said the investigation is in progress and nothing more can be said right now.

Brigadier Jagdish Gagneja (retd) was brought to Ludhiana under tight security cover. Even before the ambulance reached the hospital, many BJP and RSS leaders, including RSS district chief Phul Chand Jain, senior BJP leader Renu Thapar, Satpal Gossain, Ravinder Arora, Anil Sarin, Arunesh Mishra and K.D. Bhandari (CPS), were already present outside the emergency gate.

Within few minutes other leaders, including CPS Dr Navjot Sidhu, former minister Jagdish Sahni, Commissioner of Police J.S. Aulakh and Deputy Commissioner Ravi Bhagat also reached the hospital.

CPS Dr Navjot Sidhu said Gagneja is a father figure to her. She said the law and order situation in Punjab has gone out of control. She demanded a probe by CBI into the attack on the RSS leader.

Punjab BJP vice-president Anil Sareen said Gagneja was brought here for removal of the third bullet as his condition was critical. At the same time, his pulse is stable, which is a good indication. People of Punjab should keep their calm and believe in peace, he added.

DGP, SIT team begin investigation

JALANDHAR: Hardeep Dhillon, DGP (law and order), and ADGP IPS Sahota, SIT head, on Sunday visited the crime spot at Jyoti Chowk. DGP Dhillon said he would divulge details later.

Arpit Shukla, Commissioner of Police, said, We have formed 10 teams to probe the incident. CCTV footages along the various routes of the city are being scrutinised. All eyewitness accounts are also being collated. Shukla had told media last night that he had given two security men to Gagneja about two weeks back but he refused.

BJP leaders to meet CM tomorrow

The BJP core committee that met in Jalandhar in the wake of attack on Gagneja has decided to take up the matter with Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in Chandigarh on Monday.

BJP leaders, including Vijay Sampla, Prabhat Jha, Kamal Sharma and all four ministers in the state government, expressed their concern and demanded arrest of those behind attack on Gagneja at the earliest.

All top Punjab BJP leaders, including partys national vice-president Avinash Rai Khanna, state president Vijay Sampla, Minister Anil Joshi, former BJP Punjab chief Kamal Sharma, CPS KD Bhandari and Jalandhar Central MLA Manoranjan Kalia, had arrived at the Jalandhar hospital last night.

Raising concern over the deteriorating law and order situation in the state, Punjab BJP chief Vijay Sampla said the core committee had earlier also met the Chief Minister and apprised him of the situation, but nothing much has been done till date.

Asked whether the BJP still trusts Punjab Police or will demand a probe by Central agencies into the attack, Sampla said BJPs state unit will wait for the SIT report and if nothing concrete comes out of it in the stipulated time, it may recommend transfer of the case to Central agencies.

The committee will not demand enhanced security for any BJP or RSS leader from the Punjab CM, he added.
Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, August 6

Punjabs Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) vice-president Brig Jagdish Gagneja (retd) was shot at near Jyoti Chowk here late this evening. He was rushed to hospital with three bullet injuries in the abdomen.

Gagneja, who was accompanied by his wife Sudesh, stopped his Maruti Swift car (PB08BG0460) while returning home from the market. As he got out,

he was shot at thrice by two youths on a motorcycle.

Parmod Kanojia, an eyewitness, said the assailants had their faces covered. I raised an alarm and with the help of nearby shopkeepers took the victim to Satyam Hospital where the doctors referred him to Patel Hospital, he said.

The assailants reportedly fired two shots into the air while fleeing to intimidate bystanders.

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Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal condemned the dastardly attack. He directed state DGP Suresh Arora to form a special investigation team (SIT) to track down the attackers. Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal too promised prompt action.

PPCC president Capt Amarinder Singh said, Such attacks do not portend well for Punjab. Such nefarious designs must be nipped in the bud, lest Punjab is pushed into anarchy.

As instructed by the CM, a team of surgeons from Ludhiana arrived at the hospital here. Shocked by the incident, BJP national vice-president Avinash Rai Khanna, state president Vijay Sampla, Local Bodies Minister Anil Joshi, CPSs KD Bhandari and Som Parkash, MLA Manoranjan Kalia and Mayor Sunil Jyoti besides SAD minister Ajit Singh Kohar and former Minister Sarwan Singh Phillaur rushed to the hospital.
Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, August 7

The state government is yet to clear Rs 2,500-crore power subsidy bill of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL).

The state government provides subsidy to agricultural consumers (AP) and below poverty line/reserved category consumers (BPL) to the tune of crores per annum.

From 2010-11 till 2015-16, the PSPCL has supplied subsidised power worth Rs 50,624 crore to the agricultural sector, in addition to Rs 3,561-crore subsidised power to the BPL category consumers.

The government releases money in instalments. At present, the government owes Rs 2,500 crore. While Rs 1,200 crore is old pendency, Rs 500-crore bill is pending towards various government departments, said a senior PSPCL official.

In 2010-11, the government cleared the entire subsidy bill of Rs 3,375 crore, while in 2011-12 against the subsidy bill of Rs 4,188.92 crore the government adjusted Rs 4,182 crore leaving a pending amount of Rs 6.92 crore.

However, in the next fiscal, 2012-13, the subsidy swelled to Rs 5,784.95 crore, while the government cleared only Rs 5,059 crore, leaving a whopping pending sum of Rs 725 crore.

The next fiscal was no different and the subsidy bill swelled to Rs 6,324 crore, while the government adjusted only Rs 4,815 crore. The pending subsidy balance reached Rs 1,509.47 crore. However, in 2014-15 the state government adjusted Rs 4,642 crore against the subsidy bill raised by the PSPCL in which they demanded Rs 4,951 crore, with Rs 309 crore pending towards the government.

In 2015-16, Rs 5,908-crore subsidy bill in various categories was raised and the SAD-BJP government cleared Rs 4,847 crore, with Rs 1,061 crore pending.

When the PSPCL takes loans from financial institutions, a loan guarantee fee is required to be paid by the state government. In certain cases, the government paid the fee and recovered the amount by adjusting against subsidy, said a retired engineer, not wishing to be named.

However, the loans are taken to offset the shortfall in the payment of subsidy, therefore the fee should be paid by the government and not recovered by adjustment against subsidy, he added.

No official from the PSPCL top brass was available for comment.
Washington, August 6

Remembering the victims of the mass shooting at Oak Creek Gurdwara four years ago, the White House has said the US government is committed to protecting all places of worship.

As we mark the four-year anniversary of the tragedy at the Oak Creek Gurdwara, the Obama Administration continues its commitment to protecting all places of worship and religious communities, the White House said in a blog post yesterday.

Four years ago on this day, a white supremacist gunman, Wade Michael Page, went on a shooting rampage at the Oak Creek Gurdwara, killing six Sikhs. The victims included a woman, Paramjit Kaur (41), and five men: Satwant Singh Kaleka (65), the founder of the gurdwara; Prakash Singh (39), a Granthi, Sita Singh (41), Ranjit Singh (49) and Suveg Singh Khattra (84).

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Today, we remember the victims of the attack on the Sikh Gurdwara in Wisconsin and the many people affected by this tragedy, tweeted Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to Obama and Chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls.

In a blog post, the White House said since the Oak Creek tragedy, the Obama administration has taken additional steps to prevent and combat religion-based hate crimes. For example, the FBI now tracks hate crimes against Sikh, Hindu and Arab-American communities and has updated its hate crimes data collection guidelines and training manual accordingly. Additionally, the White House said it has created a Hate Crimes Inter-agency Initiative on the fifth anniversary of the Shepard-Byrd Act to address prevention of and effective responses to hate crimes.

In a statement, Rajwant Singh, chairman of the Sikh Council on Religion and Education, thanked the Obama administration for its steadfast support to the community. They have gone out of their way to express their solidarity with the community during the very difficult time and the subsequent years, he said.  PTI
Matt Payton

A newly discovered letter has revealed Vincent Van Gogh cut off his whole left ear and gave it to a chambermaid, differing from established historical accounts of the incident.

The letter from the troubled artists doctor, Dr Rey, showed a sketch of the mutilated ear and what happened to it.

Art historians had previously thought the post-Impressionist only cut a portion or a lobe of his ear before handing the severed flesh to a prostitute in the Arlesbrothel he was staying in.

Researcher Bernadette Murphy was able, with the help of the letter, to prove the ear was given to a girl called Gabrielle, Telegraph reports.

Gabrielle had been injured as a result of an attack by a ravaged dog and had been working as a cleaner in the brothel to pay off her medical bills.

Nienke Bakker, curator of paintings at the museum, said, The discovery of Dr Reys letter, which is very clear and factual, finally solves the question about which part of his ear he cut off.

It is a very beautiful document, bringing us closer to the doctor who cared for Van Gogh. Louis van Tilborgh, senior researcher and professor of art history at the University of Amsterdam said: It solves a long outstanding question of whether he cut off his ear, only part of his ear or only his lobe.

We now know for sure that it was indeed his whole ear. Its an important document with a lot of emotional value.

Van Gogh committed suicide in 1890 after failing to secure a market for his work  he only ever sold one of more than 900 paintings. The letter, the pistol he used to shoot himself and 25 of his paintings and drawings are to be shown in an exhibition called On The Verge of Insanity.  The Independent
Nirmal Sandhu

Politicians do not listen to economists in general and in Punjab where economic reforms have remained on the periphery, none in the political class is expected to accept advice even if it comes free from an Oxford University professor specialising on reforms, macroeconomics and political economy with two books on India to his credit already.

This is the second book I recommend to chief ministers. Since reading is not an activity that can be easily taken up, they can ask someone to brief them on the books main ideas, if ever they happen to take interest in their own states progress and their own peoples welfare; the first book was Nandan Nilekanis Rebooting India, which explains how high-tech public institutions can deliver citizen-friendly, low-cost solutions to Indias challenges.

Here are some economic ideas which, even if unacceptable to vote-seeking politicians, give an idea to ordinary people what experts think should be done to better their lot. Vijay Joshi is not alone in offering these ideas; he however reinforces their validity with scholarly research. Some are quite simple; even Tota Singh can understand them. It should not be difficult to accept his suggestion that land transfers should be made easy and litigation-free through computerisation of all rural and urban land records. The writer supports the labour law changes that Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat have made to facilitate an easy hiring and firing of industrial workers.

Infrastructure is another key priority of the writer but within this it is the electricity sector that he turns to in detail. He opposes free power to any section of society since it bankrupts electricity discoms and advocates cost-reflective prices, privatisation, competition and improved regulation to rid the power sector of its present mess. Mispricing is also self-evident in the railways and water. Power and water subsidies, he argues, favour the better-off: 85 per cent of water subsidy is given for private taps, where as 60 per cent poor households get water from public taps.

Here is Vijay Joshis forceful plea on subsidies, which politicians can benefit from, or ignore at their own peril: Elimination of all dysfunctional subsidies deserves to be a prime component of an intelligent reform agenda. These subsidies distort efficient resource allocation, give rise to massive leakages to intermediaries and black-market operators, and are regressive in the bargain (i.e. they benefit the relatively rich more than the poor).

Socialist economists and politicians often accuse pro-market, anti-subsidy proponents of being anti-poor. Vijay Joshi suggests social protection which is fiscally affordable, as cost effective as possible and actually benefits the poor. He writes, Rapid growth is pointless unless it is inclusive and widely shared. Social protection schemes that provide a minimum income to citizens, regardless of earning capacity, are institutions that all social democracies should aspire to have.

Nearly half of the countrys workforce and two-thirds of the countrys poor depend on agriculture, which is in perpetual crisis. Joshi has a list of solutions and the boldest is:  dismantle the network of state controls on (the) movement, storage, marketing and processing of produce, activities in which (the) private sector has a comparative advantage.

He makes a suggestion which both the BJP and the pro-farmer Akali Dal rejected when first proposed by the UPA: FDI in multi-brand retail. The writer favours the entry of multinational supermarkets to strengthen Indias supply chain since a third of fruits and vegetables goes waste. He rejects the way trade is done in mandis, saying trade takes place, in practice, through licensed intermediaries who have captured the APMCs in cahoots with local politicians.

By keeping arhtiyas in business, not dismantling the inefficient food procurement, storage and transport chain, disallowing foreign supermarkets, levying hefty taxes on farmers produce and then distributing small amounts at sangat darshan gatherings for political benefit, bankrupting the power system with free supply and not paying for it in time, wasting money on freebies and memorials, which could have been better spent on improving healthcare and rural education; and by putting the Punjab government and its every board and corporation under huge debt and selling off or mortgaging government properties in the pursuit of politics of appeasement, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has not allowed Punjab to recover from the depths it has plumbed under his leadership.

Badal and his team of economic advisers have done in Punjab almost everything that this Oxford Professor disapproves of. Each can form a judgement based on the situation Punjab is in. Either Vijay Joshi does not know his economics despite grabbing a top post at Oxford, or he does not realise how economics and governance can be pursued at the grassroots level by the likes of Badal. And Badal is not alone in ruining his state.
Sumayyah Qureshi

Srinagar resembled a ghost city, blanketed by an elusive calm. There was a stillness in the air, a semblance of peace. Something that could break or erupt anytime. Not a soul seemed to stir anywhere as I sat in my house, curfew-bound for 20 days.

The stillness was broken by occasional barking of dogs or chirping of a bird somewhere and the call for prayer.

A long unending silence pervaded the city as night fell. It seemed as if the city had gone mute. Lanes and by-lanes were empty and houses sitting in rows after rows looked like lifeless, endless blocks of concrete stacked one after another. Main roads remained blocked with rolls of concertina wires and boulders and cement poles closing the entry and exit of some roads.

At some places, stones and broken bricks strewn on streets meant protesters and the security forces had engaged in clashes at this point some time ago.

This was my first visit home in the past 10 months. I was looking forward to celebrate Eid with my parents and meeting friends and extended family.

It was July 8, the second day after Eid, I had gone to the city centre. I often make this journey alone on visits to home. I usually alight from the bus somewhere near Polo Ground and walk till Hari Singh Street, passing by strangers, vendors, auto-rickshaws, honking buses and cars and endless lines of shops. Occasionally, I bump into my teachers, acquaintances and friends. Seeing familiar faces gives me the feeling that "Yes, I am home'. The idea is to have chance meetings, if any, with people I have not met while I have been away.

The usually bustling Lal Chowk, the city's commercial hub, looked refreshing to the eye this time too, the roads seemed wide and clear without rows of traffic, elbowing pedestrians and screaming vendors, which is a rare sight. The decongested look, I was told, by some was made possible after the traffic diversion on Eid.

As people went about their usual business, nobody had an inkling what was in store the next day.

My visit has the same old pattern for the past more than five years since I have been away. It is like a ritual. To meet friends whom I have not seen in as many months, relatives who mostly complain I often give a miss to visit to their place. The visit home also means a walk on the Dal Lake with my mother, cups of tea and coffee and dollops of ice cream with friends. But, this time it was not to be.

When people woke up on the morning of July 9, most were caught unawares by the happenings. They were ordered to sit in the confines of their homes as the government had imposed curfew to stop protests and clashes over the death of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, killed by the security forces in Anantnag district on July 8 evening.

Imposing curfew and restrictions may be a way to maintain law and order when things seem to be going out of control in Kashmir, but it brings unending miseries to its people. Their woes increase manifold.

As we sat caged in our homes and the days of curfew kept on increasing, so did the problems of people. With curfew began the fight for survival as most of the people were running out of basic necessities and there was no way to go out and buy them.

After the initial days of curfew, I stopped counting. Nights seemed to merge into days and days into night. It looked like one was constantly waking and going to sleep. Days passed off without anything worthwhile, life seemed to have no purpose.

For a common Kashmiri, the worry begins when food rations deplete or when life-saving drugs run out. That becomes a major concern. During these days, the only thing my father was concerned about was from where to buy medicines or other essentials like vegetables, bread and milk. The conversation at home, as at other homes, mainly revolved around how and from where to buy stuff for basic needs.

Neighbours, too, complained of non-availability of medicines and many had no cash on hand to buy food as banks stopped loading ATMs.

When mobile phones stop buzzing, internet, cable TV and newspapers are banned by the government, you know you are in Kashmir. What welcomes you are mental, emotional and communication blockades. You are relegated to the dark ages.

As I stayed caged in the four walls of my house, there was nothing much to do. What does one do in present times when your window to the world, the internet, is cut off. One is forced into a very helpless situation. Only then one realises the importance of moving freely, communicating freely and to speak freely when one is robbed of all these privileges.

As I left Srinagar, the only question I was asked was how do you manage in such a situation? To this, I had no answer. May be, we have learned to live in such circumstances. This is not new to us. Kashmir has learned the art of survival in tough times.

But my worries did not end when I left home. These accompanied me to Chandigarh. I had left behind my ailing parents as I had no choice and I do not know how they must be managing now. The problems continue to persist in the Valley which seems to have slipped into an unrelenting unrest.
Abhilasha Ojha

Those who enjoy camping understand the thrill of being quietly but very intimately engaged with nature. Now imagine a setting where your camp is perched in the middle of the ocean so you experience the sheer joy of gazing at the stars even as the moonlight drenches you in its pristine white light. Soothing you further is the calming sound of the waves.

This unusual adventure allows you to experience what is called Sleep on the Reef. Its a two-day encounter with Australias iconic Great Barrier Reef wherein you are nearly 75 km away from land or 40 nautical miles from the shore, with not more than a dozen people on board a pontoon that offers spectacular views  the brightly coloured coral, the reef, the marine life, the azure water and the burnt orange-red skies.

While an adventure like this helps you understand the importance of the Great Barrier Reef, one of the worlds seven wonders, the fact that it is offered nowhere else in the world makes the experience even more awe-inspiring. Arriving at Hamilton Island, one of the largest inhabited islands of Whitsundays, which comprises 74 islands bordered by the Great Barrier Reef, the journey to your sleep experience begins in the morning hours when you take one of the high speed catamarans from the marina that takes you in the middle of the ocean. The waters can be choppy, and its a good idea to pop a pill to avoid sea sickness.

A word about Hamilton Island here: It is spectacular, a piece of heaven thats fallen on earth  surreal, fantastical and dreamlike all at once, its one of those privately owned high-end islands thats dotted with fine dining places, charming resorts, boutiques, art galleries besides, of course, breathtaking views, clean air and bountiful flora and fauna.

Arriving by afternoon on the pontoon, visitors to the reef can enjoy a range of activities, including snorkelling, deep sea diving, scuba diving, semi-submersible rides wherein you sit comfortably in a vessel and see the wonders of the reef. Though one would highly recommend underwater activities to get up, close and personal with the marine life (you dont need to be a certified swimmer for beginner-level scuba-divers and snorkelling), if youre still reluctant, go and check out the viewing deck from where you can see adorable sea turtles, gorgeous corals and myriad of tropical fish varieties. Opting for the scenic helicopter ride is a great experience  the birds eye view of the reef, especially the Heart Reef, is bound to dazzle tourists.

But the piece de resistance of this experience is the overnight stay. By early evening, the crowds leave (peak tourist season can have as many as 250 persons on the reef), leaving only 12 persons to enjoy the overnight journey. This exclusivity makes the encounter with the Great Barrier Reef even more luxurious. The extended number of hours on the pontoon allows one to watch the reefs changing landscape  the flat, brittle and brownishpie crust, as author Elizabeth Kolbert defines it in her book, The Sixth Extinction.

This is exactly why you should opt for the Reef Sleep experience  every moment is a witness to natures wondrous ways. At night, you sleep in what is called a swag  a cozy tent, which has enough for you to move around and sleep on a comfortable mattress. The tents design, with mesh roof and windows allows you, quite literally, to sleep underneath the stars and enjoy the moonlight in the middle of the ocean. The sea breeze gently coaxes you into a calm, deep sleep, and the morning after you find staring at a sunrise most spectacular, most pristine. The reef gradually subsides till it completely submerges underneath the sapphire-shaded water. Opt for this bespoke experience. This is one night of sleep you wont forget in a hurry.
Krishnaraj Iyengar

A short drive from Dublin brings you to a whole new world. Situated in the tranquil County Meath is one of the countrys oldest-known historic treasures. It is a Unesco World Heritage Site and a prehistoric monument about a kilometre from the Boyne river.

The area, known in Gaelic as Bru na Boinneor Palace on the Boyneis a storehouse of tranquility. The river flowing over rocky terrain, the glow cast by the morning sun on the thicket of old trees and bridges and pathways that lead to the historic site are a prelude to the enigma. A tributary of the Boyne, namely the Mattock runs along the northern edge enveloping the Bru na Boinnewith water. The megalithic passage graves of Knowth, Newgrange and Dowth, along with 90 additional monuments, are also present here.

It is believed that the site, a massive mound stretching across an elevated patch of green grass, was built during the Neolithic period, around 2500 BC-3000 BC. It is believed to predate Stonehenge, and even the Egyptian Pyramids. The mound, 76 m wide and 12 m high, contains a stone passage and interior chambers and is ringed by engraved keberstones. It is built by alternating layers of earth and stones with grass growing atop and a newly built facade of quartz stone and large rounded cobbles covering part of its circumference. Surrounding its perimeter are standing stones which are said to be added during the Bronze Age.

An interesting feature of this otherwise simple-looking prehistoric relic is the abstract Neolithic rock art carvings. While many believe that while these were just decorative, archeologists like M.J. OKelly say that they were symbolic as they were placed in areas not easily visible. Experts believe that the megalithic sites of Bru na Boinne have archeo-astronomical significance. While Newgrange and Dowth have winter solstice alignments, Knowth is oriented towards the spring and autumn equinox. The entire layout of Bru na Boinne is said to have astronomical significance reflecting a highly evolved system by the prehistoric inhabitants.

Among the several debated theories about the purpose of this site, is that it either had religious significance where cult rituals related to the dead were performed, or it was an astronomy-based faith that was practiced there. In the main room of the mound, the suns rays were probably captured during the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice, as a ritual. One can catch the sun at dawnshinning along the longpassageway illuminating the inner chamber and its carvings. This lasts for around 17 minutes. Today, visitors are given a re-enactment of the same using electric lights.
We are glad to learn that the University of Cambridge has awarded a research scholarship of 150 a year for one year to Mr Birbal Sahni, second son of our esteemed townsman Rai Sahib Professor Ruchi Ram Sahni of the Government College, Lahore. Mr B Sahni has had a most distinguished career in England. He was awarded an exhibition of 20 for one year which was renewed for a second year. He has also got a first class in the BSc Examination of the London University. The Master of his college and the Professor of botany in the Cambridge University were so well they recommended him to the Government of India for the grant of a special research scholarship of 150, adding at the same time that had funds been available, the university would have granted Mr Sahni the scholarship and the application to the Government of India would not have been necessary.
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, August 7

The Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) has criticised the Harish Rawat government for promoting hemp (bhang) cultivation.

Addressing a press conference at the state BJP headquarters today, BJYM state president Kundan Latwal said, the state government wanted to force the youth of the state into narcotics by promoting hemp cultivation.

Latwal said Uttarakhand was already famous for alcoholism and promoting hemp cultivation would make things worse. It is strange that the Rawat government instead of providing employment to the youth was encouraging villagers to take to hemp cultivation, Latwal said.

The state government had failed to provide jobs to seven per cent of the total unemployed youth, he added.

The BJYM would hold a working committee meeting in Dehradun on August 9 and10 to discuss morchas future strategy in the run up to the 2017 Assembly elections in the state, he added.

The state BJYM would stage the Gehra Dalo Dera Dalo programme in the state from August 17 to August 25, he said, adding that the programme was meant to expose the misdeeds of the Harish Rawat government before the people.
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, August 7

Vinod Chamoli, Mayor of the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC), has accused Chief Minister Harish Rawat of complicating the process of slum regularisation and revival of the Rispana and Bindal river projects in the city. The state government should draft a proposal for giving property rights to slum dwellers, he said at a press conference here today.

Chamoli said the BJP had drafted Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Slum Dwellers Policy during its tenure in 2011 but the current Chief Minister didnt take steps to implement it. The Congress-led state government is playing vote bank politics ahead of the Assembly elections slated for 2017. The government should clear its stand on slum regularisation. They had formed a sub-committee and came up with a notification on slum regularisation and prevention of encroachment. The slums located on private land, riverbeds, drainage and government land will not be eligible for regularisation. But the Harish Rawat government has plans to regularise even those settlements which are situated on riverbeds. The National Green Tribunals directions clearly state that no encroachment should be done on riverbeds, he said.

Chamoli said the state government had identified 6,454 and 2,266 encroachments on Rispana and Bindal riverbeds, respectively, but nothing was done to grant property rights to slum dwellers or to rehabilitate them. He lamented that the state government didnt have exact figures of slum dwellers, despite the fact that surveys were done many times. The government should release funds to make riverbeds encroachment-free in the state, he added.
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, August 7

Torrential rains continued to wreak havoc in different parts of Garhwal and Kumaon divisions today. As many as 340 pilgrims are stranded at Badrinath in Garhwal division.

The State Emergency Operation Centre reports state that the Rishikesh-Badrinath National Highway (NH-58) is closed after a landslide at Lambaggad while 30 other roads are blocked in Chamoli district.

The pilgrims are stranded on the Rishikesh-Kedarnath National Highway (NH-109) due to landslides at Munkotia, Doliyamandir and Gaurikund in Rudraprayag district. Eighteen roads, excluding the Rishikesh-Gangotri National Highway (108) and the Rishikesh-Yamunotri National Highway (94) are closed due to landslides in Uttarkashi district. The district administration is trying to open blocked routes at Gangnani, Helugaud, and Jankichatti, but could not succeed. A total of 27 roads are blocked in Pauri Garhwal district while seven roads are blocked in Almora district. Traffic remained disrupted on 11 roads in Tehri Garhwal district.

The strategically-important Joshimath-Malari highway in Chamoli district bordering China was damaged at Suriathota by landslides triggered by incessant rains. The district administration and Border Road Organisation (BRO) officials struggled to clear debris from the road to restore traffic but could not succeeded due to inclement weather.

Ravi Shankar, Joint Secretary, Disaster Management, said every possible measure would be taken by to open blocked roads in the disaster affected areas of the state. He said additional workforce had been deployed to clear debris from the roads.
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, August 7

Governor KK Paul inaugurated the Baltic Research Centre at Dev Sanskriti Viswa Vidyalaya in Haridwar today.

He highlighted the similarities between the Indian culture and that of Baltic countries. Dr Pranav Pandya of Dev Sanskriti University welcomed the Governor.

He said in the Baltic culture, gods and goddesses of earth and nature are worshipped. The system of worshipping the sacred and eternal fire still continues in these countries. The 14th century ruler of Lithuania, Gediminas, had decreed that Lithuania must be a land of tolerance, the Governor said.

He said the establishment of the Baltic centre would not only strengthen our cultural ties with Baltic countries but also encourage research and explore our heritage, which had remained suppressed, in our country as well as in the Baltic states, due to the colonial administration.

This Baltic centre will help foster and promote joint publications, joint development of learning resources, research activities and exchange of students, he said.

The Governor said the Indian civilisation was the oldest and a continuous one. All others have had gaps, some vanished completely and some revived. But it is the Indian civilisation which is known to be over 5,000 years old. He said the amazing resilience of the Indian civilisation was based on certain eternal truths enunciated in Upanishads which have remained valid at all times.

He said: Vedanta is the culmination of knowledge, the sacred wisdom of the Hindu sages, and the transcendental experience of the seers of truth.

The Governor said India had conveyed the message of peace to the entire humanity and the greatest need today was to establish harmony amongst people of the world and harmonise religion with the modern science. He said Indian culture, since ancient times, had encompassed environmental conservation by encouraging nature-worship and rituals which prevent unbalanced exploitation of environment.
SMA KAZMI

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, August 7

The latest episode of a woman filing a rape case against former Uttarakhand Agriculture Minister Harak Singh Rawat, who had joined the BJP, and then retracting her allegation, indicates that the politics has reached its lowest ebb in the state. The level of fight between two Rawats (read Harish Rawat and Harak Singh Rawat) has reached its nadir.

The woman, who had charged Harak Singh Rawat with fathering her son in 2003, suddenly reappeared in Safdarjung police station in New Delhi and accused him of raping her. While the Delhi police investigated the matter for four days, the woman appeared in a court and in a volte-face retracted her allegation of rape against Harak Singh Rawat. She said she was threatened and pressured by someone from the Chief Ministers office in Dehradun to depose against Harak Rawat.

In this political melodrama, Harak Rawat, who is infamous for controversies involving women, appeared before mediapersons in Dehradun and cried his heart out to prove his innocence. On the other hand, the Chief Ministers office lodged a police case against the woman, who had leveled allegations against it.

Interestingly, all these allegations and counter accusations are part of the political upheaval that started with the defection of nine ruling Congress legislators during the Budget session of the state Assembly on March 18 to dethrone the state government headed by Harish Rawat. Since that fateful incident, the state has seen political upheaval with the imposition of Presidents rule following a sting showing Chief Minister Harish Rawat purportedly talking about buying back the loyalty of the rebel Congress legislators.

The Uttarakhand High Court and the Supreme Court came to the rescue of the state government, quashing Presidents rule and ordering a floor test which Rawat won in May. However, the bad blood between Harish Rawat and Harak Rawat continued with the latter coming up with another sting involving Congress legislator Madan Bisht confiding in him as a friend about the ongoing politics. It is believed that Harak Rawat also played an important role in the sting involving the Chief Minister, which is being investigated by the CBI.

Harish Rawat hit back and ordered reinvestigation of a land deal in which Harak Rawat as Revenue Minister had allegedly usurped nearly 100 bighas of agricultural land in the Sahaspur area of Dehradun district. The matter was investigated by the previous BJP-led state government but nothing had happened. The state government has also started acting in a vengeful manner against rebel legislators who joined the BJP. The government has filed cases against husband of Rekha Arya, a former Congress legislator who crossed over to the BJP during the floor test. Action was also initiated against Pradeep Batra, Roorkee legislator, for the alleged violation of building laws. It is clear that vindictive action by both sides and mudslinging would continue till the next Assembly poll.
London, August 7

The sister of one of Britains six former soldiers jailed in India for carrying unlicensed arms on a ship for anti-piracy security today sought the intervention of new British Prime Minister Theresa May, saying the UK government has abandoned and betrayed them.

Lisa Dunn, the sister of Nick Dunn, expressed concerns that the mens mental state is beginning to deteriorate and called for action to secure their release. Nicks always maintained that he feels abandoned and betrayed by the government and the country that he once served, she told The Guardian.

Now, we have a new government in place I would like to personally reach out to Theresa May, Boris Johnson (foreign secretary) and Sir Alan Duncan (a Foreign Office minister) and respectfully request that they continue to keep this case at the top of their agendas as we have been assured many times previously, she said.

The men among 35 crew members were arrested in 2013 and sentenced by a Tamil Nadu court to five-year jail in January this year for carrying unlicensed firearms. They were held while working for an anti-piracy security firm protecting ships in the Indian Ocean.  PTI
Seoul: South Korea on Sunday rejected Chinas criticism over the planned deployment in the South of a US anti-missile system, saying Beijings failure to curb its ally North Korea had created the situation. Seouls decision to deploy the US system, to counter a growing threat from North Koreas nuclear and missile programmes, threatens to damage relations with Beijing. China has condemned the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence system as a move against its own security interests. AFP

Japan warms up to Emperors abdication

Tokyo: Japanese will tune in to Emperor Akihitos rare video message on Monday following reports that he would abdicate in the next few years, which initially came as shock but was welcomed by many as a deserved rest for the 82-year-old monarch. In the pre-recorded message, Akihito will talk about his duties as a symbol emperor as stipulated by the constitution. He will avoid the explicit expression of abdication, which would involve political and legal procedures that he is not allowed to discuss. AP

Muslim woman sacked for wearing hijab

Washington: A Muslim woman was fired from her job at a dental clinic for wearing a hijab as her employer wanted to keep a neutral environment in office. Najaf Khan, who was hired as a dental assistant at Fair Oaks Dental Care in Fairfax County, Virginia, said she was fired from the job because she wore a Muslim head scarf to work. The clinic owner, Dr Chuck Joo, was quoted as saying that the open display of religion is not allowed at his business because he wants to keep it neutral. PTI

IS group claims Belgium machete attack

Beirut: The Islamic State group claimed responsibility on Sunday for an attack that wounded two policewomen in the Belgian city of Charleroi, saying the machete-wielding assailant was a soldier of the group. Quoting an unidentified source, the IS-linked Amaq Agency said Saturdays attack came in response to calls to target citizens belonging to countries in a US-led coalition bombing IS in Syria and Iraq. AFP
Bangkok, August 7

Thai voters approved a junta-backed constitution in a referendum on Sunday, preliminary results showed, an outcome that paves the way for an election next year but will also require future elected governments to rule on the militarys terms.

Voters handed the junta led by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha a convincing win in its first major popularity test at the ballot box since it seized power in a 2014 coup.

With 94 per cent of the vote counted, early results from the Election Commission showed 61.4 per cent of Thais had voted for the charter, while 37.9 per cent rejected it. Full results are due on Wednesday.

The junta says the constitution is designed to heal more than a decade of divisive politics in Thailand that has dented economic growth and left scores dead in civil unrest.

But Thailands major political parties and critics of the government say the charter will enshrine the militarys political role for years to come.

The win was a blow to the powerful Shinawatra clan and their allies, whose populist politics are reviled by Thailands military-royalist establishment. Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted as Prime Minister in a coup in 2006 and his sister Yinglucks government was toppled by Prayuth in 2014.

The acting head of the Peau Thai Party, which carried Yingluck to power, said Thais may have voted pragmatically for the charter as the fastest route to an election.

The reason most Thais accepted the constitution is because they want to see a general election quickly, Wirot Pao-in told reporters at the Peau Thais Bangkok headquarters on Sunday. "All sides must now help move the country forward." Across town at the United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship group, the tone was less conciliatory.  Reuters
Bangkok/Khon Kaen, Thailand, August 7

Thailand votes on Sunday in a referendum on a new junta-backed constitution that would pave the way for a general election in 2017 but require future governments to rule on the militarys terms.

The referendum is the first major popularity test for the junta led by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who has suppressed political activity during the two years since he seized power in a coup in 2014.

Polls suggest a small lead in favour of accepting the new constitution, but most voters remain undecided. There are 50 million eligible voters and the Election Commission is targeting a turnout of 80 per cent. Preliminary results are expected at around 8.00 pm.

Prayuth has said he would not resign if Thais reject the constitution and that a general election would take place next year no matter what the outcome.

We need to hold a general election in 2017 because that is a promise we made, he said ahead of the vote. There has been no charter that pleases people 100 per cent. Soldiers have toppled governments run by the powerful Shinawatra family twice in over a decade of political tumult in Thailand.

Critics say the charter is the militarys attempt to make good on their failure to banish former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his brand of populism from Thai politics after the coup that removed him in 2006.

While Thaksin lives in self-imposed exile, he retains a strong influence, particularly with his rural support base in the north. His sister Yingluck swept to power with an electoral landslide in 2011.

Thaksin called the charter a folly on Thursday, saying it would perpetuate the juntas power and make it impossible to govern Thailand.

Reuters interviews with senior officers showed the militarys ambition is to make future coups unnecessary through the new charter by weakening political parties and ensuring the military a role in overseeing the countrys economic and political development.

Under the constitution, which would be Thailands 20th since the military abolished an absolute monarchy in 1932, a junta-appointed Senate with seats reserved for military commanders would check the powers of elected lawmakers.

The military wants to conduct state affairs more or less under its supervision, Gothom Arya, director of Mahidol Universitys Research Center for Peace Building and a junta critic, told Reuters.

The stakes are high when Thais vote this time. In the northeastern city of Khon Kaen, a former local leader of the red shirt Shinawatra supporters said the military wins either way on Sunday.

Some people are fed up, said Sabina Shah. Fed up that regardless of whether or not the vote goes through, the junta is here to stay.

The vote comes against the back-drop of concern about the health of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 88. The military has for decades invoked its duty as defender of the deeply revered monarch to justify its interventions in politics.  Reuters
Former TEN presenter Hamish Macdonald is reporting for Foreign Correspondent this week, as he surmises a Republican Party plot to destroy Donald Trumps presidential campaign.

Macdonald had previously presented ABC radio following his time at TEN.

Can Donald Trump be stopped? Will he even make it to election day?

This week Foreign Correspondent takes a warts-and-all journey through the strife now engulfing the Republican Party.

Through backroom deals and convention floor rebellions, Kendal Unruh, a schoolteacher and God-fearing conservative, is taking on the Donald Trump juggernaut, the Republican establishment and the global media.

The most hated woman in America, or the most loved? Someones gotta save the republic, right?  Kendal Unruh, Republican delegate

Unruh is a key player in Never Trump, the rebel movement thats raked in millions of dollars in donations to stymie the presidential nomination of Donald Trump.

At the Republican convention in Cleveland, Ohio, its game on

Its going to be chaos!  Kendal Unruh, Republican delegate

Reporter Hamish Macdonald follows Unruh and her fellow dissidents as they stalk delegates, haggle over rules and crunch numbers over pizza and Coke in late night meetings.

Unruh grew up in a cult and sees Trump as a type of cult leader, a sham conservative who is stealing the Republican Party.

Donald Trump is not a Republican, bottom line. We have no party left if hes our nominee.  Kendal Unruh

Theres just not support for Donald Trump.  Dane Waters, Republican operative, pushing to win delegates a conscience vote for the nominee

The schisms that Trump has opened up in the GOP are laid bare as Foreign Correspondent captures the backroom arm-twisting and double-crossing in the run-up to the final vote for the nominee.

Ill sleep when the revolution is over, right!  Kendal Unruh

9.30pm Tuesday August 9 on ABC.
Seven could be showcasing more of New Zealand in its local dramas.

TV Tonight understands Wanted will be filming part of its second season in the land of the long white cloud.

Producer, co-creator and star Rebecca Gibney is currently in NZ adding picturesque shots to Instagram (below) -a spot of location hunting perhaps? Seven declined to confirm specific details for the next season.

The series, produced by Matchbox Pictures in conjunction with R & R Productions, begins principal photography in late September.

We are beyond excited with the commissioning of the second series of Wanted. Geri (Hakewill, co-star) and I get on like a house on fire so we cant wait to return to life on the run. Shes the perfect partner in crime, she said.

Sevens Head of Drama, Julie McGauran, said: We are delighted to announce the second season of Wanted. Clearly, audiences fell in love with the humour, warmth and sense of adventure that is the heart of the series.

Matchbox Pictures Managing Director, Chris Oliver-Taylor, added: Matchbox is thrilled to be working with R & R and Channel Seven as we continue the journey of Chelsea and Lola into a second season, helping bring to life Rebeccas and Richards amazing characters and story.

Gibneys former Packed to the Rafters co-star Erik Thomson returns in NZ-filmed 800 Words on Tuesday August 23rd.
The upcoming Netflix adaptation of the hit Japanese manga "Death Note" has found their shinigami. The premise of Death Note revolves around a notebook the property of killing those that have their names written on it. The notebook was originally owned by a shinigami who got bored and dropped the notebook into the human world.

Hollywood is full of recognizable faces, but there are the elite few that have both very recognizable faces and voices. Willem Dafoe is one of those recognizable personalities. Having him voice the shinigami, Ryuk would be a treat. Today's generation would remember him for his role as Norman Osborne from the first Sam Raimi Spider-Man movie back in 2002, to which he gave an incredible performance bouncing between two personalities - the mirror scene clearly shows how good he is as an actor, and how powerful his voice is at communicating emotions.

According to Mashable, while also being tied with Warner Bros. and DC's upcoming film "Justice League," Dafoe has sealed the deal to provide the voice of Ryuk for the adaptation of Death Note and will be released next year on Netflix. The internet has made comparisons of the shinigami Ryuk to how Dafoe looks, and the consensus is that the resemblance is quite uncanny. Also based from the past roles that he has played, his presence and acting style could be a good fit for the role of bored shinigami.

Since it was first released in 2003, the popularity of Death Note has led to multiple novel adaptations, an anime series and even a musical.

Variety reports that Adam Wingard, director of the V/H/S horror movie franchise will be helming the film, while Shea Whigham, Margaret Qualley, Nat Wolff and Keith Stanfield joins the cast.

While waiting for Dafoe's appearance on Justice League and his shinigami role in Death Note, fans can see him in his upcoming movie , "Hunter Killer." which is an action thriller based on the 2012 novel "Firing Point" by Don Keith & George Wallace, and directed by Donovan Marsh, to which principal photography of the film had already begun, and with a 2017 release.

Video courtesy of Wochit Entertainment.
In this article people are going to witness at how the newly announced Samsung "Galaxy Note 7" became different to this year's forthcoming "iPhone 7 Plus."

The two phones of the tech giants will be the huge flagship, both physically and metaphorically, of the smartphone market.

Despite of the fact that the official specs for the "iPhone 7 Plus" won't be unleashed until next month, but this smartphones' competition is just hypothetical right now based on the best speculations of the 7 Plus that are available, according to Know Your Mobile.

As for the specs of the "iPhone 7 Plus," it has been claimed that the device will be installed with a new A10 processor and M10 motion-coprocessor. The processor is expected to have a 20% speed bump. But, comparing its blazing fast processors to Samsung "Galaxy Note 7" is yet to be seen.

It's likely that Apple's 7 Plus will talk with excessive pride with 3 gigabyte of RAM, even though the Cupertino based company doesn't like making RAM upgrades every year. Due to the lack of major design changes expected to the "iPhone 7 Plus," the tech company is going to have to add some good internal changes to entice individuals to upgrade.

However, the "Galaxy Note 7" comes with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 processor, 4 gigabyte of RAM, and 64 gigabyte of internal storage. Samsung often varying its storage capacities across markets, so it's not a surprised if international Samsung users got more internal storage with their Note 7, based on the report of The Verge.

The South Korean multinational company has maximized the Note 7 to 5.7-inch screen while keeping the smartphone as small as possible. The Note 7 is a tiny fraction taller compared to Note 5 and another fraction thicker. In width, the tech company has reduced the phablet from 76.1mm to 73.9mm, Forbes reported.

Watch The Video Here:
University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore introduced their most recent invention that will minimize the spread of Zika virus.

Dr. Kathy Neuzil, from the University of Maryland's Center for Vaccine Development, said that this vaccine works by making the human body believe that it is actually a Zika virus. The body will then produce immunity against the said virus.

In order to test the vaccine's safety and effectiveness, dozens of human volunteers are expected to come to Baltimore specifically National Institutes of Health in Bethesda and of Maryland's Center for Vaccine Development to be injected with the vaccine intended to combat the spread of Zika.

These volunteers will then be observed for months for their bodies' response to the vaccine and its possible side effects.A total of 80 people were involved in the first phase of the vaccine trial which is expected to be available for the public in one year time.

As of this moment, there are only three sites in the whole of the US conducting the test of the Zika vaccine on human and University of Maryland School of Medicine is one of them.

Funds from the Congress were released for the first phase of the vaccine trials on a human. However there has been a division inside the Congress over this matter that resulted to the holding up of funds for more of this study, Baltimore TV reported.

Zika virus is spread through the type of mosquito called the Aedes aegypti. It is fatal that it can create severe birth defects when acquired by a woman during pregnancy; abnormal brain formation and microcephaly, a condition wherein an infant's head is unusually small are just some of the possible birth defects that Zika virus can bring.

This illness is characterized by fever, red eyes, joint pains and rashes. Patients in Zika virus affected areas are advised to immediately seek medical attention upon seeing the mentioned symptoms, The Annapolis Patch reported.Watch this video for more of the news.
Apple has finally announced to join the dozens of firm that offer payments to researchers who find critical bugs in their products. In their latest announcement during the BlackHat Security Conference last Thursday in Las Vegas, the tech giant confirmed that an award of $200,000 will be given to researchers who find security threats.

"Bug Bounty" program is popular among tech giants. This program encourages independent researches to join them in finding critical threats and security flaws to their products. Apple has been doing things differently. Before they signed-up for bug-bounty, the company was soliciting security problems report through a tipline but not giving any rewards or appreciation to the researcher.

A computer science professor at John Hopkins University, Matthew Green said in a report of NDTV that it was insult to the intelligence and effort of the researcher to not give rewards, pat in the back is not enough to comment someone for a job well-done.

Apple bug-bounty program will be different from other companies. Instead of opening the program to the public, Apple will be limiting the program to twenty four researchers to avoid low-quality and no value bug reports. As reported by Reuters, Rich Mogull, the Security Analyst said, "Fully open programs can definitely take a lot of resources to manage." However, he declined to say what firms and companies provided the advice.

Most tech giant companies such as AT&T Inc., Google, Facebook Inc., Microsoft Corporation, Yahoo Inc., and TESLA Motors are utilizing the Bug-Bounty program.

Microsoft has given a cash reward of $1.5 million to security researchers since it program launching three years ago with lowest payouts of $100,000 each. Facebook has also paid more than $4 million for five years as rewards for researchers in wide-range vulnerabilities. Just recently, Facebook has reported for giving $10,000 to Finland boy who is 10 years old for his discovery on how to delete comments from Instagram account.
February 3 2016

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde is seeking a developer to take on the former Victoria Hospital site in Glasgows south side following the migration of services to the new Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.The 9.5 acre site which has lain vacant since May 2015 and an application to demolish non-listed buildings on the site on behalf of any future developer has already been approved - subject to a recommendation from Historic Scotland that lime and sand mix mortar be used for sandstone infill where a link corridor to the B-listed gatehouse is severed.Director of facilities and capital planning David Loudon said: The Board commenced marketing the site last October and have had a good response from the development industry. We are in complete agreement with the community that the worst possible outcome would be for this key site to lie vacant and derelict."Commenting on the decision City Design said: It is a great shame that these buildings which, while not listed, do have townscape and historic merit could be lost if this work is progressed within any future development of the site.Several of these buildings incorporate interesting and high quality design and materials and it is unlikely that buildings of this type or quality would be constructed by modern developers.A closing date for bids has been set for 10 March.
Conor McGregor has developed a reputation for speaking his mind in recent years with his mouth his biggest weapon used in the build up to a brawl.

However, the 28-year-old, who is scheduled to fight Nate Diaz at UFC 202, gave his views on the stars of WWE and had a negative stance on the performers. Although he admitted he maintains respect for some of the top names in the company, for the most part he is not a fan of the hard work the superstars give.

McGregor not a fan of WWE

Wrestling as a whole has climbed the stereotype that has hindered its growth for decades with the belief that it is "fake" often being a stumbling block where UFC is currently thriving.

McGregor who prides himself on being a legitimate fighter has been linked with a move to the WWE even as early as this year when his fight with Nate Diaz was postponed. Now it seems that the wrestling promotion is the last place on the Irishman's mind and stepping into the squared circle with those "P*****s" is likely to never happen.

He said on the likelihood of him ever working with the company "I havent really thought about it" he continued "For the most part, those WWE guys are p*****s."

The words from the loudmouth fighter will sting now more than ever as following the Brock Lesnar 'loan' to the MMA promotion it seemed a new wave of fans now understood just how much the wrestler's bodies go through day-in-day-out. The man who has earned the nickname of Notorious has certainly stayed true to this and his comments were not finished.

On Brock Lesnar

The Beast who recently returned to WWE television following his victory over Mark Hunt was expected to have 'bridged the gap' between WWE and UFC.

However the 39-year-old caused outrage when he tested positive for what is believed to be an estrogen blocker will calls for his win over the Samoan to be stricken from the records.

McGregor maintains little respect for the veteran over his actions as but said "fair play" to him for being willing to fight but said "at the end of the day" he was "juiced up to the eyeballs" so how could he "respect that?"

Respect for WWE

Not all was gloom for wrestling fans as the Irishman does maintain respect for some WWE officials.

The fighter who maintains a 19-3 win rate in UFC said he respects the McMahon family extending to Triple H and also Hollywood icon The Rock.

It seems that ESPN's 2015 fighter of the year respects the symbol of money and status based off his comments and with him earning close to $3 million dollars or even more last year that is understandable.
Following last week's episode, it was fair to say that the show was lackluster compared to the previous debut showing of Monday Night Raw.

However, the red brand still put on an interesting show with some very notable takeaways including a possible alliance between Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho, an injury to the member of the new day and SmackDown Live's Randy Orton hitting Brock Lesnar with an RKO; literally out of nowhere.

So with the last week's showing being quite packed with action what does this weeks show have in store for the WWE Universe?

Daniel Bryan appearance

Yes! Yes! and YES! The SmackDown Live general manager Daniel Bryan is scheduled to be on Monday Night Raw possibly to discuss the building friction between The Beast and The Viper.

Mick Foley personally invited the former World Champion to the show with their meeting strictly to discuss business.

Following The Legend Killer's surprise attack on Lesnar and then The Conqueror returning the favor the following night on SmackDown it is clear there is boundaries to be drawn.

Whether the two fan favorites can be civil and discuss their issues remains to be scene but with both men representing both Orton and Lesnar respectively could the two SummerSlam opponents clash once more on Raw?

Rusev, be warned

Last week a United States title match took place between Mark Henry and Rusev, with The Bulgarian Brute winning in relatively easy fashion.

However as the champ cut a vicious promo calling America's Olympic athletes cheats, out came Roman Reigns to defend his nation's pride.

Rusev wanted none of the former Shield member but The Guy had other ideas but the US title holder escaped with little harm, but a big message. The two heavyweights will likely continue their feud to SummerSlam and with The Bulgarian embarrassed last week, revenge should be on his agenda tonight.

JeriK.O.

You heard the name here first! After Chris Jericho took a cheap shot at the expense of Enzo Amore last week, he would soon receive his just desserts at the hands of Big Cass.

The 7ft athlete dominated Y2J who stated that he had 'back up' with Tom Phillips questioning who it was it seemed that the 45-year-old was struggling to think of a name. Whether or not Jericho actually had a partner is unknown but regardless Kevin Owens was there to help him out and said "I have your back."

The two Canadians have partnered up before but how far would they be willing to go to defend their fellow countryman?

A New Day has dawned

For over a year The New Day have been the dominators of the tag-team division in WWE but now it seemed their days may be numbered.

The three men are currently a duet as The Club 'took out' Big E last week leaving him seeking medical attention.

The two stables have been feuding for months and do not look like easing up, with Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows still desperate for Tag-Team gold.

Will the two former New Japan Pro Wrestling performers look to take out either Xavier Woods or Kofi Kingston in an effort to weaken the group even more?
WASHINGTON  For more than a decade, I was my brother's financial protector.

And honestly, more than a few times, I wish I hadn't been.

Mitchell suffered severely from epilepsy and, despite his efforts to maintain a job, he couldn't stay employed because his medication didn't completely control his seizures.

We were three years apart and both young adults when I began managing his money. You can imagine that Mitchell didn't want his not-so-older sister telling him what to do with his funds. But I had to.

My brother wasn't good at managing his money.

We fought constantly about my control, but without it, his small Social Security disability checks would vanish before he could buy the things he needed. We battled once because I took his ATM card. He had spent almost a week's worth of grocery money in fees because he was withdrawing money from machines not owned by his bank.

It took a long time for me to figure out how to help him without making this incredible sweet young man feel like a child. I made a lot of mistakes.

Most of the time I was just winging it. There was no official guardianship order from the court or power-of-attorney document.

Back then, I just stepped in and helped because my aging grandmother Big Mama, who had raised us, said it was my job to manage my brother's money after I graduated from college. Thankfully my brother realized he needed help and allowed me to be his financial manager.

I'm telling you all this because if you are managing someone else's money or property, don't wing it. Get guidance.

I'll help you get started. I've selected a series of "Managing Someone Else's Money" booklets for The Color of Money Book Club this month. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau worked closely with the American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging to create the free guides, which can be downloaded or ordered in bulk or single copies at www.consumerfinance.gov/managing-someone-elses-money. You can also request copies by calling 855-411-2372.

Here are the titles:

n "Managing Someone Else's Money: Help for Agents Under a Power of Attorney."

n "Managing Someone Else's Money: Help for Court-Appointed Guardians of Property and Conservators."

n "Managing Someone Else's Money: Help for Trustees Under a Revocable Living Trust."

n "Managing Someone Else's Money: Help for Representative Payees and VA Fiduciaries." This last one is intended for people named by a government agency to manage someone else's benefits, such as Social Security or veterans' assistance.

The series is meant to assist "good-hearted persons" who aren't specialists in watching over someone's money, Gail Hillebrand, the CFPB's associate director for consumer education and engagement said in an interview.

Although state laws vary, the guides can be used no matter where you live. The agency has produced some state-specific ones, and additional tailored guides are forthcoming. All of them carry a disclaimer because they are not intended to provide legal advice or replace the help you may need from an attorney.

The guide for a power of attorney doesn't tell you how to create the document but rather spells out your responsibilities once a person has given you the legal power to make decisions about his or her money. You should understand that you are being put in a position of trust and that you have certain "fiduciary duties."

As the CFPB points out, you have four basic obligations: Act only in the person's best interest. Manage the money carefully and correctly. Keep the person's money separate from your own. And maintain accurate records.

Crooked fiduciaries won't heed the following advice from the guides, but the rest of you who are put in this position of trust should: "As a fiduciary, you must be trustworthy, honest and act in good faith. If you do not meet these standards, you could be removed as a fiduciary, sued or have to repay money. It is even possible that the police or sheriff could investigate you and you could go to jail. That's why it's always important to remember: It's not your money!"

In marking the CFPB's fifth anniversary, I've been writing about the work it does to assist consumers. Although the guides were produced by the CFPB's Office of Older Americans, they are useful no matter whom you are a fiduciary for. The better informed you are, the better money manager you'll be.

I'll be hosting a chat about this month's selection at noon Eastern on Sept. 1 at washingtonpost.com/discussions. My guest will be Naomi Karp, a senior policy analyst in the Office of Older Americans.

Readers can write to Michelle Singletary c/o The Washington Post, 1301 K St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20071. Her email address is michelle.singletary@washpost.com. Follow her on Twitter (@SingletaryM) or Facebook (www.facebook.com/MichelleSingletary). Comments and questions are welcome, but due to the volume of mail, personal responses may not be possible. Please also note comments or questions may be used in a future column, with the writer's name, unless a specific request to do otherwise is indicated.
JUAN CARLO/THE STAR Steve Ramirez, of Ventura, works security at the Ventura County Fair. This is the third year he's worked this temporary job of 12-hour shifts. For the rest of the year, he's an artist.

SHARE JUAN CARLO/THE STAR Ruthie Baker (from left) and Emily Colon, who lives in Ventura County, work at the Ventura County Fair souvenir shop as Brenda Pietro comes in to see the newest fair T-shirt. Colon has worked temporary jobs at the fair for seven years. She says she enjoys all the people who stop by, especially the children. JUAN CARLO/THE STAR Emily Colon, who lives in Ventura County, works at the souvenir shop just inside the Ventura County Fair entrance. She has been working temporary jobs at the fair for seven years. JUAN CARLO/THE STAR Billy Bennett, of Ventura, cleans the windows of Hot Dog on a Stick at the Ventura County Fair. Bennett has been working at the fair for five years. He said he enjoys selling food to people and squeezing lemons. JUAN CARLO/THE STAR Billy Bennett, of Ventura, cleans the windows of Hot Dog on a Stick at the Ventura County Fair. Bennett has been working at the fair for five years. and squeezing lemons.

By Anne Kallas, Special to The Star

The Ventura County Fair generates about 700 temporary jobs before, during and after its 12-day run that ends Aug. 14.

In addition, several hundred more workers from around Southern California are at the fairgrounds for some or all of that time, working as fair vendors or their suppliers.

Dan Ades, of Chino, and Josh Lee, of Orange, work for Cold Star Ice Co., which provides 65 to 70 tons of ice to the various food concessions at the fair.

"It's kind of fun," said Ades, who travels to fairs throughout Southern California. "There are such great people here, and they all help each other out."

Steve Ramirez, of Ventura, an artist who makes pottery, is back at the fair for a third year working with 159 others hired by fair officials to provide security.

"I'll be working 13 days for 12-hour shifts," Ramirez said before the fair opened Wednesday. "We provide security and customer service. I look forward to the fair every year, especially the families and all the other people who come to the fair."

According to fair spokesman James Lockwood, temporary fair employees include teens working summer jobs, superintendents who receive a small stipend, administrative workers and admission personnel.

Elzie Daniel, small livestock superintendent, has been a paid worker at the fair since 2000 and was a volunteer before that.

"I do it because it really is educating the public, especially the children," Daniel said. "A lot of them have never seen a live chicken or rabbit. While Ventura County has a lot of ag people, there are also city people. I enjoy watching the people have a good time."

At the souvenir booth set up just inside the gates, Emily Colon sorted through boxes of T-shirts and sweatshirts, all with fair-related embellishments.

"I've been working at the fair for seven years at the souvenir shop," she said. "I enjoy it  seeing all of the people, especially the kids."

She said sweatshirt sales are brisk when the temperature falls in the evening.

"At a certain time, we will have a good amount of sales, especially people who have come for concerts," she said.

In addition to its own security team, the Ventura County Fair contracts with the Ventura Police Department for traffic control and additional security. Assistant Police Chief David Wilson said the contract provides up to $199,000 for the police contingent.

He said the Ventura County Fair requires less intervention than it used to.

"When we went as kids 40, 50 years ago, the fair used to have significant problems. There was not a night that went by where there were not gang-related problems," Wilson said. "Now the biggest problems we have usually involve people who have had too much to drink. Occasionally, we'll have groups talking to each other and someone gets upset and there's pushing and shoving."

Wilson said any overtime is spread among the staff.

"Everyone has to pitch in," he said. "We've made a commitment to the fair. In general, the officers know it's part of their job, and they do make time and a half. This can be hard for a lot of officers when they already have to work a lot of hours and want to be home with their families. But other officers, especially the single people, enjoy the extra money."
SHARE CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/VENTURA COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/VENTURA COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT

By Megan Diskin of the Ventura County Star

A 7-year-old Rottweiler was rescued by firefighters after the dog became exhausted during a hike Saturday afternoon in Ojai, officials said.

Crews with the Ventura County Fire Department were called about 12:40 p.m. to help the dog, named Odin, who was out with his owners at Luci's Trailhead on Shelf Road, Andy Martinez, a spokesman for the department.

"He just kind of sat down and said, 'I'm not moving from here. I can't go on,' " Martinez said.

Odin's owners tried to help him, and hikers passing by gave them their water, but the 140-pound dog wouldn't budge, Martinez said. One of his owners went to get help.

Even after firefighters arrived with extra supplies, Odin wouldn't move, so crews had to carry him about a half-mile out of the trail, Martinez said.

Odin and his owners were appreciative of the firefighters' effort, Martinez said.

The dog's owners planned to take him to the veterinarian to get him checked out, Martinez said.

Martinez said hikers should remember to bring enough water for themselves and their pets while hiking.
SHARE Contributed photo Cards in support of Oxnard police officers are filled with messages of thanks and support. Contributed photo Ventura police have received a number of handmade 'thank you' cards.

By John Scheibe of the Ventura County Star

Lately it seems as if it's always police appreciation day, not only in Ventura and Oxnard but also across Ventura County and beyond.

Take Oxnard, where one man recently brought in more than $100 worth of sandwiches for police and those who work alongside them. Another person dropped off 400 Buffalo wings, and a church group left a huge number of oatmeal cookies.

It's not just food.

Supporters also have mailed in checks and cards with heartfelt notes.

"Praying for your continued bravery, levelheadedness, patience and safety," one woman wrote to the Oxnard Police Department.

Crystal Walker, a detective who has worked for the agency for 14 years, called the outpouring of support for police "awesome" in the wake of recent shootings.

"We don't always hear people say 'thank you,' but it's so nice when we do," she said, "especially because of the events that have happened."

Those events include two attacks on police officers in July, one in Dallas that left five officers dead and several more injured, and another one in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 10 days later that left three officers dead.

The killings came amid nationwide protests over the fatal shootings of African-Americans by police.

Oxnard police, in a recent Facebook post, wrote that "the past couple of months have been some of the most trying in our history as a nation."

"Through it all there have been those that have shown their support for law enforcement in the most uplifting ways, from cards to food to social media posts to events, YOU have been there for us," police said on Facebook.

It's the same story in Ventura.

"The community support has been outstanding," said Ashley Bautista, a spokeswoman for the Ventura Police Department.

"Not only have notes been left on patrol cars, but every day, we have folks bringing us boxes of Girl Scout cookies and lots and lots of other things."

The deluge of support has come at a time when a lot of officers have been feeling down, Bautista said, with the shootings and demonstrations raising tensions between many police departments and the communities they patrol.

"There are bad and dangerous things that happen every single day," Bautista said. But the gifts, notes of care and other expressions of caring by the public have "really lifted the spirits of many of our officers."

Many other police departments report similar expressions of public support, especially after the July killings of officers.

Capt. Garo Kuredjian, who has worked for the Ventura County Sheriff's Office for 21 years, agreed that the past several months "have been very difficult."

Kuredjian said they might have been even harder if not for the partnerships the agency has built over the years with residents across the county.

They include the sheriff's Citizen Academy, a 12-week course that provides the public with a look at the county's law enforcement and judicial systems.

Participants visit the county's jail facilities, forensic laboratory and sheriff's training academy, among other activities.

These and other programs are an important part of building understanding and trust between the agency and the public, officials said.
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JUAN CARLO/THE STAR Dominique Martinez, youth advocate at Casa Pacifica Center for Children & Families, runs a meeting where residents discuss their concerns. Martinez says she has not seen her half-brother, who was adopted, in many years.

SHARE CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Dominique Martinez hugs her half-brother Raymond in this undated childhood photograph. JUAN CARLO/THE STAR Dominique Martinez, youth advocate at Casa Pacifica Center for Children & Families, has not seen her half-brother in many years. JUAN CARLO/THE STAR Dominique Martinez runs a meeting for residents of the Casa Pacifica Center for Children & Families. Martinez says she has not seen her half-brother, who was adopted, in many years.

By Kathleen Wilson of the Ventura County Star

Dominique Martinez says she was around 9 and her half-brother was a year younger when she saw him for the last time.

The two children were split briefly into two foster homes, then by adoption when he joined a family who didn't want him in touch with his biological family, Martinez said. She couldn't visit, find out where he was or say goodbye.

The 24-year-old Ventura woman still remembers the loss that occurred more than a decade ago.

"It was hard for me," she said. "I got so tired of dealing with the emotions and crying. It was almost as if I didn't have that sibling because technically, I don't."

Under laws now in force, states must take reasonable steps to place siblings together in foster care or set up frequent visitations unless that would undermine a child's safety or well-being. In practice, though, it appears half or more of siblings in foster care live apart. They have no clear legal right to see siblings who have been adopted, says an advocacy group for foster children.

The California Youth Connection, a group made up of current and former foster youths, is pushing legislation to keep those bonds intact.

VOLUNTARY VISITS

Senate Bill 1060 would require county placement agencies to convene a meeting with the child, the sibling, the prospective adoptive parent and a facilitator to decide whether to enter a voluntary visitation agreement. That would be done after parental rights are terminated and before the adoption is finalized. The bill, which is pending in the Legislature, also would require that the judge considering an adoption petition inquire whether that had been done.

The adoptive and biological parents currently are offered the chance to participate in mediation to work through issues involving siblings. If an agreement is reached, it will be written into court orders regarding the adoption, said Jennie Pittman, a spokeswoman for the Ventura County Human Services Agency.

The bill's requirements for a mediated meeting make it more likely that the adoptive parent would agree, says a professor who has studied the relationships of siblings after adoption.

"How much, I don't know," said Randi Mandelbaum, clinical professor of law at Rutgers University. "It might really help."

Martinez said separation is an issue for siblings across the state who have gone through the foster care system.

"The huge barrier is adoption," she said. "Once the document is signed, it is up to the adoptive parents. We have such a connection to our siblings, even though we don't live with them."

The separations still happen on occasion in Ventura County, but it's not the norm, said Superior Court Judge Tari Cody, who approves adoptions of children removed from their parents' custody.

Adoptions staff members may decide that the goal of placing a particular child in a permanent home takes precedence over placing all siblings together, Pittman said.

"There are multiple factors at play in each child's case that can be very complex, including special needs and large differences in age, but each case is assessed in terms of what would be in the best interest of the child," she said.

If children are separated, social workers and judges encourage sibling visits, but the adoptive parents can refuse, Cody said.

"They are the parents," she said. "Even before adoption, social workers and courts try to encourage it, and it usually does happen."

SIBLING HELP

Siblings can buffer the impact of growing up in troubled homes, according to the Child Welfare Information Gateway, a research source on child abuse and neglect. Studies show siblings living together in foster care were less likely to run away and have academic problems. If placed together throughout foster care, they were more likely to be adopted.

Martinez says she was never adopted, moving through 10 placements in the foster care system from the time she was 6 until she was emancipated at 18. She lives on her own and works as a youth advocate at the Casa Pacifica Centers for Children & Families in Camarillo. But she's never forgotten the boy called Raymond.

When she asked where he went, a therapist said the information was confidential. She complained to foster parents, social workers and therapists, she said, but they could only tell her he had been adopted.

It took years to work through the pain, Martinez said.

"When I got to sixth grade, I told myself to not think about it anymore," she said.

Martinez said she didn't learn until she was 19 that she could initiate a search to find him, but she hasn't.

"I was afraid of the outcome and the emotions of trying to find him and having the door shut in my face. I told myself if he wants to find me, he will find me."

County child welfare officials have no data to show how often children are separated after adoption, but it's relatively common while they are in foster care.

In Ventura County, about half of the 1,000 children in foster care in the county are placed in homes with all their siblings. About a third have no sibling with them. Nationally, Mandelbaum found just 40 percent of foster children are placed with siblings.

SPLIT BY SPACE

County social service officials try to keep siblings in the same home, but often can't for multiple reasons, said Judy Webber, who oversees child protection cases.

Most commonly, siblings must be split because foster families lack the space, county officials said. Under state licensing rules, no more than two children are allowed per bedroom, and separate rooms are required for boys and girls over age 4.

Relatives sometimes will take the child to whom they are related, but not half-sisters and brothers. If a child has intensive behavioral or medical needs, siblings may be placed elsewhere so they can get adequate attention. Rarely, youngsters must be separated because one will abuse the other physically or sexually.

County officials are focusing new attention on the issue as they ramp up efforts to find foster homes.

"We want 100 percent of those that should be placed together to be placed together," county Human Services Director Barry Zimmerman said. "If we need more foster homes with six bedrooms, that is what we will expand on."

Savanna Torres, 31, of Santa Paula, embraced the chance to keep three brothers together.

For three months, she and her husband, Angel, cared for the trio  ages 1, 2 and 3  along with their own children, ages 4, 9 and 12. They had a vacant bedroom at their comfortable home filled with toys and books, riding cars in the backyard and a heart for the cause.

The boys had been separated briefly after being removed from their parents' home. When they were reunited, the 3-year-old boy screamed and put the 2-year-old in a headlock, she said.

"There was a lot of tears," she said.

Torres urged other families to think about taking siblings.

"If you have the space and heart, do it," she said. "If you don't, you'll never know whose life you could have impacted."
STAR FILE PHOTO A power plant that is being proposed two miles west of Santa Paula was one of several topics at Thursday's forum. Here, people tour the proposed site earlier this year.

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By Claudia Boyd-Barrett, Special to The Star

Shaken by a proposal to build a gas-fired power plant near Santa Paula, community members gathered last week to brainstorm ideas to halt the plan and address other concerns among city residents.

Community organizing group Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, or CAUSE, organized the two-hour meeting Thursday at the Knights of Columbus hall in Santa Paula.

About 30 people attended the event, which focused on three topics: the proposed Calpine Corp. power plant, restoring the Santa Clara River area and allowing public access to it, and increasing funding for youth programs in the city.

Organizers said they hoped to build on the groundswell of public engagement in the power plant issue  which drew more than 300 people to a California Energy Commission meeting last month  and get residents involved in addressing other issues, too.

"There's a lot of concerned citizens," community organizer Aracely Preciado told the gathering. "You guys coming out shows that you guys care. You live in this community, you work in this community. This is your place, this is your home, so obviously anything that happens  you should have a say."

The meeting began with presentations on each of the three topics, led by high-school students from Santa Paula and Oxnard who are participating in a six-week internship program with CAUSE.

Student Maria Elena Terrazas talked about the power plant proposal, and said the planned location near the Santa Clara River would hamper ongoing efforts to restore the area as well as create harmful pollution.

CAUSE organizer Lucia Marquez presented the results of a survey of more than 200 Santa Paula residents showing overwhelming support for creating publicly accessible parkland along the Santa Clara River. Conservation groups and government agencies are already working on a project to create a Santa Clara River Parkway, a protected 25-mile corridor along the river that would include a public trail system.

Student Cytlalli Salgado spoke of a need for more youth programs in the city. She said if voters approve a proposed 1-cent sales tax increase on the November ballot, 20 percent of the money generated should go to youth programs.

Participants then broke into groups to discuss the issues separately, including residents' own ideas on each topic and how to get the attention of decision-makers.

Preciado said the topics chosen for discussion reflected the main concerns CAUSE community organizers have been hearing from residents on the ground.

Longtime Santa Paula resident Macrina Hinojosa, 58, said she heard about the meeting through a friend and attended because she wants to get involved in helping her community. She said she's particularly concerned about a lack of opportunities for youth in Santa Paula.

"I want change in my community. I want there to be resources for kids, for young people.  I don't want there to be so much drug addiction, so many liquor stores near the schools. Something needs to be done," she said in Spanish. "Our community is mostly poor and people who work in the fields and those people are never listened to.  It's time for us to lift ourselves up and speak for those who can't speak or who are too afraid to speak."

Jose Quijas, 60, meanwhile said his main reason for attending the meeting was concern about the power plant.

"Projects like this are not just harmful to the people of Santa Paula but for the world too. Eventually, these projects contaminate the environment which contributes to climate change," he said in Spanish. "It's going to bring health problems to people and also to the animals, the birds and the trees."
SHARE CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/ SIMI VALLEY POLICE DEPARTMENT Tom Carney

By Staff Reports

The Simi Valley Elks Lodge will host a pancake breakfast fundraiser to support officer Tom Carney, who was injured in an on-duty motorcycle crash in June.

The breakfast will be held from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday at 1561 Kuehner Drive and offer pancakes, eggs, sausage or bacon, fruit, bagels & toast, coffee or juice, organizers said. Tickets cost $3 for children and $5 for adults. All proceeds will go to the Simi Valley Police Officers Association.

Carney returned home from the hospital July 22 nearly five weeks after the crash at Tapo Canyon Road and Los Angeles Avenue, Simi Valley police said. He suffered significant injuries that required multiple surgeries, police said.

The Simi Valley community has rallied behind him with other fundraisers, including blood drives. Call 584-1222 for more information about the breakfast.

Tickets for the pancake breakfast are being sold at: Holmes Custom Picture Framing, 2389 Tapo St.; JBS Automotive, 880 Chambers Lane; Best Little Hair House, 2780 Tapo Canyon Road; and Rick's Bicycle Shop, 4210 E. Los Angeles Avenue.
SHARE STAR FILE PHOTO

By Staff Reports

A woman and her dog were fatally struck by a vehicle as they crossed a street Saturday evening in Ventura, officials said.

The crash was reported at 6:22 p.m. at Telephone Road and Ramelli Avenue, Ventura police said.

The woman, described as a Ventura resident in her 70s, was going south on Ramelli Avenue and crossing Telephone Road when a vehicle struck her and her dog in the crosswalk, authorities said. The vehicle, driven by a 25-year-old man, was traveling north on Ramelli and turning onto westbound Telephone when the crash occurred, officials said.

Both the woman and the driver had a green light, police said.

When officers and crews with the city of Ventura Fire Department arrived, the dog was dead in the roadway and the woman was suffering from serious injuries, police said.

The woman was taken to Ventura County Medical Center, where she died from her injuries, authorities said.

The driver of the vehicle remained at the scene, police said. It was not known whether drugs or alcohol were factors in the crash, officials said.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/MARINE APPLIED RESEARCH AND EXPLORATION Go to http://usa.oceana.org/expeditions, to see images, videos and blogs.

By Cheri Carlson of the Ventura County Star

An expedition starts Sunday off the coast of Ventura County and deep beneath the ocean's surface.

A remotely operated vehicle will head into areas that few, if any, have ever explored and transmit high-definition video in real time, said Natasha Benjamin, policy manager at Marine Applied Research and Exploration.

The plan: Show everyone the underwater world off the Channel Islands. Locations range from 30 to 90 miles from the mainland and at depths up to 2,000 feet.

"A huge swath of seafloor off Southern California is largely unexplored," said Ashley Blacow, spokeswoman for Oceana, one of the organizations involved in the project.

The advocacy group hopes to learn about those areas to better protect them and also show the public and policymakers what's down there.

"We recognize that most people don't wake up every morning thinking about the depths of the ocean floor," Blacow said. So the groups plan to share images and video publicly.

"It's not just a sandy, barren bottom," she said. Blacow said to expect brightly colored corals and sponges, habitat that support other species from sea stars to octopuses.

The five-day expedition will include dives inside and outside of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary.

The remote-controlled vehicle will be tethered to a research vessel. Onboard, a pilot and scientist will be watching video from the vehicle in real time, Benjamin said.

She described some of the hard-to-access spots as "pristine underwater wilderness."

"This expedition will bring awareness to these deep unknown places that most people will never get to see," she said.

Online: Visit http://usa.oceana.org/expeditions, to see images, videos and blogs.
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All Americans should be alarmed by Donald Trump confidant Roger Stone's suggestion that Trump claim Hillary Clinton is trying to steal the election.

Asserting there is already "widespread voter fraud," Stone said Trump should say "if there's voter fraud, this election will be illegitimate ... we will have a constitutional crisis, widespread civil disobedience, and the government will no longer be the government." In an interview with the conservative outlet Breitbart, Stone continued: "I think he's got to put them on notice that their inauguration will be a rhetorical, and when I mean civil disobedience, not violence, but it will be a bloodbath."

A bloodbath. Rhetorically speaking, of course.

If you have any doubt that Stone has Trump's ear, two days later Trump said, "I'm afraid the election is going to be rigged," and he went on to warn of voter fraud.

Some are comforted to know this election ends in three months. But a Trump loss in November, which seems increasingly likely, could be only slightly less destructive than a Trump victory. At best, his followers would regard the Clinton administration as illegitimate from Day 1 and use whatever legal means they can to prevent government from functioning. At worst, they will conclude their white-male-dominated America is lost forever and take extralegal measures to protect themselves.

Americans take for granted peaceful transfers of power. But if the losing side declares the government illegitimate and talks of bloodbaths, something else could occur.

Sixteen years ago, after the contentious 2000 recount, Al Gore gave a gracious concession speech that invoked Stephen Douglas' words to Abraham Lincoln: "Partisan feeling must yield to patriotism. I'm with you, Mr. President, and God bless you."

"This is America. Just as we fight hard when the stakes are high, we close ranks and come together when the contest is done," Gore said. "We will stand together behind our new president."

Can anybody imagine Trump saying those words after a Hillary Clinton victory?

Trump's supporters are primed to suspect conspiracy  all the more so now that they see Trump sinking in the polls. At a Trump rally in Virginia this week, after Trump told the crowd, "We're running against a rigged system," the Trump backers I sampled at random all thought the election could be stolen.

Dawn Quires told me FBI director James Comey didn't recommend charges against Clinton because he "doesn't want to get shot in the back like others." James Scarborough said court defeats for voter-ID laws were evidence of a rigged election.

Another fallacy  that the winner is determined by crowd size rather than the 125 million ballots cast  makes Trump backers think a legitimate Clinton victory is impossible. "Trump in trouble? 10,000 people in Jacksonville!!!!" somebody named Eric Swenson emailed me Thursday. "Pathetic media, corrupt to the core."

Mix that paranoia with the propensity for violence seen at Trump events, and you can see where this could go after Nov. 8.

At a Trump rally in Pennsylvania this week, a video posted by PennLive shows Trump supporters shoving, throwing to the ground and bloodying the nose of a demonstrator. Slate's Ben Mathis-Lilley has a tally of 20 violent incidents at Trump events.

Trump has encouraged such activity by offering to pay the legal fees of the violent, by likening demonstrators to terrorists, by suggesting a demonstrator "should have been roughed up" and saying "knock the crap out of them" and "I'd like to punch him in the face," among other things.

Trump has identified Clinton as a criminal and the devil. Would his most ardent backers just possibly assume he would favor violence against a government run by such a person?

The rage will only increase if Trump continues to sink in the polls and  as is his pattern  he continues to get more and more outrageous. "I worry that all he knows how to do is double down," Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, a Republican critic of Trump, told me this week. "They're out of options."

Not entirely out of options. There's still the rhetorical bloodbath. Or worse.

Follow Dana Milbank on Twitter, @Milbank. He writes for The Washington Post Writers Group.
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The following editorial appeared Wednesday in The Sacramento Bee:

In late June, Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford, did something that so many other Republicans have refused to do. He withdrew his initial support of then-presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump.

"I've just been sitting back and watching," the congressman said at a banquet. "I think it's just been the campaign in general." He just couldn't endorse a candidate who "denigrates people based on their ethnicity, religion or disabilities."

To this day, Valadao is one of only a few Republicans who have walked back endorsements of Trump, even though the reasons to do so are multiplying by the day, if not hourly.

Others have dodged questions or just weaseled, issuing statements that condemn Trump's words but uphold their support.

What will it take for rank-and-file Republicans to back away? When will enough be enough?

We're waiting. Because for the past two weeks, the real estate magnate has been on a particularly despicable tear, saying and doing things once unthinkable for a presidential candidate.

There's the Gold Star family he has attacked, cruelly belittling the Muslim parents of an American soldier, Capt. Humayun Khan, who was killed while protecting his soldiers in Iraq.

There's Russia, an adversary that has garnered not only Trump's praise, but his ignorance. His responses to questions about Russia's presence in Ukraine and the threat to neighboring Crimea were at best muddled, at worst dangerous.

And on Tuesday, Trump childishly retaliated against the scorn he's received for those actions. He singled out House Speaker Paul Ryan and Sen. John McCain, both of whom have issued stinging rebukes, saying he won't support them in their upcoming primary elections.

This from the man who wants to be the commander in chief of the U.S. military and leader of the free world. He wants to be the face of the United States  and on Tuesday, he derisively kicked a mother and her baby out of one of his rallies. "I think she really believed me that I love having a baby crying while I'm speaking," he told the crowd.

These aren't minor gaffes. They're character-defining moments that offer a glimpse of a man with poor judgment, questionable moral fiber and zero control of his mouth.

Even Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, has had a tough time defending him. Pence's son is a Marine.

President Barack Obama was right to call out the Republican Party's hypocrisy on Tuesday. Echoing comments from outgoing Rep. Richard Hanna, a Republican from New York, he declared Trump "unfit" and "woefully unprepared to be president."

"There has to be a point at which you say, this is not somebody I can support for president of the United States, even if he purports to be a member of my party," Obama said. "The fact that that has not yet happened makes some of these denunciations ring hollow."

In a response reminiscent of "I'm rubber, you're glue, whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you," Trump declared Obama "is the one who is unfit to be president."

Republicans can't un-nominate Trump, but faced with these cruel antics, they can certainly do more than straddle a fence. This guy's a bully, and being afraid to stand up to him is no badge of honor.


Robert De Niro, actor and partner in Nobu Hospitality, recently visited the rooftop of his Nobu Hotel Caesars Palace where construction for the opulent Nobu Villa is well underway (Pictured: De Niro takes in the breathtaking views from the terrace of the soon-to-open Nobu Nobu Hotel Villa at Caesars Palace, 150 feet above the Las Vegas Strip  Photo:  Erik Kabik / www.ErikKabik.com).

The 10,300-square-foot villa is expected to open early 2014 offering an expansive 4,700 square-foot outdoor terrace overlooking the center of the Las Vegas Strip.

De Niro met with Nobu Hotel General Manager Gigi Vega as they discussed design plans for the space. The actor stopped on the terrace to marvel at the sweeping Strip views, commenting on the 550-foot tall High Roller observation wheel that will also open next year as part of The LINQ. Offering one of the best views in the city, the Nobu Villa will be the site for special events, convention groups and parties.

Rendering credit: Rockwell Group.
In her piece Local View: Its Time to Talk about Real Economic Development in Nebraska, (LJS, July 31) Renee Fry calls income tax cuts a risky distraction that hinders economic growth. She blames budget shortfalls on tax cuts, attempting to argue that better jobs can be created without decreasing regulation. Opponents of cutting state income tax often argue that lower taxes hurt things like education, police, the poor, highways and so forth. This, however, is not the case.

By creating a business friendly environment, an income tax free state is essentially a beacon for growth. Population growth differences among states are the key metrics on which tax policies have an impact. Ignoring population growth differences among states when looking at state economic policy is like doing a study on the causes of lung cancer while not taking into consideration whether people smoke or not. Just as smoking causes lung cancer, higher tax rates cause slower economic and population growth; migration patterns between high income tax states to no income tax states support this.

Low or no state income tax provides a great leap forward for a state's economy. Nebraskas high tax rates are harming the states economic growth. Income tax rates in Nebraska, particularly for individuals and businesses earning more than $30,000, have not meaningfully improved in the last 20 years. According to IRS data, the majority of income lost to out-migration in Nebraska over that time has relocated to Texas, Florida, Arizona and Colorado.

Over the past decade, zero income tax states have far higher population growth  which yields employment growth and income growth  than do the nine highest income tax rate states.

As previously mentioned, data for employment growth is also an important indicator of economic growth. Over the past 10 years, the average equal-weighted nonfarm employment growth for the nine zero-income tax states was 7.2 percentage points higher than the average of the nine highest income tax states. State GSP (gross state product, also called state gross domestic product) is another measure of a states economy. Using the GSP measure, you see that the average of the nine zero-income tax states economies grew 62 percent over the past 10 years; the average of the nine highest income tax rate states grew only 46.4 percent.

As for the Oklahoma argument, from 1997 to 2004, prior to Oklahomas income tax rate cut, Oklahomas gross state product grew 43 percent versus U.S. growth of 43 percent. After the states income tax rate cut, from 2004 to 2012, Oklahomas GSP grew by 43 percent, versus U.S. growth of 32 percent. The tax cut helped. Lets look at Texas, which outperformed Oklahoma in the 1997 to 2004 period by 50 percent to 43 percent. After Oklahomas tax cut  over the period of 2004 through 2008  Oklahoma outperformed Texas 36 percent to 34 percent. In the 2008 to 2012 period, Texas once again outperformed Oklahoma by 16 percent to 5 percent. Given these numbers, it looks like Oklahoma needs another tax cut.

Looking at Kansas, more than 10,000 taxpayers moved from Missouri to Kansas in 2013 during the first year of Gov. Sam Brownbacks historic tax cut. Thats a 6.3 percent increase in Missouri-to-Kansas migration over past years. And, as Investors Business Daily reports, Kansas outperformed Missouri and Nebraska over the past three years. Fry claims that academic research does not suggest that tax cuts direct growth. The numbers, however, tell a different story.
Photo shows the memorial area of the late Ho Chi Minh President in Thai Nguyen Provinces inh Hoa District, belonging to the ATK area. A master plan to conserve revolutionary war-zone relics in the ATK area is recently issued by the MoC.-Photo baodansinh.vn

The areas establishment, scheduled to open by 2030, is a part of the inter-provincial master plan of the ATK revolutionary war zone, issued by the Ministry of Construction yesterday.

AKT is the name of the area  including the three provinces of Thai Nguyen, Tuyen Quang and Bac Kan  that late President Ho Chi Minh selected as a safety zone to build a revolutionary base during the Anti-French resistance war (1946-1954).

The area, covering nearly 5,700sq.km, is expected to become the national-level ecotourism, culture and history centre. It is scheduled to attract about 4.5 million tourists when it opens.

Under the master plan, the area is divided into four sub-areas, with the first located in the districts of inh Hoa, ai Tu, Son Duong and part of Cho on. This area will be scheduled to conserve revolutionary war-zone relics, boost the tourism sector and develop a high-quality agriculture sector.

The second sub-area will be constructed in Chiem Hoa District and a part of Cho on to enhance forestry production. The third sub-area, placed in the districts of Son Duong, Yen Son, Phu Luong and ai Tu, is set to promote tea processing for export and the lighting industry. The last sub-area, situated in Tuyen Quang City, is planned to foster service and industry.

Deputy Minister Nguyen inh Toan said the construction of the area is expected to play a key role in socio-economic development for the three provinces by 2030.

To reach these targets, each locality was tasked with actively preparing suitable plans and policies, Toan said.
Mr. Nestor Scherby, Senior Advisor at Vietnam Trade Facilitation Alliance (VTFA), talking about US experience in the implementation of self-certification of origin

Certificate of origin allows exporters to claim for preferential tariff under Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). Traditionally, businesses in Vietnam need to obtain a Certificate of Origin granted by a governments authorised bodies to import and export goods, which is often costly and time-consuming due to rather complicated administrative procedures.

The new procedures outlined by the self-certification of origin mechanism of the TPP would replace the currently-applied Certificate of Origin (CO), and allow qualified businesses to certify their goods by themselves through readily available trade documents.

By far, such an advanced mechanism has only been introduced by the ASEAN self-certification pilot project, which Vietnam have been participating in since 2014. However, ASEAN countries have yet to come to a final agreement to include the procedure as an official commitment in the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement. Due to the strict requirements set by the pilot program, only two exporters, namely Vinamilk and Nestle, have been granted the right of self-certification nationwide.

The implementation of the TPP will give firms better chances to get the self-certification right, said Nguyen The Hoang, head of the exporting department at Regent Garment, a subsidiary of the Hong Kong garment group Crystal, with two manufacturing plants in Hai Duong province.

Hoang assessed that the new procedure would significantly reduce his firms expenditures on acquiring certificates of origin every year.

We expect the annual revenue to grow by 5-10 per cent from the benefits of the TPP, Hoang said optimistically.

In 2015, Hoangs firm exported $330 million worth of goods, of which 80 per cent went to TPP member states.

Le Tuan Khai, export specialist at Garment 10 Corporation, shared that his company will definitely strive to achieve the self-certification rights, given that his firm currently has to apply for about 300 sets of CO per month. In 2015, Garment 10 exported over $105 million in goods value, of which 65 per cent was made up of shipments to TPP member states, including the US and Japan.

Self- certification would save extreme amounts of time and money, Khai viewed.

Thai Nguyen Garment (TNG)s head of export department Nguyen Thi Minh Huong endorsed Khais view, saying that she had never dared hope for such an advanced regulation. TNG exports some $60 million to TPP members every year, accounting for approximately 60 per cent of its total export volume.

Also notably, the implementation of the TPP allows firms to use a granted CO set more than once, as currently regulated, during a period not exceeding 12 months after issuance, as long as later shipments bear similar characteristics as the original one.

This state-of-the-art self-mechanism will facilitate trade and investment among TPP countries, slash administrative procedures saving time and money for both the Government of Vietnam and businesses and eventually enhance the competitiveness of TPP-member states, said Nestor Scherbey, Senior Advisor at Vietnam Trade Facilitation Alliance.

From the viewpoint of customs authorities, deputy head of the Supervision and Control Department under the General Department of Customs Le Thu assessed that the focus of verification will be shifted from pre-clearance to post-clearance, once the new mechanism is applied.

At present, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is co-operating with the USAID GIG Program to convene training workshops for local businesses, in order to introduce the potential benefits of the TPP.

Specialised in rules of origin and self-certification of origin, two parties organised an intensive training course on August 5 and 6 for more than 60 representatives from local and central government bodies and businesses. A second training course on the same topic will be held in Ho Chi Minh City at the end of this month.

The Government of Vietnam and USAID GIG Program are cooperating on a number of other reforms affecting the Vietnamese business community and organizations, to support sustainable, inclusive economic growth in Vietnam.
Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong speaks during a joint press conference with US President Barack Obama as part of a State Visit in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, August 2, 2016. (SAUL LOEB / AFP)

In a Facebook post, Mr Lee outlined what he said were the benefits of the agreement. His statement came in the wake of his official visit earlier in the week to the US, where he and US President Barack Obama made a joint pitch for the ratification of the agreement.

"It is not just about exports but also about imports," Mr Lee's post read. "It will benefit consumers as well as producers. Our people will enjoy a wider range of products, services and opportunities that will improve their livelihoods.

"It also has a strategic dimension. It promotes interdependence instead of rivalry, and ultimately peace instead of war."

Mr Lee also praised Mr Obama, saying he "has been critical in pushing for the TPP". "The deal will not only benefit American workers and businesses," he added.

"It will show clearly that America will stay engaged in the Asia Pacific and deepen ties with its many friends and allies in the region."

The TPP is a pact that aims to foster economic ties between 12 countries in the Asia Pacific region - Singapore, the US, Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Chile and Peru.
WASHINGTON -- Donald Trump, the man who defied every political rule and prevailed to win his party's nomination, last week took on perhaps the most sacred political rule of all: Never attack a Gold Star family. Not just because it alienates a vital constituency but because it reveals a shocking absence of elementary decency and of natural empathy for the most profound of human sorrows -- parental grief.

Why did Trump do it? It wasn't a mistake. It was a revelation. It's that he can't help himself. His governing rule in life is to strike back when attacked, disrespected or even slighted. To understand Trump, you have to grasp the General Theory: He judges every action, every pronouncement, every person by a single criterion -- whether or not it/he is "nice" to Trump.

Vladimir Putin called him brilliant (in fact, he didn't, but that's another matter) and a bromance is born. A "Mexican" judge rules against Trump, which makes him a bad person governed by prejudiced racial instincts.

House Speaker Paul Ryan criticizes Trump's attack on the Gold Star mother -- so Trump mocks Ryan and praises his primary opponent. On what grounds? That the opponent is an experienced legislator? Is a tested leader?

Not at all. He's "a big fan of what I'm saying, big fan," attests Trump.

You're a fan of his, he's a fan of yours. And vice versa. Treat him "unfairly" and you will pay. House speaker, Gold Star mother, it matters not.

Of course we all try to protect our own dignity and command respect. But Trump's hypersensitivity and unedited, untempered Pavlovian responses are, shall we say, unusual in both ferocity and predictability.

This is beyond narcissism. I used to think Trump was an 11-year-old, an undeveloped schoolyard bully. I was off by about 10 years. His needs are more primitive, an infantile hunger for approval and praise, a craving that can never be satisfied. He lives in a cocoon of solipsism where the world outside himself has value -- indeed exists -- only insofar as it sustains and inflates him.

Most politicians seek approval. But Trump lives for the adoration. He doesn't even try to hide it, boasting incessantly about his crowds, his standing ovations, his TV ratings, his poll numbers, his primary victories. The latter are most prized because they offer empirical evidence of how loved and admired he is.

Prized also because, in our politics, success is self-validating. A candidacy that started out as a joke, as a self-aggrandizing exercise in xenophobia, struck a chord in a certain constituency and took off. The joke was on those who believed that he was not a serious man and therefore would not be taken seriously. They -- myself emphatically included -- were wrong.

Winning -- in ratings, polls and primaries -- validated him. Which brought further validation in the form of endorsements from respected and popular Republicans. Chris Christie was first to cross the Rubicon. Ben Carson then offered his blessings, such as they are. Newt Gingrich came aboard to provide intellectual ballast.

Although tepid, the endorsements by Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell were further milestones in the normalization of Trump.

But this may all now be jeopardized by the Gold Star gaffe. (Remember: A gaffe in Washington is when a politician inadvertently reveals the truth, especially about himself.) It has put a severe strain on the patched-over relationship between the candidate and both Republican leadership and Republican regulars.

Trump's greatest success -- normalizing the abnormal -- is beginning to dissipate. When a Pulitzer Prize-winning liberal columnist (Eugene Robinson) and a major conservative foreign policy thinker and former speechwriter for George Shultz under Ronald Reagan (Robert Kagan) simultaneously question Trump's psychological stability, indeed sanity, there's something going on (as Trump would say).

The dynamic of this election is obvious. As in 1980, the status quo candidate for a failed administration is running against an outsider. The stay-the-course candidate plays his/her only available card -- charging that the outsider is dangerously out of the mainstream and temperamentally unfit to command the nation.

In 1980, Reagan had to do just one thing: pass the threshold test for acceptability. He won that election because he did, especially in the debate with Jimmy Carter in which Reagan showed himself to be genial, self-assured and, above all, nonthreatening. You may not like all his policies, but you could safely entrust the nation to him.

Trump badly needs to pass that threshold. If character is destiny, he won't.
Its time for a change: Cara Castronuova on Her Race for District 22 in the NYS Assembly

On Oct. 25, Cara Castronuova, who is vying to unseat longtime Democrat incumbent Michaelle Solages as representative for District 22 in the New York State Assembly, sat down with Vision Times to discuss why voters should vote for her, and not her opponent, in the upcoming election on Nov. 8.
A string of deadly encounters in the past two years between police and African-Americans have made headlines, prompting angry protests and forcing many Americans to confront race relations.

Names of victims, including Michael Brown, Sandra Bland and Eric Garner, have become rallying cries for protesters such as the nationwide movement Black Lives Matter.

Amid the turmoil, African-American journalists have had a difficult juggling act. They have worked to cover the stories while grappling with their own feelings about racial injustice.

At the annual convention for the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists in Washington, reporters shared their feelings about covering news events that resonated with them personally.

Conway Gittens, a reporter with Reuters Television, said he pushed for his organization to cover the case of Sandra Bland, an African-American woman who died in police custody in a Texas jail cell in 2015. Her death ignited a firestorm of protests from people who disputed the official account that her death was a suicide.

'It did weigh on me'

Gittens and colleagues had begun covering the case prior to her death when a video surfaced of her in a physical altercation with police.

After covering Bland's story and her funeral, "it did weigh on me because it was heavy to tell that story and for it to end that way, he said. When I first pitched that story to my editor, I never thought it was going to end with her being dead so it had an emotional toll on me at the end.

That type of emotional investment can make the job of a neutral reporter difficult.

I would try to walk a balanced line, Gittens said. Number one, I am a professional whether I am black, white or Chinese. My goal is to tell the story and to tell the story accurately.

"But then also I bring to the table my culture," he said.

Gittens said it is all about remembering to present the facts so the reader or viewer can make up his or her own mind.

I want the story to be told fairly and I want the story to be told in a way the viewer [cant] say, He's just doing that because he's black. And so that means using the tried-and-true principles of journalism. I stick to them regardless of my color. And tell the story accurately and tell it well and that way the bias is not there," he said.

However, Nichelle Smith, features editor at USA Today Network National News Desk, said that everyone brings biases when covering stories.

The notion that we have been indoctrinated with as journalists in terms of never bringing bias and always being objective, I think that's rather mythical in a way, Smith said. Everybody brings biases.

She said the fact that there is a constant effort among newsrooms to recruit and hire more people of color acknowledges this fact. It shows that people from different backgrounds will view news and report on news differently.

Some newsrooms are going about reporting on situations like these, they have black people there whose talents they can tap, but were not even part of the conversation," Smith said. "So that only adds to the anxiety about the situation at hand and I think it takes away from coverage."

Difficult journey

Farron Salley, a reporter with FOX 23 News in Tulsa, Oklahoma, confronted racial issues when she covered the shooting of an unarmed black man by a reserve deputy in Tulsa.

While subduing the man, the deputy thought he had grabbed his Taser, but he accidentally shot him with a pistol.

The deputy "was not even supposed to be on that case, he was not a full-time sheriff deputy and it led to the sheriff resigning and it just led to some tough questions, Salley said.

Such questions, when asked by media and the public, can only help America move forward, she said.

I believe in our country so much and I believe that the news is helping to make our country a better place, Salley said. And I know that there are things that they may see or hear about that are going on right now are horrific and honestly as an American citizen it is kind of scary. You dont know where the next shooting is going to be or the next bombing or just anything crazy is going to happen.

But Salley emphasized that this turmoil is leading the U.S. to a better place, even if the journey is a difficult one.

When I look back at what happened in the '60s, we ended up passing laws that gave black people the right to vote. So when I look at whats going on now, we are in the midst of our own little revolution, she said. But its something thats happening thats reinvigorating people. And at the end, at least discussions like what we are having right now, I know its going to make us better.

Clinton discussion

Meanwhile, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on Friday held a question-and-answer session with the journalists. It marked the first time she has talked about the challenges she would face leading a country where most Americans don't trust her and how that political problem could impact her future administration.

Clinton also attempted to "clarify and explain" comments she made last week that FBI Director James Comey had said her answers about her email practices were "truthful."

She has claimed she never sent or received anything marked classified on a private email server she used while secretary of state. After an FBI investigation, Comey said seven e-mail chains dealt with matters that were "classified at the Top Secret/Special Access Program level when they were sent and received."

"I may have short-circuited and for that I will try to clarify,'' Clinton said, adding that Comey was speaking solely about her responses in a closed-door FBI interview and not her public comments on the issue, which have included inconsistencies.



The NABJ-NAHJ convention ends Sunday.
A United nations peacekeeper was killed and four others wounded Sunday in northeastern Mali, when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb.

A U.N. statement said the blast occurred in the Kidal region and that all of the victims were from Chad.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in a statement, stressed that attacks targeting U.N. peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law. He also said that attacks on regional peacekeepers "will not weaken the determination of the mission to fully implement its mandate" to monitor a peace deal reached after Islamists sought to seize control of northern Mali in 2012.

A French military intervention later quelled the crisis, clearing the way for U.N. peacekeepers who deployed in July 2013. The mission has since been regularly targeted by Islamists, with a death toll compiled by the French news agency showing 28 people killed so far this year.

The U.N. Security Council earlier this year boosted its peacekeeping force to 15,200 troops and police in the country.
China's air force said Saturday that it has conducted a combat air patrol over disputed areas of the South China Sea to improve its fighting ability.

The announcement comes after Beijing said it wanted to tamp down tensions following its strong rejection of an international tribunal that ruled that its claim to virtually all of the South China Sea has no legal basis.

China refused to take part in the case taken by the Philippines to the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration and continues to assert that islands in the South China Sea are its territory.

The air force didn't say when the exercises took place. Last month, after the July 12 ruling, the air force said that it had conducted patrols over the South China Sea and would make it "a regular practice."

Air force spokesman Senior Col. Shen Jinke said in an online statement that the patrol was "to enhance combat capabilities to deal with various security threats" and to safeguard the country's sovereignty and maritime rights and interests.

Shen said bomber and fighter aircraft, early warning aircraft, reconnaissance planes and planes that can refuel in flight patrolled the airspace around the Spratly Islands, Scarborough Shoal and surrounding areas.

The Spratlys and Scarborough Shoal are claimed by both China and the Philippines. Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam also claim the Spratlys.

Last week, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the U.S., Japan and Australia were "fanning the flames" of regional tensions after they released a joint statement urging China not to construct military outposts or reclaim land in disputed waters.

On Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that "China stands ready to continue its efforts to peacefully resolve relevant disputes in the South China Sea."

Meanwhile, in the Philippines on Saturday, about 300 Vietnamese and Filipino protesters called on China to comply with the decision of the arbitration tribunal in a rally in front of the Chinese Consulate in Manila.

"The more it defies the ruling, the more credibility it loses," Vietnamese protester Nguyen Quoc Giang said.

Former National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said at the rally that Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's government should show more vigor in standing up to China while maintaining trade and diplomatic ties with the Asian economic powerhouse.
Extremely powerful storms have claimed the lives of at least 17 people in the Macedonian capital of Skopje.

At least six people are missing, about 60 others have been hospitalized and about 1,000 have been evacuated.

Health Minister Nikola Todorov said the death toll could rise and the government plans to issue a state of emergency for two weeks in the most affected areas.

Torrential rains and winds exceeding 70 kilometers caused flash floods and landslides Saturday. Meterologists said the average amount of rainfall Skopje receives in August fell in just two hours and 800 lightning strikes were recorded.

Hundreds of homes and vehicles have been destroyed by the floods. Some roads are still blocked and several areas are without electricity.

Mayor Koce Trajanovski described the damage from the storms as "the worst Skopje has ever seen."

The worst hit areas were villages outside of the capital including Aracinovo, Singelic, Smilkovci and Stajkovci..

Police and army helicopters are evacuating people from their homes and searching for others who are missing.

Forecasters predict more rain, and possibly strong winds.

European Union Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn said on Twitter that the European Union is ready to help Macedonia, which is a candidate for membership in the 28 nation bloc.

The last time Skopje experienced disastrous flooding was in 1962, a year before an earthquake almost destroyed the city.
The U.S. Green Party on Saturday officially nominated Massachusetts physician Jill Stein as its presidential candidate and human rights activist Ajamu Baraka as her running mate at its convention in Houston.

Several hundred delegates and supporters cheered as Stein accepted the nomination and went through a list of left-of-center positions the party presents in its platform, including a government payoff of student loan debt, an end to free-trade agreements, and an end to military action in the Middle East.

When Stein criticized Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton for having approved of the Iraq War and military actions carried out by President Barack Obama while she was secretary of state, the crowd chanted, Jill, not Hill.

At a later news conference, VOA asked Stein about Democrats who share her disdain for Clinton but who fear that voting for Stein would help Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump win, which they think would be a disaster for the country.

I would feel horrible if Donald Trump got elected and I would feel horrible if Hillary Clinton got elected. Donald Trump says despicable things and is, no doubt, a danger to humanity, but Hillary Clinton has also done horrible things and is also a danger to humanity," Stein said.

Sanders supporters

She said the Green Party has attracted many of the Democrats who once supported Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic nominee selection process. She said donations to her party had increased dramatically after Sanders endorsed Clinton.

Most independent political analysts see little hope for a Stein victory in the presidential race, noting that the Green Party has not won any federal or state offices in the past and has been successful only in some local races.

Steins only experience in elected office came as a member of the Lexington, Massachusetts, Town Meeting, similar to a city council seat.

But Princeton University professor Cornel West, who had supported Sanders, is now working with Steins campaign. He told VOA that Clinton has not been able to convince him that she would genuinely address the issues that are important to those who backed Sanders.

Each candidate has to make a case and each citizen has to decide, West said, Hillary Clinton cannot make the case that she is fundamentally concerned about democracy in America and that she is fundamentally concerned about accountability of Wall Street.

Low recognition

It remains to be seen, however, how many other former Sanders supporters will support Stein, who faces an uphill battle even to be considered by most voters.

Recent polls have shown that more than 60 percent of Americans have never heard of her. Both the Green Party and the Libertarian Party have sought to be included in the televised presidential debates in September and October, but neither of them has qualified by showing sufficient support in polls.

Both parties filed a lawsuit seeking an open debate, but a federal judge on Friday rejected their plea.

The Green Party has launched some televised ads that may draw interest from voters, and Stein and her running mate are scheduled to appear at a televised town hall meeting on CNN on August 17.

So far, however, polls show the Libertarian Party with about 8 percent support and the Green Party at about 5 percent. Neither party has anything close to the money and national structural resources of the two major parties.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed on Sunday to continue fighting anyone or any power seeking to undermine his government. Addressing millions at a massive rally in Istanbul, he also vowed to root out those involved in last month's failed coup "as well as the powers behind them."

Erdogan spoke from a 60-meter stage draped with huge national flags and images of Turkey's founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

"We will continue on our road in solidarity," he said. "We will love each other not for rank or title, but for Allah." He then told his flag waving audience he would sign any legislation passed by parliament that reactivates the death penalty abolished in 2004 as Turkey lobbied to enter the 28-nation European Union.

The president was flanked by leaders of two main opposition parties. He did not invite the head of the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP).

"July 15 has opened the door for our reconciliation," said Republican People's Party Chairman Kemal Kilicdaroglu. "If we can further this power ... we will all be able to leave our children a great Turkey."

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim prohibited the display of partisan slogans Sunday in an effort to promote unity. "The spirit of one nation, one flag, one homeland and one state will prevail throughout the rally," he said.

An estimated 15,000 police guarded the massive gathering, described by journalists as one of the largest rallies ever in the nation of 75 million people. The site was ringed by anti-aircraft batteries as two helicopters patrolled the scene.

US demonstrations

Turks and Turkish Americans are also demonstrating Sunday on a smaller scale in Washington, D.C., New York City, and Saylorburg, Pennsylvania -- the home of Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, the accused mastermind of the failed coup.

Gulen, who moved to Pennsylvania in the late 1990's, has denied Turkey's claims he was involved and hopes to avoid its efforts to extradite him.

Hundreds of Turkish Americans and American Muslims rallied Sunday in front of the White House to support democracy in Turkey and to condemn the coup. "The Democracy Against Coup" rally was organized by the Turkish American National Steering Committee (TASC), an umbrella organization that represents nearly 150 associations.

Representatives of Turkey's governing AK Party and of the opposition parties CHP and MHP were among the speakers during the rally. Demonstrators urged the Obama administration to extradite Gulen.

VOA spoke with Turkey's Ambassador to the U.S. Serdar Kilic during the rally who thanked the demonstrators for their participation. He also said American officials seem willing to cooperate with Turkey on the extradition request for Gulen. The U.S. has said Turkey needs to follow extradition protocols.

The Turkish government launched an aggressive crackdown after the coup. It has arrested and detained nearly 18,000 people, mostly members of the military, and suspended or dismissed tens of thousands of people, including judges, professors and prosecutors, from government agencies.

The crackdown has prompted some European countries and rights groups to urge restraint. Erdogan has responded with complaints about the lack of Western support for his government for surviving the attempt to oust him.

In an interview Sunday with Russia's state-controlled Tass News Agency, Erdogan said he plans to meet this week with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss bilateral relations.

Tass said the two leaders will meet in Saint Petersburg in an attempt to ease tensions after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet near the Syrian border last November. Russia responded by imposing trade sanctions against Turkey.
Iran has executed a nuclear scientist who was convicted of giving top secret information about Tehran's controversial nuclear program to the United States.

The execution of Shahram Amiri was confirmed Sunday by Iran's official news agency, IRNA. "Through his connection with the United States, Amiri gave vital information about the country to the enemy," said judicial spokesman Gholamhosein Mohseni Ejehi.

Ejehi said a court had sentenced Amiri to death, a sentence that was upheld by Iran's Supreme Court.

Amiri left for Saudi Arabia in 2009 and relocated to the United States a year later. U.S. officials said they paid Amiri about $5 million to leave Iran and provide information about Iran's nuclear program.

A U.S. official said in 2010 that the U.S. received "useful information" from Amiri.

Amiri, a university researcher who worked for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, fled the United States later in 2010 without the money and was welcomed home by Iranian officials as a hero before being arrested. He told Iranian officials he was detained in the United States after being abducted in Saudi Arabia by two U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents.

Iranian officials have contended that its nuclear program was developed for nonviolent purposes. The United States says uranium particles found during an investigation last year at an Iranian military base were probably remains from Iran's secret nuclear weapons program.

Nevertheless, the United States and five other countries reached an agreement last year requiring Iran to limit its nuclear program so that nuclear weapons cannot be developed. In exchange, economic sanctions against Iran were lifted.
Unknown armed men have kidnapped two foreigners, thought to be a U.S. citizen and an Australian, in the Afghan capital, Kabul. The two are believed to be employees of the American University of Afghanistan.

A local police official in the area who requested anonymity told VOA's Afghan service that men disguised in National Security forces uniforms kidnapped the foreigners Sunday night.

The U.S. State Department said in a statement it is "aware of reports of a U.S. citizen kidnapped in Kabul," but did not provide any more information.

Although the identity of foreigners remains unknown they are reportedly doctors working in a nearby hospital.

A U.S. State Department official said "We are aware of reports of a U.S. citizen kidnapped in Kabul. Due to privacy considerations, we have no information to offer."
In the early hours of Aug. 9, 1984 Kirk Bloodsworths life changed forever. A 22-year-old fisherman and former Marine, he had never been in trouble before. But that morning he woke up to police pounding at his door. Step outside Mr. Bloodsworth, an officer said, youre under arrest for the murder of Dawn Venisha Hamilton.

At trial, five eyewitnesses testified they had seen him with the victim before she went missing. A jury found him guilty and he was sentenced to death. But Kirk Bloodsworth was innocent. After spending nearly a decade in prison, he was finally exonerated with DNA evidence.

How could so many eyewitnesses get it wrong? The bad news is that eyewitness misidentification is all too common; it is the leading contributing factor to wrongful convictions overturned with DNA evidence nationally, having played a role in 71 percent of the 343 such cases. The good news is that the Nebraska law enforcement community and policymakers have worked with the Nebraska Innocence Project to improve eyewitness identification practices so that others dont suffer the same fate as Bloodsworth.

Science has proven that certain techniques reduce the risk of misidentification including: having an independent administrator who is unaware of the suspects identity conduct the lineup, instructing the eyewitness that the real perpetrator may not be present, placing non-suspect fillers in the lineup that match the description of the perpetrator provided by the eyewitness and that do not make the suspect noticeably stand out, and documenting the eyewitnesss level of certainty at the time an identification is made.

Recognizing the importance of protecting the innocent and detecting the actual perpetrators, the Nebraska Commission on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice and the Nebraska Law Enforcement Training Center set up training for officers and distributed materials to help agencies adopt best practices. In addition, Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks of Lincoln authored a law requiring every police and sheriffs department in Nebraska to have a written eyewitness identification policy that includes minimum standards created by the commission.

Last month, the commission approved a protocol, developed by the Attorney Generals Office and Nebraska Innocence Project, which reflects scientifically-based practices. This means that every police and sheriffs department will conduct lineups in a way that prevents mistakes and leads to stronger and more reliable evidence. Nebraska is one of 18 states in the country that has adopted eyewitness identification reforms.

Wrongful convictions like Bloodsworths shed a light on flaws in our criminal justice system. Luckily, we are able to learn from these cases and hopefully make improvements. Law enforcement and elected officials in Nebraska should be commended for leading the way in preventing mistaken witness identification and making our communities safer.
This past June, 30-year-old Mikah Meyer set out from Washington, DC on a roadtrip across America to visit more than 400 sites within the U.S. National Park system. And VOA has been following him as he travels from state to state.

Thanks to the stunning photographs and videos Mikah and his travel companion Andy Waldron have been sending us, we have a virtual front row seat to some of the most amazing land and waterscapes within the U.S. national park system. As one observer recently noted, its almost as good as being there.

Remembering the past to discover the present

Grand Portage National Monument sits along the coastline of Lake Superior in the northeastern corner of Minnesota near the border to Canada.

The park was created to preserve the rich history of the area, once the center of a thriving fur trade, and home -- then and now -- to the indigenous Ojibwe tribe.

At the park's bustling partially-reconstructed fur trade depot, Mikah visited a Native American encampment exhibit.

He was also able to check out a fine collection of birchbark canoes, which were the primary mode of water transportation among Native Americans, and the principal means for shipping pelts to market during the fur trade among both the natives and the Europeans.

Birchbark canoes were resilient and waterproof; qualities that made them an ideal vessel for transporting goods, Mikah remarked.

The perfect partnership

The curious adventurer also got to see -- and touch -- examples of animal pelts that were common during the fur trade.

It was fascinating to feel the different textures, Mikah said. And in learning about the areas history, he commented on how impressed he was by how people from different cultures were able to work together for a common goal.

The French, the British and the Native Americans all worked together to create this economy, he said, adding, This is one of the few stories I've ever heard of Native Americans interacting with the Western Europeans that isn't a tragedy."

The fur trade in North America lasted from the 17th into the 19th century. And while demand for fur in the United States has steadily decreased over the years, it is still a viable trade in other parts of the world.



The Grand Portage National Monument isnt that big, said Mikah. It doesn't take that long to walk around, but the area itself, the bay and the history of the Native Americans and how they used that bay, he says, really adds to the experience.

Heart of the Continent

Mikah spent the last days of July in Minnesota's Voyageurs National Park, a giant peninsula that reaches into Lake Superior. Here, he was able to touch rocks half as old as the world, immerse himself in the sights and sounds of a boreal forest and ply some of the interconnected water routes.

Mikah was struck by the lack of development in the park. So you can go out to this peninsula and there are over 200 islands over one-acre each in size and they have no houses on them, there are no hotels, he said.

This is raw, natural nature as it would have been hundreds of thousands of years ago, as evidenced by the over 50 pairs of nesting bald eagles, he said.

Pure water wilderness

Voyageurs National Park is a good example of what Minnesota would have looked like hundreds of years ago before man messed with it, said Mikah. It was a great opportunity to really experience the pristine water wilderness in the state of Minnesota and a representative of one of America's gorgeous lakes.

In a 2002 study of Voyageurs' fur trade sites and artifacts, archaeologist and historian Douglas A. Birk called this park a place of rare natural beauty, celebrated for its associations with North American Indians and fur traders.

Coming attractions

As August begins, Mikah and Andy are starting their drive across the state of North Dakota, where they plan to visit three national parks.

To follow Mikah and learn more about the places hes traveling to, he invites you to visit him on his website.
The president of the Philippines has released a list of more than 150 judges, mayors, lawmakers and military personnel he says are linked to the illicit drug trade.

Rodrigo Duterte revoked the gun licenses of anyone on the list and advised them to turn themselves in by Monday for an investigation to clear their names.

The controversial leader, in his nationally televised address Sunday, also ordered police and military personnel that had been assigned to protect some of those on the list to withdraw back to their units.

Since Duterte took office at the end of June, his war against drugs have left hundreds of suspected drug dealers dead and thousands more arrested, while hundreds of thousands have turned themselves in to authorities.

Duterte was known for ruthlessly enforcing drug laws when he was mayor of Davao, the second largest Philippine city. He has vowed as president to do the same for the country to deal with the illegal drug trade.

The president said he will take full responsibility if any named on the list turns out to be innocent.

In his inaugural speech on June 30, Duterte pledged to rout corruption and drugs. Using his characteristically sharp language, he also took on the widespread suspicion that he had deployed death squads to enforce order in Davao.

I know that there are some who do not approve of my methods of fighting criminality, drugs and corruption, he said. In response, let me say that I have seen how corruption works. I have seen how illegal drugs ruin individuals and relationshipsI have seen how corruption bled government funds.



As a lawyer and former prosecutor, I know the limits of the powers of the president, he added. You mind your work and I will mind mine. I know what is legal and what is not.



As mayor of Davao for 22 years, the man known for profanity and threats when outraged about an issue, brought down crime by being unpredictable, according to Davao spokesman Leo Villareal in a comment he made when Duterte took office.
Somalia has officially released new poll dates for the 2016 elections.



In a statement, Omar Mohamed Abdulle, chairman of the Somalias election commission announced on Sunday that the countrys 2016 presidential election will take place on October 30.



The commission said the election of 275-member Lower House will be from September 24 to October 10 while the election of Upper House should be completed by September 25.



More than 14,000 delegates representing Somalia clans will cast their votes for members of the Lower House, while the regional states will select the members of the Upper House.



The incumbent Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud is among dozens of candidates vying for the post of president, who will be elected by new lawmakers.

The term of the president expires on September 10, but according to a source, the speaker of parliament has approved a new resolution agreed by the national leaders forum to extend the term for the president until election day in October.
Syrian rebels Sunday broke a three-week government hold on the embattled city of Aleppo, a major military setback for forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.

Rebel forces, including the Levant Conquest Front, formerly al-Qaida's Syrian branch, surged through regime territory, pushing government forces out of military colleges and other locations they had held. The war media arm of Lebanon's Hezbollah, which has been fighting with Syrian forces, acknowledged the rebels' advance on Aleppo's besieged eastern neighborhoods, home to about 250,000 people.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the independent British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the rebel gains were some of the most significant in the five-year-long Syrian conflict.

"Despite more than 600 Russian strikes," he said, "the regime forces were not able to hold on to their positions."

The advance was marked by celebrations among civilians and rebel fighters, but there were fears of food shortages in western areas still held by government forces.

Abdel Rahman said the rebel success in the eastern reaches of Aleppo endangers the estimated 1.2 million people living in districts controlled by the Assad troops.

"The western districts of Aleppo are now besieged," he said. "There are no safe routes for civilians in government-held districts to use to get into or out of the city."

Pope Francis condemned the continued fighting in Syria, saying that "it's unacceptable that so many helpless  including many children must pay the price of the conflict, the price of closed hearts and the lack of desire for peace by the powerful."

He expressed particular concern for the suffering in Aleppo.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is questioning the mental health of his Democratic opponent, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The brash real estate tycoon told a rally in New Hampshire on Saturday, "She is a totally unhinged person. She's unbalanced." Trump mocked her comment that she "short-circuited" in answering a question about her truthfulness in her handling of national security material on the unsecured, private email server she used while she was the country's top diplomat from 2009 to 2013.

Trump told the crowd he has "a winning temperament."

The Clinton campaign, in response, said, "It's unfortunate that Trump's only method of dealing with his own disastrous week is to lash out with more absurd personal attacks."

Saturday was Trump's first visit to the state of New Hampshire since the pivotal Republican primary election there in February, which Trump won by a wide margin. But a poll in the northeastern state last week showed Clinton with a 15-percentage point lead over Trump three months ahead of the national November election to replace President Barack Obama when he leaves office in January.

Clinton widening lead



A new Washington Post-ABC News national poll Sunday showed Clinton with 50 to 42 percent lead over Trump, double the four-point advantage she held in mid-July before both the Republican and Democratic national conventions. The news organizations said, however, that nearly six in 10 voters remain dissatisfied with the choice between Clinton and Trump.

The Boston Globe reported Trump also attended two fundraising events Saturday in Massachusetts, in wealthy resort areas on Nantucket Island and on Cape Cod. Donors were expected to contribute $2,700 or more to attend the gatherings, one of which was at the home of Bill Koch, brother of Charles and David Koch, wealthy long-time donors to Republican causes who have refused to endorse Trump.

Clinton has nothing listed on her public schedule until Monday, when she makes campaign appearances in Florida and New York City.

Endorsements

On Friday, Trump endorsed some of the country's top Republicans running for re-election, as a gesture of party unity after several national surveys showed the billionaire businessman falling behind Clinton.

Trump endorsed the re-election campaigns of House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senators John McCain and Kelly Ayotte. He had delayed giving those three Republicans his public support, in Ryan's case, saying he was "not quite there yet." Trump drew criticism from other high-ranking Republicans for his reluctance to endorse other Republicans who have voiced lukewarm support for his candidacy.

A Reuters/Ipsos survey released late Friday showed Clinton's lead over Trump narrowed to less than three percentage points, a drop from eight points in its previous survey four days earlier. But a McClatchy/Marist poll, showed Clinton widening her lead over Trump to 15 points nationwide, 48 percent to 33 percent. And another poll by Fox News showed Clinton with a 10-point lead.

The nonpartisan website RealClearPolitics.com, which calculates an average of results from multiple opinion polls, reports Clinton has a seven-point lead over Trump, 47.5 percent to 40.5 percent.

The intra-party tensions and Trump's feud with the Muslim parents of a U.S. military officer who was killed in combat in Iraq appeared to have boosted Clinton's standing in the polls in the past week.




It would take two thieves as little as six minutes to steal a car, using a laptop and pirated software. Now they are behind bars, but authorities fear they are not the only ones who have taken advantage of this flaw in the auto industry. Authorities think the two men are responsible for stealing and exporting more than 100 vehicles.

Police in Houston in the southwestern U.S. state of Texas apprehended Michael Arce, 24, and Jesse Zelaya, 22, last week, as they were driving a stolen Jeep Grand Cherokee. They both have criminal records.

Arce and Zelaya favored Jeeps and Dodges, both popular on the black market in Mexico. Both vehicles are manufactured by Fiat Chrysler.

"We're looking at every and all solutions to make sure our customers can safely and without thinking park their vehicles," said Berj Alexanian, a spokesman at Fiat Chrysler's U.S. headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan.

Yoni Heilbronn, a computer security expert, said he foresees more car thefts because of the increasing number of cars being linked to the internet. He said there could come a time when hackers will be able to disable multiple cars at one time. He said the auto industry needs to install multiple layers of defense in their vehicles.

Jim Woods of Houston's police department said authorities are investigating a string of similar car thefts by computer in the states of California and Florida.
This past week, a dispute over the leadership of the Nigerian-based extremist group Boko Haram unfolded in what some say is a sign the six-year insurgency may be coming to an end.



In its weekly online publication, the Islamic State militant group named Abu Musab al-Barnawi as its governor of ISWAP, the Islamic States West Africa Province, otherwise known as Boko Haram.



The group took over IS in 2014 to become the worlds deadliest terrorist group, according to the 2015 Global Terrorism Index, published by the Institute for Economics & Peace.



The article published in Islamic States online magazine didnt explicitly say that al-Barnawi had replaced the bombastic preacher who has lead the group since 2009, Abubakar Shekau, but the implication is crystal clear: IS recognizes al-Barnawi as the leader of Boko Haram.



Al-Barnawi has reportedly released an audio statement attacking Shekau, according to the regional news service Sahara Reporters. In the message, al-Barnawi lambasts Shekau, accusing him of living in luxury while women and children starve.

Shekau comments



A man claiming to be Shekau responded to this so-called attempted coup with a 10-minute audio statement of his own, briefly posted on YouTube before it was taken down. In the statement, Shekau re-asserted his authority over Boko Haram and said that al-Barnawi, a longtime member of the group, is trying to stir up conflict.



I think the [statement] by ISWAP will concern many in London and Washington that the group will increasingly turn to internationalist aims, but Shekaus re-emergence suggests that nothing is ever straightforward, says journalist Andrew Walker and author of Eat the Heart of the Infidel: The Harrowing of Nigeria and the Rise of Boko Haram.



Thats because the Nigerian army has announced before that Shekau was killed and replaced by another Boko Haram member who is using Shekau as a title. Shekau has emerged before to declare he is alive and still in control of the sect.



The man who claimed to be Shekau in this latest audio message spoke in an anxious voice tinged with frustration.



"Of course, hes so confused and its a sign, he [Shekau] was showing sign of weakness, says Khalid Aliyu, the secretary-general of Jamaatu Nasril Islam, an umbrella body of Islamic organizations in Nigeria. I think its a sign of the end of the whole saga - that is one - two, its a sign of a defeat also. Its also a sign of loss of power and control of the insurgency itself, therefore it shows a crack in the organization of the insurgency.



He says Boko Haram has been overpowered by the army. In fact, Boko Haram has lost most of the territory it once held, although it still carries out attacks in northeast Nigeria and across nearby borders.

Power struggle



Aliyu speculates this may be why Islamic State is shifting the power away from Shekau in an attempt to raise the profile of Boko Haram again.



"There will be clash over leadership if it is true that Barnawi is the new leader and Shekau is saying I am still the authority, you know. There will be clashes. They will be fighting each other, says Bulus Mungopark, a member of a Nigerian vigilante group. These groups have been key allies of the Nigerian military, helping to monitor and fight Boko Haram units.



Mungopark says he battled Boko Haram in his hometown of Chibok where Boko Haram kidnapped almost 300 schoolgirls in 2014.





However, just how far a power tussle could go depends on a couple of questionable factors, according to Walker.

A lot depends on if Musab al-Barnawi has won over the core ideologues in the northeast. If what's reported is true and he's the son of Mohammed Yusuf that might be an advantage for him. It will also depend on how serious IS are about supporting their West African allies, explains Walker.



Mungopark refutes rumors that al-Barnawi is the son of Boko Haram founder Mohammed Yusuf, who was killed in police custody in 2009.



"I know Mohammed Yusuf. Very well. And I know his age. So he could not have a son up to the age, he says.



Shekau and al-Barnawi will have to win the hearts and minds of their fighters - the mujahideen, as they call themselves - but the ongoing military offensive by the regional joint task force may have affected the fighters morale.

Surrender, but why?



In April, the Nigerian army announced that nearly 800 sect members had surrendered. The Nigerian government has created a rehabilitation center for former jihadists.



Whether they surrendered because of fatigue or simply because they wanted to rejoin their home communities reveals an underlying sense of disenchantment with the insurgency.



They have said no, you guys just go away were tired, Aliyu says. They are saying we have not seen anything, we have not achieved anything. If for anything we have caused havoc and devastation to our people, our own area. Therefore we tell you to hell with you.



Furthermore, there is still no clarity on the actual level of cooperation between Islamic State and Boko Haram. The Islamic State group accepted Boko Haram's pledge of allegiance last year, shifting away from al-Qaida, but many security analysts say there does not seem to be a coordination of military strategy between the two groups.



Professor Muktar Bunza, a Nigerian historian who has followed Boko Haram, insists the so-called affiliation is nominal.



"From the beginning when Boko Haram pledged their allegiance to IS, I think both Boko Haram and IS, each one of them is looking for recognition, would want to have more followers," Bunza says.



Still, an attempt by Islamic State to reshuffle Boko Haram's leadership could point to deepening operational ties to come.
South African President Jacob Zuma, reeling from historic losses in local elections, said Saturday that voters "are sending out messages all around" and that his ruling African National Congress was "going to listen very, very carefully."

Zuma spoke as vote tallies showed the ANC losing control of the capital, Pretoria, and its majority in the country's largest city and economic center, Johannesburg.

The party of Nelson Mandela already had conceded defeat Friday in Port Elizabeth, losing the key battleground in Wednesday's municipal elections by nearly 7 percentage points.

In the metropolitan area that includes Pretoria, the opposition Democratic Alliance Party won 43.1 percent of the vote while the ANC finished with 41.2 percent.

Surveys showed the ANC still leading nationally with 54 percent of the vote. But that was scant comfort to ANC leaders as vote tallies Saturday in Johannesburg showed the ruling party falling below an outright majority and in need of political allies to retain control of the city.

Zuma has been plagued by political scandal since taking office seven years ago. In one instance, he was found to have used $500,000 of public money to renovate his private home. The country's Constitutional Court has ordered him to repay that sum.

During his rule, unemployment has risen to 27 percent, and economic analysts are predicting zero growth in the country's gross domestic product for 2016.

As Zuma spoke Saturday on national television, four women stood in front of him, carrying signs apparently referring to his acquittal on rape charges in 2006, three years before taking office. Zuma did not appear to respond to the silent protest.

The Democratic Alliance already runs South Africa's second-largest city, Cape Town. Party leader Mmusi Maimane told reporters that the ANC "for far too long had governed South Africa with absolute impunity."

He also warned that the campaign for the presidency in 2019 "starts now."
On Tuesday, the Saline County Board cleared the way for the construction of a wind farm, approving a special permit for the construction of 37 wind turbines that will generate 74 megawatts of power on a farm northeast of Milligan.

Meanwhile, wind power development in Lancaster County has been stifled by restrictive noise limits on the turbines that were designed to, and have been successful in, preventing their placement and use of turbines in the county.

Those restrictions, far more stringent than the levels recommended by the Lincoln-Lancaster County Planning Commission, came as commissioners attempted to mollify acreage owners in the southern part of the county who objected to the wind farm, using the whooshing noise created by the turbine blades as their avenue of attack.

There were, of course, objections to the Saline County project -- the standard litany of complaints about wind farms: the annoyance and possible health impacts of the sound of the blades, decreased property values, despoiling of picturesque views and possible harm to wildlife.

But the Saline commissioners approved the permit for Aksamit Resource Management to build the first of three planned wind farms. The 37 turbines, which will reach 440 feet high, cost $110 million with construction expected to begin after the fall harvest and harvesting of the power likely to start late next year. The company plans to spend another $440 million later to develop another 90-turbine wind farm in Saline County that would generate 300 megawatts and a 40-turbine, 76 megawatt farm in Thayer County.

The first Saline County farm, Aksamit officials say, will generate a combined $700,000 for landowners and local tax revenue, likely a much needed influx of cash for the county.

But building turbines isnt just a matter of economic development. Rather it is implementing an evolving international energy and environmental strategy aimed addressing climate change by reducing to the point of elimination the use of coal-fired power plants to generate electricity.

Those plants, which generate much of the worlds and Nebraskas electricity, should be replaced with renewable energy resources that dont contribute to greenhouse-gas driven global warming and the coming climate crisis that will almost certainly occur if the changes are not made.

With nuclear power largely off the table and few suitable places remaining to develop large-scale hydroelectricity, wind and solar power will be the future energy suppliers -- a future that is coming sooner rather than later and will eventually be set in government policy.

The only question remains is whether that wind power will be generated -- and the economic benefits from it received -- locally or in other county or state. The Lancaster County Boards restrictions shortsightedly ensure the latter.
Gas prices keep on dropping, with the statewide average slipping another 4 cents during the past week, according to AAA Texas and New Mexico.

The auto club said in a press release Thursday that the norm stands at $1.96 a gallon for regular unleaded, down from $2 the previous Thursday and 49 cents less per gallon than last year. Of the major metropolitan areas surveyed in the Lone Star State, drivers in El Paso were paying the most on average at $2.09 per gallon, while drivers in Amarillo were paying the least at $1.86 per gallon. The national average for regular unleaded stood at $2.12.

By Saturday, the statewide average had slipped to $1.95, according to GasBuddy.com, which placed the average in Waco at $1.94.

Convenience stores and stations all over Greater Waco are charging in the mid-$1.70s for regular unleaded.

Gas prices across most of the country continue to slide during the peak road-trip season due to abundant supplies, said AAA in its press release Thursday. As of earlier this week, more than 40 percent of gas stations nationwide were selling gasoline for $2 per gallon or less, compared to just a handful at this same time last year.

With gasoline supplies high and oil prices low, pump prices are likely to remain relatively cheap through the remainder of the summer and into the fall.

Riesel Dollar General

The community of Riesel is getting a new Dollar General store at 501 Memorial St., with grand-opening ceremonies set for 8 a.m. Saturday.

The first 50 adult shoppers at the store will receive a $10 Dollar General gift card, and the first 200 will get a tote bag, among other giveaways.

Dollar General is committed to delivering a pleasant shopping experience that includes a convenient location, a wide assortment of merchandise and great prices on quality products, said Dan Nieser, senior vice president of real estate and store development. We hope our Riesel customers will enjoy shopping at Dollar Generals new location.

Traditionally, Dollar General stores employ six to 10 people, depending on need. Those interested in employment may visit www.dollargeneral.com.

Dollar General now operates 12,710 stores in 43 states, and its literacy foundation has donated $120 million in grants to nonprofit groups since 1993.

Waco positive outlook

Waco-based economist Ray Perryman, who analyzes national, state and local economic trends, thinks Greater Waco has a bright long-term future.

The Waco Metropolitan Statistical Area has been experiencing hiring across most industrial sectors and is performing better than most parts of the state, Perryman said in a press release. Waco is benefiting from specialized manufacturing to new real estate developments. In addition, there are very real benefits from being home to Fixer Upper. An estimated 25,000 people are coming to the area each week to visit Magnolia Market, which leads to a notable influx of dollars.

In recent weeks, Magnolia Market at the Silos has been attracting 30,000 to 35,000 visitors a week, according to spokesman Brock Murphy.

As the area becomes more widely known on a national scale, advantages in terms of costs and workforce increase the potential for future economic development, Perryman said.

Perryman predicts the Waco Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes McLennan and Falls counties, will see the addition of 47,700 net new jobs by 2040.

Despite fluctuating business cycles, over the long term, I expect relatively healthy growth for the U.S., Texas and Waco-area economies, Perryman wrote.

East riverwalk project

The city of Waco continues to make Lake Brazos near downtown attractive for visitors and potential lakefront developers.

It is soliciting bids to place a trail along the east bank between Franklin Avenue and Baylor Universitys McLane Stadium. The path for use by pedestrians and bikers will stretch for two-thirds of a mile and include a pedestrian bridge on piers, overhead canopies, lighting, seating and signs.

The company that wins the bid will also be responsible for utilities, grading and drainage, according to the citys parks and recreation department.

Companies wanting to submit a bid may attend a meeting at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Waco Operations Center, 1415 N. Fourth St.

The parks department has estimated the cost of the project at $3.5 million, according to the local office of the Associated General Contractors of America.

Fortune Cookie Express

A sign in front of the building at 723 S. Sixth Street states a new restaurant called Fortune Cookie Express will open there soon.

Work crews were hauling items out of the structure, which is located near the collection of fast-food eateries on South Sixth and South Fifth streets, across Interstate 35 from Baylor University. Several dining establishments have taken a crack at succeeding there, including most recently Tres Mexican Restaurant.

Considering its proximity to the popular Magnolia Market at the Silos, Sixth Street and Webster Avenue, the site likely will get many chances to prove itself.

Dichotomy rum tasting

Dichotomy Coffee & Spirits, 508 Austin Ave., will host a rum tasting between 5 and 7 p.m. Aug. 20, showcasing the product of Waco-based Balcones Distilling, which also produces several types of whiskey.

Called a Rum Flight Night, the occasion will give people a chance to sample the distillerys rum and compare the nuances of batches released in 2013, 2015 and 2016, according to a press release by Dichotomy co-owner Alina Mikos. Any rum left over after the tasting will be sold at the bar after 7 p.m.

Rum Flight Night participants will take home their own Balcones glencairn glass, and Balcones representatives will be present to talk about the rum.
As a Vietnam vet and father of a Bosnia vet, I must ask, "What now?"

I am a Republican but I can't vote for Donald Trump nor can I vote for any office holder who stands with him. I have been married for 40 years; I have a daughter and two granddaughters.

I cannot accept that my party can do no better. Republicans must speak up or I and those like me are lost. Please speak up!

Thomas F. Lincoln, La Platte
A federal judge hearing civil rights lawsuits filed against McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna and others by bikers arrested after the Twin Peaks shootout suggested the bikers criminal cases cant proceed until Reyna is replaced because of a conflict of interest.

U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks made several references during a pretrial conference in Austin that seemed to question whether Reyna, as a defendant in the civil cases, has a financial interest at stake and should be disqualified from prosecuting criminal cases against the bikers.

Fifteen bikers arrested along with more than 160 others after the deadly May 17, 2015, brawl at Twin Peaks have filed lawsuits in Sparks court claiming they unlawfully were arrested and jailed under $1 million bonds with no justification or evidence of wrongdoing.

Eight of the 15 plaintiffs are not among the 154 bikers who have been indicted on identical engaging in organized criminal activity charges, and three of them contend in their lawsuits that they hadnt arrived in Waco yet when the shootout occurred.

Besides Reyna, the civil lawsuits name former Waco Police Chief Brent Stroman, Waco Detective Manuel Chavez and an unknown state trooper as defendants.

Sparks scheduled the status conference after attorneys for the defendants filed motions to stay all proceedings in the civil cases until disposition of the criminal cases, to move the cases from Austin to Waco and, subsequently, to dismiss the suits.

Catch-22 situation

Sparks has not ruled on the motions. While the hearing did not pertain to calls for Reyna to disqualify himself, Sparks initiated the discussion by calling the dilemma a Catch-22 situation.

Thats the reason I called this little powwow, Sparks said, according to a transcript of the June 3 hearing. Here, weve got lawsuits wherein the chief of police, policemen and the district attorney are sued, which would normally mean that I cant do anything in this case until the criminal case is over. And I noticed in the paper where theyre seeking to disqualify the district attorney, but that wont eliminate the problem.

So the criminal case wont be able to proceed because the defendants have a personal interest. I cant proceed because of the criminal case. So if yall have any novel way of trying to break up this logjam, Ill be glad to listen to you, but I dont see anything until the  somebody comes in outside of Waco to prosecute these cases.

Neither Reyna nor Tom Brandt, the attorney who represented him at the hearing, returned phone calls from the Tribune-Herald seeking comment for this story.

Later, the judge asked the lawyers, Now, is it the theory that the special prosecutor will take over entirely the prosecution?

Brandt said he doesnt think so, explaining to the judge that Reyna is being represented by one of his former assistants, Brandon Luce, at a hearing that begins Monday in Wacos 54th State District Court in which two bikers are seeking to disqualify Reyna from prosecuting the cases.

Reyna is opposing the motions.

Sparks recounted a story in which famed Texas trial lawyer Richard Racehorse Haynes disqualified a district attorney in his court because the DA was being sued in civil court.

So he had a pecuniary interest, Sparks said. But these people (Reyna, Stroman and Chavez) have a substantial interest. Theyre being sued in their personal as well as official capacities.

As the discussion progressed, Sparks, speaking of Reyna and whether he would be subject to giving a deposition in the civil case with the criminal cases pending, said, His problem is hes got an interest in the litigation. Hes being sued over here for it.

Dallas attorney Don Tittle, who represents the 15 bikers in Sparks court and who likely will file additional suits on behalf of other bikers, argued against staying the civil suits, saying a number of his clients are not facing pending indictments and it could take years before all the criminal cases are resolved.

Ive never seen a civil case allowed to be tried when the criminal case is pending, particularly when its a criminal case thats had a lot of publicity. And this one has had sufficient publicity, Sparks said.

Waco attorney Charles Olson, who represents Stroman and Chavez, argued that the law is clear that criminal cases take precedence over civil cases.

Its been a year, and yall dont even know who is going to prosecute these cases, which is inexcusable, Sparks said.

Brandt told the judge that all of the 150-something cases Reynas office presented to the grand jury were indicted.

Makes one wonder why they indicted 150 people, the judge said. I dont need a comment on that. Its just so far from all of the experiences Ive had. Its just staggering to think of the problems.

Olson said this week he doesnt recall any comments from Sparks at the hearing that indicated how the judge felt about Reyna being disqualified.

We talked about a lot of different things, Olson said. You have to ask Judge Sparks. I didnt really read anything like that into it. We talked about a lot of issues.

Tittle also declined to comment directly on the judges comments.

If you are asking me personally, unless the county has already told Reyna that they will pay for any jury verdicts against him, then he clearly and without a doubt has a direct financial interest in virtually every (Twin Peaks) case he is prosecuting, Tittle said.

The motions to disqualify Reyna pending in Wacos 54th State District Court were filed by Dallas attorney Clint Broden on behalf of bikers Matthew Clendennen and Burton George Bergman and by Houston attorney Abigail Anastasio, who represents biker Ray Nelson. They allege Reyna should be disqualified because he crossed the line between prosecutor and police officer.

Attorneys motion

Brodens motion alleges that Reyna interjected himself and his staff shortly after the shootout and countermanded the decision by the (Waco police) upper chain of command in an act of political opportunism.

Records filed in the case show Waco police officials had already interviewed, identified and photographed a busload of bikers detained that afternoon and decided to send them home when Reyna and two of his top assistants arrived at the Waco Convention Center, where bikers were being held.

From that point on, almost every biker was jailed under $1 million bonds after Reyna gave orders to arrest anyone with ties to rival biker groups the Bandidos or Cossacks, the motions allege.

Tittle said DAs have immunity from civil lawsuits and it is difficult to disqualify them as long as they remain in their roles as state advocates and prosecute criminal cases in court. Otherwise, any criminal defendant could seek to disqualify a prosecutor merely by filing a civil lawsuit.

The difference here is that immunity is lost when a prosecutor steps into the role of the police, which is basically what Reyna did here, and that is virtually indisputable, Tittle said. Broden said Reyna has painted himself into a corner and now must risk taking the cases to trial for his own financial interests.

It would be inappropriate and presumptuous to comment on the remarks by the federal judge overseeing the civil rights litigation, Broden said. Nevertheless, although it has been reported that Mr. Reyna has called the recusal motion silly, I think it would be obvious to any fair-minded individual that a district attorney who could ultimately be held individually liable for hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more, should not be in charge of the prosecution.

Mr. Reyna filed these wrongful charges based on his own political and monetary self-interests and he owes it to the defendants and the citizens of McLennan County to step aside and let a fair-minded and independent prosecutor take over the case, Broden said.

Anastasio said she is surprised Reyna hasnt already sought a special prosecutor to handle the Twin Peaks cases.

I wasnt in the courtroom when Judge Sparks made those statements. However, I was most certainly made aware of them, Anastasio said. Sparks is a well-respected jurist, and thats very telling. Reynas involvement in the case inherently violates my clients constitutional rights, and I havent met a single person who does not agree. Its common sense. With Reyna and his subordinates on the case, my client cannot receive a fair trial.
Almost three-quarters of a century ago, Waco resident Raymond C. Younger, 92, began what turned into a career with the U.S. Air Force. Its been so long that some details elude him. Yet he recalls his early years in the military.

Born in Port Arthur in 1924, he grew up in Walnut Springs in northern Bosque County during the Great Depression. I knew everybody was poor just like me and my family, he said.

Younger graduated from Walnut Springs High School and went on to attend Clifton Lutheran College before enrolling in the military.

They were offering pilot training school for certain enlisteds and I always wanted to be a pilot. I thought that was a good way to get a pilots license, he said. He joined the Army Aviation Cadet Corps on Oct. 21, 1942, which provided the bulk of pilots, navigators and bombardiers until after the Korean War, when the Air Force began to seek college graduates for those jobs.

Much of Youngers early time in the Army Air Force was spent in training: Wichita Falls for basic, Fort Hays State College in Kansas  where he was in a holding pattern waiting for aviation classes to open up  and pre-flight training in San Antonio at Lackland Air Force Base. In 1942, The Hill was separated from Kelly Field and operated as an independent military installation designated as the San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center.

Younger cant recall where he went to primary flying school, but does know it was a small town in Texas and that it was run by civilians.

Younger attended advanced flying school at Blackland Army Airfield, now the site of Waco Regional Airport. He earned his wings and was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant on April 15, 1943.

Then, it was back to school, this time for B-26 training in Del Rio, followed by combat crew training in Louisiana, probably at Barksdale AFB near Shreveport, which is still in operation. Afterward, Younger traveled by train to New York where he awaited overseas transport.

Slow boat to Europe

He boarded the Queen Mary, one of 16,683 men (a record capacity) bound for Glasgow, a port city on the River Clyde off the western coast of Scotland. He went by rail to Stone, England, where he left on a C-47 Skytrain for an air base in France. His next stop was the war.

I did nothing extraordinary, Younger said.

However, he flew bombing missions.

We checked out in a B-26 and flew with the 9th Air Force, 598th Bombardment Squadron, he said. Today his old outfit is known as the 598th Range Squadron.

Close call ends well

Younger was on a crew that flew missions over Germany, bombing railroads, factories, roads and other strategic targets. They were fired upon by a German anti-aircraft and anti-tank artillery gun. After one run his B-26 was so damaged that he was unable to return to base. He was forced to land in a field outside the border of Germany. No crew members were wounded. The plane landed near the headquarters of Americans who were fighting on the ground, he said.

Ground troops took good care of the six-man crew, feeding them and providing sleeping quarters until a truck arrived to take them back to their base. The B-26 was left in the field where it had come to rest.

Younger flew 26 missions before the war ended. All of his missions were flown over Germany. He was never injured, even though he was shot at countless times.

It was just known they were going to be shooting at us, he said.

One injury he remembers involved his bombardier, who suffered a head wound and never flew again.

When the war ended in Europe, he was on the way to Brussels for rest and relaxation. The streets were so crowded with people celebrating V-E Day that the truck they were traveling in was unable to pass through. We just got out and joined the party, Younger said.

He returned to the States in October 1945.

Younger made a career of the military, spending 22 years in various capacities, including five years in Japan. He eventually transferred to flying KC-97 Stratofreighter refueling planes. He finished up stateside, retiring as a major in the 1960s.

After leaving the Air Force he returned to Texas. He worked at Central Freight Lines in Waco for 21 years.

He married Frances Pauline Jones early in his career; she passed away in 1995. They had two daughters, one of whom died in a car wreck in 1969. He later married Janice Morgan Jones (no relation to Frances), who died in December 2015.

I think I was just about ordinary, Younger said of his time spent with the Air Force.

As if its ordinary to knowingly fly into danger.

Voices of Valor, featuring stories about Central Texas veterans, publishes every Sunday in the Waco Trib. To suggest a story about a Central Texas veteran, email voicesofvalor@wacotrib.com. Voices of Valor is proudly sponsored by Johnson Roofing.
While some laughed at Republican presidential nominee Donald Trumps initial statement about a complete ban of all Muslims coming to America, Muslims should take it seriously. Whatever else Trumps statement might convey about himself, his supporters and the painfully divided Republican Party at present, it should personally challenge everyday Muslims about their faith and role in foreign affairs.

For instance, when do Muslims at local, national and global levels step forward and boldly question rogue interpretations of the Quran and other sources produced by out-of-step Islamic scholars? Why the reticence when such interpretations only feed further misunderstanding among us all?

Poisonous translations of works by Islamic scholars including Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Kathir and Hassan al-Banna (among others) have not been challenged. While their scholarly work merits some appreciation, their innovations, insertions of questionable interpretations and cherry-picking of facts have had and continue to have a negative impact on how Islam is perceived today. Contemporary Muslim scholar Hamza Yusuf writes: This insidious disease has a source and that source must be identified so we can begin to inoculate our communities against it.

Whats perplexing: None of their works ever stated that Islam is not about ruling, dictating and subjugating others. They never stated that the true meaning of Islam is living your life the way you want and letting others live their lives. Instead, their interpretations of Islam infected the true meaning of the religion and what it stands for. They offer a calculated exclusion of the truth. I beg fellow Americans to look beyond this veil.

To fellow Muslims in our community and elsewhere, I add: If you truly care about explaining Islam based on accurate information, not twisted interpretations, then step forward and demonstrate all-American courage in speaking out. Come out from behind the walls of mosques. Get to know the community with all its diverse faiths.

Should self-respecting Muslims these days blame non-Muslims who see Islam as a threat? No, we should not, because there are elements within the Muslim community who say one thing and do another. Some claim to be inclusive, yet deep inside harbor ill feelings toward Christians, Jews and others.

Revel in diversity

Some Muslims, even here in Texas, do not want to interact with Christians. I ask: If you do not care to meet, learn from and befriend Christians and others, then why are you here? If meeting non-Muslims is so bad, why are you living in a predominately Christian nation? How can you have this double-standard that you ignorantly justify in the name of Islam?

Allah  Arabic for God  is no enemy of Christians, Hindus, Jews, gays, Buddhists, atheists, pagans, Shias, Sunnis, Ahmadiyyas and others. Too many Muslims have reduced the universal god of all to a private god owned solely by them and acting solely for them. This is simply wrong and unacceptable. And the consequences lay before us in the daily news of bombings, shootings and friction between the faiths, here in the land of liberty and beyond. Those consequences fuel much of the talk we now hear on the campaign trail.

How can misguided Muslims claim Prophet Muhammad is a mercy to mankind when the likes of Asiya Bibi, Youssef Naderkhani and Lena Joy, among others, have been charged with blasphemy and apostasy and sentenced to death? No wonder skeptics of Islam have difficulty seeing the Prophet Muhammad in benevolent guise. What ignorant Muslims refuse to acknowledge is that apostasy and blasphemy laws are not rooted in Islam. These laws are nothing but fanciful concoctions.

All this venom in the name of Islam comes from a single source: secondary books that certain Muslim scholars have written. Till we reject these sources and rid ourselves of the ignorance and malevolence infesting the minds of some Muslims, the act of worship is nothing but a mask that shields the ignorant, the radical, the extreme and the misguided among us.

And to those Muslims, whether in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran or even in the United States, who claim Sharia law is Gods divine law, I say thats nonsense. And thats because anything that is divine is, by definition, flawless  and Sharia law cannot be divine by any stretch of the imagination.

Works of God & man

To those Muslims living here in the United States, I point out that you do not have to look far to see how our own mighty U.S. Constitution  deservedly acclaimed and celebrated the world over as the inspired creation of an enlightened set of men in America  is nonetheless a human effort that has been amended 27 times to correct the flaws and shortcomings. Even today those on the right and left talk of amending it further. No less than the governor of Texas proposes a series of amendments.

God has blessed us in America. We are a free and brave people, something symbolized by Army Capt. Humayun Khan. If Muslim reformers among us cannot take responsibility and demonstrate equal courage to fix the problems in the way Muslims have understood Islam, then we contribute to the problem and have no right to complain when others criticize Islam.

David Oualaalou is a global affairs analyst, blogger, author and professor. A former international security analyst in Washington, D.C., he is an instructor at McLennan Community College. He is author of More Than a Handshake: The Ambiguous Foreign Policy of the United States Toward the Muslim World.
If youve been in Central Texas long, youve likely realized the importance of Interstate 35 to our region, making possible that quick trip up to Dallas or down to Austin. In actuality, I-35 extends 1,568 miles, spanning North America and connecting all three countries, from the border in Laredo all the way up to Minnesota, connecting with Canada.

I-35 is not only significant for Waco but also an international corridor, facilitating freight movement, commerce and travel within, and of critical importance to, Texas and beyond. However, any who travel I-35 can attest to long delays and excessive time spent idling, hoping to get from Point A to Point B. The impact on commerce, productivity and quality of life is real and will only be exacerbated with the population growth Texas will experience in years to come. Other external changes may also contribute to increased usage of our transportation infrastructure.

In June, the $5.4 billion Panama Canal expansion project had its inaugural ceremony. This expansion will nearly triple the capacity of the original canal. Natural gas producers are among those anticipated to get the most use and the biggest win from the expansion. February 2016 saw the first exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) produced in the continental United States and already the U.S. Energy Information Administration expects our nation will be the worlds third-largest LNG producer by 2020. As Texas production and exports of LNG, not to mention other goods in our booming state economy, increase, so will the usage of our existing infrastructure.

For these reasons, expansion of our section of I-35 loop-to-loop, a key piece of our state and national infrastructure, and support of high-speed rail initiatives for our state are both priorities of the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce.

The Texas Department of Transportation recently released the long-awaited draft environmental impact statement of the Texas-Oklahoma Passenger Rail Study (TOPRS). This study examines the 850-mile TOPRS corridor, which extends from Laredo north along I-35 to Oklahoma City, and the viability of a high-speed passenger rail line along the corridor.

There has also been much talk of late of the Texas Central project, a high-speed rail line from Dallas to Houston. While some opposition exists, there is also support. The Waco City Council and transportation-focused Waco Metropolitan Planning Organization, with representatives not only from our county commissioners but also other county municipalities such as Ross, Robinson, Hewitt and McGregor, passed resolutions of support.

Those opposed speak from a perspective of property rights and concern that detriment to farm and ranch land value could come with construction of a high-speed rail system on the proposed Dallas-to-Houston corridor. These can be charged and divisive issues, and we must respect the position of all voices, rural and urban alike.

Yet, much like the ardent opposition that President Eisenhower faced when seeking to plan and build an interstate highway system across our countrys wide open lands, we feel support for this new mode of travel and transportation is an acknowledgement of the changes in demographic realities facing our state. These will call for a robust and multi-modal-infrastructure system that will allow for the efficient transportation of goods and services and people throughout our great state and beyond.

That electoral districts were drawn in such a way that many of our elected officials represent both urban and rural Texans puts those legislators in a difficult position, as they might feel bound to sometimes conflicting interests. And while they must be respectful of rural constituents, they also might recognize, as these conversations gear up, that they also represent urban areas largely in favor of high-speed rail.

In fact, 80 percent of our state population resides in urbanized areas, which tend to be supportive of rail projects. This may explain the constitutional amendment passed by Texas voters in 2005 authorizing our legislature to invest public dollars in passenger rail infrastructure or, similarly the results of the 2011 study which showed that Texans are overwhelmingly in support of not only high-speed rail but public investment in the same.

High and higher speed rail would stimulate our economy, create new industries and increase mobility. As noted by the U.S. High Speed Rail Association, it will open new domestic markets and supply chains and broaden regional labor markets. This would support the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerces economic development team in efforts to bolster existing businesses as well as recruit new ones to locate or expand in Waco, ultimately creating desirable, well-paying jobs and expanding our communitys tax base. It can expand visitor markets and generate new spending. Just think if folks from Dallas or Austin could zip in to the Magnolia Market silos with even greater ease!

Studies by the Economic Development Research Group Inc. and others project that the construction, maintenance and existence of high-speed rail lines could create sharp rises in new business sales in cities with high-speed rail; spur new jobs that bring new wages for families; and expand the overall tax base through tax revenue paid to the state, cities, counties and school districts. The potential for economic impact that will improve quality of life for us all is real.

Texas leads the nation in population growth and, according to 2015 projections, our population will double by 2050. If we do not act now to expand and improve our existing transportation infrastructure, this dramatic increase in population will strain our existing resources and infrastructure and bring environmental degradation for which our children will not thank us  degradation that will not only detract from quality of life but also limit our ability to grow our economy.

With EPA regulations that require urban areas to keep their ozone levels under 70 parts per billion, communities could easily be forced into air-quality nonattainment with millions of new Texas drivers  including freight trucks, projected to increase at twice the rate of passenger traffic  all locked in vehicular gridlock.

Road and airport congestion has been calculated to cost America over $156 billion per year in time and fuel. A recent trip home from Austin took me more than four hours with lane closures on I-35. Those are hours I could have been working, shopping or enjoying time with my children. Its calculated that in one year Americans collectively lose 4.2 billion hours stuck in traffic jams.

We must be strategic as we plan for the transportation needs of our great state. We must recognize the realities of demographic change and the dynamics of a 21st century economy that will demand connectivity. We must recognize that while significant progress has been made with the passing of Proposition 1 and Proposition 7 in Texas, and the 2015 FAST Act at the federal level, our transportation challenges are not yet resolved.

In 2014, when TxDOT canvassed the state as a part of the TOPRS project, the Greater Waco Chamber issued an action alert requesting members to write letters of support. Over 100 such letters came from leadership representing diverse sectors. Letters came from Central Texas Associated General Contractors, representing 225 commercial builders; the Waco Business League, representing the voice of chief executive officers of over 125 local businesses; major employers; Baylor students and faculty; as well as area citizens, all supportive of the potential not only to more expeditiously enjoy our beautiful state but, perhaps more importantly, the opportunity to develop our economy and provide our region with access to expanded workforce.

With the initial TOPRS Tier 1 study now complete, TxDOT is again beginning a series of public meetings. (The next one is Wednesday in Austin.) We again have an opportunity to weigh in, to voice our support of a future high-speed rail line running along the I-35 corridor and our support for Wacos connection to this line. Presently there is neither state funding nor federal congressional authority granted to fund the Tier II study, which would be a necessary next step. The states rapid population growth will likely necessitate that decision-makers continue to develop innovative ways to pay for future transportation infrastructure.

The time to plan for the future is now. As famed urban planner Daniel Burnham said, Make no small plans. They have no magic to stir humanitys blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical plan once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency.

Jessica Attas is director of public policy for the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce. She works with key officials nationwide to advocate issues of community and economic development.
In his July 31 guest column in the Trib, Baylor University Interim President David Garland asserted that Baylor would accept as mandates all 105 Pepper Hamilton law firm recommendations regarding sexual assaults. Perhaps the most significant is the very last one: Update Clery analysis and assess reporting obligations based on Pepper Hamilton findings.

Chances are youve never heard of Clery. Baylor never refers to it. This federal statute was only mentioned once or twice in all of the Waco Tribune-Heralds reporting of the Baylor scandals.

The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act or Clery Act requires Baylor to report to the public a summary of all offenses that have occurred on or around its campus. The Clery Act was signed into law in 1990. The law is named after Jeanne Clery, a Lehigh University student who was brutally raped and murdered in her campus residence in 1986. Her murder triggered a backlash against unreported crime on campuses across the country.

The Clery Act requires all colleges and universities that participate in federal financial aid programs to keep and disclose information about crime on and near their respective campuses. Compliance is monitored by the U.S. Department of Education, which can impose civil penalties, up to $35,000 per violation, against institutions for each infraction and can suspend institutions from participating in federal student financial aid programs.

The public often visits the Baylor campus to attend sporting and cultural events. They have a right to know just how safe the campus is. Baylor has information about many offenses uncovered by the Pepper Hamilton law firm. But Baylor refuses to divulge just how many offenses there were or the nature of these offenses  in short, date rape, sexual assault, stalking, harassing, groping, etc. By withholding evidence of unreported crimes at Baylor, the board of regents itself may be guilty of violating, if not the letter of the Clery Act, then at least its spirit of openness.

One might ask how come Pepper Hamilton was able to uncover these many offenses and Baylor was not. The answer is simple. Baylor did not know because Baylor did not want to know. And Baylor does not want you to know either. Shame on Baylor!

Regent Chairman Ron Murff says the school did not implement Title IX properly. The question is, Why not? Was it just a misunderstanding of the law or did Baylor choose to ignore certain provisions of the law? Surely Pepper Hamilton detailed every aspect of why Baylor chose not to implement or follow Title IX. But Baylor has not yet made a full accounting of how it failed to protect students, employees and anyone who visited the Baylor campus.

This is not a matter of student confidentiality or attorney-client privilege, Its a matter of public safety. Transparency is not just a good idea, its the law.

Baylor wants you to forget the past and focus on the great job it will do in the future. It does not want to be held accountable for its past mistakes, some of which were possible violations of law. And, for heavens sake, dont punish them. Thats a weird sense of justice. Just let the offender go unpunished if he promises not to do it again.

The best way to teach young people about accountability is to be accountable yourself. Baylor should set the example and accept the recommendation to Update Clery analysis. It can either comply with all the requirements of Title IX and the Clery Act like virtually every other university is required to do and accurately report crime statistics  or it can forego any federal assistance, including participation in the federal student loan programs.

W. Richard Turner is a retired industrial research chemist who lives in Hewitt.
ORLANDO, Fla.  Workers are building a stone wall around a Walt Disney World lake where an alligator killed a toddler earlier this summer.

Disney officials told the Orlando Sentinel for a story published Sunday that the barrier wall is part of the new security plan following the death of 2-year-old Lane Graves of Omaha. The boulder wall is going up along the beaches of the Seven Seas Lagoon where several resorts are located.

Disney also put up warning signs and ropes after Graves was dragged by an alligator into the lake on June 14. The boy's body was found 16 hours later and an autopsy showed he died from drowning and traumatic injuries.

The family decided not to file a lawsuit against Disney.
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BlackRock, Inc. is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm primarily provides its services to institutional, intermediary, and individual investors including corporate, public, union, and industry pension plans, insurance companies, third-party mutual funds, endowments, public institutions, governments, foundations, charities, sovereign wealth funds, corporations, official institutions, and banks. It also provides global risk management and advisory services. The firm manages separate client-focused equity, fixed income, and balanced portfolios. It also launches and manages open-end and closed-end mutual funds, offshore funds, unit trusts, and alternative investment vehicles including structured funds. The firm launches equity, fixed income, balanced, and real estate mutual funds. It also launches equity, fixed income, balanced, currency, commodity, and multi-asset exchange traded funds. The firm also launches and manages hedge funds. It invests in the public equity, fixed income, real estate, currency, commodity, and alternative markets across the globe. The firm primarily invests in growth and value stocks of small-cap, mid-cap, SMID-cap, large-cap, and multi-cap companies. It also invests in dividend-paying equity securities. The firm invests in investment grade municipal securities, government securities including securities issued or guaranteed by a government or a government agency or instrumentality, corporate bonds, and asset-backed and mortgage-backed securities. It employs fundamental and quantitative analysis with a focus on bottom-up and top-down approach to make its investments. The firm employs liquidity, asset allocation, balanced, real estate, and alternative strategies to make its investments. In real estate sector, it seeks to invest in Poland and Germany. The firm benchmarks the performance of its portfolios against various S&P, Russell, Barclays, MSCI, Citigroup, and Merrill Lynch indices. BlackRock, Inc. was founded in 1988 and is based in New York City with additional offices in Boston, Massachusetts; London, United Kingdom; Gurgaon, India; Hong Kong; Greenwich, Connecticut; Princeton, New Jersey; Edinburgh, United Kingdom; Sydney, Australia; Taipei, Taiwan; Singapore; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Washington, District of Columbia; Toronto, Canada; Wilmington, Delaware; and San Francisco, California.
Deutsche Telekom AG, together with its subsidiaries, provides integrated telecommunication services. The company operates through five segments: Germany, United States, Europe, Systems Solutions, and Group Development. It offers fixed-network services, including voice and data communication services based on fixed-network and broadband technology; and sells terminal equipment and other hardware products, as well as services to resellers. The company also provides mobile voice and data services to consumers and business customers; sells mobile devices and other hardware products; and sells mobile services to resellers and to companies that purchases and markets network services to third parties, such as mobile virtual network operators. In addition, it offers internet services; internet-based TV products and services; and information and communication technology systems for multinational corporations and public sector institutions with an infrastructure of data centers and networks under the T-Systems brand, as well as call center services. The company has 242 million mobile customers and 22 million broadband customers, as well as 27 million fixed-network lines. Deutsche Telekom AG has a collaboration with VMware, Inc. on cloud-based open and intelligent virtual RAN platform to bring agility to radio access networks for existing LTE and future 5G networks; and partnership with Microsoft to deliver high-performance cloud computing experiences. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Bonn, Germany.
The following companies are subsidiares of Illinois Tool Works: A V Co 1 Limited, A V Co 2 Limited, A V Co 3 Limited, ACCU-LUBE Manufacturing GmbH - Schmiermittel und -gerate -, AIP/BI Holdings Inc., Accessories Marketing Holding Corp., Advanced Molding Company Inc., Allen France SAS, Alpine Engineered Products, Alpine Systems Corporation, Anaerobicos S.r.l., AppliChem GmbH, Avery Berkel France, Avery India Limited, Avery Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Avery Weigh Tronix, Avery Weigh-Tronix Finance Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix International Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix LLC, Avery Weigh-Tronix Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix Properties Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix Suzhou Weighing Technology Co. Ltd., Azon Limited, B.C. Immo, Beijing Miller Electric Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Berkel Ireland Limited, Berrington UK, Brapenta Eletronica Ltda., Brooks Instrument B.V., Brooks Instrument GmbH, Brooks Instrument KFT, Brooks Instrument Korea Ltd., Brooks Instrument LLC, Brooks Instrument Shanghai Co. Ltd, Buell Industries Inc., CCI Realty Company, CFC Europe GmbH, CS Australia Pty Limited, CS Mexico Holding Company S DE RL DE CV, Calvia Spolka z Ograniczona Odpowiedzialnosci, Capital Ventures Australasia S.a r.l, Capmax Logistica S.A. de C.V., Celeste Industries Corporation, Coeur, Coeur Asia Limited, Coeur Holding Company, Coeur Inc., Coeur Shanghai Medical Appliance Trading Co. Ltd, Compagnie Hobart, Compagnie de Materiel et d'Equipements Techniques-Comet, Constructions Isothermiques Bontami C.I.B., Crane Carrier Company, Denison Mayes Group Limited, Despatch Industries, Diagraph Corporation Sdn. Bhd, Diagraph ITW Mexico S. de R.L. De C.V., Diagraph Mexico S.A. DE C.V., Dongguan Ark-Les Electric Components Co. Ltd., Dongguan CK Branding Co. Ltd., Duo Fast de Espana S.A.U., Duo-Fast Korea Co. Ltd., Duo-Fast LLC, E.C.S. d.o.o., E2M Production B.V.., E2M Technologies B.V.., E2M Technologies Inc.., ECS Cable Protection Sp. Zoo, ELRO Grosskuchen GmbH, ELRO Holding AG, ELRO-WERKE AG, Elro Group, Eltex-Elektrostatik-Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Envases Multipac S.A. de C.V., Eurotec Srl, Exhibit 21, FEG Investments L.L.C., Filtertek De Mexico Holding Inc., Filtertek De Mexico S.A. de C.V., Filtertek SAS, GC Financement SA, Gamko B.V., Gun Hwa Platech Taicang Co. Ltd., HOBART Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Hartness International, Hobart Andina S.A.S., Hobart Belgium B.V., Hobart Brothers International Chile Limitada, Hobart Brothers LLC, Hobart Dayton Mexicana S. de R.L. de C.V., Hobart Food Equipment Co. Ltd., Hobart International Singapore Pte. Ltd., Hobart Japan K.K., Hobart Korea LLC, Hobart LLC, Hobart Nederland B.V., Hobart Sales & Service Inc., Hobart Scandinavia ApS, Hobart Techniek B.V., Horis, ILC Investments Holdings Inc., ITW AEP LLC, ITW AOC LLC, ITW Aircraft Investments Inc., ITW Ampang Industries Philippines Inc., ITW Appliance Components EOOD, ITW Appliance Components S.A. de C.V., ITW Appliance Components S.r.l.a, ITW Appliance Components d.o.o., ITW Australia Holdings Pty Ltd, ITW Australia Property Holdings Pty Ltd., ITW Australia Pty Ltd, ITW Automotive Components Chongqing Co. Ltd., ITW Automotive Components Langfang Co. Ltd., ITW Automotive Japan K.K., ITW Automotive Korea LLC, ITW Automotive Parts Shanghai Co. Ltd, ITW Automotive Products GmbH, ITW Automotive Products Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Bailly Comte, ITW Befestigungssysteme GmbH, ITW Belgium B.V., ITW Brazilian Nominee L.L.C., ITW Building Components Group Inc., ITW CER, ITW CP Distribution Center Holland BV, ITW CS UK Ltd., ITW Canada Inc., ITW Celeste Inc., ITW Chemical Products Ltda, ITW Chemical Products Scandinavia ApS, ITW China Investment Company Limited, ITW Colombia S.A.S., ITW Construction Products AB, ITW Construction Products AS, ITW Construction Products ApS, ITW Construction Products CZ s.r.o., ITW Construction Products Italy Srl, ITW Construction Products OU, ITW Construction Products OY, ITW Construction Products Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW Construction Products Singapore Pte. Ltd., ITW Construction Services Manila Inc., ITW Contamination Control B.V., ITW Contamination Control Wujiang Co. Ltd., ITW Covid Security Group Inc., ITW DS Investments Inc., ITW DelFast do Brasil Ltda., ITW Denmark ApS, ITW Deutschland GmbH, ITW Diagraph GmbH, ITW Dynatec, ITW Dynatec Adhesive Equipment Suzhou Co. Ltd., ITW Dynatec GmbH, ITW Dynatec Kabushiki Kaisha, ITW EAE B.V., ITW EAE Mexico S de RL de CV, ITW EF&C France SAS, ITW EF&C Selb GmbH, ITW EU Holdings Ltd., ITW Electronic Business Asia Co. Limited, ITW Electronic Components/Products Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW Electronics Suzhou Co. Ltd., ITW Epsilon Sarl, ITW Espana S.L., ITW European Finance Co. Ltd., ITW European Finance II Co. Ltd., ITW European Finance III Co. Ltd., ITW FEG Hong Kong Limited, ITW FEG do Brasil Industria e Comercio Ltda., ITW Fastener Products GmbH, ITW Fluids and Hygiene Solutions Ltda., ITW Food Equipment Group LLC, ITW GH LLC, ITW GSE ApS, ITW GSE Inc., ITW Gamma Sarl, ITW German Management LLC, ITW Global Investments Holdings LLC, ITW Global Investments Holdings Y Compania Sociedad en Comandita por Acciones, ITW Global Investments Inc., ITW Global Tire Repair Europe GmbH, ITW Global Tire Repair Inc., ITW Global Tire Repair Japan K.K., ITW Graphics Asia Limited, ITW Graphics Thailand Ltd., ITW Great Britain Investment & Licensing Holding Company, ITW Group France Luxembourg S.ar.l., ITW HLP Thailand Co. Ltd., ITW Holding Quimica B.C. S.L. Sole Shareholder Company, ITW Holdings Australia L.P., ITW Holdings I Limited, ITW Holdings II Limited, ITW Holdings III Limited, ITW Holdings IV Limited, ITW Holdings IX Limited, ITW Holdings Inc., ITW Holdings V Limited, ITW Holdings VI Limited, ITW Holdings VII Limited, ITW Holdings VIII Limited, ITW Holdings X Limited, ITW Holdings XI Limited, ITW ILC Holdings I Inc., ITW IPG Investments LLC, ITW Imaden Industria e Comercio Ltda., ITW India Private Limited, ITW International Holdings LLC, ITW Invest Holding GmbH, ITW Ireland Holdings Unlimited Company, ITW Ireland Unlimited Company, ITW Italy Holding Srl, ITW Japan Ltd., ITW Korea LLC, ITW LLC & Co. KG, ITW Limited, ITW Lys Fusion S.r.l., ITW Materials Technology Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW Meritex Sdn. Bhd., ITW Metal Fasteners S.L., ITW Mexico Holding Company S. De R.L. de C.V., ITW Mexico Holdings LLC, ITW Morlock GmbH, ITW Mortgage Investments II Inc., ITW Mortgage Investments III Inc., ITW Mortgage Investments IV Inc., ITW Netherlands Administration BV, ITW Netherlands Beta B.V., ITW Netherlands Finance Alpha BV, ITW New Universal LLC, ITW New Zealand, ITW Ningbo Components & Fastenings Systems Co. Ltd., ITW Novadan Sp. Z.o.o., ITW PPF Brasil Adesivos Ltda., ITW Packaging Technology China Co. Ltd., ITW Participations S.a r.l., ITW Pension Funds Trustee Company, ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids Japan Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids Korea Limited, ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids OOO, ITW Performance Polymers ApS, ITW Performance Polymers Wujiang Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers and Fluids Group FZE, ITW Peru S.A.C., ITW Poly Mex S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Polymers Sealants North America Inc., ITW Pronovia s.r.o., ITW Pte. Ltd., ITW Qufu Automotive Cooling Systems Co. Ltd., ITW Real Estate Germany GmbH, ITW Residuals III L.L.C., ITW Residuals IV L.L.C., ITW Rivex, ITW SMPI, ITW SPG Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Simco-Ion Shenzhen Co. Ltd., ITW Slovakia s.r.o., ITW Spain Holdings S.L., ITW Specialty Film LLC, ITW Specialty Films France, ITW Specialty Materials Suzhou Co. Ltd., ITW Sverige AB, ITW Sweden Holding AB, ITW Test & Measurement Equipment Shanghai Co. Ltd, ITW Test & Measurement GmbH, ITW Test and Measurement Italia Srl, ITW Test and Measurement Services Industry and Trade Ltd., ITW Texwipe Philippines Inc., ITW Thermal Films Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW UK, ITW UK Finance Beta Limited, ITW UK Finance Delta Limited, ITW UK Finance Gamma Limited, ITW UK Finance Limited, ITW UK Finance Zeta Ltd., ITW UK II Limited, ITW Universal II LLC, ITW Welding, ITW Welding AB, ITW Welding GmbH, ITW Welding Products B.V., ITW Welding Products Group FZE, ITW Welding Products Group S. DE R.L. De C.V., ITW Welding Products Italy Srl, ITW Welding Products Limited Liability Company, ITW Welding Produtos Para Solgdagem Ltda., ITW Welding Singapore Pte. Ltd., ITW de France, ITW do Brasil Industrial e Comercial Ltda., Illinois Tool Works Chile Limitada, Illinois Tool Works ITW Nederland B.V., Illinois Tool Works Inc., Impar Comercio E Representacoes Ltda., Industrie Plastic Elsasser GmbH, Inmobiliaria Cit. S.A. de C.F., Innova Temperlite Servicios S.A. de C.V., Innovacion y Transformacion Automotriz S.A. de C.V., Instron Brasil Equipamentos Cientificos Ltda., Instron Foreign Sales Corp. Limited, Instron France S.A.S., Instron GmbH, Instron Japan Company Ltd., Instron Korea LLC, Instron Shanghai Ltd., Instron Thailand Limited, International Leasing Company LLC, Isolenge - ITW Sistemas de Isolamento Termico Ltda., Itw Spraytec, KCPL Mauritius Holdings, Kester, Kleinmann GmbH, Krafft S.L., Loma Systems, Loma Systems BV, Loma Systems Canada Inc., Loma Systems sro, Lombard Pressings Limited, Lumex Inc., Lys Fusion Poland Sp. z.o.o., M&C Specialties Co., MAGNAFLUX GmbH, MEHB Holdings Limited, MGHG Property LLC, MTS 2 LLC., MTS 3 LLC., MTS China Holdings LLC, MTS Europe Holdings LLC, MTS Holdings France S.a.r.l., MTS Japan Ltd.., MTS Korea Inc.., MTS Systems China Co. Ltd., MTS Systems Corporation, MTS Systems Danmark ApS., MTS Systems Europe B.V., MTS Systems Finance C.V.., MTS Systems Germany GmbH, MTS Systems Holding B.V.., MTS Systems Hong Kong Incorporated, MTS Systems Limited, MTS Systems Norden Aktiebolag, MTS Systems S.r.l, MTS Systems., MTS Systems.., MTS Sytems Do Brazil, MTS Testing Solutions India Private Limited., MTS Testing Systems Canada Ltd., Manufacturing Avancee S.A., Meritex Technology Suzhou Co. Ltd., Meurer Verpackungssysteme GmbH, Miller Electric Mfg. LLC, Miller Insurance Ltd., NDT Holding LLC, NOVADAN APS, North Star Imaging Inc., Nova Chimica S.r.l., Orbitalum Tools GmbH, PENTA-91 OOO, PR. A. I. Srl, PT ITW Construction Products Indonesia, Pacific Concept Industries Limited Enping, Panreac Quimica S.L., Paslode Fasteners Shanghai Co. Ltd., Peerless Machinery Corp., Polyrey, Premark FEG L.L.C., Premark HII Holdings LLC, Premark International, Premark International LLC, Prolex Sociedad Anonima, QSA Global Inc., Quimica Industrial Mediterranea S.L., R&D Engineering A/S., R&D Prague s.r.o., R&D Steel ApS., R&D Test Systems A/S., R&D Tools and Structures A/S., RDGDK Engineering Private Limited, Ramset Fasteners Hong Kong Ltd., Rapid Cook LLC, Refrigeration France, S.E.E. Sistemas Industria E Comercio Ltda., ST Mexico Holdings LLC, Sealant Systems International Inc., Sentinel Asia Yuhan Hoesa, Shanghai ITW Plastic & Metal Co. Ltd, Simco Japan Inc., Simco Nederland B.V., Societe de Prospection et dInventions Techniques  SPIT, Speedline Holdings I Inc., Speedline Holdings I LLC, Speedline Technologies GmbH, Speedline Technologies Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Speedline Technologies Mexico Services S. de R.L. de C.V., Stokvis Celix Portugal Unipessoal LDA, Stokvis Danmark ApS, Stokvis Holdings S.A.R.L., Stokvis Promi s.r.o, Stokvis Prostick Tapes Private Limited, Stokvis Tapes B.V., Stokvis Tapes Benelux B.V., Stokvis Tapes Deutschland GmbH, Stokvis Tapes France, Stokvis Tapes Hong Kong Co. Limited, Stokvis Tapes Italia s.r.l., Stokvis Tapes Limited, Stokvis Tapes Limited Liability Company, Stokvis Tapes Norge AS, Stokvis Tapes Oy, Stokvis Tapes Polska Sp Z.O.O., Stokvis Tapes Shanghai Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes Sverige AB, Stokvis Tapes Taiwan Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes Tianjin Co. Ltd., Stolvis Holdings II S.A.R.L., Subsidiaries, Technopack Industria Comercio Consultoria e Representacoes Ltda., Teknek China Limited, Teknek Japan Limited, Teksaleco Ltd., The Miller Group Ltd, Thirode Grandes Cuisines Poligny, Tien Tai Electrode Co. Ltd., Tien Tai Electrode Kunshan Co. Ltd., Unichemicals Industria e Comercio Ltda., VR-Leasing Sarita GmbH & Co. Immobilien KG, VS European Holdco BV, Valeron Strength Films B.V., Veneta Decalcogomme S.r.l., Versachem Chile S.A., Vesta, Vesta Global Limited, Vesta Guangzhou Catering Equipment Co. Ltd, Viltronics Soltec, Vitronics Soltec B.V., Wachs Canada Ltd., Wachs Subsea LLC, Weigh-Tronix Canada ULC, Weigh-Tronix UK Limited, Wilsonart International Holdings LLC, Wynn Oil South Africa Pty Ltd., Wynn's Automotive France, Wynn's Belgium BVBA, Wynn's Italia Srl, Wynn's Mekuba India Pvt Ltd, and Zip-Pak International B.V..

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The following companies are subsidiares of Pfizer: AH Robins LLC, AHP Holdings B.V., AHP Manufacturing B.V., Agouron Pharmaceuticals LLC, Alacer, Alpharma Holdings LLC, Alpharma Pharmaceuticals LLC, Alpharma Specialty Pharma LLC, Alpharma USHP LLC, American Food Industries LLC, Anacor Pharmaceuticals, Anacor Pharmaceuticals Inc., Angiosyn, Array BioPharma, Ayerst-Wyeth Pharmaceuticals LLC, BIND Therapeutics Inc., BINESA 2002 S.L., Bamboo Therapeutics, Bamboo Therapeutics Inc., Baxter International - Marketed Vaccines, BioRexis, Bioren, Bioren LLC, Blue Whale Re Ltd., C.E. Commercial Holdings C.V., C.E. Commercial Investments C.V., C.P. Pharmaceuticals International C.V., CICL Corporation, COC I Corporation, Catapult Genetics, Coley Pharmaceutical GmbH, Coley Pharmaceutical Group, Coley Pharmaceutical Group Inc., Continental Pharma Inc., Covx, Covx Technologies Ireland Limited, Cyanamid Inter-American Corporation, Cyanamid de Argentina S.A., Cyanamid de Colombia S.A., Distribuidora Mercantil Centro Americana S.A., Encysive Pharmaceuticals, Encysive Pharmaceuticals Inc., Esperion LUV Development Inc., Esperion Therapeutics, Excaliard Pharmaceuticals, Excaliard Pharmaceuticals Inc., Farminova Produtos Farmaceuticos de Inovacao Lda., Farmogene Productos Farmaceuticos Lda, Ferrosan A/S, Ferrosan International A/S, Ferrosan S.R.L., FoldRx Pharmaceuticals Inc., Foldrx Pharmaceuticals, Fort Dodge Manufatura Ltda., G. D. Searle & Co. Limited, G. D. Searle International Capital LLC, G. D. Searle LLC, GI Europe Inc., GI Japan Inc., GenTrac Inc., Genetics Institute LLC, Greenstone LLC, Haptogen Limited, Hospira, Hospira (China) Enterprise Management Co. Ltd., Hospira Adelaide Pty Ltd, Hospira Aseptic Services Limited, Hospira Australia Pty Ltd, Hospira Benelux BVBA, Hospira Chile Limitada, Hospira Deutschland GmbH, Hospira Enterprises B.V., Hospira France SAS, Hospira Healthcare B.V., Hospira Healthcare Corporation, Hospira Healthcare India Private Limited, Hospira Holdings (S.A.) Pty Ltd, Hospira Inc., Hospira Invicta S.A., Hospira Ireland Holdings Unlimited Company, Hospira Ireland Sales Limited, Hospira Japan G.K., Hospira Limited, Hospira Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Hospira NZ Limited, Hospira Nordic AB, Hospira Philippines Inc., Hospira Portugal LDA, Hospira Produtos Hospitalares Ltda., Hospira Pte. Ltd., Hospira Pty Limited, Hospira Puerto Rico LLC, Hospira Singapore Pte Ltd, Hospira UK Limited, Hospira Worldwide LLC, Hospira Zagreb d.o.o., ICAgen, Idun Pharmaceuticals, Industrial Santa Agape S.A., InnoPharma, InnoPharma Inc., International Affiliated Corporation LLC, JMI-Daniels Pharmaceuticals Inc., John Wyeth & Brother Limited, Kiinteisto oy Espoon Pellavaniementie 14, King Pharmaceuticals Holdings LLC, King Pharmaceuticals LLC, King Pharmaceuticals Research and Development LLC, Korea Pharma Holding Company Limited, Laboratoires Pfizer S.A., Laboratorios Parke Davis S.L., Laboratorios Pfizer Ltda., Laboratorios Wyeth LLC, Laboratorios Wyeth S.A., Laboratorios Pfizer Lda., MTG Divestitures LLC, Mayne Pharma IP Holdings (Euro) Pty Ltd, Medivation, Medivation Field Solutions LLC, Medivation LLC, Medivation Neurology LLC, Medivation Prostate Therapeutics LLC, Medivation Services LLC, Medivation Technologies LLC, Meridian Medical Technologies Inc., Meridian Medical Technologies Limited, Monarch Pharmaceuticals LLC, Neusentis Limited, NextWave Pharmaceuticals, NextWave Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, P-D Co. LLC, PAH USA IN8 LLC, PF Americas Holding C.V., PF Asia Manufacturing B.V., PF PR Holdings C.V., PF PRISM C.V., PF PRISM Holdings S.a.r.l., PF Prism S.a.r.l., PFE Holdings G.K., PFE PHAC Holdings 1 LLC, PFE Pfizer Holdings 1 LLC, PFE Wyeth Holdings LLC, PFE Wyeth-Ayerst (Asia) LLC, PHILCO Holdings S.a r.l., PHIVCO Corp., PHIVCO Holdco S.a r.l., PHIVCO Luxembourg S.a r.l., PN Mexico LLC, PT. Pfizer Parke Davis, Parke Davis & Company LLC, Parke Davis Limited, Parke Davis Productos Farmaceuticos Lda, Parke-Davis Manufacturing Corp., Parkedale Pharmaceuticals Inc., Peak Enterprises LLC, Pfizer, Pfizer (China) Research and Development Co. Ltd., Pfizer (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Pfizer (Perth) Pty Limited, Pfizer (Thailand) Limited, Pfizer (Wuhan) Research and Development Co. Ltd., Pfizer AB, Pfizer AG, Pfizer AS, Pfizer Africa & Middle East for Pharmaceuticals Veterinarian Products & Chemicals S.A.E., Pfizer Anti-Infectives AB, Pfizer ApS, Pfizer Asia Manufacturing Pte. Ltd., Pfizer Asia Pacific Pte Ltd., Pfizer Atlantic Holdings S.a.r.l., Pfizer Australia Holdings B.V., Pfizer Australia Holdings Pty Limited, Pfizer Australia Investments Pty. Ltd., Pfizer Australia Pty Limited, Pfizer B.V., Pfizer BH D.o.o., Pfizer Baltic Holdings B.V., Pfizer Biofarmaceutica Sociedade Unipessoal Lda, Pfizer Biologics (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd, Pfizer Biologics Ireland Holdings Limited, Pfizer Biotech Corporation, Pfizer Bolivia S.A., Pfizer Canada Inc., Pfizer CentreSource Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Pfizer Chile S.A., Pfizer Cia. Ltda., Pfizer Colombia Spinco I LLC, Pfizer Commercial Holdings Cooperatief U.A., Pfizer Commercial Holdings TRAE Kft., Pfizer Commercial TRAE Trading Kft., Pfizer Consumer Healthcare AB, Pfizer Consumer Healthcare GmbH, Pfizer Consumer Healthcare Ltd., Pfizer Consumer Manufacturing Italy S.r.l., Pfizer Corporation, Pfizer Corporation Austria Gesellschaft m.b.H., Pfizer Corporation Hong Kong Limited, Pfizer Croatia d.o.o., Pfizer Deutschland GmbH, Pfizer Development LP, Pfizer Development Services (UK) Limited, Pfizer Domestic Ventures Limited, Pfizer Dominicana S.R.L, Pfizer ESP Pty Ltd, Pfizer East India B.V., Pfizer Eastern Investments B.V., Pfizer Egypt S.A.E., Pfizer Enterprise Holdings B.V., Pfizer Enterprises LLC, Pfizer Enterprises SARL, Pfizer Europe Finance B.V., Pfizer Export B.V., Pfizer Export Company, Pfizer Export Holding Company B.V, Pfizer Finance Share Service (Dalian) Co. Ltd., Pfizer Financial Services N.V./S.A., Pfizer France International Investments, Pfizer Free Zone Panama S. de R.L., Pfizer GEP S.L., Pfizer Global Holdings B.V., Pfizer Global Supply Japan Inc., Pfizer Global Trading, Pfizer Group Luxembourg Sarl, Pfizer Gulf FZ-LLC, Pfizer H.C.P. Corporation, Pfizer HK Service Company Limited, Pfizer Health AB, Pfizer Health Solutions Inc., Pfizer Healthcare Ireland, Pfizer Hellas A.E., Pfizer Himalaya Holdings Cooperatief U.A., Pfizer Holding France, Pfizer Holding Ventures, Pfizer Holdings Corporation, Pfizer Holdings Europe Unlimited Company, Pfizer Holdings G.K., Pfizer Holdings International Corporation, Pfizer Holdings International Luxembourg (PHIL) Sarl, Pfizer Holdings North America SARL, Pfizer Hungary Holdings TRAE Kft., Pfizer Inc., Pfizer Innovations AB, Pfizer Innovations LLC, Pfizer Innovative Supply Point International BVBA, Pfizer International LLC, Pfizer International Markets Cooperatief U.A., Pfizer International Operations, Pfizer International S. de R.L., Pfizer International Trading (Shanghai) Limited, Pfizer Investment Capital Unlimited Company, Pfizer Investment Co. Ltd., Pfizer Investment Holdings S.a.r.l., Pfizer Ireland Investments Limited, Pfizer Ireland PFE Holding 1 LLC, Pfizer Ireland PFE Holding 2 LLC, Pfizer Ireland Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer Ireland Ventures Unlimited Company, Pfizer Italia S.r.l., Pfizer Italy Group Holding S.r.l., Pfizer Japan Inc., Pfizer LLC, Pfizer Laboratories (Pty) Limited, Pfizer Laboratories Limited, Pfizer Laboratories PFE (Pty) Ltd, Pfizer Leasing Ireland Limited, Pfizer Leasing UK Limited, Pfizer Limitada, Pfizer Limited, Pfizer Luxco Holdings SARL, Pfizer Luxembourg Global Holdings S.a r.l., Pfizer Luxembourg SARL, Pfizer MAP Holding Inc., Pfizer Manufacturing Austria G.m.b.H., Pfizer Manufacturing Belgium N.V., Pfizer Manufacturing Deutschland GmbH, Pfizer Manufacturing Deutschland Grundbesitz GmbH & Co. KG, Pfizer Manufacturing Holdings LLC, Pfizer Manufacturing Ireland Unlimited Company, Pfizer Manufacturing LLC, Pfizer Manufacturing Services, Pfizer Medical Technology Group (Belgium) N.V., Pfizer Medicamentos Genericos e Participacoes Ltda., Pfizer Mexico Luxco SARL, Pfizer Mexico S.A. de C.V., Pfizer Middle East for Pharmaceuticals Animal Health and Chemicals S.A.E., Pfizer New Zealand Limited, Pfizer Norge AS, Pfizer North American Holdings Inc., Pfizer OTC B.V., Pfizer Overseas LLC, Pfizer Oy, Pfizer PFE ApS, Pfizer PFE AsiaPac Holding B.V., Pfizer PFE Australia Holding B.V., Pfizer PFE Australia Pty Ltd, Pfizer PFE B.V., Pfizer PFE Baltic Holdings B.V., Pfizer PFE Belgium SPRL, Pfizer PFE Brazil Holding S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE CIA. Ltda., Pfizer PFE Chile Holding LLC, Pfizer PFE Colombia Holding Corp., Pfizer PFE Colombia S.A.S, Pfizer PFE Commercial Holdings LLC, Pfizer PFE Croatia Holding B.V., Pfizer PFE Eastern Investments B.V., Pfizer PFE Finland Oy, Pfizer PFE France, Pfizer PFE Global Holdings B.V., Pfizer PFE Ireland Pharmaceuticals Holding 1 B.V., Pfizer PFE Italy Holdco 2 S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE Italy Holdco S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Pfizer PFE Limited, Pfizer PFE Luxembourg S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE Mexico Holding 3 LLC, Pfizer PFE Netherlands Holding 1 C.V., Pfizer PFE New Zealand, Pfizer PFE New Zealand Holding B.V., Pfizer PFE Norway Holding S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE PILSA Holdco S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE Peru Holding LLC, Pfizer PFE Peru S.R.L., Pfizer PFE Pharmaceuticals Israel Holding LLC, Pfizer PFE Pharmaceuticals Israel Ltd., Pfizer PFE Private Limited, Pfizer PFE S.R.L, Pfizer PFE Service Company Holding Cooperatief U.A., Pfizer PFE Singapore Holding B.V., Pfizer PFE Singapore Pte. Ltd., Pfizer PFE Spain B.V., Pfizer PFE Spain Holding S.L., Pfizer PFE Sweden Holding 2 S.a.r.l., Pfizer PFE Sweden Holding S.a.r.l., Pfizer PFE Switzerland GmbH, Pfizer PFE Turkey Holding 1 B.V., Pfizer PFE Turkey Holding 2 B.V., Pfizer PFE UK Holding 4 LP, Pfizer PFE US Holdings 1 LLC, Pfizer PFE US Holdings 2 LLC, Pfizer PFE US Holdings 3 LLC, Pfizer PFE US Holdings 4 LLC, Pfizer PFE US Holdings 5 LLC, Pfizer PFE spol. s r.o., Pfizer PFE Ilaclar Anonim Sirketi, Pfizer Pakistan Limited, Pfizer Parke Davis (Thailand) Ltd., Pfizer Parke Davis Inc., Pfizer Parke Davis Sdn. Bhd., Pfizer Pharm Algerie, Pfizer Pharma GmbH, Pfizer Pharma PFE GmbH, Pfizer Pharmaceutical (Wuxi) Co. Ltd., Pfizer Pharmaceutical Trading Limited Liability Company (a/k/a Pfizer Kft. or Pfizer LLC), Pfizer Pharmaceuticals B.V., Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Global B.V., Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Israel Ltd., Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Korea Limited, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals LLC, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Pfizer Pigments Inc., Pfizer Polska Sp. z.o.o., Pfizer Private Limited, Pfizer Production LLC, Pfizer Products Inc., Pfizer Products India Private Limited, Pfizer Research (NC) Inc., Pfizer Romania SRL, Pfizer S.A., Pfizer S.A., Pfizer S.A. (Belgium), Pfizer S.A. de C.V., Pfizer S.A.S., Pfizer S.G.P.S. Lda., Pfizer S.L., Pfizer S.R.L., Pfizer SRB d.o.o., Pfizer Saidal Manufacturing, Pfizer Sante Familiale, Pfizer Saudi Limited, Pfizer Seiyaku K.K., Pfizer Service Company BVBA, Pfizer Service Company Ireland Unlimited Company, Pfizer Services 1, Pfizer Services LLC, Pfizer Shared Services Unlimited Company, Pfizer Shareholdings Intermediate SARL, Pfizer Singapore Holding Pte. Ltd., Pfizer Singapore Trading Pte. 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1876: Edmund B. Fairfield assumed the chancellorship of the University of Nebraska and bought the Cropsey mansion near the Statehouse as his residence.

Bullock Bros. was making salt at the lake west of the city at the rate of 40 barrels a day.

1886: Track laying on the Lincoln branch of the Missouri Pacific Railroad was virtually completed.

Col. A.J. Cropsey, one of the early pioneers of the country, returned from Texas and bought a considerable amount of land, adding to the real estate boom in Lincoln.

1896: Claude H. Hoover was hanged at Omaha for the murder of Samuel Debois.

John Currie erected a shed over the block of marble on the Statehouse grounds and began work on his statue of Abraham Lincoln.

1906: The school census of Lincoln showed a reduction of 600 children in one year.

The Capitol Beach street railroad had trouble crossing the viaduct after the city stopped work on the ground because of a lack of a proper permit.

1916: The new dean of Omaha's Creighton Medical College, Dr. James R. Clemens, said the "sensation-loving public" and "yellow journalism" were building a polio scare in New York City out of proportion.

One of the biggest bobcats ever seen in the Sandhills was shot near Ellsworth.

1926: Planes of varying sizes and construction were to land at the Lincoln Airport, four miles south of the post office, where they would be checked as part of a reliability test.

Wang Sun Yun, grandson of a former emperor of Korea, was a surgical patient at an Omaha hospital.

1936: An explosion wrecked a section of the Grainger Bros. Wholesale Grocer Co. building at Eighth and P streets, killing three people and causing damage of many thousands of dollars.

1946: The Lincoln City Council voted to open the Municipal Swimming Pool to all without regard to race.

1956: The 67-year-old Governor's Mansion at 1445 H St. was auctioned off, to be razed to make way for a new colonial-type structure of brick. Among those present were Gov. and Mrs. Victor Anderson and former Gov. and Mrs. Robert Crosby.

The Lincoln Hotel at Ninth and P streets and the Capital Hotel at 11th and P streets were part of a group sold by the Sheraton Corp. for $4.5 million to Fields Management Co. of New York. Sheraton had acquired them from the Epply chain.

1966: A Braniff passenger jet crashed near Falls City, killing all 42 on board. It was the worst air disaster in the history of the state.

The superintendent of the Kearney Boys Training School, William Ettinger, was dismissed for alleged misconduct.

1976: Razing began on the downtown area bounded by 11th, 12th, O and N streets for the $7.4 million-plus Centrum project that was to add 900 parking stalls and new retail shops to downtown Lincoln.

Residents of Stratton buried nine victims of a train-school bus collision.

1986: Angry residents living on O Street wrote letters to the editor and urged businesses to oust teenage cruisers who were jamming the city's main thoroughfare.

The Legislature increased driving fines from $10 to $20 for passing violations, going the wrong way on a one-way street, improper lane changes and failing to signal.

1996: Caril Ann Fugate, convicted of murder after accompanying Charles Starkweather on a three-day spree that left 10 people dead in 1958, asked the State Pardons Board for a full pardon. The pardon was denied.

Downtown Lincoln bars announced the end of the "Bar Crawl," where customers were given free drinks on their birthdays.

2006: The heat index in Lincoln peaked at 105, meaning it felt 3 degrees hotter than the actual high of 102 degrees. This was Lincolns seventh day this year with a high of 100 or above -- two above the 30-year average but nowhere close to the record 41 (1936).

A Weather Channel crew arrived at Stuhr Museum to shoot footage for two programs that will discuss climates that experience drought and how people cope with it. Hall County has a history of drought cycles. The crew will gather historical perspective and visuals of historical sites.
ARMOUR Residential REIT, Inc. invests in residential mortgage-backed securities (MBS) in the United States. The company's securities portfolio primarily consists of the United States Government-sponsored entity's (GSE) and the Government National Mortgage Administration's issued or guaranteed securities backed by fixed rate, hybrid adjustable rate, and adjustable-rate home loans, as well as unsecured notes and bonds issued by the GSE and the United States treasuries, as well as money market instruments. It also invests in other securities backed by residential mortgages for which the payment of principal and interest is not guaranteed by a GSE or government agency. The company has elected to be taxed as a real estate investment trust under the Internal Revenue Code. As a result, it would not be subject to corporate income tax on that portion of its net income that is distributed to shareholders. ARMOUR Residential REIT, Inc. was incorporated in 2008 and is based in Vero Beach, Florida.
Bruce and Denise Morcombe have given their approval for a new film about their son Daniel, who was murdered by paedophile Brett Cowan. It led to Clegg having sex with the girl on four occasions in Scarborough and also at the girl's house. Clegg has also admitted possessing, creating and distributing child pornography. Killer paedophile Brett Cowan was recently attacked in prison. Credit:Queensland Police In previous court proceedings, Western Australian District Court Judge Philip Eaton has described this whole thing as one of the worst cases of child sexual abuse to come before this state's courts.

For anyone who may not have heard of this case, an 11-year old girl's father raped and pimped out his own daughter, offering her up for sexual abuse to a variety of men. Right here in the usually safe suburbs of Perth. The girl was subjected to two known years of sustained sexual abuse and degradation by the man who in normal circumstances is meant to protect and nurture his offspring. Her father, who cannot be named to protect his daughter's identity, pleaded guilty to 61 offences committed between 2013 and 2015 when she was aged between 11 and 13. He was jailed for a minimum of 22 and a half years- one of the toughest sentences ever handed down in the Western Australian District Court. At his sentencing in June, Judge Eaton said that images of the daughter were still circulating online within paedophile networks. "It involves the potential for negative impact upon your daughter for years to come."

However, the evil man behind all this evidently still does not recognise the seriousness of what he has done. He has just appealed his sentence claiming it is too harsh. I like to think most normal-minded people think that this guy should never be let out. He apparently sees it very differently. Experts always argue whether a paedophile can be rehabilitated. I have my view. You will undoubtedly have yours. However, is anyone really surprised that the evil father has appealed, given that this is the man who said to police when arrested: "I'm going to be honest, it was fun while it lasted but it went way over the line." The girl is now 14 and sadly lives her life sentence every day.

Six men have faced court over the sordid, depraved sexual abuse of the girl in which she was subjected to humiliating behaviour including being shackled to a bed with a mask and a dog collar with the word "bitch" on it around her neck. Last year, a former pastor and father-of-two was jailed for ten-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to 12 charges. He had advertised sexual massages on the internet and ended up molesting and raping the blindfolded girl on various occasions, while her father sat in the same room at both a city hotel and her father's home. Nicholas Adam Beer pleaded guilty in April to 163 charges including sexual penetration of a child and indecently dealing with a child. In June, photographer Benjamin Simon Clarke was sentenced to three years jail after taking naked and semi- naked photographs of the girl in 2014.

Troy Phillip Milbourne pleaded guilty down in Bunbury's District Court to four counts of having indecent dealings with a child under 13 years and three counts of sexual penetration of a child under 13 years. Mark Lesley Higgins had his sentencing delayed back in January so he could support his seriously ill daughter after she had surgery. A Perth judge warned Higgins that he is likely to go to jail after he admitted using electronic communications to attempt to expose a child to indecent matter or procure them to engage in sexual conduct. Another man still faces charges including four counts of sexually penetrating a child aged between 13 and 16, and possessing child exploitation material. He tried unsuccessfully a few weeks ago to obtain a substantial adjournment. Instead the magistrate told him he would only get a short one and has to enter a plea soon as "he'd delayed the matter successfully for 12 months".

He is also another one who remains on bail. Every time one of these men comes before the courts, the first thoughts of all Western Australians should always be for the girl who is now trying to rebuild what life she has. In the past few days, there was again a reminder of the importance of continuing to highlight the dreadful crimes of paedophilia and why, as a society, we have to maintain the pressure so the seriousness of the issue is not down played. Daniel Morcombe was 13-years old when he was abducted and murdered on the Sunshine Coast in 2003. His parents fought for years for an inquest, which led to a covert operation in which Brett Peter Cowan was eventually committed to stand trial and was sentenced to life imprisonment, providing at least some closure for the family.

Recently, we heard the news that Cowan had been admitted to hospital after a fellow prisoner threw boiling water over him, apparently saying as he did that "this one's for Daniel". Cowan is believed to have suffered burns to his face, hands, head, chest and legs. Predictably, Cowan's lawyer is now questioning whether the prison failed in its duty of care. I like to think the question in most Australians minds would have been: "Did Cowan indeed think of his victim whilst in the ambulance?" Because I can assure him that the overwhelming majority of Australians certainly did.
There was much excitement around PS's desk on Tuesday morning when an email lobbed promising to reveal photos of Sunrise television presenter Samantha Armytage out on a date with a "mystery" man.

The email's subject line was a little more titillating: "EXCLUSIVE Samantha Armytage seen with mystery man at Double Bay bar late at night."

Sadly it was a case of premature expectation when PS clicked to open up the email and perused the images to see what was going on.

Yes, there was Armytage, the 40-year-old successful television star known for her straight-shooting opinions and well documented but sadly ill-fated romances, smiling widely in a crowded bar as she appeared to chat animatedly away with the purported "mystery" chap also captured in the frame.
MOUNT PLEASANT  Last Monday, Charlie Tennessen baked a loaf of bread that he says was unlike any other: the first loaf made from Marquis wheat in Wisconsin since 1950.

Just days earlier, the Mount Pleasant resident harvested his 2-acre field of Marquis wheat from a rented field along Spring Street. That was as much as he could grow from the now-rare wheat that once dominated Wisconsin wheat fields, until it was left behind in favor of more-productive dwarf varieties.

Tennessen has University of Wisconsin publications showing that Marquis comprised 59.2 percent of Wisconsin wheat in 1919  and zero percent in 1950.

He is trying to do what he can to resurrect Marquis and other heritage wheat varieties such as Red Fife and Turkey Red. Besides the Marquis, he grew 3 acres of the latter this year.

Tennessens heritage seeds came from seed banks in very small quantities, but multiplies his next-years supply with every crop.

He sells his heritage wheats both wholesale and retail, milled or not, depending on the buyers wishes. Tennessen grinds his wheat into flour in his two self-built basement stone mills; he said stone mills produce a more flavorful flour than roller mills.

Theres not a lot of money in flour, Tennessen said about why he mills his wheat himself. By vertically integrating with his own mills, he can make some money, selling flour wholesale for about $1 and retail for about $2.

My marketing is that this is a good-tasting, healthier product and has the romance of having been proved in the past, he said.

Tennessen sells about 50 pounds of wheat berries a month to Milwaukees Outpost Foods co-ops. They can be boiled and eaten or made into tabouleh, an Arab salad.

Locally, his flour is available at Molbecks Health & Spice Shop, 3212 Washington Ave., and Piggly Wiggly, 5201 Washington Ave.

And Lizz Fabel, The Bread Lady, sells baked goods made from Tennessens wheats at area farmers markets and Milaegers Sunday marketplaces at 4838 Douglas Ave., Caledonia.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 07, 2016 | 09:01 AM | MCCRACKEN COUNTY, KY

A Ballard County man faces charges after a one-vehicle wreck Saturday night in McCracken County.

The McCracken County Sheriff's Office says the crash happened at approximately 10:15 pm in the 2100 block of McKendree Church Road. Deputies said 36-year-old Jason Burgess of Kevil was traveling south when his truck left the road and struck a utility pole.

Burgess was extricated from the truck by mechanical means and transported to Lourdes Hospital for treatment of his injuries.



According to police, Burgess had taken the truck from a friend without permission.

Burgess was cited to court for several offenses due to being admitted to the hospital. He's charged with operating a motor vehicle under the influence of drugs/alcohol with aggravating circumstances, two counts of criminal mischief and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 06, 2016 | 10:40 PM | BEULAH, KY

Two Hickman County residents were arrested in Graves County Friday on gun charges.

According to Graves County Sheriff Dewayne Redmon, a detective with the McCracken County Sheriffs Office contacted his office about a burglary they were investigating and the possibility of one of the stolen guns being pawned in Mayfield.

The investigation led detectives to the Beulah community in Hickman County. Police went to the home of 35-year-old Jessie Kantola and 29-year-old Tessa Cutrer on Burgess Road. Both had outstanding arrest warrants in other counties and were placed under arrest.

After being interviewed by police, both Kantola and Cutrer were charged in Graves County with receiving stolen property (firearm) and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Both were lodged in the Graves County Jail.
By WestKyStar and WKCTC Staff Aug. 06, 2016 | 10:08 PM | PADUCAH, KY

A new initiative of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) is removing unfamiliar technical abbreviations and other barriers to help students understand what theyre reading when visiting the KCTCS website.





Even though each KCTCS college has its own website, research showed ktcs.edu has more than 10 million visits each year from current and prospective students. KCTCS also found the site navigation and content was not as friendly to students as it should be. To remedy that, KCTCS split the site into two sites  one for students (kctcs.edu) and one for the operations side of supporting the colleges (systemoffice.kctcs.edu).





To help KCTCS engage better with students, the website copy and other content has been changed to be more student friendly. The new writing style is based on research that showed prospective students are overwhelmed and apprehensive about college. The goal of this content change is to put students at ease and make them feel they belong at a KCTCS college.





This gives current and prospective students information in an easily accessible format that quickly helps them find what they need and is written in a way they can understand and relate to, said KCTCS President Jay K. Box. Even though students are our first priority, we still need a place for conducting the systems business, which is now in a different location.





The new System Office site includes financial and business services information, leadership information, giving options and system initiatives. It is where job seekers, vendors, business partners, government partners and others will find the information they need to work with KCTCS. The site includes a faculty and staff area as well.





All work on the website split, voice development and content was created by the KCTCS Marketing and Web teams from across the state. The next step will be to make similar changes to the 16 college sites.





For most Kentuckians, higher education begins at the Kentucky Community and Technical College System. Our statewide system of 16 colleges, more than 70 campuses and more than 116,000 students is a critical component to transforming the states economy by providing citizens with the education and training needed for high growth, high wage careers. For more information, visit kctcs.edu


By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 06, 2016 | 05:56 PM | FANCY FARM, KY

Kentucky Republicans took shots at absent Democrats during Saturday's Fancy Farm Picnic.

Most of the state's Democratic officeholders skipped this year's picnic, citing family obligations. House Speaker Greg Stumbo called his absence a political protest and urged other Democrats to boycott the state's premier political event to protest the selection of Scott Jennings, a Republican political consultant, as the master of ceremonies.

Republican Gov. Matt Bevin had a message for the absent Democrats.

I would say to Greg Stumbo and others who have chosen to boycott on whatever reasons they have chosen it for, if you can't run with the big dogs, stay on the porch.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell also piled on.

The Attorney General couldn't be here, McConnell said. Apparently, he had a scheduling problem. The Secretary of State couldn't be here. She too had a scheduling problem. Fancy Farm has been going on for more than 130 years. Everyone knows it's the first Saturday in August every single year. Somebody responsible for scheduling elections ought to be able to work it in, don't you think?

With many of the state's top Democrats not in attendance, U.S. Senate Candidate Jim Gray was left with little backup on stage and even less in the audience.

On the Net:
Rita Redmond was a true lady who felt that every pupil had something to gift to the world
KENOSHA  It took all of one tweet and one interview.

But when Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump gave a shoutout on Twitter to House Speaker Paul Ryans primary challenger, Paul Nehlen, and the next day refused to endorse Ryan, a national spotlight suddenly shone on the area.

The glare was particularly bright for Nehlen, who got a sudden burst of attention although hes still considered a longshot ahead of Tuesdays primary. A poll released Friday from the Republican firm Remington Research Group showed Ryan up 80-14 in the southern Wisconsin district, which includes all of Racine County.

Local Republicans reactions to what transpired last week ranged from bemusement to anger even as most expect Ryan to win handily.

Its one of the weirdest things Ive ever seen, said state Rep. Tyler August, R-Lake Geneva.

Coulter makes visit

Nehlen has garnered support from the so-called alt-right, with endorsements from the likes of former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and conservative commentator Ann Coulter, who appeared with Nehlen Saturday at rallies in Janesville and Kenosha.

At the Kenosha rally, Coulter linked Nehlen with Trump while mocking Ryan in a speech filled with jabs and one-liners.

He drove a Weinermobile in college, now he drives the overloaded omnibus, Coulter said at one point.

She also picked up where Nehlen left off in a radio interview when he suggested we have a discussion about deporting all Muslims. Coulter ridiculed the idea of allowing Muslims to immigrate to the United States, asking if the country should really accept people whose religion teaches them that they should kill us.

Immigration was also a major topic of Nehlens speech, as he hit familiar themes on trade, the Constitution and special interests.

He doesnt care about you, he doesnt care about any of us. He cares about those thousand donors ... the ones that control the levers of government, Nehlen said at the rally, held in the parking lot of his campaign headquarters, 1112 56th St.

Ryan has laughed off the criticism, particularly on immigration. Rejecting Nehlens charge hes for open borders, Ryan has said securing the border is the first step in any immigration reform proposal and has pointed to votes providing funding for enforcement of immigration laws and border security, including a fence.

Its over-the-pale stuff, Ryan told local reporters Friday. People know when you say such crazy stuff that its just not that believable. I also dont think people take too kindly to folks coming from out of state to tell them what to do and who should represent them.

Everybody knows me really well. Im from here, Im of here. Ive done over 600 town hall meetings. Im home every weekend talking to constituents.

National campaign

The attention might have picked up in the past week, but Nehlens campaign has long had a national flavor since it launched in April.

Most of Nehlens financial support comes from outside Wisconsin. A review of campaign finance records showed that of the $589,063 Nehlen raised between April 1 and June 30, just $6,703 came in contributions from Wisconsin residents, not including the $100,000 Nehlen loaned his campaign.

To be sure, Ryan has also amassed money from across the country while raising almost $15 million since the beginning of 2015. Nehlen and his supporters highlight that while arguing, as speakers at Saturdays rally did, that national interest in the primary is appropriate because the impact goes beyond the 1st Congressional District.

Were running a national campaign and were also running a local campaign, because were talking about the speaker of the House here, Nehlen said in an interview.

Many Ryan backers, like August, doubt Nehlen has support among actual voters in the district and have been critical of those from outside the state trying to influence the race.

Its an unfortunate situation. I guess part of the job of speaker is youre going to have those fringe elements coming after you, August said. But Tuesday, were going send a message to the rest of the country that were with Paul (Ryan) and hes with us.
RACINE COUNTY  While Wisconsins U.S. Senate race is one of the most hotly contested in the country, Democrat Russ Feingold first faces a little-known primary challenger.

Scott Harbach of Kenosha is running in Tuesdays Democratic primary against Feingold, the former three-term senator trying to recapture the seat he lost in 2010 to U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson.

Harbach, 57, owns three private detective agencies and said in an email that electing him would be like Wisconsin having its own private detective and lie detector examiner in Washington; fighting corruption, dishonesty and waste.

Calling himself an independent Democrat, the married father of three says the country is at a crossroads, with distrust in government at an all-time high. He has pushed national security, improved police relations and protecting religious freedoms.

He said on the front page of his website that Many Democrat voters believe in God and are discouraged because their voice and values are ignored by the party, yet they want to vote Democrat and have no other option.

Asked about Harbach, a Feingold spokeswoman said the former senator will stand up to the D.C. special interests and fight for middle class and working families.

Since launching this campaign, Russ has visited each of Wisconsins 72 counties at least twice. And what hes heard from Wisconsinites from Polk to Dane County is the same: middle class and working families are struggling to get by in an economic system that favors multi-millionaires and corporations over working families, spokeswoman Amelia Penniman said. Wall Streets doing fine, but middle class and working families are still struggling with the cost of college or a secure retirement.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 07/08/2016 (2273 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

While thousands of Manitobans spent the better part of July searching high and low for Pokemon, Gordon Goldsborough was on a different sort of quest.

A past president and current webmaster for the Manitoba Historical Society, Goldsborough has spent the past six years seeking out and mapping historical sites around the province. The result is the societys interactive map of Manitoba historic sites, one of the best-kept secrets for both locals and tourists alike wanting to explore the province.

The historical society has long been at the forefront of educating Manitobans about their province. Created in 1879 as the Historical and Scientific Society of Manitoba, it ran a private library in Winnipeg long before the citys first public library opened in 1905. Their inventory of books, manuscripts and maps became the core of Winnipegs public collection.

I want to know the big picture. Why is it abandoned? What led to that? It can tell us a lot about how Manitoba is changing  Gordon Goldsborough

The society has had an online presence since 1999, and its ever-expanding website contains essays from its various publications dating back to the 1880s, scans of out-of-print community history books, rare archival images and thousands of biographies of those who played a part in building the province.

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Gordon Goldsborough outside the abandoned Vulcan Iron Works building on Maple Street.

Though the website contains information on countless historic sites, Goldsbrough said he found accessing it wasnt very convenient for an explorer.

Most of the information on the site was geographically oriented and in a very general sense: for example, walking tours of some of the communities in Winnipeg or communities outside of Winnipeg. They might give street addresses, but I was interested in having the location more exactly defined than that, he said.

Familiar with mapping technology through his day job as a water scientist at the University of Manitoba, in 2000 Goldsborough created the interactive map by taking the geographic co-ordinates of his finds and plotting them on Google Maps. The first site he logged was an old bank vault in a field south of Deloraine, one of a surprising number of abandoned bank vaults that dot the prairie.

A sites corresponding web page is populated with historic and modern photographs as well as other background information he can find from the Manitoba Historical Society and other sources.

For Goldsborough, the interactive map offers many advantages over a published document, noting, When you do a pamphlet or a book its pretty much fixed, whereas the online platform offers an evolving, organic document.

He is contacted almost daily by people wanting to contribute additional information about one of the sites. Sometimes its an old image, a school graduation program or the name of a longtime owner of a business.

They may just have a little piece of the puzzle, but by everyone contributing we can put it (the history of a site) together fairly thoroughly, Goldsborough said.

The map, which at last count contained 6,157 sites from every region of the province, can be searched using various filters. You can discover sites by municipality or type of site  perhaps a cemetery, church or monument. If you dont like those choices, you can enter your own keywords. Goldsborough says the sites that have received the most attention are former schoolhouses, churches and grain elevators.

GORDON GOLDSBOROUGH Goldsborough gets a better look at an abandoned one-room schoolhouse in the Interlake region.

Mapping and photographing grain elevators has become a top priority for Goldsborough. Why the interest? He says, They are so iconic. If you ask anyone around the world what they think about when they think of Prairie Canada, they always say grain elevators.

His urgency to document them is because of their dwindling numbers.

There are very few left, and they are coming down at an alarming rate. The living memory of these elevators is still there, but it wont be here much longer, Goldsborough said.

Most of the people who remember these elevators are elderly. If we dont capture the information while theyre still around, we will lose it.

Goldsborough notes Manitoba is home to what is likely Canadas oldest grain elevator. The former Lake of the Woods structure at Elva was built in 1897, just two years after what was once recognized by Parks Canada as the nations oldest elevator in Fleming, Sask. That structure was torched by an arsonist in 2010.

Another map category that has taken on a life of its own is what he calls abandoned Manitoba; everything from old mine shafts and quarries to schoolhouses and general stores. The subject has its own section on the Manitoba Historical Societys website, is a regular segment on CBC Manitobas Weekend Morning Show and a best of collection of photos and background information will be released in book form this autumn.

For Goldsborough, checking out an abandoned place isnt just about looking at ruins.

I want to know the big picture, he said. Why is it abandoned? What led to that? It can tell us a lot about how Manitoba is changing.

GORDON GOLDSBOROUGH The former Gourlay School in the RM of Elton.

As for next steps, Goldsborough has been experimenting with a drone to capture images and videos of sites that can only be seen by air, such as factory foundations or the many Commonwealth Air Training Plan installations that dotted the Prairies during the Second World War. These items will be added to a sites respective web page. The MHS is also compiling biographical information for each name that appears on a war memorial in Manitoba. This, too, will be added to the monuments web page.

Longer term plans include an app currently in development where users would be notified whenever they are passing an historic place or a certain type of site they have chosen by category or keyword. This would allow the MHS map to become a truly an immersive, interactive experience for hardcore explorers or those just out on a Sunday drive.

Goldsborough, who also maintains the historical societys Facebook page, says it is important that heritage organizations such as the society, municipalities and even weekend explorers share their photos and other historic information online because it makes the information accessible to a new generation of researchers and explorers.

Hopefully it will engage people who arent going to be attracted by the traditional methods of museums and books, Goldsborough said.

The reality is that for 20-somethings and even 30-somethings, the way they get their information increasingly is online, so thats where youve got to be.

You can find the Manitoba Historical Societys interactive map of Manitoba historic sites at www.mhs.mb.ca. If you would like to contribute information, Gordon Goldsborough can be contacted at gordon@mhs.mb.ca.

Christian Cassidy writes about local history on his blog, West End Dumplings.

GORDON GOLDSBOROUGH The former Morranville School in the RM of Grandview.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 07/08/2016 (2273 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When Islamic State militants first attacked a foreigner in Bangladesh last September, longtime expatriate Samantha Morshed brushed it off even though she heard the gunshots from her bedroom in Dhakas diplomatic enclave.

Morshed, 48, figured the murder of an Italian aid worker was a random act of violence in the capital of a Muslim-majority nation with almost three times as many people as her native Britain. She had lived in Dhaka with her Bangladeshi husband for more than a decade and employs more than 2,000 local women who hand-knit childrens toys and hats for her non-profit company.

On July 1, everything changed. Islamic State-linked militants killed 17 foreigners and five Bangladeshis after an 11-hour siege at the Holey Artisan Bakery, just a short walk from Morsheds house. Shes now in Bangkok and wary about returning.

THE ASSOCIATD PRESS FILES Members of a Bangladeshi special force leave a five-storey building used as a den by suspected Islamic militants in Dhaka last month.

I know a number of people who left this time, Morshed said from Bangkok. Many of them are not coming back.

Morshed is among a growing number of expatriates either leaving Bangladesh, cancelling travel plans or shutting down local events out of fear they might be targeted by Islamic militants. The prospect of more attacks on foreigners threatens to cause long-term economic damage, particularly to the US$28-billion garment industry that accounts for 80 per cent of exports.

So far, Bangladeshs economy has held up well as global demand stays sluggish. The outlook for the fiscal year through June 2017 has brightened, with economists in a Bloomberg survey last month raising growth forecasts to 6.75 per cent, one of the highest among emerging markets.

Yet the attacks targeting foreigners are making Bangladesh a scary place to do business. Those killed in the cafe included Italians working in the garment sector and Japanese aid workers, similar to many of the professions held by those in Bangladeshs small expatriate community.

In the past few weeks, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasinas government has arrested key members of local militant group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, which it blames for the attacks. It has downplayed the links with the Islamic State, which claimed responsibility and released photos of the victims.

The government doesnt want to say it has a terrorism problem because that could hurt investment and trade with other countries, said Sajjan Gohel, who teaches at the London School of Economics.

But not tackling it is going to hurt its economy in the long term.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan rejected assertions Bangladesh isnt doing enough to stem terrorism. The government is providing police protection to executives of foreign garment retailers, escorting them from airport to hotels to factories, he said. It is also seeking help from other nations.

We have deployed adequate security forces in the diplomatic area where embassies are located and foreigners live, Khan said by phone.

Intelligence agents are working round the clock.

Since the gruesome assault, Dhakas upscale Gulshan area looks like a neighbourhood at war. Police have set up more checkpoints and put more plainclothes officers on the streets. Hotels have tightened security. Restaurants are almost empty despite deploying extra security guards. Unimart, the largest supermarket in Gulshan with a popular coffee shop, is almost totally devoid of foreigners.

I know a number of people who left this time. Many of them are notcoming back Samantha Morshed, a U.K. citizen, on last months deadly terror attack

The British Council, a U.K. government organization that promotes educational opportunities and cultural relations, said July 27 it was shutting its Bangladesh office until it could put in place new security measures. The U.S. Embassy in Dhaka has said it will pay for diplomats to send families home, putting pressure on other embassies and major international organizations to do the same.

Experts say the concerns are warranted. A week after the cafe massacre, five Islamists killed three and injured 14 people at an Eid celebration in central Bangladesh. On July 26, a police raid killed nine Islamic militants who authorities said were preparing a major attack. One of those killed was a Bangladeshi-American MBA student, highlighting the growing appeal of militancy among even the Dhaka elite.

Further high-profile attacks on foreigners throughout the country are likely, whether direct attacks or mass-casualty attacks on soft targets, especially given difficulties in preventing such attacks, said Romita Das, a South Asia analyst at Control Risks, a risk consultancy that is advising clients to avoid travel to Bangladesh if possible.

Many international clothing chains maintain staff in Dhaka to oversee purchasing and orders from local factories. But companies are becoming wary of having foreigners in Dhaka. Fast Retailing Co., the Japanese company that owns the Uniqlo clothing brand, banned non-crucial travel to Bangladesh, the BBC reported. The company didnt respond to an email seeking comment.

Fazlul Hoque, whose Plummy Fashions factory exports US$30 million worth of knitwear annually, said he recently had to fly to Hong Kong to meet two buyers who refused to fly in and meet him at his facility outside Dhaka.

It seems the buyers are not in a mood to visit Bangladesh at this moment, he said.

If more attacks strike Bangladesh, that may slow export growth.

Although Hoque sees little near-term impact to his company, which churns out one million garments a month mainly to Europe, he does worry about the economic impact if the attacks continue, or worsen  which many analysts think is likely.

Bangladesh has seen a dramatic increase in violent Islamist attacks, in part due to political infighting between Hasina and the opposition leader Khaleda Zia, who boycotted the last election in 2014 and faces charges for corruption and inciting violence. Zias husband, the countrys first military ruler, started the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, or BNP, which has called itself the Islamic consciousness of the Muslim majority.

Local groups have since targeted secular bloggers and other political targets in low-tech attacks, often using machetes. In April, Hasina blamed the BNP for the murder of a gay rights activist, an allegation the party called totally ridiculous.

The recent violence is also causing alarm in neighbouring India. Rising Islamist militancy threatens to spill across the porous border into the Indian state of West Bengal, said Neelam Deo, a former Indian ambassador and director of the Gateway House policy research group in Mumbai.

ANGELO CARCONI / ANSA FILES A woman at Romes Ciampino military airport mourns over the coffin of one of the nine Italians killed in the July 1 attack.

Its a fake border, she said.

There are no natural features there. It cuts through peoples fields, through villages.

Morshed, the U.K. expatriate who went to Bangkok after the massacre, has delegated the day-to-day operations of her social enterprise to a local executive director. She plans to liaise with wholesalers and distributors from Bangkok, where she has put her kids in boarding school.

On her next trip to Dhaka, she said shell probably stay indoors the entire time because of the fear foreigners are under attack.

No one is comfortable, she said.

Thats the bottom line.

 Bloomberg
St. Jerome Catholic Church in conjunction with the Knights of Columbus 1609 will host bingo on Saturday, Aug. 13. Doors will open at 5 p.m. with bingo starting at 6 p.m.

Play 21 games for as little as $16 with a minimum payout per game of $25. The last game of the night will be progressive bingo. The jackpot is at $265 plus half the card sales. If the jackpot is not won in 51 numbers, the payout is $100.

Free popcorn will be served while supplies last. Refreshments including beer will also be available.

If 6 p.m. is too early, come at about 7:15 p.m. and play the last 10 games, or 8:30 p.m. to play just the progressive jackpot game.

St. Jerome is located at 1550 Farnham St. in Columbus.
Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin championed two causes Saturday  Wisconsins nature and the Democratic party to which she belongs.

At John Muir County Park south of Montello, Baldwin joined with about 100 visitors and dignitaries  including Ice Age National Scenic Trail Superintendent John Madden, Wisconsin Poet Laureate Bruce Dethlfesen, Marquette County Board Chairman Bob Miller, environmental historian Mark Stoll and local historian and author Kathleen McGwin  to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the National Park System.

Everyone needs beauty as well as bread; places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to the body and soul, said Dethlfesen, quoting John Muir, who, after his family immigrated from Dunbar, Scotland, when he was 11, settled in Marquette County in 1849. There, Muir developed his affinity for nature before going on to lobby for the creation of national parks, protection of natural space, and founded the Sierra Club.

We have been appropriately been focusing on John Muir, but I would not want to forget Aldo Leopold or Gaylord Nelson, if I think about people who have had such a significant impact from our state, said Baldwin.

This is personal to me and I think being here means this is personal to all of you, she said. I take responsibility to carry on our states tradition of leadership and commitment to protecting the air we breathe and the water we drink and the natural resources we cherish very seriously.

Early in the day the event started with a birding tour around the parks Ennis Lake that  less two species  is home to all of the same birds that Muir described in his book, The Story of My Boyhood and Youth. Visitors were encouraged to continue exploring there and along other trails, with the help of the Muir Boyhood Home Toursphere app.

I love exploring Wisconsin on this trail. It uniquely tells a story of our past and whenever I am there, I can tell you that I am often present and thinking about the future and our responsibilities to the future, said Baldwin.

She credited former Wisconsin Gov. and Sen. Gaylord Nelson for working to establish Earth Day, which brought together enough people  millions  to allow him return to issues of water and air conservation, which had been previously dismissed, with new authority.

It was powered by one man from Clear Lake, Wisconsin, or to borrow John [Madden]s quote of Margaret Meade a small group of thoughtful and committed citizens.

The event closed with live radio connection with John Muirs birthplace of Dunbar, Scotland, where Stoll had explained visitors can get guided tours of historic Muir locations as well as pick up special John Muir cloth, including the tie he wore for the event.

A cake with 100 candles was lit and then blown out as international fans of John Muir sang Happy Birthday.

Convention memories

After some last introductions, Baldwin was hustled off to her next stop at the Columbia County Democratic Party Headquarters on West Cook Street in Portage, where she met local candidates as they prepared for Tuesdays primary contest and the last stretch of campaigning before the November election. It would also be something of a victory lap following the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia a week earlier.

Oh my goodness, it was so exciting. I had the honor of casting Wisconsins delegate votes and then on Thursday I had the honor of going onstage with my female colleagues from the United States Senate, Baldwin said as visitors arrived at the offices ice cream social.

When representing Wisconsin, Baldwin announced it as a state that is still a home to manufacturing including paper products, beer and cheese, and home to Americas team the Green Bay Packers before declaring 38 delegate votes for Hillary Clinton and 48 for Bernie Sanders.

Baldwin told the group Saturday that she represents all Wisconsin voters, including those who elected Republicans Rep. Glenn Grothman and Sen. Ron Johnson.

To the degree that one can separate the day job of being a United States senator and that of the every-six-years job of being a candidate for re-election, the vast majority of the work that I do is non-partisan, said Baldwin. So serving constituents, you have a lost Social Security check, or they need assistance with renewing a passport, all of those things dont have partisanship and if you do that well, youre obviously reaching out to people of all legislative stripes.

The legislation that I championed on behalf of Wisconsin, whether it is about technical education of making college more affordable, growing our manufacturing sector, those are important to people who are partisan Democrats, partisan Republicans, or independents, said Baldwin.

One area of investment and potential growth promoted by Bill Tierney and Dave Cieslewicz, former mayors of Portage and Madison, respectively, has been in development of natural recreational areas, with bike paths being a passion for each.

I think about the recession when families couldnt afford to take vacations where they are flying to Disneyland or whatever, but you can always go to enjoy the incredible assets in your own area, said Baldwin. And I think that from an economic development perspective, a lot of folks look at the potentials for a good salary, but also look for the potential for a good life. And often that involves the outdoors and the ability to get out and hike or bike, or get into a canoe, and bird, or whatever floats your boat  no pun intended or maybe pun intended.

Touching back on where she started the day, Baldwin pointed to the John Muir County Park as an example of likely bi-partisanship.

I suspect that audience was filled with people of all political stripes celebrating Wisconsins conservation legacy, she said.

Correction: In the original publication of this article the office of the Columbia County Democrats was described as on DeWitt Street.
RACINE  As the summer begins to come to a close, so does the ongoing process to finalize the Racine Unified School District budget for the upcoming school year.

At a meeting last week, Unified Chief Financial Officer Marc Duff informed the School Board that the budget is to be voted on and finalized in October, but the estimated budget deficit has already decreased from $1.175 million to just over $1.097 million.

We wont know the big stuff on the budget until school starts in September, Duff said before Mondays School Board meeting.

Also, Duff said the district estimates receiving $200,000 in revenue through the Wisconsin Shares child subsidy program. The 4-year-old kindergarten program AIM (achieve, imagine, motivate) Now program, based at Living Faith Lutheran Church, 2915 Wright Ave., will be assisting Unified in obtaining that revenue.

Instead of having us pay them to have a 4K program and they hire their teachers, were going to change it so we hire the teachers and provide the educational assistance, Duff said. But we also wont have to pay the child care center for this 4K program.

HVAC needs

The district also is looking to improve the heating and cooling system for the Jerstad-Agerholm Elementary and Middle School building, Duff said, which could add an estimated $1 million to the districts performance tax levy.

That would be if we use a part of a state law (provision) to help fix a building using an energy efficiency (tax) levy, Duff said. If we do that, it will affect the budget because we didnt put it in there (before).

The district property tax rate, Duff said, is now estimated to be $9.83 per every $1,000 of property value, up 12 cents from earlier estimates due to the maintenance needs at Jerstad-Agerholm.

There are areas the district is looking at  such as adjusting staff health benefits  to save money, Duff said.

It is apparent we have opportunities to balance the district budget and perhaps meet priorities that are currently not funded in the budget, Duff said.




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After all of the deadly shootings around the nation and world, one restaurant owner in Portland, Maine, decided to take action herself.

On her Facebook page she posted that anyone who owned an assault rifle or supported an individuals rights to own an assault rifle could not enter either of her two restaurants. She stated the reason was because the only thing I want to teach is love.

Individuals such as Anne Verrill, the owner of the two restaurants, have a right to share opinions.

But if she is trying to teach love as she posted, discriminating against a particular group is not the way to do it.

Its not uncommon for business owners to use their establishments as platforms; business owners from all over the country have tried to ban certain groups from entering their establishments.

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who also happens to be Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trumps running mate, even signed a law last year that allowed businesses to turn away customers of different sexual orientation.

He later amended the law to protect those same customers  but not until after a lot of flak on the subject.

Verrills plan to ban customers who own AR-15s or support the right of citizens to own assault rifles is no better than Indiana businesses wanting to ban individuals based on their sexual orientation.

Instead of discriminating, businesses should use their storefronts and their websites and social media sites for the positive.

For instance, in support of local law enforcement Downtown Racine Corp. partnered with Downtown businesses Friday for what they called the Blue Light Project.

They placed blue luminary bags outside their stores for the First Friday event and placed signs in their windows saying We Back the Badge.

As part of a newsletter, Downtown Racine Corp. stated: Every day, our law enforcement officers put their lives on the line for their family, friends and communities to ensure their safety  We invite you to join us in respecting and honoring those that serve, and remembering those that have lost their lives in the line of duty.

That is the kind of positive messages that businesses should be spreading.

That is how you teach love, not by turning away customers who dont agree with your views.
The actress, however, says her relationship with Egor Tarabasov isnt over

Lindsay Lohan reportedly wants to move back to America and has hired her former bodyguard to assist with the transition. She also asked of him to become her personal protection once again.

The 30-year-old actress moved to London several years ago to be with fiance Egor Tarabasov. After a recent fight and allegations of an affair, however, Lohan now wants to stay away and move back to the states.

Mark Behar, her former bodyguard, told Heat magazine: She called me and said that shed had it with him. She said that she and Egor had a major fight due to his partying and her suspicions about him.

She asked me to help her with her transition back to the States, to work as her personal protection.

Behar also revealed that Lohan had told him everything about Tarabasov cheating on her. Some claim that the actress retaliated against her partner online because he had sacked her publicist, Hunter Fredrick, who regularly managed her social media accounts.

A source had previously said: Hunter knew about the problems between Egor and Lindsay  everyone has been concerned for months. Egor wanted to be looped in on all communication, as he felt he was part of Lindsays business. He also didnt want people to know how toxic their relationship was.

Despite these challenges, the Mean Girls star insists that the relationship isnt over. However, father Michael Lohan seems to be the only one encouraging them to remain together and work things out.

An insider stated: None of us want them back together. Everyone is hoping its over for good.
Jayda Handy

By: Tanya Malhotra

(Scroll down for video) A family in Wisconsin, was devastated when a 3-year-old girl was hit by a car while preparing for her birthday party.

It was an exciting day for Jayda Handy, who was turning 3 years old.

Her family made her a big birthday party near North 84th and West Marion streets in Milwaukee.

When Handy saw her grandfather arriving to the party, she ran to him to give him a hug.

Sadly, the little girl ran between two parked cars and into the road without looking, and she was hit by a car. She was rushed to a hospital, where she later died.

The incident unfolded in front of her family members at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday. Family members who arrived for the birthday party, went across the street to a park to remember the little girl, who they said always had a smile.

The girlas father, Jaylen Handy, showed off the adorable Disney themed birthday cake that he bought for his daughter, who will never got to taste a piece of it.
Wisconsin families are hurting, but their elected representative, Paul Ryan, is pushing a disastrous trade agenda that will make it even harder for them to make ends meet.

On Aug. 9, the Wisconsin voters have the power to stop Ryans anti-worker agenda.

If Paul Ryan is sent back to Washington, he will immediately begin to ram through the job-killing Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, an agreement that will profoundly deepen the difficulties Wisconsin workers and their families are already experiencing.

What gives me the background to discuss trade? From shop floor to middle management to senior executive, Ive earned my experience. I know business, and I know trade. An engineering consultancy I started in the late 1990s launched me into the Fortune 200 Dover Corporation. As VP of Europe, Middle East and Africa, Ive grown multi-billion dollar Fortune 500 SPX Corporation businesses, as well as private businesses in Wisconsin and around the world. Ive closed factory operations in Mexico and Canada, as well as product lines from China, bringing those jobs back to the U.S.

Since Paul Ryan went to Washington, Wisconsin has lost a fifth of its manufacturing jobs.

Wisconsin families and workers have watched as job after job has disappeared: General Motors, Parker Pens, Chrysler, Eaton Corp  and the list goes on.

Yet Paul Ryan has pushed to exacerbate this trend.

Ryan voted to give China permanent normal trade-relations status with the United States, while voting against cracking down on Chinese currency manipulation. How is this good for us?

In 2015, Ryan became the most vocal champion of fast-tracking the TPP.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, Wisconsin suffered a net loss of nearly 40,000 jobs in 2015 alone due to the U.S. trade deficit with TPP countries.

Paul Ryans trade agenda, coupled with his open borders immigration agenda on behalf of the cheap-labor lobby, will deliver a devastating blow to Wisconsin workers.

Paul Ryan has never worked as hard for Wisconsin constituents as he has for corporate America. Name a single time when Paul Ryan fought tooth and nail for something his donors opposed?

TPP will also have significant implications for U.S. sovereignty. As Senator Jeff Sessions has explained, it creates a global governing commission, a Pacific Union that resembles a nascent European Union.

Any time you enter into a trade deal with multiple countries you invite major problems. Look at NAFTA, the bad trade deal that keeps on giving. U.S. producers, for example, are now unable to mark beef as USA Beef after being sued for breaking NAFTA. Whats next? Do we really want to lose next the ability to mark our dairy exports with Real Wisconsin Cheese?

Bi-lateral trade deals can work well if negotiated well. That means dealing properly with countries that manipulate currency  so we dont always get the short end of the stick. Key to that process is scaled tariffs that would adjust automatically, based on the trade deficit we carry with any given nation.

I oppose the TPP. If elected, I will stand up to Paul Ryans special-interest donors, who are pushing this raw deal.

A vote for Ryan is a vote for bad trade deals, open borders, lower wages, less jobs, and rule by corporations. If you want to save Wisconsin jobs and defend American sovereignty, vote to retire Ryan on Aug. 9.
LONDON (AP) - A 19-year-old Somali-Norwegian man accused of carrying out a stabbing attack in London has been remanded into custody after a court appearance today.

Zakaria Bulhan is accused of killing 64-year-old American Darlene Horton, a retired teacher. Bulhan also faces five counts of attempted murder in Wednesday's attack, which also injured another American, two Australians, an Israeli and a British citizen.

Horton was visiting London with her husband, Florida State University psychology professor Richard Wagner, who had been teaching summer classes in London. The couple had been due to fly home the next day.

Bulhan, who moved to Britain as a child, mumbled his name, address and date of birth during the hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court. When asked if he understood the charges, he gave a thumbs-up gesture. He will appear at the Central London Criminal Court on Aug. 9.

(Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

8/6/2016 9:35:58 AM (GMT -4:00)
The power pole at Rudkin Road and McNair Avenue in Union Gap broke in half on August 6, 2016. (Photo Mark Morey / Yakima Herald-Republic)
There were backpacks, books, pencils  and more than a few tears. Thanks to the generosity of the community, Santanas School Supply Drive raised enough school supplies for more than 400 Yakima School District students.
Yakima County posts notices on properties that have building code violations specifying the violation and action needed to correct them. (File photo PHIL FEROLITO/Yakima Herald-Republic)
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The Knesset building on Givat Ram in Jerusalem was inaugurated in a grand state ceremony 50 years ago this month. Some 6,000 guests, including heads of state, came to the ceremony, while some 5,000 Israelis watched it from the hills across from the legislature.

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The Knesset as a legislative body began operating in 1949, and it travelled between a few buildings in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv at that time. In 1950, it met in Frumin House in the heart of Jerusalem. This 'temporary' house served the legislature for 16 years, thanks to delays in construction of the Givat Ram site.

Photo: Knesset Archive

The Knesset building's inauguration in 1966 (Photo: Knesset Archive)

On the left, Knesset Speaker Kadish Luz with Golda Meir (Photo: Knesset Archive)

Shimon Peres, Menachem Begin and Yigal Alon, among others (Photo: Knesset Archive)

Fifty years ago, the former president Shimon Peres was a young MK. He recalled the ceremony with pride to Ynet: "The inauguration of the Knesset building was a holiday for the country and a moving event for the entire nation. The day that the building was inaugurated was the day that the young State of Israel adopted the real democratic system."

Peres also said, "There was a real excitement and elation, similar to the day that the UN announced the decision to establish the State of Israel. Here, we launched the democratic foundation of the state. It was elation and a sense of the historic moment that we were laying the infrastructure for the democratic future of the young State of Israel."

In 1957, the architect Ossip Klarwein won a competition to design the Givat Ram building. However, the building that ended up being inaugurated was completely different from his plans, instead being a blend of various architects who changed during the nine years of the building's planning and construction. The building was inaugurated on August 30, 1966, and the very next day, the MKs met therein.

The then-speaker of the Knesset, Kadish Luz, said at the time, "Here, on this hill of the hills of Jerusalem, the capital, we inaugurate the permanent home of the Knesset. Marking 18 years of the State of Israel, a home has been given to the highest institution, the source of all authority, rule and law in Israel. We have fulfilled ancient prophecies. Faith in the future return to Zion, recognition of the national unity of the tribes of Israel, and adherence to the spiritual assets that the Jewish nation has carried for thousands of years of dispersion throughout the world were the principal spiritual cause for its revival and thriving."

The prime minister of the day, Levi Eshkol, said at the ceremony, "This building, which will house inside it the country's legislature, constitutes a symbol of the rebirth of Israel in its land, a sign of the renewal of its sovereignty, and a testimony to its mind for developed democracy. Democracy in Israel took shape in difficult times, times of trial, days of crises and state, military, economic and social challenges. It took shape in a bitter struggle against hostility, threats and attacks from outside."

He added, "On the anvil of the Knesset will be forged the people's national unity; between its walls will form the wonderful union of children returned to their borders after the terrible destruction that befell them. Here will be unified Israel, which carried its pack on its eternal wanderings, its culture and its hope for other days, with which its existence was fought for, despite its dispersion and incessant pain, fought for and attained.

"In looking to this supreme institution, the nation in Israel and in the Diaspora will know that there is a payoff for its work, and not in vain were its struggle for existence and longing for redemption throughout the generations."
BERLIN - The leader of Germany's liberal Free Democrats (FDP) likened Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's purge of state institutions to the actions of the Nazi party in the 1930s in comments published on Sunday.

FDP leader Christian Lindner said he saw parallels between Erdogan's behaviour and aftermath of the Reichstag fire in 1933 portrayed by the Nazis as a Communist plot against the government and used by Adolf Hitler to justify massively curtailing civil liberties.

"We are experiencing a coup d'etat from above like in 1933 after the Reichstag fire. He is building an authoritarian regime tailored solely to himself," Lindner told the Bild am Sonntag.
A group of 30 Israelis and Israel supporters participated in a pride march in the Swedish city of Malmo on Saturday despite the city's reputation as a hotbed for anti-Israel and anti-Semitic activity.

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The pride march saw participants waving Israeli, Swedish, and gay pride flags.

The march was organized by Ilana Adner, an Israeli who has lived in Malmohome to the highest Muslim population in Swedenfor the past 40 years. She gathered 11 other Israeli residents of the city, several of the city's Jewish residents, a Palestinian from Nablus, a Palestinian from Bethlehem, and other Israel supporters to participate in the march.

Israeli and Swedish flags at the Malmo LGBT march

The participants marched with signs which read "Tel Aviv salutes the Malmo Gay Pride March," and proudly waved Israeli flags.

While the marchers encountered verbal abuse from Arab residents of the city, they were also greeted by many people clapping and cheering on the march.

"A lot of Swedes know Tel Aviv and know that the people there are very pro-LGBT," Adner said. "It felt like I was tempting fate if we had written 'Israel' on the signs, so I wrote 'Tel Aviv.' Overall, a lot of people approached us to congratulate us, but there were a lot of Arabs who yelled 'f**k Israel' at us. That wasn't so pleasant. But we weren't afraid and continued to wave the flag."

The group also handed out little Israeli flags, which they received from the Israeli embassy, to bystanders. At one point during the march a confrontation with Palestinian girls transpired. Nevertheless, the march ended peacefully mainly due to the fact that Swedish police officers were escorting participants.

The Swedish Police have promised to do more to protect Jews and Israelis from violence, yet no tangible effects have been felt on the ground.

Israeli, Swedish, and LGBT Pride flags at Malmo Pride March

"Identifying yourelf as an Israeli in Malmo can end in violence," Adner said. "It usually starts with derogatory name-calling, yelling, and threats, but can quickly spiral into violence. We're worried someone might attack us. Although this didn't happen, you can still feel the tension in the air."

She addd that "waving the Israeli flag isn't something normal to do in Malmo, and this is the first time it's happened at a gay pride march. I insisted that we wave Israeli flags because we are sick of being afraid in this city. I felt that enough was enough. We're not ready to keep being afraid without doing anything. So we decided to wave the Israeli flag."

Israeli Ambassador to Sweden Isaac Bachman praised the initiative an said that it was important to bring Israeli opinions to the Swedish public.

"I'm happy and sensed a change. We are succeeding in presenting Israeli opinions and positions to the Swedish public via social and public media," said Bachman.

"More and more people are coming forward to defend Israel, including the initiative to wave the Israeli flag in the Malmo pride parade. Malmo is the most difficult city in Sweden to be Jewish or Israeli due to its large and strong Muslim population. A lot of them are from the Middle East and bring their hatred of Jews and Israel from their home countries."
Following statements voiced by the Defense Ministry of the Iran nuclear deal on Friday, in which its was compared to British Prime Ministers appeasement policy and the 1938 signing of the Munich agreement with Hitler, government officials have continued to heap criticism on the deal.

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A minister in the Prime Ministers Office Tzachi Hanegbi (Likud) claimed on Saturday that the US governments hailing of the deals success thus far is totally unfounded.

There is no basis for the American governments approach according to which the the full Iranian implementation of the nuclear agreement is indicative of its success, Hanegbi said. This is precisely the problem with the agreement: Iran has no reason to violate it during its validation period because it already serves all its purposes. Iran continues its regional subversion unabated. It arms and finances terror organizations and continues to advance its illicit production of ballistic missiles. Despite all this its economy enjoys the removal of sanctions and many countries investing in businesses in Iran, he complained.

Tzachi Hanegbi (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

Hanegbi then went on to undermine the statements of President Barack Obama himself after the latter claimed that the deal has even garnered the support of many in the Israeli security establishment.

Even the statements made by President Obama about support by Israeli security officials for the agreement are inaccurate. The Israeli security establishment is aware of the fact that the agreement, if not violated, prevents the strengthening of Irans nuclear capacity for at least a decade. At the same time, all of our intelligence officials have stated that when the agreement expires Iran will be be free of all restrictions which were imposed upon it by the agreement, and will therefore stand on the brink of acquiring a nuclear weapon within a short space of time, Hanegbi continued.

President Obama himself pointed out this possibility toward the signing of the agreement and this danger has not disappeared. Every day that passes brings us closer to this harsh reality that 10 years in human history passes in the blink of an eye.

Hanegbis comments came a day after US President Barack Obama announced on Friday that the Iran nuclear agreement is working exactly as planned, and stated that Israel itself acknowledges the fact that Iran is holding to its part of the agreement.

PM Benjamin Netanyahu and President Obama (Photo: Reuters)

The presidents comments prompted a swift and unusual response from the Israeli Defense Ministry the same night which sought to highlight the differences between what is stipulated in the agreement and the reality of Irans actions.

"The Israeli security services believe that the agreements only have value if they are based on existing reality, and that they hold no value if the reality on the ground is completely different than the reality envisioned in the agreements."

The response continued, saying "the Munich agreement didn't stop World War Two or the Holocaust. (The agreement's -ed) basic premise - that Nazi Germany could be a partner in some form of agreement  was wrong, and world leaders at the time ignored Hitler's and other Nazi leaders' blunt remarks (regarding the Jews -ed)."

"This is the same regarding the agreement with Iran, which itself explicitly and publicly announces that its goal is to destroy the state of Israel. A US State Department document published this year states that Iran is the chief state sponsor of terror world wide," the response said. "Therefore, the Israeli security establishment, the nation of Israel, and many other nations around the world, understand that agreements like those signed between the world super powers and Iran aren't helpful. They only damage the uncompromising struggle against nations which support terror."

President Barak Obama (Photo: Reuters)

After the Ministry of Defense sent it's statement, the Prime Minster's Office sent a softer reply, saying "Israel's position on the Iran Nuclear Deal remains as it was. However, Prime Minister Netanyahu still believes that Israel has no greater ally than the United States. As Netanyahu said in his UN speech last year, it's important that those who were for the agreement and those who were against it cooperate to fulfill three goals; to make sure that Iran doesn't violate the agreement, to deal with Iran's regional aggression, and to dismantle Iran's global terror network. The prime minister expects these goals to become part of shared policies, and that the alliance between the US and Israel only grow stronger not only with President Obama, but also with his successor."

Obama's statements came after the Iranian leadership expressed disappointment with the agreement on Tuesday , a fact which some have suggested are manifestations of the first cracks in Iranian trust in their agreement. Iranian leader Ali Khomeini said that the average Iranian hasn't seen the benefits they had hoped to see following the agreement.
Eight Syrians are injured, all of them either seriously and critically. Two of them are children; one seven years old, the other 11. They were evacuated by the IDF to Israel last week, and have been sent to various hospitals in the north for treatment.

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The wounded arrived at the border fence after heavy artillery fire allegedly coming from the Assad regime. hit the medical center in the town of Qunietra, right across the border from Israel.

The wounded were sent from ruined the medical center to the border fence, and the IDF medical corps declared their arrival on the other side of the border to be a medical emergency with multiple casualties.

The injured persons were bleeding heavily and were injured in all different parts of their bodies. They had everything from head injuries to shrapnel injuries to even bullet wounds. Dozens of IDF paramedics and doctors worked under cover of darkness to treat them.

IDF troops save Syrians at the border (:  ")

X

"We were forced to call in medical teams from the armored corps who happened to be doing drills that day in the Golan to supplement the medical forces of the brigade which is normally responsible for the area, alongside various reserve forces," explained Micky Almakis from the divisional medical squad.

"Seven medical teams, including high ranking medical personnel were called to the area. The two children had burns all over their bodies and were in real danger of losing their lives. They were groaning from the pain they were in. Now, they're recovering and being taken care of by the best people. Their grandmother came to accompany them, and thanked us for treating them. The wounded Syrians were surprised at the care and compassion we gave to them when they crossed the border over to us," Almakis said.

Wounded Syrians being evacuated from the border to Israeli hospitals (Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

Almakis and his team were also forced to perform emergency medical procedures when the Syrians crossed over into Israel, such as opening up airways and draining fluids from their chests.

Michel Pushkov, an army paramedic who treated the two children, added that "we brought a lot of medical equipment with us because we knew that it was a huge event. The kids looked terrible. We gave them medicine, and despite the fact that they were terrified, they answered our questions. The moment they understood that I was there to help them, they looked a lot happier. They were administered fluids and sterile blankets to prevent against infection and hypothermia."

The fighting in the area is occurring due to the Assad regime's desire to regain control over the border area with Israel, an area which has been under rebel and Islamist extremist control since last year.

Mental Hardship

Recent reports have exposed the hardships the paramedics in the Golan are subject to after seeing and treating wounded from the Syrian civil war on a near daily basis.

Wounded Syrians being evacuated to Israel (Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

According to Pushkov, "we have a permanent IDF psychologist on hand, and as medical personnel, we are able to say and express everything on our minds quickly. We also share our feelings with each other. The system is very supportive."

The IDF decided to close down its field hospital on the Syrian border in the northern Golan Heights. The military decided that it would instead do emergency treatments in military ambulances while they are on their way to a hospital in the Galilee. The IDF Northern Command said that the closing of the field hospital was done to increase efficiency, and that the field hospital can be re-opened at any time.

There have so far been 2,500 wounded Syrians treated in Israel since Israel began accepting them on humanitarian grounds three years ago.
TEHRAN- Iran's official news agency, IRNA, is confirming that Iran has executed a nuclear scientist who gave the US intelligence about the country's contested nuclear program.

The Sunday report quotes a spokesman for the Iranian judiciary, Gholamhosein Mohseni Ejehi, as confirming the execution of Shahram Amiri. He says Amiri "provided the enemy with vital information of the country."

US officials in 2010 said they paid Amiri some $5 million to defect and provide "significant" information about Iran's atomic program. But Amiri later fled the US without the money.
Iran confirmed on Sunday that it has executed an Iranian nuclear scientist who gave the US intelligence about the country's contested nuclear program.

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The official IRNA news agency quoted a spokesman for Iran's judiciary, Gholamhosein Mohseni Ejehi, confirming the execution of Shahram Amiri, an Iranian nuclear scientist caught up in a real-life US spy mystery who later returned to his home country and disappeared. He did not say where or when the execution took place, but said Amiri's initial death sentence had been reviewed by an appeal court and that he had access to a lawyer.

Shahram Amiri (Photo: AP)

Amiri "provided the enemy with vital information of the country," Ejehi said.

Amiri, who worked for a university affiliated with Iran's defense ministry, vanished in 2009 while on a religious pilgrimage to Muslim holy sites in Saudi Arabia, only to reappear a year later in a set of online videos filmed in the US. He then walked into the Iranian interests section at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington and demanded to be sent home, returning to a hero's welcome in Tehran.

In interviews, Amiri described being kidnapped and held against his will by Saudi and American spies, while US officials said he was to receive millions of dollars for his help in understanding Iran's contested nuclear program. Now, a year after his country agreed to a landmark accord to limit uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions, he is reported to have been hanged without any official word on his case.

Photo: Reuters

"I am a simple researcher who was working in the university," Amiri said on his return to Tehran in July 2010. "I'm not involved in any confidential jobs. I had no classified information."

News about Amiri, born in 1977, has been scant since his return to Iran. Last year, his father Asgar Amiri told the BBC's Farsi-language service that his son had been held at a secret site since coming home.

On Tuesday, Iran announced it had executed a number of criminals, describing them mainly as militants from the country's Kurdish minority. Then, according to Iranian pro-reform daily, Shargh, an obituary notice circulated in Amiri's hometown of Kermanshah, a city some 500 kilometers (310 miles) southwest of Tehran, announcing a memorial service on Thursday and calling him a "bright moon" and "invaluable gem."

Photo: Reuters

Manoto, a private satellite television channel based in London believed to be run by those who back Iran's ousted shah, first reported Saturday that Amiri had been executed. BBC Farsi also quoted Amiri's mother saying her son's neck bore ligature marks suggesting he had been hanged by the state.

State media in Iran, which has been silent about Amiri's case for years, did not report his death until Sunday. The Associated Press could not immediately reach his family. Iran's mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It is unclear what would have prompted Iranian authorities to execute Amiri, years after his first disappearance. However, since the nuclear deal, hard-liners within Iran's government have been increasingly targeting dual nationals for arrest in the country and cracking down on journalists, artists, human rights activists and others.

Photo: AP

US officials told the AP in 2010 that Amiri was paid $5 million to offer the CIA information about Iran's nuclear program, though he left the country without the money. They said Amiri, who ran a radiation detection program in Iran, stayed in the US for months under his own free will. Analysts abroad suggested Iranian authorities may have threatened Amiri's family back in Iran, forcing him to return.

But when he returned to Iran, Amiri said Saudi and American officials had kidnapped him while he visited the Saudi holy city of Medina. He also said Israeli agents were present at his interrogations and that that CIA officers offered him $50 million to remain in America.

"I was under the harshest mental and physical torture," he said.

Amiri's case indirectly found its way back into the spotlight in the US last year with the release of emails sent by US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton while she served as secretary of state. The release of those emails came amid criticism of Clinton's use of a private account and server that has persisted into her campaign against Republican candidate Donald Trump.

An email forwarded to Clinton by senior adviser Jake Sullivan on July 5, 2010, appears to reference Amiri.

"We have a diplomatic, 'psychological' issue, not a legal one. Our friend has to be given a way out," the email by Richard Morningstar, a former State Department special envoy for Eurasian energy, read. "We should recognize his concerns and frame it in terms of a misunderstanding with no malevolent intent and that we will make sure there is no recurrence.

"Our person won't be able to do anything anyway. If he has to leave so be it."

Another email, sent July 12, 2010 by Sullivan, appears to obliquely refer to the scientist just before his story became widely known.

"The gentleman ... has apparently gone to his country's interests section because he is unhappy with how much time it has taken to facilitate his departure," Sullivan wrote. "This could lead to problematic news stories in the next 24 hours."
Ethiopian security forces shot tear gas and closed roads in major cities throughout the country on Saturday as demonstrators protested against land reforms and alleged human rights abuses being carried out by the government.

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Additionally, two protesters were killed in clashes with police in the old city of Gondar over land disputes Friday. The Israeli Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem issued a travel warning for Israelis against travelling to the city. The city was the center for Ethiopian Jewry, and many Israelis travel there to see what Jewish life was like in the east African nation.

On Saturday, Hundreds of people gathered in Mescal square in the center of Addis Ababa only to be dispursed by the police. Protests also broke out in the towns of Waliso and Ambo, both in Oromiya province. Eyewitness reports say that soldiers closed the roads and shot in the air. There is a large university in Ambo.

Protestors in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (Photo: Reuters)

There are reports that the internet in Addis Ababa has been cut. It is not yet clear if this is due to the government.

There have been several protests in the central Oromiya province of the country demonstrating against a plan to annex some of the territory in order to expand the Ethiopian Capital Addis Ababa.

The catalyst for demonstrations in Ethiopia is a controversial land development plan put forth by the Ethiopian government which was designed to help investment and industrialize the Ethiopian agriculture sector. Small protests erupted when the plan was originally developed in 2014.

Protestors in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (Photo: Reuters)

The plans were shelved following fierce opposition from the residents of the area, yet there are continued protests due to alleged violations of human rights. The protestors want people arrested during the demonstrations to be freed.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry has also called upon Israelis in Ethiopia to remain alert in cities in central and southern Ethiopia and to stay away from protests. The ministry also suggests staying more than ten kilometers away from the Ethiopia-Eritrea border, the Ethiopian-Sudanese border, the Ethiopian-South Sudanese border, and the Ethiopian-Kenyan border.
Two years since Operation Protective Edge, the IDF has integrated the majority of the lessons drawn during the 50-day war into its military strategy for the next war which security officials have determined is only a matter of time.

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Besides the tactical lessons, which include the solution to detecting Hamas terror tunnels, improved intelligence, and preventing amphibious infiltration, the question which still lingers beyond all else is what to expect from the IDF during next war against the terror organization which has reigned over the Gaza Strip for nearly a decade.

The three main operations conducted against Hamas (Cast Lead, Pillar of Defense and Protective Edge) have all, arguably, returned Israel to the exact same position in which it found itself on the eve of all three operations. Hamas has rearmed itself, increased its creativity and its determination to fire its last rocket appears not to have diminished in the slightest.

Hamas rocket falls in Kibbutz (Photo: Idan Erez)

The architects of all three operations expected that Hamas would be delivered a blow that would leave it severely weakened and deterred. Yet Hamas it is still breathing. Now, with Avigdor Lieberman as the new defense minister, this policy can change with the outbreak of another war under the direction of the present government given Liebermans multiple callings for the total decimation of Hamas rather than its mere weakening.

The key word is decisiveness. Every conflict must end decisively.That is my directive, Lieberman recently said during a Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting. It is a doctrine which could find itself at odds with that of Netanyahu or IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot according to whom a new and prolonged wallowing in Gaza by the IDF is much worse than a number of blows which normally achieve peace for a number of years.

Rockets launched from Gaza (Photo: AFP)

Either way, the investigations of Protective Edge have already been translated in the IDF into practical lessons for the field. While the overall picture is encouraging, it is unknown whether it will necessarily translate into reality during the next round of fighting.

Intelligence

This was one of the IDFs achilles heels during the latest Gaza operation. The Shin Bet and intelligence agencies found difficult throughout to locate the sites from which rockets were being launched or the hideouts of senior Hamas officials.

Hamas and the Islamic Jihad movement managed to launch more than half of their entire rocket arsenal without the IDF identifying their launching spots. Only toward the end of the operation did the higher echelons of the organization suffer following an assassination attempt which partially succeeded as it claimed the lives of senior Hamas officials and seriously wounded the leader of its military wing, Mohammed Deif.

The second shortfall was strategic. Their forces in battle enjoyed access to quality and unprecedented intelligence. The successful and meticulous compartmentalization of Hamas and its effective exploitation of its population as a human shield brought about relative success, forcing the Israeli intelligence community to review its strategies, the results of which will be assessed during the next round.

Tunnel threat

The IDF drew lessons regarding the Hamas attack tunnels which proved traumatic for the Israeli population and which claimed soldiers lives on both sides of the border in 2014. More recently another truth was exposed relating to Israels post-war claim that it had destroyed the tunnels during the operation.

The two tunnels which were discovered a few weeks ago near the Gaza border were dug , as it turned out, before Protective Edge.

In addition the fact that Hamas began digging and investing more of its budget in the tunnels, convinced the IDF of the necessity to train every ground troop to face the tunnel threat.

Hamas terrorists (Photo: EPA)

Above all, the elite Combat Engineering Unit which was responsible for blowing up the tunnels during the operation, has increased three-fold since its conclusion. Some of the improvisation that was undertaken to destroy the tunnels were consolidated into consistent fighting techniques. As a preventative measure which saw the investment of billions of shekels, the first success for a system of tunnel detection has already been recorded in recent months. However in the never-ending maneuver and counter-maneuvers between Hamas and the IDF, Hamas is also learning about the new system and seeking ways to circumvent it.

Frontline defense

Another lesson taken from Protective Edge touches on the Hamas doctrine to take the fight to the enemy - a well-established Israeli doctrine. The IDF has not shied away from tough talk, warning that the defensive strike in the next war will be no less devastating that an offensive strike. This has been manifested by way of upgraded and improved capabilities of units stationed on the border charged with handling Hamas infiltration into Israeli territory.

The frontline defense will also have at its core an evacuation program for towns situated near the borders. This will also include greater protection at military entry points into the war zones at the border within Hamas fire range. Indeed many soldiers were killed at these points from rockets during the last war but effective cover will now be provided in such sensitive spots.

The navy has also been better equipped by way of sensor systems to be placed on the naval borders between Israel and Gaza in order to thwart attempts by Hamas commandos crossing into Israeli territory via an amphibious operation , as happened during Protective Edge.
BATAM - It was social media chatter that gave him away. Changing his profile picture on the LINE messaging app to a banner pledging "Indonesian support and solidarity for ISIS" probably didn't help.

Had it not been for all that, Gigih Rahmat Dewa's plot to launch a rocket attack on the city-state of Singapore from a nearby Indonesian island might never have been uncovered.

Gigih, 31, and five accomplices were arrested on Batam island on Friday after an investigation that showed how much Indonesia's Islamist militants now rely on social media, including with a Syria-based ISIS jihadi who allegedly directed them to stage attacks.
Belgian prosecutor says machete-wielding man who attacked two police officers on Saturday is a 33-year-old Algerian national, known for criminal acts, not for terrorism.

The Federal Prosecutor's Office said Sunday that the man, who it identified only as K.B., had lived in Belgium since 2012. It also said two police searches had been carried out overnight in the Charleroi area.
BRUSSELS  ISIS claimed responsibility on Sunday for an attack by a machete-wielding man in Charleroi, Belgium, that left two female police officers seriously injured, the group's Amaq news agency said on Twitter.

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Shortly before the claim, Belgian prosecutors had identified the assailant as a 33-year-old Algerian, K.B., who had lived in Belgium since 2012, saying that he may have been inspired by terrorism.

The Belgian Federal Prosecutor's Office said Sunday, "Since there are indications that the attack may have been inspired by a terrorist motive, the federal prosecutor's office decided to take over the investigation from the district prosecutor's office of Charleroi."

The attacker, who shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) during the assault on Saturday, was shot by police and died of his injuries. He was carrying a rucksack, but no explosives or other weapons were found.

Police outside the Charleroi police station following the attack (Photo: AFP)

"There are indications that the attack may have been inspired by a terrorist motive," the prosecutors said in a statement. "He is known to police for criminal acts, not for terrorism."

Prosecutors searched two houses in Charleroi after the attack but did not provide details.

Early on Sunday Belgian police arrested a man with a machete in the eastern city of Liege, broadcaster VRT reported.

It said Liege police had cordoned off an area before detaining the man. It said he was of Turkish origin, did not use the machete and was not previously known to the police.

Belgium is increasing security at police stations after Saturday's attack in Charleroi, Prime Minister Charles Michel told a press conference on Sunday. He added that the prosecutors were investigating a possible case of "attempted terrorist murder."

The prime minister spoke to reporters following an emergency meeting with top Belgian law enforcement officials on Sunday morning. Michel cut short his vacation in the south of France to hurry back to Brussels following the attack in the southern Belgian city.

"We must keep a cool head," he said. "We must avoid panic, of coursenot give in to terror. That's the trap that has been set for us."

Islamist bombers killed 32 people in suicide attacks at Brussels airport and a metro station in March. Many of those who carried out attacks in Paris in November, which killed 130 people, were based in Belgium.

Belgium and its capital Brussels, which houses European Union institutions and the headquarters of NATO, are currently on a security alert level of three out of a maximum four, denoting a "possible and probable" threat.
MOSCOW - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan expects talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin to open "a new page" in bilateral relations, he told the Russian news agency TASS in an interview published on Sunday.

"This will be a historic visit, a new beginning. At the talks with my friend Vladimir (Putin), I believe, a new page in bilateral relations will be opened. Our countries have a lot to do together," TASS quoted Erdogan as saying.

Erdogan is due to travel to Russia on Tuesday.
Two determined immigrants have been sitting outside Defense Ministry headquarters (the Kirya) in Tel Aviv for five weeks, and they have sworn to remain there until the IDF allows them to enlist.

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"We are absolutely determined to make this a success," declared Navon Kaplan. "There is no such thing as giving up and we won't until we become soldiers."

Kaplan, 28, from Texas and Felipe Rodriguez, 27, from Australia are both seeking to enlist in the IDF and have taken to camping out in a tent outside the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv until the army relents. They hope that social pressure upon the government will aid them in their effort.

Navon Kaplan and Felipe Rodriguez with MK Oren Hazan (Photo: Courtesy)

Kaplan moved to Israel in 2011 and enlisted as an Iron Dome operator. After a year and a half of service, he was discharged early when his weight ballooned to 150 kilograms. He subsequently shed 45 kilograms hoping to return to service, but he says that the IDF informed him that at age 25, he was disqualified from returning to his unit.

"Since then, I have been fighting tooth and nail with the bureaucracy, with the government, and using all the connections that I could possibly find, but nothing has worked," said Kaplan. "Everyone wanted to help, but nothing worked until I heard about Yoni Zarka, and I decided to do the same with the hope that it might work."

Yoni Zarka is a French immigrant who protested daily outside the IDF induction center in Ramat Gan until the IDF finally relented and allowed him to enlist despite the fact that he was 34 years of age.

The army had also refused to allow Felipe Rodriguez to enlist due to his age. He decided to join Kaplan after seeing his Facebook posts about the matter.

"I do not believe that enlisting at my age is impossible," Rodriguez contended. "I have heard so many stories of people in their late twenties enlisting in the IDF and getting into combat units."

The pair have refused to give up for five weeks, spending every day at the same spot at the Kirya beneath a giant banner demanding that they be permitted to enlist and spending nights in their tent nearby.

"It's extremely hot out here, it's humid, but it doesn't matter. This is the price we are willing to pay," Kaplan insisted.

The IDF, on the other hand, has claimed differently. The IDF Spokesperson's Unit told TPS that Rodriguez was rejected for additional reasons not connected to his age, and Kaplan had simply finished the service for which he had originally signed. The pair vehemently deny those claims and have provided TPS with IDF documents that show that they have been rejected because of their age.

The duo have found a sizeable online following at their Facebook page, " Built to be Soldiers " and visited the Knesset this past week, meeting with government ministers, many of whom were supportive of their cause.

"Deputy Defense Minister Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan said that age is unimportant and said that he knows of several people older than us doing their mandatory service. He has agreed to join our battle and to start fighting," recounted Kaplan.

Other notable MKs such as Housing Minister Yoav Galant and former Shin Bet Director Avi Dichter have also pledged their support.

"I am determined, and I am not moving from here until I can finish my three years, and not only three but maybe more," Kaplan reiterated. "I want to prove myself and become an officer."
As part of my military service, like thousands of soldiers, I joined a Birthright Israel tripbut it wasn't a normal trip. I joined a special group in which all its participantsyoung Jews from across the United Statesare deaf or hard of hearing.

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For five days, I was the only hearing person in the group. Practically, I helped them to communicate with others, and I also would explain to interested passersby who they were and what we were all doing. Like everyone, I was very excited before the beginning of the trip in Israel, but I didn't realize how big an impact it would have on me and how significant it would be.

In my military position, I'm a teaching-assistant soldier in a very small group called "Shema" ("Hear") that is intended for the deaf and hard of hearing, and so I already knew Israeli Sign Language. I work every day with hard of hearing people in the army, but meeting the Americans was different and special.

X

When I joined the group, the Americans were very open and friendly and made a connection quickly. Their being deaf did not keep them from communicating. For them, it was their first visit in Israel and an exceptional opportunity to cross the world and visit a place that they had only "heard" of in sign language and principally dreamt of. Of course, deafness is not a limitation that makes it hard on them to travel, but the very fact that they were together, as a group, where everyone suffers from the same problem, on a trip that is especially accessible for them, gave them the rare opportunity to connect to each, to us the Israelis, and of course to their Judaism.

Our trip was in some ways very similar to other regular trips of Birthright, but it also incorporated unique sites connected to the group: We went to the Na Laga'at Theatre in Jaffa where all the actors are deaf or blind, we visited the Center for Deaf-Blind Persons in Tel Aviv and other places connected to the deaf world.

We went with them to the north of the country, the Tiberias and Safed areas, and up to the border with Lebanon. From there, we went to the center of the country, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. They continued without us to the south of the country for five extra days. At each location, the guide explained to them in sign language about the heritage, the culture, the wide connection of Israel to Judaism, history and today.

The group at Masada

I got a lot out of the experience. I learned a new sign language, in English (which, it turns out, is a completely different language than Hebrew). I met people that I really wouldn't have the opportunity to meet in my life elsewhere, and I was privileged to show them our beautiful country. While I have the ability to hear, I did manage to connect to their quiet experience, to see Israel through their eyes, without all the noise in the area (We are a noisy people, after all) , and understand how much beauty is here and how excited people are to visit here and how proud they are of their Judaism.

I have kept in contact with some of the participants, and I hope that they will visit here again and that we'll meet. It was an experience that I won't forget, and I am grateful for every moment that I was with them and that I experienced with them. I think that they provide to all of us that deafness doesn't keep them from living, meeting cultures and being part of the global community.

Danielle Lieberman is an IDF soldier who participated in the first group of Birthright Israel intended exclusively for the deaf and hard of hearing.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told a rally of more than a million people in Istanbul on Sunday that he would approve the death penalty if parliament voted for it, following last month's failed coup.

In a speech to the "Democracy and Martyrs' Rally", also broadcast live on public screens across the country, Erdogan said the network of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who he blames for the coup attempt three weeks ago, must be destroyed within the framework of the law.
After initially requiring Israeli permanent resident Kittipoom "Toon" Putubtim to renounce his Thai citizenship before naturalizing as an Israeli, the state has withdrawn that condition. Thus Putubtim and his common-law spouse, Israeli Alon Maimon, concluded their struggle with Israeli bureaucracy, and from now on, renouncing prior citizenships will not apply to common-law spouses of Israeli citizens, just like it doesn't apply to married spouses.

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The couple, who have led a shared life together in Israel for the past eight years, petitioned the High Court of Justice (HCJ) against the refusal of the Population and Immigration Authority to allow Putubtim, an actor in the hit television series Yellow Peppers (a.k.a. The A Word), to acquire Israeli citizenship without giving up his Thai citizenship.

After this refusal, the petition claimed that the Ministry of the Interior was discriminating against them because they were common-law spouses and imposing impossible conditions on them. "For years we've been trying to get what we deserve by law, and now we're running into unreceptiveness and bureaucracy," the couple said at the time.

Toon Putubtim and Alon Maimon

Putubtim explained, "The significance of relinquishing citizenship is of far-reaching importance. It means that I wouldn't be able to take care of my parents for a long period in Thailandthat my right to inherit from them would be infringed and that members of my family would be harmed."

The state's response will also fundamentally affect other couples: "Based on the language in the law and the honorable court's ruling, the respondent (the state) is not of the opinion that Section 7 of the Citizenship Law (non-application of the condition OE) directly applies to common-law couples, since its application is limited only to married couples. The aforesaid notwithstanding, the Ministry of the Interior agrees, after considering the matter, to exempt permanent residents in Israel who have acquired their status in Israel by virtue of their relationship with an Israeli citizen from the requirement to renounce their foreign citizenship."

Sunday, the couple said, "We are happy and pleased that justice has been done. Thanks to the decision, Toon will be able to realize his dream to be an Israeli without harming his family or his homeland. The court clarified that there is unjustified discrimination here. Now this decision will be able to help other common-law couples in the future."

Maimon and Putubtim

Their lawyers, Oded Feller and Tal Hassin of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, welcomed the decision, which, according to them, shows that the state understands that there is no justifiable reason to discriminate between married couples and common-law couples.

"It's a shame that we needed a petition for this and that the state failed to make this change when we brought it up previously," they said. "Even after the Interior Ministry's announcement in which it decided to cancel the requirement to renounce foreign citizenship, the Ministry of the Interior will continue to discriminate amongst the tracks. Common-law couples will have to go through a longer track and will have to wait a longer time between each stage. It's a shame that the state still differentiates between the two tracks for obtaining Israeli citizenship. Common-law couples are spouses for all intents and purposes, just like married couples."
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Washington, DC - The U.S. Department of Education today announced the next step in President Obama's Testing Action Plan a grant competition to help states get the resources they need to innovate and improve the quality of assessments, enhance reporting for parents, educators and other stakeholders, and reduce redundant and ineffective tests in the state and their districts that builds on the plan released in October that sets forth principles and steps to restore the balance on testing in the nation's classrooms.

This year, the Department is focusing on working with states to improve the quality of testing items, ensure effective public reporting of scores and results, and reduce unnecessary testing.

"The President's Testing Action Plan encourages thoughtful approaches to assessments that will help to restore the balance on testing in America's classrooms by reducing unnecessary assessments while promoting equity and innovation," said U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. "This grant competition is the next step as part of that plan, and will help states and districts improve tests to allow for better depiction of student and school progress so that parents, teachers, and communities have the vital information they need on academic achievement."

When done well and thoughtfully, annual assessments can provide meaningful information and provide clear, objective and actionable data that can be used to improve academic outcomes and promote equity for educators, families, the public, and students. When done poorly, assessments can provide inaccurate or misleading information and detract from valuable classroom time. This grant competition seeks to improve the quality of state assessments and provide opportunities for innovative solutions to create better, more meaningful tests so that parents and educators will have the information they need, and states and districts can better identify resources to support students and schools.

"President Obama wants to ensure that all the tests our students take are fair, worthwhile, and they are the best possible measures of student achievement," said Roberto Rodriguez, deputy assistant to the President for education. "He recognizes that too many poor-quality tests have too often taken the joy out of learning for our students, and that we must do more to ensure we are using the best possible measures of how our students are doing. These grants represent an important step forward toward that goal."

The Department will select winners that demonstrate a focus on collaborating with institutions of higher education, other research institutions, or other organizations to improve the quality, validity and reliability of state academic assessments; gauging student academic achievement using a variety of measures; charting student progress over time; and evaluating student academic achievement through the development of comprehensive academic assessment instruments, such as performance and technology-based tools. Applicants will compete for $8.86 million in grants. Applications are due by Sept. 22, 2016.

Earlier this spring, the Administration negotiated proposed regulations with stakeholders regarding the provision of Title I of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) that every state administer a high-quality assessment system that is worth taking and provides meaningful data about student success and equity. Those consensus-based regulations were released for public comment last month. In addition, in July the Administration released proposed regulations to encourage states to create the next generation of assessments through the innovative assessment demonstration pilot.

The Department expects to announce winners of the 2016 Enhanced Assessment Grants competition in January 2017.
Latest News

Dallas, Texas - A former Mission Support Specialist (MSS) with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Dallas pleaded guilty Thursday to stealing government property.

This guilty plea was announced by U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas. This case was investigated by special agents with ICEs Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) in Houston.

Dwight Horton, 51, a resident of Grand Prairie, Texas, appeared in federal court Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Renee Harris Toliver and pleaded guilty to a felony Information charging one count of theft of government property. Horton faces a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.

According to the plea agreement filed in this case, Horton agrees to pay $35,000 restitution to HSI. He will remain on bond pending sentencing, which is set for Nov. 16 before U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade.

Theres no doubt that the vast majority of federal government employees are good stewards of the taxpayers money, said Charles Anderson, special agent in charge of ICEs Office of Professional Responsibility in San Antonio. This internal investigation and resulting guilty plea, however, show there will be consequences to those very few who cheat the system by unlawfully lining their own pockets. Anderson oversees the OPR office in Houston.

According to documents filed in the case, this investigation began in September 2014 when ICE OPR in Houston received a referral from HSI Dallas indicating that MSS Horton used a government fleet charge (credit) card to purchase automotive supplies without authorization and for his personal gain.

This investigation revealed that on several occasions, Horton used his government fleet charge card to purchase a set of four tires from at least two tire stores in Dallas. On each of those occasions, he took the tires with him rather than having them installed on a vehicle. The HSI Dallas office does not have a maintenance area/shop for mechanics to install tires on fleet vehicles.

This investigation further revealed that Horton used his government fleet charge card to purchase window tint. He also used the charge card to purchase gas at a Tom Thumb in Grand Prairie for his personally owned vehicles.

Horton resigned his position at HSI Dallas Oct. 14, 2014.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron Wiley, Northern District of Texas, is in charge of the prosecution.
Latest News

Tyler, Texas - A former preacher at the Lake Highlands Baptist Church in Sulphur Springs, Texas, was sentenced Wednesday to more than 11 years in federal prison for child pornography offenses,

This sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney John M. Bale, Eastern District of Texas. This case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and the Hopkins County (Texas) Sheriffs Office.

Chad Calhoun, 33, of Longview, Texas, was convicted by a federal jury Dec. 10, 2015, for receiving and possessing child pornography. He was sentenced to 135 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Michael H. Schneider Aug. 3. Upon his release from custody, Calhoun must also serve a term of supervised release of 10 years and will be required to register as a sex offender.

According to the evidence introduced at trial, in June 2014, an investigator with the Hopkins County Sheriffs Office observed an individual making child pornography available on a peer-to-peer file-sharing program. The computer was tracked back to Calhouns house in Sulphur Springs. During trial, law enforcement introduced evidence showing that child pornography was made available for distribution on the peer-to-peer network from Calhouns residence and from Lake Highlands Baptist Church, where he was the pastor, for more than a year prior to this investigation. Law enforcement also testified at his jury trial about the forensic evidence located on a laptop seized from Calhoun, including hundreds of videos of child pornography that had been stored in various folders.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Marisa Miller and Jim Noble, Eastern District of Texas.

This investigation was conducted under HSIs Operation Predator, an international initiative to protect children from sexual predators. Since the launch of Operation Predator in 2003, HSI has arrested more than 14,000 individuals for crimes against children, including the production and distribution of online child pornography, traveling overseas for sex with minors, and sex trafficking of children. In fiscal year 2015, nearly 2,400 individuals were arrested by HSI special agents under this initiative and more than 1,000 victims identified or rescued.

HSI encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free Tip Line at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE or by completing its online tip form. Both are staffed around the clock by investigators. From outside the U.S. and Canada, callers should dial 802-872-6199. Hearing impaired users can call TTY 802-872-6196.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, via its toll-free 24-hour hotline, 1-800-THE-LOST.
Yuma News

Yuma, Arizona - This morning at approximately 3:11 a.m. officers were dispatched to the Giant, 2381 S. Avenue B, in reference to an armed robbery. The clerk reported a male subject demanded money and displayed a handgun. The clerk gave the subject an undisclosed amount of money and subject fled the area on foot.

Christopher Michael Stewart, 31years old, was located in the 2300 block of S. 22nd Drive and ran from officers. Stewart was apprehended in the 2100 block of W. 24th Street and taken into custody. The money and a plastic BB gun were recovered. Stewart was booked into the Yuma County Jail.

The Yuma Police Department encourages anyone with any information about this case to please call the Yuma Police Department at (928) 373-4700 or 78-Crime at (928) 782-7463 to remain anonymous. Remember if your information leads to an arrest you may receive up to a $1,000 cash reward.
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.
Saharanpur: At least 10 pilgrims were killed and 30 others injured on Sunday when a tractor trolley they were travelling in turned turtle here, police said.

The incident occurred when the vehicle, carrying over 40 pilgrims including women and children, was heading towards village Sultanpur from Sahajva area here, they said.

They were going to participate in a religious programme when they met with the accident. Ten pilgrims were crushed to death on the spot while 30 injured were rushed to nearby hospitals.

District Magistrate Pavan Kumar and Senior Superintendent of Police Pradip Kumar Yadav reached the hospitals and assured them all possible help.
Islamabad: An American citizen, blacklisted and deported from Pakistan in 2011 for espionage, was arrested in Islamabad, the interior ministry said.

Matthew Craig Barrett was arrested on Saturday morning, hours after his arrival in Islamabad, Dawn online quoted the ministry as saying.



The ministry has ordered an investigation into the grant of a Pakistani visa to Barrett, who was expelled from the country after being caught spying on sensitive installations.



Barrett was on Saturday arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency in a raid on a guest house in Islamabad.



Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan has suspended an FIA official as well as immigration staff on duty when Barrett was cleared by authorities at the airport.



A statement by the ministry said action would be taken against the officials at the Pakistani consulate in Houston for issuing a visa to Barrett.



According to a document cited by Dawn, Barrett was issued a multiple-entry visa, stamped by an official from Pakistan's mission in Houston.



The visa was issued on June 22 and was valid up to June 30, 2020, allowing Barrett to stay in the country for up to one year at a time.



Barrett was arrested and deported from Pakistan in 2011 for overstaying his visa.
Washington: In a case of alleged discrimination in the US, a young Muslim woman was fired from her job at a dental clinic for wearing a hijab as her employer wanted to keep a "neutral environment" in office.

Najaf Khan, who was hired as a dental assistant at Fair Oaks Dental Care in Fairfax County, Virginia, said she was fired from the new job because she wore a Muslim head scarf to work.

"I was really upset. The day that it happened, I was devastated," Najaf told NBC Washington.

She did not wear the hijab for her interview or on the first two days of employment. On the third day, she chose to wear it because Najaf felt that she would stay at the job and wearing it was part of her spiritual journey.

At work that day, she said the owner of Fair Oaks Dental Care, Dr Chuck Joo, told her to take off the hijab.

Joo told her that they wanted to keep a "neutral environment" in office. The employer asked her to remove it because the Islamic head scarf would offend patients and he wanted to keep religion out of the office.

Khan said Joo gave her an ultimatum -- she could continue wearing the scarf and be fired or work without it.

"When I said that I would not compromise my religion for that, he held the door open for me and I walked out," Khan said.

Joo was quoted as saying that open displays of religion are not allowed at his business because he wants to keep it neutral. If his employees want to wear a hat, it must be a surgical hat for sanitary reasons, Joo said.

Reacting to the case, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) said, "No employee should face termination because of his or her faith or religious practices. We call on Fair Oaks Dental Care to reinstate the Muslim employee and to offer her reasonable religious accommodation as mandated by law."

Najaf said she would likely refuse an offer to return to the dental office.

"I was astonished because he (boss) had been saying I had been doing so well. I received an email Friday morning (July 29) saying how much positive enthusiasm I was bringing into the dental office," she told Fox News.
A lot on his plate

Prime Minister Dahal will need to focus on multiple fronts with a sincere intent
Islamabad: An American citizen, blacklisted and deported from Pakistan in 2011 for espionage, was arrested in Islamabad, the interior ministry said.

Matthew Craig Barrett was arrested on Saturday morning, hours after his arrival in Islamabad, Dawn online quoted the ministry as saying.

The ministry has ordered an investigation into the grant of a Pakistani visa to Barrett, who was expelled from the country after being caught spying on sensitive installations.

Barrett was on Saturday arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency in a raid on a guest house in Islamabad.

Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan has suspended an FIA official as well as immigration staff on duty when Barrett was cleared by authorities at the airport.

A statement by the ministry said action would be taken against the officials at the Pakistani consulate in Houston for issuing a visa to Barrett.

According to a document cited by Dawn, Barrett was issued a multiple-entry visa, stamped by an official from Pakistan's mission in Houston.

The visa was issued on June 22 and was valid up to June 30, 2020, allowing Barrett to stay in the country for up to one year at a time.

Barrett was arrested and deported from Pakistan in 2011 for overstaying his visa.
Hyderabad: Making an emotional appeal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that those who were exploited should be protected and asked assaulters to attack him instead of Dalits.

Expressing concern over a spate of recent incidents, PM Modi said at a public rally here, "If you want to attack, attack me, not Dalits. If you want to shoot, shoot me."

Asking people to stop politics over Dalits, he said, "It is our responsibility to protect Dalits and those exploited. I want to tell people that discrimination between people is not acceptable. We must stop this."

PM Modi added, "We are the people who talk about 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' and if we cannot embrace our Dalit brothers and sisters, world will not forgive us. There are few bad elements, shortcomings in our society. What right do we have to ill-treat our Dalit brothers and sisters? There are few incidents that are very shameful. Shanti, Ekta and Sadbhavana are central to the progress of our country."

Meanwhile, earlier today, speaking in Gajwel (Telangana), PM Modi had asked people to beware of 'fake' cow protectors as they were trying to create 'tension and conflict' in the society.

He had also asked the state governments to take stringent action against them.

PM Modi, while addressing a public meeting after inaugurating a host of development projects, had accused the cow vigilantes of trying to create tension in the society and had said that they should be exposed and punished.

"I want to tell everybody beware of these fake cow protectors. These handful of vigilantes have nothing to do with cow protection, but want to create 'tanaav' (tension) and 'takrav' (conflict) in the society," PM Modi had said.

"In the name of cow protection, these fake cow protectors are trying to disturb the peace and harmony of the nation. I want the real cow protectors to expose them (fake ones) and the state governments should take stringent action against them," he had added.

On August 05, demanding justice for their community following the Una flogging incident, hundreds of Dalits and members of various civil rights organisations had began the 'Dalit Asmita Yatra', a foot march from Ahmedabad to Una town of Gir Somnath district.

Nearly 800 people had commenced the 380-km-long journey from Vejalpur area.

The foot march participants will converge at Una town on August 15 where the Dalits will hoist the tricolour on the occasion of Independence Day.

During this ten-day of foot march, the Dalit leaders will address several small gatherings on their way to Una to educate the community members about their rights.

The leaders will also try to raise a strong pitch for the allotment of agriculture land to Dalits, for which forms will be distributed to them on way.

On July 11, four Dalit youths were beaten up by cow vigilantes at Mota Samadhiyala village in Una taluka of Gir Somnath district when they were allegedly skinning a dead cow.

Though the youths pleaded that they were from the skinner community, the 'gau-rakshaks' thrashed them alleging that they were involved in cow slaughter.

(With Agency inputs)
Islamabad: Pakistan has offered to arrange for the treatment of Kashmiris who were injured in the ongoing violence in the Kashmir Valley.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday called upon the international community to request India to allow Pakistan to help in the treatment of the injured persons in the valley, Dawn online reported citing a prime ministerial statement.

At least 55 persons have been killed and hundreds injured in the present unrest in the Kashmir Valley since the killing of Hizbul militant Burhan Wani in a gunfight with the Indian security forces.

Sharif said Pakistan wanted to provide medical treatment to the injured, particularly those injured by pellets.

Pakistan wants to get the best possible medical facilities available in the world for the Kashmiris, he said.

The statement comes days after a war of words erupted between Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Pakistan's Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan over Kashmir, prompting Singh to leave a Saarc meeting halfway through in Islamabad.

"The magnitude of the humanitarian crisis in Kashmir has compelled us to immediately pool our material and human resources for the victims' [treatment]," Sharif said.

"Being blinded has severe consequences for the victims and their families. Some victims of the pellet guns may never see light again. Still, they are resolute; they are guided by the light of freedom for the realisation of their right to self-determination. The world should realise this. Pakistan will continue to support them morally, politically and diplomatically," Sharif maintained.

According to the statement, Sharif has directed Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to mobilise support from the international community, humanitarian organisations and civil society through Pakistani missions abroad to exert pressure on India to allow Pakistan to arrange for the treatment of Kashmiris on humanitarian grounds.

The Pakistani government will provide for the boarding, lodging and medical expenses of the victims, he said.
Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Sunday reviewed the situation in Kokrajhar district and urged the Centre to deploy 75 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), which were withdrawn from the state after the April assembly elections.

Sonowal's review of the law and order situation in Kokrajhar came after militants of the anti-talk faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songbijit faction) killed 14 civilians and injured 20 others on Friday. The Army killed one of the attackers the same day.

The Chief Minister, who visited Kokrajhar on Sunday, also chaired a strategy group meeting of the Unified Command at the Kokrajhar Circuit House and directed the police, the Army, the Central Reserve Police Force and other para-military forces to sternly deal with the situation after the terror attack

"Vigil should be stepped up to foil the sinister designs of anti-national forces," Sonowal said and appealed to the people to remain alert to nip in the bud the nefarious designs of these forces and to maintain peace and harmony at any cost.

Sonowal said the direct involvement of the NDFB faction in the terror attack had been unearthed after security forces received vital information.

The Chief Minister also directed civil and police administration to be on high alert in the run-up to Independence Day on August 15 and to beef up security to thwart sinister designs of anti-national forces.

He directed deputy commissioners and Superintendents of Police to hold security review meetings and nagrik samiti meetings and to take all precautionary and preventive measures to avoid any untoward incident.

The Chief Minister also met the family members of those killed in the NDFB action and conveyed his heartfelt condolences.

Meanwhile, the situation is under control now in Kokrajhar as security forces intensified operation against the NDFB(S). Three additional companies have been deployed in Kokrajhar to stop recurrence of violence.


Patna: The flood situation in Bihar remained critical on Sunday with four more deaths reported from Katihar district, taking the toll to 95.

The State Disaster Management department said 33 lakh people have been hit by the flood in 14 districts.

Purnia district accounts for the highest number of deaths at 28 followed by Araria (21), Katihar (19), Supaul (8), Kishanganj (5), Gopalganj and Madhepura (4 each), Darbhanga (3) and Muzaffarpur, Saran and Saharsa (1 each).

The swollen Mahananda, Bakhra, Kankai, Parmar, Koshi rivers have inundated parts of Purnia, Kishanganj, Araria, Darbhanga, Madhepura, Bhagalpur, Katihar, Saharsa, Supual, Gopalganj, East Champaran, West Champaran, Muzaffarpur and Saran districts affecting a staggering 33 lakh people.

The water level in the Ganga and Ghaghra river has crossed the danger mark in Bhagalpur and Siwan districts, and that in Koshi river in Katihar and Khagaria districts.

While the flood has inundated six lakh hectare area, crops were damaged in two lakh hectare and the authorities are assessing the quantum of losses, DMD said.

As many as 16,361 houses and hutments have been damaged in the deluge causing a loss of Rs 3.52 crore to the residents, while the loss to public properties was being assessed.

The state government has pressed into service 1,490 boats for evacuation of the marooned people. 6.41 lakh have been shifted from flooded areas and 3.86 lakh of them brought to 464 relief camps set up for displaced people.

Altogether 224 medical teams have been deployed to treat sick people at relief camps and around flooded areas.

Elaborate arrangements have been made so that food and other relief materials reach the affected people. NDRF and SDRF have been pressed into service for rescue and relief works, DMD said.
New Delhi: Union Minister Kalraj Mishra on Sunday hit out at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, claiming that it was a "misfortune" of Delhi that it was handed over to a person who "has nothing to do with the Constitution and law".

Without naming the Aam Aadmi Party or Kejriwal, Mishra said, "It's a misfortune of Delhi, that we handed over it to a person who has nothing to do with the Constitution and law, who does not know what process should be adoped in a Union Territory."

"All the time, even in his dreams, he sees (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi and keeps on repeating his name," the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Minister told a youth convention organised by Purvanchal Morcha of Delhi BJP.

The governance system in Delhi has been "deteriorating" and what is needed is that "such a person" who is "defaming" Delhi is challenged democratically with the united strength of the youth, he said.

The Minister also highlighted various achievements of the Modi government, saying that it was taking a lot of steps for the youth through skill development and other schemes.

BJP national general secretary Arun Singh asked the youth to join BJP as it was the party where even ordinary persons can rise in ranks and reach the top positions.

North East Delhi MP Manoj Tiwari said that the Modi government was also planning a "Student City" in the national capital for providing accommodation to large a number of students.

"I met the PMO officials recently and offered 55 acre land at Gopalpur village in Timarpur for the student city for 5000 students which will come in the rule of this government," he said.
New Delhi: AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi in a candid discussion with senior journalists in ABP New's television programme Press Conference laid bare his thoughts about politics, his political detractors, communalism and nationalism.

He said one party is running a 'communal' shop while another one is running a 'secular' shop, but the days of blind faith is over!

For 70 years, they trusted them but what they got? He asked.

"Muslims trusted them as messiah but they only got Iftar invites," Owaisi added.

He also said that he is being targeted by political parties because he wants to reveal the truth about the condition of Muslims in the country.

Referring to Muslims in Uttar Pradesh, he said that they have been living in misery due to the apathy of the state government. Citing the ratio of literates within the community, he said that a two percent increase in literacy rate is hardly any achievement.

He said that it's high time Muslims in the country should know how various political parties exploiting them and using them only for votes.

Asked about the situation in Jammu and Kashmir in the aftermath of the killing of terrorist Burwhan Wani, he said the ensuing incidents prove that the people of the state feel alienated and hence it is the responsibility of the state government to heal their physical and mental wounds.

"6,000 people participated in the funeral of a CM but lakhs of people at the funeral of a terrorist - why are we seeing such a situation," he asked.
Kokrajhar (Assam): Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Sunday visited the Friday attack site here and said strong action would be taken against the perpetrators who killed 14 civilians.

"It is a very unfortuante incident. Our stand is that none will be spared. We have already initiated strong action and operation is going on. We'll find out all those behind this incident," he told reporters here.

"Our government is comitted to protect the life and property of the people. We'll not compromise on this. Our stand is zero tolerance to terror," Sonowal said.

When asked about the identity of the killers, he said "whatever information and evidence we have collected so far, it is found that NDFB is behind this. We are still conducting our search operation. Whoever is behind this will be brought to book."

Later the chief minister proceeded to hold a high-level meeting with police, army and paramilitary officials to assess the situation.

Meanwhile, an AGP legislative team under the leadership of former Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta also visited the spot this morning.

"It's a very unfortutane incident. We hope such incident will never happen again. We have come here to know the actual fact. The ongoing investigation should reveal the truth," Mahanta said.

"Giving security to people is a duty of an elected government and it has to fulfill this," he said.

Atleast 15 people, including a terrorist, were killed and 20 others injured by suspected NDFB(S) militants and retaliatory firing by security forces in Kokrajhar district on Friday.
New Delhi: Justifying his open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Kashmir issue, Congress leader and the leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad has said taking into account the indifference shown by the Central Government, especially by the Prime Minister, towards the people of Jammu and Kashmir, it is hard to believe that there is a government at the Centre.

"Kashmir is burning for the past 29 days and curfew has still been clamped in several districts; no elected representative - MP, MLA, MLC or any other leader - can go anywhere; schools and offices are closed; there is only 20-25 percent attendance in settled trade; communication has been out of order; there is no law and order; 55-60 people have been killed, 7,000-8,000 civilians and security forces are injured; use of pellet guns have made hundreds of people blind; in such a situation, we don`t have a statement from the Central Government, especially from the Prime Minister.

All these force a person to think whether there is a government at the Centre," Azad told ANI on Saturday.

Stating that the Prime Minister had an opportunity to express his solidarity and sympathy with the people of Kashmir, Azad said, "We had raised the Kashmir issue in the Rajya Sabha, and thereafter, there was a whole-day discussion in the Lok Sabha as well, but the Prime Minister did not speak even a word in either Houses and neither expressed his solidarity with the people of Kashmir. It has created widespread disappointment across the nation, and especially in Jammu and Kashmir."

"He tweets when there is any incident in America, Africa, China or Japan, but here the crown of India is burning for the past 29 days, but the Prime Minister has said not a single word," he added.

"There was a very good opportunity before the Prime Minister to come to Parliament and express his sympathy and made an appeal to the people of the Valley to maintain peace. If the Prime Minister cannot appeal for the peace, then what will he do," Azad sought to know.

"Atalji was also there; he used to express his sympathy to the Kashmiri people. Besides, Congress leaders from Jawaharlal Nehru to Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Manmohan Singh always give priority to the Kashmiri people and Kashmir and apply balm on their wounds. But today, it seems that the Central Government and the Prime Minister have nothing to do with Kashmir. That is why today I am forced to write a letter to the Prime Minister," said Azad explaining the reason behind writing the letter.

"I used to write letters to the Prime Minister otherwise too on several issues, but I wrote an open letter to him so that the world must know that the Prime Minister was sleeping, not the opposition," he added.

Commenting on the Centre's Kashmir policy, he said, "There is no policy on Kashmir. They called Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, threw a party for him, and also attended his birthday party, a marriage function, and had cake. What did he get from it is known to the world.

"Asserting that for the first time after Independence, the BJP is having a coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir, Azad said, "They have their deputy chief minister and ministers. Thus, they have dual responsibility as they are in the state as well as at the Centre, but despite this dual responsibility, they don't have sympathy and accountability towards the people of Kashmir and the security forces."
New Delhi: A Karnataka Gau Raksha Dal has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday calling for strict punishment for those indulging in cow slaughter.

As per a CNN-News18 report, the Hindu national organisation demanded PM Modi to raise punishment for cow slaughter and also sought enactment of central anti-cow slaughter act.

The Gau Raksha Dal's decision to up the ante comes a day after PM Modi broke his silence on cow vigilantism and said he felt enraged at such 'anti-social elements' who indulged in crimes by the night and masqueraded as cow protectors by the day.

On Saturday, Modi asked state governments to prepare a dossier of people who are 'running shops' in the name of cow protection and put so-called 'gau rakshaks' on a tight leash.

Amid the continuing outrage over the brutal flogging of four Dalit men by cow brigade members in Gujarat, the Prime Minister also asserted that real cow protectors do not terrorise people.

"I feel infuriated at some people who have opened shops in the name of cow protection. I have seen that some people who commit anti-social activities through the night, don the mantle of cow protectors by the day.
Bengaluru: Mysuru Police on Sunday detained two persons for allegedly carrying beef to the 'beef fest' organized in Mysuru on Sunday.

The Mysuru Dalit Welfare Trust today organised a mass beef eating event at Town Hall to protest against the public flogging of Dalits in Una, Gujarat last month.

The trust said that they would have a dish made of cow-meat, and not that of any other bovine.

However, as per ANI, no permission was granted for beef festival to be organised by Dalit organisations condemning Una's Dalit beating incident.

The Mysuru Police detained two people for carrying beef to Town Hall. They were picked up as soon as they alighted, a source told media.

The Una incident shot into national spotlight where a group of Dalit individuals were brutally thrashed in public for allegedly skinning a cow which was already dead.
Mumbai: A police constable allegedly committed suicide by firing himself from his service rifle inside a local train on Sunday, police said.

Amar Gaidwad, who was on railway patrolling duty at Mumbai Central, was travelling in a second class compartment of a Churchgate-bound train from Borivali when he allegedly shot himself from his rifle at around 5:30 AM, a Railway Protection Force (RPF) official said.

Gaidwad was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was declared brought dead by doctors, the official said, adding the exact cause behind the death was yet not known.

Further investigation into the matter is on, he added.


Chandigarh: Criticizing the Punjab government over the issue of drug menace, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday claimed that ongoing police recruitment process has showed the "gravity" of drug abuse and unemployment in the state.

As per the data of State's Home Department headed by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal himself, more than seven lakhs youth applied for the 7400 vacancies of constables, which shows the state of unemployment in Punjab and even some of the applicants are highly educated, as compared to the needed qualification for the post of constable, party spokesman Sukhpal Singh Khaira said.

Even the seriousness of the drug menace could be gauged from the fact that hundreds of the applicants were tested "positive" for drugs in the dope test, which could be an eye-opener for Akalis to accept the gravity of drug menace in Punjab, he said.

He alleged that for massive unemployment and drug abuse, PPCC Chief Captain Amarinder Singh is also equally responsible as he also did not do anything to create employment opportunities for youth.

"When Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh is demanding five year for his rule, public wants to know his performance of five years from 2002 to 2017 when he was installed as Chief Minister by them," Khaira said.
Gajwel: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday that cooperative federalism was the only way to take the country forward, and his government was working for this.

He said the centre and states were now working together.

"There was a time when there was always a language of tension between the centre and the states but today they are working together to take India to new heights," he said in his address at a public meeting here on Sunday after launching Telangana's drinking water project "Mission Bhagiratha' and other projects.

The PM also hailed healthy competition among states, saying this would contribute to the country's development.

On his maiden visit to Telangana, Modi began his speech by greeting people in Telugu and speaking a few words in the local language.

He was all praise for the steps taken by the youngest state in the short span of two years to fulfill people's aspirations.

Referring to Good and Services Tax (GST) bill, he described it as the biggest economic reform after Independence and thanked Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and other parties who supported it.

Modi told the gathering that his government was trying to ensure water supply to farmers under Pradhan Mantro krishi Senchai Yojna. Stating that the government is giving priority to agriculture sector, he said if farmers get water, they have the capability to produce gold out of soil.

The PM also spoke about the achievements of his government during last two years. He said the states which were facing electricity shortage had now become electricity surplus.

Referring to fertilisers, he said the central government no longer receive requests from states for supply of fertilisers for farmers as the government overcame the problem of diversion of urea to chemical factories with neem-coated urea.

Later, at the BJP workers' meeting in Hyderabad, Modi said there was no blot on his government as it faced no allegation of corruption during last two years.

Modi said his government eliminated the role of middlemen, stopped leakage of gas subsidy and convinced 1.25 crore families to give up gas subsidy to use the money for providing connections to poor.


Hyderabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates a series of programmes, including a massive 40,000-crore Telangana state water grid 'Mission Bhageeratha', during his maiden visit to Telangana on Sunday.

The state government has made elaborate security arrangements.

Mission Bhageeratha is a brain child of Telangana Chief Minister K.Chandrashekar Rao to provide safe drinking water through pipe line at Komatibanda at Gajwel in Medak district.

With this, about 67 thousand households of the Gajwel Assembly constituency will get safe drinking water through pipe line. The Prime Minister will be dedicating 1200 MW Singareni Thermal power plant to the nation besides laying foundation stone for the NTPC 1600 MW power plant and revival of Ramagundam Fertiliser Plant on the occasion.

He also laid foundation stone for the long pending Manoharabad- Kothapalli new railway line and also a textile park at Warangal besides the Kaloji Narayana Rao Health Universitiy.

He will be operating all these activities from Komatibanda only through remote control along with the concerned central ministers. Union Labour Minister Dattatreya told reporters after a review meeting in Hyderabad that all arrangements are in place for the Public Meeting that the prime minister will be addressing at Gajwel and at LB Stadium in Hyderabad.
Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has written to her Andhra Pradesh counterpart Chandrababu Naidu, seeking his intervention for the release of 32 suspected woodcutters from Tamil Nadu who were arrested by that state's police on Friday, describing them as "innocent".

Yesterday it was incorrectly reported that Jayalalithaa has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking the Centre's intervention in the matter.

The 32 persons hail from Chennai, Tiruvannamalai and Vellore districts in Tamil Nadu, she told Naidu, adding that they were reportedly travelling to Tirupati by Garudadri Express when they were arrested by Andhra Pradesh Police at Renigunta Railway Station.

They had been charged under different sections of IPC and the Andhra Pradesh Forest Act,1967 and remanded to custody and lodged in Chittoor Jail, she told Naidu in a letter yesterday.

"These persons, who were only passengers in a train have been arrested on the suspicion of alleged forest related offences. It is not clear how they have been accused of forest related offences when they were nowhere near the forest," she said.

"I request you to urgently intervene in the matter and facilitate their immediate release.

"I am also deputing two advocates of the government of Tamil Nadu to liaise with your officers in securing the immediate release of the 32 innocent persons from Tamil Nadu," Jayalalithaa said.
Allahabad: The Allahabad High Court has taken suo motu cognisance of the recent gangrape of a woman and her minor daughter on a highway passing through Bulandshahr district of western Uttar Pradesh which sent shock waves across the country, and decided to hear the matter.

The case has been listed as a criminal Public Interest Litigation titled "rape of mother and daughter on NH-91" in the cause list for tomorrow and it would be heard by a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Dilip Babasaheb Bhosale and Justice Yashwant Varma.

According to court sources, the Chief Justice decided to hear the matter suo motu taking a grim view of the horrific sexual assault which took place on July 29 when the mother-daughter duo, accompanied by four other family members, was dragged out of their car on the highway and raped in a nearby field.

A political slugfest followed the incident which was raised in both houses of Parliament. The situation got exacerbated in the wake of the remark of senior Samajwadi Party leader and Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan who suspected a "political conspiracy" behind the ghastly crime.

In response to Khan's remark, BJP leader I P Singh put up angry posts on Facebook and Twitter, saying the state minister would be able to see the truth only when his own wife and daughter suffered similar ordeals.

Another petition seeking a CBI inquiry into the incident had come up before the Lucknow bench of the High Court on Friday. The matter has been posted for further hearing on August 8.
Ghaziabad: A five-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly raped and abandoned in Kheda village in Hapur in the wee hours on Saturday, police said adding that at least four suspects have been detained in the connection.

A Dalit family was sleeping outside their house. At around 1:30 am, they found the girl was missing as they got up to go inside after it started raining, SP Alankrita Singh said.

The family started looking for her and found her unconscious and naked near a tubewell in a forest near the house, she said.

Angered by the incident, villagers, demanding the arrest of the accused, protested against the deteriorating law-and-order situation in the state and blocked the NH-24.

Senior police officials reached the spot and cleared the highway for traffic after assuring the villagers of action against the accused.

It is to be noted that even days after the brutal gang-rape of mother-daughter duo in Bulandshahr and after much assurance from the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, the state government's helpline number for women - 1090 is still not working, according to a report in News18.
Allahabad: The manager of the school here, which had refused to allow recital of the national anthem by students and staff members on Independence Day, claiming that its words violated the tenets of Islam, was taken into custody late in the evening on Sunday.

He was taken into custody after a complaint lodged by education department officials at the Colonelganj police station of the city.

Additional SP (city) Rajesh Yadav said, "The complainants had alleged that the school manager Zia-ul Haq by his refusal to allow singing of the national anthem and statements issued before the media defending his action has caused breach of peace and tension in the area."

He said complainants had also sought legal action against Haq for running the school "without obtaining permission" from authorities concerned and not closing it down despite issuing of a notice recently.

"We have taken him into custody and further action will follow," the SP added.

Authorities had said earlier that a probe had been launched against MA Convent School based in Baghara locality of the city in the matter and maintained that it was not recognised by the education department.

Haq, the school manager, told the teachers that singing of the national anthem could not be allowed as the phrase 'Bharat Bhagya Vidhata' in its first stanza went against the tenets of Islam, according to the teachers who resigned two days ago.

The manager said that if they were not in agreement with this 'policy' of the school, they could leave.

Following this eight teachers, including the principal, have quit in protest against the diktat.

"Most of us have been working here for not a very long time. We were shocked to learn from the management that the school has never allowed the singing of national anthem in the last 12 years. Since we had been asked to fall in line or leave, we chose a decision based on our conscience," Ritu Tripathi, who was the principal, said, as per PTI.

The school has around 300 students.

She said, "Seven of my colleagues have put in their papers in protest against this attitude of the school management".

Haq, on his part, stuck to his guns asserting "only Allah can be the Bhagya Vidhata, which means the one who decides our destiny. How can we call Bharat our Bhagya Vidhata?"

Meanwhile, Basic Shiksha Adhikari of Allahabad, Jaikaran Yadav, said, "We are surprised to learn that the school is still running. It is not duly recognised by the Basic Shiksha department and we had sent its management a notice to close the institution about a week ago."

(With PTI inputs)
Seine-Maritime: A fire sparked by birthday cake candles tore through a bar in northern France early Saturday, killing at least 13 people in the nation`s deadliest blaze in over a decade, investigators said.

Through the shattered front windows of the Au Cuba Libre bar in Rouen melted stools and scorched liquor bottles were visible, as tearful mourners hugged each other and brought flowers to the scene.

The dead were aged between 16 and 25. One of the six injured, a woman who was badly burned, had been transferred to St Louis Hospital in Paris where she was in a life threatening condition, local deputy prosecutor Laurent Labadie said.

Mayor Yvon Robert said the other five injured had been released from hospital.

Authorities said the bar had been crowded with young partygoers. According to a police source, the birthday party was for a former police community support officer who was among the dead.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls expressed "deep sadness at the tragedy that claimed 13 young lives".

Labadie told AFP the blaze, which began around midnight (2200 GMT Friday) in the bar`s basement, was triggered accidentally.

"Someone came down with a birthday cake with candles and fell down the stairs," Labadie said, citing initial investigation findings.

"The candles were thrown onto the walls and ceiling, where there was soundproofing material. There was an immediate conflagration and gas was released."

Firefighters were soon on the scene but those inside the bar were battling deadly fumes as well as the flames.

Police said that the fire had ignited polystyrene on the ceiling of the basement room, releasing a toxic mix of gases that poisoned the victims.One witness, who gave her name as Stephanie, 36, described the moment the fire took hold.

"I was at the bar on the ground floor having a drink, when we saw the flames -- it was like a flame-thrower, everything happened so fast," she told reporters.

French President Francois Hollande voiced his sympathy for the victims` families and said "everything would be done" to find out what caused the fire.

The investigation will focus on whether building safety rules were respected at the bar, particularly in relation to fire exits and flammable materials.

Under French building regulations, polystyrene panels are banned from use on ceilings, and bars like the Au Cuba Libre must be equipped with at least one portable fire extinguisher.

But a source at the crisis cell of the interior ministry said that "unfortunately there are always people who try to get round the rules between safety inspections, which are sometimes pre-planned, sometimes unannounced".

Deputy prosecutor Labadie said autopsies on the victims would be carried out next week.

The bar, in a busy part of town and no more than 200 metres (yards) from the River Seine was very popular with young people.

"It was more than a bar, it was family," said one 20-year-old who gave his name as Willy, standing disconsolately outside the building`s ruined facade.

"It`s where we went to be all together," he added.

The mother of an 18-year-old girl who died in the blaze said she had asked her daughter not to go to the party.

"But she didn`t listen" the weeping woman explained, adding that her daughter had wanted to become a nurse.The blaze in Rouen was France`s deadliest since September 2005 when an apartment building fire in the Paris suburb of L`Hay-les-Roses killed 18 people.

It is the highest death toll in a French night spot fire since November 1970, when a blaze at a disco in the east of the country claimed the lives of 146 people, most in their early 20s.

France is on edge after a series of attacks by Islamic State-affiliated jihadists, including the killing of an 85-year-old priest in nearby Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray.

"I was afraid that it was another attack, but right away I was told that it was an accident," witness Rachid Ahmaymi, 36, told AFP. "Still I didn`t sleep last night and have come back to hear the latest news."

The priest`s funeral was held in Rouen`s cathedral.

The church attack came less than two weeks after another assailant ploughed a 19-tonne truck into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in the Riviera city of Nice, killing 85 people and wounding more than 300 others.
Celebrating innovation in education

The three-day education fair that featured 12 different organisations concludes with a symposium on Sunday
Brussels: A machete-wielding man yelling "Allahu Akbar!" (God is greatest) injured two female police officers before being fatally shot in the Belgian city of Charleroi on Saturday, in what the prime minister said appeared to be a terrorist act.

The attacker was shot by a third officer and subsequently died of his wounds, but the police officers were out of danger, police said.

"Initial indications clearly point towards terrorism," Prime Minister Charles Michel told the television channel RTL.

Public broadcaster VRT said the attacker had taken out a machete when two officers asked to search him at a checkpoint set up outside the city`s police headquarters as part of security measures imposed after major Islamist attacks in the last nine months in Belgium and neighbouring France.

One young man told the television station VTM that he and his friends heard five to six shots fired in rapid succession, then, 30 seconds later, three more shots.

There was no immediate indication of the man`s identity; Belgian media reported that the attacker had no papers with him.

A spokesman for the federal prosecutor said the authorities expected to be able to issue more information on Sunday morning.

Local media reported that Michel was returning from holiday and would meet with the security services on Sunday.

Belgium and its capital Brussels, home to European Union institutions and the headquarters of NATO, are currently on a security alert level of three out of a maximum four, denoting a "possible and probable" threat.

Last March, Islamist bombers killed 32 people in suicide attacks at Brussels airport and a metro station. In addition, many of those who carried out the attacks on Paris last November, in which 130 people died, were based in Belgium.

Saturday`s incident also follows a series of attacks in the last month, mostly in France and Germany, many of which have been claimed by the militant group Islamic State. In the worst, in the French city of Nice, 84 people were killed.
Dubai: Iran has executed an Iranian nuclear scientist detained in 2010 when he returned home from the United States, after a court convicted him of spying for Washington, a spokesman for the judiciary said on Sunday.

"Through his connection with the United States, (Shahram) Amiri gave vital information about the country to the enemy," Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei told a weekly news conference, state news agency IRNA reported.

Mohseni Ejei said a court had sentenced Amiri to death and the sentence had been upheld by Iran`s Supreme court, IRNA said.

Amiri, a university researcher working for Iran`s Atomic Energy Organization, disappeared during a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in 2009, and later surfaced in the United States. But he returned to Iran in 2010 and received a hero`s welcome before being arrested.

A U.S. official said in 2010 that Washington had received "useful information" from Amiri.

Iran had accused the CIA of kidnapping Amiri. U.S. officials said Amiri had been free to come and go as he pleased, and that he may have returned because of pressures on his family in Iran.

Amiri had denied this, saying "my family had no problems". In a video aired by Iranian state TV in 2010, Amiri said he had fled from U.S. agents.

Iran, the United States and five other world powers reached a landmark deal last year, under which Iran agreed to limit its nuclear programme in such a way as to ensure it cannot develop nuclear weapons in exchange for a lifting of economic sanctions.
Damascus: The Syrian army recaptured military positions the rebels had stormed earlier on Saturday in southern Aleppo province in northern Syria, according to pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV and a military source.

A military source told Xinhua on condition of annoying that the Syrian army restored positions the rebels stormed earlier in the day at the Artillery College base in the southern countryside of Aleppo.

He added that large numbers of the rebels were killed, while the rest were from positions they stormed an adjacent military college near the artillery base.

The source said the Syrian forces and allied fighters are targeting the withdrawing rebels with heavy artillery.

Meanwhile, pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV cited its reporter in Aleppo as confirming that the rebel were no longer in control of any part of the military colleges.

The TV also stated that the rebels could not take control over the al-Ramuseh town, whose control would enable them to break the government forces' siege on the rebel-held eastern part of Aleppo.

Still, battles are still raging back and forth and the decisive results are yet to appear clearly.

Earlier in the day, the Syrian air force intensified air strikes on the areas the rebels stormed inside the artillery collage, also cutting all routes the rebels could possibly open into Aleppo city, the national Syrian TV said.

The airstrikes destroyed tens of vehicles with their occupants on several routes that could lead the rebels into breaking the government siege on the eastern part of Aleppo city.

The report said the airstrikes isolated the battle sites in the vicinity of the military colleges in southern Aleppo, supporting the ground operations fought by the Syrian army against the sites infiltrated by the rebel groups in parts of the artillery college base.

"The airstrikes paralyzed the movement of the terrorist groups southwest of Aleppo, cutting by fire all routes into the city," said the TV.

The fresh development came after an array of extremist groups, mainly the Fateh Army, succeeded to storm parts of the artillery college base in southern Aleppo, engaging in intense battles with the Syrian army in that base and the adjacent military colleges.

The aim of the rebels was to open a route from the al-Ramuseh town in southwest Aleppo into the besieged rebel-held areas in eastern Aleppo.

Last month, the Syrian army intensified battles against the rebels in Aleppo, cutting their last supply route into the eastern part of that city, in a bid to force them to surrender.

But battles flared as several rebel groups in Aleppo unleashed repeated attacks to break that siege.
Bangkok: Millions of Thais on Sunday appeared to have voted in favour of a new constitution that will give extra powers to the country's military, which seized control of the government in a 2014 coup.

According to the country's Election Commission, with 91 per cent of the votes counted so far, 61 per cent have voted in favour, BBC reported.

Voting across 94,000 polling stations opened at 8 a.m., and closed at 4 p.m. The official results were expected by 9 p.m.

This is the second referendum after 2007. Around 50.5 million Thais of the total population of 65 million were eligible to vote this time, compared to 45 million eligible in the last referendum.

The 50 million eligible voters were asked to answer "yes" or "no" to the question: "Do you accept the draft constitution?"

They were also asked a supplementary question, whether or not the appointed senate should be allowed to join the lower house in selecting a prime minister, the BBC reported.

If a majority of voters say yes, the draft becomes the 20th constitution of Thailand, enhancing the military government's legitimacy in the run-up to an election which Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, who led the 2014 coup, has promised will happen next year.

If the constitution does not pass, what will happen is uncertain, but the military government will remain in control.

Prayut and former Prime Ministers Yingluck Shinawatra and Abhisit Vejjajiva cast their votes earlier on Sunday, BBC added.

"Come out (to vote) because today is important for the future of the country," Prayut said after casting his ballot.

"This is your duty and this is part of democracy, of an internationally-recognised process," BBC quoted the premier as saying.

About 200,000 police officers were deployed to maintain order and there were no reports of protests.


Columbia: The US government has released a once-secret policy document once dubbed "the playbook" that shows how officials select drone targets in areas outside war zones and the key role the president has in the process.

The 18-page Presidential Policy Guidance (PPG), published Saturday by the American Civil Liberties Union, provides more details than the government had previously revealed on how drone strikes are approved.

"Actions, including lethal action against designated terrorist targets, shall be as discriminating and precise as reasonably possible," the PPG states.

President Barack Obama typically must personally sign off on plans to strike terror suspects who are located outside war zones in which America is officially fighting. Such zones include Pakistan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.

Strikes in combat theaters such as Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan are controlled by the military.

Each case for action is subjected to legal review before it goes to the National Security Council and then the president.

The policy document says that "absent extraordinary circumstances," a drone strike on a high-value target will only be taken if there is "near certainty" no civilians will be killed, and says the United States should respect another nation`s sovereignty in weighing drone strikes.

The partially redacted document was released as a result of a lawsuit brought by the ACLU, which has long sparred with the government over America`s secretive drone program.

"The PPG provides crucial information about policies that have resulted in the deaths of thousands of people, including hundreds of non-combatants, and about the bureaucracy that the Obama administration has constructed to oversee and implement those policies," ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer said in a statement.

"The release of the PPG and related documents is also a timely reminder of the breadth of the powers that will soon be in the hands of another president," he added.

Justice Department lawyers turned the document over to the ACLU late Friday, and the rights group released it publicly on Saturday.

The Obama administration last month provided fatality estimates for 473 strikes between 2009 and 2015 that were conducted outside principal war zones.

Officials claimed anywhere from 64 to 116 civilians were killed in the strikes, and up to 2,581 combatants -- but critics have constantly said the government underestimates civilian deaths.

National Security Council spokesman Ned Price stressed that the PPG offers protections to civilians that "exceed the requirements of the law of armed conflict."

He added that "near certainty" that the target is present, and that non-combatants will not be killed, was the "highest standard we can set."

"The president has emphasized that the US government should be as transparent as possible with the American people about our counterterrorism operations, the manner in which they are conducted, and their results," Price said in a statement.

"Our counterterrorism actions are effective and legal, and their legitimacy is best demonstrated by making public more information about these actions as well as setting clear standards for other nations to follow."

The PPG also outlines what should be done in the event a suspect is captured, stressing that in "no event" will a detainee brought to Guantanamo Bay -- the US military prison Obama has so far failed to close.
Quebec: Anti-globalization activists will gather in Montreal Tuesday for the first World Social Forum (WSF) to be held in the northern hemisphere, hoping the location will provide fresh impetus for the movement.

A march through downtown Montreal is to kick off the event, which was first held in Brazil in 2001 seeking to promote alternatives to neoliberalism.

More than 50,000 members of civil society groups, social movements and others are expected to attend the six-day event.

"We`re hoping to gain momentum by bringing the forum to a northern country like Canada," which is also a Group of Seven industrialized nation, said one of the organizers, Raphael Canet.

"Social inequality is everywhere," he added. "We want to overcome North-South divisions and say clearly that there are social problems worldwide, and also global solutions."

Born out of violent protests as a counterweight to its capitalist rival, the World Economic Forum held annually in Davos, Switzerland, the WSF aims to offer a space for decentralized debate and an exchange of ideas, as well as the coordination of global campaigns.

Past annual conferences held in Mali, India, Pakistan and Tunisia have attracted up to 100,000 delegates each.

Only half that number are expected for the Montreal event, however, as many could not afford the trip and relatively pricey accommodations, even with financial assistance, according to organizers.

They said the Canadian government also denied travel visas to 234 delegates, preventing them from attending, including Mali`s former culture minister Aminata Traore and Imad Temiza, the president of the Palestinian postal union.

Officials declined to comment on specific cases, citing Canada`s strict privacy laws.

Nancy Caron, a spokeswoman for the immigration ministry, said the department reached out to WSF organizers to facilitate delegates` entry into Canada.

But she said in an email to AFP: "No contact has been made with the special events unit by the organizing committee to inform the special events unit of any issues or difficulties in obtaining participants` visas."

As a result, eight out of 10 delegates at this year`s event will hail from the host city and nearby Quebec communities.Dominique Plihon, spokesman for the non-governmental organization Attac France, concedes the WSF is struggling after 11 gatherings over 15 years.

"The WSF is running out of steam and is in desperate need of renewal," he said, while refusing to give up on the symposium.

"We will always need an international meeting, we must create international movements. The idea here is to create visibility, to make people aware of alternatives (to hegemonic globalization)," he told AFP.

Organizers said they chose Montreal to host the forum this year also because of the city`s vibrant civil society, and as a nod to the Occupy movements in North America and Europe, and Montreal activists` involvement in those.

"Montreal really appeared on the social movement map in 2012 with the student protests ... that brought down the Quebec government," said Raphael Canet.

Tuesday through Sunday, representatives of 5,000 civil society groups will take part in workshops, debates and performances across Montreal.

Topical themes include fighting tax evasion, environmental degradation, the plight of refugees and struggles against racism, xenophobia, patriarchy and fundamentalism.

Some 80 lecturers including university professors, leftist politicians, trade unionists and anti-globalization activists are scheduled to speak. They include Canadian activist Naomi Klein, Bolivian Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera and French philosopher Edgar Morin.
Delhi: This blog written by a Muslim man on terrorism and ISIS seems brutally honest and hard-hitting!

Seemingly upset over flak faced by the ordinary Muslims over terror attacks, a Muslim blogger has shared his views on terrorism, ISIS and Muslims.

In the blog titled 'Yes, they are one of us, Muslims', blogger Khayyam Khan explains how 'terrorism has everything to do with Islam as it has to do with peace'.

"Some of us dont even take time to denounce and abhor the ghastly acts committed by indoctrinated minority (yes, they are one of us, Muslims)," says Khan in his blog.

Here is the full text of his blog:-

Yes, they are one of us, Muslims

Terrorism has everything to do with Islam as it has to do with peace.

It is by default us, the ordinary Muslims, who face the flak and indignance for any and every terrorist attack that happens in any corner of the world.

Some of us dont even take time to denounce and abhor the ghastly acts committed by indoctrinated minority (yes, they are one of us, Muslims).

We have heard time and again people saying, re-saying and reiterating that Islam has nothing to do with terrorism but the fact remains same that it is from the very same scripture, the Holy Quran, the bigoted lots draw their inspiration from.

The rest of us, also, base our arguments that Islam has nothing to do with terrorism.

It is because of some ambiguities in the Quran that allow the bigoted few to resort to arms and wreak havoc on innocents, non-Muslims and Muslims alike.

Earlier it was Al-Qaeda, Hizbul Mujahideen and the likes.

The modern day phenomenon is ISIS. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria as they call themselves to be and swear to create a caliphate where they can rule and subjugate people based on their whims and fancy.

As if we dont know about their dirty trade of women being taken as sex slaves or people from Yazidi communities being killed in the name of protecting the tenets of Islam, that same Islam which is followed by roughly 1.6 billions Muslims worldwide.

Yes, approximately a quarter of the total population of the world follows Islam, the newest religion which came into existence somewhere around 632 AD and have ever since experienced exponential growth.

But, a tiny bigoted minority (groups such as ISIS and the likes) has very easily become the mainstream and representative of Islam while the rest of us (more than 1.59 billion people) despite all our good deeds hold no rank.

It is here Muslims worldwide need to do an introspection as to how a tiny lot of bigoted Muslims have taken control of their representation.

The history of Islam is full of bloodshed. The history of real Caliphate, which started after the death of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) as to who would become his successor, is full of dispute, assassination, bloodshed and anarchy among Alids, Abbasids, Omayyads, Hashemites et al until recently.

We have often heard and told that Islam is a religion of piece, of compassion, of love, of tolerance and it has nothing to do with terror. But Islam also allows war in limited context.

So where do the tiny minority (ISIS and the likes) draw the inspiration from?

Yes, they draw the inspiration from the very scripture, the Quran, like the rest of us.

The problem arises when the limited context becomes the soul of the scripture and the tiny minority cherry-picks verses from Quran to brainwash people and justify their acts of killing innocent people in the name of Islam.

Before making anyone responsible for what is happening in the name of Islam, or what should be done, I take responsibility that yes they (terrorists) are one of us, Muslims.

But I also want people to tell me why I, the follower of Islam, the representative of Islam, the ambassador for Islam, the preacher of peace, the believer of co-existence, do not make that much of an impact as they (the bigoted lots) do.

Let us assume there are 160,000 terrorists or suicide bombers, which of course there arent, that makes them not even 1 per cent of the 1.6 billion Muslims around the world, while the 99 per cent Muslims are doing good and living in harmony with others, rich or poor, Christians or Hindus, Blacks or Whites.

Why do you not believe in Muslims and Islam that is followed by 99 per cent of its followers who are not going in the streets and blowing themselves up.

What is making you believe in that 1 per cent which is in reality not the representative?

It is here that you also need to do an introspection as to why you are MADE to believe the only side of the story.

It is here I urge every one to believe those Muslims who you are friends with, who you meet, who you see and who you know what they are.

Let this world make a better place to live. Let future generations remember us not for war or terrorism, but peace, knowledge and co-existence.

(Source: https://khayyamk.wordpress.com/)

(DISCLAIMER: The thoughts and opinions expressed here are those of the author)
CIAA files graft charge against ex-under secretary Dhungana

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has lodged a graft complaint at the Special Court against then under secretary Indra Prasad Dhungana on Sunday.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 6, ARMENPRESS. 12 people remain hospitalized following the armed assault on a police precinct and the events which unfolded later on.

Healthcare Ministry spokesperson Anahit Haytayan told ARMENPRESS as of August 6 , two of the 12 people are police officers, and one of them is in critical condition.

Gunmen had stormed a police precinct in Yerevan on July 17 and held hostages, demanding the release of Zhirayr Sefilian  who was arrested a month before for illegal acquisition, possession and transportation of firearms and ammunition.

As result of the ambush, police Colonel Artur Vanoyan was killed. Colonel Aram Hovhannisyan, Lt. Colonel Hrach Khosteghyan, Corporal Gagik Mkrtchyan received gunshot wounds during the assault. The hostages were released within a week, however on July 27, the gunmen again took hostages, this time the paramedics who arrived to provide medical assistance to wounded gunmen.

On July 30, a sniper opened fire from the seized police precinct, killing police officer Yuri Tepanosyan.

On July 31, the gunmen surrendered.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 6, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Nature Protection Aramayis Grigoryan visited Syunik Province on a working trip.

A discussion was held in the Governorate of Syunik, where nature protection issues were discussed. The discussion also focused on the recent outbreaks of fires in the Arevik national park, as well as in Meghri region.

Minister Grigoryan said the Zangezur biosphere complex is set to be equipped with modern fire-protection technologies.

Governor Surik Khachatryan proposed to form a rapid firefighting response unit and to set additional supervision in the fire-danger period.

A meeting with employees of the Zangezur biosphere complex took place. Achievements, activities and upcoming works were discussed.

Researchers of the complex briefed the Minister on their latest studies and achievements, the results of monitoring, and discussed details of reforestation.

At the end of the trip, Minister Grigoryan visited the family of Armen Gasparyan  soldier who died during the four day war in April. The Minister expressed his support to the soldiers family, and provided material assistance.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 6, ARMENPRESS. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in doing everything possible for the release of the Russian citizen - who is being held captive by the Taliban in Afghanistan. However the Ministry fears the process might be protracted, Russian Presidential envoy to Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov said, Interfax reported.

Currently all possible measure are taken and search operations are underway. A long process will take place: it will be clarified as to who and how must assist in freeing the captives. Negotiations will be held, Kabulov said in an interview.

On August 6 the Russian Embassy in Kabul received report that Taliban militants have taken a Russian citizen hostage, who was in the MI-17 helicopter which was making an emergency landing.
A spokesperson for the Serious Fraud Office said additional details of the probe would not be made public until charges were brought or the investigation is dropped

Britain's Serious Fraud Office said on Sunday it had opened a criminal probe into Airbus Group, investigating allegations of fraud, bribery and corruption.

"These allegations relate to irregularities concerning third party consultants," the SFO said in a statement.

The authority said it opened the investigation in July and asked anyone with relevant information to come forward.

A spokesperson for the SFO said additional details of the probe would not be made public until charges were brought or the investigation is dropped.

European planemaker Airbus said it was aware of the probe and the aviation firm was working with investigators.

"Airbus Group has been informed by the SFO that it has opened a criminal investigation into allegations of fraud, bribery and corruption in the civil aviation business of Airbus Group relating to irregularities concerning third party consultants," the company said in a statement.

"Airbus Group continues to cooperate with the SFO," the statement concluded.

The company was informed on Friday that the authority had launched an investigation, an Airbus spokesman told AFP.

"We ourselves detected this issue and self-disclosed it to the authorities.

"This is as an effort of our enhanced anti-corruption (policy). Management has taken robust action and is determined to resolve this issue in cooperation with the authorities," spokesman Jeremy Greaves said.

- Probe could take years -

Airbus informed authorities of the irregularities in April. The same month the UK Export Finance decided to suspend export credits to the firm, a move followed by France and Germany.

The aviation firm said at the time it hoped to resolve the financing problem as soon as possible.

The current SFO investigation is expected to take years.

The probe was described by the Financial Times newspaper

as a "severe blow to the European aircraft maker" which would be exploited by its US rival Boeing.

Airbus is the largest commercial aerospace company in Britain and last month said its net profit rose 15 percent in the first half of the year.

Story continues

Profits were up 1.76 billion euros ($1.94 billion), but the gain was due to exceptional items that masked a slide in operating earnings.

The company was hit by charges of just over 1 billion euros related to its troubled A400M military cargo transporter programme, while adverse currency movements and charges on its widebody A350 aircraft totaled nearly 900 million.

However these were compensated for by the sale of shares in Dassault Aviation and the creation of a rocket launcher joint venture with Safran that generated a net gain of nearly 1.9 billion euros.

Ahead of British voters' decision in June to leave the EU, Airbus said it would reconsider future investment in the country if the referendum took the UK out of Europe.

"Airbus Group's success in the UK is predicated on a highly competitive, integrated European business model," executives said in a letter sent to employees in April.
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German online food takeaway service Delivery Hero, one of Europe's biggest start-ups, could go public next year, its chief executive told a German weekly. "We're in no hurry. Could it happen next year? Quite possibly. But in the end it will depend on whether we find the market conditions that we think will support our long-term vision," Niklas Ostberg told Welt am Sonntag in an interview. "We have the size and earnings power that is needed." Delivery Hero is seen as the start-up closest to going public in the portfolio of German ecommerce investor Rocket Internet. Rocket bought into Delivery Hero in 2015 and now holds a 37 percent stake. Founded in 2011, the company, which has built up a delivery network for more than 300,000 restaurants in 33 countries, raised new funding last year from two undisclosed U.S. investors that valued the company at 2.8 billion euros. Ostberg said Delivery Hero made annual net sales of more than 300 million euros and the company was profitable in its core business, although he did not give more details. (Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
LISLE, III., Aug. 06, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kretschmar Premium Meats & Cheeses has partnered with Cub to donate $15,000 to Make-A-Wish Minnesota. Kretschmar made the donation at the Make-A-Wish Walk for Wishes in Minneapolis, Minn. Saturday as part of its Legendary Wishes campaign, which helps Make-A-Wish grant wishes for children with life-threatening illnesses. The annual Walk for Wishes is a Make-A-Wish fundraiser that celebrates wishes that have already been granted, while raising funds for future wishes.



A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b5243d69-8994-4c42-854f-911fe8ec9768

As part of the event, the crowd was treated to a live performance by Kretschmar Country Artist Kelleigh Bannen, who played hits from her newly-released album Cheap Sunglasses. Bannen is one of CMTs Next Women of Country. Walk for Wishes participants and guests also received delicious Kretschmar deli samples, coupons and giveaways from the Kretschmar mobile tour.

Supporting Make-A-Wish and making wishes come true for children is something very gratifying for us, said Michael J. Sargent, Senior Brand Manager, Kretschmar. Our contribution can support Make-A-Wish throughout the year, and were thrilled to have the opportunity to continue to help fulfill special wishes for children.

Since 2012, Kretschmar has contributed over $515,000 to Make-A-Wish nationally and sponsored more than twelve wishes with local chapters through its Legendary Wishes campaign.

Thanks to retail partners like Cub, Kretschmar has raised additional funding through employee donations and sandwich fundraisers. Cub locally raised $5,000 from July 3 through July 31 to help grant future wishes. These efforts have raised $75,000 locally which was given to local Make-A-Wish chapters to grant more wishes.

Make-A-Wish Minnesota relies on the help of supporters such as Kretschmar, Cub and their customers to grant wishes for Minnesota children with life-threatening medical conditions, said Mia Broos Hoagberg, Make-A-Wish Minnesota president and CEO. We are grateful to Kretschmar and Cub for their support which allows Make-A-Wish Minnesota to provide life-changing experiences to kids, giving them hope as they return their focus to the future.

For more information about Kretschmar Deli and its involvement with Make-A-Wish visit www.kretschmardeli.com or www.facebook.com/kretschmardeli.

Kretschmar is a brand of Smithfield Foods.

About Kretschmar

Kretschmar Premium Deli Meats & Cheeses has meant quality since 1883. Our hams are made with a unique hardwood smoking process. Kretschmar poultry and beef are hand-trimmed using the finest cuts. Our full line of Off-The-Bone deli meats are delicately sliced from the leanest, most tender cuts. And our premium Wisconsin cheeses repeatedly win in competitions world-wide. Try the Legendary Taste of Kretschmar today. For great recipes and more, like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/kretschmardeli or visit our website at www.kretschmardeli.com.

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.

About CUB

CUB, based in Stillwater, Minn., was established in 1968 as one of the nations first discount grocery stores. The organization was purchased in 1980 by SUPERVALU and currently operates 79 stores in Minnesota and Illinois that offer customers fresh produce, a wide selection, and food expertise throughout the stores to meet their everyday grocery needs. As the hometown grocer for over 48 years, CUB has made it a priority to be a good corporate citizen by helping to create healthy and thriving communities that enhance the quality of life for its customers, employees, and neighbors. For company news and information, follow us on Twitter at @CubFoods and Facebook at www.facebook.com/Cub, or visit our website at www.Cub.com.

About Make-A-Wish

Make-A-Wish grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy. According to a 2011 U.S. study of wish impact, most health professionals surveyed believe a wish-come-true has positive impacts on the health of children. Kids say wishes give them renewed strength to fight their illness, and their parents say these experiences help strengthen the entire family. Headquartered in Phoenix, Make-A-Wish is one of the world's leading children's charities, serving children in every community in the United States and its territories. With the help of generous donors and more than 28,000 volunteers, Make-A-Wish grants a wish somewhere in the country every 35 minutes. It has granted more than 350,000 wishes since its inception in 1980; more than 14,800 in 2015 alone. Visit Make-A-Wish at www.wish.org to learn more.
As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership. For more information on Yahoo India, please visit the FAQ
Cong yet to agree on ministers

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Saturday urged Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba to finalise the names of the ministers from the latters party at the earliest so that the Cabinet could get the full shape and the government could start delivering.
Def Con: Do smart devices mean dumb security?

More and more people are finding that the devices forming this network of smart stuff can make their lives easier. But that convenience may come at a high cost - namely security.
Devotees throng Changu Narayan to mark Nag Panchami

The religious shrines in the district remained packed from early morning with devotees queuing up for worship to mark the Nag Panchami day.
Dr KC leads medical team at flood-hit Saptari village to treat sick

A medical team led by Dr Govinda KC, senior orthopaedic surgeon at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, reached Tilathi village in Saptari on Saturday to treat the people who have been suffering from various communicable diseases. The team will remain in Tilathi until Sunday.
Dr KC supporters document CIAAs faults

An alliance supporting Dr Govinda KC has presented parliamentarians with a report that points out 12 misdoings of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority, renewing its call for impeachment of CIAA chief Lokman Singh Karki.
A Jetstar flight from Tokyo to Australia's Gold Coast was diverted to Guam and an engine was shut down Sunday after a warning light came on.

The twin-engine JQ12 Boeing 787 Dreamliner flight from Narita international airport to the Gold Coast landed on the US island territory of Guam in the Pacific on Sunday morning after an oil pressure warning light came on, Jetstar said.

"A flight from Narita to the Gold Coast was diverted this morning after the aircraft displayed an indicator message regarding oil pressure," the carrier said in a statement.

"After receiving the indicator message the captain elected to shut down one engine as a precaution. Boeing 787s can fly safely on one engine."

The passengers, which the Australian Broadcasting Corporation said numbered some 320, would be taken to Australia on a flight arriving Monday.

Jetstar said the jet landed safely on Guam and was being inspected by engineers.

grk/sm
Firefighters put out Thamel blaze

The fire that broke out in a four-storey builing in Thamel, Kathmandu has been brought under control.
China powered ahead as 'King' Kohei Uchimura and the Japanese team trailed on an opening day of men's gymnastics overshadowed by France's Samir Ait Said's gruesome double leg fracture. Led by Zhang Chenglong, the Chinese laid the groundwork for a third consecutive team title with Japan, silver medallists in 2008 and 2012, qualifying fourth best behind the United States and Russia for Monday's team final. "Team is always the priority," said China's Liu Yang after losing their world title to Japan last year. "Everyone in our team has one common goal: to get the gold medal." Olympic all-around champion Uchimura had a bad day with the six-time world champion scoring 91.964 points to trail Ukraine's Oleg Verniaiev in the individual competition by a point and a half. The 27-year-old Uchimura slipped on the pommel horse and fell off the horizontal bar, meaning he will not advance to the final on that latter apparatus where he is the reigning world champion. But he regrouped on the floor to qualify for the final of that event behind Americans Samuel Mikulak and Jacob Dalton. "It gives me a lot to think about. This will make me stronger," said Uchimura, who qualified ninth in London 2012 before claiming the title. "I made a mistake. I don't usually do that." The five-man Japanese team, which also included Ryohei Kato, Yusuke Tanaka, Koji Yamamuro and Kenzo Shirai, had many errors. "In parallel bars we all made mistakes, but I think it's going to be okay, we'll learn from this," said Uchimura. Kato qualified for the all-around final in eighth. Verniaiev, 11th in the 2012 Olympics, gave a solid performance to qualify for six finals including the pommel horse, vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar. "I didn't fall on any apparatus and went through everything perfectly," said the 22-year-old former world champion on parallel bars. "In the team competition we're in the top eight and that's extremely important for us, but this is just qualification and everything starts from zero in the final." Russia's David Belyavskiy qualified in third ahead of China's Deng Shudi, Britain's Nile Wilson and Japan's Ryohei Kato. China were not perfect with Zhang, the only member of the 2012 gold medal winning team, slipping off the horizontal bar. The Chinese scored 270.461 with the United States just behind on 270.405 and Russia (269.612), Japan (269.294), Britain, Brazil, Ukraine and Germany completing the line-up for Monday's eight-team final. Germany's Marcel Nguyen, the silver medallist in 2012, qualified in 22nd position with world silver medallist Manrique Larduet of Cuba 15th. The top 24 gymnasts advance to Wednesday's all-around final. - Horror fall - The four countries who failed to make the final were Switzerland, South Korea, the Netherlands and France. Brazil kept home hopes alive with Diego Hypolito in tears after his performance on the floor earned him 15.500, just behind Uchimura, with Arthur Zanetti, the Olympic rings champion in 2012, qualifying fifth on the rotation. Dutchman Epke Zonderland, the reigning champion on the horizontal bar, advanced to the final, with world champions Shirai (floor), Britain's Max Whitlock (pommel horse), Greece's Eleftherios Petrounias (rings), China's You Hao (parallel bars) and Gwang Ri Se (vault) also in the running on their speciality. Injury however overshadowed the day with Ait Said, 26, breaking the lower part of his left leg in two places after landing badly on the vault, in images which had spectators and competitors gasping in horror. It was the second Olympic blow for the French rings specialist who suffered a knee injury at the London Games, and had reached the final on that apparatus in Rio. Germany's Andreas Toba picked up a knee ligament injury on the floor but continued on the pommel horse, allowing his team to scrape into the final.
A video part filmed in 24 hours? Apparently so

The legendary Curtis McCann effortlessly takes to the old Ewer Street park and a few street spots dotted around the Big Smoke for his section from the 1991 Powell VHS Celebrity Tropical Fish.

A proper slice of capital city history for you  enjoy.
The human gut is a complex and amazing system, and the more we learn about it, the more amazed we are. It turns out
YEREVAN, AUGUST 6, ARMENPRESS. The Defense Ministry of Nagorno Karabakh says Azerbaijani forces have violated the ceasefire regime over 25 times along the Nagorno Karabakh-Azerbaijan line of contact.

The ministrys announcement reads:Overnight August 5-6 Azerbaijan violated the ceasefire regime over 25 times along the Nagorno Karabakh-Azerbaijan line of contact. Azerbaijani forces fired more than 330 shots from various caliber small arms at Armenian positions.

Defense Army forces refrained from taking countermeasures and continued confidently monitoring the borders.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 6, ARMENPRESS. The 5th International Leonid Yengibaryan Pantomime Festival will be held August 10-15 in Tsakhkadzor, Armenia.

Within the framework of the festival, French-Armenian actor, modern pantomime creative director Vahram Zaryan arrived to Armenia. In an interview with ARMENPRESS the artist said for him modern pantomime is a flexible, musical, stage art, which must touch the audience.

What attracted you in pantomime which made you choose that path?

I made that decision with my heart and soul. I first experienced theatrical shock when I was little, when I saw Marcel Marceau, Leonid Yengibaryan, Slava Polunin on TV. After watching their performances, I realized that I want to be on stage and do mimes.

After receiving education in Armenia you developed your skills in France. What achievements did you have?

I studied in Yerevans State Institute of Film and Theater, in the course headed by Guj Manukyan. Since the second course I was interested in expressive movement, experimental theater. I started visiting the Pantomime Theater of Yerevan as a spectator, I got to know actress Anush Stepanyan, director of the theater Zhirayr Dadasyan. Due to Directors Yura Kostanyan and Zhirayr Dadasyan I physically interacted with pantomime. Along with Zhirayr Dadasyan we touched upon the techniques and genres of pantomime. Prior to leaving for France I got to know the history and delicacies of pantomime due to Armenian masters. All of this had a major role in my accomplishment.

In France I was lucky enough to study in the international school of pantomime of world famous master Marcel Marceau. Along with Marcel Marceaus students, we formed a group and toured with more than 3 performances. Its already 7 years since I have my theater group in France  Vahram Zaryan Company. Through the theater group I am able to realize my ideas. What I had to say led to the creation of the group. I have collaborated with the groups members in the past also, thats why we are able to work together not only in artistic but also administrative issues.

This is already the 2nd time you are participating in the Leonid Yengibaryan International Pantomime Festival. Tell us about your impressions.

I had positive impressions from the first participation, thats why I am here again. The festival is a wonderful platform for exchange of experience. It is broadening its geography, the number of participants has increased. This speaks to the fact that there is great interest towards the festival. It is very pleasant for me to take part in the festival, I feel myself home.

What lacks in Armenia for the development of pantomime, and what problems are present in this area?

Nothing lacks in Armenia for the development of pantomime. The Yerevan State Pantomime Theater is able to represent Armenia in foreign countries. I think the mission of this theater is presenting Armenian stylistics through pantomime. Armenian medieval themes, dynamic gestures and movements are chosen, which are in line with our psychological state and history. An Armenian school of pantomime has been created, which is necessary to be proud of.

What upcoming projects do you have?

Starting September 1 we are launching rehearsals for the new Oblika performance. We are collaborating with Ensemble Rodier modern musicians ensemble. It presents live modern music. The performance will be presented not only on stage, but also in museums. Special music has been written for the performance. I have great hopes for performing in front of Armenian audiences in the future outside the framework of the festival.

Thank you for talking with us.

Interview by Angela Hambardzumyan
Govt will reconsider scraping of fuel import permits: PM

Prime Minister Puspa Kamal Dahal on Saturday told a delegation of business leaders representing the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) that his government would correct the previous administrations decision to scrap petroleum import licenses awarded to private sector firms.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 6, ARMENPRESS. The exhibition entitled In the world of Art, dedicated to the 80th anniversary of photographer Robert Karapetyan opened in Yerevan. The opening of the exhibition also marks the 60th anniversary of Karapetyans professional activity.

My Motherland is Armenia, despite the fact that I live in USA. I am filled with emotions and I am happy to be here, Robert Karapetyan said.

Robert changed his crafts shop, not his Motherland. I think this is one of the most important exhibitions having cultural value of previous centurys second half, reporter Vanik Santryan said.

Ministry of Diaspora spokesperson Seyranuhi Geghamyan said each photograph is equivalent to a book. Those photographs have more value than dozens of pages.

Robert has the talent of immortalizing the moment. He is the master of creating black and white photographs, a high level photographer, a person concerned with the future of Armenia. He has become beloved due to his human characteristics and commitment, playwright, public figure Hrant Margaryan said.

The photographs display renowned Armenian figures Paruyr Sevak, Vardan Ajemyan, Mher Mkrtchyan, Sos Sargsyan, Vahram Papazyan, Ofelya Hambardzumyan, Martiros Saryan and others.

During the opening ceremony Gratert daily presented Robert Karapetyan with the Best Photographer of the Year Award.

Robert Karapetyans exhibitions were held multiple times in Yerevan, New York and Los Angeles. He has filmed the documentary movies My Yerevan, Vazgen Muradyan, Armenian Genocide.
Has govt erred in taking decision?

A government decision taken on Friday to pay Rs 1 million each to the families of those killed during the Tarai protests has met with criticism, while others have held it in derision, saying the new government seems to be oblivious to the fact that the erstwhile CPN-UML-led government had taken a decision to that effect and even paid compensation to the kin of the victims.
A man casts his ballot at a local polling station during the constitutional referendum in Thailand's restive southern province of Narathiwat.

Thai voters approved a junta-backed constitution in a referendum on Sunday, preliminary results showed, an outcome that paves the way for an election next year but will also require future elected governments to rule on the military's terms.

Voters handed the junta led by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha a convincing win in its first major popularity test at the ballot box since it seized power in a 2014 coup.

With 94 percent of the vote counted, early results from the Election Commission showed 61.4 percent of Thais had voted for the charter, while 37.9 percent rejected it. Full results are due on Wednesday.

The junta says the constitution is designed to heal more than a decade of divisive politics in Thailand that has dented economic growth and left scores dead in civil unrest.

But Thailand's major political parties and critics of the government say the charter will enshrine the military's political role for years to come.

The win was a blow to the powerful Shinawatra clan and their allies, whose populist politics are reviled by Thailand's military-royalist establishment. Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted as prime minister in a coup in 2006 and his sister Yingluck's government was toppled by Prayuth in 2014.

The acting head of the Peau Thai Party, which carried Yingluck to power, said Thais may have voted pragmatically for the charter as the fastest route to an election.

"The reason most Thais accepted the constitution is because they want to see a general election quickly," Wirot Pao-in told reporters at the Peau Thai's Bangkok headquarters on Sunday. "All sides must now help move the country forward."
Royal Caribbean Cruises reported net income of $229.9 million, or $1.06 per share, on revenues of $2.1 billion for the second quarter of 2016, compared to net income of $184.9 million, or $0.84 per share, on revenues of $2.0 billion last year.

The increase in net income was driven largely by reduced fuel costs and so-called other income. Royal also reduced its full-year guidance to a midpoint of $6.05, a $0.20 decrease from its previous guidance. The company cited the negative impact of rising fuel prices and the weakness of the British pound.

The gross revenue per passenger day for Q2 was $210.94 compared to $217.46 last year. Gross ticket revenue per day was $151.95, compared to $159.26 last year, while onboard revenue was $58.99, compared to $58.20. The increase in onboard revenue was said to be driven by beverage and internet packages.

Net revenue per passenger day was $163.77 in Q2 this year, compared to $175.37 last year. The net ticket revenue per passenger day this year was $118,43, compared to $127.29 last year, and the net onboard revenue was $45.34 this year, compared to $48.08 last year.

Richard Fain, CEO and chairman, said that the companys brands were doing well in North America, Northern Europe and the Western Mediterranean, with 60 percent of its capacity, but experiencing softness in the Eastern Mediterranean and China.

Softness in China is being driven by huge capacity growth rather than faltering demand, said Fain.

Fain compared the Chinese market to the evolution of the North American market. He said that absorbing a doubling of capacity in one year with only modest price softening was a sign of market strength.

He added that China, with 9 percent of the companys passenger capacity, continues to generate yields that are above average. The company also noted softness in the close-in booking market for Shanghai-based sailings, not mentioning the chartering sales model.

Furthermore, he said the companys strongest markets -- the Caribbean, Alaska, Bermuda, Northern Europe the Western Mediterranean will only see a modest capacity increase in 2017.

Analysts asking questions on the call also seemed distracted by balance sheet items regarding the sale of Pullmantur, which has had a constantly-changing business strategy in recent years.

In addition, Cuba was not mentioned whatsoever.

Royal Caribbeans adjusted net income earnings forecast for Q3 was for $3.10 per share, compared to $2.84 last year. The improvement is expected to be primarily driven by the deconsolidation of the Pullmantur Group.

As Royal Caribbean made its announcement, its shares dropped more than 6 percent in early morning trading.
The Microsoft Services Agreement is an agreement between you and Microsoft (or one of its affiliates) that governs your use of Microsoft consumer online products and services. You can see a full list of the covered products and services here .

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Lightning bolts kill two people, 80 cattle

Lightning bolts killed two people and more than 80 cattle in Makwanpur, Baitadi and Mugu districts in the last two days. At least eight people were injured.
- Soldiers on a search mission were attacked by bandits in Niger state

- 11 soldiers were confirmed dead while one is still missing

- 8 bandits were killed while 57 suspects were arrested

11 Nigerian soldiers have died and one has been confirmed missing following an attack on them by gun runners and armed bandits in Kopa, Dagma and Gagaw villages of Bosso local government area in Niger.

In a statement issued by the spokesperson of the army, Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman, he explained that the troops were on an assignment to safeguard the area when they came under heavy attack.

He said eight bandits were killed while 57 suspects were apprehended.

Read the full statement below:

Following covert surveillance and intelligence reports on the activities of some gun runners and armed bandits in Kopa, Dagma and Gagaw villages of Bosso Local Government Area, Niger State, troops of 31 Artillery Brigade, 1 Division Nigerian Army, in conjunction with Nigeria Air Force detachment on Internal Security Operation MESA went on quick cordon and search in the affected areas to recover suspected weapon cache and arrest the suspected persons and the armed bandits.

READ ALSO: Suspected Fulani herdsmen attack Niger, kill 11

Contrary to statements attributed to some questionable vested interests, the troops were on legitimate official duty aimed at safeguarding lives and property of citizen in the area.

While approaching and deploying to carry out their lawful duty, the troops came under simultaneous and sporadic shootings in all the three locations.

They however responded as necessary in line with the rules of engagement. Sadly, an officer and 8 soldiers of the Nigerian Army and 2 Airmen of the Nigeria Air Force lost their lives in the line of national duty. Additionally, one soldier is still missing while 2 of their colleagues were seriously wounded.

The suspected gun runners and armed bandits also burnt down 4 operational vehicles and vandalized 2 others. Bandits also carted away 4 AK-47 rifles and one Fabrique Nationale (FN) rifle belonging to the deceased soldiers.

The troops also killed 8 of the armed bandits and arrested 57 others. They also recovered large quantity of arms and ammunition. The recovered items include; 3 AK-47 rifles,10 Local AK-47 Rifles, 9 Locally made Pistols, 6 Revolver guns, which fires 7.62mm (Special ammunition), 45 Loaded Dane guns, 10 Clubs and Cudgels, 41 Arrows, 18 Bow cases, 122 Cutlasses and Machetes as well as 20 Daggers.

Other items recovered include 31 Axes, 63 rounds of 7.62 (Special) Ammunition, 10 Bajaj Motorcycles, Assorted Charms and Amulets, 2 Vehicles, 38 mobile telephone handsets, a wristwatch, 5 Identity Cards, Passport Photographs, Cash sum of N23,870.00k, 5 Japanese Yen and 35 different denominations of old Nigerian currency, 15 Catapults, 8 Torchlights, 2 Gun Powder bottles, 4 empty cases of Ammunition and 41 Cartridges.

The troops also seized a military Waist Belt and a pair of military Combat Boots.

It is important to stress that the nefarious activities of the gun runners and the armed bandits has direct bearing with the influx of weapons and general insecurity in some parts of the Federal Capital Territory and the North West geo-political zone of the country.

READ ALSO: 5 die as villagers mistake soldiers for herdsmen in midnight raid

The same gun runners have been confirmed to be the suppliers of arms to armed robbery gangs that were involved in series of armed robbery attacks along Minna-Bida road and the general environment.

Although the situation is under control, the military will not rest on its oars until all those involved are arrested and brought to justice. The military will continue to deal with any violent threat to our national security.

All law abiding citizens are enjoined to go about their lawful duties as the cordon and search operation continues in the general area and if necessary expand to other identified areas to keep our people safe.

See photos of the attack below:

Source: Legit.ng
'Madhesi leaders hopeful of getting some demands addressed'

Leaders of Madhes-centric parties are hopeful of getting their demands fulfilled with positive response to some of their agenda from the new government.
Editor's note: Since the Kaduna state religious bill proposed by governor Nasir el-Rufai made headline in Nigeria's dailies, the bill has generated more controversy than anyone can ever imagine.

But Philip Agbese, a public commentator resident in United Kingdom in trying to throw more light on the bill has advised all Nigerians - Christians and Muslims alike - to make efforts toward going through the bill proposed to regulate religious activities in Kaduna state.

Kaduna state governor Nasir el-Rufai and pastor Tunde Bakare

The legislation, "a bill for a Law to substitute the Kaduna State Religious Preaching Law, 1984" (the 1984 Edict) or simply known as the Kaduna state Religious Activities Regulation Bill is still in the making but it has never lost its controversy since it was first introduced by that states governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai.

The laymans interpretation of the bill is that is seeks to regulate the practice of Islam and Christianity  the two dominant faiths in Nigeria.

This more popular understanding of the proposed legislation is perhaps responsible for the ease with which some mischief makers were able to easily demonize it as proof of their conspiracy theory that there is plan afoot to Islamize Nigeria.

To think that this understanding or street interpretation of the law is a product of limited literacy would be totally off the mark as there have been well educated persons, some I have interacted with have PhDs, who still join the raging mob against the legislation even when given the benefit of being updated with the content of the bill.

READ ALSO: Updated: See how El-Rufai reacted to stabbing of Christian during Ramadan (photos)

For most part, many of the critics have never bothered to learn anything about it, not even the full title of the bill much less its provisions.

Yet they are raucous in disowning the bill; one of Nigerias self-styled clergies, Apostle Johnson Suleiman of Omega Fire Ministry, even passed a death sentence on el-Rufai if he does not withdraw the bill in what would have qualified as hate speech in other countries.

If the 'Christians that fear the plot to Islamize Nigeria can only quieten down a little they would hear the din also being made by their Muslim brothers who think only an infidel could have thought up what some of them stopped short of describing as blasphemous.

It is inconceivable for this set of people that a man who should be one of theirs is plotting a piece of paper that will slow down the march of a religion whose time has come.

Yet in the reactions of the adherents of these two dominant faiths is proof that the Kaduna state Religious Activities Regulation Bill is sorely needed.

Firstly, reactions to the bill exposes the self-centredness that makes them think theirs is the only way of worship so animists, agnostics and the rest have no say in the national life.

It also confirms the satanic application of religion as a tool for brainwashing, radicalization and building fanatical base in the country.

A video from Apostle Suleimans church service showed his followers ecstatically chanting amen as he invoked death on a fellow human.

READ ALSO: Anti-religious bill: VP Osinbajo issues warning

Secondly , the half-witted criticisms confirmed that Nigerians are trying to get the best of two worlds; here are citizens who want to practice adopted religions on a scale more fanatical than the places from where the religions originated without accepting the safeguards that these countries have put in place.

If those raising dust over this matter would bother to read not just the bill but other literature they would discover that in Israel, which Nigerian Christians hold in such reverence, Gazan Christians must obtain permits to hold processions for feasts as basic as Palm Sunday and Easter Monday.

Muslims who frown upon the bill should also ask themselves how it was possible that Saudi Arabia that hosts many of their holy sites is almost free of terrorism while other countries that failed to take a tough stance against hate preaching are reeling from sustained terror attacks  there are other factors definitely but the way people are allowed to preach plays a role.

I have in the past, in opinion articles and interview, outlined how this bill will be useful in curbing the recruitment and radicalization of youths especially those of the Muslim faith.

I think it is one of the key things it seeks to achieve and radicalization is a problem that is besetting the world today as unregulated preachers abuse their position of trust to fill young people with poison.

It is no less in the other faith where the clergy actively teach their followers to be intolerant of those not in their fold albeit without the call to annihilate them.

There are also those who use religion to provoke materialism among their flock to a point that their followers commit acts that equally amount to terrorism in order to claim the prosperity decreed upon the congregants.

This is why I think the bill should be revisited. It should be revisited by other state(s) to see if there are areas peculiar that has been missed and that can be then incorporated into their own version of the law.

It goes without saying that I am urging each state of the Federation to pass its own version of the law in order to rid the country of extremism in any form.

For instance, there is a state in this country where self-style clergy men brand children witches, and consequently manipulate parents into harming or even killing their own offspring; there have also been reports of people killing their parents or relations on the strength of visions or prophesies from charlatans. We cannot continue to live this way.

At the Federal level, members of the National Assembly must rise above pettiness to harmonize resulting legislation from states that take the bull by the horn to arrive at a federal law.

READ ALSO: Trouble in Kaduna: El-Rufai set to destroy 3500 houses, 40 churches, 16 schools

They must accept the reality that all religions in Nigeria are now guilty of making life uncomfortable for their neighbors by way of unruly and disruptive processions, blaring of megaphones and loud speakers outside the premises of their places of worship and often time blocking major public roads during their session, prayers or processions to disrupt the peace.

The lawmakers, knowing that many of them exploited religion is some way to win elections, must read up about how the two dominant faiths in Nigeria are practiced in other countries, including their places of origin.

Worship centres are made to conform with city building codes, the buildings are soundproofed, there are no loudspeakers blaring unto the streets, it is offensive to attempt forcefully converting others, preaching cannot violate extant laws on hate speeches and the finances of religious bodies are under watch.

The issue of finances of religious organisations and their affiliates is a particularly urgent one. There must be a legislation making it mandatory for them to register as charities to enjoy a tax exempt status and their books must show that money is not diverted for other purposes other than for helping the needy.

This is because we have seen how money can leave religious organisations to finance terrorism  like the loan scheme Boko Haram introduced to lure unknowing villagers into their fold.

Government or rather politicians must not allow things get worse than they are currently simply because of expediency. We have seen what radical preaching can do from our Boko Haram experience.

As of today, the activities of 'men of God' in the media have not been encouraging and the earlier the governors and the Inspector General of Police wake up the better it is for our nation.

We can all embrace the Kaduna example now or spend the years ahead wondering why we allowed ourselves to be held by the religion prospectors.

This article expresses the authors opinion only. The views and opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Legit.ng or its editors.

Your own opinion articles are welcome at info@naij.com  drop an email telling us what you want to write about and why. More details in Legit.ngs step-by-step guide for guest contributors.

Were ready to trade your news for our money: submit news and photo reports from your area using our Citizen Journalism App. Contact us if you have any feedback, suggestions, complaints or compliments.

We are also available on Facebook and Twitter. Subscribe to Legit.ng Opinion page!

Source: Legit.ng
In what is a narrow escape, a British Airways Boeing 777-200 (flight 2276) aborted its take off from Las Vegas airport at the last moment as its port side (left) engine caught fire. The jet liner was bound to Londons Gatwick airport.

Reports say that the passengers noticed smoke emanating from the engine in question as the plane initiated its take off procedure. The smoke was quickly followed by a bitter smell like burning rubber.

The pilots acted quickly to abort the take off and applied the brakes (reportedly at 89 mph). Even as the captain contacted the airports emergency response team, the crew began evacuation process through the emergency slides.

Panic ensued as some passengers reportedly reached for their luggage (sigh) instead of ditching the aircraft. Nevertheless, all 159 passengers and 13 crew of the BA flight 2276 were evacuated on to the runway in just about 5 mins from the captains first distress call. At least 13 passengers are said to have been taken to hospital either due to injuries sustained during evacuation or because of smoke inhalation.

Fortunately, the pilots and the crew adhered to the emergency procedures and did a great job of saving the passengers. The fire too was quickly doused before it engulfed the entire aircraft. Had the engine failure which caused the fire occurred a minute later, the plane wouldve been already airborne or wouldve been running too fast to be stopped before the end of the runway. We are glad that the catastrophic incident didnt result in fatalities.

Just evacuated on a British Airways flight at Las Vegas airport after an engine caught fire. Dont think anyone hurt pic.twitter.com/Y986xW9Wzy  Jacob Steinberg (@JacobSteinberg) September 8, 2015

At least 13 people suffer minor injuries after British Airways plane fire  airport official http://t.co/EyFPozd7P9 pic.twitter.com/iOxQQ9WXvS  BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) September 9, 2015

Passengers and crew escape fire on British Airways plane in Las Vegas: http://t.co/RgHLx28Trz pic.twitter.com/qP3sgQcldz  Reuters Top News (@Reuters) September 9, 2015

Videos
Haryana Police is focusing on accident prevention when it comes slow moving, stranded or illegally parked vehicles on highways. The big brainwave isnt altogether new but there is now an attempt to re-enforce it. Coppers are keen on having parts of the rear of commercial vehicles painted in fluorescent colours.

Having the rear painted in fluorescent colours is all the more necessary in vehicles that lack reflective tapes pasted on their rear. Coppers have begun the drive in Panipat district.

Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order), Navdeep Singh Virk identifies that a number of accidents involving vehicles on highways especially at night is due to lack of reflectors on such vehicles. The end result is loss of human life.

Re-enforcing the use of fluorescent colours, even if hand-painted onto vehicles would be a step forward in minimizing risk of accidents at night by being noticeable to vehicles driving up. Most times, drivers are unable to notice a stranded vehicle in time and this results in high impact rear ending and crashes.

Another measure to strengthen the move is to carry out a special drive to ensure safety triangle reflectors are drilled onto the rear of vehicles in Panipat and Karnal districts. This too is aimed to reduce the number of incidents resulting in fatal road accidents on highways.

We are getting rear of such vehicles painted with fluorescent colours in Panipat under the supervision of IG Karnal Range. Districts Karnal and Kaithal would be covered shortly and later on, it would be replicated in other Ranges in collaboration with Traffic and Highways Police, added Virk.

He added, Road mishaps on highways could be avoided and precious lives saved if commuters follow traffic rules and keep reflectors in a good shape.

Theres also renewed focus on the 4 Es  Education, Enforcement, Engineering and Emergency in regard to accident prevention and control. Haryana coppers is focusing on these approaches in coordination with all concerned departments. Sustained efforts have had a positive outcome, and road fatalities have declined by 6.7 percent in the first four months of current year in the state. Coppers here are looking to reduce the number of fatalities even further.
Anand Baid (38), his wife Punita (36) and kids Yash (12) and Dhriti (8) set out on a road trip of a life-time; across 22,780 kms from Bengaluru to Paris from April 8, 2015 to return on July 28. Raising capital from 14 companies and well wishers, the Baid family, christening themselves Little Family of Indian Explorers or L.I.F.E. set out on this journey in their Fiat Linea with a route marked out taking into account the interests of every member of the family. While Punita wished to travel to Paris, Yash, a keen FC Barcelona fan demanded a trip to Spain. The route The LIFE road map spanning 11 countries and 50 cities over a period of 111 days extended from Bengaluru, India to Nepal, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Spain and finally Paris, France. Tackling the vagaries of nature, rugged and varied terrain and high altitudes to over 18,000 feet, the Baid family experienced it all on this unique road trip while they did encounter some scary moments in Nepal during the earthquake. Being strict vegetarians, the Baid family faced some gastronomic issues while when faced with challenges, Punita would take out her portable stove and whip up some simple fare with basic ingredients. For Yash and Drishti, students of Deens Academy in Whitefield, the entire journey was an adventure with Yash helping his father with fuelling of the car and offering updates in the GPS system along with searching out the most convenient hotels along the route. The Baid family made friends received numerous gifts from locals and while Anand and Punita took turns in driving their Fiat Linea T-Jet they had no issues with the car while it just required one servicing along the entire journey. Below is their journey in images. The speedometer of Fiat Linea at the start of the journey. Day 1  By the Marriott Courtyard Hyderabad. Day 04  Nagpur Enroute Varanasi On the banks of Ganges, Varanasi. Very close to the Nepal-China border on the Arniko Highway Camping just before entering China. crossing the bridge! Landscape enroute to Tibet. In Tibet. Picturesque highways through the Tibetan plateau! Jokhang Palace in Lhasa Patola Palace, Lhasa! Prayer wheels by the Patola Palace, Lhasa Friends across borders. Jokhang Monastery, Lhasa The intense Debating Monks at Sera Monastery Special bartender. Night-street in Lhasa. Clicked in one of the many beautiful small towns in the plateau highways! Lovely flat road with great views of the plateau in Tibet. Home! Tibet! Middle of nowhere! He is riding at the speed of 40kmph sitting like that! Gigantic Dunes in Dunhuang! Lovely quite town! Gigantic Sand Dunes at Dunhuang! The kids climbed till the top. You can see the miniatures of the people in backdrop on the top! The convoy. Highway market enroute Lhasa to Nagqu. Highway market enroute Lhasa to Nagqu. Yash playing Chess with Hauke! At the Chinese-basecamp in Zhangmu during the quake-days from April 25-29th.

The heaviest winds we ever experienced in our lives. Enroute to Turpan all the way from Hami. The car was shaking when still and swaying when driving. Not just for usfor everyone! The bikers rode in a 15 degree angle to stay balanced. Enroute to Korla. These dunes are easily over 20 floors high. One of those pictures that the actual scale does little justice here. And these ran for a few kms Yash playing soccer with kids by the Highway enroute to Kyrgyzstan from Kashgar, last big town west of China At the China-Kyrgyz border. Our last stop together as a convoy. Free horses running in the open  Kyrgyzstan Kids in Kyrgyzstan. In a matter of hours, green cover turned into white. Camping in Kyrgyzstan Straight from LOTR. Landing strip in a small town in Kyrgyzstan 12 hours in Kyrgyzstan One of the many decoys parked on the Krygyz highways for speed control Issyk-Kul Lake. Beautiful lake with crystal water Twisting roads enroute from Toktogul to Osh. Cloudscapes. Waterscapes. Landscapes. Mountainscapes. 5th member of Team L.I.F.E. Kalon Minor. Tower of Death. Close to the rim of Darwaze or Door to Hell being an unbelievable sight to see  a Live Crater that has been burning for over 45+ years now At night. We defy if roads can be glazed better than here. And to mention that they are precision-flat will be an understatement. It is scary clean out in the city of Ashgabat. And night is when you want to be outside. With Akin Aydemir, Plant Manager at TOFAS, Bursa. Having the Car serviced and checked at the Bursa plant of TOFAS-Fiat. That is easy. No homework needed. Just head out Jet by the Caspian. Bird park, Eshfahan, Iran. No concept of Vegetarian in Iran. Meat is Vegetarian in Iran. Explaining to a cook here  showing pictures of vegetables. When you are on-the-road, always buffer your time with stop. admire. soak. moments of the landscape Turkey offers. When you are on-the-road, always buffer your time with stop. admire. soak. moments of the landscape Turkey offers. Beautiful city of Erzurum. Turkey. Greece Greece Greece Greece Greece Enroute Spain. The journey. Team at final destination  Paris. Fifth member getting shipped from Paris back to India as we take a flight back home. Welcome reception at Bengaluru airport. Fifth member arrives in Bengaluru.

Images and captions are sourced from the official page https://www.facebook.com/OverlandStories/, where you can find even more details of the journey.
Have you seen the chariot Bhallaladeva (Rana Daggubatis character), the evil brother of Bahubali senior, and uncle of Bahubali Junior? That ferocious chariot has been designed all in front of it. In the movie, thanks to digital rendering, it is shown to be powered by animals.

But in reality, it is powered by a Royal Enfield 350 cc engine. Yes, the same engine which powers Bullet 350, is powering this huge chariot. This piece of information was revealed by none other than Sabu Cyril, the production designer of the movie. Watch the chariot powered by a Royal Enfield in action in the video below.

This is not the first time a Royal Enfield engine has been used to power vehicles other than two wheels. Back in 2012, we had reported the story about how a farmer in Gujarat had converted his old Royal Enfield into a tractor because he did not have money to buy a real tractor to plough his land. The same innovation is now winning hearts in Africa.

A revolutionary piece of farming equipment built by Amreli-based farmer Mansukh Jagani has been in active use for farming operations in India since 1994. This make-shift Royal Enfield tractor modification became very famous in India in 2002 when it won the prestigious award from National Innovation Foundation. This spread the news about this innovation not only across India but around the globe.

Bullet Saanti or Suja as it is better known today, caught the attention of many NGOs and Universities from around the world. One such university was Nairobi-based Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKAUT). They invited Mr Jagani to Kenya, to explore the possibility of launching such a motorcycle in Kenya. After four years, that dream is going to come alive as Suja will be launched in Kenya later this month.

Suja is built using a chassis of an Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycle in the front and a retrofitted tractor like attachment at the rear. It rides on three wheels, one in the front and two at the rear while it gets a tool bar for carrying farming equipment.

Designed to replace animal driven farming equipment, the Suja also reduces cost of agricultural operations and improves productivity. It is an ideal piece of equipment for those farmers who currently rely on bullock driven ploughs and cannot afford costly tractors and power tilling implements.

PM Modis recent visit to Africa draws special attention to the Suja as he and Mansukh Jagani share the same home state. This piece of farming equipment has come to the aid of many poor farmers in Kenya as it is not only cost effective (priced at INR 40,000 in India) but also comes with four varying types of farming equipment for Shallow ploughing, harrowing, sowing and inter culture operations.

In Kenya, it has already received over 75 bookings, and over 2,000 farmers are in queue. Suja will next be launched in many more countries across the world.
Tata Motors reports 10 percent sales decline for December 2019. Sales fell from 14,260 units to 12,785 units. The double digit decline though contained isnt something to cheer, especially since that brand had pulled out all stops when it came to special offers through the month.

For the nine months gone by in the current fiscal, Tata Motors has sold 99,197 passenger vehicles. Thats a noticeable 37 percent lower than 1,56,397 units. The company does say its been focusing on reducing dealer stock to enable smooth BSVI transitioning.

As Tata Motors begins its transition, BSVI production and despatches are to begin in January. Volumes will be increased in the months to come. On the product front, the auto manufacturer hopes to give its product portfolio a shot in the arm with two new launches in quick succession, Tata Altroz, and Tata Nexon EV.

Total domestic sales is reported at 44,254 units in December 2019. Thats 12 percent lower than 50,440 units sold in December 2019. YTD sales for FY20 is down 30 percent at 3,47,796 units, down from 4,97,972 units.

CV sales for last month fell by 13 percent in the domestic market. Sales were down to 31,469 units from 36,180 units. All CV segments except SCV and Pick up sales were reported at a decline. CV exports too fell. Exports are down 32 percent at 2,613 units, down from 3,835 units. Domestic CV sales for the ongoing FY stand at 2,48,599 units, down 27 percent from 3,41,575 units sold in the same 9 months last year. Exports for the same period fell by 42 percent, down to 23,032 units from 39,609 units.

Of course sales decline isnt Tata Motors problem alone. Current state of the market has been poor in recent months, and is evident through overall market behaviour. Tata Motors stronghold in recent years has been its CV market as the brand has been witnessing mutated PV sales since a couple of years now. This despite a slew of continuous new launches.

In the CV front, the brand says December performance has been as expected and bodes well for the months to come following indications. No doubt, as BSVI is mandated, fleet owners will try and make the most of the last of the BSIV stock.
NSU convention starts in Capital

The General Convention of Nepal Student Union started in Kathmandu from Sunday.
In what is an interesting but not entirely surprising move, Tata Motors is working on a pure electric version of the Nano. A prototype of the same was spotted in public for the first time.

It appears that the Tata Nano EV has been in the works for quite some time now and the automaker has decided to take it to the next phase.

Tata Nano Electric?

The test mule has a power socket on the rear left fender thereby divulging the nature of powertrain hiding under the boot. Another interesting point to note is the suspension travel of the Nano in spy shots. Compared to the existing Nano AMT variant, which is also the heaviest of all variants on offer today, the variant in the spy shot has compressed the suspension more (the gap between the wheel arch and the tyre is less), probably due to the added weight of the battery pack.

Existing Nano AMT for reference.

Its too early to speculate about the technical specifications of the pure electric drive train but the rear wheel layout will be retained. The battery pack is likely to be located on the floor, below the front seats, to optimize weight distribution and centre of gravity.

Being an automaker with global aspirations, its imperative for Tata Motors to stay up to date when it comes to alternative propulsion technologies. While the company may not have any immediate plans to launch a pure electric EV, being in a state of readiness will help when the market conditions become conducive. Tata had showcased Nano EV concept back at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show.

Speaking of conduciveness, the Tata Nano EV, if launched, would take advantage of the Indian governments NEMMP 2020 (National Electric Mobility Mission Plan). The diesel ban which is likely to be extended to more cities could also tilt the equation in favor of EVs in the long run. Need of the hour, however, is a good network of charging infrastructure, at least in top metros.

Tata Nano EV  Photos
Scientists working out of Trinity College Dublin, Maynooth University, and Queen Mary University of London have unearthed a potential new preventative option to combat Ascaris roundworm infection. Ascaris lumbricoides is an intestinal parasite that results in severe health consequences, including growth retardation and impaired cognitive development. The infection, which affects an estimated one billion people worldwide, is particularly common in Third World countries and is estimated to be responsible for 60,000 deaths per annum.

Susceptibility to Ascaris infection differs between individuals, and heavily infected individuals have more severe symptoms and higher morbidity. Building on previous studies, which showed a difference in susceptibility to Ascaris between two different strains of mice, the researchers identified a clear distinction between the two strains and published their findings in the internationally regarded peer reviewed journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. It is thought that these new insights could lead to the development of better ways to prevent and treat Ascaris infection.

The lifecycle of the Ascaris roundworm in humans sees the infection progress from the stomach, following ingestion of viable eggs which hatch as larvae, to the liver before moving on to the lungs and then returning to the stomach. In mice, the roundworms do not progress beyond the lungs. Professor of Zoology at Trinity College, Celia Holland, has spent over a decade developing a mouse model to study Ascaris infection and has previously demonstrated that susceptible mice have more than ten-fold higher larval numbers in the lungs than resistant ones. This difference in susceptibility between the two strains, however, is first visible in the liver of infected mice.

Following infection with identical numbers of Ascaris eggs, mice from the resistant strain show an earlier inflammatory immune response coupled with more rapid tissue repair in the liver compared with susceptible mice. The researchers therefore set out to investigate the differences in the liver proteomes (via a broad analysis of liver proteins) of both uninfected control mice and infected mice, for each strain.

Professor Holland said: "By focusing on the liver we aimed to target the metaphorical front line in this particular host-parasite interaction."

The researchers identified and quantified thousands of proteins and found that hundreds of liver proteins differed substantially between the two strains, even without Ascaris infections. The resistant strain showed generally higher levels of mitochondrial proteins and proteins associated with the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Ascaris infection increased the level of these proteins in both strains, supporting the evidence of their role in the response to the parasite.

Other proteins were seen only in infected mice; these included proteins involved in a part of the immune response. Two of these proteins were absent from both strains before infection, but were among the highest expressed proteins in both strains following infection. Proteins involved in translation were of lower abundance in all infected mice livers, which suggests either a broad response in the host to the presence of Ascaris or a specific targeting of the protein synthesis machinery by the parasite itself.

Lead author Gwendoline Deslyper said: "Given our findings and the central role of the liver in the Ascaris migratory pathway, we suggest a potentially novel research direction to develop alternative preventative control strategies for Ascaris. It seems that the key determinant in resistance to Ascaris in mice may lie in highly oxidative conditions that presumably restricts and arrests successful larval migration within the hepatic environment -- at least of the resistant strain. By manipulating the hepatic ROS levels in the susceptible mouse strain we hope to determine the importance of the mitochondria and intrinsic ROS in conferring resistance to Ascaris."

The proteomic study, which mapped the proteins of the affected organs, was led by Dr Jim Carolan, Maynooth University Department of Biology in conjunction with Dr Joe Colgan of Queen Mary University London. Discussing the findings, Dr Carolan said: "There is still a long way to go and much research to be done, but these findings point to new options in our efforts to control a disease that affects around one eighth of our planet's population."
Offering a rare insider analysis of the climate assessment process, Carnegie's Katharine Mach and colleagues at the Department of Global Ecology examined the writing and editing procedures by which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change creates summaries of their findings for policymakers. Despite recent critiques that these summaries are too difficult for non-experts, Mach and colleagues found them comparable to reference texts in terms of reading comprehension level. Their results are published by Science Advances.

"Using multiple tools for measuring reading ease, we found that IPCC reports are designed for grownups, but they are not harder to read than other science documents, including those written for the public by professional writers," said co-author Chris Field, who served as the co-chair of the second IPCC Working Group.

Nevertheless, Mach and colleagues also suggest ways that the summary reports could be improved by using less jargon and more cohesive language to link the ideas they contain. The summaries could also be enhanced by graphics, videos, animations, and online multimedia, in addition to extensive media availability by panel leadership.

Mach and Field, together with Carnegie's Patrick Freeman and Michael Mastrandrea, also suggest the possibility of getting professional science editors to participate in the review process to help keep the writing as accessible as possible without losing meaning.

The process by which IPCC summary reports for policymakers are generated is quite singular, and often a subject of fascination.

Scientific experts spend years generating a report assessing the current state of climate science and then create summaries of each section, which are intended to aid policymakers in making the most of the information. These summaries are approved line by line, by consensus by a group of hundreds of government representatives and scientists, working for days at a time and even through the night until they have agreed upon every word.

Mach and her team undertook an in-depth analysis of the process by which these summaries are revised and approved.

"Despite the importance of these policymaker summaries, and the interest in their creation, the revision process has not been comprehensively analyzed until now," Mach explained.

They found that the review process generally increases the length of text, unless there is an issue of great political sensitivity, in which case the summary text might be shortened. Changes during in-person government session tend to focus on the comprehensiveness of examples provided and on increasing policy relevance. This is in contrast to changes in the text prior to the government approval session, which emphasized clarity and scientific rigor.

"Despite the exhausting rigor of the review process, the method of discussing and agreeing upon every sentence builds ownership of the science by both participating researchers and governments," Mach said. "The creation and revision of these summaries is a vital part of making climate science relevant for decision-making. Although there is some room for improvement, the finished documents can certainly provide a lot of value to participants, scientists and nonscientists alike."

Support for this work was provided by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
Studies have shown that obstructive sleep apnea and low nighttime oxygen, which result in oxidative stress, are associated with the progression of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in adults. Investigators have now established that these factors may also be important triggers in the progression of pediatric NAFLD to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), according to a new report in the Journal of Hepatology.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the accumulation of extra fat in liver cells in people who drink little or no alcohol. It is a disease of epidemic proportions that is increasing worldwide in both adults and children. It is estimated to affect up to 30% of the general population in Western countries and up to 9.6% of all children and 38% of obese children across a spectrum of disease, including isolated hepatic steatosis, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH, defined as steatosis, hepatocyte ballooning and inflammation), and cirrhosis. This parallels the growing incidence of obesity and type 2 diabetes, and is now considered to be the hepatic component of metabolic syndrome. Although isolated hepatic steatosis is considered a less aggressive form of NAFLD, patients with NASH can eventually progress to severe fibrosis and cirrhosis, with development of hepatocellular carcinoma in adults.

"There is emerging evidence that obesity-related obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and intermittent nocturnal hypoxia are associated with NAFLD progression," explained lead investigator Shikha Sundaram, MD, MSCI, of the Children's Hospital Colorado, University of Colorado School of Medicine. "According to recent reports, pediatric NAFLD patients with OSA/hypoxia have more advanced liver disease and fibrosis, supporting a role for OSA/hypoxia in the development of NASH. However, the mechanisms underlying this relationship have not yet been explained."

Investigators studied 36 adolescents with NAFLD, along with 14 lean controls, to assess if oxidative stress induced by obstructive sleep apnea and low nighttime oxygen promoted the progression of pediatric NAFLD. Children cared for in the Children's Hospital Colorado Pediatric Liver Center between June 2009 and January 2014 were eligible for this study if they had suspected NAFLD and were scheduled to undergo a clinically indicated liver biopsy. NAFLD patients had significantly raised aminotransferases (a marker of hepatocellular injury), inflammatory markers, and evidence of metabolic syndrome, compared to lean controls.

Patients underwent a standard multi-channel sleep study (polysomnogram), which was scored by a research trained technician and interpreted by a single sleep medicine physician, both of whom were blinded to the liver biopsy results.

Investigators found that patients with the most severe NAFLD experienced more severe sleep-disordered breathing and significantly higher apnea/hypopnea index scores compared to those with less severe NAFLD. Patients with OSA/hypoxia also had more severe fibrosis or scar tissue in their livers than those without OSA/hypoxia. They also found a clear correlation between severity of the indexes of oxidative stress both systemically and in the liver and the severity of the indexes used to evaluate OSA. The two populations of obese NAFLD adolescents did not differ for other relevant serum liver indexes and liver histology scores.

"These data show that sleep-disordered breathing is an important trigger of oxidative stress that promotes progression of pediatric NAFLD to NASH," commented Dr. Sundaram. "We showed that obese adolescents with NAFLD who have OSA and low nighttime oxygen have significant scar tissue in their livers, and that NAFLD patients affected by OSA and low nighttime oxygen have a greater imbalance between the production of free radicals and their body's ability to counteract their harmful effects than subjects without OSA and low oxygen."

"Further proof of this hypothesis will require additional investigations to demonstrate prevention or reversal of NASH following effective therapy of OSA and low nighttime oxygen in obese patients. Nocturnal Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) therapy may be a potential treatment by reducing intermittent nocturnal hypoxia-induced oxidative stress."

In an accompanying editorial, Maurizio Parola, PhD, of the Department of Clinical and Biological Sciences, Unit of Experimental Medicine and Clinical Pathology, University of Torino, Italy, and Pietro Vajro, MD, of the Department of Medicine and Surgery, Unit of Pediatrics, University of Salerno, Italy, commented that "the study by Sundaram and colleagues has merit and outlines a number of further relevant issues and perspectives. The investigators reported significant relationships between blood hematocrit (Hct) and NAFLD fibrosis stage, and anti-oxidant blood values, and between NAFLD and lipid peroxidation parameters. Their combined evaluation should help in deciding whether histological and polysomnographic evaluation are needed in order to recognize adolescent patients with more severe NAFLD and/or more severe OSA and hypoxia earlier."

"We definitely need trials designed to investigate whether CPAP treatment may significantly affect NAFLD progression in this age range. The only randomized controlled trial was of relatively short duration, performed on adult patients with mild OSA/hypoxia and normal baseline transaminases, and apparently did not demonstrate any impact on steatosis, NASH or liver fibrosis," they observed.
Of female justices

Three female justices taking up responsibilities put our position on a par with the most advanced democratic countries
Its likely a crying Kim Kardashian emoji will be bigger news than the launch of BlackBerrys latest phone, the DTEK50.

Kardashian this week unleashed a tweetstorm over the fact her last beloved BlackBerry Bold had died, and she couldnt find a replacement on eBay. Her lament ended with a teary Kimoji exclamation point. Kardashian  who admittedly wields double handsets and also uses an iPhone  is one of longtime BlackBerry fans who doesnt want to let go of the companys devices. But it looks like she might have to move on.

Thats likely how many fans still feel about the company. These days, the truth is that BlackBerry is doing well in other lines of business, such as software and services. But its legacy handset business is still a point of consternation; CEO John Chen has said that if it doesnt turn around by the end of the year, hes willing to cut ties with the division.

With all that swirling around, BlackBerry launched its latest phone, the DTEK50, calling it the worlds most secure Android phone.

Heres a rundown:

Name: BlackBerry DTEK50

Price (unlocked): $429

Operating system: Android 6.0

Screen: 5.2-inch LCD screen with 1080x1920 pixels resolution

Features: CPU: Snapdragon 617 octa-core 1.5GHz, 3GB RAM, DTEK 50 security app, BB10 features such as hub and messenger, Android apps, 16GB storage with microSD slot that is expandable up to 2TB.

Camera: 13-megapixel rear camera, 8 MP on the front.

Weight: 135 grams

Battery life: 2610 Mah, which is almost good for day, but any multimedia use can sap it quickly.

Competition: OnePlus X, Moto G4 Plus

Whats good: The DTEK50s best selling point is its price. At $429, this is a mid-range phone the company is selling as a fleet device for businesses, but it could also help increase BlackBerrys market share in emerging markets, where the company is still a sought-after brand. The phone is named after an app that premiered on last years higher-end Priv phone. That app looks at your phones security and privacy features and lets you know how to improve them. It checks and confirms privileges to various apps well, but that is basically preventative maintenance and many other apps do similar things. The password keeper can be handy, but there are also third-party offerings for that. BlackBerry is basically trying to expand on its security reputation, but thats hard to turn into a product. The company is calling this the worlds most secure Android phone, which is a bold claim that even they had to back down from a bit  as it is as secure as their previous phone, the higher end Priv  and still less secure than the companys BB10-based phones.

Beyond the security, this is a decent, all-around phone that runs well, without a lot of bells and whistles. I appreciate the move to Android, so people can get popular apps. Design-wise, it feels good to hold and is the thinnest phone the company has ever put out.

Whats bad: The power buttons location on the upper left side is confusing when compared to other phones. There is also a round button on right side, a programmable convenience key, that you can assign some functions too, and turning the power on is an available option here. The screen doesnt really compete with the Samsungs and iPhones of the world, but at this price you shouldnt expect it too. There isnt a finger print scanner. The camera is not great in lowlight situations.

Whats interesting: Its probably wishful thinking that the Finnish people resort to the same sort of hand-wringing over the failures of Nokia that Canadians have when it comes to BlackBerry, but ... what makes something a BlackBerry now? It is the physical keyboard? Is it BB10? Is it BBM? This phone has access to the last one, but at this point, the companys hardware division admits to mostly being about software and design. As such, the DTEK50 is what is referred to as a re-badged phone, meaning it is built on a reference design from an Alcatel phone. BlackBerry execs have said that the company made some changes, like making it easier to grip and adding the convenience key, but is that enough to distinguish it?

The bottom line: The problem with BlackBerry trying to sell a device on its security is that really the company is trying to sell the promise of bad things not happening. The other problem: most people are either unaware of or dont really care about their security, even if they should. The DTEK50 is a solid phone at a good price, but is not spectacular in any way. BlackBerry says is has another two phones in the pipeline, including another one based on a physical keyboard. Heres hoping this phone does well enough to secure the possibility of seeing those ones released.

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OTTAWAA new computer system designed to root out possible fraud and overpayments in the federal governments employment insurance program is capturing more cases than its predecessor.

But the system hasnt been reeling in as many big fish as officials hoped.

Departmental documents show that on average, the second-generation program was finding more modest overpayments than the earlier version, despite a significant jump in the number of cases identified for review.

The findings led Employment and Social Development Canada officials to rejig the predictive model that considers some 100 variables to calculate the chance that someone has received too much money, either by accident or through fraud.

The details are outlined in documents obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

Officials now hope the recalibrated system can start finding more lucrative cases of overpayment to allow the department to better focus its resources and get a bigger bang for its investigative buck in one of the countrys largest social programs.

The newest iteration of the predictive model will provide the department with an additional tool to maintain integrity and prevent payment errors, said ESDC spokeswoman Evelyne Wildgoose Labrie.

More specifically, it increases our efficiency at allocating resources to cases representing the highest risk of overpayment.

Since 2008, the predictive computer model has accounted for about half the overpayments identified.

A January presentation from ESDC officials likened the process to finding needles in a haystack by focusing on the likeliest area where the needles will be found. The presentation said the predictive system not only anticipates where and when errors will occur, but also identifies previously undetected cases to help officials figure out new ways to combat emerging fraud trends.

In 2014, the program received a performance upgrade, both in the number of actual case of overpayment it hit on and an increase in the size of overpayments identified.

Earlier this year, officials found that the second-generation system wasnt working as originally expected.

The average overpayment identified under the newer model was $861 between May and August 2015, a drop from the $957 average during the same period in 2014. The newer model was, however, finding more cases.

Officials predicted earlier this year that the newer model would find average overpayments of $1,739, up from the $1,047 identified during the first generation of the program. A presentation from February noted the new model would have a lower hit rate than the first generation system, thus fewer low-value cases will need to be investigated.

The department said its too early to say if the recalibrated system is meeting expectations.

Generally, the later the fraud or overpayment is detected, the less likely it is the government will recoup the funds. If the government cant collect the money within 72 months of identifying the wrongful payment, it is generally written off.

Debts can be written off for a variety of reasons, including if the debtor dies or declares bankruptcy, or that the debt itself has passed the 72-month statute of limitations for its collection. The 72-month clock starts when the fraud is identified, but could be extended if the debtor goes to court, for example. So even seven years on, debts can be collected.

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For Geri Stevens, a longtime tenant advocate who resides in the most-complained-about apartment building in Toronto, changes to how the city polices bad landlords cant come soon enough.

She lives at 500 Dawes Rd., where there were 453 complaints lodged with the city between 2010 and 2015. From those complaints, city officials issued 238 violations against the 14-storey building.

The current fines are laughable and anything but an incentive to effect needed and ordered repairs, said Stevens, adding that the current penalties need more teeth to ensure landlords follow the rules. Ive lived here for five years and it takes ages to address problems in this building. The wall is decaying; the paint is sliding off.

Stevens said she was still reeling from her units recent bedbug infestation that forced her to bag all her possessions. She said the small, brownish insects left her with welts on her legs, feet and ribs  a parasitic presence that made it impossible to sleep.

A Star analysis of data logged by Torontos Multi-Residential Apartment Building Audit Enforcement Program shows the city received more than 55,000 complaints from residents from 2010 to 2015.

In the same time span, investigators issued close to 32,000 violations for issues that range from long grass and weeds to malfunctioning heating and ventilation systems.

Privately owned properties also make up the majority of Torontos top 10 most-complained-about apartment buildings. The most complaints and violations originated from apartment buildings in wards like York South-Weston and Beaches-East York, with counts of more than 4,000 respectively.

Stevens believes a landlord licensing system would help to ensure landlords better adhere to regulations.

City council backed that idea in June, specifically directing staff to consult the public and return in the fall with a draft plan that would include a draft bylaw to implement licensing.

It was a hard-fought win for tenant advocates, after Mayor John Tory questioned the need to create a licensing regime and his staff actively worked but ultimately failed to sideline the attempt at an earlier committee meeting. In the end, Tory and most of his executive voted with council to move toward licensing in a decisive 33-6 vote.

But with city staff recently publishing details about the upcoming consultation, the city appears to have taken a step back from that direction.

On licensing, the consultation website says the city is exploring the strengths and weaknesses associated with developing a licensing bylaw or a regulatory bylaw to impose additional requirements on rental properties.

But council did not request staff look at regulatory alternatives to licensing.

That was the direction, but when we do consultation we look at all the options, Mark Sraga, director of investigations for the citys licensing division, told the Star on Saturday.

We havent done the consultation so it would be premature to say the only thing we are going to do is license landlords. . . . Just because council said go do this consultation, that doesnt mean its the only thing we talk about. It would be foolish of us to do a public consultation on only one idea.

When reached for comment, ACORN Canada president Marva Burnett, whose group has been pushing for licensing, said it is clear that the best option is licensing but the fight is not over. She added that her organization plans to attend the consultations en masse.

Currently, 16 officers make up the citys apartment standards enforcement unit. The group responds to tenant complaints and issue orders related to property standards, graffiti and waste violations. They also conduct audits in potentially high-risk buildings.

On the consultation website, however, the city states this approach is not always helpful in finding poorly maintained buildings and making sure they remain in good condition over time.

Public consultations on what the city is now referring to as Improving Living Conditions in Rental Apartment Buildings begin on August 17. Among the proposed initiatives aims is to bolster the citys existing inspection program and subject landlords to a higher range of fines.

Property records show 500 Dawes is owned by Havcare Investments Inc., a company run by East York couple Carolyn and Harvey Krebs. A woman who answered the phone at the couples Thornhill residence told the Star all complaints are addressed and repairs made in a timely fashion before hanging up. Neither of the Krebs responded to multiple letters delivered to 500 Dawes property management office by the Star requesting comment.

Another tenant the Star spoke with expressed a desire to live in a safer, more secure complex, but claimed Torontos lack of affordable housing didnt leave him much choice.

Robert Gay was unemployed in 2014 when he moved into 500 Dawes. He recalled feeling lucky at the time that he finally found a place to live.

Yet it wasnt long before he said the nightmare began. Gay, who now works as a contract social worker, told the Star his hallways carpet used to be green but has been soiled to the point of turning black. The elevator buttons, he added, are constantly coated with spit.

Toronto police confirmed they had responded to lots of calls originating from the apartment. Gay said hes contacted police at least 10 times in the last six months over his neighbours blasting of music at all hours.

He described the noise as a mix of polka and rock, a sound so loud it vibrates the walls at 4 a.m.

I cant take it anymore, he said.

While the Stars analysis looked at individual buildings, a new website launched last month focuses on landlords and aims to give Toronto renters a heads-up into which ones are issued the most violations in the city.

Using figures pulled from the City of Torontos open data catalogues, LandlordWatch.com tracks how often city officials investigate apartments but also uses tax assessment rolls to reveal the owners and companies who oversee the problem buildings.

Canadas largest landlord, the Toronto Community Housing Corporation, topped the websites list with 1,044 complaint-prompted investigations. Spokeswoman Lisa Murray stressed the public housing agency is one of Canadas largest, operating 58,500 units in 2,100 buildings.

Based on sheer size, its not surprising TCHC would be high on the list, she said, emphasizing TCHC performs 400,000 maintenance repairs annually to improve its buildings.

Weve been pushing hard on our 10-year, $2.6-billion capital repair plan on buildings across the city and (last) month hit a milestone of 30,000 repair projects completed since 2013, added Murray.

Yale Fox, who runs the site through his company RentLogic, created the online tool in partnership with the ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

He said LandlordWatch empowers would-be renters by giving them some extra insight into an apartment buildings history.

By knowing which landlords are bad, tenants can seek out the ones that are good, he said. The information is now in plain sight rather than inside a database in an office.

Daryl Chong of the Greater Toronto Apartment Association argues that a simple count of violations doesnt necessarily reflect the quality of a building or landlord.

A burnt-out light bulb the day the inspectors are on site is documented as a violation. As do dozens of other minor issues, he said in an email. Using only the number of violations isnt very useful for prospective tenants shopping for a new home.

Chong said the association supports the citys effort to aggressively pursue bad landlords, a group he believes is a small minority, further stating that apartment licensing does not focus on bad landlords as it spreads city resources thinly to inspect thousands of good buildings each year.

The vast majority of apartment buildings in Toronto are well-run and provide safe, affordable housing, said Chong. He further predicted city-imposed fees and higher administrative costs associated with licensing would certainly increase rent across Toronto.

Geordie Dent, executive director of the Federation of Metro Tenants Associations, disagreed.

The rent will go up because of landlord greed and what the market will bear, not because of the (licensing) fees, he said, adding the existing complaint-based system is toothless.

Sraga said whether or not landlord licensing becomes a reality, there is (no) silver bullet if you have a bad landlord. In the meantime, he said, the city is looking into how to better enforce the rules for not only landlords but tenants as well.

It isnt the landlords spraying graffiti, defecating or urinating in the stairwells, he added.

---

The data for this analysis was sourced directly from the City of Torontos Multi-Residential Apartment Building Audit Enforcement Program because there were discrepancies between the Municipal Licensing and Standards - Investigation Activity dataset through Torontos Open Data Portal and the data made available on their Bylaw Enforcement page.

The data contains two primary categories  investigation requests (IRs) and investigation violations (IVs)  all of which were initiated between January-December, 2010-2015.

Only records containing a full address were used in the analysis and addresses that contained a specific unit number were generalized so that only the building address would be used in the totals counts.

With files from Jennifer Pagliaro

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DES MOINES, IOWAHillary Clinton doesnt appear all that interested in making scenic stops on her state-to-state quest to become president. The Democratic nominee is instead programming her GPS to take her on the quickest route to collect the 270 Electoral College votes she needs to win the White House.

With three months until Election Day, Clintons campaign is focused on capturing the battleground states that have decided the most recent presidential elections, not so much on expanding the map.

Clintons team doesnt rule out an effort at Arizona, a state with a booming population of Latino voters that polls find are loath to support Donald Trump. And Georgia, a bastion of the Deep South, echoes recent population trends in other Southeastern states where Clinton is competing aggressively.

But neither is among the 11 battleground states that Clintons television advertising plans and her travel schedule point to as her focus. Those states are the perennial top-tier targets Florida and Ohio, plus Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. President Barack Obama carried them all in 2008, and missed out on only North Carolina during his 2012 re-election campaign.

The last two elections have given Democrats an electoral path for victory, said Clinton campaign adviser John Anzalone. And our strategy is to efficiently use our resources to lock down the support we need to reach 270 electoral votes.

After a bump in support for Clinton in national polls that followed the Democratic convention and tracked Trumps recent gaffes, the number of states where Clinton will invest her time and money may get smaller than 11.

When the Clinton campaign booked more than $23 million (U.S.) in new television ad time late this past week to start on Monday, it spent most of the money in just three states: Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Feeling good about Colorado and Virginia, the campaign passed on giving those states a fresh injection of ad dollars, though they remain heavily staffed with organizers. Likewise, officials with the pro-Clinton group Priorities USA say they have put its advertising plans there on hold.

Meanwhile, Trumps travel following the Republican convention suggests hes given up on plans to force Clinton to defend traditional Democratic bastions California and New York. Beyond that, its not clear how he plans to chart his course to 270.

I have states that no other Republican would do well in that I think Im going to win, Trump told The Washington Post this past week. But I dont want to name those states.

Trumps campaign has yet to run a single television ad and has made curious decisions about where to send its candidate. This past week, for example, Trump spent a day in Portland, Maine, chasing after the single electoral vote at stake along the states largely Democratic southern coast.

There have been no such distractions for Clinton since the end of her convention, aside from a quick stop in Nebraska, a visit that was probably as much about spending time on stage with billionaire investor Warren Buffett than picking up the one electoral vote in the Omaha area. (Maine and Nebraska are the two states that award electoral votes by congressional district instead of a statewide winner-take-all vote.)

This coming week, Clinton will be in Florida. So will Trump. Thats no surprise, as a win there plus victories in every state (and the District of Columbia) that have voted Democratic since 1992 would give Clinton a winning total of 271 electoral votes. Florida Republican consultant Brett Doster said simply of his state: If we dont win here, I just dont see how we win.

Despite the 2016 campaigns unscripted form, Democrat and Republican pollsters alike said in the past week that Florida is competitive and is expected to stay that way into the fall. The largest share of single-state spending in Clintons most recent ad buy came in Florida, at more than $4.2 million, and that, plus an aggressive pursuit of Latino voters, may give her a narrow edge.

In Floridas Orange County, which includes Orlando, the Democratic edge among registered voters has grown by 15 per cent since 2008. Since late last year, roughly 1,000 Puerto Rican families a month have relocated to Florida due to the U.S. territorys fiscal crisis, many of them concentrating in and around Orlandos heavy service-sector job scene. Bilingual teams of Clinton employees are registering first-time Puerto Rican voters at grocery stores, malls and community centres.

Republican pollster Whit Ayres said Trumps problems in Florida go deeper than his lack of advertising and overwhelmingly unpopular standing among Latinos. He said Trumps recent criticism of the Muslim family of a fallen U.S. soldier is not likely to sit well in a state with 22 military installations and more than 1.5 million veterans.

The attack on the Gold Star family makes it unlikely for him to expand in Florida beyond where he is right now, said Ayres, an adviser to Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.

While Trump may not have a path without Florida, Clinton can lose the state and still find another way through the battlegrounds to reach 270. Thats no doubt why from June 8 through Monday, Clinton and Democratic groups supporting her will have outspent Republican groups by 15 to 1 in those states, according to data from Kantar Medias CMAG political advertising tracker.

The Clinton campaign and deep-pocketed Democratic groups such as Priorities USA have poured a combined $66 million into television and radio advertising in those 11 states. Trumps campaign hasnt spent a dollar on television advertising, while Republican groups have only spent about $4.3 million.

Put simply, Anzalone said, Clinton has options.

But this is a dynamic race and we will continue to look at all pathways as this race develops, he said.

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JANESVILLE, WIS.House Speaker Paul Ryans red-brick Georgian revival house in this tree-lined, kid-filled Midwestern neighbourhood has long been his refuge, as his wife calls it, from the divisive world of politics. But no more  not in this Donald Trump-fuelled, anger-filled year for a Republican Party leader facing a primary challenge.

Fuming activists have inched close to the Wisconsin congressmans property several times as part of protests that have drawn the notice of the U.S. Capitol Police detail that watches his residence. A nearby billboard has portrayed Ryan as soft on terrorism. At one sidewalk standoff, his primary opponent  Paul Nehlen, a 47-year-old businessman with tattooed biceps and a deep affinity for Trump  cast Ryans backyard fence as an elitist barricade that protects the speaker while his constituents are exposed to the dangers of illegal immigration.

You should tear down your wall and show everyone that you will live under the same conditions as they do, Nehlen declared last month as his backers, in matching navy blue T-shirts, stood in front of Ryans bushes. They nodded solemnly as he called Ryan a tool of corporate masters.

Perhaps the most unsettling moment came when a group of mothers whose children had been killed by illegal immigrants staked out Ryans home while he was inside and tried to confront him with poster-size images of the deceased. Breitbart News, the conservative outlet that has extensively chronicled Nehlens bid, wrote that Ryan and members of his security detail fled from his guarded estate after he was spotted slamming a door on his porch.

A blurry picture of the departing motorcade was pasted on the website alongside the article, which has drawn thousands of comments, nearly all of them harshly critical of Ryan.

This is the bracing new reality for the speaker. Though he is expected to easily win on Aug. 9, Ryan and most Republican leaders find themselves caught in an incendiary populist vortex that is unrelenting in its animus toward seasoned elected officials, in particular those like Ryan who have encouraged bipartisan immigration reform.

Its a weird time, said former secretary of education William Bennett, a Ryan confidant for decades. Hes doing everything he can to be Paul Ryan, the guy from Janesville who goes to the county fairs and who used to drive around the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. But it gets nasty when they dont leave the house, the wife and kids alone.

Trump has inflamed the embers. The mogul coyly said in an interview with The Washington Post earlier this week that he was not yet ready to endorse Ryan, possible payback for the delayed and pro-forma endorsement Ryan gave earlier this year to Trump. Trumps move was extraordinary  a presidential nominee refusing to back his partys House speaker  and instantly jolted Nehlen from obscurity to the roiling edge of the Republican hurricane.

Trumps wavering lasted until Friday night when, under intense pressure from party leaders, he relented and endorsed Ryan at a rally in Green Bay.

Hes a good man, Trump said with muted enthusiasm. We may disagree on a couple of things, but mostly we agree.

Nehlen had driven to the event, about a three-hour drive north and outside of the district, to be with his people. His crushed supporters took bitterly to social media in the aftermath, though Nehlen said in a statement that Trumps early refusal was more telling.

Happy Warrior returns home, Nehlen wrote in a Twitter post after the rally, smiling in a selfie with his Trump-style red tie loose and clutching a Trump campaign banner he called a hard fought trophy.

Trumps needling began months ago when he held a rally in Janesville in late March ahead of the Wisconsin GOP presidential primary, which he lost to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Supporters booed Trumps mention of the towns favourite son.

How do you like Paul Ryan? You like him? Trump asked the crowd. I was told to be nice to Paul Ryan.

Ryan supporters, then and now, have shrugged at those theatrics, pointing to Cruzs double-digit victory over Trump, which included a 19-point win in Ryans suburban and blue-collar district, as compelling evidence of Trumps limited political capital in the state.

GOP leaders in the state and community have flocked to Ryans side as he dealt with Trumps lingering spite. Gov. Scott Walker and Sen. Ron Johnson (R) of Wisconsin did not attend Trumps Friday rally. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, who grew up in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and is close with Ryan, played a central role in getting Trump to back down.

As GOP forces rush to protect Ryan from the wrath of Trump, stars from the conservative counterestablishment  former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, columnist Michelle Malkin and author Phyllis Schlafly, among others  have continued to stoke the fury here, with the faint and fading hope that Nehlen could close the gap in the final days and score an upset similar to the one in 2014 that toppled then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Virginia.

I think Paul Ryan is soon to be Cantored, as in Eric Cantor, Palin predicted to CNN in May. Minutes after Trumps endorsement of Ryan on Friday, she took to Facebook to buck up Nehlens base, writing, Wisconsin, please vote for this man of the people this Tuesday!

The races are not the same, though. Ryan has remained ubiquitous in his district after becoming speaker and spent more than $600,000 (U.S.) over the past month on television ads. Cantor was criticized for his lack of a presence at local events, dismissed the appetite for an alternative and thought that he would comfortably coast right up until the results started coming in.

Nehlens top advisers, Noel Fritsch and Eric Odom, bring with them experience with past insurgent conservative campaigns. Fritsch worked in the Mississippi Senate primary two years ago that drew national attention for its discord, and Odom was one of the original organizers of the tea party movement. Politico has reported that a handful of former Trump campaign staffers have travelled to Wisconsin to volunteer.

On Saturday, firebrand commentator Ann Coulter criss-crossed the sprawling southeastern Wisconsin district with Ryans rival, and some Democrats have been planning to vote for Nehlen in what is usually a sleepy open primary, with the mischievous, if unrealistic, aim of making Ryans margin of victory narrow  especially if turnout is low.

Ryans district has seen its share of economic turmoil in the past decade, which Nehlens campaign insists makes his message and his emphasis on his time on factory floors, when he worked for a water-filtration company, right for the times. Janesville is home to a General Motors plant that shuttered in 2009 and once employed 7,000 workers. Many of the white working-class and middle-class people in the area commute to corporate and service jobs in Chicago, Milwaukee and Madison, Wisconsin.

At a news conference this week in Kenosha, Nehlen said anyone who doesnt believe he has a chance is buying into the narrative of the political class.

In Trumpian fashion, Nehlen railed against the worst trade deals and against Ryan for funding everything the Obama administration wants, and more, and they were shocked at what they got.

Whats Paul Ryan done? Nehlen, in his flat monotone, asked as reporters and camera crews stood silent. Paul Ryan has gone to mountain estates, behind closed doors to talk about, hmm, what do they talk about behind those closed doors at those mountain estates? They talk about bringing cheap labour into this country and flooding, flooding this country with as much free labour as we can possibly get, so we can keep the wages low.

Nehlens peculiar, even menacing, approach has been a constant throughout the campaign, beyond the scrums near Ryans lawn.

On Twitter, he has skewered Ryans longtime associates Dan Senor and Cesar Conda as puppets of billionaires and scheming globalists. On Monday, he suggested there should be a discussion about deporting all Muslims from the United States, later saying he meant only sharia compliant Muslims.

Ryan hasnt hidden his frustration. Its kind of petty to actually do that, to go to a persons house, he told a local television station last month. Having a backyard fence for three dogs and three kids is not a half-bad idea.

Ryan was worried about the personal attacks coming so close to his wife and children last October, when he was hesitant to become speaker. I genuinely worry about the consequences that my agreeing to serve will have on them, he said then. Will they experience the viciousness and incivility that we all here face on a daily basis?

Polls show Ryan poised to romp. A poll released Thursday by Republican outfit Remington Research found Ryan up by 66 points, 80 per cent to 14 per cent, with 6 per cent undecided.

Ryans campaign, typical of a well-known incumbent, has assiduously avoided doing anything that would give the race a whiff of competitiveness. He has not accepted Nehlens debate invitations, and Ryans spokesman has declined to share an advisory of his campaign stops with reporters. Instead, he has sent a listing of Ryans radio interviews.

You guys came in to cover a race thats not close, a Ryan aide wrote in an email Thursday.

Whatever the result, Ryan will move forward with battle scars, which makes the contest at least intriguing  and depressing to Ryan allies.

No longer is the partys highly respected 2012 vice-presidential nominee totally at ease in the district he has represented since he was 28. The winds that have lifted Nehlen still swirl on Capitol Hill, where the speaker has struggled at times to keep together his raucous Republican conference.

What Id tell Paul is, I told you so. When he was thinking hard about becoming speaker, I said it was always going to be one rough ride, Bennett said. He anticipated the wayward members part of it, probably not Trump.

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WASHINGTONAs secretary of state, Hillary Clinton basked in a diplomatic Moscow Spring, seizing on Vladimir Putins break from the presidency to help seal a nuclear arms-control treaty and secure Russias acquiescence to a NATO-led military intervention in Libya. When Putin returned to the top job, things changed.

Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, has vowed to stand up to Putin if elected, drawing on her four years of ups and downs as the public face of President Barack Obamas first-term reset with Russia. By comparison, her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, has rung alarm bells in Washington and Europe with his overtures to the authoritarian Russian leader.

But Clintons wrangles with Russia led to mixed results. Her fortunes dipped dramatically after Putin replaced Dmitry Medvedev as president in May 2012.

Just weeks later, Russia outmanoeuvred her in negotiations over a complicated Syria peace plan, dealing her what was arguably her worst diplomatic defeat. While Clinton hailed it as a triumph, the war only escalated. And while her aides still insist she came out on top, the blueprint effectively gave Syrias Moscow-backed president, Bashar Assad, a veto over any transition government, hampering all mediation efforts still.

There is no doubt that when Putin came back in and said he was going to be president, that did change the relationship, Clinton said in a Democratic debate last year. We have to stand up to his bullying and specifically, in Syria it is important.

Clintons history with Russia is significant given the surprising role Russia has played in the U.S. presidential campaign.

Clinton and her supporters say she would be far tougher on Moscow than Trump, whose unusual foreign policy statements include musings about NATOs relevance and suggestions that he could accept Russias annexation of Ukraines Crimea region. Russias reported hacking of Democratic Party email accounts also has led to charges that Putins intelligence services are meddling in the election, and Trump aided that perception by publicly encouraging Russia to find and release more of her emails.

Clintons first encounters in Russian diplomacy began on much more hopeful note. Meeting Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in 2009, Clinton initiated the effort to repair years of bitter relations, punctuated by a Russian war with neighbouring Georgia a year earlier. Offering a large red reset button, Clinton outlined a broad agenda of co-operation.

The new policy paid dividends.

With Putin focused on domestic matters during a four-year stint as prime minister, Medvedev opened up a new corridor for U.S. forces and materiel heading to Afghanistan as part of the U.S. surge in the war. After missile defence concessions by Obama, the two nations sealed their most ambitious arms control pact in a generation. Washington and Moscow united on new Iran sanctions. Years of trade negotiations culminated in Russias entry into the World Trade Organization.

But it was perhaps Clintons unlikeliest diplomatic breakthrough that began the downward spiral: Libya. Even before Putins first two terms as president, Russia had always opposed UN Security Council action that might lead to a leadership change.

As Americas European allies sought a military intervention against Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, Clinton played the role of skeptic, refusing to jump aboard. When she finally did, it proved critical in persuading Russia to abstain. The rebels overthrew Gadhafi five months later.

It was the first time that Putin publicly criticized Medvedev, said Michael McFaul, Obamas main Russia adviser at the time and later U.S. ambassador in Moscow. When things went poorly and not according to plan as we had promised, I think that was the beginning of the end for the reset.

Relations soured further by the end of the year as Putin won a new, six-year presidential term. Evidence of election fraud led to the largest protests since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Clinton issued a sharply worded statement; Putin accused Clinton of sending the signal to undermine his country.

If Libya destroyed trust, McFaul said the demonstrations were the resets body blow.

Putin got paranoid, he said, and believed we were behind them, really believed it. We never gained traction after that.

Returning as president in May 2012, Putin was immediately confronted with Syrias Libya-like escalation from Arab Spring protests to full-scale civil war. He played his cards differently than Medvedev, hinting to Obama that he could drop his support for the Syrian leader while shielding Assad from any UN pressure or foreign action that might chase him from power.

Putin claimed that he had no particular love for Assad, Clinton wrote in her memoir Hard Choices, recalling a meeting between the U.S. and Russian presidents in June 2012. He also professed to have no real leverage with Damascus.

Seeking Russias co-operation, Obama and Clinton avoided any talk that might threaten Russian equities in Syria, including a large naval base there. Their message was clear: The U.S. wouldnt try to pull a future post-Assad government out of Moscows orbit.

It didnt matter. When the UN proposed a peace plan that involved ushering Assad out of power and included penalties for non-compliance, the Russians balked. Faced with stalemate, the U.S. and Russia arrived at a formula for a new government comprised of individuals chosen by the mutual consent of Assad and the opposition.

Although Clinton claimed credit for the June 30, 2012, compromise in Geneva, it appeared to be Russias objective all along.

There was no way Assad would pass such a test, Clinton said. The opposition would never consent to him.

Russia didnt read the deal that way. Neither did Assad. And Assad is still president.

Putin doesnt do favours, said Stephen Sestanovich, a Russia specialist at the Council on Foreign Relations and a senior diplomat under Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. If we had had a robust policy in Syria and said, This is what were going to do; what are you going to do?  thats one thing. But we didnt. We asked for help and the chances of that working were zero.

The Geneva deal has had long-term repercussions. The U.S. and Russia both say it must be the basis of any settlement to the five-year civil war. But their interpretations still differ, contributing to a standstill that keeps Assad in power.

At the time Clinton negotiated the Geneva deal, some 8,000 people had been killed in Syria. Since then, the death toll has risen to perhaps 500,000, with millions of refugees and the Islamic State group emerging.

I doubt they could have gotten more out of Russia, said Robert Ford, who was U.S. ambassador to Syria at the time and is now a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.

Clintons deal could have proved viable, if backed up by American military pressure, he said. But Obama didnt see it that way. The tactics were not in sync with the strategy, Ford said.

Frederic Hof, a senior member of Clintons delegation to the talks, called the document a road map to peaceful regime change. But others in the U.S. government were unwilling to do anything to realize the plan, he said, adding: This is why Syria continues to hemorrhage internally and externally.

Clinton, in any case, was mistaken if she believed Obama was prepared to act militarily in Syria.

With her plan doomed to fail otherwise, she joined Defence Secretary Leon Panetta and CIA Director David Petraeus later that year in urging Obama to authorize military support for vetted, moderate rebels and U.S. enforcement of a no-fly zone over opposition-held areas of the country.

Obama refused.

Clinton has acknowledged her frustration with an increasingly hostile Russia on Syria and other matters as her time in office wound down.

In her final months, Russia ordered the end of all U.S. Agency for International Development programs in the country. It approved a new law constraining the work of Russian and foreign non-governmental organizations. It banned U.S. adoptions of Russian children.

In December 2012, Clinton accused Putin of trying to re-Sovietize its region. And just before leaving, she wrote a memo to Obama urging him to finally suspend a reset that ended once and for all with Russias military incursions in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea in 2014  well after Clinton had left government.

Strength and resolve were the only language Putin would understand, Clinton wrote in her book, published shortly afterward.

It was a lesson she could say she learned firsthand.

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MANILA, PHILIPPINESPhilippine President Rodrigo Duterte publicly linked more than 150 judges, mayors, lawmakers, police and military personnel to illegal drugs Sunday, ordering them to surrender for investigation as he ratcheted up his bloody war against what he calls a pandemic.

Dutertepromptly relieved members of the military and police he named from their current posts and ordered government security personnel to be withdrawn from politicians he identified in a nationally televised speech. He also ordered gun licenses of those named revoked.

All military and police who are attached to these people, Im giving you 24 hours to report to your mother unit or I will whack you. Ill dismiss you from the service, Duterte said in the speech at a military camp in southern Davao city.

He said that the list of politicians, judges and law enforcers given to him by the military and police might or might not be true, but that he had a duty to disclose to the public how the drug problem had become so pervasive.

There is no due process in my mouth, Duterte said. You cant stop me and Im not afraid even if you say that I can end up in jail.

The list of names, which Duterte said included some friends, has been validated by authorities but did not contain details of the officials alleged involvement to the drug trade or offer any evidence. Some names were incomplete, while others had no rank or government position.

They included eight judges, one of whom was reported to have been killed by a gunman in 2008, as well as five retired and current generals. The rest were mostly town mayors and police officers. One retired general, Vicente Loot, has been previously named in public by Duterte and has denied any wrongdoing.

Its a pandemic, said Duterte, a former mayor of Davao, where he built a reputation for his crime-busting style that allegedly involved extrajudicial killings.

Dutertes latest salvo ups the ante in his war on drugs, which has already left more than 400 suspected dealers and pushers dead and more than 4,400 arrested in more than a month since he took office. Nearly 600,000 people have surrendered to authorities, hoping to avoid getting killed.

The crackdown has been one of the biggest and bloodiest in the Philippines recent history and has alarmed human rights groups and the dominant Roman Catholic Church. But Duterte has dismissed their concerns and has openly threatened to kill crime suspects, assuring law enforcers that he would defend them if they face lawsuits while battling criminality.

Church leader Archbishop Socrates Villegas issued a statement, read in churches Sunday in his northern district, expressing deep concerns over the killings of drugs suspects and lamenting a lack of widespread outrage over the deaths.

Is not humanity going down to the dregs when bloodthirsty humans encourage the killers and ask for more blood? Villegas said. Will you kill me again and again on social media for saying this?

Vice-President Leni Robredo, who is on a trip to the U.S., said media can do a lot to help raise awareness on the need to stop the killings.

There have been a few voices already out there against extrajudicial killings, but I think that public outcry is not there yet, Robredo said. I think all of us should do our share in making sure that this has to stop.

Duterte also attended the wake of four soldiers who were killed in two clashes with communist rebels last week in the gold-mining town of Monkayo in southern Compostela Valley. Three of the soldiers were killed by a landmine blast, the military said.

Duterte criticized the rebels for using landmines, which have also killed civilians. He warned that if anyone else dies from a rebel landmine attack, he would call off peace talks that are scheduled to start Aug. 20 in Norway.

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BANGKOKThai voters on Sunday overwhelmingly approved a new junta-backed constitution that lays the foundation for a civilian government influenced by the military and controlled by appointed  rather than elected  officials.

Although near-final results showed that more than 60 per cent of voters in a referendum called by the military government approved of the constitution, the vote is likely to be met by some skepticism. The junta  led by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a retired army general who has severely curtailed dissent since coming to power in a 2014 coup  imposed severe restrictions on public discussion of the proposed constitution.

Ahead of the referendum, the junta banned political rallies and open discussion about the constitution, and criticism of the draft was made punishable by 10 years in jail. Critics say the restrictions ensured that most people were unaware of the pitfalls of the charter, and were probably anxious to get the long-drawn process over with so that they could move on.

The yes vote adds that touch of legitimacy to the coup makers, Pavin Chachavalpongpun, an associate professor at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies of Kyoto University in Japan, told The Associated Press.

It gives them the green light for the next few steps they want to take. They will say the opposition cannot say anything now, said Pavin, who is Thai and is a vocal critic of the junta.

Prayuths office, however, said in a statement late Sunday that the referendum was conducted with a high degree of transparency and openness on part of the government.

Despite the curbs on civil liberties, Prayuths rule has brought a measure of stability and ended the frequent street violence and divisive politics that had frayed Thailands social fabric for years. That veneer of stability could help explain the yes vote for the new constitution.

There was also the allure of new elections that Prayuth has promised to hold in 2017, after the approval of the new constitution, although hes said he would call the vote even if the referendum was defeated.

The charter speaks to a lot of worries and concerns that a majority of Thai people have, Gothom Areeya, a professor at Thailands Mahidol University, told the AP. Many Thais want to see an end to corruption and the return of peace and development. Even though experts like me may criticize it a lot, our message just didnt reach a lot of the people.

With 94 per cent of the ballots tallied when counting was suspended for the night, 61 per cent of the voters said they approved of the constitution, while 39 per cent rejected it. The official final count is expected to be issued on Wednesday.

Only about 58 per cent of Thailands roughly 50 million registered voters cast ballots in the referendum.

In addition to asking for an opinion on the constitution, the referendum also asked a supplementary question on whether voters wanted an appointed Senate to choose a prime minister. That question elicited a less enthusiastic approval  58 per cent yes and 42 per cent no.

Analysts have said that a yes vote would be a setback for democracy in Thailand.

Pavin, the Kyoto University professor, said that even when the military is no longer in power and a civilian government is in place after the 2017 elections, the military will have the constitution as a remote control. The constitution can be used as a device to hold onto political power.

The main criticisms of the draft constitution are:

A transition period of at least five years to civilian rule.

A 250-member appointed Senate that includes the commanders of the army and other security services.

A deadlock in the 500-member elected lower house could trigger a selection of a prime minister who is not an elected member of parliament. Under the abolished 2007 constitution, half the Senate was elected, and the prime minister had to come from the lower house.

Emergency decrees enacted by the junta without any parliamentary consent remain valid.

Thailand has endured 13 successful military coups and 11 attempted takeovers since it replaced an absolute monarchy with a constitutional one in 1932. This would be Thailands 20th constitution.

Leaders of the latest coup say frequent political conflicts had made the country ungovernable and that military rule was necessary for stability. The junta set up hand-picked committees to draft a charter that would enshrine its declared goal of reforming politics by eliminating corruption.

But others believe the new constitution has a different aim: to weaken allies of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the central figure in the roiling of Thai politics.

Thaksins political machine has easily won every national election since 2001, mainly due to the support of working-class and rural voters who benefited from his populist policies. Leading the other side is Thailands traditional ruling class and royalists  known as the yellow shirts  unnerved by Thaksins support, especially as it contemplates its future. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, whose righteous rule has anchored the kingdom since 1946, is 88 and ailing.

The army ousted Thaksin in a 2006 coup, after yellow shirt protesters took to the streets and accused him of abuse of power, corruption and disrespecting the king. He has lived abroad since 2008 to avoid prison for a corruption conviction that he says was politically motivated. The 2014 coup ousted his sister Yingluck Shinawatra, who was elected prime minister in 2011.

Those who brought Thaksin down now seek to weaken major political parties, which would ensure that real power stays in the hands of what is dubbed the permanent bureaucracy: the military, the courts and other unelected guardians of the conservative bloc.

Gothom, the Mahidol professor, said that Thailand may see peace now, but that it will likely be a peace enforced by military power.

How much or how little freedom of expression will be allowed to the people, we will just have to wait and see, he said.

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They were not capable of carrying out a terrorist attack, said the young man who showed up at my door after midnight on June 3rd, 2006. Hours earlier, Canada had witnessed a massive anti-terror sweep. Seventeen people were arrested (an 18th individual was picked up later), though seven had their charges stayed or dismissed.

My client had attended what the Royal Canadian Mounted Police labelled a training camp in Rockwood, Ont. a few weeks earlier. The camp was just one of the pieces of two terror plots facilitated by paid government informants. In fact, the RCMP also arranged for delivery of a harmless substance (passed off as ammonium nitrate) to the group in a sting operation.

The 19-year-old wanted to reach out to the police. He later testified for the government that there was no training, just some guys chilling and trying to look cool, to look tough. The entrapment defence failed at trial.

Given the deferential nature of courts in terrorism trials, the recent B.C. Supreme Court decision tossing out convictions, against John Nuttall and Amanda Korody, was a stunner. The world has enough terrorists. We do not need the police to create more, said Justice Catherine Bruce in a scathing ruling. It was the police who were the leaders of the plot.

Proactive investigations are the norm in the anti-terrorism realm. Similar to drug, gang and prostitution offences, terrorism due to its very nature is ideal for state actors to infiltrate and disrupt. The problem is that informants sometimes provide the means, opportunity and even inducements to push someone to commit one of the growing numbers of vague and ill-defined terrorist crimes. Indeed, even agencies have an incentive, in the words of former assistant director of the FBI, Thomas Fuentes, to Keep Fear Alive with an eye on the budget.

It would be disingenuous to argue that terrorism should be treated the same as other crimes because the state interests are especially compelling. At the same time, as Justice Bruce correctly surmised, the values engaged in this context  equality, freedom of speech, religion, and association  make it important that culpability of terrorism offences be beyond reproach. Courts have the main role in upholding the principles of fundamental justice and ensuring the state does not target people for discriminatory reasons.

Indeed, given the potential Charter rights violations, courts must exercise extreme caution to ensure the state acts proportionately.

As Justice Bruce demonstrated, entrapment doctrine can and should evaluate the initial targeting decision, the level of police involvement and when appropriate provide a remedy when the state oversteps and induces terrorism.

The anti-terrorist laws passed last year raise a plethora of new issues and significantly alters the security landscape: It gives intelligence powers beyond evidence gathering (to actively target threats and derail plots); creates new offences (criminalizing terrorist propaganda and the promotion of terror); lowers the legal threshold to trigger detention from those who will carry out an offence to those who may; etc.

Given the increased breadth and vagueness of terrorism offences the line between a serious crime threatening collective security and divisive political or religious crimes created by the state is now even more blurred.

Our system should insist on the bare minimum individualized reasonable suspicion. Bill C-51 goes beyond that by allowing people to be targeted for their views and associations (Muslims). We must reject pre-emptory prosecutions where vulnerable individuals are targeted and manipulated not for any acts but rather for their thoughts and associations. Such cases undermine the delicate but necessary trust between the community and the state.

Setting up the mentally ill or hapless to commit crimes they could never carry out on their own and spending tax dollars to save us from these plots is at best ludicrous. Our agencies should be dealing with actual threats, not creating them.

The B.C. court ruling highlights the need for major amendments to Bill C-51. Rather than appealing it, Ottawa must curtail the carte blanche given to national security agencies. This judgment and NDP MP Randall Garrisons proposal to repeal the bill, as unlikely and as undesirable as that may be, are just what we need to push for change.

Faisal Kutty is counsel to KSM Law, an associate professor at Valparaiso University Law School in Indiana and an adjunct professor at Osgoode Hall Law School. @faisalkutty.

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Re: Wage-theft victims $28M out of pocket, Aug. 2

Wage-theft victims $28M out of pocket, Aug. 2

Wage theft victims are $28 million out of their meagre pockets while those who worked on the now defunct provincial pension plan are in their deeper pockets. Why do these two different circumstances relate? A matter of balance.

While your earlier editorial made the point that severance pay was necessary to maintain availability of high-flying talent, the front-page headline points to the discrepancy between helping high-flying deep pockets and low-flying shallow pockets.

Why are validated complaints rarely penalized? Do employers complain that paying the wages earned would drive them out of business? Is this why only 0.2 per cent of these guilty bosses are prosecuted?

It seems likely that these low-flying shallow pockets cannot afford legal advice. Is it possible that the government adheres to the policy of the squeaky wheel gets the grease when it comes to big money versus small money? An interesting question given there are more small money voters.

Ontarios leaders have proven they can resolve fair monetary issues. Of course the scope of the challenge is different. But why cant our leaders invest in what ever it takes to resolve the monetary problems for those who need it most?

Don Graves, Burlington

What is so sad about wage theft is that these employees are often the lowest income earners who can least afford to lose their jobs by complaining or risk severe hardship by the loss of their revenues. When those employees are supporting families it compounds that loss even more.

A government that allows this to happen is not looking after the interests of its weakest citizens, it is abetting business in fleecing them. And that says a lot about how the average citizen sees the government these days.

A system that is set in place allowing business to stiff workers by not allowing benefits if they work less than so many hours obviously is going to be used by business for their own advantage.

I suggest that benefits should be paid automatically to all workers who work, regardless of how many hours they work. The government must come down strongly in favour of its abused workers by issuing fines to all those who dont comply.

You dont boost an economy by creating a strata of underpaid workers with no benefits, which is what has happened, while business ships its profits offshore. It should be obvious that if the poor population increases, there will be no economic upswing. You cant create wealth in a feudal society on the backs of serfs.

M. Schooff, Orangeville

I am not at all surprised that the Ministry of Labour has a very poor record when it comes to collecting lost wages. I am experiencing problems getting the Family Responsibility Office to collect support payments owed to me. Its record is abysmal and the Ministry of Community and Social Services refuses to make legislative change that would make it more efficient and responsive to those dependent on support payments.

The Ontario Liberals do not care about the working poor in this province. They only care about making sure rich executives get their opulent severance pay for a few months work.

Dawn Ellis, Mississauga

When my then teenage son and his co-workers were repeatedly denied their wages or fobbed off with not-sufficient-funds cheques, I asked police if charges could be laid. I was told they could not, and was further informed that only if a supplier to the business was treated in a similar manner would the police become involved.

In other words, stealing things is criminal. Stealing labour is not. Maybe thats where the problem lies.

Anita Dermer, Toronto

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Philippine leader links 150 judges, politicians to drugs

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte publicly linked more than 150 judges, mayors, lawmakers, police and military personnel to illegal drugs Sunday, ordering them to surrender for investigation as he ratcheted up his bloody war against what he calls a "pandemic."
Peter Corbett had no roots in the District when he moved here in 2005. The New Jersey native followed a girlfriend to the area and snagged a job in marketing, only to find himself two years later unattached and laid off.

So he launched his own marketing firm and remade himself into an informal organizer and connector within the Districts evolving tech scene. He became that rare people-person who seemed to embody a new entrepreneurial spirit in a town better known for law firms and government work.

Last week, Corbett reaped his reward when his company, iStrategyLabs, now a $12.4 million-a-year enterprise, sold for a sum that wasnt disclosed to J. Walter Thompson Co., one of the biggest advertising firms in the world.

I think it was an accident, frankly, that I ended up here, he said, taking a reporters call from Jamaica on Friday, the day before his wedding. But it turned out that D.C. was the blankest canvas of any city I could have come to . . . it was a special moment in the Districts history where that canvas hadnt been painted after the boom and bust of the countrys recession.

He founded iStrategyLabs with a few close friends out of a Logan Circle rowhouse in 2007 and gradually won over Fortune 500 clients with off-the-wall, Internet-focused marketing campaigns. By 2011, he had become the de-facto spokesman for the D.C. start-up community and a close adviser to then-Mayor Vincent C. Gray.

He has even been a speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he brought lessons learned in D.C. to an international audience.

Corbett is known around town as a cocky, ebullient party host, partial to flamboyant, brightly colored clothing and seemingly always ready to offer a photographer an inquisitive, Zoolanderesque stare.

His role as informal tech evangelist started with one of the most recognizable tropes of D.C.s millennial culture: happy hour.

He hosted the first Twin Tech happy hour, a meetup for technology and start-up workers, at Local 16 on U Street NW in 2007. Eight hundred people showed up. The second happy hour drew 1,500 people, and the third more than 2,000.

Larger events followed. In 2010, he teamed up with other entrepreneurs to create Digital Capital Week, offering an eclectic mix of panel discussions, meetups, pitch sessions and more.

Frankly, I just like to throw parties and see people start businesses, find investors or find a boyfriend, girlfriend, whatever, he said.

[Techies to the rescue: At Digital Capital Week, an increasing focus on the social good]

He went on to found the D.C. Tech Meetup, a monthly technology gathering where amateur and veteran entrepreneurs pitch their businesses to an audience of hundreds. The meetups still happen on a monthly basis under the stewardship of Zvi Band, a close associate of Corbett who is chief executive of local start-up Contactually.

For Allen Gannett, the 25-year-old chief executive of venture-backed marketing analytics start-up TrackMaven, the meetups brought more than business.

At the first D.C. Tech Meetup, Gannett met Trever Faden, another local start-up founder who now runs Atlas Lane, a real-estate-focused technology company.

Faden and Gannett are now married.

Peter doesnt know it, but in both my personal and professional life, hes been an incredible catalyst, Gannett said.

IStrategyLabs made its name designing ad campaigns with unique ways of uniting the physical and virtual worlds.

For an ad campaign with MillerCoors, for instance, the company set up a fake bar scene in a warehouse in Northeast D.C. and let online users destroy it with a remote-controlled rapid-fire apple launcher. Nickelodeon hired it to create an Internet-connected claw so people online could grab gifts at a SpongeBob SquarePants festival in Los Angeles

As business heated up, Corbett had to take a step back from his role in the community. He started spending more of his time in New York and abroad, and chief marketing officer DJ Saul became the de facto manager of the companys District headquarters.

Others have taken up Corbetts mantle. Local start-up incubator 1776 was founded in 2013 by Donna Harris and Evan Burfield and has expanded to international offices after just a few years. Corbett was an investor and early adviser.

If theres a big baton that was passed, it went to 1776, he said.

Though iStrategyLabs will remain in Washington, Corbett is moving to New York to work out of J. Walter Thompsons offices there.

He became the transient thing that he was trying to prevent in a way, but thats fine, said Dan Berger, chief executive at Social Tables, a local start-up that sells technology for event planners. The fact that he stayed here past the average time is huge ... there was a void here as far as tech was concerned, and he helped fill that void.

Staff writer Steven Overly contributed to this report.
Pete Fountain, whose rousing performances on clarinet made him a star of Dixieland music, a familiar figure on television and in nightclubs, and one of the most popular musical ambassadors of his native New Orleans, died Aug. 6 in his home town. He was 86.

His son-in-law and manager, Benny Harrell, announced his death. The immediate cause was not disclosed, but Mr. Fountain, who was in hospice care, had heart surgery and strokes in recent years.

From 1957 to 1959, when Mr. Fountain was a standout soloist on The Lawrence Welk Show, he was perhaps the most widely recognized jazz musician on TV. He developed his musical style as a teenager while playing in Bourbon Street clubs  which he called his conservatory  and seemed to have every old-time Dixieland and gospel tune at his fingertips.

His recording of the hymn Just a Closer Walk With Thee sold 500,000 copies when it was released in 1959, and several of his nearly 100 albums became gold records.

Known for his shaved head, goatee and dapper wardrobe, Mr. Fountain was as effervescent as his music. For years, he owned Crescent City nightclubs in which he held court as the bandleader, featured performer and raconteur.

Pete Fountain, center, in 2011. (Patrick Semansky/AP)

Few musicians, with the possible exceptions of trumpeter Al Hirt and the members of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, were so deeply identified with the early music of New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz.

He appeared nearly 40 times at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and was a guest on Johnny Carsons Tonight Show more than 50 times. He performed at five White House state dinners and before Pope John Paul II during a 1987 papal visit to New Orleans.

It snuck up on me, Mr. Fountain said of his fame in 2002. I didnt look for it. I never did strive for anything. Through the years I just wanted to play.

He stayed true to the classic music of his home town, and his versions of such tunes as Basin Street Blues, Clarinet Marmalade and Tin Roof Blues are considered authoritative.

I never had any interest in going the improv route, he told New Orleans CityBusiness. I was just enjoying what I was doing too much. I didnt want to progress in the progression of progressive jazz. I just like to hear the melody too much and know where Im at.

Pierre Dewey LaFontaine Jr. was born July 3, 1930, in New Orleans. His father, who drove a beer truck and was a part-time musician, changed the family name.

Mr. Fountain began to play clarinet at the urging of a doctor, who said it would help build his lung capacity. He began performing in nightclubs at 15, alongside many of the founders of New Orleans jazz.

When one of his high school teachers reprimanded him for sleeping in class, Mr. Fountain explained that he was working nights on Bourbon Street. The teacher asked how much he made: Mr. Fountain said he took home $150 a week.

He said, I dont make that  go turn in your book,  Mr. Fountain recalled to the New Orleans Times-Picayune in 1997. He wrote my mother a note saying, Let this boy get some sleep so he can work at night. 

His musical approach blended the jazzy swing of Benny Goodman and the rich tone of New Orleans clarinet master Irving Fazola. Mr. Fountain performed with Hirt, the Dukes of Dixieland and other groups before catching on in 1957 with Welk, a bandleader who had a popular television show at the time.

Mr. Fountain, who enjoyed a good time, had difficulty adhering to Welks rules against drinking on the job.

He kept me sober  damn near killed me, Mr. Fountain said. Once, when Welk learned that Mr. Fountain had been drinking before a performance, he featured him in five consecutive songs.

He put me in the front, and made me play one after the other, waiting for me to make a mistake, Mr. Fountain told the Times-Picayune. The more I played, the hotter I got. So he finally backed off.

After two years with Welk in California, Mr. Fountain returned to New Orleans. He opened a club on Bourbon Street in 1959 and later headlined at a jazz room at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside until 2003.

Mr. Fountain became wealthy from his appearances and recordings, but he admittedly made bad investments in hotels, hot-dog franchises and other dubious business propositions. He spent lavishly on an antique car collection.

I think, really, God said, Im going to give you this gift and youre going to play the clarinet,  he said in 2002.  And every time you think youre going to do something else, Im going to zap you. 

In 2005, Mr. Fountains home in Bay St. Louis, Miss., was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. A second home in New Orleans was largely untouched by the storm.

His final public performance came in 2013 at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Survivors include his wife of 64 years, the former Beverly Lang; three children; six grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

For years, Mr. Fountain wore toupees to cover his bald pate. He finally gave up the idea one night in Las Vegas, when he dramatically tore off his hairpiece on the bandstand.

I got two or three toupees made a year, he said in 1990. Each time the hair was a little longer. It got down over my shoulder. I finally realized, what the hell am I trying to do? You cant keep up with these kids. So that night in Vegas I got rid of it. It was soaking wet with sweat. It was like wearing a mop on your head.
Four youths tried two separate holdups near Dupont Circle on Monday, but both targets refused to comply with their demands. Its possible it was because of the would-be robbers age.

Police said they arrested one suspect who was 13. It was unclear if others were also arrested.

In the first incident, in the 1800 block of T Street NW about 8:50 p.m., the youths showed what appeared to be a gun to a woman who was walking and then demanded her property, police said. She kept going, got home and called police.

Nearby, about 30 minutes later, four people demanded a womans purse in the 1800 block of R Street NW. She went into her apartment buildings lobby and called police, authorities said.

In that incident at least, police said, what looked like a gun was a cigarette lighter shaped like one. Generally police advise complying with robbers orders.
Thurmont police arrested a man Friday evening who is suspected of detonating a homemade pipe bomb on the hood of an officers cruiser earlier in the week.

His downfall? An apparent fondness for Burger King.

On Wednesday, a homemade explosive device was placed on the hood of a marked Thurmont police cruiser parked outside of an officers residence, according to a news release from the department. No one was injured when the device detonated just after midnight, but the explosion caused significant damage to the front end of the vehicle and sprayed debris into the officers home.

Officers responding to the scene found the remains of a pipe bomb covered in black powder and filled with 2.5-inch nails, which had been duct-taped to the surface of the pipe, according to police. They also found a bag of Burger King trash next to the car, which they collected as evidence.

In the bag was a receipt with a debit card number that they used to track down the suspect, later identified as 22-year-old Kyle Rutger Mueller of Thurmont, police said Saturday. The same debit card had been used to buy explosive powder from a gun shop in Waynesboro, Pa., police said. Investigators also located a Lowes surveillance video that showed a man police said is Mueller buying a pipe that matched one that officials found at the scene.

Police arrested Mueller just before 8 p.m. Friday while he waited in the drive-through of the same Burger King from which the receipt came, investigators said. They later searched his home and found items linking him to the bombing, according to the police news release.

Mueller was charged with four felonies: destructive device manufacturing, possesion of a destructive device, using a destructive device and storing a destructive device. He was also charged with three misdemeanors: reckless endangerment and two counts of malicious destruction of property.

He was transported to the Frederick County Adult Detention Center, where he remained Saturday evening. His bond was set at $300,000, a spokesman for the detention center said.
As caterer Tyonne Johns cleared off party tables of plates and cups, making her way over to folding chairs, a dispute began at the park venue.

Kempton A. Bonds, 19, said the chairs belonged to the Fairfax County Park Authority, where he worked, according to police. Johns said they were hers.

Tensions had been simmering all Saturday night between Bonds and the guests at a wedding reception catered by Johns at hall in the park, and when bickering over the chairs started, as police described events Sunday, Bonds lashed out.

In little time, a trivial matter escalated into the stabbing death of a woman who many who knew her say was an up-and-coming caterer and chef.

Bonds, of Clifton, Md., has been charged with second-degree murder, accused of stabbing to death Johns, the 35-year-old owner of the Chef Tyonne catering company after their argument in Ellanor C. Lawrence Park in Chantilly, Fairfax County police said.

Kempton A. Bonds, 19, of Clifton, Md., has been charged with second-degree murder for allegedly stabbing a caterer during what police said was an argument over folding chairs at a wedding Saturday. (Fairfax County Police)

As Johns packed up folding chairs, witnesses say, Bonds said they were park property, police spokeswoman Monica Meeks said. Within minutes of that argument, police said, Bonds pulled out a pocketknife and stabbed Johns in the upper body.

Police arrived at the park on Walney Road in Chantilly at approximately 10:50 p.m. and found Johns, of the District, stabbed. She died at a local hospital.

Earlier Saturday evening, county officials said, Bonds had placed a call to police after becoming aggravated by the behavior of the wedding guests.

Seymone Spence, a bartender working at the reception with the Chef Tyonne company and also Johnss good friend, said Bonds cut off electrical power at the junction box during the reception, abruptly halting the music and festivities for a crowd of 80. The bride and groom had yet to share their first dance.

The young lady who was facilitating the cutting of the cake said I dont have a mic. The kid cut off the power, so if you all can hear me, were about to cut the cake,  Spence said.

Bonds called police at 9:24 p.m. to file a complaint of disorderly conduct and excessive noise, authorities said at a Sunday afternoon news conference.

But when police arrived, they said the incident  logged as a domestic dispute  had been resolved. The park authority said that because the wedding had started late in the day, the guests were allowed to stay on the premises later than the usual closing.

The argument over the chairs erupted later, police said.

Calls to relatives of Bonds seeking an interview Sunday were not returned.

He is being held without bond and has been fired by the park authority pending the outcome of the investigation. Bonds has worked there since 2015.

As facilities attendant, he handled events such as weddings, birthday parties and baby showers. The park authority said it had never received a complaint about his conduct.

We are shocked, said Judy Pedersen, spokeswoman for the park authority. Its a tragic event. We believe that our many employees . . . are law abiding, honest, hard-working people. This is just shocking, but were anxious to hear all of the facts.

Pedersen expressed condolences to Johnss family.

Throughout Saturday night, Spence said, Bondss bizarre conduct was noticeable to guests.

He was very, very pensive and tight, she said. He never once cracked a smile  not once. It was scary.

A friend, Nick Martin, 19, said Bonds attends Northern Virginia Community College. He planned to transfer to Virginia Commonwealth University this fall and major in communications, Martin said of Bonds.

Its all so surreal, he said. Hes one of my good friends and it never seemed like he could even hurt a fly. I cant imagine hed do something like this.

Martin said Bonds called him Saturday while the wedding reception was taking place and said guests were getting upset about the regulations that Bonds said he had to enforce. Bonds mentioned a ban on not allowing decorations to be hung on the walls, Martin said.

Mikaela Robinson, a sous chef for the catering company, was not at Saturdays event but said Sunday she had fond memories of working alongside Johns.

She was full of life. Loving and caring, she said. I was her sous chef, so she was always hard on me because she wanted me to be better than her, but there was no way I would be and never will be.

Johns attended Empowerment Liberation Cathedral in Silver Spring. Bishop Allyson Abrams remembered her as a kindhearted, very loving spirit.

I just hope that justice will prevail, she said.

Johnss cousin, Brandon Thompson, 30, of Richmond , said Johns was a rising chef who took the road less traveled. They often laughed, especially reflecting on shared childhood memories.

Spence said she cherished Johns for her dominant personality and enterprising spirit.

And, she said, she served a dazzling last meal: steaming-hot salmon and jerk chicken, complemented by macaroni and cheese and rice pilaf, well-plated and handed out to dozens.

Shes a professional, Spence said. It wasnt haphazard. Nothing that she did was haphazard. It was all well thought of . . . everything was beautiful.

Julie Tate contributed to this report.
BELGIUM

Two ofcers injured in machete attack

Two female officers were attacked and wounded by a man wielding a machete and shouting Allahu Akbar  Arabic for God is great  outside the main police station in the Belgian city of Charleroi on Saturday, police said. The assailant was shot by a third officer and later died of his wounds.

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said that the attackers identity and motive were not immediately known but that the first indications suggested it was an act of terrorism.

Public broadcaster VRT said the attacker had taken out a machete when two officers asked to search him at a checkpoint set up outside the citys police headquarters, as part of security measures imposed after major terrorist attacks in the past nine months in Belgium and neighboring France.

Charleroi police spokesman David Quinaux said one of the two officers, both of whom were described as experienced in law enforcement, received several deep slashing cuts to the face, Quinaux said. The other was slightly wounded. Both officers are now out of danger, Charleroi police announced Saturday evening on Twitter.

Michel told RTL television in an interview that he has asked the independent OCAM anti-terrorism agency to immediately assess whether there is an increased threat to Belgian internal security.

Interior Minister Jan Jambon said it was not immediately clear whether the assault was the deed of a single person or something more elaborate. He said he had no information he could provide on the attackers identity or motivation.

 Associated Press

SOUTH AFRICA

ANC loses Pretoria in local elections

South Africas governing party suffered its worst election setback since taking power at the end of apartheid a generation ago, with the African National Congress losing the capital, Pretoria, and its surrounding Tshwane metropolitan area. But it won a tight race for the countrys biggest city, Johannesburg, election authorities reported Saturday night.

The opposition Democratic Alliance, which named its first black party leader last year, made a robust move out of its stronghold in the city of Cape Town, winning in three of the countrys six largest municipalities. With no party reaching a majority in Johannesburg or Tshwane, the possible formation of coalition governments is the next challenge.

Since South Africas first all-races election in 1994, the ANC has had widespread support on the strength of its successful fight against white-minority rule, while bringing basic amenities to many people. But its hold has been weakened by corruption scandals and a stagnant economy.

 Associated Press

Fighting breaks out in Yemen as peace talks end: Forces loyal to Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi launched a new offensive east of the capital, Sanaa, on Saturday, the military command said, after U.N.-sponsored peace talks in Kuwait ended without an agreement. The offensive, which is backed by airstrikes from a Saudi-led coalition, came as the Iran-allied Houthi rebels and the party of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh announced a 10-member governing council, against the wishes of the United Nations.

Ethiopia tries to quell protests: Ethiopian security forces used tear gas and blocked roads in the capital, Addis Ababa, and other major towns Saturday. The Oromiya region has seen months of demonstrations over plans to incorporate some of its territory into the capital as part of an expansion plan. After intense resistance from residents, those plans were scrapped. But protesters continue to demonstrate against alleged abuses and for the release of people arrested during the campaign.

Chinas military flies over disputed territory: Chinas air force said Saturday that it has conducted a combat air patrol over disputed areas of the South China Sea to improve its fighting ability. After an international tribunal ruled last month that Chinas claim to virtually all of the South China Sea has no legal basis, the air force said that it would make such patrols a regular practice.

Canary Islands forest fire spreads: Spanish authorities say a forest fire started by a German man burning his used toilet paper continues to spread on La Palma in the Canary Islands. The four-day-old blaze has consumed between 8,000 and 10,000 acres of forest. The fire has also claimed the life of one forest worker and forced the evacuation of 2,500 people.

 From news services
Iran has executed a nuclear scientist who mysteriously turned up in the United States six years ago and returned to Tehran a few months later, authorities said Sunday, in the first official confirmation of the researchers fate since he arrived back in his homeland.

Iranian officials offered no details about the charges against Shahram Amiri, whose case has left unanswered questions about whether he voluntarily defected to the United States or  as he claimed  was abducted by agents while on a religious pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia in 2009.

Amiri surfaced in 2010 in videos posted online from an undisclosed location in the United States. Later that year, he arrived unannounced at the Iranian interests section at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington and demanded to be sent home.

Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, Irans chief prosecutor, told reporters in Tehran, the Iranian capital, that Amiri was convicted of spying and had provided the enemy with vital information of the country, according to state-run media. But Ejei did not shed light on why Amiris detention and trial were carried out in secret or on the extent of the alleged information he passed along.

It also was unclear when the execution occurred, but Iran carried out several hangings Tuesday, and a death notice later appeared in Amiris home town of Kermanshah, about 300 miles southwest of Tehran, the Associated Press reported, citing the Iranian reformist newspaper Shargh.

[U.S. paid Iranian nuclear scientist $5 million for aid to CIA, officials say]

Amiris disappearance in 2009 came amid targeted killings in Iran of scientists and others associated with the countrys nuclear program  attacks that Iran blamed on the United States and Israel. A deal last year between Iran and world powers to limit Tehrans nuclear program cleared the way for the easing of some international sanctions, but it has been met by opposition from powerful hard-line groups in Iran, including the judiciary and the elite Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Although the circumstances of Amiris months in the United States remain murky, the case unfolded during Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clintons time as secretary of state  raising the prospect that it could become another element in the U.S. presidential campaign. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has denounced the nuclear deal and other Obama administration decisions regarding Iran.

Amiri claimed that he was forcibly held by Saudi and U.S. agents and then transferred to the United States. I was under the harshest mental and physical torture, he said after returning to Iran in a propaganda-heavy ceremony broadcast nationwide.

Amiri was embraced by his family and greeted by a senior envoy from Irans Foreign Ministry. Amiri smiled and gave the V-for-victory sign.

U.S. officials said at the time, though, that Amiri, an expert in radiation detection, had agreed to leave Iran and was offered $5 million to provide information on his countrys nuclear development but left the United States before any payments were made.

Manoto, a private satellite television channel that is based in London and is thought to be linked to Iranian activists, first reported Amiris execution on Saturday, citing family members.

An Iranian exile group said Sunday that Amiris execution was intended as an intimidation tactic. In a statement, the National Council of Resistance of Iran called it a desperate attempt by the regimes Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to intimidate and terrorize the regimes nuclear experts and scientists and to prevent them from leaving the country.

Amiri appeared to be mentioned in emails released last year by Clinton as part of investigations into her use of a private server while she was secretary of state. An email forwarded to Clinton on July 5, 2010  nine days before Amiri returned to Tehran  apparently refers to Amiris case.

We have a diplomatic, psychological issue, not a legal one. Our friend has to be given a way out, wrote Richard Morningstar, who was then a State Department special envoy for Eurasian energy affairs. We should recognize his concerns and frame it in terms of a misunderstanding with no malevolent intent and that we will make sure there is no recurrence.

Read more:

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
SC issues interim order to halt Kalanki-Nagdhunga road expansion

The Supreme Court has issued an interim order to halt the expansion of Kalanki-Nagdhunga road, saying it would cause a huge loss to the people in vicinity if the road section was broadened.
Breastfeeding love!



Alyssa Milano is celebrating World Breastfeeding Week in the best way possible  with throwback photos to when she nursed her daughter, Elizabella, now almost 2.



"In honor of #wbw2016. #normalizebreastfeeding," she captioned one sweet shot.



The actress is a very vocal advocate for breastfeeding, and gained support from moms everywhere after she tweeted about how Heathrow Airport security confiscated her breastmilk.









In honor of #wbw2016. #normalizebreastfeeding. A photo posted by Alyssa Milano (@milano_alyssa) on Aug 3, 2016 at 9:44am PDT





"I realize there are much larger issues going on in the world. And I don't want to turn this into a bigger issue than it is but I will say this a breastfeeding my children has been one of the greatest joys of my life," Milano told PEOPLE after the 2015 incident.



"Every ounce of milk I'm able to produce for my child is nothing short of a miracle and to watch that milk be thrown away without any regard for my baby, was heartbreaking," she continued. "It's not the fault of the security in the airport; they're following orders to keep us all safe. But I do I feel it is a policy that needs thoughtful reconsideration."





RELATED VIDEO: I Had So Much Judgment': Celeb Moms on the Battle to Breastfeed (... and Cabbages!)

But Milano was happy that it pushed more women to open up about breastfeeding.



"I think that breastfeeding moms feel like what they do needs to be hidden, or not feel like they're getting the appreciation that comes along with being a breastfeeding mom, and it meant something that someone was being vocal."



"Support from not only breastfeeding moms, but moms everywhere, has been really powerful and really overwhelming."
Acapulco (Mexico) (AFP) - Luis Rey Hernandez feels safe and happy when he's on his surfboard, riding waves off the shores of Acapulco.

But when he's not inside the barrel of a wave, the 17-year-old surfer has to navigate the rough streets of the resort city on Mexico's Pacific coast.

Luis Rey, a rising star who became national champion in the under-18 category in June and is known as "The King," has heard shootouts. He once saw a body lying on the street.

"The violence in Acapulco is very bad. The government, the president -- they do nothing. We're going down the wrong path because we hear gunshots, (we see) dead people," Luis Rey said as he stood with his surfboard on the sandy Revolcadero beach after catching some waves.

"You're always afraid to leave your house," said the fit teenager, whose black hair has reddish locks from sun exposure.

"At sea, I'm not afraid. I feel happy there."

Acapulco is famous for its cliff divers, who wow visitors with daring drops into the ocean.

But surfing has gained popularity among youths in neighborhoods worn down by poverty and merciless drug violence that have turned the city into Mexico's murder capital.

- Surfing on car frames -

Javier Hernandez Castanon, the 58-year-old president of the Guerrero State Surfing Association, said "gringos" brought the sport to Acapulco in the 1960s, at a time when the city was popular among Hollywood stars.

"Since we didn't have surfboards, we started surfing on car (tire) inner tubes, and then on wood trunks. The boards began to arrive in the 1970s," said Hernandez, who is known as "La Charra" and is Luis Rey's uncle.

The surf association had 50 registered members in Acapulco in the 1960s, growing to more than 200 in the 1990s and over 700 today.

But the veteran surfer said the crime wave "affects surfing because violence is unfortunately attracting every youth."

Story continues

"We need support to attract young people to surf, something different," Hernandez said.

Three of his four children migrated to Chicago 12 years ago after they were threatened by a gang demanding a tax on their beach gear rental business.

Two cartels are fighting over local drug sales in the city. More than 1,300 people have been murdered since 2015, including three on the beach this year.

Jose Manuel Trujillo, a local star known as "Yuco," said that without surfing, he may have been dragged into the gang underworld like some of his friends in his district of Tres Palos.

Three of his friends were killed in their teens.

"They are young people who lack education and poverty takes them down that path, the easiest one," said Trujillo, 29. "Thanks to surfing, I stayed away from that path."

Wearing a hat from his sponsor, energy drink maker Monster, and sporting a smile dotted with braces, Trujillo now tours the world, sells his own T-shirt brand on the beach or the internet, and even got a role in the Hollywood shark thriller "The Shallows" starring Blake Lively.

- Fleeing Acapulco -

"Yuco" and "The King," who is his brother-in-law, participated at the Vans Surf Open Acapulco competition in mid-July, an international event that attracted some 100 surfers from around the world.

But event director Gustavo Duccini said some surfers stayed away after the US State Department issued a travel warning in April that barred US government employees from visiting the city.

"It's exaggerated but it has repercussions," said Duccini.

Luis Rey finished second in the junior category behind Oaxaca state's Jhony Corzo at the competition. The Mexican Surfing Federation calls them "the two best youths in the country."

Luis Rey wants to surf his way out of town.

"I'd like to live in another country that's calmer, where one can go out for a walk," said Luis Rey, who has surfed since age nine. "There are good waves in Hawaii. There's almost no violence."

While he's sponsored by Vans, the skater shoe company, getting money to compete abroad is still a struggle for a teenager whose father earns a living by renting out a jetski and other gear at the beach.

Other budding and accomplished surfers from Acapulco face similar financial hurdles. A child's surfboard can cost at least $240 at a local shop.

Despite the costs, the family of Gaciel Garcia, a sturdy 10-year-old boy, backs his dream of going pro.

His father, Leonel, helped him ride his first waves at age four, holding the board to launch his son.

Gaciel now spends four hours a day in the water after school and homework.

His father whistles from the beach to point out waves and moves his hand up and down to encourage his son to use a bouncing technique to gain speed.

Gaciel's work paid off in June, when he won the under-12 competition in Baja California, where Luis Rey, his cousin, also triumphed.

Local surf shops partly sponsored the trip, but the family needs more help to take him to tournaments abroad.

"I told him I think this sport is for rich people," said his mother, Vianey Gallardo, 39, while grilling chicken at her small restaurant called "Pollos Surf."

Gallardo wants the family to move to a safer beach town, where Gaciel can continue the sport, "because things are a little ugly in Acapulco."
Johannesburg (AFP) - South Africa's main opposition Democratic Alliance said Sunday it was seeking coalition partners to run major cities including the capital and business centre Johannesburg after defeating the ruling ANC in local polls.

"Informal discussions (have) started. We are now in the process of setting up meetings," DA lawmaker James Selfe told AFP without indicating who the party was talking to.

"We have a lot of experience in coalitions and I'm confident it will work out," said Selfe.

The DA, led by Mmusi Maimane, topped the poll in municipal elections in the capital Pretoria, taking 93 seats out of 214 to 89 for the African National Congress, which suffered its worst result since the end of white-minority rule 22 years ago, falling below 60 percent of the vote for the first time.

Maimane on Saturday described the results as "a tipping point for the people of South Africa," while ANC deputy leader Cyril Ramaphosa, Zuma's vice-president, said the party would heed the electorate's message.

With no party securing an absolute majority, the two main parties are set to talk to radical leftist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

Led by populist Julius Malema, formerly of the ANC, the group says it is open to a role in a coalition -- "except with the ANC."

Despite that initial public stance, the Sunday Times newspaper reported that the ANC and the EFF were in fact in talks in Pretoria, where the EFF garnered 25 seats.

Although a link-up between the latter two parties would appear politically more logical than between the EFF and the centre right DA, it would have to rise above two years of harsh criticism by Malema of President Jacob Zuma.

Following the ANC's poor showing, Zuma's position as head of state is now in question, even though his mandate still has three years to run, the poll having been widely seen as a referendum on his scandal-ridden leadership.

Saturday, independent political analyst Daniel Silke told AFP he saw a DA tie-up with EFF as difficult.

Story continues

"I don't think EFF is the best coalition partner for DA as they are diametrically opposed on every issue -- it could be unstable," Silke said.

- 'No ideological barrier' -

Selfe said, however, it was feasible.

"With EFF we are equally keen to provide good quality services for the people and particularly for the poorest of the poor. There's no ideological barrier with EFF on this," he insisted.

There is uncertainty in the business capital Johannesburg, where the ANC also lost its majority in Johannesburg, as it did in Pretoria and also, humiliatingly, in Port Elizabeth, officially known as "Nelson Mandela Bay" after the late former ANC leader and president.

The ANC did top the poll in Johannesburg but it missed a majority by 15 seats while the EFF captured 30.

In Port Elizabeth, the DA requires four seats in order to be able to govern, but should be able to receive sufficient support from several smaller parties.

Although at the national level ANC remains the nation's top party, it saw its support plunge to 59.3 percent nationwide, a drop of eight points from 2011.

The parties now have two weeks to form coalitions and elect new municipal councils.
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.
Sorry, Georgetown University students  you will not be reporting to Professor Angelina Jolie Pitt this fall.



Despite reports that the 41-year-old star will be a visiting professor at the famed Washington D.C. private college the university denied the claim to PEOPLE.



"We enjoy a partnership with the London School of Economics as part of that work, where Angelina Jolie and William Hague are scheduled to teach a class in the fall," Rachel Pugh, a representative for the university told PEOPLE. "There are no current plans for Ms. Jolie to teach at Georgetown."



It was announced in May that Jolie Pitt will be joining the London School of Economics as a visiting professor for the new master's degree course on women, peace and security for the 2016-2017 school year. She will teach alongside British politician William Hague.







"I am very encouraged by the creation of this master's programme. I hope other academic institutions will follow this example, as it is vital that we broaden the discussion on how to advance women's rights and end impunity for crimes that disproportionately affect women, such as sexual violence in conflict," Jolie Pitt previously said in a statement. "I am looking forward to teaching and to learning from the students as well as to sharing my own experiences of working alongside governments and the United Nations."



Pugh says both Jolie and Hague are welcome to come teach stateside as well.



"Angelina Jolie and William Hague have an open invitation to share their experiences and perspectives at Georgetown anytime they're able."
Gothenburg (Sweden) (AFP) - Arsenal face an anxious wait over the fitness of Gabriel after the defender was stretchered off in Sunday's 3-2 victory over Manchester City in a pre-season friendly in Sweden.

Sergio Aguero gave City a first-half lead in Gothenburg, but Arsenal struck back with goals from Alex Iwobi, Theo Walcott and Chuba Akpom before Kelechi Iheanacho netted a late consolation.

However, an injury to Gabriel in the closing stages could see the Brazilian ruled out of the start of the new Premier League season along with long-term absentee Per Mertesacker.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said it was too early to know the full extent of the problem, but the Frenchman was clearly concerned about the health of his central defender.

"He's in pain. Let's hope the pain is not a sign of bad news," Wenger told Arsenal's club website.

"We have not even made a diagnosis in the medical room with our doctors or physios yet. I can't tell you more.

"The only thing we have to know now is how big the damage is with his ligament."

France international Laurent Koscielny is also likely to miss the Gunners' opening league game at home to Liverpool next Sunday having yet to resume full training after helping his country reach the final of Euro 2016.
Single women present charter of demands

Single women from across the country have issued a charter demanding economic empowerment and social justice.
Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - Mack Horton won his grudge match against China's Sun Yang and Australia's 4x100m free relay women added another gold as records tumbled on day one at the Rio Olympics pool on Saturday.

While it was a triumphant night for Australia, the mighty US team were shut out of the gold -- coming up with three silvers from the four finals.

Horton clocked 3min 41.55sec to hold off a feverish challenge from 2012 gold medallist Sun, who briefly looked to have the Australian beaten on the last lap but had to settle for second in 3:41.68.

Italy's Gabriele Detti roared home in the final 50 meters to capture bronze in 3:43.49.

Sun, stung after the heats by Horton's attack on his doping record, was left weeping after the race.

Horton, whose mild manner and Harry Potter-style spectacles belie his toughness, said he knew that by calling Sun out he'd put himself on the spot.

"Well that last 50 I was kinda thinking about what I said and was like, if he gets me here it's not going to look great," Horton said.

"So (I) really didn't have a choice but to beat him."

Horton's terse comment that he couldn't respect a drug cheat reverberated at an Olympics that started under the cloud of the Russian doping crisis.

Sun, who served a three-month doping suspension in 2014 which wasn't revealed by Chinese authorities until after the fact, insisted he was being unfairly branded.

"I don't think I need to explain myself any further," he said. "I'm clean and have done what it takes to prove I'm clean... all athletes should be shown respect."

Horton's victory ensured Australia wouldn't suffer their ignominious London fate of failing to earn a single individual gold in the pool.

"Yeah, doesn't get any better really, gold medal on the first night," Horton said.

But things did get better for Australia as Emma McKeon, Brittany Elmslie, Bronte Campbell and individual world record-holder Cate Campbell won the relay in 3:30.65, lowering the world record of 3:30.98 set by an Aussie squad at the Commonwealth Games in 2014.

Story continues

The US team of Simone Manuel, Abbey Weitzeil, Dana Vollmer and Katie Ledecky took silver in 3:31.89 and Canada were third in 3:32.89.

- 'Iron Lady' hot -

Hungary's "Iron Lady" Katinka Hosszu captured the Olympic gold that has long eluded her with a scintillating world record of 4:26.36 in the women's 400m individual medley.

She sliced 2.07sec off the previous record of 4:28.43 set by China's Ye Shiwen in winning gold in London.

At the 300m mark, Hosszu was move than five seconds under world-record pace.

"I've been chasing that world record for a long time," said Hosszu, who was whisker away from it in the heats. "I knew I could go faster tonight.

"It was just unbelievable I was able to break it by this much," added the 27-year-old, who is entered in four more races.

Far behind her, the battle for second unfolded with American Maya DiRado taking silver in 4:31.15 and Spain's Mireia Belmonte third in 4:32.39.

Japan's Kosuke Hagino ended the US stranglehold on the men's 400m medley gold, holding off American Chase Kalisz with a win in 4:06.05.

Hagino's time made him the third-fastest performer in history behind world record-holder Michael Phelps and 2012 Olympic champion Ryan Lochte.

Neither of those US stars were in action on Saturday, Phelps opting out of the gruelling event he dubbed "swimming's decathlon" and Lochte failing to qualify at the US trials.

Hagino seized the lead from compatriot Daiya Seto on the second, backstroke, leg and never relinquished it. Kalisz pushed past Seto on the breaststroke but didn't have quite enough to get past Hagino on the closing freestyle, taking silver in 4:07.75 to Seto's 4:09.71.

"When I touched, well, I just thought well here we are!" Hagino said. "Still not perfect but I've won the gold and that's a fantastic result."

Briton Adam Peaty couldn't start counting his gold, but made a statement in the first Olympic race of his career with a world record of 57.55 in the 100m breaststroke heats.
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - A 31-year-old man appeared in an Australian court on Sunday charged with planning a terror attack, following a series of counter-terrorism police raids. Phillip Galea was charged with acts done in preparation for a terrorist act and collecting or making documents likely to facilitate a terrorist act, after being arrested in police raids in Melbourne on Saturday. Police did not give details of the target but said it was in the southern state of Victoria. "I will be fighting these charges and I believe they are a conspiracy against the patriot movement," Galea told a Melbourne Magistrates' Court hearing during in a brief appearance on Sunday according to the Australian Associated Press. Australian media outlets reported Galea had links to far-right organizations Reclaim Australia and True Blue Crew. Reclaim Australia posted on Facebook that it had no links to the arrested man and that it "always denounced violence". Far-right political parties opposed to Islam and Asian immigration are on the rise in Australia. Reclaim Australia and True Blue Crew, which are not political parties, have previously been involved in violent clashes with pro-immigration groups at rallies in Melbourne. (Reporting by Jarni Blakkarly; Editing by Michael Perry)
An Australian man with reported links to far-right extremist groups was charged on Sunday with planning a terrorist attack after his Melbourne home was raided following police fears of a "specific threat".

The 31-year-old, named in local media as Phillip Galea, appeared in court after he was charged with planning or preparing for a terrorist act and collecting or making documents to facilitate an attack.

Galea told the Melbourne Magistrates' Court he would fight the charges, adding that they were "a conspiracy against the patriot movement".

Police would not confirm if he was a member of the anti-Islam Reclaim Australia group but said he had a "number of affiliations to different organisations".

There were violent clashes between left and right-wing groups over immigration in Australia's second-largest city in May and June, sparking a push by the Victoria state government to boost police powers.

Victoria state premier Daniel Andrews said Sunday there was "no imminent threat" after the weekend police raids but that authorities remained vigilant.

Anti-Muslim sentiment has mounted in Australia in recent years after a series of attacks by radicalised youth, including the killing of a police employee in Sydney in October.

The Joint Counter-Terrorism Team, which took part in the operation on Saturday, has been carrying out a series of raids in various cities amid increasing concern about home-grown extremism.

Canberra raised the terror threat alert level to high in September 2014, while parliament has passed a suite of new national security laws.
VIENNA (Reuters) - Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz has threatened to block the expansion of negotiations with Turkey on its accession to the European Union, which could scupper a landmark migration deal between Brussels and Ankara. The Turkish government's crackdown on followers of a U.S.-based cleric whom it blames for last month's failed coup has strained relations with the 28-nation bloc, which depends on Ankara to restrict the westward flow of migrants. Talks on Turkish accession to the EU began in 2005, but only one out of 35 "chapters", or policy areas where Turkey must adopt and implement EU rules, has been concluded. "I have a seat and a vote in the (EU) foreign ministers' council. There the question is whether new negotiation chapters will be opened with Turkey, and I am against it," Kurz said in an interview with Austrian daily Kurier, threatening to block the unanimous agreement required by the council. Turkey has so far lived up to its side of the deal with Brussels to stop illegal migration to Europe via its territory, in return for financial aid, the promise of visa-free travel to much of the bloc and accelerated talks on membership. But visa-free access has been subject to delays due to a dispute over Turkish anti-terrorism legislation, which some in Europe see as too broad, and the post-coup crackdown. Kurz said Turkey had not met the conditions for progress to be made. "The criteria for visa liberalization will not be fulfilled by Turkey. And the requirements for accession talks have not been met," Kurz said. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Friday accession talks were "as good as deadlocked" but he rejected calls to halt them entirely saying the bloc needed to think more broadly about how to frame its ties with Ankara. But on Sunday his colleague, German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, said he believed Turkey was unlikely to join the EU for decades. "I don't believe that Turkey in the foreseeable future - and I'm talking about the next 10, 20 years - has the chance to become an EU member," Gabriel told broadcaster ARD in an interview due to be broadcast on Sunday evening. (Reporting by Francois Murphy; Additional reporting by Caroline Copley in Berlin; Editing by Alexandra Hudson and Raissa Kasolowsky)
VIENNA (Reuters) - Turkey's failed coup and President Tayyip Erdogan's subsequent purges of state institutions are reminiscent of the Reichstag fire in Nazi Germany and its use by Hitler to amass greater power, the head of Austria's far-right Freedom Party said. The blaze in the German parliament building in 1933 was portrayed by the Nazis as a Communist plot against the government, and they used it to justify curtailing civil liberties, consolidating Adolf Hitler's grip on Germany. Austria's Freedom Party (FPO) leader Heinz-Christian Strache said he saw parallels in Erdogan's use of the July 15 coup by a faction within the Turkish armed forces to crack down on his opponents in the army, civil service, academia and the media. "One almost had the impression that it was a guided putsch aimed in the end at making a presidential dictatorship by Erdogan possible," Strache told the daily Die Presse in an interview published on Saturday. "Dramatically, we have experienced such mechanisms elsewhere before, such as with the Reichstag fire, in the wake of which total power was seized," Strache said. "And now, too, one has the impression that a bit of steering occurred," he added. Erdogan has angrily rejected suggestions that he or the government might have been behind the coup, which he has blamed on the followers of a U.S.-based Muslim cleric. Erdogan narrowly avoided capture and possible death on the night of the putsch. Turkey's foreign minister called Austria the "capital of radical racism" on Friday after Chancellor Christian Kern suggested European Union leaders discuss ending Ankara's EU accession talks, citing democratic and economic deficits. Kern's centrist coalition government is under pressure from Strache's resurgent FPO, which is currently leading in opinion polls. Its candidate narrowly lost a presidential election in May but has another chance in a re-run set for Oct. 2 following irregularities in the count. Germany rejected Kern's suggestion on Turkey, but Chancellor Angela Merkel, Europe's most powerful leader, and other EU politicians have expressed concern over the scale and speed of the mass purges in Turkey. Erdogan and many Turks accuse the West of focusing more on the rights of the coup plotters and their suspected supporters than on the putsch itself, in which more than 230 people were killed as rogue soldiers bombed parliament and seized bridges with tanks and helicopters. In a tweet on Saturday responding to Kern's comments, a veteran lawmaker from Turkey's ruling AK Party, Burhan Kuzu, wrote a Turkish abbreviation widely taken to mean "Fuck off foreigner", adding: "The European Union is collapsing. NATO is nothing without Turkey." It was retweeted hundreds of times within a few hours. Kuzu later tweeted again, saying he had not meant an obscenity, and had meant to say "Oh come on, foreigner". The Turkish authorities blame Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen and his followers in Turkey for the coup attempt. Ankara has demanded the extradition of Gulen from the United States, where he has lived in self-imposed exile since 1999. Gulen has denounced the coup attempt and denies any involvement. (Reporting by Francois Murphy and Nick Tatersall; Editing by Gareth Jones and Kevin Liffey)
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Cuba toppled Brazil's second-best duo of Pedro Solberg and Junior Evandro in a nail-biting men's beach volleyball Pool D match in front of a raucous crowd on Sunday. Cuba's Nivaldo Diaz and Sergio Gonzalez won in three sets, edging the hosts 24-22 in the first before stumbling 21-23 in the second and clinching the match 15-13 in the third. Diaz and Gonzalez are the first men's beach volleyball team Cuba has fielded in an Olympics since the Athens Games in 2004. The loss dismayed the pro-Brazil crowd on the sands of Copacabana, in a match punctuated by wild cheers for the home pair as the teams battled in a tit-for-tat match-up. Solberg and Evandro were listed fourth in the International Volleyball Federation's June Provisional Olympic Ranking, while the Cuban pair were not ranked. Brazilians have pinned their hopes at the Rio Games on re-establishing their dominance in the sport in which American challengers have grown increasingly successful. Brazil's top-ranked team, Alison Cerutti and Bruno Schmidt, the 2015 world champions, won their first Pool A match on Saturday against Canada's Josh Binstock and Samuel Schachter. (Reporting by Amy Tennery; Editing by Ken Ferris)
Thai referendum: Military-written constitution up for approval

People across Thailand are voting in a referendum on a draft constitution written by an army-appointed committee.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A machete-wielding assailant, who attacked and injured two female police officers in the southern city of Charleroi, is a 33-year-old Algerian who may have been inspired by terrorism, Belgian prosecutors said on Sunday. The prosecutors identified the man as K.B. who has lived in Belgium since 2012 and has a criminal record. "There are indications that the attack may have been inspired by a terrorist motive," the prosecutors said in a statement. "He is known to police for criminal acts, not for terrorism." The assailant, who shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest), was shot after attacking the officers outside the police headquarters on Saturday, and subsequently died of his wounds. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
By Jon Herskovitz (Reuters) - Helen Delich Bentley, a former journalist and a U.S. Republican congresswoman from Maryland who gained global attention by smashing Japanese goods to protest Tokyo's trade policies, died over the weekend at the age of 92, officials said. Bentley upset a longtime Democratic congressman to win a U.S. House of Representatives seat in 1984, a year in which Ronald Reagan's landslide victory in the presidential race helped bring several new faces from the party to Congress. The five-term congresswoman was a staunch advocate for the port of Baltimore and the state's maritime industry. After reports that Japanese company Toshiba had sold technology to the Soviet Union to help their submarines sail more quietly, she led other members of Congress who used a sledgehammer to smash Japanese-made goods on the Capitol steps. The event came as tensions were running high with Tokyo over a widening U.S. trade deficit with the country. She left Congress to run for governor of Maryland but lost in the party's primary. "Congresswoman Bentley worked with tenacity, energy, and passion on behalf of her constituents, making her a rare breed in politics and a role model to public servants across Maryland," current Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, wrote in a Facebook post. Bentley was born in 1923 in Nevada and her parents were immigrants from Yugoslavia. After earning a bachelor's degree in journalism, she found a job with the Baltimore Sun, beginning a three-decade long relationship with the newspaper in which she wrote ground-breaking stories on the maritime industry and labor, according to her congressional biography. She died on Saturday at her home in Timonium, a Baltimore suburb, the Baltimore Sun reported, adding Bentley had been diagnosed with brain cancer. (Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
The stars lined up and got in "Formation" for President Barack Obama's 55th birthday party, held at the White House on Friday night.

First Lady Michelle Obama made sure her husband spent his last birthday as President in style, hosting an epic party that included the likes of Beyonce, Jay Z, Kendrick Lamar, Stevie Wonder, and John Legend.

WATCH: Michelle Obama Adorably Admits She Loves to Watch Her Husband's 'Swagalicious' Walk

Usher, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennifer Hudson, Alonzo Mourning and Hillary Clinton were also said to be in attendance.

And while for the most part the event remained private and exclusive, a few celebs just couldn't contain their excitement.

"@thecookiej and I getting ready to go to President Obama's birthday party!" Magic Johnson captioned a photo before heading out for the soiree.

And before we knew it, stars flocked to the party left and right. George Lucas, Ellen DeGeneres (accompanied by wife Portia De Rossi), and Robin Roberts were just a few caught by fans on their way into the celebration.

George Lucas entering White House for ores Obama's 55th bday bash pic.twitter.com/uP8m4KOazQ  Owaiz Dadabhoy (@owaizdadabhoy) August 6, 2016

NEWS: President Obama Writes Powerful Op-Ed on Feminism, Raising His Daughters: 'This is What a Feminist Looks Like'

At Pres Obama's 55tg bday party at the White House pic.twitter.com/OOii08U7OI  Owaiz Dadabhoy (@owaizdadabhoy) August 6, 2016

Some were able to contain their excitement until after the event ended.

"An honor to attend President @BarackObama 55th birthday celebration at @WhiteHouse tonight," Al Roker posted to Twitter, along with a photo of himself and wife Deborah Roberts.

Story continues

An honor to attend President @BarackObama 55th birthday celebration at @WhiteHouse tonight pic.twitter.com/RuVSu7EkcP  Al Roker (@alroker) August 6, 2016

"Leaving the White House after the celebration of President Obama's birthday. His last birthday as President," Reverend Al Sharton wrote.

Leaving the White House after the celebration of President Obama's birthday. His last birthday as President. pic.twitter.com/5al4JoxOYU  Reverend Al Sharpton (@TheRevAl) August 6, 2016

Tonight was a night I will never forget. #BarackObama #happybirthday," Nick Jonas -- taking a break from his tour with Demi Lovato -- simply stated after the party.

Tonight was a night I will never forget. #BarackObama #happybirthday  Nick Jonas (@nickjonas) August 6, 2016

RELATED: President Barack Obama Adorably Serenades Daughter Malia on Her 18th Birthday

Also at the affair was Vice President Joe Biden, who earlier in the day presented the commander in chief with one special birthday present.

See more in the video below.

Related Articles
By Clare Baldwin HONG KONG (Reuters) - Crypto-currency exchange Bitfinex, which lost $72 million to hackers last week, told customers on Sunday they would lose just over 36 percent of the assets they had on the platform but would be compensated for these losses with tokens of credit. The Hong Kong-based exchange said losses from the theft would be shared, or "generalized", across all the company's clients and assets, widening the group of those affected announced last week. "This is the closest approximation to what would happen in a liquidation context," Bitfinex said on its website early on Sunday. "Upon logging into the platform, customers will see that they have experienced a generalized loss percentage of 36.067 percent." The company said it would also give all affected clients a "BFX" token crediting their losses that could be redeemed by the exchange or for shares in iFinex, the exchange's parent company. Bitfinex said it would explain its methodology in a later update and that it was talking to investors about how to fully compensate its customers. Hackers stole 119,756 bitcoin from Bitfinex last week in the second-biggest breach of a crypto-currency exchange ever, in U.S. dollar terms. The hack accounted for about 0.75 percent of all bitcoins in circulation. The exchange is the world's largest for trading digital currencies such as bitcoin, litecoin and ether, and is used for its deep liquidity in U.S. dollar/bitcoin trades. It is still not clear how the hackers gained access to the company's customer accounts. However, both Bitfinex and outside experts have dismissed suggestions the breach was due to the security of the blockchain, the decentralized ledger that tracks every bitcoin transaction, and which traditional banks are considering adopting to increase the speed and transparency of their transactions. Bitfinex said last week it expected to "socialize" its losses across bitcoin balances and active loans to bitcoin/U.S. dollar positions. Its statement on Sunday, however, indicated a wider application of the losses to all accounts, which also include other digital currencies. On Sunday, it said customers should be able to log on to its platform within the next 24 to 48 hours. Blockchain analysis company Chainalysis separately confirmed to Reuters that it is helping track the stolen bitcoins. (Reporting by Clare Baldwin; Editing by Sam Holmes)
BRASILIA, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Jailed Brazilian construction magnate Marcelo Odebrecht has told prosecutors he contributed illegally to the election campaign of now-interim President Michel Temer in 2014, Veja newsweekly reported on Saturday.

Odebrecht, whose family owns Latin America's largest engineering and construction group, was sentenced in March to 19 years in jail for bribery, money laundering and organized crime in the Petrobras kickback scandal.

In a plea bargain statement seen by Veja, Odebrecht said Temer asked him for campaign funds in 2014 when he was vice president and seeking re-election on the ticket of now-suspended President Dilma Rousseff.

Odebrecht said he contributed 6 million reais ($1.8 million) from an office in his company that handled secret payments, according to Veja.

A spokesman for Temer, who took over from Rousseff when she was suspended in May pending an impeachment trial, confirmed the meeting had taken place in 2014 during which Temer and his aide, Eliseu Padilha, asked Odebrecht for a campaign contribution.

"But it was all legal," spokesman Marcio de Freitas told Reuters. He said the donated money had been duly registered with Brazil's electoral authorities, but gave no details.

If Odebrecht's allegation is true and accepted as legal testimony in court, it could complicate Temer's efforts to secure his presidency by turning undecided senators against the conviction of Rousseff in her impeachment trial. The Senate is due to decide by the end of the month on whether to remove Rousseff permanently from office for breaking budget laws.

The scandal at Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as the oil company is formally called, led to the arrest of executives of Brazil's top construction firms and the investigation of dozens of politicians for allegedly receiving graft money. Odebrecht's plea bargain is expected to implicate many of them.

($1 = 3.1887 reais) (Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Paul Simao)
BRASILIA (Reuters) - Jailed Brazilian construction magnate Marcelo Odebrecht has told prosecutors he contributed illegally to the election campaign of now-interim President Michel Temer in 2014, Veja newsweekly reported on Saturday. Odebrecht, whose family owns Latin America's largest engineering and construction group, was sentenced in March to 19 years in jail for bribery, money laundering and organized crime in the Petrobras kickback scandal. In a plea bargain statement seen by Veja, Odebrecht said Temer asked him for campaign funds in 2014 when he was vice president and seeking re-election on the ticket of now-suspended President Dilma Rousseff. Odebrecht said he contributed 6 million reais ($1.8 million) from an office in his company that handled secret payments, according to Veja. A spokesman for Temer, who took over from Rousseff when she was suspended in May pending an impeachment trial, confirmed the meeting had taken place in 2014 during which Temer and his aide, Eliseu Padilha, asked Odebrecht for a campaign contribution. "But it was all legal," spokesman Marcio de Freitas told Reuters. He said the donated money had been duly registered with Brazil's electoral authorities, but gave no details. If Odebrecht's allegation is true and accepted as legal testimony in court, it could complicate Temer's efforts to secure his presidency by turning undecided senators against the conviction of Rousseff in her impeachment trial. The Senate is due to decide by the end of the month on whether to remove Rousseff permanently from office for breaking budget laws. The scandal at Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as the oil company is formally called, led to the arrest of executives of Brazil's top construction firms and the investigation of dozens of politicians for allegedly receiving graft money. Odebrecht's plea bargain is expected to implicate many of them. (Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Paul Simao)
Paul Duddridge was sitting at home in Los Angeles surrounded by laptops. One streamed ITV, another Channel 4, and the third was tuned to BBC. But each station was talking about the same thing: whether the British-American film directors friends across the pond would stay in the European Union. When the news broke that Leave had won, Duddridges phone blew up. Everyone who was British was sending me suicide notes, he says.

Which was funny, because he was also getting calls, texts and emails from his non-British friends about how they could invest in the potentially lucrative, and suddenly wide open, U.K. film industry, which earned 6 billion in 2014, according to a study commissioned by the British Film Institute. It also grew by more than 5.9 percent from July to September of last year, making it the fastest-growing segment of the U.K. economy last summer. The EU mandates were almost like having an unnecessary fifth wheel, Duddridge says, and thanks to Brexit, that extra wheel has finally been yanked.

This is the time for people to use their soapboxes.

Sure, Duddridges view defies consensus. The chairman of the Independent Film & Television Alliance, for example, called Brexit a major blow to the industry, and those involved in EU coproductions have complained of being compromised. It has blown us out of the water, Rebecca OBrien, of Sixteen Films, told reporters. When industry expert Stephen Follows conducted a survey of 156 professionals after the vote, only 3 percent said they favored the decision to Leave, which makes sense, given that the international film crowd overwhelmingly leans left and is generally risk-averse, according to Follows research. Yet those working on the biggest budgets were the most pleased, he says, with almost a fifth of respondents working on budgets of 30 million ($39.6 million) or more being in favor of leaving the bloc.

Gettyimages 142143923

Hogwarts! Mini-Hogwarts!

Source: Carl Court/Getty

There will certainly be separation pains, especially with the demise of international funding schemes, cross-border tax incentives and hassle-free work visas. But there are also opportunities: British directors can look increasingly to the piqued ears and wallets of Hollywood bigwigs, many of whom are eager to fill the funding holes left by the loss of the Creative Europe program, which had given 100 million ($132 million) to the U.K. film industry from 2007 to 2013. While the pound has recovered a little, the post-Brexit plummeting of the currency made large U.S. studios salivate over potentially lucrative returns and the fact that it just got cheaper to shoot in the British Isles. U.S. investment there already averaged 680 million ($900 million) from 2010 to 2014, according to the BFIs annual stats, making up more than half of Britains international film-trade surplus. Favorable exchange rates could up the American ante  a thought to bear in mind as the Star Wars series decides whether to continue filming in the U.K., as it did with Episode VII and VIII.

Story continues

With the advent of online platforms like Netflix and Hulu, indie and blockbuster film producers have a more level playing field when trying to access a large audience. That means production companies of all sizes are no longer so dependent on the member-nation distribution deals the EU is trying to monopolize. The necessity for subsidies to protect niche markets is eroding anyway, Duddridge argues. Critics also said that recipients of EU funding could sometimes face distribution restrictions or stipulations requiring a Euro-centric focus. Its got to be better to sell to 185 countries than 27 countries solely, Duddridge adds.

Without EU oversight, the British can be more aggressive in pursuing international investment. Eager legislators across the globe could adopt the tactics of American states like Louisiana or New Mexico, which offer heavy tax incentives to bring movie studios into their backyards. The British Film Tax Relief is very generous to producers, says Follows, but as an EU member nation, the U.K. couldnt change incentives or subsidies without EU approval. Initially, the tax plan gave additional funds for films that committed to being British in casting, crew and language. But EU rules have since forced the U.K. to widen the criteria to favor all Europeans equally, Fellows says. It is now possible to have a film that qualifies as fully British with an Italian crew, based on a Spanish story, told in German. Absent a dictate to play by outside rules, Brexits crown jewel could be the additional flexibility to tailor benefits solely to the needs of the U.K. film industry.

Of course, its not all good news. Brits have given up their say in discussions about the future of European film, and fewer U.K. films will be distributed in Europe as a result of Brexit. But it also presents a blank slate for British artists, like Duddridge, who are willing to pounce on the brave new world of post-Brexit England.

The bullish producer has put his money where his mouth is, announcing a $100 million fund for British films, for which he says hes already raised $30 million. It was originally set to be based in Los Angeles, but two days after the Brexit vote, Duddridge made plans for a headquarters in London instead. This is the time for people to use their soapboxes, he says. To say we insist on these deals, these rules, to make the film industry attractive.

Related Articles
London (AFP) - Britain's Serious Fraud Office said on Sunday it had opened a criminal probe into Airbus Group, investigating allegations of fraud, bribery and corruption.

"These allegations relate to irregularities concerning third party consultants," the SFO said in a statement.

The authority said it opened the investigation in July and asked anyone with relevant information to come forward.

A spokesperson for the SFO said additional details of the probe would not be made public until charges were brought or the investigation is dropped.

European planemaker Airbus said it was aware of the probe and the aviation firm was working with investigators.

"Airbus Group has been informed by the SFO that it has opened a criminal investigation into allegations of fraud, bribery and corruption in the civil aviation business of Airbus Group relating to irregularities concerning third party consultants," the company said in a statement.

"Airbus Group continues to cooperate with the SFO," the statement concluded.

The company was informed on Friday that the authority had launched an investigation, an Airbus spokesman told AFP.

"We ourselves detected this issue and self-disclosed it to the authorities.

"This is as an effort of our enhanced anti-corruption (policy). Management has taken robust action and is determined to resolve this issue in cooperation with the authorities," spokesman Jeremy Greaves said.

- Probe could take years -

Airbus informed authorities of the irregularities in April. The same month the UK Export Finance decided to suspend export credits to the firm, a move followed by France and Germany.

The aviation firm said at the time it hoped to resolve the financing problem as soon as possible.

The current SFO investigation is expected to take years.

The probe was described by the Financial Times newspaper

as a "severe blow to the European aircraft maker" which would be exploited by its US rival Boeing.

Story continues

Airbus is the largest commercial aerospace company in Britain and last month said its net profit rose 15 percent in the first half of the year.

Profits were up 1.76 billion euros ($1.94 billion), but the gain was due to exceptional items that masked a slide in operating earnings.

The company was hit by charges of just over 1 billion euros related to its troubled A400M military cargo transporter programme, while adverse currency movements and charges on its widebody A350 aircraft totaled nearly 900 million.

However these were compensated for by the sale of shares in Dassault Aviation and the creation of a rocket launcher joint venture with Safran that generated a net gain of nearly 1.9 billion euros.

Ahead of British voters' decision in June to leave the EU, Airbus said it would reconsider future investment in the country if the referendum took the UK out of Europe.

"Airbus Group's success in the UK is predicated on a highly competitive, integrated European business model," executives said in a letter sent to employees in April.
Clauson has competed in the last two Indianapolis 500s (Getty Images).

UPDATED 9 a.m. ET Monday

Former NASCAR driver Bryan Clauson, 27, died Sunday night after sustaining injuries in a midget sprint car crash at Belleview High Banks Speedway Fairgrounds in Kansas on Saturday.

Clauson, leading the race at the time, flipped multiple times while coming on lapped traffic. Not long after his car stopped flipping, another car ran into Clausons car as it was upside down.

His family issued a statement about his passing Monday morning. Clauson, a native of Noblesville, Indiana, is survived by his parents and his fiance.

Last night, the 7th of August, we said goodbye to our son, my fiance, our friend, Bryan Clauson. He was surrounded by family and friends and we were grateful that we could experience his final moments with him. Our Bryan fought to the end with the same desire that he demonstrated behind the wheel of all the various race cars he would park in victory lane. However, we were more proud of our Bryan that took a moment to make a young fans day, or demonstrated his uncommon kindness and appreciation toward his friends, family and fans. We would like to thank everybody who has shown their concern toward us and kept us in their prayers. We will never be able to truly thank you. We would also like to thank the staff at Bryan Medical Center who stood and fought with our Bryan since he arrived here early yesterday morning.

The familys statement asked that any donations be made to the USAC Benevolent Fund in Clausons name.

Video of the accident is posted to YouTube. In the grainy and shaky video, you can see Clausons car flip multiple times before its impacted by another car. It reportedly took emergency workers over 20 minutes to extricate Clauson from his car and he was airlifted to a medical center in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Belleview Kansas is located in north-central Kansas.

Clauson has competed in the past two Indianapolis 500s. In three career starts in the Indy 500, his best finish is 23rd, which he achieved in May.

Story continues

A former development driver for Chip Ganassi Racing, Clauson made 26 starts in 2007 and 2008 in the Xfinity Series. His best finish came at Kentucky in 2008 when he finished fifth.

Hes the second 2015 Indianapolis 500 participant to die in the past year. Justin Wilson was killed at Pocono in August 2015 in an IndyCar Series race when he was hit in the helmet by a piece of flying debris from an accident.

      

Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
By Brenda Goh RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Chinese web-users unleashed their fury on the social media accounts of Australian Olympic gold medalist Mack Horton, demanding he apologize for calling swimming rival Sun Yang a "drug cheat". The controversy clouded Horton's Saturday triumph in the 400 meters freestyle final over Sun, the London 2012 defending champion, with the latter suggesting Horton had made the remarks to affect him. Sun won the silver medal. "You have offended against the sensitive (feelings) of the Chinese people," said one of more than 300,000 comments left on Horton's latest Instagram post of him celebrating his win on the medal podium. "Apologise to Sun Yang!", said another on Horton's Facebook page that was peppered with insults, derogatory pictures, many of which carried the hashtag "#apologisetosunyang". Many of the comments recalled a 2013 incident when the Australian men's freestyle relay team were suspended for using a sedative banned by their national Olympic committee (AOC) in a bonding session before the London Games. The 20-year-old Australian had acknowledged after their final that there were tensions between him and Sun after a splashing incident during a recent practice. "I used the words 'drug cheat' because he tested positive," he said. A spokesman for the AOC said Horton was entitled to express his point of view. "He has spoken out in support of clean athletes. This is something he feels strongly about and good luck to him," the spokesman said in an email to Reuters. In 2014, it emerged that Sun had secretly served a three-month suspension after he tested positive for a banned stimulant. He said at the time the stimulant was in medication to treat a heart issue and did not enhance his performance. Sun, the first Chinese swimmer to win an Olympic gold medal, is very popular at home but has been the subject of multiple controversies. In 2013, he spent a week in jail for crashing a car when driving without a license. He gained widespread sympathy at home on Saturday after breaking down in tears following his loss. Chinese media carried pictures and videos of him crying and hugging a friend with the phrase "Sun Yang don't cry" trending across social media. (Reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Rex Gowar)
An undeniably dreadful week on the campaign trail for Donald Trump was capped off on Sunday with the release of new polls suggesting that the Republican presidential nominee has fallen even further behind Hillary Clinton in national polls and -- more importantly -- that he is losing ground in key battleground states.

Trump himself ended the week by grabbing hold of an off-the-cuff remark Clinton made about misspeaking -- she said that she short-circuited -- and ran with it as evidence that she is somehow mentally incapacitated.

Related: Why Trump Could Be a Problem for Republicans Long After Hes Gone

In an appearance late last week, Clinton appeared to claim that FBI director James Comey had said that her public statements about her use of a personal email server while secretary of state were truthful. Comey had defended a much narrower set of Clintons remarks, made in the context of an interview with the FBI, and effectively confirmed that Clinton had made factually false statements about the classified material being transmitted over her personal email system.

She later acknowledged that Comey was only talking about the interview and used the short-circuit metaphor to explain what she characterized as a mistake.

Trump, as he does, began experimenting with his attacks on Twitter, posting increasingly unhinged-sounding suggestions about Clintons mental fitness.

Crooked Hillary said loudly, and for the world to see, that she "SHORT CIRCUITED" when answering a question on her e-mails. Very dangerous! he tweeted.

Related: Can Trump Sell Himself as Savior of the Economy?

Anybody whose mind SHORT CIRCUITS is not fit to be our president! Look up the word BRAINWASHED, he added.

Finally, he signed off with, Heading to New Hampshire - will be talking about Hillary saying her brain SHORT CIRCUITED, and other things!

And he did.

Shes got problems, Trump said to a crowd in the town of Windham, NH on Saturday, adding, Honestly, I dont think shes all there. He also called Clinton a liar and a horrible, horrible human being.

Story continues

Finally, the Trump campaign wrapped up the day by releasing an amateurishly edited video advertisement asking, Is robot Hillary melting down? It shows Clinton making the short-circuit comment before sparks begin shooting from her mouth and smoke rises from her head.

Related: Is Trump Finished? Dont Bet on It

It remains to be seen whether Trumps attacks on Clinton will materially distract from the data coming out that shows him steadily losing ground with voters. Three national polls came out on Sunday, one from the Los Angeles Times and the University of Southern California, one from ABC News and The Washington Post, and a third from Morning Consult.

The Times poll had Clinton ahead of Trump nationally by only one point -- a margin much smaller than other recent polls. The ABC/Post poll, however, showed Clinton ahead by 8 points. Their combined effect was to drive Clinton to a 7-point advantage in the Real Clear Politics polling average.

The Morning Consult poll, which is not included in the RCP average, showed Clinton expanding her lead over Trump to 9 points.

Related: How Many Red States Can Hillary Win?

But a presidential election isnt a national vote, and at the state level, things are looking even worse for Trump. A CBS News battleground poll released Sunday shows Clinton ahead by 12 points in Virginia, the home state of her running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine. The Clinton campaign is so confident in its strength there that late last week it announced that it would be moving assets out of the state in order to focus attention on other parts of the country.

CBS also found that Clinton appears to be competitive in Arizona, which hasnt voted for a Democrat for president since 1996. She is trailing Trump by only two points in the latest poll and by only 0.3 points in the RCP average. That comes on the heels of an Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll from Friday that showed Clinton four points ahead of Trump in Georgia, which hasnt gone for a Democrat since 1992.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Bogota (AFP) - A poll published Sunday indicated that Colombians would reject a peace deal to end the country's half-century civil war in a planned referendum.

Just 39 percent of respondents backed the peace deal and 50 percent opposed it, in the study by polling firm Ipsos published by Colombian media.

The government wants citizens to endorse its accord with the country's biggest rebel force, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

The two sides laid the groundwork for a full peace deal when they signed a definitive ceasefire in June.

They hope that deal will soon be followed by a full peace accord if such an agreement is approved in a referendum in the coming months.

But many Colombians are wary of a deal that would see FARC fighters reintegrated into society without being tried over the bloodshed.

Former president Alvaro Uribe has been campaigning fiercely for a "No" vote against the peace deal.

A similar poll last month had shown a majority in favor of a deal, but that trend appeared to have reversed on Sunday.

President Juan Manuel Santos and his government have been negotiating for an accord since 2012.

But his approval rating has dropped sharply -- it stood at 25 percent in Sunday's poll.

Many voters said they did not want former FARC leaders to go into politics under the accord and said they must go to jail for their crimes.

Around 260,000 people have been killed in the territorial conflict in Colombia that started in 1964.
Note: This article is courtesy of Iris.xyz

By Brad Sherman

A new study in the Journal of Finance has found that conflicts of interest in 401(k) plans can lead to serious losses for individual investors.

More specifically, the 2,500 funds surveyed were less likely to eliminate underperforming funds that were their own rather than another providers fund. This can be very costly to retirement savers. Clemens Sialm, a professor of finance at the University of Texas at Austin and one of the studys authors, explained that the bottom 10% of funds continued to underperform by about 4% if kept on the menu of funds available to investors.

More specifically, the 2,500 funds surveyed were less likely to eliminate underperforming funds that were their own rather than another providers fund. This can be very costly to retirement savers. Clemens Sialm, a professor of finance at the University of Texas at Austin and one of the studys authors, explained that the bottom 10% of funds continued to underperform by about 4% if kept on the menu of funds available to investors.

With all of the attention lately focused on reducing these conflicts of interest where financial managers invest your money in their own funds (among individual financial advisors rather than institutional), it is surprising to see the bias getting coverage on an institutional level. As of June 2015, $4.7 trillion were invested in 401(k) accounts, plus another $2.1 trillion in non-401(k) defined-contribution plans. As John Oliver recently detailed, these conflicts of interest can cost millions over the course of a single retirement plans life.

Why the Conflicts Exist

The reason for the existence of these conflicts of interest is simple. Managers are prioritizing the profits of their institution over the success of the retirement plans they oversee. And there is no question that it is a raw deal for the investor. Weve previously covered how many actively managed funds dont even beat the market in the first place, and this study confirms that failing funds arent even taken off the menu of options.

Click here to read the full story on Iris.xyz.
Three siblings killed as their house collapses

Three members of a family died in a house collapse at Gugauli VDC-5 in the district on Friday night.
By Marc Frank HAVANA (Reuters) - Havana on Sunday blamed Washington for a surge of Cubans trying to reach the United States by land and sea, accusing the Obama administration of encouraging illegal and unsafe immigration. Tens of thousands of Cubans over the last two years have flocked to the U.S.-Mexican border and taken to the sea in hopes of reaching Florida, fearing a growing detente between the Cold War foes will lead to a change in U.S. policy. Under a 1960s law, the Cuban Adjustment Act, the Communist-run countrys citizens are treated as legal immigrants if they set foot on U.S. soil, while migrants from any other land are considered illegal. A government statement carried by local media and announcing the arrival of 14 Cubans deported by Colombia, said they were the victims of the politicization of the migration issue by the U.S. government which stimulates illegal and unsafe immigration. The government said its citizens receive differential treatment ... they are immediately and automatically admitted ... including if they arrived by illegal means. The statement said the policy contradicted normalization efforts. Colombia last week announced that more than 1,000 Cubans stuck in the country, and who were trying to reach the United States, would be deported. Colombia is just the latest government to crack down on Cubans who legally visit the region and then illegally, often with the help of human smugglers, pass through their territory on the way to the Mexican border. A Pew Research Center report released on Sunday said that during the first 10 months of fiscal 2016 more than 46,500 Cubans had arrived and been admitted to the United States without visas, compared with more than 43,000 in 2015 and just over 24,000 in 2014. As the long trek through the region becomes more difficult and costly, more Cubans may take to the sea. Both my children say they are going to leave by boat as soon as they can, a distraught mother in westernmost Pinar del Rio province said, requesting anonymity. I keep telling them it is too dangerous. But they wont listen, they are determined to go now, she said. The U.S. Coast Guard on Saturday reported that since Oct. 1, at least 5,786 Cubans have tried to migrate to the southeastern United States by sea and been intercepted, compared with 4,473 in federal fiscal year 2015. (Reporting by Marc Frank; Editing by Stephen Powell)
We are definitely not sure about this bizarre new coffee beverage

We are definitely not sure about this bizarre new coffee beverage

We, like many humans, are *obsessed* with coffee. We cant function without it. Well, we could, but just prefer life with it. There are so many unique variations of how you can make it, though its also plenty yummy just straight up. Seriously, who wouldve thought that beans and hot water would be so delicious?

And while were all about trying out new coffee beverages, this new trend has us questioning our commitment to all things coffee.

Its coffee and lemonadecombined.

shocked

People are now mixing lemonade with their coffee, and it has us like, Whaaaaa?

But were more than a little intrigued. According to Brit + Co, the blend came to the surface thanks to Nate Long, director of Brooklyns Stand Coffee. And once foodie Lukas Volger Instad the drink, it quickly rose to stardom.

On some Fridays..... + a very interesting Arnold Palmer made from cold brew coffee, lemonade, & almond milk A photo posted by Lukas Volger (@lukasvolger) on Jun 10, 2016 at 7:07am PDT

Even though it sounds funky, were actually *dying* to try it. After all, we cant call ourselves true coffee fanatics if were not willing to try all the latest blends on the market.

And it honestly doesnt look all that bad. Coffee is already bitter, so maybe the combo with lemon would just give it a little bit of a ~tangy~ flavor.

Sometimes in life you just have to take a step back and contemplate what you were doing before coffee lemonade existed. #damatteo #damatteocoffee #specialtycoffee #coffeelemonade A photo posted by da Matteo made in Gothenburg (@damatteo) on Aug 7, 2016 at 6:11am PDT

Its definitely worth giving this distinctive blend a shot.

After all, dont knock it til you try it, right?

The post We are definitely not sure about this bizarre new coffee beverage appeared first on HelloGiggles.
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German online food takeaway service Delivery Hero, one of Europe's biggest start-ups, could go public next year, its chief executive told a German weekly.

"We're in no hurry. Could it happen next year? Quite possibly. But in the end it will depend on whether we find the market conditions that we think will support our long-term vision," Niklas Ostberg told Welt am Sonntag in an interview.

"We have the size and earnings power that is needed."

Delivery Hero is seen as the start-up closest to going public in the portfolio of German ecommerce investor Rocket Internet. Rocket bought into Delivery Hero in 2015 and now holds a 37 percent stake.

Founded in 2011, the company, which has built up a delivery network for more than 300,000 restaurants in 33 countries, raised new funding last year from two undisclosed U.S. investors that valued the company at 2.8 billion euros.

Ostberg said Delivery Hero made annual net sales of more than 300 million euros and the company was profitable in its core business, although he did not give more details.

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
Trump anti-Clinton ad

Donald Trump's campaign released a new ad attacking his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, on Saturday.

The ad attempts to pounce on an explanation Clinton gave on Friday at an event for the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) and National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ).

At the event, Clinton said she might have "short-circuited" in making a claim on Fox News that her statements on her email scandal were "truthful."

The Trump campaign's ad opens with the caption, "Is robotic Hillary melting down?" followed by a clip that shows Clinton's appearance at the NABJ/NAHJ event. At the moment Clinton says she may have "short-circuited," video effects simulate electric sparks and smoke around Clinton's head and mouth.

Trump is coming off of another turbulent week since he officially accepted the Republican Party's presidential nomination last month.

The New York businessman attempted to quell one of his more contentious feuds late Friday by announcing his endorsement of several GOP figureheads, including House Speaker Paul Ryan.

Watch the anti-Clinton ad below:

Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida was similarly accused of being "robotic" after a damaging performance during a Republican primary debate in February. Rubio repeated the same line four times in an exchange with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Christie and Rubio suspended their presidential campaigns in February and March, respectively.

NOW WATCH: INSTANT POLL: Americans viewed Clinton's convention speech more favorably than Trump's





More From Business Insider


Donald Trump

Amid a week filled with controversy, Donald Trump began to hint at his defense for a potential loss this fall.

The election is going to be rigged, he claimed on multiple occasions.

"And I'm telling you, November 8, we'd better be careful, because that election is going to be rigged," the New York billionaire told Fox News host Sean Hannity in one such example. "And I hope the Republicans are watching closely or it's going to be taken away from us."

Multiple Republicans told Business Insider Trump's assertion was both ludicrous and dangerous, as Trump would be the first presidential candidate in modern times, possibly ever, to blame an election loss on voter fraud or a rigged election.

Allen Raymond, a former GOP operative who was involved in the 2002 New Hampshire Senate election phone-jamming scandal, called Trump's continued insistence that the election will be rigged "detrimental to the Republic."

"We're not playing games anymore," he said. "This is far worse than, you remember that [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell quote about limiting [President Barack] Obama to one term? This is far more than that."

"The idea that it's rigged, I don't know what he's talking about," he continued. "I know someone that rigged elections. I mean, you know, the fact of the matter is Hillary Clinton doesn't need to rig this election. Trump's going to win Alabama and that's it. She doesn't have to do anything. It's painful to watch."

Raymond authored "How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative," as a tell-all about the attempt to rig the 2002 New Hampshire Senate election between then-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, and Republican US Rep. John E. Sununu. Raymond said that attempted rigging was centered on jamming the phone lines at the New Hampshire Democrats office in Manchester  a task his phone bank was hired to carry out. Sununu would win the election by roughly 20,000 votes. Shaheen would defeat Sununu in a rematch in 2008.

Story continues

The operative served a brief prison sentence for his involvement.

Donald Trump

He said, if anyone makes an attempt to rig an election, it will look similar to that  not what Trump's talking about.

The Manhattan billionaire claimed to The Washington Post that a lack of voter-ID laws will let people "just keep voting and voting and voting" and accusations that fraud occurred in 2012 against Republican nominee Mitt Romney because there were "precincts where there were practically nobody voting for the Republican."

"I don't even know what he's talking about," Raymond said. "But this idea that it's 1950 or 1960 and the party bosses are going to roll into Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and are going to rig the ballot box and rig the machines  that's nonsense. An election rigging these days means something totally different than what he's talking about. Now it's stupid stuff like what I did in New Hampshire."

He said the lack of voter-ID laws Trump is trying to use as proof of fraud this fall is also bogus.

"These voter-ID laws, what's the intention of that? The clear intention is disenfranchisement," he said, echoing a common complaint in liberal circles that voter-ID laws are put in place to work to prevent minority voting blocks from being able to cast ballots. "You know, there's a reason we don't have a poll tax anymore. Because it's unconstitutional.

"People don't vote 10 times," he continued. "There might be one bad actor every once in a while who tries to vote a couple of times, but he's talking about an institutional effort. It's a total myth."

He said Trump's statements are an attempt to "basically sideline" Clinton's first four years in office.

The idea of a rigged election came to the forefront recently after the Democratic National Committee had its emails hacked and leaked  although both Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont had claimed the electoral system was rigged earlier in the primary season. The emails showed that the organization, which was supposed to remain neutral throughout the primary, favored Clinton.

Trump said the email leak proved that the primary election was "rigged" against Sanders in his interview with Hannity, in addition to such claims he perpetuated along the campaign trail. He used the leak as further evidence that the fall election will be rigged against him as well.

Barack Obama

His prediction was both ripped and mocked by the Clinton campaign, which called it "dangerous" and "pathetic" and Obama, who was baffled when asked about it in a Thursday press conference.

"I don't even know where to start on answering this question," he said. "Of course the elections will not be rigged. What does that mean?"

"My suggestion would be go out there and try to win the election," he continued, proceeding to mock Trump's current plummet in the polls. "If Mr. Trump is up 10 or 15 points on Election Day and ends up losing, then he can raise some questions. But that doesn't seem to be the case at the moment."

Republican strategist Matt Mackowiak told Business Insider that the "rigged" prediction is right in line with the entire Trump persona: "Either he wins outright or he was cheated."

"Look, I'm someone who believes voter fraud happens," he said. "I believe voter-ID laws are entirely constitutional and necessary. But outright rigging has, at least since the '60s, certainly has not happened. It's never been proven in the country's history. And the really scary thing about this is, we always have a peaceful transfer of power. And you can imagine with irresponsible statements like that, that a small percentage of his supporters won't accept the election results as legitimate. That's scary."

Should Trump continue to assert the election will be rigged and he ends up losing, Mackowiak said it could lead to "some type of revolt."

"Some type of very serious protest that could get out of hand," he said. "It would be very difficult to 'rig' the election. We have 50 individual states that conduct elections."

He called it a "preview of coming attractions for Trump."

"He wants to shift blame for what is clearly a failing campaign and plant the seed now so he can harvest it when he needs it," he said. "I think psychologically, that's even more telling than anything else. He doesn't often predict that he's going to lose. Do I think he's going to harp on this? Probably not."

The founder and president of the Potomac Strategy Group repeated one word on a number of occassions to describe Trump's "rigged" accusations: dangerous.

"And I don't even know if he realizes how dangerous it is," he said. "And, you know, we've got to have a peaceful transfer of power on November 8 no matter what the choice is. And this just raises the possibility that we won't. That's a really, really, really dangerous situation."

Correction: An earlier version of this story referred to John Sununu as the former New Hampshire governor. It has been corrected to identify John E. Sununu, his son, who ran in the 2002 race.

NOW WATCH: 'I don't even really know where to start on answering this question': Watch President Obama respond to Trump's claim that the election will be rigged





More From Business Insider


Donald Trump

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump test-drove a new nickname for Hillary Clinton during a campaign rally in New Hampshire on Saturday.

Calling his Democratic rival "Unstable Hillary Clinton," Trump channeled Clinton's claim that she "short-circuited" in making a comment on Fox News last week that her statements on her email scandal were "truthful."

At times during the Saturday rally, Trump described Clinton as a "monster" and suggested that she might be "brainwashed."

"Unstable" wasn't the only name Trump pinned on Clinton at the rally. At one point, he also reprised an earlier moniker, Hillary "Rotten" Clinton  a riff on the former secretary of state's middle name, Rodham.

In April, Trump rolled out "Crooked Hillary," a name that has gotten significant exposure on social media and during the Republican National Convention last month.

In May, it was "Heartless Hillary"  the brash New York businessman fired off that one during a speech at the National Rifle Association.

Trump has employed such catchphrases throughout this election cycle, even using them to target members of his own party, including Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Jeb Bush.

NOW WATCH: The difference in GOP rhetoric from this 1980 debate is astounding





More From Business Insider


Drew Barrymore is living it up in Las Vegas!

The 41-year-old actress enjoyed a getaway in Sin City over the weekend, marking her first trip since finalizing her divorce from Will Kopelman last month.

WATCH: Drew Barrymore Talks 'Hard Time' in First Post-Split Interview

"Is this bird going to Vegas?" Barrymore captioned a photo of her and her "#besties" aboard a private jet on Saturday. "If so yay!!!"

Two hours later, Barrymore confirmed she had indeed touched down in Nevada by sharing a snap of herself rocking a helmet and getting ready to enjoy some go-karting fun at the Pole Position Raceway.

She later changed into a pair of distressed denim jeans and a bright blue kimono-like top for a meet and greet with David Copperfield and "#thecrew" at the MGM Grand Resort & Casino.

NEWS: Drew Barrymore Gets Candid About 'Failure' of Divorce

But the fun didn't stop there. Barrymore and her friends also dined on Thai food and sipped on vino from her Barrymore Wines collection at one of her favorite local restaurants, Lotus of Siam.

She even snapped a selfie with the "goddess" herself, Jennifer Lopez, who is in Vegas for her All I Have residency at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino.

Before jet-setting to Vegas, the Blended star found her "#happyplace" in the middle of the ocean.

RELATED: Drew Barrymore and Will Kopelman Release a Joint Statement After Calling It Quits

And what could possibly be more relaxing than playing with turtles?

Barrymore was married to Kopelman, an art consultant, for nearly four years. Back in May, she was a guest on Chelsea Handler's Netflix talk show, Chelsea, where she opened up about her divorce and what it's been like learning to cope without Kopelman. The two share two daughters, 3-year-old Olive and 2-year-old Frankie.

WATCH: Drew Barrymore Officially Files for Divorce From Will Kopelman

"There has been this really nice feeling of something very fluid and positive and the opposite of how I felt inside," she revealed. "Everyone has just been so cool and chill and nice about everything that it quelled by own fears and demons about how we sort of have to go through things in life."

Story continues

Barrymore's split from Kopelman marked her third divorce. She was previously married to her Charlie's Angels co-star, Tom Green, for five months in 2001, and Jeremy Thomas, a Los Angeles bar owner, for two months in 1994. To hear more on why they called it quits, watch the video below.

Related Articles
Indian envoy Rae calls on UML Chairman Oli

Indian Ambassador to Nepal Ranjit Rae called on CPN-UML Chairman and immediate past Prime Minister KP Oli at UML party office in Dhumbarahi, Kathmandu on Sunday.
The South Carolina inmate who supposedly attacked accused Charleston 9 shooter posted bond nearly 18 months after his initial arrest. According to reports, Dwayne Stafford was released from the Charleston County Detention Center 24 hours after news broke he punched Dylann Storm Roof near the shower area.

The 26-year-old was in prison when he was arrested on first-degree assault and robbery charges. Records dont show who put up the $100,000 bond, but after the bathroom incident, Stafford supporters launched a fundraiser page to donate to his commissary.

News of Staffords assault on 22 year old Roof hit the Internet the same day many learned George Zimmerman was punched in the face after bragging about killing Trayvon Martin. Roof has been held in protective custody and was taking a solo shower when guards momentarily left their post, which was when Stafford bolted down a flight of stairs and attacked Roof.

Roof faces several hate crimes and nine murder charges after he killed parishioners inside Charleston, South Carolinas historical Emanuel AME Church.
Cairo (AFP) - Nobel prize-winning Egyptian-American chemist Ahmed Zewail was given a state funeral with military honours on Sunday in Cairo attended by Egypt's president and top officials.

Zewail, who served as a science and technology advisor to US President Barack Obama, died on Tuesday in the United States aged 70.

A naturalised US citizen, Zewail won the Nobel prize for chemistry in 1999 for his groundbreaking work in the study of chemical reactions in extremely short timescales.

Egypt organised two high-profile processions to bid Zewail farewell on Sunday before he was laid to rest.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Al-Azhar's Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb, Defence Minister Sedki Sobhi and Egyptian-British surgeon Sir Magdi Yacoub attended one procession at a military complex.

Live footage on state television showed the scientist's coffin shrouded in an Egyptian flag and drawn by horses on a carriage flanked by men in military uniform.

The mourners marched inside the military complex in eastern Cairo to funeral music from a military band.

Mourners including Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and the defence minister then presented their condolences to Zewail's family.

The coffin was then transported by ambulance to the second procession from a university he founded at the Zewail City of Science and Technology.

Zewail was later buried in a family plot inside an Islamic-style tomb which his spokesman, Sherif Fouad, said he had bought just six months ago "as if he knew his time was nearing its end".

Family members, friends, fans and journalists were present at the burial when the body wrapped in a white cloth was lowered into the tomb.

Zewail was among four Egyptians to win a Nobel prize and the country's first scientist to do so.

- 'Global citizen' -

Former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat shared the peace prize in 1978 with the late Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin for reaching a historic peace deal between their two countries.

Story continues

Novelist Naguib Mahfouz won the 1988 Nobel prize for literature.

Mohamed ElBaradei, then director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, received the 2005 peace prize for his efforts to promote the safe and peaceful use of nuclear energy.

Zewail's work showed that it is possible using a laser technique to study in slow motion how atoms in a molecule move during a chemical reaction.

According to the Nobel Prize website, Zewail's work led to the birth of the research area called femtochemistry, "which enables us to understand why certain chemical reactions take place but not others".

His discoveries offered scientists greater insight into chemical and pharmacological processes with implications across a range of disciplines including human health, electronics and high precision machinery.

In 2009 Zewail was appointed to Obama's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and later that year he was named the first US science envoy to the Middle East.

Until his death Zewail -- who was married with four children -- worked at the California Institute of Technology.

Caltech president Thomas Rosenbaum described Zewail as a "quintessential scholar and global citizen".

Zewail was a member of several prestigious scientific institutions, including the National Academy of Sciences and the US American Academy of Art and Sciences.

He was also a fellow of London's Royal Society.
Abou al-Matamir (Egypt) (AFP) - Men and women harvest Merlot grapes under the scorching sun in one of Egypt's up-and-coming vineyards, as the Muslim-majority desert country strives to win over international wine connoisseurs.

"It's a great story, what we've done with Egyptian wine," said a proud Labib Kallas, as he inspected vines planted in reclaimed desert land north of Cairo on a hot day in July.

For decades a single Egyptian company produced wine that was derided by locals and expatriates alike, but today aficionados say the North African country offers a variety of good white wines.

The vineyard that Kallas is visiting -- which spans around 170 hectares (420 acres) some 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of the capital -- is just one of several providing grapes to two companies now making wine in Egypt.

Since the early 2000s, Kouroum of the Nile -- where Kallas heads production -- and Domaine de Gianaclis have launched an ambitious quest: to revive the country's wine production by importing grape varieties from France, Italy and also Spain -- Merlot, Syrah, Viognier and Vermentino.

Cairo's upscale restaurants and bars usually stock only Egyptian wine.

In a somewhat conservative society that mostly views alcohol negatively, authorities impose a prohibitive custom tax of 3,000 percent on imported wine.

Originally practised in Egypt under the pharaohs, large-scale winemaking was resurrected under British colonialism, before the industry started declining after the army took over the country in a 1952 coup.

Today a dozen wine varieties of reds, whites and roses are available on the market.

"We've planted a lot of vines. We pay a lot of attention to quality," said Sebastien Boudry, a French winemaker at Domaine de Gianaclis, near Abu al-Matamir, a village in the Nile Delta 170 kilometres northwest of Cairo.

In 2002 the Heineken Group acquired Gianaclis, which had been nationalised in the 1960s.

Story continues

The climate in Egypt is a challenge to winemakers.

They must account for scorching temperatures and compensate for the almost total absence of rain using sophisticated irrigation systems.

"When it's over 50 degrees, the vines cannot do much beyond surviving -- let alone produce sugars or aromatic substances," said Boudry, who handles 230 hectares of vineyards.

-'Fresh and fruity'-

The efforts appear to have been fruitful, with some local wines grabbing international awards.

They are "qualitatively good, nice and fresh," said Jean-Baptiste Ancelot, founder of Wine Explorers, the world's first inventory of wine-producing countries.

"Not necessarily great wines, but wines of immediate pleasure," said Ancelot, who visited Gianaclis in 2014.

"The whites are the most successful. You can find wines that are both fresh and very fruity -- of the exotic fruit type: peach, pineapple, and a little passion fruit," said the expert.

At Kouroum of the Nile -- who say their grapes and wine are organic -- the pride of the house is the white Beausoleil.

It is the only variety made 100 percent from Egyptian grapes known as Banati, which in 2016 won a silver medal at the international wine contest in Brussels.

The company produces more than two million litres annually: between 700,000 and 800,000 bottles for individuals, with the rest -- more than two thirds -- distributed in bags-in-boxes to Cairo hotels.

But with few tourists coming to Egypt over the past six years amid the bloody crackdown and jihadist attacks that followed the 2011 uprising, the wine industry is struggling to absorb these shocks.

"Tourism accounts for more than 70 percent of production. If the tourists do not return, we will have to look into exporting," said Shaker Nawal, marketing director at Kouroum of the Nile.

But it is difficult to imagine the niche industry competing with Western heavyweights -- or even those in the region such as Lebanon, which produces more than eight million bottles a year and exports a third of its production.

"This will remain a curiosity wine," said Kallas, a Lebanese living in Egypt.

"A Parisian who orders an Egyptian wine at a restaurant rather than French or Spanish wine must have a curious nature."

But he thinks the company's wine can penetrate Asian markets.

As he sat enjoying an Egyptian Omar Khayyam rose with friends by the Nile, Dutch ambassador Gerard Steeghs was optimistic.

When he first arrived in Egypt, he said he was told: "There is the 'headache wine' and there is the wine that is ok. But there is no good wine."

Today "they still have the 'headache wine', but you also have really good wine," he said.
Breast-feeding is no easy task, even though it's basically one of the most natural things humans do. Having to breast-feed in fear of being judged by others seriously compounds the difficulty, though. That's just one of the reasons it's beautiful to see photos of women from all over the world joining together, with little ones latched on out in the open, for World Breast-Feeding Week.

According to the Daily Mail, 500 women gathered in Pasig City, Philippines, on Saturday, simultaneously feeding their children and holding up signs with slogans like "Breast Is Best." There were similar demonstrations in 120 countries, including China and Romania.

The event, organised by World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action, has been held since 1992. It's about much more than Mila Kunis being allowed to feed baby Wyatt in a restaurant without comment. The goal is to raise awareness of breast-feeding's health benefits and its role in alleviating global poverty (formula is very expensive). There's a lot of good those mamas can do while flashing their breasts to the world.

Nearly 50 women feed their children in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China. Photo: VCG/Getty Images.

Not content with just a week, Philippines makes all of August National Breast-Feeding Awareness Month. Photo: Getty Images.

It's a different kind of "flash mob," as 40 mothers sit down in Shanghai. Photo: VCG/Getty Images.

This mom in Bucharest knows: The most rewarding part of breast-feeding is that snuggly post-meal snooze. Photo: Andreea Alexandru/AP Images.

Many of the mothers at the Village Museum in Bucharest demonstrated in traditional costumes. Photo: Andreea Alexandru/AP Images.

These mothers in Bucharest are feeding in tandem. Photo: Andreea Alexandru/AP Images.

Flower crowns and freedom were the calls to action in Bucharest. Photo: Andreea Alexandru/AP Images.

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Ankara (AFP) - If the Turkish public want the death penalty following last month's failed coup then political parties will follow their will, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a rally in Istanbul on Sunday.

"If the nation makes such a decision (in support of death penalty), I believe political parties will abide by this decision," Erdogan said during a unity rally in Yenikapi square in the touristic Sultanahmet district.

"It is the Turkish parliament that will decide on this (death penalty) given the sovereignty rests with the nation... I declare it in advance, I will approve the decision made by the parliament," Erdogan said.

He attacked critics who said there was no death penalty in the EU, of which Turkey is a candidate nation, countering that capital punishment is used in the United States, Japan and China.

"Today there is the death penalty in the majority of the world," he said, adding that capital punishment had been legal in Turkey until 2004, though the last execution took place in 1984.

Speaking to crowds of hundreds of thousands of people, Erdogan insisted that the state would be cleansed of all members of the Gulen movement "within law".

He added: "They will pay a price for what they have done," referring to the movement run by US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen.

Gulen is accused by Ankara of leading a terrorist organisation and of ordering the July 15 coup attempt during which at least 273 people were killed including 34 coup plotters.

He denies all accusations and the movement insists it promotes moderate Islam, charity and education.
By Nidhi Verma

VADINAR, Gujarat (Reuters) - Indian refiner Essar Oil's fuel exports will sharply drop in 2018/19 as it ramps up local sales by doubling its retail network and turns some of its naphtha into profitable gasoline, its managing director said.

Rising fuel demand, driven by India's thirst for gasoline, is expected to help push the growth rate in the country's fuel consumption ahead of China's.

Essar Oil, which operates the 400,000 barrels per day Vadinar refinery in Gujarat, directly sells gasoil and gasoline in the retail market through 2,470 fuel stations and exports about 45 percent of its refined fuels output.

It plans to increase its retail sales outlets to 4,300 this fiscal year and to over 5,000 the next year, L.K. Gupta told reporters on Saturday, adding higher local sales would shrink Essar's export to 25 percent.

"All along, we were a country where people were aspiring for a bicycle and now we want at least two-wheelers (motorcycles and scooters)...65 percent of gasoline demand is from two-wheelers," Gupta said.

He said Essar is investing about $200 million to raise output capacity of its naphtha hydrotreater, continuous catalytic reformer and isomerisation units by 15-20 percent and set up new units to recover sulphur and manufacture propylene.

These projects, to be completed by March 2018, will boost Essar's profit from turning crude into refined fuels by $0.90 per barrel, Gupta said.

Expansion of units would halve Essar's naphtha exports to one cargo a month and raise annual gasoline output by 10-15 percent from the current 3-3.5 million tonnes, he said.

Essar is scouting for fuel storage depots at Rajasthan and Maharashtra in western India and the northern state of Uttar Pradesh to expand its local presence, he said. It has depots in Mumbai and in the southern cities of Kochi and Kakinadat.

The group, controlled by billionaire brothers Ravi and Shashi Ruia and with a presence across the oil and gas, steel, ports and power markets, wants to pare its billions of dollars of debt by boosting profitability and selling some of its assets.

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It has decided to sell a 49 percent share in Essar oil to Russian oil giant Rosneft (ROSN.MM) and could sell more, Gupta said.

The new sulphur recovery unit will help Essar process more very sour cheaper grades like Maya and Talam of Mexico and Patos Marinza of Albania, Gupta said.

Essar, one of Iran's largest Indian oil clients, is in talks to buy West Karoon oil of the Persian gulf nation, Gupta said.

Essar plans to build a 5 million tonne a year fluid catalytic cracker costing $1 billion-to-$1.5 billion, he said, without elaborating as the project is not yet approved by the company's board.

He also said low gas prices have forced the company to put on hold a plan to build petcoke gasification plant.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Sam Holmes)
Beirut (AFP) - Syrian regime forces redeployed on Sunday to try to avoid being surrounded in neighbourhoods they control in Aleppo, as a rebel alliance said it was launching a battle to recapture the whole city after breaking a three-week government siege.

The "Army of Conquest", a coalition of rebels and jihadists, said it would "double the number of fighters for this next battle".

"We announce the start of a new phase to liberate all of Aleppo" after a week of continuous fighting, the group said in a statement.

"We will not rest until we raise the flag of the conquest over Aleppo's citadel," it added.

The group's fighters surged through regime territory on Saturday, breaking a government siege in a major setback for the regime and opening a new route into the northern city's besieged eastern neighbourhoods, home to an estimated 250,000 people.

The operation triggered celebrations in eastern districts and sparked fears in regime-controlled western areas of the divided city of food and fuel shortages.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the rebel action was one of the most significant setbacks for government forces since the conflict erupted in March 2011.

"Despite more than 600 Russian strikes, the regime forces were not able to hold on to their positions," he said.

Steadfast regime ally Moscow has provided air support for forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad since last September.

Official media denied the siege had been broken but implicitly admitted that regime forces were on the defensive, reporting new air raids Sunday and saying that pro-government areas were facing shortages in the country's ravaged second city.

State television said on Sunday: "Our forces have redeployed after absorbing the attack of thousands of mercenaries, and the army has found a new route to allow food and gas in."

The official SANA news agency later quoted a military source as saying that "the air force conducted 21 sorties and struck the terrorists 86 times in south and west Aleppo in the last 12 hours".

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An AFP correspondent said air raids bombarded rebel-held areas of Aleppo, with the Britain-based Observatory saying the strikes were carried out by Russian and Syrian aircraft.

The Observatory also reported intermittent clashes on the city's southern edges, where rebels overran buildings in a military academy on Saturday.

- Food trucks enter Aleppo -

Rebel units on Saturday pushed northeast into the Ramussa district where they linked up with other insurgents who had fought from inside the city.

Video footage seen by AFP showed fighters on Sunday evacuating a small group of civilians, mostly women and children, from Ramussa.

Rebels also brought seven pick-up trucks full of fruit and vegetables into the eastern sector of Aleppo which had been under government siege since July 17, an opposition fighter said.

The Observatory's Abdel Rahman said the route into eastern districts was open only to fighters and was still not secure enough to evacuate civilians from the area.

The rebel advance now puts the estimated 1.2 million people in government-held districts under opposition encirclement, he added.

"The western districts of Aleppo are now besieged. There are no safe routes for civilians in government-held districts to use to get into or out of the city," he told AFP.

- Preparing for siege -

Families in western neighbourhoods meanwhile began to stock up on food and water in preparation for a siege but complained about the rising cost of basic supplies.

"Unfortunately, after the road was cut, the price of a loaf of bread immediately shot up from 200 to 800 Syrian pounds," said Walaa Hariri, a 48-year-old mother of three from the Furqan district.

"I sent my sons to school but they are all nervous, and the teachers replaced their regular lessons with courses on what to do if there is shelling," she said.

A man aged 37 who declined to be identified said he had "faith in the army, but I can't help being scared".

"Food is already getting more expensive and the coming days risk being very difficult," he added.

The battle for Aleppo has raged since mid-2012 and is among the fiercest so far in Syria's chaotic multi-front war, which has killed more than 280,000 people since it erupted five years ago.

Pope Francis on Sunday denounced the "unacceptable" number of civilian victims in Aleppo, mentioning in particular the number of children killed in the conflict.

Since the opposition alliance launched its offensive on southern Aleppo on July 31 at least 130 civilians and hundreds of fighters from both sides have been killed, said the Observatory.

On Monday, the UN Security Council is due to hold an informal meeting at 1400 GMT on the Aleppo crisis.
(Reuters) - Five people were found dead on Saturday in southeastern Pennsylvania in what appeared to be a murder-suicide, according to local media which cited law enforcement authorities.

Five members of a family - both parents and three children - were found dead of gunshot wounds at a home in Sinking Spring, some 60 miles east of the state capital Harrisburg, the Reading Eagle newspaper reported on its web site.

The victims were discovered on Saturday evening after investigators arrived at the home with a warrant to allow them to enter the house, the Eagle reported, citing Chief County Detective Michael Gombar.

The reason for the warrant being issued was not disclosed.

The victims' ages were not released, but the newspaper said the family had been profiled in its pages in 2014 when one child, then five months old, had received a heart transplant.

(Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Michael Perry)
(Reuters) - Florida Republican Governor Rick Scott on Sunday accused the federal government of lagging in providing assistance to combat the spread of the Zika virus in a Miami-area neighborhood, the site of the first U.S. transmission of the virus.

Scott was speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press" about the neighborhood of Wynwood, where crews began aerial spraying on Thursday to kill virus-carrying mosquitoes. Zika can cause microcephaly, a rare but devastating birth defect.

The governor said state health authorities had identified 16 cases of Zika that were spread by local mosquitoes and criticized the federal government for failing to get more involved in battling the virus.

Scott said he asked U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Thomas Frieden earlier this week for 10,000 additional Zika preparedness kits.

"We still need the federal government to show up. The President and Congress have to work together. This is a national, international issue. It's not just a Florida issue," Scott said.

A representative for the CDC could not be immediately reached on Sunday.

President Barack Obama, a Democrat, earlier this week called on Congress to approve more funds to fight Zika's spread in the United States, saying that money to fight the outbreak is rapidly running out.

Scott's comments come a day after Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida stirred controversy by telling political news outlet Politico that pregnant women infected with Zika should not be able to get an abortion, even when there was evidence the baby might be born with severe microcephaly.

"I understand a lot of people disagree with my view  but I believe that all human life is worthy of protection of our laws," Rubio, a former candidate for his party's presidential nomination, told Politico. "But if I'm going to err, I'm going to err on the side of life."

U.S. health regulators said on Friday that they had cleared the way for a trial of genetically modified mosquitoes in Florida that can reduce mosquito populations, potentially offering a new tool to fight the local spread of Zika and other viruses.

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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 connection between Zika and microcephaly first came to light last fall in Brazil, which has now confirmed more than 1,600 cases of microcephaly that it considers to be related to Zika infections in the mothers.

(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Frank McGurty and Alan Crosby)
PARIS (Reuters) - French prosecutors are seeking to use a European arrest warrant to gain custody of a relative of one of the Islamist militants who attacked satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo last year, a judicial source said on Sunday. Authorities suspect 20-year-old Mourad Hamyd - the brother-in-law of assailant Cherif Kouachi - of attempting to join the ranks of Islamic State, the source said, confirming information cited by newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche. The newspaper said Hamyd, who was being monitored by French security services, was reported missing on July 25 by his family in France and was being detained in Bulgaria after being turned back at the Turkish border. The Bulgarian interior ministry confirmed Hamyd was being held in the country and that a court would rule on Tuesday on his arrest. "He had behavior typical for a foreign fighter and that's how was identified," Interior Minister Rumiana Bachvarova said on BTV television. She said a European arrest warrant had been issued, without giving further details. France has suffered a series of deadly attacks that have highlighted difficulties faced by the authorities in tracking potential militants. The Charlie Hebdo attack in January 2015, in which Cherif Kouachi and his brother Said shot dead 12 people before being killed by police, was followed by a coordinated assault by gunmen in Paris in November that killed 130 people. Last month, a man killed 85 people by ramming a truck into crowds in Nice, and then two men killed a priest in a small town in Normandy. Hamyd had been questioned by police following the Charlie Hebdo attacks but was cleared of any involvement. (Reporting by Marine Pennetier and Gus Trompiz; Additional reporting by Tsvetelia Tsolova in Bulgaria; Editing by Andrew Bolton)
Five family members, including a 2-year-old girl, were found dead in their home in Pennsylvania in what authorities are describing as an apparent murder-suicide.



According to a news release posted on the Berks County District Attorney Facebook page, officers were sent to the Sinking Spring Borough home of the Short family after a family member reported that Megan Short failed to appear for a scheduled lunch date on Saturday afternoon.



Upon entering the home, officers discovered the bodies of Megan, her husband Mark, their three children and the family's dog, all of whom died from gunshot wounds, according to police.



Police believe the "tragic domestic incident" to be a murder-suicide after discovering a handwritten note at the scene.







According to WFMZ, Berks County District Attorney John Adams identified the victims as Mark Short, 40, his wife, Megan, 33, and their children: 8-year-old Liana, 5-year-old Mark and 2-year-old Willow.



It is unclear who fired the fatal shots and what prompted the killings, but a handgun was discovered near one of the deceased adults, according to the news release.



The Berks County District Attorney had no additional comment as the homicide investigation is ongoing.





Girl, 2, Who Received Heart Transplant When She Was Born Is Shot and Killed in Apparent Family Murder-Suicide| Crime & Courts, Death, True Crime

Neighbors who gathered around the crime scene were shocked by the tragic news.



One man who chose to remain anonymous told the Reading Eagle that although he didn't know the Short family well, there were no signs of trouble.



"I never would've suspected there were any issues," he said.



 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? A "Click to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.



The family made headlines when their youngest child, Willow, survived a risky heart transplant when she was just one-week old.



Although the baby was expected to be stillborn, Willow was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome and underwent an organ transplant less than a week later.



"Someone else's child died so that my child could live," Megan told the Reading Eagle" in a November 2014 profile.



In a July 2015 story in the New York Times, Megan spoke about the complicated and costly drug regimen necessary to prevent Willow's body from rejecting her new heart.



"You just feel like every month, youare hoping that they donat mess it up," she told the newspaper.
Goldman Sachs' David Kostin is not enthusiastic about the stock market right now.

The chief US equity strategist for Goldman said in a note to clients on Sunday that stock markets around the world are not going to offer any serious gains for the foreseeable future.

"In the next three-months we expect negative price returns in Asia (-3%), Japan (-6%), US (-10%), and Europe (-11%)," said Kostin.

On Monday, the Goldman Sachs strategy team downgraded stocks to "Underweight" on a three-month basis, essentially saying to sell equities.

"Until the growth situation improves, we are not that constructive on equities, particularly after this type of rally and amid continuing concerns about the sustainability of stimulus-led growth in China, global policy uncertainty (and in Europe in particular), dovish central bank expectations, and heightened prospects of unknown shocks (e.g. Turkey recently)," wrote strategist Christian Mueller-Glissmann in a note on the decision.

The biggest reason for the lackluster returns, according to Kostin, is that stocks are simply expensive.

"The S&P 500 (17.2x) and STOXX 600 (14.9x) both trade at forward [price-to-earnings ratios] one standard deviation or more above their 10-year averages," wrote Kostin.

"MXAPJ (13.5x) trades at an above-average multiple relative to its history while TOPIX (13.6x) trades in line with the past decade."

Kostin also notes that the current median forward P/E for an S&P 500 stock is in the 98th percentile of its range dating back to 1976. In other words, everything is pricey.

Screen Shot 2016 08 07 at 2.04.11 PM

The high P/E ratios have Kostin convinced that there will be a drop in the S&P 500 of at least 5% in the coming months. Afterward, he predicts earnings will improve allowing the market to make some gains, though as he puts it there will be "no medal winner" in the low-return environment.

NOW WATCH: Here's what Goldman Sachs looks for in a resume





More From Business Insider


Good Girls Revolt may be a period drama, but the gender issues it explores are just as relevant today.

At a panel for the new Amazon drama at the Television Critics Association summer press tour on Sunday, the cast and producers were asked about how the show resonates with what's happening today given the recent sexual harassment allegations against former Fox News chief Roger Ailes.

"I'm from New York City, from probably the most liberal background possible, and it doesn't take working at Fox news to have this. You don't have to be in this obviously more conservative, male-driven place," said series star Genevieve Angelson. "It's all over the place."

Castmember Erin Darke added that the biggest progression since the 1960s and '70s, when the show takes place, is that now there's a language for it. "Now women can stand up and say, 'I was sexually harassed by my boss,' and people know what that is and innately know the horror," said the actress. "[Back then,] you knew that you felt violated or you knew that you felt belittled, and you didn't even know how to communicate that to another women, much less men."

Read more: 'Transparent' Season 3 Is About "Coming Out of Your Shell"

Set in 1969, Good Girls Revolt centers on a group of young female researchers who work at News of the Week, inspired by the landmark sexual discrimination cases chronicled in Lynn Povich's book of the same name. The real-life people portrayed in the series include Eleanor Holmes Norton, played by Parenthood's Joy Bryant; Nora Ephron (Grace Gummer); and Wick McFadden (Jim Belushi). A co-production with TriStar Television, the drama was written by Dana Calvo (Made in Jersey), directed by Liza Johnson (Return) and executive produced by Calvo, Lynda Obst, Darlene Hunt (The Big C), Don Kurt (Justified) and Jeff Okin (Dark Skies).

The series also stars Weeds' Hunter Parrish, Silicon Valley's Chris Diamantopoulos and Pitch Perfect's Anna Camp - the latter of whom was asked about how the new show compares to Mad Men, another '60s-set workplace drama in which she appeared. "It's definitely picking up where Mad Men leaves off. At the end of the last season of Mad Men, Joan [Christine Hendricks] was starting her own company and starting to really assert herself as a woman in the industry," she explained. "I feel like it's the continuation of that in that it [focuses on] what happens to the women, who then have to come forward and take a stand and assert their rights."

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Darke summed it up: "It's about this lawsuit, but it's also about these women learning to become feminists and what that means for them and what that means for their lives."

Good Girls Revolt will be available for streaming on Oct. 28 on Amazon Prime.

Read more: Tig Notaro: Being Gay Isn't the Focus of Amazon Comedy 'One Mississippi'
By Pritha Sarkar RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - It was a hair-raising day for Louis Smith at the Rio Olympics on Saturday. But rather than his fluid movements over the pommel horse providing the excitement during men's qualifying, it was the hair tied up on top of his head. "People are calling it a man bun. I don't call it anything, I just tie it up," grinned the British showman whose toned back is covered with tattoos of two angels and a message for his late grandmother. "I was growing it and I hadn't put any hair spray in it for training so it was flopping around everywhere. I went to one of the girls in training and asked for a hairband and I just tied it up. "I caught myself in a mirror and thought, 'It looks all right,' so I've just been doing this every day as it's so convenient." The man who waltzed to victory in Britain's version of Dancing with the Stars after claiming a silver medal at the 2012 London Games on his signature apparatus was happy with his new look as it saves time with his daily beauty regime. "You get out of the shower, tie it up and it's done. Before I had to condition it, had to straighten it, had to hair spray it back," he added. "I haven't seen anybody else with this hairstyle before and it's nice to be different." For the record, he was heading for another pommel horse showdown with world champion Max Whitlock after the British duo topped the provisional standings in the apparatus. (Reporting by Pritha Sarkar; Editing by Bill Rigby)
Istanbul (AFP) - Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Istanbul on Sunday for a pro-democracy rally organised by the ruling party, bringing to an end three weeks of demonstrations in support of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after last month's failed coup.

Followers of Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) have taken to the streets every night since the attempted putsch on July 15 that claimed at least 273 lives including 34 coup plotters.

The grand "Democracy and Martyrs" rally on Istanbul's Yenikapi square on the shores of the Marmara Sea was due to be held at 1400 GMT under tight security with 15,000 police in charge.

Less than two hours before the start, the square was already a sea of red and white Turkish flags.

Some media predicted that up to 3.5 million people could attend.

Yenikapi is the square often chosen by Erdogan for AKP mass rallies. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim had sent a circular to the party rank and file, saying Sunday's rally would be a "supra-party" gathering and that no partisan slogans would be allowed in a bid to promote unity.

"The spirit of one nation, one flag, one homeland and one state will prevail throughout the rally," he said, warning against any provocation.

A rendition of the national anthem was to open the rally prior to readings from the Koran, Anadolu reported, and a large section of VIP seats were reserved for families of those killed in the coup attempt.

- Opposition leaders to attend -

On the unity theme, Erdogan invited opposition leaders to address the crowds, except from the pro-Kurdish HDP party.

The leader of the opposition National Movement Party (MHP), said on Twitter he had accepted the Turkish president's invitation to take part.

"I will stand on the side of Turkey against traitors and centres of hostility," he wrote in a tweet, retweeted by Erdogan.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the secular Republican People's Party (CHP), who had initially refused to join the rally, has decided to attend after all because of "our commitment to democracy, our faith in the rule of law and our eternal respect for martyrs".

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An AKP follower, who did not wish to be named, expressed his pleasure at the opposition's response. "I support the AKP but I am delighted that the MHP and CHP are supporting this huge rally."

Speaking to Turkish media on Saturday, Erdogan had thanked opposition leaders for agreeing to take part in the rally which he said would "embolden our unity".

"Those who believe in democracy cannot be discouraged by tanks or cannons," he added.

The CHP hosted a mass pro-democracy rally last month on Istanbul's Taksim Square which AKP supporters also attended in a show of patriotic post-coup unity.

- Giant screen in Pennyslvania -

Turkey has accused reclusive US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen of masterminding the coup attempt which was led by a rogue faction in the military.

Erdogan has retaliated with a sweeping crackdown on alleged coup plotters.

Over 60,000 people from the military, judiciary, civil service and education have been dismissed, detained or put under investigation for suspected links to the Gulen movement.

From his base in the US state of Pennsylvania, Gulen has denied the charges.

The mass purge has strained Turkey's ties with its Western allies and cast a shadow over its long-term bid to join the European Union after Erdogan suggested the death penalty might be reintroduced.

Erdogan, who arrived in Istanbul late on Friday, said the rally in Yenikapi would be broadcast live via giant screens nationwide with one also due to be installed in Pennsylvania.

"A mega board will be put up in one more place. Do you know where?" he asked a crowd.

"In Pennsylvania. The message will be delivered," he said.
This incredible new sculpture creates a sparkling ocean in the sky

This incredible new sculpture creates a sparkling ocean in the sky

What can you do when youre a mermaid at heart, but were cursed to live on land? Sure, theres always visiting the ocean, but the everyday rat race can make visiting the beach difficult during the week.

Well, Los Angeles-based inner mermaids are in luck, because they can indulge in their love for the ocean on land with a stunning ocean-wave-generating sculpture in Pershing Square, on display through Aug. 11.

The 15,000 sq. ft. suspended sculpture, called Liquid Shard, uses wind to mimic beautiful, rolling ocean waves with the shadows it casts on the ground below as passersby walk underneath it.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the sculpture was designed and built by artist Patrick Shearn, who owns an L.A. design studio called Poetic Kinetics and worked with students at the Architectural Association Visiting School to make his vision a reality.

Im inspired by observing nature and this constant feeling that theres a lot going on that we dont understand and we arent aware of, Shearn told the Los Angeles Times of the inspiration behind the sculpture, which features thousands of silver strands made up of holographic mylar and monofilament.

You feel ripple of wind on your skin, and the scale of it feels small, Shearn added. But when you see this piece, youre brought to an understanding of bigger motion around you.

The project was launched to support public art projects in L.A.  and wed be shocked if it doesnt have some serious impact because LOOK HOW AMAZING THIS IS in motion.

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The only question we have (aside from CAN WE GO THERE NOW PLZ!?) is, Do water Pokemon show up here? Were not sure what we want the answer to be, honestly, because as much as we want to keep leveling up, we also kind of dont want to be distracted.

If you live in L.A. and love water and/or generally amazing art, be sure to get over to Pershing Square before the sculpture disappears on Thursday. And if you cant, join the rest of us in watching this video over and over again. And then Britneys Make Me video again. And then this again.

The post This incredible new sculpture creates a sparkling ocean in the sky appeared first on HelloGiggles.
When Indian artist Dattadri Kothur saw the pollution caused by an annual Hindu tradition of immersing elaborately decorated idols of the elephant-headed god Ganesha in the sea, he decided to do something about it.

The 30-year-old has come up with an environmentally friendly alternative that will make its debut during this year's festival in the western city of Mumbai -- and is already proving a huge hit.

Kothur's "Tree Ganesha" idols are made entirely out of organic materials that will disintegrate when they get wet, and are designed to be watered like a plant rather than immersed in the sea.

Once they are dampened, seeds hidden inside them will germinate, creating a lasting memento of the idol.

"After witnessing large-scale water pollution and broken idol parts strewn across Mumbai's Girgaum Chowpatty sea front, I decided to create an organic alternative," Kothur told AFP.

"The response to Tree Ganesha shows people are aware of environmental pollution and want (a) long-term sustainable solution."

Kothur has fulfilled nearly 500 orders and he and his team are hard at work producing another 3,000.

The 11-day celebration that honours Ganesha, the son of Lord Shiva, and goddess Parvati is celebrated with idol worship, music and dancing across India.

Mumbai, India's commercial capital, traditionally hosts some of the largest gatherings.

Millions of devotees gather every September for the ritual immersion of the statues, some 24 feet (seven metres) tall, in the Arabian Sea.

In recent years, activists have sought to raise awareness of the environmental damage that the immersion causes.

The traditional statues are made from clay or plaster and dipped in a white coating before being painted. They disintegrate very slowly, releasing harmful chemicals as they do so.

"With my idols, Ganesha lives on in the form of plants and goes back to nature," said Kothur.
Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fstory%2fthumbnail%2f16871%2fscreen_shot_2016-08-07_at_12.39.09_pm

Loving, supportive and wise. Indigenous fathers are all those things, and more.

That's the message of the hashtag #IndigenousDads, which has been trending on Australian Twitter in the wake of an offensive cartoon published Thursday in The Australian newspaper.

SEE ALSO: How images like #DonDaleKids let us 'perform' our shock and outrage

The images of Aboriginal Australian fathers are a powerful rejection of the picture created by cartoonist Bill Leak, who was immediately accused of being racist and indulging in stereotypes  accusations that have been levelled at Leak before.

On the heels of the Don Dale revelations, where the severe mistreatment of young people in a largely Indigenous juvenile detention centre in Darwin were revealed to a horrified public, the cartoon implies parental neglect is to blame for their incarceration.

Leak declined to mention more than two centuries of systemic racism.

The cartoon, painful as it was, turned into an affirmative moment on social media. Indigenous dads shared their own feelings about parenthood on Twitter, as others paid tribute to their fathers and grandfathers.

The Australian, for its part, is standing by the cartoon. "The Australian is proud of its long-standing and detailed contribution to our national debate over the crucial issues in Indigenous affairs," editor in chief Paul Whittaker said in a statement. "Too often, too many people skirt around the root causes and tough issues."

Perhaps Leak would like to spend some time getting to know these Indigenous dads.
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iran intends to purchase 20 Regional Jets from Japan's Mitsubishi Corp , according to Asghar Fakhrieh Kashan, deputy minister for international affairs at the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development.

The Mehr News agency quoted Fakhrieh Kashan on Sunday as saying that the deal was likely to be finalised when a Japanese delegation visits Tehran in December.

The aircraft will be acquired through a lease-purchase contract and will be used by Aseman Airlines on domestic routes, Fakhrieh Khashan said.

The lifting of long-standing economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear activities has allowed it to strike provisional deals worth around $50 billion (38.2 billion) with Boeing (BA.N) and Airbus (AIR.PA) to buy some 200 airliners to renew its ageing fleet.

However, financial and political obstacles have continued to dog the deals, and Iran has made clear it is widening its search to include other suppliers.

The Mitsubishi Regional Jet, Japan's first commercial airplane in half a century, will seat just under 100 people and is being developed by Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp.

(Reporting by Babak Dehghanpisheh; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Tehran (AFP) - Iran has executed a nuclear scientist convicted of handing over "confidential and vital" information to the United States, a judicial spokesman said.

"Shahram Amiri was hanged for revealing the country's top secrets to the enemy," Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejeie told reporters in Tehran.

Amiri, 39, disappeared in Saudi Arabia in June 2009 and resurfaced a year later in the United States.

Conflicting accounts said he had either been abducted or had defected at a time when international tensions over Iran's nuclear programme were at their peak.

In a surprise move, Amiri then returned to Tehran in July 2010, saying he had been kidnapped at gunpoint by two Farsi-speaking CIA agents in the Saudi city of Medina.

At first he was greeted as a hero, telling reporters as he stepped off the plane at Tehran airport that he had resisted pressure from his US captors to pretend he was a defector.

He denied he was a nuclear scientist and said US officials wanted him to tell the media he had "defected on his own and was carrying important documents and a laptop which contained classified secrets of Iran's military nuclear programme".

"But with God's will, I resisted," Amiri said as he was welcomed home by his tearful wife and young son.

- US 'outsmarted' -

However, it was soon clear that Iranian authorities had not accepted this version of events and Amiri dropped out of public view. His arrest was never officially reported.

Iran's judicial spokesman said Sunday that its intelligence services had "outsmarted" the US.

"American intelligence services thought Iran has no knowledge of his transfer to Saudi Arabia and what he was doing but we knew all of it and were monitoring," Ejeie told reporters.

"This person, having access to confidential and highly confidential information of the regime, had established a connection to our number one enemy, America, and had provided the enemy with Iran's confidential and vital information," he added.

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The US State Department declined to comment on the case when asked on Sunday.

Tehran and Washington have had no diplomatic ties since 1980, when students stormed the US embassy following the previous year's Islamic revolution.

"Shahram Amiri was tried in accordance with law and in the presence of his lawyer. He appealed his death sentence based on judicial process. The Supreme Court... confirmed it after meticulous reviews," Ejeie said.

"We like all convicts to repent and reform. Not only did he not repent and compensate for his past, but he tried to send out false information from inside the prison, and finally he was punished," he added.

- 'Covert headquarters' -

Numerous media reports in recent years have supported the idea that Amiri was a defector with highly prized information on Iran's nuclear programme.

"Shahram Amiri described to American intelligence officers details of how a university in Tehran became the covert headquarters for the country's nuclear efforts," the New York Times reported in July 2010, citing unnamed US officials.

"While still in Iran, he was also one of the sources for a much-disputed National Intelligence Estimate on Iran's suspected weapons program, published in 2007," the report said.

In a confusing series of events shortly before his repatriation to Tehran, three separate videos emerged appearing to show Amiri claiming either that he was abducted by US agents, had come freely to study, or that his life was in danger and he wanted to return to Iran.

At the time, world powers had grown increasingly concerned that Iran was pursuing a nuclear weapon -- a charge that it has consistently denied.

Between 2010 and 2012, four nuclear scientists were assassinated inside Iran and a fifth survived a bomb attack. The government blamed the attacks on US and Israeli intelligence services.

Iran finally reached a deal with world powers in July 2015, promising to curb its nuclear programme in exchange for a lifting of international sanctions.

The deal took effect in January this year but Washington and the European Union maintain some sanctions on Iran over its human rights record and ballistic missile testing.

Tehran has complained that the remaining sanctions are locking it out of the international banking system and hampering its ability to make major purchases, such as aircraft.
Paris (AFP) - Following is a list of attacks on Western targets claimed by or blamed on the Islamic State jihadist group after Saturday's assault on two policewomen in southern Belgium:

- August 6: Machete attack in Belgium -

A machete-wielding man shouting "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest) attacks two policewomen in Charleroi, southern Belgium, badly injuring one in the face before being shot dead by a third officer.

Investigators give the initials of the assailant as K.B., describing him as a 33-year-old Algerian who had been living in Belgium since 2012.

The following day, IS says the attacker acted "in response to (its) calls to target citizens" of countries in the US-led coalition bombing IS in Syria and Iraq.

- July 26: French priest killed -

Attackers slit an elderly priest's throat in a hostage-taking at his church in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray.

Abdel Malik Petitjean and Adel Kermiche, both 19, pledged allegiance to IS in a video made before the attack.

- July 24: German suicide blast -

A failed Syrian asylum-seeker blows himself up outside a music festival in the German city of Ansbach, wounding 15 others. The Bavarian interior minister says the man "pledged allegiance" to IS, while the jihadist-linked Amaq news agency said he was a "soldier" of the group.

- July 18: German train attack -

A 17-year-old asylum-seeker, believed to have been Afghan or Pakistani, attacks passengers on a Bavarian train with an axe, injuring five people, two of them critically. He is shot dead by police.

IS releases a video the following day purportedly featuring the attacker announcing he would carry out an "operation" in Germany.

- July 14: Nice lorry attack -

Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian, rams a 19-tonne truck into people celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, killing 85 people and wounding more than 400.

IS said Bouhlel staged the attack "in response to calls to target nations of coalition states" fighting the jihadist group.

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- June 28: Istanbul airport attack -

A triple suicide attack at Istanbul's Ataturk airport kills 47 people. Authorities blame IS, though there is no claim of responsibility.

- June 13: French police couple killed -

A man claiming allegiance to IS stabs a police officer to death before slitting his partner's throat in front of their young son at their home in Magnanville, west of Paris.

- June 12: Orlando gay bar shooting -

A gunman claiming allegiance to IS opens fire inside a gay bar in Orlando, Florida, killing 49 people in the deadliest mass shooting in US history.

- March 22: Brussels attacks -

Suicide attacks claimed by IS kill 32 people and wound more than 340 at Brussels airport and Maelbeek metro station, near the European Union headquarters.

The attackers have links to the cell that carried out the November 2015 jihadist attacks in Paris.

- January 12: Tourists die in Istanbul -

Twelve German tourists are killed in a suicide attack in central Istanbul. On March 19, three Israeli tourists and an Iranian are killed by a suicide bomber at an Istanbul shopping centre. Turkish authorities attribute both attacks to IS.

- December 2, 2015: San Bernardino shooting -

Syed Farook and his Pakistani wife Tashfeen Malik open fire at a Christmas party in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people. IS hails the attack, but does not claim direct responsibility.

- November 13, 2015: Paris attacks -

Coordinated suicide attacks in Paris kill 130 people and wound more than 350 at a concert hall, cafes and the national stadium. IS claims responsibility.

- October 31, 2015: Russian jet bombed -

An Airbus passenger jet owned by a Russian company crashes in the Sinai desert after a bomb rips a hole in the plane, killing all 224 people on board. IS claims responsibility.

- June 26, 2015: Tunisia beach attack -

Gunmen kill 38 people, including 30 British tourists, at a beach hotel in Sousse, a little more than three months after a similar attack at the Bardo museum in Tunis kills 22 people, including 21 foreign tourists. IS claims both attacks.

- January 7-8, 2015: Paris shootings -

Gunman Amedy Coulibaly, claiming allegiance to IS, kills a policewoman in a Paris suburb before attacking a Jewish supermarket the next day, where he kills four more people. He is killed in a police assault.

On January 7, the Al-Qaeda-linked Kouachi brothers had killed 12 people at the headquarters of the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly in Paris.
By Josh Smith KABUL (Reuters) - Militants linked to Islamic State have released photos that purport to show weapons and equipment that belonged to American soldiers and were captured by the group in eastern Afghanistan. The photos, which came to light on Saturday, show an American portable rocket launcher, radio, grenades and other gear not commonly used by Afghan troops, as well as close up views of identification cards for a U.S. Army soldier, Specialist Ryan Larson. The U.S. military command in Kabul denied any suggestion the soldier had been captured, saying he "has been accounted for and remains in a duty status within his unit." American special operations troops have been fighting alongside Afghan forces in a renewed offensive against militants who claim allegiance to Islamic State in Nangarhar Province, which borders Pakistan. "SPC Larson was attached to a unit conducting a partnered (operation) with Afghan Forces," U.S. military spokesman Commander Ron Flesvig said in an emailed statement on Sunday. "The soldier's I.D. and some of the equipment were left behind after the (operation). The loss of personal identification is unfortunate." In July, U.S. commanders said at least five special forces were injured in fighting in the province. The website that published the photos speculated that the equipment and weapons were left behind during that engagement, but Flesvig said American officials are still trying to determine exactly when and how it was lost. The push in Nangarhar came after President Barack Obama cleared American troops to take a more active role in fighting militants in Afghanistan. Besides advising work and special operations missions, American aircraft deployed at least 545 weapons in the first six months of 2016. (Additional reporting by Mostafa Hashem in Cairo; Editing by Sam Holmes)
Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel's energy minister on Sunday criticised a landmark nuclear accord between the Jewish state's arch-foe Iran and world powers but said Tehran had so far respected the deal.

The agreement, which was signed in July 2015 and came into force in January, saw Tehran accept curbs to its nuclear programme in exchange for a lifting of economic sanctions by world powers.

"It's a bad deal but it's an accomplished fact and during the first year we spotted no significant breach from the Iranians," said Youval Steinitz, who is close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"But it's still too early to conclude that this 12-year deal is a success," he told public radio.

Steinitz's comments came after US President Barack Obama on Thursday defended the accord.

Israel's defence ministry, led by hardliner Avigdor Lieberman, on Friday compared the deal with Iran to the 1938 Munich Agreement, which allowed Nazi Germany to annex parts of then Czechoslovakia.

Netanyahu the same day repeated his country's rejection of the Iran deal but stressed that Israel and the United States remained great allies.

For several months the US and Israeli governments have been negotiating the terms of a new 10-year defence aid pact to replace the current one, which expires in 2018 and is worth more than $3 billion (2.7 billion euros) per year.

The Netanyahu government wants the United States to increase the annual amount of military assistance it provides.
By James Macharia and Nqobile Dludla JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Oscar Pistorius was treated in hospital for wrist injuries on Saturday, a prison service spokesman said, adding the jailed South African track star had denied trying to kill himself. The multiple gold medal-winning Paralympian, serving six years for murdering his girlfriend on Valentine's Day 2013, was returned to his Pretoria cell after the incident, which coincided with the first day of competition in the Rio Olympic Games. "Oscar Pistorius denied speculations of a suicide attempt," Department of Correctional Services spokesman Manelisi Wolela said on Sunday, describing the athlete's injuries as minor. In a tweet confirmed by the family's spokeswoman, Pistorius' brother Carl also said reports the athlete had tried to injure himself were "completely untrue". He had slipped in his cell and was in good spirits. Oscar Pistorius reached the pinnacle of his fame in 2012 when he became the first double amputee to run in the Olympics, making the 400 meters semi-finals in London before taking two golds in the Paralympics. He had his sentence increased from five to six years in July, a term that South African prosecutors - who had sought 15 years - called "shockingly lenient" and said they would appeal against. Newspaper City Press said earlier on Sunday that Pistorius, known as Blade Runner for the carbon-fibre prosthetics he wore when racing, was rushed to Pretoria's Kalafong Hospital around midday on Saturday. It quoted a security guard as saying: "He had bad cuts on his wrists and the doctors kept wrapping bandages around them." An inmate situated close to a separate hospital annexe within the prison told the paper Pistorius had injured himself intentionally, and it quoted two warders as saying razor blades were found in his cell. The runner, who had the lower part of his legs amputated when he was a baby, was freed from prison last October after almost a year behind bars. He was to serve the remainder of the original five-year term under house arrest at his uncle's house in a wealthy suburb of the South African capital. But his initial manslaughter conviction was changed to murder by the Supreme Court of Appeal in December, and his term then increased to six years last month. Before his sentencing on July 6, Pistorius told British broadcaster ITV that his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, would have wanted him to go free and dedicate his life to charity, not waste it behind bars. (editing by John Stonestreet)


Credit: Albert L. Ortega/WireImage

Jamie Lee Curtis's movie and TV careers are as illustrious as they come, but there's one particular job she'll never forget: Freaky Friday.

On Thursday in L.A., the 57-year-old star took the stage inside of the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel multiple times as host for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's banquet, during which she hilariously introduced a parade of A-listers with witty one-liners. Not surprisingly, Curtis brought up Justin Timberlake, who was there to accept a grant on behalf of FilmAid International, in an unforgettable manner.

The actress tapped into a beloved memory as the recollection served to bring Timberlake into the spotlight. "I made the movie Freaky Friday and young Lindsay Lohan and I were in a car. I was pretending to be young, she was pretending to be old ... I think it's sort of still happening," she begun. "Our next presenter's song was on the radio and the song was called 'Like I Love You,' and in the middle of this fabulous song that Lindsay and I were listening to, there is a rap by an artist named Clipse in the middle of this song, and Lindsay Lohan and I sat in a car for five hours writing these lyrics, then playing the song back and trying to lip-sync."

RELATED VIDEO: Kerry Washington Reveals the Beauty Product That Keeps Her Skin Gorgeous

Some bonds and memories will always stand the test of time.

--With reporting by Brandi Fowler
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan has filed a protest to Beijing after the discovery that China installed radar equipment in a gas exploration platform close to disputed waters in the East China Sea, a Japanese foreign ministry spokesman said on Sunday. Japan fears that the radar, a type commonly found on patrol ships and not necessary for gas field development, could be a sign that China intends to use gas exploration platforms in the disputed waters as military stations, Japanese media said. Also on Sunday, a record number of Chinese coastguard and other government ships entered areas of waters just outside what Japan considers its territorial waters around a group of contested East China Sea islets, further stoking tensions. The entry of 13 Chinese government vessels into "contiguous waters", which countries can police for customs and immigration violations, took place despite Japan's repeated protests over recent, smaller-scale entries. According to the spokesman, Japan discovered the radar in late June and issued a protest on Friday through its embassy in China, urging Beijing to explain the purpose. Japan has been calling on China to halt construction of oil-and-gas exploration platforms in the East China Sea, accusing it of unilateral development despite a 2008 agreement to maintain cooperation on resources development in the area, where no official border between them has been drawn. The latest protests adds to bilateral tensions between the two Asian neighbors over territorial claims and comes less than a month after an arbitration court in The Hague invalidated China's sweeping claims in the South China Sea. Ties between China and Japan, the world's second- and third-largest economies, have been plagued by the row over the islets controlled by Tokyo but also claimed by Beijing, a legacy of Japan's wartime aggression and regional rivalry. (Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki, Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Michael Perry)
Beirut (AFP) - A Syrian rebel alliance on Sunday announced the start of a battle to recapture the whole of Aleppo, the day after they broke a government siege on rebel-held areas in the country's second city.

The "Army of Conquest", a coalition of rebels and jihadists including the former Al-Nusra Front, said in a statement it would "double the number of fighters for this next battle".

"We announce the start of a new phase to liberate all of Aleppo" after a week of continuous fighting, the group said.

"We will not rest until we raise the flag of the conquest over Aleppo's citadel," it added.

The group's fighters surged through regime territory on Saturday, breaking a three-week government siege in a major setback for the regime.

The rebel coalition opened a new route into the northern city's besieged eastern neighbourhoods, home to an estimated 250,000 people.

The operation triggered celebrations in eastern districts and sparked fears in regime-controlled western areas of the divided city of food and fuel shortages.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said it was one of the most significant setbacks for government forces since the conflict erupted in March 2011.

Syrian regime forces redeployed on Sunday to escape being surrounded in neighbourhoods they control in Aleppo, scene of some of the fiercest fighting in the civil war.
john kasich

Ohio Gov. John Kasich said Sunday that Donald Trump Jr. did indeed approach his staff and float the idea of having him serve as Donald Trump's presidential running mate.

In an interview on CNN, the former presidential candidate verified an earlier New York Times report that Donald Trump Jr. offered Kasich the VP slot. The report indicated Trump would've allowed the governor jurisdiction over "domestic and foreign policy."

"I never got a call. Apparently my aide did," Kasich said.

Kasich laughed off the suggestion that he would've served as Trump's running mate and said he never even considered it.

"I got the second-best job in the country," Kasich said. "So I was never interested in being vice president."

Multiple members of the Trump campaign have vehemently denied that Kasich was offered the vice-presidential nod.

"It's completely ridiculous," Trump spokesperson Jason Miller said. "There was never an offer made. It's completely made up."

The governor has repeatedly refused to endorse Trump and skipped the Republican National Convention in his home state partially due to his disagreements with the Republican presidential nominee.

For its part, Trump's campaign has repeatedly appeared frustrated with Kasich's nonendorsement.

"You know what, he's making a big mistake," Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort said in an interview last month. "He's hurting his state and embarrassing his state, frankly. But most of the Republicans who aren't coming are people who have been part of the past. And people who are part of the future of the Republican Party are, frankly, going to be here participating in the program."

Watch the clip from CNN:

John Kasich: Donald Trump Jr. called one of my aides to float a VP offer https://t.co/HLSQfSMq7f #CNNSOTU https://t.co/K7fKNhvCDI  CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) August 7, 2016





More From Business Insider


"I'm 55, bitter and angry, and I don't see any reason to hold back anymore," comedian Kathy Griffin said to a small audience at the Ageism in Hollywood panel on Friday evening.

Griffin sat in The Screening Room at The London Hotel with fellow panelists such as actresses Lynn Whitfield and Lesley Ann Warren, director Michael Lindsay-Hogg and veteran publicist Harlan Boll, among others.

Multiple Emmy nominee Sharon Lawrence led the discussion, addressing a variety of ways individuals both in front of and behind the camera are discriminated against because of their age.

"Ageism determines the stories that are told," she said before introducing the panel. "It determines who's producing, who's writing, who's directing, who's acting, who's getting paid."

Griffin wasn't always eager to speak out about the issue, though.

"I've been told my whole career, 'If you speak out about this, some 80-year-old guy who controls the studios is never gonna hire you and you're gonna be called a troublemaker,'" she told The Hollywood Reporter.

She expanded on this during the panel: "I'm actually speaking up for the very first time - although I'm nervous. I'm actually nervous my agents are going to call, 'Oh, you're seen as a whiner' or something. Like if Matt Weiner called, I could be the new Don Draper."

Read more: Kathy Griffin Recalls the Night She Went on a Date With Garry Shandling

While ageism affects both men and women, Griffin and other panel members agreed that discrimination is worse for women.

"You know, Adam Sandler doesn't have to worry about someone being like, 'You've done everything, what are you gonna do now?'" Griffin said. "When people say that to me, I'm like, 'I'm gonna keep working, what are you gonna do?'"

Lindsay-Hogg told THR he's been a victim of ageism, but that women have it particularly hard.

Story continues

"In this country, there's a kind-of cutoff when people think you have to look a certain way until whatever age you are," he explained to THR. "Then you transition into not being desirable."

This idea of not being desirable often translates into non-sexualized roles, such as a mother or grandmother.

"When men age, their love interests get younger," Whitfield said. "It doesn't stop them from doing different genres of stuff. As women age in film, you know, they go from the woman in charge to the mother, the grandmother ... off a cliff somewhere."

In fact, Griffin said she often does many things for free just to garner face time. "My good pal Joan Rivers - if you saw A Piece of Work, that amazing documentary about her - she had to go on the f - ing Celebrity Apprentice for face time," Griffin said. "Luckily, that worked out well for her because she won, but who the f - wants to sit with Donald Trump when you're, like, 75 and duke it out with challenges?"

Despite the maintained well-deserved criticism of the industry throughout the evening, Whitfield told THR that she tries to stay positive.

"It's like a haircut, right? You know, you get a haircut and you don't like it, so you've got to go through the whole pain of growing it out. And it's much better if I make a mental shift that I'm going to enjoy every phase of this, and see what I can do with it - as opposed to whining all the time. That, I think, takes the youth out of your spirit," she explained to THR.

Whitfield, like the rest of the panel, still desperately wants change.

"You know, it's [age discrimination] illegal in the state of California, thank god, so they have all kinds of ways where they don't come out and say, 'You're too old, Kathy, please go to a pasture now and be a cow. I'll come milk you later.' And I don't want to be put out to pasture. I happen to love my job," Griffin joked to THR.

Boll believes that change can come if first initiated by the media. He criticized publications for automatically including an individual's age as part of an attribution.

"Even media that's supposed to be protecting age - AARP magazine, they've told me my clients were too old for their demographics," Boll said, recalling times he was told Bob Hope and Carol Channing were both too old for the publication.

The panel also condemned advertising agencies and consumer product companies for constantly trying to profit on the idea that aging is both unnatural and scary, with Lawrence in particular calling out Mark Zuckerberg for past assumptions he made that young people are smarter.
Nairobi (AFP) - When Kenya Airways published the country's worst-ever corporate results last month, the scale of the loss revealed the effects of several disastrous decisions that the national carrier is struggling to reverse.

The airline's "Pride of Africa" slogan rang uncomfortably hollow when the 26.22-billion-shilling ($259-million) loss was announced, driven by higher borrowing costs and unfavourable exchange rates.

Kenya Airways, founded in 1977 following the demise of East African Airways, was considered a cash cow just a decade ago, but is now floundering, said independent analyst Aly-Khan Satchu.

"In the history of Kenya, no other listed company has ever recorded such an important loss," Satchu said.

A misguided expansion strategy launched in 2011 is the root of the catastrophic state of the firm, a move that called for the purchase of new Boeing planes with the objective of doubling the size of its network.

But since then the Ebola virus and terror attacks on the continent have decimated Africa's tourist numbers, while rivals such as state-owned Ethiopian Airlines and Qatar Airways have boosted their offerings.

The firm has also lost out on rock-bottom fuel prices. Like many airlines, it "hedges" its fuel costs by entering into a fixed-price contracts. But Kenya Airways was locked into longer term contracts than most of its competitors, which gained a competitive advantage as fuel prices have plunged since mid-2014.

Foreign currency "and fuel hedging are exceptional items, yes, but a company like KQ (Kenya Airways) should be able to deal with this," said Satchu about the airline's latest results.

To the dismay of Kenya Airways' two biggest backers -- Air France-KLM and the Kenyan government -- the firm's share price has dropped from 140 shillings in 2006 to 3.85 shillings.

The company's debts exceed a billion dollars.

- National pride at stake -

Despite the gloom, analysts still see some cause for optimism in the numbers. Revenue was up five percent and operating losses shrank thanks to a series of shock treatments imposed on the airline by management last year.

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"The operational result is what I'll take from the latest results," said Eric Musau, analyst at Kenya's Standard Investment Bank.

"KQ is on the right track, even if they could do a bit more in terms of assets sales," he told AFP, describing the net loss as largely down to exceptional factors.

A number of structural changes are beginning to show fruit.

Kenya Airways has sold or rented out planes that were sitting idle, reducing its fleet size by a third, and has rid itself of an expensive permanent landing slot at London's Heathrow airport, opting to rent one instead.

What is at stake is more than just cash.

"It is a matter of national and geopolitical interest for Kenya to have a national carrier. You can't be the economic leader of the East African region if you don't have a national carrier," emphasised Satchu.

"I wonder whether Kenya's shoulders are broad enough to rescue KQ again and again. Kenya is not a country like UAE or Qatar," which underwrite world-class airlines such as Qatar Airways, he added.

Kenya Airways' pilots have had a particularly fraught relationship with management, which at one point suggested they could be lent on occasion to rapidly growing Ethiopian Airlines.

Protests and strikes followed and the idea was abandoned, but the firm still has to deal with a bloated workforce left over from the disastrous expansion plan.

The fleet and those who fly it are in the sights of chief executive Mbuvi Ngunze.

"The first thing that we are doing now is making sure that we get our business at the right size in order to grow responsibly, and that right size is both revenue and costs," he said.

Ngunze announced in March the airline will cut 600 jobs out of its 4,000-strong workforce.
The iconic first words of The Godfather are I believe in America, told from one Italian immigrant to another. The statement of faith is both a longing for the American dream and the realization that it remains out of reach; the land of the free and the home of the brave is rife with injustice. At the same time, the statement is a reminder that the pure faith of the immigrant is still hard to shake; in many ways, its the people who struggle to make this country home that believe in its lofty ideals the most.

I thought about this line, and of my own immigrant parents, while watching Khizr and Ghazala Khan deliver a 6-minute long presentation that lived on, days after the Democratic National Convention, to become the defining moment of reckoning for the 2016 presidential elections. The couple, the parents of an Army Captain killed in Iraq in 2004, delivered a staggering judgment of GOP nominee Donald Trump. In the speechs most iconic moment, Khizr, who was speaking, drew out a small copy of the Constitution and held it up to the crowd. Donald Trump, youre asking Americans to trust you with their future. Let me ask you: Have you even read the United States Constitution? I will gladly lend you my copy.

It was the political conventions version of a mic drop. Party politics tend to be drenched with a stultifying, cloying rhetoric of American exceptionalism and rosy-eyed patriotism. The Khans, through some magic of their own, resonated with simple power and clarity. Indeed, as Donald Trump quickly learned, attacking them using the typical talking points utilized by his campaign didnt work on them at all; if anything the Khans grew stronger with each volley.

The worst backfire for Trump was when the candidate suggested that Ghazala, who wears a hijab, was silent onstage because she wasnt allowed to have anything to say. The bereaved mother, who also edited her husbands remarks at the DNC, wrote a blistering op-ed in response for the Washington Post, asking what Trump had sacrificed for the war. Without saying a thing, all the world, all America, felt my pain. I am a Gold Star mother. Whoever saw me felt me in their heart.

Story continues

To date, Trump has not found a way to respond that has spun the needle of public sympathy back towards him. And the Khans media tour continues, from appearances on broadcast and cable news to sitdown interviews with NPR and the New York Times. There has been a certain kind of choreography to their appearances  for example, Khizr Khan recounted on All Things Considered how he and Ghazala repeated the gesture of taking the constitution from his pocket over and over until he got it just right. But there is also an expression of honesty and decency that, in 2016, raises the suspicions of media-savvy consumers. As moved as I was by the Khans words, I also wondered: Who found these people? Who wrote that speech? Who told Khizr Khan to take the constitution out of his pocket? Is this a story ripped from the idealistic citizenship of The West Wing  or the cynical manipulation of House Of Cards?

I asked around. I spoke to both James King, the Vocativ reporter whose 2015 interview with Khizr Khan caught the attention of Hillary Clintons campaign, Hamed Aleaziz, the San Francisco Chronicle reporter who profiled Khizr Khan before his big speech.

King and his coworkers began to research the families of fallen Muslim-American soldiers following one of the many outlandish statements Trump has made about banning Muslims in America. Here are these people that have made the ultimate sacrifice, King said, recounting their brainstorming process, and wouldnt be here if this plan was put in place.

Kings Vocativ interview inspired the Clinton campaign to contact the Khans and ask for permission to use their story in one of her speeches, and eventually, in a campaign video. That eventually snowballed into the DNC appearance.

Aleaziz told me he has made it a point to cover the Muslim experience in the 2016 election, so when he saw the Khans on the DNCs speakers list, he pursued a story. In neither case was there a publicist pushing these two poster children for the American dream on the reporters, for example, or the opportunism of a family looking for attention. The stories they tell now match the militarys story of their sons death and their own quotes from 2004. Frankly, the Khans are more credible than either candidate running for president.

And listening to Khizr Khan on NPRs All Things Considered is an exercise in suspending cynicism. He explains that long been enamored of pocket constitutions because he is fond of the work of Thomas Jefferson. He used to give them as gifts to guests at his home. As a lawyer, he finds them insightful and inspiring reading; when he begins to read aloud from the preamble on-air, he becomes audibly choked up. Following his DNC speech, pocket-sized constitutions have become sudden bestsellers.

This is all in direct contrast to the rest of the election, which constantly creates more reasons to be frustrated, disappointed, and disillusioned. Just a few days ago, CNN correspondent Corey Lewandowski  formerly Trumps campaign manager  revived the question of President Obamas true birth certificate and went on to question if he actually went to college at Harvard. And on Friday, the Clinton campaign somehow became mired in the question of emails again, after ongoing controversy about her refusal to take questions from the media. And just to put it all in perspective, Donald Trump apparently is not clear on why, as commander-in-chief, he shouldnt use nuclear weaponry. This media cycle has been one of perpetual cynicism in the American political process.

Which is why, of all of the volleys in this 2016 campaign, its the Khans sincere and passionate patriotism that has resonated the most. It has been a rare display of believable showmanship; Khizr Khan may have practiced his gesture, and Ghazala Khan edited her words, but like the best scripted television  and unlike the worst politics  the consideration enhanced the power of the moment, instead of layering it with a veneer of artifice. At arms length, this has been a climax that was carefully written, thoughtfully directed, and perfectly cast with the exact kind of Americans the Trump campaign has been trying to erase from our narrative.

The irony is that the Khans media life was created by Trumps own racist politics; in denying the patriotism and loyalty of Muslims, he motivated reporters to go looking and Khizr Khan to speak out. Trump spawned the perfect counterexamples to his rhetoric, creating a situation where he has been shown up on his own American-ness by a Muslim immigrant who knows the constitution better than he does. Its a plot twist worthy of fiction.

A recurrent theme at the DNC is that America is already great, responding to Trumps constantly parodied campaign slogan, Make America Great Again. But without quite saying it this way, Khizr Khan, like other immigrants before him, offered a message that said, I believe in America. It is a powerful statement coming from a man that has lost so much. And it asks the viewer to consider the depth and loyalty of his or her own faith.

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Tons of world records are being set at the Olympics in Rio right now, but over in China a different kind of record is being set. At the Qingdao Beer Festival  AKA Asian Oktoberfest  a group of more than 1,000 robots danced in unison for a full 60 seconds in order to set a Guinness World Record for Simultaneously Dancing Robots. Since the Guinness Book of World Records originated from the same Guinness organization that brews beer, its a fun bit of symmetry that the record was set at a beer festival.

This army of dancing robots can either be viewed as a fun endeavor that is highly impressive considering the synchronicity required and the fun dance moves happening, or as the beginning of the end of the human race which is on the verge of being brought down by the dancing abilities of an army of less-than-two-feet-tall electronic beings. While its true that these robots are only about calf height, the camera angle of the official video makes them look much taller. Its almost as if we are being prepared for an army 10 times the size of these adorable little dancers that will take to the streets as dancing totalitarian androids.

Related Links:





A few of the robots lost their balance and fell over during the performance, so if they do organize and start to turn against their makers at least we know its possible to stop them by throwing off their equilibrium with some complicated dance moves.

(via Gizmodo)
Lindsay Lohan is speaking out on her troubled relationship with fiance Egor Tarabasov.

Just two weeks after the actress publicly called him out for cheating in a series of bizarre posts to Instagram and Twitter, she's now claiming Tarabasov has assaulted her several times, which is what ultimately led to their downfall.

WATCH: Lindsay Lohan Posts About Possible Relationship Drama, Hints at Pregnancy

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Lohan claims a scary incident happened last month on the Greek island of Mykonos, where the two were celebrating her 30th birthday.

According to the Mean Girls star, the couple allegedly got into an argument and Tarabasov, 23, took her phone. Lohan then grabbed the Russian businessman's phone and threw it onto the sand.

"Egor drank too much and he went crazy," she claims. Although Lohan didn't go into further detail on what happened that day on the beach, the Daily Mail obtained photos of the feud, which show Tarabasov grabbing Lohan from behind.

"I realize now you can't stay in a relationship just for love," Lohan also tells the Daily Mail. "No woman can be hit and stay with that person if that person isn't prepared to say sorry."

WATCH: Lindsay Lohan Sports Engagement Ring on Fishing Trip Amid Relationship Drama

Lohan adds that the alleged incident occurred just a few days after Tarabasov reportedly "strangled" and "almost killed" her on an apartment balcony.

"Egor and I had been out for dinner. We danced, it was fun," she says. "When we got home I went to bed and Egor went out. A few hours later he came back, and when I woke up he was standing over me. He wasn't himself, he was being very aggressive and he attacked me."

"I wanted to do this interview because it's time to tell the truth," Lohan tells the Daily Mail. "There have been so many lies printed about me recently. I've kept quiet for so long but now I'm scared of what Egor might do to me and to himself."

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"It's not the first time. That's the problem," she adds. "But this time, someone saw. I didn't call anyone, I've dealt with enough police in L.A. I just left the house and went to the Connaught [Hotel] for the night. I contacted my good friend [Israeli socialite] Hofit Golan who was in St Tropez. She said, 'Get on a plane, come and meet me,' so I did. I needed some time for myself. I've spent the past week fishing on my friend Marco Mavilla's yacht with his lovely family in Sardinia."

WATCH: Lindsay Lohan's Friend Says 'Any Interviews Given About Her Are Completely Not True'

As ET previously reported, Lohan -- who met Tarabasov last summer -- was spotted on a yacht in Sardinia, Italy, earlier this month. She was still rocking her emerald green engagement ring, albeit on the opposite ring finger.

"I haven't taken it off, even after all this," she also tells the Daily Mail. "The truth is, I wanted to make things work, but now I'm not sure that I can."

"I need closure," Lohan continues. "I genuinely fell in love with him, but he broke my trust and made me feel unsafe. I know I'm not an angel, but I've tried to fix things. It's down to him now. I had suggested we go for couples' counseling, but there comes a time when I have to put myself first, my family, and also think about my career, which I've worked so hard for. I also don't want to let my fans down by not being the strong woman I have become."

"We planned to marry in Lake Como next May. We should both be in Italy looking at wedding venues right now," she says in conclusion. "All I wanted was to get married and settle down. I've always wanted four kids and Egor and I talked about having a family."

WATCH: Lindsay Lohan Speaks Out On Relationship Drama With Egor Tarabasov

Related Articles
This little girl is losing her sight, and you can help her go on an amazing sight-seeing adventure

This little girl is losing her sight, and you can help her go on an amazing sight-seeing adventure

Meet Cailee, a six year old girl with familial exudative vitreoretinopathy  FEVR, for short  which is causing her to lose her sight.

Diagnosed at just two years old, and already with five surgeries under her belt, Cailees quite the fighter. She uses a cane, works with an orientation and mobility instructor, and knows how to read Braille  but as she grows up, shes been slowly losing her vision thanks to her condition, and one day shell go completely blind.

In the meantime, mom Catrina Frost has a plan: take Cailee on the ultimate sight-seeing trip to get in all the good views they can.

Theyre calling it Cailees Sight-seeing Bucket List and it sounds absolutely amazing.

We are building Cailees memory bank with as many activities as we can before she loses any more vision, explains Catrina. I was fortunate enough to have a very special friend who lost her vision recently explain to me that its not dark, because of her memories her brain recalls images and [she] see quite well. This made me even more determined to give [Cailee] as many experiences and make as many memories as possible.

To date, the duo have gone to meet Princess Belle at Disneyland and see the ocean for the first time at the beach. Next up? New York during Fashion week! The symphony would be a magical experience considering Cailees love for music. Cooking classes, Art classes, The Redwoods, and the best. The hot air balloon festival in New Mexico. These girls are dreaming big!

So how can you help?

First, by donating to Cailees GoFundMe page to help support her sight-seeing adventures. You can also score some Born For Battle swag to raise money for vision awareness and join the EYE am Beautiful Facebook group to support kids with visual impairment all over.

Story continues

Even just $5 can go along way  and mom Catrina is already so grateful.

Thank you for all the amazing love, support, emails, calls, texts and shares over the past few days with Cailee's... Posted by Cailee's Corner on Friday, August 5, 2016

So whatre you waiting for? Help this amazing little girl meet her goal and stock up a lifetimes worth of incredible, jaw-dropping memories.

You can follow Cailees journey at her page Cailees Corner for all the adorable updates.

The post This little girl is losing her sight, and you can help her go on an amazing sight-seeing adventure appeared first on HelloGiggles.
A lumbering, unmoored soaper of fraternal conflict and romantic healing in the trauma-ridden aftermath of the First World War, Ceasefire has all the hallmarks of having been infelicitously adapted from a longer, richer, more discursive epic novel: key character arcs seem unduly stymied, multiple timelines are hastily braided, and observations that might look poetic on the page turn purple on the actors tongues. So its something of a surprise, as the credits roll on screenwriter Emmanuel Courcols first feature as director, to learn that this cluttered, continent-hopping kinda-epic is his original creation. Either way, its a story that feels incompletely told, the most intriguing potential narratives of which play out peripherally to the damaged heros less compelling personal crisis.

At least, as played by an unusually starchy Romain Duris, he cuts a visually resplendent figure, dashingly bearded and attired in rakish, rumpled linen tailoring. Such decorative surface detailing represents the chief pleasure of Ceasefire, which is shot in classically honeyed fashion by Clint Eastwoods favored d.p. Tom Stern; mostly looking the part of an old-school period wallow, itd make glossy background viewing to a Sunday afternoon of quality time with the couch. Theatrically, its a less tempting proposition, though Duris name and ongoing public interest in the WWI centenary will ensure a measure of international distribution. Still, compared to other recent cinematic studies of the Great Wars legacy, notably James Kents U.K.-focused Testament of Youth, this is less stirring fare.

Courcol opens proceedings with a literal plunge into the hell of battle, as Sterns camera drops from a lofty aerial establishing shot into the frenzied trenches at Argonne, where commander Georges Laffont (Duris) weathers a hailstorm of bullets, shrapnel and flying body parts. This suitably ugly pre-credit sequence is executed with some muscle, only for the tone to shift disorientingly as we cut to the sunlit, clean-scrubbed calm of Nantes in 1923. Living with his elderly mother (Maryvonne Schiltz), doleful, moon-faced war veteran Marcel (Gregory Gadebois) has apparently been struck deaf and dumb since his time in the trenches, but is tentatively drawn out of his shell by the kindly attentions of sign language therapist Helene (Celine Sallette) and mousy war widow Madeleine (Julie-Marie Parmentier).

As the narrative ups sticks yet again, catching up with Georges  now shaggy-haired and tanned the shade of Clark Gable in Mogambo  in the former Upper Volta colony of French West Africa, viewers could be forgiven for wondering how these seemingly disparate strands correlate. As it turns out, Marcel and Georges are brothers, albeit a mere fraction more plausibly so than Arnold Schwarzenneger and Danny DeVito in Twins; a third military son, meanwhile, has been MIA for years. Pinched by a guilt-ridden sense of duty to his devastated family, and weary of trading goods with (somewhat heavily exoticized) African tribespeople, Georges returns to Nantes.

In case the helpful prognosis of a tribal witch doctor  I sense anger in you, dark shadows fighting in your heart  hasnt sufficiently clued us in, Georges worldly exterior just barely masks his own deeply embedded PTSD when he comes home. Struggling to empathize with his brothers less concealed trauma, he initiates a guarded romance with Helene, argues with his mother about fraternal responsibility, and generally louches about the countryside in covetable jazz-age leisurewear  costume designers Edith Vesperini and Stephan Rollot can take a deserved bow. But Courcols wandering, flashback-strewn script lends little shape or tension to its egotistic protagonists inner turmoil  the stakes of which appear lower and less compelling than Marcels frustrated, inarticulate struggle to re-enter civilian life, though the film frequently sidelines him as brusquely as his brother does. Sallette and Parmentier, in particular, draw what pathos they can from roles that remain underwritten to the last, even as the film calls out Georges haughty assumption that war is principally a mans tragedy.

Often a supple, playful performer in contemporary surrounds, Duris looks hemmed in by Ceasefires polite heritage aesthetic: He cant do much to enliven or defrost this tough-talking poseur of a character, beyond striking the requisite poses with burly aplomb. It was impossible to come back whole, Marcel eventually writes of the human cost of war, which might well be true  though thats no excuse for this attractive, hollow diversion to write its characters by halves.

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FRANKFURT, Aug 7 (Reuters) - The German state of Lower Saxony, Volkswagen's second-largest shareholder, has no plans to sue the carmaker for damages caused by its emissions-test cheating scandal, its prime minister, Stephan Weil, told a German weekly.

Earlier this week, the state of Bavaria said it would sue Volkswagen, the first regional government in VW's home country to take legal action against the company.

Lower Saxony, which has a veto power on VW's supervisory board and holds a fifth of VW's voting rights, currently sees no legal basis to claim damages, Weil told Welt am Sonntag.

"As a result there are no plans for a lawsuit," he was quoted as saying.

Europe's largest automaker is also caught up in legal action in the United States, South Korea and elsewhere, and is facing billions of dollars in costs related to its emissions-test manipulations, making it the biggest scandal in VW's history.

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The German state of Lower Saxony, Volkswagen's (VOWG_p.DE) second-largest shareholder, has no plans to sue the carmaker for damages caused by its emissions-test cheating scandal, its prime minister, Stephan Weil, told a German weekly.

Earlier this week, the state of Bavaria said it would sue Volkswagen, the first regional government in VW's home country to take legal action against the company.

Lower Saxony, which has a veto power on VW's supervisory board and holds a fifth of VW's voting rights, currently sees no legal basis to claim damages, Weil told Welt am Sonntag.

"As a result there are no plans for a lawsuit," he was quoted as saying.

Europe's largest automaker is also caught up in legal action in the United States, South Korea and elsewhere, and is facing billions of dollars in costs related to its emissions-test manipulations, making it the biggest scandal in VW's history.

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
In May, the leader of the largest party in Tunisias parliament made a dramatic announcement. There is no longer any justification for political Islam in Tunisia, said Rached Ghannouchi, explaining why his Ennahda Party decided to distance itself from its Islamist origins and recast itself as a political vehicle for Muslim democrats.

Experts immediately jumped on the story, eager to understand why one of the few successful Islamist movements in the Arab world would opt to de-emphasize the very philosophy that served as its defining characteristic in the years following the 2011 revolution.

Many of these commentaries have missed the point. On closer examination, Ennahdas decision to jettison political Islam has far less to do with Islam than it does with politics. Judging by its program, its actions, and the people who run it, Ghannouchis party remains a conservative Islamic party. That hasnt really changed. What Ennahdas carefully orchestrated rebranding demonstrates, however, is just how skillfully its leaders continue to adapt to the changing landscape of Tunisian electoral politics.

Map of northern Tunisia

To understand this fully requires a bit of insight into Tunisias post-revolutionary history. The fall of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011 and the subsequent transition to a democratic system immediately opened up obvious and unprecedented opportunities for Islamist activists. Ben Ali  just like his predecessor Habib Bourguiba, the countrys first president  had pursued a hardline secularism that shut Islam out of politics. Anyone who promoted the idea of Islamic governance was arrested, killed, or driven out of the country. Even a thick beard could land you in police custody.

Among those bearing the brunt of official ill favor was Ghannouchi himself, who ended up spending 22 years in European exile. He returned home within weeks after Ben Alis fall and immediately rebuilt the party into a formidable electoral force. In the lead-up to the first national election in October 2011, Ennahda ran a well-organized campaign that helped it secure the plurality of seats in the National Constituent Assembly (NCA), a transitional parliament tasked with drafting Tunisias new constitution.

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From the start, though, Ennahdas leaders had to take into account the fact that a large part of Tunisian society remained devoted to the secularist values aired by the old regimes leading politicians and that they regarded the new ruling party and its aims with suspicion. So, Ghannouchi and his colleagues were careful to market their ideology as one of moderation. Even after its success in the elections, Ennahda formed a governing coalition with the parties that finished as first and second runners-up. This conciliatory approach was one it would maintain in the years ahead, even with its staunchest political opponents.

Inevitably, though, Ennahda also made mistakes. When one of its legislators proposed enshrining Sharia as the main source of Tunisian law, the resulting public outcry forced Ghannouchi to retract the proposal publicly. The partys critics accused it of going soft on religious extremists, which, they said, made it responsible for mounting political violence.

All this, coupled with an economic slowdown, encouraged many Tunisians, particularly among the countrys secularist elite, to reject the party. In the 2014 parliamentary elections, Ennahda was defeated by Nidaa Tounes, a secular party launched in 2012 by Beji Caid Essebsi, who had served in the administrations of both Ben Ali and Bourguiba. Essebsi is now Tunisias president, underscoring the extent to which the opponents of political Islam continue to dominate the political scene.

Generally speaking, 2014 was not a good moment for Islamism. In July 2013, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, which had been democratically elected in 2012, was deposed in a military coup strongly supported by secularist Egyptians  prompting Ennahda activists to wonder if they might be next. The rise of the Islamic State, which continues to boast a startling number of Tunisians in its ranks, compounded the perception that Ennahda had been too lax about security and further undermined the public reputation of political Islam. These developments confronted party leaders with the realization that, no matter how moderate Ennahda appeared, entire swathes of the Tunisian electorate would reject its participation in politics point-blank.

All this helps to explain why Ennahda has decided to downplay its origins in political Islam. Yet to depict that move as an across-the-board rejection of religious politics would be misleading. A large segment of Tunisias population, especially outside the relatively cosmopolitan capital, still yearns to see a government infused with Islamic values. Ennahdas followers in the poorer and more conservative interior continue to view it as a political force that represents them, regardless of its careful ideological recalibrations. When Ghannouchi announced the move away from traditional Islamism, he also proclaimed a separation of the partys political and religious activities.

What many observers have failed to note is that this allows party leaders to focus on politics in the capital while other members in the provinces continue to engage in the civic and religious spheres. By some accounts, Ennahda is already far more engaged in preparations for the municipal elections set for next spring than any other political party  raising the possibility that it could end up dominating grassroots politics while its competitors remain focused on maneuverings in the capital. In this respect, the May decision can be seen as Ennahdas latest attempt to cater to the countrys diverse population and sustain itself as a major political force as Tunisia consolidates its new democracy.

You often hear people saying that Ennahda, as a religious entity, is contrary to the Tunisian way of life  that Tunisians are revolting against Ennahda, says political analyst Youssef Cherif. But, he noted, thats not true for everyone. In fact, he said, there are as many people whose vision of society, whose way of life is more conservative, less liberal, less Western, and that segment of the population is not to be ignored. Its these voters who form Ennahdas base, and it remains focused on earning their loyalty. At the same time, by moderating its image among the urban, secular elite in and around Tunis, Ghannouchis party is also striving to overcome the deep divide between capital and hinterland. Ennahda may not seduce its opponents, said Cherif, but itll at least calm them down.

When I asked Ennahdas international spokesperson Yusra Ghannouchi about the rebranding, she chose to stress the need for the party  and Tunisia  to move beyond ideology. She couched the decision as a response to a grievance widely held among the public: While politicians in parliament agonize over the merits or pitfalls of religion in politics, ordinary folks languish without jobs. As Ive argued elsewhere, Ennahda has kept up with the turbulence of Tunisias post-revolutionary era by showing a remarkable capacity for pragmatism, capitulating on certain tenants of its Islamist ideology and entering coalitions with rivals in order to keep the democratic transition afloat.

Indeed, despite the partys failures and compromises, for many Tunisian voters theres still no alternative to Ennahda  just as, for many others, there is no alternative to Nidaa Tounes, which has become a prominent political force despite its connections to the deposed dictatorship and its own internal fractures.

It remains to be seen whether Ennahdas formal division between political and religious activities will generate a more concrete and effective policy debate. What it does guarantee is that, for the foreseeable future, Tunisias not-so-Islamic Islamists will remain a political force to be reckoned with.

Photo credit: FETHI BELAID/AFP/Getty Images

Read more from Tunisia: In Sun and Shadow:

Tunisias Glorious Confusion:The dawn of democracy is something to root for  but the forces that have pulled the other Arab Spring countries back into upheaval still threaten to undo its progress.

Tunisias Dying Jazz: New freedoms have brought art and religion into conflict, threatening to crush a tradition trapped in the middle.

Trouble in the Wild East: The border town of Ben Guerdane is a haven for smugglers. Locals would like to keep it that way.

Terms of Abuse: On paper, Tunisias revolution has boosted legal protections for women. Yet the reality is starkly different.

Five Years of the New Tunisia: From revolution to disillusionment and back again: Milestones on Tunisias rocky path to democracy.
By Mike Stone

Aug 7 (Reuters) - South Africa's Steinhoff International is nearing a deal to buy Mattress Firm Holding Corp the largest specialty bedding retailer in the U.S. according to a report in the Financial Times on Sunday.

The report said the firms were in talks and a deal could be announced as soon as Monday. The paper, citing unamed sources, said the deal could value Mattress Firm at more than $4 billion including outstanding debt.

Mattress Firm closed trading on Friday with a market value of $1.12 billion and net debt of almost $1.5 billion.

The talks could still unravel as terms were not finalized, the paper said.

A call to Mattress Firm was not immediatley returned. Steinhoff did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mattress Firm, founded in 1986, has approximately 3,500 stores across 48 states with 80 distribution centers.

Steinhoff is a German-listed $22 billion furniture conglomerate led by South African retail mogul Christo Wiese who is also Steinhoff's chairman and largest shareholder.

Steinhoff owns brands in Africa, Australia the U.K. and across Europe and last month agreed to pay nearly $800 million for British-based discount chain Poundland after two previous attempts to expand in Europe fell through this year.

In February, Mattress Firm solidified its position as a leader in the U.S. mattress retail market when it completed its $780 million acquisition of HMK Mattress Holdings LLC, the holding company of Sleepy's. Sleepy's was the second largest specialty mattress retailer in the U.S. with over 1,050 stores in 17 states in the Northeast, New England, the Mid-Atlantic and Illinois.

(Reporting by Mike Stone in New York; Editing by David Gregorio)
London (AFP) - Paul Pogba can fulfil his dream of becoming the world's best player by returning to his former club Manchester United, his manager-in-waiting Jose Mourinho declared on Sunday.

Pogba, 23, is close to returning to Old Trafford for a reported world-record fee of 89 million pounds ($116.4 million, 105 million euros) after United and Juventus confirmed he was due to undergo a medical.

The France midfielder makes no secret of his desire to usurp Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as the world's foremost player and Mourinho believes he will achieve that ambition at United.

"I think United is the perfect club to bring him to the level that he wants to be," Mourinho said after United beat Leicester City 2-1 at Wembley in the season-opening Community Shield.

"The Premier League is the perfect habitat for that. If you want to be the best player in the world, I think if you go to Barcelona or to Real Madrid, you are in trouble.

"Because I don't think the other two big guys will let you develop to that level.

"Here he has the conditions to develop in the most seen worldwide championship, which is absolutely incredible, with a team that wants to bring Man United to the top again.

"So we have everything to give him and we know the reasons why he wants to come to us. Money he will get from any big club. That's not the point.

"He comes because he knows the club, knows the city, knows many of the players. He wants to be an important part of the Man United project. So hopefully everything goes well and he comes into our team."

Mourinho had earlier told BT Sport: "It's amazing that such a good player is with us. Finally we have him."

The transfer saga took a huge step forward when Juventus announced they had granted permission for Pogba to undergo a medical at United, the club he left four years ago.

- 'Talk very soon' -

United confirmed the news with a short statement on their club website saying the medical would enable Pogba to "finalise his transfer from Juventus to Manchester United".

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Pogba, who was part of the France side that lost to Portugal in the Euro 2016 final last month, tweeted enigmatically: "When too many people talk nobody understands -- talk very soon."

Early signs that a deal was imminent came when Pogba did not travel with the Juventus squad to London for their 3-2 friendly win over West Ham United on Sunday.

Media reports said he had already arrived in Manchester.

Pogba, who has won four Serie A titles with Juventus and reached the 2015 Champions League final, has been courted assiduously by United, who received just 1.5 million pounds when he left in 2012.

They faced reported competition from European champions Real Madrid, amid speculation that Pogba would have preferred to link up with his compatriot Zinedine Zidane at the Bernabeu.

But Madrid, who have paid huge money for stars like Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo in recent years, did not pursue the player, leaving Pogba with a choice between moving to United or remaining with Juventus.

A reported initial 86 million pounds bid was rejected by Juventus.

Pogba's arrival will secure the four signings Mourinho had set his sights on when he replaced Louis van Gaal at the end of last season.

Pogba will join young Ivorian defender Eric Bailly, Armenian international Henrikh Mkhitaryan and veteran Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic in arriving at Old Trafford this summer.
So, theres some news about that alien superstructure and it just gets weirder

So, theres some news about that alien superstructure and it just gets weirder

Space is fascinating  astronauts have walked on the moon and people may go explore Mars. But now, it just got even cooler, or ~weirder~, depending on how you look at it. ICYMI, some astronomers think there may be a huge piece of alien technology that aims to get energy from a distant star.

Whaaaaat?

It looks like Tabby's star is dimming over time after all, and yes, it might still be aliens: https://t.co/5aP1B0ujZI  Maddie Stone (@themadstone) August 5, 2016

Images from the star have been studied the past four years via a Kepler Telescope, and a new (yet unpublished) study was posted to arXiv. Not only did the luminosity vary  sometimes going down by even 20 percent  but its total luminosity also went down during the study, by four percent.

The part that really surprised me was just how rapid and non-linear [the dimming] was, study author and Caltech astronomer Ben Montet told Gizmodo. We spent a long time trying to convince ourselves this wasnt real. We just werent able to.

But, its not like Tabbys Star is a new phenomenon. Scientists first saw it in the 19th century. Other researchers, too, have been trying to get to the bottom of the celestial mystery. For instance, Louisiana State Universitys Bradley Schaefer came out with a study in early 2016.

He, too, found that the star was getting dimmer  by 19 percent in 100 years. However, not everyone agreed with Schaefers findings.

That brings us back to aliensand the theory that all the dimming and flickering could be because of an alien superstructure.

via GIPHY

Yep, extraterrestrial beings could be amassing energy by building around their star, like a Dyson Sphere.

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via GIPHY

If not an alien structure, then what?

Others believe the debris of a planet could be blocking the star, all the flickering could be due to a quickly spinning and irregularly shaped star, or that its because of gravity darkening and spin-orbit misalignment.

Like a lot of things in space, it remains a mystery for now. But the evidence just keeps getting weirder and weirder.

(But if the alien in question looks like E.T., thats another story.)

The post So, theres some news about that alien superstructure and it just gets weirder appeared first on HelloGiggles.
NEWS BRIEF Shahram Amiri, an Iranian nuclear scientist who received a heros welcome after returning from his alleged abduction by U.S. intelligence agencies in 2009, was hanged Sunday for treason, the Iranian government said.

"Through his connection with the United States, Amiri gave vital information about the country to the enemy," a spokesman for the Iranian judiciary told the BBC.

Amiris troubles began after he disappeared in 2009 during a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, during which he later claimed U.S. intelligence operatives had abducted him. CNN has more:

A year later, videos surfaced online showing a man claiming to be the scientist. In them he denied being a defector and claimed to have been hiding out from CIA operatives in the U.S. state of Virginia. In a subsequent video, however, he said he was living freely in Arizona. Two weeks later, on July 14, 2010, CNN reported that Amiri had returned to Tehran after going to Iran's interest section at the embassy of Pakistan in Washington. He repeated his claim that he was kidnapped by American intelligence operatives.

But questions remained about whether Amiri was abducted or had voluntarily defected. The AP reported his family may have been threatened by the Iranian government, thereby compelling him to return.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
Bruh. I'm going to the Olympics  Darrell Hill (@B1GHomie) July 2, 2016

Amidst all the stories of crime and corruption in Rio, heres a feel-good one: A super-proud Uber driver is going to get the trip of a lifetime to go see his son compete in the Olympics, and its all thanks to the idea of one passenger and the kindness of many others.

Darrell Hill is a member of Team USAs Track and Field contingent competing in the shot put. Like a lot of Olympians, hes technically an amateur, and competed for Penn State when he was a student. His dad, Ellis, is a retired bus driver who now spends some of his time working as an Uber driver. While Ellis is super excited that his son made the Olympic team, he had always assumed hed be watching with friends and family at home in Pennsylvania. But then he picked up Liz Willock, who works in the travel industry sending medical trial participants around the world. And she knew just what to do: create a GoFundMe account!

GoFundMe

Amazingly, after only nine days theyve exceeded their goal amount, and with Track and Field not really starting until the second week of the Olympics, theres plenty of time to get Ellis down to Brazil to watch his son.

Big thanks to Liz Willock and the generosity of 152 people, most of whom have never met Darrell or Ellis. The story of these Olympics themselves might wind up being one of historys saddest as Brazil fails to use the events to better the lives of its citizens, but at least amidst all the disappointment there are some moments of goodness.

(via Mashable)
us gymnastics

The US women's gymnastics team stole the show in the qualifying heat at the Rio Olympics on Sunday.

Led by Simone Biles, the US women posted the highest team qualifying score of 185.238  nearly ten points better than second place.

As USA Today's Nancy Armour pointed out, gymnastics is a sport that's supposed to be decided by tenths of points, not 10s.

Olympic gymnastics analyst Jonathon Horton put it in a more frank way during the broadcast: "I'm calling it what it is right now  a battle for 2nd place."

Here's a look at the scores after four of five subdivisions. The US lead is eye-popping.

gymnastics score

Biles, in particular, did not disappoint. She finished with the best score on balance beam, vault, and floor. US gymnast Madison Kocian finished with the top score on uneven bars.

The US dominated all-around, too. Biles, Aly Raisman, and Gabby Douglas finished with the top three scores in the all-around, but due to the two-per-country rule, Douglas will miss the cut and lose her chance to defend her 2012 title from London. It's not a loss by any means, however; according to NBC, all three gymnasts were at least one full point ahead of the fourth-place finisher. Again, this sport is often decided by tenths.

Analysts may not be wrong  2nd place may be the true battle in these Olympic gymnastics.

NOW WATCH: Australia's laptops were stolen during a fire in Rio's 'uninhabitable' Olympic Village





More From Business Insider


(Refiles earlier verison) By Pritha Sarkar RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Kohei Uchimura's clumsy slip on the horizontal bar not only shocked fans at the Rio Olympic Arena on Saturday but came to represent a horror day for Japan's men's gymnastics team in their efforts to dethrone China as Olympic champions. Uchimura, who has won six all around world titles and an Olympic gold, produced a deafening thud after he lost his grip and fell into an ungainly heap on the floor. Although the 27-year-old got back on the bar to earn 14.300, the fall summed up a poor day of men's qualifying for Japan, who featured four survivors from their 2012 silver-medal winning squad but were upstaged by their Asian rivals, the United States and Russia on the opening day of competition. As the reigning world champions, they would have been expected to breach the 15-point mark in many of their performances but instead all they did was produce a succession of botched routines. Yusuke Tanaka was the first to stumble with 13.366 on the pommel horse, before Ryohei Kato earned 13.966 on rings and Koji Yamamuro sat down and almost rolled off the crash mat following his vault to score 13.200. Yamamuro (12.733) and Tanaka (13.866) both failed to impress on the parallel bars, while Uchimura's mishap was particularly surprising considering he is the world champion on the apparatus. It was not until they performed on their final apparatus, the floor exercise, that all four Japanese gymnasts scored over 15 points on the same discipline. The 19-year-old Kenzo Shirai was the only one who did not let the team down but he only performed on the vault and floor. "I don't think the mistake on the high bar was a bad thing because... what happened today can only make me stronger," said Uchimura, whose fall meant he was out of the running to win the horizontal bar title in Rio. "We try and perform like world champions but this is the Olympic Games and it stresses us out." Luckily for Japan none of the scores will be carried through to Monday's team final but what they do know is that if they want to end China's eight-year reign as Olympic champions, they cannot afford another similar performance. Uchimura can, however, take heart from the fact he won the 2012 all around gold despite finishing ninth in qualifying and remains the favourite to become the first man since compatriot Sawao Kato in 1972 to win successive Olympic all around titles. (Editing by Greg Stutchbury)
By Alexandra Ulmer RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Taking inspiration from the sequinned lion on her blue leotard, British gymnast Ellie Downie roared back from a rough tumble that hurt her neck in the floor exercise, completing the vault to help her team pocket strong marks in Sunday's qualifying round. Britain were provisionally third, behind China and Russia, with a total of 174.064 points, though they were likely to be bumped down once the American team competed in the fourth group of competitors. Downie, 17, said she turned too slowly during a tumble, causing her knees to buckle and crunching up her neck. She carried on, but started to feel dizzy right before her last tumble and walked off the floor, seeming dazed. "I was like, 'Stop, make sure you're okay first'. So I went out, came back, and I was fine," she told reporters after the competition. Becky Downie, Ellie's 24-year-old sister and fellow gymnast, called her younger sibling a "fighter" for coming back to land a 14.833 on vault after her scare. "It was a bit of a shock to the system, and I'm just really glad she's okay," she said. The overwhelmingly Brazilian crowd at the Rio Olympic Arena breathed a sigh of relief when Ellie returned, with memories still fresh of the broken leg sustained by French gymnast Samir Ait Said in a crash landing from the vault on Saturday. The British women fared particularly well on bars and, despite a few sloppy landings and a fall for Becky Downie on beam, were upbeat about their prospects. "I'm so proud of our team," said British gymnast Amy Tinkler, 16. "We all know we have a chance at medaling now." (Reporting by Alexandra Ulmer and Pritha Sarkar; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
* Australians defend London title in record time * Campbells bring relay team home * Swimming team now doubled London gold tally (Adds quotes) By Mark Trevelyan RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Australia's women, powered by sisters Bronte and Cate Campbell, beat the United States and Canada to win the Olympic 4x100 metres freestyle relay in world record time on Saturday, retaining the title they won in London four years ago. The Australians, leading off with Emma McKeon and Brittany Elmslie swimming the second leg, clocked three minutes, 30.65 seconds, beating the old mark of 3:30.98 they set in Glasgow in 2014. The United States took silver and Canada bronze. The medal came on top of a win for Mack Horton in the men's 400 freestyle and marked a dream start for the Australians after a disappointing London Olympics four years ago when they slumped to their worst medal haul in 20 years. After one day of competition in the Rio pool, Australia have already doubled their tally of golds from London. "Definitely my favourite race ever: in an Olympic final with my sister and two girls I have known since I was 12, 13 years old - and a gold and a world record," said Cate Campbell, who set the world record for the individual 100 freestyle last month. "You can't ask for more. Every kid dreams of it, it's what we always hoped for." The Australian women won by an emphatic 1.24 seconds from the American team of Simone Manuel, Abbey Weitzeil, Dana Vollmer and Katie Ledecky. "I think the swim team is in a very good place - doubled medal tally from London," Horton told reporters. "The youth of the swim team brings a lot of potential, I think that's why we're in such a good place." The Americans had led at half-way, but Bronte Campbell overhauled Vollmer on the third leg and handed over a lead her sister never looked like surrendering to Ledecky. Canada's Sandrine Mainville, Chantal Van Landeghem, Taylor Ruck and Penelope Oleksiak took the bronze ahead of London silver medalists the Netherlands, who were anchored by triple Olympic champion Ranomi Kromowidjojo. The Dutch team's third leg was swum by Inge Dekker, taking part in her fourth Olympics, who was diagnosed with cervical cancer in February and underwent surgery in March. (Additional reporting by Mark Bendeich; Editing by Greg Stutchbury)
By Brenda Goh RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Chinese web-users unleashed their fury on the social media accounts of Australian Olympic gold medallist Mack Horton, demanding he apologise for calling swimming rival Sun Yang a "drug cheat". The controversy clouded Horton's Saturday triumph in the 400 metres freestyle final over Sun, the London 2012 defending champion, with the latter suggesting Horton had made the remarks to affect him. Sun won the silver medal. "You have offended against the sensitive (feelings) of the Chinese people," said one of more than 300,000 comments left on Horton's latest Instagram post of him celebrating his win on the medal podium. "Apologise to Sun Yang!", said another on Horton's Facebook page that was peppered with insults, derogatory pictures, many of which carried the hashtag "#apologisetosunyang". Many of the comments recalled a 2013 incident when the Australian men's freestyle relay team were suspended for using a sedative banned by their national Olympic committee (AOC) in a bonding session before the London Games. The 20-year-old Australian had acknowledged after their final that there were tensions between him and Sun after a splashing incident during a recent practice. "I used the words 'drug cheat' because he tested positive," he said. A spokesman for the AOC said Horton was entitled to express his point of view. "He has spoken out in support of clean athletes. This is something he feels strongly about and good luck to him," the spokesman said in an email to Reuters. In 2014, it emerged that Sun had secretly served a three-month suspension after he tested positive for a banned stimulant. He said at the time the stimulant was in medication to treat a heart issue and did not enhance his performance. Sun, the first Chinese swimmer to win an Olympic gold medal, is very popular at home but has been the subject of multiple controversies. In 2013, he spent a week in jail for crashing a car when driving without a license. He gained widespread sympathy at home on Saturday after breaking down in tears following his loss. Chinese media carried pictures and videos of him crying and hugging a friend with the phrase "Sun Yang don't cry" trending across social media. (Reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Rex Gowar)
* Efimova trails Lilly King of U.S. by 1/100 second * World champion had ban lifted on eve of Games * Efimova: build-up to Olympics was "crazy" * King says "level playing field" would be better (Adds reaction from U.S. rival Lilly King) By Mark Trevelyan RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Russia's Yulia Efimova, who won her appeal against a doping ban on the eve of the Rio Olympics, swam the second-fastest time on Sunday in the heats of the women's 100 metres breaststroke. Efimova, the world champion at the distance, clocked 1 minute 5.79 seconds, a hundredth of a second behind American Lilly King whose compatriot Katie Meili was third in 1:06.00 with holder Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania fourth in 1:06.35. Some jeers rang out in the Olympic Aquatics Stadium after Efimova's heat. Revelations of state-sponsored Russian doping overshadowed the build-up to the Olympics, and the country was banned on Sunday from the Paralympics that will follow. Efimova was one of a number of Russians who successfully appealed, arguing that after serving previous doping bans they should not be punished again by being excluded from Rio. The 24-year-old, the world champion at 100m, only learned on Friday that she could compete, ending months of uncertainty. "I was crazy, like, last half-year, I just don't understand what's going on and everything. I'm just happy to be here and I'm ready to race," she said. Efimova's involvement is a delicate issue with her rivals. Asked about the prospect of meeting her in Monday's final, King said: "You know I think it's unfortunate we have to deal with these things in the sport, but both Katie (Meili) and I were very prepared for her to be swimming so we're just going to race her just like we would normally." Pressed on whether it was fair that Efimova was competing, she said: "You know, I'm going to stay out of it, but a level playing field would be preferred." Meilutyte declined to comment on her rival's reinstatement. Britain's Chloe Tutton, who swam in Efimova's heat, was ushered away by her press minder when asked how she felt about the Russian's involvement. Efimova is also due to compete in the 200m breaststroke, in which she was world champion in 2013 and won a bronze medal at the London Olympics in 2012. Efimova was banned between October 2013 and February 2015 after testing positive for traces of the anabolic steroid DHEA. She was also briefly suspended after testing positive for meldonium this year, but cleared in July. Meldonium was added to the World Anti-Doping Agency's list of banned substances from Jan. 1, but some positive tests were later overturned after WADA said there was a lack of clear scientific evidence about how long it takes for the drug to be excreted from the body. (Reporting by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Ken Ferris and Alison Williams)
BAMAKO (Reuters) - A United Nations peacekeeper was killed and four others wounded on Sunday when their vehicle hit a mine in Mali's restive north, the U.N. mission (MINUSMA) said. The attack on the vehicle, which was escorting a logistical convoy, occurred about 11 km (7 miles) south of Aguelhoc in the region of Kidal, where several Islamist militant groups are active, the mission said in a statement. All five peacekeepers were from Chad, a mission spokesman said. About two hours later, another mine exploded near a U.N. peacekeeping vehicle two km east of the mission base in Kidal but only caused material damage, the MINUSMA statement added. MINUSMA did not say who was responsible for the attacks. In a statement on Sunday, Islamist militant group Ansar Dine claimed responsibility for a mine attack on Friday near Kidal targeting Chadian troops, according to SITE Intelligence Group. That explosion injured one peacekeeper, the spokesman for U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement on Sunday. Mali's government has not had a military presence in Kidal since clashes between the army and Tuareg rebels killed 50 soldiers there in 2014, leaving a heavy security burden on U.N. troops. Mali has become the deadliest place to serve for U.N. peacekeepers. The United Nations says more than 100 peacekeepers have been killed since MINUSMA deployed in July 2013. The U.N. Security Council voted in June to increase the contingent by 2,500 troops, taking the total number of uniformed personnel to more than 15,000. In May, five Chadian peacekeepers were killed in an ambush near Kidal. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) also claimed responsibility for an attack that month that killed a Chinese peacekeeper and three civilians. Islamist militant groups, some with links to al Qaeda, hijacked a Tuareg uprising in 2012 and seized northern Mali until a French-led intervention drove them back a year later. But the region has remained plagued by violence despite a peace accord signed last year between Tuareg fighters and the government. Two days of fighting last month between Tuareg rebels and pro-government militia killed up to 20 people. (Reporting by Adama Diarra; Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols in New York; Writing by Aaron Ross; Editing by Gareth Jones)
Orlando Bloom may have put his pants back on but he only just kept things PG-13 with his lady love, Katy Perry, on their romantic Italian vacation.

The 39-year-old The Hobbit actor got cuddly  and a little gropey  with Perry, 31, as they frolicked on the beach in Sardinia last week.

WATCH: Orlando Bloom Goes Fully Nude During PDA-Filled Beach Day With Katy Perry

AKM-GSI

According to an eyewitness source, the handsy couple seemed to partake in some vape fun in between PDA sessions.

AKM-GSI

AKM-GSI

Perry wore a cute high-waisted floral print two-piece swimsuit, and Bloom covered up (this time!) in orange swim shorts. Yes, this is the same vacation where Bloom went sans pants on a paddle-boarding expedition.

The couple is vacationing on the Italian island with Perrys pregnant sister Angela and her brother David.

NEWS: Katy Perry Reveals Boyfriend Orlando Bloom Helped Write Her Powerful DNC Speech

In July, Bloom was a little more politically correct, supporting his Hillary super-fan girlfriend for her appearance at the Democratic National Convention. Check out this video of the two of them behind the scenes at the DNC.

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GAZA (Reuters) - A Palestinian representative of U.S.-based Christian charity World Vision denies Israeli allegations that he funneled millions of dollars in aid money to the Islamist militant group Hamas, his lawyer said on Sunday. Mohammad El Halabi, World Vision's manager of operations in the Gaza Strip, was arrested by Israel on June 15 while crossing into the enclave, which is under the de facto rule of Hamas, a group on the Israeli and U.S. terrorism blacklists. Briefing reporters on Thursday, a senior Israeli security official said Halabi, who has run the group's Gaza operations since 2010, had been under surveillance. The Israeli official said Halabi confessed to siphoning off some $7.2 million a year, about 60 percent of World Vision's Gaza funding, to pay Hamas fighters, buy arms, pay for other activities and build fortifications. "Mohammad (El Halabi) denies all these accusations. He denied it all," Jerusalem-based lawyer Mohammad Mahmoud, who was assigned to represent El Halabi by the charity group, told Reuters by phone on Sunday. Mahmoud said he met his client during a court session last week, and these were his first comments made publicly. World Vision had already said it was "shocked" by Israel's allegations, and while it had no reason to believe them to be true, it would review the evidence. Hamas has denied any connection to Halabi. After the case was made public, Australia suspended aid to World Vision. The U.S. State Department, according to one official, is concerned by the allegations and following the investigation closely. On Sunday, dozens of Palestinians who used to benefit from World Vision aid in Gaza rallied in solidarity with Halabi, demanding his release. (Writing by Nidal Almughrabi; Editing by Ari Rabinovitch and Andrew Bolton)
By Jack Stubbs RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Russia was barred from taking part in next month's Rio Paralympics on Sunday, with organizers blasting a "medals over morals mentality" as they announced the blanket ban over state-backed doping that Olympics bosses avoided. International Paralympic Committee (IPC) President Philip Craven said Russia's Paralympians were part of a broken system overseen by the Russian government and suspended the Russian Paralympic Committee ahead of the Sept. 7-18 Games. Russia immediately said it would appeal and condemned the move as violating the human rights of its athletes. "Tragically this situation is not about athletes cheating a system, but about a state-run system that is cheating the athletes," Craven told reporters. "I believe the Russian government has catastrophically failed its para-athletes. Their medals over morals mentality disgusts me." The IPC decision follows revelations of widespread cheating in Russian sport which ignited a doping scandal that has threatened to split the Olympic movement and cost dozens of Russian sportspeople their place at the Rio Games. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) stopped short of banning all Russian sportspeople from Rio and said on Sunday 278 of the original 387-strong Russian team would be able to compete after being cleared by their individual sports federations. IOC President Thomas Bach had described a blanket ban as a "nuclear option" in which innocent athletes would be "collateral damage". But the IPC had no such qualms and its hardline move drew praise from anti-doping authorities. "The IPC showed strong leadership today in holding Russia's state-organized doping program accountable. Their unanimous decision goes a long way towards inspiring us all," said Travis Tygart, head of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. "PREJUDICE AND POLITICIZATION" Russia said within minutes of the announcement that it would be appealing against the ban at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland, sport's highest court. "It is prejudice and politicization ... There will be a legal appeal to CAS," Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. Mutko said the decision had been made unilaterally by Craven because he was nearing the end of his career. "This decision is absurd. It is all the ravings of a piebald mare," R-Sport news agency quoted Vladimir Lukin, president of the Russian Paralympic Committee, as saying. Despite calls by athletes and sports officials for harsh sanctions on Russian dopers, multiple international federations have warned against punishing clean sportsmen and women with no history of cheating. The International Equestrian Federation and World Archery were quick to criticize the IPC's ruling. "It impairs clean athletes ... for political reasons rather than sporting, and goes against the Paralympic movement's principle of inclusion," World Archery said in a statement. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the ruling violated the human rights of Russia's Paralympians. "The decision to bar the entire Russian team from the Paralympics is astoundingly mean and inhuman," she wrote on Facebook. "It is a betrayal of the very highest human rights standards which are the foundation of the modern world." TARNISHED LEGACY Although not widely followed or celebrated in Russia, where rights campaigners say many disabled people are marginalized by regressive social attitudes and inadequate state support, Russian para-athletes are some of the best in the world. Russia's Paralympians topped the medal table at Sochi 2014 after taking second place behind China at London 2012 and their exclusion from the Rio Games will hit hard in a country which has long drawn pride and prestige from its history of sporting success. The move also further tarnishes the legacy of the Sochi Olympics, an event held up by President Vladimir Putin to promote his image of Russia as a resurgent world power. Addressing Russia's Olympic team before they traveled to Rio last week, Putin said Russian sport had fallen foul of a politically motivated plot and the principal of collective responsibility flew in the face of common sense and legality. Craven said he had "deep sympathy" for Russian competitors who will miss the Rio Games but that the decision was taken in the best interests of the Paralympic movement. "We sincerely hope that the changes that need to happen, do happen," he said. "They are part of a broken system." (Additional reporting by Gene Cherry and Caroline Stauffer in RIO DE JANEIRO, Maria Kiselyova in Moscow; Editing by Alison Williams and Ken Ferris)
* Russian para-athletes barred from Rio Games * IPC denounces "medals over morals mentality" * Says doping culture stems from Russian government * Russia says will appeal, ban violates human rights (Adds comments from sports federations) By Jack Stubbs RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Russia was barred from taking part in next month's Rio Paralympics on Sunday, with organisers blasting a "medals over morals mentality" as they announced the blanket ban over state-backed doping that Olympics bosses avoided. International Paralympic Committee (IPC) President Philip Craven said Russia's Paralympians were part of a broken system overseen by the Russian government and suspended the Russian Paralympic Committee ahead of the Sept. 7-18 Games. Russia immediately said it would appeal and condemned the move as violating the human rights of its athletes. "Tragically this situation is not about athletes cheating a system, but about a state-run system that is cheating the athletes," Craven told reporters. "I believe the Russian government has catastrophically failed its para-athletes. Their medals over morals mentality disgusts me." The IPC decision follows revelations of widespread cheating in Russian sport which ignited a doping scandal that has threatened to split the Olympic movement and cost dozens of Russian sportspeople their place at the Rio Games. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) stopped short of banning all Russian sportspeople from Rio and said on Sunday 278 of the original 387-strong Russian team would be able to compete after being cleared by their individual sports federations. IOC President Thomas Bach had described a blanket ban as a "nuclear option" in which innocent athletes would be "collateral damage". But the IPC had no such qualms and its hardline move drew praise from anti-doping authorities. "The IPC showed strong leadership today in holding Russia's state-organised doping program accountable. Their unanimous decision goes a long way towards inspiring us all," said Travis Tygart, head of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. "PREJUDICE AND POLITICISATION" Russia said within minutes of the announcement that it would be appealing against the ban at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland, sport's highest court. "It is prejudice and politicisation ... There will be a legal appeal to CAS," Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. Mutko said the decision had been made unilaterally by Craven because he was nearing the end of his career. "This decision is absurd. It is all the ravings of a piebald mare," R-Sport news agency quoted Vladimir Lukin, president of the Russian Paralympic Committee, as saying. Despite calls by athletes and sports officials for harsh sanctions on Russian dopers, multiple international federations have warned against punishing clean sportsmen and women with no history of cheating. The International Equestrian Federation and World Archery were quick to criticise the IPC's ruling. "It impairs clean athletes ... for political reasons rather than sporting, and goes against the Paralympic movement's principle of inclusion," World Archery said in a statement. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the ruling violated the human rights of Russia's Paralympians. "The decision to bar the entire Russian team from the Paralympics is astoundingly mean and inhuman," she wrote on Facebook. "It is a betrayal of the very highest human rights standards which are the foundation of the modern world." TARNISHED LEGACY Although not widely followed or celebrated in Russia, where rights campaigners say many disabled people are marginalised by regressive social attitudes and inadequate state support, Russian para-athletes are some of the best in the world. Russia's Paralympians topped the medal table at Sochi 2014 after taking second place behind China at London 2012 and their exclusion from the Rio Games will hit hard in a country which has long drawn pride and prestige from its history of sporting success. The move also further tarnishes the legacy of the Sochi Olympics, an event held up by President Vladimir Putin to promote his image of Russia as a resurgent world power. Addressing Russia's Olympic team before they travelled to Rio last week, Putin said Russian sport had fallen foul of a politically motivated plot and the principal of collective responsibility flew in the face of common sense and legality. Craven said he had "deep sympathy" for Russian competitors who will miss the Rio Games but that the decision was taken in the best interests of the Paralympic movement. "We sincerely hope that the changes that need to happen, do happen," he said. "They are part of a broken system." (Additional reporting by Gene Cherry and Caroline Stauffer in RIO DE JANEIRO, Maria Kiselyova in Moscow; Editing by Alison Williams and Ken Ferris)
FXs miniseries The People v. O.J. Simpson was the big winner at the Television Critics Association Awards Saturday in Beverly Hills, taking home three prizes for the docudrama that became a critics favorite earlier this year.

USAs hacker drama Mr. Robot won as best new program, while Rachel Bloom of The CWs quirky musical comedy Crazy Ex-Girlfriend won for her lead role, capping a year in which women dominated the performance categories.

The 32nd annual TCA Awards show is, as of this writing, being held at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills. The same room thats packed with A-listers in January for the Golden Globes is housing more than a hundred critics and guests on Saturday night, with a sprinkling of celebrities including Cuba Gooding Jr., Sarah Paulson, Lily Tomlin and Valerie Harper. An embargoed list of the winners was supplied shortly before the program started at 8 p.m. Los Angeles time.

Also Read: 'Empire' Named TV Program of the Year at TCA Awards: The Complete Winners List

The awards, arriving in the middle of the bi-annual TCA TV press tour, was set to feature critics presenting a dozen trophies in pairs. Jane the Virgin star Jaime Camil also served as the nights host, performing an intricate monologue that involved both himself and his on-screen alter-ego, Rogelio de la Vega, as they poked fun at the #PeakTV phenomenon.

Jane the Virgin narrator Anthony Mendez also pre-recorded some introductory bits as a surprise to guests.

The People v. O.J. Simpson walked away as the evenings big winner, securing both Program of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials. Sarah Paulson, also walked away with a trophy for Individual Achievement in Drama for her performance as Marcia Clark.

Also Read: Sarah Paulson Finds OJ Guilty: 'It Could Be Nobody Else' (Video)

The award for Individual Achievement in Comedy went to Rachel Bloom for her role on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which meant both of those categories effectively shut out men in the race for individual performances (the TCA does not split the performance categories along gender lines).

Story continues

The female-empowerment theme continued with the freshman season of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee taking home the award for Outstanding Achievement in News and Information, and with Lily Tomlin accepting an award for Career Achievement. In another surprise move, Jane Fonda came out to present the award to her Grace and Frankie co-star, marking the first time a celebrity has doled out that award rather than a critic.

The Mary Tyler Moore Show was also honored with a Heritage Award, with co-creator Alan Burns and series star Valerie Harper showing up to accept. Moore was unable to attend, but she did write a few notes, which Burns was expected to read to the crowd. Meanwhile the women behind Netflixs water-cooler series Making a Murderer  Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi  showed up to accept the award of Outstanding Achievement in Reality Programming.

Also Read: 'Mary Tyler Moore' Cast to Reunite on 'Hot in Cleveland'

Rounding out the nights big winners were ABCs black-ish for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy and FXs The Americans for Outstanding Achievement in Drama. Creator Joe Weisberg was due to accept on the latter shows behalf.

Last but not least, Daniel Tigers Neighborhood also won for Outstanding Achievement in Youth Programming, while USAs Mr. Robot took home the prize for Outstanding New Program. The whole cast, including Rami Malek and Christian Slater, were expected to be on hand to accept alongside series creator Sam Esmail.

The complete list of winners:

Individual Achievement in Drama: Sarah Paulson (THE PEOPLE V. O.J. SIMPSON: AMERICAN CRIME STORY, FX)

Individual Achievement in Comedy: Rachel Bloom (CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND, The CW)

Outstanding Achievement in News and Information: FULL FRONTAL WITH SAMANTHA BEE (TBS)

Outstanding Achievement in Reality Programming: MAKING A MURDERER (Netflix)

Outstanding Achievement in Youth Programming: DANIEL TIGERS NEIGHBORHOOD (PBS)

Outstanding New Program: MR. ROBOT (USA)

Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials: THE PEOPLE V. O.J. SIMPSON: AMERICAN CRIME STORY (FX)

Outstanding Achievement in Drama: THE AMERICANS (FX)  second consecutive year

Outstanding Achievement in Comedy: BLACK-ISH (ABC)

Career Achievement Award: Lily Tomlin

Heritage Award: THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW (CBS)

Program of the Year: THE PEOPLE V. O.J. SIMPSON: AMERICAN CRIME STORY (FX)

Editors Note: Dowling is the current TCA President and helped organize the awards.

Scene at TCA 2016 Winter Press Tour (Updating Photos)

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TV stars and executives promote new and returning shows at the annual Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who is waging a bloody war on drug suspects, on Sunday publicly named over 160 judges, mayors, legislators, police and military men allegedly involved in narcotics and warned them to surrender.

"Due process has nothing to do with my mouth (statements). There are no proceedings here, no lawyers," he said in a pre-dawn speech just before he began listing them.

More than 800 drug suspects have been killed by police or vigilantes since Duterte's election on May 9, in a campaign which has attracted widespread criticism from rights groups.

The president listed nine judges and over 50 current or former congressmen, mayors and other local officials whom he alleged were involved in illegal drugs.

Duterte ordered their security escorts withdrawn and cancelled their firearms permits, adding that they would face sanctions.

He also named about a hundred retired or active police officers and soldiers whom he said were involved, and relieved them of duty.

"If you show the slightest violence in the resistance, I will tell the police, 'Shoot them'," he told reporters and soldiers in the southern city of Davao.

He said soldiers and police should immediately surrender to their superiors while the judges should report to the Supreme Court.

Duterte, who has gained widespread domestic popularity for his outspokenness, conceded "I might be wrong" about the guilt of those he named.

He said the military and police had compiled the list which he insisted was not coloured by politics or personal links, adding that some of those named were even his friends.

Duterte's spokesman Martin Andanar later said that criminal cases would be filed against those named.

"The president is encouraging all of the persons of interest, the alleged drug lords and drug coddlers to come out in the open, to surrender themselves and submit themselves to thorough investigation," he told reporters.

Story continues

Some of those named have since come out in media and denied their guilt.

Duterte won election by vowing to wage a war on illegal drugs and other crime that would claim tens of thousands of lives.

He has ordered police not to hesitate to kill and even urged ordinary citizens and communist guerrillas to join in the bloodshed.

The country's largest broadcaster ABS-CBN has listed 852 drug suspects killed since Duterte's election.

In his speech Duterte scoffed at human rights groups opposed to the killings, saying they were free to protest.

"I do not care," he said.

However the head of the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines made an emotional appeal to the public to denounce the wave of drug killings.

"I am a human being. That is all it takes for me to stand up and say 'enough'," Archbishop Socrates Villegas said in a message read at all Catholic masses in his archdiocese, located 160 kilometres (100 miles) north of Manila.

He said the largely Catholic Philippines was becoming a "killing fields nation" for tolerating the violence.

Despite criticism from foreign and local human rights organisations and even UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, surveys have shown Duterte enjoys wide public support.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday vowed to push through with the burial of deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the national "Heroes' Cemetery" despite threats of protests.

Even though the Marcos years were marked by widespread corruption and rights abuses, Duterte said that as a former president and soldier, the late dictator was qualified to be buried in the special cemetery.

"I will allow him to be buried there. He is qualified to be buried there. If other Filipinos don't like it, fine," he said in a pre-dawn speech to soldiers and reporters.

Marcos's family have kept his preserved body on display after he died in exile in 1989 following a popular revolt three years earlier, demanding that it be buried with full honours in the Heroes' Cemetery.

Marcos was elected president in 1965 and declared martial law in 1972, allowing him to rule as a dictator while he, his family and allies enriched themselves through massive corruption as his troops brutally stamped out dissent.

But Duterte, who has styled himself as an anti-corruption crusader, defended Marcos, noting that his father had served in the Marcos cabinet and he himself had even voted for Marcos before.

Duterte has previously said that he won the May 9 elections partly with the support of the Marcos family who remain influential in their stronghold in the northern Philippines.

The Marcos family has made a remarkable political comeback since the death of their patriarch.

The Marcos widow, Imelda, is a congresswoman representing the family's northern provincial stronghold, while Ferdinand Marcos Jnr narrowly lost election as vice-president in May.

But Rafaela David, spokeswoman of activist group Akbayan Youth, said the organisation would step up its protests against the burial.

"This is the Filipino people saying we do not recognise Marcos as a hero. We have a lot of people who have experience with martial law and are trying to get their stories across... so more people get to know the truth about the Marcos legacy," she told AFP.
Johannesburg (AFP) - South African athlete and convicted murderer Oscar Pistorius has returned to his cell after being treated in hospital for injuries from a fall, prison officials said Sunday, as his brother denied claims he had deliberately hurt himself.

Pistorius, sentenced to six years in jail for murdering his girlfriend, "had to be detained Saturday afternoon at the hospital after falling off his bed," prison services spokesman Singabakho Nxumalo said, adding: "He's back in our care now."

But a South African newspaper reported that the double-amputee sprinter, the only athlete to have competed in both Paralympic and Olympic races, was treated for cuts on his wrists.

According to City Press, citing another inmate at the prison, Pistorius had to go to hospital after deliberately harming himself.

- 'Untrue and sensational' -

"Two warders with knowledge of the hospital section said blades were subsequently found in Pistoriuss cell during a search yesterday afternoon," the newspaper said.

It also said a security guard at Kalafong Hospital in Pretoria where Pistorius was taken said the 29-year-old "had bad cuts on his wrists and the doctors kept wrapping bandages around them.

Pistorius's brother Carl however rejected what he called "sensational" media reports.

"We have just seen Oscar and he is doing well," Carl Pistorius said on Twitter Sunday.

"I know that there are reports saying that he had tried to injure himself -- they are completely untrue and sensational. He slipped in his cell and injured himself, nothing serious."

When asked about the report of cut wrists, Nxumalo said he couldn't "discuss details on a particular offender's personal conditions in the public domain."

Pistorius was convicted of shooting dead his partner Reeva Steenkamp, a model and law graduate, in the early hours of Valentine's Day in 2013, saying he mistook her for a burglar when he fired four times through the door of his bedroom toilet.

Story continues

Pistorius, who pleaded not guilty at his trial in 2014, has always denied killing Steenkamp in a rage, saying he was trying to protect her.

The Paralympian gold medallist known as the "Blade Runner" for the carbon fibre prosthetics he wore to compete was previously a role model for disabled people worldwide.

He is now "broke and broken" according to his lawyer, alone in a cell in the medical wing of the Kgosi Mampuru II prison in Pretoria, where he has been serving out his six-year sentence due to his handicap.

But the high-profile legal proceedings also exposed a darker side of the star athlete: offering glimpses of a dangerously volatile man with a penchant for guns, beautiful women and fast cars.

After first being found guilty of culpable homicide, equivalent to manslaughter, an appeal court upgraded his conviction to murder in December last year.

South African prosecutors have called his sentence "shockingly too lenient" and said last month they would seek to appeal against it.

At his sentencing, High Court judge Thokozile Masipa had listed mitigating factors for giving him less than half the minimum 15-year term for murder, including the athlete's claim he believed he was shooting an intruder.

"He cannot be at peace. I'm of the view that a long term of imprisonment will not serve justice," Masipa said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urged a halt to attacks on low-caste Indians, seeking to defuse mounting anger among Dalits over the public flogging of four villagers by cow-protection vigilantes.

Modi described the ongoing exploitation of Dalits, who lie at the bottom of India's deeply entrenched social hierarchal system, as shameful.

"Why should we exploit our Dalit brothers? What right do we have for such behaviour?" Modi said to workers of his Hindu nationalist party in the southern city of Hyderabad.

"It is our responsibility to protect and respect the persons from society's lowest rung."

Modi has faced criticism for remaining silent over the attack on the villagers last month by so-called cow-defenders in his home state of Gujarat.

Footage showed four half-naked men tied to a car as the activists took turns to thrash them with belts and batons at a crowded marketplace.

Video of the beating of the four Dalits  who were taking a dead cow to be skinned  went viral on social media. Violent protests erupted over the attack late last month, leaving one police officer dead.

Dalit activists have said the unrest reflects deep frustration after years of discrimination by those from higher castes.

Experts say their anger could harm Modi's party's chances at elections next year in three key states, where Dalits make up a sizeable chunk of voters.

"Don't attack any Dalits. Shoot me if you have to, but not the Dalits," Modi said late Sunday.

"Attack me, but not them. Don't harm them. This game must end."

The comments come the day after the premier also broke his silence on the self-styled cow defenders, saying any vigilantes should be prosecuted.

Modi repeated his comments on Sunday, telling a rally they were simply trying to divide India.

"I want to ask the state governments to identify such men and take strict action against them," he said.

Cows are considered sacred by Hindus and killing them is banned in most Indian states.

Story continues

Formerly known as "untouchables," Dalits are commonly tasked with removing the corpses of dead cows from streets, where the animals often roam freely.

Attacks by vigilante groups on cow traders and smugglers have increased since Hindu nationalist Modi won power in 2014.

At least five Muslim men were killed last year by Hindu mobs on suspicion of eating beef or smuggling cows across the country.
BERLIN (Reuters) - German politicians voiced concern on Sunday about the growing influence of Ankara on people with Turkish roots living in Germany. Germany has seen violence in the past between nationalist Turks and militant Kurds and officials fret that tensions in Turkish society following last month's attempted coup could spill over onto its soil. Thousands of demonstrators from Germany's Turkish community turned out in Cologne last Sunday to show their support for Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan at a rally that ratcheted up diplomatic tensions between Ankara and Berlin. "People of Turkish origin who live here must abide by our laws and our customs," Merkel ally Volker Kauder told the Funke Media Group in comments published on Sunday. "I therefore view with concern attempts by the Turkish government and the ruling AKP party to influence people with Turkish roots living here in Germany," he added. Bernd Riexinger, co-leader of the radical Left party also warned about increasing strains among the Turkish population in Germany. "Erdogan supporters are already exerting a lot of pressure on dissidents in Germany," he said. "This must stop. There must not be threats among us." Germany is home to around three million people of Turkish origin. In Turkey's last national elections, 60 percent of them voted for Turkey's ruling AKP Party, according to the organization of Turkish Communities in Germany. Gokay Sofuoglu, chairman of Turkish Communities in Germany, told Reuters last month that a hotline number was circulating on social media that supposedly called on people to notify Turkish authorities about Erdogan opponents. Kauder appealed to Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB), which represents more than 70 percent of Muslims living in Germany, to make clear to its members that Germany's constitution and law were above religion. "In my opinion we should not allow an association like DITIB, which evidently the mouthpiece of President (Tayyip) Erdogan is, to shape Islamic Religious Education in schools," he added. (Reporting by Caroline Copley and Sabine Siebold; Editing by Stephen Powell)
Yes, its hard to to tell when one enters the city limits

Yes, they will make the city more inviting

Maybe ... does it really matter?

No, the signs in place are fine

No, it would be a waste of taxpayer dollars

Vote

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For the 2016 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, NBC grudgingly found time between commercials to actually show audiences what was going on in Rio de Janeiro. And in case you didnt have eyes, Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira, and Hoda Kotb provided inane commentary explaining exactly what the cameras showed you. That ranged from Cirque du Soleil choreography that began with a recreation of the creation of the world and ended with a bleak message about global warming, to a weird shout-out to Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen, to the Internets immediate new boyfriend, Tonga flag bearer Pita Nikolas Taufatofua.

But what NBC did with the (delayed for primetime) ceremony was out-of-step with todays immediate, GIF-friendly news cycle, which found the highlights already living and widely discussed on social media hours before they finally aired, amid a seemingly endless number of commercials, on the Peacock network.

Most of the first hour was given over to an interpretive dance, choreographed by Cirque du Soleils Deborah Colker, that began with what looked like the Tin Mans family: Shiny, silver-clad dancers who did some impressive synchronized work pounding on giant metallic pillows. The effects were surprisingly elaborate given the stripped-down nature of the dances; Lauer smarmily reported that cash-strapped Brazil spent money of video projections rather than massive set pieces.

Also Read: Olympics TV Schedule: When and Where to Watch Each and Every Event

It was pretty effective, even if at times audiences ended up watching a bunch of people in white jumpsuits walking in circles, holding giant insect puppets aloft as the camera work and closeups ruined the spectacle. Not to mention the terrible, dismissive commentary (And as Swaziland walks in, this is a very good time for us to catch our breath, Lauer said on air) from all three. As ships appeared among the indigenous people, Vieira solemnly intoned, Immigration has begun. Two giant hamster wheels replaced the ships, and Lauer added, And then something else arrived in Brazil. The slave trade.

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Squeezed between the slave trade and a segment on global warming were Bundchen walking endlessly (described by Matt as one of Brazils most recognizable exports) and Alberto Santos-Dumont, the father of Brazilian aviation. This back-and-forth was indicative of the opening ceremonys massive tonal problems: Are we celebrating the best of humankind and a global community, or are we serving a stark history lesson and a bleak vision of the future? Both, as it turns out. Kudos for not shying away from the bloodier aspects of Brazils history  or the perils we currently face as a planet  but this seems a little disingenuous, like Marlon Brando sending Sacheen Littlefeather to accept his Oscar. You have the platform, sure, but the message gets lost in the context.

The parade of nations was the usual mix of tedium and enthusiasm, though this year, selfies proliferated and each country was led by a bicyclist on a neon colored bike. Blame it on Rio. At least we had Tongas greased up muscle man  er, flag bearer Pita Nikolas Taufatofua to stay awake for, immediately earning a spot as this Olympics Internet crush for wearing nothing but native dress, a washboard stomach, and the Gulf Coast oil spill. Slow that down, Vieria said as he made his appearance.

Also Read: Will NBC Let the Rio Olympics Sidetrack Its News Coverage?

But despite Tongas best-in-show, the loudest cheers (other than for Brazils team, naturally) were for the Olympics debut of the 10-member refugee team in one of those moments that remind you why the Olympics still retains a hold on your imagination. But then the finale found men and women in gray jumpsuits swiveling what looked like shiny giant cheese graters that transformed into trees before green confetti falls, just in case you forgot that there was choreography three hours before.

And in case the previous four-plus hours werent anticlimactic enough, no, Pele did not make a surprise appearance to light the cauldronthat honor went to Brazilian long distance runner and bronze medalist Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima. A worthy choice, but hardly the global phenomenon for which the Olympics cry out. But perhaps thats the most emblematic aspect of the entire Brazil-hosted Olympics: The best of intentions sabotaged by harsh reality.

8 PR Nightmares to Hit Rio Before Olympics, From Zika to Mutilated Bodies (Photos)

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Summer Games start on Aug. 5, and many are concerned that Brazil wont be ready

The 2016 Summer Olympics start on Aug. 5, and many are concerned that Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, wont be ready. From mutilated bodies washing ashore to concerns over the Zika virus, check out eight problems that Rio faces before the torch is even lit at the Opening Ceremonies.

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The 2016 Rio Olympics are underway and already there are stories of heroism, like a Syrian refugee performing well in a swimming competition, balanced out by dreams being dashed through a gymnasts horrible leg break. Theres also the ridiculous, like a man chasing cyclists around shouting. But at least one of these scenarios saw an Olympic athlete in need of immediate treatment and the facility that he would be receiving treatment at is Americas Medical City.

Time did a profile on the medical facility, which will be serving all of the Olympic athletes exclusively, where they are preparing for everything from fractures like we saw earlier to a possible Zika virus outbreak or even a possible terrorist attack. The relatively new hospital, which opened in 2014 and was designated as the official Olympic hospital a year later, will be prepared for anything and everything while the worlds eyes are on Rio for the Olympics.

Interestingly enough, it seems like a stark contrast to the rest of the areas hospitals and medical care. CNN recently ran a piece looking at the surrounding hospitals  as well as Americas Medical City  finding it to be a night and day situation according to Nelson Nahon of Rios regional Council for Medicine:

Most disturbing is the site of a body bag lying in a bed next to other patients, waiting to be removed. This is a completely absurd situation, where a patient died and they put him inside this black bag next to others, says Nahon. Normal procedure would be to take the deceased patient outside and then put him in the black bag and then forward him to wherever he should go Every day in Rio, we lack about 150 beds for emergency care, he says. Intensive care is the same. They might even die in that period because they need intensive treatment and in the semi-intensive rooms they have, people who are supposed to stay there for 24 hours  they stay for 15 days.

So while Americas Medical City is stocked full of everything that it needs, taking cues and help from hospitals in the United States, the rest of Rio de Janeiros hospitals  where the rest of Rios citizens will need to go  seem to be understaffed and unprepared, which speaks to the bigger issues that many have been raising about these Olympic games. When CNN spoke with Lt. Col. Carlos Sima about their concerns, he was quick to respond:

Story continues

A terrorist attack. We dont have history with that. We are used to big accidents and the like, but because we dont have a history with terror, that would be of real concern.

That is definitely grounds for concern.

(Via Time/CNN)
Now that Roger Ailes has left Fox, the news network has discovered that he misused company funds to wage secret campaigns against his enemies, according to a new report.

Ailes hired consultants, political operatives and private detectives and even ran negative campaigns against his foes out of a secret so-called Black Room located on the 14th floor of the NewsCorp building in New York, according to a New York Magazine report.

Also Read: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog Used Roger Ailes Lookalike to Gain Access at RNC

Ailes lawyer responded: These allegations are totally false.

Ailes use of company monies went largely unchecked, the magazine said:

According to three highly-placed sources there were few checks on Ailes when it came to the Fox News budget. It was the culture, one Fox executive said. You didnt ask questions, and Roger wouldnt entertain questions. One former News Corp executive explained that because Fox made more than $1 billion in annual profits, the funds that were used for settlements amounted to little more than a rounding error.

The top brass at Fox have been unearthing disturbing discoveries on how Ailes spent company dollars, now that hes gone following sexual harassment allegations, the magazine said.

The network fired five consultants hired by Ailes last week.

Also Read: Fox News Drops Roger Ailes Name From Apprentice Program

Fox executives have learned Ailes hired them for his own personal purposes, the magazine said. It said Bert Solivan is one example, and that he was hired to run a negative PR campaign against the former Fox News heads enemies, who included Gawker reporters John Cook and Hamilton Nolan, and former Putnam County News & Recorder editor Joe Lindsley.

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Having begun as a producer on a daytime show, the Ohio native went on to become the cable news network boss before being hit with sexual harassment allegations

The television executive has evolved from producing a talk-variety show to running one of the biggest satellite news television channel in the U.S.

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Samantha Bee Celebrates Roger Ailes' Fox News Resignation: 'Girl Power!' (Video)
Former Fox News chairman-CEO Roger Ailes used the news divisions budget to advance his personal agenda with political-style campaigns against his foes, according to a report published Sunday by New York magazine.

Ailes waged war against his enemies by employing consultants and detectives to smear their reputations online and in some cases follow targets, according to the report. An attorney for Ailes has strongly denied the allegations. Reps for 21st Century Fox could not immediately be reached for comment early Sunday.

One of the most powerful executives in TV, Ailes was ousted last month after 20 years at the helm of 21st Century Foxs hugely profitable news operation. His downfall came amid a cascade of sexual harassment allegations leveled by women, some dating back as far as the 1960s, triggered by the lawsuit filed against Ailes by former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson.

Ailes maintained what the New York magazine report described as a Black Room unit at Fox News midtown Manhattan headquarters where consultants and detectives worked on various campaigns at his behest. New York reported that one such consultant, Bert Solivan, has recently been let go and that others were likely to follow. 21st Century Fox chairman Rupert Murdoch took the reins of Fox News last month after Ailes abrupt departure.

Among the targets of Black Room efforts were journalists who were critical of Fox News and Ailes. That list included Gabriel Sherman, author of the New York magazine story and the author of the 2012 Ailes biography The Loudest Voice in the Room. Shermans reporting on the Ailes scandal during the past month hastened the 76-year-old executives exit.

Ailes attorney Susan Estrich told New York that the allegations about the misuse of Fox News funds were totally false.

Related stories

HLN's Robin Meade on Roger Ailes Sexual Harassment Claims: 'It Was Eye Opening'

Ex-Fox News Employee Says Roger Ailes Sexually Harassed Her for Over 20 Years

Fox News Cuts Away During Father of Slain Muslim Veteran's Speech at Democratic Convention
SAO TOME (Reuters) - Voters in Sao Tome and Principe went to the polls on Sunday in the second round of the country's presidential election, with ex-speaker of parliament Evaristo Carvalho guaranteed victory after incumbent Manuel Pinto da Costa boycotted the race. Pinto da Costa quit the run-off in the small island nation in the Gulf of Guinea, alleging irregularities in the first round on July 17, which Carvalho led with 49.88 percent of the vote to Pinto da Costa's 24.83 percent. The former Portuguese colony of some 200,000 people has a semi-presidential system in which the prime minister is the head of government. Pinto da Costa has governed since 2011, after ruling the country as a single-party state from independence in 1975 until 1991. Carvalho finished runner-up in 2011 and is the vice president of Sao Tome's parliamentary ruling ADI party. The country has 19 oil blocks in its exclusive economic zone and an additional joint exploration zone with Nigeria, but it is yet to find any commercially viable oil. (Reporting By Ricardo Neto; Writing by Aaron Ross)
Sao Tome (AFP) - Voters in the tiny archipelago of Sao Tome and Principe went to the polls Sunday to elect a new head of state, with just one candidate in a runoff boycotted by the incumbent president.

Held up as a regional model of democracy, the west African former Portuguese colony is mired in its worst crisis in a quarter-century of multiparty politics.

In the first round of voting on July 17, former prime minister Evaristo Carvalho, the ruling party candidate, initially seemed to have scraped past the 50 percent needed for an outright win.

Election officials then revised Carvalho's tally downwards to 49.8 percent and the share of 79-year-old President Manuel Pinto da Costa to 24.83 percent, thus prompting a runoff.

But Pinto da Costa, who had lashed the process as a fraud and demanded it be scrapped, announced he would not contest the second round.

Carvalho on Sunday called on "all residents of Sao Tome and Principe to exercise their right to vote" and confirm his first-round victory.

The 74-year-old turned up to cast his ballot at around noon at a primary school in the capital.

"I hope the electoral process is completed in calm and peaceful conditions," he told journalists, accusing Pinto da Costa of "pulling out to avoid losing the election".

But by the time the polling stations closed, it appeared that turnout among the country's 111,000 voters had been low.

Turnout on July 17 was 64.31 percent, in a country of barely 200,000 people.

"I came solely to perform my civic duty, but I think the way the election has played out has been scandalous. The electoral commission has made many mistakes," said farm worker Adelino Deus Lima in Trinidad.

Sociologist Olivio Diogo said he thought "abstention will be the big winner" in the vote.

Impoverished Sao Tome and Principe comprises two archipelagos located 300 kilometres (190 miles) off the coast of Gabon.

Executive power is shared between the president and the prime minister, a system which has led to turf wars in the past.

Story continues

Carvalho, the favourite from the start, is supported by Prime Minister Patrice Trovoada, whose Independent Democratic Action party holds a majority in the national legislature.

Trovoada wants Carvalho to win the presidency to end the "cohabitation" he had with Pinto da Costa, with whom he has a family rivalry dating back to independence from Portugal.

An economist by training, Pinto da Costa became the first post-independence ruler and established a Marxist-Leninist state.

His policies devastated the economy of what had been, at the start of the 20th Century, the world's leading cocoa producer. Eighty percent of its budget now comes from foreign aid.

A clamp on the opposition sent many dissidents into exile, including Trovoada's father Manuel, after relations between the two men soured.

Manuel Trovoada returned after the country became a multiparty democracy in 1991 and was twice elected president.
gary johnson

Rep. Scott Rigell of Virginia became the second Republican member of Congress to break from party lines and endorse a candidate who is not his party's nominee.

Rigell told The New York Times on Saturday that he will be voting for Libertarian Party nominee and New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson instead of Republican nominee Donald Trump.

"Ive always said I will not vote for Donald Trump and I will not vote for Hillary Clinton," Rigell told The Times. "Im going to vote for the Libertarian candidate."

According to The Times' report, this is the first member of Congress to endorse Johnson. Rigell has said he would not be supporting Trump since March but had not endorsed another candidate until Saturday's report.

Rigell also told The Times that he expects more Republican politicians to follow his lead and endorse someone other than Trump as the election gets closer.

Rigell also said he would no longer consider himself a Republican if the party becomes identified with Trump and his policies.

The move comes after Republican Rep. Richard Hanna of New York endorsed Hillary Clinton on Tuesday. Both Hanna and Rigell are retiring at the end of their terms.

NOW WATCH: Watch this 11-year-old put Mike Pence on the spot with a tough question about his role as Trump's VP





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RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) -- The wind blew in from the west, sending the clay targets bobbing and bouncing through the air.

In case that wasn't enough, the microphone used to pull the targets repeatedly malfunctioned, causing clays to shoot out randomly or not at all.

Catherine Skinner had just enough patience - and a bit of anger - to ride out the difficulties and earn a gold medal in her first Olympics.

The Australian survived a shoot-off in women's trap to get into the final round and hit 12 of 15 targets in the gold medal match to beat New Zealand's Natalie Rooney on Sunday.

''It made me a bit more angry instead of being nervous and locking up,'' Skinner said of the difficulties. ''It made me just want to see and smash.''

Skinner hit 67 of 75 targets in qualifying, tying her with Canada's Cynthia Meyer. Both women hit their first shots in the shoot-off, but Skinner hit and Meyer missed, sending the Australian into the final six.

Skinner navigated the gusting wind well in the semifinals, hitting 14 of 15 targets to earn a spot in the gold-medal match. Rooney won a shoot-off with American Corey Cogdell-Unrein after tying for second to set up the finals showdown.

Skinner started slow, missing two of her first four shots in the gold medal match, but hit seven straight as Rooney twice missed consecutive shots. Skinner missed her 12th shot, but could still clinch gold by hitting her final three shots.

She did, making Rooney's final shot moot, and threw her head back after taking home gold in her first Olympics.

''I can't really say there was emotion; it was kind of like a shock,'' Skinner said. ''Even now, I can't really believe I have this (medal) in my hand.''

Cogdell-Unrein qualified fourth in her third Olympics, but opened the semifinals with a miss. She recovered by hitting her final nine shots, only to miss in the shoot-off with Rooney.

Cogdell-Urein met Spain's Fatima Galvez in the bronze medal match and again was faced with a shoot-off after both shooters hit 13 of 15 targets. Cogdell-Unrein hit her shot and Galvez missed, giving Cogdell-Unrein a bronze to match the one she earned at the 2008 Beijing Games.

''Missing my first target out was definitely not a good feeling,'' Cogdell-Unrein said. ''But I knew if I smoothed out and do what I normally do, I could still continue to shoot a good final and that's what I did.''

Defending gold medalist Jessica Rossi of Italy hit 10 targets in the semifinals and finished sixth.
With America three years into a bloody civil conflict, New York Gov. Horatio Seymour took to the podium in Milwaukee in 1864 and made powerful criticisms of Abraham Lincolns administration. These criticisms ranged from curtailed free speech to an involuntary military draft.

A lot of people in the North considered the Civil War to be the great treason. Brian Carso, historian

The New York Times immediately drew parallels between Seymours speech and that of Benedict Arnolds 1780 proclamation  in which the infamous traitor railed against the Continental Congress and George Washington, leader of the Continental Army. In eight points, Arnold laid out his dismay at the anti-British revolutionaries, explaining how they had curtailed free speech and enforced an involuntary draft. Thus are the points made by HORATIO SEYMOUR against the Administration in 1864, identical, point with point, with those made by BENEDICT ARNOLD, the Times wrote. As 11 states betrayed the Constitution and their brothers (as the North saw it) in an effort to keep the Souths economy ticking with slave labor, an 84-year-old betrayal was raised in collective memory. A lot of people in the North considered the Civil War to be the great treason, says historian Brian Carso.

The greatest tale of betrayal in all of American history involved Arnold. Though he had been born into a well-off Connecticut family, his father became an alcoholic debtor. Arnold worked his way up to military governor before marrying a well-connected Loyalist. When Washington asked Arnold to command West Point, he corresponded with the adjutant general of the British army, Maj. John Andre, betraying critical information and nearly bringing down the American effort. On top of it all, the British could have captured Washington in the process.

Whether taking aim at conservative Democrats like Seymour  also known as Copperheads  or Confederate leaders like Jefferson Davis, Northern sympathizers and the press delighted in evoking Arnolds actions to draw a comparison. In fact, the favored comparison criticized the South of either playing Arnold or Judas, the man who betrayed Christ.

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Gettyimages 629446175

New York Gov. Horatio Seymour being nominated for president at the 1868 Democratic National Convention.

Source: Getty

In 1861, Harpers Weekly wrote that the Confederate leaders were a few men directing this colossal treason, by whose side Benedict Arnold shines white as a saint. According to Carso, opponents of Lincoln were represented in other editorials as embodying exactly the spirit of Benedict Arnold. This was at a time when newspapers and men like Horace Greeley, founder of the New York Tribune, had a powerful influence. In one case, Southerners sided with Arnold outright, taking up his mantle with pride. In the Richmond Examiner, an opinion piece was published saying that, aside from Arnold, the North never had any officers who were not cowards! Old PUT, STARK, GREENE, HAMILTON  all were cowards. Instead of reading Arnolds betrayal negatively, the author regarded his actions as courageous.

The New York Times quickly tore into this opinion. In May 1861, it published an op-ed stating that men often admire people who exhibit similar characteristics to themselves. It is perfectly natural, therefore, that the traitors of the South should regard BENEDICT ARNOLD as the best specimen of an officer during our Revolutionary War, the op-ed raged.

Arnolds name had been invoked by critics long before the Civil War. In many ways, he was Washingtons opposite: While stories of Washington gave American children moral guidelines to live by, other tales featured cruel children named Benedict Arnold. After the South surrendered at Appomattox, the rhetoric of treason and betrayal continued. Henry Ward Beecher spoke at an event, saying the giddy traitors  are dead  Ruin sits in the cradle of treason. Ironically, Lincoln himself had shied away from such name-calling, refusing to label Southerners or their sympathizers as traitors or treasonous.

After Lincolns assassination, with Andrew Johnson at the helm, political pardons abounded. Even Davis, president of the Confederacy, was not found guilty of treason. Forgiveness became the rallying cry. So long as any man was seeking to overthrow our Government, Greeley wrote, summing up the reasoning, he was my enemy; from the hour in which he laid down his arms, he was my formerly erring countryman.

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Aden (AFP) - A suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into a large group of army reinforcements in south Yemen on Sunday, killing five soldiers, military officials said.

Another seven soldiers were wounded in the attack targeting troops who had been sent from the main southern city of Aden to Lahj province to fight jihadists, the sources said.

A military official said it was unclear whether the attack had been carried out by Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State group, both of which have gained ground in the south and claimed deadly anti-government assaults in the past.

The bombing came hours after clashes between troops and jihadists in Lahj, the military officials told AFP, adding that Saudi-led coalition jets also took part in the fighting.

Also on Sunday, suspected members of Al-Qaeda shot dead an army colonel in nearby Abyan province, a military source said.

The gunmen on a motorbike opened fire at Colonel Abdullah Shamba, killing him immediately before driving off, the official said.

Shamba headed a local anti-Al-Qaeda militia in Abyan.

Late on Saturday, coalition jets attacked Al-Qaeda positions in Abyan's provincial capital of Zinjibar and in the nearby town of Jaar, military sources said.

Government forces backed by the Arab coalition began an all-out offensive in March against jihadists in south Yemen, recapturing main cities they had held.

But they later retreated from Zinjibar after Al-Qaeda militants struck back.

Jihadists have exploited the power vacuum created by the conflict between the government and Huthi rebels and their allies to expand their presence in south and southeast Yemen.

The Arab coalition which backs the Yemeni government against pro-Iran rebels has also turned its sights on the jihadists, and the United States has pressed its drone war against them.

Washington considers the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, to be the extremist network's deadliest franchise.
By Mark Trevelyan and Alan Baldwin RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Hungary's Katinka Hosszu ended her long wait for Olympic victory and Australia captured two gold medals in an exhilarating first day of swimming competition that saw three world records smashed in Rio on Saturday. Hosszu, five times a world champion but without a medal from three previous Olympics, demolished the world record by 2.07 seconds in the final of the women's 400 meters individual medley. Australia's women retained their Olympic title by winning the 4x100m freestyle relay in world record time, with sisters Bronte and Cate Campbell swimming the last two stages to overhaul the United States, despite the efforts of Katie Ledecky on the anchor leg. Mack Horton's victory in the men's 400 freestyle also meant Australia had already doubled their gold medal tally from a disappointing showing four years ago. The day's record spree began with Britain's Adam Peaty, who broke his own world mark of 57.92 in the heats of the 100 breaststroke when he clocked 57.55. Tipped to become the first British man to win an Olympic gold since 1988, he then swam 57.62 in the semi-finals. FIRST HONORS TO JAPAN In the first of four evening finals, Japan's Kosuke Hagino won the men's 400m individual medley, the grueling discipline that combines butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle. Hagino, the bronze medalist in 2012, won with a time of four minutes, 6.05 seconds to end a U.S. stranglehold on the event dating back to 1996. Chase Kalisz of the United States, who had been fastest in the heats, finished second and Japan's Daiya Seto took the bronze. In the men's 400 freestyle, Australia's Horton edged out defending champion Sun Yang of China and Italy's Gabriele Detti, pulling ahead in the final quarter after shadowing Britain's James Guy and Conor Dwyer of the U.S. for much of the race. Hosszu then grabbed the spotlight with a stunning victory in the 400 individual medley. Having suffered a nightmare Olympics in London, where she started as a hot medal prospect but came away empty-handed, she led from start to finish and stormed down the final length with the crowd roaring her on to the record. "It's just crazy that I've been able to swim two seconds faster than anyone ever, ever did. It's just crazy," said the Hungarian, who will also contest the 200 IM, 200 butterfly and 100 and 200 backstroke. In the women's relay, the Australians led off with Emma McKeon while Brittany Elmslie swam the second leg before Bronte Campbell overhauled the Americans and handed over to sister Cate, who touched in three minutes, 30.65 seconds, beating the previous world record of 3:30.98 they set in Glasgow in 2014. "Definitely my favorite race ever," said Cate Campbell. "In an Olympic final with my sister and two girls I have known since I was 12, 13 years old - and a gold and a world record." (Editing by Greg Stutchbury)
Switzerland is sending My Life as a Courgette, a stop-motion animated feature about the struggles and adventures of a young orphan boy, into the running for the 2017 foreign-language film Oscar.

The debut of Swiss-born director Claude Barras, the pic premiered to critical acclaim in Cannes this year before going on to win both the best feature honor and the audience award at the Annecy Animation Festival, the gold standard for international animation.

Read more: Cannes Hidden Gem: Stop-Motion 'My Life as a Courgette' Is Both Whimsical and Serious

Based on the novel by French writer Gilles Paris, My Life as a Courguette was adapted for the big screen by Cesar-nominated French writer-director Celine Sciamma (Girlhood). Critics, including The Hollywood Reporter's Boyd van Hoeij, were impressed by Barras' ability to balance what is an often dark tale of social injustice with lightness and humor.

Buyers seem to agree. Indie Sales, which is handling worldwide rights to the film, has closed deals with more than 20 European countries as well as selected territories in Asia and the Middle East. U.S. rights are currently under negotiation.

Tiny Switzerland has punched above its weight in the foreign-language category of the Oscars. The country has been nominated five times for best foreign-language film and won twice: in 1984 for Richard Dembo's Dangerous Moves and again in 1990 for Journey of Hope from director Xavier Koller.

Read more: 'My Life as a Courgette' ('Ma Vie de Courgette'): Cannes Review
Paris (AFP) - A relative of one of the jihadist killers of journalists at French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has been arrested in Bulgaria after trying to get to Syria, a judicial source said Sunday.

Mourad Hamyd, brother-in-law of Cherif Kouachi who was behind the January 2015 attack in Paris that killed 12, was first detained in Turkey last month on suspicion of seeking to enter Syria, the source said.

The 20-year-old student was then expelled to neighbouring Bulgaria, where he was sent to a detention centre on July 28, the source said, confirming a report in the Journal du Dimanche, a Sunday newspaper.

The source said French anti-terrorist investigators are preparing a European arrest warrant for Hamyd, who lived with his family in the northern French town of Charleville-Mezieres.

Hamyd's sister was Cherif Kouachi's wife. In the aftermath of the attack, Hamyd was wrongly identified on social media as being one of three Charlie Hebdo killers.

He was held and questioned for 48 hours before being released without charge. Kouachi carried out the killings with his brother Said.

Hamyd later told AFP in an interview he was shocked by the killings, which he described as "a horrible crime" and described himself as a normal student living with his parents. He added he barely had any contact with Cherif Kouachi.

Bulgaria on Sunday confirmed the 20-year-old Hamyd's detention.

"We did our job," Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova told AFP.

"He was detained and identified. All the necessary measures have been taken, he is not at large and we are awaiting the outcome of the judicial procedure" for his extradition, she said.

A court could initiate extradition proceedings as early as Tuesday, Bachvarova said. She gave no details about where Hamyd was intercepted or being held.

According to a July tally by French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, France is home to more than 2,100 people -- French nationals or foreigners -- known to have links to Syrian and Iraqi Islamist groups.

Valls added that 203 of them who have spent time in those countries have returned to France.
The Television Critics Association presented its 32nd annual TCA Awards ceremony on Saturday night, with FXs The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story taking three prizes to lead the night, including the ceremonys top award, Program of the Year. The show also earned the award for Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials, and Individual Achievement in Drama for star Sarah Paulson, who played troubled head prosecutor Marcia Clark.

The TCA Awards dont separate their nominees or winners by gender, meaning Paulson was up against her People v. O.J. co-star Courtney B. Vance, All The Way star Bryan Cranston, Mr. Robots Rami Malek, Bob Odenkirk of Better Call Saul and Keri Russell of The Americans for the drama honor.

It was a triumphant night for women across the dial, as Crazy Ex-Girlfriend star Rachel Bloom took home the award for Individual Achievement in Comedy, beating Aziz Ansari for Master of None, Samantha Bee of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, Aya Cash of Youre The Worst, reigning Emmy champ Julia Louis-Dreyfus of Veep, and Constance Wu of Fresh Off the Boat.

Bee nabbed the Outstanding Achievement in News and Information category for her TBS series Full Frontal, while The Mary Tyler Moore Show won the TCAs Heritage Award for the tremendous cultural and social impact it has had on society. Grace and Frankie star Lily Tomlin was honored with the Career Achievement Award for her diverse television legacy that spans over 50 years and includes seven Emmy wins.

This was truly a landmark season  not just for television, but for women in television, said Amber Dowling, TCA President. We had an unprecedented amount of female winners this year, which is a testament to both the talented actresses who were honored tonight, as well as to the growing number of high-quality roles being created for and by women. Its extremely encouraging to see this growing trend being embraced, accepted, and expanded upon, and I look forward to seeing even more of it in the future.

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The ceremony was held at the Beverly Hilton hotel and was hosted by Jane the Virgin star Jaime Camil (beloved telenovela icon Rogelio De La Vega also made a cameo appearance). The results were determined from votes cast by the TCAs membership, comprised of more than 220 professional TV critics and journalists from the United States and Canada.

See the full list of TCA winners below.

Individual Achievement in Drama: Sarah Paulson (THE PEOPLE V. O.J. SIMPSON: AMERICAN CRIME STORY, FX)

Individual Achievement in Comedy: Rachel Bloom (CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND, The CW)

Outstanding Achievement in News and Information: FULL FRONTAL WITH SAMANTHA BEE (TBS)

Outstanding Achievement in Reality Programming: MAKING A MURDERER (Netflix)

Outstanding Achievement in Youth Programming: DANIEL TIGERS NEIGHBORHOOD (PBS)

Outstanding New Program: MR. ROBOT (USA)

Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials: THE PEOPLE V. O.J. SIMPSON: AMERICAN CRIME STORY (FX)

Outstanding Achievement in Drama: THE AMERICANS (FX)  second consecutive year

Outstanding Achievement in Comedy: BLACK-ISH (ABC)

Career Achievement Award: Lily Tomlin

Heritage Award: THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW (CBS)

Program of the Year: THE PEOPLE V. O.J. SIMPSON: AMERICAN CRIME STORY (FX)

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Azza, 32, who works at a beauty salon in Tunis, showed me a group of big purple bruises on her left arm. The culprit, she explained, was none other than her own husband, who hits her periodically. Those bruises were from the most recent beating, which took place just three days before she and I met. Azza (whose name Ive changed to protect her identity) is not the only victim of her husbands abuse; her 4-year-old daughter has been affected as well.

A few days ago, my daughter fainted when she saw her dad hitting me, Azza told me. I took her to the doctor. She said that my child is in shock. By now, Azza had tears in her eyes as she spoke. Shes pale, and she barely eats.

Though Azza shares a house with her husbands family, no one there has ever offered to help her when the beatings start. They usually act as if they dont hear or see anything, but when we talk about it, they say that its my fault, she said. They say that I must have said or done something that provoked his anger.

Azza earns around $150 per month, close to the Tunisian minimum wage. Her husband, who works as a fruit vendor, stopped supporting her and their child once she started working at the beauty salon two years ago. Sometimes he asks me for cash, then attacks me when I refuse to give him the money that Ive been saving to buy milk for my daughter, she said.

Tunisia has long enjoyed a reputation as one of the best places for women in the Middle East and North Africa, starting even before the 2011 revolution. Observers widely regard Tunisian women as the most liberated in the Arab world. (Tunisias Code of Personal Status, which has been in place since 1956, grants women both the right to abortion and the right to divorce  still quite exceptional in most of the surrounding region.) Post-revolutionary democracy was supposed to have confirmed that status: The 2014 constitution contains an uncompromising statement of gender equality.

Yet violence against women  and domestic violence in particular  seems to be as prevalent as ever. In most cases, attacks go unpunished mainly because women are reluctant to report them, though the law is supposed to protect women from domestic violence. So Azzas struggle is far from exceptional, even if the sort of abuse shes suffering tends to be more common among women from lower-income families.

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Map of northern Tunisia

According to a 2010 survey by Tunisias National Board for Family and Population, nearly one in two women in Tunisia have experienced some form of violence at least once during their lifetimes. Physical violence is the most common form of abuse, with 31.7 percent of the women surveyed reporting it at least once. (In almost half of those cases, women name their husband or boyfriend as the perpetrator.) Psychological violence comes next, at 28.9 percent. And 15.7 percent of women say they have experienced sexual violence, putting that category in third place.

Even though domestic violence is criminalized, most cases go unreported due to social stigma and a tendency to blame victims rather than perpetrators. Azza said she considered suing her husband, but her mother advised her against it.

Sometimes I think about filing a complaint against my husband or even leaving him, but then I get scared, Azza said. Im afraid people wont take my side or defend me. Theyll say that Im selfish, that Im putting my own interests before my daughters. She said the other women around her, like friends or family members, seem unfazed by the fact that her husband is violent with her. They say that all women get beaten by their husbands, [that] it just happens, and that I should try to understand him.

Samia Abbou, a member of parliament affiliated with the centrist Democratic Current party, said the problem of domestic violence doesnt lie in the law but rather in the mentality and the very nature of Tunisian society. The constitution, she noted, even includes a clause obligating the state to eradicate violence against women. Domestic violence laws in Tunisia are not bad, she said. The problem isnt the laws, but rather how to implement them.

Abbou added that many women in Tunisia experience abuse by their husbands but refrain from reporting the incidents out of concern for their children and marriages. For them, the kids and the survival of the marriage come first.

But there also areas where Tunisian law does fall short  marital rape, which is not illegal, being one of the most prominent. Azza said her husband often tries to force her to have sex with him when she refuses. Most of the time, she ends up giving in simply to avoid another beating. Speaking out against domestic abuse is hard enough; speaking out against forced sex isnt even an option. A society that thinks its okay for a man to hit his wife is likely to condone marital rape. Even though Abbou, the parliamentarian, personally favors criminalizing marital rape, she said it would be a difficult discussion in a patriarchal society like Tunisia, which still expects women to obey their husbands.

While having a proper legal framework against domestic violence is vital, Abbou says, laws are not enough on their own. She notes that civil society groups have an important role to play in raising awareness and gradually changing attitudes. The state has a responsibility to educate children and provide tools like sexual education classes and psychological counseling, which generally dont exist in most Tunisian schools.

Such ideas may help women down the road, but they wont solve Azzas problems today. While shes aware of her legal rights as a wife, she told me shes more concerned about the way society will treat her if she decides to leave her husband. She said her mother once insinuated that she wouldnt want anything to do with a divorced daughter, adding that shed be on her own if she chose to leave her spouse.

Maybe its better for me to stick around and be hit by my husband, she said. Id rather be abused by one person than be abused by a whole society.

Image credit: HYLTON WARBURTON for Foreign Policy

Read more from Tunisia: In Sun and Shadow:

Tunisias Glorious Confusion:The dawn of democracy is something to root for  but the forces that have pulled the other Arab Spring countries back into upheaval still threaten to undo its progress.

Tunisias Dying Jazz: New freedoms have brought art and religion into conflict, threatening to crush a tradition trapped in the middle.

Trouble in the Wild East: The border town of Ben Guerdane is a haven for smugglers. Locals would like to keep it that way.

The Mainstreaming of Tunisias Islamists: The Ennahda Partys latest moves put its political astuteness on show once again.

Five Years of the New Tunisia: From revolution to disillusionment and back again: Milestones on Tunisias rocky path to democracy.
Thais are voting for the first time since the army grabbed power in 2014, in a referendum on a new military-drafted constitution.

Here is what you need to know about Sunday's vote which critics warn could solidify the military's dominance in a country once hailed as the region's most promising democracy.

- What are Thais voting on?

A new constitution -- Thailand's 20th since absolute monarchy was abolished in the early 1930s.

This one is penned by a committee appointed by the military. Generals seized power in May 2014 after months of anti-government protests that led to the toppling of Yingluck Shinawatra's democratically elected government.

It was the army's 12th successful coup.

- Why has Thailand had so many charters?

The kingdom's modern history has been pockmarked by coups, periods of civilian rule, counter-coups and street protests.

On one side is a military-backed, arch-royalist Bangkok elite -- who historically favour a heavily controlled form of democracy or outright autocracy.

On the other are those pushing for a more representative political system led by the wealthy Shinawatra clan.

Thai constitutions tend to get torn up and rewritten whenever the power balance shifts.

- What does this constitution look like?

The military, which has seized power twice since 2006, has promoted its work as a fix for the last decade of fractious politics, which they blame on corrupt civilian politicians.

They say the document will root out graft and make those politicians more accountable.

But critics say it will do little to heal the kingdom's divisions and decry it as a naked attempt to further entrench the military and elite's control over the legislature.

The most divisive clauses call for a fully-appointed senate, with seats reserved for military commanders, which could block the work of elected lawmakers and increased powers for courts that are already accused of political bias.

A second question on the ballot paper will ask Thais whether the 250 appointed senators should be able to join elected lawmakers in voting for a prime minister.

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Another clause makes it very easy to begin impeachment proceedings against a future prime minister.

- Can Thais campaign against this charter?

No. Former army chief turned Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha has curbed free speech.

A new referendum law slapped a 10-year prison sentence on campaigning against the charter.

The law criminalises "rude" or "false" discussion of the document, and has been used against activists for handing out critical leaflets.

Two eight-year-old girls were charged under the law for ripping down voter lists because they liked the pink paper they were printed on, in a move that sparked condemnation and ridicule.

- What happens if Thais vote no?

That's the big unknown. Prayut has refused to say what his plan will be should Thais vote no.

He has promised to hold elections in the summer of 2017 whether or not the charter is passed. But all his previous election date promises have slipped.

"The junta would probably stay in power longer and simply either create (another) constitution of its own or borrow a previous constitution," said Paul Chambers, a Thailand-based academic and expert on the army.

A rejection of the charter, he added, would be an embarrassment to the junta and could galvanise opposition to its rule.

- Will the charter pass?

Again, it's a big unknown.

The two main political parties in Thailand, who rarely agree on anything, have both come out against the charter as undemocratic.

Thai polling data is also notoriously unreliable but some suggest a majority of respondents are still undecided.
By Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Pairat Temphairojana BANGKOK/KHON KAEN, Thailand (Reuters) - Thai voters approved a junta-backed constitution in a referendum on Sunday, preliminary results showed, an outcome that paves the way for an election next year but will also require future elected governments to rule on the military's terms. Voters handed the junta led by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha a convincing win in its first major popularity test at the ballot box since it seized power in a 2014 coup. With 94 percent of the vote counted, early results from the Election Commission showed 61.4 percent of Thais had voted for the charter, while 37.9 percent rejected it. Full results are due on Wednesday. The junta says the constitution is designed to heal more than a decade of divisive politics in Thailand that has dented economic growth and left scores dead in civil unrest. But Thailand's major political parties and critics of the government say the charter will enshrine the military's political role for years to come. The win was a blow to the powerful Shinawatra clan and their allies, whose populist politics are reviled by Thailand's military-royalist establishment. Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted as prime minister in a coup in 2006 and his sister Yingluck's government was toppled by Prayuth in 2014. The acting head of the Peau Thai Party, which carried Yingluck to power, said Thais may have voted pragmatically for the charter as the fastest route to an election. "The reason most Thais accepted the constitution is because they want to see a general election quickly," Wirot Pao-in told reporters at the Peau Thai's Bangkok headquarters on Sunday. "All sides must now help move the country forward." Across town at the United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship group, the tone was less conciliatory. "What will we do next? Tell Prayuth that, although it seems he is winning, this is not a victory he can be proud of because his opponents have not been able to fight at their best due to threats and harassment," said Jatuporn Prompan, chairman of the pro-Shinawatra UDD. Some people wept as the result became clear at the UDD headquarters in Bangkok. INTIMIDATION The junta, formally known as the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), banned debate about the constitution and campaigning ahead of the vote. The authorities have detained and charged dozens of people who have spoken against it, including politicians and student activists. "(It was) a one-sided campaign in which the junta indirectly encouraged 'yes' votes and arrested or intimidated referendum opponents," said Paul Chambers, director of research at the Institute of Southeast Asian Affairs in the city of Chiang Mai. "As a result many voters did not show up while others felt compelled to vote 'yes'." Turnout of around 55 percent was below the 80 percent targeted by the Election Commission. That likely favoured the government, said Thithinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University. "This is a hands-down convincing margin of approval for the military government," he said. "This is going to give the junta a signal to go full steam ahead for elections next year. They will feel confident from this vote about rolling out their plans for the transitional period." Around 200,000 police were deployed for the referendum and voting passed without major incident. The yes vote will likely be cheered by Thai financial markets. "The outcome is our best case scenario and investors should react positively as it's clear that the election will happen next year," said Kasem Prunratanamala, head of research at CIMB Securities. "Foreign investors had been waiting for the vote and may invest more now." DECADE OF TURMOIL The vote comes amid concerns about the health of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 88. The military has for decades invoked its duty as defender of the deeply revered monarch to justify its interventions in politics. Critics say the charter is the military's attempt to make good on their failure to banish Thaksin from Thai politics after the 2006 coup. Senior army officers have told Reuters the new charter aims to make future coups unnecessary by weakening political parties and ensuring the military a role in overseeing Thailand's economic and political development. Under the constitution, which would be Thailand's 20th since the military abolished an absolute monarchy in 1932, a junta-appointed Senate with seats reserved for military commanders would check the powers of elected lawmakers. Thaksin called the charter a "folly", saying it would perpetuate the junta's power and make it impossible to govern Thailand. Thaksin retains strong influence despite living in self-imposed exile. His support base in the rural northeast bucked the trend and voted against the charter on Sunday. Decha Shangkamanee, a day labourer in Khon Kaen, said he had voted against it because he disliked the junta, but did not expect the referendum to make much difference. "I know that nothing really changes today with the way the country is ruled," he said. (Additional reporting by Aukkarapon Niyomyat, Orathai Sriring, Panarat Thepgumpanat, Patpicha Tanakasempipat and Simon Webb; Writing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Simon Webb; Editing by Lincoln Feast, Gareth Jones)
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With concerns about the rise of so-called "superbugs" at an all-time high, scientists are on a mission to find better ways to tackle infections. And a new study , published last week in the journal PLOS ONE, claims to have done just that.

The research describes a new strategy that aims to tackle skin infections  which can be particularly dangerous in hospital patients and the elderly  without creating antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the process.

SEE ALSO: 3D-Printed Bacteria May Unlock Secrets of Disease

The treatment works by making it harder for bacteria to stick to human cells and therefore easier to wash away.

Most importantly, the treatment has a low risk of contributing to the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. And according to scientists, developing such treatments is critically important.

The "superbug" problem

Experts agree that antibiotic-resistant bacteria are a growing problem, and are largely the result of the excessive use of antibiotics in recent decades.

Antibiotics are generally designed to treat infections by killing bacteria en masse. The problem is that in any given colony of bacteria, a few individuals may have special genes that render them resistant to the antibiotics. So when the rest of the population dies off, these individuals remain and can pass on their genes, giving rise to whole strains of resistant bacteria.

Often, such bacteria can still be treated with more aggressive drugs. But some types of antibiotic-resistant bacteria may be more challenging and sometimes not treatable at all, according to Paul Fey , a professor and Staph expert at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Just a few months ago, in fact, researchers announced the first case of a patient in the U.S. carrying bacteria resistant to even the most aggressive "last-resort" antibiotics. The incident has sparked concern among health officials that the nation could eventually witness the rise of multi-drug resistant superbugs, impossible to treat with existing antibiotics.

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A new therapy for skin infections

The new study focuses on a type of bacteria called Staphylococcus aureus, or "Staph"  one of the leading causes of skin and wound infections. Staph can be especially dangerous in hospital patients, the elderly and other people whose immune systems may be compromised and less capable of tackling infections on their own.

A type of antibiotic-resistant Staph, commonly known as MRSA , is especially dangerous. The CDC estimates that more than 80,000 invasive MRSA infections occurred nationwide in 2011. MRSA infections are more difficult to treat than regular Staph infections, and when severe enough, they can move from the skin into the bloodstream and even become fatal.

Staph bacteria use certain mechanisms to stick to human skin cells and launch infections. One way they do this is by interacting with special types of proteins in skin cells called "tetraspanins." These proteins are involved in all kinds of important cell functions, but they also have properties that make them sticky to foreign cells and molecules  meaning bacteria can exploit them as a way to infect human cells.

"You can think of them as like a patch of velcro sticking out from the surface of the skin cells," said Sheila MacNeil , a professor of tissue engineering at the University of Sheffield and one of the new studys authors, in an interview with Mashable.

In the new study, the researchers synthetically created a series of peptides  special molecules composed of a chain of amino acids  that they hoped would make it more difficult for bacteria to cling to these spots.

The researchers tested their peptides on several types of skin cells in the laboratory, as well as a special 3D, lab-created human skin model to test the peptides on.

The researchers found that their peptides worked best in cells called keratinocytes  the bodys outermost layer of skin cells and first line of defense against infections  where they were able to reduce the bacterial burden by about 50 percent. They received similar results in their tests on the 3D skin model.

The researchers cant yet say for sure exactly how the peptides are causing this effect, but they know the treatment somehow reduces the "stickiness" of the tetraspanins.

Importantly, the treatment worked on antibiotic-resistant Staph strains  and it also showed no signs of killing the bacteria, meaning it has a low likelihood of contributing to the rise of new antibiotic-resistant strains. The treatment also didnt seem to have any adverse effects on the human cells.

That said, this study suggests that the treatment only helps to remove about half the bacteria from skin cells. According to MacNeil, the researchers hope the therapy can reduce bacterial burdens just enough to make it easier for the patients immune system to start tackling the infection.

The future of antibiotics

To be clear, the new study only describes the methods effects in a laboratory setting. But the researchers are planning to conduct additional tests over the next few years and hope the treatment can be tested in clinical trials (meaning with real humans) within three to five years.

If successful, the researchers hope the peptides could be placed in creams, gels or sprays that could then be applied to wounds. Such treatments would likely be most appropriate in high-risk populations, such as hospital patients or people undergoing surgery, said Fey, the University of Nebraska professor (who was not involved in the new study).

It's certainly not the only strategy thats been explored when it comes to the fight against superbugs.

"There are a lot of pharmaceutical companies looking at vaccines against Staphylococcus aureus," Fey pointed out. And other studies have explored therapies aimed at boosting patients immune systems to help them tackle infections with less help from antibiotics.

The new research only adds to this arsenal of strategies.

"[In the future] I think there will be a lot of development of therapies that tackle bacteria that work alongside the patients immune system," MacNeil said. "We still need antibiotics, but we need to use them a lot less and only use them when we absolutely need."
On a recent visit to the city of Perugia in the central Italian region of Umbria, I couldnt help but notice several TripAdvisor stickers in the local trattoria windows. As my husband and I spent our warm summer days eating gelato and exploring the historic center, a Travelers Choice Award sticker caught our eye in a neighborhood pizza joint; another, pasted in front of a specialty food shop hawking prosciutto and cheese, read Hall of Fame. By the time we finished the best tiramisu of our lives at La Taverna, a dreamy candlelit restaurant with vaulted ceilings just steps from the citys main drag, I knew I was onto something. There, in a tiny window facing the courtyard, were three different stickers: Certificate of Excellence, Hall of Fame, and Recommended on TripAdvisor. What did they mean?

With 350 million reviews and counting, TripAdvisor is more than a safe space to vent about yesterdays terrible breakfast;its a powerful tool shaping millions of travelers decisions worldwide. And with registered users uploading more than 230 new pieces of content each minute, that trend shows no signs of stopping. (The site operates in 48 countries, in 28 languages.) In fact, a recent study commissioned by TripAdvisor found 82 percent of travelers are more likely to patronize a business with the companys endorsement on display. Trouble is, most travelers dont know what distinguishes one sticker from anotheror why theyre there in the first place.

Whats in a Sticker?

Around 2007, TripAdvisor launched its stickering program to help businesses increase walk-in traffic. The marketing tactic worked, and the stickers went digital in 2013, when the company released a widget that allows businesses to add a virtual sticker to their website and/or review page if theyve met certain criteria. Any accommodation, attraction, restaurant, or destination may use the widget, and, not surprisingly, TripAdvisor encourages it. However, these awards and their stickers (which are dated by year) follow a distinctive hierarchy, though the company doesnt define it that way. Heres how.

Travelers Choice Awards

TripAdvisor began recognizing the best hotels in 2002, which evolved into the Travelers Choice Awards. Now given once a year, this sticker indicates a property is among the best in the world, says TripAdvisor spokesperson Kevin Carter. All recipients are determined using a proprietary algorithm; alas, there are no sticker judges. Travelers Choice Awards winners must maintain an overall bubble rating, as the site calls its summary of ratings, of at least four out of a possible five from users over a 12-month period. (A minimum number of reviews is also required, but TripAdvisor declined to share that number.) Recent reviews, traveler opinions, and a consistent track record of quality are all major factors, so this is the sticker to watch out for if you expectand requiretop-notch quality and service.

Certificate of Excellence

Next in the hierarchy of recognition, as Carter puts it, is the Certificate of Excellence, which is awarded to properties who maintain an overall bubble rating of at least four stars over the past year. (Again, an undisclosed minimum number of reviews is required.) To help you distinguish between this and the Travelers Choice Awards, an even smaller numberthose who are the cream-of-the-crop, best-of-the-best businessesearn Travelers Choice Awards, Carter says. Theoretically, these properties could also be eligible for the Travelers Choice Award as long as they kept their high rating. So if you happen upon a business with both, consider yourself very lucky. If it only has a Certificate of Excellence sticker, rest assured that its going to be solid.

Hall of Fame

A one-off created in 2015, Hall of Fame strikes me as an excuse to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Certificate of Excellence sticker. It was awarded to 29,042 properties globally, all of whom earned a Certificate of Excellence for five consecutive years, including 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. If given the choice between a business sporting this sticker or a plain old Certificate of Excellence, Id go for the former since it reflects a standard of service. That said, a Certificate of Excellence from this year is a good omen.

Recommended On

The Recommended On sticker ranks lower than the Certificate of Excellence, as its given to properties that earned a bubble rating of 3.5 or higher rating at some point in time. That last points worth noting, as theres no telling when this occurred,unless users specifically check their review page. My take? If youre traveling on foot and find yourself in a bind, this stickers a nice vote of confidence. Otherwise, keep your expectations in check.

Reviewed on TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor offers this sticker free to properties not affiliated with the awards, and all it means is they have a review page. If youre in a remote area, you might find this one useful, since its sort of a sign of legitimacy. But aside from that, its really not notable. Any business can post a free sticker.

How the Stickers Can Help Travelers

TripAdvisors sticker system is helpful but hardly fool-proof. Even though stickers are dated, businesses can display them as long as they want. So if a charming caf touts a Travelers Choice Award from 2010and hasnt received one since thenyou can assume things have gone downhill. Then theres the issue of Recommended On and Reviewed On, which sound too much alike. If you didnt know one was available for free, you might assume the business was decent. Or perhaps because the wordings so vague, you wouldnt know what to think.

Either way, these stickers are only as helpful as your knowledge of how they work. For now, at least, Im keeping my eyes peeled for Travelers Choice Award and Certificate of Excellenceboth from this year.

Related Articles
By James Macharia and Nqobile Dludla JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Oscar Pistorius was treated in hospital for wrist injuries on Saturday, a prison service spokesman said, adding the jailed South African track star had denied trying to kill himself. The multiple gold medal-winning Paralympian, serving six years for murdering his girlfriend on Valentine's Day 2013, was returned to his Pretoria cell after the incident, which coincided with the first day of competition in the Rio Olympic Games. "Oscar Pistorius denied speculations of a suicide attempt," Department of Correctional Services spokesman Manelisi Wolela said on Sunday, describing the athlete's injuries as minor. Pistorius reached the pinnacle of his fame in 2012 when he became the first double amputee to run in the Olympics, making the 400 metres semi-finals in London before taking two golds in the Paralympics. He had his sentence increased from five to six years in July, a term that South African prosecutors - who had sought 15 years - called "shockingly lenient" and said they would appeal against. Newspaper City Press said earlier on Sunday that Pistorius, known as Blade Runner for the carbon-fibre prosthetics he wore when racing, was rushed to Pretoria's Kalafong Hospital around midday on Saturday. It quoted a security guard as saying: "He had bad cuts on his wrists and the doctors kept wrapping bandages around them." An inmate situated close to a separate hospital annexe within the prison told the paper Pistorius had injured himself intentionally, and it quoted two warders as saying razor blades were found in his cell. Asked to comment, Pistorius family spokeswoman Anneliese Burgess said there would be no statement at this stage. The runner, who had the lower part of his legs amputated when he was a baby, was freed from prison last October after almost a year behind bars. He was to serve the remainder of the original five-year term under house arrest at his uncle's house in a wealthy suburb of the South African capital. But his initial manslaughter conviction was changed to murder by the Supreme Court of Appeal in December, and his term then increased to six years last month. Before his sentencing on July 6, Pistorius told British broadcaster ITV that his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, would have wanted him to go free and dedicate his life to charity, not waste it behind bars. (editing by John Stonestreet)
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African track star Oscar Pistorius, serving six years in jail for murdering his girlfriend, was treated in hospital for minor wrist injuries on Saturday before being returned to custody, a prison service spokesman said. The Paralympic gold medallist, who had his term for the Valentine's Day 2013 killing of Reeva Steenkamp increased to six years in July, denied he had tried to kill himself, the spokesman for the department of correctional services said on Sunday. South African prosecutors have said they will appeal against the six-year term, which they called "shockingly lenient". Newspaper City Press earlier said Pistorius, known as Blade Runner for the carbon-fibre prosthetics he wore when racing, was rushed to hospital around midday on Saturday. It quoted a security guard as saying: "He had bad cuts on his wrists and the doctors kept wrapping bandages around them." An inmate situated close to the hospital section told the paper Pistorius had injured himself intentionally, and it quoted two warders with knowledge of the section as saying razor blades were found in his cell. Asked to comment, Pistorius' family spokeswoman Anneliese Burgess told Reuters there would be no statement at this stage. (Reporting by James Macharia and Nqobile Dludla; editing by John Stonestreet)
Yushu (China) (AFP) - Under a twinkling starlit sky, the glow of an electric light is the only sign that a Tibetan nomad's way of life has changed in hundreds of years.

Yaks are still milked using wooden buckets with rope handles, and the animal's waste is dried and burned for fuel -- a necessity at the high altitude where trees are scarce.

But the number of Tibetans maintaining the pastoral lifestyle is dwindling, with the Chinese government pushing to decrease the Tibetan nomad population and move them into resettlement villages, sometimes by force.

Chinese authorities say urbanisation in Tibetan areas and elsewhere will increase industrialisation and economic development, offering former nomads higher living standards and better protecting the environment.

Since 2000, government statistics show that urban residents have leaped by more than half in the Tibet region itself, where officials launched a programme five years ago to establish Communist cadre teams in every locality.

In Qinghai province, much of which is ethnically Tibetan, the urbanisation rate has increased from 40 percent to nearly 50 percent in the past decade, but one Tibetan member of a Communist party committee in the area told AFP that the process was happening "too fast".

Those sentiments highlight the drastic changes since 1951, when Chinese forces occupied Tibet.

While some pastoralists maintain their traditional way of living, the new urban settlements are increasingly taking up land once used for livestock.

"Because of the villages we can't get enough grassland for our yaks," said Jargaringqin, a 31-year-old herder who lives in the mountains of Qinghai, in northwestern China.

He spends the winter in a house while the summer is spent roaming across the grasslands in tents. Yaks give the family milk, butter and cheese and occasionally meat.

Environmental experts say grazing is essential to maintaining the ecology of the grasslands, and with fewer nomadic families more invasive plants are taking hold.

-- This story accompanies a photo essay by Nicolas Asfouri --
By Ryan Schwartz



Amazon on Sunday announced that it will be releasing Transparent Season 3 as well as three new comedies  including one from Woody Allen  in September. You know, because theres not enough TV at that time of year.

RELATED Matt Bomers The Last Tycoon Gets Series Order at Amazon

First up is One Mississippi (Sept. 9), created by and starring comedian Tig Notaro as a woman who returns to her childhood hometown to deal with the unexpected death of her mom. Casey Wilson (Happy Endings) co-stars.

Fleabag, a British import starring Broadchurchs Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Olivia Coleman, drops Sept. 16 and follows an unhappy woman struggling with modern ways of living in London. The third season of Transparent  which has already been renewed for Season 4  arrives the following Friday, on Sept. 23.

Closing out a month of premieres on Sept. 30 is Allens 1960s-set Crisis in Six Scenes, a six-episode vehicle co-starring Miley Cyrus and Elaine May.

Other announced premiere dates include David E. Kelleys Goliath fka Trial (Oct. 14, pictured below), Good Girls Revolt (Oct. 28), Red Oaks Season 2 (Nov. 11), Mozart in the Jungles partly Venice-set Season 3 (Dec. 9) and Man In the High Castle Season 2 (Dec. 16).





Which of Amazons premieres are you looking forward to the most?

Related stories

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For weeks, the Hillary Clinton campaign has been using Donald Trumps own words against him. Now the Republican nominee is returning the favor.

The Trump campaign released a new online video mocking his Democratic rival as a malfunctioning robot after her recent assertion that she short-circuited during an interview about the FBIs investigation into her use of a private email server as secretary of state.

The 30-second clip  posted to Trumps Facebook page on Saturday  features footage of Clinton accidentally calling Trump her husband to a group of Hispanic and black journalists on Friday; appearing to say shell raise taxes on the middle class; then explaining that she may have short-circuited when she insisted that FBI Director James Comey concluded she never misled the American people. While Comey testified that Clinton had been truthful to the FBI about her handling of classified information, he refused to say whether she misled the public.

Is Robot Hillary melting down? text in the video asks before sparks are seen shooting out of Clintons mouth.

Crooked Hillary said loudly, and for the world to see, that she SHORT CIRCUITED when answering a question about her e-mails. Very dangerous! Trump tweeted Saturday morning. Anybody whose mind SHORT CIRCUITS is not fit to be our president!

Crooked Hillary said loudly, and for the world to see, that she SHORT CIRCUITED when answering a question on her e-mails. Very dangerous!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 6, 2016

Anybody whose mind SHORT CIRCUITS is not fit to be our president! Look up the word BRAINWASHED.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 6, 2016

He used the same line of attack at a rally in New Hampshire on Saturday night.

Story continues

Unstable Hillary Clinton, Trump said. You saw where she basically short-circuited? She short-circuited. She used the term. I think that the people of this country dont want somebody thats going to short-circuit up there.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Trump campaign adviser, says he expects the real estate mogul to continue to attack Clinton using that term.

That was a heck of a comment, Giuliani said on ABCs This Week on Sunday. I mean, first of all, she lied. She didnt short-circuit. She lied last week when she said the FBI found that she hadnt lied. You read Comeys report, he found she lied in about eight different places. So maybe short-circuit is her euphemism for lying.

I dont know, Giuliani continued. Did she short-circuit when she didnt protect the Benghazi compound, when she got 20 requests for more help? Did she short-circuit during the Benghazi situation when, if we had gotten people there, we might have been able to save Sean Smith and the other CIA gentlemans life?  Did she short-circuit when she advocated for the overthrow of Gadhafi, and Libya is now an Islamic State stranglehold? Did she short-circuit when she said shes going to raise taxes on the middle class?

On the tax question, the Clinton campaign pushed back, insisting that the candidate never said she intends to raise taxes on the middle class.

Clinton campaign spokesman Josh Schwerin pointed to a transcript of her prepared remarks in which she states, We arent going to raise taxes on the middle class.

Seriously, what is going on with Trump and Russia? https://t.co/N6ySNILYMx  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 6, 2016

Meanwhile, the Clinton campaign released a new ad that raises questions about Trumps ties to Russia.

We dont know why Trump praises Putin, states the text at the beginning of the video, which shows a clip of Trump calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a strong leader and highlighting campaign proposals that appear to be in line with Kremlin positions.

The fresh attacks come amid a new wave of national polls that show Clinton has opened up a significant lead over Trump, whose ongoing feuds with the Gold Star parents of a fallen Muslim American soldier, as well as members of the GOPs top brass, have led some Republicans to distance themselves from the partys nominee.
Washington (AFP) - John Kasich confirmed Sunday he had been sounded out as a possible running mate of Donald Trump in a call the Republican candidate's son made to an aide of the Ohio governor.

The New York Times reported last month that Donald Trump Jr broached the possibility in a call to a senior Kasich adviser in May, telling him Trump's vice president would be responsible for domestic and foreign policy.

Kasich said in a CNN interview that he was never contacted directly but that one of his aides received the call from Donald Trump Jr and that the Times' account of the conversation was accurate.

A former Trump rival in the primaries who has yet to endorse the Republican candidate, Kasich said he "never considered" the running mate option.

"I'd be the worst vice president," he said. "I have too many opinions."

The Trump campaign ultimately chose Indiana Governor Mike Pence.

Kasich declined to attend the Republican National Convention -- which was held in his own battleground state Ohio -- saying that it would have been "inappropriate" to attend without endorsing Trump.

"I wish that I could be fully enthusiastic. I can't be," Kasich said, declining to say who he planned to vote for in November.

"There will be sections he will win because people are angry, frustrated and haven't heard any answers," Kasich said when asked if he thought Trump had a chance to clinch Ohio this fall.

"But I still think it's difficult if you are dividing to be able to win in Ohio."
Washington (AFP) - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump slammed Hillary Clinton as mentally unstable at a Saturday campaign rally, seizing on her admission that she "short-circuited" in comments about her private email use at the State Department.

"The people of this country don't want somebody who's going to short circuit up here," Trump told supporters in New Hampshire.

"She's a dangerous liar," the real estate mogul said of the Democratic former secretary of state. "She is a totally unhinged person. She's unbalanced."

Trump's supporters chanted "Lock her up!" during the event in the town of Windham, which was broadcast online.

On Friday, Clinton acknowledged she "may have short-circuited" when she tried to clarify statements about her use of a private email server.

The Democrat had told Fox News Sunday that FBI director James Comey said her "answers were truthful" about whether she sent or received classified material via private email. That comment was branded false by Washington-based fact-checkers.

Trump, 70, has embraced her phrasing as a line of attack. On Saturday ahead of his rally in New Hampshire, he posted a campaign ad on his Facebook page that refers to Clinton as "Robot Hillary" -- and shows sparks flying out of her mouth.

"Is Robot Hillary melting down?" the ad asks.

Trump is trying to boost his campaign after a week of missteps that saw his poll numbers drop and the 68-year-old Clinton, a former senator and first lady, seize the momentum.

He reversed course and endorsed House Speaker Paul Ryan for re-election on Friday, pledging to work with Republican Party leaders. Trump also said he would support veteran Republican Senator John McCain, with whom he has sparred in the past.

"We need unity. We have to win this election," Trump told a rally in Ryan's state of Wisconsin.
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told a rally of more than a million people in Istanbul on Sunday that he would approve the death penalty if parliament voted for it, following last month's failed coup. In a speech to the "Democracy and Martyrs' Rally", also broadcast live on public screens across the country, Erdogan said the network of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who he blames for the coup attempt three weeks ago, must be destroyed within the framework of the law. (Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Humeyra Pamuk; Writing by Nick Tattersall)
By Humeyra Pamuk and Nick Tattersall ISTANBUL (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan told a rally of more than one million people on Sunday that July's failed coup would be a milestone in building a stronger Turkey, defying Western criticism of mass purges and vowing to destroy those behind the putsch. The "Democracy and Martyrs' Rally" at the Yenikapi parade ground, built into the sea on the southern edge of Istanbul, was a show of strength by Erdogan, who has been angered by European criticism of his combative response to the coup and by U.S. reluctance to hand over the man he accuses of masterminding it. Banners in a sea of red Turkish flags read "You are a gift from God, Erdogan" and "Order us to die and we will do it". It was the first time in decades that opposition leaders joined a rally in support of the government, with pockets of secularists, nationalists and others alongside his core Islamist supporters. "That night, our enemies who were rubbing their hands in anticipation of Turkey's downfall woke up the next morning to the grief that things would be more difficult from now on," Erdogan said of the July 15 abortive coup, drawing parallels to times past when Turkey was occupied by foreign forces. "From now on, we will examine very carefully who we have under us. We will see who we have in the military, who we have in the judiciary, and throw the others out of the door." The parade ground, built to hold more than a million people, was overflowing, with the streets of surrounding neighborhoods clogged by crowds. One presidency official put the numbers at around five million and the event was broadcast live on public screens at smaller rallies across Turkey's 81 provinces. Since the coup bid, Turkish authorities have suspended, detained or placed under investigation tens of thousands of people, including soldiers, police, judges, journalists, medics and civil servants, prompting concern among Western allies that Erdogan is using the events to tighten his grip on power. Erdogan vowed to rid Turkey of the network of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whose followers in the security forces, judiciary and civil service he accuses of orchestrating the attempted power grab and of plotting to overthrow the state. Erdogan said he would approve the restoration of the death penalty if parliament voted for it, a move which would sink any hopes of European Union membership. Shrugging off EU concerns, he said much of the rest of the world had capital punishment. Gulen - an ally of Erdogan in the early years after his Islamist-rooted AK Party took power in 2002 - has denied any involvement in the coup, which came at a critical time for a NATO "frontline" state facing Islamist militant attacks from across the border in Syria and an insurgency by Kurdish rebels. In a rare appearance at a public rally, military chief Hulusi Akar said the "traitors" behind the plot would be punished and he thanked civilians for their role in putting it down. Many of the more than 240 people killed on July 15 were civilians who tried to prevent the takeover of power. The leader of the main secularist opposition, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, said a "new door of compromise" had been opened and that politics must be kept out of the mosques, courthouses and barracks. "There is a new Turkey after July 15," he said. "FREEDOM OR DEATH" Erdogan, a polarizing figure seen by opponents as intolerant of dissent, invited the heads of the secularist and nationalist opposition parties to address the crowds in a display of national unity in defiance of Western criticism. "We're here to show that these flags won't come down, the call to prayer won't be silenced and our country won't be divided," said Haci Mehmet Haliloglu, 46, a civil servant who traveled from the Black Sea town of Ordu for the rally. "This is something way beyond politics, this is either our freedom or death," he said, a large Turkish flag over his shoulder and a matching baseball cap on his head. Turkey's top Muslim cleric and chief rabbi also attended. But the pro-Kurdish HDP, the third-largest party in parliament, was not invited due to its alleged links to Kurdish militants, prompting anger on social media from its supporters. The brutality of July 15, in which rogue soldiers commandeered fighter jets, helicopters and tanks, shocked a nation that last saw a violent military power grab in 1980. Even Erdogan's opponents saw his leadership as preferable to a successful coup renewing the cycle of military interventions that dogged Turkey in the second half of the 20th century. "Erdogan has been brutal and unfair to us in the past, but I believe he has now understood the real importance of the republic's values," said Ilhan Girit, 44, a musician and CHP supporter, carrying a flag of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the modern secular republic. A convoy of nationalists on motorbikes passed as he spoke. Such solidarity may not last. There are already opposition concerns that the restructuring of the military lacks parliamentary oversight and is going too far, with thousands of soldiers discharged, including around 40 percent of generals. WESTERN CRITICISM The extent of the purges in Turkey, which has NATO's second largest armed forces and aspires to membership of the European Union, has drawn criticism in the West. In comments published on Sunday, the leader of Germany's liberal Free Democrats said he saw parallels between Erdogan's behavior and the aftermath of the Reichstag fire in 1933, portrayed by the Nazis as a Communist plot against the government and used by Adolf Hitler to justify massively curtailing civil liberties. Turkish officials have angrily rejected suggestions that the purges are out of proportion, accusing Western critics of failing to grasp the magnitude of the threat to the Turkish state and of being more concerned about the rights of coup plotters than the brutality of the events themselves. Amid the cooling of ties with the West, Erdogan is due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday in St Petersburg for talks intended to end a period of tension after Turkey downed a Russian fighter jet near the Syrian border last November. "At the talks with my friend Vladimir, I believe, a new page in bilateral relations will be opened. Our countries have a lot to do together," Erdogan told the TASS news agency in an interview published on Sunday. In Washington on Sunday several hundred people clad in red and waving Turkish flags gathered in front of the White House in support of Erdogan and to demand that U.S. President Barack Obama deport Gulen to Turkey. "He (Erdogan) has made some mistakes but he is not a dictator," said Okan Sakar, 35, a Turkish tax inspector currently studying in the United States. (Additional reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu in Istanbul, Caroline Copley in Berlin, Maria Kiselyova in Moscow, Jason Lange in Washington; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Ralph Boulton and Gareth Jones)
(Reuters) - Two California skydivers died on Saturday when their parachutes failed to open and they landed in a vineyard, the skydiving company's owner said.

The men, both in their 20s, were found about 10 a.m. near Lodi, about 40 miles south of Sacramento, said Lieutenant Randy Johnson of the San Joaquin Sheriff's Department. The men have not been identified.

Bill Dause, owner of the Parachute Center, in Acampo, said the men jumped in tandem from 13,000 feet and their parachutes had failed to open. They were "freelancers" and neither worked for the company, he said.

"We have no idea what went wrong, other than speculating ... It looks like something went out of sequence," he said.

Dause said no one from his company had been able to examine the equipment to determine what had gone wrong.

A spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration said the accident was under investigation.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by James Dalgleish)
By Aaron Maasho ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Two people died in Ethiopia on Saturday during anti-government protests, according to a resident of one of several towns where demonstrations took place. The deaths occurred in the town of Ambo in Oromiya region, where security forces clashed with protesters demanding the release of people detained during earlier demonstrations over an aborted attempt by the government to commandeer local land. Under a 25-year development programme, the government had intended to incorporate part of Oromiya into the boundaries of the capital Addis Ababa, only scrapping the plan after months of protests. Saturday's demonstrations, which witnesses said also took place in the capital and in the Oromiya town of Woliso, were to press for the release of people detained in those earlier protests. "Gunshots rang out throughout the day ... at least two (people) have died," the Ambo resident, who did not wish to give his name, told Reuters. Other residents in Ambo said police carried out door-to-door searches looking for people suspected of having participated in the demonstrations. The government made no mention of casualties during the protests, saying in a statement it would not tolerate any threats to the country's "hard-earned peace". Attempts by Reuters to contact the government spokesman were not successful. The 25-year development plan, aimed at attracting investment to help industrialise Ethiopia's primarily agrarian economy, first sparked small protests in 2014. Those demonstrations grew in scale after it emerged last November that the scheme included plans to incorporate land near Ginchi, a town in Oromiya, within the Addis Ababa area. (writing by Elias Biryabarema; editing by John Stonestreet)
George Jung

George Jung is one of America's most well-known drug dealers, having been immortalized in the Johnny Depp film "Blow."

But in 1974, he was a relatively low-level drug smuggler; one who had just been sentenced to four years at the Federal Correctional Institute at Danbury, Connecticut, after being picked up with a car trunk full of marijuana in Chicago.

Danbury, in Jung's words, was a "very mellow, laid-back place." But it was also a place where, "You could more or less learn anything you wanted to learn in there in reference to illicit activities," Jung told PBS Frontline. "It was basically a school."

At the time, Jung's offense was relatively light and his term relatively short. But, in a decision that would alter the American drug landscape forever, prison authorities put Jung in a cell with Carlos Lehder, a young Colombian-American who had been picked up for stealing cars.

"He was looking for a way to transport cocaine out of Colombia and people to sell it in the United States and there I was," Jung told PBS. "It was like a marriage made in heaven, or hell in the end."

"Jung knew how to import drugs by plane; Lehder had contacts in Colombia," Tom Wainwright, the former Mexico City bureau chief for The Economist, wrote in his book, "Narconomics." Cocaine was a relatively little-used drug in the US at that point, Wainwright writes, but "When Lehder and Jung were released from prison in 1976, they set about changing that forever."

Carlos Lehder drug trafficking Pablo Escobar Medellin cartel

Once they were both released, Lehder sent a telegram to Jung at his parents' house in Massachusetts, telling him to find two women and send them to Antigua with Samsonite suitcases.

"They were more or less naive to what was going on and I told them that they'd be transferring cocaine, and really at that time, not very many people in Massachusetts knew what the hell cocaine was," Jung recounted to PBS.

Story continues

The women returned to Boston with their drugs undetected, telling Jung they enjoyed themselves so much that they were going back the next day.

"So they went and they were successful both times," Jung said. "That was the beginning of the cocaine business for Carlos and myself."

At the next stage, Jung met Lehder in Canada, and the two of them tracked down a pilot with connections in the Bahamas.

"This was the first time that we showed the Colombians that you could take huge amounts of cocaine and drop it into the United States via air and also there was a huge market there for it," Jung told PBS, saying they generated millions of dollars in a matter of days.

"Within a couple of years they were importing the drug by the ton, hooking up with Pablo Escobar's Medellin cartel in Colombia to send planeloads of cocaine to the United States via Norman's Cay, a small island in the Bahamas that they used as their base," Wainwright writes.

Escobar sat at the head of the one of the most expansive criminal empires the world has ever seen. At its peak in the 1980s, his cartel was supplying 80% of the world's cocaine, moving 15 tons of it into the US every day. It's thought he was bringing in as much as $420 million a week.

Jung and Lehder both became more deeply involved in the cocaine trade, but they eventually parted ways. Lehder, in Jung's telling, became more unstable.

"He wasnt crazy he had delusions, though. He loved John Lennon and Adolf Hitler at the same time. That should have been a sign for me," Jung said in an interview with High Times.

After being forced out of his partnership with Lehder, Jung began working more closely with Escobar himself, carrying the drug north. Jung even visited Escobar in Colombia, where the American witnessed the Medellin cartel chief execute someone he said betrayed him  after that, Escobar asked Jung what he wanted for dinner.

escobar plane

Jung  who was sitting on nearly $100 million at one point, thanks to his smuggling  was eventually arrested again in Florida. While in jail there, he was approached about testifying against Lehder.

He initially refused, but after news emerged that Lehder had written a letter to Vice President George H.W. Bush and offered to cooperate with the US against the traffickers he and Jung had worked with, Jung agreed to testify  after securing Escobar's permission to do so.

Jung was released in mid-2014, after serving 20 years. He has become one of the most storied traffickers in American history, his name almost synonymous with cocaine. But, according to Jung, he owes that reputation to Lehder.

When asked by High Times if he would've gotten into the cocaine business if he hadn't met Lehder at Danbury, Jung replied simply: "Never. Never would have happened."

NOW WATCH: Pablo Escobar: The life and death of one of the biggest cocaine kingpins in history





More From Business Insider


Fifth-ranked featherweight Cub Swanson remained in title contention on Saturday, earning a unanimous decision win over veteran Tatsuya Kawajiri at UFC Fight Night 92 in Salt Lake City.

Kawajiri came out throwing kicks and switching stances. He employed several spinning attacks, but his game plan was to take Swanson down.

Swanson defended the first takedown attempt, but found himself on his back late in the opening frame. Kawajiri mounted Swanson, but was unable to capitalize on grounding Swanson.

Swanson found his range and timing in the second round, landing combinations. Kawajiri worked to get the fight back to the ground, but Swanson gained top position during a scramble. He quickly took the back of his Japanese opponent and locked on a rear-naked choke. Kawajiri remained poised and fought out of the submission.

RELATED > UFC Fight Night 92: Rodriguez vs. Caceres Full Live Results and Fight Stats

Swanson was beginning to take over the fight with his striking when Kawajiri slipped after missing with a winging right hand. Swanson tried to deliver a knee to the body of the downed Kawajiri, but it landed to his head. Referee Big John McCarthy stepped in and briefly halted the action due to the illegal knee. Kawajiri indicated that he was okay to continue and the fight was restarted after a warning was given to Swanson.

Kawajiri secured two takedowns in the early going of the final frame, but was unable to control Swanson. Swanson was able to scramble back to his feet on both occasions. He hurt Kawajiri with a left hook and knocked him down with a knee to the body. Kawajiri quickly isolated a leg and went for a heel hook. Swanson freed his leg and took Kawajiri's back. Kawajiri rolled to gain top position, but Swanson battled back to his feet and went back to landing punches. After fifteen minutes of back-and-forth fighting, Swanson was awarded the victory by unanimous decision.

My cardio got to me, but I dug deep, said Swanson following the fight.

The win put Swanson on a two-fight winning streak. It was also the first time in Kawajiri's 16-year fighting career that he's lost back-to-back fights.

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Its the calm before the UFC 202 storm. The UFC is coming off an extremely busy month of July in which they held six events, and now the Octagon visits Salt Lake City before Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz face off for the second time.

What we got was whats expected by one of these lower-tier cards  fun fights with plenty of highlights for the hardcore fans, or anyone flipping through, but ultimately not much happened other than Yair Rodriguez fighting like a videogame character once again.

Yair Rodriguez vs. Alex Caceres This was one of the most ridiculous displays of offense ever offered to the MMA Gods. Yair Rodriguez threw so much spinning sh*t, he almost took the earth off its natural rotation and reversed time. I cant stress enough: ridiculous. Like Rodriguez was playing himself in EA UFC and took off stamina loss. That said, Bruce Leeroy (Caceres) avoided damage while staying on his bicycle, but his avoiding damage kept him out of range and he simply couldnt get anything going for his own offense. And so, Rodriguez would get tired. Kinda.

Near the 15-minute mark, Caceres would start opening up combinations and get Rodriguez on his back, where Caceres would work him over. Did Rodriguez empty his gas tank? In round 4, it seemed like both were tired, but they would still button mash their way into the fifth where kept up the pace:

Caceres lands the left and then gets the takedown!! Huge moment in the fight! #UFCSLC https://t.co/I49ZnAUi7A  #UFCSLC (@ufc) August 7, 2016

After 25 minutes, the judges would go to a split-decision, where Yair would (rightfully) win. Im surprised it went to a split. It seemed like a pretty clear 3-2 for Rodriguez. Fun fight. Good matchmaking.

Story continues

Dennis Bermudez def.Rony Jason via unanimous decision.

Body kick attempted by Bermudez but Jason connects and sends him to the canvas! Entertaining fight so far! #UFCSLC https://t.co/Fjk1a5dHXI  #UFCSLC (@ufc) August 7, 2016

Thales Leites def. Chris Camozzi via rear naked choke submission (round 3).

Santiago Ponzinibbio def. Zak Cummings via unanimous decision.

Big head kick lands and then a couple nice shots from @SPonzinibbioMMA but Cummings takes them! #UFCSLC https://t.co/vyne5aaJCq  #UFCSLC (@ufc) August 7, 2016

Trevor Smith def. Joe Gigliotti via unanimous decision.

Maryna Moroz def. Danielle Taylor via split-decision.

Prelims

Court McGee def. Dominique Steele via unanimous decision.

NO TIME WASTED!!! @Court_McGee has come out on FIRE in his home state! #UFCSLC https://t.co/g9hKxOsy3u

Marcin Tybura def. Viktor Pesta via insane heavyweight headkick KO (round 2). Yes, a HW headkick KO. As nasty as it sounds. Heres the replay.

David Teymur def. Jason Novelli via KO (Round 2). This show is insane. After the fight, Teymur called out Sage Northcutt. Nice. Check out the moment of impact that turned Novelli into Stretch Armstrong here.

 FOX Sports: UFC (@UFCONFOX) August 7, 2016

Teruto Ishihara def. Horacio Gutierrez via KO (round 1). This is as brilliant as they come. Check out Ishiharas counter and say hello to Japans MMA savior.

Fight Pass Prelims



Cub Swanson def. Tatsuya Kawajiri via unanimous decision. Fight of the Night. Fight of the year? Cub got the win, but Kawajiri put his back on the mat throughout the fight, and Cub nailed Crusher with an illegal knee that shouldve had a point taken away. I dont like the decision, but the fight was entertaining.

WOW @CubSwanson reverses the takedown and lands in full mount!! Hes trying to sink in the #RNC!! #UFCSLC https://t.co/pwpBlHqeTB  UFC (@ufc) August 6, 2016

HUGE right lands for @Crusher_MMA who then gets the takedown!! #UFCSLC on @UFCFightPass NOW https://t.co/84SGV8GjwU

Justin Ledet def. Chase Sherman via unanimous decision.
PARIS, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Britain's Serious Fraud Office has launched a formal investigation into suspected fraud, bribery and corruption in connection with commercial plane sales by Airbus, parent company Airbus Group said on Sunday.

The move comes three months after a UK government agency suspended the issue of export credits to Airbus, citing discrepancies in declarations by the planemaker on the use of third-party intermediaries during jet sale negotiations.

In a statement on Sunday, Airbus Group said it had been notified that the SFO had opened a probe, and that the company was continuing to cooperate with the UK fraud police.

(Reporting by Gus Trompiz; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Bamako (AFP) - A United Nations peacekeeper was killed and four others were injured Sunday when their vehicle struck an explosive device in northeast Mali, the UN said.

The incident occurred 11 kilometres (six miles) south of Aguelhoc-Anefis in Kidal region, the UN force in Mali, MINUSMA, said in a statement, adding that both the dead soldier and those injured were from Chad.

The vehicle was part of a supply convoy, MINUSMA said.

Less than three hours later, a MINUSMA vehicle was damaged by a roadside bomb near the town of Kidal while on patrol about two kilometres from the mission's base, but no-one was hurt, the statement said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either attack.

An Islamist takeover of northern Mali in 2012 triggered a French military intervention to pull the country back from the brink of collapse.

The UN deployed peacekeepers in July 2013, but the mission has been a relentless target for attacks.

Twenty-eight have been killed so far this year, according to a toll compiled by AFP.

On June 29, the UN Security Council decided to send an additional 2,500 personnel to bring MINUSMA up to a maximum level of 15,200 troops and police and provide for modern equipment and fast-response units.

Mali declared a state of emergency last November after jihadists stormed a hotel in the capital Bamako, killing 20 people, mostly foreigners, in an attack claimed by Al-Qaeda's regional branch.

The state of emergency has been extended several times. It will last until March 29 2017 under a legislative decision on July 31.
Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f169623%2fdonaldtrumppurple

To win a Purple Heart takes courage, strength and, sometimes, a GoFundMe campaign.

Cameron Kerr is a decorated Army veteran who isn't too pleased with Trump's recent comments about America's veterans. After a veteran handed his Purple Heart to Trump at a rally on Tuesday, Trump came under fire for saying, "I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier."

Kerr decided to set up a GoFundMe page to give Trump a chance to win a Purple Heart the old-fashioned way: by going to a war zone and earning it.

SEE ALSO: Hey America: It's August. Let's all take a nice long Trumpcation.

Kerr made his aims clear on his GoFundMe page:

Kerr later admitted that sending Donald Trump to a war zone was something of a fantasy. Instead, Kerr will be using the funds raised from the page to help Syrian refugees.

In just four days, Kerr has raised over $41,000 of his $50,000 goal.

Trump received four draft deferments from Vietnam War for going to college, and one time for heel spurs. Critics have lambasted the candidate for attacking decorated veterans like Arizona Sen. John McCain as well as the family of Khizr Khan.

The candidate may never go to a war zone, but people like Kerr are trying at least to prevent him from going to the Oval Office.

BONUS: Pomeranians react to 'React' videos
Most enthusiasts view Harley Earls 1938 Buick Y-Job as the first concept car. While that really launched companies officially using a futuristic design to gauge public reaction, Volvo beat General Motors to this idea by five years.

The 1933 Venus Bilo was Volvos timid attempt at streamlined styling. The Swedish company was not sure how the public would react to a closed sedan with no fender lines or running boards. So they asked Gustaf Ericsson to design a car and gave him full credit. Instead of being a Volvo, it was given the name Venus Bilo (a word play on the Venus de Milo.)

RELATED: See More of the 1933 Volvo Venus Bilo

The Volvo in disguise was based on their 655 chassis. At over sixteen feet in length, Ericssons blue and yellow car could carry six passengers and nine specially designed suitcases with ease. The Bilos streamlined body and completely sealed underside were intended to create improved fuel mileage and prevent the creation of swirling road dust. Another multi-functional piece was the spare tire mounted horizontally in the rear with a small portion protruding to act as a bumper.

While Volvo had to initially distance itself from the Bilo, it has since become a useful tool in the companys timeline. When they introduced the PV36 Carioca in 1935, it looked an awful lot like the Chrysler Airflow that premiered the previous year. By adopting the Venus Bilo into the family, Volvo could show that they had been in the streamlining game for a year before Chryslers infamous folly.

Aside from being presented as a defense argument, the Bilo went unloved during its youth. Just like the Airflow, the Hupmobile Aerodynamic, and the Carioca, it would be decades before this cars design contribution was truly appreciated. But by then it was too late. By Volvos own admission, the Bilo completely disappeared in the 1950s.

For many of us, the internet and the allure of lost vehicles has turned weekend downtime (and slow workdays) into our own version of cold case cops. Theres a glimpse of YouTube footage that has the car spotted in 1949 leaving a ferry from Denmark. The owner has been promising for a while now to show the full Bilo clip, so hopefully enough people looking at it will get him to actually share the footage.

Story continues

RELATED: See Photos of the 1961 Volvo P1800

This is the last known shot of the worlds first concept car. Rumor has it that the 50s were not good to this custom build. While in Denmark, the Bilo is believed to be converted into a pickup truck and used as a work vehicle until being scrapped.

The common belief is that the Bilo is gone forever. Still, the enthusiast heart in all of us always has hope. Its a longshot, but for those who can search the junkyards and straw fields of Scandinavia, the ultimate barn find is perhaps waiting to be discovered. Because just like the Venus de Milo, even with a few parts missing, the beauty of the Bilos sculpture remains.

Words: Myles Kornblatt
When New Yorker Susana Malpica went to Sephora last week, she left with the illustrious title of Sephora VIP Rouge memberthe very top tier of the beauty meccas equivalent to frequent flier milesfor the first time.

Free shipping on products, invites to events and even more beauty samples are all obviously very positive perks. But then I realized I spent at least $1,000 more than I did last year JUST at Sephora. Whoa.

Malpica is like a lot of other women out there; she doesnt necessarily wear a ton of makeup on a daily basis, but for special occasions, she does find herself going, as she refers to it, the extra mile.

I do highlighting, lashes, filling in brows, eye shadow, foundation, and lip color, she says. And now, instead of just my foundation on my face, it's layers of other thingsilluminators, some contouring. Ive always liked makeup, but I am definitely using more now than I ever have.

You May Also Like: The Easiest Contour Kits to Use



And, if you take a look at the numbers, she's not the only one. According to NPD Group, the U.S. prestige beauty industry reached $16 billion in 2015, a 7 percent increase over 2014 sales. The group with the biggest growth? You guessed it: makeup, which was up 13 percent. (In comparison, fragrance dollars grew by 4 percent, and skin care by 3 percent.)

Celebrity makeup artist Daniel Martin (hes responsible for such A-list faces as Kate Bosworth and Chloe Sevigny) says hes been seeing this trend of people-wearing-way-more-makeup-than-every-before everywhere, and he blames one source. Social mediain particular YouTube and Instagramhas created such a campaign surrounding makeup and how much you wear and how to wear it. I think it's a powerful channel for marketing and trending, but it's not reality. Women are getting way too literal with the amount of makeup they're being exposed to and not comprehending how heavy it looks in real time. Plus, no one is cleansing properly when they wear that much.

Story continues

While Malpica isnt necessarily going the overdone route, she does admit she definitely turns to YouTubers (her favorites are Wayne Goss and Carly Bybel) for makeup tricks, but credits the Kardashians for being the main influencers behind her makeup decisions. Their faces always look so put together, but sometimes you catch a scene of them with no makeup on, and you see the difference. They are still beautiful, but they are real. I think everyone would like to transform like that too.

Beyond TV, Lorac makeup expert Dean Fournier says part of the trend is also because anyone with a computer now has access to the techniques and application styles once reserved for photo shoots. Now they are being utilized by some women on a day-to-day basis.

You May Also Like: This Vlogger's Taylor Swift Transformation Will Blow Your Mind



But Fournier sees a big difference between social media makeup and Hollywood makeup (more specifically, red-carpet makeup), and stresses they should not be lumped into the same category. The most defining aspect of social media makeup is the controlled environment and lighting. Every highlight, shadow and texture can be manipulated to the creator's desire for the best effect.

Red-carpet makeup, he explains, requires an application that can be flattering in all lighting and in front of all types of cameras from photo to video. There is absolutely no control once the celebrity or actress steps out of the makeup chair. So naturally, the best choice is not to overdo the makeup. The funny thing is red carpet beauty can actually correlate to everyday life; you can never control the lighting everywhere you go. How many times have you looked amazing getting ready only to see yourself outdoors and realize you overdid it? This heavier makeup trend we are now seeing was born in the social media age, not the red carpet.

Makeup can be fun and is a great way to express yourself, Fournier says. As an artist, I encourage women to step out of their comfort zone and be playful with makeup! But that being said, layers upon layers of correctors, concealers, powders, highlights and contours can be way too much for everyday wear. Women should ask themselves: What are they are getting ready for...to face the day or to just snap a selfie?
The Weeknd donated $50,000 to a cause dear to his heart

The Weeknd donated $50,000 to a cause dear to his heart

The Weeknd has always been open about and proud of his Ethiopian heritage, whether by adding Amharic (his first language, native to Ethiopia) to the end of The Hills or by sharing (adorable) pics shouting out his cultural homeland.

habesha lidge A photo posted by  STARBOY  (@abelxo) on May 9, 2016 at 4:51pm PDT

And now, Abel Tesfaye has figured out a way to support and highlight his culture in a pretty big way: Hes donated $50,000 to the University of Toronto to help start an Ethiopic studies program.

Tesfaye, whose parents were both Ethiopian immigrants to Canada, has given back to the Toronto Ethiopian community before. Specifically, he recently donated $50,000 to the St. Mary Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which hed attended as a child.

The Bikila Awards organization, which recognizes and fosters achievements by Ethiopian-Canadians, reached out to Tesfaye about the University of Toronto program, and the pop star reportedly immediately got on board. (He had previously received one of these awards back in 2014.) And now, his speedy response is already getting its first result: A course of studies on the ancient Ethiopian language.

Tesfaye has yet to formally announce the news himself, but honestly, this seems like the kind of thing that a real hometown boy does because its the right thing to do. We salute his desire to do good without drawing the spotlight away from the issue at hand: That private individuals are now being tapped to fund public education.

The post The Weeknd donated $50,000 to a cause dear to his heart appeared first on HelloGiggles.
DUBAI (Reuters) - Forces loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi launched a new offensive east of the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Saturday, the military command said, after United Nations-sponsored peace talks in Kuwait ended without an agreement. The offensive, which is backed by air strikes from a Saudi-led coalition, came as the Iran-allied Houthis and the party of ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh announced a 10-member governing council, against the wishes of the U.N. The Houthis and Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC), hold most of Yemen's northern half, while forces loyal to Hadi share control of the rest of the country with local tribes. The fighting in which more than 6,400 people have been killed, half of them civilians, has created a humanitarian crisis in one of the poorest countries in the Middle East. Al Qaeda and its militant rival Islamic State have exploited the war to try to recruit more followers and establish roots in the country, which controls major shipping lanes overlooking the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The pro-Hadi sabanew.net news agency said that the Yemeni army and allied local tribesmen, backed by Arab coalition air strikes, began a major operation to "liberate the district of Nehem east of Sanaa". The area is a key route to the capital, which has been under Houthi control since 2014. "The army and the resistance have managed to liberate a number of important military positions that had been controlled by the coup militias, most prominent of which is the Manara mount which overlooks the centre of Nehem district," the agency quoted a military spokesman as saying. Fighting was also reported on the Yemeni-Saudi border, where a Saudi border guard was killed by fire directed from the Yemeni side, the Saudi state news agency SPA said, citing a security spokesman. A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition accused the Houthis of escalating attacks along the border, where the alliance had scaled back its military operations to give the Yemeni peace talks a chance to succeed. "The militias began military operations along the border after the suspension of the Yemeni consultations," the spokesman, General Ahmed al-Asseri, told the Saudi-owned al-Hadath television, referring to the Houthis. "The Houthi militias are trying to achieve gains on the ground to make up for political losses," he added. The comments came after the U.N. special envoy, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed announced that talks in Kuwait had been adjourned, promising they would resume at an unspecified venue within a month. "We will leave Kuwait today, but peace consultations will continue. We will let the parties consult their leaders," he told a news conference. Earlier in Sanaa, the Houthi-run sabanews.net news agency published the names of 10 officials it said would be on a political committee to run the country. The parties would rotate the position of president and vice president, who would be chosen from within the committee, the statement said. (Reporting By Mohammed Ghobari and Mostafa Hashem in Cairo and Mahmoud Harbi in Kuwait City; Writing by Sami Aboudi; Editing by Andrew Bolton)
Welcome! You have come to the right place. Khmerization is a home to the Cambodian daily news, which is updated twice daily. Please take a tour and enjoy yourself. Thank you.

To contact Khmerization please send an email to:
NEW YORK, Aug 7 (Reuters) - The New York Yankees will release former MVP Alex Rodriguez from his 10-year, $275 million contract that runs through 2017 and he will play his final game with the team on Friday, the team said on Sunday. Rodriguez, 41 and known as A-Rod, this season is having one of the worst years of his professional career, hitting nine home runs with a batting average of .204. He has 696 home runs in his Major League career, which began with the Seattle Mariners in 1994. (Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Howard Goller)
By Chris Mfula LUSAKA (Reuters) - Zambia's main opposition leader has accused the government of using repressive laws to restrict his election campaign and said violence by supporters of the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) would prevent Thursday's polls from being free and fair. However, the African Union (AU) observer mission said political parties in Zambia were still able to conduct their campaign activities without major disruption despite some incidences of violence. Zambia holds presidential and parliamentary elections on Aug. 11. President Edgar Lungu faces a strong challenge from opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema after last year's neck-and-neck race. Lungu has been in power in the southern African nation since winning election in January 2015 following the death of his predecessor, Michael Sata, in October 2014. "Only yesterday, the president cancelled two of my rallies in Eastern province. Why would he not want us to campaign the way he is campaigning?" Hichilema, one of Zambia's wealthiest businessmen and known locally as "HH", told Reuters. "Also the violence that is obtaining in the country does not lend the conditions suitable for a free, fair and credible election," he said in an interview. Zambia's electoral commission on July 9 suspended campaigning for 10 days in two areas, including the capital Lusaka, due to escalating political violence. Despite the unfavourable conditions, Hichilema urged his supporters not to be intimidated and to turn out in large numbers, saying it was still possible to win the elections. "Zambians must not fear, the fear is being created so that they don't vote," he said. The leader of the AU observer mission, former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan, said violence had decreased following the 10-day suspension of campaigning. He said both the ruling party and opposition had accused each other of violence. "There are these fears but we still believe that the elections can be conducted in a manner that will be satisfactory," Jonathan said when asked about concerns that the elections would not be free and fair. He said candidates in Thursday's elections must be ready to accept any result. "Nobody must just assume that I must win the elections. Work hard to win the election, accept the results of the election and ensure peace in Zambia because you are interested in the people," Jonathan said.
Washington (AFP) - A trendy Miami neighborhood at the epicenter of the first US outbreak of the Zika virus is safe to visit, Florida Governor Rick Scott said Sunday.

"We are doing a very good job of working to get rid of the mosquitoes," he said on NBC's Meet the Press. "We have been able to reduce the area that we had a concern about by 10 blocks on Friday."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday issued an unusual domestic travel warning for a one-mile section north of downtown Miami where mosquitoes have spread the virus to 16 people.

In particular, it advised women who are pregnant to avoid travel to the area, a popular arts and restaurant district known as Wynwood, or consult their doctor if they live there.

The virus can cause microcephaly, a severe birth defect in which babies are born with abnormally small heads and permanent brain damage.

Scott said he had visited the neighborhood on Thursday and it was "absolutely" safe.

"We're making sure everybody pregnant has the opportunity to get an assessment and test if they want it," he said. "And we're keeping everybody informed. What we're doing is working."

He said he had asked the CDC for 10,000 additional Zika prevention kits, which contain mosquito repellent, condoms and tabs to treat standing water.

"We still need the federal government to show up, the president and Congress have to work together and this is an international issue, not just a Florida issue," he said.

President Barack Obama asked Congress in February to allocate $1.9 billion for the fight against Zika, but was met with resistance by Republican lawmakers who said the funds should instead be moved from coffers previously reserved for fighting the Ebola outbreak.
By Warren Strobel WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration is preparing to elevate the stature of the Pentagons Cyber Command, signaling more emphasis on developing cyber weapons to deter attacks, punish intruders into U.S. networks and tackle adversaries such as Islamic State, current and former officials told Reuters. Under the plan being considered at the White House, the officials said, U.S. Cyber Command would become what the military calls a "unified command" equal to combat branches of the military such as the Central and Pacific Commands. Cyber Command would be separated from the National Security Agency, a spy agency responsible for electronic eavesdropping, the officials said. That would give Cyber Command leaders a larger voice in arguing for the use of both offensive and defensive cyber tools in future conflicts. Both organizations are based at Fort Meade, Maryland, about 30 miles north of Washington, and led by the same officer, Navy Adm. Michael S. Rogers. A former senior intelligence official with knowledge of the plan said it reflects the growing role that cyber operations play in modern warfare, and the different missions of the Cyber Command and the NSA. The official spoke on condition of anonymity. A Cyber Command spokesman declined comment on the plan, and the NSA did not respond to requests for comment. Established in 2010, Cyber Command is now subordinate to the U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees military space operations, nuclear weapons and missile defense. U.S. officials cautioned that details of the plan, including some aspects of Cyber Command's new status, are still being debated. It was unclear when the matter will be presented to President Barack Obama for final approval, but the former senior intelligence official said it was unlikely anyone would stand in the way. A senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the administration was "constantly reviewing if we have the appropriate organizational structures in place to counter evolving threats, in cyber space or elsewhere." "While we have no changes to this structure to announce, the relationship between NSA and Cyber Command is critical to safeguarding our nations security," the official said. The Pentagon acknowledged earlier this year that it has conducted cyber attacks against Islamic State, although the details are highly classified. "We are dropping cyberbombs. We have never done that before," Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work said in April. The Washington Post reported last month that Pentagon leaders had been frustrated with the slow pace of Cyber Command's electronic offensive against Islamic State, militants who control parts of Iraq and Syria and have sympathizers and supporters worldwide. In response, Rogers created Joint Task Force Ares to develop new digital weapons against Islamic State and coordinate with the Central Command, which is responsible for combat operations in the Middle East and South Asia. The new task force has "the specific mission to accomplish cyberspace objectives in support of counter-ISIL operations," a Cyber Command statement said. Task Force Ares, it said, "comprises operations and intelligence professionals from each of the military services." James Lewis, a cyber security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the plan that will be presented to Obama highlights how Cyber Command, reliant on the NSA in its early years, is developing its own work force and digital tools. "It reflects the maturing of Cyber Command and its own capabilities," Lewis said. Defense Secretary Ash Carter hinted at the higher status for Cyber Command in an April speech in Washington, in which he said the Pentagon is planning $35 billion in cyber spending over the next five years. "Adapting to new functions will include changes in how we manage ourselves in cyberspace," Carter said. NSA's primary mission is to intercept and decode adversaries' phone calls, emails and other communications. The agency was criticized for over-reach after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed some of its surveillance programs. NSA's focus is gathering intelligence, officials said, often favoring the monitoring of an enemy's cyber activities. Cyber Command's mission is geared more to shutting down cyber attacks - and, if ordered, counter attacking. The NSA director has been a senior military officer since the agency's founding in 1952. Under the plan, future directors would be civilians, an arrangement meant to underscore that NSA is not subordinate to Cyber Command. (Additional reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by John Walcott and Grant McCool)
Youtube

Robots are starting to lend a hand to humans in more ways than one. From getting people out of parking tickets to making a hearty meal for their master, it wont be long till we are literally living in the world of the Jetsons. But menial tasks aside, would you want an android put some ink on you?

That is the question being asked by Pierre Emm and Johan da Silveira, who created the industrial robot arm  Tatoue  that can give humans tattoos. How it works is they will scan the body part that will be tattooed, which is then uploaded through the Dynamo design software to translate it into a language the computer will understand. Test subjects dont have to fear the robot using lasers or new technology, as Tatoue will be using a standard tattoo gun with a needle and ink. So dont worry, it will still be the same amount of pain. Emm and Silveira told QZ they are interested in trying something new in an age old practice.

It was very interesting to us to investigate the traditional art of tattooing, which is practiced differently in various countries. Equally, the fact that there is a lack of technological evolution in the tattoo industry over the past one hundred years interested us.

Veteran tattoo artists may not take too kindly to a robot taking their jobs, as it takes years to cultivate a portfolio and some people only go to veteran artists for pristine artwork. Not too mention the robot uprising that may occur after customers voice their displeasure at shotty workmanship.

(Via QZ)
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A Viroqua man has died as the result of a single-vehicle rollover accident on State Hwy. 56 near Elm Drive in the town of Liberty on Tuesday. 
MINNEAPOLIS  A museum in Minneapolis is re-creating the traditional hut used by nomadic Somali people, in hope of teaching young Somali-Americans and others about a way of life in danger of disappearing.

Somali huts are made of bendable, strong branches from trees such as Dhumay or Acacia. Men collect the wood; women assemble the hut.

Amina Shire, who gave her age as past 70, explained that building a hut begins with boiled Acacia water, which looks like a pot of thick red herbs, to reinforce and disinfect tree branches.

Shire was a nomadic farmer herself. She saw huts being made when she was only 5 years old and began making them herself as a teenager. Its my culture, and my tradition, she said through an interpreter. We build the hut, we go in, we take a nap. ... we make it beautiful, we sleep in it.

Few Somali youth today understand how their elders lived before the construction of modern buildings and homes, she said.

Her interpreter, Amine Muse, who is also the education coordinator for the Somali Museum of Minnesota, explained that once the huts skeleton is made, the women work on the inside, weaving traditional mats.

You put that on top, she said. From the outside it looks just like grass, but inside you can see the patterns and colors.

As rain started to fall, another elder Somali woman, Hawa Aden, explained how to put the branches together, stretching rope and wet leather around every part of the wood. Its not an easy task, and bending the wood requires real strength.

Osman Mohamed Ali, president of the museum, said this is how his people used to live. We dont want this kind of culture to get eliminated or die, he said.

The Somali Museum of Minnesota is still trying to find a permanent home. Founded just three years ago, the museum has a collection of about 700 artifacts, housed on the lower level of Plaza Verde off Lake Street in Minneapolis.

You can take Somali traditional dance, you can learn weaving, Ali said. The first class, all white people. ... Last class, they were half and half.

In other words, knowledge of Somali culture is for both Somali-Americans and those wishing to know more about their neighbors.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP)  Sometimes bystanders are curious when they see Tiffany Morgan's 8-year-old daughter have a meltdown at the playground. The conversation goes like this:

"Why is she doing that?" asks the stranger.

"She has FASD," Morgan explains.

"What's that?"

"It's fetal alcohol syndrome."

"What is that?"

"I drank while I was pregnant with her."

Morgan has become accustomed to sharing her most private pain  if it helps someone understand her daughter Ny'Ana's disability or raises awareness about the risks of drinking while pregnant. The 41-year-old St. Paul woman has become a spokeswoman for fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, the term given to the cognitive and physical damage that can result when a woman exposes her fetus to alcohol. The effects, which range from mild to severe, are a major cause of developmental disabilities and increasingly seen as a large public health problem, yet one the American Academy of Pediatrics calls "vastly under recognized."

It's also 100 percent preventable, but it's not something most people feel comfortable talking about, said Ruth Richardson, program director at the Minnesota Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. And that's making it hard to deal with the problem.

"Until we shed the shame and the stigma about this issue, there are going to be secrets," Richardson said. "And that's going to make it hard to understand its scope."

Obstetricians are not always sure how to talk to women about drinking, and pediatricians might never ask about it, she said. Schools might be unaware of children who have disabilities caused by alcohol.

And few people understand the complex reasons women drink while they are pregnant. They might drink before they know they have conceived. They might have addictions or be ignorant of how alcohol could affect a fetus.

"No one sets out to hurt their baby," Richardson said.

MOFAS, which was formed in 1998 to support foster and adoptive parents of children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, recently started helping mothers like Morgan share their stories to raise public awareness.

"Tiffany really connects with the women," said Catie Triviski, who coordinates the organization's chemical health programs. "It's so hard to process that you could have caused harm to your child. There's so much shame that it can prevent women from even talking about it. And I know there are other women who contact her for support. She helps them know they aren't alone."

Morgan grew up in Evansville, Ind., the second of five children in a tight-knit black community where, as she put it, "if you got past your parents, you didn't get past your neighbors." Her mother is a retired school teacher. Her father, who passed away in 2009, was a mechanic. He also drank heavily. Morgan didn't know about that until she was 16 and was called to a hospital emergency room after her dad almost died of complications from alcohol withdrawal.

She kept to herself as a child, reading Nancy Drew mysteries and "Little House on the Prairie." After high school, she tried to enroll in the Army and was told she was pregnant during the routine health exam. She said prenatal visits with her doctor didn't touch on avoiding alcohol.

"I don't remember them asking, do you drink, or when do you drink, or how much do you drink?" she said. "I just remember hearing 'your baby is protected because it's in that sack of fluid.' "

Morgan said her doctor told her to drink a couple of glasses of red wine to boost her iron. She wasn't a drinker then. So, instead, her grandmother cooked up iron-rich collard greens.

Morgan's first daughter, Ny'Asha, was born 1994. Just before the birth, the baby's father, a young man whom she recalls more as a childhood "best friend" than a boyfriend, was shot and killed in the parking lot of the local liquor store, being "in the wrong place at the wrong time," she said.

Morgan started smoking marijuana to escape her grief and stress. Over the next decade, she held a series of low-wage jobs. She worked several years in a nursing home but quit because "I was getting too attached," she said. "It really messed me up mentally when they would pass." She worked as a construction laborer, washed and cut hair and operated a switchboard until "something in my head just snapped" and she was diagnosed with bi-polar depression. In 2006, she lost her job driving a day care bus.

"I was always working paycheck to paycheck," she said. "I was tired of being broke and not having what the drug dealers had  cars and trips and anything their kids wanted. I always had to pay bills and I wasn't able to get things for my daughter. So I started selling drugs."

Morgan said she made a lot of money selling crack cocaine before she was caught a year later. Her attorney entered a plea bargain, and she was released after serving two months in jail.

"I believe God knocked me down," said Morgan. "I would have probably become a monster if I stayed in it any longer. I didn't care about anybody. I just wanted your money. That's how I became."

Morgan knew marijuana would show up in drug tests required by the terms of her probation. So she switched to a legal drug  alcohol. On her first day out jail, she went to the liquor store, bought a fifth of Grey Goose Vodka and sat on her front porch drinking until she passed out. She continued drinking, even after she discovered she was pregnant again.

Looking back, she said she didn't seek help because in her family, "therapy was for people in straight jackets. That's why I handled it the way I did. I just drank. And my family never said anything about it even though they knew I was pregnant. I didn't have no support. So I drank. It was a really messed up time."

Unknown to her, the alcohol passed through the placenta to her developing baby. Liquor's intoxicating ingredient, ethanol, triggers brain cells to "self destruct on a massive scale," according to University of Minnesota psychiatrist Jeffrey Wozniak, who treats and studies children with alcohol-caused disabilities.

"When we say that alcohol is more toxic than marijuana and cocaine and heroin, people don't believe it," says Wozniak. "Alcohol's toxicity has nothing to do with whether it's legal or illegal, it has to do with basic chemistry."

Morgan's second daughter Ny'Ana was born full term in April 2008, at five pounds, seven ounces. Low birth weight can be a sign of alcohol exposure, but Morgan didn't suspect a problem. And despite the unwanted pregnancy, she fell in love at first sight.

"When I seen her, I loved her. That was my baby, and it didn't matter."

After her year and a half of probation was over, Morgan caught a bus to the Twin Cities in search of a new start.

Ny'Ana was a fussy baby who cried almost constantly, and Morgan strapped her to her chest in an effort to sooth her to sleep. She never crawled and didn't speak until she was 3. Something was wrong, but no one knew what. Morgan took her to early childhood education classes for toddlers with developmental delays. Finally, a pediatrician referred Ny'Ana to a psychologist for a more thorough evaluation, where for the first time someone asked Morgan if she drank while she was pregnant.

"The question shocked me. I was afraid to answer. So, I lied. I said 'No. I don't know what you're talking about.' "

It's not uncommon for women to lie, which makes it even more difficult to identify alcohol-caused disabilities in children. By now, Morgan had a third child by a third father, a boy named Malachi, and she was worried child protection would take her kids. A nurse practitioner at Hennepin County Medical Center won her trust.

"She didn't come with authority in her white coat," recalled Morgan. "She said, 'I'm going to talk to you woman to woman.' She said I wasn't in any trouble. She said they wanted to start Ny'Ana on this medication for ADHD. And that I needed to be honest because they could give her the wrong medication and it could harm her. You need to tell them so they can help her. So, I told her. I told her as much as I could remember."

A follow up with a specialist determined that Ny'Ana had subtle physical signs of alcohol exposure, including a slightly smaller head and a smoothing over of the philtrum, the natural indentation below the nose. She also had invisible and permanent brain damage, leading to a diagnosis of alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder (ARND) when she was 4.

"It killed me. As soon as the doctor told me, my heart like dropped to my stomach," said Morgan. "I remember getting really, really hot. And I had to step out for a minute. When I got home, I sat down and I looked at her and went over what they had pointed out. I started seeing it. I got to thinking back to when she was younger and thinking, that's why she was acting that way. And the more I seen, the more it killed me. I couldn't even look her in the face no more. I wanted to die, but I knew I couldn't die because my kids needed me."

Morgan quit marijuana immediately after her daughter was diagnosed. She had quit drinking before Malachi was born. She's spent the nearly four years since then trying to be a good mother to her kids. After being homeless, she found a subsidized apartment in St. Paul's Payne-Phalen neighborhood. She is in therapy and receives Social Security disability payments because of her bi-polar depression. Malachi, who was not exposed to alcohol, is doing well. Her older daughter, Ny'Asha, often drops by.

Ny'Ana is in summer school. She doesn't read, but on a good day, she can recite the letters of the alphabet. She finished a second year of kindergarten at a school where Morgan said the teachers "don't know much about FASD but they are open to learning." At Ny'Ana's first school, Morgan felt the teachers pegged her as a "bad" girl who didn't follow directions.

"Part of the problem is that the brain damage is invisible," said Richardson, with the Minnesota Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. "When teacher sees a child with FASD, they can't tell they have special needs. No teacher would ever look at a kid with Down Syndrome and say, 'you just need to try harder.'"

Ny'Ana has trouble focusing and is impulsive. She interprets instructions literally.

"If I tell her in the morning to go put her clothes on, that's just what she'll do," said Morgan. "She'll put her clothes on over her pajamas. She's gonna do exactly what you say." She doesn't understand social nuances and gets upsets if other kids tease her.

Her memory is damaged, and she doesn't easily predict consequences. When Morgan recently baked cookies, Ny'Ana reached over a hot stove to get one and burned herself. "And then she did it again. And she did it again." said Morgan, who speaks with both fondness and exasperation about her daughter. "What I think of as common sense, they don't have it."

Through the Minnesota Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Morgan has learned to be patient and to break down complicated tasks into small steps.

"I think it's getting a lot better," she added. "But it's brain damage and it's permanent."

Morgan lives with a profound sense of guilt.

"I probably won't never be over it," she said.

It's partly what drives her to tell her story. Through the birth mom panel at the Minnesota Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, she speaks several times a month in prisons, drug and alcohol treatment programs and at domestic violence shelters, where women are more likely to abuse alcohol and where the organization targets its prevention and support efforts.

She was recently asked to be part of a statewide group charged with coming up for recommendations on what to do with pregnant women who are referred to child protection services because of their drug and alcohol use. A few weeks ago, she went with Richardson to speak to a gathering of health providers in St. Paul.

"She is so passionate," said Richardson. "At the end of the day I'm ready to pack all this stuff up and she's still there handing brochures out to people. She is like, 'we're going to talk to every person here.' "

Morgan is mentoring a young pregnant woman who just stopped drinking heavily. She has tried to talk about fetal alcohol spectrum disorders with her family. Her mom listens, she said, but not everyone wants to hear it.

"My other relatives are like, 'Oh girl, that's something that white people made up.'

"I'm like, 'No. Noooo. It's not.'

"Or they'll say, 'There aren't no such thing as that, girl. Your baby is in a sac.' They're like, 'Girl, I drank my whole pregnancy. Ain't nothing wrong with my kids.'"

"I believe God put me in this position. Not that he caused it to happen to my daughter. That was all me. But I believe this is now my calling. It's God saying, 'OK, this is your opportunity to make things right. I'm going to open up these doors for you.'"
Tired of politics?

We understand.

After the recent Republican and Democratic national conventions, we can appreciate that youre sick of divisive debate.

But theres something important you need to become involved in Tuesday that transcends politics.

Its called democracy.

On Tuesday, Wisconsin residents have the opportunity to vote in a primary election from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Generally, we consider primaries a predominantly party matter.

But on Tuesday, voters in our region have big decisions to make.

For example, theres no Republican on the ballot for U.S. House of Representatives in the November election, so its likely our member of Congress from the 3rd District will be selected in Tuesdays Democratic primary.

There are key primary races for both Republicans and Democrats for state Senate from the La Crosse area.

There are more primary races in our region Tuesday, and that means big consequences for November and beyond.

Dont sit home and expect your favorite candidate to win without your vote.

Without question, Tuesdays primary election will have a much lower turnout than the Nov. 8 election.

So, if youre not registered to vote, Tuesday is a perfect day to show up at your polling place and register.

Heres a reminder from the League of Women Voters:

Voters must be registered to vote. You may register to vote at the polls on Election Day.

Voters who move within 28 days before the election must vote at the poll from their previous address.

Voters must present a voter photo ID. Be sure you have an eligible ID.

Voters must sign or make their mark on the poll book to obtain a ballot before voting. Voters who are unable to sign the poll book because of a disability are exempt from this requirement.

Please dont sit home and pretend that voting isnt worth the effort.

Democracy is always worth your time.

Voting is a right and a privilege too important to ignore.
A 23-year-old Tomah woman as referred to the Monroe County District Attorney after allegedly threatening a police officer July 26.

Police were called to a group home on West Veterans Street after Amber Schaller left the facility. When police caught up with Schaller a block west of the home, Schaller reportedly fled before tripping and falling. She sat up and rebuffed an officers attempt to initiate a conversation.

After allegedly threatening to hit the officer, Schaller got up again and ran toward to the Evangelical Free Church, where she attempted to open a locked door. She then told police she was returning to the group home. While walking toward the facility, she made repeated threats to kill a police officer or arrange for someone else to do so.

After Schaller returned to the home, the report said she went to her room, where she began banging on the walls and screaming. She also allegedly threatened the safety of the facilitys staff. She then exited her room and attempted to leave the facility. At that point, police initiated an arrest that Schaller resisted, according to the report.

The report says Schaller continued to resist and threaten officers as she was transported to the Monroe County Jail. She was referred on two counts of threatening a police officer, two counts of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

In other police news:

Brandon Kyle Brown, 30, Tomah, was referred to the district attorney for bail jumping after a July 28 traffic stop. Police recognized Browns automobile traveling on North Superior Avenue and knew he had a suspended drivers license. He has a bond condition that prohibits him from driving unless properly licensed.

Ronald D. Mortimer, 52, Baraboo, was referred to the district attorney for failure to install an interlock ignition device.

Police ran a check on Mortimers car July 29 as it was moving on East Clifton Street. The check reported that Mortimer had a revoked drivers license and an ignition interlock device requirement. After the car was pulled over, police identified the driver as Ricky Lee Jenkins, 53, Baraboo.

Jenkins acknowledged the truck didnt have the IID installed but expressed a belief it wasnt necessary because Mortimer wasnt the driver. The officer told Jenkins that the requirement didnt hinge on who was driving the vehicle. The officer noticed that Jenkins has bloodshot eyes and asked him how alcohol he consumed, to which Jenkins reportedly replied, nothing and said the bloodshot eyes were due to allergies.

Jenkins reportedly failed a field sobriety test and registered a blood-alcohol count of .143, which is over the legal limit of .08. Jenkins was issued a municipal citation for first-offense drunk driving.

Nicholas Joseph Toman, 24, Tomah, was referred to the district attorney for operating after revocation/alcohol-related, failure to install an IID and bail jumping after a July 29 traffic stop.

Police pulled over Tomans vehicle for a seat-belt violation. Toman had a bond condition that prohibited him from operating an automobile unless properly licensed, which triggered the bail jumping referral.

Michael Herbert Ash, 19, Tomah, was referred to the district attorney on marijuana and bail jumping charges after a July 29 traffic stop.

Police pulled over a southbound vehicle in which Ash was a passenger with a defective stop lamp on Superior Avenue. A search of the passenger side allegedly uncovered a grinder with a green, leafy substance. Ash was referred for possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and three counts of bail jumping.

Darion Cartier Thomas, 20, Tomah, was referred to the district attorney for bail jumping after police responded to a two-vehicle crash on Bow Street July 30.

When police arrived, a female driver of the striking vehicle was still on the scene but a male passenger later identified as Thomas left on foot. Police learned that Thomas had a warrant out for his arrest. Thomas was located shortly thereafter and was arrested without incident. He reportedly failed to inform authorities of an address change, which triggered the bail jumping referral.

Serena Michelle Gamble, 51, Pie Town, New Mexico, was referred to the district attorney for disorderly conduct pursuant to a July 31 incident.

Police were called to Walmart shortly 10 p.m. for welfare check on a woman who was reportedly walking through the parking lot and exhibiting signs of paranoia. Police made contact with Gamble and had her sit on a bench in the stores entry way. The report said Gamble caused a disturbance by asking customers if they watched Info Wars and knew who Alex Jones was. She allegedly persisted in the behavior after police ordered her to stop.

Police later attempted to escort Gamble to the vehicle of a male companion. She reportedly turned away and began to sing and yell in a boisterous manner. She was arrested and transported to the Monroe County Jail.


"Donald Trump unleashed a series of nasty personal attacks Saturday against his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, mocking her appearance and questioning her mental health several times during a New Hampshire campaign rally and on social media."



"She is a totally unhinged person. She's unbalanced. And all you have to do is watch her, see her, read about her, Trump said during a campaign rally in Windham, N.H., Saturday evening. She will cause  if she wins, which hopefully she won't  the destruction of our country from within."

Honestly, I dont think shes all there, Trump told the crowd in Windham. Trumps most forceful policy-oriented attack centered on Clintons support for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, using her vote as a U.S. senator from New York to call her foreign-policy judgment into question. Trump wrongly claimed, as he often does on the campaign trail, that he did not support the Iraq War. That claim has been repeatedly proved false."



Ive always had a great temperament. And you know, I win. I have a winning temperament. Were going to win, were going to start winning again, he said. But Ive won. My whole life has been about winning. I win. She cant win. Shes not a winner. She cant win.

Republicans are still caught maundering about Trump and a reset for the Presidential campaign, after the primaries. Well, given the absolutely nauseating job that Trump is doing, it is time we prepare for the real reset that we are about to see: the reset of the hatred, the lies and the smears, ratcheting them up to an ever higher level in their effort to batter Hillary into the ground. I'd like to quote from an article in the Washington Post, detailing today's effort in that direction from the Trump campaign. It's a lot to quote, but I want to make sure that you see that it's not a few left wing bloggers saying this; something is really happening which is unprecedented in American politics.We have seen incredibly nasty campaigns, featuring the lowest of lies, from Republicans in the past, but really, even the likes of Lee Atwater or Karl Rove did not give us this incessant display of the absolute lowest of human behavior.The above quotation from Trump is, of course, a perfect example of a long time Republican strategy that has risen in Trump's hands from a dirty trick to an abomination. This statement is, as every one of us knows, a virtually perfect description of Trump himself. Now, he just accuses Hillary of all of his own disgusting behavior, counting on the press to (as usual) refuse to state that once again, it is the Republican that these words actually describe, and instead treating the whole thing like an elementary school shouting match in which either party might be guilty. And this works with all too many voters in this country, who do not seem to be able to remember exactly who is engaging in malignant behavior.Lies, all lies, as usual with Republicans, because they do not have any truth to provide. But once again, the press treats the whole thing with the usual both-siderism, doing their damned best to turn the country over to a traitorous would-be dictator.The great Trump, with his great temperament and his great winning! The guy is totally deranged, so let's just call Hillary deranged too, for "fairness."I included the last to remind you of what a delusional, narcissistic bully Trump is. It is absolutely crazy that anyone would want him to have control of any aspect of their lives, yet all of this, and the treason and the racism and the hatred, and the crookedness in business too, are taken as the equivalent of Hillary's use of two e-mails, which were not classified, which contain not a thing that was secret (not that any of the followers of Trump have read them) and which were totally harmless.And if this doesn't work, there is no other strategy- no other strategy they have nor any other one Trump wants- except to ramp up the lies and the smears until the 40% of the public who support him have become a howling, violent mob; something which seems to be a really good idea, apparently, to Republican leaders, and mainstream media sources like thetoo.
There is a saying that advises when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. In other words, make the best out of a bad situation.

Some people in the Netherlands are taking that advice. This June, they suffered under one of the rainiest months in Europe in more than 100 years. But instead of complaining about the rain, some Amsterdam residents decided to take advantage of the extra water.

No, not to make lemonade  to make beer.

Joris Hoebe is an entrepreneur in the Netherlands. He was already working on projects to help Amsterdam be more like a sponge. The projects aimed to help the city capture and use more rainwater before it goes into the sewer system and out to sea.

Hoebe also enjoys making beer at home. He thought he might be able to capture rainwater and use it to make beer.

Well, I thought 'I need water to make beer and we have this problem of these heavy rainfalls, so why don't we combine these two?'

When Hoebe makes beer, he does not need too much water. But larger beer makers do need a lot of water. It takes about five liters of water to make one liter of beer.

Because water is a significant expense for a brewery, anything the small brewery can do to limit that cost is helpful. So Hoebe thought he might be able to talk a small brewery into using rainwater to make beer.

Workers at Brewery de Prael in Amsterdam were not sure about the idea at first. One concern was that the rainwater would be dirty.

But Hoebe and a partner, Pavel van Deutekom, were already working on a rain-catching system that filters the water so it is safe to drink. The two men were assisted by a group of students at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.

When Hoebe and the students said they could provide 1,000 liters of water, the brewery workers thought it would be worth a try.

Thomas Gesink is the marketing manager of Brewery de Prael. Gesink said he never thought of using rainwater to make beer. He thinks the brewery is the first in Amsterdam to experiment with rain as a water source.

Because it is a first time that it has ever been done by my knowledge and its a very innovative project, Gesnik said.

The team boiled the water and filtered it to make sure it was clean. They then started making a blond beer called Hemelswater, which means heavenly water in Dutch. It is almost sold out.

Hoebe told The Guardian newspaper that making beer is only the beginning. The plan is to put more water collection tanks and filters around Amsterdam. If the showers continue, residents can capture the rain and use it to make anything that needs water  soup, sorbet, and yes, even lemonade.

Im Dan Friedell.

Serginho Roosblad wrote this story for VOANews.com. Dan Friedell adapted it for Learning English. Kelly Jean Kelly was the editor.

What do you think about the people using rainwater to make beer? We want to know. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

blond  adj. of a yellow or very light brown color

expense  n. something on which money is spent

sponge  n. something that absorbs liquid and is often used for cleaning

entrepreneur  n. a person who starts a business and is willing to risk loss in order to make money

filter  n. a device that is used to remove something unwanted from a liquid or gas that passes through it

complain  v. to say or write that you are unhappy, sick, uncomfortable, etc., or that you do not like something

shower  n. a brief fall of rain or snow over a small area
A new company has been created to research and develop medical treatments using bioelectronics.

Bioelectronic treatments use a small device placed inside the body to change electronic nerve signals to treat, and possibly cure, diseases.

The British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, or GSK, and Googles Verily Life Sciences formed the new company, Galvani Bioelectronics. They expect to invest about $715 million into the business during the next seven years. GSK will own 55 percent of the company and Verily, 45 percent.

GSK has spent the last three years creating a special map of nerves. It shows how the nerves affect organs and the disease process. Verily is expert at small device design and engineering. Moncef Slaoui is Chairman of Vaccines at GSK. He says Galvani Bioelectronics will build on the strengths and technologies of the two companies.

GSK says these small bioelectronics devices could potentially treat diseases including diabetes, arthritis and asthma. The device could be used to guide insulin out of cells to treat diabetes, for example, or to correct muscle differences in lung disease.

Kris Famm is president of Galvani. He told Reuters news agency that the company had good results using the device in animal testing. He said the first generation of devices would be about the size of a small pill. But, he said, one day it will be smaller than a grain of rice. Famm said Galvani expects the first devices to be ready for government inspection by 2023.

A major difficulty for researchers is to make the device work on extremely low power so it can be used deep inside the body.

At first, Galvani will employ about 30 scientists, engineers and other lab workers. It will be based at GSKs research center north of the British capital, London. A second research lab will set up in San Francisco, California.

Im Dorothy Gundy.

Reuters reported on this story for VOANews.com. Dorothy Gundy adapted this story for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.

______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story

bioelectronics  n. a branch of science that deals with electronic control of how the body works, especially in medicine to make up for defects of the nervous system

pharmaceutical  adj. of or relating to the production and sale of drugs and medicine

potentially  adv. capable of becoming real

insulin  n. a substance that your body makes and uses to turn sugar into energy

pill  n. a small, rounded object that you swallow and that contains medicine

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On Earth, American astronaut Kate Rubins researched some of the deadliest diseases like Ebola. Now, while orbiting the planet in the International Space Station, she will be testing a new device that analyzes genetic material.

Her job is to use a new kind of DNA sequencing machine and find out if it can be used in space.

DNA is short for deoxyribonucleic acid. It is made of chains of molecules that carry the instructions for the development and growth of living things. Genes are made of DNA.

The device Rubins is testing is called the MinION DNA sequencer. It is made by the company Oxford Nanopore technologies.

The sequencer is small  about half the size of a smartphone. It sequences, or finds the order of, the DNA molecules found in cells.

The small device could have a big effect on understanding astronauts health in space.

The tests will show whether the technology can be used later to understand microbes in the space station. It might also help find genetic changes in the astronauts, and it might be able to diagnose illness in the future.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the U.S. space agency. NASA said the device might even be able to test materials from Mars for signs of DNA-based life in future missions.

And, uh, the hatch now opening to the Soyuz MS-01 spacecraft and the arrival of three new crew members on the International Space Station. Kate Rubins, first through the hatch...

Rubins arrived at the space station in July. She is a trained microbiologist. She is known for her work with dangerous organisms that cause diseases.

So I think that people always look at my background and think Im going to do something crazy, science fiction on the space station. But we do have a lot of controls up here and anything we bring up to the space station has to be checked for safety...

Safety is so important because the space station is a closed loop environment. That means the air and water is recycled.

Rubins says NASA scientists came up with an incredibly well thought out set of experiments. The experiments include testing a virus and bacteria that are used in many labs on Earth and are not harmful.

One of the first things the astronauts need to find out is how well the DNA sequencer operates in space, where there is almost no gravity.

Technology behaves differently up here. Fluids behave differently up here. Bubbles form in fluids. And so its going to be a really interesting piece of equipment just to check out and to understand.

Sarah Wallace is a microbiologist at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. She calls the MinION sequencer a game changer in space.

Until now, samples from space had to be frozen and returned to Earth to be studied. If the device is successful, scientists will be able to see what is happening to human beings and to cells in real time.

The machine could be used to help diagnose illnesses in astronauts living on the station. It also could help astronauts understand which drugs would work on disease-causing microbes if someone is sick at the station. This could help limit using valuable medications that cannot be quickly replaced in space.

Wallace explains that the MinION sequencer operates differently from other DNA sequencers. Others usually take 24 to 48 hours to run, then stop. But up in space, this sequencer will display its results as it works.

Within minutes of loading your sample, Wallace says, youre starting to get the sequence data back.

If all goes well, the machine will be able to tell which genes are turning on and off in response to being in space. This is important, Wallace says, because we know that there are changes in space flight. But scientists still do not know how and why the astronauts bodies are changing.

We need to know the how and the why, Wallace says. This is important for NASA to know to be able to send people on longer space flights to places like Mars.

In the future, Astronaut Rubins would like to use the DNA sequencer to learn more about possible microbes that might live in the stations water system and elsewhere on the space station.

They have wonderful clean water in the station, Rubins says. But she wonders if microbes could be living in the water system after it has been in place for 15 years. The water on the station comes from recycled urine and condensate  sweat and exhaled breath.

She says there are interesting scientific questions to answer about how people live in space.

Weve also got a fantastic research environment to really learn some completely novel things about how human beings behave in a closed loop environment.

This device joins other instruments on the space station that can be used to discover problems, including one device that can test single genes.

These kinds of small, portable genomic technologies are going to let us look, in real time, whats actually happening to bone degradation, for example. Whats happening to your immune system. 

The technology already has been used successfully on Earth. During the recent Ebola outbreak in Africa, it was used for tests in rural and poor areas where it worked quickly, and well.

Im Anne Ball.

Anne Ball wrote this story for Learning English with additional information from Reuters. Mario Ritter was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, and find us on our Facebook page.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

analyze v. to study, to look at closely

sequence v. to place in the correct order

microbe n. a very small, simple living thing that requires a microscope to see

game changer adj. something that represents a big change

diagnose v. to recognize a disease or problem

condensate n. something that condenses

sweat n. water released from the skin

exhale v. to breathe out

novel adj. new, unusual
The United States is working to reach its goal of bringing 10,000 Syrian refugees to the country by the end of September. There has been an increase in the number of Syrian refugees entering the U.S. in the past three months.

More than 8,000 people who fled violence and persecution in Syria have been resettled in the United States between October 1, 2015 and this week. The State Departments Refugee Processing Center -- www.wrapsnet.org -- says half are under the age of 14.

A few hundred Syrian refugees have entered the U.S. every month since last September. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced a plan to welcome them.

Experts had said it would be difficult to reach the goal of bringing 10,000 Syrian refugees to the U.S. by the end of September. The previous year, 1,682 Syrian refugees entered the country.

But in February, the State Department created a center in Amman, Jordan to help refugees apply to enter the U.S. The application, interviews and medical and security investigations necessary before refugees can be accepted usually take 18 to 24 months. But American officials said having the new center would reduce that time to three months.

In May, 1,069 Syrian refugees entered the United States. More than 2,000 entered in both June and July.

The 8,000 Syrian refugees who have entered so far have been sent to 38 states. Michigan has the most -- 887. California received 783, Arizona 651, Texas 565 and Pennsylvania 481.

More refugees have been resettled in the United States than any other country. Almost 61,000 refugees have entered the U.S. since last October.

Last year, Kerry also announced that the government would increase the number of refugees permitted into the U.S. from 70,000 to 85,000. The number is set by the president after he or she receives advice from the State Department. It will increase to 100,000 in the coming year.

But many more Syrians want to enter the United States. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates 4.8 million Syrians have fled to Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq. The office says 6.6 million have been displaced within Syria.

The Syrian civil war began in 2011. At that time, the U.S. was accepting only a few Syrian refugees every year. Millions of Syrians fleeing conflict and Islamic State violence across the country have been accepted by Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.

Many Republican governors have criticized the Obama administrations decision to accept more Syrian refugees. Several state legislatures have considered bills to slow or stop the resettlement of some or all refugees in their states.

Some opponents of the refugee resettlement plan say they do not believe the security investigations of the refugees have been complete enough. The administration has said they are.

In early July, an Associated Press-GfK public opinion survey found that 69 percent of Republicans support a temporary ban on Muslim immigration. Fifty-two percent of Americans opposed such a ban; 45 percent supported it.

In September, the U.N. General Assembly will meet to discuss refugee and migrant issues. Almost one million Syrians are seeking asylum in Europe.

Im Christopher Jones-Cruise.

VOA Correspondent Victoria Macchi reported this story from Washington. Christopher Jones-Cruise adapted it for VOA Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, or visit our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

asylum  n. political protection given by a government to a person from another country
It is often asserted that the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 proved that HWA was right and he really did see the future.

This of course is nonsense. Herbert W. Armstrong said that Christ would return within twenty years in his book Mystery of the Ages. (PCG has since deleted those words so someone in there knows HWA spoke nonsense.) How convenient for them to forget this.

Also Herbert W. Armstrong never said the Soviet Union would collapse. He thought it would survive intact until a few years after Christ's return. It shows how biased some many in the COGs are that they never seem to notice this. This inconvenient truth is just tossed into the memory hole.

It is true that HWA said that some Eastern European states would break away from Moscow's orbit and join the European Empire he said would arise at any moment. But he never talked of the Soviet Union collapsing. He did not teach that. Also he portrayed the rise of the European Empire to be far quicker then what has actually happened. In Mystery of the Ages Christ was supposed to return by 2005 at the most.

So assertions that the fall of the Berlin Wall somehow prove that HWA was right is just complete nonsense spread by people who, for whatever reason, are still in denial that HWA was a false prophet who merely talked out of his own "human reasoning".


Ronald Reagan

The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.

Albert Einstein

If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.

Winston Churchill





It isnt so much that liberals are ignorant. Its just that they know so many things that arent so.

With integrity nothing else counts; Without integrity nothing else counts.

Winston Churchill





Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life, but define yourself.

Harvey S. Firestone





It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office. H. L. Menken



Referenda insure all have a voice in land use decisions.

U.S. Supreme Court

Listen carefully to first criticism of your work. Note just what it is about your work the critics don't like - then cultivate it. That's the only part of your work that's individual and worth keeping.

Jean Cocteau
Members of a local ad agency were surprised to see a presidential candidate using their design and ideas without credit.

Ad agency did a creative exercise highlighting the Johnson campaign

They sent their work off to his camp, hoping to get a response



Months later they noticed an eerie similarity between their exercise and Johnson's new marketing efforts



SPARK, an ad agency in Tampa, created a mock campaign a couple of months ago as a creative exercise. The point was to show how they would approach a campaign for libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson.

We didnt want to get into politics, said Art Director Alex Coyle. It was just a different kind of project that we thought would be interesting and challenging to explore.

The agency published the mock campaign in a newsletter, then shared it with the Johnson campaign.

We did not initially get a response, it was something we were hoping for, but again it was just an exercise in brand, Coyle said.

A few days ago, the Spark team noticed very similar branding across the Johnson campaigns website and social media page. The design used similar colors, similar fonts and had another similarities to Sparks design.

Spark CEO Tony Miller said he estimates the company spent up to 200 hours and $30,000 dollars creating that work.

I think there was some surprise that they hadnt contacted us first and said hey, do you mind if we use this or hey, we are going to use this, Miller said.

Spark says even with their exercise to go off of, the campaign didnt get it quite right. So, in response, Spark created a style guide at hellogaryjohnson.com. The style guide maps out what fonts to use, what colors, and even provides downloadable designs.

There is a bit of a tongue-in-cheek approach to it, but again, we want it done right, Coyle said. If its going to be copied, at least execute it correctly.

Miller said his company is not looking for money and is not planning to sue. He said he wants credit given to his organization.

It would be nice if they recognized that hey this is something that Spark did, and give us a little acknowledgment for the work, Miller said.

Miller said he thinks the campaign doesnt realize that they swiped Sparks designs.

I think they are probably using that thinking it was out there in the public domain for them to use and probably dont have a full understanding (of what) creative license is all about, he said. You just cant take somebodys work without permission or without potentially paying for it.

We reached out to Gary Johnsons campaign and have yet to receive a response.
Firefighters battled an overnight fire that ripped through multiple Crystal River businesses, according to the Citrus County Sheriffs Office.

Three businesses damaged in overnight fire in Crystal River

No injuries reported

Damage estimated at $450,000



The fire happened at about 10:40 p.m. Saturday at a building located at 1345 SE US 19.



(Katie Jones, Staff)



When firefighters arrived, the fire already burned through the roof of one of the buildings. No one was found inside either business at the time.

The fire was under control within 45 minutes, authorities said.

The State Fire Marshal was contacted to conduct an investigation into the cause.

No injuries were reported.



(Katie Jones, Staff)

A total of three businesses were affected by the fire, authorities said.

"It's terrible, it's just gone, said Rick Herendeen, who stopped Sunday by to see what was left of his friends Tobacco Pipe Shop. There's nothing left whatsoever to this place, so they'll have to start over.

The damage is estimated at $450,000.
A 4-year-old girl was allegedly raped and abandoned in Hapur, Uttar Pradesh on Friday night. Four suspects have been detained, according to CNN-News18.

#BREAKING | 4-yr-old girl allegedly raped and abandoned in Hapur, UP. 4 suspects have been datelined, reports @Nitisha_Kashyap  News18 (@CNNnews18) August 7, 2016

According to a The Times Of India, the family of the minor claimed they kept calling the emergency police helpline number for almost two hours but they got no response.

The father described the incident, We were sleeping outside our house. At around 12 in the night I woke up due to drizzle and found that my daughter was missing. After a search, we found her bleeding near a tube-well. For two hours, we kept on dialing police helpline number -100  but no one picked up the phone.

The 4-year-old was rushed to a private hospital in Pilakhua from where she was transferred to Meerut, SP Alankrita Singh said.

The incident incited villagers to protest against the deteriorating law and order situation in the state. They blocked National Highway-24, demanding the arrest of the accused, reported The Huffington Post.

This incident follows closely on the heels of Bulandshahr gangrape where a woman and her daughter were raped for three hours by dacoits alongside the national highway. After the incident, four cops were suspended for dereliction of duty.

The victims of the Bulandshahr gangrape had approached the Dehat Kotwali police station to file an FIR but SHO RS Singh failed to respond. There were reports that the police did not answer calls placed to the emergency helpline number.
Allahabad (UP): A school in Allahabad has refused to allow recital of the national anthem by students and staff members on Independence Day, claiming that its words violated the tenets of Islam, following which eight teachers, including the principal, have quit in protest against the diktat.

Authorities said that a probe has been launched against M A Convent School based in Baghara locality of the city in the matter and maintained that it was not recognised by the education department.

Zia-ul Haq, the school manager, told the teachers that singing of the national anthem could not be allowed as the phrase 'Bharat Bhagya Vidhata' in its first stanza went against the tenets of Islam, according to the teachers who resigned two days ago.

The manager said that if they were not in agreement with this "policy" of the school, they could leave.

"Most of us have been working here for not a very long time. We were shocked to learn from the management that the school has never allowed the singing of national anthem in the last 12 years.

"Since we had been asked to fall in line or leave, we chose a decision based on our conscience," Ritu Tripathi, who was the principal, said.

The school has around 300 students.

She said, "Seven of my colleagues have put in their papers in protest against this attitude of the school management".

Haq, on his part, stuck to his guns asserting "only Allah can be the Bhagya Vidhata, which means the one who decides our destiny. How can we call Bharat our Bhagya Vidhata?"

The Basic Shiksha Adhikari of Allahabad, Jaikaran Yadav, said, "We are surprised to learn that the school is still running.

"It is not duly recognized by the Basic Shiksha department and we had sent its management a notice to close the institution about a week ago."

He said a probe is on in the matter and action will be taken as per law.

"The reported refusal to allow singing of national anthem would amount to yet another offence on part of the school's management," he said.

"We have initiated a probe into the matter. If the allegations levelled against the management are found to be true, action will be taken in accordance with the law," Yadav said.
New Delhi: Major tax reformGST billwill be taken up by Lok Sabha on Monday, with virtually all political parties backing the legislation.

GST, the biggest economic reform since 1991, is likely to sail through smoothly in the Lower House. It will replace a raft of different state and local taxes with a single unified value added tax system to turn the country into world's biggest single market.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to intervene during the debate on the Bill in Lok Sabha.

The Bill was passed by Lok Sabha last year and now it has to go back to the Lower House for incorporating the amendments approved by Rajya Sabha.

Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia on Sunday said the party will support GST Constitutional Amendment Bill and has issued whip to all its MPs to be present in the House on Monday where it is scheduled to be taken up for passage.

Aiming for early implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), senior Union ministers have spoken to chief ministers of NDA-ruled states to ensure that the constitutional amendment is ratified by state assemblies at the earliest.

The chief ministers have assured that, if required, they will call a special session for the passage of the Bill in their state assemblies.

The GST Bill has to be ratified by at least 16 states in 30 days after it is passed by Parliament.

After facing fierce opposition over the Bill for almost a year, the government succeeded in bringing all major opposition parties, including Congress, on board and it was passed in the Upper House with an overwhelming majority on 3 August.

The Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill, 2014, that would lay the ground for roll out of GST regime, was passed by the

opposition-dominated Upper House after the government moved four amendments.

Once implemented, GST will subsume various taxes, including excise, services tax, octroi and other levies, and the proceeds will be shared between the Centre and the states.

Under the new GST regime, goods would be taxed at the point of consumption, instead of the goods being taxed multiple times at different rates.

The GST, which was first proposed a decade back, is seen as potentially transformative for India's economy, adding as much as 2 percentage points to the GDP while also improving the ease of doing business and encourage investment in manufacturing.

It is also expected to result in greater tax compliance, boosting government revenues.
Mehsana: At least five persons were killed and eleven others injured when two passenger vehicles collided head-on at Satlasana in Mehsana district of Gujarat on Sunday, police said.

The accident took place on Ambaji-Visnagar state highway when a pick-up truck packed with passengers, moving from Ambaji collided head-on with a Commando jeep which was carrying passengers from Satlasana, Satlasana sub-inspector V Panamiya said.

"The two vehicles collided while trying to negotiate potholes on a waterlogged patch of road. One of the vehicles lost control and collided with other vehicle coming from the opposite side," he said.

The injured were rushed to Mehsana government hospital for treatment, he said.

The deceased were identified as Kanuji Thakor, Vikramji Thakor, Kishanji Thakor, Prahladji Thakor and Nanjibhai Parmar, Panamiya said.
New Delhi: Indian journalists, who went to cover the Saarc Home Ministers' conference in Islamabad, had to face hostile Pakistani officials, who not only denied them access to the inaugural function but also barred them from standing at the entrance of the venue where their Interior Minister was to receive dignitaries, leading to tense moments.

The six Indian journalists, who were given visa to travel to Islamabad to cover the event, were flatly refused entry to the inaugural function, which was attended by Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

The Indian journalists then stood near the entrance of the where Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan was receiving the visiting dignitaries from Saarc countries.

As Pakistani media took position to capture the moment of Home Minister Rajnath Singh's arrival, Indian journalists too joined them. Immediately, Pakistani officials curtly told them to leave the place, saying Indian journalists were not allowed to stand even outside the gate.

When Pakistani officials asked Doordarshan cameraperson R Jayashree Puri and ANI's Ajay Kumar Sharma to remove their cameras, a senior Indian diplomat tried to intervene and protested.

The diplomat hotly argued that Indian journalists be allowed to be near the gate to capture Singh's arrival as Pakistani journalists, video and still camerapersons were present and freely taking shots.

The Pakistani officials made it clear that the Indian journalists have to leave the place immediately, leading to a verbal duel between the diplomat and a Pakistani official.

The Pakistani official even directed some of his juniors to block the view of Indian journalists and soon the reporters and camerapersons were surrounded by several persons, apparently policemen in civvies, making it impossible for them to shoot anything.

This resulted the Indian journalists failing to capture the moment when Singh touched the hands of his Pakistani counterpart, a gesture short of a formal handshake, reflecting the growing chill in the ties between the two countries.

As per Saarc protocol, the inaugural statement by the host country is open to the media while the rest of the proceedings are in camera.

The Pakistani establishment was also circulating information in the local media that Indian Home Minister had visited washroom eight times to make calls to New Delhi when the conference was going on.

The fact is that the washroom was outside the conference hall and the Home Minister used it twice  once before the formal ministers' meet started after he and his Saarc counterparts had made a courtesy call to Pakistan Prime Sharif and again when the meeting got over.

Besides, Home Minister Singh does not carry a cell phone even while he is in India and, whenever necessary, uses those of his aides.
Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Saturday said militant group NDFB-S had direct involvement in the attack in Kokrajhar district that claimed 14 lives.

"Direct involvement of NDFB-S in the Kokrajhar violence has been found following unearthing of vital information," an official release quoting Sonowal said.

Sonowal, who also holds the Home portfolio, said the police have got some vital information and contact numbers from the mobile phone of a terrorist who was gunned down by the police during the attack at Balajan Tiniali market.

The slain militant was identified as Anjoy Islary alias Monjoy and he was the self-styled commanding officer of the NDFB(S), senior minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said. The insurgent was identified from his photo in police records and DNA tests would be conducted to establish his identity beyond doubt, he added.

"Ours is a zero tolerance approach towards terrorism. We are fully committed towards protecting the life and property of the people of the state and we consider it as our first and foremost duty," the Chief Minister was quoted as saying in the statement.

In view of the Kokrajhar incident and the upcoming Independence Day, Sonowal asked the civil and police administration to be on high alert and to beef up security to thwart designs of anti-national forces. He directed the DCs and SPs to review the law and order situation on a regular basis and to take measures to prevent any untoward incident, the statement said.

Sonowal also visited Gauhati Medical College Hospital to inquire about the health of the five persons, including a 6-year-old boy, seriously injured in the attack. He directed the doctors to provide advance healthcare to the victims.

The Chief Minister told reporters that doctors had informed him that all the injured were out of danger. Himanta Biswa Sarma said 14 of the injured were rushed to the nearby Barpeta Medical College Hospital and five of them had been sent to the GMCH.

Seven others who are in Kokrajhar Civil Hospital and those in Barpeta hospital were out of danger, he said.
Osmanabad: Days after a teenage girl was allegedly raped by a policeman in Osmanabad, NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday demanded that state Home Department be handled by a separate minister, in view of "rising" crime against women.

"Cases of rape and sexual harassment are going up every passing day. College-going girls are feeling insecure. I feel that government should appoint a separate minister to lead Home department," Pawar said in Osmanabad on Sunday.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis currently handles the Home portfolio.

Pawar said while crime ratio is increasing, the rate of conviction in cases against women is poor.

"Maharashtra is at fourth slot in country as far as conviction rate is concerned," the former Union minister said.

Pawar, accompanied by the Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council Dhananjay Munde, former ministers Jayant Patil, Dilip Walse Patil and others met district officials in the wake of the incident.

He clarified that he didn't meet the family members of the girl as it would have revealed identity of the family.

Prem Bansode (26), presently posted as sub-inspector at Vishrambaug police station in Sangli district, was arrested here Friday night on the same day of the incident.

The victim (16), who has been Bansode's tenant along with her family members, alleged that PSI raped her at gun point and threatened them against disclosing the crime.

Bansode has been booked under section 376 of IPC (rape) and sections of POCSO Act.

Meanwhile, Pawar demanded that the case be shifted to a fast track court and probe be handed over to a senior woman police officer.

The investigation is being handled by Osmanabad Additional SP Dipali Ghatge.
New Delhi: Immigration authorities on Saturday detained Narada News CEO Mathew Samuel at the Indira Gandhi

International Airport here on his arrival from the US following a lookout notice issued against him by the Kolkata police.

Kolkata police have been informed about the detention and asked to approach the immigration authorities with relevant documents about the case before he could be handed over to them, official sources said.

Kolkata Police had registered a case against Samuel on a complaint by city Mayor and Fire and Emergency Services Minister Sovan Chattopadhyays wife.

Chattopadhyay was purportedly seen accepting money in the sting operation video released by Narada News

Chattopadhyays wife Ratna Chattopadhyay had filed the complaint at the New Market Police Station against Samuel on the basis of which Kolkata Police Detective Department registered the FIR and started a probe into the sting operation,

He was been booked under IPC Sections 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation), 500 (defamation), 505 (statements conducing to public mischief), 171(G) (false statement in connection with an election) and 120(B) (criminal conspiracy).

The controversial Narada sting operation, which surfaced just ahead of the Assembly elections, purportedly showed several Trinamool Congress leaders and an IPS officer accepting money for consideration.

West Bengal chief minister while ordering a probe on 17 June had asserted that her party had not taken "a single penny" from anyone in the Saradha chit fund scam and the Narada sting operation.
Jammu: The Vaishno Devi pilgrimage was on Sunday suspended following landslides triggered by heavy rain in Jammu and Kashmir, even as a 10-year-old boy injured on Saturday succumbed to injuries, taking the toll in the mishaps due to inclement weather to five.

"The pilgrimage to the cave shrine of Vaishno Devi was suspended after a landslide triggered by the ongoing rainfall hit Ban Ganga area situated on the tracks of the shrine," Additional SP, Reasi, Sanjay Rana said.

He said the police and the Shrine Board authorities were monitoring the situation and would allow the pilgrimage after the weather improves.

"We are waiting for the rains to stop. The decision to allow the Yatra to proceed will be taken only after the weather improves," Rana said.

Meanwhile a boy, who was injured on the track of the cave shrine after he was hit by a falling object, breathed his last on Saturday.

"A boy identified as Abey (10) who was injured after he was hit by a falling object succumbed to his injuries in the hospital last evening," the Additional SP said.

Four persons including three pilgrims were killed and nine injured on Saturday in a landslide triggered by heavy rains enroute the cave shrine of Mata Vaishnodevi in Reasi district.

The toll of those killed in the mishaps due to harsh weather has risen to five, police said. The landslide occurred on Banganga-Ardhkuwari road around midnight and the debris fell on a shelter where the pilgrims were sitting, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Shri Mata Vaishnodevi Shrine Board (SMVDSB) Ajeet Sahu had said.

The other deceased were identified as 29-year-old Shashidhar Kumar of Banglore, 30-year-old Bindu Sahni and her 5-year-old on Vishal from Chhattisgarh, besides 32-year-old Sadik of Reasi who was a 'ponywalla', he said.
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee on Sunday dubbed Kerala Congress (M)'s decision to quit UDF as "opportunist."

"KC-M's decision to quit UDF is opportunist politics as they left without any valid and just reason," KPCC President VM Sudheeran told reporters.

"It is not equidistance policy, but opportunist politics," Sudheeran said, attacking KC(M) supremo Mani.

He rejected Mani's charge that a section in Congress had tried to weaken and "insult KC-M and its leaders."

"Congress party leaders worked for the victory of KC-M candidates in the last polls and only wanted to strengthen that party...it is painful that they left the Front," he said.

"Congress also would not allow anybody to isolate and attack any Congress leader," Sudheeran said, apparently referring to KC-M charge that a 'conspiracy' by a section in the Congress led by Ramesh Chennithala, was behind the bar bribery scam.

"All decisions in the bar bribery scam were taken based on general consensus arrived by Congress leaders," he said.

Congress also did not denounce Mani over the scam and protected him even after it suffered setback, Sudheeran said.

Referring to the KC-M leader's remark that they have been "insulted" by Congress, Sudheeran said Mani did not lodge a complaint with the Front about any issue before or after the assembly polls.

Asked whether Congress would take back KC-M to its fold if the party returns, Sudheeran said "that question has no relevance at the present juncture."

Former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who was deputed by the party to hold talks with Mani, said KC(M) leader's decision was "unfortunate". "Congress has tried to sort out all issues," he said.

Reacting to the development, Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala said Mani will remain only where there is power.

"Mani should have aired his problems in the Front or to Congress...No one can create any rift among Congress over this issue... no one should think that they can destroy Congress," he said.

CPI-M state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said KC-M quitting the Front "is the beginning of UDF's disintegration. UDF has no future in Kerala and it is better to dismantle the Front," he said.

KC-M has only six MLAs in the assembly and so the change in stand is not going to affect the LDF government in any way, which has 91 members in the assembly, he said.

"It is not the policy of CPI-M to gain the support of minorities by wooing any party," he added.

Meanwhile, Youth Congress activists waved black flags against Mani as he was leaving the meeting venue at Charalkunnu.

Police had a tough time controlling the Youth Congress activists and KC-M who tried to protect Mani.
Kanpur: Amid the raging debate over so-called cow vigilantism, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday launched a scathing attack on BJP and RSS saying if they love "the gai (cow) and the nilgai so much they should keep them at their shakhas".

Kumar, who was at Ghatampur village here to attend a JD(U) 'karyakarta sammelan', said RSS talks of protecting cow, and nilgai, which destroys farmers' crops. "If the cow protectors have so much of sympathy towards 'gai and nilgai' then they should keep them at their shakhas. Don't let them roam in fields and trouble farmers," he advised.

"JD(U) workers should click pictures of the shoes of BJP workers and leaders and ask them 'ye kis chamde ka bana hai' (which leather is this made of). BJP and RSS are trying to vitiate the country's atmosphere. And that is why we want sangh-mukt country," he said.

Kumar said his party would fight the Uttar Pradesh polls on the plank of prohibition and asked the Akhilesh Yadav government to ban liquour. He said the Uttar Pradesh elections are "rehearsals" for his party and it wants to strengthen its base here.

"Our fight in UP is not with SP and BSP but with BJP. Our main target is 2019 Lok Sabha elections wherein we will fight with strength and face BJP," he said.

Kumar also said social media is being misused these days to spread communal tension and there is a need to prevent such attempts.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday congratulated Vijay Rupani, who was sworn-in as the new Chief Minister of Gujarat, and other members of his team, saying they would "continue the development journey" of the state.

"Congrats to @vijayrupanibjp, Nitinbhai Patel & others sworn-in as they begin their innings to continue the development journey of Gujarat," Modi said in a tweet.

Congrats to @vijayrupanibjp, Nitinbhai Patel & others sworn-in as they begin their innings to continue the development journey of Gujarat.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 7, 2016

I applaud the dedicated service of @anandibenpatel, who has been working tirelessly for the people of Gujarat for many years.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 7, 2016

In a separate tweet, the Prime Minister also applauded the services of Anandiben Patel who had stepped down from the top post on Wednesday.

"I applaud the dedicated service of @anandibenpatel, who has been working tirelessly for the people of Gujarat for many years," Modi said.

Rupani was sworn-in as the new Chief Minister, while Nitin Patel took oath as the new Deputy Chief Minister of Gujarat at a ceremony in Gandhinagar. Eight Cabinet-rank ministers, including Patel, and 16 Ministers of State were also sworn-in.
One may be pleased as punch about the United States strong statement urging Pakistan to act against terrorists that target its neighbours, but lets hold the crowing. When push comes to shove, it is China which can actually influence Pakistan on such matters, not the US.

The harsh warning is likely to mean little more than what a passing life guards ticking off might mean to a gang of teenagers disturbing others on a beach. It would be foolhardy to think that it will actually cause much change in behaviour.

Chinas commitment of 46 billion US dollars investments for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has given fresh life to Pakistans economy. So Indias strategic concerns hinges on Chinas economic prospects far more than on statements the US State Department. The Defence Department has withheld 300 million dollars which had been vouchsafed to Pakistan, but that is not even one per cent of Chinas investment.

In any case, defence cooperation between China and Pakistan is so close that substantial numbers of Chinese troops are said to be stationed across the Line of Control between India and Pakistan.

Pakistan and China cooperate closely with each other on defence. In fact, China acknowledges that Pakistan is its closest strategic partner. Indians can forget at their own peril the fact that Pakistans military dictator Pervez Musharraf was sitting in Beijing when the Kargil war began.

The sobering fact is that China has gone out of its way to set India against its neighbour. Pakistan has been its leading cats-paw.

Playing both sides

On the other hand, Pakistan has scant regard for the US and its prescriptions. After all, Pakistan has played both sides with the US for several decades. Since at least the beginning of the 1990s, it has been an ally of the USs opponents while simultaneously being a political and military ally of the US.

Matters came to a head once more on Friday, when the US Defence department withheld 300 million dollars of its military aid to Pakistan over the latters reluctance to act against the Haqqani network.

Pakistan has nurtured the hardline Haqqani group, one of the most important factions within the Afghan 'mujahideen since the 1980s. It continues to be based and protected in Pakistan. The group had allied with the Taliban to help take over Pakistan in 1996, and is considered an important player in the Talibans internal politics. Indeed, it represents Pakistani priorities within the Taliban.

Given this background, Pakistan is unlikely to be much impressed by the State Department statement noting 'progress or adding that 'we want to see more progress on its (Pakistans) part.

If anything, Pakistan is likely to be miffed by the tone and tenor of that statement, which sounded clearly peremptory and judgmental. On the one hand, Pakistan clearly views the US as a fair-weather friend, undependable in crucial times. Since 1995, it has felt betrayed over the USs growing closeness to India.

On the other hand, Pakistan has long been convinced that its actions, including support, arms and training for militants, with regard to Kashmir are all legitimate. Indeed, these have been at the core of the Pakistan states policy for long periods.

Pakistan has already promoted China as the major power in its strategic, counter-terrorism, and economic policy thrusts in Central Asia, Afghanistan, and the northern regions of Jammu and Kashmir state. China, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan have formed a counter-terrorism alliance.

China sees Central Asia as well as the route through the northern part of Jammu and Kashmir through Pakistan to the Gwadar port as its modern-day 'silk route'. Oil pipelines, mining for precious metals, and export routes are all crucial to its strategic policies for the 21st century.
A Somali minister survived an assassination attempt Sunday when a hand-grenade was thrown at his car in the capital, Mogadishu.

Mohamed Abdullahi Hassan Noah, Minister of Youth and Sport, told VOA that the explosive device hit his car as he was shopping at a local market in Maka al-Mukaramah, the capitals busy main street.



When I got off from the car, a bomb hit and damaged the car, everybody got shocked and ran away from the scene," the minister said.



A family friend who was travelling with me was hurt, but I was unhurt, he added.



The minister said his body-guards were not wounded. Somalia's security minister said in a tweet two civilians were wounded in the attack.



So far, no group has claimed the responsibility for the attack, but the minister said the terrorist group al-Shabaab is behind this attack. Al-Shabaab has carried out several attacks on Somali government officials.



On June, Somalias State Minister for Environment Buri Mohamed Hamza at more than one dozen other people were killed when the militants stormed a hotel in the capital.

Sunday's attack came hours after Somali officials have released new poll dates for the 2016 elections.

In a statement, Omar Mohamed Abdulle, chairman of election commission said that the countrys presidential election will take place on October 30.
The Philippine Consulate in Macau said its plans to reopen on Sundays in mid-September are still pending.

In a previous Times report, Filipino migrant group Migrante Macau urged the Consulate to open on Sundays.

The Philippiness Consul General in Macau, Lilybeth Deapera, explained to the Times yesterday that they have yet to receive the go-ahead from the Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs to operate on Sundays as part of a three-month trial.

We asked for authorization from Manila but we have not received that yet, so its just plans, she wrote to the Times.

The Consulate opened its doors on Sundays a few years ago, but only a few local Filipino migrants requested for services over the weekend.

We really need an honest-to-goodness study of the scheme because weve done it before and [almost] no one came to the Consulate, she stressed.

Early this year, the Consulate documented its dialogue with some members of Migrante Macau and sent it to Manila. According to association president Emerlina de Lina, they have submitted a document requesting for the Consulate to open on Sundays, with 2,832 signatures from Filipinos in the region.

While some said that several signatures were obtained under false pretenses, de Lina argued: Were not inventing [the numbers of] the signatures. There is really a need for the Consulate to open on Sundays.

Commenting on the possible three-month trial of the Consulates Sunday operations, de Lina said that the Office should not have a try-out phase.

If there are [only] a few persons who ask for services [on Sundays] in those three months, are they going to close again? de Lina questioned. What we want is for them to operate even though there are no users. The [Consulate] is not a business; its a service that they have to provide for the people. LV
The Health Bureau (SSM) announced on Saturday the development of 68 breastfeeding rooms by 15 government services under the supervision of the Secretariat for Social Affairs and Culture.

The 68 new breastfeeding rooms will be open within the year. SSM director Lei Chin Ion announced the initiative at a Saturday ceremony to promote breastfeeding, as part of World Breastfeeding Week 2016.

The Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Alexis Tam, addressed the issue at the Legislative Assembly (AL) on July 21 when responding to questions by several lawmakers. Tam stated the goal to set up 68 breastfeeding rooms by the end of 2016, adding that 42 of them are already in operation (11 on SSM premises and eight in day nurseries).

Tam said that out of the 68 breastfeeding rooms, eight would be exclusively for civil servants use. SSM added that measures will be enforced to regulate the mandatory opening of breastfeeding rooms across all services and public entities.

The government expects such measures to serve as encouragement and an example to the private and non-governmental sector, creating a more favorable environment for lactating mothers.

SSMs website and mobile app now provides relevant information on breastfeeding, as well as guidelines on the creation and management of breastfeeding rooms, among other topics.

At the ceremony, the president of the Macau Breastfeeding Association noted that the active promotion of the Health Bureau in supporting breastfeeding has already allowed a steady increase in the breastfeeding rate.

She added that the disclosure of the guidelines for the equipment and management of breastfeeding rooms will enable more public services to improve their current rooms and encourage more private companies to follow suit.

According to SSM statistics, from the 5,700 babies born in Macau in 2015, 5100 (approximately 88 percent) were breastfed and more than 630 were exclusively fed with the same milk for at least the first four months of life.

At the AL presentation, lawmaker Wong Kit Cheng criticized the government for having promoted and opened breastfeeding rooms long before they had approved and released the guidelines.

The legislator also criticized the fact that the experience sharing sessions planned and enforced by the government take place during normal working hours, which prevents participation in these sessions.

The legislator also urged the Labor Affairs Bureau to fix a breastfeeding period for mothers in the general law. RM
Iran executed a nuclear scientist who defected to the U.S. in 2009 and later returned to the Islamic Republic under mysterious circumstances a year later, authorities said yesterday, acknowledging for the first time that they had secretly detained, tried and convicted a man authorities once heralded as a hero.

Shahram Amiri vanished in 2009 while on a religious pilgrimage to Muslim holy sites in Saudi Arabia, only to reappear a year later in a series of online videos filmed in the U.S. He then walked into the Iranian interests section at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington and demanded to be sent home.

In interviews, Amiri described being kidnapped and held against his will by Saudi and American spies, while U.S. officials said he was to receive millions of dollars for his help in understanding Irans contested nuclear program. He was hanged the same week as Tehran executed a group of militants, a year after his country agreed to a landmark accord to limit uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

Speaking to journalists yesterday, Iranian judiciary spokesman Gholamhosein Mohseni Ejehi said Amiri was convicted of spying charges as he provided the enemy with vital information of the country.

Amiri had access to classified information and he was linked to our hostile and number one enemy, or the Great Satan, Ejehi said, referring to the U.S.

Ejehi did not explain why authorities never announced Amiris conviction or his subsequent, failed appeals court bid. He said Amiri had access to lawyers.

He neither repented nor compensated and he was trying to leak some information from inside prison, too, Ejehi said, without elaborating.

News about Amiri, born in 1977, has been scant since his return to Iran. Last year, his father Asgar Amiri told the BBCs Farsi-language service that his son had been held at a secret site since coming home.

Last week, Iran announced it had executed a number of criminals, describing them mainly as militants from the countrys Kurdish minority. Then, an obituary notice circulated in Amiris hometown of Kermanshah, a city some 500 kilometers southwest of Tehran, according to the Iranian pro-reform daily newspaper Shargh. It announced a memorial service on Thursday for Amiri, calling him a bright moon and invaluable gem.

Manoto, a private satellite television channel based in London believed to be run by those who back Irans ousted shah, first reported Saturday that Amiri had been executed. BBC Farsi also quoted Amiris mother saying her sons neck bore ligature marks suggesting he had been hanged by the state.

The Associated Press could not immediately reach Amiris family.

U.S. officials told the AP in 2010 that Amiri was paid USD5 million to offer the CIA information about Irans nuclear program, though he left the country without the money. They said Amiri, who ran a radiation detection program in Iran, travelled to the U.S. and stayed there for months under his own free will. Analysts abroad suggested Iranian authorities may have threatened Amiris family back in Iran, forcing him to return.

But when he returned to Iran and was welcomed by government officials, Amiri said Saudi and American officials had kidnapped him while he visited the Saudi holy city of Medina. He also said Israeli agents were present at his interrogations and that that CIA officers offered him $50 million to remain in America.

I was under the harshest mental and physical torture, he said.

Amiris case indirectly found its way back into the spotlight in the U.S. last year with the release of emails sent by U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton while she served as secretary of state. The release of those emails came amid criticism of Clintons use of a private account and server that has persisted into her campaign against Republican candidate Donald Trump.

An email forwarded to Clinton by senior adviser Jake Sullivan on July 5, 2010  just nine days before Amiri returned to Tehran  appears to reference the scientist.

We have a diplomatic, psychological issue, not a legal one. Our friend has to be given a way out, the email by Richard Morningstar, a former State Department special envoy for Eurasian energy, read. We should recognize his concerns and frame it in terms of a misunderstanding with no malevolent intent and that we will make sure there is no recurrence.

Our person wont be able to do anything anyway. If he has to leave so be it.

Another email, sent by Sullivan on July 12, 2010, appears to obliquely refer to the scientist just hours before his story became widely known.

The gentleman [] has apparently gone to his countrys interests section because he is unhappy with how much time it has taken to facilitate his departure, Sullivan wrote. This could lead to problematic news stories in the next 24 hours. Nasser Karimi, Jon Gambrell, AP
Some Hong Kong lawyers are warning the governments push to block radical candidates from seeking legislative seats could undermine the citys promised autonomy from China.

Local election officials have turned down the candidacies of six would-be lawmakers on grounds they supported independence from China, a position the government deems illegal. The move raised questions about freedom of expression in the former British colony after the government cited a candidates social media posts and press statements, saying he was insincere in renouncing his pro-

independence stance.

The controversy comes a month before Hong Kong holds its first Legislative Council election since the 2014 Occupy protests, which brought global attention to the citys democracy debate and fueled a nascent independence movement. Officials have pledged to squelch calls for full autonomy, even as concerns grow about Chinas commitment to the one country, two systems framework that guarantees Hong Kong free speech, independent courts and a capitalist financial system.

Legal matters should be left to the judiciary, said Edward Chan King-sang, a former chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association, who was among 30 legal figures who signed a letter protesting the decision to block the candidates. To international investors, you need to think about how much trust do you want to put in the one country, two systems promised by the central government. In the future, under this system, there may be more and more intervention.

The move to bar candidates for the Sept. 4 vote comes after members of a pro-independence group were charged in connection with a Lunar New Year riot in the shopping district of Mong Kok that left more than 90 police officers injured. The Chinese governments liaison to Hong Kong, Zhang Xiaoming, later said the push for independence had already far exceeded the category of free speech and touched the bottom line of one country, two systems.

Last month, the Electoral Affairs Commission announced it would require candidates to sign a form acknowledging Hong Kong as an inalienable part of China, as established in the citys Basic Law. The commission followed up with some candidates who signed the form, scouring their past public statements for inconsistencies.

An election officer cited Facebook posts and newspaper articles as grounds last week for disqualifying Edward Leung, of the localist group Hong Kong Indigenous, as a candidate in the New Territories East district. I cant accept that Mr Leung has genuinely changed his past advocacy and stance in support of Hong Kong independence, Cora Ho, the election officer, wrote.

Leung was allowed to run in a special election in February, securing 15 percent of the vote and demonstrating growing support for the radicals. Just days before, he had been charged with rioting in connection with the Mong Kok melee.

Alvin Hui, a senior information officer at the Electoral Affairs Commission, said on Friday the decision to approve or disqualify a candidate was in the hands of the relevant returning officer and the EAC would not comment further.

However, Chan and 29 other legal sector members who sit on the committee that choose the citys chief executive questioned the decision. This has a negative impact on the long term stability of Hong Kong, they said in their joint statement.  Benny Kung, Bloomberg
A total of 1,141 new companies were incorporated in the second quarter of 2016, a decrease of 153 year-on-year, according to information released by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).

The total value of registered capital for new companies dropped by 61.8 percent year-on-year to MOP140 million, which was attributed by DSEC to a decrease in capital of new companies registered in the segment capital of MOP1 million or over.

Analyzed by industry, there were 400 new incorporations operating in Wholesale and Retail and 277 in Business Services. Companies in dissolution totaled 228 in the second quarter, and the value of registered capital of companies in dissolution amounted to MOP58 million.

Analyzed by size of registered capital, there were 786 new companies (68.9 percent of the total) registered with capital under MOP50,000, and the total value of that capital was MOP20 million.

On the other hand, there were 24 new companies registered with capital of MOP1 million or over, and the total value of capital amounted to MOP77 million (54.8 percent of total).

As for the origin of capital, the majority came from Macau (MOP77 million) and Mainland China (MOP30 million). Capital from the nine provinces of the Pan-

Pearl River Delta region totaled MOP21 million (93.1 percent of which originated in Guangdong Province).

At the end of the second quarter of 2016, the number of registered companies totaled 54,892, an increase of 3,789 from a year earlier.
Norway wants to get rid of gasoline-fueled cars, plans to become carbon neutral by 2030 and spends billions on helping poor countries reduce their carbon footprints. Meanwhile, its pushing ever farther into the Arctic Ocean in search of more oil and gas.

We know there is a paradox, admits Vidar Helgesen, Norways climate and energy minister. We have been living well from oil and gas. But there is no country in the world that has done more to undermine the oil and gas industry than Norway.

The mountainous Scandinavian country of 5 million people is torn between its ambition to be a global leader on climate change and the awareness that its wealth is linked to the worlds dependence on fossil fuels.

This apparent contradiction is particularly striking in Stavanger, Norways oil capital.

The west coast town is the hub of an offshore industry that has made Norway the worlds eighth biggest exporter of oil and third biggest exporter of natural gas. Norways USD875 billion oil kitty is the worlds largest sovereign wealth fund, and hydrocarbons account for 40 percent of Norwegian exports.

But very little of those fossil fuels are used at home. Like the rest of the country, Stavanger gets almost all its electricity from hydropower.

And the streams of Teslas driven by oil workers through the streets of Stavanger attest to the rich subsidies the government has poured into the electric car market. E-cars have zero import duty, sales tax is a quarter less than for conventional vehicles and most roads are free.

Some 29 percent of new cars sold in Norway are electric or hybrid. The government in June introduced a target of 100 percent by 2025.

Helgesen says Norways example is spreading around the world, with once-skeptical car manufacturers investing in green technology and speeding the transition away from hydrocarbons.

In June, lawmakers forced through a commitment for Norway to become carbon neutral by 2030  some 20 years ahead of schedule.

Norway is also one of the most generous donors to international initiatives to maintain rainforests, which help fight climate change by absorbing some of the heat-trapping carbon dioxide released by the burning of fossil fuels.

It has already spent $1 billion saving trees in Brazil and is committed to spend up to $350 million a year preserving trees in places like Indonesia and Guyana.

But Norway is accused of environmental hypocrisy, grandstanding overseas with environmental projects while allowing its domestic oil and gas industry to pump ever larger quantities of carbon into the atmosphere. Plans for carbon neutrality involve buying credits for helping reduce emissions abroad.

In fact, Norway was one of the few Western countries to see a rise in domestic carbon emissions in 2015. That was mainly due to the fact that its aging North Sea oil fields require ever more energy to tap depleting reservoirs.

The plan has always been to buy carbon credits to allow us to continue polluting as a country, says Lars Haltbrekken, chairman of the Norwegian chapter of Friends of the Earth, an environmental advocacy group.

That is why we dont think carbon neutrality is the most important factor in combatting climate change, he says. We can buy credits in developing countries. It doesnt require us to reduce emissions here in Norway.

A tougher European Union scheme will set emissions reduction targets within the next two years. But Norway, which is not an EU member, will still be able to trade emissions credits with European neighbors to reach its reduction quota.

Meanwhile, environmental activists bristle at exploration permits handed out to 13 oil companies in May to drill in a new area of the Norwegian Arctic. Critics say the technology to safely explore in such remote areas is not properly tested and claim plunging prices make Arctic oil unaffordable without hefty Norwegian subsidies. While companies pay 78 percent tax on hydrocarbons they produce in Norwegian waters, they can claim back the same amount on costs for exploration.

We absolutely regard this as a subsidy, says Ellen Viseth, a political advisor at the Bellona environmental group.

Viseth says the Barents Sea north of Norway is already one of the most expensive places in the world to produce oil.

The price and the risk make it uneconomical, she says. But the Norwegian government is heavily supporting the oil and gas industry. The oil companies dont take much of a risk but their upside is huge.

Norways state-owned energy company Statoil scooped up the largest share of exploration rights in the latest licensing round. Chevron and ConoccoPhillips also secured permits.

In June, Norway became one of the first countries to ratify last years Paris Agreement on climate change, which seeks to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F) compared with pre-industrial times.

Haltbrekken says that any Norwegian contribution to this target that does not involve a reduction in oil and gas is empty.

Helgesen disagrees.

We are living in a time of tremendous energy transformation, he says. We want to play a part whether it is in electrification, bio-energy, hydropower, or any other green energy. But Norway has the cleanest hydrocarbons anywhere in the world. And as long as the world needs oil and gas, we will provide it. Mark Lewis, AP
After eight years leading the Forum for Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries (Forum Macau), Chang Hexi is leaving the organization. The Secretary General talks about the organizations main achievement in promoting cooperation between China and the Portuguese-speaking countries and offers his views on the institutions future.

 You have headed Forum Macau for more than eight years. What is the major difference between the Forum you are leaving and the one you took charge of in 2008?

 The Permanent Secretariat of Forum Macau  supported by the governments of Macau, participating countries and various local partners  has worked over the years to promote cooperation and exchanges between mainland China, Macau and the Portuguese-speaking countries in the areas of economy and trade, human resources, and language and culture, among others. Considerable progress has been made in achieving the targets set out in Forum Macaus action plan for economic and cultural cooperation, while simultaneously taking advantage of Macau as a platform. I believe that Macaus role as a springboard of services for trade between China and the Portuguese-speaking countries has been consolidated.

 Relations between China and the Portuguese- speaking countries have grown over the years, not just in terms of financial support but also investment. In what sectors do you think this relationship will expand? Agriculture and fisheries? Infrastructure? Social support? Education? Energy?

 In line with the content set out in the action plans for economic and social cooperation, the Permanent Secretariat has promoted multilateral exchanges and cooperation in many different areas, making use of the Macau platform. Based on dynamic and pragmatic principles, the Secretariat has sought to be innovative with its cooperation models, using that platform as a bridge for relations between participating countries.

Encouraging progress and results have been obtained. For example, in the fisheries area, support was given to companies and services from Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces for visits to look into cooperation prospects in Timor-Leste, Guinea-Bissau and Angola. [] As for human resources, we used the Forum Macaus training center to hold symposiums in Macau; cooperation with the respective MSAR government services led to the arrangement of internships destined for the Portuguese-speaking countries as well as a seminar on bilingual teaching and training, among other activities.

 There is still a great lack of awareness about investment potential and the creation of partnerships between China and the Portuguese-speaking countries. Is there a pressing need to better publicize what those countries have to offer and receive? Do you believe such promotion should be reinforced in the Forum?

 In recent years, the Permanent Secretariat has promoted large- scale exchanges and cooperation between companies from China and the Portuguese-speaking countries; actively participating in exhibitions and meetings held in Macau and mainland China, and setting up the Portuguese- speaking Countries Pavilion to promote business and investment opportunities in those countries. The Secretariat has made major efforts to deepen knowledge and foster exchanges with companies from inside China, presenting those countries prospects to Chinese companies by organizing contact pools, presentation sessions and lectures. They indicated a notable lack of knowledge about the Portuguese-speaking countries. The Secretariat will therefore continue efforts to raise awareness and provide Chinese companies sufficient information about those countries.

 The Co-operation and Development Fund was established in 2013 and has been insufficiently utilized. Is there a lack of information, well-grounded proposals or awareness about the fund?

 The Permanent Secretariat has promoted the fund as a stimulus, so that more ventures can be financed. The fund is managed by its respective management body. The operational model is fairly strict regarding the documents that companies must submit as part of applications to the fund. The Secretariat has promoted the fund among companies, providing support to the China Development Bank vis-a-vis the presentation of access conditions and application procedures. A fund representative has been regularly invited to attend the Meeting of Entrepreneurs for Economic and Commercial Co-operation between China and the Portuguese-speaking Countries, held annually in one of those countries, to raise awareness about the fund. The Secretariat therefore aims to enhance promotion of the fund among entrepreneurs in mainland China, Macau and the Portuguese-speaking countries, informing them about the funds current status and application procedures, so projects that meet the funds requisites can be put forward and quickly processed.

 The activity of the Forum and the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) sometimes seems to overlap, even though both institutions promote the Macau platform in relations between China and the Portuguese-speaking countries. Do you believe there should be more distinction between what each is doing?

 The Forum Macau Permanent Secretariat, the IPIM and the respective MSAR public services have been enthusiastic about building the services platform for trade cooperation between China and the Portuguese-speaking countries. The Secretariat and the IPIM pursue common cooperation goals, taking advantage of the Macau platform, mutually supporting each other and closely coordinating actions, specifically to foster business cooperation and exchanges. In the efforts to promote and enhance cooperation between companies from China, the Portuguese-speaking countries and Macau, the IPIM has played a key role in various activities in line with its specific focus.

 Do you believe the Pan-Pearl River Delta (9+2) is the region of China where small- and medium-sized enterprises from Portuguese-speaking countries should concentrate their efforts? Major investments and business pass through Beijing and not Macau. Shouldnt this be a priority area so that entrepreneurs from China and the Portuguese- speaking countries can come into contact?

 The Permanent Secretariats main mission is to promote business cooperation between enterprises from mainland China and the Portuguese-speaking countries by means of the Macau platform. The region plays a key role in economic and trade exchanges between China and those countries, making best use of its cultural and linguistic advantages and the intermediation of local firms familiar with the respective markets. The Pan-Pearl River Delta and Macau regions work closely to achieve the prospects for promising cooperation with the Portuguese-speaking countries.

 Forum Macau has organized training programs for the Portuguese speaking countries. How do you assess the results of those programs and what do you think should be done in that area?

 Under the action plans and following the creation of the Forum Macau training center, five or six thematic symposiums have been held each year on subjects of mutual interest such as infrastructure, environmental protection, business law and public administration, among others. Thirty-one such symposiums have been held, with 791 participating trainees. The aim is to enhance cooperation and exchanges between mainland China, Macau and the Portuguese-speaking countries, where they have been much appreciated. The Secretariat will continue to consolidate and improve training in this area.

 Your relationship with Macau, Portugal and the Portuguese-speaking countries has been the focus of your career over the last 30 years. How do you see Macaus role in southern China and the growing links with Guangdong province?

 Macau is in the phase of building One Centre and One Platform. Macaus role as a platform will be increasingly consolidated and enriched by way of its specific linguistic and cultural advantages, close ties with Portuguese-speaking countries, and the promotion of economic and trade exchanges between mainland China and Macau. Forum Macau is a multilateral cooperation mechanism that is also complementary in the area of bilateral cooperation. Im convinced that this mechanism can make a major contribution to boosting the role of the Macau platform, raising businesses awareness of the Portuguese-speaking countries and exploring more cooperation opportunities via multilateral exchanges arranged through Forum Macau.

 Its hard to predict the future, but how do you think Forum Macau will evolve as a platform in relations between China and the Portuguese-speaking countries?

 Forum Macau has been in existence for 13 years. With the support of the respective governments of the participating countries  as well as the MSAR and the various sectors involved, along with the joint effort of the Permanent Secretariats staff  the Forums participating countries have, through the Macau platform, achieved multilateral exchanges with enriched content and various forms of cooperation, consolidating Macaus role over the years. With the fifth ministerial conference, Forum Macaus goals will be increasingly oriented toward pragmatism, and its role and functions ever more relevant. MDT/Macauhub
In a recent reply to the Times, the Transport Bureau (DSAT) acknowledged that, according to Macau law, taxi hailing applications are not illegal. What is illegal [is] the collaboration between such applications and unauthorized parties to run a fare-charging passenger transport service.

The reply follows new rules enforced in mainland China regarding ride-sharing applications. Beijing instructed local officials to promote the booming industry, thus confirming the legal status of companies like Uber Technologies Inc. and Didi Chuxing, following run-ins with regulators.

The decision from the governments cabinet set guidelines for registration, fares, employment of drivers, and payments. Local authorities will decide on the details for each city.

In the reply to the Times, DSAT mentioned that it has also noticed the newly released national guidelines on the regulations on online ride-sharing services in China.

With the gaining popularity of smartphones and the increasing need for online taxi hailing services, when granting the special taxi license concession, the government required that the concessionaire should develop other ways of hailing; such as mobile applications besides providing on-call taxi services (including immediate and advanced booking), in order to respond to the needs of the members of the public, DSAT noted.

Such a reply opens the door to a scenario that until now had been discarded by both the police and the transport authorities.

The Public Security Police Force (PSP) stated last week that we keep paying attention to the ride-hailing problem [in the territory] and continue to fight illegal operations as, according to the Macau law, it is not legal to operate such a service because of the design of the app and the business model [] except if the vehicle is a registered taxi [or similar] and if the driver is a registered taxi driver [or similar].

Mainland regulators last year banned Uber, Didi Chuxing and other competitors from using drivers without taxi licenses as the services adapted by working through vehicle-rental companies.

The measure came after taxi drivers protested the unfair competition from such services, leading the authorities to perform several police raids on Uber offices in a number of Chinese cities that were accused of operating unlicensed taxi services.

At a press conference last week, the police force also presented the most recent data on the prosecution cases filed against the referred service.

The police force claims that from January to July this year, a total of 413 prosecutions were filed against ride-hailing services, followed by 286 cases against the mobile app company.

During the same period, PSP reportedly fined taxi drivers for 860 cases of overcharging and 883 cases of refusal of transportation.

These 1,743 cases represent 71 percent of the 2455 cases filed during the first seven months of this year.

November: Uber is illegal, said Alexis Tam

DSATs stance on ride-hailing services seems to differ from statements by the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Alexis Tam. Back in November, Tam declared that he does not agree with the provision of transport services in private vehicles by Uber, stating that this activity violates the law and, therefore, is illegal.

The secretary added that the government would continue to oppose these activities, further stating that the tourism sector is in line with this decision.

Didi sees new regulations as a milestone

The new regulations enforced last month in the mainland were classified by the market leader Didi as a milestone in Chinas endeavor toward steady and healthy development of the rideshare industry, the company said in a statement.

The document considers different types of labor agreements with drivers  who had previously been required to sign contracts with companies as fully-fledged employees  and drops the proposal to limit drivers to working for no more than two ride-hailing companies.

The implementation of such measures saw immediate results just a few days after with the acquisition of Uber China by rival Didi Chuxing last week.

According to Bloomberg, Ubers CEO Travis Kalanick decided to call off the war, agreeing to a deal in which the local market leader acquired Ubers China operations in return for a seat on Didis board and a slice of the Chinese company.

As Kalanick said at the time of Ubers withdrawal announcement, U.S. technology companies struggle to crack [Chinas] code.
CHINA In halting televised confessions and emotional courtroom testimony, Chinese lawyers and activists held in a government crackdown have voiced the same ominous message: Shadowy foreign forces are funding, directing and encouraging activities bent on destabilizing Chinas government and smearing its reputation.

PHILIPPINE president has publicly linked more than 150 judges, mayors, lawmakers and military personnel to illegal drugs, revoked their gun licenses and asked them to surrender for investigation.

INDONESIAs counter-terrorism police on Friday arrested six suspected militants who were allegedly planning to launch a rocket attack on downtown Singapore from nearby Batam island. He said the arrests, which included the 31-year-old alleged leader of the group, highlight the continued threat posed by extremists in Indonesia despite a sustained crackdown by authorities.

JAPAN marked the 71st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Saturday by renewing calls for a nuclear weapons free world and urging leaders to follow the example of President Barack Obama and visit the bomb sites.

INDIA Gunmen opened fire on a busy market place in the north-eastern state of Assam on Friday, killing 13 people according to officials. The government is blaming the attack on the National Democratic Front of Bodoland, a rebel organization that seeks to carve out an area of Assam as an independent state for the Bodo ethnic group.

BELGIAN authorities are still investigating an attack by a machete-wielding man on two policewomen but are treating it for now as an act of terror, the countrys prime minister said yesterday. Prime Minister Charles Michel said the attackers shouts of Allahu akbar! as he slashed at the officers outside the Charleroi police station on Saturday were a notable factor in the authorities decision.

MACEDONIAN police say the capital of Skopje has been hit by torrential rain and floods that left at least 15 people dead, six missing and 22 others sent to the hospital.

YEMEN The Security Council has failed to agree on a statement supporting the U.N. special envoy to Yemen who is trying to get Shiite rebels to back a peace deal and end the 17-month civil war in the Arab worlds poorest country. Yemens internationally recognized government has approved the U.N.-proposed deal but Houthi rebels have so far rejected it.
TWIN FALLS  The Idaho Department of Labor will host its second annual hiring event, in partnership with the Magic Valley Mall, on Oct. 8.

Employers that are interested in participating for an opportunity to recruit candidates for current openings should reserve their spot by Sept. 16. An eight-foot table, cloth and two chairs will be provided for each business.

Setup begins at 10 a.m. with the event running from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 8 at the Magic Valley Mall, 1485 Pole Line Road E. An area for on-site interviews will be available.

Companies that are unable to attend the fair can post job announcements at the Idaho Department of Labor any time at no cost. Details can be sent to magicvalleymail@labor.idaho.gov. For information or special accommodations, contact Randy Neerdaels at 208-735-2500 extension 3653 or Oscar Escobedo at extension 3405.
Blair Burroughs recalled a change in his fathers thinking after he retired from Idaho National Laboratory in 1986.

E Burroughs had moved his family to Idaho from Texas in 1965 to take a nuclear engineering job at the lab. E loved the work, Blair said this week, spending time at several of the labs 52 reactors over the years. Then something changed.

He was always a staunch supporter of nuclear energy and what was being done, until after he retired, Blair said of his father. He said at one point, Im not sure we were fully informed of what was going on, and the risks out there.

Es perspective shifted as he watched several former colleagues die of the same type of rare brain cancer, Blair said. Then E himself died of pancreatic cancer at 73, after a two-year battle with the disease in the 1990s.

Twenty years later, Blair, 65, and his family are finally expected to be compensated by the federal government for Es death. They had tried before and were rejected, unable to prove that Es extensive exposure to radiation on the job had contributed to his cancer.

But the approval last month of two special exposure cohort classes at INL and Argonne National Laboratory-West will finally allow hundreds of former workers and their families to receive government compensation and benefits. Many, like the Burroughs, previously saw their compensation claims turned down by the U.S. Department of Labor.

It is the first time any INL employees have been included in the nations special exposure cohort. The cohort  which covers dozens of nuclear facilities across the country  serves as recognition that workers were exposed to various types of radiation or chemicals while on the job, that it was often not monitored closely, and that it likely led to cancer. It means the burden of proof isnt on the workers or their families; they must only show they got one of 22 types of cancer.

Idaho workers newly covered under the cohort include those who worked at INL from 1970 through 1974 in areas monitored for radiation. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which oversees the cohort, many workers in that time period were exposed to radionuclides such as uranium, plutonium and thorium  though there is little data that still exists to prove it.

Its the same story for workers at ANL-West facilities between 1951 and 1957, NIOSH said. Workers were exposed to various types of radiation. But there is hardly any remaining evidence, which had made it next to impossible for workers to demonstrate they had been exposed.

Under the cohort, many more former workers will finally be eligible to receive at least $150,000 in compensation and have their medical bills paid. It also allows for the family to be compensated if the worker died.

Theyve been waiting a long, long time, said Albert Frowiss, an independent claims advocate for nuclear workers who specializes in the cohort.

Many claims rejected

The special exposure cohort was established under energy worker legislation approved by Congress in 2000, which aimed to compensate and provide medical benefits to workers who suffered illnesses related to radiation exposure or other chemicals.

Called the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act, it recognized the lasting health consequences and death that resulted from decades of U.S. nuclear research and production. At INL alone, the government confirmed last year that radiation or chemical exposure was at least 50 percent responsible for some 396 worker deaths, according to reporting by McClatchy Newspapers. The lab declined to comment for this story.

Still, compensation and benefits under the Act has been notoriously hard to come by for INL workers. Some $220 million in compensations and medical bills has been paid out to INL workers in recent years under the Act  but thats no solace to thousands of workers who have been turned away.

About two out of three INL claims have been denied, according to Department of Labor data. And its been known to take as long as four years to get a verdict, said Angela Hays Carey, community liaison with Nuclear Care Partners, a health care provider for nuclear workers.

Ray Haroldsen, 88, was one of the lucky ones. He started at the lab as an electrical engineer in 1952, working on various pioneering nuclear reactors such as Experimental Breeder Reactor-I, Borax and EBR-II.

He knows he was exposed to radiation over the years. But it ended up being asbestos exposure that triggered lung disease and other ailments after he retired. It was a relatively straightforward and quick process to demonstrate to the Department of Labor that the asbestos exposure happened at work, he said.

Under the Act, Haroldsen received compensation and the government pays for a nurse to check on him once a week at his Idaho Falls home. He has a Department of Labor-issued card that covers a wide variety of treatments and medications.

I dont have any complaints, Haroldsen said. It seems to me, they mightve even been a little over-generous. Im getting more help now than I really need.

Others havent been so fortunate.

Dennis Keiser, 76, worked all over the site, from various reactors to the Chemical Processing Plant over a nearly 30-year career. He now works for the University of Idaho.

When I worked out there, the (radiation) monitoring wasnt all that extensive, Keiser said. You could move from facility to facility, and never be monitored, or there were facilities where they didnt have monitoring badges.

Two years ago, he applied to receive benefits and compensation for his colon cancer. He also applied for his skin cancer. But the government denied his claims within several months. He was unable to prove with at least 50 percent probability that either cancer was related to exposure at work.

For Keiser, the special exposure cohort will likely mean hell finally get compensation and benefits without facing the huge challenge of proving to the government he was exposed. He plans to look into the possibility soon.

Lets put it this way, he said. I was around radiation.

More cohort coverage possible

Frowiss, the claims advocate, said the addition of the Idaho cohort classes drastically increases the chances a worker will be compensated.

The significance of the cohort is, if you fit the rules, you get a legal presumption that radiation is what caused the cancer, he said. Without that, you have to prove through other means that the cancer was caused by toxins in the workplace.

But Frowiss warned that even under the cohort, nothing is automatic, especially for family members of nuclear workers who have died. If it was automatic, theyd get rid of 500 examiners, he said. You wouldnt need any examiners to adjudicate claims.

Frowiss helps workers and families through the bureaucratic and lengthy application process, and if they are successful, he charges 2 percent of whatever they are eventually paid. He said the cohort claims process can take anywhere from four or five months to more than a year.

Stuart Hinnefeld, director of NIOSHs Division of Compensation Analysis and Support, said more than 250 claims will be affected by the new INL cohort class, with fewer than five from the older ANL-West class.

Hinnefeld said it is possible that more cohort classes will be added for additional INL facilities and time frames in the coming years. He said a primary focus will be workers at the old Idaho Chemical Processing Plant, where spent nuclear fuel was processed and recycled.

An evaluation for additional (cohort) years at the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant is already planned and initial work is underway, Hinnefeld said in an email.

He added: NIOSH is also still evaluating whether it is feasible to reconstruct doses at some other parts of INL for some years. This work could soon lead to additional special cohort classes being established, he said.

Tami Thatcher, a former nuclear safety analyst at INL who has followed the cohort process closely, argued that there are numerous additional INL workplaces and time frames that should be added to the special exposure cohort, stretching from the 1950s through the 1980s.

There is even good reason to cover former workers who didnt work in radioactive areas, she said. Thats because they wouldve been exposed to drinking water that was historically contaminated with a soup of chemicals, including radioactive material such as americium-241.

Blair Burroughs, who lives in Walla Walla, Wash., said before he learned about the new INL special exposure cohort, he and his family were ready to give up on getting compensation after Es death.

They were lucky to come across some of Es old medical records, which will prove to the government he had pancreatic cancer. It should clear the way for the Burroughs family to receive a $150,000 payout from the Department of Labor in the coming months. But it wont fix everything, Blair said.

The money doesnt make up for losing your dad.
BOISE  The Idaho Supreme Court has affirmed a jury verdict for $3.8 million against a southwest Idaho doctor following the death of a woman who underwent a liposuction procedure.

The court ruled Thursday in the wrongful death and medical malpractice case against Silk Touch Laser and it owner, anesthesiologist Brian Kerr, the Idaho Statesman reported.

Krystal Ballard, 27, underwent the liposuction and fat-transfer procedure in 2010 and died less than a week later from septic shock caused by bacteria.

Her husband, Charles Ballard, filed a wrongful death lawsuit, and a jury in 2014 awarded him about $2.5 million in economic damage and $1.3 million in non-economic damages.

Kerr appealed with several challenges. But the court said there is substantial evidence supporting the verdict.

We are pleased with todays decision, which affirms the verdict reached by an Ada County jury in this lawsuit, said Scott McKay, attorney for Ballard.

Kerr said hes sad about the death, but he wishes Krystal Ballard had taken advised precautions to prevent infection.

One of the things that kind of gets lost in this is the patient, Kerr said. And I certainly feel badly for Charles and his loss  and certainly the passing of Krystal. I dont want to, as I make comments, I dont want to be at all disparaging about her. ... I think my sadness is I wish that she had done what we had asked her to do (for infection prevention), and the only thing we have changed about our practice is to put more of an emphasis on that.

Kerr said patients have asked him about the case, but it hasnt affected his business. He said the business had no previous incidences of infections like Ballards, and he believes the equipment used during the procedure had been properly disinfected and sterilized.
GOODING  Two-and-a-half years ago, a Gooding mans bullet-riddled body was found wrapped and duct-taped in a sheet, his head covered in a plastic Wal-Mart bag, in the desert west of Jackpot. Last year, the mans former roommate was arrested and charged with his murder.

But after more than a year awaiting a murder trial, the roommate last month pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, and court records indicate hes no longer accused of the slaying.

Now, it seems, Leopoldo Cilio-Martinezs killer might still be free.

Marcelo Hernandez-Blanco, 36, of Gooding was the man charged last May with first-degree murder in the February 2014 killing of Cilio-Martinez.

But Hernandez-Blanco pleaded guilty July 12 to aiding and abetting voluntary manslaughter, admitting that he did aid and abet another in the unlawful killing of Leopoldo Cilio-Martinez  which killing was done in a sudden quarrel and/or the heat of passion, but without malice aforethought or premeditation.

Hernandez-Blancos attorney, Brad Calbo, said his client admitted in court to helping get rid of Cilio-Martinezs body and van.

But Mr. Hernandez-Blanco didnt have anything to do with the actual shooting, Calbo said Wednesday. The investigation continues on in terms of the actual shooter.

Calbo said he was unauthorized to name an individual he believes is a suspect in the shooting, and court records show prosecutors havent filed charges in the case against anyone else.

County Prosecutor Luverne Shull deferred all questions about the killing to his chief deputy whos handling the case, Trevor Misseldine, and County Sheriff Shaun Gough also deferred to Misseldine. But Misseldine, who was out of the office Wednesday and Thursday, declined comment Friday through a secretary.

The clues

The original affidavit in support of Hernandez-Blancos arrest, filed last May, paints a twisted, sordid tale involving texts from the grave, incestuous relationships, black-market pistols and allegations that Hernandez-Blanco drugged and raped Cilio-Martinez when the two lived together.

Elko County sheriffs deputies found Cilio-Martinezs body Feb. 2, 2014, off a dirt road west of U.S. 93 about 3 miles west of Jackpot. An autopsy revealed he was shot twice in the head and twice in the right shoulder with a .25-caliber gun.

The Elko County Coroner determined Cilio-Martinezs body was dumped about eight to 12 hours after his death.

Detectives in Gooding County and special agents from the FBIs Boise field office quickly linked Hernandez-Blanco to the killing, and from the details provided in the affidavit, its easy to see why.

First, there was the DNA evidence: investigators found Hernandez-Blancos hair on the green sheet wrapped around Cilio-Martinezs body and they found Cilio-Martinezs blood in Hernandez-Blancos home and vehicle.

Witnesses also told police they saw bloody rags in the back of Hernandez-Blancos vehicle, and Hernandez-Blanco was identified as the man who sold Cilio-Martinezs van after his death.

Other witnesses told investigators that Hernandez-Blanco traded a 9 mm pistol for a .25-caliber handgun in the weeks before the shooting, and that Hernandez-Blanco was asking for help to make a silencer for the gun.

One witness told police Hernandez-Blanco was going to use the gun to hurt (Cilio-Martinez) because they had problems in the past. Cilio-Martinezs girlfriend said that when she and Cilio-Martinez lived with Hernandez-Blanco, the two men would constantly argue about groceries and other things.

Another woman told police that Hernandez-Blanco had a sexual relationship with his uncle, and he was mad at Cilio-Martinez for socializing with his uncle.

Still another witness told police that Cilio-Martinez suspected Hernandez-Blanco of drugging his food and raping him when the two were roommates.

And cellphone data showed both mens phones were near Jackpot three days before the body was recovered there, and text messages from Cilio-Martinez, claiming to be from him, were sent days after his body was recovered.

Its unclear publicly what new evidence emerged that convinced prosecutors Hernandez-Blanco was not the killer but did help dispose of the body and the van.

Hernandez-Blanco, who was convicted in federal court last year for illegally possessing a firearm, will be sentenced Sep. 13 in Gooding County on the charge of aiding and abetting voluntary manslaughter. According to his plea agreement, hell be sentenced to 15 years in prison with a fixed minimum of five years.

Hernandez-Blanco agreed to testify truthfully in any other criminal case connected with this homicide, and he agreed to a full-disclosure interview with law enforcement, which will include a polygraph test.

After that interview, prosecutors might finally reveal and charge the suspect in Cilio-Martinezs killing.
BOISE  U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will offer a free class next week for organizations that help immigrants.

The class is 8:30-10 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 9 at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services field office, 1185 Vinnell Way in Boise. It will be followed by a question-and-answer session.

Participants will learn the proper procedures for helping immigrants fill out paperwork and how to become accredited through the Department of Justices Board of Appeals. The workshop is for organizations such as nonprofit religious, charitable and social service groups.

The workshop will explain why an organization or an employee may want to become BIA recognized and accredited, requirements for accreditation, how to prepare a packet for BIA accreditation and how to partner with USCIS.

Accredited representatives can assist clients in preparing forms and are allowed to attend USCIS interviews with their clients.

For more information, email Amber Vasek at d19communityrelations@uscis.dhs.gov.
The entire cash-on-a-pallet debate about the $400 million payment the U.S. made to Iran in January rests on a single assumption: that paying ransom for hostages is a bad thing. But it isnt, at least not always.

All negotiations and transactions depend on leverage. Hostages are a form of leverage, and so is money. So is military force. Frequently, paying ransom is the least expensive and most effective way to achieve the goal of recovering hostages.

And on close reflection, ransom payments dont really create new incentives for bad actors to take hostages  because those incentives already exist, and cant be eliminated by insisting that paying ransom is something the U.S. will never do.

Why does a country like Iran take hostages in the first place? Simply put, its trying to get vastly stronger actors, like the U.S., to do what it wants. In this way, a hostage-taking country is not so different from a brigand in an unpoliced area who takes hostages as a moneymaking venture. The kidnapper is exploiting two vulnerabilities.

First, the kidnapper can get hold of a person who is unprotected, and cant easily be caught without the hostage being harmed. Second, the hostage wants to live freely  and the hostages friends and family want the same thing for him or her.

There are really only two ways to eliminate hostage-taking, and they correspond to the two vulnerabilities.

One is not to get grabbed in the first place. That isnt very realistic for all Americans, who travel freely around the globe and sometimes make themselves vulnerable to capture.

The other is not to care about the hostage being taken at all. At the personal level, that requires both hostages and their friends and family to be prepared to accept indefinite or even permanent detention. Understandably, thats extremely rare.

At the national level, not caring would require a broadly shared political value that accepts the detention or death of Americans as the price we all pay for our freedom to travel and our nations global power. Such a Spartan view isnt realistic in our democracy, and Im not sure it would be ethically desirable even if it were.

The upshot is that American hostages will inevitably be taken, and Americans, including some in the government, will inevitably want to get them back.

The question, then, is whether its a sensible principle for the U.S. never to pay ransom to do so.

Here the answer is an unequivocal no. The alternative to paying ransom is to use economic sanctions or to threaten force. Those are both good tools of foreign policy, but both are blunt instruments rather than scalpels.

Economic sanctions harm an entire country or industry, and are also often costly to those who impose them.

Force could be directed specifically at recovering particular hostages, but as President Jimmy Carters failed attempt should remind us, its hard to execute. Other forms of force may kill innocent bystanders or otherwise strengthen anti-American sentiment.

In contrast, paying ransom is the simplest and most direct way to get back hostages, presuming you want them returned.

But what about the incentive it creates for more hostage-taking? My Bloomberg View colleague Eli Lake points out that when it comes to Iran, ransom payments are standard operating procedure  a statement that is 100 percent true. And he adds that the Iranians have learned that hostage-taking works  which is also perfectly accurate.

But Iran didnt need the U.S. to teach it that hostage-taking is effective. The incentive to take hostages is immediately obvious to anyone trying to gain leverage over a more powerful actor. Theres a reason hostage-taking is as old as recorded history.

And thats why its a bit absurd to think that the U.S. should never pay ransom  because refusing to pay ransom will make it much harder to get back hostages without eliminating the incentive to take them in the first place.

It sounds tough to say that we dont pay ransom. But we do; we have; and we will  so long as we care about our citizens, and so long as humans are willing to use other humans as leverage to accomplish their goals.
Friday morning brings a truly rare sighting: Donald Trump admitting error. Sort of, anyway. He tweeted this:

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The plane I saw on television was the hostage plane in Geneva, Switzerland, not the plane carrying $400 million in cash going to Iran!

--

In effect, Trump admitted that a claim he had been making for days  including at a blustery rally yesterday  was pure invention. Hed said he had witnessed video of the $400 million cash transfer made by the United States to Iran, even though no such video existed. Now hes admitting the video he saw was actually of the prisoner swap.

This episode undercuts one of the most cherished assumptions about this race, one explicitly voiced by Trump and even entertained by some neutral observers: That Trump can win through sheer media dominance alone. In this particular episode, Trump gained enormous amounts of media attention by publicly hallucinating about video of the cash transfer. But did he really gain anything from all that attention, other than widespread ridicule, at a time when his poll numbers are tanking? Press coverage tends to get harsher when a candidate gets weaker, and thats what this episode brought.

Trump himself has repeatedly said, in various ways, that his strategy is premised on sucking up all the media oxygen. After Melania Trumps convention speech was revealed as plagiarism, Trump said that all the publicity devoted to the speech was a positive, because all press is good press. Before that, Trump flatly stated that he had an advantage in the general election because I have the loudspeaker.

But its becoming increasingly obvious that the loudspeaker is turning voters against Trump, perhaps to a point from which there will be no coming back. The events of the last week strongly suggest this. Trumps ongoing battle with the Khan family drew enormous media scrutiny, but, given that it brought with it widespread media coverage of Republicans and military figures criticizing his conduct, all this attention has been simply awful for him. Indeed, the Clinton team is now explicitly premising its strategy on the idea that all the coverage has grown so lethal that its best play is to get out of the way and let it continue. The Post reports this fascinating nugget:

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Trumps tough week has been met by relative silence on the Clinton trail. The principle is to let Trump dominate the news cycle, while Clinton garners local headlines on her jobs plan.

After the Denver stop on Wednesday, for example, the Denver Posts three-column, front-page headline read, Clinton pledges millions of jobs.

--

Judging by the polls, this appears to be the right approach.

One thing that has become obvious about Trump is that he has not proven able to move into the general election, in the sense that he is still very much living in the mental universe he inhabited during the GOP primaries. Trumps whole strategy was to win the nomination by putting on a big show, one characterized by constant boasts about size  about the size of his fortune, his poll numbers, his rallies, his jet plane, and even his- penis size- strong, manly hands. Trump reportedly told a confidante in 2013 that he would win by making sure the media never take the lights off of me. Trump was right: He could do literally anything and the resulting media attention only seemed to lift him further aloft with Republican voters. And his media dominance probably did play a big role in his nomination.

But, crucially, Trumps recent suggestion that all press is good press came during the general election, suggesting he still thinks media dominance can carry him to victory now.

And yet, as Jonathan Bernstein smartly argues, structural factors driving how the media covers political campaigns have turned his media dominance against him in the general election. As Bernstein notes, the major news orgs basically milked the Trump Show for good ratings during the primaries with relatively uncritical coverage. But now, its harder for the media to ignore long-standing norms of fairness in the general election, so the coverage and scrutiny are inevitably getting a lot harsher, at precisely the moment when Trump is devolving into his worst bouts of depravity and unhinged behavior yet.

Indeed, given the events of the last couple of weeks, there is no way to argue that all the media attention is helping him  its sinking his candidacy. His favorable numbers among the very groups he must expand his appeal among are as awful as ever. Large majorities see him as fundamentally unfit for the job. He is falling far behind in the national polling averages and remains stuck at around 40 percent. Democrats may be broadening the map.

The idea that Trumps media ubiquity is largely a positive for him is merely a subset of larger myths about this race  that everything he does is shrewdly calculated and a reflection of his ingenious media manipulation, or even worse, that he possesses some species of Magical Trumpian Political Powers that allow him to defy the conventional rules of politics. Trump could still win, of course. But as of now, all of this has been thoroughly discredited.

--

- HILLARY AD FEATURES CONSERVATIVES AGAINST TRUMP: The Clinton campaign is airing a new ad that features a variety of GOP and conservative voices arguing that Trump cannot be trusted to control our nuclear arsenal. Given that the ad is running on national cable, it looks like the target audience is District of Columbia elites, with the goal of getting more and more center-right voices to declare Trump dangerously unfit for the job.

Note the juxtaposition of this argument with footage of Trump mocking a disabled reporter.

- PRESIDENTS WIELD VAST POWER OVER NUKES: The New York Times looks at the power a president has over the nuclear arsenal, and concludes:

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Is there any check on a presidents power to launch nuclear arms that could destroy entire cities or nations? The short answer is no, though history suggests that in practice, there may be ways to slow down or even derail the decision-making process. No one disputes, however, that the president has an awesome authority.The commander in chief can also order the first use of nuclear weapons even if the United States is not under nuclear attack.

--

As one expert puts it: Theres no veto once the president has ordered a strike. President Donald Trump?

- CLINTON LEADING. . .IN GEORGIA? A new Atlanta Journal Constitution poll finds Clinton with a slight lead over Trump among registered voters in Georgia, 44-40. Previous polls have found it close, and the polling average has Trump up there by only three points.

Clinton advisers have said they think Georgia might be in play. But the real tell will be if Democrats invest any time or money there.

- A GOOD JOBS REPORT: The July jobs numbers are in:

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 255,000 in July, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.9 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.

But. . .but. . .but. . .those WRONG TRACK NUMBERS GUARANTEE A TRUMP VICTORY!!! Cue up Trump claiming the employment numbers are rigged. . .

- SANDERS MAKES CASE FOR CLINTON: Bernie Sanders takes to the pages of the Los Angeles Times to make the case for Clinton, arguing that she favors universal health care, making college more affordable, and overturning Citizens United. And:

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Clinton understands that climate change is real, is caused by human activity and is one of the great environmental crises facing our planet. She knows that we must transform our energy system away from fossil fuelsTrump, on the other hand, like most Republicans, rejects scienceHe believes that climate change is a hoax, and that theres no need to address it.

--

If there were any single thing that would compel Sanders young supporters to back Clinton, youd think this would be it.

- DEMS WARY OF CONVENTION BOUNCE: CNN reports that Dems are not taking Clintons current high in the polls all that seriously, and are still bracing for a very tough race:

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Theres a reason they call the convention bounces a bounce. They can shoot you up to an artificial high and then come down to reality, explained Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri, a longtime veteran of presidential politics. We are really glad that our convention was so well-received but believe that we continue to face an electorate that is still very divided and know this election will be close.

--

Clinton strategist Joel Benenson has also warned against reading too much into poll swings. The plain fact is that Democrats still think this could be a very close, hard fought race.

- AND RIGHT NOW, TRUMP IS LOSING  BIG: Philip Bump looks at all the recent national polling and reaches this stark conclusion:

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Clintonnow leads in the average by seven points. How big is that? Big. Relative to Election Day in 2004, 2008 and 2012, Clintons lead is more than twice that of the eventual victor at this point. In 2004, George W. Bush had a six-point lead for a few weeks; in 2008, Barack Obama led by six points or more for the final month or so. Other than that, though, Clintons lead is exceptional.

--

This is very likely to subside, but still: Trump is beginning the next stage of the general election in a very weak position.
Twin Falls County has a big problem, and taxpayers are footing the bill.

Since 2012, the county has paid out a whopping $1.9 million to settle lawsuits through its insurance provider, Idaho Counties Risk Management Program.

To put the problem in perspective: In the same time period, the other Magic Valley counties combined have paid out just 251,000 in settlements.

The real cost, though, comes to taxpayers through striking rises in premiums, from $350,639 to $553,114. Thats a 58 percent increase in four years.

Whats driving ballooning costs in Twin Falls County?

Massive payouts to people who have sued. As the lawsuits mount, the risk to insure the county has skyrocketed.

Most troubling, more than half of the payouts have been to women whove accused the sheriffs department of sexual harassment and discrimination. The single largest check was cut to a man who claimed he was abused in the Twin Falls County Jail, which is also under the management of Sheriff Tom Carter.

The sheriffs critics have said the suits are clear signs Carter isnt running a tight ship. But other public officials offer more nuanced explanations. Twin Falls County is the largest in the region, so it stands to reason, they say, it would have the largest insurance settlements. And perhaps ICRMP shares some of the blame, too. County officials cant remember the insurance provider challenging a suit against Twin Falls County in the past 10 years, instead opting to settle every claim against the county. That kind of track record sends a message that suing the county, regardless of the merits of the suit, will get you a quick payout.

The county and plaintiffs are typically barred from talking about the suits as conditions of the settlements, and the county is allowed to deny liability. So its difficult to assign blame in individual cases. And ICRMP Executive Director Rick Ferguson stopped short of calling Twin Falls sexual assault claims disproportionate to other counties in the state, saying ICRMP didnt have a large enough data pool to draw that conclusion.

But the totality  the sheer number of lawsuits, settlements, payouts and premiums increases  is clearly troubling.

Whatever the reasons, Twin Falls County commissioners must address the problem. Were not satisfied  and taxpayers shouldnt be either  with the explanation that settlements of this size are simply the cost of running the county.

With an election on the horizon, two of the three commissioner seats will turn over. These new commissioners must make it a priority to tackle the countys lawsuit problem. Taxpayers should expect nothing less.
Recent letters reviewed the internment of the Japanese during WWII and the United States as a nation of immigrants. In 1941 Pearl Harbor was attacked, with possible imminent invasion of the West Coast, and no time to screen local Japanese, historically late immigrants. Unjust, yes, but the first priority was to protect our country. That invasion did not materialize, it was later disclosed, because Japan knew average American citizens were armed. Bushito, a religion of aggression, motivated Japan to overrun many Pacific Rim countries, as well as the United States.

Americans of German heritage were not a threat to our country because they were not Nazis. Their ancestors were among early immigrants from other Western countries, all of them Christian nations. They came seeking a place to live in peace and freedom, not to deliberately destroy native peoples already living here. However, that was the outcome. Original owners of this land were almost annihilated, the remainder interred in reservations.

Immigration from Muslim countries is for a different reason. Flooding the west with Muslims is the method used by the Muslim Brotherhood, fonned in Egypt in 1928, for the subjugation of the entire world to the political/religious system of Islam. In 622 A.D., Mohammed began jihad by slaughtering the Christian civilization of the mid-east, and the jihad has been renewed periodically thorough out the centuries.

United States laws are based on Judeo-Christian principles from the Bible. The core instruction is to love God and our fellow man, to tell him the good news of salvation by the death of Christ to pay for our sin. The core instruction of Islam is to force everyone in the world to submit to a lunar moon-god, Allah, or be killed. Surah 47:4, the Quran, instructs Muslims to cut off the heads of all who will not submit to Islam. It isn't politically correct "radical extremism," it is Islam.

Christine Riker

Buhl
In light of the inspiring Brexit vote to get the UK out of the EU, please support amexit to Get US Out!of the UN.

US Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., got amexit rolling with a post on his Facebook page just two days after the historic Brexit vote. He wrote:

"Time for amexit? I'm a cosponsor of H.R. 1205 to get the US out of the UN. brexit"

Less than a week later he had received 5,100 likes and his post, which included a photo of the first page of H.R. 1205 "To end membership of the United States in the United Nations" that had been shared 7,500 times. He'd also received 657 comments, mostly supportive.

When someone posted a question about why getting out of the UN would be good, Rep. Massie posted:

"In one word, Sovereignty. As a member of the UN, we bind our citizens to decisions made by undemocratic countries, when in fact our constitution should be the supreme law."

Just that short response received 754 likes!

According to the official summary of H.R. 1205, it "Directs the President to terminate U.S. membership in the United Nations (U.N.), including any organ, specialized agency, commission, or other formally affiliated body."

As of July 1, H.R. 1205 has six cosponsors in the House. This bill deserves a whole lot more than that.

Just as the UK voted to regain its independence by leaving the European Union, it is time to restore our nation's independence by ending our membership in the United Nations.

Please consider contacting U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson and kindly ask him to become a co-sponsor of H.R. 1205, a bill to Get the US Out of the UN.

Rick Martin

Buhl
3. Loebs also admitted that one of the perpetrators families was still living next door to the victims, in defiance of an eviction order. The child is, in fact, still living next to his victim. This situation is unacceptable to Americans, and it ought to be unacceptable to Loebs as well. Yet Loebs said he does not have any indication of the victims being harassed. Loebs knows that the child was never arrested, was never removed from his home, and plays unrestrained in the complex under supervision. Harassment? Yes: The victims family is living in fear, remaining indoors and away from the community.
For picture posts from 2010 and earlier, see the Earlier Picture Posts Page
Here's a fine, deftly made poem by Meg Kearney of New Hampshire, in which the details deliver the emotions, which are never overtly named other than by the title. It's my favorite kind of poem, and it's from her book An Unkindness of Ravens from BOA Editions. Her most recent book is Home By Now (Four Way Books 2009).

Loneliness

The girl hunting with her father approaches

the strange man who has stopped at the end

of his day to rest and look at the lake.

Do you like geese? she asks. The man smiles.

The girl draws a webbed foot from her pocket

and places it in his hand. It's late fall

and still the geese keep coming, two fingers

spread against a caution-yellow sky. Before

he can thank her, the girl has run off, down

to the edge of the water. The man studies her

father, about to bring down his third goose

today  then ponders the foot: soft, pink,

and covered with dirt like the little girl's hand.

He slips it into his coat pocket, and holds it there.

***

We do not accept unsolicited submissions. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright 2001 by Meg Kearney, Loneliness, from An Unkindness of Ravens (BOA Editions, 2001). Poem reprinted by permission of The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of BOA Editions, LTD. Introduction copyright 2016 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.
Proponents of Missoulas efforts to take over the local water system erupted into celebrations this past week with the news that the Montana Supreme Court had upheld the citys right to use eminent domain to purchase Mountain Water Company.

The Supreme Courts 5-2 ruling now leaves the way clear for the city to buy the water company. City leaders were right to celebrate this milestone decision, and understandably eager to begin the utilitys transition to city control as soon as possible.

However, this victory comes at a cost. Missoula taxpayers and Mountain Water ratepayers deserve to know exactly how those costs will be paid  and how much it will end up costing them.

The Carlyle Group, a major global investment firm, bought Mountain Water as part of a package of water companies it acquired when it purchased Park Water Co. for $102 million in late 2011. The city of Missoula lent its official support to that sale with the stipulation that Missoula would have the opportunity to buy its water system at some point in the future. But Missoulas initial offer to buy Mountain Water for $65 million was rejected  twice. Unsurprisingly, a third and final written offer  for $50 million  was also dismissed.

Thus ensued a complicated, lengthy and costly court battle.

The city formally filed condemnation proceedings in Missoula County District Court in April 2014. Carlyle vowed to give the city a run for its money in court, then within months announced that it had sold Mountain Water, along with two other water utilities in California, to a Canadian utility company for a total of $327 million.

The eminent domain trial in district court ended in the citys favor with Judge Karen Townsends June 2015 order, but that order was appealed and was only one of several issues that needed hashing out.

The tangle of stakeholder parties, court proceedings and legal arguments that led to last weeks ruling could fill a book. Indeed, they could probably fill an entire bookshelf. City leaders and residents can breathe a sigh of relief at having finally entered the final chapter.

But wait: theres a sequel. The city has announced an intention to file a bad faith complaint alleging Carlyle and Mountain Water representatives engaged in unfair dealings and misled the city regarding its intention to sell the water company. For that aspect of the legal proceedings, lawyers have agreed to work on a blended contingency fee basis of reduced rates plus a percentage of costs recouped from the defendant, assuming the city is again victorious. Also assuming the city wins its bad faith case, it may expect to recover a portion of the costs it incurred fighting for control of Mountain Water.

And so the fight continues.

Nevertheless, Missoulas victory this past week means the war has been won, the legal expenses will soon stop piling up and the city will soon start having to pay down a mountain of debt.

The city is, after all, on the hook to pay not only its own legal fees, but also those of the defense. The defendants have submitted filings requesting reimbursement for more than $7 million in expenses they consider reasonable and necessary to making their case in court, although the city disputes that figure and says it is closer to $3.5 million. The citys own legal expenses have topped $6 million.

Meanwhile, previous legal haggling has pegged the cost of actually buying Mountain Water at $88.6 million.

Missoula intends to transition the water company to city control as quickly as possible, and Mayor John Engen has said that current rates will remain in place for the time being. However, he anticipates that water bills will eventually increase.

But how much  and how quickly  will rates increase? How much of that increase will be reinvested in the water system, which sucks up millions of dollars in maintenance and repairs each year and yet has a leakage rate of nearly 40 percent? How much will be used to pay off legal bills? Operating expenses?

If it hopes to keep its new customers happy, the city of Missoula must take pains to inform its customers about its plan to pay the bills at every step of the way.
After viewing the horror of the Charlo puppy mill, are we, the people, going to stand up to our senators and reps and demand they get and sign a bill abolishing puppy mills? Our state is known for open doors on puppy mills. Thats why, when they get abolished in other states, they flee to Montana. Its time to say "no more."

Puppy mills are cruel, evil places. To the politicians, read the Bible. God gave us horses for work and pleasure, gave us cattle and chickens for food in return for care, as all animals are to be. God gave us dogs and cats to work but also give us protection, companionship and teach us compassion and how to love.

During your break from the legislature, take a trip to Charlo and listen to the people and view the hellhole these little dogs lived in. The people who ran and got away with running this evil hellhole go to court Aug. 10. They will probably only be fined and get to keep all of these sick and mistreated little dogs due to a stupid law.

This law must be changed. No more puppy mills! People, you must get behind this law or we are guilty of sick cruelty. Thanks so much to Sen. Sue Malek and Rep. Doc Moore for their help and urging me on. We need their help and all of yours.

Elinor Williamson,

Seeley Lake
HAVRE (AP)  A man who was shot to death by a Phillips County sheriff's deputy last week had been walking down the highway in the middle of the night wearing just underwear prior to the confrontation that led to his death, the sheriff's office said.

A motorist called 911 just after 3 a.m. on July 27 to report a man walking down the middle of U.S. Highway 191 south of Malta wearing only underwear, Sheriff Scott Moran said in a statement. The motorist said he stopped and asked the man if he could help. His offers were refused, but the motorist said he gave the man a spare sweatshirt.

Deputy Alan Guderjahn responded to the call and recognized Ambrose Mecklenburg, 20. He offered him a ride to Malta, but it was refused.

"While speaking with Mecklenburg, Mecklenburg pulled a knife and attacked Guderjahn without warning," the sheriff's statement said.

Guderjahn was unable to subdue Mecklenburg and was forced to shoot him, officials said.

Passing motorists aided Guderjahn, who sustained several cuts and stab wounds to his head, arms and torso, Moran said. The deputy was taken to the hospital in Malta and then Great Falls. He was released three days later.

The case is still being investigated by the state Division of Criminal Investigation.
YELLOW BAY  The next time you drive along, boat across or dive into Flathead Lake, Shawn Devlin has a few things for you to keep in mind  some of them things that you cannot see with the naked eye.

Mysis shrimp, which many years ago turned the Flathead fishery on its head, now appear to be breeding twice a year and are showing up where they are not supposed to be. Nitrogen levels continue to rise dramatically. Algae that attaches to rocks along the shoreline is increasing.

Still, the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi is in good shape, Devlin told the Flathead Lakers at their annual meeting recently.

The lake ecologist at the University of Montanas Flathead Lake Biological Station delivered the annual State of the Lake address to the group  the first time in decades it hadnt come from former biological station director Jack Stanford, who retired last year.

His replacement, Jim Elser, also spoke to the Lakers, a citizens group founded in 1958 to work to protect the water quality of Flathead.

Elser told them about a University of Vermont study that showed a one-meter increase in water clarity corresponded with a 3 percent increase in home values, and a 37 percent increase in seasonal home values. A one-meter decrease in water clarity has the opposite effect, and also results in job losses and reduced tourism spending.

We care about our property values and our businesses, Elser said, but the real reason we care is to pass on our clean lake to our children and grandchildren.

***

Devlins biggest concerns for Flathead are the threat of new aquatic invasive species introductions, and the potential for a catastrophic event such as an oil train spill on railroad tracks that run along the Middle Fork of the Flathead River.

Even though we have an amazing template to work with, we could still mess it up, Devlin said.

Some of the items he touched on:

 Data from the mid-lake monitoring station indicates the lake is not warming up, but it could be a different story in sheltered bays.

 Phosphorus levels have been stable since 1990, but nitrogen has drastically increased since 1996 and is still increasing at all depths. The sources of atmospheric deposits of nitrogen are located outside the Flathead watershed, making it more difficult to change the trend.

 Septic system problems may be responsible for the increase in periphyton, the algae attached to rocks along the shoreline.

 Mysis shrimp numbers have been oscillating a great deal over the past 12 years, and are currently rapidly increasing. When that happens there is a lot of chlorophyll present, few zooplankton, and low primary productivity, a measure of the rate of algal growth.

Mysis are starting to inhabit shallower waters, including the photic zone, the surface waters that light penetrates. They shouldnt be there, Devlin said, and the changes in distribution appear to indicate they are now breeding twice a year. That has been seen in other lakes, but only ones with a higher productivity than Flathead.

 Meantime, lake clarity is increasing. Clarity is measured with a Secchi disk, a tool developed more than 150 years ago that is lowered into the water until it is no longer visible. The depth where it disappears from view determines the clarity level.

Devlin said biological station researchers arent sure yet why Flatheads clarity is on the rise.

***

The actual State of the Lake report is not issued until the water year ends on Sept. 30 and all the data the station monitors has been analyzed. Devlin, who is completing a post-doctoral research and teaching position at the station and is in charge of its water quality monitoring program, will soon join its faculty as a research assistant professor.

Other personnel notes at the station include the arrival of professor and entrepreneur Cody Youngbull, who hopes to manufacture environmental sensors he has invented that eventually may provide DNA detection of invasive species such as quagga or zebra mussels. Elsers wife, Monica, has also been hired as education liaison, and the new director plans to add new scientists and fill new faculty positions.

I can reassure you that all the things you love about the bio station will continue to happen, Elser told the Lakers.

The biological station was established in Bigfork in 1899 by Morton Elrod, and moved to Yellow Bay in 1908. It is the second-oldest biological station in America.

***

Rusby and Liz Seabaugh were honored with the Lakers annual Stewardship Award for protecting more than 700 acres of wetlands, riparian areas and farm land along the Flathead River.

The conservation project was one of the first completed in cooperation with a fledgling partnership among private landowners, organizations and government agencies now known as the River to Lake Initiative.

The Lakers first-ever Education Award went to Polson third-grade teacher Gail Burghardt, who championed the organizations Becoming Watershed Stewards student education program after Lakers Executive Director Robin Steinkraus approached the school district with it.

Steinkraus said Burghardt has mentored new third-grade teachers and written grants to provide a trunk of educational materials for each Polson third-grade classroom, rather than having six teachers share one trunk.

The program includes interdisciplinary, hands-on classroom lessons and activities, and culminates in a field trip to the Flathead Lake Biological Station each spring, Steinkraus said. Polson classes have participated for 19 years, and five schools in the watershed  reaching some 400 students annually  now offer the program.
BUTTE  A 49-year-old Texas man accused of fatally shooting a Whitehall man and injuring two other men will be tried in Butte on Sept. 12.

The jury trail for Tony Dwade Sawyer was continued from Sept. 6 because of a scheduling conflict of a key witness, Montana state medical examiner Dr. Jaime Oeberst, according to court documents.

Sawyer faces felony charges of deliberate homicide and two counts of attempted deliberate homicide in Butte district court. He is being held at the county jail on $1 million bond.

At his arraignment last December, Sawyer pleaded not guilty to killing Joe Powers, 37, and wounding two other men in a triple shooting about 13 miles southeast of Butte in November 2015.

Sawyer fled the scene on Fish Creek Road near state Highway 2 with the alleged weapon and was arrested by law enforcement a day later in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

Judge Brad Newman on Jan. 29 denied the defendants motion to reduce his bail to $100,000.

A pretrial conference was set for Aug. 25.
MISSOULA  Montana Innocence Project client Dale Hanson lost his petition for post-conviction relief at the Montana Supreme Court.

The Whitefish man was convicted in 1995 of sexual assault and deviant sexual conduct and served 10 years in prison for the crimes against a child. However, he has maintained for more than 20 years that he did not abuse his girlfriend's son.

Since his release roughly a decade ago, Hanson has been hiding from law enforcement because he refuses to register as a sexual offender. As a result, a warrant was issued for his arrest.

"We never would have agreed to come on as counsel if we didn't believe in his innocence," Montana Innocence Project legal director Larry Mansch said this week. "But I don't know that there are any avenues for us to go down since the Supreme Court decision."

Mansch said retired University of Montana law professor Jeffrey Renz was lead counsel on Hanson's case, and he did not know whether Renz had plans to pursue the matter in federal court. The Innocence Project signed on as co-counsel when Renz took a leave of absence for a summer.

Renz could not be reached Monday or Tuesday for comment.

The Montana Supreme Court ruled the lower court did not abuse its discretion in Hanson's case, as he alleged.

The order said Hanson and his girlfriend at the time sometimes showered with her son, and the boy testified he and Hanson showered together at times. The boy testified that he and Hanson washed each other's genitals and Hanson told the boy to perform oral sex, and he did so, the order said.

In 1995, a jury convicted Hanson, and the Montana Supreme Court upheld the decision.

But Hanson has maintained his innocence.

Earlier, a witness for Hanson who is a therapist said that nationwide, both counselors and prosecutors were overzealous in finding child abuse during the time that Hanson was convicted, and authorities sometimes manipulated children into believing abuse took place when it hadn't.

Hanson's lawyers have noted that his steadfast insistence he did not abuse the boy robbed him of benefits he would have had while incarcerated  and that admitting to the allegations might have kept him from landing behind bars in the first place.

"Mr. Hanson could have drawn a lighter sentence and possibly have avoided prison if he had admitted to something he did not do and submitted to treatment for a condition that he did not have," an earlier court document said. "Nevertheless, he maintained his innocence."

The court filing said his housing and confinement conditions would have improved had he registered as a sexual offender.

Hanson's lawyers have alleged the state deliberately suppressed evidence favorable to their client. They also argued the lower court abused its discretion multiple times and delayed the case in "egregious" ways.

According to Hanson's attorneys, a Flathead County detective, now dead, interfered with witnesses who wanted to testify on Hanson's behalf, and thus, interfered with his right to due process.

"The state's response argued that the information set forth by Hanson did not constitute newly discovered evidence and argued that, because (the detective) was deceased and had been for several years, it could not specifically respond to the allegations against her," read the Montana Supreme Court order.

In 2009, Hanson's failure to have a current registration as a sex offender led to a warrant for his arrest, according to the court order issued earlier this summer.

In his quest for post-conviction relief, Hanson petitioned the Flathead County District Court, but he missed three depositions, according to the order. He failed to appear  despite the court's demands  because he did not want to be arrested on the outstanding warrant.

"Allowing a litigant to ignore a court order to appear for a deposition because of an outstanding warrant cannot be tolerated," said Justice Laurie McKinnon in the order.

The order also noted Hanson was given advance notice he could lose his case if he failed to appear. Hanson had requested to appear via teleconference in order to answer questions without fear of arrest.

"In its order compelling his attendance, Hanson was expressly warned that his failure to attend the third deposition could result in the District Court dismissing his petition with prejudice," the order said.

The court did so, and the state high court affirmed the ruling: "The District Court did not abuse its discretion by dismissing Hanson's petition for post-conviction relief."

Hanson remains in hiding and has been considered a fugitive from the law.
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks will hold its fall Butte hunter education class beginning Aug. 22 at Highlands College (formerly Montana College of Technology, 25 Basin Creek Road. Online registration is required, and students under 18 years of age must have the consent of a parent or guardian.

Class times are as follows:

Monday, Aug. 22, 6 p.m. to 9:15 p.m.

Tuesday, Aug. 23, 6 p.m. to 9:15 p.m.

Wednesday, Aug. 24, 6 p.m. to 9:15 p.m.

Thursday, Aug. 25, 6 p.m. to 9:15 p.m.

Friday, Aug. 26, 6 p.m. to 9:15 p.m.

Sunday, Aug. 28, 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. (field day at the Rocker Range). Arrival times for the field day will be assigned to students during class.

Online registration is required by going to FWPs website at fwp.mt.gov, clicking on Education, then Hunter Education, then Find a Class or Field Course. Students must print, sign and bring the Acknowledgement of Risk, Student Agreement Form and the Hunter Education Student Code of Ethics (found on the event registration page) the first night of class. Students are not allowed to bring firearms or ammunition to class.

Prior to the first class meeting, students are required to read the hunter education manual and complete all chapter quizzes. If not complete, students will not be admitted. Manuals can be picked up at Bugs and Bullets, Bob Wards, or Three Bears in Butte.

A student must be 10 years old to register for the course.
With all eyes focused on Butte's Superfund cleanup  including the Berkeley Pit, Silver Bow Creek, and the Parrot tailings  a waste site with the potential to impact human health has been left all but untouched eight miles west of town.

After nearly two decades of consideration, the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to announce sometime later this year a major decision on the Belgian-owned Solvay phosphorus plant's nearly empty site.

The closed plant is a half-mile south of Ramsay Elementary School in Butte's Tax Increment Financial District, a special economic zone for industry. The TFID, called Montana Connections, is home to the rail hub Port of Montana, FedEx, and REC Silicon. Montana's only twin-screen drive-in theater is immediately east of the site.

The closed plant is a 150-acre moonscape of radioactive slag dunes, evaporated tailings ponds, and skeletonized industrial structures visible from Interstates 15 and 90. But the site's most dangerous feature isn't so visible: a 500,000-gallon concrete tank filled with white phosphorus sludge. If the sludge ever touches the atmosphere, it will explode and release a toxic gas.

Currently the dangerous sludge is kept under control by a cap of 2 to 3 feet of water and, on top of that, rows of black plastic "bird balls" to keep migrating fowl from landing. Solvay project site manager Dan Bersanti said last month that if there is any water loss in the tank, an automatic system kicks in and replaces the lost water, so the tank always maintains the 2-to-3-foot water mark.

White phosphorus has the ability to quickly generate smoke that has made the material useful and common for a century among armed forces worldwide. It burns so hot  5,000 degrees Fahrenheit  that its use as a munition against civilians was banned by the United Nations in the 1980s. White phosphorus burns victims to the bone. The tank holds the equivalent of 853,000 white phosphorus incendiary hand grenades.

Despite its dangers, phosphorous is used for a variety of household items, including baking soda, food preservatives, and agricultural fertilizer. The Butte plant processed phosphorous mostly to make laundry detergent up until the mid-1980s, Bersanti said last month.

But now with the plant and its operations long gone  operations came to a complete halt by 1997  the question remains over what to do with the concrete tank and its contents. This question has occupied the EPA and plant owners for close to 20 years.

The plant has also occupied the EPA and the state in another way  through its storied past. A raid by federal and state investigators on the plant in 2000 resulted in a criminal trial in 2003. There have been two fires at the site. It is also, despite its hazardous waste, not a Superfund site but a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) site.

The site lacks a Montana-based EPA site manager. Federal oversight for the plant is coordinated directly from the EPA's Denver regional office. Butte and Anaconda's Superfund sites have Helena-based EPA site managers.

The EPA's decision later this year will be whether the federal agency OK's Solvay's recommendation to mine the sludge for profitable chemicals and potentially ship hazardous waste from other sites to Butte-Silver Bow for harvest, filling a "market niche," according to a 2015 study Solvay commissioned.

EPA Denver regional office public information officer Rich Mylott said through email that the EPA is considering "several alternatives."

The other options Solvay has come up with, listed in a 2015 supplemental waste plan, are capping the tank, which the EPA has historically opposed, or shipping its contents off to be incinerated, which Solvay has said is exorbitantly expensive and time consuming at $54 million over 20 years or more.

Could Butte become home to a new phosphorous recovery plant?

The phosphorus sludge in the tank is a byproduct of harvesting elemental phosphorus from phosphate ore. Typically the sludge was burned off for its remaining elemental phosphorus in a roaster, but when the plant was decommissioned in 1997, the clarifier wasn't emptied, Bersanti said in a 2001 letter, because it could no longer be done safely. So it has remained for nearly 20 years.

Solvay's desired solution to the tank and the dangerous muck within it would mean that Butte could become home to a facility that would mine the elemental phosphorus for resale. The new facility would be similar to the plant's old roaster. The roaster was torn down sometime after the plant closed in 1997.

The new facility, if built, could mine up to 98,000 gallons of elemental phosphorus recovered from the tank and sold for up to $2.5 million.

That does not include the waste from other parts of the country that would be shipped to Butte-Silver Bow for extraction.

Such a facility would take Solvay at least 10 years and cost $25 million to build.

BSB's TIFID administrator Kristen Rosa said the county supports Solvay's hope to build a phosphorous recovery plant.

"We are looking forward to them (Solvay) being able to move on and get the site cleaned up," Rosa said Friday.

Not only that, but BSB hopes to purchase a portion of Solvay's land  the site includes 900 acres, all within the TIFID district. Only about 150 are disturbed.

The portion that the county has its eye on is in the northeast corner of the Solvay property, close to the Port of Montana.

"It's a very separate parcel from everything they've developed on," Rosa said.

In addition, hundreds of acres to the west of the moonscape and black dunes where the operating plant once was also have not been disturbed. BSB has expressed interest in working with Solvay to develop that land as well.

Other options for the site

The other two options for the site are creating a permanent cap over the dangerous phosphorous or shipping it elsewhere for incineration.

After purchasing the site from Rhodia in 2011, Solvay compared the options in terms of long-term safety, reduction in toxicity, project safety, project length, and cost. While capping the clarifier is considered to be the short-term safest and cheapest option  $5.4 million over 2 years  capping would do nothing to reduce the volume of crude phosphorus, making it less safe long-term, the 2015 study states.

Safer than leaving the waste in place would be sending it off site to be destroyed, but Solvay projected this would cost ten times as much and take ten times as long as a cap. Bersanti said in mid-July that this is because the only facilities capable of incinerating the plant's crude phosphorus have never had to deal with so much at one time and can't burn it fast enough.

A 2015 Solvay study states that neither shipping the elemental phosphorous elsewhere nor building a new plant on site for phosphorous recovery would solve all the problems. If either plan is implemented, there would still be sludge left in the concrete tank, and Solvay would still have to have some sort of cap over what remained.

The 2015 study also states that both options have high risks for serious worker injury and medium risk for worker fatality for the duration of the sludge cleanup from both fire and phosphine gas.

Even so, Solvay's study recommends building a plant to extract and recover phosphorous from the sludge as the preferred cleanup method.

The EPA and Montana Department of Environmental Quality would have to sign off on commercial on-site extraction, and to store new hazardous waste on-site, Solvay would have to apply for the same kind of RCRA permit the site lacked and Rhodia was originally fined for in 2000 when the agencies initiated the raid.

The raid

Though many companies were responsible for the BSB site over the decades, Rhodia was left holding the hot potato when the EPA and MDEQ knocked on the gate with a search warrant in May of 2000. While plant owners didn't need special permission for the tank's sludge while the plant operated, as soon as the site shut down, the sludge legally became hazardous waste, which requires a RCRA permit to store. Rhodia didn't have one.

EPA and MDEQ investigators found the 2 feet of water capping the tank to be leaking, dropping the water level several inches. Bersanti said to investigators that the tank lost more water to evaporation. Just sampling the concrete tank's contents started fires that couldn't be extinguished with water until the phosphorus in the sludge samples burned up.

While the water cap keeps the white phosphorus from exploding, contact between the two releases toxic and flammable phosphine gas, which investigators detected during the raid to be at levels that exceeded legal workplace safety requirements.

South of the tank, investigators found furnace-lining bricks ranging in size from cinderblocks to refrigerators piled at the edge of the slag dunes. Leftovers from when the plant was scrapped, the bricks were caked thick with phosphorus. One brick ignited when an investigator tossed a rock at it; another brick burst into flames when an investigator flipped it over. The fire had to be smothered with sand for fear it would spread to the whole pile and spark a brush fire.

Investigators warned the company then that phosphate ore at the bottom of the plant's 119 acre kidney-shaped tailings pond could combust and release phosphine gas if the basin ever dried out. Satellite photos show it dried out in 2003. Bersanti said last month that the basin is now sprayed each summer with magnesium chloride, a common dust control compound, and has never caught fire.

After the 2000 raid, the EPA required Rhodia to concentrate the scattered furnace bricks within a newly erected fence before sending off the most contaminated for incineration.

The EPA ordered another new fence to be built around the tank. The EPA also required Rhodia to install a phosphine monitoring and capture system and to look into a long-term plan to deal with the tank's sludge.

The lawsuit

The EPA dropped the real hammer on Rhodia a week before Christmas in 2003, charging the French chemical company in U.S. federal court with two felony counts of illegally storing hazardous waste.

Rhodia pleaded guilty to both counts, and the company's assigned probation officer compiled a pre-sentence report  since sealed  to assist Judge Donald Molloy in determining the severity of Rhodia's punishment. The state found the report acceptable, but Rhodia objected to much of the report. Judge Molloy denied Rhodia's request to seal their objections, giving insight into the company's attempts to lessen their punishment.

In an objection filed to the court, company lawyers claimed Rhodia's probation officer had favored the EPA's factual narrative over the company's, leading to "a badly distorted picture of the situation at the Silver Bow Plant."

Rhodia lawyers accused the report of wrongly suggesting the company deceived MDEQ for years into believing there was no hazardous waste on the site, arguing instead that Rhodia believed at the time that the material was not hazardous and that Rhodia therefore could not have knowingly deceived MDEQ.

Despite the objections, Rhodia did not withdraw its guilty plea, and in 2004 Judge Molloy sentenced the company to pay $1.8 million to the MDEQ and $16.2 million in fines to the federal treasury, the second-largest penalty ever lodged under RCRA. Rhodia's plea deal required them to clean up the site.

Why no Superfund?

RCRA exists to manage hazardous waste on sites still operating, while Superfund is typically for the cleanup of abandoned waste or sites no longer operating. The BSB site was still producing elemental phosphorus during the EPA's Superfund consideration, but the plant shut down within five years after the EPA chose not to declare it a Superfund spot in 1992.

According to Superfund decision documents, the EPA knew there was hazardous waste on site but couldn't determine if documented pollution in the area was from the phosphorus plant or the area's numerous other Superfund sites in Butte and Anaconda. The EPA also considered Ramsay's population too small for concern of exposure to hazardous chemicals. The EPA did not include the concrete tank in its investigation.

Solvay now owns the site, but the place has changed hands and nationalities a half-dozen times. Originally built by the Victor Chemical Company in the early 1950s, Stauffer owned the plant almost from its inception until the company was swallowed by a series of bigger and bigger fish as the international chemical industry consolidated. Between 1985 and 1998, the BSB site was owned by Stauffer, Chesebrough-Pond Inc., Unilever, Imperial Chemicals, Rhone-Poulenc, and then Rhodia.

The rocket explosion

With the help of the Montana Aerospace Development Association and the county's blessing, Rhodia got the green light in 2009 to rent out portions of the phosphorus plant for the testing of experimental hybrid fuel rockets.

Silicon Valley-based Space Propulsion Group tested rockets in a structure paid for by the county on top of the phosphorus plant's old rail car dumping pit 550 feet due east of the tank over open ground. By January 2011, SPG had successfully tested dozens of rocket motors using liquid oxygen to ignite paraffin candle wax and was preparing to test their largest rocket to date.

The rocket exploded immediately after ignition, destroying the test building and scattering debris over half a mile across the plant. The exact cause of the explosion is classified by the Joint Army Navy NASA Air Force Interagency Propulsion Committee. SPG chief engineer Brian Evans and MADA president David Micheletti blamed the explosion on the liquid oxygen freezing a gasket, leaking from a closed valve, and pooling in the test chamber. SPG and MADA's insurance didn't cover the building's destruction, costing the county $168,000.

Rocket testing resumed five months later, with no accidents since in hundreds of motors. SPG still uses the railcar dumper pit but also a new site 300 feet southwest of the concrete tank. Blast mats of woven elevator cable replaced dedicated test structures to deflect shrapnel from an explosion, and Evans said SPG's new rockets are brittle flyweights that fail before dangerously explosive pressure can build up.

"We learned so much from that incident," Evans said.

It wasn't the plant's first accident since decommissioning. In August of 2001, a small storage tank previously unknown to the EPA started a fire when a hole rusted through and allowed the phosphorus within to spill and make contact with air. The fire was noticed by Bersanti's wife from the freeway, according to The Montana Standard in 2001. Bersanti and a contractor smothered the fire with slag.

What happens after the EPA's decision on the tank?

Even after the EPA's decision on the concrete tank is handed down, the EPA will still have other decisions to consider about the site  namely, what to do about the 10 million tons of slag dunes. There is also the 75-to-80-acre tailings basin, which sits west of the concrete tank, and scrap metal sitting out on the site that emits low levels of radiation.

Mylott says the public has nothing to worry about and that the EPA is working toward a solution to the former plant's disturbed property.

"While immediate exposure risks have been addressed at the site, the over-arching goal of the (EPA) 2004 order (to Rhodia and now Solvay) is to hold the facility owners accountable for a deliberate and thorough site investigation and the implementation of effective, long-term cleanup remedies," Mylott said via email.
WHAT'S HAPPENING

SUNDAY, AUG. 7

CONCERT AT ST. TIMOTHYs

Four young musicians studying at the university level will take the stage at St. Timothys Summer Music Festival at 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 7. The Young Montana Musicians Spotlight concert will feature performances by Stephanie Anderson on trumpet, Breana McCullough on viola, and Prismatic Duo  Erin Equall and Cami Kohler  on piano and violin. Tickets can be purchased by visiting www.sttimothysmusic.org, calling 888-407-4071, or visiting any of the ticket outlets mentioned on the website.

COMMUNITY EVENT

The Montana Army National Guard 1889th will host a community event from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 7, at 500 Gilman Ave., in Butte. The public is invited to attend. There will be free food, games for kids, vehicles will be on display, with a rock-climbing wall as well.

WISE RIVER DAYS

Wise River Days will continue from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 7, at the Wise River Community Building. Among the events are fine arts show & sale, hands-on pottery, spinning, spirit doll making, yo-yo making, and many more activities. In addition, there will be a garage sale, historical exhibits, silent auction and 50/50 tickets will be sold. The Wise River Ambulance video on new equipment will also be shared. Details: Linda, 406-832-3270 or Alta, 406-832-3389.

DEER LODGE THEATER

The final production of the Cutler Brothers 2016 summer theatre season, Jesus Christ Superstar, will run on the brothers main stage in Deer Lodge July 29 through August 14. The rock opera plays on Friday and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Reservations: 406-846-4096. Details: cutlerbros.com. Tickets are $15 for the evening showings and $20 for the Sunday matinees.

PHILIPSBURG THEATER

The Opera House Theatre in Philipsburg presents shows Thursday through Sunday through Aug. 31. Current productions include Making God Laugh, Vaudeville Variety Show and Unnecessary Farce. Tickets are $20 adult and $10 for children 15 and under. Call 406-859-0013; email ohtc@blackfoot.net; or visit operahousetheatre.com.
The Roaring Lion Fire, burning over 7,000 acres southwest of Hamilton, has already claimed one life and over 60 homes and structures. As fighters continue to battle the blaze, the destruction only underscores the importance of urgently passing forest reform legislation.

Each summer that passes without comprehensive forest management reform is another summer when Mother Nature takes the matter into her own hands, filling our skies with the smoke of catastrophic wildfires.

During a visit to the Roaring Lion Fire camp, I was able to visit with many of the men and women battling the fire and speak to them about realities on the ground. Excessive accumulation of fuels from beetle kill and over-crowding of trees means that our forests burn very hot, very fast and are increasingly dangerous for firefighters. The Bitterroot National Forest spokesman said that he has never seen a fire take off and burn so quick, leaving the firefighters struggling to catch up to the blaze and contain it in time to stop the tragic loss of life and property. Cindy and I are praying for the men and women fighting fires across Montana and the safety of the communities under threat.

As a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, I see bipartisan consensus that the status quo for forest management is not sustainable. Ive been working toward reforms that reduce red tape, discourage obstructionist litigation and fund wildfire suppression in the same manner as other natural disasters. The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are in final negotiations on legislation to achieve these goals and Im hopeful that we will be able to come to agreement this year.

The Roaring Lion Fire, as well as fires burning in the Bitterroot and Lolo National Forests, and surrounding Thompson Falls and Ennis, and others across Montana, are heartbreaking examples of the urgent need for commonsense restoration projects that reduce the risk and magnitude of wildfires. Many of the acres burning near Hamilton threaten communities and were slated for restoration beginning later this year. But while the Forest Service sought to swiftly implement the project using an expedited process established by Congress in 2014, it was slowed by objections and now faces litigation, which will delay it further.

Across Montana there are almost five million acres of national forest land that have been identified as in critical need of restoration and fire mitigation projects. Im working to provide the Forest Service with additional tools and flexibility so that it can carry out these projects faster and without the persistent threat of litigation. Doing so is vital to protecting watersheds, fish and wildlife habitat, clean air, our recreational and tourism economy, and most important, the safety of our communities.

Our national forests are one of our states valued treasures and a renewable resource that should thrive. We know that responsible and active management of our forests decreases the severity and destruction of wildfires. We must pass commonsense reforms now and not spend another summer wishing that we had.

-- U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., is from Bozeman.
YELLOW BAY  The next time you drive along, boat across, or dive into Flathead Lake, Shawn Devlin has a few things for you to keep in mind  some of them things that you cannot see with the naked eye.

Mysis shrimp, which many years ago turned the Flathead fishery on its head, now appear to be breeding twice a year and are showing up where they are not supposed to be. Nitrogen levels continue to rise dramatically. Algae that attaches to rocks along the shoreline is increasing.

Still, the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi is in good shape, Devlin told the Flathead Lakers at their annual meeting last week.

The lake ecologist at the University of Montanas Flathead Lake Biological Station delivered the annual State of the Lake address to the group  the first time in decades it hadnt come from former biological station director Jack Stanford, who retired last year.

His replacement, Jim Elser, also spoke to the Lakers, a citizens group founded in 1958 to work to protect the water quality of Flathead.

Elser told them about a University of Vermont study that showed a one-meter increase in water clarity corresponded with a 3 percent increase in home values, and a 37 percent increase in seasonal home values. A one-meter decrease in water clarity has the opposite effect, and also results in job losses and reduced tourism spending.

We care about our property values and our businesses, Elser said, but the real reason we care is to pass on our clean lake to our children and grandchildren.

Devlins biggest concerns for Flathead are the threat of new aquatic invasive species introductions, and the potential for a catastrophic event such as an oil train spill on railroad tracks that run along the Middle Fork of the Flathead River.

Even though we have an amazing template to work with, we could still mess it up, Devlin said.

Some of the items he touched on:

Data from the mid-lake monitoring station indicates the lake is not warming up, but it could be a different story in sheltered bays.

Phosphorus levels have been stable since 1990, but nitrogen has drastically increased since 1996 and is still increasing at all depths. The sources of atmospheric deposits of nitrogen are located outside the Flathead watershed, making it more difficult to change the trend.

Septic system problems may be responsible for the increase in periphyton, the algae attached to rocks along the shoreline.

Mysis shrimp numbers have been oscillating a great deal over the past 12 years, and are currently rapidly increasing. When that happens there is a lot of chlorophyll present, few zooplankton, and low primary productivity, a measure of the rate of algal growth.

Mysis are starting to inhabit shallower waters, including the photic zone, the surface waters that light penetrates. They shouldnt be there, Devlin said, and the changes in distribution appear to indicate they are now breeding twice a year. That has been seen in other lakes, but only ones with a higher productivity than Flathead.

Meantime, lake clarity is increasing. Clarity is measured with a Secchi disk, a tool developed more than 150 years ago that is lowered into the water until it is no longer visible. The depth where it disappears from view determines the clarity level.

Devlin said biological station researchers arent sure yet why Flatheads clarity is on the rise.

The actual State of the Lake report is not issued until the water year ends on Sept. 30 and all the data the station monitors has been analyzed. Devlin, who is completing a post-doctoral research and teaching position at the station and is in charge of its water quality monitoring program, will soon join its faculty as a research assistant professor.

Other personnel notes at the station include the arrival of professor and entrepreneur Cody Youngbull, who hopes to manufacture environmental sensors he has invented that eventually may provide DNA detection of invasive species such as quagga or zebra mussels. Elsers wife, Monica, has also been hired as education liaison, and the new director plans to add new scientists and fill new faculty positions.

I can reassure you that all the things you love about the bio station will continue to happen, Elser told the Lakers.

The biological station was established in Bigfork in 1899 by Morton Elrod and moved to Yellow Bay in 1908. It is the second-oldest biological station in America.

Rusby and Liz Seabaugh were honored with the Lakers annual Stewardship Award for protecting more than 700 acres of wetlands, riparian areas and farm land along the Flathead River.

The conservation project was one of the first completed in cooperation with a fledgling partnership among private landowners, organizations and government agencies now known as the River to Lake Initiative.

The Lakers first-ever Education Award went to Polson third-grade teacher Gail Burghardt, who championed the organizations Becoming Watershed Stewards student education program after Lakers Executive Director Robin Steinkraus approached the school district with it.

Steinkraus said Burghardt has mentored new third-grade teachers and written grants to provide a trunk of educational materials for each Polson third-grade classroom, rather than having six teachers share one trunk.

The program includes interdisciplinary, hands-on classroom lessons and activities, and culminates in a field trip to the Flathead Lake Biological Station each spring, Steinkraus said. Polson classes have participated for 19 years, and five schools in the watershed  reaching some 400 students annually  now offer the program.
WAPELLO, Iowa Search crews combed the Mississippi River on Saturday for the body of a male swimmer who apparently went missing Friday night.

According to a Facebook post by the Wapello Fire and Rescue, crews were called by the Grandview Fire Department to an area north of Port Louisa at approximately 6:06 p.m. Friday.

The unidentified victim was reportedly swimming in the river with a small group of people when he ventured too far from shore and disappeared under the surface of the water. The victim was not wearing a personal flotation device.

Crews from the Grandview Fire Department, Wapello Fire Department and Wapello Ambulance performed an initial search of the riverbank. Rescue boats from Wapello, Muscatine Search and Rescue and New Boston Fire Department as well as the Iowa Department of Natural Resources performed a sonar search of the area but conflicting eyewitness accounts and water depths over 30 feet in places complicated search efforts.

Crews remained on scene until approximately 10 p.m. Friday. The search resumed at 7 a.m. Saturday.
WAPELLO, Iowa  Authorities located the body of a missing swimmer Sunday morning near Keithsburg, Illinois after a boater reported spotting a body in the Mississippi River.

According to a Facebook post on the Wapello Fire and Rescue unit's page, the call came in as rescue crews were about to expand the search area around 10:30 a.m. Sunday.

The still unidentified male victim went missing while swimming in the river north of Port Louisa at about 6 p.m. Friday. The victim was with a small group of people when he apparently ventured too far from shore disappearing under the surface of the water. The victim was not wearing a personal flotation device.

Rescue crews found the victim and removed the body.

Assisting in the search and recovery efforts were Wapello Fire and Rescue, Wapello Community Ambulance, Grandview Fire Department, Muscatine Search and Rescue, New Boston Fire Department, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Emergency K-9 Operations Search and Rescue, Louisa County Sheriff's Department, Louisa County Dispatch Center, Des Moines County Sheriff's Department, Des Moines County Medical Examiner's Office and the Mercer County, Illinois Dispatch Center.
Les emplois a Rennes sont abondants et varies. Il y a quelque chose pour tout le monde. Que vous soyez a la recherche dun emploi []
Les blattes ou cafards (Blatta orientalis) sont des insectes qui appartiennent a la famille des Blattoptera. Ils se caracterisent par leur forme allongee, leurs ailes []
MTNs recent financial results showed that the company paid a R1.32-billion advisers fee to help settle its fine in Nigeria.

The Sunday Times reported that questions as to whether this figure could be justified were raised at the results presentation.

MTN was fined by the Nigerian authorities in September 2015 for failing to disconnect unregistered subscribers.

The group hired former US attorney-general Eric Holder, who helped negotiate the fine from $3.9 billion to $1.7 billion.

Executive chairman Phuthuma Nhleko said the negotiations required legal advisers from South Africa, Nigeria, and the US.

You have to look at it in context and what it really means in terms of the outcomes, he said.

Dominic Cull, a lawyer at Ellipsis, said the amount spent on professional services was not unreasonable.

Given what was at stake and the outcome, they probably feel justified in paying that much, he said.

Sasha Naryshkine, an analyst at Vestact, said when compared to the money saved, the amount spent was justified.

The full report is in the Sunday Times of 7 August 2016.

More on MTN

Why MTN increased its prices

How much Afrihost is paying MTN to buy back its shares
Court documents have revealed the details behind one of South Africas biggest spy scandals, showing how a government official allegedly persuaded a Welkom millionaire to buy a mobile spy gadget known as a grabber.

The Sunday Times reported that businessman Johannes Cronje financed the purchase of the grabber  the Verint Engage Gi2 Tactical Mobile Interception System  that was seized by the Hawks in 2015.

This comes after farmer Willie Lotter and Department of Public Service and Administration official Joseph Pooe appeared in the Pretoria Magistrates Court on charges related to importing the grabber.

Cronje said he was introduced to Lotter and Pooe in 2013, where Pooe was said to be a representative of National Intelligence.

Pooe and Lotter told him they wanted to import the spy gadget to monitor crime syndicates trafficking in gold, cigarettes, and rhino horn, stated the report.

A grabber can intercept 10,000 phone lines simultaneously within a 3km radius. It works by accessing the nearest cellphone tower, switching it off, and taking its cellular connections.

Importing a grabber requires the permission of the president and the US and Russian intelligence agencies.

The newspaper reported that documents show Pooe is listed as the buyer on behalf of the SA government, as head of information security management at the Department of Public Service and Administration.

He said he did not follow the normal importing procedures as they would compromise crime operations due to criminals having infiltrated state agencies.

Cronje agreed to fund the operation, and went to Israel with Pooe to buy the grabber.

Cronje paid about R15 million for the grabber and bought a BMW X5 for R874,000 which he modified. He says the deal was that he would be reimbursed in installments, stated the report.

South Africans were then trained by Verint to use the grabber, and it was eventually installed in Cronjes Mercedes-Benz Viano.

No payment

After not receiving payment for several months, Cronje tried to sell the grabber  and in mid-2015 Lotter said he had found a buyer.

Undercover police agents posing as businessmen met with Cronje to buy the device, after which he was arrested by the Hawks and charges brought against the parties involved.

Pooe said the operation was authorised by the government and that he would reveal who had sanctioned it at the right time.

He added that he has a history of intelligence work for the government and Umkhonto weSizwe.

State Security Agency spokesman Brian Dube said he was not aware of Pooe working for state security.

The full report is in the Sunday Times of 7 August 2016.

More on the grabber

Only Zuma can authorise cellphone grabbers

ANC-linked businessmen bought super cellphone spying device
Note: I am away this week, so Ive gone back to the archives for a column I wrote in 2012, when I was the editor of the Weekly Calistogan, yet which seems timely again and is an unintentional companion piece to a column I wrote back in June.

On the night before the New Hampshire primary election in 2000, I was sitting on a bus packed with reporters and staffers from the campaign of George W. Bush.

We were following Bushs bus, a big brown monster with a huge banner on the side, as he barreled around the state in a final push for votes. New Hampshire was considered a critical test for the man who had been seen as the Republican frontrunner for nearly two years: the first vote in a state where his rival, Sen. John McCain, had spent nearly a year campaigning.

The Bush campaign was interesting to watch. It had limitless money, armies of volunteers, and it moved like the proverbial well-oiled machine. There was a huge staff for handling press chores; all of them were young, clean-cut, blandly handsome, and almost supernaturally conversant in the talking points to be hammered home relentlessly.

And the entire organization, from Bush on down, exuded confidence, a knowledge that they were destined to win.

Sitting at the front of the bus that night, the young staffers were taking bets on the outcome of the next days voting.

Bush by 10 percent? No, probably too high.

Maybe 5 percent? No way; that would be embarrassing.

The consensus wound up Bush winning by 8 percentage points, solidly crowning him as the Republican nominee and brushing aside the pesky McCain challenge.

And after a month or so of following both campaigns around New Hampshire, talking with pundits and voters, listening to speeches, attending rallies, I pretty much agreed with them.

Like the Bush staffers, and probably Bush himself, I went to bed that night expecting the Texas governor to pull off a comfortable, if not dominating, win in the primary.

Political junkies among you may recall what happened the next day. Not only did Bush not win by 8 percentage points, or even 5, he lost. By a lot.

McCain himself seemed slightly dazed that night as he appeared in a hotel ballroom to declare victory. By 18 points, no less.

From that day on, I have refused to predict the outcome of elections. Those of you who have dropped by my office to chat can testify that I love to analyze them, ponder them, debate them, dissect the strategy, to talk all day long about who seems to be up and who seems to be down.

But the one thing I wont do is say conclusively who I think will win, or what ballot measures will pass.

Like an opinion poll, voting is a snapshot of the moods, thoughts, fears and hopes of the electorate. It used to be a snapshot of one day. With mail-in voting, however, the picture is now more complicated, making it more like a rolling average of the weeks before Election Day.

Either way, funny things can happen. Certain groups may or may not vote; a particular issue may bubble up at a strange time and cause an unexpected warp in the voting. Or there may be a silent majority out there that polls and analysts simply failed to pick up on.

This is a long way of saying that absolutely anything can happen when the votes are tallied.
Melania Trumps husband says she is a 10. Would Donald Trump marry a woman who wasnt? The question answers itself. But when she was younger, apparently working as a model in New York, the question is whether the former Melania Knauss was associated with another number  an H-1B or a B1 or B2 visa, or perhaps some other designation that enabled a single Eastern European woman to earn a living in the U.S.

Melania Trumps personal website was taken down after a minor controversy over her claim that she had received a degree in architecture from the University of Ljubljana in her native Slovenia. It seems she is not actually a college graduate.

So what if she isnt? It might matter because a college degree can be an important credential for someone applying for a visa to work in the U.S. For all the scrutiny of her lifestyle, remarkably little is known about Mrs. Trumps emigration to the U.S. What are the facts of her prior immigration status? How did she obtain a green card, which is no easy feat?

In April, GQ Magazine reported that Melania Knauss had used a work visa when she came to New York: Paolo Zampolli, a wealthy Italian whose business interests in New York are broad and vague, brought Melania over on a modeling contract and a work visa.

In an interview in February, Melania Trump made the point that she always followed the immigration rules.

I follow the law, Trump said. I follow a law the way its supposed to be. I never thought to stay here without papers. I had visa. I travel every few months back to the country, to Slovenia, to stamp the visa. I came back. I applied for the green card. I applied for the citizenship later on after many years of green card. So I went by system. I went by the law, and you should do that.

But there is usually no need to travel back and forth every few months to stamp the visa. H-1B work visa holders are generally admitted to the U.S. for a three-year duration. Employers of H-1B visa holders can also petition to extend the holders stay in the U.S.

A tourist visa is a different matter. Your duration of stay is set by the immigration authorities when you arrive, with a maximum of six months. To keep your status, you would have to leave the U.S. when that period expired. But you generally cant work in the U.S. with a B-2 tourist visa. And repeated lengthy stays in the U.S. on a B-2 visa (which can be valid for multiple entries and 10 years) would tend to raise eyebrows at a U.S. port of entry.

Which visa did Melania Knauss have? If she had a work visa, why was it necessary to travel back and forth every few months to stamp it? If she had a tourist visa, why was she working?

This topic might seem less worthy of investigation if her husband had not waged a lengthy crusade demanding to see various birth and education documents pertaining to President Barack Obama. In addition, the Trump campaign has dedicated itself to the proposition that anyone who has gamed the U.S. immigration system must be dealt with in the harshest terms.

Immigration law is complex and often confounding. There may be an excellent reason for Melania Trumps seemingly untroubled navigation of what, to many visitors, are treacherous legal waters. It would be good to know the answers, however, before she moves into the White House.
European Commission head announces new aid and investments for Serbia

Lukashenko on Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict: What are you fighting for in these mountains, where not even goats walk?

Swedish authorities offer to create united northern army

Lukashenko: Conflict issue between Armenia and Azerbaijan must be resolved now - with Ilham Aliyev

Lukashenko about situation on Armenian-Azerbaijani border: Where are we racing horses, where are we rushing to?

Lukashenko to Pashinyan: Sit down with Aliyev and make a decision, if you don't make it today, it will be worse

Bulgarian interim government urges to speed up transition to euro zone

IMF: China's sharp and uncharacteristic economic slowdown will stall growth in Asia by the end of 2023

Iran: Riots in country were planned by the intelligence services of the USA, England, Israel and the KSA

Steinmeier: Ukraine war caused 'epochal break' in Germany's relations with Russia

Gas prices in Europe remain high in coming years

Ararat Mirzoyan and Toivo Klaar stress importance of hosting EU civilian mission in Armenia

Armenia's ambassador-at-large: Daily false propaganda can't cover up Azerbaijani war crimes

Taiwan MFA outraged by Putin's speech on his status and Pelosi's visit

Armenia gives no response to peace treaty proposals, Bayramov says

Netanyahu expects return to power after 5th Israeli election in 4 years

Armenian gravestone found in Trabzon, Turkey neighborhood

Pashinyan: CSTO Secretary General's report mainly reflects existing realities

Azerbaijan talks possible deliveries of its gas to international Turkish hub

CSTO leaders to meet in late November: Situation on Armenian-Azerbaijani border will be discussed

Dollar, euro continue falling in Armenia

Pelosi's house attacked, her husband injured

Russias Putin to have private talks with Armenias Pashinyan, Azerbaijans Aliyev

Mher Grigoryan: CIS needs a new scientific and technical agreement

Pentagon strategy doesn't rule out use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear threats

French National Assembly plans to pass resolution proposing certain sanctions against Azerbaijan

Mher Grigoryan: There are no other corridors in the trilateral statement other than Lachin's

Konstantin Zatulin: Russia should have made maximum efforts so that there would be no war in Karabakh

The Hill: The American people deserve to know how the war in Ukraine will end

Sochi to host trilateral talks of Russian, Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders on October 31

Poland receives first Turkish drones

Hungarian government may extend price limits on fuel and some basic foodstuffs

Armenias Simonyan attends meeting of heads of EEU countries parliaments

Polish general appointed as head of EU mission to train Ukrainian troops

Russia MP: Karabakh status decision is in fact its Armenians safety guarantee

Zatulin: West seeks to push Russia out of negotiation process at any cost

Legislature head proposes to organize, under CIS auspices, return of Armenians detained in Azerbaijan

Iran prevents bomb explosion in Shiraz crowded street

Iraqi parliament expresses vote of confidence in new cabinet

France lawmakers visit Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan

Putin: Moscow is doing everything possible to normalize relations between Yerevan and Baku

Annual shopping festival kicks off in Dubai on December 15

Lazarevsky Club: Minute of silence held in memory of fallen Russian and Armenian soldiers

Bayramov and US Assistant Secretary of State discuss Yerevan-Baku relations

Expansion of cooperation with Interpol is important, Armenia PM says

Armenia defense minister briefs Austria envoy on situation due to recent Azerbaijan military aggression (PHOTOS)

Australia can't rule out energy price caps

Armenia parliament speaker: Use, threat of force undermine processes aimed at establishing peace

Garo Paylan is in Yerevan

Barack Obama tries to help Democrats win midterm elections

Azerbaijan president, Russia first deputy PM discuss North-South transport corridor project

PM Pashinyan receives France-Armenia friendship group delegation from French parliament

Taiwan urges China to start talking

Armen Grigoryan and Toivo Klaar discuss Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiation process

Matviyenko: Russia will continue mediation for signing Armenia-Azerbaijan peace treaty

Politico: Scholz and Macron threaten U.S. trade retaliation

CIS premiers sign several agreements at Kazakhstan meeting

Konstantin Zatulin: Nagorno-Karabakh peoples right to self-determination must be respected

Armenia legislature head: Policy of threats, coercion is unacceptable to us

U.S. must strengthen its defense against growing threats from both China, Russia

Karabakh ex-President: Necessary to rule out mistakes, miscalculations which will have irreversible consequences

EU reaches agreement to ban new cars with internal combustion engine by 2035

Benny Gantz: Future of Israel and Turkey is promising

EU Special Representative for South Caucasus arrives in Armenia

Lazarevsky Club meeting underway in Yerevan, Moscow

Yellen sees no sign of recession in U.S. economy in near future

Cannes palm trees promenade named after Charles Aznavour

Pashinyan: Armenia agrees to work on basis of main principles proposed by Russia

CIS prime ministers meeting kicks off in Kazakhstan

Newspaper: Karabakh people to make appeal to Armenia authorities

Viking swords embedded in mound 1,200 years ago discovered in Sweden

Residents of Moldova asked not to go out into street in dark

Bloomberg reports fuel shortages in some parts of Europe

British schoolboy writes book that became bestseller

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
BREVARD COUNTY, Florida  The number of cases of the Zika virus that have been confirmed on Floridas Space Coast increased from 8 to 10 on Friday. All Zika cases in Brevard County, Florida have been travel-related and not locally acquired.



(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

As of August 5, 2016, there have been 351 confirmed travel-related cases and 16 locally-acquired cases of the

mosquito-borne

Zika virus in the Sunshine State.





The Florida Department of Health believes active transmission of the virus is only taking place within Miami-Dade County. There are no active investigations in Broward County and no areas of active transmission in Broward County, the health agency said.





While local transmissions have not occurred in Brevard County, local transmissions are possible if a Zika infected visitor or returning traveler is bitten by mosquitoes that then spread the virus to other people they bite.





The Zika virus is spread by bites from two mosquito species: Aedes aegypti (primarily) and Aedes albopictus , both found in Florida. In addition to the Zika virus, Aedes aegypti Chikungunya virus, mosquitoes can also transmit dengue fever West Nile virus , and Yellow Fever.





NASA study predicted that locally acquired outbreaks were most likely to occur in Miami, Florida in July during peak mosquito and travel season.

Central Florida is the second most likely area in the United States where a Zika outbreak may occur after South Florida, according to the study.





Although the Zika virus pandemic has afflicted much of Latin America and the Caribbean and was most likely to gain a foothold in the continental U.S. through Florida this summer, President Barack Obama and Congress

from those countries.



Scientists agree that no mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus flew across the Gulf of Mexico. Rather, Florida-born mosquitoes bit humans who acquired Zika through travel and brought the virus with them to south Florida, U.S. Representative Bill Posey wrote in a Zika update to his constituents.



These mosquitoes became carriers of the disease and infected other Floridians that they bit. Its critical that we are taking appropriate steps to minimize the opportunity for situations like the one in South Florida to arise. An important part of that effort is raising awareness about travel risks and ensuring our travel warnings are in line with those risks. That is why in late June, I joined with Members of the House Science Committee in urging the Administration to raise travel warnings for Zika-affected countries. We specifically requested that more explicit Level Three travel advisories, which discourage all non-essential travel, be placed on certain countries with high Zika infection rates. The [Obama] Administration has yet to take these common sense steps warning Americans about traveling abroad.



According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control, babies born with the Zika virus transmitted from their mothers who contracted the disease while pregnant have developed microcephaly  a disease which causes the babies brains and heads to shrink. Women who are pregnant or could become pregnant should avoid travel to Zika-affected areas, including Florida.



So far, 55 cases in Florida involve pregnant women. The Florida Department of Health announced in June that there had been the first confirmed case of microcephaly in a baby born in Florida.
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Matthew Craig Barrett was arrested on Saturday morning, hours after his arrival in Islamabad, Dawn online quoted the ministry as saying.

The ministry has ordered an investigation into the grant of a Pakistani visa to Barrett, who was expelled from the country after being caught spying on sensitive installations.

Barrett was on Saturday arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency in a raid on a guest house in Islamabad.

Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan has suspended an FIA official as well as immigration staff on duty when Barrett was cleared by authorities at the airport.

A statement by the ministry said action would be taken against the officials at the Pakistani consulate in Houston for issuing a visa to Barrett.

According to a document cited by Dawn, Barrett was issued a multiple-entry visa, stamped by an official from Pakistan's mission in Houston.

The visa was issued on June 22 and was valid up to June 30, 2020, allowing Barrett to stay in the country for up to one year at a time.

Barrett was arrested and deported from Pakistan in 2011 for overstaying his visa.

--IANS py/vt

( 216 Words)

2016-08-07-12:12:01 (IANS)
Sonowal yesterday visited the Gauhati Medical College Hospital to meet the injured victims after returning from New Delhi on Friday evening.

Sonowal briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh about the situation.

The Chief Minister, who was in Delhi, met the Prime Minister and apprised him about the incident at Balajan Tiniali market in Kokrajhar district and the steps taken to nab those involved in it.

He also informed the Union Home Minister, who assured full Central assistance to the state government.

Sonowal cut short his visit to the national capital and returned to Assam Friday evening after the terror attack and instructed state police to arrest those involved the in it.

The Chief Minister announced ex-gratia amount of Rs. five lakh rupees to the families of the deceased, one lakh rupees to those seriously injured and free treatment to other injured.

Meanwhile, the Assam Police have arrested the driver of the auto used by militants to reach Balajan Tiniali market.

Additional DGP L. R. Bishnoi said that three to four militants carried out the Friday's attack.

He said while one militant was gunned down by security forces, efforts are on to nab the remaining attackers.

He said three additional companies of Army arrived in Kokrajhar following the incident.

Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that preliminary investigations point towards the involvement of Songbijit faction of NDFB militants in the attack.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has sent a team to the site of the incident to collect evidence.

The Centre is closely monitoring the situation arising out of the Kokrajhar attack.

Rajnath Singh on Friday chaired a high-level meeting in New Delhi to review internal security situation in the country.

The meeting was attended by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and National Security Advisor AK Doval among others.

Later in the day, Singh had another round of meeting with Doval where he was apprised about the Kokrajhar attack. (ANI)
A Parliamentary panel has advised making waste segregation mandatory and has also suggested to provide for penalty for non-compliance. The Committee in its latest report has said citizens should be encouraged to keep segregated bins for wet, dry and hazardous waste and stop littering on the streets. The Committee has observed that the waste that is generated in the country is a mixed waste comprising a large amount of inherit material and a very high moisture level unlike in other countries. The panel said high level of moisture and inerts in the waste make it difficult to derive power from it. The panel found that there is no proper public system of primary collection from the source of waste generation and municipal sanitation workers collect waste primarily through street sweeping, etc and also, there is no practice of sorting of waste at source in a scientific way. The Committee has observed that the waste that is treated is abysmally low. ''There is an urgent need to step up efforts so as to achieve 100 per cent scientific processing and disposal of Municipal Solid Waste by 2019, as envisaged by the Government, under the Swachh Bharat Mission,'' it said. It said there should be some facility to collect and treat solid waste at Panchayat level also as all the waste in rural areas is not suitable to be converted into organic manure. The Committee has observed that there is hardly a city in the country where Municipal Solid Waste is disposed off scientifically. The Panel said keeping in view that by 2031, the total generation of Municipal Solid Waste in the country would be 165 million tonnes-an increase of about 100 Million Tonnes in about 15 years, due to increasing industralisation, urbanisation and changes in the pattern of life there is an urgent need to look into this subject and find out ways and methods to cope with this gargantuan garbage problem. The Committee was apprised by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy that India generates about 62 million tonnes of Municipal Solid Waste annually, out of which, 82 per cent is being collected and the remaining 18 per cent is littered; out of the total collected waste, only 28 per cent is being treated and disposed. The Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), as submitted by the Ministry, is a heterogeneous mixture of paper, plastic, cloth, metal, glass, organic matter, construction and demolition debris, dust, etc, generated from households, commercial establishments, markets and road cleaning activities.UNI NY PY ADG 1015 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0099-874868.Xml
South Korea's archers routed the United States to win the men's team gold at the Rio Olympics today and restore a dynasty broken by the Americans at London four years ago.The peerless trio of Kim Woo-jin, Ku Bon-chan and Lee Seung-yun roared to a 6-0 win on a baking hot day at the Sambodromo, clinching South Korea's fifth team title and fourth in the last five Olympics.The US, who ended the South Koreans' run of three titles in the London semi-finals, were left with a second successive silver after their opponents closed out the match in style with a run of perfect scores.Australia celebrated their first archery medal in 12 years by defeating China in the bronze medal playoff. REUTERS SDR 0200 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-875450.Xml
Brazil's male and female beach volleyball pairs made winning starts in their hunt for gold today, drawing on the loud home support to beat their Canadian and Czech Republic opponents on Copacabana's golden sand.Brazil's female gold medal hopes Agatha Bednarczuk and Barbara Seixas recovered from one set down to win 19-21 21-17 15-11 against talented Czech pair who came close to upsetting the home script on the opening day.Barbora Hermannova and Marketa Slukova appeared to have the momentum midway through the second set but at 10-10 the Brazilians took the lead to drag themselves back into the match.A thrilling block from Bednarczuk at won them the second set sending the crowd into rapturous applause. In the deciding third set the Brazilians regained control."We knew it wouldn't be easy," Bednarczuk told Reuters, explaining that the excitement of playing in front of a home crowd on Rio's famous beach had maybe caused them to lose a little focus.After the first set "we were able to calm down a bit and put more tactics into play," she said.Earlier today, Alison Cerutti and Bruno Schmidt beat Canada's Josh Binstock and Samuel Schachter 21-19 22-20 to seal their credentials as gold medal favourites in the men's tournament."It was incredible," Cerutti told Reuters, still beaming after the performance.With beach volleyball one of Brazil's favorite sports, particularly in Rio where nets dot the coastline, the local athletes were fired up by an enthusiastic crowd waving green-and-yellow flags, many wearing swimsuits."To start an Olympics at home, to see this crowd shouting Brazil, it's a dream come true," added Cerutti.Brazil's men's pair were not given an easy ride and fell behind in the second set, but scrambled back to make it 20-20.The next point proved to be vital with the Canadians left to rue a crucial challenge that did not go their way after Binstock fouled at the net. The visiting pair said the hostile crowd, which booed at times, had made things difficult.One point later the match was over and the crowd erupted as the Brazilian winners signed the ball and launched it into the crowd.The Brazilian men will now prepare to play Austria while the women face Argentina on Monday."The focus is to play and win... Gold comes as a result of that," said Cerutti. REUTERS SDR 0312 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-875460.Xml
In a bid to bring down the crime rate, the Chennai City Police launched a storming operation last night and detained more than 550 people on various charges. Police sources said as part of the operation, police intensified patrolling and conducted vehicle checks and searches in hotels and lodges in a bid to arrest history sheeters, who were on the run, and execute the non-bailable warrants issued against them by the courts. During the night-long operation, 467 people were detained on suspicious grounds. The sources said one criminal against whom non-bailable warrant was pending, was also arrested, besides 47 others under Sec 109 and 110 of CrPc. A total of 94 people were held on charges of drunken driving, the sources said.UNI GV CS 1123 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0275-875658.Xml
The US-based software firm Revature today announced the launch of its new work force development trainingprogramme in Chennai city to create experienced entry level techworkforce. Talking to UNI here, Company COO Ashwin said through its innovative and award winning model, Revature would createexperienced entry level tech workforce. The company has tied up with five colleges in the cityat present to impart this programme and would be extending it to students of arts and science colleges from next year. Revature was the first-of-its-kind, Online Experiential project development experience, where aspiring IT programmers attain actual job-based Skills that would help advance their IT careers at a rapid pace. He said Revature, which was planning to expand this programto Hyderabad and Bangalore next year, uses a pragmatic approach aligned with today's Industry Specific needs. Revature's sophisticated Revature Pro platform, which was based around real world projects, sets its program participants apart from their peers. Mr Ashwin said the individually tailored and mentored program helps demystify cutting-Edge Technologies to succeed within a highly competitive and complex IT marketplace, not as a mere entry level programmers, but as 'experienced entry level programmers' with specialized IT skills. Mr Ashwin, highlighting about the training programme plan, said for the past eight years in the US, this programme has been successful. In the United States, thousands of college students from 400 universities have been trained, with over 90 per cent success in job placements. Similarly, it has been launched in India for better employment of the students. The students undergoing this training would be awarded with a certificate and special placement opportunities which would be supportive for them to get through the Employmentprocess easily. In the first phase of the training program, Revature hastied up with five educational institutions--Vels University, B S Abdur Rahman University, Jeppiaar Engineering College, Chennai Institute of Technology and Karpaga Vinayagar College of Engineering. This training programme was launched as a two years course and engineering college students would be trained in their third and fourth year of the degree. It has been a practice of all the corporate companies, to provide six months of training along with the salary and only then the employee becomes fully capable of working in thecompany. This training will help the students to directly fit inside the job without any further training by the companies. Mr Ashwin said to develop the skills of the students, teachers from their college also will be taking a separate training course to help the students to get through this process easily.UNI GV CS 1129 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0275-875659.Xml
Yesterday a local court had granted him bail.Dayashankar was released at around 0800 hours from the jail.

Talking to reporters outside the Mau district jail Dayashanker said he would be rushing to Lucknow to see his ailing mother and daughter.

The expelled BJP leader commenting on the BSP's announcement of approaching the Allahabad High Court for cancelling his bail, said, "I am not afraid and ready to face any court."

Dayashankar was arrested on July 30, from Buxar in Bihar by UP Police. He had appealed in High Court for his interim bail which was rejected by the court.

Earlier on July 19 he had made some derogatory remarks on Mayawati here and after it was objected by the BSP and its leader a FIR was registered against him in Lucknow on July 21.

He was granted bail after giving two sureties of Rs 50,000 each in the court.UNI XC-MB PY ADG 1115

-- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0432-875633.Xml
Stressing the need for the Government to continue on the path of engagement and negotiation with the Opposition for a smooth roll out of the GST, senior Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said bad economic sense or hubris could trip the GST.In a series of tweets, Mr Chidambaram, while noting that a 'good political sense' triumphed on August 3 to pave the way for the passage of the GST Bill in the Rajya Sabha, said any attempt to disengage with the Opposition or snub the Rajya Sabha would jeopardise the roll out.''Roll out of GST can be smooth only if Government stays on the path of engagement and negotiation. Any attempt to disengage with the Opposition or snub the Rajya Sabha will jeopardise the roll out,'' he said.''Good political sense triumphed on August 3. Bad economic sense or hubris could trip the GST,'' he tweeted.He also reiterated the Congress stand that a high standard rate of the GST would be seen as anti-people.''A high standard rate of GST will be seen as anti-people,'' Mr Chidamabaram said.While engagement between the Government and the Opposition in recent weeks paved way for passage of the GST Bill in the Rajya Sabha on August 3, the Congress has said the Government should mention the standard rate of GST as 18 per cent in the CGST and the iGST Bill to be brought in the winter session of Parliament.It has also cautioned that the CGST Bill and the iGST Bill be brought as finance Bill and not as Money Bill.UNI AR PY ADG 1220 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0432-875694.Xml
Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy, Welfare Minister M Kandasamy, legislators and senior officials were among those who garlanded the statue of the poet at the Bharathi Park in front of the legislative assembly.

Several Tamil scholars also garlanded the statue of Vanidasan to mark the occasion.UNI PAB CS 1443

-- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0275-875890.Xml
The Prime Minister was on a maiden visit to the country's youngest state.

Governor E.S.L.Narasimhan, Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao , Union Ministers --M Venkaiah Naidu and Bandaru Dattatreya, Mayor B.Rammohan, several state ministers and top bureaucrats were among those who welcomed the Prime Minister at the airport.

Mr.Modi was accompanied by Union Minister Ananth Kumar.

Immediately after his arrival, Mr.Modi along with the Governor, Chief Minister and Mr Venkaiah Naidu , left by a helicopter for Komatibanda near Gajwel. in Medak district where he will launch the state government's ambitious 'Mission Bhageeratha', a scheme to supply piped drinking water to all households in the state and lay foundation stones for various developmental projects to tune of about Rs 17,000 crore..

The Prime Minister will also address a public meeting in Komatibanda village before flying back to Hyderabad to address the BJP workers meeting at Lal Bahadur stadium. He will later leave for New Delhi.

In view of high threat perception to the Prime Minister, tight security arrangements were made ahead of his visit in Medak district and also in the state capital by deploying of more than 5,000 police personnel drawn from across the state.UN SMS KNR CS 1448

-- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0275-875897.Xml
Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi met the Saudi Arabia Ambassador in India Saud Mohammed Alsati here last evening and held discussions with him on several issues, including the conditions of Indian workers in UAE and facilities for Haj pilgrims. During his meeting with the Saudi Ambassador, Mr Naqvi expressed gratitude to the Saudi Arabia Government through Dr Alsati for their cooperation in protecting interests of Indian workers in Saudi Arabia.Earlier this week, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, making a statement in Parliament, said Saudi Arabia has agreed to grant exit visas to Indian workers, who are stuck in the country after losing their jobs, and will also provide free passage to them for their return to India.' She said not only has Saudi Arabia agreed to grant the Indian workers exit visa but will also send them back to India by its own airplane at its own expense. Saudi Arabia has said they will also provide free medical assistance and food to the Indian workers, who are living in camps. The Minister said Saudi has also given permission to eligible jobless Indian workers to get employment in other companies. "Saudi King has taken note of the issue of jobless Indian workers and has told officials there to resolve the matter in two days," she added. Ms Swaraj said Saudi Arabia has said the Indian workers before leaving the country can individually register their claims of all pending dues with the Labour Office of Saudi Arabia. ''All the dues of the Indian workers will be given back to them,'' she said. Ms Swaraj thanked Saudi King Salman Bin Abdulaziz for resolving the issue. More UNI AR AE RJ 1600 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0092-875917.Xml
Several NGOs, who have been campaigning against the Inter Linking of Rivers (ILR) project, are of the view that it will not solve the water problem of the country, but create severe ecological problems, besides threatening the endangered wildlife population. The stakeholders are of the view that lakes, ponds and water bodies could be an alternative to inter linking of rivers as they could be rejuvenated with very little cost and without displacing villagers and wildlife. The government has been holding dialogues with several stakeholders, who are against the Ken-Betwa link project and several rounds have been taken place in this regard. After survey and investigation, feasibility reports of 14 links under Peninsular Component and two links in the Himalayan components have been prepared. The DPRs of Ken-Betwa Phase I & II, Daman-Ganga-Pinjal, Par-Tapi-Narmada have been prepared and shared with the States. Pre-Feasibility Reports of 36 Intra-State link proposals out of 46 proposals of Intra-State links have been completed. A dialogue on the ILR was held here yesterday, attended by Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Uma Bharti, government officials and stake holders. Putting forward the government's stand, Director General, National Water Development Agency (NWDA) S Masood Husain said there was a need for Inter Basin Water Transfer as there was a large variation in rainfall and the availability of water resources in space and time and due to this, droughts and floods co-exist in the country. The ILR project would help in diversion of water from water surplus basins to water deficit basins, besides proper use of the surplus water which was otherwise flowing into the sea. He said that ILR was not a new concept. Through the ILR programme there would be large benefits of irrigation, water supply and hydro power generation. It would also help in addressing the water and food security issue of the country as the per capita storage in water resources projects in India was very low which needs to be increased hugely, he said. Kesar Singh of India Water Portal said that instead of interlinking of rivers one should think of reviving the old water bodies. He said that in Bundelkhand there were thousands of ancient water bodies which could be revived and once they are filled with water, to a lot of extent, the water problem in the area could be solved. He said that the Ken-Betwa Link Project would be a threat to the ecology as the population of the endangered vultures would be under threat. Besides, the project would submerge the core area of the famous Panna Tiger Reserve where the big cats inhabit. "Like humans, animals too have the right to live on the earth," he said. Sharad Jain, scientist at the National Institute of Hydrology Roorkee said that rainfall in India varied from 100mm to 12 m and ILR project would help in distribution of water from water abundance area to water deficit parts. Water transfer is one of the options to overcome the problems arising due to mismatch between requirement and availability. "We need to take water to those areas which needed water and inter linking of rivers was the solution", he added. Supporting ILR, former Chairman of Central Water Commission AB Pandya said interlinking of rivers was a core solution that would solve the issue of long standing water problems. He said with the project, water security, besides food and energy, could be addressed.UNI RBE PS RJ 1622 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0421-875983.Xml
Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Sunil Lanba will leave on an official visit to Indonesia from August 9-13, aimed at consolidating the existing Maritime Cooperation initiatives with Indonesia, as well as exploring new avenues, in accordance with India's 'Act East Policy', the Defence Ministry said today. During the visit, Admiral Lanba is scheduled to hold discussions with the Indonesian Defence Minister, the Chief of Defence Forces and the Chief of Indonesian Navy, besides other senior dignitaries and Naval Officers, a Ministry statement said here.India and Indonesia have historical linkages which date back centuries. In the modern era, India and Indonesia have been co-founders of the Non Aligned Movement besides mutually beneficial collaborations in multilateral forums such as, ARF, ADMM+, G20, WTO. Defence co-operation between India and Indonesia is robust and has seen ascendancy through regular ships, aircraft and military delegation visits, training exchanges. Both countries had also signed the Defence Cooperation Agreement in 2001. Indonesia have adjoining Maritime Search and Rescue regions and Exclusive Economic Zones and share similar maritime challenges such as long coastline, extensive EEZ, coastal security, large coastal shipping and fishing fleet, wherein both navies have opportunities to learn from each other's experiences. In addition, common ground exists for cooperation on a number of issues common to both navies. With shared maritime boundary, Maritime Cooperation between the Indian and Indonesian navies has been robust and one of the strong pillars of bilateral Defence cooperation. Indian Navy and Indonesian Navy are partners in the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS), a maritime cooperation construct conceptualised and pioneered by Indian Navy in 2008. Both countries have been conducting Coordinated Patrols along the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) since 2002 and 27 editions of coordinated patrols have been completed till date. Both countries had also conducted the first Bilateral Maritime Exercise in Oct 2015. Warships of both countries visit each other's ports regularly.Both navies also engage in Navy to Navy Staff Talks which commenced in 2007. The 8th round of staff talks are scheduled to be held in 2017. Indonesian Navy was one of the first countries to confirm their participation in the International Fleet Review 2016 held at Visakhapatnam and participated in the review with a Ship. The Chief of the Indonesian Navy Admiral Ade Supandi also attended the review and held bilateral discussions with the Chief of Naval Staff. Indian Navy too participated in the International Fleet Review conducted by the Indonesian Navy in April 2016 as well as the Multilateral Exercise Komodo (MNEK) conducted by the Indonesian Navy.The Indonesian Navy for the first time participated in the Admiral's Cup Sailing Regatta conducted by the Indian Navy in 2015 at Indian Naval Academy, Ezhimala from December 3 to 13, 2015. UNI AR AE RJ 1730 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0092-876102.Xml
A new BJP government led by Vijay Rupani as the chief minister and Nitin Patel as his deputy was sworn in by Gujarat governor O P Kohli today. The 25-member ministry which was administered the oath of office and secrecy at the Mahatma Mandir Complex here has nine Cabinet and 16 ministers of state.Significantly, as many as nine key ministers of the previous Anandiben Patel government have been dropped, while 11 new faces representing different regions of the State have found place in the Rupani ministry.The new team, including the chief minister, bear the stamp of hardcore loyalist of national BJP president Amit Shah, point out party insiders. Among those dropped was Finance, Energy and Industries Minister Saurabh Patel, the son-in-law of Ramnik Ambani, the elder brother of late Dhirubhai Ambani. He was the only English-speaking minister in the Anandiben Patel cabinet who holds an MBA degree from the United States. Also dropped from the ministry were Social Justice Minister Ramanlal Vora reportedly for non-performance as the Dalit face and Minister of State for Home Rajni Patel for his alleged inept handling of the 10-month Patel agitation. Vasumatiben Trivedi, the only woman minister in the Anandiben Patel government, has been dropped to accommodate another woman leader from Ahmedabad Nirmala Wadhwani. Prime Minister Narendra Modi called up Vijay Rupani and his team to congratulate them. Party president Amit Shah, veteran LK Advani, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and outgoing Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel attended the ceremony.Anandiben Patel had earlier resigned as Chief Minister citing her age, two months earlier than attaining 75, which is the party unwritten code for ministers to resign. Sources claim she was actually to ask to put her in her papers in the wake of the Dalit uprising and the 10-month-old agitation of the Patels, the traditional constituency of the party.The new Chief Minister avoided all questions about the priorities of the government and how he proposed to tackle the vexed issue of Patels and Dalits, which cost Anandiben her job and brought disrepute to the party nationally."The swearing-in has just been done, the government will start work tomorrow and we will together decide on all matters," Mr Rupani said. His deputy and the senior-most minister in the previous cabinet Nitin Patel said all the initiatives of the previous government would continue and strategies would be made to address all the key issues facing the State. UNI ND RP1717 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0421-876116.Xml
West Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Sunday accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of using the administration for poaching opposition leaders for her Trinamool Congress. "District magistrates and superintendents of police are being used by the chief minister to influence Congress leaders and workers to join the Trinamool. This is being done in districts which are Congress strongholds, like Murshidabad, Malda and North Dinajpur," Chowdhury told media persons here. "As there is no election around, the Trinamool chief has decided to go around destroying other parties," he said. The comments come in the wake of several Congress leaders including legislator Tushar Kanti Bhattacharya of Bishnupur assembly constituency switching over to the ruling Trinamool. Chowdhury also said the party was mulling legal actions against Bhattacharya. Congress which emerged as the main opposition party in the Assembly elections, had made all its 44 legislators to give a "written declaration" on stamp paper that they would not leave the party. Chowdhury also slammed the state administration over the dengue outbreak which so far has claimed at least 11 lives. "The administration has been a complete failure in tackling dengue which has now acquired alarming proportions. The state is on the threshold of a dengue epidemic but the chief minister is unperturbed," he said. He also took a jibe over the Banerjee government's bid to take over the Rabindranath Tagore Nobel medallion theft case from the CBI which had been entrusted with the investigation following the theft which came to light on March 25, 2004. "We will be happy if she is successful in doing so and will demand a Nobel Prize for her if she manages to retrieve the stolen medallion," said Chowdhury. --IANS and/vd ( 294 Words) 2016-08-07-18:38:01 (IANS)
The Centre has appointed a consultant to do a detailed survey and information about the bridges in all regions of the country, in the wake of an accident, caused by the collapse of a bridge on Savitri river on Mumbai-Goa National Highway in Raigarh district's Mahad region of Mumbai. According to official sources, the consultant has been appointed by the Road, Transport and Highway Ministry and the National Highways Authority of India. The consultant has been directed to give suggestions to prepare a detailed report about all the bridges, culvert and underground drains, constructed on all important roads and national highways and other routes. The government is of the view that with such comprehensive information it will have a list of bridges, culverts and underground drains, and on working on the list it will be able to prevent Mahad like accidents. All round information will be collected about the the enlisted bridges so that their construction date, renovation date and security measures can be in the know. Amid this, International Road Federation working for 'Road safety' said in an official statement today that state governments too should prepare such a list about bridges after conducting surveys.The organisation has appealed to the government to direct the state governments and its agencies to conduct surveys to provide foolproof security to common man on the streets.Also, the Federation believes that by keeping a track record of bridges, number of casualties due to such accidents can be considerably reduced. The organisation has also revealed that bridge account is kept in many countries of the world.The rule is that exact three months after the bridge has become operational or vehicles have started plying on it. It should be intricately and duly inspected. After this, after a gap of every two years, the bridges are examined from security point of view. By following this mechanism, the safety of bridges can be ensured and Mahad type incidents can be avoided. The bridges can be given ratings too on the basis of the survey conducted.UNI SY AE RJ 1840 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0093-876078.Xml
A new initiative called 'Adhikar' was launched today at a programme by Youth Congress' Legal Aid Clinic to provide free legal aid to people in distress.IYC's Legal Aid Clinic has formed a team of around 100 advocates to help poor & needy people of the society, who can't afford legal advice.IYC National President Amarinder Singh Raja said, ''Adhikar is our new social initiative for the poor and weaker section of the society, and by giving free legal assistance to them, we will try to help them as much as we can. ''The Helpline Number is 011-23329636.'' The programme was chaired by Rajya Sabha MP K T S Tulsi, ex-cabinet minister and Lok Sabha MP Salman Khurshid and IYC National In-charge and National Secretary AICC Suraj MN Hegde. IYC National Secretary Sitaram Lamba hosted the event. UNI SY AE RJ 1916 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0093-876336.Xml
Delhi Police today arrested a notorious criminal, wanted in several cases of murder, attempt to murder, snatching, auto theft, robbery and the Arms Act. He is also a rewarded criminal carrying a reward of Rs 1 lakh on his head. On August 6, the police team received secret information that rewarded criminal, identified as Amit Kumar, would come near mother dairy in Pandav Nagar, Delhi. In the intervening night of August 6 and August 7, the police team laid a trap near mother dairy, Pandav Nagar in the morning. After a tip off from the informer, Amit alias Sonu was spotted. After that tip off from the informer, Amit alias Sonu was spotted and on being pointed out by the informer, he was asked by the police party to stop. Accused Amit alias Sonu, who was riding on a scooty, tried to flee but was chased by the police party. Police team chased him and arrested him near underpass (near Mangalam Hospital red light). He lost his balance after being hit by the vehicle of police party. He took out his weapon and started running away. He was asked to stop and surrender by the police team but he started firing. He fired a total of four rounds and one round each hit the bullet proof jacket of Sub-Inspector Rajender Kumar and Head Constable Sukhbir Singh, both from the staff of Anti Auto Theft Squad, East Delhi. "The police party also fired in self defence and a total of three rounds were fired by the police party. Amit alias Sonu was finally overpowered by the police party and a pistol having three rounds in the magazine was recovered from his possession," Deputy Commissioner of Police Rishi Pal said. Amit alias Sonu is a dreaded criminal, who is carrying a reward of Rs one lakh for his arrest. He was wanted in a sensational case of murder of Police Station Nand Nagari in which another gangster Sonu was killed during fight amongst the criminals. Amit alias Sanju is a member of Satprakash alias Satya gang of Nand Nagri. He was involved in the murder of Sonu alias Chikna, due to the inter-gang rivalry. UNI SM CJ RJ 1914 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0400-876365.Xml
Supporting the statement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the 'Gau Raksha', Uttar Pradesh BJP today demanded the Samajwadi Party-ruled Uttar Pradesh government to set up a 'task force' to nab the offenders and punish them. "If UP government is really serious on cow protection, then it should not wait further, but set up a task force so that the offenders can be nabbed and punished," said UP BJP president Keshav Prasad Maurya here today after the conclusion on the two-day state working committee. Mr Maurya, talking to media, reitereated that BJP was always in the favour of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya but as the matter was pending in the Supreme court, the party was hoping for a favourable decision. Surprisingly, the political resolution passed in the working committee meet did not mention about the Ram Temple at Ayodhya. The BJP MP from Phulpur in Allahabad, was however critical on the statement of UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav who claimed that saints would be giving blessings to his government to return to power in the state after the assembly polls."No saints or Ram Bhakts would support the family of Mulayam Singh Yadav whose hands are red with the bloods of the murders of Ram Bhakts, during the pre-Ayodhya demolition," he claimed. Mr Maurya also skipped the question on the CM face of the party in the state elections. "We can assure the people of the state that the next CM of UP would be of BJP and it can be anyone and even an unknown worker. The CM face of other parties would have to lick the dust in the coming elections and their dreams would be shattered," he further claimed. On the concluding day the party also announced to hold state wide demonstration on August 11 over ' Ma beti ke samman me , BJP maidam me' whike tringa rallies in two phases from August 9 to 24 and again from August 16 to 23 besides four parivartan yatras would also be organised soon in UP.UNI MB PS RJ 1836 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0421-876218.Xml
Terming Uttar Pradesh as a Prashn (question) Pradesh, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today said that persistent failure of the Samajwadi Party government to improve governance and law and order has raised a question in people's mind as why this is happening only in Uttar Pradesh. "People ask frequently why there is anarchy in UP, why crime against women is so high, why corruption has been institutionalised in this state, why policemen are being killed by criminals and why Uttar Pradesh has failed to progress. There are so many questions but this government has no answer thus giving this state a new name of Prashn Pradesh," Mr Singh said while addressing the valedictory session of the state working committee meeting here . He said people are not unjustified when they raise these questions. People compare performance of BJP-ruled states with Akhilesh Yadav Government and see the difference. "When BJP-ruled states are galloping on the path of development the Samajwadi Party ruled Uttar Pradesh is lagging behind. This state is lagging because it does not have the intention to help people. This state government is so callous that it is not even implementing pro-people policies of the central Government,"Mr Singh said. He said that Union Government wants UP should progress. If we want to see a strong India we will have make Uttar Pradesh strong. "Unfortunately, UP government is not reciprocating Union Government with same intent," he said. To buttress his point he said that BJP-led NDA government introduced a progressive Prime Minister Crop Insurance Policy. This policy is holistic which will help farmer in any natural calamity. But the Uttar Pradesh Government has so far not implemented this, he said."Between 2009 and 2012 only 80 villages of Uttar Pradesh were electrified. But between 2014-16 the NDA government has electrified 1364 villages in UP. We achieved this target because we have a will to help people," Mr Singh said adding that Union Government has launched 61 National Highway projects worth Rs 16,000 crore in last two years in UP. Mr Singh, who was Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh for two years between 2000 and 2002, said people can see the difference in style of working of NDA Government and SP Government in Uttar Pradesh. "This difference has raised questions and people are raising these questions at almost all the platforms," he said. "In last two years India has become the fastest growing economy of the world. Ask any non-resident Indian and he will vouch increase in prestige of Indians living overseas. This is the silver line. We have a vision and want to make UP a strong province of India where people of all caste, creed and religion live in peace," he said. He asked the workers to spread the message of good work being done by the Narendra Modi government among people. "Work with a missionary zeal to ensure message of union government reaches every household. Anyone who wants to join BJP welcome him with open arms. Do not have reservation against him. Treat him as your brother," he said. Mr Singh also anmounced that he is ready for any work given by the party during the UP polls. Later talking to reporters he said that Chief Ministerial candidate would be decided by the party high command and it would be from Uttar Pradesh. UNI MB CJ RJ 1912 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0421-876235.Xml
India and China will be encountering each other with a host of issues in the coming week as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visits New Delhi against the backdrop of various irritants in the relationship of the two countries. The two foreign ministers would be having a bilateral meeting for the first time after Beijing scuttled India's bid for membership of the NSG, which came close on the heels of China obstructing India's move at the UN for ban on Pakistan-based militant Masood Azhar. India had replied by issuing visas to Uighur leaders, who are spearheading a separatist movement in China, to attended a conference in Dharamshala hosted by dissident Chinese. India had also refused to extend visa of three Chinese journalists working with the official Xinhua news agency after what it called ''adverse inputs'' by intelligence agencies about their conduct. Moreover, there were news reports last month about Chinese intrusion in Uttarakhand, over which state Chief Minister Harish Rawat had expressed grave concern to the Centre. Mr Wang during his visit to Delhi will also be doing some preparatory work for the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to India for attending the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa(BRICS) Summit in October. Earlier, Mr Wang had visited India in 2014 and Ms Swaraj had visited Beijing in early 2015. Besides, the two foreign ministers had been meeting regularly on the margins of multilateral events. Mr Wang, during his visit, will hold talks Ms Swaraj on August 13. "During the visit, the two sides will discuss various issues of mutual interest including the upcoming multilateral meetings viz, G-20 Summit being held in China and BRICS Summit being held in India," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup said here.UNI NAZ RSA RJ 2001 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0400-876456.Xml
Three people were arrested in the national capital for allegedly molesting a 23-year-old pregnant refugee from Myanmar in Southwest Delhi's Dabri area, police said. Out of three, two arrested suspects were juveniles.Police said the incident took place when the woman was going home with her husband in Dabri area. The attackers approached her on a motorbike, groped her, and passed indecent comments on her. The victim resisted the sexual assault attempt but the attackers attacked them with bricks. The husband of the victim caught hold of one of the attackers while the other two suspects fled from the spot. Later on, the police tracked down the other suspects and arrested all of them. The adult accused was produced before Dwarka court and has been sent to 14-day judicial custody.UNI SM RSA 2314 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0400-876674.Xml
Anti-rape activists protested today as South African President Jacob Zuma delivered his first remarks since local elections gave his African National Congress (ANC) its worst results since 1994.Zuma ignored the protest while his security guards stood nearby, apparently surprised by the protest by four women dressed in black and holding up placards, some with the words "Remember Khwezi" and "10 years later"."Khwezi" is the assumed name of an female HIV activist who, in one of the most sensational cases in South Africa, accused Zuma of rape in 2006 before he became president.He was acquitted of the charges, keeping alive the political hopes of a man who went on to become president in 2009.Zuma had pleaded not guilty to raping "Khwezi" at his Johannesburg home, but his lawyers said he did have consensual sex with the woman, then 31 years old.Zuma's spokesman was unavailable to comment. There was no comment from other government officials.Glen Mashinini, chairman of the electoral commission, apologised to Zuma, saying "this took us by surprise, and we really want to apologise to all of you" to the gathering that included cabinet ministers and political party chiefs.In his speech, Zuma said the elections - which punished the ruling ANC for unemployment, a stagnating economy and Zuma's scandals - had been well run and proved that South Africa's democracy was maturing.Zuma, 73, has survived several political and personal scandals, fending off accusations of corruption, influence peddling and rape before he took office in 2009.The rape case has caused political damage to Zuma, particularly because he conceded that he had had unprotected sex with the woman, despite knowing that she was infected with HIV.AIDS activists criticized Zuma - who said he took a shower afterwards to prevent possible HIV infection - for what they said was his spreading of misinformation about the disease in South Africa.REUTERS SDR 0045 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-875433.Xml
Forces loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi launched a new offensive east of the Yemeni capital Sanaa today, the military command said, after United Nations-sponsored peace talks in Kuwait ended without an agreement.The offensive, which is backed by air strikes from a Saudi-led coalition, came as the Iran-allied Houthis and the party of ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh announced a 10-member governing council, against the wishes of the UN.The Houthis and Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC), hold most of Yemen's northern half, while forces loyal to Hadi share control of the rest of the country with local tribes.The fighting in which more than 6,400 people have been killed, half of them civilians, has created a humanitarian crisis in one of the poorest countries in the Middle East.Al Qaeda and its militant rival Islamic State have exploited the war to try to recruit more followers and establish roots in the country, which controls major shipping lanes overlooking the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.The pro-Hadi sabanew.net news agency said that the Yemeni army and allied local tribesmen, backed by Arab coalition air strikes, began a major operation to "liberate the district of Nehem east of Sanaa". The area is a key route to the capital, which has been under Houthi control since 2014."The army and the resistance have managed to liberate a number of important military positions that had been controlled by the coup militias, most prominent of which is the Manara mount which overlooks the centre of Nehem district," the agency quoted a military spokesman as saying.Fighting was also reported on the Yemeni-Saudi border, where a Saudi border guard was killed by fire directed from the Yemeni side, the Saudi state news agency SPA said, citing a security spokesman.A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition accused the Houthis of escalating attacks along the border, where the alliance had scaled back its military operations to give the Yemeni peace talks a chance to succeed."The militias began military operations along the border after the suspension of the Yemeni consultations," the spokesman, General Ahmed al-Asseri, told the Saudi-owned al-Hadath television, referring to the Houthis. "The Houthi militias are trying to achieve gains on the ground to make up for political losses," he added.The comments came after the UN special envoy, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed announced that talks in Kuwait had been adjourned, promising they would resume at an unspecified venue within a month."We will leave Kuwait today, but peace consultations will continue. We will let the parties consult their leaders," he told a news conference.Earlier in Sanaa, the Houthi-run sabanews.net news agency published the names of 10 officials it said would be on a political committee to run the country. The parties would rotate the position of president and vice president, who would be chosen from within the committee, the statement said. REUTERS SDR 0050 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-875434.Xml
The Obama administration released a redacted version of President Barack Obama's once-secret policy on drone strikes abroad following a freedom of information lawsuit filed last year, the American Civil Liberties Union said today.The release of the 18-page Presidential Policy Guidance document, as well as other Department of Defense papers, follows an order by a US District Court judge in February requiring the Justice Department to disclose the document, also known as "the Playbook."It sets out the law and rules the government must follow when carrying out targeted killings and the capture of terrorist suspects abroad.Obama pledged in 2013 to provide greater transparency about counter-terrorism operations, including drone strikes overseas, amid calls by some US lawmakers and rights groups for more openness.ACLU's deputy legal director, Jameel Jaffer, welcomed the release of the documents, saying they provide new details about policy standards and insights into the process for targeting individuals with lethal force or for capture."Its release now will inform an ongoing debate about the lawfulness and wisdom of the government's counter-terrorism policies," Jaffer said in a statement.The ACLU's lawsuit sought information, among other things, on the law and policies used to justify lethal force and how the government picks targets.According to the documents, published by the ACLU, strikes against high-value terrorist targets can be taken "when there is near certainty" that the person is present, and that no civilians will be injured or killed, and is necessary to "achieve US policy objectives".The administration has defended its use of drones as essential in fighting al Qaeda and other militants in countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen. Some drone strikes have killed civilians who were not targets, igniting local anger."The president has emphasized that the US Government should be as transparent as possible with the American people about our counter-terrorism operations, the manner in which they are conducted, and their results," National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said of today's release of documents."Our counter-terrorism actions are effective and legal, and their legitimacy is best demonstrated by making public more information about these actions as well as setting clear standards for other nations to follow," he added.Naureen Shah, Amnesty International's US director for security and human rights, also welcomed the documents but said more was needed to ensure the policy was followed."The Obama administration's disclosures are welcome but they only tell part of the story and obscure disturbing practices. We still know extremely little about the standards that would govern signature strikes and so-called rescuer strikes, which have involved potentially unlawful killings," Shah added.REUTERS SDR 0137 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-875444.Xml
The leader of Germany's liberal Free Democrats (FDP) likened Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's purge of state institutions to the actions of the Nazi party in the 1930s in comments published tomorrow.FDP leader Christian Lindner said he saw parallels between Erdogan's behaviour and aftermath of the Reichstag fire in 1933 portrayed by the Nazis as a Communist plot against the government and used by Adolf Hitler to justify massively curtailing civil liberties."We are experiencing a coup d'etat from above like in 1933 after the Reichstag fire. He is building an authoritarian regime tailored solely to himself," Lindner told the Bild am Sonntag."Because the rights and freedoms of the individual no longer play a role, he cannot be a partner for Europe," he added.His comments echo those of Austria's far-right Heinz-Christian Strache who said today that Erdogan's use of the failed putsch in July to crack down on his opponents was reminiscent of Hitler's use of the Reichstag blaze to amass greater power.Erdogan has angrily rejected suggestions that he or his government might have been behind the failed coup, which he has blamed on the followers of a US-based Muslim cleric. Erdogan narrowly avoided capture and possible death on the night of the attempted coup.The FDP are not currently represented in Germany's Bundestag but have previously governed as a junior coalition partner to Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives (CDU) and are a potential ally for them after federal elections in autumn 2017.However, Lindner criticised Merkel's response so far to the crackdown on Erdogan's opponents in the army, civil service, academia and media."It disgusts me that the EU accession talks (for Turkey) have not been ended long ago. But Mrs Merkel is only cautiously urging 'proportionality'," he said.Germany's foreign minister on Friday resisted a push by Austria to halt the talks with Turkey on joining the European Union, saying the bloc needed to think more broadly about how to frame its relationship with Ankara in troubled times. REUTERS SDR 0332 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-875461.Xml
Police said the teenager was declared dead shortly after he was rushed to Westmead Hospital, EFE news reported.

Of the six wounded, a 21-year-old man was in critical condition, while the others were discharged.

According to several media outlets, the police received a call from a house in Sydney's Ryde suburb just after midnight, following a brawl among several young men at the party.

The police said the case was being treated as a homicide.

"This is a very, very serious matter and we hope to get to the bottom of it," he said, adding that investigators were waiting to speak to those present at the party.

--IANS py/

( 144 Words)

2016-08-07-11:12:02 (IANS)
South Korea's presidential office rebuked today China's criticism of its decision to deploy an advanced anti-missile defence, urging Beijing to instead play a stronger role against North Korea's provocations on the peninsula. The statement by President Park Geun-hye's office marked an escalation of diplomatic tensions between South Korea and China, which has sharply criticised Seoul's move to host a Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) unit with the US military. Park's senior press secretary, Kim Sung-woo, said in the statement recent commentary carried by China's state media was "out of place" in blaming South Korea for raising tension on the Korean peninsula with the move to deploy a THAAD unit. "Rather than taking issue with our purely defensive action, China should raise issue in a stronger manner with North Korea which is breaking peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and Northeast by conducting four nuclear tests and, just this year, launching more than 10 ballistic missiles," it said. South Korea and the United States began discussions to deploy a THAAD unit in the South after the North's fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch in defiance of UN sanctions. South Korea has said the move is purely to counter growing missile threats from the North and was not intended to target China, but Beijing has protested it would destabilise regional security balance. On Wednesday, China's People's Daily in an editorial said: "It is impossible for South Korea's leader not to know America's strategic plot. (She) is well aware of the real direction of the THAAD anti-missile system.""(She) has no hesitation about undermining regional stability and flagrantly damaging the security interests of neighbouring powers," it said.North Korea has launched a series of missiles in recent months, the latest on Wednesday when one ballistic missile that flew about 1,000 km (600 miles) landed near Japanese-controlled waters. REUTERS PS BD1600 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0421-875994.Xml
Counting of the votes got underway in Thailand today in a referendum on a new junta-backed constitution that would pave the way for a general election in 2017 but require future elected governments to rule on the military's terms.The ballot is the first major popularity test for the junta led by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who has suppressed political activity during the two years since he seized power in a 2014 coup.Ahead of the vote polls suggested a small lead in favour of accepting the new constitution, but most voters were undecided.Polling stations closed at 1600 local time (1430 IST). Preliminary results based on a count of 95 per cent of the votes are expected at around 2100 local time (1930 GMT)."Voting in all areas was orderly," said Supachai Somcharoen, chairman of the Election Commission, after voting ended.The junta has said the constitution is designed to heal more than a decade of divisive politics in Thailand that has dented growth and left scores dead in civil unrest.Critics, among them major political parties, say it aims to enshrine the military's political role for years to come.Prayuth has said he will not resign if Thailand rejects the constitution and that an election will take place next year no matter what the outcome."I urge everyone to come out and vote... to decide on the future of the country," Prayuth told reporters after casting his vote at a polling station in northwest Bangkok early on Sunday.Around 200,000 police were deployed for the vote.Of 21 cases of voters tearing ballot papers, some were deliberate and others accidental, said Boonyakiat Rakchartcharoen, deputy secretary-general of the Election Commission.Two students were detained and charged yesterday in the northeastern province of Chaiyaphum for handing out leaflets urging voters to vote against the referendum, police said.The junta, formally known as the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), banned debate about the constitution and campaigning ahead of the vote. The authorities have detained and charged dozens of people who have spoken against it, including politicians and student activists.Jatuporn Prompan, chairman of the anti-government United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship group, said the referendum should not have been held under those conditions."We condemn the Constitution Drafting Committee and NCPO for holding a referendum under a climate of fear in the kingdom," Jatuporn told reporters.The vote comes amidst concern about the health of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 88. The military has for decades invoked its duty as defender of the deeply revered monarch to justify its interventions in politics.DECADE OF TURMOILCritics say the charter is the military's attempt to make good on their failure to banish former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his brand of populism from Thai politics after the coup that removed him in 2006.Thaksin lives in self-imposed exile but retains a strong influence, particularly with his rural support base in the north. His sister Yingluck swept to power with an electoral landslide in 2011, and her government was ousted by Prayuth n the 2014 coup.Yingluck, who was banned from politics for five years in January 2015 after a military-appointed legislature found her guilty of mismanaging a rice scheme, also voted on Sunday."I'm happy that I could still exercise my rights as a (Thai) person," Yingluck told reporters after she voted.Thaksin called the charter a "folly", saying it would perpetuate the junta's power and make it impossible to govern Thailand.Reuters interviews with senior officers showed the military's ambition is to make future coups unnecessary through the new charter by weakening political parties and ensuring the military a role in overseeing the country's economic and political development.Under the constitution, which would be Thailand's 20th since the military abolished an absolute monarchy in 1932, a junta-appointed Senate with seats reserved for military commanders would check the powers of elected lawmakers."I want the country to get better," said farmer Thongyoon Khaenkhaomeng at a polling station in a school in the northeastern city of Khon Kaen.He voted in favour of the constitution because he wanted Thailand's divisions to end, he said. Nearby, voters queued to cast their ballot at the rebuilt city hall, which was burnt down during political unrest in 2010.Day labourer Decha Shangkamanee said he had voted against the charter because he disliked the junta, but did not expect the referendum to make much difference."I know that nothing really changes today with the way the country is ruled," he said.REUTERS PS AN1721 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0421-876093.Xml
The British government has abandoned and betrayed six former soldiers jailed in India for carrying firearms while protecting boats from pirates, the sister of one of the incarcerated men has said. The men -- Nick Dunn, Ray Tindall, Billy Irving, Paul Towers, John Armstrong and Nicholas Simpson -- who were arrested in 2013, were among 35 crew members sentenced in January by an Indian court to five years in prison for carrying unlicensed firearms, the Guardian reported on Sunday. They were held while working for an anti-piracy security company protecting commercial ships off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. The men, who have been backed by more than 20 MPs, including former Prime Minister David Cameron, have consistently maintained their innocence and launched an appeal to overturn their sentences. Now Nick Dunn's sister has urged Prime Minister Theresa May and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to intervene in the case amid concerns that the mens mental state was beginning to deteriorate. Nicks always maintained that he feels abandoned and betrayed by the government and the country that he once served, Lisa Dunn told the Guardian. Now that we have a new government in place, I would like to personally reach out to Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Alan Duncan (Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs) and respectfully request that they continue to keep this case at the top of their agendas as we have been assured many times previously." Lisa said the British government had issued the licences for the weapons, including semi-automatic G3 assault rifles, which the Indian courts have claimed are automatic weapons and, therefore, prohibited, the Guardian said. Last month, Edward Bell, the British governments head of export controls, confirmed to the Indian court that Vince Cable, the then business secretary, granted licences for the firearms in 2012 and 2013. Cameron made a personal appeal last year to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on behalf of the Britons, who had served in Afghanistan and Iraq. Newly-appointed Minister for Asia, Alok Sharma, also raised the case with Indias External Affairs Ministry in July. I appreciate and understand that the government have spoken to various Indian counterparts over the last nearly three years, but for the evidence thats there its beyond belief that our government havent pushed harder," the Guardian quoted Lisa as saying. The mens prison conditions are said to be dire. Lisa said the men sleep on concrete in cells infested with snakes and rats, using a hole in the ground for a toilet. Last week the mens families went to Downing Street to deliver a petition signed by 375,000 people demanding that the government secure their release. --IANS ksk/dg ( 456 Words) 2016-08-07-18:22:03 (IANS)
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has launched a blistering attack on Hillary Clinton's character and suggested that the Democratic presidential nominee is not mentally fit to be the president. Speaking at Windham, New Hampshire Saturday night Trump said the former secretary of state took 'short-circuit'. "She took a short-circuit in the brain. She's got problems," CNN quoted Trump as saying. "Honestly, I don't think she's all there," he added. Trump seized on Clinton's explanation that she "short-circuited" a recent answer about her truthfulness in discussing her email server. The term "short-circuited" was used as she answered a question on Friday about her recent assertion in a Fox News interview that FBI Director James Comey said she had been "truthful" in discussing her use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state. Her claim in that interview has widely been debunked as false. She said, "I was pointing out in both of those instances, that Director Comey had said that my answers in my FBI interview were truthful. That really is the bottom line here," she said, adding, "What I told the FBI, which he said was truthful, is consistent with what I have said publicly. I may have short-circuited, and for that, I will try to clarify." Trump's attacks on Clinton flowed as he once again referred Clinton as unstable, unbalanced and "totally unhinged. The act of attacking come as top Republicans have fretted about Trump's repeatedly knocking himself off message by engaging in controversies rather than focusing on Clinton. The New York billionaire also alleged that the terrorist group ISIS is dreaming of a Clinton presidency. "Remember, remember, remember ISIS is looking, folks. They dream of Hillary Clinton. They look at her and they say this can't be happening to us. How great is this," he added. (ANI)
Former Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, reacts during an act agaisnt the approval of impeachment of the Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on April 11, 2016. (Xinhua/AGENCIA ESTADO)

BRASILIA, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva would be the most likely candidate to win 2018 presidential elections, according to a new poll released on Friday by the Vox Populi Institute.

The broad poll used likely candidates from major parties, including Lula, Marina Silva of Sustainability Network, Aecio Neves of Brazilian Social Democracy Party, and Ciro Gomes of Democratic Labor Party.

In all potential presidential candidates, Lula came out on top with 28-29 percent of the vote, followed by Silva with 18-19 percent support and Neves with 18 percent of the vote.

However, those who would choose a blank vote reached 20 percent, with around 75 percent saying they associated with no specific political party.

The poll also found that 61 percent of respondents favored early presidential elections, rather than waiting till 2018.

Interim President Michel Temer suffered a defeat as only 17 percent wanting him to stay in office until 2018.

Only 13 percent approve of his performance, against 35 percent holding a negative view of his job.

Suspended president Dilma Rousseff fared no better, with just 18 percent supporting her to return to power.

Vox Populi interviewed 1,500 people in 97 municipalities between July 29 and Aug. 1, 2016.
CHICAGO, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- After trudging through the deadliest May in 21 years, Chicago again closed a deadliest July in 10 years, when 65 people were killed.

This has pushed the number of homicides in the city by July this year to nearly 400. The total number for all of last year was 490.

It was the deadliest July since 2006, according to Chicago Police Department records.

Chicago is notorious for shooting that happens every day. And data show that the situation has gotten worse since this year, with increasing residents having the intention of moving out of the city.

Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson cited gang conflicts and the proliferation of guns for increased violence in early June.

Social media also contributed to the violence, he said, where some young people "taunt each other, brag about their crimes and dare others to confront them".
Chinese vice premier Liu Yandong (L) shakes hands with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Aug. 6, 2016. Liu Yandong watched the women's 10m air rifle shooting final at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach and Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon here on Saturday. (Xinhua/Han Yan)

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong met with International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach here on Saturday on the sidelines of the Olympic shooting competitions.

Liu, who attended Friday night's opening ceremony at Maracana Stadium as the special envoy of Chinese President Xi Jinping, congratulated Bach on the grand opening of the Rio Games and reiterated China's commitment to the Olympic Movement.

Liu said that sport can make a contribution to the economic and social development. "The Chinese governament has always attached great importance to the role that sport plays," said Liu. "We will continue to contribute to the Olympic Movement by advancing the Fitness for All campaign in the build-up to the 2022 Wintre Olympics."

Bach spoke highly of China's active role in the Olympic Movement and the contribution China has made, saying that the IOC is willing to provide necessary assistance for China in the lead-up to the 2022 Winter Games.

Also on Saturday, Liu and Bach watched the women's 10m air rifle competition which produced the first gold medal of the Rio Games. Du Li and Yi Siling, both from China, claimed the silver and bronze medals respectively.
by Xinhua Writer Gao Pan

WASHINGTON, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- As the host of the Group of 20 (G20) summit in its eastern city of Hangzhou next month, China has the opportunity to show its leadership in resisting protectionism, spurring growth and boosting people's confidence in global economy, a U.S. expert has said.

"I think on trade we're in a very important time because I think there're strong protectionist pressures in the world," said Robert Kahn, a senior fellow for international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in Washington, D.C.

"Here's what China can play a very important role in showing the leadership, saying (that) we need to resist these pressures and we need to do it in a way that's realistic and smart," Kahn told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Citing the dim prospects for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement to pass the U.S. Congress, Kahn said he was "quite worried" that it would offer a window of opportunity and an excuse for increasing protectionism globally if the 12-national trade deal is rejected by the U.S. Congress.

"That would be bad for the entire G20," Kahn said. "I think what we have to be doing now is talking very honestly about how we can show leadership in this very difficult environment when people don't feel like trade is helping them, how we can convince people again that the fair deal is for everybody."

Kahn believed that China could play an important leadership role as chair of the G20 summit this year to help find good ways to resolve these disagreements on trade. "I think within the G20 we need to find ways to give people confidence that it's really an honest dialogue and concerns are being addressed in a pragmatic fashion," he said.

Acknowledging rising voices of protectionism around the world, China has initiated the G20 trade and investment working group and institutionalized the G20 trade ministers meeting to promote international trade and investment, which would also contribute to much-needed global growth.

At the G20 trade ministers meeting in Shanghai, China last month, the ministers endorsed a broad strategy for promoting global trade growth, in which G20 members will lead by example to lower trade costs, harness trade and investment policy coherence, boost trade in services, enhance trade finance, promote e-commerce development and address trade and development.

"Trade and investment should continue to be important engines of global economic growth and development, generating employment, encouraging innovation and contributing to welfare and inclusive growth," the ministers said in a joint statement.

In terms of macroeconomic policy, Kahn said G20 finance ministers and central bank governors have repeatedly made strong statements of using all policy tools - monetary, fiscal and structural - to promote growth, but "the question is how we go beyond these statements to actual action" .

It's politically and economically difficult to implement structural reforms and G20 members are also "quite divided" in expanding fiscal policy to stimulate growth, according to Kahn. He was concerned that there isn't really anything new for policymakers to be done while everyone agrees on the needs for more growth.

"That would be something for the Chinese government to try, and address, and manage," he said, adding that policymakers need to think about whether current policy measures are enough to "produce the kind of growth that will make people feel good about global economy".

"How do we get people confident that policies are not just good headlines but really changing the way of our economy that's going to work in the longer run," he asked, emphasizing that "there's a great deal of frustration and anxiety" about economic future among the population in the United States, Europe and other parts of the world.

Li Baodong, Chinese G20 Sherpa and vice foreign minister, said the G20 Hangzhou Summit next month will focus discussions on innovation, the new industrial revolution, the digital economy and structural reform under the agenda item of "breaking a new path for growth".

"This aims to break the current model of sole reliance on fiscal stimulus and easy monetary policy through innovation-driven growth strategies and structural reform, and boost the potential for mid- to long-term growth," he said.

China is working with fellow members to draw a G20 blueprint for innovation-driven growth that highlights the concept of inclusive innovation and a concrete action plan for building a new industrial revolution and the digital economy, which may help shore up people' s confidence in global economy.

As a primary platform for international economic cooperation, the G20 has also made some progress in global economic governance in past several years, including implementing the 2010 quota and governance reforms in the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

"China is much better represented in international intuitions now than used to be the case, including the IMF," Kahn said. "It continues to move in the right direction where Chinese views and voices are heard more regularly in these forums...I think that should continue to happen."

Eying China's growing influence in the world stage, Kahn welcomed the world's largest developing country to join the Paris Club, an informal group of creditors who work to help resolve countries' debt problems.

It would be "a very positive and very important statement" for China's commitment to strong rules on debt issues if China decides to join the Paris Club and becomes a member of the Club, he said.

"I think that's an example of leadership for China. Getting it done is very positive," he added, hoping that China can play a leading role in fostering better international cooperation on debt restructuring.

Related:

Interview: G20 summit seeks to promote innovation, global governance, says expert

BUENOS AIRES, July 28 (Xinhua) -- An upcoming summit of G20 countries to be held in China in September will seek to promote innovation as a means to overcome the global economic slowdown, said Argentinian analyst Jorge Castro.

Castro, director of the Buenos Aires-based Strategic Planning Institute (IPE), said languishing economies around the world are affecting global governance, making the issue a priority for the group of the world's 20 major economies. Full story

Xinhua Insight: One month to go, Hangzhou looks forward to G20

HANGZHOU, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) - Hangzhou resident Yang Chizhen does not speak a word of English, but has decided to spend the next month picking up some simple English phrases.
Argentina's Paula Pareto (top) competes against South Korea's Jeong Bokyeong during the final of the women's -48kg judo of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Aug. 6, 2016. Paula Pareto won the gold medal.Xinhua/Wu Wei

BUENOS AIRES, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Argentinean judoka, Paula Pareto, who won Latin America's first gold medal at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, said she felt like she was dreaming after her victory in the 48kg category on Saturday.

"I can't believe it," said the athlete, 30, after defeating South Korea's Jeong Bokyeong in the final and becoming the first Argentinean to win a gold in judo.

Pareto, despite being nicknamed "Small" due to only measuring 1.50m became a giant after taking the gold, improving on the bronze she won in Beijing 2008.

Right after winning, Pareto leapt into the stands to hug her relatives, friends and other Argentinean fans who had cheered on throughout the day.

"I knew it would be very hard. I am very happy," she told the Argentinean press. "Now, I am going to fully enjoy myself, who knows what comes next."

Pareto won her first three fights on Saturday against Russia's Irina Dolgova, Hungary's Eva Csernoviczki and Japan's Ami Kondo, before defeating Jeong in the final.

Having graduated in medicine in 2014, Pareto spoke to Xinhua before flying to Rio, saying that "I hope to win first place and then see what happens."

Born in San Fernando, north of Buenos Aires, Pareto began practicing judo at the age of nine and quickly stood out at her club, Estudiantes de La Plata.

Her first big competition at the 2007 Panamerican Games in Rio, where she won bronze in the 48kg category at the age of 21. She took bronze again in Beijing 2008, bringing the first Olympic medal for judo to Argentina.

Asked how she focuses, Pareto said that she relies on her psychologist "to manage pressure, concentration and breathing."

"I don't feel any pressure, as judo is a sport where anyone can win or lose. It would be great to rely on my results but I start all the competitions from zero and with everything to do," she told Xinhua.
BEIJING, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- She has no regrets, but for Qing Feng divorcing her husband, a gay man, and losing her son and money, was not an easy process.

Qing, from southwest China's Guizhou Province, ended her sexless, loveless marriage months ago, after an arduous negotiation with the man who had constantly belittled her throughout their 13-year relationship.

"He said I wouldn't get a penny or the custody of my son because I asked for a divorce without evidence to show he was wrong," said Qing who is in her forties.

"He was well prepared for the day of the divorce. He had transferred all our assets to his parents."

Qing is one of many unlucky women in China known as the "gay wives," or Tongqi, who unwittingly marry closeted gay men. For these women, the road to a successful divorce is often a rocky one due to obstruction from their husbands and a lack of clear legal support.

In a country where gay marriage is illegal, the majority of gay men chose to marry women and have children because of the pressure from their parents and society. Many Chinese believe continuing the family bloodline is an inescapable male duty and not having children constitutes a failure.

NO EASY WAY OUT

At a seminar on the protection of Tongqi, held in the central Chinese city of Changsha, Hunan Province, late July, Qing shared her story and encouraged other women in her situation to pursue their happiness with courage.

Two years ago, a TV program focusing on the tragedy of "gay-straight" marriages helped Qing overcome the doubts she had about divorcing her husband who recoiled from all physical contact from the moment their son was born and seldom showed her any care.

"He repeatedly told me 'don't laugh. You look ugly when you do that.' He liked nothing about me, so I kept trying to change myself to please him," she said.

When she finally questioned her husband about his sexual orientation, he confessed but refused to divorce as he feared it would ruin his reputation.

For attending last year's Tongqi seminar, Qing was insulted by her husband and his family. She finally had enough and made up her mind to insist on divorce, despite hesitating for the sake of her son.

A lawyer told Qing that even if she filed a divorce lawsuit it might not go in her favor.

Most Chinese gay men conceal their homosexuality, which makes it difficult for women to collect evidence of their husband's sexual habits and orientation, said Yang Shaogang, a Shanghai-based lawyer who is experienced in "gay-straight" divorce cases. As a result, judges often do not grant the divorce, and the women need to file again at a later date, Yang said.

In addition, Chinese law does not define the gay man as culpable in the marriage breakdwon, meaning no compensation is given to the women, and the law offers no privileges for these women to obtain custody of their children.

Yang has called for legal changes regarding the distribution of property and child custody in such divorce cases to encourage Tongqi to break free.

Three of the 15 Tongqi who attended the first seminar held last year are now divorced.

"It shows huge progress that these Tongqi were able to stand up to protect their rights," said renowned sexologist Zhang Beichuan.

Dr. Li Xianhong, of Central South University, Changsha, who initiated the Tongqi seminars, said a report will be formulated to help create legislation to protect Tongqi in the future.

DISEASE, VIOLENCE, SILENCE

A 2013 survey, conducted by Zhang and her team, of nearly 150 women who had either married or divorced gay or bisexual men, or who were dating such men, showed that 70 percent of the respondents suffered long-term emotional abuse from the men, often characterized by sexual apathy.

In addition, 90 percent of the women developed symptoms of depression and 20 percent of them endured repeated beatings.

Nearly 40 of those surveyed reported symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases. Among the 30 who were tested for HIV, two found themselves infected.

Su Yun, 60, who became deaf in one ear after she was beaten by her homosexual husband, recently divorced. A day after the divorce, her ex-husband and his boyfriend barged into Su's home.

"I didn't dare to call the police. I thought he might strangle me. He tried once and I almost died," said Su, in eastern China's Shandong Province.

Divorced women are often discriminated against in China, and not everyone trapped in an unhappy marriage wants to get out, said Dr. Li.

Lin Yan is in her fifties and decided to stay in her marriage, even though her husband confessed to being gay more than 10 years ago.

"We live in a very small place. People like my husband. If I say he's gay, no one would believe me. They might think I was having an affair and just wanted a divorce," Lin said. Adding that without a job she financially relies on her husband.

In general, the Tongqi are an invisible group, A large number have not even realized that their husbands are gay, due to conservative attitudes towards sex, said Dr. Li

"Many never even wonder why they have no sex life in their marriage."

So far, Qing Feng has not been able to explicitly tell her parents why she divorced.

"It was really shameful," she said.

(The names of the "gay wives" in this article have been changed to protect their privacy).
SANTIAGO, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Chile hopes China will soon become the No. 1 destination for its food exports, Chilean Agriculture Minister Carlos Furche said Friday.

"We already have a complete free trade zone and in terms of food and forest products, the FTA has had extraordinary results," said Furche two weeks ahead of a major food product promotion event in China.

When the free trade agreement (FTA) was signed in 2005, Chilean exports of forest and agricultural products to China were worth 400 million U.S. dollars and, in 2015, this figure rose to 2.4 billion dollars.

"What is going to happen is that, in the next decade, China will become the first destination for Chilean food exports, a position that the United States currently occupies," said Furche.

Cherries, grapes, pork and wine are among the main Chilean food exports to China while China exports textiles, shoes, and furniture to Chile.
File photo taken on May 24, 2016 shows an aerial view of expressways linking Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport at night in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province. Hangzhou is the host city for the 2016 G20 summit on Sept. 4 and Sept. 5. With one month to go, Hangzhou looks forward to G20. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

MEXICO CITY, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- China has a great opportunity to play a crucial role in the world's economic recovery and sustainable development as it will host a Group of 20 (G20) summit in Hangzhou next month, said Mexican experts.

Academics from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the Ibero-American University agreed that this summit will revolve around topics such as free trade, the environment and terrorism, while also dealing with the fallout of Britain's exit from the European Union.

For Ignacio Martinez Cortes, a political researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Chinese leaders will seek to strengthen China's leadership in three important areas: infrastructure, environment and technology.

"These three points are strategically important for a sustainable future, in which China will play a crucial role, including cooperating with other countries in these areas," he explained.

Victor Manuel Prudencia, an international relations expert at Ibero-American University, said China has the political and economic momentum "to set up an interesting agenda." For him, this could include initiatives from China to help other countries develop their industries in a sustainable way.

China will also draw up plans with other participating countries on poverty reduction and infrastructure development.

"I think China has a great opportunity to set this agenda as the host country," said Prudencia.

China also has a chance to strengthen the voice and representation of developing countries by inviting representatives from countries outside the G20.

For this meeting, China has said that it hopes to help improve global economic governance and financial stability, and boost trade and investment.

Prudencia believes China will present its Belt and Road Initiative, a mechanism which seeks to promote mutually beneficial cooperation among countries along the Belt and Road routes.

For Cortes, this meeting "will be very interesting" as all countries are seeking new ways to recover the global economy, as well as to stimulate their own economic growth.

"We are all very happy to be in a globalized world, but if one country is going badly, all feel it," said Prudencia.

Related:

Spotlight: World expects G20 summit to revive economic growth, eye China's leadership

HANGZHOU, China, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- As the Group of 20 (G20) summit is a month away, people worldwide are expecting leaders to promote global economic recovery and enhance the role of emerging economies, especially China, the second-largest economy and chair of the G20 this year.

"For us Europe, the urgent priority is to get through the economic crisis," said Melinda Brindicci, an employee in tourism industry from Rome, Italy. "Employment problem of Italy and other European countries, especially related to young people, awaits to be solved." Full story

Commentary: Current world calls for G20 to play bigger role

BEIJING, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Against the backdrop of weak global economic recovery and uncertain political situation, countries in the world look forward to the Group of 20 (G20) playing a bigger role in global governance and economic growth. Full story

Xinhua Insight: One month to go, Hangzhou looks forward to G20

HANGZHOU, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) - Hangzhou resident Yang Chizhen does not speak a word of English, but has decided to spend the next month picking up some simple English phrases.
MANILA, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday bared more than 150 names of judges, military, police and lawmakers who are allegedly linked to the alarming drug menace in the Philippines.

In a news conference in Davao City in the early hours on Sunday morning, Duterte said there are an estimated 600,000 Filipinos who are drug addicts, pushers and users nationwide.

"I grieve for my country," Duterte said, lamenting that the drug problem has worsened "because government personnel were into it."

Duterte read the long list of names during the news conference that lasted two hours, ordering those he named to report to their mother units within 24 hours. Some of those he named were retired police officers and former local officials from all over the country.

"You are hereby relieved of your duty and immediately report to your mother units," he said. "I'd like to give you the advice: once you hear your name mentioned here you are now relieved of your present assignments."

He also ordered the cancellation of "any and all" firearm permits and licenses issues to them cancelled immediately.

He said judges should report to the Supreme Court, the local government officials to the Department of Interior and Local Government, and the military and the police to their superiors in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP)and the Philippine National Police (PNP)within 24 hours.

"If you do not do that I will order the AFP and the entire PNP to hunt for you," Duterte said.

Duterte also ordered to remove the "operational authority" over the military and police officials assigned to mayors and other local government officials he named.

Duterte also named Iloilo, a province in the central Philippines as the most "shabulized" province in the country, referring to the magnitude and extent of methamphetamine use in the region.

He said those names that made it to the list that he read had been validated. "I am the sole person responsible," he said.

On July 5, Duterte also named at least five police generals who are allegedly "protectors of illegal drug syndicates" operating in the country. The police officers are now being investigated.

Since the names of the five generals were bared at least four local officials or former local officials have submitted themselves to the police for further verification. Some have admitted using illegal drugs but denied allegations they are protectors.

Duterte has intensified his war against criminals, especially drug lords. He has also repeatedly warned these drug lords who are preying on the youths of the land, warning that "it's going to be a dirty and bloody fight."

Since he assumed the presidency on June 30, Duterte has ordered the police to crack the whip on drug lords and their protectors that allegedly include police officers and even the so-called "narco politicians."

So far, the media has recorded at least 600 people who were killed in the campaign against illegal drugs. The death toll continues to rise, causing human rights groups to demand an investigation into the unabated extra-judicial killings.

A couple of senators said they plan to initiate an investigation into the spate of vigilante-like killings of people who were marked as pushers and addicts whose bodies are dumped in the streets.
Ballot boxes are seen at a polling station in Bangkok, Aug. 7, 2016. National referendum on Thailand's 2016 draft constitution and its additional question began at 8 a.m. Sunday as planned. (Xinhua/Li Mangmang)

BANGKOK, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Thais across the country are casting their ballots in the referendum on the 2016 draft constitution and additional question that began at 8 a.m. (0100 GMT) Sunday as planned, while a general election in 2017 is promised by the current government no matter what the outcome will be. The voting process will last for 8 hours as all 94,000 polling stations will be closed for voting at 4 p.m. (0900 GMT). The unofficial results will be known before 9 p.m. (1400 GMT), according to the Election Commission. This is the second ever referendum in Thai history, following the last referendum in 2007. Around 50.5 million Thais out of the total population of 65 million are eligible to vote this time, compared with 45 million eligible in the 2007 referendum. The Election Commission set a goal of 80 percent turnout, compared with the 57.61 percent turnout in 2007. On the ballot there are two questions, the first being "Do you accept the 2016 draft of the constitution?," and the second being "In order to reform the country continuously according to the strategy, should the Senate be allowed to join the House of Representatives in the voting process to select a prime minister for the first five-year period after the first National Assembly is formed under this constitution?"

Once passed, the draft constitution will be the 20th constitution since the country became a constitutional monarchy in 1932 and there will be a general election in 2017 according to the junta's roadmap, as it is mentioned by the junta leaders.

And for the additional question, or the second question, if passed, its result will be added into the Transitory Provisions of the constitution and thus give 250 senators picked by the current junta, or the National Council for Peace and Order, power to elect a prime minister along with 500 elected members of House of Representatives.

If the draft is voted down along with the additional questions, there have to be a new draft constitution before a general election, according to Prayut Chan-o-cha, current Thai prime minister and leader of the NCPO, but he said earlier that there would be a general election next year regardless of the outcome.

"In such occasion, the NCPO and the current government may find it hard to draft a new constitution similar to the current one, and especially contents that being largely criticized (might not be included in the new one)," Said Lompianthit, a columnist for Thai media Thairath.

"No matter what the outcome will be, the NCPO and the government will declare its plan for everything to go forward smoothly,"Said Prayut on Friday, adding that he had no plan to prolong power.

He mentioned earlier that a joint meeting between his cabinet and the NCPO will be held next Tuesday to determine their future plans.

YES OR NO?

The 105-page draft constitution consists of 16 charters and the Transitory Provisions, or 279 sections. Though it contains strong provisions on healthcare and education, people have different opinions regarding its contents about the national assembly, the election of a new prime minister, the constitutional court, and counter corruption mechanism.

Prayut said on Friday that he would vote yes to both question and encouraged people to join the voting on Sunday.

Suthep Thaugsuban, who led the protest against Yingluck Shinawatra's Pheu Thai Party government from 2013 to 2014 that paved the way for the 2014 coup, expressed his strong support to the draft constitution and called it an anti-corruption one and said it will help to reform the country.

The draft constitution was always said to be an anti-corruption one by its supporters as it bans any fired for corruption from politics and bestowed great powers upon a nine-member National Counter Corruption Commission.

But its mechanism to combat corruption is attacked Pheu Thai Party and prominent figures from Democrat Party.

Abhisit Vejjajiva, former prime minister and current leader of Democrat Party said the draft constitution has big defects in combating corruption.

Pheu Thai Party said the draft exempts the NCPO from any punishments, which is not fair.

On the other hand, Abhisit also said the draft cannot help to ease political and social conflict but trigger even more serious conflict, primarily due to the lessened roles of the elected politicians.

Pheu Thai party also said pointed out any reasons that they are against it, such as too much curtailment of administrative officials and bestows too much power to the Constitution Court and any independent organizations, the proposed election mechanism will generate a multiparty government which is not stable enough to run the country, and a special chapter on the amendment of the constitution, which makes the amendment nearly impossible.

According to reports, former primer Thaksin Shinawatra on Thursday commented on the draft, saying "The drafters ... created a constitution for the 'continuity' of the absolute power of the present coup makers to continue even after the new constitution is proclaimed."

Thailand held a referendum on a draft constitution in 2007 after the 2006 military coup that toppled Thaksin's government.

The draft then passed by 57 percent approval and later became the 2007 constitution, under which Thaksin's sister Yingluck Shinawatra and her Pheu Thai party won the general election in 2011.
YANGON, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Lao President Bounnhang Vorachitch's just-ended official goodwill visit to Myanmar has enhanced bilateral relations and cooperation between the two countries.

Vorachitch's Nay Pyi Taw visit was a reciprocal one to that of his Myanmar counterpart U Htin Kyaw to Vientiane in May.

During the one-day visit, the two top leaders had discussions on cooperation and promotion of peace and stability in border regions, resumption of Yangon-Vientiane and Luang Prrabang-Bagan direct flight, review of existing agreements between the two countries and matters related to supporting each other in regional and international arena.

The two presidents witnessed the signing of an agreement on management of the Myanmar-Lao Friendship Bridge by foreign ministers of the two countries Aung San Suu Kyi and Saleumxay Kommasith.

The bridge, which is the first ever one across the Mekong River between the two countries linking Myanmar's Tachileik in eastern Shan state and Lao's Luang Namtha province, was inaugurated in May 2015 by then presidents of both countries.

The construction of the 691.6-meter-long Myanmar-Lao friendship bridge at a cost of 26 million U.S. dollars was first raised during an earlier visit to Myanmar by Lao Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong in July 2011 and the project began in February 2013.

The opening of the friendship bridge coincided with the 60th anniversary of diplomatic establishment of Myanmar and Laos.

The Mekong subregion countries greatly benefit from the bridge which is located on the North Economic Corridor linking the Port of Haiphong in Vietnam and the Kyaukphyu deep-sea port in Myanmar through Laos.

Accompanied by State Counselor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi, President U Htin Kyaw paid a goodwill visit to Laos in May as his first foreign trip after his government took office on April 1.

That trip also came more than two years after former Lao President Choummaly Sayasone came to Myanmar on a state visit in December 2013.

Laos has been supporting Myanmar's democratization and national reconciliation efforts.

Leaders of the two countries pledged to promote bilateral relations and cooperation in rural development, poverty alleviation, tourist, education, forest, agriculture and livestock breeding sectors.

Cooperating in curbing illegal drug and chemical precursor smuggling in the two border areas, the two countries have laid down plan for prevention and control of drug abuse between the two countries.

Both sides reaffirmed their policy to respect and safeguard each other's sovereignty and security by not allowing any armed insurgent groups from either side to keep their base in the territory of respective countries.

Moreover, the two countries are also expanding cooperation in legislative affairs especially in recent years when Myanmar was undergoing reform process which also covered the legislative sector.

According to official statistics, the volume of trade between Myanmar and Laos is still low compared with other neighboring countries.

Sharing border of over 230 kilometers, the two countries established diplomatic relations in July 1955.

Both Myanmar and Laos joined the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1997. This year Laos chairs the regional grouping and hosted the region's foreign ministers meeting in July, which Aung San Suu Kyi attended, and will also host the regional summit in September.
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha casts his vote in a constitutional referendum at a polling place in Bangkok, Thailand, Aug. 7, 2016. Citizens of Thailand vote on a new constitution draft during a nationwide referendum held on Sunday. (Xinhua/Li Mangmang)

BANGKOK, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- National referendum on Thailand's 2016 draft constitution and its additional question begins at 8 a.m. (0100 GMT) Sunday as planned, major figures such as prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra and Abhisit Vejjajiva have already voted until now.

Prayut, current prime minister and leader of the National Council of Peace and Order went to vote with his wife at a polling station in Bangkok at about 9:10 am.

He called for eligible Thais to come to vote to make a difference and decide the future of Thailand at the scene.

He said earlier that he would vote yes to both questions in the ballot.

About 50.5 million Thais are eligible to vote on the 2 questions on their ballots, the first being "Do you accept the 2016 draft of the constitution?", and the second being "In order to reform the country continuously according to the strategy, should the Senate be allowed to join the House of Representatives in the voting process to select a prime minister for the first five-year period after the first National Assembly is formed under this constitution?"

Meechai Ruchupan, chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee, came out to vote at a polling station in Nonthaburi Province at about 9:15 am.

The current draft constitution is also called the Meechai version by some Thai media.

"Though familiar with (the draft), I still feel excited...I will be satisfied no matter what the outcome will be, and I don't expect anything because I don't want to be disappointed." Said Meechai to media, adding that referendum on constitution is rare and thus calling for eligible people to cherish the chance.

Yingluck Shinawatra, former prime minister whose Pheu Thai party government was toppled in the 2014 coup, said she is happy that she is still eligible to vote, and is waiting for the outcome after she voted.

She has been charged with criminal negligence over her management of a rice subsidy scheme, and just defended herself in the Supreme Court on Friday.

Abhisit Vejjajiva, former prime minister and the leader of Democrat Party said after he voted that "no matter what the outcome is, everyone have to help each other to make Thailand step forward."

Both Yingluck and Abhisit called for everyone eligible to participate in the process to decide the future of the kingdom. They both expressed their disapproval of the draft constitution earlier.

Cabinet members of Prayut, other prominent figures of the two major parties, and Suthep Thaugsuban, who led the protest against Yingluck's government from 2013 to 2014 that paved the way for the 2014 coup, also came out to vote and call for more people to participate.

The voting process will last for 8 hours as all polling stations will be closed for voting at 4 p.m. (0900 GMT). The unofficial results will be known before 9 p.m. (1400 GMT), according to the Election Commission.
by Abu Hanifah

JAKARTA, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- With a myriad of business opportunities awaiting in an increasingly digitalized world, players in the Indonesian Small- Middle Enterprises (SMEs) sector are being encouraged to seize the opportunities from such beneficial conditions in order to further boost their businesses.

Despite its dominating portion in the structure of the nation's economy, the number of SME players in Indonesia extensively using digital instruments to expand their markets is still deemed insignificant, business observers have noted.

According to data released by Indonesia's Industry and Commerce Chamber (Kadin), only 30 percent of SME businesses in the country are already using digital instruments and tools to expand their markets.

This figure is put into perspective when compared to the fact the sector comprises more than 60 percent of the country's overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has initially set a target of 8 million SMEs business in the country "going online" by 2020.

Business consultant agency McKinsey Global Institute has said that intense involvement of digital instruments in SMEs business may boost the nation's economic growth by 2 percent each year.

The agency also said that the use of e-commerce through digital instruments would further spur SME businesses by as much as 80 percent.

As such, becoming cognizant about the huge potential from becoming proficient with and using digital instrument technology in the Indonesian SME sector, comes highly recommended to business people to expand their respective markets and sales.

"The supporting technology exists at present. The access and acquisition of this technology is also relatively affordable, especially for SMEs," Regional Head of Commercial Payments MasterCard Asia Pacific, Singapore, Philip Glickman told Xinhua.

"The key is getting the right people in the right position with the knowhow to use that specific technology," Glickman said in an exclusive interview recently, during the 12th World Islamic Economic Forum held here.

He added that Indonesia already has a strong foundation, resources and the right economic environment for SMEs to grow further.

"With an abundance of resources and the potential of young people, Indonesia is perfectly positioned to take advantage and grow. Technology plays an essential role in SMEs and these businesses will eventually drive the economy," he said.

Philip encouraged Indonesian SMEs to partner with other companies to fill in the gaps in their business deliveries, saying that once SMEs know how to choose a partner correctly and how to use data effectively, they can chart a vertical course to success.

Another expert, Eddy Lee, Managing Partner of the Singapore-based Coffee Ventures, told Xinhua exclusively that a new phenomenon is the expanding use of smartphones in Indonesia, which are sometimes used to run SME businesses.

"Through smartphones, which have become less expensive and more secure, Indonesian SME business people can now reach and do business with thousands of potential new customers and markets across the country through social networking platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook applications," Lee told Xinhua.

He added that Indonesia has many talented young people who have skills in programming and web design who can be partnered with SMEs so as to provide more interesting, attractive and complete information landscapes that can appear in their digital website's instruments.

In addition, establishing such partnerships with talented, creative professionals is highly recommended to assure that the SMEs can run effectively to attract and grab potential customers and gain more and deeper access to the markets they are targeting.

"They can help you with modern digital tools and finding the right people who can deliver like this can lead your business to enter digital trade in a cost-effect manner," Lee said.

The Indonesian government through its economic reform packages has provided massive facilities to help kickstart more SME businesses that include swifter administration and export procedures, better financing access to banks, and provisions for partnering with foreign investors.

The SME sector is highly expected to boost the economy at the grass roots level that will eventually contribute to boosting the nation's economic growth, thus reducing the unemployment rate as the sector's continued expansion will accommodate a significant number of new workers.
BEIJING, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Total turnover on the National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ), the market for Chinese startups to raise funds, continued to increase in the past week.

From Aug. 1 to 5, NEEQ's trading volume climbed 7.75 percent week on week to 3.12 billion yuan (around 470 million U.S. dollars).

Four companies recorded transactions worth of more than 100 million yuan each. Donghai Securities, a small brokerage headquartered in the eastern city of Changzhou in Jiangsu Province, was the biggest winner with shares worth 800 million yuan traded.

During the week, 231 companies debuted on the market, bringing the total number of NEEQ-listed companies to 8,147.

More small firms are turning to the NEEQ for financing as the government promotes a multi-level capital market to satisfy growing financial demands from both large and small companies.

However, the benchmark NEEQ Component Index edged down 0.06 percent to 1,161.9, the lowest level year to date.

NEEQ was launched in Beijing in late 2012 and is also known as the "new third board" that supplements the main Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses.
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam President Tran Dai Quang will make an official visit to Brunei from Aug. 26 to 28 to bolster bilateral business and investment ties, Nguyen Truong Giang, Vietnam's ambassador to Brunei, was quoted by a local daily as saying Sunday.

Tran's first visit to the sultanate will be aimed at promoting cooperation in many areas and he will host a business forum to forge connections between entrepreneurs of both countries, Nguyen Truong Giang said,

"The president's delegation will comprise a lot of business people and we want to create connections between the two business communities, particularly in oil and gas," he said.

According to the Brunei Times, the foreign ministers of Brunei and Vietnam met in Laos last month to discuss the conclusion of a bilateral investment agreement, as well as the convening of the Vietnam-Brunei Joint Committee on Bilateral Cooperation.

The two countries have already signed cooperation agreements in several areas, including education and training, agriculture and fisheries, business and finance, as well as oil and gas.

PTSC Mechanical and Construction Company, an arm of the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group, recently built a offshore platform for Brunei's Maharaja Lela South oilfield, which is operated by French energy firm Total E&P Borneo BV.
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Indian government will organise an investment exhibition in Bandar Seri Begawan this September to boost economic ties with Brunei.

According to a local news report Sunday, Indian High Commissioner Nagma Mallick said the expo, dubbed "India Investrade", will feature a large business delegation from Kolkata.

"We have two big business delegations that will be coming to Brunei this year. In September we will have a big exhibition ... and later in October or November a large delegation from the Confederation of Indian Industry in Delhi, they will hold meetings to explore investment opportunities in both India and Brunei," she said while interviewed Saturday.

Representatives of Indian companies from various sectors such as healthcare, pharmaceuticals, solar energy and engineering are expected to meet Bruneian businessmen to build up trade and investment ties.

There are many opportunities to be found in Brunei as it is centrally located in the ASEAN region, Mallick said, and India is keen to use its vast experience in agriculture and IT to help the Sultanate diversify its economy.

Brunei and India established diplomatic relations on May 10, 1984. According to Brunei's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, a bilateral joint committee was set up in 1995 to promote closer cooperation between both countries.

The main export of Brunei to India is crude oil, while India's main export to Brunei are labours including professionals and semi-skilled workers.
KABUL, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Up to 21 militants loyal to the Islamic State (IS) were killed in Achin district of Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province over the past 24 hours, Interior Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

According to the statement, 13 more IS fighters were wounded and several hideouts of the armed outfit destroyed during the operations.

IS outfit has yet to make comments on the report.

Achin and the neighboring Kot district have been regarded as the hotbed of IS militants in the eastern part of Afghanistan.

Operations Government forces against IS have been continuing over the past several months in the mountainous districts along the border with Pakistan's tribal areas but the ultra-extremist militant group is still active in the area.
NANNING, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- A city in south China is offering free DNA tests to low-income families, which will help them register their offspring and receive poverty relief benefits.

The authorities in Yongning District in Nanning City, the capital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, have decided to waive the cost of DNA tests for 500 poor and unregistered people so that they can register for a resident permit, known as a "hukou," and qualify for financial and social assistance.

In China couples must register their marriage with their local civil affairs agency, however, in some rural and under-developed areas this is not always followed. This means that their children, who are often born outside hospitals and clinics, are unregistered and, therefore, unable to access many social benefits, including poverty relief.

A DNA test, which can prove the biological link between children and their parents, is the first step toward getting these unregistered people a hukou.

Children must have a hukou to enroll into public schools and, later, it is also a required document for employment.
LAGOS, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Two Chinese nationals have been kidnapped in Agada village in central Nigeria's Nasarawa state, police said Sunday.

State police spokesperson Ismail Noman, who confirmed the incident to Xinhua, said the two Chinese, aged 50 and 45 respectively, were ambushed by unknown gunmen at about 2:28 p.m. local time on their way to the capital Abuja Saturday.

They were said to be workers from the Chinese company of West African Polaris Investment.

Noman said although the gunmen, wielding sophisticated weapons, were still at large, the police had begun investigation to track them.

He said security operatives had been deployed into the forests and bush around the area to arrest the suspects and rescue the victims.

According to him, security operatives in collaboration with vigilante groups, local hunters and community leaders have also been involved in the search.

The police had also increased stop search activities across the state borders.
TAIYUAN, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Authorities in the northern province of Shanxi postponed resource exploitation charges for mining firms during the first half (H1) this year, to alleviate the financial strain on firms saddled with overcapacity.

The province's land and resources department allowed 504 coal-mining firms and four other mining firms to delay paying their prospecting and mining charges for the first six months, totaling 16.1 billion yuan (2.42 billion U.S. dollars).

Coal mining must tackle overcapacity as part of the government's wider structural reforms.

The State Council, China's cabinet, said earlier this year that it aimed to cut 500 million tonnes of coal production capacity over the next three to five years.

Coal production in Shanxi has dropped by more than 60 million tonnes year on year during H1.

China's banking regulator has also asked banks to continue to support mining and steel firms' "reasonable funding needs" to ensure that they have the necessary financial support to press ahead with capacity reduction and structural reforms.
MOMBASA, Kenya, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan security forces on Saturday repulsed an Al-Shabaab terror attack, which left at least four police officers injured in the coastal region of Lamu.

Lamu County Commissioner Joseph Kanyiri said Sunday that the militant group from Somalia attempted to force their way into the Basuba General Service Unit (GSU) camp in Lamu East on Saturday evening, sparking a fierce fight between the terrorists and the police officers.

Kanyiri said a major security operation is underway to pursue the attackers who engaged the police officers in heavy gun battle that lasted for about 30 minutes. The militants were overpowered and vanished in the densely forest.

"We are hunting the group who escaped with bullet wounds after they failed to access the police camp," Kanyiri told Xinhua by telephone.

The injured officers were treated at local hospital and are in stable condition.

Al-Shabaab group has unsuccessfully ambushed officers within Lamu in the recent weeks, but they have been repulsed.

The militant group has changed tactics by planting Improvised Explosives Devices (IEDs) targeting security agents near Kenya Somalia border in Lamu.

A multi-agency team has managed to defeat the group on the ongoing Bony Forest operation. The team is also constructing perimeter wall to curb Al-Shabaab threats in the region.
HARARE, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Zimbabwean government is drafting a law to penalize the "abusive" usage of social media with five-year jail terms in its latest measures to regulate the cyber space law and order, state media reported Sunday.

According to the draft, any person staying either in Zimbabwe or overseas shall be found guilt of intentionally generating, possessing and distributing an electronic communication with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, threaten, bully or cause emotional distress to another person.

The state-run Sunday Mail said the legislation, Computer Crime and Cyber Crime Bill, together with two supporting bills on information technology, is to manage the cyber space, which has "for long been abused to foment social disobedience and attack private citizens."

The legislation came after political dissents organized a series of job boycotts and protests in recent weeks via social media, notably Whatsapp, Youtube and Facebook, mobilizing thousands of followers to take action to vent their frustration over a failing economy and alleged rampant corruption.

One of the activists, Pastor Evan Mawarire, who organised #ThisFlag and #ShutdownZimbabwe movements, has fled to South Africa after being accused by the Zimbabwean authorities of collaborating with foreign governments to destabilize the state.

But Mawarire still wields considerable clout among his social media followers in Zimbabwe, posing a constant challenge for the government to tame social disturbances.

The authorities said the bills would soon be taken to the parliament while the security chiefs have vowed to stand ready to deal with cyber-based attempts at destabilization.

Like many other African countries, Zimbabwe saw a sharp rise on mobile Internet penetration rate thanks to the proliferation of affordable smart-phones and cheap data packages offered by telecommunication firms.

The country's telecommunication regulator Potraz reported earlier this year that active mobile Internet subscriptions rose to 6.5 million by the end of 2015, nearly half of the entire national population.
GARISSA, Kenya, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- For many residents in the semi-arid Garissa County in the northeast Kenya, Mathenge (Prosopis juliflora) is an invasive plant that needs to be cleared off.

But a group of young locals have sought to give it a new meaning by producing environmentally friendly charcoal.

They have come together under the identity of Green Charcoal, and are able to make the fuel safe for use in the indoor since it is smokeless.

"People see it as a menace but I consider it as an opportunity," said Mohamed Abass, the brainchild of the idea in an interview on Saturday.

At the moment, they are in a committed team of ten, making the charcoal from Garissa and transport some to the capital Nairobi for sale. They also have a huge market in the hospitality industry in Garissa.

The technology used in the production of the briquettes differs from the traditional one. Traditionally, one covers the lit wood with soil which leads to incomplete combustion of the biomass, in the end leading to emission of the toxic carbon monoxide gas when burnt.

In the modern method, the Green Charcoal uses a kiln to generate methane, which is then used to carbonize the Mathenge briquettes, and thus lowering emission of the toxic gases. They are able to produce three tonnes of the eco-friendly charcoal daily.

The green charcoal, which Abass said, serves as a substitute to the conventional charcoal burns for four straight hours and emits no smoke.

Five kilograms sells at 2 U.S. dollars at their current pricing, and can last for 14 days. On average one uses two kilograms of ordinary charcoal to cook one complete meal, while one can use five pieces of the briquettes to accomplish similar food preparation activity.

"It gives people value for their money and reduces air pollution," Abass said.

Indoor pollution from use of biomass fuel such firewood, kerosene and charcoal, is a major health concern in the developing countries, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Official data from the global health monitoring agency indicate that at least two million people in the developing nations succumb to complications from indoor air pollution.

Worse still is the fact that more than 80 percent of the pollution, especially in the rural areas, use the harmful fuels because of the high poverty levels further complicating intervention mechanisms.

WHO identifies lung cancer, tuberculosis, and respiratory infections as among the complications attributed to the indoor air pollution and whose effects are fatal, considering the poor are the most affected.

Green Charcoal's work matches with the Kenyan government's commitment to raise consumption of harmless fuels in the households.

In June, Cabinet Secretary for Treasury Henry Rotich announced removal of 16 percent Value Added Tax on the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), a move catapulting drop in gas cylinder prices and refilling rates.

He also reduced import levy on energy saving stoves by 60 percent.

He clarified this as the government's commitment to discourage use of the toxic fuels as well as protect the environment from extensive deforestation and degradation.

Abass, professionally an ICT specialist, said they are providing a sustainable solution to cutting down of the indigenous trees for charcoal burning.

He said Mathenge is pervasive plant whose presence in the northeastern county is unlikely to be terminated any time soon, thereby providing a ready supply of the raw materials to meet the demand.

Abass, who has no absolute background on energy or environment, said his venture into the green charcoal was driven by the need to commercialize the invasive plant and offer a better fuel option to households.

Mathenge, which flourishes in dry areas, is said to have originated from South and Central America and exists in six counties in Kenya found in the north-eastern, Rift valley and coastal regions.

Youth and women are among the beneficiaries of the venture in the county, which has been on the security watch over incidents of terror attacks from the Somalia-based militant group, Al-Shabaab.

Currently, Abass said they are directly working with five youth and three women groups, with each having an average membership of 15.

"They are part of our supply chain. They make money through selling the briquettes and that contributes to their livehoods," he said.
ANKARA, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- One Turkish soldier was killed and four others were wounded in an attack by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants in southeastern Turkish province of Siirt early on Sunday, Hurriyet News reported.

Clashes erupted between PKK militants and soldiers during a security operation in the Eruh district of Siirt. The wounded soldiers were taken to Siirt State Hospital by the soldiers sent as reinforcements.

Meanwhile, two village guards were killed and one other was wounded when PKK militants detonated a roadside bomb in the southeastern province of Sirnak on July 6.

Over 500 members of Turkish security forces and thousands of PKK members have been killed in confrontations inside Turkey and in northern Iraq since last July.

More than 40,000 people have lost their lives in clashes with the PKK since 1984, when the group first started anti-government attacks.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Turkey.
YANGON, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The number of flood victims continued to rise in lower part of Myanmar despite close of some relief camps in the upper part of the country, local media quoted the Department of Relief and Resettlement as reporting Sunday.

In the weekend day alone, flood victims increased by 20,000 in warning-issued southwestern Ayayawaddy delta region, bringing the total number of such victims in seven regions and states to over 336,000.

In Kachin, Sagaing and Magway state and regions, there saw slight drop of water level with some relief camps being closed, allowing the flood victims to start to return homes .

The Ayeyawaddy region was worst hit by flood this year.

Triggered by continued torrential rain early last month, flooding also swept across western Rakhine state affecting about 10,000 people.

The flooding submerged Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U and Minbya townships and destroyed some dwellings, bridges and roads.

Such river banks as Laymyo and Kaladan burst, bringing over 200 high and middle schools under water.
This file photo taken on July 15, 2010 shows Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri (L) standing with his father upon his arrival at Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran. Iran, announced on August 7, 2016, that it has executed a nuclear scientist convicted of handing over "top secret" information to the United States, a judicial spokesman said on Sunday. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

TEHRAN, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Judiciary on Sunday confirmed the execution of Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri on espionage charges, state IRIB TV reported.

"This person had access to the classified information of the establishment and had availed them to the enemy," Iran's Judiciary spokesman Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei told reporters.

"He was tried in the competent courts and was sentenced to death," Mohseni Ejei was quoted as saying.
KABUL, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Afghan security forces have obviously intensified military pressure against anti-government militants as up to 39 armed insurgents affiliated to Taliban, Islamic State (IS) and other armed groups were killed elsewhere in the conflict-hit country over the past 24 hours, officials said Sunday.

In the latest military crackdown, 11 Taliban fighters including two group commanders have been killed in Andar district of the eastern Ghazni province on Sunday, provincial police chief Aminullah Omarkhil reported.

In talks with Xinhua, Omarkhil confirmed that 11 Taliban militants including two group commanders named Qari Dost and Mullah Mahmoud had been killed and several villages liberated from Taliban clutches in Andar district after police units backed by the army stormed Taliban bastions in the said district.

According to Omarkhil, operations against militants have been going on in the area.

The Interior Ministry has also confirmed the report and in a statement released here, the ministry without mentioning possible casualties of security personnel emphasized that the Taliban insurgents have suffered major setback in Andar district of Ghazni province.

Similar crackdown against Islamic State (IS) group in Achin district of the eastern Nangarhar province, launched a day earlier on Saturday, has killed up to 21 fighters and injured 13 others, the Interior Ministry confirmed in a statement released here on Sunday.

In continuation of crackdown against anti-government militants, the government forces stormed militants' hideouts in Karkar and Cham Qala localities outside Baghlan provincial capital Pul-e-Khumri, 160 km north of Kabul on Saturday, killing seven insurgents over the past 24 hours.

However, Xinhua's reporter at the site as well as locals said that all those killed in Karkar locality had affiliation with Hekmatyar-led Islamic party the Hizb-e-Islami.

According to locals, five more militants loyal to Hizb-e-Islami have surrendered to police in karkar area on Sunday and eventually, the months-long control of Hizb-e-Islami over coalmine in Karkar area ended.

Local analysts believe that increasing military pressure on militants would help government forces to secure upper hands on battleground and ultimately shrink militants' grip.
TIKRIT, Iraq, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Ten security members were killed and seven others injured Sunday as three Islamic State (IS) suicide bombers attacked the troops' posts in a northern Iraqi village, a security source told Xinhua.

The three suicide bombers opened fire against security forces in a village close to the militant-controled town of Qayyara, 50 km north of the IS major stronghold in Mosul, sparking heavy armed clashes with troops before detonating their vests, the source said on condition of anonymity.

Last month, security forces freed several villages close to the town of Qayyara after recapturing a strategic airbase, considered a significant victory, as the airbase is crucial for both the troops and aircrafts in their attacks against IS as they free the northern city of Mosul, 400 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

The troops' advance into Qayyara is part of a major offensive operation aiming to free areas in southern Mosul, including Qayyara, and to surround Mosul from the south and east before advancing into the city and flushing IS militants out of it.

Iraq has witnessed intense violence since the IS took control of parts of its northern and western regions in June 2014.
ABUJA, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Two Chinese workers who were kidnapped in central Nigeria's Nasarawa state have been rescued, the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria said Sunday.

Zheng Jun, an official with the embassy, told Xinhua that the two Chinese were rescued Saturday night, and are currently in sound condition.

Local police said earlier that two Chinese workers were ambushed by unknown gunmen at about 2:28 p.m. local time Saturday in Nasarawa while on their way to the capital Abuja.
GAZA, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Secretary General of Palestine Liberation Organizaiton (PLO) on Sunday called on Israel to respond to the demands of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike.

Erekat said in a press release that "Israel must respond to the demands of striking Palestinian prisoners, including prisoner Bilal Kayed, who is on an open hunger strike since 54 days and the Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Parliamentarian Ahmad Sa'adat."

His statements came after he met with members of the diplomatic corpse in his office in the city of Jericho, where he also called for the release of the fourth batch of veteran Palestinian prisoners who were detained before the signing of the Oslo accords in 1993 and members of the Palestinian parliament, highlighting the importance of the international pressure to put an end to the suffering of prisoners.

Palestinian Prisoners Club said in an emailed press release that over 80 prisoners in Israeli jails are currently on an open hunger strike protesting the policy of administrative detention and solitary confinement.

Administrative detention is a measure that allows Israeli authorities to detain prisoners without charing them or allowing them to stand a trial based on secret information that cannot be accessed by either the detainees or lawyers, for periods of six months that can be renewed for unlimited times.

Bilal Kayed, is in the forefront of this collective strike, which he started individually, said the statement. He is protesting returning him to administrative detention after he ended his 14.5 years long sentence in Israeli jails.

In 2012, Israeli prisons authority and Palestinian prisoners struck a deal ending a 28 days long strike, brokered by Egypt. The deal included ending solitary confinement, limiting down administrative detention and allowing family visitations for prisoners from Gaza.

Official Palestinian reports say that Israel is not abiding by the deal points, and that Israel has issued 950 administrative detention order and renewal since the beginning of 2016, raising the number of current administrative detainees to 750.
NAIROBI, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese and United States top diplomats are due in Kenya on separate dates this month as the East African nation intensifies her foreign engagements, a Kenyan official said on Sunday.

State House Spokesman Manoah Esipisu told journalists in Nairobi that China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit Kenya from Tuesday, noting that Wang's visit will focus on trade and investment.

He said Beijing is a big trade partner, and has supported a number of significant initiatives in the country's infrastructure sector.

Esipisu said that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is expected in the country within the month.

He said the exact dates of Kerry's visit, which is expected to focus on regional issues, will be confirmed in due course.

"Matters we expect to be discussed at his meetings with our president and foreign affairs minister Amina Mohammed will include security, regional and international relations, and especially the recent upheaval in South Sudan as well as the developments in Somalia," he said.

"Both China and the United States are allies and friends of long standing. I am sure Kenyans will welcome their representatives most warmly," Esipisu said.
MANILA, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos will leave for Beijing on Monday to start initial talks with Chinese officials, the state-run Philippine News Agency reported on Sunday.

President Rodrigo Duterte has named Ramos as a special envoy to repair soured ties between China and the Philippines in the wake of Manila's unilateral move to bring the South China Sea dispute to an ad hoc arbitral tribunal. This will be Ramos' first trip to Beijing as the envoy.

China has dismissed a biased ruling issued on July 12 as "null and void with no binding force."

The Chinese government said it stands ready to continue to resolve relevant disputes peacefully through negotiation and consultation with the states directly concerned on the basis of respecting historical facts and in accordance with international law.

The report said Ramos' office has confirmed the planned trip. The 88-year-old former leader will be accompanied by former Interior and Local Government Secretary Rafael Alunan, journalist Chito Romana and his grandson Sam Jones.

"No other details were disclosed about Ramos' trip to China," it said.

Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said on July 29 that Duterte had asked Ramos to start direct talks with China, giving the former president "principles of wisdom about how to go about the conversation (with China)."

Abella said Duterte wanted Ramos "to start with things they agree on and not necessarily begin from an adversarial or instant position."

The presidential palace has yet to issue a statement on Ramos's scheduled departure for China on Monday.

Aileen Baviera, a professor of Asian Studies at the University of the Philippines familiar with Chinese affairs, said Ramos is "a good person" to deal with the China at this point.

"I don't think (Duterte) will send Ramos to negotiate, just to break the ice I think, to communicate, to signal the general attitude of the Duterte government," she told Xinhua.

"(Ramos) still maintains good high-level connections with the Chinese, and he is not identified with (former President Benigno) Aquino on the (arbitral) issue. In fact, he had been quite critical on some counts. So, as far as his credibility with the Chinese side is concerned I think we have that," Baviera said.

Ramos, who served as the Philippine president from 1992 to 1998, has maintained good relations with China even after stepping down from office.

He was instrumental in the creation of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA), a non-government and non-profit international organization, in 1998, together with other world leaders like former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke and former Japan Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa.

Ramos also served as a chairman of the BFA, which was inaugurated in the resort town of Boao, China's southern Hainan province, in February 2001. Since 2002, the BFA has been holding an annual conference to discuss the most pressing issues in the region and the world at large.
Opposition fighters drive a tank in an eastern government sieged neighbourhood of Aleppo as jihadists and their rebel allies pressed an offensive on August 5, 2016 with a massive attack aimed at seizing a military academy south of the northern embattled Syrian city and breaking a three-week-old siege of insurgent neighbourhoods. (AFP/Xinhua)

DAMASCUS, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Syrian army warplanes carried out several airstrikes against rebel posts on Sunday, infiltrated the day before in the northern province of Aleppo, a military source told Xinhua.

The airstrikes targeted the rebels' artillery and armament bases in the southwest of Aleppo, said the source on condition of anonymity.

The heightened airstrikes resulted from the rebels' successful storming into the aforementioned bases in southern Aleppo Saturday evening.

The rebels fighting were mainly the extremist Jaish al-Fateh and the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, targeting to end the three-week-long government siege on rebel-held districts in eastern Aleppo.

The rebels were also believed to have taken control over parts of the strategic al-Ramuseh town, enabling them to fashion a military passageway into eastern Aleppo.

However, through controlling this strategic part of al-Ramuseh, the government-controlled western part of Aleppo was placed under siege, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The UK-based watchdog group said grocery prices in western Aleppo have increased fourfold since the rebels captured parts of al-Ramuseh just the day before.

Nonetheless, the military source told Xinhua that the government is still in control of a route into districts of western Aleppo, adding that the rebels' route into eastern Aleppo is quite narrow.

The situation in Aleppo flared up last month, when government forces unleashed an offensive in the north of Aleppo, severing the Castello road which is the last rebel-controlled supply route into eastern Aleppo.

The offensive triggered a violent retaliation from the rebels, who subsequently unleashed over seven attacks against government posts in southern Aleppo in an effort to end the siege.

Meanwhile, Syria's national Television said the army is determined to drive out the rebels from the bases they stormed into on Saturday.

The pan-Arab al-Mayadeen television station also reported heavy airstrikes on Sunday, adding that over 800 rebels were killed during the three-day-battle at military colleges in Aleppo.

Aleppo is strategic for all warring parties, due to its key location beside the Turkish border, and as Syria's industrial capital.

Further complicating the situation is the large presence of rebel groups, each supported by a foreign country, mainly a Gulf State.

The United States has also identified "moderate" rebels located in Aleppo.

The battle of Aleppo is a rather decisive one, as observers declared that whoever controls Aleppo will gain the upper hand in any potential settlement in Syria.
Ethiopian students attend an awarding ceremony for the 2016/17 Chinese Government Scholarship to Ethiopian students at the Chinese embassy in Addis Ababa , capital of Ethiopia, Aug. 3, 2016. (Xinhua/Michael Tewelde)

ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- China will continue to supporting human resource development endeavors of Ethiopia and Africa, said a Chinese envoy.

La Yifan, Chinese Ambassador to Ethiopia, made the remarks early this week during an awarding ceremony for the 2016/17 Chinese Government Scholarship to Ethiopian Students at the Chinese embassy in Addis Ababa.

26 Ethiopian students have been awarded the Chinese government scholarship to pursue their higher-level studies of masters and PhD programs at different universities in China.

"Human resource development is one of the pillars of our cooperation with African countries, and also with Ethiopia," noted the ambassador.

"The scholarship to enable young, bright, ambitious Ethiopian youth to pursue your studies of high learning in top universities in China, in various fields from medical science, language, engineering...that are highly needed by Ethiopia in your current pursuit of industrialization," he said.

Speaking during the ceremony, Zerihun Kebede, Representative of the Ethiopian Ministry of Education, has commended China for its continued support to Ethiopia's efforts in capacity building programs by providing short and long-term training.

Stating that Ethiopia and China have a very long-standing relations for several years, the official said the relation between the two countries is being manifested in different forms of cooperation and support.

"This relation has gained momentum since recent years as the two sisterly countries have established a broader scope of bilateral relation and cooperation, especially in the field of education," said Kebede.

"The training opportunities that we have been getting from China every year has immense contribution to our capacity building program," he added.

Robel Gebre-Michael, one of the scholarship winners who will be pursuing his studies of master's degree in information and communication engineering at Harbin Engineering University, told Xinhua that he is very happy about being one of the lucky Ethiopian students traveling to China for postgraduate studies.

He said they would be ambassadors of his country to promote Ethiopian culture to the Chinese, and the people-to-people relations and friendship of the two countries.
ACCRA, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Nineteen people were killed in a tragic road accident in western Ghana, a senior police officer confirmed to local media on Sunday.

The accident occurred when a mini bus traveling to the mine city of Obuasi from Bogoso, some 290 km of Accra, collided with a stationary truck loaded with bags of cement in Subriso town, Saturday night.

The bus hit the rear of the truck, killing 19 people, including 8 females, District Police Commander Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Agyekum Nipa told Citi FM, a local radio in Accra.

The bodies of the dead have been deposited at the nearby government hospital, he said.

The accident comes one month after a similar one in July claimed 17 lives near Konongo in Kumasi, some 260 km north of the capital.
Image taken on Jan. 21, 2013, of boxes with avocados in the Lo Valledor central wholesale produce market in Santiago, Chile. (Xinhua/Edwin Remsberg/VW Pics/ZUMAPRESS)

SANTIAGO, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Chile hopes China will soon become the No. 1 destination for its food exports, Chilean Agriculture Minister Carlos Furche said Friday.

"We already have a complete free trade zone and in terms of food and forest products, the FTA has had extraordinary results," said Furche two weeks ahead of a major food product promotion event in China.

When the free trade agreement (FTA) was signed in 2005, Chilean exports of forest and agricultural products to China were worth 400 million U.S. dollars and, in 2015, this figure rose to 2.4 billion dollars.

"What is going to happen is that, in the next decade, China will become the first destination for Chilean food exports, a position that the United States currently occupies," said Furche.

Cherries, grapes, pork and wine are among the main Chilean food exports to China while China exports textiles, shoes, and furniture to Chile.
BRUSSELS, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The man attacking two Belgian police officers on Saturday has been confirmed to be a 33-year-old Algerian who had criminal offense records, according to a press release of the federal prosecution.

The man wounded two female police officers outside a police station with a machete on Saturday afternoon in the city of Charleroi, about 50 km south of the Belgian capital Brussels. The attacker shouted "Allahu Akbar"(God is great) before the attack.

The Islamic State on Sunday claimed responsibility for the attack. However, no terror activities of this man were known to the police.

The man has been living in Belgium illegally since 2012.

The attacker was dead in hospital after shot by the police on Saturday.

One of the two female officers suffered serious injuries and has been hospitalized. Both of them are suffering from artificial coma, the police authorities from Charleroi tweeted.

According to Belgian newspaper Le Soir, the attacker came to a checkpoint of the police station at 3:58 p.m. local time (1358 GMT). He immediately pulled out a machete from his gym bag and struck the head of a police officer on duty.

The man then turned to the other police officer who was injured slightly. The attacker was then shot by a third officer at the checkpoint.

Further police investigation is still underway.

Soon after the attack, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel wrote on his twitter account: "I strongly condemn the attack in Charleroi. Thoughts are with the victims, their relatives and the police. We are monitoring the situation closely."

Belgium is still at security alert level three, the second highest level, since the March 22 bombings at a Brussels airport and a subway station which killed 32 people.

Last week, Belgian police arrested and indicted a terrorist suspect who was alleged to have been plotting an attack in Belgium.
RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Olympic rowing races have been postponed due to adverse conditions here on Sunday.

According to organizers, racing is postponed and will not take place on Sunday due to technical installation difficulties caused by the strong winds and the forecast for the afternoon which indicates adverse weather conditions.

A new schedule is being prepared.

On Saturday, high winds caused Serbian pair Milos Vasic and Nenad Bedik to capsize. And several athletes like Zimbabwe's Andrew Graham Peebles and Australia's Kimberley Brennan, respectively in men's and women's single sculls, complained about the rough conditions.
Iraqi government forces gather in the area of Khalidiya, east of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, on Aug 1, 2016, during ongoing fighting against jihadists of the Islamic state (IS) group. (AFP/Xinhua)

TIKRIT, Iraq, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Ten security members were killed and seven others injured Sunday as three Islamic State (IS) suicide bombers attacked the troops' posts in a northern Iraqi village, a security source told Xinhua.

The three suicide bombers opened fire against security forces in a village close to the militant-controled town of Qayyara, 50 km north of the IS major stronghold in Mosul, sparking heavy armed clashes with troops before detonating their vests, the source said on condition of anonymity.

Last month, security forces freed several villages close to the town of Qayyara after recapturing a strategic airbase, considered a significant victory, as the airbase is crucial for both the troops and aircrafts in their attacks against IS as they free the northern city of Mosul, 400 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

The troops' advance into Qayyara is part of a major offensive operation aiming to free areas in southern Mosul, including Qayyara, and to surround Mosul from the south and east before advancing into the city and flushing IS militants out of it.

Iraq has witnessed intense violence since the IS took control of parts of its northern and western regions in June 2014.
Staff members seal a ballot box at a polling station when Thailand's constitutional referendum ends in downtown Bangkok, Thailand, on Aug. 7, 2016. Thailand's Election Commission (EC) said Sunday night that with 94 percent of ballots counted, a draft constitution and its additional question were adopted in a referendum held earlier in the day. (Xinhua/Li Mangmang)

BANGKOK, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The majority of voters across Thailand approved a junta-backed new draft constitution and an additional question in Sunday's referendum, paving the way for the formation of a civilian government supported by the military.

The voter turnout in the referendum reached over 50 percent, according to Thai officials.

With 91 percent of the ballots counted, 62 percent of voters across the country approved the 2016 draft constitution, while about 38 percent voted against it, Somchai Srisutthiyakorn, chairman of the Election Commission, told reporters.

Nearly 58 percent had voted in favor of the additional question while 42 percent countered it, he added.

"The gap is wide enough not to change the result," said Srisutthiyakorn.

Around 50.5 million Thais out of the total population of 65 million are eligible to vote in this referendum on two questions on their ballots, the first one on their opinion on the constitution, and the second on whether they wanted 250 senators picked by the current junta, or the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), to have power to elect a prime minister along with 500 elected members of House of Representatives.

The 105-page draft constitution consists of 16 charters and the Transitory Provisions, or 279 sections. Though it contains strong provisions on healthcare and education, people have different opinions regarding its contents about the national assembly, the election of a new prime minister, the constitutional court, and anti-corruption mechanism.

The draft constitution was always said to be an anti-corruption basic law by its supporters as it bans any political corruption and bestows great power upon a nine-member National Counter-Corruption Commission.

However, its mechanism to combat corruption attacks both the Pheu Thai Party and prominent figures from the Democrat Party.

The Pheu Thai party made several criticisms on the draft constitution, such as too much curtailment of administrative officials and too much power bestowed upon the Constitutional Court and any independent organizations, the possible generation of a multiparty government which is not stable enough to run the country, and a nearly impossible amendment of the constitution, adding that it is also unfair that the draft exempts the NCPO from any punishments.

Abhisit Vejjajiva, former prime minister and current leader of the Democrat Party, said the draft constitution has big defects in combating corruption, adding that it cannot help ease political and social conflicts and it triggers even more serious conflicts, primarily due to the lessened roles of the elected politicians.

Prayut Chan-o-cha, current Thai prime minister and leader of the NCPO, said on Friday that he would vote yes to both questions.

Suthep Thaugsuban, who led the protest against Yingluck Shinawatra's Pheu Thai Party government from 2013 to 2014 that paved the way for the 2014 coup, expressed his strong support to the draft constitution and said it will help to reform the country.

The referendum is the second ever in Thai history, following the first in 2007. The Election Commission set a goal of 80 percent turnout, compared with the 57.61 percent turnout in 2007.

Thailand has endured 13 successful military coups and 11 attempted takeovers since a constitutional monarchy replaced an absolute one in 1932. If adopted, the constitution in question will become the 20th constitution of Thailand.

A general election will be held in 2017 following the approval of the constitution, Prayut said.
RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- China's Olympic swimming team has demanded an apology from Australian gold medallist Mack Horton after his "malicious personal attack" on rival Sun Yang.

Horton described Sun as a "drug cheat" last week and refused to retract the comments after defeating his rival in the 400m freestyle final at the Rio 2016 Games on Saturday.

"We have been noticing what has been said in the past two days by Horton, who launched a malicious personal attack [on Chinese swimmers]," Chinese swim team manager Xu Qi said on Sunday.

"We think his inappropriate words greatly hurt the feelings between Chinese and Australian swimmers. It is proof of a lack of good manners and upbringing. We strongly demand an apology from this swimmer."

Sun, who won gold in the 400m freestyle and 1500m freestyle at the London 2012 Olympics, served a three-month ban in 2014 after testing positive to a banned substance.

The 24-year-old said he unwittingly took the drug as part of treatment for a chronic heart problem.

After winning the gold medal race on Saturday, Horton said: "I used the words drug cheat because he tested positive. He's one of the athletes here who has tested positive."

The Australian's comments prompted a heated response on social media, where many Chinese fans describing the remarks as unjustified. \

Related:

IOC to check into Aussie Horton's comment on Chinese rival

by Ma Xiangfei

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it will look into the unfriendly comment Australian swimmer Mack Horton made on Chinese rival Sun Yang before it gave any comment.

IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said on Sunday that he did not konw the incident until reporters told him that Horton called defending 400m freestyle champion Sun a "drug cheat" before and after the men's 400m freestyle final at the Rio Olympic Games. Full story

Australia's Horton upsets China's Sun to win men's 400m freestyle gold

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Mack Horton clinched Australia's first gold medal of the Rio Olympics by upsetting favorite Sun Yang of China in the men's 400m freestyle final on Saturday.
PRETORIA, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The South African government said on Sunday that the recently held local government elections were free, fair and credible.

"We commend the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) for successfully managing the elections in a transparent, diligent and exemplary fashion with only minimal negative incidents," said Des van Rooyen, Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.

"We are satisfied that the IEC has built on its reputation of holding successful and credible elections," he told reporters in Pretoria.

The government also appreciates political parties and candidates which took part in the elections held on August 3, said Van Rooyen, who is also Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on Elections.

More than 200 parties contested in the elections, with 61,014 candidates competing for municipal posts and parliamentary seats.

Van Rooyen said the government is also pleased with political maturity shown in the elections.

The South African Council of Churches and the Southern African Development Community (SADC)'s observer mission also declared the elections as free, fair and credible.

Earlier, President Jacob Zuma also thanked the political parties, independent candidates and their supporters for contributing to a largely peaceful, free and fair election.

"You have shown the world that South Africa is a thriving democracy where differences of political opinion and diverse political preferences are allowed to flourish," Zuma said.

Political parties waged their campaigns under different political banners, however, they are one people, said Zuma.

"In this regard, the elected representatives must govern on behalf of and in the best interests of all South Africans. They must build an accessible, caring and efficient local government system throughout the country, regardless of which party controls the municipality," Zuma said.
File photo taken on April 27, 2016 shows an aerial view of the West Lake in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province. Hangzhou is the host city for the 2016 G20 summit on Sept. 4 and Sept. 5. With one month to go, Hangzhou looks forward to G20. (Xinhua/Wang Dingchang)

by Sun Yi

BRUSSELS, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The upcoming G20 summit in China in September is very important, and the most important objective that can be achieved is to try to understand China better and to understand the strategic choice of China, said Luigi Gambardella, president of ChinaEU, a business-led association aimed at intensifying business cooperation and investment in the telecom and hi-tech spheres.

In a recent interview, Gambardella told Xinhua that now the world was facing several common challenges, and in the meantime, China will become a leading party in many sectors of the global arena.

"So far there is lack of understanding of China, and I hope the leaders ( who will attend the summit) should extend sincerity to understand China," he said.

Gambardella said that China is the answer to the world. Therefore, to understand China can contribute to global peace and growth.

"I hope all the leaders should be more constructive, and try to bring more cooperation," he said.

To understand China will also help other parties to assess or check what contributions China has done to the G20 mechanism, he said, adding that China has made big efforts in giving its own contribution to the G20, and what people need nowadays is to put more trust in China and recognize China's efforts.

Gambardella said that China clearly has an interest in playing a role as a country who wants to create peace, growth and prosperity.

In Gambardella's opinion, the Belt and Road Initiative is the most important example of way to show how China wants to build peace, favor the world growth, and make people have better life.

Moreover, regarding the world economic situation and the global governance, Gambardella thought that business can be part of the solutions to the common challenges.

He thought that many leaders underestimated the importance of the impact of technology on daily life. And the private sectors should be very well positioned to help the governments to deal with together the current changes and challenges.

For his part, he will also tour China's Nanjing and Hangzhou during the period of the G20 summit, during which he hoped to meet Chinese companies to increase dialogue and cooperation to favor the investment between Europe and China.

He said he was particularly interested in the start-up area, as there has been a start-up boom in China.

"The new silicon valley will be in China," he said, hoping that Europe and China will see more cooperation and closer links between young entrepreneurs, especially in fields of new technology.

He added that the Chinese in general are well prepared to know the West. Therefore, the Europe side should make efforts to know China better and to seize tremendous cooperative opportunities.

The G20 summit, to be held in Hangzhou in September, offers a platform for heads of state and government and central bankers to exchange views on macro-economic policy.

The theme of this year's summit -- "Toward an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected and Inclusive World Economy" -- vividly reflects the G20's efforts to fully let innovation inspire sustainable economic growth and overcome structural and institutional obstacles.
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men take part in the funeral ceremony of Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Chadash, head of the "Or Alhanan" Jewish Seminary, in Jerusalem August 3, 2016. (Reuters photo)

By Keren Setton

JERUSALEM, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Last week, a controversial law which exempts ultra-Orthodox Jewish or Haredi schools from teaching English, maths and sciences, was passed in the Israel's parliament.

It reverses a previous law stating that ultra-Orthodox schools refusing to teach these "core" subjects would not receive state funding from 2018.

It is now up to Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennet, who is a national religious but not an Orthodox Jew, to decide to what extent these schools must teach such "secular" knowledge.

Israel has more than 800,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews, making up about 10 percent of Israel's population. With a high birth rate of an average of six children per family according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, the ultra-Orthodox Jews have become the fastest growing population in the small country.

However, their participation in the workforce is not substantial, with only half of the men and 70 percent of the women employed.

Some economists fear they will increasingly become a burden on the Israeli economy as more tax burdens will fall on Israel's secular workforce.

Nowadays, many of the young ultra-Orthodox Jews study only basic maths and English and this happens largely in their elementary years of education.

They lack basic skills to integrate into the society which sees a high-school diploma as a prerequisite for almost any job.

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men take part in the funeral ceremony of Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Chadash, head of the "Or Alhanan" Jewish Seminary, in Jerusalem August 3, 2016. (Reuters photo)

But Rabbi Yehuda Polishuk, who heads an NGO dealing with educational issues concerning Jewish values and traditions, begs to differ. According to Polishuk, there are a large number of ultra-Orthodox schools which do teach core subjects.

"The data from the last 10 to 15 years show a gradual increase in participation in the workforce. This is not a result of draconian laws but an approval from rabbis. The natural process is a healthy one, any surgical intervention is harmful," he said.

Still, he says most ultra-Orthodox Jews prefer to study in schools that do not teach core subjects.

Polishuk describes the changes as a gradual evolution.

"As long as the population is growing, it is also more diverse and there will also be diversification in the types of jobs undertaken," he said.

Although Haredi Jews used to occupy jobs traditionally affiliated with religion, they can now be found doing a wide range of jobs, from accounting to interior design.

Rabbi Polishuk says this focus on religion stems from a belief that studying the Torah, the main scriptures in Judaism, is a value within itself, not necessarily for having a profession.

But how religious Jews assimilate into Israeli society is a contentious subject because it has led to heightened tensions within the small country.

The ultra-Orthodox Jews are largely exempt from military service, which is mandatory for secular Jews, both males and females. A secular Jew attempting to evade military service will be given severe punishment, including a prison sentence.

Attempts to enlist ultra-Orthodox Jews have failed, since their political power, which goes way beyond their actual numbers in society, is so strong that their privileges almost cannot be touched.

Hundreds of thousands of Orthodox Jews have taken to the streets several times in protest of attempts that would force them to integrate further into Israeli society.

The reversed law was passed during a short period when the ultra-Orthodox parties were in the opposition and a secular party led by Yesh Atid had the power to bring out such a reform.

In a statement after the repeal of the law, the Yesh Atid party said, "The Israeli government has sold our children's future and taken from an entire generation the ability to support themselves."

In a column published by the Haaretz newspaper, David Rosenberg said the decision would "move forward the clock on the time bomb ticking away toward an economic blowup."

For years, the poverty rate of the Haredi population in Israel has remained over 50 percent, much higher than the other Jewish populations.

However, Haredi Jews living abroad are not subsidized by local governments and they have to work in addition to religious studies. Some Israelis believe this is proof that work and religion can be combined for ultra-Orthodox Jews.

But Polishuk says the ultra-Orthodox community in Israel is doing that as well, despite perhaps not at the pace the secular Jews would prefer. He says the Haredi population sees no reason to "change a winning horse in mid-stream."

"It has worked well for hundreds of years. People made a successful living and led a religious life," he explains.
A man from Seongju county holds a banner to protest against the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), during a rally in Seoul, capital of South Korea, on July 21, 2016. (Xinhua/Yao Qilin)

AUSTIN, the United States, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system will have wide ramifications for East Asia and is not a constructive step for regional peace, a U.S. defense and foreign policy expert said.

"South Korea and the U.S. ought to be aware that this decision can have an impact that does not benefit the overall security and the overall peaceful nature of the East Asian system," Ted Carpenter, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a U.S. think tank, told Xinhua in an interview.

In July, Seoul and Washington announced an agreement to install one THAAD battery in South Korea by the end of next year, claiming that it was aimed to deter ballistic missiles from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

China and Russia have expressed strong opposition to the THAAD deployment on the Korean Peninsula as the system far exceeds South Korea's actual defense needs and would directly threaten the strategic security of the two countries.

Carpenter said although the deployment of the THAAD system is primarily aimed at deterring the DPRK and its irresponsible behavior, for some U.S. strategists, a secondary effect is to have a deterrent on China.

"China has every reason to regard that as a hostile act. It is not something that is going to improve bilateral relations between the U.S. and China," he said.

The U.S. expert said China's suspicions about the THAAD system are understandable, as it can have an effect on the Chinese deterrent.

If China sees that the THAAD system can impact Chinese security in an adverse way, Beijing will be suspicious of the deployment and wonder whether the system is directed at China and not simply a deterrent to the DPRK, Carpenter said.

"The U.S. can offer assurances that it is not (directed at China). But again, assurances only go so far when there are facts on the ground," he said.

The decision to deploy THAAD is also another part of the U.S. effort to broaden its bilateral alliance system in East Asia, a move Carpenter believes could be aimed at containing China and also has broader intention beyond that.

"There is no question that the U.S. is encouraging greater integration of its alliances and greater cooperation among its various allies in the region," Carpenter said.

However, he said that South Korea, which desires a cooperative relationship with China, is unlikely to want to become "a cat's paw for the U.S. against China."

"That really does not benefit South Korea in any meaningful way," Carpenter said. "I think if the U.S. is hoping to integrate South Korea into that kind of alliance system, Washington is likely to be disappointed."
Aleo Tong, who suffers severe malnutrition, rests on a bed at the MSF Nutrition centre in Aweil Hospital, South Sudan, on August 2, 2016. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday welcomed the government of South Sudan accepting the deployment of a regional protection force after fighting renewed between rival groups in the country.

The decision to deploy a regional force was made at a summit of an East African bloc, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) on Friday. The scope and mandate of the force has yet to be decided.

Ban commended the decisive action by IGAD leaders and called on South Sudanese leaders to end the crisis through implementing the South Sudan peace deal, said a statement released by Ban's spokesperson.

In July, clashes between government and opposition forces took place in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, killing 272 people, including 33 civilians.

Ban was also concerned by the continued fighting in the country as well as reports of widespread sexual violence against women and young girls, committed by armed men in uniform.

"He calls on all parties to uphold their responsibility to protect civilians and demands that they take immediate steps to hold accountable those responsible for these despicable crimes," said the statement.

South Sudan won independence on July 9, 2011 from Sudan after more than two decades of war that ended in a bitter divorce.

The country plunged into conflict in December 2013 after President Salva Kiir accused his deputy Riek Machar of plotting a coup, which led to a cycle of retaliatory killings.
ADEN, Yemen, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- About 10 pro-government soldiers were killed and more than 18 others injured when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden car among anti-terror army reinforcements in Yemen's southern province of Lahj on Sunday, a security official told Xinhua.

No group has so far claimed the attack, after which the soldiers also clashed with a group of masked assailants when they launched an armed attack, the local security source said on condition of anonymity.

The armed attack was later repelled and several of the assailants were injured at the scene.

The army reinforcements came from the neighboring Aden province to launch anti-terror offensive and fight extremists in Lahj, said the source.

In Aden, large Yemeni-Saudi military preparations are ongoing for a new anti-terror offensive to flush out al-Qaida militants from Abyan province and southern areas around, said government officials.

Last December, gunmen of the al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) took full control over two strategic towns in neighboring southern Abyan province, about 45 km from Aden, where Yemen's internationally recognized government has based itself.

Yemen, an impoverished Arab country, has been gripped by one of the most active regional al-Qaida insurgencies in the Middle East.

The AQAP, also known locally as Ansar al-Sharia, emerged in January 2009. It had claimed responsibility for a number of terrorist attacks on Yemen's army and government institutions.

It took advantage of the current security vacuum and the ongoing civil war to expand its influence and seize more territories in Yemen's southern part.

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 coalition.

More than 6,400 people have been killed in ground battles and airstrikes since then, half of them civilians.
by Ronald Ssekandi, Yuan Qing

MBALE, Uganda, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Bellowing sounds of horns, whistles and drums re-echo through the ranges of Mount Elgon.

Youthful men clad in traditional wear sing along, moving from village to village, signaling the start of the biennial traditional circumcision ceremony, a centuries' old initiation ritual into adulthood among the Bamasaba people.

Bamasaba is an ethnic group of about 7 million people along the common border between Uganda and Kenya. Although divided by a common border, the over 4 million Bamasaba in Kenya and the 3 million in Uganda share the same culture, and male circumcision commonly referred to as Imbalu is one of them.

Imbalu is a revered custom of initiating teenage boys into adulthood. Without anesthesia, the boys are circumcised in public as a sign of showing bravery and to indicate that they are ready to face any hardships in life without giving up.

The event is held every even year starting in the month of August and ending in December.

This year is different because the Bamasaba are marking 200 years since the start of the practice.

Moses Kutoi, Chairman Imbalu in Inzu Ya Bamasaba told Xinhua on Saturday at the launch of this year's Imbalu that every human or society has an identity, and circumcision is the identity of the Bamasaba. Inzu Ya Bamasaba is the cultural institution that brings together the Bamasaba.

"We regard culture as a backbone of society. It is important that we initiate these people so that they can be the custodian of culture and guard it against all odds," Kutoi said.

At the beginning of the year, a teenage boy voluntarily informs the father of his intention to get circumcised. The father then starts the preparations among which include planting millet, buying a bull that would be later given to the boy as gift after circumcision.

In mid-year, the boy intending to get circumcised accompanied by his peers visits relatives informing them of the initiation ceremony. The relatives in turn give the boy gifts.

On the D-Day, the boy plus a group of other candidates walk from their villages accompanied by large groups of people singing and chanting. Some even walk from as far as 15 km to converge at Mutoto Cultural Ground on the foothill of Wanale, one of the ranges of Mount. Elgon.

According to legendary stories, the first man to be circumcised among the Bamasaba lived at Mutoto and since then, the launching ceremony of the Imbalu every even year has been held there.

After going through all the necessary rituals, the candidates are presented before the 'traditional' surgeons. The surgeons are appointed by ancestors through spiritual powers.

"If you don't circumcise, your peers will reject you. You cannot even address elders," Joseph Masabasi, a seasoned traditional surgeon told Xinhua. Masabasi has circumcised over 10,000 boys since he started in 1986.

CULTURAL EROSION

The Imbalu is under threat of being eroded as the Bamasaba continue interacting with the outside world.

"The non-Bamasaba try to discourage it so much and to us it is a big worry. They say the boys undergo a lot of pain," Kutoi said.

One of the elders in the region decried the practice, describing it as horrendous.

"The bravery those boys exhibit during circumcision is plastic. In later years of life, memories of that pain you went through come back," the elder told Xinhua in an interview, preferring to be anonymous for fear of being scolded by staunch supporters of the cultural practice.

Some critics have argued that it is an abuse of the rights of those who decline to be circumcised.

According to the customs among the Bamasaba, if a man reaches 20 years before being circumcised, his peers will arrange for forceful circumcision.

Even when one dies before circumcision, their body would be circumcised. In this case the family of the deceased would be asked to pay a hefty fine.

HEALTH CONCERNS

With the onset of HIV, the cultural practice suffered a blow as concerns were raised over the knives used. One knife would be used to circumcise more than one person without being sterilized.

Overtime, the surgeons have been trained on how to carry out safe circumcision. This year, over 700 traditional surgeons have been trained, according to the cultural institution.

The institution estimates that this year over 2,000 boys would be circumcised among the Bamasaba, both in Uganda and Kenya.
People attend a rally at the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, on July 21, 2016. Thousands of Turks gathered on Thursday night on the bridge in Istanbul to denounce a failed coup attempt that killed at least 242 people and wounded 1,440 others last week. (Xinhua/He Canling)

ISTANBUL, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Weeks of rallies in protest of a foiled coup attempt in Turkey culminated on Sunday in a massive gathering here never seen in the country's modern history that called for "one heart, one nation."

Some 3.5 million to five million Turks poured into the Yenikapi Square in Istanbul waving Turkish flags, joining President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and leaders of the country's main political parties.

In his speech, Erdogan said in the face of solidarity against coup plotters, "the country's enemies have now realized that their job is difficult."

"It is the proclamation and evidence that Turkey will reach its 2023 targets," he stressed, referring to goals set for the occasion of the republic's 100th anniversary that includes to be among the world's top 10 economies.

Speaking of the possibility of restoring the death penalty, the president vowed once again to approve the decision to be taken by the parliament.

The issue of a reinstated capital punishment was raised in the wake of the failed bid on July 15 but has sparked concern in the West.

Binali Yildirim, leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party and the prime minister, voiced his gratitude to the leaders of the opposition parties for being present at the rally and said his party would do its best to preserve the unity.

The rally under the theme of "Democracy and Martyrs" was called for by the president, but the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party that is also represented in parliament was not invited for its link to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, which has been seeking autonomy in southeastern Turkey.

The bid to overthrow the government by a faction within the military was crushed within hours, but left 240 people dead and more than 2,000 others injured.

The speech by Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar was frequently cut short by cheers and applause from the crowd.

Akar was captured by the plotters at the start of the coup bid, but was rescued later by security forces.

"Turkish armed forces are on duty and on the service of its people and the state," the general said.

The Turkish military, the most powerful after the U.S. within the NATO bloc, is being restructured in Anraka's sweeping efforts to clean state institutions of coup suspects and followers of the so-called Gulen movement led by Fetullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric residing in the United States.

Erdogan and other top Turkish officials have accused Gulen of masterminding the failed coup and demanded his extradition, straining further the relations with Washington.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the opposition Republican People's Party, urged all the political parties to take all the precautions needed to protect the parliamentary system, secularism and democracy.

Drawing attention to the widespread social consensus against all kind of coups, he said, "If we would be able to carry this culture of consensus even further, we will leave a better Turkey to the next generations."

A sense of reconciliation between the ruling and opposition parties has been felt in the past weeks, a development unthinkable prior to the coup attempt.

"As long as we maintain our unity and solidarity, no traitor could harm us," claimed Devlet Bahceli, leader of the opposition Nationalist Movement Party.

Rallies to "watch democracy" have been staged every night in city squares across Turkey since the coup attempt was foiled.

Erdogan announced that the "democracy watch" rallies will continue until the coming Wednesday.

Extreme security measures were taken for the massive Yenikapi rally, with 30,000 police officers and several warships and coast guard boats deployed nearby.

Related:

105 suspended from Turkish Football Federation over coup probe

ANKARA, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- A total of 105 people, including referees and observers, were suspended from the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) over the failed coup attempt, Hurriyet Daily News reported on Wednesday.

The TFF said in a statement Tuesday that it was necessary to suspend 94 people, including regional and nationally-ranked referees and assistant referees, regional refereeing committee members and national and regional observers. Full story

Pakistan assures action against institutions linked to "coup plotters," says Turkish FM

ISLAMABAD, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The visiting Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said on Tuesday Pakistan has assured him to take action against the institutions linked to Fethullah Gulen, whom Turkey suspects the main character behind the last month's failed coup.

Dozens of Pak-Turk educational institutions and some cultural organizations work in Pakistan which Turkish government believes are inspired by Gulen, who live in the self-imposed exile in the United States. Gulen had denied any involvement in the failed coup. Full story

Turkish FM holds talks in Pakistan after failed coup

ISLAMABAD, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu is scheduled to hold talks with Pakistani leaders in Islamabad later on Tuesday on the situation arising out of the failed military coup in Turkey, officials said.
People wave Turkish national flags as they gather on August 7, 2016 at Kizilay Democracy Square in Ankara during a rally against failed military coup on July 15. (AFP/Xinhua)

ISTANBUL, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Weeks of rallies in protest of a foiled coup attempt in Turkey culminated on Sunday in a massive gathering here never seen in the country's modern history that called for "one heart, one nation."

Some 3.5 million to five million Turks poured into the Yenikapi Square in Istanbul waving Turkish flags, joining President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and leaders of the country's main political parties.

In his speech, Erdogan said in the face of solidarity against coup plotters, "the country's enemies have now realized that their job is difficult."

"It is the proclamation and evidence that Turkey will reach its 2023 targets," he stressed, referring to goals set for the occasion of the republic's 100th anniversary that includes to be among the world's top 10 economies.

Speaking of the possibility of restoring the death penalty, the president vowed once again to approve the decision to be taken by the parliament.

The issue of a reinstated capital punishment was raised in the wake of the failed bid on July 15 but has sparked concern in the West.

Binali Yildirim, leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party and the prime minister, voiced his gratitude to the leaders of the opposition parties for being present at the rally and said his party would do its best to preserve the unity.

Demonstrators wave Turkish national flags as they stand in front of giant screens on August 7, 2016 in Istanbul during a rally against failed military coup on July 15. (AFP/Xinhua)

The rally under the theme of "Democracy and Martyrs" was called for by the president, but the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party that is also represented in parliament was not invited for its link to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, which has been seeking autonomy in southeastern Turkey.

The bid to overthrow the government by a faction within the military was crushed within hours, but left 240 people dead and more than 2,000 others injured.

The speech by Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar was frequently cut short by cheers and applause from the crowd.

Akar was captured by the plotters at the start of the coup bid, but was rescued later by security forces.

"Turkish armed forces are on duty and on the service of its people and the state," the general said.

The Turkish military, the most powerful after the U.S. within the NATO bloc, is being restructured in Anraka's sweeping efforts to clean state institutions of coup suspects and followers of the so-called Gulen movement led by Fetullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric residing in the United States.

Erdogan and other top Turkish officials have accused Gulen of masterminding the failed coup and demanded his extradition, straining further the relations with Washington.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the opposition Republican People's Party, urged all the political parties to take all the precautions needed to protect the parliamentary system, secularism and democracy.

Drawing attention to the widespread social consensus against all kind of coups, he said, "If we would be able to carry this culture of consensus even further, we will leave a better Turkey to the next generations."

A sense of reconciliation between the ruling and opposition parties has been felt in the past weeks, a development unthinkable prior to the coup attempt.

"As long as we maintain our unity and solidarity, no traitor could harm us," claimed Devlet Bahceli, leader of the opposition Nationalist Movement Party.

Rallies to "watch democracy" have been staged every night in city squares across Turkey since the coup attempt was foiled.

Erdogan announced that the "democracy watch" rallies will continue until the coming Wednesday.

Extreme security measures were taken for the massive Yenikapi rally, with 30,000 police officers and several warships and coast guard boats deployed nearby.
UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday condemned an attack against UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, which killed one peacekeeper and injured four others.

Earlier on Sunday, an improvised explosive device attack against MINUSMA took place at south of Aguelhok, a town in the Kidal Region of eastern Mali. This attack followed a similar one on Friday which injured one peacekeeper near Kidal city.

"The Secretary-General underscores that attacks targeting United Nations peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law and calls for the perpetrators of this attack to be brought to justice," said a statement released by Ban's spokesperson.

Ban also said "the primary responsibility for peace lies with the Malian parties," and he urged them to fully implement the peace agreement and to do all they can to prevent such attacks.

MINUSMA has become a frequent target of terrorist attacks in Mali. So far, the mission has lost more than 60 lives, making it the UN's deadliest active mission.

This year in May alone, a series of attacks directed against the mission killed 12 peacekeepers and injured many more.

In late June, the UN Security Council decided to increase the force level of MINUSMA to counter grave security situation provoked by armed groups in the country.

In a unanimously adopted resolution, the council also authorized MINUSMA to take all necessary means to carry out its mandate of supporting the implementation of Mali's peace agreement in a more proactive and robust manner.
A picture taken on July 14, 2016 shows a soldier of the United Nations mission to Mali MINUSMA standing guard near a UNvehicle after it drove over an explosive device near Kidal, northern Mali. Xinhua/AFP PHOTO

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday condemned an attack against UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, which killed one peacekeeper and injured four others.

Earlier on Sunday, an improvised explosive device attack against MINUSMA took place at south of Aguelhok, a town in the Kidal Region of eastern Mali. This attack followed a similar one on Friday which injured one peacekeeper near Kidal city.

"The Secretary-General underscores that attacks targeting United Nations peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law and calls for the perpetrators of this attack to be brought to justice," said a statement released by Ban's spokesperson.

Ban also said "the primary responsibility for peace lies with the Malian parties," and he urged them to fully implement the peace agreement and to do all they can to prevent such attacks.

MINUSMA has become a frequent target of terrorist attacks in Mali. So far, the mission has lost more than 60 lives, making it the UN's deadliest active mission.

This year in May alone, a series of attacks directed against the mission killed 12 peacekeepers and injured many more.

In late June, the UN Security Council decided to increase the force level of MINUSMA to counter grave security situation provoked by armed groups in the country.

In a unanimously adopted resolution, the council also authorized MINUSMA to take all necessary means to carry out its mandate of supporting the implementation of Mali's peace agreement in a more proactive and robust manner.
by Fuad Rajeh

SANAA, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The UN-sponsored peace talks between the Yemeni factions which took place in Kuwait for more than two months have come to an end without a breakthrough.

A new round of talks is likely in one month, maybe in other country not Kuwait, according to the UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed.

Talks will continue but, actually, the crux of the problem lies in failure to reach a political deal.

The UN has sponsored talks between the Yemeni government and the Houthi group and its allies several times. In each time, the talks totally failed.

Observers argued that there is no peace at sight at the short-and medium-terms.

The Yemeni factions along with the international community backing the peace process have not come to the point yet which addresses the main reason for conflict, negative roles of regional powers and the gap between the factions, they said.

Observers see that the main reason for the conflict is the focus of all factions on their quotas in power at the expense of the public interests and the country's stability.

Yaseen Al-Tamimi, a political writer and analyst, said the Yemeni factions are very stubborn and don't like to make concessions.

"There will not be peace if the factions can't make concessions and put the country's interest above anything else," he said.

"Another roadblock to peace in Yemen is the roles of regional powers that are inflaming and investing in chaos. These powers are using Yemen as a card in their struggle for influence in the region," he said.

"Hence, it seems only a fair war will lead to peace in Yemen. The Saudi-led coalition should focus its intervention on a war that leads to restoring legitimacy and peace in the country. There should be moral considerations to avoid multiple goals which have apparently turned the intervention into a destructive approach," Al-Tamimi added.

Fuad Alsalahi, a political sociology professor at Sanaa University, said one of the key reasons for the failure of the peace talks is the inability of the UN to understand the nature of the conflict and factions in Yemen.

"The factions are exploiting this UN failure and are now maneuvering to rearrange their cards either militarily or politically," Alsalahi said.

"The political landscape is very messy which means peaceful solutions now or in the future will only lead to temporary truces. The chaos will continue in one way or another," he added.

Days before the talks ended, the Houthi group and ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh formed a political council to run cities under their control.

Though the move has been criticized, observers said this council comes to deepen the alliance between the Houthi group and the former ruling party, the GPC.

Adel Al-Shuja'a, a political analyst, said the council was a good sign as it comes in line with UN resolutions on Yemen.

"It called for disbanding the Houthi supreme revolutionary committee and constitutional declaration that the UN insisted on the Houthis to disband," he said.

"Moreover, the council reflects the readiness of the Houthis and the GPC to continue peace talks. It will be the official body at talks," Al-Shuja'a elaborated.

Nonetheless, in every conflict, peace must come in the end, observers said.

Ahmed Al-Jabr, a political analyst, said "the factions have not yet become completely exhausted to think of peace."

"All signs indicate there won't be permanent peace at the moment. If the UN pushes for more talks, all they can reach will be a temporary ceasefire," Al-Jabr said.

In the meantime, military escalation will be inevitable. Actually, all factions and the Saudi-led military coalition have declared military escalation after the Kuwait talks ended. The coalition has been bombing Yemen since March 2015.

However, observers argued that the the government receiving support from the coalition can't achieve a military victory because it is currently based outside Yemen.

"An economy meltdown, which appears so imminent, will force all to reconsider their options and reckless moves," Al-Jabr said.

Yemen has suffered largely since the war escalated in early 2015, after the Saudi-led coalition launched the bombing campaign in particular.

An estimated 14.4 million Yemenis are food insecure, 7.6 million severely food insecure, 19.4 million lack access to safe water and sanitation, 14.1 million lack access to adequate healthcare, and around 3 million internally displaced persons (IDPs).

All investments have been suspended and most of the country's infrastructures have been destroyed.

And the embargo imposed by the Arab coalition has deepened the suffering very much, leaving Yemen in need of key supplies. Acute shortages have forced a lot of hospitals and business to shut down.

Therefore, military escalation will only make the situation much worse.
Chinese vice premier Liu Yandong (L) receives the Olympic torch from International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Aug. 6, 2016. Liu Yandong watched the women's 10m air rifle shooting final at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach and Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon here on Saturday. (Xinhua/Han Yan)
Relatives hope for autopsies of burnt couple

The family has been waiting since Thursday last for the autopsies so they can bid the couple a final farewell and lay them to rest. The charred remains of Marchan and Ardia were found in a burnt-out vehicle in Fyzabad on Wednesday night.

Peters grieving brother, Denis, told Sunday Newsday yesterday an autopsy is expected to be done tomorrow. In the meantime, we are just trying to support each other and our parents, he said.

The suspected murder/ suicide deaths of Peter, a mechanic, and his wife Ardia, a ballet dancer and teacher at La Romaine High School, have left relatives and friends in profound grief. Described as the happy couple from Robert Hill, relatives said Peter and Ardia were married for 15 years but about one year ago, they they became estranged.

They made efforts to reconcile their relationship and relatives believe tragedy struck on Wednesday night during one of those attempts at reconciliation.

It was reported that at about 7.02 pm on Wednesday, officers of the Fyzabad Police Station responded to a report of a vehicle on fire along the lonely Forres Reserve Road, Fyzabad.

Fire Services personnel were called in and the blaze was put out. Marchan and Ardias charred bodies were found on the front seats of the vehicle.

Investigators later visited their home where traces of blood were discovered inside a room. Investigations are still continuing to determine what ignited the fire.

Police sources have also revealed that days prior to the tragic incident, Peter not only requested time-off from work, but also complained of his frustration while enquiring where he could obtain a firearm.
Bolt-cutter attack victim dies

The Seeterams were attacked and viciously beaten inside their house by the relative who, according to a police report, had returned to live with them four months ago at Southern Main Road, Aripero, south Trinidad. The beating came after an argument over money, a police report stated.

A 43-year-old suspect who was arrested inside the house shortly after the incident, remains in police custody and has been assisting in enquiries into the incident.

An autopsy on the body will be conducted at the Forensic Science Centre, St James.

A police report stated that at about 7.30 pm last Monday, Cpl Seurattan of the Oropouche Police Station, along with PC Bissoo, responded to a report of violence at the couples home. Upon arrival, they found Seeteram in the yard, bleeding from wounds to the head.

Merle, who was also injured, was lying on the floor inside the house.

Police seized a bolt-cutter which is a heavy iron tool used in welding and fabrication. The relative is expected to be charged with murder and attempted murder. Cpl Seurattan is continuing enquiries.
Caribs want action on lands from Govt

Visitors trickled in and out of the centre - an almost inconspicuous establishment, off De Gannes Street - but Bharath-Hernandez was eager to expound on the heritage and contribution of the groups long-suffering descendants.

The president of the Santa Rosa First Peoples, Bharath-Hernandez, 60, has been leading the charge for greater national acknowledgement for members of the Community for as long as he could remember.

His vision for his people, though, assumed an entirely new outlook after Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowleys announcement during Emancipation Day celebrations at the Queens Park Savannah, on Monday, that the Government will finally grant a space to the indigenous group.

Rowley projected that the initiative would see the First Peoples occupying a permanent home by next August but provided no further details.

And while Bharath-Hernandez was pleased with the Governments gesture, he told Sunday Newsday that Rowleys declaration gave a false impression.

He said since Rowleys announcement, he has been inundated with telephone calls from concerned members of the community, including Carib Queen, Jennifer Cassar, and others who questioned the strides that have been made with respect to getting a permanent home.

The announcement gave the impression that they are now going to give the land that was long lobbied for - that we have been asking for it all the time and they are now going to give it. That needs to be clarified, he said, noting that the process to acquire a bonafide area began many years ago.

The community, which is observing the 230th celebration of the festival of Santa Rosa in Arima, launched its activities at 6 am on Monday with the Mortar Blast on Calvary Hill. This was followed by a smoke ceremony at the centre, on Paul Mitchell Street.

Bharath-Hernandez, who has been at the helm of the Santa Rosa First Peoples since the 1980s, revealed that attempts by the community to acquire its own space began during the former Peoples National Movement (PNM) administration, under late Prime Minister Patrick Manning.

He recalled a Cabinet decision was taken at that time to give the First Peoples a fiveacre plot of land along the Blanchisseuse Road, Arima, which they found to be inadequate.

We had identified a hilly piece of land that we had chosen because we did not want to move out of Arima, Bharath-Hernandez said, adding that the land also was occupied by the First Peoples centuries ago.

He said when the Peoples Partnership came into office in May 2010, it rescinded the PNMs offer of a five-acre plot, opting instead to give the Community an additional 20-acres at the same site.

According to Bharath-Hernandez, the land was surveyed, following which an offer of lease was issued to the Community from the Commissioner of State Lands on September 9, 2015.

Later that month, the community received a letter of permission from the Conservator of Forests to enter the land and begin work.

We did the clearing of some spaces and a roadway but it is just left now to the present government to sign off on the lease document, he said.

When Dr Rowley made the announcement, people were of the impression we did not get the land but a process is already in place. It was just a matter of clarifying. Bharath-Hernandez, who served as a PNM councillor on the Arima Borough Corporation for some 18 years, said the lease document was currently with the Chief State Solicitor.

Asked if he felt Rowley spoke prematurely, the Carib Chief said the Prime Minister may not have been apprised of all of the developments with respect to the lease arrangements.

He recalled, though, that Rowley, at a recent function in Arima, had asked MP Anthony Garcia to prepare a note for Cabinet, detailing aspects of the arrangement.

But all we really need at this stage is for the funding to be released because this year, $500,000 has been identified for us through the Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP). This will allow us to complete road works and bring on a consultant to complete a master plan for the area, Bharath-Hernandez said. Our fear is that the money will not be used up by the end of the financial year. He said a determination on the way forward must be made quickly because several corporate people have expressed an interest in partnering with the First Peoples Community to develop the site.

Bharath-Hernandez told Sunday Newsday he hoped that arrangements will be finalised by October 14, when the First Peoples launch their Heritage Week.

With over 600 descendants in Arima alone, Bharath-Hernandez said members of the First Peoples can also be found in La Pastora, Santa Cruz, Tamana, Lopinot and Maracas/St Joseph.

He said while the younger descendants have shown an interest in indigenous craft and aspects of the culture, over the years, the proposed village, which is yet to officially named, will foster a sense of pride and belonging among its flock.

We need something visual rather than just talking, Bharath-Hernandez said.

The facility, he said, will provide employment in the areas of food processing and sales, handicraft, wildlife farming and eco-tourism.

It also will contain a museum, cultural/ recreational space and living quarters for the Carib Queen and 12 families.

The site will really be something for us to be proud of, that will contribute and be of benefit to the people of the country, he said.

Noting that the preliminary master plan for the site was completed last year at an estimated cost of $12 million, Bharath-Hernandez said an artists impression of the proposed site also was done by NH Pamphille in 2008.

Bharath-Hernandez also used the opportunity to reiterate calls for the authorities to use a small portion of the Red House, currently under reconstruction, as a space to share information about the First Peoples.

Three years ago, Bharath-Hernandez and members of the community urged the then Peoples Partnership government to develop a heritage site in an area of the historic building, following the discovery of bones and artefacts of the indigenous people.

The group visited the Red House where they performed a Purublaka ceremony to appease the spirits of the indigenous peoples.

Bharath-Hernandez said on Thursday the remains should be buried at the Red House with appropriate ceremonies. He also called for a special monument of the indigenous peoples to be placed on the compound and for a oneoff public holiday for the indigenous peoples
Experts hail avocado, breadfruit

But yesterday, visitors to the Green Market, Upper Santa Cruz, learnt from experts that the foods, which many may take for granted or scoff at, were extremely versatile and can be prepared to suit even the most finicky of palates.

During an interactive demonstration at the event, aptly titled, Avocado and Breadfruit Festival, A Juman, of the Ministry of Food Production and author Volentedeo George, spoke to visitors about the benefits to be derived from consuming the two products, mostly from the standpoint of health and wellness.

Both suggested that an adequate consumption of the foods, over time, could reduce and possibly eliminate the threat of many lifestyle diseases such as high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes.

George, author of the book, Bread of Life: Breadfruit, said the food also can be used to address problems relating to constipation.

She said the breadfruit carried essential vitamins and minerals and, as with, other tropical products, was a source of vitamins.

Visitors, some of whom journeyed from areas in central and east Trinidad, got the opportunity to sample a variety of new dishes made from the two foods, including avocado ice cream and breadfruit chips.

Many of them also were dumbfounded by the sight of the large avocados Juman and the farmers had on display.

But avocados and breadfruits werent the only treats on show.

Visitors also sampled a variety of milk and fruit beverages and other delightfully-prepared local delicacies such as pholourie.

Green Market founder Vicki Assevero told Sunday Newsday that the site was established in November 2012, to create greater awareness about the importance of practising healthy food production and consumption strategies.

It also was conceived to promote land-based entrepreneurship and to get people outside in nature, she said.

Insisting that she had no problem with technology or progress, Assevero, a sustainable development strategist, said the right kind of investment must be made in agriculture.

All economies that stand have agriculture as their backbone.

Countries such as France and Germany are still growing their food, she said.

Assevero observed that the agriculture sector needed to facilitate greater synergies between the farmers and those in the field of science in promoting sustainable development practices through proper planning.

She observed that although some consultation existed between the two groups in the past, execution of ideas remained a fundamental challenge.
Expert warns: TT recruits for terrorists

We should no longer deny it or say is just one or two persons (involved in terrorism), he said in an interview on Friday.

Ramdhanie was commenting on a report, early last week, which stated that some nine persons held in Turkey, en route to Syria, were from TT.

He said if the report was true then it confirms what we have been saying for a while: that Trinidad is a recruiting agency among many countries for terrorists. It was nine in this one instance; how many more were there that are dead and those that are still serving? he asked.

Ramdhanie also wondered if there were tracking mechanisms in place to monitor the flow of home-grown terrorists.

How many have returned home, where are they, what are they doing, have our laws tackled them? he asked.

Saying he would like to believe that such official data is available, Ramdhanie asked: Why for heavens sake it is hidden away, top secret? Let the population know what is taking place in our society. Ramdhanie, principal of the Caribbean Institute for Security and Public Safety, called on non-governmental organisations and civic- minded groups to lobby for this information.

Government has confirmed a report that nine people held in Turkey on July 27, while seeking to join a terrorist organisation in Syria, are, in fact, locals.

However, acting Attorney General Stuart Young said on Thursday that Government was still awaiting a report on the circumstances surrounding the detention via Turkish authorities.

Ramdhanie said Isis posed a serious international threat and must be dealt with by governments across the world.

Isis is an international terrorist organisation with its tentacles all over the globe. What is the international community doing about it? he asked. It seems that we are pussyfooting on this matter of international calamity. The criminologist said the United Nations appears to have fallen asleep on getting an international response to the crisis.

Insisting that local authorities need to be trained in handling possible terrorist attacks, Ramdhanie asked: How ready are we for this through both institutions and people? Ramdhanie wondered if any initiative was being carried out by local authorities to address the possible recruitment of persons to international terrorist organisations.

Are our surveillance systems falling down? he asked.

Ramdhanie claimed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was silent on this matter. We have Trinidadians allegedly committing terrorist crimes in Turkey and Syria and talks are that they will be sent home.

Why not charge and prosecute them there and let them serve the punishments there? he asked. In an attempt the stem terrorist involvement among nationals, Ramdhanie has suggested an eight-point plan to assist local authorities.

1. Establish where, how and who are being recruited and by whom.

2. Enhance surveillance systems so that such persons are identified earlier and action taken to prevent any of their activities 3. Apply the anti-terrorism law without hesitation to all such persons.

4. Liaise with countries such as Syria, Turkey, Libya, as to their prosecution and conviction of such persons in their country.

5. Enact legislation to prevent persons who go abroad to engage in terrorism from returning to TT.

6. Enhance systems whereby members of the public can report suspicions of persons planning to engage in terrorist acts locally and internationally.

7. Share information with the public.
Diaz: No pan in Rio

Diaz was addressing a very small number of pan music lovers at CAL Invaders Pan Theatre on Tragarete Road, Port-of-Spain. The occasion was the Northern Region of Pan Trinbagos After Work Lime.

It was the first major event in Pan Month which is celebrated in August.

Diaz went on to explain why August is Pan Month, The late Prime Minister Patrick Manning declared pan the National Musical Instrument in 1992 and since then we have celebrated steelband month for the last 24 years. Diaz continued, It was in August of 1949, all the warring fractions in the steelband movement came together to form the association behind the bridge in St Paul Street. That is the history of Pan Month in a nutshell. Diaz thanked the Northern Region for putting on the event and also thanked the patrons for supporting the effort. He said there are many more events to come in steelband month and look forward to the support of Trinidad and Tobago pan music lovers.

Other events for Pan Month include a visit to the Foundation Stone in St Paul Street, a Tribute to Milton Wire Austin of Fonclaire, Skinner Park, Love Yuh Own Renegades Pan Theatre, an Interfaith Service at City Hall Knox Street, Port-of-Spain, 1 2 3 Plus Desperadoes Pan Theatre, Youth Fest Larry Gomes Stadium and Sport and Family Day..